The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-08-27

the prices of fuel, labor, chemicals
and lumber and the present increase
! in shipbuilding has sent the price of
print paper skyward and it will prob
ably remain higher for all future
time than it has been. AS the tim
bered lands are denuded the pinch
,, will be more severely felt and paper
will be hard to get. Before the war
the price of print paper in Bingham
county varied from $50 to $40 per
ton, and is now furnished at about
double that price. The prices of all
other materials, machinery and Ia
Dor used in making newspapers has
advanced steadily for the past dec
ade and have risen sharply during
the war. The old prices of newspa-
per subscriptions fixed in the days
of cheap materials are out of keeping
with present conditions.
XXXvI.
A Bingham county publisher who
charged subscription price of $3.50
a year before the war advanced his
subscription price to So year after
the price of paper started to advance.
The question about his operations is
whether he can continue to furnish
it at that price. .t
A Bingham county publisher who
charged So a year for subscription
before the war announced that he
would double the price of subscrip-
ton when the cost of paper had dou-
bled, but when he went about it to
fix the date for the new price to take
effect he found that the wealthy peo-
pie and those who were in good cir
cumstances had nearly all paid their
subscription in advance, or to jan
uary, 1918, and that to raise the
price would only effect those who
had not yet paid, that is, the poorest
people in the county for the rest of
of the year, and this would make
the burden fall upon those who were
most in need of the lower prices and
the advantage or protection it af-
forded. He announced that he
would postpone the change of price
for short time to give the poor
folks chance to get paid up to the
first of the year 1918, so they would
be on an equality with those who
were better situated. A great many
responded to the opportunity and
paid up for the year, but in the
meantime thousand more subscrib-
ed for the paper and large percent
age of them said they would be UNI
able to make any payment until fall.
While this was going on, the paper
was changed from a weekly to a
semi-weekly, and it required double
the tonnage of news print to keep
the paper going for the same num-
Der of people. And on the other
hand, the addition of a thousand new
slightly reduced the ex-
pense of producing each invididual
This was again modified
by the publisher hiring more people
and increasing the service in various
was. When an advertiser places his
in the paper now it
reaches a thousand more homes than
it did formerly. and naturally it is
worth much more to him, but he
pays only a slightly advanced price
for the service. All of the advertis-
ers and all of the readers in the
county who buy goods of any descrip-
ton are concerned about having the
rate kept down to a rea-
sonable price so that everybody de-
string service can afford It. All of
them are concerned : in having the
price kept down to a
price so that all who care
to read and keep abreast of the
lines can get the paper and pay the
price. The more people there are
.aking any one paper and paying for
It, the lower 1t will be possible to |
keep the subscription and advertis-
ng rates and the better news service
t can furnish. The popular notion |
that cit doesn't cost much of any
hing to print the paper after the |
type it set Is a mistake. Every |
sheet of paper costs money and has
TO be paid for in cash. Everybody |
that works with it to convert it into
! newspaper and secure delivery to
the patron receives cash at good
wages. The problem now is to de-
eide what subscription price should
be charged for semi-weekly and
when to have 1t go into effect to give
The poor the same chance as the
'ich.
XXXVII.
Nearly everybody, when reading
likes to feel that II has