The Wichita Beacon from Wichita, Kansas • Page 83

70. SOUTHWEST DEVELOPMENT NUMBER WICHITA UEACON The Development of Printing in Wichita tltlo w. 1.,. i mi niuiviinvn VI Vina mnu nwuiu ltl CUIIJJMeieiy nillSnetf ill I either Its content or appearance, without devoting some apace to the ISi'-vifU imu Ul till Ji I ill I VI, III MJCniia. One particularly Interesting phase of this subject, is the Important part It has played in the making of a "Greater Wichita." 000.00; making Printing the third greatest manufacturing industry in Wichita, exceeded only by the Packing Plants and Flour Mills.

A striking illustration of the development of printing in Wichita, is the Grit Printery, a corporation consisting of Gifford M. Booth, President; Mr. Booth's parents and grandparents were printers. Mr. Booth himself is a graduate of some of the very best plants in the city of Chicago.

lie is a member of the Executive Committee of the National Ben Franklin Clubs of America and Director for the Slate of Kansas. Mr. Booth's greatest ambition is to be of service to the buyer of printing and to help make Wichita even greater printing center than it is today. Lon P. Denton, Vice-President of this company, Glance back through the years of the past decade or to and note the almost spectacular growth of the work of the press and compositor In this city.

In 1001 there were but seven Job printing offices here, their combined Investment, approximately, $25,000.00 and their annual output about $40,000.00. Now taking a look at Wichita's printing facilities of the present day: The Peerless Princess can boast of seventeen Job printing offices, exclusive of the newspaper establishments. The combined capital of these plants Is more than $185,000.00 and their annual manufactured product amounts to more than with two hundred and fifty employes enjoying a weekly pay roll of more than $3,500.00. According to the United States Bulletin of Manufactures, printing is the sixth largest manufacturing industry In America. The bulletin shows more than forty thousand establishments, employing four hundred thousand workmen.

Their combined capital is and they have an annual output of over this output if equally divided would give each shop an annual business of about $20,000.00. These figures are given, to show that Wichita Is a printing center of the first rank, because Wichita's seventeen printing establishments produce annually grew up in a pressroom. His experience is wide and varied, he having worked In some of the largest and best establishments In the West. Mr. Denton is in charge of the press rooms of this modern printery, and there Is none better quulified than he to efficiently manage this large and growing department.

Walter J. Weiss, secretary and treasurer, from a boy has been engaged in the manufacturing business. He is acknowledged as one of the few men who have mastered the art of accounting, as it Is applied to the cost of production. He is ever a booster, firmly believing that only in the success of a city as a whole lies the success of the individual. Mr.

Weiss is a member of the Cost Commission of the National Ben Franklin Clubs of America. This firm has grown from a small one press shop, until It now occupies the three story, 50-foot building, illustrated on this more than $500,000.00 worth of printing, which Is $29,000.00 for each shop. However, few peo I 19 f9 urMF ftF THF GRIT PRINTFRY fTt I I 122-124 SOUTH LAWRENCE AVI. fl Xi I ple realize the Im portance of printing and the remarkable part it has played In the successful growth and develop ww ment of this community. Wichita's push and popularity; Wichita's place In page and located at 122-124 South Lawrence Avenue, Wichita, Kansas.

The group of interior views of this plant shown here, will give the reader some Idea of Its modernly equipped and day-lighted work rooms in which this great Southwest Development number of The Wichita Beacon, was printed and bound. Visitors, to Wichita, and citizens of the Peerless Princess who are Interested In mechanics, machinery and modern methods, employed In 2 0th century printing should take time to pay this modern plant a visit and see how machines that almost think, and the work the Southwest as a city; Wichita's i rv: growth as a manu facturing, Jobbing x' vv i and commercial cen i i i i i ter, has been accom plished to a large extent, from the Ju dicious use of print er's Ink. Like the successful man In y)Dy Ngif; business, so the successful common I (T- G. M. BOOTH.

PRESIDENT W. J. WEISS. SECY-TREAS. (j Ml i ffliifo.V rr i wealth, community or growing city must find the secret of effective publicity In the printers art.

It is to the credit of our business men, our mercantile Institutions and our associations of civic promotion, that printing In all Its forms, from Large Catalogue and Display Advertising down to the Form-letter and L. P. DENTON, VlCE-PREST. If men that do think are turning out the finest product of the printers' art. Among the latest and most efficient machinery used by the Wichita printing plants will be found the Offset Press, which prints from zinc plates, using Keturn-postal, have efficiently performed an important duty In accomplishing the safe, steady and solid growth of the city of Wichita.

Consequently as time goes on and we witness a still more remarkable growth, we will find that tho printing Industry both deserves and receives the support and esteem of all the business interests of the city. Just as those who have developed this great Industry during the past twelve years, have shown their faith in the destiny of this city as the metropolis of the great Southwest, so will the business men of Wichita and the Southwest by their continued wise Investments in the printed word, preserve the reputation of Wichita as a great printing center. Every line of the "Art Preservative" is produced here, including Art work, Designing; Engraving of all kinds, Color plates, Halftone and Zinc etchings; Lithography; Blank books; Loose leaf binders and flies; Paper ruling and Embossed stationary; Books of Science, Art and Literature, folders and circulars; Show card and Poster printing; Calendar printing and Novelties; Dally newspapers and Trade magazines. Considering the combined allied interest In the printing Industry covering the great dally and weekly newspaper, trade Journal and magazine, engraving houses, paper, type and machinery houses, this great Industry represents a total Investment of more than $750,000.00 and an annual business of the lithographic process, the Auto Press, printing from flatbed type forms at a speed of 5,000 per hour, the Optimus and Mlehle cylinder presses, the Colts Armory and Universal heavy embossing presses, the Monotype, which is a marvel of mechanical ingenuity, setting and making the Individual types at the same time, the Linotype, which casts the solid type slug of the most Intricate table work, using the Linotabular system, making a solid page, eliminating the necessity of electrotyplng the job to be kept standing, producing the same typographical effects of hand-set type and that has made possiblo the great dally newspapers of today. In the bindery, Wichita plants have everything good that is produced for the embellishing and finishing of the printing art, the stippling or roughing machine which puts that finished appearance on the finest of printed work, the ruling machines with all of the latest attachments, the envelope making machines which make up their product and count them out in packages of twenty-five, gold leaf embossing machines for finishing blank books and publications, perforating machines, automatic numbering machines, punching machines, folding machines, book sewing and wire stitching machines, in fact, everything that will produce quality and quantity and give the buyer of printing the most satisfaction in service, and product, is used by the craft In this, the printing center of the great Southwest.

a r3.