The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1895-05-03
A MAN WITHOUT HONOR.

Geo. T. Campbell Proves Himself Such
The contract to do the city printing was,
on Tuesday Of last week, let to the Argus
Publishing Company, the price being $1OO.
This is not startling considering the fact that
that has been the price for two years, but a
few things connected with the deal whereby
the contract was secured by the Argus
ought to be placed in their true light before
the public. Everybody that does business
with the city of Owosso has been we'll paid
except the printers, and for some years il
has been a constant cut-throat bidding. OF
which all fair minded people were disgust.
ed. For their own protection, Geo. T.
Campbell, of the Argus, H. Kirk White, of
the Press and E. o. Dewey met at THE
TINES Office to consider the NATTER and il
| was decided to see the other publishers and
put in joint bid, the agreement between
the publishers being as follows:
'Owosso, Mich, April 16, 1895.
We, the undersigned publishers of the
Owosso Press, the Evening Argus, the Shia-
wassee Reporter, the Shiawassee American
and THE TINES bind ourselves UPON
OUR HONOR to each and severally carry
out the following agreement;
First-That we will bid jointly for the
printing of the Common Council proceed
lngs of the city of Owosso for the year 1896
90, and thas NONE OF US WILL UNDER ANY
CIRCUMSTANCES PUT IN SEPARATE BID
FOR, RECEIVE OR Do1sUcH WORK UNLESS
OUR JOINT PROPOSITION IS ACCEPTED.
Second--We agree to do such work at
legal rates only, viz: Seventy cents per
folio, to be divided equally or fourteen cents
per folio each, each publishing the proceed
ings."
This agreement was signed by all of the
publishers.
No man with particle of honor, or with
common decency, or the first elements of a
gentleman could sign an agreement like the
above and then do the city printing without
the consent of the other publishers.
The bid was reported to the council Mon
day evening and rejected
Tuesday morning Geo. 7. Campbell sent
the following notice to the other publishers:
"Owosso, April 23, 1895.
Dear Sir-The council having rejected
the joint bid of publishers, the agreement
becomes null and void.
Tho ro,o Connaoy will mt in n hid
this afternoon and suggest you do the same.
We shall not put in the bid before o'clock,
thus giving each publisher an equal oppor-
tunity with ourselves.
Yours,
ARGUS PUB. Co."
The agreement did not become nall and
votd. No one knows that better than Geo.
T. Campbell. He knew as we'll as did the
other publishers that the bid would meet
with opposition in the council and probably
be sent back or rejected. This was thor
oughly discussed and at the suggestion OF
Geo. T. Campbell it was agreed that a drop
| to fifty cents should be made If the council
demanded it.
If the Argus editor had been man
of honor, he would, when the bid was re-
jected, have gone like man to the Other
publishers and made new bid. Instead
of this, ashamed of his course Tor that ol
some one representing him) in consulting
the council committee on Monday, he sem
the above notice.
| A member of the council informed the
editor of THE TIMES on Monday (April 22)
that one of the editors who had put in the
Joint bid had told the committee thai
| if the bid was rejected he would put in 6
separate bid. This was before the council
had taken any action on the bid. We believe
that Campbell made this offer and that hi
thereby deliberately sold his honor for 500
| This is evident, we think, from the fact tina
on Tuesday the committee awarded thi.
man the printing for that sum, refusing to
consider the bid of The TIMES and Th,
Press, which was sanctioned by the othel
publishers, and which was for cents. w,
believe that IL the committee had not al
ready agreed that if Campbell would break
with the other publishers he should hav,
the work at Sl00. that the lower bid would
have been accepted. And further, if Camp
bell had not already made that agreemen
and been assured of the contract he would
most certainly have put In lower bid, for |
had been the intention of the forme
editor OF the paper to "secure the contrac
even IL he had to pay the city for tn
same"
On Saturday the Argus in attempting 4
explain its position in the matter made sew
eral statements which further show tn
manner in which Campbell Is trying to ex
plain to those who had previously consider
ed him an honest and truthful man, hi
position in this most contemplate betraya
of the other publishers. The writer of tn
lexplanation states that the Argus "ha'
nothing to do with concoctiag the combind
tion scheme and agreed to II only unde
protest and against our best Judgment, an
interviewed Walton at the repeated reques