Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1926-10-21
JOE WORKS HARD

Jos. E. Therrien of Pine City, can
didate for the office of state repre-
sentative and opponent of the editor
of the Askov American for that Of
flee, gave political talk at the D. B.
S. hall in Askov last evening. He
spoke for about two hours, giving a
great deal of Information. This
program of the writer's of giving out
more information if elected to the
legislature, does not seem to hit right
with Joe-it seems to bother him, and
he was continually hitting on the
information" proposition last night.
Inasmuch as Mr.. Therrien has not
spoken in Askov village since the
time when he first became candi-
date four years ago and he has now
served two terms in the House, it, is
only natural that he should have a
lot of Information" to give out. Mr..
Therrien said that any of his con-
stituents may write to him and get
all the information they want when
he is at the Capitol. We have no
reason to doubt this at all, because
Joe is really an accommodating fell
low sbut it would certainly keep him
going =, some if he received letters
every now and then with requests for
information from the 5000 or more
voters in Pine county, and even
small fraction of them. =
Mr.. Therrien talked some about,
the county printing, stating that the
American had received $4,000 from
that scource in eight years and added
mo wonder he can build the largest
printing plant in the country. Six
teen thousand dollars sounds like a.
big sum and at the spur of the mo-
ment might make few gasp. Let
us analyze it little. Sixteen thou;
Sand dollars in eight years would, be
an average of $4,000 per year. The,
other newspapers have to be paid
something out of this for their aid
in the distribution of the county
printing, amounting to some hundred
dollars. Assuming, however, that
the official paper got the entire
amount of $4,000 each year, is that
too much, is it a fair price, or is it
not enough?
In the case of the American, that
is really small portion of the an
nual business that we must do in
order to make both ends meet. We
must turn out about 100000 worth of
printing annually if we are to meet
our bills and continue in business, so
the $4,000, even if we received all of
it, would be one-tenth of our annual
business. AS matter of fact, Pine
county has been getting it's official
printing at reasonable prices and if
anybody thinks the prices are too
high they are at liberty to start
another printing plant and get the
prices lowered Mr.. Therrien stated
that he was in the newspaper business
20 years ago. Why did he not re-
main, if it is lucrative? There are
plenty opportunities in Pine county
to engage in that business. Sturgeon
Lake at one time had newspaper
which died. Other towns in the
county that have had newspapers but
are now without them, are, Cloverton,
Finlayson, and Willow River. Plenty
of opportunity to get into the game
if one wishes to do so.
There was time when, if a man
went out into small town, worked
hard, and built up a business that
would give employment to number
of people and therefore be of finan-
,cial benefit to the community, such
a man would be considered bene-
factor, but judging from Mr.. Their
rien's remarks it is otherwise.
We have absolutely nothing to
cover up in our county printing at
fairs, nor in any other business
transactions that the American has
taken part in during the IL years of
it's existence. If folks will remem-
Der, there was a court case on the
county printing in 1923 and the
American was indicated at that
time.
Nothing was said about the ser
vice we have given the county. Not
once in the years that the county
printing has been handled in the
American office has single notice or
commissioners proceedings been de-
layed in publication. If it has meant
the working of late hours and into
the small hours of the morning, 1t
has been done to give this service
of promptness and dispatch. But
probably that lis the reward the
world gives.