United labor bulletin., 1912-07-04
SUGAR TARIFF LEGISLATION BY CONGRESS

During the present session of the congress of
the United States much criticism has been made OF
the acts of the Colorado representatives IN the con
gress not much because their acts were not Just
fled bv trade conditions but because those rep
resentatves are members of a party winch ad-
vocates free trade and tariff for revenue only.
The Colorado congressman voted against put
ting sugar on the free list, claiming that such
legislation would ruin the beet sugar industry
in the state of Colorado as well as IN many other
states. Although against the principles OF the
Democratic party, the congressman believed IT was
not against the interests of the sugar producing
states The severest of the criticism was dealt out
TO Congressman John Martin because he is the
strongest representative of the three from the Cen
tennial state The action of the House of Repre-
seentatives history that body voting in favor
of free sugar.
The bill Oh. r. 2l213) went to the senate
for action That body referred the bill to the
finance committee and after long weeks of diligent
labor in which the committee examined scores OF
witnesses from all parts of the country and IN all
phases of the import and sugar refining business,
as well as the of production, of refining, the
price to obbers and the retail price to the ultimate
consumer, the finance committee reports adversely
to the action of the house. and recommends that the
tariff be reduced. Senator Lodge is chairman OF
the committee, and the report submitted covers
every detail in the sugar industry. 1t Will have
great weight with the congress well as with the
public mt large If adopted by the congress- it will
be vinoication of the Colorado congressman and
will lend impetus to the beet sugar industry IN the
Great West.
Some of the most salient features of the report
of the finance committee brought out IN the fol
lowing language;
Should the tariff on sugar be reduced,
there is no assurance that all any portion of such
reduction would be reflected in either the whole.
sale or the retail price of sugar. There is good
reason to believe that the refners would absorb all
of any small reduction which might be made and
large portion of the remission, if sugar were placed
on the free list
That the refners' power to fix the price of re-
will of he
sugar. is inherent except during the three to five
months when domestic beet sugar being marketed,
New York refners marked the price of refined
sugar up to cents and others to ~ cents per
pound When in October domestic beet sugar
price and 61a cents jobbers' price, the refiners,
their prices to normal figure, and thus many mil
extorted from American consumers saved to
them
Should sugar be returned to the free list and
the domestic beetsugar industry be destroyed, your
committee assumes that the refiners would repeat
the experience of 1s93 and by absorbing 45 cents
hundred of the tariff reduction place in their private
treasures $35,O00000 of the $52,000000 year
which the people would lose in revenues.
Assuming, however, that the refiners would be
generous enough not to increase their margain be-
tween raw and refined, but would pass the sugar
over to the jobbers at price lower by the full
amount of the tariff reduction, your committee does
not believe that any portion of considerable