The City Hall Newspaper War

The board of aldermen will meet tonight at the call of the mayor to consider the matter of the city printing. It is to be hoped that they will settle the question without further delay and not seek to evade a responsibility that is plainly imposed upon them by the charter. Unfortunately for a legal settlement of the question, however, the board of aldermen have already made the fatal mistake of selecting as the first official paper, not the paper that put in the lowest and best bid, but the paper that put in absolutely the highest bid. A public violation of the law would have been prevented had not the Times, which was the lowest bidder, been bought up by the Telegraph. The original scheme was to secure the city printing for the Telegraph and its evening edition, the Times. The latter, however, was found to be impossible. The Times was accordingly purchased, and the scheme now is to secure the printing for the Telegraph and the Times and to run the latter paper as an appendix to the former. If the board of aldermen permit the consummation of the scheme they will do it with their eyes wide open.