Show WOMEN AT THE TYPEWRITER ztges Paid and the Chances of < cttiiig Employment Boston Globe Yes I suppose typewriting is a pretty good business for a woman said a lady operator As in every other business the success of each operator depends on herself and the compensation is a matter I mat-ter of agreement between each employe and employer for we have not yet become be-come numerous enough to have any powerful Typewriter Operators Union There are very fow places where they engage anybody simply for the purpose of operating the typewriter Most of the large firms employ stenograpliQrs who turn out their notes and do such other copying as may be required of them on the writing machine Speed and accuracy vary according to experience and natural aptitude It is the speed and accuracy that determine the salary principally but of course not in all cases For instance in many business houses the general manager or whoever dictates the letters talks them off in a rather slow deliberate deliber-ate manner and consequently no very great degree of shorthand speed is required re-quired in taking letters and there being comparatively few letters to write out speed in manipulating the typewriter is not essential But in such places they are usually very particular as to the general gen-eral knowledge the amanuensis possesses of the business of the house Neatness is one of the most valued qualities that an operator can have and I might also add one of the rarest What salaries are usually paid to lady operators Z They range all the way from S to 15 I or more per week replied the lady There are not many who receive more than 15 however that is jvery good pay when you come to compare it with what is paid to shop girls clerks telegraph operators and others I dont believe I that any class of women are paid so high on the average as those amanuenses who combine a knowledge of stenography I with ability to operate the typewriter It may be that bookkeepers and compositors I com-positors are paid as high although I do not think that even they are But are there not a good many operators opera-tors who do not work on salary Z There are about a dozen or fifteen typewriter operators men and women in Boston who do more or less copying but I only know one or two persons who attend exclusively to copying or taking dictation The latter kind of work requires re-quires a superior degree of skill in manipulating the machine to simple copyin of written or printed matter Those who take dictation find their patrons almost wholly in shorthand reporters re-porters vho usually find that it pays better to dictate their stenographic notes to a typewriter operator at a rate of speed varying from forty to sixty words a minute than to waste time and strength in personally writing out notes at an outlay out-lay of perhaps treble the time and I labor I laborHow much money can be made at that kind of work 1 I should say that those parties who have a good supply of dictation work can easilyaverage 1 an hour The work is very hard at times requiring one to begin early in the morning and continue until beyond midnight sometimes even until other workers begin the new days laborsHow does the business in Boston compare com-pare with elsewhere I dont claim t < J be entirely familiar with the typewriting business in that I regard hut I should say that Boston does I not compare with New York or some of the Western cities It is a comparatively I new industry and has not made such I rapid headway in conservative Boston as I in other places There are about 1500 typewriters actually in use in Boston and the number is steadily increasing It I gives profitable employment to many young men and young women who would otherwise be without remunerative work |