Wage Earning and Education Part 15

On account of the seasonal character of the work considerable time is lost through unemployment, particularly in those occupations in which women predominate.

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

Average Workers in trade 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 cla.s.ses. 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 a.s.sembling 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.

The establishment of a two year printing course in a separate vocational school is recommended to meet the need for specialized instruction from the end of the compulsory period to the apprentice entering age. The printing trades are relatively small and it is only by concentrating in a single school plant all the boys who may wish to enter them that specialized training can be made practicable. In this way it would be possible to secure cla.s.ses of from 60 to 100 boys each for such trades as composition and presswork. The report emphasizes the need for instruction in trade theory as against practice on specific operations. It points out that the boys will have plenty of opportunity after they go to work to acquire speed and manual skill, while they have little chance, under modern shop conditions, to obtain an understanding of the relation of drawing, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and art to their work.

The only trade extension training offered by the public schools at the present time is that given in the technical night schools. During the second term of 1915-16 there were 28 persons enrolled in the technical night school printing cla.s.s. Of these 28 persons three were journeymen printers, five described themselves as "helpers," 11 were apprentices, one was employed in the office of a printing establishment, and eight were engaged in occupations unrelated to printing. No special provision is made for the apprentices. The course, which includes hand composition, a little press work, and lectures on trade subjects, is planned "to help broaden the shop training of those working at the trade." That it does so to any considerable extent is doubtful. Too much of the time is devoted to hand work and practice on operations which the boys can easily learn in the shops. It is believed that the plan followed in the evening apprentice course prescribed by the International Typographical Union, in which no shop equipment or apparatus is used, is better adapted to the needs of boys employed in the trade. The course consists of 46 lessons in English, lettering, design, color harmony, job composition, and imposition for machine, and hand folding. The cla.s.ses are taught by journeymen teachers. In February 1916 about 100 students were enrolled, of whom approximately one-third were apprentices and two-thirds journeymen.

CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY REPORTS

These reports can be secured from the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio. They will be sent postpaid for 25 cents per volume with the exception of "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools" by Judd, "The Cleveland School Survey" by Ayres, and "Wage Earning and Education" by Lutz. These three volumes will be sent for 50 cents each. All of these reports may be secured at the same rates from the Division of Education of the Russell Sage Foundation, New York City.

Child Accounting in the Public Schools--Ayres.

Educational Extension--Perry.

Education through Recreation--Johnson.

Financing the Public Schools--Clark.

Health Work in the Public Schools--Ayres.

Household Arts and School Lunches--Boughton.

Measuring the Work of the Public Schools--Judd.

Overcrowded Schools and the Platoon Plan--Hartwell.

School Buildings and Equipment--Ayres.

Schools and Cla.s.ses for Exceptional Children--Mitch.e.l.l.

School Organization and Administration--Ayres.

The Public Library and the Public Schools--Ayres and McKinnie.

The School and the Immigrant--Miller.

The Teaching Staff--Jessup.

What the Schools Teach and Might Teach--Bobbitt.

The Cleveland School Survey (Summary)--Ayres.

Boys and Girls in Commercial Work--Stevens.

Department Store Occupations--O'Leary.

Dressmaking and Millinery--Bryner.

Railroad and Street Transportation--Fleming.

The Building Trades--Shaw.

The Garment Trades--Bryner.

The Metal Trades--Lutz.

The Printing Trades--Shaw.

Wage Earning and Education (Summary)--Lutz.