Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-06-14
Public Sentiment aud Press Over.
whelmingly in Favor of Work
Being Done in the State.
Some Water Added to the Already
Plentiful Supply in Burleigh
County Soil.
The Northwestern Country Appears
to Be Pretty Thoroughly
Deluged.


The Code Printing.
The hearing in the code printing n
tract case was had Saturday before
Judge Templeton in Grand Forks,
Messrs. Newman and Watson Of Fargo
representing Walker Bros. and Attorney
General Cowan and r. N. Stevens repre-
senting the compilation commission and
the Bismarck TRIBUNE company. The
question turns upon the discretion of the
commission-whether 1t had a right to
insist that the printing of the code
should be done in the state and whether,
all matters considered, the bid of the
Bismarck TRIBUNE was not in fact the
'lowest and best bid"
All the papers in the state-except
the Fargo Argus, of course, which is an
interested party-seem to understand
this matter thoroughly. They know that
the proposition of the TRIBUNE is rea-
sonable and just. They believe the
Argus misrepresents the facts in relation
to the printing just as it misrepresents
public sentiment in opposing the doing
of the work in the state.
The facts in this case are brief. Walker
Bros. we're the lowest bidders. The
Tribune's bid was about Is per cent
higher, figuring IN 1900 pages as a
basis, which is the present calculation of
the commission.
Walker Bros. we're acting simply as
agents for an eastern firm. They would
not have hired a man or paid out a cent
on this contract to laborers in this state.
The TRIBUNE will do all the work in
the state, and with the possible excep-
ton Of four or five binders experienced
in the handling of leather, all the help
required will be found among the resi-
dents of the state. There are idle printers
in Grand Forks, Fargo, jamestown, Bis
marck and other cities to whom prefer
ence will be given in the employment of
help. The TRIBUNE believesi in practlcing
what it breaches in relation to home in
dustry and it's encouragement.
1t would have been a burning shame
to have awarded this work to be done
outside of the seate. Did the new state
OF Washington set such an example?
On the contrary. Did Montana commit
any such folly? Her statutes are now
being printed by a Montana firm, and
not by the lowest bidder either. 1t is a
case similar to the one in this state, and
in an opinion just handed down by the
supreme court of that state the right of
the commission to exercise ''discretion''
in the awarding OF the contract is clearly
set forth. The same is true of scores of
similar cases in Missouri, Illinois, Wis
c~onsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New
York and other states.
There is another feature of this work
that the commission was bound to take
into consideration in awarding the con-
tract, and that was the fact that the law
makes it their duty to supervise the
printing and binding by carefully cor
recting and revising the proof sheets as
they issue from the press, and by final
proof-reading before binding, and by
otherwise taking care that the work is
we'll and faithfully executed" If the
work was done without the state, to OBJ
serve this provision of the law would
cause delay and the expenditure of state
funds equal to or in excess of the Is per
cent, or $1,100 difference between the
bid of an institution doing the work in
the state and n outside of the state
paying 10 taxes in this state and not
paying n cent to labor in this state.
The TRIBUNE gives a bond of $4,000
conditioned on the faithful performance
of this work, and it has confidence in it's
ability to turn out a job that fellow
publishers will at once pronounce the
finest piece of workmanship ever done
in the state. We have just a little state
pride in this matter, but aside from this,
in actual dollars and cents the TR1BUNE's
bid IN the long run will prove the most
economical-the ''lowest and best" for
the state.
The Typographical unions and other
labor organizations petltioned to have
this work done in the state, and petitions
to that effect were presented to the
commission signed by all the leading
business men and leading taxpayers of
Grand Forks and Fargo. The Fargo
petition was signed by Mr.. Gage, editor
of the Argus, which paper has since
inconsistently kicked against this policy
IF some other institution, that would
have done the work in the state, had
been a successful bidder, the TRIBUNE
would have been for the winner. We
are built that way-always in favor Of
keeping all printing in the state. Here.
after all county printing is to be done in
the state, preference to be given the
printing houses in the county wanting
supplies. That's the kind of law the