Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-05-05
Over a Million Dollars a Year Wasted
On All Kinds of Printing by U. $.
United States Has the Biggest Printing Shop in the World and
It Costs Over 100000 a Year to Run. It; Expense OF Print
ing the Congressional Record in 1914 Was $6l8, Waste
in Printing Public Documents.

bates and proceedings, with a list OF
all bills and resolutions introduced,
which is bound at the end OF a ses'
| sion and indexed. Senator Smoot,
who is one Of the printing experts OF
Congress, and has been a member CT
the Joint committee on that subject
for several years, estimates hat ron
10 to 20 per cent OF all the stun print
| ed in the Congressional Record IS ex-
traneous matter and does not concern
| the proceedings themselves.
II 70 G cent of the Record Is extra
| stuff, consisting Of reprints OF news
paper and magazine articles, speechfs
| ov DISTINGUISHED and obscure persons,
| ,etters, memorials, etc, the extent OF
! that practice may be realized when ~
s said that the bound record for inc
| second session OF the SiXty-third Con-
eress consists of 1920 pages, not in
| Gliding a thick index volume. Therc
| re eighteen volumes devoted to TINS
session. For each page Of the Record
The government pays $1.20 for index
'ng. According to the highest Smoot
estimate, about $1,000 pages OF this
%stupendous Record are concerned not
at all with the proceedings of Con:
gress, which might properly occupy.
about 5000 pages, if all the dead
wood was left out, and if it was for
hidden, under ".leave to print to
load up the Record with anything
nnder the SUM- r.. n 81 ri ...r
"Useless Printing is a Wicked Shame"
Said Senator Smoot IN ,;s,
THE useless printing that is going
on is a wicked shame" declared MI.
| Smoot to the Senate at the last Con.
sress, when he was trying to get &C
ton on the bill to revise the laws.
| Practically every Senator knew that
| Smoot was right. but he failed. to get
any action. Gettings things printed in
the Record at government expense is
a useful method of showing some
constituent that his letter, his tele-
gram or his speech has not been for
| gotten, but is embalmed forever IN
the archives Of Congress.
The authorization Of public docu-
ments is a particular hobby Of the
Senate. Mr.. Smoot. who studies the
printing game closely, figures that the
Senate authorizes about twenty-five
uublic documents to one for the
House. Also it authorizes documents
to almost any number on the same
| subject. Last October Mr.. Smoot in
formed the Senate that it had ordered
printed as public documents thirty
three articles on the same subject.
And then the Congressional Record
frequently duplicates itsely. For in
stance, it always prints the Presi'
dents message twice, and. even eX.
tends this practice to the bound vol,
umes made up at The end of a session.
In the case Of Mr.. Wilson this does
in0ts add appreeiably to the size of the
Record, for he is a writer's of short
messages, but "a long.winded Pres.
dent, fills scores of ~pages--twice. The
practice is particularly absurd in the
case Of Mr.. Wilson, because his mes
sages take the form Of addresses de-
livered III person at a" joint session
I ofethe two houses. Yet each house
prints each address in its own pro-
ceedings as If Mr.. Wilson had read it.
twice, with exactly the same anno-
tations of applause. s!!2l g. 3s-t,a .t.
Congress has it in: it's power to cut
! the $4,000, 900 annual printing Z bill
| down to $4,000, 900. and probably low
or. In one Congress one house will
pass the necessary bill, in another
Congress the other house. BY some
hocus pocus, both never pass it in
the same Congress. If that happy
day ever arrives, the government will
make a 20 per cent saving on one
comparatively small item Of its total
expenses.