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Show REDUCTION IN THE DUTY ON NEWS PRIRTJWER RECOMMENDATION IS TO MAKE IT $2 INSTEAD OF $6 A TON. Committee Also Advises That Ground Wood Be Placed on the Free List. j Washington, Feb. 19. A reduction ; In the duty on news print paper from j $6 a ton to $2 a ton, the placing of ' ground wood on the free list and the establishment of a duty of one-twelfth cent a pound on mechanically ground wood pulp, are the recommendations of the select committee on pulp and ' j paper Investigation which reported to ' the house today. The report states that It presents the unanimous report ; of the entire committee. There are three processes generally i used In this country In the production ! of the pulp or fibre from wood, says the report. These are the ground wood process,; sulphite process 'and the soda process. -. The cheaper grades of paper are usually produced by mechanically me-chanically mixing ground wood pulp with other kinds of pulp in different degrees of percentage. The ordinary news print paper Is generally produc-1 ed by the use of about eighty per cent of ground wood and about 20 per cent I of sulphite fibre. Whether other kind ' of wood be6ldos spruce can be profit-' profit-' ably used for the production of cheap print paper is a matter concerning i which there Is some difference of ; opinion. ' The report says it would seem that ; the production of news print paper or : the other very cheap grades of paper i are today dependent upon the continuation con-tinuation of cheap ground wood pio- dnced from spruce trees and that that j condition Is likely to prevail in the future. fu-ture. The amount of spruce consumed in the United State in 1907, according to the report, was about 1.2CO.00O cords for ground wood, about 1,420,000 cords for sulphite fibre and about 3,-450,000 3,-450,000 cords for lumber. The amount of standing spruce is variously estimated esti-mated but It Is roughly guessed to be about 70,000,000 cords east of tho Rockies. An appeal Is, made for the conservation conserva-tion of the forests, the committee urging urg-ing that an organized fire department should bo maintained to fight fire in every considerable forest In the country coun-try and that young trees'should be exempted ex-empted by the various states in tho j ordinary rate of taxation. It is also suggested that that national government govern-ment start v large tracts of young spruce forests. The paragraph recommended for Insertion In-sertion In tho tariff bill, placing a duty of one-twelfth of a cent per pound on mechanically ground wood pulp provides pro-vides that tbls article shall be admlt- ! ted free of duty from any country, dependency de-pendency or other sub-division of a government that does not forbid or restrict the exportation of, or does not impose an export duty or charge upon mechanically ground wood or pulp for use la the manufacture of wood pulp. The duties recommended for print paper pa-per are: ; On print paper valued at not ever ! two and one-quarter cents per pound, ! one cent a pound; and on paper val-; val-; ued at over two and one quarter cent3 a pound and not over two and one-half cents a pound, two tenths of ft cent t per pound. I Tho committee also recommends J that the bureau of plant industry 1 make investigation in tho procure-, ment and breeding of annual and per-: ' annual plants iu the endeavor to find 1 some plant which through breeding to that end can be used profitably for the commercial manufacture of paper. It also recommends that tho forestry for-estry department Investigate the question ques-tion of the producing of wood ground and sulphlne fiber from other kinds of . wood than those used. |