Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1908-02-07

ASSO@S
contracts. This privilege was granted
by the court and "style card" set
ting forth the size and kind of type,
and the manner Of setting the same,
was duly prepared and recorded in the
court journal.
The OBSERVER could not demand,
neither did it expect, that the custom
of letting the tax publications by con-
tract would be dispensed with, but in
justice to itself aud for the protection
of its own business, it was interested
in getting the bidding on basis
where every publisher would have to
live up to his bid or suffer the conse-
quences. The OBSERVER printed the
tax sale that year, and the cost to the
delinquent taxpayers was only 1882,
although full legal rates were charged
for the publication. It might be added,
in passing, that $500 and 5000 tax sales
have never been heard OF in Polk
county since. Those plans and speci-
| fications prepared by the OBSERVER
were bad medicine for gougers, and
succeeding courts have followed them
to the letter until the present year.
For the last several years, the tax
has been so closely collected that large
delinquent sales have become a thing
of the past. The courts, however, have
been following the custom of letting
the publication by contract, using the
same form Of contract that was pre-
pared by the OBSERVER when that
paper published the sale. With this
contract staring them in the face, no
publisher dared to submit low bid
per line in the hope Of making it up
by padding out large number of
extra lines. Under its provisions, a
publisher got exactly what he bid, and
no more. It was fair to all of the
papers, and it was fair to the delin-
quent taxpayers. Extortion under its
provisions was absolutely impossible.
With the records of the old unfair and
malodorous system before it, it seems
almost impossible of belief that any
court would have permitted itself to
be fooled into abandoning a plan
which experience had taught was bet
ter, fairer, and more economical in
every way. And yet that is just what
was done this year.
The OBSERVER had hoped that it
would never again be called upon to
show how printer who is 80 inclined
can bid less than the legal rate for
publishing notice, and then set it so
as to receive more than the legal rate.
We thought that method Of printing
tax sales had been abandoned for good
in Polk county, but it appears that we
were mistaken, SO it is again neces-
sary for US to take our type and pen in
hand and show how it is done.
1t will be remembered that few
weeks ago the court called for bids for
printing the tax notice. The law does
not say that it shall be let by bids, but
says that the court shall designate the
paper In which the notice shall be
published, such paper to be the one
most likely to give actual notice to
delinquent taxpayers, such notice to
be published for price not to exceed
rs cents per line, nOnpariel type.
That's plain, is it not2 The court
shall designate the paper, and that
paper must be the one that will give
the sale the greatest possible publicity,
and the price must not exceed 25 cents
a line.
Well, as we remarked before, the
court called for bids, evidently desir-
ing to make little show of economy
to the taxpayers at the expense of the
printers. The OBSERVER paid no atten-
ton to the call, as the notice was so
small that it wasn't worth taking at
anything less than the usual legal
rates. The Itemizer submitted a bid
of % cents a line, nonparie4 measure,
the regular rate OF that paper. The
West Side handed in a bid Of 172 cents
per line, BREWER measure. Altar con-
sidering the bids, the court rejected
both, giving as its reason that the
Itemizer's bid was above the legal
limit of 25 cents, and that the West
Sides bid OF I73 cents, BREWER measure
was greater than 25 cents, nonparief
measure. Right there, the court came