Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-12-10
BILL SAVES NEARLY
MILLION IN PRINTING
Barnhart Measure, Shaking
Up G. P. o., Passes House
and Goes to Senate.
RAISES PAY OF SOME,
cut CUTS OUT WASTE
FranKing Privilege Receives Severe
Blow, While Useless Documents
Are Eliminated.

Are Eliminated.
The Barnhart printing bill, which
shakes up the existing rules and reSu-
Iations governing the government print
ing office and aims to save more tEah
$500, 900 a year in that shop. goes to
the Senate today. having passed the
House late yesterday without roll call
The bill was the calendar "Wednesday
business for several legislative weeks
during the last session, and in it's pres
ent form strikes at some of the waste
fulness in public printing which has
existed because of no change in laws
and regulations for years.
The bill does a multitude of things,
and Is a thick document. 1t raises the
pay of compositors at the printing ONCE
from so to SIS cents an hour, reduces
few salaries there, but the big Things
which are hit are the useless docu-
ments and some of the wasteful frank
ing privilege customs 1t also gives
congress a firmer control over the gov
eminent printing office through the me
dium of the joint printing committee
of the House and Senate
Almost a million dollars IN printlhS
, wear is to be saved by the dlscon-
tjnuance of useless publications ana the
!irniting of the editions OF other docu-
VnepfS- but certain increases III s7AoA
and new publications ordered, such as
bulletin of committee hearings at the
capitol, bring the net saving 10 $500,
100 part of the savings is 10 oe
nv congressman living III denseiy
populated city district does not hooo MS
constituents with government documents
on the subject of the care vi soI ;S
lives or the proper method OF spraying
radiSheS.
Bill Is Non-Political.
The bill is a non-political WORK. rep
resenting the cooperation OF i'ieiioe
of the House committee on printing vi
which Representative Barnhart OF lhui-
ana is chairman. In a statement iiioe
10 the House the multitudinous changes
in the printing laws were explained Ny
Representative Barnhart. In this sta'e
mept he said, in part
hers of Congress-in both brancnes-are
following long-established customs oi
grab-bag methods IN printing ana Iral I'M
ing privileges not credltapie 10 lho.e oS
enough to make laws for our natloiiai
welfare 1t is doubtful if this impression
is justified, all things considered out
that there is a tremendous waste III oui
methods of printing and distributing pun
tic documents there is not DOUBT, as
The official report accompanying TINS Dill
will readily show YOU You ~oulo pe
anazed if / were to tell you that III
public-document procedure alone we sure
~ waste a half-million dollars year;
and add to this the wrapping, franKlng'
envelopes leave to print, and other eA-
.esses which this bill aims TO correct
and it will amount to more than nlil-
lion dollars a year that is absolutely
wasted. except to those who profit by
the production
existing law Whenever present law
GOOD
cults il has not been changed, but the
advantageous new features OF the Dill,
- the committee sees them, grouped
into general subjects. are as follows'
New Features of Bill.
valuation system of allotment of
documents to members, so each may
have the publications he needs for dis
tribution.
Restrictions of departments in free
hand and duplicate document printing
Limitation of printing frank slips
and envelopes, correcting both printing
and franking abuses
Restricting leave to print extraneouS
matter in the Congressional Record
More satisfactory plan for printing
for committees.
Labor saving method of folding.
Wrapping and handling public docu-
"Publication of morning bulletin of
days program of House and Senate
business.
Encouragement of government print
ing officials and salaries
More general supervision by joint
committee and public printer over all
public printing.
Requiring all printing and binding
TO be done at the government printing
office.
providing fines and Imprisonment
for violations of ranking and distribu-
ton privileges"
Allotment to Each Member.
Hereafter each member of the House
Will be allotted $500 worth of public
documents for his district each year, and
each senator $4,000 worth each year The
printing office will issue limited-edition
copies of documents from time to time
as the demand requires. and this will
save much waste in printing allotment
stuff not wanted, as is now done; each
member will be given only what he or
ders. and many will therefore draw less
than their allotment which will be
another saving: no member can draw
on his allotment after his term expires
and new members can supply the wants
OF their constituents as soon as their term
begins and not encounter an exhausted
document list because the predecessor
had drawn out everything available, both
present and future; members can order
what they need and nothing else will be
printed and wasted for them
The ranking privilege is much abused
at much cost and without profit to any
considerable number To say nothing
of the number of frank slips and white
document envelopes used by representa-
uveS during the past year. the public
printer reports that twenty-five and a
half million manila document envelopes
~ EVEN