Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-12-05
WHEN THE EDITOR is HIT.

There is one trust that is making
even our Republican brethren of the
press howl like good fellows. 1t is
little combine that is not to be men,
| toned on the same day with some OF
| the gigantic trusts which are viewed
! by our able Republican contemporaries
with the utmost complacency, and It's
powers of extortion are few and very
curcumscribed as compared with those
of scores of other national combines
| that directly plumber all the people
| under cover of the tariff. But the lat
ter manage to keep in good standing
with the powers that be at Washington
and their organs by contributing lib
orally to the Republican campaign
fund.
Why does this little trust so excite
our Republican brethren of the press?
Why, bless you, because it touches the
EDITORS own pockets! 1t is the Print
ing Paper Trust.
A demand will be made Of Congress
to repeal the protective" tariff duty
on wood-pulp and for a substantial re-
duction of the protective tariff on
printing-paper, which demand will
doubtless be backed by a large array
of publishers of Republican organs in
good standing, who can't stand it when
trust treads directly on their own
precious toes Then it is altogether diff
ferent.
1t will be shown, to quote an esteem
ed contemporary, that neither of these
duties is required for the protection of
American industries, as our manufac-
turers actually make paper so much
more cheaply than it can be made else
where that they export it and boast
of their ambition to control the paper
trade of the world. 1t will be shown
further than the International Paper
Trust owns nearly all the available
spruce timber in the United States and
controls all or nearly all the water
supply contiguous to this pulp-wood.
In its needless greed it is destroying
our protected" forests, and thus not
! only eXhausting the pulp material but
impairing the water supply. The real
through admitting free the pulp made
from the almost limitless supply of
spruce in Canada, British America and
Northern Europe"
All of which is granted because true
enough, as also is the fact that the
protective" tariff duty, the direct orr
gin Of this paper trust which squeezes
the squealing Republican editor among
others in the home market, is "a tax
on intelligence" But is a tax on in
telllgence, or a tax on news
papers a whit more reprehensible
than tax on the necessaries of life
of the millions of American consumers?
"a tax that permits the formation of
gigantic monopolies, which acquire in
dustrial plants to close them down,
throw thousands upon thousands out Of
employment, and throttle competition
in the home market while the "protec-
tive tariff keeps it out from abroad.
1t is extreme selfishness and the
height of inconsistency for these met
ropolitan Republican editors to COM
plain of the extortions of the PAPER
Trust, because, forsooth it hits their
own pockets, while they applaud Mark
Hanna's the-trusts-are-all-right senti-
ments and view with the utmost COM
placency the subjugation of American
labor and the wholesale plumber of the
American consumer by scores Of other
tarif-bred and tariff-fostered trusts
ten times greater and more far reach
ing and reprehensible in their extor-
lions upon the helpless people.
Evidently, consistency is a jewel that
does not shed its brightness in these
organic sanctums.