Baylor's Value To Waco in 1926

Baylor Worth Much To City, Survey Shows
University Professor Shows It Is Valuable Economic Asset to Waco

Waco Times-Herald
July 18, 1926

Baylor university has become a close rival of many of the strictly commercial institutions in Waco as an economic asset to the city, as shown by a survey just completed by Dr. C.D. Johnson, head of the Baylor school of commerce and business administration. The annual money worth of Baylor to Waco is approximately $1,251,000.

The tuition alone which the students bring to Waco amounts to $324,000. Board and room bills at the university dormitories and similar bills paid by students to near-by boarding houses, cafes and rooming houses total $567,000. The remainder of the million and a quarter brought directly by students is spent for clothes, churches, haircuts, bobs, shows, special dinners, rides in cars, drug store accounts, including a rather imposing amount for cosmetics, the survey showed.

Baylor Attracts 100 Families

The estimate of Dr. Johnson shows that at least 100 families have come to Waco annually to educate their children or other relatives. These families add at least $180,000 annually to the money brought to Waco. This added to the $1.251,000 brings the Baylor economic worth to Waco $1,431,000 or nearly a million and a half. Nor does this include the summer session which brings almost $100,000 (of) new money into the city.

The cash endowment of the university is $550,000, another valuable asset to the city. This amount is being enlarged every year by gifts of both large and small amounts.

Women Buy More Clothes

Women students spend more money on the average than men students due in large measure to the budgets for clothes. One girl, a banker's daughter, bought fifteen pairs of shoes in the first seven months of the session at an average of $12 a pair. This was $180 for shoes alone. The same girl had a $12 a month bill during the same seven months or $84. One girl spent $600 for a coat.

An Arkansas man's expenses for the year ran over $2000. The tuition and board, the actual necessary expenses were far less than half the student's bill. Oklahoma, New Mexico, Tennessee and Louisiana students are found among the large contributors to the budget which comes to Waco through the Baylor university channel. There are 130 students from other states than Texas during the regular session with about forty-five from other states during the summer.

All Businesses Profit

The financial analysis showed that all types of businesses from show shining parlors to banks, from hamburger stands to Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and other city churches are recipients of money from the Baylor students.

The big ball games which are played between A. and M. and Texas university and colleges attract an aggregate of 75,000 people to Waco during the football season. These athletic fans bring business to the Cotton Palace, the hotels and to stores of all kinds.

The business survey of Baylor students is similar to that made in other university centers in the United States, said Dr. Johnson. There is this difference, he said: All northern and eastern colleges and universities show a higher expense rate than Baylor university due to higher prices for rooms, board and usually for clothes and club memberships which are seldom omitted by students in other sections of the United States.