AMERICAN BEET SUGAR. 7 



are not in debt as a class ; they all, or nearly all, own comfortable carriages ; their 

 homes, though simple, are comfortable; pianos and other luxuries are not uncom- 

 mon. Farm values are high now, whereas in the days before the factory came, 

 they were very low. The quality of other crops with which they alternate their 

 beets is much improved and the quantity is greater." An air of thrift pervaded 

 the entire community. New homes were being built and public improvements 

 made, and Lehi, Utah, stands to-day as a living illustration of the results of a good 

 market for a rich farm product, to first hands, with no middle man between. 



That the capitalists who invested in Lehi are at least satisfied, that they made 

 no mistake in investing $350,000 to $500,000, is shown by the fact that they are 

 organizing other sugar factories in the State of Utah, as well as in adjoining ter- 

 ritory. Capital so invested reaps a handsome profit, which is proper and right. 



Los Alamitos, California, is the youngest town or community dependent upon 

 a sugar factory. 



Ground was broken in the fall of '96. The situation was a great unsettled 

 valley, the nearest railroad station seven miles away. The soil, virgin and of sur- 

 prising fertility, had been of little use save to produce a coarse grass for pasture. 

 One year has passed, and a transformation has taken place that is most interest- 

 ing to note. The Southern Pacific Company extended their line to the site now 

 christened ' * Los Alamitos. ' ' A town of 500 people came into existence as if by 

 magic. Water-works, hotels, stores, livery stables and comfortable homes were 

 built in less than six months. Thirty-five hundred acres of land were broken up 

 and put into beets, the area to be doubled in 1898. 



Conspicuous in the foreground, the magnet that drew the people, the mint that 

 turned beets into dollars, stands the splendid Los Alamitos Beet Sugar Factory; 

 without which the valley would be still a pasture, unattractive and uninhabited 

 by human beings. 



AN IMPORTANT QUESTION in the development of this magnificent industry 

 is, shall our factories be built by foreign workmen, or shall we encourage the 

 American engineer, and only rely upon American genius to create and install 

 these great hives of industry ? 



To prove that Americans are fully competent to do this, we have only to cite 

 the primary and wonderful success of K. H. Dyer & Co. in the Alameda Sugar 

 House at Alvarado, California, works that were originally of foreign make and 

 under foreign technical management, and as such incompetent. 



It was then that E. H. Dyer, who still had confidence in the business, believ- 

 ing that with good management it could be made profitable and successful, having 

 purchased the land and buildings owned by the old company at Alvarado, under- 

 took the difficult task of interesting capital, but in the face of so many failures, and 

 at a time when mining and other enterprises offered such inducements, it was not 

 until February, 1879, that the Standard Sugar Company was organized, with a 

 capital stock of $200,000. This company made a success from the start. The 

 profit of the first four campaigns was $104,000, this being the first beet sugar 

 made in the United States at a profit. 



About this time Claus Spreckels and the Sugar Trust were cutting prices, and 

 Mr; Dyer saw that in order to continue the successful manufacture of beet sugar 

 in this country it would be necessary to erect a larger and more economical plant. 



