The Portland daily press., 1875-10-21
Persistent Misrepresentation.

Persistent Misrepresentation.
The power of habit is wildly illustrated in
the case of our neighbor. Three months in
the year, it has the campaign rabies. Then
it is expected that it will sling columns of
falsehoods into advertising type and no one
hold even the counting room editor respon-
sible for such utterances. BY common con-
sent, it has three months indulgence and
can totally suspend the ninth com nandment.
Now one would think that even the argus
would get enough of this thing in the ordna-
ry campaign and at its close would penitently
confess its sinfuness, declare that until the
exgeneies of another Democratic canvass rem
derel it necessary it would devote itself to
facts. But such is not the case. Eithenit de-
lights to give loose reins to its erratic imagi-
nation, or, what is more probable, and at
the same time, more charitable view, it has
become so accustomed, while under sense
of fealty to party, to misrepresent that at
length the habit is so fixed that it does not
clearly distinguish between truth and false
hood and undauntedly states as a fact that
WHCu IL iCCOSu'LCu DO q ACGiOus
For instance no one thought it strange that
the Argus should charge the County Com
missioners with bad faith in giving the coz
tract for the building of the cOunty's work.
shop as they did. When, however, it re-
peats those statements after election, one
must conclude that either the figures are
right or the argus tells the story believing it
to be true; for no one would for moment
believe that it would maliciously state that
which is false, or forge or alter figures to sait
quire it.
The Thursday before election the argus
contained the following:
Before the county work shop attached to the
Jail in this city was commenced, the County
Commissioners advertised for proposals for do
ing the work. The proposals for the different
kinds of work were made separately by re-
quest of the architect, Mr.. Fassett. Those for
the mason work were as follows:
James Cunningham. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. -. $500
Knight, Redlon a. Co............. ...... $500
Green d Jordan. Observation-Disclosures. $685.
Each of these firms is perfectly responsible
and competent Either would have done the
work in a proper and substantial manner and
to the satisfaction of the architect and every
body else.
Whose bid. reader, do you think was ac-
cepted? The lowest, you will answer. of
course, being that of Mr.. Cunningham. Not
Redlon & Co. accepted. On the contrary,
that of Messrs. Green g Jordan was decided
by the commissioners to be the best for the
interests of the county-their oaths OF Office
be most for the county interests-and they
were given the job at their proposed price.
The above is so good q story that the ar
gus has printed it twice since the campaign
was over and once since the counting room
editor has been informed by the chairman or
the County Commissioners that his figures
were wrong.
The glaring inaccuracies of this statement
which the Argus has published at least three
times, will be seen by the following figures,
taken from the contracts in the Commission
er's office:
Masonry.......... OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. $500.
concrete WORK ..,...............S575 per yard.
Rough granite work. ............. 5.25 :" yard.
KNIGHT REDLoN's BID.
CONCRETE WORK ...............S 30 OO per yard
GREEN s. JORDAN'S BID.
Concrete work. rk................. So per yard.
Rough granite. .....................S4 90
In the first place it will be seen that the
argus has not given the figures correctly,
putting those of the two first firms too low
and those of the last too high.
4 In the second place the argus has omitted
very important part of the bids, the con-
crete and granite work. Of both of these
there were some hundreds OF yards which, at
the difference in price between the bid Of Mr..
Cunningham and that of Messrs. Green &
Jordan woald, we are told, quite make up the
difference on the masonry.
In the third place the Commissioners did
not make contract for the masonry alone
with the highest bidder as the Argus states,
but accepted the proposal of Messrs. Green &
Jordan TO construct the whole building fol
$19,137.
The Argus is equal to most any emergen.
cv, but we think that whole year will elapse
before the counting room editor can crowd
into half column so many different false
hoods as he has crowded into the single para
graph about the Commissioners.
We understand the chairman OF the Com
missioners to say that bids for separate por.
| tions of the work were made, which in the
aggregate did not amount to S19,137, some Of
which were made by parties not deemed re
| sponsible. OF the bids made for the whole
| work, there was one lower proposal whicl
the Commissioners were advised not to ac
| cept. The reason the Commissioners did moi
| accept proposals of parties for doing parts o
the work was that the contractor for one par
would be obliged to wait for the party doing
another part, TO his damage, which would
cause great confusion and result in claim
against the county for damage. The archi
| tect, Mr.. Fassett, and other disinterested par
ties of experience advised the Commissioner
to award the contract to some party VIII,
would do the whole of the work, and by tn
advice of the architect such contract was
made with Messrs. Green & Jordan, at
price somewhat below original estimates.
Had any other jonrnal than the Argu
made the statement, it would have attracte,
attention, but the public of both parties hav'
bee ome so accustomed to the accusations o
the counting house editor of the Argu
trumped up for partisan purposes that no on
gives them even passing notice; and GU
only apology for this really unnecessary al
tention is that our neighbor has several time
called our attention 70 its statement, evident
ly considering it the most complete of it
kind for the season.
| To discover the real sentiments of the De
mocracy one must consult the Bangor Con
mercial. Other Democratic journals disguis
their true feelings and hide their ulterior pun
poses. The Commercial speaks out like lii
lie man. In its Tuesdays issue two column
of its valuable space are given to the publics
tion of the financial absurdities of Wende
Phillips and the wild rawlings of the Cincinna