Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-14


The great expansion of the mineral
water trade is attributed to three main
causes. First of these is the advertis-
ing that has been done. The eXpan-
sion of the trade has simply kept step
with the expansion of the advertising
business. The second cause has been
the increased number of people who
are able to buy mineral waters. But
most of all, it has been due to the in
creased interest of the American peo-
pie in pure drinking water. Despite
the gradual substitution of filtered wa
ter in the cities for the oldfashioned
polluted supply, the consumption of
| mineral waters continued undated. In
| Washington a complete filtration sys-
tenn has given the city as pure water
as any large municipality in the coun-
try enjoys. Yet Washington mineral
water stores concede that they have
never sold so much water as they have
been selling since the filtration plant
went into operation. The prohibition
movement is also said to be RESPONSE
Bile in measure for the increased trade
in mineral water.
Four states produce about one-half
of all the mineral water entering into
the commerce of the country. Minne-
sofa ranks first with nearly 100000
gallons to her credit, New York second
with 100000 gallons, and Wisconsin is
close third. Massachusetts produces
100000 gallons and Virginia 100000
| gallons Indiana is in a class all to
itself In the price it gets for mineral
waters, which is SO cents gallon,
It is generally conceded that purity
is about the only prerequisite to the
successful exploitation of a table wa
ter and after that it all depends upon
advertising. A hillside spring that has
hitherto rendered no more important
service than to supply water for
Z c
paying spring property, with It's out
put finding a market at so cents a gal
lon. In twenty-five years the number
of springs in the United States furnish
ing medicinal or table waters on q
commercial scale has increased from
I 1S9 to nearly 900, and the production
has increased more than sevenfo1d.
In addition to the sales of water the
listed springs Of the United States have
accommodations for some 10000 guests.
The great majority of these are open
only five months in the year. There
are perhaps as many springs which are
resorts, and which do not sell mineral
water as there are that do. 1t is prob
able that more than half million peo-
pie visit the medicinal springs of the
country for a period of at least two
weeks. In the south these resorts be-
come the social headquarters during
the summer and the allurements of the
seaside can never take their trade
away. Elsewhere the sea has been
shown to be greater drawing card for
the vacationst than the mountains.
All the social world remembers when
the Greenbrier White was the great
meeting place for the beaus and bellies
of the north and south. But those ro-
mantle days have passed with the gem
Grafton that knew them.
1t has been estimated that there are
| 10000 springs in the United States
whose waters might have commercial
value. If every city in the United
States used as much bottled water, In
proportion to the population, as do the
cities of Minneapolis and St Paul It
would take the combined flow OF all
these to supply the demand 1t is the
heavy use of table waters in these two
cities supplied from large springs close
by, that makes Minnesota the premier
water-producing state of the Union.
Some three centuries ago the world
did not understand where all the water
that supplied the springs of the earth
came from, and men began to figure
that they would go dry. But Haley
the eminent English scientist who dis
covered the great comet which pears
his name, figured out that the evapora-
tion from the sea was sufficient to sup
nlv all the springs and streams of the
world so long as the process went on,
and since then mankind has rested easy
on that score.
II is a peculiar fact that the mineral
waters of the country are never con-
slant in the amount of mineral they
contain. Under the pure food law the
mineral water trade has been care
fully watched for evidences of mis-
branding. In many instances waters
have been seized that did not measure
IN to the branded statements, and yet
the vendor was perfectly innocent of
any evil intent Analyses made ten
wears ago might we'll have shown ev-
ervthing Just as claimed, but since that
time there may have been such de-
terioration as to render it very differ
emf water Often waters will be strong
of mineral at one time and weak at an
other, strong in dry season and weak
in a, wet season. 1t is this variableness
of mineral waters that has led the ply
stefan to prescribe drugs possessing the
same properties instead of the water IT.
self, though there are many waters for
which it Is difficult for them to offer
a substitute.
There has been some stir among min
eral water men over the tariff on inn
ported mineral waters. 1t was the wish
of the domestic producers that higher
tariff than that levied under the Ding
lev law be imposed on the foreign wa
ters. But congress has not seen fit to
adopt their recommendations down to
the present writing. The only differ
ence in the new schedule and the old is
that water imported in bottles must
hereafter pay a duty on the bottles as
we'll as on the water itself This viii
probably mean its shipment in bulk to
large extent, when 1t will take duty
of cents a gallon.
Copyright. 1909, by Frederic J. Hasiin.)