Commercial paper

“ There is too much swivel-chair composure; too much beatific reassurance, when proofs are submitted on good paper, from a flat-bed engraver-house press. A newspaper series is very apt to look 100 per cent when presented on the final electro sheet, or bound into a neat booklet for the dealer and printed on coated stock. ”

“ Stock accounts should be kept very carefully. Employers should insist that paper drawn for making ready, for proofing, and for set-off sheets be accounted for as accurately as a ream of hand-made paper. ”

“ Chart Papers.—Largely used by lithographers for map and chart printing. Machine-made, the best qualities are all-rag, tub-sized, with smooth surface. Must be strong, pliable, tough, resistant to wear, and at the same time a good printing surface is essential. The manufacture is arranged so as to avoid subsequent stretch.
Cheque Papers.—Good quality of paper, specially made for strength, usually all-rag. Special watermarks may be employed, or protection from fraud is obtained by special printing. ”

“ THE EXTENT OF THE BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES
The century just past has witnessed a marvelous growth in the paper industry. As a seedling oak, first struggling for root-hold and then pushing its way steadily upward through difficulties and obstructions, it has assumed giant proportions, being now firmly established beyond any possibility of disturbance, and sending its branches in every direction. ”

“ The competition between merchants has extended to their methods of sampling, and no important dealer today is without a well arranged Catalog and price list, giving complete data as to the standard sizes, weights, and grades, etc., and also substantial sample cabinets, which are distributed to paper buyers.
A comparatively recent development in the paper business, is the exploitation of “mill brands.” That is to say, a mill manufactures and stocks in the most merchantable sizes, a grade of paper. ”

“ Statistics bring out the interesting fact that over one-quarter of the paper output is roll and sheet news paper. If an average value of 21⁄4129 cents per pound at the mills be allowed for this, it is evident that the users of news paper pay out some thirty-two million dollars every year for this important product. Notwithstanding the fact that this paper is sold for one-sixth of the current price of twenty-five years ago, it is yet greatly improved in quality. As a staple in this country, paper has come to rank third in importance in the list of man’s wants. ”

“ Writing papers, formerly made entirely from rags, now are likely to contain either chemical or even ground-wood pulp unless the specifications prohibit it. Without doubt, many paper manufacturers have maintained certain papers up to a fixed standard for a long series of years, but it is equally true that competition has lowered the standard of a great many papers, some of which had acquired a distinctive recognition. ”

“ THE PAPER TRADE The distribution of paper is cared for in part by direct sales from the mills to consumers, such as large publishers of newspapers, magazines, and books, and manufacturers of paper commodities, such as tags, boxes, stationery, toilet accessories etc. ”

“ Our industry has shared in this increase of foreign trade, but not to the extent that it ought. Our own markets being the best in the world, manufacturers in past years have naturally confined their efforts practically to them, but we have reached such proportions in our ability to manufacture all kinds of paper that it seems as though there was never a more opportune time to explore and make conquest of the foreign paper market. ”

“ Aside from the positions that require a knowledge of printing more or less complete, such as proofreading, publishing, librarians’ work, etc., there are jobs connected with the paper industry where this knowledge, which as a matter of fact is rarely found, would prove of great advantage.
It is evident, moreover, that some practical knowledge of printing may prove useful if not essential for practically all men who engage in commerce or manufacturing. They are all buyers of printing, and it is a difficult commodity to purchase intelligently. ”

“ Not alone to avoid doubt and confusion would such products as paper hangings likely be provided for separately, rather than in association with writing and drawing papers, if deemed to be 'manufactures' of paper, but as an article clearly a manufacture of paper, to wit, 'paper envelopes,' was assessed at a duty of 25 per cent. ”

“ The products in question are manufactures of paper, as contradistinguished from paper, because completed paper, as produced in paper mills, is but one of the tangible ingredients, the other products (sizing of a particular description, water-color paints, wool flock, and the like) being materials entirely foreign to the art of the paper maker, and that complete merchantable paper is employed simply as the material, and is subjected to elaborate mechanical processes, involving the employment of machinery entirely unknown to the paper maker's art, and operated by workmen who are not paper makers ”

“ During the past two years there has been even a greater proportionate increase. Considering the126 fact that ten years ago the exportation of paper was practically unknown, it will be quickly seen that we are fast forging to the front and taking the position in foreign fields which, as the leading paper manufacturing country of the world, we now fully merit. Our products are generally at a premium in foreign markets, and American genius, enterprise, and versatility are everywhere recognized. ”

“ Still, paper is a much more convenient material for rapid work; and it is an infinite absurdity not to secure the goodness of its quality, when we could do so without the slightest trouble. Among the many favours which I am going to ask from our paternal government, when we get it, will be that it will supply its little boys with good paper. You have nothing to do but to let the government establish a paper manufactory, under the superintendence of any of our leading chemists, who should be answerable for the safety and completeness of all the processes of the manufacture. ”

“ Thus having disposed of the mechanical branch of printing, we will next resort to another matter of the greatest importance to a daily newspaper—that of advertising. The Daily Witness is sold at a cent a number, a sum which hardly pays the cost of paper alone; so that out of the advertisements inserted must be met the expenses for printing, publishing, editing, etc. ”

“ Another means for introducing a new invention on the market, is in "write-ups" of the same in the daily papers, magazines, and trade papers; as very unfortunately a good many people would not pay any attention to circulars, and would not find time to grant a personal interview to a solicitor, yet they do look up 24 printed matter in the form of a newspaper, magazine, or trade-paper, and very often get their own views on any subject from the general tone of the article they read. ”

“ And as the demand for the thicker and more tenacious and pliable papers is comparatively limited, and the manufacture of each of its branches, to some degree a special business, there are much fewer machines for making it, and much fewer makers of it than there are machines for making ordinary paper and makers of it. ”

“ The amount of paper used in disseminating the news of the day is enormous; sometimes one or two mills are required to manufacture the supply for a single metropolitan daily, while one New York newspaper claims to have used four hundred and fifty tons of paper in one Christmas edition, which is about four times the amount of its regular daily consumption. ”

“ In all parts of the subject, however, there is great room for skill; the thicker, more tenacious, and more sightly paper being produced in different degrees of excellence according as the proper 'stock' is used, as the paper-making machines are good, and as they are scientifically used. ”

“ If it checked the basis of weight it would promote the interest of paper maker
as well as publisher, it would reduce me opportunity for complaint. Tests of weiglit where based on samples are merely guides and are not controlling or conclusive. The reliance of paper makers upon the weights of samples is a fair illustration of the primitive methods that prevail in nearly every branch of the paper trade. ”

“ Newsprint has been the miracle of the industry. Despite all of the schemes which have been published stating the many ways in which the newspapers were curtailing their consumption and saving paper, the demand is to-day as strong as it ever was. The mills are shipping more than 100 per cent. of their production—drawing from their reserve supplies, so that these have dwindled to a dangerous degree. It would be hard to name a real quotation for newsprint at the present time for the only lots to be had are not those in the hands of jobbers who are asking as much as they can get for their stock. ”

“ THE CONSTITUENTS OF PAPER The technique of paper-making varies greatly in accordance with each particular product. In fact, so wide is the range of paper products, that the different branches of paper-making severally require knowledge so special that an artisan in one branch might be as useless in another as if it were an entirely different industry. The coating of paper, for example, is an absolutely different trade from that of paper-making. ”

“ Many people would find it hard to believe, but it is true nevertheless that a paper needs to consider itself something of a business matter. This is particularly true of propaganda papers in spite of all that has been said to the contrary. In the case of the Journal, we need to plan to produce an article that cannot be excelled; we need to manufacture a product so useful, so valuable, so indispensable, that there must be a market for it. ”

“ Those observations, which are partly technical, because, without technicality, the view would be incomplete,—may give some idea of the skill required in the workman, and the expenditure demanded of the capitalist, to produce so simple a thing, as a sheet of paper. The most exact care, the most ingenious invention, the nicest work of hand, and the most complicated machinery, are essential to that superiority which the British manufacture of paper has at length established. ”

“ That the production of paper in this country is in excess of the supply of the material of which it is made, and the paper manufacture is in consequence dependent for a large portion of its supplies on foreign Rags, amounting [p.22] to about 15,000 tons per annum, which is by estimation a fifth of the whole quantity of Rags used for the manufacture of white paper in this country, on nearly the whole of which heavy export duties are paid. ”

“ An understanding should exist with the printer that the matter must be set to save space wherever consistent, and any carelessness or neglect in this respect should be observed and effectually stopped at once. A saving of five pages in a catalogue by watching the size of cuts, their arrangement, the setting of the type, etc., if the issue should be say two hundred thousand, means a million pages of paper saved, outside of any saving in composition, presswork, etc. ”

“ In the completion of their Steam Printing Press alone, the Proprietors are said to have expended upwards of sixty thousand pounds. The daily sale of the paper is understood to be about ten thousand copies ”

“ Cheque papers are strong, even in texture, and present a good surface for printing. There is a fair range of papers to choose from for cheque printing, without taking into consideration safety cheque papers. ”

“ That publishers look at a manuscript very much as a corn-dealer looks at sample of wheat, with an eye to its selling qualities, is not to be denied. If books are not written only to be sold, they are printed only to be sold. Publishers must pay their printers and their paper-merchants ”

“ In making a selection of writing papers, unless one is a very large consumer, a safe course for the better classes is to make a selection of watermarked papers. There is no virtue in a watermark as such, but the wholesale stationer is able to keep known papers up to standard, and also is able to meet all reasonable demands from stock. The prevailing sizes for writing papers are foolscap, post, large post, double foolscap ”

“ No trade or interest in the world has, perhaps, so many repre sentatives in the press as printing. The journals which record its progress and describe its products are unrivalled in their excellent mechanical attri butes, some equalling the highest class of book-work printing and using paper of the most luxurious description. ”

“ Some papers are packed conscientiously, the manufacturer or stationer recognising the fact that a valuable paper demands a good packing paper. The use of poor paper is strange, seeing that the printer is charged for the wrapper at the rate quoted for the contents. ”

“ Directories, telephone books, circulars, and [145] advertising matter in general demand tons and tons of paper every year, and the printing of them provides employment for hundreds of printers. As time goes on, more and more business is annually transacted by mail. The country is so tremendous and the expense of sending out salesmen to cover it so great that merchants now do much of their selling from mail-order catalogues. ”