The Ottawa free trader., 1873-05-24
City Printing.

council has stood Ronlinaliy 8 democrats to re
puhlicans. In point of fact, however, the council
stands about democrats to Q republicans. Nat
urally council thus constituted desired to Civ
the city printing to the Ottawa Republican. Bu
for some reason-possibly because the mayor ha
the appointment and they distrusted hint be
ca &c necessary to compass the object by litti
fnesse. SO the common dodge was resorted to o
letting the work To the lowest bidder. 1t is al
old game and has always won, ever since a nom
inally democratic congress took the public print
ing from the Globe, and the government was neve
more grossly swindled than by the lowest bidde
Wendell
| In the case Of Ottawa, this lowest bidder bust
ness is transparent absurdity. Twenty year
ago the council played the same game. We pu
in bid against T. Hampton, and the work wa
awarded to us, but there being a majority o
wings, free solers, or whatever they were called
| in the council, they gave the only paying job 0
the year-printing the ordnances--to Hampton
in spite of our contract. Thenext council passed
\ an ordinance to elect thereafter Il city printer
and his prices We're fixed at our lowest bid of the
former year, and the FREE TRADER has done the
printing on that scale of prices ever since, though
the general prices of printing have advanced
from 80 to 100 per cent. since 1854.
Though conscious of the folly of it. we put in 9
bid for the printing, at the invitation of the coun
ell three or four weeks ago. and the publishers
of the Republican put in a bid. Our bid was in
tended about to cover cost; but if the bids were
correctly reported to the council on Monday
evening, that of Cullen IL Sapp was so clearly
the lower bid, that it is certainly profound
enigma to us why the committee, in their de.
termination to award the work to them, should
have sweat over it nearly three weeks; or why
after the bids were opened, Mr.. Cullen should
have been kept trotting back and forth with 8
specimen book under his arm to make "cYplana
tions"-or for some other cause. 1t would have
looked much better had the committee, after
opening the bids, made their decision promptly
as there was no cause for hesitation. III
As to the printing itself, Messrs Cullen Il SapI
are welcome to il at such prices. We have not
lousc and are 10 Onastcrs of the secret of living
by working for nothing and finding ourselves
What is disgusting in the matter is this shifting
and lodging to do thing which could SO much
more easily have been done in manly way, The
city charter names such on officer as "city
printer" The city ordinances give the charter
force by providing for his election and liking his
fees. The! council has neither repealed its or.
dinance or changed the fees, but gets at the mat
ter by the roundabout dodge of inviting bids
The Board of Education, composed of republi
cans, pays Cullen IL Sapp their price and asks nc
questions. The city councils of Joliet, Aurora
Bloomington, La Sale, &c, pay their printer
double the prices Ottawa ever paid, elect the
man they want and ask no favors. With scale
of prices already at starving rates, why should
our council have hesitated to choose their
printer in an open, manly way? Were they
ashamed Of Cullen Il sapp, that they had to lug
them in by back doory r..
As to the proceedings of the city council, our
readers will not be the losers by the absence of
the official record from our columns. We shall
make our own report, and try, at least, to infuse
into it little more vitality than is practicable in
the dull official minutes.