The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1873-12-16
What The County clerk is required to do.

= hO laws vi IIllo ASuNS1 - OAeReNA 49,
Art XIV, Sec. 10, provide as follows:
The clerk of the Board of Supervisors
hall, at the close of each annual or special
Meeting of the Board, cause brief state
nent of the proceedings thereof to be pub
ished in a newspaper published in the
in which shall be set forth the
name of every individual who shall have
had any account audited and allowed by
said Board, and the amount OF said claim |
as allowed and amount claimed, ana also
their proceedings upon the equalization of
the assessment roll.
1t will be observed that this law is man
datory on the County Clerk. 1t does not
say he may do it, or that the Supervisors
MAY do it, but that the CLERK shall etc,
etc. 1t has been the practice in this coun-
ty for the Board of Supervisors to make
some arrangement by which the proceed
ings could be published in all the papers.
in order that all the people may have &C
cess to the doings of the Board in the pa
per of their choice. The law does not re-
quire this-nor does it prohibit it-and so
long as the Board could get all the papers
in the county to fill the requirement of
the law without costing more than one pa
per would charge its customers generally
for such work, it was desirable that the
proceedings should be published in all the
papers.
At the June session of the Board Mr..
Bowles seemed determined to break up the
old arrangement and set the newspapers
to bidding against each other We sug-
gested to him that it would not be advisa-
bic it would breed ill-feeling would look
like an effort on the part Of the Board tc
compel people to take paper which they
did not care for. and that the tax thus i'm
posed upon them would be an unnecessary
hardship. We urged upon him the fac
that the proceedings should be published
in all the papers and that the price theT
charged was not one-half the usual rate
for such matter. And there the matter
dropped for that session.
At the July meeting he again revived
the subject and represented to us tina
Sup'r Lobdell had proposition ready t.
submit, from the ReUieto; that only on,
paper would be paid, and that one would
be the lowest bidder. Other Supervisor
said the same thing Under this repre-
sentation we made proposal and as sool
as the proposals were opened tours wa
the lowest Mr. Bowles went back on hi
own proposition and made up
report giving it to two papers
and then the Board went bacl
on the idea of one paper and give it to a
at our figures. The committee and other
held out tous the idea ofan e.rcluSire right
but forgot all about that idea as soon a
they got our proposition Under these Gil
cumstances Mr. Drake gave the Chairma
of the Board immediate notice that tn
/ Supervisors having violated their ow
l proposition we we're released and shout
not consider it binding upon us. Sine
J then there has been no agreement wha
e eyer, and, the Clerk having ordered tn
| proceedings (previOus to the last session
: published in this paper we are legally Ell
2 titled to charge our usual rates for sue
= work-40 cents line in which case OF
bill would be over five hundred dollar
At the last meeting we rendered bill ;
3 the old price-S25 a session-not wishin
It to take any advantage of the people on a
count of the ILL Judged action of the Boar,
Il But if we are compelled to appeal to Jun
to get our just dues we shall claim all II
law will allow Us.
The Board has now adjourned witho
making any arrangement for publishiI
: the proceedings as required by law. Tru
they passed an order that the Moline z
rie,c was authorized to publish them f
>, $I0-but adjourned without KNOWN
: whether that paper would publish the
or not. If we can Judge anything fro
the tone of an article in the last issue
the Rerie'0, that paper will not accept t
proposition of the Board If not, tn
1t the County Clerk will be authorized to pl
a cure their publication in any paper in t
lie County which he may select, and at SUI
a price as may be demanded.