The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-11-20
PUTTING A CRIMP IN BEET
SUGAR

Germany has for some years produc-
ed an average of 100000 tons of
beet sugar annually.
1t has taken Germany 60 years to
build up this magnificent industry.
1t has been the result of a rigorous
policy of protection to the home in
dustry. No sugar produced in Ger
man colonial possessions is permitted
to enter the German market in com
petition with the sugar produced in
the German empire.
Besides, bounties and kartels have
been provided to help out the beet
W and sugar manufacturer in
Germany.
The beet sugar industry in the
United States was inaugurated about
Is years age. Protection was promis-
ed the beet sugar producer, but before
the industry was fairly on its legs the
importers and refners of raw sugar
became alarmed at the promising in
FAINT, and inaugurated a crusade
against it. Under the specious plea,
"the duty we owe to Cuba the re-
fning trust lobbied through congress
the Cuban reciprocity treaty and Sc
sugar companies being organized to
build and operate beet factories threw
up the sponge. The refining trust
spent several hundred thousand dol
lars lobbying that treaty through con-
gress.
Despite that handicap the beet in
dustry developed until some 20 odd
factories were erected and the pro-
duct had reached about 100000 tons.
This competition forced the price of
sugar down in the markets and alarm
ed the r~einers' trust. 1t at once be-
gan another crusade for free sugar
and the country knows the result.
Had the government of the Unit
ed States adopted the sugar policy
pursued by the German government,
there would now be 500 sugar fac
tories producing annually fully 2,000,
900 tons of sugar, and the hundred
million dollars annually paid by the
people OF this country for sugar would
be kept at home and American labor
would be the gamer to that extent.
In the beet sugar industry alone
more than $780, O0, 900 of capital is
invested, producing 100000 tons of
sugar and paying out yearly 100000,
of thousands of f armers produced
beets on 365,0O0 acres of land.
Not only is this industry the chief
source of income for these farmers,
but it aids in enriching the soil, MAX
ing possible the production of greater
crops and furnishing feed to an i'm
mense number of cattle and hogs.
There are 20 states engaged in beet
sugar production, Colorado, Califor-
MIA and Michigan leading.
The cane sugar industry in Texas
and Louisiana has an investment at
the present time of at least $150,000,-
600, directly and indirectly, and gives
employment to 100000 people.
AS it is, the beet sugar industry in
the United States has been to an ex-
tent handicapped from the outset and
has been deprived of the fostering
care it has received in Europe.
Capital almost single handed has
had to shoulder almost the entire bur
den of what has been accomplished.
We know of no other industry in
which the price of the raw material
has been so constant with so variable
a price for the resulting product; in
no other industry has the prlce of the
raw material risen so steadily while
the price of the finished product has
gone so steadily downward. The
miller does not guarantee in advance
a price for wheat with flour fluctuat-
ing; the packers do not guarantee a
price for hogs with meat prices liable
to variation. In no instance but our
own has there been a guaranteed
price for the raw material from year
to year with possible fluctuations of
so per cent in the selling price of the
finished product.
Whether with the change in the tar
tif it will be possible for the factories
to carry the load placed upon them
and permit the industry to ever hold
its own, let alone any thought of ex-
pansion, must be left to the logic of
events to determine. Certain it is the
industry is confronted with a most
serious proposition.-Bay City (Mieh)
National Farmer.