Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-09
RUSHING. JOB WORK
MILLIONS OF COPIES FURNISHED
TO DEPARTMENTS.
Blanks, Circulars and Bulletins Large
1y Taking the Place Of More
Pretentious Volumes.

Recent attempts to curtail the public
printing have caused the evolution of various
schemes to reduce the cost Of necessary
work, much of which goes to furnish q
permanent record Of the work Of the va
rious departments. Patent-back binders
for gathering together loose leaves have
come into vogue in some branches of the
government service. while in others printed
blanks. circulars and bulletins have taken
the place of more substantial printing and
binding. The demand for the new forms
OF printing is shown at the government
printing Office, where the job division is
rushing to keep up with the work. The
number Of jobs going through the division
the latter half o. the past fiscal year has
averaged about 100 per month more than
for any previous record-breaking period.
Paper, envelopes cardboard and miscel-
laneous stock used in the government print
ing office job room the past year aggregated
nearly 100000, while the number of copies
printed ran well above 4O0.OO0OOO. The paper
stock used during this period would extend
for 1900 miles If the sheets were placed
end to end. the printed envelopes would add
about $4,000 miles more, while the card
board sheets would string out the strip
these lengths by the average width Of the
different stock used gives enough printed
paper to cover approximately fifteen square
miles.
More Work and Less Men.
The work Of the job room has been the
more remarkable In that nearly twenty less
employees were carried on the rolls than in
any similar preceding period, the utilization
OF typesetting machines and thorough sys-
tematizing Of the work being to a large
degree responsible for the increased prod
uct. Every facility is given the skilled en-
ployes of this division to produce both quail
ity and quantity of product and the output
Is growing from day to day.
Almost every description Of printing is
done In the job room, the Navy Department
furnishing great deal of work on pro-
posals and specifications Of contracts. the
war Department running good second,
while the Post Once Department deals
printers ink freely in handling the postal
affairs Of the country. Circular letters are
constantly flying through the job room, and
all varieties of blanks are printed for every
branch of the public service. The Post Of
flee Department has series Of Jobs called
schemes for the information Of postmas-
uct also requires considerable attention
from the governments artistic printers.
Use Plate Vault.
The job division Of, the printery has a
plate vault for its especial use which is of
great assistance in getting out regular jobs
quickly and in reducing the cost. Plates
of all work which is liable to return for re-
print are held, card index system covering
every plate in the vault, preventing duplica-
ton Of the printing. The sort fonts. galley
racks, furniture receptacles and form racks
were all made by the Office carpenters to mt
the various parts Of the room where needed.
Taken all in all, 1t is said to be the finest
Job room in the printing world.
The government printing office bindery Is
said to be unusually busy for this time of
year. The lateness In the appearance OF
and the big bound edition of the Record
helped to keep the bookbinders busy and
made up. to some extent, for the cuts In
the regular run of document work. The
blank division Is getting out an order for
5000 books Of naturalization blanks for the
Department of Commerce and Labor. An
official Of the bindery recently said that the
big printery could bid with the best of COM
mercial houses on the better quality OF
bindings, but that the naturalization blank
books would be done at q price that could
not be duplicated by even the cheapest
contractors.
Former Senator Breaks Record.
Every election year the Office Is besiegcd
with orders for the reprinting of speeches
made on the floor of the House and Senate.
but the indications are that every record
in this line will be broken this fall. Orders for
speeches average about 10000 copies each. but
a former United States senator has broken
the record with an order for 10000 copies
Of his speech on the labor question. Rail-
road-rate legislation apparently has the call
from point of popularity, with pure-food
speeches a close second. Meat inspection.
statehood, the Panama canal and Philippine
tariff are the subjects Of the reprints hav-
ing the largest general CALL while the tarin
Of the United States is practically neglected
1t is generally supposed that the govern
ment printing ONCE furnishes copies Of CAM
paign documents free to members of Con-
gress. but this is an error. The public
printer will reprint as many copies Of any
thing a member may desire-provided he
pays for them. A provision Of the printing
law not often taken advantage of Is that
the public printer shall print copies not to
exceed 25O OF any public document for any
one who may place an order before the
matter has gone to press II deposit sufh-
cient to cover the cost Is made at the same
time.
MR.. LEISHMAN HOPEFUL.
49,