United labor bulletin., 1911-02-16
TRADE EDUCATION FOR PRINTERS.
Typographical Unions Printing Course
Has 1900 Students.


The International Typogra phica l
Union is the Oldest American labor or
ganization, and its activities are of un-
usual interest to sociologists. This union
has developed and maintains home for
aged members and a tuberculosis sana-
tOrium which has cost more than $780,
900; last year it spent more than $780,
900 in pensions to aged members; 1t also
has the usual strike and burial benefits.
The receipt of handsome booklet re-
minds us that in addition to all this, the
union is doing what SO many are talking
a trade school.
In order to reach the more than fifty
Thousand members of the union, instruc-
ton is necessarily given by correspond
ence The booklet gives few of many
expressions of approval from students
who are taking or have taken the les
sons This system of education is popu-
larly known as the Il. T. U. Course" and
it's methods mark departure from other
systems of topographic education. The
old plan was to study specimens of work
by accomplished compositors, the stu
dents following them as much as posi-
ole, which tended to develop copyists
rather than creators. Decorative typog-
raphy must necessarily follow artistic
lines, so the promoters of the /. t. u.
Course went to the art schools and fer
reteu out lue pTluCipieS VI ueSi5n aHu
color harmony which underlie good ty-
biography. The student is first taught
these principles, and then aided in ap-
plying them to everyday work. This
not only enables the compositor to per-
form his daily labor with greater ease
and more satisfaction, but develops any
artistic talent he may possess. The in
structors are printers, of course, and this
is an important feature. Professor Sar-
Il Nf thr Vrr,f
versity of Chicago, after thorough in
spection, endorsed the course. In an
swer to a question, the professor said he
could not give students as good service
as the course instructors, for the reason
that he is not a printer 1t is claimed
that one of the important reasons for the
success of this course is that it was pre-
pared for printers by printers. This sub
ordination of the pedagogue to the me-
chanic or artisan is a moot and interest
ing question in the organization of trade
schools of any description.
The Commission having the unions
venture in charge claims that it has
achieved success. and points to an en-
rollment of nearly eighteen hundred
students in thirty 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
best job he ever had, as a result of TAX
ing 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 stun than he had
learned in many years. A young man OF
twenty jubilantly tells that his salary
has been raised Sc a week. and he is ex-
pecting more. An English-bred student
Iaa1 hot t1n hnuf ha
year apprenticeship that is required of
British printers. A New Yorker, who
complains of having been 'railroaded"
through his apprenticeship, says that at
81 years of age he found in the l. T. U.
Course all that he could have learned in
the office, and more. There is also
young printer who has become an ad.-
writer and designer, who is sure the in
struction given has enabled him to hold
his new job. An ad compositor on a
daily newspaper says he had learned
many things during the course which he
mad never heard of before, while a Wis
consin printer. says the quality of his
work has improved one hundred per
cent
All this is in keeping with the pur-
pose of typographical unions, which
spend from $4,000 to $4,000 year so
that printers may receive this informa-
ton at less than cost. The skill of its
members has always been an important
asset of the Typographical union. The
specialization of work which now pre-
walls in industry has practically abOl-
ished the apprenticeship system These
and other things have a tendency to de
preciate the skill of individual printers,
thereby weakening the power of the
union. 1t met the situation in a busi-
nesslike way, and in doing so. not only
fnd ,f ttra 4, IN
system, but is imparting knowledge that
cannot well be given in printing office.
The instruction anticipates the best quail
ity and most remunerative printing of
the future, and it is conceded it will do
much toward keeping American printers
the world leaders.