SUGAR AND DIRT.

NZ Truth, Issue 66, 22 September 1906, Page 8

SUGAR AND DIRT.

Horrible Revelations. American Refineries Attacked. The "New York World" has published a severe > attack upon the Sugar Trust and its methods, quite upon the lines of the exposures of the Chicago Meat Trust contained m Mr Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." It is based primarily upon investigations made at the vast refineries at Williamsburg. When the workmen—, Lithuanians and Poles— drop to the ground unconscious, from their exertions and the heat, the foremen take note of the time that elapses before ■work is ' resumed by the poor wretch!es, and stop pay for it. It is futile for the man to protest, because dismissal follows complaint. "Your little lump of Cuban sugar," says the "World,", "is landed on dirty wharves, and is dragged into refineries over floors reeking with tobacco spittle, and trodden 'by bare feet or muddy boots. At the end of each week the floors are cleaned, and the refuse sugar— which by now is a sticky brown mess, and as solid as the street pavement— is put through a clarifying process ' until it comes out white lump sugar, which you so daintily handle with silver tongs." "One ounce ; of sugar cane," says the "World," dramatically, "one dash of dirt, lib of human flesh, one quart of human sweat, 12 hours of slavedriven labor, one half-starved family, one corrupted United States Senate^ md 100 ger cent., of trust- profit.'*