Evening star., 1929-06-25
SUGAR CHIEF ITEM
FOR TARIFF FIGHT
Seen as Keystone of Senate's
Controversy on New
Schedules.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

On the scheduled list of hearings by
the Senate finance committee this week
is one Of the most controversial items
in the tariff, namely. sugar. The here
tofore existing rate in sugar Is 2.20
cents a pound against the world and
lT6 cents against Cuba. The new bill
as written in the House raises these
figures to cents and 2,40 cents. re-
spectively.
Sugar is in q sense the keystone OF
the present tariff revision. It Is said
whether accurately or not. that in the
negotiations and compromises preced-
ing the enactment OF the bill by the
House the group of Representatives de-
string duty on sugar were the most
successful in getting what they wanted.
In another and more important sense
sugar will be the keystone of the tariff
fight In the Senate The lineup of
that fight is mainly between farm
spokesmen and Senator's representing
manufacturing communities. Sugar
ranks as q farm commodity. 1t Is true
that sugar is listed in the tariff as
agricultural products" Nevertheless,
in the popular sense, beet sugar is
thought of as a farm commodity. AS
such it is the hole in the armor of the
farm Senators from South and West
who are advocating lower rates on
manufactured goods.
Sees Disadvantage.
II the Senators who speak for farm
: ers stand by the high rates fixed by
the House bill on sugar, they will be Sc
riously handicapped in fighting against
rates on manufactures which are rela-
lively no higher or not as high as those
on sugar. They will be at a disad-
vantage In the Senate and before the
country. When Senator Borah of Idaho
and Senator King of Utah began their
almost successful fight to restrict the
present tariff revision to farm commod-
ities only, the instant response of the
Senators from manufacturing States
was to bring up the question of the
tarih on sugar. Senator Reed of Penn
sylvania. with instant reSourcefulness
and effective command of the arts of
augmentation. hurled the word sugar
at the farm Senators with the force of
damaging epithet.
The farm Senators will be at a SINH
lar disadvantage before the public In
the widespread newspaper disapproyal
of the new tariff, the raise in the rate
on sugar is the one most often picked
out for vivid condemnation What to
do about sugar has therefore become,
an important question OF strategy on
the part of those Western farm Sena-
tors who are leading the assault on the
tariff as whole. Their dilemma IS
whether to stand by the raised rate ON
sugar, or TO oppose 1t. The farm Re-
publican Senators who oppose this group
come from Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota,
NEBRASKA, North and South Dakota,
Kansas and Idaho. Not all these States
are growers OF beet sugar to any inn
portant degree.
Idaho Sugar State.
Senator Borah's State, Idaho, as it
happens. is considerable producer OF
beet sugar Senator Borah. however
has long shown that his all-round i,,.
dependence can include independence
OF his own States special interests If
their demands do not seem to him rea-
sonable. In the tariff revision known as
the PaSne-A Aldrich bill, Borah. then new
IN the Senate. voted against proposed
increase in the tariff on sugar If Sena-
tor Borah regards the raise on Sugar in
the present bill as excessive, or If he
sees it as an unjustified impediment to
reasonable revision of the tariff as Q
whole, 1t need surprise no one to SEE
him decline TO support the proposed
raise. BY so doing he would be in a
stronger position to attack the rates on
AadAuIdcIuIeS. by the same act, he
would make the rates on agriculture
generally defensible, for sugar is about
the only farm item as to which there is
widespread disapproyal
AS 70 the Democrats, practically every
one Of them Is free to oppose the IN
cease on sugar If they see fit. Only one
OF the Southern Democratic States.
Louisiana, raises sugar in any quantity.
The Democratic Senator's outside the
South come mainly from such States as
New York and Massachusetts, where the
interest of the consumer and not the
producer Is paramount
All in all 1t is quite possible for most of
the Western farm Republicans and prac-
ticaliy all the Democrats to throw sugar
overheard as an oyergrown intruder
among the farm items II they do SO.
1t will be sign of a really effective
light by them against the manufacture
ing items in the tariff Stated the other
way, If the Western farm Senator'S and
the Democrats embrace the proposed
raise on sugar, that win be a sign that
their fight against raises on manufac-
tured goods viii probably not be very
effective.