Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1923-01-12
What The GoVernment Could Do
With sos, 100000 Tariff Gives
ITO Sugar Trust.

Republican leaders in Congress always
woke the DOGGY Of paternalism when it
suggested that the Government ought to
)propriate funds for the construction Of
ads, the assistance of agriculture. or the
nding Of money to farmers. Every such
roposition has to run the gauntlet Of Re-
nblican opposition. and either fails or
)mes through the test badly crippled.
he record of the present Republican Con-
ress furnishes ample verifcation of this
tatement.
While Withholding support from high
rays and agriculture and bankrupt farm
RS. these same Republican leaders work
and vote to tax the whole country for the
benefit Of special interests which demand
protection" through Republican tariff.
The Sugar Trust. which lately has dis
tributed big dividends after raising the
price OF its products one of the pets of
the Republican party How the Sugar
Trust profits by the Fordney -McCumber
tariff law is made plain in an article writ
ten by Carlton A. Shively and published
in the New York Evening Post Of Deem
Der 80.
After reviewing the sugar market up to
the passage of the Fordney- McCumber bill,
Mr. Shvely says:
when the new rate went into effect
conditions in the sugar market had changed
radically If not exactly sellers market,
il was, at any rate. a market in which
there was a fair balance between buyer
and seller This meant that the additional
IS cents per 100 pounds (due to the in
crease in the tariff on sugar to l.76 cents
a pound for Cuban raws) was added to
the price Of refined sugar and paid by the
American consumer.
AT present Cuban sugars are selling in
this market before payment OF the duty at
3.75 cents a pound and duty free sugar
is quoted at $50 cents Thus on an esti-
mated consumption of 100000 tons the
public is paying the sum of $l97, 100000
more leach year, than 1t would be called
upon to pay but for the tariff. Of this the
Treasury gets SOS. 100000 on the basis
of 100000 tons of Cuban sugar con-
sumed in this country
The remainder of the $l97 100000 goes
to the producers and refiners of sugar in
this country and the insular possessions. |
Their product pays no tariff but they get |
the advantage of the higher prices due to |
the duty placed on Cuban sugar. Very |
little of this increase in price finds its
way into the pockets Of the sugar beet |
growers in the United States. They are
suffering from the agricultural panic along
with other farmers
The annual tax Of sos, 100000 i'm
posed on the American people for the en-
richment Of the Sugar Trust would 60 a
long way toward improving the condition
of agriculture and benefitine the whole
country if it were applied to public instead
Of private and selfish purposes.
With the total of $98.500,000 which
the Fordney- McCumber profiteers' tariff act
gives as an annual tribute to the Sugar
Barons there could be built each year
nearly 5000 miles of highways Of the
best type.
Ninety-eight millions invested each year
in reclamation and irrigation would make
many thousands of acres Of land in the
West and Southwest productive and capa-
BILE Of sustaining a large population.
The same amount Of money would pro-
vide fund almost twice as large as that
now available from which to make farm
loans to farmers and stock raisers in the
West and South.
Ninety-eight millions is more than the
Aggregate cost Of maintaining the State.
Commerce. Labor. Justice and Executive
Departments Of the Federal Government.
The expenditures of these several depart
ments are about $79.000.000 year.
Meantime the taxpayers are footing all
these bills and in addition are compelled
by the profiteers' tariff law to increase
their cost of living by some $4,000,0Q0,-
900 year.
MosN0o,uary C0nofy Sets naV For