The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1916-12-27
fcOrcG LARGELY TO BLAME
end THE SHORT PAPER SUPPLY

speeches for members of congress,
Nor is that all, for the various cam
paign committees have sent out thou-
sands of copies of these same
speeches. Try to calculate what that
means in the way of consumption of
print paper.
These speeches are printed in the
same type used in the Congressional
Record, and they run all the wav
from a single sheet about letter size
up to pamphlets of twenty or forty
pages. Before the first of November
the total output of these speeches
from the house folding room alone
will be near the forty million mark.
Of course these are all franked in en-
velopes furnished by the government
at actual cost and the printing is like
wise furnished at cost. A part of
the cost of preparing these printed
speeches is borne by the house of rep
resentatives and part is paid by the
member.
Millions of Books Stored.
The house of representatives is the
nations greatest speech factory. The
output is estimated at forty million
copies of speeches during the presi-
Dental campaigns, twenty millions
every two years when the congress
sional campaign is on and a mere
bagatelle of two million copies of
speeches for the session of congress
when there is no campaign in prog
ress. These figures are rather stag
gering when you add to them an out.
put almost as great from the word
spinning gentry in the United States
senate. What must be the feeling of
the newspaper publisher frantically
searching for white paper when he
contemplates the government print
ing Office output!
The worst is yet to come. There is
piled up in the vaults of the capitol
about 100000 printed books and
documents subject to the order of
members of congress and thousands
of prints of committee reports and
bills, two-thirds of which will never
be utilized. In the end these dOcu |
ments will either be sold for old pa
per or bundled off to various depart |
ments of the government, there to
ioin the hundreds of books and docu-
ments altogether worthless. Just one
sample of the lavish method of con-
Stunning white paper and printers INK
at the last session: Two months ago
each member of the house was given
forty-five copies of the rural credits
act for distribution in his district.
Comparatively few of these docu-
ments had been mailed out, but on
the closing day of the session an en-
terprising member secured the pass
age of a resolution calling for the
printing of an additional 100000 to
be divided among the representa-
tives. Probably one-third OF them
will be utilized and the balance will
be in the capitol vaults for many
wears to come. The next congress
will probably amend the rural credits
bill in several prticulars and then an
other 100000 will be printed upon
which the dust of ages will accumu-
late. 1
The senate is Just as great spend.
thrift of paper and the products Oh
the printer as the house. The day
after congress adjourned over TOUR
tons of useless papers were removed
from the rooms in the senate once
building. The accumulation of waste
paper and documents by members OF
the house. owing to their great num-
Der, will be five times as great as the
senate's accumulation. Some idea OF
the amount of useless printing that Is
ordered by congress may be Obtained
from the fact that last year the GOV
ernment Melted $4,000 from the sale
Of waste paper at the close of the
congressional session. This is one OF
the many things Speaker Clark will
have to explain when he takes time
to make a speech telling the people
all about congress.