NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COR PORATION SCHOOLS, The. In 1911 The New York Edison Company established a com mercial school to correct faulty fundamentals of employees of that company; to train em ployees in the duties they were then perform ing, and for more advanced work. As the movement progressed there was publicity in the New York press which resulted in a large number of inquiries from members of indus trial institutions throughout the United States as to: (1) Why the school was established. (2) What was taught in the school. (3) What results had been attained.
The volume of such requests led to the con clusion that there was need for a clearing house to which those interested might con tribute and from which they might secure in formation. This plan was discussed by the organizer and a few acquaintances who were interested in the subject of better education and better training for the workers of the United States.
After several months of preliminary effort an organizing convention was held at New York University on 24 Jan. 1913; 35 industrial institutions sent delegates. A provisional or ganization was perfected and officers chosen.
On 4 April following the executive com mittee met, declared the charter closed and The National Association of Corporation Schools was a reality. In the fall of 1913 the first an nual convention was held in the Hall of Edu cation of the National Cash Register Company at Dayton, Ohio, and in 1914 the annual con vention was held in the auditorium of the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia. The 1915 meeting was held at the Hotel Ban croft in Worcester and in 1916 convention at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pitts burgh. In 1917 the association met as the
guests of the Larkin Company at Buffalo. The 1918 convention was scheduled to be held in Chicago, but upon the entrance of the United States into the World War the association pledged its members and its resources to the government. Because of the peculiar fitness of membership nearly all of the active workers were taken into government service in some capacity, which prevented the meeting at Chicago.
The commercial school established by The New York Edison Company was not the first corporation school in the United States. There are different claims as to where the first school of this character was held. The Penn sylvania Railroad Company, prior to the Civil War, held conferences at its Altoona shops, and the Werner Book Publishing Company of Akron, Ohio, held conferences of its salesmen. Other industrial institutions have come forward with claims of having established schools, but the most authentic information regarding edu cational activities on behalf of employees of an industrial institution indicates that the first school to be called a school, inaugurated by an industrial institution was held by, the National Cash Register Company in April 1896. This school has been convened more or less consecu tively from that time on down to the present date.
The growth of the Association has been steady, and now embraces in membership a total of 117 industrial institutions, including over 70 different branches of the industries . of the United States.