COLLEGE RUNS A MILL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1941, Page 5

COLLEGE RUNS A MILL

AN AMERICAN EXPERIMENT. The first year’s operation of a hosiery mill manned entirely by students of Athens College (U.S.A.) has been _so successful that its capacity is being dobled to provide 150 additional jobs for boys and girls who could not otherwise attend the college.

Under the plan high school graduates receive work scholarships which net about 1700 dollars each, enough to provide for all needs except clothes and books. Students work in four-hour shifts and are paid a minimum of 40 cents an hour after apprenticeships are completed. Dr. E. R. Naylor, president of the college, wanted to provide “an education for those whose economic position was such that they could not continue after high school.” He discussed his idea with a Chicago man (he remains anonymous), who gave the machinery and undertook to buy the hose. A contract was signed under which the mill’s output for seven years will be sold to the firm. With no marketing problem, the mill operates at a small profit. There were 2300 applications for the first 150 scholarships. Class work is cut to three-fourths of the normal college load, with the scholarship winners attending classes on a twelve-month basis so that they finish in four years. In the mill wages increase to 40 cents an hour with experience, and thereafter the better workers go on piece.