Evening star., 1922-12-13
MERE are 218 plate printers OF
the bureau OF engraving and
nrfnfinsr whn feel today that

! the bureau OF engraving and
| printing who feel today. that
| they have had knock
out blow from the House Of Represent
/ atives because the House has voted for
| the introduction OF modern power
presses to supersede the hand presses
| with which money and bonds have been
! printed heretofore. The vote was 1S7
! against SIS. and that seems to end a
| thirty-six-year fight against the per-
| sistent effort to adopt power printing.
| There is strong resemblance in that
! struggle to the opposition. in times
past. to all introductions OF labor-sav-
! ing machinery, whether in the printing
'rade or other lines Of industry. yet the
! history Of all such industries has ever
! shown that what seemed a deep dis
| appointment to the skilled workman. at
the time. has developed into his great
| advantage later.
! The introduction OF typesetting ma
| chinery Is good example Of that.
| Printers will remember. il old enough
In the trade, how aghast they felt at
the prospect that a machine would be
able to set as much in an hour as they
could set in a day, and no argument
1
| suit could be anything but disastrous;
vet in a remarkably short time. they
learned to operate the very machine
which had threatened to dsplace them
They found that their earnings We're
increased and the cheaping Of type
setting enhanced the demand for print
| ing so that their jobs became steadier
than ever.
There Is more than a mechanical
trade" in artistic printing-there is
art-and when the mechanical part is
accomplished more completely by
mechanism. it relieves the artist printer
for a greater exercise Of his art. BY
putting art-printing into the class
where 1t is within reach of n greater
clientele It widens the demand for 1t
and benefits the skilled workmen who
know how to create II. This contem-
r'ates not merely the 21s Jobs inme-
diately affected at the bureau of en-
craving and printing, but the whole
! range Of printing in America.
X 4. x X
When the sewing machine was in
vented there were riots because it would
yet nothing has SO aided the dress
makers as the sewing machine. When
power harvesterS were invented the
same opposition was shown. bu: they
have made farming easier and enabled
the fields to feed the masses. The in
vention of the automobile displaced mil
lions of horses, but the horse breeders
now make more by riding in their own
machines. while engaged in other voca-
tions. Steamships outrivalled sailing
vessels. but the sailors are row skilled
engineers. if they have had the ambi-
tion to keep up with progress.
X \
A serious fire in the White House
has left many timbers OF the roof
and upper floor in a charred and
blackened condition which ought to
be repaired. Congress has followed
President Harding's policy of economy
too literally, and SO there has been
some delay in making the needed re-
pairs-in fact, over a hundred years
delay, for the fire was caused by the
visit of the British during the war
of 1872. Hence, nobody can credit all
the economy in the delay of remodel
ing to the present administrat ton
However. an estimate of the cost of
substituting fireproof beams and ef-
facing all marks of the incendiary
mas Deen prepared DE fne OWCer IN
charge Of public buildings and
grounds.
1t is a great thing to be page in
the Senate. What power the pages
possess was illustrated a day or two
ago. when a new senator was found
putting away at a cigar in his seat
in that august assembly, and page
instructed him as to what would hap
pen if he did. not desist. But the full
authority was even better illustrated
when a man attempted to enter the
chamber, whose face was unfamiliar
to a certain new page, and the young
ster stopped him, with firmness for
bidding his intrusion.
"Oh. it's all right, I guess" pro-
tested the man. II used to work
here" But the protest was in vain.
That boy was as dauntless as the an
cient Roman:
Lars Porsena of Clusiun.
BY the nine gods he swore -
But the pages bravery went for
naught. for reinforcements came to
the would-be invader. and-formei