The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-09-30

million-count 'em-ffty million-mis-
siIes of political warfare have been
manufactured and hurried to the firing
line on the campaign upo which the
nation has embarked for h salvation
of the country, and, incidentally, sew
eral hundred seats in the House OF
Representatives and the Senate.
This is the tally of the output of
Washington's great, political ammuni-
ton factory, or rather it will be the
tally before the campaign is owe &C
cording to one of the expert manufac-
turers engaged in the work.
In governmental Washington it is
might all night in the night time"
and every day is Sunday, save in the
ammunition factory" the great build
ing of the government printing office
at the corner of North Capitol and H
streets, northwest. There it is day all
day in the daytime and there is no
Sunday. The rumbling machinery
whirrs necessarily and tired shift is re-
placed by another shift Indifferent as
to all times of day or night. Wagons
flash in, receive their bulky cargoes
tlu IulIlDlc ol " int hSdi ~ IdlIlo
station to return in a few minutes for
more. All night long from the many
tiers of windows that pierce the ten
stored buildings the electromagnetic
lights fling their blue glare far over
the sleeping city, silhouetting to the
gaze of the daybreak pedestrians the
sweating workers as they fit back and
forth at their tasks. 1t is the business
place in the United States-it is bust
ness, magniied, multiplied, lifted to
the Nth power.
And there is necessity for it's haste,
for this giant ammunition factory
must turn out the main supply of mis-
sizes and projectiles for the battles in
this, the hottest campaign that ever
added warmth to a su%perheated sum-
mer. And not to one but to all belig-
Grants must it supply their material
made according to models approved by
the veteran warriors of the political
arena and fashioned to suit the individ-
ual ability of the fighter or the partic-l
ular form of the fighting the battle
may assume in different sections of
the country. Here will be found every
form of literary weapon from the
! small, caustic leaflet containing but a
paragraph of satire that pierces like
a ~steeljacketed bullet, to the heavy
hundred page solid shot carefully COM
piled from statistics or the oratorical
bombshell, loaded last winter by some
far-seeing political general on the
floor of the House or senate with a
view of bursting this summer and
scattering destruction and dismay in
some distant stronghold of the enemy.
It is principally for the 400 odd rep
resentatives in Congress that this le-
gion of literary shot and shell is man.
ufactured. Many Of them will come up
for reelection this fall and reelection
means the necessity of gaining votes.
Votes, to follow the sequence to it's
source, need convincing campaign ar
guments of n sort or another. The
arguments are the projectiles manu-
featured at Uncle Sans Great ammu-
milton factory in this city-here are
framed all the arguments which repre-
sentatives and senators nave spouted
ton for this falls battles and have
obtained leave to print as public doc
uments" so that they may be scatter
ed broadcast over the country dealing
destruction to the aspirations of their
political opponents. |
The amount of spellbinding 1itera-
ture that is turned out for campaign
purposes by the government printing
office is amazing. While it is practical
ly impossible to obtain exact figures
with regard to the output of the gov
eminent projectile factory" | was re-
Gently informed by an official high in
that office that the number of separate
documents printed and sent out by the
order of various members of Congress.
ether for their own use or for that OF
other candidates for office during the
coming campaign would, for the pear
ending with Election Day, approx
mate sixty million.
There is according to the reports of
the governments printing office, an
average of sixteen pages in each of
the documents named. If the printed
pages were placed end to end they
would circle the earth five times and
have enough left over to reach from
here TO Manila. If they were stacked
in a single pile they would overtop by
six miles the combined, heights of
Mount Everest. Mont Blanc and Pixies
Peak-thus reaching more than thirty |
miles up into the sky. If The printed
pages could be laid flat side by side.
they would cover an area of ground
equal to twenty-five square miles, or
-