Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-08-03

it would make no difference with
the papers as the printing would be
distributed among them. This ar
rangement pleased the Journal and
Herald representatives because they
knew that Fred was running a
sandy" as the boys call it, and
that under the new arrangement the
one dollar per square would be di-
vided among the two, the Freeman
being cut off the list when any
printing was to be done. Following
this meeting the Journal said in its
issue of Nov. 20, 1913:
"The agreement heretofore exist
ing with the newspapers was abro-
gated and hereafter city legal no
tices will be taken to whichever pa
per is to publish them, which paper
will render FULL BILL for the SER
vice. Heretofore the bills had to be
divided and made much extra work
for the city clerk and finance COM
mittee."
The Herald, which paper was also
very solicitous over the great
amount of work imposed upon the
auditing committee, relieved itself
of the following on Nov. 20, 1913:
"The council in session Monday
evening gave consideration to the
matter of city official publications,
which heretofore by agreement has
been made in the three local papers.
The auditing committee have found
the matter of keeping these accounts
straight somewhat confusing, and
thus this agreement has been reach
ed. Hereafter the various publica-
lions will be made in ONLY ONE
PAPER instead of three. 1t is con-
sidered that the result will be as sat-
isfactory, and considerable work
will be saved the auditing commit
tee in keeping tab on the various
publications"
Here we have the testimony of
the Herald and the Journal that
publication in one paper is just as
valuable to the city as publication
in two or more, and as it might save
the over-worked auditing committee
little time only one paper should
have the printing.
The council asked for no bids or
reductions of any kind and it was
supposed the matter was settled.
But the Freeman-Tribune submitted
bid to the council at it's next meet
ing, agreeing to do the legal print
ing at one-third the legal rate and
one-third the price that had been
paid. When the bid was opened
CONSERVATION seized the council. If
they accepted the bid of the Free
man-Tribune could they "take care
of their friends of the Herald and
the Journal, and the taking care OF
their friends" at the expense of the
taxpayers is the long suit of some
councils. Of course they couldn't do
it if they acted at that meeting,
hence the matter was deferred. In
the meantime the Journal and Her
aid were apprised of the bid of the
Freeman-Tribune and each of them
submitted similar bids. Now the
council had opportunity to select
one paper and thus relieve the over
burdened auditing committee. The
Herald had stated one was as good
as two or more and the Journal had
made practically the same asser-
ton. But the council was confront
ed by a condition and not theory
If either the bid of the Herald or
the Journal were accepted what
would the other one think and
hadn't the Herald and Journal back
ed the council like little soldiers
obeying the command of general
to which Mr.. Hummel refers? Well
of course, the councils friends chad
to be taken care Of" regardless OF
the distressed auditing committee
and instead of accepting one bio
alone the council accepted the bids
of the Herald and Journal, thus
paying double for city printing the
sum for which the Freeman-Trib
; une, the Herald or the Journa
: agreed to do it.
AS a subterfuge to bolster up thi:
dishonest proceeding at the expense
of the taxpayers the council pass
ed a resolution declaring that the
, Tribune's circulation in Webster
: City was not large enough to war
| rant the acceptance Of the Free
, man-Tribune's bid. If that were
true then why didn't the council &C
| cept the bid of the Journal and lie
: the Herald join the Freeman-Trib