Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1920-04-22
LITTLE CHILDREN
Are ASTOUNDED
UNCLE TED TELLS THEM OF
TREMENDOUS WASTE IN
VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS

4 II
window.
THE newspapers are small, Jack,
answered. his uncle, because there is
SO little paper upon which to print
them. You see, we never stop to
| realize what these various things
mean until the shortage Of certain
articles is brought right home to us:
Not only have many of the small
weekly newspapers throughout the
United States had to quit printing
at all. but practically all of the pa
pers in the large cities have had to
cut down in size because if they did
not they would find some day thu
,ey had no paper on which TO print.
| 1t is a very serious matter.
81 was going to tell you differ
| emf story tonight but since you ask
ed this question reminds me OF the
report made by the committee OF
our congress in Washington that has
been looking into the waste or pa
per and money by the vario'-
branches of our government.
What committee is that asked
Ruth. who had Just come in after an
afternoon with little Alice Marie who
lives next door.
/
committee on printing, and is made
up of men belonging to both the
senate and the house of representa-
tiyes. Senator Reed Smoot of
Utah. is chairman of this committee
and Representative Edgar X. helss
of Pennsylvania is vice-chairman.
| This committe has been investigating
or looking into the way in which the
various branches of our government
have been spending money Tor PRINT
ing. They found that there have
been 2 journals, magazines ana
other kinds of printed matter printed
by the government and that this
printing has been costing the govern
lment about $2,500,000 every year.
To show you that this investigation
has done lot Of good, this commit
tee made regulations which stopped
the printing of all these documents,
thereby saving the government about
100000 a year. | am going 10
read you something from the report
of this committee which was read IN
the house of representatives a rev
days ago by Representative kiess.
AS is we'll known reads the report,
the scarcity of paper and its abnor-
NAL price have vitality affected the
printing business during the war.
Many times it has been almost impos-
sible to get paper at any price. This
situation, coupled with the enormous
requirements for paper by the war
activities Of the government and its
extravagant use by the various publ
city and propaganda bureaus, has
made the work of this committee
most difficult and trying, but it is be-
lieved the record proves that its ef-
forts to effect economies have been
highly successful even under adverse
conditions
| People ask, of course, Just how
has this committee saved the govern
ment money! / will tell you one
thing which will show you how they
saved the government money, by SUI
pervising the printing. For the hrst
eight months of the fiscal year 1919,
the printing by the government
printing office in Washington where
almost all of the government print
ing is done, cost $4,000, 1895. For
the first eight months of the fiscal
year of 1920 the amount was only
I$7,O65,373.0S, which meant that
| S994,796.S7 less was spent than the
year before. The fiscal year ends
June 30th.
Before | tell you about another
phase of this matter | must explain
to you that members of congress in
Washington must pay at least the
cost OF the printing of any speeches
which they have made and which
lthey order to send out to various peo-
pie. That is not true of the admin
| istrative officers of the government.
Their speeches are paid for by the
government. Now, kiddies, remem-
Der that because here is what the
committee found out about the
money that had been spent printing
the speeches of various officers OF
the government. From the first OF
/ July, 1916 to September Is, 1919,
over 30,144,000 copies of these
| speeches were printed. This num-
| Der does not include any speeches
made by members OF congress. That
number of copies took S94,101
pounds of white papr and 557,6S3
] pounds Of MANILA paper for envel-
| opes or a total of 1,451,7S4 pounds
paper"
"Gee!" exclaimed Jack, that's a
lot of paper"
You bet that's lot of paper and
/ ii cost a lot of money too. The
printing cost the government $780,
| 066.35 and the envelopes used to
mail them at the expense of the gov
eminent cost $S4,052.96. Another
| charge for these speeches which was
paid by the government was that for
addressing the envelopes and enclos-
| ing the speeches. This amounted
to about $97,96S, and the cost for
handling these by the United States
postal service was $151,711.42. So
you see, children, the fact that the
officers OF the government who are
4 now holding these positions in Wash
ington under President Wilson abus-
ed the right to send their speeches
at the expense Of the government for
a period of 3S months about SAP
1878
Another thing this committee
found was the great waste shown in
the sending of government bulletins
and publications from the various
government departments, such as the
department of agriculture. From
January 5, 1918 to February 10,
1920, over 100000 pieces of gov
eminent printed matter were sent to
one idividual alone by the order of
three branches of the government
the department of agriculture, the
public health service and the bureau
of mines. The biggest part Of
these were sent out in quantities Of
from 5000 to 10000 each"
who was the individual?" asked
Ruth.
81 don't know the name but the
individual conducts a newspaper
service and one of the most import
ant things which this service does is
to send out government publications.