Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1911 — SUGAR TRUST PRICES. [ARTICLE]

SUGAR TRUST PRICES.

Senator Cummins of lowa has formulated a bill of particulars wherein President Taft has offended. Some of the President’s offenses cited are: His position on the Payne-Aldrich tariff liw. his position on the bill for the further regulation of interstate common carriers, his position on 'the change made in the postal savings law, his attitude on the control and disposition of our public domain, Itis position on the proposed income tax law, his position on the Canadian reciprocity bill, his work for the peace treaties, his vetoes of the woolen the free list bill and the resolution admitting New Mexico and Arizona as states. This list embraces nearly everything in which the President took a part.

Here is some tariff board history that the President will probably not refer to: The tariff board was created Sept. 26, 1909. On June 7, 1911, 21 months later, congress called for whatever data the board had collected on wool, and was informed the board had nothing to report. What was the tariff board doing during these 21 months? Soon after the appointment of the board, its chairmain, Henry C. Emery, established headquarters in the private residence of Frederick Hale, son of Senator Eugene Hale of Maine, who has been known for years as one of the most powerful defenders of ultra protection. In October, 1910, it was announced that “the work of the tariff, board" was to be boomed at a series of banquets. For three months the banqueting campaign occupied the time and attention of the board. Among the hosts was the Arkwright club, the leading association of high protection manufacturers of the country. Then on Feb. 1, 1911, Chairman Emery was the guest of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers —the wards of Schedule K—with William H. Wood on one side and Vice-President F. S. Clark on the other. The plan finally adopted for estimating costs is the plan which, at this dinner, Emery was advised to adopt. And this is the boarjl for whose report all tariff revision must be held up!

Regarding the sudden and uncalled for rise in the price of sugar, brought on by the sugar trust, the Indianapolis News says: The price of sugar is going up rapidly. Six months ago it was 5 cents a pound; a week ago it was 6; today it is 8 and further advance is expected. There is, dealers say, ho probability of a decrease in price in the near future. The increase is alleged to be because of a shortage in last year’s Cuban cane crop and an expected shortage this year, together with rains in Michigan which are said to have retarded the beet crop. So it is just the irresistible result of supply and demand. Even were this theory true, as it is not, should not the American peopfle demand that the artificial barriers that prevent them from getting the benefit of the world’s production of sugar be broken down? We have an ingenious tariff wall or net work so tarn as to cover all avenues of admission except under the toll which the sugar trust shalE exact. Under these conditions we are told that the supply is such that a jump from 5 to 8 cents a pound in »six months —and 2 cents of it in a weekis necessary. Manifestly then, the sane thing to do is to loosen trie bonds and let us feed ourselves from the world’s offerings. The people are not disposed to accept the explanation. The whole sugar business in this country is anything but sweet. For one single item there are the enormous sugar frauds systematically perpetrated by the great sugar company against the customs laws of the country —-just plain theft on a gigantic scale, a series of petty thefts so organized as to steal colossal sums. Not satisfied with the extortionate toCl which is taken by the network of tariff laws stealing must .be added. Now the folk that did this are jumping the price of the product and telling the people that the law of «npply and demand Is the cause. They do not come into court with dean hands. They have no

right to ask that the people shall believe anything but that this is simply-another gouge-—or the same old in a new shape. Reports from New York said that the rise was only temporary and that “as soon as conditions are settled prices will drop again.” But since then prices have risen a cent. So this may be classed, with the reasons for the increase, as untrustworthy. The sugar trust is not entitled to belief, that is all. Meanwhile It is to be said that if the people choose to put up with the exactions that mark the. course of sugar they themselves are to blame. There is a remedy when they want to apply it.