THE HOLDING MOVEMENT IN AGRICULTURE 277 
sugar scarcity and that the 1926-27 sugar crop will fall far below 
consumption requirements. (Lamborn & Co., in the Wall Street 
Journal, February 23, 1927.) 
But the more important phase of the situation from the stand- 
point of Cuba is, that her unaided attempt to raise the price of 
her product by creating a scarcity value may work irreparable 
damage to her leading industry. Unlike coffee, sugar production, 
if prices are high enough, can be quickly expanded; and when 
once the industry is established in new fields, it tends to become 
permanent. At the present moment there is a widespread move- 
ment to expand production where the industry is now established 
or to take it up in countries where sugar has been produced not 
at all or only in small quantities. For years beet sugar has been 
a formidable rival of cane sugar and its competition has often 
brought disaster to cane sugar producers. In almost every 
country in Europe, including Denmark and the Irish Free State, 
beet sugar production is receiving serious attention. The United 
States is also expanding its acreage and it has an almost unlimited 
area favorable for the raising of sugar beets. And tropical lands 
are planning increased cane plantings. Once these new sources of 
supply become established, they will contend sharply to maintain 
their position. 
No country in the world can produce sugar cheaper than Cuba; 
it is the natural home of cane; the labor supply is good and 
capital has not been lacking. Cuba of all producers can least 
afford to create competition by an appeal to scarcity value. It is 
notorious that her productive methods are antiquated and costly. 
Her salvation lies in making them efficient and relatively cheap. 
By pursuing such a policy, instead of narrowing her market she 
will widen it and instead of inviting new competitors she will, by 
virtue of her superior productive position, keep new ones from 
entering the field. 
The correctness of this position has just been strikingly borne 
out by a statement in our financial journals to the effect that our 
American alcohol producers, irritated by the high price for Cuban 
molasses—their raw material—are drawing their supplies from 
Europe at a price materially below that which those in control 
of the Cuban supply are willing to accept. 
In 1912 the raisin growers of California formed a cooperative 
marketing association, with a view to improving the situation in