OCR Text |
Show SUGAR CONSUMPTION FOLLOWS COST . Just what there is in the nature of that former luxury and present necessity sugar, that periodically brings about wide fluc-tations fluc-tations in its price, does not seem to be known. Whether owing to Cuban insurrections, decreased supplies of beet sugar, or partial cane crop failure, prices of sugar have varied greatly. After a preiod during which it has. been sold at a price said to be much below the cost of production it is now attracting attention by a marked advance The post-war speculation, or apprehension of a possible worldwide world-wide scarcity of sugar, forced prices up to 20 and even 25 cents per pound, with the immediate result of disclosing large stocks in unsuspected regions, that brought about a collapse in price. Spurred by the expectation of high prices, the chief sugar-producing counties increased their crops to the utmost, and in consequence conse-quence a, large portion of he Cubn crop of 1921-1922 -was sold as low as two cents per pound. Had prices remained anywhere near that figure, the production of cane and "beet sugar in the United States would have been made impossible even withh the protection afforded by the tariff on foreign sugars. The gradual recovery in sugar prices from their lowest point a year or so ago indicates that the law of increased consumption following fol-lowing reduced costs applies to sugar, as well as other staple commodities. |