The herald., 1897-07-13
The Beet Sugar Puzzle

To the Editor of the Los Angeles Her
aid: The most important matter for the
people of California to solve at present
is the beet sugar puzzle. 1t is becoming
apparent that in the immediate future
an industry employing thousands upon
thousands of people will be in operation
and that a fabulous amount of wealth
will be created. The puzzle for the peo-
pie of California to solve is this: Will
this enormous wealth be proportionate-
ly distributed among the thousands up
on thousands, or will it absorbed by the
benevolent gentlemen who compose the
sugar trust?
The approximate value Of the annual
product of an ordinary sugar factory is
100000, the cost of production $500 900;
leaving profit of s5OO,OOO for the capi-
talists interested. This profit may seem
preposterous, and it is, but there is no
reason to doubht it when one considers
the magical creation of wealth in the
sugar business in the past few years. 1t
is plain enough that in this one industry
the people of California have before
them highway to great benefits for all
of our citizens But she must take pos
session of this highway at once or soon
ing formed by members of the trust, like
the one lately organized to operate in
Colorado. Once the key is surrendered
to this installed creation, we may be
sure that all the profits will be sucked
UP as by a powerful pump; and as for
the farmers, they will be practically vas
sails, and the mill hands and the laborers
in the fields will be serfs. For is man
better off than slave when he is work.
ing for wages that compel him to dwell
in poverty? Want is the lash that is
now used to urge him on. Starvation is
on one side and the tyranny of greed
on the other. He must either work for
almost nothing or starve. If the trust
gains control of the industry this will be
the condition you will see: Californians,
your farmers, deprived of their just re-
ward and the laborers will be either
coolies or white men reduced as low as
coolies.
How can this be prevented? The cost
of sugar factory, approximately $780,
900, is a sum which many think would
prevent the farmers from cooperating
as they now do in building creameries.
But this is certain: if the farmers can
not build them, California herself is
great and wealthy enough to build them
wherever the conditions are suitable.
These factories could be built and oper-
ated by the state itself at fair profit, or
they could gradually be paid for by the
communities of farmers who used them.
In either case there would be no direct
financial loss to the state, and the in
direct benefit to the whole people would
be incalculable. Neither could it be con-
sidered in either case as class legisla-
ton like the tariff, for either the fac
tories would be owned and operated by
all the people or the money invested with
interest would be returned to them.
There are many who will cry out at
such a plan, that it is populsm, or pater-
nalism, or socialism. Whatever it is, 1t
is practical and it is one way to secure
to the people the immense wealth that Is
soon to be created by this industry. The
way to accomplish this is open through
agitation and the ballot; the time to be-
gin is now, if we do not wish the destinies
of thousands upon thousands of our peo-
pie to be in the power of the sugar trust.
L. M.
Los Angeles, July 12