The Caldwell tribune., 1922-04-04
Local Printers Compe-
tition.

1t was related in this column last
week that city job shop had quoted
a price of $l2 to Journal customer
OIL a job which was worth $2O5J.
This was done to put the Journal i'll
disrepute among its home people oy
insinuating that it charged excessive
prices. This same job shop was cali
ed upon lately by public official in
neighhboring town to bid on the re-
binding of some record books. The
job shop bid $4,000. The official
also submitted the same proposition
to Salt Lake book bindery which is
not striving for customers in this ter
ritory, and the Salt Lake bid was $40.
The Idaho job shop intended that ex-
ira $85 to repay it for its losses on
such jobs as it took away from the
Journal.
In an Idaho town within a hundred
miles of Shoshone the high school
wished to issue an annual. The local
printer bid $3.50 and agreed to fur
nish the cuts. The Idaho job snop
which in the other above mentioned
transactions sent representative to
see the high school principal The
job shop got the contract at $375 anu
the school furnished the cuts, which
cost another $500 That extra $l0O
paid out by the school was in ali
probability spent in Commissions; j;
These job shops have regular scale
of commissions which the local print
er never sees. The local printer plac-
es his prices at such figure that he
can not afford to pay these commits
sions" even were he so disposed. Do
you know of any local printer in Ida
no showing unusual signs of prosper
ity? He is usually busy all the time
and if his prices are unreasonably
high, as the public is lead to believe
by the job houses and their commrs
sion takers, there should be some
bankable signs of it. On the other
hand, there have been built up in
Boise and other Idaho towns in tina.
vicinity job shops which show all in
dications of ammassing small Tor
tunes at the business.
The public is fed up on the theory
that the $3.50 difference between the
Franklin price list cost of job and
the $l2 bid by the job shop is graft
by the local highwayman who runs
the paper The Commission" pald
by the same shop to secure orders
from public officials and others is Civ
en- more respectable name. So com
mon is the custom of the job shop to
pay Commission? to officials havins
public printing to place that is is de-
Tended as legitimate source of reve,
nue. by many officials 1t is not :
local practice 1t is universal prac,
tice followed by practically every of.
ficial in Idaho who has printing to
let for the public A glance over tht
exchanges in the journal office show:
that but very few county, city, VII
lage school district and highway dis.
tricts in the state publish the reports
required by law A wide inquiry a;
to the cause of this disclosed that the
delinquency is charged 20 the loca
paper because Of its excessive charg
es for publishing the reports
That charge is simply an attemp
to make the local newspaper the goat
The legal rate for printing was es
tablished years ago by law when tn,
cost of producing a newspaper wa,
about 40 per cent of what it is now
The rate has not been changed sine,
good printers worked on scale o
SIS as against SAP now When yo,
are officially informed that public bus
mess is neglected because the loca
paper rate is so excessive as to max,
compliance with the law prohibitive
or next to bankruptcy for the nun,
cipality, please bear in mind that th
newspaper does not fix the rate. tina