HOW TO RAISE REVENUE. 747 



Viewed from the standpoint of equity and expediency, tlie 

 proposition to assess all the varieties of imported sugars at one 

 and the same rate of duty is something extraordinary. The 

 United States, for the attainment of its fullest material develop- 

 ment as a nation, must have foreign commerce. It desires to 

 attract all nations to its markets ; and, except when it is itself 

 made the subject of discrimination, it must, for the attainment 

 of this end, admit to equal privileges the people of all nations 

 desiring commercial intercourse. Were the proposition soberly 

 made to discriminate specially and by name, in our commercial 

 laws, against any one, two, or more unoffending nations, the pro- 

 ponent would be speedily hooted into silence. But the proposi- 

 tion to assess raw sugars at one rate embodies this very thing. 

 Thus, to illustrate, the sugars produced in countries of low civili- 

 zation, like Brazil, Central America, the East Indies, and the like, 

 constifMte the hulk of the sugar product of the luorld, and are low 

 in grade and price, and necessarily so because these countries 

 lack intelligence and capital. Such sugars are, however, capable 

 of purification without difficulty, and afford the largest basis in 

 so doing for the profitable employment of domestic labor and 

 capital. The producers, furthermore, must sell them in our 

 markets if they in return are to buy any of the products of our 

 skill and machinery, for they have little or nothing else to buy 

 with. Such raw sugars naturally command the lowest prices in 

 the world's markets. On the other hand, the raw sugars pro- 

 duced in Cuba and Demerara are much further advanced in 

 manufacture, and are largely known as "centrifugals," from 

 having been subjected to a purely mechanical (rotary) process 

 of refining. Such raw sugars command the highest prices, and 

 are worth on the average at least fifty per cent more than the 

 sugar products of countries of a low civilization. A uniform 

 duty on all raw sugars of one cent per pound would, therefore, 

 be equivalent to an ad-valorem tax, or tax on market value, of 

 about fifty per cent on the cheaper grades, and about twenty-five 

 per cent on the highest grades ; or, in other words, if the Gov- 

 ernment, under a uniform rate of one cent, were to collect its 

 (customs) taxes in kind on sugar, it would take one half the 

 importations of low-grade sugars, while only one fourth of the 

 importation of high grades would be taken for the same purpose. 

 All the machinery of the Government is now adapted to the ad- 

 valorem system of taxing sugars, and in the opinion of the 

 Treasury officials it can be and is honestly administered. 



It is difficult to see why, with an impending deficiency of 

 national revenue, sugar grown in the Hawaiian Islands, and the 

 importation of which into the United States in 1895 exceeded 

 280,000,000 pounds, should be admitted free of duty. Is it not 



