"Thus Far and No Farther"

1916

These soaring prices every time any one can take advantage of a situation are among the things driving the nation forward to a time when all prices will have to be regulated and fixed as those of public service corporations now are, or to something much more radical. Such is the greed for money that very many men will take such advantage at every opportunity.

No well-informed, far-sighted person can for an instant think that our industrial system can go on many decades more without very material changes.

There isn't in reality any competition in business any more. Practically every line of business is a monopoly — a business of course that is open to others; but no matter how many go in the exclusive control continues. Prices are always fixed by those in the business, and the chances are that the more that go in the higher prices will be, for all have to live.

Of course something different will be worked out. No one can predict what it will be, whether it will be regulation by commissions, whether an industrial democracy, whether Socialism.

Standpat people can no more readily stop the trend than King Canute could the incoming tide when he said to the waves: "Thus far and no farther." — The Pacific.

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.

U.S. Government Short of Paper

1916

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The high-price-of-paper situation, which has already forced many newspapers and periodicals to raise their subscription rates and to reduce the number of pages printed, has also hit the United States Government.

One of the last acts of the Senate before adjourning was the adoption of a resolution directing the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the soaring increase in the price of print paper. It was found that the supply of paper for the Government printing office was only sufficient to last sixty days instead of six months, as is usually the case.

The Federal Trade Commission started an investigation some time ago, but nothing had come of it other than a statement issued early last week in which it was urged that steps be taken to prevent publishers from being charged unreasonable prices for their paper.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 3.

Like Jesse James, All But The Horse

1920

Tippler Hurls a Parting Shot at the Booze Bandit.

One of those present at the funeral of John Barleycorn was a negro who entered a saloon in St. Louis, Mo., and called for a drink of whisky. He laid down a dollar bill. The bartender rang up 50 cents and handed back the change. After glancing at the change and then at the register, the negro called for "another drink of the same."

He drank it and pushed over the half dollar. The bartender rang up the 50 cents, smiled and stood at attention.

"Are you the boss?" inquired the negro.

"Sure."

"Have you got a horse?"

"No, why?"

"Well, Jesse James had a horse," said the negro, turning on his heel and departing.



Found It So

Molly — "Our doctor told me today that hammocks are not good for one."
Cholly — "He's right, dear; they're not good for one, but they're all right for two."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 13.

New York Land Comes High

1910

Space on Manhattan Island Quoted at Some Hundred Dollars a Square Foot

Space on Manhattan island which is a sure-enough tight little island if ever there was one, is distinctly at a premium. The record price for real estate in New York, according to Alcolm, was $583 a square foot, obtained four years ago for the southeast corner of Broadway and Wall street.

On March 13 last the Fourth National bank acquired the building adjoining its own home at the southeast corner of Cedar and Nassau street, a plot measuring 73.1 feet on the latter street and 73.2 on the former.

The average price a square foot was close on $307, which figure has been beaten by only three other sales of real estate in the city — the corner already mentioned, and two small plots the southwest corner and the southeast corner of Broad and Wall streets, which sold over 30 years ago for $330 and $348 a square foot, respectively.

A 30-foot lot on Fifth avenue at Sixty-ninth street, is reported as being sold to E. H. Harriman for a million dollars — and such price is by no means rare in that section. Fifth avenue values, indeed, have been bounding upward, and will soon be rivaling those of the financial section. — New York Sun.