Fixing the Price of Sugar Canada, 1887 – 1920 Selected, Transcribed and Annotated By Chris Willmore Table of Contents 1887 – 1888 ....................................................................................................................... 5 “Who cares a hang for the consumer?” (August, 1887) ......................................................... 5 “The weak spot of the grocery trade” (August, 1887) ............................................................ 6 “Unjust in spirit and inaccurate as to facts” (August, 1887) .................................................. 8 “The Sugar Robbery” (August, 1887) ...................................................................................... 9 “The Protection on Sugar” (August, 1887) ........................................................................... 10 Startling Facts Laid Bare (September, 1887) ........................................................................ 11 “Some Action is Necessary” (September, 1887) ................................................................... 13 Consumers Lose, Retail Grocers Lose More (October, 1887) ............................................... 13 “Against the grasping monopoly” (October, 1887) .............................................................. 14 “Their last shot is not fired” (January, 1888) ........................................................................ 15 “The Guild is a secret society” (February, 1888) .................................................................. 15 “Enormous profits” (February, 1888) ................................................................................... 16 The Cost of Importation (February, 1888) ............................................................................ 16 “Mr. Mathewson is hostile” (February, 1888) ...................................................................... 19 “Down on Combines” (March, 1888) .................................................................................... 21 “Mercantile Combinations” (March, 1888) .......................................................................... 22 “A Sacrifice Article” (March, 1888) ....................................................................................... 26 “The Refiners’ Side” (March, 1888) ...................................................................................... 29 “The Ultimate Effect of the Guild” (March, 1888) ................................................................ 30 “The Wholesalers Heard” (March, 1888).............................................................................. 32 “Ruinous Competition” (March, 1888) ................................................................................. 35 “Combinations Condemned” (May, 1888) ........................................................................... 38 1891 – 1913 ..................................................................................................................... 39 “Make trash and charge a big price for it” (February, 1891) ................................................ 39 “Claim It’s a Grocers’ Combine” (April, 1905) ...................................................................... 40 Freight and the Combines (January, 1905) ........................................................................... 40 Refused Goods by the Refinery (November, 1905) .............................................................. 41 The Knight Sugar Company of Raymond, Alberta (December, 1906) .................................. 41 Conduct and Conspiracy (June, 1906) .................................................................................. 44 “Shut off the supplies” (October, 1908) ............................................................................... 45 “The conditions that existed then exist still” (January, 1909) .............................................. 45 The Innocent Guild of Grocers (March, 1910) ...................................................................... 46 “Guilty of wrongs against the public” (April, 1910) .............................................................. 51 “A highly artificial state of trade” ......................................................................................... 52 “Price of Sugar Reaches Highest Point” (December, 1911) .................................................. 53 The British West Indies and the Tariff on Sugar (May, 1913) ............................................... 56 “Doomed to Disappointment” (May, 1913) ......................................................................... 57 1914 – 1918 ..................................................................................................................... 59 “Housewives of Windsor will be glad” (January, 1914) ........................................................ 59 The Effect of the First War Tax (August, 1914) ..................................................................... 60 2 “They will get their bumps in the near future” (November, 1914) ...................................... 61 “Prices in Canada must be higher” (November, 1914) ......................................................... 62 “The crux of the situation” (November, 1914) ..................................................................... 64 “Sugar Values and Gov’t Blundering” (December, 1914) ..................................................... 64 “Sugar Prospects” (April, 1916) ............................................................................................ 65 “I look upon it as a loyal thing” (February, 1917) ................................................................. 66 “A Very Uncertain Outlook” (November, 1917) ................................................................... 68 “Eat Sugar or Lick the Huns?” (May, 1918) ........................................................................... 69 “Mere Sugar” (August, 1918) ................................................................................................ 70 “This limiting factor in production” (November, 1918) ........................................................ 70 1919 ................................................................................................................................ 72 “No Sugar on the Prairies” (July, 1919)................................................................................. 72 “No more licenses for sugar export” (August, 1919) ............................................................ 73 “Put an embargo on sugar exports” (August, 1919) ............................................................. 74 Introducing the Board of Commerce (August, 1919) ........................................................... 74 The Sugar Order (September, 1919) ..................................................................................... 75 “Everyone is Losing Money on Sugar” (September, 1919) ................................................... 75 “A very large amount of criticism” (September, 1919) ........................................................ 77 Some Reasons for the Sugar Shortage (October, 1919) ....................................................... 79 “Sugar Export is Forbidden” (August, 1919) ......................................................................... 80 “Many hundreds of requests” (October, 1919) .................................................................... 81 Canadian sugar and the global market (November, 1919) .................................................. 81 Yellow Sugar has few Buyers (December, 1919) .................................................................. 84 1920 ................................................................................................................................ 84 “Where is the sugar?” (January, 1920) ................................................................................. 84 From the horse’s mouth (January, 1920) ............................................................................. 85 “The worst sugar famine in its history” (January, 1920) ...................................................... 85 Import Restrictions and the Sugar Famine (March, 1920) ................................................... 86 The Board of Commerce visits Vancouver (January, 1920) .................................................. 87 A sudden abrogation of sugar control (February, 1920) ...................................................... 87 “The actual reason” (March, 1920)....................................................................................... 89 Secrets of the Sugar Famine (March, 1920) ......................................................................... 90 A sweet dish best served cold (April, 1920) .......................................................................... 93 Wondering (April, 1920) ....................................................................................................... 93 “Forbidden to use sugar as bait” (June, 1920) ..................................................................... 93 Mr. Anderson’s two cars of sugar (June, 1920) .................................................................... 94 Buy Low, Sell High (June, 1920) ............................................................................................ 96 A set of familiar controls (June, 1920) .................................................................................. 96 Retailers are billed at the refiner’s price (June, 1920) ........................................................