Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-01-26
Uncle Sans Great
Print Shop.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.


cities which print books and magazines
to the little job shops in country towns
where hand bills are the principal output,
the printing business takes in a huge
sum Of money. No other shop quite
compares with Uncle Sans own print
cry, the Government Printing once at
Washington. Privately owned shops
could do handsome business with only
a single customer of Uncle Sans.
The Government Printing Office oper-
ates much as privately conducted
business would operate. All Govern
ment printing is not Jumped together
and the bill paid out of the Treasury.
Each department, each agency OF the
Government is treated as separate
customer. The accounts are kept indi-
vidually just as though the various
agencies were private individuals or COM
panies and each is separately billed.
When branch of the Federal Gov
eminent is given an appropriation by
Congress, definite amount is allocated
to printing Chief clerks or other author
lied functionaries must watch their
printing budgets carefully and govern
their orders by the amount they have
available to spend. In an emergency, it
would be possible to obtain deficiency
appropriation, but, in the main, every
effort is made to stay within the budget
x
Congress is the best customer of Public
Printer A. E. Giegengack. For the fiscal
year of 1885, Congress bought S2,525,043
worth Of printing. AS might be expected,
the largest item was the Congressional
Record. the daily newspaper published by
Congress to report the proceedings of
the two Houses of Congress word for
word. The Record cost Congress the tidy
sum of $570821. But this was only one
item. Senators and Representatives IN
Congress do not monopolize by having
only their own remarks printed. When
there are important measures pending, it
is customary for the committee TO which
they have been referred to hold hearings.
Any one with legitimate reason for
so doing may appear before committee.
Court reporters take down his remarks
verbatim and they are printed. Some
times protracted hearing will result in
the publication Of several volumes of the
proceedings. The second largest item
last year was for hearings, the cost being
S452920.
Whenever bill or resolution is drop
ped into the hopper of either House,
copies are printed at the Government
Printing Office Some measures will
cover but single page, but others will
run to scores even hundreds OF pages.
A bill revising the Federal taxes or
tariff bill usually is voluminoUS affair.
The bill for printing bills, resolutions and
amendments last year amounted to $751;
925, and many private printer would be
much pleased to have so large a years
business as is represented by this single
item.
There are all sorts Of reprints in
pamphlet form of excerpts from the Con-
gressional Record or other publications
which are produced for the folding room
of the Capitol to be sent out broadcast
to- constituents of members This item
ran to 1902. 45l last year. The mere print
ing of franked envelopes and document
franks for the mailing out of the various
congressional publications cost 1880.
Committee reports, public documents
and a miscellaneous variety of other
matter brought the total bill up to
S2,525 O43.
The next biggest single customer of
the Government Printing Office is the
Post Office Department. Last year the
Post Office had to write checks aggre-
eating ST. 1893 ,996 to the order of the
public printer for work performed. This
does not Include the millions of stamped
envelopes nor the postage stamps pro-
duced for the Post Office. The stamped
envelopes are produced by private con-
tract and the stamps are made by the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing. But
the Post Office does require an enormous
volume of money order blanks, blanks for
registered mail. postal cards, forms to
be made out by postmasters and other
printed matter.
Next in rank comes the Treasury. The
Government Printing Office does not
print the money for the Treasury and
the Federal Reserve Banks. That work
and also the production of the bonds,
notes and certificates of Indebtedness
are done by the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing. But the Treasury requires
a tremendous amount of printing of
other sorts. There are, for example, the
millions of income tax blanks and the
various forms which are used in the COL
lectlOn OF many FeQeral taxes.
x X X
Congress- the Post Office and the
Treasury were the only customers plac-
ing orders of more than million dollars
last year, but there were some close
runners-up to the million mark. The
Department of Commerce, for instance,
paid printing bills of 1851 $50 in the last
fiscal wear ReDOrtS of the various bu-
reauS of the department, blank forms
and a wide miscellany made up the tale.
The Department of Agriculture always
is a good customer. Last years bill was
1927 1896 Crop-reporting activities and
the publication of important statistics
of farm production call for much printed
matter The affiliated Agricultural Ad-
justment Administration was customer
to the tune of S925,886.
The Patent Office paid the public
printer a bill of s882097. A good deal
of this was recouped The printing of
the Patent Office Gazette is major
performance. This is a weekly issue
usually containing several hundred pages.
The material consists of descriptions of
new patents and trade marks issued dur
ing the past week. This weekly maya
zine is sold, as also are reprints of indi-
vidual patents. The Patent Office does
large business and gets back much of
what it has to pay.
Quite few of the other agencies re-
coup large sums from the sale Of their
publications, but by no means all. Take
the Federal Housing Administration for