DIAGRAM SHOWING ORGANIZATION OF THE SAFETY COMMITTEES ON THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC (On this system no passenger has been killed or injured in an accident in nearly four years) Let every one endeavor to realize and appreciate the importance of safety, and most of all let the individual citizen in his own conduct on railway property and in his influence on legislation and the administration of laws see that proper observance of existing stat which coming electrification may augment from the sphere of politics and from any rather than diminish. There must be a more repetition of the inefficiency and corruption thorough inspection of materials, methods that too often clouded their labors in the past. and appliances, and a systematic study under normal conditions of use as well as immediately after disastrous accidents. All investigations, whether by the railways themselves or by railway or commerce commissions and the adoption of improved methods and appliances conducive to increased safety should receive the fullest publicity, and public sentiment should be aroused in favor of safety. Detach before cashing check No. 24 Every employe should report promptly to his Superin- Central Safety Committee utes and regulations framed in the interest of all is obtained. Let the citizen appreciate the spirit of coöperation that should influence railway emThe efforts of employees and officials ployees and operatand realize that these ing officials to this end great public utilities should be recognized and the support of stock- can be carried on effectively only by such coholders and bondholders should be enlisted in öperation and by a sympathetic and discrimiall movements looking to making railway nating support of the public, expressed both transportation safer. The improvement in individually in daily contact and use of transthe composition and efforts of state railway portation facilities, and in their just and or public service commissions should continue proper regulation through legislative and and these bodies should be removed absolutely administrative channels. PASTER USED ON NORTH WESTERN PAY CHECK THE SUGAR AND THE TARIFF BY A. G. ROBINSON WORLD SUPPLY OF SUGAR HE world's consumption of sugar in 1912 sents the difference between the laid-down, is reported as approximately 16,000,000 duty-paid cost of the raw material and the tons, and the production of and for 1913 is wholesale price of refined sugar. The sum estimated at 18,000,000 tons. Therefore, the covers the cost of converting the raw sugar probability is low prices for the commodity into the finished, marketable product; the during the coming year, irrespective of possi- shrinkage occurring in that process; the ble change in the tariff. The present supply overhead charges; the cost of selling, packis fairly divided between the product of ing, distributing, and all else. For all this, sugar cane and sugar beets. Cane is a prod- the cost is estimated at 621⁄2 cents a hundred uct of tropical and semi-tropical countries pounds, leaving an average of approximately and beets are a product of the temperate zone. 25 cents to cover depreciation, improvements, The relation of the two since the beginning and dividends. In brief, on raw material of the century has been as follows: costing an average of about $4, plus refining cost and general charges of business, the refiners make a nominal profit of some 25 Total cents, or a margin of a little more than 5 per long tons cent. These are facts of public record, open 12,250,592 to any investigator, and they appear to dis13,193,346 12,020,661 pute the commonly accepted notion of extor12,323,671 tionate profits on the part of the refiners. 11,513,262 The profits of the producers of beet sugar 13,947,225 are less readily measured because of wide dif14,473,135 ference in reported cost of production in dif14,563,713 ferent mills. The Great Western Sugar Com14,927,394 pany, of Colorado, reports an average cost 16,963,128 of 3.76 cents for a period of years. The 15.545,000 Owosso Company, in Michigan, reports 4.48 18,091,000 cents in 1910. A California concern reports Year Cane long tons 1900-1 6,183,653 6,279,742 Beet long tons 6,066,939 6,913,604 6,263,941 5,756,720 6,234,203 6,089,468 6,594,782 4,918,380 6,731,165 7,216,060 7,329,317 7,143,818 6,917,663 7,002,474 7,635,838 6,927,875 8,339,888 6,587,506 8,412,908 8,550,220 8,765,000 6,780,000 1912-13(est.) 9,036,036 9,055,000 1901-2 1902-3. 1903-4. 1904-5 1905-6. 1906-7. 1907-8. 1908-9. 1909-10. 1910-11 . 1911-12. 13,920,137 The price of the commodity follows the supply generally and closely rather than absolutely, but with sufficient connection to warrant the statement that prices are now regulated by supply and demand entirely and not by the juggling manipulation of corporations in this country or abroad. The quotations for those years, published daily, have averaged thus: its cost as 2.7 cents. An expert statistician, a specialist in beet sugar, estimates the cost as averaging 3.67 cents for beet sugar ready for the market. As the wholesale price of refined sugar has averaged a little less than 4.9 cents for the last ten years, it would appear that the profit margin of the beet people is much wider than that of the refiners of cane sugar. On a basis of five-year averages, the sugar Refined Refiner's consumption of the United States for the last granulated margin thirty years has been as follows: 5.32 .754 Pounds per capita 49.92 1,629,000 1907 3.756 4.649 1908. .893 *1908-1913. : : : : : 58.53 1,976,000 63.82 .2,248,000 66.08 . 2,761,000 74.06 *1913 estimated 1909 1910.. 4.188 5.345 Only a part of this, estimated at about. 892 fifty-three pounds per capita, enters directly 879 into the household economy and, as far as The quotations for refined granulated are consumers are concerned, only that part of it wholesale prices. The refiner's margin repre- would be appreciably affected by a reduction in the duty. Candy, condensed milk, sweet- polariscope is more scientific and accurate. ened biscuit, jams, jellies, canned goods, and Seventy-five degrees by that test means 75 other market preparations in which sugar is a per cent. purity for the raw sugar, a grade of more or less important ingredient, would sell which practically none is imported. Much at no lower price with sugar on the free list the greater part of our imports is ninety-six than they do now. The effect of reduction degrees by polariscope test, or 96 per cent. on a pound of candy or biscuit, on a can of in purity. Seventy-five degrees is the tariff condensed milk, or a glass or jar of preserves, is so inconsiderable in the total cost that no change in retail prices would follow change in the tariff. basis, with an additional charge of thirtyfive one thousandths of a cent for each degree above that. On that basis, the tariff rate on the ninety-six degree sugars, comAbout one-fifth of the entire world-output monly called "centrifugals," is 1.685 cents a of sugar is required to supply the demand in pound. Cuban sugars, under the reciprocity the United States, now approximately 3,500,- treaty of December, 1903, are given a 20 per ooo tons, or a little less than 8,000,000,000 cent. reduction, making the rate on ninetypounds annually. This represents a four- six degree Cuban centrifugals 1.348 cents a fold increase in a generation. It may also be pound. Few other sugars are now imported noted that present prices of the commodity except from our non-contiguous territories, are about half what they were thirty-five Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines, years ago. It is true that a part of this enor- and all of those enter free of duty subject mous increase in consumption is attributable only to a limitation of Philippine sugars to to the increase in the number of consumers, the free entry of 300,000 tons a year. The but while the estimated 44,000,000 people in the country in 1875 consumed an average of forty-three pounds per capita, the estimated 96,000,000 of the present time consume more than eighty-one pounds. Fortunately, sugar is a commodity that can be produced in practically limitless quantity. It is merely a question of demand and of a reasonable profit cents a pound. on its production. It is purely a product of the rain and the sunshine, and neither the THE DUTCH STANDARD WORKS NO DETRIMENT cane nor the beet, as far as their sugar content is concerned, take anything from the soil in which they are grown. By continuous planting, the soil in which the cane and the beet are grown reaches a condition known to soil chemists as "tired"; the plant gets smaller and less vigorous, but it goes on forming sucrose as long as the sun shines on it and the rain falls on it. CUBA'S ADVANTAGE. sum of .337 of a cent marks the advantage of Cuban sugar over that of Java, Peru, Santo Domingo, and other foreign countries. The sum of 1.685 cents marks the advantage of domestic and insular producers over all competition except that of Cuba, in which the domestic and insular advantage is 1.348 Much has been said of late about the Dutch Standard, and its removal is urgently demanded by a few who appear not to understand its exact place and influence. The belief of such seems to be that the Dutch Standard prevents the distribution of a sugar familiar to them in their younger days, a sweet, soft, yellowish sugar, cheaper in price than the white granulated, and widely used in American kitchens forty or more years ago. The belief is entirely mistaken. Those To most laymen, the tariff on sugar is a sugars, like the old-fashioned New Orleans mystery which they have neither time nor and Porto Rico molasses, now practically out interest to unravel. To most of us, the para- of the market, were the product of a method graph in the tariff law reading, "Sugars not of making sugar that has been almost enabove number sixteen Dutch Standard in tirely superseded by improved devices that color, testing by the polariscope not above do not and can not produce either such sugar seventy-five degrees, ninety-five one hun- or the old-time molasses. Neither the tariff, dredths of one cent per pound" and so forth, nor the refiners, nor the color test have anymight as well be printed in Sanskrit. It thing whatever to do with that matter, and means nothing to the uninitiated. It need the restoration of such sugars by any form of not be explained here in all its details. Be- legislation is utterly impossible. The notion fore the polariscope was invented as a means that the removal of the Dutch Standard of testing the quality of sugar, a color test would bring into the market a supply of was used for that purpose and purity was de- usable unrefined sugar at low prices is equally termined by a set of color standards. The fallacious. Nothing could come into the WHAT FREE SUGAR WOULD MEAN market with that standard removed that is Russians all use it. It is coming into connot already on the market to a present possi- stantly greater use in this country. From ble extent of about 1,200,000 tons of cane the 73,000 tons produced in 1900, the domessugar from Louisiana, Hawaii, Porto Rico, tic output of beet sugar has increased to an and the Philippines. Half a dozen refineries estimated 625,000 tons at the present time. now sell an unrefined sugar to those who It is reported that $100,000,000 is invested want it, at prices about one cent a pound be- in the business. The census of 1909 shows low the price of refined. Or, wanting it in 364,000 acres planted in sugar beets that quantities, any one can buy ninety-six degree year, or nearly 600 square miles. The value centrifugals at the price paid by the refiners. of the crop, as beets for sale to the sugar There is no refiner's monopoly of such im- mills, was $20,000,000. They are grown in ports, and grocers or canners or shoemakers twenty different States, with Colorado leadcan bid against the refiners just as the refiners ing in acreage and ton production; and with bid against one another for their require- Michigan and California practically tied ments. On my table as I write this, there lie a for second place. dozen or more little tin boxes containing unrefined sugar, grading from a yellow-brown to an almost white, usable sugar, not unwholesome, cheaper than the refined granulated. There is good reason to believe that the The prices of these are quoted daily in some present tariff rate on sugar can be considerof the commercial papers, and anyone can ably reduced without disaster to any probuy them. The fact is that very few want ducer who has a right to be in the business, them. The demand of the market, to the that is, to any whose business does not deextent of 95 per cent. of the total sugar busi- pend absolutely upon an exorbitant tariff ness of the country, is for the dry, white, rate. For such, being injured, the communpure sugar the price of which is within the ity will have little concern. That some reach of the poor and that is wanted by poor would be injured by a reasonable reduction and rich alike. The Dutch Standard is a is quite certain. A reduction in price must convenience in custom-house processes, per- mean some curtailment of profit, but that haps not indispensable, but certainly working involves a loss that probably all could reno injury whatever to consumers. Moreover cover by better business methods, by more it does serve materially to exclude from the efficient system in production. Even the promarket sugar that is high in color and low in ponents of free sugar admit the general dissugar content, sugar that would sell at lower aster to American interests that would follow price but that would, because of its inferior the success of their efforts. Figures of cost quality, require a 10 or 20 per cent. greater of production show that under such condiquantity to afford the requisite sweetness. tions most of the cane planters of Louisiana, Most of the talk about the Dutch Standard and nearly all of the beet industry, would be is mere twaddle. wiped out. Much of the industry in Porto Rico and in Hawaii would be destroyed and sales to those islands would be heavily reduced. The Cuban reciprocity treaty would be annulled and sales to Cuba greatly cut down. In competition on equal terms, Cuban sugars would lose a large but uncertain part of their market in this country, and the economic state of the island under such conditions would almost certainly lead to political disorders. The present revenue to the Government, from the duty on sugar, is about $50,000,000 a year. If the whole, or any part, of this is taken away, a like sum must be obtained by some other form of taxation. EXTENSIVE USE OF BEET SUGAR Another notion prevails that beet sugar is inferior to cane sugar, and some housekeepers believe that beet sugar cannot be used for jams, jellies, preserves, etc. All this is a mistake. Pure sugar is pure sugar whether obtained from cane, beet, or sawdust. The people of Europe use beet sugar almost exclusively, and France and England use it in the production of enormous quantities of jams, jellies, etc., for domestic consumption and for export. The Germans use 1,200,000 tons or more yearly; the French, It is true that a sum representing at least a 650,000 tons or more; the Austrians 600,000 part of the duty is added to the price of the to 650,000 tons; and the British people, domestic product, and that sum goes to about two-thirds of their total requirement the producers of cane and beet sugar in the of nearly 2,000,000 tons. The Dutch, the United States and to the planters in Hawaii, Belgians, the Danes, Swedes, Italians, and Porto Rico and the Philippines, but it goes to maintain a vast industry and serves to put ary to compare the price of eighty-eight dethe United States on an almost absolutely in- gree raw beet sugar in Hamburg with one dependent footing in respect of its supply of hundred degree refined granulated here. The one of its most important foodstuffs. The average retail price of corresponding sugar price now paid for the benefit received is ex- in France and in Germany is a fraction ceedingly small. higher than the price in the United States. Prices in Canada are practically the same as prices here. The average of the United States being 5.7 cents, the average of all Europe is 7.8 cents. The price in Russia is above seven cents; in Sweden, 8 cents; in The Netherlands, 8.7 cents; in Spain, 12 cents; and in Italy, 14 cents. These, of course, are not fixed values but are the prices given at the time of an American quotation Comparison of retail prices in this and in other countries shows that, with a few exceptions, sugar is cheaper in the United States than it is elsewhere. In the United Kingdom, Denmark, Turkey, Switzerland, and Belgium, prices for corresponding grades of sugar are a fraction of a cent lower than they are here. From data gathered by American consuls, it appears that the average retail price in this country being 5.7 cents the of 5.7 cents. price of similar sugar in the United Kingdom The tariff on sugar is an issue far reaching and in Denmark was five cents. To show and vastly important. It should not be dethe higher cost in this country, it is custom- termined on a basis of mere assertion. THE NEW BALKAN DIPLOMACY: BY J. IRVING MANATT [Mr. Manatt, who was present at some of the sessions of the recent Balkan peace conference, at London, is a well-known authority on Balkan affairs, particularly Greek. He has an intimate acquaintance with the personalities he sympathetically sketches below.-THE Editor] HE members of the London-Balkan peace conference presented a body of men fit to give Europe and the world fresh confidence in the future of the Balkan states. If the war demonstrated their fighting strength, with all the national uplift and progress that implies, the men they sent to London show that in statecraft they have ample resources for the constructive work of peace. Two men at least in the Balkan delegations measured up to the highest European standards. I refer to the Greek Premier, M. Venezelos, and Dr. Danev, the head of the Bulgarian mission. tion carried out by that assembly. He presided at the negotiations for an armistice at Tchatalja and, later, put himself in close touch with the cabinets of Bucharest, Vienna, and Paris. He has thus, perhaps, a more immediate grip on the whole situation than any other man in the conference, unless it were the head of the Turkish mission, the astute and amiable Reshad Pasha who has represented the Porte at Sofia, Bucharest, Vienna, and Rome, and took a leading part in negotiating the Turco-Italian Peace at Ouchy-a peace followed immediately by the Porte's Dr. Danev has the prestige of representing declaration of war against the allies. These the foremost Balkan state, the one that stood two champions measured swords more than the brunt of the war and won its chief laurels. once in the conference. In downright astuteBut he requires no adventitious circumstance ness they are a well-matched pair. The to give him standing among European states- Bulgarian had the advantage of position and men. Entering high public life less than ten won every trick. He is an engaging peryears ago, he has been successively Minister sonality, very democratic and likeable, a of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister, Professor practical idealist, a Balkan statesman and of International Law at Sofia, Member of the patriot, but a far-sighted European as well. Hague Court of Arbitration, and is now If a great federal power is to rise in the President of the Grand Sobranje and largely Balkans and give a new balance to Europe, responsible for the revision of the constitu- he is sure to play a yet greater part in history. |