PARAGRAPHS 216-219-BEET SUGAR. States in which sugar has been distributed: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota. I, B. C. Hubbard, Secretary of the Holland-St. Louis Sugar Co., certify that the statistics and costs shown above are correct as taken from the records of the company. B. C. HUBBARD, Secretary. BRIEF OF THE OWOSSO (MICH.) SUGAR CO. The COMMITTEE ON WAYS And Means, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.: The Owosso Sugar Co., of Owosso, Mich., was incorporated in 1902 under the laws of the State of Michigan. It has a paid-up capital of $1,250,000. In 1903 the company erected a beet-sugar factory at the city of Owosso, with a capacity of 1,000 tons of beets daily, and in 1904 it purchased a factory at Lansing, Mich., with a capacity of 600 tons daily. It has no connection with any other sugar company. The following is a statement of the operation of these two factories for the years 1906 to 1911, inclusive: The average price for these six years paid the farmers for each 100 pounds of sugar extracted from the beets was $2.77. The average net price received for sugar sold this year is about $4.30 per 100 pounds. About 6,000 farmers raise beets for our two factories each year, and the farmers are showing an increasing desire to grow beets. In the campaign of 1911 we had contracts for 22,000 acres of beets. We wish to urge upon the committee that the passage of a bill removing the tariff on sugar or materially reducing the same would result in the closing of all the beet-sugar factories in this country. PARAGRAPHS 216-219-BEET SUGAR. If we are given the proper measure of protection that would equalize the difference in the cost of production between the United States and foreign countries, we believe the beet-sugar business will develop to such an extent that we shall produce all the sugar consumed in this country. Owosso SUGAR Co., Secretary and Treasurer. BRIEF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BEET GROWERS, CONCERNING TARIFF REDUCTION. The implied contract between Uncle Sam and the beet growers of southern California, as well as all other sugar producers throughout the Nation, is based upon the principle that no established industry of the United States shall be injured by the administration of the Government or by action of the Congress. Incidentally beet sugar, along with other sugar production in this country, has received a measure of protection necessary for its very existence as against the foreignproduced cane of the Tropics and European bounty-fed beet sugars refined at the seaboard. Although not responsible for any part of the high cost of living, sugar being the lowest priced of any food product of an equal standard of purity, still this home product has been condemned for slaughter under tariff reduction in the interests of seaboard refiners and foreign producers. That injury will result from any reduction in tariff which will let in foreign sugars at such a figure as to compel growers to quit raising the raw material, beets, is apparent. The considerable outlay to properly equip the farmers to grow beets, the precarious labor supply, and the uncertainty of weather-these contingencies entitle him to an assurance that he will be protected from unsettled tariff conditions over which only the Government has control. Citing the attitude of the southern California farmer in the year 1912, he was accorded by the factories the substantial advance in price of 75 cents per ton. He now contends that labor took all the increased income and more by demanding $2.25 to $2.75 per day for 9 hours field labor at thinning and harvesting time. The industry to-day is confronted by serious problems. The question of labor, which is now the highest in the world for like work, precludes the possibility of the acceptance by the grower of a less price for beets, which will become necessary as soon as the price of sugar is so far lowered by tariff reduction as to compel the factories to pay less for beets or go out of business. To take less for his product with labor conditions as at present would compel the farmer to quit raising beets, hence the factories would be compelled to shut down for want of raw material. Thus it will be plainly seen that Congress has it in its power to stifle an industry that with a proper measure of continued protection would soon enable our people to retain upwards of $100,000,000 annually now expended in foreign countries for their sugar. A moment's reflection upon the benefits which $100,000,000 put into circulation in our midst brings to those through whose hands it passes in an endless chain will convince the most skeptical that we as Americans should pay out the money at home rather than abroad, from whence it is obvious it would never return. California is in the front rank, producing in 1912, 326,076,900 pounds of beet sugar, of which southern California made 173,291,500 pounds. The State as a whole produced sufficient sugar to provide for the needs of the people in all the States west of Mississippi River, with the exception of Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Believing you will recognize the importance of the industry, Respectfully submitted. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BEET GROWERS. (By petition.) |