| Show A GREAT INDUSTRY sugar is a household necessity its cleanliness purity and price are of daily concern to millions of homes during the world war the industry went under government control as a patriotic service expanding its capacity to care for the allied nations no provision was made by our government to hold through trade agreements the allied nations business after the war refiners refinery Re finers as individuals were powerless to accomplish this end so this left us with excess capacity more than enough for domestic need since the war nations have by tariffs bounties and other devices closed their doors against american refined sugar and by bounties on exports have displaced our refined sugar even in world markets our large excess capacity is thus a legacy from our war effort due to a loophole in the tariff the domestic industry has been furt further lier imperiled by a beliber deliberate ate duplication in the tropics of le i c fining facilities long established here our tariff and colonial policy encouraged the production of raw sugar in the islands and protected its refining on the mainland the tariff loophole reversed that cearly a mistake and a costly one the extent of this duplication is shown by the amount of refined sugar coming comin into continental united states which has increased from tons in 1925 to tons in 1932 the refined sugar brought in during 1932 was sufficient to supply americans equivalent to th the consumption of 21 states and resulted in reduced meetings mel tings in united states dismissal of employees reduced wages and decreased purchase of supplies tropical re finers now seek to perpetuate their duplication of united states re finers by demanding an official share or quota in the united states market naturally but would it be fair to the domestic industry their employees and stockholders numbering tens of thousands would it be in the public interest would it square with american policy old and new the philippines and puerto rico have been liberally treated and should be content to continue as producers of raw sugar as originally intended would it be fair to give cuba a quota on chocolate and silk and other manufactured articles or would it be fair to give canada a quota on flour or holland on cheese if so what a stimulus for further unnecessary duplication of mainland facilities if not why should the sugar refining industry be subject to such official tre treatment at in 1920 the tariff commission pointed out that cuba did not refine sugar and so the 20 per cent preference in cuban raw sugar afforded protection to american re finers this theory failed when cuba built refineries cuba knew full well our tariff principle of providing a higher duty on an imported manufactured article than on the raw material imported for its domestic manufacture cocoa beans are on the fice list but chocolate pays 40 per cent duty raw silk is free of duty but silk itself pays 65 per cent duty and so generally cuban duplicators of domestic sugar refineries well understood that they had no claim on the united states market or households this is true of canada england france italy holland sweden denmark japan australia and generally throughout the world refining in country of consumption is the approved appi oved practice such is the practice in canada england france holland japan and other countries and always has been the practice in the united states it has proven best for raw sugar producers everywhere it has proven the best safeguard for the households rather than dependence pen dence on remote tropical refineries united states sugar refineries now have the capacity and can employ labor if the sugar now refined in cuba were refined in the united states we enter daily about homes cleanliness purity and prices are daily topics if sugar prices are high ane households look to us if low the sugar producers in the tropics look to us we stand between these two large groups with a permanent relationship to both sugar refining and distribution to to be efficient in all respects must be a large volume industry in years of crop failure we search the world for supplies in years of war we are vital to national defense anything which lessens our volume lessens our efficiency and increases our costs the households of the country will be the first to feel the effect from our contacts with the sugar producers of the tropics we are satisfied that they agree with us that the two hundred year system of producing sugar in the sugar islands and refining it in m the united states where it is consumed should not be disrupted |
