Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1897-05-29
KANSAS GYPSUM.
A Few Facts Regarding the Industry and
Why 1t Should Be Protected.

People in many parts of the west are greatly
agitated over the failure of the senate bill to
place duty on manufactured gypsum Tho
bill as it passed the house placed duty of $3.50
a ton on the raw material, but the senate bill
left it of entirely. Few people not in touch
with some phase of the hard plaster industry
realize how great the importance of this mat
ter. ASK any contractor in the country what
kind of plaster is used in plaster
ing walls of the different kinds of build
ingS and he will tell you hard plaster is
now used very largely. and that its is
the increase rapidly He will likely go
further and say that in his judgment it will be
but few years until it will have entirely
placed the old style lime mortar for all kinds
of wall plastering- Probably he will add that
it is in from the Atlantic to the Pacific If
you carry your inquiry further and ask him
from what this hard plaster is made and what
are the methods of manufacture. he will smile
at your ignorance and tell you that all the
brands are made from gypsum. and that the
difference in the plaSters Is due entirely to the
mode of handling and the degree of purity Of
the materials
Gypsum is found in many places in the world
In the United States it is most abundant IN
Kansas. Iowa. Michigan. Indian territory and
Texas. each of which have factories for max
ing hard plaster. Kansas leads all other states
in the value of her products at present. but
Michigan and Iowa follow closely. and the
other states add largely to the total produc-
ton.
Canada also has gypsum and here is where
the rub comes Large quantities of it are an
nually shipped from Nova Scotia by water to
New York and other ports to which places
it has come ballast. and therefore at little
cost, and is there made into plaster and sent to
the markets of the world. 1t is sent by way of
the great lakes into Chicago at lower freight
rates than be obtained for the western
product In this way the imported plaster is
laid down in the very heart of our country at
less cost than the plaster from gypsum much
nearer by.
Could a duty of 50 a ton be placed on the gyp-
sum the great west could then cope with the
impor tiers to a good advantage But the sly
Yankee has not been mapping all this time for
nothing. No sooner did the house place duty
the raw material than he at once set up
cry to the few members of the senate whom he
wished to influence. that this un-republic-
an because it putting tariff mate
rails, and hence crushing home industries
This succeeded in persuading the senate COM
mittee to leave the duty off entirely. It
is further stated that Senator Baker, OF
Kansas, and other western senators have
given up the fight as though it was of no conse-
quence to the great west Well it is not of
consequence to the silver-mining states. for
they have gypsum Neither is it of conse-
quence to the far east, for they only indi-
rectly interested in the matter. But to the
great middle west it is of greatest importance
1t means the difference between industries car
ried largely enough to supply narrow
home supply without the duty, and industries
reaching many millions a year with the duty.
But, you say, this is a plea for placing
duty raw material, and you cannot do this
without gripping our home manufactures.
This is not for the best interest of the Amert-
can people" But wait There is where you
show a lack of knowledge of the processes
passed through in the manufacture of hard
plaster. All that is done is to heat the gypsum
and drive off the water of capitalization, max
ing loss in weight of from p to 30 per cent
This can be done at a small cost, SO that it does
not at all compare with the labor required to
manufacture almost any other product In
this way letting the material in is almost
the same letting in the manufactured prod
uct. We always have been in favor of protect
ing home Industries in the true sense of the
term We want to American natural prod
uctS and American labor in getting the gypsum
from the mines into the calcining furnaces,
and want everything else about it to be
American.
Further than this we want the great middle
west to have fair play once tits a well-known
fact that the great bulk of recent legislation
has been aimed at the extremes of our country
1t has been for the far east, or the far west the
far north the far south Is it not about
time that the great middle west had something?
Michigan, Iowa Kansas, Texas, what a phalanx
could present if would 1t is the duty of
both the senators from Kansas and from M1chi-
gan, and from Iowa, and from Texas to stand
together in this cause and insist on having
what they want. No matter whether they are
when their home is assailed, and they should
stand together and boldly demand what they
want. They could get it just easy as asking
it if they try If they do not get it We will all
know that the reason is they have not tried
Prof. E. Haworth, of Kansas State University