Evening star., 1912-09-08
Among the last Of the bills to receive
President Taft's signature was one which

n;,%r;LE m ent publications
| distributed from the government printing
| Office. This, to take effect October ], cen
tralizes the distribution Of publications
| under one head and does away with the
necessity of each department having a
separate distributing division
The provision places the duty in the
hands Of the public printer, but the greater
part Of the actual work will come under
the superintendent Of documents, the
document section being a part of the
government printing office, although
maintained by a separate appropriation
and in charge of its own chief.
Already preparations are going forward
for the carrying on Of this new work.
Floor space is being cleared in the old
building that was originally occupied by
the printing Office to hold all the docu-
ments which the various departments are
authorized to transfer to that section
upon the establishment of the new order
OF things. Public Printer Donnelly has
detailed special force of employees to
help in this preparation, while when the
actual work is finally taken over the
Iorce at the document section will have
to be increased permanently
NO documents are now distributed from
the document section except by purchase
and until now vast quantities of docu-
ments have been sent out by the various
departments gratis. Under the new order
OF things this rule will not be discon-
| tinued, as each department will still have
charge Of the executive end Of the work
and will make out the lists Of names to
whom publications are to be sent without
charge. Consequently there will be nc
effect on the public generally, merely the
Capitalization Of work which now re-
quires special force in practically every
government department in Washington.
X X
Already occupying the position Of me-
dunn between the country at large and
the government printing
document office. the document Sec
c..4:. tion will. when this work
Is taken over, be made
practically the business Office of the big
print shop. Instead of. as now, sending
out vast quantities Of publications to the
various departments. the documents
when finished at the printing Office can
document section Of the building, ada
cent to the printing office. Thus not only
will considerable time be saved, but also
| considerable money previously spent for
transportation purposes. This step means
simply the broadening of the work al
ready done by the document section, con-
verting 1t into the distributing center not
alone for the printing office, but for the
United States government.
In speaking of the document section.
one of the former heads-that position be-
ing designated as the superintendent of
documents-said that were he asked to
write motto for this Office, 1t would
consist of the words Public documents
OUT speciality" Another chief of the sec
ton said that he considered 1t desirable
to trace the Legislative definition Of the
term public document"
Since 1851 he explained, 1.-THE date
of the establishment of the government
printing office, the decision is an easy
one, for with but few exceptions all the
ment printing office For the period
prior to 1861 it is more difficult The
term public document was first legally
defined during the second session of the
csth Congress, in 1897. but was made
quate. The practice of the office of the
superintendent of documents. officially
adopted, as authorized by law. has thus
defined the term Any publication printed
at government expense or published by
authority of Congress, or any govern
ment publishing Office. or OF which an
edition has been bought by Congress or
any government office for division among
members of Congress or distribution to
government officials or the public. shall
be considered public document -
y
The work, then. Of this branch OF the
government printing office is to sell the
output Of the government
Mail Order printing office To do this
n means that the vast ma
by way of mail, thus converting this en-
terprise into one of the largest mail or
der concerns in this country. A feature.
however, which brands this establishment
as being different from all other such en-
terprises is the fact that all documents
are sold at absolute cost, or as near
thereto as it is possible to figure. The
document section Is trying to reap no
harvest of nimble nickles dimes and dol
lars. but only to supply the country at
large with those publications it desires
without bankrupting the government
Therefore, when a document is quoted as
costing from cents up to $S25. this usu-
ally being in the case of an unusually
large copy of the Congressional Record,
it means that the actual cost of prodLc-
ing that said document was the same
amount as quoted, and sometimes even a
little more.
The business done by the document sec
tion of the government printing office
can be realized when the figures for one
year are quoted. For the year ending
June 80. 1911, the number Of publications
supplied was 3,664,6OO while the money
received amounted to approximately $1t3.-
$50. That means that striking a general
average each document cost in the neigh
borhood of 33 cents. The majority, how
ever. usually sell for about cents, that
representing the cost placed upon such
documents as are published by the De-
partment of Agriculture, or other depart
ment on some popular matter. The big
year books, annual reports and Congress
| sional Records are of course much more
expensive and bring up the general aver
age.
The duties Of the document section have
been divided into ten parts. starting with
that tnstructing the superintendent to
sell at cost any public document in my
charge the distribution Of which is not
otherwise specially directed by law" and
outlining the general duties Of the office
through that of preparing indexes. taking
| over all surplus documents held by the
various departments at the end of each
year and maintaining general super
vision over matters pertaining to distribu-
ton. These rules will now have to be
slightly changed. On the one hand there
ferred from the departments to the docu-
ment section, but on the other hand a
much larger amount of space Will be re-
quired in that section to give room to the
constantly growing supply of documents.
which accumulate all the time.
August Donath, superintendent OF docu-
ments, in dealing with this question in
his last annual report. shows the various
steps to be saved by the work being done