The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-02-25
FISH COMMISSIONER BULLER
SPEAKS To PAPER MAKERS
In New York City at Waldorf Thurs
day Evening Before Members of
the American Paper and Pulp
Association.

Commissioner of Fisheries, N. r.
Butler, of Pleasant Mount, deliver
ed an address before the members OF
the American Paper and Pulp Asso-
citation Thursday evening at the
Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.
The following is taken from the ad-
dress:
When a Commissioner of Fisheries
stands before an audience like this
he feels in the company exemplified
by the poet:
Two minds with but single thought,
Two hearts that beat as one,"
because the entire success OF both
parties lies in one thing and that is
pure water. Without pure water
the Commissioner of Fisheries is as
helpless in the raising OF fish as the
paper maker is in producing white
paper. Some one has said "let me
write the songs of my country and
care not who makes the laws but
in these days the advocates of law
would largely urge in favor of paper
on which to print the laws rather
than theRmethod pursued in the old
days of Assyria and other ancient
Kingdoms, when the laws were
printed on clay and baked into
DTIChS. w udJ SIduu W6dpOhS CllOSO
bricks would make these days over
in England where the Suffragets are
defying all the laws and would like
nothing better than to cast the law
covered brick hats through the win
dows of unoffending trades people.
The first paper makers in this
country used rags, and even the
Mummies of Ancient Egypt were
robbed to help keep up the supply,
but the supply of rags is no longer
equal to the demand, in spite of the
cry of so many persons that the poor
are growing poorer and there are
more of them, which would seem
ought to increase the supply of rags.
Then the paper men turned to
other sources and took lessons from
the first paper maker who used wood
pulp. A gentleman who used his pa
per to build a home, and while he
did not pollute the streams with any
refuse, the hornet carried sting in
his tail, which many small boy
found out when he thoughtlessly fir
ed stones at the papermaker's abode.
1t is the tail race of the pulp and
paper manufacturer to-day that car
ries the sting that annoys the Com
missioner of Fisheries who desires
pure water.
No one appreciates more than the
Commissioner of Fisheries the value
of the paper industry and the i'm
portance of its not being crippled,
but nevertheless, as | said at first,
pure water is as necessary to him
for his business, as it is for the pulp
and papermaker. When the paper
maker first located on the stream he
was probably the only manufacturer
upon it, and the pure water was as
cheap to him as the air which he
breathed. When, however, some
other manufacturer located above
him and began to run refuse in the
stream in the stream which spoiled
its pureness and brought trouble and
expense to the manufacturer, there
was another eXemplification of the
case of whose OK was gored. To
purify the water defiled by the man
above, the papermaker was compel
led to put in publication plants, and
this is a factor with which the fish
cry interest hopes to impress upon
you. If the manufacturer above
can be compelled to purify his water
then the money expended by the
paperman for getting that formerly
dirty water purified can be eXpend-
ed in seeing that his refuse no long
er pollutes the stream. A regard for
the rights of ones neighbors should
be inherent in every human mind,
because every one should do unto his
neighbor as his neighbor should do
unto him.
But back of all this is the question
of economy. In the workings of ma
ture there is no waste. When a
giant of the forest falls before the
storm, it lies on the ground and
gradually wastes away. Not an atom
of it is lost in the economy of nature
and the remnants of that tree go to
make up the food for a successor.
Eons ago when the world was young
er by some millions of years the
world bore a luxuriant crop of vege-
tation-trees and plants. In one of
those mysterious cataclysms of ma
ture, this vegetation was shrouded
in what is known as the carbonifer-
Gus age, and these trees and this
vegetation became what we to-day
called coal. This coal has become
one of the most important factors
of life, but with its use men are
learning that every part of that coal
mas d value, anu ali ludI 10 llOI odN GU
is so much of waste and a loss of
capital.
Among the most important uses
to which coal is put is in the form of
gas and coke and the manufacturers
of these products use coal by the
millions of tons. The coal repre-
sents in another form the tree that
lived at the carboniferous age, which
tree is almost identical with the tree
that is used by the papermaker to-
day. The gas and coke maker were
the first to recognize the fact that
in the workings of nature there is
no loss, everything being utilized.
The first ovens used to make coke
from this coal sent all the gas to
foul the abr, while the waste pro-
ducts ran to defile the streams. In
this latter they came in contact with
the fishery interests, and loud were
the demands that the pollution