SUMMARY OF REPORT ON THE PRINTING TRADES
A smaller proportion of the industrial population in Cleveland is
engaged in printing than in most large cities. The number of persons
employed in printing occupations in 1915 is estimated at approximately
3,900, made up chiefly of skilled workmen. Little common labor is used
in any department of the industry.
The business of printing is usually conducted in small establishments.
There are not more than six plants in the city which employ over 75
wage earners. Data collected from 44 local printing shops, showed an
average working force of only 36 persons. Due largely to this
characteristic printing affords an unusual number of opportunities for
advancement to the skilled workers in the industry. The smaller the
establishments are the greater is the proportion of proprietors,
superintendents, managers and foremen to the total number of wage
earners. Ten per cent of the total working force in the printing
industry is employed in supervisory and directive positions. In many
of the large manufacturing industries of the city the proportion in
such work is less than three per cent.
[Illustration: Diagram 12.--Number of men in each 100 in printing and
five other industries earning each class of weekly wage. Black
indicates less than $18, hatching, $18 to $25, and outline $25 and
over]
No other manufacturing industry employs so large a proportion of
American born workers. In recent years many of the skilled industrial
trades have been recruited to a very large extent from foreign labor,
but in printing the American worker has so far held his own remarkably
well. This is due in part to the relatively high wages and desirable
working conditions and to the necessity in all branches of printing
for a working knowledge of English.
Practically all of the trades are thoroughly organized. The unions are
united in a body called the Council of the Allied Printing Trades.
Although only about half of the shops in the city employ union labor
exclusively, the union regulations as to wages and hours of labor are
observed in both open and closed shops.
Printing workers are among the best paid industrial wage earners in
the city. A comparison of the weekly earnings in the various
manufacturing industries is shown in Diagram 12. This comparison is
based upon the 1914 report of the Ohio Industrial Commission.
The comparison of the earnings of women in various industries, shown
in Diagram 13, is less favorable to printing. On the basis of the
proportion of women that earn $12 and over per week this industry
takes third place. It should be noted, however, that nearly all the
women employed are engaged in semi-skilled work in binderies,--a lower
grade of work than that done by most women workers in clothing
factories, where wages are higher. Compared with other occupations
that require about the same amount of experience and training, in
textile, tobacco, and confectionery manufacturing establishments, the
wages of women employed in the printing industry are relatively high.
Wage earners in printing establishments lose less time through
irregularity of employment than do those in most other factory
industries. The kind of work done by women is more seasonal than that
done by men, although less so than in other manufacturing industries
which employ large numbers of women.
[Illustration: Diagram 13.--Number of women in each 100 in printing
and six other industries earning each class of weekly wage. Black
indicates less than $8, hatching $8 to $12, and outline $12 and over]
COMPOSING ROOM WORKERS
Nearly all the workers in this department of the industry are hand or
machine compositors. Until about 30 years ago, before practical
type-setting machines were invented, all type was set by hand. Today
the hand compositor, except in very small shops, works only on jobs
requiring special type and special arrangement, such as
advertisements, title covers of books, letter heads, and so on.
In the city there are about 1,200 people employed in composing room
occupations, or about 30 per cent of the total number of workers in
the industry. This number includes some 50 women employed as
proof-readers and copy-holders. Nine-tenths of the composing room
workers are members of the International Typographical Union, although
the number of shops that employ union men exclusively, called closed
shops, approximates only one-half of the total number in the city. The
remainder, while employing union labor, observing union hours, and
paying union wages, reserve the right to hire non-union workmen.
Composing room workers are the best paid in the industry. A comparison
of average wages in newspaper and job establishments is shown in Table
27.
TABLE 27.--AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS OF JOB AND NEWSPAPER COMPOSING-ROOM
WORKERS, 1915
-------------------------+---------------+------------+
| | Newspaper |
Workers in trade | Job offices | offices |
-------------------------+---------------+------------+
Foremen | $5.19 | $6.65 |
Linotype machinists | 4.66 | 4.84 |
Proof-readers | 4.63 | 3.98 |
Monotype operators | 4.57 | .. |
Linotypers | 4.28 | 4.65 |
Monotype casters | 3.96 | 4.30 |
Stonemen | 3.94 | 4.89 |
Hand-compositors | 3.48 | 4.58 |
Copy-holders | 2.30 | 2.93 |
Apprentices | 1.64 | 1.30 |
-------------------------+---------------+------------+
Compositors suffer most from the diseases that are common to indoor
workers. The stooping position in which much of the work is done,
together with insufficient ventilation and the presence of gases from
the molten metal used in monotype and linotype machines, favors the
development of lung diseases. The number of deaths from consumption
among compositors is more than double that in most outdoor
occupations.
The apprenticeship system has held its own in the compositor's trade
better than in most industrial occupations. In the establishments
visited by the Survey Staff there were approximately 15 apprentices to
each 100 hand and machine compositors. As a rule there is no real
system or method of instruction. The points principally insisted upon
by the union, which strongly favors the apprenticeship system, are
that the number of apprentices employed shall not exceed that
stipulated in the agreement between the employers and the union, and
that each apprentice shall be required to serve the full term of five
years.
During the first and second years the apprentice is required to
perform general work in the composing room under the direction of the
foreman. In the third year he joins the union as an apprentice. The
apprenticeship agreement stipulates that during this year he must be
employed four hours each day at composition and distribution. In the
fourth and fifth years the number of hours per day on such work is
increased to six and seven respectively. During the last two years of
his term he must take the evening trade course given by the
International Typographical Union, the expense of tuition being met by
the local union. The agreement contains no stipulation as to wages for
the first and second years. The wage for the third year is $9 a week,
for the fourth year $12, and for the fifth, $15. Apprentices in
newspaper composing rooms are permitted to spend the last six months
of their period working on type-setting machines.
THE PRESSROOM
The pressroom occupations include platen and cylinder pressmen, web or
newspaper pressmen, platen and cylinder pressfeeders, plate printers,
cutters, flyboys and apprentices. Approximately 15 per cent of the men
employed are cylinder pressmen, about 10 per cent platen pressmen, and
less than three per cent web pressmen. Pressfeeders comprise over 40
per cent of the whole group. Nearly nine-tenths of all pressroom
workers are employed in job establishments. Five occupations--those of
cutters, floormen, flyboys, plate printers, and web pressmen--give
employment to fewer than 40 men each.
The average daily earnings of pressroom workers in the establishments
from which wage data were collected during the survey are shown in
Table 28.
The hourly rates of pay are high as compared with those in other
occupations requiring an equal or greater amount of skill and
knowledge. Cylinder pressmen earn more per hour than do tool and die
makers--the most highly skilled of the metal trades--and platen
pressmen in charge of five or more presses earn more than all-round
machinists and boiler makers. The rate for cylinder pressfeeders is
about three cents an hour higher than that received for specialized
machine work in the metal trades.
TABLE 28.--AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS OF PRESSROOM WORKERS, 1915
_Job pressroom workers_
Foremen $4.78
Cylinder pressmen 3.63
Cutters 3.41
Platen pressmen 2.97
Floormen 2.91
Cylinder pressfeeders, men 2.54
Cylinder pressfeeders, women 1.77
Platen pressfeeders, men 1.83
Platen pressfeeders, women 1.70
Flyboys 1.56
_Newspaper pressroom workers_
Foremen 6.11
Web pressmen 4.33
Web pressmen's assistants 2.95
Formal apprenticeship is practically unknown. The boy begins as a
pressfeeder, usually on a platen press, and in the course of time gets
to be a platen pressman. A knowledge of platen presswork does not
qualify a man to run a cylinder press, and as a rule the platen
pressman who wants to change must serve some time as a cylinder
pressfeeder and cylinder pressman's assistant. There is no organized
system for training beginners. The boy who wants to become a pressman
must pick up the trade through experience and practice, the length of
time required depending chiefly on how frequently changes occur among
the force of pressmen employed in the shop.
THE BINDERY
The bindery is the only department of the industry in which any
considerable number of women are employed. Some of the occupations,
such as gathering, sewing, and stitching, are practically monopolized
by women. They are also employed extensively in hand and machine
folding. About one-fifth are gatherers and one-fifth sewers and
stitchers. The other three-fifths are distributed among a number of
occupations usually classed as general bindery work.
The occupations in which men predominate are forwarding, ruling, and
finishing, and cutting. The forwarders comprise more than one-fourth
of the total number of men engaged in bindery work. The other two
skilled trades--ruling and finishing--give employment to about 35 men
each.
The average daily earnings in the various occupations, based on
returns from 44 establishments, were as shown in Table 29.
TABLE 29.--AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS OF BINDERY WORKERS, 1915
------------------------------+-----------+-----------+
Workers in trade | Men | Women |
------------------------------+-----------+-----------+
Foremen | $4.78 | $2.05 |
Rulers | 3.56 | .. |
Finishers | 3.51 | .. |
Forwarders | 3.23 | .. |
Cutters | 3.21 | .. |
Machine-folders | 2.81 | 1.49 |
Wire-stitchers | .. | 1.57 |
Apprentices | 1.53 | .. |
Gatherers | .. | 1.52 |
Sewers | .. | 1.52 |
Other bindery operatives | 1.40 | 1.51 |
------------------------------+-----------+-----------+
On account of the seasonal character of the work considerable time is
lost through unemployment, particularly in those occupations in which
women predominate.
Beginners in these occupations in which the majority of the women are
employed, start on folding or pasting, and as opportunity presents,
gradually acquire practice in the higher grades of work, such as
gathering and machine operating. There are some traces of the
apprenticeship system in forwarding, ruling, and finishing, but these
trades are so small that all of them combined require only a very few
new workers each year.
OTHER OCCUPATIONS
Other departments of the printing industry are photoengraving,
stereotyping, electrotyping, and lithographing. They give employment
to approximately 700 workers, distributed among more than 20 distinct
trades, requiring the most diverse sorts of skill, knowledge, and
training. There are about 100 men in the city engaged in the different
processes of photoengraving. Nearly all of the stereotypers, numbering
from 60 to 70, are employed in newspaper offices. There are about 125
electrotypers and 400 lithographers. The labor conditions closely
approximate those found in other departments of the industry. Average
wages for the different occupations are shown in Table 30.
TABLE 30.--AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS IN PHOTOENGRAVING, STEREOTYPING,
ELECTROTYPING, AND LITHOGRAPHING OCCUPATIONS, 1915
Average
Workers in trade daily earnings
Photoengraving
Artists $6.32
Photographers 4.69
Etchers 4.52
Routers 4.25
Finishers 4.21
Proofers 3.69
Strippers 3.61
Blockers 2.36
Apprentices 1.49
Art apprentices 1.27
Stereotyping 4.00
Electrotyping
Molders 4.41
Finishers 4.01
Casters 3.18
Routers 3.17
Builders 3.13
Blockers 2.05
Batterymen 1.97
Case fillers 1.59
Apprentices 1.10
Lithographing
Lettermen 6.63
Artists 6.41
Pressroom foremen 5.80
Grainers 4.73
Engravers 4.35
Pressmen 3.91
Transferers and proofers 3.41
Pressroom apprentices 2.80
Tracers 2.63
Stone polishers 2.53
Pressfeeders 1.72
Other apprentices 1.59
Artist apprentices 1.23
Flyboys 1.10
There is no well organized system for training apprentices in
photoengraving, stereotyping, and electrotyping, or in any of the
lithographic trades, except that of poster artist, in which an
efficient and strictly regulated system of apprenticeship is
maintained.
THE PROBLEM OF TRAINING
The report maintains that up to the end of the compulsory attendance
period school training preparatory to entering the printing trades
must be of the most general sort, due to the fact that in the average
elementary school the number of boys who are likely to become printers
is too small to form special classes. For example, in an elementary
school of 1,000 pupils the number of boys 12 years old and over to
whom instruction in printing would be of value from the standpoint of
future vocational utility, would probably not exceed two. While
admitting the advantages of the junior high school for the purposes of
vocational training, the report points out that even in a school where
only pupils of the upper grades are admitted, the number who are
likely to become printers is still too small to warrant special
instruction. In a junior high school of 1,000 pupils not more than
nine boys are likely to become printers.
The report recommends a general industrial course during the junior
high school period. What the boys need at this time is practice in the
application of mathematics, drawing, and elementary science to
industrial problems. Shop equipment should be selected with this
object in mind. It is doubtful whether it should include a printing
shop, for while such a shop would be useful to the few boys who will
become printers, it would be of little value in training for other
industries. The report suggests as subjects which should be included
in the general industrial course practice in handling and assembling
machinery, the study of color harmony, and the principles of design in
connection with the work in drawing, the use of printing shop problems
in applied mathematics, and thorough instruction in spelling,
punctuation, and the division of words. It also recommends the course
of industrial information referred to in previous chapters.
The establishment of a two year printing course in a separate
vocational school is recommended to meet the need for specialized
instruction from the end of the compulsory period to the apprentice
entering age. The printing trades are relatively small and it is only
by concentrating in a single school plant all the boys who may wish to
enter them that specialized training can be made practicable. In this
way it would be possible to secure classes of from 60 to 100 boys each
for such trades as composition and presswork. The report emphasizes
the need for instruction in trade theory as against practice on
specific operations. It points out that the boys will have plenty of
opportunity after they go to work to acquire speed and manual skill,
while they have little chance, under modern shop conditions, to obtain
an understanding of the relation of drawing, physics, chemistry,
mathematics, and art to their work.
The only trade extension training offered by the public schools at the
present time is that given in the technical night schools. During the
second term of 1915-16 there were 28 persons enrolled in the technical
night school printing class. Of these 28 persons three were journeymen
printers, five described themselves as "helpers," 11 were apprentices,
one was employed in the office of a printing establishment, and eight
were engaged in occupations unrelated to printing. No special
provision is made for the apprentices. The course, which includes hand
composition, a little press work, and lectures on trade subjects, is
planned "to help broaden the shop training of those working at the
trade." That it does so to any considerable extent is doubtful. Too
much of the time is devoted to hand work and practice on operations
which the boys can easily learn in the shops. It is believed that the
plan followed in the evening apprentice course prescribed by the
International Typographical Union, in which no shop equipment or
apparatus is used, is better adapted to the needs of boys employed in
the trade. The course consists of 46 lessons in English, lettering,
design, color harmony, job composition, and imposition for machine,
and hand folding. The classes are taught by journeymen teachers. In
February 1916 about 100 students were enrolled, of whom approximately
one-third were apprentices and two-thirds journeymen.
CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY REPORTS
These reports can be secured from the Survey Committee of the
Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio. They will be sent postpaid for
25 cents per volume with the exception of "Measuring the Work of the
Public Schools" by Judd, "The Cleveland School Survey" by Ayres, and
"Wage Earning and Education" by Lutz. These three volumes will be sent
for 50 cents each. All of these reports may be secured at the same
rates from the Division of Education of the Russell Sage Foundation,
New York City.
Child Accounting in the Public Schools--Ayres.
Educational Extension--Perry.
Education through Recreation--Johnson.
Financing the Public Schools--Clark.
Health Work in the Public Schools--Ayres.
Household Arts and School Lunches--Boughton.
Measuring the Work of the Public Schools--Judd.
Overcrowded Schools and the Platoon Plan--Hartwell.
School Buildings and Equipment--Ayres.
Schools and Classes for Exceptional Children--Mitchell.
School Organization and Administration--Ayres.
The Public Library and the Public Schools--Ayres and McKinnie.
The School and the Immigrant--Miller.
The Teaching Staff--Jessup.
What the Schools Teach and Might Teach--Bobbitt.
The Cleveland School Survey (Summary)--Ayres.
* * * * *
Boys and Girls in Commercial Work--Stevens.
Department Store Occupations--O'Leary.
Dressmaking and Millinery--Bryner.
Railroad and Street Transportation--Fleming.
The Building Trades--Shaw.
The Garment Trades--Bryner.
The Metal Trades--Lutz.
The Printing Trades--Shaw.
Wage Earning and Education (Summary)--Lutz.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Typos Corrected In Text: Table 15 on page 120: establishments for
estabments page 194: "car fare" for "car far" page 15: employee for
employe
* * * * *
End of Project Gutenberg's Wage Earning and Education, by R. R. Lutz