| OCR Text |
Show I Unprecedented Decline in Sugar Market Forms Commercial Sensation Tremendous changes In the sugar luurket during the pant year, an o!rcnt during the first alx months, followed by even greater drop during the last half of 1920, have been one of the sesnatlons in Amertca'H business rcad-juatmcnl. rcad-juatmcnl. This oensation&l decline In xugar during the nast few months ha had a dcprcKsli.;; effect upon muny other lineji of food products, and. with i he decline In wheal, lias had Btate-rial Btate-rial Influence in relation to Jobtx and wholesaler? The lrop ban bl en more than 20 cent n nound In r tw sugar at seaboard, thin helng l ho haU unon which all sugar prices of the country are romputtd. The decline la a reduction in price un-paralleled un-paralleled in the history of BUgar. H IOU .N ) RKAI Hons Violent reaction in the market af-fectlng af-fectlng any staph- article, generally produce dire results. But when such a thing happens to a commodity ltl;-ufnr, ltl;-ufnr, which in largely imported from other countries. It Is Sun to bring dln- aster and ruin in Ita wake It la estimated by some experts thai' the. losses will aggregate .',0,000.000. 1 an amount of money so large that it' a-p pears Incredible. Hut when one realizes that the United HtShU had Im-ported Im-ported during; the past i r more than i 3. 000.000 tons oi sugar, for which thev paid the people oi the world more than 1 1. 000,000. ooo. it is easy to understand the possibility of a loss of i 26 per cent, under conditions the! 1 have prevailed recently. The unfor-1 tunato feature of the situation, viewed I from the standpoint of an American, j is the fact thut (he foreign producer i iend dealer received more Hum 80 per' cent of all the monev paid out tor' high priced sugar, and the much j abused manufacturer and whok-.-al' gTocer in this country was left "hold-( "hold-( Ing the sack'' when the crash came. For example, during loaX July. Au-i gust and September, due m the high j price prevailing in the United SI H countries that had scarcely ever furu- H Ished this country with any sugar. I H but th:U had fortunately bought their 1 taw ItlCer '.hlle this country phU d- l bating the ad visibility of continuing! IHi government control for another year, I sold America supplie to the amount! 1 of ll77.7&6,?oS.G0. which amount ex-t ex-t t eeds by over $40,000,000 the aggre-' a Kie in mum r celved by nil of the bsbbbbbM beet :ugar producers In tin l ulled l St Ate for their id 18-19 crop. This l sugar, and a lot more that has arrived the last two months, is the supply that broke the market with such dla-H dla-H , aatrous results. rsni sTitv wn.i, si it i t This, in brief. ia the story of the sugar situation. l- rankl. it Is a pes-1 jtUniStli leia and n-iinUteilJy fraught ; with calamitous consequences, should sugar, in the face of Increased production pro-duction coats, go much lower In price. Uut what of the future ' H i a prti reached the bottom Has tho process of deflation run its full ceuree?" "Has the acute stage been reached and are normal conditions to! be accomplished without commercial panic of a long period of stagnation or uncertainty?" These, and other like question, are without doubt, giving giv-ing the leaders of American business i .oi.cerii thesi An entln sssssss un on the sugar question nva take It for granted that the Industry u passing through a perilous period, but he may bo confident that the Indus-1 it; will survive all trlbulaUon In spile H cf the heavy blow le has receh H In this connection, on of the best I H authorities on the sugar question re-' H centiy made this ob-. rvM0n: B "It is rharnctertstle of the leader H of American business that the no longer d. voting their chief thought and attention to tha dreline tn price 1 B and the lack of demand for merchan- I H dlse They are convinced thut tho B process of deflaUon. of which theee! I mantfeetations form a part. Is to be complished without of breakdown lB In the flnanoi.,1 organ nation or de- lH si ruction of the businew fabric of thsj easBBBBs! tiintrii. '"g aseured on this H point thr are mmtng their attention lH to the outlook for business during lB the coming year, and are rnentr,it- m ng attention upon the Question of iH ho a genuine revival of ImHtstrlat m activity can bs expretei) what bru- portloiix It Is likely to attain and how H this movement can be facilitated H "This, of course, ts the reason why lH such men are leaders, because thev iH can think ahead of the crowd jUs as thc 'foresaw and gave warning of LbbbbB mas sfmJLTi'tfi'0" .Whu? tbul"s bbbbbbb . traveling at its hlichst mo- lH ment urn. so now they look forward to B period of business revival and in- bbbB creasing prosperity when men of lej lH Ms ion urr still plunged n .ontempla- H Uon of the damage thit has h. n iH wrought and are filled with forvbod- H ing as to lb futur. H stattst.:.,iu. rugar appears to hold tH a corniuai ling Outelde or! IH America, prartlrally all cirilised oun- ,trles are Still rationing out sugar In the same way they did during the war only in Increased portions. Halftoning' id verj likely net es.sa ry, due to their, bavlng made sacrifices last rammer v In n they gold America a lot of I sugar badly heeded by their own peo-j pie. Such sales, however, were made to get some of the "easy money" thatj i American manufacturer and Jobbers I offered them In their scramble for' jetigar, f irlng. as they did no doubt, a repetition of the famine that h:id pr veiled in sugar circle earlier in I th war But regardless of present condi- j tlonx, students of sugar statistics in their attempt to solve the problem, are obliged to fall back on basic prlncl-j Pit . which In this Instance. Is the world's production, ilenee. it Is upon this basis that it can truthfully be said that statistically the Industry is all right. flor ex; tuple, the latest world's crop' ' ti mated h"th b t itul i ane Mic.tr. tabulated m long tons for 1920-21 asj compared with th- pre-war figures of 1913-H. shows a large deficit. Here are the figures. Ve Veiaand foiym-ssiu, vi China, India, tralla. Flgl. etc Africa, viz Egypt. Natal, Mozoinuhji' Maderln. etc Bsjurope) vi Oertnany, Etuaeia, Austria ran . I inly , Netherlands e Btal s bee) Loulelana nn! T xaa c Porto Rleo Virgin Islands i an: Central America, Cuba. Santo Dji BlitUb and French West Indies. Total Total 1H1S-14 Total 1520-21 World s deficit In making this comparison, with a-view a-view of showing the world's sucar epilation, ep-ilation, the fact mii-n not lie over- t looked that In pre-war days, most of 1 1 the sugar producing countries were ' I on a gold basis, and trading waa done 1 I on a parity! while the exchange value 1 of the countries In need of the money' I ii.i I very much depressed, com-il pan d with "the ajmlghty dollar." hence the difficult v of doing business with America. FIGURES COMPARED The pertinency of figures that show'1 a world's shortage of 4.572,872 tons may be illustrated by comparing them j with the total consumption figures of both foreign and domestic sunars, by , tho t'nlted States for the vear. 1S19.I m 4.S66.791 tone which means. If1' permission to buy freely in any mar-1 kct. purchasers of sjirai nil be ( obliged to face a situation that comprehends com-prehends a shortage tn the supply' equal to the total amount consumed I, In this country In 119. With rrspect to the local situation.'1 there are neonlo. it is thought, who' 1 doubtless believe that the big drop n sugar Is not bona fide or real, and say i "as noon ks the beets are all leathered, j) the price of sugar will advance " Of i course, no well informed or right 't i thinking psrson lakes this view, for i the simple reason that th amount of 5 sugar produced in I'tah and lil.iho, which appears large to Us and moan.' so much In our commercial life, really euts but u small figure In the establishment estab-lishment of the market price of sugar, since America produces but 3 per cent of I hi u.:jl amount consumed in the i iiit-.i Btatt Some time ago a large producer, foreseeing the likely collapse of the sugar market, and fculng that such un argument woul 1 be in. .!, v nt out a letter to Its bectgrnwers, offerlnit to extend the provision of the sliding scale contract over a period of a year. In place of four months, as originally agreed upon. The offer was made ,iu good faith and demonstrates beyond question, that the producers of sug.ir In Utah are willing to do the right thing by the farmer ut all times, and are not playing a fast and loose game, at, many appear to Imagine. i l i: or ism -i i In conclusion, this resume of the sugar situation, attention is directed to the value and great importance of the sugar Industry to Uie people at these mountain valleys. hen one realizes that the total production of sugar in the Utah-Idaho district will this year reach ft. figure close to, If not more, than 4.000.00J 100-pound bugs, and costing the manufacturer in round figure. approximately $37,600,-000, $37,600,-000, it Is at once apparent what this enormous amount of money meejIS when widely distributed among all claases of people. As an Illustration in order to make this amount of sugar It requires the growing of more than 1.600,000 tons of beets. The price paid this year is $12 per ton. necessitating the distribution of Something Some-thing like $20,000,000 tO the farmers. The factory costs consisting of coal. Ilmc rock, chemicals, labor, freight charges, etc., calls for the paving of 1111-14 1920-21 Java, Aus- 5.361.900 5.365.000 Mauritius. 685.486 '.75.000 Hungary. P. 079. 677 3.490.000 of I'nlteil ane, Hawaii, ida. Mexico, nlngo. Haiti, 6.370.609 7.345,000 21.847.872 16.776.000 21,347.872 16.775,000 4.672,872 an additional $10 or more per ton. bringing the total expenditure up to the figure mentioned above. This vast mm of money, 86 per cent of which In the. final analysis of Ihlngn ts obtained from the sale of sugar In the al, ' forlunatey. Is being distributed during dur-ing a critical business period "Just in the nick e-f time." and consequent-I ,y is the leav en that is working won-ten won-ten In the business life of the state.? t l"tah and Idaho these days. The llstrlbution of this money unquestlon-ibly unquestlon-ibly Is having the effect of rescuing ' many a poor fellow from bankruptcy. I s p.. miic off farmer' bans. and is, teeplng some business concerns out of i ier:ous financial difficulty, and s. in j act. a veritable Godsend to the peo-lie. peo-lie. as many letters received at local mgar offices from bankers m the ! .ountry districts testify. The foregoing article on sugar pro-1 luctlon was prepared foi The Stand-1 ird-Examlncr by an official of a local ! mgar company a man genorally recognized rec-ognized as not only well posted on lugar matters, but one who has had a prominent place in public affairs. The irticle. therefore, may be accepted as luthorltutlv e and informative on one f tho mot', important of western ln-luetries |
