THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY. 135 



three years later, when it was for fuel 43c, lirne and coke 16c, labor and siloing 56c t 

 maintenance and depreciation 15c, sundries 22c. 



AS TO CO-OPERATIVE SUGAR FACTORIES. 



A great deal of loose talk has been indulged in upon this subject. Farmers and 

 others who would not co-operate or work together to conduct the simplest form of a 

 country store, creamery or co-operative marketing, have proclaimed learnedly as to 

 the advantages of co-operative sugar factories. The ideas expressed have been in the 

 main crude and unbusinesslike, though the object sought is highly commendable. 



In this, as in all other co-operative effort, it should be. distinctly understood that 

 co-operation is not a new method of conducting business but simply provides a differ- 

 ent method of dividing the profits of industry to labor or produce rather than to cap- 

 ital. "The same principles that govern success in acquiring profit on capital, apply 

 to the acquirement of profit to divide upon labor. Industry, application, persever- 

 ance, good judgment, all are required in the co-operative as in the existing methods 

 of industry. Co-operation is not a means whereby the business of production and 

 distribution will run itself and pour a golden stream into the pockets of the people. 

 True co-operative effort is by no means independent of the everyday principles that 

 underlie success in any undertaking or business." 



Especially is this true in the beet-sugar business. The factory must be located, 

 built, equipped and managed with the utmost wisdom and in the best possible way. 

 This can only be obtained by employing persons of experience in the industry, pref- 

 erably those who have had experience under American conditions. These experi- 

 enced persons must also be reliable, or they may so conduct the enterprise as to use 

 much more money than is absolutely essential. All these points must be properly 

 safeguarded, whether the sugar factory is owned co-operatively, or by a stock com- 

 pany, or by a single individual. In either case, it must be run on the same business- 

 like basis. Indeed, a factory that is owned co-operatively that is, by beet growers 

 in part in connection with others should even be better managed than a private 

 enterprise, because so many are ready to criticise the slightest mistake. Farmers 

 who think a co-operative factory is one that will pay them more per ton for beets of 

 inferior quality than a private factory can afford to pay for rich beets, will be wo- 

 fully deceived. A factory can get no more out of the business than there is in it. 



In a strictly co-operative factory, each shareholder has but one vote, irrespective 

 of the amount of money he has invested. Out of the receipts of the business, the 

 co-operative factory would first pay all expenses, a reasonable sum for depreciation 

 and reserve, a fair rate of interest on capital, and the balance would be divided pro 

 rata on the beets furnished, just as the co-operative creamery pays for butter. If the 

 season is good, the beets rich in sugar, and the markets favorable, under good man- 

 agement such a co-operative factory might possibly pay more than one conducted by 

 the ordinary system, but under unfavorable conditions, the loss would come upon the 

 beet grower for the co-operative factory, as against the stockholder in the capitalistic 

 factory. In other words, true co-operation means that the co-operators assume the 

 risk of the losses as well as the profits of the business. 



If farmers are willing to go in with all these points thoroughly understood and 

 on a basis that will insure proper management, then co-operative sugar factories may 



