Sans Tache 



IN THE "elder days of art" each artist or craftsman enjoyed the 

 privilege of independent creation. He carried through a process 

 of manufacture from beginning to end. The scribe of the days 

 before the printing press was such a craftsman. So was the printer in 

 the days before the machine process. He stood or fell, as a craftsman, 

 by the merit or demerit of his finished product. 



Modern machine production has added much to the worker's productiv- 

 ity and to his material welfare ; but it has deprived him of the old creative 

 distinctiveness. His work is merged in the work of the team, and lost 

 sight of as something representing him and his personality. 



Many hands and minds contribute to the manufacture of a book, in this 

 day of specialization. There are seven distinct major processes in the 

 making of a book: The type must first be set; by the monotype method, 

 there are two processes, the "keyboarding" of the MS and the casting 

 of the type from the perforated paper rolls thus produced. Formulas 

 and other intricate work must be hand-set; then the whole brought to- 

 gether ("composed") in its true order, made into pages and forms. The 

 results must be checked by proof reading at each stage. Then comes the 

 "make-ready" and press-run and finally the binding into volumes. 



All of these processes, except that of binding into cloth or leather covers, 

 are carried on under our roof. 



The motto of The Williams & Wilkins Company is Sans Tache. Our 

 ideal is to publish books ^'without blemish" — worthy books, worthily 

 printed, with worthy typography — books to which we shall be proud to 

 attach our imprint, made by craftsmen who are willing to accept open 

 responsibility for their work, and who are entitled to credit for creditable 

 performance. 



The printing craftsman of today is quite as much a craftsman as his pred- 

 ecessor. There is quite as much discrimination between poor work and 

 good. We are of the opinion that the individuality of the worker should 

 not be wholly lost. The members of our staff who have contributed 

 their skill of hand and brain to this volume are : 



Composing Room: Roland Stultz, Andrew Rassa, William Koch, Harry La Motte, 

 John Flanagan, William Fite, Steve Simmons, Ernest Salgado, James Jackson, 

 Harry Harmeyer, Austin Uhland, Edgar Simmons, George Behr, John Crabill, 



