The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1920-05-20
AN aftermath


OF the rights of legal papers.
AS We understand it, the Town
ley-Brinton newspaper laws were
passed by the legislature to "save the
people and the state money! by hav-
ing one legal newspaper in each
county, in which paper shall be pub
lished all notices Of legal nature, in
Guiding mortgage foreclosure MOTTO
es. notices in closing of estates,
statements of insurance companies
doing business in the state of North
Dakota etc. These notices must be
published in the lone" newspaper in
the county, whether or not the no.
tice in question pertains to persons
in the extreme II of the county
from the official paper. Before the
Brinton law took effect and after
wards the notice had t. appear in
one, and only one, official paper, with
no change in the rates. Where there
is any saving in this law in this re-
spect we fail to find it, but we do
find a deficiency in it, i. e., that it
takes amay any advertising value in
the notice and makes it merely a
form Of red tape.
Townley and Brinton were also
going to save the people money by
publishing the insurance statements
in his one paper in the county. How
he does it, we cannot understand, as
each statement is paid for by the in
surance company, and, under the old
law, each insurance company was
required to publish their statement
in one paper in each judicial district
and every legal paper was given its
share Of statements. No discount
was or ever is given for volume Of
business. Therefore, in publishing
twenty-four OF twenty-five state
ments as appeared in last weeks
issue OF the Steele County Farmers
Press, this paper gets all the money
that would have been divided be-
tween the others papers of the dis
trict. And don't forget this-the
publishing Of these statements
amounts to a goodly sum of money,
especially to a struggling country
newspaper, which works for the
benefit of the community in which
it is published.
Allow US to show in figures the
approximate amount which will be
collected by the Farmers Press fol-
the publishing of this II item Of le-
gal notices, bearing in mind that il
is only a small portion of the lega,
business given by law to this one
paper in the county each year. Here
are the figures:
containing on a minimum average
of 156 lines each.
1st insertion at Z cents per line pei
statement S1O.9z
2 other insertions at 4 cents
per line per insertion or s
cents for two Insertions. 12.4s
Total for one statement -. S23.4(
Twenty-Five statements at
When we remember that thes,
statements must be published now
and were so required before. tn.
Brinton Grab Act was passed, in ons
paper in cash judicial district ant
that the insurance companies are
paying no more TO- less than before
we can see only one result, and tina
is that the legislators, who helt
stock in these picked newspapers be
fore the passage of the bill, legis
lated this infamous law for thei
own personal gain, an act that an!
man of honor would blush at when
ever mentioned in his presence.
We do not need to go outside o
the county to find people who wer,
instrumental in putting this Law
through the legislature. Our tw,
representatives, from this county
S. w. Johnson and VIM. Bjerke
were both members of the legisla
ture that passed this bill, and both
according to the sworn statement O
the ownership, management, etc., O
the Steele County Farmers Press
are shown to be stockholders of tina
paper and as such will benefit of an,
dividends which might be declared