date:Dec 20, 2018
tions sugar industry would perish if not protected.
Then, as now, this was likely correct: Other nations grew sugar far more cheaply than the U.S. did. And had Congress eschewed protective tariffs on sugar at this point in history, sugarcane and sugar-beet cultivation might well have moved to more favorable climes as it probably should have. But no such thing happened.
Instead, a complicated system of tariffs kept the domestic cane and beet growers in business. But this became increasingly un