Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-05-05
in Printing PUBLIC D

Washington, May 4-lne CIlteu
States runs what is said TO DC the
biggest printing shop in the world. 1t
| costs over S., 900, 900 a year to operate
it. 1t does all the printing for Con
cress and the executive departments
For the past six years determined Ell
forts have been made to revise the
public printing laws, withssa view TO
saving at least $780, 900 a year IN turn
ing out useless public documents. This
saving would not touch the Congress
lsional Record itself, which is the
daily report of the proceedings CT
Congress and which is cluttered M
with matter which has nothing to &c
with those proceeding to an extent
Of from SO to 10 per cent. II the
Record were reformed, along with the
system OF grinding out public docE'
| ments on thousands OF subjects, the
annual saving would be cash. in eX'
| cess OF a million.
But it seems impossible TO achieve
| the reform. Once the senate passed
the bill and it failed in TIE House
In the last Congress the House pass
ed it. but it died on the Senate Car
endar. So the waste socs on stead
lily. and the next Congress will have
to begin all over again, if, indeed.
it shows any real interest in the SUB
ject.
In the past fortv years the govern,
ment has spent $164.l52,696.S 81 for
printing, and this does not include
paper money and postage stamps. IN
1875 the printing bill was s1,6SS'
125. 26. That sum to day would merel!
cover the cost of printing for Con
gress. In 1901 the annual printing
bill reached and passed the five mil
lion dollar mark, running up to 50,
SO7,450. From 1903 to 1909 it aver.
aged we'll over six million dollars q
year. Then there was a shrinkage
For the current fiscal year it would
amount to $5,53O,295. For next year
Congress has appropriated $5,0S9,720.
Out OF the latter sum Congress has
allotted itself $1.5S7.52O.
Cost Over $780, 900 to Print the Con-
%aressional Record.
During the year 1914 it cost $685.
$685. "a to print the Congressional Rec.
ord alone-and the Congressional Rec
ord is admitted generally to be at
least twice as large as it ought 20
be. 1t cost ~$155,344.57 to print cop
les of bills and resolutions introduced
in Congress-. scarcely n in a hun
bred of which is passed. 1t cost 81.
l58,735A0 to print octave publications,
which describe the average public
document reiating to the care of the
baby, the five civilized tribes in Okla
homa, the food of woodpeckers, the
glaciers of Prince William Sound, the
calorimetric determination Of iron
with special reference to chemical re-
agents, the melting points of some re-
fractory oxides and the like. just
think of a subject-anything land II
the government hasn't printed a booa
about it, it will make haste to do 50
for it aims to miss nothing.
Most of the public documents &C
out free ;iof charge, through members
of Congress, although the Govern
ment is making a feeble effort to sell
them at a nominal charge. Durin:
the fiscal year it sold ,207 copies
but it printed n, 8S4,S29 copies, a vos|
majority of which were franked ou'
through the mails, thereby increasing
the cost of the postal service.
Aside from the waste in printing
public documents, great quantities OF
which are stored in warehouses in
Washington, and, at the end of two
years, are sold as old paper at IS cents
a hundred, the waste in printing the
daily report of the proceedings OF
Congress is stupendous. Primarily
this is a stenographic record of all de-