Evening star., 1920-12-31
CONGRESS TOPUSH
REORGANIZATION Of
u.S..DEPARTMENTS
Smoot-Reavis Bill Becomes
Law as President Lets
Signing Time Pass.
COMMITTEE PLANS CUT
IN PRINTING COST FIRST
Government Now Puts Out 700
Publication-1,319,495 Sent to
One Man Alone.

UQe MAN A1VuC.
The ten-day time limit within which
President Wilson might sign or veto
The Smoot-Reavis bill for reorgan'2a-
ton of the federal departments nav
ing expired at 4:45 o'clock yesterday
the measure automatically became
law.
The Joint congressional commlttee
mn reorganization authorized IN this
measure will organize at once ano
start the Investigations witnln the ue-
partments as soon as possible.
II was learned today that one OF tne
first moves of the joint committee. OF
which Senator Smoot Will De Cn4I.
man. will be to cut down Uncle sam :
printing bill by weedlng OUT som5 -
inc estabIishments and co-ordinatins
the others.
See Yearly Saving OF $SoO.OoO.
This is a matter in which Senator
Smoot is particularly interested. "A
hiII fathered by Representative Ed
gar Kiess of Pennsylvania OF the
House committee on printing. ana tne
first vice chairman of the joint pr1nt-
ing committee. has already pa assed tne
House and is awaiting action in the
senate committee. 1t is pretty wen
agreed that this measure will De
amended in the Senate SO as 10 pro-
vide for a complete revision OF the
printing laws as proposed In the org
NAL Smoot bills. Those who are sup
norting this legislation claim that a
net saving of 100000 year is GER
tain.
The reorganization committee will
Law stress on the fact that while tne
government printing office is the
largest printing estabhshment In ene
tion recently made by the joint COM
mittee on printing showed that there
were 2S7 printing plants maintained
in the various branches OF the gov
ernment service for printing ano
binding in addition to what was Sc
cured from the government printing
office and private commercial con-
Germs. The equipment Of these plants
cost a million dollars. including num-
dreds of presses and scores OF type
of employees was more than 100000.
266 DiHerent Publications.
The committees investigation also
showed that there were 266 journals.
magazines and periodicals being pub
IisI1ed by various branches OF the
governmsnt At Il. 9 cost OF. aenraxl-
While the joint committee on print
ing, of which Senator Smoot. pros
pective chairman of the joint con-
gressiona1 committee on reorganiza-
fion is chairman. has effected many
economies and reduced the number
of such publications. the entire ques-
tion of departmental publicity is to
receive serious attention by the re-
organization committee.
In this connection emphasis will
be laid on a report by the Postmaster
General, that several thousand coun-
Try twon newspapers were forced to
suspend publication on account of the
print paper shortage while these fed
eral agencies were consuming vast
quantities of paper.
Talk Of Central News Bufeau.
The proposal is being entertained by
several members of the reorganization
committee that there should be a CEN
trail publicity bureau for the govern
-ment in Washington. to handle all of
the news within the departments that
it was desirable should be put before
the people of the country. The tenta-
tive plan calls for special representa-
1ives of this central bureau being as
signed to the various departments and
independent establishments to gather
this news for the central bureau.
A member of the joint congressional
reorganization committee complained
Today that he receives practically every
day an armful of government publica-
at. He argued that with proper con-
solidation and supervision much of this
material could be suppressed before it
ever got to the printer, and that such
of it as was desirable to distribute could
be sent only to those especially inter-
ested, and thus millions of dollars a
year could be saved for the taxpayers.
Senator Shoots joint committee on
printing on reporting the results of
an investigation of the furnishing of
large quantities of government pub
locations to private individuals and
1ribution said:
1.319,40S Publications to One Person.
The committee ascertained that
from January 5. 1918. to February -,
1920. 1.319,495 government publica-
dividual alone by order OF three
establishment of the government
the Department of Agriculture, the
public health service, and the bureau
of mines. The greater portion OF these
publications was thus disposed of in
lots Of from 5000 to 10000 copies OF
each. The individual referred to con-
ducts an extensive newspaper service
in which the distribution of govern.
ment publications forms & conspicu-
Gus part.
The plan is to advise readers of
The newspapers represented by this
correspondent to write TO him for
copies of any desired publication. in
closing a cent stamp. upon receip,
of which the publication is sent OUT
from the Washington office of the
correspondent. In this way one in.
took over the distribution of nearly >
million and q half publications which
Il was the duty of officers of the gov.
ernment TO distribute"