The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1916-01-22
A Friend of Sugar.

has more friends tnan any o'hc'
dutiable article of the revenue
bill: but for political reasons SUI
gar is as friendless as the Amerl'
can Dye Industry. both OF which
seem to be marked for destruction
by the administration at WASH
ington. But here is rift in the
clouds:
Retention of the duty on raw sugar
imported into the United States as
means of obtaining federal revenue is
advocated by the Chamber of Com
merce of the state of New York. A
recent report by special committee
of the chamber supports this measure
as follows:
"The income of the federal treasury
from the sugar schedule alone is the
largest single item of income from du-
ties imposed on merchandise entered
for consumption among the fourteen
schedules of the dutiable list. There
was collected, during the fiscal year
ending June sc, 1914, net total. less
drawbacks on exports or 500, SOL. LII
on sugar alone. The sugar schedule
contributed 81 per cent OF all duties.
amounting to 1888, 5ll. 564 collected
on merchandise entered for consump-
ton. The net average amount OF
duty collected from sugar during the
five years ending June 80, 1914. which
covers period undisturDed by the
European war, exceeded So2, 900, 600 a
year, after deducting an average
yearly drawback ofSl. 44S, 46l. Under
the disturbing conditions Of public
finance, it is highly advisable that
so prominent an item of income should
not be sacrificed by disseminating the
duty on sugar, as must inevitably he
the case if the law now on the statute
books becomes effective on the date
prescribed, of May 1, 1916. Your
committee, therefore, recommends that
the present duty on sugar be retained.
''This duty is easily collected. the
for this service being we'll
established by years of experience.
and the cost of collection is among
the lowest of any schedule of import
1t is not possible for
any other tax which would contribute
so large an amount, to take the place
of the import duty on sugar without
having more or less pronounced
effect upon business.
From the business standpoint, there
fore, the path Of wisdom seems to be
to retain this duty rather than to seek
revenue substitutes from other sources.
to the estimate OF the fiscal
as expressed in the Pres;-
dents message, a deficit of $ll2,000,
600 will have to be provided for, even
with the retention of the present sugar
duty by the end Of June, 1917: but if
the sugar duty and other smaller
sources of revenue are discontinued,
the deficit is estimated as amounting
to 1920, 100000 The means of pro-
viding for this shortage would be al
most cut in half by the retention of
the sugar duty.
"From the standpoint of incidence
OF the sugar duties, the burden in this
case falls ultimately upon the con-
sumner. But it is 50 widely distributed
ln the normal process of consumption,
that, more than perhaps any tax, it
Is borne by the individual in pro.
portion to the share which he con-
sumes. The average quantity of
sugar consumed by the population of
the United States for the past five fs-
cal years, ending June 30, 1914 was
81 1-3 pounds per capita, the duty on
same amounting to about SO cents per
capita per year and is hardly appreci-
able.
''In view of these considerations,
your committee recommends to the
chamber that President Wilson's pro-
pOsal for the continuance of the sugar
duty be approved: that copies of this
report be forwarded to the President,
10 the chairman of the ways and
means committee of the House of Re-
to the chairman Of the
finance committee of the Senate. to
The secretary of the treasury. and to
each member of Congress from the
state Of New York.
At cost of .S3c per capita, the
duty on sugar will yield Fl per
cent of the revenue needed to run
the Federal Government.