Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 14, Number 90, 3 December 1881 — GOVERNMENT REPORTS. [ARTICLE]

GOVERNMENT REPORTS.

The other day the New York Sun publisted a statement to the effect that some : ten tons of Government reports had just t been carted away from the store-rooms of the : House •at Washington, and ■ sold for i waste paper. And it appears that such I clearances as ; this are quite systematic. i The > public \ documents ; which are : every ; year printed in large quantities : are for the ; most part an absolute waste of ink, paper i and money. \ There is no doubt much valui able information wrapped, up in many of these works. . But it is almost invariably ' smothered in such a bog of rubbish that it ; requires very powerful : motives to stimui late anyone to the search. The manner of 1 preparing > public documents is ' as bad as possible.';.- Diflfuseness, eupeifluousness,' circumlocution, lack of system ■ and ' method ' and ECOB3 of .the value o: time, characterize ■ them I all. vlt 'almost seems as if half | this printing was dune fur nothing else than i to ui--i the treasury,' so useless is the out- : come.' 1 Nothing i» edited, nothing ;is arranged, z The : reports of '■ the Agricultural Bureau,' for : i!;S f ,.-u)''e. : have fo>*"j ears con-

sisted of a great undigested mas 3of unveri- i fied statements, pitched into one disorderly 1 heap, and in that slovenly fashion presented i to the public. Diffuseness is indeed a I conspicuous vice of public officials. Every ] one of them thinks it necessary to write a : voluminous report when he has nothing I whatever to tell, and all these stupid and useless reports are printed. No country ever saw such wantonness and extravagance in the preservation of effete matter. The publication of public documents is three-fourths waste of money, time and everything etae. Revision, supervision, editing, is called for in all the departments. If a Government condensation bureau were established and put in competent hands, it would save a couple of millions a year in this item alone, aud it would produce even better results than that, for it would extract all that was really important from all the reports, and so would furnish the public with accessible information of sterling value. Such an agency would pay for itself in the first three months, but precisely because it is so much required there is no hope that it will be established. No doubt we shall go on in the old way indefinitely.