Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-11
PRINTING TIE new TARIFF BILL
HOW THE BIG JOB WAS SPEED
ILY ACCOMPLISHED.
Thousands Of Extra Pages and On
usual Care Required In Putting
It Together.

ing the handing of the tariff printing
during the extra session.
Primarily the correctness Of the new
statute depended upon the watchfulness
of the enrolling clerks at the Capitol. but
the mechanical details were carried out
by the workers at the big printery with
out hitch or delay. The great volume
OF tariff work was preceded by the hear
ings of the House commit e, which made
sixteen volumes of solid text.
AT the extra session Chairman Payne
ordered the proposed bill; printed for the
use of hts committee. From day to day
this volume was reprinted with the
changes agreed upon at each session.
Each paragraph was numbered and the
text set In large roman type. The typ
setting machines played their part in
the late scrap by setting up the en-
tire bill in six different forms. There
will be big cleanup when the furnace
room of the foundry receives the hundreds
paving the way for the new statute.
When the completed bill. passed the
House 1t was printed In roman type with
blank spaces for the signatures of the
speaker and the chief clerk The com.
mittse Of tie whole in the Senate ord red
the bill reprinted from time to time.
with each am andment numbered with
huge black figures. Here. as In the
House. every change from tn, original
text was indicated by the use Of italics
across face and space in imitation OF
the scratch of a pen.
Thousands Of Pages.
The bill as sen. to the conferees made
507 pages, exclusive of an index OF 46
pages. Tearing to pieces and reprintins
5OO-page volume Is no joke except In
the largest printing Office in the world.
Besides there was volume OF compare
tive statistics which made about l,5uO
pages of intricate tabular matter and a
continuous performance" schedule. as
the compositors called it. This latter
started as large-paged estimate OF reve-
nues and from day to day column after
&C lumn and amend nent after amendment
were added until it spread out as
poster or,n ed on sheets Of paper as
large as a small library table.
The customs tariffs were recrtnfed for
pages to the tr tai output, while the COM
pleted law itself as pr nted for the use OF
officers of the government makes book
of 1cl PAGES. Besides all this there was
the Congressional Record. The empi yes
dc. allied on trat work were indeed making
records-Ce ngressional Records and rec
ords CT s-eed and endurance. 1t was the
same cid story Of an average sess on. but
"a coed deal more of 1t"
But the one chief worry In handing the
tariff bill was In exactly reproducin the
accepted portions. In addition to beng
read by two different employees. 1t was
followed literally" and the copy holders
read the punctuation points as well as
the text.
II was puzzing to the bystander to
M NIL.
point par. Um-um line: um-un . ital;
um-um line: um-un7 com: un-um sem:
unl-um end line" The reader was simply
designating the commas. se'nicoions. Pc
RODS. paragraphs. linetvpe and italic in
the copy to be repro duced.
TIE enrolling clerk at the Cap'toi had
before him copy Of TIE bfl IS 1t passed
the Heu the numbered amendments OF
the Senate and the -eccrt Of the con-
ferees. From this terial the enrolled
bill as 1t appeared on p,rcNment was
evolved. ess pro is rom the big print
cry were compared word by word. letter
by letter. and the points of punctuation
e-pecially guarded. The parchment copy
pa~tment is sole authority for the reading
Of the law and II must be correct.
Importance Of Single Letter.
An illustU ton Of the close following
of the copy as passed by Congress is
given III q d III WHICH reached the Ell.
rol'ing clerk some years ago without
the "g" In the word bridge. The ex-
perts Of the government printing Office
found the error when prepar ng for the
parchment copy and asked permission to
change it. They were informed that az
the bin had been approved by both
houses of Congress in that shape II would
have to stand: "A bill author zing the
erect en- OF a bride ever the Mississippi
river" By similar inadvertence a
m splaced comma is said to have cost
the government hundreds of thousands
of dollars in tariff act not so many
years ago.
A peculiar feature Of the parchment
copies of all laws sent to the Pres dent
for his signature is that while there are
appro pirate blank spaces for the gna-
lures OF the Vice President and Speaker
OF the House, the President is compel ed
to affix II S name at the bottom "any
old place" Not even a dotted line shows
thai 1t is either desired or expected.
This popularity of the enrolled act has
n times past been aggravated by the
signature of the Pres dent extending in
zigzag line along the margin of the
parchment.