Evening star., 1920-03-06
|NEWS.PR|NT NEEDS
THEME OF C..L.PACK
Hopes Senate viii Restore
Forestry Service Fund,
Cut Out by House.

| 'The news print situation should
bring a showdown in this country
as to the need Of a national forest
policy. yet the House has cut the ap-
preparations that provide the forest
service with money to continue forest
investigation work and to help the
states in fire protection" said Charles
Lathrop Pack. president Of the Amer
Fayette Hotel last night. THE Senate
committee on forestry can do no
greater service to the country at this
time than to restore those appropria-
, tions to their original figure, con-
tinued Mr.. Pack. Tho great drive on
in the forests Of France. Must we
wait for invasion to teach US the les
son France learned 125 years ago,
when she adopted a policy to perpet-
uate her forestsT
Cost Of Raw Materials.
Manufacturing establishments pay
out annually in the aggregate four
teen and a quarter billions of dollars
for raw materials. and the part OF the
wood using industries in that huge
expenditure amounts to more than
one billion dollars. or 7 per cent. ac-
cording to figures Of the American
Forestry Association. The value OF
the products OF the $1,000 establish
ments amounts to nearly two and a
cent Of the total value of all manu-
factures. The value Of the products
of the wood-using industries is
slightly more than doubled by the
process Of refinement at the hands OF
the more than a million wage earners.
plants, totaling three billion dollars.
Is 13 per cent OF the aggregate in
vestment Of twenty-five and three
quarter billion dollars In manufac-
lures.
Increase In the use Of news print
has been 200 per cent in twenty
years and the population has In
creased 70 per cent" says Mr.. Pack.
That means a great reading public
and q moro widely reading public.
Ten years ago the United States pro-
duced its entire supply Of pulp wood.
but now two-thirds Of 1t is imported.
This means transportation rates to
be added to the purchase price.
THE use Of pulp wood In the man
ufacture Of news print paper has been
developed only in the last fifty
years. OF all the paper used in the
United States 20 per cent Is used by
the newspapers.
Before the war news print paper
sold for about 2 cents a pound: now
It sells in large quantities for cents
a pound and In small quantities up
to 10 cents pound"
Value OF War Lesson.
As to the value Of the lesson
learned by France. Mr.. Pack points
to an article in the American For
sey. jr., lieutenan. colonel. engineers.
U. s. A.. and a member Of the inter-
allied war wood committee. In the
article on the Importance Of a forest
policy to France. illustrated by Com
mandant Thiollier Of the French
Col. Woolsey writes:
Had France allowed the destruction
Of her forests during the nineteenth
century the allies might have lost
the war. Not only were the wood sup
plies required locally to economize
but the forests themselves were need
ed as a line of defense. Without such
forests as Ccmpeigne, Villiers-Cot-
terets. Coucy. St. Gobain. Foret de la
Mont de Retms and others, 1t 10 prob
able that the German drives In 1918
they were-and they nearly succeed
ed as 1t was. 1t is at least significant
that the German advance on Paris in
June. 1913. was stopped in the for
ests OF Compeigne and Villers-Cot-
terets.
Inc VAlue OF inc 1oreSIs 40 means
Of defense is so recognised that the
French forest code provides that no
private forests can be denuded. in
the frontier zones, without the spe-
ciac approval of the civil and military
authorities"
I'm time Of peace or in time Of war"
Mr.. Pack adds. forests are the back
bone of industry. The forest fires in
this country burn every year more
than ten times the area Of devastated
France. A national forest policy
and better IRE protection are tho big
gest problems of this our reconstruc-
ton era"