Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-10
FILIPINO PRINTERS
NATIVES WHO WORK ON MA
NILA's LEADING PAPER.
Although They Cannot Talk English
They Soon Learned to Set
Type.


newspaper or periodical in the world is
probably that of the Manila Times, the old
est American daily paper in the Philippines.
This paper, the leading one in the new is
land possessions of this country in the far
east, has singular history, Independent of
the curious force that daily places the paper
before its readers
George c. Selner was young American
in Honolulu when war with Spain was de
clared. He was a stenographer in the Ha-
waiian congress. but had never had any
newspaper experience and knew little of the
business He watched the developments Of
the war as we'll as he could SO far away
from this country and soon saw that the
policy of the United States was to SEND
force of troops to the Philippines to run
the Spaniards out of the islands. He knew
that the transports of the United States
would stop at Honolulu on their way TO the
Philippines. He determined that he would
leave his employment and go with Inc
troops Four transports passed Honolulu
before Mr. Sellner could get opportunity to
sail. On the fifth he was accorded prlvi-
leges. He watched the developments in the
Philippines from the beginning. There was
plenty of excitement for young man IN
the trenches around the besieged city, ana
Mr.. Sellner began to write up some OF the
events and send them to this country Tor
the newspapers. In this way his attention
was turned to newspaper work soon AFTER,
ward Manila surrendered, and when 1t dlo
so Mr. Sellner, with genuine Yankee en-
ergy, determined that he would esta bllsh
the first American daily paper in the city
How to do it puzzled him. He enlisted the
aid of a newspaper man and printer, man
named Macdonald They bethought them
selves of a number of plans to secure 4
plant for the purpose, at last running across
the plant and outfit of Spanish paper that
had ceased publication upon the appearance
of no American They secured pos
session of this.
The next problem was how to print an
English newspaper with Spanish type.
which is so literally sprinkled with &C
cents. That didn't stop them long. how
ever They would just cut the accents off
the Spanish type and let the Spanish plant
do the work. So off went the accents and
then the first paper appeared Thls was
just twenty-five days after the surrender
of the city Of Manila. The typographical
appearance of the paper WASH as neat as
the publishers could wish, but the Old Span
ish type did fairly well with their upper
lips shaved, and certainly did well enough
to make English words look all right. So
began the Manila Times, the largest paper
in the city today.
Learned Quickly.
The compositors who were employed were
English and American typesetters. Many
of the American printers were ex-soldiers
and Adventures. the trouble with them
was that a large number of them were ad-
dcted to drink and were, for this reason,
unreliable. Mr.. Sellner saw that some
thing would have to be done to better con-
ditions. He began to experiment with
young Filipinos, bright young fellows. eager
for employment. The trouble was that
they could not speak English. At any
rate a trial would be given to one or two
of these young fellows at minor work
around the Times office. II was surprising
how quickly they picked up things. One
OF the young fellows soon learned how to
set type He could pick up a piece of copy.
either printed or written, and set in into
English. This was regarded as marvellous.
in view of the fact that the boy could not
speak a word of English. Mr.. Sellner
saw the opportunity he had looked for,
and today the entire mechanical force of
the Times, which issues morning and even
ing editions, is composed of F'Ilipinos. All
the compositors. the pressmen. the devils
and the makeup men are Filipinos. who
would hardly know an English sentence if
they heard it spoken. Their ability to get
out big daily paper twice in twenty-four
hours is due to the initiative powers Of the
eastern peoples, and to the fact that they
literally follow the copy of the editors,
reporters, ad.-writers and others who fur
nish copy for the paper. Each English
word is put in type literally according to
the way 1t is spelled by the editor or re-
porter, and the punctuation Is followed &C
cording to the way 1t Is written. 1t is
case of reading the English letters and
words without knowing their pronunciat ton
or meaning. The mechanical force of the
paper is made up of eighteen Filipinos who
have foreman of the same nativity over
them. He is the only one who understands
English. The compositors set the modern
day headlines, frequently reading across
two or three columns, with all kinds of
fancy additions. anu they do 1t we'll The
man VINO makes up the paper is Filipino
like all the rest.
The Filipino workmen are paid from 81
to s. a week in gold or American money.
while the cost OF an American compositor
was from "a to IS gold per day The finan-
cial saving is large.
Mr.. Sellner is in this country and is visit
ing Washington. His story of how the
paper was printed at the beginning and at
this time is Of great interest.