Document yrk9X2D2YYMmyQ0okzzzv3gQd

PAINT GUARANTEES should always be carefully examined in person and all the conditions ascertained; ' so that even if the manufacturer decides, for the sake of good will, to repair mis! takes of procedure or judgment on the ! part of the consumer, it may be distinctly | impressed upon the mind of the complain) ant that he is a beneficiary and not a ! deceived or injured party. * f i 0007-SWP-041574 0007-SWP-000124970 0007-SWP-000124971 credentials, and insist upon the strict let ter of the bargain. In every case where the guarantee is invoked, it is his duty to demand with old Shylack, "Is it so nominated in the bond?" The consumer to whom paint is given to repaint a defective job under the guar antee, supposing his complaint to be based on honest ignorance, is not placated by the concession. He is confirmed in his belief Chat he was defrauded in the first place. Hence the necessity of showing him absolutely and undeniably that he has no claim under the most liberal inter pretation of the guarantee, before the concession, if any, is granted. In this way and in this way only can the dealer cut at the root of this evil and convince the paint consuming public of the primary-school truth that good paint made by a reputable manufacturer is neither fortified nor improved by a guarantee. PAINT GUARANTEES "We guarantee our THE LIMIT or ABSURDITY paint to wear at least five years in any climate and on any surface--galvanized iron, steel, cement or wood, whether the wood be old or new, sound or rotten--no matter what the character or condition of the surface; and we also guarantee that it will look better at the end of ten years than any other paint at the end of three years. We guarantee it to be better than any other paint at any price, to cover twice the surface and to last twice as long as any other paint." This is the "paint guarantee," pushed to the limit of absurdity. Anyone who can guess ex per t what will happen to a coat of pamt in ten years wastes his talents in the paint business. He could make more money guessing what will happen to the stock market in one day and he would not strain his guessing apparatus half as much. Beyond the ordinary tacit agreement of commerce that goods shall be as rep- 0007-SWP-000124972  ". .; PAINT GUARANTEES resented and that any defect in the merchandise itself will be made good by the seller, there is no need and no pro priety in any guarantee of any sort. Did anyone ever buy a THE LEAD " keg of white lead with GUAHANTCL any guarantee other than a guarantee of purity and quality? Did anyone even hear of a white lead manu facturer "making good" a job on which his product failed? He may prophesy that the lead will last for three years or five years, according to his degree of confidence or enthusiasm; he may cite extraordinary instances of phenomenal service, but when it comes down to the cold black and white guarantee in definite figures, he is prudently non-committal. He is willing to guarantee the lead, but he is taking no chances with hard and fast contracts of service. Good paint, made by auNO a reputable manufacturer, GUARANTEES needs no guarantee and lacking the necessary control of condi tions, no one can possibly guarantee any PAINT GUARANTEES paint, good or bad. For the wear of paint depends no more upon its composi tion than upon'many other factors over which the manufacturer can have no control. The economy of paint--that is, the cost per square yard--depends partly, of course, on the formula, but more on the method of manufacture; and the ultimate durability of the coating also depends to a certain extent on its composition. But the ordinary accidents which incite an appeal to the guarantee depend upon this factor to a slight extent only. Thus, blistering, peeling, cracking and scaling are due almost always to defects of surface or errors in manipulation, or application--factors over which the paint manufacturer has no supervision and which he cannot possibly foresee. A paint manufacturer THE FIVE FACTORS with twenty-five years' experience has always met the question of paint guarantees with the following statement: 0007-SWP-000124973 PAINT GUARANTEES The factors controlling the fate of ajob ofpainting are five: 1st--The paint itself; 2d--The painter and his method of procedure; 3d--The character and condition of surface; 4th--The weather at the time of application; 5th--The additions made by the painter in preparing the several coats. It will be seen from this that in case of failure there are four controlling condi tions, not dependent upon the composition or quality of the paint, which may have caused the trouble. Let us consider them in due order: THE PAINTER AND HIS METHOD OF PROCEDURE. It is common knowl FACTOR NO. 2 edge that a good painter can produce results with poor paint that a poor painter cannot duplicate with good paint. It is all a 8 PAINT g u a r a n t e e s question of knowing how. As each coat of paint requires some variation in its con sistency and as each variation in the surface indicates different treatment, the chances that an ignorant or ill-informed painter may do wrong things are always present. The remedy here suggests itself --employ a competent painter and pay him' the price of good work. Paint may be likened to AomERcTmMsT a Physician's prescription, which is written after a careful diagnosis of the patient's consti tution and ailments and is accompanied by rigorous directions for use. Mixed paints are devised to meet average con ditions and they require modifications to meet individual cases. Furthermore, they are accompanied by certain rules of procedure which must be followed by the user, unless he is an expert capable of determining for himself the proper course of procedure. If the paint is applied by an unskilled hand, the directions accompanying the 9 0007-SWP-041579 0007-SWP-000124974 PAINT GUARANTEES paint should be followed religiously, and particular attention should be given to brushing out the paint and working it into the surface, using a small, rather than a large brush. It is possible in some ANOTHER POSSIBILITY cases that a painter may have a prejudice against prepared paints and may either intention ally, if he is dishonest, or unintentionally, if he is merely inimical, injure or unfairly handle the paint. The remedy is to employ a painter, not only capable and honest, but fair. The writer has known of working painters who have added ammonia, water, lime water, etc., to paints with the avowed intention of ruin ing them. The painter may also, from ignorance or a desire to hurry the work, prepare the surface improperly, fail to remove loose old paint, thin the several coats too much or too little, allow insufficient time for drying between coats, brush out insuffi ciently, etc. PAINT GUARANTEES THE CHARACTER AND CONDI TIONS OF SURFACE. The durability of any RACTOR NO. S paint depends more upon this than upon its compo sition. We have records of long service from paints embodying nearly everything that is regarded as bad in a paint iormula, but the record of all paints is alike bad if the paint was not properly tempered to the surface or if the surface was not in proper condition for painting. There is not one in the whole category of popular superstitions regarding paint, which actual experience has not thou sands of time disproved. But prejudice dies hard and education advances slowly. Every paint manufacturer and every experienced painter knows that out of ten thousand cases where a properly made paint has failed to give satisfactory results, there is not one where the fault cannot, if all the facts could be ascertained, be traced to improper treatment or incor rect procedure. 0007-SWP-041580 0007-SWP-000124975 PAINT GUARANTEES The character and con DIFFERING dition of surface include CONDITIONS the material to be painted. Different kinds of wood require differently tempered priming coats. A resinous wood may indicate a high proportion of turpen tine; a hard wood may indicate a rather stiff priming coat; an absorbent surface may call for an excess of oil; an old coat of paint may need much oil if dry and absorbent, much turpentine if hard and glossy. Old loosely adherent paint is a frequent cause of trouble. It should be scraped, wire-brushed and sand-papered away before a new coat is applied. Here again we see the use of the intel ligent painter, or if such be not available, of special advice from the paint manufac turer's technical experts. THE WEATHER AT THE TIME OF PAINTING. Moisture is the foe of FACTOR NO. 4 paint. It is far safer to have water in the paint than under the paint. Durable work can not be done on a moist surface with a PAINT GUARANTEES pure oil paint. On such a surface an emulsion paint capable of absorbing mois ture stands a better chance; though its protective value is small. Most woods absorb moisture very read ily. They will absorb the moisture from a foggy or humid atmosphere quite as readily as from rain. Incidentally, they will also absorb moisture from green plaster, so that undried plaster on the interior of a house is likely to cause as much trouble to the paint on the outside as a foggy day. The remedy is to paint only on well dried wood, preferably after a "spell" of dry weather--the fall season, after a dry summer, is a time very favorable to suc cessful painting. Cold weather also bad painting weather. It chills and thickens the oil so that there is a temptation ior the painter to add too much thinner in order to get easy working. Moreover, cold retards drying, and this further tempts the painter to ruin the paint with too much dryer. Extremely hot weather, especially 0007-SWP-000124976 PAINT GUARANTEES when the wood is not absolutely dry, is likely to cause blisters, which, while they may disappear as the paint dries, never theless detach the paint from the wood and cause peeling at a later date. THE ADDITIONS MADE BY THE PAINTER IN PREPARING PAINT FOR USE. No paint is "ready for FACTOR NO. S use" for all purposes. Conditions of surface vary and each condition requires some variation in the consistency of the paint. Each coat should also vary somewhat in consistency and composition. All manu facturers carefully indicate these differ ences in their "instructions for use." The intelligent painter understands the requirements and makes additions accord ingly. BUT--let us spell the word with capitals--BUT any paint, whether white lead and oil, prepared paint, or enamel, can be and very often is absolutely ruined by improper or excessive admixtures. Leaving out of consideration the dam age that a dishonest painter can da by >4 PAINT GUARANTEES adding cheapening adulterants, tire ignor ant painter's bad judgment can cause equal injury. The worst offender is THE WORST OFFENDER "liquid dryer" or "Japan dryer." Cheap liquid dryers are too often solutions of very little actual dryer in very much benzine. The addition of an excess of such dryers amounts merely to dilution of the paint with benzine. Without decrying benzine as a paint thinner, it is apparent that it should be added as a volatile thinner and not as a dryer of unknown strength. "Japan dryer" is a dryer containing varnish gum. The "gum" in the cheaper grades is rosin. Rosin with some of the commonly used pigments forms brittle soaps, which cause cracking, chalking and scaling. If a varnish gum is required in a paint formula it should be put there in the proper proportions and with the proper balancing ingredients by the manufacturer of the paint, ' It is the easiest thing pain t ln *" world to burn up a coat of oil paint with an excess of dryers, even if they contain 0007-SWP-041582 0007-SWP-000124977 T PAINT GUARANTEES no benzine and no rosin. Too much dryer does to the paint in a short time what the air does to it in a long time--it wears out its life by oxidation. Some painters think that the more dryer there is in a paint the quicker it will dry. This is not true. After a certain limit has been reached the addition of more dryer will retard drying. There is a chemical reason for this which it is not necessary to set forth--the important point to remember is that it is a fact. So we see that here as elsewhere we may easily have too much of a good thing. Ordinarily there is enough dryer in a prepared paint to make it dry properly and the addition of more is at the user's risk. In getting paint to dry HASTEN SLOWLY it is a wise rule to hasten slowly. The oxygen of the air is the best passible dryer. Other dryers are to paint what stimulants are to a man--they produce prompt results, but they take it out of the constitution later. Better wait a week between coats than have to repaint a year sooner. iS PAINT GUARANTEES ACCIDENTS. A CHAPTEB OF " ACCIDENTS This is a fruitful topic not included in the "five factors" already cited. Leaking spouts, damp foundations, leak ing water pipes, etc., chemical gases from neighboring factories, damp wall linings, etc., etc., are all possibilities alTecting the service of a paint coating, and in consider ing the scope of a guarantee, must be taken into account. Suppose a grocer in selling a barrel of Hour should offer you a guarantee some thing like this: "I guarantee that this barrel of flour will last one year; that you will have no illness or accident during that period; that the food made from it will be uniformly palatable and whole some and that nothing will contaminate the flour," would you buy the flour on the strength of that guarantee or would you back out ol the store and hunt up a sane grocer? 17 0007-SWP--041583 0007-SWP-000124978 PAINT GUARANTEES In view of what has necono pl u s been said, the only posREPUTATION s.to.le.s.incere guarantee o,f paint is its record of past service, the reputation of the manufacturer who made it, and an expressed willingness to make good any defect in the paint itself. A guarantee is in the g u a r a n t e e- nature of a contract and A CONTRACT a contract .implies mutual obligations. In the case of the paint guarantee the manufacturer agrees to do certain things in consideration of certain other things which the purchaser, on his part, agrees to do. Specifically, the manu facturer agrees that if all proper condi tions of surface, weather, manipulation, application, etc., are observed, he will furnish the paint necessary for repainting, provided the paint itself proves detective. It is safe to say that not one such case is found in a hundred complaints. Too often the dealer accepts the complaint at its face value without due investigation, and too often also the manufacturer sup plies the paint demanded, not because he believes the complaint justified, but iS PAINT GUARANTEES because he thinks it good policy to satisfy the dealer and the consumer. But this course of procedure does not really satisfy the consumer. He is naturally glad to get the new paint; hut unless he is first convinced that the original paint was not at fault, the ease with which the dealer "comes down" merely confirms his bad opinion of it. Manufacturers have been led into an extravagant competition in guarantees, which is as needless as it is illogical. The more judicious regret the conditions, while the mail order houses have carried the practice to an extent that makes the entire proposition ridiculous. The dealer is the THE DEALER proper person to bring IS THE JUDGE the guarantee back to a safe and sane basis. He should know the general record of the paint he handles and on that record should offer it to con sumers. The ordinary commercial guar antee is always implied whether stated or not, and if paint proves defective, the manufacturer is bound by common custom to "make good." But complaints 0007--SWP-041584 0007-SWP-000124979 0007-SWP-000124980