Los Angeles herald., 1892-11-03
Mr.. WARD AND THE REGISTER.
A Country Papers Expose of
the Affair.
The County Clerks Attempt to Re-
flute the Herald's Charges.
The Way the Apology from the Express
Was GivenRCircuIation i'm the
County Press-Some Figures
as to the Cost.

as to the Cost.
The Glendora Echo of Saturday will
contain the following editorial, which is
of general interest just at present:
As requested by his honor, T. H,
Ward, county clerk, by the following
letter Ito which we answered, stating
our price for such advertising, on which
the News makes few comments):
The envelope was an official stamped
envelope, and addressed to George Bent
ley, ESQ.,, editor Azusa Valley News.
The letter (here follows the regular
lithograph heading of the clerks Office,
and printed on county paper, request
ing assistance, is in the following Ian
guage, to wit:
Los ANGELES, CAL, -'92.-Dear
Sir: l forward you today by mail a
marked copy OF the Express of Septem-
Der 23, 1892, which you will observe
gives a statement in regard to my action
in having the great register printed. AS
the HERALD has seen fit to make good
deal of "political capital" out OF the
matter, desire that the people see all
the facts relative to the matter, 80 they
may Judge whether have done wrong
or not. l would like to have you pub
lish this matter, or as much of it as you
deem best, in your paper. and l will
pay you what you consider reasonable
price for it if you so desire. Ii the
HERALD continues to make its attacks
l can 90 further and give them the
prices which were submitted to Mr..
Cook, the committee from the board of
supervisors, who had the matter in
charge, which will show that the board
fixed the price after very full investi-
CATION of the matter. This, however, l
will give later, if deemed expedient.
Please send me a copy of your paper,
with any comments on same that you
may see fit to publish. Yours truly,
[Signed T. H. WARD,
County Clerk.
In referring to the Express article we
find numerous letters from various
county clerks, quoting the prices paid,
which run from Is to 2S cents name,
and the number printed from 100 to
1900, but not one word is said about size
of type and similarity OF work ON page
OF these various great registers.
The Express claims to have printed
the great register for years; that no
other Office in the city was prepared to
do the job on time. But let this be as
it may, why such prices to the people if
the work could be done cheaper?
The es-Mirror company printed
the great register in 1886 at IA cents
per name, 1900 copies, at cost of
$1l66.
In 1888 the Express company did the
work for s, 8 and 10 cents per name, and
there were 5000 copies, too, with over
0U0snamee. Cost, $2S96.13.
In 1890 the Express company and the
Times-Mirror company pooled the work
and secured Is 32-100 cents per name.
This time there were no bids advertised
for, and the combination got s4, 226S0
for 5000 copies. There were only 23,4S2
names.
This year the same plan predominated,
i. e., no advertisement for bids, except
perhaps Otis was hushed and the Ex-
press company got the job at % cents a
name. There will be nearly 10000
names and 5000 copies. The contractors
will receive about $1,000.
A tale that leaked out OF the Express
office few days ago lete the cat out OF
the bag as regards their story that %
cents was low figure for the work. 1t
appears, as the story runs, that "tour.
ist'' printer was discharged, and that
while employed there he picked up a
few scrap papers on the floor, which a
friend forwarded to us, a copy of which
is as follows:
now that Otis is out of the way
Here seemed to be some erasuresl
Ward can give those d HERALD and
job printing hounds the bluff. Our pa
per for the register, 450 reams @ So
5000. Press work, 100000 Impressions
@$3 = $500. Composition, about $50
pages a So - $1O50. Proof reading
and makeup, $125. Binding, $5 per 100
q 80 = $3.50. Total, $2S55.
Well, now, these figures seem to be
reasonable, according to which the
Times and Express combine, in 1890,
made profit Of $1438. The profit to
the Express will be about $4145.
In winding up spasmodic effort, edi-
torially. the Express Gays: "The HER
AIDS talk of excessive profit in this
large and elaborate piece of work is
sheer nonsense. There is very narrow
margin of possible profit, and unless the
work was done with the closest economy
and under the most favorable conditions
as to equipment, machinery, ETC., the
contract would involve loss to the COM
pany."
In regard to the letter above from
County Clerk Ward, we notice that the
Pomona Times and the Downey Cham
pion published the same kind of bosh
the Express did, but the Champion re-
ferred to it as an advertisement.
We replied to his honor's letter in a
business way, aud we are now awaiting
for check or a county warrant before
we perform the contract.
Now, with all due respect to our
worthy clerk. in his efforts to show he is
blameless in the matter, we would ask
why it was that, in former years, when
the county clerk did his duty and adver-
tised for bids, the low price of 8 9 10
cents per name was secured and 5000
copies were printed?
In thp1face of these statements, which