Grand Old Rag

It is half a century since a newspaper could be called, with any degree of accuracy, a "rag." The newspaper files of any large library prove this. Editions aged anywhere from 5 to 50 years are yellowed, brittle, flimsy to the touch. They are printed on wood-pulp paper which ages swiftly. But where editions containing accounts of the Battle of the Marne have already become illegible, editions narrating the Battle of Gettysburg, though handled far longer, remain strong and unfaded. They are on paper made from rags.

Last week the New York Times, expense notwithstanding, began to print a special limited edition daily on 100% rag paper, advertisements, obituaries, rotogravure and all -- for the benefit of file-keepers. Considering the completeness and authority of the Times and the aid to future historians promised by its new edition, friends of the Times were more than ever inclined to call it, with unwonted accuracy, "grand old rag."