The sun., 1917-09-30
years Of war conditions

"HREE years Of war conditions
have transformed the junk
L man into the dealer in waste
materials. and with the change Of
name has come prosperity such az he
never knew before. Before tho war
the gross business transacted by the
junk dealers OF America probably
averaged about the s100, 900, 900 mark.
Last year at the annual convention
of the waste material dealers held IN
New York it was announced that the
combined business Of the junk-beg
pardon. waste Observation-Disclosures Of
America was more than $1,000, 900, 90 }
year.
Old rags. bones, old iron and scrap
metals. waste paper and other like
materials have become important COM
modities. America was suddenly
awakened to the fact that It couldn't
get iron and other metals out Of the
earth fast enough to meet the de-
mands Of hungry Europe. and there
followed a mad race among junkmen
to collect the enormous quantities of
old metals lying about the country In
junk heaps. Prices went skyward, and
before the first year of the war was
over scrapped metals and other waste
materials were 800 and 500 per cent.
higher and were still climbing.
An Iowa junkman, Tom Robinson,
whose rickety wagon and ancient
horse were a familiar sight in many
small towns in the central part OF
the State, found 1t worse tLan useless
to attempt to market tho junk he col
lected on his weekly trips and he
determined to store II away and wait
for rise in the market. Accordingly
he rented a three acre field near his
home and invested every cent he could
spare in junk. At the time the war
began he had collected n pile Of junk
more than forty feet high. During
the first year OF the war he sold the
entire collection for more than $780,
900. One OF his first acts thereafter
was to discard his battered wagon and
horse for a seven passenger touring
car
A year ago st. Louis reported that
its Junk business had passed the $50
900, 900 mark and was still growing.
New York with its vast facilities for
collecting and marketing waste mate
rails was doing an annual business
several times as great. One st. Louis
concern increased It's annual business
from 100000 TO more than $l,ooo,ooo
shortly after the war opened. Another
large middle Western concern en-
ploys moro than 1000 men and moves
an average Of twenty carloads of junk
a day.
The business Of buying and selling
waste paper, once drug on the mar
ket, averages about 100000 a month
for every million Of population. Sec
ond hand book dealers have sometimes
found 1t profitable to tear the covers
off books and sell them for waste pa
| per School children have made thou.
sands of dollars by collecting and sell
| ing waste paper. the pupils Of the
grade schools OF Des Moines, Ia. hav'
! ing sold $4,000 worth Of waste paper
collected during one week.
| When scrap iron began its dizzy
climb It nestled around the 81 mark
hut within il year It was selling at 81
and $l2 II ton, with an unlimited de.
mand. Old copper. brass. aluminium
zinc, electrotype and other metal,
jumped skyward. factories utilizins
these materials being unable to ge
enough to meet the demand. TIL,
great railroads engaged in the junl
/ business themselves on a tremendous
scale. In one month 10000 tons of ole
iron was dumped into tho st. Louil
iron market by railroads entering tina
city.
Not the least interesting side OF tn,
junk or waste material business ha
been the recent addition Of a new sid
line, that Of buying and scrapping ol,
lmotor cars. Tho enormous production