The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-07-02
VISIT TO THE GOVERNMENT PRINT.
ING OFFICE.

M w h. Vi tAAC La w lChOC LtSpesO-
l,cdn Journal recently visited the Gov
ernment printing Office, and furnishes
that paper with the following account
of his observations
Receiving an invitation from Con-
gresham Latin, of New York, chair
man of the committee on printing, to
visit the Government printing Office,
and knowing that / would have rare
opportunities for seeing this mammoth
concern in all its departments, / accept
ed the invitation, and spent the fore
noon very pleasantly i'll making a pref
| ty thorough general survey. 1t is big
institution, employing, when running
to its full capacity, 1000 men and wom-
en-. There are now about 700 employed.
In all the departments there is compar-
| atively light force worked, and the
pressure for work is unremitting and
continuous in its demands.
The document room has so men, the
job room 40, the specification room 81.
the bindery 125 women and 100 men
| employed. One hundred thousand skins
are used every three months four hun
dred thousand animals every year have
to be slain to meet the requirements of
the Government bindery. Where there
are so many skins used, hope the Gov
erument is not skinned" in the bust
ness. An employee in the bindery has
invented, and it is now in use, a very
ingenious continuance for cutting mo-
rocco, which is a great Improvement
over the straight edge plan. Knife
blades are arranged at suitable inter-
walls, and by means of a crank and roll
er the morocco is pulled through the
stationary blades in strips of the re-
quired Enthusiastically ground out. l
thought what a convenient thing some
such an arrangement would be TO grind
out accounts i'll the Department, doing
away with the necessity of claim agents,
brokers, and innufnerable trips to
Washington to get old accounts settled
and pleas in abatement allowed. In
the folding room are 100 females and
20 males employed. The consumption
of paper is of course 900
reams of writing paper per week, 200
realms per day for book work, 80 reams
of bill paper, $50 reams of news print,
aside from the enormous consumption
of the Bullock press, which works 81
sheets per minute, or 24S perfect copies,
$4,000 copies i'll eight hours. This press
cost $4,000, and has been recently
purchased to work exclusively agricul-
tural reports and the like. In mcchan-
I ism this press is "a thing of beauty"
and moves like "a thing of life" L
hardly know how one can be more
deeply impressed with the wonderful
civilization of the nineteenth century,
and its remarkable triuInphs in human
ingenuity, mechanical industry and
skill, than by going over to the patent
office and seeing the little old hand
press used by benjamin Franklin, i'll
London, i'll 1929, and then visiting the
Government printing office and observe
the wondrous workings of the Bullock
| press. The securing of such results, in
contrast, it would seem, should have
required the growth and progress of 4
dozen centuries instead of hundred
and twenty-five years. In the press
room there are 81 presses and 56 girls
and 40 men now employed. A girl"
as here used, means Il female employee,
whether she be an ancient maiden lady,
a widow of fifty with nine small chill
dren to support, or miss of fourteen.
In looking over the earnings of print
ers on piece work for the last four
weeks, find they run about as follows
S1Sl, S16l, SlI4, $3.50; average per
month about $50. In the departments
where they work by the day the print
ers get 81 per day, eight hours per day,
or S24 per week. The females get an
an average of $3.50 per day. There
are four clerks at 81 800 per year, copy
preparer $500, three fOremen 81 800,
Congressional Printer 81 900. L have
uniformly received the politest atten-
tions and courtesy in all the depart
ments, and nowhere have been more
kindly received than III the Govern
ment printing office. l seldom thank
anybody i'll public way for their gem
tilities, because my theory is that every
citizen has right to know all he can
learn about the workings of his govern
menf and of cOurSe il is the duty OF
those i'll official position to afford facil-
tiles to this end. Even way out i'll Kan
sas we pay taxes, and i'll my judgment
a citizen of Kansas is as good and has
lust as many rights i'll Washington as a
citizen of New Y DIRK. While allowing
none to surpasS us i'll true gentlllty
though perhaps in grace of manners,
know we shall maintain our rights. 4
citizen of Lawrence or Leayenworth
ought always III Washington to cons1d-
or himself the equal of a citizen from
Boston or New York, though the Bos-
tonian should come from D0sS0-chu-
sets. / did intend to thank Congress
man Latin. Mr.. Clapp, Government
printer, and Messrs. Fillmore, Brock
and others for the very considerate and
kind treatment received while in the
Government printing office, and now
having done so, dismiss the subjec
with the remark that the whole process
of stereotyping. under charge of Messrs
Murray and Wayne, who run Thu
| branch in connection with the printing
office, l witnessed with great deal o
satisfaction and pleasure. Mr.. Murra,
and his superintendent We're very Kline
t in showing me the whole process in de
tail from the clay< foundation up to ;
perfect stereotype plate.