The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-12-03

ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF BOOKS /
copy producers3 l don't know, and don't
believe any one knows, how many separate
publications Uncle Sam gets out in year,
but it must be an enormous number, en-
bracing everything in the book and pam
phlet lire you can think of, from little half
page pension bills to huge tones of thou
sands of pages each, full of maps and
charts.
Let US try to gain an idea of the magni-
tude of Uncle SANS operations in the pub
lishing line by looking over his output for
q single year. OF course we shall be able
TO mention only some of the more impor-
tant books just to show how the pages pile
up and the fat volumes accumulate by the
hundreds of thousands. Abridgment of
message and documents, $40 pages, $4,000
copies, cost $4,000 Report of the commits
sion of education, 36, 900 copies, cost ST 900.
Report of chief Of engineers, $500 copies,
cost 100000. This looks like very expen-
sive book for Uncle Sam to print and give
away at 81 a copy, but it must be remem-
bered that it consists of four volumes, or
nearly 5000 pages. 1t is one of the largest
books which the government issues every
year and one of the most important, show
ing the progress of the engineering work of
the government in all the rivers and har-
bors of the country.
Thousands of citizens throughout the
union have been favored with copies of the
annual report of the secretary of the
treasury, book of more than a thousand
pages. Receivers often use these volumes
with reckless indifference, unmindful
of the fact that every book cost Uncle
Sam 81 10. Another big work which comes
out every year is the Commercial Rela-
tions of the United States" usually in two
volumes of a thousand pages each. Only
5000 copies are printed, but they cost near
~ 50 apiece The most expensive book
per copy of the regular publications is the
biennial Register" or Blue Book,
which contains a list of all the employees Of
the government, their salaries, whence ap-
pointed, where employed, etc. 1t is in two
volames, each almost as large as Web
ster's unabridged, and though only 1920
copies are printed the cost is S26,500, or IS
for each set of two volumes. 1t costs more
than 600 to set the type alone. The an
nual report of the Smithsonian Institution
usually costs SIS, 600 for $1,000 copies, and
it is one of the few books of which Uncle
Sam does not print nearly enough.
These are few of the regular publica-
IlCUS. AlbtE uSu ICGulLSo LAOll
his i'll fated north pole expedition he
wrote a report for the government to print.
He also wrote book for private publish
ing house The latter came out about a
year before the official publication, but
when this did come out it was very fine
affair." 1t was in two volumes, and the
5000 copies of each printed cost Uncle Sam
Just S20,e0 Uncle Sam has spent small
fortune on books descriptive and illus
trative of Alaska. One came out a few
DAYS ago, 6,000 copies; cost $4,000. Every
time a senator or representative dies his
colleagues make speeches about him, and
TO print and bind these speeches in beauti-
fui little books puts Uncle Sam to an en-
pense of about 81 900. Railway switchmen
have whole libraries of them in thsiI
shanties, and thus revel in stories of pathos
and eloquence. and get a little sentiment
In their lives, otherwise SO commonplace.
A book much priced by farmers ano
stock raisers is the report of the bureau Of
animal industry 1t usually has about
500 pages, contains 81 600 worth of engrav
ing, and the 10000 copies printed cost near
ly $4,000. 1t must he admitted that in The
way of giving information on special sub
jects to the people, free of cost to them
Uncle Sam is doing a great work. He il
printing the Rebellion records, of which