Holmes County Herald

WHO'S BEING SUBSIDIZED
by Chester Marshall

Last week the editor of The Lexington Advertiser accused the Board of Supervisors of subsidizing the Holmes County Herald with taxpayers' money simply because a 2 year contract for the county printing was awarded to the Herald.

The accusation was made in a formal protest by Mrs. Hazel Brannon Smith to the board and reported in a front page article in the Advertiser.

We label the accusation simply as a bald face LIE. Fabrications of this type are common when coming from the pen of a biased and prejudiced newspaper editor seeking to further her cause.

Considering the source, we planned to completely ignore the attack, but decided the public should know the real facts, as well as our stand to uphold the integrity of our duly elected Supervisors, the more than 200 stockholders in the Holmes County Publishing Co., and the Herald itself.

If the Herald ever gets to the point of accepting subsidy, we'd like to say here and now, we will never accept it from such organizations as "The Fund For The Republic", "The Edith Mahler Fund", or the NAACP, in the form of printing contracts. Nor, for that matter, from any red-tinged group that is working night and day to destroy not only our Southern traditions, but the American way of life itself. This we promise the people of Holmes county.

Now here are the true facts on the contract for county printing.

Up until two years ago printing and supplies for Holmes county was distributed by various officials among local printers, as is the custom in many counties in Mississippi, without bids. The Editor of the Advertiser put a stop to that practice however, because she felt she wasn't getting a fair shake. She worked up a bid, presented it to the Board for the county's business, and in effect demanded that the Board take bids for the business.

That was two years ago and that time she was unsuccessful in acquiring a contract with the county because she had submitted a bid prior to publication of the advertisement for bids.

This action by the Editor of the Advertiser prompted the Board to "go by the books" when awarding contracts for county printing.

Povall Printing Co. got the contract, being the only local bidder, for a two year period.

At their regular meeting this month, the Board awarded the Holmes County Publishing Co. the contract for the county's printing and supplies, because we were the only bidder whose bids were in order. Both the other two bidders, The Lexington Advertiser, and Povall Printing Co. submitted bids unsigned.

With complete fairness to all concerned, and according to their standing practice of accepting bids presented in a legal manner, the Supervisors asked for a ruling on the unsigned bids from Attorney General Joe Patterson. The opinion from the Attorney General was that the unsigned bids were not in accordance with legal procedure, and thus should be voided.

This written opinion was shown Mrs. Smith when she met with the Board to make her protest against the Herald getting the contract. But in the article last week she omitted this fact, which is proof positive that the article was biased and misleading to the public.

Fallacious attacks on public officials in Holmes county by the editor of the Lexington Advertiser is not a new thing, however. She's been doing it for years, evidently trying to make it appear that people in Holmes county are too stupid to elect honest, efficient officials to conduct the county's business.

Actually the bids were close, with the exception of one or two cases. The major difference in prices of the three bidders was one class in particular in which the Advertiser's bid was about 30 percent low. This class consisted of the big leather-bound docket books.

Leading printing firms in Mississippi, who specialize in this type work, and from where this work would have to come from, regardless of who got the contract, said they could not supply us with firm bids on this work for a two year period, due to continued rises in cost of material. Evidently Mrs. Smith deliberately bid low in this particular class in order to have a basis on which to raise a stink.

This it seems, is the pattern of those whose doctrine is "divide and conquer."