Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-10-25
The editor of the Greenback organ,

The editor of the Greenback organ,
and County Clerk elect, displays read
mess and abandon in the practice of in
veracity, not usually looked for in so
young politician, showing that the ac-
complishment has been cultivated in
other walks Of life. He says, abiding
to the editor hereof:
When he sees the BULLETINS subscription
list rapidly melting away, and the patronage
or the county offices, upon which he depended
for support, being wrested from him, we are
not surprised that he looks on in dismay.
We copy the above only because it
gives us the opportunity to say one or
two things which it might be otherwise
awkward to introduce. First, then, the
BULLETINS list of subscribers is not
melting away. On the other hand, de-
spite the hard times and the short crops,
and all the other ills that conspirc to
make this time Of especial hardship
among the people, we are adding new
names to our list almost every day, and
very few of our subscribers fail to re-
new. Our experience in this regard is
much more gratifying than we had any
reason to expect. We think it would
be very easy to demonstrate, if it were
necessary, that the Advocate has lost
more subscribers at one post Office in
the county in the past three weeks than
the BULLETIN has lost in the whole
county in three months.
Regarding the patronage Of the coun-
ty Offices. we desire to say, that during
our entire career in this county, we have
never asked for dollars worth of it, of
any county official. 1t has only come
to us, when it came at all, as the pat
ronage of our business men comes, with
out solicitation and never as the price
of political work for anybody. Further
more, it has been our practice to inform
Republican officials, when going into
office, that we held them under no sort
of obi cation to the BULLETIN for any
thing it might have done for their cleo
ton; that their patronage was at their
own disposal, and that we had no claim
to urge for it; that while thus leaving
them free to act according to their in
clination and judgment, as regards the
bestowal of patronage, we should hold
ourselves equally at liberty to criticise
anything wrong in the administration of
their Offices. For the truth of this dec
laration, we refer anybody interested to
Republicans who have held Office in this
county. The BULLETIN depends upon
the county patronage just as it depends
upon the patronage of the business pub
lie, and the farmers and mechanics of
the county, and in no other sense. 1t
makes point of never refusing patron
age from any source that promises
profit, and does not involve a sacrifice
of honor and independence, but it has
never yet sought utilization with or
made concessions to it's political enc
mics, or patched up corrupt alliances in
order to attain a position wherein to
grasp the spoils. Does the cookbook
ing young man Of the Aduocate see the
point? This much for the BULLETINS
position regarding county patronage.
We thus intrude what may be regarded
as, in some sense, a personal matter,
upon our readers, for the reason that
our opinions on certain questions have
been persistently ascribed to selfish mo-
tives; and because the Clerk elect has
announced that the BULLETIN is to be
henceforth cut of from all patronage,
and that we are filed with rage and
chagrin about It, Such is not the
case. The BULLETIN will manage to
survive without Mr.. Williamson's as
sistance.