| Show I ML FIGHT THE SUGAR TRUST I ARBUCXLE COM I TH BUSINESS TO STAY Testimony By a Member of the Rival Concern Before the Industrial Commission Yesterday I o Washington June lThe industrial commission held only an afternoon session ses-sion and heard but one witness today J N Jarvie of the firm oC Arbuckle Bro and manager of the firms sugar refininsr business Mr Jarvie put tfre necessary margin between raw and refined sugar at between be-tween 50 and 60 points to allow a profit on the business He said that when his firm started business in liPS this margin mar-gin was about 90 I had dropped slow s-low as 32 and was now about 50 His firm he said had never cut the price of sugar except to meet the rates of the American Sugar Refining company commonly known as the sugar trust When asked if the Arbuckles would continue to meet their rivals figures he replied decisively that his firm was in the refining business to stay Beyond Be-yond that he did not with to say He explained the entrance of the Ar buckles into the sugar field by saying that in 1893 they secured a machine for weighing and packing sugar and undertook un-dertook to sell package sugar to the wholesale trade They bought from the I I American Refining company but foutd they could make no profit in that way and so started their own refinery He said the tariff differential of of tari < iferntal 4 a cent a pound on refined sugar did not figure in the business just now Domestic Do-mestic competition was so sharp as to keep out all foreign sugar Aked if the removal of the 1 of u cent would affect the business now he said he did not know enough about the foreign trade to say Mr Jarvie said there had ben many overtures from the sugar I trust u settle set-tle the difficulties with the Arbuckles but they had all been made for stock jobbing purposes and consequently there had been nothing in them Asked if he could suggest any plan I that would lessen the present destructive destruc-tive competition in the sugar business witness said the fight could stop only when the one big concern decided to be content with less than 100 per cent of all the business in the country When asked how long the rival company com-pany could keep on selling sugar at a loss Mr Jarvie replied cheerfully that he thought a concern supplying 90 percent per-cent of the sugar sold In this country would lose more under those conditions than the firm supplying the other 10 per cent and that he had the 10 percent per-cent end of the bargain just now I I |
