New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1920-05-07
PRINTING BILL
IS EXCESSIVE
CONGRESSIONAL JOINT COMMIT.
TEE TRYING HARD TO MAKE
SOME BIG REDUCTIONS.
MANY PERIODICALS CUT OFF
expensive Plants Maintained by vari.
Gus Branches Of the Government
May Be observation-disclosures to
Conserve Paper Not Needed.
BY N p.


Conserve Paper Not Needed.
BY JAMES p. HoRNAoAY.
washington. The congressiona
JOINT committee on printing Is doing
It's best to bring about some reforms
III government printing. The investi-
CATIONS made by this committee show
clearly that the federal government
Is an ~inexcusable offender so far as
Tue excessive use Of white ape and
the unnecessary expenditure of money
are concerned. For years the desire
or nearly every activity of government
10 have a printing press has grown.
n world war increased this desire
The result OF it all is that the
government printing business during
the last year has simply run wild.
The joint committee on printing dis
covered early in its inquiry that 266
journals, magazines and periodicals
were being published by various
branches OF the government service
at a cost to the government of ap-
proximately $2,5OO,O 900 a year. As n
result of the committees activity and
the regulations adopted by it, III of
these periodicals, which cost approxi-
mately $1,2OO.OOO a year, have been
discontinued. The committee found
lS7 printing plants which were main
tanned in the various branches OF the
government service for printing and
binding, in addition to that procured
from the government printing office
or ordered from commercial printers.
n equipment of these 1877 plants
cost approximately 81, 1000 600, and in
Guided 500 presses, 40 t~ypesettlng ma
chimes and vast quantities of other
and binding equipment. These
plants are scattered all over the Uni
ted States and employ more than 800
men at an annual wage Of approx
100000.
Large Waste In Printed Matter,
The joint committee reported TO con.
gress the other day that n few of these
1eld plants have been discontinued ms
/ result of the committees efforts TO
as much printing as possible
n the government printing office, and
he committee expects that there will
Ne n further material reduction in the
of these plants the coming
ear.
The Inquiry disclosed n large waste I.
n publications and other printed mat
er sent to members OF congress by
arious governmental agencies. Mem
ers OF congress have appealed to the
ommittee for relief from the flood
I useless printed matter that the de- :
are constantly pouring down !,
n them. The committee has there. :
)re requested the various departments .
D revise all their regular mailing !
ut least once a year by making !.
lquiry as to whether the publications y
, distributed are desired by the per- u
ms receiving them. The committee "
Iscovered that many mailing lists had !.
II been revised for years and that II
'n~sequently n large percentage Of !
'e publications being sent out are y
asted. IL
An appeal made by the committee ~
h heads of the departments to CO. u
'ernte In conserving print paper by q
spending at least temporarily many &c
publications has not thus -.
r met with n hearty response. The u
has said to congress that J."
less the departments themselves do III
Ike prompt steps to curtail the IN Dc
cessary printing and check the III
waste of paper, an order will 70
issued by the committee s%uspendlng II
additional number of publications. pe
Iother Interesting discovery made by III
committee was that many thou.
1ds of dollars have been invested
governmental agencies in mimeo- III
lphs and other duplicating devices. to
n considerable extent these duplI- no
ing devices have taken the place lat
branch printing offices which con- Wa
abolished n number of years ago. wa
Probe OF Ma Expenditures. ov'
:. ,,u bol
er branch of congress created n r.,
Of fifteen, ten republican 49,
re~sentatives and five Democratic /,
re%sentatlves, to investigate the ~.
mess side Of the war. During -
Intervening period five sub-commjt- -.
|, each Of these composed of two a.
ublicans and one Democrat, have -
every step the executive de- en-
1ment took in getting the United g..
es into the wal and sustaining II
r II was In. The investigation win -
ably go on record as the most u
nping ever made by either branch ~,
congress-. II has cost up TO this 80,
about S2,000.0oo. One sub-com- srs,
was sent to Europe and other ,ra,
committees visited various sections "a
he United States in search for cior
rela
Ie subcommittee are now report- not,
Thus far there has not been a los
Iimous report from any sub-com- miss
e. In every report so far pre- Nor
ID to the house the majority men, .om.
of the committee have made one Mai,
ne and the minority members an serv-
finding. 1t is understood that
is no likelihood Of my sub-com- Ar
e of the general committee or of from
eneral committee itself making a rs n
lmous report on any phase of the invei