The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-07
AUDIT SYSTEM
IN THE DISCARD
Other Innovations and Extrav-
aganCeS of Public Printer
to Be Investigated.
SCANDAL GROWS EACH DAY
EYES OF CHAIRMAN LANDS
OPENED.

washington. F'eO. 6.-COncurrlng IN
the recommendation of Acting Public
Printer Rossiter, the president today
cancelled the contract of the govern
'ment with the audit system and ordered
its election from the government print
ing office at the end of six days. The
audit system is the corporate name of
the cost ascertaining method which
was installed more than year ago by
Public Printer Stillings Under its
operation the government has paid
about $4,000 for the privilege of cal
culating the cost of government print
ing and binding.
System a Gold Brick.
Representative Lands of Indiana,
chairman of the joint committee which
is investigating the government print
ing Office, says that the audit system, as
it has been installed and operated in
Washington, lis a gold brick thinly
plated with the genuine stuff. We have
paid for this brick" said Mr.. Lands,
land before we throw it out we are go
ing to extract the modicum of value it
is gilded with. / mean that you can'U
run the government printing office with
all its departments and its 45OO EN-
plOyes without using some method or
cost ascertainment. SO if there are
any good features in the audit system,
we are going to keep them, for we have
paid for them many times over.
Lid to Come Off.
Mr.. Lands is authority for the state
ment that the joint investigation COM
mittee purposes to take the lid entirely
off and delve to the bottom of the many
charges, some of them definite and dis
tinct, others of a public rumor charac-
ter. which eventuated yesterday in the
suspension by the president of Public
Printer Stillings and his succession by
w. S. Rossiter of the census bureau.
Mr.. Rossiter has been directed by the
president to make an impartial survey
of conditions there and to recommend
methods for reducing the Office TO
business basis. This task. an extremely
arduous and complex one, he plunged
into today and his judgment tonight is
that in about three weeks he viii be
able to submit an intelligent report to
the White house. This afternoon he
made brief preliminary report recon-
mending discontinuance of the audit
system.
Printing Office Elegance.
Among the charges which the joint
investigation committee will inquire into
pursuant to the suspension of Public
Printer Stillings is that his administra-
ton has comprised remarkable extrav
agances. Chairman Lands, who visited
the government printing office today to
call on Mr.. Rossiter, found himself
ushered into surroundings which
multi-millionaire migRt fancy. In the
public printers offices were massive fur
niture, costly pictures, appointments of
elegance little in keeping with a
printing and binding plant. The COM
mittee, with the help of Mr. Rossiter,
will endeavor to find out why, roughly
speaking. it has cost the government
$50 to turn out job which commercial
houses would do for SIS. The commit
tee may inquire into such reports as
these.
That As cents a pound has been paid
for qualities of inks worth less than 20
cents a pound; that the storerooms OF
the government printing office contain
at the present time more paper stock
than under other administrations was
used up in half a dozen years; that so
great was the pomp with which Public
Printer Stillings surrounded himself
that persons having business with MIN
were frequently required to make ap-
pointment a day ahead and never could
gain his presence without running the
fire of uniformed Iackeys and thread
ing a maze of scarlet tape.