The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-03-04

congress was 10 Sp0nO IL.
The public printing now costs over
$2,Qo0, 900 a year, and more than half Of
that large sum, which represents the in
terest on 50, 600, 900 of per cent. bonds.
could be saved by any proper system OF
administration, without pinching the
service In the least degree. The indie
fensible prodigality aud wilful waste are
what consume the peoples treasure in
this branch of the public service.
Look at the manner of doing the
work. In the first place, both branches
of Congress order printing indefinitely.
There Is joint committee, to be sure,
which pretends to supervise these orders
but no substantial control is exercised.
They give out the contracts for paper,
and the more printing ia authorized, the
more paper is consumed. Behind the
contracts and their fulfilment lies a
secret. nn
A slight difference In Inequality and
the weight of the paper might make a
large difference in somebody g pocket at
the end Of the year. And the fact is
undoubted that many of the public
documents contain paper of different
qualities, while the belief obtains that
this experience Is not at all accidental.
Who is the gamer cannotbe positively
asserted, but the Printing Ring, in and
out of Congress, could shed good deal
of light on this Interesting point.
Independent of Congress-, all the de-
partments are allowed to order whatever
printing and binding they may require.
A nominal Limitation provides no res
trafnt Whatever. They go on, caring
nothing for the pretended restriction.
How this privilege is abused single
Illustration will make known. A late
Secretary of State was so much enamor-
ed -With-his oWn-Work- that he ordered
one hundred acts of the diplomatic cor
respondence during his whole term,
sometimes two volumes in year,to bo
bound In the best morocco, and finished
in the best style for distribution among
his personal friends. The binding cost
about $6 a volume. If he had put his
hand into the Treasury and stolen that
money the crime would have been ex-
actly the one he omitted. Yet he
was .sPremfer!"
There Is a private printing Office
attached to the Treasury, to the Inte-
rior, and to the Post Office Departments,
and to the census, under the pretence
that these offices are necessary for conf
dental work, while the treaties, and the
correspondence relating to them, and
other matters of executive session of the
highest confidence, are printed at the
Government Office.
There are nearly two thousand en-
ployees connected with the printing es-
Enlistment, many of whom are put
there, and sometimes most discredita-
bly,, by members of Congress as an Offset
for their votes. This patronage is one
Of the causes of tho loose expenditures,
for which there is no check but a sound
public opinion brought to bear on the
offenders.
"A very large part of the documents
published by Congress find their way
into the junk shops and paper manufac-
tories as waste material. The more
valuable publications, which do not go
into the hands of Vigilent members,
who are on the lookout for their rights,
are procured by ring and sold at
enormous profits. This could not be
done without collision on the part of
certain officials, who have shared in
the spoils and grown rich.
Propositions are now pending before
the Committee on Printing Of the
House alone which are estimated to
cost over one and a-quarter million of
dollars. This squandering comes from
the government assuming to carry on
trade In which 1t should have no
part. If the printing Office were RACED
to the ground, and the whole machin-
cry and type were thrown into the Po-
tomac, it would be positive economy.
The thumb in China is regarded as
better means of Identification than the
face itself. Celestial vagabonds are not
photographed for rogues' gallery, as
In this country, but their thumbs are
smeared with lamp. black and pressed
down on piece of paper, thus fur.
nishing rude impression, which is
carefully kept In The police records. A
face may be altered, say the Chinese,
but a thumb never changes.
A Rochester doctor has earned pri.
vate box in the opera house there, 70,
me rest OF his life, because his patient
the builder and owner, although sick
did not die, but saw the completion O
his opera house. This Is reversing TIL,
order OF things. 1t is more apt to be tn,
doctors " no confer private boxes upo,
their Detroit Free Press.
Old Abrams wisest remark: .sIIf d