The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1886-01-14
The State Printer-A Question OF
Competency.

\ Hail hurst correspondent Of
the Clarion, in advocating the claims
of the pr 'p,i tor Of that paper for
re election tu tn, Office Of State
Printer, among other things, says:
at is admitted that Col. Power IN.
herstands his business" etc. We
do not think it Ia, and it shouldn't
be, il recent developments count for
any thing. Let US see. When the
overchsrgc Tor printing the Acts Of
1882 (Which were not printed in con
formity to the requirements OF the
Code of lSS0) was discovered by
the Legislature Of 1884, Col. Power,
while admitting the&Overcharge and
| his error in not following the pro
visions of the law, claimed that he
I had printed more lines to- the page
in the Acts Of 1876, II, rs and 80.
than the law required-attempting
to justify one non observance Of law
| BY another. - and that this excess
would he a full offset to the over
, charge on the Acts Of 1882. In q
communication to the Legislature OF
1884 on the subject, he also explain
ed that following the style of the
Acts of 1876, II, rs and so, had
led to the oversight in not making
the Acts of 1882 conform to the
requirements of the Code. He fur
Their stated in this communication
that he had then March, 1884, } laid
in stock Of paper to the amount OF
over thousand dollars, which had
already been cut To correspond in
! size with the Acts of 1882 anil 9th
err years named, and that unless the
I Legislature would permit him to fol
low the uniform STYLE, and not the
Code, he would suffer serious pecu-
mary loss and Inconvenience. Nov
cd By this appeal, the Legislature,
by joint resolution, gave the Public
Printer the desired authority to print
the Acts of 1884 in the style fol
lowed in 1882, etc, and appointed a
Commission composed of the Gov
ernor, Acknowledgement and State
Revenue Agent to adjust the unset
! tied account Of tue State Printer iu
accordance with equity.
In the official report of this Com
mission, published last week, we
find that there was no overwOrk
done on the Acts Of 1876, IT, rs
and so, as claimed by Col. Power in
his communication to the Legisla
ture' of two years ago. and that, con-
fessedly without knowing it, he had
complied in all material points with
The law then in force, but which was
changed by the Code Of 1880
Passing over the fact that the
Commission found the State Printer
due the State $1,125 on account of
Acts OF 1882, by failure to inform
himself as to what the law requires
a Judgment acquiesced in by his
payment into the State Treasury
said amouut-we will mention one
other instance why it should not be
''admitted that Col. Power under.
stands his business" and which, to
cali it by no harsher name, is the
most ineXcusable blunder of all. 1t
is fully explained in the language OF
the Commission, as follows
"Thc Commission. in this connec.
ton, desire to say that by the Acts
of 1884, p. ll2, the Public Printer
was authorized to print the Acts Of
1884 in uniform style with the Act.
of 1892. We find that instead q
so DONG, he has printed the Act,
Of 1881 IN such manner that ht
pages exceed in length those Of 1881
by t,r0 lines and are Wider by one
en-
We feel warranted in saying tina,
Mr.. r. II. Henry, Col. Powers com
petItor for the public printing, "un
derstands his business" in q ditier
ent way from this. He is prepared
to do the work, knows what the law
requires, and could be depended or
to carry it out to the letter. BY al
means let the Legislature make the
change.