The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1911-09-18
SUGAR IN HANDS
OF COMBINATION?
REPORT FROM EAST is NOT
CREDITED BY REPRESENTA-
TIVES OF WHOLESALE
HOUSES.

A press dispatch from New York on
the sugar situation was To the effect
that the heavy advances in the price
the past few weeks have been due to
speculation, and not TO a shortage Of
the sugar crop. III this is true the
wholesalers Of the western district are
not in on the combine, as the jobbers
in Milwaukee and Chicago have this
week been refusing sugar orders and
they are securing the country for sugar
TO meet the urgent demands of their
trade. A representative of one of the
Wholesale concerns says that the re-
port of a combination i'm sugar was "A
surprise to him. He said he believed
that the advance in the price of sugar
is due to a shortage, rather than 10
certain interests having cornered the
market.
The jobbers of Milwaukee and Chi
cago were recently unable TO secure
enough sugar TO fill n car, whereas UNI
der ordinary conditions several car
loads are shipped daily from both of
wiring to various parts Of the country
in an effort to secure sugar to fill part
Of their orders. All of the jobbers in
the East and other sections of the
country, who have sugar on hand, arc
holding it, believing that the price will
SO higher.
It is expected that the sugar famine
will be relieved somewhat within the
next two or three weeks, when beet
sugar is available. Under ordinary
conditions the general sugar market is
effected on an average of about twenty
cents hundred when the beet sugar
comes in, but II is n question what the
reduction Will be this year as the beet
sugar supply has been discounted by
the jobbers.
Combination Talk.
A New York story is to the effect
that there are 225,OOO tons raw sugar
now aloat on its way to this country
from Hawaii and Java, with more sug-
ar in sight in the world than there was
at this time last year, even taking into
account a promised shortage in the
crop, due to drouth. In the best sugar
districts Of Germany. Arbuckle and
American and European sugar refiners
have a corner on the sugar market and
have jumped the price from 4.60 cents
per pound-the low mark last Febru
ary-to Z cents today, with every pros
lpect that il will go higher. The adj
vance is purely due, big sugar brokers
Legitimate reason why sugar should be
any higher now than it was last Feb
Iruary.
The price of cents today is the
| highest in twenty-five years. The Ger
man beet sugar situation is regarded as
the foundation for the speculation, as
reports OF immense injury to the crop
there have helped along the condition
which now exists.
Just at the present moment the Ar
buckle company holds the whip hand
and is demanding cents per pound,
while the American Sugar Refining
company is filling orders at 6.75, pc
culiar combination of circumstances.
which is partly responsible for the sit
uation.
In June last the Arbuckle refinery in
Brooklyn was destroyed by fire, and
the Arbuckle trade, unable to get its
supply from that concern, turned to the
American, and that concern was
swamped with orders. 1t used its i'm
mense supply of cheap, raw sugar In
supplying Arbuckle trade.
The advance in price started Feb.
Is last, when the low water mark was
i.6O cents.
June 1 there was a general advance
to cents. June %, following the Ar
buckle fire. that company advanced the
price to $40 cents. August it was
sos, and on that date the American
Sugar Refining company was book
ing orders for three weeks delivery at
C.75 cents.
Since Aug. the price has moved up
ALMOST daily. About Sept. 25 the first
of the Hawaiian shipments will begin
to arrive, and within the next month
the entire shipments from Hawaii and
Java will be dumped into three big
Atlantic ports-New York, philadelphia
ard Boston.