The Dolores star. [volume] (Dolores, Montezuma County, Colo.) 1901-current, 1916-05-19
FHE 7oo,7H rs learning THE m-
Dbo,7anoe Of saOvHg scraps. NIL
lions Of dollars zUorM of maternal
haS teen reclaimed from <7Me,zlu's
dump heaps in tile last year or so
AR stops waste
| w
|gsS5]

principle of economics.
MENT"O The apotheosis OF the
uSEkEGJU junkman is at hand. says
q writer in the st. Louis
Post Dispatch. Today there is invest.
cd in the industry Of making-ove
scrap material the vast sum OF $780,
00O 900. The firms interested do =
business Of more than 500. 0O0.O0 q
year. II Is a business OF little things.
| concerning itself with what most peo-
pie consider things Of such insight
ficant value as not being worth think.
ing about at all. Yet a hundred mil
lion year!
And how the war has doomed their
particular business!
Prices have been sent soaring. This
has made it possible to transport
waste from far-distant points that was
never disable before. Despised junk
Ii now rich raw material. Why. WOOL
| en- rags are worth almost their weight
In gold-they cost three times as much
- they did before the war. Some
rags have gone up 500 per cent. And
30 We get the strange anomaly that
some rags fetch more than raw wool!
Why? Because they have been dyed
and dealers want those precious dyes
back again land they get them). With
Germany blocksded. no dyes-of many
Of which they have . monopoiy-can
come out
| Shoddy? You turn your nose at It!
Do you realise that shoddy 10 the only
| thtn~ kat kao Ia hA En-
wear wooden clothing at all? Or that
without deception TO the tailors) 1t 10
used to face some of the finest cloths
In which the Beau Brummels today be-
tog themselves? This because It
makes . better finish.
Look at the romance of coal tar
Once dumped into vile-smelling heaps
Of refuse or pumped into the river. to-
day 1t yields more than two thousand
colors. besides drugs. preservatives.
0edicines. explosives. navors. syn
thetic sugar and quinine. perfumes.
chemicals, and what not. There 10 Q
| buatness of more than 500. 00O, 900 In
coal tar by-products today. And this ID
not Q part of the business of utilizing
waste. either. for coal tar 10 no longer
counted a. waste. but a. . useful
product from baking coal and max.
ing Illuminating gas of 1t. The 40
pounds Of tar from every ton 10 the
most precious Of all the yield from
coal.
Germany 10 doing economical won.
ders with its war waste today. The
"sammelstelle" 10 the chief point of in.
terest to the visitor who can get be-
hind the lines. Collection point" 1t
would be in plain English-junk pile.
really. 1t contains the gleanings of
the battlefield. Every conceivable oh.
ject. from bits Of rubber to broken
bayonets and pieces of exploded shells.
are collected and sorted.
Experts run over everything. Car.
tridges are saved out. and water bot
ties and clothes still At to wear ara
piled up. The bayonets 60 to one
place to be made over; the rifles are
overhauled-every kind of make-and
come back like new. Ripped and
bursted auto tires 90 to the melting
pot and come back as sound white
ones. A big laundry cleans 100000
garments every month. Damaged n.
tillery goes to shops, where 1t 10 re.
paired. Wheels are remade; barrels
rebored. A new gun Is often made
out of the unchanged parts Of several
guns collectively put out of business.
Leather is set to other uses, shoes
arc repaired and straps that are torn
are cut into other widths and lengths.
and put to other tasks.
And what do We do here along sim.
liar lines. in these piping peace days?
Well. for example. We work over tin
cans-a perfect mine of wealth-and
iron scrap. and get back $4,000, 900
worth of useful metal again. Our tin
II used over and. over. Before the war
scrap iron brought $10.75 a ton: now
1t has gone up to $3.50. Melted back
into ingots it is quite as good as ever.
Steel rails discarded by the big rail.
roads are rerolled into rails for less
important lines where lighter ones
will do. or are bought by contractors
for the use Of their service lines on
big jobs.
Scrap copper today il worth almost
as much as new metal. War boosted
the price regularly, so that by the end
of 1915 new stun brought 20 cents q
pound and the old fetched 10 cents
and q business Of $25,000.000 in It!
Scrap zinc, once q drug on the market