The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-04-01
PUBLIC AFFAIRS MADE PUBLIC

mere Will pfODdDIy DS Dioushe Oc-
fore the legislature at its coming
session a bill which will make it obi
gatory on each town. city or county
in the state to publish in some paper
the minutes of its official meetings,
reports of its revenues and expenses
and all other things pertaining to
their public affairs that the people
should know.
There are many advantages and
SC disadvantages in this bill. The
gs atest advantage is that it will tend
to keep the people well informed of
all their public business as they can
be informed in no other way. Such
reports are great check on graft
and reckless expenditure. At pres
ent, there are buried in the records of
probably every town and county re-
ports of many things that would not
have occurred if the men who put
them over had not been reasonably
sure they would not have been found
out until too late for prevention or
punishment. 1t is the only way for
the people to obtain anything like an
accurate report of their business. It's
true that the records are kept in ev-
cry courthouse and town hall, but few
except officials and abstract men ever
consult them.
Florida is behind a good many
northern and western states in this
policy. Papers in these states publish
official reports of all public proceed
ings and accounts, and the people are
considerably better posted on their
state and county affairs than they are
here
The principal drawback to this of
fetal publication in Florida might be
that officials might use the patronage
as bride. We have often known a
little public printing to so complete
ly shut the eyes of some newspapers
that they could not possibly tell RICH;
from wrong. Also, in county or q
town where there is more than one
paper, a strong papers silence car
sometimes be bought with the patron.
age, or the public printing can be
buried out of sight in the pages of q
paper with scanty circulation, OF
friends of the officials can start a pa.
per on no other capital than the pub.
lie printing.
It is possible, however, to frame 9
law to do away with these evils. Il
there is only one paper in a town OF
county it would of course be read BY
most of the citizens. and among then
would certainly be enough to discover
and expose intentional errors. L
there are two papers, the publication
should be divided between them, pre-
venting either from becoming 'the'
official paper. There are in the stat,
four cities-Jacksonville, Tampa, Mi
ami and Pensacola-in each of which
are several papers, but the printing
should be given only to the two O
largest circulation. 1t would be to,
costly to divide the public printing O
city or county between half dozel
papers, and such printing should no
be given to paper of small circula
ton as long as there is one of larg
circulation on the ground, becaus
such an arrangement would be unfai
not only to the other paper but to tn
taxpayers.
Size and circulation, should be take
into consideration of course, becaus
men and firms that have the ability {
build up big newspapers are likely t
have more influence than those VIII
can carry on only small ones. Alst
no paper should be given public pa
tronage, unless it was the only one
a town or county, until it has been
publication at least year.
There has been an informal bu
very good arrangement between th
two papers in this county for nun
Der of years. They have divided th
printing and profits-the latter rattle