The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-04-25
A Word About Job Printing.

Senyer, applicable to other communities
than st. Albans, that we copy it:
1t has recently become the practice oi
few job printing offices 10 the large
cities to send drummers into the smaller
cities and large country towns to solicit
business. They carry with them sam.
Piles of bill-heads, letter heads, business
cards, blank receipts, notes, checks, etc..
and offer to print according to sample
and at prices which cannot possibly af.
ford profit. They tell the merchants
that these country offices neither have
the facilities nor possess the skill to dc
equally good work, and that by reason
OF not having so much to do, cannot, Of
course do it SO cheaply. This appear;
plausible, and gentlemen who have good
taste, and an eye to the economical as
well as the beautiful, will give them
their patronage; and on the principle
that man always has right to trade
where he can trade to best advantage
will feel justified against any complaint
that we poor devils may be disposed tc
make.
Now word. We admit the larger
facilities of many city offices, and admit
that many Of them employ engravers
which country offices cannot afford to do
but we do not admit that they can dc
printing cheaper or better than any well
stocked and well kept country office
Their rents are higher, the wages of theil
employees are higher, and nothing which
they use about their work is cheaper
than the stock which we are obliged te
keep on hand. And as for being able tc
work cheaper because they have more
work to do, this applies only to the large.
ness Of jobs and not to their multiplicity
The same rule applies with u.s. Ali Offices
can print 1000 copies proportionally
cheaper than 800 But no office car
print thousand different jobs proper.
tlonally cheaper than five hundred, unless
they have not otherwise sufficient employ.
ment, or unless they have a remarkable
sameness in their work. We do work SC
reasonably here in the country that We
cannot afford to send runners-"bum
mers" we had almost said - through
small towns to solicit business. They in
the cities must get their pay for it from
some source, and is it probable that they
love the country so much better than the
city as to make their home patrons pay
it? Not very. No, the fact is that nine
tenths of their country patrons are de
ceived by them; deceived as to the abil.
ity Of offices in their own villages to d.
the same work; deceived as to the actua
cost Of it; deceived as to the quality o
the ink and paper by these city concerns
and deceived as to the "skill" employed
for many Of the samples which we hav,
seen are loud and tawdry beyond express
ion-outrages upon good taste, and JUS
such cheap and fashy things as CITY
Snobbery conceives that Country Taste
admires.
But even if their work were bette
land we are willing to compare sample
any day. yet is it to the real interest o
the country to patronze thsm? Even i
their work is cheaper (Which we deny) i.
there enough saved by the country mer
chant or banker so that he can afford t.
thus weaken any institution Of his owl
town? Here is the point, and we want i
understood ; every country Office must de
pend entirely on home patronage or i
must 60 down. Ruin our job busines,
and we cannot sustain our newspapers. A
merely local paper cannot by any posi-
bility attain circulation large enough tc
pay its expenses and afford sufficient prof
it to engage such talent as can alone make
it worthy any patronage at all. If the
paper is not good one it has no claim
for support, and we have no sympathy
with that played-out old argument that a
journal or job-office merely because il
is local institution is worthy of liberia
and unanimous local support. But If il
is good one, an honor and great ad
vantage to the town, as well as an import
ant benefit to the entire community around
then it is entitled to live and be encourag
ed. 1t agitates public questions, it re-
ports public proceedings, it protests
against public wrongs, it advocates public
rights, it gives the local news, it promotes
local thrift, it magniies your local con.
sequence and sounds abroad your local
fame. The St. Albans Butter Market
the Burlington Lumber Trade, and the
Rutland Marble Business owe more to
the leading papers of their towns than
they can estimate, and every other kind
of business is similarly benefited in the
same ratio.
|. Now, gentlemen, you who are thought
lessly lending your patronage to strangers
in distant cities, who have never benefit.
ed you nor your local interests the value
of a dime nor cent, will you let these
institutions 60 down? Or, what is about
as bad, will you let them drag out weak
and sickly existence, not rich enough to
be independent not enough employed to
be high toned, not enough dressed so as
not to be local humiliation and not ably
enough edited to ever command respect
You do not discharge your whole duty
when you take the paper; nor when you
occasionally advertise in it, nor when you
now and then commend it to friend if it
happens to contain puff for your bust.
ness or report of your speech. Thank
full as we are and should be for all this,
we yet insist that you discharge your
whole duty to the local paper only when
you give every department OF its business
your preference provided it can do the
work well, and when by your patronage
and your influence you discourage all
sorts Of competition calculated to weaken
its power and not benefit the community
for which it labors.
We cannot better conclude this already
too long drawn article than by quoting
Horace Greely: Sustain your local pa.
per-if you have good one, and if you
haven't, make it good one. 1t takes
money to make newspaper.
The editor of the Lowell Courier longs
for tho tin,a vhan tha ourhstona ooo.o.