THE PUBLIC DOCUMENTS BILL. Senate, shall (sec. 17) appoint "a practical printer, versed in the art of bookbinding," as Public Printer, at $4500 salary and with $100,000 bond. The Public Printer shall (sec. 44) appoint a chief clerk who also shall be "a practical printer, versed in the art of bookbinding," at $2400 salary, and a foreman of printing and a foreman of binding "who must be practically and thoroughly acquainted with their respective trades," each at $2100 salary. In case of the inability of the Public Printer, the chief clerk shall (sec. 36) perform his duty, except the President directs some other presidential officer to do so. None of these officials or their assistants shall (sec. 34) during their continuance in office, have any interest in any periodical, printing office or printing contract. All printing offices in the departments shall (sec. 31) be under the THE Public Documents bill, as passed by the House of Representatives on conference report in December last, did not reach the President until after January 1, and did not receive his signature until January 12. The act went into immediate operation on the date of approval; but no appointment of superintendent of documents has yet been made by the Public Printer. The act is a modification of the bill which has been before Congress for some years past, and was prepared under the concurrent resolution of the two houses of Congress, passed on March 3, 1891, chiefly under the direction of Senator Manderson, then chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing. In the 52d Congress (1891-93) the bill passed the Senate and was considered and passed with some amendments in the House. But the House amend-control of the Public Printer except those in the ments were not considered by the Senate and it did not then become a law. The same bill with some modifications was introduced into the present Congress, and under the leadership of Mr. Richardson of the House passed the House in December, 1893. The political complexion of the Senate having meanwhile changed, Senator Manderson, former chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, became the minority member, and Senator Gorman, formerly the minority member, became chairman, with Senator Ransom as associate. After the tariff debate in the Senate the bill was brought to a vote and passed in August, 1894, with amendments submitted by Senator Gorman. Objection was raised in the House, that the amendments, while not curtailing library privileges, put into the bill provision for a political machine in connection with the Printing Committee; these amendments interfered also with the power of appointment by the Executive. The consequences were that for a second time Congress adjourned, both houses having acted favorably on the bill, without its final passage. At the December session it was again presented to the House, most of the objectionable features having been modified, and passed on conference report, as already stated. The act is practically a codification of existing laws relating to the public printing, repealing (sec. 100) all conflicting laws, and is therefore a statute comprehensive of the whole subject. Sections 1-50 provide chiefly for the routine administration of the Government Printing Office. The President, with the consent of the Weather Bureau, the record and pension di- Committee on Printing. workmen who are thoroughly skilled "as shown The Public Printer shall (sec. 45) employ by trial of their skill under his direction," including (sec. 50) not more than 25 apprentices, at just rates of wages (sec. 49), not exceeding (sec. 39) 50 cents per 1000 ems for composition, 50 cents per hour for pressmen, and 40 cents per hour for time work of printers and bookbinders, night work, between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m., being paid 20 per cent. in addition, and in the work (sec. 47) "the provisions of the existing eighthour law shall apply." The Joint Committee on Printing shall (sec. 13) have control of the Congressional Record, and while providing that it shall be a verbatim report, shall take all needed action for reduction of unnecessary bulk, and shall provide for the publication of an index to the Record semi-monthly during the session of Congress, and at the close thereof. It shall (sec. 14) designate to the Public Printer "a competent person" to prepare such indexes and regulate his compensation. The Public Printer shall (sec. 19) make annual report to Congress, specifying the number of copies of each department report and document printed upon requisition by the head of the department, and also the exact number of copies bound upon requisition for Congressmen and other officers. The Public Printer shall (sec. 25) stereotype second time. He shall (sec. 52) sell under regor electrotype all matter likely to be used a ulations of the Joint Committee, to any who may apply, duplicate plates of any Government publication at a price not to exceed the cost of composition, the metal and making to the Government and 10 per cent. added, provided that the price shall be paid when the order is filed, and the relief of private parties, bills granting pensions, and bills removing political disabilities. All bills and resolutions shall be printed in bill form, and unless specially ordered by either House shall only be printed when referred to a committee, when favorably reported back, and after their passage by either house." that no publications so reprinted shall be copy-vate bill shall be considered to mean all bills for righted. He shall (sec. 42) furnish to all applicants giving notice before matter is put to press, copies not exceeding 250 to any one applicant, of bills, reports and documents, on payment in advance of the cost and 10 per cent., provided that such work shall not interfere with printing for the Government. He may also (sec. 40) print for sale at a reimbursing price, the current Congressional Directories and current numbers of bound sets of the Congressional Record. It shall be lawful for the Public Printer (sec. 37) to print for Congressmen at cost extracts from the Congressional Record, documents and reports of committees, with franking envelopes. "Sec. 51: The forms and style in which the printing or binding ordered by any of the Departments shall be executed and the material and size of type to be used, shall be determined by the Public Printer, having proper regard to economy, workmanship and the purposes for which the work is needed. "Sec. 53: The Public Printer shall examine closely the orders of the Senate and House for printing and in case of duplication he shall print under the first order." There shall be printed (sec. 56) in slip form 1810 copies of public and 460 copies of private laws, postal conventions and treaties, distributed: to the House document room 1000 public and 100 private laws; to Senate document room 550 public and 100 private laws; to Department of State 500 of all laws, and to the Treasury Department 60 of all laws. Postal conventions and treaties shall be distributed as private laws. There shall be printed of the Journals of the Senate and House of Representatives (sec. 57) 720 copies, distributed: to the Senate document room 90 for senators, and 25 additional; to the Department of State 4: to the superintendent of documents 144, to be distributed to three libraries in each of the states; to the Library of Congress, 25; to the Court of Claims 2, and to the House library 10 copies. The remaining 25 shall be furnished to the Secretary of Senate and Clerk of the House, as the necessities of their respective offices may require, as rapidly as signatures are completed. not of a public character, two copies shall be sent, unless ordered withheld, by the Public Printer, to the Senate and House libraries, respectively, and one copy each to the document rooms of the Senate and House for reference; and these copies shall not be removed; and of all publications of the executive departments, not intended for their special use but made for distribution, 500 copies shall be at once delivered to the superintendent of documents for distribution to designated depositories and state and territorial libraries. Whenever any document or report shall be ordered printed by Congress (sec. 54), the "usual number" shall be printed and no greater number" unless ordered by either House, or Whenever printing not bearing a Congresas hereinafter provided," and the usual number sional number (sec. 58) shall be done, except conis defined as 1682 copies. When a special num-fidential matter, blank forms and circular letters ber of a document or report is ordered printed, the usual number shall also be printed unless already ordered. Of the usual number, 600 are to be delivered, unbound, to the Senate and House document rooms, and 580 bound and distributed: to the Senate library 15; to the Library of Congress 2, and 50 additional copies for foreign exchanges; to the House library 15; to the superintendent of documents 500, for distribution to the state and territorial libraries and designated depositories. These documents shall be bound in full sheep, and in binding the Public Printer shall give precedence to those to be distributed to libraries and designated depositories. Any such library may have its documents in unbound form by notifying the superintendent of documents prior to the convening of each Congress. The remainder (500 copies) shall be reserved by the Public Printer unstitched, subject to be bound upon orders from the Vice-President, Congressmen, etc., in such binding as they shall select, except full morocco and calf; and when not called for and delivered within two years, shall be delivered unbound to the superintendent of documents for distribution. All of the "usual number" shall be printed at one time. There shall be printed (sec. 55) of each Senate and House public bill and joint concurrent and simple resolution 625 copies, distributed: to the Senate document room 225; to the Secretary of Senate 15; to House document room 385 copies; and of each Senate and House private bill 250 copies, distributed: to Senate document room 135, to Secretary of Senate 15, to House document room 100 copies. "The term pri "SEC. 59. Orders for printing extra copies shall be by simple, concurrent, or joint resolution. Either House may print extra copies to the amount of $500 by simple resolution; if the cost exceeds that sum, the printing shall be ordered by concurrent resolution, except when the resolution is self-appropriating, when it shall be by joint resolution. Such resolutions, when presented to either House, shall be referred immediately to the Committee on Printing, who, in making their report, shall give the probable cost of the proposed printing upon the estimate of the Public Printer; and no extra copies shall be printed before such committee has reported. "SEC. 60. There shall be one document room of the Senate and one of the House of Representatives, to be designated, respectively, the 'Senate and House document room." Each shall be in a charge of a superintendent, who shall be appointed by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and the Doorkeeper of the House, respectively, who shall also appoint the necessary number of assistants: Provided, That this section shall not take effect until the first day of the first session of the Fifty-fourth Congress. "SEC. 61. The Public Printer shall appoint a competent person to act as superintendent of documents, and shall fix his salary. The superintendent of documents so designated and appointed is hereby authorized to sell at cost any public document in his charge, the distribution of which is not herein specifically directed, said cost to be estimated by the Public Printer and based upon printing from stereotyped plates; but only one copy of any document shall be sold to the same person, excepting libraries or schools by which additional copies are desired for separate departments thereof, and members of Congress; and whenever any officer of the Government having in his charge documents published for sale shall desire to be relieved of the same, he is hereby authorized to turn them over to the superintendent of documents, who shall receive and sell them under the provisions of this section. All moneys received from the sale of documents shall be returned to the Public Printer on the first day of each month and be by him covered into the Treasury monthly, and the superintendent of documents shall report annually the number of copies of each and every document sold by him, and the price of the same. He shall also report monthly to the Public Printer the number of documents received by him and the disposition made of the same. He shall have general supervision of the distribution of all public documents, and to his custody shall be committed all documents subject to distribution, excepting those printed for the special official use of the Executive Departments, which shall be delivered to said Departments, and those printed for the use of the two Houses of Congress, which shall be delivered to the folding rooms of said Houses and distributed or delivered ready for distribution to Members and Delegates upon their order by the superintendents of the folding-rooms of the Senate and House of Representatives. "SEC. 62. The superintendent of documents shall, at the close of each regular session of Congress prepare and publish a comprehensive index of public documents, beginning with the Fifty-third Congress, upon such plan as shall be approved by the Joint Committee on Printing; and the Public Printer shall, immediately upon its publication, deliver to him a copy of each and every document printed by the Government Printing Office; and the head of each of the Executive Departments, bureaus, and offices of the Government shall deliver to him a copy of each and every document issued or published by such Department, bureau, or office not confidential in its character. He shall also prepare and print in one volume a consolidated index of Congressional documents, and shall index such single volumes of documents as the Joint Committee on Printing shall direct. Of the comprehensive index and of the consolidated index 2000 copies each shall be printed and bound in addition to the usual number, 200 copies for the use of the Senate, 800 copies for the use of the House, and 1000 copies for distribution by the superintendent of documents. "SEC. 63. The Secretary and Sergeant-atArms of the Senate and the Clerk and Doorkeeper of the House of Representatives shall cause an invoice to be made of all public documents stored in and about the Capitol, other than those belonging to the quota of members of the present Congress, to the Library of Congress and the Senate and House Libraries and document rooms, and all such documents shall by the superintendents, respectively, of the Senate and House folding rooms be put to the credit of Senators, Representatives, and Delegates of the present Congress, in quantities equal in the number of volumes and as nearly as possible in value, to each member of Congress, and said documents shall be distributed upon the orders of Senators, Representatives, and Delegates, each of whom shall be supplied by the superintendents of the folding rooms with a list of the number and character of the publications thus put to his credit: Provided, That before said apportionment is made copies of any of these documents desired for the use of committees of the Senate or House shall be delivered to the chairmen of such committees: And provided further, That four copies of each and all leather-bound documents shall be reserved and carefully stored, to be used hereafter in supplying deficiencies in the Senate and House libraries caused by wear or loss, and a similar invoice shall be prepared and distribution made as above provided at the convening in regular session of each successive Congress. "SEC. 64. Upon the appointment of the superintendent of documents, as hereinbefore provided, the office of the superintendent of documents in the Department of the Interior shall be, and is hereby, abolished, and all laws now in force providing for the delivery to the Department of the Interior of public documents for distribution, other than such as are for the use of that Department, shall be, and the same are hereby, repealed: Provided, That the distribution of the reports of the Eleventh Census shall be continued and completed by the superintendent of documents, under existing laws and regulations. "SEC. 65. All official correspondence of the superintendent of documents and all replies to the same shall be entitled to free transmission by mail; and he shall be entitled to frank public documents: Provided, That in the_transmission of such mail matter envelopes, labels, or postal cards are used on which the name of the office and the penalty clause are printed. "SEC. 66. The Public Printer is hereby authorized and directed, upon the requisition of the superintendent of documents, to appoint such assistants as may be necessary, and furnish such blanks and to do such printing and binding as are required by his office, the cost of the same to be charged against the appropriation for printing and binding for Congress, and the Public Printer shall provide convenient office, storage, and distributing rooms for the use of the superintendent of documents. "SEC. 67. All documents at present remaining in charge of the several Executive Departments, bureaus, and offices of the Government not re "SEC. 68. Whenever in the division among Senators, Representatives, and Delegates of documents printed for the use of Congress there shall be an apportionment to each or either House in round numbers, the Public Printer shall not deliver the full number so accredited at the respective folding rooms, but only the largest multiple of the number constituting the full membership of each or either House, including the Secretary and Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and Clerk and Doorkeeper of the House, which shall be contained in the round numbers thus accredited to each or either House, so that the number delivered shall divide evenly and without remainder among the members of the House to which they are delivered; and the remainder of all documents thus resulting shall be turned over to the superintendent of documents, to be distributed by him, first, to public and school libraries for the purpose of completing broken sets; second, to public and school libraries that have not been supplied with any portion of such sets; and, lastly, by sale to other persons; said libraries to be named to him by Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in Congress; and in this distribution the superintendent of documents shall see that as far as practicable an equal allowance is made to each Senator, Representative, and Delegate. "SEC. 69. A catalogue of Government publications shall be prepared by the superintendent of documents on the first day of each month, which shall show the documents printed during the preceding month, where obtainable, and the price thereof. 2000 copies of such catalogue shall be printed in pamphlet form for distribution. "SEC. 70. The superintendent of documents shall thoroughly investigate the condition of all libraries that are now designated depositories, and whenever he shall ascertain that the number of books in any such library, other than college libraries, is below 1000, other than Government publications, or it has ceased to be maintained as a public library, he shall strike the same from the list, and the Senator, Representative, or Delegate shall designate another depository that shall meet the conditions herein required. SEC. 71. There shall be one folding room of the Senate and one folding room of the House of Representatives. They shall be in charge of superintendents, appointed respectively by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and Doorkeeper of the House, who shall also appoint the necessary assistants. All reports or documents to be distributed for Senators, Representatives, and Delegates shall be folded and distributed from the folding rooms, unless otherwise ordered and each Senator, Representative, and Delegate shall be notified in writing once every 60 days of the number and character of publications on hand and assigned to him for use and distribution. "SEC. 72. Any Senator, Representative, or Delegate having public documents to his credit at the expiration of his term of office shall take the same prior to the convening of the next succeeding Congress, and if he shall not do so within such period he shall forfeit them to his successor in office." Extra copies of documents and reports (sec. 73) shall be printed promptly when the same shall be ready for publication, and shall be bound as directed by the Joint Committee on Printing, and, in addition to the "usual number" shall be issued in the following quantities: [We compile a tabulation with short titles.] *Provided that of reports of the Chief of Engineers of the Army, the Commissioner of Patents, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the report of the Chief Signal Officer of the War Department, and of the Chief of Ordnance, the usual number" only shall be printed. And reports of mail contracts, Post-Office fines, First Comptroller's accountings, and Board of Steam Vessels, shall not be printed unless specially ordered. † Additional copies may be printed for the public service and for sale. ing, there shall be three editions during each long session and two editions during each short sesion of Congress. The first edition for distribution to officials on the first day of the session and to others within one week thereafter, the number and distribution of such directory to be under control of the Joint Committee on Printing. An abridgment of the reports and documents accompanying the President's message with alphabethical index shall be prepared by a competent person appointed by the Joint Committee on Printing, to be ready at the first part of each year, of which shall be printed 12,000 copies, 4000 for the Senate and 8000 for the House. The Secretary of State shall cause to be Of the Congressional Directory, prepared unprinted and bound as many volumes of the Re-der the direction of the Joint Committee on Printvised Statutes and the supplements as may be needed for distribution to designated depositories, state and territorial libraries, and to Ū. S. courts not already supplied, and for sale by his office at the cost thereof. Also pamphlet copies of the Statutes of the present and each future session of Congress, and after the close of each Congress the Statutes enacted by that Congress, in bound form, both to be distributed at the close of every session as designated in detail in the law, to the various officers and departments, and as many additional copies not exceeding 100 as he may deem needful for distribution and sale by him at cost price. And the Public Printer shall deliver 2000 copies for the Senate, 5000 copies for the House, and 500 copies to the superintendent of documents for distribution to state and territorial libraries and to designated depositories. Both of these shall contain all laws and concurrent resolutions passed by Congress, and also all conventions, treaties, proclamations and agreements and shall be legal evidence in all courts. Of eulogies of deceased Congressmen 8000 copies shall be printed, 50 in full morocco, gilt, to the family, 1950 in cloth to the Representatives of the State, the remainder, 2000 to the Senate and 4000 to the House. There shall be the "usual number" of a bound volume, containing in one volume for each House all eulogies during the session of Congress upon Senators and Representatives respectively. Of the Senate Manual and of the House Manual, each House may print as many copies as it shall desire. As many copies as needed shall be printed for the commission. Of the Congressional Record the Public Printer 'shall furnish copies as designated in the bill, to be supplied daily as originally published, or in revised and in permanent form, bound only in half russia, or part in each form, as each recipient may elect. This includes to the VicePresident and to each Senator 44 copies; to each Representative and Delegate 30 copies, of which number eight copies shall be sent by the superintendent of documents one each to such state, public or school libraries other than designated depositories, as shall be designated for this purpose by each Representative and Delegate in Congress; to the Library of Congress, 45 bound copies; to the Senate and House libraries 10 bound copies each; to the libraries of each of the eight executive departments and to the Naval Observatory, Smithsonian Institution, and U. S. National Museum, one bound copy; to each Soldiers' Home, national or state, for either Federal or Confederate soldiers, one copy of the daily; to the superintendent of documents, 500 bound copies for |