The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1922-08-25
WASHINGTON LETTER,
BY Wallace BassfOrd.
ial News Correspondent.

Washington. D. c., Aug. 21.-The
Senate. by its action on sugar, has
definitely raised Tie cost of all sugar
IL American consumers by about L. o
cents Der pound. Here are the !asic
facts about sugar; the United States
refineries receive and refine for do
meStic consumption about Az million
tons of raw sugar in a year. About
l million tons Of this are produced in
the United States proper; about
million other tons come to us from
cur island holdings-Hawaii Porto
Rico and the Phillipin. The other 2l@
millions come from Cuba. 1t is alleg-
ed that Senator SmOot, representing
both the beet sugar people and. the
Republican majority in the Senate;
proposed to the Cuban sugar growers
that the import tariff on their raw
sugar would be held down to cents
if thew would agree to limit sugar
shipments to the United States to 2l2
millions of tons per annum. The Ell
feet would he to give this country
just barely enough for its needs, thus
enabling the sugar rehners to get
better price for their product and to
more closely control the prices. In
other words sugar would never be
plentiful. and in the course Of few
years. or at any time there should
happen to be short crop here at
home. our supply would not he suffiI
cient for our needs. swing to the
steadily increasing population. The 2
cent tariff means that the consuming
public will pay one hundred millions
per year into the Treasury as tax on
the sugar coming in from Cuba; that
is not so bad, in a way, as il helps pay
the enormous bills of the government.
but this tax puts up wall of pro-
lection for the benefit of the sugar
growers here at home, in Hawaii,
Porto Rico and the PHILIPPINES, en-
abling them to charge two cents more
per pound for their raw sugar. This
takes eighty millions additional from
the pockets of the Sugar-userS and
places it in the pockets of the sugar
growers. This is typical of the Re-
publican position on the tariff; it is
20 assess the general public to en-
rich special favored interests, which
in turn can be counted upon to pay
Il portion of their artificial gains into
the Republican campaign chest in or
der to enable this party of the few to
continue to exploit the many. 1t is the
same old practice of the despotic
lings who sold privileges to friends
at court All Republican tariff bills re-
yolve around the manufacturing
groups of the big industrial centers.
ba nnrnnrr1tin yrinNV nj tho tariff -
that it should produce revenue to run
the government. economically admin
istered while laying the lightest pos
sihle burden on the consumer. OF
course anv tariff is bound to carry
with it some incidental protection to
the American manufacture.
An unrestrained whoOp OF victory is
heard from the vicinity OF the White
House over the fact that Carmi
Thompson, supposed TO represent
those feeble wabblings grouped as
the Harding policies won the NOM
ination for Governor of Chic over the
opposition. divided among the candi-
dacies of eight men. 1t is we'll that
the whOUp came before the facts and
figures. which show that Thompson,
carrying the load of Harding poll
cies" plus Harding unpopularity, in
spite OF his own personal follOwings,
which is large, pOlled only about
forty per cent of the vote cast in the
primaries. Ii forty per cent satisfies
Harding and makes the clan happy,
then take it and welcome, is the atti-
tude of the Democrats; another such
victory and the Republican party is in
the boneyard. But the cold truth is
that Thompson won through by the
fact that he is personally the most
popular Republican in Ohio and was
gotten into the race for Governor in .
the hone that he could pull or Doc
Fess through for Senator and save
the face of the Harding administra-
ton at the same time by keeping the
State in the Republican column this
fall. 1t is remindful of an irreverent
epitaph from tombstone up in New
England Which runs like this:
Here lies the body of Mary Ann,
Safe in the bosom of Abraham:
It's mighty nice for Mary Ann,
But pretty tough on Abraham.
And so it seems tough on Abraham
Thompson to have to bear the politi-
cal sins Of Mary Ann Fess, all the lit
tie Fesses now on the House pay
roll, and the unpopular Harding pol
icies" from now until snowfall. In
cidentallv, it comes to Washington
from some of the best sources in
Ohio that the Fess family will fail to
transfer from the House payroll to
that of the Senate due largely to the
fact that Tess can't hold his own par
ty vote.
One choping block of the high-tar-
if Republican Senators is Germany;
they picture the danger to the home
market from the manufactured goods
of the Vaterland. If they accomplish
their desires Germany will remain
for generations financially helpless
and deht-ridden. Even now they sell
to us fraction of what We sell them,
but if they sell us nothing, how can
they continue to buy? In 1921 we sold
them $4OO, 900 eco of goods and bought