The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-04-10
NATIONAL PRINTING,


There are 63,O 63 titles in Major Ben:
Perley Poore's recently published de
scriptive Catalogue of Government Pub
locations" And it is estimated that
there are at least 10000 titles not in
cluded in this compilation. 1t is pref
ty safe to say, therefore, that the Gov
eminent has published since its organ
ization $4,000 distinct works, so that
the Pub. Docs as they are irrever-
emily called, would alone make a libra
~ that would rank among the largest
in the country.
The most complete collection of these
documents is that in the Boston Public
Library; the next in fullness is found
in the Congressional Library, and the
third large collection is probably owned
by the antiquarian book firm of Anglim
& Co., of this city. These dealers are
now completing a full set of public
documents from the Twenty-third Con-
gress. Only few volumes are miss
ing, and these they expect to find, and
when the collection is finished they es-
innate it will contain 10000 titles The
price of this library is set at $1,000,
and, as all the volumes which compose
it were printed at the public expense
and distributed gratuitously, this sum
should represent a good profit to mid
dlemen.
The documents are of all sizes and
relate to every imaginable topic. Some
are great thick quartos, like the census
volumes or the medical History of the
War; And at the other extreme are
thousands OF pamphlet reports on small
matters. But it should be noted that
the bills introduced in the Congresses
are not included in the titles, if they
were, the total would be high in the
hundreds of thousands. The largest
single publication ever undertaken by
the Government is the tenth Census, "
which, if completed, would fill about
twenty-four large quartO volumes.
Only half of these have been issued or
ever will be, but even as it is the Cen
tennial Census is probably the most
voluminous public document, not count
ing as one serial the various annual
reports. No donbt the finest and cost
liest group of publications relate to the
Government surveys. Many of these
reports are superbly gotten up, CO.
piously illustrated, and accompanied by
maps of the highest scientific and me-
chanical excellence. One special series
of twenty separate titles relate to the
canals, routes and Isthmus of Panama.
Then there are reports of expeditions to
the Arctic and to the Amazon, reports
on the cholera, on birds. and bugs, and
grasses, on various branches Ofpolitical
economy, on the Indian from every
standpoint; many elaborate reports on
patents; the learned volumes put forth
under the auspices of the Smithsonian
Institution; such bulky documents as
the stenographic reports of the Star
Route trials and the Guiteau
trial; codification of the land
laws, and the many publications
'elating to the civil war. These are
all executive documents, put out, that
is, by the departments. Then, in adj
dition, there are the Congressional
documents which include the Record,
which alone has now swollen to seven
or ten thick quartos for each Congress;
the great volumes full of tedious and
interminable testimony in committee
investigation, and the thousands of
smaller committee reports.
The pace of the Government press
has kept up with the rapid progress of
the country in all directions, Accord
ing to the index the documents for the
first quarter of century were about
1000; for the next quarter. $500; for
the third quarter, 20, 900; for the fourth,
22,500; and the annual output now
runs up to about 1000 titles annually.
Then it must be remembered that the
editions are much larger than in the
early days. Rarely are less than 500
copies of a document printed. and fire.
quently the edition is many times that
size. OF the annual report of the
Commissioner of Agriculture 100000
copies are issued and distributed.
The United States Government is, in
short, the greatest publishing house in
the world. By the side of its resources
such an establishment as the Harpers
becomes quite small. There are on the
pay roll 400 compositors. besides a
large force of superintendent, fore
men, etc. Fifty proof-readers are
employed, and A. pressmen, 115 press
feeders and "a ruling machine feeders.
The estimates call for 100000 reams OF
printing paper, or 4S,000,000 sheets,
each sheet making eight or sixteen
pages. - Washington Cor. N. T. San,