New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1913-11-08
THERE is A CHANCE TO "SAVF.
SUGAR PLANTERS"

Underwood tariff bill the planters them
selves will have themselves chiefly to
blame-with the melancholy pleasure of
saving 1--WE told you So as their only
solace
There is WAY OUT.
The planters who met some days ago
in New Orleans, and again ir Donald
sonvile last Saturday, ought to be able
, to find that way, for what they have done
so far indicates that they have begun
to travel the right direction.
Free sugar means, Of course an end to
the days Of ONE CROP, with great
profits one season, great losses another,
and breaking even in the season between.
Free sugar" means, in all probabll
ity, the eventual breaking up of the great
plantations.
Free sugar" means, or ought to mean,
to the sugar industry revolution in its
conduct as great as that effected when the
sugar trust succeeded in establishing
practical monopoly of sugar refining and
thenceforth gave to the sugar planters
ONE MARKET in which to dispose OF
their ONE CROP
The capture of the market caused
diustment WHOSE WHOLE Eff
Feet has been EVIL.
Free sugar" may prove, at last,
disaster not unmixed with some need of
good if the stimulus of urgent need jars
the sugar planters of Louisiana to an ex
ercise Of that independence which could
have been theirs in other years if they
had so willed it.
all he,
com bned was responsible for the enact
ment of "free sugar"
That condition was the belief, almost
universal among the voters of the Unit
ed States, that the tariff on sugar
HELPED THE SUGAR TRUST-and
that the PLANTERS of Louisiana were
allies, partners and beneficiaries of
that tax with the trust.
For that condition the PLANTERS
had themselves to blame
They WERE the allies-though allies
betrayed.
They WERE partners, though partners
cheated of their portion.
They WERE co-beneficiaries. whose
pockets were picked by their associates
In years gone by, before the industry
was seized by the organized refineries
there was UNORGANIZED COMPETl-
TION AMONG THE GROWERS. Eaeh
planter had his own brand of untefined
sugar. Each autumn and winter the
Mississippi river steamboats, carried
northward, as did the ships that sailed
from New Orleans cargoes of barrels and
hogheads and sacks of sugar, each bear
ng the separate mark of separate planta
ions. There were famous plantation
brands of molasses. Then the process of
refining became more important, as the
public taste for white sugar" as dis
tinguished from "brown sugar" was eul
tivated and il became necessary for all
sugar eo pass through refiner's hands.
The refiner established himself on the
necessary road from the plantation to the
market-and extending his influence
both ways, in the course of years,
SEIZED THE INDUSTRYl
"Free sugar" is NOT GOING TO
BREAK THE REFINER'S HOLD.
"Free sugar" is NOT going to free
| the ultimate consumer as the Wilson
| Underwood bearers insist. o nthe other
hand, it is NOT going to free the pre-
| ducer.
"Free sugar" simply places the domes-
tic sugar producer MORE COM pLETE-
lily AT THE MERCY OF THE RE-
FINER unless he does what he should
have done long years ago, but never did
ENTER THE REFINING BUSINESS
iAND REAL DIRECTLY WITH THE
/ CONSUMER IN COMPETITION WITH
THE TRUST.
There is THIS difference between thu
condition BEFORE AND SINCE the en-
actment of the Wilson Underwood bill.
i BEFORE that bill was passed the SUI
gar growers, cooperating on independ
ent refining and marketing, could hav
conducted the process oE GROWING
cane as they had doae for many years
Now, upon them is placed the ADDEl
need of REORGANIZING THE METH
VODS OF ORIGINAL PRODUCTION.
u Prior 70 1913 intelligent and well II
. | nanced cooperation in refining and mar
: keting alone would have won them indie
pendence.
NOW they must readjust every plan
, tation custom and habit and perfet
, mutual self help in every phase of the in
o dustry.
ol growers, whether small sarmef
o l of the bayou districts or great planter
o of the river front and the sugar bowl
o must make their estates SELF-SUl
= PORTING, with CANE AS III
70 MONEY CROP" Their meat, the
corn, their hay--their food for labor ar
. for live stock--must be proruced on Il
% plantation or the farm. Cane will ths
be the SURPLUS, from which must con
the clothing, the minor necessities a
the profits for proprietor, for tenant, I
wage-esrners.
The cane-growers must do EAhCll
what the COTTON GROWERS of Eas
:, ern Texas have done successfully in !
wake of boil weevil.
Isl And beyond that they must perfect,
mutual enlightenment, by co-operati
=, worked out to the last point, their wa
1 of h.rdl;no In final market ALL PO