The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-01-22
The Republican Printing Company.

name, OF the RepuDiican TrlnClnS COMPANY
have attracted much attention, and the cost ol
the public printing has increased enormously
with every year since reconstruction. The
report Of the State Treasurer for the year end
ing October 81, 1873, shows that the amount
paid for public printing was 1881 ,945.66, which
left deficiency of more than 100000 to be
paid out of the present taxes. Recent appro-
priations for printing the immigration report,
the Supreme Court reports and the tax dupli-
Gates aggregate the sum of $125,OOO. Here is
nearly s6Co,OoO paid for public printing within
the last twelve months, to which must be added
the necessary amount for current and pernla-
nent printing of the Legislature during the
extra and regular sessions of this winter.
These facts have led to exposures of the fraud
ulent expenditure of the peoples money, un-
der the convenient item Of printing. 1t is
charged that the Republican Printing Oompa-
ny, into whose capacious NAV 80 large an
amount of money has regularly found its way
from the State Treasurer, is nothing more or
less than plan to distribute the funds "where
it will do the most good" and that the bulk of
the appropriations are made to enrich the
Senators and Representatives and State officers
belonging to the printing ring.
The actual cost of the work done, with a
fair margin for profits would not exceed one
fifth of the sums actually paid for the public
printing, and hence the conclusion that this
whole scheme is an unmitigated fraud, perpe-
trated upon the people of South Carolina.
The Port Royal Commercial, staunch Re-
publican journal, has been investigating these
matters, and gives some interesting points in a
recent issue. In the first place, the editor ex-
plains the mode and manner in which the
swindle is accomplished, as follows:
"The printing swindle and the legislative
swindle are, in fact, one and the same. The
Republican Printing Company consists of the
Clerks of the two Houses, and certain members
of the Legislature. We were shown by per-
SOD once connected with business, a list of Sen
ators who had received dividends in certain
year. There were thirteen of them, and they
were charged with sums varying from 81, 800 to
$4,000 each. These sums were paid IN several
ways One bought pair of horses and gave
an order on the company for the amount; an
other ordered law books from New York and
paid for them with draft on the company /;
some took cash, and so it went. We believe
that every prominent Republican Senator and
Representative has shared, more or less, in this
plumber Most of the Conservatives are also
kept quiet by giving patronage to their county,
papers, and by little perquisites in the shape of
initial paper supplied in any quantity to mem
bers, gold pens, knives, patent clocks, ink
stands, etc. These things are paid for either
by fraudulent printing bills, or by joint pay
certificates for contingent expenses. Ihe two
Clerks are necessary for either of these modes,
and the members are necessarily very much at
tached to them"
The editor of the Commercial has written to
a number of State Treasurers of wealthy
Northern and Western States, to ascertain the
expenditures for public printing last year, with
a view of comparing their statements with the
expenditures in South Carolina. He has re-
ceived replies from the States of Iowa, Massa-
chusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland,
The total cost of public printing in these five
States was 1886, 1855. This is about s65, 900
less than the amount appropriated in South
Carolina The aggregate population of these
FIVE wealthy States is 9,593,955, or more than
twelve times greater than the population of
South Carolina, while the aggregate volume OF
their property is more than thirty times the
assessed value in this State. By these compar-
rsons the enormity of the fraud is made ap-
parent.
The State Treasurer of Iowa reports that the
public printing last year cost S121, ,060, which
includes the cost of publishing the laws in all
the newspapers of the State which expense
will now be saved by abolisbng the custom.
In Massachusetts,, the sum paid was SS9, 1861
3O including some extraordinary work to the
amount of $4,000.
In Pennsylvania the total amount paid was
s73,S7774
In Ohio, the cost of public printing was only
$62,923.S3.
In Maryland, the amount paid for public
printing was 5000.
An examination of these figures will demon
strate the necessity for retrenchment, and the
expenses of public printing should form a
prominent feature in the next campaign. Are
the people to be forever taxed to meet such enor-
nous demands when it is an admitted fact on
all sides that the work done is 80 vastly dispro-
portionate to the sums expended? The Re-
publican Printing Company is myth, except
the fact that it is understood the Clerks of the
two Uouses are the representatives and dis
burse the funds Will any reasonable man
pretend to declare that these enormous outlays
are made TO enrich the Clerks alone? 1t is
patent that Senators and Representatives must
receive share of the spols, or else the appro-
priations could not be passed. The Legisla-
ture is responsible for this fragrant outrage
upon the people, and we have no idea of hold
ing up to public contempt the Clerks alone, who