Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-10-04
SECURED BY THE SYNDICATE.
Options Given On All Paper Mills on
the Fox River.

The big paper deal is closed. The
plans of the English syndicate to gain
control of the paper and pulp industries
Of Wisconsin have been brought to a
successful issue SO far as the plants of
the Fox River Valley are concerned,
and negotiations for plants i'll other
districts are expected to be favorably
concluded within few days
As the deal now stands, every paper
and pulp manufacturing company doing
business on the Fox River, with two
exceptions, has signed options upon lis
plants. The two companies who have
not yet signed have agreed to do SO,
and are only waiting for the completion
Of the property schedules to be
attached to the options before signing
: the formal agreement. These options
are given for term Of six months from
Oct. l. and involve properties worth
about S10,000,000. The agreement upon
which these options are based provides
that the purchase price of the various
plants be determined by the actual cost
of all buildings and machinery, the
present appraised value of all water
power rights, leases, etc, and the actual
earning capacity of the plants as
shown by the records OF their business.
Payment for the properties is to be
made in one-half cash and one-half in
notes secured by mortgage on the
property and due three years after
possession of the mills is given.
The syndicate to which these options
is given is already organized and has its
main offices in London. 1t has been
charged all along by the Doubling
Thomases and opponents of the scheme
that no such syndicate is in existence.
That the whole matter is private
scheme of Mr.. Frank ButterWOrth's,
who has conducted the negotiations,
and that his purpose is to get as many
options as possible and then take them
TO London and peddle them off in the
financial center If possible. This view
Of the matter, however, has been
exploded by correspondence which
interested parties in Neenah and
Appleton have had with English
tinanciers, and it is as result of this
correspondence that several large mill
owners who were at first inclined to
look coldly upon the project, have
since entered heartily into it.
The options already signed or agreed
upon represent twenty-nine paper mills
and twenty-one pulp mills which are
located at Neenah, Menasha, Appleton,
Kimberly, Little Chute, Kaukauna,
Combined Locks and DePere, and in
clude about al the Water-power sites on
the river available for manufactures
requiring so great an amount of power
and water as do paper and pulp mills.
In these mills are forty paper machines
which, when running at their normal
capacity, turn out about 1900 miles of
paper, IS inches wide, every twenty
four hours, while the product Of the
pulp mills, for the same length of time,
is about 800 tons Of ground wood pulp
and chemical fibre. The total value Of
this daily output is something like
$4,000 The properties in question
comprise Every plant on the Fox river
from Neenah to DePerc, and also the
bulk Of the paper and pulp industry in
Wisconsin. Their combined value is
about $l0,00O,00O. The value of the
plants in the Wisconsin river and other
paper-maklng districts of the state is
less than $5,U00,000. In gaining pos
session of the Fox river plants, the
syndicate has virtually secured control
of the entire paper trade of the state,
as it is believed that the Wisconsin river
owners, many of whom are also inter-
ested on the Fox, will follow the lead of
Fox river owners.-Appleton Post.