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Show Will The Increased Price of Sugar Continue? Europe and America are now en- gaged In a battle royal for .ugar. That b Ue Priory caulie ot the high price now prevailing. Cut off by the war irom her annual an-nual supply of 1.000,000 tons of su-c su-c Lr ordinarily secured from Germany J d Austria. England turned to too nearest available BUgar market, whcu happened to be New York. Ready to assume all tho war risks of transportation and willing to pay whatever price might be necessary to secure sugar. British buyers with-in with-in a few days bid up tho world's mar-kct mar-kct by nearly threo cents per pound, and purchased almost 200 million pounds of raw and refined sugar. Without stopping either tho buying or contracting for sugar, but finding It practically lmposslblo to got prompt transportation across tho Atlantic, At-lantic, the Urltlsh government, further furth-er reduced tho world's avnllablo sugar sug-ar supply by Issuing orders to nil her sugar growing colonics, forbidding forbid-ding the sale ot sugars, except for Imperial use. At tho outbreak of tho war tho vis-lble vis-lble supply of sugar available for American Am-erican market was barely sufficient to last until tho now crop ot American Ameri-can grown sugar should begin to become avallablo In October. Tho withdrawal of 100,000 tons from this supply created a serious shortage, and Inquiries received In the Now York market Indicating that England would seek to obtain scvoral hundred thousand tons more ot sugar here, threatened to maka this shortage much more serious. As a result, American purchasers lu tho sugar market, seeking to protect pro-tect their own trade, entered Into nctlvo competition with tho foreign buyers In tho scramblo for BUgar. To make tho situation more acute, consumers con-sumers In all parts of the country rushed to lay in supplies far In excess ex-cess of their ordinary purchases, thus accentuating the scarcity. As illustrating il-lustrating tho present dearth of sug-ar sug-ar In tho world's market, a few days ago a small lot ot sugar was offered In Now York for resale, when In ad-dltlon ad-dltlon to American brokers, ropresen-, tatlves of tho Chilean, Argentlno, Peruvian, Pe-ruvian, Greek, Swedish and Norwegian Norweg-ian governments wero found bidding for It, not for speculation, but for actual delivery. Greece got the sugar. Tho prize for which tho buyers ot Great Britain and America aro con- I tending is tho Cuban sugar crop. I England and tho United States cachl import annually about 2,000,000 long I tons of sugar. Tho Cuban crop Is about 2.300,000 tons, enough to supply sup-ply one of theso two big customers, but entirely Inadequate to meet tho needs of both. The prospect, therefore, there-fore, Is for a keen strugglo on tho. part of theso two countries to securo tho bulk of tho coming Cuban crop In case the war continues for any considerable length of time. Great Britain, however, In Its sugar su-gar accumulation, acts as it tho war will last Into next summer at least. Although she has already secured an over supply for tho remainder of this year, yet she Is now busy buying tho output of the next Cuban crop. She has already secured from that Island 230,000 tons for early deliveries deliver-ies from January to Mnrtli, nnd Is now bidding nearly double tho normal nor-mal Cuban price for next spring nnd summer dcllvqrlcs. In somo Instances Instanc-es she has oven offered to tako tho wholo production of entlro sugar es tates at this price. European nations which normally produce 8,000,000 tons ot sugar anj nually, or 45 per cent of tho entlro world's supply, now aro at war and tho hope for anything Uko a normal crop of sugar in Europo Is vanishing. A largo part of their sugar crop will bo sacrificed how much remains to bo seen. In Belgium, 5S factories have lost their crops, Involving 200,- 000 tons of sugnr. Tho fields of France, which supply her 213 factor les and turn out nearly n million tons of sugar annually, practically all oro within tho nctlvo war zono. Tho Prussian sugar district of Germany already Is the battling ground of Gorman Gor-man and Russian troops nnd tho Hus slans are moving Into tho Silcstan sugar district. In Poland, Podolla, and other sugar Provinces of western Russia thero has been lighting between be-tween tho Russian nnd tho German and Austria-Hungarian troops, ns well as In somo ot tho sugar districts of Austria, whllo In all theso countries coun-tries tho ablo bodied men have been called from tho fields to tho front. Tho 2,000,000 tons of export sugar which these nations annually supply tho rest ,pf tho world is withdrawn from accustomed trndo channels and this means a world wldo scarcity ot sugar whllo tho war continues and probably for some tlmo afterword. When tho present blockado of shipping ship-ping shall have been relieved, it Is possible that Great Britain and tho United States may obtain somo sugar from tropical cano growing countries, other than Cuba, but even this will bo offset by tho fact that owing to tho low price of sugar which has pro' vailed for several years past, Cuba has planted no now cano, and Is relying rely-ing solely upon ratoons. In the United Uni-ted States, because of tho reduction in tho duty on Imported sugar, the Louisiana crop will bo below normal and tho domestic boot crop will drop about 20 per cent, 10 of tho largo plants having been closed down. Tho one great lesson for tho American Am-erican people In tho present situation Is tho necessity of encouraging and developing tho production from American Am-erican soli of all tho sugar required by tho American peoplo, so that wo may bo Independent of other nations nnd our consumers may ho assured ot b. permanent and adequate supply of cheap sugar. Exchanges |