Word: caning
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...backing of both peón and porteño. He upped peónes' wages to as much as $30 a month, guaranteed them a two-hour rest after lunch (called the "Siesta of Perón"). Some of the worst-off, like the miserable sugar-cane workers around Tucuman, went...
There was no shortage of reasons. The most obvious was that the war had cut production. The loss of the Philippines had cut out 900,000 tons a year. Cuba, trying to boost production, had cut its sugar cane too close to the ground in 1944. Not only does it take 18 months for the growth to come back to normal, but Cuba this year suffered its worst drought in 86 years, resulting in a sugar loss of 900,000 tons. Hawaiian and Puerto Rican production was way down...
Economically, producing sugar is a terrible risk: it requires big capital investment and reaps a microscopic profit margin. This has led to cutthroat competition between the domestic beet bloc and the cane producers in Cuba, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. To protect themselves, the beet men for 25 years operated an intense and effective lobby to get Congress to erect tariff walls and pay subsidies. In 1934 they jammed through a quota system that gave them 25% of the 6,000,000 tons of sugar consumed in the U.S. One of their most cogent arguments for protection: a strong...
...because he was so young and gullible-looking, he thought, that sneaky little men in the Paris streets kept trying to sell him dirty postcards. Anyhow, "after studying the matter, I bought a pair of spats and a cane, and started growing a small mustache," wrote Paul Scott Mowrer, 35 years later. With this protective disguise, he settled down to cover France for the Chicago Daily News. His specific instructions were: look for lively feature stories, and don't write about European politics unless you absolutely have...
...Zealand signers who followed him.] The orders were placed in their hands and the Americans curtly gave them the signal to leave. They turned and departed as they had come. The shrill bosun's pipe followed their steps over the side-Shigemitsu, tired and expressionless, limping on his cane as he went; Umezu, stony-faced and silent, lifting a white-gloved hand to acknowledge the salute of the guard at the gangway...