Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1906-06-23
AMERICANS ARE PAINT USERS

than any other people in the world.
In a recently published article on the
subject it was figured that our yearly
consumption is over 100,000,00O gal
| Ions of paints of all kinds, of which
over one-half is used in the paintings
of houses.
The reason for this great consump-
ton is twofold: a 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 neatness and cleanliness.
For, take it all in all, there is moth
ing so clearly 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 selfrespect 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 tenn
porary makeshifts, and, on the other
hand, because paint was then lux
ury, expensive and difficult to obtain
in the Out-of-the-way places, and re-
curing special knowledge and much
preparation to fit it 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 Thanet's
stories, Anyone can slather paint"
,+oJ,
our predecessors was to get the paint
ready for "slathering." That the
country was ready for paint in a con-
venient, popular form is shown by
the immediate success of the indus
try and its phenomenal growth in
SO years from nothing to 60,OO0,OOO
gallons-the 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
ly 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 Cay
and quickly disappeared, and the too
enterprising 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 a very
low price-frequently below the
wholesale price of linseed oil. The
buyer of such goods, like the buyer
of gold BRICK has only himself to
blame if he finds his purchase worth
less. With gold selling at any bank
or mint at a fixed price, owners of
gold do not sell it at a discount; and
with hnseed oil quoted everywhere
at SO to 20 cents a 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 yet agreed as to the best pig
ments and because the daily results
of tests on large scale are constant
ly 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 frst-class prepared paints
are thoroughly mixed and ground and
the liquid base is almost exclusively
pure Lnseed oil, the necessary Vola-
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 it
is no recommendation for a paint to
say that it will last five or ten years.
The longer a paint lasts the longer
he will have to wait for the job of
repainting. 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
mixes paint, did he but know it, he
is losing money, because he can buy
a better paint than he can mix at
less than it costs him to mix it.
Prepared paints have won, not only
on their actual merits, but on their
convenience and economy. They are
comparatively cheap and they are in
comparably handy. But when all is
said, the experienced painter is the
proper person to apply even a ready
mixed paint. He knows better than
anyone else the when" and how"
and the difference between painting
and "slathering" is much greater
than it appears to a novice. Every
one to his trade, and after all paint
ing is the painters trade and not the
householder's.