Los Angeles daily herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1873-1876, 1874-05-30
That City Printing..-How Honest We
Would Have Been.

| Ol sour grapes w Iue EcoHHy L'C-
press. Were it not that the paper re-
ferred to has sought insiduously to at
tack the Common Council and our
own honesty towards the public, we
would not notice the article of yester-
day, in which the Express would lead
the public to believe that the Council
was not discharging its duty to the
public, and was putting up "job
number one' on the taxpayers. Now
as to the facts: The original bids were
not contracts, and did not enter into
the contract for the city printing as
binding either party. The City Attor-
ney alone drew up the final contract
to be signed by the city and by the
HERALD Publishing Company. The
contract signed by the HERALD Com
pany was the same as The one first
prepared for the Express to sign, and
covers the same ground; therefore if
the printing of the amended City
Charter is not contracted for in one it
was not in the other.
The Common Council approved the
contract as being according to the
intention of the Councils call for bids
to do the city printing.
The contract calls for the printing
by the HERALD Co. OF all printing re-
quired by law to be done, or heretofore
us4ally done or ordered to be done. 1t
therefore makes no difference as to
what the original bids were, for the
final contract supplanted them.
Now the law does not require the
Amended Charter to be printed in
pamphlet form, 500 copies.
Neither was it heretofore usually
done, or ordered to be done under the
contract for printing. The last codifi-
cation or printing of the City Charter
was printed extra at cost Of $500.
Suppose any other construction were
given even to the bid of the Express!
Does the editor of that paper hold that
if the Council had ordered it under its
bid to print 500 copies of California
Codes or Amendments thereto, that
the Express would consider that with
in their bid? Or suppose the Council
had ordered five million of copies of
the Amended Charter to be printed,
would the Express consider that to be
within their bid? Or suppose the
Council had ordered that the whole
city archives and minutes from 1S49
down to the present be printed in
pamphlet form, 500 copies, would the
Express consider that to be within its
bid?
From the foregoing, two things are
apparent: First, that the HERALD
signed the same kind of contract
that the Express was so anxious to
sign under its bid. Second, that the
printing of the amended Charter in
pamphlet form, 500 copies, is not
within either the bid or the contract.
The Express refers to this as "job No.
l." and says there are many other
'jobs" for extras There is one job
the Express did not refer to, which We
will give to the public. Before the
bids were put in, the Express proposed
to the HERALD Company to conspire
with them and get big thing out of
the city for advertising. 1t was to be
managed thus; A price should be
agreed upon, say $500 or $1,000, more
or less. A game of chance was to de-
termine whether the HERALD or the
Express was to have the work. The
lucky one was to put in the bid for the
sum agreed upon, say $1,000 the other
papers were to put in bids for larger
sum, say 1900 or $1,000, SO that the
Council would be compelled to give
the lucky party the printing at the
figure fixed. Here is a job, which,
if carried out, would have rob-
bed the taxpayers of a large sum. Yet
the journal originating it now ex-
claims chow honest we would have
been if we had got the city printing"
Had not the journal referred to ac-
cused the HERALD Company of an at
tempt to swindle in the city printing,
we would pass the matter by. The
public can now decide what weight is
to be attached to the charges of the
Express that the Common Council
and HERALD Company are putting up
jobs on the people. AT the time the
Council reconsidered its action on the
bids, the foregoing facts were commu-
nicated to the Council in open session,
and it is not to be wondered at that it
recalcitrated upon its own action
The HERALD holds itself readyto fulfil
its contract with the city according
to the true intent anu meaning of the
advertisement by the Common Coun-
Gil for bids, and according to the con-
tract with the city, as drawn by the
City Attorney, approved by the Coun-
Gil, and signed by this Company with
| out alteration.
BECAUSE they burned a man and
his wife fer witches in Sinaloa, Mexico,
the CAL thinks they ought to have
| thara hn