The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-11
AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.
HOW MONEY IS WASTED IN PUBLIC
 DOCUMENTS.

Over Ten Thousand Tons Of Printed Mat
 ter to Distribute-what Superintendent Ames Has to Say About the Distribu-
 ton of These Millions of Documents
 Not Run on Business Methods.
 Washington, Dec. 9.-once more un-
 der the big dome we witness a scene
 of life and activity. caused by the con-
 third congress. In the senate we are
 once more attracted by the ministerial
 voice of the world-renowned Peffer, who
 Is vigorously. as of yore. advocating
 one of his pet and improbable theories
 whereby the working man Is to here
 after live life of luxury and ease,
 and the firm but kindly voice of Platt l advancing good common-sense ideas in
 some measure of great importance to
 the country. In the house Tom Reed, as he Is always called, sits with look on his face which would bring 6 smile to the lip of a grave digger, and thinks how year from now he will be once more in his old place as speaker of the house.
 When I dropped into the senate the other day a resolution was just being introduced which called for the print ing of several thousand copies of cer- tain report, and this again called to my mind the fact realized by but few people, that annually millions of dol lars is wasted in the printing of vari- ous public documents. Of these publi- cations which consist of over mill lion volumes annually, and cost over million dollars to print and bind, and another million to handle and distrib- ute, probably not dozen are ever read, and many published years ago still remain in the hands of the super intendent of documents or the members of congress. Under the present regula- tions each member of congress is enti- tied to so many copies of each report or document, and out of the thousands received perhaps one or two are of some value These are quickly caught up by constituents, and the remainder the members get rid of by working them off on some constituent who is glad to get anything, no matter what, that he can obtain for nothing. The main distribution of these documents, however is made by the chief of docu- ments in the interior department. Every state and pubic library is enti- tied to some documents, and others are distributed to the public at large, and these are all sent from the interior de- partment, where thousands upon thou sands of these books are stored in the basement of the patent office building. Many of these books are very hand somely bound and contain drawings and plates which make them very ex pensive, although they are of very lit- tie public use, being reports of Indian commissioners, agricultural reports, Sc.
 In talking with MT. Ames the chief of the document division, the other day, he set forth the following views on the subject. In the first place, says MT. Ames, would recommend the erection of building in this city, adjacent to the Government Printing office and, if possible, near a railroad, so as to se- cure the standardization of the entire business of distributing documents in single bureau. These publications number more than one million vol umes a year. and the cost is very great; therefore the work of their print ing and distribution deserves most careful consideration, and if it be pos sible in any way to decrease the ex- pense or increase the practical use of public documents, this certainly should be done.
 There should be more care in the general make up of documents and es- pecially in their binding, so that they shall present more attractive appear ance.
 Then there should be a consolidation of the several editions with differing titles, in which it is customary to is- sue many documents, so that hereafter there shall be but one edition of any document, every copy bearing the same title. The classification of docu- ments should be modified so as to sim plify it, but most important of all should be the discontinuance of issuing documents in unbound form, excepting the few needed by congress for immedi ate use, as all the others are wasted, and during the last congress we had some one hundred and forty thousand volumes of the latter kind.
 MT. Ames advocates the preparation of comprehensive index, so as to make available for general use the vast stores of information now con- cealed therein with no clue by which to ascertain their definite location.
 MT. Ames is very much opposed to the general distribution of these docu- ments and says: The time has come when the distribution of hundreds of thousands of volumes annually to indi viduals as complimentary gifts should cease; that, say ten, public libraries in each congressional district should be supplied each with copy of all valu- able documents, and if there are not as many libraries as this in any district, then that documents should be deposi- ted with some county or town office for public use, and that those individuals desiring government publications should be supplied with them only in the way of sale at cost. Any other policy containing the least element of equity will necessarily involve the gov- Tnment in ever increasing expendi- lures for public printing as the popu- lation increases. This would materi- ally reduce expenses in various ways