Mexico weekly ledger., 1883-03-29

''Much Ado About Nothihg"-The City
Printing. 4
We clip the following from the
Mexico hteHigencerof last Thursday:
"There has been considerable talk about
the matter Of city printing, much of which1
in the interest of truth it were better had
it been unsaid. All assertions to the con-
trary Eve care not who makes them) that
the htelligencer has bid on any work for the
council this year are false. We did q few
dollars worth of printing for the city in
the summer months, and at lower rates
than similar work had been done Of late
years (the same being in perfect harmony
with our regular rates). The printing of
the revised ordinances, the most impor-
tant matter in the wsy of printing the
council has had to deal with, from various
alleged causes, was put off till the close
of the year-the Lateligeneer having been
granted the first four months printing for
the present council, the Press the second
tour months, and the other concern the
third four months. 1t was found conve-
nient to print the revised ordinances dur
ing the last four months of the present
councils term, something it had a perfect
right to do. No murmur of this or other
apparent injustice has ever been uttered
editorially by the I~ntelligencer. In the
matter Of printing the revised ordinances
in fhn nanar uvn ha6 M n,no~fr,nsSv 70 1
bid on them had we desired to do so, nor
were we in anywise consulted in regard
to the matter, and the contract was let at
As cents per inch. The job is a large
ne-on which, In view of this fact, could
have been done, and would have been
done Is per cent. lower than it was con-
tracted. And the same is true of the book
Of ordinances. Every one should know
enough to know that 3 party who has been
awarded such figures as the above-who,
by this unjustly given advantage, has the
ordinances once in type, can print the
books cheaper than one who has to set
the type for the books alone. The whole
affair is gauzy-decidedly so. We make
this statement to correct the erroneous
report that the L~ntelligeneer bid on the
work in either case. 1t had no chance to
do so at a time when there was any money
in the work, and had it been permitted to
have done so, would have saved the city
q good round sum on the job. These are
the naked facts, all other statements to
the contrary Notwithstanding"
We would pay no attention to the
above drivel from the ssfog-horn,"
except that we do not want the city
council misrepresented. The LEDGER,
or its editor, cares not one cent what
may be said one way OR the other. 1t
has the printing at rates satisfac
tory to itself and the city. The wise
man Of the hteuigencer says he did
not bid on any work. The more
fool he. He had a chance to bid
why did he not do it? He, of course,
thought as the LEDGER was only a
~"concern," he would get the printing
without bidding. Other people are
not SO "struck" on the Intelligence
as the owner and proprietor, or steam
manager, might think they are. They
call the LEDGER concern" That's
all right. Call US a book-agent, if you
want to. We don't care what you
call US, so we get the printing and
get called to our meals, and wher
people want their advertisements put
in a paper that is read by everybody
and is run on a broad-guage platform
and not by men who expect every
thing and get but little. They say
they "could have saved the city
good round sum-15 per cent" Thi'
would have been = big ''round sum-
would it not? Fifteen per cent. OF
> two or three hundred dollars! The,
say they could have saved Is per cent
> on the books. Why did they not d
! it? The LEDGER's bid was about S.
less than that of the Press. The In
teAigencer should have bid. The,
say they did not. Members of th
: council say they did not actually pu
!, in a bid, but said what they woul
: print the books for. Our bid wa
o much lower than that figure. W
o suppose they did not actually bid, S
s they could howl just IS they ar
e doing. Their howl amounts to moth
ing. Everybody knows the printin
s was let exactly as it should have been
and the InteHigencer admits that, 8
the outside, the work could have bee
done for only Is per cent. less. !
e representative of the Inteuigeneer cam
. to US Last season and said, ''let's nc
bid" We said, "all o. K" O
s course the great 81 AM" said
himself: s'Now II have got White
He says he won't bid, and, of course
II will get all the city printing. The
surely won't give the concern any
thing" They did not get all the worl
s Now, they ''squeal" because the
did not bid. Go west, and soak you
e head. Don't think that you own til
world, and that all other newspaper
g are concerns" and all other editor
n are fools. Egotism, bigotry,. III
bounded self-esteem, etc., thou art
! tt