Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-06-24

$50 1863 Ga
As the Public Printers were given this job
as under the law, there appears to have been
flesh pot" but large amount of fat. As
the public may not understand the terms fat
and lean used by printers, it may be proper
10 say, that when printer receives 1854
for given amount of press-work, and gets
the same done for S900-in such case the
5000 would be considered common, lean job
of press-work, and the I,764 of profit is call
ed fa. The whole amount of fat which the
Public Printers seem to have fished out of the
printing part Of this ''pot'' is about 400. The
commission of 10 per cent. on the paper
amounting to 1921 so was doubtless well
earned, for the Public Printers must have
travelled far, and made liberal pI opOstions
to paper makers, to induce any of them TO
charge price for paper eqnai TO SIS so per
ream double medium, delivered in Nashville.
In this thug they did the State some service,
and are entitled to liberal premium as be-
ing the highest paper buyers in America.
The Binder of the Code alledges that the
public printers handed over to him his por-
ton of the spot" fat and all, charging the
State the same they paid him. Perhaps in
this case the fat and lean were inseparahIe
under the law. At all events the public
printers seem to have been liberal either with
their own money or that Of the State, as
another binder of the first standing alleges
that he proposed then to bind the Code, as
printed with its 1900 pages for $4,000, in a
style which would be considered superior to
that in which it toas bound. This would have
been a saving of S2,386 to the State.
The whole matter may be summed up thus:
The hungry" agents offered to print the
Code for 81 per copy, binding included. The
alterations, reprints. &c, at the high rate
charged by the public printers, would have
made it cost less than l0c more-say 2:IO
per copy, or Sl2, 600 for 5000 copies in the
style of the Rhode Island Code. This would
have been one of the cheapest law books
ever published in America" But it cost the
State $50, 1863 Ga, about So 40 per copy
'the cheapest law book ever published in
America" The style of the Rhode Island
Code is all that could be desired, and the
paper. As it is, the Code cost the State ST.
769 more than if the proposition of STEVEN
son and OWEN had been accepted. What
becomes of the talk about superior paper
when we see that the excess of cost to the
State is almost equal to the whole cost of the
| paper at the enormous price paid
In conclusion allow the writer to say that
he would not object so much in ordinary
times to the public printers enjoying the So,
200 of easy made profit derived from thi,
transaction of near $4,000 loss to the people
But these are times of trouble calculated to
| try the souls of all such friends of the
| poor man as are the public printers, which
means the proprietors of the Union and An,eri
can. We gather from the columns of thai
paper that a wild cry of distress is going uI
| from all the wooded hill sides in the land
where the oak and the pine trees grow, and
! from all the valleys where the husbandman
| plants bis grain, that the last hoe. wherewith
he hoes his corn, the last are wherewith be
| frlls his trees, the last iron rre9ge wherewith
he splits his rails. are all going, going, gone
under the sheriff's hammer. This SO, 200
would buy, at wholesale prices eleven hun
dred ares. nineteen hundred and fifty hoes, be-
sides Gerry large quantity Of iron toedges. which
the generous public printers might distribute
among the poor. The iron wedges might be
conveniently sent by mail, to any part of the
State, under the frank of a democratic Uni
ted States Senator, so soon as the democratic
administration shall become able 70 pay the
| $40 dine 10 the Rnrcrsville mail cnrrinr L