Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1885-01-28
The Journals Trouble.

And so the Journal childishly thinks
that we have no right to print n summary
of the proceedings of the Board of Super
visors, and the poor misguided thing calls
it stealing when we do so. Let us examine
the the affair. The records of the Board
of Supervisors we believe, are supposed to
be open to the public for inspection, and
the reason why the ARGUS could not pub
lish them before the Journal did, is as fol-
lows:
The Labor Journal, for and in consider
alton of publishing the proceedings of the
Board of Supervisors for nothing, agrees
to do the job printing of the county for %
per cent less than regular rates. That APP
pears to us like violating a leading princi-
pie of all labor unions. For doing the
work for % per cent less than fair wages
for regular rates are fair wages-the Jour
nal is the first TO get the official report of
what the supervisors do at their meetings.
The ARGUS can not get the official reports
until the Journal is done with them. If
this paper could have got the report of the
last meeting of the Board, when we asked
for it, we should have printed summary
of the proceedings for the use of the reo-
pie several days before the Journal did,
We were not aware that the Journal had a
copy right of the Supervisors proceedings
We always supposed that the Board of
Supervisors was public body and that any
paper could publish summary of what
it did, if it felt disposed to do So The
Journal is getting babyish.
As regards the ARGUS, it does not desire
to do job printing for the county at % per
cent less than regular rates. 1t could not
make decent living by so doing We
like to get work at fair prices, and we like
to satisfy our patrons. In this Office we are
all laboring men. We live by work and
not be hypocrisy like our cotemporary
We are not fishing after the county job
printing at any such terms as % per cent
less than regular rates. The Labor Jour-
nal does and we propose to see that it lives
up to its contract.
1t appears we have interfered with GER
tain designs the Journal had on the public
treasury, and that is what ails the thing
Sometime last November we published a
statement showing the financial condition
of the city, and, among other things, we
stated that the printing fund had been over
drawn. This, of course, caused the officials
to practice economy in ordering printed
matter Now the Journal had contracted
with the Council to do the city printing on
the following conditions 1t was to print
the proceedings of the Council free and do
the job printing for ten per cent less than
regular rates. This was another violation
of labor principles. The Journal soured on
us from the time we published that state
ment in regard to the printing fund being
overdrawn. 1t had sold its principles for
little official printing 1t does not love us
any more. 1t loves the organ now. They
are n we'll matched couple
We consider it an honor to be attacked
by such things when serving the people,
and If il is crime to tell the people what
their officials are doing with the public
funds, we shall continue to commit such
crimes, no matter what the ring may think
The journal appears to act on the same
principle as the monopolist who imports
pauper labor.