The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-02-28
ALASKA AND THE PAPER INDUSTRY.

LASKA AND THE PAPER INDUSTB Under the above caption, Assistant DistI rester B. F Heintzleman contributes an int ting and informative article in the Janui view Number Of the Pacific Pulp Pa dustry In il he discusses the relative va various purposes of Southeastern Alask nber resources as compared with those of cifc Coast States and British Columbia. includes that while Alaska offers a poorer rtunity for the making of sulphite and s ate pulp, and kraft products than the loN cifc Coast areas including British Coum excels in the resources that lend themsel the manufacture of woodpup and newspri e British Columbia opportunity, however. arer equal 10 Alaskas than is the Pac ,rthwest
 MT. Heintzleman reasons as follows
 The present day tendency is to make newsprint in mills of larger and larger size and the latest plants have capaei- ties of 100 to 600 tons per day. They represent tremendous investments, $15,- 900, ,OO0 to $25, 1000, ,0G0 each, and can only be justified when backed up. by huge timber holdings assuring an ade- quate supply of wood indefinitely, or at least for a very long period, say 30 years. These plants have so far been confined almost entirely to Canada, where cheap pulp timber in immense quantities has been available and where the policy of the Provinces has been to allot the required large reserves to the mills under form of license calling for payment as cutting proceeds. It fol- lows that if the Pacific Coast newsprnt is to compete a large scale in the general markets with the output of these large Eastern Canadian concerns, it must likewise be manufactured in large plants to get the benefit of equally low manufacturing costs. The coast mills will need the backing of the same huge timber supplies, and these supplies must be on basis that will give reasonable wood costs
 It is believed that in Oregon, Wash ington, and Southern British Columbia the opportunity is very limited for paper mills of say 500-ton daily capacity, to acquire loggable blocks of timber of five billion board feet each, at a figure which they can afford to pay The sawmills would offer great competition for this timber and the cost would be based on it's value for lumber and not for newsprint. Again, if acquired at present. day figures, the investment in timber re- serves would be increased during the long operating period by carrying charges in the form of interest, taxes, fire protection and fire losses that the wood costs would become excessive in comparison with those of the Canad- ian newsprint mills. The presence of nonpulping species, such as Douglas fir, in the holdings would materially in crease the total amount of timber that would have to be carried.
 A 500-ton newsprnt mill is not, like ly to be established in the important lumber producing sections of the Coast on the basis of buying logs in the open market too great risks are involved in view of the heavy plant investment. Competition for logs with the sawmills and with the smaller paper mills pro- dueing higher grade paper is bound to increase as time goes on and to extend to logs of poorer and poorer grade. The costs of logs fiuctuates widely with the lumber demand; spruce which must be used in certain ratio to other woods if the Coast newsprint is to compete on quality and manufacturing cost in
 the general markets is quite limited
 in quantity in the Pacific Northwest and Southern British Columbia, and finds ready and rapidly increasing sale as sawlogs. Lastly, as the pulping species idrsely SIOW III mlXture With Douglas fir and cedar which are valueless for newsprint but important lumber trees, period of depression in the lumber market might occasion such shut down of logging camps as to endanger seriously the supply of pulp wood.
 ' The writer believes that Alaska offers the better location for large mod ern newsprint mills that conditions under which the industry will operate in that region place the mills on more favorable competitive basis with those of Eastern Canada than is pos sible in any other section of the Pa cifc Coast and in consequence that material expansion of this industry will be centered first in Alaska.
 Mir. Heintzleman points out that the ( rnment's policy of timber allotment, contrac srms including prices and payment are al ne same general lines as followed by the F Tn Canadian Provinces. He declares that sgion will never have the large competing s i'll industry that is now found in the II ,utherly region; that the spruce needed in Ia uantities by Coast pulp mills is more avail,