The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-12-13
TRADE EDUCATION
 FOR PRINTERS
International Typographical Unions Printing Course
 Has 1,800 Students

Union is the oldest American labor or ganization. and its activities are of unusual interest to sociologists. This union has developed and maintains a
 home for aged members and tuber-
 culosis sanatorium which has cost
 more than ssOO.Oo0: last year it spent
 more than $100,O0O in pensions to
 aged members; it also has the usual
 strike and burial benefits The re-
 ceipt of a handsome booklet reminds
 us that in addition to all this, the
 union is doing what so many are talk
 ing aboNt-conducting a trade school. In order to reach the more than 50.O00 members of the union, instruc- tion is necessarily given by corre- spondence. The booklet gives a few Of many expressions of approval from students who are taking or having taken the lessons. This system of ed ucation is popularly known as the
 "I. T. U. Course,'' and it's methods mark departure from other systems of topographic education. The old by accomplished competitors, the stu
 dents following them as much as pos sible, which tended to develop copyists
 rather than creators Decorative typography must necessarily follow artistic lines, so the promoters of the
 1. T. U. Course went to the art schools
 and ferreted out the principals of de-
 sign and color harmony which under lie good typography. The student is first taught these principles. and then aided in applying them to everyday work. This not only enables the com positor to perform his daily labor with greater ease and more sat'sfac-
 ton. but develops any artistic talent he may possess. The instructors are printers, of course. and this is an inn portant feature. Professor Sargent, of the art department of the Univer- sity of Chica~o. after a thorough in spection, endorsed the Course. Tn answer to question.th the professor said he could not give students as good service as the Course instructors for the reason that he is not a printer. | It is claimed that one of the import ant reasons for the success of this Course is that it was prepared for printers by printers. This subordina-
 tion of the pedagogue to the mechanic or artisan is a moot and interesting g question in the organization of trade schools of ahv description.
 The Commission having the unions venture in charge claims that it has achieved success. and points to an enrollm ent of nearly 1,800 students in 30 months as proof. Some of these students give their opinion of the Course in the booklet before us. Among them are two men more than 60 years old. one of whom has secured the best job he ever had, as result of taking the Course; the other who has had little opportunity to become proficient in the better-paying class of printing, says the Course has taught him more of the right kind of stuff than he had learned in many years. A young man of 20 jubilantly tells that his salary has been raised s6 | a week and he is expecting more. An English-b bred student declares that the Course beats the seven-vear appren- l ticeship that is required of British printers A New Yorker, who com plains of having been "railroaded" through his apprenticeship says that at 31 years of ege he found in the I. T. U Course all that he could have | learned in the office and more. There | is also a young printer who has be- come an ad.-writer and designer. who is sure the instruction given has en- abled him to hold his new job. An ad compositor on a daily newspaper
 says he had learned many things dur ing the Course which he had never heard of before while a Wisconsin printer says the quality of his work has improved 100 per cent.
 All this is in keeping with the pur- pose of typographical unions winch spend from ss.O0o to s10.O00 a year 90 that printers may receive this in formation at less than cost. The skill of it's members has always been an imnortant asset of the tynogra phi cal union. The specialization of work which now prevails in industry has ora ctically abolished the apprentice ship system. These and other things have a tendency to depreciate the skill of individual printers thereby
 weakening the power of the union. It
 met the situation in a business'ike
 way. and in doing so. not only sun- piled the need of an apprenticesh1p system. but is imparting knowledTe that can not well he given in print ing office. The instruction anticipates the best quality and most rernunara- tive printing of the future. and 1t Is conceded it. will do much toward keep ing American. printers the world leaders.