Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-11-18
PRINT PAPER PROBLEM
Future American Supply Very I'm.
certain.
CONSUMPTION EXCEEDS PRODUCTION

UUVUUWl llUV LnULLDV IhoDOulAVN
Suitable Pulp Timber Has Been Cut
Out of the Northeast, and Unless
Something is Done to Develop the
Northwest and Alaska, the Outlook
is Gloomy.
BY Frederick ]. Haskin.
The paper shortage, which is making
our indispensable newspapers 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 make shifts.
Sitka spruce and western hemlock,
ground into pulp by swift western
streams and shipped east by way of
the Panama canal, are the only fea-
sible means Of keeping American
presses running. This is the gist OF
the findings of government experts
voting all of their time to the paper
situa ton.
The paper shortage has been one
of the most serious matters in life
to the publishers Of newspapers for
several years, but the reading public
is just beginning to realize the grav-
| ity of the situation. This gravity can
be better appreciated in the light of
statement made by a government
forester. He says that most Of the
pulp wood within reach Of paper mills
now operating in this country will be
gone in Is years, and that within 20
years, it will all be gone.
In the opinion Of the foresters,
this result is due primarily to the
wasteful methods of the pulp con-
Germs, which have stripped the lands
of pulpwood, generally leaving not
enough seedlings and saplings to re-
produce 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 Wash
fHgton,- Oregon andsirfS Alaska there are
stands of sitka spruce and western
| hot tn G
Of wood may be cut to the acre, and
enough small stuff may be left to re-
produce 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 30 acres
Of forest to print one edition of great
metropolitan newspaper. This may be
true of the Canadian forests. But one
acre of the dense northwest ever
green forests would probably serve
for an edition of the greatest news
pa per in the country.
The great distance of the northwest
forests from the places where the pa
per 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
states, where most of the mills are To-
Gated, form the logical source of supply
for the American publishers.
But this source is almost exhausted
1t will take a quarter of a century OF
careful reforeStation to restore these
forests. Canada is the next source of
Importance. and Canada is failing to
meet the demand. When paper was
two cents a pound, it would have been
sheer folly to talk of Alaska and other
Pacific coast forests, bu: with paper
selling at seven cents, and with ten
cents paper a possibility Of the future.
it is folly no longer.
The conservatism of the publish
ers in this matter" said one expert,
| "is almost incredible. Why don't
they make their own paper? They
have the capital and the material eX-
lists in abundance in the west. It's a
long haul, but it's an all-water haul.
There is the best water power to run
the mills. Some eastern pulp concerns
are carrying their timber 800 or 400
miles by rail to the mills. In the west,
enormous quantities of material 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 waterpower or the timber; the
forest service has reported on these
Il Cnly remains for some one TO fig
ure the cost of making paper in the
northwest and delivering it by water
in the east Although the country
faces paper famine, no one seems
sufficiently interested to act in big
and effective way"
In order to make the paper situa-
tion clear to the layman it is necessary
to explain that there are four pro
cesses for making paper from wood
The sulphide process is used for max
ing pulp. from evergreen wood, chiefly
spruce and hemlock and producing th'
raw material for newspapers. The