The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-11
PUBLIC PRINTER SHOWN
 TO BE RATHER BIASED
tcontInued from First paael


 passed from the Lanston Monotype com- pany to the public printer or to any per son in the government service.
 8. The action of the public printer in making this purchase was, in our opin- ion, based largely upon report from his subordinate, claiming superiority for t..e Lanston machines, which report was based on unfair tests and imperfect rec ords, and was unjust to the Mergenthaler machine.
 4 Two important assistants of the pub lie printer, holding positions as chiefs of division in the government printing office, and connected in important ways with such report were indirectly inter ested in the Lanston company, their wives being stockholders therein.
 5. Both the Lanston and Mergenthaler machines have done excellent work In the government printing office, and both are needed there, and in our Judgment both should have been purchased; but further than this we express no opinion as to their comparative merits for particular classes of work
 6. The purchase of forty-five Lanston machines costing about s140,000 for work on patent specifications without any test of the Mergenthaler machines in this work, although request for fair test of the two machines on this particular work had been made by the Mergenthaler company. and although the public prin- ter had promised the Mergenthaler com pany careful consideration of the merits of the two machines on this work, was an improvident purchase, and indicates great impartiality and bias on the part of the public printer. We consider it maladministration.
 Palmer Was Biased.
 '. The openly avowed belief of the pub lie printer that the Mergenthaler Lino- type company had been at the bottom of the movement to secure his removal from office, and the strong support he re- ceived from MT. Dove, president of the Lanston company. and from General Kitchener, his intimate personal friend of twenty years standing, counsel for the Lanston company, had put the public printer in a condition of mind which rendered him incapable of impartial ac- tion in the purchase of typesetting ma chinery for his office
 The total cost of the machines pur- chased was about s230,0OO.
 The report refers to frequent visits made by Public Printer Palmer to the home in Washington of J. M. Dove, president or the Lanston company. Mir. Palmer said that being subject to interruption at his office, 1t was more convenient for him to transact the business at Mir. Doves house. Mir. Dove testified that he spent four days each week in Philadelphia, and had other business interests in Washing ton which made 1t more convenient for him to have the public printer call at his house. Commenting on these meetingG the report says:
 whether the motive for the meetings at MT. Dove's house was to prevent knowledge of the negotiations from reach- ing other persons and especially to pre- vent such knowledge from reaching the Mergenthaler Linotype company or whether these meetings were based upon the business convenience of MT. Dove, or whether both reasons were in mind, is matter for conjecture.
 'If one object was to keep the negotia- tions quiet the purpose was fully ob- tained.
 "In view of the fact that the purchase of machinery thus agreed upon on the 9th of June was one of the most impor- tant In the history of the government printing office; in view of the request of the Mergenthaler people as expressed in MT Dodges letters to the public printlr, purchases of type-setting machinery were in contemplation and of the public print er's reply thereto that he was not yet ready to take the matter up, but that when the time came the comparative mer- its of the two machines would have his careful consideration: and in view of the intimate political and personal rela- tionship between the public printer ana General Kitchener. the counsel for the opinion that this purchase should not have been negotiated at the private resi- dences of MT. Dove and General Mich ener but at the government printing of- flee. and that the method followed in this case was highly improper; also that