Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican. [volume] (Port Royal, S.C.) 1873-1874, 1873-12-11
THE NEWS AND THE PAP.


said that if the democrats would 90
down in the treasurer's Office and look
at the accounts that have been paid to
this Ne,cs and Courier they would blush
at their own Journal" Now it does
not matter much what Smalls says or
does not say, but such innuendoes have
hren so often made Of late that we here
publicly defy any man to prove that
this paper has ever asked for any state
printing, or that it ever was paid for
the work that it did do as much as
would have been charged to private
citizens for similar work. That. we
hope is square answer to an indirect
and evasive accusation"
The above is from the Charleston
Ncws We are Of those who say and
believe that the conservative citizens
of this state have had cause to blush
for their organ. And further, we
know that the conservative citizens
have had cause to blush for all their
organs in the state. When an abuse
exists so thoroughly known, so fnlly ac-
knowledged, as the publishing of all
the acts passed by the legislature of
South Carolina in all the papers of the
state at full prices, entailing on an i'm
poverished state an expense aggregat-
ing over eighty thousand dollars in one
year, we assert and insist that to &C
cept such patronage from SUCH officials
amounts, in a conservative organ, to
a condonement of the offence and a
participation in the swindle.
The acts thus published consisted
mainly of acts incorporating fire com.
panies, manufacturing companies, lot
cries, churches, benevolent societies,
the charters of towns, ETC., AID of 9th
er acts of interest only to particular
localities. No person could fail to be
struck with the folly of printing such
stuff. They were ordered to be printed
in newspapers for the purpose Of sub
sidising and silencing the press of the
state, and the plan succeeded.
The course Of every newspaper of
the opposition was affected by the hope
of obtaining 50 important an addition
to its receipts. No one who has
watched the state press for two years
can fail to see the fact.
The assertion Of the Ne,os that it
charged only what it demands for like
service from private parties is techni-
'cally true, but really it is false. A pri-
Sate persons h,tving so large job of
advertisip' could have had it done seor
one ~ irth of the amount pah'. for it by
- g state. The average price of all the
advertising in the daily Ners will not
reach three cents line for each inser-
tion.
The Ne,rs published the acts last
year in three editions, its daily, weekly
and tri-weekly. The total in each oc-
cupied about 10000 lines, which were
only set up once and then used in each
edition. The cost to the state at fifteen
cents per line amounted to about ST.
500. Other state patronage swelled
the bill of the Ne,cS to nearly if not
quite $4,000 The Courier got some
what less. The laws were published
also in another daily, for which bill
is in for another $4,000. -Four week
ly papers in Charleston presented bills
for the same work, amounting in the
aggregate to $4,000 more. Fully $35,-'
600 was thus wasted in harleston,
and not one word of condemnation
from the conservative organs. This
patronage was given to the N'cs and
Courier by the two clerks, Woodruff
end Jones, the figure-heads of the
'tCredit Mobilier printing ring" which
is now so loudly denounced by the
conservative organ. This printing
ring was as we'll known last year as
this, but we defy the closest reader Of
the conservative organ to find it out
by a reperusal ofits columns while it
had this patronage from the state.
The republican papers arc not neceS-
sarily in the same category with the
conservative papers in their relations
10 this abuse. They could accept pat
ronage from their party without any
implied or expressed agreement to give
quiH pro quo, by silence or active sup
port. 1t is proper enough that the
laws should be published and it is pro-
per enough that such publication
should be given to supporters of the
existing administration. Even here,
however, an abuse would be manifest
if care was not taken to limit the num-
Der Of papers and TO get it done at rea-
s0uable rates. The United States
government has its laws published in
two papers in every state for about
three cents line, and papers are gene
rally glad to get it.
The psnderiug Of the press to this
abuse, the sharing in this plumber, has
inflicted an almost irreparabIe damage
upon the state. 1t has produced in the
minds of the leaders Of the dominant