Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-09-01
PUBLIC PRINT SHOP
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP
COSTLY FAILURE THERE.
SHOCKING WASTE SHOWN
With Capital, Credit, Building, Stock,
Machinery all Furnished, and no
Taxes, the Public Printer is Yet
Far Underbid by Private Con-
Germs,

Washington, Aug. 28.-The treasury
department is about to develop it's
card index system, substituting cards
for books in many affairs, and to that
end sought estimates for a sample lot
of cards. The public printer reported
that he could produce them for 81 ,23O,
while private concerns offered to fur
nish the same thing for $755. This is
a typical although somewhat extreme,
case.
The United States has built a print
ing office at a cost OF several million
dollars, having seven acres of floor
space, which it gives rent free to a
public printer 1t furnishes him the
capital and credit of the United
States government with which to do
business. 1t exempts all his stock in
trade, machinery and equipment, from
local taxation. And yet, private con-
Germs, borrowing money from the
banks to get along, and paying taxes
and hiring buildings, can still underbid
him always by 20 per cent!
The controllers opinion was that
the secretary of the treasury, or any
other cabinet officer, could not have
his printing done anywhere else than
by the public printer. This was the
decision of congress regarding the cen
sus office. a decision which doubtless
cost the taxpayers not far from a mil
| lion dollars.
In these days of agitation in behalf
Of government ownership OF railways,
telegraphs, etc., and of government
building of warships in the navy yards,
| of extension of the postal service
through parcel posts and postal banks,
should not the advocates of these vari-
Gus steps rise to explain why the gov
eminent conducts such business as it
| now does at a tremendous loss? They
should also explain what advantage it
is to the everyday taxpayer, who. in
his consumption of sugar, beer, tobac-
so, and distilled spirits, largely sup
ports the federal government, to pay
twice as much for things made by the
| federal government as for those which
he can buy outside. And yet, the
special champions of the common peo-
pie in congress are always on the side
of the government work.
The government printing office is
frequent subject of laudation in de-
| bate. 1t is eulogized as the greatest
printing office in the world, when in
reality it is a monument to the re-
PROGRESSION of the printers art, under
the lethargic influence of politics and
patronage. If Mr.. Mcclure was com
| PEELED to have the public printer do
| business for him, McClure's magazine
would not be sold at 10 cents copy or
| anything like it. Type-setting is done
| by hand there, and all sorts of sophis-
| tries are devised for explaining the
necessity of laborious methods instead
of those which are generally in vogue.
| The private business man is constant
ly seeking methods of ecOnomizing
cost of production. The government
manager is seeking methods of avoid
| ing, or at least, delaying and postpon-
| ing economical methods. And yet
| the voters of Chicago by vote of five
to one, think their municipal govern
ment could run the street cars and
the street lighting. Perhaps it should
but the advocates must not draw their
arguments from such experiences as
are already on record.