The Washington times., 1912-10-30
PUBLIC PRINTER TO
DESTROY SURPLUS
OF OLD DOCUMENTS
Thousands of Uncalled Re-
ports o Overcrowding the
Big Printery.

The Government Printing office 10
fairly bulging with old documents which
sem to be Of little earthly use to any,
body. ard which are on the way to
destruction as waste paper. II will be
up to the Public Printer to destroy
something like 10000 old and uncalled
for documents this fall.
These include documents that IN
reality 'are valuable. II they could
md their way to the people Of this
country who have use for them they
would be kept and treasured. They In
clude department reports OF years past.
Congressional Records, Congressional
Globes. eulogies. and documents Of
many other kinds. Some OF them con-
tain Information Of Importance.
Libraries Are Swamped.
These documents for which there is
now no call have found their way back
to the Government Printing Office from
many Of the small libraries of the
United States. The Government sends
out large numbers OF documents to
these libraries. Many OF them have
no adequate storage facilities. and the
result is they are swamped with Uncle
Sans literature. They proceed to ship
II back. That Is. 1t has been their Gus
tom to do SO. but recently q check has
been put upon that practice.
short time ago the business of
sending out all Government documents
was concentrated In the Government
Printing Office. The document rooms in
the various departments were abolished.
The effect of this has been to cause
great stacks OF old documents to be
mobilised In the office.
Hamper to Employees.
Employees nowadays find themselves
surrounded by whole ramparts of frown-
Ing documents. and elbow room Is at
premium.
One more effort will be made to dis
tribute the accumulation Of documents, 8,
and IL that fails, as It probably will,
then they will be cut up and destroyed.
The Joint printing committee will con-
slider whether there Is any way to dig
tribute the documents. Last year tho
same question came up and Senators
and members of the House were noti-
NED OF the surplus of literature. Only
loo members responded.
Previous Years Surplus.
Great as is the surplus Of documents
how. last year It was greater, amount
Ing to 5oo.0OO copies. And the year be-
fore that It was 10000. This is an illus.
tration OF the great waste of effort In
the Government printing. The printing
committee is trying to reduce this
waste, and II the Smoot printing bill
now pending before the House, becomes
law. It will do SO.
The waste documents pile up into
great bulk. This was shown last year
when the word went round at the Capt.
tol that there were 100000 documents
going to waste and ready for destrpc-
tion II nobody wanted them. One Sell.
ator said he'd take them all and send
them out to his constituents rather
than see them destroyed.
He continued In that frame Of mind
until ninety mail sacks had been un.
loaded In his office. Then he threw VI
his hands and said he had enough.
The Public Printer has to cut the
waste documents up on the premises OF
the Government Printing Office. TIL.
law requires II. Otherwise the docu.
ments might be sold by private par.
ties. Obsolete printing laws are re-
sponsible for The situation, and Il 1.
estimated Sl.Oo00o0 a year could be saved
by adequate reforms.