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About Ashland tidings. (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 1915)
I i fa fti 1 ft S iyiy Ii lb I isBiitafii If 1 ftoii liAist& I . !i ligm Isfiir 1 ilrf I THE TIME TO DECIDE THIS QUESTION HAS ARRIVED. THE OREGON-UTAH. SUGAR COMPANY IS READY, WILLING, AND ARE ABLE TO BUILD A SUGAR FACTORY IN YOUR VALLEY PROVIDED THAT RELIABLE LAND OWNERS, FARMERS AND ORCHARTDISTS WILL DEVOTE 5,000 ACRES OF SUIT ABLE LANDS TO SUGAR BEET CULTURE FOR A PERIOD OF FIVE YEARS EEGINNING WITH THE SEASON OF 1916. The Company Wants You land Owners To Sign Up Contracts During The Hexl 30 Days That You Will Grow Beets Kext Season ON OR ABOUT OCTOBER 20TH, 1915, HEADQARTERS WILL BE OPENED IN THE MEDFORD HOTEL, MEDFORD, AND IN THE JOSEPHINE HOTEL, GRANTS PASS, OREGON, AND AN EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN WILL BE CONDUCTED SO THAT YOU MAY DECIDE WHETHER YOU WANT A SUGAR FACTORY BUILT AND A MILLION DOLLAR INDDUSTRY STARTED. Salt Lake City, Utah, October 7th, 1915. To the Commercial Clubs, Land Owners and Citizens of Rogue Kiver Valley: About a year ago the undersigned made several visits to your valley for the pur pose of investigating conditions that apper tain to the establishment of the sugar man ufacturing industry in the Rogue River Valley. Those preliminary investigations were very encouraging and we later induced Bishop C. W. Nibley,. one of the principal . stockholders of the Ten Million Dollar Utah-Idaho Sugar Company of Salt Lake City, to visit the valley and meet the repre sentatives of your commercial clubs and its many prominent citizens and land own ers. 1 At the time of Mr. Nibley 's visit it "was decided that the season was too far ad vanced to obtain the required acreage to justify building a sugar factory for the season of 1915. Owing to the fact that the growing of sugar beets had not yet been given a practical tryout in your valley, Bishop Nibley at that time demanded that before he would help build a sugar factory five thousand acres of suitable lands be first signed up for beet culture, and that the people of the Kogue Kiver Valley put $250,000 into the enterprise. It should be understood that it was not necessary to obtain money in the Rogue River Valley in order to build a sugar factory, but it was felt and deemed important that local peo ple be financially interested in the new industry so that it would have a full meas- . ure of local support, to help insure its suc cess. As the undertaking was a large one, and not enough time was left before the grow ing season of 1915 to work out a business plan that would enlist the support of the necessary capital and obtain the necessary beet contracts, the matter was deferred. We were satisfied with the result of our first efforts because of the splendid recep tion accorded us by your people, and be cause of the promise of Bishop Nibley that he was ready and willing to go ahead for the season of 1916. , Since the beet meetings that were held last January in Medford under the aus pices of the committees of the several com mercial clubs of your valley, we have kept right on working on the plan, and we can now announce that we are ready to go ahead if you land owners will raise the beets, and we respectfully ask the commer cial clubs of Ashland, Medford, Central Point, Gold Hill, Rogue River, Grants Pass and other places in the valley, and all its citizens, to help us obtain the necessary five thousand acres of beet contracts. We have recently obtained the necessary guarantees of local financial support, and the backing of capitalists, who will build a factory under certain conditions that they exact, and the first and most important of these conditions is that the acreage that will be devoted hereafter to beet culture must be signed up at once. . Copies of beet contracts can be obtained at any of the commercial clubs or at the headquarters of the Sugar Company in Medford Hotel, Medford, and Josephine Hotel, Grants Pass, or will be mailed on request.'. We will have a soil and beet ex pert who will visit your land without ex pense to you and give you such information ,as you desire about beet culture, and the headquarters at Medford and Grants Pass ' will be in charge of the undersigned, who are thoroughly familiar with the culture of beets and the manufacture of sugar. The form of the contract we ask you to sign is the same as that made by the beet growers of Utah and Idaho, who sell beets to the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, and the prices paid to you growers will be the same as paid in Idaho and Utah, and the price will be the same F. O. B. at any and all railroad stations on the Southern Pa cific between Ashland and Merlin or any station on the Oregon and California coast. Last 6pring we caused beet seed to be widely distributed in your valley, and some of it was planted and beets have been grown. These beets have since matured and samples have been tested and condi tions observed, proving to our satisfaction that beet culture and the manufacture of sugar in your valley will be profitable and should be its greatest industry. Numerous tests have also been made of the different soils in the valley, and the result is that we ""are convinced that there is at least fifty thousand acres in the Rogue River and adjacent valleys adaptable to beet cul ture. ' The climatic conditions have been pro nounced ideal, and the patches of beets planted have convinced us that a fine qual ity of beets can be grown, and that the ton nage and percentage of sugar will average larger than in the other sugar beet dis tricts of which we have knowledge. Just as soon as Rogue River Valley proved up to be an ideal country for beet culture and the tests of beets was avail able, the question of the construction of a beet sugar factory was taken up with Salt Lake City capitalists, who are familiar and interested in sugar securities, and the re sult was that the Oregon-Utah Sugar Com pany was organized with a paid up capital of $100,000 and a $500,000 issue of first mortgage bonds has been provided for con struction purposes, and a bank credit of $200,000 to $400,000 to annually handle the crop and sugar has been arranged for. It is up to the farmers of Rogue River Valley to sign up part of their lands for -beet culture. Their action will determine whether or not the sugar industry in Ore gon is started in Rogue River Valley or elsewhere, as the stockholders of the Oregon-Utah Sugar Company have made up their minds to go into the sugar business in Oregon, and the Rogue River Valley is its first choice, and if the acreage cannot be obtained, the company will then decide on Umpqua or Willamette valleys. The location of the plant and its site will be decided by the directors, as soon as the acreage is signed up and passed on. No matter where the exact location is, the farmer can deliver his beets to convenient loading stations on the Southern Pacific and California and Oregon coast railroads, and the price of beets F. O. B. cars will be the same as though delivered at the fac tory. As soon as the beet contracts are signed up, the company proposes to establish per manent places of business in Medford and . Grants Pass, for the convenient handling of the business of both ends of the valley. TO MAKE SUGAR WE HAVE TO HAVE THE BEETS, AND BEFORE" BUILDING A FACTORY AND ISSUING BONDS WE MUST BE SURE OF TIIE BEETS. YOU ATTEND TO TIIE BEET RAISING PART AND WE WILL AR RANGE THE REST. A number of important factors enter into the sugar business and the building of a factory in a new country. First: It must be certain that enough beets will be raised to keep a sugar factory running. Second: To arrange contracts in time to have the plant built and ready. (Sept. 1, 1916, in this case.) Third: The national tariff question and the prospects of a market for sugar at reas onable prices. Fourth: The consummation of the pre liminary financial arrangements that have been made to carry out the plans as soon as it is definitely decided upon. Fifth: Satisfactory freight rates must be arranged for, and contracts must be made for lime, coal, coke and wood and other necessities used in large quantities. Sixth: The best seed question is a vital one tMs year, as the German supply is now cut off. We can get seed if we decide on the amount and place the order for it at once. FACTS ABOUT THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. We think a few facts about the sugar in dustry will be in point and interesting. Last year the sugar manufactured in Utah had a value of approximately $9,000,000. The money paid out directly to farmers for beets amounted to about $4,250,000. A similar state of affairs exists in Idaho, and the output in Utah and Idaho will be in creased this year nearly 40 per cent. This year 64,000 acres of beets were grown in Utah (compared to 45,400 acres last year), 40,000 acres in Idaho and over 100,000 acres in Colorado. In Colorado the value of the sugar industry ranks along with its gold production. Do you want these conditions duplicated in Oregon and have Rogue River Valley the home of the industry and be a great sugar center, a thing that Salt Lake City now enjoys? The sugar industry benefits all classes of people and all other business. The sugar company will immediately bring prosper ity to the farmers as it is a cash crop, and their crop is sold to the sugar company ' before the seed is planted. A sugar factory gives employment to labor, teamsters, and stimulates the transportation business gen erally. It uses large quantities of coal, wood, limestone, power, etc. The building of our factory in Rogue River Valley will put more than $1,000,000 of new outside money in your banks every year. It will give the farmer a good loan value for his lands. The industry is a big taxpayer and, what is more, it puts new life in the whole business community and new money to do business with. Each year your commun ities that raise beets will get richer and the lands used for beet culture improve. The sugar industry will also stimulate the livestock industry. Your valley will have cattle, hogs and poultry to sell in abundance. New industries will spring up, such as more dairies, meat packing houses, canneries, etc. Big canneries with home made sugar and syrup means a market for fruit that now goes to wiste. THERE IS ONE FEATURE OF THE SUGAR BUSINESS YOU PEOPLE OUGHT TO KNOW, AND THAT IS, THAT TIIE SUGAR BUSINESS IS A MILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS. You cannot go into the sugar business profitably without resources of more than a million dollars. If you want to go into the sugar busi ness, you will find that by the time you make up your mind to build a factory, and obtain the necessary beet contracts, you are out $10,000, and by the time you are ready to let a contract to build a factory, you will have to have $100,000 in hand, and the cost of the factory and appurte nances runs from $500,000 to $600,000, and it requires from $200,000 to $400,000 (ac cording to size of crop) to pay fanners for the beets and carry the sugar until it is sold. OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS ARE GOOD PEOPLE. The new company's Officers and Direct ors are all responsible men who understand the sugar business, and already have a large sum invested in it, and have made money out of the sugar industry. The Directors of the Oregon-Utah Sugar Company are C. W. Nibley, capitalist, who is probably the largest individual factor in the great sugar industries of Utah and. Idaho; O. C. Beebe, cashier and manager of the Zion's Bank and Trust Company and vice-president of the Utah Savings and Trust Company; Rodney T. Badger, vice president and manager of Utah State Na tional Bank; Bishop David A. Smith, capi talist; and Harold Reed Smoot, investment banker, all of whom reside in Salt Lake; and George E. Sanders, president of the Kogue River Public Service Corporation; and Alex Nibley, secretary of Oregon-Utah Sugar Company. The officers of the company are C. W. ', Nibley, president; George PI. Sanders, vice president; O. C. Beebe, treasurer; Alex Nibley, secretary, and F. S. Bramwell, field superintendent. All of these officers are personally familiar with and acquainted in Rogue River Valley, and Mr. C. W. Nibley has been identified with the development of Eastern Oregon for the past thirty years, and lived in Baker, Oregon, for several years. IT IS NOW SQUARELY UP TO YOU PEOPLE OF ROGUE RIVER VALLEY TO DECIDE IF YOU WANT TIIE OREGON-UTAH SUGAR COMPANY TO GO AHEAD AND BUILD A SUGAR FAC TORY IN YOUR VALLEY AND ESTAB LISH A GREAT INDUSTRY IN YOUR MIDST. IT MEANS TIIE INITIAL IN VESTMENT OF ONE MILLION DOL LARS. More capital in other industries will fol low, and it will soon increase the taxable value of Jackson and Josephine counties, an amount which is easily estimated at $10,000,000. It appears to us that all Rogue River Valley needs is more indus tries that will bring in new money anil em ploy the people it now has, and those who will come when a state of prosperity ex ists. The Oregon-Utah Sugar Company is willing, if you will grow beets, to locate in your valley because of your superior clim ate and natural conditions for beet culture, and because the sugar business is, gener ally speaking, only profitable in countries that are already liberally peopled, and which have a good geographical location, and that are well developed in other words, a section like Rogue River Valley, that has passed the pioneer stage. Are you now willing to go in for a big industry that will hold up your reputation? Any information you desire will be sup plied at our headquarters in Medford and Grants Pass. Respectfully submitted, . ALEX NIBLEY, F. S. BRAMWELL, Of the Oregon-Utah Sugar Company. 4IU