The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-05-09
-PRooFREADERS' WORTH
Horace F. Teall, in INLAND Prlnter.

Il
! wages. The question is prompted
by the conviction that true proportion
is very little recognizedsin the trade,
though thai is not a new condition,
and little change may be possible,
or even thought of, for some time.
One thing this world will never adj
just according to any n mans
I! ideas, and that is wages. A very
prominent instance of this may be
found in the fact that the greatest
| nation in the world pays its Chief
> Magistrate less than many business
1 corporations pay their presidents, al
though he cannot fill his Office with
out great expense. But We may bet
ter consider those a to the COM
| mon level in their work. Who is
better worthy of liberal pay than
school teachers? Yet a majority of
our teachers receive almost nothing
compared with what they should
have If we really paid them.
Some teachers are well paid, how
ever, and so are ONE p~roofreaders.
In fact, many are ~overpaid,. al prob
ably some workers are in all trades
and professions. 1t is useless to in
dulge any sort of dream of a time
when wages will be determined with
perfect justice. No criterion has
ever been found for such determina-
ton. But pr~oofreaders' wages are
not often adjusted with any ap-
proach to real equity.
Personal experience has disclosed
to the writer many circumstances
that seem to him worthy of careful
consideration and correction. On a
! morning newspaper in New York
many years ago certain men doing
purely mechanical work had for a
six-day week, and a summer vaca-
ton, higher wages than proofreaders
| got for a seven-day week and no va
cation. On another the readers had
the sameNpay that the others got, and
they all had a day off out of the
even. Even here, though, something
happened that was strikingfy unjust.
One reader, already turning out more
work than the other, received from
the foreman instructions to take
charge of the room This added to
his ordinary duties the burden OF
attending to the order in which the
work was done, the answering of al!
questions, of which there we're many,
and numerous other items of respon-
sibility, and the added responsibility
brought no increase of pay. 1t is a
real injustice in such a case not TO
increase the pay, ven if only a little,
not only to the worker, but to the
employer a. we'll; and the injustice
is greater because of unavoidable
feeling of lack of the real authority
with which such a man should be in
vested. He could adequately fill the
place only by being a real foreman.
The papers recently have con-
tanned many advertisements for
printing Office workers, and wages
mentioned in them never place proof
reading on a higher plane than any
other work, while sometimes more
pay is offered for operators and cleo
trotypers than for readers.
Much of the commonest proofread-
ing work is not actually worth higher
pay than the other kinds of work,
but has not this fact been made too
general in it's effect on pay-rates?
This question seems pertinent in the
interests of employers as well as of
employees.
1t is conceded with practical unani-
nifty that the pr~oofreading desk is
usually filled by promotion from
among ~compositors. But is it actual
promotion when the pay is not in
creased? A very queer phenomenon
in this connection is the fact that
compositors themselves often seem
to think the change desirable; but it
is worth while to ask another cues
ton, about this. Is it always possible
to secure those for the reading desk
who are really best fitted for it? Is
it not likely that the brightest mep
among the compositors are bright
enough to insist upon staying at the
work that pays best?
OF course, these questions relate to
average work. They are not meant
to imply that every proofreader is
underpaid. On the contrary, there
is no doubt that some are overpaid.
Again, it is not the intention to i'm
ply that employers are not willing
" ISCOSAlLO ISd1 O1n0TSuC0S III ValQ0,
and ito pay higher wages when they
perceive the justice and the benefit
of doing so. The point is that many
of them expect what they never will
get until they are willing to pay for
it. One large and very prominent
firm of publishers has its own print
ing plant, and makes books of a kind
that demands special knowledge for
proper ~proofreading. The books that
should be irreproachable are often
eensured in reviews, and often de-
serve even stronger censure than they
receive. Undoubtedly the-reason for
this state of affairs lies in the en-
ployment of workers who get only
half as much pay as a truly compe-
tent reader would demand.
Another large printing house had
a proofreader unquestionably worth
much more than he got, who had an
offer of employment in an editorial
office at a slight advance Thic moe