Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-07-28


Journals OF other cities are probably in . pod-
lion to also challenge the Bee 10 test
We have nothing to say against our business
neighbor as fairly good local paper and equally
concerned with others in the welfare OF the city.
1t has striven to build up a general circulation,
but has signally failed. The RECORD UNION has
never taken any unfair advantage Of its contsm-
porary, and does not propose to do 20 now or
hereafter to discuss this business issue in its
columns and thus advertise the fact to the out
side world that such paper as the Bee exists.
silly card of the Bee and also its challenge made
year or two ago relative to the city circulation
OF both papers. I. w. SHEEHAN.
g. E. CARRINGTOS.
STATE OF CALIFORNIA,
COUNTY OF SACRAMENTO. o.
s. 4. Darlington and L. w. Sheehan, re-
spectively. being duly sworn, dep0ses and says,
each for himself, that the foregoing statement
has been carefully read by them, and that said
Of their knowledge and belief
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 18th
day of February, A. D. 1884.
JOSEPH WIsEMAN Notary Public
The intention was to print the above
statement for circulation among business
men in Sacramento and in adjacent
towns in which the Bee has some small
circulation, and among those of the press in
the State receiving that paper by way of
exchange. 1t was Withheld from print for
THESE TtdSOuS lie ucIldIlu ana alteTDa-
tive challenge of the RECORD UNION being
stated to the Bee managers, they finally
took the matter under advisement The
boastful notice was, however, continued at
the head of its columns for day or two.
whereupon the affidavit was prepared and
demand was made to know if the con-
tinued publication meant defiance. The
response was that the Bee managers had
concluded to "take down the notice y
thus admitting its falsity. But the
next day it reappeared, and while
copy of the affidavit was
being prepared for the printer, the business
manager of the Bee appeared in the
RECoRD-UNIoE cOunting-room, and pro-
tested and pleaded, upon his honor, that
the temperance of the notice was due to
an error on the part of the foreman of the
Bee office, and not to any willful violation
of the promise given; and to give emphasis
to his plea, he added that the obnoxious
boast had been ordered stricken from cir
culars prepared by the Bee soliciting patron
age On this assurance the affidavit was
generously withdrawn, the notice diSap-
peared from the Bee, and the matter was
permitted to drop.
knowledge of the methods of the Bee
management-the evasions, misrepresenta-
items and quibbling characteristic of it,
and lack of faith in the sincerity of its
promises, suggested the wisdom of retain
ing the written history of the affair as set
forth in the affidavit, and justify departure
at this time from the original resolution
not to burden these columns with it. 1t
becomes necessary, also, to print 1t, IN
order to show the former challenge
of this paper, and to give it to be
understood that it is renewed and stands
good at this time, and will remain to con-
front the Bees mendacity. If there is any
thing but braggadocio in the pitiful wagers
of the Bee it now has a second opportunity
to accept challenge that will fairly test
its sincerity.
The plea set up by our contemporary that
the size of its sack does not enable it to
make its wager more generous in amount
while it i'll compolts with its boast of broad
circulation and extended business, and is
evidently intended as an intimation that it
receives no assistance outside of business
earnings. This comes with astonishing
effrontery from paper concerning which
it is demonstrate that its stack" as it
chooses to term its revenue, has been fed
from extraneouS sources, and concerning
which fact the Bee will be the last to chal-
lenge publicity, or demand at our hands
the proofs of the assertion.
As evidence of the thin mask with which
the Bee has sought to disguise its discred-
liable methods, and to fully expose the
means it has employed to willfully mislead
the public regarding its circulation and its
value as q business medium, it is nee
essary to cite the fact that subsequent
to the date on which the Bee was forced to
take down its untrue boast, as recited in the
foregoing affidavit, it caused to be pub
lished in Phillips Newspaper Rate Book, ;"
published by John +. Phillips & Co.. New
York; with view to deceiving Eastern ad-
vertisers, the same false statement the
RECORD UNION compelled it to withdraw
from its columns. In the said rate
book, page A. it publishes these words
Sworn circulation January II, 1884,
1900" thereby wlllfully intending the
reader TO believe falsely that its regular cir
culation is 12,000, and not that it was by
special edition II, 600 on one day, as this en-
tire community knows to be the fact Pos
sibly Phillips d Co. had such cheating in
mind when, in their preface to the rate
book, they say There appears to be some
things in this world sanctioned by custom,
where it is all right to lie. Stating circula-
ton of newspaper is one of the most
prominent" On page 17S of the same
book appears another of the Bees advertis-
ments in which it is stated that it has the
Largest circulation in California, outside
of San Francisco per the sworn statement
of its business manager" The s,pOrn state
ment referred to is, of course, that concern
ing the 1900 copies issued as a special edi
ton January IA, 1884
The dishonesty thus exposed is not
greater than the hOllowness Of the con-
slant boast of the Bee concerning the news
it publishes, as is evidenced by the fact
that its Geographic advices cost it from $500
to $500 per month, while the cost to the
RECORD UNION for telegraphic service some
months more than quadruples the largest
sum.
1t should be possible for the Bee to con-
duct its business on an honorable basis,
and to depart for that purpose from its
recent course, which justifies the assump-
| ton that its new management has . lost
| its head" 1t will, at least, no longer be
permitted to continue, through its columns,
agents or solicitors, to aSsail the business
| of the RECoRD-UNIoN, or persist in its I'M
| manly attempt to undermine or miSrepre-
sent it to the business community.
We do not anticipate, however, any i'm
mediate change in the course of the Bee.
| 1t will, as is customary with it, and of
which this community has had much evil
| dence, evade, peryert, misrepresent, mis-
construe and garble the plain statements
| herein made. But it cannot at least afford
| to misunderstood the full import of the
| challenge of the RECoRD-UNIoN, which we
| once more repeat is renewed in all its orig
| inal integrity, and stands ready for accept
| ance by our contemporary.