Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-01-29

STATE PRINTING AND BINDING AT
THE DEAF AND DUMB AsYLUM.-The
proprietors of the Mansfield Herald,
who are contractors for portion of the
State printing, and gentlemen whom
we personally esteem, seem to have
taken entirely to themselves some re-
remarks of ours in favor Of establishing
a printing and binding department for
the State in the Asylum for the deaf
and dumb. The truth is that until we
saw the Herald's article we were not
aware that Messrs. Myers & Bro. OBJ
jected to the proposed transfer of the
State work to the Asylum. Besides,
our strictureaawere expressly applied to
"the printing and binding monopolies
of Columbus" i" not suspecting that our
Mansfield cotemporaries would consid-
er themselves referred TO by those
terms. We will say further that we in
tended no allusion to Messrs. Myers &
Bro. in what we said about the printing
monopoIies who take advantage of their
profits on State contracts to make war
on the country printers. So far as we
know the Herald's proprietors are hon
orable exceptions in this respect. What
their profits are on State work we may
not presume to know, but if as low as
they claim, they will have a good deal
less to complain of when the work is
transferred to the Asylum than some
other Columbus firms whose profits on
public work, if judged by the noise they
are making about it's proposed trans
fer, must be very great. Somuch anxi-
ETY. would scarcely be manifested for
anything less than something hand
some. And it is these same noisy gem
tlemen whose runners have been per-
meating the State endeavoring to raw
ish the country printers of their custom,
who are now so very sensitive lest the
State shall compete with the country
offices by teaching the mutes the pre-
serYative art. We repeat that the SYM
pathy of these gentlemen seems to de-
pend very much on whose OK is being
gored, and we would suggest that in
stead of wasting it upon the country
press they had better direct it TO the
unfortunate mutes whom they are so
anxious to exclude from an honorable
means of living. The country press
will probably be able, in the future as
in the past, TO take care of itself with
out assistance from these gentlemen,
but the poor mutes need all they can
get.
We also repeat that SO far as
competition Is concerned we had just as
lief it would come from the State in
work of benevolence as through the
medium of private corporations nour-
ished out of the State treasury. We
cannot realize that the State can harm
US any more by making printers of the
deaf and dumb than by paying private
companies for public work rates which
enable them to do country printing at
less than cost.
So far as Messrs. Myers q Bro. are
| concerned we do not doubt that they
are doing the work for the State as low
as it can be done, and it is significant
that the country press has not been
troubled with their runners. People
who take fair and honorable price
are generally willing that others should
have the same. It is only the pamper-
ed monopoly that can not be content
to let its neighbors prosper and that
can be guilty of so mean thing as to
envy an honorable livelihood from
those whom the public charity shelters
in misfortune.
Messrs. NJ. & Bro. have but part of
the State printing and none of the bind
ing. Before us are a large number of
the Executive Reports for the present
year, printed by the columbus Print
| ing Company or, in other words, the
Columbus Crisis Office. Messrs. Siebert
& LiIley have a contract for binding a
large portion of which is already done
at the Asylum.
AS to the capabiIity Of the mutes to make
in all cases hrst-class printers we presume
there is room for doubt, and If their inca
pacity is as great as represented by those
who oppose teaching them the trade we do
do not see what printers have to fear from
their competition. 1t is not reasonable to
expect, as a general rule, that persons de-
prived of hearing and speech can master
the art as thoroughly as those who have
I these faculties. But whether the mutes
are competent to do the work of the State
Is another question which we presume to
pc pretty well answered blythe fact that