The time in transit is another item that enters into the question as applied to San Francisco. In this connection, the following requisitions for specially printed forms may be cited: Requisition of April 1, 1918: An item of 300,000 registry return cards; received in 60 days. An item of 5,000 specially printed tags; received in 60 days. One item of specially printed tags; received in 154 days; another received in 173 days. One item of specially printed tags; received in 77 days; another item received in 87 days. It will be seen, therefore, that the time it takes to fill requisitions makes it impossible that any emergency form shall be printed in Washington, and makes it impracticable that any form liable to change or covering a particular situation that may arise could be printed there. In the case of the Railway Mail Service schedule, the forms are kept standing and the time-tables are corrected as necessary, and are run in the Railway Mail Service General Order pending the publication of the next schedule. Schemes. These are frequently matters of urgency and it is necessary that changes be printed and circulated immediately. For this reason most of the important schemes for nearby standpoints are kept standing. It is the custom to use the lists of postoffices set for one scheme in printing others, so that the cost of composition is very low. It would be impossible to have most of these effectively printed in Washington. Circular letters to the public, leaflets of information, and forms covering particular situations. Facing slips made necessary by schedule changes are inIcluded in these and also the General Orders that contain information that it is necessary for employees to know and that must reach the public quickly. These are always matters of emergency and it would be impossible to have them printed effectively in Washington. Forms designed for a particular purpose or service, such as the compilation of statistics, detailed reports, etc. These also are matters of emergency and could not be printed effectively in Washington. Forms liable to frequent changes and of which comparatively small numbers are used, such as records of receipt and dispatch of mails, of pouches, of regis ters, etc. It would be impracticable to print these effectively in Washington. Los Angeles: We find that being so far from the base of supplies, it is often necessary for us to print many forms which are furnished by the department, but which we are unable to get promptly. We have, perhaps, a larger number of local forms in use than many other large offices, but we believe that the use of these special forms saves clerks' time and makes for accuracy and efficiency. One of our principal uses of the plant is to print facing slips. It has been our experience that in practically all cases several months elapse between the time we make our requisition for these slips and the date we receive them. This being the case, many of those ordered have become obsolete and are use less, but with the printing press available, when we get short on any form we print an emergency supply to carry us over until the regular supply is received from the department. These somewhat lengthy excerpts are quoted for the purpose of laying before you in as graphic a manner as possible the imperative necessity for facilities in the field service for immediate printing and the immeasurable impairment to the efficiency of the service that will inevitably result through the discontinuance of such facilities outside of Washington. Large business concerns throughout the country are availing themselves of the privilege of using precanceled stamps in great quantities. These stamps are, of course, precanceled largely in the post-office printing establishments. Should these establishments be abolished. it will be necessary to have this work of precanceling performed by commercial printing houses, as the delays which would necessarily occur in sending the stamps to Washington for precancellation would result in dissatisfaction with and criticism of the service. Attention is also directed to the highly important service rendered by these field plants in connection with the prevention of monetary loss to the Government through the immediate publication of warning notices of lost or stolen money orders and the detection of postoffice thieves by means of printed placards bearing photographs and full descriptions. Mailing lists have been compiled and the work of distribution so standardized that 12,000 or more of such notices or placards can be printed and mailed within a period of six hours. The exigencies of such work would, of course, preclude any delay in printing and distribution. This system has practically eliminated the element of loss incident to the negotiation of stolen and forged money-order forms, and at the same time it has been directly instrumental in effecting the arrest and conviction of many criminals, some of whom were notorious in police annals. In conjunction with the correspondence and exhibits heretofore transmitted to your committee through the purchasing agent of the department, I feel that I have gone sufficiently into this matter to impress upon you the vital importance of authorizing the department to continue the operation of its present printing establishments outside of Washington. When I stop to consider the urgent necessity of expedition in the printing and distribution to postal employees of such guides in the work as mail schedules, distribution schemes, general orders to railway postal clerks, daily bulletins of instructions to post-office employees, etc., and the interminable confusion and delays that would inevitably result if such mediums of instruction and information were not promptly supplied, I can not help but feel that the discontinuance or material curtailment of these printing plants would be a backward step of the most decided character and prove a calamity to the Postal Service. I therefore earnestly urge upon you the most careful investigation and consideration before a decision to that effect is reached. DEAR SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of June 26, 1919, requesting that the Joint Committee on Printing authorize the continuance of printing establishments outside of Washington for the Railway Mail Service, divisional headquarters of the Post Office Inspectors, and certain local post offices. In reply, I am pleased to invite your attention to paragraph “B” of Resolution No. 1, adopted by the Joint Committee on Printing on June 21, 1919, after the hearing accorded the purchasing agent and other representatives of the Post Office Department. This resolution authorizes that printing may be done elsewhere than at the Government Printing Office For the Railway Mail Service, including its division offices, and the local post offices, elsewhere than in Washington, D. C." The committee fully recognized the importance of such field printing, and, I believe, the resolution covers the recommendations con tained in your letter of June 26. If it does not meet the situation there presented I shall be very glad to discuss the matter further with you. I inclose herewith a copy of the resolution referred to, additional copies of which have already been supplied your department. Respectfully, REED SMOOT, Chairman. Hon. REED SMOOт, OFFICE OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL, Chairman Joint Committee on Printing. MY DEAR SENATOR SMOOT: Supplementing my recent letter to you regarding postal service printing and continuing contracts therefor. I neglected to include two contracts for paper for the manufacture of postal cards which were entered into December 9, 1918, and December 10, 1918, and which will expire October 15, 1919, the prices being $0.086 per pound and $0.09 per pound, respectively. You are requested to exempt postal card paper from the operation of the law until these contracts have expired. In this connection I am advised that the contracts in question contain a clause authorizing their cancellation in case of an increase or decrease of 20 per cent or more in the cost of manufacture, and I am applying to the Federal Trade Commission for a report on the present cost of manufacture as compared with the cost when these contracts were made. In case the report indicates that the veriation is more than 20 per cent the contracts will be canceled not later than the 1st of August. Sincerely, yours, A. S. BURLESON, CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, The honorable the POSTMASTER GENERAL, Washington, D. C. SIR: Replying to your letter of June 25, 1919, in regard to contracts for paper for the printing of postal cards at the Government Printing Office, I am pleased to advise you that, in accordance with the committee's action of June 21, 1919, you are hereby authorized to continue the purchase of such paper under existing contracts until their expiration. It is understood in this connection that if the existing contracts are canceled before their expiration under the 20 per cent clause that such paper will thereafter be purchased by the Public Printer as required by law. Respectfully, REED SMOOT, Chairman. STATE DEPARTMENT. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, The JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING, Capitol Building, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN Section 11 of the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation bill approved March 1, 1919, provides that all printing shall be done at the Government Printing Office "except such classes of work as shall be deemed by the Joint Committee on Printing to be urgent or necessary to have done elsewhere than in the District of Columbia for the exclusive use of any field service outside of said District." I inclose herewith samples of printing required by the passport agency of the Department of State, which is located in New York City. The passport agent informs me that most of the work of this nature is needed on very short notice and that much of it is changed in form every few weeks, making it quite necessary and much more convenient to have it printed in New York than at the Government Printing Office. As you are doubtless aware, it is a difficult matter to secure printing on regular requisitions through the Government Printing Office in less than a month's time. I have the honor to request, therefore, that the Joint Committee on Printing authorize the passport agent to have such necessary work as may be required for his office printed in New York City and paid for from the specific appropriation for his office. I am, gentlemen, Your obedient servant, FRANK L. POLK, Acting Secretary of State. 219 TREASURY DEPARTMENT. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Washington, April 25, 1919. The CHAIRMAN JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING, United States Capitol, Washington. SIR: Acknowledgment is made of the receipt of your communication of March 12, 1919, inviting attention to the provisions of section 11 of Public Act No. 314, Sixty-fifth Congress, approved March 1, 1919, and propounding certain questions based thereon in regard to publications. Request is also made for information in regard to printing executed for the Treasury Department elsewhere than at the Government Printing Office; for a statement as to any neglect, delay, duplication, or waste in the public printing and binding and distribution of publications; and for cooperation with the committee in its efforts to secure economy in printing and binding. In response, I have the honor to forward herewith reports in detail from the heads of bureaus and divisions of the Treasury Department issuing such publications. For the convenience of the committee the information desired is condensed and shown in the accompanying table. It is understood that "journal, magazine, periodical, or other similar publication" is to be interpreted as printing of that character published at stated intervals less than a year. Attention is invited to the recommendation of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service in regard to printing outside of the District of Columbia, and to the statement of the Comptroller of the Currency as to printing done elsewhere than at the Government Printing Office. There is no duplication in the printing and distribution of Treasury Department publications as between the branches of the Treasury Service, and there is very little, if any, duplication in the periodical publications of the Treasury Department and those of other Government departments. The department makes every endeavor to avoid waste of any nature in the printing, binding, and distribution of its publications, and none can be reported at this time. Should any occur in the future, your committee will be advised promptly. The most extensive duplication that has come within the observation of the Treasury Department is that contained in the publication known as the Abridgment of Documents-a congressional document. It embraces extensive extracts from annual reports of the executive departments which have been issued and distributed prior to its compilation. It is believed that it could be largely reduced or 220 |