The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1920-05-07
PRINT PAPER SHORTAGE
DUE TO LACK OF TARIFF
Mann Says Manufacture is Stiaed by
Lack of Encouragement in Un-
derwoOd Law

derwoOd Law
Washington, April 3O.-Upon the
Administration, because of failure to
enact an adequate tariff in the Under
wood law, is laid the blame for the
present scarcity of print paper in the
United States by Representative Jas.
| r. Mann, of Illinois. In a speech in
the House he said:
"The situation concerning print pa
per in the United States today is very
deplorable, to say the least. Whether
| it can be remedied by more equit-
| able distribution of paper l do not
undertake to say. Newsprint paper
| is made out of what is known as
| ground pulp wood. Ground pulp
wood is made out Of spruce wood, in
the main, with some balsam fir used
with the mixture. Up until the time.
shortly before the time, the special
committee made an investigation on
| this subject a few years ago there was
plenty of print paper in the United
States for all consumption and at
very low price.
"But the spruce wood is very limit
ed in area in the eastern portion of the
United States. 1t does not do very
much good to have large quantities of
| spruce wood on the Pacific Coast or
| up in Alaska, because freight rates
become almost prohibitive. The great
| supply of spruce wood on this CONT
nent is in Canada, just to the north
| Of Iva 80
wood are there, and the paper mills
supplying the newsprint paper for the
United States are located principally
in Maine, New York, Wisconsin, and
Canada. Up to few years ago we
had a tariff on print paper of Sc ton.
At the time the Payne tariff law was
passed there was quite controversy
here as to what the tariff should be.
A special committee was appointed by
the House, which recommended tariff
of So ton. When the Underwood tar
iff law was passed, it took off the duty
entirely on print paper of value of
less than $3.50 hundred. The result
! of all this has been that the paper
manufacturers, on the one hand, have
been afraid to establish new manufac-
| turing plants in the United States,
because their supply of pulp wood
would have to come from Canada, and
they were afraid they could not COM
| pete on even terms in the manufacture
of newsprint paper in the United
States without any tariff at all. For
time after the passage and before
the passage of the Underwood tariff
law large companies acquired great
areas of pulp wood alone in Canada,
partly with the view of supplying
their mills in the United States and
| partly with the view of establishing
newsprint paper manufacturing estab-
lishments. But no one knew what tho
Canadian Government might do. It
might at any time, if it chose, either
put an export duty on pulp wood or
an export duty on print paper, or an
embargo on either one.
"And the great companies-and
there are number of very large COM
panies, of which the international
Paper Co. is the largest-engaged in
1 the manufacture of print paper. Be-
| tduSt VI OllcSc LdlllJlCS, anu UC-
cause up until recent period the
manufacture of print paper was not
especially profitable, there had been
practically no new plants erected. The
increase in print paper has been negli-
gible, even since the time the special
committee made it's report, with the
exception that at the large plant at In
ternational Falls in Minnesota there
has been but little increase in the
productive capacity in the manufac-
ture of print paper, but the cohsump-
ton in the last few years, and espe-
cially in the last year, has increased
enormously. 1t does not make so much
difference to us whether print paper
is manufactured in Canada or here,
but there is a necessity of these men
being given an idea that if they es-
tablish these plants either in Canada
or the United States they will not be
interfered with adversely by subse-
quent legislation or orders in council"