PRINTING AS A PROFESSION FOR YOUNG MEN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2751, 1 March 1890, Page 5 (Supplement)

PRINTING AS A PROFESSION FOR YOUNG MEN.

To be a successful printer a boy should have a good, eotnmou school education, but, what is more important, he should have a willingness to be taught. Many men are unsuccessful as printers because, as buys and young men, they hare not been willing to learn. They do not think they are unwilling, but they are. In learning every trade worth knowing a boy has to go through a great deal of distasteful drudgery and details; most boys try to skip or slight this part of the business, and arrive at results quickly. But the details and drudgery are just an necessary to a knowledge of the business as rough foundation stones are to a finished building. A boy who wants to learn to set type has got to be particular about little details which he niay think are of no consequence, but which are really very important: when he understand* them he is capable of doing better things. Ho must learn to read all kinds of manuscript, and that is a knowledge that does not come by instinct. He has to d« his work mechanically neat in all its details, especially to "space" and "justify" with precision, i.e., to make the type present an even appearance. When he has learned to do these things exactly he has learned a great deal more than ho imagines. To this knowledge must be added that of punctuation and capitalisation. It may seem strange, but few authors and writers properly prepare their manuscripts The young printer must learn punctuation either from taking noto of the corrections as they are marked in the proof by the proof-reader, or by studying some regular system of punctuation. The. printers who know how to punctuate and capitalise properly are not too numerous.

In one sense, it is more difficult now than it was formerly to learn the printer's trade ;in another it is much easier. In old times a boy learned to set type aud work a press ; now, he does one of these things only, and is not expected to do the other ; but he is obliged to be more thorough in the branch which he selects. When a boy begins service in a large printing hor.se he spends about six months of his time in holding copy ; while at this work he learns the names of the different kinds of type and notices the errors of compositors as they are marked by the proof reader. Next he goes to the printer's "case" where tie spends many months on plain composition. This period in a printing office is very irksome to most boys ; they think they can learn all about composition in a few weeks,whereas it takes many months to become a fairly quick compositor even on the plaiuest work. Next, he learns " display" work aud how to " make up," that is, to take the type as set up and put it in proper sized pages or columns ready for the press. In learning press work a boy is first nut on a feeding-board and feeds the press. For two or three years he is performing hard drudgery, but he is in a place where he should be learning a great deal. Some boys avail themselves of this opportunity, many more do not. When he'has learned to work on the feeding board he is allowed to run a small press, is taught how to •' make ready" the formes and manage the press. The great trouble with nearly all lads is that they are iu too great a hurry ; they overlook detpila which they think are of no consequence. Nothing has done so much to demoralise the printing trade as newspaper work. The necessity _ for haste on newspapers compels a publisher to make everything else subordinate to it; he has to overlook slighted workmanship, which no book or job printer could think of doing. As fully three-fourths of the printers in the United States are graduates, more or less skilled, _ from newspaper offices, hasty and slighted work is too common. Compositors of this class get into careless habits of doing their work, owing to the necessity for haste which is constantly imposed upon them. Newspaper work, however, is done much better than it was twenty

years ago. There are two kinds of type-setting-job composition and book composition. Most printers think that job composition is the highest branch of the art; the majority of boys are more anxious to learn how to twist rules and make eccentric combinations of types than they are to do plain and thorough work. I think a well printed book is more difficult than auy kind of job printing; the chances of error are infinitely greater and successes are much more rare. Book printing ranges in difficulty from an ordinary reprint of a novel up to books which are illustrated, having side notes, quotations from foreign languages, extracts from authors, with breaks and irregularities in the method of composition. The compositor who can take all these irregularities,which are unavoidable, and so arrange them that each part ha« it* proper size and place, is a more skilful workman than he who can twist rules or print iu many colours. To properly perform this work a man must have experience, he must read through the whole manuscript, nnd he must have a head for analysis and detail. In no business can a young man start with sur.h a small capital as in the trade of printing ;in fact he can do more n« with 500 dol, than he could have done with the same amount of money 50 years aiTO. But while it is easier for him t.o begin a business now, it is more difficult for him to build up a large businoss.

When I name to New York in 1844 I do not supple there was a book and job printing office that had 20,000 dol. invested in material. Now how many offices have nearly or quite 500,000 dol. capital invested in tha busine". Though a boy may find it more difficul to be a master printer on a large scalo, it is easier for him to yet a superior position as an assistant. The demand for skilled workmen was never so great asit_i« now. There is always an unsatisfied inquiry for competent foreman, extra woodcut pressmen, superior proof readers, and intelligent dorks. The printing trade itself, straoge to say

does not furnish nil its office clerks. The reason is that boys and ynunir ui"n in the composing and press rooms do no*, as

they nus-'ht, try to qualify 'hemselves for higher positions. I think .the influenoe of trade unions in ansa ming.: an antagonism between eipitnl and labour, which does not really exist, has been building up a wall between employer and employed. It is leading to the matt in sr of separate "otasperin the hnsiness. " The trade union fpirit teaches a boy that he must look more to the trad© union for fair wai?es and decent treatment than to his own exertions, or to his employer ; the conse-quenoei».there-in »-markpd deerpe of . between erriplover and employe ■flfhion ,never ought to exist. Anv hov who tries to do more than hi* fallows is pounced,upon as settina a bad example. : Any boy whohas*lpanincr towards learn ing something of the duties of the count, ing room is regarded as unfairly enrrvine .the fayonr with the employer. There is a .disposition on the part of trade union leaders to keep bovs and j?iirnevmen independent of their employers. They disapprove of auy attempt to cross the line. New York city has manv employers who would be glad to help a brisht bov to a fuller, knowledge of the business, if he ware to show a proper disposition to learn more of his trade than lie can learn in the composing or the press room*. Bat the f influence' of the printers nronnd them ' prefients this disposition from being mani-i feated.. ,-No man , can snnceed in the printing business as compositor, foreman, elerk. or employer,, unless he is , thoroughly earnest in his work; he has got to have a good deal of enthusiasm for it;, If boys and young men show : a disposition to, learn, there are employers who will take . pains to gi ve them special instruction in , the art. Too many boys now a days seem to think they ate like emptv demijohns, which the employer' should fill up with typographical knowledge. It, is hard to make some boy j feel that the acquisition of skill calls for effort on their own part. True success in the art of printing is not the mere making of money, but the production of meritorious work. A man may make tho truest kind of success nnd yet fail to train wealth. Some men get along in tbe world, and one man says their eiicoess is due to Juek, another savs it. i« duo to the favour of God. One thin? is certain ; men are largely helped by circumstances. Favourable circumstances sometimes occur to unworthv men, and, On the other hand, rnauy of tbe hest men do not find or wiss ontirely their opportunities. But tho man who does the work ; has to do it thoroughly and well, either as a mechanic or employer, who is nseful to . himself, to his family, and to the world, this man, I believe, should bo voted successful, even if ho does not become rich. He has done good work in the world.