GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, United States, established in 1861 as the official printing and publishing plant of the United States government, occupies a seven-story fire ploof brick building in Washington, D. C., built for it in 1902. Its frontage is 408 by 175 feet on two streets and it has an interior court, 30 by 167 feet. An annex later built in corre sponding height and style houses the office of the superintendent of documents. Connection with the adjoining city post-office enables it to deliver its enormous mail shipments there di rect from the workrooms. A vault capable of storing 2,000,000 electrotype and stereotype plates extends out under the street pavements. The main building was put up under an appro priation of $2,249,000. It has its own power plant and individual motors, without belting or shafting, operating all machinery, elevators, etc., throughout the building. It is equipped with Linotype and monotype machines and with all other devices, apparatus and machinery to en able it to turn out at the highest grade and in the largest quantity, and especially with the great est rapidity, a great variety of work, including bound books, pamphlets, periodicals, forms, specifications, ledgers, loose-leaf binders, en velopes, money-order blanks, postal cards, cata logue cards, in fact, every kind of job print ing, binding and book making that Congress and the government offices can use or issue. It is fitted with every device for the aid, safety and comfort of the workers, including automatic carriers pneumatic tube distribution, electric fans, bubbling fountains of cooled and filtered water and a complete hospital with medical at tendance day and night. The cost of the ma chinery in use 30 June 1915 was $2,475,538.86.
The Government Printing Office employs about 4,000 workers, of whom about one-third are women. It runs continuously day and night, especially while Congress is in session. The title of the head is Public Printer. He is ap pointed by the President, but reports to Con gress. All other employees are appointed by him, under examination and regulation by the Civil Service Commission. Although most of
the workers belong to unions, yet the govern ment has affirmed it to be an open shop. The only supervision is by the Joint Committee on Printing of the two houses of Congress, under which body the office contracts for paper, and which body has power "to remedy any neglect or delay in the execution of the public print ing? A branch printing office and bindery to do the work of the Library of Congress is in that building, and a smaller branch in the State, War and Navy building, are operated under the Government Printing Office. The scales of wages paid are somewhat in advance of those in commercial establishments, and in addition each employee is given, for each year of serv ice, thirty days' leave of absence with pay.
The work of the Government Printing Of fice which differs from that of any other com bined job printing and book and periodical pub lishing house—except that this is the largest in existence — is that done for Congress in abnormal requirements of speed and varying amounts. This is largely done between 7 or later P.M. and noon of the next day. Con sidering the intervals of slack and rush ac cording as Congress is sitting or not, the totally incalculable and enormously varying amount of printing for each day's session which must be rushed through for immediate use, together with the confidential printing, a government printing plant seems a necessity. On account of its own exceptional needs, and also because established under Congress in the beginning, that body is slow in relinquishing a share in the management to other departments of the government, although under its control no 10 year period has passed without an expensive in vestigation of alleged looseness in administra tion. Printing for non-Congressional branches of the government being now two to three or more times the quantity done for Congress, it would seem that a directorate representing all branches of the government, with the addition of non-governmental expert membership, might be the solution of the problem of government printing administration.