File:The printing trades (1916) (14765737815).jpg

Identifier: printingtrades00shaw (find matches)
Title: The printing trades
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Shaw, Frank L. (Frank Leslie), b. 1882 Cleveland Foundation. Survey Committee. Cleveland education survey
Subjects: Printing industry Book industries and trade Vocational education
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
The total number of native-bornmen in the city between these ages was about65,000, of which the compositors constitutedslightly less than one per cent. Applying this ratio to the school adminis-trative unit we obtain surprising and ratherdiscouraging results. In an elementary schoolof 1,000 pupils there would be, including allages and grades, approximately 500 boys, ofwhom about one per cent, or five boys, may beexpected to become compositors. But many ofthe boys are below the age when vocationaltraining of any kind is advisable. It is thecommonly accepted view among educators thatsuch training should not be undertaken beforethe age of 12 years, and many believe that thisis too early. The number of boys 12 years oldand over in a school of 1,000 pupils does notusually exceed 160. Applying the ratio to thisnumber we find that our class of prospectivecompositors dwindles to about two boys. Evenif we add all the workers in the other printingtrades and in the semi-skilled and unskilled 68
Text Appearing After Image:
occupations of the industry, the case is not muchbetter. The total number of male wage-earners,both foreign and native, employed in the in-dustry at the time of the last census was about2,700, or less than four times the total number ofcompositors, so that a general course for all theboys who are likely to become printers of anykind would directly benefit about six boys. Aclass of this size is too small to justify the em-ployment of special teachers and the purchaseof special equipment. Bookbinding, introduced in the manual train-ing course here this year, offers another excellentillustration of the difficulties which attend vo-cational training for small trades. There areapproximately one-fifth as many bookbindersas there are compositors in the city; conse-quently of any given number of boys in the pub-lic schools, about one-fifth of one per cent maybecome bookbinders. The number enrolled inthe larger of the two schools in which this courseis now taught is about 400. In a group of th

Note About Images