process begins in earnest. Defective paper from the paper machines is also sometimes thrown direct into the beater and given a preliminary boiling.

Into the beater' go also all the other materials which actually make up the texture of the paper. These are coloring matter, the sizing (usually rosin), the precipitating agent (alum), and the loading or filling material (usually agalite or English clay), if any is used. After the beating is finished, the resulting stock is further refined in a Jordan engine, consisting of a hollow steel cone inside which revolves another cone.

Fourdrinier machine, finishing processes: The stock is then conveyed, much diluted with water, to the Fourdrinier machine where it is made into a sheet of paper in much the same way as printing paper. The cheaper grades of writing paper, particularly the allsulphite variety, are made on machines almost exactly the same as those making machine-finished paper. They are of medium size and speed and usually have calenders and rolls on the machine proper, which give the paper its final finish and roll it up. The process is then complete, except for trimming and cutting the paper into the desired sheet sizes.

The better varieties, however, which really constitute fine paper, are made on slow, comparatively narrow machines. The paper is made in the ordinary way and dried over steam-heated cylinders. It is not calendered on the machine, but is passed through a tub of animal-glue sizing, made of animal hides. This imparts a surface to the paper that adapts it for receiving ink. Various methods of drying tub-sized paper are used. The best results are obtained from pole or loft drying. In this system the paper, wet from its tub-sizing bath, is cut into sheets at the end of the paper machine and conveyed to lofts, where the sheets are hung in small bunches over horizontal wooden poles and dried by hot air. They are then smoothed or ironed out to remove the "cockle" or large wrinkle caused by their suspension over the poles. This is the treatment ordinarily given fine bonds and writings, Bristol board, and, to a less extent, ledger paper. In many cases the sheets are calendered. Bond paper, however, is seldom given more than a superficial calendering between steel and cotton rolls. Ledger paper and Fourdrinier-made Bristol board are always more highly calendered. Ledger paper is sometimes dried on the machine in a manner that allows atmospheric drying and yet also the rolling up of the paper dry at the end of the machine. This method consists in passing the paper from the tub-sizing bath over a very long series of hollow, cylindrical rollers, the round surface of which consists of wooden cleats spaced a few inches apart. The atmosphere dries the paper as it goes over these rollers. It is then rolled up and calendered. This is known as the Barber system. It is questionable, however, if the results are as good as those of loft drying. Some writing paper is passed over steam-heated rollers after being tub sized, but this process does not yield as fine a product as the other methods described.

As already stated, a great many special finishes, the most important of which is linen finish, are given to the fine papers.

2 The beater differs from the washer merely in the adjustment and sharpness of the knives and in not possessing the washing drum.

Watermarks: Watermarks are almost universally used in making this grade of paper. These are ordinarily put in the paper by means of a dandy roll, which stamps the design into the paper, causing a thinning of the pulp at that place. The ordinary watermark is a brand or trade-mark. Also, so-called "laid" and "wove" papers receive a sort of watermark from the dandy roll or from a special molding of the Fourdrinier wires. A laid paper is watermarked by a number of lines laid close together, intersected by lines at right angles, placed about 1 inch apart. A wove paper is a paper made on a woven wire, in which the wires cross and recross at even distances apart in a manner quite distinct from laid wires.

Envelopes: The great bulk of envelopes are made in special envelope-making plants on envelope machines which fold the paper into envelope form and put on the gumming material or clasp.

Organization. The fine-paper industry is conducted by mills of smaller average size than those making newsprint, wrapping paper, and other and other papers of large output. This is partly because the nature of the product allows and requires a greater concentration of labor on quality as opposed to quantity, and partly because the processes of making wood pulp are seldom engaged in by fine-paper mills. They tend to confine themselves to preparing the rags and making them into paper, purchasing direct whatever wood pulp they need. Some mills of long-established reputation have only a few small paper machines and a few beaters and auxiliary machines. Their total product is a comparatively small amount of branded paper of great excellence.

Number of mills: In July, 1922, there were reported to be 103 mills in the United States making fine paper. The following table shows the number of mills making the principal grades of fine paper in 1920, according to reports made by the mills to Lockwood's Directory of the Paper and Allied Trades. Of course one mill in most cases produces a number of different kinds of paper:

In 1919 there were 106 establishments making envelopes in the United States, capitalized at $24,754,818. The manufacture of papeterie (stationery folded and prepared for writing purposes) and of paper boxes, as well as printing, is frequently carried on in connection with envelope making.

Geographical distribution. The writing-paper industry is the most concentrated of any large branch of the paper industry. Two regions in western Massachusetts turn out nearly one-half of the fine paper of the country. These are the region including Holyoke, Mittineague, and other towns in the Connecticut River Valley and the region around Pittsfield in the valley of the Housatonic, including Dalton, Lee, Adams, Housatonic, etc. Other States of importance in writingpaper manufacture are Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

Massachusetts is the principal State in the manufacture of envelopes. Illinois, Ohio, New York, and Connecticut follow in the order

named. Small amounts are produced in Pennsylvania and Missouri and scattering amounts in other States.

History of the industry. The development of the writing-paper industry has proceeded with greater continuity than that of any other branch of the paper industry. There has been no such shift in raw material as has taken place in making some other kinds of paper. Rags were the first raw material for fine paper in this country and still are the principal raw material.

The manufacture of envelopes in the United States is said to have begun about 1840. The census of 1849 was the first at which statistics were presented, two establishments reporting with a product valued at $45,000. The number of establishments and the value of products for each census from 1859 to 1919 are given in the following table:

Domestic production and consumption.-Fine paper: The production of fine paper increased from 112,707 short tons in 1899 to 343,762 tons in 1919, and 389,322 tons in 1920. In other words, it trebled in two decades. In 1921 the industrial depression caused production to decrease to 242,485 tons, but it revived to 200,021 tons in the first seven months of 1922. The value of the output increased from $15,895,974 in 1899 to $87,740,806 in 1919. No value figures are available for years since 1919.

In 1919, 250,075 tons, or nearly four-fifths of the total fine-paper production, consisted of writing paper as follows:

Ledger and highest grade..

Pole dried..

Air dried..

· Machine dried

Sulphite bond...

Total....

Tons.

As already noted, Massachusetts is the principal seat of the finepaper industry. The principal States producing writing paper are Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New Hampshire. The principal ones producing other grades of fine paper are Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts.

Domestic production is sufficient to supply practically the whole of the demand for domestic consumption and to export a surplus. In the calendar year 1921 the United States imported an amount equal to about one-third of 1 per cent of domestic production. As pointed out in the section on raw materials, the United States produces the greater part of the raw materials locally and does not have much trouble securing the remainder from abroad.

Envelopes: Production of envelopes, as has already been noted, increased from $6,299,330 in 1899 to $39,664,077 in 1919. No later

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figures are available. Domestic production adequately meets the demand for domestic consumption; imports amounted to only fourhundredths of 1 per cent of production in 1919, and have greatly decreased since that time.

Domestic exports.-The exports of fine paper up to 1922 were not reported by quantity, and writing paper and envelopes were jointly reported. Exports of writing paper and envelopes increased in value from $1,267,117 in the fiscal year 1910 to $13,188,165 in the calendar year 1919. This represents in all probability at least a quadrupling in quantity. The increase began in 1916 and continued through 1919. In 1920 and 1921, however, exports decreased to $8,908,230 and $4,355,642, respectively. In the first seven months of 1922 they amounted to only 3,483 tons, valued at $1,129,732.3

In 1909 the value of exports of writing paper and envelopes amounted to 4.27 per cent of the value of domestic production, and in 1914 to 4.12 per cent. In 1919 the proportion exported was 15 per cent. In the first seven months of 1922, it was only 1.7 per cent

by_quantity.*

Destination of exports: The United States exports all over the world, principally to Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Philippine Islands, China, and Canada. Noteworthy in the great general increase in exports of writing paper from the United States is the decrease in exports to Canada. In the fiscal year 1913 the United States sent to Canada $550,624 worth of writing paper and envelopes, or about 40 per cent of the $1,351,226 total of writing-paper exports, to all countries. In the calendar year 1921, with prices considerably higher, this country sent to Canada only $319,743 worth out of a total of $4,355,642, or about 7 per cent.

Decrease in exports: The following table shows, month by month, from July, 1918, to December, 1921, the increase in exports of writingpaper and envelopes to a maximum in February, 1919, their diminution after June of that year, their temporary increase in the winter of 1920-21, and their decrease to a new low level for post-war exports in the latter part of 1921:

The World, 1906-7.-In an appended table (p. 19) is shown the world's production in 1906-7 of fine paper, free from wood pulp. This table is of interest as giving some idea of comparative production in normal pre-war times, even though the year selected is nearly two decades removed. However, the paper covered by this table,

• Including Bristols and Bristol board.

Not including envelopes.

}

specified as "fine paper free from wood pulp," quite evidently includes grades in addition to writing paper and the other varieties discussed in this survey. For instance, the United States and Canadian figures are much higher than official figures published by this country and Canada. There is probably a considerable amount of high-class book paper included, as well as other kinds of paper. Nevertheless, the table is of value as showing the relation of rag-paper production in this country to that in other countries. Esparto may enter to an appreciable extent into the paper made in certain European countries as reported by this table.

The United States appears to have had nearly twice the production of its nearest rival, Germany. The United Kingdom produced practically as much as Germany. France and Austria-Hungary were fourth and fifth, respectively. Italy, Sweden, Canada, and other countries in Europe came next. It is the handmade and very finest papers of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany that are most likely to compete with fine paper made in the United States. Italy also makes some handmade papers of very fine quality.

Canada, 1917 and 1919.-The Canadian fine-paper industry, although still small, is developing rapidly. Production of fine paper in Canada increased from 7,414 tons, valued at $1,999,778, in 1917 to 16,840 tons, valued at $5,405,666, in 1919. Writing paper represented the greater part of these amounts, increasing from 7,217 tons in 1917 to 10,230 tons in 1919. There are seven concerns in Canada making writing paper. Although production of fine paper in Canada in 1919 was only one-twentieth of the amount produced in the United States, while the population of Canada is one-twelfth that of the United States, Canada will probably soon have as great a per capita output of fine paper as the United States. Quebec produces a little more than half the writing paper and practically all the other fine paper made in Canada.

5

Nevertheless, Canadian competition in fine paper need not be feared, particularly by the United States. Although power is cheaper in Canada than here, the conditions of labor cost, raw material, and power are not such as to give Canada any particular advantage over the United States in fine-paper production, except in the wood-pulp varieties. Canada no longer has cheaper labor for making paper than the United States. It is said that Canadian labor for this purpose is not so skilled or efficient as American labor, nor can Canada get rags more easily than the United States. In the last three years Canada has imported annually from the United States nearly $400,000 worth of writing paper, papeteries, and envelopes, in comparison with practically negligible exports of these items to the United States. This fact is particularly significant when one considers that in the fiscal year ended March, 1921, Canada exported $989,000 worth of writing paper in comparison with imports of writing paper, papeteries, and envelopes amounting to $441,000. In other words, even with exports more than twice imports, and almost all the imports coming from the United States, Canada found no market for writing paper in the United States. In the year ended March, 1922, total Canadian exports dropped to $84,000, but imports from the United States continued in little diminished volume.

5 See Tariff Information Survey, Wood Pulp, for relative costs of producing wood pulp in Canada and United States.