OCR Text |
Show AN ATTEMPTED SWINDLE. ( Shrewd, underhand plans to swindle j tho puhlio by covert legislation, carried quietly through congress, aro alarm- iugly on tho incroaao. Without enter- , ing on tho subject in detail, wo may , call attention Co tho latest ono exposed, though many of them aro successful , boforo their purpose is detected. An attempt is made to revivo tho patent on straw papor, an will bo seen by & tolcgrophio dispatch olsowhcro, by a proposed amendment to tho patent law, tho auioudmont having boon twice road by congress. A few daya ago the editors of tho country, who receive tho Associated l'rosa dispatches, woro privji toly warned by telegraph tele-graph of this proponed swindlo, WarWfflp ur,ni'iro-hCTrturtrjTim provo successful it would add a cent, or probably a cent and a quarter, a pound to all tho nowspopcr used by publishers, and would bo a direct tax upon nowspapor publishing which the country would ovontually havo to pay; for whoro many newspapers now have a hard struggle for existenco, they could ill afford to meet an additional tax thus added to their working cx-peusos. cx-peusos. Tho auiouut of such an addition addi-tion to tho cost of newspaper publisher g would bo much grcator than the so unacquainted un-acquainted with tho business would imagine. A buadlo of paper, or two reams, contains niuo hundred and sixty sheets. Tho size and quality on which tho IUuald is printed weighs about eighty pounds a bundle; to which a cent and a quartor a pound would add a dollar in price. On such papers as the Now Voik Herald, Sun, Tribune or World, tho Chicago Tnbuno or Times, tho St Louis Kcpubliean or -Lcmuerat, auu oiutrs 01 ino icauing dailies of tho country, this would entail au increase of from seventy-five to a hundred and fifty dollars a day in working expenses; while tho aggregate on all tho nows paper used by tho five thousand and odd broad sheets published pub-lished ia tho country, would bo enormous. enor-mous. It is to bo hoped congress will not allow this thing to pass, but will reject it by a vote that will mark its reprobation reproba-tion of any such attempt to rob the public |