The Portland daily press., 1894-07-10
TEN THOUSAND TONS A DAY.
The Enormous Quantity of Paper Turned
Out BY American Mills.

1t is a curious and rather startling
into food and clothing, paper is-the most
universally used commodity. in the world
1t would be an almost impossible task
to find in any civilized community a
person or business concern that does not,
to greater or less degree, make use of
paper in some of it's various forms.
Some philosopher has said that the
civilization and prosperity of a country
may be measured by it's consumption of
paper.
If this is as fair an index as seems
upon reflection to be reasonable, statis-
tics prove the United States to have dis
tanced all the other nations of the world
in the race of true development. Per-
haps no line of business hashad a mo re
remarkable growth in the United States
the past ten years than the paper making
industry. This is true in all branches,
but especially SO in the line OF BOOK and
news print papers. The A American people
are nation of readers, and the rapidly
decreasing prices of books and newspapers
have greatly increased the consumption
of paper in these two lines.
One or cents will purchase a mass of
reading matter in the form of our great
dailies, consisting of from eight to six
teen pages, while IL to 20 cents will pur-
chase handsomely bound and attractive
books of standard and popular authors.
The daily output of news print papers
in the United States is about 200 to
1850 tons. just think of 125 or 1859 car
loads OF newspapers II eltally devoured
each day i'll this country! The produce
ton of news print is larger than any
other grade. That of book paper is prob
bly, as much as 1000 tons, and of writing
$50 tons each daily.
1t will be interesting here to quote some
OF the figures OF the paper industry in the
United States The daily capacity of the
paper mills of the United States in opera
ton during 1928 for all kinds and
grades of paper was estimated at about
TO- 900 tons. OF this amount ne4rly q 500
tons represented news print and book
paper, 1880 tons wrapping paper $50
tons straw BOARD, $50 tons wr, ting paper
and almost 2,400 tons of the various
9th er kinds and grades.
The States which rank first in the pro-
duction of paper are New York, Maine,
Massachusetts, Wisconsin,, Pennsylvania,
Ohio and Illinois. From these seven
States comes nearly three-fourths of the
entire paper supply of the country. BY
far the greater part of the vast output is
consumed in the United States, the
greatest paper-using country in the
world. In foreign markets, however,
American paper is gaining firm foot
ing. The greatest consumption of print
ing paper is in the Sunday editions of
the metropolitan dailies, which often re.
quire from 60 to 100 tons for a single
issue.
With the rapidly increasing output
prices have as rapidly declined, until to-
day grade of newsprint paper worth
twenty-five years ago 10 cents or ID cents
per pound, is now sold at 1-2 cents or
8 cents-a decline in price unequal!ed in
the history of any other industry. This
enormous decrease in the cost of paper is
due especially to the introduction of
wood as paper stock Today it is the
principal material used in the manufac-
ture of paper for all but the highest
grades of book and writing.
News print and not only ordinary but
even very attractive qualities of book
paper are made entirely of wood. An
other means conducive to this phencme-
nal reduction of cost has been the i'm
provement in methods of making wood
pulp. The perfection and greater eff
cheney attained in paper making machin
cry rendering much larger production
easily posi- ble in given time, have
added materially in this downward
trend of prices. Philadelphia Times.