Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-05-05

turn out the work demanded by the opera
tiOns OF Congress and the several depart
ments of the Government. The garrulity OF
1926 House members. and the love of speech.
making Of se~venty-six Senators, all of whom
are possessed of an ambition to see their for
senic efforts in print ,furnishesf for about eight
months in the year the bulk of tie heavy
work in the big printing Office, because the
speeches that are made to-day must be
printed. bound in brochure form, and laid
| on the desks of members tomorrow.
The head to this gigantic printing estab-
lishment is called the Public Printer, and
is paid a salary OF $4,000 per year. The
Office is located bout one mile north of the
Capitol, and occupies q huge brick struct-
ure, qu~adrangular in form, with sides each
measuring 800 feet, so that each of it's four
stories are practically more thar 1000
feet in length by IT'S feet in width,
with every inch OF space utilized. The
clatter of more than a hundred presses
nearly stuns and bewilders the visitor
upon the first floor, which also contains
the immense stores Of paper stock, vaults
for the storage of cuts, stereotype plates,
etc. The court in rear of the press-room ia
oc~ upied by the roller and boiler houses.
engine, machine and carpenter shops.
together with the stables and coal houses.
The second floor has the Office OF the Public
Printer and his immediate subordinates,
together with the job and proof rooms, the
stereotyping and electrotyping depart
ment and the composing The third
floor is the bindery, and is also used for the
storage OF the enormous quantities OF
paper and binding materials necessary to
keep constantly at hand, while the fourth
floor contains the folding room, Congress
sional Record room, Patent Office speciica-
ton room and storage for more stock.
This description of the immense estab.
lishment, now necess:tated by the growth
of the country and the demand for in.
creased legislation by Congress, carries US
back instinctively to the time when a con-
tingent fund OF $4,000 was all that was
permitted to be drawn upon for "firewood,
stationery and printing work." and that
was in each year OF Washington's admins
t~ration. The first executive document
printed by order Of Congress was Mr.. JET
ferson's message on the Louisiana pur-
chase in 1903. It was not until 1919 that
the notion OF having a printer to Congress
was seriously entertained, and in that year |
each house elected it's own printer for the |
session. Nor did it take long for the printer |
thus elected to WELD sufficient influence |
over the members to perpetuate himself in
Office. There were Father Richie, Gales |
Seaton, Blair and Rives, who by turns be-
C0LAe VIC COuCFOAAuS eleHeut IN Une pOuClcS
of the country. for thew were the official !
OF the then Wing and Demo.
cratic parties respectively. The printing for
the XVII Congress cost 100000, and
this was such an extravagant sum that
at once adopted the contract sys-
lem, only to jump from the frying pan into
the fire, for the succeeding Congress doubled
it. So the next Congress created the office
Of Superintendent of Public Printing, a po-
sition held for many years by the lamented
In 1874 the Office of Public Printer
was created, and the appointment placed
at the disposal OF the President. Mr.. A. NJ.
clapp was the first a%ppointee to the re-
pace, Mr.. Defrees the second and
Sterling P. Rounds, the present occu.
pant. the third. In round numbers the cost
maintaining the Government printing
office is now bout two and a half millions
II dollars per annum, q SUN which, cOnsid-
the extent and character of the work
lone and the great saving OF time in doing
t, is cheap enough.