The outbreak of the war in Europe in August, 1914, interrupted the operations of the convention, and it remains to be seen whether or not, when hostilities come to an end, it will be renewed and its terms reaffirmed according to procedure customary when peace is concluded between warring nations. As soon as the industry got on a sound basis, cane began to feel the benefit of the new order of things. Factories that had been closed were put in operation again and new enterprises were undertaken. Up to the year 1880 the manufacture of cane sugar had been conducted in a slipshod manner. The planters were lavishly extravagant and spent their incomes as they made them, giving no thought to putting aside funds for extensions and betterments. Hard times taught them a severe lesson, by which they profited, and with admirable courage they bent all their energies to the improvement of methods of cultivation and cutting down the cost of production. This was particularly true of Java; beginning with 1884, abundant new capital was brought in, experimental stations and laboratories were built and equipped and all that scientific knowledge, energy and sound business judgment could do was done. At the same time Hawaii, Mauritius, Porto Rico and Cuba made extraordinary progress, but each of these countries deserves an individual chapter. BEET SUGAR IN THE UNITED STATES While the manufacture of sugar from beet-roots is one of the foremost industries in the United States today, the early stages of its growth and development were marked by numerous failures and setbacks. The first beginning was made by a company headed by John Vaughn and James Ronaldson, which built a small factory in Philadelphia in 1830, where a few hundred pounds of sugar were produced. Owing to lack of knowledge of beet culture and extraction of sugar from the roots, the venture proved unsuccessful and no further attempt has been made in Pennsylvania. Northampton, Massachusetts, was the scene of the next experiment in 1838 and 1839 by David Lee Child, who had studied the growth and manufacture of beet sugar in Europe for a year and a half. He succeeded in getting 6 per cent of sugar and 2½ per cent of molasses from the beets and his estimate of the cost of the sugar per pound was eleven cents. After producing 1300 pounds of sugar he abandoned the enterprise. A report made in 1838 by the Committee on Agriculture, a government body, contains the following statement: “From all the information which the committee have been able to obtain, they are induced to believe that no country in the world is better adapted for the production of sugar beets than most parts of the United States, whether we consider the soil, the climate or the people.”[28]