Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-02-28
The State Printing.

Press, this morning, the courtesy OF It's
columns We have carefully avoided any
unkind reference to either of our con,petl-
tors, desiring to use them in spirit OF
courtesy and fair play. Because of this
fact we have excluded from our columns
communications from prominent business
men of Portland-over their own sigma
tures-opposing the Lakeside Co. and con-
tanning statements that were unfavorable
| to it. We have not, however, opened our
columns to these things, desiring to avoid
any opportunity for our competitors to
say that we had used them discourteously.
We were confident that any committee of
business men who gave the matter care
ful investigation would see the utter i'm
practicability of doing the State printing
outside of the capital. We also knew that
conference with disinterested practical
printers in other parts of Maine would
show them that the prices paid for State
printing were considerably lower than the
printers standard in this State, and lower
than are paid by any other New England
state. We have therefore remained silent
in the face of statements that placed us
before the public in false position For
instance the statement that there. was
difference of $1,000 a year between the
contracts when as a matter OF fact the
committee found face difference of only
S270O and found that this amount would
be several times offset by the ex-
penses incident to doing the work at arms
length. Again the statement made by
the Lakeside Press that the whole
of the appropriation for Australian bal
lots, $780, was paid to the State printers,
when as a matter of fact we received but
$4,000 of it, and this included the folding
by hand and counting of ballots into pack
ages, work necessitating the employ
ment of an extra Office force of some
| II hands. In circular sent by
the Lakeside Press to members of the
Legislature, subsequently published i'll
the Portland Argus, and other Demo
cratic papers, and later reiterated in a
cartoon, there occurs this statement.
"Finally it was decided by the COM
| mittee, after hearing the statements of
Burleigh & Flynt and their friends, GER
tain officers in the State House, notably
the secretary of State, at a hearing to
which we The Lakeside Press were not
invited although we The Lake
side Press had asked for such
an opportunity to be heard and to answer
the arguments raised against us), to give
the contracts to the highest bidders with
out regard to cost to the State"
Now we should dislike to think that
the officials of the Lakeside Press would
deliberately state what was false in order
| to prejudice the case of competitor. We
prefer to believe that they acted with an
imperfect knowledge of the facts Justice
to ourselves however, compels us to say
that everyone of the statements in the
above quoted paragraph is absolutely in
correct.
1st Burleigh & Flynt did not go
before the committee on printing at
any hearing subsequent to the one at
which the proposals were handed in and
at which representatives of the Lakeside
Press and Brown Thurston Company were
also present.
I'd No friends of ours we've before the
committee in our behalf.
Sd. The contract was not awarded at
the meeting at which the secretary of
State was summoned before the committee
and at which, as he has stated, he APP
peared alone. Such action was not taken
until week or two later, and after the
committee had consulted with disinter-
ested printers in other parts of the State,
and made most thorough investigation
of the methods of handling the State
work
We regret that in his communication
published, today upon our first page, Mr..
Cloudy reitcrates by implication, the state
ment that Burleigh & Flynt were called
before the committee at hearing where
representatives of the Lakeside Press were
not present, and to which they were not
invited In closing, Mr.. Goudy, who ad-
mits that he is not a practical printer, de-
clares that the Journal proprietors have
"a big paying contract Against this
statement we are content to place the tes-
timony of some 90 of the leading printers
of Maine located in as many different cit
les and towns, that the prices Established
by the Fusionists in 1870 upon which
this contract is based are low, lower
than the printers of the State get for pri-
vate work, about half as large as the
prices now paid in the adjoining state of
New Hampshire, and as low as are consis-
tent with the employment of high grade
help. Against it also we are. content to place
the testimony of these same printers that
the margin upon which We are now doing
this work is neither large nor unreason-
able