San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-15
5. A. PRINTERS.
CELEBRATE
80 YEARS
Golden Anniversary Of
Local Union Observed
at St. Anthony.

Fifty years of service, during which
their working hours have been reduced
from 10 to s and wages increased
about $50 per cent will be celebrated
by members of the International Typo
graphical Union with a golden ami
versary meeting Sunday afternoon at
80 O'Clock at the st. Anthony hotel.
And Mt that meeting will be Her
mann Schuetze, a charter member.
now retired, but able, he says, to ego
back to work" if he wanted to. Ed
koerps, secretary-trcasurer for 3S
years, also will be present.
Newspapers in English were printed
IN San Antonio as early as 1856 but it
was not until the early '70s that
the spirit of organization was mani
fest. The International Topographic
cal Union was not formed until 1860.
san Antonio was not long in falling
in line.
ORGANIZED IN 1873.
Early records were DESTROYED in a
IRE, but material proof is at hand to
show that the San Antonio local was
Organized on November Is, 1875.
IL is said by ''old-timers" that in
no other industry in the city have con-
ditions undergone more radical
changes and always for the better.
Getting out newspaper in the old
performance" The type was assembled
one character at time by hand and
5000 or 5000 "cms" was considered
good days work. Then. when the
paper had been printed. the type had
TO be distributed" Now, with the
linotype, a man is regarded as "a poor
ham il he cannot set as much in an
hour, and the distribution merely
means dumping the slugs back into the
metal pot-or, in modern plants. they
are smelted and nodded into pigs" be-
fore re-casting.
PRINTERS WERE "TRAMPS."
When the linotype was first
brought out it was tie cause of much
complaint. because of the statement
that it could do the work of half n
be without work. but DEVELOPMENTS
have not proved this. rs the number
and pay-of printers has steadily
increased.
Horace Greeley is credited with the
statement that "the linotype will
never be success as nothing will
ever set type unless it can chew to-
bacco. or drink whisky-or both"
Since the advent Of modern machin-
cry there have almost disappeared
from the shops the itinerant or tour
ist" printer-and the great majority
of them were-whose only recon-
mendation necessary was his "rule."
Many middle-aged printers of to-
day delight in recounting activities
of Bob kirkpatrick or Wandering
Willie Warehouse Of Walla Walla.
WASH" two of the most famous Of
the old timers. now long since having
pasted up their last string" and
signed thirty"
FULL OF WHIMS.
Those old journeymen were full Of
wbims and. as upon them depended
getting out the paper" they were
given much consideration.
brOulO Nliildms. dnOtHeT olu
timer. still living. might lay his stick
down in the middle Of a line, with
the remark: II want cocktail now. =
and go out for it. He might be back
in n few minutes and he might not.
During a pre-holiday rush on Texas
morning paper some % years ago be
made that remark. The next heard
from him he was in New Zealand.
One of the accomplishments OF
which the printers are most proud is
their home at Colorado Springs on
which S3.3J4.71S has been spent.
where 900 old members are cared for.
Another is the mortuary feature in
which s4.727, 1862 has been paid 10
bencficiaries. Third is the pension
fund established in 1908 which has
disburscd SG,743,017.
Sixteen years ago the average all
nual wage of printers were 1897 and
last year the average was S2112.
The average age expectancy of the
printer % years ago was 41.25 years
and now it is 57.6S. an increase of
fifteen wears brought about by i'm.