Milford chronicle., 1920-04-23
UNCLE TED'S
BEDTIME STORIES
Current Events for the Children
and Grown-Ups, Too
WASTED PAPER AND WASTED
MONEY


''Whv are the newspapers so small
lately?" asked Jack as Uncle Ted sat
down in a big arm chair near the
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 real
ize 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 news
papers throughout the United States
had to quit printing at all, but prac-
tically all of the papers in the large
cities have had to cut down in size
because if they did not they would
find some day that they had no paper
to print on. It is a very serious mat
ter.
Il was going to tell you a different
story tonight. but since you asked this
question ii reminds me OF the report
made by the committee Of our Con-
gress in Washington that has been
looking into the waste OF paper and
money by the various branches Of our
government.
What committee is that's" asked
Ruth, who had just come in after an
afternoon with little Alice Marie VINO
lives next door.
THAT committee is called the Joint
Committee on Printing, and is made
up of men belonging to both the Sen
ate and the House Of Representatives.
Senator Reed Smoot, OF Utah, is chair
man of this committee and Represen-
tative Edgar r. Kiess Of Pennsylvania
is vice chairman. This committee mas
been investigating or looking INTO the
wav in which the various branches of
our government have been spending
money for printing, They found that
there have been 266 journals, maga-
zines and other kinds OF printed mat
ter printed by the government and
that this printing has been costing the
government about $2,5OO,OOO every
year. To show you that this inVestl-
cation has done lot OF good, TINS
committee made regulations which
stopped the printing OF III OF tnese
documents. thereby saving about ST.
100000 a year for the government.
am going to read you something from
fine report of this committee which
was read in the House Of Representa-
tives a few days ago, by Representa-
tive Kiess. AS is well known reads
the report, the scarcity Of paper and
its abnormal price have vitality al
fected the printing business during
the war. Many times it has been al
most impossible to get paper at any
price. This situation, coupled with
the enormous requirements for paper
by the war activities Of the Govern
ment and its extravagant use by the
various publicity and propaganda bu-
reaus. has made the work OF the COM
mittee most difficult and trying, but
it is believed the record proves that
its efforts to effect economies have
been highly successful even under ad-
verse conditions.
People ask, of course, Just how
has this committee saved the govern
ment money? l will tell you one
thing which will show you how they
saved the government money, by su-
peryising the printing. For the first
eight months of the fiscal year 1919,
the printing by the Government Print
ing Office in Washington where al
most all Of the government printing is
done. cost $4,000, 1886. For the first
eight months of the fiscal year of
1920 the amount was only S7'O65,37S.
OS, which meant that $994,796.S7 less
was spent than the year before. The
fiscal year ends June 80.
Before l tell you about another
phase Of this matter / must explain
to vou that members of Congress in
Washington must pay at least the
cost of the printing OF any speeches /
which they have made and which they
order to send out to various people. (
That is not true of the administrative /
officers of the government. Ihelr /
speeches are paid for by the govern /
ment Now, kiddies, remember 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 1
From the first of July, 1916. to Sep
tember Is. 1919, over 0,144, 900 copies I
of these speeches were printed This
number does not include any speeches
made by members of Congress. That
number of copies took S94,101 pounds
of white paper and 557,6S3 pounds of
manila paper for envelopes or total
of 1,451,7S4 pounds of paper"
Gee!" exclaimed Jack, that's a lot
of paper"
"You bet that's a lot of paper and 1t
cost a lot of money too. The printing
cost the government $109, ,066.35 and
the envelopes used to mail them at
the expense of the government cost
s84 O52.96. Another charge for these
speeches which was paid by the gov
ernment was that for addressing the
envelopes and inclosing the speeches.
This amounted to about S97,eeS, and
the cost for handling these by the
United State Postal service was S15l,-
711.42. So you see children, the fact
that the officers of the government
who are now holding these positions
in Washington under President VIII
son abused the right to send their
speeches at the expense of the govern
ment cost the government for a per-
iod of 80 months about S442,,79S.7S.
Another thing this committee found
was the great waste shown in the
sending of government bulletins and
from the various govern
ment departments. such as the De-
partment of Agriculture. From Janu-
ary 3. 1918. to February 10, 1920, over
/ $4,000 pieces of Government printed
matter were sent to one individual
alone by the order of three branches
Of the gOvernment-the Department
Df Agriculture, the Public Health Ser
vice and the Bureau of Mines. The
biggest part of these were sent out