Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-08-12

Ey GERALD n. HASKINS.
Ss7 He recent investiga tons of the
sugar trust have washed a
& Tot OF financial linen. but
principally have shown what
q marvellous rnon-y-rraker Is old King
Sugar. Incidentally We were reward
Cd with new axiom Wherever
there's sugar there's trouble"
One man tells Of a profit Of 10000
per cent in the handling OF a refinery.
a profit that ShyIock never even i'm
a=iued. and even though there were
Erewsorae tales told OF dead rats and
other unpleasant articles being min
Fled with refinery outputs the dSmand
for saccharine has not palled a par
t!cle
Those deadly foes TO inGccuracv. sta
tistics. show that in England the con-
sumption of sugar per person per year
IS 91.6 pounds. I'm the United states
CSC pounds. Switzerland sos pounds
and in Denmark. Sweden. Norway,
France. Germany and Holland an av-
erase Of 40 pounds.
All Of which leads up 70 the qUes-
ton. What could an urmolested uni
vorsal sugar trust make
India Made First Sugar.
sugar was first made in India and was
a hit from the start. We read that IN
500 A d IL was shipped 10 Europe and
that in 500 A. D the emperor OF China
sent agents to India to learn the art
OF making il.
After that II spread all over the
world and is today what might be call
ed luxury necessity" America.
with fits tremendous groves of sugar
load n vyHrld'S rlTndnC-
ton about 1920. when a Mr.. Coiron in
vented a steam engine to grind the
cane into pulp.
Then came other American inven-
tons. and the market for the staple
became so strong and the profit on its
production and distribution so great
that the FavemCyer family. which
came over here I'm 1890 and made sugar
a. II was made in Holland. waxing rich
for those times. decided shortly after
the close Of the civil war to make all
the sugar and reap all the profits.
Opened Trust With $4,000 900.
They schemed and planned for TWEEN
" years. making cheaper and better
sugar all the time. picking up every
invention and freezing out competition
by the simple and legitimate plan OF
undersellinS.
But in 1887 began the trust and the
try but nine came in. and board OF
eleven trustees issued S75.OOo.oOo worth
OF trust certificates for the original
stock OF the combining companies.
The refneries not coming in soon be-
gan 20 feel the effect Of competition
sitter than any they had ever had be-
fore TO stand up against Some OF
them couldn't co II and had to shut
down. Here and there. owing 10 in
creased economy OF trust production.
refineries which had been taken into
the trust shut down also. executive and
selling forces were reduced to decrease
competitive expenses and thousands OF
workers had TO seek new ways of
Earning living.
The trust went into the business Of
importing its own sugar. too. and this
played havoc with the importing
lrade All the classes mentioned as
adversely affected soon united in one
general protest and. besides. some
stockholders in the companies taken
,ver obJectinR bitterly to the new
scheme the gross result was one OF
The widest antitrust outcrtes IN all
the history OF industrial combinations.
Suits OF many sorts were begun. and
there were Investigations under both
federal and New York state laws. Al
most with one accord the newspapers
jumped hard upon the trust and all its
members. and for several years after
their life must have been one long
nightmare
Deacon Seapssost-
II WIS at this time that John z. Par
sons and John E. SearIes. the latter
known widely for many years as 'Dea-
con Searies. the Sunday school man"
became important personal factors IA
tia suGAx sttRaGton II has always