Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1909-04-10
BOSTON'S PRINTING,
The Superintendent Says Better
Give Up the Business.

Captain Smyth's Efficient Manage
ment Has Brought to Light the Elk
travaeance and incompetency of the
Past and Has Pointed Out the Dan
gers of the Future.
AT the very time that the finance
commission was commencing Captain
James H Smyth for the manner in
which be has conducted the municipal
printing plant Captain Smyth was go
ing on record to the effect that in Its
own interest the city Of Boston ought
to give up the business of municipal
printing. The superintendent says e2-
travagance, incompetence and dishon-
esty in the conduct of the plant have
in the past caused a loss to the city of
at least $1,O0000O.
81 believe" said Captain Smyth,
that, like every other enterprise prop
erly conducted. even under municipal
control, the printing plant can be made
successful. But experience has proved
that this particular municipal enter
ment Its total cost to the city of
Boston for the eleven years of Its ex-
istcnce up to the beginning of this
year was over 100000 Nominally
the return to the city was somewhat
smaller than that, and Boston lost
somewhere in the neighborhood of
100000 annually on the operation of
= , DIM. n
management has been frightfully GS-
travagant and the consequent cost to
the city outra geously high.
"My experience this year shows me
that the cost Of operating the plant In
a normal year. which this year was
not owing to the transition from the
old to the new regime, will be little
below 100000 Yet in the fiscal year
which closed on the LIST of last Feb
ruary the plant cost the city rising
100000 You can draw your own de
auctions about that particular com
parison, and the Inference will be true,
however far you carry it back.
1.-THE finance commission has issued
the report Of its investigation of my
in terms that are very 1iattering to me.
1t is fact that | have this year saved
more than $4,000 on the payroll
alone. My total savings will be In the
neighbOrhood of $40 1000, and that will
not include the additions | have made
to the capital account by the purchase
of machines.
Granted that the present admins
tration of the department is economical
and efficient, ! must say that, so far
as | am concerned, / do not care to ally
my future with the municipal printing
plant, and | do not know many people
fitted for the work who would care to
connect themselves with it. We know
that most reforms are only temporary
and there is good foundation for the
belief that in the future somebody will
take charge of that department with
as little regard for propriety as has
been shown in the past.
1.-The opinion / want to express, based
on experience, for | have gone careful
ly into the matter, is that the city
ought to break away from the expert.
ment altogether. Any person disposed
to be fair and familiar with the facts
will agree with me that private con
Germ having a contract with a city-a
contract obtained under stress of com
petition against other concerns equally
eager to get twill do the city's print
ing for a considerably less sum than
the work is likely to cost under munich
pal ownership.
THE city is neither a competent
printer nor a competent employer of
day labor for the purposes of such a
plant. The present lax system IS nei
Their good for the city which gives out
such work nor good for the employees
who receive It. The city loses money
by the barrel under 1t. The employees,
working under unfavorable municipal
conditions, cannot be at their best
And when l say that, in my opinion,
the experiment ought to be discontin-
ued | am not speaking carelessly. |
have looked into every item of eXpendi-
ture that appears on my books since
the plant was started, and the story re
vealed Is one Of inceSsant eXtrava-
gance. Not that all the extravaganza
Is in plain sight. A great deal of 1t is
underground. You get the facts only
by putting two and two together and
also by hearing the comments Of en-
ployees who talk about things and
know what is going on. So l say, IN
conclusion, even though the finance
commission does not go in It's recon-
mendations as far as l do, that l am
strongly in favor of the discontinuance
of the printing plant by the city.
Boston has no business to attempt
to do that which cannot be efficiently
done by the municipality. By giving
the work out under private contract
and competition 1t will prevent the re-
currence of intolerable conditions and
save the taxpayers from an annual
loss which In the last eleven years
has aggregated nearer to S1,000,000
than to any smaller sum."-Boston
Transcript,