10 'Cbc Conservative *
mail iu the morning , they give him
heaven knows what sum every week , or
every month , when everybody else just
gives him one five-francs on hiring the
room and one five-francs on the jour dc
Van. And when they order things from
outside , they give two sous on Saturday
to the youngster that carries them up.
Some of them pay out as much as a
franc a week that way two sous for
the milk , and two sous for the bread ,
and two sous for the jo urn al du matin ,
and four sous to the yossc that brings
the hot bijleck from the cliarcuterie at
noon. Every bed y knows that to have
the floor of your room , waxed and
polished till you can not walk on it costs
just forty sous ; it is worth just forty
sous ; it has always been forty sous.
Yet there are scores of houses round
here where you could not get it done for
less than fifty now. And those are
always houses where there has once been
an American settlement. They pretend
that two francs fifty is only reasonable
for the hour-and-a-half's work. And
Mine , la Concierge is only too ready to
accept that view. A vrai Parisien ,
when he tenders the good old-fashioned
price , is met with a "Comment ? Mon
sieur , " and a long explanation as to how
everybody always gives the two-fifty.
And so all the rascally shop-keepers
round , and all the shop keepers' gosscs ,
and all the concierges and faclenrs , and
everybody else they become insuffer
able in their demands or evident ex
pectations. One's life is a long peries of
extraordinary , unheard-of payments ,
forced upon one by the unthinking dis
loyalty of the American students.
And do not let it bo supposed that
these Americans are always rich , either.
No , won viei.r , they are just as hard up
as any one else ; they eat bread un
adorned , like the rest , toward the end
of the mouth ; they can not always tell
youthe time the week before their re
mittance comes. It is just un lhff
Americain , nothing but un Ithiff.
Thus far a resume of the artist's
grievous plaint. His conclusion we need
not accept ; the American lavishness is
something better than un bluff the
word has become naturalized French
now but it is certainly rather hard on
an immense body of French and foreign
students whose budget is arranged on a
different basis. And though the Amer
ican students are as a rule much liked
among the camarades much better
liked , for example , than the English
this question of their frequent pourloires
where the others give a sweet smile and
a "merci , bien" is a constant bone of
serious contention. "They are good
fellows , these Americans , " said one ol
the disputants the other day when this
matter was disputed ; "very good fel
lows , but they oughtn't to bring over
their 'Rights of Man' to spoil our con
cierges. " Stephen MaoKenua in The
Argonaut.
Paris , Oct. 17 , 1899.
PRINTING PAPEK TRUST.
International Paper Company in a Tar 111
IMonopoIy.
Two years ago the price of ordinary
news printing paper got as low as 1.6
euts per pound , or $82 per ton. A few
months later the trust was formed and
the price of paper was at once advanced
an average of $5 per ton. Prices have
since been firmly held and during the
ast three months the price has been
marked up to 2.8 cents per pound , or
$46 per ton. The price of wood pulp
has gone up to $28 per ton from a former
price of between § 11 and $16.
The reason , or excuse , given for these
advances is that the drouth has prevented
the running of mills and greatly limited
the supply of paper. Whether or not
the drouth is the principal cause of
present high prices it is reasonably cer
tain that but for the duties on imported
pulp and paper such high prices would
not be possible. The great dailies of
this country who consume the most of
this paper fully understand the situation
and are now working , as they have been
for two years , to have paper and pulp
put upon the free list. To get a clear
understanding of the conditions and
situation , it is necessary to know the
essential facts concerning the paper
trust.
The International Paper Company.
In October , 1895 , an attempt to
organize all of the large paper mills into
one gigantic corporation was nearly
successful and was probably prevented
only by the opposition of hundreds of
influential newspapers which exposed
the smalluess of the assets of the pro
posed trust , in comparison with the in
tended $35,000,000 capital , and began an
agitation in favor of putting both pulp
and paper on the free list.
Two years later the attempt was suc
cessful and on January 81 , 1898 , the
International Paper Co. was incorporated
with a capital of $45 000,000 and author
ity to issue $10,000,000 in bonds. It
took over by purchase 24 or 25 of the
principal pulp and paper mills of the
United States producing from 75 to 90
per cent of all the newspaper manu
factured east of Chicago. The number
of mills owned has since been increased
to 80. The new and independent mills
which have since been built leave the
trust in control of about 80 per cent of
the product.
The following statements concerning
the trust are from the "Brief in favor oi
free paper and free pulp" submitted to
the Anglo-American Joint High Com
mission , on December 27 , 1898 , by the
American Newspaper Publishers' Asso
ciation. The brief was signed in behalf
of 157 daily newspapers :
The basis of the consolidation was as
follows :
Tons Corporation Totn'
185 Glim Mfg. Co 4,811,000
70 Winnipiseogeo 2,185,100
100 Fall Mountain 4,105,507
20 Russell Paper 08-1,000
120 Niagara Falls 8,050,800
20 Webster Paper 502,800
40 Havurhill 228,000
150 Hudson River ( Plattsburg ) . 8,103,280
275 Olon Falls ( .St. Maurice Lumber ) 7,085,035
20 Umbagog 550,800
150 Otis Falls 4,070,630
00 Fnlmouth
25 Horkimor 502,800
50 Lnko George 1,231,200
11 TurnorB' Falls 228,000
50 Montague 1,018,800
100 Rumforcl Falls ( plus woodland ) . 2,280,000
80 Piercefleld 500,000
20 Ontario 412,000
Hlflh Prices Paid for thu Old Mills.
"Excessive and improper prices were
paid for many mills that were located
on exhausted water courses and that
were tributary to denuded timber tracts ;
for mills that at periods of the year have
an insufficient supply of water , or are
under water ; for mills that are inferior
and worthless in machinery , equipment
and construction ; for mills that must
pay excessive rental for water power ;
for mills that do not own or control
wood lands ; for mills that have neither
pulp-grinding attachments nor sulphite
pulp auxiliaries.
"Five of the paper mills * * *
obtain their power at an annual cost of
$196,000 per annum. Two others are
run by steam , which makes competition
impossible , and five others have insuffi
cient power. Four owned no wood
lauds , and ten of the mills had no sul
phite auxiliaries.
"Ninety-eight paper-making machines
were comprised in the plant of these
mills , but only 48 of the 98 machines
were of recent construction or of desir
able pattern. Fifty of the 98 paper
machines in the mills were almost
worthless. * * * Not one of the
mills in all the combination possessed
all of the six essentials of the cheapest
and most successful manufacture ; name
ly , cheap wood , cheap and ample waterpower -
power , cheap rates to market , modern
machinery , wholesale production and
concentration at one place under one
supervision.
"One plant , which could not make
newspaper on a number of its machines ,
was unloaded upon the trust at a valu
ation of $22,000 per ton of daily output ,
whereas the most intelligent and best
authorities agree that plants equipped
with modern machinery , capable of
producing paper under the most eco
nomical and most satisfactory condi
tions , can be installed at less than
$10,000 per ton of daily output.
"For a mill that made not one per
cent of profit iu 1897 a mill which has
no water power , no sulphite attachment ,
and which carted its pulp two miles an
appraisement of $570,000 was put upon
it in its merger into the trust.
"An allowance of nearly $8,000,000
was made for a mill , one-half of which
might better be located upon Boston
Common or in New York City. Five
years ago the stock capital of that con
cern had been $300,000.
"The organizers of the trust frankly
admitted at the outset that its common
stock represented only good will , yet a