The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1921-10-25
AMERICA DEPENDENT
UPON OTHER COUNTRIES
FOR PAPER SUPPLY
Two.thlrds Of the Supply Of News
Print Used In America Comes
From the FOregn
Markets.

the news print used in the United
States in 1920 was made from wood
grown on foreign soil. Out of more
than 100000 tons Of wood pulps con-
sumed for all purposes 35 per cent
came from foreign markets. Over
$191,OOO,0O0 was paid for the pulp
wood, wood pulp, and paper imported.
To this extent the United States has
become dependent upon markets out
side its control. This country can no
longer draw its supply from on rarp-
idly disappearing eastern forests. As
a result primarily of forest depletion
the cost of pulp wood rose more than
ITO per cent. in the five-year period
1916-192O, and Of wood pulp IS per
cent. since 1918. These an dother facts
are presented in a bulletin pulp
Wood Consumption and Wood Pulp
Production, 1920" prepared by the
Forest Service, United States Depart
ment of Agriculture, in cooperation
with the American Pulp and Paper
Association of New York.
Prior to 1909 practically all the pa
per consumed in this country was
manufactured here. This is no longer
true. The United States is now be-
coming more and more an important
Nation, and the paper making indus
try has grown until its capitalization
approached the billion dollar mark.
1.-THE trouble in BRIEF says the bull
letin, lis that we have mills without
forests in the East and forests with
out mills | nthe West" In New Eng
land and New ork where the forests
have been largely worked out, there is
the heaviest concentration of mills.
In Alaska, where there is enough
spruce and hemlock to supply present
American news-print requirements in
definitely, there is only one mill. The
industry has remained stationary in
the East while the lumber industry
has moved West.
I'm Minnesota, for instance, where
domestic spruce forms IS per cent of
the consumption, pulp wood cost
$1O.40 per ton less than in New York.
If New York pulp mills could have
bought their spruce from native for
ests at saving of $40 a cord the saw
ings on their imports alone would
have been $5,OOO,OOO during the yeal
1920"
Expensive Sastern mills con not be
moved West nor can the great forests
of Alaska and the Pacific slope be set
down in New England and New York
Nor can the United States count upon
reducing the amount of pulp wood
necessary to meet present require
ments. Further, Canada can not be de-
pended upon Indefinitely as source
of supply, for Canadian forests are nc
more limitless than those of the Unit
ed States.
The remedy is twofold: locate more
mills on the Pacific slope and refor-
est the East.
"Reforestation will take not only
skill, energy and money! says the
foresters, "but NOSE serious Of all
many years must elapse befoe the
East can be put on thoroughly self
supporting basis. ct there is no choice
left to us. The work must be under
taken We must have pulp and for
every year Of delay We must pay in
cleasingly heavy penalties for ne
glecting to restore the forests as fast
as the wood Is consumed"
As the result Of unregulated lum-
bering 1t Is pointed out, followed by
fire, more than 100000 acres Of po-
tential forest lands, most ACCESSIBLE to
Eastern and Lake State mills, are now
producing nothing or supporting a
growth of little use except for fire
wood. II they were producing only a
third Of cord Of pulp wood an acre,
every year, the total yield would be
20, 100000 cords or approximately
twice the amount needed to supply the
entire American consumption at the
present time.
Wood-pulp production in 1920 is
placed at 3,S21,7 tons and the aver
age value at the mill at s72.20 per ton,
an increase Of 1882 per ton. or 81
per cent over 1918 figures.