The Evening Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1917-1920, 1918-04-18
SIX WOMEN STUDY
TELEGRAPHY. HERE
To Fill Positions as Operators
Left Vacant by Draft
ed Men.
WORK IS WELL PAID
Manager of Local Western
Union Office Says Youth
Is Essential.


The local Western Union Office now
has six women students preparing to
take positions as operators next fall to
fill vacancies left by men called in the
draft. Two of these women are STU
| dents in the University, one a senior,
and the other four are Columbia girls.
Every evening from z to 8 o'clock.
they sit at the desk to take messages
and send them out under the super
vision of the operator in the office
From four to five months training is
required to become an efficient opera
tor. Some students can never learn
the work efficiently according to C. A.
Raum, manager of the local Office. One
essential point is that the operator
begin very young.
"One might as well try to fly to
heaven in a balloon" said Mr.. Raum,
'as to try to learn the business after
he is % years old | have been at
the WORK now for more than forty
years, and | have never known anyone
to become more than a,'plug operator
who took up the work after he was 81.
To be efficient, one must have a very
keen sense of hearing, and one seems
to have this better at a very early
age"
Young Students Preferred.
The Western Union Company pre-
fers students just out of high school,
and from 16 to 20 years old, pre-
ferably 16 or II. One of the best
operators that Mr.. Raum ever trained
was Henry T. Rice, who was 16 years
old when he began. He came into
the Office as a messenger boy and
learned the business so wa,, that h
was capable of taking charge of an
Office in five months. H. is now mana
ger of the Western Union Office at
Lawrence, Kan.
Mr. Raum has recently had more
than forty applicants to learn the busi- |
ness. Although he would be glad to
be able to give this number instTuc- |
tion, he hasn't room in his Offices The |
age of the applicants has ranged from |
16 to As years. One reason for so |
many applicants is that the work pays
well. An operator begins with a sal
ary of $50 and may work up to |
$40 a month. The working day is
eight hours, and if the operator works
overtime, he receives extra pay. A
plug operator" never gets over $50,
according to Mr.. Raun, yet one can
earn this much as an operator and at
the same time be agent at a railroad
station
Practice, and More Practice.
Learning the work is almost en-
tirely practice 1t takes only W o.:
three days for the student 70 learn
the alphabet and to make lette $ Then
he begins to take messages and 10
send them while the operator listens
to see if he makes mistake. After
one learns the alphabet, the rest is
practice.
The operators trained here are sub
ject to call anywhere. Not only this
office, but all the offices of the West
ern Union are training all the women
they can accommodate to fill posi-
tions. No fee is charged for i1struc
ton. Although positions are not
if one is a good operator,
there is little doubt that he will be
able to get a position, according to
Mr.. Raum.
Mr.. Raum says that women make
just as good operators as men except
In very expert work where the nerve
strain is great Then th,s 20 to
pieces more quickly than men TN the
whole, the company wnuld just a.
soon have women as men, and they
are paid as high salaries as men. More
than three hundred women are now
in the company's Offices in
ST. Louis.