Ear on Chicago; Junior Achievement

This is Hugh Hill speaking. Tonight, Iran Chicago solutes Junior Achievement Week, which has been celebrated this past week, again today and the final day will be tomorrow, February the 3rd. First of all, it's here from Mayor Daley of Chicago who proclaimed Junior Achievement Week. Whereas individual initiative, a sense of personal dignity and the determination to build one's future, our important elements in the character of youth of our country. And whereas the Junior Achievement Program provides young people with a practical understanding of American enterprise, develops the Leadership Initiative Responsibility and Teamwork, which will aid their future success and is helping to mold capable citizenship. And whereas this National Program, which has the endorsement and active support of business labor, education and professional leaders, will celebrate National Junior Achievement Week during the period from January 27th through February 3rd, 1957,

climaxed by a J .A. trade fair in Chicago on February 2nd and 3rd. Now therefore, I richer J. Daley Mayor of the City of Chicago to hereby proclaim this week of January 27th, 1957, as Junior Achievement Week in Chicago, and urge all citizens to lend their support and attention to this program intended to emphasize Junior Achievement Activity. We have brought our microphones to 39 -49 West North Avenue in Chicago, which is the West District Junior Achievement Business Center. We're going to talk to the co -chairman of Junior Achievement Week, Jim Macy and Benny Mamprizio. We'll start off with Jim and ask him the question that is obvious to everyone's mind that doesn't know about Junior Achievement nor is equated with some of their activities. So Jim, what is Junior Achievement? Junior Achievement is a nationwide educational

program that enables young teenagers to learn business principles and make their own products and sell their own products. In other words, it's a chance for them to learn about business. How big is it in Chicago? In Chicago, there are 291 companies and approximately 6 ,000 achievers. Is this just one of the companies here at 39 -49 West North Avenue? Well, at this district center, there are 47 companies making a variety of products ranging from radios to personalized stationary. We're going to take a tour of the place in a few moments and find out just what they're doing here, is that right? That's right. Now let's get over here to Benny. Benny, the question we'll ask you is, what is Junior Achievement Week? Well, Junior Achievement Week is a special week designated to salute the teenage achievers and their advisors. What are some of the things that you've been doing this past week? Oh, we've had quite a variety of events. Let's see, we visited the mayor's office and had the proclamation of Junior Achievement Week signed, and we had a press conference with two Hungarian teenagers yesterday, and just a quite a variety of different things. And now, of course, your trade fair is going on at the

Coliseum. Is that right? That's right. Well, now Benny, I'd like to take a tour of some of the achievements that you, young people, are devoted to up here at your West District. Would you go along with this? Oh, sure. First, let me introduce you to Norm Haaland, who is the public relations director of Junior Achievement. Well, Norm, come on over here and talk to us just a minute. Tell me, first of all, Jim outlined briefly for us a few of the things that you do here at the West Side Center. Perhaps you could go down just a list of them. Maybe not include all of them, but some of the highlights. All right, Hugh, here at the center, as Jim told you, you have 47 miniature companies. Now, the average membership of such a company would run between 15 and 20 teenagers. These teenagers make quite a variety of products ranging from liquid detergent to a very complex radio. Norm, do they have a sales force in which they move out into the

area and sell their products to? Usually, Hugh, each member of a Junior Achievement Company is a salesman as well as a director of the company, as well as an officer of the company. Therefore, at any particular meeting night, you may find the president selling door to door. You may find him also working one of the circular or buzz saws, or perhaps assembling the product. How many teenagers are involved in each company, Norm? Is it an average number? Or does it vary? Well, we use an average figure of between 15 to 20 teenagers. In each company? Well, then, then, quite a number of teenagers are involved up here. Yes, I believe the approximate figure would be around 600. Meeting here every evening during the week from Monday through Thursday evening for two hours. That's the period of their company meeting. Well, even before we take this tour, Norm, I think it probably goes without saying that this is one of the finest things that teenagers can get themselves involved in, a project in which they learn business methods, and something that will carry on for them throughout the remainder of their life.

Well, Norm, I can think of a thousand questions that I'd like to ask, but we're just not going to have time to fill them all in on the program. But as we move along, I will direct a few to you, but right now, I'd like to begin our tour. Jim, would you go with us? Let's go. Benny? Sure. All right, let's move out then into the other room and visit some of the junior achievement things that they're involved in out here. We are now at one of the projects of junior achievement here at the West Side Center. Benny, can you tell us something about it? Well, Mr. Hill, first of all, I'd like to introduce you to Charlie Roe, who is a district manager here. Charlie, if surrounded by a group of teenagers, what are they working on? All right, now we're working on radios, Hugh. Well, suppose you introduced me to some of the teenagers, and we'll begin to talk to them about what they're doing. Well, hi -fi radio's presence here. Scotty Moody. Scotty? How do you do? How do you do? Scotty, would you show Hugh what you're working on now with this new radio clock, or clock radio? All right, now my production manager

is testing one of our chef's. And what's your production manager's name? Bert Schultz. Bert, what are you doing over here? You have some kind of a radio hookup it looks like. Well, that's what it is. We're testing and phasing and going through various stages of alignment on the chassis. Does this radio pick up commercial stations? Yes, it does the entire broadcast bend. Well, I won't ask you to tune in a station. You might pick up something besides WBBM on there. So we'll listen to the signal. First of all, what kind of a signal are you going to get now? It'll just be about a 400 cycle note that's coming through the signal generator. All right, let's hear it. Try that again. Now what is this little dial you're turning down here? It looks as if it's a dial that would normally dial the stations in on a radio. Oh, that's correct. That's correct. On the radio there is the volume control and the station selector. And what were you dialing the

volume control? Now that was the volume control. I was just in the loudness of the radio. Now what's this piece of equipment over here? Well, that's a handy little gadget. That is what we call our signal generator. And that has a range of various signals or frequencies which we align the setup with. So you've aligned it on what frequency? 1600 KC. What do you do with these radios once you build them? Well, after we, from testing and phasing, that goes into the final assembly. There we insert the clock into the cabinet and the radio chassis itself and everything is bolted up. And then it's run through another test to see that the radio operates properly inside of the cabinet and the sound quality is good and that the clock works. Well, now will you actually go out and sell this clock radio? Yes, we will. And is it as good as some of the commercial clock radios? And better. I knew you would say that. Well, now suppose

you introduce me to some of the other people in your company. Well, perhaps you'd like to meet my treasure. That's Carol Jorak, only we call her Bunny. Bunny, come over here and talk to me. You're the treasure. Is that mean you handle all the money? That's right. I handle all the money. How much money is your company have right now? Is that a secret? Our books aren't in too good shape. I couldn't tell you exactly. We've had so many orders for radios and we haven't been able to fill the orders, but we have bills to pay. You do. Well, I suppose you do with all the equipment that you have to buy. Where does all the money come from? We sold stock in the beginning. We used to have to buy our parts for our first radios and then from then on the money we get from our radios is what we use for production. Now you say you're sold stock to the stockholders. Who are the stockholders? You don't have to name them by name, but what sort of people are they? Are they teenagers or are they businessmen? Well, they're teenagers. They're members of our families. They're teachers. They're friends and sometimes strangers. People that we don't even know we try sell stock to. How much does a share of stock

cost? 50 cents and you can him no more than five shares of stock in one company. So you have to start off with what two dollars and 50 cents? I mean you said five shares of stock? Well, you can buy one two five shares. Oh, I see. Well, how many shares did you sell in the company? 500, 200? No, we sold 300 shares of stock with capitalized at $150. So you started off with $150 when your company was formed? We didn't want to over -capitalize because this way we'll have more money to pay back to our stockholders when we look at it in the end at the end of our year. And it also leaves us more money to give to the center and to the achievers that are in the company. All right, fine. Thank you very much. Perhaps you'd also like to meet our former president, Dennis Paeskel. Dennis, how are you? You're a former president of the company. That's right, sir. I certainly was. Are you still connected with the firm? Well, not directly, but I come up and try to advise the now -president, Scotty Moody, at any point that she may want to know about.

What's that? That's our public address system. It was given to the center by a high -fi radio company during one of our most prosperous years. Now, what's this I hear about you and someone else being engaged? Well, a few years back, I introduced Scotty Moody to high -fi radio. And since then, our business friendship has culminated into something which we hope to, well, we've become engaged and business and pleasure do mix somehow. I can see that and I want to wish you both the best of luck and I'm happy to see that Junior Achievement has resulted in something more than just business activity. You two folks are going to make a wonderful couple, I'm sure. Well, thank you very much, sir. And thank you for talking to us about your company. Well, thank you, sir, very much. Now, we're going to move on. Norm, would you

answer me a couple of questions before we move on to our next project? One thing that is interested me is this. Do you have any success stories about some teenagers who may have graduated from Junior Achievement and gone on into a company, for example? Well, we have quite a few here, as a matter of fact, I'll tell you of one right now that hasn't even graduated yet in our sense of the word, has a success story. She's a little girl by the name of Adrian Turfler out on the south side of Chicago, who goes to our South District Business Center. Now, from the experience she gained in Junior Achievement, she and her father launched an adult business, actually went into business together. And her father, Mr. Turfler, credits her with all good many things that really help the business. For example, product selection and advertising sense, a real ability to sell, and he goes this far in talking about his daughter, that he would not

have launched his business without her help. Now, in thinking back over some of the other success stories we've had, fella by the name of Dick Dickerson was an achiever some few years ago. Now he's an accountant over a container corporation of America. His success is such that with the experience he gained in Junior Achievement, he went on quite rapidly and successfully. I believe he's only 28 or 29 years old, now he has a very responsible position. And of course, he credits Junior Achievement Experience for a lot of his rapid rise in the adult business world. We had another fellow, or a number of years ago, who was a Junior Achiever until the age of 18. And then after leaving Junior Achievement, he went out and leased a tasty freeze outlet. During the summer you stop while you're out driving and you buy a little cup of custard or ice cream. Well, this fellow was

so successful in the business sense of the word from the business experience he gained in Junior Achievement, that he soon leased two more shops and became the biggest outlet tasty freeze has in the entire Chicago area. Those are wonderful stories, Norm. I think right now we better move on. I want to talk to Jim and Benny in just a moment about some of the things that they're engaged in. And then we're going to visit one or two other projects that they're working on here. Now before we visit some of the other projects and you can hear from the noise that there's quite a bit going on here. Perhaps Charlie, maybe they could kill it a little bit just for a few minutes while we do some talking. Benny, tell me about you. What Junior Achievement project are you interested in? Well, I'm with Allied Woods and we make plastic custom jewelry like couplings, earrings and quite a variety of different objects. Where is your company located? We're at the Roseland Center. Where is that? Way out South, I guess. Huh? 111 Champlain. And what's your position with the company? Well, I'm Treasurer. I like to handle money. I don't blame you. And that's a good

job for a woman. And what about you, Jim? What are you connected with? Well, I'm from the Whiting Center and connected with Tasty Treat Company. Our product is a solid dressing. Tasty treat solid dressing. Is that what you call it? Yes, sir. Well, now Jim, what your position? Are you president? Treasurer and sales manager. Treasurer and sales manager. You're both like money. Yes, sir. What about this business of sales manager? Do you go door to door selling your solid dressing? That's about the only way you can get out. You go door to door and try and hit clubs and organizations there in town. Many of your businessmen in town won't take the solid dressing because they want to make a profit and we still want to make a profit and there just isn't enough to go around for everybody. So most of our sales have to be door to door. Do you have to be licensed for that kind of sales? No, sir. You can just go out and sell it anytime you want to. Do your achievers you can, yes? Has it been moving pretty good? Oh, yeah. This year so far, we sold 2 ,314 bottles and that's last year's total sales. So we're going twice as fast as we were last year. Now a little while ago, somebody was telling me about liquidating

the company at the end of a year. Does that happen to all of the companies? After two years, yes. When is your liquidation coming up? This is our second year with our solid dressing. So we're going to have to liquidate at the end of this year. And when you liquidate, do you share the profits with all of the stockholders? Equally, I suppose. Yes, as to how many shares of stock they bought? Yes, so much per share now. That's right. You've carried dividend and returned their investment. That is if you're a profitable company and we are. So we probably will. All right, fine. Jim and Benny, we want to move on. Let's get back over here to Charlie, who has quieted down things quite a bit here so that we could do some talking without too much interference. Charlie, what was going on with all the noise? Well, this is the manufacturing center right in this shop area here. All the companies lease these various machines for their manufacturing processes. And that's what they were doing. It was building something. Yes. You noticed a band saw going over here and they were cutting some wood. What were they doing over here? Just practicing? No, they're making butter cutters. They're a paddle shaped butter cutter about six

inches by four inches. It has a decal which is placed on the butter cutter and you lay a quarter pound stick of butter on there and it shows just how much to cut for a spoon or two spoons or quarter of a cup or however you wish to measure it. Charlie, I noticed over here to our left up at the front of the building is a display of some of the products put out by junior achievement. Right in the center of it is a clock radio and I assume that that's one of the clock radios that we were talking about early in the program. Yes, it is. That's this year's product for high -fi radio company. A very successful company actually. Now you heard Jim mentioned that these companies have a two -year life. Some of your more successful companies are reorganized in the third and again in the fifth and seventh year. This company is in its ninth year now. The radio company? Yes. Well then it must be successful. Yes, very successful. Charlie, tell me about some of the other

products that are on display here and I might say that it's a very handsome display indeed and I would assume that this has something to do with the trade fair. Yes, it's tied in with junior achievement. We can all of these products will be sold out of the fair in the Coliseum this weekend. Let's see now. We have two types, three types of lamps there. The little champ lamp. The one with the little champion in the center there in the ring. Oh yes, that's a very handsome lamp. Right in the center of the ring is a little, what it looks like a little red -headed baby with a pair of boxing gloves on in the center of a boxing ring. That's exactly the deal and they call it the little champ lamp and behind against the back wall there you'll see two hurricane lamps. Flowers in the center of them. That's a very successful company. Iambic. On the side are two desk type reading lamps by J. Electro. Are these lamps all put out by the same company? Individually yes, I mean you're two desk lamps are

J. Electro's lamps. The two in the back are Iambic company. The one in the center, the little champ lamp is by progressive electric. Then down in the front you have these TV children's kitty chairs, small chairs. Made by a company that's with us for the first time this year. The novel T's company. I understand there's something rather novel up here in the front office. Let's walk over there. All right, I think you'll find this interesting. This is the first bank under junior achievement offices. Rich Patasson here is the chairman of that bank this year. It's a new type of service that junior achievement companies offer other companies. Rich, maybe you'd better explain that. Rich tell me something about this bank. We do everything for our J .A. companies up at this center that a normal bank would do for any big corporation who banks in its bank. Do you have a lot of money on deposit? Quite a bit for the J .A. companies. Yes, our deposits are up over last year and the 40 companies that deposited last year were reaching all time peak of $11 ,000 in

deposits with us. $11 ,000. That's right. That's a lot of money to handle. It seems like there's a lot of money in this junior achievement. Listen, where is that checkbook that we saw a little while ago? Could we take a look at that? We had a checkbook out here from the bank and Rich was showing me that they actually have checks with the junior achievement insignia on them. High fire radio company. Now that's the company that we were talking about a little while ago. This is one of their checks, I assume. That's right it is. And we get these checks printed for these companies just as a regular bank would for their companies. And we have our bank name printed on them plus the company name. They're actually almost personalized checks for each individual company. Now this says the LaSalle junior achievement bank, a junior achievement bank, and then it says LaSalle national bank Chicago Illinois. Is that the bank that you're connected with? The LaSalle national bank is our sponsor. That's right. And we deposit our money in the LaSalle national bank. Now do you have for example, do you loan money to some of the companies? Yes, we do. Unfortunately, the companies this year are very successful. I should say fortunately we haven't had to make any loans. Well unfortunately for you unfortunately for the companies. That's right.

What sort of an interest do you charge them? About two and a half percent. Would you like to make me a loan at that kind of interest? Unfortunately, we don't deal with personal people. People are either. We only deal with the customers. Well, what else do you have? Do you make loans? Are you insured? Yes, we are. We're insured this year. It's something new that we've added this year. By the federal deposit insurance corporation. By a private insurance company because we're not that big. You're not quite that big. Not a national bank. And nobody has as much as $10 ,000 on deposit I don't know. That's right. Well now what about the money that you lend out? What kind of terms do you make other than interest? Do they have to pay it back every week, every month? Well, they pay it back monthly. And with the interest. Do you have cashiers in the cages over there? Yes, we have tellers who actually work at the window to collect the money. And then we have general bookkeepers and individual bookkeepers who post alleged statements for the companies. Rich, there's one more thing that you are connected with and that's the junior achievement board, isn't that right? Yes, that's the center -wide junior board, West District's junior board. Tell us about

that. Well, it's sort of a chamber of commerce for the center here. We make the rules for the center, the safety rules, and things of that nature. And we assist Charlie Row, our district manager and the workings of the center here. We help them out. And then we run the social functions of the center also. Rich, thank you very, very much for talking to us. You're about the bank. Now, Charlie, what about this printing company we've been hearing about? Well, let's go back and take a look at it. It's in room six. All right, let's do that. Well, Charlie and I have been walking towards the end of the hallway here and now we're going through a door and back here towards the printing office. You probably be able to hear the printer as we get closer. I can hear it myself right here. Yes, here it is right now. We're in the printing room and the junior achievers are working away printing something or other. Charlie, what are they printing now? Well, on one machine we have personalized napkins running and on the other machine we're personalizing stationery. But you introduced me to some of the junior achievers that are working in here.

Well, I think this lad over here, Tom Berman. Hi, Tom. Hi, Charlie. Tom, what's your responsibility here? Well, I'm president of the company personalized printed products. And what's the purpose of the company? What do you print besides these napkins that we see coming up? Well, we print the stationery. We also embossed matches back on the other machines and all other sorts of items that that's possible to stick on the press. Where did you get your presses? Did you have to buy them or rent them or lease them or what? The printing press and embossing machines are furnished through junior achievement but we rent them yearly, I believe it is. Looks like they operate by electricity. You don't have to have horsepower motors driving them but they can be regulated for various amounts of speed, yes. Is your company successful? Yes, we are. Making money right along? Making money every week? Well, that's wonderful.

Let me take a look and we can all listen as the printer is going to work here. Charlie, this building are this headquarters for junior achievement here on the west side and once again you don't have to give me the official title. It's much larger than I thought it was. You have a lot of businesses up here and they take up a pretty good piece of room. Now, the companies have to lease this space from the building. Yes, each of the 47 companies here lease their room area and the machines that they use. And what about the machines? What do you say? They lease the machines too. That's correct. There looks like they're about ready to turn off the printers they are. Now there are other projects here, some of which will make some noise for us and some of which will not. What will we visit next? Well, now here's NeuroBrien, the secretary of,

what's the name of your company? Universal Crafts. They make it the hang at all. Well, tell us about the hang at all. Is this a hang at all? I see that it is because it has the words printed on the board here, hang it off. What is it? Well, it's a hang at all. You hang it up on your wall and you use it to hang brooms or maps, dust rags, dust mobs, things like that. Any household utensils you can put on it. Also, you can use it in a workshop, for instance. A man put a hammer here or screwdriver there. I want to use hooks. It's just something that keep everything all in one place. Well, now, besides the hang at all, you also put out the newspaper which is devoted to junior achievement. Is that right? Yes, we do. It's called the JAA Journal, West District JAA Journal. Is this one you are holding in your hand, the newest edition? Yeah, it's the latest edition. There will be another one out though, this Monday. So this is sort of old. It's almost a month old now. Well, you put them out every month. Yeah. Let me see this one. This is January 1957. Let's have a

what? A C -A -J -A -C. What's that? A K -J -C. What does that mean? Uh, I should call you area junior achievement conference. All right. It's just a suggestion. It's front page editorial. Well, that's an editorial, I see. Yeah. See you right there. And you're the editor. Did you write the editorial? Oh, yeah, all the time. You write the whole paper? All too often. Well, then you're the reporter, the printer, the editor, the publisher. Editor and publisher, yeah. You have a lot of work to do, besides your hang at all company. You know, one thing I wanted to ask you, Charlie, about all of the junior achievers up here. It seems like all of them work very hard. Do they get paid for their work? Not by junior achievement, but by their own companies and for work that they do for their own companies. They get paid wages. And what are the wages? Well, they might range from 20 cents to as high as 50 cents an hour. Charlie, I think it's about time that we wrap up the program. It's certainly been very interesting going through junior achievement this West. Now, give me the official title again, Charlie. West District Business Center. At 3949 West North Avenue. That's right. We want

to thank Benny very much for going along with us, Benny. Well, thank you. And you, Jim. Thank you. It was fun taking you on the tour. And Norm, we want to thank you for helping us out in you too, Charlie. It's been a pleasure to go through your organization. It's been a pleasure to have you here. Thanks very much. And that's the story of junior achievement and don't forget the trade fair which ends tomorrow. This is Hugh Hill speaking.