Evening star., 1925-04-12
AMERICAN CAPITAL
IN SUGAR INDUSTRY
About 10000 U. S. Investors
Have Cuban interests, Of
fiCiaI Here Says.
BY HARDEN COLFAx.

Disclosure of the extent to which
American capital has been invested
in the Cuban sugar industry-presum-
ably of greater value TO the Tariff
Commission and the President in any
readjustment sought or contemplated
with respect to the sugar tariff
has just been made officially for the
first time by the Cuban embassy here.
The investment, according to Arturo
Padro, Cuban charge d'affaires, ex-
ceeds $1.OOO,OOO, 1000
I'm a very literal sense" the charge
asserts. Cuban sugar production is
an American enterprise. More than
60 per cent of the Cuban crop of
1924, or 2,452,3 304 tons of sugar,
came from American -owned mills"
10000 American Investors.
Efforts at tariff revision, ostensibly
emanating from Cuba, are thus dis
closed as being of prime interest TO
Americans, approximately 10000 in
number, largely resident in the United
State, whose dollars have been put
10 work in the Cuban industries
Senior Padro's statement of condi-
tions was made first as a part of a
Cuban night" program put on the
air by local broadcasting station.
The address was a. short one, sand
wtched between musical numbers. and
tention.
For the sugar year 1924, Amer
lea obtained" said the charge, "2,241,-
262 tons of it's sugar supplies from
IFS own Western sugar-bee fields and
the cane fields of Louisiana, Texas,
Hawaii, Porto Rico, the Virgin Is
lands and the Philippines. And Cuba
supplied 3,257,6o0 tons, in addition
TO furnishing 100000 tons of sugar
to other countries"
Gives Some Comparisons.
After pointing out that American
owned sugar properties in Cuba pro-
duced that year a. total of 2,452, ,304
tons, Senior Padro continued:
Those 2452.3O4 tons were 10000
tons more than the total sugar crop
produced under the American flag
in continental United States and it's
island possessions. In other words,
American capital in American mills
in Cuba produces 100000 tons more
sugar than is obtainable from the
beet sugar States and from the cane
plantations of Louisiana, Texas, Porto
Rico, the Virgin Island, Hawaii and
the Philippines, taken together"
This statement is of great interest
to American economists, as 1t dis
closes officially what many had sur
mised-that Americans dominate the
Cuban sugar industry and that
American capital invested in Cuba is
virtually adequate to supply suffi-
cient sugar to meet any shortage in
American supply not supplied by pro-
duCers operating under the American
flag.
Really an American Industry.
In other words, the Cuban sugar
industry, so far as American con-
sumers are concerned, is an Ameri-
can industry, although operating un-
der the Cuban flag.
This situation was simplifed by
Senior Padro:
Thus the United States depends
for her sugar supplies more extern
sively upon Cuba than upon her own
territory, and at the same time
American investments in the sugar
industry have become correspond
ingly large. With s1,000,0O0.000 in
vested in sugar mills in Cuba and
an additional $3.50, 0,000.0 600 in refiner
les along the Atlantic seaboard
almost wholly dependent upon Cuban
sugar, the continued prosperity of the
Cuban sugar plantations has ac-
quired vital economic Importance
to the United States"
Copyright. 1921