Decorah public opinion., 1923-02-07
J.K. SHAW OFFICER
IN BIG INDUSTRY
Former Decorahian Vice President
and Sales Manager of the
Celotex Company $1,000
600 Corporation.
PLANT LOCATED
IN LOUISIANA
Celotex, a Substitute for Woed. May
be Basis Of Gigantic New
Industry in America.

A copy of the st. Louis Star of
Jan. %, reaches our desk contain
ing big news about former De-
corahian, j. X. Shaw, who is vice
president and sales manager of the
Celotex Company, a sl,000,0c0 Coz
poration, manufacturing substitute
for wood that replaces lumber. Mr..
Shaw married former Decorah girl
Miss Blanche Peacock, and thelr
hcme has been in Minneapolis a
number of years. Mr.. Shaw's many
friends here congratulate him on his
new enterprise and hope that he VIII
realize handsomely. The article from
the Star follows:
TREE-woody perennial plant
having a single main axis or stem
(trunk) commonly exceeding ten feer
in height and usually devoid Of
branches below, but bearing a head
Of branches and foliage or crown
cf leaves at the summit.-Webster's
Dictionary.
There is another word in Webster's
Dictionary, That word is dodo, the
name of an extinct fowl. No more
dodos anywhere. Merely the name
of a bird formerly known TO early
Europeans.
Will future generation of
Americans turn the pages of their
dictionaries to discover that stree"
denotes something which also has
gone into limbo of things ex-
tinct?
Not much likelihood of that, says
the casual observer. A very good
prospect that it may come to pass,
says the student of reforestation
engaged in studying how best to
preserve the rapidly disappearing
timberlands of America.
/, With the <sepletien Of the forests.
industry is faced with the problem
of finding product to take the
place of wood. Many minds in
many experimental laboratories are
engaged in seeking to solve this
problem.
The story has been told of a
Standard Oil official who, poring
over his Bible, read of Moses dis
covered by Pharaoh's daughter in
the bulrushes, in a basket "daubed
with slime and pitch" If the Bible
chronicle was correct and the bas-
ket was daubed with pitch, that was
an interesting scientific fact, for
where there was pitch thre usual
ly was oil, and if there ever was
oil in Egypt it was probably still
there. Reasoning from this hy-
pothesis, the Standard Oil Company
sent out Charles Whitshott, its ge-
ologist and oil expert to make in.
vestigations, with the result that
oil was discovered and the wells OF
the Standard Oil Company in Egypt
were gotten under way.
Romance in Sugar Cane Fields
Now comes another romance OF
American industry. This time moi
in the bulrushes of Egypt, but ir
the cane fields of Louisiana.
Bagase is the sugar cane as Ii
comes crushed from the mill, the
sweet juices having been extracted
The south knows all about bagasse
Other sections of the country no
quite so much. Within the cane
| ~ W SpCdh, 10 10 Ut
written story which harks bacl
to the opening sentence of thi!
narrative-to trees-timber-woo
For it is the sugar cane waste prod
uct, manufactured into substitut.
for wood by a new process which
will in part enable American indus
try to solve the problem of de
pleted forests.
Celotex is the trade name of lum
ber being manufactured from bag
asse.
Several st. Louisans last weei
heard the first hand story of Cello
tex from J. X. Shaw, vice preSiden
and sales manager cf the Calnta,
Company, a S1,00O,000 corporation.
''The plant is located i'm Louisian;
directly across the river from New
Orleans, and within 80 minutes o.
the town district" said Shaw
This location was chosen becaus,
of its proximity to the source o.
our raw material, the sugar cane
fields, and the fact that we have
deep river frontage and excellen
railway facilities.
The plant was built by tht
James Black Masonry and Con,
struction Company of st. Louis, anC
represents an Investment of over ST.,
000, 100000.
"On our own grounds, which cover
some AZ acres, we have stored more
than 10000 tons of bagaSSe fibre
and also have a sufficient supply a,
various sugar mills in the vicinity tC
take care of the production 70 bt
turned out by our new units, which
will begin operating next July. One
of the remarkable features of oul
company is that each year we have
an entirely new and practically un.
limited supply of raw material. Since
there is 70 practical use made OF
bagasse, other than its use as fue
under boilers in sugar houses, il
readily will be seen that We haw
raw material in sufficient ouantitie:
Continued on page 6)