The Washington herald., 1908-02-02
HOW PAPER TARIFF WORKS.
Western Publisher shows Its Exac-
tioas from Newspapers.

FEon. a Speech bg Rst-s-eHtafive Hu-ac-rk Editor
% tbe Omaba Wofld-HsiaH 81 tle House.
When this tariff was first laid the paper
mills of the United states were inde-
pendent Of each other. were In competi-
tion with each other. and every news
paper man Of any considerable impor-
tauce received periodic visits from agents
OF various mills. rendering him paper on
sample and quoting him prices delivered
al his place When / went into the news
paper business in 1ss5 such was still the
case. and for many yeass one agent after
another visited my office and received my
orders. 7 placed ms orders with various
mills at various prices. and during many
years the tendency of the price, by com
petition. new machinery. and cheaper
cost. was gradually downward, until
finally the great international Paper
Company Of the East was formed. When
that occurred the great company prac-
tically took possession Of all this Eastern
country And after it had held possession
Of this Eastern country for some time
there became apparent a gradual work
Of the East and the Wisconsin mills Of
the West and they gradually divided up
the country. until I'm a short time the
International Paper Company never sent
it's agents into the Western States be-
yOnd a certain line. and the Western
mills never sent their agents into the
Eastern States beyond q certain line.
Some time after that the national COM
IN T.I.fr .frtg
the organization I'm the West Of the great
General Paper Company Of Wisconsin,
which bound together into one immense
selling agency all the Western mills. and
made them. for practical purposes. as
much Of a trust in their territory as the
International Paper Company was in the
Eastern territory. About two years ago,
however the General Paper Company was
bsDken up 10y prosecution by the Federal
government. At once the price Of paper
in the West began 70 fall. and for a year
or more Western papers were able 70 buy
paper az less than g a hundred pounds
Gradually, however, and secretly. because
publicity was dangerous. the Western
mills have come into an operating agree
ment not only between themselves. but
with the International Paper Company.
until ii came 10 pass during the year
1907 that the sudden clamp was put upon
the newspaper interests Of this country.
and, arbitrarily, almost IN the twinkliug
Of an eve. the price Of paper was raised
p per cent And to-day I am paying for
paper at the city of Omaha just exactly
. per cent more than 7 paid last year.
That IS an enormous increase on nv
paper alone Il amounts to Sl6C00 par
year. That is the case not only with NV
newspaper, but Il Is the case with thou
sands Of newspapers throughout the
United States, North and South. East and
West
And now the gentleman asks me how
the tariff has anything % do with this.
viii tell him. If it were not for the
tariff Of 50 cents hundred We would
have foreign competition to hold the
price down. ] would be able to buy Ca
madam paper. which sells to-day in
Canada at less than s. Der hundred
pounds. The quotation on Canadian pa
per in Omaha is just little more than
the price quoted by the paper trust in
Omaha, Just sufficient to keen me from
buying the Canadian paper. Take off the
tariff Of 30 cents hundred on imported
paper and the American trust would he
forced to lower its price at least 30 cents
a hundred. or IS a ton, and I use over
1,500 tons a year How great the enor-
nous robbery is in the aggregate, Mr..
Chairman. ! am unable to say. bat
know. personally. II is costing me at least
5000 a year I'm my business