Evening star., 1908-01-23
SOME STARTLING FIGURES
Quantities Of Paper An
nually Printed.
ITS QUALITY IS NOT ENDURING
First Street Railway in Washington.
Opening of Line Great Event.
Secretary Chase's Interest.
BY WILLIAM L. CURTIS.

Herald
Mr. J. r. Chrischilles of Algona. Iowa
| asks if it is true that the material
| used in the newspapers of today will
| not last more than thirty or forty
/ years. and that copies of newspapers
| published two centuries ago or more
| will be read when the newspapers of
| today have decayed and faded into
| illegibility, What is the cause of such
deterioration. and is there no way to
| prevent it,"
Any person who will examine the
| earliest examples of the art If print
| ing from the presses and the paper
| mills of the sixteenth century Will be
| struck with the tirmncss of She tex
| ture, the clearness of the type and
| the color Of the ink that was used. The
| same is true of the earliest newspapers
| that were published, and if they were
| compared with the files of those that
| have been issued since wood pulp was
| substituted for rags in the manufacture
| of paper a decided difference would be
| observed. In the Library of Congress
| may be found copies of almost every
| newspaper that has been printed in
| North America, and as the art of
| printing has gradually advanced the
material used has gradually dcterio-
| rated. until those that arc issued today
are so rotten that they will last but
| d few years.
| The British Museum requires fnat the
copies of the principal English papers
| intended for its files shall be printed
| upon durable paper. on the theory that
| it is waste of trouble and moEey to
| will not outlive its generation And
| if the Congressional Library at Wash
| ington desires to preserve the records
and the opinions of the present day
method. The fiber used by our daily
| papers rots very rapidly and turns
| yellow within a few months. any
one can see who has access to bound
| his garret. 1t is noticeable even in
| those that are used for carpet lining
| and for covering pantry shelves or for
| wrapping articles that are slowed
away. That is the common experience
| of every housekeeper and some cynics
| have been SO inconsiderate as to as
| sert that tho poorer paper our news
| papers use the better it will De for fu-
! ture generations.
| Destruction of the Forests.
The forestry bureau is trying to find
| substitute for wood pulp IN paper
| making-not because it desires to pre-
serve the journalistic wisdom and wit
of it's generation, but because its busi-
ness is to protect the forests from the
ravages they have suffered in secur-
| ing supply of raw material for the
paper mills, which consume such vast
quantities of spruce, poplar. aspen,
| hemlock. pine and other trees. Ihe
| foresters are experimenting with rice
| straw, fax straw, cornstalks and a
| grass called Cogon that grows wild in
| the Philippines of which shiploads may
| be had for the cutting. This is very
/ important matter. both for the news
/ papers and for the public. Paper man
1
of woodland in Canada as we'll as in
| the United States. because they realize
| how fast the forests are disappearing.
| An area half as large as the state of
| Rhode Island is stripped every year
to make wood pulp. and no trees have
| been planted to take the places OF
those that are cut. Several important
| material interests are threatened by
| this wasteful devastation.
The publishers of this country are using
| more than ..5OOU,0 cords of wood every
year One of the New York daiies. which
| has taken the trouble to weigh Its material
| and to keep a record thereof. used a .33
S7J pounds of white newspaper last year
which is an average of 2l1.sI' pounds a
/ day Figuring that so per cent of this Is
| wood pulp and 20 per cent sulphite fiber,
| the Sunday edition of that paper requires
| the destruction of 291 acres OF forest lana,
| and every weekday edition requires ap-
| proxfmately the destruction of 11.5 acres
| These figures suggest the Importance both
to the news publishers and the puDllc OF
| finding some substitute for wood pulp or
| adopting some system of forest manage
| ment by which the mill-cwnerS will stop
| the wasteful recklessness shown in strip
| ping the mountain sides in New Hamp-
| shire Vermont, Maine and other New
| England states.
! Since 1899 the amount of wood consumed
| annually for newspaper printing has in
| creased from 100000 to $500 900 cords
| The amount used during the last year was
| 469 O53 cords greater than that of any
| previous year. In 1906 there was con-
| sumed for pulp 2,507,o02 cords of spruce
| 52S, ,3S1 cords oA hemlock, :,2S 40 cords of
| poplar 69.211 cords of pine. :si.SS6 cords
| of balsam and 194,16O cords of other
| woods.
New York furnished 1,23,.904 cords of
| this material, or more than twice as much
| as Maine, which ranks next. with 61I, 743
| cords. Wisconsin ranks third with 542.
354 cords, New Hampshire, 319.129 cords;
| Pennsylvania, 2S2.973 cords, and Michigan,
| 11J,212 cords. The consumption of 1907 in
| New York shows a small decrease from
| previous years because the forests are be-
| ing rapidly cut away. The largest increase
| has been in Maine, Wisconsin, Pennsyl-
vania and New Hampshire.
The First Washington Railway.
The biography of the late Jay Cooke
| which has recently been printed, contains
many interesting facts and incidents re-
lating to the local history of the city of