264 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



products, of which the chief at present is rayon. Rayon is yet too 

 new a product to permit its future pulp requirements to be estimated 

 with any defmiteness. Its status in only a few years has changed 

 from that of ''artificial silk" to a new textile in its own right, com- 

 peting no longer with silk alone but also with cotton and even with 

 wool. 



The growth of the industry is outlined in the following paragraphs 

 from Commerce Reports (of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic 

 Commerce) for March 21, 1932 : 



In 1911 American rayon yarn output was calculated at 320,000 pounds. Ten 

 years later, in 1921, production had expanded to 15,000,000 pounds. Even more 

 impressive than the 144,350,000 pound output of 1931 is the fact that within the 

 trade it is stated that actual production capacity as of July 1931 was nearly 

 195,000,000 pounds. 



Latest official records for the rayon industry of this country are those obtained 

 in the 1929 census of manufacturers, revealing 28 producing plants as compared 

 with only 19 in 1927, the date of the preceding census practically a 50 percent 

 expansion in 2 years. In the latter year there were 38,938 wage earners, with 

 annual compensation totaling $44,704,000. The aggregate value of products 

 was $149,276,000. 



As to the amount of wood pulp used in the production of rayon in 

 1931, the following is quoted from the bulletin of the News Print 

 Service Bureau for March 15, 1932 : 



The best estimates available are to the effect that approximately 52,000 tons 

 of wood pulp were used for rayon in the United States last year. This is 5 percent 

 of the consumption of bleached sulphite pulp and 2.4 percent of the total con- 

 sumption of sulphite pulp, bleached and unbleached combined. 



Estimates in the trade are to the effect that there were also made in the United 

 States last year something like 80 million pounds of cellophane in which there 

 was used perhaps 50,000 tons of bleached sulphite pulp. 



Assuming that a like amount of sulphite pulp was used in our 1931 

 production of cellophane, the total pulp requirement for rayon and 

 cellophane together may be estimated at 100,000 tons, which would 

 represent about 5 percent of our sulphite pulp consumption and some- 

 thing like 10 percent of our domestic production of such pulp. How 

 soon or how largely this estimate will be superseded remains to be 

 seen. 



IMPORTS IN RELATION TO PULPWOOD REQUIREMENTS 



Imports are the largest single factor to be weighted in the conver- 

 sion of pulp and paper consumption to domestic wood requirements. 

 Table 8 shows what part of the imports have come to the United 

 States as paper, what part as pulp, and what part as wood. Total 

 requirements are here made to include our exports of paper in addition 

 to home consumption. In 1899, 22 percent of the total requirements 

 was supplied by foreign wood. The percentage increased steadily to 

 56 percent in 1925, and was 54 percent in 1930. 



