The Labor enquirer., 1883-02-10
'That matter also was explained to

who shall be nameless now. the Times
put in villainously low bid for the state
work about half what the setting of the
type and the material will cost them.
Right here the Times made big bet on
the ignorance of the secretary of state.
Some of the material bid on by the
Times, and which under the bid the
Times must furnish to the. state when
called upon, cannot be bought of the
manufacturersfor doubleIthe price bid by
the Times" " - =: &.
Does the bid run SO all the way
through?% : -. : d
"Yes. Let me give you a case in point.
The Times contracts with the state to
do its English composition, such as laws,
pamphlets, reports, etc, at % cents per
thousand-really the bid is less than
that, but 1 will allow good big margin.
Now. am told by a printer who is in
every way reliable, and whose affidavit
| can give if necessary, that it costs As
cents per thousand to getlt the work done.
Here, you see, there is direct loss to
the publisher of 20 cents per thousand
on every thousand type set by the
printers. There are hundreds Of thous-
ands set during the year, so you can
readily see how much money the owner
of the printing contract would lose
should the secretary of state hold the
printer to it,"
This is clearly the duty Of the secre-
tary of State?'
"Certainly. One of the shrewdest. pub
fishers in this city told me yesterday
that he would not take the Times con-
tract off it's hands for $1,000 in cash !;
that is, if the secretary of state would
insist upon having it's provisions strictly
complied with"
Secretary Edwards cannot be party
to this scheme to rob the state?"
"No, sir. Edwards is an honest man,
and am satisfied will do what is right
in the matter. His duty is plain enough.
All he has to do is to see that not cent
above the figures in the Times bid is
allowed. If he does this, | will wager
that there will never be another snide
bid put in on printing"
"The secretary is liable to get off wrong,
simply because he does, not understand
the printing business"
"There is no excuse for him on that
score. All he has to do is to call to his
aid two or three practical men before
allowing any of the Times bills. Gov
ernor Grant should not sign warrant
for printing until he is thoroughly salts
fed by honest experts that the state is
not being robbed, as is being done now
in the wretchedly botched bill work of
the Times"
"Have you any idea what this cheating
in the bills will cost the state?"
Yes; it was estimated for me to-day
it will be at least 81 900 more than if the
work was done according to contract.
This is an item worth considering, and
it is the duty of the legislature to inves-
tigate it thoroughly and at once"
:'What would you suggest?"
First, that the contract be printed by
some frst-class office-this bars out the
Times junk shop-and distributed among
the members. Next, see that it compares
item for item wit the contract on file in
the secretary's Office, and then get two
or three decent publishers to give actual
figures on the first cost Of the work and
material to be furnished This done,
figure profit of per cent and you will
find that the figures thus honestly given
will be so per cent above the Times bid,
and then you will be able at once to see
where the swindle comes in. 1t is as
plain as two and two make fOur-this
Times theft"
"How does the Times hope to get
even"
Through the ignorance of the secre-
tary of state-I mean of the printing
buslness-and by bulldozing him into
allowing its bills without first submitting
them to experts, which is the rule in
every other state. in the union. The
least the legislature can do is to author
ize the secretary of state to employ capa-
BILE and honest men to pass On the Times
bills before allowing them"
The following editorial appeared in the
News of Tuesday: