THE NEW OUTLOOK BY HENRY HOYT MOORE MANAGER ILLUSTRATION AND PRINTING DEPARTMENTS OF THE OUTLOOK Mr. Moore has been for many years connected with The Outlook in various capacities. Entering the service of this journal more than a quarter of a century ago as apprentice-boy in its composing-room, he has successively served it as journeyman, as expert proof-reader, and finally as superintendent of printing and as manager of the illustration department. On the literary side of the paper Mr. Moore has been a frequent contributor, not only in signed articles, but in many of the editorial departments. His artistic inclinations outside of office hours have led him into many fields of travel, in which he has used a camera to the frequent edification of our readers and of the public in numerous exhibitions, the latest being that of the American Institute of Graphic Arts in New York City. Mr. Moore speaks to our readers, therefore, with a certain background of technical authority in his familiar talk about the "new" Outlook, which follows.-The Editors. M ANY considerations have influenced the adoption of a larger-sized page, which will be the most noticeable feature of The Outlook's new form, which will appear on January 3 next. The advantage of seeing the contents of the periodical with less turning of leaves, the opportunity for a bolder appeal for reading matter and illustration when desired, the expressed wish of many readers for a more legible type, the insistent necessity for economy in the use of paper-for the smaller the page the more space relatively must be given to margins-and the better adaptability of the larger page to the character of The Outlook as a weekly reporter and interpreter of current life, have constituted the mingled yarn of motive which has resulted in the decision to make the change. As to another influence, that of fashion, if it is right and seemly for a man or woman from time to time to order a new suit or gown, and to follow the prevailing mode in the cut thereof, it seems equally fitting that a periodical should consult changing taste in matters journalistic when the appropriate time arrives for it to consider new habiliments. And as with fashions in human costume, so in typography, the tendency is to hark back to the things of former days. The Outlook's new size will closely approximate that in which it appeared to its readers twenty years ago. Its letterpress will, in its new form, revert to a much older fashion. The type which has been chosen for The Outlook is an adaptation of an old Venetian letter designed in the early days of the printing art. Its history is briefly as follows: The late H. O. Houghton, who established the present publishing house of Houghton Mifflin Company, and who was also the founder of the Riverside Press, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was a printer of taste and discernment. He won a wellmerited reputation as a maker of fine books. He had very definite notions as to type faces, and during one of his visits abroad he found a copy of an old Venetian book that embodied his ideas of a readable type-" firm in lines, flat enough to take a generous color and to withstand strong impressions." Under Mr. Houghton's directions this letter was made into a style of type called the Riverside Series. This series, with certain modifications suggested by the writer, has been revived and cast by the American Type Founders Company for the use of this journal, and is to be called by the type founders The Outlook Series. The size employed for The Outlook is known as ten point. Here is a specimen of the new Outlook Series, showing the size to be used in the new form: When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle It will be observed that the new type is both larger and heavier than that now used, which is one of the many variations of the so-called Caslon Series. Yet it occupies no more space. Printing types, it may be explained, consist of a "body," or base, on the top of which is cast the "face," which is the part that appears in printing. The face may occupy a larger or smaller surface on the body. The old face used by The Outlook, in which these words are set, and the new type are both on "ten point" body, about seven lines to the inch. The larger face was obtained in this way: The letters g, j, p, q, y are known as descending letters. If the parts of these letters that fall below the center of the line, "descenders " as they are called, are shortened, a larger size, THE PRESENT SIZE OF THE OUTLOOK PAGE The facsimiles on these two pages show the relative size of The Outlook in its present form and in the new form that it will assume with the beginning of the year 1917. Each page as here WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1917 381 YOURTH AVENUE, NEW VORK printed is one-quarter of the actual size in both the old form (at the left) and the new form (at the right). The general effect of the new and bolder type for the reading matter and headings is also shown on this page, at the right. Its greater legibility can be better understood by the sample printed in the body of the accompanying article. THE STORY OF THE WAR The war history for our week (November In the capture of Monastir the Servian The direct approach to Nish is of course When that great drive will come it is im- make this a slow process: First, the distance Powers. Meanwhile, the Greek people are CRAIOVA AND RUMANIA The second great event of the week above The Outlook THE STORY OF THE WAR: JANUARY 3. 1917 Offices, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York The war history for our week (November 15-22) may almost The direct approach to Nish is, of course, northward froth When that great drive will come it is impossible to say. have pushed the Rumanians south out of Transylvania, through But this is not the only way in which the capcure of Craiova The offset to the prediction of disaster we have just recorded THE GERMAN DEPORTATION The atrocious deportation of Belgians by Germany continues. These things have been going on since October 15. Ten days This, indeed, is a disaster worse than invasion, worse than The proposal in Great Britain to appoint a controller of food Germany acted wisely when, long ago, under the pressure of "eleven point," can be cast on a ten point body, thus providing a larger type without losing space. This is what has been done in the case of the new Outlook Series. As to the type for the headlines, the initial letters, the placing of the page on the sheet— the "margins"-the type used for quotations, the spacing of poems, etc., all these minutiæ have received due consideration. And here comes a digression. As in doubt ful cases a doctor calls in a brother physician for counsel, an architect gets the advice of another member of his profession, or a lawyer calls upon a disinterested legal friend for an opinion, so The Outlook at this juncture obtained the advice of a well-known expert in matters typographical-Mr. Bruce Rogers, lately of Cambridge, Massachusetts, now on his way to establish himself in Hammersmith, England, near the former home of the famous Kelmscott Press. Mr. Rogers's standing in the book-making world may be indicated by this extract from a recently published book by Henry R. Plomer called A Short History of English Printing :" "Mr. Rogers,... in a series of books too little known in England, has shown himself one of the surest and at the same time the most versatile of modern printers." The typographical form of the new Outlook has in almost all its details been submitted in proof-sheets to this competent authority, and his valuable suggestions and criticisms have been constantly availed of in preparing the new format. The headings are to be uniformly set in what is called Bodoni type, a letter which harmonizes excellently with The Outlook Series. It is named after a famous Italian type-cutter and printer, Giambattista Bodoni, who was born in 1740 and died in 1813, and who has been characterized by De Vinne in his work on Typography as 66 a founder and printer who has fairly earned the highest honors." "Bodoni " is a letter which is clear, legible, and yet condensed enough to make it available for crowded columns, while at the same time it admits of the increased legibility obtained by "letter-spacing "-i. e., inserting thin spaces or strips of cardboard between the letters of a word-as in the specimen line printed below: THE STORY OF THE WAR The initial letters with which the contributed articles begin, it will be observed, are to be of a lighter series-the "Book Bodoni ”— it being found on trial that the Bodoni initials were somewhat too heavy in appearance for Many readers of present-day magazines rebel against the current practice of beginning articles in the front of the magazine and then compelling the reader to search the back pages to find the conclusion of the article. This objectionable practice is not to be countenanced in The Outlook in its new form. Appropriate reading matter will be used on the advertising pages where space permits, but the reader will not be subjected to the annoyance complained of. The handsome appearance of the new page, as well as its relative size as compared with the present form, is shown in the facsimiles of the cover and text pages of the old and the new size of The Outlook on the two preceding pages. The facsimiles are reduced to one-quarter of the actual size. The "constant reader" of this magazine will be gratified to notice that there is a familiar look about the new page— it is merely an enlargement, as it were, of a well-liked photograph. It only remains to be said that it is confidently believed that the readers of The Outlook, those who have seen it in all the various "dresses" that it has worn through the fifty-odd years of its existence, as well as its newer friends and its friends yet to be, will unite in regarding the new Outlook as most legible, convenient, and attractive in its physical form. As to its intellectual and spiritual appeal-that is another story, and one the editors must tell. The new and beautiful medium through which they are to tell it ought to, and no doubt will, inspire them to maintain the standards of the past and if possible bring them to still finer issues in the new day that awaits The Outlook and its readers. 1916 THE GREEN GOLD OF YUCATAN made Governor by Carranza. Now Alvarado is an unusual Mexican, as most men who know him admit, whether they agree with him or not. He is a natural social radical, heart, soul, and bones. Finding himself more or less isolated from the man who had appointed him, and in control of the only soldiers in Yucatan, he proceeded to put into effect many reforms which had been advocated by Carranza and some others, which were part of Alvarado's own private conception of the social millennium. But in order to do these things money was necessary, and in Yucatan money is henequen. The obvious thing to do was to put himself in control of the henequen crop, and Alvarado did it. As a machine to accomplish his ends he found the Comision Reguladora del Mercado de Henequen ready to hand. The Reguladora had not been regulating, but when Alvarado took hold of it it began to regulate very quickly. The machinery had been failing because the planters had not been putting their combined power behind it. Alvarado forced them to get behind it, and he borrowed $10,000,000 from American bankers as working capital, whereupon the Reguladora became as powerful and all-inclusive a piece of trade-controlling machinery as the world perhaps has ever seen. Every planter was forced to contract to sell his henequen to the Reguladora for five years by the simple expedient of forcibly preventing the shipment of all sisal from Yucatan which had not passed through the Commission. The planters were forced to lend money to the State Government-which was Alvarado-and were given bonds in the Reguladora in return. Since Governor Alvarado established the Government sisal monopoly the price of hemp to the American manufacturer has risen greatly. In late November, 1915, when the monopoly was established securely, it was 65% cents a pound. By the end of 1915 it had reached 73% cents, and now it is 103% cents. These figures are for New York. The figures for other American ports vary slightly. But do not fall into the error of believing that the Yucatecan planter got this price for his green gold. By no means. When the price was 65% cents in the United States, the planter in Yucatan was getting 45% cents, and about half of the residue was taken up by freight charges. Later the planter was given 5 cents as his share; and still later the price in New York rose to 825 103% cents, of which the planter now receives 7 cents. That still leaves 33% cents between the selling price in this country and the planter's share. Of this 33% cents 14 cents goes out for freight between Progreso and New York. There remain to be deducted charges for marine insurance, warehouse insurance, and dock labor as well as a commission for. the bankers who financed the Reguladora. It is difficult to estimate the exact total of these items, but there is left a small sum, perhaps more than a cent, perhaps less, on each pound of sisal still unaccounted for. This profit goes to the State of Yucatan. The enemies of Governor Alvarado say that this is his personal "rake-off." The Governor says that, in accordance with the rules of the Reguladora, this profit will be divided among the members of the Reguladora, which includes all the planters and himself. He said that this division would take place at the end of the first year of the Reguladora's operations. This year expired about the end of November. It remains to be seen on December 6, as this article goes to press, whether Alvarado will keep his promise to divide. Most of the planters have treated this promise as a joke. Inasmuch as the Governor has raised the price of henequen received by the planter from 45% cents a pound to 7 cents, it may not at first be apparent why the Governor is very unpopular with the planters. One reason is that, while he has increased the amount which the planter gets, he has also greatly increased the taxes which the planter must pay to the State; and another reason is that he has extracted forced loans from many of the planters, and otherwise dealt with them in an arbitrary manner. In short, what he has given to the planters with one hand he has taken away with the other. At the same time he has established a minimum wage which they must pay their laborers, has established an eight-hour day for all labor, and has forced each planter to establish on his hacienda a school large enough to provide for the education of all the children of that planter's employees. catan. I visited several henequen ranches in YuSome belonged to planters who supported the Governor, but most were the property of his private and political enemies. A henequen plantation is a picturesque affair. If it is far from Merida, you run out to the railway station nearest the plantation |