Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-12-09
Production AND Price OF SUGAR
ARE DEPENDANT Up ONPROTECTION

beet sugar nave been practically equal
competitors in the race In 1914,
the last crop year before the Euro
pean war, cane sugar production was
100000 short tons and beet sugar
a trifle under 100000.
The significant fact in connection
with this competition is that not a
pound of this vast quantity of beet
sugar was ever raised, at any time or
at any place, except under system
of protection. In the earliest stages
of the industry this protection was
supplemented by direct bounties,
legalized combinations and every
other form of so-called "hot-housing
that statesmen could devise. All this
was necessary before farmers could
be educated, capital invested, factor
les established and consumers con-
verified. 1t at any given time protec-
ton has been suspended or aban-
doned, tropical cane sugar, with its
lower cost of production, could have
entered the breach, undersold the un-
protected product, captured its mar
ket and put it out of business. In
spite of the greatly reduced cost OF
production which the European ma
tions gradually attained, this condi-
ton has probably existed to this date.
At any rate, no nation producing beet
sugar has ever cared to try the ex.
pertinent.
Steady Decline in Price
What has been the effect on the
consumer of the application OF the
protective theory on so vast scale!
To ask the question is to answer 1t.
Down, down, steadily down, has the
price of sugar fallen. The fluctua
tons due to droughts and war all but
vanish in the long perspective OF
hundred years. In the midst of the
greatest catastrophe of modern times
we marvel not at the Increase OF
price, but at the moderation OF the
advance.
Flour is now selling at higher
price per barrel than it sold during
the Civil War, but the Civil war
prices of sugar are only a memory
OF our grandfathers.
There has been, of course, ire
mendous development in the produc-
ton of cane sugar. The earliest avail
able statistics show little over
million tons produced in 1910. ms
has multiplied ten fold. But vita the
present population and demand, what
would the price of sugar be IL the
world which, before the European
war consumed q, 100000 tons OF sugar
q wear, were reIegated to a cane sup
nly of IL 600 600 tons? The lord
chamberlain of Scotland would reel
at home again when he paid MS ollis.
Facts Disprove Theory
Yet there has probably oeen no
country where at any particular tlme
there have not been wiseacTes 10 say
..Your tariff is adding to the cost Oh
the consumer Are you gong TO .aA
him indefinitely for the benetit OF a
domestic industry? Give UP TINS az
tempt to make sugar grow IN the tenn,
perate zone by dollhouse INGENIOUS anu
let the consumer enjoy the cheap
sugar which would flow in from the
tronics. where Nature intended IL 70
grow. The only answer to those
neoDle is to take away their micro
scopes for while and let. thell lo oh
through telescopes. The very paper
uuon which this article is printed. Il
advancing price permits it to De print
ed at all. is a monument to the snort
sightedness of a policy which enaeaF-
ored to save a few cents at the cost
of discouraging production.
In the case OF any article sold at "a
price based upon supply and demand
il is inevitable that protection Whlch
stimulates production will tend TO III
81 ease the supply and thereby 20
lower the basic price. How far this
wlll 90 IN any given case, and to what
extent the basic price will be ultimate
lv affected. are matters which cannot
be deducted from any amount OF 2
priori reasoning, but must be judged
by practical results. The case OF
sugar is a conspicuous example where
the application of protection has not
only created a vast industry, but has
brought the price Of what was for
merly a luxury within the reach OF
every consumer. ..... .@:.-. -. II