The record-union., 1897-07-01
PRINTING OFFICE CLOSED.
THE STATE OFFICE PRACTI-
CALLY SHUT DOWN.
Only a Few Men Now Finishing Up
Some Work for the
University.

The State Printing Office is closed.
So far as the State Government is
concerned, its fortyninth fiscal year
begins this morning Ordinarily the
beginning of a fiscal year makes very
little difference to the average State
official. or to the office he conducts, but
things have been so shaped that the
forty-ninth fiscal year is thrown slight
ly out of plumb.
So far as regards State printing, the
State Office was closed last night, and
will be opened no more until funds for
its maintenance and support shall have
been provided. Governor Budd, it will
be remembered, vetoed the appropria-
tion for the support of that institu-
ton for the forty-ninth and fiftieth fis-
cal years, and ever since the Legisla-
ture closed its session State Printer
Johnston has been running a small
force to clean up the work on hand.
the cost of which was covered by the
appropriation for the past fiscal year.
The State Printing Office was closed
last night, and the sixty-two institu-
tions which have looked to that de-
partment for their necessary printing
must look elsewhere, and this, under
the opinion recently rendered by At
torney- Fitzgerald, is rather
particular matter. The Attorney-G Gen
eral, it will be remembered, interpreted
the statutes governing the subject to
mean that certain specified papers must
be printed and that all State printing
must be done at the State Printing
| Office.
Since the late Legislature adjourned
the usual force of $50 persons employed
in the State Printing Office had been
cut down until last night there re-
mained but fifty to bid goodby to en-
ployment and incomes.
The pressrooms and the bindery are
hermetically sealed, so far as State
printing is concerned, and that a few
persons remain in the composing room
| is due to the sturdy stand recently
taken by the trades unions throughout
the State, after the Regents of the
University of California had contracted
with the Pacific Press" to publish
1000 copies of the Register of the
University of California" and 1000
copies of the Annual Announcement
of Courses of Instruction.
The pressure brought to bear by the
trades unions was sufficiently strong to
induce the Regents to revoke their
contract with the Pacific Press" which
is a non-union concern.
The upshot of it all was that the
Regents finally agreed to allow the
printers in the State Printing Office to
do the work, which will be paid for
out of the endowment fund of the in
stitution. So it happens that a few
men still stick type in the composing
room, while the press room and the
bindery are empty.
But the other sixty-one institutions
in the State which require the assist
ance of the printing press have no en-
doWment funds from which to draw.
and the printing question is narrowing
down to a question of days.
When seen last evening regarding the
matter State Printer Johnston said that
the office would be closed to-day and
henceforth until funds shall have been
provided to warrant payment for labor
and supplies. He called attention to
the opinion of the Acknowledgement
that no State institution can. under
the statute, perform it's duty without
printing, and that all such printing
shall be done in the State Printing Of
flee.
And so the State Printing Office Is
closed