The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1911-05-26
Friday, May 26, 1911
WHAT THE TARIFF ON SUGAR
MEANS TO THE AMERICAN
FAMILY.


by the wholesale grocers gives
the people who buy sugar some
idea of the burden of tariff taxa
ton upon the working people
and the people of small means
in the United States. According
to this circular, the average
person consumes a little more
than 80 pounds of sugar per an
mum and the average family con-
sumes a little more than 400
pounds per annum. The tariff
on granulated sugar is nearly 2
cents a pound, and because Of
that tariff the price of sugar IN
the United States is about 2
cents a pound higher than it is
in Germany or England, says
the Baltimore Sun. According
to the Government figures, the
average wholesale pl of sugar
in foreign countries 49O6 was
2.15 cents a pound, while in the
United States the average whole
sale price was a little over a
cents. Or, in other words, the
tariff adds 2 cents a pound to the
price of sugar. The tariff, there
fore, on this one necessity OF
life coasts the average family
about So a year. This would be
bad enough if the whole of the
tax were paid into the public
treasury for the use of the
Government. But, in fact, only
81 goes to the Government and
the other 81 to the Sugar Refining
Company that is to say. the
Sugar Trust. The tariff tax on
raw sugar is about 1 cent a
pound or a little less, while the tax
on refined sugar is about 2 cents
pound. The tax on refined
sugar is intended by Congress
to protect the Sugar Trust from
competition, and it protects it
so thoroughly that very little
refined sugar is imported, and
the price charged by the trust is
jpst up to the top of the tariff
wall.
The United States Government
gets a revenue of more than
$50, 100000 a year from the tariff
on sugar, and the Sugar Trust
gets a far greater sum. Because
the tariff enables the trust not
only to add for its own benefit l
cent a pound to the price of all
the sugar that's imported, but be-
cause it keeps out competition, it
enables it to add 2 cents pound
to the price of the millions Of
pounds produced in the United
States and upon which it pays
no tariff. The trust also has
added the tariff of 2 cents a
pound on the millions of pounds
which it imported and upon
which it paid no duty at all be-
cause of the employment of false
weighing scales and perjury.
The present Payne-Aldrich
Tariff law, like most of that
preceded it, is so cunningly de-
vised in the interest Of the trust
that people cannot import raw
sugar that is fit for use< It must
be of a certain dark color to
escape the 2 cents a pound rate
and that device puts even the
people who would wis., to use
brown sugar at the mel y of the
Sugar Trust.
Until Congress is empowered
to impose tax upon incomes it
may be necessary to collect a
revenue from sugar, however
distressing it may be to the poor
and needy. But there is no just
reason why the people of the
land should be taxed from $50,
100000 to $500, 100000 a year
for the benefit Of the Sugar
Trust, which has been convicted
of cheating the Government out
of millions. If the differential
on refined sugar were reduced
to the minimum or abolished al
together, the revenues OF the
Government would be unimpair-
ed, sugar would be l cent a
pound cheaper and great canning
and preserving industries,
stimulating the glass and tin in
dustries, such as cheap sugar
has given to England, would
speedily grow up.