The Coolidge examiner., 1930-12-26

Domestic news is gathered by
correspondents in every city and
important town of the empire, sift-
ed, and arranged by two editors.
twenty men compose the city
staff and, in close harmony with
the repOrtOrial methods of our Oc-
cidental papers, cover the local
news of Tokyo, a city of more than
two million people.
In common with all Oriental Ian
guages, Japanese is written and
printed from right to left, and the
title, therefore, is in the upper
right hand corner of what would
be for US the eighth page. The
lines of print are vertical and read
from top to bottom and from right
to left. Each article is in a small
square surrounded by a border.
How the Type Is Set.
Typesetting in Japanese is a te-
diOus and laboriOus piece of busi-
ness from an Occidental viewpoint,
though the many hands employed
make it rapid enough in an Oriental
sense. Japanese is printed in two
sets of characteristic borrowed
Chinese, which are Geographic,
each representing word or
group of words; and side by side
with these characters, in their ver-
tical line, runs the translation or
explanation in the indigenous grass
characters, a sort of phonetic or
stenographic script easily read and
understood by the common and un-
educated people.
When an article or editorial is
ready in manuscript, it is sent first
to the Geographic composing room,
where it is divided into "takes" and
given to Chinese cOmpositOrs. The
room is filled with closely set racks,
containing the thousands of varie-
ties of ideOgraphic type.
Each cOmpositOr goes from rack
to rack looking for the character
required That he may not forget
what he is looking for, he sings it
over and over audibly, in cracked.
nasal sort of sing-song.
When the article is finished it is
placed in a sort of galley, tied to-
gether and sent to the real compost.
tors, who unite it and proceed with
pair of tweeZers to place the
small grass type beside the ideo-
graph characters. This work de-
mands scholarship of a high order,
for it requires not only an accurate
and exact knowledge of orthog-
raphy and language, but general in
formation in regard to the subjects
discussed, that the multi-meaning
characters may be interpreted.
The type thus completed is
proved and the proof carefully read
and corrected and taken then to
the imposing stones. where it goes
into the makeup of the paper.
All typesetting is of necessity
hand work, as the peculiar charac-
ter of the language precludes the
use of linotype.
Stereotyping and press work are
along the ordinary lines required
for an American perfecting ma
chine, from which the paper comes.
folded and counted as in one of our
own establishments
Work Hours and Rates.
The days work is similar to our
own, although the hours differ
slightly. The editorial department
begins activities about eleven in
the morning and it's work is com
pleted by five in the afternoon. The
typesetters are at work by eight.
The business offices are open from
ten to ten.
The first edition is on the press
by eight, in order that it may catch
the night trains for provincial cir
culation. The city edition goes to
press at l 100 a. m.
Advertising rates are compare
lively cheap-on the ordinary pages
fifty sen; on the title and edi-
tOrial pages up to eighty sen line,
a sen being practically half a cent.
The paper has staff of CORE
spOndents in most of the capitals
of the world-WashingtOn, London,
Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and in each
of the great cities of the Orient.
1t uses cables and telegraphs
quite as regardless of cost as does
the average western papers, and is
sues extra editions when great
events occur,