SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, JULY 13, IS&l 



THE GOVERNMENT AS A PUBLISHING 

 HOUSE. 



We have called attention to the report of 

 Messrs. Ames, Spofford, and Baird upon the 

 distribution of public documents, and noted 

 the propriety of the recommendations made 

 to the government bv the committee. If these 

 recommendations were to be carried out, some- 

 thing would be gained ; but we have little faith 

 that any real reform would be eft'ected, for the 

 evil lies deeper, aud requires more radical 

 treatment. 



Ever since the government went definitely 

 into the printing business in 1861, the evil has 

 been growing, until now there is waste, con- 

 fusion, and public mischief. It is no more 

 essential to government to carry on the large 

 printing business which it conducts than it is 

 for it to manufacture paper. Let us make 

 a distinction. There is a necessity', in the 

 ordinary administration of Congress and the 

 executive department, for a large printing- 

 office in the immediate vicinity ; and we are 

 quite read^' to grant, as immaterial to our 

 argument, that it is better to have such an 

 establishment, with its manager as a civil of- 

 ficer of the I'nited States, immediatel}' under 

 the control of Congress. There is a vast deal 

 of printing required in the exigencies of the 

 dail}- Inisiness of government, and there is 

 reason for this being done by persons hired 

 directly- for the purpose. 



There the necessity stops, but the business 

 of the printing-office does not. Costly scien- 

 tific reports are manufactured year after }"ear, 

 and then published ; that is. given awa}- reck- 

 lessly and with little discrimination. The 

 report of scientific experts, to which we have 

 referred, points out the desirability of a single 

 agency for distribution, which should act upon 

 some systematic plan. We do not object to 

 a polic}' by which government shall put before 



No. 23.— 1883. 



tlie public the results of the survej^s and ex- 

 periments which it is carrying on ; but we 

 contend, that, in doing this, it should employ- 

 economic agencies already existing, which are 

 far more efficient than any immediate govern- 

 mental agency can be. 



Government should contract with publishers 

 to print and publish its scientific reports. The 

 plan is perfectly feasible. Jlver^- copy which 

 the government might wish to give away to 

 public libraries could be bought of the pub- 

 lisher at a cost fiftj- per cent less, we venture 

 to saj', than government now pays for the 

 same work. It would be the publisher's busi- 

 ness to make the work known everywhere ; 

 and such a work would be far more read than 

 it now is, for it would be made as other books 

 are, and brought before tlie people intelli- 

 gently. By such a polic}" no scientific organi- 

 zation or student of science now in commu- 

 nication with the distributing-office would 

 suffer loss, while a great many people who 

 arc accustomed to get their books from book- 

 sellers would come into possession, in the most 

 natural way, of this important body of litera- 

 ture. 



The effect of such a system would be to 

 contract the business of the government print- 

 ing-office, and that is an end devoutly to be 

 wished for by ever3- honest citizen wlio sees 

 the necessity- of checking corruption .b^- limit- 

 ing the opportunities for corruption. The 

 fewer salaried offices this government has, the 

 less chance there is for an abuse of the civil 

 service ; and science will gain nothing b\- ask- 

 ing favors of the machine. There is an excel- 

 lent opportunity here for the educated classes 

 to enter a protest, and to encourage a reform 

 in administration. We have been demanding 

 that the administration should be conducted 

 on business principles ; and the [jresent system 

 by which government prints aud publishes 

 books is un-businesslike, extravagant, and in 

 peril of being scandalous. 



