The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1908-10-17
LOUISIANA SUGAR.
The st s.s Most Important Industry As
sailed and Defended.

i lHG pFUpCS15toA III ab3 v lSnS0 purely
from an economic standpoint and
without regard to self-interest it may
be worth while considering il the
sugar industry has been worth to
Louisiana what it has cost the
state, and proceeded to discuss the
question in terms plainly indicating
the conviction of the paper that Louis
iana's sugar industry has not been
worth what it has cost the state. The
principal reasons for this astounding
conclusion are contained in the fol-
lowing excerpts from the States edi-
torfal:
Hence the real planters of the olden
days have, as q rule, been gradually
eliminated and eapitaIistic organize.
tions have gradually obtained con-
troll of the greater number of the sugar
estates of Louisiana. The consolida-
tion of estates and the central factory
have been economies introduced un-
der the new system, which, to some
extent offsets the greatly increased
cost of the sugar manufacturing plant
of today.
Under the commereialized condl-
tions which control in the sugar in
dustry Of today all of the romance
and of the strong personal element
which surrounded it under the old
regime have been extirpated, and it is
a cold blooded business proposition.
It seems to stand as thing apart
fromsthe balance OF the agriculture
system Of the state, it does not appeal
TO the farmer, and there is nd bond of
union or sympathy between them and
this great aristocratic industry which
is half agricultural, half manufactur.
ing and wholly eommercialistic.
'sk = The process of consolidation
has been pushed so persistently that it
has destroyed practically all of the
independent sugar plantations and
merged many heretofore princely es-
tates into q single great corporation.
'LandIordism is uneconomic and i'm
moral under the most favorable con-
/ ditions, but corporate landlordism is
the most dangerous and debasing of
all forms Of the evil.
- Louisiana is plunging deeper
aad deeper into the tolls OF landlord
ism, but the landlord il this case is
not man but . corporation, soulless,
bloodless, mereiless.
Give the corporate landlord full
credit for being just as good as any
corporation can possibly be and yet
what is the inevitable tendency OF such
a system? The corporation must make
money, and it is going to do so ifthere
is any possible way to wiring it out of
the property or the employees. Re-
suit; cheap labor, and cheap labor
means ignorant labor, which, in turn,
means immoral labor and immortality
inevitably results in crime. There is
a volume in that one sentence. For
proof it is only necessary to point TO
the thousands Of ignorant and vicious
Dagoes that are brought here every
year TO work on the sugar planta-
tions.
Again, thes system fsdestructiTe of So
cial, industrial, educationa and moral
development along normal lines. With
these 10000 acre corporation planta-
tfons divided into small farms Of from
forty TO one hundred acres the differ
enee would be almost startling. We
should then have sober, industri-
Gus, thrifty and productive popula.
ton. There would be eleY atiug society,
schools, churches, libraries, comfort
able homes, prosperous small traders.
work for the butcher, the baker and
the candlestlck maker. There would
be good roads, good horses and cattle
and hogs, an impetus would be given
to the reclamation of waste lands, the
revenues from taxation would increase
a hundredfold-for corporations are
proverbfally the greatest tax.dodgers
in the world.
What has corporation landl6rdism
given US in exchange for these desir-
able things? A few princely corpora
tfon magn ates who weigh every ques-
tions political, moral or material, on
a pair of sugar scales. The courtly |
patriotic sugar planter OF the type
known in the elder day is almost ex-
tinct today. At Washington a cring-
ing, trading lobby. bringing discredit
to the state by its eagerness TO trade |
anything for sugar; on the plantations,
darkest Africa, noisomest Naples,
mass of ignorance, immortality and |
crime. Is the sugar industry with its |
resultant threat Of corporation land
lordism all over the state, worth what
it costs2''
The other side Of this gruesome and
distorted picture is presented in the
following editorial from the New Or
leans Item of the 3rd instant, entitled |
1.-THE Sugar Planters and Their In.
dnstry Ii louisiana and it remains
for the people OF the sugar-producfpg
parishes of Louisiana and the people
Of New Orleans, who know the facts, to |
determine for themselves which of the
two evening newspapers has come
nearer the truth IN its representations,
and which has better served the in
terests of the commonwealth BY it's