The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1910-07-12
WILL BE STOPPED BY CHANGE
OF METHODS.
Investigation Reveals How Thousands
OF Dollars Are Spent
Uselessly.
DUPLICATES OF EVERYTHING.

Tor more rational production and
distribution OF public documents will
lsaye millions Of dollars to the gov
eminent The printing investiga-
tIon commission. OF which Senator
smoot is chairman. has discovered
that the antique laws now In force
have caused a waste OF tons OF ex-
pens.ve printed matter every year
The statute provides that each
senator and representative shall
have certain number OF copies OF
each document printed. with the re-
suit that members have placed TO
their credit great mass of printed
matter for which they have no earth
ly use. In the vaults under the
house end OF the capitol the CONF
mission found 10000 documents
which members had failed to distri-
butte. Instead OF thus indiscrimin-
ately allotting docs" 10 members
Ia IS proposed that each member be
given a credit az the government
Office. which he may use 70 get such
publications. as are desired by MS
constituents. Thus a member from
an agricultural district could eNpend
his entire credit for agricultural
yearbooks. while under the present.
quota system he gets no more OF
these publications than. does the
New York city member. The conf
mission has ascertained that the
leverage cost Of documents distri-
lbuted by senator's during the last
five years has been about $1,000 a
year.
In studying the question whether
the government Is now printing TOO
large edltius Of It's publications the
commission found that the depart
mcnts and independent ohioos OF the
government returned 10 the super
irtendent OF documents IN the FIVE
ears. 19O5-0g. inclusive. a total OF
b .Ce0.59G documents which they
could not distribute and In addition
now have on hand vast accumuia-
tions OF other publications that
sooner or later will have TO be sent
TO superintendent OF documents
and thence 10 the waste paper pile.
The Joint committee on printing was
called upon this year 60 authorize
the sale OF waste paper OF more than
900. 900 useless or obsolete docu-
ments that had been unloaded on
the superintendent OF documents By
other branches OF the government
Another cause OF the excess in
government publications Is in their
duplicate distribution OF libraries
ay the superintendent OF documents,
the departments and by members Of
congress The commission has made
a compilation OF the reports Of the
superintendent Of documents show
Ing that in the last NJ years be
has distributed a tojal OF 1906 S92
Government publications TO Libraries
Ithronehout the country OF which
3 $4,000 went to designated de-
posltory libraries 1,G36,09l TO mis-
cellanoous libraries and G77,S12 to
Geological depository libraries. Tn
the same 10 years. the superintond-
cnt of documents has had returned
FROM these LIBRARIES total OF
t.b79IGl documents or an average
Of more than TOO. 900 a year. This
return of documents discarded by
the !hraries Is rapidly Increasing as
the reports show that In the last
three years the superintendent OF
documents has received 745,S61
documents on which the government
has had to pas double postage In
addition to the enormous expense OF
printing and then dispose Of them as
waste paper.
The commission ascertained that
the departments have nine separate
engraving and Hthogaphing plants
in operation. not including the
bureau Of engraving and printing OF
the treasury department. These nine
plants were operated al a cost OF
iS3fS,271 last year. In addition TO
this the total awards TO outside
establishments for engraving and
llthographlng for the government
amounted TO S317.664, making a
total OF S665.936 expended by the
government for engraving ana litho-
graphing last year. not including the
work OF the bureau OF engraving
and printing winch is confined 10
printing currency. bank notes.
stamps and the like. The commits
sion Is now investigating the adyisa-
bllity of having more of the engrav-
ing and l.thographing for the gov
eminent done IN its own plants,
some of which are equipped to per-
form additional work