The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1906-02-16
ECONOMY AND REFORM.
Useless Matter Cut From
Public Printery.
ADULTERATION OF SEEDS.
List of Bad Seed Houses Can be
Had for Asking.

It looks as though before the year
were over there might be reduction,
perhaps not OF a million year in the
government printing bill, but of
enough to show that the investiga-
tion of the Keep Commission and the
general probing of the printing Ques--
lion were beginning to bear fruit.
There is general trembling now in
4 the Government Printing Office over
the prospective reduction of force
This is not the result SO much of find
Il ing that the affairs of the office were
q run at loose ends, as of the cutting
off of useless and semi-private print
ing by the government. There has
4 been general shakeup IN the SO
q called editorial Offices Of the various
q departments. Nearly all Of the de-
g partments have so called "editor"
VI and he usually knows about as much
81 about the printing business as child
about integral calculus. Heretofore
Z he has been under the domination Of
& his Secretary and of every bureau
l chief in the department and he has
been forced into sending TO the Print
n ing Otfice thousands of pages Of mat
Ter annually that ought never to have
Y been printed ia the first place and
L that if they were printed ought to
II have been put in proper shape which
they seldom were. Since the wave of
i reform has been going through the
Fl departments, the editor has found
that to hold his job he had to make
Il at least show of knowing something
Il about his business. 1t has embol-
dened him TO appeal to his secretary
and get some OF the tons of useless
printing cut off. The result is that
now editions of the various govern
ment publications are being cut down
to reasonable size or abolished alto.
gether with consequent saving In
ink, white paper, binding and COM
position. There has been less work
lat the Government Printing Office all
along the line but especially in the
4 blndery and folding rooms. The frs!
1 people to 60 will be some of tht
women, and there will be many
others who will get the yellow enyel-
Ope before the year Is out. This will
mean some saving in labor but thu
saving 10 material will be equall'
large. Acting Public Printer Rickett
said during his tenure of office tha
the government printing bill could b
cut down 'sa million year,.
The Department of Agriculture ha
begun campaign that will stir u
seed men, honest and dishonest, al
over the country and that will say
the farmers tens of thousands Q
dollars annually. The Department
probably never would have dared d
the thing on its own responsibility
but the course was made mandator
by act of Congress and now the BON
has exploded. 1t is nothing less tina
to publish in the bulletins of the De
partment the names of the firms wh
adulterate seeds sold to the public
Now it may be said to the credit {
the Agricultural Department that
does not distribute much adulterate
seed itself. The seed which it bu.
and distributes free in accOrdan,
with the free-seed law is pretty hie
grade. 1t is submitted to a search
ing examination and has to come |
to sample before it is accepted. b.
concealed in the last seed approprl
ton bill there was a venomous lit
provision that the Department shou
buy seeds in the open market dufiI
the year and publish the names
the firms who adulterated their OF
put. Here was publicity with
vengeance. The report mentioned t
firms by name and address that h
been guilty of this practice, but
there were hundreds Of them, the
Interested will have to write to t
Department of Agriculture to s
the list. 1t is too long to publish
this letter. but every farmer th
~. sows an acre of grass seed ought
4 have the list which will be sent fri
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