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Show AMERICA TURNS INTEREST TO SUGAR 50 per cent of a normal supply can be expected from Hawaii in 1942. Puerto Rico can be expected to increase her production in 1942 somewhat as can Cuba, but more than a million and a half tons of Cuba sugar must be converted into in-to alcohol for manufacturing explosives ex-plosives and probably an equal amount must be shipped to our allies, al-lies, because the war has put the rich Ukraine district in Russia out of production and made it nearly impossible for Britain to get her sugar form her usual sources. Even to get sugar from nearby Puerto Rico and Cuba requires ships and ships in wartime are hard to charter. Enemy submarines lurk in Atlantic waters, and sugar cargoes car-goes are choice prizes of war. History has repeated itself and we have discovered again that the only safe supply of sugar is that which we grow on our own farms the sugar that doesn't need ships. The Future Supply? Leon Henderson, the price ad ministrator, in a recent press release re-lease calculated that nearly 8,-000,000 8,-000,000 tons of sugar reached the American market in 1941, and that quantity exceeded normal by about 1 300,000 tons. Part of that ex- ! register sometime in Mzrch and j will be issued food ration books in the case of consumers and sugar certificates in the case of commercial commer-cial users. This immense Job of registration will be done in the public schools by the school teachers. teach-ers. The book issued there will be known as War Ration Book One, and that its use will not be confined con-fined to sugar, but will serve foi the many food items which are expected to be rationed later such as tea, coffee, cocoa, spices, and others. Therefore, it is necessary that all consumers register now. If you think you have enough sugar to last for the duration, don't think you can avoid registration. If you don't get an issue of War Ration Book One, you'll be out in the cold for later rationing. War Ration Book One War Ration Book One will contain con-tain 28 stamps, each representing one week's sugar allotment. When you register you will be required to state the quantity of sugar on hand. You will bs permitted to have two pounds per person on hand, but any quantity above that will be considered hoarded and stamps will be torn out of your book to cover the quantity. Probably Prob-ably if you have more sugar than the stamps in the book represent, you will have that amount marked up against your account and the J- Most Americans have suu&enly become very interested in the sub ject of sugar. The press has been full of stories about shortages, rationing, ra-tioning, price control and plans for increased production. Much talk has come from the mouths of the poorly informed; some of it has been hysterical and some of it sound and authoritative. Possibly a sorting out of that material will be useful here. The first world war made tremendous tre-mendous changes in the sugar producing pro-ducing machinery of the world. Be-; Be-; fore that war about half of all su- war was grown in Europe's sugar beet fields. The rest was cane sugar su-gar grown in many tropical countries coun-tries from Java to Africa and from Hawaii to Cuba. During the war the European production was completely com-pletely disrupted; the hazards of ocean transportation cut off consuming con-suming countries from their normal nor-mal sources of! supply, and production produc-tion in areas able to ship to the profitable markets was enormously increased. In remarkably short time, after the war, Europe's production pro-duction was rebuilt, gains in other 1 y. . parts of the world were maintained and the sugar market found itself by the end of 1920 struggling under un-der the burden of a huge overproduction. overpro-duction. Before World War II, Europe was growing more sugar than she did in 1913, and the cane sugar crops of the world were double dou-ble that of Europe. During thb period from 1920 to 1941, many plana were made and operated attempting at-tempting to control production and stabilize markets. These plans were only partially successful and sugar hag become one of the cheapest cheap-est and most abundant of f ood staples. ' t In the United States during Re- publican administrations, we at-i at-i tempted to keep our domestic su- ',' gar industry alive by erecting tar- 1 iff walls high enough to offset the difference in production costs in low-paying tropical countries and here. With the New Deal, came new Ideas. Reciprocal tariff agreements agree-ments and trade treaties broke down the tariff walls and in their place! came the processing tax and benefit payments to the farmers. These new ideas worked well to the extent that they made it possible pos-sible for processors to operate profitably and for farmers to stay in their businesses of raising beets and cane, but the plan forgot for-got that we need an adequate domestic do-mestic supply of sugar when war or other disaster comes. The Jones-Costigan Act of 1934 and its successor the Sugar Act of 1937, which is till in operation, prevented any expansion of su?rar production. It predicted the grower's benefit payments on restricted acreage, and limited the sales of the producing pro-ducing companies. In the spring of 1941, because there was an unsold un-sold carry-over from the 1940 production, pro-duction, the sugar division of the Department of Agriculture imposed reductions on beet plantings, scaling scal-ing down total beet acreage in the United States to 83 per cent of the 1940 plantings. This was done in spite of urgent desire of farmers to grow beets and in spite of available avail-able factory capacity to make them into sugar. And It was done in spite of warnings to Department of Agriculture that a shortage was in the making because of world conditions developing from the war. Shipments Curtailed And so we come to the attack of Pearl Harbor dependent for our sugar supplies from the following sources: Cuba, 28 per cent; Philippine Islands, 12 per cent; Puerto Rico, 14 per cent; Hawaii, 13 per cent; Domestic Beet, 25 per cent; Domestic Domes-tic Cane, 6 per cent; other sources, 2 per cent. As Japan quickly gained the upper up-per hand in the Pacific, the Philippine Philip-pine supply completely stopped and Hawaii is finding it difficult to make shipments. The best esti-' j mates available indicate that only,' stamps will be torn from your second sec-ond book accordingly. At any rate, the person who has a stored supply sup-ply will not be any better' fixed than the one who has none. To any one who has an excess stock of sugar, I suggest that he find some small manufacturer who is finding it hard to keep his plant running and sell it to him at a reasonable price; or to return it to the grocery store for credit; or to give it to some person who has no supply and needs it. There is no advantage to be gained in holding hold-ing it now. So we enter World War II with a sugar supply less than our requirements, re-quirements, because we failed to learn in the first one that sugar is a military necessity and thoc the only safe supply; is the one at home. We will have less sugar during the war tiian we; are accustomed accus-tomed to using, but unless there are unforeseen losses, enough for the real needs of our people. The proposed ration will be more than is permitted in Holland, Germany, Czecholsovakia, Britain, France, Italy or Poland and far more than the normal consumption in many lands, so let's accept the adjustment adjust-ment cheerfully and not try to get more than our neighbors. But while we're fighting the war and when it is won, let's not make the same mistake again, but build a home supply of sugar equal to our needs. cess, is, no doubt, stored for future use, but much of it found its way into consumption. People use more sugar when times are prosperous. There were many men in trainiug camps during 1941, burning up energy and replacing it with larger intake of sugar and sweets; aii'l much fruit and other processed material containing sugar was shipped ship-ped to the fighting nations. Mr. Henderson also figures that only 5,300,000 tons are available for 1942, from the following sources: Domestic Beet, 35 per cent; Domestic Do-mestic Cane, 3 per cent; Hawaii, 9 per cent; Puerto Rico, 21 per cent, Cuba, 20 per cent, Misc. sources, 7 per cent. Faced with these stern realties, the War Production Board took drastic steps to drive out of hiding the sugar that was hoarded during 1941, and to conserve the supply now in sight for use in 1942. Manufacturers Manu-facturers who use sugar in their products, and sugar distributors have had their operations placed under rigid regulation. In February Febru-ary and March, they were permitted permit-ted to buy only 80 per cent of the quantity they used or sold in the same months in 1941, and they will be similarly regulated during the rest of the year. This sudden stoppage stop-page of the flow of distribution, in the face of heavy demand caused an acute grocery store shortage and some small manufacturers actually ac-tually were forced to close down because they couldn't get sugar. Feed On Situation Selfishness, excitement and hys, teria seemed to feed on this situa tion so to the Office of Price Administration Ad-ministration went the unpalatable job of complete sugar rationing. The plan contemplates limiting household consumption to a specified speci-fied quantity per week. This quantity quan-tity was originally announced as 12 ounces per person per week. Recently there have been press and radio releases indicating that only 8 ounces per person per wreek will be allowed. What the final figure will be is not predictable now but it is almost al-most certain that all manufacturers, manufactur-ers, bakers, confectioners, beverage bever-age bottlers, etc., and all thouse-hold thouse-hold users of sugar will have to |