Salt Lake Telegram | 1937-03-01 | Page 1 | Roosevelt Asks for Sugar Tax

BilMT SIB III B M ' t : . : . . . ' : ' LEVY ON RAW VALUE FOR QUOTA SYSTEM ASKED ONlOiiGRESS Average Cost to Consumer Would Not Be Increased, President Avers In Presenting Control Plan WASHINGTON, March 1 (P) President Roosevelt pro- 1 posed to congress today the enactment of a sugar quota system sys-tem financed by an excise tax on raw sugar. Tha tax, the president said In a -pedal message, should ba Be leas than three-fourths ef 1 esmt pound aa sugar, raw value. Income from tha tax. astlmated at (100,000,000 annually, would make possible tha resumption of benefit paymenU to sugar producers, which th president proposed. "I am definitely advised," Mr. Roosevelt said, "that such a tax would not Lucres tha average cost of sugar to consumers." Mr. Roosevelt recommended that In evolving a new control system provision should be made for pre venting child labor and establishing a minimum wag standard. Text of Meseaga Pag I Th Jones-Cos tl fan act, which . expired last December, but waa continued In principle through this year, authorised th secretary of agriculture to allot th estimated annual sugar consumption of tha country among beet and can domestic do-mestic producer and such "off-shore" "off-shore" producers as those In Hawaii, th Philippines and similar Insular . possessions. lbs act originally W 1 .. i an amendment to the agricultural adjustment act. Certala arevuleos, I PROPOSAL IS GIVEN BLOC INDORSEMENT WASHINGTON, March 1 ITV Congressional sugar aloe It si era tentatively Indorsed President Roosevelt's' propose la far new agar leglalatlen. Representative Fred Cummin- D Col.), chairman of th ee-gTeealenal ee-gTeealenal sugar Mac, aaid tha prepoaal laid a foundation "to work awt real worthwhile sugar segkuaUoB." principally that Imposing a processing process-ing tax, becam inoperative when the AAA was ruled unconstitutional and benefit payments to producers ceased. ... The president said th axels tax would yield "aproximateiy on hundred hun-dred million dollars per annum to th treasury of th United States, which would make th total revenue ' from auger more nearly commensu-rat commensu-rat with that obtained during tha period 122-1929." Levy Is Provided "Quotas," th president said, "influence "in-fluence the price of sugar through th control of supply; consequently, under a quota regulation or th supply of sugar, a tax may ba levied without causing any adverse effect, over a period of time, on th price paid by consumers." The president asked special aal guards. In any - legislation, for the rights of small producers to assure them "an equitable share of th benefits offered by the program." "In this connection," b said, "I suggest also that you consider th advisability of providing for payments pay-ments at rates for family-sis farms higher than those applicable ta large operating units." With regard to fixing standards of labor hs said: "I recommend that th prevention of child labor and th payment of wages of not less thsn- minimum standards, be included among tha conditions for receiving a federal payment" t-Toicczion Bougnt The Interests of tha consumer should be protected, hs said, by a provision "to prevent any possibl restriction of the supply of sugar that would result In prices to consumers con-sumers in excess of those reasonably reason-ably necessary, together with conditional con-ditional payments ta producera, to maintain the domsstic Industry as a whole and to make th production of sugar beets and sugar cans as profitable as th production of th principal other agricultural crops." He asked that no decrease be made in other countries' share In the total sugar quota "in order to protect the expansion of markets for American exports." Under his recommendations, ho said, it haa been estimated th Income In-come of foreign countries from sales of sugar here "would not bo less than that obtained during 19SS, and, like the total income of domestic sugar producers, it can be expected to increase in future years as our consumption requirement axfaad."