The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-09-12
He IS LOOKING FORWARD
IN.
A Newspaper Writer'S Plan TO Es-
cape the Man Who
,.6eg Reads Copy. 4
Hopes tho Time May Come to
Dictate Directly to q
Compositor.
The Latter Will Operate q Typesetting
Maohine-An Invention to Novo-
lutionizs Things.

1t happens that l ave very decided ideas
about the futureof mechanical typesetting.
Originally % disbeliever and a ~scotfcr, I have
become u convert. Tho machine is with US
to stay. 1t has come Just as came the cot
ton gin. Amy device that will reduce the
cost of the production Of a manufactured
article 25 per cent came be ignored. The
newspaper is a manufactured article. Type
setting by machinery does reduce the cost
of its production ut least rs per cent. There
fore the machine is the life preserver of the
modern newspaper.
With the perfection Of the printing ma
chine came the invention of the typewriter,
and while their relation Is not obvious Mt
first there is no doubt that their interde-
pendence can be shown and that the sue
cess of the typewriter has FASTENED the per
lection of the typesctting machine.
We can all remember how crude were
the first typewliting machines; how mac
cnrate their alignment and how slow their
production Of copy. Today no we'll ap-
pointed newspaper or lawyers office is COM
plete without them. Many successful cor
respondents aud special writers do their
own work wholly by dictation directly to
the typewriter. So great sthe speed of the
expert operator today that he or she can
readily keep pace with the average rate of
speaking. The typewriter has become a
great source Of comfort to the copy reader
and editor. Bad English is more readily
detected, proper names are more accurately
put In type from the printed page, and the
general result is more satisfactory to both
the writer and the reader of the paper.
The theory upon which the copy reading
desk exists in every newspaper Office is that
ills for the purpose Of making matter in
tended for publication more readable and
more concise, but, above all, OF purging it
of libelous and indelicabe matter and bad
English.
1t is a matter of sincere modification to
the experienced writer upon the newspaper
press to feel that tho average copy reader
is a copy butcher. While not entirely to
blame for this, because he is instructed by
his superior to Tread for space" the haste
under which the work generally has to be
performed does not initiate in favorof nice
distinctions IN the use Of words, in the
turning Of phrases or In the selection Of
subheads. Very much-ah, too often-the
individuality of the writer is destroyed, and
the plan upon which he or she constructed
the account Of a disaster, a murder or a
town meeting Is utterly eradicated.
l can remember to have heard in The
Tribune office during the days of Horace
Greeley humilinting rebukes administered
to reporters upon its staff who ventured to
cleverly turn q phrase or to be unduly IA
miliar with m adjective. In those days of
the blue pencil the copy readers broke
hearts and slashed manuscript, never stop
ping to consider that they were destroying
instead Of creating capable newspaper re-
porters and correspondents.
Looking back over an experience Of near
ly a quarter Of q centuryin New York, |
cannot recall a single clever literary man
who endured that harsh schooling for three
or four years whose love of his work sur
vived. The blue pencil, with a mere car
penter behind it, is the destroyer of style,
the d~issipator of ambition.
The typesettinR machine already looms
up as a valuable coadjutor of the working
newspaper man-whether he be reporter,
editor or special writer. The compactness
Of the typesetting machine of today; the
possibility of running it with small dyna-
mo and a Jet of gus; the fact that one man
can do the work of four and can produce
type in columns ready for use with nearly
| the same rapidity that the expert typewrit-
er can place words in q row Upon blank pa
per, suggest that the writer talk directly to
the compositor.
Before many years l confidently expect
to see the typesetting machine, with the eX-
pert compositor behind it, take q place ut
the right hand of every writing editors
| desk in every newspaper Office in this couu-
| try.
The manual dr1ldgery of composition is
already relieved by the introduction of the
stenographer and typewriter, but at crit
ical hours of the night, when every minute
is worth saving. there is no reason why de
lay should be suffered by u writer who de
sires to urn into copy ideas that are ready
to flow from his pen upon the white paper.
Why longer submit to the tyranny Of the
copy reader? Why shall not each "star"
reporter hire his typesetting machine just
as he already employs his typewriter?
There are many arguments in favor of
this idea.
The writer will be able to exactly fill the
space allotted to him for hts article. If
there be any "overset," he will know it be
fore the article goes into the hands of the
night editor. Again he will be able to re-
tain all his peculiarities Of style, and the
proofreader will only revise for %typograph-
ical errors. In addition the writer will be
able to produce three times as much copy
every night as he Gun possibly put in hand
by the old system of writing out his ideas.
AS an evidence that this system is thor
oughly practical l have undertake en- to
composethis article directly to the machine.
The crudities of expression that may be ap-
parent are due to the fact that what Ihave
said went into solid type. There is a ia
nous maxim, "Littera scripta manet. y
Here the spoken word is cast into hard
metal almost as soon as uttered, and from
its silver fuce can be 10 appeal. no altera-
tion, no retraction!
AS an experiment it is interesting, and
am sure that this is what we shall all come
to eventually.
In time we may be better writer's, more
capable of accurate and regular dictation,
The saving of time in our brief and active
human existence is worth SO much tn usa all
that we cannot afford to ignore its possibil,
~ities.-Julius Chambers in New York Re.
corder.
A boon for Ladies.
Er.,,b Tpuuv Tablets ara for tho RELIEF