San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1881-03-24
A PAPER MILL IN TEXAS.

been. a state in tho American union
thirty-six years. It has had newspa-
pers printed in the English language |
fifty-one years. Beginning with one
weekly in 1929, the numbers Of pa
pers and periodicals now published in
Texas is as follows: Dailies 28, tri-
weeklies /, semi weekles 4, weeklies
202, semi-monthhes l, monthlies 81
total 242. We can only approximate
the consumption of paper by these
establishments. It would be reason
able to place the money expended by
the dailies annually forpaper for news.
purposes at $4,000, weeklies and
periodicals, $4,000, and paper for
Job work $15O,000. 1t would be in
perfect moderation to say merchants
and others purchase enough for wrap
ping and other purposes to swell the
grand total of the Texas paper bill to
S500,000 per annum. Nor would 1t
be over the mark to say Texas since
1929 has sent beyond the state and
expended for paper $15,0OO,O ,Oo0 Not
so much az single sheet has ever
been manufactured within our bor-
ders from the day of the first settle
ment to the present hour, yet there
is no lack of material. The first OBJ
iect to consider in building paper
mil is for obvious reasons an abund-
ance of clear water. 1t should have
power enough to run the machinery
and purity enough to cleanse the raw
material intended for use. Without
exaggeration several hundred suitable
places can be pointed out As to ma
terial used in the manufacture OF pa
per we will give o list and see if we
cannot furnish at least large por-
ton us follows: Aloe fibre, asbestos,
bagging or sacking, bananafbre, bark
of various kinds, bean stalks, sugar
cane, cocoanut fibre, cocoanut kernel,
clover, cotton, fur, alfalfa, flax, fresh
water-weeds, grasses, guttapercha,
hair, hay, hemp, hops, husks OF grain,
iute, leather, leaves, maize, manila,
hemp, moss, nettles, old writing pa
per, peat or turf,roots of various kinds,
sawdust, sea weeds, silk, straw, spent
tan bark, thistle down, thistles, tobac-
co stalks, wood, wool and rags of ev-
cry kind, character and condition un
der the sun. The list fully supplies
the answer to the question, as we
have in more or less abundance the
whole of it, and much Of it going to
waste, Now, to start paper mill
with capacity sufficient to supply the
trade of Texas and get patronage
from our people alone, would require
capital of 100000; $4,000 to be
expended in riparian rights, in build
ing and machinery, and $25,000 held
as reserve or commercial fnnd. 1t
is true one can be established for a
great deal less, but it will take that
much invested in order to get the ca
pacity to command the entire ntrade
| $500, 900 per annum) of Texas. The
mill, of course, can base calculations
upon capturing much OF the pat
ronage of Arkansas, Indian Territory,
Louisiana, the territories west OF us
and Mexica. Indeed, if started right,
built and run upon correct principles,
| it can get patronage without limit.
1t can sell it's stock throughout Mis-.
souri, and Kansas as we'll Us furnish.
ing the press OF New Orleans and Mo
bile, whose publishers, like every pub
Usher without exception in Texas,
would be only too glad to get their
supplies nearer home than they are
now doing. oi shrri
The idea that publisher or mer-
chant will go thousand miles from
home to buy an article he can get in
o few miles of him, is all stuff. ii
made as well and sold as cheap they
will do nothing Of the kind. That
notion prevailed in Georgia when she
was building her first paper mill.
Now there is not ream OF paper per
year shipped into the whole state,
but her SIX mills ship tons upon tons
of it to Virginia, North and South Car
olina, Florida, Mississippi. Alabama,
Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas and Mex
leo. They have every dollars worth
of business they can stand up to.
Thoir rag-gathers strip every street
alley and yard, every clothes basket
and closet of every ounce Of refuse
they can lay their hands upon, not
omitting to pick up every scrap OF
paper in the streets, counting room
and everywhere else they can find
anything from the size OF your hand
tO daily paper.
Rag merchants pay handsomely for
the privilege of cotton yards, com
prcssts and whsryeS AL this is to-
tally lost in Texas. There is no mar
ket for such material, ard yet highly
u.s. fui articles. So that a papor mil
will no. only be Of benefit 10 pub
hshers and merchpD.s, but directly to
every housclseeper and eitiEsn- II
wia not only keep Sjo00J) which
VIC annniIy send sway, a; Lone. bai
vii ofier a market for siOl0JJ OF
slO9,OOJ worti Of reiuss which We
nov throw into the streets and gut
krs and totally losc. The way 70.
build a pIper mil is-tO build =
Ma inery csn be boagh. a. readily
a. q line Of cllicooA OPerEtives en-
Be obtained ~ readily As c-rPeniers
The only thing there wll he any
tr0uble about = the capital And Ne