Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-11-04
Refiners' Prices on Imported Sugar
Forced to Low Level Of the Year
by Competition Of the New
Domestic Crop.
(From Facts about Sugar)

/
from Ohio to Michigan to the Pacific
coast. The eastern factories did not be-
gin the seasons operation Of extracting
sugar from the beets until October 1.
The output of these factories is just
coming upon the market. In California.
however. the beet sugar factories began
operating in August. A few of them
opened as early as July.
During the latter part Of August the
product OF these California sugar fac
tories began to be offered in Atlantic
coast cities. Although freight charges
for the transcontinental trip are heavy,
the California sugar producers proceed
ed to undersell the imported sugar hand
led by the big seaboard sugar reflners
by twenty to thirty points-that is,
twenty to thirty cents a hundred pounds
in such cities as Boston. Philadelphia
and Baltimore. where beet sugar. except
for occasional insignificant Shipments
has been almost unknown heretofore In
Chicago and other interior cities the gap
between the price of imported sugar and
that asked for the homegrown product
was even greater than on the Atlantic
coast, amounting to thirty-five and forty
cents n hundred pounds.
COMPETITION LOWERS PRICES.
The effect of this widespread and ag-
gressive competition was immediate.
Throughout the summer. from the be-
ginning Of May to the end of July, when
there was practically no American-grown
sugar upon the market. the big re-
flners of imported sugar had held the
price steadily at six cents a pound With
the Customary two per cent. discount
which is allowed for cash purchases,
this made the lowest cash price Of gran
a pound. With the appearance Of Cali
fornia sugar in the eastern market the
refners' price at the end of August had
declined to 5.39 cents a pound. approx.
mately half cent lower than 1t had
been throughout the summer. During the
following months. as more and moro
homegrown sugar came upon the mar
ket, the price of the imported sugar Of
the refiners fell still further. AT the
end OF September the net cash quotation
was 4.So2 cents a pound, more than a
cent a pound less than it had been dur
ing the summer months, when the refin-
ers and their foregn-grown sugar were
In undsputed control of the market.
AS sugar grown from American soil
invaded one big eastern city after an
other the same process went on in each
wholesale and retail prices declined from
haif cent to cent pound. Grocers
who had been selling fifteen to sixteen
pounds of sugar for d ,llar began to put
out advertisements offering eighteen and
twenty pounds for a dollar. The effect
was so sudden and so marked that
newspapers which ordinarily pay little
attention to the price of sugar print
ed articles calling attention to the serv-
ice that was being rendered to consum-
ers of domestic sugar.
That the repeated cuts in prices made
by the big refiners We're due to the COM
petition Of American-grown sugar is &C.
knoWledgcl II trade circles. Willett &
Gray's Sugar Trade Journal, in its issue
OF september so, said:
IF the cane refined 1t to hold its usual
markets at this season, its quotation
must continue to decrease until the do
nestle beet sellers find it expedlent to
withdraw from the extreme eastern mar
kets, as has been their custom In former
years, and will likely be necessary in
the present season unless an unusual
amount of orders for refined comes in
from Europe to relieve the cane refiners
surplus production"
MEANS $3.50, 900 A DAY SAVING.
AS the American people buy an aver
age OF nearly 100000 pounds of sugar
a day. the direct cash saving of consum-
ers through the reduction in prices that
nj .i,
mestic sugar came upon the market
amounts to approximately quarter Of
million dollars day. During the past
SIX weeks the sum total of this direct
saving realized by the purchasers of SUI
gar throughout the country amounted to
over 100000
'" nile the consumer can see and Judge
most easily the saving to his pocket that
comes from the sharp decline in the price
OF forelgn-grown sugar which takes place
as soon as the native-grown sugar comes
upon the market. this by no means
measures the full benefit that he derives
from the existence of the sugar produce
Ing Industry of the United States. The
fact that approximately 100000 TONS
or sugar are grown in the United States
exercises certain influence in holding
down prices throughout the year. even
at seasons when sugar grown from Amer
lean soil Is not actually upon the market
American sugar producers assert that IL
the free sugar law Is allowed to remain
on the statute books and they are driven
out of business. the price OF sugar to the
consumer will be higher al all seasons
because the handful of men who domin-
ate the raining OF imDOrted euoor ,,,,,,
be In control Of the sugar market at all
times and will have no effective opposi-
tlon from any source,
This view Is supported by the best au-
thorties in the sugar industry. Testi-
flying as an expert before the Hardwick
congressional committee, w. p. Willett,
in response to an inquiry as to the effect
upon prices OF increasing domestic pro-
duction, said; THAT Is the whole point.
To get your prices down, increase your
domestic industry"
REDUCTION OCCURS EVERY YEAR.
The decrease I'm the price OF sugar to
the consumer takes place every year as
soon as sugar grown from American soil
and extracted in American factories
comes upon the market. In 1914, when
imported sugar had increased to rs cents
pound wholesale following the outbreak
Of the European war. the price declined
from that point to 8 cents during the
months OF September and October. In
1911 a similar decline occurred and on
this point Mr.. Wilett, the HarLwick
committees expert, testified:
There is no question whatever that
the coming on to the market in October