Robert Good and Valverde Glass Works

REFUSED A MONOPLY

THAT MEANT A FORTUNE

There is an enterprising business man in Denver and there may be many others of like opinion, who is not influenced wholly by his faith in the future or the city, nor does he believe that the arbitrary rules of business are the exclusive requisites of success. Though he anticipates great future progress for the state and applies all the business methods that suit his purposes, he has laid the foundation and is building the superstructure of his enterprise upon faith of another kind: "Faith in God and tile power of his own will and good intentions," is his open confession.

Robert Goode [sic] Good, the proprietor of the Valverde glass works, came to Denver and undertook to revive an old plant which for many years had struggled for life, but without success, although the former manufacturers realized all the ad­vantages of convenient and plentiful ma­terial in the way of sand and lime, and with a rapidly growing market for all forms and kinds of bottles, window glass and a variety of articles of common duality for use in the industries. Mr. Goods [sic] Good undertook the reconstruction of the wreckage, both of the plant and its depleted trade. His first work involved the expenditure of money and a great deal of patient labor preparatory to the work that would yield compensation or encourage further effort. This work he claims was inspired only by faith, and he was impelled to more by the impression that it was the thing he ought to do than by any close calculation of cost and possible results from a material point of view.

He began in a small way to manufacture the common green glass bottles of va­rious forms and sizes for local commer­cial and domestic use, and from the small market for these wares managed to keep the plant in operation. After a few months the opportunity of an extension in this line was offered. The fact was brought to his attention that the many thousands of beer bottles as well as whisky bottles of a certain grade that are emptied annually in Denver and throughout the state were shipped from other parts of the country to be filled at the home breweries. These bottles might as well be made In Denver, and it was demonstrated to Mr. Goode [sic] Good that were he to obtain a monopoly of their manufacture he could make a fortune without fail. But this was a prize that had no charm for Mr. Goode [sic] Good. He refused to entertain the thought he was a Chris­tian. His faith was in God and his own good purposes, and he would never allow the material to pass through his furnaces that would be fashioned into a bottle for liquor, wine or beer.

Steadily from that day he has con­fined his work to the innocent little phial for soothing syrups and the like, jars for pickles and preserves, and bottles for nothing more dangerous than soda pop. During the past year his business has extended to the manufacture of insulat­ors for telephone and electric light companies, and recently he has been manu­facturing extensively the large bottles for various products of the Western Chemical works. Now the trade of the Valverde Glass works has extended throughout Colorado and is reaching into other states, and for months past a force of twenty men and boys has been kept con­stantly at work to supply the demand, and an income of nearly 40 per cent has been realized during the past eleven months.

At present the works of the plant are all torn to pieces, and a large force of masons and other artisans is engaged upon the work of reconstruction. When finished early in January there will be a complete transformation from the old common works to a first-class plant for the manufacture of flint glass. In the new works, while he will embrace all articles of present manufacture, Mr. Goode [sic] Good claims that his finer products will compete with the best of eastern manufacture. Thus far his venture just proved an undoubted success, and its establishment is an ac­knowledged benefit to Denver.