The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-23
PAPER TRUST IS HANDLED ROUGHLY Charges and Denials Before Senate Committee JOHN NORRIS TALKS Wood Pulp and Fruit Paper Divisions of Canadian Reciprocity Agree
 ment Cause Warm
 Discussions

Washington, February Exchanges ot
 the existence of a paper trust and vehe-
 ment denials of these accusations were heard by the Senate committee on f.
 pulp and print paper divisions of the
 proposed Canadian reciprocity agree ment
 Representative Swayzee of Maine went
 before the committee and denied the
 existence of a trust He then pro-
 tested against the enactment of the reel procity measure, declaring on behalf of the eleven paper mills in his district that there is no need of opening the
 Canadian forest. because there is suf- ficient wood in this country to supply all demands.
 Opposed to the stand of Representative Swayzee was John Norris of the Ameri- can Newspaper Publishing association, who attempted to show that there Is
 paper trust'' and that 1t is in complete control of the print paper situation in the United States.
 Arthur Hastings, representing the American Paper and Pulp association, read letters by which he attempted to show that the newspapers of the coun- try were united in a propaganda to force down the price of print paper. He declared there is mo trust" and said the books of all the big paper mills are now open to the tariff board
 of this agreement should go into force." exclaimed MT Hastings, "capi- tai would rush into Canada and soon there would be an overproduction ot paper There Is not a mill in the United States that could compete with Cana dian manufactories."
 The pulp and paper clause of the pro- posed agreement was defended by John Norris, chairman of the paper commit tee of the American Newspaper Pub fishers association. He elaborated the arguments which he presented the same in behalf of the ways and means com mittee of the House, declaring he spoke for daily newspapers, which pay $55,- 100000 per annum for the pulp paper, s6,00O.OO0 more than they would pay if normal conditions were permitted" He dwelt especially upon the following points: The increase of $250 per ton in the price of print paper by paper makers since the enactment of the Payne-Al- uIlCH IdIlll, HOlMlIIlSldHQl1S the TeQuc-i ton of s2.25 per ton in the duty the in- crease of price from s32 to s45 per ton since g mills were merged into the h. ternational Paper company, the alleged effort of paper makers to "starve the market and increase prices, the com plete dependence upon Canada for pulp wood to keep the American paper mills going, the inaccurate character of in formation supplied to senators about the of uvn va Is of the United States. the ability of American mills to make paper cheaper than the Canadian, the failure of bull dozing methods to obtain pulp wood from Canada and the effective appica- ton of the paper clause in the pending agreement to the serious situation now confronting American paper users.
 MT Norris submitted an extensive ar ray of exhibits in support of his argu ments. These included much that was brought before the ways and means committee recently and also important material which he had submitted to the congressional committees in 1909.
 During July, August and September last" MT Norris said, "the larger pa per companies refused to quote any prices for the year 1911. Subsequently an agreed and uniform price of $45 per ton was demanded by them. The larger user of print paper in the United States, whose contract will soon expire. will probably pay an advance of s600,000 per annum upon his present prices. Large newspapers whose contracts are expir- ing are unable to obtain bids at any price except from the mill now supply ing them.
 What else can we expect when Con- gress fattens and fosters concerns like the International Paper company, which gathered together 32 mills most of which were tributary to denuded timber tracks and exhausted water courses? It con cluded them into what is now $69, 9,000,- o00 corporation, most of it's capitaliza- tion representing water. It took over III paper machines, but is now operating less than 67 paper machines. In 13 years it has added only two new machines to it's equipment When it was organ ized half of the machines were then out of date. What must be their condition today? It's paper machines turn out an average of 21 tons per days for each machine. while modern machines turn out 56 tons per days Why should the newspapers be forced to carry the bur den of that load?
 Instead of using it's resources to de- velop it's machinery and improve its plant, the International Paper company has used it's funds to speculate in wood- lands, so that today it controls between 5000 and 1000 square miles of timber tracts and is flirting with the provincial government of Quebec about the loca- tion of paper plants in that section.
 'It has three times the woodlands nec- essary forla perpetual supply of wood to provide its present production. It's representative before a congressional committee figured that these lands were worth s13 492,315, and that the company had made s10,000,000 on the appreciated value of it's woodland holdings. To strengthen it's monopoly of power sites, as well as of available timber areas, it holds 194.592 horse power of undeveloped water power, which is valued at s9,729- 600. It will not develop the sites itself and no possible competitor can get hold of them?"
 Reite1ating his former assertions that tariff coddling had enervated American