What Shall We Do With Public Documents?

THE government of the United States issues annually more than eleven hundred separate books and pamphlets for the information and instruction of the public. The number of official publications has become so great—it has doubled in the last decade — that the Federal government is now probably the largest publishing house in the world.

From time to time Congress has created new bureaus, or amplified old ones, to engage in scientific or statistical investigation, the results of which, for the most part, can find no other outlet than the printed page. The more industrious and efficient these investigators become, the more numerous are the books and treatises which the government is annually called upon to print and distribute. From such documents as these, the papers and pamphlets required by Congress in the conduct of its own affairs are entirely distinct. No criticism is here offered concerning the great amount and variety of strictly legislative printing, for the Senate and House may justly claim that they are the best judges of their own requirements. Publications, however, which are intended, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of the public, are quite another matter. Concerning these any one is privileged to inquire how they came into existence, and whether they serve their purpose most effectively.

Increase of Government Publications

At the beginning of the last century the printing ordered by Congress in the conduct of legislative business was practically all that was required by the government. Congressional printing, moreover, was limited to bills, reports, claims, and journals. No exact comparison, therefore, is possible between that period and our own, since modern conditions bear no resemblance to those of a century ago. A computation, however, for different years through the century, of aggregate pages issued, at least roughly illustrates the rapid expansion of official requirement. The total number of printed pages of all classes published by the Federal government in 1800 was 4582; in 1820, 6518; in 1840, 19,331; in 1860, 42,007; in 1880, 72,171. After 1880 the use of printed matter of all classes increased at a prodigious rate, and, according to the report of the Public Printer, the total number of pages of all classes of printing in 1900 amounted to 312,634.

The great increase which has taken place since 1880 is due in large part to the noteworthy change which has occurred in the policy of the government toward official, scientific, and statistical inquiry. So numerous, indeed, are the scientific specialists now employed in the Federal civil service that they exert a distinct and agreeable influence upon the social and club life of the capital. The first and most obvious cause of this enlightened policy is the striking advance of the nation itself in wealth and culture, and along all lines of scientific investigation, during the period mentioned. It is natural that such progress should be reflected in the attitude of the national government. Moreover, the Federal census of 1880, the most elaborate series of statistical volumes ever attempted up to that time, in the United States or elsewhere, may also have contributed to accustom the nation and Congress to official scientific and statistical research. However that may be, most of the bureaus which are now the principal producers of official scientific publications were organized during the twenty-five years since 1880, and many of them between 1880 and 1890.

The following table presents the number of books and pamphlets issued by the executive departments in 1895 and 1905, with their aggregate number of pages.

GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS, BY DEPARTMENTS, WITH THE NUMBER OF

This table shows that the average size of a government publication is approximately 150 pages, and that the total number of these publications and total number of pages doubled during the decade. Four executive departments —War, Agriculture, Interior, and Commerce and Labor — greatly exceed the others in publishing activity. In 1905 these four departments contributed more than four-fifths of all the publications, and three-quarters of the total number of pages shown in the table. This proportion has increased materially since 1895.

The concentration of publishing activity is better illustrated, however, by the fact that 13 bureaus and offices, out of the 62 represented in the table, supplied 97,000 pages of the total number shown for 1905. Eleven of these were in the four departments mentioned.

Present Method of Distribution

There are two main channels by which the publications of the Federal government now reach the public,舒the timehonored and much abused congressional quota (an equal division among senators and representatives of the total number of documents authorized by law to be printed for the Senate and House), and the department mailing lists.

The assignment of a quota cannot be called a device of the modern legislator. It is probably as old as the public document itself. In 1791, Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State under President Washington, submitted to the House of Representatives a report on the fisheries of the United States. This little book of 51 pages, published October 1, 1791, seems to have been the first document of a purely scientific or statistical nature issued by the government. An edition of 200 copies was ordered printed “for the use of the Members of Congress,” and as there were 66 members of the House in the First Congress, this number was sufficient to allow 3 copies to each representative.

By the middle of the last century it became customary for Congress to order the publication, from time to time, of the results of notable expeditions, explorations, and surveys, whether in this country or abroad, made by persons in the Federal civil, or military service. In the preparation of such publications no expense seems to have been spared to perfect letter press and illustrations, and the editions were generally large, but the executive departments appear not to have participated in the distribution. The report of Commodore Perry’s expedition to Japan was a noteworthy example of the more elaborate publications of that period. It was authorized by Congress February 14,1855, required two years for completion, filled three quarto volumes, and cost $240,486.72. Of this work 6400 sets were printed for the Senate, and 12,020 for the House, a quota of about 90 and 50, respectively. Thus the money value of each senator s share was nearly $300, and that of each representative’s $150. The elaborate report upon the explorations and surveys for a railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific, also authorized in 1855, filled eight quarto volumes, and cost $600,663. The illustrations and maps alone in this work cost $282,479.13. This extraordinary publication included not only the surveys, but descriptions of Indian tribes, and animals, the botany, minerals, and reptiles of the Western wilderness. Each senator appears to have secured 175 sets and each representative 45, the total edition being 23,920.

The printing law of 1895 (still in force) specified the edition and disposition of the principal annual publications of the government. The total “number” — whether single volumes or sets of “ parts ” — authorized by this law was 982,600, afterwards increased to 1,115,600. Of this aggregate Congress reserved for itself, as quota, 88 per cent.

The quota arose, and has flourished, principally for two reasons. Naturally enough, the voter rather likes to obtain something for nothing, and the receipt of expensive publications from the Member of Congress for the district involves an element of flattery, just as does the receipt of a package of Agricultural Department garden seeds from the same source. The books may uot be of any practical value to the recipient, and the seeds may never grow, but the object of their dispatch has been secured. Thus there has grown up in connection with the distribution of official volumes an element totally apart from the usefulness of the publication or the appropriateness of its destination.

The second and more important reason for the quota is the self-interest of the senators and representatives. It will always happen that documents are dispatched principally to persons who need to be placated. This makes the distribution one of politics and policy rather than genuine need. Moreover, the possessor of a quota, feels compelled to dispose somehow of his allowance of books, instead of merely filling requests for publications for reference or research. Hence, the quota may be regarded as a sort of forceddraught method of distribution. It is not businesslike, economical, or wise, from the modern standpoint, for it does not insure the placing of government publications in the hands of those persons who have the greatest interest in them or will make the best use of them.

The other method of distribution is the department or bureau mailing list. This method of distribution reflects the increasing liberality of Congress in permitting the departments to handle part or all of their publications. Each bureau which controls a considerable number of copies of publications issued at stated intervals employs a mailing list which varies from 2000 to 5000 addresses. These lists are made up with varying degrees of care, and generally consist of the addresses of public officials, institutions, and persons supposed to be especially interested in the subjects discussed. When an edition of a book or pamphlet is published for which no quota is provided by law, the department finds itself with the edition upon its hands to distribute. Naturally the mailing list, under such conditions, is the only recourse, but a free mailing list is always more or less unsatisfactory, because the publishing department or bureau is never sure when the necessity or requirement of the recipient may have ceased, and every person on the list is sure to receive some publications of no especial interest to him.

Naturally enough, there are many scattering demands for all classes of documents. A gratifyingly large number are the result of a genuine need for information in business or research, but the insertion of many illustrations or maps often creates an artificial demand, which is sometimes cited as an indication of the public utility of the report, though in reality the desire to possess the volume may arise not from any scientific or intelligent interest in the subject of which it treats, but from the fact that it contains many colored pictures, and appears costly. It is impossible to distinguish between genuine and simulated requirement for such publications.

In commercial publications the channel of disposition is, of course, the natural one of sales. No standards now exist in the government by which to determine the proper number of copies to issue of any publication, since, all being free, it is possible to dispose of as many as the department or bureau is able to print. Even the decision to print an edition on the basis of a mailing list is not satisfactory, for the mailing list can be as large or as small as the chief of the bureau or department sees fit to establish.

Obviously the volume of official publications has reached such enormous proportions under present conditions that it is a burden upon the resources of the government. If the quota is an unwise and wasteful method of distribution, and the free mailing list is far from satisfactory, is there not some other feasible method which would prove more advantageous to the government and to the public ?

Distribution by Sale

Although all civilized countries issue many official publications, the United States is the only one which has a system of practically free distribution.

France and Germany, though liberal publishers upon statistical, economic, and scientific subjects, especially in connection with agriculture, distribute free only to specified officials of the general government, and to those local officials whose line of work or locality obviously entitles them to particular publications. The remaining copies are placed on sale through established agencies.

The English system, though altered from time to time, dates from 1782. The number of the official publications of all classes issued annually by the British government is very large. Practically all official publications are termed Parlia meniary Papers, and consist of reports, estimates, accounts, and of Command Papers, under which are a wide variety of topics, such as monographs upon Dangerous Trades, Alcoholic Beverages, Churches, Juvenile Employment, Diseases of Animals, Mines, Fisheries, Prisons, Servants, Vivisection, etc. When a book or pamphlet is completed, it is charged up by the schedule of bare cost to the contractor, and the Controller of Stationery then adds fifty per cent for the profit of publisher and bookseller. A few copies are retained for official use, and the remainder of the edition is placed on sale with authorized Parliamentary booksellers in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, who thus have the same personal interest in sales of official publications that they have in those of commercial publications. The amount actually paid into the Exchequer for each book sold represents, as nearly as may be, the cost of printing, binding, and paper. The selling price of British official documents varies from a few Pence, to twenty pounds for such a work as the reproduction of the Doomsday Book. Copies of Command Papers are not sent to members of Parliament unless requested, but each member is kept in touch with current publications by “ schedules ” issued at frequent intervals.

In 1895, Congress attempted to establish in the United States the policy of selling public documents. A division was created in the Government Printing Office, charged with the distribution of publications to specified libraries, the preservation of enough documents of all kinds for sale at a schedule of reasonable prices, and the preparation of suitable catalogues and records. In this work there are now employed about forty persons, and the maintenance of the division requires the annual disbursement of nearly $50,000. The receipt from the sale of documents during the last fiscal year of record was $13,700. An experiment of this kind cannot succeed, so long as it is understood by the average shrewd citizen that he can obtain a publication free by asking his congressman for it, or that he is liable to receive it free without asking for it at all.

An Economical and Businesslike Method

The experience of a hundred years leads the maturer judgment of the present day to ask in all seriousness the question: what should constitute a government publication ? The documents of the Federal government should embrace at least two general classes. The first, according to our American ideas of liberality in the conduct of national affairs, should include those which might be termed close to the people, such as manuals, handbooks relating to agriculture, domestic animals, mechanics, and labor problems, as well as some inexpensive statistical reference books. These publications should be issued in large numbers, for free distribution by congressional quota and otherwise, as a concession to the established idea in American politics that senators and representatives are entitled to some perquisites in official publications, and these obviously are the ones which will be of service, whether distributed with or without judgment. The second class includes scientific and statistical publications, which are expensive to produce and interest a limited number of persons.

A publication which can command sufficient pecuniary return to cover the cost of production with a profit should be published by a private concern. Therefore government publications upon scientific and other special topics should be those contributions to permanent knowledge which should be made, but which cost so much for preliminary research and editorial preparation that their publication as commercial ventures would not be possible. Such publications are likely to interest a small number of persons at most. The edition should always be small. A proportion should be sent to prominent libraries, and to certain specified publications which have agreed to review them. Concerning the remainder of the edition, a lesson should be learned from the policy of the British government. The bulk of each issue should be distributed among authorized “Congressional booksellers” in specified cities, on simple and businesslike terms. This policy would at least reveal what Federal publications interest the public. No one can tell by the present system, or lack of it, whether real interest exists or not.

Unquestionably we are tending in this country toward the sale of Federal literature. Free distribution arose under totally different conditions of production from those which prevail at the present time. It is clear that we must regard the old order of things as now completely changed, and confront the new problems which accompany the great volume of publications and corresponding expenditure of the present period. Congress has educated the voter to expect free books, but if free books have become a burden on the taxpayers, we should forthwith learn a new lesson, in harmony with the businesslike and practical age in which we live: if public documents, expensive to produce, are worth anything at all to us, they are worth paying for.