Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-10

| committees nave maze Q1SciOSuTcs ina
| have tended to certify to the truth OF
| this assertion. and now comes the House
| committee on printing with the state
| ment that the present law governing the
| publication of federal documents is re-
sponsible for a waste of million dollars
| yearly OF the peoples money. This COM
| mittee. which is endeavoring to do away
| with the useless waste and extravaganza
| In the printing and distribution of the
public documents. has prepared COM
| prehensive bill which has already been
introduced in both houses
Inc report. urging the passage of the
Dill. which was prepared for the lower
house by Representative Henry A. Barn
| mart OF Indiana, recites that the present
| method of printing and distributing gov
eminent publications has become an al
most utter failure and has choked UP
the storage vaults with thousands of
| TONS OF documents that are now rotting
| IN the last six years. according to Rep
| resentatlVe Barnhart, the accumulation
| OF obsolete and useless documents in
| the government warehouses has reached
| a. total of more than 100000 publica-
| .lons. the great bulk of which has had
10 De disposed of as waste paper with
| out ever having been unwrapped or
! read by any one
i In the year 1909 1.43JJ,272 publications
| were sold by the public printer as waste
| paper, at eight-tenths of a cent per
pound. The accumulation weighed APP
| NV toHS, ana the amount
! ceived was $1,000. The public printer
mad, however. expended So. S25 in handling
| this accumulation of documents. which
MADE the net receipts s11.224 These pub
| hcations 1t is said. originally cost the
| government fully S1OO 600. thousands of
them having been bound in the best
grades of cloth and leather The follow
| ing year. 1910 nearly 100000 publica-
tons. weighing 700 tons, were disposed
OF in the same manner by the public
printer Each year since this procedure
mas been repeated with corresponding
loss to the government. Summing up
this situation. Mr.. Barnhart says:
me record of the last six years thus
shows that more than 1.OOO.OOO publica-
tons find their way into Uncle SANS
! have undoubtedly cost the government at
least 80 cents copy for their printing.
binding. wrapping. handling and storage
| In addition. upon thousands of these
worthless documents there has also been
the expense of transportation in the mails
| from Washington to various parts of the
country and then for return to Washing
| ton again. On basis of 80 cents per
copy the accumulation of 100000 docu-
| ments per year indicates an annual loss
| OF 10000. due to the system of printing
and distribution now required by the pres
| ent law
Undoubtedly double the number Of
worthless documents accumulated by the
government itself more nearly represents
. the actual waste of such publications. for
| 1t is a matter of common knowledge that
the great bulk of the documents. now al
| lotted to and distributed by the members
| of Congress finds its way into the waste
baskets of their constituents, who have
| little or no interest in the general class
| of publications that senators and men,
bers now have allotted to them for public
| distribution. 1t would be more nearly
accurate to estimate the annual waste In
government publications to be at least
| 81, 100000
| There is also great waste in many
publications printed for the document
rooms Of the Senate and the House. Tons
Of useless publications are carted away
from the document rooms annually and
sold as waste paper Scores of tons Of
| expensive publications are now rotting
| in the vaults under the terraces of the
| Capitol, the document room to which
| they were allotted not having been able
| to find members willing to distribute
| them To prevent the continuation of
this enormous loss and at the same time
establish an economical and efficient
| method of printing and distributing the
documents of the government is the pur-
4 pose Of the bill just introduced.
| Under the present law, which is held to
be responsible for SO much waste, each
member of Congress Is allowed certain
quota of each publication. sometimes
1900 copies regardless of whether the
| particular document is of any interest
| or value to the constituents Of the sena-
| tors or representatives.. AS an illustra-
| ton, the members from such inland
(! states as Kansas and Nebraska receive
| as many copies of the Nautical Almanac
and the report Of the commissioner OF
navigation as do the members from New
| York and New Jersey. The members
| from Massachusetts, get as many irriga-
f, ton bulletins as those from Idaho, and
members from New York city get as
many copies of the Agricultural Year
| Book as the members from Nebraska.
The proposed law does away. with this
plan and substitutes method whereby
| each member has an annual fixed credit
with the superintendent or documents,
| which is made available for supplying
documents that are of special interest to
| his constituents. Documents are TO be
| supplied to the amount OF this credit,
| which is not available for any other
| purpose, on a valuation basis. deter
mined by the cost of reprinting the docu-
ments The annual credit to each sena-
| tor will be $500 and to each represent
alive 81 800 In this way. it is felt. mem
| bers who represent rural communities
will spend their entire allotment for pub
| locations of interest to farmers. and
those representing manufacturing dis
tricts will use their credit in sending the
results of Investigations into trade condi-
| tons.
In urging the necessity for new print
ling law the HOUSE SolHiIiieeCC hAofNs' s'i>
statement that there has not been a re-
vision Of the law since 1880. and IN thai
time new conditions have arisen which
have necessitated an almost complete
change in the method Of printing and dis
trimming government documents. The
introduction Of typesetting machinery
and numerous labor-saving devices has
almost revolutionized the printing trade
since the act of 1895 was passed. A new
printing Office. the finest and best equip
ned in the world, has been erected since
that date
4 All branches of the government have
undertaken methods for publicity of their
onerations that were unthought of twen-
~ wears ago. Congress itself has led in
the work OF spreading broadcast the full
est information concerning public affairs
Today the government of the United
states is the greatest publisher in the
world. No other nation. says the com
mittee. approaches this country in the
effort to enlighten it's people by the print
ing of millions upon millions of public
idocup,snts year after year.
| AS a result of this movement for great
| er publicity in the affairs Of the people
the printing expenditures have fully dou-
| bled in twenty years. The committee
states that it is time for Congress to
| make more careful survey of its print
ing methods. not with view of curtail-
ing present-day publicity in any way,
| but rather to further aid such publicity
by bringing to its assistance more efficient
methods and abolshing useless waste.
ON MEXICO.