The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-14
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
frederic ,. aAsKIN. Direcesr.
washington, d. O
A HUMANIzED PRINT SHOP

.
| the end of a festive evening to some
people. but it is simply lunch time
| to 200 workers in the government
printing office. At that dim hour
when most OF us would prefer dream
] ing about pie to eating it, the women
who get the congressional record
ready for the early morning mail stop
folding and addressing operations to
eat lunch.
A year ago lunch meant a dry or
soggy sandwich out of coat pocket,
eaten in the work room. Or else 1t
meant a trip along a dark street to an
open-all-night restaurant Lunch at
| a. m was a gloomy diversion at best
in those days.
! But now the Government printing
office has gone in for humanized eff
cheney. The G. o. P. Cafeteria and
When the a. m. lunch bell rings the
, congressional record sworkers hurry
| into the elevators that will carry them
| to the new cafeteria on the top floor
of the building. After eating hot
meal served at cost price, they spend
lounging in the rest room, or in the
big assembly hall playing a phono-
graph and perhaps dancing.
| Cafeterias and recreation rooms IN
offices and plants are fairly common
nowadays. But the government print
| ing office claims some unusual feat
ures along these lines. The govern
ment Bureau is the first to organize
eating and recreational activities on
a strictly cooperative and self-sus-
tanning basis, with employees forming
the board of directors and the various
committees. 1t is also the only gov
eminent bureau to run a cafeteria
serving meals on a "a hour a day
schedule.
| sUntiI a year ago the biggest print
ing plant in the world made no spec
/ ial effort to provide extras for its
employees. 1t gave 1900 people Jobs,
and provided them with up-to-date
equipment, scientific lighting, and a
hospital, in case of accident. If they
wanted to play or to buy cooked
lunch they went outside the building.
| Then George H. Carter, public
printer of the United States, became
particularly interested in the lunch
problem. Cafes in the neighborhood
of the printing office were high priced
or dingy. Some 1000 people, Mr.;
him every day in the most impromptu
fashion. He doubted if stale sand
witches and tepid milk could be very
efficient and cheering stimulants for
the after-lunch work period.
Every inch OF serviceable space in
| the huge building was used for
machinery and workers. But Mr..
Carter studied the pointed roof and
| the useless attic under it. He de-
cided that the roof could be raised
at the sides to form complete eighth
story. He called his employees to-
| gether and talked it over, and the
result was that the bureau decided
to go into the cafeteria business on a
large and efficient scale. The govern
ment would pay for alt @-ations in the
building and for equip ent, and the
! employees association would under
/ ALL a. or1d n I70 hrrC ne
| Employees Save Money
A fund of $4,000 was raised by
contributions of one or two dollars
from every member of the new asso-
citation, and with this capital the
cafeteria started doing business JAN
uary %. Today Mr.. Carter estimates
| that $500 meals have been served
and the cafeteria is saving the en-
| ployees of the office 100000 year.
| Prices of food served are said to
be from Is to SO per cent cheaper
than those in restaurants in the vicin-
| ity of the bureau. The printing office
sells soup to itself at cents a bowl.
Salad is 10 cents; sandwiches are s.;
pint of milk, 6; pie and cake, 8; and
vegetables are and 8 cents Even
with these low prices the association
reports that it had replaced the $4,000
with which it started and that it has
made a profit in addition.
The "a hour day on which the cafe
terir is Obliged to operate runs
on duty for night work can get late
supper before he starts his shift, lunch
in the early morning, and breakfast
before he leaves the office; while the
day worker can get his three meals
at the cafeteria in more usual order.
Several hundred of the employees do
take advantage of this opportunity to
! to eat all of their meals at the office.
and thus to save considerable money.
Nearly every employee in the print
ing office eats lunch in the cafeteria.
! Before it was opened those who
brought lunch ate at the presses and
machines where they were working.
The Cafeteria Association decided,
however, that every worker should
| have change of environment during
the lunch period. Accordingly tables
were provided in the cafeteria for
For these employees too there is a
short order counter where they can
quickly buy cup of coffee or a piece
Of cake to supplement their lunches.
The entire eighth floor of the big
red printing office belongs to the
shower baths. d well equipped bowl
ing alley, and a large assembly hall
with stage at one end. The en-
ployes bought a 400 grand piano
Tor this hall. But their sense of fit
ness did not allow them to use so
dignified an instrument for lunch
| time dancing. So a sturdy upright
piano that could be hammered with
out fear of injury was added to the
furnishings of Harding Hall"
The Musical Scrub Lady.
A player piano stands in one cor
ner Of the room, too. BY dropping a
nickel in the slot dance music or a
classical concert can be enjoyed when
there is no musician on hand to per-
form.
This player piano is extremely pop
ular,> Mr.. Carter says. Late the other
night he happened to pass thru the
assembly hall. It was empty save for
solitary scrub woman who stood with
hands on her hips listening with bliss
full satisfaction to Beethoven's Minuet.
Recently the instrument refused to
work, to the great alarm of numerous