Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1891-01-22
That oounty Printing n1atter.

through 1891 that was in force in
1890. They make several mistakes
stating their objections to the Com
missioners action. 1t Is true that the
Board asked for bids for the county
printing, 'said bids to include print
ing all commissioners proceedings,
treasurer's statements and delin-
quent tax list, and all other reports
of county officers, and the furnishing
of a copy of the paper containing
said printing to all taxpayers in the
county, and the successful bidder to
give a good and sufficient bond for
faithful performance of the same"
but it is not true that two bids were
filed. There was but one bid filed
that of H w. & @. S. Lands, and it
was not in compliance with the terms
of the proposition submitted by the
Commissioners, hence they refused to
consider it, moreover they had reserv-
ed the right to reject any and all
bids. Not only did the Commission
ers fail to find bid fled in compli-
ance with the terms of their request,
but they found that it would be I'M
lawful for them to vote public money
to pay for papers to be sent to resi-
dents of the county. This they were
informed by several attorneys. They
very properly decided that the right
course for them to pursue was to go
according to law and if the people
are dissatisfied with the law they
should have the legislature amend
it. At late hour of the session they
found the printing matter undecided,
with no bids fled and the publishers
of the various newspapers as much at
sea as to what course to take as the
Commissioners themselves. It being
necessary to take some action, they
on their own motion, decided to con-
tInue in force through 1891 the con-
tract that existed in 1890.
This is the history of the matter
and the whole history that is materi-
al. And now we want to remark
that our KirwIn contemporaries have
no ground for abusing the Comm1s-
siOners. They are honorable men
who intend to do the right thing
while acting for the county. The
letting of the county printing is an
unpleasant task.
This annual racket about the coun-
ty printing is not the fault of the
Commissioners but of the newspaper
proprietors who unfortunately act
like hungry coyotes whenever there
is little public printing to be let
Now the fact is that the county print
ing cannot be satisfactorily done al
some point remote from the county
seat. 1t is further fact easy of dem
onstration, that the proposition tc
send the paper to every taxpayer in
the county Is not practicable. About
twenty-slx papers during the year
would have to be mailed free to every
resident taxpayer. Treasurer Bar
Der informs us that there are about
1000 in this county. To successfully
carry this out would involve an i'm
mense amount of trouble and ex-
pense. The publisher would either
have to print his paper all at home,
or If he used cooperative sheets,
would be subjected to endless trouble
to get his 1000 to 1000 extra ready
printed sheets in time for the proper
issues; then he must get the post of
tice address of all these 1000 per-
sons and keep track of them. If he
missed sending to every taxpayer he
would be violating his contract and
might be enjoined from getting his
pay. He must give a heavy bond
conditioned that all these provisions
should be carried out. Any practical
newspaper man who figures this all
out carefully will come to the same
conclusion we did-that the scheme
Is lmpractible as well as illegal and
would in less than twelve months
bankrupt the publisher who under
took the job. Not only would it ship
wreck the paper undertaking to carry
out the scheme, but it would utterly
demorallze the printing business, and
lntiict irreparable injury on all the
other newspapers in the county by
practically destroying their subscrip-
ton lists, because four-fifths of the
taxpayers who were getting twenty
| sig ofic;nl nnno- =