Beginners in these occupations in which the majority of the women are employed, start on folding or pasting, and as opportunity presents, gradually acquire practice in the higher grades of work, such as gathering and machine operating. There are some traces of the apprenticeship system in forwarding, ruling, and finishing, but these trades are so small that all of them combined require only a very few new workers each year.
Other Occupations
Other departments of the printing industry are photoengraving, stereotyping, electrotyping, and lithographing. They give employment to approximately 700 workers, distributed among more than 20 distinct trades, requiring the most diverse sorts of skill, knowledge, and training. There are about 100 men in the city engaged in the different processes of photoengraving. Nearly all of the stereotypers, numbering from 60 to 70, are employed in newspaper offices. There are about 125 electrotypers and 400 lithographers. The labor conditions closely approximate those found in other departments of the industry. Average wages for the different occupations are shown in Table 30.
TABLE 30.—AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS IN PHOTOENGRAVING, STEREOTYPING,
ELECTROTYPING, AND LITHOGRAPHING OCCUPATIONS, 1915[TableList]
| Workers in trade | Average daily earnings |
| Photoengraving | |
| Artists | $6.32 |
| Photographers | 4.69 |
| Etchers | 4.52 |
| Routers | 4.25 |
| Finishers | 4.21 |
| Proofers | 3.69 |
| Strippers | 3.61 |
| Blockers | 2.36 |
| Apprentices | 1.49 |
| Art apprentices | 1.27 |
| Stereotyping | 4.00 |
| Electrotyping | |
| Molders | 4.41 |
| Finishers | 4.01 |
| Casters | 3.18 |
| Routers | 3.17 |
| Builders | 3.13 |
| Blockers | 2.05 |
| Batterymen | 1.97 |
| Case fillers | 1.59 |
| Apprentices | 1.10 |
| Lithographing | |
| Lettermen | 6.63 |
| Artists | 6.41 |
| Pressroom foremen | 5.80 |
| Grainers | 4.73 |
| Engravers | 4.35 |
| Pressmen | 3.91 |
| Transferers and proofers | 3.41 |
| Pressroom apprentices | 2.80 |
| Tracers | 2.63 |
| Stone polishers | 2.53 |
| Pressfeeders | 1.72 |
| Other apprentices | 1.59 |
| Artist apprentices | 1.23 |
| Flyboys | 1.10 |
There is no well organized system for training apprentices in photoengraving, stereotyping, and electrotyping, or in any of the lithographic trades, except that of poster artist, in which an efficient and strictly regulated system of apprenticeship is maintained.
The Problem of Training
The report maintains that up to the end of the compulsory attendance period school training preparatory to entering the printing trades must be of the most general sort, due to the fact that in the average elementary school the number of boys who are likely to become printers is too small to form special classes. For example, in an elementary school of 1,000 pupils the number of boys 12 years old and over to whom instruction in printing would be of value from the standpoint of future vocational utility, would probably not exceed two. While admitting the advantages of the junior high school for the purposes of vocational training, the report points out that even in a school where only pupils of the upper grades are admitted, the number who are likely to become printers is still too small to warrant special instruction. In a junior high school of 1,000 pupils not more than nine boys are likely to become printers.
The report recommends a general industrial course during the junior high school period. What the boys need at this time is practice in the application of mathematics, drawing, and elementary science to industrial problems. Shop equipment should be selected with this object in mind. It is doubtful whether it should include a printing shop, for while such a shop would be useful to the few boys who will become printers, it would be of little value in training for other industries. The report suggests as subjects which should be included in the general industrial course practice in handling and assembling machinery, the study of color harmony, and the principles of design in connection with the work in drawing, the use of printing shop problems in applied mathematics, and thorough instruction in spelling, punctuation, and the division of words. It also recommends the course of industrial information referred to in previous chapters.