The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-06

Surt0n Public Documents.
Washington Post.
The President recently requested all the
executive departments to curtail govern
ment publications as much as possible. In
number, size. statistical tables, inustra-
tons, etc. But statistics are the long suits
OF government offices. and so. flushed with
It's success in bringing its data down TO a
year and four months of date, the Bureau
of Educators annual report had already
gone TO press and is now out. replete with
startling tabular details. All the stats
teal data concerns the administration OF
the vast educational system of the United
States and shows with circumstantial de-
tail exactly what has been, ought TO be,
or might have been done in this great ma
tlonal mandatory OF guidelines for the
I.O0O,0O0 odd students of the country.
Blow high or blow low cost what IL may
Uncle Sans double-entry bookkeeping
system-one side of the ledger recording
all oral questions asked in the office and
the other side constituting tally card on
all oral answers, formal or informal
seeks to keep tab on all outside interroga-
tors. Every verbal question, however
casually put to official or employe must
be spread on the minutes of the office and
exposed to the glare of publicity at the
end or the fiscal year. Every luckless
wight who hereafter accidentally drops into
the bureau and asks where Miss Blank is
stationed contributes one to the official
record OF questions asked, and visitor
asking the time of day scores up another
marx Tor the final roundup that shows In
nice, Dig, clear type In the report a demon
stration OF the labors imposed upon the
once during the year. Every visitor en-
the oHicial record. Here. for instance, are
several items in the report under the head
OF Work Done During 19O1-19o2:''
INQUIRIES answered orally to callers. $50
Sneels and diagrams ruled: -.........-.: ~
RACES OF manuscript estimated and
consultations with members of di-
E visions :, ; and editorial corps SSs
entertaining foreign visitors, holding copy,
indexlng files, arranging and keeping
lists, instructing assistants. searching for
material, giving lectures in university
Il0 ana other miscellaneous work.
No poetic fire about this modest retro
speetive; no theatrical effects to blind the
unsuspecting public. The figures show not
6 6,,t the itch for writing official letters
true spirit of philanthropy toward those
VINO "Dutt In" in hurry
Serenely placing its trust in the reading
pubic, the report is pathological treatise
on every book and pamphlet received at
the bureau, and it records, with strictest
attention TO accuracy. when the book was
cut open. when clerk marked ii as en-
thereon nice. gently worded label, what
code number was accorded the book, how a
nice rubber stamp fell upon it and left its
mark, how the book reached the shelves
and, being taken down again, how ii was
put back in its place; also the number of
letters prepared by employees that never
got beyond a naughty chiefs desk the
number of times a clerk got UP from his
| desk and disappeared in another room in
quest or material or to consult with some
more knowing one. Even with the ponder
Gus manuscript In the proof stage the num-
Der of times an "a" bad to be changed to
the" and all other corrections had to be
recorded.
Following is a part of the remarkable
| summary of work exactly as stated in the