The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1914-10-31
MADE IN AMERICA /" SUGAR.

! vast POSSIBILITIES in Application o.
I New Movement to One OF Our
I Largest Items of Import-Pro
\ duce Food Supplies at Home.
i The MADE in America move
! ment, to which impetus has been Civ
/ en- by the European war, Is being IA.
ken up in all parts of the coun-
try. The Department of Commerce
and other governmental agencies
i have interested themselves actively
IN the movement and have collected
: useful information as to the possible
/ ties Of producing at home a great
I variety of things for which this coun-
try heretofore has been dependent
/ upon Europe. Business organizations
and the newspapers are urging that
the United States should rely upon
its own people for the production of
everything that can be made at home,
While special attention has been
paid to those articles in which a
shortage has been felt most sharply
following the interference with ship
ping since the outbreak of the war,
it is pointed out that there is an
abundant and promising field for the
application of the Made in Amer1-
ca" idea to the growth and manu-
facture Of foodstuffs. This becomes
especially important in view of the
great and growing balance of trade
against us in this particular field.
Although campaign orators still re-
fer to the United States as 'tthe
granary of the world" and speak of
this country as feeding the starv-
Ing hordes of Europe" the plain truth
revealed by the governments trade
statistics is that during the last fis-
cal year the American people spent
Tor imported foodstuffs $3.50, 900, 900,
while their exports of food supplies
amounted only to 1913 200, 900, leav-
| Ing a trade balance against us of ap-
proximately s150,O00, 900 in this one
branch of our trade
The principal items in the list Of
imports, with the amounts brought in
to the country during the year end
Ing June 80 last, are: Coffee. Sill
100000; sugar, $lo2, 0OO,O 600; fruits and
nuts, $53,0O0,000; oils, SAT, OOO, 900;
breadstuffs, $4,000, 900; meat. s23.-
000, 900; cocoa, s21, 0Oo, 900; fish, SIS
| 100000 tea, s16,0O0,00 dairy pro-
ducts, $4,000, 600; vegetables SIS
ooo,o00. Of corn $8,O0O,00O came
| through our customs houses: oats
also total s8,00o,O00; rice $500. 900;
macaroni 100000, and bananas 49,
000,00
The striking items in the list are
coffee and sugar. The former is not
successfully cultivated in United
states territory except to a small
extent in Hawaii, Porto Rico and the
philippines. Like many other items
IN the list, It is a commodity which
must be imported. Every dollars
worth of sugar ought, however. to
be grown IN United States territory,
ana II this were done, 1t would wipe
out over tWo-thirds of the present
sl50,000,0 900 balance against us in the .
trade in foodstuffs.
permanent low prices for sugar [
would be an added advantage Of the ,
nome production OF Americas sugar &
supply. The ease with which all the
sugar required by the American peo-
PIE could be grown from American !
SOIL has been pointed out many times ]
by the Department of Agriculture
which shows thai. less than 1000 600 !
acres planted to beets or cane would :
iais'3 this result. And yet we /
continue to import sugar and to use I
the products of over 100000 acres OF )
wheat land to pay our sugar bill to
foreign nations
The growing at home of the sugar !
now imported not only would bene-
lit the farmers whose lands would be :
employed for this purpose, but it l
would lead to the erection of over /
Two hundred sugar factories, each !
employing a large number of labor
ers and would increase the activities
OF a great number of related indus
tries. It Is probable that no other ,
single industry can be developed here
OF equal commercial value with the |
domestic sugar industry.
Why not sugar "Made in Amer
ica"? 5