Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1912-11-02
TAX DOESN'T FIX
1 PRICE ON SUGAR
European SyndicateS Take Care
3 of That.
FREE TRADE AVAILS NOTHING
Y. S. Government Must Keep Tariff
on Sugar Since All other Nations
Tax the Product-Governmen Gets
$53,000,0o0 Per Annum-Loss of
This Only Change Like y With Re-
moVai of Tariff.

Fully one-half of the sugar supply
of the United States is produced in
this country and it's insular posses
sions, the balance being purchased
from foreign countries. mostly from
Cuba, which occupies a particularly
intimate relation TO the United States.
The tariff on sugar, at the same time,
is so adjusted that We obtain from it
$53 100000 annually, or one-sixth Of
our total customs receipts. During re-
cent years about one-half the worlds
production of sugar, exclusive Of In
dia, comes from sugar beets. The
worlds crop of sugar is produced ex-
clusively in Europe and. the United
States. In European countries the in
dustry, which is one hundred years
old, has been fostered, as in the
United States, by high tariff, by con-
ventions and cartels. The price Of
sugar in Europe, either for domestic
consumption or export, is not gov
erned by the law of supply and de-
mand, but by syndicate. the So
called Brussels convention. The en-
tire commercial movement Of sugar in
Europe is thus controlled by legal
lied international trust.
Should both houses of the next
United States congress be Democratic
the protective duty on sugar would
be removed, the governments yearly
revenues would be reduced $50 900 900,
but the retail price of sugar would
not be lowered a cent. The wholesale
prices Of sugar are fixed by the Euro
pean syndicates and are placed about
| Il cents per pound lower to United
States dealers than to those of Great
Britain. q so-called Tree trade nation,
because of the customs duties on i'm
ported sugar imposed by the govern
ment Of the United States. The pres
ent Republican tariff on sugar enables
the refners, the beet sugar people and
the farmers producing sugar beets TO
obtain fair prices TOR their products
and to pay their employees reasonable
wages.
The only protection which the peo-
pie of the United States have against
the manipulation of European pro6uc-
ton and prices is the tariff. If this
g removed the producers of sugar in
the United States, Porto Rico, Hawaii,
the Philippines and Cuba viii be
placed not merely on a free trade
basis. but will be compelled to suffer
a handicap caused by all the different
regulations which the experience Of a
hundred years has taught TO the Euro
peans. There is no such thing in the
commerce of the world as the free
and untrammeled movement OF sugar
under the Law Of supply and demand.
IL the United, States abolishes its
1.,.,r - N~il ctn nj n
among the civilized nations of the
world as the only one having sugar on
the free list
The unanimous report of the Demo-
cratic members of the ways and
means committee of IT, lower house
OF congress accompanying their free
sugar bill gives the cost of producing
refined sugar in German as $2.4l u
per hundred pounds, and tie average
cost of producing beet sugar by thir-
teen of the leading companies in the
United States as 1884 per hundred
pounds AS the freight rate from Ger
many TO New York is only - cents
per hundred pounds. 1t is apparent
that free trade In sugar means either
that the factories Of this country must
close down or that tie American
farmers and the laborers in our fac
tories must accept practically the
same prices and wages as European
farmers and laborers receive.
Foremost among the European ma
tons in the production OF sugar is
Germany. whose average annual plant
ings for the last three years amour.
10 100000 acres from which she
has harvested an annual average crop
ror the same years of 2,0S2,000 long
tens. This is. on an actual plan :ea
srea equivalent TO only forty eigat G.
)ur townships she produces annually
about two-thirds as much sugar is
the United States consumes.
The secretary OF agriculture states