Keeping Ahead

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Reprinted. from October of Ricerside Plastic Progress

It is 1919. The World War is ended. Los Angeles stands practically as the war-interrupted boom of 1913 left it. For six years the natural flow of population has been stopped at the source. Munition contracts have kept workers busily occupied in Eastern centers. The vast number of men called to arms has kept families tied to their olcl homes required concrete foundations. The California type of architecture was developed from Mediterranean traditions, and stucco took ever-increasing quantities of cement. Not only did the cement industry face the problem of a vastly increased amount of construction, it had also to meet a greater proportionate use of its materials in building.

Some idea of the tremendous scope of Los Angeles' expansion during the post-war period may be gained from figures compiled by the Security Trust & Savings Bank. In 1922,688 new subdivisions were opened, covering an area of 11,608 acres and composed of 56,602 lots. In 1923, the figures were larger: 714 subdivisions, 86,501 lots, 17,300 acres. From the beginning of. 1922 to the close of 1927, there were opened 3,030 separate subdivisions, totalling 236,539 lost covering 47,793 acres, all within a ten-mile radius from Seventh and Broadway:

The responsibility faced by the cement industry is only hinted in these figures, for they do not include the years from 1919 to 1922, nor do they indicate the amount of development which took place in downtown business areas and in other parts of Southern California and Arizona.

But now the war is over, and the readjustment comes. Factories cease their feverish haste to keep pace. Millions of men are discharged from military service and seek new employment. They look to the West. California ! Los Angeles! Unprecedented oil discoveries opportunity.

In trvo years, Los Angeles has the growth of ten. Never in history has the world seen a city expand so rapidly, nor may it ever again. "It can't keep up." But it does.

Yesterday, mustard fields and meadow larks. Today, rows of paved streets lined u'ith homes' Truck farmers move far to the outskirts, to be pushed further still, almost before their first crops have gone to market.

New population. New homes and buildings to house i[. - Some industries may lag behind the growth. But people must have shelter and a place tb conduct their business. The building industry must more than keep pace. It must anticipate activity. For building is growth.

In this great drama of development, cement was called upon to play a leading part. New streets were laid, cement was used. New skyscrapers of reinforced concrete towered above the city and sprarvled out to new districts. Thousands of recently

Nerv buildings, new roads, new homes, 'new storm drains and sewer systems, new flood control systems- all placed new demands on the output of cement. The people could wait for public utilities, but construction had to go on, and cement had to go into it. It is a tribute to the industry that it went fearlessly forward into an expansion program, kept ever abreast of activity, without harkening to those who cried, "It cannot last !"

The Riverside Cement Company through its direct pre- decessor, the Riverside Portland Cement Company, was organized in 19@, by a group of California -apitalists, headed by the late William G. Hensharv and including John Treanor, the Company's present president.

The site for the plant was sllected -by geologists after careful study as affording one of the largest deposits of limestone in the state, easily accessible to i great consuming center. At the beginning of operationJ in 1910, the Com,pany's productive capacity was 2,000 barrels per day.

After eighteen years of maintaining progress with the territory it serves, the Company's capacity has been expanded to an amount in excess of 13,000 barrels daily. The plsltion which Riverside occupies in the cement industry of California, is indicated bv the fact that of the 14.150.0@ barrels of cement produced in the state in 1927, over 22/o was manufactured by Riverside.

The properties of the Company include two modern and complete plants, one the plant at Crestmore, California, and a second at Oro Grande, near Barstow, California, acquired through purchase of the Golden State Portland Cement Co.

The Crestmore plant, since its construction in 1910. has been steadily enlarged and improved, until today it constitutes one of the most modern plants in the West and one of the most economical to operite. It is of the dry process t).pe, with a safe ave-r?g9 capacity of 9,000 barrelj per day. Two crushers and 12 kilns ire operated.

The expansion of the Crestmoie plant has been a steady one. Every year, vast sums are invested in its develop- ment to maintain modern standards and provide additionbl production facilities. Recently a waste power plant was installed to generate electric power for all plant- purposes from the waste heat in the kiln gases. Tnis is ihe- first plant west of the Rocky Mountains so to be equipped.

The Oro Grande plant is ,equipped with two ciushers and seven kilns and is generally similar in design to the Crestmore plant. It is conservatively rated at 4,0d0 barrels per day capacity, a,lthough it has actually produced cement at the rate of 5,000 barrels per day.

-The Company's reserves of raw material run into figures of several hundred million tons, which for all praitical purposes means an unlimited supply. A quantity of seventy to seventy-five million tons of limistone has been definitely developed by diamond drilling. One ton of limistone equals 4l barrels of cement, so _it may be said thtt the ileveloped tonnage, which is only a fraction of the total, will supply the Company's plants with raw material at normal capacity for over fifty years. . Unlike many otheri, the cement industry is typ- ically a community enterprise. fts raw materia-ls are secured and its payroll expended locally.

Such is the magnitude of the business which has been builded to assure the unhampered building development of Southern California. "Not mereli keep abreast, but keeping ahead.', Throughout it-s eighteen years of operation, the RiversidJ Cement Company has been called upon time after time to increase production, to build plant additions, without interrupting the flow of its products to the community-wide construction work dependent on 1t.

It has met the challenge of growth. It will continue to do so.

FRANK O'CONNOR VISITS LOS ANGELES

Frank O'Connor, Donovan Lumber Co., San Francisco, spent a few days in Los Angeles around the first of the month. He attended the Notre Dame-University of Southern California football game on December 1. He also conferred with John Cushing, their Los Angeles representative. Mrs. O'Connor accompanied him on the trip.

A. B. McDONELL VISITS CALIFORNTA

A. B. McDonell, general field representative of the Wisconsin Land and Lumber Co., Hermansville, Michigan, was a Los Angeles visitor around the first of the month irhere he spent a few days looking over the Southern California territory. He made his headquarters at the offices of the W. E. Cooper Lumber Co., their Southern California rep- resentatives.

We cater to the small yard-----

And the smaller dealers have found out that our service to them is REAL SERVICE. Our quick shipment of anything and everything for the building trade by car or truck makei it possible for the small dealer to give tip-top service to his trade, and yet keep down his investment, his insurance and his overhead.