Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1937-06-10
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| natural result was that our own
workers were thrown out of jobs
and the refining industry was rum
ming at barely two-thirds of it's
capacity.
To show by figures what has hap
pened: Imports of sugar, ready for
table use came from Cuba to the
amount of about one thousand tons
in 1925. In 1888, more than five
hundred thousand tons of refined
sugar was imported. 1t has grown
some since and for every ton inn
ported, naturally the refining plants
of this country have had their vol
ume reduced.
The President wants legislation
that is fair to all interests but it
seems that some
Far to All of those interests
Interests are DESTROYS of us
ing cheap foreign
labor in preference to American
labor and they are fighting the Pres
ident's bill. 1t is too early to fore
cast what is going to happen but
there is every evidence that Ameri-
can owned sugar companies in some
of these foreign areas are doing
their utmost to kill the legislation
which would substantially reduce
the importations of this refined
sugar.
Now there is a question of foreign
policy that is involved and that part
of the situation in congress con-
Germs the State department. The
home industry, of course, concerns
the Department of Agriculture but
there is the Department of the In
terror also to be considered because
of the insular territories over which
it has supervision. On the surface,
it is made to appear that the Sec
retaries of these three executive
departments are at loggerheads
over what shall be done and as far
as I can see none of the three is
paying much attention to protection
of the refining people who have
been caught between the upper and
neither millstones. My conversations
with members of the house COM
mittee who have studied the prob
lem backward and forward con-
vinces me that congress had better
for once do it's own reasoning and
pay less attention to the three cab
met members, each of whom is
seeking to push forward the in
terests of his own department.
The whole situation can be
summed up in one statement; if
congress wants to preserve the sug-
ar refining industry in this country
Gan industry that is more than two
hundred years old) it can do so by
providing a low limitation on the
amount of refined sugar that can
be imported and it can protect the
cane and beet growers of the United
States by establishing a quota of
imports of both raw and refined
sugar small enough to permit the
home market to absorb the COM
plete output of the American cane
and beet growers.
I reach that conclusion because I
am an American who believes in
a self-suficiency of American in
dustry as far as it is possible to 60.
I take the position further because
no other leading country in h
world fails to protect its home in
dustry in the handling of sugar.
Nearly everyone has realized late
ly that prices r climbing at an
alarming rate.
Frices This has gone ON
Climbing owe a period of
about two years
and there is nothing on the horizon
to indicate that the top has been
reached or that prices are becom-
ing stabilized. You and I feel it,
of course, directly in what we pay
for the things we buy-shoes or
clothing, food, furniture, and es-
sentials for the household.
The situation is a bit disturbing
for several easons. For one thing,
if prices continue to skyrocket, SOON
err or later we are going to be con-
fronted with another condition like
that of 1929 and no one can doubt
that if prices get too high, a tail
spin will follow. If there is another
ldllSplll LINZ IlloI u 4OAO, l dlll L dI0
that this nation as such is likely to
go to pieces.
Numerous factors are at work to
cause the price increases. New
Deal policies were formulated, first
of all, with the idea of raising prices
to bring us out of the depression.
President Roosevelt commended it
had to be that way.
His program to force prices high
er has been eminently successful.
In fact, it has been too successful
and in that lies one of the grave
dangers. Effective means of control
are lacking and there is every pos
sibility that the upward movement
may reach the stage where it will
fall of it's own weight.
Another cause of the price in1a-
ton has been the labor movement.
Throughout the nation, organized la
Dor has been demanding higher
and higher wages. 1 think there
can be no doubt but that labor is