Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-10

enactment OF the income TAX law nave
changed. Taxation by the Government
on corporate and individual incomes
have almost eliminated the revenue
features of levying duties at the custom
house. Sugar is one of the few agrl-
cultural products in the United States
upon which a duty is effective-that
is. upon which duty increases the
price paid by the American consumer.
1t has always been and will ever be
necessary to import the greater part of
our sugar into the United States from
foreign lands. Except those that are
imported from our insular possessions,
such as Porto Rico, Hawaii and the
Philippines. more than 80 per cent of
the sugar imported into the United
States comes from the Island Of Cuba.
None will contend that sugar Is not
a necessity Of life. It is used by every
one-the rich and the poor, the capt.
talist and the laborer. the old and the
young. 1t enters into every delicacy
from soft drinks to candy. from pastry
to coffee. The value of the many things
which it necessarily enters amounts to
billions of dollars annually, and the
price to you and the American public
Of these innumerable drinks and deli
cacies in which sugar enters is influ-
enced by the price at which sugar is
sold.
Huge u. 3. Consumption.
Last year We consumed in the United
States 1919 billion dollars worth of
sugar. Twenty years ago our consump-
ton was about 60 per cent of that
amount. More sugar per capita is con-
sumed by the people of the United
States than by those of any other
country and our increase in consump-
ton OF sugar has been phenomenal.
Indeed, the quantity of sugar consumed
in the United States has been increased
proportionately much greater than has
been our increase in population.
With this background of the many
and necessary uses of sugar and its
large and increasing consumption, let
us see what the tariff on sugar has and
will cost the American people.
In 1928, the last year for which COM
plete figures are available, the tariff on
sugar cost the American consumers
more than S219,000,000. Under the
present tariff act, to the end of 1928,
it had cost them more than ST. AGO.
600, 900. During the last 20 years it
has cost them in round figures, nearly
8 billions of dollars, and of that
enormous tax, only about 500 mil
lion dollars went to the producers of
sugar in continental United States:
and of that 500 million, a large
tors and very small per cent to those
engaged in the actual production of
sugar cane or sugar beets. And during
that time the producers of sugar in
the insular possessions Of the United
States, namely. the Philippines, Hawaii
and Porto Rico. realized approximately
700 millions Of dollars as a result of
the tariff.
With all these additional costs piled
upon the American people because of
these sugar rates, what has been the re-
suit? Last year 2,344 100000 pounds
were produced in Continental United
States. This did not approach our con-
sumption; it was only about one-f1fth.
In 1909 we produced 1881 900, 900
pounds, which was little more than one
fourth of our consumptive needs. In
other words, while the consumption of
sugar has increased slightly over 70 per
cent, since 1909, production in Con-
tinental United States has increased less
than 40 per cent. Thus the proportion
of consumption supplied by the domes-
tic production has actually declined.
The result, then, of 20 years protec-
ton for sugar and of six years of the
highest protection ever granted, is a
relatively small increase in our domestic
production, an increase which in no
sense has kept pace with the increase in
consumption. There is no industry In
America that has received higher SUBJ
sides, more favored treatment and
greater assistance from the Government
than has the sugar industry. And GER
tainly none has responded so weakly in
development and real progress. 1t is
today, after depressing the home with
heavy burdens for more than two CEN
turtles, still an overgrown infant petted
and pampered and crying for more
favors.
Necessary to Import.
No one who has studied the subject
can possibly seriously argue that Cont
mental United States will ever be able
to supply anywhere near all Of its con-
sumption of sugar. Expert after ex-
pert. interested in the large sugar en-
terprises of the United States, in testi-
flying before the ways and means COM
mittee of the House and the finance
committee of the Senate, have stated
that the United States can never pro-
duce sufficient sugar to take care of the
consumptive needs Of the country. In
deed one of the strongest arguments
presented for the annexation of Hawaii.
the acquisition of Porto Rico and the
Philippines and our benevolent interest
in Cuba was the benefits that would
necessarily accrue to us in having ready
gency, whether in war or in peace, an
adequate supply of sugar.
In the face of the situation, despite
the failure of the present rates of duty
to stimulate production of sugar in Con-
tinental United States, we are now
asked for a further increased duty on
sugar. The American consumers are
asked to dig down in their pockets and
put up more money to aid this long
Subsidized industry
In 1923 the cost of the duty to the
American consumer was about IL cents
pound for every pound Of sugar pro-
duced in Continental United States.
For the last 20 years the cost of duty
to the American consumer was nearly Z
cents and during the life Of the present
tariff law nearly 10 cents for every
pound of sugar produced in Continental
United States.
A resume of the rates Of sugar under
the past few tariff acts will afford a
| background for consideration of the
| proposed increases. In 1909, when the
| Payne Aldrich law was enacted under
Republican leadership. the duty against
Cuban sugar was placed at 1.35 cents
per pound In 1922, under the same
] party leadership, that duty was in
creased to ITO cents per pound In
| the tariff bill now pending the rate on
Cuban sugar was placed by the House
at 2.40 cents a pound. The Senate
| finance committee, under the chairman
! ship OF Senator Smoot, has recon-
mended an increase TO 2.2O cents per
pound.
i A IL.