, 1876-12-24
COUNTY PRINTING.
Surorising Statements Made by
the "Staats.Zeitung."
Allegations that the Printing Bills
Have Been Enormously
Inflated.
4 General Habit IF Responsibility About
tbs Printing Committee.

lowing article in reference to the printing OF tn
proceedings Of the County Board:
The snaerftude Of the Gums whic, have bee
dns r. fSe S9ts tn Rpagc s gcSeae et 1e
Courier and the Chicago Onion, or. since its trans
fornatien, fl the Weekly Chicago Democrat, Ia
caused TO tubject the matter to close inyest'ga
don, and this has ctH,v1need us that neither u
Chicago Courier nor The Chicago Union. ana iI
succeseor the Dtmvsrdt, have been conteuted VII
the prices which were liked BY the contract to1w,l
reckuucd the rates for which The proceedings 7soult
have been praled at the full price in the
IN The chicsss Times. TRIBUNE and f4'no" 'S0e4''
VIC re:e7 10 the dntes Of some OF the most
STRIKING INSTANCES
Of this From the :7th Of July to the ath OF Oc-
1saa eGsr % s. .ns sS5 over M * ooo the bfoa get
:fng 81 1u5 ~ cf it. Measurerrcnts show that fot
the snune matter published by the Staaas- ZeAung
-wonid have been charged According to the meas
rremeat the Democrat printed2, LIZ squares-non-
psrei measure in brevies e. ;i a. ~ cen.s ht
the Den:ocraf aud the Courier, both Of which are
abour on the same footing, should have
made ont their aecounts on the basis
Y,ates ut c head 81 it's columns that eight lines OF
,gete, wt!-l are .rnal toseven lines OF nonparen.
ind the other that ~even lfnee OF nonpaTeu. make
lqnare. But lrerier is TO nonparei as eight is to
I've; that Is, e ;rcs OF nonp=reu contain as many
KOrdE Is eight q brewer. .-.
On the 9th Of December OF this year the Chicago
Democrat was p.id BY he - Connty m + Boa:d elll for
printing amounting 10 s4o0 32 This publication
took, AZ orr measurement showed, 511 nonparel
woald hsss s1ouated 70 only si7s. Is; and it. as
should have been done, only the :space
had been reckoned which the matter: would
price woald have been only sl19- How The Dem
ocrat was able to figure ont S460. SO i riddle.
since, charming at IS cents Der square, it should
have prtr ted at least thirty columns BREWER while
there were thirteen and half. The bill OF the
Courier for this publication was $500.
Ne hnre not been able 70 measure up the entire
matter q both papers, but, If the above instances
are any indication, had the square been estimated
as the e. at H, seven lines
TITS ixcoMPREHEss1nLE !.
how such enormous bills -conld slip through un-
challenged unless one Is forced to the assumption
sa sss t. rs 1 to f. Be. s2ag
which during tie past twelve months has been
conposed Of Commissioners Herting, Ayara, Mul-
l9 and Bgrek Is doubtless chiefly to
derstaud how these gentlemen have been SO utterly
'''>''' coxXissiosrE d HEhrse,
the Chairman Of the Committee, was asked by re-
porter how they examined the bills. He replied
that at first they compared the bills with one
anothe~, arG found to their SURPRISE that that OF
the Gnicn was higher than that Of the Courier.
This explained to them. however, by the state
ment that the German translation always occupied
somewhat more room tnan the English original.
Since he urders.c.5 nothing abont measuring the
matter, he turned That over to Hugh Maher, the
Clerk OF the Committee, asho had always reported
everything straight
Commissioner Lonergau stated that he had been
able 70 gye but little attention to printing matters
since his duties as Chairman Of the Building Com
mttes and member Of the COMMITTEES on Public
at the meetings of the Committee, and had voted
for the payment Of the bills Of the Courier and
the Union, or Democrat He also believed that
everything Was straight, siccc the Chairman and
the Clerk ct the Committee said 3d. and he would
not hars thought that persons snchas the proprie
1ors Of these newspapers would have attempted to
oyercaarGc the county.
COMMISSIONER Mu11oY
stated the Committee had always measured the
proceedings and found that the report Of the num-
her Of squares IN the bill always agreed with the
When the reporter called his at
tertion to the fact that except during the first
three months publication in the. Union, the num-
came irr1tated, and marched Of saying, "Well, il
you H1w all OF this, what are you asking me about
In order to probe the matter to the bottom, and
find out how these curious bills had been made up
The reporter called upon the business managers Of
nEssRs scHAFFnAEsER AND. .1oEBE11~
With Mr.. Schahnauser he had the following
talk:
.'Tou gre the business manager ofthe 6n.oua''
..Ion make out the bills for the printing OF the
proceedings Of the County Boardt'
,'eGcneraliy.'
- Did yoa measure them upE'
@'So. Gen. Lieb to1d'lne to 20 to the Courier |
copy IT'S bills, and add on about enough to cover
the increase Of space due to the Translation into
How much were you in the habit of adding
''Oh. no fxed amount"
Did you have any interest in the prodtssr |
No, ras only clerk.'' |
'tHnven't you sworn to the correctness OF The !
BILLS and also sworn that you h8d an interest in the
orodts;' and 7.asnt the oath certified to By Gen. |
-. ..9es. certainly: But it was only printedform
did you ever drnw the moneyy' Il
mo. only. sent in the bill md sswore to it.
seq Lleo hlmsclf Kew the money! T
MT toebell eaid to the reporter that he had been
,ut how it made cut its bills. They had told him
here that for county work they 1eckoncd square !
i only four agate lines, although It is stated at
sht !9e ae o. nss Psss ss! fecksaned sausIs tbs
qrare at i've lines nonparei1, but added On about t
~ per cent since the German translation took nm |
more room than the. English original" " He had
gnera1iy before Gen. Lleb but sometimes before
iashbutn.
As mas Been already etated, the principal respon-
lolllty Tor tht3 matter rests upon the County |
oard.. II it conducts It's business in such fash
IN and concerns itself little whether the klls
ent in 10 it are correct or not then there is no
ause for surprse in the eountyas being now iuthe
tme grievoua tn0nfa3 condition as the city was in
the fnd OF Colvlu's Administration. it seems l..
, us that the County Board can do nothius Iees |
1an to revise these bills and then sue the two pa
efs 1or The amount OF overcharges paid them.