The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1908-10-17
LOUISIANA SUGAR.
Confined From rage one.

marketed.
Between twenty five and thirty mil
| lions of dollars in cash will come into
the state of Louisiana in payment to
the planters for this one crop, which
| supplies one of the Creates of human
necessities. OF this money practically
every dollar will find it's way to New
Orleans. Out of this ten times as much
will stick here and do good as from q
similar number of dollars handled IN
the cotton brokerage business.
This year when the boil weevil and
the foods have destroyed great
amount of cotton and set back the
cotton planters, when the lumber bus
mess is limping back to prosperity
from the hard blows OF panic, the
sugar crop and the sugar money will
indeed prove Godsend to our people.
"This crop spells prosperity instead
OF adversely to our city, for all the
sugar business OF Louisiana finds
headquarters in New Orleans. The
sugar planters are our people, and on
their well being rests the profits and
prosperity of half million OF people.
. "When this crop is harvested the
merchant is paid his bill, the factor
settles his accounts, the broker gets
his commissions, the bank is repaid
it's loans, the enterprises that depend
on local finance, on local profits and
on local prosperity get fresh start.
A profitable sugar crop means more
money for the merchants, means more
for the cafes, means more for the rail
roads; it means more for the hotels, it
means rise in real estate values and
activity instead of stagnation in every
line of investment and speculation.
"The city thrives on the prosperity
of the country. It's laboring men in
all lines prosper in their employment
when the country is prosperous. Di-
rectly the production of sugar gives
profitable employment to tens Of
thousands of laborers, adds to the
population of the state, adds tremen
dously to its taxable values. Prob
ably hundred millions of the
values of Louisiana depend directly
on sugar production and would shrink
Into nothing if it were not for the
heroic enterprise of the men who have
dared to undertake the hazardous
and toilsome labor of raising this
great crop.
1.-THE sugar industry represents the
most heroic effort of the men whose
brain, daring and effort .make Louisi-
ana the fertile and prosperous state it
is today.
LET him essay the task who mag
ines that the business of sugar plant
ing presents over much profit. On
the one side is the government pro-
tecting sugar incidental to the raising
Of forty or fifty million dollar
revenue from importations. On the
other side is the river, always threat
ening overflow, always a menace to
the home, the property, the life OF the
man who plants and raises sugar.
"Again, there is always the trust.
greedy of profit, calculating on the
strained credit of the planter, the
bility of the bank to finance him
through the hazard of changing
prices.
Cup and down the prices go. Tan
talus-like the prospect of fortune is
always held to the lips of the man who
battles for bread and fortune against
all obstacles, against the odds OF
trust, of river, of politics, of storm
and tempest, of changing season.
"Does the sugar planter who re-
claims the swamp and waste lands,
who makes the fight to turn otherwise
unfruitful land into a money product
and to the end ~of human necessity,
owe debt to the state and people OF
Louisiana and of our country? Does
he owe the debt to the state and the
government, or do they owe him for
the fight he makes? Is he in practice
the pampered product of trust breed
ing protective tariff? How many soft
handed business men in the city want
to change places with him? AS for
the people he employs, the class OF
labor be enables to live where they
might otherwise perish: A working
man some time ago asked Mr..
Taft the question, "How about the
man out of work who can't get it?
What can be done for him?' God
knowsis was the answer. The sugar
planters of Louisiana are today
financing their crops and giving en-
ployment to thousands of people. IF
they did not do this where would these
people get work? God, the theorists
and the politicians kaow.
9 traction Of the lands of Louisi-
ana are cultivated. Let those who
think the business Of growing sugar
offers ready road to fortune essay
it. Let those who think something |
else can be done more probably with |
these lands buy them at their sue ar
valuation and essay the task.
s'Of what avail is it to say that this
BUSINESS - aF4ieltiS tuto the QdnQS OF q /
few. The many cannot survive in it
because of its small profit, its great
hazard. How many sugar planting
millionaires have we among us who
have made their profits from raising
sugar. Is not either the utmost in
dtyidual daring, the stupendous
power of indomitahle personality, or |
the power of great corporate owner
ship neeess airy to absorb the great |
hazards and risks and the long lean