Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-10-26

Uncle SAINTS sugar bowl is spa
cious receptacle. into which is
poured each year 5000. O00, O0O
pounds of crystal sweetness for the use
of the American nation. 1t takes 2,4i0,-
600 pounds day of the graduated food
of butterflies and humming birds to keep
the sugar bowl going, and in a months
time 666. 1000 pounds of the product OF
the cane fields i'm the tropics and the beet
fields in the temperate zone are brought
from replenishing sources to the tables
of the people to sweeten tea. coffee and
cocoa. to season fruits and give flavor to
other foods, not to mention CONNECTIONS.
sirups and other uses to which the sac
charine commodity is put
Americans consume 500 pounds of sugar
per capita per annum. In fact, Uncle
among the great of the earth only by
John Bull, who seems to have little the
better of the sugar-using game.
Large consumption of sugar is not con-
fined to the United States. In the last
fiscal year India ate up 6.OOO,OO.Uoo
pounds, Great Britain about 3.1o0,O00,oOO
pounds Russia 5000, 100000 and Germany
about 2.I50.Oo0. 600 pounds. In per capita
consumption Great Britain leads the
world with nearly ninety-two pounds a
year: America is second, followed by
Switzerland. Denmark, Sweden. France.
Germany. Belgium, Austria. Russia.
Spain Greece and Italy in the order
named. In Italy sugar consumption does
not exceed twelve pounds year. due.
doubtless. to the national inbred taste for
foods produced from wheat and the chest
nut.
Sugar as an article of food presents the
leat-giving principle in a highly concen-
trated form, easy of assimilation by the
physical organism. 1t has besides other
food value which. with its agreeable
taste. constitutes il one OF the most pal
atable and universal foods. Experiment
has proved that the soldier on the march
and men engaged in other protracted
and intense physical eXertion find in SUI
gar an excellent nutrient Probably the
sweetness of sugar has more than any
thing else to do with it's large and in
creasing consumption by civilized people.
yet there seems to be some sort of rela-
ton between the demand for sugar and
the physically exhausting pace of mod
ern life. Anyhow. the most energetic
nations eat most sugar, whether il be
from pampered appetite or the need for
nutritious food.
The sugar-eating habit has been in
creasing very rapidly in this country
since the beginning of the last century.
Measured by import and refining statis-
tics of cane and beet sugar per capita
consumption is ten times greater than
In 1925. While this measure of the
amount of sugar used is independent of
that derived from maple trees and
sources other than cane and beats. it is
the only basis of comparison possible. In
1850 the American people were sweeten-
ing their drinks and foods to the amount
of sixteen pounds Per capita, in 1870 the
consumption was about thirty-two pounds
for each of the population. in 1890 ii had
increased 10 fifty pounds. and in 1910 II
was approximately seventy-nine pounds.
That is. the increase in sugar-eating has
been about commensurate with the growth
in population and the ease and cheapness
by which the popular taste for sweet
things could be indulged.
-
Including its island possessions, the
United States produces about one-half
of the sugar consumed within its borders
The other half is imported, nine-tenths
of ii from ,uba. Imported raw sugar is
now practically all of it cane sugar, the
importations of beet sugar considerable
twenty-five years ago. having been re-
duced to a negligible quantity For many
years the price of raw sugar for the
worlds markets has been fixed in Ham
burg, and the standard of the product
is the we'll known Dutch yellow. But
with the increasing production of beet
sugar In this country. which goes through
neither customs houses nor the refineries
the Dutch standard of grading and the
Dutch price have been losing out In the
American market.
For six months of the present year the
price OF raw sugar at the ports of entry
nave been vastly more influenced by the
price of beet sugar I'm Chicago than the
quotations fixed in Hamburg. This has
been due TO the appearance in the Ameri-
can market of an Unexpectedly large
production OF beet sugar i'm the western
and middle western states. which liter
ally forced the refiners of cane sugar out
OF the interior markets because freight
rates cut the profit margin 10 the bone
Hence II came about that both raw sugar
and the refined product were at minimum