Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-29
LEARNING THE ROPES
How Public Printer Spends
First Day in Office.
TALKS WITH RICKETTS,
FEELING OF SECURITY AMONG
PRINTERS IN BIG SHOP.
Mr. sillings Spends Almost Five
Hours in Close Conference With
His Predecessor.

soon after Public Printer Sdllings reached
| the government printing Office this fore-
| noon he conferred with Mr.. Ricketts,, fore
| man of printing. for a few minutes and
| then they left the building together. II is
said they went to a place OF auietude
| where they could go over the details of tho
big printing office. 1t is known TO be Mr..
Stillings' desire to familiarize himself with
its workings in the quickest time possible.
Mr.. Ricketts, is known as perfect cyclo-
pedia of the men, machinery and things at
the printery, and the officials say Mr. Still
| lngs acted wisely today in consulting that
human reference book" as one of them
| termed Mr.. Ricketts, away from the noises
and interruptions of the public printers
office.
feeling of security was observable
| among the hundreds of employees OF the big
printery now that the new public printer
is in Office. Since the first steps that wera
taken by the Keep commission looking TO
the investigation Of the Lanston typeset-
ting machine contracts. given out by Gen.
Palmer. there has been a feeling of sus-
pense and tension throughout the office.
which is said to have had an evil effect on
the morale of the employees. AS one OF the
officials stated it, there a general feel
ing of the demoralizing what s. going to-
happen-next" sort.
Settled Down to Work
There are still rumors flying through the
big building of both evil and good portent,
| but on the whole the big force of workers
have now settled down to the important
| winters work. Mr.. Stillings has done much
to bring about this restoration OF good
feeling by the conservative stand he has
taken. Mr.. Stillings' reported utterance:
IF l were journeyman ] should be a
union man. so long the union was right
and worked for the benefit of the craft"
| vas quoted many times today by printers
In the Office and has resulted beneficently
| in bringing about the restoration of conf
dence that noticeable to a Star
reporter on all sides in the big workshop to-
| day.
Mr.. Stillings returned to his Office after
o'clock this afternoon. He said to Il
| Star reporter that everything is going
along smoothly in the same old way; that
yet; that he intends to study the situa-
ton.
Gazette Divisions Quarters.
The decision has been reached that the
specification and Gazette divisions of the
government printing office will occupy
| one half OF the fifth floor of the new
| building. These divisions VIII. IL Is said.
| he moved over from their present quar-
tiers in the old building within the next
| three weeks. Some delay has been occa-
| stoned by the non-arival Of the dynamos
| for the air compresSors.
| total of sixty-four keyboards will be re-
quired for the two forces-eighteen for the
| Gazette division and forty-eght for the
specification division. These machines will.
| it is said, do the work which has hereto
| fore been done by a force of nearly 300
compositors When these machines are all
| installed and at work they will make quite
clatter, while il Is said the casting ma
| chimes in operation will make a decided
roar To prevent these noises from perme-
ating the other parts of the building it Is
| believed Public Printer Stillings will have
| the casting outfit inclosed by a partition
| 1t Is also believed he will have large fans
placed in the windows to take away the
odors made by foreign substances falling
into the metal pots.
1t Is understood the presses TO handle the
| matter set in the Gazette and specifications
divisions will also be Installed on the fifth
floor, as the runs on them are short and the
work of the divisions can be greatly facili-
tated by having the presses near by, where
| there can be quick handling of the set mat
ter from makeup table to press.