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Show Sugar Company Chief Urges Increased Duty On Sugar S. H. Love Gives Strong Testimony Before House Ways and Means Committee at Washington, D. C, Hearing. under the 20 per cent reduction ii our tariff rattrf, today less than one-half of 1 per cent comes in under un-der the full duty rate. "In short, if the beet sugar industry indus-try is worth preserving, then it is entitled to a tariff sufficiently high to protect the farmer who laiKPs beets, and the mill that makes the product, against tropical sugar produced with low-priced raw materials and labor and under standards of living that would not! be tolerated in the United States." WASHINGTON, D. C, Jan. 24.-- S. H. Love, head of the U. S. sugar manufacturers association and I sales manager of the Utah-Idaho Sugar company of Salt Lake City, gave strong testimony before the , house ways and means committe-,' . tariff hearing the other day in favor fav-or of an increased duty on import- ed sugar. Mr. Love made it plain that unless the domestic beet sugar manufacturers received some protection pro-tection the industry stands a good chance of being obliterated. Mr. Love concluded his testimony as follows: "Tho beet sugar industry is facing fac-ing a serious crisis, due to the impact im-pact of competition with sugar imported im-ported from foreign countries, produced pro-duced under tropical conditions of "hiving and wages, which are far below those prevailing in the farming farm-ing communities of the United States, and with which the Amerl- 1 can farmers and manufactui ers are unable to profitably compete under the present tariff rates.' Production Cost Increased "Domestic sugar is practically tho only important food commodity which is being sold at prewar prices, notwithstanding that production produc-tion costs have greatly increase'd. "The price of Cuban raws virtually virtual-ly fixes the price basis uponN which all sugar is so:c ;n the United i States, and under the present con-iditions con-iditions that price is very much low-! low-! tV in New York, With freight paid, than it costs the American beet-grower beet-grower to produce his sugar in the-beet, the-beet, to say nothing of the manufacturing manu-facturing costs. "Today many of the beet sugar companies are selling below the' cost of production, and unless relief re-lief is accorded through an increase in the tariff on sugar they face disaster. dis-aster. "It may be noted here" that last year twenty-three of the 102 factories factor-ies were unable to operate, and ! many of those which did run operated oper-ated away below ,capacity, which is always costly. "The price of Cuban and duty free sugars has been for years, an,d is now, so low that it is-impossible under present costs of production in our industry to meet such competition. com-petition. "Surplus crops have presented a serious problem to American agriculture. agri-culture. Diversion of such lands as can be planted to sugar beets would be a potent factor in solving thia situation, and, besides saving our country millions of dollars now paid out for foreign sugar, would diminish dimin-ish the Exportable surplus of grain crops. Lower Tariff Kate "The tariff rate on sugar now enforced en-forced in this country is lower than that prevailing in thirty-one countries coun-tries on refined and in twenty-seven twenty-seven on raw. '"Among those having a higheV rate of duty may be mentioned Great Britain, Brazil, Poland, Bel-gium,. Bel-gium,. Czecho-Slqvakia,. Russia, Argentina, Ar-gentina, etc. "The fact that our tariff rates are so much lower than other countries offers an inducement to Cuba to market the. major- portion of its sugar in the United. States. "In 1901, 86 per cent of our imports im-ports of sugar paid full duty. Duo to imports from our island possessions, posses-sions, free of duty, and from Cuba |