WHOLESOME PUBLICITY 869

WHOLESOME PUBLICITY WHILE YOU WAIT.

BY RALPH E. DXJNBAR,Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, So. Dak.

The idea of industrial inspection tours is not new in scienceinstruction. In most cases such trips are limited to localfactoiies, where the number and type of industries visited canbe so regulated as to augment the daily class work under con-sideration. However, where the variety of local possibilitiesis limited, a more extensive and intensive study may be made ofsuitable plants in some more distant city.1 It was in connectionwith this latter type of tour that the following plan of procedureand publicity was devised. We believe the plan has sufficientmerit to warrant its adoption by other similar groups whereconditions will permit. This particular trip was the thirdannual tour of the department of chemistry. The itineraryincluded as usual, a biscuit factory, packing plant, clinic, en-

graving company, foundry, candy factory, paint factory,bottling works, rope and twine factory, water aeration andfiltration plant, and newspaper shop.A group of thirty-seven students under the direct super-

vision of an instructor in the department left the campus atsix o^clock in the morning arriving in the city to be visited byeight o’clock. Two large highway buses had previously beenengaged for transportation. By previous arrangement thegroup was met by a photographer at a designated hour andplace. A photograph was taken of the entire group togetherwith the buses. The students were already sufficiently familiarwith the photographic operations involved to omit this featureof the operation. Within one hour, however, the studio hada wet print ready for the engraver. This one picture wasfurnished to the engraver free of charge for a sufficient numberof additional copies were ordered by the members of the groupto compensate the photographer well for his work. In ad-dition all parties co-operating in this project were given duecredit in the publicity that followed.The engraver, also by previous arrangement, had kindly

consented to prepare a three column zinc half-tone from thisphotograph, taken an hour earlier. All students involved werepresent and witnessed the entire process. The necessary ex-planation covering all details was given by the engraver as be

iDunbar. SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS, Vol. XXVItI, No. 8, Nov. 1928, p. 855.

870 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

worked. Needless to say every one present took much greaterinterest in the preparation of this particular cut than any otherprepared on similar occasions,The city editor of the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader had been

supplied with all necessary details two days before and hadbeen notified of the hour when the cut should arrive. Hereagain the students observed all the essential steps in the prepara-tion of a typical daily newspaper, and were more attentive andinterested because of ,the fact that their own picture was in-volved. Thus by a carefully prearranged schedule and co-ordination with the three plants involved, the photographer,engraver, and newspaper, .the group picture was reproducedin three hours after the arrival of the group in the city. Needlessto say the plan added much to the general success of the day,and was in reality, ^wholesome publicity while you wait,^ bothfor the school and the classes involved.Every student eagerly purchased copies of the Sioux Falls

Argus Leader that day from newsboys on the streets carryinga three column picture and the follpwing account of the day^svisit:

"Thirty-seven science students of Dakota Wesleyan University ofMitchell, arrived in the city this morning at 8:00 o’clock on their thirdannual science industrial tour. They are under the direct supervisionof Prof. Ralph E. Dunbar, head of the chemistry department. Thegroup has chartered two large highway buses and have used the sameto convey them from plant to plant today while in the city."The group left Mitchell this morning at 6:QO o’clock, arriving in

Sioux Falls by 8:00 o’clock. The day has been an unusually busy oneand the itinerary has included the plants of the Manchester BiscuitCo., John Morrell & Co., Sioux Falls Clinic, South Dakota Engraving.Co., The Queen City Foundry Co., Fenn Brothers, Minnehaha Springs,

; Sputjh Dakota State Penitentiary, Sioux Falls waterworks and the.., Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Most of the, students are attending the showat the State tonight. This is the third consecutive year that a grouphas made a similar tour of several of the leading manufacturing plants

’of the city, especially those that’are of unusual interest to students of’.jchemistry. ... :-�--’:

"As a new feature of this year’s program, the picture -produced here-..with has been..made possible only. through the cooperation of .threeSioux Falls business concerns. This picture was taken on the highschool grounds this morning by the Green Dragon studio. ^The cutfor its production was made by the South Dakota Engraving company,while the students were present to observe the entire process, and whilethis issue of the Argus Leader .is being produced, this same group ispresent to watch the big presses in operation. All students pronouncethe day’s activities most interesting and worth while."