Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-09-29
FURTHER JOBBERY.
THE GOVERNMENT PRlNT-SHOP
FILLED WITH GRAFTERS.

Setting Machinery Stock Judiciously Dis
tributed' - White-Washing Probable - The
Office Docs Much Wholly Unnecessary
Printing - Incompetence in Preparing Re.
ports for Printing Another Charge Demand.
ing Reform-Trouble in the Geological Sur
vey Department-The Agricultural Depart
ment Scandal-Crop Reports Encouraging.
(From our regular correspondent
WASHINGTON, ID. c., Sept. ii.
There will be bad times ahead for
the investigating committee that went
through the Government Printing Of
flee and brought about the present
state OF affairs in which the President
has been forced to discharge the Pub.
lie Printer and temporarily put one of
his foremen in his place. The new
acting public printer is doing the best
he can for himself by exposing the
slackness and inefiiciency OF the regime
under which the Printing Office for
merly labored. This course has two
advantages. 1t makes prominent the
fact that the new printer is a man who
knows his business, as he probably
does, and strengthens his chances for
permanent appointment. 1t also de-
tracts from the attention that would
otherwise be directed to the inter.
necine strife in the Office. But it is
likely when Congress meets that there
will be several unpleasant develop
ments forced by the opposition which
cares nothing for the feelings of the
administration. Congress is said to
be quite deeply involved in the Print.
ing Office trouble. The two rival ma
chimes, the Merganthaler and the Lans-
ton, that were competing for business
in the big printery were backed by
able lobbies of both political faiths.
Several congressman 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 of the type machine
companies involved. There was also
large amount OF stock judiciously
distributed that WAS expected to influ-
ence 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 q very thorough
whitewashing as soon as Congress gets
where it can WELD the brush. 1t is
probable that the congressional COM
mittee will vent a good deal of its
spite on the employed OF the govern
ment departments whe have run up
enormous printing bills through their
ignorance Of the first elements of copy
preparation.
This is one OF the points to which
the new Public Printer has drawn at
tention in showing the conditions that
confront the government printery. In
the first place the government is called
upon to do an enormous amount of
unnecessary printing. Some of it ia
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 Off.
GERS printed and other things Of q like
nature in which no one is interested
save those who have an itching to see
their names and faces in print. Then
there are scores and scores of govern
ment reports that are of not the slight.
est interest to anyone, even to the
men who compile them. One type.
written copy would be about all that
WAS needed if the matter were put on
q strict utilitarian basis. But the
worse source of waste and extrava-
gance comes in the kind of copy that
is submitted to the printing Office by
government officials who should know
better. Whole reports have to be re.
set owing to the carelessness and ignor-
ance of their authors, and nearly all
of 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. II
is said if a decent system is adopted in
sending in copy from the government
ard any attempt is made
to hold down the mass OF useless and
foolish matter that is submitted, the
national printing bill can be cut by
hundreds of thousands of dollars an.
nually and no one be in the least in.
jured.
Fresh trouble has broken out in
connection with the Geological Sur
vey. The specific charge is that aliens
are employed in the survey in contra
vention OF the Presidents order, and
that employees OF the bureau are doing
work with government material in
government time for their own private
benefit. The storm center OF the bu-
reau is the map engraver's department,
and there has been a row between the
head engrsver of the department., S. j.
Kubel, and the American society OF
plate printers. The matter has been
referred to the President more than
once, and it will probably result in an
other investigation when the Keep
Commission gets little time on its
hands.
The Grand Jury which had ad-
journed for time after finding the in
dictments against Holmes, Peckham
and Haas in connection with the cot
ton leak scandal in the Department of
Agriculture, has gone to work again
and is expected to make its final re-
port on October. Nothing of its work
has been divulged so far, but it is said
that there will be several new iudict-
men.s found, some duplicating the
officials already indicted and others
against employees of the Department
of Agriculture who have hitherto
escaped. 1t is said that one will he
for bribery and another, involving two
employees will be for conspiracy.
The reports of the Department OF
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