Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1911 — HIGH SCHOOL PUBLICATION [ARTICLE]

HIGH SCHOOL PUBLICATION

Is Poorly Printed and Abounds With Glaring Errors $45 EXTRA IS NOT JUSTIFIED Supposedly Well Printed Job Proves a Travesty—Much Her-| aided Annual Not Even Ordi-' nary Work Despite Dishonorable Methods.

While it is not the custom of The Democrat to criticise the work- of a competitor, in view of the fact that Principal Bradshaw states The Democrat was eliminated from the field in the high school annual printing on account of the supposed?.- high standard of work desired, we feel the patrons of the school who have not been inveigled into buying a copy should at least have some idea of the work done. Those who have purchased know the work is very mediocre. The annual as completed is rot up to the standard of the sample submitted by the Master of Ceremonies and Final Authority on things typographical—Mr. Bradshaw—who, when not posing as a master printer, draws a salary as principal of the high school. " The annual as printed on the much vaunted Miehle press (instead, of a two and a quarter million dollar "platinum" press) is a booklet liberally besprinkled with illustrations— good, bad and indifferent. illustrations! are printed in about seven shades —of black—some heavy and blurred, and ranging down to an indistinct or gray 3hade. In a technical description few would, be interested, but suffice it to say! that no two of the illustrations; are printed alike, and uniformity! bf color is absolutely essential to' even fair printing. Had we known the Republican was short of ink. rather than have the annual have a wooly appearance, we would have donated a few pounds. Although that $45 bonus should have bought quite a little pretty good ink.

The work abounds with headings of ah old English type, which is also used in the advertisements somewhat, this is badly mixed, using the letters G for C, and J for I. Of course, in type a half inch high little things like that can not be seen farther away than across the. room and don’t make much difference. Maybe that was what the extra $45 was for so the work would be poor and the proof-reading awful. It should be remembered, too. that a “systematic investigation” of The Democrat office was conducted in the Republican editorial rooms by Bradshaw and the Republican editors and they decided that it was good work that was desired, so the bids were compared, and after reducing its bid $25 the Republican was given a bonus of 545 over our bid and then the work is rushed out in slipshod fashion usual To shell underhand transactions—and the consumer, or school patron pockets his loss as philosophically as possible. In the annual there are half tones on 25 pages, but it was said that the reason Mr. Bradshaw gave the Republican $45 bonus, was that most of the book would have half tones — where the-balance are Mr. Bradshaw only knows, but they are not in evidence, though the’ buyer loses nothing by their absence if the ones printed are samples of what would have been. Some of the group views, while evidently fair cuts, are so poorlv printed as to give the children the appearance of smallpox convalescents. Others give the victims the deathly pallor and appearance of leprosy, but we hasten to assure our readers that neither disease was rampant in this year. The editorial announcement of the annual.‘hopes for its continuance in the future. We trust, if it is, that at least honorable and clean-cut business methods will be employed in the letting of the contract, andZhope in the future the students fWiH not be hampered or restricted by partisan and unfair members of the faculty. We also trust that the next annual will at least justi-fy the financial outlay; and hope it will be suyh as a patron of a ■ I ■*• . ■

school tan send to a friend without a written apology for the appearance of the booklet. Neither of the local offices are equipped to compete with the large shops in the cities specializing on this class of work. But any shop in this section of the country that makes any pretense of doing job work could haye improved this piece of work immensely—and not haVe had two bids, either. In fact, for a high class piece ■of work it is a rank failure, and! we doubt if as poor a piece of halt-tone printing has ever been turned cut in this section of the country, and then attempted to be foisted on a Ipng-suffering public as high grade work at high grade prices.