The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-09-09
ARE NEWSPAPERS
 WORTH SAVING?
If So Can An Intelligent Movement Be Organized
 to Stop This Waste?
81,OOO,OOO Acres of Idle Land That Could Be Put to Work-Nearly $1OO,- 100000 Needless Loss In Five Years--How It Could Be Obviated.
(By The Associated Press)

| DC ODVIdC0u.
 (By The Associated Press)
 Washington, Sept. 9-Need of elir1- | mating waste in the printing business,
 as shown in the report just issued by
 the Committee on Elimination of
 Engineering Council, is one of the
 most powerful arguments ever put | forth for a national forest, says a
 statement by the American Forestry | Association, which has made it the
 occasion to call on the World Press | Congress which meets in Honolulu in October to take some action the | forestry question.
 Upon what does the newspaper | depend for existence? ?" says the state
 menit- '1t depends upon paper made
 from wood pulp. There are about D. | 800 daily newspapers in the country. | Our annual consumption of 100000 | tons of newsprint year means a strip of paper as wide as the regu-
 ladon @ daily paper and about 4o,0O0,- | 000O miles long. Just a measure
 of distance. remember that the sun is | 92,000,00O miles away. It would also
 make two-foot wide ribbon of news | paper around the world 1900 times. | 'The time is coming when the 1 economic law of necessity will bring
 our own publications to some sort of | retrenchment The editors of the
 United States and of the world must
 take up this question. Already more | than one-third of our pulpwood comes l | Canada, profiting by our mistakes, is | now taking steps to forbid the cut | ting of timber at g. rate more rapid | than its growth. That means prim- | arily that our annual importati ton of
 Canadian pulpwood has practically l reached the maximum, and for the other two-thirds at least we will have to look after ourselves.
 '1f we once sQuarely face the facts, the solution of the problem will not
 be difficult. It is estimated that
 about 3,000,000 cords of wood per year are manufactured into paper for
 magazines and newspapers. At 10 | cords per acre this would mean 3O0,- 900 acres. Supposing that it takes
 about 40 to 50 years to grow good pulpwood spruce, and allowing for possible loss by fire, wind, blight or failure of seeding, a tract of 3O,0O0 square miles planted with 40 success ing to maturity at one year intervals, would under proper care and man. agemept furnish a perpetual supply
 of pu1pwood for newsprint. This
 means an area a little smaller than the state of Ohio. but represents less than one-tenth of the area of our
 cut-over lands, most of which are now almost entirely unproductive. There is no question but that a perpetual supply of pulpwood for all | needs is a possible and practical scheme. It will not however, come
 merely for the asking. There must be, first, a proper national forestry law with adequate provisions for fire protection and government of refor- estation on scale large enough to demonstrate the economic soundness
 of the idea; second, every state must adopt thorough-going forestry princi- pies with provisions to protect grow ing timber from exorbitant taxation; and, finally, with thSee laws as a basis. the pulp and paper industry, together with all other wood using industries, must be made to see that in practical reforestation and conser-
 vation lies their only salvation. To accomplish these three things will re- quire the united efforts of every man and woman. We should not leave to any group of foresters and 1egisla- tors the sole initiative in solving such
 an important economic problem; but. by the continued expression of our drought and conviction, we can urge those groups to supply our imminent need. Here is waste that staggers the imagination Forest fires annually
 destroy 100000 feet of timber. or material enough to build a five-room
 frame house every 100 feet on both sides of a road extending from New York to Chicago With four people to a house, these 100000 or more
 buildings would provide a home for nearly one-fourth of our yearly in crease in population-a mum Der suf-
 hcient to populate a new city each
 year the size of Cincinnati, New Or
 leans, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Mis-
 souri or Seattle.
 More than 160, 900 forest fires have
 occurred in the United States during
 the past five years, so per cent. of
 which were due to human agencies
 and therefore prevenkable. These 1
 confagrations burned over St, 6,4SS,0 900 |
 acres-an area greater than that in
 cluded within the states of Ohio and | Pennsylva nia-and destroyed $s5,-
 100000 worth of timber and prop
 erty. If this needless waste were l
 stopped and the material thus saved l
 put into houses. the various business |
 interests concerned in building con-
 struction, such as lumber dealers. car |
 penterS, maSonS, and supply houses, l
 would, it is estimated, benefit to the
 extent of more than s400,0 900, 900 an-
 nually, the American Forestry Asso-
 ciation points out. Bankers and real estate dealers would also profit through the sale of lands and by loans on homes to the extent of an addi-
 There are s1,00O,o00 acres of idle ! land in this country that should be
 put to work growing trees at once," : the asSociation'S statement concludes. | This is d proposition directly tied i Up with national prosperity now and ! in the future. All the money ie the l world will not buy food if there is no | food. All the money in the world | will not produce trees to order. We
 must begin right now to protect what | forests we have and to have forest | crops every year just as we have corn l and wheat crops The Committee on | the Elimination of Waste in Industry | has performed a valuable service but II great part of it is in the East and II Middle West close to the great news II papers. the greatest consumers who are now paying thousands of dollars | on freight rates to say nothing of a high market prce."