The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1906-06-22
AMERICANS ARE PAINT USERS


In recently published article on the
subject it was figured that our yearly
consumption is over 1O0,000,000 gal
Ions of paints Of all kinds, of which
over onehalf is used in the paintings
OF houses.
The reason for this great consump-
ton is twofold: large proportion
of our. buildings, especially in small
towns and rural districts, are con.
structed Of wood, and we, as a people,
are given TO ncatness and cleanliness.
For. take 1t all in all, there Is moth.
Ing SO csanly or so sanitary as paint.
Travel where we will throughout
the country. everywhere we find the
neat, cheerful painted dwelling, pro
claiming at once the prosperity and
the self.respect of our population.
Fifty years ago this was not so:
painted dwellings. while common In
the larger cities and towns, were the
exception In the rural districts; be-
cause, on the one hand, large pro.
portion of those buildings were TEN.
porary makeshifts, and, on the other
hand, because paint was then lux.
ury, expensive and difficult to obtain
in the out.ofthe-way places, and re.
CURING special knowledge and much
preparation TO 1T " for use.
/ The Introduction of ready mixed or
prepared paints, about 1860, changed
| the entire aspect of affairs. AS the
! Jack.of.all.trades told the Walking
/ Delegate in one of Octave Thanets
stories, Anyone can slather paint
The insurmountable difficulty with
our predecessors was to get the paint
ready for "slathcring." That the
country was ready for paint in con.
venient, popular form is shown by
| the Immediate success Of the indus
try ana its phenomenal growth in
so years from nothing to G000O,0OO
galons-thc estimated output for
1900.
Some pretty severe things have
been written about and said against
this class of paints, especially by
painters and manufacturers of Ger.
, tain kinds of paste paints. Doubtless
in many instances these structures
have been justified and some fearful
~ and wonderfully constructed mix
lures have in the past been worked
off on the guileless consumer in the
shape of prepared paint. But such
products have had their short day
and quickly disappeared, and the too
entorprising manufacturers that pro,
duced them have come to grief in
the bankruptcy courts or have
learned by costly experience that
honesty IS the best policy and have
reformed their ways.
The chief exceptions to this rule
are some mail order houses who sell
direct to the country trade, at n very
low price-f frequently below the
wholesale price of liusecd oil. The
buyer Of such goods, like the buyer
of gold brick" has only himself to
blame II he finds his purchase worth
less. With gold selling at any banl
or mint at fixed price, owners Of
gold do not sell it at discount; and
with linsced oil quoted everywhere
at so to 20 cents gallon. manulac
tmcrs do not sell a pure linsccd oil
paint at so or 40 cents a gallon.
The composition of prepared paints
differs because paint experts have
not yet agreed as to the best pig
ments and because the daily result!
of tests on a large scale are constant
ly improving the formulas of manu-
facturers; but all have come to the
, conclusion that the essentials Of goot
paint are pure linseed OIL fine grind
ing and thorough incorporation, ant
In these particulars all the products
, of reputable manufacturers CORE
spond; all flrst-class prepared paint
are thoroughly mixed and ground AM
the liquid base is almost exclusivel.
. pure linseed oil, the necessary VIOLA
tile "thinners" and Japan dryers.
/ The painters opposition to sucl
. products is based largely on self.in
4 terest. He wants to mix the pain
himself and to be paid for doing II
, md to q certain class of painters
Is no recommendation for n paint I
: say that 1t will last five or ten year,
, The longer paint lasts the longe
! he will have to wait for the job {
Il rcpainting. The latter considerable
has no weight with the consume
4 and the former Is false idea {
i. economy. Hand labor can never b
as cheap or as efficient as machin
!. work, and every time the painte
:, mixes paint. did he but know It, h
!. Is losing money, because he can bu
,. better paint than he can mix
Al less than it costs him to mix it.
II Prepared paints have won, not onl
!. on their actual merits. but on the
convenience and economy. They a!
:, comparatively cheap and they are Il
- comparably handy. But when all
). said, the experienced painter 10 I'll
!, proper person to apply even read
;, mixed paint. He knows better tina
!, anyone else the when" and "how
;, and the difference between paintlr
;, and "slathering" is much greatt
than it appears to novice. Ever
:, one to his trade, and after all pain
ing is the painters trade and not t.