The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1914-02-27
STATE PRINTING
NEEDS SYSTEM
Bob" Dunn Brought About Import
ant Changes In 1895, Stopping
Huge State Treasury Leak.
BUT FAULTS STILL REMAIN
Committee on Public Accounts Found
Several Things To Criticise-Pro-
pose Changing Board in Charge

' st. Paul Feb. 81, Especial to the
Daily Pioneer)-It is odd that there
should he so much near-scandal
about the state printing. All print.
ers are honest and yet there has not
been time in twenty years but that
someone was messing around with
the state printing contracts and
f1ndlng faults-real faults at that.
However, to compare present prac-
tice with twenty years ago makes
the current methods seem almost an
gelic. For instance in 1896 Bob
Dunn, and he is something of a
printer himself, raked the thing
fore and aft He said eve have a
deficit of $4,000 in the printing ap.
preparation on which we are paying
seven per cent interest" eve are
lending money to the banks he says
"for three per cent and paying seven
per cent on our bills"
There wasn't any limit then
everybody ordered what he wanted
and the bills came into the Secretary
of State and the Secretary of State
marked what funds should be liable
for each bill, and the Auditor drew
a warrant if the fund had any money
to pay the bill, and if it hadn't he
made a note saying about when he
guessed it would have some money.
Not only did each officer order
anything he wanted, but he even
ordered great deal that he didn't
want. The energetic young men
representing the supply houses had
great consideration for the needs of
the departments. Sometimes when
an order was put in for a thousand
blanks, the energetic young man
would persuade the officer who was
buying them that it would he much
more convenient to have five or ten
thousand. In other cases the
Thoughtful salesman would say to
himself, That fellow isn't ordering
enough will help him out-we
would better make that ten thousand
and save him from the embarrassment
OF not having enough printed mat
ter. And in that happy-go-lucky
way, many of the departments had
bales and bales of printed matter
stored away in their back office that
never got used, and the state even
tually paid the bill sometimes with
seven per cent interest.
The printing bill at that time ran
$4,000 a year when there was a
legislative session and $4,000 or
more in the odd years. The highest
years business was $4,000.
In '97 the Law was passed, which
stands now, making the Secretary
of State, Auditor and Treasurer. the
state printing commission. The
next year Auditor Dunn reported
that including the salary of the
state printer, they had pulled
through on $4,000. He. still
thought too much was left to chance
and that they ought to get estimate
from each department as to it's
printing need.
The states printing business is
not yet on an ideal basis. The COM
mittee On public accounts last winter
found several things to criticise in
the conduct of the office and they
proposed turning the whole thing
over to the board of control along
with all purchasing business. In
general there is a great deal to be
said in favor of a single purchasing
agency for great proportion of the
CONTINUED on Paee 81