Evening star., 1894-03-02
THE EPOSTAGESTAMPS
Chief johnson of the Bureau of En-
craving and Printing Talks.
THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD PRINT THEM
They Ate Securities and Should Be
Carefully Guarded.
l. ARGE NNU AL S SAVING

Mr.. Claude NJ johnson. chief Of the bu-
reau of engraving and printing, made the
following statement to a Star reporter to-
day in regard to the postage stamp con-
tract:
''The Postmaster General, who is direct
ed by law to prepare postage stamps, Is
now expending for them more than
$780, a year, and the number used is in
creasing At the rate of about per cent
per annum. Under the recent advertise
ment the bid of the American Bank Note
Company, which has had the contract for
a number of years, was sl62. .4Ol.6l. based
upon the consumption of 1893. The bureau
Of engraving and printing, with the ap-
proval Of the Secretary of the Treasury
submitted an estimate, based upon the
actual cost of doing the work, and offered
to do it at sl39, 1882, proposing thereby
to the Postmaster General a saving OF
$22.91409 a year in the expenditures of his
department which he has accepted.
An Annual Saving Of $5O,OOO.
1.-The cost of additional machinery is in
cluded in the estimate submitted by the
bureau; therefore, after the first year 1t can
be safely estimated that an annual saving
of $50.OOO will accrue to the government
by having the postage stamps printed In
the bureau of engraving and printing. 1t
has been argued that the government
usually pays higher wages than private cor
porations, and, therefore, cannot do the
work cheaply. If this be true (whicn
is questionable so far as this bureau Is con-
cerned) il is offset in several ways, but
mainly by the fact that an annual proht
of from $4,000 to $4,000 is not included
in the estimates submitted by the bureau;
whereas that profit is the inducement
which causes private corporation or IN
dividual to seek the contract
They Are Government Securities.
Postage stamps are securities of the
government that should be surrounded in
their manufacture by as many checks
against surreptitious printing and guarded
with all the care and vigilance that are
exercised in the manufacture of bank notes.
In fact there is a much greater possibility
of fraudulent printing and use of postage
stamps than of bank notes. The 2-cent
stamp is printed in sheets of 400. and is,
therefore, worth s. per sheet They are
made with one printing, and If used fraud
ulently have no serial number or mark of
any kind whatever TO guide the officers of
the government In the detection and stop
page of such fraud. The government, under
the present contract system. is depending,
first upon the honesty of the contractor.
and second upon the honesty of the con-
tractors employees. 1t would be absolutely
impossible to detect the difference between
a stamp issued by the Post Office Depart
ment and one that had been disposed of
and used through the connivance of either
the contractor or the employees engaged in
doing the work.
Checks at the Bureau.
when printed in the bureau of engraving
and printing the stamps will be subjected
to the same check-register system and
guarded with the same vigilance that have
accomplished the manufacture of billions
of dollars of bank notes, bonds and other
securities without the loss of even a sheet
of paper. This, in my opinion, is a result
that has not been and will not be obtained
by private corporation. 1t is attended by
the expenditure of a large annual outlay
that would seriously impair the profit on
work done by private parties. My purpose
in proposing to secure this work was SIM
ply to serve the public interests. / found,
upon taking charge of the bureau of engrav-
ing and printing, the most complete plant
of its kind in existence, and it seemed
strange that the postage stamps, repre-
senting millions of dollars of governmental
securities. should be printed outside of the
governments own establishment, when, by
the addition of a small amount of machinery
and of not more than 100 employees, the
whole work of the government could be
given the benefit of almost perfect security
against fraud in the bureau at a large an
nual saving In the cost of manufacture"