A Sugar Bounty Map

A small map of this large country is distributed gratuitously where it is expected to serve its purpose best, witb. the compliments of Delgado & Co. It is instructivo in various ways, besides being in some respecta picturesque. It shows how all roads lead to the sugar canefields of Louisiana. An explanatory remark in manuscript states that it shows how "other sections" will be "affected" by the murder of the sugar industry "by the Wilson bill as, it now stands." Upon its face are depicted numerous trains of cars, said to be loaded, some with fruit from California, others with meat from the wild west, others with oil and coal from Pennsylvania, others with grain from various sections, others with manufactures of different kinds from the east, others with cow peas ïrom the Carolinas and so on, and all destined to the canefields of Louisiana. Besides the trains tbere are vessels on the exaggerated bosom of the Mississippi, on the gulf and on the Atlantic careering majestically toward the same destinarion. The inference suggested is that if tbe cane growing industry should be slain by the Wilson bill all this commerce would cease, and all sections of the country would be involved in the Louisiana ruin, even as the Philistines perished with Samson when that mighty man of muscle pulled down the pillars of the temple. A sumniary statement in the margin conveys the information that the total value of the commodities shipped annually to the canefields from all parts of the country is $29,910,000, and that those fields yield $25,000,000 worth of producís. It f ollows that the fields do not produce enough to pay for what they get from other parts of the country, the deficit being $4,910,000 annually. This is an instructive exhibit. It would be more so if accompanied by an explanation of the way in which this deficit is made good. Perhaps it is not made good. In that case the loss must f all upon the people of other sections who supply the beef, wheat, oil, mules, cow peas and other things, and the trade might better be destroyed than not. The f urther information is imparted that the $25,000,000 worth of cane products support 600,000 people. That gives each of them $41.66J annually for support. This also is instructive. It shows at once how unprofitable the cane growing industry is, and how little it takes to support a person in southern Louisiana. The point of it all is that the bounty of 2 cents a pounrl must be kept up, or the market for $29.910,000 worth of products from all parts of the country will be destroyed. Calling 25 per cent of that sum profits, which is a liberal allowance, the entire profit on this trade would be $7,477,500. But the bounty last year exceeded $10,000,000 a year for trade yielding a profit of less than $7,500,000. The people would be better off to let the trade go and keep in their pockets what they pay in bounty to the canegrowers. But there is no danger of losing the trade. The people of Louisiana may produce less sugsr if they get no bounty, but they will i-oduce more cotton, more rice and mor of various other things. They are not going to stop producing if the bounty is stopped. They will produce about as much as ever and will be able to buy about as much from the people of other sections. There will be about the same trade and the same profit, and the bounty will be saved to taxpayers. -