People in Des Moines have been wondering for years about the mysterious school that took over the old Des Moines University* campus in 1943. A silvery-haired, 82-year-old gentleman named Alfred William Lawson had bought the grounds and announced a new school: the Des Moines University of Lawsonomy. From time to time, a few students of varying ages were seen through the high picket fence, but there seemed to be no faculty. Founder Lawson, a pioneer aviation man who claims that he built the first double-decker airliner and got the U.S. started on its aircraft industry, kept out of sight. As far as Des Moines could tell, no one ever graduated with a degree in Lawsonomy.
Des Moines newspapers got interested in the strange school and started asking questions. School officials were reluctant to talk, but Lawson's newspaper described the founder enthusiastically as the kind of teacher who comes along "about every 2,000 years." Reporters found that Lawsonomy was sweepingly billed as "the study of everything," based on 47 principles set forth in the dozens of books of which Lawson is the author. All life, according to Lawsonomy, operates according to the laws of "maneuverability, penetrability, and zigzag-and-swirl."
No Tuition. Lawsonites said it would take a student 30 years to earn the degree of "Knowlegian" in Lawsonomy, but that 20 full-time students are working away at it. The school charges no tuition, they said, and it pays no salaries to its teachers. Students (men only) are accepted only on a ten-year basis, and the curriculum consists largely of memorizing Lawson's books. No other reading is permitted; on one occasion, it was even forbidden to refer to a basketball rulebook.
Des Moines's 1950 records show $12,000 paid in taxes on land held by the college. Lawson's books are peddled around town for as much as $5 a copy and contributions seem to pour into the university's coffers. In Detroit a Ford worker said he had donated $8,000 to the school; a postman said he gave close to $5,000. Yet Founder Lawson insists that he is a poor man, frequently turns his pockets inside out at meetings, and lives in seclusion away from the school.
No Figures. Last week Lawsonomy-Founder Lawson was called out of seclusion and summoned to Washington to appear before the Senate Small Business Committee. The Senators wanted to know why his university, claiming to be a tax-exempt institution, had paid $4,480 for 62 war-surplus machine tools "for educational purposes" in 1947, and resold 45 of them for $120,000. The committee also wanted to know if the University of Lawsonomy is a bona fide college. If not, it had no legal right to the machines.