The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1901-06-12
The Grand Jury as a Poultice Maker.


The grand jury was called upon to
investigate a complaint made at the
spring term alleging that the County
Commissioners had committed an ille-
gal act in awarding the county print
! ING, and a committee from that body
consisting of A. I. Barron, r. J. Alder
man and E. P. Geddings was appointed
to investigate the complaint. This sub
committee made an investigation as
their report shows, and they found that
the complaint was not true. The Coun-
ty Commissioners did not commit an
illegal act. But this committee went
further, and looked into the financial
responsibility of the stockholders of the
Manning Publishing Company, and
found the members of that corpora
tion able to give bond for Thirty
thousand dollars if necessary" and
because the people owning stock IN
the Manning Publishing Company are
possessed of wealth, the committee
reached the conclusion that the Com
missioners did not exercise proper dis
cretion or economy in the matter of
awarding the county printing.
1t is not often that a finding OF a
grand jury is criticised, but we have
no hesitancy in criticising this one, for
the reason that its findings was dis
missal of the complaint lodged with
them against the Commissioners as un-
founded in fact, but in going beyond
the complaint they were required to
investigate, they advertise the imam
cial responsibility of not the Manning
Publishing Company, but some OF the
people who own stock in it, which has
nothing to do with the case unless the
grand jury ielt it to be its duty to pro-
vide an ointment to sooth a soreness
OF disappointment.
The editor of this paper claims that
the Commissioners did use proper bus
mess discretion in awarding the print
ing, because they gave the printing to
a newspaper which had the advantage
of years of establishment, fixed circu-
lation and a satisfactory service, at a
rate cheaper than the rates allowed by
law.
The newspaper applying for the
county printing and failed to get it had
been in existence about fifteen months
and during that short life had changed
hands and editors several times, un-
til it became a corporation with a
capital stock of $1,000, made up OF
numerous stockholders who are only
responsible for their stock-this is what
stock companies are for-to limit abll-
ity. Therefore, man may be worth q
million dollars and only own i've dollars
in stock-his liability only reaches his
stock. But the Commissioners were
not called upon to investigate the liza
bility of stock company, and no pub
lie record shows such liability. The
question for the Commissioners was,
which paper in their Judgment had
such a circulation as warranted them
in selecting medium for advertising
their notices. TAey, believing The
MANNING TINES, being an old estab-
lished paper and naturally had fixed
circulation, as business men, awarded
the contract accordingly.
The capital stock of newspaper is
its circulation; this point which, for
the purposes of investigation seems to
have been ignored by the committee,
as it did not attempt to ascertain any
UulQS fSldUluS w eudV pOAlV, oiASoo Wy
relied on the eX-parte statements OF the
directors interested in the corporation.
We know the committee sought no in
formation from US, and it is needless to
say that it takes years Of hard work to
establish a fixed circulation for news
paper, and no newspaper in the be-
ginning of it's career can possibly have
the same advertising value as one old
established.
The grand jury exonerates the Coun-
ty Commissioners from the complaint
charged against them and they had
nothing whatever to do with, whether
the stockholders of the Manning Pub
fishing Company can give bond Of
"thirty thousand dollars" no more
than if we had gone before them and
boasted that we could give bond for
sixty thousand dollars. The question
was, did the County Commissioners act
illegally? and the grand jury say they
did not