Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1909-12-20
The SUGAR TRUST
LIVES THROUGH A TARIFF OF ITS
own MAKING,
BY neanS of Corrupt lobbyists and
COngre SSmen the Trust Is Enabled
TO Violate the Natural Economies
OF Production, and Levy Tribute
on the Nation.

Sugar Is not to any large extent
a product of our own soil. We are
the greatest consumers of sugar in
the world, and we have to import
most of our supply from other coun-
tries. Cuba and the other West In
dia islands are better adapted to sug-
ar culture than any other parts of
the world. Our limited Louisiana
sugar-growing area is not well adapt
ed to that purpose, and would aban-
don sugar but for the high duty that
gives the planters of a limited coast
strip some profit on their crop. The
best agricultural experts of the
country would strongly advise Louis
lana to give up sugar for various 9TH
er crops that can be advantageously
grown ON her soil. But even If
Louisiana sugar is to be protected
for some years to come, this can be
done all the better by a simple spec
ifiic duty on imported sugar that
Shall wholly or practically ignore the
distinction between refined and un-
refined grades. The same thing may
be said of the persistent efforts to
develop beet sugar in our Western
States into a great and standard Am
erican product. The heavy differ
ential between raw sugar and refin-
ed sugar benefits the Sugar Trust
alone. 1t is swindle upon the Am
erican public, and it has given the
Trust a club by means of which it
has intimdated, first, the honest
Louisiana cane-grOwers, and, second.
the ambitious and entirely reputable
leaders in the movement for the West
ern growth of beets and the making
of sugar from that crop.
AS sugar is made nowadays in 2
country like Cuba. the cane is crush
ed and the initial processes are car
ried on in great factories lii the cane
fields known as centrules. These are
now so well organized and equiI-
ped with machinery that IL would hn
in accordance with natural ecenc-
mics of production to refine the sug-
ar on the spot and make it ready for
use. But the American Sugar Refin-
ing Company will not permit this
1t keeps our tariff law IN such shaye
that the Cuban cane-grower and silg-
ar-maker must sell his llcGuct while
it is dirty and of bad color. so that
it may be brought to certain spots
l
has built it's refineries, in order to be
cleaned up and put in condition for
q fastidiCus market.
Is there honesty enough and cour-
age enough at Washington to look
the facts in the face. and rectify this
scandalous abuse of the ta"iif prin-
ciple? Or are we simply to hear in
nuendoes against officials on account
of the Sugar Trusts stealings on the
dock? Certainly such dishonesty must
be ferreted out and punished; but
craftsmanship will strike at tho
Trust in the seat of its real strength
and power. Let no tender-hearted
person suppose for a moment that
any injustice would be done to the
Trust by abolishing the differential
between dirty and clean sugar. The
Trust has been looking far ahead and
anticipating just such a deserved
fate. 1t has been getting large con-
troll of sources of sugar supply in
the West Indies, and will be in amp
le position to use its present factories
for refining it's own unfinished sugars
if it prefers to do that rather than
to complete the process in Cuba or
elsewhere. The Progress or
the World" in the American Review
of Reviews for December.