The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1915-09-25
GREAT WASTE SHOWN
IN STATE PRINTING
Continued from page two.
people.
Should COndense Proposals.

The best way for the State to lay
before the people the nature of the
proposals would be to advertise a sim
pie, concise statement of the nature of
each proposal, what it is intended to
change, if anything, and what it is in
tended to do. Such Il statement could
he eprepared by the Attorney-Ge
of the State, and. if the official had not
become entirely professional in ex-
preston, it would take not more than
one-fourth of the space ordinarily
used now and would be read by thou
sands more people An official state
ment Of that sort, with the explana-
tory articles always printed. as a mat
ter of public service, by newspapers
like The Sun, would give the voters al!
the information possible.
Needless to say much money would
be saved by the advertising bills of the
city newspapers. And if the number
of newspapers in which advertise
ments were placed We're limited in
each county and every county news
paper were required to furnish an aft
davit that no more than the regular
advertising rates were charged-if
that were done the saving would be
enormous. 1t will be remembered that
the cost of advertising the amend
ments in 1913 was more than four
times as great in the counties as in
the city.
The present method of handling the
State printing contract invites abuse.
In discussing this, the writer wishes
to maize plain that he is not criticizing
the Thomas G. Evans Printing Com
many, which now holds the State CON
tract SO far as he has observed. this
company has performed its work ac-
ceptahly under trying conditions. The
system, not the printer, is to be cri-
ticized.
Printers Just "Take Chance"
The concerns which seek the State
contract buy pi gin a bag. They have
10 definite idea how much work the
Legislature will unload upon them.
They go in and take d chance. The
result has been the somewhat COM
mon spectacle of the State printer
coming to the next Legislature with q
statement that he lost money on the
contract and asking for relief-and
usually getting it.
Naturally, the tendency Of that sort
of thing is toward corruption. A prin-
ter who has political pull will reason
that he can bid low and. in the event
that he loses. can have his politician
friends get an appropriation through
the next Legislature making up the
loss and possibly doing little better.
The politician friends usually want
something for their trouble and while
tbnI, a., OF fhp Eiisinaa, tbnNr lIl-n
ly to get al there is to be had for
themselves and the printer
The effect of this tendency is an
other one-a tendency to keep the
printer without pull out of the compe-
tition. He may reason that if he
wants to get the contract, he must bid
low; that if he bids low, he may lose
money, and that the politician friends
of other printers may prevent his re-
covering from the next Legislature or
may "hold him up" considerably high
er before helping him.
1t is not meant to say that these
tendencies actually have operated the
writer does not know that. But it is
meant to say that such tendencies are
natural. Moreover, if the State prin-
ting has been clearly handled in all
these years. the present system al
most inevitably must lead to eXtrava-
gance. Let man undertake a job
with the idea that what he loses, If
anything, will be restored and the
chances are ten to one that he will not
watch the rat-holes of his business as
he should and would ordinarily. Why
need he?
Should Use Business Methods.
The remedy for the system is plain
Every day business methods should be
used. Those who seek the State print
ing contract should bid upon units;
that is, they should oner price for
page of certain described character,
etc The lowest responsible bidder
should get the contract. After his
work was completed he would turn in
his bill for so many pages, etc, at the
contract price per page. Upon that
basis most of the big printers of the
city would enter for the contract and
there would be genuine competition.
a bill embodying this plan was
passed by the last Legislature, but
was vetoed by Governor Goldsbor-
ough. Whether there were other fea-
lures in the bill which the Governor
thought sufficiently bad to justify the
veto is not known.
This bill also provided that reports
Of all State departments should be
printed by the State printer. There
is great opposition to this, because it
has been practice in this State for
the man at the head of a department
to hand over the printing of his re-
port to the county newspaper with
which he had political affiliations.
Whether these county newspapers
actually printed the reports has been
doubted; many people have tho Jght
that thy "fa,.ner" the Job out to some
large concern and collected II neat
margin of profit. No one knows; no
one could know under the absurd bust
ness system of this State Certain it
is, however, that practical printing
men often wonder how some county
plants do the work they are paid for.
An illustration of the waste which
may result from looseness in handling
the printing of DEPARTMENT reports is
seen in an experience of the Public