Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1920-03-05
SUGAR-By Frederic j. Haskin

TvABANA, CUBA, Feb. 21.-Cuban has
been made one of the wealthiest and
certainly one of the most prosperous
Spots on the face of the earth during the last
IouT years Tobacco, prohibition and fruit
nave contributed something to this prosperitv
out the main cause of it is the tremendous
rise in the price of sugar
mat acute shortage in sugar which has in
convenlenced almost every Individual in the
onlted states and Europe has poured wealth
into Cuba at an almost incredible rate The
! world catastrophe of war has been to Cuba
not only blessing, but veritable salvation
JUST before the war broke out, the Cubans
were financially fiat on their backs Raw
sugar was bringing about two and a half or
| three cents a pound. 1t scarcely paid to grind
1t. financial crisis threatened. Then came
war and the steady upward trend of sugar
prices.
The sugar crops of 1917-1S and 1888
were practically Communicated by the United
States sugar board. Theoretically the Cubans
were free to sell their sugar to whomever thew
pleased, but the United States government let
it be known that it would regard it as a
friendly act if the Cuban sugar was all con-
signed to the United States. The advisabilitv
of performing this act of friendship was en-
phasized by the fact that the United States
controlled the shipping, and that a Cuban
who wanted to sell his sugar somewhere else
would have had a hard time getting ships
In effect the Cuban sugar crop was taken by
force to this country, but the Cubans did not
object or complain because they got from
$500 to $3.50 a hundred pounds for their
sugar, and that seemed at the time to be a
very good price.
When the next crop-that is, the one now
being ground-came into the market, good
many of theh large Cuban producers thought
it would be a good idea to sell it to the United
States Sugar Board again. In this they were
not Inotivated by friendship for us or by fear
of a shortage of ships, but by the fact that
they thought if they could get $3.50 hun
dred for the crop from the sugar board, they
would be doing very we'll. Several of the big
producers, owning about one-third of the
Cuban crop, got together and wrote a letter
to the sugar board offering to sell the crop
at that price. Other sugar producers differed
with these, and preferred to hold out for a
higher price in an open market, but if the
sugar board had accepted the OFFER it could
have secured at least half of the Cuban crop
in all probability, and it could thereby have
averted the sugar shortage and the high
prices from which we are now suffering.
The sugar board refused to make the pur-
chase for reasons which have been explained
in previous Haskin letter. 1t doubted its
authority to do so and put the matter up to
the president and to congress-; but neither did
anything, and our sugar was lost. The crop
is now more than half sold, and is bringing
as high as twelve cents a pound. If we went
into the market now we could not get much
Cuban sugar, even at that price. The failure
of the sugar board to buy that sugar at six
and half while it had the chance was blow
to every sugar bowl in the United States.
For very soon after the Cuban producers
made that offer, sugar prices began to soar.
American manufacturers of candy, cakes and
other products that require sugar, were the
ones who boosted the price first. The sugar
ref1ners in this country bought very little at
that time because they believed that six and
half was a top-notch price and that it would
come down. They made a bad guess The