204 THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



cards. He has five children, four sons and one daughter, all of whom are well educated 

 and have traveled much. The son, John D. Spreckels, has long been his father's right-hand 

 man in his large business enterprises, aided by another son, A. B. Spreckels. 



Glaus Spreckels is of medium hight, strongly built, and despite his many years is 

 tremendously active and capable of much work. About the only indication of age is the 

 increasing whiteness of his hair. After all the years that he has lived in America, he 

 still speaks with a decided German accent. His success in accumulating a fortune has 

 certainly beer phenomenal. He began at the lowest round of the ladder, and by patience, 

 industry, sobriety, devotion to business and good judgment, has become one of the 

 wealthiest men in the United States. He is one of the keenest of men. A few years ago, 

 the financial world Avas agog over the "electric" method in sugar refining. Its promoters 

 got a vast sum out of the eastern refiners and then went to 'Frisco to "take in" Mr. 

 Spreckels. He listened patiently to the description of their marvelous process, and when 

 they had finished only asked. "What becomes of the dirt!" The promoters had failed to 

 think of that point, and were utterly disconcerted. The thing was a fake. 



THE BEET SUGAR PIONEER. 



For 30 years E. H. Dyer has been almost continuously engaged in the manufacture 

 of beet sugar in the United States, and now, at the ripe age of 78, in robust health and 

 sturdy mental vigor, is about to see the realization of his most cherished hopes in the 

 development of the industry to such an extent as to supply the American market with 

 American sugar. He was the pioneer in the commercial beet sugar industry, and upon 

 the results of his work the industry has been placed on a sound industrial basis, and only 

 requires the proposed favorable national policy for its gigantic development. One has 

 only to read a brief sketch of his life to realize the service E. H. Dyer and his boys have 

 done to our beloved country. 



Mr Dyer erected the first beet sugar factory on the Pacific coast at Alvarado, Cali- 

 fornia, in 1870. After running four years, it proved a failure, through the incompetency 

 of the technical management two Germans who had operated in a small and unsuccess- 

 ful way at Fond du Lac, Wis. They claimed that the location was not suitable, organized 

 a new company and moved the outfit to Soquel, Santa Cruz county, where, after a few 

 years of heavy losses, it was abandoned. Mr. Dyer, who had purchased the land and 

 buildings of the old plant at Alvarado, still had confidence in the business under good 

 management. But it was difficult, in the face of so many failures, to induce capitalists 

 to invest with him, and it was not until 1879 that the machinery was returned to Alva- 

 rado and the factory started by the Standard Sugpr Refining Company, 0. F. Griffin 

 president and E. H. Dyer superintendent. This was a success from the start and paid 

 satisfactory dividends for eight years, when a boiler explosion completely wrecked the 

 factory. The profits of the first four campaigns were $104,081, being the first sugar made 

 in the United States from beets at a profit. 



Mr Dyer became convinced that the complete success of the industry in this coun- 

 try could not be obtained as long as we depended upon foreign countries for machinery, 

 so he and his son, Edward F., and H. P. Dyer, a mechanical engineer and draftsman, spent, 

 many months in German sugarhouses and machine shops. In 1888 they entirely rebuilt 

 the plant at Alvarado, which has run successfully ever since and has recently been 

 increased to a capacity of 800 tons per day. The Dyers then built the model beet sugar- 

 house at Lehi, Utah, and have since constructed other successful factories. The young 

 men referred to planned all their machinery and had it made in this country, with such 

 success as to greatly economize both labor and fuel, enabling them to extract all the 

 available sugar from the beet at a much less cost than ever before. 



