Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-11-15

dian paper mills free of duty. Whether
or not as the direct result of an al
legged conspiracy in restraint Of
trade" by American paper manufac-
turers the price to the publishers has
already advanced $12 per ton during
the present year, with an additional ali
vance of, $40 per ton announced for
next year; and unless something is
done speedily to break down these
wholly artificial and unwarranted
rates, the price of newspapers to the
consuming or reading public must ia
evitably be advanced-for the PUBLISH
ers cannot possibly get new dollar
| for an old one, at the rates proposed
for white paper. 1t is true that there
| has been a steady denundation of our
American spruce lands for years past
and that the growing scarcity of
spruce logs has operated to advance
their price; and it may be the fact
that the cost of paper making labor
| has increased of late; but in neither
| instance or in both combined has the
advance been to an extent anywhere
near warranting the uplift in paper
prices. The spruce wood supply of
Canada is practically unlimited, how
ever. and there is no reason why the
United States government should
starve our home industry by shutting
it out from the use of this foreign sup
lply merely to protect and unwarrant-
eddy fatten another American indus
try
At the same time congress ought to
learn in advance in so far as it cal,
what the intentions of Canada are in
the matter of imposing an export duty
on spruce logs going into the United
States; the Dominion paper manufac-
Iturers are trying persistently to bring
such governmental action about-the
proposed export duty being of a siz :
lof course, to practically prohibit the
Importation of the logs for the papag
mills of the United States. If the
United States were to take off the
duty on Canadian paper and Canada
were then to impose prohibitive eX
port duty on spruce logs. such double
action" would put the American paper
manufacturers between 'the devil an
the deep sea-" as it were-even thougl
it might be said that they had broughi
the thing on themselves with thei,
eyes open. AS has been more thar
once pointed out. it would be extreme
ly ungracious of Canada to place ar
export duty on spruce logs or to pro
hibit their export. 1t IS practically
, the universal custom with all countries
to permit raw materials to be eXporte;
without any barrier; the constitution
of the United States, in fact, prohib
its the imposition of export duties
= During a century and more we haV'
been sending every year to Bingham
millions upon millions of dollars
worth of raw cotton to sustain the cot
ton mills of that country-and witt
the products of these same mills tn
spinners of the United States have i
compete in our own home markets
and only last year, for instance, W
Americans sent about S24,OO0,00
:, worth of coal and coke to Canada 10
| the benefit of its manufacturers-an
. all of it free of duty. For Canada /
turn about and levy an export duty o
= spruce logs coming into the Unite
States would not only be unjust to tn
:, American people but would also be III
fair to its own forest owners, VIII
appreciate the American market fC
pulp wood in so far as it exists.
does not appear conceivable that Ca
ada would enter upon such an exec
:, tiOnal trade policy chiefly for the ben
+. fit of one class Of its manufacturer
If, however. congress were
take the duty off of Canada new
- print" paper and the only appreciab
l. result were to be a lowering Of tt
d price of the American product to
is reasonable rate. with the home ma
h ket still held by the American man
~ facturers. nobody would be hurt