National Republican., 1876-05-15
PRINTING CONTRACTS.

PRINTING CONTRACTS.
The report of the virtuous Vance and
''retiring" Singleton upon the Government
Printing Office, and their suggestions as to
the transfer of the printing of the Record
to the Globe Office, recalls memories of the
Covode Investigation of 1860, On page 16
of the report We find the majority of the
committee-Messrs. Covode, Olin and
Train-state that upon the testimony Of
"William Pettibone and Columbus Alex
"ander, two highly respectable gentlemen,
practical binders, residing In Washing
"ton, the contract with Cornelius Wen
"dellto do the executive binding was con-
"tinued at loss to the Government of
1850, 900 per annum, or whatever the Gov
"ernment might choose to make it, as Mr..
Alexander offered to do the work at 33
"per cent less than the Government was
"then paying"
The following is an extract from the tes-
timony of Columbus Alexander: "In July,
"1S57, l made proposition to the De-
"partment of the Interior, proposing to do
"the binding for that Departmental 80 per
"cent. less than they wero then paying for
"it. In the month ofSeptember followingI
renewed my offer, thinking, as had not
"heard from 1t, that the Department, in
1.-THE multiplicity of its business, might
"have overlooked it; and made the fur
ether proposition that if they did not think
proper to accede to my former PROPOSE
"tion l would pay into the Treasury, for
"the use of the Government, the sum of
"S10 0nn r-nvidoa thoy would give
"the contract"
In answer to the question by Mr..
Covode, "Have you any estimate of the
"profts to be derived from doing all the
"work for all the Departments ?" Mr..
Alexander answered "Well, sir, I could
"eafely say that it would be from 80 to so
"per cent. I should be very glad now to
"take 1t at so per cent. less than they are
"paying for it even at the present time"
(Covode Investigation, p. ~
In regard to printing the majority re-
port says: "The excess beyond a fair price
has been, with the knowledge and con-
"sent, if not by the direct order OF the
President, squandered upon profligste
"press, devoted to the interest of the Ad-
ministration-upon the Pennsylvania,
the Argus and the Union. 1t appears
from the testimony of Mr.. Wendell that
he contracted TO do the printing of the
"Post Office blanks, agreeing to pay to
"Mr Rice, of the Peansylcdnian, 43 per
"cent. of the gross amount to be received
for such printing" (Covode Inves:iga-
ton, p. 19.)
And now, this is what Mr.. Winslow, of
the committee who made the minority re-
port, says of the printing: "It was given
"by the Postmaster General to William
Rice by the order already mentioned,
dated the 31st of December, 1857. = =
Rice contracted with Wendell, who un-
dertook to do the work, draw the pay
and retain 81 per cent for himself and
"pay 43 per cent. to Rice. The
"work, in point of fact, was not done by
Wendell, and he employed another per-
"son q. T. Crowell) to do the work for
from 40 to 90 per cent, leaving a mar
"gin of profit to Wendell" (Covode In
vestigation, p. 49,
Mr.. Winslow, in his report, makes a
summary of the charges in regard to the
printing as follows: "Two points, how.
lever, embrace the substance of the
"charges against the President on this
"subject: 1st. That the profits arising
from the printing of the Post Office
"blanks were, by the order and direction
"of the President, applied to the support
"of three newspapers-the Union, (now
"the Constitution,) at Washington, and
1.-The PennsyIOdniaH and Argus, at Phila.
"delphia. I'd. That the profits of the
printing were corruptlY offered by the
President to John W. Forney, the editor
"of q newspaper at Philadelphia, to induce
chin to give up his own views and sup
"port the Administration on the Kansas
"question." He settles these two points
by saying: GAS this patronage was by law
"vested in the Executive, what reason for
"censure could it afford, whether its bene-
"fits were bestowed on one person only
cor distributed among severalT' (Covode
Investigation, p. 36.)
To speak further of printing, by refer
ence 10 Report 249, Thirty. sixth Congress,
first session, we find the majority of the
Committee on Public Expenditures report
ing as follows: That Wendell, the
"pSinter de facto of the last Congress, paid
Harris and Steedmsn $78,o00 for the
privilege Of doing the work, and that
"Geo. W. Bowman, the present Senate
"and executive printer, pays John C.
"Rives, who actually does the work, 66s
"per cent. for doing it, reserving for him
"self clear profit of 335 per cent. of the
amount paid by the Government. In
the same investigation John Larcombe
(same report, p. $50 testifes that he and
Mr.. English offered to do the printing for
40 per cent. of the amount paid by the
Government.
George W. Bowman testifes before the
same committee, (same report p. 62,) in
regard to the tricks of the trade, as follows:
For instance, the message and documents
"would be ordered by the Senate, and
certificate would be given by the Super
"iutendeat of Public Printing to Mr..