NEWSPAPER PATRIOTS.

Grey River Argus, 7 June 1922, Page 3

NEWSPAPER PATRIOTS.

AN AUSTRALIAN EXPOSURE. In a stinging article aa the “Westralian Worker,’’ Frank Anstey, M.H.R., tears aside the veil behind which the controllers of the dnily Press play th? game of loot. ID* shows bow they used the war to enrich themselves, and sang the song of Empire day in and day out, for the sake of callous gain; and how, when the war was over, these apostles of loyalty bought paper from Japs and Germans and Scandinavians, and, in their own businesses, practised an entirely opposite policy from that trumpeted in their editorials. Incidentally, ho remarks, these are the people who row lead the crusade to reduce Austra--1 lian labour to a coolie basis. Says Anstey: — "When the war came the newspapers were dependent for news print upon foreign supplies. For all other classes of paper the price for the local product was £5O to £6O per ton below the price it could be imported. The price of nows print paper, wholly dependent on outside supplies, soared to the clouds. The mills of Great Britain and Ireland were turned to war supply purposes; the mills of Scandinavia (largely German owned) sold their pulp to Germany as a substitute for gun cotton; tho mills of Canada, controlled by Americans, held a monopoly of the Allied markets and while the price in America was £2O per ton, the charge to Great Britain was close up te £7O, and to Australia £75 per ton. "Upon these grounds the Australian Press proprietors doubled the price of their advertisements—even on the memorial notices for the dead soldiers of their country they doubled the selling price of their papers; and by these means, side by side with increased circulation and an enlarged volume of advertisements, they increased their total revenue by from £2,000,000 to £5,000,000 per annum. The total daily circulation last year was around 1.000,000, and of the total revenue onehalf comes from sales, the other halt from ad vert i sem en ts. "The Australian newspaper proprie tors were shocked at the unpatriotic conduct of the Canadians in charging Australians £75 for £2O per ton paper. They were anxious for England to be able to supply once more. “When the war was over, the English mills had to scrap all their pre-war machines torn to pieces in war work, and. they reorganised with the almsley patent —an English invention, the cheapest and swiftest news print manufacturing machine in the v»’orld. On this new basis England began to sell and the Australian patriotic newspaper proprietors rushed the English market they were pro-Britishl Then the Scandinavian mills—no longer selling pulp to make German explosives to kill Allied soldiers—cut prices below the British. At once the Australian newspaper proprietors rushed the Scandinavian market. They forgot poor old England—and became pro-Germans. "Almost simultaneously with this change of front three ship loads of Japanese news print peper came on the. Australian market. It was rushed in a day. The Australian pro-British newspaper proprietors once more forgot poor old England and became pro-Jap. The British paper mills cut their prices; the Scandinavians and Japs cut lower — they had five years’ accumulated profits from paper sold at £/5 per lon to stand behind them as a trade war arsenal. "Within a few weeks the price tumbled £5O per ton, so that in the early pnrt of 1921 the Scandinavians were selling paper in Australia pounds below their home price. That was a. clear case, of dumping, but upon that fact every daily newspaper was silent. “The British mill owners then offered to the Australian newspaper proprietors—who were pro-British when the British were cheap, and anti-British

when the pro-German Scandinavians were cheaper—to sell nows print paper to the Australian daily Press at cost of production, plus 15 per cent., to ship all paper by Commonwealth-owned ships, and to give all reductions iu freight to the Australian daily newspaper proprietors. "This offer was rejected. Love of profits was greater than love of Empire! "The British mills then made an offer to sell British news print to Australians at the same price as the Germanowned Scandinavian or the Yankeeowned Canadian was selling in the European market, plus freight. This offer was also rejected. "The Australian pro-British newspaper proprietors wanted the British to sell at the Scandinavian and Canadian “dump” prices in Australia. If th°y were selling for £3O in Europe and £~'s in Australia; the British were expected to chase them down the scale. Here was demonstrated the "ties of race and kin” of which we road so much! "The British mill owners then approached the Commonwealth Government and asked for a British tariff preference of £4 per ton; they also offered to find half the c: nital and the necessary experts and technicians whenever Australia was ready to as- ■ sist in establishing local production; : they also guaranteed supplies of pulp i from their own resources until local { supplies were available. Htid s”ch an I offer emanated from British capitalists ; in connection with any other industry, i tho daily newspapers of Australia would have had columns on the. advantages of the influx of British capital and of new local industries. "In this case they suppressed the information, would not permit the British offer to be placed before the public, and engaged agents to lobby in the Parliament against the preference ; proposal. Such was the pro-German. pro-Jap, anti-British attitude of the Australian daily Press when it came to a contest between tho pockets of their proprietors and their journalistic pro-British professions. "The Australian proprietors had accused the Canadian mills of having used their war monopoly to loot Australia of £10,000,000 of money. When the British came on the market the Canadians not only dropped their prices, but made restitution —refund — of a portion of the war loot. This bought the Australian proprietors. They now became the advocates of the lootcrs—tho advocates of anybody who could sell them cheaper paper than Britain. These are the men, who per medium of their papers have chased hun dreds of men to gaol or out of the country on unsupported charges of antiBritish behaviour! "The re-entry of British mills into the news print industry brought down the price of news print in tho early part of .1921 by £5O per ton—annual supply, 50,000 tons —annual savings £2,500,000. To some of the larger dailies the fall was as good as a gift of a quarter of a million per year. Their "cost uf production” was reduced; but they did not reduce their advertising or selling rates. On the contrary, at the very time the bottom was falling out of the paper market the price, was raised to 2d per copy and another £650,000 per annum scooped out of the pockets of the public. "These arc the gentlemen who, while their own production costs have been enormously reduced, continue to proclaim that these costs can only be reduced by the reduction of wages. "These gentlemen do not apply their low wage theory to their editorial staff or general employees, who are to be kept on a high wage base until they have cut the throats of everybody else. Then when their turn comes—that’s ’■’business! ’ ’ “Such is the patriotic, pro-Britiab anti-British, pro-German, anti-Germat cheap Ea-hcnir daily Press uf Australia,