320 THE QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 



sugar was mainly confiiied to tropical countries, a few sub- 

 tro[)ical districts like our own gulf states producing more or 

 less, but always at a disadvantage, except as aided by tariffs 

 or bounties. The discovery that sugar, identical with that of 

 cane, could be made from beets was made many years ago, but 

 at first the processes were too expensive and unsatisfactory for 

 commercial use. Gradually they were improved, until, about 

 the middle of the nineteenth century, beet sugar began to 

 appear in the markets of Europe. Protected, as it was every- 

 where, by a very high tariff, the manufacture increased, with 

 improved processes, until many countries, including Germany, 

 France, Russia, and Austria, were producing more sugar than 

 their populations could consume. In all these highly-taxed 

 countries, however, sugar, while protected by a high tariff, was 

 subjected to an internal tax, similar to that which, since 

 the Civil War, we have imposed on spirits and tobacco, and 

 collected in the same manner, at the factories. So long as 

 their product was all consumed at home, this did not matter 

 to the sugar makers, who simply added the tax to the factory 

 price, and the people paid it. The sugar supply of a country, 

 however, important as the article is, is easily made to exceed 

 the demand in any country where labor is abundant, because 

 it is produced from a comparatively small number of acres. 

 The main cost of the raw material of sugar is labor. In all 

 these countries, therefore, the supply came to increase to a 

 point where competition between factories became intense, and 

 the weaker were in danger of bankruptcy. At the same 

 time they found it impossible to export sugar upon which 

 the internal tax had been paid, because importing countries 

 could procure it cheaper elsewhere. In this emergency the 

 sugar producers appealed to the government to remit the 

 internal taxes on all sugar exported. This was very properly 

 agreed to, as it only placed the producers of those countries on 

 an equality with those of other countries, if any, whicn were 

 not subjected to internal or export tax, and gave an advan- 

 tage, perhaps legitimate, over producers who did pay such 

 taxes. The government still received a tax on all sugar con- 

 sumed at home, which was all that had been intended, and 



