BLEACHED SULPHITE. The present tariff provides for a duty of $5 per ton on this article. The items of cost entering into the manufacture are, as already shown in the unbleached pulp, practically the same also on this grade. The cost abroad of bleaching unbleached sulphite pulp is no less than in this country, chemicals being about the same. The advantage or protection to the American manufacturer on this article is even greater under existing conditions than for the unbleached pulp. The disadvantages with which the foreign manufacturer has to contend in marketing his goods in this country are caused by the following additional expenses from which the American pulp manufacturer is exempt: so that the American manufacturer could sell at prices at least $12.50 per ton lower than the foreign manufacturer and make just as much profit. SELLING CONDITIONS. To-day the ruling price of foreign bleached sulphite pulp, as verified by the Paper Trade Journal quotations, in issue of November 12, 1908, is from $60 to $65 per ton at the port of arrival, equivalent to $63 to $68 per ton at the paper mill. For the domestic pulp the price is, delivered at the paper mill, from $51 to $52 per ton. There is, therefore, to-day an advantage of about $12 to $16 per ton in favor of the American manufacturer. The higher duty would not benefit the manufacturer, inasmuch as these pulps do not compete, on account of quality, as can be seen by the difference in prices ruling to-day. If the pulps were competitive, the American manufacturer could, without difficulty, secure prices more closely approaching those ruling for the foreign article. The policy of the American pulp manufacturer is to make large productions, and anything which restricts the production is not looked upon with favor by the American manufacturer. The European manufacturer will exercise a great deal of patience and industry in getting an article as nearly perfect as possible, regardless of the quantity produced. This, in a measure, will explain the difference in quality between the pulps manufactured here and abroad. ADDITIONAL ADVANTAGES ENJOYED BY THE DOMESTIC MANUFACTURER. Where coal is used for the development of steam power, the American mills have a decided advantage over those abroad, as the cost of coal abroad is very much higher than in the United States. In addition to this, lime and sulphur are used in large quantities, and both of these are produced in this country to a sufficient extent to meet the demand. Formerly sulphur was largely imported for pulp manufacturing purposes, but since the discovery and development of sulphur mines in Louisiana very little, if any, sulphur is imported for pulp manufacturing purposes. We produce in this country bleached chemical pulp made from poplar wood, and in spite of the alleged discrepancies of labor here and abroad, quantities of this article are exported. Under the present tariff a large industry of sulphite pulp mills has been developed. During the last twelve years not a single pulp mill has gone into bankruptcy, and many of them have enlarged their plants considerably. It must be remembered that a good many pulp mills have been built which have used up all their available wood supply, and they have to go farther and at larger expense for their wood, which increases its cost to quite an extent. This condition also applies to the foreign pulp mills, and in recent years the cost of wood abroad has advanced considerably. While, according to official statistics, the wood cut by pulp mills in the United States is estimated at only 2 per cent of the total wood cut, it is largely increased as to the total spruce wood cut. FOREST PRESERVATION. It is essential that our forests be conserved as much as possible. Our agricultural interests are threatened by the devastation of the forests. The consumption of foreign pulp in this country means just so much timber land saved here, and it is a matter beyond question that the welfare of all the people of the United States is entitled to protection by the preservation of their forests rather than add to the profits of a few manufacturers at the expense of the entire country. A higher tariff would affect hundreds of paper mills that have been buying their supplies abroad, and might result in the reduction or cessation of importations of pulp and in an increase of importation of the finished paper. Such a condition would mean the shutting down of many paper mills that are now giving profitable employment to thousands of men at wages better than those enjoyed in many other lines of industry. In the interests of the many American paper mills which do not manufacture their own sulphite pulp we ask that the present duty should not be changed. We submit with this brief a large number of letters from leading paper manufacturers of the country protesting against any action on your part which will increase the cost of their raw material or place any excessive burden on them which would interfere with the successful operation of their plants. Respectfully submitted. Atterbury Bros. Co., Ira L. Beebe & Co., Frederick Bertuch & Co., Castle, Gottheil & Overton, Jean RUDOLF HELWIG, LEON GOTTHEIL, ROBT. B. ATTERBURY, MORRIS GINTZLER (F. BERTUCH & Co.), New York City, Committee. MENASHA, WIS., November 16, 1908. COMMITTEE OF WOOD PULP IMPORTERS, 5 Beekman Street, New York City. GENTLEMEN: Your letter of November 14 received, and we hasten to reply in obedience to your request. We believe fully in the spirit of protection to all home industries, giving them the benefit of every doubt in fixing tariff schedules. We believe that the Republican platform of 1908 should be strictly adhered to in the revision of the tariff. We are not, however, in favor of such tariff revision as would enable manufacturers of pulp or anything else to demand such prices for their products as would be unfair to buyers and consumers. Not long ago nearly or quite all manufacturers of sulphite pulp in this country and Canada entered into a combination for the purpose of advancing the price to a basis of hemlock sulphite at 2 cents a pound, and in addition climinating the former discount for cash. At the same time prices were agreed upon for papers which were made of sulphite much lower proportionally than were demanded for sulphite. Under the conditions mentioned we found it impossible for us to buy sulphite at the pool's prices and put it into paper at the pool's prices without actual loss to our mill. Not being manufacturers of sulphite we were obliged to seek other markets in which to buy to enable our remaining in business with any degree of success. We found that we could buy from eastern importers at prices that would enable us to operate at nominal profit, and we also found that we could buy pulps of great superiority of quality. In fact, certain of the foreign pulps are not duplicated by domestic manufacturers, and the paper made from it commands a much higher price in our markets than any made in the United States or Canada. It is our opinion that the present duty on pulp of all kinds is high enough to protect domestic manufacturers on the basis contemplated by the Republican platform of this year. We further believe that the protection provided in the existing schedules is sufficient to encourage the building of plants to manufacture such better grades of pulp as are needed in this market, but not now manufactured here. We believe that the available supply of pulp wood is now, and will be, ample for all pulp and paper demands for all time, and we do not advocate protection nor tariff revision because of the possible or probable denuding of our forests. We believe, however, that such restraint as will conduce to a spirit of fairness and consistency in our industrial and commercial life should be imposed upon us all. We do not believe that the tariff upon any kind of pulp should be so increased as to encourage the manufacturers of the United States and Canada to cooperate in the fixing of prices above the reasonable limit. Yours, truly, JOHN STRANGE PAPER COMPANY. HOLYOKE, MASS., November 19, 1908. COMMITTEE OF WOOD PULP IMPORTERS, 5 Beekman Street, New York City. GENTLEMEN: We have your letter of the 14th instant, and wish to state that we are in hearty accord with you in your efforts to prevent the increase of the duty on foreign wood pulp. We believe it would be a great burden on the paper manufacturers and on the paper consumers to have an additional duty imposed. We are now paying a higher price for the imported pulp which we buy for our two paper mills than we would have to pay for similar domestic pulp, but the imported pulp has characteristics which we are unable to obtain in any domestic pulp which we have used heretofore or have been able to obtain after extensive research. In our case an increase in duty would mean a corresponding increase in the market price of our products, which, of course, the consumer would be obliged to pay, and we fail to see, under these conditions, the necessity for increasing the burden upon the consumer. We believe that the very rapid destruction of our forest areas, which is so largely helped along by the manufacture of wood pulp, should be discouraged rather than encouraged. A higher duty on wood pulp would surely stimulate the investment of capital in the wood-pulp manufacturing business in this country, meaning an increase in the destruction of our forest reserves, which would react upon the public in general in many ways. It would certainly help to increase the cost of lumber for building material by making lumbering operations recede farther and farther from the lumber markets. The conditions in the Connecticut Valley at the present time are a strong argument against the imposition of a still higher duty on wood pulp. The destruction of the forests on the watersheds of the Connecticut River is one of the direct causes of the very severe drought which has prevailed in the Connecticut Valley for some weeks. The waters of the Connecticut River were never so low at this period of the year, and it is hard to estimate the immense loss it is to the residents of this beautiful valley, occasioned by the shutting down of our manufacturing establishments on account of low water. The Connecticut River is not the only example, as most of the rivers along the northern Atlantic coast are suffering from the same cause. It is a very grave condition which confronts the people of the Connecticut Valley at the present time, and if this condition can be traced to the destruction of our forests such destruction surely should not be encouraged by the imposition of higher duty on wood pulp, or any other tariff legislation which would encourage or aid any lines of manufacture to renewed efforts toward forest destruction. We believe this is a question which is of vital interest to not only the paper manufacturers in the East and wood-pulp importers, but to the general public. Yours, very truly, JAPANESE TISSUE MILLS, FITCHBURG, MASS., November 17, 1908. The COMMITTEE OF WOOD-PULP IMPORTERS, New York. GENTLEMEN: We trust you will use your utmost endeavors to prevent any increase in the duties on chemical-process pulps. The amount of high-grade sulphite fiber manufactured in this country, and suitable for good quality papers, is so small that any advance in the duty would not only work a hardship upon such paper manufacturers, but must of necessity result in a very substantial raise in the price of paper from the grade of low-priced book to fine writings, and we believe that any increase in the duty, while not protecting any industry in this country, as almost no mills make sulphites of equal grade to the imported, would be offset by the increased price the Government-one of the largest users of such papers-would be obliged to pay. No greater harm can befall the paper mills of this country than the increase of duty on the high-grade sulphites imported from foreign countries, and we trust you will appreciate its serious consequences. Yours, very truly, FITCHBURG PAPER COMPANY, BOGOTA, N. J., November 18, 1908. The COMMITTEE OF WOOD PULP IMPORTERS, 5 Beekman Street, New York City. GENTLEMEN: As consumers of sulphite pulp we are vitally interested in the question of a tariff on this material. We protest against not only an advance in the present pulp schedule, but most decidedly against any tariff on wood pulp, either mechanical or chemical pulp. The manufacturers of paper who do not own domestic timber lands and pulp mills are suffering to-day, and most of them have their mills. on part time or down completely through inability to obtain from domestic manufacturers mechanical wood pulp at any price or chemical pulp at any reasonable price. It is evident to any sane man familiar with the paper business in this country that a duty on wood pulp does not protect labor and does not tend to preserve our forests, and the only conceivable excuse for a tariff duty is to foster a monopoly of owners of extensive woodland tracts operating pulp mills, who by unlawful combination have put the price to such a point and reduced production in such a way that the manufacturers of paper who are not in their ring, and who employ most of the labor engaged in the industry, are working to serious disadvantage, and instead of protecting the manufacturer as a whole and protecting the labor engaged in the industry, the Government, through its tariff duties, are effectively backing conspirators whose aims and objects are against the interest of the larger number engaged in the trade. You are no doubt well aware that it is not only the user of print paper who has a valid objection to the duty on wood pulp, but it is decidedly the majority in number, and in the aggregate the majority in capital invested in the paper business, who suffer most from these duties on raw material. It is high time, in my opinion, that the Government let raw material come into this country free. Yours, very truly, C. W. BELL, Receiver, |
