If you want to
know what line human progress will take in the future read the funny
papers of today and see what they are fighting. The satire of every
century from Aristophanes to the latest vaudeville has been directed
against those who are trying to make the world wiser or better, against
the teacher and the preacher, the scientist and the reformer.
In spite of the ridicule showered upon it the despised beet year by year
gained in sweetness of heart. The percentage of sugar rose from six to
eighteen and by improved methods of extraction became finally as pure
and palatable as the sugar of the cane. An acre of German beets produces
more sugar than an acre of Louisiana cane. Continental Europe waxed
wealthy while the British West Indies sank into decay. As the beets of
Europe became sweeter the population of the islands became blacker.
Before the war England was paying out $125,000,000 for sugar, and more
than two-thirds of this money was going to Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Fostered by scientific study, protected by tariff duties, and stimulated
by export bounties, the beet sugar industry became one of the financial
forces of the world.
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