Please, with Sugar on It

After months of being pestered to take controls off business, Washington was surprised last week by a new request: sugar growers and refiners pleaded unanimously for continuation of Government controls and sugar rationing.

The plea seemed all the stranger since Cuba, from which the U.S. gets most of its sugar, is expected to raise one million more tons of sugar this year than last. On the basis of this and other expected increases, the Department of Agriculture last week said that rations this year may be raised 40% for individuals (from 25 lbs. a year to 35 lbs.) and 33 1/3 % for industries, giving industrial users 80% of their prewar supply. The State Department, more interested in sharing its candy than the Agriculture Department, has urged that the increased supply be split with other nations.

Even if the U.S. gets all of it, there will still be far from enough sugar to satisfy U.S. demands. If sugar controls lapse, sugar men feared that big industrial users would outbid everyone else for the existing supply, boost the price of sugar to as high as 40-c- a Ib. for housewives.

"We would make several million dollars out of it," said Earl Boden Wilson, president of California & Hawaiian Sugar Refining Corp. and an industry spokesman. "But the sugar industry would be blamed for years & years [for the high prices]." They didn't want that to happen.

A House subcommittee indicated at week's end that Congress would probably extend sugar rationing and price controls beyond their present imminent deadlines.

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