Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1909-11-10

| Then came the new industry. All
| through the state there are countless
thousands OF spruce trees, not large
enough to cut Tor lumber manufacture,
which will not attain sufficient size for
| fifty years or more. 1t was discovered
that by grinding up the wood OF these
trees, Q pulp could be produced, which,
properly treated, could De made into paper.
So the first paper mill was built. The ex-
pertinent succeeded, and now all over the
| State. on tidewater and in the wilderness,
are rising dozens Of these mills, Some
large, some small, to eat away the rem
nants of the forest which the lumberman's
axe would lave spared. But these mills
| use logs which might be turned into mar
keta BILE lumber as well as the smaller ones
which now are fit for nothing but to
be ground up. They can afford to pay as
much as the lumber manufacturer. If
paper plants continue to be built at their
present rate of increase they will soon
Lumber can be manufacted in the north
west more cheaply than in Maine, SO
Names ascendancy as q lumber State is
done forever.
The principles Of modern forestry are
being slowly introduced, but modern for
estry cannot make young trees into old
ones by preservation il there are no more
young trees to preserve. Even fir and the
poplar are being cut to mix with spruce
for the making Of pulp paper. The Maine
forests are going.
But the forests OF other states have also
gone, and those states have not become
impoverished. Massachusetts,, New York,
Pennsylvania were covered with timber
once, and even now that it is cut down
they are not poor. And neither will
Maine be poor. The more paper mills
there are the more railroads there will be,
the more railroads the more people, the
more people the more prosperity. When
the forests are down the fruits of the land
will spring up in never-ending succession,
until the end OF the world. Even now in
the great Aroostook country, every spring
sees new field, full of stumps and rocks,
just as the woodmen left it, blossoming
into life, and bearing potatoes by the mil
lion bushels. This cannot mean poverty.
Barley, corn, wheat, vegetables, fruit, all
can be grown in Maine soil, and their pro-
ducts can be manufactured. Fifteen mil
lions OF bushels Of potatoes grown on land
stripped OF its timber does not indicate
unhsppiness, and the millions of pounds
OF starch, which ia the product Of the
hundreds OF factories, does not mean
shrinkage Of wealth.
When the timber is gone, and the pulp
wood is gone, the rivers will remain as
they have in other States, and the water
power of the rivers will remain, to be
used for the multitude OF purposes de-
ties. water-power means electricity, and
electricity produced cheaply means
wealth. 1t is Names era. Prosperity
forever is within her borders, undeveioped
for the present, but potential and ll-pow-
erful for the future.
So the paper mill, which has evidently
come to stay, is not destined to be the
ruinous, devastating creature of selfish
capital which the lumber manufacturer at
present calls it. 1t is to be the medium
of an intermediary step that will ulti-
mateIy raise the State of Maine from the
level Of community primitive in its en-
Payments and rough in its ways to the
plane which her sister States have already
reached through like means. All through
the worlds history the destructive ele-
menr has been prominent for the good
Wars have been necessary to promote the
advancement of nations, even though
they seemed terrible and wicked offences
against nature at the time. Machinery
was introduced only after the bitterest
struggle, to the quick benefit of mankind.
Political systems have been developed
only after they have passed through the
fiercest imaginable ordeals, and history
itself is one long tale Of disasters and de-
feats provided wisely and we'll by the
ordination OF the universe for the ultimate
good of the world.
Though the paper mills destroy the for
ests Of Maine, they will prepare the way
for more lasting and more mature indus
tries, which in their turn, as the need be-
comes felt, will dissolve and give place to
others. But the source OF power to turn
the wheels will always remain, ready to
| be put to the greatest use to the
human race. The numberless water
| co urses OF Maine will endure, to be i'm
proved as they were intended to be i'm
proved; the great natural reservoirs will
hold stored within their banks the pot
entail energy to turn the wheels OF in
dussry; the land will supply this material
and feed its population; and even though
now, as in the past, the cry goes up that the
State is to be ruined by the coming great
| industry, the community will emerge
| prosperous, triumphant in its own re-
sources and confident in its people.
And its people. What OF them? Are
| the young men to continue to go to the
| West to win their fortunes? Or are they
to stay at home, to work at home, to grow
rich with the land, to breed their strong,
robust New England sons and daughters,