The stock market crash of 1929 sent the nation spiraling into what would become known as the Great Depression. By the fall of 1930, however, a "rapid and robust recovery" was predicted. As we now know, that didn’t happen. A series of commercial bank crises turned what had been a recession into what we now call the Great Depression. The effects were felt across the nation, and Western’s campus was no different.
This week’s Western Herald flashback was a special feature “penned” by Howard F. Bigelow, a faculty member in economics. The photograph of Bigelow was taken from the 1931 Brown & Gold Yearbook.
You and Your Money
By Howard Bigelow
November 19, 1930
Wanted: A Job
Reports from the Deans’ office indicate that there are more students than ever applying for work this year, and that requests for part time workers are fewer than is usually the case. This is not to be wondered at. With general business conditions as they are throughout the state, the surprising thing is that so many students have been able to find work this fall.
There are, of course, a number of permanent part-time jobs in the community which can be filled to best advantage by college students. Many of these jobs pay in kind rather than in cash. Much of the work would not be hired done if cash outlay were required. The student holding down a permanent part-time job this year finds his situation not so very different than usual. He has but little competition from workers looking for full-time employment. Most residents of the community are not interested in working for board and room. Employers of part-time workers know that heads of families, willing enough under present conditions to take any job that offers must and will quit a part-time job as soon as they can find full-time employment. Students, however, want only part-time employment, and ordinarily can be depended upon to hold such jobs throughout the school year. As a result, Western students seeking permanent part-time jobs have been fairly well cared for.
The place where competition for jobs is keen is in the occasional odd-job field. There are two reasons for this. In the first place, there are fewer jobs. Many people, forced to economize, cut down on their expenditures for service and cash in on their spare time by doing the work themselves. In the second place, students are meeting the competition of local residents ordinarily regularly employed, who this year are forced to take any kind of a job that offers to provide for members of their family.
Not long ago the officials of the local Federation of Labor opened an office to register men who were out of employment. In the course of a week they registered more than a thousand men and women, seventy-five percent of whom they estimated had one or more dependents. To take care of these workers temporarily, they have opened an odd-jobs employment office. Since opening the office they have registered two or three hundred more applicants for work.
About the same time the mayor appointed a committee on unemployment which is at present working out a rather elaborate organization in an attempt to relieve the local situation. This group is placing primary emphasis on its Creative Employment Department. It is endeavoring to get people who are regularly employed to give just as much work as possible about their homes or places of business to deserving heads of families now out of employment. As one business man put it, they are attempting to make the community “job-conscious.”
How will this work affect students at Western who are seeking similar employment? It is too early yet to tell. If the Creative Employment Department is successful in locating numerous opportunities for employment, it may relieve the student employment situation along with that of the resident workers.
There are two facts which the community must keep in mind in distributing these jobs between townspeople and students. In the first place, the success of any plan of creative employment turns largely upon the ability of the workers to deliver the goods. If these committees are to succeed in creating jobs for deserving jobless, they must see that these jobs go to the men and women who are both willing and able to work, rather than to the considerable number of inefficient who are always employed more or less of the time. In a period like this it is highly important to get wise to the loafer who always steps in for his share of unemployment relief when there is no danger of his being able to get a job. Efficient students frequently have claims for employment which are better than those of the worker who always operates on the principle that the world owes him a living.
It is also well to remember that there are some college students who need jobs if they are to remain in school. At a time like this it is highly desirable that they should be kept in school if possible, for if they leave, they too, will join the vast army of the unemployed who are seeking full-time employment. It is only good business to care for such students by giving them part-time jobs which will enable them to remain in school and remove the danger of their coming into competition for full time employment. On the other hand, there is no question but what a good many students should recognize the superior claim of equally efficient family men who are now out of employment.
In most cases nothing will be gained by cutting rates of pay. the wage scale set by the odd-jobs bureau for all ordinary temporary employment for men corresponds very closely to the wages paid students who are placed by the Dean of Men’s office. For a half day’s work or less, forty-five cents an hour is suggested as a fair wage for a family man. If the job lasts more than half a day, the wage is to be forty cents an hour. No many is expected to go out on a job for less than fifty cents. Public opinion does not sanction the methods of the woman who called for a man to get her cat out of a tree. It took him about ten minutes to rescue the kitty and she generously offered to pay him fifteen cents for his trouble. Students who are working between classes, cannot, of course, insist upon a fifty cent minimum rule. They may still have the side track in getting short jobs near campus.
Students who are dependent upon securing some work if they are to remain in school might just as well face the present employment situation squarely. Jobs are scarce. Competition for existing employment is keen. The only claim a student can make for a job this year must be made on the basis of superior efficiency. Job or no job, students should plan to remain at school this year if it is at all possible.
Bigelow served WMU from 1924 -1961 and would eventually have Bigelow Residence Hall named in his honor (1961). Aside from advising the Canterbury Club, he was an economics professor and pioneer in the field of modern consumer economics. Enrollment in the economics program increased 500% during Bigelow’s time at WMU.
Perhaps most notable, Bigelow had an open door at his private residence for students as a place of rest and inspiration. He was recognized as a friend of students, and he ‘collected’ relationships from a wide variety of groups on campus. Bigelow was also known for his passion for educating and was a man who lived by his own example.
If you have a memory of the Herald you would like to share in celebration of its centennial milestone, please email storyteller@mywmu.com with "Herald 100 Memories" in the subject line.