Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1906-12-07

Is.
,een exhausted and the estimated
uenciency will amount to about s24
VVo' Thus it will be seen that there
IS no system by which an intelligent
'o.e'ast ast OF the quantity of printing
WIN be required, hence it Is impos-
Sloie to estimate the probable OK.
pense Tor the biennial period. In the
past secretary Of State Dunbar has
'oiuplIed a tabulated statement of
'ne cost of printing, binding and
paper for each year, with n view of
esliinatng the expenses for the en-
suing period, but his forthcoming
olennial report, it is understood will
not contain such statement because
of its uselessness.
There are several causes for the
gradual and healthy increase in the
cost of printing, paper and binding
during the past six years, and prin
cipal among these are cited the large
number of initiative measures. au.
thorized under the Initiative and
Referendum clause of the constitu
ton; the printing and binding OF the
direct primary nominating law and
the double expense of printing due
to this law which requires supplies
Tor two elections instead of one, as
formerly; the printing of the state
board of health blanks; all OF the
materials for the state library COM
mission, and the extravaganza of the
last legislature, which incurred a
greater expense for printing than
any previous session. There was an
additional cost of $1,000 during the
past two years for printing blanks,
etc, for the superintendent Of public
instruction; the cost of printing and
binding the assessment rolls for the
several counties aggregated $4,000;
the cost Of printing initiative meas
ures was $6O99. including paper and
binding, ana there was an additional
expense of $1,000 for materials for
the newly created agricultural So
cietlas
Neither II Is possible to draw a
comparison in the cost of public
printing with that OF other states
for the reason that the latter do not
furnish the counties with assessment
rolls, have no direct primary laws TO
contend with nor initiative measures
TO print and bind. The cost OF paper
also, owing TO the steady increase OF
consumption over the supply, Is grad
ually increasing every year and, al
together, II would be an extremely
difficult matter to arrive az conclu-
sions as to possible cost for the next
two years with any degree of accu-
racy.
Another flaw which has been pick
ed In the proposed new law Is the
clause which provides that tsection
80 THE state printer shall DO all of
the public printing and binding re-
quired by the legislature, the su-
preme court. the governor, the sew
eral state officers. state institutions,
or any board OF commission created
under the laws OF this state etc"
in that no explicit Interpretation OF
the term public printing Is fur
nished. Under the present system OF
government IN this state nearly all
of the state institutions are obliged
10 nav for their printing out OF their
own funds and IL Is TO their Interest
10 keen their prlting bill down TO
the lowest possible figure. whereas
Il IS argued, II they were permitted
10 have their printing done at the
general expense OF the state Il would
have n tendency 20 encourage care
lesness on the part of the administra-
tom Of the several institutions with
the result the safe printing account
would run into enormous figures
The new bill. as II now stands
contemplates placing the state
printer upon a fiat salary OF $4,000
per year. and authorizes him TO em-
nIov a bookkeeper, stenographer'
and such foremon proof readers, me-
ebanlcs and laborers as may be nee
essary to promptly and efficiently per-
form the duties Of his ONCE and
asks for a total appropriation OF
stOf. 600 ltemized as follows:
1909 1919
For salary Of state
printer ..-. '.'F S'VV' 49,
For bookkeeper
stenogr apher
proof readers
r.rfnffna