Newspapers / The Echo (Pisgah Forest, … / Jan. 1, 1944, edition 1 / Page 12
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PAGE TWELVE THE ECHO JANUARY, Much Has Been Written About Mr. Straus And Ecus FROM PAGE FIVE ed as life preservers for the wood. At long last the engineers de veloped a secret washing tech nique which unlocks the grip of wood and fiber, and lets gravity do the rest. Used in step with im proved mechanical and chemical processes all down the line, this spelled success. Just as the Straus engineers were reporting success the Straus agronomists were reporting fail ure. Most of the flax grown in the United States is not the kind used for linen, but a type grown en tirely for the linseed from which oil is pressed for paints and var nishes. The Straus agronomists wanted to develop a great supply of fiber flax. They tested soils, sought advice from state and Fed eral experts, had agents scour Eu rope for promising varieties. They planted 600 acres in South Caro lina and for three years nursed it along. They tried smaller plant ings in North Carolina, Virginia, Oregon, the Florida Everglades and the black belt of Alabama. On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, they planted 50 plots each with a different fertilizer. Hundreds of thousands of dol lars went thus, and out of it all came nothing. Whatever the cli mate, whatever the soil, what ever the fertilizer or the farming practice, they couldn’t get enough straw per acre to compete with the price of imported rags. With grim determination, Straus turned from flax to hemp. He was making headway when a new Fed eral law intended to suppress marijuana gave hemp a black eye Ignoring all advice, Straus then pointed his engineers at seed-flax straw, always considered useless Flax farmers were harvesting the seed and spending time and money to get rid of the straw. But the Straus engineers took the processes they had developed for fiber flax and adapted them to seed flax straw. Straus trium phantly had some paper run off in his French mill and showed it to American cigarette makers. Mu nich was just a few months ahead Big American cigarette manufac turers saw the point, and an Am erican mill was built. Water Is Important Never was a mill site more care fully chosen. Everyone wanted it in North Carolina, which manu factures more than half of Ameri ca’s cigarettes, but some 60 loca tions were surveyed before select ing the broad, black corn bottoms where the Davidson River comes tumbling out of the tree-covered mile-high Pisgah National Forest. No one could get between this lo cation and the government pro tected watershed. The water was analyzed and even sent to France for mill tests; it was found soft and free of minerals—iron, for example, would give cigarette pa per a taste. Studies running back for decades were checked to prove that the Davidson River had with stood the worst drought in years Legal aspects were studied. The Federal Government controls navi gable rivers and any steam flow ing into them, hence controls the Tennessee and French Broad riv ers—but not a stream twice-re moved, like the Davidson which empties into French Broad. There was even research to pick a name Scholars here and abroad dug up the Cherokee word “Ecusta,” meaning “rippling water.” Construction' of Ecusta’s 17 buildings began in June, 1938. Eleven months later, French craftsmen arrived to teach moun taineers how to make cigarette paper. Most of Ecusta’s workmen had never been employed in a mill of any type. Techniques and machinery new even to the French experts were being employed. Here on a plateau half a mile high was the weirdest industrial school ever opened. One by one the machines were put in opera tion by the Frenchmen. Near by stood the pupils, and between the two groups were two French- Canadians and two French-speak ing Americans. The Frenchmen worked, the mountaineers watch ed, and the interpreters explained. Swiftly they all learned together, blending the French art, handed down from family to family, with American factory methods. By August paper was coming off the machines in test batches. By Sep- teinber war was on and Ameri can cigarette paper was headed for American cigarettes factories. All the “Big Five” among cigar ette makers are using Ecusta pa per, currently meeting one-third of the nation’s needs. Production will be doubled by next Spring. Three other domestic mills are now producing cigarette paper from seed-flax straw. Today the Frenchmen are gone and nine-tenths of Ecusta’s 900 employees are from Carolina’s mountain counties. In the refinery room you will find full-fledged journeymen who in 1939 were green as Pisgah. On the first an niversary of war, and of mill ope ration, ground was broken for a big addition. When expansion is completed next Summer 500 more men will be needed. Some of the tenders on the new paper ma chines will be men who have learned the art in two years in stead of the traditional ten. spells greater domestic production of flaxseed. No one knows where all this will lead. Other fine papers, like those used for currency, can and may be made from flax straws rather than old linen rags. Fur ther, success in cigarette paper has given added impetus to the use of flax in textiles. Much re search, Federal, state and indus trial, is being poured into this problem. Recently Georgia Tech engineers announced a new method of processing flax fiber for spinning. Straus himself is trying,to de velop a third great flax-growing region so as not to have to lean altogether on Minnesota and Cali fornia. Kansas and North Carolina are each possible regions, but sev eral other states are also moving toward the same goal. And Straus researchers are working in still another significant direction: Try ing to find industrial uses for the wood removed from the fibers. Four-fifths of the straw is wood. Plastics, wallboard, linoleum, fer tilizer and powder can all be made from these “shives,” but not economically as yet. Straus has turned flax into a double-duty crop and if anyone solves the shives problem, farmers can thank him for the triple play. BRIEF SKETCH OF FROM PAGE ONE Straus’s paper mill has given the whole region a ^ lift. The nearby town of Brevard has had a small boom; a new theatre, an increase in auto sales, and even freshening up of church build ings. The county’s bonds, once I at 24 cents on the dollar, have now gone above 50. But Ecusta’s repercussions are more far-flung than that. Each day three to four railroad cars of fiber arrive from decortication plants in California and Minnesota. In the San Joaquin and Imperial valleys of California and over most of Minnesota, farmers have a new cash crop. This year, 147,000 tons of straw have been bought for cigarette paper. This will be in creased in 1941. Once A Loss, Now A Gain Flax farmers are $2.50 an acre ahead. They used to spend $1.50 an acre to get rid of straw; now they get $1 for it. But that is not all. Straus’s agronomists are help ing farmers increase their straw yields per acre. With the uni versities of Minnesota and Cali fornia they are developing new strains. This is a matter of five to ten years, but already yields have been increased by improving farming practices. Farmers have been taught to sow their flax more thickly so the stalks support one another and thus grow taller, pro ducing more straw. By demanding a straw clean of weeds the Straus experts got farmers to disc their fields; an extra yield of seed was an unexpected bonus for “keeping the fields black.” This extra yield together with the extra acreage, people were drawn to him by his charm and personality. He un failingly picked the right men to help him find the road to success. The romance attendant to the tobacco industry was not lost upon him. He fell in love with it. Now came cigarette paper. He was equally at home with business both inside and outside the fac tory. The young man started sell ing cigarette paper. Cigarettes were no longer a fad, to be smoked behind shaded win dows. The industry had started in earnest and was here to stay. Sales of paper were not large at first, but consumption steadi ly increased and the young man enjoyed his modest share in the growth. Pretty soon came the need of a huge tobacco company to find a young man of talent to run their large cigarette paper mill in France. They found our young man. He became president of and ran this paper mill successfully for years. In World War I, despite the enemy submarine campaign, he got cigarette paper to this coun try. Service to his customers could not be interrupted and it was not interrupted. Later to become a pet, was the Endless Belt Corporation. De signed to make belts for use on the cigarette machine forming the paper around the tobacco, End less Belt was a success from the start and today is working harder than ever producing belts for an ever-increasing demand. At approximately the same time, another corporation was purchas ed, the Peerless Roll Leaf Com pany. This covered embossing of gold, silver and colors on any ma terials from candy boxes to Mah Jong tiles. Until this business was sold, due to pressure of work, it was a successful and profitable un dertaking. The consumption of cigarettes increased by leaps and boiin^ Here we follow our youngs back to cork. It was discoV' to have great insulating quali The hue and cry came for * and more cork, for cold ^ pipes, for cold storage, for W insulation for bottle stoppers gaskets. , The Cork Import Corpora' was bom. With it the purchaS large interests in Spanish ■ tories and cork came to this^ try. Here, too, ability to make sell his product based upon A ity and service, found our man now making another " stone with a huge sales tion spider-webbed across ' great country. ; Maturity came to this man with it an uncanny gift of | sight which guided him tbr® many strange and stormy He saw his future success, the tobacco world and proifj sold his cork interests, reta^ only that part connected cigarettes. Cigarette sales had not s*. up, but multiplied in mou''. ous quantities. The cigarette paper coU'l’ still directed by our man, ^ now only supply the inc^ demands of its owners. This' ed him to seek a source of S'S which he could not only but own outright, thus feedi^ creased demands of the large tobacco companies. Thus came the birth of ^ pagne Paper Corporation) organization of the French j in which large interests wef®^ chased. Requirements wer® almost fully satisfied. A The economic structure ®) country collapsed. With tP ^ suing depression came tb^ j of cheaper “smokes.” ChaC^M Paper met this new dem^ inventing and developing j ment and machinery to ture “roll your own” This increased demand for i quantities of paper and ounce of production was out of the French mills. ^ Booklets for “roll your j like the earlier cigarette, ^ the fad stage and became a j addition to the tobacco i>^ ^ Our man made frequeny to the French mills. His 1 liking for cleanliness nia^.i dissatisfied with the use as a raw material for cigar®^ per. The sources of this r® j terial came from unstal)‘^ pliers in countries where terprise could be assured hampered operations. ^ The need for a new terial was essential. He by famous research men couraged industrialists could not be done. Our • no defeat and plunged i^V for cigarette paper.” A^^^ came out on top and a J' jj material was conceived. dead crop to the tail oi domestic industry was a cT achievement. It was hailed out the country by chem'^’^^^ another cementing allia*' tween farm and industry- ^ War clouds hung heavy ^ Foresight and vision told ® ^ that if immediate steps taken, all the work and ^» of many years would be sibly forever. ^ Young in mind and met the situation calmly his decision to build the^ all mills. This is the Turn To Page
The Echo (Pisgah Forest, N.C.)
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Jan. 1, 1944, edition 1
12
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