The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1871-11-09
The Public Printing Frauds.

made against Jones, Purvis n Co., by
Col. John Baxter, reported last week,
declaring all the charges unsustaincd
and fully cxhoncrating the parties from
anything wrong in their accounts for
the public printing. Senator Gibson, of
Campbell. made counter report, which
INDUCES in some special pleading and
talks of ems, tokens, and perhaps other
terms familiar to practical men, but Of
which the honorable gentleman is pre-
sumcd to know very little. For the in
formation Of the general reader, an en-
is .hc square OF the type used. In the
type in which this article is set up ihcrc
are twenty ems to the line, so by count
inc the number of lines in column Of
solid matter of the rosT any one can
tell the number of ems it contains. This
article, however, is "lcadcd.' Four
"lcads' are equal to line, and column
of "lcaded matter mcasuit;;u1Hi'st the
same number of ems as abs, Fam of
solid natter In book and r's" nhlct
WORK, the "iolio," the BLAND. me be-
tween that and the matter and%r6 foot
line At the bottom Of each page are gen.
orally estimated in the measurement,
by both composition and employer. All
blank pages are counted; all rule and
figure wor.; is charged at "two prices
that is. a thousand ems rule and figure is
estimated as equal TO two thousand ems
of straight matter" Figure work with
out rules is ~ price and half" one
thousand being counted as equal to fiji
teen hundred stra chit matter. This we
believe has been the universal custom
where work was estimated and paid for
by the piece or thousand.
In regard to press-work: a token is
ten quircs Of white paper, which when
worked on both sides counts and is al
ways charged as two t0i'eRS, and justly
too, because it is handled twice, goes
through the press twice, and when
worked and turned contains two CO.
pies of the "form" being printed. If
the paper designated by law he me
dium," then eight octave pages are work
ed in a form, which when turned and
printed on both sides, gives sixteen
pages or two copies TO the sheet, and re-
quiring four hundred and eighty i'm
prcssions TO every token of ten quircs Of
white paper. Or, to make it still palmer,
two hundred and forty impressions con-
sttute tohenand in printing fire quircs
ofwhitc paper both sides that number is
obtained. If the contract says enc
dunn paper, and the printer procurcs
''doublc-medium' and prints sixteen
pages, instead of eight, in form, then
every ten quircs Of white paper "dou-
ble-medium' size. printed on both sides,
will count as .tour tokens medium"
named in the contract, though in csti-
mating the number of tokens from the
signatures or number Of pages in the
printed book the party making the cal
culation, if not practical man or ia
miliar with the rules and regulations Of
the trade, would be likely to fall short
just one half.
About the t0W' compositions for n
portion of the printing which enters
into the appendix, the printer is clearly
entitled to three Of them, because the
matter is handled three times and is
made up in three different "torms'; the
fourth, we think, is an ovcrchargc,
though perhaps in accordance with the
practice in this State.
In regard to paper. wastage, &c, 81
sheets make quirc, 90 Nuircs constitute
q ream, and it used to be the case that of
every ream two quircs, bottom and top.
were allowed as "brokcn paper" so that
in hundred rcams delivered from the
mill there would be two hundred quires
or ten reams of broken or waste paper.
We refer to these things in detail, be-
cause we have been frequently asked
what Col. Baxter meant by ems and to-
kens in connection with his charges
about the public printing. and to show
how easily he might be led into error in
some of his calculations.
In regard to the election of public
printer, both reports agree that there
was nothing very bad or hurtful in that.
If there had been, it isn't likely that
we would have had anything to do with
it in view of the small consideration in
volvcd. A good deal has been said
about the profits of the printing, OF
course, there is liberal margin enough,
but, all things considered, we don't be-
lievc it is any too liberal; and we can't
see why the State should be charged q
less price than private parties. There
may be some looscness in the law in re-
gard to public printing. If such be the
fact, it will be the duty of the Legisla-
ture to remedy the defects, and we hope
it will be done, and that there will be
no more public time and public money
trittercd away in fruitless and protitless
investigations.
-, 10 . .,