The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-09-30
SPEECHES ARE NOW
TO SEE THE LIGHT
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
GIVES CAMPAIGN DOCU-
MExTs BY MILLIONS
OUTPUT EN- O r Nj OF S
POLITICAL AMMUSITION FOR BOTH
PARTIES KEEP PLANT IN
OPERATION DAY
AND NIGHT

WASHINGTON, Sept. .9.--Fifty
million--count 'em-fifty million-mis-
siles of political warfare have been
manufactured and hurried to the firing
line on the campaign upon which the
nation has embarked for the saliva
ton OF the eountry-and, incidentally,
several hundred seats in the house of
representatives and the senate.
This is the tally of the output OF
! Washingtons great political ammuni-
I ton factory, or rather Ii will be the
/ tally before the campaign is over ac-
cording to one of the expert manu-
facturers engaged In the work.
| The present summer is the quadren-
NAL season of special rest and quiet
at the nations capitalize presiden-
tial election year. Senators. represen-
| tatives. cabinet officers. in short every
| official big enough q get away without
being missed from the complex ma
chine of Uncle Sans government has
| betaken himself home to attend to the
mending of his political fences and
to make sure that the Salt River
steamer which Is due always TO sail
| on the first Tuesday after the first
/ Monday in November does not include
| his name on its passenger list.
Printers Kept Busy.
| In governmental Washington 1t is
| might all night in the nighttime"
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 III.
streets. northwest. There is 1t day
| all day in the daytime. and there is
no Sunday. The rumhling machinery
Whirrs necessarily and tired shift is
replaced by another shift Indifferent
as to all times of day or night. Wagons
flash in, receive their bulky cargoes
and rumble off to the nearby railroad
station to return in few minutes for
more. All night long from the many
tiers of windows that pierce the ten
| storied building the electro mercuric
lights fling their blue glare far over
tile sleeping city, silhouetting to the
gaze of the daybreak pedestrians, the
sweating workers as they fit aci and
forth at their tasks. 1t is the business
| place in the United States--it is busi-
ness. magnified, multiplied, lifted to
| Nth power
| And there is necessity for its haste,
for this giant ammunition factory must
| turn out the main supply of missiles
and pretectiles FOR the battles in this,
the hottest campaign that ever added
F., warmth to superheated summer. And
not to one but to all belligerants must
| II supply their material made accord
| ing to models approved by the veteran
warriors of the political arena anu
fashioned to suit the individual ability
of the fighter or the particular form
of the lighting the battle may assume
| in different sections of the country
Here viii be found every form of lit
erary weapon from the small, cauStic
leaflet containing but a paragraph of
satire that pierces like steel jacketed
bullet to the heavy hundred page,
| solid shot carefully compiled FROM
statistics or the oratorical oomoshell,
loaded last winter by some far-seeing
political general on the floor of the
| house Or senate with view of burst
| ing this summer and scattering de-
struction and dismay In some distant
| stronghold of the enemy.
| Ammunition is Plentiful.
! Great sheafs of argumentative ar
rows to be shot from the stump are
| turned out by the hundred thousands
and shipped at once to the waiting
| political archer, while in the store
rooms row upon row of statistical ia
| bles, pregnant with death to the as
| ~irations of political opponents, stand
| ranked like 80 many cartridge clips of
| the Mauser rifle. ready to be requisi-
| toned by the captions in the field.
| iiiutGu sAiN 'Aiiy alSH eHAth hVCu NC
| hung over the door of the government
| printing office at the present time is
| Ammunition served at all hours"
! 1t Is principally for the 400 odd
| representatives in congress that this
legion of literary shot and shell is man
ufactured. Many of them will come
| up for collection this fall and re-
election means the necessity of gain
| ing votes Votes, to follow the Sc
auence to its source, need convincing
campaign arguments of one sort or
another. These arguments are the
projectiles manufactured at Uncle
Sans great ammunition factory in
| this city-here are framed all the ar
guments which representatives and
| senators have spouted on the floor of
| congress in preparation for this falls
! battles and have obtained leave to
print as public documents SO that
! they may be scattered broadcast over
the country dealing destruction to the
aspirations of their political opponents.
The amount OF spell binding liter
allure that is turned out for campa ign
purposes by the government printing
office is amazing, While 1t is practi-
call impossible to obtain exact fig
ures with regard to the output of the
government projectile factory was
recently Informed by an official high
in that office that the number Of sep
arate documents printed and sent out
by the order of various members of
congress, either for their own use or
for that of other candidates for office
during the coming campaign would.
for the year ending with election day,
approximate sixty million!
Since it is impossible for the hu-
Imam mind 10 grasp IN the distract any
such vast quantity as fifty million,
some concrete relations may be OF
value in assisting the reader to an ap-
probation Of what this number Of
documents really means
Circle Earth Five Times.
There is. according to the reports
of the governments printing Office. an
average of sixteen pages In each of
the documents named. II the printed
pages We're placed end to end they
would circle the earth five times, and
| have enough left over to reach from
here to Manila II they were stacked
| in ii single pile they would overtop
by six miles the combined heights OF
Mount Everett. Mount Blanc and
Pixies Peak--thus reaching more than
thirty miles mp into the sky III the
rrinted pages could be laid nat. side by
side. they would cover an area OF
ground equal 10 Twenty-Five square
mites. or more than $4,000 acres, From
all OF which il Is easy 10 be seen that
the output of the government print
ing office during a campaign year Is
stuDendous, AZ,
Thus II is Thai he printing once is
s&,, u tyVQ