Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-25
A RIVER OF INK.
An Indication Of the Stationery Sup
plies Furnished the Government,

plies Furnished the Government.
There must be a great flowing river of
ink annually spilled in Washington, to say
nothing OF the forests Of cedar and mines
OF lead and graphite used In pencils and
many tons of horses hoofs and Of gum
arabic in the clarified form of mucilage."
remarked inquiringly gentleman to a
friend in an uptown hotel this morning.
The gentleman addressed. who happened
to be contractor for government supplies.
replied: 1T would be comparatively easy
to answer your question as regards one or
two Of the different departments, but to
furnish a grand aggregate total would
stump a statistician or expert mathema-
tician In any one Of the bureaus
The information your question suggests
Is OF local and general interest, but the in
formation has never been compiled as the
job is incommenSurate with the results
However, l happen to have made your
query the subject Of recent investigation
ana 1 can give you an answer which will
be approximately correct. The amount of
stationery, ETC., used by the different de-
partments is enormous, so much so that if
l am a few hundred gross more or less,
out of the way from the official figures it
will make little difference.
In the War Department there is used
annually about 1882 gross of pens, or S61, :
4OS pens, $500 pencils, 1927 quarts of mu-
3,167 bottles of red ink.
When these figures are digested the
public can draw a conclusion as to what
is doing in Washington in only five lines
of paper and the thousands of envelopes
consumed can best be imagined, and it runs
into the hundreds of thousands in a year,
if not into the millions. The War Depart
ment alone uses $50 great gross and 1000
gross of rubber bands.
1.-The Post Office Department uses SO
many rubber bands that 1t buys them by
the thousands of pounds in bunch, and It
consumes about $3.50 pounds Of these USE
full little elastic strips in a year.
I'm brief. in evidence of the big quanti-
ties Of supplies Uncle Sam has to buy for
his postal branch, 800. 000, 900 printed facing
slips for general use in the department and
in post offices were asked for this year.
This department orders paper by the thou
sands of reams In single specification. 1t
uses $500 dozen of indelible pencils, and
about 10000 dozen or 100000 of the ordi-
nary black and colored pencils in addition
annually 1t buys over .225 gross Of pens,
or close to 2.0OO,0OO pens in a year. and
about 100000 penholders, each one of which
is stamped Property of the u. 8. p. O.
Dept 1t uses about 1900 quarts Of black
ink annually, and 10000 pounds Of small
jute Irvine, put up in half-pound balls. Over
$500 steel eraSerS are annually bid for for
2.22S. 900 black carbon sheets of paper are
yearly used, mostly in the money order
system.
"In short, the supplies ordered from
Washington for use in the Post Office De-
partment alone keep thousands Of opera
tives busy in the various trades all the year
round all over the country.
1.-The furnishing OF supplies ito the gov
eminent of the kind I speak of is a great
business in itself. If all of the ink used In
the executive departments were poured
down Pennsylvania avenue at one time the
people would take to small boats, while the
mucilage used would make a good-sized
pond, for. in addition to that. used in the
departments in the usual course Of business,
all Of the hundreds of millions of postage
stamps annually turned out are gummed at
the bureau of engraving and printing
millions Of pins are used annually. If
all Of the pencils and penholders were piled
into a heap in the White Lot they would
make fine big bonfire on cold night The
average person does not see thumb tack
in a year yet the Interior Department
orders these fat-headed little brass tacks,
used by craftsmen and to tack down blot
tiers, in lots Of 1900 dozen at a time.
1.-THE Interior Department Is one Of the
largest in the city. and it uses annually
10000 lead pencils. 6:925 gross OF steel
pens. 5000 quarts of black ink and $500
quarts Of mucilage.
1.-The Treasury Department and the other
departments use supplies in relative propor-
ton to the figures have given you. Sup
plies OF the kind mentioned are ordered by
the gross and by the thousand gross in
lump. When II Is remembered that these
great quantities of supplies are mostly
Consumed in Washington, and are renewed
every year, some faint idea may be OBJ
tained as to what the grand aggregate
amounts to at the close OF every fiscal year
on jane 30
IT am In the capital for the purpose Of
looking after certain of my bids for next
year Hundreds of men yearly come to
Washington for the same or similar pur-
poses, and we constitute one clement OF
the transient population of the nations