The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-07-02

i lLlIO 4OCAA WdTE-
 houses, supplies would be replen-
 ished as long as the transportation
 system held out and the sugar camc
 in, and the net effect would be to
 to maintain an ver-wartime-n nor
 mai sugar bin.
 About this time a few practical
 sugar brokers, the business man type that is always throwing cold water on beautiful plans, pointed
 out that whereas raw, brown sugar
 is easy to store indefinitely, refined
 sugar is hard to store except in ex- ceedingly dry or air-conditioned warehouses. Let three or four damp days come along in the ordinary ! warehouse, and all this refined sugar in bags will tend to lump or cake. If it gets wet, it's syrup. Either way it's defective, has to be sold of the top price, bags have to be rolled to break Jumps, or the sugar has to be rebagged. Rehandl- ing represents extra cost, and with prices frozen, who takes the losses? SUGGEST SUBSIDY
 The best answer thought up for this one, so far, is to grant sub- 1 sidy to the people who store sugar. Under this plan. the government would pay up to around 50 or 60 ;cents per 100 pounds for sugar dam aged in storage. The complications are rather obvious. Inspection, de- termination of varying losses de- pendent on storage conditions, set clement of claims, would entail a good bit of administering.
 Sugar industry men have an- other suggestion which the goy- ernment men, who throw cold wa- ter on the beautiful plans of busi- ness men, don't seem inclined to give in on. Sugar people suggest storing this stockpile in smaller quantities and at lower levels.
 Under normal sugar business con- ditions, raw sugar Is stored at the refineries. AS white sugar orders come in, this raw is refined and shipped out to meet the demand. Under favorable price conditions, wholesalers, bakers, confectioners hotels, grocery stores and even a few consumers buy ahead and put in reserve stock. But under the wartime rationing system, this pri- vate stockpiling is drowned on. In fact, the government has stepped 1 nto seize some of these privately held supplies, such as the 45,00O tons supposed to have been taken away from Pepsi Cola, while house. wives who had more than their share in hoards had the family ra- tion cut down.
 Sugar dealers are screaming about this no end. Their contention is that the proper place to stockpile white sugar is in private bins and pantries. If the stuff goes lumpy in the family sugar bowl, pop can mash 1t before measuring out the spoonful for his coffee, mom can reduce 1t to grains before sprinkling it on juniors mush.
 CAN'T CAN ENOUGH
 Furthermore, canning season is in full sway, and the sugar men point to the terrific loss suffered by the strawberry growers this year because people didn't have enough sugar to put up the usual amount of straw berry jam. The sugar people there fore say larger allowances should be made to all consumers now-to cover approximately longer periods of time, perhaps-but anyhow, to re- duce stocks piling up at the refiner- ies.
 The other side of this argument is that to reduce the government controlled sugar reserve now would be mistake. It's only enough for three or four months. Some ship ping is getting through now. but sup posing that has to be withdrawn U where's your sugar coming from? And the sugar industry's proposal is looked on as plot to increase sales and force the government to con- voy sugar shipments if necessary.
 Maybe so.