The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-28
Vagabond
from
Indiana
ERNIE PYLE

CAVANNAH, Ga, Feb. 28.-All
- the way down the coast people
kept telling me I must see DR.. Herty
in Savannah.
1t was always something rather
vague. such as that DR.. Herty was
the new hope of the South, or that
he was doing wonderful things in a
laboratory. Or that he was making
paper out OF wood, or something
like that.
I knew paper was made out of
wood, but 1 went to see DR.. Herty
anyhow. That's what he's doing
all right, making paper out of wood.
But it's Georgia wood, instead of
Canadian wood. That's something
new.
LIS laboratory is a big old ware
l. L house on Savannah's water
front. You have a hard time find
ing door. then you wander past
furnaces and grinders and acid
tanks clear to the back OF the place.
and there in one corner is DR..
Herty's little Office. 1t doesn't even
have a window.
Despite its looks. you feel you
have just stepped into a million
dollar Office on Park-av. Dr. Charles
H. Herty gives it that touch.
He is a tall. slim, Immediately
dressed, silver haired man. He is
chemist by profession. flnancier
by necessity, an Irishman in az
fight.
He is a native Georgian. He
taught chemistry at Georgia State
University for IL years. Then at
North Carolina for IL years Then
he was big gun in the chemical
world in New York for ID years.
That makes, let's see, 40 years. Then
he came back to Georgia four years
ago. He doesn't look that old.
GONE years ago DR.. Herty got
y interested in finding (out why
you couldn't make white ,hewsprint
out of southern pine. Most of the
big American paper companies had
moved their plants to Canada. Two
thirds of our newsprint is now made
in Canada and Sweden. They hadn't
used southern pine because it was
supposed to have so much resin it
wouldn't make paper that was
white enough.
So Dr. Herty came down from New
York and started grinding up wood
and testing it. He found less rem
than in Canadian spruce pine. He
really got interested then.
He persuaded the state of Georgia
to vote $4,000 a year for his expert
ments; he got Savannah to give
him a free building and free power;
he got the big equipment compa-
MES to sell him machinery at RI
diculously low prices. He set up
his laboratory on a five-year basis.
That was four years ago. Today
there are 20 men, all experts, on
the staff. The Chemical Founda-
ton has come in with $150,000 worth
of help. There is nearly a. quar-
ter OF million dollars worth OF
machinery in the building.
The thing is purely laboratory.
1t is not commercial concern. 1t
has only one thing to market. That
is the idea that southern pine is
good for making white paper. 1t
charges nothing for the idea.
DR. HERTY says they have abso-
~ lutely proved Georgia pine as,
good for making white paper as
Canadian wood. He has all kinds of
samples to prove it.
The raw pulp, and the paper pred
uct itself, have been tested in real
mills all over Canada. and in our
own mills, and by our rayon plants.
It's O. K, they all say.
The next thing is to get the big
paper plants down here. That isn't
as easy as it sounds. It costs about
100000 to build paper plant.
Business men don't let go of $4,000,-s
900 overnight, even on a good thing.
But Dr. Herty says it won't be long. j
Paper can be made down here for !
about $27 ton, DR.. Herty says, |.
whereas it costs about SAT elsewhere. /.
Labor is cheap here. Wood is cheap.
Mixing materials are nearby.
There are 1o0,0OO,O00 acres of pine
forest in the South. Our annual
paper needs can be supplied with
100000 acres. Growing conditions !
are so good here that new wood can
be raised as fast as the old is cut. Z
A pine tree grows big enough to use /.
in 10 years.
The thing that interests me about !
these experiments is that they SEEM
very big hope of keeping the
Southland from going to the wall. !.
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