B
Tuesday. March 1. 1977
University Daily Kansan
Waxman enjoys smell of success
By JEWELL WILLHITE
Staff Reporter
Waxing profitable
Robert Werts began making candies in 1970 and has been at it ever since. Werts owns and operates Waxman Candles, 1407 Massachusetts St.
To Robert Werts, a Lawrence candlemaker, make the sweet smell of success comes to mind.
Round, rectangular and tapered scented candles in glowing colors line the shelves of his shop, Waxman Candles, 1407 Massachusetts St. But sales from the shop represent only a small portion of Wert's business.
Waxman candies, made directly behind the retail shop, are now sold in 31 states. A recent contract with J. C. Penney Co., Inc., may place Waxman candies in 150 Penney stores nationwide. The waxman shop opened last year in the Metcalf Shopping Center in Overland Park, Kan.
The guiding force behind all this activity is a 27-year-old University of Kansas who has been selling candies seven years ago and he "want interested in a permanent job."
WERTS ENTRY into the business world was almost accidental. Finding time on his hands while a student in junior college in Dodge City, Werts "invested $5 and bought some wax and a couple molds." He taught himself candelmaking by trumpeting his name. Afterward, Werts charged them two pounds of wax for a one-pound candle.
Werts must have had many friends. When he graduated in 1970, he owned 100 pounds of wax. He moved to Lawrence, enrolled at KU and continued to make candies, which he placed for sale in local stores that December.
And that December Werts left KU. He packed his candelmaking equipment into his van and drove back to his home in New York, where he drove there. Here he made and sold more candles.
When Werts returned to Lawrence, he found that his candle sales here and in New York had netted him $400. He rented a building at 7 W. 14th St.
"I lived in the back. I made candies in the middle room and sold them in the front,"
HIS FIRST employee was a boy from
High School who worked
work-time unit at High School.
"In a small business the only way to survive is constant expansion." Werks said.
In 1974 a retail store in Kansas City wanted to buy 123,000 candles shaped like moose antlers, some wrote agreed, although the most candles of the he had even made before was 100.
"That's what really put me in the candle business," Werts said.
He used the profits from that order to
move to his present location. The expanded facilities committed Werts to wholesale marketing. He took his candies to wholesale stores and bought Dallas, and business slowly increased.
WAXMAN CANDLES continues to expire. This month Werts will take his candles to a wholesale show in Chicago for the first time, outgrowing a new line of ceramic candlebolders.
Expansion, however, must allow for changes in public taste.
The bottom fell out of the candle
Candle sales dropped. Some department stores stopped carrying candles.
business about a year or two after I started in business," Werts said.
"Fifty per cent of the candle companies in
States went out of business," Werbz said.
Waxman Candles survived, Werts said, because he produced candles that not only smelled good, but also were artistic. Many of the candles are made in inches in diameter. The white ball is dipped
in one or more colors, then part of the outer layer is carved away to produce a design.
"THE EMPIRES isn't on the raw material; it is on the art work that goes on."
Werts' artistic candies have sold well, even during the recent recession.
"I can fluctuate with the economy more than a big company can," Werts said. "It's more of a one-to-one relationship with your employees, and they understand if one week they work 30 hours and the next week they work 45.
It would be hard for a visitor to distinguish Werts from his employees. He and his dippers, pourers, carvers and packers are all young and wear jeans. Werts is the one with the dark, below-the-shoulder non-tyalled hair.
Werts remains actively involved in almost every phase of his business. He designs molds and equipment. Although he doesn't do the actual art work, he indicates what products he designed he thinks will sell. He travels to wholesale markets. He keeps the books.
"I keep books in terms that I can understand," he said. "In terms of what the government can understand, I have to go through an accountant."
HSI MANY activities may keep Werts busy 15 hours a day during December, his business month, and 12 hours a day during October and November. January is the time for a two-week vacation and four-or five-hour work days.
Werts, who speaks proudly of his
history, says we have the best January
waves ever had by a city.
Werts still looks like the college student of the late 1900s who made candies for friends in the early 20th century.
But times have changed, and Werts has changed with them. The school and Scout groups that come to see how candies are made may be shown a cooling machine that keeps 38 degree water surrounding the newly filled candle molds.
It used to take 24 hours to cool a candle. Werts said, "Now it takes four."
ALONG WITH mechanization Waxman Candles now advertises on radio and local television. Werts has sponsored baseball teams. The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.
The pressures of being a respected community businessman, if he feels them, don't show. His voice is quiet and relaxed. The student who made candies for fun is revealed as Werts tells how he feels about his business.
"The enjoyment of doing it should be the biggest thing," he said. "This is not only my duty, but also my joy."
Science fiction gives models, choices, futures
Bv JIM MURRAY
Staff Reporter
By JIM MURRAY
Staff Reporter
Science fiction is important as a predictor of possible futures, because totally accurate predictions are worthless, according to science fiction author and editor Frederik Pohl
"Suppose I had a tacup, and in it could read all of our futures," Pohl said. "And I could see that as we left this hall tonight, we would all be run over by a very terrifying force." The answer is of us. And suppose this prediction was both guaranteed to be accurate and complete.
Pohl, science fiction editor for Bantam books, spoke before an audience of about 200 in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union last night.
"It would not do any of us an awful lot of good, because there wouldn't be anything worth saving."
"The kind of prediction that's of use is one that says 'this is something that may happen, and you can encourage it if you do, or you can try to avert it if you don't."
**WHAT SCIENCE fiction can do la give**
to a lot of a distant early warning of
anything bad happening.
Although science fiction can show possible futures, there is usually a great difference between the fiction and the reality. Phil said. He cited the space colonies of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin between the predictions of the science fiction writers and the Anolo program.
"This does not, however, show that the science fiction writers were wrong. In this case, it shows that reality is wrong," he said.
*A fundamental rule of science fiction is it has to make sense, and the Apollo project is better.*
*
"The space program may well be one of the most important ventures the human race has ever attempted. But it does not prevent us from succeeding, and then stop it when it well beats."
Pohl said he had developed a very loose definition of science fiction during his years as a professor.
"A science fiction book is that book I can publish, that no more than six people read it."
POHL SAID science fiction was a "game-
playing" literature.
"If makes models of possible futures, and then games them, to show what will happen."
Because science fiction has dealt with a great number of possible futures, Pohl said, people who have read much science fiction are better prepared for the future.
AFTER HIS speech, Pohl answered questions from the audience. One person asked what Pohl thought public reaction to his message was. Another evidence of contact with alien intelligence.
"So science fiction gives us a sort of Sears-Brockuck catalog of possible futures," he said. "And from that catalog you may pick your own shopping list."
And, because of their exposure to a variety of futures, he said, they would be able to choose which types of futures they would like to encourage or prevent.
"It would be panic," he said. "Humanity would be afraid they would steal our water and blonde women, as the science fiction writers always said they would."
In an interview earlier in the day, Pohl said there were three problems facing the world, the threat of nuclear war, the exhaustion of scarce natural resources and the "increasing potential for individual or small scale violence."
"I don't know what it's like in Lawrence," he said, "but in most large urban areas, they're getting used to the bomb threats and the bomb activity.
"And that doesn't seem to me to be a very gracious to live."
POHL SAID overpopulation aggravated the other problems,
"The big pollution we have is people pollution," he said. "The serious problems are the impact of an increasingly large and increasingly demanding human population on an exhaustible planet and an exhaustible society."
“There are a lot of small countries that do not presently have nuclear weapons, but the near future, that do not perceive themselves,” said Razak. “therefore there are not deterred from using them.
"The only question is whether it can be limited to, say, Paraguay bopping Ecuador, or if China the Soviets and the U.S. will get bombed and everybody will get bomped," he said.
Pohl he thought a nuclear war would occur in the next 30 years.
"I think that the increase in urban crime is largely due to the fact that there is an increasing population that doesn't perceive it as being any worse than the streets," he said.
"IF IDI AMIN had a nuclear bomb, what would stop him from using it?"
Pohl said the solution to the problems lay in individual, not government, action.
Pohl said this lack of deterrence carried over to individuals.
He said he thought effective government action was unlikely.
Darwin's Islands
7:30-9:00p.m.
Museum of Natural History
The Galapagos;
A $10 steel chain can prevent a bicycle theft, patrolwoman Jeanne Longaker has been telling residence hall staffs since January.
By CHUCK WILSON Staff Reporter
$1.50
March 2
Hall program provides personal, theft protection
That's only part of what Longaker, a member of the campus police, tells the staffs in her new crime prevention program.
She is a two and one-half year veteran on the campus police force and has taught women's crime prevention in junior high schools and high school.
Longaker said the program emphasized personal protection and theft protection.
"The program was primarily designed for students, but it can benefit everyone on campus," she said. "I am hopeful, by making everybody aware of the problem, the program will benefit the University as a whole."
So far she has talked with only residence hall staffs, but she hopes to talk with all residents once she gets the confidence of the staffs.
She also wants to work with fraternities,
sororites, university faculty and staff and
student affairs.
AFRICA NIGHT
She presented a seminar for 25 University clerical workers in the Kansas Union recently as part of Central Personnel's training series.
SUNDAY, MARCH 6
5:30 p.M. BANQUET
UNION, CAFETERIA
She is especially interested in presenting the crime prevention program in the residence halls now because, as the weather becomes warmer, non-most students will be on campus and wandering through the residence halls.
"This is the time of the year for purse snatchings to start," she said.
She said she taught women how to carry purses so they are more difficult to steal. She also makes suggestions to women about carrying assaults at night while walking on campground.
Some of the tips she gives are to walk with someone, take a well-lighted route and stay away from alleys and bushy areas. She also needs people to report suspicious activities.
8:00p.m. SYMPOSIUM & CULTURAL SHOW UNION, BIG EIGHT ROOM
Blue-lighted emergency phones on campus aren't just for reporting rape, she said. They also can be used to report thefts or use thefts when no other phone is available.
In residence halls, students tend to
Tickets: single $4"couple $7"
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SPONSOR: K.U. INTERNATIONAL CLUB
$2.19
All the
TUESDAY NIGHT BUFFET
SALAD & PIZZA
you can eat
6 'til 9
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ken's PIZZA
Children $1.39
behave as if they were home, she said, so they often leave their rooms unlocked.
Many people who wouldn't steal in most cases might if they are given a chance, she said. An unlocked room is such a chance, the woman could take it, enter a room, take something and leave.
She also cautions people not to leave a note on a door saying that it is unlocked and locked.
Longaker also tells students to engrave some sort of identification on their belongings such as tape decks and CBs. Engravng equipment is available in the residence halls and in the campus police office in Hoch Auditorium.
Sachem applications must be in Friday
Applications for Sachem, the KU senior men's honor society, are due by 5 p.m. Friday. They may be picked up and returned at the Alumnae Office, on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union. A copy of the manuscript must accompany the application.
All males who are seniors or will be seniors next fall are eligible. Schemach, a college teacher at the Delta Kappa, recognizes senior men for excellence in scholarship, athletics, journalism, speech, creative and performing arts, service activities and campus government.
Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., will be this year's honor initiate, an annual award to an alumnus who has brought recognition to KU.
HEBIRTHDAY PARTY(1968)
WEDNESDAY, MAR. 2, 7:30 p.m. 9:50
FILMS OF BUSBY BERKELEY
ROMAN SCANDALS (1933)
Dr. Frank Tuttle with Eddie
Cantor, Gloria Stuart; Musical
directed by Busy Berkley
urr. William Friedkin with Robert Shaw, Patrick Magge, Adapted from a play by Harold Pinter, Classical Film Series.
(1974)
FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933)
Dir. Lloyd Bacon with James Cagney.
Musical sequences directed by
Berkeley. Film Society Series.
[New York].
THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI
ALL SCREWED UP (1975)
Dir. Lina Wertmiller with Luigi Di-
derti, Italy.
Fri., Mar. 4 & Sat., Mar. 5, 3:30, 7:00 & 9:30 p.m. $1
Dir. Lina Wertmuller with Giancarlo Giannini, Italy.
Woodruff Auditorium Kansas Union
STUDENTS
SHORT FILMS BY K.U.
March 1-6, 8:00 p.m.
 March 5, 2:30 p.m.
 Kansas State U 540
SUA 83.50
1913 746 4377