News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-10-14
The Government Printing.
TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED MEN
AND WOMEN.
from a. Washington. ID. ca letter.

from Washington, ID. CO. letter.
Benedict, the new Public Printer,
will be almost like Alexander Selkirk-
monarch of all he surveys-in his new
domain. The public printing office is
nominally under charge of the Secretary
of the Interior, but in very much the
same relation as the Department of Ag-
riculture is to the Interior Department,
with powers and prerogatives peculiarly
its own, under claims of legislation pre-
served from time immemorial in the va
rious appropriation bills by Congress
men VINO have had their own happy
wishes to carry out in the way of patron
age at the hands of the Public p inter.
Mr.. / emmett will have two thousand five
hundred men and women under him a
brigade of egulars well drilled and dis
ciplined, aud drawing salaries enough
to officer the arm es Of all Europe. The
building in which these people are en-
ployed is three hundred feet long and
two hundred feet wide and four or five
stories high, built expressly for a colos-
sal printing once. Something like a
quarter of mill on dollars has been
spent on this building in the mere st
of construction. The presses, type, pa
per cutters, engines, machinery and all
the thousand and one accessories of a
good printing office are valued at a mil
lion and a quarter dollars There is not
a building in the country that contains
so many electric lights, and many of
them are kept burning day and night.
A little army of policemen are required
to patrol the floors day and night,
winding up their little Waterman s
clocks every fifteen minutes at each end
of their beat, thus showing to their su-
perintendent whether they have per
formed their duty faithfully or not. The
public printer gets 81, 500 year and
has private secretary who gets 81, 800
and is allowed a carriage and team.
His chief clerk gets 5000 year. He
has a staff of subordinates, deputies,
paymasters and timekeepers, who get
salaries ranging all the way from 81, 200
to So, 500. The two thousand five hun
dred employees go to work at eight
o'clock in the morning, have an hour
for lunch and are let out at five o'clock
in the afternoon. Thus they work two
hours more than the ordinary Govern
ment clerk. There is a large night
let off at three a. m, unless during the
session of Congress there is an excess OF
speeches on the part of Senators and
Representatives, when the hours are
heightened at special rates. The bind,
cry connected with the office is one of
the largest in the country. 1t employs
four hundred men. There are over two
hundred colored people employed in the
building. Among the compositors are
a half a dozen negroes, who make good
workmen. There are about a dozen
women who set type, and they do it
well. Last winter one OF them earned
at piece wages $3.50 in single month.
The average compositor makes about
500 month. None of the officers
and employees in this whole building
come under the Civil-Service rules.
They are regarded as skilled operatives
and are so exempted. No office in all
the Government affords such opportu-
mites for use under the old system of
patronage in elections.