The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1897-07-08

TaE PUBLIC PAINTING.
II seems that there has always been
ONE cause for row over the public |
For nearly twenty years
to 1898 the public printing
vas held By Democrats to be party
polls, and it WAS manipulated 30 a.
% give some Democratic benchman .
,lice Of pie. The method Of manipu-
|ation may be illustrated in this way
The printing would cost, say, IN aver
age Of $l5.0 600 per year, or $4,000 from
the meeting OF one legislature TO an
other. These figures are too low. but
they will serve for the purpose Of IL
The contract was always
given to somebody who had done
more or less partisan work or dirty
work for the Democrats. 1t made no
difference whether this person was
printer, or had regular printing Of
fee or not. In fact no one, to whom
the printing was given for fifteen
years, ever pretended to do any part
of it.. He was called the estate Print
er," but was no more Of q printer
than hedgehog is q giraffe. The
printing was given him at a stipu-
lated price SO far as . price could be
set on it. He would then sub-let the
work to some genuine printer on con-
dition that the genuine printer would
give him fifteen per cent OF all the
money received from the State for do
ing the work. SO when the bills for
printing amounted to $4,000 the
estate Printer" would get $4,50O-this
amount being fifteen per cent OF $780,
COO. This would leave $685. 800 for the
Printer who did the actual work, and
the Printer OF course would make q
reasonable profit on his work. The
only thing the State Printer ever did
for the 81 800 he got was to sign re-
ceipts for his money.
This thing went on until 1t became
such a scandal that even Democrats
could not stand it; so in 1898 they ar
ranged that the estate Printer"
should no longer have the fifteen per
cent bonus. They let the price fol-
printing stay at what it had formally
been, or the y thought they did
but made all bills subject to q discount
of fifteen per cent before bein g paid by
the State.
The legislature of 1895 attempted tC
change the Public Printing system
and tried to let the work out to the
lowest bidder. But they tackled
question they didn't know anything
about. A man who has never been
connected with general printing Of
flee knows no more about job printing
and binding than an alligator knows
about the north pole. There were
very few men in the legislature OF
1895 who knew anything about print.
ing, but they tackled the question
just like they knew ALL about it, and
after some weeks of supposed profound
consideration, announced that thu
Public Printing had been let to thu
lowest bidder. Under this 'lOwes1
bidder" contract the printing has cos
the State from eight to ten Thousand
dollars more for two years than evel
before
Of course more printing has beer
done than ever before, but there are
questions as to whether enough
more has been done at the re
duced prices of the lowest bidder tt
amount to so much more money. A
suit is now pending against the par
ties to whom the printing was give'
to determine whether there have beef
any over charges or Irregularities. L
is the opinion of The CAUCASIAN tina
nothing of this kind can be proven 81
far a. the regular State work is con
cerned; but We do think it possible t.
fl nd some grave defects in the contrac
which the State made. If these de
fects exist, it is the fault of the Stat
and not the printer.
The legislature Of 1897 tackled tn
State printing question with consid
able gusto and tried for awhile t
make another "lowest bidder" con
tract. But that body finally decided
as a whole, that the problem was
little too Obstruse for them, and lef
the printing problem wholly in tn
hands of the Council Of State.
The Council took charge of the mat
ter on July 1st. 1t has decided t.
have all the job printing done in Raj
eigh, and Guy V. Barnes has been des
ignated as "Printer to the Council.
Book printing is to be let to the low
est bidder-each book being separate
ly submitted for bids to those VIII
may be interested.
OF course there have been some crit
icisms on the action of the Council
There is nothing under heaven it coult
do that would have escaped criticism
But 1t has taken hold with q firm
hand, and inGends to make a recOrt
in the matter that will stand for it
self.