At the close of 1890, sixty years after the first experiment at Philadelphia, there were only three beet-sugar factories in operation in America; those at Alvarado, Watsonville and Grand Island. The total capacity of the three plants was eight hundred tons of beets a day, or ten thousand tons of sugar a year. France in the same period increased her production from 5000 to 770,000 tons a year through favorable legislation providing for the payment of bounties.
In the United States, whenever beet-sugar enterprises have been started, there has generally been some legal provision for payment by the state of bounty on the quantity of sugar produced. The story of how this responsibility was evaded is hardly a pleasant one. In Nebraska, for example, three different legislatures enacted laws providing for bounty on beet sugar, but in each case the following legislature either repealed the act or failed to make appropriations for the necessary funds. In the early nineties, Michigan passed a bounty law which resulted in several beet factories being established in that state, but when the claims for bounty were presented for payment, the state auditor refused to honor them, and his action was upheld by the state supreme court on the ground of unconstitutionality. A similar condition arose in Idaho. Minnesota paid bounties in 1890 and 1899, after which the law was declared unconstitutional.
The McKinley bill of April, 1891, was the first national legislation to encourage the beet industry. It called for a bounty of two cents on each pound of domestic sugar produced testing over 90 degrees, and admitted beet seed and sugar machinery free of duty. This encouraged the Oxnards to build the factories at Norfolk, Nebraska, and Chino, California, of which mention has already been made. At the same time Thomas R. Cutler and his associates put up a beet factory at Lehi, Utah, which state offered a bounty in addition to that granted by the Federal government.
The tariff act of August 28, 1894, abolished the bounty on sugar and fixed an ad valorem duty of 40 per cent. As a result of the loss of the bounty and the financial stress that reigned at that time, no beet factories were started except that at Menominee Falls, Wisconsin, which was a flat failure.
The following résumé of the United States tariffs on sugar since the year 1846 may be found useful for purposes of reference:
Tariff act July 30, 1846: All sugars 30 per cent ad valorem.
Tariff act March 3, 1857, to be effective from and after July 1, 1857: All sugars 24 per cent ad valorem.
Tariff act March 2, 1861, effective April 1, 1861: ¾c per pound on raw, 2c per pound on refined.
Tariff act August 5, 1861: 2c per pound on raw. Sugars above 12 D. S. and not yet refined, 2½c per pound. 4c per pound on refined.
Tariff act July 14, 1862, effective August 1, 1862: Sugars not above 12 D. S., 2½c per pound. Sugars above 12 D. S., not above 15 D. S., 3c per pound. Above 15 D. S., not above 20 D. S., and not stove dried, 3½c per pound. Refined and above 20 D. S., 4c.