The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-07-25

ed upon with an inhexible purpose,
individual publishers can answer, but
l cannot see. Thirty years expert
ence as a Michigan publisher, has
convinced me, that the worst enemy
a publisher has is his brother publish
er, and that is just what ought not to
be. In common work, we ought to
be animated by common purpose,
and to place no block in the way Of
our brothers success not justified by
fair business competition.
The prlntirgbusiness in all Of its de-
partments, is one that should be care
fully guarded. There is no possible
excuse tor neutrality-suspicious.. liza
scale of prices for each locality in
both the advertising and jobbing de-
partments were agreed upon, and
rigidly adhered to, the result would
be to secure fair prices for work
done, more certain income. and
vastly more fraternal feeling among
publishers. But it may be objected
that this is not practicable on account
Of the constant interference by rats
and sharks from the larger cities, with
the legitimate business of the local
press, and to certain extent this is
true so far as the jobbing department
is concerned; and the fact that it is
so, is disgrace to the printers in
the larger cities, who are simply dis.
honoring their manhood in this mat
ter. And yet the country printers who
have reasonable facilities for doing
good work, suffer less from this cause
than many of them suppose while
they suffer much more from the cut
ting of rates on legal printing, for
which these fellows from the larger CEN
tiers cannot compete; nor can they COM
pete for the local business advertising
which is very important part of the
work in all the local offices. These
two branches of our work as local
publishers, are beyond and outside,
of any foreign competition. Why
then should we, as publishers, cut each
others and our own threats in sense
less competition. Let me illustrate.
The statutes of the State requires,
substantially, that the proceedings OF
the board of supervisors shall be
printed in at least one newspaper in
the county. This is legal adver-
tisement. The law provides that the
rate for doing this work shall be 70
cents for each folio, or fraction there
of. That all may understand, it may
not be amiss to say that a folio is
each 100 words, figures, or characters,
necessarily used in putting the copy
into type. The pay to which the
press of Shiawassee county is justly
entitled for doing this work, to be
paid to the newspaper selected by
the board of supervisors for doing
the work, an supposing it is ordered
published in only one of the papers,
though in justice to the tax payers it
should be published in every paper,
would be about SI5o per year, and
yet owing to the unwarranted compe-
tition among the publishers, and for
this all are substantially alike to blame,
this work was done last year at one
cent per folio, less than one tenth the
cost OF putting the proceedings into
type. And what is true in Shiawassee
is true, though generally l trust in less
degree in many, if not all of the
counties in the State. Is there any
sense in carrying competition to any
such extent. And in this connection
it will do to repeat, that for this work
there can be no competition from
without the county. 1t is, also, un.
fortunately true, that among the pub
fishers in the several villages and
cities, for the work required to be
done, and for which there can be nc
outside competition, there exists to q
large extent the same reckless compe,
tition. Is this in the financial inter.
est of any publisher! Most unhesi
tatingly l say in the most emphatic
language, NO it is not, on the con-
trary it cripples, demoralizes, and de-
stroys the legitimate benefits thai
should accrue to the press for work
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