For the information of Congress and the guidance of the Committees on Appropriations there is submitted with this report a detailed statement showing by departments and bureaus thereof and independent offices of the Government the cost of all departmental publications paid for out of the Congressional allotment during the past fiscal year, from which a readjustment of the appropriations for printing, to meet the conditions proposed, may be readily arrived at. It is the confident belief of the Commission that the adoption of this policy will result in a closer scrutiny by the responsible heads of the Departments and bureaus of the matter presented to Congress to be printed and will place responsibility for extravagance upon those who possess the power to correct that condition. The general annual and deficiency appropriations for printing and binding for Congress and the Executive Departments for the last fiscal year, as has been said, amounted to $6,081,395.82. The general opinion prevails that this covers the entire cost of public printing for that period. The Commission has found, however, that $1,051,860 in addition to this sum was specifically appropriated for printing in connection with other items of legislation. The Commission would recommend that, in so far as practicable, all appropriations for printing and binding shall hereafter be made collectively. The Commission is further of the opinion that the Public Printer should be placed in the same relation to Congress and the Executive Departments that a private printing establishment bears to its customers. The Public Printer should be required to keep an accurate account of the actual, rather than the theoretical, cost of all work performed in his Office, charging to Congress or the Executive Departments, who are virtually his customers, an amount only sufficient to cover such cost. Congress and the Departments, on the one hand, watchful of their appropriations, would naturally scrutinize the items of cost involved in their printing, while the Public Printer, on the other hand, would be subject at all times to the necessity of verifying, with business precision, the accuracy of his charges. To effect this reform it would be necessary to place at the disposal of the Public Printer a fund sufficiently large to maintain his Office and meet its operating expenses as any printing establishment would require, pending the receipt of returns for work actually performed. This system would involve, in the selection of a Public Printer, careful consideration of those qualities of executive and administrative ability which insure successful management of similar institutions in the field of private enterprise. It would operate conservatively in limiting the Public Printer to the application of the funds placed at his disposal to the specific purposes for which they were intended by Congress, rather than, as under the present system, making available for his use without restraint or supervision, other than a belated public sentiment, all unexpended balances of appropriations made under present methods, a power which, in the hands of an unscrupulous or incompetent official would tend to extravagance, if it did not lead to censurable results. T. C. PLATT. APPENDICES TO REPORT. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DEAR SIR: Kindly furnish for the information of the Printing Investigation Commission an estimate of the increased cost that would have resulted in the printing in two editions instead of one, but to the same aggregate number of copies, the following publications: Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1902. Annual Report of the Director of the Geological Survey, 1902-3. Special Report on Diseases of the Horse (1903). Bound edition of the Congressional Record, Fifty-eighth Congress, second session. Very respectfully, Hon. CHARLES A. STILLINGS, C. B. LANDIS, Chairman Subcommittee, etc. Public Printer, Washington, D. C. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, SIR: Replying to your request of December 29, 1905, I would state that the estimated increased cost that would have resulted in the printing in two editions instead of one, but to the same aggregate number of copies, of each of the following publications, is set opposite each: Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1902. Annual Report of the Director of the Geological Survey, 1902-3.. Bound edition of the Congressional Record, 58th Congress, 2d session. Very truly, yours, $150.00 125.00 600.00 1,225.00 CHAS. A. STILLINGS, Public Printer. DEAR SIR: Kindly furnish for the information of the Printing Investigation Commission: First. A list by title of all publications emanating from the various Executive Departments and independent offices of the Government and printed during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1905, the cost of which was charged to the appropriation 9 for printing and binding for Congress, showing in each instance the number of copies and how distributed and showing separately the cost of illustrations, cost of composition, and total cost of printing and binding. If any of the documents herein referred to have been reprinted in whole or in part on order or requisition from any Department or branch thereof or any independent office of the Government, kindly furnish: Second. A list by title of such publications showing cost of additional illustrations and composition, if any, and total cost of printing and binding. The information herein requested should be classified by Departments and branches thereof. This inquiry does not relate to the publication of additional copies of departmental publications which have been specially ordered by Congress for use or distribution by either or both Houses thereof. Very respectfully, C. B. LANDIS, Chairman Subcommittee, etc. |