Year: 1862

SCARCITY OF PAPER.-The New York
Times states that, while the present high
price of paper is due primarily to the
short supply of the material out Of which
it is made, it ought to be known that this
natural tendency was greatly aided by a
combination of the leading paper-makers
of the country, who seized upon the op-
portunity to crush out small dealers and
enrich themselves at the expense of the
public; and these men are now actively
engaged in perfecting this combination
for the purpose of forcing prices to a
still higher point than they have yet
reached. They met in New York last
September, and organized The Paper
Makers Association of the United States,
which is governed by a number of Off
GERS, nine of whom constitute quorum
for the transaction of business. Fire of
these persons being majority, therefore,
have a right to dictate rules for the gov
ernment of all the paper-makers of the
| United States who shall become members
of the Association; and they hope to
make their machinery strong enough to
crush out all who refuse to join them.
They claim the right to fr the prices of
| all Kinds of paper, to regulate the time Q f
,corkiRg of the various paper mills, and
generally to control the business of ma
ing and selling paper, without regard to
the laws of suppy and demand by which
business of all kinds is usually governed.
And they have a special standing com
mittee of seven, whose duty it is to Gear
ry into effect all orders, votes, and re-
solves of the Association and govern
ment"


Now while we agree with the Times
that it is easyto see what a powerful en-
CINE for the oppression of the communi-
ty such an association, in the hands of
unprincipled men, may become, still if
the Press of the country is true to itself,
it can easily be resisted and defeated.
Let the proprietors of newspapers estab-
lish paper mills, in convenient localities
and make their own material. The en-
terprise of the American press perfected
the great system Of Magnetic Telegraph,
which after its invention or rather prac-
teal adoption by Prof Morse, would new
er have risen to its commanding impor-
tance and usefulness, but for the fore
| anu VI thC COHuuSbOlo VI
the newspaper press, who built numer-
GUS new lines and have ever since paid
munifcently for their support. There
is no good reason why the manufacture
of paper should be a separate business
from the publishing of newspapers.
Nearly all the expense of testing expert
ments for raw materials for its manufac


ture have been borne by publishers, and
the same may be said of all the various
Improvements in printing presses. If
then, there should be found to exist any


combination of paper manufacturers


having for its avowed object the still fur


ther increase of the article-and the New


York Times says some persons think i


will sell at forty cents a pound before the
winter is over-the duty of publishers tc


protect themselves and the interests o


our cheap reading millions of population
will become plain. We shall await the
result of contemplated meeting of "Tht
Paper Makers Association" in the citJ
of New York, before we offer some prac
teal suggestions to our immediate neigh
bors upon the subject of protection anC
the manner of effecting it.