The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-02-28
NEWSPAPERS RIGHTS.
A sounding Letter 10 Congress by n
Western Publisher.

MILWAUKEE, February ~, looV.
TO Senator's and Members Of Congress:
1t becomes my painful and official duty
to address you few lines, and If you will
pay attention and allow the ideas herein
advanced to gently enter your several sys.
TENS without the aid Of surgical opera.
ton or shot gun, 1t will be cussed sight
more than we have alright to expect. at
the annual meeting Of the Wisconsin
Editors and Publishers Association, held
last June at Oshkosh, alter the members
had been formally admitted to the Insane
Asylum, they passed the following where
ases and resolutions, between free lunches
and picnics, and made me the humble
instrument Of torture to bring the atore-
said whereases and resolutions to your at
tention:
WHEREAS, The type foundries Of the
United States have formed combination
| for the purpose OF imposing such terms
and regulations as they choose upon trade,
and
WHEREAS, They have been and are
using their organization to the great dis
advantage and injury Of their patrons, the
printers and publishers OF the country,
and
WHEREAS, The ordinary and permanent
difficulties in the way OF obtaining type
from foreign countries are such as to al
liord ample protection to American type
lioundries without the addition OF the
safeguard OF a tariff; therefore
ReSolred, That the Just interests OF the
primers and publishers OF the United
States require that the tariff on type metal
and type be removed.
Resolrcd, that the Representatives oil
Wisconsin in Congress are urgently re-
quested to use their influence and efforts
to secure speedy abolition OF such tariff.
Now that you have read the resolutions,
lit is a supposable case that you will
feel that your next duty is to throw
them into the waste basket. In the
name OF 100000 people, be tho same
more or less; Il ask you not to lose your
cud, but ruminate, as it were, and think
over the highway robbery that Is being
practiced upon your unsophisticated con-
stituents by the type founders, who are
laundering the newspapers. As 1t Is now
they stand in the entrance OF the editorial
sanctum and take the money that comes
Ia on subscription, and only allow the
publisher the cord wood and farm pro.
duce. By the protection your alleged
honorable body affords them, in the way
Of tariff, they grapple the throat OF every
newspaper in America, and say "Keno,
while the newspaper publisher can only
return his chips TO the dealer and say
10, hell" Every article that is used by
q newspaper man, excepting secondhand
ulster overcoats and liver, is protected by
u tariff that maket the cold chills run up
his spine.
Another thing that the association did
not pass any resolutions about, but which
they probably will at the next meeting, il
there are enough Of them lett outside Of
the poor house to meet, before they meet
on that beautiful shore, is the recent ac'
ton OF the manufacturers of paper, who
are endeavoring TO screw down the lid Of
the newspaper coffin which the type
founders are preparing for the grave. In
the last three months by their own sweet
will, they have run the price OF paper up
almost hundred per cent. There is
nothing to prevent them from doing 1t, as
foreign manufactured paper is kept out oil
the country by the tariff. Every article
that goes into the construction OF rag pa.
per, except bass wood, sweat and water,
has tariff on 1t. The soda, the asalGtida
and blue mass, or whatever Is used Ia
deodorize undershirts and cast.olf drawers,
so that they will smell good in news
paper, has corn on it in the shape OF a
tariff, so that the paper manufacturing
three.card-monte chaps have an excuse to
bleed newspapers to the last drop. What
the newspapers want, and they be-
lieve it is not an unreasonable de.
mand, is the removal Of the tariff
on type, on rags, on paper, and on oil
chemicals used in the manufacture Of
paper. In a tariff on rags, II there is no
tariff on rags you better put one on, I'M
less you remove the tariff on the rest oil
tho stuff; II q tariff is a good thing you
can't have too much Of III for instance,
whom do you protect? Nobody but gut.
tersnipe rag pickers and old maids,
who save up rags to buy snuff, and tin
peddlers who trade tin clippers aud skim
mers occasionally for flour sack full OF
bad smelling rags. Are the rag pickers
and old maids your principal constituents?
The newspapers Of the country believe
that they are entitled to some considera-
ton at your hands. They are in many
instances the instruments through which
many OF you have attained the posi-
tons you now hold, and they never
have got much Of anything from you ex-
cept patentofEice reports and agricultural
documents. They have set up nights for
you, and done dirty work that may bar
them out OF all participation in the char
lot races in the golden streets OF the New
Jerusalem, and now they demand that
you protect them from the ravages OF the
type founding and paper making grass
hoppers, before it is eyerlastingly too
late.
Not being one OF the odd literary
felers" SO touchingly alluded TO by the
great Senator Simon Cameron, this epistle
TO You Corinthians may be little raw,
and not as polished as II should be-, but 1t
tries to represent the feelings OF the news.
paper men Of Wisconsin in language that
the wayiaring man, though diabolical
idiot, can understand, and 1t means bust.
ness. The newspapers are desperate, and
while they don't want to go on the war
path, they feel that they have been raw.
ished about enough by the different tribes
OF benefciaries Of the government. II
You great men will pass bill to give us
relief, you will strike 1t rich, and don't
you forget it.
Yours about mad enough,
GRo. w. PECK,
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