UNLIMITED RAW MATERIAL FOR PAPER MAKING 



IN THE UNITED STATES* 



By CHESTER W. LYMAN 



ROUT the year 80 A. D., according to an ancient chronicler, there was 

 a great commotion in Rome because of the scarcity of papyrus. The 

 authors of that day apparently feared that both their contem])<»raries 

 and posterity would suffer because of an inadequate supply of material on 

 which to record their writings. The ju-esent apprehension on the part of some 

 persons as to the inadecpiacy in the United States of a supply of materials for 

 paper-making is equally groundless. and in the eye of the paper manufacturer 

 is absurd. 



FORTY PER CENT OF PAPER NOT MADE FROM WOOD 



There appears to be an impression that almost all paper is made from 

 wood and that there is such a scarcity of this material that the prices of paper 

 have become inordinate. The United States Census of 1909 shows that about 

 4,200,000 tons of paper were made in that year — of this fully 40 per cent was 

 made from rags, old paper, manilla, straw and other materials than wood. To 

 a considerable extent all these materials enter into competition with wood-pulp 

 for use in paper-making. More or less of each kind will be used according 

 to their cheapness relative to each other and to pulp-wood. So, too, do the 

 paper products made from these materials compete to some extent with the 

 paper products of pulp-wood. Of course, for some purposes only paper made 

 from certain kinds of raw material will answer, but in general pulp-wood 

 has no monopoly of the situation, and the use as well as the price of pulp-wood 

 is determined partly by the cost of rags, straw, and various other raw 

 materials. About the only class of paper that is made altogether of wood is 

 news print paper, which is only 28 per cent of the total production of paper. 

 This 28 per cent requires 1,600,000 cords of pulp-wood or only 40 per cent of the 

 total of 4,000,000 cords of pulp-wood used annually in the industry. The 

 other GO per cent of the wood comes into direct competition with other raw 

 materials for use in making a large part of the remaining 72 per cent of 

 the whole production of paper. 



GREAT VARIETY OF WOODS USED 



Of the 4,000,000 cords of pulp-wood used in 1909 in making about (10 per 

 cent of the paper of all kinds, 40 per cent was poplar, hemlock, pine, cotton- 

 wood, balsam, white fir, beech, slab wood and mill waste, and various other 

 kinds of wood than spruce, which constituted the remaining GO per cent of 

 the i)ulp-wood used. 



*From The Protectionist for January. 

 118 



