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THESE, then, were conditions which must

be remedied before a school could be made of much real service to the trade. It was quite evident, too, that the initiative in any reform must be made by the employers. Until they could be made to see that, in the first place, it was up to them to use some discrimination concerning the qualifications and character of the boys whom they took into their employ, and secondly, that having found the right kind of boys, they had a duty to perform towards them beyond the payment of a few dollars per week, it would be up-hill work for outside any agency to help in the training necessary to produce good workmen.

N order to promote the first of these IN reforms-that is, to secure a better class of boys to enter the trade—the management of the School of Printing, when it was changed from an evening to a day class, proposed a new scale of wages, which was greatly in excess of that offered to boys who began shop work under the usual conditions.

In the prospectus issued at the time, it was stated: "Believing that twelve months' training in the School of Printing will give a

wage-earning capacity much greater than the first two years' service in the ordinary printing office, and desiring to attract the best class of boys to the trade, it was proposed by a number of employers to shorten the usual five years' apprenticeship, accepting one year's satisfactory work in the School in place of the first two years of apprenticeship, and to allow the apprentice to enter his employer's service on the basis of the last half of the customary third year's salary, $9 per week."

THIS proposition is at present in opera

tion as an essential part of the plan upon which the School of Printing is conducted; and in connection with it an equitable and liberal apprenticeship agreement has been adopted, without which such a plan could not be enforced. This arrangement assures any bright, ambitious boy who enters the trade in this way a favorable opportunity to obtain in a short time fundamental knowledge and practice which will enable him to undertake some legitimate shop-work and earn good wages in one of the most important industries of the country. It also guarantees him a continuance in his position for a period long enough to enable him to become an efficient workman in any branch of the work that he may choose. Employers have come forward who are willing to cooperate in this scheme of trade education for apprentices; they have faith to believe that it is practical, as well as profitable to the apprentice and to themselves, and that its extension will be beneficial to the moral tone of the trade.

THE boys have printed a

twenty-page pamphlet giving an account of the Apprenticeship Festival. It contains reports of the speeches by Mr. Cushing and Mr. Ellis of the board of supervisors, by President H. S. Pritchett

The world is full of slipshods; the only sure way to eliminate them from your workroom is to systematically train up

the other kind.

of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and by Mr. William H. Sayward of the Master Builders' Association, as well as the form of indenture signed on the occasion. The pamphlet is full of meat in a condensed form for those who are interested in trade schools. A request, accompanied by a postage stamp, will bring you a copy if you wish for one.

THE SCHOOL of PRINTING and to provide just as much advanced train

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F

OR the benefit of many inquirers who ask about the printing done in the School, it should be stated that we are not in the printing business and take no orders for printing. The work that the pupils do is partly for the School itself and for the North End Union in its various activities as a social and educational center, but mostly for experiment and practice. We have printed several booklets and a number of "keep-in sight" cards, which we sell for a small consideration to defray the cost of stock and incidentals; but the pupils' work is not exploited for any financial returns. We are printing for the sake of practice, doing the best we know how, and learning to do it better.

F trade schools as thus far developed in

IF

America are narrow in scope, limited to

the obvious demands of the trade, or confined to mechanical processes, with little of art and science, of why and wherefore embodied in the instruction, it is not because those who have them in charge do not appreciate the need of larger opportunity, of a broader and more general training.

When employers shall realize the contribution that trade schools can make, in a more liberal way, in promoting efficiency and skill in their workmen qualities difficult of acquiring under present shop conditions; when workmen, as a class, shall not be content with just enough efficiency to get the wage scale: then trade schools may be depended upon to meet the newer demand

ing as conditions will warrant.

THE assumption that a trade school can

furnish a competent workman readymade, to be had on demand, is a fallacy too often entertained, even by those who should know better. The competent workmen is, at the last, trained in the workshop; a school can give theoretical knowledge and first steps in doing things, but in order to be of value this preliminary training must be developed and put to test in actual work.

Do you expect that the

State, or the city, or some other benevolent institution, is going to come forward and furnish you with the skilled workmen you want? Well, perhaps - but not yet. Meantime, why not try a little educating in your ligent young man and help own shop? Look for an intel

It is the right of every boy who becomes

a wageearner to have had a chance to learn

how to earn his

wages.

him to become the kind of workman you want. The School of Printing will help you to start him right. Get an indentured apprentice and get in line!

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THE APPRENTICESHIP FESTIVAL (From the American Printer)

AN apprenticeship festival was held on the evening of October 30th at the School of Printing of the North End Union, Boston. The event was unique in that this school is probably the only one in this country where such a proceeding could at the present time be logically carried out; for it is a trade school with an indentured apprenticeship system as an essential part of its plan. The school was started some six years ago, and has been working along in a quiet way, experimenting and working out theories of its promoters and studying its problem at close range, until now those who have been watching it feel that it comes closer to a practical solution of the trade school question than any other thus far offered.

N

EDUCATION THAT COUNTS

O one places a higher value upon the free school than I do; and no one takes greater pride in the prosperity of our colleges and universities. But at the same time, much that is called education simply unfits men successfully to fight the battle of life. Thousands are today studying things that will be of exceeding little importance to them or to others. Much valuable time is wasted in studying languages that long ago were dead, and histories in which there is no truth. There was an idea in the olden time (and it is not dead yet) that whoever was educated ought not to work that he should use his head and not his hands. Graduates were ashamed to be found engaged in manual labor— in plowing fields, in sowing, or in gathering grain. To manly independence they preferred the garret and the precarious existence of an unappreciated poet or artist, borrowing money from their friends and their ideas from the dead. The cultured regarded the useful as degrading—they were willing to stain their souls to keep their hands white.

Success does not mean that you are to do your best and then quit. You must keep on doing your best,

or someone

else will
pass you in
the race.

E. G. Gress.

The object of all education should be to increase the usefulness of man-usefulness to himself and others. Every human being should be taught that his first duty is to take care of himself, and that to be self-respecting he must be self-supporting. To live on the labor of others, either by force, which enslaves, or by cunning, which robs, or by borrowing or begging, is wholly dishonorable. Every man should be taught some useful art. His hands should be educated as well as his head. He should be taught to deal with things as they are—with life as it is. This would give a feeling of independence, which is the firmest foundation of honor, of character. Every man knowing that he is useful thinks well of himself.

In all schools children should be taught to work in wood and iron, to understand the construction and use of machinery, to become acquainted with the great forces that man is using to do his work. In this way

boys and girls would learn their aptitudes and would ascertain what they were fitted for-what they could do. It would not be a guess or an experiment, but a demonstration. Education should increase a boy's chances for getting a living. The real good of it is to get food and roof and raiment, opportunity to develop the mind and the body and live a full and ample life.

Robert G. Ingersoll.

THE boy of good character, possessing a fair education, having an ambition to succeed, and an aptitude for the chosen trade, in the hands of a master who is as considerate of the boy's industrial welfare and advancement as of his own profit-this combination reduces to the lowest terms the difficulties of providing industrial training adequate to the needs.

SCHOOL OF PRINTING

LEAFLETS

A series of technical pamphlets, giving in concise form much rudimentary information relating to type-composition and printing. The composition and press-work of the Leaflets are done by the pupils in the School, and are parts of the practical work of the course of instruction. Uniform size, 6 x 4 inches. The Leaflets now ready are noted below. Sent post-paid upon receipt of price: singly, 15 cents each; five copies of one or more numbers, 10 cents each.

No. I. THE PRINTER'S TYPES.

A brief description of their mechanical features, com-
position, sizes, etc. 24 pp.

No. 2. THE COMPOSITOR'S WORK.
A leaflet for beginners. 20 pp.

No. 3. USE OF ITALIC.

Hints about the common uses of italic in combination with roman. 15 PP.

No. 4. DIVISION OF WORDS.

Contains many general directions and rules, with examples. 12 pp.

No. 5. QUOTE-MARKS.

An epitome of general rules and customary usages, with examples of their use. 12 pp.

No. 6. USE OF CAPITALS.

Giving many general rules for capitalizing, as well as spacing and leading. 19 pp.

No. 7. ABBREVIATIONS AND CONTRACTIONS.

When to use them and when to spell in full, with list of common forms. 26 pp.

No. 9. MODERN METHODS OF PRINTING.

A brief description of the relief, intaglio and planesurface printing processes. 22 pp.

QUESTIONS IN TYPOGRAPHY, Series I, II, III.

One hundred and fifty questions pertaining to composition, stone-work, and job-press work. Address, THE SCHOOL OF PRINTING, NORTH END UNION, 20 PARMENTER STREET, BOSTON

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than that of the printer; he is the conservator of the world's learning; the service which he renders to his generation is to make the experience and accumulated wisdom of every past age accessible to all. His is a calling requiring education and intelligence in a high degree. In relative importance the printing trade in the United States ranks among the half dozen leading manufacturing industries. in the value of its product. In Boston, machinery products come first, the building trades next, and printing is third.

***

YET it is the printing art

Boston, U.S. A.

sign as applied to his work, to cultivate his taste in the treatment of type-faces, to analyze his own work and compare it with recognized standards of quality-has no other recourse except to pick up, piecemeal, what knowledge he may find here and there. In the case of the pressman there is even greater dearth of systematic instruction than

HE road to advancement is to do your work so well that you are always ahead of the demands of your position. Keep ahead of your work, and your work will push your fortunes for you. Our employers do not decide whether we will stay where we are or go on and up; we decide that matter ourselves. We can drift along, doing our work fairly well; or we can set our faces to the front and do our work so well that we cannot be kept back.

HAMILTON W. MABIR.

alone, which is not only a great industry but one of the truly great moral forces in the world, that is wholly neglected in education. College directors have ignored it; public school officials have looked upon it as an inferior mechanical trade the pursuit of which was recommended to boys who were considered not bright enough to do something else; private educational and other institutions which have paid any attention to teaching the trade have usually done so under the guise of "schools" wherein they might at a low cost secure their own printing.

***

NOT until within the past few years has

there been in this country any serious attempt to give instruction in matters pertaining to the printing craft, and these efforts have been devoted chiefly to rudimentary instruction. An ambitious compositor who wishes to learn something more than rule-ofthumb methods-to study principles of de

for the compositor, either in the workshop or elsewhere. A lesson in taking down or erecting a press, even of the commonest style, is a rare experience; while the chemistry of paper and of inks is a dark secret that may never be but partially understood.

***

WRITERS in trade jour

nals, master printers, and others have been crying out loudly at this lack of means for furthering education in a trade as important as printing. Almost invariably those who deplore this condition have assumed that

there were many ambitious

workman who wanted instruction of this sort : beginners and more advanced printers who wished to learn more about their trade than they could find in their every-day work, and who were willing to spend time and effort to acquire this knowledge. That this assumption has little foundation in fact may be testified to by any one interested in promoting trade schools, technical classes, or lectures on the subject of printing and the allied industries.

So far as Boston is concerned, the evi

dence goes to show that the average printer is not interested in lectures pertaining to his craft and will make very little effort to attend them. For instance: The Public Library of the City of Boston each winter

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***

ERE were speakers who made their subjects interesting and presented them from a view-point which could not fail to widen the horizon of any working printer with regard to his own work. While not strictly technical, being given before a miscellaneous audience, the lectures were full of suggestion and inspiration, with critical. and explanatory comments upon examples clearly shown upon a screen, and he were a stupidly callous printer who could not learn something from them and be impressed with the dignity and importance of his trade. The lecture room itself is pleasant and the location is accessible from all parts of the city and suburbs. Yet, of the several hundred persons in the audiences, how many were printers or directly interested in printing? There is no way of knowing the exact number, but from the testimony of a few to whom the faces of many Boston printers are familiar, one could safely wager that twenty printers was a good average for each lecture. And this out of a total of nearly six thousand persons directly employed in the business in one of the chief printing centers of the country.

***

WHAT is the matter with the printer? Is

the above a fair index of his attitude toward his craft? Is he so well satisfied with his own attainments that it is not worth his while to learn what others have to say about occupations identical or closely related to his own? Or has he any interest in his trade

after the clock strikes the close of the day's work? In individual cases there are no doubt plausible excuses for this indifference toward these lectures. The question naturally arises, How can printers be induced to attend lectures designed for their benefit? What use will there be for the Franklin Union and its proposed course of technical classes and lectures if printers do not want them?

***

IT is only fair, however, to say that this indifference toward means for promoting the art of printing is not absolute, and that there are a few printers in Boston, as well as elsewhere, who are giving serious effort to the advancement of this phase of the industry. While, on the surface, these efforts seem to make small showing, there is a constantly growing sentiment which is crystallizing into a definite, concerted movement; and when the great body of printers can be made to realize how closely such educational influences affect their individual welfare they will have enterprise enough to patronize and promote such lectures, classes, and schools.

RIGHT here seems a good place to sug

gest that employing printers have it in their power to institute a wholesome interest in lectures of this sort, by showing themselves at such events and by encouraging, or even insisting upon, their employees attending them. This is especially important with regard to the younger workman Under the influence of shop traditions he is apt to think that all the knowledge worth while is contained within the workshop and that there is little to learn from men who have not become professionally cross-eyed from close contact with the composing-stick and the inkroller. The study of drawing and of color, of the work of old master printers, and of notable work from other establishments, is a matter of legitimate interest to every printer. The time is at hand when employers should insist upon some knowledge of these things on the part of every workman who asks for the salary of a journeyman compositor or pressman. To be a good printer means more than to be a type-setter or a press-feeder; it should imply intelligence, professional pride, and a healthy interest in all things that make for industrial, social, and intellectual progress.

The poem on the folto many printers who lowing page, familiar were young thirty-five years ago, will be of interest to the young printer of today; and while to the latter it

means that conditions

are not changed for the beginner, the oldbut appreciate keenly time printer cannot how much ambitions and opportunities are changed in the case of

the modern printer's devil.

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