Gunnison news-champion., 1914-04-17
BY EDN ARD kEATING
Congressman at large from Cosoea6lE

has rubbed the sugar producers of
Louisiana Of the enormous sum Of $50.
rnl. aa. That - the statement made
by Donelson Csffery N Petltaoa Cd
dressed TO the President. Senators end
members of the House Of Represeuta-
tives Of the United States" Csffery.
who Is the son of former United States
Senator. is one Of the most promsnen;
sugar planters Of the South.
HIS charges are Of peculiar interes;
to the people of Colorado just now. in
view Of the iRgairy being conducted by
the Federal Government to ascertain
why the Sugar Trust Is seeking to re
duce the price they pay the farmers for
his beets Ii is hard for these monope-
lists to understand that times have
changed, and that they can no longer
rob the consumer and producer while
Uncle Sam stands by with his hands in
his pockets.
BY the same token, the Sagar Trust.
If it is wise, will not attempt to cut tAe
price paid for beets, unless it 10 pse-
pared to make q mighty strong defsase.
The Governments inquiry is not joke,
and it will be prosecuted with ell The
vigor of which the national sdministrs-
ton is capable.
Twenty years ago the courts held tAot
refining sugar Was not trsde OF c0sn-
merce, and that to monopolize such ne
timing wss not prohibited by the Shes-
man Antitrust law. No court Would
have the temerity to render such de-
cision today, but it was considered quite
sound in 1894, and it conferred on the
American Sugar Refining Co. . special
and irrevocable charter to restrain the
trade in sugar throughout the United
States.
How the Trust svsiled itself Of this
charter is told by Caffery in graphic
style in his petition. Here are few of
the facts as he stated them.
That the American Sugar Refininr
Company closed and kept closed and idle
. refinery in New Orleans and one in
Philadelphia, each with q capacity of
5000 barrels of refined sugar day, not
withstanding it made an immense re-
duction in the price of raw sugar in
New Orleans, below the current New
York price, on the pretense that the
LOUISIANA crop came in too fast to be
handled in the one refinery it operated
in New Orleans.
That when the planters of Louisiana
organized to establish a cooperative
refinery of their own, the American
Sugar Refining Company selected from
the tools and parasites it had created.
two planters, who are shown by written
proof, to have been sent among the
other planters to betray their plans to
the Trust and to break up the organi-
zation by Withdrawing from it at the
psychological moment.
That whenever the planters manu.
factured table sugar, the Refining Co..
using its monopoly, systematically de-
pressed the price thereof Just long
enough to drive them back into making
raw sugar.
That when independent buyers came
upon the New Orleans market for the
raw sugar, the American Sugar Refn-
ing Company put up the price on them
and threatened to boycott the dealers
who sold at the advance, with the re-
suit that on one occasion, ship chart
cred by the Federal Refinery. and sent
from New York to New Orleans for SUI
gar, went back practically empty.
That having excluded all indepen-
dent buyers of raw sugar from the New
Orleans market, the Refining Co. nut
the price of raw sugar down below what
II was worth in the markets Of the
world to an extent which imposed on
the sugar producers of Louisiana. an
annual loss of $1,000. 900.
That notwithstanding such forcing
down of the price of Louisiana raw SUI
gar. below the quoted New York price.
the Sugar Trust continued to nav the
full New York price for all sugar il i'm
ported into New Orleans from foreign
countries. -
PLANTERS WANT DAMAGES
I on the strength Of these charges the
sugar growers Of Louisiana are asking
the courts to award them triple dam
ages against the Trust. Such damages
VIII amount to the staggering sum of
s15O. .Ooo, 600.
The farmers Of Colorado and o+ber
beet sugar states can make as stro,o .
case as have the cane sugar men Of the
South. There is no material difference
between the tactics of the American
sugar refining Co. in Louisiana and the
1reat Western Sugar Company in Colo
RADIO.
Both are tentacles of the same ,cto-
pus, and the activities of both are a;-
rected from the same Office in Wan St