Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1915-02-27
GEORGE JACOBSON, Publisher
"pREvAILING CONDITIONS.

~ "PREvAiLING CONDITIONS.
Editor Republican: Some time
since you issued an invitation through
your paper to Chas. A. Hackney, tt
tell the taXpaying public, of the "pre
vailing conditions" in Gilmore county
which 40 he said In his paper, were
responsible for the Glenns Ferry Ga
zette refusing to bid on the county
printing.
I have watched with great dea
of interest for Mr.. Hackney's reply
knowing that prevailing conditions
honestly revealed, by one partic.pat
ing i'm same, would he very enlight
ening to the taxpayer, but after sew
eral issues OF his paper and no ex
pose being made of prevailing cond
tions,' the only reference being less
than dozen lines credited to the
Glenns Ferry Gazette, to the effect
that 1t did not bid on account OF the
manner i'm which bids were submit
ted, and saying, subscriptions We sell
by the year but space in the paper
We charge for at rate based on
what the consumer consumes" Not
being DESTROYS OF having the taxpay-
ing public as disappointed as !
have been at the omission, / have de-
cided, with your permission, to use
your columns to state some OF the
facts that may, In a measure, throw
some light on "PREvAIIITNG CONDI-
TIONS."
First | will state as a foundation
for prevailing conditions" that sew
eral years ago, on The election OF a
majority of the Republican boat d,
of county commissioners, the Dem
ocratic organ and majority
Republicans of the county, were
loud In their demands that the coun-
ty printing be let by bid to the low
est bidder furnishing a good bond to
do the work. They claimed that there
was no good reason why the county
should pay one paper any more TO"
having its notices and the commits
sioner's proceedings printed than any
other paper would do 1t for; that all
the notices and the commissioner
proceedings were matters Of interest
to the reading public and were to a
degree news matter, and paper
could afford to print them at
small. cost to the county.
The Republican county central COM
mittee, of which the writer was q
member. met and objected to the
change being made to the bidding
form just because a Republican board
had come into power, and asked that
the printing be given to the Republi-
can paper at a fair price, taking in
to consideration the kind and amount
to be done. There was only one
dissenting vote in the committee NEE
ing ON the proposition. That men,
Der maintained that the taxpayer was
entitled to have his work done by
the cheapest man that would give a
good bond to do 1t, no matter wheth-
or 1t was building bridges. taking
care Of the county poor, or printing
notices and that opin On prevailed with
the commissioners, and the county
printing OF Elmore county was put
on par with other county work, to
which no one can have any very
serious objection Ii 1t Is adhered to
by both parties. and honestly and
fairly let. But it has been the Gus
tom to SO juggle the contract and
bidding that the ring paper would In
variably receive the contract to the
detriment of the taxpayers.
This article would be entirely too
long were l to attempt to give a
full account OF the various steps that
have led to the deplorable PRE-
VAILING CONDITIONS so viii con-
fine myself more particularly to the
last two contracts and the manner OF
letting them.
The contract itself is not an honest
and fair one. Instead OF being so
much per line for plain reading mat
ter and so much for tabulated work,
20 that one could tell just what he
was bidding on, as Is the case with
the village contract held by the FL
more County Republican, whereby the
paper knows Just what it 10 to get
for the amount Of work it has to do,
a contract was conceived whereby Ii
the contractor was not pet OF the
commissioners or equipped with a
linotype machine, az the Republican
office, he is prohibited from bidding
or is taking chances on going broke
trying to fulfill his contract. To make
1t palmer. l will here copy part OF
the contract furnished by the board
to the three papers two years ago: