Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1905-02-01
THE. BEE THAT MAKES NO HONEY.

The distinguished dignitary of the
Ossian Bee seems to have a desire to
make much of little circumstance
which happened in the regular routine
of business before the Board of Super
visors in it's recent session, when
Editor B. Anundsen of the DEBORAH
Posten filed formal application for its
selection as an additional official"
paper under the amendment of the
laws passed by the last session of the
legislature and which went into effect
July /, 1904. 1t endeavors to give the
democrats credit for doing something
wonderful in making the appointment,
when it was not at all unusual or ex-
traordinary, but just what the Board
ought to have done and just what al
most any Board would have done un-
der the circumstances. Two weeks
ago in its article the Bee said "This
is we believe the first time foreign
paper was recognized by the Board.
Heretofore the Board was under con-
troll by the republican party, but it
never thought of assigning to foreign
paper the commission of printing the
proceedings in foreign language, :"
etc.
Because this paper called its atten-
ton to Misrepresentation it had
made, the Bee uses a long string of
space for the purpose of maligning the
Public Opinion; we can't imagine
why, but if we err in statement, we
are glad to be corrected.
Now, as to the facts. The Public
Opinion had the pleasant experience of
two or three law suits before the dis
trict court on this question a few
years ago, and gained some valuable
but costly information. 1t learned
that the "Decorah Posten" and two
other DEBORAH papers had been "offi-
cial' papers for a good many years, so
constituted by republican" Boards of
Supervisors, year after year. 1t also
learned that no other papers in the
county were official" papers, bnt
that the law very clearly read that
there should be not more than two
official papers in the same town. Ac-
cordingly, the editor of the Public
Opinion went to Ossian, told the edi-
tor of the Bee of the discovery he had
made, and that the Bee was clearly en-
titled to become an official paper, and
had been for several years Heretofore.
The editor seemed to appreciate the
favor, filed an application, and was
declared an official paper, and has
remained such ever since. The De-
corah Posten had been an Official
paper under appointment by "repub-
lican' Board of Supervisors up to this
time. Then for some years under the
law a paper published in foreign
language could not be declared an
official paper. The last session of
the Legislature amended the statute,
granting Boards of Supervisors the
privilege to appoint papers published
in foreign language official"
papers, if they so desired.
This law went into effect July 1st
Between that time and Jan. LIST the
Board had two regular sessions. The
DEBORAH Posten did not apply for this
appointment at either session, for its
editor knew enough to know that the
Board could not have appointed the
Posten an official paper then if he had
applied, for official papers are selected
only at the January session.
The DEBORAH Posten has always been
an official" paper when the law per-
mitted it to be one, and we hope that
it always will be. We hope that the
Bee will continue to be one.
If the Bee would keep at least with
in hearing of facts, would remember
that the Board while democratic in
majority were, with possibly one ex-
ception, elected by republican votes,
and that they propose to do their duty
as they see it without regard, to party
dictation, and so far have performed
it in manner creditable to themselves
and satisfactory to the most of their
constituents, it would possibly realize
that it is barking up tree with hole
at the top larger than at the bottom.
We know full well that 1.-THE Bee
knows whole lot of things the Pub
lie Opinion does not know" God
grant that we may never know them.
We have troubles enough now, guard
ing the little we do know lest some
one shonld steal that, too. We never
could carry such ponderous load of
knowledge as the Bee man.