PARAGRAPH 217-MAPLE SUGAR. MAPLE SUGAR. BRIEF OF REID, MURDOCK & CO., CHICAGO, ILL. To Hon. OSCAR W. UNDERWOOD, CHICAGO, February 19, 1913. Chairman Ways and Means Committee, Washington, D. C. IN RE TARIFF 4 CENTS PER POUND ON MAPLE SUGAR. DEAR SIR: We invite the attention of yourself and members of the Ways and Means Committee, and would respectfully ask that you give the subject due consideration. Within a few years the Amalgamated Tobacco Co.'s requirements in maple sugar for sweetening and flavoring purposes have grown with surprising rapidity. Their control of this valued farm product has developed into a strangle hold. The needs of the tobacco aggregation annually are already in excess of 100 carloads of maple sugar and growing by leaps and bounds, the introduction of maple into their processes being one of comparatively recent date. At their present rate of absorption, in 10 years more there will be practically none of this superb commodity available for family use. In substantiation we submit the following: In years of normal crops New England and northern New York supply the country with about 200 carloads of maple sugar and sirup; other maple-producing States furnish barely enough for home consumption, with the possible exception occasionally of Ohio. The removal of half the crop in a lump by the manufacturers of tobacco now effects a scarcity, resulting in prohibitive prices to the housewife. The food-consuming public is helpless, and to this statement the scrutiny and influence of your committee is earnestly sought. First, the tobacco people can pay any price necessary to take maple sugar away from those who would consume it as a food. They are already doing this relentlessly. Second, the masses deprived now of half the yearly crop of maple sugar and destined to lose the remainder at an early date are denied access to the remedy, viz, the hundred carloads or more of maple just over the Canadian line, the tariff on which is 4 cents per pound. Between our Government and the tobacco aggregation millions of American consumers are deprived of a delicious edible in order, substantially, to favor a few New England farmers on whose lands the Creator planted and maintains unassisted the wonderful maple trees, a boon to humanity. God may be willing to have his beneficent designs thus thwarted, but we are asking Congress if it is at all necessary in the light of developments. The tobacco industry emphatically refuses to use Canadian sugar, but our own consumers would be glad to. It may not be as good as the United States of America product, but it is, or soon will be, all there is unappropriated. The American maple product, gentlemen, is doomed to pass entirely into tobacco channels. No price is too high for the manufacturers of plug to pay for the sweetening and flavoring; the public can not compete for the sugar. During the latter part of the year just passed the so-called tobacco combine, running low on maple sugar, found the supply in the country exhausted. To prevent a recurrence of the shortage, the tobacconists instructed their purchasing agency to invade the maple-sirup sections of Vermont and New York and summarily convert entire communities of lifelong sirup makers into sugar producers in time to capture the crop of 1913 now close at hand. This plan, hatched in a night, was worked with signal success. Unprecedented inducements were made to farmers, a clean sweep resulted, and 50 to 60 cars of sirup, long depended on as for the people, were dragged off the platter and will now go yearly into the tobacco camp, swallowed up, lost to the homes, as if it never existed. We feel sure if you will investigate the situation the facts will bear out our statements and we will be pleased to submit such information as we possess to the committee either in person or a further detailed statement. Very respectfully submitted. This concludes the hearing on Schedule E. 78959°-VOL 3-13-21 REID, MURDOCH & Co., NAME INDEX. SCHEDULE E. Page. Alameda Sugar Co., Alameda County, Cal.; beet-sugar industry. 2459 Allen, C. H., Paulding, Ohio; sugar industry. 2149 American Molasses Co., New York, N. Y.; molasses. 2490 American Bottlers' Protective Association, New York, N. Y.; cane sugar. 2102 American Sugar Refining Co.; raw and refined sugar. 2381 Arbuckle Bros., New York, N. Y.; refined sugar. 2337 Asociacion de Productores de Azucar de Puerto Rico, San Juan, P. R.; sugar Board of County Commissioners, Morgan County, Colo.; sugar-beet industry 2457 2345 Canners' League of California, San Francisco, Cal.; raw and refined sugar. 2331 Carey, Francis K., Baltimore, Md.; standard granulated sugar. 2406 Case, F. B., Santa Ana, Cal.; beet-sugar industry.. 2431 Chamber of Commerce, Fort Collins, Colo.; beets, etc.. 2445 Chamber of Commerce, Fort Morgan, Colo.; sugar-beet industry. 2457 Chamber of Commerce, Loveland, Colo.; beet culture...... 2447 Coker, M. M., et al., Santa Ana, Cal.; protest..... 2485 Committee of Manufacturers of Corn Products; corn products, corn sugar, etc.. 2389 Committee of Wholesale Grocers; raw and refined sugars. 2262 Cressey, E. Wilson, Bay City, Mich.; beet-sugar industry. 2472 Crouch, J. A. M., Fort Morgan, Colo.; sugar-beet production.. Federal Sugar Refining Co., of New York; raw and refined sugars. 2262 Fernald, Hon. Bert M., West Poland, Me.; canned food.. 2330 Fordney, Hon. J. W.; letter to..... 2313 Garnsey, W. S., Billings, Mont.; beet-sugar industry.. 2469 German-American Sugar Co., Bay City, Mich.; beet-sugar industry Hires Condensed Milk Co., Philadelphia, Pa.; refined sugar (condensed milk). 2309 2473 2309 Howard, John L.; beet-sugar industry.... 2459 Hubbard, B. C., Holland, Mich.; operation of beet-sugar factories. 2474 Hull & Reeve, Washington, D. C.; corn products, corn sugar, etc.. 2389 2173 2337 Kalanianaole, J. K., Washington, D. C.; sugar industry in Hawaii. 2397 2488 Lowry, Frank C., New York, N. Y.; raw and refined sugars. 2262 McHugh, P. J., Fort Collins, Colo.; beets, etc. 2445 Michigan Sugar Co., Detroit, Mich.; domestic sugar, etc.. 2423 2353 2344 E Page. National Sugar Securities Co.; standard granulated sugar. 2406 2432 Officer, A. V., Scottsbluff, Nebr.; beet-sugar industry. 2463 2487 Owasso Sugar Co., Owasso, Mich.; operation of beet-sugar factories. 2475 Packard, Edwin, New York, N. Y.; Porto Rico conditions.. 2390 Palmer, Trueman G.; domestic beet sugar, granulated sugar.. 2412 Petitions of sugar-beet growers.. 2488 Petrikin, W. L., Denver, Colo.; refined sugar.. 2461 Porter, Joseph E., New Orleans, La.; cane sugar.. 2403 Post, James H., New York, N. Y.; raw and refined sugar.. 2344 Rio Grande Cane Growers' Association, Brownsville, Tex.; raw sugar. 2386 Rivera, Hon. Luis Muñoz, Washington, D. C.; sugar cane. 2390 Ryan, J. B., Rocky Ford, Colo.; beet growing.. 2443 Santa Ana Cooperative Sugar Co., Santa Ana, Cal.; protest. 2485 2384 Schroeder, John T., San Bernardino County. Cal.; beet sugar. Scottsbluff Sugar Co., Scottsbluff, Nebr.; beet-sugar industry Southern California beet growers; beet growing.. 2490 2463 Smith, Cameron N., Owasso, Mich.; operation of beet-sugar factories. 2475 2477 Southern California Sugar Co., Santa Ana, Cal.; beet-sugar factories.. 2432 Southern California Wholesale Grocers' Association, Los Angeles, Cal.; beet Union Sugar Co., Santa Barbara County, Cal.; beet-sugar industry 2459 Wagner, R. G., Milwaukee, Wis.; domestic sugar, etc.. 2426 Warner Sugar Refining Co., New York, N. Y.; raw sugar. 2388 Wisconsin Sugar Co., Milwaukee, Wis.; domestic sugar, etc. E 2426 |