Evening Star Newspaper, August 28, 1921, Page 29

EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL . ARTICLES LEANER DAYS AHEAD FOR PROPAGANDISTS Committees of Congress Tired of Giving ‘Them Time and Then Printing Their Views for Free Distribution. ° ing upon his colleagues for this re- form in committee hearings. The leaders, both republicans and demo- crats, on ‘practically all of the com- mittees, realize the waste of time, money, paper and postal servicé through this abuse, which is beneficial chiefly to the paid propagandists, who get their printing and distribu- ! tion at government expense. Now that Congress, through a joint committee headed by a personal rep- resentative of the President, is en- gaged upon a program of reorganiza- tion of the administrative depart- ments to minimize waste and dupli- cation, leaders in Congress are com- ing to realize as never before that they must minimize their own waste 4nd duplication. The most gliring dupcation is in having House and Sendte committees conduct separate hearipgs, with the same witnesses be- forefthe House committee as before the Benate committee, testifying on the same subject, with stenographers taking down practically the same words, and then each committee hav- ing the testimony printed. Joint Hearings Are Urged. Some of the best business men in both houses are now urging the de- sirability of having more joint com- mittee Rearings, which will not only save expense, but will result in hav- ing the Senate and House committees in closer accord in the measure under consideration so that time can be saved in passing the legislation when it comes up for consideration on the \floor. To emphasize the saving that can be effected by joint hearings, Repre- sentative Allen F. Moore of Illinois, who sueceeded William B. McKinley | when ‘the latter was elected to the Senate, is preparing’ data and sta- tistics showing how often the same witnesses have appeared before the House and Senate committees at sep- arate hearings, and how closely their testimony came to being identical be- fore each committee. He will ‘@lso show the waste in timé and money as far as this can be done. Representa- tive Moore will make this comparison not only on appropriatign bills, but also in the packers' bill the Tin- cher bill to prevent gambling in fu- tures-on the grain market. It }& Representative Moore’s inten- tion fo introduce a resolution soon -,nt,mr the congressional recess, which ‘e Danes will start -a’ reform, as he has received many assurances of sup- port from prominent members. ¢ 2 BARS FAKE POSTMASTERS. To prevent crocks from pelming themselves off as postmasters, the t ‘Office Department has devised “check-up” system of signatures. Recently the department brought to the attention of postmasters. the need for visiting other offices, and it has now been found necessary to arrange for proper identification. As a simple yet effective means, a postmaster contemplating such a visit is instructed to forward in ad- vance & formal notification bearing the signature and the postmark of his offtce. . Upon his arrival a copy. of this no- tice, with postmark, should be pre- sented, and the signature should be duplicated in the presence of the lo- cal postmaster, or whoever he may designate to accompany the visitor through the office. CONSTRUCTION CURBED. The Secretary of War has notified chiefs of all branches that no perma- nent construction shall be under- taken within the continental limits of the United States, where perma- nent construction can be postponed, and that necessary repairs and tem- porary construction only will be con- sidered. It is explained that action was taken “in view of tHe necessity for the practice of the utmost econ- omy by the War Department for the ensuing two or three years, and per- haps even for a longer period.” Spe- cific instructions also have been given for the greatest economy in the (use of the cable service. Knoxville Editor Makes Usual Call at White House BY WILL P. KENNEDY. EADERS in Congress—both House and Senate—are seri- ously considering the need for a reform in committee hear- ings: (1) to effect a very substantial eaving on committee stenographic ;nd printing costs, wastage of paper “and the abuse of the franking privi- lege; (2) to show good faith in re- ducing duplication and expense when framing legislation along the same line affecting the administrative branch of the government, and (3) to safeguard against waste of their own time, thus speeding up the legislative machinery. The contemplated reférms are: (1) to change the method of committee hearings, so that the paid propa- gandists will not have a chance -to come on their own invitation, talk by the hour and get their briefs printed and ditributed at Uncle Sam's ex- pense; and (2) to minimize the ex- pense and duplication of having jdentical witnesses testify one day before a House committee and a few days later before a Senate committee in practically the same language. with both committees having the testimony printed. Big Saving in Time. To realize how much a saving this would be in time of the members of committees one must recognize first that the big majority of the work of members of Congress is done in com- mittee and not on the floor. It is the practically endless procession of selfish interests, paid propagandists, appearing to spread their propa- ganda before the committees that causes the delay in lexisiation. This is glaringly illustrated by the hear- ings lasting many weeks recently held by the ways and means com- mittee. Members of Congress have come to realize that they are really much closer to the people throughout the country and know what they want in the way of legislation better than those who, to hold their own jobs, come before the committee and plead that they represent so many thou- sand persons in a certain industry or a certain Bection. Members of the House particularly, subject to recall by thelr constituents every two years, a8 designed by the framers of the Constitution to keep them close t9 the will of the people, know that they) personally are cosstanfly geeking know the real will of the voters their home districts. - Experts to Be Called. So the plan now being discussed Is for committees, their members quite well informed regarding what is ad- vantageous for the people of the country, to forego the gpportunity to help along the game of the paid propagandists by allowing them hearings, and to call in only experts along certain lines whose advice they feel would be helpful. This is to be done in much the same way as the appropriations committee conducts hearings, calling in those they want to ask questions 2cross the table and brushing aside the set speeches and filing of briefs, the sole purpose of which is to get the views of the wit- ness printed free for free distribu- tion by mall The growth of the abuse of grant- ing extensive hearings and printing of reports of these hearings is well fllustrated by a report prepared for House Leader Mondell by Willlam Tyler Page last April. In the earlier days some of the larger committees got specific permission from their re- pective houses of Congress to have a certain number of reports printed for use of the committee. During the last ten years it has become the cus- tom at the opening of a session to pass a resolution giving all commit- tees blanket privilege to have reports printed. Cost of Printing Heavy. The report prepared by Mr. Page as clerk of the House shows that in the preceeding fiscal year the total num- ber of copies of hearnigs printed at the government printing office was 262,149, the total number of pages 92,912, making the grand total of pages of printed matter 23,905,891,608. The number of sheets of printed paper was 11,952,945,804. There are four committee stenogra- phers regularly employed in the House and their time is taken up mostly with subcommittees of the House appropriations comimttee. To cover the hearing before other com- mittees extra stenographic service i has to be employed and paid on e e e vouchers from the contingent fund of the Houyse. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920, the extra cost for such stenographic work was $65,. 372.33. ‘The coples of the hearings after being printed are not deposited in the document or folding room of the House, the established agency for dis- tribution, but are at the disposal of the particular committee that conducted the hearing. So that it has sometimes happened that practically the entire issue of copies of the hearing have ‘been turned over to some one person or organization and sent out by them postage free under .some member"; frank. There are notable instances of when this has happened. Binding Adds to Expense. Still further, every member of Con- gress has tne right to have one copy of any government publication bound at Uncle Sam’s expense, so that gives an. opportunity for still further run- ning up the costs and waste through indiscriminate committee hearings. & republican, and the only republi- Representative Simeon D. Fess of|can ever elected mayor of Knexville. gressional committee, is one of thase most urgently and persistently press- atras § Ovns Billions of Dollars of South American Securities,Which, Transferred Here in Settlement, Would Present No EDITORIAL SECTION WASHINGTON, D. (O, SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 28, 1921 ONE WAY EUROPE COULD PAY U. S. PR Menace to American Industries. BY SHELDON §. CLINE. INANCIAL authorities who are making a study of the question of the debt owed this country by Europe and of the forms in which payment of interest and princi- pal could be made and received are agreed that it would be desirable to transfer az much as possible of the oblization outside of Europe. By preference, they would transfer it to South F ‘America. This does not mean, necessarily, that they think the South American republics afford bet- than do our present European debtors, though in a number of cases this un- Their chief reason is that payments on a debt owed by South America could be received with less embarrassment to this country than in case of a debt owed by ter security doubted!ly is true. Europe. * ¥ ¥ * South America today is in very much the condition the United States was fifty years ago. Its great expanses of territory and its great resources remain largely tg be de- veloped, and in order to mske possible their is Money could be left in South America on in- vestment for a century or more, and the divi- dends it earned could, with advantage, be re- natural development outside capital invested there. This is not the case with Europe. As a rule. the Européan countries which owe money to America have their resources fully de- veloped, and inder normal conditions themselves have a surplus of capital for investment abroad. They do not need and do not want permanent investments of American capital, they probably would welcome any plan which offered temporary relief from the embarrass- in settlement of Europe’s debt, but it is be- leved practical that there could be an annual “transference of an amount sufficient to meet the interest charges on the debt, with gradual increases to liquidate a part of the principal. But to accomplish even this there are many complications and difficulties which would have to be overcome. In the first place, there is not in this country any extensive market for South American securities. The market would have to be created, and this would not be easy. It would take a lot of educating to persuade the American investor to buy 2 5 or 6 per cent Argentine bond when he has choice of 80 many attractive offerings at home which will net him 7 and 8 per cent. There is the further compli- cation that a great bulk of the South American securities held in Europe are payable in pounds sterlingy in francs, marks and lire, instead of in the currencies of the countries of their origin. To sell these securities for dollars, in the present condition of exchange, somebody would have to take heavy losses. Whether it is regarded that the dollar is at a premium or the currencies of other nations at a discount, the effect is the same. Take the case of an Argentine security owned in England and of- fered for sale in this country. In dollars the British pound sterling is at a discount of about 25 per cent and the Argentine peso is off nearly 40 per cent. An Argentine bond of the normal equivalent of $1,000 would have an American value of only $750 if payable in pounds steriing. I payable in Argentine pesos its present ex- change value would be only $600. A Brazillan bond qf a pre-war value equal to $1,000, owned in France would have a value here of 3400 if payable in francs and of only $380 if payable in Brazillan milreis, for the franc 1s at a discount of approximately 60 per cent and the milreis is at a discount of 62 per cent. necessary. and while ments in which they find themselves. the no- tion of a permanent investment of billjons of * %k % % American dollars In the western cov .ries of . Europe is unsound and would be undesirable ‘when those countries have recovered from the effects of the war. . % %k ok ¥ But American investments in South America would be desirable, even aside from the fact of interest charges on them would present no menace to American indus- tries. It is often heard that trade follows the flag, but it is even more true that trade follows the dollar, the pound sterling, the franc and In pre-war competition for South American trade American exporters always were handicapped by the fact that England. France, Germany, and even Italy, had large investments of capital in those countries. looked to London, Paris, Berlinjand Rome for that payment the mark. the financifig '0f -their pebilc tles and the deveélopment of their resources, and it followed, as a natural repult; that they looked to the same sources for he; goods they There were British. Prench, German and Italian banks, and bills of ge were drawn on the Buropean finan- 1. centers. Even goods from the United States were paid for largely in sterling and other European exchange, and Sputh American securities of all kinds were listed on the Eu- had need of importing. ropean bourses. ‘Research here has failed to,disclose any- thing like a dependable estimats of the totgl of European investments in South America, but in an authoritative British quarter the state- ment is made that England alone has a billion pounds sterling, or approximately five biilions French, German and Italian investments probably are not so large, but combined they undoubtedly amount to an- other five billion dollars. The South American investments of the four nations together prob- ably about equal the amount of the debt of the European governments to the government of the United States. If this is true, the interest and dividend returns ought to about offset the interest charges on the debt owed by European of dollars, invested there. governments to the United States. * k k Kk It is impospible, of course, that the whole of these investments, or even a major part of them, could be transferred to the United States But the losses which the sellers of these bonds would have to take is more apparent than real. A South American bond which called for the payment of 100 pounds sterling would* have a normal gold value of $486.65. If the owner sold it today in this country for its full exchange value he would get only $365.75 for it, but with that $365.75 in dollars he could turn around and buy 100 pounds worth of sterling ex- change, 50 in reality he would be out nothing but the cost of the transaction. If he suffered a loss at all it would consist in his having, to meet present needs, sacrificed atya discount a sound investment which, in all human probability, in time would have returned to its original value. ‘Whether the European holder of a South American security would be willing to part with it at the necessary present sacrifice would depend upon how badly he needed the money to pay his deb*s or what greater profits he thought he could make by having the reduced sum available in the form of American dollars. These South American securities ought to be regarded as a “good buy” by American in- vestors of a somewhat speculative turn of mind. Certainly they are a safer risk than the Ger- man mark, which American speculators have been buying until they now are believed to own this all but worthless paper currency to the face value of fifteen to twenty billion marks. ‘This is a gamble, pure and simple, with good chagce that the American gambler stands to lose, ‘for the German paper mark cannot much longer have any value at all if the flood of issue continues. ey and utili- * X% %k % The matter of safety does not enter seri- ously into the question of high-grade South American securities. The element of specula- tion has to do with the disparity of exchange —whether it will get worse or better, and when, it ever, it will get back to the pre-war normal. If it can be assumed that there will be a speedy return to normal exchange, South American se- curities undoubtedly offer an attractive field for American investment. Take the case of an . Argentine bond of a normal value of $1.000, bearing 6 per cent interest and payable in ten . years'in British sterling. The par purchase price of that bond today in dollars would be $760, giving an annual fnterest rate on the.in- vestment of 714 per cent and a maturity re- turn of a fraction ‘over 10 per cent. But until there was a betterment,in the London exchange rate, the interest payments, when converted back into dollars, would be subject to a dis- count of about 25 per cent. But the idea being discussed here is that instead of collectlng his interest in eventual dollars, the American investor would reinvest his earnings in Argentina. If he did that, the present exchange situation would give the American investor a stil] further advantage. The Argentine peso is at a discount about 15 per cent greater than the pound sterling. So it would operate that Instead of $100 worth ‘of interest being converted through -sterling exchange into $75 worth of American dollars, it would be received in the form of $115 worth of new investments in Argentina. * % * There is no thought on the part of respon- sible officials of the government that the United States Treasury would accept South American securities of any kind in direct exchange for . the obligations of European governments which owe us money. It would be up to the European governments to obtain from their people the South American securities in exchange for their own bonds and then to send the South American securities here for sale, and with the dollars thus obtained to setfle with the United States Treasury. This was the process fol- lowed during the war, when American securities owned In Europe were resold here and the dol- lars obtained for them used to finance the pur- chase of war supplies. Whether a thing which was practical during the stress of war would be practical now that the war is over would depend upon how great- 1y general investors in Europe feit the need of maintaining credit here and rectifying exchange. The European governments no doubt would have to make their bond offerings highly at- tractive, but from this distance it would seem better that they should borrow money from their owp people, even under severe terms, than that they should be in default to a foreign creditor or that they should further depreciate their currencies and increase the adversity of the exchange -rate by attempting shipments of gold. * % % *x I Europe had no difficulty reselling her Ameri- can securities here during the war, because the market for them alfeady existed, and the American people, in the flush of war prosperity, had plenty of money for investment. But be- fore South American securities could be sald in large voluriie' the market would have to be created and a very-aptensive campaign of edu- cation would have ¢a‘be conducted to familiar- ize the people with shcuriaies PWNIS I gur- rencies other than dollars, “Then’ thérs would have to be established.a forelgn securities ex- change or the South Amesican securities would have to be listed on the New York and other stock exchanges, and daily quotations pub- lished. z If the task of edwecating the American in- vesting public to the direct buying of South American securities, with their different cur- rencies and complicgted exchange rates, ap- peared too grest, the difficulty might be over- come by the organfsation of strong holding companies which would take over the South American securities and issue against them for sale to the American people their own collateral bonds, payable in dollars at New York or Chi- cago or elsswhere. . * k k %k That the difficulties in the way of such a program are very real must be admitted, but 80 are the -difficulties Involved in the whole problem of collecting the money which s owed to us by Europe. Difficulties of very serious sorts must be overcome somewhere if we are ever to get our money back, and there i# sound fitancial opinion which holds that the difficul- ties in the way of recelving very substantial payments in South American securities are less serious than those,presented by any other mode of payment yet nrhpoaadA (Copyright, 1921, by The Washington Star.) Europe Welcomes Harding Arms Parley, But Feels Need of Reducing Land Forces BY FRANCESCO NITTI, Former Premier of Italy. PRESIDENT HARDING'S ‘message on the limitation of armaments has kept the European press very busy; in fact, it is still the subject of univérsal comment. It is quite olear that the Presi- dent has chiefly in mind the prob- lem of the Pacific and of the far east. For he has pointed out that the solution of this vital problem is an essential condition to the limitation of military expenses and consequently to the friendly rela- tions between the United States of Amer} Great Britain and Japan. The principal point at issue-is the limitation of naval armaments. “But Europe, while appreciating the importance of reducing naval armaments, attributes a far great- er importance to the limitation of armies. < *xx Two quite distinct situations have arisen from the great war in Europe. The vanquished countries; subjected to a stern control,’ are not allowed to have armies, unless in the mintmum measure absolute- 1y necessary to- preserve law and - order at home. On the other hand, there is no limitation to the arms-. ments of the victorious countrias, ‘which, as & rule, possess more for- midable armies than they had be- fore the .war. The most character: istio prsnomenon is that the smaller ! Unfortunately their treaties are are far worse than trey were two years ago. ‘We may suppose that the United States, Great Britain and Japan will arrive at some agreement re- garding the important problems of the Pacific and the far e even if such an understanding were to take place, it would be of no practical value unless some means were devised to restore the equilibrium of Europe. The tragic situation caused by the treaties which' closed the war and opened up & fresh era of ruin and misery cannot last forever. * &k ¥ ¥ Germany is forced to pay an in- demnity far in excess of her might- {est efforts. But in order to place Per in the impossibility of paying it is proposed, in open disregard of the treaty of Versailles and of the plebiacite, to deprive her of Upper Slleill._'hldl would mean cutting off her coal supplies and mania, Csechosiovakia, and, above all, Poland, have standing armies which no other country, even among the greatest, would haye dreamt of kaving before the war. Poland has more soldiers under grms than Italy or Great Britain, and owing to her imperialistic tendencies is a standing menace to the peace of Europe, both in Upper Silesia and Ukraine’ ‘The vanquished countries are not allowed to have really efficient armies, while the victorious states insist on maintaining armies not only for their own protection and security, but for the enforcement of the treaties. * X % % portancey Greece, Jugoslavia, Ru- l for the most part incapable of being' practically carried out. As Clemenceau declared, with some- wtat - rough _ sincerity, peade treaties are nothing but the con- tinuation of war in another fleld. For various reasons Germany, Aus- tris, Hungary and Turkey cannot “bear'the weight of the-conditions imposed upon them, nor can they fulfill the terms to which they have agreed. Numerous armies, espe- cially in the case of smaller states; &re necessary to enforce the carry- ing out of the, most obnoxious pacts'and clauses—a regime based on violence must necessarily beap- Dlied by violent metiods. None of the states of continental Europe which have emerged from . the war can beast of having made medt her liabilities. As a matter of fact, the policy followed by the " allies during the last two years has for its object far more the dis- ' organization of Germany than the enforcemént of an indemnity. . The confersnce -of Waskington ‘will necessarily have to turn its attention to the question of .land armaments and to the general sit- uation of Although - the - United States of America have not siven their sanction to the treaty of Versailles, they. still troops in Hurope, thus { 1n & certain: sense, thelr solidarity 75 t. But rendering it impossible for her to- g, tain and ambigyous situation to last mucl* longer. Every agreement presupposes a sanction or at least the existence of an arbitrator in case of con- troversies. The function of arbi- trator cannot be fulfilled by the soclety of nations, which has lost all moral prestige and 1s reduced to being a- holy alliance between the victorious countries. And if we exclude the society of nations who will act es arbitrator in the dif- ference of opinion which may arise in the 'practical ‘execution of -the agreements? 3 ‘The whole of Islam is in a state of moral unrest and perturbation owing to the absurd situatidn in which Turkey, and more especially the. caliph of. Constantinople, find themselves. The: repercussion of this state of things cannot but be felt throughout Asia. - * % ok % The_ greater part of Asiatic.Rus- sia is practically no, longer under the direet dependence of the gov- ernment of Moscow, but the latter has expressly declared that it does not ‘recognfie the cession of any territory belonging to the ex-Rus. sfan empire, with the exception of Finland and. Poland. -Also in_ this case the problem of Aafa is.closely comnected with the Eurgpean prob- lem.” Rissia will be able to emerge but .slowly from the immense con- _fusion and from_the night of ylo- lence. misery ‘in° which she ‘now ‘plunfed; ‘and Russia’s recon- Germany. “It1s oniy‘péssible to, Society News IS MAKING BIG CUT IN PRINTING COSTS Morale and Productivity of Force Increased By Measures Put Into Effect By Public Printer Carter. pressed upon it. It took 13,981 tons of coal to supply this building and 16,456,300 cubic feet of gas were con- sumed. The original cost of the build- ing was $2.410,000, and the equip- ment is valued at $2,800,000. There are 149 presses. Mr. Carter came to the job well fitted. In the lobby of his office 1s a large framed photograph of Presi- {dent Harding locking up a form m his own newspaper office, and before autographing it the President wrote: “To one printer and public servant trom another.” Carteg is an all-round printer and newspap°r man, with ex- perience in the government service and in handling the printing of Con- gress. Incidentally he took a law course while on Uncle Sam’s pay roll and has an LL. B. degree. TURING his first three months in office as public printer George H. Carter made a saving of $3,500.000 in oper- ating- expenses and turned back into the Treasury $2,316,786. But he does not consider that the most impor- tant reform he has instituted. What he takes most pride in and what he believes will be the most powerful agency in effecting economies is his social welfare work, building up the morale of his force, numbering more thun 5,000, In the same way that the joPirit of the Army overseas was thaintained. This young man, who is general manager of the largest printing | establishment in the world, which is | really a national university, is a li‘o‘!fl contestant with Postmaster General Hays for honors in inspiring & new spirit of enthusiasm in their work among government employes. _Carter Raises the Roof. Official Washington has just been startled by scelng George Carter, who already has thirteen and a half acres of floor space in his printing shop, pushing out the roof to add an- other story, most of which will be glven over to welfare uses. The plans Learned to Set Type. Carter learned to set type and operate a job press and worked in his father's store at Le Mars, lowa, as & youth. He was clerk in a national bank in Kansas during the summers of 1892 and 1893. Then he was in turn proofreader, state news editor and reporter on Iowa papers. Next he was clerk in the United States census Provide for a cafeteris. whinn® o |PUreat. Then he returned to mews- Prhe most medern in the clty, en- | s e tirely electricall : political er v cauipped, capable | oo Coming back to Washington of seating 1000 persons at one time. Beside this will be a large auditorium, also with a seating capacity of more than 1.000, which can be used for &ymnasium, dances, concerts, etc. There will also be restrooms, shower baths and the emergency hospital fa- cllittes now existing will be doubled in capacity. From the cafeteria a broad ‘stairway will lead to a roof garden with a shelter at one end. 80 that those who 80 desire may carry their lunches to the roof for fresh air and where they can enjoy a smoke. This. feature will be especially wel- come to the night force at the big|printing vstablishment. He was printery, who have to eat at 2 am.|assistant secretary and secretary of or 6 am. or other unusual hours,|tne printing investigation commission when lunchrooms in the neighbor-{in 1910 and 1911, and clerk for the hood are not ready to give them good | 1ast ten years to the Jjoint con- e ‘gressional committee on printing. He Put Step to Gambling. was secretary to the special committee The first startiing reform that Car-|on government paper specifications for ter put across was to issue an edict | the last ten years and author of the that gambling in the government|Congressional Printing Handbook and vrinting office must stop. He had to|compiler of numerous congressional suspend twenty and dismiss six of |documents. Now he is co-operating the most flagrant offenders to show | with Director of the Budget Dawes he meant bisiness, and now the tn-lnnd with Represengative AMartin B. - tire force is grateful, having come to|Madden, chalrman of the House ap- he acted for their own|propriations committee, with a view Beat interests. Of course, Uncle Sam [to effecting efficient economy by con- will also benefit inincreased efficiency, | servation of departmental publica- because now the 5,000 employes can |tions—especially reports. keep their minds on their work in- SRS T e e | e e 3 In the vicinity of the government! Showing his absolute sincerity in printing office have estimated that|the program of curtallment on depart- more than $1,000 a day went out of | Mental reports—the last report of the that building in bets. The first week | PUPliC Printer made a volume of 716 |Be was on the job Carter stumblea |Pages—Carter has reduced his re- onto one of the “runners.” and after a | POTt 10 thirty-six pages. The annual personally conducted investigation | F¢POTtS of the departments aggregate Dut @ stop to all gambling and es- | Volumes of 22,000 pages. and of these pecially to bookmaking on the horse |from 1,000 to 10.000 volumes of each races. report are printed. bound and matled And r . {all over the country. cften to persons things zm;w‘: m‘?fiiiu&"';'. :: not at all interested in them—all at cided reduction in expense—for one| Uncle Sam's expense. Mr. Carter eati- thing he is establishing a real “gov- | Mmates that several hundred thousand ernment book store” with a sign over | dollars can be lopped off by adminis- the door, where any one can go and| trative restraint in having these re- get at cost any one of 30,000,000 pub- |Ports withheld from printing or loations. He proposes that in that|Printed only to a reasonable number. shop any American citizen can get| Another tangible evidence of Car- just a8 good service as in any first- |ter's good faith in the economy pro- class book store. gram is shown by the fact that an- Pay Roll.Is Tmmense. nually along toward the end of the Few people even amorde the thou. |fiScal Year in June the public printer sands of tourists who annually visit|An08 he has an unexpended halasoe the government printing ofice really|' his appropriation avaliable fof estimate the stupendous size and out- | Purchase of machinery. supplies l“" put of that one government workshop, | 2aulpment. It has been the policy There were on the office roll at the|©f that office to spend as much of this end of the flscal year. June 30. 1921, a | 22 Possible In “stocking up.” in June. total of 4,388 persons, with total sal- |1920. the expenditure was $1,497.000. aries for the year of $5,319,968.73. The total cost of operating this plant was $12,673.355.69. One single small item—postal cards prifted—the number runs to 1.272, 345782, There were about 60,000,000 pounds of paper used and 98.080 pounds of ink were artistically im- Will Head Receiving Line - At Disarmament Conference! he took a job on a Washington paper as copy editor and assistant tele- graph editor. He was a charter mem- ber of the National Press Club end an honorary life member of the Inter- national Printing Pressmen and Ae- sistants’ Union of North America. He was Washington correspondent of Iowa newspapers in 1909 and 1910. Before accepting appointment as public printer Carter did notable scrvice for Congress, which led to his selection by President Harding to take charge of: the world's largest but this June Carter spent only $646.- 000, a net saving of $551,000, because he thought he had enough supplies on hand and that this was not the time to spend money raised by bur- densome taxes neediessly. ‘GQ‘I Increased Production. | Carter by weeding out the slackers on his pay roll, by improving the morale of the force and otherwise putting the big printery on a com- paratively commercial basis is getting a big increase in production. notwith- standing that he is constantly de- creasing the number of employes. He is, however, taking particular care that the separations from the pay roll are done in a way that will not result in hardship to the individual or their families. The opening up of a real govern- ment book store is done because Car- ter feels that the government print- ing office has a veritable mine of val- uahle information about which the public knows little dr nothing., and he proposes that the people of the country who pay the bills shall have an opportunity to share in the ad- vantages of books, papers and docu-- ments of all sorts. The output of publications is more varied in char- acter and more practical for use than comes from any other publishing house in the entire world. - Th¢ govern- ment publications not only renort the legislative, executive, financial, posta®’ military and naval functions com- mon to all governments, though im most cases on a larger scale here’ than~elsewhere, but it is also true that this government has engaged more extensively than iny other gov- ernment in scientific investigations and in presenting the results of such investigations in popular printed form for the instruction and practical use | of all the people. This book store is already ome of .. fhe largest mail order publishing l al oo . g -} houses in existence. Effllhh 7 x (Continued on Page.)