Evening star., 1909-09-13
PRINTING BUREAU PROPOSED
CAPITALIZATION OF THE Gov
ERNMENT WORK.
Joint Committee of Congress to Con-
slider Project-Arguments
for the Change.

One of the matters to come before the
joint committee on printing this winter
will be the establishment of a printing
bureau. The Capitalization OF govern
ment printing in one bureau instead of
disjointed supervision of the several de-
partments and independent offices was
gone over incidental to the celebrated
Keep Investigations. but nothing came of
the project.
Changes in the membership of the Sem
ate and House committees on printing
will again open up this question. with the
forces for and against about equally di-
vided. Officials of the government print
ing Office are not in position to dictate
or even make suggestions regarding tAis
innovation except in the report of he
public printer. AS the matter is mpre
of a technicality of the issuing offices,
this will probably not be done unless
such expression Is asked for by Con-
sress.
Partisans OF a printing bureau point
out the desirabiity of uniform style and
the saving in editing and revision as suf-
ficient ground for it's establishment Copy
is received at the big printery in a great
variety of shapes and conditions 1t IS
said that the diction. photography and
punctuation of a large portion of the
copy Is reasonably good. However,
where the author knows more of tech
nical or scientific detail than the gener-
ally accepted rules of composition the
result is increased cost for its produc-
ton.
Methods of Handling Copy.
Two methods of handling copy are pre-
ferred by the government printing office
to give the copy editors liberty TO cor
rect style and manifest absurdities. or to
furnish copy which is to be followed lit
orally, editing and revision having been
completed before sending to the printer.
The public, printer makes an extra
charge for corrections not in the original
manuscript, and when the matter is torn
up in the proof sheet the cost in some
times heavy. 1t is not uncommon for
particularly bad departmental proofs to
be again sent to the machine divisions,
resetting being cheaper than an effort to
patch up the fragments and insert the
new matter.
Another important matter to receive
the attention of the joint committee on
printing will be the establishment of
an official gazette to cover routine Of
fetal notices of the entire federal gov
ernment. The complexity and volume
of the public business has reached such
a stage that a daily publication could
be maintained cheaper than can the va
rious methods now employed by the
various departments.
Under the present arrangement each
department maintains its own system
of disseminating information regarding
current events. All foreign govern
ments are understood to utilize a daily
bulletin for routine announcements, and
many strangers in Washington have eX
pressed their surprise that the idea has
not been followed by Uncle Sam If
the gazette is established here it will
form the nucleus of a general printing
bureau.
What Gazette Should Contain.
The official gazette, in the opinion of
government experts. would contain de-
controller. public land, patent and pen
sion notices; internal revenue and GUS
toms announcements, civil service ap-
pointments and changes, and army and
navy orders. A thousand and one other
matters could be sufficiently stated
within the confines of small daily. 1t
is pointed out that now newspaper men
receive daily numerous envelopes con-
taining various announcements from as
many different branches of the govern
ment service, the separate bits of news
being treated according to the individ
uality Of the head of the department or
bureau.
printery that the Saturday half-holf-
days are rapidly drawing to a close
One class of employees are not the
beneficiaries of the governments lib
erality. however. The watchmen are
not included with the workers who can
be spared" and they are at their posts
when the other employees are on pleas
ure bent.
The party of explorers headed by
Supt. of Work Berg and John A. Hus
ton have returned from their trip.
While not claiming to have discovered
anything more important than a fishing
pole they all report good time.