The High Price of Patronage Printing
A sharp look at how the Tacoma Ledger allegedly extracted $9,000 from the Pierce County treasury through sweetheart printing contracts.
Mr. Nelson Bennett, who evidently lies awake nights devising plans to prevent the 'boodling' of the national treasury, does not waste any of his philanthropy on the taxpayers of his own county. Under the contract recently awarded by the city council of Tacoma, the Ledger secures for public printing $14.17 more per column than the city of Seattle is paying for the same service. Pierce County printing is equally costly; the contract was given to the Ledger at an exorbitant figure, despite an opposition bid from a combination of other local papers that would have saved the county over $9,000. The highest bidder had a circulation of only a few hundred larger than the competition. If the figures are correct, the Ledger has taken from the treasury of Pierce County $9,000 to which it is not entitled. Mr. Bennett should stroll down to the Ledger office and do some battling for the taxpayers of Pierce County.
“Between the city contract and the county contract that paper has a pretty good thing, but it is hard on the taxpayers.”
Newspaper monopolies securing public printing contracts was a standard form of government graft in the 19th century. This story highlights the intersection of local media influence and municipal corruption—a 'pay-to-play' dynamic that modern auditors still investigate today.
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