The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-10-16
Spreckels and Sugar.

With the renewed agitation for tariff
| revision, the Federal Sugar Refining
Company has resumed Its campaign of
education urging consumers to prevail
upon their congressman to remove the
duty on raw sugar, of which the Amer
, lean Sugar Refining Company and its
aIlles are the sole benefciaries. Claus
\. Spreckels, president of the Federal,
, has sent letter to President Taft in
i regard to the tariff on sugar, and all
| barrels and bags sent out from the Fed
! eral retnerles have posters and tags
attached to them reading as follows:
! ''TARiFF ON SUGAR is of advan-
! tage TO the Sugar Trust and its allies
/ only
with free raw sugar, this sugar
would cost about TWO CENTS per
pound LESS.
Urge your Congressman to INSIST
on REMOVAL of tariff on sugar"
I 1t is argued that inasmuch as the
price of all sugar in the United States
! is based on the in bond value of for
eign sugars plus the duty and cost of
refining, the consumer would save ap-
! proximately two cents a pound were
the duty removed. The tax, according
/ " ptld1 iStOtjit ttSlS, Is dltHb 10 all
ad valorem duty of about 1887 per
cent The Federal Sugar Refining Com
pany officials figure out that the Amer,
clan public would save in the neighbor-
| hood of $150.000,000 year We're the
duty taken off.
| The benefits of cheaper sugar would
not merely lower the cost Of that mate
rial to the consumer, but would prove
| advantageous to the great fruit can
ming and preserving industries in Cali
! fornla. The cheaper these articles
would be sold. the greater would be
the consumption. In so far as our ex.
port trade in jellies, jams and other
preserved fruits is concerned, the direct
! result of cheaper sugar would l % give
/ this country much larger share of
the world s markets. Although the
United States is the greatest fruit
! growing country in the world, its ex-
port trade in canned and preserved
| fruits is relatively small, owing to the
fact that the Gamers can not compete
| in neutral markets with countries hav-
| ing the advantage of cheap sugar.
Cheaper sugar in this country would
| likewise increase the demand for all
products used in these industries, such
as tin plate, glassware, labels, cases,
! etc.
President Spreckels of the Federal
Sugar Refining Company, testifying be-
fore the ways and means committee,
declared that the domestic sugar REIN
ing interests needed no protection. pro
vided they We're supplied with free raw
sugar. He said then that he favored
the admission Of both raw and refined
sugar entirely free of duty.
The American Sugar Refining Com
pany, the "Trust,' and its allies are
said to be the sole benefciaries of the
tariff. because they control the beet
sugar industry in this country, which,
/ they say, requires "protection > in or
der to compete with foreign producers
| Frank G. Lowrey. of the Federal, said
yesterday that the sugar interests of
the Hawaiian Islands are organized
and do not sell their sugars individual
ly, having a contract with the ETrust, -
which provides for the purchase of the
sugar on the following basis:
con the raw sugar shipped to New
York or Philadelphia they pay 1-10c
under the prevailing New York price
dav befofe arrival. On the raw sugar
shipped to San Francisco, they pay 3Sc
under the prevailing market price in
New York. the day before arrival of
this sugar in San Francisco. In making
this arrangement the Trust argued:
In shipping to San Francisco your cost
IS less than it is in shipping to New
| York. and YOU must sell US at a cor
responding concession These raw sugar
supplies are refined in the Trusts San
Francisco refinery, and when selling to
the trade, the Trust reverses their
process of reasoning with the Hawaii
an planter To the trade they say:
The value of our refined sugar is fixed
by the New York price plus freight to
the Pacific Coast For this reason re-
fined f. o. b. San Francisco is quoted
anywhere from zoe to 75c per hundred
lover the New York quotations. By this
simple process Of reasoning the Trust
in their San Francisco refinery obtains
their raw supplies from Hawaii at
371a per hundred under the New York
raw sugar quotation, and sells its re-
fined sugar at not less than soc per hun
dred over the New York quotation on
refined sugar, netting S715 per hundred
or $3.50 per ton over the ordinary
margin to retiners.
| ''In 1908 the consumption Of sugar
Through San Francisco was 1868 tons,
SO it will be seen that this difference
alone made neat extra profit of s.,
441252 which comes out of the peck
.: cts of the consumer in addition to the
&15 900, 900 made by the Hawaiian
planters. and the normal amount OF
profit for refining. The excessive pro
lection rs not justified here