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Show World's Sugar Prices President Taft has .-ent t congress a report prepared by Secretary of State Knox telling of the lavv relating to sugar in all countries and the prices that prevail a-; a result. Tn. British, though they do not raise sugar, buy the cheapest of any nation, lor jams -and other sweets are very popular among them and the government leaves such things almost tax-tree. The retail price of sugar in uieat Bruian averaged five cents a pound last year, and th-it was unusually high. Italv and Spain are at theoth-T extreme, and the poor people there had to pay 14 cents a pound because be-cause of the h'-avy- taxes laid on all such things. Germany raises so much beet sugar that she sends huge quantities quanti-ties of it abroad, yec the Germans pay dearly for the staple about the same that we do. Germany taxes home consumers con-sumers in order u. build up her foreign market. France foimws a somewhat! similar policy. Russia produces an immense amount of beet sugar, and the government there absolutely fixes the prices. Argentina also says by law what the consumers shall pav for sugar. In Japan, Brazil and some other countries trade guilds or combines control the prices. . Statistics show that the English are the greatest sugar eaters m the world; they consume t2 pounds per capita per annum. We come next with 81 pounds Then follow the Germ ans with 42, the French with 36, .tc, down to the Italians, Ital-ians, who use only eight pounds. One authority thinks that the civilization of a. country can be gauged by the amount of sugar it uses but this authority is English. The Italians do not accept this theory; they say that the consump-' tifn of sugar depends on the orice. The British have cheap sugar and therefore use it plentifully, while people who ! have to pay exorbitant prices for it go j without.. . : In this country we take a large part of our gweets in the form of candy. We ate a million tons of it last year.-It year.-It 'costs every man woman and child of j us about $5 a year for 'chocolates, marsh- j mallows, all-day-suckers, kisses, gum-drops, gum-drops, etc. If we would- swear' olf on candy, for just two y ers we. could savq j enough to pay the mi'tionHl'-.debt of a'! billion' dollars. With our candy money we could" buy Uncle Sain 50 new dread noughts of the largest size a year. We could build a Panama canai every year 'and have enough left to provide'a parcels-post service free to the people. We spend as much on sweet-stuffs as we do on education. Figures show that we eat nearly 50 times as much candy now as people did a generation ago. Alihost everybody eats candy as a matter of cour-e and lots of.it. Sugar is a wholesome whole-some food, especially in a cool climate, and candy has an important dietary value. Anyway, it tastes awfully good. |