Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-14
UNCLE SANS BIG PRINT SHOP
The Present Quarters Are Entirely
Too Circumscribed.
DARK. pINeY AND DANGEROUS.
Begun Forty Years Ago, 1t Is Now
Very Sadly Out of Date and
Decidedly Shaky The
Records Home.
A New Building Needed.


WASHINGTON, June 13.- Special to TIM
BEE. Very determined efforts will be mada
in congress this winter TO bring about the
construction Of a new building for tho gov
ernment printing office. The Inconvenience
and loss of time aggregate more every year.
together with the s5, 900 paid for storage,
than the interest on the money for an entire
ly new establishment The present building
was constructed before the war; is four
stories in height about 350x2O0 feet on the
ground, has narrow windows, is dark and
dingy, unhealthful and unsafe.
As announced by the dispatches few days
ago, the building is so sbalSy that orders
have been issued forbidding the removal of
heavy packages from one part of the struc-
ture to another The government has never
built an entirely new structure for the gov
ernment printing office. IT has been put to-
gether by piece-meal. Away back in the
ffties the government printing was done by
Cornelius Wendell, who put up the nucleus
for the present government printing Office by
getting together a lot of old material and
constructing building by sections. 1t was
finally discovered that there was so much
corruption in the contracts for printing that
the government bought the plant, and APP
pointed John b. Defrees public printer. For
some years after the government undertook
TO conduct its own printing, the congress
sional debates were published by private
concern in a paper known as 1.-THE Congress
sional Globe" which in 1873 was transferred
to the government, printing office and
its name changed to 1.-THE Con.
gressonal Record" The government
printing except postage stamps, stamped
envelopes, and money order blanks.
The government printing Office is the
largest printing establishment IN the world.
1t has over twenty-five hundred regular en,-
ployes. There are in the press room, incud-
ing the branches in the various departments,
about hundred presses, and $50 men and
women are employed in the press room
alone. In the binding and folding rooms
there are over one thousand employees.
There are nearly seven hundred compositors
and laborers in the composing room. All but
the presses are on the three upper floors, and
If these should give way the crush and loss
of life would be beyond description.
Had MIR. M ID. Helm been appointed
government printer-and great many of
the oldest and most influential men in con-
gress and Washington believed he would be
up to the last day before the appointment
was made-he would have recommended
congress- some very radical changes in the
government printing office by which better
WORK would have been done, more of 1t
turned out, and undoubtedly saving made
to the treasury. In q talk today with Mr..
Helm about the needs of the office he said:
"If the government intends to continue
doing its own printing, new and modern
building is an absolute necessity. The
building now in use is unit for the purpose
in every way, besides being q daily menace
to the lives of the 2,500 employees and to
millions of dollars worth Of public property.
The Office should be thoroughly reor-
ganized from the ground up. Its present or
ganization is the growth of thirty years. and
many of the methods are antiquated. BY
the adoption of new methods in connection
with a convenient building and modern ma
dollars COul0 n
nually saved the government. No branch Of
the publ service is in a worse condition to-
day than the public printing Notwithstand-
ing the claims of the different public prin-
ters that the work in the Office Is up, or
nearly up to date, the fact is that it is years
behind. Many documents ordered by con-
gress to be printed years ago, have never yet
been printed, and for many more only por-
ton of the copies have been furnished. The
amount OF printing will be largely increased
during the present and next year, because
of the immense number of blanks and pub
lications that will be ordered for the eleventh
census. 1t Will be a physical impossibility,
with the present facilities for the public
printer to DO the amount Of printing that
will be required of him in the next twelve
months.
"The absolute necessities of the case de-
mand a new and commodious building,
Qualifications Of the laws relating to public
printing, thorough reorganization of the
Office, and the adoption of new methods and
moro modern machinery Unless these re-
quisites are provided the government would
better stop doing. its own printing. BY
an intelligent codification Of the laws
at once thousands of dollars an
nually can be saved to the government in
stopping the printing Of tons of useless mat
ter. No branch Of the public service affords
better field for reform than the public
printing. Much of the fault is with con-
gress itself. Printing is ordered indiscrimi-
nately, and without regard to, or knowledge
of, its utility or cost. concerted action on
the part Of the joint committee on printing
and the spuplic printer could bring about ?
statutory change in this respect. Much
printing that is now done in the government
printing Office should not be done at all. and
more should not be done by the government
but by private parties. The abuses have
Kept pace with the growth Of the country,
the reforms have not.
II notice by the newspapers that the COM
mittee on printing and the public printer, ac-
compauied by the architect of the capitol,
made trip through tie Office the other day.
with view of doing something to increase
the safety of the building. 1t is high time;
The building-a combination OF barn and
brewery-has been q death trap for twenty
years. 1t is not only perfect Undertook,
but has been in constant danger OF collaps-
ing utterly and destroying hundreds OF lives
and an immense apount OF property Inc
investigation disclosed some startling
things For instance, while the committees
was in tho bindery truck loaded with
bound books was being hauled across the
floor, resulting in manifest vibration OF the
building. sThe architect was asked how
much weight could be safely hauld across
the floor IN the truck. Aftey an invesuga-
reached at 1000 pounds. After the
committee had gone the truck was
weighed and 1T was found that it's load
weighed Is, 600 pounds-oyer seven times what
the architect claimed was safe. Yet lust such
loads are hauled scores OF times every day In
the year. In the composing room q table
loaded with type in pages was pointed out.
The architect was asked now much the table
could hold with safety. He put the danger
point at two tons. Yet the table at that very
time was found To be weighed down with five
tons. Either the architect has no correct
idea of what is the danger point, or else the
government is guilty of ieopardizng the lives
OF its $500 employees in the most reckless