The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-09-04
VIOLATES ITS PROMISE.
The Argus Again Fails to Live Up to Its
Agreement.
From The Press.

From The Press.
Judging from the amount of "kicking"
at the methods employed by Bro. Camp
bell to enrich the Golfers of the Argus,
our citizens like fair play and do not adj
mire the Argus scheme of getting money.
Briefly stated, the Argus plan is as
follows; 1t advertised A ballot contest
among its readers for The most popular
lady clerk or bookkeeper in the city, the
prize winner to be given transportation
to Mackinaw and $40 for incidental ex-
penses Blank ballots were to be printed
in the Argus, and its readers were re-
quested to cut out, fill in and deposit the
ballots at the Argus office before certain
date. The exact proposition made by the
Argus is as follows "The trip will be Civ
en- to the person who, by Wednesday,
August 26, 1896, deposits at the Argus
office the largest number of the follow
ing ballots, taken from the EUening argus
and Weekly Argus." In its issue of Aug.
II, in calling attention to its scheme the
Argus said the contest was "to be decid-
ed by ballot, the ballot to be recorded
upon the certificate published in the Eve.
ming Argus and Weekly Argus"
The action of the Argus thus far was
entirely honorable and very commenda-
BILE; in fact, it seems that it was too much
so to exactly suit ex-Y. M. @. A. Secreta-
ry Campbell, for shortly after the contest
began the Argus advertised, extra cou-
pons may be secured at this Office" This
completely changed the conditions of the
contest and made it purely money get
ting device on the part of the Argus at
the expense of the friends of the contest
ants. Coupons were printed and sold at
the Argus Office by the thousands at two
cents each. The gross injustice and un-
fairness of this change from the plan as
originally announced was apparent and
called forth much adverse criticism. The
Argus sought to counterfeit the latter by
announcing that the young lady receiv-
ing next to the highest number of votes
would be given transportation to Macki-
nav. The result of the balloting was an
nounced daily in the Argus, thus urging
on the leading contestants friends to de.
post more money with the Argus for
coupons.
The contest closed last Wednesday
with practically but three contestants in
the race. The count of ballots showed
that there were but sixty votes difference
between the two prize winners, while the
third contestant was some over thous-
and behind the first prize winner. The
count also disclosed the fact that the
third lady in the contest had actually re-
ceived the largest number of ballots taken
from the Evening Argus and Weekly Ar
gus-the separate ballots being easily
distiDguishable from the ballots taken
from the paper. Thus, according to the
original offer of the Argus, the third con-
testant won the first prize.
In awarding the prize to the one who
deposited the largest number of ballots
not ballots taken from the newspaper
the Argus knew it was giving the lie to
its own statement and exposing the n.y.
pocrisy of its original offer. True to its
nature, the Argus endeavored to smooth
matters over and offeredto the third con-
testant-the contestant who had the lar
gest number of ballots recorded upon
the certificates published in the Evening
Argus and Weekly Argus railroad
transportation to Mackinaw if she would
sign statement that the result was en-
tirely satisfactory. This offer was, of
course, rejected.
From information received from relia-
BILE sources a low estimate Of the amount
the Argus received from the sale of cou-
pons only, is Sl25. Newsboys were re-
fused extra copies to sell (extra copies
were sold only at the office) thus their
commissions were saved to the Argus.
There is no cause Of complaint at the
action of the contestants or their friends: