The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-07
THE DISADVANTAGE
OF CHEAP PAPER
Most Books Made Now Will Not Outlast
Their Binding.
WOES OF THE LOVERS Of BOOKS
Some Causes of the Deterioration in
Quality..Wood Pulp Paper Is Said
to be Not Necessarily Bad, If II Is
Well Made.
From the New York Tribune.

The age Of the world which Is now
passing on the wings Of the trolley ana
the twin screw has been called the age
of paper. 1t appears, however, that
age does not necessarily imply long
evity. This shall be the text for sec
ond part Of the discourse. The point
to be considered first is the vast
amount OF paper requisite to give
name to an age Of history and the
ruinous rates at which it can be dis
pensed to the people. Most kinds or
paper are cheaper in this country TO-
day than they ever were before. ana a
great deal cheaper than they were only
a few years ago. The kinds used Tor
the printing of newspapers, for In
stance, cost at the end Of the war
about 25 cents pound. and now they
cost from 2 to 2la cents pound; writ
ing papers which cost then 30 or 6O
cents pound cost now from IN to IL
cents pound; and so on.
You want to say" said one or the
largest paper dealers in New York the
other day, that this has all been
brought about by the tarifr. The TAR
III always stimulates domestic compe-
tition. The foreign paper has been
kept out and the home industry mas
been developed. The process of MAX
ing paper out of wood pulp was in
NtHttu III aiiu was pS'' ~"
in this country. The changes In prices
have been brought about gradually.
till they are what they are now. They
could never have come IL foreign pa
pers had been admitted freely. The
largest papermaker in Germany said
to me not long ago that he could send
thousands of tons of paper and card
board here If 1t We're not for the tariff.
On the other hand, we could send thou
sands of tons of paper to Germany If
they did not have a tariff against us.
As it is, we send large quantities to
England. Australia and South Amer
ica."
1t Is not alone that the wood pulp
paper itself Is cheap. Its competition
has forced down the prices of rag pa
per till they are almost as low as those
of the wood paper, and there are peo-
pie who ought to know who say that
nobody but an expert can tell good
pulp from a rag paper. and 1t is doubt
full II he can. At the close of the war
publishers used to pay about % cents
pound for book paper. Now they
pay from to or s cents for the gen.
eral run of stock that they use. For
fine grades of boks they pay more. OF
course. 12 or Is cents not being uncom-
mon. and the costly limited editions
running up the figures to a good deal
more than that But. on the other
hand. there are thousands of cheap
books made on paper which costs no
more than . or cents a pound.
WOODS USED FOR PULP.
There has been some alarm express
ed about the supply of wood for the
paper pulp. but this does not seem to
be a matter that need give any great
present anxiety. The forests that fur
nish the wood for this purpose form a
pretty large belt across the country
They are in Maine, in this state, in the
West and in Canada. A great deal of
the American paper is just now made
from wood grown in Canada. Spruce
great staple wood for the pur
Poplar is much used, and so is
J, and so. to some extent. are as
pen and birch. The quality of the pa
per depends upon the method by
which 1t is made and the care eXpend-
I'd upon it. just as the quality of any
hing else does. Sulphite and soda are
employed in the process. and 1t is i'm
/ "tant that they be used in the right
p portions and that they be got out
afterward. If they are not used prop
erly the paer will be of poor quality to
start with. and if they are not got out
of 1t in the end they will destroy the
paper after it is made. A small per-
centage of rags is used for extra
grades of paper. and Is of undoubted
advantage. A little clay is also used
sometimes to secure smoothness of sur
face, as, for instance, in paper to be
used for printing half-tone pictures
Clay is used, moreover. sad to relate.
to make the paper weigh more when 1t
is sold by the pound. 1t makes bad
paper and some makers say that the
trick is not successful. anyway. A tre-
mendouS amount of clay Is used in
Germany. but American buyers are,
as rule. too clever to be taken in by
overweighted paper
On the other hand, there is beau
tiful light paper made in England from
esparto grass, which grows in Algiers.
The attempt has been made to manu-
facture 1t here, but never with much
success The English paper costs here
about thirteen cents pound, but there
Is as much paper In pound Of it as
there Is in two pounds of the ordinary
sort, so that it Is really not much more
expensive than the good American
wood-pulp paper with few rags mix
ed in. There is a fine book paper made
IN this country from rags brought from
Egypt Agents are employed to COL
lect them all over the delta of the Nile.
the finest harvest-gound for rags in
the world. perhaps, and they send them
to Alexandria, where they are cleaned
and baled. and then they are shipped
to this country.
QUESTION OF QUALITY.
And now comes the note OF despair.
II the paper of today is cheaper than
ever before, it appears that it is also
poorer. When William T. Peoples. the
librarian of the Mercantile Library,
cly 4 fo,. -,
per used for the books Of the present
day. the sentence Of inquiry was not
finished before Mr.. Peoples exclaimed: /:
'The paper is cheaper than it ever was
before, and worse than it ever was be-
fore! Why. the books that are made
nOw." he went on. will scarcely out
wear their bindings. BY the time the
binding OF book Is worn out the book
itself Is worthless, and II Is better to
cover on it. l don't know how the
historians of hundred years hence
will be able to find out anything about
our times, for there will be scarcely any
of our books that can be read by that
time. Even books that are left stand
ing on the shelves and seldom taken
from the library seem to decay, and
they go all to pieces. Almost all the
books are printed on wood-pulp paper
I am not prepared to say that a good
and durable wood-pnlp paper cannot
be made. but the most Of it is not good
or durable. The trouble goes back for
perhaps twenty-five years, and through
all that time 1t has been growing worse
We find that our books printed more
than twenty-five years ago keep in
better condition and are wearing better
now than those printed since that time
The German books are worse than the
A,onn Thn Irx.c - a.,
be made Of wood even. II seems to be
clay. In very short time II all
crumbles away. The English paper, I
think, is in general a little better than
ours. There ere few publishers who
make books that are honorable ex-
ceptions to what I have said. They
use good paper and produce books that