Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 25.

We have alluded to the report for 1870 and its distribution to every dwelling in town. There were probably 1,000 copies printed, and the month that intervened between the close of the fiscal year and the warning of town meeting sufficed for the making up of reports, printing and delivery. The ‘oppressed laborers’ of that time worked ten hours daily, six days in a week, and the business men, their employers, probably more hours, but both classes found time to inform themselves, for the government was then ‘in the hands of the many,’ and the voters were the appropriating power.

How is it today? At present writing some departments' reports have not reached the chief executive, and none as yet are ready for public distribution. For 1920 300 copies only were printed, at a cost to our tax payers of $1,688, or $5.63 per copy, and now, after more than eight months, only a little over half have been taken by the citizens. And who are these citizens? We answer, ‘Those who are interested enough to go to the auditor's office and ask for the book.’ We are told that copies taken were by the older citizens, long resident in Medford and farthest removed from Medford square. And what are our citizens but members of a business corporation whose reported annual expenditure is upward of three million dollars and whose future is mortgaged heavily?