The Hawaiian gazette., 1902-01-28

= an fhANtlStp' jan An-NiauS
- Sprcckols recent activity In the
lighting market of San Francisco.
has brought him again prominently be-
fore the east which has large interests
In California stocks.
Spreckels has within the past lew
months won great victory over the old
gas company here. the San Francisco
Gas and Electric Company, which he,
with his Independent Electric and Power
Company. has been lighting for several
years past.
The New York Commercial, great
business daily of the metropolis. has the
following to say of Spreckels, which Will
be interesting to the readers of the Ad-
vertiser, as 1t deals with his career in
Hawaii:
Claus Spreckels was known a few years
ago as the sugar king of the Sandwich
Islands. Today he is the sugar king OF
the West. Past ~ years of age, he Is
still active, aggressive and or .ginating.
He landed in Charleston, S. c.. fifty
two years ago, coming from Hanover.
Germany. He was not educated, and
speechless in English. lie worked in
grocery in Charleston. In eighteen
months he owned it. and in 1856 moved
to New York. There he sold butter and
eggs for some months.
In 1856 he took his family to San Fran
CISCO and opened grocery store. Money
was plentiful. gold was being dug out
of the earth in great masses, ana
| Spreckels was worth $4,000 in few
years. He might have retired; instead he
! bought a brewery. He sold it out for
| $4,000 soon. When a grocer he had
| thought much OF sugar: now he bought
an interest in a local refinery. lie man
aged 1t well and soon owned 1t entirely.
| lie put in new machinery and made 1t
prosperous company. Finally he parted
with it at very high price. Then he
went to Germany and studied sugar and
sugar beets He woI ked as n laborer for
wages at Niagdeburg for SIX weeks and
made himself familiar with every prac-
| teal item of the industry. He learned
what has made him the master of the
business In the United States.
| He returned to California and built the
{ California sugar retnery-hrst q little
| wooden structure. Within three years
| the building was enlarged four times,
| and at the end of the four years, an I'M
! mensc brick plant was up. turning out
| 500 tons of sugar n day. SpreckelS was
! now rich. but there were three other re-
| nnerios in San Francisco. He got them
| all, either by purchase or subsidies. He
| invented new processes when reduced
| the tine of making hard sugar from
! three weeks to twenty-four hours. and
|
| for the first time the cube and crushed
| sugar of today. Then he went to Ha-
| wall. and made himself the owner of the
| Island product of sugar cane. This was
| in 1876, when the first reciprocity treaty
| between King Ealakaua and Uncle Sam
| admitting Hawaiian sugar free of duty
had been signed. Spreckels found 10000
| acres of land. considered worthless. He
dug canal fourteen feet wide and three
| feet deep to build aqueducts, pierced
| thirty tunnels through solid rock, and
| got water to his desert at a cost of
| 100000.
| He conquered Hawaii. industrially, and
| became the greatest factor in the up
building of latest Territory of the Unit
| ed States.
was the unquestionable sugar king of the
Pacific Coast. Then the sugar trust got
after him. The octopus offered him ST.
| 1000 for his interests. He wouldn't sell,
| and the fight was on. For a while
| Spreckels was at decided disa 1vantage.
| The trust had numerous profits on Its
business in the Eastern States and could
I-ell in California at a loss. Spreckels
went to Philadelphia and built the larg-
| est and most complete refinery in the
world al a cost of s5,OOO,co0 he then fix
cd prices in all the Eastern markets OF
| the trust, and became n very thorn IN
, its side. Then the trust made terms and
Spreckels got control of the Pacific coast
without further friction.
| Meanwhile he had established a steam
| ship service between San Francisco and
| Honolulu and had got a practical mo-
nopoly OF the freight and passenger
trade. He bought large tracts of land in