Studebaker: End of Dream.

The news that automaker Studebaker Co. was closing forever its ear-building operations in South Bend, Indiana came as a shock for many people. That evening, as the 7,000 workers streamed out of the plant, they found television cameras at the gate, and airpressed their shock and numb disbelief for the national news wrap-ups. Studebaker was a symbol of South Bend for the world, and that for 7,200 active members and 2,175 retirees, it had been a world in itself. Even before the lay-off, last November 1963 of 1,700, a man needed fifteen years' seniority to hold down a job in the plant. Only workers with twenty or more years of seniority were working on December 10, 1963 and the average age of the employed workers was over fifty-four.