The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1912-07-29

factories. however. because any
group of men who could get together
few hundred thousands could build
such factory and could sell their
product close at home on terms
which the Trust itself with it's high
er transportation cost from The sea-
board could not meet. Independent
factories multiplied and the limit of
effective competition from beet
sugar moved steadily eastward an
I'll it rested at Pittsburg and Buna-
10 and occasionally extended even to
New England. Before his death
Havcmeyer readiZed the hopelessness
of his efforts,
Moreover, within the past year or
two new menace has ariseH to
threaten the control of the refiners
over even the cane sugar branch OF
the industry. The Louisiana plant
ers have complained of the treat
ment they received from the Trust
but have long considered themselves
helpless in view of the fact that it
|offered their only market. Very re-
Gently, however. improved machin-
|ery and the application of methods
worked out in the beet sugar indus
try have made it possible TO turn
out sugar from local factories so
near the standard of fineness which
the public has come to demand
that it does not require to pass
through the refineries.
Here is a fresh danger for the re-
finers.. Already a billion pounds of
sugar is being turned out every year
by the beet factories on which the
refiners can collect no profit, The
success of the new Louisiana expert
ment means that 700,000,000 pounds
grown annually in Louisiana and
Texas will shortly be taken from
their control Experts of the De-
partment of Agriculture say that it
will be very easy matter to ex-
tend the sugar area so that the Unit
ed States will produce all the sugar
the American people requires. 1t
locks decidedly as though the sugar
refining business were a doomed in
dustry unless something can be done
to check the growth Of domestic
sugar production
Under the direction Of these skill
ed business men clever campaign
is being waged to bring about the
adoption of free sugar. They are
convinced that the sudden removal
of the customs duty at the present
time before the domestic production
of sugar is firmly established will
destroy both the beet and cane in
dustry and leave them in undisputed
control. During the recent hearings
of the Senate Finance Committee on
the free sugar bill now pending in
Congress scores Of farmers from beet
growing states, planters from Louisi-
ana, beet sugar manufacturers and
cane mill men appeared before the
Committee protesting that they
would be ruined by the adoption of
the bill Representatives of the is
land possessions Of the United States
Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philip
pines--pojnted out that fnsular pros
perity was based upon this one in
dustry which would be destroyed by
the proposed action The only man
%ho appeared in favor of the bill
was an employe OF one of the refiners
who was forced to admit that he
was conducting a costly campaign
under the disguise OF an alleged
committee of wholesale grocers"
which had no officers, paid no dues
and had never had a meeting. In
thousand devious ways, working
upon Congress and the public, the
effort is being made to destroy the
menace that threatens to fix the
grip of the refiners upon the Ameri-
can public. -
On the other hand the farmers,
the planters and the beet factory
men are trying 10 get their case be-
fore the people, as the only effective
check against monopoly in the hands
of the refiners. But they lack the
organized machinery. the association
with powerful capitalistic Influences
and the financial resources of their
opponents. Whether Congress pass
es the free sugar bill or not the
struggle will 80 on until one side is
finally worsted On it's outcome
hangs the control of one of the great
est industrial stakes ever played
for--of which two humps OF sugar in
the morning cup of coffee is the APP
parentIy insignificant symbol.
For soreness of the muscles,