The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-02-23

the Fight or Possession ef enc House
Printing Corruption Tana.
The consideration Of the disposal of the
House Printing Corruption Fund was again
postponed on Tuesday last to this day. The
republicans are at dead lock, and they post
poned the question in order to gain time, for
they feared that third candidate might snatch
the prize from both their factions. In the last
Congress the republicans who were placed on
the Committee of Investigation into the print.
ing quarrels at first agreed with the chairman
OF the committee, but after seeing the leaders
of their party in caucus, they backed out,
and said it would never do to make this expo.
| sure. The reason was that they expected in
the next Congress to have the control of the
plumber themselves.
democrats and republicans, conspire to rob the
people alternately. The event now explains
the action of the republican members of that
committee. The Joseph Surfaces and DR.. Cant
wells Of the party are eloquent in their bun
combe speeches against corruption, and from
their sentiments they appear to be very para
CONS of purity; but when 1t comes to practice
where do we find them? Wallowing in the
mire like other political swine. They post.
pone and founder, and founder and postpone,
and get deeper into the gutter every day. If
their objects were good and their motives
pure, what need would there be of delay or
hesitation? Why not give the printing to any
fVod vbo do Z 4
Among the modes by which the country is
feeced by Congress and the corruption fund
swollen, is the system of printing double. By
clause in the Printing bill, passed in 1852,
it was enacted 'that whenever any document
shall be ordered to be printed by both houses
ofCongress, the entire printing of such docu-
ment shall be done by the printer of that
house which first ordered the same" In 1854
this clause was repealed, and it was enacted
that, 'when there are different printers for the
| respective houses each shall do the printing
which may hereafter be ordered by the
house electing him. The object of this
is clearly, on the face of it, to swell the
perquisites Of the printer at the expense
of the people. The Superintendent of Pablic
Printing, in his report, December, 1885, de-
clared that the repeal of this clause had
cost the government more than 100000 in
four years, a large portion Of the composition,
or type setting, being executed but once,
though paid for twice, or, as it has occurred in
some cases, and will again occur, paid for four
| times, being twice for each house. "The law,
as it now stands" says the Superintendent,
"has had the effect of causing an arrangement
to be made by the printers to the two houses,
by which the whole work for both is executed
by third person, who can afford to pay to
each Of them larger sum of money for the
printing than either could make by the estab-
lishment and maintenance of separate Offices"
Another way of swindling the public is by
appointing committees to report on certain
matters of little or no importance, and which
might be disposed of in sheet of letter paper,
but about which they print and publish whole
volume of evidence of no value or interest.
The ordering of extra copies of documents is
favorite mode of swelling up the printers
profits and the peoples loss The regular
number printed for each house of each docu-
ment is 1,460 for the Senate, and 1920
for the House. Any larger number for
either body is extra. In the Thirty.third
Congress the Senate ordered $4,000 copies
of extra volumes, and the House 6S7 500, max
ing in all, 1,1l9,70O extra volumes for Con-
gress; and these are sent free, burthening the
mails over the country, never to be read, but
to be sold for waste paper. For the Thirty
fOur %ho of
s257,9O A responsible party offered to do it
$4,000 less. Wendell offered to do the print
ing thirty per cent less than 1t cost, and Bow
man the other day admitted that he netted
thirty-three per cent by selling out the job from
the Senate-thirty- three per cent therefore
thrown away!
The folding rooms are another source of ex-
pense. In the Thirty-fourth Congress there
were s37,667 volumes of public documents
folded and sent to members, and 5,594,93O
(nearly five million six hundred thousand)
speeches folded and sent out from the folding
room of the House of Representatives, and
about the same number of each were folded In
the Senate folding room. For stationery, twine
and other articles used in these two rooms, an
annual sum of about 100000 is paid by the
Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the
Senate.
We may mention among the prolific sources
of plumber the engraving For instance, the
cost offour colored plates and some wood cuts
in an agricultural report in 1856 was 1882
Such are specimens of the profigacy with
which the money of the people is squandered
by their representatives in Congress, and even
by the grave and reverend seignoirs of the
Senate.
The Senate plumber is disposed of, and now
two factions of the republicans of the House
the Bates faction and the Seward-are growl-