[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 125 (Tuesday, October 10, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1725]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E1725]]



 TRIBUTE TO JAMES L. HARRISON, 16TH PUBLIC PRINTER OF THE UNITED STATES

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 10, 2000

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, today I wish to pay tribute to an outstanding 
civil servant, Mr. James L. Harrison, of Bethesda, Maryland, who died 
October 5, 2000, at age 94. Mr. Harrison was the 16th Public Printer of 
the United States, serving during the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon 
administrations, and overseeing a fundamental and far-reaching 
transformation of the Government Printing Office during his tenure.
  Mr. Harrison came to the Government during the Great Depression, 
working as a draftsman at the Bureau of the Census. He later 
transferred to the Office of Price Administration, rising to the 
position of liaison officer at the Capitol, a post he occupied until 
the OPA was disbanded in 1947. In 1949, he became Staff Director of the 
Congress' Joint Committee on Printing, where for 12 years he worked 
tirelessly to improve the speed and efficiency of the Government's 
printing operations. It was through the Joint Committee that Mr. 
Harrison began his long association with GPO, the organization through 
which he would make his greatest contributions to the Nation.
  In March 1961, following his appointment as Public Printer by 
President John F. Kennedy, Mr. Harrison took direct control of the 
Government's printing and publications dissemination work. His 
successes at the GPO are summarized eloquently in this excerpt from 
``The Government Printing Office,'' written by Robert E. Kling, Jr., in 
1970:

       Under Harrison, the Government Printing Office entered a 
     period of growth and progress. Dollar volume leaped from less 
     than $100 million in 1961 to more than $200 million in 1969. 
     Documents sales jumped from about $9 million to $20 million 
     over the same period. The far-reaching Harrison policy of 
     sharing the government's printing requirements with industry 
     led to a steady increase in work supplied by contract 
     printers. In 1961, commercial printers provided 42 percent of 
     the annual volume; in 1970, 57 percent, or $103 million worth 
     of printing, was done by private industry.
       Harrison made strenuous efforts to improve working 
     conditions and environment in the plant, and during his 
     tenure took a keen interest in upgrading the equipment used 
     in supplying the U.S. Government's printing needs. Under his 
     direction, a major part of the Office's outmoded and obsolete 
     equipment was replaced by modern, more efficient machinery. 
     In keeping with nationwide trends in the industry, 
     letterpress was supplanted by offset as the main production 
     method . . . offset presses with high running rates and low 
     plating and press preparation costs keep GPO prices 
     competitive with those of the best commercial firms.

  Mr. Kling could not have foreseen an even further-reaching 
modernization to the GPO that Mr. Harrison pioneered: the introduction 
of GPO's electronic typesetting system. This revolutionary change freed 
the Office of storing, melting, and molding tons of lead in its daily 
printing operations by converting to electronic database operations. By 
the time his term as Public Printer ended in March 1970, Mr. Harrison 
had laid the groundwork for today's on-line editions of the 
Congressional Record, U.S. Code, and other essential Government 
publications. As a result of the technological changes that Mr. 
Harrison initiated, the American public today retrieves an average of 
more than 25 million Government documents a month from the GPO's on-
line service, GPO Access.
  Mr. Speaker, it is fitting that we pay tribute to this man who 
brought so much insight and energy to the public's work. James 
Harrison's leadership at GPO produced results that not only saved 
public money, but also built a strong foundation for information 
technologies developed decades after his tenure ended and which today 
benefit all Americans. He was, moreover, a friend of the dedicated men 
and women of the Government Printing Office. He will be missed.

                          ____________________