Show THE POLICY OF HONOR J We find In the current number of Harpers Weekly this curiouslytwist ed view of the Cuban sugar duty re duction In reference to Its effect upon our own production of beet sugar The most Important declopment of the week In national politics is the Issue made by tho Republican leaders of the House with tho President on the Cuban question The effort that was apparently beIng Inaugurated through a public hearing to reach a conclusion on the proposition to reduce duties on Cuban products was suddenly stopped Tho beetHugar Interests under the lead of Oxnard had made so deep an Impression on the Republican members of Congress that the tide had turned and for the moment at least the policy of honor whs defeated This result had been clev erly accomplished by using tho American farmer ai the stalking hors Of course American farmers as a body havo com paratively little Interest In the qucutlon although they might havq Jf the reduc tion of duty on Cuban sugar would really bring down as It probably woum not tile price of surar which they consume The farmtra ot a few Western States who possess beet patches doubtless think that they arc concerned although the real bencllclarlrs of tile sugar tariff arc MrOx llrd and his rcllnliifc Interests to1ndhe unfortunately for his present contention has In conjunction with Mr Bayard Cutting admitted thnt his busi l ness will bo prolltublo even 1C Cuban su gar bo mndo free Notwithstanding this tho relining Interests persuadqd tho Rc publican leaders among the converts bo Ing Speaker Hcnderaon himself that theirs was the voice of the farmer So that now the question i Are you go Ing to bcnnllt Cuba at the expense of the agricultural JntereBts f The Eaftomnotlon of a policy of honor Is singular Mr Cleveland applied ap-plied the phrase to his programme of breaking down manufacturing in dustries and building up those of Eng land He applied It again In this asSault as-sault upon pur beet sugar Industries and Harpers Weekly follows him in it The argument that us we freed Cuba from Intolerable oppressions we muot now not only support her sugar planters at our own expense but at tho peril of exterminating a thrifty and growing industry of our own Into which hundreds of thousands of dot lars have been put In the faith of the stability of our tariff laws In or der to gild tho pill Lhe Eastern poll ticians speak vaguely of areduction of the prlpe of sugar to our consumers But Henry O Havemeyer president of the sugar trusty has said rocentlywc quote from the merICllIlEc that Any reduction In the tarifC would accrue entirely to the Interests oflhc Cuban planters and would not be re fleeted In urfylower rith of reilned i sugar in this country The effect then would be wholly adverse to this country without ihc ifllGhtest compen satory advantage But who are those Cuban planter vjo would be helped They are practically the Havemeyer sugar trust That trust owns large sugar plantations In Cuba it has other oth-er large areas In plwn It would con trol the output of all the remainder by virtue of Its being the only buyer of the raw sugar produced on them The Independent I sugar planter of Cuba would be in the same boat as the American consumers of sugar they would get no bcncllt whatever from the reduction in tariff rate The whole pica l In their behalf Is a sham It means the sugar trust every time that any one talks of the help that n reduced tariff oh sugarWolild he to Cuban planters or to Cuba The trust has the only refineries Cuban plant ers havo none their product being exclusively ex-clusively 4 crude sugar ni la perfectly evident to any one knowing the facts and who will give l them a moments consideration J that the facts here stated stat-ed must govern and that thqre Is no real relief to Cuba In the propositIon proposi-tion Why therefore should AmerIcans Amer-icans consider It and especially why should anybody consider that a policy poli-cy of honor requires us to add to the wealth of the sugar trust while benefiting none olse and by combating many of our own people Why again should the refineries of Henry Oxnard be so much more obnoxious than those of Henry Havemeyer Oxnard has no monopoly beetsugar refining refin-ing but Tlavcmeyer has of the refining refin-ing of cane sugar The sugar from the Lehl factory In this State for example ex-ample Is put upon the market Just as It comes from the plant without goIng go-Ing abroad to be roflnod It la refined rIght here and a most excellent product pro-duct it Is Why should there be an attempt to raise a false Issue of this kind against beet sugar and Ignore he i real Issue the key to the whole question the leflnlng of cane sugar The truth being that neither the American people nor the Cuban planters plant-ers would derive any advantage from this clamor for reduction In the tariff tar-iff 1 for the ostensible benefit of Cuban sugar even If It were granled why keep up the false pretense pre-tense and above all why attempt to make odious the plain commonsense common-sense position of the producers of beet sugar In hls ountry |