The Topeka state journal., 1919-11-12
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL.
INFORM ALTON
BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HAEKIrS. D4ree4ae.
waahtnxtan. .. c
PACIFIC FORESTS AND THE PA
PER SHORTAGE.


per shortage, which is making our
Indispensable newspaper shrink year
by year. and which is steadily growing
worse, will never be relieved until
mills have been built in the great
evergreen forests of the west, and es-
pecially of the Pacific coastal noun
tains. Agreements, economies and
trade commissions are makeshifts.
Sitka pulp and western hemlock,
ground into pulp by swift western
streams and shipped east by way of
the Panama Canal. are the only feas-
ible means of keeping American
presses running This Is the gist Oh
the findings of government experts in
various departments who are devotinS>
all of their time to the paper situation.
The paper shortage has been one
of the most serious matters in life to
the publishers of newspapers for sew
eral years, but the reading public is
just beginning to realize the gravity of
the situation. This gravity can be bet
ter appreciated in the light of a state
ment made by government forester.
He says that most of the pulp wood
within reach of paper mills now oper-
ating in this country will be gone in
fifteen years and that within twenty
years it will all be gone.
In the opinion of the foresters, this
result is due primarily to the waste
full methods of the pulp concerns,
which have stripped the lands of pulp
wood, generally leaving not enough
seedlings ana Sapl1nSS TO TeprOQuce
the stand. The stripped lands grow
up in brush and in birch, poplar and
other soft woods which may be used
for book paper but not for news print
paper.
The solution, it is suggested by sew
eral students of the problem, is for
the publishers to build their own mills.
The timber they need exists. In
Washington, Oregon and in Alaska
there are stands of Sitka spruce and
western hemlock so dense that thirty
to fifty tons of wood may be cut to
the acre, and enough small stuff may
be left to reproduce the stand. The
New England and Canadian lands
from which we are now getting our
pulp wood produce four or five tons
of material to the acre. 1t is said that
it takes thirty acres of forest to print
one edition of a great metropolitan
newspaper. This may be true Of the
Canadian forests. But one acre of the
would probably serve for an edition
of the greatest newspaper in the coun-1
try.
The great distance of the northwest
forests from the places where the
paper is used has prevented their de-
velopment. Fifty per cent of all the
publishing business in this country is
between Boston and Chicago. The
lake states and the New England
located, form the logical source of
supply for the American publishers.
But this source is almost exhausted.
1t will take quarter of q century of
CAREFUL reforestatiop to restore these
forests. Canada is the next source of
importance, and Canada is failing TO
meet the demand. When paper was
cents a pound, it would have been
sheer folly to talk of Alaska and other
Pacific coast forests, but with paper
soil at nd uyif Prf
paper a possibility of the future, it
is folly no longer.
THE conservation of the publishers
in this matter said one expert, lis
almost incredible. Why don't they
make their own paper? They have
the capital and the material exists in
abundance in the west. It's q long
haul, but it's an all-water haul. There
is the best of water power to run the
mills. Some eastern pulp concerns are
carrying their timber three OF four
hundred miles by rail to the mills. In
the west, enormous quantities of ma
terial would be at the very doors of
the mills. The proposition certainly
looks feasible on the face of it. There
is no doubt about the water power or
the timber; the forest service has re-
ported on these. 1t only remains for
some one to figure the cost OF making
paper in the northwest and delivering
it by water in the east. Altho the
country faces a paper famine, ne one
seems sufficiently interested to act in
a big and effective way
In order to make the paper situation
clear to the layman, it is necessary to
explain that there are four processes
for making paper from wood. The
sulphide process is used for making
pulp from evergreen wood, chiefly
spruce and hemlock, and producing
the raw material for newspapers. The
ground wood pulp process, which re-
quires a high degree of power, is used
for the same material and also pro-
duces a news print paper. The soda
pulp process is used for soft woods OF
broad-leaved trees, such poplar.
birch and aspen. This pulp will do
for book paper, but not for newspaper,
which must be very tough. Spruce is
is also treated by q sulphate process,
but this produces an unbleachable pa
per which is suitable for wrapping
purposes. but not for printing. Be
sides these sources. paper is made
from waste paper, from rags, old rope
and from straw.
In the present emergency, all sorts
of materials are being tested Florida
saw grass, cornstalks. cotton hulls,
bamboo and cypress have all been
used experim entally in making paper.
All can be used to a certain extent and
after a fashion, but none of them
solves the problem.
Cotton 'linters'' are one of the most
promising new materials. The linters
are a sort of fuzz that remains in the
cotton hull after the staple cotton has
been removed. During the war, lint
ers were used for making gun cotton,
and their production and cleaning was
brought to a high state of perfection.
It is said that the War Departm ent
had 100000 bales of linters on hand
when the war ended. and that this
was sold for export It is also said
that about the same amount could be
produced annually in this country.
But linters are used chiefly for max
ing book paper. and it is the news
print paper situation that is most