Sugar & Spreckels

For many a week, reports had sifted through that 1929 would see the lifting of Cuban restrictions on production of sugar cane. Producers had made calculations, had figured that Cuba's sugar crop, now over 4,000,000 tons, without restriction would reach 4,500,000, perhaps 5,000,000. Yet U. S. sugar men frowned, last week, when the conservative Journal of Commerce (N. Y.) reported the word "determined" as issuing from the Presidential mouth of Cuba's Gen. Gerardo Machado y Morales. Still frowning, sugarmen considered an appeal to Congress to boost tariff rates, another appeal to Cuban producers to conclude a "Gentleman's Agreement."

It would have been permissible for sugarmen to frown, last week, at nearly every piece of news which concerned their industry. Profound is the depression in the sugar business. Raw sugar has fallen from 5.09-c- a pound in Jan., 1927, to 1.91-c- last fortnight, the lowest price on record. Over the same period, refined sugar has slipped from 6.36-c- a pound to 5.10-c- , last week's figure.

It was natural, therefore, that sugarmen should look forward to 1929 with misgivings. Facing the certainty of huge Javanese production, the probability of an unlimited Cuban supply, sugarmen saw little reason to hope for high price levels. They could cling to no solid, saving spar. But they could clutch, if they liked, at either of two straws:

First Straw. As everyone knows, cane sugar producers in Louisiana must fight diseases, blights. Untiringly, U. S. government experts have sought hardier, sturdier varieties of cane. And last week the Department of Agriculture announced results of an 11,100-mile tour of exploration through Papua and New Guinea, by air plane, canoe, foot. Explorer E. W. Brandes had discovered 167 varieties of sugar cane.

Last Straw. There are two ways of relating supply to demand. One is to cut down the supply. The other is to increase the demand. At the paternal Sugar Institute, last week, plans were on foot to assemble an army of researchers. To their official attention had been called a fact and a question. The fact : Sugar, a hydro carbon (C12H22O11) is the only organic chemical which is manufactured chemically pure on a tonnage basis. Hydrocarbons are easily broken down. Atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, may be taken from them, forming new and different hydrocarbons. Possible uses of sugar are in the manufacture of shoe polish, soap, explosives, fuel, essential oils. Conceivably a vast industrial opportunity lies behind the purity of sugar. The question: Why doesn't industrial chemistry find for sugar other factories than the stomach?

Appropriately the official attention-caller was revealed as Rudolph Spreckels. As all Californians know, the fame of the sugar family Spreckels rests on sugar pioneering. And the bright, particular fame of Rudolph Spreckels emerged from the succor he gave an ailing sugar business exactly 30 years ago.

Spreckels. All Californians know the history of the Sugar Family Spreckels. Father Claus, immigrant grocery boy, had left Germany in 1848 to avoid the revolutionary fighting. By 1856, Father Claus had imported a German bride and settled in San Francisco. From this time on, he lived in a state of perpetual warfare.

He became first brewer, then sugar refiner. Then, as now, American Sugar Refining Co. was the chief unit in the industry. Father Claus drew a line around the Pacific Coast territory, told the sugar trust that the coast belonged to Spreckels. When the enemy ventured across the line, Father Claus decided on an object lesson. He invaded the East, built the world's largest sugar refinery at Philadelphia, brought the trust to terms, sold the refinery for $7,000,000. American Sugar Refining Co. stayed away from the Pacific coast.

Father Claus took a boat and went to Hawaii. King Kalakaua borrowed some $750,000 from the sugar tycoon, and in return, gave him a title and exclusive rights to raise sugar in Hawaii. Then they fought over an issue of debased coinage. Kalakaua let the sugar trust into Hawaii. Father Claus ceremoniously returned his medals and his title.

Mother Spreckels proved to be prolific. Of the many children, Rudolph was the 11th or 12th. He is unable to recall which. He does remember, however, that he was an asthmatic child, too delicate to go to school regularly, whose one ambition was to be a millionaire in his own right. At the age of 17, he began to realize his ambition.

His first business training was with Brother Gus (Claus August) in the Philadelphia refinery. For his second effort, he and Brother Gus went into business on their own account. They bought, from Father Claus, one of the Hawaiian plantations which they had remade into an efficient enterprise. Suddenly Father Claus cut off all money for further development. The family row shook the banks of San Francisco, but at length they found the money. When Son Rudolph was 26, he sold the plantation and prepared to retire. He had gratified his ambition. He was then a millionaire.

But Son Rudolph did not retire. What held him back was another battle, again with his father. Father Claus, standing at his open window had sneezed, once, twice, three times. To the gas company whose plant was pouring smoke over San Francisco Father Claus sent a vigorous protest. He started a gas company of his own, deliberately set out to drive the San Francisco Gas Co. to the rocks. But Son Rudolph, on the verge of retirement, was a stockholder in the besieged company. When the stock fell, he gained control, cut out $300,000 waste, whipped Father Claus a second time. Said Father Claus: "No other man has beaten me once."

Son Rudolph never did retire. In 1906 he turned crusader, organized and financed the war against graft in the state and city government. He promised to go on to New York, Chicago, Denver. Bitter were the attacks on his sincerity, his aims. His wife and family were insulted on the street. Son Rudolph replied that he had never voted and vowed he would never hold office. This promise he has kept. He has not yet carried the battle to the East. But he is only 56.

Brother Gus, who is chairman of the board of the Federal Sugar Refining Co. (N. Y.) calls himself a sugar refiner. Brother Rudolph, who is president, calls himself "civic reformer," "banker."