By W. D. McWATERS,
Secretary and Manager of the Pacific Paper Company, Portland.
[Analyzing the news print situation, Mr. McWaters can see no indication of lower prices in the near future. He points out factors which appear to be making for even higher prices.]
In this article, we will try to cover the news situation, but of necessity will have to touch somewhat on the manufacture of other lines of paper.
The United States Government a short time ago tried to establish a price on news paper. This price applied, however, only to the news used in the publication of the daily papers, and not on the news print as might be consumed for any other purposes other than the actual use in publications: Roll news, carload lots, $2.50 f. o. b. mill; less than car lots, $2.75 f. o. b. mill. Sheet news, car lots, $3.25 f. o. p. mill; less than car lots $3.50 f. o. b. mill. These are the actual cost prices, and in addition to these prices there was to be a charge of from 5 to 20 per cent, which was to represent the profit, the various additions being due entirely to the size of the contract, the smaller contract taking the larger percentage up.
These prices were not firmly established in that the mills who agreed to make these prices were either in a position not to accept any future business or the publishers who were to release five per cent of their contract tonnage did not release. In either case the answer was the same, in that the prices never were made to the publishers as a general thing.
The United States Government is now trying to establish a price, but up to the present nothing definite has been done. Everything tending to the manufacture of paper seems to point to an increased cost for the manufacturer, and for this reason there would be very little likelihood of any change in the price of news unless it were an advance. The following is a summary of what the mills have to contend with in the man ufacture of paper:
There is a large shortage of pulp and pulp wood, due to the fact that but very little wood was cut in Canada or in this country during the last year, and in Canada where the wood was cut, it is almost impossible to move the same to the market, in that there is a great shortage of help, due to so many men having been called to the colors. Pulp wood, which before the war was selling at from $6.00 to $7.00 per cord, sold during the latter part of March and early part of April at $20.00 per cord on the car, which means $25.00 delivered to the mill. Ground wood, which was selling at from $14.00 to $16.00 before the war, is now selling at from $50.00 to $60.00. Russia, which formerly supplied a considerable quantity of wood pulp, has cut nothing in the way of wood pulp for the
