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Mr. Hathaway's Sad Plaint

Mr. Hathaway's Sad Plaint image
Parent Issue
Day
6
Month
March
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

MR. HATHAWAY'S SAD PLAINT.

Fred R. Hathaway, who until within the past year or two has been a teacher and superintendent of public schools in various Michigan cities, has recently blossomed out as an expert in figures as to beet sugar manufacturing and the cost of the same. In a plaint before the farmers' Institute at Owosso he pictured a highly colored representation of the bad outlook for the manufacturers of beet sugar in Michigan, the inability to pay the farmers more for their beets and the very small profits of the business. But it is said that the statements which, according to reports, seem to have been chiefly the dictum of Mr. Hathaway and based upon last year's business, caused smiles to flit over the faces of the wise ones in the institute. It is well understood that last year was very exceptional on account of the very great rainfall and consequently a very bad one for the beet growers. But Mr. Hathaway's song is the old one that the manufacturers have been singing ever since beet sugar manufacturing was started in Michigan. From the first they have insisted that the business was ruinous to those who have Invested their money in factories unless the state would give them a bounty. They have constantly fought the proposed reciprocity with Cuba on the same old song and yet all this time big money has continued to flow into new beet sugar factories. All this seems to prove the truth of the old saw that it is possible to tell a lie so many times that the liar really comes to believe his lie the truth. But it should be remembered that the most noted expert in the beet sugar line in the country, Mr. Oxnard, has said that there would be no trouble in making good dividends in beet sugar manufacture even under free trade.