DIVISION OF PUBLICATIONS. 287 



THE PRINTING FUND. 



An increase in the printing fund of $30,000 was granted by Con- 

 gress for the present year, 110,000 of which, however, is for the exclu- 

 sive benefit of the Weather Bureau. It was believed when the present 

 appropriation was asked for that it would be amply sufficient, but 

 such has not been the case. The large number of publications held 

 tip during the close of the last fiscal year and necessarily charged to 

 this year's appropriation will leave actually available for this year's 

 publications very little more than we had last year. The devel- 

 opment of the Department and the extension of its several lines of 

 work have been so rapid as to entirely outstrip the development and 

 extension of this Division, the work of which, for the reasons already 

 stated, necessarily reflects, and in fact should keep full pace with, 

 the general work of the Department. The fact that all the informa- 

 tion acquired in the several Bureaus, Divisions, and Offices of the 

 Department can be made of use only by being diffused — an obligation 

 specifically recognized in the organic law creating the Department — 

 makes it a simple and logical conclusion that with every extension of 

 work in any branch of the Department corresponding allowance for 

 increased funds for printing must be made. Otherwise some valu- 

 able information will have to be suppressed. 



SALE OF DOCUMENTS. 



On this subject, to which I am unavoidably compelled to refer every 

 year, I can only repeat the remarks of former years, and this with the 

 added weight of additional experience. In spite of the great extent 

 to which our publications are distributed gratuitously, the sales by 

 the Superintendent of Documents continue to increase, and we have 

 that gentleman's assurance that such sales would be far more than 

 doubled were the number of publications placed at his disposal ade- 

 quate to meet the demand. To do this it would be necessary to reprint 

 publications from time to time, just as often as necessary to meet the 

 continued demand for them. That such was actually the intention of 

 Congress when it adopted the act for the public printing and binding 

 of January 12, 1895, 1 have no doubt. At the same time, it is obvious 

 that to do this would greatly overtax the printing fund available for 

 the Department's use. An amendment to this act is urgently needed, 

 providing that the sums received by the Superintendent of Documents 

 from the sale of publications should be placed to the credit of the 

 various Departments and added to their printing funds in the hands 

 of the Public Printer, who should retain only a certain percentage, 

 representing the expense of handling the business in the office of the 

 Superintendent. Such an addition to our printing fund would, with- 

 out doubt, enable us to always respond by means of reprints to the 

 demands for a further supply of any publication by the Superintendent 

 of Documents. A very great saving would be effected and a great 

 extension in the distribution of the useful information acquired in the 

 Department would be secured. If sections 42 and 52 of the act already 

 referred to were amended so as to allow States, municipalities, and pub- 

 lic educational or benevolent institutions to obtain, with the approval 

 of the Secretary of Agriculture, and by paying the actual cost of the 

 same, a reasonable number of copies of any publication, or the plates 

 from which the same have been printed, the public would be efficiently 

 served and the present enormous waste arrested. This amendment 



