Saving Money for the County

New York, 1895

The Standard says that THE FARMER gets $10,000 a year out of the county for public printing and advertising. That's right. And we give the county full value for its money. This the Standard does not deny. We printed election ballots for $5 per 1,000, and the Standard charged $10 per 1,000 for ballots that it had printed in the city, but the Supervisors refused to pay the Standard's price and cut its bill down to THE FARMER'S price of $5. The Standard lost some money, of course, but then the Supervisors are not obliged to subject the county to extortion to keep a pauperized newspaper alive. Only very recently the Standard tried to extort $275 from the county when legally it was entitled to but $20. Only last week the Standard succeeded in euchering the town of Jamaica. The paper has got to do this sort of thing or go out of existence. It has no facilities for doing public work, and therefore has to sublet its work to high-priced offices in the city, and that is why its prices are so frightfully high. The town has to pay two profits instead of one. The Standard's jealousy of THE FARMER'S unexcelled equipment does not lessen as its condition wanes more and more toward final extinction.

A corrupt newspaper is a public curse. In the latter part of the old year the Good Government Club of Newtown preferred charges of corruption against the commissioners of excise, had them indicted, and then asked Judge Garretson to remove them from office. The Jamaica Standard made a shameful attack on the Good Government Club in the interest of the accused officials. Well, they have had a fair trial before Judge Garretson, and his Honor finds them guilty and removes them from office. This decision of the court is a stinging rebuke to the Standard and a complete vindication of the Good Government Club. If there is any crime the Standard would not defend for petty gain, we wish some one would name it.


The Standard attacked the board of Supervisors last week. That paper is down on the Supervisors, individually and collectively, because they cut its skin bill of $275 down to $20. Honest officials can easily bear the malicious abuse of a dishonest newspaper.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 4.