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Show . ' 'ECONOMY5 ' IN PRINTING-. 'We see t hat "Apostle Sinool has been calling upon President Taft with a view lo finding out what the President would recommend lo Congress. Nothing new develops from this visit, especially on the Alaskan question, for Secretary Fisher has fully explained his plan for legislation in-that, direction, and this plan was provisionally approved by the Presidonl. The thing which Smoot has in hand, however, is the curtailment "of the' printing bills of the government. He proposes to substitute power presses for hand presses in tho dclicato work of printing currency, which experts claim is impracticable. Of course, those who have the printing machines which they claim will do this work are loud in praise of their machines and seek to hae them introduced in the Treasury Department for this work. Tho practical prac-tical men who do the printing, however, declare that hand work is the only work that is satisfactory; that machines have been tried lime after time, and that none is able to do the delicate, exact work that is required. All of tho printers' prin-ters' organizations in Washington are opposed to the. proposed change, not because be-cause they oppose progress, but because they declare that the chango which is urged is ineffective in doing the best .work. Smoot says that he will be able, by making this change and by curtailing tho printing in the government printing ofiicc, to save ? 1.500,000 annually. But, if he does this at the expense of poorer poor-er work, and of shutting off the printing print-ing of reports, aud documents that 1he people wish to see and judge the merits of for themselves, it. will be a saving not in thu least in the line of economy. It in probnbb' true l.hal. a good many, things Hint aro printed might as ycoW not. be printed. Unl. they, aro printed iieeauso ol! a seeming demand, and ut tlio request 'of a member of tlic Senate or House, or of a eouuiiitl.oe of C'ou-Kvcss.- Where, this prinliiiff s ordered of course, it will hnve. to bo done. The appropriate oversight, however, as to the number of copies- to 'be printed, should be had, and the piling up of immense numbers of any public document docu-ment uncalled for in Iho warehouses should bo stopped. There is doubtless hero a Hold, for economizing, but we doubt if I hat field is very large, ;.nd wc doubl if Smool is the sort of man that is capable of exercising the judgment judg-ment necessary lo a. proper discrimination discrimina-tion as lo Ihe number of documents that; aro to be printed of anything that is ordered, or, in gcnen.l, of overseeing tho printing of public documents. The fact is as to all of these matters I hat there are many vastly imporfaut documents prinled from time, to time which I hi! people would be glad lo got if they knew abonl (hem. Any one going to Washington and investigating in the document, rooms can find many things of tho vprj highest importance that the people would be glad o havo, but; which the public knows nothing- about. A good - many of these interest ing doeu-monl.3 doeu-monl.3 arc printed in small numbers., and Ihe demand lor them iiickJy ox-luuisls ox-luuisls the supply -whenever tho public 'becomes aware of such document. The most prcflsitig need in this matter is, to lu.ve Ihc'publir. informed of what is ava-ilable, so that order? can bo sent by tho people to their 'Senators and Wop-rof-viitntivos asking copies of Ihe ducii-' incuts that they might wish to read. Tho farmers are boiler supplied in this respect than j.ny other class of Ihe people peo-ple through. Iho eil'orls of the Department Depart-ment of Agricull ore lo get into the hand?1 of farmers, reports, speeches, and documents that arc -considered valuable by tho dapartincnt. This department takes pains lo lei the farmers know what is available, and sends out vast numbers of those documents for distribution distri-bution through its correspondents. But in evorv other department (hero is a failure to act. They do not let the people know what is available, and do .not lake paius (o find out what Iho people peo-ple would like (o get. What is wanted moro than anything else is some businesslike busi-nesslike administration or supervision I hat would acquaint the people with what is available, so Hint orders could be made and numVr piiutl". potidiuir iu ihe demand. ?K n -; This is a branch of the 9f cycrUie most important of all 'JH appears to be entirely ignorPl u.'. and thoHo who are iurkitiC w'itl ' in Washington on Ihis micslion 9' is wauled is not a curtailment 0j JflftO ing or publication, but a boltcr uiwBK inn! ion on irovernmcnl priiit,c beflnr system of lotting know what can be had !h:a is Wk ' able., so I hat demand can be madS eordiiiir to dm imparlance or infiV of the mat lor printed. f |