The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-16
UNCLE SANS PRINT SHOP.
Just What 1t Costs TO Keep 1t Going Year
After Year.
(To be Concluded.)

From the Buffalo Express.
Uncle Sam issues every year from his
printing office about 1,000 900 volumes Of
various kinds of literature, at a cost of
somewhat more than $l,OOOOOO. NThese
consist largely of reports of various de-
partments of the government The total
weight of the copies printed of the last
annual report of the secretary of agri-
culture was sixty tons. Illustrations
are furnished by contractors outside.
Those made for the department of agri-
culture and more particularly for the
bureau of ethnology are very eXpen-
sive. The cost of illustrations some
times runs up to 100000 in a single
year. Money spent for bindings
amounts up to an enormous sum an
nually. For that purpose during the
last fiscal year We're used the skins of
$4,000 sheep, $500 imported hides of
Turkish goats for morocco" and great
quantities of the pelts of other beasts,
including 100000 square feet of Russia
leather, made from cowhide.
The government printing office turns
out 5000 blank books every year.
Some of these are very expensive. Three
of them are made annually for con-
gresS, to contain the names and ad-
dresses of senators and representatives
and their accounts with Uncle Sam,
which cost $65 each. Each of them
weighs eighty-five pounds and contains
200 pages. The paper of which they
are composed is the finest that can be
made, the quantity of it required for
-, 81 AInt ta,.in 10.
for the bindings cost $4S. No such
blank books are manufactured any
where else in the world as are produced
in this printing office. Nothing is too
expensive to be put into them, and the
lettering on their backs is of pure gold.
The Itinerary of n Bill.
An important part of the work Of the
government printing Office is the print
ing of bills for congress. Though only
a few hundreds of the measures sub
mitted to the national Legislature in a
year become laws, millions of copies
of them have to be printed. a bill
must go through great many phases
before it can become a law, and, during
the process of it's evolution, it has to be
Rillltu again anu dSdil' IL 10 oiiti'u
by u representative, let us say, in the
shape of a rough written draft. AS a
matter of course, it Is referred to its
appropriate committee and ordered to
be printed. The committee in due time
reports ii to the house, with or without
amendments. Then it is printed again.
Perhaps it may be further amended in
committee of the whole, in which case
it is printed once more. If it is passed
it must be printed again in a new form
This time ten copies only are printed
The words "a Bill" are stricken from
the title, and the words, "An Act" are
substituted. These ten copies are sent
one of them and forwards that indorsed
copy to the secretary of the senate. In
the senate the measure must now go
through the same sort of performance,
being reported to committee, amend
ed, etc, and at each stage 1t has to be
printed anew. If it passes the senate
with amendments, it goes back to the
house, which may refuse to concur.
THEN conferrees representing the two
houses discuss it, and 1t has to be
printed again and again, perhaps, If
finally passed, a single copy of it Is
printed on the finest parchment, and
this goes to the president of the United
States for his signature. 1t is now a
law, and is handed over to the depart
ment of state, to be filed away in the
nations archives.