Evening star., 1923-05-23
GREAT CARE URGED
/ IN SUGAR BUYING
Hoarding and Boycotting Are
Both Condemned-Canning
!. Industry Alarmed.
BY J. c. ROYLE.
Special Dispa tch to the Star.


NEW YORK, May 2S.-"Buy
pound of sugar when you need It."
That is the advice which preservers,
Gamers, soft drink manufacturers
and confectioners are spreading
broadcast to the housewives of the
nation. The boyeotting of sugar and
the boarding of sugar would be
equally disastrous to the general
business welfare. according to promi-
nent men identified with the indus
tries mentioned.
A sugar boycott, preservers stated
today, eventually would spread SO
as to involve not only sugar itself,
but the food products in which sugar
is a necessary ingredient Such
tendency already is noticeable in
the south where sales of sweet
goods" as the trade calls them, have
fallen off despite the general pros
tperlty or the region. Should that
tendency become general it would
anect lnquscrfes in which hundreds
anu Score of thousands of workers
engaged and would bring loss to
rr0it growers and higher prices to
ultimate consumers.
Vital Bearing on Canning.
"Irregularity in the sugar market
cannot help but affect the fruit
growers anu the ultimate consumer"
Daniel r Forbes. counsel for the
National Preservers' Association, said
today. Most of the fruit grown in
this country is sold to the packers.
The fresh fruit sold TO consumers
represents but small part of the
crop. With sugar fluctuating, packers
DrHSPrEarS "a n
are cutting down their production.
They are not storing fruit In sugar.
BY mixing with a certain amount of
sugar fruit may be kept in open
storage without deterioration and
THIS is the cheapest form Of storage.
Instead, packers are putting fruit
received from farmers in cold stor-
age, which is the most expensive form
OF fruit preservation, for in cold stor-
age fruit anu berries are likely. to
blanch and mold and the loss in
berries is frequently as high as 20
per cent
This means loss to the farmer who
produces the fruit, to the packer who is
cutting down his output and faces the
necessity OF raising prices. on jellies and
jams, to the jobber and to the consumer
VINO has to pay higher price.
Firm Prices Needed.
The preservers and jam manufac-
turers will not gamble on the future
piicS OI sugar which must comprise In
some instances as much as 65 per cent
or their products, for they have discov-
cred that there is a limit to the prices
Tor the finished product above which the
public will not buy. Confectioners and
soft drink manufacturers will not gam
bic on the stability of sugar quotations,
for they must sell their products far in
advance and at a firm price.
The surest way to stabilize sugar
prices is for each of the housewives of
a nf
when she needs it-not to buy Ave
pounds or refrain from buying at ali.
Many fruit growers have no other out
let for their crops than the packers. II
the packers will not buy in normal VOL
ume, the growers are bound to lose"
John E Edgerton, president Of the
National Manufacturers Association,
asserted that the boycott was a meas
ure which contained extreme elements
Of danger and that the association he
represented was opposed to IL.
There was feeling in evidence
among the heavy consumers. of sugar
the present high price of sugar is due
was in Cuba rather than in the United
States.
Seek to Get Back Losses.
Some of the larger American inter
estS concerned with the Cuban crop II
is known, lost heavily in sugar dealings
in 1921 and 1921 Some preservers be-
.-S'S h4Aos' ~ Oil CihOi W iC6dlIl tllCSS.
losses. strong American interests have
financed the sugar planters of Cuba SO
that the latter have not had to sell at
sne market, but could hold their sugar
and feed it out to this and other "coun-
tries in such quantities that the high
price would not be broken.
The tariff, preServers declared, could
have had but little effect. as the duty on
Cuban sugar was only little over seven
tenths of cent pound, whereas the
price has advanced several times that
amount