The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1918-01-25
SUGAR CONTROL
SAVED MILLIONS
American Consumer Profited by
$4,000, 000-French Stu
alton Helped.
HOME PRICE HELD AT 9 CENTS,
This Nations Sugar Supply Reduced
to Seventy Per Cent. Of Normal.
Java Stocks Unavailable.

Sugar control has saved the Amer
lean public $3.50 100000, Herbert HOov'
er, United States food administrators
declared the other day.
He pointed out that sugar was sell
ing for IL cents a pound last August
and that 1t would have advanced to &c
cents a pound, with the world short
age as a stimulus, had not the food
administration secured the co-opera-
ton of the refiners and wholesalers
and fixed sugar price that today en-
ables housewives to buy sugar at from
81 to 8 cents pound.
"Every 1 cent raise In sugar from
September / to January 1 means $751;
100000 to the American consumer,
Mr.. Hoover said. Numbers Of gen.
tlemen will tell you that 20 cent sugar
would have prevailed and the public
robbed Of $1SO,OOO,000 this year If we
had not taken these actions" Later
Mr.. Hoover called attention to the fact
that uncontrolled sugar advanced to
35 cents a pound during the Civil War.
France Got our sugar.
Today the American public has been
allotted 20 per cent. of its normal sup
ply. Before the war the average an
nual household consumption here was
IS pounds a person. In England the
annual consumption during the war is
"a pounds, and in France each person
Is allotted little over one pound a
month.
I'm August the French government
found itself unable to maintain even
this ration" Mr.. Hoover declared.
IAN appeal was made to America.
France needed 100000 tons. We
agreed to fill this demand and up to
December had shipped 85,426 tons. In
the meantime an appeal was made to
the American public to reduce its sug-
ar consumption, and requests were
made to distributors to supply the
confectionery and sweet drinks trade
with 80 per cent of normal supply.
This has been generally followed, al
though such regulations were vOlun-
tary, as the food administration had
no authority to impose them"
Domestic Price Is 8La to 9 Cents.
Retail grocers throughout the coun-
try are supposed to take a profit Of no
more than so cents hundred-half a
cent pound-on sugar. BY reason Of
food administration regulations, bind
ing refiners and wholesalers, the re-
taller Is able today to buy sugar at
from to S1a cents pound. This
enables him to sell to the housewife at
i8k to 8 cents pound.
There have been some violations of
the sugar rulings. Mr. Hoover said
recently: "Sales Of sugar from 16 to
20 cents per pound have been reported
and followed up vigorously and stop
ped and Is evidence itself of the prices
at which consumers would have been
mulct had we not interviewed. We have
forfeited wholesalers licenses in ag-
gravated cases, and we have issued
warnings to first offenders In q great
ministrators."
Effect on Military Situation.
ed to normal very soon If ships could
be sent to Java, where 100000 tons of
sugar Is waiting for shipment. But
the shipping situation is so acute that
the nation cannot spare the eleven
ships needed to transport this sugar.
It would take the boats one year to
haul 250,O00 tons. In the same time
they could be used for transporting
100000 soldiers to France.
The food administration believes
that the American public will diminish
It's sugar consumption by 10 or 10 per
cent. when 1t is made clear that such
sugar saving is patriotic act and
when 1t Is understood that there are
plenty of sweeteners available to take
the place of sugar, such as honey or
corn syrup.
Why Shortage Exists.
The three great sugar producing cen
tiers of the world are Germany, the
West and East Indies. German sugar
Is, Of course, used-at home. The East
Indian sugar is unavailable because of
the ship shortage.
While u boats made big inroads on
the worlds shipping, France and Italy
ceased to be self sustaining I'm sugar
manufacture. England in the mean
time was cut off from German sugar
], 100000 tons a year-because Of the
war. The result has been that the al
lied nations have been forced to turn
to America and the West Indies for
their sugar.