may in, tone

 
 
  

lllinois lnotitute oi ”technology, flhiculgo lo, iilinoie

by Henrietta Holmes

The year was 1954, and Professor Sutton was strolling along West Madison street, looking for

prospective IIT students. As he dropped into
familiar face among the barflies. Cautiouely he appr
you Tom Flurry, who used to be in the IE department at H

red-hucd eyes up to Professor Sut—
ton’s smiling inquiry and retorted,
“Yes, I’m Flurry. So you finally
found me, (lid you, Professor Sub
ton?” '

Surprised at Flurry’s sullen re-
ply, Sutton settled himself uneasily
onto a stool, motioning the bar»
tender to supply his usual beverage
astraight. Not another word was
spoken until the tapster, clad in an
untidy apron, returned with a
bubbling glass of milk.

Hoping to cadge a free drink,
Flurry edged closer to Sutton.
“Say, tell me, Frail—how are
things down at 33rd and Federal
these days? Is everybody still
on probation? Do they have
clasurooms in any of the new
buildings? Have you retired
yet?” . ,
Brushing these inconsequential

questions aside, Sutton grasped
Flurry’s frayed coat—sleeve. “Tell
me what’s happened to you, my
boy. You look so . . . well, dif-
ferent . . .”

“You remember when I came
into your office that day back in
1950? I had been at Tech for only
a little more than four years, and
was beginning to think seriously
of graduation. Then came that
wonderful discovery.” Flurry’c
eyes gleamcd as his hand swept
descriptively through widening
arcs.

When Sutton merely nodded,
Flurry calmed a bit and proceeded
with his story. “Well, before I
came to see you I had. hardly slept
for days. Not since that fantastic
night when, strolling past the
Mecca apartments, I stumbled over
the Lamp. Yes, the magnificent
Lamp!”

Flurry began. coughing nerv-
ously as the bartender ap-
proached with drinks. Without
looking, be emptied the contents
of his glass at a single draught
and belched loudly.

“No, sir,” he continued, “this
was no ordinary Lamp. Not till
the Lampda Si pledge, whom I’d
assigned to polish it, ran scream»
ing from Brown Hall basement did
I realize the potentialities of that
chunk of metal.” '

Flurry needed no prompting
now, but Sutton was impatient.
“Go on, go on , . . get to the point.”

“It couldn’t be, but it was. After
centuries of neglect, buried be—
neath the mire of Technology Cen-
ter, I, of all people, had to find it.
I thought it was only natural that
I should find it, butunow I wonder
[here he shuddercd] why should
Thomas H. Flurry have been so
cursed?

“1 tested it . . . l rubbed it—a
magic Genie appeared.

“He was no ordinary Genie; he

 

 
     

“l" in FLURRV hoiet
with the genli of Aladdin’s Lamp.

was a modern, 20th century Genie.
As he explained it to me, the Genii
had formed a unionwspecialized.
This one, although an age~old slave
of Aladdin’s Lamp, had specialized
in production. He couldn't package,
transport, advertise or ship, but it
didn’t seem important to me at the
time."

Flurry paused to sigh reflective—
ly. “I knew that the prophets of
modern business demanded produc-
tion to save free enterprise. With
the limitless production of the
Genie at my disposal, I knew that
I would own a gigantic, powerful,
world-wide cartel, freely monopo-
lizlng every productive enterprise
in existence.

“Because I felt that I owed so
much to you, and thought that
the Genie would make industrial
engineering obsolete, I decided
to cut you in on the new concern,
but you didn’t seem to appreci—
ate it.”

Professor Sutton, following the
story solemnly, broke in. “Yes, I
remember when you came into my
office, Tom. You were in such a

 

  

  

uture industrial engineering-SAM Open House exhibits will

be built around a permanent, well-maintained display manned by
an experienced standing committee. Creation of a permanent
Exhibits committee was announced by Johnnie Best, president of

the Society for Advancement of
Management. Temporarily head—
ing the new committee will be Fred
Boulais and Don Abraham, 19509
JW-OH. chairmen for SAM, who
plan to convert the IE-SAM exhibit
for repeated use at conferences,
meetings, conventions, and other
appropriate events held in the Chi-
cago area.

Recruiting for demonstration
personnel will be aided by a mo-
tion picture taken of this year’s
IE-SAM’ Show, and currently being
edited by the photographer, Ivan
Farkas, and Walter Bogucz.

This and other SAM activities at
11’}: will be directed by a new slate
of chapter officials, to be voted on
Thursday at l. p. in, in lOZMC.

 

 

Tony Pros, chairman of SAM’s
January, 1951, Placement Brochure
committee, will introduce his com-
mittee at Thursday’s meeting. To
be edited by SAMster Ed Michelle,
the Brochure will be the fourth in
the society’s series, and is to reach
more than a thousand prospective
employers.

 

lildi‘iifl lg wfihlfifil?
Today is the last day for
dipfl’e Ugly Mani Eonteot
boiling. do care your favorite
infirm-V

 

 

a favorite joint, the Victor Lounge, he spotted a
cached the stew and asked, “Say, there, aren’t
T?” The bum shifted elbows. turned

 
   

. I advised caution. if

hurry . .
you’d only not been so radical, but

more cautious. Surely, if you’d
talked with Dean Reekins he could
have put you on the right track."

Flurry wouldn’t listen. He
gained another drink (the bottle
was on the counter now). “So I
went into business. The Genie pro~
duced millions of things. Bed-
springs, baby~buggy b u m p e r s,
sliderule holsters, garbage cans,
hot water bottles . . . everything!
But I had troubles. First, inventory
expense. It’s amazing what those
warehouses charge you, just for
storing stuii for a while! And
packaging, labeling, taxes, ship—
ping. On top of all that, advertis—
ing—no one would buy an unknown
brand-and public relations; taxes
and carrying 90-day credit ac~
counts, transfer orders, freight
bills. Gad! I never realized what
it meant to distribute goods.

“Before long i owed huge
sums of money. My bulging
warehouses w e r c padlockcd
under court order. Still my pre-
cious Genie could only run.
DUCE. if only someone had
warned me about the problem of
DlS’l‘RlBUTlONl" Flurry was
broken up with emotion.

With an equanimity born of dece-
ades of witnessing economic tides,
Sutton consoled the sobbing wreck
whose shaggy head was now on the
bar. “There, now, Tom, don’t take
on so. If you’d listened to me, i
could have told you that distribu-
tion, administration and other non-
production costs are 95 per cent of
the selling price of most products.
And, all the while, we silly indus-
trial engineers struggle to save a
thousandth of a cent per unit pro—
duction costs, overhead eats us up
with costs beyond our scope of
control. You’ve got to face it, boy.

The crowd gradually slipped
away, some tearfully, and Flurry
slipped to the floor—felled by the
aroma from Sutton’s milk.

Professor Sutton adjusted his
hat, aligned his spectacles, arose
and strode swiftly from the clip-
joint. “I’ve been here too long
already,” he murmured, glancing
at his watch. “It’s 10 pan... and I
haven’t recruited a new student all
day.”

 

7 la

 

I received nothing but the well

You are reading excerpts from a
letter sent by a Techawk to a com-
pany he had interviewed. The let»
ter is now on file in the Placement
office along with several others of a
similar type.

Read that quotation at the head
of the column again and think.
Could you have written such a let—
ter? It may sound absurd when
someone else writes an infantile
thing like that, but look to the day
when you might be in the same
spot. Will you be so impulsive
when you don’t come away from an
interview with a job offer in your
back pocket? Or will you think
about the following FACTS?

It is a fact that personnel men
consider the hiring of an engineer
to represent an investment of at
least $250,000 by the company.
That’s a quarter of a million dollars
that a company must figure it ties
up in future salaries, equipment in-
vestment required to keep a man in
the office or in the field plus the
value of materials whose disposi-
tion the engineer will be responsi-
ble for.

A few more facts to remember
are that companies which visit col-
lege campuses recruiting talent
must necessarily postpone decisions
about men they see in February
until they talk to those on their
April and May schedules. Above
all, very few companies would al-«
low their personnel departments
to just play games with job-seek-
are on company time.

Adding all these facts up we find
that patience is certainly a virtue
in job hunting; it takes time to land

 

By Hal Bergen

“. . . Why did they have me go through the motions of applying
for employment. . . . All l was offered was a cold, impersonal, im~
passionate, stereotyped form of a letter as my guiding star. . . .

known “run around’.“

 

a job even after the first contact
is made. Experience shows that
oilers are rarely made on the spur
of the moment. Companies must
take at least a few days to make a
decision about hiring a professional
man. The time interval often runs
into weeks.

In view of all the time consuming
factors discussed, isn’t it a bit cone
ceited to assume that an inter—
viewer should make you an offer on
first sight? Immature impulsive
action not only deals you out of any
further considerations but it gives
the whole campus a black eye to
wear. To repeat, patience is the
virtue in job-hunting.

 

 

 

 

 

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in .
g A summer job or all year
till ’round. Undergrads are
hill making good pay right in
ill theirhometownmorinthcir
Pill college towns. Engineering or
laid students preferred, but not
dd required. For full partiou-
lars and profitrecords send, .-
pcuny postcard to li’crfo %
ill Mat Company, 28] Fifth hill
lid Avenue, New York City. y,
dill mm... lib

 

 

 

Day Room
College a] the Holy Clo.” “ ‘ ,
(Wurccuer) ..... ‘ "

Ask for

 

fitl'giimifillllli bfillbllhlifia

 

  

 
  
  

in Worcester, Massachusetts, one
of the favorite spots of students at
the College of the Holy Cross is the
Day Room on the campus. They
like the Day Room because it’s a
cheerful place ~~ full of friendly
collegiate atmoephcre. And when
the gang gathers around, ice-cold
Coca-Cola gets the call. For here, as
in college haunts everywherew

Coke belongs.

1'! either way . . . dot}:

nude—marks mean the more firing,

BOflLED UNDER AUTHOR”? OF {ME COCAvCOlfi COMPANY at"

£@., {3? lili‘ililfiliiifl, lbw.

@ ”50, The Coca-Cola Company (M