The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1938-04-01
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1888


For a long time the sugar in
dustry has been sort of a political
football, so to speak. Cuba, to-
gether with the Philippines and
Hawaii, all tropical countries, pro-
duce a world of sugar and in these
areas American capital is heavily
invested.
BY nature of the sugar cane
coupled with the exploitation of
cheap tropical labor, sugar can be
produced much more cheaply in
these countries than 1t can be
produced from sugar beets in this
country.
For this reason a tariff was
placed on sugar and the industry
was encouraged and fostered in
various ways until we now produce
about one-third of the sugar con-
sumed in the Continental United
States.
Some few years ago, when The
New Deal took over the reins of
our government and commenced
to sprout little wings and assumed
the halo of divine right, a dis
couraging attitude was taken to-
wards the sugar beet industry. The
tariff was reduced on sugar as a
first step, making it necessary, if
the industry was to be preserved,
for it to agree to certain rules and
regulations whereby growers were
TO receive a subsidy or grant de-
rived from a so-called processing
tax. At this point Divine Fighter
Wallace spoke out-Mr. Wallace
is the secretary of Agriculture and
we assume that he expressed the
views of the MISUNDERSTANDING
said to the world loudly and clear
ly, that the sugar beet industry
was inefficient and should be and
probably was, on its way out; that
the Pee-pul shouldn't be expected
to pay a tax in order to substitute
the sugar industry when it could
be produced much more cheaply
in Cuba.
Well, this processing tax plan
went along for a couple of years,
until one day the Supreme court
took matters in hand and decided
that the AAA was all Phooey and
the beet sugar industry, which was
ridin' in the back seat of the AAA
band wagon when it hit this ST.
preme court snag, went sailin' off
into space, landin' in the red sea
of loss and confusion. The next
year, 1886, beet growers delivered
their beets at a loss.
In the meantime, however, much
pressure was brought to bear in
Washington by the National Beet
Growers associations and others
much more than the divine Fright
ers had anticipated and the re-
suit was the present sugar bill,
passed by congress as its last act
before adjourning in the spring
of 1896, without, however, making
any appropriation from which to
pay accruing benefits to the grow
ers. The president signed the bill
only after much wailing and
crashing of teeth. The govern
ment has collected the tax on u
gar since the signing of the bill
and is just now making prepara-
tions to make payments to the
growers on the 1897 beet crop.
The present sugar bill, which
is effective until 1910, provides for
a quota on sugar. It designates the
amount Of sugar which can be
produced and sold in the United
States, also it sets the amount of
sugar which can be imported from
Cuba, the Philippines, Hawaii and
other sources, the regulation of
which is entirely under the SUI
preme control of Secretary of Ag-
riculture Wallace. He can, at will,
regulate the price of sugar in the
United States, as he sees fit. HE
CAN MAKE OR BREAK THE
SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY IN THE
UNITED STATES. He also has the