The Ordway new era., 1912-05-03

and reservoirs. land values have ad-
vanced to 800 and Sl25 per acre, with.
out improvements.
The insistence on the part OF the
sugar factory people upon the farmer
using better methods of tillage, the
improvement of land fertility by ro.
tatiOn Of crops. the larger crop yields
of wheat, oats and barley, after the
land has been for several years to
sugar bects, have all tended to II
greatly improved condition Of the
farmer himself. and all Of the inciden-
tai business of the villages and towns
in this locality.
The beet sugar industry is first and
foremost AGRICULTURAL, secondly, Il
manufacturing industry, labor is our
principal cost item. The price we
pay the farmer for his bcets is alto.
gether labor item, excepting about
- per acre or about twenty cents per
ton Of beets for the seed. The freight
we pay the railroads on the bects, On
the finished material, on our supply Of
coal, coke, lime rock, bags. etc, rep
resents TO Il large extent, labor. We
employ $50 men in this factory during
the manufacturing operation. we EN-
plOy large force Of men Overhauling
the plant for the next campaign. Our
Office force and farm foremen. table
men and leading factory men, are
employed all the year. In the field.
with 5000 acre crop, nearly 1000
people are needed for a period OF about
five months. So much for the labor
element involved in the raising OF
beets and the making Of sugar.
Whatever deductions, MIR. Chair.
man, you and your committee make
from this recital OF the history OF our
beginning, our progress and our hopes
and fears Of the future will apply To
other beet sugar factories in this
country. The same agricultural pro.
grcss has followed the erection OF each
factory;-an increased population,
stores. factories OF other kinds, en-.
with it came, due TO the necessity for
better farming methods, a greater ap-
plication OF science To farming with
corresponding improvement in yield,
etc.
These, Mr.. Chairman and gentle.
men OF the committee, are the facts
from our records and experience siuce
we started In the beet sugar business.
Neither this factory nor any other fac.
tory in this country can exist without
adequate protection. and this fact is
self-evident to anyone who will take
the trouble to study the subject in an
unbiased and impartial way. II you
do not care about the continuation
and further progress OF this industry,
aud must have free trade in sugar or
must reduce the tariff. we most earn
estly protest for ourselves, our en-
ploycs, and the farmers who contribute
the raw material.
The general policy OF protection.
where revenue Is not altogether the
object. intends primarily. as l under.
stand 1t, to tax foreign products up tu
the limit OF the difference between
labor paid in the production OF the
foreign article. and labor paid In the
production II the same article in this
country. II our Legislators will there.
fore consider the tariff question from
this standpoint, giving the beet and
cane sugar people just so much pro.
lection as Is represented by the differ
ence between labor In the cost of grow
ing sugar cane and making sugar in
tropical countries. and the cost OF
labor In growing sugar beets and the
cost OF factory labor In this country.
the beet sugar industry will have no
cause for complaint, and as sugar is
one OF our greatest revenue producers.
and the sugar duty is distributed SO
very evenly and so lightly upon every
one OF our population, citizens or allen,
taxpayer or not, IL this subject Is ap.
tproached with the object OF carefully
and conscientiously determining this
difference, and the duty so applied, az.
itation about free sugar or lower tariff
on sugar will cease, and the advocates
OF free sugar will be left without an
argument.
Representing my company and in.
terested In its welfare. l am willing
that this company stand or fall upon
a tariff so adjusted US to protect our
farmers, our labOrers and our me-
chanics to the extent of this labor diff
ference. accurately determined.
THAT IN hnaf husinaSs if, this
country is the result of the endeavur
OF the government through its depart.
mcnt of agriculture to promise and in.