Towanda daily review. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1879-1921, 1880-03-06
The Tariff OH Paper.

the bill for reducing the duty on steel
rails is out of the way, q strong and we'll
concerted movement will be made to
place printing paper on the free list. The
reasons alleged for such action are not
without plausibility; it will unqucstion-
ably command powerful support, and it
may be successful if no effort equal to the
occasion be made in opposition.
Publishers of newspapers and periodi-
Gals, whose selling prices are fixed and
not easily raised, naturally feel the re-
cent advance in the cost of paper, and in
looking for a remedy may lose sight of
the lessons of the past in their eagerness
for immediate relief. Application to
Congress for the removal OF the duties
seems to be the easiest and most direct
step to accomplish this, and we may
therefore expect to see the all-powerful
newspaper interest enlisted on behalf of
the measure with an earncstness that will
almost insure it's success.
Yet in this we think that the newspaper
interests will be in error, and that a
cooler and wider view of the subject
would lead them to dcprecate rather than
to encourage all such agitation. We
speak as consumers, and for the interest
Of newspapers and printers only, WREN
we counsel conservative policy and ac-
quiescence in the existing condition of the
market, confident that if unwise legisla-
tive interference be abstained from, the
question will settle itself by the natural
operation of supply and demand, and in
the long run the consumer will receive
his paper at lower rates than if he now
seeks temporary relief by striking at his
sources Of supply.
No business man could have watched
the course Of the paper maket during the
recent past without admitting that during
the first nine months Of 1879, prices were
unusually low, and that Il reaction was
inevitable. Domestic rags were quoted
at figure that scarcely paid for their col
lection and preservation, so that stocks
on hand gradually fell OFT to point lower
than had almost ever before been known.
The cheapness of paper stimulated it's
consumption in every way; and to this
must be added the clause in the new pos
tage law permitting samples ofperiodicals
TIC be mailed ut pound rates, leading to an
enormous distribution Of gratuitous cop
les, which caused u very lively demand
for paper during the closing months of
the year. To meet this demand, it was
found that the supply of paper stock was
short, and stock consequently advanced
with almost unprecedented rapidity.
Abroad, though the demand for paper
was limited by the prevailing commercial
depression, yet one imsprtant source of
supply for rags was cut Off by the Ger
man prohibition Of importing Russian
rags, owing to the dread of plague in
fecton.
In view Of all these causes, combined
with the general increase of prices and of
consumption caused by the revival ofproS-
perity, our wonder is, not at the advance
in paper, but rather that the advance has
not been greater. 1t has not kept up with
the advance in the price of stock, and the
average price of the several grades to-day
is but little greater than what it was in
the free-trade times before the war.
The remedy lies, not in admitting pa
per fee Of duty and creating an intcrne-
cine conflict between our own mills and
the massive capital represented by the
Belgian Association, for the losses on