Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1915-01-13
MARSHALL COUNTY
PRINTING IS LET
BOARD IGNORES MARSHALL
Z COUNTY NEWSPAPERS AND
THE INTERESTS OF THE TAX
u PAYERS

THE INTERESTS OF THE TAX
PAYERS
The county printing this year goes
again to the annex or appendix of the
Thief River Falls Times at Newfol-
den. Notwithstanding the miserably
poor service furnished by that sheet
during the past year and its utter
failure, to comply with the provisions
of its last years bid, the county
board, nevertheless, in its superhu-
man wisdom, at its meeting last
week, gave the printing to the same
paper. By this action the county
board wholly ignored the real news
papers of the county, newspapers
with printing plants and equipment
sufficient to do all the work within
the county, obviating the necessity of
having the work done outside the
county, and with editors who have
given their lives to the business and
grown gray in serving the public thru
their newspapers-all for the sake of
making an apparent saving Of a few
paltry dollars, which when it is sim
mered right down is no saving at. all,
because poor service is dear at any
price, and it is possible to have some
. things so cheap that they are nasty.
Z What the people of the county want
and demand is the widest publicity
possible for the money expended and
that they have not had during the
past year.
The Sheaf submitted a bid to do
the printing and publishing this year
in said paper and also in the Warren
Register, the Argyle Banner, the Set
fphen Messenger and the Stephen
Leader, the Middle River Pioneer and
the Grygla Eagle, giving the public
j the benefit of the combined circula-
sstion of all these papers, aggregating
about 1000 copies, at remuneration
ofsone legal rate for all this publicity.
+ This bid was, Of course. rejected at
the dictation Of A. O. Rokke, the ring
leader of the, board and the offer of
the Smiths Of the Thief River Falls
annex accepted at a lower rate per
folio but her cifcll-'
lation and service are taken into con-
&sideration. ~
h. That the legal rate at which the
Sheaf offered to do the printing is not
exhorbitant or unreasonable we can
prove by Mr.. Smith himself, who is
the editor of the Thief River Falls
Times, and was abidder for the coun-
ty printing in Pennington county.
This is what he says in his last
weeks paper in regard to letting the
a county printing in Pennington coun-
8 ty: ,:">:'
3 By The matter of ,the County Printing
was then taken up and after lengthy
Il discussion the board awarded it to the
3News-Press at 60:cents per folio for
B the first insertions and 80 cents per
folio for each subsequent insertion.
The Times bid was for full legal rates
i and a letter accompanied it stating
that owing to the fact that there was
considerable scrapping over the mat
ter last year and lin. consequence the
b printing was done for an amount very
much below cost, that we would not
fight for it again this year. Further
/ that as we did not hope to get the
/, work at the bid we,,submitted we were
anxious that whoever did get it,
would be awarded the contract at fig
ures that would give them fair
return for the labor they would nee
i essarily have to expend upon it's pro-
duction." ;:
In Pennington county, Mr.. Smiths
4 bid was for full legal rates because
8 he was anxious that the printers who
/ got it Should receive "a fair return
i for the labors they would necessarily
sxpend upon it's production" but in
4 Marshall county of course he was pri-
& vileged to put in a cut throat bid be-
cause he didn't care rip whether
1 the printers there had "fair return
for their labor or not and he knew
I chat the present county board didn't
care either.
1 Now a word as to how the board
Z voted. When Rokke cracked the
|. whip of course Enge, Fladeland and
\ Andrew Lodoen lined up for the New
fo1den sheet but Carl ,Adclphson
stood solidly for the SheaG and the
i papers it represented. All morning
/. before the board was called to order
!, Mr.. Lodoen spoke in favor Of the
Sheaf and had even, brought to the
meeting a copy Of the Newfolden
sheet to show the board what a poor
excuse for a paper it was and even
dropped uncomplimentary remarks
about it, but when later it came to a
. vote, the real show down, he topped
/ completely around and voted against
both his home papers and in favor Of
sending the printing outside Of his
own county. What manhood this
4 Salnws wa leave for. orr readers to de-