Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1911 — HARD PRESSED FOR ARGUMENT. [ARTICLE]

HARD PRESSED FOR ARGUMENT.

The Republican, in its efforts to make The Democrat man out Ae worst rascal that ever went unhung, resorts to . the lowest, petty, mean, despicable, silly and childish methods we have ever seen. It propounds some “questions" for us to answer that real Iy are too childish and silly to notice and we shall reply to them but friefly, as there is nothing to them. First it asks if we did not some 20 years ago, while employed as a printer on the Remington Press, vstrite old Jim McEwan regarding a legal notice published by the Town of Remington in the Press and ask him as a favor to quote a price of Sl3 on same, when the legal was padded out and really was worth but $9? This is pretty far-fetched indeed, but we will say without fear of successful contradiction that we never asked him or anyone else to "favor” us by any crooked statement. Now that we recall it, a non-fesident notice was published in the Press along in the early nineties. Legal notices were few' and far between with the Press as they were with all inland papers, and it was about the first notice of the kind we ever set up in type. We followed the style of practically all county seat papers and we believe a bill for sl3 was filed for it. This legal was about the first the town board over there ever had published, and the claim was continued while they wrote over to Rensselaer to see if the measurement was correct;. Our -remembrance is that the writer wrote to both old Mac and Marshall to verify our figures, and we have somewhere among our old papers their reply, which was to the effect that w r e had not made the charge high enough, old M&c saying that it measured out sl6 and Marshall sls. Therefore, eliminating the “padding” which the Republican asserts was there, and which we insist was set in the prevailing style, the notice was still worth at the legal rates for such advertising, all that was charged for it. The board satisfied itself that the claim was, just and paid it in full. As the writer did not profit one penny by this legal in any way, being merely an employe on the paper securing it and was only doing his duty to his employer in seeing that he got what he was legally entitled to for his work, we don’t imagine St. Peter will hold any charge against us on his docket for this “offense.”

It also rehashes its old, mosscovered rfiarge of The Democrat entering into a compact with Marshall and Clark regarding the city printing, and asks if we did not force .Marshall and Clark to pay us a per cent on city printing and job work. In view of the fact that this charge was referred to the city attorney more than a year ago with instructions to investigate and report to the council, and we have time and again stated that so far as we were concerned we invited the investigation and urged that a report be made, while not a "cheep” along that line has been heard from the Republican, we infer that it is afraid of an investigation of its own charges, even by the republican county chairman, w*ho is the city attorney to whom the matter was referred, and who also knows * that the statement of the Republican regarding our withholding settlement with Clarkie are absolutely false. Now we think the public will agree with us that it is up to the Republican to urge that a report be made by the city attorney of these charges or s'hut up about them. It then wants to know- if we did not send a mileage book to a printer who was coming to work for us, for use from Indianan plis here, and tell him to sign the mileage in the name it was issped, thus trying to induce him to commit forgery? We may have seat a mileage book with such instructions, not

having time to w'rite to Chicago arid secure a trip pass. But the dhileage ,was issued on account advertising and belonged to The Democrat. Transportation could be had up to the amount of the contract to any employe of this paper, and if this employe was authorized to sign the name appearing in this book there could be no forgery, a fact which anyone with a thimbleful of brains ought to know. The Republican is indeed hard pressed for argument. But. speaking of railroad transportation secured on advertising, we once kne w'of a republican editor not a thousand miles from Rensselaer who used to get passes for people in no way connected with his publication, though representing that they were actually connected therewith. B. S. Fendig, the poultry and junk dealer, too a trip to New Orleans, also a long editorial trip with a certain republican editor who represented that Ben was connected with his paper and thus entitled to the transportation furnished. And we might cite a great deal more along this . line. If not asking too much, will the Republican kindly state for how long a time and how much transportation was used on account of the Rensselaer Journal after that sheet and the Republican were consolidated?