The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-12
On the
World Front
Sugar and Rubber
Taxes in 30 Days
Colonial Unemployment
BY HARRY CANNES

QUGAR and rubber have
~ again come into the lime
light of imperialist politics.
Last Thursday, President
Roosevelt signed the COST
gan-Jones sugar production
bill, making Of the Hoover
Chadbourne plan for the control Of
Cuban sugar, a second-rate piker.
The Ccetio2 tones bill fs q. mas
terly piece Of imperialist knavery
It provides for the absolute control
and reduction of sugar production
in Cuba the Philipoine Islands,
Hawaii, Porto Rico. the Virgin Is
lands and the United States.
Every worker in the United States.
as we'll as the majority Of the farm
ers. will be forced to pay increased
prices for sugar in order to insure
huge profits to the big sugar trusts.
the rich landowners, and the Wall
Street bankers.
Seldom has a president ever taken
such an out-and-out drastic step
in the interest of the Wall Street
colonial Shareholders at the i'm
mediate expense Of both the colonial
masses and the American workers
short of actual war.
Here is how the matter works. In
30 days after the signing of the
bill. sugar becomes a basic asTi-
cultural commodity" under the
Agricultural Adjustments Act. All
sugar consumed in the United
States is to have processing tax
slapped on it, which forthwith raises
the price. Then all imports are to
be regulated and strictly allotted
among the various yankee colonies.
The tariff on Cuban sugar will be
lowered slightly.
Through the processing tax
alone, the Roosevelt government
will wiring out of the American
workers yearly sum of S63.0e0,-
900. OF this $20,OO0,00O will go
to the rich American sugar plant
ers in this country to pay them
for the forced reduction of sugar
acreage. But that Is only half OF
the price story. With reduced
sugar acreage, and strictly al
lotted quotas on imported sugars,
the increase in price will net the
sugar manufacturers additional
hundreds of millions of dollars.
So much for Roosevelt's latest
present to Sweeten the life Of the
forgotten man.
How does the other class fare. the
big sugar trusts, the huge land
owners, and the American bankers
with their hundreds of millions of
dollars investments in these yankee
colonies that grow sugar?
The total sugar consumption for
the United States for 1884 is esti-
mated at 6,452,000 tons.
On this basis, Roosevelt has the
power to designate a cabinet COM
nittee to set quotas at his discretion
for Cuba. Hawaii Porto Rico, the
Philippines and the Virgin Islands.
These quotas will be set to suit
the needs of the American sugar
producers in these countries ct the
expense of the small landlords,
agricultural laborers and sugar
workers.
In Cuba, where U. S. imperialism
controls over 80 per cent Of the
sugar centralS. and huge slices Of
the cane lands. it means that the
quotas will fall into the hands Of
the American exploiters who will be
guaranteed profitable market at
high prices ON the limited sugar
output For the small sugar cane
planter, for the Cuban colonos. It
means ruin and starvation. For
the sugar mill workers it means
permanent and unalleviated unem-
ployment.
For example. Cuba. capable Of
producing over 100000 tons OF
sugar year, is allotted on the pre-
liminary estimates, a4Jund 1,944,000
tons. With the MONOPOLY market
created by the bill, this provides
huge profits at lowered production
for the American bankers controlling
Cuban sugar. For the Cuban peas
ants, it means half their land must
lie idle; it means that half of the
sugar workers are permanently and
totally unemployed.
THE same situation occurs in Ha-
wall, Porto Rico and the Virgin
Islands.
In the Philippines the situation
is little more complicated. and
fraught with still more disaster for
the masses. The Filipino people
have a double dose of Roosevelt's
New Deal showed on them at the
same time. Just before the pas
sage Of the Jones' Costigan sugar
bill, the Tydings -McDuffie so-called
INDEPENDENCE Act was adopted by
; the Filipino legislature. This "inde-
pendence" act provides that in 10
years the Philippines be given the
semi-colonial status of Cuba, plus
the retention of American financial
and military control over the Is
lands Up to now Philippine sugar
has come into the United States
unrestricted and duty free Under
the new sugar act, the amount Is
strictly limited to 1,550,oOo tons 9
year, and at the end of 10 years
a duty will be imposed on Phil
ippine sugar.
American control over Philippine
sugar is not as absolute as it Is in
Cuba. The immediate effect of the
Roosevelt sugar measure will be to
!. intensity the agrarian crisis in the
islands.
The quota is sufficient to satisfy
: the needs of the big American pro-
ducers, who are compensated for
!. the reduction by the increased price