Evening star., 1949-03-20
Much Federal Publicity.
Viewed as Costly Waste
Held to Show How Great Sum- Can
Be Saved Through Hoover Proposals
By Frank r. Kent

By Frank r. Kent
Those disposed to be skeptical that q real
organization of the executive branch Of the
Government along the lines recommended
by the Hoover Commission would save the
great sum of $4,000. 100000 annually. at the
same time increasing efficiency. are referred
to the single item Of Federal publicity and
publications. This is more or less an Incl
dental activity Of the Government. Ger
tainly. 1t Is not one of its major or more
costly functions.
Yet even a casual study will convince any
open-minded man that in this field alone
many million dollars of totally unnecessary
expenditures can be Topped off with wholly
healthful results. For here is waste, ineffl-
cheney, duplication. absurdity, unintelligence
and lack Of all sense either OF restraint or
proportion. at their almost incredible worst.
Recently. in Senate speech. Senator H.
Styles Bridges of New Hampshire presented
factual picture Of this Federal publication
business which ought to have had more at
tention than it got. It revealed an utterly
indefensible situation. the continuation Of
which indicts the intelligence Of our people
and calls into question the soundness of
our system.
1t is not possible in this space adequately
to present the facts as laid down by Senator
Bridges. but it is worth while to recite some
of them. In the first place, while the rec
ords of the Government Printing ONCE
are complete, that is not true Of the multi
tudinouS agencies and departments which
operate publishing plants Of their own. For
these there is no cost-accounting system, no
way Of discovering the cost or the volume OF
their activities. All we know is that the cost
runs into the hundreds Of millions and that
do 4, r0a
10 years the Government Printing Office
has delivered 133,582,867,587 copies Of
printed matter. Last year 10000, 900. 900 Of
such copies were delivered, which is nearly
double the 1899 figure.
This includes all types Of printed matter
and for all departments But 1t does not
include the immense quantities Of material
turned out by the departments and agencies
themselves. No one can even estimate the
magnitude of what these have printed on
their own presses. However. in l047 the
Joint Committee on Printing established
that there were 1873 Government printing
plants and 256 Government duplicating
plants throughout the country. One depart
ment had A such plants; another. Al: an
other, 49, One agency had 100 duplicating
plants: another. 43. In all, there were 80
agencies with such plants. In one city
there were rs, in another %, in Washing
ton OIL. IN tnlS are not 1nCluoeu tIlc 0oFe
ernment Printing once operations. which
has nine plants of its own.
Last year. says Senator Bridges. the super
intendent Of documents issued free Of charge.
for these agencies, 61.e79.l02 publications.
How many millions more the agencies issued
for themselves can only be surmised. Daily
from these agencies there is q constant flow
Of pamphlets and documents. Some Of these
are necessary and intelligent. but very
large proportion are neither.
The output of one agency often contra
diets another or duplicates it The mails
are cluttered up with them and they are
scattered throughout the Union, 1t is i'm
possible to tell whether the cost of distribu.
ton Is higher than the cost Of manufacture
or vice versa. But, just as there is no way
of getting full figures 81 the cost, there is. as
of now, no way to coordinate, direct. re-
strict or supervise these tremendous publica-
ton activities, no inconsiderable part OF
which are pure propaganda. 49,.
As evidence Of mismanagement and bad
judgment. tons Of undistributed publications
dating back many years are piled up IN
the storage warehouses Of the printing office.
Other unknown tons have been transferred
to agency warehouses or sold as waste paper.
During the past two years the printing ONCE
condemned over 100000 publications. No
one knows how many were condemned by
the agencies themselves. Hoover Commission
invcs gators found widespread evidence OF
undistributed publications. Many hundreds
OF thousands Of copies of some publications
were found which had been lying around for
years-untouched and unWanted.
Conceding that some Of the Government
pamphlets convey useful information and
are justifable. Senator Bridges gives long
list of silly ones which sustain his con-
tentions. He asserts that if the Senate-and
particularly. the Appropriations Committee
will not limit their scrutiny to printing and
binding funds but probe into the cost
of research. writing. editing. distribution
and other hidden costs, Q very large
waste can be eliminated. Here" he
declares, "is field in which. without any
attempt to censor. great savings can be made
without disservice to any one except the
budding authors who have no other outlet
for their unwanted wares"