The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1905-09-29
GRAFT WAS
ATTEMPTED
Citizen Did Not lnsinuate, But
Made Direct Charge.
PROOF IS CHALLENGED
hot Air Editorials and Baseless lnsinuation
viii Not Dsprove the Charge,
Writes tardee.

Editors TRIBUNE:
The article of Citizen" in recent
issue of THE TRIBUNE has brought
forth in The Fort Pierce News the
statement that "Citzen' insinuates
his paper overcharged the county for
publishing a legal notice. There was
no intention on the part of "Citizen' to
insnuate; and to correct such an inn
preston | want to state positively that
The News DID overcharge the county
for publishing a legal notice, and |
want to state also, that it did not re-
quire the calling in Of any one to decide
the matter, for the law plainly specifies
the kind Of type that shall be used, and
charged for in doing this class of print
ing. The News says: 1--WE followed a
rule established in every Office we have
the type; but a printer who had never
WORKED in anything but a little country
office was called in to decide the mat
ter 1t IL no surprise to hear the
admission from the editor of The News
that he was following rule established
in every office he had been connected
with, for it is generally conceded that
he has had some very bad training
somewhere in his checkered career; but
wish to say that if he has been con-
nected with newspapers that charged
for legal printing as per the bl II he pre-
scented to the county commissioners Of
st. I.ucie county, he has certainly been
in the grating line and finds it hard
to break away from the habit. To
prove that am correct, will submit
his bill to three editors Of newspapers
in Brevard county, and if they decide
that the legal notice referred to was
printed according to law and that his
bill was correct, ! will personally pay
to The Fort Pierce News the full
amount of bill presented, and if it was
not correct, he to refund to the county
the amount he did receive for said bill,
if this is not fair proposition | do not
know how to make one. II the News
editor declines, OF ignores this prOpos
ition to test the correctness of our re-
spective claim, the public can form its
own conclusions as to whether his edi-
torial explaining the matter IL not hot
air and buncome of the first water.
Citizen" did not insinuate that a
certain editorial in the News was in
spired because of this reduction of a
bill, for Citizen knew that the editor
did not know it.
The News thinks it strange how a
citizen should know whose bills were
cut by the county commissioners, and
also to be so ready with an invitation
to the News to have its representative
at the meeting of the board, quoting
1T is the hit pig that squeals.'
At the time Citizen wrote the ar
ticle it was thought best not to sign his
name, but it seems that there is an in
dividualty about the writer's commun-
ications that render it impossible for
identity to be concealed, SO it is my in
tention to sign my name to all future
published articles.
The News says ut is the hit pig
that squeals, being one of the five
county commissioners who have the
spending Of the taxpayers money, and
being one of the five pigs that was hit
by the contemplate editorial which
brought forth the communication from
Citizen" | squealed, and in that
squeal | made charge OF an attempt
at graft by the News, that no hot air
editorial explanations are going to dis
prove.
The News says editorially, that the
cutting of his bill was "palpably un-
fair. This simply means that because
the commissioners cut the graft Oft Of
his bill, that they have swindled him.
1t is one Of two things, the county COM
missioners have swindled the Fort
Pierce News out of something to which
ne was legally entitled, or he tried to
graft on the county for something he
had no right to - this is plain propos-
tion, and until the editor Of the News
proves that his bill as presented to the
was legal, | maintain
that it was illegal, and was so consid-
cred by the board, and | will say further
that if he or any other publisher pre-
,ents the same bill for the same amount
Of printing, it will promptly be cut as
MS was.
am willing that the public shall pass
On any matter, either to condemn or
approve that l. as one OF the five COM
act in, but do not propose
to have threats Of bomb shells, ETC.,
hurled at us by such irresponsible news
papers as the Fort Pierce News; and
the "hit pig will squeal" whenever
there is such an uncalled for attack
made on the body of men with whom
| serve.
think the public will anXiously wait
to see if the action of the commission
ers was "palpably unfair" as the News
charges editorially. II st. Luce Coun-
ty has a set of commissioners whose