The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-09-22
FACTS ABOUT THE PAPER MILL
TRUST,


$4,000 to build the mill and that an
additional $4,000 in running capital
Will be necessary. 1t will be remem-
bered that when the matter was
preached at the Press Convention,
General Julian S. Carr offered to take
stock to the amount of $4,000. The
Wilmington Dispatch says gentle
man in Raleigh whose name is with
held, has offered to subscribe $4,000.
This gives already in sight one-fourth
of the capital necessary, and Mr..
Whitehead is in correspondence with
parties in the North in the hope of
finding Northern paper manufacture
er who will become interested in the
enterprise. 1t would have the patron
age of the North Carolina papers
without the cost of soliciting, and
that would be big business from the
start.
To show the increase in the price
of white paper since the organization,
we may state that it is tax of $3.50
per day on the News and Observer
alone. All other papers are taxed in
proportion.
The Inland Printer, published at
Chicago, ILL.,, acknowledged authority
in the printing trade, has an article
that ought to interest everybody. The
oil g, oe, fo1Ioxuc.
"a PAPER Mill MANS VIEW OF
THE PAPER TRUST.
patrick Henry Gilkey-Irish of
name but down-East Yankee by birth
and breeding-is nothing if not frank
He is by occupation a farmer near
Kalamazoo, Michigan, but he is also
heavily interested in several paper
mills owned by the trust, is direc-
tor in several national banks and
man of affairs generally Speaking
recently on the paper trust, Mr.. Gil
key laid its responsibility at the door
of the Dingley tariff law. He tells a
story about Editor Dingley Ga son of
the author of the tariff measure) COM
ing to see him to protest against the
upward tendency of the price OF print
paper.
"Let me see,' / said to him. about
two years ago you were paying some
thing like $1.70 for paper, weren't
your" said Mr.. Gilkey in telling of
the interview.
Eyes he said. And now it costs
you $2.70, doesn't it?'j about that
he says. Well / said, we're entitled
to the increased price. We paid our
money for it and bought it. We got
our protection in the Dingley tariff
bill that we had paid for, and we held
a love feast over the matter. Then it
was only little while before the
price of paper in the United States
was in the hands of one man. He
wasn't feeling very well one morning
when he got up. "Put the price up
25 CENTS" he said, and paper went up
from $1.70 to $685.
"The man in New York didn't stop
with one little 25-cent rise" continued
Mr.. Gilkey. ''He kept putting on
other 25-cent rises every little while
until, after two years, he has got the
price up to $2.70. Every single paper
mill in the country is now in the
trust. There are 1920 of them. They
have adopted the policy of running
the mills one week and shutting them
down the next. Two objects are ac-
complished. The expense of opera
ton is reduced and the limitation of
output makes it easier to manipulate
prices"
Mr.. Gilkey then produced a bank
book and glibly read off various sums,
explaining that each amount repre-
!. l. I.I
his stock in the Bardeen paper mill at
Otsego, twelve miles north of Kala-
mazoo. On January 3rd last, accord
ing to the handbook, there was a de-
posit of $3.50, representing a dividend
of five per cent on the stock Mr..
Gilkey owns IN this particular mill.
On February 23rd, there was a de-
posit of $500, representing a dividend
of ten per cent. On April 2 there was
a deposit of $3.50, or five per cent. On
the Both of the same month there was.
a still further $500 deposit from ten
per cent dividend On June 21st,
there was a $500 deposit from a
ten per cent dividend. From January
3 to June 81, accordingly. an invest
ment of $4,000 in stock of the Bardeen
Paper Company paid no less than 81
UUU Ill UINIutnuS, VI IOIlN pei CCnu Ou
the investment. Mr.. Gillley says that
before January 1 next that stock will
pay forty per cent more in dividends
at least, or eighty per cent for the
entire year, amounting to $4,000 on a
$4,000 investment.
Mr.. Gilkey added that the stock
would have paid larger dividends but
that considerable sums had been car
ried to the surplus account. The Bar
deem mill, Mr.. Gilley explained, was
established by Mr.. Bardeen about
thirteen years ago. Its capital stock
was $175,OO0. For the first five years
it paid no dividends. All profits were
carried to the surplus account and
from this account during that time a
second mill as large as the first was
built. Then it began to declare di-
vidends. In something like eight
years it has paid in dividends 1915 for
every 81 in the original investment
and besides that has built still a third
mill from the profits. H
Whatever NAV be thought of Mr..
Gilkey's opinion that the paper trust
was made possible by the Dingley
tariff, no consumer of paper will