| OCR Text |
Show "DO THE LITTLE THINGTURN WASTE INTO MONEY" y'':F: upon a lime th world rver- br-ralr;d wilb pf:;tmaiions of Jidulallon n honor of "O-nri.in efll cienry.'' It. whs explainer! by t.ho-:o who urie a'lmhei.'i of the ronomii: rptourof-fulno.sf-; of the Ontra! kuro-ntfin kuro-ntfin empire that, one of the great -! ri-p.ta of German cfT!eieney Tas the Krtence of 'tlvsKP employerl by her raptains of industry, whjrh, carried Into every household, heeanie a potent factor tn the utilization of every ounce ' of commercial energy, for every Ger man product placed on the markets of the world there are countlenn byproducts by-products made possible by her system ot waste reclamation. .Soon after the Huns released their army corps upon defenseless Belgium and ruthlessly battered their way past the -fortresses at: Liee and Xamur towat d the inuoh-dostzed I'arisian oal the world began to hear even more and more of this "(Jprmun efficiency." It was related by the war oorrevpond-ente oorrevpond-ente that every ounce of metal from th battlefield.", every button from f-ery incapacitated fighting unit, every oM gun wheel was removed to the ' ear. The battlefields were scoured at nlsht after the ha.iie of the day. Fvery dead horse was removed. It was even relate that the. bodies of riefld men were dissected and lnciner-nled lnciner-nled to get the required sinews of war. What, of "American efficiency"? II V took the world war, with all its car riage and desolation, to point the way I to the new era. of conservation. Ben Franklin's almanac, with its proverbs 1 flnent frugality, has come into its own, and by the adaptation of every bit of J resourcefulness that formerly was ex- i fended in other directions America j demonstrates the inherent efficiency iu : waste redemption that was iters all j the time to wit, the announcement by the leaders of the National Wast3 ,1 Material Dealers that Uncle Sam in a I single year has saved $1,000,000,000 : "Junk" and turned it into useful com- 1 modifies essential to the maintenance of national lire. j Birth of the SJovcmenL All of which has given birth to the S organization of the national salvage 1 committee of the American Civic Asso-j Asso-j nation, headed by Mrs. JDhn Allen 1 Dougherty, an indefatigable worker in i( the cause of democracy, who, at the I beginning of the world war. was en-J en-J .toying the buttetfty life of the wife i of an Americ-in naval attache in Uncle I Pam's retinue In far-off Fekin. Head- I ' ing a movement v-. hieh take.; in the millions uf clubwomen of America jj banded together in civic associations grouped under the American Civic As- ; sociation, Mrs. Dougherty is initiating ji a system of household .salvage that t will endure long after the war. For. I as she points out. America will cling to her new habits of frugality and f economy long after the war when she i has realized by these years of saving and redemption just what can be accomplished ac-complished by habit in saving wasle. When the war began Mrs. Dougherty could not keep out of it. America, to be sure, was not involved In 1914; but the call of humanity stirred her impulses and she responded with alacrity and with the clear vision o a duty to be performed. Hurrying to London, she forthwith offered her services for any desired line of activity ac-tivity and. accordingly, served for a time with the American group at the American ambulance at Neuilly, in France. Utilization of waste in the hospitals and on the battlefields, employed by friend and toe. enlisted her attention and she decided forthwith to special. Ue along those lines. Always there is some little incident on which is pivoted all the big and important things of life. There was one in the lite of Mrs. Dougherty. She remembered remem-bered it at this juncture and it stood her well in the development and or ganization of the idea that now has led to the upbuilding of the national salvage committee tn America, gome few years ago a western news- IfeSTsc; :WA f 1-4- 1 1 x p.ipei'man fell ill of an incurable ailment ail-ment and his friends clubbed together, to send him to New Mexico for health restoration. As his health mended it became necessary for his "buddies" to devise some means of maintaining his financial support. In this dilemma a resourceful mind hit upon the ptan of saving all the available tin foil they could find. Just a simple bit ot tobacco to-bacco wrapping tossed carelessly into the street or the junk pile, but multiplied multi-plied thousands of times it became a great and growing mountain of tinfoil tin-foil that brought a fulsome price tn a ready market. This met the situation fully; the receipts over a given period of lime exceeded all expectations and kept the man until his death. Afterward the wife of one of the young men engaged in tlie worthy enterprise, Mrs.Otbeman Stevens, of Los Angeles, said. "Why not keep up, the saving and selling of tin foil and give the proceeds to the Red Cross?" No sooner said than done. During the fir?t summer an average of $100 a month was passed into the treasury of her Red CrSss auxiliary. From that humble beginning the enterprise grew until the Los Angeles shop now brings in something like $1000 a month for the Red Cross. From this acorn on the Pacific coast the great oak of the national salvage committee now extends ex-tends its merciful Red Cross branches over the whole of America! How You Can Help Now in Washington the graceful patriot who started it all directs the national salvage committee. She was teen at the Shoreham Hotel, in Washington, Wash-ington, whence she had returned after a conference with Henry P. Davison, dominant head of the splendid splen-did Red Cross movement. They had been discussing the salvage movement, and it was plain from the smile that overspread her face that this dynamic woman had received encouragement from the Red Cross chieftain, with whom she is now affiliated actively in contributing to the care and comfort of our millions of fighting sons of democracy. "With an army of more than fifty millions of men tearing down and destroying, and an expenditure of $160,000,000 every time the clock turns twenty.four hours;" she began, "the world must begin to economize as never before and America must lead this movement. 1 "We must buy according to our I needs. We must waste nothing. We ' must not travel unnecessarily, but bear in mind that our trains and the service along the lines is needed for the transportation of troops and munitions. muni-tions. "We must work at the thing nearest at hand to help win the war, according accord-ing to our age and ability. "We must not be a burden to our neighborhood. x "Every one who consumes must also produce. -"Our one thought must be of service. Salvage offers to every man. woman and child an opportunity to serve. There now is no chance for any single sin-gle person to say, 'What can I do to help-." This is something that everybody every-body can do, and must do. "Over in Paris," she said, "men make the rounds of the waste boxes and baskets set out on the streets by janitors and householders, and the miscellany is picked over and assorted for salvage. "Our movement aims to have in every American city and town an exchange ex-change or shop where discarded clothing, furniture, pictures, ornaments orna-ments and other household articles may be deposited for sale for the great and common cause. Such a shop already al-ready is in operation in Kansas City, and it is the beginning of a chain of shops that we hope to see run around through every city, town and village in the United States. "In this movement is a wonderful opportunity for women's service during the war. and beyond that I see a great reconstructive movement in the interest of habits of thrift. We must go through with it for the war at present and take up the future later on." One of the features of the national salvage committee's plan is to enlist ijj J s ' - i v' - - 1 s k I or ' . ' " T. i A "'. -C' " , ' VMS V " H , X t 1 ' 1 V S vv - , t f ' ' v ! ,f ' . : , ' l ' " t v. S "t fT" Hi 4 i t w ,frf 1 Hf( A"4 J 3 x i s . t. -f N E W -a A i i P; I i- 5- F s i 31-1 ff s " t ! MRS. JOHN ALLEN DOUGHERTY Chairman 'of the national salvage commiUce of the American Civic Association the police and fire departments of all cities. Already this phase of the committee's com-mittee's activities has been initiated in Washington, D. C. Every fire sta-tion, sta-tion, it is proposed, will become a receiving re-ceiving station for newspapers, magazines, maga-zines, lead and tinfoil, and the local Chamber ot Commerce in each community com-munity is to secure a common warehouse ware-house where the town's contributions are to be assembled and disposed of. While the firemen are supervising the collection of the material, the policemen are expected to enlist the attention of every householder, apart, ment house dweller and tenant on his beat. "In our armed service Uncle Sam already has taken up the business of, salvage in earnest and with highly successful results," Mrs. Dougherty explained further. "A regular corps, or reclamation and salvage department, depart-ment, has been organized. Men taken from civilian life who are not physically physi-cally fit for fighting are put where they can serve in what they are best fitted, for shoemakers, tailors, laun-dry laun-dry men, etc. It has all been reduced to a science. 'So far as the army and r.avy are concerned there seemed always to be the idea that there was no need of saving on Government supplies. It was taken for granted that Government Govern-ment supply was endless. That day has gone. General Goethals has seen to that. Now the soldier's plate is inspected when he finishes his mess. He must eat -what he serves himself with. "Seven thousand loaves of bread were saved in Camp Humphreys in legs than a monLh. All the garbage is saved and sorted. The fats yield 'glycerin- so necessary for the-manufacture of high explosives. Fat drip-piuus drip-piuus make soa p. and so it goes all along the line." ' " ;Mi'H. Dougherty enumerated further Koine detailed illustrations of the needs qf the hour and how they may ' be met. "Leather is very much needed," she said. "It should be saved in every way. shape or form, regardless of age or condition, because of the nitrates procured from it for use in agriculture. agricul-ture. Turning Waste Into Money "Lead foil off tea wrappings and in tubes for tooth paste, cold cream, shaving cream, etc., should be saved. This material is worth $2000 a ton and there is a place for every ounce of it. "Unbroken tins that have contained tobacco, candies, cakes and countless articles- can b$ returned to great advantage. ad-vantage. I know on,e tobacco dealer who calculates that from $30,000 to $40,000 may be saved annually on two brands of tobacco by saving and turning turn-ing back the empty tins. "Take waste paper. The paper men are wild to get hold of it. One big paper firm leader called me up the other day and wanted a contract for all the paper we could gather. "The typist and stenographer can do a wonderful bit. She can save the ribbons, boxes and spools and carbon- paper boxes. Tin boxes holding spools bring one cent and carbon paper boxes six1 cents'." As illustrating just how successful is the plan of using and reusing standard stand-ard articles of merchandise like these over and over instead of throwing them away and having them replaced by new ones, Mrs. Dougherty told of the plan in Kansas City, where they kept a tracer on goods. A red label was placed on every box or can or whatever it was every time it was sent forth from headquarters. Soon it was a common thing to get a paper I Stop! Don't throw that away! If you have An old shoe, A bit of crumpled lace, Toothpaste tube, Bird cage, Superannuated grandfather's clock, Magazines, False teeth. Empty sardine cans, Or just plain junk Of any kind DON'T Throw it away! You may have an arm Like Walter Johnson And throw With the speed and accuracy Of a Philippine Boloman, But SOFT PEDAL, PLEASE! v Now is the time For all good men And women To come to the aid Of YOUR country And ' ' ' YOUR democracy ! Save all your junk And sell it for THE NATIONAL SALVAGE COMMITTEE Of the American Civic Association. Do you get it? SALVAGE THE SCRAPS And WIN THE WAR ! ! ! ! ! box or a tin box that had six or eight labels on it. Along these lines the national sa.1-vae sa.1-vae committee, led by the indomitable Mrs. Dougherty, proposes to wage the war against the Kaiser. From a central cen-tral headquarters ot the American Civic Association, in the Union Trust Building, in Washington, the campaign cam-paign is to be carried forward by the American Civic Association through the Federation of Women's Clubs. There are 7000 such clubs in the country, coun-try, with a membership of 2,500.000 women, and they are to be the torch bearers, lighting the way for their millions of American sisters. And salvage mil! not end with the var." cpoke Mrs. Dougherty by way ot parting. "It will have only begun. The lesson oi thrift inculV cated on our national life through force of habit will go on and on for-ever, for-ever, like Tennyson's babbling broolt. Never again will America accumulate and destroy as she has done In the past. The lesson of salvage has beea taught our boys in the hospitals, the V kitchens and on the field of battle, f When they return they will practice what they have lived, and we must go forward with them, hand in hand, through the years to the new America." How They Sweep Up the Crumbs "FIGHT trains on an average of every twenty-four hours make their way from the battlefront in France to the conservation stations in the rear freighted with the wastage wast-age from the battlefields. In a month the quartermaster's department has salvaged sal-vaged as many as 50,000 outer garments, 125,000 under gar ments, 3500 pairs of shoes, 60,000 pairs of trench boots, 25,000 steel helmets, 270,000 sheepskin capes and 120,000 pieces of miscellaneous equipment. If our boys at the front can do all this in the midst of . the fighting out there fighting all day long and sleeping ' at night on their arms what should we folks at home be I able to do? i Comb your attics, sweep up your cellars, pile up the j waste baskets, sell it all and turn your scraps into Red Cross bandages, crutches, anesthetics, smokes, reading matter and j other things essential to the comfort and rehabilitation of -1 your gallant boys. ) SALVAGE ! . . |