The evening times., 1897-01-23
EVILS TO Be CORRECTED
Important Changes in the Print
ing of Public Documents.
THE BILL NOW In CONGRESS
Only Two Objections to the Measure
Prepared by Supt. Crandall, of
Have Been Made-The Want of
System and the Reoults.

a bill is now tefore the Senate which
proposes important changes IN some OF the
details OF printing public documents. 1t
was preparedby Supt. Crandall, Of tie docu-
ment department OF the Government Print
ing Office, and introduced after being sub
mitted TO all members OF Congress, all libra
rians at government repositories, all the
publishing bureaus Of the government and
about thousand citizens for suggestions.
Only two objections were received, ana
these were to leaving the size OF the page
IN government books to the discretion OF
the Public Printer. The hill passed the
House on May 9, and will probably pass the
Senate before the close OF this session.
One OF the evils to be corrected 10y the bill
is Illustrated by recent correspondence in
one Of the departments. a call was made
for the verifiCation of certain figures pur-
porting TO come FROM tie Message and
Documents OF 1S6T'6S. pages ~ and IS.
This reference appears simple and COM
plete TO the uniniuated. bat it really leads
at best to any one Of half dozen almost
forgotten volumes in either OF the two
years named.
n
these looks. The matter hung fire in the
department for month.
Finally il was turned over to the super
intendent OF documents 1t was evident
that the figures Were from Treasury
report which never appears in the mes
sa ge and documents" A reference to
the "abridgement' of the message and
documents for the date named brought
the data required at the FIRST trial TINS
did rot, however, replace the lost time
and temper in the department that first
undertook the job. The absurdity OF
having an abridgment which contains
imI ortant matter not to be found in the
volumes abridged viii be cured 10y the pro-
posed legislation.
Another instance of bad publication
which will be reformed S illustrated in the
editions Of the last report of the Commits
s,oner of Indian Affairs There are four
OF them. Only the first indicates in its
title what can be found in it The second
or Department edition, is entitled: RE
port of the Secretary of the Interior
the third is Message and Documents, 1nte-
rior Department., and the fourth, Exec
utive Documents of the House of Repre-
sentatives."
The fault of having the title show what
series OF books the volume belongs to in
stead of what is in it began years ego,
and it is not known who is responsible
for it. The pending bill viii discontinue
all editions except the first, which is be-
lieyed TO he complete, correct and suffi-
cient If there is demand, reprint can
be made The bill further al dishes all
sheep bindings for library supply, as they
have proved very unsatisfactory, and pro-
vides for binding the publications of the
several Departments in distinctive tolors.
Librarian Srofford has characterized
the present want of system in publishing
public documents as 1.-THE terror of libra
rians and the despair of all who try to con
suit so intricate has been the numbering,
arrangeme ent and indexing and o continual
the change in methods, that TO one, except
an expert giving his whole time to the
business could successfully keep up with
Them
Mr. Spofford approves the bill, as does
the T ublic z rinter and number of Senators,
who replied to the request for suggestions.
It's passage was urged by a vote of the
500 librarians who constitute the Ameri-
can Library Association at their annual
meeting last fail. Nowhere will so many
persons be benefited by it as in Washington,
where the government publications are
used daily by hundreds of persons, some
OF whom have made long Journeys to con-
suit them.