Arizona republican., 1912-05-20

Brussels conference and signed an agreement to regulate the trade anl do away with sugar bounties.
 The Brussels conference, renewel i1 1907 and again in March 1912, is noth- ing less than huge. international combine to regulate the sugar business of the world. AS q real trust it puts any of the great combinations ever formed in the United States far in the 1 shade. By it the powers ann to main tain balance of power in the Europe an sugar industry just as they do in political affairs. and 10 close the mar kets of the world against nations out side the agreement which, by lavish hounties. might try for a commanding place as sugar producers. Practically
 the conference regulates sugar prices and sugar output. It is the seif-im- posed dictator of the sugar business. It decides the sources from which countries that are parties to the agree ment may import sugar, to what coun- tries they may export il. and the con ditions of export
 Russia. for instance, which i. now in the convention. is permitted to export only 250,000 tons of sugar this year, except overland to the Orient. Last fall when there was a shortage in tine sugar supply and the American refin- cries advanced prices to q nigh point in the United States, il was not pos sible for Americans to obtain relief b. drawing on the abundant stores Of raw sugar held by Russia. The Brussels . inference stood in the .ray ..',2 it>' 1 t1,Nt, pound shall you export beyond the amount we have allotted" And this despite the fact that the United States has nothing 10 do with the Brussels conference and has never recognized it. The conference itself has declared the United States convention territory and refuses to let it's members ship there except in accordance with its rigid re strictiOns. II the domestic and colonial sugar crops of the United States Were to fall this year your country could not get d pound from Russia, even 1T her storehOuses were bursting with surplus. after she had sent off the al- 1 lotted 250,000 tons in her ships
 For the time being the United States is in a fairly independent posi-
 
 | for the present at least can snap it's | fingers at the international combine, 1 Porto Rico. Hawaii and the Philippines | pour in nearly two billion pounds of sugar year. Cuba. which enjoys a l preferential oi 20 per cent on the tariff i rate against foreign sugar, furnishes 1 about three and half billion pounds 1 more The cane growers of the south produce nearly 700,OO0,0O0 pounds and | beet sugar growers of the west over a billion.
 1 In spite of this large supply which 1 European authorities agree might b. 1 vastly increased by proper encourage 1 mcnt of Uae American beet and cane i industries the United States is still 1 dependent on the tropical cane grow CTS The value of the sugar beet, as 1 a sugar producer and as an agricultur- al stimulant apparently is just begin ming to be realized on the western side
 of the Atlantic. pr. Harvey w. Wiley who recently resigned as chief chemist l of the department of agriculture, is regarded nere in London as a great | authority on sugar beet culture and il 1 seenis surprising to European observ- CTS that his teachings as TO the agricul- tural benefits of sugar beet culture lave not been more generally adopted 1 in his own country
 1 In view of te tremendous efforts pu | forth by European countries to pro duce their own sugar, observers on thi
 side of the Atlantic find it difficult [,
 understand the policy that has ia spired the proposal now before con l gress 10 emOVe the customs Juty Q sugar. Y is realized that this WOul l immediately destroy the sugar prOduc ing industry, both beet and cane, il
 the continental territory of the Unite,
 States and doubtless would cripple tn
 growing inJustry that is temg bull up in the American insular possession:
 1 That American lawmakers should de liberateiy place their consuming publi
 directly at the mercy of the autocrati
 trust which dominates the sugar in
 dustIv of the rest of the world undc
 the sanction of the most powerful gov
 1 ernments of Europe seems scarcel
 | credible to foreign observers. The eX . planatiOn of the phenomenon general
 1 accepted here is that the great Ameri
 1 can refining intereStS-Or, as you ca
 l them-the sugar trust-is throwing il U l influence in favor of the abolition
 1 the customs duty. fOreseeing in tn
 rapid growth of the independent dc D mestic industry it's own ultimate d'
 structiOn It is accepted here as b' = iyond question that if the dOmest ., American production were wiped o,
 by such legislation as has been pro
 posed and the United States were con
 pelled to purchase sugar from tropic
 islands under the Dutch and Englis - ! flags, the position of the American r r fining interests would be great
 strengthened.
 Even larger than the refiners, hoy ~ ever, in the readjustment that mu
 take place. if America adopts the ne
 policy of free sugar. looms the porter - tous figure of the Brussels conferenc . the world combine. As soon as t
 United States goes abroad for sug9
 there is every reason to believe tn . this European pool of nations will
 the real power in regulating its sug - business. It will dictate what marKe - 1 shah be open and what shall oe close
 And it would be probable that eve
 shortage in the sugar market Of U
 world would hit the United States mu l