714 STEVENSON, ADLAI E. 



SUGAR. 



and appoint Democrats in their places. The 

 celerity that he displayed in this work made 

 him very popular with Democratic partisans, 

 especially throughout the South, and " Adlai's 

 axe" became almost a proverbial expression. 

 His urbanity and courtesy in social life made 

 him exceedingly popular with all classes of peo- 

 ple, and he was one of the favorites of Mr. 

 Cleveland's administration at Washington dur- 

 ing the four years of Democratic rule. FTe 

 was nominated by President Cleveland to the 

 bench of the Supreme Court of the District of 

 Columbia, but the Republican Senate refused to 

 confirm him. After Mr. Harrison's inaugura- 

 tion Mr. Stevenson again returned to his law 

 books, but in 1892 he was chosen as a delegate-at- 

 large from Illinois to the National Democratic 

 Convention in Chicago and earnestly worked for 

 the nomination of Mr. Cleveland. He was 

 unanimously elected chairman of the Illinois 

 delegation, and made all the announcements of 

 its vote until his name was entered in the Vice- 

 Presidential contest, when he retired to the gal- 

 lery. He accepted the nomination in an eloquent 

 speech at the official reception to the candidates 

 in Madison Square Garden, New York, and after- 

 ward took a very active part in the canvass, 

 speaking in most of the Western, Central, and 

 Southern States. He is of commanding presence, 

 being over six feet tall and of good build. He 

 has a clean-cut face with Scottish features, sharp 

 blue eyes, gray hair, and a drooping iron-gray 

 mustache. Mr. Stevenson is married and has 

 three daughters and one son. The accompany- 

 ing portrait is made by permission from a photo- 

 graph by Sarony. 



SUGAR. It has been the policy of this country 

 to foster the sugar industry by a protective tariff 

 since the foundation of the Government. The 

 first tariff act passed after the adoption of the 

 Constitution, that of July 4, 1789, placed a duty 

 of one cent a pound on raw sugar, and of three 

 cents on refined sugar ; and the various tariff 

 acts enacted since have imposed duties on sugar, 

 either ad valorem or specific. 



The tariff act of October 1, 1890 (20 Stat. 567), 

 commonly known as the McKinley Bill, made a 

 radical change in the mode of affording protec- 

 tion. It provided for the admission of sugar up 

 to and including No. 16 Dutch Standard of color 

 free of duty from April 1, 1891. 



Sugar above No. 16 Dutch Standard was made 

 liable to a duty of one cent a pound, and one- 

 tenth of one cent per pound in addition when 

 exported from, or the product of any country 

 which pays, directly or indirectly, a bounty on the 

 exportation of any sugar that may be included 

 in this grade which is greater than is paid on raw 

 sugars of a lower saccharine strength. 



Section 3 of the act authorized the President, 

 after January 1, 1892, to suspend the provisions 

 relating to the free introduction of sugar from 

 any country producing and exporting it, when 

 satisfied that the Government of such country 

 imposes duties upon the products of the United 

 States, which, in view of the free introduction 

 of sugar, molasses, coffee, tea, and hides into 

 the United States, might be deemed recipro- 

 cally unequal and unreasonable. 



Reciprocal commercial arrangements have been 

 made with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Brazil, 



Spain for Cuba and Puerto Rico, Santo Do- 

 mingo, Salvador, Great Britain for British Gui- 

 ana and the British West Indies, Nicaragua, 

 Honduras, and Guatemala. No arrangements 

 having been made with Hayti, Venezuela, and 

 Colombia, the President issued proclamations, 

 March 15, 1892, declaring sugars from those 

 countries subject to the duty fixed by the act. 

 As these countries export little or no sugar to this 

 country the imposition of duties has little effect 

 except to sliow that the Government intends to 

 carry out this provision of the law. 



To compensate sugar producers for the loss 

 sustained by the removal of duties and to en- 

 courage the industry, the law provided that for a 

 period of 14 years, from July 1, 1891, to July 1, 

 1905, there should be paid, from any moneys in 

 the Treasury, not otherwise appropriated, to the 

 producer of sugar, testing not less than ninety 

 degrees by the polariscope, from beets, sorghum, 

 or sugar cane grown within the United States, or 

 from maple sap produced within the United States, 

 a bounty of two cents per pound ; and upon such 

 sugar testing less than ninety degrees by the po- 

 lariscope, and not less than eighty degrees, a 

 bounty of one and three-fourths cents per pound. 

 The sugar producer intending to claim the bounty 

 must file, prior to July 1st of each year, with the 

 Commissioner of Internal Revenue, a notice of 

 the place of production, with a general descrip- 

 tion of the machinery and methods to be em- 

 ployed by him, with an estimate of the amount 

 of sugar proposed to be produced, including the 

 number of maple trees to be tapped, and make an 

 application for a license, which notice and appli- 

 cation must be accompanied by a bond in such 

 an amount as the Commissioner shall prescribe, 

 conditioned that the applicant shall faithfully 

 observe all the rules and regulations which shall 

 be prescribed. 



If the application and bond are satisfactory 

 and approved, a license is issued. All the details 

 relating to the supervision of the factories, weigh- 

 ing the sugar, and payment of the bounty, are 

 matters of regulations prescribed by the Commis- 

 sioner of Internal Revenue with the approval of 

 the Secretary of the Treasury. 



The sugar is weighed at the place of production 

 or at designated central places by weighers ap- 

 pointed by Collectors of Internal Revenue. 

 Claims for bounty are first presented to the Col- 

 lector of Internal Revenue of the district, who 

 certifies them to the Commissioner of Internal 

 Revenue, by whom they are examined and for- 

 warded to the proper accounting officers of the 

 Treasury. After final allowance, drafts upon 

 the Treasury are issued in payment, which are 

 mailed or delivered to the persons entitled thereto. 



All sugar must be classified under the law ac- 

 cording to the polariscope test. The polariscope 

 that has been adopted by the Internal Rev- 

 enue Bureau is the " half shadow " apparatus 

 made by Schmidt and Haensch, Berlin. This 

 instrument is adapted for use with white light 

 illumination from coal oil or gas lamps. It is 

 easy to read, requiring no delicate discrimination 

 of colors by the observer, and can be used by 

 a person who is color-blind. It is adjusted to 

 the Ventzke scale that is, 1 degree of the scale 

 is the To-th part of the rotation produced in the 

 plane of polarization of white light iu a column 



