Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-05
MERITS OF MACHINES
RECORDS IN THE GOVERNMENT
PRINTING OFFICE.
Tests of Time and Cost Of Working
Applied to the Lanston and Mer-
neutrality-suspicious. to Be Heard.

There will be lively Tits the latter part OF
this week when the commission engaged in
investigating the purchase of Lanston ma
chimes for the government printing office re-
assemblies and again takes testimony. The
statements of foremen who have had charge
of the Lanston machines to the effect that
they superior and the evidence of the
work of the machines will be prominent
subject for discussion. 1t is claimed that 1t
would be unfair to rest the case of the
merits of the machine upon the testimony
of foremen who have had charge of it and
who are declared by the Mergenthaler peo-
pie to be unduly biased in favor of the
Lanston.
Testimony to Be Taken.
For that reason the commission will I'M
dertake to obtain as much testimony as pos
sible regarding the merits of the two ma
chimes, and In that connection will examine
into the nature of the tests that have been
made of the machines in the government
printing Office. The attention of the mem
bers of the commission has been called to
the conditions under which these tests have
been conducted. They have been given to
understand that If they are to make up
their minds on the two machines they must
look into the merits very carefully and OBJ
tain tests of comparative worth that will be
acceptable to both sides.
For instance 1t is said by employees of the
Office whose duties bring them into contact
with both machines that the Mergenthalers
have been employed on rush work because of
their superior speed, and that because of that
very TACT the records of cost of work have
not been favorable to them. This is said to
be the case when testimony of various kinds
has been printed for Investigating commit
tees when such copy Is brought in it has
to be worked up as rapidly as possible and
when the work has been finished the ma
chimes and the men operating them are nee
essarily idle for time, as it is never known
ready.
While that condition has prevailed with
the Mergenthaler machines it is declared
That the Lanstons have been given tabular
work with much fat in it that has occu-
PIED the time of the operators continuously.
Record Lowered by Novices.
Compositors of the Office also say that
there has been a great demand on the part
of printers to learn to operate the Mergen-
thaler. and the office. recognizing the de-
STABILITY of having a considerable force
trained for such work in the case OF emer-
gencies. has given many Of the men oppor-
tunities to work the machines. 1t is said
that this has resulted in lowering the rec
ord of the machines, many of the opera
tors have learned to operate the machine in
time charged to the work actually done.
On the other hand It is stated, that in the
case of the Lanston machine the demand of
men to learn to operate it has been much
less, which has resulted in having the ma
chimes that have been In use operated upon
by smaller number, but men more uni
formly trained in the work.
Charging Expenses.
Then, too, 1t is said the methods of
charging expenses to the work done by
these two classes of typesetting machines
have not been uniform In some cases
repairs and time of men incidentally en-
gagged on the work, even those employed in
correcting copy, has not been charged to
the cost of the work produced, while in
other cases it has been charged. For
these reasons, it is stated. the comparisons
OF the two machines, they have been
made up in the office, are not a fair basis
for the formation of an opinion as to their
merits. All this information, it is under
stood, members of the commiss on propose
to develop this week, when different en-
ployes of the office will be called upon to
testify.