Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-20
SALES OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS
RECEIPTS IN 1908 AMOUNT TO
$4,000.
Suggestion Made That Branch Post
Once Be Established at Govern
ment Printing Office.

lie sale OF government publications. 1t
Is stated will reach $4,000 during the
fiscal year 1908. This is the highest sum
realized in any one year in the history OF
the United States. William L. Post, SUI
perintendent of documents, has control or
practically all sales and general distrtbu-
ton of public documents. with the excep-
ton Of those of the photographic Office
and some Of the interior Department bu-
reaus. and as a result duplication and
confusion are prevented in large measure.
''The entire scheme of distribution is
erroneous. however" said Supt Post re-
Gently. "and will only be settled by the
establishment OF branch post Office In
the government printing plant. Books
turned out at the Office are wrapped with
great care and at considerable expense.
carted to the various departments and la
borfously carried up winding stairways
or by means of inferior elevators TO al
ready overcrowded rooms. Here the
wrappers are removed ard each book.
separately incased In fresh Strawboard.
paper and rwine. is labeled and again
hauled up or down, az the case might be.
for delivery to the post office.
IF the issuing offices would send their
mailing lists to us the wrappers could be
printed on automatic machines and the
books or pamphlets placed in the mails at
departments, and there would be saw.
Ing In both expense and liability OF dam
age and loss in repeated landings. We
have central information bureau, and
year by year more attention is given to
the uniform makeup and mechanical per-
fecticn. comprehensive catalogntngs logi-
cal distribution and prop>r appreciation
by the public at large OF government pub
EcatfOns. Our sales last year Increased
froin> $4,000 to over $4,000 and this
year the total will approximate $50.
Faulty Indexing.
Mr.. Post deprecates the fact that. with
but few notable exceptions. the indexing
of public documents has been done In an
amateurish fashion. and states that I'm
deXers are born, not made" There are
said to be some promising workers along
this line in the Office. and efforts are be-
Ing put forward to aid their development.
The editorial section of the documents
ONCE has done some good work in the
short time 1t has been In operation in the
way OF making changes in obsolete forms,
yet little has been attempted beyond pre-
pairing contents, indexes, title pages, cap
tons and lists of illustrations.
One annoying feature of the work of
the superintendent of documents is the
fact that postage stamps cannot be re-
cetved as legal tender. Mr.. Post says:
THE return of these stamps in many in
stances loses us the sale. deprives the
man of hts book and costs more in cler-
ical labor to make the return than 1t
would to make the SALE Another prob
lem which has, been solved is by keeping
an accurate account of over a million and
a half of books and rendering them avail
able for instant reference.
Over 100000 volumes have the past year
been reclaimed from the 300 carloads of
Junk accumulated through depart
mental and library clean-ups, and many
tons of the useless books have been sent
to the l. street warehouse to await con-
domination. Forner'y the upper floors of
the old printing Office building were load
ed with huge piles of this miscellaneous
rubbish. but now those volumes suitable
for preservation. distribution or sale are
carefully filed In huge stacks In the sew
en-stOry annex to the Cd building. It is
expected that the entire documents Office
will be safely housed in this fireproof an
mex by the first Of July. although the
Encouragement of elevators and entrances
will not be finished for some months.