The Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1852-1853, 1852-12-15
Some Of the Beauties Of letting
out the State Printing to the
lowest bidder.

out the State Printing to the
lowest bidder.
We clip the following able article on this
subject from the Seneca Advertiser. 1t ex-
presses our views exactly:
The State journal Of Friday has the fol
lowing in respec, to the operations of the
public printing law, passed last session.
"Some inquiries into the practical work
ings of the printing law of last session have
shown a whimsical state Of affairs. An Of
flee in this city got the contract for printing
the bills. A shopin Cleveland got the con
tract for pressing and stitching them. The
thing works beautifully! The member from
Hamilton, for instance, introduces a bill,
which he is anxious to have passed into a
law as soon as possible. 1t is read the first
time and ordered to be printed. The clerk
sends it off, and the next day it is printed.
The Sergeant-at-A Arms, or somebody else,
packs up the bundle, and sends it by express
on the railroad to the presser and stitcher al
Cleveland. The State pays charges. In
the course of two or three, or five days they
are pressed and stitched, and again packed
up and sent by express TO Columbus, the
State again paying the bill for Transports
ton. In a week the bills are ready fol
members. So it works. Some members
swear, some laugh, some scratch their heads
and say nothing. All, however, agree that
this IS a great ~c0URtyy!"
Just as we expected. The "practical
workings" Of this law are such as TO bring
upon it the ridicule of the very men who
were most clamorous that the public print
ing should be let out to the lowest bidder
Its beauties are now beginning to be scen.-
Under It's provisions, the State printing may
be transferred from the capital to an office
IN SOme remote corner Of the State, provided
it is the lowest bidder; or it may be parcel
led out to a half dozen Offices, or more,
equally distant from the Legislature,-the
State paying the charges on its transmission
thence and back, besides suffering the ne
cessary delay, at an expense of hundreds OF
dollars daily! This is singular economy
truly! Ii we are to keep on in this way,thc
State will pay the taIIest kind of prices for
its printing, before it gets through, under
the forrest bid system.
The House were discussing on Friday the
propricty Of annulling the contract with the
Cleveland Office, in view of the delay result
ing thcrefrom to the legislative business
This difficulty must continue to exist, under
the present system, unless the printing is
confined to the Offices at Columbus, to the
manifest injustice of the ''lowest bidders
( outside the caDital
The speedy dispatch of business absolute
y requires that the printing should be done
where the Legislature is III session. 1t should
be done by a servant delegated by the pco-
pie, at reasonable and living prices fixed by
law, and who should enter into bonds for the
faithful and prompt execution of the work.
Experience has shown that this method
would be decidedly the most economical,
and would settle the vexations which must
always be attendant upon a system like the
present. But it will, perhaps, be best tc
wait until the beauties Of the present law
have been a little further developed before
suggesting a remedy.