Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1901-05-18
What il is Here For.


In making charges against the different
county officials, one of the most frequent
complaints of the taxpayers is that the COM
missioners are spending too much money
Forum.
One of the charges the JOURNAL has
heard is-the commissioners have in one
way or other paid too much for terra
Gotta pipe. Which may account III part
for 1.-THE conservative view the For"m
takes of the general charge. But
For some wholly unexplainable reason 1t
seems to be the idea of that worthy BODY 10
hide their quarterly report in certain FROST
burg journal with no circulation worth men
tioning, and as result but few of the tax
payers really become acquainted with the
work of the commissioners except when
some newspaper sets up howl about some
doubtful expenditure.
Here is the milk i'll the cocoanut-the
Forum, with its Fictitious, fictitious,
falsetto circulation, did not get the treas
urer's report republication! Hence, Its
own "howl." This is further apparent
in the following conclusion:
Why very ordinary democratic journal III
solidly republican county should in any
instance receive legal patronage from repuD-
lican officials when there are number OF
prominent republican papers of large crcula-
ton in which the printing might be done Is
unfathomable.
Perhaps it is equally "unfathomable'
why republicans should allow other
party papers to exist at all. Or why
going further, they allow democratic
LAWYERS, merchants and tradesmen to do
ANYTHING here except pay taxes.
But it is really good thing for the
community that the Forum confessedly
does not represent the republican party
in principle or practice. Indeed, II there
is anything wherein it leads i'll mega
tive way it is as an exponent of repub-
lican ethics.
Hence, the JOURNAL asks-what has
the Forum ever done for the republican
party that entities it to the slightest
recognition as a party paper: In all
seriousness, has it ever done more than
profess to be republican paper:
1t has had about eight editors, per-
haps only seven, but of these only three
have been republicans, the others demo-
Gratis and prohibitionists. Even now
democrat is suspected of being the real
editor.
Coming closer home, what has the
Forum ever done for the people of
Georges Creek that gives 1t title to
their support: Where was 1t not long
ago when the commissioners, especially
those from this region, We're brOw-beaten
by county-seat brawlers out of selling
s.. 900 county property because the cdH
~o"t"d to gire il array .to' c'fH proposes
uud citg gjorifcui;on! Did the For"m,
with its artificial, inflated circulation,
say a solitary word i'll defence OF the
commissioners or III behalf of the coun
ty taxpayers?
If it did, the JOURNAL never saw or
heard of it,
Still closer-what has the For"m ever
done for the town of Frostburg that was
not wholly and solely inspired by greed:
What other business has its chief owner
with newspaper but to use it to obtain
party prominence otherwise inaccessible
to him?
The JOURNAL asks these questions i'll
dead earnest because it sincerely wants
to know what l"bijc, or even purity ser
vice the For"m has ever rendered, or
dHcmptcd 10 r""dcr!
At the lastcorporatc election it favored
" tuction in the primaries and was partly
beaten. On this account it was just as
much as it could do to abstain from
batting the heod Of its or" regular ticket!
Now, republicans, official and unof-
fetal, if "circulation" really counts any
thing, the more a paper pursuing such
tactics has, the more dangerous it is
that is, if the paper has any force or i'll
fluence at all.
But the Fo,,m is as harmless as dis
tant summer lightning. Poor David
Cronin might come back and multiply
that "circulation" by ten or a hundred,
but the value of not line i'll it would be
thereby enhanced.
AS before intimated, the FOrum is "a
bluntstrument" designed to promote an
individual interest at the least expense
to the beneficiary, and is, therefore,
billeted directly upon its subscribers and
indirectly upon the people of the county,
through the commissioners for its sup
port.
When this purpose fails, therefore, it
is second-nature with it to yelp IN the
"nme Of the party its disappointment,
For if it had not the name of the party
as its shield and buckler it would be of
all shams the most defenseless.
Tripod and Bench.
hp f,hiont &c