Milford chronicle., 1924-10-10
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER
Special to Milford Chronicle

E OF complaints received mere OF late the public i
become satiated with attempts of Government
bureaus and Legislators to distribute ready
opinions. Impartial inquiry, giving a few side
lights, shows that this practice is expensive anC
practically worthless. The products of the gov
ernment printing press and mimeograph intend
ed primarily for the edifcation of the nations
citizens especially those of voting age, it is said
do nothing more than clutter up waste baskets
and add materially to the cost of operating the
government. It is the growing mania on the
part of ofice-holders of all parties for personal
publicity which is responsible for distribution OF
nOn-essential information.
Some idea of the enormous waste may be
cleaned from official reports of the Public Print
er which show that approximately 46,OOOOOO
publications were sent out on free mailing lists
as ordered by Federal departments last year.
The average citizen has little or no use for the
documents which pour into his mail box from
/ congressman and government departments 1t
is a prerOgative which a congressman refuses to
surrender, but like Seeds may be finally dis
carded. A conservative estimate by the Public
Printer gives the cost of the present free distri-
button of government publications at $1,O0O,O00
per year, most all of which are wasted" No
doubt the vanity, which often oyerpowers dig
nifty of congressman to see their names in print
must be gratifed but the expense of this glorifi-
cation is appalling. A report made by the Joint
Committee on Printing showed that the House
folding room had to dispose of an accumulation
of more than 100000 obsolete and useless pub
LEGATIONS which members had failed to send to
their constituents. The Senate folding room
likewise had to get rid of nearly 100000 docu-
o1J
waste paper Thus in eight years more than
100000 publications that had never been taken
out of their wrappers in the Congressional fold
ing rooms, nor opened by single reader since
the day they came from the Government presses
were disposed of as waste paper to make room
tor the incoming millions of documents doomed
to a similar fate says the Public Printer, candid
ly.
Criticism has been made that some congress-
men abuse their printing privileges without
rhyme or reason. 1t is officially reported that
100000 was appropriated by the last Congress !
for reprinting two me-honored publications
telling how to treat diseases of horses and cattle
and ordered for free public distribution despite
the fact that there are now in storage at the |
capitol $4,000 copies of the various editions of |
the horse and cattle books, some of which were |
printed more than 25 years ago" The Superin-
tendent of Documents had on hand at the Gov
Printing store rooms at the close of the
fiscal year 1928 more than 30,000,000 copies of
Government publications. For obvious reasons
and Government departments do
not call attention of the public to the facts re-
ported by the Public Printer. This frank and
daring official says Notwithstanding the enor-
nous free distribution of departmental publca-
ions the Superintendent of Documents has had
o sell as waste paper 14,062,247 copies of obsO-
etc and useless publications in the last 10
ears because they were not distributed by the
departments while timely did not arouse sUf-
cient interest to request copies when OBJ
anable for nothing. There will be added to
hese 14OOO,OOO wasted copies undoubtedly half
the present 3OOOO,OOO publications which are
obsolete and of no value either for free
or sale to an unappreciative public.
seems fair to assume that the total waste in
publications. printed for free distribution by the
apartments in the last 10 years will be fully
100000 copies" 1t would appear that econ
ny is something to talk about and allow others
practice.
Another factor which is purpOsey overlooked
the mailing costs which the taxpayers are
llS6u W pay luulI6CIly Last year uSdl4y OOUB-
0 900 pieces of mail were franked by members H
Congress and the Federal Departments which H
st the Post Office Department S12,000000 to s
lnsport. OF the 9O2,229,137 pounds sent out
thout payment, 64394,S12 pounds were mailed
.e by congressman. There is an old English ii
Overb which is particularly apt-"When moth
is enjoyed, can there be greater waste" 1
Occasionally the Government Departments u
lduce interesting facts worthy of dis
button. As an example the Department of HI
rculture issued a report this week showing 8
ted that there is a possibility that agriculture "
l stand at some disparity for a considerable N
iOd with urban industry but for the moment l(
iculture is swinging toward par and the re- g
ustment is a healthy one. This department lE
0 issued a Year Book recently which contains ~
ne valuable information for farmers In an ll
lysis of farm ownership and tenancy they "
e discovered that the proportion of the farm m
les rented is only about two-thirds as large u
he proportion of city and village homes rent NS
The proportion of farm homes free of mort HI
e encumbrance and occupied by the owners 81
lso larger than in the case of other homes IM
e than half of the farms in this country are ~
rated by full owners. Although tenants who no
all the land they operate constitute over SO w
cent of all farmers, they operate less than M
er cent of the farm land 10