The San Francisco call., 1908-12-27

suear and after disposing of his brew
erv he went TO New York, purchased a
complete outfit and at the end OF 1858
entered upon the straight road 10
fortune by establishing the Bay sugar
refinery in san Francisco. He pur-
chased ali of his material from Hawaii
and he soon made his refinery one OF
the most important industries OF the
Pacific coast.
Two years later he sold the business
and went 10 Germany for rest, and at
the same time to study the modern
methods of sugar refining. In order 10
do this he patterned after the exam
pie Of Peter the Great. He donned the
rough clothes of a laborer and OBJ
tanned employment in q refinery at
Magdeburg and in six weeks became
familiar with every detail OF sugar re-
hning processes
Erection of Sugar Refinery
In 1868 Spreckels returned to San
Francisco and erected magnificent
factory called the California sugar re-
fnery at Eighth and Brannan streets,
starting upon another career of for
tune making. He began the refining
OF cane sugar in plant Of his own,
embodying the latest improvements
connected with the process both IN Eu-
rope and America The plant was en-
larged from time to time is the busi-
ness grew. until at length he replaced
it with an immense building IN the
Potrero, having a capacity or SOC bar
rels Of sugar per day.
At that time three weeks were con-
sumed In the product from its initial
stage through the various processes to
hard sugar He invented process by
which the time was reduced to "A
hours and a considerable reduction in
cost was effected.
In the first years of his venture
Spreckels bought his raw product in
the Philippines, but when the Ha-
he went to Honolulus interested King
Kalakaua in his enterprise and Sc
cured control of the product of the
planters on the ground at that time.
He investigated the possibilities of the
islands, their topography, climate, nat
ural yields, etc, and noticing tract
Of sandy land 10000 acres in extent,
supposed to be worthless. leased it
from the king, dug canal 20 miles
in length, cutting 80 tunnels through
the solid rock, and brought water
to his plantation at cost of half
million dollars.
He then organized the Hawaiian
commercial and sugar company, TAX
ing in some OF the other plantations
and forming a strong combination, un-
til it's holdings aggregated 10000 acres.
1t was at this time that the American
sugar refining company, the sugar
trust attempted to invade the Pacific
coast. 1t attempted to drive SpreckeIs
out Of the field.
Spreckels welcomed the contest He
crossed the continent and built at Phil
adelphia the largest sugar refinery in
the world at that time at a cost of
&5. 900, 900. The result was that the
trust was compelled to capitulate, take
the Philadelphia plant off his hands
and keep away from the Pacific coast.
When the beet sugar industry began
to make inroads into the cane indus
try, Claus Spreckels studied the sit
uation and in 1888 planned and erected
the largest and most complete beet
sugar refinery in the United States. In
1890 he again went to Europe and on
his return built still larger plant at
Salinas.
He established a line of vessels. both
steam and sail, between San Fran
cisco and the Hawaiian islands. For
many years the railroad rates in the
San Joaquin valley were very oppres-
sive So great was the extortion prac-
ticed by the Southern Pacific company
that a new railroad company, the San
Joaquin valley railroad company, with
Claus Spreckels as a heavy stock holder,
was formed and was successful in COM
peIling the railroad company to reduce
it's rates. The road eventually passed
into the control of the Santa Fe.