The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-11-25

be said, even taken in connection with
those relating to the tin trust, to wholly
sustain the contention of Mr.. Havemey-
er that the tariff is the mother of all
trusts, but they certainly go a long dis
lance toward sustaining the sugar king
contention.
The imperialist newspapers are put to
sore shift to meet the situation presented
by the printing paper trust. 1t is one
which touches them quite as closely as
it does all other newspaper properties,
and in that most sensitive quarter, the
pocket nerve. Whatever the private views
of these papers may be, political loyalty
holds them to an avoidance of all public
expression of them. But the facts are in
structive. A brief resume of them will
be interesting.
Two years ago the price of news print
ing paper was L6 cents a pound. or $50
formed. and the price went UP at once
S. ton. Within the past few months
1t was lifted to % cents a pound, or $46
per ton. Wood pulp in that period soar
ed aloft from figures between $11 and SIG
to its present price of $23 ton. The
trust is at present in control of so per
cent of the product of the wood pulp pa
per mills of the country. According to
the statement sanctioned by its officials 1t
handles 14S.5O0 horse power, owns 45O, 600
acres Of spruce land in New York, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Mich
igan, and holds government licenses for
1,1S2,0O0 acres in Canada. The output of
the various mills involves the stripping
Of pulp timber on 625 acres annually.
The present tariff on wood pulp, me-
chanicalIy ground. IS lip cent. or $1.67
per ton. On printing paper, unsized, sized
or glued, suitable for books and news
pers, valued at not above cents per
pound, the tariff is g of a cent per
pound, or Sc per ton.
How much of figure the tariff has cut
in the increased price of news printing
paper is made very plain by the
facts of the advances made
since the trust took hold and
by the statement authorized by the Amer
lean Newspaper Publishers association.
The trust has practically monopoly of
the spruce timber lands of the United
States outside Of Alaska How soon they
will have control in that region on our
side Of the boundary line it does not take
a very vivid Imagination to conceive. Our
spruce growths are limited; those of
Canada practically illimitable. When our
supply has been annihi!atsd, assuming the
continuance Of our trust-made tariff, the
question arises whether means will not
be devised by the trust to get their clutch
es on the principal growths of our terri
torial neighbor and whether the time will
not come, after this people has been thor
oughly feeced, when they will take sub
stantial control of things in Canada.
Lately we have been very busy dis
cussing means to preserve the timber
growths Of our beloved country. We will
doubtless keep up the discussion; and It
will be Of inestimable value especially
in the movement for the preservation of
our spruce timber. The wood pulp bust
ness will have outgrown its swaddIing
| clothes, doubtless just about the time
that the trust has finished its operations
| on this side of the international bound
airy line. Then, indeed, if never before,
will it be satisfactorily established that
the protection Of our tariff, at least on
spruce, must be withdrawn. What essen
| tial difference can it make even if our
timber reformers should realize by that
time that, so far, at least, as concerns
our spruce growths, the truth Of the old
| adage about locking the stable door after
all our equine possessions have disap-
peared shall have been realized?