The morning call., 1895-02-12
EXTRAVAGANCE IN PRINTING.
Mr.. keal'S Statements Denied by State
Employees.

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 11.-Although their
of the employees of the State printing Office
left their work yesterday afternoon. They
went before the Committee on Retrench-
ment to show why the State printing office
should not be abolished in accordance with
the recommendations of George E. Neal.
Mr.. Neal, who is manager of the Com
mercial Publishing Company of San Fran
cisco, appeared before the committee and
read little address full of figures and
statistics. He claimed that while Cali
fornia paid nearly $3.50, ,000 for her printing,
Illinois paid only S104, 900; Massachusetts,
$123, 106, and Ohio $69, ,507.
Yet all these States had more counties
and greater population than California.
The cause, he claimed, was the absolute
extravaganza and lack of business methods
in vogue at the State Printing Office, which,
he said afterward, had become really an
asylum for printers.
The accounts were absurdly vague, he
said, and it was impossible to find the
actual cost of anything. He then cited as
an instance a report of the Railroad Com
missioners. This filled eight pages 1t
was bound in cloth.
The edition of 500 volumes would have
cost practical printer S43, he said, and at
$75 there would have been heavy profit.
The State Printer charged up 1869. He
then announced that he could do the
States work for $50 600 and thus save it
vast sum.
W. F. German, Emmett Phillips, J. c..
i Ior {
of the State Printing Office, appeared with
elaborately written defenses. They showed
that Mr.. Meals figures, which had been
printed exclusively in the CALL, and which
that gentleman repeated to the commits
sion, were not trustworthy.
He had given the cost of Massachusetts,
State printing as $123, 106 "a. This they
showed by the reports was only one item,
the total cost being $174 BOB A.
Other similar cases were told of. These
figures, they added, did not include the
stationery, account-books and printing of
the commissions. Mr.. Meals motive in
offering to do for $4,000 what cost the
State $3.50, 600, they urged, was bad one
They thought he was working in the in
terest of the school ring, and after getting
lIc DldbS L IlillIilS OIllCe dDOuSUeu
try to wipe out the State textbooks.
They claimed that the expense lay with
the useless commissions and the reckless
way in which they ordered stationery. He
recommended that each department be
forced to pay for all the printing done for
it instead of having the money come from
a general printing fund.
Mr.. Neal protests that he had nothing to
do with the sehoolbook ring. While he
could not do the State printing for $4,000,
he would be willing to take the contract
in order to have the inside track for sue
ceeding contracts.
The matter was taken under considera-
ton.
A representative from the Attorney Gen
erals Office appealed to the committee for
more help. 1t was decided to give Mr..
Fitzgerald another deputy, whose duty it
viii be to attend meetings of the Board of
Examiners in place of the Attorney Gen
eral.
The Committee on Public Morals decided
to allow North of Alameda to withdraw his
bill making football playing misde-
meanor. They recommended for passage
Pendleton's bill establishing a board of
three commissioners to examine State asy-
lums.
Glass of San Luis Obispo, representing
the Board of Health, presented a bill to the
Committee on Public Health providing
for an appropriation of $4,000 with which to
establish an anti-toxine plant for the pro-
duction of the diphtheria cure. The board
was willing to give up their attorney for
the microbe appropriation, and the bill
was reported favorably