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. .. 26 April 1973 . . . . . _ . mUATION INFORMATION REPORT The Underqround Press The origins of the underground press can pmbably be traced to the establishment of New York's Villaqe Voice in 1955. Until the mid-l9W's, Uie Villaqe Voice was a voice calling in the wilderness. Eut as dissent from the Vietnam War grew on college cam- puses and few conventional sources of journalistic opinion reflected this viewpoint, the need for an alternative arose. The first effort that could truly be called an undergrmnd press began in 1064 with the establishment of the Los Anqeles Free Press. Not surprisingly, that inveterate haunt of radical politics, Eerkeley, California, spawned the second major underground enterprise, the Eerkeley Earb in 1065. Its first appeamnce coincided directly with one of.the first active manifestztioiis of antiwar dissent, the attempt to halt a troop train at the Santa Fe Railroad Station in Eerkeley. The underground press, an inaccurate name used mostly for its romantic connotations, was the product of a changing national con- sciousness reflected most visibly by young people. Eut if changing consciousness created the need for an alternative press, it was ad- vancements in printing technology that made it possible. Newspapers, both commercial and underground, could be printed cheaper and easier by the offset press, an innovation that gained widespread usage during this time. It cut production costs of tabloid newspapers by more than half and greatly reduced tlie amount of expertise and time required to prepare hard copy lor printing. Most of the esseritial skills could be lc,vned in a few months of practice. Another significant advancement was the ..