CHAPTER II.

IMMIGRANT LABOR IN THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY IN THE WESTERN STATES.

[For General Tables see pp. 671 to 683.]

a

GROWTH OF THE INDUSTRY.

*

*

Assuming that our tariff policy remains unchanged, it is true that the "real problems now confronting the beet-sugar industry * are (1) how to secure a satisfactory supply of labor for growing beets, (2) how to maintain and extend beet culture in competition with farm crops." The Commission, through its agents, has investigated the manner in which the first problem has been met in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast States, the character of the laborers employed, and the labor conditions which now obtain. Agents have conferred with the officers of the several companies, including the agricultural superintendents, and have visited most of the more important localities in which beets are grown and 21 of the factories. Data were collected from the growers of beets and laborers in both field and factory. The results are presented in the following report.

Before considering these results, however, it will be well to marshal such facts relating to the growth and present status of the beet-sugar industry as are necessary to an understanding of the situation.

PRESENT STATUS.

An idea of the present importance of the beet-sugar industry in the United States may be gathered from a consideration of certain statistics for the year 1908. In that year 64 factories produced an aggregate of 425,884 short tons of sugar from beets grown on 364,913 acres of land. The production of beet sugar in that year, as in 1907, was greater than that of the cane sugar produced in the continental United States. The figures given by the Statistical Abstract of the United States for 1908 show that 927,256,430 pounds (463,628 tons) of beet sugar were manufactured, as against 773,248,000 pounds (386,624 tons) of cane sugar.

• Beet-Sugar Industry, S. Doc. 22, 61st Cong., 1st sess., p. 29.

The report on Japanese and German-Russian Farmers of the Northern Part of Colorado should be consulted in connection with this report, for practically all of these farmers are growers of sugar beets.

All references to tons in this report are to the ton of 2,000 pounds.

d S. Doc. 22, op. cit., p. 1.

e S. Doc. 22, op. cit., gives 425,884 tons instead of this figure.

The following table shows the distribution of factories and acreage by States:

TABLE 30.-General factory and farm results of the beet-sugar industry in selected States in 1908.

a Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington.

a

It appears from this table that 35 of the factories in operation in 1909 were located in the States of the Western Division. It appears also that two-thirds of the beet sugar produced was manufactured in the four States of California, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah, and that roughly two-thirds of the total contributory acreage was included within these four States. Complete data are not available for the industry in Montana, Oregon, and Washington, but it is known that the area devoted to the growing of sugar beets in these States aggregated about 14,450 acres in 1909, and that the total daily slicing capacity of the three factories concerned was 2,100 tons. The proportion of the total production of beet sugar and the total acreage of beets harvested for the entire Western Division is therefore slightly more than two-thirds.

The status of the industry in the Western Division in 1909 may be summarized as follows:

Factories

Area harvested___

Average yield of beets per acre.

Beets worked ".

Sugar manufactured .

Average length of industry--

Number of laborers employed in factories (estimated).
Number of laborers employed in fields as hand workers d

• Because of a ruling against the publication of such statistics for a State having but a single establishment.

Excluding one factory in California and one in Colorado not in operation in 1908 because of local crop shortages.

с

c Figures for California, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah only.

This figure does not include "American" farmers who do their own hand work, with or without the help of their families and their regular hired men, nor teamsters, traction engineers, and other regular field employees who are engaged in the industry to the number of several thousand.

HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRY.

The first permanent beet-sugar factory in the United States was built at Alvarado, Cal., in 1872. Twenty years later six factories in the United States produced (for the year 1892) 13,000 tons of sugar. "In 1896, the beet-sugar industry in this country could hardly be said to have passed the experimental stage. A great amount of experimental work in growing beets had been done under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture, many of the state experiment stations and private organizations and individuals. The possibility of growing beets of suitable yields and quality for the manufacture of sugar had been fully demonstrated, and the areas adapted to the industry had been determined with some degree of accuracy. Yet much remained to be determined by the experience of the men who had the enthusiasm and capital to undertake the building and operation of factories and the growing of beets on a commercial scale.

66

Already up to 1896 more than 20 attempts, covering a period of over sixty years, had been made to establish factories, but of these no more than 6 had met with any degree of success, and all these had been of recent date. As has been aptly said by one of this department's investigators, these attempts, together with much of the experimental work, betrayed more enthusiasm than knowledge relating to the sugar beet."

The duties on imported sugar provided for by the tariff of 1897 gave a new impetus to the industry. The growth since 1897 may be seen in the table following.

TABLE 31.-Number of beet-sugar factories completed and put in operation in each State specified and in the United States, 1896-1908.

a Not in operation in 1908, owing to short crops, the beets being shipped to other factories.
Including 2 not in operation in 1908, because of short crops.

The total number of factories in operation in the United States in 1896 was seven. Three of these were in California and one was in

• Beet-sugar Industry in the United States, S. Doc. 22, op. cit., p. 1.

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Total.

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Total.

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Total.

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Total.

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1

1

1 1

7392556446221

1557

6

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Utah. The total number of factories constructed in the United States since 1896 is 74, 58 of which were in operation in 1908. Including those in operation in 1896 the total number of factories operated during the period considered is 81. Of these 62 were in operation in 1908. Two more located in the Western Division would have operated that year had it not been for local shortages in the crop of beets. It is interesting to note the very low percentage of failures in the Western Division. Of the 39 factories established during the period, 35 were in operation in 1908. Two more, as just stated, were temporarily idle because of a lack of beets for the campaign.

The greatest growth of the industry since 1896 has taken place in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast States. This may be explained in part by the greater readiness of farmers in a new country to try new crops, in part by the existence of waste lands, as in Colorado, which only needed irrigation to make them suitable for the profitable growing of beets, and in part by the availability of an organized labor supply for the field work.

The extent of the growth of the industry in the States considered in this report is seen in a comparison of statistics for the years 1899 and 1908, as shown in the following table:

TABLE 32.-General factory and farm results of the beet-sugar industry in the Western Division in 1899 and 1908.

The number of factories in 1899 was 12, the number operating in 1908, 35. The contributory acreage in 1899 was 54,553. In 1908 it was 253.368, or almost fivefold that of 1899. Moreover, the average yield per acre in 1908 was much larger than in 1899.

THE LABOR PROBLEM IN THE GROWING OF SUGAR BEETS.

To understand the labor situation in the beet fields it is necessary to understand, first of all, the processes involved in growing beets. These begin, of course, with the preparation of the ground for the seeding. Where the ranches are large enough and the nature of the ground permits, steam plows may be used. On smaller ranches horse plows are employed. The seeds are planted thickly by seed drills in rows from 16 to 20 inches apart. The next work is ordinarily the "bunching and thinning," although in some parts of the country the ground may become so hard after the seeding that it is necessary to harrow it to permit the beets to break through to the surface. "Bunching and thinning" consists in cutting out with a short-handled hoe entire blocks of the beets and then removing all but the best beet in each bunch, thus leaving the remaining beets from 5 to 12 inches apart. In California this work is usually done as soon as the beets develop two leaves; in Colorado as soon as they develop four. As the beets are thinned they are also given the first hoeing to loosen the earth about the plants which remain. It is necessary to hoe the beets at least twice more during the summer in order to remove the weeds and keep the earth loosened in the rows where it can not be reached by the cultivator. The culture of the sugar beet is an intensive one, requiring careful preparation of the soil and almost complete freedom from weeds and grass. Plowing and cultivating are done as for other crops.

When the beets are to be harvested "beet plows" are run over the ground to loosen the roots for the "toppers." The latter then pull the beets from the ground and top them, i. e., cut off the leaves. This is done with a large knife which the laborer holds in his right hand as he stands astride the row of beets he is engaged in topping. The topper pulls the beet from the earth with the same hand, grasps the root with his left hand, and cuts the leaves off with one blow of the knife. He then throws the topped beet upon one of the beet piles, which are made once in every 15 or 20 feet.

Sometimes the men who do the topping load the beets from these piles into wagons, while at other times the two operations are specialized. The beets are usually removed from the field very soon after being topped in order to avoid the injurious effects upon them of the sun's rays. They are then hauled either to the factory itself or to receiving stations along the railroad if the factory is not close at hand. Usually patent dumping wagons are used to eliminate the tedious process of shoveling the beets out by hand at the factory.

Further light may be thrown upon the nature of these different operations by reference to a typical labor contract. This contract is one used extensively in northern Colorado. Only the "Rules and regulations governing the hand work" are quoted. They are as follows:

RULES AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE HAND WORK ON THE WITHIN CONTRACT

BUNCHING AND THINNING.

This work to be commenced by the contractor just as soon as the beets show four leaves and the grower has them cultivated, and must be completed as

These later hoeings are done with long-handled hoes.