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Show DestrnctiM of ' t A M ' tfreat hare- swUttiSMiVitratefe 'to a wetipre4:etteTBeinii of the. free trade oewgreee aa,illi" Istratlon m wKhdrawhm Breteetet from the .angar fHretoeiec. ta4Wr el the UnHed BUtee aadJla neulM'4 pendencies. What other nation, lv' illzed or uncivilised, would have. deliberately de-liberately planned to destroy so important im-portant an Industry? If there beany, Free traders among the aatlvee ok Darkest Africa oae can hardly, imagine imag-ine that they would.be. capable of so stupid an atrocity as" (hat- ot legislating legis-lating out ot existence so Important a source ot domestic, employment end profit. We: think that- even savage solons would draw the line 'there and hesitate to do such a thing. Wlthtn ten months 'ot' the cnact-mentof cnact-mentof thejawthat Is to putAmerl; can sugar growers. Intp a condition ot innocuout desuetude tomes a great European war which halts production In Germany, Austria, Russia and France. They have up to this time been the chief 'Sources ot Europe's sugar supply. These countries have been producing at the rate ot 7,500,-000 7,500,-000 tone ot sugar a year, which Is about 80 per cent of the wotld'a beet sugar product and moro than ono third of the total sugar crop ol the world.- More than 10,000,000 men were called to military service and away from service 'of Industrial and agricultural production. A big reduction reduc-tion In tho output of beet sugar must ensue, and a sharp advance in sugur prices has already taken piaco. No one knows where thS advance will stop. Ten cents n pound Is predicted predict-ed If the European war should last a year or more. . Meanwhile, under tho destroying Intluence ot free trade, sugar production produc-tion in the United States has been materially diminished. Our ovn sugar su-gar growers are in no position to take advantage of tho shortage Iff tho European supply. The certain ty of. free trade, commencing with 191C, hhs already put out of business many thousands of acres of cane lands In Louisiana and many thousands thous-ands of acres of beet sugar 1:tmU,liV tho Northern States. . According' there Iiob been a shut'down ot man; cane grinding mills In tho South and many beet sugar factories In the North. Many millions of capital have been lost and many thousands ot wojfc people deprived bt employment. employ-ment. An articlo in Hearst's Magazine, which tells in detail the dleudtul hav oc wrought by Frco Trade la tbq sugar producing, industry of Louls-una. Louls-una. Also tells nIjow. after having had the Louisiana delegation swung to him at the Bnltlmore convention in 1912, pursuant to Professor Wilson's Wil-son's prenomlnatlon pledge that the tariff ot 1913 should hot contain a free sugar provision, tho tfrofcssbr, having become president entirely forgot for-got the promise and was directly Instrumental In-strumental in. bringing .about the free sugar clause ot the Underwool tariff tar-iff bill. The recital has for Its authority auth-ority the then Representative and soon to bo Senator rtroussard of LouisiaT-a. It Is said mai ir. said htrs.novor since then visited the Whlte'House. .. Tho wholo story ct treo trado li ulckonlng and disheartening. Whether Wheth-er or not tho episode 'of tho promise to Broimsard bo truthfully narrated and thero Is Bmall roabon to doubt Its truth tho fact ropiu'.ns thht In sacrificing domestic sugar oroductlon upon the nltnr of freo trade, tho pro-sent pro-sent administration and congress has made up an uucqualed record either of gross and reckliisajguoranco oi elBO ot conscienceless brutality. Political Po-litical and economic htotorv will register reg-ister that verdict. Thero Is no escape from It. |
