Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-09-22
PAPER FROM PULP.
Names Place in a New and
Great Industry,
What This Business is Likely to Mean
to Our State.
The Destruction of the Forests and the
Future Maine.

| in the last ten years an industry has
been born to the State of Maine, which
is already great, and which in the next
decade is to become doubly important.
both to the State and to the country. if
not to the whole world. 1t is the man.
ufacture of paper from wood
| The tremendous activity in this in
| dustry, even in the past three or four
years, is indicative of the future, and
since there are no signs that a greater
output is not needed, it is quite safe to
| predict that in the next ten years the
productive power of the State will be
doubled or even trebled. Whether or
not the manufacture of paper in Maine
| is to be a permanent institution time
alone will tell, but in view of the fact
that the great forests which must sup
ply the raw material may be cut off as
have those of other states, there is
| certain probability that the industry
| will mark merely an epoch in the
evolutionary development of the
| States resources.
| This theory seems at least tenable
| when it is remembered that everywhere
| in the world the woodsman's axe has
been the fcrerunner of civilization. If
as mills of any kind are bound to do.
more tillable land will be demanded
The mills themselves will be re-
sponsible for the greatest inroads upon
the timber. ana cultivation of the for
merly wooded areas will surely follow.
So it has gone in the past, and so it
viii go On in the future. When the mills
are no longer able to obtain material
from which to make paper, there will
be a demand for other products, to
which the power furnished by the
rivers and streams may be turned. But
for the present and the immediate fu-
ture, the prosperity of Maine appears
to rest with the immense new business
which has suddenly grown up within
her borders and which is spreading
month by month and year by year to
Uphold the dignity of labor in the State,
and to indicate her motto-"Drigo"-
| lead.
The sequence of events which has led
to this present period in Names in
dustrial history is direct and logical
When the territory which is now Maine
was first settled. it was by people OF
the same cult as those who later gave
civilization to the West They came in ,
search of elbow room, caring little for ,
the society of others; only asking to be :
left to their own scheme CT existence: /
to hunt. to fish, to clear their lands, |
and to bring UP their children to sturdy |
man and womanhood. They overcame
dangers as great as those braved by I
any pioneers of this country, and |
gained a foothold for those who came /.
after. At first they were content to .
provide for themselves .Ialone. The
other states along the coasts had their /
own forests, from which to cut their I
timber. and Maine was not needed as a i
source of supply. When the timber !
lands of Massa chusetts and New York !
were at last so encroached upon that !
they could no longer meet the demands |,
of the growing country, Maine was
chosen as the place most accessible |
from which to obtain lumber.
Mills were built, and the State be- |
came at single bound the greatest
lumber market in the world. With the
immense tracts of timbered country to |
draw upon, the extravaganza Of the I
old-time lumberman was sublime.
Nothing but pine was considered
worthy Of their axes, and the work of
stripping the State Of tree which has
given it it's name commenced. The
work was done so thoroughly that to-
day hardly q clumD of dozen mar
ketable trees can be found together in
any one place. Pine has been practi-
cally exterminated, and it is but a
question of years when it Will remain
only in the State coat-of-arms as a
tradition. and a reminder of the waste
fulness of men.
When the pine grew scarce attention
was turned to spruce, which until then
had been looked upon as worthless.
Hemlock also became of some value,
and was cut in small quantities. Hun
dreds of millions of feet of logs were
cut every winter to be sawed into
boards for export to all parts of the
East No timbered country with
boundary could stand such a strain
forever and as large trees grew
scarcer and scarcer near the manu-
featuring centres, men were Obliged TO
go deeper into the woods. SO the line.
of settlement began to creep north I'M
til it touched the Canadian border.
Railroads had to be built to carry sup
plies to the numbering towns in the in
terror. and the larger towns in the
southern portion grew into thriving
cities. Mills appeared on the principal
watercourses, dams were built and
facilities for driving the logs to the
mills were increased 1t was an epoch
OF unrivalled prosperity for the people
If the state Lands rose in price and
! owners of tracts containing hundreds of
| thousands of acres gradually found
/ themselves to be millionaires. But the
! timber. the timber was going; the
gigantic forests, seemingly. bounded
only by the edge of the world, were dis
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