Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1909 — THE SUGAR SHAM [ARTICLE]

THE SUGAR SHAM

How the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Favors the Sugar Trust THE CONSUMER SOLD AGAIN An Infinitesimal Reduction In the High Duty on Refined Sugar and How It Is More Than Made Up In Other Ways— The Great and Unscrupulous Trust Has Friends In Both the House and the Senate. That persistent protest by the people against tariff plunder will produce results was proved by what happened in the house of representatives on April 8 and 9, when certain amendments to the Payne tariff bill were voted on. Standard Oil has been pretty thoroughly exposed to the public In one way or another, and the countervailing duty on petroleum which Payne put in bis bill and which is in the Dingley law was known to be simply for the benefit of Standard Oil and put there by Standard Oil. The fight against it grew so strong that Cannon and Payne were forced into the open in defense of their special privilege for Standard Oil. Cannon even took the floor to try to save it. But he and Payne were decisively beaten, and oil goes to the free list.

The Trust Defrauds the Revenue. The way to put an end to all the plundering tariff jobs is to bring them and their defenders out into the open and fight them to a finish. The sugar trust Is no better than the oil trust, and there are plenty of others as bad as both combined. The sugar trust has enjoyed for many years at the hands of the government an enormously valuable privilege of taxing heavily all the consumers of its sugar. The government has given it “protection” at the rate of about 80 per cent of the in bond value of sugar. This has given the trust manj’ millions in unearned profits and made It very rich and powerful. Yet, only a few weeks ago, the sugar trust was convicted in the federal courts of having defrauded the United States customs out of about $2,250,00 in duties payable on raw sugars it has imported and used. The United States is now trying hard to collect this money, the trust fighting every step in the process.

The Trust Sells Sugar Cheaper Abroad. The sugar tariff is another great iniquity which it is remarkable the American people should have endured so long. The price of all the sugar consumed in the United States, whether foreign or domestic, is based on the in bond price of foreign sugars plus the duty and the cost of refining. The duty on refined sugar is in the Dingley tariff $1.95 per 100 pounds, practically 2 cents a pound, and if there were no duty on sugar granulated sugar would be sold to the consumer at 2 cents a pound less than the present price. This Is proved by the fact that the sugar trust exports refined sugar to foreign markets at 2 cents a pound less than its price In the domestic markets. An actual transaction of this kind came to light in New York recently. On Feb. 25 of this year the American Sugar Refining company (the sugar trust) exported refined sugar to Great Britain at 2.6 cents per pound. At the same time the price of the same article in the domestic market was 4.55 cents per pound, the difference being 1.95 cents per pound, or the exact amount of the duty. A Little Pretended Relief. The revenue to the government from the duties on sugar, raw and refined, is only about one-third of the direct cost to the people, to say nothing of the Indirect cost in crippling other industries and adding to the prices of the articles into which sugar enters. The high duty on sugar is maintained not for the sake of revenue, but to “protect” the great sugar trust. The people are beginning to learn something of what this means, and the Payne tariff bill makes a pretense of reducing the protection a very little. It fixes the rate on refined sugar at 1.90 cents per pound instead of 1.95. How th® Trust Gains. The Payne bill really takes excellent care of the sugar trust and leaves it with more “protection” than before. For one thing, as Imports of raw sugar from Cuba pay 20 per cent less duty than the regular rate on raws and as the Cuban sugar practically makes the market price of. raws in New York, the trust by this provision saves about one-eighth of a cent per pouiyj/on the cost of its raw material. But of even more importance is the “minimum and maximum” proviso in the bill, which adds 20 per cent to the rates on Imports from all countries which do not grant special tariff concessions to the United States. Practically the only countries from which Imports of refined sugar can be expected to come are Germany and Austria, and conditions in these countries are such that the additional 20 per cent is practically pertain to be imposed. This will make the actual rate on refined sugar higher than in the Dingley tariff: 1.90 cents per pound Increased by 20 per cent is 2-28 cents as against 1.95 in the Dingley tariff.

Th® Trust Can Meet th® World. No wonder the trust is profitable with such good care. This trust can, ! ns a matter of fact, refine sugar more cheaply here than can be done anywhere else In the world. The Independent refineries claim that wl(h free raw material they can meet the competition of the world, and they are not as well equipped as the trust. The entire labor cost of refining sugar In this country does not exceed one-tenth of a cent per pound.