Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-10-11

JAY ~
Rumford. ..........i. Go
Glen. ~
Wincpcsaugv" .,............ ................. 4O
Vermont
Olcott ~
Fail Mountain. GO
Nov York
Hudson Rivyr..................... 81
Lake ~
Rrmlngton....,..'.', 10
Ontario -
IaggartS. 70
Niagara ~
Montague. ................. 10
Total. .gO3
They include in this list MI the mills of
New England and New York which can
fill large orders They propose to capital
izc these properties at $35, 900, 900 and to
buy the mills from the present owners on
an appraiscment based upon payment of
$50, 900 for each ton of daily output, or
SIS, 600, 900, and an allowance of $17, 600, e.
900 for timber tracts, power rights, fran
chiscs, machine shops and antique build
ings.
They say that they do not intend to
raise prices that they will make dividends
from their economies, but their actual aim
is to carry the price of news paper to 2}3
cents per pound. Their customers have
already felt the Tightening of the coils up
on them in tho removal of competition
and in the fixing of agreed prices.
They tell investors that all the available
water sites have been acquired and that no
paper mill using steam could successfully
compete with them. They also tell the
gentlemen who are advancing money on
their bonds that all the available spruce
timber lands which could be utilized for
paper making have been absorbed by
them, and that no competition could long
prevail against them, and that with the
control of the big mills which supply near
ly threc-fourthS of the demand they can
keep the other fourth in subsection.
But in making these representations
they have concealed from investors that
the chcapening processes which have cut
the price of paper from to cents in u
few years are still at work; that the uni
vCrsal tendency Of the times toward lower
prices cannot he checked in the paper sup
ply; that the attempt to float II S35. O00,
600 company will put premium en- the
building of new mills, both for blackmail
ing purposes and for healthy competition,
and that they cannot successfully maintain
high prices for more than six months after
the creation of the trust. They conceal
from investors the depletion of their tim
Der supplies and the constant diminutiOn
Of their water powers us IL result of the
dGnudatiOn Of, the forests. They conceal
the fact that new and modern mills of per-
feet design can be built for less than 49,,
900 per ton of daily output or less than
onc-Gfth of the price which these promot-
ers have placed upon their mills They
conceal the fact that the great lakes, with
vast water powers with accessibility to
the forests of Canada and with cheap wa
ter rates to the SUabOard, are open to all
projectors of paper mills and that within
II short period paper may be placed in New
York at cost of less than | !. cents per
pound. They conceal from investors the
refusal of their largest and best customers
to become the dependents of any combina-
ton Of manufacturers. They conceal the
possibilities of the removal of the tariff on
pulp, paper and Chemicals as u result Of
this combination. They conceal tho fact
that one of the companies in the deal re.
Gently increased its capitalization from
$500, 600 to 81, 700, 900, and that the cash
pay lltlllS NlllCH W Ill Dt IlltOlt Ill Jllt DUT-
chase of some of the mills will moro than
cover all of the actual value of the property
transferred, the bonds and stocks largely
representing promoters profits and inflat
cd values. They ignore the fact that near
ly all the book paper machines can be
cheaply changed to news machines.
A study of the new industrial monopoly
will show that an investment of $40, O0O,
0O0 would more than replace all the mills
and properties which are to be put into
this $35, 900, 900 trust, so that E25, 900, 900
of the proposed capitalization will repre-
sent imitation. A number of the mills are
out of date and badly located. Some of
them have exhausted their cheap timber
lands and all Of them carry more OF less
dead wood in their capitalization, due to
promoters fees or contracts with power
companies,
A first class paper machine of latest de-
sign and most economical arrangement
running 400 feet per minute 40 inches
wide, and capable of producing 20 tons of
paper per day, can be bought for $40, O00
so that the entire output of all the mills
to be taken into the trust could be pro-
duccd on machines costing $1,000, 600
The power rights for a production of more
than 900 tons per DAY, the necessary land,
the timber tracts, the pulp mills and the
shipping facilities by rail and by water at
most advantageous locations could be Sc
cured for all aggregate outlay of less than
IS, 900, 900. Such plants could produce pa
per mt cost of less than les cents per
pound, and could deliver their product in
New York or similar points ut 80 cents
per pound or daily profit of more than
So, 900, and an annual profit of 81, 800, 900,
or Is per cent upon an Investment of SO.
900, 900, after allowing for depreciation,
insurance and interest on investment
The Paper trust proposes to fix paper
prices at "a cents per pound In New York,
or SIS per ton in excess Of the price at which
the best equipped and best located mills
could sell 1t. A newspaper using five tons
of paper per day would be forced, at trust
prices, to pay toll of $27, 600 per annum
to this combination. A newspaper using
80 tons per day could erect a paper mill in
first class location for less than the year
ly tax which the trust proposes to levy.
The entire newspaper press of the coun-
try, representing a consumption of at least
1,2O0 tons per day, will, at S1S per ton, be
taxed more than $2l, 900 per day, or more
than $4,000, 900 per annum, if the power
of this trust shall prevail.
OF course the trust promoters throw up
their hands and loudly contradict the
statement that they intend to practice any