Possibly No Newspaper Next Week — High Paper Costs

Maine, 1916

Note: This notice, letter, and editorial concerns high rates for the paper they needed to print newspapers. The publisher of the newspaper, The Fryeburg Post, of Maine, was Libby & Smith. All of this took up a large section of page 1 on Sept. 26, 1916. The letter to their paper warehouse is a reproduction (typewriter face) of what they sent. After the editorial following that is the notice from Libby of returning to a law practice.

Notice from Libby & Smith.

The moral support of our subscribers is earnestly requested at this time. While a final answer to the following letter has not yet been received, there is little encouragement held out. Of course if the answer should prove to be favorable we would be sorry to have troubled our readers with our troubles, but as we are using our last white paper on hand, with no certainty of getting any more, this week's paper may be our last chance to reach our subscribers for the present. The name of the paper warehouse is not printed, as they are innocent in the matter. The mill is the Pejepscot Paper Company.


Sept. 12, 1916.

Messrs.

Gentlemen:

Confirming to-day's interview between your Mr.______ and our Mr. Libby, the only contingency in view to prevent our discharging our crew, shutting down, and merely collect old bills to live on and pay rent until reason resumes sway, is for your mill to furnish our paper at the price named.

That price yields them fabulous profits, yet as conditions are we are willing to pay it.

As for the extortionate price in your last bill, and the fact that they can ship to Egypt the output our Maine papers have printed on during the past twenty-five years, that is for your mill to decide. We cannot submit to it, and must resist by the only course open to us.

If there is a possibility that your mill will break away to this extent from the piratical raid instigated by Mr. Dodge we ought to have this confirmed before making what explanations we can to our subscribers in the last week's papers we have paper for. Also we ought to give our crew notice. Of course if any untoward happening should prevent our reaching our subscribers through our own papers, we must depend on the Portland dailies and one telling another.

With of course many regrets,

Yours very truly,

(Signed) LIBBY & SMITH.


The forgoing letter explains itself. For months every month's paper bill has jumped to a new high level, and no assurance regarding the future. Apparently the only limit on the news paper mills' mad rush for profits is what their customers will pay to avoid suspending publication until prices drop. Congress and the Federal Trade Commission are trying to get the paper mills to do the right thing, and the proposition of the mills is that all white paper for small newspapers shall be pooled into one man's hands, who shall have full charge of distributing it among the papers. This would be a most villainous trust, the very monopoly the International Paper Company has been working for years to bring about. And anybody can imagine the price!

The mills say to publishers, Do not impoverish yourselves, raise your rates to subscribers and advertisers. But we know that our subscribers, at the end of two years' crop failure, are not in position to pay more; also in Maine when the farmers are poor the merchants are poor. Besides, we do not feel inclined to take a hand in this kind of a raid.

The news paper mills have no more right to demand ten years' profits on one year's business than the train crews had to cut off the country's life by suspending transportation, or than the Germans had to sink the Lusitania. Because one has a chance to do a thing does not prove his right to do it.

If this is a year of boom prosperity, it ought to be passed around; not certain ones grab the whole and impoverish the others.

The relations between the news paper mills and the publishers who consume their products are very intimate. Banks in a money scare do not charge their customers the highest panic interest rate merely because they can get it from others; instead of that they protect their customers at a fair rate. And banking is supposed to be the coldest blooded of all kinds of decent business.

If some of our readers are inclined to blame us for this step, we can only urge that the way to overcome a wrong is to resist it, not yield to it. Somebody may get hurt but the wrong will be righted. If one-third of the newspapers of the country would promptly take the course we are taking, instead of impoverishing themselves to enable the paper mill owners to make ten years' dividends in one year, they would be brought to their sense of decency at once, not in a kind way but in the way they deserve.

At any rate, having taken this course, we can only depend on the moral support of our subscribers, whether this altogether wrong situation may possibly be averted, or be over in a fortnight, or last through the war.

LIBBY & SMITH


In the interim until we are able to secure white paper again I shall — resume the practice of law — and will to the best of my ability serve the interests of any client who may employ me for even the smallest business.

Charles Thornton Libby.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 1.

Note: A few of the inside pages have an additional notice:

No Paper Next Week?
Do not fail to read the reason on the first page.

Captured Baby Lynx

1905

W. W. Bridges of Athens, while hunting recently, came upon a peculiar track of some animal, which he followed. He captured the animal, which is pronounced by people who profess to know to be a baby lynx, a very fine specimen, weighing 22½ pounds and measuring four feet from tip to tip.


Boat Made From Paper

In Vienna a paper boat, sixteen feet long, has been built out of the back numbers of a leading daily paper of that city. Hull, spars and sails have all been made from the pulped brains of the literary staff. Four hundred thousand copies of this journal will make a yacht — sails and all.


Many Sheep From Colorado

One hundred thousand sheep will be prepared for the market this winter at the beet-sugar factories in the vicinity of Eaton, Greeley, Windsor, Longmount, Fort Collins and Loveland, Col. The beet pulp makes the best of feed for lambs.


Cost of Removing Snow

Removing snow in New York City is a large item in the city's annual expense bill. It costs about $35,000 for every inch of recorded snowfall. Last year it cost the city $755,000 to remove the snow from the streets. The average fall in New York is thirty inches, but though the snow season hardly has begun, twenty-three inches have fallen this winter, and the cost this season promises to reach considerably over $1,000,000.

Pig With Broken Leg, 50 Cents to Set, No Guarantees

1899

PIG WITH A BROKEN LEG.

Indiana Woman's Effort to Have Her Queer Pet's Injured Member Set.

The physicians at the city dispensary have all sorts of patients, but a new record was made the other day, says the Indianapolis News, when a woman brought a pig there to have its leg set. She drove up in a carriage, and exhibited a five-weeks-old pig with a broken leg, and entered into negotiations to have the injured member repaired. While she was talking she paused ever and anon to hold a milk bottle to the little sufferer's mouth, to stop its pitiful cries.

Dr. Kennedy informed her that it was not in their regular line to practice on pigs, but the case might be taken — for a consideration. Dr. Pink asked her why she did not go to a veterinary surgeon, and she said he would charge too much for the work. Dr. Pink offered to set the limb for 50 cents.

"Oh, you're awful high," the woman almost screamed. "I studied medicine myself, and have an idea of what you ought to charge. I'll give you a quarter." But Dr. Pink would not come down, and the woman finally consented to pay the price. The doctor was about to begin the operation, and had given the pig's leg a preliminary pull, which made the bottle again necessary, when the woman was struck with an idea.

"I suppose you guarantee your work," she said. "I think so much of the little fellow, and I want to know that his leg won't be crooked when he gets well."

Dr. Pink would not agree to guarantee the job without additional pay. He informed the woman that it would cost an additional dollar to guarantee it. This almost caused the woman to faint, and as soon as she could recover from the shock, she grabbed the reins and drove away.

Throwing Passengers' Trunks Around

1920—

They Were Soon Undeceived

Travelers' Amazement Fades When Station Master Chirps

The traffic was at its height and there were the usual piles of passengers' baggage on the platform. In the usual way the porters were banging it about, while the owners mournfully looked on. Suddenly the station master appeared, and, approaching one of the porters, shouted in stern tones:

"Here! What do you mean by throwing those trunks about like that?"

The passengers pinched themselves to make sure that they were not dreaming, but they returned to earth when the official added:

"Can't you see you're making big dents in the concrete platform?"



Just Ask Jones, He Knows!

So Will Brown When Those House Repairs Are Finished!

Brown was going to have some alterations made on his home and asked Jones – who had just got rid of the builders – the best way to go about it.

"Oh," said Jones, "you call in a decent builder and tell him the limit you are prepared to pay out, being sure the sum you mention to him is about a quarter of what you have for the alterations; and then, if you are lucky, and keep your wife away while the work is proceeding, you may get half of what you want done for about twice the total sum you want to spend."

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, May 22, 1920, page 9.