In 1900, American business firms employed 708,000 people as secretaries, stenographers, and typists. The percentage of women occupying clerical positions jumped from 19% in 1890 to 38% in 1910. Businesses improved their efficiency by adopting the time-and-motion research of Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915), an engineer who became known as the father of scientific management. Managers monitored worker output. Employees had to be proficient in business technology and procedures as soon as they were hired. Business telecommunications included the telegraph (first introduced in 1837) and the typewriter (the first modern model introduced by Remington in 1878). Shorthand (first introduced in an English language version in 1837) and double-entry bookkeeping (first codified in 1494 in a textbook by Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan friar) were in mass use.
Proprietary business schools met the demand for skilled workers. In 1889, John F Draughon (1863-1921), an itinerant instructor, taught business subjects in Tennessee and Kentucky. He founded a business college at Nashville, Tennessee, in about 1892, followed by a network of business colleges in the South and Midwest. Draughon’s Practical Business Colleges were incorporated in 1903, with John F. Draughon serving as president. Thirty-eight colleges were in operation by the time of his death. Fulltime instructors taught penmanship, typewriting, telegraphy, bookkeeping, business law, banking, shorthand, and other courses. College managers and instructors purchased and owned stock in the corporation.
Draughon’s appears to have opened a Galveston campus during late 1897. According to the Georgetown (Texas) Sun, September 1, 1897, the college would materialize in several weeks. A Draughon’s advertisement in the Galveston Daily News, November 4, 1897, included Galveston among the network’s sites.
Draughon’s Practical Business College opened at 705 Tremont in the Young Men’s Christian Association building. In the above image, the college’s sign is visible behind the top of the telephone pole. The 1898 Galveston city directory recorded John F. Draughon as principal. In November 1898, R. R. Laman, head of the Draughon’s college at Texarkana, Akansas, became manager of the Galveston campus. John F. Draughon transferred to the college at Texarkana.
The 1903-04 city directory recorded J. B. Franklin as manager. He left at the beginning of 1904 to manage Draughon’s at Fort Worth, Texas. F. Grantham took charge of the Galveston location. The Galveston Tribune, June 1, 1904, quoted him:
I was not much impressed with the appearance of Galveston, but I have grown to like it exceedingly and fall more deeply in love each day. I am greatly interested with the wharves and shipping and I think that the surf bathing in the gulf is the finest in the world.
The college at Galveston was the southernmost Draughon’s campus according to a map printed in the 1908-1909 college catalog. The catalog recognized Galveston’s newly built Seawall, as well as its favorable business climate. Paul E. Cooper, a shorthand instructor, became manager of the Galveston location in 1909. He subsequently became president, remaining at the college until it closed nearly four decades later. In late 1922, Draughon’s moved to 2309½-2311½ Market, occupying the same building as Leopold, Shafer & Co., clothing merchants.
Draughon’s Practical Business College appears to have closed in Galveston circa 1952. Its end went unnoticed in local newspapers. Draughon’s Print Shop, operated by Mabel and Milam B. Raphael, continued in business at the same address. This firm made its last appearance in the 1976 Galveston city directory.
The Rosenberg Library has preserved six folders of Draughon’s ephemera. The 1908-1909 college catalog, which runs 100 pages, is particularly interesting. It reflects social attitudes and business practices then in vogue. Its discussions of education, employment, and job success present a compelling case to the reader to earn a business education. This article reproduces many of its illustrations.
The catalog mentions Draughon’s advantages. Its campuses provide a no-frills education, doing away with commencements, sports teams, and other distractions. The colleges teach a standard curriculum of business courses. (The campuses at El Paso and San Antonio also offer Spanish.) Students may pursue coursework either on site or by taking correspondence courses at home. They sign contracts and can enroll with the promise to pay tuition once they find jobs. Each colleges assists its graduates with placement. Draughon’s guarantees employment. The graduate who remains unemployed will be issued a refund of his or her tuition.
Courses include typing, double-entry bookkeeping, and shorthand. Draughon’s teaches the Graham-Pittman system of shorthand, which it regards as the most effective of shorthand systems. Students must be able to record 100 words a minute for ten consecutive minutes. Draughon’s New System of Bookkeeping, “Double Entry Made Easy” enables a business to determine its profitability rapidly and efficiently.
Draughon’s claims to have more graduates than any other business college. Thoroughness of instruction means that an education at a Draughon’s college will take longer to complete than at other proprietary colleges. The Draughon’s System of Bookkeeping, Double Entry Made Easy, in particular, is in wide use throughout the United States.
Knowledge gained from education is a prerequisite for leveraging success. “A business education will render you practical, self-reliant, more intelligent, more respectable; will enlarge the circle of your influence, will become a foundation on which to build your rising fortunes.” (62)
Character and personal drive are also determinants of personal success.
The catalog notes a huge imbalance between manual laborers and skilled workers. In the left illustration, a horde of unskilled applicants flood a factory which advertises jobs with low wages and long hours. The illustration at the right depicts a business which cannot find even one educated person to fill a position with high pay and shorter hours.
Shaming the uneducated is one of the catalog’s themes, A laborer has to live with the consequences of not earning an education. The pick and shovel are emblems of his work. The businessman’s natty attire, by comparison, conveys his authority and responsibility. Bags of money symbolize his employment...
Shaming is also evident in this illustration. The seated employer counsels a young job applicant, whose lack of education and poor penmanship disqualify him from being hired. The applicant is unable to leverage the fact that his father knows the businessman, who does not let personal feelings sway a hiring decision. The employer encourages the applicant to seek a Draughon’s education.
Farmers can also benefit from a business education at Draughon’s. Here, an overseer seated on a horse watches laborers tilling a field. The implication of this illustration is that an educated person can look down on the unskilled.
Draughon’s stresses the importance of high character. It offers reduced tuition to the children of ministers. Each college encourages its students to go to church, although attendance is not required. Males are susceptible to smoking drinking, and gambling and should avoid these vices. Smoking, for instance, is a slothful habit. “Those who smoke cigarettes and complete the courses simply drag through in a half-sleep way.” (45)
Women are the subject of both complimentary and disparaging remarks. Their virtue elevates them above men. “The typewriting girl may chew gum, but she never dallies with tobacco nor toys with the serpent lurking in the wineglass.” (27) Because of her moral superiority, a woman can work for less pay. A liberal arts education has little value for the female and result in her becoming “some worthless prig” or be “destined to the life of a struggling old maid.” (20) The woman with a business education, in contrast, is self-reliant, takes a judicious approach to marriage, and can support herself and her children in the event she loses her husband. Male stenographers are in demand, since female stenographers tend to leave employment after several years for marriage. The catalog’s illustrations, which mostly depict males, also reflect bias.
Only the prepared survive in the workplace. “The weak are pushed aside, while the strong, intelligent, and self-reliant win fame and fortune.” (23) The catalog makes several allusions to combat. College textbooks, for example, are comparable to ammunition which an army uses to win battles.
The business student must show initiative and zest in pursuing coursework. Historical figures, such as Abraham Lincoln, provide inspiration for learning.
This illustration summarizes the college catalog’s thrust. A young man or woman faces having to make a momentous life decision that will yield lasting consequences. Avoid earning a business education, and he or she will travel the Road of Neglect, ending in a bleak future. Pursue business education, and he or she will reach financial prosperity, independence, and security in old age. According to Draughon’s, there is only one correct answer to deciding the course of one’s life.
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