The Washington times., 1909-05-01
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR REAL
REVISION. NO. TX.

The American Sugar Refining Com
pany has just paid to the Government
s., 2,lS4,4ll of duties which it had stolen
from the Government during a period
s Of decade or thereabOuts.
The company tthe Sugar trust
fought the Governments case as far
Ess possible, employed every technical
ity known to the law, and was beaten.
Every consumer of sugar in the
United States ought to read the article
in The Outlook of May l on 'srhe
Case Of the Seventeen Holes" in which
& is told the story of how the Sugar
trust fixed the scales over which the
sugar was weighed at the great Have
meyer d Elder Refinery, in Brooklyn,
so that they should reduce the apparent
weight from 25 to 100 pounds on each
!, 900 pounds of sugar. By this process
the trust saved itself the duty ON this
amount of sugar
Every scale on the great receiving
dock of the plant-seventeen of them
in all-wss equipped to rob the Gov
ernment in this manner. Nobody knows
how much was stolen in duties while
the system operated 1t Is known that
the Sugar trust has paid over $1,000
900 as result of stipulation with
the Government. Criminal cases will
be pressed by the Government, it is
announced, against the individuals, of
ficials, employees, etc, who were re-
sponsihle for the frauds.
This is the most astounding revela-
tion of petty thievery iii long time.
The story Of how the Union Pacific
railroad stole its coal lands from the
Government is by contrast big, noble,
manly. Robin Hood sort Of scheme with
3 touch Of romance 70 IL. But this per-
foE1nanoe By which the Sugar trust
stole from the Government which, by
dint of tariff favors, makes the Sugar
trust and its gorge of profits possible,
is merely mean and snealling and con-
temptible.
1t is just as well TO remember that
Sugar in this country has always had
good deal of the criminal tendency
IN it; sugar. that is, which had got ag-
gregated into power and position Back
in 1879 Henry Alvin Brown conducted
a crusade against the sugar ring as
he called it, and charged and proved
that the sugar importers had for many
years Systematically robbed the Gov
ernment at the custom houses by false
grading of sugar. They sneaksd it into
ports as of one grade, when in fact it
was on another which would have paid
higher duty. Brown declared that the
'sugar ring"-the name and corporate
organization of the present trust had
not then been invented for it, but the
morals We're identical-had stolen over
Si2, ,O0O,O00 from the Government.
This revelation of 1907 and the Brown
revelation of 1879 have peculiar inter
est Just now, because they seem some
what to discredit the character of the
sugar monopoly of this country. If
the Sugar trust win stesl-and it has
confessed tbat--it might lie. And if it
lies. it may have lied when it claimed
that it needed the protection of Sl9O
on raw sugar, which the Aldrich- Payne
bill proposes.
It Is passing strange that this con-
Tieted criminal trust can continue to
get away with its tariff goods, and no
body appear even concerned about it.
The Sugar trust demands protection
for its refined sugar because il paws a
duty on the raw--and then we discover
that It sneaks around that duty on the
rawl
It sends the beet sugar cohorts here
to make its fight for a duty-and we
develop the fact that the trust owns 81
per cent in the biggest and most in
fuential Of the beet sugar corporationsi
II gets 20 per cent concession from
regular tariff rates on Cuban sugar.
"to help Cuba"-and then we find that
II neither helps Cuba nor benefits the
American consumer.
Other businesses find themselves suf-
ferers from bad times and depressed
business conditions. But how about the
Sugar trust2
In 1906, the top year Of prosperity,
the average New York price Of granu-
I lated sugar wars 4.52 cents per pound.
In 1907, when the sag had begun and
prosperity was not so strong, and other
people began to feel the pinch-the
trust was able to raise the price to
4.65 cents.
And in l90s the elimsetie year Of
depression--it was further boosted to
496 cents.
Once more it is urged that this
convicted sneak thief Of industry, this