THE PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY 



BY GEORGE W. SISSON, JR. 



PRESIDENT OE THE AMERICAN PULP AND PAPER ASSOCIATION 



IT is no news that both this country and Canada have 

 but recently awakened to the actual and critical situa- 

 tion that faces the pulp and paper industry. This 

 realization has come as somewhat of a shock to many 

 and to the general public who have in the past paid 

 little or no attention to the matter so long as their needs 

 were served. It would doubtless be true to say that the 

 alarm over the pulp wood situation, while well founded, 

 has been somewhat over-done so far as its psychological 

 effect on the wood, the pulp and the paper market is con- 

 cerned. It is no time for eiiher the industry or the 

 public to lose their heads, but rather to make a careful 

 and honest survey of the situation and evolve from this 

 study some policy that will, perhaps, not correct the 

 trouble very soon, but through which the crisis can be 

 tided over and an ultimate and permanent solution found 

 within a reasonable length of time. 



Pulp and paper manufactuirng is the one great industry 

 using wood in which there is much hope for the practice 

 of forestry as a commercial undertaking upon privately 

 owned lands. Hence it is to the pulp and paper industry 

 that professional foresters have turned most hopefully 

 for the practical application of their principles and it is 

 gratifying to note that many manufacturers of pulp and 

 paper have excellently qualified foresters upon their 

 staffs and are not only making special provisions to 

 protect their timber lands from fire, but are engaging in 

 planting operations with the definite purpose of pro- 

 viding a future supply of wood for their mills. 



However, the insufficiency of private action and in a 

 single wood using industry is readily apparent and the 

 necessity for a nation-wide program embracing all phases 

 of our forest resources and their utilization is clearly 

 recognized. 



It is with this thought in mind that the American 

 Paper and Pulp Association, through its Committee on 

 Forest Conservation, considered this matter. Our com- 

 mittee gave most painstaking and thorough study to the 

 many phases of the question and submitted to our in- 

 dustry a preliminary report in November, 1919, follow- 

 ing it with a most complete and definite report and rec- 

 ommendations for a National Forestry Policy with sug- 

 gestions for legislation, both State and Federal, to make 

 the plans effective. These reports met with surprisingly 

 favorable comment the country over. They deal in a 

 sane and effective manner with the fundamental prin- 

 ciples involved in the solution of the problem of so 

 handling the forests of this country that they will sup- 

 port properly the industries dependent upon them. I 

 venture to say that up to that time no more careful and 

 exhaustive study of this matter had been made and 

 certainly no more well considered and actually practical 



pians that should unite all interests had ever been pre- 

 sented. 



Briefly summarized the program calls for : 



Permanent annual Federal appropriations to be ex- 

 pended directly and in co-operation with the several 

 States for the adequate protection, management and re- 

 production of existing forests and the planting of treeless 

 areas ; complete and accurate forest surveys and land 

 classifications ; a consistent and continuing policy of pub- 

 lic acquirement of forest areas on watersheds of navi- 

 gable streams and of other areas suitable only for tim- 

 ber growing wherever best adapted to State or Federal 

 management; the extension of general authority to the 

 Secretary of Agriculture to exchange National Forest 

 Land or stumpage for private timbered or cut-over land 

 within or adjacent to National Forests ; and a broad 

 policy of forest research and investigation. 



In addition to such Federal action our committee 

 recommended such State legislation as would embody 

 policies harmonizing with those suggested for the Fed- 

 eral Government but applicable to the special needs of 

 the several States. 



Bills covering the principal features of this program 

 are now being prepared for introduction in the National 

 Congress and State Legislatures and it is the confident 

 hope that this truly constructive program will be made 

 effective very shortly. 



I shall not attempt to discuss the possibilities of pulp 

 and paper development in new regions like Alaska or 

 other locations where recent investigations have been 

 conducted, as our immediate problem is that of serving 

 an already established industry and meeting the emerg- 

 ency in localities where we thoroughly believe steps can 

 be taken to perpetuate those industries and guarantee 

 the continued existence of prosperous industrial centers 

 which are the homes of busy and happy American 

 which are the homes of busy and happy American citizens. 



In the northeastern States, where the pulp and paper 

 industry is concentrated to a degree found in no other 

 section of an equal area and where the forests had been 

 heavily overcut for many years in the lumber industry 

 even before the paper mills began to take their toll, 

 there are perhaps more pressing reasons for some im- 

 mediate or early form of relief if the industry is to 

 continue. It is certain that within this area the industry 

 cannot operate at full capacity without the importation 

 of a large percentage of its wood, and the condition of 

 the forests demands immediate attention in the direction 

 of a program of protection and reforestation, from which 

 permanent relief can be expected. 



It is a fundamental economic principle in the life of 

 a nation that all land must be made as productive as its 

 character will permit and that the land that produces 

 a crop of timber, though it will be once in 25 or even 50 



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