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Show PRESSMAN ? Here is a trade which will give any boy of average Intelligence Intel-ligence and a fair common school education the opportunity opportun-ity to reach a position whloh may yield him a (alary equal to that of first-class men In any other trade or profession It may even put him In the millionaire mil-lionaire Glass If his mechanical ability should prove to be of superior quality In any event It Is certain to provide a comfortable com-fortable living. By C. W. JENNINGS. AVE you. ever stood in the j KjjJI I basement of a big building I vffi ' i Delnslng to a great news-I news-I Paper and watched the JI'TI 1 tremendous whirring press-es press-es pulling paper off an endless end-less roll so fast that your eye could scarcely follow it, and delivering at the other end of the machine countless count-less printed and folded newspapers so rapidly that the indicators on some of the modern electric presses record as many as 300,000 eight-page papers an hour? Or have you watched one of the tremendous multi-llthographlc presses that pull out a roll similarly and deliver at the other end colored ' pictures that pick up six different col-! ors of ink In passing and come out so ' fast that no human being could count them ? And has It ever occurred to you then that here was an occupation for your boy, that he could start In, without any more education than the common-' est of common schools could five him, when he was only sixteen, and learn all about these Innumerable whirling rollers and cogwheels and other wheels, and Interrelated moving things, and finally be at the head of the multitude of men that stand around and touch levers now and then and put in new rolls of paper to take the place of the exhausted ones, and, In short, know everything about it all, and still while he was a young man? Well, your boy can do this very thing and, furthermore, he can rise to a superlntendency of the biggest printing establishment In the land, and, and all based on his humble beginning be-ginning when he was sixteen. And when he reaches the top which Is within the ' compass of your ambitious, ambi-tious, energetrc son he will occupy a place quite as high in development and with a salary that will enable him to own an automobile If he wishes to, sooner than If he took a job in the first place that let him wear a white shirt and creased trousers. (Let me say emphatically that the best positions po-sitions in the land are generally won by men who started in wearing overalls.) over-alls.) All he needs is the desire, for a job Is always awaiting an ambitious boy who is willing to work. The best opportunities are probably found in the large printing houses that get out lithographic and job work, books, and and perhaps print magazines; for the work is more diversified di-versified and of larger character, and there are openings to be filled by men who have made good. Your boy applies to the foreman, and, if there is an opening, he will start in as an apprentice at about $4 a week. There will be four or five years of work ahead of him before he will reach what he will consider a real position; but the drudgery will pass in about a year. At first he will keep things In order areund the press, help wash the Ink off the rollers when one Job is finished and prepare them for the next; but all this time he will be learning the details of presswork, and the mysterious machinery will be- j come familiar to him. j Pretty soon, say a year or two after aft-er he began. If he is bright and ambitious, ambi-tious, he will be set to feeding a Gordon Gor-don press (one of the small job press es that print cards, letterheads, envelopes, en-velopes, etc.), and while doing this his pay will be gradually increased to $9 a week. His next advancement will be feeding a pony (small) cylinder cylin-der press, when he will be paid as high as $12, then a larger cylinder press, receiving $14 weekly; and finally he will be competent to feed the largest sheets of paper properly . Into one of the biggest cylinders, at $16 a week. At this time, whlcu Is after about four years of apprenticeship, he will be admitted to the labor union as .a full-fledged feeder. The day's work will last for eight .hours. After continuing con-tinuing feeding for several months, he will attract the attention of the foreman fore-man by his application and industry, and will be put on as apprentice pressman at $18 a week, to equip himself him-self to operate all kinds of presses, until un-til after a year's training, he will get a union card announcing that he Is a qualified pressman and entitled to the full scale of wages of $24 a week. Then he will be given direct charge of a couple of cylinder presses, with the feeders under him. All this tllme he will be reading and studying everything he can find that relates to a pressman's duties and con sulting with more experienced men; In short, making himself capable to fill any position In the department. So It I will be a matter of course that in a year or so more, a vacancy occurring, he will be made assistant foreman, at ' $30 weekly. Of course, this is In direct di-rect line to the foremanship, the direct head of the entire press department I of the establishment, who has some-! some-! times 100 men and boys under him, a position that, conditions being fa-' fa-' vorable, he will reach by the time he Is thirty or soon afterward. As foreman fore-man he might have charge of as many as 15 cylinder presses and 20 Job presses, and In the beginning will be paid $40 a week. This pay will be ultimately Increased up to as much as $60, which Is about the pay of the best foreman. Your son will have learned long since that further advancement must include other departments, and will be picking up a general knowledge of the composing room, all phases of printing, print-ing, binding, etc., so as to make himself him-self capable to take the next higher position, that of assistant superintendent superintend-ent on the entire mechanical department. de-partment. His salary this time will be somewhere around $4,000 a year. Of course this leads directly to the position of superintendent, the executive execu-tive and controlling boss of all mechanical me-chanical work of the institution. Superintendents Su-perintendents are paid anywhere from $5,000 a year up, according to the magnitude mag-nitude of the business of the company they work for, and in all likelihood your son will soon be made a member of the firm, or will be called by a large establishment to take the general management Some superintendent! are paid as much as $10,000 a year. The line of progress in a newspape: office Is somewhat different. Your boy starts in at sixteen as apprentice, which he must follow for four or five years. The pay at first will be $4 to $6 weekly, and he will work up from the drudgery part, which is the same as In the other case, then in a yeai or so become brakeman, the man that starts and stops presses on order oi the regular pressman. About this time he will join the union, and then will work up through various steps, in general similar to those followed in regular printing houses, until he becomes be-comes assistant and finally regular pressman at $30 a week. Large newspaper news-paper presses are generally attended by two pressmen and four or five assistants. as-sistants. The next promotion Is to be assistant foreman of the press room, who is paid $55 a week; and finally to foreman at anywhere from $65 to $100, according to the magnitude of the business. It Is likely that after becoming foreman fore-man your son will be offered an advanced ad-vanced position In a general printing establishment, in which case his progress prog-ress will be much as narrated before. This Is one of the most lucrative definite lines of work connected with the publishing business, and offers fine opportunities for getting on, as has been seen. In these days a man who can take charge of the machinery machin-ery used In printing a large dictionary or of fine lithographic work, In which the excellence of the output depends so directly upon the presswork, has accomplished much. The figures used In this article are based on those paid in New York city. (Copyright, 1910. by the Ajssoclated Literary Lit-erary Press.) |