The Savannah morning news., 1903-02-23
PICTURES IN "PUB. DOCS.v

PICTURES IN "PUB. DOCS"
When the item in the Sundry Civil
bill apprOpriating money for the pub
LEGATION of the annual report of the
Secretary of Agriculture was reached
the other day in the-House, there were
inquiries respecting the number of il
Illustrations that were to go into the re-
port. A resolution was offered making
it mandatory on the public printer to
illustrate a public document only on
order of the head of the department
from which it came to him, and then
only on being shown that illustration
was imperatively necessary. The res
olution was not passed, and there are
reasons for a strong suspicion that the
whole proceedings in opposition to the
use of many and costly illustrations in
the pub docs" should be regarded as
Pic1wickian. The governments print
ing establishment in Washington is
run on political lines. 1t is the cost
liest establishment of it's kind in the
world. The employees are so numerous
that they sometimes have difficulty in
keeping out of each others way. But
the employees, numerous as they are,
are the constituents or friends qf in
fiuential constituents of congressman;
therefore, they must be kept on the
government pay rolls, and there must
be show of having them earn their
money. To make a reduction of the
To
form the labor actually required would
be to raise storms in many districts;
and that would never do. 1t is, in con-
sequence, the care of congressman and
the heads of departments to furnish
the printing shop with a great mass
of letter-press and picture copy" to
be done into government publications.
That much of the mass of matter
turned out each year is worthless will
hardly be denied by anybody; yet it
serves its purpose of getting appropri-
ations.
AS to the profigate use of pictures
in these publications, it may be said
that illustrations are relatively of
more use in the agricultural publica-
tons than any other. Often a single
well-made picture will convey clear
err idea of a certain process than a
whole page of readingmatter. The
drawing of sheep-dip, for instance.
will show the intelligent farmer at a
The picture of a peach affected with a
certain disease will impress itself on
the mind of the careful orchardman
and he will know the disease when he
finds it among his trees.
There are other public documents,
however. in which much money is
worse than wasted on fine half-tone
engravings. Some recent Porto Rican
reports had numerous pictures of ma
tives afflicted with leprosy; loathsome
pictures they were. A publication con-
corning Cuba, of recent date, had hun
dreds of half-tone plates illustrating
almost everything conceivable in the
island buildings, men. fences, trees,
COW lots, and a variety of other sub
jects of smallest Importance. Only a
short while ago there was published a
document dealing with repairs on the
capitol in which there are pictures
showing how stagings were put up and
how they were torn down, and how an
old roof was repaired. One-third of
the cost of the production of the re-
cent report of the Director of the Mint
was for pictures, and one of the finest
pictures in the report was that of a
lamp-post in front of the mint in Phil
adelphia. Another pub. doc" picture
that has become almost famous is that
of an iron gate in front of the Treas
ury Building, which not long ago
graced the Congressional Record.
The estimated cost of the public
printing for the next fiscal year is &c.
| 100000. Ten years ago the annual
printing bill was in the neighborhood
of $2.OO0,O0O A considerable portion of
the increased cost is for pictures. But
the people in abe various bureaus of
the printing and engraving establish
ment must have something to do.