Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-11-23

| "1nasmuch as no direct pay goes with
/ It, The Enquirer desires to claim cred
it for placing the quarterly report OF
disbursements Of the county supervisor
before at least fifteen hundred York
| county families who would not other
wise have had the opportunity to see
it. The Enquirer has 2,150 subscriber
in all, and of these we estimate thai
seventeen hundred are people who take
no other York county paper. The En-.
quirer has at least one thousand more
subscribers than any other paper II
the county,"
The county board no doubt appre.
ciates The Enquirer's kindness in re-
producing the quarterly disbursement:
each quarter without cost to the coun'
ty.
The Herald knows the same as The
Enquirer that its readers are entitled
to the publication of the reports ant
the Herald believes that II the report
Is published in both The Enquirer ant
the Herald practically every family ir
the county would have an opportunity
to read the reports. Not quite two
years ago the editor Of the Herald ap.
peared before the board when the con-
| tract for this printing was to be
awarded. The editor Of The Enquirer
was also present and he remembers
we'll our statement to him and the
board; that the entire county should
be favored with the report and by pub
fishing the same in The Enquirer and
the Herald practically every home ir
| the county would have the report be-
| fore them. The editor of the Herald
attempted to make an agreement with
Mr.. Grist along the above named lines
but to no avail. He positively refused
to enter into any such agreement. He
wanted the whole thing and got it that
year, but this year the contract was
awarded to the Herald. There has been
a complaint ever since and we expec,
when The Enquirer publishes the other
report, If 1t publishes 1t, 1t will be ac-
companied by another complaint.
The trouble Is not with the county
board. It Is in the law. By right the
reports should be published in every
paper in the county, each paper re-
| ceiying the same amount of money fol
its publication.-Rock Hill Herald.
The Enquirer has no complaint on
its own account; but being under the
impression that this contract is not be-
ing awarded in accordance with the
business considerations that should
govern, desires the public to under
stand the facts If understanding the
facts, the public is satisfied, then so
are we.
Three years ago when called upon to
make bid, we felt then as we feel
now, that the elements Of competition
among the possible bidders were not
such as to warrant bidding on equal
| terms, and when We prepared our bid
It was with view to putting on rec
ord the fact that we stood ready and
willing to do anything that was in
| reason.
Our proposition was that we would
do the work done for $50, the amount
authorized by law to be paid, or con-
Jointly with any one or all Of the pa
pers in the county and take our
pay or pro rata part Of $50, divided In
equal proportion to the number of pa
pers that went into the arrangement
and printed all four Of the reports.
The proposition did not take into con-
sideration the only element that should
determine such competitions, that OF
the circulation Of the papers compet-
ing; but was made on the theory that
The Enquirer was the only paper in the
county which at that time had the
facilities to put the reports in type;
that the putting Of the reports in type
was worth about $50; that $50 divided
by two or three would make the divi-
dend look too small to be attractive to
the others; that they would be forced
to back out; that the board would eth
er have to give it to The Enquirer on
the right and proper ground that that
was the thing to do, or give 1t to some
other paper arbitrarily.
The award was, as we anticipated,
made to the Rock Hill Herald and the
Yorkville New Era, both Of which to-
gether did not have much lnore than
half the circulation of The Enquirer,
for few dollars less than sixty dollars.
The Enquirer was left out. The Herald
and New Era had made an arrange
ment, whereby they would have the re-
ports set up on linotype machines in
Charlotte, use the same type, one after
the other, divide the expense and the
amount received, etc. The New Era
became defunct after printing one OF
the installments and the Herald finish
ed alone.
The next year, the time the Herald
refers to above, the conditions being
the same, The Enquirer made the same
proposition, except that it stipulated
that in case Of division the sixty dol
lars should be among the various pa
pers in proportion to the circulation of
each This we calculated would give
The Enquirer about $40 and the Her
aid about $40. The commissioners
seemed just little nervous about the
matter this time and did not know ex-
actly what to do. The editor of the
Herald was willing to agree to The
Enquirer's proposition, provided we
would allow him the use Of our type af-
ter we had used it; but as that would
not only involve the reduction Of the
amount We would have otherwise re-
ceived, and put US in the position Of
furnishing a would-be competitor with
the means of competing with us we, Of
course declined.
Our bid last spring was exactly the
same as on the occasion referred to-,
and We heard nothing more from It,,
until upon inquiry Of the secretary Of
the board we were advised that the
award had been made to the Rock Hill
Herald for s55.
The Herald's suggestion that the re-
port should be published in every pa
per in the county and that the board
should pay the same amount to each,
does not strike us. In the first place,
because Of the nature of this particular
report, the publication in one paper IS
sufficient for all legal purposes. In the
second place the advertising value of
all the papers is not the same. The
same advertisement cannot even be
produced in paper Of larger cirCula-
ton at the same cost as in a paper of
smaller circulation. But this aside,
since the law provides for publication
LOFT ha