Education: Diploma Business

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Sixty years ago most scholars graduated from U. S. schools and colleges had nothing tangible to show for it. To an Iowa country school teacher who knew a thing or two about psychology, that seemed an undesirable state of affairs. So he set up a shop in Maquoketa, Iowa and began to manufacture diplomas to symbolize academic accomplishment. Soon Mr. William Welch was turning out diplomas at a great rate.* When his plant burned down in 1914 it was a coast-to-coast newspaper story, for many of the nation's graduates had to be informed that they would get no diplomas that year.

Today, W. M. Welch Manufacturing Co. is a $500,000 Chicago concern. Although diplomas have become so common that most of their owners scorn to display them, practically no graduate of the nation's 30,000 high schools and 1,000 colleges would dream of leaving school without one, and most elementary school graduates demand them, too. Mr. Welch's company, which supplies twice as many as any other firm, sells some 500,000 a year in high schools and colleges and 100,000 in elementary schools. Last week it started production of the 1939 models.

Most diplomas nowadays are in book form, sometimes with leather covers. Price range: 5¢ for an elementary school certificate, 25¢ for a high-school diploma, $1.50 for a college "sheepskin" (often paper), up to $10 for a de luxe doctor's or honorary degree.

Most elaborate diplomas in the U. S. today are those of the U. S. Naval and Military Academies. Annapolis' shows "Davy Jones' Locker'' (see cut, p. 59). West Point's has pictures of soldiers, drums, cannon, a suit of armor. As a general thing, however, the more important the school, the smaller and simpler the diploma.

Diplomas with pictures of heroes are popular in public schools. One of the certificates most popular in elementary schools from coast to coast has a picture of Charles Lindbergh and his Spirit of St. Louis. Youngsters who complete their grade-school education in Oklahoma are rewarded with diplomas picturing hat-waving Will Rogers. Most famous Will Rogers line: "All I know is what I read in the papers."