Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1911-03-10


KSSSIgE paper and watched the
M n 10 tremendous whirring press
es pulling paper off an end
less roll so fast that your eye could
scarcely follow it, and delivering at
the other end Of the machine ceu1ts
less printed and folded newspapers so
rapidly that the indicators on some Of
the modern electric presses record as
many as 100000 eight-page papers an
hour? Or have you watched one Of
the tremendous multi-lithograpbic
presses that pull out a roll similarly
and deliver at the other end colored
pictures that pick up six different col
ors of ink in passing and come out so
fast that no human being could count
them?
And has it ever occurred to you then
that here was an occupation for your
boy, that he could start in, without
any more education than the common
est of common schools could give him,
when he was only sixteen, and learn
all about these innumerable whirling
rollers and cogwheels and other
wheels, and interrelated moving
things, and finally be at the head of
the multitude Of men that stand
around and touch levers now and then
and put in new rolls of paper to take
the place of the exhausted ones, and,
in short, know everything about it all,
and still while he was young man?
Well, your boy can do this very
thing and, furthermore, he can rise
to q superintendency of the biggest
printing establishment in the land,
and, and Ill based on his humble be-
ginning when he was sixteen. And
when he reaches the tOp-which is
within the compass of your ambi-
tiOus, energetic son-he will occupy
a place quite as high in development
and with a salary that will enable him
to own an automobile if he wishes to,
sooner than if he took a job in the
first place that let him wear white
shirt and creased trousers. (Let me
say emphatically that the best pO-
sitiOns in the land are generally won
by men who started in wearing over
alls.) All he needs is the desire, for
job is always awaiting an ambitious
boy who is willing to work.
The best opportunities are probably
found in the large printing houses that
get out photographic and job
work, books, and and perhaps print
magazines; for the work is more di-
versified and of larger character and
there are openings to be filled by men
who have made good.
Your boy applies to the foreman,
and, if there is an opening, he will
start in as an apprentice at about 81
q week. There will be four or five
years of work ahead of him before he
will reach what he will consider a real
position; but the drudgery will pass in
about a year. At first he will keep
things in order around the press, help
wash the ink of the rollers when one
job is finished and prepare them for
the next; but all this time he will be
learning the details of presswork, and
the mysterious machinery will be-
| come familiar to him.
Pretty soon, say year or two aft
| er he began, if he is bright and ambi-
| tiOus. he will be set to feeding Cor
| don press Zone of the small job press
| es that print cards, letterheads, en-
yelopes, etc.. and while doing this
his pay will be graduslly increased to
| SO a week His next advancement
will be feeding a pony (smalD cylin-
der press. when he will be paid as
high as $12, then a larger cylinder
press. receiving S14 weekly; and
| finally he will be competent to feed
the largest sheets of paper properly
| into one of the biggest cylinders, at
| SIS a week
| At this time, which is after about
four years of apprenticeship, he will
| he admitted to the labor union as
| full-fedged feeder. The days work
| will last for eight hours. After con-
| tinuing feeding for several months, he
will attract the attention of the fore
man by his application and industry,
and viii be put on as apprentice
n-essman at SIS a week, to equip him
self to operate all kinds Of presses, IN
Ill after years training, he will get
a union card announcing that he Is
qualified pressman and entitled to the
| fnll scale of wages of s24 a week.
Then he will be given direct charge
o. a couple of cylinder presses, with
the feeders under him.
All this thine he viii be reading and
studying everything he can find that
.slates 10 a pressman's duties and a0z-