The Jersey City news., 1906-06-28
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IN STATE SHOP
Contract System At Present
In Operation Is Declared
Not TO Be Efficient
TABULAR WORK HINDERS


DEPARTMENTS ARE UNABLE TO
GET THEIR REPORTS READY
ON TIME BUSINESS MAN sUG,
GEsTS CHANGES
Especial to 1.-THE Jersey City News.'')
TRENTON. June %. 1906.-The We
toing by Governor Stokes recently of the
Morgan act, requiring all reports from
State departments to be furnished by al
least ten days before the opening of the
Legislature. has caused your correspond
ent 10 make some careful inquiries and
the result Of this quest shows that many
departments are hindered by the present
method of contracting for the State print
ing.
While it is true that such departments
as the Department of Banking and In
surance can not furnish their reports
until some time in February Of the for
lowing year. it is also true that depart
ments with lots of tabular work are him
dered during the year in not getting their
work set up ready for printing.
For mstnace,s the Department of
Health has now ready forty or fifty
tables, which will be idle until after the
printing bids are let, some time after No
yember l. With these bids in now this
work could be gotten out of the way,
as a matter of weekly routine. greatly
facilitating the getting out of this valu-
able report when the years business is
closed up. This department is necessarily
one year behind in reports, and makes
in 1906 report for the year 1904 now.
If the ycould get their tables set up dur
ing the year current the report would
be then one year only behind. As it is
figures of value to the people OF the State
do not make their appearance in a form
in which they can be studied until late
in the summer. The report for 1905
could all be published this fall if bids
We're taken ahead of time and the work
proceed as it is gathered.
While this department is almost unique
in this regard the other departments
have matter on hand now for their 1906
report, which could be put into type so
that the reports could be hurried from
the press in the months of November and
December, thus getting before the peo-
pie by the opening of the Legislature the
greater mass Of the reports.
As the method now is. bids for the
printing of the State reports of 1906 will
not be advertised for until the beginning
of the next fiscal year, in November By
that time most of the State reports will
be in the hands of the Governor and they
VIII pe epulipeu Oh the printer, VINO Will
be swamped with work Then the trou-
bic will commence. Proof sheets have to
be sent from parts of the State to The
departments and in many cases the de.
partments do not return these proofs
early. All these things .neccssitate delav
and oa,1Sa +ha ,,onnla ~, fr,,,,,,,S.lr o,,1
casions vexatious delay in getting infor-
nation which should be ready at the
close of the fiscal year, or short time
thereafter.
A business man familiar with the
printing of the State House told your
correspondent thos week that it would
be better to get bids fof the printing in
advance, thus to have in hand now the
bids for printing the 1906 reports. Then
the department could be called upon to
get reports in early and thus relieve the
trouble of getting reports until the Legis-
lature is nearly over, as well as the
yeHing matter of getting some reports
after the Legislature has adjourned.
For instance, the adjutant generals
report has not been in hand more than
three weeks, and much Of the material
in it could have been put in type by the
fall of last year. So with the depart
ment of the quartermaster general and
with many other departments.
By getting these bids ahead of time,
and so amending the law that the bids
could be legally advertised for this early.
the benefit of competitive bidding could
still be retained and there need not come
in the feared evil Of a State printer.
Another way would be to create the
department Of State printing and the
State do its own work. It is not be-
lieved that the work could be as wen
done that wa nor 50 economically, but
something mist be done to get these re-
ports out earlier.