The Beet Campaign

Claus Spreckels is a railroad worker who helped with the building of the San Francisco train track. In 1896, Spreckels was contracting with growers in the Salinas Valley and he brought beets for the Salinas factory. Spreckels needed money so he sold beets because they were more profitable than barley and other types of produce. Spreckels only got $5,000 out of the needed $30,000 growers for the fields got so he tried to get more field workers. The Salinas Valley was basically undeveloped for farming so he needed more workers, and to get more workers he leased an acre of land for $10 to anyone who is willing to grow sugar beets. Spreckels tried to import Germans from the east coast but they were tradesman so they didn't fit the bill for what he was searching for. There were many Asians (Chinese and Japanese) that worked in the railroad and farming “trade”, so Spreckels got them to work and his business continued. In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake damaged Spreckels’ plants and it cost $300,000 to repair his land. In the October of the same year, Spreckels was ready for business yet again. However, he waited because winter was about to come and he didn't want to end up frosted sugar beets. Between 1906 and today, fourteen factories have been built in California all run by sugar/beet companies. 1932 was the company's’ record year because everyone was doing Dustbowl labor and 1,250 workers were working 8 hours shifts each. The next time you have a sugar beet you can thank Claus Spreckels because he's the guy that got that piece of produce to you.