New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1911-08-05
40 POSTAL CARDS PER
SECOND.

Whether the government own
ership Of certain public utilities
would be an advantage to the
mass of people, is much mooted
question. But Mr.. Samuel Don
nelly, Public Printer. is thorough
|ly demonstrating the fact that
the government ownership Of pos
tai card presses is a case OF real
economy to the United States
Government. Until the begin
ming Of the present fiscal year,
postal cards have been printed un-
der annual contract by private
concerns. This necessitated q
great deal of unnecessary trod-
Bile and expense to the Govern
ment.
The Government Printery nat
urally must keep abreast with the
rapid growth of the public bus :
ness. 1t has. therefore. been en-
larged from time to time until Il
today is the largest printing es-
tablishment in the world.
Last year, when bids for the
printing Of postal cards for the
next ensuing fiscal year were
asked for. Mr.. Donnelly, the
Public Printer wishing to serve
"Uncle Sam''-his emplOyer-to
the best Of his ability, submitted
bid for TIA lob. The printing
of the little one-cent postal cards
for one year is a tremendous un-
dertaking. and the making up OF
the bid requires very accurate fig
uring. 1t is claimed by the con-
tractor of last year that he lost
money. He would not bid for the
job again. which is good evidence
of the truth of his assertion.
When the bids were opened by
the department, it was found that
the Public Printer was the low
est bidder. There was some crit
icism at the time on the Govern
ment's undertaking to do this
work. This must have been due
to the critics lack of knowledge
of the ability of the Government
Printing Office to do the task.
There is no private concern as well
equipped to do this job, and do it
as economically. as the Govern
ment. Again, private firm. not
having any assurance OF getting
their contract renewed, could not
afford to invest in the proper ma
chinery, which must. necessarily,
be of a special design. to produce
the best results. The private
contractors, therefore. were com
PEELED to use the ordinary straight
sheet press; the United sta -cs
Government is using very large
rotary presses especially designed
for this work. It was thought,
until within the last few months,
THAT such work could not be done
on the rotary style of press. The
use of such press greatly increases
the speed with which the cards
can be printed. thereby diminish
ing the cost of them The two
rotary presses now in use have a
capacity of over two million pos
tai cards each in eight hours. 1t
would be preposterous to think
fof an ordinary flat sheet press
approaching half Of this capacity.
The paper on which the cards
are printed is wide enough to al
low eight cards to be printed
|lenghwise acros it. Each roll
weighs one thousand pounds net.
Ordinarily there is great waste III
handling this size roll of paper,
|by hauling it on trucks. standing
lit on end, tumbling it about from
place to place. and incidentally
dropping it. In order to prevent
this wastage. and at the same time
save the expense of handling it so
much, Mr.. Donnelly conceived the
idea Of building structural iron
rack to hold the stock Of postal
|card paper. As will be seen from
Fig. /, this rack consists Of three
tracks. one over the other. AT
either end of it is an overhead
track. on which is mounted a port
lable lift.
A large ball-bearing truck,
drawn by two horses, is used to
haul the paper from the freight
station. Il carries six rolls of
eleven hundred pounds gross each
at a load. A load is pulled up to
an entrance to the postal card de-
partment. where the overhead
track referred to extends out over
the driveway; then the portable
lift is run out over the loaded
truck. a piece Of three-inch pipe
is run through a roll of paper. the
lift is hooked onto each end OF
the pipe, and although the roll
weighs eleven hundred pounds,
one man hoists it up and runs the
lift back to the end of the rack,
where the roll Of paper is swung
around into place. Small two
wheel trucks are placed under
each end of the three-inch pipe
and on a monorail on each side
of the rack. then pushed on te
make room for the next one. This
rack is two hundred and ten feel
long and has storage capacity Of