The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-02-03
ChaDter TX.

sweeping changes between two very
different eraS of newspaper service.
Either one of two courses would
bring about such result, but they
are both combining and in addition
to that there are some minor things
to combine with the main ones.
The Paper Famine
The scarcity of print paper is very
rapidly bringing matters to focus
and the. scarcity of printers, arising
from the fact that hardly any ap-
prentices are learning the trade,
makes sure that this trouble will be
growing more and more critical
for several years even if large num-
bers of apprentices should take up
the work right away, and this is not
going to happen, for several reasons.
Print paper is going to continue
scarce and high, because only two
or three new print paper mills have
been built in the past six or seven
years, and it takes about a year to
Guild and equip one of them. Men
who have capital to invest in paper
mills are finding it more profitable
to equip their mills for making
wrapping paper, carton paper, COM
poboard, beaverboard or some of the
various products other than print
paper. The consumption of print
paper by existing publishing houses
has increased about 25 per cent since
the armistice, and the strife for pos
session of whatever amount of print
there is in existence and in course
of manufacture is likely to continue
with increased intensity till the little
crowded out of the race and their
papers suspended.
Famine of Printers
The constantly decreasing number
of capable printers will make a con-
slant labor shortage and since it re-
qHires five years to teach an appren-
tice and make printer of him, and
since the teaching of apprentices to
fill up the gaps has not been COM
menced yet, the dearth of printers
Will keep on increasing for five years
or more. At the present time, each
employer is bidding against all the
other employers, for the services of
available printers, when they ought
to be teaching young men and wo-
men in their own shops and offices.
Somebody Must Lose
There are difficulties in the way
of teaching young people the trade.
If a girl learns the trade she may
marry and quit the work at any time,
and the time spent in learning must
be lost, either by herself or the firm
that taught her. In the case of the
boy, he is not SO likely to change his
vocation, but since he cannot earn
more than the price of his
tuition for while in the printing
office except by merely acting as a
chore boy, it follows that he will not
take up the long task when he can
engage in common labor in any one
of many lines and make several dol
lars day in ready cash. If the EN-
ployer paid enough to get him under
those circumstances, the employer
must lose several dollars day on
him without feeling certain that the
boy will remain and make it up after
he becomes proficient. The tempta-
ton is to step out and take employ
ment in some other shop at just
what he is worth, after the first en-
ployer has taught him. In any event
somebody sacrifices for a long period
Misuse of Apprentice
The old method of teaching APP
prentices in the country newspaper
offices, was to find a hoy who was
to become printer or
publisher and induce him to work
Tor long period for nearly nothing,
while he learned the trade. He was
kept doing unproductive work such |
as distributing type and leads and |
slugs, and washing presses, cleaning
floors and in general the most unin-
teresting and unproductive work in |
the house, and the kind of work that |
requires the least science. He was |
reduced to the status of peon and |
kept there as long as possible. When
he asked for increased pay he was
made to see that the particular work
he was doing did not yield much re-
turns, and there was no acknowledge
ment that the unproductive labor
had to be done by somebody and was
a legitimate charge against the ex-
pense account. If it were not kept |
up, the productive work could not be
done, just as an alfalfa pillow cannot |
be kept doing good work unless the
share is sharpened. Boys who be-
came good printers under such con-
ditions did it Notwithstanding the
handicaps. If they had been prop
erly encouraged and pushed along in
The science of the work, and merely
Taught the mental labor the same as
the rest, they would have advanced
several times as fast. This paper
started an agitation among the Idaho
publishers in 1928 for an in
creased effort at finding and teach
ing young folks the printing trade on
modern and progressive lines, but
tn, suggestions were not well re-
,eived in conventions, and labor con-
1itions have grown worse all the
time for most of the publishers,
while The Idaho Republican has fol-
owed its own advice and had a con-
stantly increasing labor independ-
snce. 1t has taught every feature of
-ta 1uorL IN 10Th hAuc and n |