Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-04-25

At the late County Alliance meet
ing a resolution in effect was adopted +
that the County Printing should be
let to the lowest responsible bidder
and the editor receiving the county /
printing shall be compelled to furn-
ish a copy Of his paper containing the /
proceedings Of each Of the four quar- /
terry meetings Of the Board of county
commissioners, to each tax payer IN
Phillips county free.
We doubt the wisdom of this reso-
luton. It is hardly practicable for
the editor to procure the postof1ice
address of every man and woman who
pays taxes in this county. Many Of
them reside In other States and the
mailing Of papers to every taxpayer
residing in and out of the county,
would be a colossal job involving
great labor and expense. Then he
could not afford to comply with those
requirements. The scheme is i'm
practicable and was suggested we
learn in The interest of a certain pub
Usher who thinks that IN this way he
could after the first year,secu very
big list Of permanent subscribers.
Right here we wish to enter our Wig
orOus protest against the effort of
some people who seem consumed with
a desire to cripple the local newspa-
pers. There are a few men in every
community who read little or nothing
themselves and don't want anybody
else to read anything. The local pa
per stands up for every legitimate in
terest effecting the public, warns the
farmers against swindlers, cheers
them up through crop failures, talks
up the country and encourages emf
grafton, writes up the fairs, defends
the community against ISLANDERS, is
the friend Of the school, the church
and the home, prints a thousand and
one good articles that make the chill
dren more intelligent and the home
more cheerful, weeps with the people
in their tribulations and sorrows, re-
joices in their prosperity, does more
free work for the public than any
other class or profession, makes only
a bare living, and yet there are a few
Statesmen" in every community
whose supply of reading matter to
their families is usually confined to
old almanacs, who's first suggestion
of retrenchment and reform is to stop
the home paper or make the publisher
do public printing for nothing, or at
prices that will cause them actual
loss. Now we rise to enquire if the
editor who is employed to do county
printing should be required to dc
labor for the county at lowest living
, rates, and then give away thousands
of his papers and pay the government
postage on such papers thus given
away, why should not Township and
County officers and school teachers
positions and the places of others per
forming service for the county be lei
out to the lowest bidder also, and those
, to whom the offices were awarded be
: required to donate a few hundreds oil
dollars besides to the public? Why
, not treat others who do service for the
public the same as it is proposed tc
treat the publisher of your home pa
pers. The county printing is now be
ing done for so per cent of lega
rates; the local newspapers probably
work as hard, economist as closely
and get as small compensation fol
. their labor as any farmer, mechanic
l. or day Iaborer in the county, cOnsid
= ering the capital they have Invested
- As they are now doing the count,
= printing for a little more than hal
. what the law allows, why single then
out as the class who should perform
public service at an actual loss, whll
= no demand is made that any other
" working for the county shall labor a
# loss or any other public position
Il shall be let out to the lowest bidder
4 The HERALD favOrs retrenchmen
= and reform and insists upon all pub
F. lie labor being performed at as SINAI
,r compensation as will secure prope
% service, but we propose that publish
IA ers Of home newspapers shall not b
"a Disseminated against unfairly an
% uniustly without our earnest protes
:, THE action of the county centre
. committee IN allowing only four de
y egates TO each township is very sul