A Great Dispute: 

H O W M A C H I N E T Y P E S E T T I N G C A M E T O GPO , 

A N D O N E P U B L I C P R I N T E R L E F T B E C A U S E 

O F I T 

G P O H I S T O R Y T A L K – A P R I L 3 , 2 0 1 3 

G E O R G E B A R N U M , GPO A G E N C Y H I S T O R I A N 
1904 and 1905 were eventful years at GPO 

 The new building (Bldg 1) was complete and fully 

occupied. Its opening brought the total floorspace to 

about 15 acres 
1904 -1905 

 In fiscal 1904 73 million documents were produced 

at a cost of $2.5 million 
1904-1905 

 Around 4500 men and women worked at GPO 
1904-1905 

 The Public Printer was Frank W. Palmer, first 

appointed in 1889 by President Harrison, then 

removed, reappointed by President McKinley in 

1897. 
Public Printer Palmer 

 By the time Palmer was reappointed in 1897, newspapers 

and other large print shops across the country were 

converting to machine (hot metal) typesetting. GPO still set 

all its type by hand. 
Machine Typesetting Arrives 

 In 1903, Congress put pressure on Palmer to 

introduce typesetting machines to GPO. The printer 

and pressman unions, though not yet officially 

recognized, were very powerful, and their resistance 

to machines that they thought would replace workers 

undoubtedly influenced Palmer. But he ran an 

agency that works for Congress, and when Congress 

nudged, he placed an order for 46 Linotypes and 28 

Monotypes, as a trial, in June 1904. 
Machine Typesetting Arrives 
Machine Typesetting Arrives 

 Palmer’s annual reports are notable for their lack of 

narrative, but in 1904 this response to Congress 

appeared: 

 In June 1904, contracts were made by the Public Printer with the Mergenthaler 

Linotype Co. for the purchase of 46 double magazine typesetting machines at a 

cost of $3600 each, and with the Lanston Monotype Co. for 28 typesetting 

machines at a cost of $3150 each. The time for delivery of the machines . . . was 

3 months, and their trial by GPO, 60 days. On the delivery of the Mergenthaler 

Linotype machines, 7 of them were installed in the Job Division, 35 in the 

Congressional Record Division, and 4 in the branch [at the Library of 

Congress]. The purchase of a limited number of these machines was made with 

the view of testing the practicability of the use in the publication of the widely 

varying kinds of official documents. At the date of publication of this report, 

sufficient time has not elapsed to determine the questions of economy or 

practicability. 
In 1905 

 In July 1905, a subsequent order for 72 Monotypes 

was placed (about $230,ooo worth) 
The Dispute 

 Mergenthaler almost immediately cried “foul!” and 

took their complaint, replete with accusations of 

dirty dealing of many descriptions, directly to 

President Theodore Roosevelt. 
The Dispute 

 Roosevelt liked to appoint commissions of inquiry, 

and had just established the Commission on 

Departmental Methods, chaired by Assistant 

Secretary of the Treasury C.H. Keep. They were to be 

looking at government organization, but GPO 

became their first subject. 
The Keep Commission 

 They reported to the President in the autumn of 1905 
The Keep Commission 

 They found that, although Palmer had failed to make 

the terms of the “trial” clear, and had gone forward 

with the new Monotype contract rather ill-advisedly, 

there was no evidence of wrongdoing or malfeasance. 

They did recommend that the contract be cancelled, 

and suggested that in the future the Public Printer 

might do well to negotiate contracts in his office at 

GPO, rather than in the homes of friends who were 

also officers in the companies concerned. 
The Keep Commission 

 President Roosevelt refused to cancel the contract, 

since there had been no wrongdoing. 
The Combatants 

 Both Mergenthaler and Lanston declared victory, 

since they were both able to find comments in the 

commission report unfavorable to their competitor. 

placed anyway. 

And in fact, another order for Linotypes was soon 
Public Printer Palmer 

 The Public Printer fared less well. He chose to 

discipline, and finally dismiss, 2 managers who had 

been involved in the investigation, Oscar J. Ricketts 

and L.C. Hay. 
Public Printer Palmer 

 Ricketts and Hay appealed, and got to the President 

who, along with the Civil Service Commission 

directed their reinstatement. Palmer was slow to do 

so, and was himself removed by Roosevelt, who 

named Ricketts Acting Public Printer. Shortly after, 

Roosevelt nominated Charles Stillings as Public 

Printer. In his term the friction between GPO, 

Congress, and the White House escalated. 
The Hot Metal Era Begins 

 Within a few years, GPO was operating the largest 

battery of Linotype and Monotype machines on 

earth, over 100 of each. 

 The resulting explosion of work saw GPO with more 

compositors than ever before