The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1891-01-27
CHOOSING THE SUPERINTENDENT
OF STATE PRINTING BY ELEC-


On the 18th instant we presented brleny
the two chief and irresistible reasons why
the Superintendent of State Printing
upon these reasons to-day, and present
others in the same direction. When the
proposition originated, the first journal
istic advocacy of it was in the columns of
the RECORD UNION, January, 1889, and
during the session of the Legislature of
that winter we presented the matter with
as much force and vigor Us we could COM
mand. We have heard nothing advanced
against the idea since then that is really
worthy of consideration. The Legisla-
ture two years ago approved the PROPOSE
ton, and the bill to make it effective
went through the houses successfully.
This session the measure should be
pushed with such energy that there will
be no failure to make it law.
The convention of labor unions that
met in San Francisco in 1855, Endorsed
the idea of making the office of Superin-
tendent of State Printing an elective one,
and sent proposed amendment to the
Political Code, to the Legislature, to Sc
cure that end, it providing that that off,
Ger shall be competent, practical printer,
recognized as such by his craft. 1t
would be better to make the require
ment of qualification read that he shall
l,a oh
State gains by having the official quail
fled in the highest branch of his art, job
printing, nine-tenths of the work turned
out from the State Printing .Office3,bei
job work, as it is known among the craft
of printers.
The reasons why the State should
adopt the suggested policy are strong,
clear, and to our mind unanswerable.
There is nothing gained by the State in
making the officer appointive. If there is
any profit in that policy, then the more
officers appointed and the fewer elected
the better. The true policy is to bring
the Government, upon all lines, as near
to the people as is possible; to make re-
sponsibility both of the officer and the
people direct; to remove as far as possible
the temptation to farm out an office or to
traffic in its patronage.
The freer that an official is from politi-
cal Intermediates between himself and
the people the better. That is truism
lying at the very basis of Republican in
stitutions and upon which rests in large
part the theory and practice of self-gov-
eminent. No officer should hold his po-
sition as gift of patronage on the part
of another official where it is possible or
convenient to elect to such position.
There are few cases in which boards,
commissions, and officials of limited
powers, and who are executive agents,
are better appointed than elected, since
over them the Governor has, and is re-
quired to exercise supervisory power:
there are some other cases in which it is
wise that the Executive should choose
the administrators of trusts, but they are
few, and the Office of State Printer is not
in the category.
Everyone knows who has examined
the subject at all closely, that an indie
pendent Superintendent of State Print
ing, chosen by the people and response
BILE directly to them, can do the public
printing for much less than superin-
tendent who is tied up by political 6bliga-
tions under which he is appointed. The
appointed superintendent is not a free
will being; his office is made, despite the
most conscientious efforts on his part, a
haven for workers with "a pull" and for
political pensioners who, very often, if
compelled to earn their livelihood upon
the merit of their ability, could not do so
by a wide margin.
There is no reason whatever why the
State Office should not be conducted as
economically and produce as well
and ckeaply as the establishment
of a private job printer. But it never can
do that, as long as outside agencies have
the power to fill subordinate positions.
No one is ignorant of the fact that when
new Superintendent goes into office a
multitude of applicants swarm for posi-
tions. But few of them, however, apply
TO him alone; the struggle is, and always