Arizona republican., 1913-08-24

Cement, looking for high grade mate
 rial is the letter recently addressed
 to the company by V A. Thompson, superintendent of streets and super inlendent of the water department of this city. The letter was written by MT. Thompson, an expert engineer and a chemist of no mean ability. His communication follows:
 Paving Department, City of Phoenix " A. Thompson, Supt. of Streets, Phoenix, Arizona.
 August 15. 1913.
 The Arizona Portland Cement Co,
 Phoenix, Arizona.
 | Gentlemen: We have tested num- | Der of samples of Arizona Portland cement secured in the open market, and find that they meet all the re- quirements of the American Society of Testing Materials and the Ameri l can Society of Civil Engineers for i testing cement. We have no'hesitancy 1 in saving that Arizona Portland ce- ment is of as high grade any Port 1 land cement that is being sold III 1 Arizona at the present time. We have the records of the above tests on file in our laboratory and welcome any body interested in cement to come and examine same.
 Yours very truly
 (Signed) V A. THOMPSON,
 Supt. of Streets. F. P. Conway of the Warren Brothers company, also announces he has had careful chemical tests made of the local product and has found it to be of equal grade with any now upon the market.
 Another important item of inter est in connection with the claims Of the local concern relating to the grade of the cement being produced at this plant, is the announcement of the Arizona Asphalt Paving Com pany that it has closed a contract for all the cement it will use in the course of the next year in it's street paving work in this city. With the exception of the work it is now doing on North Second avenue, where the cement had been purchased before the local plant was fully in opera ton. Arizona Portland cement will be employed exclusively for the com ing year.
 When the mill at Roosevelt was purchased by local capital and word was allowed to go abroad that the plant was to be re-erected in the
  were those who scoffed at the idea and made no secret of their belief that the proposed concern would never be able to manufacture a prod uct that would compare with that of those then shipping great quantities of cement into this section. But very shortly afterwards, those very con cerns began to see that they were nearly at the end of the ropes and by making very material reductions in the price of their products delivered in Phoenix, while keeping up the price | of the same product in Globe and l other towns in the vicinity where the l freight rates are exactly the same | as those to Phoenix, admitted not | only that they had been gulling the | consumer in this section but that 1 the new concern was a factor that | must be reckoned with. Where ce- ment was formerly selling at any l where from $2.70 to $323 per hun dred pounds, the same product is today being sold in Phoenix for $225 per hundred pounds. Where q contractor is called upon to employ several carloads of cement the diff ference in price means a great saV- ing
 Today the Arizona Portland Cement company is pretty nearly in posi- ton to control the cement market of this section. It has met with oppOsi- ton from certain architects and builders who hide behind the weak excuse that they will not specify product that has not had a year of more trying out and who have open Iv announced that all the tests the best chemists in the world might make would not convince them of the satisfactory character of the prod uct. These same architects pretend to be loyal boosters of Phoenix and the Salt River valley, while further ing the ends of concerns that by vol untarily cutting down the price ot their product when competition comes, admit they have been over charging the people of this section since time immemorial.
 The Arizona Portland Cement com panv has come to stay. It is con ducted by local business men who have faith in the future of the southwest and who are satisfied with 2 reasonable per cent of profit on their product. They have the goods and the builders of Phoenix know it 1 O. M. Comet, in charge of the af- fairs of the concern is an able ce- roant man and he has already dem onstrated beyond all doubt that he is the right man in the right place And through the Arizona Portland Cement company, Phoenix and the l Salt River valley has once more been