New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-04-15

Thus the South has practically inexhaustble
supply Of wood.
There are already many paper mills IN the
South almost every State furnishing it's quota.
Paper is being made out of bagasse, or sugar
cane. in Texas. and out OF poplar and spruce
wood in Virginia and West Virginia, and out of
various other materials at many other points
The newspapers which are agitating these
matters no doubt have double motive, one be-
ing to secure cheaper paper and the other to
build up their section Of the country seeing the
enormous benefit 1t would be to develop this in
dustry in their neighborhood. The volume of
the output of the paper mills of this country is
appreciated by only those who have made
study of the matter. The total annual output Is
approximately 100000 tons. 1t may aid to a
conception of what this figure means to say
that this is 100000 tons more than the annual
production Of cotton In the United States; that
it is four times as much the annual con-
sumption of cotton in the United States; that
1t is twice as much as the annual consumption
of all fbres in the United States including cot
ton. WOOL jute. fax. etc; that it Is but 200 900
tons less than the worlds consumption OF cot
ton for 1897.
CANADIAN COMPETITION
The value of this great output is probably not
less than S2OO.0OOOOO. If the South sees its OPP
portunity and can secure a part of this Industry
it would be of vast benefit to It, and do quite as
much to awaken it industrially as has the start
ing of cotton spindles and the iron furnaces on
Southern soil. The agitation. therefore of this
matter throughout the South is not strange
However. the South is not alone in It's efforts to
secure this great boon, since the Canadians are
doing their utmost to encourage the building of
paper and pulp mills in their country They
have recently passed laws which are intended to
prevent our securing raw material from Canada
4
least to manufacture 1t into pulp there But
their real aim goes further than this and is TO
bring the United States to the position where it
will have TO buy its paper from Canadian mills
The section of the country that would suffer the
most If the transfer of the paper industry to
Canada were accomplished would be the South
since the paper would have 10 be hauled So
much further. Moreover, the Canadian mills
have formed an association whereby they arbi-
trarily control the prices which all their
product is placed upon the market so our paper
consumers would be apt TO fare poorly in the
event of their having to buy paper from Canada
Fortunately however. this is not likely TO come
about. The tariff on paper pulp. which, al
though small compared with that on most other
manufactured commodities being but per cent
on the present price OF pulp and II per cent on
the present price of print paper. still has a
wholesome effect In lettering capital from be-
ing invested on the Canadian side of the border
and in encouraging the growth of the Industry
/ in the United States 1t is estimated that The
United States makes 30 per cent of all the panar
produced in the world and II is not too much
to say that IL has the natural resources To- pro-
duce il all. our exports of paper are now he
tween S5.OoO0tD and S6,CO00O worth and are
increasing. With paper mills along the South
Atlantic seaboard and In the Gulf States we
should control the Central and South American
trade. of which we are at present getting but
small proportion.