New Load

When Price Boss Mike Di Salle heard, three weeks ago, that Canadian newsprint manufacturers were planning a $9-a-ton increase, he checked with Canadian officials, then announced that the report was "nothing more than a rumor." Last week the rumor became fact--and then some. Canadian mills announced a price boost, not of $9, but $10. The hike brought New York contract prices to $116 a ton v. $50 a decade ago.

Caught napping, Di Salle asked Canada's Defense Production Department, which has not yet controlled newsprint prices, to try to get the increase suspended and to make a study to see if it is justified. But U.S. publishers held scant hope of avoiding the new load on their mounting costs. Sourly, they eyed soaring newsprint profits, which in twelve years had boosted Abitibi Power & Paper's stock from $3.25 a share to more than $60, International Paper's from $6.50 to more than $50. Said Chain-Publisher John S. Knight: "In view of the profits . . . the increase is without economic justification. Politically, it is stupid. Morally, it smells!"

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