Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1889-04-19
WORK OF INVESTIGATORS
What They Discovered Regarding the
State Printing Contract.
They Find Legislators TO Have Been
the Principal AggreSsorS
Just Little Bit of Testimony Given
Will be of Interest.

To the Legislature:
Your con mIttee appointed under oiut
resolution NJ. u, A, to inquire In.u the
matter of state prln'lng, suomi the
toloSing sta'emeut of tacts, conclusions
sud accomk anyILg biIl-:
PursuauG To instructions, the com
mittee sought 10 ascertain facts bearing
the tolloslng propositions:
| First-Whether The expenditures of
the state printing matter xyeeds the
amount hat ecolomy and necessity
would warrant.
Second-whether the system Of award
lns the contract for the state printing
could be materially improved, aud what
methods are employed, II any, for svad-
ing irs supulatlons.
Thlrd--Whether large Quantities of nub
lie documents have been ordered prints
which have never been disposed of, and
which are of no use or pubic benefit.
To make an exhaustive inyestig = alton of
the public printing OF the state since the
enactment of the present Bearing on that
subject, covering period of fifteen
years, would require more time than the
average legislative session will permit;
the committee has, therefore, rather en-
deavored to learn such facts SIS will lead
and revision of the existing law leading
to the exercise of greater economy than
in the past. We believe that the passage
of the accompany ing bills will result in a
| saving to the state of upwards of $25, 900
| for each biennial term, and this estimate
| Is based on actual facts and figures pre-
| pared in the office of the secretary of
state. William Foster acted as the official
| steaographer during the sessions of the
| committee, and the following witnesses
were examined under oath: Gen. G. 2.
| Chapman, who was Gjutant-genersl
| when the Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers
WAS printed; Charles A. Leith, prin T.
ing clerk in the office of the secretary of
state. W. l.. JOslin, assistant superin-
tendent of public property, the three
| commissioners of printing. Secretary OF
| State. Z. G. Timme; Attorney General, c.
| E. Estabrook, ard Stats Treasurer, ii. B.
| Harshaw. l.. Nj Fay, u member of the
firm having the contract for the public
| printing; NJ. j. Cantwell, W. Ii. Bennett
! and Geo. L. Eddy, three expert printers,
the latter from Milwaukee; ohm Salzerof.
Milwaukee,; W. j. Park and Gottleib
| Grimm, binders; 4. G.. Thwaites, secre-
tary of the Wisconsin historical society;
John Bergman, state librarian. The
!
evidence, are these:
| First-That the expenditures of the state
| for printing matter exceed the amount
| that economy and necessity would war
rant.
Second. That large quantities of pub
| lie documents have neen printed, for
which there WAS ana is no apparent pub
! lie demand, and which are of no use or
! public benefit.
| Third. That the evidence does not
show that there has been any fraud in
the matter of public printing, but that
| precedents, which became of long stand
| ing have come TO have practically the
force of unwritten law, have materially
and unnecessarily increased the cost.
Ihe evidence shows that there has
been a great deal of extravaganza IN
public printing, and that the legislature
| Is primarily responsible for it having
passed without dee consideration and
certainly Without Judgment numerous
bills for an increase in the volume of
printing, as appears from a table furnish
I'd the committee by the secretary of
state. The number of regular reports
| anj documents he's increased from 5000
volumes in 1882, to 235 600 i'll 1888, or
| more than 300 per cent. Exclusive of oc-
casional publications not included in the
| regular list, whicn in the aggregate
amount TO many thousands annually.
| The cost of tse printing has of cours-
also multi piled; white for the year 1882
the total cost was S2S 7l9 10, for rhe
biennial term of 1S87-S8 1t was $113,
724 II. 1t is proper to state, how-ver,
that this latter sum includes about S13 600
used for the roster. These figures rep-
| resent only the mechanical work and
| binding, the state furnishing all the
paper used by the public printer, which
| therefore constitutes separate item.
| As illustrating the extravaganza, or ra' her
| carelessness of the Legislature, the com
mittee calls attention to the practice OF
ordering the Bpe Book. Instead of
ordering at once the whole number de-
sired for use, 1t has become customary To
give two orders, one for the original
edition and the second for a supplement
tary larger issue. This unbusiness prsc
tice has caused the Blue BOOK to cost
almost $4,000 more than it could and
ought to have been obtained for By re-
quiring the state TO pay twice for tbs
com position.
The growth of printing for the state
has had mushroom tendencies, and we
suggest the ACCESSIBILITY OF 3 revision of
| the puOllCablOu list Dy lH6 leglS' at
frequent intervals. One OF the bills
which we submit with this report shows
the number of copies of each publication
which we recommend be published
While the agg regate shows a large reduc
ton, the committee has acted in no mig
gardIy spirit, but has fixed q figure in
each instance beyond which state libereLty
ought not to 90. Tne figures are based
on the evidence adduced before the com
nittee by questioning state officials and
others who are in a position to know the
facts as to demand and necessity. In
this list We have omitted the useless vol
ume known as Governors Message and
accompanying Documents" com mprising
five thousand large books bien-
nislly for which there ap-
pears to be no legitimate demand and
which choke up the vaults in the base
ment of the capitol without subservine
any public whatever. The witnesses
questioned were unanimous in advising
the abolishing of this volumne. We are
also of the opinion, that many of the de
partmept reports are more bulky than
necessity requires, and i'll view of the
e. idence, recommend decreasing the
maximum number of pages as contained
in the accompanying bills.
we nn0 from the evidence, thdt exceed
ingly loose methods have obtained in the
ordering of miscellaneous printing. The
commission ers of printing have paid sb-
soluteiy no attention TO the matter of
printing. We deprecats the prsctice
which has permitted the several state de-
partments TO order vhes they pleas -
ed and as they pleased in the line of
printing, through the printing clerk, and
recommend that majority of the com
missioners of printing be required hence
forth TO pass upon ali orders previous TO
their being given TO the public printer.
In soHe of the book work, notably the
case es regards the session laws, the prin
ter ass not been required 10 com ply with
the Law which makes it incumbent upon
him 70 have the matter set up ss com
psctly IS possible, allowing him to charge
foil page price for large number of
fractional pages, aud thus materially in
creasing the pr1ce of the work. The
legislative printing is subiec. to the same
criticism.
In illustration of the loose methods
that have obtained, We may cite the most
cons picuoas example that came TO our
srtention-the binding of the roster OF
Wisconsin volunteers. Tits work va.
authorized By az act of the Legislature of
1885, sud the binding has co-t 81 10 1 5
more per volumne than il should have
cost or vas con en- plated sy the l-g's