Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1916-03-30
Every Item in Publishers
List Up From Ten to
Fifty Per Cent.
AND THE KITING GOES ON
War, Directly and Indirectly,
is Given as Reason for
the Enormous Increase.

since the momentous August of 1914
especially during the past six
months-the skyrocketing of the
prices of necessities around a news
paper plant has gone on with beauty
of consistency which arouses abso-
lutely no enthusiasm among publish
ers throughout the country who have
to foot the bills. Products essential
to the publication of newspapers have
jumped in price all the way from 10
or 10 to 5000 and more per cent.
War, directly or indirectly, is given
as the reason for the enormous in
crease in the publishers bill. And as
war seems likely 10 continue for some
time, so, too, the market slyrocket-
ing promises to go to heights even be-
yOnd the present astounding prices.
Nowadays it is next to impossible to
obtain market quotations for even so
short time ahead as next week. "
II should be remembered also that
concrete instances of the high cost Of
publishing given here are the lowest
prices obtainable, because the pub
Usher buys in large bulk. He cannot
cut in quantity.
Before the war, to start with, the
important item of tons upon tons of
metal used by the stereotyping and
linotyping departments in a great met
ropoltan daily newspaper plant-the
metal which is a composition of lead,
tin and autimony-cost s IA cents a
pound A week ago today it cost
IL 1-2 cents during the forenoon. In
the afternoon the cost was Is cents.
A few days later last week it was
boosted to Is ga cents pound and
today it is IA cents. And so the kit
ing goes on, the increase in cost alone
amounting to thousands of dollars a
year.
The various editions of newspapers
cannot, to use shop expression, be
put to bed" without blankets any
more than humans can. And the
newspaper presses must have have
the blankets in summer as well as
winter-rubber blankets that are
wrapped around the press rollers
first; felt blankets and clean muslin
bandaging covering rubber and felt,
this padding being necessary directly
under the fast moving paper if clean
cut printingis to obtain. Also, quaint
tiles of the ordinary army blankets
must be bought and cut into given
sizes for the stereotypers' use. The
rubber and heavy felt blanketing,
however, has been jumped at least Is
per cent. The cost of the army blank
ct has gone up 20 per cent, the quail
ity of the army blankets at the same
time going down.
Press rollers, which are made large
ly of glue, glycerine and molasses,
have gone up, so manufacturers mott
fled the consumers last week, Is per
cent.
Only last week paper which was
then eight per cent higher than it
was a year or so ago, jumped to ten
per cent increase. No pulp is coming
into the manufacturers. Mills that
not so long ago were selling by the
tons are now filling orders for pounds.
Rags, which are being bought up by
the powder manufacturers eagerly
and are needed also by paper manu-
facturers in clean and more or less
sterilized form, are necessity in the
mechanical departments OF newspa-
pers. The price of rags has jumped
just 100 per cent, or from three cents
a pound to six cents. Writing paper
is an important item in publishing
bill, and it is worth noting
that this item has gone up 25 per
cent.
AS an ink manufacturer explained
a day or two ago, the acids and dyes
and everything else used in the color
ed inks especially, have exploded
from 300 to 5000 per cent. in a iiffy,
once the imports from Germany had
been blocked. Blues that cost So
cents before the war now cost $l4
and SIS a pound, with increases in
yellows also all the way up to 5000
per cent. And, what is more of mo-
ment, the manufacturers of inks fear
that prospects Of filling demands in
the future look doubtful.