The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-25
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP.

From time to time certain reform
ers" lift up their voices in strenuous
advocacy of government ownership of
public utilities-the railroads, the tele-
graph, etc. Is there any reasonable,
ground for doubling that the result of
such policy in force would be to build
up still other political machines to be
utilized for the benefit of the party in
power, and to increase the burdens of
the taxpayers? How government own
ership works may be seen in the cases
/ of the postoffice and the government
printing office. Notwithstanding the
| postoffice is in the classified service,
1t is very well understood by every
body that it is a political machine
which frequently grinds a disgusting
grist for local consumption in certain
localities. And the government print
/ ing office is an establishment whose
most useful function is to provide a
! dumping place for importunate constit-
uents of politicians. No business con-
Germ on the face of the earth would
tolerate an adjunct run on the lines of
that printing office.
The Treasury Department recently
| desired certain printing done. 1t in
vited bids. The public printer sub
mitted a bid showing that the least he
could afford to do the work for was
1920. One or more private concerns
! offered to supply the identical thing
| for $755. Here was the government
! printery which has cost several mill
hons of dollars, backed by the United
States treasury, no money to borrow
from banks to carry on it's business,
no taxes or rents to pay, everything
furnished free, unable to meet the
prices of a private concern having to
pay all the taxes and rents and other
expenses attached to individual enter
| prise.
| Considering the bids, the reader will
be apt to reach the conclusion that
the private concern, bidding $475 less
than the government office on this
small job, should have received the
contract. But not so. Congress in its
wisdom has written it into the law,
according to the opinion of the Con-
troller delivered on this very case, that
all department printing must be done
in the government printing office Ex-
ira cost, which must come out of the
pockets of the taxpayers cuts no figure
in the matter.
And why does work in the govern
ment printing office cost so much more
than elsewhere? Because, notwith-
standing it is the greatest printing
! office in the world" as some of the
| congressman are fond of saying, it is
also the most antiquated, and the snug
harbor for some of the poorest work
men in the printing craft. First-cIass.
printers everywhere make a Jest of it.
and derisively call it the government
blacksmith shop" because political
pull rather than knowledge of the
printing trade is what opens the
door to those who desire employment
there. Probably the poorest work that
comes out of any American printing
establishment of considerable size is
| from the government office-and 10
| comes at the highest cost. Labor
saving devices and improved machin-
governments printery. Everything is
done by hand that is possible to be
done that way, and by the slowest pro-
| cesses known. That is for the purpose
OF preserving the maximum amount of
| patronage to be distributed by the pol
itcians In short, the government. by
direction of Congress, throws econom-
ical methods to the winds and hangs
on to the places" A1al as it is in
this establishment so it would be with
the railroads under government own
ership.
Taken individually, the congressman
are all reformers and brave men; but
taken collectively they are the great
est self-seekers, spoilsmen and cow
ards to be found. 1t is due to these
collective characteristics that the pen
sion payments have amounted to the
enormous sum of $4,000, 900 a year.
that the employees of Congress out
number its membership; that the gov
eminent printing Office is run for pa
tronage and not on it's merits; that
the trusts flourish, and that the beet
sugar interests were able ~ defeat our
plain duty to Cuba.