The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-05-16
THEY ALL need PRINTING.
What Various State Officials Have to
Say About Ii.
The Pen-and-Ink and Typewriter
Proposition is Wholly Imprac-
ticable.

A Record Union reporter called on
a number of State officials yesterday.
and submitted to them the three fol-
lowing questions:
:, First-In the conduct of your office is
there any printed matter required by law
absolutely essential to be doneE
Second-Can your office be conducted ef-
fciently and lawfully by the use of copy
Ing and duplicating processes without any
printing whatever?
Third-How much, if any, of the prlnteQ
matter necessary to efficient conduct OF
your office can be supplanted by Hth-
Ography or by half-tone work!
Adjutant- General A. w. Barrett was
first presented with the list. He sald
the questions contained too much 10
be answered off hand. In general
answer, however, he said it was neces-
sary that the blanks used in his oftlce
be printed, but that it was question
as to how long the blanks on hand
would last. Whenever the supply
gives out his office will have need OF
assistance from the State Printing Of
flee. With the work done by the mime
ograph. and with the blanks on hand,
General Barrett felt that the work of
the office could be both effectively and
lawfully performed.
He had recently found, he said, that
many of the blanks used in the office
would be furnished, on application, by
the War Department of the General
Government
SURVEYOR GENERAL.
The questions were next submitted to
Surveyor General Wright, who said in
answer to the first:
1T is absolutely essential to the
efficient conduct of this office that
forms, blanks and books be printed.
'Second-It is probaly lawful, but not
efficient, to do the work without print
ed forms
Continuing, Mr. Wright said that
with the clerical force at his disposal
unless the Printing Office is resOrted to
he would in one month run a year
behind in his work. Three times the
force of the office could not do the
work that three men now do, and when
done it would not be at all satisfactory.
Where so much copying was called for
mistakes would necessarily slip in, and
a mistake in the description of a land
title mean endless litigation and prob
able loss of the property. Men might,
he said, do without telephones, tele-
graph, street cars, elevators or steel
pens but it was not good policy nor
good sense to do so. The plats Of land
in the office were valuable. and cost
the State 50 each, but if they remained
unbound a new set would be required
in a short time AS there were many
thousands of these plats, their loss
would be an item to the State at large
In regard to the third question, Mr.
Wright explained that TYPOGRAPHY and
half-tone work was not performed at
the State Printing Office. but that it
was bought on the outside by the Su
perintendent of State Printing.
STATE CONTROLLER.
Controller E. P. Colgan, when the
questions were submitted to him, an.
swered them in their regular order, as
follows:
First-The law provides that the Con-
troller must provide blanks for the use
of county and other officers for making
reports required by law to this office,
and it is absolutely essential that we
have those blanks printed.
Second-This office can be conducted
lawfully, but not efficiently. without
printing.
Third-Only warrants and letter
heads used here undergo a photographic
or half-tone process, and they are sup
piled outside of the State Printing Of
fee They are, however. bought by
the superintendent of State Printing.
Recently a resolution was adopted by
the Board of Examiners providing that
the State Printer shall order no such
work. except through the Board of Ex-
aminers, so that the latter question is