The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1919-11-26
COUNTRY PAPERS BEING
FORCED TO SUSPEND;
DAILIES BEING CARED
FOR OVER WEEKLIES.
NEWS l3 CTS. POUND
PrOfiteering Upon Gigantic Scale
Now Going On; All Sub
scriptiOn and Adver-
tising Rates Advance.

pound, +. o. b. mill, was asked fo
print paper here during this week
The price was for car load lots, an
was made to one of the largest pur
chasers of print paper in the country
The mill refused to make a price o
anything less than thirteen cents.
CHICAGO.-It is reliably reported
here that one of the large daily pa
pers of the city has made an offeI
of ten cents a pound for 1000 tom
of roll print, and has not found ;
mill that will take the order Tn,
Chicago papers are being forced t
omit a large amount of advertising
from every issue because of the
shortage of print paper.
Observation-Disclosures of in.
ability to secure paper are pouring
into government Offices here. News.
papers are reporting prices of eight
nine and as high as twelve cents
being asked for print paper, and wher
orders are placed at these prices it is
possible to secure only very small
quantities, not nearly enough to meet
their demands.
OMAHA. - One of the largest
wholesale paper dealers of the coun-
try reports print paper prices going
upward every day, with raise in che
week of more than 81 a hundred.
Many mills are refusing to accept
orders at any price, and forced sus-
pension Of many papers is looked for
as there is no prospect of any relief
IN the immediate future
NEW YORK.-The price Of print
paper is soaring skyward, with the
limit nowhere in sight, and every
newspaper publisher forced by cir
cumstances to bid for every pound of
paper that can be secured.
There is undoubtedly shortage in
production in proportion to the de-
mand, but it is charged that the man.
ufacturers have taken advantage of
the situation to boost the prices just
as high as the publishers will pay,
and regardless of what price is nee
essary to provide for a reasonable,
or even liberal, profit.
Without any evidence of reason
pulp prices went from $4,000 to $4,000
a tcl at one jump, and print paper
went up proportionately and then
some. But paper lid not stop with
that jump. New record prices are
being made every day and almost
every hour, and the manufacturers
and brokers are reaping tremendous
profits. The paper jobbers are help
less in the face of conditions, and
the great majority of them are act
ually selling pript at loss. The job
bers are accepting such orders as are
to keep regular customers
supplied, and when they attempt to
get the paper with which to fill these
orders they find the manufacturers
price out of all proportion to the
price at which they have sold their
customer. In fact, the situation has
become SO serious that jobbers are
afraid to accept orders, and it is
rumored that number of them may
withdraw from the print paper
market entirely.
1t is openly charged here that the
manufacturers and brokers are oper-
ating together; that the mills are sell
ing almost exclusively through the
brokers, and that the brokers are
merely the representatives of the mill
owners, In this way the tremendous
profits that are being made are not
reflected on the books of the mills,
even though they find their way into
the pockets of the mill owners.
These paper brokers must not n
any way be confused with paper job
bers. The brokers do not carry
stock of paper; they have no invest
ment in merchandise; in fact, the
great majority Of the paper they sell
is not manufactured when the sale is
made. Publishers have claimed that
mills with which they have in the past
dealt direct now turn down their or
ders, and that the only way they can
secure papers is by dealing through
these brokers, though in the end the
paper is manufactured and shipped
by the same mills that have declined