The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-12-13

rough investigation and, it is said, are not higher
generally than is paid for similar work in New
York; but where the same printer does the same
work for both houses he charges each with the cost
of setting up the typeand here is one great source
of profit. II is also said that large profit is made
on the long numbers of copies printed II is for
this reason that the friends Of the public printer
upon every occasion try to get the greatest number
OF copies of every document printed; and hence the
vast accumulation Of worthless documents which
cumber the rooms of the Capitol food the country,
and give the grocers and needle and thread stores
OF Washington such an inexhaustble quantity of
cheap wrapping paper in the shape of useless public
documents.
A committee to investigate the present system of
public printing has been raised and they have it in
their power to inaugurate an improvement by which
great leak in the public treasury will be stopped.
and at least one source OF corruption dried up. Let
them report in favor of the establishment of q gov
ernment printing office. There is no good reason
why the government should not do its own printing.
Government builds its own ships, makes the muskets
and munitions OF war, erects its public buildings and
does its clerical duties. As we'll might the argu
ment be used that the work in the departments shall
be done by private individuals--that the duties of
the several bureaus should be let ont by contract to
irresponsible partes-that the navy yards arsenals
and workshops of the government should all be
abandoned, as to pretend that government should
not do its own printing. Let national printing Of
flee be established and the motive for ordering vast
quantities Of useless documents will cease, the
rupting bait Of what may now be justly termed an
eleemosynary fund for broken down party hacks will
be withdrawn, and at last government will have its
work done creditably and equal to the public print
ing of other countries. England and France both
have their national printing Offices and the system
there works well. The United States, on the con-
trary leaves it at the mercy Of private cupdity and
the works generally are as disgracefuly executed as
their contents are trashy and discreditabe. Under
a system of government printing we would hear no
more Of such unmeaning trash as "Gllis' Chile Re
port"-a quarto work in two volumes, containing not
a single item of valuable information, interspersed
with coored pictures of parrots and monkeys, each
one of which cost the government almost enough to
stock managerie. Wilkes and Perry's reports,
though little better than Gillis unmitgated trash
also instances of wasteful extravagance for the
benefit of the public printer All this would cease
when it was longer the personal interest of any in
dviduas to have the work done. national printing
office would at once take away the temptation.
There is a strong feeling in Congress at this time
in favor Of its establishment; and there is no doubt
if the HERALD will press the subject prominently
and continuously upon the public attention. that its
efforts will be crowned with success. Meantime,
mark the members who propose to print large num-
bers of documents, and it will be found in every
instance that they represent the interest of the pub
lie printers, who thus manage to fleece the Treasury