The Washington times., 1924-09-09
COOLIDGE
FACING
TASK
Problem of Fixing Duties His
Hardest-AII Other Sched-
ules Completed
By WILLIAM HARD

Dy WALA1Am I1AhD
The Department of Agriculture
says that sugar provides about
Is per cent of all the energy OBJ
tanned from food by the people Of
the United States.
This writer ventures to add
that sugar probably provides
much more than Is per cert OF
all the tariff politics of the
United States and much more
than IS per cent of all the tariff
troubles of President Coolidge.
President Coolidge has recently
spent weeks on the sugar tariff
rate, bordering what to do about
Il. Other tariff rates he solved
quite promptly. The sugar tariff
rate threw him into a long deep
study
Divided Report Sent.
The Tariff Commission sent him
q divided report on it. Back of
that division lay whole world of
statistical quarreling, of political
struggling, of commercial rivalries,
OF International competitions, of
private tragedy, of public comedy.
Senator Reed Smoot of Utah,
Weather-beaten cold Guardster,"
rising in the Senate and vehemently
denouncing Wall Street!
That is what sugar brings men
to.
It is violent political intoxicant.
These articles will describe the
lntoxication and the morning
after.
Fascinates Statesmen.
The start is with the fact that
sugar has a fatal fascination for
statesmen as a source of revenue
for governments. All over the
world statesmen, as soon as they
see bag of sugar, tax it.
Free-trade Britain within recent
years has taxed sugar coming into
its ports at rate equivalent to
about five cents pound. Our rate
on sugar from Cuba-whence we
get virtually all of our foreign
sugar-is less than two cents a
pound Frce-trade Great Britain
has outdone protectionist America
I'm taxing sugar at the customs
house.
Our very first tariff bill-under
George Wasi1ington-in 1789-in our
first year under the Constitution
laid a tariff duty on sugar. We
fuptedly ever since.
1t contributes heavily toward sup.
porting the Government.
Sugar in the year 1922 yielded us
approximately one-third Of all of
II yielded us approximately $780,
100000.
Pause BY Coolidge.
Imagine Calvin Coolidge asked to
give up perhaps one-quarter of that
revenue with the knowledge that
the loss thus sustained might have
TO be made up in the end by an
internal direct tax on peoples in
come in Vermont and elsewhere.
It would give even an ordinarily
thrifty president much pause. 1t
has given Calvin Coolidge enor-
nous pause.
Moreover, the issue is not
simply one between "robber
tariff on the one hand and a
"plundered public" on the other.
The actual contestants in this
battle are as follows:
In the first place there are lot
It Americans who own sugar lands
in Cuba and they want to send
their Cuban sugar into this coun-
try at a. lower rate. They resent
hi ANNkN 1ra|y
sympathize deeply with the ''plun-
States. They spend a lot of time
trying to rescue our "plundered
public" and trying to get more
In the next place there are a
lot Of Americans who are inter-
ested in sugar refineries on the
Atlantic Coast.
These gentlemen make their liv-
ing by importing Cuban sugar and
by refining 1t in this country.
They also sympathize deeply with
the "plundered public" and wish
to import their Cuban sugar at a
lower rate.
On the Other Side.
It was these gentlemen who petit
uoned the IarlTf Commission to
lower the duty on sugar. 1t is
they who have borne the burden
and heat OF thu day in providing
the Tariff Commission with argu-
ments for lowering the duty and
for rescuing the public.
If the public did not have some
people working for it to help them
selves, there would be much less
done for the public in Washington.
Meanwhile. on the other side, from
the Cuban landowners and the At
lantic coast refiners, there are the
following elements:
Gentlemen who own beet.suEar
lands or beet-sugar refineries in
Michigan, Colorado, Utah, and other
States within this country.
Gentlemen who own cane.sugar
lands or cane-sugar refineries in
Louisiana and who are Democrats
but who are protectionists now just
the same.
Gentlemen who with great fore
sight are owners of sugar proper.
ties in Porto Rico, in Hawaii, and
in the Philippine Islands. These