The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1918-07-19

p p y n rs M p p
'FAIR PRINTING"


Two weeks ago, The True Northerner
took occasion to criticise the Van Blu
rem County Fair officials for contract
ing Fair printing with firms outside
the county and outside the state with
out first giving the Van Buren, county
printers on opportunity to bid on the
4, work.
The Hartford Day Spring of last
week justifes the action of the Fair
officials in having the year book and
premium list printed in Fort Wayne,
Indiana, this year on the ground that
il would have been impossible for any
Office in Van Buren, county to get it
out on time.
The True Northerner has no fault to
find with the Fair officials for wanting
the work completed in time to give the
Fair the publicity it merits, or for
awarding the contract to some concern
outside the state, if that be necessary
to insure promp service. The Fair
officials are business men, and that is
business. What we did criticise, how
ever, as being unfair to home news
papers and job Offices, was the con
tracing for printing with foreign
concern, without first putting the mat
ter up to the home institutions. On
this point the Day Spring says:
"The Day Spring was frank
enough to admit that it could not
produce the work within the time
required and il will be conceded
that if the Day Spring could not
do il. no other office in the county
could
With all due respect to the mechani-
cal equipment of the Day Spring, and
the efficiency of its management, 1T
would seem to us TO be just little
presumptous, if not egotistical, for it to
assume that because that Office could
not produce a given amount of work
within a specified time, that no other
office in the county could. Conditions
and circumstances in connection with
efficient management and mechanical
equipment govern the amount of work
any office can turn out in a stated time.
The management of every newspaper
plant and job office knows the capacity
of his own business, but considerable
latitude is taken in presuming to know
the exact capacity of every other office
in the county. While the Day Springs
conclusions might be correct in this
instance, it is quite probable that every
one of the other offices in the county
would have been as frank to admit il
as was the Day Spring, if given an
opportunity at the time.
The True Northerner has no DISPOSE
ton to throw single stone at the
Van Buren, County Fair, or to direct
a single unjust or unfair criticism on
any of its officials. Neither do we
presume to be able to compare the
relative capacities for handling work
of the various printing institutions in
this county. The Hartford Fair ~ .
county institution of which every cit
citizen is proud. We, with the other mem
bers of the press in this county, have
done our best every year since the
Fair started to boost for il and do
everything in our power to contribute
TO its success. No one can truthfully
say that The True Northerner has ever
been unfair in its policy toward "pub
lie enterprises and quasi-public institu-
tions," or that we have ever been
guilty of passing judgment on any pub
lie project from the viewpoint of
whether or not such project might
"inure to the benefit Of the individual
pocketbook."
That the Day Surfing has contributed