The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-01-11
COUNTY PRINTING.

this session OF the Board of Super
viSOrs he printed in some weekly
newspaper published in English in
this county. and that il be let 10 the
lowest responsible bidder, under di-
rcCtiOn of the county clerk ana com
mittcc on stationery, and that the
publisher bC required to mail a copy
of said paper containing the proceed
.ings to every clcctor Of this county,
whose name and address shall be fur
nlshcd him by the supervisor or town
clerk of any town in the county, ana
that said publisher be requested 10
preserve said list Of names furnished
for use in mailing future proceedings
of this board: or in case the super
visor Of any town would rather dis
tribute them than furnish Il list oil the
names, then the publisher shall send
to such supervisor the number OF
copies that he may request.
And the clerk will tomorrow send
out 10 publishers copy Of this reSou-
ton, asking them TO send IN sealed
proposals for publishing the proceed
ingS in accordance Herewith. This is
the sort Of specification the county
board furnishes when it asks for bids.
1t is like asking contractors to bid on
building court house without Spccl-
flying the size, style or quality Of ma
tcrial. If there is publisher in the
county who can make "A bid on that
work intclligcntly, he would be en-
titled to the job for his acumen alone.
But what IA farce all this bidding is.
The county adycrtiScS for bids for the
county printing in accordance with a
resolution of the county board passed
IA year ago last September, which says
that the printer who offers the best
inducements" shall get the work.
ThcrcupOn the work was let by con
tract-last year to one printer and
this year to another, all county Of
GERS being instructed to order work of
the contractor; yet both years, be-
cause the county attorney did not
happen personally to be friendly to
the contractors, he takes the only
jobs Of both years in which there was
like fair profit to third
printer, who was not the contractor,
never had been, and was beaten in the
contest of bidding for the work Of the
county; and who charged for part of
4 "a n ,tnrly lbnn "A 4 a 4. pIN IN
cent higher than local commercial
rates. It's lots of fun being Il county
contractor
1t is very true that the county at
torney's work is not specifically men
toned in the contract, but the spirit
of the contract and Of the resolution
of the Board on which.t the contract is
based would dictate that all the
county work, except the publication
of the Boards proceedings, should go
to the contractor, whoever he is. And
IA similar case in another county, put
to "a test, resulted in the payment of
work done by other than the cOntraC-
oor ouo VI ohc po'Nco VI VIC 'o"'''S w
hccr placing the order and not by the
county treasury, the stationary com
hiioocc having lclunc'' W "uoio o'i''
payable TO other than the regular con-
even though the work was
'oo Spcc'"'a''S h'c'V'o''o" III ''ic 'o''
Ifac1' ana oila1 was rls'l'' anu Vhc
Only ucccht way III "h'''l w o'caU ''lc
CONTRACTOR
No piece of foOlishneSS, however,
exceeds that which the Board has in
dulgcd in Of late touching the publ
cation of the proceedings. For years
the Ottawa papers (thc only ones hay
ing necessarily general county circu-
lation) published the proceedings, and
never IA complaint of the service or of
the price was made When the Nor
ton regime took hold, however, in or
der TO get even with newspapers oh
noNiOuS to them, they began to ask
for bids. \ little Onc-hOrSc concern
in one corner of the county got the
lob. with "A papcr of no circulation