Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1911-05-18
GENERAL NEWS OF NATIONAL HAPPENINGS.

Washington, May 12.-Representa
tive Stanton Warburton, of Washing
ton, would put sugar on the free list
at the risk of utterly destroying thu
beet-sugar industry of the Unitec
States. In fact Warburton would
welcome the destruction of this indus
try if its maintenance is to cost the
people of this country from $50, 000,'
600 to $50, 100000 in tariff duties
each year. All this he said in a speech
which he delivered in the house OF
representatives Friday.
Sugar in this country costs at least
$1.90 a hundred pounds, the present
tariff, more than it would cost if we
bought our sugar in the markets of
the open world" declared Warburton.
He pointed cut that under the Nc
Kinley law the governmnt paid out
bounties of approximately SO, 900, 900
year to the producers of beet-sugar
The Wilson law repealed the bounty
provision, and the duty ultimately
was fixed by the Payne-Aldrich bill at
$1.90 per hundred. "Our sugar cost
us during the four years the Mckinley
act was in force $36, 900, 900 more
than it would have cost had we pur-
chased it in the open market. During
the three years of the Wilson law it
cost an extra $144, 900, 900 on account
of the tariff, and under the Dingley
and Payne-Aldrich laws, up to June
l, 1910, 81, 444, 718, 583 more than if
bought in open market free of duty.
"What have the people of this coun-
try to show for this enormous sum of
money they have expended to promote
the culture of beet sugar? In 1890
we raised cane and sugar beets aggre-
eating 306, 900, 900 pounds and con-
sumed 3, 1872, 900, 900 pounds. In 1910
we raised in this country l IT'S, 900, 900
ponds and consumed 1850, 600, 900
pounds. By taxing the consumers of
this country 81, 600, 600, 900 from 1890
to 1910 we have increased the produc-
tion of sugar in this country 1,400,-
600, 600 pounds; we have been able
to foster the beet sugar industry in
this country to the extent of increas-
ing our production one pound for every
four pounds of our increased consump-
tion. Will any one contend that on
this showing, even if we maintain
our present enormous tariff, there is
any hope or prospect of supplying our
present home market with home |
grown sugar? On the contrary, does
it not show our utter failure to pro-
mote the sugar beet industry by this
frightful tariff? While our enor-
mously heavy tariff has failed wholly
in the prime object for which it was
created, it has succeeded in building
up one of the geatest and most greedy
monopolies that this country has ever
known. "a brief study of the cost of
production of sugar here and else
where will show clearly that we can
hope, even under the enormous tariff
we now have, to produce but small
fraction of the amount we consume.
The American farmers receive IS per
ton for their sugar beets at the plant.
The owners of the factories say they
cannot afford to pay more at the pre-
vailing price of sugar. Sugar beets
produced in this country averaged
about $50 pounds of sugar for each ton
of beets. If a farmer received SIS per
ton for his beets he received about
So. 18 for ever 100 potential pounds of
sugar in the beets.
Beet sugar can be produced in
Austria Hungary for 81. .85 per hundred
and in Germany for 81. Two dollars
per hundred is what England pays for
her sugar and that is what we pay for
the 4, 1000, 900, 900 pounds we import.
Then we add to that the customs du- ,
ties, and we have cents, the pre-
vailing market price in New York. |
If we remove the duty, instead of t
sugar retailing on the Pacific Coast /
for about 10 pounds for dollar and
retailing in New York for 16 to 20 {
pounds for dollar, sugar would retail t
in the United States for about 40 {
pounds for the dollar. In fact, we 1
can buy our sugar and do buy our
sugar in the open markets of the
world for less amount of money than Y
The farmers get for the potential sugar
n the beets. The manufactures of the t
sugar beets insists that, if he pays t
55 per ton for beets, he cannot sell f
he manufactured sugar for less than I
cents per pound. Then, on what c
,heory do we expect successfully and +
to produce sugar in this
country from sugar beets?"
Warburton said the farmer would {
rot raise beets and sell them at less f
han SIS per ton; land will not depre- v
late in value; labor will not be a
.heaper, and we can never hope to
'aise beets as cheaply as they can be d
,rown abroad. "We cannot econom-
callys make our own beet sugar when h
We can buy sugar abroad for the same d
rice that the American farmer gets a
or his beets delivered at the sugar i
actory."
Coal Land Indictments Quashed. S
Washington, Nav 13. - The fght