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. Many causes have contributed to this wonderful development. ♦Publications of 1776 compared with 1900♦ In no country of the world are books and newspapers read so extensively as in the United States, whose people must be thoroughly cosmopolitan if, as has been said, “every man who reads the newspaper is a citizen of the world.” In 1776, the natal year of our independence, there were in all the colonies thirty-seven publications, whose total yearly output did not exceed as many thousands; in 1900, according to tabulated statistics, the thirty-seven had increased to twenty thousand eight hundred and six regular daily, weekly, and monthly publications, and their aggregate output is counted not by thousands, nor even millions, but by billions. This too has no reference whatever to the myriad of publications which, while appearing intermittently, are not issued at stated periods; it refers only to regular periodicals, including our daily papers. ♦Illinois’ rank in number of publications♦ In an analysis of these interesting statistics we of Illinois find occasion for great gratification, as it develops that in the number of her publications Illinois outstrips all of her sister states except New York, ranking a close second in the grand total, and even taking first place in the number of her weekly issues. The following table shows the exact figures and their divisions of the four leading states: Daily. Weekly. Monthly. Quarterly. Total. New York 186 1086 592 46 1910 Illinois 180 1109 305 18 1612 Pennsylvania 196 900 221 12 1329 Ohio 171 785 180 12 1148 An increase of such phenomenal proportions as indicated by these figures makes tremendous demands upon allied and tributary industries, but the increase in the production of paper of the variety required has been sufficient to meet these demands. These conditions, however, affect only one branch of the industry. The increase in the publication of books, together with the multiplicity of commercial and industrial uses to which paper may be put, as briefly outlined in the preceding chapter, explain an expansion that would otherwise be inexplicable. Another cause to be taken into account, a third factor in the wonderful growth of the century, is the export trade. President Hugh J. Chisholm, in his annual report to the American Paper and Pulp Association in New York City, February 15, 1899, made the following statement: ♦Export statistics♦