The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1909-05-05
AN OPPORTUNITY Fer REAL
REVISION. NO. XII.

Inc powers that be seem to think
that tariff duty is a good thing in and
OF itself, and for its own sake. Judging
from the hoarse growl emanating from
the tall grass as the Aldrieh- Pavne bill
pursues its devious way through Con
gress' the people who do the living for
TINS great nation, ard have to pay for
IT. emphatically disagree with this
view They are for tariffs. but they
regard them as means rather than
ends The end sought is in the minds
OF the masses the old uplift for wages.
Once show the American voter a 1.-THE
OF the innumerable cases in which this
wage-uplift is made the stalking horse
OF hunters for graft, and he will roar
so that his reverberations will roll from
frontier to frontier He will kick so
that some hitherto valued things NAV
be Jared off the mantel and broken.
and n IN the debris is swept up the
fragments of once perfectly good
tariff system, Mr.. Aldrich and MIR.
Payne viii be in no position to COM
plain; for they viii have brought it
upon themselves and the country by
dealing falsely with the people and
getting caught at it.
Take the sugar schedule again. for
instance. II the American Sugar Re
Inning Company, known popularity and
justly as the Sugar trust. were called
upon to justify the tariff on sugar. It
would send to the platform one of its
beet sugar vassals, AID have him saw
that it is necessary to make up to him
for the difference between his labor
and that of the tropics where cane
sugar is grown, as well as for the diff
ference in the labor cost of refining.
AS the whole JOB of refining, including
shipping, does not cost to exceed a
third of cent pound, the trust can
not need the tariff of about 2 cents a
pound for this. Two cents is six times
the whole cost of refining, and the
labor cost of the operation is only a
fraction of the entire cost.
No, it is the American farmer. the
American laborer in the beet field and
cane field, the American laborer in the
beet sugar mill who has to have the
protection. The tropical cane sugar Is
grown by "cOolie" labor. Ali How
periodically do the sugar people adj
Jure US not to throw the American
lsborer into competition with this de-
graded "coolie" labor! Well, let's see
how often the sugar men speak for
themselves while peeping once for
American labor.
Nobody knows from what they
have told US just what the expense
of making beet sugar in this country
is. 1t would be a perfectly fair propo-
sition to ask a glance at their books
when they request US TO tax every
meal we est for their benefit on the
plea shat they can't do without a tariff
-bss they succeed in getting both
House and Senate to frame bills in
ignorance of their real needs, and we
must take the best figures we can get.
Fortunately we have some which seem
reliable, and which show that, if it is
wise 20 give sugar any protection at
all, It is silly TO give it what it is
proposed to accord it in the Payne bill.
In 1901 Consul Wyndham of Great
Britain made a report to the British
government on the beet sugar industry
of the United States, which was pub
lished in the British blue books. and
is in the Library of Congress. He had
no object in view except that of getting
the truth. He estimated the cost of
beet sugar produced in a mill with
capacity of 1000 tons per day in Col
orado, Nebraska, or Illinois at pa
cents pound. At that time. the mills
were paying about 500 a ton for
beets, and were getting about Al cents
a pound from the jobbers for their
produ;t. The labor cost of their
yearly output of 24.0OO,OO0 pounds of
sugar was estimated at $4,000 or
only quarter Of cent per pound.
At the prices ruling under the tariff,
the American consumers were making
these infant industries profit of 1884.
600 pr .yesr on an investment Of $751;
600, or almost 100 per cent. Their
product realized them a profit of %
cents a pound.
If the foreign producer gets his labor
for nothing, the difference in labor cost
in his favor, and the tariff necessity of
the American sugar manufacturers
cannot be more than a third of cent
per pound.
Afr. Wyndham's figures are as good
today as when he made them. Beets
seem to bring a better price, but so
does sugar at the mill. At such in