THE CUBA REVIEW 13 



until about September 25th, when the price was modified to 2^c. c. & f., at which 

 price transactions were made covering quite a considerable quantity of sugar. On 

 the 14th of October, the price was again reduced by the committee to 2^c. c. & f. 

 During November the committee continued quoting lYzC with a continually decreasing 

 volume of sales. About the middle of this month the Emergency Tariff Law of the 

 United States was prolonged by President Harding until the passage of a new tariff 

 bill, thus destroying temporarily the hopes of Cuban sugar holders of relief from this 

 source. The quotation at which sugar was continued to be offered by the committee, 

 2^c. per pound, was entirely nominal, but was adhered to until about the middle of 

 December when a reduction was made to 2^c., this price being finally further reduced 

 to 2c. in view of the competition between sugars held by the committee, the dissolution 

 of which had already been declared, and sugars which after January 1st would be 

 uncontrolled, this competition being increased by the offerings of new crop sugars at 

 prices below 2c., the final low price of 1 13/16 being registered about the last of 

 December, but before the committee had ceased operations. 



It was only a short while after the committee began to operate that objections 

 commenced to be raised against it. Of course, the mere fact that through its operation 

 dealing and speculation in sugar ceased, rendered its existence obnoxious to many 

 local and foreign firms whose business had been to deal in sugar. The announcement 

 also by the committee that 3^2C. per pound would be retained from the sums received 

 from sugar sales, the money thus held to be used in the final liquidation at the average 

 price obtained for all sales by the committee, was also a cause of opposition, as this 

 Yzc. was regarded as too large a percentage of the price at which the sugars might 

 be sold. Moreover, the local sales of small lots of sugars formerly made with great 

 frequency by the colonos to whom sugar was delivered in liquidation of their canes, 

 were paralyzed, as no buyers wished to assum.e the risk of holding sugar for the 

 long period which might be necessary before shipping permits could be obtained. 

 This same impossibility of being able to specify with reasonable certainty dates of 

 shipment made the ready securing of loans impossible, this also proving a hardship 

 to many. As time passed and the price of sugar was not maintained but the committee 

 found itself obliged to go with the current, offering sugars at ever decreasing prices, 

 the objection was raised that the committee in this respect had not been able to attain 

 its object, and the further complaint was raised that in the respect of disposing of 

 the crop the committee also had failed to fulfill its purpose, as, as we have already 

 seen, for quite long intervals the committee was withdrawn entirely from the market, 

 not offering sugars at the prices prevailing at which sugars from other countries were 

 being sold. The further objection was made that the committee had not lived up 

 to one of the purposes indicated by its name, that of financing the sugar industry, 

 as from the very start it had indicated its inability to do this. 



Whether the organization of the committee and its work has been of benefit 

 to Cuba or not, will, of course, be always a mooted question. The committee was 

 fighting against world conditions in the sugar industry that rendered it to a very great 

 extent powerless to wield an effective influence in the control of prices and sales. 

 Perhaps never in the history of the world had there been such a heavy carry-over 

 of visible and invisible supplies of sugar in the United States as existed on the 1st 

 of January, 1921, and in addition to these supplies there were in Cuba about 400,000 

 tons of old crop sugars. When the decree was passed forming the committee, it 

 was necessary to respect all the contracts covering sugar sales which had been effected 

 previous to the date of its commencement of actual operations, and it later developed 

 that the quantity of sugar thus sold and removed from the control of the committee 

 to be shipped where, when and as its producers saw fit, amounted to more than 8,000,000 

 bags, or about 1,200,000 long tons. These sugars were being produced in Cuba, many 

 of them by sugar mills closely connected financially with the refiners of the United 

 States, and the sugar from this source undoubtedly prevented a heavier demand for 

 the sugars under the committee's control. That these conditions, however, would 

 have existed even had the committee not been organized, there is no doubt, and that 



