Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-06-27
AMERICANS ARE PAINT USERS


American people consume more paint,
beth ID the aggregate and per capita,
than any other people in the world.
In recently published article on the
| subject it was figured that our yearly
consumption is over 100.000,000 gal,
| loas Of paints Of all kinds, of which
| over one-haf 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-
stsucted Of wood, and we, as people,
| are given to neatness and cleanliness.
! For, take it all in all, there is moth
ing so cleanly 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.
4 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-
icanseii on the one hand, a large pro-
portion Of those buildings were tenn
p0rary makeshifts, and, on the other
i hand. because paint was then a lux
Il ury, expensive and difficult to obtain
10 the out-ofthe-way places, and re-
/: QHiring special knowledge and much
pre3afation to fit it for use.
The introduction of ready mixed or
4 prepared paints, about 1860, changed
no Ont fVn -
4 Observation-Disclosures told the Walking
Il Delegate in one of Octave Thanet's
sto RES, Anyone can slather paint"
Il The tnsurmountable difficulty with
j our predecessors was to get the paint
/ ready for "siathering.'' That the
COT ntry was ready for paint in a con-
venient, popular form is shown by
the immediate success of the indus
try and it's phenomenal growth in
50 years from nothing to 60,OOO,O00
gallons-the estimated output for
/ 1860.
/ 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
lg and wonderfully constructed mix
lures have in the past been worked
eff on the guileless consumer in the
shape of prepared paint. But such
/ products have had their short day
I and quickly disappeared, and the too
B enterprising manufacturers that pro-
! du ;ed them have come to grief in
! the bankruptcy courts or have
learned by costly experience that
/ hoGesty is the best policy and have
] reformed their ways.
!. The chief exceptions to this rule
ere some mail order houses who sell
direct to the country trade, at very
low price-frequently below the
wholesale price of linseed oil. The
buyer Of such goods, like the buyer
Of g. gold BRICK" has only himself to
/ blame If he finds his purchase worth.
less. With gold selling at any bank
or mint at fixed price, owners of
gold do not sell it at discount; and
!: with linseed oil quoted everywhere
, ct SO to 20 cents gallon, manufac.
turers do not sell pure linseed oil
paint at 80 or 40 cents a gallon.
The composition Of prepared paints
. differs because paint experts have
not set agreed as to the best pig
fnents and because the daily results
ct tests on a. large scale are constant
!; u improving the formulas of manu-,
facturers; but all have come to the
conclusion that the essentials of good
paint are pure linseed oil, fine grind.
/ ing and thorough Incorporation, and
: IN these particulars all the products
!; OF reputable manufacturers CORE.
|; spond; all first-class prepared paints
are thoroughly mixed and ground and
the liquid base is almost exclusively
pure linseed oil, the necessary VIOLA
tile "thinners" and Japan dryers.
! The painters opposition to such
products is based largely on self-in.
terest. He wants to mix the paint
himself and to be paid for doing it,
and to a certain class of painters II
I IS no recommendation for a paint to
i say that it will last five or ten years
The longer paint lasts the longer
. he will have to wait for the Job OF
. repatnting. The latter consideration
! has no weight with the consumer
and the former is a false idea OF
] economy. Hand labor can never be
!: as cheap or as efficient as machine
/ work. and every time the painter
!! takes paint, did he but know it, he
1 Iis losing money, because he can buy
& better paint than he can mix al
q Tess than it costs him to mix it.
/ Prepared paints have won, not only
/ IN their actual merits, but on theil
| convenience and economy. They are
4 comparatively cheap and they are in
! somparably handy. But when all IL
said. the experienced painter is the