Arizona republican., 1916-11-04
WHY NEWSPRINT WENT SKYWARD
 E EXPLAINED
IRepublican A. p. Leased wir.1


 WASHINGTON. Nov. s.-In a state ment tonight announcing virtual com pletion of it's investigation of news print paper prices. the federal trade commission declares that during the iirst nall or this year, when prices al- ready were soaring to unprecedented ilgures, the average cost of producing news print paper in domestic mills was less than S1-65 per hundred pounds. or below the average cost in the past three years
 The commission announced that be- fore issuing its report public hearings will be conducted and manufacturer. publishers and others interested given an Opportunity to appear. No date is set Tor the hearings. but the report is said to be ready to send to the press in the near future
 Certain facts developed by the in quiry are made public now because most of the publishers contracts for paper are about 10 expire Contract prices rose this year from less than E. per hundred to g and S350. and on current market purchases the publish CTS have paid q or more for paper bought n'the same way prior to Jan uary for between g and s3 The statement says in part
 The price advance in news print paper which. on investigation. began early in 1916 and has continued down ] to the present. Most print paper. probably 90 per cent, is sold on con- tract for periods of a year or more. Be 1 fore the price advance began. contract prices for news print paper were gen 1 erally less than ;2 per hundred pounds f. O. D. mills. During the first half Of nrin fnr far ties in some instances went as high as t3 per hundred pounds. and since July !. 1916. have run as high as s3.50. Most of the contracts now in operation will expire within three or four months. 'On current market purchases news paper publishers have been paying manufacturers and jobbers very much higher prices Before January l. 1916. l current market prices ranged generally between g and B per hundred pounds delivered, depending on quantity freight and other circumstances; but since that time they have gone up as | high as s6 or s7 per hundred pounds for considerable volume of business and even higher in exceptional in | stances.
 The average price received by do- mestic manufacturers of news print paper did not advance in anything like l the degree that current market prices advanced because most of the paper was sold under contracts previously made. l The average cost of manufacture Of news print paper in domestic mills was less than s53 per ton. or sl.65 per hun dred pounds. during the first half Of
 1916 as shown by the manufacturers i own cost sheets and by the costs as re- vised by the accountants of the com mission. Furthermore. these average costs were slightly lower than the av-
 craze cost in any year from 1913 10 l 1915
 Though the average cost declined in the first half of 1916. the market price 1 of some of the materials of manufac ture advanced and were unusually high. Tt should be noted that the most i'm portant materials which advanced in price. sulphite and ground wood. were produced by most of the paper manu lecturers without an increase in cost. and not bought at market prices. while some other manufacturers were pro-
 tected against the increase in prices by contracts.
 Tt is generally claimed in the trade
 that costs in the future will increase
 particularly on account of the scarcity
 of labor in the Canadian woods and the consequent increase in labor costs
 of bringing logs to the mills This is
 necessarily a matter of prediction con-
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