The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-03-20

shown by the following
During the calendar year Of 1897
Che first calendar year after the pas.
sage OF the Dingley bin the amount
of sugar consumed in the United
states was 2.OO2,9O2 long tons. or this
amount l,4S3.5i4 long tons, or 7i1 per
cent, paid full duty. During the cal
cndar year 1910 the total consumption
of sugar in the United States was
3.35O,3j5 tons, of which amount a.
1893 long tons, or 81 per cent, paid
full duty.
The sugar imported free from Cuba
(the only other sugar paying any
duty amounted to t,64O1S2 long tons,
all of which paid eighty per cent. of
the full duty The balance of the su.
gar used in the United States was
duty free In other words, of the to.
tai consumption of the sugar in the
/ United States during the calendar
year 1910, 81 per cent paid full duty;
4S.9 per cent. paid eighty per cent of
the fully duty, and the balance, or for
THINE per cent, paid no duty. Under
such circumstances it is idle to con
tend that the full statutory tariff is
used in fixing the general price of SUI
gar in the United States.
The domestic crop of beet and cane
sugar comes on the market at the
very time when Cuban sugars are
seeking a market in the United States.
As the domestic beet sugar is a fin
shed product it's effect is to bear the
price of refined sugar, carrying the
price of raw sugar down with it so
that the price of Cuban sugar in New
York, with the regular duty on such
sugar added during those months is
from forty cents per 100 to ninety-nine
cents per 100 below the worlds price
plus the full duty.
Saving From Home Industry.
The entire cost of producing beet
sugar is spent at home for labor and
material, while the amount spent for
labor and material in this country in
the process of refining imported raw
sugar is only from 40 to 80 cents per
/ 100. 1t therefore appears that in the
matter of the purchase of labor and
material at home the domestic beet
sugar industry has seven time" as
great an economic value as the re-
fning-sugar industry.
Mr.. Lowry, agent of the Fedora
Sugar Refining Co., says that SO,
100000 refinery produces 6.3 per cent
of the sugar we consume, whereas
100000 invested in the beet-sugar
industry only produces Is per cent of
the sugar we consume. This state
ment is decidedly unfair and mislead-
ing. A refinery simply refined raw
sugar at an expense of from 40 to 50
cents per 100 pounds for labor and
material. All the raw sugar it uses
comes from abroad and represents in.
vestments in foreign countries using
/ cheap labor, such as that of Java,
which is paid only IL to Is cents per
day Mr.. Lowry states that the aver
/ age cost of raw sugar for the past II
years $2.44S per 100 pounds, which is
practically five times the cost of re-
tining. To keep a $10,00O,00O refinery
in operation must therefore require an
immense investment in the producing
of the raw sugar which it refined. All
this money is invested abroad, is ac
tually foreign capital, employs cheap
labor, and pays not 81 to American
labor or American institutions. More
over, to enable this $10,OOO,OOO. re-
/ finery to refine 6.3 per cent of the SUI.
gar We consume requires that we send
abroad yearly $11,5OO,OOO to buy its
raw sugar, produced on foreign soil
| by foreign labor and foreign capital.
Per contra. The $1O0,OOO,OOO in.
vested in the domestic beetsugar in
dustry in the production of Is per cent
of our annual consumption is all in
vested in the United States, and rep
resents the capital used not merely in
the act Of refining but in the entire
production of refined sugar from the
beet. 1t corresponds to the combined
investment in the refining industry
and the raw-sugar production. 1t is
all home capital, invested at home
and pays good American wages. Tc
buy its products the American people
send no money abroad Paraphrasing
Lincoln's celebrated statement, we
would say that if we buy our sugar
abroad, the foreigner has the money
and we have the sugar; if we make
it at home we have both the money
and the sugar.
The refining industry is necessaril!
confined to few seaport towns, anC
the entire industry is concentrated il
the hands of few individuals
Our II beet-sugar factories are scat
tered through 16 States as follows
Arizona, California, 10; Colorado