The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1917-10-13
How The Trust ReimburSes Itself

How The. Trust Reimburses Itself
The Senator from Utah is prone
to say, sugar yields $4,000, 900 an
nually to the Treasury. That is
not so. There is collected $4,000 900
duty, but the trust comes back and
draws out of the Treasury as We
see here $4,000, 900 drawback
from that amount. Then, to reim-
burse itself for the balance of the
$52, 0OO, 900 and after taking back
this $4,000, 000 it proceeds to col
the same law by which it collects
this. money out of the Treasury it
taxes every man, woman and child
in the country in order to make
good the drawback for every pound
of sugar which it imports. The
duty on sugar imposed by the Tar
if act is a nullity, SO far as the re-
finer is concerned, and will con-
tinue to be a nullity, yielding little
profit to the Treasury: enhancing
the value of sugar to the American
and giving nothing to
the foreign purchasers of the Amer
lean refined sugar who happen to
be our allies in this war, so long as |
the drawback remains upoa the
statute books.
Uyrrr~ has f1-{ /
use this provision of the law not
only for the purpose of absorbing |
the drawback, not only for the pur-
pose of making additional profit on
h value of the sugar apart from
the market price; use it not only
for the purpose of assessing every
man, woman and child in this
country who eats a pound Of sugar
but they use it for a legal weapon
for the purpose of beating down
the price of raw sugar which they
purchase in Louisiana; of beating
down the price of raw sugar which
they purchase from the Philippine
Islands, from Hawaii, and from
Porto Rico.
Ends, and the Middle, Too"
We have heard a good deal about :
people who play both ends against
the middle, but the Sugar Trust
plays both ends and the middle, {
too. They collect taxes from the {
American consumer, absorb it
from the foreign purchaser, and
they use that to beat down the s
Price q tae aelsstie saxsusssre:4s
That Is the profit the trust gets $
of the sugar-this concern that I
Ices not produce anything at all,
neither tolls nor spins, but
another mans production
and launders it at some Of the sea-
board cities. The refiners' profit
consists in the difference between
The price of raw sugar and the price
Of refined sugar, and the greater
he difference between the two the
the profit he derives.
l have shown that he a use
this drawback to collect out of the
people the amount of money which
Is to be paid in taxes into the Treas
ury as a Tariff duty, which lie
draws out of the Treasury when he
exports the refined ugar. If he
n2p If FOR tho fy,rfhn~
or beating down the price Of raw
sugar then the situation is ideal,
and he does all three of these
He has bought raw sugar
In Louisiana for the last twenty
years at from twenty to forty points
below n price of Cuban sugar,
though Louisiana sugar is adj
mfttedly a better sugar for his
purposes than the Cuban sugar.
He has used it outrageously to de-
press prices in that State, is doing
now, and through the medium
OF a drawback has gotten himself
in a suit with planters in
and only recently paid
in damages for a settle
ment amicably Of the suit. He has
a contract with the people Of
Hawaii by which he buys their sug-
ar at ten points below the Cuuan
price. He buys the Porto Rican
crop, and he buys the Philippine
sugar that comes here at a differ
of ten to twenty points below
the price which he pays for foreign
sugar, and he does it all by virtue
Of the fact that he holds this lever
age in the drawback.
Poured into Washington
Let me point out that when this
proposition was first brought to the
attention of the Finance Committee
the refiner did not expect that the
Committee would take the
view that the committee finally
look, but just as soon as 1t became
noised through the press that the
was looking with some
upon the proposition which