EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVE

named R. J. DeCamp at the Hershey facilities. According to D’ Antonio,“ In the annals of Hershey history, R. J. DeCamp would become the most reviled enemy of all time. He was, in the words of a company executive named Sam Hinkle, a‘ smug and conceited Wall Street snob.’”

Hershey chafed under DeCamp’ s supervision. He gathered key employees and townspeople and encouraged them to work hard to rid the company of DeCamp by returning to profitability. To provide further incentive, Hershey instituted an employee profit-sharing plan that rewarded increased productivity with significant increases in annual pay. As a result, the company returned to profitability in 1921 2 and DeCamp was sent packing.

The disastrous results of his sugar futures trading did not deter Hershey from trading in the futures market. His cocoa futures trading in the 1930s led to more problems for the company, which will be explored in the next Educators’ Perspective.

Brian Grinder is a professor at Eastern Washington University and a member of Financial History’ s editorial board. Dr. Dan Cooper is the president of Active Learning Technologies.

Notes

1. Financial History contributor Daniel C. Munson noted,“ Sugar prices remained high as World War I dragged on. The sugar beet fields were in the eye of the storm along France’ s eastern border with Belgium and Germany.”

2. Winpenny attributed the quick turnaround to cost cutting and expanding the number of“ retail outlets willing to carry Hershey’ s chocolate.”

Sources

Bakhtiarova, Galina.“ From Cuba with Sugar: Chocolate, Rum and Iberian Nostalgia in Pennsylvania.” Athens Journal of Humanities & Arts. Vol. 4, No. 2. 2017.

D’ Antonio, Michael. Hershey: Milton S. Hershey’ s Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams. Simon & Schuster. 2006.

Fernandez, Roshan.“ Surge in Cocoa Prices Shows Why Hershey Bets on Derivatives.” Wall Street Journal. February 6, 2025.

Look, Aimee and Joe Stonor.“ Chocolate Makers Look to Cut Down on Cocoa After Price Volatility.” Wall Street Journal. April 17, 2026.

Munson, Daniel C.“ Dance of the Millions: The Great Sugar Bull Market of 1915-1920 and the Subsequent Catastrophic Collapse.” Financial History. No. 152. Winter 2025.

Shippen, Katherine B. and Paul A. W. Wallace. Milton S. Hershey. Random House. 1959.

“ The Story of Chocolate and Cocoa.” Hershey Chocolate Corporation. Pamphlet. 1926.

Winpenny, Thomas R.“ Milton S. Hershey Ventures into Cuban Sugar.” Pennsylvania History. Vol. 62, No. 4. 1995.

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