Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 August 1884 — Two Cents Tax on Every Pound of Sugar. [ARTICLE]

Two Cents Tax on Every Pound of Sugar.

“Subscriber" writes to the Herald to inquire “what the tariff on sugar amount to per pound, and how much the people of the United States are taxed on this article each year for protection. During 1883 the United States imported from the Hawaiian Islands free of duty 114,000,000 pounds of sugar and the Louisiana planters produced about 200,000,000 pounds. To meet the demand of the people it became necessary to import in exact figures that year 1,927,685,706 pounds, and on this duty was paid to the extent of $44,517,851, or about 2J cents per pound. As the consumption of this sugar was thirty-seven and two-thirds pounds per capita the tax on every man, woman, and child in America for the sugar used in their food was 82 1-5 cents. In order to demonstrate the iniquity of this tax the Herald will state that it is levied for the purpose of protecting a few planters in Louisiana who are carrying on under Government bounty some very interesting experiments in the growth of sugar cane. There are a few more experiments in two or three other Southern States, but Louisiana contains almost all of them. These estimable gentlemen produced last year a little less than 200,006,000 pounds of sugar, not one-tenth of the amount consumed in the country. In order to enable them to continue their fancy gardening and employ a few thousand men and women who, on the same land, might as well raise some other crop better adapted to the soil, the United States Government taxed every living human being in this broad domain 82 cents, the sum amounting in the aggregate to $44,517,851. This money was not needed by the Government, for .it lies now in the Treasury vaults, stimulating extravagance and encouraging thievery. If our correspondent should take it into his head that he ought to raise tea in Cook County he would have just as much right to ask the Government to tax the people a dollar apiece to pay for his experiments as the handful of Louisiana cane planters have. The tariff iniquity is not the outgrowth of any spontaneous demand for such a system. It is the product of log-rolling, by which the lobbyists and Congressional representatives of one interest help every other interest to the public purse. Iron stands by sugar, lumber by salt, and so on. It will be difficult to overthrow one without overthrowing all. The tax on sugar for purposes of protection is one which reaches everybody, and may be easily explained and understood. It cannot be denounced in terms too vigorous or sweeping, for it is absolutely without justification. Briefly put, the consumption of refined sugar in this country in 1883 was 2,300,000,000 pounds. Of this amount 100,000,000 pounds from the Hawaiian Islands and 200,000,000 pounds from Louisiana were untaxed, while 2,000,000,000 pounds imported from Cuba and elsewhere were taxed at the custom houses 2J cents per pound. As the Louisiana and Hawaiian product was sold at the same price as the taxed imported article, it will be seen that Government assisted these two interests to about $8,000,000 of the people’s money, besides putting $44,000,000 more in the public treasury.— Chicago Herald.