The Brookhaven leader., 1883-04-19

"And does the Government pay for
these million and quarter of speeches
for political purposes?"
"0h, dear, no. The gentleman has
paid nearly fifteen thousand dollars
more than his entire salary in both ses-
siohs of Congress-for speeches alone.
The Government furnishes the envel-
opes, folds them, and sends them
through the mail. We have sent off
more than five million speeches in en-
velopes. But our envelopes don't cost
much when we buy them by the mill
ion, as we do here. We get them at
less than dollar thousand"
How does he get the addresses of
enough people to send out these speech
es in such large numbers?'
"Well, he furnishes each member as
many as he chooses to send, and keeps
four or five clerks busy sending them
out besides"
1.-The number of pounds of this mat
ter transported through the mails free
of charge must be something enor-
mous?''
"Yes it is. 1t would be impossible
to estimate it, except by the general
fact that we average hundred bags a
day the year round, and that they prob
ably average one hundred and twenty
five pounds apiece, making some five or
six million pounds, or say twenty-five
hundred to three thousand tons, or two
hundred and fifty carloads"
"And how many men do the work of
preparing this for the people?"
Here, in the folding-room, where
the books are wrapped and addressed,
we have thirty men, beside those in the
Office. But we ought to have twice the
number. Then that number is small
compared with the force at the Govern
ment Printing Office, where these books
are printed. There are between 1000
and 5000 employed there. Think of it !
Enough to make good-sized town. 1t
is the largest printing establishment in
the world"
"What particular sections get most
of these books?"
"Well. that is pretty difficult to an
swer. The scientific works tend toward
New England and the Middle States,
agriculture toward the Mississippi val
ley, mining both to the far West and to
the money centers, and so on. The de-
mand, however, is quite general, and
the distribution on a very broad basis. y
"Is the range of subjects considered
by these works a very wide one?''
Eyes, indeed! There are, as I said
awhile ago, from two hundred to
three hundred different works. Many
of them, of course, are only inter
esting to few, but there is GER
tainly not a citizen who would find
them all unintere sting. Take the report
of the census, for instance; it covers not
only ye, the population, but every other
conceivable subject, health, wealth, ag-
riculture, mining, manufacture, trade
and many other interesting and valua-
BILE topics. Then, there are the Consul
lar reports, Agricultural reports, Fish
Commission reports, coast and geoditic
surveys, a number of volumes on eth
nology, special report on diseases OF
swine, sheep husbandry, the Ethnologi-
cal Commission report, Powells s,lr-
veys west of the Tooth meridian Ga
very valuable set, finely illustrated and
1 full of interest), reports on mines and
mining, and on geological surveys in
the mining regions-and many others,
1 literally too numerous to mention.
They would make very valuable libra
ry in themselves"
Thousands upon thousands of these
volumes-hundreds of thousands, in
faet--still remain in the basement OF
the. Capitol. Some have been there
4 twenty years, some appear likely to re-
main much longer. In one room We're
thirty. thousand volumes, in another
ha.f as many. What fire they would
make if they should get fairly started
some day. And what world of infor-
nation they would carry if they were
distributed among the forty million
reading people of this country Wash
ington Cor. Chicago Journal.