The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-05-29
TO THE yIoToRs BELONG THE
SPOuLS.

from the City Clerk notice that The
Jersey City News has been designated
to publish the names and addresses anc
places of business of the applicants fol
liquor licenses. We find no fau with this
but call the attention of the Board OF
Aldermen to the fact that when the
journal was selected to make the pub
licatson it was entitled to charge 40 cents
for the publication of each name, eacf
insertion. This would have made the eX-
pense of the publication not less thar
s., 200. The Evening Journal" however
refused to charge any more than the
regular oficial sates. thus reducing tbs
cost to the city not exceeding 1899
Should any other method of payment be
adopted this year in place of the prece-
dent thus set. while legal, it will simply
be a robbery of the city that we do not
believe the Mayor will sanction.
The method of payment for these no
tees is clearly and precisely defined by
Chapter XVII. of the Laws of 1895, which
reads in full as follows:-
An Act to amend an act entitled "An act
relating to cities of the first class in
this state, and requiring the publication
of names of applicants for licenses to
sell spiritu0us, Nnous. malt or brewed
liquors." approved March seventeenth,
l.. Be It enacted by the Senate and Gen
eral Assembly of the State of New Jer-
sey, That section two of the act to which
this is an ~amendatory act shall be amend
ed to read as fofows:-
2. And be it enacted, That the cost of
publication and proof required by the
first section of this act shall be paid by
the said municipality to said newspapers
in the same manner as the other bills of
amounts thus paid for publication shall be
deducted from the whole amount of license
fees received by said city before such il,
fun or funds to which the same may be
appropriated; provided. that the costs OF
the Insertion Of the publication required
as aforesaid in any such daily newspaper,
publication. shall not exceed the sum of
ten cents per applicant for each of said
3 And be it enacted, That this act shall
Approved February IA, 1886.
1.-THE News" will make its charges fol
the liquor license advertisements strictly
in conformity with the terms of the
above statute. It will not charge any
less, because the rate established above
is on the average twenty-five per cent.
less than is paid for other classes OF
legal notices. The News on the other
hand, win not charge one cent more than
the law prescribes. and in this respect it
will differ from the Journal" which in
the course of the last year has Illegally
and Ii would seem fraudulently over
charged the city for the publication of
these liquor license notices to a total
amount of from four to five hundred dol
lars.
The editorial quoted at the opening of
this article is a gratuitous piece of
malevolence. Since Colonel Sheffield
Phelps is at least a gentleman, we ave
no idea that he had any hand in publish
ing it or that he would for a moment
c~ountenarce its snivelling hypocrisy or
its b~lackguardly innuendo. If we are not
mistaken we see in it the coarse vulgar
ity Of his chief employe in the business
department Of the Journal" Mr.. Joseph
A. Dear, the former publisher of the
sheet. We happen, however, to be in a
position to make Mr.. Dear's malice re-
coil upon himself, this time. and.
to do so, it is only necessary to glance
briefly over the history of the Jour
nals'' course in respect to these license
advertisements.
The story goes back to 1892, when the
Journal" was first designated to perform
the duty. In the article above. the at
teHtion of the Board Of Aldermen is called
to q pornpous letter which Mr. Joseph
A Dear wrote at that time waving the
right to charge the statutory 40 cents pei
name, then authorized by law, and plac-
ing the Journals" charges at the or
binary legal rates. This letter won more
O. less praise for Mr.. Dear and his sheet
from papers throughout the State, which
did not observe the facts. We well re-
member wssfs what amusement we read
these words Of praise while we noted fhs
trade tricks and devices by which Dea,
proceeded to make his offer unmeaning.
H4tl& toAitie ~ tifS ccS0A " PAtA
the names and addresses of the Liquor
dealers in nonpareil type instead Of ag
ate. thus not only gaining one line Q
space ia every FIVE from the larger siz'
OF the type, but also causing each MANS
and address to occupy two lines and il
some cases three instead of n e How
it worked viii be seen at a glance from
the following example,
No. al, ]. smith. 900 warren St. res. 900 Grove St
NO. sol, j.. Smith, 900 Warren St, res
600 Grove st.
The bills were not made out, as thu
statute called for. according to the mum
Der % names. The lines were measure
All me ordinary \ for legal adyer
tisen,euts. and. although set n non
paredly the . Wi always figured i,
hsa4e lInez. n this way the Journal
napased 10 sqaesze out of the cttx ii