Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1899 — ABOUT LEGAL PUBLICATIONS. [ARTICLE]

ABOUT LEGAL PUBLICATIONS.

Last week, after it was found that the township trustees proposed to ignore the new reform law requiring that their estimates and proposed tax levies be published in ‘*THE two leading newspapers published in the county, representing the two political parties casting the highest number of votes in such county at the last proceeding general election,” the matter was talked over by a number of the leading democrats here and The Democrat editor was advised to indite the following letter to each of the various trustees: Rensselaer, Ind, Aug. 1,1809. Dear Sir: You are hereby notified that at a meeting, regularly called, of the Democratic County Central Committee, held in Feb. 1899, the Jasper County Democrat was adopted as the only recognized Democratic paper published in Jasper County; that a statement to this effect, signed by the Dem. County Chairman and every Democratic member of the County Council has since been filed with the County Auditor. You are therefore notified that action will be brought in court against allowing pay for or recognizing the legality of any publication required to be made by any township or county official in a Democratic paper, if made in any other paper in the county. Copies of this letter have been mailed to-day to every Tp. Trustee in the county, after a conference of Democrats in regard to this matter. Very Truly, F. E. Babcock, Publisher.

The estimates, with the exception of that of the Trustee of Kankakee township were published in the so-called Democratic (?) Sentinel. a publication of very limited circulation, nearly all of which is among republicans, and which DID NOT represent the democrats in the last general election. The publications required to be made in a republican paper were divided between the Republican and the Journal, which was clearly illegal, as the statute states clearly that they must be made in THE TWO, etc. which certainly does not mean a half dozen papers. As was to have been supposed, the Rensselaer Republican, takes up the cudgel in defending the publication of these estimates in the Sentinel, and says the trustees themselves are the sole judges of what papers shall be recognized, notwithstanding the law is very plain to the contrary; and in a long tirade of abuse accuses The DemfocßAT . editor of attempting to “hold up” the trustees, and that the above letter is “a sort of a strong arm game which is verging on blackmail.” We are not advised as to which of the county officers wrote the aiticle so strongly tinctured with libel, but we will not accuse the traveling cigarrette sign who has charge of the Republican during the editor's absence with having done so, although he palms off the brainy (?) effusion as original. The fact is that the democrats themselves propose to say what is a democratic paper instead of allowing the republican officers to name one for them, a proposition which no fairminded man can say is not fair and just As citizens and taxpayers the democrats of Jasper county have some rights which even republican officials must respect, and the time for asserting those rights, which have so long been ignored, is at hand. The leading democratic paper is a paper recognized by the democrats as a democratic paper and which has a circulation sufficient to render itthe leading paper We will venture the assertion that the so-called Democratic (?) Sentinel has not 25 regular democratic subscribers in Jasper county, and we have taken the trouble to make a few inquires in this matter. As an example of the democrats reached by it we cite the following: In the whole of Jordan tp., just 2 democrats are subscribers thereto, while The Jasper Counts Democrat has 54 regular paid subscribers in that township. At Remington 5 copies of the Sentinel are sent —not all to democrats, however—while we send 125 copies to regular subscribers at that office. At Parr 2 copies of the Sentinel are sent, we send 18 copies. At Dunnville or Tefft, the Sentinel sends 3 copies—one of which is to Hon. I. D. Dunn, a republican —while we send 16 copies. At Wheatfield about 3 copies of the Sentinel are sent, while we send 32.

The same ratio will be found all over the county, and we will add that almost every democrat who receives a copy of the Sentinel is a subscriber to The Democrat. Now, in these five townships and postoffices The Democrat sends to regular paid subscribers 227 copies, while the Sentinel sends but 12! It would thus seem that it would not be difficult to determine which was the leading paper, even though the democrats avered that the Sentinel represented said party in the last general election, which they deny utterly, or that it has represented said party for years. Publication of any matter relating to the conduct of public affairs is done primarily for the information of the public. In ancient times this public service was performed by a person called a “crier,” who went about the streets proclaiming in a loud voice the orders of th§ court or matters pertaining to the public. The new reform laws were enacted for the purpose of giving the public an incite to public business, by requiring estimates —in case of trustees —of public expenditures to be published in “THE two leading newspapers published in the county representing the two political parties casting the highest number of votes in such county at the last preceding general election.” This means something,—means in fact just what it says. It means that publication SHALL be made in the papers having the largest circulation in the county representing THE two political parties, that the largest possible publicity may be given the estimates. The wild-eyed Fejee now conducting the* “official organ” has “analyzed” this law and arrived at the conclusion that the trustee is the sole judge where he will advertise. “What constitutes the leading paper?” shouts this bucolic windjammer. The paper that has the largest circulation —the paper that gives the largest publicity to the matter published—this is the sole reason for making the publication

It was to have been expected that the republican trustees would make publication in the “Barnacle. ” From the size of the estimates the sole publication should have been made there as its emulation is confined entirely to county officials and a half-dozen democrats who have been unable to break the “editor” of the habit of “borrowing” a dollar ten or twelve times a year. It was also to have been expected that republican officials would evade the law, for if there is one thing more than another the average Jasper county republican official hates it is for the people to get onto his “methods” of doing public business, and for the good of some of them it is well the people remain in ignorance. 100 good envelopes with your return card printed thereon for only 50 cents, at this office.