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Show BEET CHIEF MAY BACK SUGAR TAX Attitude Depends on Benefit Payments WASHINGTON, Feb. IT "l Charles M. Kearney, president of the National Beet Growers association, asso-ciation, said today ha would advocate advo-cate an excise tax on sugar if congress con-gress assured domestic sugar growers grow-ers "adequate government benefit payments." Agriculture department spokesmen spokes-men hsve said Secretary Wallace is committed to the excise tax method of financing domestie bens-fit bens-fit programs, and congressional sugsr bloc members have speculated speculat-ed on whether the administration would propose a half-cent or ons cent a pound tax on all eugar consumed con-sumed annually in the United Statee. Kearney said It would be "difficult "diffi-cult to determine what aa 'adequate' long-range benefit program would be." Prevailing sugar prices and prices of other commodities affecting affect-ing growers and processors, bs said, would determine at the particular time what would eonstituts "adequate "ade-quate benefit payments. After studying a sugar bill introduced intro-duced by Senator John H. Overton D), Louisiana, Kearney said he believed any increase in the production pro-duction quota allowed domestic urar growers should be accotn- panied by proportionate increases in beet quotas. Ths Overton bill proposed mors than a 100 per cent Increase in cane quotas and approximately a 10 par cent increase for beet growers. |