The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-11-02


rates for advertising became a swindl
on II tax payers for whose interest th
Ledg. is sc collections, and it put in
quiet bid 20 do the advertising for $40 pc
cent?, and force to 800 tax payers VIII
need to keep posted about county matters
| to pay 81 year each for the Ledger, AM
TO Increase the circulation OF that would
be independent-of-Ofii cial-patronage pa
| per. But the commissioners baviD!
contract with THE NE VS. to pu lI>l
thsir proceedings free of charge, ane
] the advertising at the same legal rate
which the Ledger says was Satisfactory
70 US and to the people OF the county,
could not, had they desired. accept the II
per cent. or any other per cent. bid of the
Ledger-and hence its tears of distres:
solely on behalf Of the tax payers. Its
professions are excellent. Its practice
according to its own carefully prepared
statement, has simply been to get the ad.
verLising as well as the job work for it.
self at the highest rates it could manage
to secure, without any regard to the in
terests Of the tax payers, and when
through It's opposition to the republican
ticket in 1876 it lost it "grip'' on the ad-
vertisng, it volunteered to do It for just
ten per cent. less than it had previously
received, on condition that THE NEWS
went without it altogether. For disinter-
ested, unseIfish, patriotic, and modest
public spirit, the Ledger is a model insti-
tuition. 1t ought to present each Of its
subscribers with u chrome OF a cheap cof-
lin at 40 per cent less than the regular
price.
We now understand why the editor OF
the Ledger has not been publishing 9
newspaper for the last two years. He
has been searching the records all this
time Of the county commissioners to find
some evidence Of extravaganza, and these
two items OF collins and advertising are
all that he can ind to distort into q SEM
blance of an unnecessary appropriation.
He does not give any definite figures on
advertising, but thinks several hundred
dollars might have been save to the cOun-
ty treasury If his bid of 40 per cent. had
been accepted. We have got some def
mite figures on this point.
Taking out the payment Of lands sold
IVA 0OAtb4GChL L0ACSs NAC CCeJ "a 6uVCEI
ing which does not come out of the coun-
ty treasury, the total expense OF county
advertising for the last two years has
been $2i6, or SlOS per year. How 40 per
cent. OF that would amount to several
hundred dollars is more than we can I'M
derstand. 1t makes an expense OF little
over one cent per year for each inhabI-
tant of the county, and IL the tax payers
suffer any more when the NEWS gets
SlOS than when the Ledger and NEWS to-
gether got sos out OF the county treasu-
ry, they are blissfully ignorant of the
fact. We "presume' the cost OF job
printing averages more than SOS per
year, but we do not know that the tax
payers object to paying fair and legal
rates for job printing. advertising, collins,
or any other expense the county neces-
sarily incurs.
The Ledger is better on suppressing
than Oh exhibiting the records. They
show so far AS advertising bills are con-
cerned, that the commissioners have cut
them down with unsparing severity, but
we have not done any bowling about that.
In the case of publishin G, last spring, the
financial exhibit of The county clerk, the
pay at legal rates was $16S.35 and the
board, on motion of Mr.. Gilmore, cut it
down to $62.S5, or S105.7O less than our
contract called for. 1t is Included in the
above sos per year. The last delinquent
tax list we published was the largest and
most expensive for many years, and we
were allowed but half legal rates. Now
under the system which the Ledger COM
mends as satisfactory to us and to the
people Of the COUNTY" that advertisement
would have gone into both papers and
cost some $340 more than it did. We
have rarely had bill before the present
board that they did not, generally on Mr..
GilmOre's motion, cut down for no reason
at all that we could find out more than
their inveterate habit of cutting down
bills. But we do not find that the Ledg-
er's article on the commissioners men,
tIons any items of this kind. We never
knew board that has generally cut bills
so close, and large part of the opp osi-
ton to them comes from this source.
But the matter OF which paper is best
entitled to be the official paper of the
county Is now minor question for the
voters to consider. We believe that the
tax payers generally do not see the econ
envy in having to support two or three
papers 10 get the official advertising thay
ought to have in one, and that the re
publican paper in a republican county ii
ell titled to be the official paper. The is.
sue as made by the Ledger is whether it.
unfair attack upon faithful and compe
tent officers in its last Issue before cleo
ton, giving them no warning and n,
chance to defend themselves against IL
misrepresentation, is going to win thi
or any other year in regard to them o.
any one else. If such tactics are going t.
influence and buIldoze voters, no man i
safe hereafter. We believe the presen
board is as honest, faithful, efficient, ant
economical board as the county ha
ever had. Their record f.irly published
would Vindicate them at every point.
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