New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1915-02-13
NEW IBERIA, La, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1915.

for several weeks past have Ueet
extremely scarce, the market be-
ing held down only by the fears
of the sugar letiners of ptttlng
the mar ket up on themselves. KS
a verification of this the loss at
sea Of the Washingtonian with
nearly 10000 tons Of raw sugar,
valued at about a million dollars,
is reported III the public press dis
patches according to Claus A.
Spreckels, president of the Fed
eral Sugar Refining Co., as being
matter of extraordinary moment
to the sugar market at the pres
ent time when the Cuban crop is
already short about 100000 ton,
as compared with last year, with
limited shipping facilities from
Cuba to the United States and
with the island S production held
up, to use his words, which means
that the planters are holdinl
their own sugars and are unwil-
hing to accept the unnaturally low
prices the sugar combine is of
fering. Mr.. Spreckels says
further. that as a matter Of fact
the worlds supply of sugar is
abnormally low and they can ii
afford to lose a single ton. He
say, further, that there is not
sufficient shipping available to
handle over 10000 tons of sugar
a week and that the country will
soon want from $4,000 to 10000
tons a week, apart from what will
be required by the English and
French. We knew the first Claus
Spreckels very well and never
knew him to lie. His career from
the time he came from Germany
and opened his grocery store in
Charleston, South Carolina, until
Ae built up his great fortune in
n Francisco, CalifOl mia, was
e in which he displayed rare
ility and sterling integrity in
transactions, but a contin-
us disposition to take all that
49, possible for him to get in
anv transaction with which he
was connected. The younger
Claus Spreckels, who has given
the opinions above cited, is ap
parently as honest as his good old
father. and has certainly imitat-
ed his father in many of his eff
forts to have his own way with
the American sugar market, al
though he has always been rath-
er 10th to combine with the other
interests involved in the Ameri.
can Sugar Refining Co. 1t was
rather pleasant to have him
acknowledge the merits of the 81
gar situation in America and to
prac tically admit that his efforts,
combined with the Arbuckles and
the Sugar Trust have failed to
wipe out the Louisiana planters,
as they had contemplated and
to carry off bodily the coming
sugar crop of Cuba at half cent
a pound less than it was worth,
considering the parity of values
throughout the sugar world.
Be these things as they may, OF
January 10 the sugar buyers got
the New York market down t.
2 1916 cost and freight and held
it there until January 21, when q
rally of 1-16 cost and freight and
held it there until January q,
when a rally Of 1-16 in prices oc-
Cured, based upon the fact of the
actual scarcity of Sugars, the
practical impossibility of getting
spot sugars in New York. These
of 3 cents cost and
freight were doubtless for sugars
some Of which were not yet made,
and hence furnished no sugars to
the expectant buyers of New
York and the consumers of the
country will be compelled to turn
to the sugar planters Of Louisiana
or to the beet sugar factories of
the mountain states, who will be