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Not one pair of shears is visible when the Henry Romeike clipping crew is at work full blast in its Manhattan loft. About 60 young women sit at benches, expertly scanning the 1,900 dailies and 5,000 weeklies which have been sorted from great stacks of mail bags. (Newspaper subscriptions are a bureau's largest expense excepting labor.) Pasted on a wall before each girl's eyes is a typewritten list of clients and subjects most difficult to remember. The bulk of the 7,000 names and words for which she must watch is carried in her head. All girls watch for all clients. Twice each day a forewoman clangs a bell, summons the staff for "classwork" to a bulletin board on which are spread proofsheets of new items sent to the press by client publicity men. The forewoman pronounces carefully the names of new clients. Each new name is thus declaimed twice every day for a week. A girl does not clip, only pencils clients' items. The whole paper is then passed to a group of boys who slash deftly with razor-sharp knives, paste the clippings on dated slips. A second staff of girls sorts the clippings into pigeonholes for mailing.
Extra large pigeonholes bear the names of General Electric, R. C. A., N. B. C, Owen D. Young, Edward A. Filene, Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., cigarets, oranges, electric lights. Old Dan Beard has had a pigeonhole since Henry Romeike's time. Sir Thomas Lipton was a client until his death, received packing-boxes full of clippings after the last Gold Cup race. Col. Lindbergh was a client of a small agency before his takeoff for Paris. When the bureau sued him for payment last year he declared he had contracted only for the first $35 worth. Harry Kendall Thaw has long been a subscriber. Largest order handled by Romeike in a single month was that of the George Washington Bicentennial Commission to which it delivered 76,203 clippings since Jan. 1, 39,771 in February alone. At the minimum rate of 4¢, the bill to publicity-loving Congressman Sol Bloom, head of the Commission, would be $3,048.12.
The standard rate for clippings is 7½¢ each for lots up to 100 collected in a month, 5¢ for the first 2,000. Depression price-cutting has forced the charge for larger lots down to 4¢ and some agencies have been reported offering clippings for as low as 1½¢. Big accounts pay $500 to $600 a month. Occasionally a client keeps his name on the books for years without receiving a clipping. He merely wants to assure himself that his family is keeping out of print. That satisfaction costs him a $5 monthly service charge.
The marking girls, who earn about $20 a week, are a liability until they have about two years experience. Even then they are not infallible. A client named Levy was sent dozens of clippings about a tax levy. The Country Gentleman received various references to country gentlemen. An olive growers' association got clippings about the death of Film Actress Olive Thomas. A man who wanted all items on batteries had to weed through stories about arrests for assault and battery. Matters improved after the girls were paid a straight wage instead of piece work.