Wallowa chieftain. [volume] (Joseph, Union County, Or.) 1884-1909, 1902-09-18
NATIONAL PRINTERY.
GIGANTIC BUILDING is NEARING
COMPLETION.
Will Have a Floor Space of Over Four
teen Acres aud Nearly 1000 Persons
Will Find Employment-I27P Presses
Will BE Running.


Will BE Running.
The new government printing office
is approaching completion and will be
a gigantic affair, writes Rene Bache
the well-known Washington CORE
! spOndent. Ii will cost S2,OOO,OOO. and
will provide a total floor space OF over
fourteen acres-more than two and a
half times the floor area available in
I the present establishment. As yet the
building is entirely covered with scat
folding. but 1t is substantially finished,
except for the interior woodwork and
painting. 1t will be the greatest print
ing shop in the world, employing the
services of nearly 1000 people. Accu-
rately speaking, 3,SS9 persons will toll
under its mighty roof, nearly 1000 Of
them being women and girls. Each
I year it will eXpend the enormous sum
OF 100000, nearly three-fourths of it
for labor, and in its main composing
room S24 printers will be engaged in
sticking type. Eight hundred and
II
/ in binding the books and documents
| produced, and an additional 665 will
do nothing but fold the printed sheets.
/ Figures like these give a notion of
the gigantic scale on which the shop
will be conducted. Each twelvemOnth
1t will consume for bindings the skins
of 36.OCO sheep and II 600 goats, in ad-
dition to 10000 square feet of Russia
leather" made from cowhide. 1t will
Use up in a like period 5000 tons of
white paper. 10000 pounds of printing
ink and $1,000 pounds OF glue, together
with 1900 pounds of thread for sewing
books and pamphlets, and 1000 packs
of gold leaf for the titles of volumes
de luxe.
One hundred and twenty-seven
presses will be constantly in opera
ton in the great building, their total
output in a working day of eight hours
being just about 100000 impress .Ons.
| These presses are of every conceivable
kind, one of them being capable of
printing cards on both sides from
web of bristol-board at the rate of Co.
600 cards per hour, while four other
machines turn out 10000 printed en-
velOpes every sixty minutes. The guam
tity of type actually employed will be
approximately 100000 pounds, or T5O
tons.
/ No other government spends any
thing like the amount of money on
public printing that is squandered by
Uncle Sam. In this particular Congress
/ is always disposed to a reckless ex-
1 travagance, and hence the huge size
/ Of the plant required. Public documents
are an important perquisite of Sena-
tors and Representatives, who scatter
them broadcast among their constitu-
ents. One hundred tons of a single re-
/ port now In press will be issued and
distributed in this manner, and the
total number of volumes of various
kinds of literature turned out by the
office in a twelvemOnth is about 1000
900, representing a total cost of some
what more than S1,0OO,O0O.
! Nowadays government books. like
other kinds of publications, require II.
lustrations, and the cost of these ran
up to about S3OO,OO0 last year. 1t is
safe to say that ten years from now
Uncle Sans printing shop will spend
pretty nearly half million dollars for
pictures. The most costly illustrations
are for the reports for the Department
OF Agriculture and the bulletins of the
Bureau of EthnOlogy, many of these
being in cOlors. Each bureau furnishes
Its own pictures, but the printing office
has them reproduced by firms in Ros.
ton, New York and elsewhere. These
firms print the Illustrations and return
them to Washington, ready TO be
bound with the text.
The most important Job the big shon
has to execute is the printing of the
/ Congressional Record This daily navs.
paper, which records nothing but the
doings of the National legislature is
written from beginning to end by tha
official reporters of the House and Sen.
ate, who take down in shorthand everv
word that is said at either end of tho
| Capitol. They dictate from their notas
to typewriters, and the material TINS
reduced to typescript is sent over to
the printing offices in patches by mes.
sengers. The Record is ready for Il G.
tribution early next morning. One bun.
dred compositors are employed exclu.
siyely in the business of setting tvne
for it, one department of the printing
office being devoted exclusively To This
publication, which is set up and sent
to press just like any newspaper. being
delivered every day to about 5000 sinh.
scribers. Each representative in Con.
gress gets % copies daily, while SEN
atOr is entitled to ~. Anybody may
subscribe. the price being $50 q
month; but the paper is not directly
profitable to Uncle Sam, inasmucb as #
costs $125,000 year.
The printing of bills is another i'm.
portant feature of the work of the as.
tablishment. Though only a few hun.
dred of the measures submitted to Con.
gress in year become laws. millions
of copies of them have to no nrin+od