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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (March 20, 1902)
8 'Cbe Conservative * is IOBS complete a thick , colorless syrup , glucose , is produced. To make a table syrup of glucose , 10 per cent of cane syrup , sorghum or molasses is added. A Commercial Blunder of Years Ago. The grape sugar taken from starch does uot resemble cane sugar , for the large amount of water in the corn product prevents crystalizatiou or granulation. There was wild excite ment in sugar in 1880 when a chemist extracted a water-free sugar from corn starch. It had the appearance of the granulated product from cane , and after mixing it with the cane sugar , the whole could bo sold at a price much lower than the old style sugar. New fortunes were in sight , and in Chicago a great factory was soon in operation. Thousands of barrels of corn sugar , mixed with the Louisiana product , were rushed to the market , but soon they were coming back. Buyers said it in no way resembled the standard granulated sugar. When a barrel was opened it was found to contain one solid lump of sugar. The manufacturers had overlooked some thing ill their hunt for money the water-free corn sugar had absorbed the moisture in the cane sugar and the whole combined and hardened. All the efforts to overcome the defect failed and the new factories became idle. Now about all the water-free sugar made is . used in the manufac ture of beer and wiuo. With the main body of starch and the'germ of the kernel used , the hull , or bran , and gluten are left. The gluten is dried in filter presses and in its dry state about one-third of it is starch , which the chemists are unable to extract As glut.cn meal it is fed to cattle and mixed with the bran it becomes gluten feed. In all about forty derivatives , or by-products are made from the kernel of corn. The Corn Products company , as has be'en said , buys only shelled corn. The cobs and "husks are left be hind for other uses and the stalks have found their place as forage. The Glucose-Starch Combination. The company to control the starch and glucose business in America was finally organized last'Monday in New York , with 80 million dollars capital. These directors were elected : . O. H. Matthiessen , W. J. Calhoun , Joy Morton , Edward L. Wemple , Norman B. Beam , E. T. Bedford , E. O. Matthiessen , E. V. Hoigot and Ben jamin Graham. The board organized bv ejecting the following officers : President and chairman of the execu tive committee , O. H. Matthiesseu ; vicn president , W. J. Calhouu ; second vice president , Joy-Morton ; secretary , Ed ward , L.Wemplo ; treasurer , Ben- jamin Graham. The principal con stituents of this "community of inter ests" are the National Starch com pany and the Glucose Syrup Refining company. The glucose company itself was organized -only four years ago and was a big trust in itself , with a capital stock of 40 million dollars. That concentration of interests and development of by-products are profit able is shown in the fact that the Glucose Syrup Refining company paid 7 per cent on its 14 million dollars preferred stock last year and 6 per cent on the 26 million dollar common stock. Mr. Matthiessen , president of the now 80 million dollar combina tion , is also president of the glucose company. With its 40 million dollars capital it owned and operated only five factories the American Glucose Works , Peoria , 111. ; the Rockford , Sugar Refining company , Rockford , 111. ; the Davenport Sugar Refining company , Davenport , la. ; the Finn en - ich Manufacturing company , Mar- shalltown , la. , and the Chicago Sugar defining company , Chicago. The Peoria Grape Sugar company's plant was also bought by the glucose com pany , but it burned and was not re built. When the owners of these con cerns sold their plants to or entered tlie glucose combination they signed a contract not to engage in the glu cose business within 1,200 miles of Chicago , which meant they would stay out as independent concerns , for the 1,200 mile clause took in the In dian corn district of the entire world. The National Starch company , an other great constituent of the glucose- starch combination , has two glucose plants , one in Waukegan , 111. , and one in Glen Cove , N. Y. Its starch factories are scattered from Nebraska City to Oswego , N. Y. Other con cerns controlled by the Corn Products company are the Charles Pope Glucose plants in Geneva , 111. , and Venice , 111. ; the Illinois Sugar Refining Co. , Pekin , 111. , and the New York Glu cose company , Shadyside , N. J. In all of the plants about 7,000 persons will be employed. Mr. Matthiesson , head of the com panies , is still under 40 , and his sal ary is said to exceed $60.000 a year. Fifteen years ago he was paid $12 a vfeek by the Chicago Sugar Refining company , now 'in his combination. The Glucose Syrup-Refining company vfas the result of his efforts , as is the present Corn Products company. Pay ing dividends is the line ho works on. As to the Effect on the Market. That the development of byproducts ducts will have some , effect on the price of corn sobms nearly certain , although , it is uot accepted as a fact by grain jlealers , The normal corn crop'of the United States is about 2,100 million bushels and the normal export is around 200 millou bushels. But when corn is high Europe does not buy. Of last year's short crop probably less than 50 million bushels will reach Europe. In the case of the Corn Products company it must buy whether corn is sixty cents or thirty cents , for idle plants mean a loss. As a combination it can fix the1 prices of its products and operate profitably with high priced- corn , providing its manufactured goods are so necessary to the consumerthat ho will pay the increased price. That seems to be the situation this yearfor the glucose plants are busy despite the price of corn. Although a regular customer in the corn market , the Products company's purchases for a year will probably have little direct effect on the prices for a year , as 75 million bushels are a very small proportion of the 2,100 million grown annually in the American corn belt. Kansas City Star. POPULAR ELECTION OF UNITED STATES SENATORS. [ Convocation address of Charles S. Lobin- gier , of the University of Nebraska , March Ifith , liXW. ] The question of electing United States senators by popular vote has again been brought into prominence of late , in several ways. The legisla tures of eight states , including our own , have recently memorialized con gress in favor of the change , while al together thirty states have done so at some time in the past. Only last month the national house of repre sentatives unanimously and for the fourth time passed a resolution for a constitutional amendment for this purpose and the plan is now before the country perhaps more prominently than over before. ' Arguments from the Standpoint of the Senate. The old arguments in its favor have usually related to the Senators them selves rather than to the bodies which elect them. It has become the fashion in some quarters to speak of the United States senate as the "Ameri can House of Lords" or the "Million aires' Club" on account of the fact that within the last quarter century men have been elected to seats in it whoso chief distinction has boon \yealth rather than statesmanship.It is Qlaimed that this would disappear under a system of popular election and that senators would become moro truly the representatives of the pee ple. But wo must judge of this from political conditions as they are. Wo must inquire whether the average governor or congressman is really olpser to the people than the average
