The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-05-04


bill and let the matter go at that.
Some members OF the committee have
been interested In the pineapples duty
since the bill has been reported to the
Senate and have promised TO bring
about some relief for the Hawaiian
growers.
There Is considerable talk from time
to time about an upheaval in the rates
for sugar in the pending bill. The
beet sugar men have representatives
hard at work in Washington and have
been asking for higher rate upon
the raw product. There is little or
no prospect that they will succeed,
although probably there will be A
movement to that end in the Senate
before the consideration of the bill is
completed there. The beet sugar men
have control OF the Western market,
because of the protection which
fright rates afford them, but they
want to dominate the market of the
entire country especially the market
on the Atlantic Coast.
This ambitious program would af.
feet the situation with reference to
Cuban sugar The raw product from
Cuba comes almost entirely to the
United States. Their, is little demand
in Europe for Cuban sugar, as Eu-
rope gets her supply largely from
beets. But higher tariff on raw
sugar would eventually exclude Cuban
sugar, and, with the more or less un-
certainty in the stability of the new
Cuban Government, the agitation
Na.bf fT-1,
conducting here makes for unrest on
the island and might trend toward an
ultimate occupation of the island
again by the United States troops and
annexation to this country.
Nor is the day of this possibility
so far distant. The beet, sugar paople
claim, and in this they are support
ed by Secretary of Agriculture Wilsol
that with continued high protection
the United States within a few years
will not import any foreign sugars
c:ner than from her colonies. The
prediction would be very gratifying to
the American consumer if it promised
him any relief. The whole history of
the sugar industry proves, however,
that it is no part of the program of
the domestic sugar combination to
cheaper sugar to the consumer. This
condition also is that feared by the
Cuban interests, who know that it
means the extinction of the only mar.
ket remaining to them in the world
Congress has been deliberately organ
lied, it would seem, to favor the beet
sugar interest over all others. On the
Ways and Means Committee it has
Fordney of Michigan, a blind protec-
zionist who cares nothing for the ele-
ment of justice in writing tariff bill.
On the Committee on Finance is Sena-
tor Burrows of Michigan, through
whom in 1903 the beet sugar men in
trodueed a dangerous joker into the
Cuban treaty which today is a matter
of serious controversy. Burrows can
be counted upon to stand for anything
the beet sugar interests want, no mat
ter what prices to the consumer may
result. just appointed to the Commit
tee on Finance is Senator Reed SmoOt
of Utah, where the beet sugar industry
is managed by the Mormon church and
controlled by the American Sugar Re
fining Company; and the prices at
which farmers must sell and consumers
must buy is dictated absolutely by the
| owners of the factories.
The concession of FIVE one hundredths
of cent on refined sugar, made by
| the Payne bill and so far retained by
the Senate, while ostensibly blow to
the sugar trust amounts to little when
| it is considered that the all beet sugar
| factories of the sugar trust are still
protected to the extent of 100 cents a
| pound Practical sugar men contend
| that no further increase of the raw
sugar duties could be made without
decreasing consumption and so impair
ing revenue. Foreign sugar means
| Cuban sugar and little else; and al
though Cuban sugar at the present mo
ment is selling at fair prices, owing
to temporary speculative conditions, il
could stand no more burden than it is
now compelled to bear through present
heavy duties.
The beet sugar men have been en-
couraged by high duties for dozen
years ON their plea that if the rate
was high enough, they could supply the
entire domestic demand. This ex
travagant protection has been based
not upon the normal requirements OF
sections naturally favorable to beet
sugar production, like Colorado ant
Utah, but ON the unnatural condition!
obtaining in states like Michigan
where the industry never should have
been established, Prof. Taussig bold.
told the Ways and Means Committee
In the same hearing Representative
Fordney took the ground that the con
sumer did not get the benefit of thu
twenty per cent. reduction in sugal
quoted by the Cuban treaty. Meantime
he has changed ground. In his speecl
in Congress on the tariff bill Marcl
81, Mr.. Fordney quoted as a reason
why the duties should be maintained
or increased the fact that Cuban sugar
bad ranged half cent pound below
the world IS price, and that the con
sumers IN the United States were bene
fitting to that extent. 1t was in th
speech that Mr.. Fordney told the hith
erto undiscovered story of an ALLEGED
compact with President Taft whereof!
the sugar duties were to be maintaine,
if the beet sugar interests would ALLOW
the free admission to 100000 tons o
Philippine sugar Said Mr.. Fordne.
speaking for the beet sugar people