Evening star., 1927-10-23
CUBANS TO CHARGE
FARM AID TO i. S.
Island Governments "ReIief"
Plan Is Based on Increased
Sugar Price.
BY WILLIAM HARD.

Farm relief" Senators are fasci-
nated to observe that the Cuban govern
ment has thoroughly beaten the Amer.
lean Government to the adoption Of
drastic sort of McNary-Haugen farm
relief" measure and that in conse.
quence the chances now are that pres
emily everybody in the United States
will be paying more for sugar.
The Cuban McNary- -Haugen is a
gentleman named Tarafa. He is all
out for the sugar farmers of Cuba.
He has secured the passage by the
Cuban Congress of a law for taking
care Of the tremendous surplus" of
sugar which the Cuban farmers pro-
duce. Under this law the President
of Cuba will put the United States
on what might be called a sugar
ration" That is, he will decide that
we can have from Cuba just so many
tons of sugar-and no more. He thus
will reduce the amount of sugar in the
United States, and he thus will make
the price Of sugar in the United States
to the American consumer go up.
Cut in Exports Seen.
We last year imported from Cuba
some 3,S00,000 tons of sugar. 1t is
thought that the President of Cuba,
Senior Machado, will cut us down at
least 100000 tons below that figure. 1t
is thought that the total amount Of
sugar that Senior Machado will let us
have next year will not be more than
3,5O0,000 tons. That difference is
enough to make all the difference be-
tween the present price and mount
ing price.
Every sugar producer in Cuba will
be given a ticket showing how much
of his product he can export to the
United States. He will be given an
other ticket which will identify all the
rest of his sugar and which will mark
it for use in Cuba itself or for export
to Europe-or to anywhere else ex.
cept to the United States.
Thus all Cuban export sugar will be
divided into two parts. There will be.
first. a restricted part which can be
sent in search of high prices to the
American market; and there will be,
second, an unrestricted part which
can be dumped" at any obtainable
price in other parts of the world.
This dumping" has already begun.
In order to accomplish it the Cuban
government, under the new Tarafa
farm relief" law, is organizing a
Sugar Export Corporation" Every
sugar producer in Cuba must join
this corporation. He must provide his
quota Of sugar for the sales which
the corporation may make. If the
corporation encounters any losses, he
must thus bear his part of the burden
of them. This is the equivalent of the
equalization fee" which the McNary-
Haugen bill would levy upon Ameri-
can agricultural producers to cover
losses incurred in the marketing of
"surpluses" of American basic farm
products at worldlevel prices abroad.
dumping" i'm Europe.
The Cubans today are dumping
their sugar in Europe at prices even
actually below the world level. While
planning to put the New York raw
sugar price higher than it is, they al
ready have put the London, England,
raw-sugar price lower than it was.
They have sold, under their new
law, and order of their government, a
gigantic block of 100000 tons of sugar
to the English sugar-refining firm
of Tate & Lyle, at price which is
at least a quarter OF cent pound
under the regular London world price.
A loss of a quarter of a cent a pound
means-on 100000 tons-a loss of
S75O.OOO.
That is the immediate sacrifice
which the Cuban government has
been willing to make in order to clear
out the Cuban warehouses and in
order to diminish the quantity of
sugar in Cuba which might be tempt
ed to flow toward this country.
The justification is that the Cuban
sugar producers-both those who
grow the cane and those who grind
the cane-have been on the whole in
a most unsatisfactory financial situ-
alton. There is little doubt on that
point. The Cuban sugar producers
have been demanding an equality
with the happier and more fortunate
producers of the world. They have
been demanding that their govern
ment do something" to remedy the
results of their unorganized competi-
(COntin1ed on Page s. Column a.