The daily gazette., 1880-04-06
WASHINGTON LETTER.
ABOUT THE PAPER-PULP MONOPOLY.
From our regular Correspondents.

FROM our regular Correspondents.
WASHINGTON, ID. o., April 5, 1880.
The most interesting question before
Congress at the present time Is that of
the tariffon the raw material from which
the education of this great people is de-
rived, and on the medium through
which large proportion of the business
OF the country is conducted, Dear pa
per makes dear newspapers, dear books,
dear writing material, dear envelopes.
It handicaps the intellectual, CONNER
cial, and social life of the most active
and progressive in the world. That leg
islation should favor this monopoly Oh
hesitate to strike it down is TOO mons
trous TO believe. 1t is a crime against
the child at school, against the laborel
by his evening lamp, against the age
and against posterity that the intelli-
gence of The future, upon which oul
political and social welfare so largely
depends, shall be restricted and dilniL-
ished that few coarse men may grow
rich. 1t is important that bread shall
be cheap, for without 1t the body will
die. IL is supremely important that in.
tellIgence shall be cheap, for it is the
food OF the mind. Where one man is
employed in making paper or wood
pulp hundred are employed in the art
of printing. 1t may be said that just as
many will find employment Oh news
papers, fer example, when paper is dear
as when it is cheap. This is not true.
The newspaper cannot safely reduce its
size. But the necessity for retrencli-
ment must be met aud will fall at once
OH the labor The publisher employs,
since 1t can fall now here else. BY EN-
pIoying larger type and reducing the
composition bills in the ways publishers
81 easily understand they can lop of the
v ages of compositors to make up for
the Incl eased cost of white paper. They
will also reduce the pay of numbers oi
reporters and correspondents, aud thus
diminish the pay roll while the quality
Of the news and comment furnished
will be deteriorated. The business of
printing is OF such vastly greater i'm
portance than that of making paper,
that 1t is simply monstr0us to tax The
grraLer industry to enrich few wealthy
manufacturers. The intelligence OF the
American people comes one-bundred-
fold more from the general reading of
newspapers by the people than from
their common schools. The marvel
ousy cheap form in which the best OF
the standard Eng ish literature is now
furnished is another powerful educator,
and one, the effects of which will be
felt by future generations. The cost of
paper Is a most lmpor. ant element in
this machinery for the sp, cad of knowl-
edge--a machinery that has far outstrip-
ped the dreams OF the Girards and
Smithsons, who have sought to benefit
their fellow-men by endowing institu-
tions to serve the same end.
AS for the wood-pulp millionaires, who
prostitute their seats i'll Cong ess to
maintain their monopoly, their course is
just as corrupt as II they sold their
votes. As long as public opinion will
permit this sort Of thing we may expect
a carnival of rascallty in public life, TO
make orations about a deficiency in the
Star Service, and be silent about the
flagrant immortality of members voting
money directly into their own hands OF
mills will not justify any talk in the
House OF Representatives about reform.