Evening star., 1940-12-15
Fifty Years Ago
In the Star


volume of today, the production of the
Government Printing
Government ONCE so years ago was
Public otions regarded as an immense
output The Star of
December 13, 1890, says:
Some of the new members who have
been Unexpectedly thrown into Congress
by the upheaval of the 4th of November,
without previous preparation, will find
themselves suddenly possessed OF
wealth of literature. Libraries of aston
ishing size and extraordinary dullness
will be found to their credit. Slowed
away in the cellars and dark recesses
of the Capitol and in warehouses rented
for the purpose are thousands OF vol
umes, some of which have been accu-
mulating for as much as 80 years.
"Uncle Sam runs the most extensive
and least profitable publishing house IN
the country. Over 100000 books print
ed and published at Government expense
were sent out from the House folding
room during the first session OF this
Congress, and this was by no means all
that were in print, thousands being
slowed away because the members to
whose credit they were did not claim
them. Not less than half as many
more were sent out from the Senate
nished with catalogue covering 19 pages,
giving merely the names of the various
books to which he is entitled by virtue
of his Office Each title represents per-
haps hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
volumes OF the agricultural reports
alone 100000 are published each year
and divided among the members. From
this number it runs down to four or
five sets of some of the rarer and more
expensive publications to each member.
"The cost of all these publications is
something enormous and there are prob
ably not more than dozen Of them that
any man would pick out to put in his
library. The annual edition of the agri-
cultural reports, one of the very cheap
est publications, costs about $4,000. That
is only about 10 cents volume. In the
case of some of the reports, in which
there are many cuts, the cost of each
volume Is considerable. The publica-
tions include, besides the laws, the Presi-
dents messages, reports from the de-
partments and special bureaus of the
departments works on explorations made
under the auspices Of the Government,
works on entomology, ethnology, for
estry, astronomy and geology. There
are several works on Alaska, several ac-
counts of Arctic cruises, books on for
eign relations and international law, an
infinite number of volumes on fish and
volumes of eulogies on all the members
who have died in the service Each
member has the right to have one COM
plete set of Government publications
during his term of Office bound in Ii
brary form. These volumes in sheepskin
binding are piled up like cordwood in
the clerks document room, it being
impossible to ship them off as fast as
they come in. There Is often carload
Of them in the room at one time.
Except this one set for each member,
the volumes are bound in cheapest pos
sible manner in black cloth. They are
bound whether the member to whose
credit they 60 wants them or not, and
the result is that thousands Of volumes
are not called for by the members, and
they lie about and get musty or rot.
When a member dies, or retires with
out disposing Of his books, the books
accumulated are put to the credit of
his successor. Some of the new men,
bers coming in to the next House will
fall heir to numerous volumes of greater
or less value in this way. When Mr..
Vaux succeeded Mr. Randall he fell heir
to an odd and very large assortment
of books, Mr.. Randall having been one
of those who took no account of the
books to his credit. There are very few
Government publications which the
average city Representative has any
use for. but to the country member these
books. are so much campaign material.
Some of those from way back send out
to their constituents not only all the
books that come 70 them - their share