Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-12-19
SUBSCRIBING THE PRESS.
The Overwhelming Influence of
Official Power.
Over 100000 Illegally Paid to WASH
fDgfon Ring Organs by the secrcta'
nv OF war for Worthless ana Unnec-
essssry Advertising.

power and patronage more manifest at
the capital than in its newspapers. 1t
requires no government censorship to
secure the exclusion of damaging facts
from their columns, for there are ten
thousand dependents Argus-eyed and
keen-scented to report the slightest
alteration from journalistic hunkyism
to those in power, should they happen
to overlook it. Punishment follows
swiftly in the Withdrawal Of patronage,
not only OH The part Of public officials,
but OF merchants, professional and
working people who find it necessary to
keep III harmony with their official
patrons or customers. Grocers and dry
goods men fear to advertise in paper
under the ban Of Ring or general gov
eminent lest they shorild lose their GUS
tom. aid III This way the remotest ele-
ments Of industrial! ; Gii social life re-
fleet the opinions of the powers that be-
They may sympathize with the truth
and commend il privately; but win not
risk losing The patronage of such off,
Gals or keise hastily Disseminated
against in local matters by the ring for
advertising in a prescribed paper.
Hence those papers only flourish which
are filed with adulation for the met IN
power. The thtee Fling papers herere-
c6it6 i large income from government
advertising, and the greater part of
that advertising is inserted in direct
opposition to law.
The extent of this alone would hard
ly be believed by persons who live to
communities &here 4 decent respect
Ger the opinions of mankind controlsto
some extent the action of tie. press.
Newspapers would not BE wiling to
publish theiF shame to the world were
it not for the general official .demorali-
zation which upholds them; but the
unblushing effrontery with which Off
cial delinquents blazon it out here after
their corruptions are exposed, eounte-
nahces newspaper imitatoi's.
ithEsAE AbYEkTis1NG.
Over two hundred thousand dollars
worth of Illegal advertising done by
the Administration papers in this city
has been paid for by the War Depart
ment alone since the accession Of the
present Secretary of War. | call il
illegal Advertising hot merely be-
cause payment for It is prohibited by
law, but the publication is also prohib-
tied, and while the only penaltyprovid-
ed appears to be non-payinent of the
bills, yet the payment of the bills for
prohibited advertising amounts to a
reward for breaking the law. Such re-
wards are paid here in defiance of the
law by the Secretary Of War.
In 1870 the Forty-frst Congress, with
the view of stopping what had grown
to be an expensive grievance, inserted
in the first section of the Postofiice APP
preparation bill, chapter al, a proviso
that mo part Of the sum appropriated
for advertising shall be paid to any
paper published in the District of Co
lumbia fcT Gdt cruising mail routes, ex-
cept in Virginia and Maryland;" and
in the same spirit with regard to other
departments of the Government, the
same Congress, in section ,, chapter
292 of the Statutes ut Large, enacted
the following:
And be it further enacted, That no
advertisement, notice or proposal for
any executive department of the Gov
eminent, or for any bureau thereof, OF
for any Office Herewith connected, shall
be published In any newspaper what
ever, except in pursuance of written
authority for such publication from the
head Of such department; and no bill
for any such advertising or publication
shall be paid unless there be presented
with such bill copy of the written au-
thOrity aforesaid.
GREAT ABUSES.
These prohibitions and requirements
Of the law are plain enough for any
honest man Of common sense to under
stand; and yet they do not prevent the
greatest abuses in the way of publish
ing advertisements without authority
which are paid for by order of the Sec
rotary of War. 1t IS alleged by those
who ought to know that upward of
$50 ,000 was divided between the Dniiy
Chronicle, Republican and Star last
year upon vouchers not in accordance
with the law which had accumulated
and were ultimately endorsed for pay
ment by order of the Secretary of
War.
The habit Of these papers is to clip
from their exchanges advertisements
for proposals, etc, most Of which have
no relation whatever to the department
work in this city OF its neighborhood
Thus the National Republican advcr-
tises from the Goth of July till Aug
Il, 1872, Proposals for improvement
of rivers and harbors in the States of
Maine, New Hampshire, and MasSachu-
setts,' issued from United States En-
gineers Office, Portland, July Is, 1872"
by George Thorn, Lieutenant Colonel
Engineers, Brevet Bigadier- General
United States Army. These advertise
ments ask proposals for improving Sui
Ivan river and fall, PenobscOt river,
Kennebec river, Portland harbor, and
Back Bay, and Richmond Island,
Maine; Cocheco river. within the town
of Dover, n. H.; Gloucester harbor,
Mass; also Boston and Wellfeet har-
bors, Mass, and set off the necessary
specifications. OF course no one is ex-
pccted to go from this city to Maine
for the purpose Of dredging a few hun
bred thousand yards of sand out of the
channels Of these New England rivers,
nor did it occur to Gen. Thorn, as a
part of his duty to advertise in the
Washington papers for proposals.
Nevertheless they are published here
without authority, and the bills made
out and presented without the written
authority for publication required by
law, and ordered to be paid by the Sec
rotary of War.
PALPABLE FRAUD.
The single paper from which we
have taken the points Of the above ad-
vertisement contains five columns of
similar advertisements for harbor i'm
provemcnts at Michigan City, Chicago,
Calumet, Sheboygan harbor, Anapec,
MenoWOnec, Superior City, Marquette
and Duluth, by D. C. Hunter, Major
Engineers Office, Chicago; for dams
and dykes on Ohio river; for dredging
Savannah river; for improving Des
Moines Rapids; for building walls
around cemeteries at Fort Scott, Ks,
and Fayetteville, Ark; for furnishing
brick and stone for lighthouse on Lake
Erie, at Buffalo, for selling old board
barracks ,t Toffarco1villo Ind opJ