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Show ONE GOOD BILTj TO DEFEAT. "Kill it!" as the city editor said to the repoi tor who brought in a story beginning: "Theie was a sound of deviltry by night." Here is a chance to boost "An Act Relating to tho Qualification of Newspapers News-papers to Rfcehe Legal Publications Within the State of Utah. And tho payment of fees . . . Therefore." And I am too busy. This bill, if over it comes to formal for-mal notice of tho legislature, provides that uo publication shall bo regarded regard-ed as a newspaper, within tho revenue-getting definition of that term, unless it bo printed as well as published pub-lished within tho town corresponding to Its dateline. Also, It will provide tho rate of prices for all legal publications publica-tions appearing in such legalized papers. Tho pretense is that "the bill is drafted In tho interest of the newspaper news-paper makers of the state; but that Is a mistake. It is wliolly and solely made in tho interest of the Salt Lake printing combine an organization to which we invite the bitmg attention of tho Commercial Club, the Society for the Prevention of High Prices, and tho Inlra-State Commerce Commission, Com-mission, as soon as the latter is strong enough to stand upon itr legs. Tho bill, as prepared and submitted submit-ted for the boosting of publishers generally, provides that no paper can be regarded as a legal publication, entitled to a division of tho public patronage, unless it shall bo set In type in the town where it is supposed to" be published. That Is: If you are making a paper dated at Salt Lake, ou have to-set the type here or have it set; though you may have the presswork done in any other town or state if you so desire. Then follows some loosely composed sentences designed de-signed to specify the sort of matter that must appear in the pages of said newspapers; and the schedule of prices. Take our own case: The Weekly is printed at Ogden. All the type is set there. The presswork is done there. It is done at a profit to the firm doing the work, and yet tho weekly issue is laid down In The Weekly office here in the Felt building build-ing at about fifty per cent of the charge of production entailed when wo had tho work done by a member of the Printing Trust in this city. There Isn't an article in The Weekly Week-ly which is not its own. There isn't an advertisement "litted" from any other publication. There Isn't the slightest incident tending to deoeh tho reader, or impair the local character char-acter of tho publication. .We simply send the copy to the printer at Ogden, and he puts It into type, makes up the forms, piints the papers, sends them in a sealed bag to the Salt Lake office, and we make publication here. Also, e maintain the right to have that work done at Reno, or at Tooele, or in Denver if we want to. There be papers printed here and pretended to be Uio 1 e.il newspapers of arious and several small t nn in tho state. They havo everything H in common ;cepting tho dateline and jH tho titlo of t o papers; and these can H be changed in a minute. They are not H gOnuine newspapers and they simply H keep somo honest printer from estab- M lishing a foothold in the towns libelled M by tho pretense of newspaper -repre- M sentation. It would bo all very well M for the Utah Newspaper association M to strike a blow at the bogus papei? M that are made In this city and dated jH elsewhere, if those papers are not M bona fide issues of the towns whoso H names they bear. But wo are not H going to comply with tho request of H Secretary Hie Its, of the association, H and boost for tho bill which will H drlvo The Weekly back into the jaws H of the Printing Trust of Salt Lake. H Not this winter, H Furthermore, the pi it demanded H by this bill as payment for legal pub- H llcations, is exorbitant. It makes tho IB High Cost of Living hide its head H in shame, one dollar and fifty cents H a folio of one hundred words for tho H first publication of a legal notice, and 'H a dollar for each subsequent publiea- H tion of the same, Is" outrageous. It H is unfair to tho party needing a pub- H Mcation, of whatever character; and B it is more than a fair price of pay- H ment to the miblisher. H The bill ought to be aim ruled by tho H simple and of feeti e doki of striking B out its enacting clans.' And, after rB tha-, if the Utah Newspaper assot i- B ation wants to strike a blow it B Brother Jakeman ml tho Western B Newspaper Tnion, we are with them. tB But both for private and for public JJ reasons we are against the project rB here suggested. B Aside from which, it were mere B surplusage to add thai tho bill .'3 B drawn J the worst example of conipo- B sitlon we have seen am mate from B newspaper circles since the LMngvillo B Bugla passed into oblivion, and B emerged in the form of a Sunday B feature. Any association which gets M up so rambling and loopholy a bill a& that deserves to be defeated. IB |