36 THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



of 1890 was obtained, and the great beet-sugar factories at Chino, Grand Island and 

 Norfolk were built by different companies, of all of which Mr Henry T. Oxnard is 

 president. During 1896-7 he has been indefatigable in political circles and at Wash- 

 ington to secure a fair chance for the industry against foreign competition. He has 

 now organized a construction company through which to give the full benefit of his 

 experience, and of the body of trained experts associated with him, to those who 

 contemplate building or operating beet-sugar factories. 



RECENT DEVELOPMENT. 



Kesults at Alvarado finally attracted the attention of Glaus Spreckels, the Hawai- 

 ian cane-sugar king. Thoroughly informed upon the beet-sugar industry in his 

 native country (Germany), Mr Spreckels realized three things: (1) That it was only 

 a question of time before the United States would abrogate the one-sided reciprocity 

 treaty with Hawaii that was making him immensely wealthy; (2) that there was no 

 reason why this country should not produce its own sugar, California offering ideal 

 advantages; and (3) that in the battle for supremacy the beet is destined to win. 

 With his usual keen business judgment, Mr Spreckels erected a small beet-sugar fac- 

 tory at Watsonville, which turned out about 1000 Ions of sugar from beets grown in" 

 1888. The plant was enlarged in time to profit by the McKinley bounty, and has 

 gone on with uninterrupted success until it converted into sugar more than 160,000 

 tons of beets grown in 1896. 



The Oxnards established the great beet-sugar factory at Chino, Cal, in time to 

 work up the 1891 crop, and in the campaign of 1895 it handled 83,000 tons of beets. 

 The Oxnards had the sugar factory at Grand Island, Nebraska, done in time to work 

 up 4500 tons of beets grown in 1890, and it converted about 25,000 tons of the '96 crop 

 of beets into sugar. The same interests built the factory at Norfolk, Nebraska, which 

 worked 8000 tons in its first (1891) campaign, and upward of 50,000 tons in 1897. 



Local capital and the characteristic enterprise of certain men [prominent in the 

 Mormon church, led to the establishment of the factory at Lehi, Utah, which handled 

 nearly 10,000 tons of beets in its first campaign (1891), and nearly 45,000 tuns of the 

 1896 crop. O. K. Lapham also established a small plant at Staunton, Virginia, that 

 demonstrated the practicability of the industry, but was burned in 1894. The factory 

 at Eddy. New Mexico, was got in operation in time to work up a few thousand tons 

 of the '96 crop, and the same can be said of the new plant at Menomonee Falls, Wis. 



THE RECORD IN BRIEF. 



Such is an outline of the beet-sugar industry in America to the opening of 1897. 

 The bounty of two cents per pound for^ fifteen years offered by the McKinley tariff, 

 Aug 6, 1896, gave a great stimulus to an industry which years of extensive and costly 

 experimenting had shown could be developed in this country. But before much 

 could be done, progress was arrested by the Wilson tariff, Aug 28, 1894, removing the 

 bounty and substituting a duty of only 40 per cent ad valorem, with constantly de- 

 creasing prices, due to the unfair competition of European export-bounty-fostered 

 sugars. 



As usual, it took the farmers' several years to learn how to grow beets, and it was 

 not until 1896 that these factories were supplied with all the beets they could possi- 



