1st Session.

No. 362.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

MAY 15, 1874.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. ANTHONY, from the Committee on Printing, submitted the fol

lowing REPORT:

The Committee on Printing, instructed by the Senate "to inquire into the numbers and the distribution of the public documents, bills, or reports printed by the Congressional Printer, and to report what changes, if any, are necessary," and also "to report suitable measures for the distribution of public documents," report:

That the abolition of the "franking privilege" by the act of January 31, 1873, summarily arrested the gratuitous distribution of public documents, which has been carried on since the formation of our Government. The details of national administration, reports of the debates in Congress, with information concerning agriculture, finance, commerce, mining, and other important interests, have been published in large editions, and lavishly distributed over the entire republic without cost. As the population has increased, and as the operations of the National Government have been extended, the cost of these publications has increased, until it has become a large item in the annual budget of expenses, which many Senators have condemned, although few have apparently been willing to permit any curtailment of the publication of those documents which have been acceptable to their constituents. Now that the documents can no longer be sent through the mails free of cost, it may be well for Congress to carefully examine the question. of this publication in large numbers for gratuitous distribution.

The "President's Message and Accompanying Documents" was first printed by order of Congress soon after the seat of Government was permanently located here at Washington. Mr. Jefferson, instead of personally addressing the two Houses of Congress at the commencement of the session following his inauguration as President, (as his predecessors had done,) sent a message in writing, with accompanying documents. The whole budget made a volume of about one hundred small octavo pages, and there was a lively discussion in the House of Representatives on a motion to print 500 copies. Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, asserted that 150 copies would be enough, and urged an amendment for printing that number, on grounds of economy. Mr. Giles, of Virginia, replied that he meant to practice economy, but not the economy of withholding information from the people. The House voted to print 500 copies, the cost of the printing and binding of which was $520.75. The printing and binding of the "President's Message and Accompanying Documents" has of late years averaged about $100,000. There are several reasons for this increase of cost, in addition to the

large multiplication of the number of copies printed, the principal one being the extraordinary length of the Bureau reports, and the republication of many of them as separate books or pamphlets. These Bureau reports were originally intended as memoranda, from which the Secretaries compiled their annual reports to the President; but now some of them eclipse-certainly in length-the reports to which they are appended. It is not essential that the public should be informed how many books of manuscript are filled, how many letters are received or written, or how many cases examined in a Bureau, nor can those numbers give a definite idea of the actual labor performed. Neither should the head of a Bureau utterly disregard the specific province of his labors, and invade other subjects entirely foreign to those committed to his charge, in quest of material wherewith to form a ponderous report. The committee believe that if the heads of the Executive Departments would exercise their legitimate authority, and only transmit to Congress such portions of the reports of their subordinate chiefs of Bureaus as relate to the public business transacted by those Bureaus which is of a nature to merit publication, thousands of dollars can be annually saved, and the intrinsic value of the documents which accompany the message would be increased. Those who have had occasion to extend their researches among the printed documents of Congress to obtain statistical and other information will understand the force of this point, from hav ing been wearied in tedious examinations, and not unfrequently baffled, after much loss of time, owing, in part, to the bulk or mass of useless matter that impedes their researches.

These Bureau-reports not only increase the volume of the President's Message and Accompanying Documents, and consequently increase the expense of publication, but the writers have annual editions of their respective reports printed for their individual distribution, and in some instances profusely illustrated with engravings, paid for out of some fund at the disposal of the Bureau, which, of course, came originally from the public Treasury. To remedy this abuse, the committee provide in the bill which is reported herewith, that while the heads of the Executive Departments may have printed and bound at the Public PrintingOffice such additional numbers of their respective reports as they may order, with such selections from the documents accompanying them as may be desired, the reports of heads of Bureaus and other subordinate officers shall only be printed at the Public Printing-Office on the order of the head of the Executive Department to which such Bureaus or offices are attached, and that the cost thereof shall be charged to the printing account of that Bureau or office. This will be a double check upon this class of printing, and will also enable Congress, in making the annual appropriations, to prevent a repetition of any extravagance. While it may thus be possible to reduce the volume of the President's Message and Accompanying Documents, and to stop any further extravagant publication of Bureau reports, the committee see no way in which the cost of publishing the work can be diminished. The series of volumes is printed and bound with promptness, accuracy, and mechanical excellence, and the cost is as little, in the judgment of the committee, as it can be, taking into consideration the prices paid by the Congressional Printer for labor and materials. There have been no practical improvements made in setting the types since the days of Faustmachinery which will do the work has not been perfected-and the types have to be picked up one by one, with mind-directed fingers. Great improvements have been made in the celerity of doing the presswork within the last fifty years, but it is a matter of much doubt

whether anything has been gained in point of economy, except where very large editions are printed. Paper costs more now than it did fifty years ago, and the wages paid to compositors, pressmen, and bookbinders are more than double what was then paid for the same amount of work.

The committee regard the publication of these documents, which show what the administrative action of the National Government has been during the preceding year, as indispensably necessary, but they are of the opinion that the gratuitous distribution of them should be discontinued, and they provide in the proposed bill for the printing of a reduced edition for legislative use, and to be deposited in designated libraries of the country, for purposes of reference, with a supply for those who may desire to purchase copies at the cost-price. The same rule applies to those documents which may be printed subsequently during a session, by order of Congress, or of either House thereof. The committee, having had this subject intrusted to it during the last session of Congress, requested the Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, to obtain from the diplomatic representatives of the United States at the principal capitals of Europe information as to the num ber of public documents printed for gratuitous distribution by the gov ernments to which they are accredited. This information, which has been promptly furnished through the Department of State, shows that in no other leading nation is there the extravagant publication of public documents in which we indulge.

General Schenck wrote from London: "The cabinet ministers of Great Britain do not issue annual reports as in the United States; but furnish information to either House of Parliament, as the case may be, on notices of motions or in reply to questions." So long ago as 1835, after a thorough and exhaustive investigation of the subject of public printing, by a select committee composed of the most eminent members of the House of Commons, the conclusion was reached "that the parliamentary papers and reports printed for the use of the House should be rendered accessible to the public by purchase at the lowest price they can be furnished, and that a sufficient number of extra copies should be printed for that purpose."

Hon. E. B. Washburne transmitted from Paris a translation of a letter from M. de Remusat, who said: "As regards the rules for the publication and distribution of the annual reports of the ministers. which you wished to be informed about, I find it impossible to gratify your wish, no document of this kind having been published since the exposés of the situation which were made to the Senate and to the Corps Législatif, under the Empire, ceased to appear."

Hon. George Bancroft wrote from Berlin: "As to the annual reports of the ministers of the German Empire, it is to be remarked that as yet the German Empire has no ministers and no ministry. Business is transacted through the chancellor of the German Empire, and the German chancery, and they make no printed annual reports of any kind. The executive business of the German Empire is in a great measure carried on through the ministers of the kingdom of Prussia, and they, too, make no annual reports of any kind to the King or to the Prussian Parliament. Sometimes one of them has occasion to print a paper, but it is done only in a private manner and for official purposes; never for wide distribution. Perhaps I should add that a bureau sometimes collects statistical materials and prints them in small numbers, but they are circulated through the bureau itself."

The British system of printing additional copies of all parliamentary

reports in such quantities as would meet the public demand, and of selling them at the cost-price of paper and press-work, appears to have worked well, and to be worthy of adoption. Indeed, it is the opinion of those who have given the subject careful consideration, that the sale of our public documents, at cost price, would secure a larger and better circulation for them than they ever yet had, without expense to the Government. Of the eight million agriculturists in the United States, who can say that the two hundred and fifty thousand to be most benefited by the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture have received that work, of which this enormous number have been printed? But let every one interested in agriculture who desires to purchase this work be equally permitted to purchase a copy at cost, and if it is of such great value as is represented, an edition of two hundred and fifty thousand copies will be insufficient to meet the demand.

The Congressional Printer is, in the opinion of the committee, the proper official to be charged with the sale and distribution of public documents, leaving to the Department of the Interior the distribution of such documents as it is now charged with by existing laws, and sending direct to the head of each Executive Department all of the sets of documents designed for the use of that Department and of its Bureaus and offices, to be distributed to them under his direction.

The public documents for sale must be printed and bound at the Government Printing-Office, and they can be wrapped for the mails there cheaper than they can be at the folding-rooms in the Capitol, as the work will be performed there by trained mechanics, while they can be carried directly from the Government Printing Office to the PostOffice, thus saving much labor in handling and in cartage. The Congressional Printer is already a bonded officer of the Government, and has already accounts with the Treasury, statements of which he lays annually before Congress, so that only the clerical labor in his office would be increased.

In selling the documents he would necessarily become acquainted with the demand for each of them, and be able to print from time to time from the stereotype plates in his possession, under the direction of the Joint Committee on Public Printing, such numbers, and no more, as would be needed. The cost-price is fixed in the proposed bill at the cost of press-work, paper, and binding, excluding the original item of composition necessary for the publication of the edition for public use. This will enable any citizen desiring any of these documents to obtain it at a very low rate, and he will value it the more, doubtless, because he has selected, ordered, and paid for it. It is a question for the serious consideration of Congress whether public documents so purchased might not be carried in the mails and delivered to the purchasers free of charge, as that would entail a very trifling cost upon the postal service. But unless Congress should make some provision of this kind, either for the transportation of public documents free, or at a uniform reduced rate of postage, purchasers must remit the necessary amount of postage with the cost of the documents which they may order. Nor does it appear desirable that any one class of public documents should be transported by mail cheaper than other classes.

The committee provide in the proposed bill for the distribution of the official editions of congressional documents, with the bills, resolutions, and reports, directly from the Government Printing-Office. At present, and under no direct authority of law that your committee can ascertain, nearly two thousand sets of these publications, bound, unbound, and in sheets, are distributed from the Government Printing-Office and from

the folding-rooms of the Senate and of the House. Each complete set costs several hundred dollars, yet they are scattered about with profusion, and those received by one of the Executive Departments and its Bureaus, during the last Congress, cost at least $25,000. Yet a great majority of the documents, bills, and reports were not of the slightest value to the Bureaus which were thus supplied with two, three, or four sets of unbound documents, bills, and resolutions, and then with as many sets of the same documents bound in leather. By supplying the head of each Executive Department with a proper number of copies, he can have them so distributed as to supply all the wants of each subordinate official for the discharge of his official duties.

The committee was not surprised to learn that some officials have regarded a portion of these bountiful supplies of bound sets of public documents as donations to them individually, rather than as to be retained strictly for official use. There have been instances in which these sets of public documents have been sold, or exchanged with dealers in second hand books for lighter literature. To correct this error, a section has been inserted in the proposed bill declaring such of these bound volumes as may be delivered to civil, military, or naval officials, "public property," to be transferred to their successors in office.

The committee has ascertained that a large number of the sets of these documents are sent to the committee-rooms of the Senate and of the House of Representatives, where they are in a few instances properly arranged, but for which there is rarely shelf-room. When these distributions were commenced, neither House had its library for the express preservation of these legislative documents, as is now the case, and only a few committees were supplied. The committee recommend a discontinuance of the distributions to committee-rooms, with the understanding that the committees can obtain for use sets or parts of sets from the libraries of their respective Houses, as they may elect. They would also recommend a continuance of the supply of the bound journals of either House to every committee room, and likewise a copy of the "Congressional Record."

The committee has made no provision for a continuance of the distribution of duplicate sets of bound and unbound public documents from the document-rooms of the two houses to the foreign legations at Washington. The Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, says of this distribution, in a letter addressed to the chairman of the committee: "This is a liberality of distribution which is believed not to be exercised by many, if any, foreign governments toward the diplomatic representatives accredited to them. When the United States Government has occasion for the printed legislative or parliamentary publications of other states, as a general rule, they are only obtained by purchase. I respectfully submit to the consideration of the committee that a rule of reciprocity be established with respect to the distribution of these documents, and that copies be furnished only to the legations in this capital of those governments who furnish to the legations of the United States in their respective capitals copies of all their printed parliamentary or legislative documents. I do not hesitate to recommend a provision to this effect. And, should it be adopted, the Department of State will undertake the delivery of the documents, bound and unbound, to the legations of such powers as shall indicate a desire to reciprocate the distribution of these documents to our legations abroad. I would further suggest, in this connection, that it would be a convenient provision if a certain number of documents, bills, reports, &c., be printed and kept in reserve for sale by the Public Printer, at a price sufficient to cover the expense, and that the rep