Housewives Rock Boat

Prices for raw sugar, after their recent sharp upturn, declined in a manner natural in such speculative movements. The refineries have followed the prices for raw sugar downwards by cutting the price of refined sugar in proportion.

The agitation by housewives and others for a boycott of sugar is claimed by its organizers to have been responsible for the decline. Yet, from the size and character of the " parade" attempted in Manhattan by Mayor Hylan's committee of women, this seems doubtful indeed. Mrs. Louis R. Welzmiller, Deputy Commissioner of Markets, had announced that 25,000 would gather at the Municipal Building to march. Actually only about 75 showed up for the parade, and conspicuous among these were East Side Peddlers' Asso- ciation pushcart operators, who attended in order to impress the public that sweet fruits afforded a satisfactory substitute for the products of the " Sugar Trust."

The embattled housewives have interviewed and drawn statements from various authorities. Secretary Hoover expressed open sympathy for the proposed boycott, whereupon a firm of New York sugar brokers accused him of an " obvious conspiracy in restraint of trade." Earl D. Babst, President of the American Sugar Refiining Company, proved more diplomatic. After stating that he was " opposed to a boycott, to speculation and to hoarding," he advised the housewives "not to rock the boat." He pointed out that if sugar prices were artificially depressed in America now, tropical sugar might find a higher market abroad, with the result that later in the year " all the housewives will go rushing to the grocery store for sugar. If it is not there it will be their own fault. By a boycott they halt the normal flow to this country!"