Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-28
A JOINT COMMITTEE
AUTHORIZED TO LOOK INTO THE
SUBJECT.
No Meeting Has Yet Been Held-Docu-
ments Not Directly Connected With
he Government Printed.


ment printing office and to report to Con-
gress upon its meeting at the following ses-
sion. This joint committee, of which SEN
ator Plat of New York is the chairman,
was supposed to take up the matter of all
useless expenditure in printing duplicates of
government reports. TO look into the nature
of the material that is being printed at the
expense of the government and to report to
Congress its recommendations for eurtailing
such expenditures.
There are good many senators and rep
resentatives who were especially interested
in the result of the Investigations that 1t
was supposed this committee would make
who have been surprised 10 find that the
committee has as yet held no meeting SO
far the public is aware. Early in the
summer when the days were beginning to
ge. warm Senator Plat of New York, the
chairman, called a meeting of the joint
committee to meet In New York city. The
day for the meeting arrived but there was
failure of the members to show up. Many
of them sent excuses and II was then an
nounced that Senator Platy had decided 10
allow the matter to go over until the cool
weather OF the fall, when 1t was said he
would call the committee to meet in this
city and go to work in earnest and probe
the methods pursued In all the government
departments in the ordering of printing.
The investigation did not contemplate any
criticism of the government printing office
itself II looked rather to investigation
oe the practices of the several departments
of the government in ordering the printing
OF useless documents and to the practice of
Congress itself in authorizing printing of
many documents not of nature in the
opinion of many In to justify the ex-
penditure of public funds.
Increase Of Expenditures
But the committee has as yet done MOTH
ing. 1t is now assured that when the COM
n.ittee does get to work it will find enough
to occupy its attention for quite a time. 1t
will be face TO face with the increase OF the
governments expenditure for printing from
100000 in 1898 to 100000 at the present
time. This doubling of the government
printing bill has alarmed many of the
leaders in Congress In view of the deficit OF
the treasury and the recommendation of
the public printer that the government
printing office be enlarged by replacing the
old building at the corner of North Capitol
and II streets with a modern seyen-story
building TO correspond in general style with
the newly built part of the office
The following appropriations for govern
Inent printing since and including 1897 show
how the printing bill has constantly in
creased: 1897, $3.50 7C0; 1898. 4,40d 54I;
1899 81 ,4o7 .54S 1900 81 SOS 7J5; 1901 So
27666s: 1902. 50 s29, s57; 1903. s5,sD6275;
1901 1862 ALB; 1905, Sc. COS. 645.
The vast number of documents that II is
claimed have had no excuse for their pub
LEGATION by the government is declared by
some of the leaders in Congress to be re-
sponsible for this state of affairs. Some OF
them place Sheldon Jacksons reindeer lit
erature in this category. Mr.. Jackson has
for many years been making long reports
to the Department of the Interior the
subject of reindeer breeding. accompanying
them with hundreds of photographs of var
ious scenes of interest in Alaska, and these
long reports and accompanying illustrations
have been published by the Department or
the Interior, until at the present time the
reindeer literature fills several feet of shelf
f1E flN-a
lcations have been preserved. 1t is claim
ed that these reports have ,ntained much
of trivial nature that does not warrant its
preservation by the costly method OF print
ing.
No Direct Relation With Government.
But the condemnation of such practices
does not equal the condemnation that
some of the leaders are inclined to bring
down upon the heads of some of the men
in Congress who have forced by their
personal influence the publication of vari-
Gus things that have no direct relation
with anything the government is doing.
For instance, when Senator Wellington
was In the Senate he insisted upon print
ing a long report on Sunday rest-"Sev-
enth Day Rest'-which was prepared by
the international reform bureau" and
was supposed to be guide for Legislators
in their consideration of public questions.
Another big volume Is a work by Arthur
Macdonald on Man and Abnormal Man."
which includes q study of children and
the development OF the pauper and de-
fective classes. Some of the leaders cam
not see just why Congress should have
published a large volume OF the catalogue
of the American Library Association,
which gives a list of 500 volumes that
the association recommends for Libraries
OF the country. This book contains $500
pages and is part OF the report of the bu-
reau OF education.
These things are especially criticised in
view of the fact that after the President
thought the subject worthy of his atten-
ton. referred to 1t in his annual message
and recommended that the number of IL
Illustrations be cut down and that the vol
ume Of printing be reduced. In spite of
that admOnition II is claimed that many
of the heads of departments and bureaus
have been eXtraVagant In ordering
printing and illustrations as they ever
were
The blame is not being placed altogether
on the departments because much of this
printing has been authorized directly by
Congress. The printing law provides that
neither house of Congress shall authorize
any printing to cost more than $500 with
out authority of a joint resolution adopt
ed by both houses. But many of the large
volumes that must have cost very much
more than the limit of $500 have been
published by the Senate. Indeed, the SEN
ate IS being held responsible for large
part of the abuse th"t il is claimed has
crept into the printing OF documents by
Congress.
One of the cases OF government printing
that is not deemed to be justified by rnany
of the leaders in Congress relates TO the
reports of the Daughters of the American
Revolution. The Daughters OF the Ameri-
can Revolution was chartered by Congress,
with a provision that the society should
make annual reports to the secretary of
the Smithsonian Institution. The charter
further specified that the secretary OF the
Smithsonian Institution should report to
Congress any part Of that report that might
be found 10 be OF national interest. This
voluntary subsection of the society to Con-
gress seemed to many people at the time
to be an indication OF q submissive spirit
that was altogether unselfish and patriotic.
Indeed II seemed 10 indicate that the So
ciety in its patriotic course was inclined to
submit TO congressional criticism and dis
cipline If necessary. In 1897 the secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution made
port TO Congress of the doings of the
ciety covering seven years The report OF
seven years proceedings made a small vol
ume-- But the next year the report OF
single year had swollen into a larger vol
ume than the previous one covering seven
times much space. BY and by the re-
tod