264 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



COMMITTEES ON THE ARTIFICIAL COLORING OF SUGARS, 

 ON THE USE OF THE POLARISCOPE TO DETERMINE THE 

 VALUE OF SUGARS, AND ON DEMARARA SUGARS. 1876-1878 



These three committees were appointed in 1876, 1877, and 

 1878 at the request of the Treasury Department, and were con- 

 cerned with the question of the valuation of sugars in connec- 

 tion with customs duties. 88 For many years the duties on 

 different grades of sugars were levied in accordance with their 

 color, or what was known as the Dutch standard. After a time, 

 however, the Government began to suspect that certain sugars 

 were artificially colored, whereby the higher grades were made 

 to assume the appearance of the lower grades, 89 and were in 

 consequence assessed at a lower rate than that which was prop- 

 erly chargeable. In a test case which was tried in Baltimore in 

 1878, the court decided that the fact of the artificial coloring of 

 the sugars concerned for the purpose of defrauding the revenue 

 was proven but held that no penalty could be enforced because 

 it was not demonstrated that the importer had a guilty knowledge 

 that the coloring was done for the purpose of escaping the higher 

 duty. 90 Thus, while the fact that certain sugars were artificially 

 colored was no longer in question, the position of the Govern- 

 ment as regards the collection of duties was no better than before. 

 Acting on the opinion of the court, however, the Treasury De- 

 partment temporarily ordered that wherever the color of sugar 

 was mentioned in the law it should be interpreted as meaning 

 the color which it would naturally have as a result of the partic- 

 ular process by which it had been produced, or at the particular 

 stage to which the process of clarification had been carried. 

 Whenever there was reason to suspect that sugar had been 

 artificially colored, its saccharine strength was to be determined 

 and duty levied in accordance with the color which it would 

 normally have when of that strength. 91 The strength was deter- 

 mined by the use of the polariscope, and the Customs Office had 



88 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. i, p. 133. Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1879, p. n. 

 "Rep. Seer. Treas. for 1877, pp. xxvi, xxvii. 

 90 Rep. Seer. Treas. for 1878, p. xxvii. 

 "Rep. Seer. Treas. for 1879, pp. xxiv, xxv. 



