THE SUGAR TRUST LAW BRUSHED ASIDE WAS THE LAW BRUSHED ASIDE FOR FLUORIDATION IN SIMILAR FASHION? “ THE POLITICS OF BUSINESS ” The Sherman Anti-Trust law as well as other laws were indifferently brushed aside by the magnates rushing forward to organize trusts ; only a year after the enactment of the Sherman Anti-Trust law, the Havemeyers and associates formed the American Sugar Refining Company, a combination of one hundred and twenty-one plants. From their sugar refinery, that of Havemeyer & Elder, the Havemeyers had already become multimillionaires, and their fortune and the fortunes of their associates were enormously enhanced by the inordinate profits of the Sugar Trust. While the Rockefellers and their colleagues ever maintained a policy of profound silence, acknowledging nothing and disclosing nothing, Henry O. Havemeyer frankly, realistically admitted before a special committee of the United States Senate, in 1894, that trusts, railroad companies, corporations of all kinds, and rich individuals periodically contributed large amounts for campaign election purposes ; such “politics of business,” he testified, was the custom of “every individual and corporation or firm, trust or whatever you like to call it.” Always in State campaigns, he further testified, the dominant party received the contribution. This corruption was widespread and continuous. In return, official favors and immunity from molestation, or at any rate from serious prosecution was expected—and was given. And in such cases as disclosures and the indignation of public opinion forced officials to take some action, the result did not inconvenience the money magnates. This fact was illustrated by many cases, one of which is here to the point. In a previous chapter we have passingly referred to the great custom-house frauds committed for the benefit of the combination called the Sugar Trust, but now that we are specifically touching upon the origin of the Havemeyer and other fortunes from that industry, an extensive elucidation is called for. Under the caption “Frauds upon the Revenue,” the 1909 Annual Report of the Attorney-General of the United States (pp. 11 and 12) gave this account : THE SUGAR INDUSTRY AND FRAUD “ An investigation was undertaken during the year 1907 into certain alleged frauds upon the Government in the underweighing of sugars imported into the United States by the American Sugar Refining Cornpany and its predecessor, Messrs. Havemeyer & Elder. This investigation resulted, among other things, in a suit by the United States against the American Sugar Refining Company based upon proof of systematic frauds practiced in the weighing of sugars on the docks of the Havemeyer & Elder refineries in Brooklyn, N.Y., between the years 1901 and 1907.” As a matter of fact, it may be interpolated, the Custom House records published by the Sun of New York—then a morning newspaper—on November 11, 1909, showed that the frauds had been going on for at least two decades. The Sun’s front-page, nine-column article, running over to the second page, giving the evidence began : “ The Sugar Trust has stolen boldly and enormously, as the subjoined article shows, from the United States Treasury for at least twenty years. It stole with the assistance of officials employed by the United States. It was nursed and protected in its stealings by powerful politicians. . . Those who knew that the Sugar Trust was a thief and who sought for legal proof in the Custom House records were referred to the thief itself. . . . The facts show that the Sugar Trust could not have stolen upwards of $30,000,000 without the cognizance of Treasury officials and the patronage of politicians. . . . It stole from 5 to 10 per cent of the duty on every cargo. . . . The Sugar Trust’s power was such that it secured a special rate of estimating duties. This enabled it to juggle figures in the New York Custom House. . . . Shippers of sugar the world over knew of this robbery. Carriers knew it. Weighers knew it. Officials within the Custom House itself must have known it. The Sugar Trust silenced revelations.” Further, the article declared, the $30,000,000 that the American Sugar Refining Company had stolen in 20 years had been done “with the assistance and connivance of powerful and petty politicians,” including men of both of the old political parties who “shared in the plunder.” Returning to the U.S. Attorney-General’s Report we find this record : “ The evidence in the suit revealed a long-continued system of defrauding the Government, of unparalleled depravity.” The Government obtained a judgment. This resulted, late in April, 1909, “in the making of a compromise whereby the company paid to the Government the amount of the judgment of $134,411.03, and in addition the sum of $2,000,000, on account of duties fraudulently withheld by it on account of shortweighing of sugar imported by the American Sugar Refining Company of New York and the American Sugar Refining Company at the Havemeyer & Elder Refineries in Brooklyn or at its Jersey City refinery. This compromise was approved by the Secretary of the Treasury and by this department, and was accepted in full settlement of all civil liabilities. . .”
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 13:36:33 +0000
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