Evening star., 1915-12-26
How Activities of Government
Are Help to Average
Citizen.
WASHINGTON IS ACENTER
OF USEFUL INFORMATION
Liberal Education in Many Lines to
Be Obtained From Official
Publications.

Glimpses behind the brick and stone
walls that house the great governmental
machinery to show the people that the
government really is human and doing
things for the populace are given in the
first Of series of articles on Washing
ton at Work." by Graham Romeyn Taylor
in the Survey. The author tells of the
liberal education and the great fund of
information which may be obtained from
the many publications which are to be
had from the superintendent Of docu-
ments. at prices ranging from cents the
book up. and II 1t isn't in print the par
ticular bureau handling the problem in
which you might be interested will get
it for you.
Says the article, in part:
The briefest sort of little Journey
among the departments will give
even the most intelligent citizen a vivid
realization of how much there is to know
ABOUT the governments activities. Few,
moreover. realize the definitely valuable
service which the government can rem
oer them In their own homes II they
only take the trouble to write letter.
Helped the Wright Brothers.
THE story goes that in the early days
or aviation. when the Wright brothers
were practically unknown except to a
Few other 'cranks.' they addressed a let
Ter 70 Uncle Sam saying that they were
EXPERIMENTING with a flying machine and
wanted TO know where they might find a
spot with dependable winds and a hill
naVins gradual slope. few trees and
presunaoly an a SOFT bottom. The prompt
answer nelped them pick out the very
place where they brought their experi.
ments to such amazing success.
" take an instance of a very differ
ent sort. only the other day a letter
came In to the geological survey from
q prisoner In western penitentiary,
ilcations he has received With their
help he is completing studies which
he hopes will make him better able
10 make good as a practical miner
when his term is up.
ut is worth knowing that the suner-
intendent of documents publishes a
monthly catalogue listing all pubIica-
tlons OF all departments and bureaus
OF the government. If the average ctti-
zen spent a few minutes a month to
examine 1t, he might learn of govern
ment reports of especial value to him.
S1xty-six price lists, by subjects. are
also available.
IAN effort is made to handle all sorts
OF Inquiries and turn them over to the
proper bureau in case there is no pub
lication which would supply the infor-
nation requested. Nearly two score
OF periodicals are issued by the gov
ernment ranging from the National
Weather and Crop Bulletin at 25 cents
a year to the Weekly Official Gazette
Of
Great waste which was formerly
involved in widespread free distribu-
tion OF documents has been consider
ably reduced.
There is still much abuse of the
ranking privilege by congressman
who deluge their constituents with lit
erature. And farmer is apt to receive
data on corporation taxes, while a city
lawyer finds in his mail a pamphlet on
how to stop the foot-and-mouth dis
ease.
People are being educated to an un-
derstanding of the value of publica-
tions and instead of asking their con-
gressmen for free copies they are be-
ginning to recognize their obligation
to pay for what they receive. Docu-
ments are sold at the cost of mechan-
ical production. In ten years sales
have increased from about $4,000 a
year to 100000. and it is expected that
in little while this service of the
of documents will be
"Postmasters hang up placards and
handbills which, in display advertis-
ing, suggest the service which every
citizen can secure through documents.
Some of the display circulars give
few selected titles covering a wide
range. The manufacturer in a city
may learn that for cents he can Sc
cure a sixty-one page pamphlet on the
nj 20 Goh 10 of ha Cfafn
territories and United States, while
the rancher in Montana will find that
he can secure at the same price bio
logical circular f1fty-five giving 'di-
rections for destruction of wolves and
coyotes.
Postage Stamps Refused.
"One obvious handicap to the widest
popular use of this service. however.
these lists and catalogues: Postage
stamps and personal checks not ac-
cepted.' The refusal of the govern
ment to accept its own postage stamps
deprives the people of the easiest
form of remittance for documents, a
large proportion of which cost only 5
cents each.
but if you fail to understand why
this should be. you betray how little
you KNOW dpoul thS y. -.
ernment and the ease with which it
can be thrown out of gear. The house
that Jack built is constructed as fol-
lows: The superintendent of docu-
ments must turn currency-real cash
into the Treasury of the United States
for every 5 cents worth of documents
he sells. Postage stamps are not legal
tender and therefore cannot be accept
ed unless some clerk winks at rules.
outs the stamps in his pocket and turns
in a nickel
1.-The regulations of the POST once
are due to the fact that
he nav of the $4,000 postmasters of
,ourth class post offices-and there are
onIv $500 others-is in proportion to
heir sales of stamps. 1t is assumed |