Chats with the editor

Title

Year

1941

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

J WONDER, readers of THE YouNG CITizEN, if you have any ide� as to the amount of work it takes to get ready for you an issue of this "magazine for young Filipinos." Do you realize the care and thoughtfulness which are necessary to get a copy of THE YouNG CITIZEN into your hands? Perhaps I can give you some idea of the work required and the persons necessary in order to give you THE YouNG CITIZEN each month: First; come the writers. There are many of them-all over the Philippines--scattered far and wide. Some writer gets an idea! 'Til write that for THE YouNG CITIZEN," says he. So his article is carefully prepared, perhaps re written several times, and is mailed to the publishers in Manila. Then the article, with many, many others, is turned over to your Editor. It's time to get an issue of THE YouNG CITizEN ready. The Editor settles down to some good, hard work. Material has to be THE YOUNG CITIZEN ones for the space for Little Stories for Little People, ·and presently three or four or five stories for older readers to be placed in the space assigned to Reading Time for Young Folks. Believe me, those stQries are very, very care fully chosen. There must be interest, there must be variety,. there must be-well, there must be many things so �he stories will be of the right kind. Then comes the search for art icles. . The Editor looks through the various folders; such as the folder marked ''Poems," the fold er marked "Work and Play," the "Elementary Science" folder, the one containing "Health and Safe ty" articles, another marked "Music Appreciation," one labeled "Charaoter and Citizenship," or "History," and last but not least the folder marked ''The WhatAre-You-Doing? Club." He goes through them ·all. After much reading and choosing, he has every thing· selected-articles which he thinks will make a well-rounded number for our young Filipino chosen. First, he begins hunting ·readers. in the folder marked "Material for And then the editing has to be Primary Grades." After much in- done. If there are errors in Eng specting, he finally has "enough for lish, they must be corrected. Per six pages-two for the First Grad- haps a sentence has to be changed ers, two for the Second Graders, here and there to make it a bet and two for the Third Graders. ter sentence. Next comes the hunt for stories. All the articles must be fitted My! l\1y! How many stories the into just so many pages which are Editor reads from various writers! just so many inches in size. That At last he has one or two easy is all carefully planned in a blank AUGUST, 1941 book the exact size of the magazine and which the printers call the "dummy." Then the illustrators and photo engravers get to work making pictures for the �arious stories, poems, and articles. And .the lino type operators set up everything in type. After that there are two or three proof readings in order to see that the typographical. errors are corrected. · Finally the last page-proof is read and corrected, and the pressmen begin to run off the printed pages-hundreds and hundreds of pages, yes, thousands of pages for each issue. After they are printed, the magazines are ·fastened together and trimmed-all by machinery and turned over to the wrapping girls who place them. in wrappers which have been previously ad dressed. A truck hands the ad dressed magazines to the Manila postoffice where they are weighed, postpaid, and are put into bags to start on journeys all over the Phil ippines to readers--young Filipinos and older ones, too--who are an xiously waiting for their monthly copy of THE YouNG CITIZEN. Such, in brief, is the process by which this very magazine which you are now reading gets into your hands. Many people, all working very, very carefully, have made it possible for you to enjoy this issue of THE YouNG CITizEN. Who of these is the most important? I don't know. We couldn't get along without the writers, and we couldn't get along without the printers, and the pub lishers couldn't get along without the editor and the .artists, nor any others whom I have mentioned. And we all try to do a good job! Do you think we are suc ceeding? Goodbye.-THE EDITOR.

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