The American Pulp and Paper Industry, 1900–1940: Mill Survival, Firm Structure, and Industry Relocation by Nancy K. Ohanian

Abstract

870 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGYAND CULTURE The American Pulp and Paper Industry, 1900-1940: Mill Survival, Firm Structure, and Industry Relocation. By Nancy K. Ohanian. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993. Pp. xv+217; tables, notes, appendixes, bibliography, index. $49.95. In this book about the U.S. pulp and paper industry the focus is on the relocation of production that took place between 1900 and 1940. Around 1900 the industry was centered in the Northeast and the Great Lakes region. During the interwar years, the Pacific Coast and the South became the most important producers, with the southern pine and the Douglas fir and the softwoods on the Pacific Coast offering favorable conditions to pulp and papermaking. According to Nancy K. Ohanian, this relocation was among the most influential shifts of industrial production in the 20th century: “In fact, the extent of outmigration of the pulp and paper industry from the Northeast ranks second only to the widely studied exit of the cotton textile industry” (p. 1). The theme of the book ought, then, to be of interest to students of history of technology. The author has drawn information from the annual Lockwood’ s Directory ofthe Paper and Allied Trades, which provides information about each mill. Stating that this information enabled her to carry out unique research because individual mills are followed over time, she applied modern methods of economic analysis in dealing with the data. The book contains a multitude of tables and figures that describe the changes in industry structure. The analysis is concentrated on vertical integration and mill survival. But to what extent does this shed light on the reasons for the relocation? The pulp and paper industry is highly dependent on the location of raw material. As new technology made possible the use of new materials, location and the international division of labor changed accordingly. In her introduction, Ohanian states that the discovery of the sulfate pulping process in the early 20th century was responsible for the growth of production in the southern states (p. 6). She accounts here as well for the challenge from foreign competition, in particular sulfate pulps and newsprint from Canada and Sweden. Clearly, new technology and foreign competition were among the main reasons for the relocation of the industry in the United States. The models used provide us with data about patterns ofintegration in the industry, and the author finds that the larger the mill size and the greater the market concentration, the higher the probability of integra­ tion. She also finds that surviving mills consistendy were larger than failing mills (p. 148) and that there was generally a higher rate of net entry to the southern and Pacific regions. The findings are thus consistent with a technology-induced relocation. Although models used are appropriate to test economic assumptions about the behavior of firms, they focus litde on reasons why relocation took place. Historians of technology who seek information about factors relevant to the TECHNOLOGYAND CULTURE Book Reviews 871 adoption, adaption, and diffusion of new technology will find litde about these processes here. (However, an appendix addresses the technology of papermaking.) The author’s economic approach overlooks questions such as why American producers were comparatively late in starting the production ofsulfate pulp and kraft paper. In Scandinavia, the production ofsulfate pulp started in the 1880s and the production of kraft paper in the 1890s. In die United States, sulfate pulp did not get started until about 1910, according to Ohanian. In spite of its shortcomings as technological history, the book nonetheless contains accurate and detailed informa­ tion about industry structure during a crucial period in the history of the American pulp and paper industry. Eli Moen Ms. Moen is a research fellow in the History Department of the University of Oslo. She is the author of “Norway’s Entry into the Age of Paper,” in Technology Transfer and Scandinavian Industrialisation, ed. Kristine Bruland (Oxford, 1991). To Reclaim a Divided, West: Waler; Law, and Public Policy, 1848-1902. By DonaldJ. Pisani. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. Pp. xx+487; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $40.00 (cloth); $19.95 (paper). In the past two decades, western water has become a highly active...