Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-02-01
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP

The BILL TO SUPPLY DEFICIENCIES IN For
NER APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE PUBLIC PRINr-
INC, &c.-We have rarely known measure to
be so mystifed as this one has been by (nomi.
nall discussion in the House hall. The House
devoted nearly all the whole of last week to
the apparent duty Of considering it, Yet who
ever has read the debate while that subject
was before them in such n shape as that the
members were entitled, under the rule, to
deliver hour speeches, will discover that Bunk
um, rather than business, received the exclu-
sive attention of most of the House gentlemen
who addressed the benches In devoting a
week to the subject, a fair opportunity was af-
forded for every member of the House to learn
hsw to avoid hereafter such legislation on prop
ositions to print books and documents and to
cause engravings to be prepared as may
amount to an extravagant use of the public
funds Indeed, If the speeches of Messrs.
Phelps and Letcher, and one or two others, on
the merits OF the bill in question, be duly heed
cd In future legislation on such propositions,
they alone will have the desired effect Yet,
pubic opinion will not excuse the misappropri.
alton OF much of the time of the House for the
last week to the work of making capital-pop-
| ularity-at home on the part of gentlemen who
have occupied the nominal attention of the
House in presenting re.hashes of their old stump
| speeches.
Ihe waste OF the time apparently (but by no
means really devoted to the consideration of
TINS Dill, Is by no means the only drawback to
the proper appreciation of the subject by Con.
gress and the country. The black mail men of
the press, and the wonder-mongers of the press,
Doth classes being numerously represented in
the army OF writer's of Washington correspond
ence, have done as much to mystify the subject
as those who use the privilege of the debate TO
make popularity for themselves in their respec-
tive states and districts. The first mentioned
the plunder-mOngers-who, while making
indirect tenders to procure offers to buy their
silence, and to silence their threatened compe-
tition, have been making the welkin ring with
false charges against the public printers. They
nave magnifed the amount paid to the public
printers perhaps ten-fold while the wonder
mongers of the press have caught up their
sinister stories, and repeated them in Wash
ington correspondence with ten-fold exaypera-
lions As specimen of this latter practice
we quote brief paragraph from a late Wash
ington letter published in the Richmond En-
qnirer:
The hight over the printing bills is becoming.
nlgnly interesting, and the public will likely be
MADE acquainted now with the reckless extraya
Sdhce Wnlcn mas marked Congressional action i'm
THIS particular The Committee of WAYS and
MEANS reported bill asking an augmentation of
screen hnndred thousand dollars to meet the q, A.
eteney for the printing of the last Congress- This
the House refuses to vote until bill of items is
Iesenting pear, is said to have cost sid. 90,
nat must have been the cost of the snakes and
lizards ?'' A
The writer believes his own story, we pre-.
sumo Yet in its most important statement It
Is utterly destitute of foundation in fact Tins
the bill referred to is to cover not deficiencies
In former appropriations to pay for printing
only, as the uninitiated reader might imagine.
but in the printing, binding and engraving,
and in the furnishing of paper on which tho
printing and engraving for Congress is exc
cuted The entire deficiency is about $3.50. 600
OF which not more than one-eighth the whole
sum is due or to be due to the printer. The
rest Is payable to the paper makers, engrayers.
binders and others, directly or Indirectly en-.
ployed by Congress
"hlle we are no apOlOgists for extravaganza
on the part OF Congress, in the publication of
BOOKS, likely in their distribution to helm hon.
orable members to retain their several nlaces in
public life-that being the motive apparently
inducing not few votes for such propositions-
we oeileve that much of the printing done by
oruer Oh congress is productive of substantial
dement, To the public interest, and is i'm all re-
spects perfectly Legitimate. So we should
regret to see the popular NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
arising from the combination of causes first
alluded to above, result in legislation for Bun
KUN on the subject, as reprehensible and as
unfortunate In its certain results as that which
1t may propose to remedy
Inc habit OF the House in ordering engraving
70 De executed without knowing what is TO be
Its necessary cost beforehand, is one prolific
source of the trouble. Though the .spear,
story quoted above from the Richmond En-.
q"'/e' $ correspondence is regular thousand
tom-cats' story, (the writer having magnifed
the cost of the pear perhaps thousand fold }
much OF the engraving ordered by Congress so
reckiessly is of the most elaborate and peces.
sarily costly character
Inc second volume of the Japan expedition
work, In its cost to the national treasury fairly
~
what we mean. That book (yolume)
alone cost the Treasury 500, 900, but about one
twelfth of which went to the public printers:
though according to the plumber mongers and
the Sonder-mongers of the press they received
Its entire cost. 1t was ordered to be printed
and its drawings, engravings, &c, to be pro,
cured before even the copy had been writ |
tenor, in other words, at venture. Tins
many other equally costly books are ordered
to be got up by Congress. Sensible people |
will perceive that the fault rests, not with the
business men who execute the work, but with |
those who choose to vote such orders, LEAVING
their cost to chance and the ambition of the |
parties preparing-as editors or authors-tbs
DOCKS In question. 1t is too much 70 expect IF |
weak human nature, that when officers and
public servants. young or old, have cart, |
,fanehe granted to them by Congress, after the |
fashion explained above, to make themselves
heroes or Swans on paper-in print-at the ex-
pense OF the national treasury, that thew will
AL eagerly to embrace the opportunity of so
long. The truth is, the reform necess.rv :,