Bridgeton pioneer. (Bridgeton, N.J.) 1884-1919, 1892-07-21
BOARD OF FREEHOLOERs.
A Lively Tilt Which Resulted i'm
tine Use OF fhe Pruning Knife.

tine Use of Ghe Pruning Knite.
The Board of Freeholders had an
interesting session Wednesday after
noon, although there was no special
important busic ess to come before
the Board.
A very large number of bills were
presented and ordered paid. One
from the PIONEER caused some breeze.
1t was for publishing the County Col
lectors statement, and the amount
was $24l.3S. When the bill was pre-
sented, it was moved and seconded
that the bill be paid. Mr.. Richards,
Democrat, OF Millville, wanted to
know by what authority the PIONEER
published the statement Mr.. Bacon,
of Greenwich, desired to know by
what authority, as far as the Board
is concerned, any newspaper pub
lished it. The law, he said. declares
that the Collector shall print the
statement in all the papers designated
to publish the laws, and such other
papers as the Board may designate.
Inasmuch as there had been no papers
designated by the Board to print the
statement he thought this was the
proper time to make such designa-
tion.
Mr.. Bacon said further, that he be-
lieved he would call the attention of
the Board to another fact. As all
know, Cumberland County is largely
Republican, and it had been conclu-
sively evinced that there was system
attic effort upon the part of the Demo.
Gratis to squeeze out Republican papers,
and inasmuch as the Governor had
declared that the statement should be
published in one Republican and three
Democratic papers, he as a Republi-
can would protest, and declared in
favor of allowing the majority of the
the voters of the County to read the
statement in their own papers, pre-
suming that generally the Republican
voters were not subscribers to Demo-
cratic papers. A vote was taken and
carried, only two Democrats voting
against it.
There was some more fun later on,
when the Evening Ne,cs, Chronicle and
Millville transcripts bills for printing
the statement were presented. The
Patriot, PIONEER and Vineland Jour
nal had charged $241.5S, and as the
law allows stipulated price for each
one hundred words, or folio, it was
presumed that these bills were correct.
The bills of the other three papers
were $l6.74 in excess of their contem-
poraries. MIR. Bacon was asked why
there was such discrepancy.
Papers were produced, and Mr..
Laning, of the Chronicle, was asked if
his report was published verbatiaa from
the copy of the Collector. He said he
had every reason to believe that it
was,
Mr.. Cheesman, of the Patriot, was
asked if his copy was verbatina, and he
replied in the affirmative.
Mr.. Bacon then arose and said that
after comparing the statements as
published in the various papers. he
found that the Nesos and Chronicle had
spelled out in every instance the alb
breviations made by the Collector, in
the interest of economy, and the Pro
NEER and Patriot had printed the re-
port as abbreviated, thus making a
considerable difference in the number
of lines. He called attention to the
Court expenses account, where the
Collector had abbreviated ''Justice of
the Peace" by writing 81. p" which
in every instance made difference of
line.
Mr.. Laning then asked if Mr.. Barn
hart, of the NeWs could be heard. The
Director had no objection, and Mr..
Barnhart thanked the Board for CIV
ing him the great honor of addressing
the members. and then proceeded to
unravel the mystery, by giving his.
tory of ''all well regulated printing
Offices" and how every paper differed
from each other In the size of the col.
umns, and how the law prescribed
that so much line be charged, (which
by the way is not correct--and then
strenously objected that some other
newspaper should set the price for the
work of the Ne,os. Mr.. Barnhart
further said his paper did not publish
verbatim copy of the report, because
he considered 1t the duty of a news
paper of making everything plain and
therefore, that his readers might under
stand, he had IS. P" spelled out in
full, "Justice of the Peace"
d Then Mr. Laning waxed wroth, and
broadly declared he wanted every cent
that the law gave him, and thought
there should be no kick. "You have
just paid the PIONEER for printing the
statement" he said, without any
authority, and now you want John