The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-09-21
WASHINGTON.
From our Regular Correspondent.

Washington ~. I. sept. IA, 1905.
There will be bad times ahead
for the Investigating committee that
went through the Government
Printing Office aud brought about
the present state of affairs in which
the President has been forced to
discharge the Pubic Printer and
temporarily put one Of his foremen
in his place. The new acting pub
lie printer is doing tpe best he can
for himself by exposing the slack
ness and inetiiciency OF the regime
under which the Printing Office
formerly labored This course has
two advantages. 1t makes prom
inent the fact that the new printer
is a man who knows his business,
as he probably does, and strength
ems his chances for permanent APP
pointment. 1t also detracts from
the attention that would otherwise
be directed to the internecine strife
in the Office But it is likely when
Congress meets that there will be
several unpleasant developments
forced by the opposition which
cares nothing for the feelings of the
administration. Congress is said 10
be quite deeply involved in the
Printing Office trouble The two
rival machines, the Merganthaler
and the Lanston that were compet-
ing for business in the big printery
were backed by able lobbies of both
political faiths. Several congress
men held stock in one or the other
of the companies and it is stated
that the machines that were sold to
the government were priced almost
twice as high as those which went
to private concerns. This charge
applies to both the type machine
companies involved. There was
also large amount of stock Judi
ciously distributed that was expect
ed to influence legislation. Just
what part of these revelations were
made to the Keep commission is
not known. But they have stirred
up hornets nest and will call for
a very thorough whitewashing as
soon as Congress gets where it can
WELD the brush. 1t is probable
that the congressional committee
will vent good deal OF its spite on
the employed of the government
departments who have run up
enormous printing bills through
their ignorance of the first elements
OF copy preparation.
#*A
This is one of the points 10 which
the new Public Printer has drawn
attention i'll showing the conditions
that confront the government print
cry. In the first place the govern
ment is called upon to do an enor-
nous amount of unnecessary print
ing. Some of it is work authorized
by Congress but wholly outside the
pale OF government work. There
has even been copies of the reports
of patriotic societies with pictures
and biographies of their officers
printed and other things of like
nature in which no one is interest
ed save those who have an itching
to see their names and faces in print.
Then there are scores and scores of
government reports that are not of
the slightest interest to anyone even
to the men who compile them.
One typewriter copy would be
about all that was needed if the
matter were put on strict utilitar-
ian basis But the worst source Of
waste and extravaganza comes in
the kind of copy that is submitted
to the printing office by govern
ment officials who should know
better, Whole reports have to be
reset owing to the carelessness and
ignorance Of their authors and near
ly all the copy that comes in is put
up by people who not only do not
know the first thing about printing
but some of whom cannot even
write English. 1t is said if de-
cent system is adopted in sending
in copy from the government de-
partments and any attempt is made
to hold down the mass of useless
and foolish matter that is submit
ted, the national printing bill can
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