Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-20
ALLEGES FAvOR|T|SM
Former Employees Charges
Against the Public Printer.
BIDDING ON CONTRACTS
Audit System Said to Have the Inside
Track.
DEPARTMENT ORDERS IGNORED
Conditions in Government Printing
Office Declared to Be. Terrible-In-
vestigation Demanded.
BIDDING ON CONTRACTS
DEPARTMENT ORDERS IGNORED

|
hitting employees of the audit system in
the office to bid on supply contracts and
serious Irregularities in the conduct of the
affairs of the office are the charges that
are now brought against the management
of the government printing office.
| An employe of the office who resigned
confidential position recently in order to
go with a commercial firm tells the follow
ing story:
wv. A. Root, one of the clerks employed
by the Audit System, the concern that is en-
gagged in instalil the 'so-caled audit sys-
tenn in the government printing office. is
permitted to bid on all stationery and office
supplies, which he does presumably the
representative of the Library Bindery and
Loose Leaf Company of New York city.
THE Audit System itself, although en-
gagged to install system of auditing and
cost keeping, is permitted, by special direc-
ton of the public printer, to bid on every
thing that is bought in the way of station
cry and Office supplies, notwithstanding
the fact that the officials of the company
are at work in the Office and are therefore
in position to take advantage of inside at
fairs and conditions
Formally of Receiving Bids.
notwithstanding the fact that the office
goes through the formality of receiving
bids from people outside the Office, practi-
cally everything that has been ordered in
the way of office supplies and stationery,
which, under the system being installed,
has already amounted to thousands of dol
lars is purchased either from the Audit
System the Library Bindery and Loose
leaf Company, through their representatives
| in the office.
Recently the Audit System was awarded
| the contract to supply a large number of
desks, amounting to several hundred dol
| lars, when a Washington firm had under
bid the system about $50.
Nv. A. Root also represents the Crew
Levick Oil Company of Philadelphia, Pa,
and has secured number of contracts for
the firm since being employed In the Office
by the Audit System.
The Audit System receives generous
pay for all the blanks and record forms,
! which run into the hundreds. although the
office pays for the material and the print
ing, and at the same time pays the Audit
System for the time 1t takes to conduct the
| experiments and devise the forms to be
used
The AUD System has shipped in great
quantities of supplies and furniture for
! which no acquisitions bids had been
made. which afterward were ordered and
payment for same made.
Orders Ignored.
MANY of the departments in transmit
ting orders to the government printing Of
nee LOT loose ZEAL Dln0erS ana Otner klnQS
of stationery that the government printing
| office is required to furnish. but which it
| has to purchase, have ordered in many
| cases that certain makes of these goods
which they had found by experience to be
! the most economical and best suited to
| their purposes have had their requests ig-
nored and the contracts in practically
| every instance, were given to the audit
| system.
1T is also interesting to note that the
| public printer recently had withdrawn from
the files of the office all of the special
| ders that he had issued since assuming
| office, the number of which was between
| four and five hundred. Within few days
a small number of the innocent orders
| the kind that had no particular bearing or
| interest-were returned to the files 1t was
whispered in the Office at the time of this
| II ansaction that such variety of special
| orders would probably not read we'll before
a committee of Congress bent on digging up
| things
! Alleged Bluff at System.
Another former employe of the Office,
who held a responsible position, but who
quit the service because. he says. he
| found the conditions unbearable, wrote the
| following letter to a fliend in Washington:
| THE conditions in the government print
| ing office are certainly something terrible,
and the administration is the greatest bluff
| at system and reform that know of, and
the very head himself is the very farthest
| from system and ecohomy-in fact, the
| the name 'Stllings" to me Is synonymous
with chaos and confusion for, instead
| of making the cogs fit the wheels he Is
continually choking them
| ''As you know, l am a great believer IN
| system and economy, when results are ac-
complished and not sacrificed (and system
| should only simplify and not complicate),
| but under the present administration con-
ditions, in nearly every respect. worse
| than they were a year and a half ago. or
| now nearly two yeas since Mr.. Still:ngs
| came there.
Il must not express myself too much. but
| you know how 1 feel, and am not 'one of
those fellows that got fired either.
There are quite number of good clerks
! and officers around the government print
| ing office, but you know, many are
| holding high positions who in the bust
| ness world would have hard time to get
| SO a week.
| Some of the public printers appoint
| ments have been based on anything else
but ability and fitness, and some who I'M
| uuest!onably should be in their PLACES are
| held down. He gave the impression that
| his motto "A square deal but his
| actions quite different and he is either
too proud or hasn't common politeness
| enough to speak to his employees when he
meets them, even though they have worked
| with him personally; or he may possibly be
| so engrossed with some of his fanatical
| ideas and alr-caStleS that his physical
| vision is marred.
Suggests Investigation.
| How President Roosevelt, a man l
! greatly admire, will allow such a man to
! remain at the head of such bureau, espe-
| cally in the face of so many earnest and
| justifiable protests, l cannot understand. |
| and 1 hope that he or Congress will start
| an investigation that will show up condi- |
| tons as they are, and not as the public |
| printer has tried to picture them to him. |
| The author of the above restrictions on
! the administration of the government print |
| ing Office, when seen by reporter, readily |
| gave his consent to the publication of the |
! text of his communication, but declined at |
| this time to allow the use of his name, stat
| ing that he preferred to appear before a |
| congressional committee, should one be ap-
| pointed for the purpose of investigating the |
! affairs of the office, he is led to believe |
| will be the
No Concert Tomorrow at White House
| AS the band of the United States Marine