The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1909-03-31
Accomplished by Making
Duty Much Higher on
Refined Product.
GIVES A MONOPOLY
TO MANUFACTURERS
Is the One Typical Necessary of
Life With Which the
Tariff Deals.
By J. c. WELLIvER.

The tariff on sugar has tradItionaIIy
Scen the cornerstone of the revenue
producing features Of tariff bills Sugar
is the great typicaIIy. universally con-
sumed necessary of life with which the
tariff deals. Everybody uses 1t; the
rlch man requires and uses no more
than the poor man. or very little more
For the year ended June so, 1906. the
amports Of sugar into this country ag-
gregated 3r726, ,S39. POI pounds. That is an
average OF about forty-rour pounds per
capita OF the population-men, women,
white, black, voters. suffragettes, SEM
lnary girls, and all the rest This Is
entirely aside from the comparatively
small quantity produced from the cane
Of louisiana and the beets of Michi-
gan, Wisconsin. Nebraska, Utah, and
the rest of the best sugar States.
Theoretically the tariff on sugar is in
TENDED as protection 10 the cane OF
Louisiana and the beets Of the North
west Actually, as everybody knows, its
most lmportas-t effect is to protect the
Sugar trust. hose business is chiefly
the refining rather than the original
production OF sugar This is accomplish
eo Dy making the duty on refined sugar
so much higher than the duty on raw
sugar that the refining business is Civ
en- a monopoly in this country.
Given Attention.
II 1t were the purpose Of the Payne
bill to cheaper the necessarles of life,
1t is fair to presume that some atten-
ton would be given to the sugar sched-
ule. And in fact, some attention has
been given it Under the Dingley law
the average duty on all sugars not
above No. 16, Dutch standard. is 81
$500 per cent ad valorem: under the
Payne bill the average is 81 7I-100 per
cent ad valorem- That is. 2S-I00 of 1 per
cent is added to the tariff tax on the
most universally consumed OF all the
neceSSaries of life.
on the Bib, 20. .z0l pounds OF sugar i'm
ported into this country for the year
ended June 30, 1906, the duty collected
was S52 b. OIL. That sugar cost the trust
in the foreign markets where IL was
bought $S5,0Zz. .C31- Adding 10 this the
duty it appears that this sugar cost the
retners o7.z54.6l2.
What did the refnerS get for II? Ac-
cording TO the Bureau of Statistics, the
average price OF sugar in the New York
wholesale market 1or 1868 was o6-I0O
cents per pound a simple operation
in multiplication develops that the
wholesale market value Of the entire
importation was therefore S18l, 1908. 1t
appears then that for refining this sugar,
the sugar trust received the neat little
sum Of $43S70,S51- Adding together the
duty and the fee paid tG the trust for
refining. the total is S95I ,S92, which
the tar!n plus the trust extracted from
Ahe consumer for getting 10 him sugar
which originally cost SIS. o., ,631.
London Prices.
Now. although Great Britain is usual
~ referred 10 as a free-trade country,
1t imposes a small revenue duty on
sugar, working out at $40 Of l per
cent per pound Again taking tie fig
ures OF the Bureau of Statistics. it ap-
pears that the wholesale price Of sugar
3n the London market for lsO8 was jusI
about 2 7-10 per pound.
England imports all of its sugar. The
United States imports most Of its sugar.
England imposes q revenue duty: the
United States does also.
Multiplying the American importations
OF sugar. 3,I26, ,339, ,2Ol pounds, by the
American Wholesale price. 96-l00 cents
per pound, Il appears, as before shown,
that the total wholesale cost is $ISI. .I25. SO.
Multiplying this same 3,G26 339, ,2Ol !
pounds OF sugar by tho English whole
sale price l-le cents, T. is shown that
The total cost in the wholesale market
would be 800 GILES
The difference between SI81, ,I3,523 and
800 6ll,l5S is $6O,5l4,3 ,3e5, which represents |
the difference between the American and
the English wholesale value of this
year
That is what the protection of sugar
plus the extortions OF the Sugar trust /
costs in one year In the sugar bin OF 4
the American public. Let IL be re- /
membered once more that England is /
not a free-trade country as to sugar
but imposes a revenue duty which !
produces a considerable part Of the
annual British revenue.
Serves Two Purposes.
BY dint Of keeping sugar down To /
the lowest possible cost Britain has
accomplished two purposes. She has !
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