The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-12-27
The Worlds Waste.

The Worlds Waste.
Paper Read Before the ChaattauQua Circle.
T ERETOFORE have written
n paragraph for our institutional
paper on this topic, and it was
this item, at the time of writ
ing, that furnishes me with subject
for today's report. can think of no
better Introductory than the words l
then used: "Where goes the worlds
waste ?" What becomes of the fray
ings, the odds and ends, that each day
separate themselves from the intricate
fabric of our civilized life? To one at
all familiar with industrial life it be-
comes at once apparent that daily, yes
hourly, we are casting off materials as
unfit for further use which later return
to US under various names and in
varied forms and compositions. 1t re-
q1ires vast army of workers, men,
women and children, who gather, sort
and make way with this waste Of life,
and by an intricate and never-ending
process prepare it for destruction, or
rather reconstruction. Never having
been "raggedy-man" and therefore
unfamiliar with many of the details,
the conditions and surroundings of
these workers, it is impossible for me
to state authOritively what are the real
conditions surrounding these people,
but it can we'll be inferred that they
are not enviable in any degree.
There must be at least million of
people engaged in gathering, as we'll as
preparing for regeneration, the waste
of this country alone. This part of
,v-the- work can Mallll he lilxened drunt.a-aR-
immense veinous system whose arter-
les, radiating in every direction, reach
ing the Utmost recesses of the country,
gather this lint and raveling and carry
it by many routes to common regener-
ating centers where it undergoes
process of publication and reformation
that at times is as mystifying as it is
complex, and enough to astonish the
initiated. In its new form and un-
der it's new name it is forced back into
the great arteries called commerce
and thence back into the social body
to sustain civic life. And as the
wheels Of industry in every activity
we know of grind and wear new mate
rials into waste, so. on the other hand,
do we find the waste regenerated in
turn, returning to replenish the vacan-
cies, and giving us entirely new prod
ucts. It is a reciprocal process
process that will endure thru all ages
Were it not thus, hbw quickly would
the machinery of life become clogged
and progress stopped, and, what is
equally important, where should we
finally turn for materials that are now
supplied to us from no other sources
than our own wastefulness? A bag o1
filthy, ominous-looking rags may e
out of the home today and come bach
in a few weeks under fully hundred
differing names; steel may leave th'
workshop as wOrn-Out, broken ma
.chinery and come back to us in tn,
form of a beautiful dollar-and-a-hal
safety razor; bones are thrown asid
without thought of their utility, bu
they return as genuine pearl p buttons
ivory(?) piano keys and strawberry {:
gelatine!
One of the most remarkable feature
of the entire process or industry of thi
regeneration of waste into that whicl
is useful, necessary, ornamental an
even luxurious, is its singular filthines
,-on the one hand and the fact that n
specific or cOntributable evil has bee
shown to result therefrom to tn
workers engaged.
The great Fox River Valley pape
mills of Wisconsin furnish one wit
sights that are anything but inviting
Here one can see, as probably nowher
else, the extent to which we use vast
of life almost without end. Huge pile
of dusty, disease-ladeu rags arc tran'
formed, as if by magic, into the fines
grades of uper-calendered printin
papers. AS one gazes upon the gres
heaps of rags, with vivid imagining
of myriads Of microbes holding hig
carnival therein, and then turns to tt
great bundles and rolls OF snowy-whi1
paper, one muet confess that truly tn
lis an age Of wonders and scientif
a - lss-- 81 X s