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How to Make Money in
the Printing Business.
A Book for Master Printers
WHO REALIZE THAT THERE IS A PRACTICAL SIDE TO THE
ART, AND WHO DESIRE TO KNOW THE SUREST
METHODS OF MAKING PROFITS.
BY
PAUL NATHAN
OF THB
LOTUS PRESS.
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MANY OF THE LEADING PRINTERS
OF THE UNITED STATES.
NEW YORK :
THE LOTUS PRESS.
1900.
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UBRKw
SCHOOL
Copyright 1900
BY
Paul Nathan.
GIFT
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PREFACE
There are in existence about two thousand different
books pertaining to printing and typography, and per-
haps as many more that are partly devoted to these
subjects. Of this large number, only a bare half dozen
treat of the business management of a printing office,
and its successful operation for the purpose of yielding
that profit for which men do business. In the half
dozen there is not a total of a hundred pages directed
toward the theme of the present work. It seems to
me that this is sufficient excuse for bringing this book
before the printing trade. For years the cry has gone
up from the followers of Guttenberg that there is no
money in the printing business, that competition takes
all the margin out of the work, and that the cost for
renewal of plants- has eaten up the profits.
Personally, I have found that the printing business
yielded satisfactory profits, as much as one could expect
in a strictly competitive business, and in every city there
are men who have made money in this trade; yet the
diversity of opinion as to profitable methods, and the
confusion of ideas as to the cost of producing printing,
has led me to the conclusion that there is imperative
need of an exchange of views for the better education of
the trade. There are plenty of books on the history of
the art, and a large number exhibiting ornamental print-
ing and the methods of its production, but the practi-
cal financial side has been very much neglected. In
136
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PREFACE.
this book, 1 have gathered together the impressions of
some of the leading minds in the trade as to the re-
quisites to the profitable management of the printery.
With the benefit of such competent advice, I feel that it
is not presumptuous to undertake to lay down the busi-
ness rules on which a printing office must be managed
in order to make money for its proprietors.
In that excellent work, Theodore L. De Vinne's
" Printers' Price List, " I took my first lessons in con-
ducting a printery for profit. Owing to the fact that
conditions and machinery have changed very largely,
the figures in his book are no longer applicable, and it
has long been out of print. Other works relating to
the cost of printing have been laid aside for similar
reasons. It has been deemed best to include in this
book very few figures, and to avoid the quotation of
prices, but to endeavor to lay down the foundation
principles on which prices should be based. In this
way the book may serve as a guide for many years,
as the essentials to making a profit do not change as
quickly as do the prices.
Where so little has been written upon a subject it
is impossible for an author to borrow much from the
experience of those who have gone before. I have
been obliged to lay out this work on original lines, and
have combined with my own experience the wisdom of
representative men in the trade. In the hope that
these pages will be read with both mental and finan-
cial profit by master printers, and that the thoughts
herein spread forth may live to add to the general pros-
perity of the craft, 1 subscribe myself,
Yours sincerely,
New York City, ,900 PAUL NATHAN.
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TO
Cbeo&ote Xow De Wnne,
THE DEAN OF AMERICAN PRINTERS,
WHO GAVE ME MY FIRST LESSONS
IN THE MAKING OF PRICES,
THIS BOOK IS APPRECIATIVELY DEDICATED.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER
1.
The Printer as a Business Man i
11.
Starting an Office
II
HI.
What Class of Customers to Seek
21
IV.
How to Develop Business
29
V.
Writing Advertising Matter, etc.
3*
VI.
Taking Orders ....
4*
VII.
Advertising
5o
VIII.
How to Talk to Customers
7>
IX.
The Cost of Producing Printing
79
X.
Estimating
97
XI.
Acquiring Money
109
XII.
Price Cutting
114
XIII.
Competitors
124
XIV.
Profit, and How it Should be Figured
»34
XV.
Buying
■43
XVI.
Doing Good Printing
149
XVII.
The Composing-room
156
XVIII.
The Pressroom
169
XIX.
The Business Office ....
181
XX.
Bookkeeping
100
XXI.
Management of Employees
201
XXII.
The Employee's Opportunity
211
XXIII.
Danger in Side Ventures .
218
XXIV.
Systematic Saving ....
225
XXV.
Partnerships
232
XXVI.
Leakages
242
XXVII.
XXVIII.
Keeping Up With the Times
Suggestions From Others :
Theodore L. De Vinne
Carl Schraubstadter
Wm. J. Berkowitz
J. Clyde Oswald
C. S. Morehouse
Chas. H. Cochrane
Henry L. Bullen
Nathan Billstein
Jno. W. Campsie
Sigmund Ullman
250
257
260
264
266
268
269
27O
272
273
276
XXIX.
The Relation of Paper-Feeding Machines
in the Pressroom
TO P
ROFIT
279
XXX.
Timely Hints
J. Cliff Dando ....
F. L. Montague
Henry A. Wise Wood
30I
302
302
306
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Contents— Continued.
The American Printer
Advance in Typesetting Machinery
Paper Joggers and Alarm Countfrs
How Do You Buy Your Inks ....
Perfection Wire Stitchers
Superiority in Types
The Best in Rollers is the Cheapest
Superior Excellence in Platen Presswork
Buying of Printing Inks
Wesel Specialties for Better-Class Printing Offices
Money Saving Devices
A Word About Printing Inks ....
Tympalyn Saves Make-Ready ....
Scott Presses are Money-Makers
The Benedict Imprint Attests Excellence in Plates
Machinery for Engravers ....
Using Illustrations to Increase Printers' Profits
The Merganthaler Linotype ....
An Expert Opinion Regarding " Century " Presses
Making a Profit on Small Work
The Golding Jobber
Why Not Make Money by Buying a Press That Will Last a
Lifetime?
W. A. Nosworthy
The Huber
J. E. Linde Paper Co. ....
Duplex Printing Press Co.
Inland Type Foundry
Typothe™- and Platemaker ....
Henry Lindenmyer & Sons ....
PACB
309
312
316
3«7
319
320
321
322
324
3*5
329
33<>
331
336
339
343
344
350
358
362
366
37 1
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
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CHAPTER I.
THE PRINTER AS A BUSINESS MAN.
The printer who embarks in business is supposed to
have learned his trade thoroughly, and as a rule he is a
superior workman, who by industry and economy has
been able to save enough to become an employer. He
is seldom a business man, because his training has been
in an entirely different direction. The young printer who
thinks that he can run a printing office of his own suc-
cessfully because he knows how to do good printing has
a great deal to learn, and quite as much to unlearn. The
education of the composing room and of the pressroom
is not the sort of education that fits a man for dealing with
customers, making prices, buying stock and machinery,
contesting with shrewd people and schemers, and
looking after the scores of things that are as important as
the actual printing that is done. On the contrary, such
education as the printer receives in the printery often
largely unfits him for taking charge of the business end,
and this is a prominent reason why so many master
printers fail to make money and simply worry along,
living from hand to mouth, scrambling to meet notes,
never attaining a competency, and perhaps eventually
going back to the case or to the press.
A false notion as to prices and profits usually rests in
the mind of the printer who is thinking of starting in
business. He has time and again seen the prices given
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2 THE PRINTER AS A BUSINESS MAN.
on work that he has done, and noted that the proprietor
charged, say $12, for work that he, the workman, per-
formed for $4 or $5, and he has assumed that almost all
the difference went into the proprietor's pocket, and that
if he started a printery he could take such work at a dollar
or two less, and yet earn one-half more than as an em-
ployee. With printing enough to keep five or six men
busy he has calculated that he can pocket the wages of
two men or more. This would-be proprietor seldom
figures on dull times, but always sees the rosy side, and
thinks that his presses will never be idle, or his customers
fail to pay their bills. This is not at all an overdrawn
case. It is the most usual condition of mind and knowl-
edge of the young men who start in the printing business
for themselves. It is a dangerous state of mind because
it is an ignorant one that wots not of its ignorance.
Printers are above the average in intelligence and
education, but they are commonly poor business men.
If beginners in business had any proper conception of
their ignorance of business methods, of what utter chil-
dren they are in the business world, the danger would
not be so great, for they would pitch in and learn the
conditions before they embarked in business. If a printer
were going to open a dry goods store or a grocery, a shoe
store or a clothing house, he would understand that he
must know something of business management or expect
to fail; but, when he goes into the printing business,
because he knows the trade, he naturally thinks that he
knows it all, when he is often but a babbling ignoramus
in business matters and commercial negotiations. It is a
hard thing to make others realize that they know little or
nothing of a particular thing, yet the successful men in
the printing trade know that only men who are first
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THE PRINTER AS A BUSINESS MAN. )
made conscious of their ignorance as to business methods
can be taught. It is a hard road to success, and there is
a deal to be learned, and even the leaders in successful
business are always finding that some fellow has got
ahead of them and developed new means of progress that
they had failed to recognize. How necessary it is, then,
for the novice in the printing business to equip himself
with knowledge gleaned from the experience of those
who have gone before!
Let none be offended at the general assumption that
beginners in the printing business, and many who are
not beginners, are ignorant. It is not that they are uned-
ucated or uninformed generally, or that they are deficient
in the mechanical part of printing, but simply that they
are unfamiliar with what are popularly termed business
methods.
The dry goods man, the grocer, the hatter, etc., each
and all sell articles that they do not make, and they
charge the public from twenty-five to fifty per cent,
advance upon the goods they handle, and more often
fifty than twenty-five. That percentage, whatever it is,
must pay all the expenses, losses, salary and profit. It is
a simple proposition, concerning which the storekeeper
cannot readily be misled. If one of these merchants buys,
say, $10,000 worth of stock in a year, incurs $3,000 of
expenses, sells $15,000 worth, and has $1,000 in goods
on hand as dead stock, he has simply earned a salary of
$2,000, and his profit will be what he can realize on the
dead stock. He has no difficulty in knowing the cost
price of his goods, and little in calculating the percentage
he must add. To achieve the result figured out above he
has to collect a dollar for every sixty cents worth of goods
sold, and, as some customers do not pay, and as some
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4 THE PRINTER AS A BUSINESS MAN.
goods have to be sold close to catch custom, he has been
obliged to sell most of his goods at just double the cost
price. It is broadly true, in a great many lines of business,
that the selling price must be double the manufacturing
cost to yield an adequate return to the merchant.
The printer in business knows these facts in a general
way, J)ut he is too often led astray by supposing that
when he pays a workman $s for the time on a job and
collects $10 from the customer, that he is doing as well as
the storekeeper. This is a complete fallacy, and the lack
of appreciation of this difference has sent many and many
a printer into bankruptcy. When the workman's time
on a job foots up $5, it will be found that the contingent
expenses, which are not paid for directly, usually average
more than another $5, so that the cost to the printer-
proprietor is apt to be about $11, and the selling price,
on the same basis as the storekeeper does business,
requires to be somewhere between $15 and $20. This is
gone into fully and demonstrated in the chapter on " The
Cost of Producing Printing," and the reader who requires
proof of the assertion will find plenty of it there to satisfy
him.
To learn how to be a good business man requires of
the printer that he first learn exactly what it costs him to
turn out his work. He must then see to it that he secures
interest on his capital, a salary, a margin for contingencies,
and a final profit above all ; otherwise he might better be
out of business, and in employment. He must also learn
all the nice methods of handling men and getting them
to pay a fair price, as well as how to buy his own
goods at bottom figures. Salesmen who deal with
printers have been known to say that they are the easiest
class of men to overcharge; that they are prone to believe
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THE PRINTER AS A BUSINESS MAN. 5
everything that they are told, and to fail to see the tricks
of the men who are unloading upon them with no
thought other than to get a price for the goods ; that they
seldom discount their bills, even when there is one per
cent, a month (or 12 per cent, a year) in so doing, which
is perhaps a higher percentage than they make on the
printing that they do.
The printer going into business must learn that there
are many sharpers in the world, and he must learn to dis-
tinguish them or he will fall by the way. He must learn
that his principal business is no longer to print a good
job and admire it, but to buy close and manage without
waste, and sell for all that he can get. And right here
there is room for a sermon : How many printers we see
spending half their time figuring how cheaply they can
print this or that job, whereas their true object in busi-
ness is not to see how cheaply they can do work, but
how much they can get for the work they do. The way
to charge is to make the price as high as a customer will
pay without being driven away, and not to make it as
low as can be afforded. That is business; that is what
we are all in business for — to make money — to gather in
a profit from the labor of others, greater than we can
earn by our own labor. The best business man is the one
who gets all that he honestly can, and the poor business
man is the one who always works too cheaply. There
is no sentiment about doing business for a profit. If one
is charitably inclined he can give away the money he
makes in business, but it is not good business to give the
profits to customers.
When the printer becomes a proprietor he requires to
forget, in a measure, that he is a printer, and to bear ever
before him the idea that he is a business man, whose
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6 THE PRINTER AS A BUSINESS MAN.
duty as such is to sell printing at a profitable figure. By
being a good printer he will be able the more easily to
sell at a top price; but if a man in the printing business
had to choose between being a good printer and a good
business man he had better choose the latter a hundred
and one times out of a hundred. As a business man his
place is no longer at the case or over the cylinder. He
should hire others and make a profit on their work — that
is business; that is a legitimate way of making money,
and he who has not learned it is not yet qualified as a
business man.
A few printers have the advantage of growing up in
business under the guidance of some successful master-
printer who has kept up with the times, and Who has
been willing to impart his business knowledge to those
under him. This is often the case with sons, who are
educated to perpetuate a large business, and who come
naturally by the training passed on to them by an experi-
enced parent: but the rank and file of printers have to
pick up their business training by dear experience.
There is no school of instruction in managing the business
end of a printing office. It is often a matter of complaint
in the trade that so little chance is afforded to apprentices
to learn the trade properly, but the opportunities for
learning how to manage the business office and to reap a
profit from printing are less common than those of the
apprentice who strives to master the mechanical details
of the art.
The beginner in the printing business, and the man
who has been in it for some years and foiled to make a
profit, both suffer from the lack of an adviser. There is
no fount of general information to which either can go
and gather the knowledge of how to make money out of
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THE PRINTER AS A BUSINESS MAN. 7
the printing office. The people who have learned it do
not go about advising young competitors how to succeed,
and if such do occasionally drop a word of good, season-
able advice to a beginner, ten to one the young man in
business suspects that it is a pointer given to mislead him,
and goes contrary to the advice. This is usually the case
when an established printer remonstrates with a new-
comer in the field as to cutting prices. The newcomer is
sure to think that the established printer is simply worked
up because he is losing trade to him, and so the young-
ster in business laughs in his sleeve, and goes on cutting
rates to his own ruin and the damage of the trade in his
vicinity. It is natural that a beginner in business should
think that the way to get work is to lower the prices;
but the men who have been there know that the way to
get customers worth having is to keep up both the quality
and the price.
The first thing, then, that a printer contemplating going
into business should study is the business methods of
successful concerns. If he does not know them he is
sure to lose money; if he appreciates his lack of such
knowledge he will find a way to acquire it, and it is
cheaper to learn before an investment is made in type and
presses than it is to learn afterwards by the dear road
of experience. Happy is the man who can thrive on the
experience, and pass the mistakes, of others. The rules
and principles that guide experienced men of business are
too often dearly bought. I recently heard a good printer
and good business man say, "I did thousands of dollars
worth of printing before I really knew what it cost to
produce it, and I ought to have received ten to twenty
per cent, more for the work that I did in those years, and
I might have had it, had 1 known what I now know."
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8 THE PRINTER AS A BUSINESS MAN.
This book is an endeavor to gather together and form-
ulate the underlying principles which should govern the
printer as a business man. In its compilation the views
of various successful printers have been more or less
embodied, and the means that they have employed to
erect and maintain their business structures have been
studied and reduced to manuscript. From the compli-
cated nature of the case it is impossible to form set rules
for the guidance of the printer in all exigencies of busi-
ness. Every matter that comes before him for consider-
ation has some points of difference from every other
instance, and must be decided according to the best light
and knowledge that he has at the time. In such a work
we can deal with principles only, and he who applies the
principles most accurately is likely to become the most
successful business printer.
A printer may be a good business man in some
respects and yet seriously lacking in others, and that too
without realizing where he is weak. I have seen men
who knew how to buy paper and presses to the very best
advantage, securing the last item of discount and most
favorable terms, but who were always at the mercy of a
customer who gave the bluff that so-and-so would do a
particular job for so much less money. Then again I
have seen a printer who was a past master in the art of
talking to customers, and who knew how to satisfy all
and get the highest prices for his work, but who did not
know enough to protect himself against the drummer,
but invariably paid the top price going, frequently for an
inferior article. Men of this sort do well in partnership,
where the talents of each can be utilized, but the man
who finds himself weak in some business essential should
cultivate improvement in that particular ; and the man
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THE PRINTER AS A BUSINESS MAN. 9
who thinks himself strong in all points should watch
himself to learn whether he has not weaknesses of which
other shrewd business men will take advantage.
The art of business is more than a knowledge of
trade — it involves a knowledge of men, and the ability
to lead them to do what you desire. It is the business of
a printer to see that his customers should have lots of good
orders for printing, and to accomplish this he must be
able to show them how and where it will pay to increase
an order. The printer should ever be urging on the cus-
tomer that if a thing is worth doing at all it is worth doing
well, and that such and such things would improve the
job in hand. To impress customers, and get them to
take advice, involves a wide knowledge of human nature,
and the peculiar gifts of a salesman. The business printer
who finds that he has not these in his make-up will hire
a man or take in a partner who has, and devote his own
time to pushing other branches of the business.
It is hoped that the printer who is already a good
business man will read this book and add to and com-
pare with his own ripe experience, while the printer who
is not yet a business man will receive hints which will
cause him to study business methods, and the art of so
managing a printery that the receipts shall always exceed
the outgo.
Tyros in the printing business are often deceived as
to their success during the first few years of a career.
Because the presses are busy and the cash comes and
goes, they think that they are doing a good rushing
business; but as the years roll on and the presses become
ancient and the type worn, and no balance has been
accumulated in the bank to renew the material, they
realize that they have been dupes to circumstances instead
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IO THE PRINTER AS A BUSINESS MAN.
of successful business men. One of the most prosperous
printers whom I ever met has several times expressed
himself to this effect : " 1 never could see the use of doing
printing for anybody unless I was quite sure that 1 would
get more for it than I paid out, and I never trusted a man
or firm beyond a certain sum, no matter how high they
were rated, as I do not furnish capital for others to carry
on business. The enforcement of these rules turns away
a large part of the work that is offered me, but I do not
think that I have ever lost any money by insisting upon
them."
It is well to get down to basic principles once in a
while, and strip an argument of all its confusing detail.
In the present case all the discussion as to what makes a
printer a good business man or a poor one may be
summed up in this short sentence : The printer who is
a good business man is he who has mastered the art of
getting considerably more for his work than he pays for
its production. Never forget this — from a purely busi-
ness standpoint all else is trivial — charge a profitable price
and see that you get the money.
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CHAPTER II.
STARTING AN OFFICE.
The first point to be considered in starting a job print-
ing office is whether there is a prospect of securing a
desirable run of custom. If there is no trade in sight there
is no call for the starting of a printery ; if the work in the
field is already in the hands of competent printers who
are giving satisfaction, it is a doubtful matter whether it
can be secured at a profitable rate. When an apparently
good opening is found, it should be canvassed with the
greatest care. Suppose, for instance, that a printer is
disposed to open a printing office in a city of 25,000
inhabitants, where there are already two job offices and
five newspaper offices doing job work. He should inves-
tigate, first, how much printing there is to give out in the
city, and then whether it is done mostly by the local
offices or whether a considerable percentage goes out of
town. The amount being approximately known, he must
consider how much of that work he would have to secure
to make a satisfactory business; then his chances for
getting that share require to be thoroughly investigated.
What are the facilities and the character of the offices
already in the field ? Are they up to date, and are the
proprietors hustlers? If so, they may be able to hold
their work against all comers.
In choosing a city for starting an office, the wise
printer will not decide because his liking is toward a place
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12 STARTING AN OFFICE.
socially or for non-business reasons, when other places
offer better openings. He should choose a city that has
established manufactories, and that is growing; one in
which the merchants are good advertisers, and in which
there are societies and organizations requiring printing.
If he does not take these things into account he may find
later that it is impossible to develop trade beyond a very
limited amount. The printer who would succeed in
business must make sure that he starts rightly, else his
subsequent efforts may be largely fruitless.
A proper field may often be selected for a printery by
reason of some offer or opportunity for controlling large
work. If a printer knows that he can get the work of a
large concern as a nucleus, this may be a sufficient induce-
ment to start in. It is very doubtful whether it is ever
wise to start a printing office without advance assurance
of considerable work at remunerative prices; for if one
cannot get the promise of work before starting, how can
one expect to do much better after putting in a plant ?
It is almost always a safe thing to start a job print-
ing plant in connection with a good daily or weekly
newspaper in a live town or city, for the paper brings
custom to the job department. For this reason it is
always a doubtful matter whether a job office unconnected
with a newspaper can be made to pay in a small city or
town. If such an office has to depend on the work of
merchants, churches, societies, politicians, etc., it will be
found that these all drift toward the newspaper office,
because they want notices in the paper. But where
there are manufactories, or where there is book publish-
ing, the newspaper does not carry an influence; in fact,
the job printer who is divorced from a newspaper probably
has the best chance of commanding the work. In cities
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STARTING AN OFFICE. I )
above 25,000 it is almost always possible for some one
firm to build up a large job printing business aside from a
newspaper; below 10,000 it is almost always best to be
tied to a newspaper, and between the two populations
circumstances must determine the choice.
When a printer has fully made up his mind that he is
in the right town, and when he has definite assurances of
a reasonable amount of work at starting, and a fair pros-
pect of developing more, he must next consider whether
he has the requisite capital to make a proper start. It is
a mistake to begin with too little money, for interest
payments, combined with inadequate facilities, will eat
up all the profits and afford very limited chances of
success. Remember that we are considering the starting
of an office that must be a success, that must be a money-
earner, and not the case of a printer who must start an
office, and trust to chance for the result. I doubt
whether it is ever desirable for a printer to start business
with less than half enough capital to pay for his plant.
A young man with $1,000 may start a $1,500 plant, pay
half cash, and bank $250 to run on until the receipts will
carry him, and if he gets the work, and is economical,
he can pay off his mortgage and later add to his plant.
But the young man with only $500, who tries to do the
same thing, can pay only one-fourth down on his plant,
and the dealers will charge him a large advance before
they will gamble on him, and take the chances of selling
the machinery and type. Then he will have only enough
money left to pay his freight, a month's rent, and a few
minor expenses, and by the time his first job goes on press
he is out of cash, and before the first ninety days roll
around, when he has to pay his first note, he realizes that
he is in a hole. Such a man puts his necl\ deliberately
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14 STARTING AN OFFICE.
into the noose of trouble, and the chances are ten to one
that he will never get it out without being choked.
How much better, then, for him to wait another two
years, when the savings from his wages would enable
him to start on a $1,000 basis.
I do not wish to be understood as advocating that
$1,000 is the proper sum with which to start a $1,500
office, but simply that this is my idea of the limit of debt
that may be safely contracted. I think that probably two
times out of three the printer with $1,000 had better wait
until he gets more money before starting. In large cities
it is folly for a printer to begin business with $1,000 or
even $2,000. These amounts may be sufficient in smaller
places, but in a great city the small printer is so handi-
capped by the superior facilities of the big offices that he
usually fails to earn as much as the men in his employ.
He is only able to exist at all by hiring cheap help, having
feeders do the work of pressmen, and two-thirders do the
composition, and these things entail a chain of ills which
no man would voluntarily and knowingly encounter.
A printer with $2,000 or $3,000, and an aching to go
into business in a great city, had better take stock in a
large concern, where his investment will secure him a
foremanship with a good salary, and then hustle for the
establishment, and try to work his way up to a larger
holding and greater salary. Or he may make a success
in an office of his own if he can induce outside investors
to back his small capital with $5,000 to $10,000, thus
giving him a chance to buy the best class of machinery,
even if the quantity is limited. This involves d knowledge
of finance and business that does not come to a printer
fresh from the case, and should not be undertaken except
by a man who is confident that his business training is
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STARTING AN OFFICE. I 5
sufficient to enable him to cope with the emergencies that
will arise. In accepting outside capital he must take care
that he is not saddled with an untrained and useless
partner, who is eating up a salary that he does not
earn. The safe rule is not to accept outside capital if
offered with hampering restrictions. Money can be ob-
tained by many competitors at six per cent., and if you
pay more for it you are at a disadvantage, and liable to
go to the wall.
With enough work in sight, and sufficient money to
make a good start, the printer next requires to consider a
location. The beginner is all too apt to look for a cheap
rental. Here it should be remembered that cheap things
are seldom good. While a job printer does not require
to be as conspicuously located as a dry goods man, he
does require to be in as good or a better place than any
other printer in his town. Location always influences
trade, and has much to do with securing first orders, which
are everything to the man starting a printing office. Stick
to the business centre, and avoid too many stairs. If
possible secure a place where you can have a good sign
privilege, and use it for all it is worth. Do not try to save
too much on rental, for it is poor economy. You must
be where people can see you without going out of their
way, if you are to have the trade. Remember, too, that
you cannot afford to be where there is a poor light, as it
wastes the time of workmen. Neither can you afford to
go into a shaky building, where there are other tenants
who pay more rent than you, for as sure as you do, the
jar and vibration of your presses will make trouble that
may be expensive for you. The printer who neglects this
warning will almost always live to be sorry for it. If you
can get your presses on a solid floor, away from those
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1 6 STARTING AN OFFICE.
whom they may annoy, with good light and a central
locality, you can afford to pay a rental that otherwise
might seem high.
Probably volumes have been printed on the choice of
material for an office, and volumes more might be pub-
lished without throwing much more light on the subject,
for the choice must be different in every case, and must suit
the circumstances. Everything offered the printer by the .
manufacturers and dealers has some utility, and may be
used to advantage somewhere, but the type and presses
suited to some classes of work are sometimes wholly
useless in a printery of a different character. We have all
seen tables of what to buy in starting a $1,000 office or a
$2,000 office, and lists of type that some one thought best
suited to general job work. I regard such lists as prac-
tically useless, for the choice must be dependent on the
work that is to be handled and the pocketbook that
pays the bill.
A word of warning is in place here against the purchase
of second-hand material. It is almost always the dearest
in the long run. A printer starting with inadequate
capital often thinks it better to buy one hundred fonts of
second-hand type than to spend the same money for fifty
fonts of new letter. He forgets that the shortage of sorts
in the second-hand stuff usually renders it incapable of
setting up much more than half of the amount which can
be composed from new, properly assorted type, while the
difference in appearance is apt to be fatal to the production
of fine work. The purchase of second-hand presses may
not affect the quality of the work produced, as the good
workman will turn out nice work on almost any press,
but it will involve the loss of time, that largest item of
expense in the printing business, and place the printer at
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STARTING AN OFFICE. 17
a disadvantage in figuring against offices supplied with
up-to-date machinery.
There are exceptions to all rules, and just so there are
times when it is advisable to buy at second hand. Real
bargains are sometimes offered, and when you can get
just what your office stands in need of for less than the
market price because the article is blighted as second-hand,
it may be well to buy it. But the safe rule is — when in
doubt, always buy the newest and latest material or
machinery.
The selection of the first lot of machinery and type will
depend upon the character of the work that is contracted
for or that it is reasonably certain will be demanded. The
little job presses are money-earners for small work, but
money-losers if used on book work or for long runs.
The pony cylinder is valuable for a great deal of miscellane-
ous commercial work, but when it comes to publications
and long runs of large sheets there is nothing like the
modern two-revolution or perfect er for economy. Just so
with paper cutters : for small stock in a small office a
light machine may answer every purpose, but where the
cutter is kept busy all day long, the bigger and stronger
it is the better.
It is hardly necessary in this age to tell the printer to
buy job type in series, and that few fonts and large ones
will go further than the same value in small fonts. Every
good printer ought to know these facts, and this book is
written on the assumption that the readers are already
capable printers who know the trade. Yet perhaps this
chapter would be incomplete without a repetition of these
well-known truths. The printer should buy sparingly at
the outset, reserving a part of his money or his credit for
the purchase of additions that may be demanded by special
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1 8 STARTING AN OFFICE.
work coming in. When type is bought especially for
work of which the order is in the printer's hands, he knows
that it will see some service, whereas that bought wholly
in advance must be purchased on conjecture.
Do not try to get along without power. No printer
can afford to kick a press nowadays when a horse-power
can be bought for from $50 to $100 a year. Electric
power is very convenient for the printer, as it costs
nothing when idle. The motors are sold very cheaply,
and are not hard to keep in order. In the country,
steam power is often preferred because of its adaptability
to heating. In the large office, where the horse-power
runs up into the fifties or hundreds, it is often best to have
a complete steam-power plant, which may be used either
directly, or to drive a dynamo for delivering electricity to
motors. The gas engine is very useful where power is
required only at certain hours, as it consumes nothing
when not in use.
For further details and comments on material, see the
chapters on "The Composing Room" and "The Press-
room."
It is well to fit up the business office attractively from
the very start. If you have good office furniture, a neat
carpet, and comfortable surroundings, these serve to impress
customers with the idea that the establishment is reliable
and substantial, whereas a mean or cheap-looking office,
or an old desk set in a corner for use as an office, impresses
buyers of printing with the notion that it is a cheap place,
whence high-class printing can not be expected. Just as
a job of printing must have all the refinements essential to
good work to produce the proper effect, just so the business
office requires to be fitted up attractively to draw custom
and assist in the securing of good prices.
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STARTING AN OFFICE. 1 9
The careful printer will never take any unnecessary
chances in starting an office. Of course any new business
involves a certain amount of risk, but the chances of loss
will be very large for those who neglect the simple rules
laid down as the result of experience and the exercise of
common sense. It is unwise to force a start when cir-
cumstances will not lend themselves to make the condi-
tions good. If there is a little uncertainty about getting
all the needed money, or if the work expected is only
half promised, or if a period of panic and hard times has
just set in, or if proper rooms cannot be rented, it is best
to wait, for any of these things can be bettered in time ;
* but if a start is made with any such handicaps, a con-
tinual menace overhangs the whole structure. When the
printer is satisfied that the conditions for starting are as
good as can be fairly expected, and the whole enterprise
commends itself to his judgment, he should then have
the courage of his convictions and go ahead energetically,
remembering that it is well not to do things by halves,
and that in order to print at a profit he must have good
tools and labor-saving devices. The printer who starts
thus, barring accidents and unforeseeable and unsurmount-
able obstacles, has a good chance to succeed.
By doing business in a fair manner, always demanding
a fair profit, and never delivering a poor job or permitting
delays; by holding out no false promises, but meeting
all obligations promptly, the printer who can do good
work has a very good chance of attaining a competency
in business. There are many printers who argue that
job work is a poor business, that it is crowded to death,
and that there is no money in it, and never will be. But
these are men who did not start right, and who never
managed to get right, so as to acquire the habits that
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20 STARTING AN OFFICE.
lead to success. There is money in the top ranks of
printerdom, just as much as in the top ranks of any trade,
and plenty of profitable business for those who have the
push, pluck, perseverance and probity essential to reach-
ing the upper levels.
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CHAPTER III.
WHAT CLASS OF CUSTOMERS TO SEEK.
While it is perhaps the general impression that the
customer chooses his printer, yet it is equally true that
the successful printer chooses his own customers. Just
as the superior workman may select his own employer,
because any and all are glad to have him, so the supe-
rior master printer may take his pick of the best-paying
customers in his territory, if he be an adept in handling
them.
Customers may be divided into several classes:
i. Those customers who do not care what they pay.
To this class belong officers of certain institutions,
societies, departments of government, etc. The money
for the printing they order does not come out of their
pockets, and they know that they will never be called
upon for a strict accounting of its expenditure. It is the
duty of the printer who caters to them to make things
pleasant, save them all possible trouble, cultivate their
personal friendship, give them perfect work, prompt
delivery and all the conveniences and extras desired, as
they willingly pay for such service. These are a good,
easy class of customers, of which almost every printer
has one or more on his books. Few printers fail to
cater to them, though I have known some who did
not know enough to render themselves agreeable to this
class. A failure to be specially polite and attentive to
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22 WHAT CLASS OF CUSTOMERS TO SEEK.
such may easily result in the loss of their custom, wYiich
is sure to be wanted by others.
2. Customers who prefer to pay a high price, if
this insures them a better article. All such require to
be handled with much care. They are often notional,
and not always easy to recognize at first meeting.
When such a customer is once found, he can usually be
retained by giving him the best work, and occasionally
calling his attention to the fact that'* We charge you a
little more than others, but we take extra pains with
everything." This class of customers should be cultivated
and developed. There are many brainy men among
them, men who handle money by the thousands, and
whose business ventures are often so dependent on the
effect of a good piece of printing that they cannot afford
to take chances of mediocrity, much less inferiority. They
prefer to go to the printer who has a reputation.
3. Customers who do not object to paying the
highest market price if they have a practical guarantee
of the best service. To this class belong the most
substantial and desirable customers in the trade. Men
and firms that carry their enterprises to a successful
issue, that push and prosper, largely contribute to make
up this class. It is foolish to cut prices too closely for
such customers. They want only the best work, and if
a way can be shown to better it, they will pay the extra
cost; but they are hard-headed enough to insist that
they get the very best. They do not take any stock in the
fancy prices that sometimes affect chiss 2; they want the
best, and want it on a square business basis. They are
the kind of customers of which the printer stands most
in need, and the best efforts of every printer should be
bent towards getting their work. The first two classes
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WHAT CLASS OF CUSTOMERS TO SEEK. 2}
are limited in numbers, and it is more or less a matter
of luck how many of them are secured, but in this class
there is always room for development — always more
customers who can be brought into it. The wise printer
will always be devising ways and means for educating
average customers into thoseof this class. They are the
main-stays of the large houses, and furnish the bulk of
the patronage to the most successful printeries.
4. Customers who must have good printing, but
who will pay for it only when they have to. Every
printer finds himself obliged to deal more or less with
this class. It is difficult to make money out of them,
yet it can be done by careful and judicious dealing.
The printer who works for such must be absolutely
inflexible as to his terms and prices; must insist on
short credits and stop work when payments are slow;
must afford no loopholes for deductions and return
charges; must demand a cash profit on all he does for
them, and take no chances on the evasion of payment.
When it becomes a doubtful matter with the printer
whether he can hold his own and get a profit out of
such a customer, it is best to drop him. Let him go
every time when he degenerates into the class below.
5. Customers who make it a rule to protest about
errors, shortages, delays, etc., always claiming a rebate,
and refusing to pay the full price charged. This class
should be let severely alone, and the printer who has
the good of the trade at heart will pass around among
competitors the names of firms whose trade is objec-
tionable on this account. Cash with the order is the
only consideration that should induce any one to touch
the work of such people, as otherwise experience with
them will develop only profitless vexation. They are
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24 WHAT CLASS OK CUSTOMERS TO SEEK.
sure to keep the printer poor if they get the chance, and
even the poorest and least wise printer will sooner or
later show them the door.
6. Customers who are satisfied with medium quality,
and who demand a very close price. There are hosts
of such; probably they are the most numerous class of
customers. A careful printer can make wages out of
them, and no more. It is impossible to keep up a
reputation for fine work, while retaining many patrons
of this sort. They will not pay for those extra touches
that distinguish fine work from the ordinary kind. The
most successful printers ignore this class. I have known
the head of an eminent house to instruct the men who
waited on his customers to tell such people, "We are
very busy; why don't you go down to Blank's? I guess
that he will accommodate you." Blank thinks that the
eminent printer is singularly kind, and hustles sixteen
hours a day, working for this class of people and making
a bare living. Is it worth while to go into the printing
business for such a result? There might be more money,
and certainly there would not be more work, in running
an all-night restaurant, or something of that sort. Much
time may be wasted by the printer in estimating for
this class. A good way to avoid it is to inquire of
every stranger asking figures on a large job, what offices
are estimating on the work, and if it appears that he is
seeking a number of estimates from second-class offices
he is then surely a No. 6 customer, whose trade is of
very doubtful value.
7. Customers who think that they are shrewd, and
who never will give an order unless they receive numer-
ous discounts and a big fall from the first price. The
chief difficultv with such customers lies in recognizing
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WHAT CLASS OF CUSTOMERS TO SEEK. 2$
their character at first sight. With judgment they may
often be handled to a profit.
8. Customers who do not care what the quality of
work may be so long as it is cheap. A very undesirable
class, working for whom tends to ruin a printer's repu-
tation for ability to do fine work.
9. Customers who can be dealt with only on a C. O.
D. basis. This class is made up of schemers, indigents
and unreliable people generally. All printers must expect
to have to do with them, and sometimes there is profit
enough in their work, provided great care is exercised
in securing deposits in advance, and getting the balance
of the cash before the work leaves the printing office.
Some of this class are deliberate swindlers, and such
should be dropped when recognized, as it does not pay
to do business with such people on any terms; but the
simply unreliable may be made to yield the printer a
tolerable portion of his yearly profits by the simple course
of never trusting them. It is never worth while to run
after such custom, but when it comes, and will pay a
fair price, and can be protected, it should be accepted.
The danger then lies only with the printer himself, who
must be sure that he will not, in a moment of weak-
ness, trust such an one without a deposit, or allow him
to take away any portion of his work while there
remains an unpaid balance. With this class of customer
the printer can afford to be very independent.
10. Customers who never mean to pay at all. The
difficulty that the printer has with this class is in de-
tecting them. They are of all sorts, appearances and
characters. The most dangerous are those who wear
good clothes, understand business methods, and who
come in as total strangers, paying spot cash for a few
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26 WHAT CLASS OF CUSTOMERS TO SEEK.
jobs and then seek to take away a large job on the
strength of the business acquaintance thus established.
There is only one safeguard against such people, and
that is in the establishment of an inviolable rule never
to give credit until you have thoroughly investigated a
customer.
The class of customers to be specially sought, it will
be understood from the above, are those who have
learned that it pays to have good printing, and that
they must allow the printer a reasonable profit to secure
prompt, reliable and generally superior service. The
wise printer will make a list of all such in his field, and
devote his energies to getting a chance at their work.
When some printer has failed to give satisfaction to such
a customer, then is the chance for a newcomer. A
reputation for fine work is worth a great deal in such
a case, and a reputation for cheap work is almost pro-
hibitive. This is why the printer who aims to be at
the top of the industry cannot afford to do cheap work
even at a present profit. Its shortcomings are noticed,
and his reputation suffers, and his chances of getting
other good-paying, high-quality work are lessened.
Keep up a reputation and good customers will drift
toward you ; forget that you have a reputation, and
everyone else will also forget it.
Always be prepared for sudden and large demands
upon your facilities, remembering that the emergency pf
a customer is the opportunity to demonstrate your effi-
ciency. Every good printer is liable to have unexpected
calls for work because of accidents or unforeseen circum-
stances. A lawyer finds that he must have a case
printed on twenty-four hours notice. If you are ready,
and do the work well and on time, you may have a
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WHAT CLASS OF CUSTOMERS TO SEEK. 2J
good customer. A manufacturer discovers a reason why
a price list must be issued at once, and the last one
having been delayed by some other printer, concludes to
give you a trial. By being always ready and willing to
work day or night to help a customer out of a dilemma,
you gain not only his permanent trade, but that of others,
to whom he may mention your promptness.
It has been an axiom with many successful firms
that it does not pay to do business with "cheap" people,
because the good custom lost more than offsets the small
profit that can be made from the cheap class. It is the
business of the printer to seek always the trade of the
substantial firms in his community, and to seek them by
means of general excellence and prompt service rather
than by the cutting of prices. The notion that the most
practical way to get work is to cut the price is erroneous
in that it leads only to the getting of work that is not
specially desirable. The way to get work worth having
is to get up a reputation for fine printing with satisfaction
guaranteed. That will surely, even if slowly, bring custom
from the sort of people whose trade is worth having.
Another reason why it is a mistake to cater to a
cheap class of work, is that if it is turned away it usually
goes to some less wise competitor, and keeps him busy
and not in condition to satisfactorily execute the better
and more profitable work when it comes along. In
other words, it pays to let competitors have the cheap
work, if they are foolish enough to take it. The printer
who is building up a trade may find times when he feels
obliged to take some moderately cheap work, through
force of circumstances, but he should never solicit any
but the higher grades of work, that tend to build up a
substantial business.
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28 WHAT CLASS OF CUSTOMERS TO SEEK.
An old-time printer, with more experience than
dollars, once said to me: "I have wasted many of the
best years of my life working for 'no-account' people.
My books tell the story of my career for thirty years,
and I have been at some pains to study them, running
back through the accounts of this class of customers, and
1 find that they have always been a drag upon me. I
made a little money out of half of them, but more than
lost it on the other half. It has been only the custom
of the better class that has kept the sheriff out of my
place. If I had known enough years ago to refuse all
dealings with people who wanted cheap work, I should
have made twice as much money, worn out only a
quarter as much material, had a great deal easier time,
and been about ten years younger in health and spirits
than 1 am. But my experience has come a little too late
in life to be of much use to me. I am now a sort of
has-been, and so much cheap work has gone out of my
place that nobody thinks of bringing me fine work, and
1 can only peg along for the few good customers that I
happen to have until my time comes to step out. But
if 1 could pass along my experience to some energetic
young fellow, it would earn him good money in the
printing business. It is a good enough business i:i itself,
but many of us do not learn to run our offices to a profit
until we get antiquated."
Avoid cheap customers and cheap work, seeking only
the better class of printing, and the most substantial firms
as customers, and with fair management in other respects
you can hardly fail of success; but if you neglect this
rule, even if you keep all other good rules, you will
never become conspicuous for your success in the trade.
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CHAPTER IV.
HOW TO DEVELOP BUSINESS.
The printer who has made a good start in business,
or who has purchased an established plant, requires to
understand how to develop his trade, since to stand still
in these times, when so many are going ahead, is to fall
behind in the race for precedence. One essential to
success in the printing business is a good location. By
this I mean more than a central position, or a place in
the thick of the business portion of a city — 1 mean a
location that is good from every point of view. For
instance, that printer in a large city who is located in
the near vicinity of half a dozen printers who cut prices
is but poorly situated as compared with another who
has his office near to large and successful printeries,
whose proprietors are recognized as upholders of prices,
and whose reputation enables them to charge and receive
more for their work than others. The former is too often
forced to get what he can in the general scramble to
find work for the presses ; the latter occasionally secures
some of the overflow of work from his good neighbors,
and at profitable rates, and all his chances for getting
customers who will pay good prices are better for his
proximity, which suggests that he is in a good class.
Another point of view regarding location is that it should
be convenient to the most desirable class of customers
rather than convenient to everybody. Of course both
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JO HOW TO DEVELOP BUSINESS.
are desirable, but the former is rather to be chosen, as
in the line of developing a good class of substantial
customers. Judgment must determine what is and what
is not a good location, us no set rules can be formulated ;
but the printer who bears these points in mind will be
better fitted to form a correct judgment than he who
neglects such considerations.
Advertising is of prime importance in the develop-
ment of a printing business. Because they do so much
advertising for others printers ought to be well able
to use advertising for the advancement of their own
business ; yet the majority of them neglect this means
of development. The subject of advertising is so large
that it is reserved for a separate chapter.
Soliciting is the next most-used method of developing
business. It has been discouraged by many large
concerns on the ground that printing is a ten per cent,
business, and that this margin will not afford paying
for a solicitor. I am inclined to disagree with the view,
and to hold that a judicious amount of soliciting is
advantageous to the average printing office. It can be
overdone, and few printeries can afford to keep a good
solicitor at work all the time. As a result good solicitors
of printing are scarce, and proprietors require to have
in their employ an office 'man, as a bookkeeper or the
like, who has the gift of soliciting, and to send him out
occasionally where the work is likely to be found.
Whatever some may say to the contrary, depend upon
it that all large establishments do practice more or less
soliciting. They may not do it systematically in a regular
way, and may have no employed drummers, but when
they know that a large and desirable job is to be given
out, one of the proprietors or somebody from the house
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HOW TO DEVELOP BUSINESS. $\
is sent out to assist its coming their way ; or if it is a
question of estimate a few strings are pulled in proper
quarters, and a good argument is advanced to show
why the work should come to a certain office even if
the price should be deemed a little high.
It is the duty of every printer to keep himself
informed of all the large work that is being given out
in his vicinity, and to study and improve any chances
he may have for influencing it. In this way he can
usually get a share of the large orders that are in the
general market. Every manufacturer who has a large
amount of printing, every firm that advertises largely,
every public institution, and in fact every desirable con-
cern that has a considerable amount of work to give
out within a printer's field, constitutes a possibility in
a business way, and should be regularly considered and
periodically interviewed, no matter what may seem to
be the obstacles in the way of getting the work. To
find out all the work that is worth having and to "go
for it" should be a regular part of the work of every
progressive printer, whether he does it by the ordinary
way of solicitation, or in some other manner that
commends itself to him.
The getting acquainted with active business men is
an important factor in developing trade in printing.
This may be accomplished by joining the local board
of trade, or by organizing one if the place is without.
A live board of trade always insures contact with good
men, and the printer who meets them, and by his
conduct shows that he is up to the times and a thorough
business man, is sure to win business. In every place
there are social organizations frequented by business
men, the printer should learn what these are and join
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}2 HOW TO DEVELOP BUSINESS.
them. Whether it is a Free Mason's lodge, a church, a
golf club or a political organization, if there are plenty
of men who have the giving out of printing it is the
wise thing for the printer to be one of them, and keep
"in the swim." For thus he has more chances than
the printers who do not follow these things. Of course
it is not desirable to belong to so many societies or
clubs that the dues eat up all the printer's spare change,
and the duties of membership use up all his spare time.
This sort of thing should be done moderately but .
thoroughly ; and if the printer by mistake has gone
into organizations where there is no apparent business
advantage he can quietly drop out again. In most cities
I regard a board of trade, a building association, or a
business men's club as the best field for exploitation of
this sort. But here as in everything else the printer's
own judgment must be the final court of decision as
to what is best under the immediate circumstances.
The working among politicians for political printing,
or printing given out through political influence, is a
business in itself, usually necessitating more or less use
of means that cannot well be advocated in print. The
more honorable of those who secure political printing
get it as a return for work done for a political party,
but this book is hardly the place for instruction in
machine politics, and the printer who wants to know
how to get city or county printing had best go to a
successful local politician and take lessons. Those who
want to cater to that sort of work are welcome to do
so : the writer never had any great desire for it.
Good printing, accuracy and promptness are three
means of developing business that can hardly fail of
accomplishing results. It does not pay in the long run
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HOW TO DEVELOP BUSINESS. )$
to slight work. If a mistake has been made in estimat-
ing, and a job is taken too low, it is unwise for the
printer to try and save himself by slighting the job.
By living up to his agreement with the customer, he
prevents a poor job from going out of his office and
injuring his reputation. By pinching the paper, skimping
the count, rushing the proof and slighting the make-
ready, he takes chances of having the job thrown back
on his hands, or of being considered dishonest. It is
better to suffer the loss bravely, frankly telling the cus-
tomer that there has been a mistake, and that it cost so
much more to turn out the job than the contract price.
The customer is then apt to be willing to give the
printer opportunity to make it up on other work, and
in some instances he will go down in his pocket and
pay more than the contract price. Anyway, he is retained
as a customer, whereas the plan of taking the prospect-
ive loss out of the job drives away the customer. The
sure road to success lies in giving good printing first,
last, and all the time.
Accuracy is essential to the building up of a printing
trade. Careless proof-reading, careless counting, careless-
ness in anything will drive away good customers in time.
Only by unceasing watchfulness can accuracy be assured.
A system of checks and revisions should be placed over
all work to insure that errors do not creep in. Extra-
ordinary precautions are always necessary. If ordinary
proof-reading is depended upon, sooner or later a job
will be printed with a cut upside down, turned by #
pressman in underlaying, and never noticed because
there was no system calling for a final revision of the
work on press ; or it may be that a job will be printed
on the wrong stock because the proof-reader is not
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34 HOW TO DEVELOP BUSINESS.
called upon to pay any attention to such matters. An
efficient job ticket system, and rigid rules as to reading
and revision are incumbent in all offices where there is
a desire to maintain a reputation for accuracy.
Never promise a job sooner than you can execute
it, and never fail to deliver when promised. This is an
easy rule to make and a hard one to follow, but the
printer who will be at the trouble and pains to keep
it is sure in time to reap a rich reward. The printer
who is known to be always on time need never fear
of losing his work to the price-cutters. Merchants who
have had experience with delayed printing usually know
that it is worth ten per cent, more than the "get-it-
when-you-can M kind. Promptness is one of the most
essential requisites of development. Though the printer
may have every other key to success, if he have not
promptness he will never achieve any prominence. The
printer who is prompt may be weak in many other
respects, and yet his ability to be always on time will
bring him trade and make him a valuable reputation.
It has often been said that a satisfied customer is
the best sort of an advertisement, and the proverb
emphasizes a great truth. To build up a trade, one
must give satisfaction to present customers, and as they
tell others trade will expand and develop. Just as the
housekeeper likes good measure from her grocer, so the
customer likes a full count, superior stock, and various
little accommodations, and the wise printer will give
all these and see to it that his margin of profit is large
enough to afford the minor extras, so that he may treat
his customers liberally, and avoid a reputation for
meanness in small things.
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HOW TO DEVELOP BUSINESS. 35
The printer who is known as a good and careful
workman, who delivers orders when promised, has
achieved a reputation that of itself will develop his
business. With correct management in other respects
he may expect to obtain in time a large and valuable
business, which cannot be taken from him, and that
can only be lost by continued negligence and disregard
of the principles on which it was founded. Push,
honesty, accuracy and ability, if persistently employed
will carry almost any printing concern to the top of
the art
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CHAPTER V.
WRITING ADVERTISING MATTER, ETC.,
FOR CUSTOMERS.
The intelligent job printer will never permit himself
to forget that printing is allied to advertising, and
that almost all of the printing that he does depends in
some way upon its success as an advertisement or
as an advertising medium. If it prove profitable from
the advertising standpoint, there is more work for the
printer. It therefore behooves printers to become stu-
dents of advertising, that they may be able to advise
and assist their patrons in the production of printing
that will be profitable.
The average customer for printing is not as expert a
writer as the average printer ; he has not the knowledge
of detail and arrangement of matter that comes naturally
to the man of types ; he is rarely an expert in adver-
tising. Often he is a man of good business ideas who
needs to be helped in the detail of working out his
thoughts so that the printing may be profitable. A few
printers are alive to these facts, and in their establish-
ments, as in the Lotus Press, have inaugurated a regular
system of assisting customers in the literary part of the
work, taking their ideas and working them out in a
manner that will make the printing doubly attractive.
The printer who can do nothing but print well is a
good enough man for the production of reprint work,
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WRITING ADVERTISING MATTER FOR CUSTOMERS. y]
but the printer who writes and, edits copy is the man
to whom new work should be given. The public is
finding this out in the cities where the latter class of
printers are to be found, and trade is drifting their way.
The printer who has never given attention to this side
of the trade is advised to subscribe for a number of the
papers now published in the interest of advertising and
to read and study them thoroughly. He will then have
a fund of catchy ideas to draw upon, and from which
he may make suggestions to patrons wherever he sees
the chance to work them in appropriately. Suppose it
is simply the proprietor of a meat and fish market who
wants to get out a circular to send to his customers. He
thinks he wants a thousand small dodgers, and writes
out a list of beef, pork, veal, mutton, fish, oysters and
clams, etc., and heads it "Notice." Such a circular will be
of little value to him, and the printer-advertiser will say :
" Why don't you head this ' Don't worry about Oysters ! '
That sounds catchy. Then go on to say, ' Dinner begins
with dainty oysters,' and explain how very particular you
are about delivering half-shells promptly and attractively
at the minute they are wanted ; call attention to the
quality of your meats and the excellence of your service.
Then, if I were you, instead of getting up a plain,
cheap circular, that most people will throw away before
reading, get up something more attractive. Ten of
these will be read to one of the other, and it will be
much more apt to bring you trade." By talking this
way the printer often gets a five dollar job instead of
a two dollar one, and it is dollars to doughnuts that
the meat man is back again inside of three months for
another of those business-bringing circulars. After that
the printer's competitors cannot touch him, for he has
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38 WRITING ADVERTISING MATTER FOR CUSTOMERS.
learned that he can buy of one what he cannot buy
from others.
Suppose that a manufacturer who wants to issue a
booklet comes in to consult the printer. It soon appears
that he is not ready with his pen and that he has to
be instructed at every turn. The printer volunteers a
few suggestions. The manufacturer is pleased, cheer-
fully pays for compiling and arranging, and thus the
order is clinched and a customer made who will remain
with the printer who furnishes literary assistance with
his printing. But for this ability to help with the copy
the manufacturer would probably have figured with
half a dozen printers, and given it to some one at a
very close price, which would have yielded a profit to
nobody.
Some newspapers become very valuable properties
because they make money for their advertising patrons
who cannot be weaned away from them. It is equally
possible for some printeries to build up their trade by
making it a point to see that the printing pays the
customer. In all large cities there are now advertising
experts who furnish booklets and that class of matter
to merchants, just as they write advertisements. The
advertising expert can often control the printing of the
work he writes and designs. He is only human if he
demands a percentage from the printer to whom he
turns over his work. That printer who is looking for
general commercial work is not up to the times if he
does not take a hint from this and equip himself to
render this service to his customers.
The writing of advertising matter, or of any sort of
matter, for customers, is a thing not generally practiced
by printers, yet there can be no question about its
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WRITING ADVERTISING MATTER FOR CUSTOMERS. }9
advantage to the printer. Those few who have adopted
it have proved that it is a winner. Doubtless the
principal reason why it has not been generally adopted
by printers is that most of them have felt a lack of
ability to write and edit for their customers. Such a
feeling should not restrain any printer from making the
attempt. You can learn to do this as well as you have
learned to do other new things to advance your business.
If fully satisfied that you cannot develop any capacity
of this sort, you have still the privilege of hiring a man
who can write taking matter for your customers.
Times have changed in this matter of preparing
copy. Twenty-eight years ago a leading printer of New
York, writing of the receiving of copy, said : " Persuade
your customer to furnish his own copy, written in ink.
Avoid writing it for him. If it must be done by you,
notify him distinctly that he is responsible for its sup-
posed accuracy as to names, dates, places and figures."
The object of this injunction was to guard against work
being thrown back on the printer's hands because of
errors in the copy that the customer might charge to
him. While carefulness is just as essential now as it
was then, it has been learned that there are advantages
in helping the customer with the copy that more than
offset the dangers. At the same time, the printer who
prepares or edits copy for a customer must make the
customer responsible for the job as finally written, and
it is always proper for him to request the customer's
"O. K." on copy before going ahead. If he does not
safeguard himself by making it very plain to the
customer that he cannot be held for any errors in copy,
after the copy is approved by the customer, he is liable
to trouble and occasional loss. If the customer is
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40 WRITING ADVERTISING MATTER FOR CUSTOMERS.
forewarned of this he usually scans the copy more closely,
and the chances of error, through the unfamiliarity of
the printer-writer with the customer's business, are
reduced.
Within a few years some large newspapers have
employed advertisement editors, whose sole business is to
see that advertisements are well written. If it is observed
that any particular advertisers do not use their space to
good advantage, it is the business of the advertisement
editor to call on them and make suggestions. The reason
for the existence of such a functionary is obvious, for, if
advertisements do not pay, they are sooner or later dis-
continued, and it is a part of the newspaper publisher's
business to see that his patrons make money, if he
would get a share of it. Just so with the job printer.
If he will see to it that such of his customers as have
no natural talent for preparing their own copy, are
assisted, so that their printing will bring them business,
he will retain their trade and increase it. He will also
gain trade from those customers who may know how to
prepare copy, but who are too busy, and who want to
have some one else write as well as print, some one who
can be relied upon to take ideas in the rough, and
carry them out to the completion of a good tasteful,
trade-stirring piece of printing. Such are willing to pay
for work on the copy as well as for work on the
printing. When you show a customer how to make his
printing profitable, he likes to spend money with you,
and he will keep on doing it as long as your work brings
him results. Do not make the mistake of throwing in
without charge, your work as a writer for customers.
Small assistance ought not to be charged for specifically,
but, when a considerable amount of literary work or
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WRITING ADVERTISING MATTER FOR CUSTOMERS. 4 1
designing is involved, it is best to make a specific
charge for the same, else the lumping of it with the
price for printing may cause unfavorable comparisons
with the prices of others that do not include any writing,
editing, compiling or arranging.
The ability to draw or sketch is also worth a great
deal to the printer who prepares copy or arranges it
for a customer. By designing and drafting out in pencil
the headings and titles, and any ornate work connected
with the job, so as to give the customer a fair idea in
advance of what it is proposed to furnish him, you are
more certain of giving satisfaction and supplying his
wants. It is always best to supply a design or dummy
with the copy furnished a customer. Then he is able
to grasp the whole thing and to judge whether it will
attain his object. If a pleasing effect is produced at the
first attempt, it is apt to be all plain sailing afterwards
with that customer. He appreciates you as a man who
can get up what he wants with only a few hints, and
values you accordingly.
The writing and editing of advertising matter for
customers is in line with the idea that it is the printer's
duty to fill all demands and give customers anything
of which he sees that they stand in need, and to exact
a fair profit for such assistance.
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CHAPTER VI.
TAKING ORDERS.
To insure satisfaction to every customer, it is essential
that orders should be correctly taken, so that the work
may be started rightly. It is impossible to be sure what
a man wants unless you talk over the ground with him.
and even when orders are written out quite fully, it is
best that a little talk go with them to .cover points that
may not be fully understood. When a customer comes
in and lays down a sheet of copy, saying that he wants
so many thousand printed at such a time, it is a very
inefficient office man who lets it go at that, and dis-
misses the customer with the remark that he will try
and have it done. He should first examine the copy,
reading a part or all of it, if in manuscript, in the pres-
ence of the customer, so as to ascertain whether it is
all clear and plain. If there is anything that he does
not understand it can be more easily explained then
than at any time later. If the copy is reprint, he should
ask if the arrangement of the type is satisfactory, and
whether an exact duplicate is required, or whether an
effort may be made to improve the appearance of the
job. If the printed job is a good one, it is best to lead
the customer to duplicate it, because that involves the
least bother and expense to the printer, but my experi-
ence is, that it is a mistaken policy to seek the dupli-
cation of jobs that are below the standard in style and
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TAKING ORDERS. 4}
arrangement, and that it is better to take the trouble of
laying out a new display for a customer than to send
out a job from your office that is below par.
In some classes of printing, working from manuscript
copy, it is essential to have an understanding as to
spelling and punctuation, as customers are occasionally
notional on these points, and it is the duty of the printer,
as far as possible, to give them what they want. It has
been one of the writer's business rules to find out just
what customers want, and let them have it exactly as
they want it, provided the accommodation will not
produce work reflecting on the quality of the printing
turned out by the establishment. The customer who
does not know what he wants requires to be guided,
and the printer who is apt at making suggestions for
such will increase his orders.
I have known of a large office printing labels for a
new horse liniment, and spelling the title "Orrion,"
because it was a sort of trade-mark name, so given on
the copy, the customer being an uneducated man. If
a thoroughly intelligent man had taken the order, he
would have told the customer that the correct spelling
was "Orion," and had the copy altered so that the cus-
tomer's ignorance might not be exposed to the world
to the damage of his business, to say nothing of the
damage to the printer's reputation, if it were known
that he allowed such an error to go through. I have
known another first-class house to take a reprint order
for a billhead originally set by some amateur, in exe-
crable style, and to give the usual instructions with
reprint work, to follow copy as nearly as possible in
type and arrangement. The man who took the order
did not know his business, for if the customer did not
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44 TAKING ORDERS.
know that he received a poor job in consequence, others
might observe it.
It is impossible to make too sure of a correct under-
standing of the copy. If it is too long to be read while
the customer is present, it is desirable to skim through
it and get his idea in having the thing printed, to under-
stand just what he is trying to do, to put yourself in
his place as far as possible, so that you may get the
spirit of the thing — and then you are in a position to
carry it out intelligently. It is unwise to give estimates
without seeing the copy. A firm that estimated on a
book of 120,000 words, of which the copy was to be
typewritten, once felt safe in naming a price without
seeing the copy. They got the job, and after setting up
about a dozen pages the foreman sent down a request
for 200 pounds of extra quads. The book was so
abnormally full of breaklines that it strung out fully
fifteen per cent, longer than calculated, and there was
an actual loss of perhaps $50 on producing the job
according to contract. For further points along this
line, see the chapter on " Estimating."
In taking an order every detail must be considered,
that there may be no doubts during the progress of the
work as to what is wanted. One cannot be too careful.
I have known a customer to state that he wished a job
set up in "that type," pointing to something on the
wall. His finger was crooked, and the printer thought
he meant the type of the adjoining job. No proof was
shown and the result was a job brought back, a mad
customer, and a mad printer. The whole difficulty
would have been saved had the printer been careful
enough to step forward and have the customer place a
pencil or pointer exactly on the type desired. For the
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TAKING ORDERS. 45
credit of the printer, 1 must say that he learned a lesson
and never made that mistake again. Two-thirds of the
disputes over bills arise from little misunderstandings
like the above in taking the order. The printer who
takes an order should see that everything is so plain
that there can be no room for misunderstandings. He
should consider himself responsible for the copy, just as
the proof-reader and reviser are responsible later. Some
printers think that they are smart when they have proved
to a customer that the error in a job was the custom-
er's own fault, and that he must pay for reprinting ;
but, that printer is much smarter whose carefulness
prevents error on the part of the customer as well as
on his own part. The latter will gain trade where the
former loses it.
If a customer wants expensive work, it is not the
printer's place to tell him that it is expensive, but slm; ly
to give the price. Let the customer be his own judge
of what he can afford to spend. If he wants work at
a less price he is usually only too ready to say so.
It is desirable to obtain all the copy for a job before
beginning work. This is often essential to the proper lay-
ing out of the job. If it is impracticable to secure all the
copy at starting, the customer should be notified that he
is liable for extra charge if the copy prove more intricate
or difficult to decipher than that in hand. Where copy
is blind, it is best to ask the customer to have it type-
written, calling his attention to the fact that this is likely
to cost less than will be involved in making the necessary
corrections later in type. Copy that is written on both
sides, or carelessly arranged, or that requires considerable
editorial work on the part of the printer before it is put
into type, should be handled only on a time charge basis.
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46 TAKING ORDERS.
When, because of bad copy, or of incomplete direc-
tions at the start, or of changes of directions while the
job is in hand, it is evident that the time charges on a
job will be large, it is desirable that the customer should
be so informed as soon as possible, that he may be
prepared for meeting a heavy bill. If this is not done,
he is very apt to think at the final settlement that he
has been overcharged. Alterations often cost a great
deal and make no showing. Where customers receive
several proofs, and keep on making alterations, it is well
to mark on each proof the time spent in correcting the
previous proof, that the customer may realize what a bill
he is making for himself.
In an office where a good job ticket is used, the man
who takes orders should fill out the ticket while the
customer is there, so that all items as to paper, color of
ink, size of sheet, time of delivery, etc., may be correctly
entered and receive the approval of the customer at the
time. If the job ticket does not cover the whole ground,
the man who takes orders may keep at his elbow a
reminder blank containing every point or question to
be discussed with a customer, and reference to this will
insure his forgetting nothing. Such a blank might be
made up like this:
Points to be Remembered in Taking Orders.
No. of copies.
Look over copy.
Paper stock.
Examine proper names.
Cover stock.
Suggest improvements.
Size.
Proof.
Ink.
Alterations to be charged.
Binding.
Punctuation, spelling, etc.
Type.
Illustrations or plates.
Style.
Detention of press.
Electrotyping.
Embossing.
Padding, j
Standing matter.
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TAKING ORDERS. 47
It should always be made clear to a customer just
what a price quoted includes, and for what he may
expect extra charges. If he distinctly understands at the
outset that alterations from copy will make an added time
charge, and detention of press another special charge,
and standing matter another charge, he can have no
ground for objection to these items in the bill. If this is
not made clear to him at the outset some sort of kick is
almost sure to follow, with friction and perhaps* loss to
the printer.
It is always well to submit proofs of everything to
customers. Probably one job in three of which a proof
is not shown is in some way unsatisfactory. It is also
wise to send well-printed proofs. This takes time and
that costs money, and the customer does not want to
pay for it directly. These facts prevent many printers
from taking pains to send out good proofs. Neverthe-
less, it is the best thing to do, and pays in the long run.
The first proof seen of a job gives the customer his first
conception regarding it, and that conception remains
with him as an impression. If the proof is on news-
paper, with irrregular margins, it looks coarse and crude
and he does not know why. The result is that he is
not pleased, and sometimes continues to regard the job
with disfavor. It is the practice of the Lotus Press to
print all proofs carefully on a proof press, using coated
paper and very wide margins. A line is then ruled
around the job, showing the size of sheet on which it
is to be printed. This sets off the work, and gives the
customer a satisfactory idea of the final result. He is
apt to be pleased and to stay pleased. A customer
who is favorably impressed with the appearance of a
first proof is less likely to criticise the job on delivery.
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48 TAKING ORDERS.
If the first proot does not impress him favorably, he
sometimes feels irritable toward the job, and finds ; II
manner of fault with it after completion just because
he never did like it.
The man who is clever at taking orders will always
have plenty of suggestions ready for improving a job,
and adding to its business-bringing qualities. This is
more fully dealt with in the chapter on "How to Talk
to Customers." The matter of assisting customers in
the preparation of copy, and of writing and editing
copy for them, is treated under the caption " Writing
Advertising Matter, Etc., for Customers." In the present
chapter I wish to impress upon the printer the advisa-
bility of taking orders with accuracy and intelligent
appreciation of the customer's wants, so that the chances
of dissatisfaction or loss by spoiling the job through
misunderstandings may be reduced to a minimum.
Taking an order usually involves naming a time for
the completion and delivery of a job. The careful order-
taker should see to it that he does not make more
promises than he can fulfil. To this end he must keep
at hand some schedule of the work ordered, unfinished
and to be delivered, so that he can tell at a glance
whether it is safe to promise delivery at a certain day
or hour. Few things damage a printer's trade more
than the haphazard method of promising delivery at
any time the customer desires, regardless of facilities for
completing the work on time. A customer soon learns
that it is better to place orders with a printer whom he
can trust to keep his word, even if the delivery time
is two or three days later than he desires, rather than
to give his trade to a printer who promises him what-
ever he demands, and whose word he cannot trust.
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TAKING ORDERS. 49
Another thing for the printer to remember in taking
orders is that it is bad policy to run down competitors
in talking with customers. Such talk is in a sort adver-
tising of the "other fellows," and although the remarks
made are not to their credit, the point of view of the
speaker is considered, and ofttimes the direct result of
talking adversely about a competitor is the sending of
the customer to his place to let him figure on the
work. If you cannot say anything kind about your
brother printers, say nothing about them. If they do
bad work, fail in their engagements, or cut prices too
closely, they will have to bear the consequences regard-
less of what you say about them. If they are good
printers and good business men it is better to work
with them to your mutual advantage in building up
the printing trade than to cross swords with them in
tearing down trade. Let your customers find out about
them without any aid from your tongue.
The duty of the printer in taking orders may be
summed up thus : To find out just what he is expected
to produce, to see that the price admits of a fair profit,
not to promise more than he can carry out, and to start
the work correctly.
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CHAPTER VII.
ADVERTISING.
Advertising is a stepping-stone to success. I don't
mean to imply that it will naturally follow that because
a man spends considerable money for advertising he is
bound to succeed. I know that a very large amount
of the money spent for advertising is wasted, and in not
a few cases has been the direct cause of failure.
Jf the advertising brings in more money than its cost
it is good advertising. Or if the traceable returns pay
only its actual cost, it is even then good advertising.
A pleased customer is not only a permanent customer
but is also the best kind of an advertisement, thus the
good results are cumulative. Consequently, the con-
tinued orders and successive profits are an added gain
to the immediate returns and make good advertising
very productive. The advertising can only be expected -
to bring together the advertiser and the customer, the
service the customer gets must be the thing that makes
him a permanent customer. If the service fails to do
this, or if the customer is disappointed or dissatisfied
and there is nothing to induce him to continue his
patronage the advertising will never be profitable. Ad-
vertising a store, for instance, will not result in profit
unless there is some reason why people should purchase
after they are induced to come into the store. Like-
wise, advertising a printing office will not result in
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ADVERTISING 5 1
profit unless the printer can offer to prospective cus-
tomers some advantage over his competitor, and thus
secure the orders. To know what inducements to ad-
vertise involves a study of what the customers expect
from their printer, and then arranging one's business to
meet these requirements. To do this uniformly requires
careful and close attention to business. In this way
advertising is a stepping-stone to success. It induces the
advertiser to give more thought to all the details of his
business, and the successful advertiser is the one who
gives more intelligent attention to his business than his
competitors. This careful and close attention to business
coupled with the cumulative results of good advertising
will win success. Some lines of business make all
their profit on the one sale; this, however, is not the
case in the printing business. They have an almost
unlimited field to draw trade from, while the printers'
territory is restricted — usually to his own immediate
vicinity — therefore, the printer must aim to make a per-
manent customer of all the trade he gets.
If you cannot offer some inducement do not advertise.
If there are good reasons why people should give
you the preference with their orders, advertise it. It is
a grave mistake to suppose that a cheap price is the
greatest inducement a printer can offer. 1 believe the
crude expression "cheap and nasty" originated in refer-
ence to printing. As the two terms are almost insepa-
rable, it would be an insult to the intelligence of the
business community to claim that price is the only
consideration to the merchant when placing an order
for printing, and my experience in the business has
taught me that there are other inducements which
vastly outweigh this one. A careful study of the field
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will convince any one that the largest and most pros-
perous printers everywhere are those who get a good
price for their work. They are not the cheap printers.
Cheap printing is usually poor printing and must be
cheap because it cannot command a higher price; it is
not worth any more than its cost and frequently is not
worth even that. Cheap printing is never profitable
printing, and those who make a specialty of cheap print-
ing, and depend purely on a price inducement, never
become successful printers.
Printers as a class are not good advertisers. They
seem to believe that advertising is a good thing for
other people, but not for themselves. The printing
business is one that will respond to advertising, because
the pleased customer continues to deal with the printer.
Once you gain a new customer, you are apt to hold
his trade as long as you continue to satisfy him, and
it is not a matter of getting only the profit from a
single order. For this reason it pays to advertise print-
ing, even though the expense seems to be considerable.
Through advertising it is just as possible to make a
customer of the man whose work amounts to several
thousand dollars a year as it is to reach one who does
not use so much, and it is because of this fact that it
pays to advertise liberally.
As to the best methods of advertising printing there
is no one particular way. There is no one method of
advertising anything successfully. "All roads lead to
Rome.' 1 In order to get the best results advertising
methods and mediums must be varied. No two people
are alike. What appeals to one falls flat with another.
A handsome booklet may secure the attention of one
person, while a comic skit or a useful blotter will please
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another. In order to reach all it is absolutely necessary
to resort to various plans and styles. Let your adver-
tising be frequent and varied. Circulars, booklets, blot-
ters, calendars, novelties, are all good. A splendid plan
is to prepare several at once and have a definite time
for their distribution. Prepare them when you have an
idle press or when your compositors are not busy ; in
this way the work will not conflict with the work of
your customers, and will likewise be quite inexpensive.
Let your advertising campaign be conducted system-
atically. Don't neglect it because you happen to be
busy, and don't leave the sending out of the advertise-
ments for a dull time. Let it be part of some ones
duty to attend to this and see to it that it is done
systematically, carefully and regularly. The preparation
of the advertisements may be done in dull times if
several are prepared at once, so as to reduce the cost
of production, but do not let anything stand in the way
of their circulation..
In large cities the least productive advertising for a
printer is advertising in newspapers. A printer's cus-
tomers are mostly local, and the circulation of a news-
paper spreads over a vast territory that the printer
cannot hope to do business in, although he must pay
the full advertising rates. It would consequently be a
mistake to do much advertising of this kind, because
of the unavoidable waste.
Straight personal appeals, under full letter postage, is
the best way to send out printers' advertising matter.
Compile a list of names of people whom you know to
be users of printing and with whom you would like
to do business. Tell them about your advantages and
tell them why it would be to their interest to send
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54 ADVERTISING
their orders to you. Tell them as you would tell them
if they were sitting beside your desk and you were
talking to them. To make up a proper list of names
may require considerable time and some expense, but
it is worth all it costs; keep hammering away at the
same names, adding new names whenever there is a
chance.
Occasionally send some kind of an announcement
or reminder to your regular customers. Don't neglect
them. Let them know that you are alive, or some
other printers advertising may win them over from
you ; customers like to know that their printer has enter-
prise, and when the opportunity presents itself they will
be very apt to recommend you to some acquaintance.
Put your imprint on your work whenever it is
possible. This may be quite small and unobtrusive, bui
if your work is worthy of an imprint insist on having
it appear.
Make your own announcements tasteful.
Inclose self-addressed envelopes In your correspond-
ence.
If you do a particularly nice piece of printing send
samples of it to people who are likely to be interested.
Classify your samples in separate sample books and
keep duplicate samples to send by mail when necessary.
Pad your waste paper and distribute to your custom-
ers with your ad. on the back of each pad.
Put a neatly printed blotter in every package of office
stationery.
Remind your customers when it is time to get out a
holiday announcement or seasonable circular.
Distribute "Early Closing Cards" in summer, and
" Please Close the Door " cards in winter.
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Have a neat and comfortable business office in which
to receive your customers. Don't expect them to stand
up in front of a home-made counter or transact their
business through a hole in a partition.
These are just a few suggestions.
Following will be found a variety of advertisements
with suggestions for their get up. These advertisements
are selected from a large collection that I have used, and
are given here because they have proven successful.
Some of them may [need to be changed to meet certain
local requirements or for other personal reasons :
Chrysanthemums Are Now in Season.
When trying to get up a nice, attractive announcement
card or circular, has it ever occurred to you to have it
printed in the colors of the particular flower in season?
We make a careful study of color and design, and when
a customer wants a handsome piece of printing, we have
no difficulty in pleasing him. In this special line we have
few competitors — it is a labor of love with us — a sort of
hobby. It does not cost any more to do a thing correctly
than to do it badly ; it is simply the knowing how ; and
this "knowing how" is as much a matter of education
as of instinct ; we have been educated to it ; besides having
a natural talent for it.
If you are a lover of things beautiful, let us apply the
pnnciples of beauty to your printing.
[The above was a circular, 6x9, printed on a delicate primrose coated
paper ; the caption had a two-color initial with chrysanthemum design,
printed in Milori green and gold, the letter-press was printed in a green
tint]
The Parrot Ate the Proofs.
A customer reports that his parrot ate our proofs. That's
a bird.
He must have heard the flattering comments on th* job
and thought it was something to eat.
Our customers are unceasing in their praises of our printing.
Have we ever had an order from you ?
[Enameled card, 5x7; cut of parrot at side, printed in red, blue and
gold ; circular matter in same colors ]
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A Few " Nevers "
For those in search of culture and profit, and who are
about going to the country on their vacation :
Never smack the lips or the children while eating.
Never pick your teeth or a quarrel at table. Both should
be picked in the back yard.
Never fasten your napkin around your neck. It is now
customary to wear a collar there.
Never make a pun at table (or anywhere else).
Never drum with your fingers on the table. You can
make more noise by beating a tattoo on your plate
with your knife.
Never smoke cigars while eating soup.
Never remark "I see Hash Wednesday is here again,"
when croquettes are being served
Never put your knife in your mouth. If there is no room
on the table for it, balance it on the shoulder of the
person next to you.
Never put your elbow on the table. If at a loss where to
keep it put it in your pocket
Never carry fruit or bonbons away from the table. If you
want something substantial for a late lunch, sequester
a turkey drum stick in your inside pocket.
Never scrape your plate or tilt it to obtain the last drop
of anything it contains. The dishwasher is paid to
do that.
Never stretch your feet under the table so as to touch
those of your vis-a-vis. He may have corns which
object to familiarity.
And last, but by no means least : Never, never, never,
place your orders for printing or lithographing before
coming to us.
[Circular, 10 x ia#, black ink, gray antique cover paper, thick enough
to hang up]
Not How Much is Said,
But how attractively it is presented. It is surprising to
see how many business men use printing that not only
does them no good, but really does them harm.
A little skill in bringing forward the important features in
a pleasingly attractive manner is often worth hundreds of
dollars to an advertiser. We have set many a business
man on more attractive and profitable ways. Maybe we
can be helpful to you. We do printing of all kinds.
(Large manilla mailing card, 11x7; cut in orange, matter in blue. |
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A Valentine.
The love that hides— too modest for to speak,
Is sometimes twice as strong for seeming weak :
Hear then, what pansies whisper soft to you,
Your lover, dear, is shy but always true.
We feel that some sort of an explanation ought to go
with this sentimental outburst. We have courted you for
a long time, and although satisfied with the result, we
have never before had the courage to express ourselves so
plainly, because we feared it might be considered out of
place during business hours ; but we trust we will be
excused for giving way to our feelings during this season
of gush and sentiment. This is St. Valentine's Day, and
Leap Year, and we propose to take advantage of it in
spite of our natural modesty. We are so accustomed to
writing up prosy advertisements that we frequently find
ourselves telling our best girl that the only place to have
printing done is at The Lotus Press, 23d Street near
Sixth Avenue, and so-forth, and so-forth, when we really
intended to tell her how much we loved her and what a
dear little creature she is, and how empty this world
would be without her, and "how we long to lay our
head in her lap and have a good cry" — and perhaps it
is safer to write her in a business strain after the severe
experience of "Bunnie" and "Baby," and save the H's
and K's for cur business announcements, and keep our
$46,000 in our inside pocket for a rainy day — the printing
business may not always be as good as it is just now,
who knows?
And now since we have explained our reasons for sending
this loving epistle and made so bold as lo tell our ac-
quaintances how much we adore them, and how sincerely
we appreciate their favors (orders), we extend a cordial
invitation to them to come and see us (when they need
anything in our line).
With bushels of H's and K's and K. M. Q>
We remain as ever.
[Circular, 6 x 10, printed in red ink, cut of pansy set at the side of
the poetry. Sent out on St. Valentine's Day, " H's and K's," " Baby"
and " Bunnie," etc., were expressions indulged in by a man who was
sued for divorce at the time and who was mulcted for $46,000. The
case was much discussed in the papers and was familiar to every one
This kind of advertising will do occasionally, if it is a timely hit, and
especially if it is followed up with something of a more serious nature.]
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58 ADVERTISING
Mr. Candidate :
You arc losing votes if your printing is being delayed.
You can't expect big meetings if you don't let people
know there is to be a meeting. You can't expect to be
elected if* you don't get your friends enthusiastic. Your
friends won't be enthusiastic unless you are. You ought
to keep hammering away at them with a new circular
almost every day. If you have a printer who can do the
work right for you, and do it quickly, and who is treating
you squarely, stick to him — he is your best friend. But,
if you are having disappointments of any kind with your
printing, bring your orders here and get the very best
service that money can buy. Don't send your order by
a hanger-on who will expect a commission — better pay
him liberally for his trouble and know that you are getting
all you are paying for. We pay no commissions and pre-
fer to deal direct.
Are you using as much printing as you should?
[Letter circular, sent to political candidates as soon as nominations
were made.]
We make a specialty of church printing and would be
pleased to have your order for Christmas programmes.
Among the churches we print for are the following :
All Souls Church
Bergen Reformed Church
Church of Divine Paternity
Church of the Holy Communion
Church of The Puritans
Crescent Avenue Presbyterian Church
First* Presbyterian Church
Fifth Avenue Baptist Church
Grace M. E. Church
Marble Collegiate Church
Madison Avenue Reformed Church
Reformed Church of Walden
St. Andrew's Church
St. Mark's Church
St. Paul's Church
West End Collegiate Church
West Presbyterian Church
You are invited to call and look at samples of our work.
[Printed on a postal card, and sent to all churches in the city.]
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Whoever thou art that enterest this Church leave it not
without kneeling down and saying a prayer to God for
thyself, for those who minister, and for those who worship
here.
Surely the Lord is in this place.
[A vestibule card, size 1 1 x 8>£; two-color initial in red and gold, rest
•f matter printed in red and black ; set in ecclesiastical style, large
Tudor type ; sent to ministers of all churches in the city ; extremely
small imprint at bottom of card. With this was sent the following
circular letter:
The Lotus Press sends its compliments and begs you to
accept these two Vestibule Cards, as they are peculiarly
appropriate for that purpose
The Lotus Press makes a specialty of Church Printing
They have a large number of samples to show, such as
Programmes, Service Lists, Calendars Cards, etc.
There are times when the need is felt for some excep-
tionally attractive printing.
That is the time to visit the Lotus Press.]
Let's Get Acquainted.
Almost every business house will send out some kind of
announcement or circular for the Fall Trade, and nearly all
will want to do it nicely, and probably wish they could
get some real assistance or valuable suggestion.
Those who will take the trouble of calling at our place
will find a wealth of ideas to select from, and will, get
the help of our best judgment in the matter Others who
find it inconvenient to call will receive suggestions by
return mail if they will send us the copy of their circular
or announcement, or whatever they require.
We do all kinds of printing, but call special attention to
Fall advertising in this circular, as it is probably the thing
that is wanted at this moment.
[Circular, printed on double sheet, 5x8; brown ink, white paper.
Same caption on the envelope in large type.]
Spring Announcements.
A crying baby at a public meeting is like a good sugges-
tion — it ought to be carried out. We wish to suggest
that now is the time to issue a nice Spring Announce-
ment, and if you make up your mind to carry out this
suggestion let us do the work for you.
[Card, 4% x -%% t to fit baronial envelope ; printeJ in two colors ]
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60 ADVERTISING
The Wrong Way.
The wrong way to buy printing is the "cheap" way.
If printing is to build business, it must be good printing.
Good enough or pretty fair won't do. The best only is
good enough. (We do the best work.) If you strain at
a dollar and swallow a mean job — some do — your adver-
tising cannot be bringing the best results. Good money
pays for good work — we do the best work. We know
how — know five years more how than other printers.
We mix brains with the ink — the printers' ink. Booklets
are trade-fetchers — leaflets, folders, circulars are money-
makers. We estimate if you ask us — and you might
better ask us.
[Circular, 4^ x 11 , amber paper, green ink ; caption made iti
reverse so as to read backwards J
Don't
deal with a house where you have to explain your busi-
ness to an errand boy, crane your neck to talk to an
insolent clerk behind a glass partition, or stand in a little
enclosure and lean your elbows on a counter while
transacting your business If you experience any of these
annoyances, that is proof that you are not a customer of
ours, so send your next order here and see the difference.
Your work will be done as you want it, when you want
it, and at the right price. Try it. It will be a pleasure
• to you, and money in your pocket besides.
[Circular, *>% x 8 V J% white paper, black ink].
Your Printer is Prosperous
A year ago when there was a general stagnation we were
busy We said then if times were normal we would not
be able to handle all our work Times are now normal —
our prediction was correct We have been compelled to
take three times as much working room as we had before,
besides adding very largely to our type and press facilities
Your orders will receive the same prompt and careful
attention as in the past, and with your co-operation we
hope to be compelled to spread to even greater propor-
tions in the not very distant future.
We are recognized as the best printers, and in time may
be the largest.
[Circular, 5^ x 8j£ ; printed on blue tinted paper, with dark blue
ink ; envelope to match 1
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ADVKRTlSINu 6 1
Wouldn't
a special circular or holiday announcement benefit your
business ?
We will help get it up for you if you wish it.
Our advertising pays us — we believe we can help make
yours pay, too.
If you will call on us you will probably decide to act on
this suggestion. We have arranged a special display for
the occasion. You will be interested.
[Decorative circular, 3x11, legal fold ; ornamentation in agate tint,
matter in agate ; primrose card.]
^The enclosed piece of printing was done for a house in
your line and is sent to you as a sample of our general
work, with a view of making a customer of you* .*
We treat this work in an effective way. We 6q not
overlook the commercial needs, nor do we lose sight of the
artistic possibilities. We also do all kinds of plain printing.
We aim to meet all legitimate competition in price and
give greater value for the money expended.
We trust you will keep our card before you and remember
us with your next order.
[Circular, with sample of handsome booklet, sent to other houses in
the same line of business. Our card enclosed]
We Are Bound This Shall Be Re(a)d.
Not simply
" Striking the iron while it b hot,''
But—
By striking make it hot.
That is the way to successful advertising. Some of the
business men in this neighborhood are napping. Persist-
ent advertising indicates enthusiasm. Get out a circular
this week, a folder next week, then a booklet, etc., etc.
There is no pnnter who can do it better for you than
The Lotus Press. We put enthusiasm into our business,
ind can give your printing that touch of originality that
will make it effective. A glance at some of our samples
may give you an idea. You are invited to call.
[Triple fold, 6x11, printed on a Turkey red cardboard, with this
caption on the outside centre fold : " We are bound this shall be
re(a)d." This little couplet on the outside end fold:
No wild enthusiast ever yet could rest,
Till half mankind were like himself possess'd.
—Cowpcr.]
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62 ADVERTISING
One of Our Many
Pleased customers wrote recently : " I heartily appreciate
the rare and admirable qualities of your work. You have
resolved printing into a fine art. 1 know not which to
admire most — your high standards of excellence, your
tasteful combination of type and color, or skillful press-
work." In this connection we wish to say, if you are not
entirely pleaded with the work you are getting in this
line, we would like to render you this same service. We
desire to state, also, that we have added a new feature
— Photography. If you want to issue an illustrated leaflet
or circular we will take a photograph of whatever may be
required for the purpose. You simply write the copy —
we now " press the button " and do all the rest. We
are centrally located, and trust we may have the pleasure
of a personal call from you.
[Circular, 8# by u, natural coated paper, two-color initial, gold
and brown, type matter in brown ; cut in lower left hand corner,
photographer looking through camera, camera mounted on tripod, aimed
at the reader of the circular.]
Booklets are considered most profitable advertisements,
but in order to produce the very best results they must
be neat and artistic.
An ordinary booklet will be likely to make the same im-
pression as a slovenly representative, but if it combines
artistic taste with good language your booklet will be a
success.
We make artistic booklets — the " successful" kind.
We make this kind because it pays us as well as our
customers. We make more profit at it than most pnnt-
ers, though we do not charge any more than they— not
as much as some. The reason is, that we know how
and are especially equipped for it. It is our specialty. If
you are a believer in this kind of advertising we can be
of service to you. We take pride in our place and are
not ashamed to have prospective customers call on us.
You are invited. (If it is not convenient for you to call,
invite us.)
[Printed on the office letter head, in typewriter type, violet ink ;
signed with a pen.]
Remember
August is the time to think of ordering printing for Fall.
[Baronial size, hand-made deckel edge paper, envelope to match ;
printed in three colors ; trade mark in lower left hand corner.]
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Attractive Printing.
A little illustration will sometimes add interest to a card,
circular or booklet. We have many useful little cuts
which our customers can have the use of without extra
cost. We have a very large collection of ornaments and
initial letters which help to make our printing very attractive.
We know how to use them to good advantage.
Our prices are reasonable.
[Circular, 9 x 12 ; cuts all around the margin, printed in light
brown, body of circular in agate.]
To Our Customers.
It will probably be a source of pleasure to you to learn that
we are exhibitors at the Architectural League Exhibition,
now being held at the American Fine Arts Building,
57th Street near Broadway, and that we are the only
printers represented The- honor conferred speaks strongly
for the merits of our work, and is, indeed, "a feather in
our cap." If you visit the exhibition fyou will find our
frame in the West Gallery (No. 245).
[Enameled card to fit No. 6 envelope, printed in red and black.]
We Want Your Endorsement.
If we were candidates for an elective office we are confi-
dent that we could count on your hearty support, but as
we have no political aspirations we trust you will always
bear us in mind as "High Grade Printers." To this end
we shall endeavor to merit your endorsement.
Yours for success.
[Card, to fit No. 7 envelope, printed in red and black ; cut of bal-
lot box in upper right hand corner; sent out just before election time.]
A Customer Writes :
"You treat your customers better than most people treat
their intimate friends.''
Letters of appreciation are always very gratifying to us.
Gains that come as a matter of premium and are not
earned, are apt to lack permanence. Many of our custom-
ers have dealt with us from the beginning of our business
career— over thirteen years. If we did not earn their con-
fidence, and after earning, maintain it, the results would
not have been so lasting.
[Card, to fit No. 6 envelope, printed in two colors.]
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64 ADVERTISING
The Lotus Press
Invites you to a novel exhibition of Art Papetenes, Fold-
ers and Printing (suggestions for Easter and Spring An-
nouncements), from March 27th to April 3d, 1 to 4 p. m.
daily. 140 West Twenty-third Street, New York City.
[Printed on an invitation card, card addressed to individual, sent
out three weeks before Easter ; large line of appropriate samples from
all stock houses.]
Heard Us Before.
We're talking again, talking to the hard-to-please people
who like particular printing. We are Particular Printers ;
we put in that little extra nice touch that pleases you.
Be the job big or little — its big enough to be well done.
Our Particular Department is our whole shop Ask us to
prove it ; we can make you believe that Our best is The
best.
[Large mailing card, 9x4; printed on 8-ply yellow blank. On the
address side a large headline, " I've heard that before."]
As schools are frequently judged by their catalogues and
other printed matter, we desire to call your attention to
our special facilities for high-grade printing of all kinds.
If the difference between a nicely printed catalogue and
one poorly done influences only a few people, it more
than pays for the difference in cost ; and that it will so
influence, there can be no question. We will be pleased
to look into the matter with you if you contemplate issu-
ing a catalogue for the coming term.
[Printed on office letter heads, in typewriter type, violet ink; signed
with a pen ; sent to private schools.]
. " Drat the Printer,"
Is a remark frequently indulged in, that might just as
well be avoided. There is no reason why your printing
should not be done on time ; and well done, too. Do
you suppose that such corporations as the Cigarette
Manufacturers or the Whiskey Trust would tolerate any
house short of "first-class and reliable?" We do their
work and would like to do yours. If you use any print-
ing it will pay you to communicate with us (for many
reasons).
[Circular, 5^ x8^, black ink, white paper]
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A Roman Type.
"There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune : " but—
Ye gods ! how a dilatory printer can upset one's plans !
Are you handicapped in this way?
When the successful man finds that he needs a thing, he
wants it at once, and should be in a position to get it.
This is especially so with printing. We can give it to you
when you want it.
We are printers to some of the largest concerns in this
country, and are anxious to add you to our list. We
cater to the wants of successful men. . J^
We have the type, necessary facilities and ability for prompt VC* Wn
service. Send us your work — it will pay you.
[The size of this circular was 8# x 1 1 ; the caption in a large bold
Roman type, and a metal type glued on at the side of the caption ;
heavy ledger paper, black ink ; enclosed in a No. 10 envelope]
Will it please the eye and hold the attention? That is
the test we apply to all printing of an advertising nature.
Our practical experience as printers and advertisers, and
our art education, qualify us to decide correctly. When
it passes our criticism you will probably find no improve-
ments to suggest. We can help you make your printing
and pamphlets more profitable.
[Folder, 4x0, with attractive cut on outside page ; printed in old
gold, black and tint.]
To Our Customers.
The long promised wave of prosperity appears to be
approaching. Put aside your fishing -rods and get ready
for business. We trust you have enjoyed your vacation,
and we hope to be remembered when you are ordering
your printing.
Yours for success through good printing.
The Glad Hand.
The pleasure of greeting to many ol our patrons in the
past few days prompts us to extend a hearty "how-do"
to all. When you are in our neighborhood come in and
see us. When you need anything in our line don't forget us.
[Two advertising blotters ; sent out at the end of the Summer vaca-
tion. 1 11 u t rated with cuts.]
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66 ADVERTISING
How About A Thanksgiving Announcement.
An appropriate circular or card for Thanksgiving Day
would be a very effective advertisement for many lines of
business. They should, of course, be gotten out immedi-
ately or at least within the next week. We have appro-
priate illustrations, and will give our prompt attention to
Thanksgiving orders. The above is simply a suggestion.
Remember we do all kinds of printing and do it well and
reasonable.
[A four-page circular, 5# x 8}£, filled with Thanksgiving cuts,
printed in green ink on yellow coated paper.]
The Lotus Press, Printers oh Work Other Printers Can't
Print.
Our best success is with those who leave their work to
our taste. We aim to make every job profitable to our
customers. Our prices are reasonable.
Every order receives special treatment.
Commercial Printing,
Catalogues,
Booklets,
Brochures, etc., etc.
Our work has received most flattering comments from the
leading advertising papers and printers' trade magazines.
We invite orders from users of particular printing.
[Ornamental circular, 5>£x8j£ j printed on vegetable parchment
paper, attached to a purple cover with a fancy brass fastener, tied with
yellow silk floss, which was secured to the cover with sealing wax ;
addressed to the individual with gold wnting fluid.]
Richards is a Man
Of large experience and a " close buyer." His printing is
done by The Lotus Pfess, 140 West 23d Street, New
York City. If you want to know more about the Lotus
Press ask Mr. Richards. If you want a practical demon-
stration of what they can do, don't bother Mr. Richards
but send an order — it will pay you. The successful man
profits by the experience of others. (Profit by the experi-
ence of Mr. Richards.)
[Circular, *>% x 8#, black ink, white paper. Richards was an en-
terpnsing advertiser in our locality.]
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ADVERTISING 67
A series of postal cards, each with appropriate illustration. A tint
"block printed over the entire back of the postals so as to make them
iook different from the regular postals received in the business man's
•mail.
Pamphlets.
Your valuable time should not be taken up in furnishing
ideas for your printer. You are not a printer, and he
should be competent to relieve .you of this annoyance.
The success of a pamphlet depends on the taste and
judgment displayed in the designing and type-setting, and
it is in this part of the work that we particularly excel.
Send us the order for your next pamphlet, booklet or cat-
alogue and let us show you what we can do.
Art in Printing.
A touch of art improves a piece of printing. It adds a
little to the expense, but it more than pays for the differ-
ence in the cost. A whole life devoted to the study of
good printing, together with an art education, has qualified
us to do the work in a way that will make it profitable
to you. Send us the order for your next catalogue or
pamphlet, and let us show you wherein we excel.
Luck in Business.
Our knowledge of good printing is the result of a prac-
tical art education, combined with years of experience in
handling the work of successful' business houses. There
is no guess work about it ; it has been, and is, a constant
schooling. It is probable that an order for a catalogue
or pamphlet would make a customer of you and relieve
you of much annoyance thereafter, as it would demonstrate
our efficiency and secure your confidence. When you
are ready let us look into it with you.
A Touch of Art.
Often the mere setting up of the type in an attractive and
pleasing style, or the addition of a few illustrations, or a
more tasteful cover is the only change necessary to make
an unsuccessful pamphlet a profitable one. With our prac-
tical knowledge of art we are enabled to do it right. A
mere suggestion from us may be of value to you. On
your next catalogue or pamphlet let us show you wherein
we excel.
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68 ADVERTISING
Aiming at You.
If you are a large user of printing you cannot afford to
waste time with incompetent printers. We want your
particular work, and while suggestions are of course valu-
able, we do not expect you to fuss with the details of
arrangement. If you will send us the copy for an estimate
we will show you what we will make of it. An art edu-
cation and a life devoted to the careful study of good
printing are our advantages. Now is a good time to
prepare pamphlets or catalogues for early Fall business.
Now.
At this season many orders are placed for catalogues and
pamphlets. Practical ideas, together with our art education
and knowledge of*good printing, enables us to cut off
the waste-basket circulation and make the investment
more profitable to you. If you will send us the copy for
your next catalogue or pamphlet we will, show you
wherein we excel. During July and August you could
probably give the work more attention than at any other
time.
Critics.
Competent critics have said of us, " there are no better
printers than these." We are prepared to arrange with a
few more large users of good printing and can give them
the kind of service and advice in printing that they expect
to get from a first-class lawyer in legal matters. Business
men who do not wish to experiment for the sake of sav-
ing a dollar or two are invited to consult us when they
require good printing of any kind. We believe we can
be a great help.
Booklets.
When we take an order for a booklet, we make up an
artist's dummy — that is, a hand-painted sample copy, which
shows exactly what the finished work will look like. We
do not expect our customers to furnish the ideas. Our
life study of fine printing and our art education enable us
to get it up in a way that will insure its being read,
and make a favorable impression. If you like this way
and need a booklet, consult us. You have more to gain
than we.
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ADVERTISING 69
Experiments are Costly.
The class of printing we do cannot be had elsewhere.
At the present time we stand out distinct and alone.
Each succeeding booklet we print is probably better than
the one before. We never expect to reach the limit of
excellence until the very last "job" is done. It is impos-
sible to give prices for catalogue printing without seeing
the copy and knowing the size. We would like to quote
rates to every good advertiser who will write and ask
for them.
Fall Printing.
Most any printer will take a big price for his work if he
can get it. Don't pay the price unless you get the value.
There are many printers who will charge you as much as
the Lotus Press will. There is no printer who will give
you as good work. That is a sweeping statement, and
we mean it to be.
We are practically without competition. Nobody else is
doing the sort of work that we do. Nobody else has the
same equipment for it that we have. Nobody else is giv-
ing their minds to it as we are. Nobody else has had the
training for it that we have had. You cannot get Lotus
Press work anywhere but at the Lotus Press. We put
art and brains and carefulness into every piece of work
that goes out of the place.
How about your Fall Printing?
The reader of this chapter will find it necessary to
■qualify himself to carry out the inducements that are
offered if he intends to use these advertisements, other-
wise his advertising will not pay. Some people labor
under the delusion that advertising will pay even though
the thing advertised has no particular merit. It will
certainly never pay to do this in the printing business
— or any other legitimate business.
It is claimed by many printers that there is no special
inducement to offer in this business, and that there-
fore it is not a business that will respond to advertis-
ing. A careful study of the examples on the preceding
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70 ADVKRTlSINr,
pages will reveal a number of special inducements and"
suggest others. As I stated in the beginning of this
chapter, good advertising requires careful and close at-
tention to business, and will rouse the advertiser to
give more thought to all the details of his business.
Good advertising involves enthusiasm, and enthusiasm
is an indispensable element of success. Enthusiasm is
contagious, its influence will spread over the entire es-
tablishment and stimulate the whole force. It will
prompt customers to follow the example set, thus in-
creasing the business.
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CHAPTER VIII.
HOW TO TALK TO CUSTOMERS.
The education of customers to an appreciation of
good printing and its commercial value is a science
worthy of study. The printer who would prosper
should be a salesman, or have one in his business
office who is gifted as a salesman. There is more
money to be made by proper talk at the desk than by
much fingering at the case. I do not wish to be under-
stood as advocating the persuasive, jollying talk by
which some salesmen secure orders — I mean brainy
talk that appeals to common sense, and invites the
customer to take that which is better for himself and
better for the printer.
The most common failing among buyers of printing
is that the desire to get it at a low price leads them
to beat down the printer, with the result that he gives
work that is not of the highest excellence. < One of the
most serious failings among master printers is that they
submit to this sort of thing, and that so many strive
all the time to lower their prices in order to meet the
customer's demands. This practice in business is all
wrong. The only right way — for the good of the
printer himself, for the good of the craft, and for the
customer also — is to talk for better and finer work,
first, last, and all the time.
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72 HOW TO TALK TO CUSTOMERS.
Cheap printing always presents so many weak
points for attack that it is comparatively easy for the
printer to prove to his customer the uselessness of
spending his money for anything but a high grade of
work. The wonder to me is that all printers do not
persistently and everlastingly drum it into the customer
that cheap printing is profitless ; and yet I know that
a very great number of printers seem to expend more
effort in the suicidal endeavor to cheapen work for the
public than in praiseworthy exertions to upbuild it.
The notion is so unbusinesslike, that it is hard to under-
stand why self-interest has not dictated the wiser course
to all. If I could have the ear of every printer in
America for just one half minute, I think that I could
do more good for the trade by shouting "Talk up the
quality of your work, rather than its cheapness ! " — than
by almost any other sentence that could be framed.
Continually impress upon your customer that issuing
cheap printing is like wearing cheap clothes ; that it
brings only discredit, and destroys the power of printers'
ink to build up and increase trade. The standing of a
firm is often judged by the quality of the printing that
it sends out ; the character of their goods is pretty sure
to be estimated as the equivalent of the printing. If
this were not so, the expensive catalogues and price
lists often seen would never be issued. The Gorham
Company a few years ago issued an illustrated catalogue
on which the printer's bill was $110,000. The printer
who secured the contract doubtless knew how to talk
as well as how to print. Suppose that he had been a
poor talker, or had tried to give them a catalogue at a
low figure, he would then have lost a profitable job,
and the credit of turning out a superb piece of work-
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HOW TO TALK TO CUSTOMERS. 73
manship that was probably worth several thousand
dollars to him as an advertisement.
It is more often possible to talk a customer into
using a better quality of work than originally intended
than many printers suppose. A good way when fig-
uring on a new piece of work is to make the calcula-
tions and quote a price on a plain job, and then to
suggest to the customer, " Would it not be worth
your while to spend a little more, and secure a better
effect? If it is worth while to spend $500 in getting
out 5,000 of these catalogues, is it not well to add
another $100 to make them beautiful and artistic, so
that they may attract attention, be more widely read,
and sell more goods?" If this sort of talk is followed
up by the exhibition of samples of fine work, and with
references to the greater impression that is made on
possible buyers by the fine job, a customer very
frequently may be influenced to go higher than he
originally intended. By such means not only does the
printer secure a job better worth having, but he elimi-
nates the chances of the work's being given to some
cheap printer who is cutting prices, because he has
impressed on the customer the idea that quality is what he
wants, and that he must pay more to get that quality.
A good level-headed salesman in the counting-room
will "talk up" every $1,000 dollars worth of work
offered his firm to $1,200, earning his own salary in
this one item of judicious talk. It pays to have as an
estimator a man who is a good talker ; one who can
read men and appeal to the qualities that he recognizes
in them. Intelligence of this sort is hard to buy, and
proprietors mostly have to furnish it themselves or go
without.
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74 HOW TO TALK TO CUSTOMERS.
It is well to lay out a regular system of talk for
customers, to plan ahead all the arguments that can be
brought to bear upon them to increase the quality of
their printing, and to allow the printer a fair margin
of profit. The application of these arguments must
necessarily be very varied, depending upon the work,
the customer, and the surrounding circumstances. But
the effort to develop work by talking should never be
relaxed, for it is a very valuable factor in the develop-
ment of trade. Good talk often builds up a printery,
while the lack of it may allow a good business to
deteriorate.
The printer should never allow the assumption that
he cannot compete with other firms in the trade. The
instant this idea appears in his talk, the customer is apt
to think that the other place is a good one for him to
go to when he wants the real thing. Talk as if you
had the best facilities, keeping any weaknesses of your
plant to yourself; talk with enthusiasm, and then you
will convince. Whatever the character of your office,
it has some points of merit that you can point out to
the customer, and it is your duty to think out just
what they are, and use them in your talk as occasion
demands. Depend upon it the bright men among your
competitors will be doing the same thing. Know the
value of your position in the printing world, and insist
upon its recognition.
By keeping in the counting-room a large line of
samples, talk with the customer is much facilitated.
The judicious exhibition of samples forms a back-
ground to your talk that is as effective as are the
illustrations to the text of a magazine. They assist you
in continually calling attention to the originality and
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HOW TO TALK TO CUSTOMERS. 75.
ornateness of your work. A superior line of .samples
seldom fails to impress a customer with the idea that
you are a superior printer. We should remember that
printing is an art as well as a trade, and that the
printer who leads his customer to better and more ar-
tistic things is the printer who will earn the greatest
rewards. Judicious talk is perhaps the most effective
means the printer has for improving his trade. It re-
quires no expenditure of money, only judgment and
brains. By advertising he may bring in customers, but
it requires talk to land them, retain them, and develop
them into patrons of good printing.
A recent article in the Printer and Bookmaker con-
tains the following sensible thoughts on this subject :
We are trying to impress the printer who might be a
talker, that he may give more attention to this necessary
branch of his business. It is not sufficient when asked for
an estimate simply to hand over the figures. It is your
business to show the prospective customer that it is better
for him to give you the job at your price than to accept a
lower figure from some one else. You cannot expect to be
successful in this perhaps more than one time in ten, but if
you succeed in getting one in ten by some happy argument,
the merit and the profit will be all due to your talk.
The man who gives out printing always has some ob-
ject in view. He expects to realize a profit or gain of some
sort. If you can show him that you can serve him better
than others, as in promptness, tasteful display, an extra
quality of work, or suggestions that help out his ideas, you
can hope to get the printing at a higher price than some, one
who offers no other inducement than a low price.
If by your talk you can enable the customer to see
more money coming to him as a result of his printing,
you have scored a valuable point with him. High-class
printing will always appeal to the eye of the customer;
make it appeal to his pocket-book also, by calling his
attention to the fact that a thousand copies of a fine
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76 HOW TO TALK TO CUSTOMERS.
piece of printing will often be read by more people
than ten thousand copies of a piece of cheap printing,
and that the people who read the good work are sure
to be more favorably impressed than those who read
the cheap work, no matter if it is as well written.
This is absolutely true, and the printer who keeps his
eyes open will find numerous instances that he can cite
to the customer to demonstrate it.
A few years ago I knew a clever man who acquired
a patent in the manufacture of wall decorations. It was
a good thing, both as to looks and cost. He established
a large plant, got out a great line of samples, and
photographed them, but proceeded to issue some of the
meanest and cheapest printed advertising matter that 1
ever saw. His goods were fine, but his printing was
vile, and no one who judged of the goods by the
blurred and spotted half-tone illustrations on cheap paper
ever wanted anything of the sort used in decorating his
premises. If ever there was a business that demanded
high-class printing to advertise it, this was one. The
failure to appreciate this fact closed up the factory and
bankrupted the proprietor, who was in most things a
clear-headed and capable man. Had he early in his
career run against a printer who had talked to him
with sledge-hammer arguments about his need of the
very best work, the wall decoration business might
have been saved, and a good customer preserved to the
trade. The last time 1 saw the name of this unfortunate
concern in print, it was on a list of firms that could
not pay their bills, and all for want of a right use of
printers' ink.
Is it not true that the largest and most successful
printeries command the highest prices for their work ?
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HOW TO TALK TO CUSTOMERS. . 77
Is not this apparent in every large town and city ? Is
not this evidence of the fact that the best class of cus-
tom demands quality rather than low price, and that
this is the line of talk to follow up to secure the best
trade? These questions seem to me so self-evidently
calling for affirmative replies as not to require answer
here. They are only thrown in by way of emphasis,
to clinch the nail of argument, that I hope is fastened
in the mind of any doubting printer who has hereto-
fore omitted talking to his customers, or talked only to
cheapen work. If there are business men continually
looking for cheap printing, it is largely the fault of the
printers themselves who have allowed them to develop
such ideas by their failure to drum into them the cor-
rect arguments.
Few things require more tact than talking to custom-
ers. You must lead them without seeming to do so ;
you must take them as they come, size them up, and
talk to each according to his character and intelligence.
It requires very different lines of talk to affect a base-
ball sport and a properous merchant ; a clergyman and
a'lawyer ; a liquor dealer and a pedagogue. Each must
be guided by different methods, and occasionally some
cannot be guided at all, but resent all hints and sug-
gestions. In sizing up a new customer it is best to let
him talk first, and say about all he has to say, that you
may learn just what he wants. Then try to shape your
talk so as to give him something that will help along
the object that he desires to attain. Sometimes this
requires considerable finesse, but a bright printer who
makes a study of customers will soon find that it be-
comes very easy to lead them along to the better class
of work.
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78 HOW TO TALK TO CUSTOMERS.
It does not do to be insisting or over-positive with
customers ; beware of combating them. Only the man
of superior intelligence can bear to be combated and
overruled. And when you do it with him, be very sure
that you are right before you go ahead, for if you
combat him, and he proves you wrong, it will require
a long course of good conduct on your part to recover
a position where he will pay any attention to arguments
of yours. But if you have a stand-up argument with
a very brainy man, and best him, you can often have
it all your own way afterwards in directing his print-
ing. He sees that you know your business, and are
disposed to help your trade by assisting in making his
schemes profitable, and he will be very apt to tie up
to you. Cultivate your gift for talk, and it will pay you
better returns than all the gifts of brass-rule twisting or
manipulating of fancy borders to which some aspire.
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CHAPTER IX.
THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING.
Few matters are of as great importance in bringing
success to the printing office as the making of prices.
If they are too high, custom is driven away — if too
low, there are no profits. Either extreme is disastrous,
and it requires a strong hand and a clear head to steer
the craft between this Scylla and Charybdis into pros-
perous seas. I believe that more printers fail through
making prices too low than through making them too
high ; and there are thousands of printers who work
too cheaply just because they have never learned how
to charge. They are so afraid of losing work by over-
charging that they are constantly doing jobs at cost, a
practice that is wholly indefensible. In order to charge
properly, a printer must know exactly what it costs to
produce work.
The trouble with most printers who estimate incor-
rectly is that they do not know just what it costs them
to turn out their work ; they guess at many items and
forget and omit others. If the paper for a job costs
$i, and it requires the time of the compositor and
pressman to the amount of $3, and a price of $8 is
given the customer, should the customer object and
demand it at $7, many printers accede to the demand,
thinking that anything above $5 is profit any way.
The truth is that such a job usually costs the printer
every cent of the $8 to get out, and may often cost
more, as the indirect expenses mount up so rapidly.
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8o THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING.
A writer in the Typothetce and Platemaker, for Septem-
ber, 1898, contends that it is necessary to add 113 per
cent, to the compositor's time to get at the actual cost
(not selling price, but cost), of work in the composing-
room, and I believe that most printers who have been
into this subject deeply will agree with me that the
proper percentage is over 100.
In large offices the minor expenses are generally
known, but in smaller offices they are only too often
guessed at, with the result that the proprietor who
may think he is getting fair prices discovers after a
few years that he is making only wages, and perhaps
wearing out his material without accumulating the
money to replace it.
Whether an office is large or small the general
expense can be arrived at, and should be added to
the cost of labor in estimating on the job. I would
figure about in this way :
SMALL COUNTRY OFFICE.
Platen Press Department, Employing a quarto and a half-medium
jobber :
One-third of yearly rent and half power, . $125
One-third cost advertising, ... 40
Interest, 6 per cent, on $500 investment, . 30
Depreciation, 8 per cent, on $500 invest-
ment, 40
One-third insurance, light, heat, unpro-
ductive labor, accidents, errors and
all incidentals, 150
Ink, oil, benzine and repairs, 75
Share office expenses, 100
Part time proprietor, 250
One-third wages foreman, 250
Wages 2 feeders, 225 days in year,. 450
Total, . $1,510
Although 225 working days of the feeders are fig-
ured here, the product in such a small plant cannot be
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THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING. 8 1
expected to exceed 200 working days, so the boys will
have to be maintained in tfoe office at times when
thfire is no real work for them. With a 200 days'
production at a cost of $1,500, we find that the cost of
running these two job presses is $7.50 per day, or say
$4.25 for the half-medium, and $3.25 for the quarto.
If the presses stood idle the whole year round, but in
a condition of expecting work, this list of expenses
could be cut to only about $800, or about $2.67 a day,
estimating that there are 300 days a year on which
they might be productive. This means that the idle
time of the half-medium costs $1.50 per day and the
quarto $1.17 a day. Few printers appreciate this act-
ual cost of idle time of a press, because they do not
realize that while these presses are idle they are main-
taining a continual system of expense to keep them in
readiness to produce work when it is wanted. A man
might keep these two presses in a barn for a year at
a cost of less than $100, but when he keeps them in a
printing office, ready for work, he will find that the
actual cost is about what is here stated, varying a little
according to conditions. * In estimating on a job of
work for such a platen press department, it may be
fairly calculated that such presses can each turn out a
job of 5,000 impressions, including make-ready and
minor delays, in a day. To get at the proper price to
charge the customer for a job of 5,000 impressions on
the half-medium, one must figure about like this :
Actual time of press costs, .
Margin for idle time of press,
Time of feeder costs,
Time of foreman costs,
Ink and waste,
Profit
$1.50
•75
1.00
•75
25
•75
Total, . $5.00
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82 THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING.
Very many printers would forget to make the second
charge, yet it must not be overlooked, because in the
natural course of events that press will stand idle orte-
third of the working days in a year, at a cost of $1.50
a day, and this must be charged up to the paying
work, or it will be lost. The actual cost of doing that
5,000 impressions under the conditions given is cer-
tainly $4.25, and this cost cannot be reduced except
by increasing the product. If a printer is given a
year's steady work (300 days) for such a press he can
afford to run it for $4.25 a day, but all transient work
should command at least $5 a day under such circum-
stances. The smaller press should command $4 or
more a day under similar conditions. Then, if the two
job presses in this department bring in $9 a day for 200
days in the year, that is $1,800; this leaves the pro-
prietor with expenses of $1,510, a profit of $290 a year
on his platen press department, besides a salary of $250
for what personal attention he has given 'to it.
Cylinder Press Department, employing a 2-roller j;>b and news
press :
One-third of yearly rent and half power, $125
One-third cost advertising, ... 40
Interest, 6 per cent, on $1,200 investment 72
Depreciation, 8 per cent, on $1,200, 96
One-third insurance, light, heat, unpro-
ductive labor, accidents, errors and
all incidentals, 150
Ink, oil, benzine and repairs, 75
Share office expenses 100
Part time proprietor, 250
One-third wages foreman, 250
Wages, 1 feeder, 22s days in the year, .225
Total, . $1,383
If this press is used 200 days in the year it will
cost $7 a day to run it, and $8 a day is the limit of
price below which no charge should be considered.
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THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING. 8j
Such a press in a country office can usually produce
about 7,000 impressions during a day, or 5,000 impres-
sions including make-ready on one job. If the produc-
tion were but 4,000 a day, which is as much as can be
obtained in many offices, the prices would necessarily
require to be increased. About $2 for ordinary make-
ready, and $1.20 per 1,000 impressions is therefore the
lowest price the printer can afford to make for the
work of such a machine, producing 5,000 impressions
per day. This will yield him $1,600 for 200 days, or
a profit of $217 and a salary of $250 for the personal
attention he has given the department. It is obvious
that if he cannot average this output for 200 days in the
year he must charge more for his work. If the cylin-
der is busy only 100 days in the year, a condition
very common in country offices, he can take off his
estimate of yearly cost $112 for feeder's wages, $100 of
the foreman's wages, and about $188 from other items,
$400 in all ; leaving an annual cost of the cylinder press
department as $988, or $9.88 for each of the 100 days.
He must then charge $12 per day for the use of his
cylinder press, which will yield him $212 annual profit
for the department instead of $217.
Composing-room Department :
One-third of yearly rent, $50
One-third cost advertising, ... 40
Interest, 6 per cent, on $1,500, 90
Depreciation, 15 per cent, on $1,500, . 225 [
One-third insurance, light, heat, unpro-
ductive labor, accidents, errors and
all incidentals, 1 50
Share office expenses, .... 200
Part time proprietor, .... 500
One-third wages foreman, . 250
Proof-reading, 250
Wages, 1 man and] 2 boys, compositors,
300 days, 1,200
Total, . $2,955
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84 THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING.
If kept on plain composition the three compositors
may be expected to turn out 15,000 ems per day, which
costs the office 67 cents per thousand to produce.
Country printers who have been in the habit of doing
composition for 50 and 60 cents per thousand, will
please go over these figures a few times and see 11
they are not correct. If there is a large amount of
composition, so that the proprietor can afford to put
on say — two extra compositors, without increasing his
general expenses, he may bring the cost down to 60
cents, but with the normal force of compositors given
above, the cost of the composing-room is $10 a day,
and that, too, on the favorable assumption that there
are 300 days in the year when full work can be given
the compositors. As in an office of this sort there is
usually a newspaper or some work giving' steady em-
ployment to the compositors, it is not necessary to
place the work on the 200 days basis, as in the press
departments. If the proprietor charges 65 cents an hour
for the man compositor, during the seven hours a day
that he will be on composition, and 55 cents an hour
for the boys, on the same basis, that is $12.25 P er day,
this allows a profit of $2.25 per day for 300 days or
$675 per year.
According to the above estimate, the proprietor of
this country office will be earning as follows :
Salary. Profit.
From platen press department, $250 $290
From cylinder press department, 2 50 217
From composing-room, 500 675
Totals, $1,000 $1,182
Will any one contend that $2,182 a year is more
than a fair salary and . profit for a man who has the
ability to run such a plant properly, and has $3,200
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THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING. 85
invested in material, and perhaps $2,000 to $3,000 more
in good will, and who has to take all the risks of dull
times, bad debts, and a hundred and one other things
that may interfere with his success? I trust that this
estimate will set many a country printer to applying
the method to his own case, that he may know just
what it costs him to produce his work.
Suppose we now take an office a grade higher,
and calculate about what must be charged to yield a
fair profit.
A $7,40O SMALL CITY OFFICE.
Platen press department, employing four job presses :
One-third rent and half power, $200
One-third cost advertising, ... 60
Interest, 6 per cent, on $900 investment, 54
Depreciation, 8 per cent, on $900 invest-
ment, 72
Share of insurance, light, heat, unpro-
ductive labor, accidents, errors and
all incidentals, . . 250
Ink, oil. benzine and repairs, 150
Share office expenses, 200
Part time proprietor, .... 375
Wages, pressman in charge, 300 days, 750
Wages, 3 feeders, 225 days, . 1,000
Total, .... $3>m
The expenses of this department are a trifle more
than double that of the country plant, and having a
little higher-priced help and better facilities, they should
turn out a little more than double the amount of work.
If the presses are a half-medium, two quartos and an
eighth, the cost of operating them may be fairly di-
vided as follows : Half-medium, $4.75 per day ; quartos,
$3.75 each; eighth, $3.25—3 total of $15.50 per day.
According to previous calculations, the country office
has to charge the customer $1 a thousand impressions
on the half-medium and 80 cents on the quarto, in
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86 THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING.
runs of five thousand impressions. The small city of-
fice, with the whole time of a pressman in charge,
should get 22,000 impressions a day, including make-
readies, out of the four platen presses, when running
with full work, as they should be for 200 days in the
year. If the prices charged are then $1 per one thou-
sand impressions on the half, 80 cents on the two
quartos, and 60 cents on the eighth, the yield is $17.60
per day, or $3,520 for the year of 200 full working
days, leaving a profit of $409 for the department.
Cylinder press department, employing a 24x36 press, worth $1,200,
and a 34x52 press, worth $2,300.
One-third rent and half power, $200
One-third cost advertising, ... 60
Interest, 6 per cent, on $3,500 invest-
ment, 210
Depreciation, 8 per cent, on $3,500 in-
vestment, 280
Share of insurance, light, heat, unpro-
ductive labor, accidents, errors and
all incidentals, .... 400
Ink, oil, benzine and repairs, 250
Share office expenses, .... 500
Part time proprietor, ... 375
Wages, pressman and 2 feeders, 225 days. 1, 125
Total, .... $3,400
This cost is considerably more than double that of
the one-cylinder department of the country office, but,
as the presses are of a better class, a product more
than double in quantity, and much superior in quality,
may be calculated upon. It is apparent that these
presses cost about $2,025 a year for their keep alone,
and if they are busy 225 days in the year, that is $9
a day (or say $3.50 for the small press and $5.50 for
the large press) of actual cost, which should be added
to the labor cost on all jobs run on the presses to as-
certain the total cost of production. For a job of
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THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING. 87
12,000 Impressions, that can be made ready and run
off complete on the large cylinder within two days*
time, the proper estimate should be about as follows :
Time of press, 2 days, .... $u.oo*
Time of feeder costs, 2.50
Time of pressman, 3.50
Margin for profit, 3 00
Total, $20.00
If the job were a difficult one, requiring extra make-
ready, slip-sheeting, or any other special care, which
would prevent its being surely completed within two
days' time, the price should be correspondingly in-
creased. Figuring in this way the large cylinder would
pay a profit of $1.50 per day and the small cylinder $1
a day for 200 days in the year, or a total of $500 for
the yearly profit of the* department.
Composing-room department, including $3,000 worth of material :
One-third of yearly rent, . $125
One-third cost advertising, ... 60
Interest, 6 per cent, on $3,000 invest-
ment, 180
Depreciation, 15 per cent on $3,000 in-
vestment, 450
Share insurance, light, heat, unproduc-
tive labor, accidents, errors and all
incidentals, 325
Share office expenses, .... 500
Part time proprietor, .... 750
Proof-reading, 500
Wages foreman, 900
Wages 8 compositors, 300 days, 4,800
Total, .... $8,590
If such an office could keep its eight compositors
busy 290 days in the year, and charge and collect 60
cents an hour for their seven hours a day of productive
time, it could obtain receipts of $9,744, showing a profit
of $1,154 on the year's work ; but as a matter of fact
the manager of such a composing-room cannot hope
••The idle time is included in this.
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88 THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING.
to keep his full force of men active for 290 days each
year, hence in actual practice he would lose money in
selling the time of employees at 60 cents an hour. It
has therefore become the practice to charge also for
the unproductive time of the men. If the time of com-
position on a job is 100 hours, many offices will add
10 hours for proof-reading, and 25 hours for distribu-
tion, making 135 hours. In this way a profit is secured
without charging the customer a rate per hour that
seems to him exhorbitant. Figuring the time on this
increased basis such a composing-room can employ its
complement of eight men only 250 days in the year,
and yet show a profit of $1,000. Perhaps $750 a year
is what a proprietor might fairly hope to make from
such a composing-room. It should be noted here that
few composing-rooms can expect to keep eight hand
compositors employed with only $3,000 of material, as
standing forms and varied work cause increased invest-
ment in type. This is one reason why so few com-
posing-rooms can show a profit.
Some may criticise the entry of $500 for proof-reading
in this composing-room as being too low, but it should
be remembered that the proprietor is allowed $750 sal-
ary for his own time here, which is assumed to include
some of the reading. According to my figuring this
$7,400 office ought to yield its proprietor total results
as follows :
From platen press depart
ment,
From cylinder press depart-
ment,
From composing-room,
From business office,
Salary.
$375
175
750
500
Profit.
$409
500
750
Total, . $2,000 $1,659
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THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING. 89
The above is what it ought to yield if rightly con-
ducted, with proper charges, and I am only too sorry
that I cannot add an expression of belief that the average
office of this size does yield such returns. That it ought
to pay this much is evidenced by the fact that few
men would be induced to invest a total of $10,000
(including good will value) in a printing house, without
a reasonable certainty of getting a 15 per cent, return
above salary in good years, to offset the risks of loss
in bad times. Such being the case, estimates should
all be based on the expectation of making such a profit
at least.
In the calculations thus far, nothing has been said
about charges for composition where machines are used.
I am one of those who believe that the printer who
buys high-priced composing machines is entitled to the
extra profit that these will earn him, and that on putting
in such machinery he should maintain his prices and
not proceed to chop the prices down to almost cost.
Various records kept by printing houses in the large
cities show that after the compositor has been paid his
piece rate on composition, there stHI remains to the
office a cost of about 27 cents per 1,000 ems to cover
proof-reading, make-up, and its share of general expense.
Let the estimator recollect that this 27 cents of cost
cannot be much reduced in a country office, and that
it adheres just the same when composing machines are
used as when the type is set by hand. To get at
the cost of composition by machine, it is first necessary
to take the wages item, then add the interest, depreci-
ation, and minor cost of running the machines, and then
to add this 27 cents for other expenses.
The printer who wishes to make correct estimates
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90 THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING.
must remember that there are seven general items of
cost : composition, presswork, paper stock, plates, bind-
ing, delivery, and general expense. Each of these items
may be subdivided. Composition includes type-setting,
proof-reading, correcting, making-up and distribution.
Presswork includes the time of the press, the labor
cost, ink, oil, rollers, drying and handling of sheets.
Paper includes all paper and card-stock, with an addi-
tion for waste and a charge for handling and cutting.
It is proper to charge customers an advance of ten per
cent, or more on the price of paper stock. Plates
should include all electrotyping and stereotyping, en-
graving or other charges connected with illustrations or
electrotype plates. The binding includes all folding,
gathering, collating and stitching, besides putting on
covers, if any. Ruling is also usually figured in with
the binding. Delivery includes packing, porterage, cart-
age and expressage. General expense includes rent,
power, heat, light, water, telephone, clerks, superin-
tendents, and office help, solicitors, taxes, elevator,
interest on capital, salary of proprietor, depreciation,
advertising, charity, insurance, bad debts, spoilage, post-
age, repairs, collecting, stationery, towels and cleaning
and all other minor items. In a large office these general
expenses are pretty accurately known, and should be
divided fairly between the departments. For instance,
it is manifestly wrong to charge a portion of the power
to a composing-room where no power is used. Each
department of the business should carry that portion of
the general expense that assists in supporting it, in
proportion to the amount of money invested in that
department. Rent may properly be divided according
to the floor space of the departments. Depreciation
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THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING. 9 1
must be calculated by experience. The type and presses
which were new yesterday are second-hand to-morrow,
and would bring only half price at a forced sale.
It is the practice of many printers to charge 25 per
cent, of type value to depreciation the first year, and
15 per cent, thereafter. It ought rather to be 35, 25,
20, and then 15 per cent, a year as long as it lasts.
This is easily proven. It is fair to assume that the
average life of type is six years, and that at the end
of that time, if it has seen good service, it should go
back to the foundry. $100 put out at interest for six
years at six per cent, will yield about $142. If the
same $100 is invested in type, and we charge off $35,
$25, $20, $15, $15, $15, we have $125, to which we
may add $17 as the value of the old metal remaining,
thus securing $142 for the original $100 invested. In
preceding tables I have figured interest and depreciation
in composing-room at 6 and 15 per cent, respectively,
or a total of 21 per cent., which in six years yields
126, as against 125, the actual value loss in six years.
We can get at depreciation on presses in much the
same way. Money doubles at interest in about thirteen
years. In 13 years a new press becomes two-thirds
worn out, and so antiquated that the live printer usually
sells it and buys an up-to-date machine in its place.
Suppose a cylinder be bought for $2,000. It can be sold
after thirteen years for about $400. The $2,000 would
be $4,000 at interest, therefore we have $3,600 to mark
off in depreciation and interest in that 13 years. That
means $500 the first year, then $400, $350, $300 for
the next three years, $250 for the next year, and then
$200 a year for the balance of the thirteen years. In
previous tables 1 have figured interest and depreciation
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9-2 THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING.
in the press-room at 6 and 8 per cent, respectively, or
a total of 14 per cent., which seems to me to fairly
represent the average depreciation in a press-room which
is kept up by the occasional introduction of new ma-
chinery.
If the printer in estimating will always bear in mind
that his miscellaneous items of expense are at least
double the labor cost, and that he has to earn 14 per
cent, on his machinery and 21 per cent, on his type to
come out even, and that profit must be charged on top
of these things — if he will always remember these, he
is not likely to commit the common error of doing work
at cost or below cost, or to find out after a few years
that he has no money with which to replace his fast
depreciating material.
If he will also bear in mind that a journeyman's wage
is about }0 cents an hour, to which must be added
another 30 cents for general expenses, and }o cents more
for interest, depreciation and profit, a total of 90 cents
for every hour of productive labor; that of a good
cylinder press with the usual help $1.50 an hour, and a
job press (half-medium with help) about $1 an hour,
this will serve as a convenient method of proving the
correctness of his estimates when they become complex.
In order that the printer may be able to know just
what his general expenses are, and how best to divide
them and charge to the several departments, I have
appended here some tables taken from a report of a
committee of the Cincinnati Typothetae on "The Cost
of Printing. " With a little pains any printer can adapt
these to his own establishment. This is very important,
for unless the printer knows just what general ex-
penses belong to each department of his business, how
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THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING. 9}
can he know just what it is costing him to turn out
his work?
GENERAL EXPENSES OF A $65,000 PRINTING PLANT.
RlHT— $3,400—
Cellar: Vault for storage
of Plates (charged to
Press-room), ... $18 35
Boiler and Engine
(charged to Power and
Heat), 30 65
Storage of Paper
(charged to Press-
room), 191 00 $340 00
First floor — Press-room, .... 500 00
Second floor-
Counting-room, . . 09 75
Bindery, .... 85 75
Press-room. . . . 304 50 400 00
Third floor — Bindery 400 00
Fourth floor — Bindery , . . . 400 00
Fifth floor — Composing-room. . . 400 00
$3,400 00
Distribution of same —
Press-room, $1,013 85
Bindery, 885 75
Composing-room, 400 00 $3,399 ^°
♦Counting-room, 69 75
♦Power and Heat 30 65
$3,400 00
Insurance — $890 30 —
Com posing-room — type,
$11,300
$337 40
Press-room — stock,
$6,200
Press-room — machinery ,
14,560
30,760
440 10
Bindery — stock, . .
800
Bindery — machinery, .
7,380
8,080
171 35
♦Power and Heat— engine,
1,960
1,960
4» 55
848 75
$43,000 $890 30
• Included under those heads further along.
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94 THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING.
Taxes— $325.73—
Press-room, . . $4.875 $131 9}
Composing-room, 2,500 67 66
Bindery, . . . 2,625 7 1 °4
Paper— Stock, 1 ,937 (charged to Pressroom) 52 40 $323 03
♦Counting-room, 100 2 70
$12,037 $3*5 73
Interest on Capital Invested—
Press-room, $24,825 at 6 per
cent $^489 50
Press-room — paper stock, $7,885
at 6 per cent 473 10
Press-room — unfinished work,
$840 at 6 per cent. ... 50 40 $2,013 °°
Bindery, $1 3,980.65 at 6 per cent. 838 84
Bindery — stock $1,000.50 at 6 per
cent 60 03
Bindery — unfinished work, $1 ,02 1
at 6 per cent 61 26 960 13
Composing-room, $11,521.45 at
6 per cent 691 29
Composing-room — u n fi n i s h e d
work, $096 at 6 per cent. . . 59 76 751 05 $3,724 18
♦Power and Heat, $3,741 at 6 per cent. . . 224 46
* Water Fixtures, $250 at 6 per cent. . 15 00
•Gas Fixtures, $250 at 6 per cent .... 15 00
♦Counting-room, $467 at 6 per cent. . . 28 02
$4,006 66
Water —
Interest on Fixtures, $1500
Water Rent— Employees, 30 00 $45 00
♦Water Rent — Boilers (charged to Power and
Heat), 3& 30
♦Water Rent— Elevator, 151 11
$232 41
Light —
Interest on Fixtures, $15 00
Gas consumption — Bindery, 128 03
Gas consumption — Composing-room, 42 67
Gas consumption — Press-room, . $256 04
Electric Light— Press-room, . 263 54 519 58 $70^ 2$
• Included unAer those heads further along.
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THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING. 95
Elevator —
Water-power, $151 11
Repairs, }6 70 $187 81 $187 81
Counting-room and General —
Rent, $69 75
Interest (on Capital invested) 28 02
Taxes, 2 70
Salaries — Manager, $1,560; Book-keeper,
$1,144 ; Clerk, $401 ; Boy, $13785, • • 3,242 85
Stationery, 22 50
Advertising, 743 00
Telephone, 100 00
Commercial Agency, .... ... 50 00
Legal Expenses, 20 00
Trade Journals, 22 06
Bad Accounts (charged to Profit and Loss), 1,182 15
Interest and Tiscount 1,222 81
Soap and Towels, .... .... 55 50
Two Porters, 782 64
Interest on outstanding accounts, $4,750 at 6
per cent 285 00
Petty Cash Expenses (such as car-fare, post-
age, donations, Christmas gifts, brooms,
police, scrubbing, ice, drayage, charity,
repairs, plumbing, etc.), 408 00 $8,237 7^
Power and Heat — Divided.
Total. Power. Heat.
Rent, $30 05 $26 65 $4 00
Insurance, 4' 55 4' 55
Interest, 224 4b 150 66 73 80
Water, 36 30 27 30 9 00
Salary— engineer, . . . 852 38 746 38 106 00
Fuel—-( Bindery, special heat,
$100,) ... 439 5° 2 54 50 ««5 00
Repairs — Boiler and Engine, 125 10 112 60 12 so
Oil, 17 25 17 25
Depreciation — Boiler , etc . ,
$880 at 10 per cent. . 88 00 77 00 1 1 00
Depreciation — Engine, shaft -
ing. etc., $1,741 at loper
cent 174 10 174 10
Depreciation — Fixtures,
heating, $1,120 at 10 per
cent 1 12 00 1 12 00
$1,627 90 $513 30 $5'3 30
1,627 99
Total General Expense, .... $18,512 72
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96
THE COST OF PRODUCING PRINTING.
DISTRIBUTION TO DEPARTMENTS.
Press-room.
Bindery.
Comp'g-room
$3,299 60 Rent, .
. $1,013 85
$885 75
$400 OO
$2,209 60
848 75 Insurance,
440 IO
171 25
237 40
848 75
323 03 Taxes,
184 33
71 04
67 66
323 03
3,724 18 Interest, .
2,013 OO
060 13
75 1 05
3,724 18
45 00 Water,
10 65
23 20
II 15
45 00
705 28 Light,
528 58
«32 53
44 17
705 82
187 81 Elevator,
75 12
75 «a
37 57
187 81
8,237 7** Counting-
room, 2,865 30
3,581 66
1,790 82
8,237 78
1,627 99 Power, .
1,240 32
387 67
....
1,627 99
513 30 Heat, .
106 80
324 50
82 00
5«3 30
$18,512 72
$8,478 05 $6,612 85 $3,421 82 $18,512 72
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CHAPTER X.
ESTIMATING.
No portion of the work of an employing printer
requires more care than the making of estimates. The
calculations cannot be made correctly without a knowl-
edge of the cost of producing work ; hence, they require
to be made by a practical man, and the more knowledge
he has of the details of the business the fewer mistakes
he is liable to -make. Estimating involves a calculation
(often a shrewd guess) of the time required to perform
certain work. The estimator must be careful not to
judge of the time required by his own performance,
for the chances are that he is a more than ordinarily
fast workman. Most men who are near the top of the
business are better and faster workmen than the average
of those they hire. To judge of the time required on
a job one must allow for the average product under
average conditions. Something is always occurring to
prevent work being turned out in record time. It is a
popular saying that a man can set 1,000 ems an hour,
but the actual performance in book offices is about 5,000
ems a day per man. A cylinder or job press can be
run at a speed of 1,500 an hour, yet a large office in
New York city found that its average production in a
year from all its presses was but eleven tokens a day!
These things are worth remembering when computing
the probable time on a job.
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98 ESTIMATING.
It is best not to estimate closely on small jobs — say
under $20. It is also best to decline giving figures on
work that is being hawked about among a number of
offices, looking for a low bidder. Somebody is pretty
sure to do it for less than it is worth, and it is a waste of
good time for a printer who aims to do good work to
figure on cheap work.
In estimating on book work or the like, it is often
desired to know just how much the copy will make.
In the case of a large job one cannot be too careful to
Avoid error here. When the size of type, size of page
^nd leading have been decided, in order to learn how
many pages the copy will make, count the words in
a number of pages of the manuscript copy, making sure
that you select average pages. If possible have a page
set up, and be very sure that it is an average page.
One cannot be certain that 500 words of manuscript
selected at one point in the copy will equal the number
of ems of 500 words taken from another point. A
variation of fully 20 per cent, has been noted in the
number of ems occupied by 500 words, as some sub-
jects seem to require much longer words than other
subjects. Then there is the matter of breaklines to be
noted, which has so large a bearing on the way matter
strings out. Having duly weighed all points, and being
fully satisfied what portion of a printed page is filled
by a page of manuscript, add a margin of five per
cent, for safety, then half a page or more for each
chapter that makes a break, which is sure to be greater
in the type than in the manuscript. Count each title,
dedication, frontispiece, etc., a page, and add blank
pages to make even forms.
If the copy is uneven, or on odd sizes of paper, or
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ESTIMATING. 99
is only furnished in part, or contains a number of illus-
trations that are of uncertain size, always decline to
make an exact estimate as to the number of pages,
but make price variable, depending upon the number
of pages it may run.
In determining the required amount of paper for a job,
first be sure of your size, then the weight, quality and
price. Beginners sometimes forget that if 16 pages go
on one side of a sheet that it is necessary to allow but
one sheet to 32 pages, and until a habit is established
of regarding this simple point any estimator is apt to
make a big bungle in figuring his paper cost on a job.
Five per cent, should be added for waste of paper in
printing, and a charge of 75 cents an hour is proper
for cutting, and 50 to 60 cents an hour for packing
and handling. On large lots of paper the customer
should be charged an advance of 10 per cent, over
the cost, and in small lots a larger percentage. On paper
or card stock under $5 value, 25 per cent, advance is
not too much. It is well known that stationers com-
monly charge 50 to 100 per cent, on small lots. It is
worth a larger margin because it often takes as much
time to buy $5 worth of paper as to buy $500 worth.
In calculating on paper that has to be cut from
larger sizes, one must bear in mind that if the job is
to be run two or four on a sheet that it may not cut
as well, involving more waste. Sometimes the paper
can be got out more economically by making up a form
the long way. If a certain job cuts conveniently nine
to a sheet, and several are to be run at once, it will
probably be better to run three at a time than to run
four and waste paper ; but it may be practical to secure
a larger size of paper of the same grade and run in fours.
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IOO ESTIMATING.
All these things have to be borne in mind when making
the estimates.
When figuring the amount of composition on a job
it is necessary to keep a watchful eye on price-and-a-
half and double-price matter, and to make the needed
extra charge. In judging of the time required to set
an unusual piece of work it is well to take the judgment
of another as well as your own. If a compositor thinks
that he can set four pages a day it commonly turns
out that he does set but three, and it is not often safe
to figure on more than that.
In determining a price for presswork one may usu-
ally take fixed charges for the make-ready of forms
of ordinary character, and for cut forms, half-tones, etc.
The margin of time for make-ready should be liberal,
however, as the starting up of a job on a press involves
so many chances for delay. The preceding job may
have been such as to involve a wash-up and change
of impression surface, or it may be necessary to break
in a new feeder, or a pressman unfamiliar with the con-
veniences of the office, or there may be delays because of
a poor plate, or because an electrotype has not come from
the foundry. Things of this sort are occurring all the
time rather than occasionally, and they must be allowed
for in estimates if loss is to be avoided. A set price of
so much a token or thousand may be made for certain
different classes of presswork, after experience has shown
that they are sufficient to yield a profit under average
conditions ; but the printer should be wary in making
a price on uncertainties in presswork. A new and
untried grade of paper may present unsuspected diffi-
culties in the way of peeling, or may require a special
grade of ink involving much experimenting. I once
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ESTIMATING. lOI
knew a printer who took a job of 1,000 posters on
cotton cloth at double the price of paper, thinking that
was a large enough margin. The threads raveling from
the edges of the cloth were continually getting on .to
the rollers, so that the set used were wholly spoiled
and the time on the job was about four times what
he had estimated. Another printer who took a job of
presswork, in red ink, at $2 for 1,000 as a "filler," was
astounded to find that he could not get a decent effect
on the paper furnished with anything less than ink which
cost him the full $2 per 1,000 impressions he was get-
ting for the job. I knew recently of a three-color job
being taken by a prosperous city house at what was
thought a fair figure, and after two colors were run it
was found that the third could not be made to register
because the form only impressed the paper at three
distant points, and it was impossible to get the paper
to lay against the cylinder as closely as when the first
two impressions were taken, therefore the register was
imperfect. The first printings had to be thrown away
and the job printed in single pages to secure perfect
register, involving a loss of about $1,000. This means
that unless a printer is absolutely sure of what he is
doing he should not make a price on fine wprk except
by the hour, or with some emergency clause which will
save him on occasions like those mentioned. No printer
can have familiarity with all classes of work, and even
those who think they have experience sometimes fail
seriously in appreciating the cost of producing a job that
has some feature a little out of the common.
1 hesitate to name prices for presswork, but I realize
that there are those who will want figures to assist them.
1 do not believe that it is possible to make any money
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102 ESTIMATING.
doing a good grade of cylinder presswork for less than
$1.50 per 1,000, and a very large sheet or a number of
fine illustrations should increase this minimum price
to $2 per 1,000. Where colored ink is used it is
commonly worth one-half more, and may be worth
double. The peculiarities of the job, size of sheet, length
of run, etc., must determine the exact figures in any
case.
In estimating on a large number of copies of a small
job, one must usually figure in two or three ways to
find out how many it is best to run on a sheet. One
cannot be sure at a glance whether a job of a given
quantity can be run most cheaply by setting up and
making four plates or eight plates. Sometimes it is
cheapest to set up several and run the whole thing from
type, and occasionally it is best to run one type-form with
three duplicates in plates. To illustrate, suppose we
have 50,000 copies of a 6x9 circular on good paper, for
which fine printing is desired. It cost $1.50 to set the
type, and electros 5 X 8 — 40 inches, cost 80 cents each.
Cost of presswork and electrotyping 50,000 circulars, 4 on:
Four electros, $3 20
Make-up and make-ready, . . . 1 50
12,800 impressions, at $ 1. 00, .1280
Straightening, cutting and packing, . 6 00
Total, . . $23 50
Cost of presswork and electrotyping 50,000 circulars, 8 on :
Eight electros, $6 40
Make-up and make-ready, . 2 00
6,400 impressions at $1.25, . . 8 00
Straightening, cutting and packing, . 4 00
Total, .... $20 40
Cost of presswork and electrotyping 50,000 circulars, 16 on:
Sixteen electros, $12 80
Make-up and make-ready, . . 3 00
3,200 impressions at $1.50, . 4 80
Straightening, cutting and packing, . 3 00
Total, .... $23 60
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ESTIMATING. IO^
The making of eight electros is evidently the cheapest;
but if the order were changed to 100,000 it would be
cheaper to run sixteen on.
Another element in figuring on work of this character
is that we now have special presses on which small jobs
are turned out from single forms at a speed of from 3,000
to 9,000 an hour. With one of these machines and one
electro the whole job might be completed in a day, and
the cost still further reduced. Or, if the job were larger
and of a cheap grade, it might be put upon a web press
and done at half the price at which it could be run
on a cylinder. But let the printer always remember
that if he has better machinery than others, he has a
right to make more money, and is, therefore, under
no obligation to give such profits to the customer. The
printer who is among the first to put in new labor-saving
machines takes chances, and should reap the rewards in
extra profits when he secures new machines that are
money-earners.
Every employing printer should keep a book of esti-
mates, retaining a copy of every estimate sent out. It
is also well to preserve the figuring and calculations in
case it may be necessary to go over the figures later.
This avoids chances of disputes with customers, who
sometimes forget or misunderstand, and say that you
have promised to do the job for so much, or under such
and such conditions. It is unsafe to name a price on a
job that is at all complicated, or that involves much
money, without going over the figures two or three times
to prove them. The most careful of men will make
errors at times, and only by systematic proving of the
figures can the estimator avoid loss. He should figure
each item of cost separately, so as not to confuse them,
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104 ESTIMATING.
and examine each to see if it is right, before he totals the
lot. Then it is well to figure the job all over again in a
different way. For instance, one may estimate on a job
by taking every item at cost, adding all general expenses,
and a final profit. Then one may prove this by calcu-
lating the number of hours' work on the whole job,
multiplying by the price per hour customarily charged,
and then adding for cost of materials used, etc. A third
way is to calculate the presswork at a fixed rate known
to yield a profit, then the composition, binding, etc., in
the same way. This is probably the method most
commonly employed by printers, and while it has the
advantage of quickness I think it the most unsafe way of
estimating largj jobs, because the estimator is not brought
face to face with the actual cost, and is too apt to think
that he can drop off ten per cent, to get the job, and yet
receive a profit-. However, the printer who figures his
large jobs in two or more ways, and finds that his totals
are nearly in agreement, has positive assurance that his
figuring is correct, and in deciding on the final price to
the customer realizes just how much he is impairing his
profit if he cuts the price slightly. If the printer finds a
material difference in the totals obtained by the three
methods, the reason for the difference can be hunted for
and found, and a perhaps serious error is avoided.
1 recently saw an estimate of $144 given on a job that
was done by a reputable printer, and I give a summary
of the job here, with estimates formulated in several
ways, proving, I think, that the price ought to have been
at the very least $210, and that it was done at an actual
loss of $40. The job was 5,000 catalogues, 56 pages and
cover, 6x9 inch page, all stock, engravings and electros
furnished, outside cover to be in two colors, binding pur-
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ESTIMATING.
105
chased outside, proofs to be furnished, and job to be
packed and delivered f. o. b.
ESTIMATE BY ITEMS AT ACTUAL COST.
Composition 56 pages, 1 % hours per page, at 30c
an hour,
Time distributing and proof-reading on same, 40
hours at 30c,
Composition, four pages of cover (two pages in two
colors) 12 hours at 30c.,
Distribution, proof-reading and make-up of cover
5 hours at 30c, .
Make-up three 16s and one 8-page form, s hours
at 35C
Taking proofs 5 hours, and extra corrections 5 hours
at 30c,
Making ready three 16s at 2 hours each, and one 8
at \Y % hours; two color-forms at 2 hours
each, 1 1 Y % hours at 33c,
Time ot feeder, 6 forms of 5,000 each, at 7 hours
each, at 20c. an hour,
Half time of pressman for 42 hours at 33c,
Packing and delivery, 5 hours at 25c,
Time of office help on job, 20 hours, at *oc.
Total labor cost, ....
100 per cent, added for general expense
Binding (done outside),
Percentage on binding,
10 per cent, of labor and exp., for profit,
Total,
ESTIMATE BY SET RATES.
Composition of 56 pages, the equivalent of 1,200
ems composition to page, at 70c. per 1,000,
Composition cover, four pages, two in two colors
12 hours at 60c, plus one-third for proof
reading and distribution,
Make-up, six forms, 5 hours at 75c,
Time taking proofs, 10 hours at 50c.,
Presswork, three 16-page forms at 60c. a token,
11 one 8-page form at 50c. a token,
* c cover, two color-forms at 75c. a token
Packing and delivery, 5 hours at 60c.,
Binding $40, and percentage thereon, $6,
10 per cent, on all but the binding for profit,
Total,
$25 20
3 60
1 50
65
} 00
3 so
8
40
6
93
1
2 5
6
00
$73
33
73
})
40
00
6
00
'4
66
V2C-J 32
Ui 04
9
60
3 75
5
00
. 36
00
10
00
, 30
00
3
00
. 40
00
»4
50
. $204
80
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106 ESTIMATING.
ESTIMATE BY TIME, ETC.
Time of large cylinder press, practically one week,
at $6 per day, 36 00
Time of pressman and feeder at actual cost, as
previously figured, 1913
Time in composing-room, etc. , as previously figured,
at cost, but omitting time ot office help, . 48 20
100 per cent, added to composing-room for gen-
eral expense, 48 20
10 per cent, on above items for profit, . , 15 1 5
Binding $40, and percentage thereon, $6, . . 46 00
Total, $212 68
I want to call special attention here to the fact that the
charge of 100 per cent, added to labor cost for general
expenses may be too low for many establishments. No
printer ought to take this for granted without knowing
just what is his general expense. A committee of the
Typothetae of Cincinnati, in 1888, made an exhaustive
report on the cost of printing, and reported that in the
composing-room 'The amount of general expense to
be charged against each job is a sum equal to about
113 per cent, of the wages involved in the job." If
the 113 per cent, had been used in the above estimates
the cost of the job would have been increased about $9.
Comparison of the above estimates deduces one
interesting fact, that while the totals of the estimates by
"actual cost" and "set rates" are nearly the same, yet
the cost of the presswork is nearly $38 more and the
composition almost $29 less by "set rates." As the
"set rates" are those commonly asked in the large cities
of the United States to-day, the comparison serves to
show why so many have complained that there was no
money in composition, and that they took it simply
to feed the pressroom. The price of composition
should be raised considerably above that quoted in the
"set rates. "
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ESTIMATING. IO7
An estimator for a printing plant is much strength-
ened in his work by the keeping of a record of the
cost of all jobs, and subsequent comparison with the
cost he has estimated. In every well regulated office
it is possible to know after a job is done just what it
cost, and this subsequent correction of estimates tends
to make the man who does the calculating more expert.
It is generally remarked in the trade that printing
is a ten per cent, business. Where there are a few
firms that claim to make more than ten per cent, on
their capital, there are dozens that admit that they make
less. It seems to me that it is the duty of the men who
make the estimates to try and improve this condition
of affairs. In a business that involves so many risks,
as does printing, we ought to figure to make 15 or 20
per cent. There are very few lines of trade in which
producers take the chances that printers do. The press
builder wisely takes no risks, but protects himself with
chattel mortgages ; the paper dealer insists on a rating
and limited credit ; even the tailor no longer trusts
indiscriminately, but demands part cash down with the
order. But the printer habitually takes orders for work
that is of no use to any one but the man ordering,
makes a price before he knows the cost, and usually
waits for his pay. His risk is added to by the practical
impossibility of turning out a large job without some
typographical errors, any of which may serve as a basis
for a demand by the customer for a discount. When
trade customs demand that the printer take such chances
as these, the printer ought to estimate to protect him-
self by demanding a larger profit on the work that
affords a profit.
The detail of an estimate should never be shown to
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!08 ESTIMATING.
a customer. He is not entitled to know anything but
the gross price. The wisdom of retaining such knowl-
edge is apparent on a very short examination of the
effect of showing the details of estimates to customers.
If you show the customer that you have placed a profit
of 15 per cent, on the electrotyping you handle, you
only invite him to go and buy direct of the electrotyper.
If you show him that you are lower on presswork
than Jones, and Jones shows him that he is lower on
composition than you, pretty soon the work is divided
so that both you and Jones are getting the little end
of it. The knowledge of details when gained by a
customer is always liable to be used to the disadvantage
of the printer. Remember that your knowledge is a
large part of your stock in trade, and that it should
not be given away.
Beware of allowing yourself to be used as a tool
by customers who bring you work to figure on, with
no intention of giving you the job, but simply in the
hope of securing a low figure, by which to hammer
down the price of the printer who is doing the work.
If you allow yourself to be used to reduce prices to
your competitors, you have only yourself to blame when
they retort in kind against you. Theo. L. De Vinne
says on this point, in his "Price List":
" It is not fair to price another printer's work from partial
representations of the case. In all cases where estimate is
given to unknown parties, on reprint work, give it in this
form : * For an exact reprint,' so much. ' For work from
manuscript copy, with alterations, etc.,' a much higher price."
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CHAPTER XI.
ACQUIRING MONEY.
The printers who retire from business with a com-
petency are the exception. Only a small number acquire
financial success. On the other hand, it is not an
uncommon thing to find men, along in years, working
at the case, who in days gone by have been owners of
printing offices, and in many instances owners of offices
of considerable magnitude. Many build up ^ large
business and accumulate a great amount of machin-
ery and type, but when the day of reckoning comes,
or a period of adversity sets in, or they are compelled
to dispose of their plants for any reason, that which
cost them thousands of dollars will not realize hundreds.
If they have put everything into their business and the
march of progress has made their plant a back-number,
they must in order to continue in business sacrifice
their profits to compete with the new improved machin-
ery ; and when that time arrives the end is near at
hand.
Striking examples of this are so numerous as to be
familiar to every one ; and so few precautions are taken
to guard against it that it is probable that the same
condition will always exist.
I have made a chapter on this subject because of
the many friendly expressions from employers who had
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IIO ACQUIRING MONEY.
read my article in a trade paper on "Business Pre-
cautions," which was written along these lines. One
New York printer who has a very large plant Said :
"If I had adopted your plan 25 years ago I would be
independently rich to-day and could retire from business ;
but it is too late now. I must continue to scrape along.
My plant is a big one, but it is a back-number, and I
can't make the profit I used to. My opportunities are
gone !"
People in other lines go into business in the hope
of making money enough so they can take things ensy
in later life if they want to. They have this purpose
in view throughout their entire career, and the pro-
portion who accomplish their aim are probably greater
in almost any other business than in printing. They
acquire real estate and other properties that continue
to increase in value, and after having been in business
fifteen or twenty years they have money enough on
which to live comfortably, and can give up active busi-
ness if they want to. It seems to be very different in
the printing business ; the majority of printers put all
their earnings back into their plants, buying more
machinery and reaching out for other classes of work
without investigating the possibilities of making any
greater profit with the increased facilities. Many and
many a printer who was making a comfortable living
with a small plant has been brought to ruin by "growing
too fast," and by loading himself down with the expense
of machinery which he not only did not have sufficient
work for, but which would not have made a profit
commensurate to the outlay even if he had been fairly
successful in getting work for the machines. If the
money had been put into a savings bank instead, it
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ACQUIRING MONEY. 1 1 I
would have increased steadily, while on the other hand
the original investment not only depreciated in value,
but was also an added expense and a constant drain
on his profits. It is safer sometimes to err on the side
of conservatism than on the side of adventifre. At
least let the chances of success be in your favor. Don't
go into anything blindly. Just as systematic saving
grows very rapidly, so a constant expense will amount
to a considerable sum if allowed to continue. Five
hundred dollars unnecessarily spent in fixing up a
handsome office is less wasteful than if put into a
machine that cannot be kept profitably busy. With
the first the loss ends with the outlay, while with the
latter there is a constantly accumulating loss which far
exceeds the original amount. Don't let the foregoing
remarks lead you to believe that I am opposed to the
adoption of improved machinery ; for there is nothing
I would advocate more strongly. The man who con-
tinues to operate an antiquated machine, the output
from which is inferior to other machines in use, makes
a very grave mistake. He handicaps his possibilities
of success, because the running expense, if not more,
is as great on the old machine ; it takes up as much
floor space, and in every way costs as n ich to run ;
therefore, if the improved one will produce more, and
the accumulation of the increased profit would in a
short time pay for the expense of making the change
it would be very unwise not to do so, because the
machine is not only paying for itself, but soon begins
to earn a larger profit for its owner. Before making a
change, however, there should be a reasonable certainty
of having the necessary work to keep it profitably
busy.
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112 ACQUIRING MONEY.
A mans earning capacity is greatest between the ages
of 25 and 45 years. If he will adopt some method of
forced systematic saving during that period he will be
able in later life to withstand almost any adversity. In
times of financial panic, plant and machinery count for
very little ; the man with available cash is master of
the situation.
The plan that I recommend and the one I have
adopted, is Life Insurance and the Building and Loan
plan. A regular investment of one dollar a week in a
Building and Loan Association will amount to nearly
$1,000 in eleven or twelve years; five dollars a week
will amount to five times as much ; twenty dollars a
week, twenty times as much. Systematic saving ac-
cumulates most wonderfully, but very few of us will
continue to save systematically unless it be by some
plan which once begun, requires that we shall continue.
Local Building and Loan Associations are as safe as Sav*-
ings Banks. Savings Banks are all right, but the man
who makes up his mind to try to put a stated amount
in the bank every week or every month will find many
excuses for neglecting to do so, and perhaps soon
abandon the plan entirely ; whereas the stimulus and
incentive of the Building and Loan system are likely
to induce him to find a means of fulfilling his obligation.
Besides the Building and Loan plan the employing
printer should carry a Life Insurance Policy. The reli-
able insurance companies issue policies that will meet
the requirements of almost any individual. Policies are
written giving several options. The Endowment and
Paid-up Policy plans are excellent. After being in force
three months the family is provided for in case of death
of the insured. At the expiration of three years the
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ACQUIRING MONEY. I \)
policy is non-forfeitable. Whatever happens, the policy
has a fixed value. If the insured finds it impossible to
continue his insurance, or wishes to reduce the amount,
the money he has paid is not lost. His insurance has
a borrowing value. An arrangement can be made
with the company whereby the insured may have
additional time in which to pay his insurance in the
event of such payment coming due at a date when he
is unprepared. And an Endowment Policy that is begun
in the prime of life matures at the time when a man
may be glad to retire from the worries and details of
the printing business. There is the security in these
two plans that will enable a man to safely pass through
a critical period that would otherwise be disastrous.
They may appear too trivial for some employers,
but I have seen large enterprises go to pieces that could
have been saved with less than a thousand dollars.
The putting away regularly of a small amount is so
insignificant as to be almost beneath the consideration
of some business men ; but in neglecting it (with the
expectation of making profit enough to permit of some-
thing on a more extensive and more pretentious scale),
they may find that they cannot work out their ambition.
They may perhaps be compelled to forfeit the fruits of
a lifetime, and begin again at the bottom of the ladder,
at a time of life when they are least fitted for the
struggle.
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CHAPTER XII.
PRICE CUTTING,
If there is any one thing in the business management
of a printing office that particularly commands the utter
disapproval of successful printers as being worse than
other evils that beset the trade, it is the cutting of prices.
The method of getting work by lowering the price
has absolutely nothing to recommend it, and it is contrary
to common sense. The practice is absolutely wrong
in principle, and the reasoning advanced in its support,
stripped of its verbiage, is the equivalent of that of the
old apple-woman who bought apples at a cent each
and was selling them at ten cents a dozen, and when
asked how she could make any money at that replied:
4 'By doing a very large business."
The majority of employing printers are more enthusi-
astic workers than they are competent business men.
They worry more about an idle press than they do
about the lack of profit in a job; and for this reason
will take a profitless order for the sole purpose of
keeping a press busy. Thus they establish a price
not only on that particular order, but one that is used
for comparison with every succeeding order. The evil
results are not confined to the printer who does this,
but other printers are expected to riieet these prices,
.and knowing that the work has once been done at
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PRICE CUTTING. 115
these figures, another will take it at the same price,
and soon this profitless price becomes the established
price, and the whole trade is injured thereby. It is the
repetition of this sort of thing that has demoralized
the job printing business, and the only salvation lies in
bringing this fact forcibly before the attention of the
trade so that printers will realize the folly of it, and
rather see a press idle or a composing-room empty
than work for nothing.
There is always a certain amount of printing that
must be done, and which will be placed at a figure
that will leave a profit to the printer, if no printer can
be induced to take it at a loss ; and if employers gen-
erally, instead of taking work for the sake of keeping
their plants busy, will refuse to handle it except at a
fair profit, they will find at the end of the year that
they are better off, and soon the benefit will be felt
all along the line, and the printing business will be in
a more hopeful condition.
If the printing business as generally conducted is a
ten per cent business, it is apparent that a charge of
ten per cent, more will increase the profit one hundred
per cent., and it is probably safe to say that in seven
cases out of ten an extra ten per cent, can be charged
without serious objection on the part of the customer.
A plant that is doing $50,000 worth of business a year
at a profit of ten per cent, makes very much less than
if it did only $35,000 worth of business in the same
time at a profit of twenty per cent I am aware that
these assumptions are largely hypothetical, because there
are few printers who make even the ten per cent, yet
it is not only possible but proper that twenty per cent.
profits should be secured on all small work. In small
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Il6 PRICE CUTTING.
job offices orders range in price from $2 to $20 — some-
times more than the latter figure, but not very frequently.
Very few customers would object to paying $2.25 to
%22. Stationers and middlemen succeed in getting even
larger advances on cost, and why not the printer?
Recently I saw a middleman who obtained a quotation
of $21 on a lot of printing, and who, after endeavoring
to get a lower price, finally left the order with the
printer. Later I chanced to learn that he charged the
customer $38, leaving a profit of $17 to himself. He
simply secured the order and did a little of the talking
for $17, while the printer did all the work and furnished
the stock, assuming all the risk of spoiling the job in
process of manufacture (and there is always that risk
on every piece of work), and he probably made ten
per cent. — $2. The division of profits in this case
should have been just the reverse, the printer was
entitled to the large end, and if all printers could be
induced to realize this the business would be more
profitable. The deplorable condition now so frequently
lamented in the trade would not exist, and it might be
possible for a printer here and there to amass wealth,
just as we see men do in other lines of trade.
The printing business is different from most manu-
facturing lines, in that there never can be an over-pro-
duction. The business now suffers, perhaps, because
there are too many producers of printing, but if it were
possible to go on producing and putting the product
into stock, the condition would be even worse than
that which existed in the bicycle business in 1898,
when all the manufacturers had more wheels than the
public would use. The liquor business does not seem
to be greatly affected by the number of saloons in
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PRICE CUTTING. II7
existence, because there is a large margin of profit on
the sales. If liquor dealers should try to compete with
each other on prices, and cut their charges in half they
would be obliged to do more than double their present
amount of business to make as much money as they
do at present. This fact seems to be universally known
and acted upon. Notwithstanding that every small
liquor dealer knows that the glass of beer that he sells
for five cents costs but one cent we never hear of any
trying to get all the trade by selling it for three cents
a glass. It seems strange that saloon-keepers should
be better business men than printers, yet it certainly
looks as if they were.
Brother printer, if you have been guilty of price
cutting, just stop a little while and reflect that it is
not necessary for you to get every job in sight, but
rather that you should aim to secure a fair profit on
everything that you handle. By pursuing this course
you will not have to work so hard and you will have
something to show for your labor. Remember the
busiest printer is not always the most prosperous
printer. Look back over your books if you have been
in business five years, and figure out where you would
be now if you had rejected all the unprofitable work
that came your way and besides that had charged ten
per cent, more on all the orders that would have stood
the price. If this will not cure you of price cutting,
nothing will.
There would be less difficulty in dealing with men
who undercharge if the average employee were made
better acquainted with the actual cost of producing
printing. If proprietors would occasionally take an
hour and explain to employees all the items that go to
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1 18 PRICE CUTTING.
swell the cost there would be fewer employees setting
up in business for themselves and cutting prices to get
work. Many and many a bright young printer has
started up for himself with an entirely mistaken notion
as to what he must charge to come out even. The
average journeyman learns that from $1.50 to $2 per
thousand are common charges for cylinder presswork,
and he reasons that the wages of the feeder and part
time of the pressman cost but $3 to $4 per day, and
that possibly the ink, oil and wear and tear may run
up the cost to $5, so that if a cylinder produces $10
to $15 worth of work in a day, that the proprietor
clears $5 to $10. With these erroneous notions he
goes into business and becomes a price cutter, doing
presswork for $1 a thousand and worrying along for a
year or two until he either learns better or makes a
failure.
Can we, as employing printers, blame anybody but
ourselves for this sort of thing? Can we not prevent
it by educating our employees so that when they
embark in trade for themselves they will not be a
menace to us ? Is it not a part of bur duty when teach-
ing men the trade to instruct them how to ascertain
the cost of work that they may not deceive them-
selves? If this course were generally followed, would
there not be more good printers willing to retain places
as foremen and superintendents at comfortable salaries
rather than entering into competition with their former
employers ? In* every city there is almost sure to be a
printer or two of the price-cutting class who have been
developed by ignorance and whose endeavor seems
to be not to get good prices for printing but to get
all the printing at any price. Of course such mei>
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PRICE CUTTING. 1 19
eventually learn to their sorrow that their course was a
mistaken one, but when this knowledge comes the
evil has been done to them and to their competitors;
and when such price cutters have been brushed aside
by the inexorable laws of trade that require a profit
for a continuance in business, then, unfortunately, some
other over-zealous and under-informed printers rise to
take their places, and so the demoralization in trade is
kept up. If means were devised for making such men
see the error of their ways quite early in their careers,
it would be a great boon to the trade as a whole.
There are printers who know the cost of work, but
who deceive themselves as to their ability to rush work
through, believing that they can produce work more
cheaply than their competitors. It is a mistake for any
printer to assume that he is smarter than those who
compete with him for trade, and that his clever man-
agement enables him to get out his work 10 or 15
per cent, cheaper than others. Such men are usually
hustlers themselves and calculate that the proper time
charge on a job is the time that they themselves
would require for its execution, whereas the proper time
charge on a job is the average time that the average
workman would consume in getting it out. The printer
who really is smarter than his fellows can always be
depended upon to charge enough for his work, and if
he can rush it through in less than the average time
he will know enough to pocket this legitimate profit
and not give it away.
Other printers there are who mean to charge fair
prices for their work, but who are continually cutting
rates to new customers in order to "get in" on their
trade. They call this giving "special" prices, but to
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120 PRICE CUTTING.
my notion special prices are always unprofitable prices
and fail to bring any trade that is worth having. The
man who brings his printing to a certain office because
he has had a special price is looking for something
more of the same sort. He is spoiled for the paying
of regular prices, and wants more for the money than
the printer can afford to give. 1 have nothing but
condemnation for this sort of price cutting. Born of
fallacious reasoning and developed by mistaken selfish-
ness, it has nothing to commend or excuse itself, but
is wholly and unqualifiedly bad in theory and ruinous
in practice.
The custom of taking "fillers" is another form of
price cutting. This error originates in the notion that
a printer can afford to take work at less than regular
rates if by so doing he can fill in the idle time in his
pressroom — or it may be the composing-room. He rea-
sons that he is doing $1,000 worth of business a month
at a cost of $900, and that he has facilities for doing
$600 more worth of work, which could be turned out
without any increase of his general expenses. In other
words, the labor cost on this extra $600 a month would
be but $300, and by cutting the price on that extra
work to $500, he sees a way to make $200 more a
month. This reasoning is plausible and deceives manv,
and probably will go on deceiving printers as long as
competition exists. But it is all wrong, and must prove
disastrous in the long run, because it does not take
into consideration all the conditions.
The printer who cuts prices and takes a filler robs
some other printer of a job that is paying a legitimate
profit, and at the same time he spoils a customer and
establishes a rate on certain work that is profitless to any
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PRICE CUTTING. 121
office doing all work at such prices. These things
soon react on the printer who takes fillers. The com-
petitors who lose the work on which he has cut the
price are very apt to cut him in return, in order to
make employment for their presses. Without profitable
work to carry the general expense the office cannot
be supported, since fillers are taken without regard to
the items of general expense. The demoralization of
customers and competitors that follows the taking of
fillers always more than offsets any imaginary immediate
gains obtained by filling up an office with work. It is
not always the printery rushed with orders that yields
the best returns, but rather the one in which the
manager extracts a profit from every job that he
touches.
George H. Benedict, a leading Chicago electrbtyper,
was so impressed with the craft's need of education in
the matter of taking fillers that in February, 1899, he
offered through the Inland Printer, $100 in prizes for the
best essays on " The Fallacy of Fillers." Mr. Benedict's
own method of explaining the fallacy is found in the fol-
lowing dialogue, which is reproduced in full from the
Inland Printer:
Question. What is your business?
Answer. Printer.
Q. Is printing a profitable business?
A. Not very; there is only a living in it, and not much
of a future.
Q. What is the reason printing is not profitable?
A. There is too much competition, consequently prices
are very low.
Q. Do you ever take orders at prices that are not profit-
able ?
A. Sometimes I do when we are not busy.
Q. Will you explain why you are willing to do any
work without profit?
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122 PRICE CUTTING.
A. Yes. Because when we are not busy we would rather
take an older as a " filler" at cost, than to have our machin-
ery or men idle.
Q. What is the occasion for taking the work at cost,
even as a " filler"?
A. Others will do the same; they set the price; we take
it for less when we want it to "fill in."
Q. Is it not probable that in figuring so close to cost
you are liable to have a loss?
A. Quite likely, but we would not lose as much as we
should if our machinery were standing still, or the men have
nothing to do.
Q. You say others set the price. If this is correct, how
do you suppose they feel at the loss of the order ?
A. I don't know anything about that, it is none of my
business. I am looking out tor myself.
If you were to hear another say that would it not
cficate selfishness?
A. Perhaps it would, but "Self-preservation is the first
law of nature."
Q. Do you not think all printers have the same views
of *' fillers " that you have expressed ?
A. Undoubtedly; they will all take "fillers" when they
need them if they get a chance.
Q. If that is the case, is it not probable that the practice
of taking in " fillers " has its effect in lowering prices on all
work?
A. I don't know about that. When I am busy I get
all I can for my work, and when I am not busy I take it at
any price I can get.
* Q. Are not all printers alike in that respect ?
A. Quite likely.
Q. Aside from improvements in methods and machinery,
can you mention any factor that is accountable for the lower-
ing of prices ?
A. Competition lowers prices.
SDo low prices create an increased demand for print-
A. I don't know whether they do or not.
Q. If that is the case, would it not be well to maintain
a profitable rate for your product and let the 4< fillers" g* to
the one who names a profitable price on the work?
A. It would be a good thing for the other fellow, but
it would not keep my machinery running, and that is what
I am interested in.
Q. As a matter of fact, if you want "fillers "and every
other printer wants "fillers" is this practice not a fallacy?
Are you not, by upholding the practice, doing the trade
you are in as much harm as you can ? Are you not account-
able for being in the competition, which you declare is the
cause of low prices, and if you continue to want "fillers"
can you expect competition will ever be less keen?
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PRICE CUTTING. 12)
A. I presume not. I, like the rest, want to be busy,
and as long as others apply the theory of "fillers" to keep
going, 1 must do the same.
Q. Then the " Fallacy of Fillers" is rather a difficult
proposition to solve?
A. It beats me, and I give it up.
I cannot conceive how any sane printer after reading
the above can continue the practice of taking work at
cut prices to fill in. It is hard to understand why
intelligent printers should cut prices in any way, yet the
fact remains that price cutting goes on in every city in
the country to a greater or less extent, and that this
has more to do with keeping the craft poor than any
other existing condition.
We all know that doctors, lawyers, and professional
men generally scorn to underbid each other, but rather
seek the reputation of making high charges, because
their services are then deemed the more valuable. The
printer who will but have the courage to take chances
on losing a little work by keeping up his charges will
soon find that this is one of the secrets of success. It
is natural for customers to refuse to place much value
on that which they can buy cheaply, and they assume
that the printer who makes high charges is more sure
to give good work than the printer who does it cheaply ;
and in this way are correct, for only the printer who
makes proper charges can afford to give the best service.
Therefore it is that the few printers who know enough
to charge good prices control most of the good custom,
while the price cutters get that which is least worth
having and remain poor.
Never yet did a printer get rich by cutting prices;
the most prosperous have been those who charged the
highest prices, seeking to give customers quality rather
than cheapness.
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CHAPTER XIII.
COMPETITORS.
While the theory of business is to secure a large
share of work at profitable prices, and while competi-
tors are always in the way of one's accomplishment
of this object, yet it is a serious error to assume that
competitors are enemies, and that it is a part of one's
duty as a business man to pull others down in build-
ing up one's own trade. On the contrary, an employ-
ing pi inter should be just as careful in his treatment
of competitors rs of his customers, and a large meas-
ure of his success will be dependent upon the character
he bears amongst those with whom he competes for
trade.
1 consider that the proper way is to regard competi-
tors as limited partners in one's business, having some
interests that are common as well as some that are
opposed. It is apparent, if there are ten printing offices
in a city, that the trade must be divided between the
ten or else go out of town, and the division must
usually be in such proportion that the smallest and
weakest of the ten may at least earn a living for its
proprietor. Such being the case it behooves all to
consider what things they have in common. These ten
can regulate the prices of printing in that city up to
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COMPETITORS. 1 25
the point of competition from other cities, and they are
certainly foolish if they allow competition among them-
selves to depreciate prices. The ten have another bond
in the matter of resisting any possible unfair exactions
or demands from their employees, which can be done
by combined action. Another mutual interest exists in
exchanging the names of undesirable customers, thus
protecting each other against loss.
If competing printers will but cultivate one another
they will find many advantages in reciprocation. Sup-
pose that in our city of ten printing offices there are
ten publications given out to local printeries, and that
five of the offices are doing tliem on yearly contracts.
The other five want this work to make steady em-
ployment for the men, and cut the rates so as to secure
the work. Thus the publications are seesawed year
after year, from office to office, always at a lower r^te.
How much more sensible for the ten to get together
and say: " These ten periodicals must pay us fair prices.
Let us make a rate applicable to all of them, and all
agree not to touch them under that price. Then the
customers may give them to whom they pleaie, and
some of us will make a little money off them, while
nobody can lose. " It is so evident that this is the
proper policy that it is hard to understand why this is
not the common custom. As a matter of fact we all
know that the common way is to allow the work to
be cut and cut in price, by the very men who have to
do it. This policy is as foolish for master printers as
it would be for ten workmen in an office where there
was employment for but nine, to each go to the pro-
prietor and offer to accept lower wjges for fear of
being dismissed. When employees know better than
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126 COMPETITORS.
to go about underbidding each other, why do not
proprietors profit by their example ?
The treatment of competitors is not altogether a
question of maintaining prices. It is the duty of every
man to be a gentleman, and the master printer who
never forgets this will be ever fair and courteous to
his business rivals, and never serve one a mean trick,
or say that behind his back that he would not say to
his face. Discourtesy to competitors may take various
forms. The printer who runs down the work of another,
or unfairly decries his facilities is guilty of discourtesy.
If a competitor's work be absolutely bad, so as not to
be in the same class with yours, and customers quote
his prices against you, it does not require very much
tact to make the customer see the difference without
descending to abuse of the other printer. A good way
in such a case is to say: "Well, if Jones has offered to
print that for you for $100, I have no doubt that he
will put $100 worth of work into the job, for he is an
honest man ; but I cannot do that job in the way that I
consider that it should be done for less than $125, or I
should lose money, just as would a dealer who offered
you a pair of shoes with a $5 value for $3.. I have
nothing to say against Mr. Jones, his methods, or his
prices, but I find that it pays me best to do work like
that — and that — (showing samples) and to charge what
it is worth. "
Is not this more gentlemanly, and quite as likely
to preserve the customer, as if you should say:
"Why do you go to that man Jones? He has noth-
ing but old type and worn out presses, and does not
know how to do good work." Such talk would
sooner or later be carried back to Jones, who would
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COMPETITORS. 1 27
learn to hate you and damage you whenever he saw a
chance.
If a competitor is your equal in the production of
work, it is even more culpable to decry his efforts.
If asked to comment on the work of such a man it is
always best to admit his merits frankly, as by saying:
"Smith is a good workman and a fair competitor ; I
have nothing to say against him." When Smith learns
that you speak thus of him, he will be very apt to
speak well of you, and sometime when you meet it
"will be easy for you to arrive at understandings for the
maintenance of prices.
Another form of discourtesy towards competitors
lies in the taking of employees from others without
fair notice. If you want a workman employed by
another, and take him away when the other wants
him, he may retaliate by taking one of your best men,
the total results being a feeling of enmity between two
employers, and two workmen receiving increased wages.
If an employee of a competitor comes to you looking
for a place, and you want him, it is best to say: "I
will not hire you while in Mr. Blank's employ; if you
were through with him, I should be glad to make a
place for you, but I won't do anything that Mr. Blank
might construe to be unfair." If the man then says
that he will give Blank a fortnight's notice, you will
do well to write Blank a polite note stating the exact
circumstances, and adding that you want the man, but
will not take him if objected to by Mr. Blank. By x
this course you will probably get the man, as Blank
will be apt to conclude that if the man wants to
change it would be unwise to try and keep him, and
you will establish a reputation for fairness with Blank,
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128 COMPETITORS.
which should be to the advantage of both. Other
competitors will hear of it and decide that you are a
square man, and when you have business with them
you will find that they trust you.
Always try to help out a competitor when he is in
trouble, as from breakdowns, fire or strike. Help him
get out his work, if necessary, lending him your presses
at night, and assure him that you will not endeavor to
steal his customers during his trouble, thus adding to
his misfortune. Do not think that by doing these
things you are making sacrifices, for be assured that
such good turns will pay better in the long run than
will any small meannesses that bring in present cash,
but which create ill will.
Right here I want to say a word for what the
Typothetae is doing along these lines of developing
good-fellowship and fraternal feeling among employing
printers. There ought to be a branch of the organiza-
tion in every city of over 15,000 population, and every
reputable printer in cities where a local organization
exists should become a member and learn to work
with his brother printers for the common good. We
see trusts forming on every hand, because in so many
lines of trade there is economy in the coming together
of the houses that do a large business. A trust is
impractical in the printing industry, but it is practical
for the master printers to get together and work together
along certain lines. This is the work that the Typoth-
etae has laid out for itself, a work in which it has
accomplished a great deal. If you are a member you
know its benefits. If you are not, do not remain
without and decry the institution. ' Do not be a croaker,
saying: "You cannot get printers to stay together;
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COMPETITORS. 129
they will talk pleasantly to your face, and then go
away and cut you," and so on. Ten to one the man
who talks this Way is as much distrusted by his fel-
low-printers as anybody he distrusts. Be manly, and
treat your fellow-craftsmen like honorable men. Put
them upon their honor, and you will find them
as honorable a class of men as can be found any-
where. By joining the Typothetae you put yourself in
the way of cultivating the spirit of fairness in competi-
tion.
I know members of the Typothetae who will never
give a figure on a large job that bears the imprint of
another Typothetae member without first consulting
with the member who does the work. I know another
Typothetae member, who after doing business forty
years in a city, and receiving a testimonial on his birth-
day from his fellow typotheters, was able to say in
response that his heart was full of gratitude to find
that after so many years of active competition in one
city that every competitor in the place was his friend.
1 know another Typothetae member who has repeatedly
made public offers to give a portion of his time to
any beginner in business to assist him in knowing how
to charge and how to run a printing office successfully.
He does not claim any philanthropy in this, saying that
he does it because he objects to competing with igno-
rance. 1 will not pretend that such men as 1 have
just cited are the rule, but the fact that some of them
have been developed in the Typothetae speaks -vol-
umes for the possibilities of the organization as a
means of bringing master printers together for the
common good.
For the benefit of those not familiar with the wprk-
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130 COMPETITORS.
ings of a Typothetae, I will cite the objects stated in
the incorporation of the New York body :
To foster trade and commerce, to reform abuses in trade,
to protect trade and commerce from unjust and unlawful
exactions, to diffuse accurate and reliable information among
its members as to the standing of merchants, to acquire,
preserve and disseminate valuable i.ifonnation relating to the
printing interests of this and other cities, to produce uni-
formity and certainty in the customs and usages of trade, to
settle differences between its members, and to promote a
more large and friendly intercourse between printers and
between merchants.
Of course the organization serves a valuable end in
offsetting any possible aggressions of labor organizations,
which in their zeal for their own interests sometimes
overlook the fact that employers have to arrange mat-
ters to make a profit. But it also presents many minor
advantages, among which may be cited these, taken
from a New York Typothetae circular:
1. Of telephoning or writing to the rooms for information
as to the credit of customers who have dealt with other
members.
2. Of enquiring for further particulars as to any names
entered on the list of undesirable customers.
3. Of sending in poor accounts for collection. No charge
if no collection is made, 10 per cent, if collected.
4. Of taking books from the library, which is the finest
collection of works on printing in the world.
5. Of securing names from the register of desirable
persons as superintendents, foremen, compositors, pressmen,
etc.
6. Of entering remonstrance against price-cutting by any
member of the trade.
7. Of attending a lunch given without charge by the
Typothetae at every regular meeting, and affording oppor-
tunity for increasing social acquaintance.
8. Of using the rooms for business appointments, etc.,
at any time.
At this date the Typothetae has local organizations
in thirty-three cities of the United States and Canada,
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COMPETITORS. 1^1
It has existed as a national body for thirteen years, and
has developed a marvelous capacity for usefulness during
that period. I believe that the printing trade is just
beginning to learn the advantages of co-operation, and
that the next twenty years will see enormous develop-
ment along these lines. Those printers who are the
first to recognize this, joining the Typothetae, and work-
ing for co-operative developement, will be the first to
reap its benefits.
Those who would profit most by membership in
the Typothetae should be regular attendants at the
meetings, and workers in committee, etc., for thus they
keep in closest touch with all that is going on in the
trade, and are best able to shape the course of their
own business to meet circumstances. A yet further
advantage that comes to members who are active, lies
in the associations, acquaintances and friendships that
develop with competing printers. We are all too prone
to think that our competitors are mean fellows, but
when we meet them in the Typothetae and become
social, we often discover that they are of the very best
sort, and, learning to trust them, we are able to nego-
tiate understandings that are mutually advantageous.
For instance, suppose that A, B, C and D are all mem-
bers of the Typothetae, and become well acquainted.
Some day they meet on the business of a committee.
It is generally known that each of the four does prac-
tically all the work of certain large commercial concerns,
and that if any one were to lose any of such large
customers, that the work would probably be offered to
one of the others present. A says: "Gentlemen, I have
been thinking that we four ought to have enough
Confidence in each other by this time to know that we
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1 ?2 COMPETITORS.
can trust any one of our number. Now, would it not
be a sensible thing for us to come to this understanding :
let each man here pledge his honor that he will not
figure on any of the large work now being done by
another of the quartette, without first having a talk
with him, and giving opportunity for an understanding
that will prevent us from cutting each other ?" All
four will probably see the force of the argument, and
agree to the conditions. Such an arrangement can be
made only where personal confidence exists, and such
personal confidence is seldom inspired in any other way
than through acquaintance developed in the Typothetae.
I do not urge these things with a view that a com-
bination of printers should put up prices on the public
beyond a reasonable figure, because I know that to be
impossible in a trade that suffers from so much com-
petition. But I do urge that master printers co-operate
for the maintenance of fair prices that will yield a proper
return for the investment of money, experience, brains
and energy essential to the conduct of a printing plant.
There are few lines of business that require at once so
much technical knowledge and so much general business
sagacity as printing, and the man or firm that has
spent years in acquiring these is entitled to adequate
returns.
The master printer who has an established business
and good trade should protect himself from loss through
the competition of price cutters by seeking to educate
them up to his own standard. When a young firm
starts in business it is very common for them to seek
work by offering reduced prices. 1 fear that it is the
most common method of the beginner in business.
Under such circumstances it is a wise thing for the
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COMPETITORS. I))
proprietor of an older or larger printery affected by
such competition, to invite a conference with the young
firm, and to show them exactly what printing costs,
and why they are injuring the trade as well as them-
selves. There are times when it may even pay to farm
out work to a competitor who insists on doing printing
below cost. If a young firm are offering to do press-
work that is worth $1.50 per 1,000 impressions for
only $1 per 1,000, and a neighboring large printer gives
them an order from his place, and after concluding the
contract says: "I give this to you because I find that
you will do it 25 per cent, cheaper than I can turn it
out in my pressroom, and I propose to save that and
let you wear out your presses." Such talk, backed up
with the orders, will often set the newcomers in
business to figuring, with the result that they learn a
thing or two, and are educated to a higher plane.
I believe that Benjamin Franklin was the first Ameri-
can printer to adopt the theory of treating a competi-
tor with absolute fairness. When he began publishing
a newspaper in Philadelphia, his competitor and prede-
cessor in the field controlled the post-office, and used
the mail carriers for the delivery of his own sheet, but
denied the service to Franklin. When, in the course
of events, Franklin came to control the post-office, he
accorded to his rival the same privilege that he then
enjoyed for the first time for his own newspaper. The
public like to see fairness in business, and they will
avoid patronizing a mean man. Franklin understood
this and so should every man of types.
A good motto for every employing printer would be
this paraphrase of the Golden Rule : '• Treat your com-
petitor as you would have him treat you."
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CHAPTER XIV.
PROFIT, AND HOW IT SHOULD BE FIGURED.
The object of doing business is to make a profit
The man who confuses profit with salary earned makes
a mistake, for every man who has the ability to run a
business can command a good salary without risking
any money in trade. The printer embarks in business
and takes the risks in order to earn more than a salary.
The man who gets only a salary out of his business
earns no profits; usually he is even less independent
than the man on salary, for in every customer he has
a master, instead of the one master he would have if
employed. To get at real, actual, net profit, it is nec-
essary to allow a sufficient interest on the capital, and six
per cent, has been commonly regarded as the proper
allowance for the use of such capital. In the printing
business it is also essential to make allowance for the
replacing of the type every five or six years, and of the
presses every ten to twenty years.
It is not really very difficult to figure out these things,
and thus discover when there is a real profit, yet a
vast number of master printers never go into such
details, and are prone to deceive themselves in such
fashion as this: "My books show that I have drawn
$2,000 this year, and have $200 more in the bank than
a year ago, and an excess of $300 balance of good
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PROFIT, AND HOW IT SHOULD BE FIGURED. 1 35
accounts receivable, as against the balance last year,
and have bought $700 worth of new material ; therefore
I have made $5,200 this year in clear profits— not a bad
showing on a business in which I have $15,000 in-
vested — in fact it is just 2i}3 per cent."
Such talk is very plausible, but may be entirely
deceptive. On such a showing a plant may be losing
considerable money instead of paying a profit; let us
look at the details: In the first place, a man who can
run a $15,000 plant successfully is worth $2,000 salary.
He can get such a figure in almost any large city in the
country, so we must charge off against the cash sur-
plus as follows:
Salary of proprietor, $2,000
Six per cent, interest on $15,000, . 900
To keep plant up-to-date and serviceable, 1,500
To maxe up balance of depreciation, . 750
Total, $5,150
Per contra —
Cash drawn, $2,000
Cash in bank, 200
Balance on books, 300
New material added, .... 700
Total $3,200
This shows an actual loss for the year of . . $1,950
These figures exhibit what may be the cold facts in
such a case. It is very natural for a printer proprietor
to assume, from the fact of his cash balance having
increased, that he is making money; but there comes a
time when he must replace his machinery and renew
his type, and if he has not provided for this from year
to year, he will learn in due course that he has had no
actual profits, for he will have no money with which
to replenish and continue business.
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\}6 PROFIT, AND HOW IT SHOULD BE FIGURED.
How is the printer to avoid this misleading of him-
self? How is he to know that he really is or is not
making a profit ? Only by keeping in exact touch
with the condition of his plant, and learning just what
it is worth every year, and discriminating carefully
between gross profit and net profit, can he be sure that
he is making money. He must always bear in mind
that the gross profit is not the real, actual profit. It
is only after making the deductions stated above that
one can get at the net profit, which is the actual
thing.
In order not to be misled in calculating profits the
printer should be very careful in estimating and placing
valuation on plant and material. As soon as type or
presses are placed in use or operation there is a depre-
ciation in selling value. It would cost the original
price to replace the material, yet it has lost in intrinsic
value. Sold under the hammer it would bring less
than half the price recently paid. This condition makes
it very difficult to decide upon a precise valuation.
The methods of calculating depreciation vary almost as
much as the men who make them. From the very
nature of the case, there can be no exact method of
determining the loss to printing material by wear and
tear, want of use, lack of modernness, etc. Some houses
will charge all small type bills— as for sorts, or for type
ordered for a special job — to the general expense account,
on the principle that such purchases are a necessary
and continually recurring item, amounting to about so
much for so many thousand dollars worth of business.
This method may be a good one in so far as it assists
in obtaining a true idea of profit in the yearly balance;
but it is bad in that it leads to charging all jobs with
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PROFIT, AND HOW IT SHOULD BE FIGURED. I y]
a percentage of the cost of sorts, etc., that are required
for only a certain proportion of the jobs.
My own idea is that type bought on purpose for
a piece of work should have half its value marked off
and charged to the job, and that new type that has
steady use in an office should be marked off 25 per
cent, in value as soon as it is in the case and in gen-
eral use. Machinery also depreciates rapidly, though it
wears longer than the type. There are nowadays so
many improvements made in presses that it often
becomes desirable to discard machines before they are
half worn out. It is not uncommon to see cylinders
sold for $300 or $400 that were once worth $1,500 to
$2,500, and which are yet good machines, their only
fault being that as money earners they cannot compete
with the latest products of the manufacturers. All these
things must be allowed for in calculating depreciation,
and while in sixteen years nearly all the value must be
figured off a machine, yet in some cases its value would
depreciate to nearly nothing in half that period, and in
others it might retain considerable value for a much
longer time. Existing conditions must be considered in
placing the value of machinery and calculating its de-
preciation. If a press builder makes a cut in price of
fifteen per cent., users of his machines must figure off
the equivalent not only from the presses of his make that
they are using, but from makes that come into com-
petition, and which are certain to be affected by the cut
in cost price.
There may be those who think that careful calculation
of depreciation is unimportant, as affecting only the
interest on the amount involved. In other words, they
think that if a plant is placed at a valuation of $10,000
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I38 PROFIT, AND HOW IT SHOULD BE FIGURED.
or of $8,000 in a balance sheet, the difference involved
is only a question of earning interest on $2,000. This
is a wrong view. The printer has to deal here with
principal and not with interest. If he overvalues his
plant by $1,000 as compared with the previous year,
he deludes himself as to $i,oco of profit or non-profit
for that year. If a plant is overvalued for a series of
years it presents on the books a misstatement of the
profits during that period, since the excess of valuation
must be divided amongst, and deducted from, the gross
profits of those years to show the net or real profits.
Depreciation must come out some time in actual cash,
and if it is not figured out at proper times the printer
thinks that he is making more money than he really
is, and is led to take work too cheaply, to the eventual
ruin of his whole business. The danger of such a
result is present with every master printer who does
not keep a watchful eye on the manner in which he
figures his profits. How many, many, printing houses
we have all seen go to the wall very largely through
this misunderstanding as to what were the actual profits!
It is a pitfall that threatens every beginner in business,
and I cannot too strongly urge upon such the necessity
of exercising extreme care to avoid self delusion as to
real earnings. Unless a printer can make a correct
balance at the end of each year — or oftener — he cannot
know what are his profits, or whether there are any
profits, until a period of years have gone by, when the
lack of means to keep up his material will tell him the
story only too plainly — and then it may be too late to
save things by the knowledge that should have been his
during the regular progress of his business.
When a man puts $15,000 into a printing plant,
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PROFIT, AND HOW IT SHOULD BE FIGURED. 1 39
and works that plant for ten years, to come out even
he should get back out of it:
An adequate salary;
Six per cent, for interest;
A sum to keep his plant up-to-date, which
amounts to an additional ten per cent. ; and
A sinking fund, which together with the mar-
ket value of the plant, will be equal to the
original investment, and represents five per cent.
And to come out ahead, which is the object
of doing business, for which the risks are taken,
he should get an additional profit, and
Ten per cent, on the original investment
ought to be little enough.
This is not an extravagant statement, but expresses
very moderately what should be the actual results.
Such a plant as that referred to, representing an
original cost of $15,000, should yield in ten years $66,500
of gross profits ; that is :
$20,000 salary;
9,000 interest;
15,000 to keep the plant up-to-date;
7,500 to make up balance of depreciation, and
15,000 profit.
Divided by years this is $6,650 a year of gross
profits. If the printer finds that he is not getting such
a return out of his business, he should find out at once
why he is not securing the profits that are rightly his,
and either arrange to make such a profit or admit to
himself that he has not the capacity to make his plant
do any more than pay him a salary.
A knowledge of the cost of producing printing is
requisite to the earning of profits, and a careful study
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I40 PROFIT, AND HOW IT SHOULD BE FIGURED.
of the chapter devoted to that subject is recommended
to the readers of this book. Let the master printer
always remember that while actual cost includes salary,
interest, etc., yet that the price to the customer must
always bear an extra margin to allow for the profit.
There may have been a time when printers were simply
workmen looking for days' wages, and when a profit
was not considered necessary so long as a living was
earned; but that day was before the introduction of
improved machinery. A cobbler or a barber can afford
to work for wages where no capital worth mentioning
is risked in the business, but the printer of the twentieth
century finds it absolutely essential to invest a large
amount of money in perishable goods in order to produce
good printing economically, and only by making a
positive profit from every job can he hope to be a gainer
in the long run.
The printer who neglects to charge a profit on side
lines is simply doing work for others for nothing.
Why should he take orders for engraving, binding, ruling,
paper stock, etc., and furnish the capital or credit to
secure them, without charging for the risk and labor
involved ? A part of the general expense of a printing
office is properly chargeable to such side lines, and they
should also bear a percentage for error, accident, insur-
ance, etc. If an office does $100,000 worth of business
in a year, and $10,000 goes for office salaries, collecting,
bad bills, etc., a proportion of this $10,000 should be
borne by the work that is done outside. If the $100,000
of work represents $20,000 of paper and $10,000 worth
of binding, ruling, engraving and electrotyping, we should
then charge $3,000, which is ten per cent., against this
outside work to cover cost, and when we add the
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PROFIT, AND HOW IT SHOULD BE FIGURED. 141
profit, fifteen per cent, or $4, 500 is little enough. The
printer cannot afford to figure to get less than fifteen
per cent, out of these outside lines. Since it is not
practical to charge more than ten per cent, advance on
large orders for paper, it becomes necessary to charge
more than fifteen per cent, on small orders to secure
the proper average margin on all outside work. On
items of $5 and under, an advance of twenty-five per
cent, or even more is proper, because there is always
some extra time and bother attached that cannot be
charged for directly, but which must be made up in
some way.
Few printers will neglect to add the charge of five
per cent, to paper to cover waste, because that is a
direct expense that must be paid for in advance by
buying more paper than has to be delivered on the
finished job. Five per cent, for waste may be a little
high for long runs on plain work, but it is too little on
color work or short runs. But because the handling
of paper is an indirect expense, many printers neglect
to charge the extra ten or fifteen per cent, for buying
and carrying, and being responsible for it. Because the
expense is indirect, it is none the less real, and must
be met and paid for in the long run. If customers
object to paying this percentage on the cost price of
the paper, it is well to remind them that they are getting
the benefit of the printer's knowledge, as well as shift-
ing upon him certain risks. If the customer buys direct
of a paper dealer he may save a few cents on a ream,
only to learn that he has selected a grade of paper
that involves a greater charge for presswork, as do
some plate papers; or the customer may commit the
error of buying paper to size, when the presswork
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142 PROFIT, AND HOW IT SHOULD BE FIGURED.
requires that it be bought double size, thus doubling
the number of impressions he has to pay for. Blunders
of this sort are avoided when the printer does the buying,
and a little judicious explanation of these points will
show the customer who wants to buy close that it is
as well to pay the printer's advance on such side lines,
and thus irvsure the quality and correctness of the product.
In engraving and electrotyping work, the printer
almost invariably is called upon to give a portion of
his knowledge to the benefit of the work, and he is
entitled to his pay therefor. While fifteen per cent, is
the ordinary advance to be charged the customer on
these lines, there are times when it is proper to charge
much more. Suppose, for instance, that the engraving
is of an elegant grade, requiring careful choice of the
best methods of drawing, photographing, processing,
selection of paper and ink, etc., then the printer who
oversees all these items, and makes them harmonious,
is entitled to charge a further advance. Remember
that this advance should represent more than a return
for the extra labor; it should include an extra profit,
for without that profit the printer has no business to
bother with these side lines.
The printer should ever bear in mind that the time
to make a profit on work is always now. Deferring a
profit is simply a way of losing a profit.
Knowing what cost is, and what is requisite to the
production of profit, it only remains for the printer
who would be successful to see to it that the profit is
never sacrificed on the work going out of his establish-
ment. By following this rule he has a sure thing, but
in order to follow it, he requires to know what is cost
and what is profit.
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CHAPTER XV.
BUYING.
One way of adding to the earnings of a printing
office is to buy with judgment We all know printers
who habitually pay five to ten per cent, more than they
should for the goods they buy, through pure shiftless-
ness, never looking about for closer prices, and never
discounting a bill to get the lowest figure. Though
they pay the highest prices, yet their custom is not
sought by dealers, as they are slow pay — they cannot
well be otherwise — for they make so little that they
are always behindhand with everything. There are
printers of a better grade, who do good work and
make a profit thereon, but who have no talent for
buying, accepting almost anything that a glib salesman
chooses to talk off to them. They buy stock that
they do not need, because they are told that "this is
a job lot," and then the stock lies on their hands a long
while, and is finally worked off at a loss.
The master printer in doing $10,000 worth of
business usually spends $5,000 for labor, $2,500 for
stock, and $1,500 for other matters; in other words he
buys nine-tenths as much as he sells, and therefore he
should exercise as much care in buying to get a profit as
in selling to get a profit, else he cannot compete success-
fully with others who are careful buyers. In purchasing
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144 BUYING.
labor he should seek not to buy it cheaply but to get that
which is best for his work. A three-dollar-a-day man is
often cheaper than another man at two dollars. Of course
no employer^ can afford to give all his profits to his
men, but he can afford to be liberal with those who
appreciate liberality and work to give him results. That
is the kind of labor to buy. This feature is dealt with
more fully in the chapter on "Management of Employ-
ees." Just now we are concerned only with the actual
buying of labor, and endeavoring to emphasize the point
that here a wise economy calls for quality first and price
later. Where the matter of wages is regulated by union
scales that it is unwise to interfere with, judgment is
called for in the selection of good workers, and the
ability to pick out men of the right sort is quite as
valuable as the capacity for keeping them engaged.
The buying of paper stock calls for wide experience.
A paper which superficially appears to match another
is sometimes a very inferior article. A buyer of stock
must have more than a common knowledge of sizes,
weights and qualities. He should have means of know-
ing when a paper is up to weight or when it falls off
so as to guard against errors. A good pair of scales
will soon pay for themselves in almost any printing
office just by detecting errors in weights. It is not
good business to assume because your paper dealer is
honest, that clerks who sell the goods by the marks,
will always furnish you with the weight and quality
billed; the right way is to have a system of proving
what you get, which serves as insurance, protecting all
concerned.
When we bear in mind that paper costs all the way
from two cents to fifty cents a pound, that the sizes
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BUYING. 145
are arbitrary, and that the names are often of not
positively established meaning, and that the quality put
into a grade may vary slightly with each mill producing
that paper, we must recognize what an uncertain quan-
tity paper is, and how much judgment the buyer must
exercise. While it is desirable to buy close and take
advantage of occasional bargains, it is safest to place
large orders with concerns of established reputation,
rather than to seek lower prices from those of whose
responsibility you know nothing, since it is always
possible for the latter to take an order at any price
necessary to get the job, and then to fill it with some-
thing that can be furnished at that time for a profit.
The printer should be very careful in buying large
lots of paper, with which he has little experience, to be
used with special inks. It sometimes happens that the
paper and ink are not adapted to each other, and if
this is not discovered until the last mordent, when the
job is on press, and paper or ink has to be changed,
there is a resultant loss of time of men and machines,
cartage, etc., that may be serious. Whenever a job
involves bringing together any paper and ink whose
adaptability is not known, such should be fullv estab-
lished before making the purchase of either the ink or
the paper.
Very few printers are judges of the value of inks.
Only a considerable experience with a grade of ink will
show the printer about what it is worth to him; he
cannot know that the quality of a grade has been
reduced until after he has stocked up with and used
an inferior lot of it. The best way is to buy of a reli-
able house, have them adapt their inks to your papers,
and give them your trade as long as they serve you
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I46 BUYING.
reasonably and acceptably. Avoid buying job lots of
ink; they are seldom cheap.
In buying type, the average printer requires to ex-
ercise more care against his own weaknesses than
against the founder's desire to make money out of
him. Buy large fonts and in series in preference to
small fonts and odd lots. If possible, buy your type
at considerable intervals, and in large lots, rather than
in small driblets, a little every month, as by the former
method you are more certain of securing everything in
harmony.
Never buy second-hand type; it is dear at any price.
In purchasing machinery, consider first its adapta-
bility to the work in view. It is a waste to buy a four-
roller press for cheap newspaper work; but a press
that is cheap may not be suited to turning out a cheap
grade of work, if it be also slow. Having decided on
the sort of presses you need, try and make your choice
on your own judgment rather than on the arguments
of those who want to sell you a particular machine.
If you are favorably inclined toward a machine but do
not know its points thoroughly, and are conscious that
you are not fully aware of its merits and demerits, go
and talk with one or two unbiased parties who |use
similar machines. Thus you will protect yourself. Re-
member that it is the salesman's business to sell you a
certain press, but, that it is your business to buy what is
best for you. Always give the preference to makers
of reputation and standing, and beware of being the
first to try a new machine. It may turn out to be a
good thing, but the chances are that the first machine
or two of a new kind will bother the purchasers more
than they save them.
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BUYING. 147
The printer who is well up in machinery, and who
perhaps has personal knowledge of the condition of a
certain press that is second-hand, may often find a
bargain in presses that have been used. But, unless
you are very sure of what you are getting, the new
machines, with a guarantee from a reliable maker, are
the best to buy.
Care should be exercised to avoid purchasing any-
thing that is going out of use, as type that is out of
fashion, machines that are no longer built or that are
being superseded by improved styles, paper that may
not be in regular demand, etc. By reading the trade
papers and keeping up with the progress of the art a
printer may qualify himself to exercise a correct judg-
ment as to when the value of anything is depreciating
from lack of use, and thus guard against stocking up
with articles that are not up-to-date.
There is only one good way to buy, and that is for
cash. In all lines the cash will secure discounts that are
greater than the six per cent, value of borrowed money,
because the man who sells has to charge credit customers
for collections, etc. Discounts of from two to twenty-
five per cent, are continually offered the printer for
prompt cash, yet it is believed that a large majority of
printers fail to avail themselves of these discounts, in
which there is just as much profit as there may be in
the work they handle. Where is the sense in a printer's
buying $1,000 worth of labor, paper, ink and incidentals
for a customer, to make ten per cent, and beggaring
himself so that he loses discounts to the amount of
$100? Yet many a printer will grab at the $1,000
job, giving long credit thereon, and hustling to get it
out, and never give any special attention to the losses
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I48 BUYING.
he sustains from not being able to discount his bills. It
is not too broad an assertion to state that the printer
who has the cash can average to save $50 to $100 on
every $1,000 he spends, as compared with the printer
who has to ask long time and who gives notes.
The printer requires to be careful not to buy beyond
his immediate needs. A sudden rush of work may
cause him to think that he requires a new cylinder, but
by the time it arrives the rush may be over, and he
will be tempted to go out and cut prices to get work,
thus damaging trade generally to get the money to
pay for a machine for which he does not have real use.
Unless there is a certainty that the work is there for a
machine it is much better to take care of a rush of
work by either putting on a night force or turning some
orders over to a neighboring printer on whom you can
depend.
There is a science in knowing when to be liberal
and when to be close in buying. When paper stock
or machinery are on some one's hands, and hard to
move, the holder may accept an exceedingly low offer.
At other times, the printer who tries to buy too closely
may overreach himself, for if his trade affords no profit,
good houses will avoid him, and he is forced to deal
with the irresponsible and to accept poor service. Those
who sell to the trade must have a fair profit as well
as the printer, and it is not good economy to try and
deprive them of such profit; the real economy consists
in buying only what you have use for, at a fair price,
and with all the discounts that cash will bring.
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CHAPTER XVI.
DOING GOOD PRINTING.
While this book is designed to treat only of the
business or money-making side of the printing industry,
and not of the technical side of the art, yet it is so
imperative that the successful printer should do good
printing that a chapter on this topic seems requisite to
rounding out the subject completely. It is assumed
throughout that the readers are good printers, who know
their trades properly — anyway it is not the writer's
mission to teach the intricacies of composition and press-
work. Yet, there are many pointers as to the doing of
high grade work, that are of a semi-business nature,
involving the policy of an establishment, and these it is
desired to discuss at this writing.
To do a high grade of work the printer must have:
First, selected men, who are each and all specially good
in their respective lines. With superior taste in com-
position, accurate make-up and proof-reading, and
pressmen who know their trade thoroughly, we have all
the essentials of perfect workmanship. Second, a red
tape system of passing upon or approving each feature
of a job as it progresses through the establishment.
This greatly reduces the vexation and loss incident to
errors, not only typographical, but in number of sheets,
character of stock, etc. Third, inks furnished appropriate
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I50 DOING GOOD PRINTING.
to the papers employed, and good rollers supplied as
wanted. Without these the pressman is powerless.
Fourth, a relentless system of discarding poor or spoiled
sheets. Even one per cent, of poor sheets delivered to
a customer detracts seriously from a high class job.
Fifth, the maintenance of a good summer temperature
in the pressroom. It is not right to expect good results
unless this is furnished. Sixth, an intelligent super-
vision of the whole establishment, to insure harmony
between departments, and keep everything running
smoothly. Seventh, the proper material and machinery.
With all these a high class output is assured; while
with any one of them lacking, an inferiority in production
is always likely.
The printer who would be successful must bear in
mind that he cannot put himself in the position of
being able to do the best work at a minimum of cost
unless he provides the best material. If he starts in
with an old plant he is seriously handicapped, for he is
virtually obliged to give customers old type-faces when
new ones are preferable; or he may be unable to give
perfect register on color jobs with old and worn
machines. The highest touches of the art are only
possible to the concern that can furnish the latest and
best products of the foundry, and print them on up-
to-date presses. In striving to do the best work the
printer will find himself severely handicapped if he has
not such an equipment.
The retaining of some man of superior taste to
direct the character of the work is an essential some-
times overlooked. 1 have yet to learn of an establish-
ment that has secured a reputation for fine work that
did not include in its personnel some one peculiarly
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DOING GOOD PRINTING. 151
gifted with artistic sense, to control and dictate the style
and quality of the output. Such a man must possess
characteristics of originality, and an appreciation of that
which is really good art in printing. If the proprietor
of an office recognizes that he has not these qualities,
he should, if possible, secure the services of some one
who has such capacity. At the same time he must be
careful not to let his artist-printer run away with him
in zeal for the production of the beautiful. The printer
who becomes so engrossed in the execution of fine
work that he forgets that he is doing it for a profit,
may be a true artist, but he cannot make money.
The business management should be such that superior
taste and ingenuity in printing may be available at all
times to the customer, but only for a fair price and
not for love of the art.
It is well for an office to acquire a distinctive style
for its commercial work — a something that will come
to be recognized generally by those who observe fine
printing. It may be a running on broad bands of
border, or ornate initials, or embossed headings, or any
other one thing good in itself that has not been "run
to death" in the locality. We must recognize that
there are fashions in taste in printing as in everything
else, and that these fashions are set by the printers
themselves, though often unconsciously. There is no
good reason why they cannot be set deliberately as well
as accidentally. If the leading office of a city will decide
on a style and run upon it conscientiously for a year
or two, it will be found that all the small, surrounding
printers will be copying that style. Then it will be
time for the leading printer to consider working up
another style, in order to keep ahead of the procession
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152 DOING GOOD PRINTING.
and cause business men to recognize that he is the
leader.
This setting of a style of commercial work acts as
an advertisement for a house and costs next to nothing.
In fact, I am not sure but it is an economy, for it enables
the printer to use one line of material continuously, and
accustoms the workmen to obtain the effects with the
least labor. When the style runs out the material is
well worn and may be returned to the founder as old
metal, and a new lot bought to advance some newer
style. Within a few years there have been runs on
deckel-edged paper and Bradley type that have pretty
much swept the country. In the course of events
these will give way to other things, and in twenty
years printers may look back with wonder and be sur-
prised that these things ever were stylish. That this is
probable may be proved by looking back at the speci-
mens of ornate printing of a decade or two ago, Mich
are strange and ridiculous to the eyes trained to modern
effects. This is in obedience to a law of human nature
that craves change, and to another law that results in
imitation, producing what we call fashions.
The printer who can set the fashion for his locality
is bound to achieve a reputation that will bring him
the chance of doing most of the high class work that
is executed in his territory. There may be printers
who will do as good work as the printer with a repu-
tation, but they do not stand the same opportunity of
getting high class jobs as the printer who has cultivated
his reputation by leading taste and fashion.
The difference between an ordinary job and a high
class production often involves very little additional cost,
and yet it counts for a great deal in reputation and
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DOING GOOD PRINTING. 153
the bringing to an office of other work that will pay
well. The selection of good papers has a large bearing
on the result, and as the cost of the better grades
comes out of the customer, the printer ought always to
be willing to advocate good papers, knowing that by
their use the work will be made more satisfactory. In
the choice of inks the printer can improve his work by
judicious use of others than black. The blue-blacks
almost always look better, as white paper always
inclines to either blue or yellow, and in either case
the suggestion of blue in the black ink is beautifying.
Another good effect is always obtainable by the plain
lake-red rule around pages, that has a never-tiring
beauty, placing the work on a higher plane. By sug-
gesting these things to customers they often may be
incorporated in orders, and thus tend to elevate the
average of work turned out and add to the profits.
Carefulness in excluding spoiled sheets from those
delivered to the customer adds another element of
reputation for high class work. The office that desires
to secure or maintain a place among the very best
printeries must also be always alive to the keeping up
with the new things that the founder produces for orna-
menting work, and bringing them before the public
ahead of others.
The use of wide margins is a very neat and costless
way of improving the appearance of work, that is far
too much neglected. A wide margin always gives a
rich effect; a narrow margin always has a cramped,
skimpy, cheap effect, and if the body type is large, the
ill effect is strengthened. The employment of ornate
faces for body type is another method of elevating the
character of work. By purchasing ico-lb. fonts of a
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154 . DOING GOOD PRINTING.
few handsome faces in sizes from six to eighteen point,
the printer is able to set up a great deal of commercial
work in a manner that is much more ornamental than
if the body matter were set in the ordinary romans or
old styles.
It is well to keep at hand a supply of samples of
pretty half-tone illustrations that are available for use in
adding to the attractiveness of work. Occasionally such
can be introduced so as to add materially to a job
without increasing cost, and more frequently they serve
to develop some idea in the customer's mind for the
preparation of original half-tone illustrations for the
embellishment of the job under consideration. When
the illustrator is thus called in to increase the beauty
and attractiveness of the job, the printer not only gets
his percentage on the engraving, but his office gets the
credit of the improved character of the work.
In aiming to produce superior printing, the printer
must not neglect to provide himself with specimens of
the efforts of leading printers in other cities. If he be
deficient in originality he can always borrow plenty of
ideas in this way, without infringing any copyright or
courtesy of the trade.
No office can hope to lead in quality of work that
does not exercise extreme care in every department to
insure the production of clean work. How often we
see otherwise handsome jobs marred by a few leads
sticking up or by smuts on the margins! The avoiding
of these is not a question of art, but a matter of vigi-
lance in overseeing the minor details o/ production.
In seeking to add to the high character of small
work without largely increasing the cost, the wise
printer will always bear in mind the facility with which
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DOING GOOD PRINTING. 155.
two colors may be run at once on a jobber on the turn-
and-cut principle. This is a trick too seldom practiced
though generally known. By cutting out the composi-
tion in the centre of the distributers, on a jobber having
cylinder inking apparatus, a different color may be run
on either end of the press, and the form be divided to
suit. This method is economical in running small jobs
of one thousand to five thousand impressions, requiring
a tint on a certain portion of the design, or one line in
red to make it particularly effective.
In order to improve the effectiveness of the large
work in an office, especial attention should be given
to type designs, headings and covers. A little extra
expense of $25 or $50 on a $500 job often adds one-
half to its general effectiveness. A fine cover may hide
a mulfitude of shortcomings. The longer the run the
less is the proportionate extra cost in perfecting the
designs that go to make a book or magazine attractive.
Good book-work is produced by extreme care as to
well-known details; good magazine or pamphlet work
is largely dependent upon the quality of the illustra-
tions, the margins, cover-coloring, etc. ; good commer-
cial work is dependent upon taste in composition and
care of details. Only by having efficient help in all
departments and by the infusing of personal genius and
unique characteristics into the work can an office expect
to take front rank as a producer of high class printing.
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CHAPTER XVII.
THE COMPOSING-ROOM.
It is generally admitted that the composing-room
of a printing office is the most difficult department to
run at a profit. The chances and opportunities for
wasting time are so great, and the temptation to take
composition at cost to feed the pressroom is so strong,
that a vast number of composing-rooms are run year
in and year out minus any profit, and many of them at
an actual loss. This is a wrong condition of affairs, that
appears to have been aggravated rather than improved
in many instances by the introduction of composing
machines, which with proper management should have
relieved the situation.
In order to make a composing-room pay, the first
essential is the proper arrangement of the material.
Too often the stands, stones, cabinets and cases are
placed about "any old way," without any real plan for
convenience, whereas nothing in the printing office calls
for more care than the locating of all material where
it may be used without loss of time. The largest item
of expense in the composing-room is the time of the
employees; it can be saved by good light and short
travel between display cases, stones, etc.
A composing-room should have plenty of light, and
if the windows are not close together more should be
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THE COMPOSING-ROOM. 1 57
put in. For artificial light, the best is the cheapest. A
cent an hour for an incandescent electric light is of no
consequence if it enables a compositor to do a cent's
worth more work in an hour than some cheaper form
of light. If there are not windows enough to give a
satisfactory light during the daytime more should be
inserted in the walls. When good window light is
provided for, the next essential is the placing of the
stands by the windows in such a way as to secure a
good distribution of light on the cases.
It is a very poor arrangement to place stands in a
line too deep beyond a window, in a room with a low
ceiling, so that the workman at the further stand re-
ceives only a half light. When such space away from
the windows has to be filled with stands, these should
not be used for regular composition, but for cases of
occasional use, that it. is desirable to keep out of the
racks, as head letters, italics, etc., on which there is
considerable demand.
In casing display type the wise printer will avoid
using cases with very small boxes, as the space saved
is more than lost by the time wasted in getting out
the types from the little boxes, which are too small for
the fingers. It is also a mistake to place cases very
high on very low in cabinets or racks, because it is
cheaper to provide more floor space than to tire men
out sitting on their heels or climbing step-ladders to
set up lines.
In locating stand-galleys and banks much care
should be exercised in order that time may not be
wasted going back and forth between them and the
cases. This also applies to imposing stones, rule cases,
lead and furniture racks, etc. Each should be placed
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with a view to saving travel in setting up, proving,
making-up, and the like.
There is good economy in having plenty of ma-
terial and keeping it in the cases as much as possible.
The effort to economize on a few dollars' worth of
sorts often results in wasting double the value in time.
The lack of an extra proof-planer, lead-cutter, benzine
brush and such trifles, often causes a great waste of
time. Where is the sense in paying a man thirty cents
an hour to tie and roll up bits of twine for page cord
or to chase about looking for a ten cent sponge? And
yet negligence in such little matters as these is apparent
in three composing-rooms out of every four.
It pays to have plenty of labor-saving contrivances,
plenty of quads and sorts of all kinds, plenty of chases,
plenty of everything and anything that saves time.
And it is just as important to keep material where it
can be used readily as it is to have a good assortment
in stock. For this reason it is a bad policy to keep
many forms standing. Some will argue that by keep-
ing type standing there is often a saving by reason of
its being ready for a further edition, should one be de-
manded, but this view ignores the loss of convenience
that arises from the releasing of the sorts. Nothing is
more wasteful than time spent in picking sorts. I
abominate this practice, and would rather see a com-
positor looking out of the window at a circus parade
than hunting through forms for sorts. The former
occupation at least has the merit of brightening the
man's spirits and rendering him capable of more cheer-
ful effort after the last elephant and clown have passed
out of sight, whereas the latter practice is not only a
dead waste at the time, but may cause a loss later if
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THE COMPOSING-ROOM. 139
the sorts have to be replaced, or if their removal causes
a pi.
In a large office the only good way of securing
proper distribution is to put a competent man in charge
of it, and make him responsible for the condition of
all type-cases and supplies of sorts. He should have
such help as he requires; often apprentices or boys will
do very well, and can be used to advantage if they are
painstaking, as care is required rather than skill. I do
not believe in placing compositors on the dead stone
when work is dull, as this invites loafing; though I
recognize that all rules fail in emergencies, and that
there are times when a foreman has to put all hands
on some rush work, neglecting distribution for a day
or two, and then put a few compositors on distribu-
tion to wipe out the accumulation. The system is
bad in principle, however, and when rush work re-
quires such action an extra charge should be placed in
the bill for upsetting the routine of the office.
Men are all different, and must be handled intelli-
gently and not as machines, for a knowledge of men is
of great value in the composing-room, in order that they
may be used so as to make the most of their talents,
dispositions, etc. It is quite as important to distribute
the work properly among the compositors as it is to
distribute it suitably among the presses. By recognizing
the different ability of particular men, and keeping each
as far as possible in the line of work in which he makes
the greatest progress, general results may be considerably
increased. A man with a special knack for imposition
should be kept at stone work, in preference to allowing
«ach compositor to impose his own forms. In every fair-
sized office there are generally one or two men who
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can do tabular work twice as fast as some others,
though the men who fail in table work may be effi-
cient in other regards. With a force of compositors on
miscellaneous job and book work, it is the business of
a foreman to know who can handle display work with
the best results, who can set figure work expeditiously
and accurately, who are the fastest cbmpositors on
straight matter, who will prove most useful on distribu-
tion, corrections, and all the various details of work
in the department. By remembering these things he
can apportion the work most advantageously and secure
the best results for the talent in hand.
Most master printers fail to appreciate fully the great
amount of time expended in the composing-room on
other work than direct composition. Nothing but an
accurate record will convince the average proprietor of
the actual facts as to his composing-room. I have
before me a composing-room record in which the
showing for six years is that the distribution required
almost half the time of composition, and that the dis-
tribution, proof-reading, corrections and make-up taken
together equalled the composition proper. This tabula-
tion did not take into account any superintendence or
fixed charges. It is probably an average showing and
demonstrates that there is an immensity of work outside
of direct composition upon which economy may be ex-
ercised. Another proof of the amount of this often dis-
regarded labor is found in the record of a number of
large New York offices, demonstrating an average cost
of twenty-seven cents per one thousand ems for hand-
ling type matter after the compositor had earned his
wage for setting and correcting. There are master
printers who hold the idea that this doubling of the
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THE COMPOSING-ROOM. l6l
direct labor of composition is unnecessary, and that by
hustle and extra good management they can avoid most
of it. This is a delusion; by good management the
indirect costs of composition can be kept down, but
they cannot be diminished to any considerable extent.
Superior management may check a variety of small
leakages, as variously suggested in this chapter, and
whatever cost is cut down by labor-saving devices and
close watch over details, should go to the printer in
increased profit. Because I hint at a variety of ways in
which this secondary cost of composition may be
reduced, I hope no reader will draw the inference that
I believe that the cost of composition can ordinarily be
kept down to less than double the original time cost
of setting up matter, except in newspaper offices, where
there is full copy and every convenience for rushing.
By basing charges on the actual experiences of many
offices you are safe, and if you can reduce a trifle of
cost here and there by close management, you have
earned it and it should be yours, not the customer's.
Never, never gamble in advance on the cleverness of
your management, by making prices upon the assump-
tion that your cost will be less than that of your
competitors with the same facilities.
Where composition is done by hand, the piece system
is almost always preferable, purely on the score of
economy. To illustrate: In a city where the piece scale
is thirty-five cents and the week scale $16, a composi-
tor working by the week must set almost 46,000 ems
to earn his $16. This is much above the average pro-
duction, as week hands cannot be expected to average
above 35,000 ems unless there is much fat matter, and
they will not do that on lean, solid type. Piece hands
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162 THE COMPOSING-ROOM.
will set more type in the same number of hours than
time hands, but even piece hands cannot be expected
to average 40,000 ems weekly on book work that has
to be evenly spaced.
In machine composition opinions differ as to the
advisability of employing men by the week or piece.
The time of a machine, is so valuable that only fast
keyboard operators are wanted and employers will
cheerfully pay more for fast men than for operators of
moderate speed. The consequence is that operators
have the same stimulus to show results as when work-
ing by the piece, and there has not been observed any
real difference in product. There are probably as many
employers and as many employees who favor the week
system as the piece system on the machines.
Time can be saved in the composing-room by de-
manding good copy of customers, or by arranging it
properly before it goes to the compositor. In these
days of cheap typewriting, the printer is entitled to
good, clear copy at all times, and when a customer
offers bad copy, it is best to tell him that it will waste
a great deal of the compositor's time, which must be
charged for some way, and that he had best have it
typewritten, or that you will have it done for him. A
little judgment exercised here will often save lots of
waste in the composing-room. It also avoids disputes
with customers that may arise from a misreading of
poor manuscript. The compositor cannot be expected
to get up a good string from illegible copy, and when
it is obviously delaying, he may not care to try, as
he has such good excuse for going slowly.
In some composing-rooms there is much waste
because of a needless regard for style, as in capitalization,
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THE COMPOSING-ROOM. l6^
hyphenating, division of words, disputed spellings, and
the like. This usually emanates from the proofroom,
where an office style has been developed, and which
comes to be insisted upon, without regard to economy
or common sense. It is essential to maintain a style
throughout an entire book, but every job done in one
office need not follow that style. The effort to pre-
serve office style through miscellaneous job work
simply results in needless waste. If the style of an
office is to spell centra, theatre, etc., what matters it if
in a particular job some compositor spells the words
center and theater? Both spellings are authorized,
and the customer is unlikely to care a rap which is
employed, or if he is suspected of caring, the guide
to his taste is found in following copy, rather than
in following office style, regarding which he prob-
ably knows nothing. In the matters referred to, any
commonly accepted style is as good commercially as
any other, and if the compositor has set a job uni-
formly on any reasonable system, it is a waste of good
money for the proof-reader to alter his work simply to
make it conform to his notions or the accepted office
style. If a proof-reader manifests a tendency to be
too strict in such matters, and to insist on particular
spellings and divisions, he should be checked. It is
all very well to have educated readers, but the printer
is not in business to improve the English language at
his own expense, and when a reader interferes with
practical results, a little wholesome advice from the
business office is in order.
In some book offices a great deal of time is spent
in tying and untying pages of type in the period
between composition and going to press. Especially
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164 THE COMPOSING-ROOM.
is this loss apparent in a class of work that is kept
standing in pages, and subject to regular correction.
Often great saving can be effected in such work by
placing grooved wooden furniture around the pages
before tying up, so that the page cord is entirely
sunk in the grooves. This cord may then remain in
when the form is locked and goes to press, effecting a
material economy in handling the pages at various
times without tying up or untying.
By applying the same common sense that dictates
the above practice to other regular work, observing
where special conveniences may reduce the time of
getting it out and providing extra galleys, sort boxes,
shelving, or anything of that sort that will expedite
the work, further savings may be accomplished. In
every large or regular job in the composing-room
there are sure to be some ways and means for reducing
the labor by taking note of especial characteristics of
the work. It is a part of the duty of every foreman
to use his brains and ingenuity in such matters, and
to save time at every turn.
It is a debatable question with many offices whether
it is best to put in composing machines, or to give
out their straight composition to offices having ma-
chines, buying it on the galley. This is a point which
each must settle for himself, according to his circum-
stances. It is certainly better for a small office to buy
type on the galley than to incur indebtedness for
machines which it has not the work to keep busy.
The office doing a large amount of composition can
save money by owning its own machines, but where
to draw this line between the office that cannot afford
to do without them and the office that would be ex-
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THE COMPOSING-ROOM. 1 65
travagant in purchasing them, is a poser. The decision
can be arrived at only by the parties interested, having
all the minute details affecting the situation. It has
been demonstrated that machines are a saving that
varies with the class of work in hand, and the amount
of saving on certain classes of work is to most printers
an inexact quantity. Printers must be cautious in put-
ting in machines not to overrate the results they can
get, but to bear in mind that a composing machine is
like a press, in that it must be kept running a large
number of hours daily to produce the most economical
results. In practice it is difficult to keep cylinder presses
running half the time, and while we know that the
composing machine can be kept more busy than the
press, yet it is not safe to calculate that it can be
occupied all the time. Copy will give out, operators
will want a holiday, the power will break down, and
so on ; besides, there will be delays in changing sizes
of type and measures, and a good many minor things
not readily foreseen.
The printer who uses composing machines must
beware of giving' his profit to the customer. Where
is the sense in buying costly machinery and then giv-
ing all the margin to the public? Machine composi-
tion ought to be furnished to the customer at the same
price as hand-set, wherever conditions make it pos-
sible. Only on newspaper work is it reasonable for
a customer to expect a lower figure. I am a believer
in the machines; they mark a great step in advance in
the printing industry; but I deprecate the disposition of
printers to use them simply to cut prices and get work
away from other printers. The proper way is to use
them for what work you have and to secure to your-
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166 THE COMPOSING-ROOM.
self the profit they allow on that work, rather than to
try and make a small profit on all the work in sight.
If a printer insists on doing all the work in his
neighborhood on machines it is better that he should
do it direct for his fellow printers than to go to their
customers, for in this way he maintains prices, and a
larger profit is secured to all.
Some one has said that success consists in attend-
ing to little things. This is particularly true of the
composing-room, where a large and economical output
can be obtained only by unceasing vigilance as to the
minor details.
A few extracts from the " Rules and Usages of the
Typothetae of New York," regarding composition, seem
appropriate in closing :
Prices for Composition.
rat IOOO BM«t.
For weekly newspapers, 70 cents.
Plain book work — reprint, . 70 "
%t " " manuscript .... 75 u
Pages containing less than 1000 ems should be charged at
an advanced rate as follows:
PER IOOO EMS.
900 ems and over, 80 cents.
800 " " " 85 "
700 " " " 00 "
600 " " " 95 "
500 " " " $1.00 "
These rates apply only to ordinary composition in works
containing 50,000 ems or more, in which the cost of making-
up and composition can be reduced by the re-use of head and
foot lines, and chase furniture.
Pamphlets of thirty-two pages or less, and all single-sheet
jobs should be at the /ate of $1 .00 per 1000 ems.
These rates include the work here specified and no more:
One proof on galley made correct to copy, free from typo-
graphical errors and bad spelling, and composed in a work-
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THE COMPOSING-ROOM. 1 67
manlike manner; one corrected proof made up in pages or
columns.
Changes in proof that were not plainly indicated or ordered
in copy or called for by a previously prepared and agreed
schedule for style (such as the substitution of spelled-out
words instead of figures, of capitals instead of lower case, of
italic or small capitals instead of roman, or any deviation
whatever from the copy) must be rated as alterations.
When a negligently-written copy has not been properly
prepared as to punctuation, capitals, italic, etc , the printer
should try to amend these faults, but his amendments, even
though partial or incomplete, are to be regarded as a fair com-
pliance with his contract. The printer's contract is for the
mechanical work, and not for editing, even in as small a matter
as punctuation. The standard rates of composition are for
work that is to be composed but once, and not for work to be
edited at the printer's expense. The contract is complete when
proof is made correct to copy, or is amended in typographical
style, as far as the ordinary compositor can amend it Copy
should be properly prepared, or if edited in the proof, it should
be at the cost of the customer.
It is understood, however, that all work should be work-
manlike as to spacing, leading, blanking-out, and uniformity
of style on headings and sub-divisions. Failure to do work-
manlike composition shall be at the printer's and not at the
customer's expense. Book titles, dedications and displayed
advertisements must be composed in a good style before proof
is submitted.
AH time work spent in the improvement of the style of com-
posed matter, after it has been made correct to copy and ap-
proved of by the office, whether spent in alterations, reading,
revising, proving or stone or plate work, should be charged as
alterations.
Time work at composition should be charged at the rate of
60 cents per hour.
When composition is done on time an allowance should be
made for proof-reading, make-up, distribution, etc., to be added
to the time for composition at the rate of 60 cents per hour.
Jobs set in delicate or fragile type should be charged one-
third more than for ordinary type
AH cuts introduced in composition, including full-page cuts,
to be charged as text.
Over-running matter to insert cuts to be charged as altera-
tions.
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1 68 THE COMPOSING-ROOM.
Standing type should be charged 5 cents per 1000 ems for
a week, or 10 cents for a month.
Type kept out of use by delay of proof beyond reasonable
time should be charged as standing matter.
Extra price matter should be charged double the extra paid
to the compositor, in addition to the price for plain matter.
Special or unusual sorts that have to be bought for the work
should be charged at cost. Composition of displayed advertise-
ments should be measured and charged as brevier (no allowance
being made for electrotype advertisements that may be fur-
nished), unless the difficulty of the work or the quantity of
smaller type used calls for a higher rate.
In furnishing an estimate, or rendering a bill, no customer is
entitled to prices in detail on the several items of composition,
presswork, binding, electrotyping, etc., nor should any be given
except under exceptional circumstances which in themselves
would excuse a breach of business custom.
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CHAPTER XVIIi.
THE PRESSROOM.
The largest investment of money in the printing office
is usually in the pressroom, and this department can be
made to pay only by wise management of machinery
appropriate to the work in hand. The cylinder press
is the great producer; the web press and the perfecter
have their special fields, as have the platen presses, but
most printers depend upon the output of the cylinders
for results in the pressroom. The economical handling
of these cylinders is therefore of the highest impor-
tance. At first sight, management of a pressroom simply
means putting on the presses what work there is, and
running it off in a workmanlike manner — and that is
about all the concern that is exercised in many press-
rooms; but to make money out of printing presses re-
quires the use of brains and judgment just as in any
other producing or manufacturing business.
In the first place it pays to have good machines,
and when those in use are antiquated it is commonly
best to throw them out and put in better producers.
It is also well to maintain them in good order, by
regular inspection, rather than to wait for break-downs,
which are most apt to occur in seasons of rush, when
they cause the greatest loss. During the dull summer
months every large pressroom should employ a ma-
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170 THE PRESSROOM.
chinist to look over the presses and advise as to any
parts that are giving out, and which require renewal
or readjustment. In this way there is little danger of
trouble with the presses during heavy runs in busy
season.
In choosing presses, it is a waste to employ a high
class $3,000 two-revolution cylinder for newspaper
work, when some old-style two-roller press will turn
it out as rapidly. It is even worse to try and do half-
tone work on a two-roller press, which never can give
good results. Yet if an office has a modern four-
roller two-revolution that is not busy all the time it
would be better to put a newspaper job on it than to
buy a two-roller press for that purpose, since it is
economy to make the best use of what is already in
an office.
Without good rollers and appropriate inks there
will be much waste time in the pressroom, and care-
lessness in providing these should never be permitted.
Do not economize on rollers, but get the best, and
take care of them. Maintain a good heat in the press-
room at all times; as even a slight neglect in this par-
ticular results in large waste. If the pressroom in
winter is not up to a proper heat until half an hour
after the starting time, about a quarter of an hour's
time of all hands is wasted. This is a point that is
frequently disregarded in small and medium-sized of-
fices. Every proprietor should see to it personally that
a proper temperature is maintained in his pressroom if
he expects to receive value for the wages he pays out.
A clear head is required in a large pressroom to
give out the work to the best advantage, and good
business qualifications on the part of a foreman are
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THE PRESSROOM. 17I
often more valuable here than unusual skill in press-
work. A prompt, accurate judgment is in demand all
the time in overseeing the operation of a large number
of printing presses. The responsibility is great, because
so much costly paper is handled, and a very simple
blunder often may result in a large amount of spoilage.
To keep the run of the work readily the foreman
should keep before him a sheet on which appear all
the jobs on hand, and those coming, in order to make
provision for them. Such a sheet may be made up
this way:
Schedule of Presswork — Friday, May 2.
Cylinder press A. Jones' Catalogue, io-m, off by three o'clock*
" " B. Waiting for electros.
" " C. The Mirror, 7>£-m, must be off to-night.
" " D. Brown's book, off sometime Saturday.
" pony E. Blotters, 20-M, off Thursday noon.
Gordons, half A. Clipper Club Menu, off about noon.
" quarto B. Smith's envelopes, 5-M, off four o'clock.
" C. Idle.
* l eighth D. Patent medicine dodgers, 1 2-m, off six o'clock.
11 " E. Idle.
Forms waiting. — C, B. & Q^time table, 20x30, 3-M.
Picnic posters, 28 x 42, 200.
Thomson's blanks, 12x36, 2>£-m.
Forms coming. — Jeweler's Gems, j-m, four o'clock.
Carter's circulars, 50-M, Wednesday a. m.
Parker's billheads, 2-m 4s, Wednesday a. m.
Green's letter-heads, 8-m, Wednesday p. m.
By keeping everything before him on one sheet in
this manner the foreman of the pressroom is able to
plan ahead with certainty as to what forms are best
placed on certain presses, and may be tolerably certain
as to when each job can go to press. The system
prevents slips of the memory, and enables the foreman
to feel quite sure of what he is doing. As fast as
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I72 THE PRESSROOM.
forms go into the chase-rack he enters them as forms
waiting, and as soon as they go on press they are
transferred to that head. By conference with the fore-
man of the composing-room once or twice a day
he keeps up his list of forms coming, and prevents
the springing of any surprises that tend to upset his
plans. It is a very bad practice to go only by the
chase-rack, and to decide when a pressman comes
along what form he had better take; that is almost as
bad as letting the pressmen help themselves out of the
chase-rack, and take the job that most suits their fancy.
By deciding all these things in advance on a system,
the pressman may be often informed towards the close
of a run as to what is coming next, and can make
any preparations that are likely to expedite the work.
When a pressroom is crowded with work it is a
good plan to pay the feeders extra to wash up and put
on rollers before and after hours, so that the presses
may be kept running full time, thus virtually gaining a
half hour's production at slight cost. It is also well to
stimulate pressmen and feeders alike to hustle, by close
watch of their progress, offering premiums for quick
runs, and a general enforcement of those principles laid
down in the chapter on "Management of Employees."
A record should be kept of all work, and when the
make-ready of a form is passed, at least two copies of
the sheet should be filed, with the date, time, run and
name of pressman and feeder written thereon, besides
the foreman's and proofreader's O. K.'s. These filed
sheets serve to settle subsequent disputes in case of
spoilage, etc., and are convenient for reference in many
ways.
It is the part of prudence to avoid purchasing new
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THE PRESSROOM. 1 7}
machinery to accommodate a rush of work that may
be temporary. Many a printer has added 50 or 100 per
cent, to the capacity of his pressroom only to find that
within a year he is chasing about cutting prices to get
work enough to keep the machines going. It is better
to have few presses and busy ones, than many presses
often idle. In few pressrooms is it possible to keep
the cylinders and Gordons actually running for more
than one-third of the working hours of the year. An-
other third of the time is taken up in make-ready, and
during the remaining third they stand idle, If a drive
of work comes into a pressroom the production can be
increased to meet the emergency by adding to the help
on make-ready, thus obtaining more hours during which
the presses can be kept running; and if there is a still
further demand on the pressroom the machines can be
run at night, without much extra cost, as the increased
pay of the men is nearly offset by the saving in fixed
expenses that need not be charged against night work.
A further increase of orders may be met by giving
press work to some competitor who is not so busy.
Only when it is evident that the increase of work is
permanent should the proprietor increase the number
of his printing machines.
There has been a tendency for many years to in-
crease the size of presses, as it is evident that the
economy of printing machines increases with the size
of the sheets they will print. Though the largest
machines are very costly and heavy, yet they produce
work more cheaply when there is enough for them to
do, and therefore they are in demand wherever there
are long runs that may be made up for large sheets.
Of course where there are constant long runs of small-
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174 THE PRESSROOM.
sized sheets, that cannot readily be doubled, it is best
to use cylinders of moderate size, and if there is an
occasional loss through inability to double up a form,
it is compensated for by the continual saving in run-
ning a lighter and smaller press. The pony cylinder
is a money-earner where there are plenty of short runs
adapted to its size of sheet, but it is a considerable
loss to use ponies on book work or the like, which
might be run in large forms. The half-medium platen
jobber is not so much favored as it was twenty years
ago, but for short runs of work adapted to its size, I
have always found it preferable to the pony cylinder,
as the first cost of the machine is much less, and the
help required less expensive.
The printer who tries to make money by running
his presses faster than the builder designed them to run
makes a mistake. As has been shown, the production
of a pressroom can be increased in several other ways
that are not damaging, and the over-speeding of a
press is bound to break it up within a few years.
There is an exception to this general rule where the
work demanded is of an exceptionally hurried character,
and will pay the printer for breaking down his ma-
chines and buying new. There are offices in Wall
Street, New York, where this is done knowingly and
profitably. Certain financial matters must be printed
and sent out at the utmost speed, and cost is an in-
ferior consideration. Cylinders are belted up to 3,000
an hour, and feeders specially trained to crowd in the
sheets. The life of a cylinder that is regularly abused
in this way is about two years; then it is thrown out,
and a printer's machinist replaces some of the parts and
sends it out as a rebuilt machine to some country
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THE PRESSROOM. 175
printer who wants a press cheap, and does not care if
it is loose in the joints and shy on register. The Wall
Street printer makes a profit by charging an extra price
for the hurried work ; but any printer who thinks he
can save time enough to make money on ordinary
work by over-speeding his presses, is doomed to ex-
pensive disappointment.
The master printer who would make money out of
his pressroom requires to watch carefully the character
of paper furnished by customers, and to give himself
leeway in making contracts to charge time in cases
where the paper makes trouble and delay. If the paper
is extra thin it is hard to feed, and the press must be
run slowly; if it is overcharged with electricity it may
take just double time to run off; if it is rough-edged,
it will require pointing to get register; if it is unduly
or unevenly coated there will be bother and delay; if
it is not cut squarely, there will be a lot of trouble
in adjusting margins, turning and cutting; and so it
may be with half a dozen other things, for all of which
the customer should pay when he elects to furnish his
own paper stock.
A careful record should be kept of all detention of
presses, that they may be charged to the customer,
when they are a consequence of his delays. The time
of a cylinder is worth as much and more than that of
the man who oversees it, as is fully explained in the
chapter on "The Cost of Producing Printing/' and if a
press is held for overdue proof corrections by the cus-
tomer, or for electros which he is to furnish, or in any
other manner for which he is responsible, a distinct
charge is proper; but only by making such things clear
in advance, and by keeping an accurate record of such
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I76 THE PRESSROOM.
delays, can the printer hope to collect for them without
undue friction with the customer.
It is proper for the office to retain possession of all
overlays cut for any job, in the absence of any contract
to the contrary with the customer. Because the cus-
tomer has paid for the time of producing overlays, they
do not become his property, as he buys only the re-
sultant job. He might as well demand of the printer
the delivery of electros, which the printer had ordered
for his own convenience in the production of the work.
The storing of overlays and electros affords only a fair
chance for extra profit to the printer on future orders.
Where customers want to buy the overlays or elec-
tros produced on their work, a moderate charge is
proper.
A great deal of the cost of a pressroom is involved
in the time spent in making ready. The time required
on a form is always more or less of an unknown
quantity, yet workmen can be trained to great speed
in overlaying by a judicious system. If you are con-
scious that there is too much time spent in making
ready in your pressroom, look into some other press-
room, where you know they have to hustle, and ob-
serve the methods by which speed is induced and
maintained. Both for common and extra fine work
there is a vast difference between men who are trained
to rush the overlaying, and those who go at it in a
leisurely manner, with the conception that the work is
so artistic as to require deep study and observation at
each stage. The individual hustle of each pressman
is the item where management may be expected to
show most results.
The duplication of forms calls for considerable judg-
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THE PRESSROOM. 1 77
ment on the part of the printer. If it is desired to
print 100,000 9x12 circulars, in determining how many
plates he will make, and how many can be run at once,
he has to consider which of his presses are idle. It
may be that he can figure abstractly that the work can
be done cheapest with sixteen plates on a large cylin-
der, but if his large cylinders are busy and a pony idle,
the chances are that it is cheapest for him to make
fewer plates and run. it on the pony. It is not good
economy to have hard and fast rules in all these things.
When there is a rush of work in the pressroom
there is sometimes opportunity to effect a saving by
placing two small jobs of the same length of run on
one cylinder press, one on each end of the bed. The
more clever the foreman, the oftener will he find such
opportunities for saving labor.
Where an office handles a great many electrotype
plates, requiring much time for adjustment on the
blocks for the press, so that one or more presses are
run practically all the time with blocked electros, it is
good economy to have special metal blocks made for
the presses, adapted to hold any size of plate. These are
high in first cost, but they save a great deal of time,
and insure accurate register. As the blocks fit the bed
of the press, it is possible to take off a large form and
put it on again without losing register. They also do
away with the great annoyance that comes from mak-
ing up a form of blocks in which are a few odd sizes
of plates, as of illustrations that run small, or advertis-
ing pages that run large.
In undertaking presswork it is very essential that
the manager of an office should know all the ins and
outs of the work, as there are so many items that add
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I78 THE PRESSROOM.
to cost of production. For instance, forms of part type
and part plates on wood bases always involve a loss
of time in make-ready; almost any blocks on wood
bases are apt to add to the labor. Forms of a given
size having 32 or 48 pages involve more labor in
making register than where there are only eight or six-
teen pages on which to secure correct backing. A rule
border likewise increases the labor of making register,
and also involves a loss of time in avoiding slur.
Forms of poetry, though fat for the compositor, and
requiring to be registered only on the folios, are yet
lean for the pressman because the numerous ragged
lines take more impression than those in the body of
the verse, involving much cutting out and patching up.
Forms of very small type require increased care, be-
cause of the necessity for extreme clearness of print,
and must be inked quite as well as a form of half-
tones, involving as many stoppages.
It pays to have things neat and clean in the press-
room, as dirty presses and floors invite slouchy work.
The instant a new pressman comes into a pressroom
where the machines are clean and bright, the floor
clear of soiled paper and waste, and the ink neatly
kept, that instant he recognizes that he is expected to
turn out neat work in such surroundings; but when a
new man comes to work in a dirty, dark pressroom,
it does not require much intelligence on his part to
recognize that almost any slighted work will pass
muster. Every printer should know enough to keep a
record of the sheets spoiled, though there are offices in
which this is not done. When omitted, the shortage
usually comes out of the customer, who may not
notice it. If it is noticed, however, the customer is
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THE PRESSROOM. 1 79
apt to consider the printer as dishonest, and to leave
him for one in whom he has confidence.
The steam-engine has been the most favored motor
for the pressroom, but of late years the practice has
increased of attaching individual electric motors to each
press. Under this system the printer pays only for the
power he uses, as there is no charge for electric cur-
rent when the press stands still. It does away with
shafting, pulleys and belting, affording increased light.
If a few more presses are added to the plant it is not
necessary to throw out the steam-engine and buy a
larger one. By availing himself of such improved
mechanical means as this, wherever offered, the wise
printer may expect to be able to produce work for his
pressroom as economically as any one in his locality.
The phten job presses in an office should be large
earners, if the business office knows how to charge for
the work, as they are kept busy mostly with small
orders, averaging say $15 or $20 each, and such can be
made to pay a profitable price more easily than jobs
involving a thousand dollars or so. Machines of the
Gordon type are light and simple, do not get out of
order readily, and may be run by boys with safety.
Some of the later types of presses have numerous con-
veniences and time-savers that are worthy of considera-
tion. It is also possible to have made special mechanical
appliances for jobbers to adapt Ihem to special work,
and the printer who has long runs of anything out of
the ordinary will do well to look into such matters.
In operating job presses it should be remembered
that there are several little tricks by which two, three
or even four colors may be printed at the labor of
a single impression. The most practical of these is
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ISO THE PRESSROOM.
accomplished by dividing the form, and locking the parts
side by side in the chase, cutting the paper double
size. The sheets are then run on one color, as red —
after which the press is washed up for the other color,
as blue — and the two parts of the form are reversed.
The result is that one-half of the form has the red and
blue reversed in arrangement from what it is in the
other half, but the total number of impressions is the
same as the total of the job, and every sheet is in two
colors. This system saves only on small runs, for on
a large run it would be just as cheap to have electros
made and run several at once, perhaps on a cylinder.
Let the printer ever remember that it is not what
a press can do, but what it does do, that determines
final profit or loss in the pressroom.
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CHAPTER XIX.
THE BUSINESS OFFICE.
In the average printery the business office receives
less attention than any other department, yet it is, in a
sense, the most important of all, for its mission is to
hold together the mechanical departments and cause
them to develop a profit When a good business man
and a good printer go into opposition it is always safe
to wager on the superior success of the business man.
The good printer should note this, and make himself
over into a business man, bearing in mind that there
is no object in doing business except to make a profit.
The business office exists to see that a profit is made,
and to make that profit as large as possible.
One of the prime requisites of a business office is
neatness. A good office is as much entitled to display
good counters and desks as is a bank or a charitable
society; a good carpet or a properly oiled floor are as
desirable here as in a physician's office or clergyman's
study; for these things command the respect of the
stranger, who judges of a man at first sight by his
clothes, or of a business by its substantial evidences of
prosperity. Just as the well-dressed man commands
the most confidence at first sight, so the well-appointed
business office Suggests to the prospective customer
who calls that he is in a place where good printing
and fair treatment may be expected.
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1 82 THE BUSINESS OFFICE.
The printer who does his business in a dingy room,
or on an old desk in the corner of the office, is like the
antiquated countryman who wears a hat of a fashion
twenty years old — lacking in proper self-respect. Only
those who personally know his virtues and substantial
qualities will believe that he has anything special to
commend him. With good chairs, desks, counters,
shelving, and sample cases, and neatly tinted walls and
ceilings, with attractive window shades, etc., the busi-
ness office is well arranged for trade.
If a firm of printers make a specialty of doing
ornate work, and desires to impress customers that its
grade of printing is much superior to the average, it is
well to fit up the business office more like a studio,
with framed specimens of color work on the walls,
portieres at the entrances, etc. Two customers out of
three will have more confidence that they can secure
an extra fine grade of work in such a place than where
the office appointments are of a simple character.
Even in the office of a very small printery it pays
to have a book-keeper and typewriter. An intelligent
young person in this capacity can save fully half of a
proprietor's time, and give him the chance to do a
hundred things that otherwise might be neglected.
The proprietor or manager should keep his own desk
neat and presentable. 1 once knew a proprietor whose
habits were so peculiar that he never could get through
with the letters or papers he handled so as to permit
them to be filed, but left them sprawled about his desk
until it was so loaded that there was no room to work;
then he let the cover down, and did his work on the
outside and on the slides, and when these were also
loaded, he moved a clerk and appropriated his desk, so
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THE BUSINESS OFFICE. 1 8}
great was his aversion to clearing up his own. This
is cited as an example of what slovenliness may lead
to, and as an instance of "how not to do."
The next essential in the business office is the hav-
ing on hand at all times of a man competent to talk
to customers, take orders, and make prices. This work
is by long odds the most important in the business, for
on the price obtained and satisfaction of the customer
depends the prosperity of the whole establishment. A
practical printer is usually required for this position,
because of the necessity for knowledge of all the details
of production, but it is even more essential that the
ordertaker should be a good figurer and capable sales-
man — a man who knows the cost of work, and who
can satisfy the customer that he is getting value for his
money. The duties of such a man are fully outlined in
the chapters on "Taking Orders" and "How to Talk
to Customers." To obtain a profit it is necessary to
charge and collect more than all the direct and indirect
costs; and to get customers to pay the price asked re-
quires good management and a knowledge of human
nature.
The business office is to the balance of a printery
what a man's head is to his body. It is here that the
brains must be applied to make the whole establish-
ment a success. It is a mistake for a proprietor to do
his own work in the composing-room and pressroom.
He should hire workers and devote his time to running
the business; conducting the business office so as to
extract a profit from everything that comes in his way,
or that he can bring into his way. It is not the
amount of work done in an establishment during a
year that determines prosperity, but the amount of
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1 84 THE BUSINESS OFFICE.
profit extracted from the work. Better is $5,000 worth
of work at $1,000 profit, than $10,000 worth of work
at $1,000 profit, for the former involves less bother and
better chance of getting more work at the higher profit
in the future.
The business office should keep itself informed of
the exact production, exact cost, and exact profit or
loss on every piece of work done in the printery every
day in the year. By keeping separate accounts for each
department, it is possible to know if any one depart-
ment is being carried at a loss, or without profit, and
if so to raise prices in that department. It does not
make any difference what other printers are doing or
charging; it is the business of the business office to see
that the prices on work in every department are profit-
able, for if they are not made to pay, it is better to
close them up than to bother with their unprofitable
maintenance.
It is an important problem to decide whom to trust,
and how much trust to give, yet it is a question that
cannot be shirked by the business office, for it is uni-
versally agreed that it is impractical to do printing on
a cash with the order basis. The goods manufactured
by the printer are commonly of no use whatever except
to the customer; if he fails to pay for them and leaves
them on the printer's hands they are nothing but old
junk. Hence the printer must be more careful in mak-
ing credits than the builder, who retains a lien on the
house; or the tailor, who can refit the clothes to an-
other customer. The stranger always should be asked
for a deposit on small work. If he brings in large
work, he should have a satisfactory commercial rating
or excellent references, and also pay a considerable
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THE BUSINESS OFFICE. 1 85
portion of cash down with the order. If his work in-
volves the purchase of a large amount of paper (as a
publication), it is a good plan to ask the customer to
buy his own paper, and to put in your contract with
him that you may hold any paper delivered to you for
the customer as collateral security for unpaid balances.
It is also advisable to place in contracts some stipula-
tion as to the extent of the credit, such as that when
the credit exceeds the sum of $1,000 all work shall
cease where it is until a payment is made.
The printer cannot be too careful in looking into
the individual character of a new customer requesting
some credit. It is not only dishonesty that he has to
look out for, but undue exactions. The difficulty of
printing a job wholly to a customer's satisfaction, and
the fact that when done it is worth nothing to the
printer, affords the unfair customer a tremendous ad-
vantage in accepting work and closing a transaction.
Suppose it is a job involving $3,000, and the customer
has made payments to the amount of $2,000. On the
completion of the job he finds fault with certain trifling
typographical errors or minor inelegancies, which can
usually be found in a large job, and insists that because
of these the job is not worth over $2,500 or $2,600.
The printer may feel that he is a little lame on some
of the claims, and that it will be cheaper to compro-
mise for $2,800 than to sue for the balance due. The
job is therefore let go with all the profit shaved off.
Such a customer is not to be trusted. The printer has
to be on his guard against him all the time.
Beware of the customer who comes from you know
not where, and establishes an acquaintance with you on
the strength of a few small cash jobs, and then leaves
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1 86 THE BUSINESS OFFICE.
a large order with the nominal understanding that it is
to be paid for on delivery. Never accept such an
order without some cash or security, and do not deliver
any of the goods until you get all the money. The
customer may be an honest man, but such methods are
commonly adopted by dead-beat advertising schemers
and the like. The only safe way is to give no trust to
chance acquaintances, but only to those having a com-
mercial rating or satisfactory references. Even then you
must expect to lose two per cent, in bad bills.
There is nothing like properly written contracts to
protect printers from loss as a result of misunderstand-
ings. Every possible point of dispute should be placed
in writing. This may be done by an exchange of let-
ters, or a written order, or in the case of very large
jobs by a regular contratt drawn by a lawyer. In all
such contracts the printer should limit the amount of
credit; specify for time charges for all changes and de-
lays; demand that no deductions be made for trifling
errors ; and guarantee only reasonable accuracy. If
there is a penalty in the contract against the printer for
delays, he must see that it is not applicable in case of
fire, strike, riot, etc. The wise printer will always
exact a higher price for work on which he is liable to
a penalty if not delivered on time, because he then
takes risks for which there must be compensation in
the price.
From the point of view of the business office the
printery is a combination of machines, which must be
made to produce at a less cost than the price that can
be obtained in selling. The management must know
the cost of all details, and make prices that will yield
a margin for profit, else it is inefficient. Good prices
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THE BUSINESS OFFICE. 187
are to be had only by asking for them and giving such
good satis f actory service that customers are willing to
pay what is asked. It takes time, patience, talent,
push, and experience, to build up a valuable business,
and such cannot be accomplished through any "Cheap
John " methods. There is no royal road to fortune in
printing any more than in any other line of business.
One must be a plodder, systematize things and look
out for the profit on everything. This is the chief ob-
ject of the business office. It would be possible to
run a printery without a business office if profit were
not desired. Since the profit is the essential thing, it
follows that the business office is the most important
part of a printing establishment. If you run your busi-
ness office rightly you can make money; if you let it
run itself you will run out of business after a while.
The proprietor of a printing office should not work
so hard that he gets tired and keeps tired all the time,
for then he does not have the proper use of his brains.
He should keep himself fresh, and study new methods
of decreasing cost and increasing output, and the secur-
ing of paying prices. If he does not take time to think
of newer and better ways of running his business,
others who do think will get ahead of him. He re-
quires to watch his trade as a speculator watches the
stock-ticker, and like a mariner trim his sails whenever
he sees an approaching change in the wind. He should
know what other successful printers are doing, and how
they get good prices for their work. To this end he
should cultivate a friendly feeling with his competitors,
and when in other cities call on leading printers and
invite an exchange of ideas. Many a man who is es-
teemed as rather dull by his fellows succeeds in busi-
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1 88 THE BUSINESS OFFICE.
ness simply by the thoroughness with which he studies
the methods of others, and applies their successful ideas
to his own affairs.
The writer deplores the making of price lists as
generally objectionable. While recognizing that they
are more or less necessary to existing conditions of
trade, and may be often the means of upholding prices,
yet they are also often the means of keeping down
charges, by the leveling of all work. What I mean by
this is, that if in a price list, billheads for instance, are
quoted at so much per i,ooofor a given size, there is
no leeway for any peculiar conditions in the job. A job
properly placed in a price list at $5 may be worth $10
if wanted delivered in five hours, or if wanted for a
customer noted for his fussiness and delays and changes.
There are a score of circumstances that may render it
wise or obligatory that the first price should be much
higher than under ordinary conditions. A price list sup-
poses that cost is always the same, whereas in reality
it is always different, and as the printer can judge
much better of the cost at the time he is about to do
the job, with the copy in hand, than can any price
list, he should be privileged to vary or raise the price
according to such conditions. He is not bound to
lower a standard price because he happens to be able
to turn out the work more cheaply than usual — that is
the accident of fortune of which he must avail himself
in order to increase his profits. He is under obligation
to himself to raise the charge with every increase in
cost, however temporary or irregular, his sufficient ex-
cuse being that he cannot make a profit on the work
otherwise, and why should he work without profit?
It is a homely proverb that soft soap goes further
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THE BUSINESS OFFICE. 1 89
than hard, meaning for us that a little pleasant talk is
frequently useful in business transactions. It is not
necessary to display truckling or obsequious qualities,
yet it is folly not to show a distinct desire to please
customers, and to make them comfortable generally.
A man who buys printing likes rather to have his
reading matter approved than regarded with doubt. If
the printer cannot approve of his customer's copy, or
assist its improvement, he had better say nothing as to
its character; but if he can throw in a few words of
appreciation as to the get up of the thing — of the
idea involved — he will certainly stand a better chance
of keeping the customer.
The young printer who knows he has all to learn
in business should not be shy of going to his older
competitors for pointers. When they know that these
pointers are desired to keep up prices, usually they
will give them freely. Let the master printer run the
business end of his printery with all the knowledge
and skill he can gather, and all the new methods that
commend themselves as better than the old, and he
will prosper.
First get the business; then get the price; then give
good work promptly; then conduct the plant econom-
ically, and you will be managing your business office
on the right lines.
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CHAPTER XX.
BOOKKEEPING.
The average small printer in business keeps books in
a very irregular, disorderly way. He can seldom tell
anything about a job printed a year ago, though he may
find some traces of it on an old strand of wire used as
a. file. He can never be quite sure whether he has paid
the paper man for envelopes bought six months before,
and the chances are that even his cash account is un-
certain, as he has the habit of paying for small things
out of his pocket, and entering them up later at some
convenient time. He either undertakes to remember
the details of orders that he takes, or scribbles them
partially on the back of the copy. A cash account and
a ledger are about all the books he cares to bother with,
and the entries in these are frequently in lead pencil.
This sort of bookkeeping may be partly excusable for a
printer who starts a plant with a force of one boy, but
if the office develops, the system of bookkeeping should
develop also, else the proprietor will lose track of what
he is doing, and run along with very little idea as to
what he is making, or whether he is simply earning
wages. As to knowing what is the profit on particular
jobs it is out of the question without proper bookkeep-
ing, as all becomes guesswork.
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BOOKKEEPING. 191
As soon as an office acquires enough business so that
the bookkeeping occupies a considerable part of the
proprietor's time, he should engage a bookkeeper (who
may also be a collector, typewritist and office assistant),
and have the books kept in a systematic way, so that
he may know at all times just what he is doing, and
how his business stands. The method of bookkeeping
must vary largely with the size of the plant and the
character of the work, but the books should be so kept
as to show the cost of all work at regular intervals, the
receipts, outstanding accounts and profits. The printer
who fails to keep closely in touch with his cost of
production is liable to under-charge and lose money,
and be unaware of it for perhaps a year or two. If his
accounts show him at monthly intervals just where he
stands, he will not be likely to commit a mistake in
the way of quoting prices at or below cost.
Following will be found a description of the system
of bookkeeping which is used at the Lotus Press, and
which has proven satisfactory:
Envelope System for Insuring Correct Handling of
Jobs. — The outside of this envelope is a job ticket, as
will be noted from the reproduction here shown. Being
in envelope form it serves to carry the copy, etc., better
than if pinned to the ticket. The size used is 6f6 x 9>£,
and the quality a stout manila. When an order is taken,
one of these numbered envelopes is made out, the num-
ber on the envelope being also the number of the job.
The envelope holds the copy, and all the instructions for
the composing-room and pressrooms are placed outside.
It is the duty of the compositor, pressman, feeder, cutter,
binder, etc., to mark on this envelope the time he spends
on the job. This time must correspond with the time
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192
BOOKKEEPING.
charged on the workman's time ticket for this number
of job. As the workman is paid by the time ticket,
J^. e .J.4 tft .>„ 199JL
No^MMJL
Name !?±« A?'*.!?...
Kind of Work h™S a ±?l 8 u ..< s
Sj ze 5# x 8 )£-- 1 6 pp. and Cover
Pads...„ Ink ..„ Bhac L.
Proof^f. J.?.f*_ Job wanted.... >^./.5.?*!. *'. . '.?. AlIL
Compositor,.
Alterations .
Pressman-
Feeder..
Pressman..
Feeder
Stock 24 x 38-70 lb. Super, while
Cover, 22 x 28-48 l b. H. L. Rose_^
All Copy, Proff , Into tri traplt of Worfc tt bt rttunwd tt offlct k tklt «ratl*t.
Delivered-.
July
iflh,
„.99..?:..
No. SNtrr*
•INT TO PRCM
NO. 8POIUD
n^ljver in,
Remarks ,,
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BOOKKEEPING.
*93
this practically insures the giving of correct time, a
very necessary thing, as the cost is figured from this
time.
A$ the envelope is meant for general circulation
through the printery, it is proper that it should not
bear the price of the job, or other details which concern
only the business office. A ticket is therefore made
out, with the same number as the envelope, and on
this is placed the name, address, price given, and
all private information. This ticket never leaves the
office :
Reed >?i.i.^.*!_i99..?-. /
J
By.
E. W.
No ?*.??/..
Delivered l u *LJJl h ..\ 1 99..?:.
Name J? hn .. S,nUh
Address 2 9. 2 — 6ihAvemt€
Ledger ?*&±{.
Sales Book ?*&..!<>.
) Charge
i
102. so
2.000 Catalogues
This Ticket mart not go outside of office.
On the back of this ticket appear all expenses in-
curred in the production of the work, as follows :
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194
BOOKKEEPING.
Composition (See envelope)^
Presswork (See envelope)
Pa per
Plates .
Engraving...
Perforating^.
Eyeletting ...
Numbering...
Cutting
Binding _
Packing and delivering...
By totaling the above and adding the general
expense, etc., the cost of each job is accurately as-
certained, and the price charged is based on this
known cost in cases where estimates have not been
given.
In connection with the envelope system there is
maintained a "Proof-Out Drawer," in which the envelope,
and such contents as do not have to go out with a
proof, are placed, and remain there until the proof is
returned. This drawer affords an instant key to all work
that is waiting on proofs, and avoids the danger of a
job being put in type for a customer, and never being
billed or paid for, should he change his mind and retain
the proof, never sending an order to print.
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BOOKKEEPING.
195
An order book is kept in which all orders are made
out and carried by the number on the envelope. In
this book the columns are arranged as follows:
Order Rec'd
No. of Envelope
NAME
JOB
Delivered
Jun$ 24
24801
John Smith
2,000 Catalogues
July 75, '99
24802
24803
The Order Book and Ledger. — The names of the
customers are used in indexing this order book, so that
when there is a query by a customer about a certain
job — new or old — it can be located in its envelope by
the number, without delay.
No more bookkeeping is done until the job is finished,
and then it is closed on the order book by entering the
date of delivery. As a check, to insure correctness, it
is required that the date of delivery be entered in the
order book and on the office ticket at the same time,
that is without permitting anything to intrude between
the two entries. When the job is finished the envelope
is returned to the office, where the ticket is attached to
it, and the billing and charging follows. The charging
is done directly into the ledger, which is ruled to order
thus:
(page) 51
John Smith
Da.
Cr.
•V99
Julv 1 ?
2,000 Catalogues
24801
$102
*© i,
1
1
1.-
1
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196
BOOKKEEPING.
The ledger page is then marked on the ticket and
the charge is entered in the sales book, thus:
Date
OtDBK NO.
NAME
LlDGM
PACt
PRICE
July fy
24,Snt
John Smith
ft
$102
to
The total sales are credited to the Sales Account in
the ledger at the end of the month. This manner of
entering directly into the ledger and sales book saves
an endless amount of journalizing, and also avoids errors.
When the ledger page, the sales book page and the
date of delivery in the order book have been marked
on the ticket it is ready for filing. The ticket is placed
inside the envelope, and the envelopes are then kept in
boxes made for that purpose, of a size to hold fifty
envelopes. These boxes are labeled in good legible print
"24800 to 248 so" (for instance) and are kept on access-
ible shelves.
Each item charged in the ledger, it will be noticed,
is marked with the envelope or order number, and the
kind and quantity of the work is also stated, so that
when a duplicate order is received or an old sample
wanted it can be found in a minute by referring to the
ledger for the number, and then getting the corresponding
envelope out of the box. This handy way of referring
to previous work is very satisfactory to the customer as
well as to the printer.
The Invoice Book and Credit Ledger Combined. —
Small printers are very apt to omit bookkeeping with
the people of whom they buy. They think that they
are sure to be billed for all they owe, and that they
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BOOKKEEPING.
197
can remember whether the charges are correct. In this
way they lay themselves open, not so much to the
dishonesty of the firms they patronize, for there are few
houses that would deliberately take advantage of such
a state of affairs, but rather to the carelessness of clerks
in the employ of the saleshouses. The Lotus Press has
found it convenient to enter all invoices directly into an
" Invoice or Credit Ledger, ' and no invoices are entered
here unless they are checked to show that the goods
have been received ; each item is also marked with the
name of the job for which it was used. This method
of marking each item with the name of the job helps
to avoid double entries of the same items.
It is a common error for clerks, where stock has
been changed to fail to give credit, and to bill the
printer for both lots when he retained and used but
one lot. At the Lotus Press, when anything is returned
(whether a credit bill is received or not), it is crossed
off the memorandum account on the invoice or credit
ledger, or the amount is deducted at the end of the
ST>6 (page)
John Jon$s
(paoc) 557
Memorandum Acct.
Name of
Customer
76 Hall
6? I Hock
80 A Simpson
May u>
June 10
Page
May acct. < ; 7
6 %2<i
%2<
Journal
Page
May $
1 )-2o Rm. 28x42
60 Sup. WktU
at 4c
2 Rm. 28x42-7$
$00 Laid, at
1X<
$*
f Rm. 24x38-80-
$00 Nat 'I at 4c.
1 10-20 Rm. 2fx
40-1 to Green
Enamel, at 7c.
Brown
Carried to
pa ft ??<*.
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198 BOOKKEEPING.
month before entering the total to the credit of the
creditor. In this manner all bills are entered and then
journalized by totals at the end of the month.
The tabulated specimen on page 197 shows the
manner of keeping the "Invoice or Credit Ledger,"
showing opposite pages, one the memorandum account
and the other the actual account.
It will be noticed that all items are entered in a
"Memorandum Account " and that at the end of the
month the total is carried to the account page. In
this way one page will do for the actual accounting
and the following pages (Dr. as well as Cr.) can be
used for the itemizing of the invoices.
The total for the month is then charged to "Stock
and Outside Work Account, " by a single monthly
journal entry instead of by numerous daily entries.
Where a great deal of stock is bought the saving of
time by this manner of entering can readily be appre-
ciated. The "Memorandum Accounts" are exceedingly
handy for reference, avoiding the necessity of referring
to the journal or to the invoice book or to the invoice
file, etc.
Estimates. — The estimates are made out on a sheet,
letter size, and to this sheet are attached all communi-
cations referring to the estimate, such as the original letter
of inquiry, the typewritten carbon copy reply, and all
outside estimates for paper, electros, engraving, etc., etc.
These sheets are filed in a common letter file and are
easily referred to. This method of keeping estimates
with all information attached has proved very convenient
and less cumbersome than keeping them in books,
in connection with which it is always necessary to
look up this letter or that letter in the file, which
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BOOKKEEPING.
199
creates loss of time and generally a great deal of an-
noyance.
.19
Estimate for M
Address
Description
Quantity
Size „
Colors^
Composition
Press
Paper .
Composition
Press
Paper
Plates .
Sketches
Engraving .
Cutting
Packing and Delivering
Binding
Estimate given $
Total .
Percentage
Grand Total
Monthly Profit and Loss Account. — The system of
accounts employed by the Lotus Press makes it possible
to get out a monthly profit and loss account. This is
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200 BOOKKEEPING.
done by closing accounts each month as per the table
below. The " Stock and Outside Work Account "in-
cludes everything that is used in the production of the
finished job, such as paper, ink, postals, etc., etc:
May 10th, April rent and power . . $500 April sales . $10,000
" wages 3>°o° Discounts taken 90
" stock and outside
work .... 4,050
" general expense . . 1,000
" discounts allowed . 90
11 complimentary printing 30
" office printing . . 30
" Profit (gross) . . 1,590
( Carried to yearly profit
and loss dcct.) $10,090 $10,000
In case more stock and outside work is charged
during the month to that account than is used during
the month, a balance can be left on the account, or
better yet carried to a standing account with an average
balance of stock on hand, which can be increased or
diminished according to the estimated stock on hand.
The totals of monthly profit are carried to a yearly
profit and loss account, where such items as dead
accounts, interest on money, loss on machinery by wear
and tear, insurance, accident insurance, advertising, and
all other extra yearly expenses of ail kinds can be
entered.
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CHAPTER XXI.
MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES.
No matter how correctly a master printer may
estimate, no matter how closely he may buy his stock,
no matter how well he may know his trade, if he
has not the co-operation of his employees, he will have
a hard road to money-making. The workman who
hates the boss can always injure him surreptitiously to
a greater amount than he earns above board. It is
then to the interest of every master printer to stand
well with his men, to cultivate a spirit of interest in
the business, a patriotism for the good name and
credit of the firm. This can be accomplished only by
being absolutely fair with employees, and carefully
preserving their good will. It is a fact that Some em-
ployers who pay small wages secure more willing
service than others who pay the scale and over, simply
because of their cordial and friendly ways. A wise
liberality combined with a strict holding to account are
the secrets of securing good service.
1 have been told that one of Theo. L. De Vinne's
rules was "Know what a man can do, and see that
he does it." Certain it is that at the De Vinne Press
every man does a full day's work, and no set of men
ever revered an employer more, for his kindness and
liberality went hand in hand with exact strictness.
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202 . MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES.
In order to insure the constant pushing along of
work, and a production that is at all times equal to
the ability of the men, an employer must do more than
establish a system of daily reports. He must either
know directly, or through some superintendent or
manager in each department, according to the size of
the office, just what each man does every day. If he
does not, he will be constantly paying wages to some
men who do not earn them. When an employee feels
that some one above him actually knows just what he
does every day, and when he is jogged up on days of
small results, but gets a word of praise on days of
hustling, then he is apt to do the best work of which
he is capable. The careful manager will make a daily
tour among all the men and pass a word or two with
each, to let them know that he is in touch with what
they are doing. It will be to one, "Are you going
to get up your five pages of this to-day, Jones ? You
did a big day Thursday. I'm looking to see you beat
it. " And to another, "Ten o'clock, Jimmy, and only
2,000 off. You're not breaking a record on this press
to-day. Had to change that plate, eh? Well, do it
right, and we will find' no fault." And to a third,
" Will you get all the forms of Carruther's book to
press this week ? I hope you can, as they are pushirtg
us hard for them. Get them through, and your efforts
will be appreciated."
The employer who talks that way to his men lets
them know that if they loaf, he will know it. And
if he accompanies these injunctions to rush by a wise
payment for holidays, and a due regard for the comfort
of his men, he will get the best results. I abominate
the keeping of men to the mark by any system of fines,
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MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 20^
or anything that tends to degrade them. When you
find that you have men whom you cannot make work
well, and keep up to the mark, or who work against
your interests, discharge them relentlessly. If you have
disturbing elements in your force, men who inflame
the others to discontent and strikes, get rid of them
quietly at your convenience. No matter how good a
workman a man may be, he becomes a damage the
moment he begins to work against the profit-earning of
an office, and to sow discontent among the force.
Every office is troubled more or less with incom-
petents. The best men are scarce ; men of the middling
sort are common, and incompetents all too plenty. The
latter class have to be taken on during a rush, and are
laid off with promptness when work slackens. It is
worth the while of proprietors, however, to study the
incompetents, for here and there among them are men
capable of making good workmen, but who have failed
to learn to do their work well simply through unfortu-
nate circumstances. The employing printers of America
have much to answer for in engaging boys "to learn the
trade," and turning them off when half fledged, with-
out a chance to finish their technical training. Young
men who have been thus deceived are often capable of
making first-class workmen, if they are taught; but
because they have not the faculty of picking up the
trade during the odd times they get work, they are
doomed to worry along, a nuisance to employers and
of very little use to themselves.
A case came to notice a few years ago, of a* young
man who had had about a week's work in a good office
during a rush, and who was then told that he was no
longer wanted. He said to the manager, "I don't
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204 MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES.
understand why it is that 1 can't Keep a place. I work
the hardest I know how, and I have got on in seven
offices during the past year, and yet not had three
months' work." "You don't know your trade," said the
manager, who had observed him, and noted that he
was a "blacksmith." "I do the best I know how,"
the man replied. "I'd do better if 1 had a chance in a
good office, where they did fine work." "Yes, but you
are not worth half wages to us," said the manager, "and
you think you ought to have a journeyman's pay." " I'd
work for most; anything where I had a chance to learn,"
said the man. "It's hard lines getting little work, and
nobody suited with what I do." "Will you go to work
for $7 a week," asked the manager, " if I give you a
chance to learn as fast as your ability warrants?" "Yes,
and be glad to." The man went back to the case, and
inside of three years he occupied a foreman's desk in
that same office, and drew $22 every Saturday night.
This story is true, and is only one of many that
might be told if managers would take a little interest
in poor fellows who never had a chance to learn the
trade properly, and who are so generally classed as
incompetents, often through the fault of others quite as
much as their own. If master printers will take hold of
such as are deserving and teach them the trade, they
will confer a boon not only on the men taught, but the
trade generally. This is not always possible under trades
union restrictions, but it is hoped that some day unions
will cease to give working cards to men who have not
fully learned their trades, but oblige them to serve as
apprentices until they become competent.
The harmonious working together of an office force
is largely due to the management of the foreman or
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MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 205
employer, who should be able to so far secure the good
will of the men as to prevent the development of any
feeling of jealousy between them, a jealousy that often
arises because of the natural progress of the younger
hands, as they are put forward on better work, and
which is often the source of much trouble. The foreman
should insist upon such carefulness and thoroughness
of work at each stage of promotion that all hands alike
may feel that any promotion made has been well earned.
Among workingmen of intelligence, such as are
usually found in the printing office, the sense of justice
is the best security for an employer to depend upon
for harmonious working, and if his employees have to
acknowledge to themselves that they are always treated
with consideration, that the rules and order of work in
the establishment are such as are obviously necessary to
the successful prosecution of the business, they naturally
develop, almost without knowing it, a sense of interest
in the success of the business, and are desirous to con-
tribute to its prosperity, as well as to draw their wages.
The manner alluded to of entering and working up
apprentices, or boys and young men to learn the trade,
is unquestionably the natural and most economical way
of making good printers, doing justice to both employer
and employed. But the degree of success attained will
be largely due to the proper management of the employer
or the foremen who represent him. To obtain the good
will of the men it is not necessary to be especially
familiar with them; this is a poor line of conduct, and
it is even worse to exhibit a spirit of arrogance, or a
disposition to be unduly arbitrary. The employer who
lets a workman know that he thinks he is a better man
than the employee generally makes an enemy. A modern
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20b MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES.
printing office is no place for the display of qualities
that might be essential to discipline on the deck of a
battleship at sea.
I am rather opposed to formal rules. Some, of course,
are necessary in every establishment, and the larger the
plant, the more essential it is that certain arbitrary
regulations should be enforced. Yet it is a fact that the
posting up of a lot of hair-splitting rules tends to breed
contempt in the minds of workmen, who are liable to
violate them on every occasion that they can do so unde-
tected, simply because they dislike the idea of such
restrictions. In many offices there are a number of so-
called cast-iron rules about trivial things, that might
better never be formulated. Regulations requiring the
keeping of the material in order or in the proper place,
do not seem to call for rules, but a general enforcement
of neatness, so obvious is the need of keeping things
orderly in a printing office. Men can easily be brought
to see this, as well as the necessity for most other simple
matters of every-day discipline, conducing to the order
of the office, or called for as a principle of economy,
without the posting of any arbitrary rules on the sub-
ject.
Another difficulty with hard and fast rules is that
they make no allowance for exceptions, which are bound
to occur. No matter how good a rule may be, the
slavish following of it will sooner or later lead to an
absurdity or contradiction of the desired end. I have
seen an office where there was a rule that there should
be no distribution afternoons, because it interfered with
certain rush work; but in that same office men would
sometimes spend half an hour picking for sorts in an
afternoon, when they might better have made an
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MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 20J
exception to the rule, and distributed the matter that
was wanted. I have also seen the men deliberately sit
down and do nothing for a half hour when the foreman
was out and no composition on hand, because they
must not distribute at that hour.
It is better to manage the men with few rules, and
with a good understanding between master and men,
so that the necessities and customs of the place be-
come the recognized unwritten law of the establishment,
which it is rather the pride of the workman to uphold,
and which bear upon him with no unfeeling pressure.
The men, especially where they have grown up in an
office, come to see and appreciate not only the labor-
saving character of such a course of management, but
develop habits that affect their whole work, and assist
them to bear in mind the interests of the employer, as
in seeing that odd sorts are in proper places, quad
boxes kept clean, and a hundred and one other matters
in which intelligence, guided by good will, may be
highly promotive of the interests of the employer. This
is to be recognized constantly in things so small in
themselves as to hardly call for special notice, but the
aggregate of good or ill to the business thus affected is
great, the possible ill being obviously equal to that of
the possible good.
In most offices, especially in the country and smaller
cities, it is important to consider the influence which
the employees may exert in bringing business to or
diverting it from the printery. It counts for much in
an employer's favor when all his workmen desire to
throw work into his hands, and each, in his circle of
acquaintance, is always ready to speak a good word
where he thinks it may bring work to the office.
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208 MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES.
This is the natural way, the way in which things
should work in an office where the treatment of the
employees has been of a judicious kind. In larger
establishments, also, the influence of the employee in
getting work is not to be neglected, for although the
results may not be so readily discernible, yet the
influence counts often in unexpected quarters. An
office rightly run is entitled to all the business which
its humblest employee may control, as well as that of
the most high-salaried solicitor or influential manager.
A policy of conciliation and forbearance in all cases
of trade disputes, differences as to wages, hours, etc., is
too obviously advisable to call for special recommenda-
tion; but far better than this is it to see that there is
no occasion for dispute, that no question of a kind
likely to cause trouble is allowed to go so far that
lines will be distinctly drawn upon it between the
workmen and the management. In foreseeing and pre-
venting possible disputes, and in being so secure in
the good will of the men that nothing of the kind can
suddenly arise, lies a large part of the best kind of
success in the management of the employees, for the
good of all concerned.
Undoubtedly, a general policy of arbitration between
proprietors and workmen would settle labor difficulties
without serious friction. It is not always possible to
arbitrate a question. In what is called the sympathetic
strike there is often no issue at all between the men
of a particular office and their employer. But as a general
thing, it is possible by the exercise of diplomacy to
avoid a disastrous strike. When good workmen ask
for a reasonable concession, they ought to have it granted
them; when they demand something they want, but
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MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES. 209
which conditions will not afford, the situation should
be fully explained to them, so that by reasonable and
dispassionate discussion they may see that they are asking
too much; when the demands are unreasonable, or
involve a principle that an employer cannot allow to
take root, such as that of dictation as to who shall be
his customers, then the only good policy is to firmly
resist to the end. But never invite a strike until diplo-
macy is exhausted; never be the aggressor in straining
relations with your men. A strike or lockout is war,
and should never be accepted but as a last resort, for
it dooms profits for a considerable period in the most
successful establishments.
When a strike is actually in existence, then is the
time that an employer can profit by the good treat-
ment of men in time past, many of whom will stand
in with the house that has used them well, rather
than join with those who seek to coerce it. The
master printer should never allow himself to desert
the men who stand with him in a strike. No later
pressure from trades unions should ever cause him to
forget the men who incurred the distrust of their fellows
to cast their lot with him. I remember once seeing in
a large Philadelphia office a consumptive old fellow
doing about half a day's work in ten hours. Some
one remarked that he was getting $19 a week, $3
more than the scale. He was once worth that figure,
and he had stuck by the firm when a bad strike was
on, and they kept up his pay when he ran down hill,
and sent his family $100 when he died. Some would
call this charity, but it was also good management in
a large office, for it assured an indemnity from future
strikes.
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aiO MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES.
In the treatment of employees the " Golden'Rule" is a
good thing to follow both from an ethical and a business
standpoint. Men are not machines; it is essential in
some respects to conduct an office as if they were
machines, for one must have mechanical system and
regularity to produce results. But it is wrong to forget
that workmen are human, that they have the same right
to the good things of this world as the employer, and
that upon their sympathy and good will a large part of
the success of an establishment must always depend.
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CHAPTER XXII.
THE EMPLOYEE'S OPPORTUNITY.
There are plenty of opportunities for advancement
in the job printing business, because real ability is hard
to find. True merit and capacity are sure to be recog-
nized sooner or later, and application and intelligent
endeavor will insure permanent positions at good
wages, and advancement wherever practicable.
The young man at the case or the feedboard who
wants to rise to the top of his trade must engage in
a great deal of self-education. He must know more
than the mere trade of typesticking or making-ready;
he must learn more than those about him — yes,, than
those above him — if he would climb. Too few recog-
nize their own lack of general education, and only by
appreciating their personal deficiencies can they rise to
ii higher grade of knowledge.
A thorough knowledge of spelling, punctuation and
grammar is essential to the making of good compos-
itors, and most of them become fair spellers, middling
punctuators and indifferent grammarians. If you are a
young printer, resolve that you will know all there is
to know about these subjects. Become a good speller,
not only of common words, but broaden your vocabu-
lary by studying the latest dictionary. Learn all the ins
and outs of punctuation and capitalization from the
same source, or by purchasing and studying the latest
books on these topics. Study grammar, first as the
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212 THE EMPLOYEES OPPORTUNITY.
schoolboy studies it, and then as the writer does, learn-
ing the niceties of grammatical expression, and the
nature of popular blunders. These last are technically
known as faulty diction, and it is the duty of good
printers to correct these when observed in the copy of
their patrons. It is an intimate knowledge of these
things that fits a compositor, when the opportunity
comes, for taking a place at the proof-readers desk,
■and rising to the top of that branch of the printer's craft.
The study of the branches mentioned is not wasted
even if the compositor never takes up regular reading
of proofs. Men with such knowledge are most useful
in medium sized offices, where a compositor may be
required to divide up his time in several ways. Think
of the great number of such offices that have not busi-
ness enough to employ a man wholly as proof-reader.
It is in these particularly that the opportunity exists for
the advancement of the compositor who is educated to
the correct use of English. The man of all-around
knowledge is of increased value to the small plant.
Unfortunately there are few college graduates in the
printing business, as beginners generally are brought in
at about the age of fifteen and receive no more regular
schooling after that time. In many printeries the col-
lege man is sneezed at as an impractical upstart with
a little knowledge of Greek and Latin, perhaps, but of
not much account for every-day work. If the college
man could know the practical side of the trade, or if
the practical printer could be brought to a better reali-
zation of the value of the liberal education of the
college graduate, and emulate his learning, then there
might be developed more educated printers who would
be truly fitted to some modern honor comparable with
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THE EMPLOYEE S OPPORTUNITY. 2 1 ?
the wearing of swords, the dignity said to have been
conferred updn some early members of the craft.
Knowledge is power; knowledge will get money,
and money will feet almost anything. Equip yourself
with knowledge, young printer, and you will get along
in this business. It is not only book knowledge that
is referred to, but every sort of knowledge bearing on
the trade. The job compositor who has cultivated his
artistic taste, and spends no more time in setting up
attractive work than others do in setting commonplace
work, is more valuable than the one who has no taste,
or having it, occupies so much time in securing good
typographical effects as to leave his employer no profit.
If the compositor can also be relied upon for typographic
correctness, saving the time and oversight of the proof-
reader, he is even more valuable. If, besides the above,
he can profitably superintend the work of others he is
still more valuable. The man who works with his hands
only, no matter how hard he works, is largely a tool,
and is not as important or valuable as the man who can
use his brains, or the one who uses hands and brains.
Never be afraid of knowing too much or of displac-
ing those above you. There is plenty of room at the
top of the printing business for more educated activity.
The good apprentice is the first boy to be put on
display work; the compositor with the clean proof is
the first to be called to the reader's desk; the apt
feeder is the one who is put in charge of the press
when the pressman is sick or incapacitated; the work-
men who manifest all-around ability are the ones who
are chosen for promotion to positions as foremen and
superintendents. The employee who hustles will
almost invariably find the opportunity by the time he
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214 THE employee's opportunity.
is ready for it. When he does not, and it becomes
apparent that circumstances will prevent his advance-
ment where he is, he had better look for a chance to
get in elsewhere into a position in the line of promotion.
If an office is given over to toadyism, and you
cannot rise except by sacrificing your self-respect, look
out for another place. You may be sure that there are
plenty of proprietors who know just what their men
do, and who will reward good service; and plenty of
foremen who will like you, rather than be jealous of
you if you do honest work. But do not expect pro-
motion until it is earned. When you take a new
position you must prove your value patiently before
you can expect to be advanced. If the firm for which
you work is a successful one, and its members fair
people, be satisfied to work and wait, and in due time
the opportunities will come for you to shvow that you
are worth more money or an advanced position, and
you will be recognized and rewarded.
Probably every good printer who advances to a
position as foreman desires at times to take another
step forward, and embark as a [proprietor. This is a
move that requires the utmost care and consideration.
It is comparable to a step in the dark, leading one
knows not whither. Those who are moved to go into
business are counseled to ponder well the opening
chapters of this book. They must also remember that
nine out of ten v/ho go into business fail, largely
through lack of consideration of all the conditions. In
leaving a good position as foreman, with a stated
salary and a sure thing, to take up with the uncertain-
ties of business in a small way, the printer must
expect first, to have to live on a reduced income for
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THE EMPLOYEE'S OPPORTUNITY. 21 '$
some years, as he will have to put everything into the
business to make it go. Then he must bear in mind
that he will have to give credit, and that he will get
little credit himself at the start, so that in six months,
even in a very small business, he will find that $500
is constantly being owed him — $500 that hz can never
collect up — and which amount grows larger and larger
as his business increases, representing the money that
is coming from those who owe him. As fast as these
debtors pay up — or as most of them pay — new credits
are demanded ; and so he goes on, lending money to
his customers when he needs it so badly himself, be-
cause under the circumstances there is nothing else that
he can do. Neither the beginner in business nor the
old house can escape this condition; yet the beginner
seldom considers it until he gets into the scrape. Then
he finds himself always short of funds, scrambling to
meet notes, to pay for additions to his plant, or for
sorts, or loans, or something, and his family have
to live short, take store orders, and scrape along
somehow until some day when he either fails alto-
gether — which is the usual thing — or by dint of careful
management and good sense, pulls the business through,
he knows not just how, and begins to find that he is
making enough to draw a salary as good as he pays
his foreman. When this stage is reached, there is a
good chance of permanent success, if the printer does not
get inflated ideas, and try to do a big business all at once.
The employee, who thinks about starting in the
printing business for himself is cautioned to consider
well the cost, and to disabuse his mind of the idea
that he can do work for less than those now engaged
in the business and make money. This idea, so
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2l6
prevalent among 'employees, springs from a lack of
information as to the numerous small costs that attach
to a job of printing. The employee naturally thinks that
the principal cost is his wages, as that is the amount
that he sees and knows. If he is getting twenty-five or
thirty cents an hour, and his employer sells his time for
sixty cents, he thinks the employer has a very soft thing,
sitting in. an office and raking in as much pay as all
the hands put together. Little he knows that the
other costs are even greater than the wage costs, and
that for every hour of the compositor's time that the
proprietor sells at sixty cents he has to furnish at least an
hour of some other person's time — it may be an hour
made up of a fraction of the foreman's, the errand boy's, a
distributer's, a proof-reader's, a type-founder's, a land-
lord's, a mortgage holder's, or any of a dozen others —
but it will always average at least another hour in
value of somebody's time that must be paid for in some
way, and that eats up as much or more money than the
direct wages for which he can charge the customer.
It is in underestimating this cost of production that
the employee who thinks of starting out for himself
commonly makes his first great mistake; he does not
realize what all these things cost, and so he exagger-
ates the possible profits in the business. The only
safe way to judge of the prospects of success in
starting a new printing office, lies in not guessing
at anything. When you have saved a little money
and want to go into business, try first and secure a
minor partnership with your employer, making a
contract that will allow you to withdraw again at the
end of a year if dissatisfied. He or some other estab-
lished printer may let you in, and thus give you the
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THE EMPLOYEE'S OPPORTUNITY. 217
chance to learn something of business management,
and the exact cost of doing work.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that because
you have been a foreman that you are a business man
— that you can take hold of and manage a small plant
entirely and make money, when you are without any
special knowledge of business methods. These have
to be learned, just as composition and presswork have
to be acquired, and if you go in blindly, you will make
as big a blunder of the whole business as would a
plow-boy, who came green into a printing office, and
essayed to take charge without serving an apprentice-
ship. Everything in the business world has to be
learned; such knowledge can be picked up only by
patient study and observation. Let the employee who
has an itching to go into business take a year or two
first to study the methods of successful printers, and
in reading the trade papers, and in getting at the cost
of work. If he does this faithfully, the chances are
that in most cases after two years of investigation he
will say to himself: "What a lucky thing that 1 did
not start in when 1 wanted to. 1 can see now that I
was so green that I should have lost every dollar.
Perhaps I have a good deal yet to learn; I guess that
I will wait another year."
Thus by learning the road first, and traveling it
cautiously, may the active and intelligent employee
hope to raise himself from the most humble position to
one commanding the best salary, and finally place himself
where he can embark with reasonable safety on the sea
of business for himself, realizing the American ideal of
independence, which in this case may be defined as
owning one's own business and owing nobody.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
DANGER IN SIDE VENTURES.
The printer who has built up a successful little
business is pretty sure to be solicited at times to engage
in side ventures, or his own energy will often suggest
to him the propriety of embarking in some kindred
trade. Perhaps he will be sorely tempted at times to
engage in some of these ventures, and therefore it seems
proper to throw out a few hints that may be of assistance
to the printer in making a decision in such cases.
As a general rule it is a safe proposition in business
that one's energies should be confined to one line of
work, refusing all allurements to sidetrack one's interest
in the main business to which one must look for sus-
tenance and an income. Those men who have made
marked successes are usually great developers of trade;
they give their best brains to the enlargement and
increase of their original business and to the swelling of
the legitimate profits. All the large printeries of the
country were once small printing offices; that they have
been developed to their present capacities shows the room
there may be for development by others. Somewhere in
this land to-day, are a hundred small printers who will
have large printing establishments before another quarter
of a century has rolled away, because of their superior
push, intelligent hustle, and ability to stick to the one
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DANGER IN SIDE VENTURES. 21<^
thing and make the most of it. No man ever achieved
great business success by pushing a hundred schemes
and ventures at the same time. There is a limit to ail
ability, and he who draws his thoughts, his time or his
money away from his printery must expect that printery
to suffer, to stand still, or at least be retarded from
growing as it would grow if it had the benefit of all his
best ideas and of his personal supervision.
A man cannot hope to be a successful printer and at
the same time run a grocery, carry on an express business,
hold office, engage in stock companies, and give his time
to this, that, and the other thing. Too many irons in the
fire have burned because of distracted attention. If you
have decided to make printing a business, and have half
a show in making it go, stick to your print shop and
build it up, and let side issues alone until you have done
so well that you have surplus money and surplus time
to invest As surely as you go into other things you
will neglect your printing office, and perhaps reduce or
cut off an income on which you could otherwise depend
absolutely, for a speculation that may bear nothing but
Dead Sea fruit.
Of course there are times when a man does well to
abandon printing and go into some other business, but
with such cases this book has nothing to do. If a man
has a printing office and is making it pay or can make
it pay, it is his business as a printer to push that business
in preference to everything else. If he listens to allure-
ments to go into any foreign line he must look largely to
that line for returns, for he must expect the printery to
suffer. When the printer has an almost irresistible desire
to go into some side venture, the wise thing is always
to wait; and when his printing trade is more solidly
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220 DANGER IN SIDE VENTURES.
established, when he is free from debt, and has the cash
to put into something else, then if he still has the desire
to try the side line, and can turn over a portion of the
care of his business to other hands with safety, arid
without losing the reins, then perhaps he may gratify
his wish to try the other business, for if he sinks all
he puts into it, he is not ruined, and still has the?
printing business for support. But it is little less than
suicidal for a man who has a printing office half
paid for to take receipts that ought to go to reducing
his mortgages, and invest them in outside schemes.
Such a policy persisted in rarely fails to bring entirfc
ruin.
There are many kindred lines of trade, however,
that tend to build up a printing office, such as binding,
publishing, journalism, electrotyping, etc. It is often
the case that some of these may be taken up with
increased profit to the printery, and with great chances
of success, because one branch of the business feeds
the other.
Perhaps the publication of a newspaper or periodical
is the sort of business most frequently offered or sug-
gested to the printer as a side venture, and many times
such publications are started and become the mainstay
of a printing office, bringing it directly or indirectly the
most of its work. Yet it must be borne in mind that
nineteen out of every twenty publications fail to pay a
profit, and cease to be issued, and that the printers who
take an ownership in any of the nineteen may be
greater losers than if they had been simply hired
printers to do the work, with no interest in the profits
that never came. It is only in the twentieth case that
the publication lives and pays, and it is a very shrewd
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DANGER IN SIDE VENTURES. 221
printer who can determine in advance which publi-
cation of the score is going to tally a success.
Extra caution should be exercised before making
atiy investment or taking any chances in the publishing
line. If a printer has also a practical training on the
business side of a newspaper, trade paper, etc., under-
standing how to make such a publication pay, he may
often run one advantageously in connection with his
printing office. But for a printer who is only a printer,
and who knows nothing of journalism, to plunge into
a newspaper venture simply because he has the type
and presses to get it out, is almost sure to be an
unwise undertaking. Newspaper publishing is a busi-
ness not learned in a week or a month, or a year, and
to experiment in it is to invite the loss of money. If
you have a printery and do not know the newspaper
business, better stay out of it, or if reasons present
themselves that seem to force you to go in, at least get
a partner, or interest a trained journalist who knows
what he is about, that you may have a chance of
getting returns for the money and time you put into it.
If you do go into a newspaper or publication of
any sort, keep separate accounts for the different parts
of the business; otherwise you may err in your judg-
ment as to where profits come from. You may be
sinking the ^profits of the printery in the publication
without realizing it, if you do not keep the figures
before you; or you may make a go of the publication
and be carrying on the printing office as a dead load.
Do not allow accounts to get so mixed that you can
deceive yourself in such matters.
A bindery is a common adjunct of a printery, and
often it may be well to add one to the plant if the
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222 DANGER IN SIDE VENTURES.
printery has work enough to keep one going, and 3
competent man can be found to run it. But binding
and ruling is a close competitive business, like job
printing, and unless such a branch is run intelligently,
it will not pay. If you do not understand much of the
business, and if you have to depend much on the work
of other printers to make it pay, better stay out. It
is wiser to pay ten per cent, more than cost to some
reputable binder to handle your work, and have it
done rightly, than it is to do it yourself, and divert time
from the printing office, when that time is needed there.
The same is broadly true of electrotyping. A
printing office having enough work to keep a foundry
going may do well with one, but as it requires a very
large printing plant to support a foundry this is an
exceptional case. The printer in a large city, having a
moderate business, who considers the starting of a
foundry to supply other printers, must bear in mind
that his competitors in printing are not likely to prefer
to send their work where he can inspect it and know
what they are doing. They will prefer to patronize
some other foundry. In a moderate sized city, where
no independent electrotype foundry exists, it ic fre-
quently a good investment for the largest printing
office to establish a small foundry, and do its own
work, thus avoiding the delays of sending forms t:>
another city. Such a foundry may reasonably be
expected to obtain the patronage of printers in the
same city, because of the nearness and convenience,
and such work may be profitable by filling in the time
of the men. In the course of time, however, such a
foundry, if located in a growing city, must expect to
lose its outside trade to some well-managed foundry,
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DANGER IN SIDE VENTURES. 223
that will be established independent of any printing
office. For these reasons electrotyping, though, a good
business in itself, is commonly a poor business for the
printer to engage in.
Many printers find politics inviting, because of the
large amount of printing to be given out by town,
city, and state governments. They sometimes seek
office in order to control such work, and as the prices
paid are apt to be much above ordinary commercial
values, the bait is often very tempting. But those who
have been through the political mill know that in the
end it usually costs as much or more to get a political
pull as it is worth. Men go into politics for business
profits, as they go into trade. The printer who goes
in ordinarily finds that the demands made on his time
and pocket-book offset the extra price obtained for
the work he gets, and the methods that have to be
resorted to are only too apt to destroy his sense of probity
and honorable dealing. In small towns, where there
are but two or three printers, it is often, nay usually,
wise for a printer to take enough interest in the
success of his political party to secure their work, but
aside from this the wise rule for the average printer is
to let politics severely alone.
As for investing in stock companies or the like,
when the wily promoter comes along and seeks this
method of getting printing without paying the cash, there
is but one safe rule — keep out of them. If you must
invest outside the printery put your money into things
that you can control and understand. No stock
company controlled by strangers is going to give up
to you large profits when they are made — which they
ordinarily are not. The best of them, when they
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224 DANGER IN SIDE VENTURES.
succeed, will only let you have six per cent on your
investment, and eat up the rest in salaries or emolu-
ments to the originators and larger holders of the
company's stock. The printer should be equally shy of
all new things in which he is asked to invest, either
in cash or by giving printing. As a rule they will not
pay, and the printer is only asked to go in to give
some one else a chance to make money, himself taking
only chances of getting back a portion of his irtvestment.
Such things are all gambles, with the odds against you.
When a printer really has arrived at that happy stage
when his business is so prosperous as to require no
further investment, and his earnings seek some other
outlet, he has commonly acquired such a knowledge of
the world and of business methods as not to require
any advice from the author of this book. Such a man
is not easily led into schemes and unprofitable ventures.
Yet even such must keep an eye on themselves, and
see to it that their caution does not wane because of
continued money-making. There are more than a few
who make mistakes after amassing wealth, and demon-
strate that it is as much of an art to keep money as to
make it. Let the printer whose cash seeks outside
investment look for those things which yield small but
safe returns. Think not of the amount of the interest,
but of the safety of the principal. There are members
of our craft who become large holders of real estate,
and in established business properties. These do not
speculate; they take hold of only sure things. If such
a one were approached for advice by younger printers
whose businesses are but half built up, with queries as
to the advisability of going into some side venture, I
am sure that the advice would almost always be — don't.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
SYSTEMATIC SAVING.
The object of doing business is to make money;
that object is largely defeated if a portion of the money
made is not saved, giving the earner an accumulation for
emergencies and for old age. The man who makes
money and spends it as fast as it comes in has little more
reputation among his fellows than the man who cannot
earn any money above a bare subsistence; he is not a
force to be counted on in the commercial world ; he can-
not take hold of and move any large enterprises as can
the man who accumulates and thus possesses reserve
power. 1 do not know that printers are any more apt
to neglect saving than those in other trades, for as a rule
the world is improvident; where one saves there are
always ten to spend. This chapter may therefore apply
quite as well to men in any other business, yet I hope
that all printers who read this book will consider this
chapter quite as important as any other that may deal
more directly or more closely with the printing interests.
The proverb has it that "you cannot have your cake
and eat it, too;" which one may interpret for the present
case as meaning that the printer who spends all that he
earns secures no benefits for the future, only those of the
present. The object of going into business is often largely
: that a man may have something that will earn him ^n
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22b SYSTEMATIC SAVING.
income when he is sick, or on a vacation, or old and
partially incapacitated. Whether a man's business brings
him in $20 or $200 a week, it is his duty in seeking
the highest good for himself and his family, to save for
the future. It is always possible for the man who earns
$20 weekly to lay by $2; and the man who earns $200
a week may lay by $100. But the amount to be saved
is of less importance than is the fixing of a habit of
saving systematically. The man who has a rule for
saving, who obliges himself to save a certain percentage
of his earnings, whether in good times or bad, will sooner
or later attain a competency; while the man who saves
spasmodically can never be very sure what he will accu-
mulate.
It is a matter of common observation that few
persons can save much unless they do it systematically,
engaging in some way to lay by so much regularly,
instead of economizing haphazard as they feel like
doing. For a systematic means of forcing one's self to
suitable saving, 1 know of nothing better than the
building association or life insurance. Each involves
regular stipulated payments, which must be met, or a
slight loss follows, and this stimulates the individual
to keep up the saving, so that in time it becomes a
habit.
The building association almost universally pays at
least six per cent, interest, and forms a convenient
means for an investor to lay by a stated sum every
month, that may accumulate without his feeling it
materially. When the sum invested amounts to a few
hundred dollars or more, and the printer has use for
some money temporarily in his business, as for the
purpose ot obtaining a considerable discount, he can
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SYSTEMATIC SAVING. 2X]
use the investment as security for borrowing very
nearly its face value. This is done in various ways,
some building associations making temporary loans to
their members, in other cases local banks advancing on
three months' notes with the building association stock
as collateral. But, whatever the special plan of any
building association, it is a recognized portion of the
value of the investment that it allows the investor to
use the money at intervals when he sees an advantage
therein; and this is specially valuable to the printer,
who is often buying considerable quantities of paper,
or a new press, or a composing-machine, or an outfit
of type, and who can save ten to fifteen per cent,
thereon by buying for spot cash. It is also a very
material advantage that the payments are required
monthly, thus in a manner enforcing the regular saving
of a certain amount. I know of no class of business
to which the building association plans seem to appeal
more strongly than to the printers running small or
medium sized offices.
Similar arguments apply to investment in life in-
surance. Every careful man with a family provides for
the future of his little ones, and the insurance policy
affords a way of making a larger provision than can be
done otherwise in a short time. The modern plans of
policies are so favorable, that after a few payments a
loss is not possible, and in time, policies have borrow-
ing value also, like the building association stock.
Let us suppose that the average printer in business
could afford to save only $5 a week, and that he puts
$2 of this in insurance and $3 in a building association.
If he is young the insurance money will pay for a $5,000
policy, which is enough to make him feel that his family
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±±8 SYSTEMATIC SAVING.
Would not suffer seriously should he die prematurely."
The $3 a week invested in the building association will
have a borrowing value of $500 in three years, and in
ten years will amount to $2,500. If the printer has
managed his affairs in the printing office wisely during
that period, so as to add a few thousands to the value
of his plant and increase his income, he can then begin
to feel that he has made a success, and can take life
more easily, knowing that his future is secure.
Another reason why the master printer should invest
at least a portion of his savings outside of the printing
business is founded on the policy of not placing all one's
eggs in one basket. Accidents will happen in the best
managed printeries, and if some chance that cannot be
foreseen wipes out the printery and the labor of years,
there is then the outside investment to fall back upon.
The failure of a large and trusted customer, a flood, or
a riot, or some similar disaster against which insurance
is impossible, have wrecked printing offices before now,
and will again. Man is helpless when Fate intervenes,
and he can only exercise a wise precaution in all his
business affairs. One of these wise precautions certainly
lies in a regular investment of savings outside of the
printing office, and 1 consider that the printer who fails
to do this is making as much of a mistake as the printer
who fails to insure his property.
There will be many printers in business who will
dissent from the idea of investing outside of the
printery, saying that they prefer to build up their
offices, and put back into the business everything they
save. This sounds well, and 1 admit that the policy is
carried out satisfactorily by many printers; yet, I feel
confident that the importance of outside investment
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SYSTEMATIC SAVING. 22$
should always fee considered by every printer who
saves. Once well started it permits the raising of cash,
and consequent discounting of bills, in a way that can
not be done if the money is in printing machinery.
No bank cares to loan money on machinery; it is
regarded as most unsatisfactory security, and rightly,
because its value falls fifty to seventy-five per cent, as
soon as the owner has no use for it. Then, again, the
printer who thinks he is saving by investing in new
machinery for his plant is liable to delude himself.
How often has some such colloquy as this been heard
among proprietors of the smaller printing offices :
A — " I made $2,000 last year above my living."
B — "That's good; where is the money?"
A — "Oh, in the business. I have $300 more
of book accounts than last year, and bought
$1,700 of new machinery."
How very possible it is in such a case that the
$300 increase in accounts will always be dead on the
books, and that the $1,700 of new machinery was
needed to keep the plant up to its former standard, so
that there has been no real saving. If A had put
money in the building association he would know
certainly that it was saved.
If there are savings, it is often the case that new
machinery for the printery is not really needed, so that
it is unwise to reinvest the money. There are printers
who buy new type and new machines principally
because they like to see them come in. Every true
printer in business takes a lively pleasure in seeing new
material added to his plant; but this is a feeling to be
guarded against rather than encouraged, for the object
of doing business is to make money, not to gather
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2)0 SYSTEMATIC SAVING.
together a great collection of tools and machines. Let
the printer therefore always be careful about enlarging
his plant, remembering that there are other investments
which may prove more profitable, and that it is best to
consider these carefully before deciding on an increased
capacity of his establishment
The plan of investing savings in new machinery or
type is sometimes a disastrous one, in that a printer finds
himself with too large a plant for the business that natur-
ally comes to him, and so is led to go into the field of
others and cut prices in order to get more work. This
sort of investment of saving is as wasteful in its results
as spending the money in racing and riotous living.
Machinery should be bought only whenit is imperative —
when large permanent orders will be lost if it is not
purchased. For further and fuller suggestions along this
line see the chapter on " Buying."
The printer who would be successful in business has
to consider yet another side of the question of savings.
Thus far I liave written only of what the printer might
or should do with his savings from his earnings or profits
in the business. In order to have such savings in pocket
he must practice a wise economy in all things, and save
all unnecessary expenditures. I do not mean to counsel
a niggardly course or extreme penuriousness, for I be-
lieve that these are as close to financial suicide as over-
liberality. A man must avoid the reputation of being
mean, at the same time that he must manage to save
wherever he reasonably can, and to stop unnecessary
outgo. This is gone into at length in the chapter entitled
"Leakages." It is manifestly a bad plan to try to save
money by cutting down wages of employees, who are
thereby put out of sympathy with the office; it is also
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SYSTEMATIC SAVING. 2)1
bad to purchase only cheap grades of paper and ink, or
to gratify a miserly taste for low rents and cheap sur-
roundings to the damage of the reputation of a business.
The true way to save is to see that you get what you
pay for; that every employee gives you the full number
of hours ; that every press is run at the best speed of
which it is capable without damage; that you do not
pay for useless and unnecessary small articles, much less
large ones. It is a real saving to discount a bill for new
type, when it would be no saving to buy some second-
hand type at a less price; it is a real saving to spend
enough money on bookkeeping to know just where
every cent of your money goes, and to study the figures
occasionally and learn whether there are not some useless
expenditures.
No man can get very far ahead in the world who
does not cultivate the habit of saving. No income will
stand continued extravagance; every man who has
earned a fortune has learned the lesson of wise economy.
There are few wealthy men in the printing business,
the cause being more due to undercharging than a lack
of saving; yet there are many who would prosper if
they gave as much attention to economies as they do
to figuring down the price of work. One thing is
certain, that the printer who saves regularly and system-
atically will never be sold out by the sheriff as long as he
adheres to the policy of laying by a part of every
dollar that he makes.
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CHAPTER XXV.
PARTNERSHIPS.
An entire book might be written concerning partner-
ships, without exhausting the subject, leaving yet many
last words to be said on many phases of the question;
in fact, there are books treating the matter at great
length from a legal standpoint. The conditions of
trade are such that partners are frequently essential to
carrying on a business. In other words, I may say
that partnerships are a necessary evil, for in the
abstract, a partnership is a thing to be avoided. A
man should own and control his own business, and
have his own way, if he would get the full satisfaction
of doing business, and reap the entire reward of what
genius he may possess. The writer's advice to all
printers is that wherever possible the best way is to
"go it alone" and avoid partnerships; because this te
not always possible, this chapter is written.
A partnership should not be entered into without-
extreme care and positive evidence that it is necessary:
to the conduct of the printery. Making a partnership
is like getting married — it is for better or worse, and.
it is very difficult to know which until it has been tried
for a few years, and if it proves for the worse it is hard
to get out. It is a foolish plan to take a partner, as
many young printers do, solely for company, to have
an associate with whom they can talk over business
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PARTNERSHIPS.; 2}}
matters. Partners should be taken because more brains,
more superior oversight of the kind that cannot be hired,
is required for the proper conduct- of the printing office,
or because the money brought into the business by the
partnership is absolutely needed for its profitable con-
tinuance.
The chief difficulty with a profitable partnership arises
from the fact that when two or more men become owners
in a business there are then two or more separate and
distinct interests in control, and what may be to the
interest of one may not always be to the interest of
another. Human nature is selfish, and each partner is apt
to want his own way, and one will want more leisure
than another, or one will want to make expenditures that
another considers foolish, and so on; the possibilities for
dissension being in existence all the time. Only a wise
forbearance on the part of all, and a sincere effort to
subordinate one's own desires to the good of the whole
business can make a partnership an entire success.
In considering the acceptance of a partner, first
figure on the value that his money will be to the
business, and determine whether it will certainly enable
you to make a larger profit from the half or other
fraction you retain, than you would make from the
whole if you had it by yourself. If you feel assured
that the money is positively needed, and that your
remaining portion of the business will yield a larger
increase for. the investment, then study to see whether
you cannot get the money in some way without the
man, and whether this would not be the most profit-
able arrangement for you.
The character of the person taken as a partner is
of even greater importance than the money he may
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bring to a business. If he is not honest, he is dear
at any price; if he has cranky notions, he may prove a
perpetual thorn in the side; if he be lazy, he may not
earn his share of the profits; if he is careless or reckless,
he may ruin the concern; if he is incapable, he may
prove a heavy drag on the business; if he lacks intelli-
gence or business capacity, even though willing, he
may in time become an intolerable nuisance. A partner
should be a man who can be relied upon to manage
some branch of the business without being told how,
one who can relieve- others of a portion of the cares of
oversight, and who is capable of making his depart-
ment profitable. A good printer and inside manager
may find a good partner in one who is a natural
salesman, and who has the capacity for taking orders
at good prices. If each is good in his sphere, the two
may do better together than they could do apart; in
fact, they may sometimes be really indispensable to each
other. But where there are two partners, both natu-
rally inside men, or both naturally outside men, there is
no good combination. The firm of inside men will be
apt to do good work, and not much of it, with little
profit; and the firm of outside men will be apt to pile
up a large number of orders, and do cheap and unsatis-
factory work. There are many partnerships that fail
though both men are really capable and pushing, because
they happen to be wholly unsuited and unsatisfactory
to each other, and continually interfere with and upset
each other's plans. Many of us have seen printing firms
composed of partners and doing a trifling, petty business,
but who on separating and going into competition have
each prospered and made money that they never could
make when together.
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PARTNERSHIPS. 235.
When a partnership has been fully decided upon as
the most advisable thing, the next thought of those
interested should be to put the terms in writing so
plainly that there can be no room for differences later.
Everything that is expected of a partner should go down
in black and white, and if possible a penalty should be
attached for neglect of duty. A way should also be
provided for closing or winding up the partnership, or
withdrawing from it without involving later dispute.
The more completely these things are gone into on paper
the less likelihood there is of future differences and
disagreements. Do not be afraid in drawing up partner-
ship papers that you will hurt anybody's feelings by
specifying everything that you expect of your partner;
get in everything, and tell him to get in everything that
he expects of you. When you have all the points down,
go to a good lawyer, one whom you are sure that you
could trust, and get him to put them in legal shape, and
when the papers are signed you will be as safe as written
agreements can make you. Do not think because you
know a man well that you can omit the formality of
drawing up partnership papers, or that the merest
skeleton of papers will do. The writer has known of
two partnership cases, in both of which the men were
hard workers and intelligent yet, who lost every dollar
they put in certain businesses, because they carelessly
assumed that there was no need of partnership papers.
The printer who is wise will not take any chances, but
profit from the experience of others, and so avoid the
almost entire losses that come when there are. partnership
suits and receiverships growing purely out of disagree-
ments and misunderstandings.
A man who has not been in a partnership, or who
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has never come in close contact with a partnership
dispute, can have little appreciation of the way in which
partners in business are tied to each other's acts by the
law. One partner becomes virtually responsible for the
acts of the others. If one runs off with or squanders
the partnership property in the most thievish manner thfe
sufferer has no remedy through criminal prosecution.
One partner can do anything he likes with any and all
property connected with the business, and the only
remedy of the other is a civil suit at law, which never
brings any saving or satisfaction. No matter how large
or profitable a business may be, if the partners get into
a desperate quarrel and invoke the law, the entire assets
are almost sure to be frittered away and dissipated,
affording only pickings for lawyers and court officials.
The printer who gets into a serious quarrel with a partner
i$ advised by all means to settle it in some manner, no
matter how much he has to give way, rather than to
call upon the courts to settle the dispute. There is no
money in lawsuits, except for the legal fraternity. When
a difference between partners become so grievous as to
threaten the business, and the terms of a dissolution
cannot be mutually agreed upon, it is a wise way for
each to put all his affairs in the hands of a trusted friend,
assigning full powers to the same. The two friends so
named can then choose an arbitrator, and the three
together can arrange a settlement, to the acceptance of
which the two partners should be absolutely bound in
advance. In this way a reasonably fair adjustment of
difficulties and a dissolution can be made, without
wrecking the business, which both have an interest in
seeing preserved.
A small printing office does not need more than
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one head, while a large printery often demands a
number of executives, because there are more im-
portant things to be decided upon than one man can
attend to. It has sometimes been thought wise by men
having a prosperous and growing business, to interest
the most efficient of their help as minor partners, and
qualify them to take executive charge of certain por-
tions of the work. The best way to do this is usually
through the organization of a stock company, which is
a flexible sort of partnership, permitting ownership of
small portions of a business, and the retaining of the
control by the larger owner or owners. Personal liability
can be avoided, this being one of the serious dangers
in a simple partnership. The incorporated company
form of organization allows a business to continue after
the death of the principal owner without being tangled
up by executors, contested wills, etc. Every large print-
ing concern, in which more than one man is interested,
should take advice on the matter of incorporation, which
is now universally recognized as the safest way of
carrying on trade where many interests are involved. In
a company, the principal proprietor may retain his
majority of the stock, and take in capable men to run
the departments, allowing them such minority holdings as
they are able to pay for. The partners so taken in under
a proper arrangement would have to earn their salaries
afterward just as much as before taking stock in the
firm, as they would be as liable to discharge if in-
efficient. No contract should ever be made with a
minor stockholder that would make it impossible to
dismiss him from a salaried position should he become
unsatisfactory. Sometimes it happens that a man who
has been very efficient as a foreman or superintendent,
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2}S PARTNERSHIPS.
on being admitted as a partner, becomes so puffed up
with importance, getting what is slangily called a
"swelled head," that he is no longer valuable to the
business. There are instances where such men who
have been advanced for faithful services, abandoned
their good habits, and took to coming down late in the
morning, going out during business hours, and generally
conducting themselves as though they were no longer
expected to work and earn money for the business.
The only wise thing to do in such a case is to discharge
the man; but if an agreement has been made which
prohibits this, the firm is in a bad fix, with an un-
profitable load to carry.
I recall a corporation that made an agreement with
a most valued head of a department that practically
bound them to pay him $75 a week during the life of
that department. Within a few years the man's atti-
tude toward the firm was wholly changed, and he
became a general nuisance, coarsely throwing it in the
face of the principal owners that he was there to do
as he pleased and draw his $75. Eventually the firm
sold a very large and prosperous portion of their
business, much below its real value, for the purpose of
getting rid of the man whom they had placed in
charge of that department. Such an experience was a
most costly lesson, even for a large money-making
concern, and it is safe to say that the owners never
again took a minor partner in a way that made it
impossible to discharge him if his services did not
continue to be profitable.
Of course when a head of a department in a
printery is asked to take stock, and invest his money
with the concern, virtually becoming a small partner,
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PARTNERSHIPS. 3J9
he has a right to demand that his salary be guaranteed
to him, and his position made permanent, but a clause
should always be inserted in the agreement permitting
the company to repurchase his stock and put him out,
if for any reason such a course is desirable.
Whether the men interested in a printing office are
partners in the ordinary sense, or whether they are
simply stockholders and officers of a company, there
should be a definite understanding between them as to
what portion of the business each is to take in charge.
The supervision should be divided up according to the
capacity and tastes of the several members of the firm,
and while all should consult together on important
matters, yet each one should be allowed to run his
own department largely in his own way, without
interference, which breeds hard feelings and upsets the
friendly relations which are so valuable in a business
partnership. If each firm member has charge of
a distinct branch of the business, and monthly reports
are made to all the members of the progress of
each department, then each man is put upon his
mettle to make a good showing, and the one who
falls behind will feel that he has to keep up the
profits of his department, if he is to continue to share
in the profits earned by the other more prosperous
departments.
Regular conference between the members of a firm
or company is a valuable factor of success. It prevents
large blunders and insures the taking of the wisest
course that united wisdom can suggest. A business
that is not progressive is pretty sure to be retrogressive,
and when the members get together regularly and
exchange views, plans for increasing trade are more
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240 PARTNERSHIPS.
readily developed and executed, thus keeping the con-
cern in the van of business progress. .
Printers who engage in business in the ordinary
partnership way should remember that it is necessary to
exercise mutual forbearance in order to work together
harmoniously. They cannot always think alike, and
each may honestly believe that he is the brains of the
business, whereas the chances are that both contribute
materially to produce what success is attained, though
the methods of each may be widely different. There
are men who work together as harmoniously as the
parts of a clock, year after year, with a perfect under-
standing as to what each expects of the other, and
to mutual satisfaction; but this would be impossible if
one was always watching the other, and finding fault
when little things went wrong. Everybody makes
errors, and things will not always run smoothly under
the best management, though* it may be very easy to
point out afterwards how mistakes might have been
prevented. Human hindsight is much better than
human foresight, and a man cannot always be sure
that he is doing the best thing until it has been done
and the results are apparent. Partners must remember,
that all are fallible and make the same excuses for each
other that they would make for themselves, when
results are not quite what they had hoped.
If you have a good, honest, careful, practical partner,
who will carry his share of the business load, you are
in luck, and should be very careful not to separate from
him, unless positive that it is for the better. While I
am in general opposed to partnerships, it is because of
the frailty and uncertainty of human nature, and not
because a partnership may not be an excellent thing,
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PARTNERSHIPS. 24 1
where that rare combination is found of two or more
men working as one intelligent machine, and securing
the benefit of the best points in each, and the corrective
judgment of all, in combination. Such partnerships are
almost certain money-makers, and it is too bad that
they never can last more than a few years, for, in the
very nature of things in this transitory world, partners
drop out, and the old combination of unity is apt to
be lost.
To sum up the whole matter of partnership in a
few words, 1 would say, avoid them when you can;
give the preference to a corporate company when you
must ally yourself with others in business; if in the
partnership lottery you secure one who is a jewel and
a money-maker cling to him; and never forget that
partnership agreements should be of the most positive
character, providing a way to get out of the partner-
ship, if later it prove undesirable.
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CHAPTER XXVI.
LEAKAGES.
No printing business can be made to pay a good
profit unless a careful watch is kept to prevent leak-
ages and loss in conducting the details of the work.
Five or even ten per cent, of margin may disappear
with no apparent reason, where there is no vigilant eye
or exact system for maintaining economical production.
It is astonishing how the little drawbacks to profit
will creep in and multiply whenever it is not the busi-
ness of some one to watch for them and keep things
moving advantageously. Wasted time is probably one
of the most prolific sources of loss in the printery. It
may occur anywhere, from the partner who loafs and
calculates that his money invested is enough to earn
his salary, to the errand boy who stops around the
corner to play marbles. When a partner will not earn
his salary, the other partners should cut down his
privilege lo draw on the funds if they have the power,
or try lo replace him with a live worker if they cannot
reduce his pay, otherwise they are carrying a load that
may be disastrous to themselves. If a foreman, super-
intendent, solicitor, office man, or other one employed
in a superior position, wastes his time, it is better to
replace him as quickly as possible, for the chances are
that such a one will never improve without a severe
lesson, and is too set in his lazy hallucinations to be
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LEAKAGES. 2^
reformed. If any one in charge of a department or the
like permits the waste of time of those under him, and
a first remonstrance fails to remedy the evil, he also
should be a candidate for dismissal or reduction to the
ranks.
I remember a foreman in a large composing-room
who was very efficient generally, and who would push
work through most intelligently, and get an enormous
amount out of the men when there was an abundance of
work in the office, but who had one weakness that
made him a failure as a foreman. He could not bear
to lay off anybody when work was dull. During the
rush months he did his full duty by the house, but
during the dull ones he would keep on sometimes
twice the force that was essential to the work in hand.
The inevitable result followed — the concern, which was
a corporation, in a few years spotted the leak, and put
that foreman on journeywork in another department,
replacing him by a man who recognized that his busi-
ness was to make that composing-room pay, and that
he had no right to sacrifice stockholders' money in
charity.
Waste of time on the part of employees in subordi-
nate positions does not necessarily call for discharge, as
it is more apt to be [the result of inferior supervision
than deliberate laziness on the part of the men. It is
in the nature of most men to take things easily, and
it is the business of those above them to see that they
do not waste their time through wantonness, or what
is more common, some ill-advised method of work. I
have seen half a dozen compositors working on a long
job of tabular matter, and one of the lot doing twice
as much as the average man, and more than three
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244 LEAKAGES.
times as much as some others, and nobody keeping-
any record of these results. It should have been the
foreman's care to have the fast man instruct the slow
men on the job as to his methods of handling the
tables to get results; if they could not grasp them, then
he should have shifted his men and put in others on
the tables who knew how or could be taught how to
do tabular work to advantage.
In every printing plant it is essential that some one
have head enough to look after leaks of this sort, and
see to it that the time of all hands is advantageously
employed. Even in what one may call the best offices
there is frequently a great waste of time in the various
departments through some fault of system or general
oversight. In large offices superintendents should re-
ceive daily reports embodying full details, and look
them over regularly for evidence of leakages. For
further pointers as to avoiding waste of time, see the
chapter on " Management of Employees."
The item of spoilage is -one that is often overlooked
and for which no provision is made in estimating. It
is safe to say that no printing office can be conducted
without some loss from this cause. Where this loss is
minimized, it is the result of the utmost precautions,
which precautions in themselves constitute an extra
expense.- There is a multiplicity of causes that lead to
spoiling a piece of printing, and some of them are s,o
small that it is a wonder that they do not occur more
frequently than they do. The misspelling of a word,
the dropping out of a letter, a mistake in punctuation
that changes the sense, the shifting of a guide, acci-
dental offsetting caused by backing up too soon or
from piling the work too high, smutting from careless
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LEAKAGES. 2£fi
handling, uneven color, careless feeding, and numerous
other errors or accidents familiar to every experienced
printer, are prolific in causing spoiled work.
In an office where proofs and revises are passed
upon in the usual way, a careless pressman may reverse
a small cut that he has taken out of the form for some
purpose, or a feeder who knows nothing of type may
discover a few letters pulling loose, and in the en-
deavor to make them tight, remove and transpose
them. These dangers can be avoided only by ordering
a revise sent to the proofreader every time a form is
touched. Blunders will be made by even the most
careful pressman. An electrotype-clamp that does not
hold fast properly, may work loose and allow a plate
to slip out of register, so that reams of paper may be
marred or spoiled before the slip is discovered and
remedied.
Then there is the customer who claims that the
instructions were not as the printer understood them,
and who refuses to accept the work on this account.
Any of these losses, while sometfmes appearing in-
significant at the time, may really mean the loss of a
good customer, and in the aggregate amount to a
considerable sum. If the printer's business is conducted
on a close margin — as usually it is — this will naturally
cut into his profits. An allowance of two per cent,
for spoilage is not any too much in the job printing
business. The chances are that it can be kept down
to this figure only by unceasing care and watchfulness,
and the rigid enforcement of rules for verifying correc-
tions and orders. A writer in a newspaper trade
journal has aptly said, "No amount of cussing will
change the date after the edition is worked off," and
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246 LEAKAGES.
this may be paraphrased by the jobber to suit the case
of the error found in a job on or after delivery to the
customer.
The only practical time to stop spoilage is before it
occurs, and an expense of about one per cent, of extra
vigilance in looking for blunders before the final
printing is a good insurance against this form of loss.
The business of some printers is damaged by
severe leakage through the machinery they use. The
exercise of due care and forethought in the handling of
machinery is essential to avoid loss through breakdowns
and stoppages. This form of leakage can be stopped
only by preparing in advance on the principle that
"a stitch in time saves nine." A continued squeak or
unnatural jar or rattle in a press should be attended to
when it is first observed, and not allowed to continue
until serious damage results. Regular examination of
the machinery and overhauling in dull seasons avoids
the loss incidental to stopping during periods of rush,
as is more fully set forth in the chapter on " The
Pressroom." A waste of power is a common source
of loss, through inattention to the shafting and belting,
which are allowed to run hard. An individual motor
electrical equipment avoids this, and shuts off that
chance for leakage.
Waste of paper or card stock is very common in
the printery, and is often disregarded by the men em-
ployed through the idea that it will come out of the
customer, and therefore will not be noticed. It does
not pay to permit such a notion to become prevalent
among one's employees. If they are allowed to give
short count to the customer, the proprietor will have
no one but himself to blame if they learn to give short
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LEAKAGES. 247
count to him. The only right way, the only profit-
able way, is to insist on full count to every customer,
and allow enough paper for reasonable waste and
spoilage. This should be accomplished through such a
system of counting spoiled sheets as will show who
spoiled them, that workmen may have on them the
check of knowing that carelessness resulting in waste
of stock will be known to the employer.
In cases where stock has to be cut, there is liable
to be loss through miscalculation as to the best way to
cut to get the greatest number out of a sheet. The man
who operates the paper-cutter should have a clear head
for figures, that there may be no undue leakage here.
He should be provided, also, with computation tables
and mechanical helps for easy calculation of how many
of certain sizes may be got out of a ream of standard
sizes, thus minimizing such dangers as the cutting up
of twice the required quantity of stock. It is necessary
to have a method of protection from the error of cutting
paper to size when a form is to be run double, or turn
and cut.
In every printing office there is necessity for carrying
more or less paper in stock, and this is liable to depre-
ciate through dust and dirt, if it is not kept very carefully
protected. Only by wrapping up in sealed packages
and by insisting on cleanliness in the paper stock de-
partment can loss be avoided through the dirtying of
paper on the edges or on the outer sheets of the quires.
There must always be more or less loss on paper by
cording of bundles, broken outsides, etc., also by hand-
ling for packing after printing. Nothing but continual
care and watchfulness will keep down the loss on these
details.
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248 LEAKAGES.
In some special methods of printing more than ordi-
nary waste is entailed, and must be allowed for in the
estimate to avoid loss. Suppose, for instance, that
one plate is provided from which to print three checks
on a sheet for a check-book. The three passages through
the press, and threefold chances for errors in register,
smutting, etc., will increase the waste materially. A
colored rule border also entails a lot of waste that the
printer is apt to forget to figure on, if he is not specially
familiar with such presswork.
A common cause of loss in inks is the drying up
of expensive colors that are allowed to stand exposed
for a long time. Waste is also entailed by attempts to
mix colored inks to get another color, when the mixer
has no knowledge of the components of the two or
more inks employed. The result may be a mixture of
incompatible substances, and the production of a com-
pound that will not work on the rollers, spoiling the
whole lot. It is better to trust to the ink man for
mixing tints, and pay him for his experience, than to
experiment with high-priced inks.
Another source of leakage is through neglect to buy
closely, and to take advantage of all cash discounts. This
is treated of fully under the chapter on " Buying. "
The printer who fails to do his purchasing carefully
and economically leaves himself a hard road to profit.
One of the best ways to stop leaks is to win the
interest of employees, so that they will have the dis-
position to work for the real interests of the house.
Andrew Carnegie, the multi-millionaire, has been quoted
as saying, "that no man can acquire wealth without
being liberal, and giving those about him a chance to
make something." He had over thirty partners, all so
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LEAKAGES. 249
devoted to the interests of his affairs, that he said, "he
would rather lose every dollar of his capital and retain
his partners, than lose his partners and retain his
capital." Get the men who work with you to feel that
they have an interest in the prosperity of the plant,
that your success is theirs, and you will have so many
more watchful eyes to check leaks in your business,
and save you the profit that has been earned.
" Little drops of water, little grains 01 sand,
Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land."
So little leaks unstopped make great breaches in the
walls that protect the profits of the printer, and admit
the flood that may sweep away the whole structure,
producing ruin that, though inconsequential to the trade
at large, is to the individual concerned the swamping
of hope in tragedy. He who allows no leakages in
his business is a tolerably safe man to bank on as
likely to make a permanent success of his printery.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES.
No printer can hope to continue in profitable busi-
ness unless he advances with the times. It matters
not how honest he may be, how good the work he
knows how to do, how careful he may be not to
underestimate, if he yet lacks progressive qualities, his
establishment will some time arrive at the point of
stagnation, and be closed up for lack of business. The
ways that lead to success to-day require to be modified
to-morrow, and only by keeping an eye open for
development is it possible to remain in the van of
business prosperity.
Take the single matter of printing presses. An
office may be well stocked with good cylinders, but if
ten or twelve years roll by, and no additions are made
to the pressroom plant, somebody who has purchased
later and faster machinery will gradually get the pay-
ing work from the establishment that has stood still.
The march of invention is ever onward, and the
printers who first avail themselves of improved ma-
chinery, steal a march on competitors, while those
who are slowest to buy are placed in a condition of
retrogradation.
A man must be apt to recognize when a change is
coming over trade conditions, and to avail himself of
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KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES. 25 1
the natural advantages of such foresight. Take the
matter of composing-machines, those offices that have
been most enterprising, and made their purchases
ahead of the crowd, secured the most work, not only
in composition, but in very many cases in presswork,
too; because as a matter of convenience the presswork
follows the composition to avoid the nuisance of
carting forms, and to enable easy corrections on the
presses.
All of us have seen old houses, both in printing
and other lines, that have built up a large and success-
ful trade in one generation lose it in the next, not so
much from wilful waste or foolishness, as from pure
lack of ability to alter methods so as to meet new
conditions. Whenever you meet a man who is per-
fectly satisfied with his business, and who brags that
it is where it runs itself, look out for a failure within
a dozen years. It is only the fellow who is perpetually
on the lookout for better ways and better means who
keeps at the top of the heap. While your satisfied
man is stroking his whiskers in his complaicency, there
is sure to be some clever competitor working overtime
to develop schemes for getting ahead, and some day
he will find a way, and capture the trade of Mr.
Complaicency before he realizes that times have changed
and that he did not change with them.
Take a lesson from your employees. Once upon a
time the hand compositor was fat and well fed. He
did not care much whether he worked to suit or not,
for he knew that he would not have to ask for em-
ployment at more than two printing offices without
securing it. He could afford to be independent, and
he was. When he saw composing-machines coming
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2 52 KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES.
he regarded them with a curious interest, but never
realized that they would take away his bread and
butter. The younger and more progressive compositors
learned the keyboard, and the more conservative type-
setters were allowed to go. They were supposed to
get in elsewhere, and at first it was not noticed that
there existed any surplus of compositors. As the
machines proved profitable, however, and began to sell
with a rush, compositors went out by the wholesale,
many of them never to earn another dollar in a print-
ing office. Had these men heeded the signs of the
times, and learned other branches of the trade, or
looked up something to fall back upon when the
change came, their livelihoods would not have been
taken away. Just so with the employer who heeds
not the gathering clouds that indicate coming changes,
that are likely to sweep him away as ruthlessly as the
hand compositor. Master printers should watch for
every new thing in machinery or methods, or cir-
cumstances that tends to effect trade, and go for every
advantageous thing that shows itself, striving to be
among the first to make use of it.
When business is prosperous and the presses are
humming with paying work and all is serene, do not
take it for granted that things will always go that way.
Dull times will come, competition will grow stronger.
Your best men are liable to leave you, and set up for
themselves when they see you making money, there-
fore, do not try to pinch their pay when you are
prosperous. Make them feel that your success is
theirs by broad liberality in dealing, and hold them to
your interests.
Keep your eyes open for new processes, and investi-
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KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES. 2$)
gate the new things that are offered to the trade. Do
not be afraid of wasting time on the salesmen who
approach you with labor-saving devices and machines.
As a rule they would not be there unless they had a
good thing to sell, that would earn money or save
money for some one. You can never be sure in
advance which salesman may have something that you
need to push your trade and keep you ahead, or at
least, abreast of the crowd. Remember that a printing
business is but one form of buying and selling, and
that you should give as careful attention to the buying
as the selling end. Do not shut yourself up and be
so exclusive that a salesman cannot get at you. When
you have a large plant be as easy of approach as when
youlhad a small one. Sometimes you can get valuable
tips from salesmen, and if you shut yourself off from
them, so that they can only get at you second-hand,
you only invite them to bribe your employees in order
to get their goods into your place. Do not be the
means of making such conditions, but rather invite
everybody about you to be honest, by keeping tempta-
tion out of the way.
Read the trade papers, the advertisements, and even
the circulars that come into your mail as much as you
can. These are all helps towards keeping up with the
times. Go to other cities, and visit, and talk with the
men who run the successful printeries there. Most of
them are glad of the opportunity to swap experiences,
and tell of what they are doing. By telling them of
your methods of pushing business, you can draw them
out and learn their ways, and often profit by their
experiences.
While the endeavor of this book is to lay down in
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254 KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES.
a general way the principles of action that should
govern the conducting of a printery so that a profit
may be reaped, yet it must be recognized that this can
be done only in a general way, and that unless the
reader has the patience and intelligence to follow and
apply the rules that lead to success, he will not win
the prosperity he seeks. The underlying principles of
success are probably the same in all lines of business, but
the application of them is different in the various avoca-
tions and in the individuals. Some men win business
prosperity by methods apparently almost opposite
to those adopted by others who succeed equally. As
a rule, those men who have a grasp of large things,
and who view business problems in a broad way,
make the most money in the long run. They can hire
others to look after the detail. The man who excels
in working out details is apt to lose the ability to look
at things in a comprehensive manner, and often goes
on pottering with minutiae when some large thing in
his business demands all his energies. These remarks
are intruded here to suggest to the mind of the reader
that to profit by this book, he must take it as a whole,
and not undertake to guide his business by any one
portion or detail of its lessons. Just because things
change and develop, he must he on the alert to keep
pace with these changes, and to understand that while
the various chapters herein contained are each believed
to embody sound advice from the point of view in
which written, yet, that the march of time may lead to
larger and somewhat different conclusions in some
matters, and that he must keep his mind open to
receive more and newer ideas as the world progresses
and the industry changes.
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We live in an age when mechanical and inventive
progress has begun to develop so fast that commercial
conditions are made to change with a rapidity unknown
in earlier periods. It appears probable that changes of
this sort will become more rapid in occurrence as time
goes on, and that the man who runs a printery or any
other business will have to make his money out of it
in ten years, and then upset the whole situation and
go at it again in a new way, with a new plant, if he
desires to make more.
We have no assurance that printing will always be
done from type, or on presses. Already we see many
kinds of printing or reproductions accomplished in
other ways. We can recognize that printing, in the
broad sense of reproducing pictures and signs that
represent language, must continue to exist as long as
human intelligence remains as we know it; but we
have no assurance that the methods of producing it, or
of advertising, or of generally conducting business, are
permanent. They may be simply an evolution. In
these days evolutions sometimes transpire with amazing
quickness. The wise printer will be ever ready, and
when he sees signs of a change of methods, will be
prepared for them.
It is not without a sense of regret that I dip my
pen in the ink for nearly the last time in the prepara-
tion of this book. The task has been a congenial one,
and as it has led rpe through the various details of
development^ a printery, I have inwardly sympathized
with the beginners who had to toil up the hill of
business properity, in which are so many pitfalls, for
which they might be ill prepared. If the methods and
principles which helped me along the road — and which
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256 KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES.
I have been able to gather as helping other printers
who have made much more conspicuous successes than
myself— if the gathering together of these in this book
shall assist even a few hard working young master
printers to the goal of success, I shall be more than
repaid.
I love the printing trade. A choice bit of printing
is a delight to my eye ; and the click of the types and
the whirr of presses is music to my ears. Though, my
time has been given of late years mainly in the busi-
ness office, and my energies directed to printing for a
profit, yet 1 have never wavered in my regard for the
art for its own sake. The true printer is like the true
artist — wedded to his craft. It is because many are so
firmly bound to the art side that the business side is
so often forgotten, and that this book is needed to
remind us that it is a duty to learn how to make
money in the business quite as much as to study the
nice points that go to the making of a perfect piece of
printing.
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS.
THEODORE L. I)E V1NNE.
THE DEVINNE PRESS.
"How to succeed in the printing business," is a
conundrum of the first class. We all know of men
who have been able, honest, frugal, hard-working, and
have not succeeded. Why they failed is not easy to
explain. Accident and circumstance have much to do
with success or failure, but there are personal qualities
which seem to me necessary to success.
First of all, in my belief, is an understanding of the
business. The proprietor of a printing house who has
not learned the trade, who has not spent many years
in composing-room or pressroom, does business as a
manager under great disabilities. Nor is it enough to
know how to set type or work a press. The good
compositor or pressman cannot be fairly qualified to
manage a business on his own account unless he has a
knowledge of all the expenses of a printing house, which
are always greater than is supposed. This knowledge
can be had only by access to the account books of a well
managed business. It is possible for the man who has
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258 SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS.
had no education as a printer, or for the journeyman
who has never examined account books, to succeed,
but the chances are ten to one against him. He has
to depend upon information as to the probable perform-
ance of men and presses, which is usually overrated ; and
as to the unavoidable expenses of wear and waste
which are grossly underrated. The men who furnish
this untrustworthy information, usually his own em-
ployees, are innocent of any intent to deceive." They
don't know how much it costs to do work, for this
knowledge can be had only from a study of account
books. They guess, and believe in their own guesses,
but it is the unpractical proprietor who suffers from
their mistaken guesses. Large corporations owned or
controlled by unpractical men are the ones who suffer
most severely from the faulty estimates of employees.
Printing has been done, and is now being done, at from
ten to twenty per cent, below its actual cost, while
the owner of the plant is led to believe that he is
making a good profit. In a business so managed the
loss is not at once apparent. It takes many years to
accomplish failure, but failure is sure to come.
A love for printing is equally important. The man
who frets over the drudgery of details, who turns over
to his employees work which he should do personally,
who does not like to handle types or presses, or
even to study their peculiarities, who wants to be an
employer in a lordly and magnificent way, is sure to
find sooner or later that the faulty estimates of his
employees have assumed alarming proportions. There
are proprietors who, having a fairly equipped printing
house, and capital and credit, think that the business
will take care of itself. Having wound up the clock,
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SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS. 259
they propose to sit down and see it run. There is no
sadder mistake. No printing house will support its
owner unless he does his best to support it. The
complex machinery of his business (for it is complex
when one considers that customers and workmen,
banks and book-keeping, types, presses and material
require equal attention), cannot be made automatic. To
keep it in order often calls for constant oversight and
frequent drudgery. It is not pleasant, metaphorically
speaking, to put on overalls and get inside this
complexity, with a screw wrench in one hand and an
oil can in the other, tightening here and oiling there;
but this is work that must be done, and no one should
do it better than the proprietor. The drudgery is
endurable to one who loves his trade. The printer
who has his heart in his trade will take more pleasure
in the ownership of a well-equipped printing house,
and in the planning and making of fine jobs or books,
than he would in the possession of fine horses or
houses. The man who loves work for the work's
sake may not always succeed, but he deserves success,
and will get it if not prevented by misfortune or want
of prudence.
The path of a novice in printing is full of pitfalls.
I can mention but a few.
One is the giving of credit to irresponsible persons.
There is no trade so frequently "worked " by visionary
or dishonest customers.
Another is the desire to do more work than is
practicable or economical within a fixed period. Work
by night is usually a loss, even at high rates.
The employment of solicitors or drummers on com-
mission to bring work in the house, is rarely ever a
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26o SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS.
success. One can buy gold too dear, and can get an
increase of business at too great a cost. In the long
run, the drummer becomes the master and not the
servant.
The retaliatory spirit which prompts one to "get
even" with a rival who has taken your work at a lower
price is to be avoided. To take his work out of spite
at losing rates does not benefit the taker. The sharp
customer profits by this unwise rivalry. He makes and
you lose.
The competition of unfair houses, especially of
houses chartered to do religious work, and largely
benefited by the contributions of the devout — houses
misled in estimates by salaried employees — is a distinct
misfortune.
It is a bitter experience to have attached custom
leave you for an unfair rival, but it is an experience
that every printer, large or small, has to submit to.
In prize fighting, it is not the man who strikes the
hardest blows who always wins the fight. It is the
man who can "stand punishment" who oftenest wins.
The young printer must prepare himself to accept unfair
competition and hard blows without weakening. If he
does his work as well as he can, and earns a reputation
for fair dealing and ability he too will win. It takes
time, but he will win.
CARL SCHRAUBSTADTER.
SECRETARY AND MANAGER INLAND TYPE FOUNDRY.
The greatest curse of the printing trade is the fact
that too many people go into it improperly equipped,
not as far as plant is concerned, but in respect to
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SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS. 26 1
capital and experience The four requisites for success
in any trade are sufficient capital, experience, energy
and ability. No matter how much of the last two the
man may possess, without the other requisites he is
almost certain to make a failure. Records of failures in
the United States show that more people fail from
insufficient capital than from any other cause, and this
result may be largely traced to lack of experience.
Some of the printers' supply and paper houses are
largely responsible for this condition of affairs. They
are so anxious to make sales that they will furnish a
large proportion of the capital needed to embark in
the business. As a consequence, the printer is handi-
capped from the start and cannot successfully compete
with his more prosperous brethren. Almost invariably
when a concern starts, it not only puts all its available
cash into its plant, so as to cripple it for lack of
working capital, but goes into debt for some of its
material, agreeing to pay a certain sum per month to
the supply house, which to the detriment of the trade
at large, encourages such business. As a result, the
concern is always hard up, and in order to get money
to meet its payments when business is dull, cuts the
prices below a living profit and gets worse into the
mire. I cannot too strongly decry the lack of business
experience in the average printer and the injury it is
working to the trade at large. We all know of many
printing offices, the managers of which have no
practical knowledge of composition or press work, and
yet who have made a success of their institutions. On
the other hand, we know a far greater number of
proprietors who have thoroughly mastered the mechan-
ical part of their trade, yet who are seriously handicapped
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262 SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS.
because they have no business experience. The average
master printer has graduated from the case, invested
his little savings in a plant, and started without any
knowledge of business whatsoever. If he has prospered
and succeeded, it is in spite of this fact and not on
account of it. To successfully manage a business, a man
should have had experience in passing on credits, in
the intricacies of banking and financing, in selecting,
management and training of office employees, in secur-
ing work, in buying and advertising to advantage.
In almost every other industry attention is paid to
these points, and the man who starts in business
for himself understands most of them through the
experience of others. Unfortunately, this is not true of
the printing trade.
The printer too frequently deceives himself as to
the profits of the business. The average workman
thinks that his work costs him little beyond paper,
composition, presswork and ink. He does not figure
out his costs as accurately as he should, he does not
keep his records as carefully as they should be kept,
nor, in figuring on work carefully does he study the
costs of previous jobs in order to arrive at the proper
charges he should make. He is apt to take his cus-
tomer's word for the price he has paid for similar jobs
and base his own thereon. Often the data thus
furnished are incorrect, and in many cases, with exist-
ing facilities he cannot take the work at prices actually
offered by other concerns without incurring a loss.
Unless he has the courage to refuse an order which
will not render him a profit, at the best he will make
only a precarious existence. Very few printers charge
off a proper amount for wear and tear, and as a conse-
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SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS. 263
quence have not sufficient money to invest in keeping
an office up to date. Running with worn out type
and antiquated machinery, they can never hope to
compete with better concerns. No manufacturing in-
dustry can stand still. It must either go forward or
retrograde, and the large number of failures in the
pnnting business is mostly due to this cause.
Despite such drawbacks, printing is by no means
an unprofitable business. Although in many localities
it is overcrowded, there is plenty of room on top;
and every day we see and hear of concerns that have
started up and are making money, and rapidly in-
creasing in size. A very frequent cause of failure,
however, is too rapid growth. The printer who is
successful with a few platen presses is persuaded by a
cylinder press agent to purchase a large press. Usually
he has barely sufficient capital to swing his old trade.
He pays out as a cash payment all his available money
and does not stop to consider that with an increased
business he will have to have more ready money to
purchase stock, labor and power, and to carry his
customers. I cannot too strongly recommend conserva-
tism in this detail.
I consider that the best method for a printer to
assure himself of success is to pick out a specialty.
The most successful printers in a small way are those
who carefully look over the field and select some
particular branch to which they devote their entire
energy. No one can do all classes of work to equal
advantage. Very often you hear a printer complaining
of the price at which a certain job of work was taken
when the printer who accepted it may have exceptional
facilities for turning it out cheaply and still make a
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264 SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS.
good profit. There are many branches of trade which
can be worked up so as to produce ample work at
remunerative prices.
Printer's advertising is understood by but a few
concerns, and those few are uniformly successful. No
trade offers such opportunities as this. The printer is
the only one who can get his advertising at cost price,
but usually it is spasmodically and poorly done. Many
printers do not advertise at all and others confine
themselves to hackneyed forms of blotters and poorly
conceived and executed circulars. In order lo be
successful, it must be done carefully and systematically.
It is useless to send printed matter to those who are
not likely to be customers, and it is equally useless to
send out advertisments which are not likely to attract
attention or bring in an order.
WM. J. BERKOWITZ.
On the first of June, 1899, our firm quit Job Printing
and continued one branch of our business exclusively,
viz: — the making and printing of envelopes. We decided
about the first of January to sell out our job printing plant
and began a series of advertisements looking to that
end. Now we want to recite our experience that' in
itself may prove of great value to the hard working
enthusiast that is wearing out his life and his machinery
at the same time for the benefit of the man who buys
printing.
We were doing a job printing business of $65,000
a year. We could find no buyer for a printing busi-
ness. There is no agency (we could not find any) that
made a business of selling printing offices. A number
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SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS. 265
make it a business to sell newspapers. The man who
is looking for an old established printing office is the
man who has no money to buy new, up-to-date,
modern machinery, and so you cannot afford to sell
out, or give away, your plant to an irresponsible man
without means. Men who do not understand the
printing business will not venture into it, and men
who do, who have been in the business for years, have
no money to move and buy other plants. They have
not accumulated anything. So we sold our plant
piecemeal and at prices "under the hammer."
So the money you put into increasing your plant
must never be figured as so much profit. Depreciation
of plant and interest on investment are the opposing
forces that wipe away every dollar of profit at the
prices printing is done by the average printer.
In the face of the advance in paper and supplies the
price of printing keeps going down. The first step,
therefore, in the solution of this terrific problem is, get a
legitimate price for work, a price that carries a margin
with it without regard to the price cutter, or the man
who is looking for " Fillers." Be independent of these.
Lay down a principle in business "Your money's worth,"
and give it; but let us be honest to ourselves and add
this personal profit "A proper return for time, capital,
energy and brain," and no man will deny you this
right.
1 heard a prominent newspaper man say to one of
our prosperous merchants, "The job printing business
is the hardest and the meanest business that a man can
embark in. The risk entailed and the small margin of
profit, if any, and the loss on plant leaves the printer
absolutely nothing."
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266 SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS.
No business has more details, demands more careful
watching, entails more strain on the nerves, and requires
more brainwork, and above all, pays so little. 1 wish
every printer would make a text book of these chapters
from the pen of Paul Nathan and study every page
by heart. The broad common sense contained therein,
backed up by facts and a few figures are convincing
truths against the ruinous methods practiced by the
average printer in every city in the United States.
J. CLYDE OSWALD.
The chapters from your book, "How to Make
Money in the Printing Business," have been received
and 1 have been much interested in their perusal. In
undertaking to instruct printers how to make money
you have undertaken a big task, not so much because it
is difficult to devise a plan to accomplish that desirable
end, but because although the way be shown, the
average employing printer seems reluctant to follow it.
Printers do make money. Look about you and the
fact becomes at once apparent, for it is a fact that all
the large establishments had small beginnings, and in
nearly every case the money used to get the machinery
and materials in these establishments together was
made right in the business.
No fault is to be found with a printer on the
ground that he does not make money, but he is to be
blamed because he does not keep it. Look at the
well-known printers in New York that we know,
many of whom have been in business twenty years or
more, that could not raise $20,000 in cash no matter
how hard they might try; yet each will agree, I think,
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SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS. 267
that he could have taken one or two thousands of
dollars out of his business annually without much
difficulty. Instead, however, they put the money,
usually before it is made, in more machinery and
materials, constantly adding to the plant, and never
knowing what it means to be out of debt. A thousand
dollars in the bank is so much money to the good
that will continually increase; a thousand dollars in-
vested in a machine becomes $750 or less as soon as
the machine is set up, and it goes on dwindling year
after year. I do not advocate that a printer should not
add to his plant — far from that; what I do say is
that instead of reaching out for all the work in sight
he should first get a better price for what he is doing;
second, get something more than a living out of his
business, and third, buy machines when he has the
money to pay for them.
You will see that I have a personal interest in
desiring an improvement in the printing business when
I tell you that 1 receive letters regularly from good-
sized printing offices thanking me for sending them
sample copies of The American Printer and Bookmaker,
and explaining that they do not subscribe because they
cannot afford to pay the two dollars a year required.
When a man makes an excuse that does not need to
be made it is usually safe to believe him.
I hope, therefore, that you will be successful in
showing printers how to make enough money to
enable them to possess an occasional two dollar bill
that they can consider all their own and to spend as
they please.
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268 SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS,
C. S. MOREHOUSE.
I have read carefully your advanced chapters in
"How to Make Money in the Printing Business" — those
on "Estimating," "Acquiring Money," " Price Cutting,"
and "Competitors." I thoroughly endorse all you have
written. The rules you have formulated are very closely
on the lines I have endeavored to follow in a business
life of fifty years.
The printer who will always ask a fair price for his
work, striving to do creditable work, giving an honest
dollar's worth of service for each dollar received, must
succeed. The customer who wishes prices cut for his
benefit, should always be induced to pass on. If
prices are cut for one man, they will be for another, and
a rat office is the result. The printer who is dishonest
to himself by giving away his time, and the time of
his hands, and sells his stock for cost, will soon come
to grief. He is on a down hill grade.
Your book must be a valuable aid to the young
beginner — if he is a reading man, and is willing to try
and learn from the experience of those longer in the
trade, who have met success. One serious trouble
with young printers — and for that matter, many older
ones— is that they will not read up. They ignore the
company of other printers. They will not join "The
Typothetae." They do not read its "Annual Reports."
They do not read the trade journals. They do not care
for such books as you and Mr. DeVinne and others
have written for their instruction. They are selfish, and
imagine every other printer must be selfish, hence they
will not associate with them, not realizing they are the
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SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS. 269
only ones who must come to grief. Every successful,
up-to-date master printer is the friend of every new
beginner, and is glad to lend them a helping hand and
a kind word of encouragement.
1 am sure "The master printers who realize that
there is a practical side to the printing art, and who
desire to know the surest methods of making profits/'
will certainly welcome your coming book with joy.
CHAS. H. COCHRANE.
The way to make money in the printing business is
to collect considerably more for your work than it costs
to turn it out. The reason why so many printers do
not do this seems to me to be that they are deluded
as to the cost of production. No man would buy coal
at $4 a ton, handle it at an expense of $i, and sell it
at $5 and think that he was making money; but that
is about the way a great deal of the production of
printing is managed.
When every job printer can be brought to realize
that the labor is only a small item of the total cost in
doing a job printing business, and- very frequently ex-
ceeded by the aggregate of miscellaneous small expenses
on which he does not figure at all, there will be less
doing of work at or below cost. Let every master
printer remember that he has to make his own business
and profits, and that if Hustle & Bust are chopping
prices that is no reason why he should do a single job
at a rate that does not yield a fair profit.
1 think the job printing business a fairly good busi-
ness for the man who is a business man, but it may
be a very poor business for the man who is only a
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27O SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS.
good printer. Let the printer once definitely understand
that he must become a business man, and that being
a business man is as much of a trade as being a printer,
and that it is more necessary to the making of a profit-,
and there will be fewer failures in the printing business.
There is nothing in figuring on competitive work if
it is to go to the lowest bidder, since desirable jobs
seldom do go to the lowest bidder, because those
who give them out are afraid that the work will not be
done satisfactorily. It is usually a medium figure by a
good house that catches a large job on which a number
have estimated. The naming of a good price on a job
is almost sure to make the customer think that it will
be well done, and he wants that house to do the job.
Often he will simply take the figures of the lower
bidders and go to the highest and use the figures to
bear the price all he can, but at the same time with the
intention of leaving the job with this high-priced (i. e.
good) printer.
When we look among the master printers of our
acquaintance and note that those who are doirtg the
most business are also the ones who receive the highest
prices for their work, we should profit by the lesson.
The printer who once gets this thoroughly into his
head has reached a broad stepping-stone on the up-
ward path to success.
HENRY L. BULLEN.
MANAGER F. WESEL MANUFACTURING CO.
The question "How to Operate a Printing Office
Profitably?" will be asked so long as printing is called
for, and will always remain unanswered except .to
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SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS. 27 1
those who answer it for themselves. Success in print-
ing business, and in other businesses, is an art that
cannot be taught academically — it rests on capacity,
courage and good judgment inherent in proprietor and
manager. Find your man, success follows. Profits are
obtained by a knowledge of cost; the courage which
adds sufficient profit to cost, based on well defined
rules and percentages; and good judgment in applying
the rules and percentages. To satisfy the customer is
the objective. The customer demands good value, and
profit is as much a part of value as the actual cost of
material and labor. The customer expects to pay the
profit, but likes the profit-pill sugar-coated. He who
has the art of sugar-coating that pill and at the same
time keeps the pill big enough is on the road to
success. How to do it? Tis a prescription unwritten
— a gift of the Gods. Would that all printers were
successful; but, if this be not granted, would that those
who do not make profits could cease to ascribe their
losses to the sins of their competitors. You can no
more teach a printer to succeed in business than you
can teach a salesman to sell successfully, or a lawyer
to plead convincingly; nevertheless, as experience is
neccessary to the complete development of the three
inherent business virtues of a business man, the educa-
tional propaganda is necessary and valuable, especially
when it is so practical and convincing as in the pages
of your book. Such public-spirited labors deserve
applause, and the beneficial results are far reaching.
Your efforts to uphold the dignity of our important
industry, and to secure to the printer his just profits,
have placed the whole fraternity under obligations to
you.
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272 SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS.
NATHAN BILLSTEIN.
THE FRIEDEXWALD COMPANY, BALTIMORE, MD.
My experience in the printing business, which
began in the smallest way, has taught me that the
most important thing for a man to do, if he intends to
make money in it, is to adopt certain definite aims and
methods of accomplishing them, then adhere to these
absolutely; a periodical review of results should be made
and methods should be modified and improved as the
individual conditions and experience may require.
Looking backward, it is now perfectly plain to me
that often my prices were made too low only because
the real cost was not known, when adequate prices
could have been had for the asking. On the other
hand, my prices naturally were sometimes too high,
and business was lost which would have been very
profitable and which would have been the beginnings
of trade which has since grown to proportions of
magnitude in the hands of others.
Such success as 1 have achieved • has been gained
through the following things:
1. Doing good work and obtaining the
confidence of my customers by the interest
shown in the execution of their orders, and
close attention to business.
2. Charging the same prices when esti-
mates were not asked for as when they were.
3. Building up gradually a trade which
gave me the bulk of my orders without com-
petition.
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SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS. 273
4. Having my product carefully packed, so
that it reached my customers in convenient
form and in good order.
5. Avoiding "fillers" and cutting at the
trade of other printers.
6. Placing myself in the way of getting
orders for new work.
The fact that the business of printing is and
must be largely confined to locality, and the fact that
the concerns offering the lowest prices fail to monopo-
lize the business, point conclusively to the truth that
other things than the lowest prices secure the most and
the best of the orders.
Our patron saint is credited with the saying "Take
care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of
themselves; " adapting the phrase I might say, 'take care
of the profit on each job and the business will take
care of itself. '
JNO. W. CAMPSIE.
MANAGER PRINTING DEPARTMENT, EVENING WISCONSIN CO.
This is a subject that can only be handled intelli-
gently by those who have realized this longed-for result
in the conduct of their own business.
I am pleased to state that we have succeeded in
obtaining very satisfactory returns in the way of profit,
and believe that anyone can accomplish the same
result if they will pursue the proper course.
First: See to it that you have the best machinery
you can secure that is adapted to the class of work
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274 SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS.
you do, and do not have any more presses than you
actually require to handle the work.
Second: Secure the best pressmen you can obtain,
even if you have to pay them an advance price over
the regular scale, and provide a well-lighted and con-
veniently arranged press room for them.
Third: Equip your composing-room with a care-
fully selected stock of type, borders, labor-saving rule,
metal furniture, etc., but be careful to purchase the type
in series — good, full cases to each sized letter, and don't
get too large a variety of type. Rather get larger fonts
of the faces that can be kept in constant use, and
replace it when worn out with new. Don't get fonts
that are so nearly similar that the customer doesn't
know the difference. Have a sufficient number of
chases and quoins and metal furniture so time will not
be lost in unlocking forms.
Fourth : Keep a careful record of all work done in
the various departments, and ascertain the exact cost
of hand composition, presswork, linotype work, etc.
Don't take anyone's word for it, but investigate for your-
self. Remember that on every job you do there are
many items of expense that enter into it aside from those
that appear on the surface that must be included in an
expense account to be added to the other costs. Find
out what your expense is by taking all the items of
"unproductive labor," for one year, such as foremen,
superintendent, stockmen, proof readers, copy holders,
etc., rent, fuel, light, insurance, interest on investment,
depreciation, repairs, commission, telephones, telegrams,
travelling expenses, etc., etc., and dividing it by the
amount of the business done during the same period,
this will represent a certain percentage (not less than
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SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS. 275
twenty-five) which is an actual cost, and must be added
to costs before adding any profits.
Fifth : Never allow an estimate of any consequence
to go out without proving it. Figure the paper both
ways. That is, if you have 1,000 copies of a 128 page
catalogue size 6x9, first figure that you can get }2
pages to the sheet, or four sheets to the catalogue,
representing 4,000 sheets or eight reams. Then figure
that each form will require 500 sheets work and turn,
or eight forms, requiring 4,000 sheets or eight reams —
thus proving that your paper is correct. When there
are solid cut forms, allow for the amount of ink used,
and don't be afraid to consult your pressmen as to the
probable amount to be used, and see if their estimate
is in keeping with your own.
Sixth: Take a personal interest in all work en-
trusted to your care and impress the customer with the
fact that you are giving him your best efforts, and the
benefit of your skill and experience. Make your work
of a higher grade and possess more originality and
character than your competitor's, and he will soon
realize that your work creates business for him — brings
about the results he sought to obtain. He will have
confidence in you, and will be willing you should make
a fair profit for your skill and ability.
Seventh : Meet all your obligations promptly. Have
a certain date on which to pay all bills, and take ad-
vantage of discounts wherever possible. Keep your
business office clean and attractive, and have samples
of your work neatly framed and hung about the walls.
See that clerks are courteous and efficient and are
cleanly in their attire. Use tact and judgment in
handling your customers and be fair and honest with
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276 SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS.
all your competitors, never allowing yourself to speak
illy of them.
These are a few of the elements that will tend to
make a success of the printing business, and give the
employer a fair return on the money he has invested.
But it also requires constant personal supervision, and
everlasting vigilance to cut off all leakages.
S1GMUND ULLMAN.
SIGMUND ULLMAN CO., INK MAKERS.
"IVattfj water \ everywhere and not a drop to drink."
Prosperity everywhere, but none for the printer.
This is the complaint 1 have heard at every meeting of
the N. Y. Typothetae 1 have attended, and at the con-
vention in New Haven. What can be done to improve
the condition of the printing trade — is the question
which has been argued for years. I have been requested
by Mr. Paul Nathan, the author of this book, to render
my opinion on the subject.
It appears to me that the printing business is poorest
in the larger and largest cities of the United States,
and many causes combine to make it so. One of the
principal causes is the fact that the majority of printers
are not business men. They do not realize that printing
to-day, or at least 95 per cent, of it, is a manufacture,
and not an art. To-day it is an art to manufacture the
best printing at the lowest price. The manufacturer
of to-day must in the first place have up-to-date
machinery, and furthermore, must be an expert in the
purchase of all materials he requires. He must be fully
posted as to the market value of everything he buys.
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SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS. 277
Nine-tenths of all printers know only what they pay
for their materials, but they do not know what they
could be bought at. They leave this most important
question in the hands of subordinates, it being simply
a question of luck whether or not these trusted buyers
are dishonest, ignorant or perhaps both.
In a great number of printing establishments not
a pound of ink will be used, unless some one is paid
for using it. When he is paid for using ink, he will
gradually get paid for everything admitted into that
establishment, from a web press down to the latest
novelty. It is well-known that the laboring classes
have always strenuously opposed all inventions tending
to reduce cost of production. The inventor of the
steam engine encountered the same opposition as did
the inventor of the Linotype. When a buyer is paid
for using a certain firm's goods he considers it his duty
to keep out everybody else's. No printer can do a
competing business to-day unless he has the ability to
buy all his materials at the lowest prices at which
they can be bought. The printers of the large cities
are simply being robbed every day.
A large quantity of printing which was formerly done
in large cities now goes to such printers in smaller cities
where the proprietors have time to attend to their
business. The printers in New York have not got
time to attend to their business. They are always in a
hurry. They will spend a half-day making an estimate
for a customer for a twenty-dollar job, but when a
salesman comes to see them, who could probably save
them thousands of dollars per year and put them in a
position to better compete, he will not be received.
One of the greatest bug-bears for a printer is the
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278 SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS.
estimate ; and it is so, because when an estimate is
demanded the printer imagines that he has got to
make the lowest price, and if he does he will get the
job. If he makes a low estimate and does not get the
job he thinks some one else gave a lower estimate,
and the next chance he gets to estimate on that job
he will estimate still lower. 1 think this is a great
mistake. Most customers who ask for an estimate,
ask for it because they have not the slightest idea what
the job is worth, and want to find out ; and 1 further-
more think that the printer who gives the lowest
estimate will not get the job, because it is too low,
and the customer is afraid the job will not be properly
done. In some cases the customer has a certain printer
in view to whom he is going to give this job, and
estimates of other printers are simply used to keep the
favorite printer within certain limits, and he in most
cases will get the job anyway, and probably at a
much higher price than the lowest estimate. 1 would
suggest that employing printers unite and agree to
make a charge of $5 or $10 for giving an estimate.
Why should a printer spend sometimes days of time
and go to expense to establish the fact for some
customer of some other printer that he is paying too
much for his work. If it is not worth $5 or $10 to a
customer to get an estimate he ought not to ask for it.
There may be some other causes working towards
the entire ruin of the printing business of New York
and other large cities, but the ones 1 have described
strike me as being the principal ones.
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CHAPTER XXIX.
THE RELATION OF PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES TO
PROFIT IN THE PRESSROOM.
In no branch of the printer's craft has there been
greater advancement during recent years than in the
pressroom. Not only has the quality of printing im-
proved, but the speed and economy of production has
made such strides that in 1900 it is actually less costly
to do fine printing than it was to do common press-
work in 1880. A number of causes have combined to
produce this result. The tendency to build larger and
heavier cylinder printing presses has steadily increased,
as with each gain in size of machine the printer has
found that he could produce presswork more economi-
cally, and with increased heaviness of machines and
improved mechanical movements in the presses he has
secured greater and greater speeds, until now it is not
more difficult to drive a 44x65 cylinder press weighing
a dozen tons at a speed of 1,500 to 2,000 impressions
an hour, than it used to be to drive a pony cylinder of
one and a half tons at that speed.
The press-builders, who made these things possible
for the printer, went even further than present demands,
for they built cylinders that would run faster than men
could be found to feed them accurately. There are plenty
of hand feeders who will tell you that they can feed
sheets at from 1,500 to 2,000 an hour, but when they
come to be tested it turns out that they require to have
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28o PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES.
a small sheet, and not too much care for register, also
that they trip the impression frequently, and require
stoppages for rest, so that there is no particular gain in
belting the cylinders up to those speeds. On large sheets
requiring good register, a thousand perfect sheets an hour
is all that can be expected of good hand feeders, even
though the presses are belted at 1,300 to 1,500 an hour;
and the average product is certainly below rather than
above the thousand mark. The ability of high-class
two-revolution presses to maintain enduring speeds of
1,600 to 2,000 an hour in the larger sizes, and 2,000 to
3,000 in the smaller sizes, was the opportunity of the
automatic paper-feeder.
The " Economic" paper-feeding machine, which had
a long and successful record in supplying paper to ruling
machines and folding machines, was tested on printing
presses some years since, and found to be practical,
despite the more difficult character of the paper handled.
It was gradually developed and improved until its opera-
tion was so certain and automatic on all grades of paper
that it came to be accepted by many of the larger printers
of the country, who have added more and more feeding
machines to their plants, until now it is a common sight
to see large pressrooms where every cylinder press has
its automatic feeder attached.
Feeding machines have been regarded by some as
designed simply to save the time and labor of a man
feeder. They do a great deal more than that; in fact
that is only a small part of the economy which they
produce. It has been demonstrated by progressive
printers, who have put in a few "Economic" feeding
machines as a test, that the increase in production for
the presses is the greatest advantage, amounting to
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PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES.
28l
much more than the saving of the hand feeder's wages.
This increased production, combined with a saving of
at least one hand feeder to every two presses, together
The u Economic " Automatic Paper-Feeding Machine attached to a
Modern Drop-Roller Folding Machine
Courtesy of E. C. Fuller & Co.
with other economies, such as avoiding spoilage of paper,
make the machine one of the most profitable investments
ever offered to the printer. In these days no printer
having steady work for his cylinders can afford to
continue to run them with hand labor, any more than
he can continue to run his job presses by foot power.
A very little calculation shows that the automatic feeder
is simply indispensable to profit earning, and that the
pressrooms which are the last to get into line with the
new order of machinery are likely to drop into the
sheriffs hands because of their lack of enterprise and
foresight.
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282 PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES.
A comparison of the cost of operating two cylinder
presses by the old and by the new method is very
edifying in this connection. Suppose we have two
40x60 modern two-revolution cylinder presses: With hand
feeding the cost of operating per week in a large city
will be $20 to %22 for a pressman, and $12 each for two
feeders, and $45 to $55 for general expenses (which
differ with conditions and the way printers calculate),
but say a total of $100 cost for the week's run on the
two machines. A high average for the production from
the machines will be 100,000 impressions, which the
printer ought to sell for $150, leaving a margin of $50
profit on the week's work.
Let us assume that with "Economic" feeders the
production is increased only 20 per cent., though
there are printers who testify to much larger gains.
This will give us a product of 120,000 impressions which
will sell for $180, a gain of $30. But this is not all the
gain, because the cost of operating has been less. Instead
of the item of $24 for hand feeders' wages, we have an
item of $10 for a helper, to which we must add $5 for
interest, (calculated at 10 per cent.) on the cost of the
feeding machines. This shows a saving of $9 in cost,
or a total of $91 instead of $100 for the week's production.
Putting the result in tabular form for easy understanding,
we have —
Cost of operating two cylinders one week by
hand feeding $100.00
The product of 100,000 impressions sells for 150.00
Profit by hand feeding $50.00
Cost of operating two cylinders one week by machine
feeding $91.00
The product.of 1 20,000 impressions sells for 180.00
Profit by machine feeding $89.00
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PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES. 28?
Thus it appears that on only 20 per cent, increased
production the profit is nearly doubled. If the increased
product be 27 per cent, the profit is fully doubled.
Think how much this means to the printer!
Another way of looking at it is this: There are 25
working days in a month. The printer who owns
"Economic" feeders gains enough in speed to free his
presses for five or six days in each month, say a gain
of 70 days in the year, that he can sell, and yet have
a less cost than before. At the very moderate price of
$12 a day for the product of a press this means $840
more to be added to his annual receipts if he is clever
enough to find the work for the unoccupied hours.
The saving of paper stock has not been figured in
the above calculations. The feeding machine saves at
least five-sixths to nine-tenths of the spoilage. It is not
uncommon for the printer to handle papers worth $4 to
$12 a ream, or to run $75 to $150 worth of paper
through a cylinder in a day, and In such cases the saving
on the spoilage becomes a large consideration. On color
work the saving is enormous, as the register with auto-
matic feeding is simply absolute, and the loss by spoiled
sheets practically nil. Even on cheap stock the automatic
feeder will commonly save enough paper to pay a large
interest on the investment.
We have gone into this detail to show the printer
that it is not the feeder's wages saved that makes the
4 ' Economic " paper-feeding machines so profitable, but
that it is the increased capacity that gives the real profit.
The press may or may not be run at a faster belt-speed
with the automatic feeder, but it runs continuously,.
while the hand feeder is always stopping. With an
automatic feeder, when you decide on the speed at which
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284 PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES.
you will belt the press you decide also very nearly its
capacity. With hand feeding, when you run 1,700 an
hour, you get only 1,200 or 1,300 perfect sheets an hour.
With the automatic feeder you get the benefit of the 1,700
an hour speed.
There are minor items of economy in the use of the
automatic feeding machines. The press does not run
idly to tripped impressions^ nor is it stopped and started
nearly so often, so that the wear and tear on the machine,
and the charges for repairs, composition rollers, and for
oil, etc., are all reduced quantities. These are small
things, but they are mentioned here to show that the
conditions are all in favor of the automatic feeder as
opposed to hand feeding.
Another way of calculating the profit to be gained by
the use of the " Economic " automatic feeding machines
is this: A plant of six large two-revolution cylinders
equipped with automatic feeders has the same producing
capacity as an eight-cylinder plant without the feeders,
and the saving in help with the former is one pressman
and five helpers or feeders, which at New York city
rates means $80 a week economy in wages. Add to
this another $80 for saving of stock, floor space, power
and minor expenses, and you have a clear saving of
$8,000 a year on the plant of six presses with automatic
feeders, as opposed to the eight-machine hand fed plant,
both plants being of the same capacity, and supposed
to run with full work. There is a further advantage in
the six-machine automatic feeding plant, in that if a rush
of orders involves night labor at a price and a half, this
price and a half has to be paid to only three pressmen
and three helpers, instead of four pressmen and eight
helpers, thus enabling the management to do night work
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PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES.
285
profitably, something that seldom can be done under the
old conditions. The machines not only do not charge
any price and a half, but actually cost much less at night,
"Economic" Automatic Feeding Machine attached to Stop-Cylinder
Press with Front Delivery
Courtesy of E. C Fuller St Co.
as there are no extra charges of floor space, insurance,
etc., to figure against them.
The superintendent of a large establishment using the
" Economic " paper-feeding machines figures the savings
in this way: " Under the old system my cost was $10
per day per cylinder press, take them big and little as
they ran through the plant. With the new system my
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286 PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES.
cost is $9 per day per press. Under the old system my
presses used to earn $i i a day, or $25 a month of profit.
Under the new system I find my presses produce so
much more that they earn $14 a day, or $125 a month
of profit each. The old system yielded .9 per cent,
profit on the work done, and 15 per cent, on the
capital invested. With the automatic feeders, and
plenty of work for nine months in the year, 1 make
35 per cent, on the work done, and am making 50
to 60 per cent, on the capital, and 1 can keep this
up until my competitors all put in feeding machines,
when I suppose competition will lower the rate/'
This illustrates the great saving in profits possible
with automatic feeders. When the production is in-
creased 30 per cent, the profits increase in a much
greater ratio. If present work yield 10 per cent, profit
on the capital, an increased production of 10 per cent,
means doubling the profit, or $2,000 of profit where
before there was but $1,000. This is the secret of the
tremendous growth of the plants that employ the
" Economic " feeding machines.
Turning from the financial to the practical side of
the paper-feeding problem we find many interesting
advantages in their use. Take the loading of the paper,
which may be unpacked in the stock room right on to
trucks, and piled up six feet high or more, often
20,000 sheets at a time. The trucks may then be run
directly into the feeding machine, and stay there until
the last sheet is fed, thus avoiding all rehandling of the
paper stock. The machines will feed anything, from
the flimsiest of cheap news, or the thin book paper
known as Bible paper, to cardboard, and with equal
facility. They will supply paper to cylinder presses at
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PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES. 287
any speed up to 4.000 an hour, and on disk ruling
machines have been run at double and triple that speed.
They permit the press to be run at its highest durable
speed, which is almost always more than the hand
feeder can maintain. The mechanism is such that the
register is absolute and unvarying. The sheet of paper
is brought down gently against the front guides by the
propelling of tapes, and end register is obtained by an
end gripper, that takes the paper anywhere within two
inches, and brings it to the exact point desired. As
each sheet is handled in precisely the same way under
the same conditions, each lies against the guides with
the same pressure, and thus absolute register is secured.
There is a serious waste in hand feeding of book
and magazine sheets that later go to the folding
machines, owing to the fact that the hand feeder fails
to register all his sheets correctly in going through the
press, and when they come to be fed to the modern
rapid drop-roller folders, which use the same margins
of the sheet as were used on the press for registry, the
inaccuracy of the first feeding puts the pages out of
centre at the folder, though the folder be accurately
fed. As most folding machines are now constructed to
handle two or four signatures at once, the result of an
error in feeding at the press spoils a full sheet of two
or four signatures at the folder. This form of spoilage
or loss is particularly noticeable where perfecting presses
are used, for on these the sheet always backs, whether
correctly fed or otherwise; consequently the hand feeder
knowing that the pressman cannot readijy tell whether
his sheets are accurately or inaccurately fed, naturally
grows careless, and so allows a much larger number
of sheets to go in slightly out of register, thinking that
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288 PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES.
nobody will ever notice them, or, if they do, that the
errors will not be brought home to him. The sheets
then go to the bindery, where the errors in feeding at
the press result in irregular margins, which are very
liable to get into the books or magazines, and be dis-
covered at a later date, causing the return of the books
to the printer, to have the signatures torn out and
replaced, with no end of nuisance and expense.
All this sort of difficulty is avoided by the use of
the "Economic" feeding machines on both presses and
folders. They can be relied upon to deliver the sheets
accurately any time and all the time, and as the sheets
come from the press all alike there is no loss or
wastage discovered at the folder, or worse yet, after
the sheets are bound up and perhaps delivered to the
customer. In color work, where there are say ten or
twelve impressions on one sheet, as often occurs in
lithographic printing, there is sure to be a delivery of
all-perfect sheets to the customer, when " Economic"
feeding machines are used, instead of a very large per-
centage of slightly-out-of-register sheets, which is usual
where the work is hand fed, because the printer cannot
afford to throw them away. When it comes to feeding
a thousand sheets through a press twelve times by
hand, the spoilage becomes a tremendous item, as the
percentage of inaccuracy is multiplied by twelve. The
register of the "Economic" feeders being absolute,
there is no spoilage worth mentioning.
A little reflection will show the mechanical reasons
why the automatic feeder so certainly increases the
product over hand feeding. The man feeder has to
stop once in so many hundred sheets to put up a new
lift of paper, and roll or comb it out. This involves a
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loss every time of certainly seventy-five to one hundred
impressions. Then he must spoil the top and bottom
sheet of each lift by smutting in handling, and in
printing on both sides that usually means four sheets
to the lift. The average feeder requires to stop at least
once on a lift, either to comb out his paper a little
more or to turn down some corners, and if the press
is making good speed he will trip the impression or
stop two or three times from other minor causes.
Then he will deliberately quit to get a drink of water,
or to talk to somebody, or for any one of a score of
other things that come up many times in the course of
a day. In hand feeding there is yet a farther loss
because of the breaking in of new feeders occasionally,
or the using of substitute feeders who are not as ex-
pert as the regular hands. The automatic machine
feeder overcomes every one of these drawbacks. It
starts in at the best speed at which the press is capa-
ble, and keeps up the work hour after hour, never
tiring, never faltering. If the paper is torn or faulty it
automatically stops the press and trips the impression,
so that no damage results, and there is no more loss of
time than there would be if a hand feeder was manip-
ulating paper not in condition to be fed to the press
— in fact, not so much, for the hand feeder sometimes
gets confused when his paper goes wrong, and lets the
press take an impression on the tympan, whereas the
automatic feeder trips the impression and puts on the
brake with certainty, so that there is no such thing as
offsetting on the tympan by reason of skipped sheets.
The great stack of paper that can be piled on the
4 'Economic" automatic feeder at one time not only
saves the putting up of lifts as detailed, but renders it
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PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES. 29 1
easy to keep the press moving during the entire nine
working hours, as the stockman can be employed to
load up the trucks over night so that the stock is there
ready to be operated upon the instant the whistle blows
for starting up the power. The paper is fed from the
top of the pile, and although the pile may be six or
seven feet high and very heavy, yet it is raised auto-
matically and fed upwards so that the top sheet is
always at the correct level.
Electricity does not interfere with the correct move-
ments of the paper in the "Economic" feeding machines
because the sheets are not combed out (a process that
tends to gather electricity) but raised one by one from
the pile and moved on the air. The method is largely
that of the hand feeder, except that the labor of combing
out the paper is saved, and the sheet is lifted at the two
rear corners instead of the two end corners. The hand
feeder draws the sheets back to get the air under them,
and the automatic feeder lifts the corners and blows the
air under.
A record of 37,000 sheets run without a stop or hitch
has been made by the "Economic" automatic paper-
feeding machine. This continuous smooth running is
obtained by a perfection of safety devices that counteract
the tendency to irregularity of action arising from the
uncertain condition of a pile of unprinted paper. These
feeders operate without any error or uncertainty as long
as the paper is in proper condition, and when the paper
is wrong for any reason the machine, is automatically
stopped so that the attendant can make the paper right.
If two sheets are so glued together that one pulls the
other to the guides of the press, a little electrical detector
discovers the added sheet, and throws mechanism into
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operation to move the belt-shifter and put on the brake.
The same thing occurs when a corner is turned down,
or when a sheet is so torn or mussed that it could not
go through the press without danger of getting on the
rollers. Thfcre is no missing of sheets to offset the
tympan.
It is an inspiring sight to one not familiar with auto-
matic feeders to go through a large pressroom so
equipped. The first thing that strikes one is the large
number of machines that are running, and the small
number of men about. The force in the pressroom is
cut in two, and even then the men have little to do. To
see a great two-revolution, or a perfecter, running steadily
along at high speed, and nobody paying any attention
to it, nobody near, is at first a shock to the printer-visitor,
who thinks that surely something must go wrong with
the combination; but after a while wonder gives place
to familiarity with the situation, and he says to himself:
"Well, that is great! Why don't we have them in our
place? Certainly it doesn't cost much to do printing
when the machines run themselves."
Owing to simplicity of adjustments and to absence
of suction devices the "Economic" feeding machines
are adapted to all classes and grades of paper used in
printing. Various inventors have tried to perfect ma-
chines to feed paper by lifting the top sheet by suction.
There is always uncertainty whether the suction will
lift one or two sheets, and when the weight or quality
of paper is changed the suction also has to be adjusted
to a nicety at great loss of time, before it is approxi-
mately right for the changed paper. As a result those
experienced with this class of machinery have given up
suction as impractical, and it has been entirely ex-
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PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES.
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eluded from the mechanism of the " Economic " feeding
machines.
There is no grade of paper so difficult to feed that
it cannot be handled better and cheaper by these ma-
44 Economic" Automatic Feeding Machine as applied to a Ruling
Machine
Courtesy of E. C. Fuller & Co.
chines than with hand feeding. The changes from one
size of paper to another involve only the shifting of
the buckling devices and blowers, which is about the
same work as shifting the tapes on a tape-delivery
press. When the automatic feeders were first brought
into use it was supposed that they were fitted only
for rather long runs, but in practice it is found that
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294 PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES.
users apply them for all runs of half a thousand or
more. In other words the saving of time and paper
in running five hundred impressions is enough to
make it worth while to adjust the automatic feeder for
use. If there is a run of only a hundred or so, and it
is desired to dispense with the automatic feeder for that
job, it in no way interferes with the putting up of a
lift and supplying the sheets by hand.
The firms using the " Economic " automatic feeding
machines have been liberal in publishing praises of
their merits. Very many of them express surprise after
installing the machines at the increase in their product,
which is more than they expected. It is noteworthy
that those who order one or two feeders almost invari-
ably order more within a few years, either because they
desire to increase the output and economy of their
remaining cylinder presses, or because their business
has grown, and demands more presses with automatic
feeding machines.
It is of interest in this connection to note just what
purchasers and users of the " Economic " feeding ma-
chines say about them. The Ladies' Home Journal is
fed by them, and the owners, The Curtis Publishing
Co., in a letter to E. C. Fuller & Co., say :
" You know how we feel toward your machinery, as is
evidenced by our recent order for feeders."
This order was for an additional eighteen machines.
The Baker-Vawter Co., of Chicago, say :
" The register of the work is very much better than hand
fed work; in fact, in this particular there is no comparison.
On the point of production, we find that the proportion is
about seven to five; or, in other words, if a hand fed press
produces 50,000 impressions in a week, a machine fed press
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PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES. 295
on the same class of work will produce 70,000 impressions in
a week. We do not see how we could get along without
them, either tor our presses or for our ruling machines."
On July i, 1897, Ginn & Co., of Boston, wrote :
" We have eight of our printing presses equipped with the
' Economic ' paper-feeding machines, and it affords us pleas-
ure to testify to the merit of the machines. We regard them
as a complete success, both on our printing presses and fold-
ing machines. We have found them satisfactory in every
way and a great improvement over hand feeding. By their
use we get a large increase in production, better register,
and a saving in labor and the wastage of sheets."
Since writing this Messrs. Ginn & Co. have installed
or placed orders for a total of thirty-one "Economic"
machines.
The well-known Indianapolis printer, William B.
Burford, writes as to his first experience with one of
the machines:
" We have had little or no trouble since starting it, and
are getting fully twenty-five per cent, more product by the
press than we had at hand feeding, besides getting better
feeding and quite a saving in waste in paper."
At a later date, he writes :
"We now have four of your 'Economic' feeders in our
establishment, some of which have been running about seven
years, on folding machines, ruling machines and printing
presses. The last one you put on our Miehle Pony has
worked without interruption for more than a year, and we
regard it as one of the most economical investments that we
have made. We ran 100,000 1-8 sheet, 25x38 dodgers on
this press a short time ago in seven hours, working five at a
time, with an average speed of 3,000 per hour, and made
. three changes in the form within that time. We consider the
feeder a money-maker. We shall put one of these feeders on
our next fifty-six inch press that we add to our plant."
Perry, Mason & Co., of the Youth's Companion,
Boston, were among the early users of the "Economic"
feeders for folding machines, and say :
"The saving made by their use is very great, and we
should not know what to do without them."
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PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES. 297
The S. S. McClure Co., wrote in September, 1897:
"We have the 'Economic' feeding machines on both
folders and presses and think them the best on the market as
to register, speed, and ease of operation.''
Since that time the McClure plant has added thirteen
more feeding machines, operating all its cylinder presses
in this way.
The firm of Berwick & Smith, operating the large
plant at Norwood, Mass., wrote this when they began
to use the " Economic " feeders:
" The two automatic paper-feeding machines attached to
two of our presses have been running continuously now for
over a month. They have given perfect satisfaction in every
particular."
The truth of the last remark is evidenced by the
receipt of orders for seven more feeders since the first
installment.
The Thos. Knapp Printing & Binding Co., wrote in
1897:
11 We found this machine of very great service to us during
the late presidential campaign, as we were able to out-class any
of our competitors on daily production of the literature at that
time being put out by the Republican Committee, this one
machine producing for us over 100,000 sixteen-page pamphlets
per day. This work was on light, cheap paper, size 38x50,
and the product of this particular folding machine, if fed by
hand with this large, flimsy sheet, we calculated would not
have been over two-thirds of the amount, perhaps less. This
is only one instance of what the feeding machine will do when
you have work for it."
Newspaper offices find them useful, too. W. T. Baker,
publisher of the Utica Saturday Globe, writes concerning
a machine used by them on a rapid drop-roller folder:
" The ' Economic ' paper-feeding machine which we have
had in our office for more than a year, feeding seventy-five sheets
to the minute, has given the best of satisfaction, and is the wonder
of all who have seen it."
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2<)8 PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES.
The Boorum & Pease Co., of New York, write thus
to Messrs. Fuller & Co. :
"We now have nine of your" feeders in use and find that
they do all that you claim for them."
And so say scores and hundreds of others.
The popularity of the feeding machine is evidenced
by the increase of the plants of the Economic Machine
Company, the manufacturers. Messrs. E. C. Fuller &
Co., the selling agents, state that the shops, in Hartford,
Brooklyn and New York, have all been enlarged several
times, and that during 1899 their capacity was increased
six fold to meet the tremendous demand, arising from
the fact that the printers of the country have been
awakened to the enormous advantages arising from the
use of these machines.
While the descriptions herein of feeding machines
have been confined principally to their use on cylinder
presses, let none suppose that there is any such limit
to their employment. Folding machines have simply
doubled and trebled in value and usefulness since the
automatic feeder was applied to them.
The "Economic" machines have been for years in
successful use on drop-roller folding machines, and are
so employed in nearly all the large book binderies as
well as the magazine and periodical binderies in the
United States. On this class of work there is an even
greater increase of speed than there is on printing
presses, because the folders are capable of more rapid
operation. From 30 to 50 per cent, is the usual calcula-
tion of the increased output resulting on folders from the
attachment of the automatic feeders. This attachment
is accomplished entirely without mutilation of the fold-
ing machine, and although the feeding mechanism is
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PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES. 2<#
not as capacious as that usually connected with print-
ing presses, yet they will accommodate from 5,000 to
1 5,000 sheets of paper at one time. There is a slight
gain in floor space, as the feeding machine takes up
less room than the hand feed table.
The most remarkable speeds that have been attained
with the "Economic" feeders have been on disk ruling
machines. Only with the automatic feeders has it been
possible to obtain the full capacity of modern ruling
machines. Accurate work is done on them not un-
commonly at as great a speed as 8,000 an hour, and
in one instance a speed record was made of over
12,000 in an hour, just to see what could be accom-
plished. Even at this speed there was no loss of
register, or requirement for frequent stoppages, though
it is faster than the machines were designed to run.
The feeding machine is readily attached to striker or
feint line ruling machines, either pen or disk, single,
double or quadruple, and the operation is so simple as
not to require attention from the ruling machine attend-
ant after the paper is placed upon the piling board.
The adjustment is so very easy that it is economical to
use the automatic feed for runs of only a hundred or
two sheets. From ten to twelve thousand sheets can
be placed upon the feeder at one time when operating
with a ruling machine.
On calendering machines also, and several special
machines the "Economic" automatic feeder has been
used with marked success.
Not the least of the advantages to be derived from
automatic feeding machines is the comparative immunity
from the strike nuisance that they insure. Hand feeders
in the large cities have shown a deplorable tendency
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3<X> PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES.
to go on strike for more wages where they find an
office filled with rush work. The helpers and press-
men never strike in offices where the automatic feeders
are used, for several reasons. In the first place, they
recognize that they have light work and soft jobs,
which they want to keep; in the second place, so few
men are required to run a large pressroom so equipped
that the men see readily how easy it would be for the
employer to fill their places, and that they have not the
strength of numbers that strikers have in a hand feeding
pressroom; in the third place, the saving is so large
that it is practical to use well-paid pressmen, who are
placed more for the responsibility than for the actual
work that they perform, and who are naturally too
well satisfied with their places to make any trouble;
in the fourth place, the helpers do not require any
special training as do feeders. They have very little to
do beyond handling rollers and occasionally starting
the machine. In short, with automatic feeders the
principal work of the pressroom is done by the ma-
chines and not by the men, and machines happily do
not go on strike.
There can no longer be any question as to the
preferability of the automatic machine for feeding,
under any and all conditions, and for all classes of
work. Those firms that use them first naturally will
make the most money, while those that wait until the
loss of their work compels them to put in the machines
to meet the competition, will get the small end of the
profit in the universal change just inaugurating in the
pressrooms and binderies of the world.
Incidentally it may be of interest to remark that the
" Economic" automatic feeding machines were produced
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PAPER-FEEDING MACHINES. 30I
and developed by an expenditure of some $150,000 in
money, and a measureless amount of patience and brain
matter; that they were built by high-class mechanics
under the latest methods, with jigs and special tools, so
that all parts are perfectly duplicated, making repairs
easy and inexpensive, no expert work being essential
to the fitting or attaching of a new part.
E. C. Fuller & Co., of 28 Reade Street, New York,
through whose courtesy the illustrations to this article
have been obtained, are entitled to the major portion
of the credit for having brought the paper-feeding machine
to its present standard of usefulness to the printer, and
for having afforded the opportunity to make a profit in
many a pressroom that before failed to show a satis-
factory balance on the right side of the ledger
CHAPTER XXX.
TIMELY HINTS.
The experience of the gentlemen whose contribu-
tions follow are well worthy of careful reading by every
printer. They are men who have studied the business
end of the printing business from various points of view,
and who have gleaned much knowledge as to why
many printing offices fail to pay a profit. Each has his
own characteristic way of making his points, and .each
has some new thought worthy of attention and serious
consideration, though the consensus of opinion tends
all in the one direction — that practical common sense
methods are essential to profit earning.
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y>2 TIMELY . HINTS.
J. CLIFF DANDO,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Aim to do the best work. Be accommodating.
Promptness — as a policy.
Do not expect to get every order in sight.
Mind your own business — not a competitor's.
Study and determine your own cost — accurately —
add a profit and quote your price fearlessly.
Depend upon " friends" to tell you when it is
necessary to "cut" — "sharks" will tell you lies.
If you are positive as to cost, it will enable you to
detect both the friend and the liar — or, that your com-
petitor is a fool.
With this as a " backer, " work out your own
salvation and with ordinary horse sense in management
the result should be — a profit — even though it is a
scarce article.
If you are not positive as to your cost — quit!
F. L. MONTAGUE,
NEW YORK CITY.
The title of your book, "How to Make Money in
the Printing Business," has set many minds to work to
best answer the problem, and all undoubtedly with the
desire to open some "royal road "to accomplish the
desirable object of bringing the printing business into
line with other manufacturing, and on as profitable a
basis.
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TIMELY HINTS. JO)
There is no " royal road " to the accomplishment of your
problem, but it all resolves itself down to increasing the
price for work or reducing the cost of producing, or both.
In this machinery age, when great advancement is
being made in labor-saving devices and the cost of
work reduced, it is difficult, if not impossible, tc increase
the prices; but the profits can be increased by increasing
the product without increasing fixed charges and ex-
penses.
To my mind, therefore, the printer should pay more
attention to increasing product, which in ninety-nine
offices out of one hundred can be done without increas-
ing any expenses.
In other words — "Modern Machinery" — is my best
answer.
Some printers declare they cannot stand over their
pressmen with a gun to get the greatest product from
their presses every day, but so far as the absolute work
in the printing office is concerned there is nothing so
important.
With wages fixed, rent not lessening, non-producing
expenses of workmen, foremen, book-keepers demanding
an increase in their salaries, insurance and other inci-
dental expenses continuing and increasing, the science
of the printing trade is to get an increased product for
these fixed expenses.
The printer can no longer afford to pay rent and
labor on an Adams press, for example; neither can he
afford to pay labor and rent and cost of maintenance
on any obsolete press capable of producing only 6,000
to 7,500 sheets per day, when his competitors turn out
from 10,000 to 12,000 per day with no more expense
on more modern machines.
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304 TIMELY HINTS.
This extra amount of sheets printed, whatever the
price received for it, represents a clear extra profit, and
on large presses, work commanding $2.00 per thousand
will net an average of from $5.00 to $6.00 per day
extra profit, barring alone the extra cost of ink.
Multiplied by three hundred working days, it makes a
possible extra profit of from $1,500 to $1,800 per year;
and multiplying this again by the number of presses
employed will make a very large extra profit for the
year.
To further increase the product, the use of indi-
vidual electric motors will certainly add an average
of five per cent. This is done by the greater number
of speeds which can be given the press, making the
variation of not more than fifty per hour, ranging all
the way from 800 to 2,000 or more per hour, so that
the press can be run at a maximum speed, depending
entirely upon the class of work done.
With the use of cone pulleys the variation is too
great, and many jobs are printed running at the rate
of three hundred per hour less than what the job would
stand, and yet they cannot run at a higher speed, as
the next step on the cone pulleys would increase the
speed beyond what the job would permit; and the
greatest usefulness therefore of electric motors attached
individually to presses is by means of the numerous
and variable speeds obtained to secure to the printer
the maximum amount of product.
To still further increase the product of the press
comes automatic feeding machines. Presses have been
made to stand an increased speed, until they have a
capacity for product which surpasses the ability or the
willingness of the feeders.
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TIMELY HINTS. }0*>
Some printers can get an additional amount out of
their presses or out of their feeders by establishing a
day's run as a quid pro quo at 10,000, and all over that
run to earn a premium for the feeder.
The feeding machine has the advantage of feeding
as many sheets the last hour of the day as at the first
hour, and the increased product, by means of the
feeder running steadily, is 15 to 25 per cent. m
Therefore, to summarize as follows:
The use of modern presses increasing the
product over old presses 20 per cent.
The use of automatic feeding machines on
modern presses increasing the product ao "
The use of electric motors increasing product
estimated 5 "
Making a total, by the use of modern ap-
pliances of 45 per cent. *
Let any printer ascertain his product and let him
figure what an increased product of 45 per cent, would
mean, and there would be no need of his making an
effort to increase prices provided he could get work at
prevailing rates.
Now this increase in product of 45 per cent, is ac-
complished without adding a dollar to expense account
and is therefore a clear increase in profits.
Take for example an old press and old
appliances : a fair run on a large sheet
would be 7,500 per day; at $2.00 per
thousand, would equal $1 5.00
Less for labor, rent, non-producing expenses, etc. 10 00
Leaving a net profit per day of $5.00
Take an increased product of 45 per cent, or,
say, 12,000 at $2.00, would equal $24.00
Less labor, rent, etc., the same 10.00
Net profits per day $12.00
Increase in profits more than double. " ""
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306 TIMELY HINTS.
Continue this extra profit of $7.00 per day into
three hundred working days on every large
press, and there is a possible gain of. $2, 100.00
Therefore, the modem press, properly equipped,
is capable of earning in three hundred working
days ($13 per day) $3,600.00
Subject to a discount of one-third
when press is not running $1,200.00
Interest on investment, wear and tear,etc. 400.00 1 ,600 00
• Making net profits on each modern press $2,000.00
On old machine, profit per day, $5.00
equals per year $1 ,500.00
Less one-third, press standing $500.00
Interest on investment, wear and tear, etc. 250.00 750. 00
Net profits $750.00
Or, about one-third of what the modern
equipped plant will earn.
Multiply this by the number of cylinder presses in
the office and you have my solution to your problem.
At all events, how can the printer ignore modern
machinery and modern appliances and continue on
with the old obsolete tools and at the same time
wonder why he cannot make his business pay?
HENRY A. WISE WOOD
GENERAL MANAGER CAMPBELL PRINTING PRESS & MFG. CO.
" Typographitis n — The Cause of its Spread and a Remedy.
In my opinion established printers have more to fear
from competitors who are subsidized by the manufactur-
ing concerns from whom they purchase machinery and
supplies than from any other single source. They are
forced to compete with weak and struggling printers
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TIMELY HINTS. yf]
who are maintained with the very money which they
have paid for their machinery and material.
When a printer pays his supply house in cash, both
he and his supply house are doing business on a healthy,
and the only healthy, basis; when the supply house uses
the cash so received to furnish another printer with
materials on the credit system it breeds an unnatural
competitor for the cash paying printer out of the actual
cash which he has paid. Here we have the very germ
upon which the disease of " Typographies " feeds — the
credit system.
" Typographies " is the term 1 use to designate the
mania, which is possessed by every journeyman-printer,
to run a print shop ; and the machinery and supply
men, those willing angels who take any and all risks
to start an office, mix the dope that swells the journey-
man into the "employing printer," and thus are the
unfit established and kept on their feet by their backers,
the machinery and supply men, to compete with those
printing concerns who pay cash for their wants and must
therefore work at a margin of profit sufficient to enable
them to meet their bills promptly.
The poison of the credit system has so completely
permeated the printing business that it has become one
of the ragged-edge industries — an industry in which
invested capital has no sufficient protection, reputation,
no value reducible to dollars and cents, and in which
the element of permanence is very slight. And so long as
the credit system continues, so long will every established
printing house suffer from the disastrous competition of
the adventurer, the amateur, and the journeyman, all of
whom now get into the business, and for the most
part stay there, with the encouragement and support of
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303 TIMELY HINTS.
strong machinery and supply houses who are seeking
to extend their own business thereby, forgetful of the
fact that in so doing though its volume may increase,
yet the proportionate profit of their business will grow
smaller with the advent of each new concern.
If 1 were an established printer and paid cash for
my wants and had a particularly ugly competitor — one
who seemed always able to underbid and outconcession
me — I wouldn't quarrel with him, not a bit of it; 1
should put my finger on his press builder and his supply
man and they would soon grow to see the folly of
loaning my good money to my competitor in the shape
of plant, supplies, etc.
I am aware that many good concerns who came into
the business in the manner described are now established
and therefore beyond the need for a paternal press builder,
but 1 am warranted in saying, that for every concern so
starting that has become a credit to the industry there
have been countless others who lived for a little, or
continue now to hang on, with no benefit to themselves
and yet at a tremendous cost to those who had and
have to withstand a competition from them of the
deadliest character.
Where, in this struggle to survive, the unfit printer
secures one job he ruins the price of many others upon
which he has bid, and so the business of many printers
about him who are not in his desperate straits may
be poisoned by his mere existence. Such a case cannot
be treated directly, for no arguments brought to bear
upon a man so situated will serve to alter the conditions
which surround him. But to go to the root of the
matter, his backers must be found, and where possible,
made to feel their responsibility in the premises.
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TIMELY HINTS. )CX)
I sum up then with this: the disease of printerdom
is " Typographies;" the agents which promote its spread
are press builders and all supply men ; the remedy is to
watch the agents of infection and hold them directly
responsible for the existence of every unfit competitor —
then will there be no further need for a Paul Nathan to
lead printers out of the wilderness.
THE AMERICAN PRINTER
A Monthly Magazine Published at i 50 Nassau Street, New York,
by J. Clyde Oswald
The American Bookmaker (the name under which
The American Printer was originally published) was
founded in 1885, Jby Howard Lockwood, and for many
years was conducted in the interests of the book-
making, printing and binding trades. When Mr. Lock-
wood died in 1892, the ownership remained with Howard
Lockwood & Co. In February, 1897, J. Clyde Oswald
assumed the editorship, and the name was changed to
the Printer and Bookmaker. At the same time the
character of the publication was broadened, the illus-
trative features developed, and new writers added to
the staff of contributors. The interests of the printer,
and especially of the employing printer, were studied
and discussed, and soon became the main theme of the
publication. In the meantime the ownership had passed
to the Printer and Bookmaker Co., and in 1899, Mr.
Oswald secured a controlling interest, and now issues
The American Printer as editor and publisher.
During the period from 1897 t:> 1900, there was a
steady development, both in quantity and quality of
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310 THE AMERICAN PRINTER.
matter printed; the publication has doubled in thick-
ness, quadrupled in illustrative features, and is an
admirable example of the highest excellence in the arts
of the printer, illustrator and engraver. It has become
the recognized medium for exchange of intelligence
between the master printers of America, and in every
issue there may be found from one to half a dozen
contributions from printers and publishers of eminence
in the trade, evincing the interest they take in this
method of communicating with the craft. Its pages
have come to be recognized as reflecting the true senti-
ments and issues among the men who make the print-
ing trade what it is. DeVinne, Little, Morehouse, Hud-
son, Matthews, Lee, Nathan, Blanchard and many others
of equal prominence, who write for the elevation of the
printers' art and the prosperity of the trade, are to
be found among the contributors.
The departments include "Note and Comment/'
which is virtually editorial criticism of passing events.
Here are discussed existing issues and problems that
confront the printer in his vocation. The utterances are
frank and outspoken, seeking to give the truth as the
editor sees it, unhampered by narrow considerations.
The "Estimating Department " is unique in that it
seeks to educate the printer to figure up and not to
figure down, as has been the general tendency of dis-
cussions on estimating. It is an effort to assist the
printer to the making of better and more profitable
prices, to demonstrate how much work really costs,
and the folly of price cutting.
"Publicity for Printers " deals with the advertising
side of the printery. It has become recognized that the
business of a printing office can be developed enor-
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THE AMERICAN PRINTER. ^1 I
mously by clever methods of advertising, and an exchange
of thought on this subject is vigorously maintained.
The department is intended for the use of the printer
who advertises and wants to know how to make it
pay more, and for the printer who does not know how,
but who would advertise if he did know how.
A considerable amount of space is also devoted to
the interests of the photo-engraver, electrotyper, book-
binder and trades allied to printing, and the employers
in these callings mostly subscribe for and read The
American Printer.
The news of the trade for the current month is
always summarized or given in such detail as its impor-
tance warrants. The advertising pages contain announce-
ments by all the leading manufacturers of printers'
machinery and appliances, and of goods generally sold
to allied trades.
The subscription price of The American Printer is
%2 a year; on sale wherever printers' literature is sold,
or it may be had of type-founders and supply houses
generally.
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ADVANCE IN TYPESETTING MACHINERY.
A practical justifying typesetting machine is the
" long felt want" of every composing-room. The day
for hand composition has gone by; the three-man type-
setting machine has proved too costly in comparison
with a one-operator machine for producing line-slugs;
while the line slug machine has proved unsatisfactory
for a fine grade of work. The machine needed to fill
the gap is a typesetting machine proper, with such
automatic justification that it can be run at a high
speed by one man.
The Empire Typesetter has been recognized for many
years as the best machine for setting and distributing
foundry type, as it has given all the keyboard spefed that
the operator could finger, and provided automatic dis-
tribution that did not break the type. The machine
had but one fault — a second operator was required to
do the justification by hand. This fault has been
entirely overcome in the one-man justifying machine
which The Empire Machine Corporation is now offering
the printer. It is provided with a justifier that is
simple and compact, and that performs the whole
operation of automatically spacing out the line to
measure. The work is done directly in front of the
operator, where it is under his supervision at all stages,
so that every chance of error or accident is eliminated.
The spaces used are solid or non-springing, so that the
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ADVANCE IN TYPESETTING MACHINERY. 313
composed matter is in every respect the same as hand-
composed type matter, and may be corrected, electro-
typed or stereotyped exactly the same as hand-set type.
For these reasons the system of justification is superior
to other systems now being exploited, as each and all
of them present some objection or drawback or impose
some new condition involving difficulty for the printer.
The Empire justifying typesetting machine with
justifying attachment will produce more ems per hour
of high class, perfect composition than any other
machine on the market, and with the labor of a single
operator. The distribution is accomplished by a separate
machine, two of which can be run by a boy or appren-
tice. The labor cost of operating the machine is there-
fore the lowest possible. No machinist's attention is
required, as the mechanisms are all simple and do not
readily get out of order. There is no question but
that the mechanical parts of the Empire machines are
far simpler and more readily managed by unskilled labor
than those of any other machine of the sort.
In the first place, the arrangement of the keyboard
provides for rapid fingering by such a positioning of
the keys that the more common combinations come in
regular order from left to right, thus enabling an
operator to finger several characters in rotation with
adjacent fingers, almost as he would strike them with
a single pressure. Rapid fingering is further assisted
by relieving the keys of heavy work. When the
operator depresses a key, the very lightest touch is
sufficient, as the key simply opens a passage through
which a current of compressed air rushes to force a
pusher that thrusts out the required type from a
channel. The little reservoir of compressed air is kept
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314 ADVANCE IN TYPESETTING MACHINERY.
full by a simple arrangement resembling a bicycle
pump driven by the power applied to the machine.
When the type is pushed out it falls to place by
gravity down a transparent glass slide that enables the
operator to see just what is going on. The striking of
a space-key causes a mechanism to insert the thin end
of a wedge into the line. When as much type is
composed as will make a line, a line-key is touched,
and the line is at once carried away to be automatic-
ally spaced, while the composition proceeds. The
method of changing the wedges for spaces of the
proper justifying size is interesting, and takes place
within full view of the operator, the devices being of
the simplest character. The line is first carried from
the place of composition to a stop, which engages the
projecting ends of the first wedge in the line and stops
its movement directly under the discharge openings of
a space-rack, which contains a supply of spaces of the
different sizes. The temporary wedge space-bars are
first pushed further through the line, spreading it to its
full measure, and at the same time the space-rack is
automatically moved until the compartment containing
spaces of the proper thickness to replace the space-bars
is brought directly over the line. A plunger then pushes
a space down into the line at the same time that the
wedge is withdrawn. This operation is automatically
repeated until each wedge in the line has been with-
drawn and replaced by a space of the proper thickness.
The machine itself, without any attention whatever from
the operator, always selects spaces of the required
thickness to space out the lines uniformly and exactly.
Everything is automatic and proceeds smoothly, the
line being carried to its final position in the galley,
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ADVANCE IN TYPESETTING MACHINERY. 315
still within full view and within easy reach of the
operator, who can make corrections at almost any
stage of the work, without shifting from his position.
It is with these simple mechanisms, all arranged
within a small space, and operating without intricacy
or dependence upon electricity or complicated devices,
that the Empire machine does its work. It gives the
very best product, founders' type of any face, accurately
set and justified by one man, and accomplishes it with
less mechanism than any other machine. Because it
has few parts, all operating directly and within full
view, it becomes a practical, every day machine, the
sort that will stand to its work week in and week
out, never baulking or requiring the services of an
expert to keep it in order. It is to typesetting
machines what the Gordon has been to other job
presses, a success because of its easy running and
entire absence of causes for bothering, or pottering
around and putting in time without receiving results.
It sets type all the time, as many hours a day as there
is a man at the keyboard, causing no delays, and it
sets and justifies the type as it should be done.
The distributing part of the Empire machines has
been vastly improved and brought up to date. It now
unleads dead matter automatically, and can be run at
a rapid speed. The attendant has only to pack the
dead type squarely on the galley, and turn on the
power, and then to carry away the magazines as they
are filled. The face of the type is not submitted to
friction or any chance of battering or injury.
While the Empire machines are made with maga-
zine channels for definite sizes of type bodies, yet one
machine can be made to handle several sizes, as ten
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) 16 ADVANCE IN TYPESETTING MACHINERY.
point and nine point, both on a ten point body, and
eight point with a shoulder for leading. In this way
a considerable range is provided with a single machine,
and with two or more there can be had all the type
bodies likely to be required in a printing office. The
principal offices of The Empire Machine Corporation
are at 203 Broadway, N. Y.
PAPER JOGGERS AND ALARM COUNTERS.
=^
No printer having a cylinder press
can afford to be without a paper-
jogger. The cost is only $is to $20,
according to size, and by evening up the sheets as
they fall on the delivery table, it saves not only the
time of jogging up the paper by hand, but the spoil-
ing of such edges as protrude from the pile when the
paper is not jogged up. If a cylinder press is run all
day without a jogger, somebody must spend at least
two hours to jog up the sheets by hand, or there will be a
loss of possibly a dollar in spoiled paper. The best
joggers made are those of the pioneers in the business,
R. A. Hart & Co., 42 Lincoln St., Battle Creek, Mich.
They also make counters at from $3 to $15 each, with
alarms, and counters ringing automatically at 100 and
500; all of which are money-savers for the printer.
Their new $3 counter for small presses is the best on
the market.
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HOW DO YOU BUY YOUR INKS?
In an early chapter of this book the printer is urged
to see that he buys to advantage, for carefulness in
buying may add quite as much to a year's profits as
good selling. The printer buys machinery, type, paper,
and ink — less ink than any of the other goods, hence he
is most apt to order carelessly, paying little attention to
what he gets or what he pays.
Undoubtedly the correct policy for the printer is to
buy always the best inks that his papers will carry, and
to purchase them at the closest prices obtainable; but
the difficulty in carrying out this policy is that the
printer is usually wholly unable to know the quality of
the ink he buys until after it is in use and paid for.
He may assume that 6-cent news ink is better than
4-cent, and that one dollar book ink is superior to 50-
cent book, and yet he is often liable to pay six cents for the
inferior news and one dollar for the inferior book!
A few years ago a certain firm in a kindred line
decided to go into the ink business, and taking the name
of a foreman, which happened to be similar to that of an
ink manufacturer of long reputation, proceeded to adver-
tise in the most lavish manner, offering inks at very
moderate prices. They received orders almost by the
carload, from Maine to California, and for a time were
doing about one-fourth of the ink trade of the country.
But of course such heavy advertising expenses had to
be paid for in some way, and the only way for them
was to take it out of the quality of the ink, and the
barrels and barrels of coal tar and cheap petroleum that
went out attested to their ability in imposing upon the
printer. Of course that ink business collapsed, but the
printing trade as a whole should profit by the lesson,
which is to buy only of an ink house that has the trade
and confidence of large printing houses, and which does
not spend enormous sums in advertising its goods.
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}\ 8 HOW DO YOU BUY YOUR INKS?
Such an ink house is that of Philip Ruxton, at 290
Broadway, New York. His is a name seldom seen
upon the broad pages of the trade press, because he
prefers to put the cost of the advertising into the inks.
Upon his ledgers are to be found the names of some
of the largest and most conservative printers in the
United States, whose proprietors have learned that the
name Ruxton in inks means what Rogers does in
silverware, being a guarantee that the quality to fit the
price is always given. They have learned that a dollar
ink from Ruxton has a dollar's worth of value in it,
and so on with every grade and price. They do not
have to haggle about prices, or to test the quality of
every lot that comes into the place. They simply
decide what grade of inks they will use on certain work
and place the order with Ruxton, confident of the re-
sults. This sort of advertising is a slow kind, but it
is sure, and while the Ruxton inks are not as well
known as some, where they are known they invariably
head the list.
Ruxton inks are mixed on honor; he cannot afford
to mix them any other way, because he would ruin
the reputation already built. He sells inks in any quan-
tity, for any purpose of the printer or lithographer,
from ounce tubes of colored inks to hogsheads of news
inks, and at all prices, just as the customer orders, but
always with the Ruxton guarantee that the quality is
all that a careful management will allow for the price
charged. The printer who buys his inks knows that
he is buying wisely, and avoiding the nuisance of bar-
tering to secure a lower price, as the first price is
always the lowest, and invariably lower than he can
buy the same grade of any heavily advertised inks.
The stock carried is always large, so that prompt deliv-
eries are made. Every endeavor is made to adapt the
inks to any special papers required by the customer;
in fact the service is intelligent and satisfactory in every
way.
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3*9
PERFECTION WIRE STITCHERS.
These celebrated machines, manufactured by The J.
D. Morrison Co., are in use in printing-offices and book-
binderies all over the civilized world, many thou-
sands having been sold in the United States alone. No
office intending to do binding can be considered complete
without at least one of these machines.
Those known as the old style " Perfection," viz. :
"A," "C," "E," "F," "G," "H," and 4 ' No. 7" are too
well known to the trade to need any introduction or
explanation here. However, within the past few months
The J. D. Morrison Co. have placed on the market their
line of New Perfection Stitchers, Nos. 2. 4, 6, and 12.
These machines mark the highest development in their
class yet attained, and as their name implies are as
near Perfection as the human mind can devise.
The capacity of these machines vary on books or
pamphlets from two sheets to ^6-inch ; up to ij£-inch
in thickness may be stitched. The J. D. Morrison Co.
have departed entirely from the traditionary lines of
construction in making these machines, and have in each
of them new patented spring roll feeding devices, with
automatic adjustment to any size of wire, and new
patented cut-off and clinching apparatus.
The forming and supporting devices, also patented,
deserve special attention, as the forming is done separ-
ately, to save wear on the supporter, and the supporter
has a backward motion which leaves the front of the
machines entirely free to the operator.
The machines are made so that the parts are inter-
changeable, and no change of parts is required when
changing from one size of wire to another. Their
durability and small cost for maintenance is attested
by hundreds of the largest concerns in the world.
The recently established English, French and German
agencies for The J. D. Morrison Co., place 'them in a
position to supply European customers more directly
than heretofore.
The J. D. Morrison Co. are also the largest dealers in
bookbinders' and box makers' stitching wire in the United
States, and carry a complete stock of all the sizes both
round and flat, at their head office, 60 Duane Street,
New York City. Their wire is guaranteed in every
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^20 SUPERIORITY IN TYPES.
particular, and some idea may be had of the extent of
this branch of their business when it is known that
any ordinary month's sales will aggregate four hundred
million (400,000,000) stitches.
For prices and all particulars, apply to them direct
at the above address.
SUPERIORITY IN TYPES.
For nearly a century the Old New York Type Foundry
has been to the fore in the typefounding industry of
America, and as Farmer, Little & Co., and later as The
A. D. Farmer & Son Typefounding Company, it has
been second to none. Among its productions will be
found the largest collection of body type faces made by
any one foundry anywhere. The concern has been led
to produce so great a variety of body type faces, by the
numerous requests from time to time for special designs
for some particular work. Orders of this sort came un-
solicited because of the exceptional talents and expertness
of the designers and punch-cutters who have been trained
in the service of that foundry. As most of these body
faces have been cut in steel punches, they are the best and
sharpest known to the printers' art, far outranking the
faces reproduced by other processes. Owing to long ex-
perience in the making of alloys, this foundry has been
able to produce a metal for body type which thousands of
printers testify to as outlasting any other type metal ever
offered them.
The display faces of the Farmer foundry are character-
ized by usefulness and wearing quality rather than bizarre
effects. All the plain and more standard faces are to be
found in great variety in their specimen books. While
they cut novelties as occasion requires, they cater rather
to the requirements of the every-day printers and pub-
lishers who want serviceable type.
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THE BEST IN ROLLERS IS THE CHEAPEST. )2\
One of the latest productions of seasonable faces is a
beautiful series from 6 to 12-point, known as Old Style
No. 40, d> signed for the very best grade of book and
magazine work. This is an old style, distinctive in
character, having a condensed effect without much con-
densation, and being entirely without hair-lines or unpro-
tected serifs. It is a letter that will wear indefinitely, and
retain its characteristics as it wears, instead of breaking
down and thickening as do hair-line characters.
This firm rounds the century mark in 1904, and for
three generations has enjoyed a liberal patronage from
most of the great printing and publishing houses of the
new world.
THE BEST IN ROLLERS IS THE CHEAPEST.
Good rollers are the secret of good presswork. The
manufacture of composition that retains its life and suction
for a long period has been brought to its highest perfection
in the largest establishment on the globe, that of O. J.
Maigne, at 324, 326 and 328 Pearl Street, New York. Mr.
Maigne, whose reputation is world-wide as a producer of
the best article known to the trade for the operation of
printing presses, associated himself in 1880 with D. J.
Reilly under the firm name of D. J. Reilly & Co., which
style was continued until the death of Mr. Reilly in 1889.
Since that time Mr. Maigne has continued the business,
and has from time to time enlarged the plant, until he has
now the largest and most complete establishment in the
world for the production of printers' rollers. It is pro-
vided with all the latest and most improved facilities,
including tons of special machinery, such as "roller-
casting " machines and improved machinery required for
the manufacture of Printers' Rollers of all sizes and descrip-
tion, costing upwards of $20,000. The capacity of the
plant is so great that customers are served in the shortest
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)22 SUPERIOR EXCELLENCE IN PLATEN PRESSWORK.
possible time. The receiving of new rollers when they
are wanted often doubles their value to the printer.
Mr. Maigne also manufactures an article for dispersing
electricity in paper, which has achieved a marvelous
success. There are many imitations on the market, but
the trade has concluded that Maigne's Electric Annihilator
is the only production that accomplishes the desired effect,
and the sale of it is exceedingly large. Every printer
should keep it in stock, as he can never tell when the
electric nuisance will tie up one or more of his printing
machines.
There has also been added to the business the manu-
facture of Pressroom Paste, which, although a recent
feature of the establishment, has already attained a splendid
reputation amongst printers, and a correspondingly large
sale. Being put up in several grades and in packages of
all sizes it is very convenient.
SUPERIOR EXCELLENCE IN PLATEN PRESSWORK.
There are many printers who gaze respectfully at the
higher grade productions of printing presses, and who
admire them, but who realize in a vague way that they
cannot produce such results. Sometimes they think it is
their own lack of experience in executing an extra quality
of presswork, whereas the chances are in nine cases out
often that they have not the press that will produce the
very best results. There is only one style of job press
that gives the printer practically an unlimited amount of
ink distribution and an overplus of impressional power,
and that press is the John Thomson Colt's Armory ma-
chine. The value of this press to the printer has simply
doubled since the halftone illustration came into common
use, for no class of printing requires such excellence of
machinery. To do good work from halftone plates there
must be an entire absence of slur, as the dots are some-
times 1 80 to the inch, and a slip of even the thousandth
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SUPERIOR EXCELLENCE IN PLATEN PRESSWORK. $2}
of an inch not only mars the effect, but fills up the min-
ute depressions of the plate with ink, so that the work is
dauby, and frequent wash-ups are required to make it at
all presentable. A minute slur is the rule rather than the
exception with three out of every four platen job presses.
On many classes of work it is not noticeable, so that the
printer thinks his machine is all right until he tries to
print halftones, and then he finds that something is
wrong, though he often does not know what and blames
the photo-engraver for making a poor plate. With the
Colt's Armory press the construction renders any sort of
slurring absolutely impossible. It will print any form that
can be gotten into the chase, and will give as good ink
distribution on the corners of the form as elsewhere.
Every printer knows how poor is the inking on the cor-
ners of a form inked by disk distribution; also that the
last roller to pass over a form on such a press is the
one that has covered but a third or a half of the ink disk,
and so is but half inked.
The Colt's Armory system of cylinder distribution for
the ink is unexcelled. The pressman can cut up the ink
to the last degree, and lay it equally on all parts of the
form. The disk distribution does not approach it in
quality, and even the distribution on cylinder presses is
inferior because of the larger forms depriving the rollers of
a portion of the ink before the whole form is covered, so
that on difficult forms it.is always possible to tell by the
imperfections in inking which edge of the sheet was
inked last.
The fact that the Colt's Armory presses, which com-
mand much higher prices than the ordinary platen jobbers,
are to-day selling very much faster than ever before is
commended to the attention of thoughtful printers.
Why are so many preferring to pay twice as much for one
machine as another of the same dimensions? Is it not
that the superior quality of the work produced brings
trade to the printing office, and establishes reputations for
high grade printing ? A hundred or two more dollars paid
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324 BUYING OF PRINTING INKS.
for a job printing press means a cost of but six or twelve
dollars a year in added interest, and the addition to the
character of the work produced and the price tommanded
for the same may be many times as great.
In the larger sizes the Colt's Armory presses are often
employed for a high grade of work, as illustrated book
pages, that would naturally go on cylinder machines, be-
cause of the superior excellence of the printing and
greater economy in handling small forms. For three-
color forms and jobs of difficult register they are far ahead
of the two-revolution presses. The ease with which they
can be adapted to embossing, also adds to their earning
capacity. For price list and further particulars, address
John Thomson Press Co., 253 Broadway, N. Y.
BUYING OF PRINTING INKS.
The buying of printing inks is a matter which requires
careful consideration, especially as the constant increase
in the speed of presses, and the great difference in the
printing quality of papers, that are apparently similar,
necessitate the careful adjustment of printing ink to its
intended purpose. Time was when the master printer
bought the heaviest and stiffest inks he could obtain,
with the object of receiving a maximum amount of
color for his money, and then reducing it and manipu-
lating it to suit himself. Such methods are impossible
at the present day. The rush and hurry of existence,
especially in the printing business, would not allow
the waste of time that would ensue; and in addition,
the new problems that daily arise require the services
of a specialist to solve them.
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BUYING OF PRINTING INKS. 325
Therefore, it has come about that to-day inks are
bought more than ever upon confidence in the ink
maker, and it is well for a printer to place his orders
for inks with a manufacturer who has never taken
advantage of his confidence.
The manufacture of Ullman's Inks is based on the
experience of the past and the progressiveness of the
present. The reputation of Ullman's Inks during the
past thirty years for high quality is sustained and aug-
mented by the facilities of a new plant, equipped with
the most modern machinery and appliances.
The prices of Ullman's Inks are made in strict
accordance with the lowest possible cost of production
and legitimate profits. Ullman's Inks are made to suit
their intended purpose, and no extra charge is made
for knowing how to do it.
For the convenience of New York City trade, a
downtown branch has just been opened at 23 Frank-
fort Street, where the Sigmund Ullman Company will
be pleased to receive friends and patrons. The model
factory of the Sigmijnd Ullman Company is situated
at 146th Street and Park Avenue, and is open for in-
spection at any time to those interested.
WESEL SPECIALTIES FOR BETTER-CLASS
PRINTING OFFICES.
The average dealer in printing appliances sells a line to
meet the strictly average requirements of the general
printer. There is one house — Wesel's — that has built up
a world-wide trade with the larger printing establishments
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)26 WESEL SPECIALTIES.
by catering to their very special requirements. The house
of Wesel makes a complete line of printing materials in
wood, brass, steel and iron, and a complete line of ma-
chinery for electroty pers, stereotypers and photo-engravers ;
and a few special machines for bookbinders, but we here
invite attention to some few of the Wesel specialties,
which have resulted in great economies to the printer.
The Wesel Patent Iron Grooved Block for holding
plates on the press, is now in use by most of the larger
establishments which print from plates, and it is confi-
dently predicted that it will supersede all other styles of
blocks. It has won this encomium from Mr. Oscar W.
Brady, superintendent of the printing department of the
McClure (Magazine) Co., in an address before the New
York Typothetae :
11 There is now a block on the market which covers the en-
tire bed of the press, and accommodates any size of plate,
and enables you to take off or put on any plate in the form,
and register it exactly without disturbing any other plate on the
press. Furniture used for locking up the forms is bound to
shrink and swell according to the weather, thus throwing the
forms out of register and causing them to spring in the centre.
This block not only gives perfect register, but being solid and hav-
ing no spring, it has a great advantage in regard to the wearing of
the plates. In three-color work alone this advantage is well
worth all the block costs."
The Wesel Self-Inking Proof-Presses which print from
the web (or roll), or from flat papers, will turn out more
than five times the quantity of perfect proofs than can be
produced by the ordinary galley proof-press, to which it
is as far in advance as a web perfecting press is to a hand
press. The ordinary galley proof-press is uneconomical
in the larger printing offices.
The printer who is interested in reducing wage expense
by improved labor-saving appliances, will find the Wesel
Machines for making cuts type high, and for mortising,
sawing and trimming metal, wood and brass, all
constructed on the most advanced principles, and all
moderate in price.
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WESEL SPECIALTIES. 327
The printer who is interested in reducing rent expense
will achieve space-saving by using Wesel Success Case
Stands, space-saving galley cabinets, galleys which are
self-locking and save not only the side-sticks and quoins
but the space these ordinarily occupy.
The printer who is reducing cost of production by
using linotype and typesetting machines will increase
savings by using Wesel's equipments for such offices.
Linotype Saw Tables with slot-cutting attachment for
expediting tabular work, special galleys, furnaces, ingot
moulds, slug-cutters, and a variety of improved tools.
Wesel is the inventor of beveled column rules to prevent
rules from working up in linotype pages.
The printer who loses time in getting register and
straightening twisted forms through defective, inaccurate
chases needs Wesel Electric-Welded Chases. They cost
no more than hand-welded chases. It is not possible
to made so good chases by hand- weld. Wesel is the sole
owner of the right to make chases by electric-welding.
Wesel chases are stronger, truer, and thus save time.
The printer who can save type and cost of composition
by using stereotype plates will find Wesel's Stereotyping
Machinery the most perfect, especially the Wesel Cold
Process Stereotyping Outfits, the first practical outfit
devised; there have been amateurish, unsatisfactory at-
tempts — Wesel has satisfactorily solved all difficulties, so
that without injury to type good plates can be made
quickly.
To sum up: F. Wesel Manufacturing Co., at 82-84
Fulton Street, New York, with factories in Brooklyn,
makes and sells every regular approved appliance used by
the printer; and in addition, supplies a line of specialties
as above which are quick-acting cost-savers. "Wesel
Quality " is synonymous with the best quality, and
if you have not availed yourself of Wesel's successes
you are handicapped in competition with Wesel's
customers.
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3*8
THE ECONOMY OF USING COPPER-FACED TYPE.
A wheel without a tire is unfinished — incomplete.
This little iron band is universally recognized as essential
since it presents a wearing resisting surface far more
durable than the wooden wheel. It is exactly this prin-
ciple that applies to the copper-facing of type. The coat-
ing of copper on the face preserves the type compound
from decay and presents a hard, unyielding surface hav-
ing double the wearing capacity of any type compound.
It is impossible to alloy type metal with more than the
minutest portion of a hard metal, which fact is well
known to metallurgists. As practical printers we know
that an electrotype is superior to a stereotype. It is only
logical to apply this well known fact to copper-facing.
It not only doubles the life of type, but gives a print that
is sharper and clearer. An office spending $200 a year
for new type would save $100 of this, or $2 a week, by
having type copper-faced when bought. A $50,000
plant spending $3,000 a year for type uncoppered would
save at least $1,500, which sum would pay the interest
on half the capitalization. The cost of coppering is but a
fraction of the first cost of type ; the letter only is cop-
pered, without the spaces and quads, and the result is
equivalent to buying double the amount of type. The
Newton Copper- Facing Type Co., 18 and 20 Rose Street,
N. Y., the patentee, was established in 1851, and the
advantages of the invention it controls may be judged
from the fact that every large daily from Maine to Cali-
fornia used type copper-faced by this company when
printing from foundry cast type. For typesetting ma-
chines it is absolutely essential, if economy is considered.
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MONEY-SAVING DEVICES. 329
This company has statements from numerous houses of
the highest standing, showing that type copper-faced has
often been in service for ten, twenty and even thirty
years, and has been subjected to millions of impressions.
MONEY-SAVING DEVICES.
It is in saving many little losses of time that the
careful printer can show a good balance of profit at the
end of a year. It has been, conceded by those who use
Megill's gauge-pins, gripper-fingers, feed-guides, etc., that
they save at least half an hour a day on a job press,
besides reducing the danger of spoiling paper through a
loss of register. If you run two job presses you can save
a whole hour every day, or 300 hours in a year, and figur-
ing this at only twenty-five cents an hour, that is $75 in
a year. It is really more than twenty-five cents an hour,
as can be seen by reference to the chapter on "Estimating."
But if it were only $25 a year thus saved, how penny
wise and pound foolish of the printer not to supply his
job presses with Megill's inventions, the whole, assort-
ment of which can be had for a few dollars. He makes
no less than twenty styles and sizes of gauge-pins alone,
each one a time-saver on some class of work; and a whole
series of sizes and arrangements of gripper-fingers, for
pulling off sheets that are difficult to handle.
Mr. Edward L. Megill, of 60 Duane Street, New York,
the inventor of these devices, is a practical printer, and
has spent a lifetime in the study and development of little
conveniences for platen job presses. He makes them in
his own factory, and sells them at nominal prices. The
printer who is not familiar with all the styles should send
a postal of inquiry and learn. It will save good dollars at
an expense of cents. Ten to one you will find that you
had no conception of the many conveniences made by
Mr. Megill. There are the substantial steel gauge-pins,
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3^0 A WORD ABOUT PRINTING INKS.
some with spring tongues that greatly assist the feeder;
also gauge-pins with screw and eccentric adjustments;
and gauges that may be glued on like a quad, or
bolted in the tympan paper. Then there are side gauge-
pins that depress under the gripper and permit it to grasp
the sheet; extension feed-guides for sheets larger than the
platen; and gauges that do not damage the tympan, but
permit the tympan to be used for many jobs without
change. Most of these styles are adjustable by one means
or another so that they may be set accurately to register.
The spring-tongue gauge-pin is suited to the customary
work of the job press ; the perfect register gauge is desir-
able for fine color work.
A WORD ABOUT PRINTING INKS.
The printer who seeks to increase his yearly profits by
pointers gleaned from this book should not neglect con-
sideration of the best means to secure value for the money
he has to spend for inks. There are many materials in
the market the merit or demerit of which cannot be deter-
mined except by trial, among which are chemical compo-
sitions, paints, varnishes and inks. But of all articles that
come under this category probably printing inks are the
most difficult to select as to quality and probable results.
The ordinary methods of judging of compounds avail
little in the case of printing ink. You cannot tell the value
by looking at it, for a ten-cent black looks as black in the
keg as a dollar black. The smell gives no clue, neither
the taste, were the printer willing to daub his tongue in
the interest of investigation. Neither does the weight
lend any clue to the character of the ink under considera-
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A WORD ABOUT PRINTING INKS. )) I
tion Some try daubing a little with the finger on the
paper on which they consider applying it, but this only
yields a close guess as to the color, and nothing as to the
other qualities.
How, then, can it be bought knowingly, so as to give
satisfactory results to the printer who uses it ? Very
simply. By buying of a maker who has proved that he
values his reputation, as have the Fred'k H. Levey Co., of
59 Beekman St., New York. If the business of a manu-
facturer has been established over a quarter of a century,
and he has numerous testimonials of the strongest char-
acter, from literally hundreds of first-class houses, is it not
the best sort of assurance of the absolutely uniform char-
acter and reliability of his manufactures ?
FRED'K H. LEVEY, Pres't. FRED'K H. LEVEY Co.,
CHAS. E. NEWTON, Vice- Pres't
wm. s. bate, Sec'y. 59 Beekman Street, New York.
TYMPALYN SAVES MAKE-READY.
BY C. H. COCHRANE OF NEW YORK
The above is the verdict of some of the most eminent
printers in America, who have tested its qualities most
thoroughly. The average printing press is unproductive
for two or three or four hours a day, because forms are
being made ready. Tympalyn not only saves half or
more than half the time of making-ready, but increases
the capacity for production of the pressroom, and affords
the printer a chance to take more work, which he can
do profitably, knowing that he will lose no appreciable
time in getting the forms started on the presses.
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332 TYMPALYN SAVES MAKE-READY.
Tympalyn has proven that there is no need of cut-
ting overlays in four or five thicknesses to bring out
the shadows of a fine illustration. With this make-
ready blanket the contact between plates and paper is
different from what it is with hard packing, and the
natural features of the plate are automatically reproduced,
with a result like that of the engraver's proof.
Tympalyn is a material in the form of a blanket
composed of a series of interlocking spring coils, filled
with rubber, having an air pocket running the entire
length to allow the action of the springs. When once
applied it becomes a part of the press. On top of this
is a thickness of very hard, specially prepared fibre or
pressboard, which protects the type or plates in the same
way as the hard packing, but does not wear them by
pressure as does the hard packing. Over the press-
board two or three sheets of manila paper are stretched,
to afford opportunity for patching up or cutting out,
only a very little of this being required.
A long series of experiments were necessary before
Tympalyn reached the perfected state in which it is
offered to the trade. The inventor and patentee, Arthur
S. Allen of Boston, is a practical printer of experience,
familiar with the niceties of presswork, and the refine-
ments of the highest class of printing. The spring coil
wire blanket which he has produced is radically differ-
ent from the old-fashioned rubber blanket, discarded
by our fathers. The wire coils automatically search
out the unevennesses of the form, and print them as if
they presented a true and level surface. It is not claimed
that Tympalyn saves the entire process of make-ready,
but it takes care of a-half to two-thirds of the work,
according to the nature of the form. With Tympalyn,
a few large patches on the more solid parts in the form,
and perhaps a few high points cut out on the tympan,
are all that are necessary, and these do not require at
all the accuracy that is requisite for hard packing.
Sometimes large forms are made ready in half an hour,
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TYMPALYN SAVES MAKE-READY. })}
and the more difficult class of forms, that often take a
day or two of the time of high-priced men, working
on hard packing, are made ready with Tympalyn in a
few hours.
Type forms require scarcely any make-ready where
Tympalyn is used. In open work, as tabular matter,
poetry, music, etc., where under the old system there
was required a great deal of patching, the use of Tym-
palyn often enables the pressman to print a nearly
perfect impression at the first trnil. With halftone
illustrations, on proper bases, a fine impression may be
had at the first trial. If the work is of the highest
class, one (rarely more) thin overlay is added to the
darker parts, covering masses rather than detail, and
when this is done the resultant printing cannot be dis-
tinguished by experts from the best work on hard
packing with four or five thicknesses of overlays.
A cylinder covered with Tympalyn does not wear
type and plates nearly so much as where hard packing
or rubber tympans are used. A round million of im-
pressions have been taken from a form of electrotypes
and the plates at the end of the run showed no serious
wear. It is with difficulty that the first sheet of a long
run can be distinguished from the last, so clear and
sharp do the plates remain. In the case of a form of
150,000 impressions, experts were able to detect the
first sheets from the last only by a few trifling batters
that had been inflicted by the carelessness of the men
running the form. The corners and unprotected edges
of the plates are so completely protected by the extra
hard surface of pressboard, and the pressure of the
Tympalyn is so trifling as compared with the crushing
force of hard packing, that wear of plates becomes an
item not worth figuring on at all under the new
conditions.
A considerable saving of power also results from the
use of Tympalyn on a cylinder press. The lessening of
the pressure on the press makes it possible in most
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334 TYMPALYN SAVES MAKE-READY.
cases to speed the machine a little faster without reach-
ing the point where the jar of reversing the bed tends
to damage the life of the machine.
In the nature of the case it is impossible to give an
exact estimate of the saving or profit with Tympalyn,
but the following may assist the master printer who
desires to figure it: Suppose a cylinder press on which
the average make-ready under the old system of hard
packing was three hours a day, and that with Tympalyn
there is an economy of one and one-half hours daily;
this is 450 hours of producing capacity saved, which
the printer can sell at say, $1.25 per hour, or $562.50
per year, if he knows how to get the work. In addi-
tion, his type will last twice as long, and his plates
withstand an indefinite amount of wear, and his bill
for power is reduced. This economy should represent
at least $250 a year on a press that is kept busy. So
that the master printer may effect a saving of $800 a
year through the use of Tympalyn, without figuring at
all on the increased speed that he may be able to apply
to his presses.
Where the runs are short, three presses equipped
with Tympalyn will do the work of four with hard
packing, saving the price of another press. The chances
are, however, that the printer who equips entire with
Tympalyn will soon find that he requires more presses
rather than fewer, for Tympalyn with its reduced cost
brings more trade. Andrew Carnegie is said to have
acquired his wealth largely by his willingness to sacri-
fice anything to secure the latest and most improved
machinery. He would throw out the most costly
equipment only a year or two after installing, if he
were offered machines that were ten per cent, better.
His profit was made, not so much on the saving of the
labor effected by the new machines, as that in this way
he distanced all competition, and secured the trade of
the public.
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TYMPALYN SAVES MAKE-READY. 335
In the same way the printers who are the first to
adopt Tympalyn will find that the value is even greater
in the increase of trade and importance of the printery,
than in the present cash saving, even though that be
a large item.
Some have thought that the use of Tympalyn was
disadvantageous to the pressman, as taking away his
labor. This proves not to be the case, for where Tym-
palyn is used the experience is that the reduction in
cost brings more work to the office, and there is rather
a tendency to employ more help than to discharge. A
pressman who can do the most rapid work with Tympalyn
never finds his wages reduced because the process re-
quires less skill, but on the contrary employers are apt
to pay higher wages because they are making more
money.
When firms like The Matthews-NorthrupCo., Buffalo;
Harper & Bros., New York; J. J. Little & Co., New
York; American Book Co., Cincinnati; Berwick & Smith,
Norwood, Mass.; Blumenburg Press, New York; Rock-
well & Churchill, Boston; R. R. Donnelly & Sons Co.,
Chicago, etc., adopt Tympalyn and are satisfied with re-
sults secured, no further evidence seenm required to demon-
strate that it is adapted to the highest grades of work,
and that it effects a large economy.
Those interested to read testimonials, terms on which
Tympalyn is furnished, etc., should address The
Tympalyn Company, 22-28 High St , Boston, Mass.
Arthur S. Allen is President, and Forrest E. Lovejoy,
Business Manager of the Company.
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SCOTT PRESSES ARE MONEY-MAKERS.
The employment of good machinery, that will do
satisfactory work year after year with a minimum of
repairs, has much to do with the printer's success in
making a profit in his business. The cylinder presses
that are the handiest to operate, on which make-ready
is easy, on which there are no hitches or delays, and
which are adapted to a wide range of commercial work,
are the machines with which most printers coin their
money, if they coin it at all.
Such presses are those made by Walter Scott & Co.,
of Plainfield, N. J., in a factory under his personal
supervision, where every detail of manufacture has been
worked out to the utmost accuracy. Their two-revolu-
tion cylinder machines are at once the most modern,
the most solid, the most scientifically constructed of
any in the market.
Superior impres-
sional power, great-
er distribution, and
more speed capac-
ity are the three
claims made for
c ,*> *r d i *• ^ v j x> these machines, any
Scott's Two -Revolution Cylinder Press* . , . , , J
one of which places
them ahead of competition. The impressional strength
is s.ecured by an interior bracing of the cylinder-shell,
giving a stiffness heretofore unknown in such presses,
and necessary to oppose the unyielding bed, which is
supported underneath in an equally substantial manner.
This solidity of construction in the impressional parts
reduces make-ready to the simple patching up or mak-
ing level of the form, there being no " spring" to take
out of the machine.
The high grade of ink distribution is secured partly
by the gearing of all form and distribution rollers so
that they turn positively and cannot jump, and partly
by cutting the ink closely at the fountain and laying it
on the distributers to be completely cut up before it
reaches the ink table.
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SCOTT PRESSES ARE MONEY-MAKERS. 337
The speed of the Scott two-revolution is due to the
up-to-date bed movement, which combines the sim-
plicity of the old rack-and-tumbler driving with a more
scientific method of reverse, that eases the bed at the
point of jar, rendering higher speed possible without
undue strain on the machine.
The gearing of bed and cylinder together during the
entire impression insures absolute register and absence
of slur, while the positive action of the grippers, firm-
ness of the guides and absence of jar assist perfection
of register in the feeding. The traveling-roller delivery,
depositing the sheet, printed side up, on a table directly
above the fountain, is admitted to be the most satisfac-
tory ever placed on a cylinder press.
The Scott two-revolutions will do more work, do it
better, and with less fuss and bother than any other
presses of their class, no matter what claims are made
for them. They will also outwear and outlast any
others, as is proven by a long list of testimonials from
users all over the world.
For an extra heavy grade of difficult work, as three
color forms, etc., Walter Scott & Co. build a stop
cylinder that is about
a third faster than any
other stop cylinder on
r the market, the speed
wf being obtained by a
new combination bed
Scott's New Stop Cylinder. movement with cylin-
der controlling device. Heretofore stop cylinders have
been preferred for the finest work, because the cylinder when
at absolute rest permitted the most accurate seizing of the
sheet by the grippers; but the stop cylinder has been
fatally slow, until the Scott machine was brought out.
Mr. Scott realized that to get speed out of a stop
cylinder it was essential that a most powerful and
heavy bed motion be employed, to take up the strain
of sudden reversal of the bed and stoppage of the
cylinder. He has produced a mechanism that will carry
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3^8 SCOTT PRESSES ARE MONEY-MAKERS.
smoothly shocks of reversal that would break up any other
cylinder ever built. This press can be speeded almost
as fast as a two-revolution, and bears all the minor
devices that have made that so popular a machine. An
automatic slip-sheeting device is also added, making it
possible to slip-sheet the work at most trifling cost.
This stop cylinder is also built for lithographic printing,
either from the stone or aluminum plate, and with
either it. is the fastest lithographic press on the market.
When it comes to fast periodical printing, the Scott
all-size rotary has
proven one of the
greatest money-
makers ever used in
a printing office.
This press is virtu-
Scotfs All-Size Rotary Web Press. al,v alone in its fie,d »
being the only satis-
factory machine offered the printer for doing publications
of all sizes at a high rate of speed. This machine brings to
the aid of the large book and job printer all the speed and
economy that the newspaper publishers can get from
their rotary web presses. Every printer who has work
for a dozen or more cylinders should investigate this
machine, and learn how much more cheaply it will
execute the work to which it is adapted.
The large line and variety of newspaper web print-
ing machines, both flat bed and rotary, made by Walter
Scott & Co. are too well known to be enlarged upon
here. Those interested can secure catalogues of them
by writing to the offices of the Company in either
New York, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Cincinnati, or
London, or to the factory at Plainfield, N. J. A great
variety of news and job presses and of stereotyping
machinery will also be found in the catalogue. The
printer need only explain his needs to this firm, and he
will be shown the machinery best adapted to his
individual wants.
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THE BENEDICT IMPRINT ATTESTS EXCELLENCE
IN PLATES.
The illustration is the most attractive thing in the
printer's product. High-class engraving enables the
printer not only to please his customers and thus hold
his trade at good prices, but actually reduces his cost of
presswork. Probably few printers in ordering engraving
and electrotyping consider the saving obtained in the
pressroom by using the best plates. A set of plates may
be printed from again and again, and if of inferior quality
may waste an hour or two of both press and pressman on
each occasion, and the master printer may pay for it
without noticing it. How much better to have a high
grade of plates for each and every job, and s<* secure uni-
formly beautiful results that establish the printer's repu-
tation, as well as insuring a return of the extra cost
through the saving of time in the presswork !
In placing orders for halftones, etc., the very worst
policy for the printer is to seek to get the bottom figure
per square inch. Should we ever have heard of Michael
Angelo, had he worked by the square inch ? Perhaps some
printer-reader may think the comparison far-fetched, and
assert that the photo-engraver is not an artist, but simply
a reproducer of art by mechanical means. This is a false
notion. The every-day photograph reproduced mechan-
ically at a close price per square inch, is not art but
manufacture; while the high grade illustration calls not
only for the very fullest technical knowledge and ability,
but for the real artistic sense. Does any printer imagine
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340
EXCELLENCE IN PLATES.
that such work as that reproduced herewith is turned out
mechanically ? Benedict's imprint is known all over the
country as attesting excellence, and this'result is attained
only by the most persistent and patient, as well as
intelligent and capable management.
Courtesy of Geo. E. Benedict & Co.
The printer who wants the Benedict class of work
does best to let the photographer work under their ex-
press direction; for when photographs are poorly toned,
or have solid colors or abrupt lights in the parts that
should be nicely graded, or when negatives or tintypes
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EXCELLENCE IN PLATES. 34 1
are offered as copy, the photo-engraver is handicapped at
the start, and obliged to add expensive hand work in
order to secure satisfactory results.
When the photograph is not all that could be desired,
or when the subject is difficult, the photo-engraver finds
it necessary to resort to the hand graver, to cut out high
lights ; he has to restore the details lost in the shades
or shadows, and yet he must not let it appear that a
graver has been taking out material here and there, for if
he produces sharp effects he mars the softness so much
admired in the halftone. All this calls for exceptional
skill, judgment and artistic appreciation, and it is largely
because of the exceptional corps of expert retouchers
trained in their own establishment, that Benedict & Co.
have achieved such a reputation for superiority in this
part of the work.
In the making of zinc etchings, the Benedict ex-
cellence is quite as noticeable. The providing of proper
drawings has much to do with superior results in this
class of engraving. All drawings should be made in
clear black lines on clean white paper, and without flat
tints or blurred shadows. If Benedict & Co. make the
drawings, as well as the etchings, perfection is assured,
for years of experience in this branch have enabled them
to build up a staff' of pen artists unexcelled anywhere.
In the old method of wood-engraving, which is still the
best for illustrating many subjects, particularly machinery,
the best of work is insured by this firm, as they have
retained in their employ some of the most exceptionally
expert of the fast-disappearing generation of wood-
engravers.
The less known wax process, which is particularly
suited to geographical work, diagrams, fine scripts, in-
tricate rule work, etc., is practiced at the Benedict plant
with success, as are also several special methods and pro-
cesses developed by themselves and retained for the
improvement of their own product. A large business is
also transacted in steel and copper-plate engraving, plate-
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J42 EXCELLENCE IN PLATES.
printing and stamping, as for the choicest wedding invi-
tations and visiting cards. Type printers desiring to
serve their customers with the very best of this class of
work, at a rate that will afford them a profit, are invited
to write for a price list.
In order to get the very highest results from delicate
engravings, the printer often finds it necessary to do
the presswork from electrotype plates, and if these are
made by Benedict the fact that the printing is not done
from the original is often indeterminable, because Benedict
•electrotype plates are of a quality seldom seen elsewhere.
In the average electrotype foundry the work goes through
a certain routine and takes its chances. If there is a rush
of work the depositing is cut short, and the copper shell
.allowed to "go" thinner than it should be, in the expec-
tation that the customer will not notice it. If the shell is
curved at the time of backing (and it usually is) the finisher
may let it pass, giving the customer a plate hollowed in
the center, or he may decide to hammer it out, and in so
-doing he commonly batters or enlarges the fine dots or
any delicate shading, or broadens any sharp lines that are
on the margins of the electro.
In the Benedict electrotype none of these things can
happen. The system provides that every plate shall have
a shell of standard thickness, or if it is for a long run, a still
greater thickness, and to prevent the up-curving of the
outer edges in the finished plate, all fine work is under-
laid in the centre before going to the moulding press, so
that when the shell is made and backed it is either
perfectly level or minutely lower on the outer edges.
Electrotypes so made save half the time of the printer in
make-ready and are the cheapest as well as the best.
Others may give the printer good photo-engraving and
electrotyping some of the time, but Benedict & Co., of
175-177 Clark St., Chicago, give it to him all the time,
and for this reason number among their customers firms
in every State in the Union, as well as in Canada and
Mexico.
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MACHINERY FOR ENGRAVERS.
Some printers find that they can, with advantage,
operate an engraving plant as an adjunct to their printing
business proper. This is often the case with printers
who make a specialty of high-class catalogues, brochures,
etc., and who deem it best to have all branches of the
work under their immediate supervision and control.
Such plants sometimes fail to return a profit because the
managers, while giving due weight to the artistic side, fail
to comprehend the importance of the mechanical branch.
Good machinery for mounting and blocking is as essential
to the commercial success of an engraving plant as good
artists and good cameras. Badly mounted plates or delay
in turning them out, mean serious interruptions in the press-
room, which are always costly. The printer can make no
greater mistake than to try to run an engraving plant with
inferior tools. With the latest standard machines, such
as those made by the Royles, of Paterson, N. J., handled
by a competent man, he may get along well enough and
avoid leaks in the blocking department. It is important,
too, to have machines that are thoroughly up-to-date.
The mechanical devices used by engravers are much better
made, and are of far more importance now than formerly.
Many things that used to be done by hand, are now per-
formed by special machines which do the work better and
quicker. The making of lines around the edges of half-
tone plates illustrates this. The old practice was to make
such lines either by ruling the negative or cutting the
plate by hand with a graver. The Royles now have a
machine that makes these lines in a wide variety of forms
and arrangements at a nominal cost, and much sharper and
neater than is practicable with hand work. It is such
machines as these that go to make up a modern engraving
plant, and unless the printer can make up his mind to use
them, he will simply be behind his neighbors in equip-
ment and his work will cost him more, and be less finished
than theirs.
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USING ILLUSTRATIONS TO INCREASE PRINTERS'
PROFITS.
The printer who fails to take advantage of modern
methods of picture-making to enhance his work is behind
the times. The printer who tries to handle his own
illustrating, to fuss with artists, and to serve as a middle-
man between the men who draw and paint, and those
who do the mechanical work of producing printing
plates, makes for himself an endless and unprofitable
amount of labor, with accompanying dissatisfaction and
annoyance. The public of to-day expects illustrations,
pictorial matter, colors, embossing, or something in addi-
tion to the cold type, before it will be induced to pause
and read. Therefore, the printer who seeks to build up
his trade is obliged to foster the taste for pictorial effect in
order to attract and hold custom. Every book, every
magazine, every circular, every bit of printing that is
advertising, demands a picture of some sort. The printed
text appeals solely to the brain, but the illustration catches
the eye, arrests the attention, and gives color to that
which is otherwise flat and dry.
But printing is one trade and illustrating another.
The printer who seeks to effectively illustrate his work
cannot do it by purchasing a few odd cuts and sandwiching
them in ; he must have good, effective illustrating, or lose
trade to the printer who secures better. Frequently,
when he recognizes that superior engraving and designing
is wanted to satisfy a customer, he goes to the artist and
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illustrations to increase printers' profits. 345
has the drawings made according to their mutual notions
of what is most applicable to the work. When he takes
these drawings to the photo-engraver he is apt to be told
that they are executed in a way that is hard to reproduce
for that particular work, under the existing conditions.
Perhaps the artist has made a wash drawing, when line
photo-engraving is the best adapted for the illustration ;
or perhaps he has made a line drawing for a work on
coated paper that should have halftones; or perhaps he
has not worked up his shadows heavily enough to photo-
graph well ; or it may be one of a hundred other things that
are always occurring when the artist and engraver do not
work side by side with a mutual understanding. Then
somebody has to pay an extra charge for making over the
drawings so that they will suit the method of reproduction
most desirable for the job.
In these days of illustrative excellence and unique
pictorial effects, the above is a common experience with
the printer who undertakes to handle his own illustrating.
The loss and annoyance incident to such " misfit " illus-
trating may be entirely avoided by the printer who
decides at the outset that he is not an illustrator, nor a
middleman between artists and engravers, but a printer,
and, that he cannot do such work to advantage any more
than he can make rollers or cast type profitably. By
placing his illustrating entirely in the hands of F. A.
Ringler Co., of 21-23 Barclay Street, and 26-28 Park
Place, New York, he not only secures the very best and
most satisfactory service obtainable, but actually saves in
cost as compared with the uncertain methods that have been
discussed. The Ringler Co. is the largest photo-engraving
establishment and electrotype foundry in the world.
They do designing, line photo-engraving, halftone work,
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346 ILLUSTRATIONS TO INCREASE PRINTERS' PROFITS.
wax engraving, wood engraving, metal engraving, die
sinking for embossed plates, and color plate engraving,
Line Cut— For Newspaper Work
Courtesy of F. A. Ringler Co.
in fact anything and everything that the printer requires
in the shape of relief printing plates.
They employ constantly a large force of artists, skilled
Full-Shaded-For Medium Grade Catalogue Work
Courtesy of F. A. Ringler Co
in various lines. Nearly all of them have specialties,
which are at the service of the customer. Whatever the
character of work desired, there is always an expert to
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ILLUSTRATIONS TO INCREASE PRINTERS PROFITS. 547
perform it, and sometimes a drawing will pass through
three or four hands in order to receive the best touches
for that part of the work in which each artist excels. In
this way an excellence is arrived at that no work from
single artists can hope to equal. Some of the beautiful
magazine covers made by this firm owe their perfection
largely to the fact that the color scheme was laid out by
Halftone— For High-Grade Catalogue Work
■Courtesy of F. A. Ringler Co.
one expert, the figures drawn by another, the landscape
by a third, and the lettering by a fourth. These artists
do nothing on the hit or miss plan. Before pen or brush
is touched, it has been thoroughly decided what process
of reproduction is best adapted to the work in hand, and
if the job is to be printed on coated paper or rough surfaced
stock, or a tinted paper, that fact is also taken into con-
sideration. All the data being known, it is then concluded
to do the illustrating in halftone, or zinc etching, or stip-
pling, or by three-color process, and the artist has his key
from the outset, and labors in harmony with the skilled
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348 ILLUSTRATIONS TO INCREASE PRINTERS' PROFITS.
workers who will follow later in the more mechanical
part of preparing the plate for printing.
When it comes to the photo-engraving part of the
work, we all know that there are plates and plates. The
highest grade of excellence is attained only by the Ringler
method of watching each detail, and performing it with
judgment and skill. No craft connected with printing
calls for more ability and careful training than does photo-
engraving. In this establishment there has been trained
a corps of men specially selected because of their natural
gifts, and in many cases educated right under the eye of
F. A. Ringler himself, whose name is synonymous with
all that is best in illustrating, and whose progressive
methods, and readiness to take hold of new processes has
kept his plant in the position of the acknowledged head
of the trade of reproducing illustrations by mechanical
processes. Wherever the photograph fails in any partic-
ular, the mechanical skill and knowledge of this corps of
workmen is drawn upon to supply the deficiency. It
may be in touching up the negative, or in judicious work
upon the photograph, or in cutting out high lights in the
final plate, or in a combination of all these delicate opera-
tions. The best knowledge of how to improve the
original is always there for use, and the printer who pat-
ronizes F. A. Ringler Co. for the entire work of illustrating
secures the entire benefit of such knowledge, and usually
at an actual saving in expenditure, because there is no
wasting of ammunition, no misdirecting of effort. Others
make lower prices for specific portions of the work, but
Ringler's price proves the lowest in the long run. Here
as elsewhere, it is the best that is the cheapest.
In giving work to one engraver, and then taking his
plates to an electrotyper to be duplicated, the printer in-
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ILLUSTRATIONS TO INCREASE PRINTERS' PROFITS. 349
curs to some extent the same sort of trouble that arises
from trying to do a middleman's business with artist and
photo-engraver. There are misunderstandings, and he is
always the unfortunate between the upper and lower
millstone. When the electrotypes do not print as satis-
factorily as the engraver's proof, and he tries to get at the
cause and remedy it, the photo-engraver says it is the
fault of the electrotyper, and the electrotyper is very sure
that it is the photo-engraver's fault, the result being no
satisfaction and no redress. This sort of trouble is entirely
avoided by the patrons of F. A. Ringler Co. They give
their orders for electrotypes with the order for the original
plates, and they get duplicates as good as can be made.
The fine vignetting of an original is never found ham-
mered down in the electrotype, as the shells always are
made level in the first place or discarded. The tendency
to hollow out, or be low in the centre and high on the
edges, is entirely avoided in the best grades of work
through a manipulation of the original plates that pro-
duces a slightly reversed result, so that the edges of an
electrotype that would naturally tend to print too sharply
are perhaps a piece of newspaper lower than the solid
body of the plate. By such refinements of excellence as
this, a vast amount of time is saved the printer on his
presses, when using Ringler plates. If blocked, they are
sure to be properly squared, never causing any rising of
leads or furniture. They require a minimum of make-
ready, probably cutting this time in half as compared
with the average plate. If they are color-plates, they in-
variably register, which is more than can be said of some.
The illustrations of halftone, line and full-shaded draw-
ings that accompany this article serve to show the printer
what he can have to set off his work from F. A. Ringler Co.
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Courtesy of Merganthaler Linotype Co.
THE MERGANTHALER LINOTYPE— A MACHINE OF
TO-DAY.
When it is stated that there are 7,500 linotype
machines in use, and that each of these machines has an
ordinary producing capacity of 30,000 to 50,000 ems in a
day of eight hours, while many of them are run with two
gangs or shifts of operators, it requires no special calculation
to arrive at the result that this wonderful machine is doing
more composition than was done on the entire globe
fifteen years ago, when it made its first appearance.
The linotype is not a machine of the future, but of the
present; its records are matters of value to the printer
now, and not expectations of what may profit him in
years to come. The printer simply cannot afford to do
without a machine that reduces his cost to so small a
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THE MERGANTHALER LINOTYPE. 35 1
figure, and those printeries that have delayed investing
have only invited more active competitors to take their
work and the profits. The keyboard of the linotype is
operated at rates ranging from 7 cents per 1,000 ems in
small towns to 14 cents in large cities, as against 25 cents
to 45 cents per 1,000 ems for hand labor, showing a sav-
ing of more than two-thirds to the employer, while
allowing the operator to earn a much greater wage.
The vast saving accomplished by the linotype is dis-
tinctively shown in the 13th annual (1898) report by
Carroll D. Wright, U. S. Commissioner of Labor. This
report contains wholly impartial summaries of compari-
sons made between hand labor and a great variety of
labor-saving machines in various industries. In his ex-
amination into the work of the linotype several observa-
tions were made as to the time and cost of composing
100,000 ems under different conditions. In one instance
100,000 ems of 8-point, book work, were composed on
the linotype machine in 17 hours and 20 minutes, while
the same work done by hand occupied 148 hours, or
about eight and a half times as long. The labor cost by
machine was $4.40 and by hand $41.60 In another
instance, where the work was on 10-point, pbjectionable
matter, that is matter containing considerable italic,
100,000 ems was set on the linotype in 22 hours, 28
minutes, and the same by hand in 177 hours, or eight
times as long by hand. In this latter case the labor cost
was $5.69 by machine and $46 by hand. It should be
noted here that these were not speed tests, nor tests
made by parties interested to make a showing, but
simply observations made by the agents of the United
States Government on actual commercial work, per-
formed in the ordinary course of business, and not laid
out for any one's special convenience. They are results
that can be had in any printery where careful and intelli-
gent operators are employed under good management,
well paid, and supplied with good copy and inspired to
do good work.
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35^
THE MERGANTHALER LINOTYPE.
The following table, showing averages in a few news-
paper offices, might be extended indefinitely :
Average Machine Records
MAINTAINED IN VARIOUS OFFICES IN THE UNITED STATES.
Offices
Per day
35,O0O
Baltimore, Md., News
New Haven. Conn., Journal and Courier. . . .
St. Joseph. Mo., News
Springfield. Mass., Union
Troy, N. Y., Times
Denver, Col., News
St. Joseph, Mo., Herald
Wilmington, Del., News
Cincinnati, Ohio, Times-Star
Buffalo, N. Y., Times
Montgomery. Ala., Advertiser
Newark. N. J., Advertiser
Troy, N. Y., Press
Houston, Tex., Post
San Antonio, Tex., Express
Los Angeles, Cal., Times
Tacoma, Wash., Leader
New Orleans, La., States
Peoria, 111., Transcript ; 32J000
Concord, N. H., People and Patriot 40,000
35,000
32,000
39,000
36,000
35,000
32,000
32,000
Memphis, Tenn., Scimitar
Philadelphia, Pa., Record
Denver, Col., Republican
New York Times 32,000
Indianapolis, Ind., Journal |
Baltimore, Md.. News 35,000
Fort Smith, Art., News 40,000
Washington, D. C Star !
Cincinnati, Ohio, Commercial Gazette {
St. Louis, Mo Chronicle
Milwaukee, Wis., Journal
St. Joseph, Mo. , Gazette | 35,000
Chattanooga, Tenn. , News 40,000
St. Louis, Mo., Republic I
Detroit, Mich , Sun I 40,000
St. Paul, Minn., Pioneer Press !
Detroit, Mich. , Tribune j
Crand Rapids, Mich., Herald
Detroit, Mich., Free Press 45,000
New Bedford, Conn. Standard |
Springfield, Mass., Union '
New Haven, Conn., Register
Washington, D. C, Post |
Rochester, N. Y., Post and Express :
Pittsburg, Pa., Leader |
Meriden, Conn., Republican 40,000
Per hour
5,000
4,000
4,500
4,500
5,200
4,750
4,200
4,400
5,000
4,500
4,000
4,200
5,000
5,000
4,IOO
4,«44
4,oro
4.800
4,700
4,200
5,100
4,500
4,500
4,200
4,100
4,000
4,800
4,850
Hours
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THE MERGANTHALER LINOTYPE.
353
It is interesting here to note phenomenal records as
indicating the possibilities of the machine. On June 28,
1895, Mr. G. W. Green, of the Boston Standard, set in
that office, from printed copy, 13, 130 ems of solid agate,
13 >£ ems measure, in one hour, in the presence of reliable
witnesses. The machine was driven at a moderate in-
crease above normal speed. Mr. Green has a record of
8,200 ems per hour for eight hours.
In a public competition in Philadelphia, in the Times
office, Oct. 3, 1899, W. H. Stubs set and corrected 66,617
ems of nonpareil in.six hours, while his competitor William
Duffy set 55,026 ems corrected in the same time. It
will be seen that the winner's average was slightly in
excess of 1 1,000 per hour.
But it is of more commercial interest to know what
has been done under normal conditions, in a well-
regulated linotype composing-room, and for this purpose
a 2o-days' record of work in the office of the Detroit Free
Press is subjoined. The matter was one-fifth leaded,
contained no display heads, and was corrected by the
operators :
RECORD IN THOUSANDS OF EMS PER DAY.
Dar.%
Wise -
Forney I B
Martin tcou.^t
SaUerbach . ■ .
Young . -
Avtmt n .
? 4
*8 60
rl8
4854
u it
12 M
sa|SQ
bo do
7$ 6?
is 10
*7"
17I18
58
sS SQf5 ft
54|S4 40<*6
M.V47 *u*i
1920
S758
(1176
5554
*n *°
•54^
■ -
As compared with typesetting machines proper, that
is machines that set and distribute ordinary typefounders'
type, the linotype has several enormous advantages.
It entirely does away with the labor of distribution.
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354 TH£ MERGANTHALER LINOTYPE.
It substitutes metal at 5 to 7 cents a pound for type
at about 40 cents a pound.
It never runs out of sorts.
It gives a new and sharp face at every operation.
It enables the printer to keep matter standing at a
trifling cost.
It is the only real "one-man " machine in existence.
It handles a great variety of sizes and faces in one
machine.
In all other machines there is always required either
more than one machine in the combination, or more than
one operator, and usually both. Linotype results and
records are produced by single operatives on single
machines, and not by "teams M at double the labor cost,
as on typesetting machines.
Linotype machines cost $3,000 each, or say $300 a
year for interest and repairs. They are also leased at $500
per year. Every machine is guaranteed as to workman-
ship, material and capacity to produce 7,500 ems of solid,
justified matter per hour. Before the machines were
brought to their present high state of efficiency it was
supposed that they were only fitted for newspaper work,
and they have been put into use by nearly every large
newspaper in the world and by hundreds of small
papers.
Within the past four or five years, as details have
been added, and the variety of faces increased they are
being taken into use by book and job printers, and lino-
type work is now as familiar in the pages of the best
magazines and in books of leading publishers as is
founders' type. For publications or books of 40,000 cir-
culation or under, the presswork can be done direct from
the linotype slugs, thus saving the cost of electrotyping,
which would be necessary to save the wear on the type
were the work done from foundry type. Where an
edition is very large it is practicable to make electrotypes
and sterotypes from the slugs the same as from type
forms.
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THE MERGANTHALER LINOTYPE. 3SS
The ordinary keyboard contains 90 characters, which
are arranged in several different ways for different classes
of work.
In machines provided with two-letter matrices 180
characters may be set from the same keyboard. These
machines are often termed "Book Office Machines,"
because italic or black letter for headings, etc., is included
in the extra characters thus obtained. For odd or peculiar
characters, as on special work, special matrices may
be had and kept in sort boxes for introduction to the
line by hand, their distribution being automatically
effected.
The linotype matter may be rapidly leaded by hand.
If all matter from the machine is to be leaded, the mould
may be adjusted one size larger than the face, to produce
a "shoulder " on the slugs. For example, a 6-point face
may be thus produced on a 7-point body, or a 7-point
face on an 8-point body.
The machines are used with entire success for mailing
lists, lists of stockholders, poll lists and similar lists,
which may be set cheaply, changed quickly, and left
standing, putting out of use the mere cost of the metal.
Linotype matter may be set in connection with cuts
in the same manner as movable type.
Papers having large numbers of small "ads "to set
find that there is a great saving effected by the use of the
machine, and a number of machines are used for this
purpose alone, in some cases setting the first word or
line in capitals, and in other cases with two-line initial
letters, which can be speedily done with matrices set
into the line by hand.
The machine is specially advantageous for cata-
logues, directories, etc., as the solid lines may be readily
and safely handled. The cost of type and the need of
sorts are avoided.
The slugs are made of such height as to be used in
connection with ordinary type.
It should be understood that by changing the matrices
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25& THE MERGANTHALER LINOTYPE.
and adjusting the mould, any machine produced by the
Company can be adapted to produce any desired face on
any desired body, the line not exceeding five inches in
length.
Owing to the facility with which new slugs may be
cast and inserted, it has been found, by actual test, that
linotype matter containing the same defects may be
corrected much more rapidly than when set in ordinary
type. In a test made by William H. Rand, of Rand Gr
McNally, the well known publishers, linotype matter was
corrected in twenty-seven minutes, while the same correc-
tions in type occupied one and a half hours.
AH machines are now built on the interchangeable
plan, so that any desired part or piece may be procured
quickly and cheaply.
The company will send an expert mechanic to erect
the machines and set them in operation in the office of
the user, charging expenses and wages.
For every variety of work the linotype has proved the
superiority of Merganthaler's plan of substituting the line
as a unit in place of Gutenberg's movable type, and this
has brought about a revolution in the printing business.
The reason why the linotype system is adaptable to so
many variations, and accommodates such a broad range
of work, is found in the simple mechanical fact that a
matrix may be mounted on a body large enough to be
handled conveniently in a machine, while the individual
types are very difficult to handle mechanically, owing to
their small size and the extreme accuracy required of all
parts of the machine and the softness of the metal. Take
the matter of distribution, for instance, which is so simple
on the linotype that the matrices simply slide into place
for reuse. In the typesetting machines each type has to
be accurately nicked and made to pass through wards
whose accuracy is figured down to the thousandth of an
inch. The distribution requires careful oversight, as the
slightest batter or bit of dirt on a type tends to block the
machine. The justification is wholly automatic on the
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THE MERGANTHALER LINOTYPE. }S7
Merganthaler linotype system, being effected by the action
of simple wedges, while the typesetting machines have
resorted to the most complicated and cumbrous devices
in trying to get rid of the work of hand justification, and
thus far without any commercial success.
In order to run satisfactorily, typesetting machines
require to be handled by two or three men at once, con-
stituting a team, while the linotype, in offices where only
one machine is used, is cared for entirely by the operative.
In large plants it is found best to employ a machinist to
keep the machines up to the highest efficiency, and save
the time of the keyboard operatives, besides avoiding
tinkering with the machines by printers who may not
understand them.
The printer should not allow himself to be misled by
the persuasive talk of the promoters of "coming machines. "
These have been coming for the past twenty years, and
the printers who waited for them have grown poor
while the linotype users have grown rich. The linotype
is the only machine that has come to stay. Those type-
setting machines that were sold to some extent during the
past fifteen years are no longer offered to the public, and
second-hand ones go begging at one-tenth the cost of the
linotype, while linotypes continue to be sold at the rate
of about seventy-five machines a month.
These are facts and not froth. The linotype system
is the only system of mechanical composition that ever
really saved the printer any money. It saves because,
having overcome the complications and irregularities of
the earlier machines, and being perfected in its details, the
product is composition of real commercial every day
value, obtained at a minimum cost. It has introduced
new features and methods into the composing-room, and
it has overcome all the prejudices and conservatism that
at first hindered its introduction. It saves money, and
saves it where the printer needs it most, in the composing-
room, for that has been a sink hole of loss with most
printeries. Now that so many book and job printers
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3^8 REGARDING "CENTURY" PRESSES.
are using the machines, they are not only getting all the
composition there is going, but the presswork also, and
the printer who defers putting in linotype machines finds
out that his work is drifting away to those who do it by
modern methods.
The offices of the Merganthaler Linotype Co. are in
the Tribune Building, New York City. The moral to
the man who desires to know " How to Make Money in
the Printing Business " is obvious — buy linotypes.
AN EXPERT OPINION REGARDING "CENTURY"
PRESSES.
I have been asked as an expert mechanic and as a
printer to give my opinion upon the "Century" press,
and to define the precise position which this press occu-
pies with respect to the modern requirements of printing.
In a survey of the advance made during the past ten
years in printing presses for the better class of work,
two impovements stand out as distinct strides in the con-
struction of machinery. One, the invention of a device to
secure a continuous gearing of the bed with the cylinder in
a two-revolution press, I believe to be the most valuable
contribution that the printer has received from the inventor
in the past decade. By reason of this device wherever used
the average of quality in the work produced has moved for-
ward at a bound. Not only has the gain been in securing an
exact registration, which was theretofore impossible, but in
ridding printing forms of the wiping action which they
must suffer from a cylinder which is not rigidly geared up
with the bed upon which they are borne.
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5
^
a
E
<3
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)bO REGARDING "CENTURY" PRESSES.
In this latter connection, I have recently seen the last
impressions of a run of 7 50,000 front one set of plates, and
when compared with the first impressions hardly a trace
of wear was discernible. Had I not known that the
machine upon which the plates were used was built with
continuous register gearing 1 could not have believed such
a result possible, for 1 have never before seen plates of the
same character stand up for more than 200,000 impressions.
In the particular machine in point (a "Century" press
with a bed 39x53 inches), each side of the bed was geared
to its corresponding end of the cylinder, a fact which 1
observed made a complete squaring between the bed and
cylinder. Whether it was due to this, or to the easy
swing of the new reciprocating device used, I do not
know, but the bed travelled in such a swift and quiet man-
ner that my hand upon the frame could scarcely detect the
moment of reverse.
The other point, and the second of the two which 1
consider the principal improvements made in presses
within recent years, relates to the new method of obtain-
ing and maintaining a powerful and absolutely precise de-
gree of impression, which, also, Mr. Wood has contrived
and embodied, with his continuous register gearing, in the
"Century" Press. Mr. Wood's arrangement consists in
first putting down a center stay, beneath the bed, which
is several times stiflfer than any heretofore used, and in
bringing about the uprights which support the cylinder
the principal mass of the side frames. He constructs the
cylinder upon a new plan of internal webbing and with
cylinder journals whose strength is approximately 30 per
cent, greater than that employed in any other method of
press construction. Having secured the highest degree of
rigidity in the various parts an ingenious arrangement of
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REGARDING " CENTURY" PRESSES. 36 1
eccentric raising-and-lowering mechanism controls the
cylinder journals, by reason of which, at each impression,
the cylinder may be brought to a positive point, which
is not open to variance, where it will remain throughout
the varying strains incident to the working of a mixed
form of type without yielding its position even to the
thickness of a tissue; thus the usual difficulty experienced
with two-revolution presses, which arises frpm the cylin-
der not coming down with exactness to^the same position
for successive impressions, is entirely eliminated, and a
fixedness and certainty of impress is secured instead.
And further than this has Mr. Wood gone^ in his
novel conception that the proper normal position for a
cylinder journal is against the top of its bearing and
not against the bottom as is the case in all other ma-
chines. In this he is certainly right, for whenever, as in
other machines, a cylinder is called upon to impress
the type beneath it, it must first be lifted in its bearings
until its journals bear against their upper sides before a
pressure of more than the weight of the cylinder can be
brought to bear in the act of printing. Thus it is nec-
essary for each row of pages as it passes beneath the cyl-
inder to lift the cylinder until all the lost motion in the
upper part of its bearings is taken up, which is a decided
mechanical fault that not only is injurious to the front
edge of the pages which must do the lifting, but also to
the back edge of the pages as well from off which the
cylinder rolls as it drops in the margin behind. By Mr.
Wood's arrangement the cylinder, contrary to all other
practice, is so supported that the journals are always
against the upper part of their bearings ; so, there being
no lost motion above the cylinder journals, the pages are
not called upon to lift the cylinder, for the lifting has
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362 MAKING A PROFIT ON SMALL WORK.
already been mechanically accomplished, and thus is
overcome the usual tendency of the cylinder to drop in the
margins — a fault that causes more damage to plates and
type than perhaps any other that may be attributed to a
printing machine.
In many other ways the "Century " press represents
the highest development that press-building has yet
attained, but in this paper I have endeavored to illustrate
only what I consider to be the chief additions that the past
decade has brought to the two-revolution press, and will
leave the rest to a future paper with the closing remark
that with respect to other problems as well Mr. Wood
has shown himself to be the most virile inventor that has
worked for the printing industry in the present genera-
tion, and any machine that bears the stamp of his genius
may be accepted as the very best that can be devised.
(Signed) Chas. H. Cochrane.
MAKING A PROFIT ON SMALL WORK.
Probably every job printer at one time or another has
been astonished at the low figure some competitor has
made on an order of envelopes, cards, circulars, etc., and
has regarded such competitor as a reckless price-cutter,
or as having made a mistake in figuring. The conclusion
should not be reached too hastily, for it may be only a
case of having improved machinery, which reduces cost
to such a degree that the happy possessor of the machine
is making a good thing at prices that would ruin a user
of older styles of presses. Take for instance an order of
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MAKING A PROFIT ON SMALL WORK. 363
100,000 No. 6 envelopes. A has Gordon presses, run by
power, with cheap boy labor to do the feeding. He
figures that he can do the 100,000 in ten days on an
eighth medium, and that the time of the boy and press
will yield him a close profit at $50, so he makes his
estimate on that basis. B has a pony cylinder, and
figures that he can put on a duplicate form with a feeder
at each side of the cylinder, and by speeding up the ma-
chine, can put the job through in three days' time at a
cost, including all charges, of $30 for the presswork.
C has a Harris automatic press that feeds itself, and will
turn out the entire job in one day of nine hours, at a shop
cost of only $6, and involve $5 less waste of stock
on the job. What wonder then, that A should look
with horror upon B's price, and that B should view with
equal horror the estimate of C, who has perhaps charged
$25 for the presswork, and taken the job, making more
than B could have made had he charged $45 for the
presswork, or A had he charged $70. Yet, C should
not be criticised for cutting prices. He has simply shown
that he is an up-to-date man, who has abandoned
old methods in favor of the new.
Or, suppose that it is a job of circulars, 6x9 inches,
also 100,000 impressions. A with his Gordons can
make no better price than on the envelopes, and must
charge at least $50 for the presswork to clear himself on
the job. B makes a price this way:
Eight electrotype plates at 80 cents, $6 40
12,^00 impressions on a cylinder at $1, . 12 50
MaKe-reaay, 1 50
Spoilage of paper, ... 1 00
Total $21 40
C simply makes two electros for his Harris au-
tomatic press, and runs the job off with a hand feeder
in two days, making his price this way:
Two curved electros at $ 1 each, $2 00
Make-ready and two days' time of press, 1 2 00
Total . $14 00
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364 MAKING A PROFIT ON SMALL WORK.
Again it is more than plain that C can take the job
away from either A or B, and yet make a great deal
more money on it.
Suppose another case of a lot of small jobs to be done:
Call it four lots of envelopes of 1,000, 2,000, 2, 500 and
4,000 respectively; one 5,000 run of billheads; one
20,000 run of cards; one 15,000 run of tags; and 2,000
circulars. The time on a Gordon would be fully 14 hours
for the envelopes ; 7 hours for the billheads ; 8 hours for the
cards (four on) ; 18 hours for the tags, and 3 hours for the cir-
culars, a total of 50 hours, at a cost of $25 for the press-
work. A Harris press would do the four lots of envelopes
in two hours, the actual running time being less than an
hour ; an hour and a half would perhaps be taken for the bill-
heads, by hand feed; two and a half hours for the 20,000
cards, with automatic feed ; two hours for the tags, and
half an hour for the circulars, a total of eight and a half
hours, or call it a day, at a cost of $6, which cost is but
25 percent, of .what it would be on the Gordons.
As the Harris press takes a quarter sheet of 22 >£ X28#
inches card or tag board and prints the same at the rate
of 10,000 or 12,000 impressions per hour, cylinder
presses running a full sheet " four on," would have to be
credited with the three extra plates, imposition and make-
ready at no cost whatever, and be run at a maintained
speed of 3,400 per hour to equal the economy of the
Harris.
Where there are numerous changes of forms to be made
on a job, the Harris automatic press gives as much advan-
tage over other machines as it does in the cases of the
long and short rifhs noted. A record of 50,000 impres-
sions per day has been made where the work included
250 changes of the form. In such work the man with the
Gordon or the pony cylinder is again distanced.
Not only does the Harris press with the automatic feed
admit of a speed ten or twelve times as great as that of a
platen jobber, but it reduces the waste of stock ninety per
cent, and permits make-ready in about half the time.
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MAKING A PROFIT ON SMALL WORK. 365
The press is made in two' sizes, 12x12 and 15x18 inches,
and being adapted to use either curved electros or stereos,
or type boxes, or a combination of type and plates, it
becomes practical for a great variety of work. For en-
velopes and cards it has an automatic feed, and may be
run at from 10,000 to 15,000 impressions an hour. Paper
has to be hand fed, and then the speed is from 3,000 to
5,000 an hour, according to the ability of the feeder. The
reason why a hand feeder can supply the sheets at such
speeds is that the stock has to be moved only a few
inches, that the front register is automatic, and because
no offset or damage can result when he misses a sheet.
The speed with which make-ready is done is owing
partly to the accessibility or the tympan cylinder, but more
to the fact that in printing from a small cylindrical surface
only a line at a time touches the paper, requiring such a
trifling pressure that no make-ready is required to take up
the spring of the metal parts of the machine, as in a platen
press. The plates are also clamped in such a way that
underlaying can be done very expeditiously. No diffi-
culty is experienced in securing curved electrotype and
stereotype plates for the Harris press, as an inexpensive
stereotyping apparatus can be supplied to users in coun-
try places, and in the cities any electrotyper can supply
curved electros by the use of a bender supplied by the
makers of the Harris press.
The Harris automatic press costs less to buy than a
cylinder press and occupies much less floor space. It
will turn out twice as much work as can be had from a
number of Gordons involving the same price of purchase,
and it can be run by one man. It does not feed paper from
the web, but feeds envelopes and cards automatically from
the bottom of the pile, so that more can be laid on with-
out stopping the machine. When running at a 14,000
an hour speed, the attendant is kept busy supplying piles
of stock and taking away the printed work and packing
it. In fact, the machine turns out work so fast that the
only complaint of users is that they cannot get enough
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366 THE GOLDING JOBBER.
work to keep it busy. But the press will pay for itself
over and over even when there is not work to keep it
going half the time.
Nothing will build up the work of an office faster
than the introduction of such a machine. In a little while
merchants learn that in that office they can get small work
in great quantity in a very short time, and that the quality
of the printing is uniformly good, and the count full.
These are advantages enough, and it is not necessary for
the owner of a Harris automatic press to shave prices
materially to get work for it. The profits made by the
efficiency of the machine are rightly his for his enterprise
in being prompt to purchase a labor-saving machine.
THE GOLDING JOBBER— NE PLUS ULTRA.
Every printer ought to know whether there is one job
press better than others — one that will save him or earn him
$50 or $100 more than some other press in a given time-
but unfortunately for the craft thousands upon thousands
are still using job presses that are cheap or slow, because
they have never taken the pains to investigate carefully
and learn what can be proven to a mathemathical cer-
tainty, that the Golding Jobber is in a marked degree the
best and also the quickest operating of any in the world.
The long row of Golding presses that may be seen in
the Lotus Press, New York, is an evidence of the esteem
in which they are held in that printery, and scores of
other offices might be named where only Golding job
presses are used or would be installed. It will pay any
printer to throw out all his jobbers of the Gordon type
and to get rid of all those of the cylinder-distribution
type, and to buy Golding Jobbers in their places, because
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THE GOLDING JOBBER.
367
he can get 2,000 to 3,000 more impressions per day from
the latter, as shown by actual experience. Just think
what this means: 2,000 impressions at the minimum cost
The Golding Jobber
Courtesy of Golding & Co.
of 50 cents per 1,000 is $1.00 a day greater possibility, or
a product that may be $300 better in a year than on in-
ferior machines. The Golding can be run faster than any
other press ever built, and will stand thirty to fifty per
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^68 THE GOLDING JOBBER.
cent, more speed without deterioration, because of these
absolute mechanical advantages:
i. — The main frame is all 01 one single casting
and not made up of parts bolted together. In
other presses the bearings get out of line, the cor-
ners of the press settling with the unevenness of
the floor.
2. — The quick return of the platen allows a
quarter to a third more time for feeding the sheet
than on any other press.
These two features alone make the Golding press in-
valuable as compared with others. It will stand being
run faster, and the feeder has the time to do faster work.
We have letters by the hundred showing that printers
run Goldings day in and day out at 2,000 to 3,000 im-
pressions an hour. Do you get any such results from
your Qordons ?
As compared with the cylinder-distribution type of
job presses, which are admittedly slow, but do work su-
perior to the Gordon, the Golding can demonstrate that
it is as strong as the strongest, and that it gives better ink
distribution — mind you, not "as good," but better — than
any of them, and at twice the speed. The average
printer knows that the Gordon style of job press is
designed to be simple, cheap and quick, and that the cyl-
inder-distribution press was designed to give the quality
of printing of a rack-and-screw-distribution cylinder press,
at a sacrifice of the Gordon's speed. The Golding press
was especially designed to give both speed and quality,
and it gives more of both than the other machines, besides
having numerous minor conveniences all its own. Ink
distribution is maintained at little friction by retaining the
ink disk. The quality of this distribution is kept up to
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THE GOLDING JOBBER. 369
the high standard required for the best modern printing,
by a peculiar fountain, having a cylinder of large diameter
on which the ink is spread finely and then transferred in
a distributed condition to the disk. This gives excellent
results, but the story is only half told, for the Golding
has another ink distributing surface below the type bed.
The form rollers run on to this on the down stroke, and
receive a new coating of ink, so that when they return
across the form there is almost the result of double
rolling.
We have only outlined the larger advantages and
improvements in the Golding Jobber; but the presses are
full of good points unknown to other machines. The
platen is so hinged, and so pulled up against the bed .and
squeezed, that there is no chance or possibility of slip or
slur, no matter whether the form is in or out of center.
In the average printing office where Gordons are run
the boys usually waste half an hour a day per machine
fiddling with the impression screws, or if they do not it
is because there is a rule enforced that they must leave
them alone and depend on the bearers to balance the im-
pression. These bearers take up room in the chase and
reduce the capacity of a half medium to a quarto, or a
quarto to an eighth. On the Golding the whole nuisance
is avoided. There are no impression screws, but slides
under the platen like those of a Hempel quoin, and a little
finger-screw at one side sets the whole platen in or
out with a twist or two, in such a way that it cannot get
out of square.
The chase of a Golding may be filled full of the heaviest
sort of matter and the whole of the form will be properly
inked and bear a proper impression; further, a single
line may be worked at the bottom of the chase without
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37° THE GOLDING JOBBER.
slurring. Under all conditions the Golding disk distribu-
tion press is the least destructive of rollers. With
several rollers running constantly and three others
intermittently, upon a cylinder, heat is produced by
friction in proportion to the stiffness of ink used, and to
speed. The greater the heat, the sooner the rollers lose
their surface or become melted. A disk press presents no
such obstacle. The disk distribution press, as typified by
the Golding Jobber, affords facilities for the regulation of
the ink supply by the operator standing at the front of the
press. This cannot be done on a press with cylindrical
distribution.
The printer who realizes that he is not making what
he should from his job pressroom is invited to write at
once to Golding & Co., 177-199 Fort Hill Square, Boston,
or to the branch offices in New York, Philadelphia and
Chicago, and learn the terms on which he can apply a
remedy that will increase his output 20 per cent.
Golding & Co. also build two "Art Jobbers," and a
light job press called the " Pearl," Fairhaven cylinder
presses, paper cutters, chases and small tools generally
for the printery, besides furniture of all descriptions.
They furnish complete outfits for the printer and are
always glad to make up estimates. They have earned
an enviable reputation for carrying good goods and deal-
ing fairly with everybody.
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WHY NOT MAKE MONEY BY BUYING A PRESS
THAT WILL LAST A LIFETIME ?
The Whitlock presses are the greatest money-makers
ever placed in a printing office, and one reason for this is
that they will outwear anything else in a printing plant.
When purchasing a press the printer requires to disregard
all "pretty" talk and assertion, and to get down to the
bald iron and steel that he is buying. He wants the best
combination of these, and he wastes his money if he buys
any other.
In considering the Whitlock press we can afford to
discuss the mechanical details, because we know we have
the best construction, and that we can prove it to the
printer who will give close attention.
A human crank is not always a good thing, but in
machinery the crank is an ideal motion. In steam engines,
locomotives, and other high-speed machines nothing was
ever found so good as the simple crankfor converting recip-
rocal (that is back-and-forth) motion into rotary motion.
In a printing press, manufacturers have to contend with
much the same problem as in the steam engine, because
the motion of the cylinder is rotary and of the bed recip-
rocal, and these must work together in unison. All
cylinder press builders would undoubtedly use a simple
crank motion for the bed, as in the steam engine, if they
were not prevented by the fact that this requires an un-
even speed of the cylinder, and that means a slow press.
So they have to resort to compromises, and hence the
numerous bed-motions of cylinder presses.
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y]2 THE WHITLOCK PRESS.
m
It is because the Whitlock has the most simple, dur-
able and accurate of these substitutes for the crank that it
is the most durable and reliable of the two-revolution
presses on the
market. The
bed-motion as
here illustrated
is virtually the
^^^ crank move-
Whitfock Bed Motion. ment of the
stop cylinder modified by elliptical gears, which adapt it
to high speeds. It will be remembered that in its time
the stop cylinder was the press of all presses for fine work
and sure register, and that its only fault was its slowness.
Now that the Whitlock has so modified and improved
the bed-motion of the stop cylinder that it can be used on
a two-revolution high speed press, there simply remains
nothing more to be desired in this direction — the ne
plus ultra is reached.
Other presses may run fast, may give good register,
good inking, etc., but as sure as iron is iron no one of them
will continue to give these good results for many years
without rebuilding, because of the trappy, complicated
bed motions, whereas in the Whitlock we have a motion
so fundamentally simple thai it can be run indefinitely
like the crank of the steam engine, and will work satis-
factorily after years and years of hard wear.
Because of this sure and simple bed-movement the
Whitlock presses do not lose ability to register accurately,
and the jars of reversal are absorbed in the heavy parts of
the machine, and do not tend to rattle it to pieces. The
Whitlock presses will stand more over-speeding and hard
usage than any other two-revolution presses built.
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THE WHITLOCK PRESS. y]$
They are made to stand abuse, and no master printer can
tell when he buys a press how much abuse it will be sub-
jected to by his workmen.
The tipping ink fountain of the Whitlock being more
adjustable than any other made, it is not necessary to fill
the fountain for short runs of special inks, as it will use
up the ink to the last half pound without allowing the
sheets to run light in color. This saves time in pushing
down ink, and waste of stock as V3ll as ink, and is not
to be found on any competing machine. The ductor roll
deposits the ink on the first vibrator, instead of on the table,
so that the ink reaches the plate in a distributed condition.
The roller construction io strictly up-to-date, all angle
rollers being gear-driven, and rollers being interchange-
able, so that worn form rollers may be used as
distributors.
The impression is very rigid and even. Four full-
length and very wide steel-faced tracks, supported by
very heavy arched girders, and supplied with many more
than the usual number of steel friction rollers (which run
free and uncontrolled like a ball-bearing) support the bed.
The cylinder and type-bed are cast heavier and are sup-
ported by stronger arms, journals, etc., than is usual on
other makes of presses, and to spring either bed or cyl-
inder is impossible. The box-like construction of the bed
is new and patented, and insures double the stiffness of
the ordinary construction. Instead of being made of open
ribbed work on the under side, the lower portion is all
closed in with solid metal, the weight being lightened by
box-like cavities, opening at the sides. Thus a result is
obtained that makes the bed practically as strong against
springing as if it were of solid metal throughout the
thickness.
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374 THE WHITLOCK PRESS.
Both impression trip and v back-up are supplied, a
combination not found in some other presses claimed to
be first-class. The air-springs are connected, so that a
single adjustment at either end of press sets both springs
at once, saving time and insuring the proper resistance in
reversing the bed.
The cylinder of the Whitlock is 15 to 20 per cent,
larger than on competing machines, thus reducing the
wear on plates and
type. Notwith-
standing the larger
cylinder and greater
curve for reversal
of the bed, the
Whitlock is posi-
tively a shorter,
WhHIock Press. narrower and lower
machine for size of form, than any other make in the
market, owing to simplicity of design and structure.
This means less floor space, less power, less shock in
reversing the bed, and consequent greater speed and
durability, besides some economy in time in working
around a smaller machine.
Flyless and tapeless " printed-side-up " front delivery
is supplied in place of the fly when desired. The press
is also fitted with all the latest conveniences in the way
of handling rollers, adjusting tympan, etc. There is no
desirable feature on any other two-revolution press that
is not found as good or better on the Whitlock machine,
and it has many little devices — time-saving devices — not
found on any other press.
In the Whitlock shops is a machine especially designed
for testing each press made for exactness of register and
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THE WHITLOCK PRESS. 375
positive absence of slur. This machine they control, and
no other manufacturer has the means of applying any
such careful tests. When you buy a Whitlock you
know the machine will be in perfect running order the
moment it is put together on your floor. How many
printers have suffered losses from the presses that had to
be tinkered with for weeks or months after starting before
they were in correct working condition?
Write for descriptive catalogue.
Manufactured by the Whitlock Printing Press Manufac-
turing Company. Sales offices — New York, 121 Times
Building; Boston, 10 Mason Building; Chicago, 706
Fisher Building; Works, Derby, Conn.
# Southern Agents, J. H. Schroeter& Bro., Atlanta, Ga.
European Agents, T. W. & C. B. Sheridan, 46 Farring-
don Street, London, Eng.
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fl^tt common papers lor
eWEtfWs^^
to what straits old Time reduces
Frail man, when Pape r — even a R a g like this, £
Survives himself, his tomb and all that's his — Don yuan. *
Old Stratford Cotton Rag Deckle, American and
Foreign Hand-made, Japan, Plate, St. James Antique *
Rag, St. George English Finish Vellum Deckle, Dres- i
den Half-tone, Porcelaine Art Enamel, Rag Covers, |
Opaque Bible, and Other Uncommon Papers.S^S^S^S^ |
W. ^f. Z(0 S IV HTHT <
At the Sign of The Wasp Number ]
Seventy Fifth Avenue 0z\B J9orfi £
Telephone Number 2219 Eighteenth Street £
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^ HUBER
CRANK MOVEMENT
TWO REVOLUTION PRESS
The most perfect modern printing machine of the age*
Showing the highest rates of speed* without vibration*
Combining the greatest strength with the least wear
and tear*
The largest number of conveniences* producing equiva-
lent economies*
The finest in mechanical excellence and superb con-
struction*
THE GREATEST MONEY MAKER OF THEM ALL
Van Allens & Boughton
SOLE SELLING AOENTS
59 Ann St. NEW YORK 17-23 Rose St
H. W. THORNTON
377 Dearborn Street, Chicago
HADWEN SWAIN M'F'Q. CO.
315 Spear Street, San Francisco
MILLER & RICHARD
7 Jordan Street, Toronto, Ont.
P. LAWRENCE
57 Shoe Lane, London, E. C.
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J. E» LINDE 2J4to222
William St.
New York
PAPER CO.
MANUFACTURERS AND
WHOLESALE DEALERS
Super Calendered and Machine Finished
Book, News, Poster
and Blotting Papers
Flat and Ruled Writings, Linens, Bonds and Ledgers,
Cards and Cardboards, Envelopes, Pads, etc.
In* our Wrapping Paper Department
We carry a large line of
No* J and No* 2 Manila Wrapping in the roll, flat and
folded ; Fibre, Express, Drug and Mottled Wrappers
in the roll and folded
Large line of
IMPORTED JAPANESE NAPKINS
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T^ DUPLEX
PERFECTING NEWSPAPER PRESS
SPEED WITHOUT STEREOTYPING
SIX THOUSAND 4, 6 OR 8 -PAGE
PAPERS PER HOUR PRINTED, PASTED
AND FOLDED FROM FLAT FORMS
Nearly 200 of these Presses £j y n ™ rmt £
throughout the United States, from Maine to Texas, and from Florida
to Oregon; alio in England, Prance, Belgium, Australia, Holland,
South Africa, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, New Brunswick and
Newfoundland.
THE DEMAND FOR THIS MACHINE IS CON-
STANTLY GROWING, AND TAXES TO THE
UTMOST OUR FACILITIES FOR MEETING IT
ADDRESS
Duplex Printing Press Co.
BATTLE CREEK, MICH.
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One Hundred Per
Cent Per Year!
Next to the paper, the most
expensive item in the cost
of producing printed matter
is labor. You spend a great
deal of time and money in
trying to save a very small
percentage on your stock,
and sometimes get an infer-
ior quality by so doing. Do
you realize that on your
composition you can save
fifteen to fifty per cent by
making an investment of a
ridiculously small amount?
50
to
100
per
cent
per
year
is the very least it will net
you. Strange as it seems,
while it costs you less to
produce it, your work will be
greatly improved in appear-
ance and will suit your cus-
tomer better. If you are not
£et informed about Standard
ine Unit Set type— the most
important advance in type-
founding of the century-
Write for further particulars to
Inland Type Foundry
217-219 Pine St., Saint Louis
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PLEDGED
TO THE PRINTER
AND PLATEMAKER
"YPOTHETAE AND PLATE-
MAKER prints more original
matter every month — matter
^^^^r prepared especially and exclu-
sively (or its columns by suc-
cessful men in the business —
than any other printing trades'
journal.
It does not hire as much
matter written, of the cut-and-
dried order, nor copy as much
that has been uttered at one
time or another, but it has,
for a longer time, printed the best thoughts and trade
experiences of the best men, prepared expressly for its
columns*
TYPOTHETAE AND PLATEMAKER is
pledged to promote the business well-being of printers and
platemakers*
It is an animated, interesting, instructive and profit-
able journal.
FOLLOW ITS TEACHINGS AND YOU WILL
MAKE MONEY IN THE PRINTING BUSINESS
READ IT. LOOK AT ITS TYPOGRAPHY
SUBSCRIBE POR IT. ADVERTI8B IN IT
Typothetae and Platemaker
417 PINE STREET, ST. LOUIS
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HENRY
LINDENMEYR
& SONS
PAPER
WAREHOUSE
ALL KINDS OF PAPER MADE TO ORDER
NOS. 32, 34 AND 36 BLEECKER STREET
BRANCH WAREHOUSE, 20 BEEKMAN STREET
NEW YORK
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RETURN LIBRARY SCHOOL LIBRARY
TO^ 2 South Hall 642-2253
LOAN PERIOD 1
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
DUE
AS STAMPED BELOW
MAY 2U 19Bb
■
r
r
■
■
FORM NO. DD18, 45m,
6V6 UNIVERSITY OF
BERKEI
CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
.EY, CA 94720
LD W-100tn-8,*55
(B189s22)476
Univenfcr of
Berkeley
aia
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