The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-11-17

n Ia II WaSteful readers OF newspapers
in the world. Not only do we
a. have the largest papers for the
EArxrwEzuwrwm& least money, but we demand an
~NE7TESE1NNu extra edition almost every hour,
EN4AN3EASlA In the bigger cities of the coun-
kA1Ag&sSH try. Like griddle cakes, we like
" them only when they're hot, and
the wonderful pictorials for which the world has
been scanned by the editors, are thrown aside
after q cursory examination.
Did you ever stop to think Of the time when this
incessant demand for the print paper may not be
met? Already we hear of the rapid increase in the
price of pulp, which is reaching a stage where
many of the smaller publications of the country
will have to go out of business. Even the bigger
ones are feeling the pinch, and some are raising
their prices, others reducing the number of pages,
and still others are making the advertiser pay.
The newspapers have not been the only ones to
suffer by pulp shortage, for book publishers, too,
have had their worries. In fact, all users of paper,
down to the s~choolboy with his tablet, have had to
pay more for an inferior quality of paper than was
the case a year or two ago.
In 1914, we used about 5000 tons of newsprint
every day. Our present use has reached 5000
tons a day, and the demand is increasing at the
rate OF about 10 per cent a year, which Is greatly
In excess of the rate of increase in population.
To supply our presses with newsprint requires
annually about 100000 cords of pulp wood. To
meet our requirements for magazines and book
papers, stationery and business papers of all
kinds, 100000 cords more of pulp wood are con-
sumed annually. Production barely keeps up this
consumption, for while it is estimated the news
papers will need about SSS,OO0 tons for the first
six months of this year, the estimated supply is
fixed at 100000 tons.
But q few years ago this country was able to
supply all of its own needs and in addition fur
nish paper to foreign countries, but that time has
passed. Now we must depend upon Canada for
at least a third of our domestic supply, and this
percentage is rapidly increasing.
Our forefathers, and even our fathers, looked
about them, and saw apparently endless and in
exhaustible supplies of forest trees. The wood
man was not told to "spare that tree" and they
were ruthlessly, sometimes wantonly, destroyed.
Where one tree was utilized for commercial pur-
poses, two trees were allowed to remain as they
fell, only to rot away or be burned in the first
forest fire that swept over the devastated area.
Today this policy has resulted in our privately
owned supply of pulp woods being so exhausted
that not more than 10 years supply remains.
Serious as the situation appears to be, there is
no cause for alarm, If we wake up to our duty
to conserve our remaining supply. There Is
enough pulp wood In our national forest to meet
| the future needs of this country, and If we pur-
sue a systematic course in avoiding waste in our
wood-manufacturing plants and encourage the
reforestation of our %cut-over lands (of which
there are 10000, 900 acres in the northern states
alone) we could easily supply the world.
By following the correct practices of forestry,
and by conserving our supply, the publicly owned
timber in the United States will last indefinitely.
The forest service has estimated that there
are in the national forests at least BOO, OOO,OOO,OOO
feet Of pulp wood. This is equivalent to 100000
600 cords, and for all kinds of paper we use but
100000 cords a year. This estimate does not
include the pulp wood available on privately
owned lands of the West.
Practically all of our pulp is at present made
from northern woods, where stumpage costs run
from $3.50 to So per cord, standing in the forest,
In the West timber suitable for the manufacture
Of pulp ranges In price from % cents to SIPS
per cord. The fact that these vast supplies in
the West have not yet been developed is due to
several causes. Lack of transportation has been
q big handicap and then the large investments
tied up in the paper mills preclude their move
ment while 1t is possible to secure timber nearer
at hand, even at vastly higher prices.
From the standpoint of geographical location
and transportation to the majority of the paper
users in the central and eastern states. The
Western paper woods fall into two broad belts.
The first is available to tidewater shipments from
the Pacific coast, lying principally on the west
slope of the Cascade mountains in Oregon and
Washington, including vast areas tributary to
Puget sound and running up along the seaboard
in southeasterly Alaska. There are 70,OO0,OO0,-
600 feet of spruce and hemlock in the national
forests of Alaska alone. In many respects the
conditions found in Alaska duplicate those of
Norway, the leading country OF the world In the
paper Industry. 1t Is said by those who have
studied the country that the forest of Alaska will
produce more wealth for the United States than
even her gold or her coal, vast and valuable as
are those commodities.
The second timber belt of Western paper woods
extends through the northern Rocky mountains.
from the Canadian line into Colorado and Utah.
This belt, shut off from water transportation can
hardly be considered a practical source of supply
of paper for the eastern states, but is a logical
storehouse of raw materials for the paper re-
quirements of the Mississippi valley. The Rocky
mountains contain q number of excellent paper
woods, and with proper development should sup
ply both the paper required for local consump-