Middletown transcript., 1880-03-20
THE PAPER QUESTION.
A Western Editor takes the Matter in Hand
and Discusses it with Congress.

A Western Editor takes the Matter in Hand
and Discusses it with Congress.
A petition has been received by
Congress from the Wisconsin Editors
and Publishers Association praying for
the removal of duties on chemicals
and such other dutiable articles as
enter into the manufacture of paper.
Anticipating for it the usual fate of
such documents, Mr.. George W. Peck,
President of the association, appended
over his own signature a postscript,
the evident purpose of which is to get
satisfaction out Of Congress in advance.
The postscript accompanies the formal
memorial and is as follows:
"Now that you have read the reso-
lutions it 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 the
same more or less, l ask you not to
lose your cud but ruminate, as it were,
and think over the highway robbery
that is being practiced upon your un-
sophisticated constituents by the type
founders who are laundering the news
papers. As it is now they stand in
the entrance Of the editorial sanctum
and take the money that comes in on
subscription, and only allow the pub
Usher 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 pub
Usher can only y return his chips to the
dealer and say, "Oh, thunder!" Every
article that is used by a newspaper
man, except secondhand ulster over
coats and liver-pads, is protected by
tariff that makes the cold chills run
up his spine.
another thing that the association
did not pass any resolution about, but
which they probably will at the next
meeting, if there are enough of them
left outside of the poorhouse to meet,
before they meet on that beautiful
shore, is the recent action of the manu-
facturers of paper, who are endeavor-
ing to screw down the lid of the news
paper 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 100 per cent. There is
nothing to prevent them from doing
it, as foreign manufactured paper is
kept out of the country by the tariff.
Every article that goes into the con-
struction of rag paper, except bass.
wood and water, has a tariff on it.
What the newspapers want, and they
believe it is not an unreasonable de-
mand, is the removal of the tariff on
type, on rags, on paper, and on all
chemicals used in the manufacture of
paper. In tariff on rags [if there is
no tariff on rags you had better put
one on, unless you remove the tariff
on the rest of the stuff; if a tariff is a
good thing you can't have too much
of it for instance whom do you pro-
tect? Nobody but guttersnipe rag
pickers and old maids who save up
rags to buy snuff, and tin peddlers
who trade tin dippers and skimmers
occasionally for a -four sack full of
oad-smelling rags Are the rag-pick-
9rs and old maids your principal con-
THE newspapers of the country be-
Ieye that they are entitled to some
at your hands. They
ire in many instances the instruments
through which many of you have at
aimed the positions you now hold, and
hey never have got much of anything
rom you except Patent-O Office reports
nd agricultural documents They
ave set up nights for you and done
irty work that may bar them out of
II participation in the chariot races
the golden streets of the New Jeru-
alem, and now they demand that you
rotect them from the ravages of the
ype-founding and paper-making grass
oppers before it is everlastingly too
ate.
"Not being one of the blamed liter
y tteiiiiors, 50 tUuchiingiy alluded alluded to
y the great Senator Simon Cameron,
ais epistle to you Corinthians may be
little raw and not as polished as it
nould be, but it tries to represent the
ceilings Of the newspaper men of Wis
onsin in language that the wayfaring
ian, though diabolical idiot, can
Understand, and it means business.
he newspapers are desperate and
lille they don't want to go on the
'arpath, they feel that they have been
avished about enough by the differ
ut tribes of benefciaries of the Gov
rnment. IT you great men will pass
bill to give US relief, you will strike
rich, and don't you forget it."