The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1920-09-24
Cost of Sugar is
Subject of Study
Investigation Of Tariff Commission
Shows That Price Until This Year
Hardly Kept Pace With Added Ex-
pense of Production.

The United States tariff commission
has just completed a study of costs
OF production in the sugar industry.
This latest contribution to the series
of reports dealing with sugar which
the commission has issued relates to
the costs and profits of sugar rein
ing n price of refined sugar down
to 1918. AS the report Toes not cover
the recen period of high prices for
raw sugars it has little bearing upon
the present cost of refining, but il
shows the rapid and practically con-
inuous rise of such costs from 1914
to 1919.
Keeps Pace with Price
The most striking feature of the re-
port is its showing that the total cost
of producing refined sugar in 1919 was
more han double its cost in 1914 and
that he rise in the price of sugar has
Just about kept step with the advance
in costs. Considerable variation in the
earnings and profits of %refineries, how
ever, are shown from year to year.
Fronts and returns on productive in
vestment are shown to have been
highest in 1917 of any year during the
period since 1914. Averaging by re-
hneries they were 10.6 INT per 100
pounds in 1914, 40 cents in 1917, 10
cents in 1918, and 31.6 cents in 1919
Reckoning by average poundage the
variations in returns on productive
investment were 8.64 per cent in 1914,
% per cent in 1917, 1892 per cen in
1918. and 1857 per cent in 1919.
Costs Show Variation
The report explains that the cost
data collected by the Tariff Commits
sion. although not complete, are suff-
ciently comprehensive and typical to
justify conclusions. The total cost
per pound of refined sugar produced
in the factories investigated ranged
from GIL cents to S.375 cents. Of
the specific items of cost that of raw
sugar represents about 80 per cent A
small relative differenc in the cost
of raws may, therefore, make consid-
cradle absolute difference as COM
pared with Ger costs or refining.
AS raws fiffer in sucrose content,
skill in -. aiming for those of high
siYaose content is an important means
or reducing the cost of refining. Direct
labor costs vary from .076 to 1888 of
a cent per pound, but wages enter in
directly into most of the other costs
fuel, supplies, marketing, etc. Other
items of expense are cost of contain
ers, fuel, bone-char, advertising, main
tenance ad repairs, and depreciation.
An interesting feature of the report is
a table showing the rapid rise in var
ious items of cost from 1914 through
the first six months of 1919.
Changes in tariffs, under competi-
tive conditions such as exist at pres
ent, are held by the Commission to
have little effect upon the price of
sugar. The bearing of monopolistic
combinations on profits and prices, the
effects of tariffs under such conditions
and the influence of various attempts
at combination are discussed at con
siderable length. 1t is pointed out that
control through monopoly has never
been maintained for any considerable
period of time.
Comments on General Situation
In connection with the general SUI
gar situation the report points out that
he world is still more than 1000, 900
tons short of its pre-war production.
This falling off is due to the decreased
production of beet sugar in Europe
during and since the war. The de-
cline in the output of beet sugar has
been only partially offset by the in
crease in the production of cane sugar
taken place in Cuba.
The report also cally attention to
cline in he worlds production, he con-
he fact that, Notwithstanding the de-
cline in the worlds production, the
consumption of sugar in the United
States was larger in 1919 than dur
ing and previous year, being 87.6
pounds per capita, which the comis-
sions figures as an increase of IL
pounds per capita over the preceding