D8282 PUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF BLUE BOOK. Sections 119 and 120, R. S., 1878. SECTION 119. The secretary of state shall cause to be prepared and printed by the state printer, annually, for the use of the senate and assembly, a book to be denominated "The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin," which shall contain "Jefferson's Manual," the rules and orders of the senate and assembly, joint rules of the senate and assembly, lists of senators and assemblymen, and employes of each house, diagrams of the senate and assembly chambers, statistical and other information of the same description with that heretofore published in the "Legislative Manual" with such other matter as may be deemed useful. SECTION 1:0. The stereotype plates heretofore procured for the purpose of publishing the "Legislative Manual" shall be kept and preserved by the secretary of state, and be used by the state printer under his direction in publishing such manual. The state printer shall receive no pay for composition of any matter embraced in such plates, and shall be answerable to the state for any loss or damage, not occurring by reasonable use, which shall happen to them while in his possession for such purpose. Chapter 141, Laws 1879. SECTION 1. Section one hundred and twenty-one, chapter ten, revised statutes of 1878, is hereby amended so as to read as follows: The secretary of state shall cause to be printed four thousand copies of such Blue Book annually, to be distributed as follows: Twenty-five copies to each member of the senate and assembly; fifteen copies cach to the chief clerks and sergeants-at-arms of the two houses; one copy to each of the clerks and employes of the two houses, whose names appear in the Blue Book; fifty copies cach to the governor, secretary of state, state treasurer and superintendent of public instruction; two copies each to the rest of the state officers in the capitol, and one to each of their clerks and assistants; one copy cach to the state agricultural society, the state horticultural society, the state board of charities and reform, and to the academy of arts and science; one copy to each regent of the state university and normal schools; one copy to each of the college libraries of the state and to the state penal and charitable institutions; one copy each to the county clerks of the several counties in this state, and to the clerk of the supreme court of the United States courts for Wisconsin; one copy each to the reporters in regular attendance on the legislature; one copy to cach justice of the supreme court, to each judge of the United States courts sitting within this state, circuit judge and county judge, and twenty-five copies to the state historical society. The remainder shall be kept by the secretary of state, who shall deliver to the superintendent of public property, at the commencement of each session of the legislature, one hundred and thirty-three copies, to be by him distributed to the members of the legislature at the opening of the session; the remainder to be kept for exchange. One copy of such Blue Book for each justice of the supreme court, state officer and each member of the senate and assembly and the chief clerks thereof, shall be bound in half morocco, and be lettered with the name of the person entitled to receive it. Each county clerk receiving such Blue Book shall preserve and deliver the same to his successor in office, and it shall be for the use of all persons desiring to use the same in the office of said clerk. The expense for preparing and publishing such Blue Book, other than such as is covered by the contract with the state printer, shall be fixed by the secretary of state, and paid out of the state treasury. SECTION 2. The provisions of this act shall be construed to apply to the publication and distribution for the year 1879. SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and publication. Approved March 1, 1879. PREFACE. THE BLUE BOOK for 1880, the 13th annual edition, contafns Jefferson's Manual, the rules and orders of the Senate and Assembly, joint rules of the Senate and Assembly, lists of senators and assemblymen, and employes of each house, diagrams of the senate and assembly chambers, statistical and other information, according to the requirements of section 120, R. S. 1878. By force of custom, the constitutions of the United States and the state of Wisconsin have a place in the book, while the extended descriptions of state institutions and the many pages of annals have grown to be not the least part of its permanent features. With these copious requirements, the aim of the editor to reduce the Blue Book in size and contents, to what its name purports it should be-a compact political hand-book-could not be reaized. It is to be regretted that the law requires Jefferson's Manual - which, if not now entirely obsolete, is at least obsolescent- to be placed in the book. The Annals is a department which is constantly increasing its volume, and it is only a question of time when this increase will suggest the propriety and necessity of establishing a separate Civil List. Such a plan would relieve the Blue Book of much of its bulk. If the economical interests of the state were to be considered, undoubtedly the best arrangement would be the separate publication of a manual containing the constitutions, the rules and orders, joint and separate, of Senate and Assembly, and the customs, precedents and forms of both bodies. Such a manual could be printed in an edition large enough to meet the wants of the legislature for several years to conic, and would leave to the editor of the Blue Book the task of compiling the usual statistical and biographical information in an annual volume much less expensive to the state than this. The Blue Book for 1850 presents the diagrams of the Senate and Assembly Chambers on reduced and convenient pages; new views of the University Assembly Hall, and the Waukesha Reform School, and sketches of the four Great Seals successively used by the state. To the customary statistical tables the editor has added several of timely interest, compiled from information obtained from official sources. J. A. T. |