Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1895-06-12
Ten Thousand Tons a Day.

that, next to the articles entering into
food and clothing, paper is the most uni
versally used commodity in the world. Ii
would be an almost impossible task to find
in any civilized community a person or
business concern that does not, TO a
greater or less degree, make use Of paper
in some of its various forms. Some phil
osopher has said that the civilization and
prosperity of country may be measured
by its consumption of paper.
If this is as fair an index as seems upon
reflection to be reasonable, statistics prove
the United States to have distanced all
the other nations of the world in the race
of true development. Perhaps no line of
business has had a more 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 pa
pers. The American people are nation
of readers and the rapidly decreasing
prices of books and newspapers have
greatly increased the consumption OF pa
per in these two lines.
One or two cents will purchase a mass
of reading matter in the form of our great
dailies, consisting from eight to sixteen
pages, while y to 20 cents will purchase
handsomely bound and attractive books
of standard and popular authors. The
daily output of news print paper in the
United States is about 200 to l 800 tons.
Just think of 125 or $50 carloads Of
newspapers mentally devoured each day
in this country The production Of news
print is larger than any other grade
That of book paper is probably as much
as 900 tons, and Of wiring $50 tons
each daily.
1t will be interesting here to quote some
of the figures of the paper industry in the
United States. The gross daily capacity
of the paper-mills of the United States in
operation during 1928 for all kinds and
grades Of paper was estimated at about
10000 tons. OF this amount nearly
2.500 tons represented news print and
book paper, 800 tons wrapping paper,
$50 tons straw board, $50 tons writing
paper, and almost 2,40O tons Of the va
rious other kinds and grades
The States which rank first in the pro-
duclion of paper are New York, Maine,
Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania,
Ohio and Illinois. From these seven
States comes nearly three-fourtbs of the
entire paper supply of the country. By
far the greater part of the vast oulpout is
consumed in the United States, the great
est paper using country in the world. In
foreign markets, however, American paper
is gaining firm footing. The greatest
consumption of printing paper is in the
Sunday editions of the metropolitan dailies
which often require from 60 to 100 tons
for single issue.
With the rapidly increasing output
prices have as rapidly d elined, until to-
day a grade of news print paper worth
twenty five years ago 19 or II cents per
pound is now sold at 2! or cents-a de-
cline in price unequalIed in the history of
any other industry. This enormous de
crease in the cost of paper is due especial
ly to the introduction of wood as paper
stock. To-day it is the principal material
used IN the manufacture Of paper for all
but the highest grades Of book and writ
ing.
News print and not only ordinary but
even very attractive qualities Of book pa
per are made entirely Of wood. Another
means conducive to this phenomenal re-
duclion of cost has been the improvement
in methods of making wood pulp. The
perfection and greater efficiency attained
in paper.makiog machinery, rendering
much larger production easily possible in
given time have added materially in
this downward trend Of prices.-Ptiladet
phia Times