Early in 1945, the State Department requested that GPO provide the printing for the United Nations Conference in San Francisco. At that time, GPO’s wartime San Francisco Warehouse had only five employees, so several additions were made to the staff and an emergency call went out to Washington for three key GPO central office employees. Until the Conference ended, this group carried out an incredible amount of rush work on an almost 24-hour a day schedule. Perhaps their most important job was the creation of the Charter establishing the United Nations.
The last days of the conference saw the GPO unit racing against time and the oddities of Chinese and Russian typefaces to complete and deliver one of the Office’s most momentous jobs.
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So ended one of the most harrowing jobs ever undertaken by GPO. A handful of employees had planned and coordinated one of the most complex jobs ever to challenge the Office. Their only reward was a paycheck and the knowledge that they had contributed in a small way to international peace and understanding.
Early in 1945, the State Department requested that GPO provide the printing for the United Nations Conference in San Francisco. At that time, GPO’s wartime San Francisco Warehouse had only five employees, so several additions were made to the staff and an emergency call went out to Washington for three key GPO central office employees. Until the Conference ended, this group carried out an incredible amount of rush work on an almost 24-hour a day schedule. Perhaps their most important job was the creation of the Charter establishing the United Nations.
ReplyDeleteThe last days of the conference saw the GPO unit racing against time and the oddities of Chinese and Russian typefaces to complete and deliver one of the Office’s most momentous jobs.
GPO first found suitable printing paper. In addition to permanence, color, and weight, the paper needed to be “friendly” to writing inks because the charter would be signed by the assembled delegates. One hundred percent rag ledger paper most closely met these specifications, but there was not enough in the San Francisco area. An urgent message went out to the GPO central office in Washington and all available stock was shipped express to the West Coast.
Due to the nature of the written language, the Chinese type was handset. Because of last-minute changes, it proved necessary to reset about 40 pages of handwritten manuscript. In a frantic, all night effort, several Chinese typesetters were pressed into service to handle this unexpected increase in the workload. The final crisis occurred when a pressman discovered that one character from a form was missing after printing six preliminary copies. The nearest extra characters were a mile away, so the Chinese translator checked his proofs and an identical character was located on another page. The form was opened, the character removed and inked from the press ink roller, and then struck by hand into its proper place on all sheets which already had been run.
At the last minute, it was decided that an “e” rather than a “u” was needed on the last page of Russian text. The sole Russian typesetter was three miles away and there was no way that the job could be sent back and still meet the deadline. The GPO representative suggested that the Russian linotype lines be cut in two and a monotype English ‘e’ be inserted in its place between the cut portions of the slug.
The English, Chinese, and Russian text sheets then joined the Spanish and French sheets at the University of California Press, where the signatures were folded carefully to avoid smudging the still-wet ink. Finally the charter was rushed to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, who was waiting, with photographers, for the presentation ceremony.
So ended one of the most harrowing jobs ever undertaken by GPO. A handful of employees had planned and coordinated one of the most complex jobs ever to challenge the Office. Their only reward was a paycheck and the knowledge that they had contributed in a small way to international peace and understanding.
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