The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-12
SOUTH AND ENTERTAINING

age of newsprint paper which caused publishers everywhere great concern. The subject was of wide and frequent public discussion, and at one time occu- pied the attention of congress. The mar ket price rose to a high level, and the Canadian manufacturers on whom Amer ican consumers relied to make up the shortage were inclined to take advan- l tage of their situation. Canada also steadfastly refused to modify her regu- lations regarding the cutting of pulp wood, the shipment of pulp and the man. ufacture of paper. The Dominion gov ernment even revoked certain American spruce-wood concessions, or at least re- quired that the manufacture be com pleted in Canada. Some American man. ufacturers established mills in Canada, while Canadian mills expanded their out put to meet the growing American de- mand due to our vanishing supply of pulp wood.
 The result has been to supply the American demand in adequate measure, even if at a higher price level than for merly prevailed. America is still the largest producer of white paper, but consumes also more than she produces. The approaching exhaustion of the pulp wood supply and the stimulus of good prices have stirred American enterprise to careful consideration of the field and to measures designed not only to main tain the supply, but actually to increase it permanently and progressively beyond all previous proportions. The success that has attended this venture is per ceived in the records for April. The consumption of paper in this country in April was about the same as in March; but the imports of paper declined eight per cent. According to the department of commerce. report: Production and shipments of newsp1int paper increased eight per cent in April, while imports declined eight per cent" Thus it is seen that our imports vary directly as the diff ference between our production and our requirements.
 The manner in which the newsprint emergency is being met in this country Is a worthy example of how conservation methods, long preached and urged upon the country, may be>followed at greater profit than the old wasteful methods they replace. The most promising field for the application of conservation methods to pulp-wood supplies is the South, which 1A A. ,vNa wood six times as fast as required for domestic consumption. This is a re- markable return on conservation prac- tices, because under the wasteful prac- tices the supply has been steadily and rapidly diminishing.
 The use of Southern pine for paper making has rapidly expanded as new methods of digesting, bleaching and manufacture have been successfully ap- piled. At present the principal product of Southern paper mills is kraft or wrap ping paper, brown or yellow in color and quite heavier than newsprint. Chemical research, however, has shown the manu- facture of high-grade newsprint from pitch pine to be not only practicable, but equally as profitable as from Northern and Canadian spruce. The turpentine and rosin are valuable by-products which help to carry the cost of the overhead. The companies now making paper in the South are also practicing cutting meth ods that tend to conserve the pulp-tim- Der supply and to increase the output annually.
 The most important Southern mills at present appear to be one in southern Mississippi and one in Louisiana. The latter is operated by the largest lumber company in that state. The company plans eventually to withdraw from lum- Der manufacture and to develop the paper-making industry, having assured itself that it is able to develop at once an inexhaustible supply of pulp-wood from it's own cutoyer lands. The success of these companies has already attracted nationwide attention, and there is every reason to believe that the next industry of importance to show new activity in the South will be the manufacture of all grades of paper from Southern second growth pine. These companies will all practice conservation methods, because it is on such methods that the entire practicability of Southern manufacture of paper is based. Without such methods mill would hardly get under good head way before it's raw materials would be diminished and the haulage increased.
 This industry will be of tremendous value to the entire South, rendering at once productive an immense area of cut over land that has until recently been regarded as of little promise for the inn mediate future. The South is just be- ginning to come into it's own, and pre- sents to the nation all the invitation of an unexpiored and rich industrial em-