The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-11-28
Frederick I Iaskin's | etter'
Files and Waste Paper.
lepsAal ceersse.dsan q - Asr~l


=, III seueFaf charge
the committee on the disposition ~
useless papers in executive deuars
ments. This committee perird;.
ally supervises the throwing 80
OF papers which have becoma' me-.
less or which need not have bean
kept at all. 'A
Waste Paper Problem.
There are many manufacture,
departments in the American gov
eminent There are various lima,
OF waste in all of them. One NJ ,Ss
most interesting examples is tha,
presented by the government min,
ing Office and here, again. /, r. =
question of paper. In the course -
printing and binding, so great an
accumulation Of waste paper con.
stantly is being piled up that IN.
public printer annually asks for
bids from purchasers of such wasta
who utilize it for remaking into
fresh paper. Good prices are oh.
tanned for this product, which on,
set, In part, the actual waste bids
recently were called for for the re.
moval of waste from the printing
office. Mention of some of the itsms
will indicate what a big waste ma.
per basket the government printing
office has. 1t is estimated that dur.
ing the six months from next Jaau.
airy to June 80, the waste will
amount to 10000 pounds Of shaw.
ings from blanks and blankbooks.
325, 900 pounds of shavings from
white book papers; 100000 pounds
of shavings from various white And
colored papers, strawboard and
such bookbinding materials; 35O..
900 pounds of printed paper waste.
$500 pounds of manila paper elm
pings; 100000 pounds of wrap.
ping paper waste, book cloth, buck.
ram clippings and sweepings; N.-
600 pounds of cuttings from straw.
board, pulp board and other bind
ers' boards; 5000 pounds of Irvine
and rope; $4,000 pounds Of dis
carded and mutilated publications;
1000 pounds of discarded and mutt.
lated account books and ledgers.
This is a total in the neighbor-
hood Of 100000 pounds of waste
paper, pasteboard and Irvine. A
INSTRUMENTATION pastepaper has
ket!
The contractor who is awarded
this waste must remove it at fire.
quent intervals, as it accumulates
during the period his contract GOV.
ers. If he did not, the government
printing office would be literally
crowded out Of its buildings; its
waste basket would grow bigger
than its shop.
During the war when special
effort was made by the civil
branch of the government to econ
omiZe, good deal of paper was
saved which, in ordinary times, is
thrown away. William c. Redfeld
when secretary of commerce, start
ed a useful fad which saved the
government probably thousands II
dollars. He gave instructions that
for inside office memorandum use
and the passage of notes between
officials of his department, vase
paper should be utilized Much Of
the government printing is done
only ON one side OF a sheet. Mr..
Redfield has his department pro
vided with supplies of such printed
paper after it had served the pur-
pose for what it was first used and
his office work was done on TIE
blank reverse side. Other officials
of the government took up the plan
and no taxpayer can have any Just
complaint of waste OF paper In the
government departments at WASH
iEgton during the period.
Not all of this war economy has
passed out OF fashion. 1t will be
recalled that the fuel and food ad-
ministrations. the war industries
board, and a score of other govern,
mental organizations were in ex.
istence during the war They all
had stationery printed. Now that
they have gone out Of existence, II
would not be surprising if all the
surplus stationery printed in Their
names were strapped, But in the
interests of economy, all OF it has
been reprinted. A slug has been
printed across the names OF the de-
funct boards and bureaus and be-
meath them the names OF active Oh
fees have been printed. In this
way much waste is being avoided
and expensive stationery is utii-
lied.