Page 49 - Print21 November-December 2021

Print History
He stayed in the same job printing on a letterpress for the four weeks he spent in Salt Lake City, noting that ‘everywhere there are signs of depression, almost to a state of panic.’ The boss, who asked his opinion on what ink and paper to use, prized his Australian printing skills. But when he asked for a raise on his $14 a week wage, there was nothing doing: ‘ he knows he has me on toast.’
Going to Kansas City
Moving along, Kansas City was
his next stop and again the tough employment situation for printers was evident. ‘We could not have come to America at a worse time. Everywhere are signs of depression. Unemployment abounds in every town.’ The union board of control would not allow him to look for work but told him to wait his turn. But at least he got an OK [to work] card from the secretary.
He walked the cold and snowy town for almost a month before he finally managed to land a job, likely at a non-union shop. And not just any job! ‘This is the job I wanted. One
of the things I hoped for all along was to work on a Miehle [press]. And I get $21 a week and over $27, I hope with overtime. It seems too good to be true.’
(According to James Cryer lV, in his entertaining and informative role as guide through the pages of the diary, the Miehle was then a radical American-designed and built press capable of printing a very large sheet. It was the very latest technology
and just the kind of thing the young Cryer had left Australia to find.)
Unfortunately the job did prove too good to be true and after a week young Wal was ‘again a gentleman of leisure, nothing to do and plenty of time to do it in.’ Twelve days later, with no prospects of further work, he lit out on the Santa Fe Railway overnight to Chicago.
Chicago, the toddlin’ town
Chicago was the muscular centre
of American industry, a hub for printing as well as all kinds of manufacturing and food canning. But when Wal turned up at the union
Left
James Cryer devoted
six years to bringing his grandfather’s story to print.
Above
WJ Cryer ll
in later life, some 21 years after his trip to the USA, now managing director of
the family printing company.
offices on Monday morning he was told there were over 100 printers
out of work. Accustomed by now to the American way, he went out and found a job by himself operating a small Gordon hand-fed press. But the union wouldn’t give him permission to take it – ‘seeing I am a cylinder pressman.’
Next day he went head to head with the union secretary, one Knapp. The argument got heated and maybe would have been worse except
they were shouting at one another through a small window. ‘He does not want me here at all! But I told him, here I was and here I was going to stay.’
Being advised to go for a job
at the non-union company, RR Donnelly and Son, later to become one of the largest printers in the world, he was hired to start first thing in the morning. Again he was assigned to a Miehle with the promise of $25 a week, but the job only lasted two days. Let go with $8.60 in pay, it demonstrated the capricious nature of non-union employment.
It took young Wal 17 more days to find another job, a period when he became ill and struggled, going to hospital with a swollen neck and lumps around his ears. ‘Had a very bad night with my neck and very sore this morning. Fixed bandages first thing, but it has swollen considerably today. It’s bad enough to be sick at home, but one hundred times worse away from home.’
He recovered in time to take on a job with Poole Bros operating two ‘pony’ Miehle presses for $18 a week. It proved to be his longest engagement in the USA one of almost two months, where he
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