River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-10-01
Pr0spers Under Protective Tariff
Legislation.
Democratic Tariff for Revenue Plan
Would Destroy United States
Sugar Industry.

destroy the beet sugar industry nobody
can for a moment doubt The tariff
plank Of the Democratic platform of
1908 says: ARTICLES entering into COM
petition with trust controlled products
should be placed upon the free list"
and the sugar refinerS of the United
States are among the first group of
business men named by Democratic au-
thorities when they enumerare the
great trusts of the land. Therefore,
according to their platform-and Mr..
Bryan says in his speech Of accept
ance that a platform is binding upon
a candidate and that it's pledges must
be carried out-sugar would be one of
the first articles put upon the free list
That the effect Of admitting sugar
from all parts of the world free OF
duty would be the destruction of the
beet sugar industry in the United
States cannot be doubted. The average
cost per pound Of sugar in the country
from which we import that article has
steadily fallen from between 8 and .
than 2 cents per pound in 1902, 1908
and 1904; and in view also of the
steady reduction in freight rates on
the ocean, it goes without saying that
the admission of foreign sugar free of
duty would put the beet sugar producer
of the United States out of business.
Democracy Disregnrds Labor.
Cheapness has been, and is the sole
cry of the Democratic party in its
tariff theory. 1t thinks nothing, APP
parently, Of the earning power of labor
in the United States, whether agricul-
tural labor or otherwise. The McKin-
ley tariff act authorized the payment
Of a bounty on sugar produced in the
United States and admitted machinery
for manufacturing beet sugar free of
duty. Prior to 1890, the year of the
enactment of that law, the beet sugar
production of the country had never
reached 1000 tons. In the very next
year, 1S91-1S92, it amounted to over
5000 tons in 1S92-1S93, to 10000, and
in 1894-1895 to 10000 tons.
When the Democratic party came
into control in the White House and
Congress it promptly repealed the law
which gave a bounty on homegrown
sugar. Fortunately, that industry had
attained sufficient strength to be able to
maintain itself during the less than
three years in which the Democratic
tariff was in force, and when the Re
publican party again came into power
and established a protective tariff the
beet sugar industry again showed rapid
gains. the production of beet sugar
jumping from over $4,000 tons in 1896
1897, the year of the enactment of the
Dingley law, to $4,000 tons in 1899
1900, $4,000 tons in 19O2-1903, 10000
tons in 19O5-19O6, and $4,000 tons in
19O6-1907.
Thus under the stimulus given by the
Mckinley act in a bounty on beet sugar
and the free importation of machinery
for it's production, followed by the pro-
lection granted under the Dinghy act,
the beet sugar product of the country
has grown from 1000 tons per annum
to $4,000 tons, and its value from a
few thousand dollars to between forty
and fifty million dollars a year. The
area in which it is now successfully
produced stretches from New York to
California and the section west of the
Mississippi to-day actually produces
more sugar than it consumes, and en-
tirely from beets.
The United States is the worlds
greatest consumer of sugar. 1t con-
sumes between six and seven billion
pounds of sugar per year, an average
of over 70 pounds per capita; so that
it NAV be truthfully said that the aver
age individual in the United States
consumes more than one-half his own
weight of sugar every year. This enor-
nous quantity of sugar costs at retail
quitting the average price at only .
cents per pound) $335,O00,00O a year,
and with the rapid growth in popula-
ton and consumption Of sugar, it may
be safely said that the value of sugar
consumed in the United States will,
during the next decade, average more
than a million dollars a day, and even
more than that as the years proceed
and the population grows.
Bright Future for Industry.
Can our farmers produce all the
sugar for which our consumers are
now paying and will doubtless continue
to pay in the future an average of a
million dollars a day? Yes.
What class of sugar producers will
supply this enormous demand? Clearly
and unquestionably, the sugar beet
growers.
Why? The answer is found in the
following figures The cane sugar pro-
duction of the United States has during
the last decade fallen from $4,000 tons
in 1878 to $4,000 tons in 1867;
while beet sugar production, with the
same degree of protection given to cane
sugar, has grown from $4,000 tons in
1878 to $4,000 tons in 1906-1907.
Does anybody need further evidence
that it is the sugar beet grower who is