Development of the Beet-Sugar Industry 21 



Later developments. 



Since 1890, growth of the beet-sugar industry has in the 

 main been regular and constant (Fig. 3). During periods 

 when legislation has been favorable it has been more 

 rapid than at other times. This has been the history of 

 the beet-sugar industry the world over. In 1912, seventy- 

 seven factories operated in the United States, and by 1915 

 the number had increased only to seventy-nine. This 

 slowness in factory building was caused largely by the 

 uncertain effect on the industry of reducing the tariff 

 on imported cane-sugar. The passage of the Underwood- 

 Simmons Tariff Bill reduced the tariff on imported sugar 

 25 per cent after March 1, 1914, and provided that all 

 the duty should be removed after May 1, 1916. The 

 latter provision was, however, amended before it went 

 into effect. 



The retention of the tariff, taken with the effect of the 

 European war, greatly stimulated the erection of sugar 

 factories in 1916 and 1917. In 1917, fourteen factories, 

 with a daily slicing capacity of 11,000 tons of beets, were 

 erected in the United States. The high price of sugar 

 resulting from the war also made it possible to pay farm- 

 ers more for beets. This in turn greatly stimulated the 

 raising of beets, and the acreage of beets rather than 

 the number of factories is the real limiting factor deter- 

 mining the sugar production in America. 



