The study of printing should be more general in all our schools—but not as it is taught so often—by teachers incompetent to glimpse and grasp its widest possibilities—to make it live and thrill with all its latent power.
If its mechanical aspects are over emphasized it must fail to appeal to intellectual scholars, since it cannot sufficiently stir their imaginations to command interest.
The printing and publishing industry stands among the six largest from the point of view of annual value in dollars—in this country—and has, of course, boundless possibilities for good and evil. Nothing is more essential to civilization intellectually or commercially, than printing.
The allied industries are also relatively important. The United States produces more paper than any other five nations combined and hence offers countless opportunities for a good livlihood in this line.
Six hundred million dollars and more are annually expended for advertising in the United States and advertising invariably involves printing of some sort.
Aside from the positions that require a knowledge of printing more or less complete, such as proofreading, publishing, librarians’ work, etc., there are jobs connected with the paper industry where this knowledge, which as a matter of fact is rarely found, would prove of great advantage.
It is evident, moreover, that some practical knowledge of printing may prove useful if not essential for practically all men who engage in commerce or manufacturing. They are all buyers of printing, and it is a difficult commodity to purchase intelligently.
For authors or editors a knowledge of typesetting is very valuable. They should know the mechanics of it, for “author’s corrections” are the bugaboo of most printers and the cause of much unnecessary expense and misunderstanding about the cost of printing, because the inexperienced author seldom realizes that the change of a word may involve the resetting of an entire paragraph.
When we have agreed that a grounding in printing is desirable for prospective authors and business men, we have included a high proportion of our population. Even professional men will find it beneficial, though possibly not in proportion to the time required for its mastery.
From a purely educational point of view, I can emphatically state from personal experience, that nothing ever helped me more in acquiring concentration of mind than typesetting.