Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-07-10

Steader virtually OindS nlmSei1 10 Ia /
Dor for life on the plantation.
Why free sugar? Why has all of
the bitterness of the tariff battle set
tied upon this single commodity, which
is one of the cheapest of all foods and
which at casual glance does not seem
to rank high among the important
food products?
The Louisiana cane sugar producers
claim that free sugar will wipe tout
their industry. The beet sugar pro-
ducers of the United States have an
investment of about SCI 100000, &C
cording TO the report of the Hardwick
committee, which investigated the
American sugar, industry last year.
The beet interests are claiming IT.
reparable damage to be caused by
free sugar. The Hawaiians, the Porto
Ricans. the domestic beet sugar pro-
ducers and the Louisiana interests are
maintaining in Washington the tariff
lobby against whose insidious activi-
ties President Woodrow Wilson so
justly complains. These lobbyists
contend that free sugar means ruin
for the American sugar industry.
And vet the administration is not
halted. Why?
There is basic principle underly-
ing the democratic determination to
remove the tax from sugar. The or
! binary man does not understand the
question at all clearly. The sugar
! question has seldom been plainly stat
| ed TO the average citizen Yet when
/ the conditions under which sugar is
now produced are clearly understood,
| the free sugar principle becomes as
simple as it, is just. 1t then becomes
astonishing that this country ever
taxed sugar To protect this product
is the very opposite of common bust
ness judgment.
| TshaIl therefore endeavor to explain
| the free sugar argument as / see it
and the effect free sugar may be eX-
pected to have On the different phases
of the industry in this country. In
the first place, what of the Importance
of sugar as food?
In a recent bulletin issued by the
department of agriculture sugar is
given place among the three or four
most important foodstuffs, following af-
ter meat and bread. In the human diet
it is the great energy producer. And
so it is the great food of the working
man. Experiments have shown that
while large quantities of sugar give
dyspepsia TO idlers and indoor workers
! it is readily digested by men who dc
manual work, supplying them with
! stores of physical energy.
Sugar as we know it, however, Is
, commodity of the last century. II
was formerly produced only in India
; and Europeans supposed it to be a
: gum which eXuded from trees. Guilt
walton of sugar cane began in this
= country in 1851, but only in the last
} rs years has it come into general use
: The world production is now over 16,
100000 tons, of which over 4,000,00(
tons, or 81 pounds per capita, are con
/ sumed annually in the United States
] In the latter part of the eighteenth
century a German chemist discovered
5 that sugar could be made from beets
z This was merely scientific curiosit!
:
1 ity of fighting England's army while
r France was paying great annual sums
D to British sugar producers, which
/. money England was using to equiI
2 new armies and navies. by imperia
a edict established large number of sU
y gar mills in France and ordered tb,
l. French peasants to produce all tn
sugar consumed in the country.
This was the beginning of the beet
sugar industry, which has thrived IN
=, til now the beet-sugar production o
', the world nearly equals that iron
cane. Sugar-beet growing began il
. the United States in the late nineties
= Compare the total investment il
= the American sugar industry with tn
= amount the duty on sugar costs tn
American people annually and we pic
:, up the clue explaining why, despit
the presence OF sugar Hobbies in WASH
a ington, the 2-cent tariff tax was re
:. moved from sugar.
Exclusive of land and farm animals
which can be used in other farmin
operations, the total investment
= sugar in the United States is abou
= 800, 100000. For the benefit of tn
y few men owning this industry tn
! American people are taxed annual
in the increased price of sugar $40
8 00O, 900, or $40,O00,0O0 more than tn
total sugar investment 1t is ais
u 100000 more than the total al
IL nual value of the American suga
&c crop, including its by-products.
u To the individual this tax amount
II to $3.50, or an annual charge of $7.5
on a family of average size.
II Since 1897 the protection to the SUI
ii ar industry has cost American col
al sumcrs $4,000, 100000. But if the pu1
III lie got value received for this sum
in revenue to Gefray the cost of go
or ernment-there would not be so muc
L. complaint But the actual duty CO
L lected in 16 years has been onl
O. $500, 000,0 900. The balance, 81 200, 00(
" 900, has been bonus, pure and sir
re pie, wrung from the poor to create
~ new group of American millionaire
u Leaving aside the principle thu
ID sugar as prime food necessii
70 should come untaxed TO the America
III public, the production OF cane suGs