THE ROLL CALL
For Free Print Paper ON MONDAY, June 26, when the Root amendment to the President's reciprocity pact was under discussion in the Senate, Senator La Follette said: "Mr. President, the friends of the...
...The representatives of the paper industry who appeared before the Committee on Finance made much of this report in that regard...
...A Deception, a Delusion and a Snare" GONCERNING this ROOT amendment, Senator Clapp said: "Believing that this bill in its present form, where it purports to give America free paper, is a deception, a delusion, and a snare, I am not going to join in another deception, delusion and snare, which I believe the Root amendment to be, and it is needless to say I do not impute the purpose to its author, but I do insist that it is delusive...
...What are the facts...
...The Senator from Massachusetts (Mr...
...If that consideration does not exist, it is a travesty on statesmanship to talk of trading a market that only takes $300,000 worth of our products against our market taking $4,000,000 of theirs and calling it reciprocity...
...The report further shows that where such is the case, it is not due to the higher cost of labor in this country, but exclusively to the failure on the part of paper manufacturers to equip their mills with up-to-date machinery...
...The Senator from New York, an ardent supporter of the bill, declares that his amendment harmonizes the bill with the agreement and ought for every reason to pass...
...That is the ONLY qualifying condition or limitation upon such print paper, coming into our market free under this bill...
...Democrats and Republicans joined together to kill it...
...To advocate a protective duty under such conditions is equivalent to asking for encouragement from the Government of inefficiency and sloth at the expense of the people...
...Clearly the newspapers are entitled to relief, if any legitimate business is entitled to relief from Monopoly...
...Its purpose is to enable blind readers in all parts of the country to secure books, made especially for sightless readers, that they might not otherwise be able to secure...
...To that kind of protection I for one will not subscribe...
...For, as will be seen from the sum total, the cost of manufacturing labor per ton of paper in the best mills of the United States is $2.19 as against $2.72 in Canada, or a difference of 53 cents in favor of the United States...
...One month ago the report of the Tariff Board relative to pulp and news-print paper was submitted to Congress...
...The tables contained in the Tariff Board report, to which most people would turn for the conclusions, purport to show that there is a difference in the cost of production of print paper of approximately $5 in favor of the Canadian manufacturer...
...The cost of sulphite fiber per ton of paper in the best mills of the United States is $6.45 as compared with $5.28 in Canada, a difference of $1.17 per ton in favor of Canada...
...But these tables are misleading, whether intentionally or not was not suggested by Senator La Follette—and it is in the text one must look to find the real facts...
...interesting because of the new disclosures which it makes concerning the manufacture of print paper in the United States and Canada...
...It is an interesting document...
...Thus, in spite of a difference of $3.27 in favor of the Canadian mills, the American mills come off with an advantage of 47 cents on the total cost of paper, making up for the high cost of materials by the lower cost of labor and other expenses...
...It would seem that we should be equally eager to import from Canada spruce pulp wood, the raw material for our news print paper mills, the product of crown lands as well as the product of privately owned lands...
...We are in need of the Canadian spruce wood...
...Last year I roughly estimated this, and I find that we exported $300,000 worth of paper, pulp and wood into Canada, while Canada exported $4,000,000 worth into this country...
...The report of the Tariff Board conclusively establishes that such is not the general rule...
...He is for the bill as a whole...
...Hence to induce the provinces to remove all restrictions upon the export of pulp wood, this agreement provides that print paper shall come in FREE, provided such paper is manufactured from wood upon which there was no export duty, license fee or charge...
...the rest depends largely upon the boy.—Holland's Magazine...
...It is the same old plan of Canada—and I admire Canada for adhering to the maxim that 'charity begins at home'—maintaining her duties, as her great minister stated in the speech quoted by the Senator from Michigan (Mr...
...I want to say at the outset that it shows we can manufacture print paper on a common level with the people on the other side of the Canadian border...
...Under the provision in the bill as it passed the House print paper will come in free, provided SUCH PAPER is manufactured from wood which would have been free to come into the United States...
...On their own showing, they are compelled to pay tribute every year to the extent of $6,000,000 because this combination is able to fix prices...
...The tables given by the report of the Tariff Board on the paper industries of the United States and Canada show on their face a difference in favor of Canada amounting to nearly $5 per ton on print paper...
...The country is done with the other faction...
...Without wearying the Senate with further details," said Senator La Follette, "I trust I am justified in believing that I have cited enough figures, taken from the books of the companies by a Government board, to prove that an assertion that it costs more to produce paper in this country than in Canada is a myth...
...Such being the case, Senator La Follette said it is his intention to support an amendment placing print paper and pulp wood on the free list, irrespective of the provisions of the so-called reciprocity pact...
...I cannot be wholly indifferent to the fact that Senators by their absence at this time indicate their want of interest in what I may have to say upon this subject...
...Representative Mann, former chairman of the committee which investigated the manufacture of print paper in Canada and the United States, asserts that he drew the provisions which appear in the Canadian pact on this subject, and that the Root amendment is in conflict with the agreement, and will, if adopted, destroy all opportunity to secure admission of free print paper from Canada into the United States...
...The circulating of these books in embossed print will not supplant any similar library now in existence, but is intended to supplement whatever agencies now exist for the circulation of books for the blind...
...It is most illuminating, and, Mr...
...Smith,) where we might compete with her, but asking us to take our duties down where she can compete with us...
...It contains tables that one could almost believe were constructed to confuse, except for the fact that a close study of the text enables the investigator, with much labor, ultimately to find the truth...
...It is said, however that unless we get access to the Canadian market in consideration of Canada getting access to our market, it is not reciprocity...
...THE SIGN of the times—$.—Holland's Magazine...
...The President opposes the Root amendment as hostile to the provisions of the bill to which it relates...
...The provinces in the interest of their own government sell the pulp wood from crown lands subject to the condition that IT SHALL BE MANUFACTURED INTO PAPER IN CANADA...
...and the other costs, which include miscellaneous supplies, cost of machinery, and sundry expenses, are $4.63 in the United States as against $6.31 in Canada, a difference of $1.68 in favor of the United States...
...It is, however, an important document, and is not only the latest, but altogether the best contribution which has been made to the subject of production cost of print paper in the United States and Canada...
...There was not a Yea and Nay vote, so there is no record of individual Senators, but it was not a party vote...
...Unless this important question is rightly settled seats now temporarily vacant may be permanently vacated by those who have the right to occupy them at this time...
...For information write to Miss Griffin, Public Library, Washington, D. C. * * * Voicing Popular Doctrines THESE INSURGENTS (in the United States Senate) are voicing popular doctrines and if there's a chance for Republican victory in 1912, they will be the men to bring it about...
...President, the friends of the Canadian pact seem to be very much in conflict as to the meaning of the Root amendment...
...Lodge) whose zealous advocacy of this so-called reciprocity measure is well understood, advocates the adoption of the Root amendment as vitally important...
...Free admission of print paper, and the pulp wood from which paper is made, would help the papers...
...The Root amendment makes the further condition that no print paper shall come in free until ALL wood pulp paper and board are admitted free into Canada, and the President makes proclamation of that fact...
...The main library will be located in Washington and branches will be established in every state...
...Taft has at last found this out...
...Tariff Board Tables Misleading SENATOR LA FOLLETTE showed that the report submitted by the Tariff Board demonstrates conclusively the fact that it is possible to manufacture print paper cheaper in the United States than in Canada...
...They are vacant at this session.—Boston Transcript...
...If justice demands that Congress give the newspapers relief from extortion, then let it be done without delay, and upon the merits of the case, but by not means through a deal that makes the agricultural interests pay a heavy price for the concession...
...President, it occurs to me to say that the revelations which this report makes with regard to manufactures of paper may throw a light into many obscure places regarding all manufacturing industries, and may light us on our way in seeking to do justice at this session between the manufacturers, on the one hand, and the consumers, the great public, on the other hand...
...The public is interested...
...President, I pause in my remarks to say this...
...I ask Senators to follow me dispassionately while I analyze this report...
...Dislike La Follette as one will it was a terribly prophetic utterance that he made in 1906 when few Senators stayed to hear him: "Mr...
...President, that does not embarass me in the slightest, for I undertake to say that there is no element of reciprocity in this bill...
...There is but one justification for taking the duty off of paper, and that is in the economic development of this country we have reached a point where we owe it to the consumers of paper to remove the duty...
...As will be seen from the table which I am quoting, the cost of ground wood pulp per ton of paper in the best mills in the United States is $8.26 as against $6.16 in Canada, a difference of $2.10 in favor of Canada...
...We Need Canadian Pulp Wood THERE IS NO DOUBT that the newspapers are at the mercy of the paper makers combination...
...THE PARENT WHO succeeds in teaching his son the difference between "seeking a position" and "hunting for a job" will have accomplished a good deal...
...That builds up Canadian paper manufacture, but it prevents our getting spruce or pulp wood from Canada, or rather so much of it as is the product of the crown lands...
...When it is borne in mind that the inefficiency has been due, for the most part, not to lack of capital but to greed, which has caused the capital to be taken from its proper field of application and put to speculative uses of a most objectionable if not criminal character, the hardihood of the speculators clamoring for protection is truly remarkable...
...The bulk of this wood is on crown lands belonging to the provinces over which the Dominion government has no control...
...interesting because it both illuminates and obscures, upon a first reading, important facts regarding this industry...
...Here is striking agreement among these who are the most active supporters of the Canadian trade agreement...
...When the vote was taken, the Root amendment was overwhelmingly defeated...
...President, I am going to tax the patience of the Senate for a few minutes to present some facts which any Senator who will take the time on that report can uncover for himself, but I know how busy Senators are, and I am going to assume that not every Senator here has worked out in detail this report upon print paper...
...The Canadian government and the Canadian provinces are eager for the free admission of their print paper to our markets...
...Well, Mr...
...National Library for the Blind AT WASHINGTON, recently, was organized the "Society of the National Library for the Blind...
...I will not be a party to the travesty of calling it a reciprocal obligation or a reciprocal condition where experience has demonstrated our utter inability to compete with that market, on condition that they have our market...
...Taking those tables as the guide— and I submit that that is where almost any man will turn to get his deductions of the investigations of any bureau or any board—taking those tables as his guide, he would be driven to the conclusion that we ought to have at least a five-dollar duty to offset the difference in the cost of production from the stump to the finished product of print paper between this country and Canada...
Vol. 3 • July 1911 • No. 27
