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Show I Our Answer to Provo Post I Provo Post Does Not Deny its Graft of County Funds But Gives as Excuse That Provo Herald Grafted Last Year. H The I'rovo Post, to whom tho County I Commissioners made 11 present of sev- H oral hutulrcil dollars of tho people's. H taxes when they awarded them the H rontract for county printing nt a price H fifty per cent higher than tho bid of n company who guaranteed douhlo the H circulation of the Post, comes out In H Its lust Issue with a four column Rcut-H Rcut-H tlo fish answer to our nrtlclo of two weeks ngo. It makes ono think of the H German's answer regarding the Lusl-H Lusl-H tnnla, whereJn they mention every- thing but tho ship. H The Alpine Pub. Co., bid 12 rents H per description for printing the de- H delinquent tax list. The Post bid 18 cents. And we, nlso offered to mall, H free of charge, n copy of one of our H papers to each delinquent; something H wo think tho Provo papers have never H done, for In the past, It has been n H hard matter In this end of tho county H to get n copy of tho Provo poper con-H con-H talnlug tho delinquent list. Our bid H for legal notices was 3 cents per line H and tho Post's wns 5 cents. Yet In H the Post's four column tlrado against Hj this paper, because we dared to show H tho tax payors that their taxes weir H being given to Provo grafters, con-H con-H trary to the spirit and meaning of the H law, the, beneficiary of this graft ncv-Hj ncv-Hj er used one line In denying our H chargo; or In attempting an answer R to this main question. H Tho Post says that accepting our Hj bid would not be legal; but quotes K neither law nor lawyer. Cortolnly the editor of the Post Is one of tho last H men In the county to whom one would 3 go for legal opinion. The law In the H enso Is that tho rommlssloncrs should H nilve.rtlso for tho lowest bids, Implying H that tho low bidder should get It, H whether ho lives In Provo or not. We H hnvo consulted eminent legal counsol, H who ndviso that our bid was perfectly H legal, but that the awarding or the H contract to tho Post was an Illegal Ht net, besides a wanton wosto of the mm people's money. H Wo guaranteed to tho commissioners AM that our pnpors had doublo the clr- nH culatlon of any othor paper In the pjjl county and offered to submit our Kl books. Tho Post manager, on tho day H that tho bids wore lot, refused to com- Hft pare, subscription accounts and said 9J that nny ono could pad their lists WM Now, liowovor, after tho contract has 1 been nwarded, the Post In Its article TO "Thoro is no doubt that tho statement Hi is nothing moro nor less than a plain J falsehood, othcrwlso tho manager J would havo given tho circulation and S put tho Issue to n test. Tho Post for J Its part, whllo not inclined to boast, ja will niako show down against the Hj combined circulation of tho throe pap-IB pap-IB ers at any tlmo tho Alpine, Publishing f company desires to show its hand and f publish Its actual circulation over nf-B nf-B fldavlts furnished by responslblo par-M par-M tics not connected with that paper." Hj Wo hereby accept this bluff of the Hm Post on condition that the. Post sign KK an agrcoment with us and tho Com-HB Com-HB mlBslonors that tho Iobotb pay tho ox-fl ox-fl iieuses of a Salt Lako expert, and H that If our contention bo true, the Hb 1'ost will return Its contract to tho HH county nnd consent to the county nil-HuJ nil-HuJ vcrtlslng being awarded to tho om-HN om-HN pany that offered to save the tnxpiy-Hb tnxpiy-Hb ers hundreds of dollars of hard earned Hb monoy, besides giving the, county Hb doublo tho circulation for Its official Hb business. Comu now, Mr. Post, Isn't HVj this fair? We know your subscription HH list, and wo know you nro bluffing. Hb Tho Post says that our charges Hb against Treasurer Nelson saying this Hb paper could not gut out tho delinquent Hb tax list on tlmo Is untrue and n llliol, Hb and then proceed.! to prove that cur CHARGE IS TRUE, by backing up llio Hb treasurer's statement. Their denial HB is llko the. darkey's denial In a hen Hb roost case, wherein the darkey said' Hb "I didn't take dem chickens, besldcb Hb doy was too lough to eat ami I took Hb em back next ilnv anyhow " For the H benefit of those- who think wo hnvo no H bettor o III eo or equipment than some H offices In I'rovo, wo will s id' that H there Is no better linotype marhluc BD In the stnie I1..11 our machine, mil H that, besides setting up our three pa-b pa-b pers on this machine; at tho time this H bid was let, we 'iio also settiu.; typ? Dl for a Provo paper and one at Illinium) HjB and It was the,u not being operated to HH one-fourt''. of 41.- capacity. Tr nsurer HEI Nelson know nothing of what hu was HI talking about and by his "butting in,' Hfl contributed more than any other of-HR of-HR flclul to this graft of the people h IBM Wo charged that not moro than two Bal county or deputy officers of tho many .JHk employed In the county spend their lln money among the merchants north of &j Provo, which Bet tho Post Into per- 'rjI f'(t fury- A sifting of Its ravings , y shows that a county commissioner, a '' , young lady deputy in tho Treasurer's jl office and Sheriff East are from this lJBi ''nd Sheriff East opends his money IIESbFbV nt I'rovo and Provo gets probabl) fSmW " Tour'U y tin, j ,u g. lady's uuu- BBBBBF .'L, mi'V,,, imiTii ."" I..7.- iiiiiiii.iiiiMnrM gre Income, as she must necessarily spend most of her tlmo there. We acknowlcdgo thut Commissioner Gardner's Gard-ner's salary, which Is less than nny one of n score of deputies Is probably spent with Lchl merchnnts. Wo mentioned men-tioned this to show thnt when tho county hod an opportunity to snvo hundreds of dollars of the people's taxes by having Its advertising done In pupers that would give twice, the publicity now being given, it was duo the business men In towns outside of I'rovo that some of their taxes should bo spent among the people who pay them. 80 much for the Post. We wcro told by a prominent nnd trustworthy Provo printer before the bids were let, thnt there was n collusion between the two Provo pnpors pn-pors on this county printing. Wo nro Inclined to bellevo his story from the fact that the Herald, who lost year worked tho graft, this year refrained from bidding while tho Post raised Its bid higher than was being paid last year for eithor tho legal nds or tho delinquent list. We nlso understand thnt the Herald manager when he learned of tho Post's trouble, hurried over to the County Court houso nnd helped tho treasurer nnd tho clerk convince tho Commissioners thnt It would not be legal to let tho contract to an outside paper. Tho Herald also, after n two weeks wait, seconds the. Post's answer to our charges of the profligate wasting of county funds. That the Herald Is not competent to sit on tho enso we cite the fact that Its contract last year called for three cents per line for legal notices, whIW the Post In Its nrtlclo says that "Tho Herald was paid for publishing sample ballot in October, 1914, per Herald bill, 101 Unco 2 issues, $62.40. A close figuring makes this notlco about 30 cents per line per Issuo. Other Oth-er notices published under the Herald contract uro: Annual statement of auditor, 145 linen, 1 Issue, $7.25; Den-Jnmln Den-Jnmln proclamation, 131 lines, 3 times, $19.65; Benjamin drainage district, 160 lines, three times, $24. Theso nro a few samples of tho Herald's three-cent three-cent rate. However, a thorough search of tho records disclosed the fact thnt not a slnglo notlco hns over been published pub-lished by the Provo Herald for Utah county under five cents n lino." If this be true, nnd we bcllovo it Is, then tho county Inst yenr made tho Herald 11 big present of tho people's taxes and In our Judgment a grand Jury should inuko an examination nnd send some ono to tho penitentiary. Out wc sco no reason why tho Post brings up this case; as the theft of county funds for tho benefit of th Provo Herald docs not Justify th county In opening Its vnults to bo looted loot-ed by the Provo Post. It Is high time that tljo county's affairs be run on an honest business basis and wc are nssured by at least one County Com. mlssloner thnt In the future a closer scrutiny will be kopt on the county's cash box nnd thnt tho statements and claims mndo by certain unprincipled grafters will bo Investigated before they aro believed. Regarding Commissioner Gardner' part In this steal, we have his word that he stood up for giving nt least n part of this business to outside, towns; but thnt aftor Commissioner Brlng-hurst Brlng-hurst had mado the motion to g the contract to the Post and It I been seconded by Commissioner Isaacs, Isa-acs, he, as chairman, declared tho votn to bo unanimous, and Jus. II. Gnrdncr don't He. The editor of tho Hernld himself was present and told the wrltfl" that Commissioner GUrdnor fought for over nn hour to give th't contract to tho lowest bidder, but that when he saw tho Inevltnble ho enmo In with the others, Tho only thing thnt the Alpine Pub. Co., asks for Is a square deal, both for us and the people who pay tl tnxes. Tho people have held conventions conven-tions demanding ecomony In tho spending of their tnxes, nnd if their demands nro not heeded, we oplu that they will glvo their answer ans-wer at the polls. Many have coin mended us for exposing this $300 t $500 graft and hnvc demanded In i" cortnln terms thnt it stop. The following from tho Provo Herald of August 2, which paper (the Herald) Is really u newspaper anil e much cuperlor to tho Provo Post that there Is no comparison, gives more light on the grafting conditions nt tin1 county sent. An oxpert nudltlnp, or n grand Jury Investigation wouln doubtless show up rome Interesting things; and the taxpayers would lenrn how their monoy Is squandered.) |