Beet Raising and Community Welfare 257 
The live-stock business is advanced by the cheap feeds 
resulting as by-products of beet raising and sugar-making. 
Several secondary manufacturing industries also grow out 
of the use of sugar-house products. All business is en- 
hanced by the presence of a sugar factory. 
NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE 
Perhaps the most important contribution of the beet- 
sugar industry to community welfare comes in the greater 
degree of national independence that it insures. In 
modern days, sugar has come to be a food necessity. Its 
high food value, its palatability, and the ease with which it 
fits into the human ration make it almost indispensable. 
The European war taught us much concerning the hard- 
ship that may result from a shortage of sugar. 
Any nation that finds itself dependent on some other 
nation for so important a commodity as sugar cannot 
boast that it is really independent. In time of war when 
an old supply is likely to be shut off, the nation that does 
not produce its own sugar may find itself seriously handi- 
capped. The beet-sugar industry owes its origin to just 
such a condition. Later international troubles have shown 
that preparation for an emergency of this kind must be made 
in times of peace; it is too late after fighting has begun. 
It now seems evident that, aside from other consider- 
ations, the American beet-sugar industry should be en- 
larged as a matter of national preparedness. The Amer- 
ican people cannot afford to place themselves at the mercy 
of a possible enemy by not having at home a source of 
sugar sufficient to meet their needs in times of war. 
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