The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1904-11-30

4 The application OF machinery TO
business has become one of the most
important, perhaps the most impor-
tant, of latter day innovations, says
the New York Post. Not only has the
volume of business been vastly increas-
ed. but new classes of workers have
been called into action. The introduce
zion of the typewriter meant more to
the great waiting army of women toll
ers than the discovery of gold in the
KIondike meant to its army of miners.
The woman typist and the woman
stenographer really were the pioneer
business women. They opened the
way for countless other women in
countless business positions. 1t was
through the typewriter that women be-
gan to develop their latent capacity
for affairs. 1t will probably be their
strongest commercial hold for many
years to come
The stenographer, however, is slow
~ but surely disappearing. The ex-
pert stenographer will continue indef-
nitely to hold an important place, but
the ordinary product of the business
college is too slow for these rapid days,
too inaccurate for the precise and di-
rect methods now required. The ma
FORTY of girls who take up this branch
of industry have a grammar school ed
ucation only and come to their work
about as badly equipped in the way OF
general information and liberal cul-
fure as it is possible to imagine. 1t is
said in business offices that a newly
graduated stenographer who can be
depended upon to spell the names OF
American cities correctly is a rarity,
and nearly all stenographers have pain
fully to acquire a complete vocabulary
of unfamiliar words before. they are
of any great value in business.
To take the place Of the imperfectly
educated, badly. equipped stenographeF
comes the automatic talking machine,
which records and gives back the im-
preston of the human voice. 1t is
probable that few business women re-
alize the extent to which this machine
las already entered into competition
with them The business colleges re-.
alize it and after the first protest have
accepted the fact as inevitable and in
combatable They are even beginning
to introduce the machine into their
Eourses and to teach its use in connec-
ton with typewriting.
The first place in the world where
talking machines were made to take
GShe place Of stenographers in large
waY was in the United States capitol
building in connection with congress
slonal debates. The method was found
so satisfactory that 1t has remained In
continuous use ever since. Under the
old method the expert sh6thand re-
Dorters took their notes in the senate
and house, afterward debating them
to a corps of ordinary stenographers,
who had the task of transcribing them
by typewriters The present method
shortens the time by half and has also
been found much more accurate. The
reporters merely confide their notes to
the machine, the cylinders being turn
ed over to rapid and intelligent typists,
who transcribe from transmitting ma
chimes. Practically two persons In
stead of three handle the matter, thus
eliminating danger Of errors. The
4ypists are able to work much more
quickly, because they are saved the
work of reading their notes, which are
often puzzling and require thought to
translate
These advantages, the saving of time
In dictation and transcription and the
ability Of each clerk to turn out lar
ger amount of work, is felt in business
Offices and even more than other con-
eiderations, such as the need of ac-
curacy and intelligence on the part OF
the stenographer, are acting in favor OF
the new system. The business man.
the lawyer, the banker are rapidly