Students in Stores

Had fire broken out one day last week in Younkers Department Store, biggest and best known in Des Moines, Iowa, or if an old lady had dropped dead in an elevator, the job of quieting people and running things would have fallen not to Younkers' President Norman Wilchinski but to a high-school student named James Mills. If all the salesgirls had struck, the matter would have been in the hands not of Superintendent A. E. Fletcher but of Student John Haydon. As it was, the biggest problem for Student Mills was whether or not to let Younkers' employes wear political badges while on duty (he decided not to); and for Student Haydon to answer a request for a raise (he replied quickly that this was no time for one).

In Des Moines shops it was High School Day, conceived and arranged by Clay Dean Slinker, director of business education in the high schools, for 275 students of retail selling, business organization, business English, art and journalism. Every high school nominated students for executive positions, at $2 for the day. Winners were drawn by lot. Younkers took 143 students. Sears, Roebuck 25, The Utica (clothing) 23, Montgomery Ward 10, The Globe (department store) 9, Wolf's (ladies') 8, Norman Cassiday (ladies') 6, Kresge's 6, Herman Kucharo (men's) 4, Sprankel's (men's) 4, Carley's (ladies') 4, J. C. Penney (department store) 3, Woolworth's and E. Kresge's each 2. At the news desk of the Des Moines Register and Tribune were 24 students; Des Moines Electric Co. took 2. Art and journalism students planned, wrote and illustrated Younkers' advertising copy, ran four pages of it in the Tribune. Most fun was had by Younkers' Student President Mills, who assembled for an early morning "pep meeting" his Vice President Henry Plude, Secretary-Treasurer William O'Neal, Controller Art Clark, Advertising Manager Fred Disterdick and student merchandising managers. The real Younkers' executives--Henry Frankels, Robert H. Duffy, Ross Dalbey, H. A. Metcalf, Karl Gerhardt et al-- had fun too, taking a holiday and thinking up problems for the students to solve. Estimating that they had gained much goodwill to say nothing of increased sales, they planned another High School Day for next year.

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