136 THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



be attempted. To embark on so gigantic a scale on any other basis is folly doomed 

 to failure. The whole country is strewn with wrecks of co-operative failures due to 

 failure to appreciate the above facts, and to absence of the co-operative spirit. On 

 the other hand, certain forms of co-operation have been made a great success in the 

 United States. The author's book, How to Co-operate (price 50c in paper, $1 in 

 cloth, from Orange Judd Company), may be consulted for further particulars. 



BRILLIANT OPENING FOR CAPITAL. 



Providing always that the American market is reserved for the product of Ameri- 

 can farms and sugar factories, it can be demonstrated by figures based on actual 

 experience that a sugar factory enterprise is a fairly profitable investment, if prop- 

 erly managed from beginning to end. Without such management, even a gold mine 

 will fail to pay. 



Detailed estimates of expenses and profits vary so widely with varying conditions 

 that it is useless to attempt to submit any here. Such an investment in a beet-sugar 

 factory, under the above conditions, should be able to pay an annual dividend of six 

 to ten per cent on its capital stock, after making liberal allowance for depreciation 

 and setting aside a reserve for contingencies, maintenance and improvements. This 

 is after the enterprise is well established. The first few years it might not do as well 

 as this. Some failures will occur if any of the well-known essentials to success are 

 neglected. 



Under favorable conditions the industry may pay more than this. But take it 

 one year with another, conservative management should readily divide six to ten 

 per cent, besides keeping the property in such shape as to be able to close out the 

 business at any time and return the shareholders one hundred cents on the dollar. 

 To do this, however, the factory must net at least four cents per pound for its sugar 

 and with proper legislation to protect against subsidized foreign competition and to 

 guard the industry so far as possible against monopoly at home, this price may be 

 expected to prevail for some years. The sugar could then be retailed to the con- 

 sumer at about present prices, and American farmers, laborers and capitalists would 

 put into their pockets the millions upon millions that now go abroad for sugar. 



Without such legislation, however, this promise will never be realized. We have 

 seen during the past three years the almost utter ruin of our old established cane- 

 sugar industry, simply because the American market has been open to free sugar from 

 Hawaii and to bounty-fed sugars from Europe. It cannot be too often reiterated 

 that unless the American market is reserved for American sugar, the outlook for our 

 domestic sugar industry, both beet and cane, is indeed poor. But protect the indus- 

 try in the American market for a few years, and it will then be able to hold its own 

 against the world. Indeed, we' shall be surprised if this policy does not make Amer- 

 ica the greatest sugar-producing nation on earth. 



ADVANTAGES OF THE INDUSTRY. 



Assuming that the American market is assured for American sugar (unless this is 

 done, we might as well drop the business right here and now), the advantages of the 

 industry may be thus summarized : 



To agriculture, it affords a new crop that puts into the farmer's pocket money 

 that would otherwise go out of his community and out of the country ; by thus reduc- 



