The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1916-03-31

financial angel woul have the least
chance to keep pace with it. !
"Right on the heels of the news of
the sugar vote in the house of repre-
sentatives this morning refined sugar on
the Pacific Coast jumped 10 cents a
hundredweight. This makes the whole;
sale price here $40, and three. more
jumps like today s will Lreak the Prev
ious high record of $3.50 per hundred!
weight, established in 1911. - =
How To Explain It
Students Of tire sugar market mourn.
fully admit that there is no economic,
reason for its skyrockct adventures.
The only explanation is speculation. !
There is an enormous crop Of sugar
In Cuba, whore the production last
mOnth-597, 227 tOns-wAs more than.
twice as great as the highest yield for
any previous month in history.
The cane crops in Porto Rico Ha-'
wall, the West indies, the Philippines,
Java and other places are correspond
ingly large. 49,,
Honolulu On Spree
Hlu ne Is
land sugar planters, with their huge
output, are fairly rolling in wealth,
and the tidal wave of excess profits
that Is sweeping over the Hawaiian
archipelago finds its only parallel in,
the war earnings Of the Eastern muufi
tiOns manufactures.
But7-Mr. IASehage Citizen, who. is
east in the role Of consumer, doesi t
like it bit. He cant for the life
of him see why the law of supply and
demand'-to whichproducers and whole
salers and manufacturers usually refer
so reverently when there is a shortage
of any OmmOdity-shouId be so abso
lutely disregardei that prices are act
ing ikea balloon in the face of su,
Perabundant> supply.
It's Not Healthy .. -"
Ranskorf, Lyon & Co. of New
York, in their News Bulletin of March
10, make the following significant com
ment: ~.
mot only will production, outside
of the continent of Europe, be much
larger this year than last, but Great
Britain and France are going to cut
down the consumption of sugar very
materially. France has forbidden the
importation of sugar, either raw or re
fined, and the British government has
decided to reduce imports 25 per, cent,
with the possibility that this reduction
will be made even more drastic. 1t
will not be very long before the ex-
port demand will fall to very small
proportions, and yet sugar prices in
this country are being forced higher
and higher. 1t does not look like a
healthy market.
The Price Fixed
Here in San Francisco, where Ha.
waiian and Philippine sugar is brought
by ocean steamers, the cost Of raw su
gar is just as high as it is in New
York, although there is no ,transeOntin
entail freight expense involved.
Refners admit that the local price
is arbitrary. They have no competi
ton here, 80 they can charge what
they please. ...'..
al In the East the Hawaiian sugar is
forced to compete with Cuban sugar,
so the prices are fixed there and en-
forced out hPr".
The Inside View g., r~~H
lone of the officers of n big refining
concern located at Crockett this morn
ing saif: a.
while 4 do not anticipate any break
this year in the price of sugar, the con
diti0n of the market is far from salts
factory from our standpoint
High prices cut into consumption
and slumpS in demand too frequently
cause slumps in prices at the very
moment when we are loaded up with
hiRh,priced raw sugar. 90,
"The growers hold the whip hand in
the sugar business in both Hawaii
and cuba. Two companies control a
third of the Cuban crop, ami at pres,
ent they are doing out sugar in very
small amounts, cOmparatiYely, to the
New York market. They are well
financed and in a position to regu-
late the supply in such manner as to
force refneries to buy at their prices. -