The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-04-22
DIAPER TRUSTS BEST FRIEND.

Following his natural bent, Speaker
Cannon has introduced a longwinded
resolution for a congressional investi-
cation of the paper trust and the griev-
ances of the publishers who have de-
manded the removal of the tariff on
paper and wood pulp from which paper
is made. Nominally the resolution is
designed to expose and correct an
abuse: in reality its sole purpose is TO
defend the paper trust and justify the
tariff of SO ton by which the trust is
enabled to rob the consumer of paper In
this country, and to postpone action on
the publishers demand until after cleo
ton.
The very wording of the resolution,
which the speaker fathers, reads as
though il had been written by the
trusts own attorney; the facts or al
legged facts set forth do not comport
with the record, and the differences it
is intended to convey are wholly false.
For instance, the resolution declares
the present duty is the same as has
existed for the past eighteen years.
whereas the duty was changed from
specific to an ad valorem duty in 1896,
at the instance of the paper trust and
TO it's great advantage, because every
advance il makes in paper brings cor
responding advance in duties II is
stated. also. that the dissolution of the
General Paper company by order of
court in 1906 dissolved ''the paper trust"
an ingenious way of misleading the
public, because the paper trust of which
publishers complain today is an organi-
cation in defiance of law created since
the dissolution of the General Paper
company and working mucn more Ell
fectively than did that company.
Mr.. Cannon grows satirical when he
refers to the absurdity of charging the
trusts advance of $22 ton against a
tariff of only So a ton. Such sarcasm
is cheap. too cheap for an exalted per-
sonage like the speaker Of the house.
The trust is able to raise it's price to
cause it has a certain advantage of Sc
a ton against outside competition.
When an independent manufacturer
attempts to compete, it has only 10
draw on its enormous profits, lower the
price to any one buyer to figure
where competition is impossible and
drive the competitor from the market.
1t not only can do this. but it has done
it repeatedly. Predatory competition is
its strong card. and by it the publishing
business of the country has been placed
al the mercy of as piratical cOmbina-
ton as ever foated the black flag on
the sea of commerce.
Whether the duty on paper is re-
moved or not, the agitation has had one
good result: it has compelled Cannon
and Payne and Dalzell and all that ilk
to show openly their friendship for the
tariff fattened trusts as against the in
terests of the people who are at the
mercy of the trusts. Also 1t has served
to show the speakers open hostility to
any measure calculated to relieve the
oppression made possible by duties laid
wholly for the benefit of illegal combi-
nations.
A few more such exhibitions as the
speaker is giving will make it impossi-
bic for him ever to occupy the speaker
shin again and end any uncertainty
that may exist as to his availability for
the presidential nomination at Chicago.
Probably Mr.. Cannen himself sees the
handwriting on the wall, since nothing
else could account for his i'll temper and
obstinacy in this particular matter.