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Show 1 : r I , Why No Sugar? j j By Frederic J. Haskin- 4 - WASH1XGTOX. Dec. lt. Why are we short of sugar and . paying exorbitant prices for sugar now that the war Is over, although we managed to get a fair supply at a fair price while tho war was going on? Discussion in t'.'e senate with regard to the bill to continue the life of the sugar equalization board, which will otherwise oth-erwise end with the year, has cast much light on this question. The gist of what it shows is this: During the war the American peopie created a governmental agency to buy thir sugar for them, and to regulate its distribution. In effect, acting through congress and the president, presi-dent, we formed a national association tor the buying and selling of sugar. It was exactly the same In principle as a community store, in which all members of a community chip in to buy goods, and then they are sold to the same people at a stipulated price. The Cuban sugar crop was bought last year by the sugar equalization equal-ization board with money belonging to the American people, and was sold again at terms which the sugar board was able to dictate. The result was that all through the war we got sugar at 10 or 11 cents, and, whilo it was scarce, it was not aa scarce as it is now. ' With the ending of the war, the sugar equalization board discontinued its most important activity the buying of sugar. It did not buy the Cuban sugar crop this year. This was a proper policy, according accord-ing to the view of the matter generally accepted in this country. The war being over, we should discontinue government control as much as possible, and return to the good old law of supply and demand. de-mand. But that famous unwritten statute stat-ute seems to' have worked against ua in this instance. The Cuban sugar crop is being scattered all over the world, instead in-stead of coming to the United States in a gigantic lump. And what has come to , this country has come at greatly increased ! prices. The Cuban sugar producers have ! gotten as much as 13 Mj cents a pound for j some of their -raw sugar. 1 It is as a result of this situation that congress is asked to authorize the sugar board to buy what is left of the Cuban sugar crop before it Is all gone, and to continue the life of the board for another year. It seems aB if this is the only thing that can save us from an even greater scarcity of sugar than we now face. Of course, there are other causes for the sugar shortage besides our failure to buy the Cuban crop. For one thing, we are eating more sugar than ever before. be-fore. Our average per capita consumption consump-tion of sugar used to be about eighty-five eighty-five pounds. During the war this was whittled down to seventy-five pounds by Mr. Hoover, with his gospel of conservation conserva-tion In the name of patriotism. Since the war ended, It has risen to about ninety-three ninety-three pounds. - Senator McNary attributes this rise in sugar consumption to prohibition prohi-bition and prosperity. Then, too, the world is about S, 000, 000 pounds short of its normal sugar supply. Since we are eating more sugar than ever before, and there is less sugar in existence exis-tence than ever before, it would seem easy enough to explain the shortage without with-out trying to put the blame on anyone. But the indisputable fact remains that if the sugar equalization board had bought the Cuban sugar crop this year you and I would be enjoying the boon of a full sugar bowl right now. Failure to secure rhe Cuban sugar has caused both scarcity and hoarding of sugar. For Cuba was willing to sell us the sugar at a reasonable price. The Cuban sugar producers wrote a letter to the board last July urging it. again to buy the sugar crop in a lumn, It may seum strange to you that Cuban producers should prefer io sell all of their crop to the United States government at a price somewhere between 5 and 7 cents a pound when they are setting in some instances as much as IZV2 cents a pound. But it is really , not strange at, all. Any producer pro-ducer would rather sell his whole product for the year at one. sale and at a fair profit than to sell It slowly to many different dif-ferent purchasers at different prices, with all the expense and risk which such a procedure involves. The principle of the community store again comes in. The American people by communal effort can get their sugar for less for the sanje reason rea-son that the citizens of any community can buy foodstuffs for less If they buy them in quantity. In both cases the producers pro-ducers can afford to sell for less because they do not have to bear the expenses of retailing and the risks of many different credits and of a fluctuating market. Besides, Cuba would rather' have the American dollar and American credit than any other coinage or credit in the world, and Cuba Is anxious to stand in with the United States, For all of these reasons rea-sons the Cunan producers were not only willing but anxious to sell to the sugar hoard. This is proved by their letter to the board which Senator McNary caused to he printed in the Congressional Record,- Just who is' to blame for the fact that the sugar crop was not bought is a moot question. The buck Is being passed with great, zeal. Some senators blame the president and some blame the board, "and the board blames congress. The president, so far, has kept mum. You should be reminded that tho sugar equalization board is a committee of eight wise men appointed by the president in 1917 and equipped with $5,000,000 from the president's special fund. After it had been appointed, the board had itself made a corporation under the laws of Delaware. Dela-ware. The president was the sole stock-, holder of the corporation with the $5,000,-000 $5,000,-000 which he put up. Just why the hoard was thus incorporated is not cleat presumably pre-sumably for Its own protection. But the fact or its incorporation is not important. It is none the less a governmental agency, agen-cy, acting for the American people and spending the peonle's money. I V V I When the board got the letter from the I Cuban producers, offering to sell it the I Cuban crop again, it gave the matter j long and earnest consideration. It then wrote a letter to the president, which Senator McNary has placed in the rec-1 rec-1 ord, advlsine that the Cuban sugar crop : be again purchased. Thin letter was signed by seven of the eight members of the board. According to Senator McNary, 'Dr. Taussig Is the only member of thp board who did not advise the purchase of the crop. Dr. Taussig Is a collece economist. econ-omist. He believes in the law of supplv and denia nd. True to his faith, he expressed ex-pressed the opinion that this law could 1 be relied upon to bring an adequate suenr I supply at a fair price to the United States, and that, therefore, it would he unnecessary to buy ihe crop. Apparently President "Wilson accepted this view There Is no reply from him in the record, rec-ord, but only a letter from one of his secretaries saying that the matter would be brought to his attention "at the first favorable opportunity." The evident fact is that the sugar eoual iza t Ion board, alt houeh seven of its eight members saw that there, would he a sucar famine unless the Cuban crop was houeht, would not take the ranon-sihllity ranon-sihllity of making this purchase unless It was authorized to do so either by the president or by concress. And neither the president nor congress dil anvthlnr Hence Dr. Taussig and the law of supply and demand prevailed, und so did the sugar famine. ii It should be added that the board did not lack the money to buy the crop. Tt was not waiting for an appropriation. It was waiting for somebody to give It a push. According to Senator McXarv, the equalization board has at ill (r orlcinal $.VOO'00 and also an additional $30,000 -000 in profits. This profit was made by reason of the fact that It held out cents per hundred pounds on the sugar it li and led to rover admlnist r t ve ex-ppnff. ex-ppnff. So our little venture in communal sugar dealing was not altogether unprofitable. unprof-itable. It is Paid that P.. 000 .000 tons of the Cuba Cu-ba u crop is st ill a a Ua b!e. If tho cuku r equalization board buys thin befor ir is all cone iho t-ui:ar famine will he broken. If It dn. s not ;ugar Is apt Ao be stili more scarce befure it is morj abundant. |