The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-04-19
THE SUGAR SHAM
How the Payne-AIdrich Tariff Fa-
 vors the Sugar Trust
THE CONSUMER SOLD AGAIN


 More Than Made Up In Other Ways
 The Great and UnscrppuIous Trust
 Has Friends In Both <hs House and
 the Senate.
 That persistent protest by the people against tariff plunder will produce re yults was proved by what happened in the house of representatives on April 3 and 9, when certain amendments to the Payne tariff bill were voted on. Standard Oil has been pretty thorough U exposed to the public in one way or mother, and the countervailing duty Dn petroleum which Payne put in bis bill and which is in the Dingley law was known to be simply for the benefit f Standard Oil and put there by Standard Oil. The fight against it grew so strong that Cannon and Payne were forced into the open in defense Df their special privilege for Standard Oil. Cannon even took the floor to try to save it. But he and Payne were de risfvely beaten, and oil goes to the free list z.
 The Trust Dsfrauds the Revenue.
 The way to put an end to all the plundering tariff jobs is to bring them and their defenders out. into the open and fight them to a finish The sugar trust is no better than the oil trust, and there are plenty of others as bad Rs both combined. The sugar trust has enjoyed for many years at the hands Df the government an enormously valu- able privilege of taxAg heavily all the consumers of it's sugar. The govern ment has given it protection" at the rate of about 30 per cent of the in bond value of sugar. This has given the HuEt many millions in unearned profits and made it very rich and powerful. Yet, only a few weeks ago, the sugar trust was convicted in the federal rourts of having defrauded the United States customs out of about $2,25O, ,O0t In duties payable on raw sugars 1t has Imported and used. The United States Is now trying hard to collect this money, the trust fighting every step in the process.
 The Trust Sells Sugar Cheaper Abroad.
 The sugar tariff is another great 1n- fquity which it is remarkable the American people should have endured so long. The price of all the sugar
 
 CT foreign or domestic, is based on the fn bond price of foreign sugars plus the duty and the cost of refining The duty on refined sugar is in the Dingley tarin $1.95 per 100 pounds, practically cents pound, and if there were no duty on sugar granulated sugar would be sold to the consumer at cents pound less than the present price. ,y.ac tex r@ An sugar trust exports refined sugar to foreign markets at 2 cents pound less than it's price in the domestic markets. An actual transaction of this kind came to light in New York re- gently. On Feb. 25 of this year the American Sugar Refining company fthe sugar trus0 exported refined sugar to Great Britain at 2.6 cents per pound. At the same time the price of the same article in the domestic market was 4.55 cents per pound, the difference being 1-95 cents per pound, or the exact amount of the duty.
 A Little Prstended Relief.
 The revenue to the government from the duties on sugar, raw and refined, is only about one.third of the direct cost to the people, to say nothing of the indirect cost in crippling other in- dustries and adding to Che prices of the articles into which sugar enters The high duty on sugar is maintained not for the sake of revenue, but to pro tect' the great sugar trust. The people are beginning to learn something of what this means, and the Payne tariff bill makes a pretense of reducing the protection very, little It fixes the rate on refined sugar at 1.90 cents per pound instead of 1e5.
 How the Trust Gains.
 The Payne bin really takes excellent care of the sugar trust and leaves it with more "protection' than before For one thing, as imports of " sug- ar from Cuba pay 20 per dt less duty than the regular rate on raws and as the Cuban sugar practically makes the market price of raws in saves about one-efghth of a cent per pound on the cost of it's raw material. But of even more importance is the minimum and maximum" proviso in the bi1, which adds 20 per cent to the rates on imports from all countries which do not grant special tariff con- CcccxOuS bO JUG OulLcu SCdlcS. 6IdCt1- caIy the only countries from which imports of refined sugar can be expect ed to come are Germany and Austria, and conditions in these countries are such that the additional 20 per cent is practically certain to be imposed. This win make the actual rate on refined sugar higher than in the Dmgley tar n; 1-00 cents per pound increased by 20 per cent is 228 cents as against. 1.95 in the Dfngfey tariff.
 The Trust Can Meet the World.
 No wonder the trust Is profitable with such good care. This trust can IS a matter of fact, refine sugar more cheaply here than can be done any where else in the world The inde- pendent refneries claim that with free raw material they can meet the com petition of the world, and they are not as well equipped as the trust. The en-