Utah-Idaho Sugar Company
Encyclopedia
The Utah-Idaho Sugar Company was a large sugar beet
processing company owned and controlled by the LDS Church and its leaders, based in Utah
. It was notable for providing a valuable cash crop
to Utah and surrounding states, and also for being part of the Sugar Trust, leading to antitrust investigations by the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission
, and the Hardwick Committee.
, but the first successful factory was E. H. Dyer
's 1879 Standard Sugar Refining Company factory in Alvarado, California
. James Wilson
, the United States Secretary of Agriculture
in 1898, reported that 150,000 copies of a 1897 USDA farmers' bulletin on sugar beets had been distributed and "the demand appears to be unabated."
By 1888, Arthur Stayner
and Elias Morris from the failed Deseret Manufacturing Company
were able to convince Woodruff and the church that it would be a good enterprise.
Research in France
and Germany
by Thomas R. Cutler was performed, and the Utah Sugar Company was organized on September 4, 1889. The capital was $15,000, with Elias Morris as company president. Morris had helped with the 1850s attempt at sugarbeet manufacturing. Notable stockholders included Wilford Woodruff
and George Q. Cannon
.
Experimentation from the 1850s until 1891 used free seed, provided by the US Department of Agriculture. James E. Talmage
assayed the resulting sugar beets, and, according to Leonard J. Arrington
: "the percents of sucrose and purity were so low that it would seem to have required a heroic imagination to see potential profit in the industry." A mistaken German
theory, backed up with experiments in Spain
and Italy
, was that irrigation was counterproductive in growing sugar beets was used until 1893. This was also called the "California method", on the belief that a long taproot
would supply the beet. Once that was corrected, yields per acre increased significantly. Utah Sugar began growing their own seed in 1895 and was producing 35 tons of seed by 1899.
In 1890, Woodruff, citing divine inspiration, called the 15 highest leaders of the church to raise money for the Utah Sugar Company. Also in that year, the McKinley Tariff
(also known as the 1890 Dingley Tariff or the Sugar Bounty Act) gave a sugar bounty, replacing a tariff, which "unwittingly" gave a substantial economic boost to sugar beet refining. This gave a payment of two cents per pound of sugar manufactured in the United States, as well as a penny per pound from the Utah government. This bounty was repealed in 1894 and replaced with a tax in 1897 by the Dingley Act of 1897
.
. Utah Sugar had been comparing Lehi with American Fork
as potential factory locations. The Lehi location was chosen because the city of Lehi offered 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) for a building site plus 1500 acres (6.1 km²) of land for a beet farm, built a road to the location, bought stock in the company, gave perpetual water rights, and offered other incentives. Further, the Rio Grande Western Railway and Union Pacific Railway passed nearby. "An uncharacteristically exuberant (by Mormon standards) celebration ensued", including bonfires of looted property and free barrels of beer. The location was chosen on November 18, 1890, and the cornerstone
was laid on December 26, 1890, and included Wilford Woodruff
as a speaker and a dedicatory prayer was offered by George Q. Cannon
. 2000 people attended the cornerstone ceremony. 100 rail cars of machinery came from Kilby Manufacturing Company Cleveland, Ohio
to fill the factory, at a cost of $260,000. E. H. Dyer and Company from Cleveland was contracted to build the factory.
The factory was ready for operation on October 12, 1891. Notable supervisors and managers of the plant included Edward F. Dyer (superintendent of first season, son of factory construction contractor E. H. Dyer
, from Alvarado, California
) and James H. Gardner, who served a Mormon mission
to Hawaii
, and acted as the sugar boiler for the first season.
During the 1890s, the Utah Sugar Company was in financial distress, partly because stockholders were not making their stock subscription payments. Even before the factory was ready, the LDS Church intervened, making a $50,000 payment to the Dyers from collected tithing
money. The factory was originally expected to be built for $300,000; it was recapitalized to $1 million on October 9, 1890. Lehi locals, including John Beck, Thomas R. Cutler, and John C. Cutler
backed the company, but eight of these seventeen backers went bankrupt. After being approached by Cutler, then-current LDS church president Wilford Woodruff
instructed the church to invest into the company, and they became "a significant stockholder," including a $50,000 payment and a $130,000 loan. Cutler also went to Chicago and New York City to secure loans from banks; he came back, via train, with a bag full of money, as he didn't think any banks in Utah could have cashed the bank draft.
More payments were required from the LDS church and secured by the church, as well as personal funding by George Q. Cannon and Heber J. Grant
. Joseph F. Smith
, president of the LDS Church, gave a sermon in 1893 explaining that this was done to help employ Mormons. Bonds, intended to cover debt in 1893, did not sell, so the LDS church purchased them, then resold them to Joseph Banigan of Rhode Island
. The church took a loss from this action, but did so to keep the company afloat. The church purchased another $85,200 in shares in 1896. Joseph F. Smith made it clear that Mormons who did not support Utah sugar by buying more expensive imported sugar were being unpatriotic, unwise, and not supporting efforts at home.
The machinery in the factory was very dangerous, even by standards of the time. Children played in the factory, and one six-year-old was killed in 1898. Workers were injured and killed. A visiting German sugar maker said "If you were in Germany you would be thrown in jail. You've got exposed machinery all over the place. You've got hazards every way you turn. Why in Germany you would be having someone killed in a plant like this every day."
While there was support for the company to expand into other Mormon territory, the church did not have the finances to support it, especially when Lorenzo Snow
became president of the church in 1898. Henry Osborne Havemeyer, president of the American Sugar Refining Company
, was interested in the company. Wallace Willett stated Colorado and Utah were good for production of sugar beets, but "Colorado... could not control its farmers as well as Utah.... the Mormons could control their people." This was in part due to Thomas Cutler's contracts with the sugar beet growers, which were the lowest-cost contracts, at 3.75 cents per pound. Havemeyer and American Sugar became the largest shareholder in the company, with almost 50% of its stock by 1902. American Sugar was the 1890-era reformulation of the Sugar Trust of the 1880s. Havemeyer was apparently impressed by the Mormons, offered technical assistance, paid a good price for the stock, and was known for using predatory pricing
against regional competitors, which were all factors leading to the acceptance of the offer. A director of American Sugar, Lowell M. Palmer, said he encouraged Havemeyer to invest in Utah because "the LDS Church, in a measure, controlled its people."
In 1891, 1783 acres (7.2 km²) of sugar beets were grown by 556 farmers in the area. In 1893, it had increased to 2700 acres (10.9 km²) from 763 farmers. By 1895 the area was 3300 acres (13.4 km²), 1899 saw 5000 acres (20.2 km²), and 1900 saw 7500 acres (30.4 km²). The productivity also increased, from 5.3 tons of sugar beets per acre in 1891 to 6.7 tons in 1893 and to 9.7 tons in 1893. Sugar content, measured as a percentage of the beet weight, increased from 11.0 in 1891 to 13.9 in 1897. During the Panic of 1896
, the Lehi factory was responsible for $200,000 in payments to farmers, as well as $85,000 in wages. A US Department of Agriculture report said "there is no one in [Lehi] desiring employment during the growing season", and an 1898 report to the US President from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture said that the "sugar-beet lands of Utah were very much enhanced in value... the location of a beet-sugar factory in a district causes a healthy rise in rents and values of lands." Nearly 30 businesses were founded in Lehi between 1890 and 1896, which was significant due to the national economic depression that disproportionately affecting Utah.
The Lehi plant was finally "a technical and financial success" in 1897, and the plant capacity was increased in 1900. This expansion tripled its volume, allowing it to process 1200 tons of beets. Cutting stations and pipelines were installed in Bingham Junction
in 1900, and then in 1904 from Spanish Fork
, which had a 24 miles (38.6 km) pipeline, 4 inches in diameter.
Molasses
, a byproduct of the sugar refining process, was considered waste. It was dumped into a nearby creek. The company considered making a vinegar or alcohol plant, "but demand did not seem to warrant it," probably due to the Mormon restriction against consuming alcohol
. The molasses was also combined with potash
and cinders from the boiler room
and used to pave roads. Finally, the molasses was further refined in 1903 though an "osmose
process", later replaced by the "Steffen process", used to recapture the sugar content. This helped improve the efficiency of sugar extraction; in 1891, 108 pounds (49 kg) of sugar were produced per ton of sugar beets. In 1893, the ratio was 153 pounds (69.4 kg) per ton of sugar beets. In 1898, due to the osmose processing of molasses, the 254 pounds (115.2 kg) of sugar per ton of sugar beets was extracted.
The Lehi factory went on to become the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company oligopoly
, following the 1907 merger of the Utah Sugar Company, Idaho Sugar Company, and Western Idaho Sugar Company, with then-current LDS church president Joseph F. Smith
as its head. The American Sugar Refining Company retained shares in the company through 1911, when it was investigated by the United States House of Representatives
. In 1914, Charles W. Nibley
, who was the presiding bishop
of the LDS church, bought all of the American Sugar's shares, becoming the largest shareholder. Nibley became the general manager in 1917.;U&I Sugar Corporation is headed by Mike Crump the current president and he is based in London England.
factory was built in 1899, following failed attempts by the Utah Sugar Beet Growers' Society of Springville in 1896 and the American Beet Sugar Construction Company (who built early sugar beet factories in Nebraska and the American Beet Sugar Company factory in Oxnard, California
). In 1900, a cutting factory was installed in Mapleton, Utah
, with a pipe running to the Springville factory. An additional cutting factory and pipeline followed in 1901, in Provo
.
A factory was built in Garland, Utah
to support the farms and Utah Sugar irrigation interests in the Bear River Valley
. Utah Sugar negotiated with the Oregon Short Line to construct a railroad from Corinne
16 miles (25.7 km) north to Garland
, which was completed in 1903. The sugar beet factory was completed in 1903 by William Garland, with machinery shipped on the new rail line. In the first season, the factory processed 18,900 tons of sugar beets into 1523 tons of sugar. By 1906, it processed 84,000 tons of sugar into 10,350 tons of sugar. By the 1960s, the Garland factory was processing 300,000 tons of sugar beets into 45,000 tons of sugar. Utah Sugar's water rights, dams, hydroelectric plant, and transmission lines were purchased by Utah Power & Light Company in December 1912 for $1.75 million. Utah Sugar purchased the canals on both sides of the Bear River in 1920 and controlled them at least through the 1960s.
Later factories were built in 1916 in Spanish Fork
and West Jordan
. These are discussed below.
The cutting stations were abandoned between 1913 and 1924, due to corrosion and leaks of the pipeline, complaints from farmers due to the location of the pipe on their land, freezing weather, and "deterioration of juice in transit."
The Idaho Sugar Company was created partly so "the [Mormons of Idaho and Utah] could speculate a little on the stock." This wasn't successful, so the major stockholders of Utah Sugar (including Havemeyer) and leaders of the LDS church created the Idaho Sugar Company. Joseph F. Smith
(head of Utah Sugar and the LDS church) was named head of the new company, with Richard Whitehead Young
, grandson of Brigham Young
as company attorney.
The same group went on to create the Fremont County Sugar Company and Western Idaho Sugar Company, and then built plants in Idaho at Lincoln
, Sugar City
, and Nampa
. Havemeyer sent "the three wise men from the East" to assist in technical matters.
The Lincoln plant, just over 3 miles (4.8 km) from Idaho Falls
, was built in 1903 for $750,000. The leadership came from the Lehi plant. 36,000 tons of sugar beets from 5724 acres (23.2 km²) were harvested the first year, resulting in 3665 tons of sugar, and the factory employed approximately 200 people. A bounty of one cent per pound of sugar generated in 1903 had been passed by the Idaho legislature to encourage sugar development, but the state auditor refused to pay it, likely because it would be financing the Sugar Trust. "Idaho's most brilliant lawyer", William Borah, represented the company in suing for the then-$29,000 due, but it was deemed unconstitutional, so the company never received the $51,347 that would have been due to them.
In anticipation of building another plant in eastern Idaho, the Fremont County Sugar Company was organized in August 1903. It was backed by the same investors as Idaho Sugar: Smith, Havemeyer, and others, with Smith as the president and Young as attorney. A cornerstone was laid in a new location called Sugar City
on December 8, 1903, five miles (8 km) northeast of Rexburg
and thirty miles northeast of Idaho Falls. The governor, John T. Morrison
, attended the ceremony. While the company raised $750,000, this was extended to $1 million due to a cutting factory at Parker
. The Oregon Short Line was connected via spur to Sugar City. The first harvest yielded 33,272 tons from 4754 acres (19.2 km²), producing 3126 tons of sugar. In early years the factory had a labor shortage, leading to a local community of Nikkei
—Japan
ese migrants and their descendants.
The Snake River Valley Sugar Company was a rival company presided by D. H. Biethan, a Utah egg merchant. With $700,000 in capital stock and based in Blackfoot, Idaho
and the surrounding Bingham County
, the stockholders were C. F. Hotchkiss from the East Coast, Blackfoot ranchers and businessmen, and European investors. They built a factory in Blackfoot with second-hand French
machinery originally used in a factory in Binghamton, New York
. The factory was completed November 1904 by Kilby Manufacturing Company from Cleveland, Ohio
, using their experience building plants in Windsor, Colorado
and Eaton, Colorado
. The superintendent of the new plant was Henry Vallez, who had been chief chemist at the Utah Sugar plant in Lehi.
In the first season, the factory processed a paltry 13,185 tons of beets, into 1528 tons of sugar. After Thomas R. Cutler and Utah Sugar threatened to build a competing factory in Blackfoot, Hotchkiss and the owners sold out to Idaho Sugar and Fremont County Sugar shortly after the first season. The factory was closed for one season, 1910, due to blight.
Idaho Sugar and Fremont County Sugar were merged into The Idaho Sugar Company on May 2, 1905, with a $3 million in capitalization. The company officers included Joseph F. Smith
as president, Thomas R. Cutler as vice president. The company bought Snake River Valley Sugar shortly after, and the company capital was raised to $5 million. In the 1906 season, the three factories processed 200,000 tons of sugar beets into 23,500 tons of sugar, with $300,000 in net profits.
Because of a competitor (W. D. Hoover of the Eaton, Colorado factory) being interested in Western Idaho, the Western Idaho Sugar Company was organized on June 10, 1905 with $2 million in capital. Stockholders and officers were similar to the other organizations: Havemeyer owned half of the shares, Smith was company president. Charles W. Nibley and George Stoddard
owned a combined 14% of the company, apparently due to their factory and operation at La Grande, Oregon
and Nibley, Oregon
. The company and principal factory were to be located in Nampa
, with a second factory in Payette
. Because of an unknown blight, the Payette factory was deferred, and sugar beets grown near Payette would be delivered to the Nampa factory. The Nampa factory was built by September 1906 and was quickly processing up to 718 tons of beets in a day- well over the 600 ton design of the factory. However, the sugar beet blight was reducing the yields by 1909, and the plant was closed in 1910. The equipment was then moved to Spanish Fork, Utah
in 1916.
Discussions began in 1906 to merge the Idaho and Utah companies. The Utah Sugar Company, The Idaho Sugar Company, and the Western Idaho Sugar Company were merged into the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company on July 3, 1907 with approval of Havemeyer and the American Sugar Refining Company. At the time, this was the largest company in Utah and Idaho. This was done to make gaining credit from banks easier, improve efficiency by reducing redundant equipment and staff, and it would remove criticisms of favoritism between stockholders of the companies (even though the management was nearly identical between them). The Western Idaho Sugar Company, with more modern equipment and having had a strong 1906 season, received a 25% premium on the new stock to alleviate stockholder complaints of being undervalued. The operating capital was $13 million, with the LDS church holding approximately $500,000.
Other Idaho plants were built or acquired; a factory in Shelley
was built in 1917. In 1924 the 1919 Rigby, Idaho
factory built by the Beet Growers Sugar Company, a farmers co-op, was purchased. Factories were closed and centralized: the Rigby plant was closed in 1939 and converted into a sugar storage facility, the Shelley plant was closed in 1943, and the Sugar City plant closed in 1947. Finally, the Blackfoot factory was closed in 1948 and converted into a storage warehouse. The Lincoln plant was upgraded, allowing it to process 4000 tons per day by the 1960s (versus 600 tons when it was built).
, with 77 miles (123.9 km) of pipe to support cutting stations. The locals tried to raise $700,000 for this factory. Thomas R. Cutler and Utah Sugar, realizing the locals were going to hire an outside firm to construct their factory, organized Utah Sugar to do so instead. Utah Sugar paid the freight costs for sugar beets to be shipped to their Lehi factory, then promised to build a factory if 5000 acres (20.2 km²) were pledged by 1906. The San Pete and Sevier Sugar Company was incorporated with $1 million in capital on August 28, 1905. Officers and stockholders were similar to the Utah Sugar and Idaho Sugar companies. The company planned to construct a factory in Moroni
, but drought, blight, and politics with farmers located in the more distant Sevier County
caused the plans to be dropped.
By 1909, plans for moving the Nampa, Idaho factory to Southern Utah were coming together. Pledges in stock and supported land led to a site being developed near Elsinore
. Contracts for 6500 acres (26.3 km²) were secured by November 1910, so a factory was completed by October 1911 by Dyer, using the Nampa equipment. The first year was very successful with 23,500 tons of sugar produced, but an ongoing issue with the sugar beet blight caused yield to fall. The factory was closed in 1929 and dismantled in the early 1940s.
A plant in Payson
was completed in October 1913, following the completion of the Strawberry Valley Reclamation Project in 1912. By 1915, the biggest year for the factory, 5014 acres (20.3 km²) were planted, yielding 36,915 tons of sugar beets, which were processed into 7722 tons of sugar. Because of low yields, the plant was closed in 1926 and dismantled in 1940; harvests were processed in the Lehi
and Spanish Fork
factories. These two factories were open for a combined 29 years and produced more than 300 million pounds of sugar, earning $10 million for the local farmers.
. U-I bought Amalgamated's share in 1916, sold all their Layton Sugar interests in 1925, but bought the company in 1959.
The cutting factory at Spanish Fork was moved to Pleasant Grove
around 1914, and a new 1000-ton factory was established in Spanish Fork in 1916 on construction contract to E. H. Dyer, using equipment removed from the shuttered Nampa plant.
By 1916, due to high demand for sugar internationally as well as at home, the company was making large profits. They paid a 7% dividend and even paid bonuses to their contracted farmers. Utah-Idaho even paid farmers high prices to compensate for a low yield due to a cold snap in the fall of 1916, raising prices slightly up from $5 per ton. However, Utah-Idaho still paid less per ton than any sugar processor, and Charles Patterson formed the Intermountain Association of Sugar Beet Growers to unify farmers. Ultimately, the Utah Farm Bureau was developed and asked the company to raise prices. This was met with objection by the IASBG for not negotiating harder, and because the IASBG wanted full credit for the raise to $7 per ton.
A factory was built in West Jordan in 1916, also by Dyer.
A factory was built in Brigham City, Utah
in 1916 by Dyer. Amalgamated Sugar bought the plant in 1917, and U-I bought it back in 1920.
Merrill Nibley suggested U-I should expand into Washington State in 1916. This led to the Union Gap
factory in 1917.
A plant in Shelley, Idaho
also opened in 1917. Two factories, intended to open for the 1918 season, weren't ready until 1919. These factories were in Toppenish and Sunnyside, Washington
. The Sunnyside factory, built by the Larrow Construction Company, was never completed. It opened briefly in 1919 to process the few beets salvaged, due to blight.
A partially completed factory was started in Honeyville, Utah
in 1919. Also in that year, U-I purchased an Amalgamated factory under construction in Whitehall, Montana
. Amalgamated had formed the Jefferson Valley Sugar Company and then contracted with Larrowe Construction to build the Whitehall factory in 1917. The pledged lands from farmers was withdrawn or "were not to be found", leading to financial troubles for both Jefferson Valley Sugar and Amalgamated Sugar. The factory construction was halted, and the remaining sugar beet production was sold to Great Western Sugar Company and transported to their Billings
factory.
. On September 24, 1915, the Oregon-Utah Sugar Company was formed between Charles Nibley, Alexander Nibley, and George Sanders. Sanders owned the Rogue River Public Service Company, Southern Oregon Construction Company, and Utah-Idaho Realty Company, and backed a $500,000 bond for the new sugar company.
While the Grants Pass factory was under construction, Charles Nibley and Sanders had a falling-out, leading to a disputed series of events. Nibley claimed the soil conditions in the area were poor, meaning the factory would not be well-supplied. Sanders stated Nibley simply wanted to take over control and ownership of any sugar company in the region. Sanders was forced out of the business and the Oregon-Utah Sugar company claimed he had embezzled from the company. This situation was well-discussed in the FTC investigation of U-I Sugar.
Before the factory opened, Oregon-Utah Sugar was merged into Utah-Idaho Sugar. Because of labor shortages and low area planted with sugar beets, the processing machinery was moved to Toppenish, Washington
in October 1917.
that was considered a failure. U-I inspected the plant in 1916, then formed the Nevada-Utah Sugar Company and took a controlling interest in the operation, and set up an operations contract for the 1917 season. While the contracted area was high enough (3760 acres (15.2 km²)), the yields were dismal (20,000 tons), so the factory was shuttered in 1917.
The People's Sugar Company built a 400-ton factory in Moroni, Utah
in 1917. U-I acquired it in 1934 and moved the machinery to Toppenish, Washington in 1937.
The Sterns-Roger Manufacturing Company built a 900-ton factory in Delta, Utah
for the Delta Beet Sugar Company, a subsidiary of the Great Basin Sugar Company in 1917. The operation was acquired by U-I in 1920, and the factory was moved to Belle Fourche, South Dakota
in 1927.
The Springville-Mapleton Sugar Company built a 350-ton plant in Springville, Utah
in 1918. U-I acquired it in 1932 and dismantled it in 1940.
The Gunnison Valley Sugar Company built a 500-ton factory in Centerfield, Utah
in 1918. The Centerfield factory equipment came from the Washington State Sugar Company plant in Waverly, Washington
. The Waverly factory, opened in December 1899, was considered unprofitable and inferior. The Utah Sugar management, including Cutler, advised Washington Sugar in 1901 for the 1902 season, but the factory closed in 1910. It was sold to Gunnison Sugar for $100,000, installed in Centerfield in 1917, and was ready for the 1918 campaign. U-I went on an aggressive anticompetitive campaign (including spreading rumors, leading to U-I's investigation by the FTC) against Gunnison Valley Sugar Company. In 1920, the William Wrigley Jr. Company purchased the factory to supply their chewing gum
production. U-I acquired the Centerfield factory and company in 1940. They proceeded to close the factory in 1956, re-opened from 1958 to 1961, then sold it as scrap in April, 1966.
The Beet Growers Sugar Company built a 800-ton factory in 1919 in Rigby, Idaho
. U-I bought it in 1924, dismantled it in 1939, and used the factory for storage.
In 1912, to reduce the need of imported seed, U-I purchased the Eastern Beet and Seed Farm from the American Sugar Refining Company. It was a 720 acres (2.9 km²) seed-growing establishment near Idaho Falls, Idaho, established by ASR in 1906. U-I raised 250 tons of seed in 1914, then 750 tons in 1915. In 1915, U-I and the United States Beet Sugar Manufacturers Association created the United States Beet Seed Company to grow seed in Idaho Falls, as well as Utah, Colorado, and California. In 1917 the company produced 2779 tons of seeds. The labor was consisted of "Japanese, Mexicans, and Asian Indians". The seed operation was closed in 1920, once European seed became available at the end of World War I.
, the US Department of Labor, the US Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission
.
The 1911 Hardwick Committee of the House of Representatives looked into the Sugar Trust's violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act
. Since American Sugar owned half of Utah-Idaho Sugar, they also looked into other dealings of Utah-Idaho, including stock watering, price fixing, and anticompetitive actions. As the Salt Lake Tribune said, the committee proposed to make executives answer "exceedingly embarrassing questions". The committee called for testimony from Thomas R. Cutler, Joseph F. Smith, and Charles W. Nibley. Smith had to be legally summoned to testify, as he would not appear willingly, likely due to his experience testifying at the 1904 Reed Smoot hearings.
While American Sugar's involvement with Utah-Idaho was found to be improper, they also denounced Utah-Idaho's methods. These included the anticompetitive establishment of the Nampa, Idaho factory, the anticompetitive control over the Bear River Valley irrigation and water rights, and the questionable stock watering of December 1902 and other times, describing it as "the mania for overcapitalization". The committee also found extensive evidence of price fixing by the company, arguing Utah sugar consumers subsidized Midwest sugar consumers, since both regions paid the same freight costs, even though the factories were in Utah and Idaho. Ultimately, no action was taken against Utah-Idaho or American Sugar, in part because Havemeyer, head of American Sugar at the time of the activities, had died in 1905. This pressure, however, led to American Sugar agreeing to sell their interest in Utah-Idaho Sugar. Charles W. Nibley entered into negotiations with American Sugar for Nibley to purchase their stock on behalf of the LDS church. They reached a dealLDS church retained their holdings and administration of Utah Sugar until at least the 1980s.
While Nibley has been involved with Amalgamated Sugar before 1914, he was new to the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. Since the companies had overlapping directors and boards, in 1916 they met and organized regional divisions of the Utah sugar market to keep from competing against each other, to keep sugar beet supply prices low, and to discourage competition from entering the market. If farmers were considering growing sugar beets for competing companies, Utah-Idaho would threaten and intimidate the farmers. Complaints about these practices caused the Federal Trade Commission
to take action against Utah-Idaho and Amalgamated in 1919.
The acquisition of territories had a strong impact on Utah-Idaho Sugar, as it allowed sugar to be imported duty-free from Hawaii (since 1876), Puerto Rico (1901) and Philippines (1913). Tariffs were discounted 20% for Cuba since 1903. The Revenue Act of 1913
reduced sugar duties by 25% in 1913, and called for the tariffs to end by May 1916. Prices for sugar were at a record low by 1913, and the only factory constructed in 1913 was the Payson factory, already under construction before the Revenue Act passed. Utah-Idaho Sugar wages were reduced 10%, and the stock price was at a new low.
Because of high sugar prices and the anticipated effect of World War I on imported sugar supplies, as well as the large profits the company was receiving, Nibley began an aggressive factory factory expansion campaign, detailed above. The federal government combated high prices with the Lever Act
and then the Sugar Equalization Board which had the authority to regulate the "price, production, and purchase of sugar". Uncertainty to the supply of sugar caused the Sugar Equalization Board to remain in power past the end of the war, and the United States Attorney General
A. Mitchell Palmer stated he would prosecute those who sold sugar over an established rate (13 cents per pound, or 20 cents per pound from Louisiana cane sugar). Further, the acquisition of territories had a strong impact on Utah-Idaho Sugar, as it allowed sugar to be imported duty-free from Hawaii (since 1876), Puerto Rico (1901) and Philippines (1913). Tariffs were discounted 20% for Cuba since 1903. The Revenue Act of 1913
reduced sugar duties by 25% in 1913, and called for the tariffs to end by May 1916. Prices for sugar were at a record low by 1913, and the only factory constructed in 1913 was the Payson factory, already under construction before the Revenue Act passed. Utah-Idaho Sugar wages were reduced 10%, and the stock price was at a new low.
Because of a labor shortage due to the World War I draft, at least 2000 Mexican laborers were imported in May 1917 due to an order by William Bauchop Wilson
, the U.S. Secretary of Labor. While other importations were discontinued in December 1918, Nibley, Smoot, and others convinced Wilson that they were still needed for sugar beet labor in the 1919 season. They were issued an extension until June 30, 1919. However, on January 17, 1919, an attorney with the Department of Labor charged Utah-Idaho with mistreating Mexicans imported to Blackfoot, refusing to feed or care for them. F. A. Caine, Utah-Idaho's superintendent of labor, wrote to Nibley that "if there was any case of destitution, it must be blamed on ... the Mexicans themselves".
During the late 1910s, farmers were dissatisfied at the low price paid for sugar beets versus amount of profit Utah-Idaho was making during the set-price era. Charles Nibley and Senator Reed Smoot worked with Herbert Hoover
to find a fair solution. While Utah-Idaho was increased their payments from $7 to $9 per ton in 1918, factories in California, Colorado, and Nebraska were paying $10 per ton. Nibley, on Hoover and Reed's advice, finally raised the prices for the 1919 season.
The Utah-Idaho company also speculated on the prices paid to farmers (to raise overall area of sugar beets) and stockpiled sugar in anticipation of the end of price controls. In December 1919, 5300000 pounds (2,404 t) of sugar were ordered seized by US District Judge
E. E. Cushman
, who charged the company of hoarding them in Yakima, Washington
and Toppenish, Washington
.
Knowing that buyers and speculators would pay well over this rate, the Utah-Idaho company asked Reed Smoot
, a high-ranking church leader and United State Senator, if they would be prosecuted for selling above the ceiling. Because of the confidence of attorneys D. N. Straup and Joel Nibley (son of Charles W. Nibley), the board of directors voted to sell above the price ceiling. Only Heber J. Grant
, president of both the LDS church and Utah-Idaho, voted against this price increase. The company began charging 28 cents per pound by May 1, 1920, even though Utah's only other sugar company, Amalgamated Sugar Company
, was charging the 13 cents per pound rate established by Palmer. One resident told Smoot this was "the most unfortunate occurrence that has ever happened in Utah affecting the faith of the Mormon people."
Floyd T. Jackson of the Department of Justice
filed a complaint, charging the Utah-Idaho company of profiteering, and obtaining "undue, exorbitant, immoderate, excessive and monstrous" profits on sugar. Merrill Nibley, Charles Nibley's son, vice president and assistant manager of the company, was arrested. The company embarked on a propaganda
campaign in the Utah market. The Idaho division of the Department of Justice filed charges against the company on June 10, 1920, specifically charging Heber J. Grant
, Charles W. Nibley and Thomas R. Cutler, among others. Warrants for their arrest were issued on June 21, 1920.
A group "of beet growers and businessmen" met at Spanish Fork, Utah
on July 11 to defend the president (Grant) and presiding bishop (Nibley) of their church, calling for an end to sugar beet growing in the area and arguing that the charges were simply discrimination. A Department of Justice meeting on July 19 showed that while the company was selling sugar for 23 to 28 cents per pound, it only cost 9 cents per pound to produce. The case was sent to trial at the district court, the warrant against Grant was dropped (since he had voted against the price increase), and warrants were issued for more board members, including David A. Smith
and William Henry Wattis
.
Charles Nibley issued a racist and nationalist letter to stockholders, saying the charges were intended to "discriminate against white labor in this country in favor of negro and Japanese labor and producers of Cuba, Porta Rico, Hawaii, or the south." Further political maneuvering involving Republicans Smoot and Wattis led to Wattis being found in contempt of court
by Judge Tilman D. Johnson. H. L. Mulliner, the Utah Democratic Party chair, opened the state convention by discussing how Utah-Idaho inserted its "greedy hand into the family purses of families all over this state", and used that gain to finance Republican campaigns and newspapers.
In October 1920, the editor of Relief Society Magazine
and daughter of Brigham Young, Susa Young Gates
, wrote in the magazine that women should refrain from indulging "in bitter criticism of good men about a business transaction which had for its motive the upbuilding of this state and the people." It was around this time that tides of public favor in Utah turned against the company, due in part to price increases for sugar in Utah. Nibley and Smoot encouraged Grant to make a statement at the semi-annual General Conference. Four LDS apostles (Stephen L. Richards, Anthony W. Ivins
, Charles W. Penrose
, James E. Talmage
), opposed the church taking this action. President Grant ignored this opposition, delivering the following as part of his opening address: "no man is guilty, in the truest sense of the word, of an offense, just because a Grand Jury finds an indictment against him".
In the end, over thirty indictments were filed against the company, including 10 in Idaho and 13 in Utah. Matthew Godfrey argued these indictments aren't mentioned in the two official histories of the Utah-Idaho company (including Leonard J. Arrington
's work) due to "the embarrassment they caused the company." Nibley wrote to Smoot that "the sugar situation gets worse and worse."
A Supreme Court
ruling on February 28, 1921, issued by Chief Justice Edward Douglass White
, declared the Lever Act was unconstitutional, due to its ambiguous and vague language. This may not have been enough to prevent the company and its board members from being found guilty on profiteering, but the rates for sugar had been falling since their peak on May 20, 1920. During the Depression of 1920–21, the commodity had a glut by the end of 1920, and the 1921 rate was 4.6 cents per pound. Further, contracts to farmers for raw sugar beets were high, resulting in losses for companies with contracts, such as Utah-Idaho.
U-I was $23 million in debt by 1921. The LDS church attempted to help, but more help was needed, so Heber J. Grant went to U-I's bankers in New York and Chicago. Bankers Trust
sent a financial controller to Utah to oversee the problem. In exchange for assisting U-I in avoiding bankruptcy, the bankers required three conditions: the management be changed, a bankers' committee supervise company policies, and $3 million in venture capital
be raised.
Charles W. Nibley and Merril Nibley resigned from the company and were replaced by William Henry Wattis
as vice president and general manager. Additional financial directors were also added to the board. The par value
of the stock was reduced in October 1922, reducing the market capitalization to $14.4 million, leaving a credit balance of $9.6 million. A preferred stock offering was given to common stockholders. This stock would be paid back at 7% interest, was offered at 70% of par value, and was redeemable at 102%. Only 15% of the hoped-for stock was subscribed.
Heber J. Grant had the LDS church subscribe to the remainder (almost $2 million), and also advanced a loan to the company. Grant and Reed Smoot also persuaded the War Finance Corporation
and U.S. President Warren Harding to loan $9.5 million to the Sugar Beet Finance Corporation, organized between Amalgamated Sugar and Utah-Idaho Sugar. U-I proceeded to borrow $5.75 million from this arm.
Godfrey argues that while Utah-Idaho "had chafed at government restrictions, [their] real problems stemmed from the end of federal control of the sugar industract. After the SEB had expired, the laws of supply and demand meant the demise of high prices as sugar poured into the country from around the world."
The FTC found Utah-Idaho Sugar guilty of unfair business practices on October 3, 1923. The decision indicated that the territory system used by Amalgamated and U-I gave them "a practical if not an entire monopoly of the beet sugar industry" in the region, ordered the companies to "forever cease and desist from conspiring between and among themselves to maintain... the monopoly", and ordered U-I to stop preventing other companies from entering their territory. U-I appealed the case with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
in 1924, and the court ordered U-I to submit a "condensed narrative" of the FTC hearings. A 1433-page summary was filed in early 1925, but the case didn't convene until May 1927. The court overturned the FTC decision on October 21, 1927, as the manufacturing of sugar did not occur across state lines.
A subsidiary of the company was created in 1932, called the Sugar Beet Credit Corporation. Willard T. Cannon, vice president and general manager of U-I, was president of the subsidiary. Using $1.25 million in funds advanced by the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank (through the Agricultural Credit Act
), they gave farmers loans of up to $20 per acre with their crops as security. In 1933, 4039 farmers received loans totaling $644,453. In 1934, 3026 farmers received $398,132 in loans. This continued until the finance company was closed in 1938, and was dissolved on June 29, 1940.
In 1938, U-I Sugar began marking directly to the consumer. Instead of selling exclusively in hundredweight
bags, they marketed "attractive 5- and 10-pound bags suitable to the needs of modern housewives."
of 1933 was modified on May 9, 1934 with the Jones-Costigan Amendment, also known as the Sugar Act of 1933. This set quotas for sugar production, set "processing tax" on sugar, and allotted manufacturing outputs. U-I was allotted 143,900 tons in 1934, well below the 170,000 tons produced in 1933. While volumes were down, due to a large glut of sugar, the "average income in the beet industry from 1934 to 1936 was 20 percent higher than the average income during the period 1925 to 1934."
While the company was in better shape by 1935 than they had been in 20 years, interest rates were also low. The company again reduced the par value of the stock in 1935, leaving a $2.4 million credit. They also called $3 million in bonds and issued $3.5 million in new bonds. The LDS church took $500,000 of bonds, and $1.45 million in preferred stock (with a 7% interest rate) was called and reissued stock at 6%. The stock was issued in October 1935, and the bonds were sold in March 1936. The LDS church bought $2 million of the stock issuance. Because of this financial wrangling, the company issued a 5 cent dividend on their common stock- the first in 11 years.
The company argued that 1933–1952 was a difficult period due to the sugar production quota being decided while U-I was in the midst of the curly top blight, making the quota excessively low. Quotas were maintained through 1974, being rewritten in 1937 and 1948, with the extensions to the acts meaning it ultimately expired at the end of 1974.
Because of this, U-I felt it impacted them with an unfairly low production quota. Factories were kept closed, and only opened if they could run at full capacity (and at a low production price). Lower-volume plants were closed, as farmers could transport large volumes of sugar beets on highways now, rather than by horse to the rail lines.
The Sugar Act of 1933 continued to be renewed through at least the early 1980s. However, high fructose corn syrup
and artificial sweeteners changed the type of sugar being consumed.
led to worries of a food shortage. The government instituted the Food for Freedom campaign. During the times of high labor needs, U-I recruited schoolchildren, volunteers, "imported labor". Thinning beets is a more labor-intensive process. During that time, governors, politicians, members of the local school boards, as well as the civic groups: firemen, police officers, chamber of commerce. The LDS church exerted its members to contribute heavily, and they did, as well as bankers, merchants, clears, and any others who could help.
In 1942, approximately 10,000 Japanese Americans were relocated and interned
from the Pacific states. Some of these people were employed as seasonal agricultural laborers, allowed to leave internment centers in Hunt/Minidoka, Idaho, Topaz, Utah, and Heart Mountain, Wyoming. 3500 of these laborers worked for U-I. The interned Japanese Americans also provided seasonal labor in 1943 and 1944; all the labor was paid at prevailing wage
s. Temporary labor was also provided by the Bracero Program
, 700 in 1944, 1100 in 1945 in Utah. German and Italian POWs were also "apt and willing workers", 500 in 1944 and 2000 in 1945 in Utah.
, which caused beet curly top virus
, a blight
. The first blight was seen in Lehi in 1897, when the harvest of sugar beets dropped by 58% from the previous year, and area yield dropped by 54%. Blights were also experienced in 1900 and 1905; the leafhopper and resulting blight was identified in 1905 at by E. D. Ball, a professor of entomology
at Utah State Agricultural College
.
While the blights began occurring in isolated years in most areas, this wasn't the case in Nampa, Idaho. The blight began in 1906 and continued through 1910, reducing area yield to 12% of the break-even amount. The worst period of blight occurred beginning in 1919 and continued through 1934. Overall production was substantially decreased in these years; 1924 saw 50,000 fewer tons of sugar produced than the previous year.
Ultimately, 22 of the sugar factories in the Western United States were closed due to the blight, and the remaining 21 factories were periodically shuttered, with an aggregate production under 50% of their stated capacity. This included ten U-I factories closed or moved due to blight:
The Raymond, Alberta, Canada plant was built by the Lynch-Cannon Engineering Company in time for the 1925 season. It was located in the area due to sugar beet farmers who had moved north from Utah and Idaho, customs-free importation of machinery, and slightly higher prices for the sale of refined sugar. The factory was held by the Canadian Sugar Factories, Limited subsidiary of U-I. By 1930, 15000 acres (60.7 km²) were producing 127,000 tons of beets, was "basically profitable", but had issues with labor supply and climate.
Since the Great Basin Sugar Company had "poached" territory from U-I with their Delta, Utah plant, purchased by U-I in 1920, the company wanted to retaliate with a plant in their territory, which led to the Belle Fourche, South Dakota plant. The specific location was chosen due to the nearby Orman Dam and Reservoir
land reclamation project, at the urging of the Associated Commercial Clubs of the Black Hills, who had pledged 8000 acres (32.4 km²). The North Western Railroad agreed to build an 11 miles (17.7 km) spur. Area farmers had already been growing 2000 acres (8.1 km²) at high yields, shipping the sugar beets to the Great Western Sugar Company plant in Scottsbluff, Nebraska
. U-I arranged move the Delta plant to Belle Fourche, building the new factory themselves.
The Belle Fourche plant was profitable from 1927 to 1950, but lost money from 1951 to 1960. Management made aggressive plans to try to save the company. In 1962, farmers expanded east of the Missouri River
, gaining 9800 acres (39.7 km²). The yelds were disappointing, and the sugar content was low. At this time, research into the cost-benefit of leaving the factory was on the table. In 1964, the company retracted significantly and still lost money- $350,000. Ultimately, the factory didn't look good financially. The factory closed and was dismantled in 1965.
of Spreckels, California
began experimenting with blight-resistant plants in 1919, but did not develop a commercial variety by 1928.
The US Department of Agriculture created a sugar beet variety in the late 1928s, known as "U.S. No. 1." Using a newly discovered overwintering technique for growing sugar beets for seed by the USDA and the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station, seed production plots were grown in 1930 in New Mexico, Hemet, California
, and St. George, Utah
. Very limited quantities of this seed were available for the 1931 growing season- only 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) were grown in Washington County, Utah. Larger volume of seed were available for the 1934 season, and it was in heavy use by 1935. Other varieties were developed (12, 33, and 34) and in use by 1937. These were significantly higher in sugar content, less likely to bolt (go to seed due to planting early), and more resistant to blight.
By 1935, U-I was planting 650 acres (2.6 km²) of beets for seed in St. George and Moapa, Nevada, with an additional 150 acre (0.607029 km²) in Hemet, California
and 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) in Victorville, California
. They produced 2000000 pounds (907,184.7 kg) of seed in 1936.
For beet seed producers, yields drastically increased at the same time that labor requirements dropped. In 1932, a seed farm could expect to yield 2000 pounds of seed per acre. By the 1960s, yields were 3300 pounds per acre, an increase of 60.6%.
in 1948, anticipating the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam
and irrigation project. 1950 yields were 24 tons per acre from 1120 acres (4.5 km²), and by 1951 it was 29 tons per acre from 1700 acres (6.9 km²). The irrigation was available by 1952, so 3400 acres (13.8 km²) were contracted in Moses Lake, Othello
, Warden
, and Quincy
. Since the Toppenish factory was already operating at full capacity, the sugar beets were shipped to the Lincoln factory near Idaho Falls, Idaho, a distance of over 600 miles (965.6 km).
The decision to build a factory in Moses Lake was made in 1952. Equipment from the shuttered Chinook, Montana factory was reused in this plant, as well as equipment from the closed factories in Spanish Fork (formerly Nampa), Blackfoot, and Shelley. $8.1 million was required to get the factory running, and it was dedicated October 23, 1953, in time for the 1953 harvest. When it opened, it was the largest sugar beet processing factory in the United States. The factory was processing 2000 tons per day during the first year. Later upgrades brought the Moses Lake factory to 6250 tons by the 1960s, and the total investment is approximately $20 million. By the 1960s, the factory had contracts with 800 farmers on 33000 acres (133.5 km²), giving it 800,000 tons of sugar beets, with a yield of 24 tons per acre. A record was achieved in 1963 when this region averaged a 27.2 tons per acre yield.
There was a serious explosion on September 25, 1963, likely caused by a dust explosion
in one of seven silos, which were 108 ft (32.9 m) tall. Seven died, another seven were injured, and the factory sustained $5 million in damage. The factory was shuttered for over three weeks, causing over 2000 acres (8.1 km²) to lay in fields.
The Moses Lake plant was closed in 1979.
. Research was being made toward a true monogerm seed by Russian refugees Viacheslav F. Savitsky, Helen Kharetchko Savitsky, and Utah native Forrest Vern Owen. U-I and other sugar companies created the Beet Sugar Development Foundation, with a laboratory in West Jordan
. Together with the USDA's Division of Sugar Plant Investigations, they financed a search for naturally occurring monogerm seeds. Two such plants were found, both in Oregon. These were named SLC Monogerm 101 and SLC Monogerm 107. The first commercial monogerm sugar beet resistant to the Curly Top blight was launched in 1955 by U-I, and by 1958 it was in large-scale production.
Partially in response to the labor shortages experienced during World War II, large efforts were made to mechanize the thinning, harvesting, and processing of sugar beets. Mechanical cross-blocking thinners were used starting in 1941, precision seed planting equipment was used starting in 1944, and more efficient mechanized harvesters were used starting in 1943, based on a "variable-cut topping mechanism" developed by J. B. Powers at the California Experiment Station of University of California, Davis
, which was shared with manufacturers in a public domain
manner. In 1946, 12% of the crop was harvested mechanically; by 1950, approximately 66% was mechanically harvested. This mechanization helped U-I stay productive compared to imported sugar. In 1960, U-I produced 325,000 tons of sugar.
In the 1960s, U-I had five factories, down from the 28 they had built. They also owned a lime quarry west of Victor, Idaho
, used as quicklime
for the Lincoln, Idaho factory in processing beets.
Utah-Idaho and its competitors (including the Amalgamated Sugar Company) were again sued beginning in 1971, alleging price fixing
and market manipulation. One such class action lawsuit was settled out of court in 1980.
Utah-Idaho Sugar Company changed its name to simply "U and I" in 1975. By this time, Utah-Idaho had moved into potato
production. It put its four remaining sugar factories for sale in November 1978, stopped offering contracts to sugar beet growers, and closed the Moses Lake, Washington and Gunnison, Utah plants in 1979, entirely abandoning the sugar industry. In the mid-1980s, the LDS church sold the company, and it was renamed AgraWest. AgraWest was purchased by Idaho Pacific Corporation of Ririe, Idaho
in 2000.
Mike Crump the president of U&I Sugar Corporation now controls the process from growing to end buyer sales and is continuing to purchase mills in Brazil. The company now concentrates on selling cane sugar to the end buyer and does not trade on international market platforms thereby ensuring the best possible price for each mt produced.
In 2010 U&I moved into direct sales and the expansion program was initiated at www.uandisugar.com.
Sugar beet
Sugar beet, a cultivated plant of Beta vulgaris, is a plant whose tuber contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. Sugar beets and other B...
processing company owned and controlled by the LDS Church and its leaders, based in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. It was notable for providing a valuable cash crop
Cash crop
In agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for profit.The term is used to differentiate from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family...
to Utah and surrounding states, and also for being part of the Sugar Trust, leading to antitrust investigations by the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
, and the Hardwick Committee.
Company origins
Since sugar was a primarily imported crop, there was support in the United States to produce it internally and prevent over $500 million from being sent out of the country. Sugar beet processing was attempted in 1830 near Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, but the first successful factory was E. H. Dyer
E. H. Dyer
Ebenezer Herrick Dyer was an American businessman who established the first successful commercial beet sugar mill in the U.S., and as such was called the "father of the American beet sugar industry"....
's 1879 Standard Sugar Refining Company factory in Alvarado, California
Alvarado, California
Alvarado is a former settlement in and former county seat of Alameda County, California, now annexed to Union City. It was located north-northwest of downtown Newark....
. James Wilson
James Wilson (U.S. politician)
James "Tama Jim" Wilson was a Scotland-born United States politician who served as United States Secretary of Agriculture for sixteen years during three presidencies, from 1897 to 1913. He holds the record as the longest-serving United States Cabinet member.-Personal background:Wilson was born in...
, the United States Secretary of Agriculture
United States Secretary of Agriculture
The United States Secretary of Agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The current secretary is Tom Vilsack, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on 20 January 2009. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other...
in 1898, reported that 150,000 copies of a 1897 USDA farmers' bulletin on sugar beets had been distributed and "the demand appears to be unabated."
Formation of Utah Sugar
| Years | Name |
|---|---|
| 1902–1918 | Joseph F. Smith Joseph F. Smith Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... |
| 1918–1929 | Heber J. Grant Heber J. Grant Heber Jeddy Grant was the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He was ordained an apostle on October 16, 1882, on the same day as George Teasdale... |
| 1929–1931 | William Henry Wattis William Henry Wattis William Henry Wattis, also known as W. H. Wattis , was one of the three Wattis Brothers who founded Utah Construction Company in 1900.-History:... |
| 1931–1945 | Heber J. Grant Heber J. Grant Heber Jeddy Grant was the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He was ordained an apostle on October 16, 1882, on the same day as George Teasdale... |
| 1945–1951 | George Albert Smith George Albert Smith George Albert Smith, Sr. was the eighth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .-Early life:... |
| 1951–1958 | David O. McKay David O. McKay David Oman McKay was the ninth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , serving from 1951 until his death. Ordained an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1906, McKay was a general authority for nearly 64 years, longer than anyone else in LDS Church... |
| 1958–1963 | J. Arthur Wood |
| 1963–1969 | Douglas W. Love |
| 1969–1981 | Rowland M. Cannon |
By 1888, Arthur Stayner
Arthur Stayner
Arthur Stayner was an English horticulturist who emigrated to the United States and became important in the founding of the sugar beet industry in Utah.-Beet sugar:...
and Elias Morris from the failed Deseret Manufacturing Company
Deseret Manufacturing Company
The Deseret Manufacturing Company was an unsuccessful venture by the LDS Church in the 1850s to process sugar beets into refined sugar. A test factory was established in an area that is now known as Sugar House, Utah.-Background:...
were able to convince Woodruff and the church that it would be a good enterprise.
Research in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
by Thomas R. Cutler was performed, and the Utah Sugar Company was organized on September 4, 1889. The capital was $15,000, with Elias Morris as company president. Morris had helped with the 1850s attempt at sugarbeet manufacturing. Notable stockholders included Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff, Sr. was the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death...
and George Q. Cannon
George Q. Cannon
George Quayle Cannon was an early member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and served in the First Presidency under four successive presidents of the church: Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow...
.
Experimentation from the 1850s until 1891 used free seed, provided by the US Department of Agriculture. James E. Talmage
James E. Talmage
James Edward Talmage born in Hungerford, Berkshire, England, was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1911 until his death in 1933....
assayed the resulting sugar beets, and, according to Leonard J. Arrington
Leonard J. Arrington
Leonard James Arrington was an author, academic and the founder of the Mormon History Association. He is known as the "Dean of Mormon History" and "the Father of Mormon History" because of his many influential contributions to the field.-Biographical background:Arrington was born in Twin Falls,...
: "the percents of sucrose and purity were so low that it would seem to have required a heroic imagination to see potential profit in the industry." A mistaken German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
theory, backed up with experiments in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, was that irrigation was counterproductive in growing sugar beets was used until 1893. This was also called the "California method", on the belief that a long taproot
Taproot
A taproot is an enlarged, somewhat straight to tapering plant root that grows vertically downward. It forms a center from which other roots sprout laterally.Plants with taproots are difficult to transplant...
would supply the beet. Once that was corrected, yields per acre increased significantly. Utah Sugar began growing their own seed in 1895 and was producing 35 tons of seed by 1899.
In 1890, Woodruff, citing divine inspiration, called the 15 highest leaders of the church to raise money for the Utah Sugar Company. Also in that year, the McKinley Tariff
McKinley Tariff
The Tariff Act of 1890, commonly called the McKinley Tariff, was an act framed by Representative William McKinley that became law on October 1, 1890. The tariff raised the average duty on imports to almost fifty percent, an act designed to protect domestic industries from foreign competition...
(also known as the 1890 Dingley Tariff or the Sugar Bounty Act) gave a sugar bounty, replacing a tariff, which "unwittingly" gave a substantial economic boost to sugar beet refining. This gave a payment of two cents per pound of sugar manufactured in the United States, as well as a penny per pound from the Utah government. This bounty was repealed in 1894 and replaced with a tax in 1897 by the Dingley Act of 1897
Dingley Act
The Dingley Act of 1897 , introduced by U.S. Representative Nelson Dingley, Jr. of Maine, raised tariffs in United States to counteract the Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act of 1894, which had lowered rates....
.
Lehi factory
A $400,000 sugar beet processing factory was constructed in Lehi, UtahLehi, Utah
-Attractions:Lehi Roller MillsLehi Roller Mills was founded in 1906 by a co-op of farmers. George G. Robinson purchased the mill in 1910, and since then it has remained in the family. It is run today by grandson R. Sherman Robinson....
. Utah Sugar had been comparing Lehi with American Fork
American Fork, Utah
American Fork is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, at the foot of Mount Timpanogos in the Wasatch Range, north of Utah Lake. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 26,263 at the 2010 census, nearly a 20% growth since the 2000 census...
as potential factory locations. The Lehi location was chosen because the city of Lehi offered 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) for a building site plus 1500 acres (6.1 km²) of land for a beet farm, built a road to the location, bought stock in the company, gave perpetual water rights, and offered other incentives. Further, the Rio Grande Western Railway and Union Pacific Railway passed nearby. "An uncharacteristically exuberant (by Mormon standards) celebration ensued", including bonfires of looted property and free barrels of beer. The location was chosen on November 18, 1890, and the cornerstone
Cornerstone
The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...
was laid on December 26, 1890, and included Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff, Sr. was the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death...
as a speaker and a dedicatory prayer was offered by George Q. Cannon
George Q. Cannon
George Quayle Cannon was an early member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and served in the First Presidency under four successive presidents of the church: Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow...
. 2000 people attended the cornerstone ceremony. 100 rail cars of machinery came from Kilby Manufacturing Company Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
to fill the factory, at a cost of $260,000. E. H. Dyer and Company from Cleveland was contracted to build the factory.
The factory was ready for operation on October 12, 1891. Notable supervisors and managers of the plant included Edward F. Dyer (superintendent of first season, son of factory construction contractor E. H. Dyer
E. H. Dyer
Ebenezer Herrick Dyer was an American businessman who established the first successful commercial beet sugar mill in the U.S., and as such was called the "father of the American beet sugar industry"....
, from Alvarado, California
Alvarado, California
Alvarado is a former settlement in and former county seat of Alameda County, California, now annexed to Union City. It was located north-northwest of downtown Newark....
) and James H. Gardner, who served a Mormon mission
Missionary (LDS Church)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...
to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, and acted as the sugar boiler for the first season.
During the 1890s, the Utah Sugar Company was in financial distress, partly because stockholders were not making their stock subscription payments. Even before the factory was ready, the LDS Church intervened, making a $50,000 payment to the Dyers from collected tithing
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
money. The factory was originally expected to be built for $300,000; it was recapitalized to $1 million on October 9, 1890. Lehi locals, including John Beck, Thomas R. Cutler, and John C. Cutler
John Christopher Cutler
John Christopher Cutler was an American politician and the second Governor of Utah. He served as governor from 1905 to 1909. He was a Republican.-Biography:...
backed the company, but eight of these seventeen backers went bankrupt. After being approached by Cutler, then-current LDS church president Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff, Sr. was the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death...
instructed the church to invest into the company, and they became "a significant stockholder," including a $50,000 payment and a $130,000 loan. Cutler also went to Chicago and New York City to secure loans from banks; he came back, via train, with a bag full of money, as he didn't think any banks in Utah could have cashed the bank draft.
More payments were required from the LDS church and secured by the church, as well as personal funding by George Q. Cannon and Heber J. Grant
Heber J. Grant
Heber Jeddy Grant was the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He was ordained an apostle on October 16, 1882, on the same day as George Teasdale...
. Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
, president of the LDS Church, gave a sermon in 1893 explaining that this was done to help employ Mormons. Bonds, intended to cover debt in 1893, did not sell, so the LDS church purchased them, then resold them to Joseph Banigan of Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
. The church took a loss from this action, but did so to keep the company afloat. The church purchased another $85,200 in shares in 1896. Joseph F. Smith made it clear that Mormons who did not support Utah sugar by buying more expensive imported sugar were being unpatriotic, unwise, and not supporting efforts at home.
The machinery in the factory was very dangerous, even by standards of the time. Children played in the factory, and one six-year-old was killed in 1898. Workers were injured and killed. A visiting German sugar maker said "If you were in Germany you would be thrown in jail. You've got exposed machinery all over the place. You've got hazards every way you turn. Why in Germany you would be having someone killed in a plant like this every day."
While there was support for the company to expand into other Mormon territory, the church did not have the finances to support it, especially when Lorenzo Snow
Lorenzo Snow
Lorenzo Snow was the fifth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1898 to his death. Snow was the last president of the LDS Church in the nineteenth century.-Family:...
became president of the church in 1898. Henry Osborne Havemeyer, president of the American Sugar Refining Company
American Sugar Refining Company
The American Sugar Refining Company was the largest American business unit in the sugar refining industry in the early 1900s.-Establishment:...
, was interested in the company. Wallace Willett stated Colorado and Utah were good for production of sugar beets, but "Colorado... could not control its farmers as well as Utah.... the Mormons could control their people." This was in part due to Thomas Cutler's contracts with the sugar beet growers, which were the lowest-cost contracts, at 3.75 cents per pound. Havemeyer and American Sugar became the largest shareholder in the company, with almost 50% of its stock by 1902. American Sugar was the 1890-era reformulation of the Sugar Trust of the 1880s. Havemeyer was apparently impressed by the Mormons, offered technical assistance, paid a good price for the stock, and was known for using predatory pricing
Predatory pricing
In business and economics, predatory pricing is the practice of selling a product or service at a very low price, intending to drive competitors out of the market, or create barriers to entry for potential new competitors. If competitors or potential competitors cannot sustain equal or lower prices...
against regional competitors, which were all factors leading to the acceptance of the offer. A director of American Sugar, Lowell M. Palmer, said he encouraged Havemeyer to invest in Utah because "the LDS Church, in a measure, controlled its people."
In 1891, 1783 acres (7.2 km²) of sugar beets were grown by 556 farmers in the area. In 1893, it had increased to 2700 acres (10.9 km²) from 763 farmers. By 1895 the area was 3300 acres (13.4 km²), 1899 saw 5000 acres (20.2 km²), and 1900 saw 7500 acres (30.4 km²). The productivity also increased, from 5.3 tons of sugar beets per acre in 1891 to 6.7 tons in 1893 and to 9.7 tons in 1893. Sugar content, measured as a percentage of the beet weight, increased from 11.0 in 1891 to 13.9 in 1897. During the Panic of 1896
Panic of 1896
The Panic of 1896 was an acute economic depression in the United States that was less serious than other panics of the era precipitated by a drop in silver reserves and market concerns on the effects it would have on the gold standard. Deflation of commodities prices drove the stock market to new...
, the Lehi factory was responsible for $200,000 in payments to farmers, as well as $85,000 in wages. A US Department of Agriculture report said "there is no one in [Lehi] desiring employment during the growing season", and an 1898 report to the US President from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture said that the "sugar-beet lands of Utah were very much enhanced in value... the location of a beet-sugar factory in a district causes a healthy rise in rents and values of lands." Nearly 30 businesses were founded in Lehi between 1890 and 1896, which was significant due to the national economic depression that disproportionately affecting Utah.
The Lehi plant was finally "a technical and financial success" in 1897, and the plant capacity was increased in 1900. This expansion tripled its volume, allowing it to process 1200 tons of beets. Cutting stations and pipelines were installed in Bingham Junction
Midvale, Utah
Midvale is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 27,029 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Midvale is located at ....
in 1900, and then in 1904 from Spanish Fork
Spanish Fork, Utah
Spanish Fork is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 31,497 as of the 2008 census estimate.-History:Spanish Fork was settled by LDS pioneers in 1851...
, which had a 24 miles (38.6 km) pipeline, 4 inches in diameter.
Molasses
Molasses
Molasses is a viscous by-product of the processing of sugar cane, grapes or sugar beets into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese word melaço, which ultimately comes from mel, the Latin word for "honey". The quality of molasses depends on the maturity of the sugar cane or sugar beet,...
, a byproduct of the sugar refining process, was considered waste. It was dumped into a nearby creek. The company considered making a vinegar or alcohol plant, "but demand did not seem to warrant it," probably due to the Mormon restriction against consuming alcohol
Word of Wisdom
The "Word of Wisdom" is the common name of a section of the Doctrine and Covenants, a book considered by many churches within the Latter Day Saint movement to consist of revelations from God...
. The molasses was also combined with potash
Potash
Potash is the common name for various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. In some rare cases, potash can be formed with traces of organic materials such as plant remains, and this was the major historical source for it before the industrial era...
and cinders from the boiler room
Mechanical room
A mechanical room or a boiler room is a room or space in a building dedicated to the mechanical equipment and its associated electrical equipment. Unless a building is served by a centralized heating plant, the size of the mechanical room is usually proportional to the size of the building...
and used to pave roads. Finally, the molasses was further refined in 1903 though an "osmose
Osmosis
Osmosis is the movement of solvent molecules through a selectively permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, aiming to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides...
process", later replaced by the "Steffen process", used to recapture the sugar content. This helped improve the efficiency of sugar extraction; in 1891, 108 pounds (49 kg) of sugar were produced per ton of sugar beets. In 1893, the ratio was 153 pounds (69.4 kg) per ton of sugar beets. In 1898, due to the osmose processing of molasses, the 254 pounds (115.2 kg) of sugar per ton of sugar beets was extracted.
The Lehi factory went on to become the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company oligopoly
Oligopoly
An oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers . The word is derived, by analogy with "monopoly", from the Greek ὀλίγοι "few" + πόλειν "to sell". Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others...
, following the 1907 merger of the Utah Sugar Company, Idaho Sugar Company, and Western Idaho Sugar Company, with then-current LDS church president Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
as its head. The American Sugar Refining Company retained shares in the company through 1911, when it was investigated by the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. In 1914, Charles W. Nibley
Charles W. Nibley
Charles Wilson Nibley was the fifth presiding bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1907 and 1925 and a member of the church's First Presidency from 1925 until his death....
, who was the presiding bishop
Presiding Bishop
The Presiding Bishop is an ecclesiastical position in some denominations of Christianity.- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America :The Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is the chief ecumenical officer of the church, and the leader and caretaker for the bishops of the...
of the LDS church, bought all of the American Sugar's shares, becoming the largest shareholder. Nibley became the general manager in 1917.;U&I Sugar Corporation is headed by Mike Crump the current president and he is based in London England.
Early expansion
A SpringvilleSpringville, Utah
Springville is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 20,424 at the 2000 census, while the 2008 estimates placed it at 28,520. Just minutes south of Provo, Springville is a bedroom community for...
factory was built in 1899, following failed attempts by the Utah Sugar Beet Growers' Society of Springville in 1896 and the American Beet Sugar Construction Company (who built early sugar beet factories in Nebraska and the American Beet Sugar Company factory in Oxnard, California
Oxnard, California
Oxnard is the 113th largest city in the United States, 19th largest city in California and largest city in Ventura County, California, by way of population. It is located at the western edge of the fertile Oxnard Plain, and is an important agricultural center, with its distinction as the...
). In 1900, a cutting factory was installed in Mapleton, Utah
Mapleton, Utah
Mapleton is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,809 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Mapleton is located at ....
, with a pipe running to the Springville factory. An additional cutting factory and pipeline followed in 1901, in Provo
Provo, Utah
Provo is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the county seat of Utah County and lies between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south...
.
A factory was built in Garland, Utah
Garland, Utah
Garland is a city in Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,400 at the 2010 census.-History:Garland was originally named Sunset and settled in 1890. The first settler was David E. Manning....
to support the farms and Utah Sugar irrigation interests in the Bear River Valley
Bear River (Utah)
The Bear River is a river, approximately long, in southwestern Wyoming, southeastern Idaho, and northern Utah, in the United States. The largest tributary of the Great Salt Lake, it drains a mountainous area and farming valleys northeast of the lake and southeast of the Snake River Plain...
. Utah Sugar negotiated with the Oregon Short Line to construct a railroad from Corinne
Corinne, Utah
Corinne is a city in Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 685 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Corinne is located at ....
16 miles (25.7 km) north to Garland
Garland, Utah
Garland is a city in Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,400 at the 2010 census.-History:Garland was originally named Sunset and settled in 1890. The first settler was David E. Manning....
, which was completed in 1903. The sugar beet factory was completed in 1903 by William Garland, with machinery shipped on the new rail line. In the first season, the factory processed 18,900 tons of sugar beets into 1523 tons of sugar. By 1906, it processed 84,000 tons of sugar into 10,350 tons of sugar. By the 1960s, the Garland factory was processing 300,000 tons of sugar beets into 45,000 tons of sugar. Utah Sugar's water rights, dams, hydroelectric plant, and transmission lines were purchased by Utah Power & Light Company in December 1912 for $1.75 million. Utah Sugar purchased the canals on both sides of the Bear River in 1920 and controlled them at least through the 1960s.
Later factories were built in 1916 in Spanish Fork
Spanish Fork, Utah
Spanish Fork is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 31,497 as of the 2008 census estimate.-History:Spanish Fork was settled by LDS pioneers in 1851...
and West Jordan
West Jordan, Utah
West Jordan is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. West Jordan is a rapidly growing suburb of Salt Lake City and has a mixed economy. According to the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 103,712, placing it as the fourth most populated in the state. The city occupies the...
. These are discussed below.
The cutting stations were abandoned between 1913 and 1924, due to corrosion and leaks of the pipeline, complaints from farmers due to the location of the pipe on their land, freezing weather, and "deterioration of juice in transit."
Idaho
Around 1901–1903, Utah Sugar discussed production in Idaho with the Great Western Sugar Company in Colorado. Utah Sugar agreed not to expand into Colorado, and Great Western allowed Utah Sugar to expand into Idaho. This was likely on behalf of Havemeyer, as American Sugar owned 50% of Great Western also.The Idaho Sugar Company was created partly so "the [Mormons of Idaho and Utah] could speculate a little on the stock." This wasn't successful, so the major stockholders of Utah Sugar (including Havemeyer) and leaders of the LDS church created the Idaho Sugar Company. Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
(head of Utah Sugar and the LDS church) was named head of the new company, with Richard Whitehead Young
Richard Whitehead Young
Richard Whitehead Young was a U.S. Army Brigadier General and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines during the time that the Philippines was a U.S. Territory....
, grandson of Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
as company attorney.
The same group went on to create the Fremont County Sugar Company and Western Idaho Sugar Company, and then built plants in Idaho at Lincoln
Lincoln, Idaho
Lincoln is a census-designated place in Bonneville County, Idaho located just east of Idaho Falls, southwest of Iona and north of Ammon. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,647...
, Sugar City
Sugar City, Idaho
Sugar City is a city in Madison County, Idaho, United States. The population was 1,242 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Rexburg, Idaho Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, and Nampa
Nampa, Idaho
Nampa is the largest and the fastest growing city in Canyon County, Idaho, USA. The population of Nampa was 81,557 at the 2010 census. Nampa is located about west of Boise along Interstate 84, and six miles west of Meridian. Nampa is part of the Boise metropolitan area...
. Havemeyer sent "the three wise men from the East" to assist in technical matters.
The Lincoln plant, just over 3 miles (4.8 km) from Idaho Falls
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Idaho Falls is a city in and the county seat of Bonneville County, Idaho, United States, and the largest city in Eastern Idaho. As of the 2010 census, the population of Idaho Falls was 56,813, with a metro population of 130,374....
, was built in 1903 for $750,000. The leadership came from the Lehi plant. 36,000 tons of sugar beets from 5724 acres (23.2 km²) were harvested the first year, resulting in 3665 tons of sugar, and the factory employed approximately 200 people. A bounty of one cent per pound of sugar generated in 1903 had been passed by the Idaho legislature to encourage sugar development, but the state auditor refused to pay it, likely because it would be financing the Sugar Trust. "Idaho's most brilliant lawyer", William Borah, represented the company in suing for the then-$29,000 due, but it was deemed unconstitutional, so the company never received the $51,347 that would have been due to them.
In anticipation of building another plant in eastern Idaho, the Fremont County Sugar Company was organized in August 1903. It was backed by the same investors as Idaho Sugar: Smith, Havemeyer, and others, with Smith as the president and Young as attorney. A cornerstone was laid in a new location called Sugar City
Sugar City, Idaho
Sugar City is a city in Madison County, Idaho, United States. The population was 1,242 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Rexburg, Idaho Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
on December 8, 1903, five miles (8 km) northeast of Rexburg
Rexburg, Idaho
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 17,257 people, 4,274 households, and 2,393 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,534.4 people per square mile . There were 4,533 housing units at an average density of 928.4 per square mile...
and thirty miles northeast of Idaho Falls. The governor, John T. Morrison
John T. Morrison
John Tracy Morrison was the sixth Governor of Idaho from 1903 until 1905.Morrison graduated from Cornell Law School in 1890 and moved to Caldwell, where he became a successful attorney and an active member of the local Presbyterian Church...
, attended the ceremony. While the company raised $750,000, this was extended to $1 million due to a cutting factory at Parker
Parker, Idaho
Parker is a city in Fremont County, Idaho, United States. The population was 319 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Rexburg, Idaho Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Parker is located at ....
. The Oregon Short Line was connected via spur to Sugar City. The first harvest yielded 33,272 tons from 4754 acres (19.2 km²), producing 3126 tons of sugar. In early years the factory had a labor shortage, leading to a local community of Nikkei
Japanese diaspora
The Japanese diaspora, and its individual members known as , are Japanese emigrants from Japan and their descendants that reside in a foreign country...
—Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese migrants and their descendants.
The Snake River Valley Sugar Company was a rival company presided by D. H. Biethan, a Utah egg merchant. With $700,000 in capital stock and based in Blackfoot, Idaho
Blackfoot, Idaho
Blackfoot is a city in Bingham County, Idaho, United States. The population was 10,419 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Bingham County. Blackfoot is self-designated the "Potato Capital of the World", because it claims to have the largest potato industry in the world...
and the surrounding Bingham County
Bingham County, Idaho
Bingham County is a county located in the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2000 Census the county had a population of 41,735 . The county seat and largest city is Blackfoot. Bingham County comprises the Blackfoot, ID, Micropolitan Statistical Area.Bingham County was created January 13, 1885, and...
, the stockholders were C. F. Hotchkiss from the East Coast, Blackfoot ranchers and businessmen, and European investors. They built a factory in Blackfoot with second-hand French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
machinery originally used in a factory in Binghamton, New York
Binghamton, New York
Binghamton is a city in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It is near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers...
. The factory was completed November 1904 by Kilby Manufacturing Company from Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, using their experience building plants in Windsor, Colorado
Windsor, Colorado
The Town of Windsor is a Home Rule Municipality in Larimer and Weld counties in the U.S. state of Colorado. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the town was 18,644. Windsor is located in the region known as Northern Colorado. Windsor is situated north of the Colorado State Capitol in...
and Eaton, Colorado
Eaton, Colorado
Eaton is a Statutory Town in Weld County, Colorado, United States. The population was 2,690 at the 2000 census. The town is named after Benjamin Harrison Eaton, a pioneer of irrigation who played a leading role in transforming the arid prairie of the Great Plains east of Colorado's Front Range into...
. The superintendent of the new plant was Henry Vallez, who had been chief chemist at the Utah Sugar plant in Lehi.
In the first season, the factory processed a paltry 13,185 tons of beets, into 1528 tons of sugar. After Thomas R. Cutler and Utah Sugar threatened to build a competing factory in Blackfoot, Hotchkiss and the owners sold out to Idaho Sugar and Fremont County Sugar shortly after the first season. The factory was closed for one season, 1910, due to blight.
Idaho Sugar and Fremont County Sugar were merged into The Idaho Sugar Company on May 2, 1905, with a $3 million in capitalization. The company officers included Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
as president, Thomas R. Cutler as vice president. The company bought Snake River Valley Sugar shortly after, and the company capital was raised to $5 million. In the 1906 season, the three factories processed 200,000 tons of sugar beets into 23,500 tons of sugar, with $300,000 in net profits.
Because of a competitor (W. D. Hoover of the Eaton, Colorado factory) being interested in Western Idaho, the Western Idaho Sugar Company was organized on June 10, 1905 with $2 million in capital. Stockholders and officers were similar to the other organizations: Havemeyer owned half of the shares, Smith was company president. Charles W. Nibley and George Stoddard
George Stoddard
George Stoddard was a real estate financier who pioneered the use of the sale-and-leaseback transaction.Stoddard was born in Perry, in Union County, Oregon, in 1917. His family moved east in 1928, living in Eastchester, New York...
owned a combined 14% of the company, apparently due to their factory and operation at La Grande, Oregon
La Grande, Oregon
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 12,327 people, 5,124 households, and 2,982 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,833.5 people per square mile . There were 5,483 housing units at an average density of 1,260.3 per square mile...
and Nibley, Oregon
Nibley, Oregon
Nibley is an unincorporated historic locale in Union County, Oregon, United States, about 11 miles east of La Grande on Oregon Route 237 in the Grande Ronde Valley....
. The company and principal factory were to be located in Nampa
Nampa, Idaho
Nampa is the largest and the fastest growing city in Canyon County, Idaho, USA. The population of Nampa was 81,557 at the 2010 census. Nampa is located about west of Boise along Interstate 84, and six miles west of Meridian. Nampa is part of the Boise metropolitan area...
, with a second factory in Payette
Payette, Idaho
Payette is a city in and the county seat of Payette County, Idaho, United States. The population was 7,054 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Ontario, OR–ID Micropolitan Statistical Area....
. Because of an unknown blight, the Payette factory was deferred, and sugar beets grown near Payette would be delivered to the Nampa factory. The Nampa factory was built by September 1906 and was quickly processing up to 718 tons of beets in a day- well over the 600 ton design of the factory. However, the sugar beet blight was reducing the yields by 1909, and the plant was closed in 1910. The equipment was then moved to Spanish Fork, Utah
Spanish Fork, Utah
Spanish Fork is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 31,497 as of the 2008 census estimate.-History:Spanish Fork was settled by LDS pioneers in 1851...
in 1916.
Discussions began in 1906 to merge the Idaho and Utah companies. The Utah Sugar Company, The Idaho Sugar Company, and the Western Idaho Sugar Company were merged into the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company on July 3, 1907 with approval of Havemeyer and the American Sugar Refining Company. At the time, this was the largest company in Utah and Idaho. This was done to make gaining credit from banks easier, improve efficiency by reducing redundant equipment and staff, and it would remove criticisms of favoritism between stockholders of the companies (even though the management was nearly identical between them). The Western Idaho Sugar Company, with more modern equipment and having had a strong 1906 season, received a 25% premium on the new stock to alleviate stockholder complaints of being undervalued. The operating capital was $13 million, with the LDS church holding approximately $500,000.
Other Idaho plants were built or acquired; a factory in Shelley
Shelley, Idaho
Shelley is a city in Bingham County, Idaho, United States. The population was 3,813 at the 2000 census. The mascot for the city's high school is "King Russet", a russet-burbank potato that wears a crown, robe and scepter....
was built in 1917. In 1924 the 1919 Rigby, Idaho
Rigby, Idaho
Rigby is a small city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Idaho, United States. The population was 2,998 at the 2000 census.The larger "Rigby area" includes such outlying unincorporated communities as Annis, Garfield, Grant, Labelle, and Clark...
factory built by the Beet Growers Sugar Company, a farmers co-op, was purchased. Factories were closed and centralized: the Rigby plant was closed in 1939 and converted into a sugar storage facility, the Shelley plant was closed in 1943, and the Sugar City plant closed in 1947. Finally, the Blackfoot factory was closed in 1948 and converted into a storage warehouse. The Lincoln plant was upgraded, allowing it to process 4000 tons per day by the 1960s (versus 600 tons when it was built).
Southern Utah
Production in Southern Utah was wished for as early as 1878. By 1898, locals voted to build a plant in the area. By 1900 they agreed to build the plant in GunnisonGunnison, Utah
Gunnison is a city in Sanpete County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,394 at the 2000 census. The city was named in honor of John W. Gunnison, a United States Army officer who surveyed for the transcontinental railroad in 1853.-Geography:...
, with 77 miles (123.9 km) of pipe to support cutting stations. The locals tried to raise $700,000 for this factory. Thomas R. Cutler and Utah Sugar, realizing the locals were going to hire an outside firm to construct their factory, organized Utah Sugar to do so instead. Utah Sugar paid the freight costs for sugar beets to be shipped to their Lehi factory, then promised to build a factory if 5000 acres (20.2 km²) were pledged by 1906. The San Pete and Sevier Sugar Company was incorporated with $1 million in capital on August 28, 1905. Officers and stockholders were similar to the Utah Sugar and Idaho Sugar companies. The company planned to construct a factory in Moroni
Moroni, Utah
Moroni is a city in Sanpete County, Utah, United States. The population was 1,280 at the 2000 census.-Name:The city is named after Moroni, a prophet in the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .-History:...
, but drought, blight, and politics with farmers located in the more distant Sevier County
Sevier County, Utah
As of the census of 2000, there were 18,842 people, 6,081 households, and 4,907 families residing in the county. The population density was 10 people per square mile . There were 7,016 housing units at an average density of 4 per square mile...
caused the plans to be dropped.
By 1909, plans for moving the Nampa, Idaho factory to Southern Utah were coming together. Pledges in stock and supported land led to a site being developed near Elsinore
Elsinore, Utah
Elsinore is a town in Sevier County, Utah, United States. The population was 733 at the 2000 census.-History:The community was first settled in the spring of 1874 by James C. Jensen, Jens Iver Jensen, and others. The area was settled by Danish converts to Mormonism, and named after Kronborg...
. Contracts for 6500 acres (26.3 km²) were secured by November 1910, so a factory was completed by October 1911 by Dyer, using the Nampa equipment. The first year was very successful with 23,500 tons of sugar produced, but an ongoing issue with the sugar beet blight caused yield to fall. The factory was closed in 1929 and dismantled in the early 1940s.
A plant in Payson
Payson, Utah
Payson is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 12,716 at the 2000 census. The current mayor is Rick Moore, who in the 2009 election was the first write-in candidate ever to defeat an incumbent mayor in...
was completed in October 1913, following the completion of the Strawberry Valley Reclamation Project in 1912. By 1915, the biggest year for the factory, 5014 acres (20.3 km²) were planted, yielding 36,915 tons of sugar beets, which were processed into 7722 tons of sugar. Because of low yields, the plant was closed in 1926 and dismantled in 1940; harvests were processed in the Lehi
Lehi, Utah
-Attractions:Lehi Roller MillsLehi Roller Mills was founded in 1906 by a co-op of farmers. George G. Robinson purchased the mill in 1910, and since then it has remained in the family. It is run today by grandson R. Sherman Robinson....
and Spanish Fork
Spanish Fork, Utah
Spanish Fork is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 31,497 as of the 2008 census estimate.-History:Spanish Fork was settled by LDS pioneers in 1851...
factories. These two factories were open for a combined 29 years and produced more than 300 million pounds of sugar, earning $10 million for the local farmers.
World War I era expansion
The Layton Sugar Company was founded in 1915, with partial funding from Utah-Idaho Sugar and Amalgamated Sugar. A factory was built in Layton, UtahLayton, Utah
-External links:*...
. U-I bought Amalgamated's share in 1916, sold all their Layton Sugar interests in 1925, but bought the company in 1959.
The cutting factory at Spanish Fork was moved to Pleasant Grove
Pleasant Grove, Utah
Pleasant Grove, also known as "Utah's City of Trees", is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 33,798 at the 2008 census estimates.-History:...
around 1914, and a new 1000-ton factory was established in Spanish Fork in 1916 on construction contract to E. H. Dyer, using equipment removed from the shuttered Nampa plant.
By 1916, due to high demand for sugar internationally as well as at home, the company was making large profits. They paid a 7% dividend and even paid bonuses to their contracted farmers. Utah-Idaho even paid farmers high prices to compensate for a low yield due to a cold snap in the fall of 1916, raising prices slightly up from $5 per ton. However, Utah-Idaho still paid less per ton than any sugar processor, and Charles Patterson formed the Intermountain Association of Sugar Beet Growers to unify farmers. Ultimately, the Utah Farm Bureau was developed and asked the company to raise prices. This was met with objection by the IASBG for not negotiating harder, and because the IASBG wanted full credit for the raise to $7 per ton.
A factory was built in West Jordan in 1916, also by Dyer.
A factory was built in Brigham City, Utah
Brigham City, Utah
Brigham City is a city in Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 17,899 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Box Elder County. It lies on the western slope of the Wellsville Mountains, a branch of the Wasatch Range at the western terminus of Box Elder Canyon...
in 1916 by Dyer. Amalgamated Sugar bought the plant in 1917, and U-I bought it back in 1920.
Merrill Nibley suggested U-I should expand into Washington State in 1916. This led to the Union Gap
Union Gap, Washington
Union Gap is a city in Yakima County, Washington, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 6,047.-History:The city of Union Gap was originally named Yakima and was officially incorporated on November 23, 1883...
factory in 1917.
A plant in Shelley, Idaho
Shelley, Idaho
Shelley is a city in Bingham County, Idaho, United States. The population was 3,813 at the 2000 census. The mascot for the city's high school is "King Russet", a russet-burbank potato that wears a crown, robe and scepter....
also opened in 1917. Two factories, intended to open for the 1918 season, weren't ready until 1919. These factories were in Toppenish and Sunnyside, Washington
Sunnyside, Washington
Sunnyside is a city in Yakima County, Washington, United States. As of the 2010 Census the population was 15,858.-History:On September 16, 1902, residents voted 42 to one to incorporate as the town of Sunnyside. By state law a town needed to have 300 citizens in order to legally incorporate...
. The Sunnyside factory, built by the Larrow Construction Company, was never completed. It opened briefly in 1919 to process the few beets salvaged, due to blight.
A partially completed factory was started in Honeyville, Utah
Honeyville, Utah
Honeyville is a city in Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 1,441 at the 2010 census.-History:Honeyville was first established in 1861 when a ferry was put across the Bear River at this location. In that same year Anson Call built a sawmill in Honeyville. He later sold the...
in 1919. Also in that year, U-I purchased an Amalgamated factory under construction in Whitehall, Montana
Whitehall, Montana
Whitehall is a town in Jefferson County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,044 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Helena Micropolitan Statistical Area.Newscaster Chet Huntley graduated from Whitehall High School in 1929.-Geography:...
. Amalgamated had formed the Jefferson Valley Sugar Company and then contracted with Larrowe Construction to build the Whitehall factory in 1917. The pledged lands from farmers was withdrawn or "were not to be found", leading to financial troubles for both Jefferson Valley Sugar and Amalgamated Sugar. The factory construction was halted, and the remaining sugar beet production was sold to Great Western Sugar Company and transported to their Billings
Billings, Montana
Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, and is the principal city of the Billings Metropolitan Area, the largest metropolitan area in over...
factory.
Oregon-Utah Sugar Company
After business trips to determine the feasibility of Oregon for sugar beets was performed by Charles W. Nibley, his son Alexander Nibley, Frank S. Bramwell (former Amalgamated Sugar employee, LDS leader in Oregon), and Joseph S. Smith, Charles Nibley hunted for funding. To help finance the organization, Alexander Nibley contacted George Sanders, a Mormon bishop and businessman in Grants Pass, OregonGrants Pass, Oregon
-Rogue River:The Rogue River runs through Grants Pass.-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 23,003 people, 9,376 households, and 5,925 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 9,885 housing units at an average density of 1,303.3 per square mile . By 2008,...
. On September 24, 1915, the Oregon-Utah Sugar Company was formed between Charles Nibley, Alexander Nibley, and George Sanders. Sanders owned the Rogue River Public Service Company, Southern Oregon Construction Company, and Utah-Idaho Realty Company, and backed a $500,000 bond for the new sugar company.
While the Grants Pass factory was under construction, Charles Nibley and Sanders had a falling-out, leading to a disputed series of events. Nibley claimed the soil conditions in the area were poor, meaning the factory would not be well-supplied. Sanders stated Nibley simply wanted to take over control and ownership of any sugar company in the region. Sanders was forced out of the business and the Oregon-Utah Sugar company claimed he had embezzled from the company. This situation was well-discussed in the FTC investigation of U-I Sugar.
Before the factory opened, Oregon-Utah Sugar was merged into Utah-Idaho Sugar. Because of labor shortages and low area planted with sugar beets, the processing machinery was moved to Toppenish, Washington
Toppenish, Washington
Toppenish is a city in Yakima County, Washington, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,949.-History:The General Allotment Act of 1887 granted an allotment of land to a woman of half Indian ancestry, Josephine Bowser Lillie, known as "The Mother of Toppenish"...
in October 1917.
Acquisitions
In 1911, the Henry Hinze of the Nevada Sugar Company built a plant in Fallon, NevadaFallon, Nevada
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 7,536 people, 3,004 households, and 1,877 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,474.1 people per square mile . There were 3,336 housing units at an average density of 1,095.2 per square mile...
that was considered a failure. U-I inspected the plant in 1916, then formed the Nevada-Utah Sugar Company and took a controlling interest in the operation, and set up an operations contract for the 1917 season. While the contracted area was high enough (3760 acres (15.2 km²)), the yields were dismal (20,000 tons), so the factory was shuttered in 1917.
The People's Sugar Company built a 400-ton factory in Moroni, Utah
Moroni, Utah
Moroni is a city in Sanpete County, Utah, United States. The population was 1,280 at the 2000 census.-Name:The city is named after Moroni, a prophet in the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .-History:...
in 1917. U-I acquired it in 1934 and moved the machinery to Toppenish, Washington in 1937.
The Sterns-Roger Manufacturing Company built a 900-ton factory in Delta, Utah
Delta, Utah
Delta is a city in Millard County, Utah, United States. The population was 3,209 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Delta is located at ....
for the Delta Beet Sugar Company, a subsidiary of the Great Basin Sugar Company in 1917. The operation was acquired by U-I in 1920, and the factory was moved to Belle Fourche, South Dakota
Belle Fourche, South Dakota
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and is water.-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 4,565 people, 1,854 households, and 1,186 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,446.9 people per square mile...
in 1927.
The Springville-Mapleton Sugar Company built a 350-ton plant in Springville, Utah
Springville, Utah
Springville is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 20,424 at the 2000 census, while the 2008 estimates placed it at 28,520. Just minutes south of Provo, Springville is a bedroom community for...
in 1918. U-I acquired it in 1932 and dismantled it in 1940.
The Gunnison Valley Sugar Company built a 500-ton factory in Centerfield, Utah
Centerfield, Utah
Centerfield is a city in Sanpete County, Utah, United States. The population was 1,048 at the 2000 census. Although Centerfield was a town in 2000, it has since been classified as a fifth-class city by state law.-Geography:...
in 1918. The Centerfield factory equipment came from the Washington State Sugar Company plant in Waverly, Washington
Waverly, Washington
Waverly is a town in Spokane County, Washington, United States. The population was 121 at the 2000 census and decreased 12.4% to 106 in the 2010 census.-History:...
. The Waverly factory, opened in December 1899, was considered unprofitable and inferior. The Utah Sugar management, including Cutler, advised Washington Sugar in 1901 for the 1902 season, but the factory closed in 1910. It was sold to Gunnison Sugar for $100,000, installed in Centerfield in 1917, and was ready for the 1918 campaign. U-I went on an aggressive anticompetitive campaign (including spreading rumors, leading to U-I's investigation by the FTC) against Gunnison Valley Sugar Company. In 1920, the William Wrigley Jr. Company purchased the factory to supply their chewing gum
Chewing gum
Chewing gum is a type of gum traditionally made of chicle, a natural latex product, or synthetic rubber known as polyisobutylene. For economical and quality reasons, many modern chewing gums use rubber instead of chicle...
production. U-I acquired the Centerfield factory and company in 1940. They proceeded to close the factory in 1956, re-opened from 1958 to 1961, then sold it as scrap in April, 1966.
The Beet Growers Sugar Company built a 800-ton factory in 1919 in Rigby, Idaho
Rigby, Idaho
Rigby is a small city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Idaho, United States. The population was 2,998 at the 2000 census.The larger "Rigby area" includes such outlying unincorporated communities as Annis, Garfield, Grant, Labelle, and Clark...
. U-I bought it in 1924, dismantled it in 1939, and used the factory for storage.
In 1912, to reduce the need of imported seed, U-I purchased the Eastern Beet and Seed Farm from the American Sugar Refining Company. It was a 720 acres (2.9 km²) seed-growing establishment near Idaho Falls, Idaho, established by ASR in 1906. U-I raised 250 tons of seed in 1914, then 750 tons in 1915. In 1915, U-I and the United States Beet Sugar Manufacturers Association created the United States Beet Seed Company to grow seed in Idaho Falls, as well as Utah, Colorado, and California. In 1917 the company produced 2779 tons of seeds. The labor was consisted of "Japanese, Mexicans, and Asian Indians". The seed operation was closed in 1920, once European seed became available at the end of World War I.
1910-1920s antitrust proceedings
Utah-Idaho sugar had regulatory issues beginning in 1907, being investigated by the United States House of RepresentativesUnited States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, the US Department of Labor, the US Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
.
The 1911 Hardwick Committee of the House of Representatives looked into the Sugar Trust's violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act
Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act requires the United States federal government to investigate and pursue trusts, companies, and organizations suspected of violating the Act. It was the first Federal statute to limit cartels and monopolies, and today still forms the basis for most antitrust litigation by...
. Since American Sugar owned half of Utah-Idaho Sugar, they also looked into other dealings of Utah-Idaho, including stock watering, price fixing, and anticompetitive actions. As the Salt Lake Tribune said, the committee proposed to make executives answer "exceedingly embarrassing questions". The committee called for testimony from Thomas R. Cutler, Joseph F. Smith, and Charles W. Nibley. Smith had to be legally summoned to testify, as he would not appear willingly, likely due to his experience testifying at the 1904 Reed Smoot hearings.
While American Sugar's involvement with Utah-Idaho was found to be improper, they also denounced Utah-Idaho's methods. These included the anticompetitive establishment of the Nampa, Idaho factory, the anticompetitive control over the Bear River Valley irrigation and water rights, and the questionable stock watering of December 1902 and other times, describing it as "the mania for overcapitalization". The committee also found extensive evidence of price fixing by the company, arguing Utah sugar consumers subsidized Midwest sugar consumers, since both regions paid the same freight costs, even though the factories were in Utah and Idaho. Ultimately, no action was taken against Utah-Idaho or American Sugar, in part because Havemeyer, head of American Sugar at the time of the activities, had died in 1905. This pressure, however, led to American Sugar agreeing to sell their interest in Utah-Idaho Sugar. Charles W. Nibley entered into negotiations with American Sugar for Nibley to purchase their stock on behalf of the LDS church. They reached a dealLDS church retained their holdings and administration of Utah Sugar until at least the 1980s.
While Nibley has been involved with Amalgamated Sugar before 1914, he was new to the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. Since the companies had overlapping directors and boards, in 1916 they met and organized regional divisions of the Utah sugar market to keep from competing against each other, to keep sugar beet supply prices low, and to discourage competition from entering the market. If farmers were considering growing sugar beets for competing companies, Utah-Idaho would threaten and intimidate the farmers. Complaints about these practices caused the Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
to take action against Utah-Idaho and Amalgamated in 1919.
The acquisition of territories had a strong impact on Utah-Idaho Sugar, as it allowed sugar to be imported duty-free from Hawaii (since 1876), Puerto Rico (1901) and Philippines (1913). Tariffs were discounted 20% for Cuba since 1903. The Revenue Act of 1913
Revenue Act of 1913
The United States Revenue Act of 1913 also known as the Tariff Act, Underwood Tariff, Underwood Tariff Act, or Underwood-Simmons Act , re-imposed the federal income tax following the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment and lowered basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%, well below the Payne-Aldrich...
reduced sugar duties by 25% in 1913, and called for the tariffs to end by May 1916. Prices for sugar were at a record low by 1913, and the only factory constructed in 1913 was the Payson factory, already under construction before the Revenue Act passed. Utah-Idaho Sugar wages were reduced 10%, and the stock price was at a new low.
Because of high sugar prices and the anticipated effect of World War I on imported sugar supplies, as well as the large profits the company was receiving, Nibley began an aggressive factory factory expansion campaign, detailed above. The federal government combated high prices with the Lever Act
Food and Fuel Control Act
The Food and Fuel Control Act, , also called the Lever Act or the Lever Food Act was a World War I era US law that among other things created the United States Food Administration and the Federal Fuel Administration.-Legislative history:...
and then the Sugar Equalization Board which had the authority to regulate the "price, production, and purchase of sugar". Uncertainty to the supply of sugar caused the Sugar Equalization Board to remain in power past the end of the war, and the United States Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
A. Mitchell Palmer stated he would prosecute those who sold sugar over an established rate (13 cents per pound, or 20 cents per pound from Louisiana cane sugar). Further, the acquisition of territories had a strong impact on Utah-Idaho Sugar, as it allowed sugar to be imported duty-free from Hawaii (since 1876), Puerto Rico (1901) and Philippines (1913). Tariffs were discounted 20% for Cuba since 1903. The Revenue Act of 1913
Revenue Act of 1913
The United States Revenue Act of 1913 also known as the Tariff Act, Underwood Tariff, Underwood Tariff Act, or Underwood-Simmons Act , re-imposed the federal income tax following the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment and lowered basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%, well below the Payne-Aldrich...
reduced sugar duties by 25% in 1913, and called for the tariffs to end by May 1916. Prices for sugar were at a record low by 1913, and the only factory constructed in 1913 was the Payson factory, already under construction before the Revenue Act passed. Utah-Idaho Sugar wages were reduced 10%, and the stock price was at a new low.
Because of a labor shortage due to the World War I draft, at least 2000 Mexican laborers were imported in May 1917 due to an order by William Bauchop Wilson
William Bauchop Wilson
William Bauchop Wilson was a American labor leader and politician. He is best remembered for his service as the first Secretary of Labor between 1913 and 1921 under President Woodrow Wilson.-Early life:...
, the U.S. Secretary of Labor. While other importations were discontinued in December 1918, Nibley, Smoot, and others convinced Wilson that they were still needed for sugar beet labor in the 1919 season. They were issued an extension until June 30, 1919. However, on January 17, 1919, an attorney with the Department of Labor charged Utah-Idaho with mistreating Mexicans imported to Blackfoot, refusing to feed or care for them. F. A. Caine, Utah-Idaho's superintendent of labor, wrote to Nibley that "if there was any case of destitution, it must be blamed on ... the Mexicans themselves".
During the late 1910s, farmers were dissatisfied at the low price paid for sugar beets versus amount of profit Utah-Idaho was making during the set-price era. Charles Nibley and Senator Reed Smoot worked with Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
to find a fair solution. While Utah-Idaho was increased their payments from $7 to $9 per ton in 1918, factories in California, Colorado, and Nebraska were paying $10 per ton. Nibley, on Hoover and Reed's advice, finally raised the prices for the 1919 season.
The Utah-Idaho company also speculated on the prices paid to farmers (to raise overall area of sugar beets) and stockpiled sugar in anticipation of the end of price controls. In December 1919, 5300000 pounds (2,404 t) of sugar were ordered seized by US District Judge
United States federal judge
In the United States, the title of federal judge usually means a judge appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate in accordance with Article II of the United States Constitution....
E. E. Cushman
Edward E. Cushman
Edward E. Cushman was a United States federal judge.Born in Columbus Junction, Louisa County, Iowa, Cushman read law to enter the bar in Iowa and in Nebraska in 1890. He was in private practice in Stromsburg, Nebraska from 1890 to 1893. He was in private practice in Tacoma, Washington from 1893 to...
, who charged the company of hoarding them in Yakima, Washington
Yakima, Washington
Yakima is an American city southeast of Mount Rainier National Park and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the eighth largest city by population in the state itself. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 91,196 and a metropolitan population of...
and Toppenish, Washington
Toppenish, Washington
Toppenish is a city in Yakima County, Washington, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,949.-History:The General Allotment Act of 1887 granted an allotment of land to a woman of half Indian ancestry, Josephine Bowser Lillie, known as "The Mother of Toppenish"...
.
Knowing that buyers and speculators would pay well over this rate, the Utah-Idaho company asked Reed Smoot
Reed Smoot
Reed Owen Smoot was a native-born Utahn who was first elected to the United States Senate from Utah in 1903, and served as a Senator until 1933...
, a high-ranking church leader and United State Senator, if they would be prosecuted for selling above the ceiling. Because of the confidence of attorneys D. N. Straup and Joel Nibley (son of Charles W. Nibley), the board of directors voted to sell above the price ceiling. Only Heber J. Grant
Heber J. Grant
Heber Jeddy Grant was the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He was ordained an apostle on October 16, 1882, on the same day as George Teasdale...
, president of both the LDS church and Utah-Idaho, voted against this price increase. The company began charging 28 cents per pound by May 1, 1920, even though Utah's only other sugar company, Amalgamated Sugar Company
Amalgamated Sugar Company
The Amalgamated Sugar Company is a sugar beet refining company run on a cooperative basis. It was founded in 1897 in Logan, Utah, and is now located in Nampa, Idaho, United States. The company markets its sugar under the White Satin brand.-Founding:...
, was charging the 13 cents per pound rate established by Palmer. One resident told Smoot this was "the most unfortunate occurrence that has ever happened in Utah affecting the faith of the Mormon people."
Floyd T. Jackson of the Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
filed a complaint, charging the Utah-Idaho company of profiteering, and obtaining "undue, exorbitant, immoderate, excessive and monstrous" profits on sugar. Merrill Nibley, Charles Nibley's son, vice president and assistant manager of the company, was arrested. The company embarked on a propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
campaign in the Utah market. The Idaho division of the Department of Justice filed charges against the company on June 10, 1920, specifically charging Heber J. Grant
Heber J. Grant
Heber Jeddy Grant was the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He was ordained an apostle on October 16, 1882, on the same day as George Teasdale...
, Charles W. Nibley and Thomas R. Cutler, among others. Warrants for their arrest were issued on June 21, 1920.
A group "of beet growers and businessmen" met at Spanish Fork, Utah
Spanish Fork, Utah
Spanish Fork is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 31,497 as of the 2008 census estimate.-History:Spanish Fork was settled by LDS pioneers in 1851...
on July 11 to defend the president (Grant) and presiding bishop (Nibley) of their church, calling for an end to sugar beet growing in the area and arguing that the charges were simply discrimination. A Department of Justice meeting on July 19 showed that while the company was selling sugar for 23 to 28 cents per pound, it only cost 9 cents per pound to produce. The case was sent to trial at the district court, the warrant against Grant was dropped (since he had voted against the price increase), and warrants were issued for more board members, including David A. Smith
David A. Smith (Mormon)
David Asael Smith was a member of the presiding bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1907 and 1938 and was the first president of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir....
and William Henry Wattis
William Henry Wattis
William Henry Wattis, also known as W. H. Wattis , was one of the three Wattis Brothers who founded Utah Construction Company in 1900.-History:...
.
Charles Nibley issued a racist and nationalist letter to stockholders, saying the charges were intended to "discriminate against white labor in this country in favor of negro and Japanese labor and producers of Cuba, Porta Rico, Hawaii, or the south." Further political maneuvering involving Republicans Smoot and Wattis led to Wattis being found in contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
by Judge Tilman D. Johnson. H. L. Mulliner, the Utah Democratic Party chair, opened the state convention by discussing how Utah-Idaho inserted its "greedy hand into the family purses of families all over this state", and used that gain to finance Republican campaigns and newspapers.
In October 1920, the editor of Relief Society Magazine
Relief Society Magazine
Relief Society Magazine was the official publication of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1915 to 1970. It succeeded the earlier Woman's Exponent, which was begun in 1872. The magazine was an important publishing outlet for Utah women, and was run by women...
and daughter of Brigham Young, Susa Young Gates
Susa Young Gates
300px|thumb|Susa Young Gates, portrait bustSusa Young Gates was a writer, periodical editor, and women's rights advocate in Utah....
, wrote in the magazine that women should refrain from indulging "in bitter criticism of good men about a business transaction which had for its motive the upbuilding of this state and the people." It was around this time that tides of public favor in Utah turned against the company, due in part to price increases for sugar in Utah. Nibley and Smoot encouraged Grant to make a statement at the semi-annual General Conference. Four LDS apostles (Stephen L. Richards, Anthony W. Ivins
Anthony W. Ivins
Anthony Woodward Ivins born in Toms River, New Jersey, was a high-ranking official of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .-Early life and family :...
, Charles W. Penrose
Charles W. Penrose
Charles William Penrose was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from July 7, 1904. Penrose was also a member of the First Presidency of the church under Church Presidents Joseph F. Smith and Heber J...
, James E. Talmage
James E. Talmage
James Edward Talmage born in Hungerford, Berkshire, England, was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1911 until his death in 1933....
), opposed the church taking this action. President Grant ignored this opposition, delivering the following as part of his opening address: "no man is guilty, in the truest sense of the word, of an offense, just because a Grand Jury finds an indictment against him".
In the end, over thirty indictments were filed against the company, including 10 in Idaho and 13 in Utah. Matthew Godfrey argued these indictments aren't mentioned in the two official histories of the Utah-Idaho company (including Leonard J. Arrington
Leonard J. Arrington
Leonard James Arrington was an author, academic and the founder of the Mormon History Association. He is known as the "Dean of Mormon History" and "the Father of Mormon History" because of his many influential contributions to the field.-Biographical background:Arrington was born in Twin Falls,...
's work) due to "the embarrassment they caused the company." Nibley wrote to Smoot that "the sugar situation gets worse and worse."
A Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
ruling on February 28, 1921, issued by Chief Justice Edward Douglass White
Edward Douglass White
Edward Douglass White, Jr. , American politician and jurist, was a United States senator, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and the ninth Chief Justice of the United States. He was best known for formulating the Rule of Reason standard of antitrust law. He also sided with the...
, declared the Lever Act was unconstitutional, due to its ambiguous and vague language. This may not have been enough to prevent the company and its board members from being found guilty on profiteering, but the rates for sugar had been falling since their peak on May 20, 1920. During the Depression of 1920–21, the commodity had a glut by the end of 1920, and the 1921 rate was 4.6 cents per pound. Further, contracts to farmers for raw sugar beets were high, resulting in losses for companies with contracts, such as Utah-Idaho.
U-I was $23 million in debt by 1921. The LDS church attempted to help, but more help was needed, so Heber J. Grant went to U-I's bankers in New York and Chicago. Bankers Trust
Bankers Trust
Bankers Trust was an historic American banking organization. The bank merged with Alex. Brown & Sons before being acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1998.-History:A consortium of banks created Bankers Trust to perform trust company services for their clients....
sent a financial controller to Utah to oversee the problem. In exchange for assisting U-I in avoiding bankruptcy, the bankers required three conditions: the management be changed, a bankers' committee supervise company policies, and $3 million in venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
be raised.
Charles W. Nibley and Merril Nibley resigned from the company and were replaced by William Henry Wattis
William Henry Wattis
William Henry Wattis, also known as W. H. Wattis , was one of the three Wattis Brothers who founded Utah Construction Company in 1900.-History:...
as vice president and general manager. Additional financial directors were also added to the board. The par value
Par value
Par value, in finance and accounting, means stated value or face value. From this comes the expressions at par , over par and under par ....
of the stock was reduced in October 1922, reducing the market capitalization to $14.4 million, leaving a credit balance of $9.6 million. A preferred stock offering was given to common stockholders. This stock would be paid back at 7% interest, was offered at 70% of par value, and was redeemable at 102%. Only 15% of the hoped-for stock was subscribed.
Heber J. Grant had the LDS church subscribe to the remainder (almost $2 million), and also advanced a loan to the company. Grant and Reed Smoot also persuaded the War Finance Corporation
War Finance Corporation
The War Finance Corporation was a government corporation in the United States created to give financial support to industries essential for World War I, and to banking institutions that aided such industries. It continued to give support to various efforts during the interwar period...
and U.S. President Warren Harding to loan $9.5 million to the Sugar Beet Finance Corporation, organized between Amalgamated Sugar and Utah-Idaho Sugar. U-I proceeded to borrow $5.75 million from this arm.
Godfrey argues that while Utah-Idaho "had chafed at government restrictions, [their] real problems stemmed from the end of federal control of the sugar industract. After the SEB had expired, the laws of supply and demand meant the demise of high prices as sugar poured into the country from around the world."
The FTC found Utah-Idaho Sugar guilty of unfair business practices on October 3, 1923. The decision indicated that the territory system used by Amalgamated and U-I gave them "a practical if not an entire monopoly of the beet sugar industry" in the region, ordered the companies to "forever cease and desist from conspiring between and among themselves to maintain... the monopoly", and ordered U-I to stop preventing other companies from entering their territory. U-I appealed the case with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Arkansas* Western District of Arkansas...
in 1924, and the court ordered U-I to submit a "condensed narrative" of the FTC hearings. A 1433-page summary was filed in early 1925, but the case didn't convene until May 1927. The court overturned the FTC decision on October 21, 1927, as the manufacturing of sugar did not occur across state lines.
Strike
The Lehi employees went on strike on October 18, 1921, due to long working hours (12 hours per day) and low pay. Local businessmen agreed with the workers, recommending an eight-hour day be granted. The Lehi mayor and Lehi plant superintendent told the workers there would be no change to working hours, and gave an ultimatum: if the employees did not return to work the following day, the factory would be closed for the season, with sugar beets processed at other factories. The factory was reopened on October 23, with Thomas R. Cutler reaching a compromise with the workers: a change to eight-hour shifts, but no increase in hourly pay.The Great Depression
During The Great Depression, U-I borrowed heavily from the LDS church, and both local and East Coast banks. They mortgaged company-owned farms to back many loans. They also significantly underpaid farmers for raw sugar beets, with a promise to pay in full when money was available. U-I sold their Raymond, Alberta plant to the British Columbia Sugar Refining Company, which gave the company an immediate $2.3 million in cash.A subsidiary of the company was created in 1932, called the Sugar Beet Credit Corporation. Willard T. Cannon, vice president and general manager of U-I, was president of the subsidiary. Using $1.25 million in funds advanced by the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank (through the Agricultural Credit Act
Farm Credit System
The Farm Credit System is a federally chartered network of cooperatives and related service organizations that lends to agricultural producers, rural homeowners, farm-related businesses, and agricultural, aquatic, and public utility cooperatives in the United States...
), they gave farmers loans of up to $20 per acre with their crops as security. In 1933, 4039 farmers received loans totaling $644,453. In 1934, 3026 farmers received $398,132 in loans. This continued until the finance company was closed in 1938, and was dissolved on June 29, 1940.
In 1938, U-I Sugar began marking directly to the consumer. Instead of selling exclusively in hundredweight
Hundredweight
The hundredweight or centum weight is a unit of mass defined in terms of the pound . The definition used in Britain differs from that used in North America. The two are distinguished by the terms long hundredweight and short hundredweight:* The long hundredweight is defined as 112 lb, which...
bags, they marketed "attractive 5- and 10-pound bags suitable to the needs of modern housewives."
Quotas
The Agricultural Adjustment ActAgricultural Adjustment Act
The Agricultural Adjustment Act was a United States federal law of the New Deal era which restricted agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies not to plant part of their land and to kill off excess livestock...
of 1933 was modified on May 9, 1934 with the Jones-Costigan Amendment, also known as the Sugar Act of 1933. This set quotas for sugar production, set "processing tax" on sugar, and allotted manufacturing outputs. U-I was allotted 143,900 tons in 1934, well below the 170,000 tons produced in 1933. While volumes were down, due to a large glut of sugar, the "average income in the beet industry from 1934 to 1936 was 20 percent higher than the average income during the period 1925 to 1934."
While the company was in better shape by 1935 than they had been in 20 years, interest rates were also low. The company again reduced the par value of the stock in 1935, leaving a $2.4 million credit. They also called $3 million in bonds and issued $3.5 million in new bonds. The LDS church took $500,000 of bonds, and $1.45 million in preferred stock (with a 7% interest rate) was called and reissued stock at 6%. The stock was issued in October 1935, and the bonds were sold in March 1936. The LDS church bought $2 million of the stock issuance. Because of this financial wrangling, the company issued a 5 cent dividend on their common stock- the first in 11 years.
The company argued that 1933–1952 was a difficult period due to the sugar production quota being decided while U-I was in the midst of the curly top blight, making the quota excessively low. Quotas were maintained through 1974, being rewritten in 1937 and 1948, with the extensions to the acts meaning it ultimately expired at the end of 1974.
Because of this, U-I felt it impacted them with an unfairly low production quota. Factories were kept closed, and only opened if they could run at full capacity (and at a low production price). Lower-volume plants were closed, as farmers could transport large volumes of sugar beets on highways now, rather than by horse to the rail lines.
The Sugar Act of 1933 continued to be renewed through at least the early 1980s. However, high fructose corn syrup
High fructose corn syrup
High-fructose corn syrup — also called glucose-fructose syrup in the UK, glucose/fructose in Canada, and high-fructose maize syrup in other countries — comprises any of a group of corn syrups that has undergone enzymatic processing to convert some of its glucose into fructose to produce...
and artificial sweeteners changed the type of sugar being consumed.
World War II
Severe labor shortages in World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
led to worries of a food shortage. The government instituted the Food for Freedom campaign. During the times of high labor needs, U-I recruited schoolchildren, volunteers, "imported labor". Thinning beets is a more labor-intensive process. During that time, governors, politicians, members of the local school boards, as well as the civic groups: firemen, police officers, chamber of commerce. The LDS church exerted its members to contribute heavily, and they did, as well as bankers, merchants, clears, and any others who could help.
In 1942, approximately 10,000 Japanese Americans were relocated and interned
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
from the Pacific states. Some of these people were employed as seasonal agricultural laborers, allowed to leave internment centers in Hunt/Minidoka, Idaho, Topaz, Utah, and Heart Mountain, Wyoming. 3500 of these laborers worked for U-I. The interned Japanese Americans also provided seasonal labor in 1943 and 1944; all the labor was paid at prevailing wage
Prevailing wage
In government contracting, a prevailing wage is defined as the hourly wage, usual benefits and overtime, paid to the majority of workers, laborers, and mechanics within a particular area. Prevailing wages are established by regulatory agencies for each trade and occupation employed in the...
s. Temporary labor was also provided by the Bracero Program
Bracero Program
The Bracero Program was a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated by an August 1942 exchange of diplomatic notes between the United States and Mexico, for the importation of temporary contract laborers from Mexico to the United States.American president Franklin D...
, 700 in 1944, 1100 in 1945 in Utah. German and Italian POWs were also "apt and willing workers", 500 in 1944 and 2000 in 1945 in Utah.
Sugar beet blight and decline in the industry
After the World War I overexpansion and antitrust dealings, the sugar beet industry suffered further due to The Great Depression and because of difficulties with the beet leafhopperBeet leafhopper
The beet leafhopper is a species of leafhopper with a longer, thinner build than most. It is found across much of the United States and Mexico, in South Africa and from the countries around the Mediterranean Sea to Central Asia ....
, which caused beet curly top virus
Beet curly top virus
Beet curly top virus is a plant pathogenic virus of the family Geminiviridae.-External links:**...
, a blight
Blight
Blight refers to a specific symptom affecting plants in response to infection by a pathogenic organism. It is simply a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral organs. Accordingly, many diseases that primarily exhibit this...
. The first blight was seen in Lehi in 1897, when the harvest of sugar beets dropped by 58% from the previous year, and area yield dropped by 54%. Blights were also experienced in 1900 and 1905; the leafhopper and resulting blight was identified in 1905 at by E. D. Ball, a professor of entomology
Entomology
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...
at Utah State Agricultural College
Utah State University
Utah State University is a public university located in Logan, Utah. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities....
.
While the blights began occurring in isolated years in most areas, this wasn't the case in Nampa, Idaho. The blight began in 1906 and continued through 1910, reducing area yield to 12% of the break-even amount. The worst period of blight occurred beginning in 1919 and continued through 1934. Overall production was substantially decreased in these years; 1924 saw 50,000 fewer tons of sugar produced than the previous year.
Factory closures
Because of the severe blights in Washington State, the Union Gap and Sunnyside factories were closed in 1919 and never reopened. The Toppenish plant only opened for short periods during this time.Ultimately, 22 of the sugar factories in the Western United States were closed due to the blight, and the remaining 21 factories were periodically shuttered, with an aggregate production under 50% of their stated capacity. This included ten U-I factories closed or moved due to blight:
- Lehi, Utah closed in 1924 and was dismantled.
- Nampa, Idaho closed in 1910 and moved to Spanish Fork.
- Elsinore, Utah was closed in 1928 and dismantled.
- Payson, Utah was closed in 1924 and dismantled.
- Moroni, Utah was closed in 1925 and moved to Toppenish, Washington.
- Delta, Utah was closed in 1924 and moved to Belle Fourche, South Dakota.
- Union Gap, Washington was closed in 1918 and moved to Chinook, MontanaChinook, MontanaChinook is a city in and the county seat of Blaine County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,386 at the 2000 census. Points of interest are the Bear Paw Battlefield Museum located in the small town's center and the Bear Paw Battlefield, located just twenty miles south of...
. - Rigby, Idaho was closed in 1924, used briefly in 1930, then dismantled.
- Toppenish, Washington was closed in 1923 and moved to Bellingham, WashingtonBellingham, WashingtonBellingham is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the twelfth-largest city in the state. Situated on Bellingham Bay, Bellingham is protected by Lummi Island, Portage Island, and the Lummi Peninsula, and opens onto the Strait of Georgia...
in 1924. It operated from 1925–1938, with the best profit was in 1933, the worst year of The Great Depression. It was considered only marginally successful. The equipment was sold to Remolachas y Azucareras del Uruguay, Sociedad Anonima, and was installed at Esta Montes, UruguayUruguayUruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
. - Sunnyside, Washington was closed in 1919 and moved to Raymond, AlbertaRaymond, AlbertaRaymond is a town in Warner County, Alberta, Canada. It is located in southern Alberta south of Lethbridge on Highway 52. Raymond is known for its annual rodeo and its large Mormon population...
, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
New factories
The Chinook, Montana factory location was chosen due to the Great Northern railway, German immigrants who "knew how to work" and had pre-immigration experience with beets. The Union Gap factory was moved and set up by James J. Burke and Company in time for the 1925 season. The yields and areas were good, with 16296 acres (65.9 km²) in 1940 and 211,840 tons of sugar beets processed.The Raymond, Alberta, Canada plant was built by the Lynch-Cannon Engineering Company in time for the 1925 season. It was located in the area due to sugar beet farmers who had moved north from Utah and Idaho, customs-free importation of machinery, and slightly higher prices for the sale of refined sugar. The factory was held by the Canadian Sugar Factories, Limited subsidiary of U-I. By 1930, 15000 acres (60.7 km²) were producing 127,000 tons of beets, was "basically profitable", but had issues with labor supply and climate.
Since the Great Basin Sugar Company had "poached" territory from U-I with their Delta, Utah plant, purchased by U-I in 1920, the company wanted to retaliate with a plant in their territory, which led to the Belle Fourche, South Dakota plant. The specific location was chosen due to the nearby Orman Dam and Reservoir
Orman Dam
Orman Dam is a dam on Owl Creek in Butte County, South Dakota, USA. It was constructed in 1911 to store water for agricultural use. Its construction created Belle Fourche Reservoir. At the time it was built, Orman Dam was the largest earthen dam on Earth. In 1989, Orman Dam was designated as an...
land reclamation project, at the urging of the Associated Commercial Clubs of the Black Hills, who had pledged 8000 acres (32.4 km²). The North Western Railroad agreed to build an 11 miles (17.7 km) spur. Area farmers had already been growing 2000 acres (8.1 km²) at high yields, shipping the sugar beets to the Great Western Sugar Company plant in Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Scottsbluff is a city in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 15,039 at the 2010 census. Scottsbluff is the largest city in the Nebraska Panhandle, and the 13th largest city in Nebraska....
. U-I arranged move the Delta plant to Belle Fourche, building the new factory themselves.
The Belle Fourche plant was profitable from 1927 to 1950, but lost money from 1951 to 1960. Management made aggressive plans to try to save the company. In 1962, farmers expanded east of the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
, gaining 9800 acres (39.7 km²). The yelds were disappointing, and the sugar content was low. At this time, research into the cost-benefit of leaving the factory was on the table. In 1964, the company retracted significantly and still lost money- $350,000. Ultimately, the factory didn't look good financially. The factory closed and was dismantled in 1965.
Blight-resistant beets
Since most sugar beet seed came from Europe, the Americans asked their suppliers to develop blight-resistant beet lines. Blight was not a problem in Europe, so there was little enthusiasm. In addition, the suppliers didn't believe a resistant variety could be produced. The Spreckels Sugar CompanySpreckels Sugar Company
The Spreckels Sugar Company is an American sugar beet refiner that for many years controlled much of the U.S. West Coast refined sugar market. Spreckels Sugar was founded by entrepreneur, industrialist, newspaper publisher, and railroad executive Claus Spreckels in 1881...
of Spreckels, California
Spreckels, California
Spreckels is a census-designated place located in the Salinas Valley of Monterey County, California, United States. Spreckels is located south of Salinas, at an elevation of 62 feet . The population was 673 at the 2010 census, up from 485 at the 2000 census.Spreckels is one of the best-preserved...
began experimenting with blight-resistant plants in 1919, but did not develop a commercial variety by 1928.
The US Department of Agriculture created a sugar beet variety in the late 1928s, known as "U.S. No. 1." Using a newly discovered overwintering technique for growing sugar beets for seed by the USDA and the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station, seed production plots were grown in 1930 in New Mexico, Hemet, California
Hemet, California
Hemet is a city in the San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County, California, United States. It covers a total area of , about half of the valley, which it shares with the neighboring city of San Jacinto. The population was 78,657 at the 2010 census....
, and St. George, Utah
St. George, Utah
St. George is a city located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Utah, and the county seat of Washington County, Utah. It is the principal city of and is included in the St. George, Utah, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is 119 miles northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, and 303 miles ...
. Very limited quantities of this seed were available for the 1931 growing season- only 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) were grown in Washington County, Utah. Larger volume of seed were available for the 1934 season, and it was in heavy use by 1935. Other varieties were developed (12, 33, and 34) and in use by 1937. These were significantly higher in sugar content, less likely to bolt (go to seed due to planting early), and more resistant to blight.
By 1935, U-I was planting 650 acres (2.6 km²) of beets for seed in St. George and Moapa, Nevada, with an additional 150 acre (0.607029 km²) in Hemet, California
Hemet, California
Hemet is a city in the San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County, California, United States. It covers a total area of , about half of the valley, which it shares with the neighboring city of San Jacinto. The population was 78,657 at the 2010 census....
and 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) in Victorville, California
Victorville, California
Victorville is a city located in the Victor Valley of southwestern San Bernardino County, California. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2010 census, the city had a population of 115,903, up from 64,030 at the 2000 census.-Geography and climate:...
. They produced 2000000 pounds (907,184.7 kg) of seed in 1936.
For beet seed producers, yields drastically increased at the same time that labor requirements dropped. In 1932, a seed farm could expect to yield 2000 pounds of seed per acre. By the 1960s, yields were 3300 pounds per acre, an increase of 60.6%.
New Washington factories
By the 1960s, seven factories had been built in Washington. Six were built by Utah-Idaho, and the seventh was purchased by U-I.Yakima Valley
U-I was lacking a factory in the Yakima Valley region of Washington after closing their Toppenish plant. The blight-resistant harvests were successful in 1935 despite large leafhopper infestation, and the farmers who were still planting beets would send them by rail to the Bellingham plant, a distance of 230 miles (370.1 km). A factory was rebuilt in October 1937, cannibalizing equipment from other factories, including at Moroni, Honeyville, and Lehi. The plant had a capacity of 1800 tons, which was increased to 3775 tons by the 1960s. The 1937 season resulted in the processing of 85,000 tons of beets. By the 1960s, the factory had contracts with 600 farmers, giving it 650,000 tons of sugar beets, with a yield of 23 tons per acre. The factory output was 65,000 tons of sugar.Moses Lake
U-I grew a test crop in Moses Lake, WashingtonMoses Lake, Washington
Moses Lake is a city in Grant County, Washington, United States. The population was 20,366 as of the 2010 census. Moses Lake is the largest city in Grant County.-Background:...
in 1948, anticipating the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam
Grand Coulee Dam
Grand Coulee Dam is a gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation. It was constructed between 1933 and 1942, originally with two power plants. A third power station was completed in 1974 to increase its energy...
and irrigation project. 1950 yields were 24 tons per acre from 1120 acres (4.5 km²), and by 1951 it was 29 tons per acre from 1700 acres (6.9 km²). The irrigation was available by 1952, so 3400 acres (13.8 km²) were contracted in Moses Lake, Othello
Othello, Washington
Othello is a city in Adams County, Washington, United States. The population was 5,847 at the 2000 census and grew 25.9% over the next decade to 7,364 at the 2010 census. Othello refers to the city as being in the "Heart" of the Columbia Basin Project...
, Warden
Warden, Washington
Warden is a city in Grant County, Washington, United States. The population was 2,544 at the 2000 census.-History:The Central Basin plateau was settled in the late 1800s by immigrants of Russian-German ancestry who homesteaded in the area and farmed dryland wheat...
, and Quincy
Quincy, Washington
Quincy Washington Quincy is a city in Grant County, Washington, United States. The population was 6,750 at the 2010 census.-History:...
. Since the Toppenish factory was already operating at full capacity, the sugar beets were shipped to the Lincoln factory near Idaho Falls, Idaho, a distance of over 600 miles (965.6 km).
The decision to build a factory in Moses Lake was made in 1952. Equipment from the shuttered Chinook, Montana factory was reused in this plant, as well as equipment from the closed factories in Spanish Fork (formerly Nampa), Blackfoot, and Shelley. $8.1 million was required to get the factory running, and it was dedicated October 23, 1953, in time for the 1953 harvest. When it opened, it was the largest sugar beet processing factory in the United States. The factory was processing 2000 tons per day during the first year. Later upgrades brought the Moses Lake factory to 6250 tons by the 1960s, and the total investment is approximately $20 million. By the 1960s, the factory had contracts with 800 farmers on 33000 acres (133.5 km²), giving it 800,000 tons of sugar beets, with a yield of 24 tons per acre. A record was achieved in 1963 when this region averaged a 27.2 tons per acre yield.
There was a serious explosion on September 25, 1963, likely caused by a dust explosion
Dust explosion
A dust explosion is the fast combustion of dust particles suspended in the air in an enclosed location. Coal dust explosions are a frequent hazard in underground coal mines, but dust explosions can occur where any powdered combustible material is present in an enclosed atmosphere.- Conditions for...
in one of seven silos, which were 108 ft (32.9 m) tall. Seven died, another seven were injured, and the factory sustained $5 million in damage. The factory was shuttered for over three weeks, causing over 2000 acres (8.1 km²) to lay in fields.
The Moses Lake plant was closed in 1979.
Seed research
By the 1940s, progress was being made toward mechanically separating multigerm seed into segmented seed, allowing a reduction in labor-intensive agricultural thinningThinning
Thinning is a term used in agricultural sciences to mean the removal of some plants, or parts of plants, to make room for the growth of others.- Forestry :...
. Research was being made toward a true monogerm seed by Russian refugees Viacheslav F. Savitsky, Helen Kharetchko Savitsky, and Utah native Forrest Vern Owen. U-I and other sugar companies created the Beet Sugar Development Foundation, with a laboratory in West Jordan
West Jordan, Utah
West Jordan is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. West Jordan is a rapidly growing suburb of Salt Lake City and has a mixed economy. According to the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 103,712, placing it as the fourth most populated in the state. The city occupies the...
. Together with the USDA's Division of Sugar Plant Investigations, they financed a search for naturally occurring monogerm seeds. Two such plants were found, both in Oregon. These were named SLC Monogerm 101 and SLC Monogerm 107. The first commercial monogerm sugar beet resistant to the Curly Top blight was launched in 1955 by U-I, and by 1958 it was in large-scale production.
Mechanization
| Years | Hours of labor |
|---|---|
| 1913–1917 | 11.2 |
| 1933–1936 | 8.7 |
| 1948 | 5.9 |
| 1958 | 4.4 |
| 1964 | 2.7 |
Partially in response to the labor shortages experienced during World War II, large efforts were made to mechanize the thinning, harvesting, and processing of sugar beets. Mechanical cross-blocking thinners were used starting in 1941, precision seed planting equipment was used starting in 1944, and more efficient mechanized harvesters were used starting in 1943, based on a "variable-cut topping mechanism" developed by J. B. Powers at the California Experiment Station of University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
, which was shared with manufacturers in a public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
manner. In 1946, 12% of the crop was harvested mechanically; by 1950, approximately 66% was mechanically harvested. This mechanization helped U-I stay productive compared to imported sugar. In 1960, U-I produced 325,000 tons of sugar.
Legacy and divestment of sugar beet division
The Layton, Utah plant was closed in 1959, and then sold in 1965 or 1966. Two other factories were sold or dismantled in 1965 or 1966: Gunnison, Utah, and Belle Fourche, South Dakota. In 1963, the LDS church owned 48% of the stock. A 1963 article in Barron's said "In the early years of Utah-Idaho, church ownership hampered the kind of hard dealing necessary in the trade. Today, however, such considerations are inconsequential."In the 1960s, U-I had five factories, down from the 28 they had built. They also owned a lime quarry west of Victor, Idaho
Victor, Idaho
Victor is a city in Teton County, Idaho, United States. The population was 840 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Jackson, WY-ID Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Victor is located at...
, used as quicklime
Calcium oxide
Calcium oxide , commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline crystalline solid at room temperature....
for the Lincoln, Idaho factory in processing beets.
Utah-Idaho and its competitors (including the Amalgamated Sugar Company) were again sued beginning in 1971, alleging price fixing
Price fixing
Price fixing is an agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given level by controlling supply and demand...
and market manipulation. One such class action lawsuit was settled out of court in 1980.
Utah-Idaho Sugar Company changed its name to simply "U and I" in 1975. By this time, Utah-Idaho had moved into potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
production. It put its four remaining sugar factories for sale in November 1978, stopped offering contracts to sugar beet growers, and closed the Moses Lake, Washington and Gunnison, Utah plants in 1979, entirely abandoning the sugar industry. In the mid-1980s, the LDS church sold the company, and it was renamed AgraWest. AgraWest was purchased by Idaho Pacific Corporation of Ririe, Idaho
Ririe, Idaho
Ririe is a city in Bonneville and Jefferson counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. It is part of the Idaho Falls, Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 656 at the 2010 census.- History :...
in 2000.
U&I Sugar Corporation
The corporation is now (2011) concentrated on Brazilian sugar owning mills in Brazil and cane fields. U&I has purchased 2 logistic companies based in Sao Paulo and a sales marketing company in the United Kingdom formally Commodity Brokers Europe Ltd.Mike Crump the president of U&I Sugar Corporation now controls the process from growing to end buyer sales and is continuing to purchase mills in Brazil. The company now concentrates on selling cane sugar to the end buyer and does not trade on international market platforms thereby ensuring the best possible price for each mt produced.
In 2010 U&I moved into direct sales and the expansion program was initiated at www.uandisugar.com.