Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/308

 at stated times to consult with each other and me about the good of the service. There had been much talk about the profits of the printing office. The reports of the departments had grown to be bulky volumes, and as a general thing they were little read, and for the most part in a short time thrown away as rubbish.

The profit came from spreading out tables and leaving pages and half pages with nothing on them, called by the printers “fat.” This “fat” was eliminated. For instance, the report of the factory inspector was cut down from a volume of six hundred pages to a pamphlet of forty pages. And during my term the acts of assembly were bound in sheepskin as the contract required, instead of in “skiver.” In fact, the profits were so taken out of the printing that it became difficult to find a printer willing to undertake the state printing, and there has been no scandal in connection with the work since. Much of this success was due to the fact that A. Nevin Pomeroy, put at the head of the department, was a capable man, himself the publisher of a newspaper, and skilled in the ways of the trade.

Cassatt's bill to legitimatize betting upon horse-racing was introduced in one of the houses but recalled, as I understand, because of the fear that it would meet with a veto.

An incident occurred which caused some amusement. It was known that I favored state aid to the University of Pennsylvania, but the pet among the legislators was the Medico-Chirurgical College, and a bill making a large appropriation to the latter institution came to me, passed by both houses. I sent a message to the legislature explaining that the approval of such bills depended upon a general examination of the finances, that, therefore, it was necessary to have all the bills relating to such institutions before me at the same time and asking that the others be sent at once. They complied. A correspondent wrote to the Philadelphia Record: 292