The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-07-10
PLATE PRINTERS
ACCUSE Director
Official Organ Says Ralph
Broke Faith with En-
ployes Of Plant.
MEN INJURED, IS CHARGE
Union Publication Asserts Official Has
Added Insult to
Injury.
MEN INJURED, IS CHARGE


Bureau of Engraving and Printing. has
broken faith with the employees Of the
big government printing shop where cur
rency is made is the charge of the Plate
Printer. the official organ Of the Plate
Printers Union, issued yesterday. In the
leading article, headed He Should Take
| the Blame" the Plate Printer charges
that Director Ralph after urging upon
| Congress to install power presses In the
| interest of economy. and with the en-
! phatic statement that the installation OF
such ma chimes would not injure a single
| printer, but would be blessing instead
/ of a burden his course has led steadily
| to the injury of the printers. eliminating
| on June 30 in the discharge OF twenty
five printers. with the threatened further
| reduction, it is said. of twenty-five more.
The Plate Printer says that the print
ers were induced by the director to SUBJ
i nit to a compromise whereby the backs
| only of government notes should be
printed on the power presses. the faces
| to be printed on the hand presses. as
usual This compromise was not what
| the director wanted, according to the
| Plate Printer, which quotes portions Of
the Congressional Record in substantial
ton, but was the best he could get"
"Inault Added to Injury"
, 1T is adding insult to injury to tell us
that the compromise law'h had nothing
to do with the discharge of the twenty
five men on the first day of July. Such
rot is too preposterous for anything.
says the Plate Printer. THE case Is
plain, and we would be willing to sub
nit it without argument were 1t not for
the fact that the public is unacquainted
with the facts and have been educated
to believe the other way. The daily press
has announced that the dismissal of the
twenty-five men is due to a lack of work.
We know the contrary to be a fact.
There should be no octopian mixing OF
the waters in order that the director may
make good his escape. He alone must
take the full blame.
The misfortune of the plate printers
harkens back to the day when the direc-
tor promised that the compromise would
be blessing and that harm would not
accrue to a single plate printer"
I'm February, 1912. an agreement was
entered into between the Senate Com
mittee on Printing and the plate print
ers. whereby a law was to be passed by
Congress permitting the backs of the
notes to be printed on the power press.
provided that not more than one-fifth OF
the total number of hand-roller presses
required to produce the estimated guam
tity of such work in any fiscal year
should not be displaced in such fiscal
year. The proposed agreement was en-
acted into law, and on June II, 1914. ac-
cordingly 161 plate printers lost their po-
sitions notwithstanding the statement of
the director that no good man would
lose his job. The director declared at
the hearing on Tuesday. January ca, 1912,
9s published in The Washington Herald
January 80. 1912. when questioned in re-
- -N-A-
ers:
Mr. Ralph was asked what percent !
age OF the total force of $50 men he con-
sidered inefficient. Mr.. Ralph paused for
several minutes. He finally answered
about twenty were really inefficient
Only Twenty inefficient.
when the director stated that only |
a bout twenty men were inefficient out |
of a total of $50. We assume he knew |
what he was talking about and he did
not answer until he took full time to con- |
slider the question.
These twenty inefficient men we must |
assume have long since been removed |
from government service. According to |
of the 161 displaced up to June Il. 1914. |
were efficient and yet injury was not to |
accrue to a single printer.
The plate printers were told that the |
proposed change was for their own good; |
that they were foolish: that they were |
standing in their own light: that IL they |
did not agree to the offered terms, there |
was no telling what may happen: sta /
tistics were exhibited to show how 1t |
was all going to turn out to their inter- !
est and how it was impossible for them
to lose: that they could not come out |
at the little end of the horn: they were
told that figures don't lie, but they were
not informed that they could be ar
ranged SO as to answer the same pur-
poses, and then there was some fine
reasoning to argue them out of their
senses. At last. like Samson Of old who
confided in Delilah, they trusted. and
every one knows what happened to poor
Samson.
It's past history what happened to
the printers"