Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-11-20

law, the Typography Of all works ordered by
Congress is under the superintendent of the
printing bureau, yet the actual supervision of
Its practical execution is performed by the pub
lie printer. The typographical excellence of
these workss therefore, is mainly due to the
ability and csre Of the official printer, who.
being practical mechanic, prides himself, we
know well, upon the performance Of his wsrk
in manner worthy and creditable at once to
Congress and the country, stopping at no ex-
pense, however large, in the attainment of 50
praiseworthy purpose, and actually volunta-
rily paying for the best compositors consider
able advance upon the comparatively high
rates demanded by the printers of Washington
for their labor. Very few, if any, of his pre-
decessors, can render 50 honorable record Of
their stewardship. ..e.
The costly character of such works as Gilliss's
and the Pacific Railroad Report, of course, has
largely increased the nominal printing expcn-
ditures; but the actual expenses of the print
ing-that is, of the composition and press work
in which only The Public Printer is interested
forms the smallest items of that expenditure;
the cost of paper, of engraving, and of binding,
exhausting by far its largest proportions. In
deed, the actual expenses for the printing, I'M
der the present system, has relatively been
greatly reduced. For instance, under those
who were the public printers previous to the
adoption Of the contract system, and who snug
ly enjoyed for several years what is sometimes
lately called monopoly" of both Houses of
toS 70
cent. higher than those now allowed by Con-
gress. A document, or documents for example,
costing under the rates paid to them, 500, 900,
cost now only $4,000; netting a saving of
$50, 900 in every 100000, to the nation. At
the same time, although the cost of the print
ing to the country has relatively been SO large
ly reduced, the expenses of its execution to the
Public Printer has been even more largely in
creased-at least 40 per cent; the pay of a
cOmpositor, for example, under them, being
only $40 per week, while now his pay is Sl4
So that under their contract with Congress the
profits of the printing were 20 per cent. more
''enormons" than they now are under the con-
tract of the present printer.
Thus Congress and the people will readily
perceive that under the present system and the
present printer, the printing haehmproved in
character and execution; that it has abandoned
its old discredit of dead, unproductive tax
upon the treasury; that it has become an agent
of great usefulness and honor, and that its rela-
tive cost to the country has largely decreased,
even when the expenses contingent upon its
execution have greatly increased and, conse-
quently, they will have no difficulty in detect
ing in the exaggerated statements of the Jim
mense expenditure" and enormous profits
of the printing, like the stale and worn-out
charges Of ''corruption's and "abuse," of late
renewed and so busily circulated, the common
trick of persons endeavoring to palm off their
own wares upon the public by incorporating
and abusing those of their competitors.
We need hardly add that the exaggerated
statements concerning the payments from the
Treasury to the Public Printer for work done
for the 34th Congress, which have of late been
published-EY" very little if anything short
of 81 ,000,000'-are utterly without foundation;
his gross receipts, according to information We
have obtained at the Bureau of the First Comp
troller of the Treasury, being little moro than
one-ffth that sum.
The IMPORTANT GOVERNMENT ORDERING
mentioned incidentally yesterday, that the
Secretary of the Interior had issued orders for
the immediate opening to settlement of the
Government lands embraced within what has,
up to this time, been known as the Shawnee
reservation in Kansas. We should have added
" Vest of the thirty line"
The lands seecsed for the Shawnee individual
reserves lay, with the exception of about four
teen hundred acres, east of that line. Thus,
one million OF acres, at least of the finest
lands in all the great West, will be immediate
ly subjected to presumption under this order
They are situated, for the most part, in the
Pawnee district, Gland Office ut Lecompton)
Very shortly, the lands Of the same reserva-
ton laying east of " the thirty mile line" that
have not been eliminated for the Shawnees, will
also be subject to presumption by direction
from this point. The latter will amount to
loo, 900 acres, more or less.
As these lands are all situated in the south
ern portion of Kansas, near the Missouri line,
and have already been g prospected" and
- claimed" by Missourians, we presume that a
large population from Missouri for the most
lively unoccupied sections of Kansas, in the
next month.
ARRIvED.-Members Of Congress are already
dropping in upon us. Mr.. Clingman has been
here for more than week. Yesterday, we
mentioned the arrival of Governor Stevens, the
delegate from Washington Territory. Last
night the veteran Gen Jo Lane. delegate from
Oregon, arrived, looking as we'll as hisfriends-
and no other member of either House ever had
more, or more sincerely attached friends here
could wish, By thu, by. it is very sure that he
will be the first Senator elected to represent Ore
gon in the Congress of the United States; than
which no other consummation could be better
for the general public interest, or as for that
Of the daughter about to be born to the Con-
federacy. s.r.r .....- ...-.-. ...
Tho Hon. Sam. Smith, of Tenn, and the
Hon. A. o. p Nicholson, Senator elect from
the same State, reached Washington this morn
ing and are at their old quarters, the Kirk.