DIVISION OF PUBLICATIONS. 303 



All communications were acknowlerlged either by senrUiii^ the pub- 

 lication requested, by form or postal card stating why the publica- 

 tion could not be sent, or by quoting the price at which it could be 

 purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, Government 

 rrinting Office. 



There is a distinct rush season in the handling of miscellaneous 

 mail — from January to April each year. The volume of mail 

 received during that time is greater than in any other period of 

 the year, and during such time it is difficult to keep the work up 

 to date with the regular force. This is the reason that an addi- 

 tional appropriation of S2,500 for additional lahor w^as requested 

 for the next fiscal year. With this fund available it is believed 

 that there will be no difficulty in keeping the work up to date during 

 the present year. 



Probably because of prompt and careful attention to all requests 

 received from miscellaneous applicants, a considerable constituency 

 has developed, composed of correspondents who incorporate in 

 letters requests other than for publications. It was therefore 

 necessary during the year to refer 48,444 such communications to 

 other bureaus. 



The keeping of an index of the names of individuals to whom 

 the Yearbook is sent is also assigned to the correspondence unit, 

 and 27,000 entries were made for the Yearbook for 1917. The 

 correspondence unit also furnishes publications and information to 

 constituents of Members of Congress upon requests from such 

 officials. 



Much information is furnished to correspondents in the form of 

 written communications, in addition to the regular form communi- 

 cation in use. During the year 75,116 typewritten communications 

 were prepared and mailed. This number was considerably less 

 than tthe number for the preceding fiscal year, principally becaase 

 during the last quarter of the year the typewritten letters to Mem- 

 bers of Congress were greatly reduced by the use of forms. The 

 time thus saved was used in cutting stencils for mimeograph work, 

 principally for the Office of Information. Durmg the quarter men- 

 tioned, 284 such stencils were cut. 



WORK OF THE MACHINE ROOM. 



The labor-saving machine unit contains addressing, duplicating, 

 paper-cutting, folding, and pad-making machines, with which a 

 very large amount of work was done, part of it cooperative service 

 for 21 different branches of the department. During the year 

 1,413 jobs of duplicating work were done, totaling 3,754,366 copies 

 and requiring 5,767,692 impressions. The work involved the assem- 

 bling of 2,490,364 pages and the stapling of 190,268 sheets of paper. 

 Mailing lists maintained here contain 250,789 addresses. For these 

 lists stencils were cut for 52,932 new addresses, and 29,440 stencils 

 were removed from the files. At present about 200 different mailing 

 fists are maintained in this office, controlled by 16 divisions in the 

 department. 



Franks and envelopes numbering 6,772,398 were addressed on the 

 addressing machines during the year; 307,452 congressional franks 

 furnished to this office in sheets were cut, besides 1,616,418 sheets 



