The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-06-14
LOCAL INTERESTS, AND TARIFFS

An inquiry is made by tho Smoot
Mouth as to who are progressive Re-
publlcans. WcI, to begin at home, they
are not church Republicans; they arc
Republicans who are such on principle,
and not because of lively hope of the
political pie-counter; men and women
who hola fast to the traditions of the
better Republicanism of the days when
the party was young, vigorous, and did
valiant service for the Union
Che "Mouth' denounces progressive
Republicans as enemies to Utah. because
;, of the peril in which they put Utah s
leading products-lead. wool. sugar
But there has been no peril to lead :,
there never has been. so far as the Sen
ate is concerned, where the progressive
Republican idea has had its develop
ment And no fear is or need be felt
as to lead; for nobody is threatening
| it, since the House Ways and Means
Committee (Which emphatically has no
progressive Republicans in its mem
bcrship) gave up its idea of cutting
the duty.
AS to wool, there has been no "pro-
gressive Republicans opposition to
full protection. On the contrary, the
progressive Republicans have cx-
prcssly put their action on wooden
goods, and on the proposition, as Sen.
ator Cummins expressly stated that his
design was to cut down the excessive
profits of the manufacturers. II must
not be forgotten, in this connection,
that it was the manufacturers who.
last year, undertook the policy of hold.
ing down the price of wool so as to rob
the woolgrowers, and that the latter,
for their own protection against the
manufacturers. were obliged to provide
for the storage of their wool until bet
ter prices could he obtained for it. That
was not a matter of tariff at all. but
was an effort of the manufacturers TO
control the wool market in their own in
terests, so that they could get their
raw material cheaper But the
Smoot Mouth - ignorantly and stupid
ly confuses the question: and seems TO
consider the manufacturers and the |
woolgrowers interest identical, when,
as matter of fact, they arc often, as
last year, squarcly opposed.
Then. as 10 sugar. The pretense that |
the tariff has to do with sugar prices
is disposed of in the simple showing
that the great beet sugar trust com,
pels the people here TO pay six cents a
pound and upwards for sugar. when at
the same time the management of
TO Chicago, paying its own freights and
sells that sugar for four cents a pound.
What possible relation has the tariff
to a transaction like this? The whole
so far as sugar is concerned,
is in the grasp of the sugar trust-the
American sugar trust of the East con.
trolls most of the country, including
Utah. The beet sugar factories here are
branches Of that trust, which owns the
majority of the stocks Of these local
Before the local factories
,ame under the control of the Have
lundred weight Of sugar for ton of
oeets; now they give them seventy.fivc
pounds. Has the tariff forced this I
Does the reduction in the tariff de
;rease the price of sugar! If so, why
lid not the reduction Of twenty per
.cnt in the tariff on Cuban sugar de.
,rease the price of sugar in America?
II not only did not decrease that price.
out rather increased it, And this was
perfectly feasible for the trust, which
las such complete monopoly. from
he fact that this country constantly
Increases its importations Of sugar, all
Increase of beet-sugar production being
-ar less than the yearly increase in de.
nand. And 1T is the big trust that
holds back the increase in bcet.sugar
because il pays that trust
oettcr TO import the raw sugar and re-
line it here for the market of which
t has the monopoly, than TO make beet.
sugar. 1t is not a question of tariff
n the last, so far as the local product
'f beet sugar is concerned. No tariff
,ould be high enough to cause the cree. {
ion of more factories here. that the
pig trust does not want as instance
he refusal Of that trust 10 allow the
construction Of the bcet-sugar factory {
near Gunnjson, Utah, which the home {
Of the local sugar trust had
agreed to put In.