The weekly clarion., 1876-01-12
THE STATE PRINTING.

Promising that our able and respected
cotemporary, the Aberdeen Examiner
does not advocate the election of THE
/ CLARION as the State printing establish
ment, but has expressed decided prefer
ence for another party, we copy below it
remarks in reference to the mode of per.
forming the service.
We will repeat what we stated in
a recent number, that both parties
sanctioned the law creating the of.
fee and electing a responsible
party to execute the work at prices
fixed by law, before the war, and the
operations of the system under Citizens
Rule, was held up in the canvass as a
standard of honesty, economy and excel.
lence.
The lowest bid system was tried at one
time in this State, and abandoned. The
cost in the end was double the fixed price
and elective plan which was subsequently,
adopted and adhered to. In the variety OF
work bids may be delusive, and can be
made deceptive expressly for the practice
of extortion and the presentation OF
claims for. extra allowances. In one OF
the Western States two years ago, a party
bid off the work for less than a cent.
and brought suit against the State for
$68, 900, and collected the full amount
The Times, Notwithstanding its preten
slons of economy, struggled hard to keep
in power the Radical party which has OPP
pressed the State with burdens in all the
branches of its service. 1t was brought
here by its proprietor, Mr.. Musgrove,
who made a large fortune while holding
the Office of Auditor, during the first four
years of Radical misrule, for the purpose
Gas it was understoOd) of competing for
the public printing, and it never hinted
its advocacy Of the contract system until
the Radical party was defeated. The
fact then flashed upon it that the
"lowest bid" dodge possessed rare love
illness and beauty, and was precisely
the thing for Democratic Legislature to
adopt to give a wheeling concern like
itself "a chance"
But we set out to copy what the Aber-
deem Examiner says:
We are emphatically opposed to abol-
ishing of the Office of State Printer,
and letting the work out to the lowest
bidder, and cannot see that that would
result in economy.
The usual plan, and, in our judgment,
the only proper plan, is to establish
scale of prices for first. class work, that
will yield fair and reasonable profit,
and then elect such q man or firm to do
it as will be most likely to give us an able
journal at the Capital.
In the matter of bidding, if that plan
have no right to exclude the Pilot, Cor
the Tines or any other Radical concern,
from the arena of competition and as it
is well known that that establishment is
now amply provided with all Of the ma
teral and machinery necessary for the
work, it is reasonable to suppose that it
would enter the field with more than or
dlnary chances of success, and possibly
win from a Democratic Legislature the
sinews of war essential in the campaign
against us next fall. or if it failed to Sc
cure the prize, it could afford to bid so
low as to ruin its successful competitor.
What the Democratic candidates for
the position ask is only the ordinary
prices for good work, and the advantages
to be secured are the massing of the work
in one office, and the large circulation
guaranteed to any paper that may be the
State official journal.