The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-06-04

ance of public opinion. will be hampered.
Moreover 1t is no function OF the state
to support new newspapers Beneeendf and al
spirit Of the Constitution.
year takes effect in no city until adopt
voted on and rejected BY the people Of
other City of the State desires to adopt
| it. The act is long, and it will cost
nine thousand dollars to print in the
suggested to the Secretary. of State to
the newspapers until thsI LEGISLATURE
| We recommend that an act be passed pro-
viding that it need not be published in
| the newspapers.
| PRINTING PUBLIC DOCUMENTS,
| BLANKS AND STATIONERY.
The act of 1883 required this work to be
given out by contract after competitive
bidding, and made it the duty of each
officer to furnish a list of his require
ments for the year, with samples.
| This law has effected a great saving,
but by the neglect. and design of cer-
tain public officers its thorough enforce
| Boards and officers have delayed sending
| in their reports until after the printing
printing has been given out to favored
printers at eXtravagant prices: state
| officers have either wholly neglected TO
| send in requisitions for blanks ana sta,
| tionery or sent in meagre estimates, ana
| afterwards have given out to IaVored
| persons their valuable orders at enor-
nous prices, certifying upon the bills
| when presented that the necessity for the
| articles was not known at the time their
acquisitions were made. It is OF course,
| impossible to anticipate all the require
| ments and some of the certificates are
| therefore legitimate, but in other cases
large and valuable orders for blanks re-
,11i 1i,.n6 hxy lo wy N he u.
| and therefore necessarily anticipated,
have been habitually omitted from the
| favored persons at prices two or three
| times as great as the contract prices
| to persons, moreover, who have pur-
| posely refra.ned from competing for the
| contract, confidently relying upon their
| friends among the State officers to give
them. the really valuable parts OF the the
| this nothing less than collusion to de-
| fraud the State.
In the German. printing, downright
| conspiracy to defraud the. State has
| been proved. The successful bidder for
| 1898 paid to one rival $500 to bid h1gn, 70
| another $500 for the same purpose; and and
| bid 45 cents per thousand ems to with
draw his bid, paying him $500 in cash
and giving back to him n, a part OF II, the l
| was greatly at fault in this mat,
tsr oaL He ni4ar net only only, TeieaTea nrI fje q
to be released, but also told him that he
| could not print the. factory report either;
| on which he also had BID 45 cents, and
which he tga Was Tlng yd to pr PRINT bot he RS Is
| cents and forthwith turned the factory
report back at g cents to the man man VINO ,io
| ceeded to print it, putting on the name
| of the publisher who mad brihed him.
| He was a responsible man and had ten
| Specifications called for separate bid on
to succeed, the Comptroller was either
| excessively stupid and Indifferent to the
| States interests. The result was a loss
of several thousand dollars to the State.
| ing the report of the Board Of Education
remains unpaid. We recommend that
| the Comptroller be directed not to pay
will lose as little as possible by these
| frauds
| foreign languages seems to have been
awarded at a high price to some person
who then farmed it out al very low
| price to the actual translators
| The State has at different times printed
It's laws and documents. in German.
italian, Dutch and possibly other Ian
| guages. Some editions of these docu-
| nlents appear to be entirely unbrollen.
rot a copy being. called for, The object
to give a job of public patronage tc
| some newspaper printed in the foreign
language, doubtless with the hope OF
one political party or-tfe other
| We believe this State. printing in for
eign languages should be entirely abo.
| the English language. In New Jersey
where the immigrant, IS required to re
side five years before becoming a citizen
and read English, ard we think as g
mstter. of fact practically all these
mother me- si.i tongue, ton do learn to read English
| For their own sake and the good of the
| State they should by all means be en-
eouraged therein. II II ap9pltiea Document T1aT Is
It should be in the English language:
The law provides that, onis. such re
| ports and documents shall be included ir
the book of documents as the Leg.sla ture
| may prescribe and that the book shall
| be contained annually in two volumes.
| failed to prescribe what documents are
eastons t'' to call t9gsthar ne tqint 1..
of each report should be printed
| But no document has been excluded or
4 curtailed. All are printed with all their
| illustrations. appendices, tables and
| schedules. The result is that the annual
beok in violation Of df laW Yam noT o conslss ms M
are buried in this mass.
| Moreover the total cost of printing is
| inordinateIy increased. For example, the
| bills for printing in German the report of
| the Board of Education for 1893 will be
| from $4,000 to S1S,0G0. The amount paid in
| 1894 for printing documents and charged
| to printing was $685. .0S. This is not all
| for much printing was. charged to other
| appended copies of the laws of New Jer-
| sev, decisions of our courts, tables.
| schedules, newspaper clippings, letters
| and other matters of great bulk. This re-
| printing of the laws and decisions, year
/ after year is unwarrantahle. A simple re-
ference to the books wherein they are
| to be found would be sufficient. AS to
/ the other matter, much of it has no per-
manent or even present value. This mass
| of chaff should be wirlnowed, so that the
| kernels in it may be found and preserved
/ ard the waste of money stopped.
| We recommend the passage of a bill
constituting the Governor, Comptroller,
| mine what shall be printed, and to ex-
clllde the rest.
| Another mischief needs correction.
| Some boards and officers instead of send
/ ing in their reports in November, in
| time to be printed and laid before the
| Legislature. delay until after the Legis-
| lature has adjourned. Some have delayed
1893 came in from the printer in April,
1895. This delay renders the reports prac-
tically useless as a basis for legislation.
We recommend that all annual reports
to the Governor or Legislature by boards,
commissions or officers, be required to be
made as of October 81 and actually de-
livered to the Governor on or before the
s0th day of November, and that as nen-
atty for delay every DELINQUENT officer
shall forfeit one-half his salary from No
venaher 30 until the report is filed.
/ COMPENSATION OF COUNTY CLERKS