The New York herald., 1922-05-24
The Tariff in Your Coffee Cup.

The Tariff in Your Coffee Cup.
The tariff in your coffee and in
your tea, in every sweet thing used
on your table or anywhere, the tariff
in every household in the country
that is tariff which comes home to
every one Of you!
In half century the per capita
consumption of sugar in the United
States has risen from eighteen pounds
year to ninety pounds. This in
round numbers is an average OF 450
pounds year for every family In the
United States. But this vast bulk Of
approximately 10,000,000,000 pounds
of raw sugar required annually by the
American people Is not produced in
the United States. Not half of 1t is
produced in the United States, nor is
half of 1t produced in the United
States and it's colonies and dependen-
cies like Porto Rico, the Philippines
and the Hawaiian Islands.
BY far the bigger portion Of our
necessary sugar supply is imported.
Cuba alone has sent us in previous
years half a million tons more an
nually--not pounds, tons-than the
whole American production.
And this enormous sugar consump-
tion of approximately 450 pounds an
nually to every family in the United
States had been so generally and so
wisely regarded as a necessary OF
life among the American people that
even so radical protective tariff as
the Payne-Aldrich measure imposed
rate on full duty sugars of no more
than s1.6S hundred pounds. The
rate of the Underwood tariff was
S1.25. But the Fordney schedules
and the McCumber amendments
make the full duty permanently 2
cents pound, the emergency rate of
a year ago.
AS under the Reciprocity Treaty
of 1902 between the United States and
Cuba the latter country has the ben
eft of a reduction of 20 per cent.
from full duty on sugar delivered
in the United States, the rate on
sugar from Cuba, whence virtually
all our dutiable supply has come,
was S1.35 hundredweight under
the Payne-Aldrich tariff. 1t was 81
under the Underwood tariff enacted
nine years ago. 1t is hoisted up to
$1.60 under the Observation-Disclosures
tariff.
SO the Fordney-McCumbe tariff
makers raise the rate on virtually all
our foreign supply that is dutiable
nearly 20 per cent. above the high
Payne-Aldrich rate enacted August
s, 1909 Above the Underwood rate
enacted nine years ago the Fordney-
McCumber tariff makers perma-
nently boost the duty on Cuban sugar
go per cent!
How hard can a rate of two cents
a pound on full duty sugars and Of
1.6 cents on Cuban sugar hit the
pocket of the American people? 1t
depends on the amount of sugar
pressing for sale in our market and
on the purchasing power of the sugar
consumer But in any event 1t
means tens and tens OF millions of
dollars.
With a temporary oversupply or a
subnormal consumption owing to in.
dustrial and business depression
sugar, like any other commodity, will
be thrown on the market under en-
forced liquidation. whether at profit
or at loss to the producer But
when the oversupply is cleaned up or
the American demand springs back to
normal--in round numbers those
10, 900 100000 pounds of sugar year
the smaller domestic production
will always soar to the price of the
larger foreign importation.
The American sugar consumers not
only will pay, therefore, the s1.6o a
hundred pounds duty on the more
than 100000 tons of imported
sugar: they will pay 1t also, not as
duty but as added price, on the
1000, 900 tons OF American sugar.
The national treasury will get, say,
500. 100000 year out of the pockets
OF the American people as duty on
imported sugars. But the American
pockets will disgorge another S70,
000, 900 because of the Fordney.Mc
Cumber sugar tariff in the extra
price OF domestic sugar.
Just little matter, on the single
item OF sugar for your tea and coffee
and other sweets. of S160,000,000 a
year. That Is all the Fordney-Mc.
Cumber tariff makers want to do to
you with their sugar duties.