The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-08-24

wrapping paper. But it is not in wrap
ping paper that the dangerous scarcity
is now to be found. Those who per-
fected an excellent brown paper from
the cotton plant were told that If they
could persuade chemistry so to react upon
the pulp as to produce the same results
which chemistry produces with spruce
pulp, there was no doubt that the fibre
Of the cotton plant would supplement the
paper manufactured from wood pulp.
There seems, however, to have been SO
far failure in SO treating the fiber of the
cotton stalk as to produce an available
white paper. Some specimens of paper of
that kind have been shown, but the sus-
picion Is strong that the pulp cannot be
treated to commercial advantage, or at
least the way has not yet been found
To treat it.
Possibly. in view of the prevailing
sea city of white paper, science combined
with invention may discover the way to
utilize rice for paper manufacture. The
Corn Products company now makes use
OF cornstalks for the purpose of making
an excellent quality of wrapping paper
But cornstalk fiber will never, unless
science Unexpectedly shows the way
yield a pulp which can be converted into
low grade-although 1t is commonly called
newspaper paper.
tlnguished for the admirable quality of
its paper. One mill in eastern New Eng
land for more than 100 years furnished
the paper which the Harper Brothers
/, publication house used. The peculiar
quality of the water in the Berkshires,
combined with inventive skill, has made
il possible to produce a paper entirely
satisfactory to the government for use in
treasury department operations. No bet
h NADIA than that
which American manufacturers produced
| from linen pulp. Therefore, the impress
sion is strong that science and invention
may in view of the present very great
emergency-a much greater emergency
than that caused by the scarcity of dye
stuffs-at last discover the natural ma
terial which will supplement the use of
spruce pulp in paper making There is
no doubt that the situation is serious
and presents perhaps the gravest prob
lem the publishers have ever been COM
PEELED to face.
SPREAD OF THE EPIDEMIC
The reports from health officers who
recently met at Washington which told
of the spread of the epidemic of infan-
tile paralysis so that it covers much
OF the United States leads some of the
authorities here to suspect that there
may be truth in the statement of two
Chinese observation-disclosures by BIRTH but
American by training-that the disease in
China for centuries has been recognized
as due to atmospheric conditions. 1t
certainly could not have spread all over
the United States from Brooklyn. The
Connecticut health authorities were in
formed a few days ago that in England
after a long spells of humid damp,
cloudy weather, the physicians looked for
| an outbreak of this disease. There they
do not regard it as especially contagious.
They do believe that many children are
immune. The atmospheric conditions in
the United States this summer have been
| unusual. Some of the authorities say
| they have been phenomenal. They have
played havoc with the crops. There is a
growing impression that quarantining
may be carried too far For it has been
observed that in spite of strict quaran-
| timing the disease has suddenly appeared
in country districts where there has been
no exposure of kind that would make
contagion possible. 1t is the understand
ing at the Rockefeller institution in this
city that a study of the disease. with
patient research will be continued even
after the epidemic has ended.