The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-11-03
SMITHS GOOD RECORD
State Printer Has Given Kansas Two
Successful Years.

| One of the best assets the Republican
party has is the record which w. R.
Smith, state printer, has made during
his two years in charge of the state
printing plant
Smith has given his entire time to
the management of the plant, and has
had no private business to occupy any
of his time or attention. He has not
pulled off any "grandstands" in con-
Quoting the business of that depart
ment, but has conducted the business
as he would conduct it if it were his
own. Efficiency" has been his
watchword, and he has established a
cost system and labor accounting sys-
tenn which has brought the production
of that plant up to an efficiency stand
| ard.
Under his management the hour
| cost has been reduced, notwithstand-
| ing the fact that there has been gem
eral raise in the wages of every de-
partment. He has exercised a keen
| insight into market conditions, and
| by taking advantage of the market
and discounting the bills for supplies,
| has saved the state not less than $780,
900 during this present year. The
discounts on bills alone have been suf-
| ficient to pay the salary of the highest
paid clerk in his office.
Whether the proposition of the state
publication of school books is the
right system from an educational
| standpoint, or not, yet Smiths eff
cheney in conducting the business of
that plant has presented some very
| strong factors to be considered. The
| school books produced by the state
printing plant are being sold for some
40 per cent lower than that at which
private publishers can afford to pro-
/ n 1a of ia fra
costs of marketing and the profit they
must necessarily have to make, and
/ have a right to expect.
A few of the comparative prices of
what it costs for school books in Kan
sas under the present system prove
that a big saving is being effected
from monetary standpoint. Kansas
histories are now being sold to the
school children for Csc, compared
with the old price of Sc. Kansas
! classic series at 35c, as compared with
the old price of Use. Primary reading
charts for $1.10, whereas the old price
was $1,000. Arithmetics for 16c
whereas the old price was Csc, and
so on.
These are but a few to show the
comparative selling price of books
produced by the state printing plant
as compared with the prices that have
been paid heretofore.
| Smiths report on January 1, 1915,
showed that during the first five
months of the present Republican ad-
mfnistration the state publication of
school books had saved the taxpayers
$30,6O1.55.
Smith has a strong letter of en-
| dorsement from the leading Repub-
licans of the state, and our own Tom
McNeal, ex-state printer, and a mem
Der of the school book commission
recommends him as follows:
II think the people should re-elect
him and keep him there as long as he
| wishes to remain. What the people
want is honesty and competency
Smith has proven to the commission
as well as to the taxpayers that he is
competent and his records are an
| open book
This is a brief synopsis of what the
state printing plant has accomplished
and it would appear as tho the Re.
publican central committee had beer
overlooking the strongest asset which
the Republican party has today, which
affects every taxpayer and every par.
ent in the state of Kansas.