The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1922-01-15
ITO Eliminate Deadwood."
D the Editor. The Washington Herald:

10 the Editor, The Washington Herald:
Your editorial in todsy's issue,
crtitIed, ITO Eliminate Deadwood."
certainly indicates that the gov-
ernment departments are not sue
Cess'al in their attempts TO explain
them; Gives and their work to the
gel: raj public, hut IL also reveals
:aat tt's Is in a large Measure de
I, She extraordinary capacity OF the
human mind to fail to perceive
facts that are patiently before ii
and TO fail to understand the right
relations about those that are OBJ
served. -
The statement from the BaIti-
more Sun. which you quote with ap-
parent approval. contains many
Measurements and exhibits re-
marksble lack of understanding OF
the matter which 1T is discussing
Presumably, the Baltimore Sun Is
near enough to Washington so that
it should be reasonably familiar
with what goes on here, and GER
ainly The y Herald should have a
clearer understanding of this mat
ter than is exhibited by, your edi-
torial comment. q. ~ =,
thrust you Will grant me the
space TO point. out some of the more
important errors In the material
you quote.
During the war several thou.
sand magazines were printed and
ISSUED by various Federal bureaus
and Offices. This number has been
approciably reduced, but the Gov
eminent Printing Office remains, as
IL for long time has been, by far
the largest establishment of its
kind in the world.- During the war
the Government Printing Office re-
sponded nobly to the Increased bur-
den put upon II by. the activities
of the War and Navy Department.
but even its best efforts, were. in
sufficient to enable it:to carry the
load. and the Quartermaster Cen
. eral was obliged to arrange for
necessary printing to. be done by
outside firms. The civil establish
ment of the government found the
greatest difficulty in getting its or
binary printing work done, and.
generally speaking, the amount
done was reduced for that reason.
In the various camps, hospitals.
etc, established by the War and
Navy departments, printing plants
were set up to do the necessary
printing. This was. good business.
1t would have been impraeticabl
to send this work to Washington
to be done at the Government
Printing ofIice, which was already
overwhelmed with work. At many
places, the officials in charge au-
thorized the publication of "house
organs" following the practice OF
the larger business companies,
which very commonly publish such
house organs" Presumably. this
was also good business. At any
rate, 1t had the precedent OF hav-
ing been invented by business or
ganizations, which are not in the
habit of wasting money on unueces-
sary printing. The purpose of such
publications is, of course, to permit
the people connected with the or
ganization to know what Is being
done. The total number of these
house organs" probably did reach
several thousand, but the new ones
were wholly in the War and Navy
departments, and I do not>know a
single other Federal, department or
independent agency that started a
ably what you mean by mag azinel,
during the war period and most OF
them have none. None OF these
house organs" with the exception
of a few near washington, were
printed at the Government Printing
Office. so that they bear. no relation
whatever to the fact that the Gov
eminent Printing once is the Jarg-
est establishment of its kind in the
world. Whether or not the Joint
Committee on Printing has been
hight in its policy OF summsrily or
dering the discontinuance Of all
these house organs is a matter
that might be open to discussion,
but. at any rate, 1t resulted in the
saving of money, and brought about
the discontinuan nee of some organs
for which there was really no longer
any need. but which might have
been continued by those who were
issuing them,
1T is a commonplace, of course.
that government publicity is largely
matter of waste motion-that so
much Of 1t rs ground out that the
wheat is hopaessiy lost in the chaff.
and that little Of II reaches the goal