The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-09-29
Sugar Shortage Bought and Paid For.

Is it not about time to sell to the
people of the United States what sugar
they need All through the strenuous
days of the war, patriotic Americans
willing denied themselves sugar, that
the boys in the service and the starving
allies might be supplied. An armistiee
went into effect Nov. II, 1918 and con-
ditions applying to the supply Of sugar
to the refineries of the United States
soon approached normal In fact, large
share of the time since the armistice,
the refineries have been handling an
amount Of sugar in excess Of that han.
died before the war. Notwithstanding
this, there has been, for months. an
acute sugar shortage in many parts OF
the country An equalization board, it
is said apportions the amount Of sugar
going from these rehneries and there is
a price limit fixed A certain percentage
OF the sugar output goes to the candy
makers and the manufacturers OF soft
drinks. Another percentage, a large one,
is exported. What is left goes into the
retail trade, and the amount allowed
to the retail trade is so small that gro
GERS are besieged by housewives in a
daily campaign to procure, in small lots,
moiety Of sugar with which to supply
the table. Canning and preserving in
the homes, such as are carried on in the
homes to an extent aggregating many
millions of dollars in value annually,
have been made impossible, or curtailed
greatly, because of lack Of sugar. Large
quantities OF fruits and berries, which
might have been canned, have spoiled
More will spoil if sugar for the can
ming Is not available soon Refneries
the while have been exporting large
quantities of sugar. The charge Is made
that they prefer 10 export rather than
TO sell at the price fixed In the United
States because they can get a higher
price abroad. But there is another fac
| tor.
: Refners who buy raw sugar in Cuba
| pay thereon duty varying according to
different polariscope tests from n of a
cent to 1856 cents pound import duty.
They are entitled, after having refined
this sugar, if the export it, to receive
drawback not exceeding 90 per cent
of the import duty. In practice this
works out about one cent pound In
other words, the advantage to the rehner
between selling to the domestic trade at
1886 per hundredweight and selling the
same sugar coming originally from Cuba
| for export at $3.50 per hundredweight
is ST, or the exact amount of the draw
back. An embargo on sugar until such
time as the domestic demand IS well
supplied, might be an effective proven
tive of sugar shortage in the United
| States. It is not sense to allow fruits
to spoil for lack of preserving sugar,
thus causing the loss of large quantities
of food for Americans, for the simple
reason that there is more money in ex.
porting sugar than there is in selling
it in the home market.
In addition, for every one hundred
pounds of sugar imported into the Unit
ed States, refined here and exported. the
revenue to the government is decreased
by 81 refunded Thus the government
actually pays the exporting refiner 81
per hundredweight for all such sugar
Originally imported refined and ex-
ported. In fact, the government may be
said to cause the sugar shortage and
TO pay the refners for maintaining it.
An embargo on sugar until the domestic
demand is supplied would do two things.
II would stop the sugar shortage at
home 1t would increase the govern
ment tariff revenue by millions of dol
lars.-Boston Transcript.