The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-01
PRESS ON SUGAR PRICES


 though 1t is officially stated that the cost of production has not risen and that the supply Is outstripping the demand. Secre- tary Hoover doesn't believe that any good influence is at work, and has casually re- marked that his agents for some time have been looking into the situation. The depart ment of justice is said to be making a probe. Even on his vacation President Harding has been unable to escape the sim ister significance of an extraordinary price increase in the face of an unusually abup- dant supply. Therefore he has ordered the tariff commission to study what relations there may be between the duty and the price on the commodity. The President, while expressing the opinion that the tariff has nothing to do with it, yet is sincere enough to declare that if it is found that the tariff is responsible he will order it reduced in accordance with his authority recently grant ed under the tariff act. There are many others, however, who assert that the tariff, both directly and indirectly, Is responsible in that it furnishes a cover for a wider manip- ulation of prices than would otherwise be feasible. Perhaps the gamblers who lost in the great sugar Shortage" or two years ago are trying to recover their losses. What ever may be the cause there IS no doubt that the American people are paying the bill.
 The Atlanta Journal laconically observes; Evidently, twelye-cent sugar is a bitter morsel in the mouth of statesmanship." The Journal really flatters the other party, how ever, when it calls it statesmanship. The same newspaper, after reviewing the various inquiries, concludes: "There is hope, then, that with three hands of Briarean govern ment all searching for the guilty cause of twelve-cent sugar, we soon may learn what's what, if not who's who, and have little more light with our sweetness" That the price is due to manipulation appears to be the belief of the New York Herald, which says: Secretary Hoover declares that economic conditions do not warrant the price of sugar. If that is true it is obvious that juggling is going on. We'll, the Sherman law is on the books and the department of justice has plenty of power. Attorney Gen. eral Daugherty might bring himself into fame by sending profiteer to jail" The Herald might have added that the attorney general has yet a pledge to that effect to redeem. Now would be as good time as any. As to the prediction of still higher price for sugar, the Detroit Free Press declares: There will be no twenty-cent sugar unless a criminal conspiracy makes the price; and the government has power to stop that sorr of thing"
 In the opinion of the Providence Journal, there Is no need for the public to be ap- prehensive, for, while 'the investigations demanded may or may not bring prices down, yet as long as the supply is more than sufficient for normal consumption there is no need for buying in large quantities on the speculators' terms" Unless there is government alertness, however, there may be another corner like that of two years ago in which the price may soar in spite of the surplus. On that earlier occasion of falsely contrived shortage sugar was stored under the very noses of federal officials and the people were rationed and forced to pay an exorbitant price. The only punishment the gamblers in sugar received was in the losses they sustained when the corner broke under the light of belated publicity. That can happen again. The Dallas News exon- crates the retail grocer from any connection with the price increase, as. implicitly, do practically all other journals The retail grocer's margin on sugar is small perhaps smaller than on any other commodity he handles. Undoubtedly he would prefer to see the price drop back to where it belongs.
 A side of the question discussed by num- Der of editors is the interpretation of re- port of the department of commerce which at first was taken to indicate an enormously increased use of sugar. Says the Chicago Daily News: "A statement by the federal department of commerce in regard to Cuba's sugar surplus this year has been miscon- strued or perhaps deliberately misrepresent- ed in some quarters, with results deprecated by sugar trade organs and leading refiners. That report was falsely said to indicate serious sugar shortage. The facts ap- pear to be that the present sugar crop Is tho largest ever known, that despite increasing consumption the carry-over at the end of the year will amount to nearfy half million tons, and that there is no warrant for the excessive prlce now demanded or for the increase in price that Is said to be threat ened. Gambling on the New York sugar exchange or anywhere else should not be permitted to raise the price of so impor- that an article of food as sugur. It seems reasonably clear that powerful influences are trying to make excessive profits out of that commodity. The government is in duty bound to de what 1t can do iegitimateIy and wisely to block the game" Perhaps that is what Is the matter with the administra- ton in the premises-it is in duty bound,
 The Nashville Banner gives its readers some practical advice on the problem of cem- batting fictitious price increases; 'The pub lie has simple and effieacsous remedy,