This total includes 1,237,894 copies of discarded obsolete publications, deducting This total does not include 5,692,505 sales copies, adding which makes the number The sale of Government publications is almost entirely a mail- The mail orders for the fiscal year 1931 totaled 528,893, an CREDITABLE CLEARANCE OF CHECKS The financial reliability of the average American and his banker Although customers are continually warned that cash remittances Besides the cash transactions, the Superintendent of Documents to cover their orders from time to time during the year. These cashin-advance accounts total about $40,000. Another popular form of remittance is by coupons purchased in advance. Receipts from the sale of coupons in 1931 amounted to $24,272.85. In these various forms and by postage stamps and money orders, the gross receipts for the sale of publications in the fiscal year 1931 amounted to $768,306.60, of which $66,708.80 was refunded on unfilled orders or credited to a special Treasury account for future orders, making the net receipts for the year's sales total $701,597.80. PUBLICATIONS MAILED FOR DEPARTMENTS Departmental distribution through the Superintendent of Documents, who has charge of the storing, wrapping, and mailing of practically all departmental publications, decreased 624,535 copies in the fiscal year 1931, principally on account of a reduction in the issue of Farmers' Bulletins. The 1931 distribution of 56,315,707 copies was 14,410,343 copies more than were mailed for the departments in the fiscal year 1921. Mention has been made elsewhere in this report of the extensive distribution of Farmers' Bulletins issued by the Department of Agriculture and the large sales of publications issued by the Department of Commerce. It therefore seems proper to refer here to a number of publications widely distributed by other departments. CHILDREN'S BUREAU A POPULAR AUTHOR Among the most popular, both for free and sales distribution, arė four pamphlets of the Children's Bureau, Department of Labor, entitled "Prenatal Care," "Infant Care," " Child Care," and "Child Management." Since the first one of these pamphlets was published in 1913, the distribution of the four pamphlets to date has reached a total of 12,826,193 copies, of which 2,616,345 were purchased by the public. Great quantities have been distributed by Members of Congress, to whom the Children's Bureau, on request, has made monthly allotments of 100 copies each of the pamphlet on "Infant Care." Another publication in continuing demand is the Manual of First Aid Instructions for Miners, of which the Bureau of Mines has distributed 866,297 copies, and in addition, 185,304 copies have been sold by the Superintendent of Documents. In the list of other publications of which more than 100,000 copies have been sold are the Public Health Service pamphlets, Wonderful Story of Life-A Mother's Talk. with Her Daughter and A Father's Talk with His Son; an Agriculture Department report on Chemical Composition of American Food Materials; a pocket edition of the FARM BOARD AN ACTIVE PUBLISHER The Federal Farm Board has also developed rapidly into an active publisher with the printing of 2,767,754 copies of its bulletins and circulars in 1931 and 924,620 copies in the preceding fiscal year. Of these publications, 1,607,353 copies were distributed by the Superintendent of Documents during 1931 on order of the Farm Board. The series of Farm Board bulletins include the following titles, "Fruit and Vegetables-Guide for Setting Up Local Cooperative Marketing Associations," "Practical Experiences in Feeding Wheat," "Farmers Build Their Marketing Machinery," "Outlook for American Cotton," and "Grain-A Guide for Organizing Local Cooperative Marketing Associations." One of its circulars, of which the Farm Board issued 200,000 copies, was entitled "Grow Less, Get More-Millions of Dollars and Hours of Work are Lost in Overproduction-Size of the Crop Depends Largely on Acreage Farmers Plant." Prohibition is another subject for many Government publications. While under the Treasury Department, the Prohibition Unit issued approximately 770,000 copies of various prohibition law enforcement publications. Since its transfer to the Department of Justice, the Prohibition Unit has issued 451,875 copies of the following publications: "The Value of Law Observance," "State Cooperation," and "Alcohol, Hygiene, and the Public Schools." DOCUMENTS FOR DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES Government publications sent by the Superintendent of Documents to 498 designated depository libraries during the fiscal year 1931 totaled 1,966,469 copies, an increase of 31,310 over the preceding year and 545,542 more than were distributed to libraries in 1921. It is worthy of consideration to note that during the fiscal year 1931, the depository libraries returned to the Superintendent of Documents 1,199,979 Government publications which evidently were no longer of service to their readers. Many of these discarded publications had been arbitrarily sent to the libraries prior to the legislation of 1922 which now permits depository libraries to make advance selections of Government publications desired to meet their respective needs. Unfortunately, however, there is also a gross waste in the present system of distribution to libraries. During the last 10 years, 5,925,499 Government publications have been returned to the Superintendent of Documents by depository libraries throughout the United States. The great bulk of these discarded books are either obsolete or otherwise useless for further library service. DEFECTS IN DISTRIBUTION TO LIBRARIES Plans to remedy the present defects in the library distribution of Government publications have been discussed at several meetings of the public documents round table of the American Library Association, and special bills proposing changes in the method of designating depository libraries have been introduced in Congress; but, as yet, no suggestion appears to have sufficient merit to bring about remedial legislation. Following renewed interest in the subject at the New Haven round table of the American Library Association, which the Superintendent of Documents addressed in June, 1931, the following resolution was adopted, and there the matter rests to date: Voted, that the executive board instruct the committee on public documents to confer with other learned societies and organizations, such as the Social Science Research Council, American Council of Learned Societies, American Association of University Professors, etc., for the purpose of making a study of depositories for public documents. QUESTIONS BY SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS In this connection, the Superintendent of Documents suggests the following questions for consideration before any further legislation relating to depository libraries is enacted by Congress: 1. Should the number of libraries be increased? 2. Should provisions be made for the same classes of special depositories as now provided by law such as the following: All State libraries; all Territorial libraries; libraries of the executive departments in Washington, D. C.; the libraries of the United States Military and Naval Academies; Alaska Historical Society Museum Library, Juneau, Alaska; the library of the Philippine Government; American Antiquarian Society Library, Worcester, Mass.; the libraries of the land-grant colleges? 3. Shall the Superintendent of Documents act independently in designation of libraries or should the responsibility for the selection and designation be placed upon Members of Congress, as now, or upon the State library commission or some other authorized body of the State? 4. Should the law specify the character of library eligible for designation, such as public, school, college, university, etc., or arrange for class of libraries to be determined by regulations? 5. Should the law include specific requirements for designation or should this be handled by regulations? 6. If class of library determined on as eligible for a depository does not include all that are now on the list, should the law provide for their being continued as a depository? 7. Should the law prescribe how the libraries are to be apportioned among the various States and Territories? 8. Should the distribution be on a population or a geographical basis? 9. Should Congress be asked to provide funds for the investigation of libraries by an agency of the Government, or should such investigation to determine their fitness or whether their publications are available for free, public use be left to some State organization? TREMENDOUS WASTE OF PUBLICATIONS Libraries are not the only places from whence come the avalanche of obsolete and unserviceable publications which have to be disposed of as waste paper to make room for the incoming millions of newer publications that fill to overflowing the 100,000 square feet of storage space in the Government Printing Office. During the last 10 years, 10,503,405 copies of publications ordered by the various departments and establishments of the Government for official use or free distribution have failed of that purpose and have been sold as waste paper. In the same period, 7,470,935 copies of publications available for sale by the Superintendent of Documents have likewise become obsolete or otherwise unsalable. These useless publications, mostly pamphlets, added to the 5,925,499 returned by depository libraries, make the total waste of publications recorded by the Government Printing Office during the last 10 years amount to 23,899,839 copies, the printing and handling of which cost the Government much more than a million dollars. DISTRIBUTION BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS In addition, there has been a great waste in the thousands of publications annually allotted to Members of Congress regardless of the special needs of their respective States or districts. A number of years ago, the Senate and House folding rooms sold as waste paper approximately 2,000,000 publications that had never been removed from their wrappers. Undoubtedly, tons of other useless publications are now stored in and about the Capitol. Several plans have been proposed in Congress from time to time to stop this waste over which the Government Printing Office has no control. One suggestion, which received favorable consideration in first one House and then the other during different Congresses but failed of further action, was the so-called “valuation plan," based on an ascertainment that the reprint value of publications, exclusive of |