Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1889-01-18

came before the Commissioners and
fatty denied that he had made any
such an agreement. Commissioner
Mcdowell, E. 2. Korns and r. A.
Dague testified as to the agreement,
but ATr. McNay contradicted them all.
We then insisted that we should have
a right to put In a bid to do the coun-
ty printing; that the reason we had
not done SO up to this time, was be-
cause we believed the matter was not
to be decided till the next day, Fri
day;) besides weFhad no suspicion
that the Dispatch proprietor was not
acting in good faith. We now dis
covered we were too late. We had
been caught mapping, and "there
was a good-sized African in the wood
pile" We discovered that Mcdowell
did not favor the action of the Board
in making the Dispatch the official
paper of the county, and that Mr..
Fisher had been mislead in the mat
ter We must frankly admit that
(by strategy we would not care to re-
sort toy Neighbor McNay consumated
''neat little job" and we want to
further express our opinion that he
ought to be, and probably is very
thankful to his jealous friend Com
missioner Ham for valuable services
rendered To just what extent Mr..
Ham is responsible fol the advant-
age taken Of the HERALD in this mat
ter we are not prepared to say. We
have been informed that not long
prior to the hasty action of the Board,
Mr.. Ham held a close and rather
protracted interview with Editor Gov
ington of the Democrat. He made
the motion to give the Democrat one
third Of the county printing, and put
ting odds and ends together, there
are several things going to show to
our minds that the Democrats infu-
ence was sought after for a definite
purpose. Though heretofore, the
HERALD has treated Mr. Ham with
respect and frequently spoken good
words Of him, we can hardly help but
believe that from some cause unknown
to us, he was from the start determin-
ed that the HERALD should not be de-
clared the official paper. We offered
to put in a bid to do the printing for
less than 20 per cent. We proposed
to show by the subscription books
and by afidavits that the HERALD
had a larger list of bona-fde sub
scribers than any other paper in Phil
hpsburg. We referred to precedents
set by other counties that newspapers
possessing claims to be the official
papers should not be ignored and de-
MED an opportunity to show up the
grounds Of their claims but all our
efforts were vain. It did really seem
that the McNay-COvington combina-
ton had fixed things to suit them,
and we were not appraised Of the sit
uatiOn till too late to prevent it or
present our claims. Now, we had en-
tered no objection, and do not now
object, to the Democrat doing a por-
ton of the cOunty's work; we would
not enter a word of complaint at the
designation of the Dispatch as the
official paper of the county for 1889,
If we had been dealt with fairly-if
we had not been deceived and mis-
representations had not been made
and trap sprung on US. Our cause
Of complaint is not that we do not
get our share Of the county printing,
for more was awarded US than we
offered to do the work for in a bid we
proposed to file. Our complaint is
that Mr.. McNay, by nice talk and fra
ternal expressions, and the SAYING of
smooth things to the effect that she
desired to avoid a squabble," and
that he would consent to the cOntin-
uing Of the arrangement existing in
1888 through the year 1889, he threw
Us of our guard, and before we were
| aware Of what was going on, he
sprung his trap, and got the Dis
patch made the official paper and
the HERALD shut out from showing
its ground for claiming that it should
be again declared the official county
paper, This was, we believe, a well
matured scheme and others besides
McNRy were into it To the credit
Of Commissioners Mcdowell and
Fisher we will say, McDoweIps course