PILLAGING THE PRESS

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 13 July 1917, Page 1

PILLAGING THE PRESS

Mr Don Seit-z, writing in. the . c North American Review/ says: The 22,000 newspapers and periodicals published in the States are facing not only, complete extinction of profits,, but in many cases confiscatory losses, through the 1 concentrated action of news print manufacturers imposing n pon them a tax of approxiniately 45,000.000d0l a year. Th& war harvests reaped bj* the makers of semi-nianufac-tinea material find nowhere n richer or more undeserved rake-off than in this" raid on the printing trade. After two languid j ears of moderate deinand and. reasonable prices the print manufacturers, taking a leaf from the iron, steel, copper, and chemical industries, decided to suffer no amazement ,at their own moderation, -and, lollowing the annual ,convention of the American Paper and P.filp Association,'held m ]Sevr York February 24, 1916, began one of the most effective price-lifting movements m our lustory. - It lias been pleaded on behalf of the manufacturers that the industry has lore Ihn!\ ?"> an ""Profitable basis; that there in the and Permanent increase wi,'!i P ?5 ; ° f Paper, and that the 1-cent .' -, s^ S°> tJie increased income from , circulation passing to the papermaker, and the diminished circulation resulting, usually/from 66 to 40 per cent., insuring him against the need of expanding his business' sid P U nfJh ISe , e , xe . rtln g biniself. Qn the side of the publishers there has been reck- - iessness in size, in reducing price to the P" ;' c ;in^, ln he ta]rin g back of unsold copies. This last wasteful and unwarranted custom has been blotted out by the crisis. Formerly full returns were almost, umversal. and this meant an average waste ot at least 15 per cent. • Extortion and oppression are not lightly endured in America. : That no excuse iol present price of lOOdol exists on the cost side can be Remonstrated by the total " charges to make a ton- of paper at a modern mill-namely, dollars 32^40. r,r, +L 6 i e ' a n Commission, created on the, live and let live theorv, must determine m the inquiry now inVogress how far conspiracy can be allowed to collect on behalf ol incompetence and and whetlier -one industry shall have the unlimited right to destroy another