The Brookhaven leader., 1883-04-19
WPUB. DOCS.v

80 81 'PUDs DUCS."
The mail cars leaving Washington are
burdened every day with public docu-
ments, and every Congressman as he
leaves the city pays one last visit to the
"folding-room at the Capitol to see
how his documents are getting off. The
entire force in the folding-room is busy
as busy can be, and quantities of the
documents have accumulated at the
post-office owing to the inability of the
sz authorities to furnish mail cars in which
to carry, them off as fast as they are
mailed. The fact is, impossible as this
may appear, the amount of this kind of
matter now furnished by order of Con-
gressmen for transportation through the
mails is more than carload a day.
BY carload is meanttwepty thousand
pounds "There are" said Superin-
tendent Robinson, of the House folding
room, in speaking of the subject to-day,
"there are sent from our folding-room
to the post-office every day, now, about
two hundred sacks of these documents
books of all sorts and sizes, and upon
all subjects that the Government Printer
has been ordered to discourse upon"
"And what do these two hundred
sacks weigh apiece?"
about one hundred and twenty-five
pounds-that makes twenty-five thou
sand pounds. Then add one-third more
for the amount sent out from the Senate
document-room, and YOU have about the
size of our daily mail nowadays"
"Over thirty-three thousand pounds,
p ehP" -
Eyes"
- "And all carried free, of course?"
Yes, it could not go otherwise. 1t
would break up the average Congress
man to pay the postage on his docu-
ments. And, indeed, it seems quite
proper that these books should become
free, for they are proper educators.
They go everywhere and are read by
all classes of people. They are, as a
rule, very judiciously distributed, each
Congressman sending his books to peo-
pie whom they will interest. For in
stance, member has seven or eight
hundred Agricultural Reports, or 'ag' 5,
as We term them, and a couple of hum
dred Consular Reports on mercantile
matters, hundred Engineers Reports,
a couple of hundred on engineering, as
many reports of the Railroad Com
missioner, some more about patents,
and SO on; of course he sends the agri-
cultural reports to the farmers in his
district, the reports of the consuls to
the merchants and manufacturers, those
upon financial topics to financiers, and
so on through the list. More than that,
where member has no constituents in
terested in any of these particular sub
jects, and many who are interested in
another, he trades off his documents
that his people don't want for those of
; another they do want, and so really
, they are made to go as far as possible,
and do as much good as could be expect
edfrom general distribution of this sort. a
"What is there in this talk that men,
bers sell their documents to secondhand
dealers hereP"
Nothing, think. AT least know
of no such cases. I do know, though,
that they often make trades with these
men upon the principle indicated in the
trades that mentioned few minutes
ago, and by that means enable them
selves to furnish their constituents a
large number of books that are really
valuable to them" ..4.e .''i
How many volumes each do mem-
bers get?'' In
r.t That depends altogether on the
number ordered by the act Of Congress
Now this year each mcsiber gets ooAlc-
thing oyer seven hundred agricultural
reports. That is the largest number of
!. any one publication" -n'
"How many different publications
are there?" e ''~' -7E ..f.
s "Some of the members sent out this
year as many as two hundred and twen-
ty-tive different works, not all of them
publications of this year. however, i''
You keep the publications of former
years on hand, then, do you?" f
s." Yes: some of them. Some run as
far back as twenty years; of others we
have none more than a year or two
back. The more valuable ones, of
course, are picked up rapidly by the
members for themselves and their
friends" sass r @At> ,.f
Are many of them so valuable,
thenp'' ar
aoal tsYes; some run as high as twenty
q five dollars for a set. OF course, that is
exceptional; but there are a few cases
= where they run that high.p
How many volumes do you think
you send out a year?" 9at
81 think about seven hundred thou
"a sand. I.haye no definite record of The
( number. but think that it must run up
TO that number" s7.r es ,i
adding one-third for the Sem
ate, and some more for the depart
ments, it makes million volumes a
year. does itp' fC lan
that, i suppose-and that.
you know, is exclusive of the, speeches
yof members, in pamphlet form, of which
they send us great many TO fold and
MALL "' - ,4'is ~ tgri '.'.'S'
.'How manyp" lgia'''i 800
n "Well. all the way from one thou
sand to one million apiece, -" -. Us baa
''One million! You don't mean to
say that any one member has sent out
a million copies of his speeches?"
"Yes, and more than that. One
member of this Congress has sent out
q million and a quarter of his speeches. :"