Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-03-02

has been made one Of the wealth
lest and certainly one of the most
prosperous spots on-the face OF the
earth during the last four years.
Tobacco, prohibition and fruit have
contributed something to this
prosperity, but the main cause OF
It IL the tremendous rise In the
price Of sugar.
That acute shortage in sugar
which has Inconvenience almost
every individual in the United
States and Europe has poured
wealth into Cuba at an almost in
credible rate. The world catastro-
phe of war has been to Cuba not
only a blessing, but 3 veritable
salvation. Just before the war
broke out, the Cubans were fnan-
cially fat on their backs. Raw
sugar was bringing about two and
a half or three cents a pound. It
scarcely paid to grind it. A finan-
cial crisis threatened. Then came
war and the steady upward trend
of sugar prices.
The sugar crops Of 1918 and
1888 were practically COM
Wandered by the United States
Sugar board. theoretically the
Cubans were free to sell their
sugar to whomever they pleased,
but the United States government
let it be known that it would re-
gard it as q friendly act if the
Cuban sugar was all consigned to
the United States. The ACCESSIBILITY
Of performing this act of friendship
was emphasized 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
crop was taken by force to this
country, but the Cubans did not
object or complain because they
got from $3.50 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
market, a good many of the large
Cuban producers thought it would
be good idea to sell it to the Unit
ed States board again. In this they
were not motivated by friendship
for US or by fear of shortage OF
ships, but by the fact that they
thought if they could get $3.50 a
hundred for the crop from the
sugar. board, they would be doing
very we'll. Several of the big pro-
ducers, 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 diff
fered with these. and preferred to
hold out for higher price in an
open market, but itf 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 purchase for reasons which
have been explained in previous
Haskin letter. 1t doubted its au-
thority to do so and put the matter
up to the president and to con-
gress; but neither did anything. and
our sugar was lost. The crop is
now more than half sold, and is
bringing as high as IL cents a
pound. If we went into the mar
ket now we could not get much
Cuban sugar, even at that price
The failure Of the sugar board Z
buy that sugar at six and a hall
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 ant
other products that require sugal
were the ones who boosted thu
price first. The sugar refiners il
this country bought very little a
that time because they believed tina
six and half was top-notcf
price and that it would come down
They made a bad guess. The man
ufactufers, on the other hand. dir
no guessing at all. They had tt
have sugar at any price in order t
stay in business, and they bough
all they could get, with the result
that prices steadily mounted unit
today they are at level that woul'
have staggered the Cuban imagina
ton five years ago.
The present crop is estimated a
about four and a half million ton