of a convention at Brussels in 1903 “to equalize the conditions of competition between beet sugar and cane sugar of the various countries,” at which the powers agreed to a mutual suppression of bounties.  Beet sugar then divided the world’s market equally with cane sugar and the two rivals stayed substantially neck and neck until the Great War came.  This shut out from England the product of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, northern France and Russia and took the farmers from their fields.  The battle lines of the Central Powers enclosed the land which used to grow a third of the world’s supply of sugar.  In 1913 the beet and the cane each supplied about nine million tons of sugar.  In 1917 the output of cane sugar was 11,200,000 and of beet sugar 5,300,000 tons.  Consequently the Old World had to draw upon the New.  Cuba, on which the United States used to depend for half its sugar supply, sent over 700,000 tons of raw sugar to England in 1916.  The United States sent as much more refined sugar.  The lack of shipping interfered with our getting sugar from our tropical dependencies, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippines.  The homegrown beets give us only a fifth and the cane of Louisiana and Texas only a fifteenth of the sugar we need.  As a result we were obliged to file a claim in advance to get a pound of sugar from the corner grocery and then we were apt to be put off with rock candy, muscovado or honey.  Lemon drops proved useful for Russian tea and the “long sweetening” of our forefathers came again into vogue in the form of various syrups.  The United States was accustomed to consume almost a fifth of all the sugar produced in the world—­and then we could not get it.

[Illustration:  MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF EUROPEAN BEET SUGAR FACTORIES—­ALSO BATTLE LINES AT CLOSE OF 1918 ESTIMATED THAT ONE-THIRD OF WORLDS PRODUCTION BEFORE THE WAR WAS PRODUCED WITHIN BATTLE LINES Courtesy American Sugar Refining Co.]

The shortage made us realize how dependent we have become upon sugar.  Yet it was, as we have seen, practically unknown to the ancients and only within the present generation has it become an essential factor in our diet.  As soon as the chemist made it possible to produce sugar at a reasonable price all nations began to buy it in proportion to their means.  Americans, as the wealthiest people in the world, ate the most, ninety pounds a year on the average for every man, woman and child.  In other words we ate our weight of sugar every year.  The English consumed nearly as much as the Americans; the French and Germans about half as much; the Balkan peoples less than ten pounds per annum; and the African savages none.

[Illustration:  How the sugar beet has gained enormously in sugar content under chemical control]