Americana: Paper Chase

The Government’s Permanent Conference on Printing decreed in 1921 that, to save money, federal stationery should measure 8 in. by 10½ in., in contrast to the private-industry standard of 8½ in. by 11 in. Bureaucrats have been having second thoughts about the matter ever since.

The Bureau of the Budget said in 1957 that the savings from switching to a uniform size (i.e., 8½ by 11) would be “marginal.” A 1970 study by the Bureau of Standards assessed what it called “paper sizes annoyance factors.” A subsequent study by the Bureau of Standards argued that both Government and business should switch to 7¾ in. by 11 in., on the ground that this would be the most esthetically pleasing.

In 1972 the General Services Administration weighed in with yet another report, entitled “Economic Factors Associated with Paper Sizes.” It claimed, among other things, that the larger size would reduce by 5% the number of times a secretary needs a second page to finish a letter. Each second page, it went on, costs 4.60 (including charges for the secretary’s retirement benefits and depreciation of her chair and her typewriter).

Finally, the Congressional Joint Committee on Printing concluded that switching to 8½ in.-by-11 in. stationery would result in a net savings of several million dollars and ordered that the change be made by Jan. 1, 1980. On hearing the news, one straight-faced bureaucrat in the Government Printing Office said of his colleagues’ reaction to the news: “Some people think that this issue has been inadequately studied.”