The Ordway new era., 1916-05-19
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lE2EEGNy junkman is at hand, says
a writer in the st. Louis
Post-Dispatch. Today there is invest
ed in the industry Of making-over
scrap material the vast sum of $780,
100000. The firms Interested do a
business of more than $100,000,000 a
year. 1t is business of little things,
concerning itself with what most peo-
pie consider things of such insight
ticant 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 usable before. Despised junk
is now rich raw material. Why, wool
en- rags are worth almost their weight
in gold-they cost three times as much
as they did before the war. Some
rags have gone up 500 per cent. And
so we get the strange anomaly that
some rags fetch more than raw wool!
Why? Because they have been dyed
back again (and they get them). With
Germany blockaded, no dyes-of many
of which they have q monopoly-can
come out.
Shoddy? You turn your nose at 1t!
Do you realize that shoddy is the only
thing that has enabled the poor to
wear woolen clothing at all? Or that
without deception Ito the tailors) 1t is
used to face some OF the finest cloths
in which the Beau Brummels today be-
tog themselves? This because it
makes a 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,
medicines, explosives, fiavors, syn
thetic sugar and quinine, perfumes,
chemicals. and what not. There is q
business of more than 100000, 900 in
coal tar by-products today. And this is
not q part Of the business OF utilizing
waste, either, for coal tar is no longer
counted as waste, but as useful
product from baking coal and max.
ing illuminating gas of 1t. The 140
pounds Of tar from every ton is the
most precious Of all the yield from
coal.
Germany is doing economical won
ders with its war waste today. The
"sammelstelle" is the chief point of in
terest to the visitor who can get be-
hind the lines collection point" it
would be in plain English-junk pile,
really. 1t contains the gleanings of
the battlefield. Every conceivable OBJ
tect, 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 are
piled up. Tho bayonets go 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 go to the melting
pot and come back as sound white
ones. A big laundry cleans 100000
garments every month. Damaged ar
tillery goes to shops, where it is re-
paired. Wheels are remade; barrels
rebored. A new gun is often made
out of the undamaged parts of several
guns collectively put out of business.
Leather is set to other uses, shoes
are 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
10 used over and over. Before the war
scrap iron brought $10.75 ton: now
it has gone up to $3.50. Melted back
into ingots 1t 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 is worth almost
a. much as new metal. War boosted
the price regularly, 10 that by the end
Of 1915 new stun brought 20 cents .
pound and the old fetched 10 cents,
and business Of t26. 100000 in It!
Scrap zinc, once . drug on the market
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