Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1860-01-20

l~inhoNiolY adhore 10 thcml Is this imprnc.
tictblet II there no honor among the mem
borsof The crani ~ for example, when II,
law lxes the price fr publishing the law'
Of Ohio at sixty cents a thousand ems, WIS
puhlish them' for twenty, thirty or forts
centsl There must be a mystery in work.
ing for the State. A journeyman receives
twenty-five cents = thousand and the State
Printer twenty-five cents; and yet, IL Is
said, the latter, by ONE curious hocus poems,
makes money! I Congratulate a Cleveland
brother, who publishes the laws at twenty.
four cents, on his disintercsted effort TO help
cancel the State debit On every thirty
thousand ems, he puts into the Sinking
Fund six or seven dollars--hard, sub-treas-
ury cash!
This practice Of rafting" among publish
ers is rapidly destroying the business. Il
not only cuts off fair profits, but makes the
printer and his employer both superlatiysly
mean. The latter, desiring to get his work
done very cheap, whenever he has a card TO
print or an advertisement to insert, moves
round the town and plays the jew to pcTfec-
ton. He calls on A, then on b, @, aud ID,
down TO w, X, Y, z and lizard; and lizard
gets the job What is his in~fereneei Why,
that all the Alphabet Of Printers are ~rascals
and ex~tortioners, and lizard is, besides, n
Ratl
One deplorable effect Of this t~hroat-cutting
practice, is the employment Of boys TO the
exclusion Of journeymeh, Rat prices for adj
ye~rtising and job work, compel rat wages
for inexperienced boys. The latter are en-
ployed to set type at from twelve and a half
to twenty cents a thousand, while men who
have spent the best years Of their lives in
learning the art preservatiye of all arts,''
are unable TO obtain employment. These
poor boys, in turn, after brief period, are
turned adriit, to starve or learn some other
occupation. The merchants and business
men Of the country do not require such sac
r%itices. They are willing to pay printers
literally for their labor.
8. ErtOrtton in Chdrges.-l have known
printers, who would insert Patent Medi-
cines, for a price but little above the cost Of
composition, with the liability Of being
cheated out oftheir pay by DR.. Quack, to de-
fraud counties, corporations, and individuals,
by the most extortionate charges. Take,
for example, the Delinquent List; a very fat
job and greatly desired by printers. The
law allows a remunerating price, viz; thirty
cents a tract, aud a dollar and q quarter a
square for every three hundred ems Of head
and fOot-lines; consequently, it ought to be
set up compactly, and in a workmanlike
manner. How is it sometimes done? The
body Of the advertisement is stretched across
three columns, when il ought to be in two;
and the head and foot-lines are set up in the
same kind Of type used to print sale bills.
Great blanks, representing oceans, seas,
bays, lakes, rivers, creeks and rivulets, are
charged to the county at the same rate as il
set up in small type. Generally, the Audi
tor and Commissioner have not the moral
courage to reject the printers bill; and
frequently, they conniye at the fraud, and
thus swindle the taxpayers to sustain
the party organ. The officers, for their lib
erality in illegally disbursing tine public
treasure, expect the printers support for the
next term; and they get it. If you would
believe the editor, these county officers are
Hamiltons and Gallatihs, in finance, and, in
point Of integrity, the most honest men born
since the fall Of our first parents! II such
chaps rs they had been placed in the Gar
den of Eden, not an apple would have been
plucked from the "tree which is in the midst
Of the garden!" Such fellows, truly "are as
gods, knowing good and evil" But, they
require nj Cherubims, and a flaming sword
turning every way, to keep their hands out
Of the strong box! Honest souls! Not
they!
Formerly, the State Printer was elected
by the Legislature. The law gave him large
fees; but, not content with these, he appro-
priated cassie quires and resorted to the most
extraordinary constructive charges. Much
Of this ill-gotten gain, it is believed, was
used to sustain the central party organ
The attention Of the Legislature was at
tracted to the subject; the frauds were ex-
posed, and, at length, to prevent future rob-
berries, the Constitutional Convention estab-
lished the contract system. Under it, by
some strange process, known only to the
Initiated, the contractor can pay journeymen
twenty-five cents a thousand and make mo-
ney by receiving only twenty-five cents
from the State! Press work at the same
rate; and, yet the contractors are growing
rich!
~Pg6fng.-A reprehensible practice pre-
walls, of indiscriminately putting everything.
The influence of editors is materially les
sened, and the people, believing the puffs are
dictated by sinister considerations, do not
credit what they say. Nobody, for example
credits the statement, that A sells goods at
twenty-five per cent less than B, or, that
Mr.. Swagger buys exclusively for cash, and,
can, therefore, undersell everybody else!-
Mr.. Flash-in-the-pan, or the man who sells
for cost, is known, in every community, to be
either a bankrupt or destined to a speedy
emigration to California; A mere notice Of
an advertisement is sufficient.
s. The Credit Systematic greatest ae.
fiction of the country printer, is the Credit
System. 1t ought to be abandoned at once.
There is no class Of men but printers that
extend a years credit; and no business in
existence can flourish by such an extension
Of credit. Most merchants demand cash for
their goods when purchased, and they are
right; and none give more than three months
credit. Farmers require cash down for eve
ry article they sell. Paper makers, grown
independent in consequence of the great de-
mand for paper, sell exclusively for cash.
type founders, grown wise, because often
heeced by bankrupt-printers, will have
nothing but the ''ready" or a six month
bank note, with responsible endorsers.-
Journeymen, when they are lucky enoughto
be employed, or boys working at half-rates,
must be paid. The grocer, the butcher, the
tailor, the merchant, have allcaught the cash
injection, and nothing but American gold or
the notes of specie-paying banks will satisfy
them. How is it possible, then, that the
country printer, hedged about as he is on all
sides by demands for cash, can maintain the
credit system! The Daily press, published
IN the great cities, have long since abandon
cd it, SO have the eastern and western re-
llglous and literary journals. Why, then
do the country printers Of Ohio hesitate to
initiate their example! Why persist in send
ing a farmer Vour naner for q vaar ~