T he American — 
TEACHER 


SEPTEMBER, 1918 


2 
i 


— 


The Pittsburgh Convention 





A Little Child Shall Lead Us 





The I W W Decision 





The Meaning of Unionism 


Doo UMct NUNN ONONDNLDAOUION ANU A DAAUSAU ENLARGE UA A 


= VAMP MUTNINUNNIUSNSLEOOONROTSEEEE A ALAA ANE eS 


Democracy in Education 
Education for Democracy 











The American Teacher 


Fighting Democracy’s Battle at Home 


F the war has taught us anything it 
has taught us the worth of collec- 
tive effort, of working together, of 

giving to a common cause. A hundred 
million dollars is being raised in a single 
week for the second Red Cross fund, and 
such is the united spirit of the nation 
that calls of this kind will be responded 
to over and over again. A return to the 
status quo, to the selfish individualism 
of before the war is unthinkable. If a 
hundred million 


unselfish purpose are stirring the hearts 
of Europe. It is our business to make 
the same spirit of unselfishness rule in 
our domestic affairs. We must. look to 
it that the democracy for which we are 
fighting three thousand miles away is 
kept intact at home. The same liberal- 
ism, the same care for the weak and 
helpless, the same “daylight diplomacy” 
upon which we are insisting in our con- 
duct of the war, must be insisted upon 

in the manage- 





dollars can be 


ment of our local 





raised in a single 
week for binding 
up the wounds on 
the stricken fields 
of Europe, why 
shall we not raise 
even larger sums 
after the war to 
build up the weak 
spots in our de- 
mocracy, to use 
the surplus 
wealth for the 
common good! 
This is the hope 
that we find ex- 
pressed in count- 


Editorials 


Amendments 





CONTENTS 


Report of President Stillman 
Report of Secretary Stecker 


Resolutions of Convention 


The Meaning of the Union Movement 156 An 


affairs. That is 
why we must 
count it a battle 
lost if any organi- 
zation concerned 
with waging de- 
mocracy’s fight at 
home is allowed 
to suffer or be- 
come weakened 
because of efforts 
spent on organi- 
zations concerned 
more directly 
with war service. 
inefficient 
health depart- 











less public utter- 





ment, a neglected 





ances, in count- 
less platforms and programs looking to 
the future. Those of us who want to 
bring that day nearer must begin now. 
We cannot forget that side by side with 
the forces that are fighting to free the 
world are fighting also the forces to im- 
prison the world; that side by side with 
liberalism, reaction raises its ugly head. 
The ringing words of President Wil- 
son that perhaps-for the first time in 
history a nation is going to war for an 


school system, a 
corrupt police department, help the 
forces of autocracy, of imperialism and 
selfishness: We cannot send our sons 
and brothers and husbands over to 
France to die by the millions for demo- 
cratic ideals, while we neglect at home 
the very things on which democracy is 
built. 


—Bulletin of Woman’s Municipal 
League of New York 


RTS USUSENSUSESESESESTTESESEEEESSSELESESESSTdE dor Uresoeserue sos sss sss) ss sss) 


Vol. VII., No. { 


BSLALAAASASRAAVLAALAARALVLAKRAALAA VV AAAALA NANAK NANAALMAVA LAVAL ABAAVAAMA AAA KMAKAAARKABAALABABAALBALAVANEBRABAANAANES 


vd 





F DPV VVVAAAAVAVAVAVVVVVAVAAV VV VSS VVVVAVVVVAVAVVVVVVWVVVVVVABV VDD AVAVBVBVBASADASASAAAAAPASSASSPAABPARAVAVBARABRAASAARAAAALS 


The American Teacher 








SEPTEMBER, 1918 











~ One Dollar a Year 





Vol. VIL, No. 7 





The New Control 


T the Convention of the American Fed- 
A eration of Teachers, held in Pitts- 
burgh, July 5, 6, 1918, a proposition 
made by the American Teacher Company 
to transfer the property to the American 
Federation of Teachers, was accepted. The 
majority of the stock of the Company is now 
owned by the Federation, and the Federation 
will in the future be responsible for the obli- 
gations of the paper. 


Under the authority of the Convention the 
Executive Council has appointed an editor 
who is responsible to the Executive Council 
for carrying out the policy of the organiza- 
tion. If any changes of policy or point of 
view from those of former years are apparent 
in the paper from time to time, it will be un- 
derstood that an effort is being made to fairly 
and truthfully present the union movement 
among teachers as it develops in the national 
field. 


In order that the national movement may 
shape itself as rapidly and as definitely as 
possible, it is advisable that each local ap- 
point a press committee to send in material 
in the form of important news communica- 
tions of successes of the local, or as state- 
ments of work that is being undertaken, or 
even of trouble you are in. Out of these 
press committees it is hoped that future edit- 
ors for the paper may be found. Let us not 
forget that unionism among teachers as else- 
where depends on the generous development 
of leadership from the rank and file. And 
any group of officers that attempts to check 
or thwart this natural growth of leadership 
will find its gang in trouble and its organiza- 
tion under discredit. 


The Pittsburgh Convention 


HE third convention of the American 
+ Federation of Teachers was held at 
Pittsburgh, July 5, 6, 1918. During 
the same week the National Education As- 
sociation also held its sessions at Pittsburgh. 
Those who go to national conventions pos- 
sibly always feel sorry for others who de- 
cided at the last moment not to go, or for 
those who refused to go. And those who go 
perhaps resolve that the “next time” the 
others must do their duty for the good they 
themselves will derive. So it was with the 
Pittsburgh convention, for never in the short 
history of our organization has the work done 
in two brief days and a long, all-night ses- 
sion (for the Executive Council) seemed so 
important and inspiring. 

As proof of the truth of this statement 
members of the national and our readers gen- 
erally are respectfully referred to the ad- 
dresses of the President and the Secretary- 
Treasurer, and to the resolutions printed in 
this number. Indications of the growth of 
the union movement among teachers were 
clear in the large increase in the number of 
locals established in the year, and in the 
fact that the American Federation of Labor 
has given us material assistance in paying 
part of the salary and expenses of a full time 
field worker for the purpose of still further 
promoting the growth of the A F of T. The 
Convention designated President Charles B 
Stillman as the field worker. Within certain 
limitations of time and financial resources 
Mr Stillman will be available for purposes 
of organizing locals of teachers thruout the 
country. Let us among ourselves and with 
the assistance of our friends the labor union 
men and women try to keep him busy, and 
thus roll up a membership that will astonish 


135 





136 The American Teacher 


the A F of L, and make their financial ven- 
ture seem worth while to them. 

The final step in making THE AMERICAN 
TEACHER, the real organ of the union move- 
ment in America, was one which we hope 
will turn out to be of immense significance 
not only to the American Federation of 
Teachers, but also to education itself, which 
includes the occupation of those who do not 
yet believe in our movement. 

In another column readers will find the 
amendments to the Constitution. The most 
important of these are the ones making it 
possible for principals to become members of 
the national, and the one which provides for 
the establishment of locals of teachers in ed- 
ucational institutions not supported wholly 
by public funds. All of us are looking in- 
vitingly in the direction of certain leaders 
in educational thought and action, hoping 
that they will not long delay this opportu- 
nity to join with us, and thus obtain sup- 
port in their own struggles against the domi- 
nation of educational autocracy. 

Many are asking, “‘Will this be a good year 
for the union movement among teachers?” 
The answer is, “It will!” 


Notes on the Amendments 


HE amendments to the constitution of 

T the American Federation of Teachers 

adopted by the convention open the 

way for considearble development of the 
union movement in education. 

When the A F of T was organized in 1916 
it is very doubtful if an amendment admit- 
ting principals to membership on any basis 
could have been adopted. But by the new 
Section 2, Article III, locals of principals may 
be formed under such restrictions as seem 
necessary for the present. Many principals 
here and there have expressed the desire to 
join the union movement. Here is their 
chance. The opposition to principals belong- 
ing to teachers’ locals is still very strong, but 
under Section 3, Article III, principals may 


Vol. VII., No. 7 


join teachers’ locals in communities where 
there are fewer than fifteen principals, after 
a local of teachers has been chartered and 
active for two years. This restriction is 
deemed necessary to enable the teachers’ lo- 
cals to develop the necessary stability and 
independence. In communities having over 
fifteen principals the principals must estab- 
lish separate locals. 

Under Section 4, Article III, groups of 
teachers in private or endowed schools or 
colleges may form a local and become mem- 
bers of the American Federation of Teachers, 
except that teachers in institutions conducted 
primarily for religious purposes, or for pri- 
vate gain, are not eligible to membership. 
This amendment will make it possible for 
college teachers to join us, and we trust that 
thousands will avail themselves of the oppor- 
tunity. This amendment was passed by a 
unanimous vote. 

By means of Section 1, Article VIII, the 
revenues of the American Federation of 
Teachers will be increased. The lowest paid 
teachers will pay into the treasury ten cents 
per capita each month; the highest paid 
teachers will pay twenty-five cents per capita 
each month. Teachers will still be paying 
much less than the usual payments made by 
union workers in industry. 

Five cents or less each month is to be set 
aside from each monthly payment of dues to 
pay for THE AMERICAN TEACHER. 


A Little Child Shall 
Lead Us 


E have learned on apparently good 

W authority of a very interesting con- 

flict between educational officialdom 

and Young America as it flourishes in far 
away Honolulu. 

It appears that in June, 1917, the Honolulu 
high school graduating class numbering forty 
and the normal graduating class numbering 
fifty were notified by the Superintendent of 





ozs ab mest ow «..3lCMlC FF UlUCUCrPH 


a 6 4 et «x&eelhlCUlUlCUeeelhCUlU CO 


September, 1918 


Schools that they would not be permitted to 
graduate until after they had received a sec- 
ond marking by the Superintendent himself. 
The results of this second marking would be 
made known in the following October. The 
young people were told that graduating ex- 
ercises would be held as usual in June, and 
that “dummy” diplomas would be issued at 
that time. 

The high school pupils refused to be party 
to such educational dishonesty and published 
the facts in the press. Thereupon, official 
pressure was applied, and the effort was 
made to persuade the pupils to retract their 
published statement. The normal students, 
possibly for economic reasons, did as they 
were told, but the high school boys and girls 
would not retract. Instead they called on 
“fair-minded men and women to come to our 
aid.” 

It seems almost incredible, but the fact ap- 
pears to be that the pupils won the fight, 
and graduated with real diplomas at the usual 
time! The normal graduates also received 
their diplomas, a fact, however, that does not 
interest us nearly so much. 

Whatever the motives back of the peculiar 
order of the Superintendent, one thing is 
certain, Honolulu has produced quite uncon- 
sciously and perhaps unintentionally a pre- 
cious possession in these boys and girls. May 
they always be as courageous in the face of 
civic and economic threat! 


Seattle Salaries 


EATTLE is a live town, with strong la- 
bor unions, with the recall, and with 
equal suffrage in the state. They 

ought to have an intelligent board of educa- 
tion. But we have had so much experience 
with short-sighted persons trying to legislate 
for the social institution called the school 
that we are not at all surprised that a body 
of this kind has temporary power in Seattle. 

The editorial from the Seattle Post-Intelli- 
gencer, printed in another column, expresses 
the conviction that is now quite general that 


The American Teacher 


137 


similar work done by men and women should 


be paid for alike. The Director General of 
the railways of the country also thinks so, 
and has ordered the checks drawn that way. 
It is a social problem that we are dealing 
with in this matter of equal pay, and not one 
to be settled by the individual needs of the 
employees, or by the individual chances of 
exploitation observed by the employers. 
When the Seattle Board of Education thought 
they saw their way clear to increasing the 
yearly salaries of the men teachers three 
hundred dollars, giving the women teachers 
no increase whatever, they threw aside all 
precaution and acted like real exploiters on 
a chance which must have seemed to be a 
good one at the time. Seattle teachers and 
their public, and in fact the whole Pacific 
Coast, seems to be watching developments 
while taking a hand in the general condemna- 
tion. In the meantime, we are pleased to 
note, there has grown up some .inclination 
on the part of Seattle teachers to unionize. 


Increased Pay for a Million 


Workers 


track laborers and maintenance of 

way men and other low-salaried 
workers on the railroads of the country will 
begin to receive an increase of $25 a month. 
Eight hours is to be considered the basic day. 
Rules have been laid down for the promotion 
of employees on the grounds of merit and 
seniority. Employees cannot be dismissed 
any longer without cause and without a hear- 
ing. Women clerks are to receive the same 
pay as men for similar work. 

The most remarkable fact about all this 
is that the increase is the result of a volun- 
tary move, and comes from the study the 
Director-General’s advisory board has made 
of the pay and the working conditions of 
those engaged in other industries. 


()’ September 1 nearly a million clerks, 














138 


We shall be glad to hear of any board of 
education that has increased the pay of teach- 
ers under a similar stimulus. 


The I W W Decision 


NE HUNDRED members of the In- 
O dustrial Workers of the World have 
been, convicted under the Espionage 

Law of active opposition to the United States 
Government. Sentences varying from ten 
days to twenty years have been pronounced, 
and fines amounting to over two million dol- 
lars have been imposed. The defense is over- 
whelmed with surprise at the severity of the 
sentences of the Court, but the general public 
is disposed to accept the situation as merely 
one of the many bits of proof that America 
is in the war in earnest, and proposes to see 
the war thru without interference at home. 
The claim of the I W W leaders that they 
have not been pro-German in their propa- 
ganda may not avail them much in their ef- 
forts to appeal the case. The law is definite, 
and so far as our system of government 
makes it possible to ascertain, the people are 
behind the law. If the labor men have broken 
the law, they must accept the consequences. 
There are, however, some elements in the 
situation which may well cause concern on 
the part of teachers who have made common 
cause with labor, and believe in the possi- 
bility of some sort of social reconstruction 
after the war. Altho the Industrial 
Workers of the World have no official connec- 
tion with the American Federation of Labor, 
which includes our American Federation of 
Teachers, both bodies of labor men and wo- 
men are going ahead in their several ways 
to bring about better conditions for them- 
selves and their children. This was true 
long before the German menace becane a 
reality. In all probability it will be true for 
many years after we have settled the Kaiser’s 
case. Thus, there is no essential connection 
between the program of the I W W and the 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VII., No. 7 


ambitions of a party of social criminals in 
Central Europe. 


But there is doubt, and very grave doubt, 
on the part of great numbers of honest per- 
sons (we do not mean the Armours, and 
other profiteers, and the New York Times) 
that the policy of sabotage and direct oppo- 
sition to the laws of the land is justifiable, 
whether practised by the workers or by the 
profiteers themselves. Political action has 
not proved a failure, altho some political par- 
ties may have been disappointments. The 
I W W believes that political methods of re- 
form alone will lead to failure in so far as 
they appear to result in the postponement 
of the millenium to such an extent that the 
present generation will derive no benefit. 
Therefore, the I W W undertakes to force is- 
sues and to bring on crises as rapidly as 
possible. Since many radicals and liberals 
still believe in the political method of bring- 
ing about reforms, they oppose with varying 
degrees of earnestness the more aggressive 
program of the I W W. At times the op- 
position to the methods of the I W W has 
become so strong among radicals that for- 
merly sympathetic relations had to be sev- 
ered. But the I W W has always replied to 
these criticisms, as it has to the bitter at- 
tacks of the profiteers, “We do not care what 
you think of our methods! Your standards 
are not ours.” 


In view of the prejudice against the I W W 
that has existed for many years and the 
consequent difficulty of their obtaining a fair 
hearing at any time, teachers and others 
should not forget that the real antagonist 
of the I W W is not the United States of 
America, but the Amalgamated Association 
of Economic Parasites and Profiteers. If the 
one hundred labor men have broken the laws 
of our country, let them be punished. But 
let us note the satisfaction of the profiteers; 
those who are now known from federal in- 
quiry to be responsible for the illegal Bisbee 
deportation of I W W men, and for numerous 
other acts of defiance against the rights of 
human beings and the laws of the land in 
this time of national trial. 





September, 1918 


Women and Men Teachers 


Equal pay for equal service is a proposition so 
obviously sound, involving a principle so clearly 
just and right, that it passes comprehension that 
it should become an issue in this advanced and en- 
lightened day. Yet it is an issue here in Seattle. 
The school board—unwittingly, it is to be believed 
—has raised the issue. By increasing the pay of 
men teachers in the high schools, or granting a 
war bonus to them, and ignoring the like necessi- 
ties of equally capable women teachers, the board 
has precipitated a very acute issue. And now, as 
the result of this discriminatory act, these women 
teachers are denied a vacation and debarred from 
useful activities in war work in order to carry on 
a righteous campaign to prevent a consummation 
of the injustice. 

Chairman Donald J. Cowling, of the emergency 
council on education, says: 

“I feel entirely in sympathy with the position 
taken by the women teachers of the Seattle high 
schools. I believe they are thoroughly justified in 
taking the stand they have. The question of equal 
pay for equal service, regardless of sex, is so ob- 
viously a matter of simple justice that I do not 
feel there are two sides to the question. Any 
arguments that may be urged against a policy of 
equal pay for men and women doing the same 
work must be based on considerations other than 
justice—considerations of expediency, the practical 
difficulty of securing teachers, etc. Any policy based 
on these latter considerations I believe to be a mis- 
taken one, and one which will fail in the long run 
to produce satisfactory conditions. 

“I trust that your board will, in due time, be 
brought to see the justice of your position, and that 
its recent action involving discrimination against 
women may be promptly reversed by the establish- 
ment of a uniform scale of wages for all doing the 
same work.” 

Chairman Cowling is right. The policy of expe- 
diency which prompted, the board’s action is plainly 
a mistaken one. Already its bad results are ap- 
parent in the agitation ensuing and the campaign 
under way. Having unwittingly raised an issue 
that has but one side to it, albeit with no intention 
evidently of commitment to an indefensible discrimi- 
natory general policy, the board should set itself 
right by granting the same fair increase to the 
women teachers as was given to the men. It is 
the thing to do and should be done without delay. 
Simple justice demands it. 

—Seattle Post-Intelligencer for July 11, 1918. 


The American Teacher 


139 


upon which THE AMERICAN TEACHER has 
been printed hitherto. Under the circum- 
stances, we submit, trusting that we shall 
always have some kind. 





This is the Official Organ 


of the 


American Federation of Teachers 
ORGANIZED APRIL 15, 1916 
Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor 
OFFICERS OF THE A F OF T 
President, CHARLES B STILLMAN, Chicago, 
1620 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, II. 
Secretary-Treasurer, F G STECKER, Chicago, 
1618 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, Il. 
National Organizer; First Vice-President, 

L V LAMPSON, Washington, D. C., 

1336 Otis Place, N. W. 

Editor, The American Teacher; Sixth Vice-President, 
HENRY R LINVILLE, New York City, 

36 Terrace Avenue, Jamaica. 

Second V.-Pres., MABEL L REEs, Brooklyn, N. Y. C., 
39 Winthrop Street. 

Third Vice-President, ANITA BAILEY, Gary, Ind., 
650 Buchanan Street. 
Fourth V.-Pres., JupiItH G Rippick, Norfolk, Va., 
722 Duke Street. 
Fifth V.-Pres., S E Compron, Washington, D. C. 
; Dunbar High School. ; 
Seventh V.-Pres., CLARA K Stutz, Washington, D. C., 
1628 Swann Street. 
Eighth V.-Pres., CARRIE L COLBURN, Olean, N. Y., 
803 West Henley Street. 
Ninth V.-Pres., ISABEL WILLIAMS, St. Paul, Minn., 
916 St. Clair Street. 








Ge American Teacher 





Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 
Published monthly, except July and August by 


THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City 
HENRY R LINVILLE, Editor 








At the time of expiration, a bill will be found in the copy. 
Subscribers are requested to give prompt notice of changes 
in address. 





Remittances should be made in postal money-order, express 
order, draft, stamps or check (New York exchange). 





Owing to the ruling of the federal board 
controlling the manufacture of print paper 
we can no longer obtain the “laid” paper 


SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, ONE DOLLAR FOR THE YEAR— 
FOREIGN, $1.10. 





Entered as second-class matter, February 21, 1912, at the 
Post Office at New York, N. Y.; under the Act of March 3, 1879. 











Report of the President of The American 


Federation of Teachers* 
CHARLES B STILLMAN 


whatever character gathers under 
the shadow of war, and when legi- 
timately the first inquiry concerning the ac- 
tivities of any group is directed toward their 
bearing on the outcome—the outcome in 
terms of democracy vs. paternalism, of the 
liberal vs. the tory. And that means in 
terms of the military, because while it is 
easily possible for reaction to gain ground 
even with and after allied victory, it is in- 
conceivable that liberalism should develop if 
Prussian militarism is not destroyed. It is 
for liberals to see first that we win, and sec- 
ond, that in the winning we devote sufficient 
will and intelligence to the reconstruction to 
preclude reaction and defeat the tories, to 
insure social progress, based on equality of 
opportunity and social justice. 
It is therefore appropriate that the first 
. subject of my report should be the Confer- 
ence of Presidents of National and Interna- 
tional Unions, convened at Washington on 
the call of President Gompers, March 12, 
1917, just before our entrance into the war, 
for the adoption of Labor’s War Platform. 
That platform you are familiar with. 
Largely as a result of the confidence inspired 
by that action, organized labor has been able 
to maintain its standards, to secure represen- 
tation on almost all war-time committees and 
commissions, state and Federal, to have its 
due weight in the councils of the government, 
to grow in strength and influence, and so 
with mutual confidence to place freely and 
gladly at the service of our government a 
cooperation invaluable and seldom marred, 
a contribution to the winning of the war 
of an urgently vital and indispensable char- 
acter not everywhere appreciated or emulated 
among the detractors of Labor. Small-part 
as we form of the great labor movement, I 


Te are days when every group of 


* Delivered at the Third Convention of the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers, held at Pittsburgh. Pa., July 5, 6, 1918. 


believe that as an organization we can just. 
ifiably take a little pride in the fact that 
we were represented in the adoption of La. 
bor’s War Platform. 

Another matter which you doubtless un- 
derstand, but which should receive at least 
passing mention, concerns the four changes 
in our Executive Council about a year ago. 
It is misleading to view the resignation of 
four officers as casualties in our struggle for 
democracy in the Chicago schools, because 
their withdrawal was part of a deliberate 
plan. Nowhere has the value of affiliation 
with labor been more convincingly demon- 
strated than in the Chicago school situation. 
After the old school board of 21 members 
had passed a rule forbidding membership 
of teachers in organizations affiliated with 
labor, or in any other organizations that 
might be specified at any time in the future 
at the caprice of the board, and another rule 
abolishing tenure based on meritorious serv- 
ice, and had dropped 68 teachers, the organ- 
ized teachers and other public spirited citi- 
zens, with the indispensable assistance of 
labor pushed through legislation wiping out 
the offending board of 21 and all its works, 
substituting a new board of 11, and afford- 
ing teachers a statutory guarantee of tenure 
during efficiency. It is not slighting the work 
of other Illinois liberals to say that President 
John Walker and Secretary Victor Olander 
of the Illinois State Federation of Labor did 
more to secure the final enactment of that 
progressive legislation than any other two 
men. This experience proves also that. teach- 
ers must work with their local and state 
central bodies to attain the best results. 

Meanwhile the Executive Council elected to 
fill the vacancies in its own ranks four mem- 
bers of the two Chicago teachers’ unions 
who had been able to maintain themselves 
throughout the prolonged attack. We °e- 
alized that it was giving Chicago a grav«ly 


140 





September, 1918 


disproportionate representation, but felt that 
the other locals would appreciate the import- 
ance of having a group that could get to- 
gether on short notice to meet emergencies 
constantly arising. And at the time we did 
not expect the Executive Council to hold of- 
fice for so long a period. Our course may 
have been mistaken. We can now only lay 
the record before you for your verdict. How- 
ever, on behalf of the old members of the 
Executive Council I want to say that we have 
found in the new members the same willing 
sacrifice of time and energy, the same in- 
telligent grasp of problems and sanity of 
judgment, that distinguished the service of 
their predecessors. 

In May of last year I attended the meeting 
of the Committee on Labor of the Advisory 
Committee to the Council of National De- 
fense, called to confer with the members 
of the British Labor Mission to this coun- 
try. The Chicago Federation of Men Teach- 
ers financed the trip without expense to the 
national treasury, and I need not touch on 
it further, since my report appeared in the 
June, 1917, Bulletin of the Chicago Federa- 
tion of Men Teachers. 

Since my report on the Buffalo Convention 
of the American Federation of Labor last 
November has been issued as a pamphlet 
under the title of Labor and Education at 
the Buffalo Convention, it is unnecessary to 
do more here than emphasize the intelligent 
and wholehearted interest of organized labor 
in our schools, an interest which was still 
more marked at the St. Paul Convention. 
Let me pass immediately to the St. Paul Con- 
vention of the American Federation of La- 
bor held last month. 

The same unanimity in the support of our 
war aims as stated by President Wilson, and 
in support of thoro-going cooperation 
with our national administration was evident 
in this second War Time Convention that 
characterized the first. But a more forward- 
looking tendency was shown in the unani- 
mous adoption of a resolution authorizing 
the appointment of a special commission to 
study the problems of reconstruction and re- 
port their findings and recommendations to 


The American Teacher 


141 


the next convention. The seriousness with 
which this subject was regarded is shown 
by the voting of a one cent per capita spe- 
cial assessment to finance the investigations. 
This willingness to go down in their pockets 
for $30,000 is a striking answer to the critics 
of the American labor movement who can 
see only a hand to mouth political and 
economic policy in the leadership of the 
American Federation of Labor. 


But the educational policies adopted at St. 
Paul are the matters of particular interest 
to us. I considered myself fortunate again, 
as at Buffalo, in having as secretary the 
job of writing and presenting the report of 
the Committee on Education. I mean for- 
tunate, not personally, but from the stand- 
point of our movement and the cooperation 
of the entire committee gave an opportunity 
to write into the policies of the A F of L an 
educational program which may strengthen 
the appeal of labor to teachers, and which 
will certainly secure the assistance of labor 
in greater measure in improving school con- 
ditions. It brought the American Federation 
of Teachers to the attention of labor, not as 
a supplicant for favors, but as the contrib- 
utor of constructive educational policies, 
whose value to themselves they immediately 
perceived. And it brought openings for 
organization work. Numerous delegates 
wanted me to make definite promises to come 
to their communities, saying they knew con- 
ditions were ripe for organizing the teach- 
ers. 


But the thing that pleased and encouraged 
me most was the interest and enthusiasm 
with which the long and rather dry report 
was followed. A straight educational pro- 
gram of nineteen planks would be a formid- 
able thing to present to teachers—as I re- 
alize when about to present it to you—and 
to have it interrupted in an A F of L con- 
vention by applause and favorable discus- 
sion when I was braced for signs of boredom, 
was strong confirmation of the sincere in- 
terest in our schools and teachers, and in 
what the organization of the teachers will 
mean to the labor movement, which I found 








142 The American Teacher Vol. VII., No. 7 


general in private conversation with the del- 
egates. 

But the report is long enough without ad- 
ding further preliminary comment. Sections 
of it are given herewith. 


REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 
Delegate Stillman, Secretary of the committee, 
reported as follows: 


CHILD LABOR LAW 

The section of the Executive Council’s report 
under the above caption (page 113), was written 
before the reactionary tive to four decision of the 
Supreme Court declaring the law unconstitutional 
was rendered. We desire to correct the statement 
that the law has been enforced in North Caro- 
lina. Evidence in the possession of the Federal 
Child Labor Division is strongly to the contrary. 


The first shock to the public within and with- 
out the labor movement, is caused by the direct 
blow against the conservation of our manhood and 
womanhood of tomorrow, and the first effort must 
be toward limiting the disastrous effects of the 
decision as far as may be possible pending new 
legislation. But we hope that an additional result 
will be the placing of effective restrictions on 
the power of five men to nullify the legislative 
enactments of the duly constituted representatives 
of over one hundred million free people; and we 
recommend that this convention instruct the Ex- 
ecutive Council to make an effort to secure such 
restriction. 

Your committee concurs in resolutions Nos. 91, 
108, 121, 125, all dealing with this subject, and 
to meet the immediate emergency recommends that 
this convention instruct the Executive Council 
to make every effort through an appeal to Sec- 
retary McAdoo, to issue an executive order as 
Director of the Railroads, prohibiting the accept- 
ance for shipment of any articles produced in 
violation of provisions similar to those of the 
Federal Child Labor Law, or through any other 
means which the Executive Council may find nec- 
essary and advisable. The further recommenda- 
tion is made that the Executive Council be in- 
structed to make every effort to find a permanent 
remedy for the intolerable situation resulting from 
the decision of the Supreme Court, and the sug- 
gestion of legislation requiring federal incorpora- 
tion under provisions safeguarding children, of 
all concerns engaged in production for interstate 
commerce, is submitted for the consideration of 
the Executive Council as one possible remedy. 

The report of the committee was adopted unani- 
mously. 


SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PENSION BILL 
Upon that portion of the report of the Ex- 


ecutive Council, page 114, under the above caption, 
the committee reported as follows: 


Your committee is very glad to have an oppor- 
tunity to call attention to the progressive pen- 
sion bill for the teachers of the District of Co. 
lumbia, which, with salary bills for the teachers 
of the district has received effective support of 
the A F of L Legislative Committee. This legis. 
lation should prove a stimulus to similar legsla- 
tion by states which now have no similar provi- 
sions. 

The report of the committee was adopted. 

EDUCATION OF ADULT ILLITERATES 
Upon that portion of the report of the Executive 


Council under the above caption the committee re- 
ported as follows: 


Your committee believes that measures contem- 
plated in S B 4185, as outlined (page 116) are 
sound. Organized labor has always been the 
avowed enemy of illiteracy whether among im- 
migrants or our own people. And a campaign to 
be most effective must be national in scope and 
co-ordinated by a Federal Bureau or Department. 

The report of the committee was adopted. 

EDUCATION 

Your committee considers the recommendations 
of the Executive Council under the caption “Ed- 
ucation” (pages 81 and 84), among the most im- 
portant of its entire report. Vocational and In- 
dustrial Education has long been a subject of 
bitter controversy between the Manufacturers’ 
Associations and Labor, and in the days of the 
reconstruction it will be still more of a storm 
center. Labor, and it should not be necessary to 
add that labor includes the teachers, must not 
permit more dramatic phases of the war situation 
to blind them to the importance of the kind of 
training the children of the people receive. We 
recommend that this convention approve the three 
model laws offered by the Executive Council, pro- 
viding well-balanced representative State Boards 
of Education and Advisory Local Committees, and 
a* Part-time Compulsory School Attendance Law; 
and we further recommend that all state and lo- 
cal central bodies be urged to make every effort 
to secure the enactment of similar legislation. 

1. Proposed amendment to state education laws: 


“That a State Board of Education is hereby cre- 
ated, to consist of five members to be appointed 
from the state at large: two members to be repre- 
sentative of education, one to be a representative 
of the manufacturing and commercial interests, 
one a representative of the agricultural interests, 
and one a representative of labor. The Governor 
shall appoint the members of the board for a term 
of five years. In the first instance, one member 
shall be appointed for one year, one for two years, 
one for three years, one for four years, and one for 
five years. The Governor shall fill all vacancies of 





September, 1918 The American Teacher 143 


the board for the unexpired term, and each mem- 

ber shall serve until a successor shall have been 

appointed and qualified.” 

Salaries and duties of Board members to be pre- 
scribed as local conditions warrant. 

II Legislation to require local Boards of Educa- 
tion conducting vocational education to appoint ad- 
visory committees composed of representatives of 
trades. 

“Boards of Education or township trustees ad- 
ministering approved vocational schools and de- 
partments for industry, agriculture, or domestic 
science education shall, under a scheme to be ap- 
proved by the State Board for Vocational Educa- 
tion, appoint an Advisory Committee composed of 
members representing local trades, industries, and 
occupations. 

“It shall be the duty of the Advisory Committee 
to counsel with and advise the board and other 
school officials having the management and super- 
vision of such schools or departments.” 

The following is suggested as a Model-Part-Time 
Education Law for State Use: 

PART-TIME COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE SCHOOL LAW 

“Any city, town, or district establishing voca- 
tional, trade and industrial schools, departments, 
or classes shall provide as a part thereof part-time 
classes for the education of minors over fourteen 
years of age who are engaged in regular employ- 
ment; and the Board of Education or trustees or 
other like body of such city, town, or district 
school shall require all minors between the ages of 
fourteen and sixteen years employed within such 
city, town, or district, or minors between the ages 
of fourteen and sixteen years residing within such 
city, town, or district and employed elsewhere, 
who are not otherwise receiving instruction ap- 
proved by the State Board for Vocational Educa- 
tion, to attend such part-time classes not less than 
four hours per week, between the hours of eight 
A.M. and five P. M., during the school term. The 
time spent by any such minor in a vocational 
school or class as provided herein shall be reck- 
oned as a part of the time or number of hours that 
minors are permitted by law to work. Any minor 
attending a vocational school or class in the city, 
town, or district of his residence in preference to 
attending such school or class in the city, town, or 
district of his employment shall file, or cause to be 
filed regularly, at least once a month, with the sup- 
erintendent of the city, town, or district at which 
such minor is employed a report of attendance, 
certified by the superintendent of the city, town, or 
district in which such minor is attending school. 

“The employer of any minor between fourteen 
and sixteen years of age who is compelled, by the 
provisions of this act, to attend vocational schools 
or classes, shall cease forthwith to employ any 
minor when notified, in writing, by the superin- 


tendent having jurisdiction over such minor's 
school attendance that such minor is not attending 
school in accordance with the provisions of this 
act. Any employer who fails to comply with the 
provisions of this section shall, upon conviction, 
be punished by a fine of not less than ten dollars 
nor more than one hundred dollars for each 
offense.” 


We would call attention to the fact that these 
model laws are carefully drafted to avoid duplica- 
tion of administrative machinery, and to secure 
unity in our school system; and we would warn 
against any attempt to modify the legislation to 
afford an opening for a dual system. Our public 
school system must remain essentially a unit if 
we are to be a unified people. 


Supplementing the success of the Federal Vo- 
cational Educational Law already demonstrated, 
and the plans for part-time compulsory education, 
your committee believes that this convention 
should urge a reorganization of our common 
schools in the interest of the children of all the 
people. Labor played an important part in se- 
curing the establishment of our free public 
schools, but from the beginning they have been 
designed especially for the few who could go 
on to high school and college. They must con- 
tinue to.offer preparation for high school and 
college, and labor heartily approves, and helped 
to secure the tremendous expansion of high school 
and college facilities during the last fifteen years. 


We especially endorse the tendency toward the 
establishment of junior colleges, the addition to 
high schools of two years’ of collegiate work 
without tuition, so that young men and women 
who cannot afford to leave home, can secure the 
advantage of additional training. 


But your committee believes that the upper 
years of the elementary school should be reorgan- 
ized to afford diversified training, so that boys 
and girls who cannot go on to higher schools, will 
receive training specifically designed for their 
needs, and not be compelled as at present to pre- 
pare for a réle they will never play. These 
diversified courses should be so flexible that a 
pupil would be able to transfer from one to an- 
other whenever changes in his desires or economic 
situation made it possible to continue in school 
for a longer period than he had anticipated. We 
must not compel a child to pay the penalty 
throughout life for a mistaken decision made dur- 
ing childhood. Your committee believes that or- 
ganized labor should demand, and help to secure 
an expansion and diversification of both elemen- 
tary and secondary education, so that a democratic 
equality of opportunity for preparation for the 
callings of their choice may be offered the chil- 
dren of our people. 








The American Teacher 


As additional points in Labor’s educational pro- 


gram, we recommend the following for your adop- 
tion: 


1. The development of vocational guidance and 
industrial education in both urban and rural com- 
munities, in proper relation to each other and to 
the needs of our democracy. 


2. The provision of increased facilities in pub- 
lic normal schools for men and women in the 
trades who desire to prepare themselves for teach- 
ing industrial and vocational subjects and the ex- 
pansion of both state and federal educational 
facilities, so that we will be decreasingly de- 
pendent on private endowments in the educational 
field. In this connection we call your attention 
to the movement in one state to introduce into 
the state university in cooperation with the State 
Federation of Labor a course designed to prepare 
young men and women of labor for intelligent 
and effective leadership in the labor movement. 


3. The insistence that in all courses of study, 
and particularly in industrial and vocational 
courses, the privileges and obligations of intelli- 
gent citizenship must be taught vigorously and 
effectively; and that at least in all vocational and 
industrial courses, an unemasculated industrial 
history must be taught, which shall include an 
accurate account of the organization of the work- 
ers and of the results thereof, and shall also in- 
clude a summary of all legislation, both state 
and federal, affecting the industries taught. 


4. The provision of adequate facilities for the 
teaching of English to non-English speaking peo- 
ple, and the utilization for this purpose of the 
foreign language press. 

5. The requirement that all our children shall 
be taught in the English language, in both pub- 
lic and private schools, a foreign language to be 
taught only as a subject in the curriculum. 

6. The provision vf ample play-ground facil- 
ities, as a part of the public school system. 

7. Continuous medical and dental inspection 
throughout the schools. 

8. The organization and equipment of special 
classes for children who are subnormal, either 
mentally or physically; and also special classes 
for children who are found capable of making 
more rapid progress than is possible in a stand- 
ard school. 

9. Better enforcement of Compulsory Educa- 
tional Laws, and the universal establishment of a 
minimum school-leaving age of 16 years. 

10. The establishment of complete systems of 
modern physical education. 

11. The establishment of a federal depart- 
ment of education, headed by a Cabinet officer. 

12. The wider use of the school plant, secur- 
ing increased returns to the community through 


Vol. VII., No. 7 


additional civic, social, and educational services 
to both adults and children. 

13. The extension of a free text-book systen 
to the District of Columbia and such states an 
communities as have not, adopted it. 

14. The establishment of self-governing schoo! 
and district councils of teachers for the purpose 
of utilizing the experience and initiative of th» 
teaching body in the conduct of the schools, the 
recommendations of such councils to be made » 
matter of official public record. 

15. The securing for teachers of tenure of po- 
sition during efficiency. There should be no dis 
missals without full and fair hearings. 

16. A thorough-going revision upward of teach 
ers’ salary schedules, to meet the increased cos 
of living, and the growing appreciation of th: 
value to the community and the nation of the 
teachers’ services. 

17. The liberal, ungrudging reorganization and 
increase of school revenues on a war-emergenc) 
scale, as the only basis upon which to secure the 
expansion of our schools along these lines. Eng 
land and France, with their resources straine 
by the past four years, and facing unprecedented 
immediate demands, are making huge increases 
in the appropriations for their schools. Surely 
the people who gave the world the conception of 
free, democratic education must not longer loite: 
behind. 

Resolutions Nos. 112 and 128 are considered in 


connection with this program. 


A motion was made and seconded to adopt th 


report of the committee. 


Delegate Friedman, Ladies’ Garment Workers: 
I rise to speak for the report of the committee 
I want to inform you of the work our Interna- 
tional is doing in the City of New York in the 
educational field. The report speaks of the pub- 
lic school to educate the children and others. In 
the past three years the International Ladies’ 
Garment Workers’ Union has spent $20,000 to 
educate the members of the organization. I am 
a product of that education. Working at the ma- 
chine or sticking pins in dresses does not do much 
for education of the members, but after my work 
was done I was offered an opportunity by my 
organization to study in a school and learn in 
classes where I was taught the philosophy of 
trade unionism, taught the history of the Knights 
of Labor, the American Federation of Labor, the 
history of the trade union movement of England, 
France and Germany and other countries. 


We have a class where literature is taught to 
our girls and boys. Our International found out 
that teaching girls how to picket a shop was not 
sufficient, and they taught us how to read books 
and what kind of books ought to be read by the 





September, 1918 


workers. Only recently we decided to ask the 
Board of Education in the City of New York to 
give us the privilege of using the schools as 
unity centers. They did so. They understood 
that we could not hire clubrooms and buildings 
to use as schools, and they also gave us the 
privilege of using the schools for shop meetings. 
Now when our girls and boys come from a shop 
that is one hundred per cent unsanitary they 
will not have to meet in a room back of a saloon 
or in a hall that is not sanitary, but will have 
a clean, well-ventilated place in which to trans- 
act their business. 

The girls decided to ask the Public Library 
of New York to open up a branch just for union 
girls where they could get the best books on trade 
unionism and various subjects. If any of the 
delegates come to New York I would like to 
have them see this work. It is an inspiration 
to the workers of New York. The girls and boys 
come together and get the works of the great 
authors they cannot get an opportunity to read 
at home. We also decided to have a home of 
our own, a home where girls do not have to 
pay the profiteer for the vacation they get in the 
summer. We have a summer home in the moun- 
tains where three hundred girls can come every 
week and take their two weeks’ vacation, and they 
are charged only the actual expense. Usually 
it does not exceed six or seven dollars a week. 

The most important part of the life of the 
trade union movement of America or any other 
country is education. You cannot feel the in- 
spiration I have for this report. In 1913 I came 
to New York City. I knew nothing about the 
trade union movement of America or any other 
trade unionism in the world. When I was asked 
to join the union I felt I had to join it, but now 
I feel that I would give my life for an organiza- 
tion that will educate its members. 

When you settle your jurisdiction question don’t 
come together like labor leaders but like workers. 
When everyone is intelligent and educated I feel 
the American Federation of Labor will be the 
greatest organization in the world, the best object 
in life the trade unionists ought to have. 

Delegate Duncan, Seattle, moved that the ad- 
dress of Delegate Mollie Friedman be printed in 
full in the proceedings of the convention. The 
motion was seconded and carried. 

The report was discussed by Delegate Swartz, 
Letter Carriers, who approved of the attitude 
taken by the committee. 

The report of the committee was adopted. 

Delegate Cannon moved that the Executive 
Council appoint a committee to investigate the 
schools in New York referred to by Delegate 
Friedman and other similar schools, with a view 


The American Teacher 145 


of reporting to the next convention some plan that 
can be applied generally to the United States 
and Canada. 

Delegate Feidley stated that a school in Los 
Angeles, Cal., is being conducted by the Union 
Labor Association and that the Board of Educa- 
tion is furnishing the school building and the 
services of fourteen salaried teachers. 

The motion offered by Delegate Cannon was 
carried. 

The committee amended Resolution No. 112 by 
inserting the word “genuinely” in line 1 of first 
paragraph, the amended resolution to read: 

Resolution No. 112—By Delegate Charles B 
Stillman of the American Federation of Teachers: 

WHEREAS, We now have no genuinely national 
educational system, but merely a collection of 


of state systems, varying widely in standards. and 
effectiveness; and 

WuHereEAS, The existing Bureau of Education, 
under the Department of the Interior has been so 
starved financially that it has been unable to 
perform adequately even the very restricted func- 
tions permitted it; and 

WHEREAS, War conditions are arousing the 
public to a consciousness of the need for a na- 
tional educational policy to secure co-ordination 
among the states, and to promote national wel- 
fare, efficiency and unity; and 

WHEREAS, Education is essential to our national 
life, and is so intimately connected with all mat- 
ters of public policy that with labor and agricul- 
ture it should be directly represented in the de- 
ee of the President’s cabinet; therefore, 

it 

RESOLVED, That the President and Executive 
Council of the American Federation of Labor be 
instructed by this convention to take measures 
to secure the creation of a Federal Department 
of Education headed by a cabinet officer. 

Referred to Committee on Education. 

The Committee recommends the adoption of 
the resolution as amended. 

The recommendation of the committee was 
adopted. 


Resolution No. 128—By Delegate Charles B 


‘Stillman, American Federation of Teachers: 


WHEREAS, Increases in teachers’ salaries, when 
secured at all, have kept pace neither with the 
decline in the purchasing power of the dollar, 
nor with increases secured in private employ- 
ment; and 

WHEREAS, As a result teachers have been 
forced out of the school by the thousand, by 
sheer economic pressure (one authority, Dr. T. 
D. Coffman, of the University of Minnesota, esti- 
mates a present shortage of 100,000 teachers), 
their places frequently remaining vacant, and 
being filled when at all, by untrained and inex- 
perienced recruits; and 


WHEREAS, We are facing a situation where the 
calling of fathers to war service and of mothers 
to industry weakens parental influence, has al- 
ready increased juvenile delinquency, and makes . 
it imperative that the schools act increasingly in 
the place of the parent; and 

WHEREAS, In this world crisis the ultimate na- 
tional need is for educated manhood and woman- 
hood, a need which will not be found any less 





146 


urgent in the reconstruction to come; and 

WHEREAS, Because of the prevailing pitifully 
inadequate salaries paid teachers, not only are 
present teachers being forced out of the profes- 
sion, but young men and women are refusing to 
prepare to enter, as shown by the alarming rec- 
ords of normal schools and colleges, making the 
future prospect for our schools, even darker than 
the present; and 

WHEREAS, Existing school revenue provisions 
in the various states were originally designed to 
meet the needs of the traditional “common 
schools” alone, and those revenue provisions, al- 
ready inadequate, have necessarily failed to meet 
the demands of the modern expansion of our 
school system; and 

WHEREAS, In the fields of vocational and agri- 
cultural education, the value of the stimulus to 
the states of the Federal appropriation available 
to a state on its meeting standards and require- 
ments imposed by Federal authorities, and on the 
appropriation by that state, of equal amounts, 
has been proved by experience; therefore, be it 

RESOLVED, That the President and Executive 
Council of the American Federation of Labor be 
instructed, by this convention to urge all state 
and local central bodies to take early measures 
to secure in their respective states and localities 
a thorough going reorganization and increase of 
school revenues on a war emergency scale; and 
a liberal revision upward of teachers’ salary 
schedules to meet the increased cost of living and 
the growing appreciation of the value to the 
community and to the nation of the teacher’s 
service; and be it further 

RESOLVED, That the President and Executive 
Council of the American Federation of Labor be 
instructed by this convention to initiate and sup- 
port Federal legislation appropriating one hun- 
dred million dollars to be apportioned by a Fed- 
eral Department of Education if one is created, 
or that failing, by a Federal Board upon which 
organized labor and education shall be repre- 
sented, such fund to apply only to the payment 
of salaries of public school teachers in a state 
(including teachers of physical education and of 
English to adults under public school supervision) 
after such state shall have satisfied the Federal 
Department or special board that adequate stand- 
ards are to be maintained and shall have ap- 
propriated an equal amount. 

The committee concurs in the resolution and 
recommends its adoption by the convention. 

The recommendation of the committee was 
adopted 

RECOMMENDATIONS OF COMMITTEE 


Your committee recommends as an immediately 
necessary contribution to the progress of our 
schools, that this convention urge all state and 
central bodies to work actively to secure adequate 
representation of organized labor on all boards of 
education. 

The committee further believes that the most 
effective guarantee of demacracy and of progress 
in our schools is the affiliation of the teachers of 
the country with the great democratic force of 
organized labor, and recommends that the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor and all central bodies 
give every support to the American Federation 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VII., No. 7 
of Teachers in the work of organizing the teach- 
ers. 

Finally, in consideration of the good results 
obtained from a similar action of the Buffalo con- 
vention, the committee asks that the Executive 
Council be instructed to send copies of this re- 
port to all central bodies with the request that 
Educational Committees be created. 

The recommendations of the committee were 
adopted. 

Secretary Stillman: This completes the work 
of the committee, which is respectfully submitted 
and signed: 

PETER BRADY, Chairman, 
CHAS B STILLMAN, Secretary, 
CHARLES C SHAY, 
MARGARET DALEY, 
CHAS A SUMNER, 

WM H McHUGH, 

JOHN J SULLIVAN, 
ROSE YATES, 

E J NEWMYER, 

JAS A TAYLOR, 

J B CLINEDINST. 

The report of the committee was adopted as 
a whole. 


While at St. Paul I was very glad to see 
a union of 300 St. Paul teachers organized. 
John Walker, President of the Illinois State 
Federation of Labor, busy as he was, gave 
invaluable assistance in addressing a meet- 
ing of the teachers, as did Miss Melinda 
Scott of the W T U L and Straw Hat Work- 
ers. The St. Paul teachers expect their mem- 
bership nearly to double after school opens 
in the fall. 

The delegate from Montreal was insistent 
on our entering the Canadian field, and since 
there is nothing in our constitution to pre- 
vent, we should certainly endeavor to se- 
cure the affiliation of Canadian teachers. 
The recent report of the Canadian Minister 
of Labor lists the A F of T as one of the 
very few internationals which has no Can- 
adian locals. 

A situation has developed in New York 
City which requires more than passing no- 
tice. Three members of New York Local 
No. 5 have been dismissed by the Board of 
Education under charges which the public 
was led to believe implied disloyalty to our 
country. The matter first came to a head 





September, 1918 


when the Buffalo convention of the A F of L 
was in session, and I had the opportunity 
to write into the report of the Committee 
on Education, which was unanimously 
adopted, the tenure principle quoted in the 
letter below: 


When the case came to trial the Executive 
Council received a copy of the testimony in- 
troduced, and failed to find the slightest evi- 
dence of anything savoring of disloyalty. 
The following letter was sent to State Com- 
missioner Finley, in whose hands the case 
still rests on final appeal. 


Sir: The Executive Council of the American 
Federation of Teachers urges upon you the im- 
portance of the reinstatement of the three teachers 
dismissed from DeWitt Clinton High School. We 
are for this war, as our endorsement of the posi- 
tion of the American Alliance for Labor and 
Democracy, and our Statement of Principles show. 
Disloyalty in the ranks of American teachers 
could not be tolerated, and we would be partic- 
ularly anxious to purge our own membership 
of any disloyal taint. But careful study of the 
stenographic report of the proceedings in the 
case of the dismissed teachers has convinced us 
that the only taint of Prussianism is to be found 
in the autocratic methods of the authorities in- 
volved, who could bring themselves by misrepre- 
sentation to arouse public hysteria to cover their 
reactionary attempt to create an atmosphere of 
intimidation and servility in the schools. 


This war has been made possible by the schools 
of Germany, and it is disquieting to realize that 
our type of school system and school administra- 
tion has been largely copied from Germany. To 
quote from the report of the Committee on Ed- 
ucation unanimously adopted by the Buffalo con- 
vention of the American Federation of Labor: 
“When consideration is given the effective part 
played by the Prussian school system in the de- 
velopment of the habit of instinctive, unthinking 
obedience on the part of the masess of the peo- 
ple, the vital importance to American institu- 
tions of breaking away from Prussian methods 
in our school system is driven home.” And again, 
“It is timely to insist that while actual dis- 
loyalty to our country cannot be tolerated in our 
schools or anywhere else, the public must care- 
fully assure itself that charges of disloyalty, 
or of any other nature that may be peculiarly 
effective at the time, are not cloaks under which 
official superiors may attempt to secure retalia- 
tion for a self-respecting lack of subserviency on 
the part of the teachers under them.” 


The American Teacher 


147 


For maintaining the unity of our national 
spirit, nothing is more essential than the holding 
of the home lines for democracy. In these home 
lines the schools and the teachers hold the most . 
important’ salient. Every unrebuked assault on 
the spirit of democracy at home gives a fresh 
vantage point to those who would weaken our 
morale by questioning the sincerity of our war 
for democracy. 


In the interests of simple justice, and of an 
American spirit of democracy in our schools in 
this time of crisis when we most need it, we con- 
fidently appeal to you as a liberal in a period of 
liberalism to right a grave wrong. 


CuHas B STILLMAN. 
Wilmette, Illinois. 

Since that time the reactionaries within 
the New York school system and without, 
have eagerly seized upon the poisoned and 
misled public opinion aroused, to attempt to 
discredit Local No. 5, and the union has been 
waging a vigorous campaign against un- 
scrupulous and determined attacks, present- 
ing its case in masterly form, and securing 
powerful liberal backing. 

The experiences of New York, and also the 
earlier experiences of Chicago teachers, drive 
home one outstanding fact, the tragedy of 
forcing teachers to spend to the utmost 
splendid energy and idealism on the de- 
fensive, when that same energy and idealism 
could be made to count so effectively if lib- 
erated for constructive work. This must put 
every teacher in our movement, especially 
in these abnormal times, on guard against 
offering our ever alert enemies any opening 
for false charges of disloyalty, or of any 
other nature easily distorted and appealing 
to popular hysteria. 


A very encouraging New York develop- 
ment is the affiliation with us of a second 
local over a hundred strong at the outset, 
the New York Vocational Teachers’ Council 
No. 24. 


I could not close this report without ac- 
knowledging our great debt to Mr L V Lamp- 
son and the Washington Locals. Mr Lamp- 
son has been untiring and self-sacrificing 
in his devotion to our movement. Largely 
due to his efforts, we have two locals in Nor- 
folk, and two more, and two of our largest, 





Se RE EET TE ET aT 


148 


in Washington. He has been ably assisted 
by numerous Washington teachers—perhaps 
I can mention Miss Deal, Mrs Inkster and 
Mr Wallis of the Washington High School 
Teachers’ Union, and Mr Compton of the 
Armstrong—Dunbar Union, though I am 
doubtless omitting many inexcusably. The 
Washington unions have also been very gen- 
erous in helping to finance national organ- 
ization work outside their regular per capita 
taxes. 


In conclusion I must revert to the idea of 


- the opening paragraphs—an idea never long 


absent from the minds of liberals, and never 
capable of overemphasis. Society is never 
static; it is always changing. Whether the 
change is for better or worse depends en- 
tirely on whether the preponderance of in- 
telligently directed energy is on the side of 
progress or reaction. If liberals lean back 
comfortably, crooning 


“‘God’s in his heaven, 
All’s right with the world,” 


the tireless energy and sharpened intelligence 
of the tories will easily prevail. The teach- 
ers hold the key to the situation. They can 
make the next generation, and to a great 
extent, the present, liberal or tory. And 
the greatest work that we can do as teach- 
ers is to enlist other teachers in our cam- 
paign for “Democracy in Education; Educa- 
tion for Democracy.” When a league of na- 
tions is made possible by the destruction of 
anti-social German militarism, we must have 
a people trained by fearless, broad-gauge, 
forward-looking teachers for life in a new 
world of cooperation and mutual trust. And 
all our self-sacrificing workers, who since 
last fall have helped to increase the number 
of our charters from 12 to 28, and our mem- 
bership from 672 to 2200, should have the 
feeling of a service performed in the strug- 
gle for democracy, second only to that of our 
boys over there. The democratization of our 


schools is the greatest contribution that 


teachers can make in this world crisis, and 
in the greater crisis of the reconstruction 
to come. 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VII., No. 7 


Report of the Financial Sec- 
retary of the American 


Federation of Teachers 
PITTSBURGH, JULY 5-6, 1916 
F G STECKER 


\HE past two or three years have been 
T a remarkable period in our educa- 
tional history. There have been 
many movements having for their purpose 
changes in the methods and objects of educa- 
tion. There have been many attempts to 
measure the results being obtained under 
present systems, with more or less conscious 
feeling that all is not as well as it might be. 
The teachers themselves have experienced 
discouragement, dissatisfaction and a deep- 
seated desire for self-help. The story of the 
teacher’s search for help and influence would 
form an interesting thesis. But we are in- 
terested only in the outcome of all the efforts. 
And this outcome can be read clearly. The 
teacher must have help from local groups 
strongly organized and possessed of high, un- 
selfish motives. And what local group that 
has real influence is most interested in the 
public schools? Stronger organizations than 
Labor either exploit the schools or are in- 
different. More interested bodies than Labor 
have not the strength. 


The dozen and more charters issued by the 
American Federation of Labor to teachers 
previous to April, 1916, were evidences that 
from Georgia to Montana, from Chicago to 
San Antonio, teachers were casting in their 
lot with Labor. So far as I can learn each 
group acted quite independently. The fact 
is significant. The ancient tradition of the 
teacher’s lofty position was breaking ‘down 
under the kind of treatment he had been re- 
ceiving. The teacher was seeking his level 
in the economic and social world. Labor was 
at last coming to seek a voice in the work 
of the school which so vitally concerned it. 
And this condition could be clearly seen in 
very many places where no charters were 
actually applied. for. 





September, 1918 


But of course this was not to be the end 
of this development. What the teacher 
needed was association with his own kind 
as well. Teachers have met from time im- 
memorial for. pedagogic reasons. But pro- 
fessional pride forbade the mention of salary, 
the working conditions or the relations with 
employer, boss or the public. Recently how- 
ever a period of transition has begun. The 
desire to learn how teachers are treated else- 
where, their salary, their tenure, their en- 
vironment, their status, has been an impell- 
ing force in seeking relations with them, get- 
ting into communication, securing data, mak- 
ing comparisons. Along with the tendency 
to affiliate with Labor has come the tendency 
to cooperate with fellow-teachers. The dawn 
at least of the day of organization of teach- 
ers for their own welfare is upon us. 

The American Federation of Teachers be- 
gan in April, 1916, with eight locals, six of 
which were already chartered by the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor. The ninth charter 
was issued within the first year, ending May 
1, 1917. The second fiscal year records ten 
more charters. During May last, seven more 
were issued. June, the windup of a school 
year, is the birth month of two of our largest 
locals. 

The business history began with May 1, 
1916. The six locals already chartered by 
the American Federation of Labor were re- 
quired to pay their April per capita to that 
body, but were released from the May per 
capita. So urgent was the need for money 
that most of the locals waived the customary 
privilege of charter organizations to be ex- 
empt from the payment of charter fees. Two 
did not waive the privilege. The income to 
date therefore for the 28 charters issued is 
$260. Per capita has yielded $4,798.08; 
other sources, $128.00. The total income has 
been $5,186.08. 

The Armstrong—Dunbar H S. Teachers’ 
Union secured the first charter issued after 
the organization of the American Federation 
of Teachers. This local has been very suc- 
cessful so far as information has come to 
us. The Executive Council was very glad to 
extend the field of work as well as to com- 


The American Teacher 


149 


mit themselves to Democracy in Education 
and Education for Democracy. Now there 
are four locals of colored fellow-teachers. 
We are glad they are with us. Surely the. 
American Federation of Teachers will always 
use its best offices to secure greater justice 
and greater opportunities for education and 
development. Already perplexing problems 
are coming to us. There are conditions that 
cry out in shame to the American people. 
And certainly this national body will be able 
to present the case to the American Nation 
in the near future. The Armstrong—Dunbar 
people have shown zeal and a commendable 
spirit by assisting with workers and money 
in the organization work at Norfolk, Va. 
The missing numbers in the list of locals 
point out the significant weakness in our na- 
tional. We have had no one to send and ex- 
tend the helping hand. We were not in a po- 
sition to render the needed assistance. This 
weakness on our part forms one of our most 
important problems in administration. While 
the teachers like all other workers must work 
out their own salvation, each group in its lo- 


cality, it remains the important function of 
this national body like all other national bo- 
dies to encourage, personally assist, give in- 
formation to, and provide experienced leader- 
ship for, any group which is endeavoring to 


improve its condition. The story told by the 
list of locals and the correspondence in the 
files of the Executive Council leads to but 
one conclusion—our best talent must be put 
at work without counting the cost. These 
workers must be officers and members of the 
Executive Council. They must have prestige 
and authority to handle the situation. A 
wonderful opportunity awaits the coming of 
the right workers. 

The matter of bookkeeping and record- 
keeping is one that a new organization or 
business can never decide fully in the begin- 
ning, but must wait until experience shows 
what is most desirable. Recently the Exe- 
cutive Council adopted a system of account- 
ing which divides expenditures into three 
main heads: Activities, which include print- 
ing, organizers’ expenses, conventions and ex- 
penses of delegates to other conventions and 





150 The 
conferences; Maintenance, which includes 
dues and fees for all affiliations, contribu- 
tions, expenses of attendance at meetings of 
Executive Council; Jncidentals, which in- 
cludes postage, telegrams, stationery and 
clerical and stenographic services. 

In view of the vast amount of expense in- 
curred by the enthusiastic and faithful volun- 
teer workers, which items. have never been 
submitted to the Federation, it would seem 
that the time has come when a more self- 
respecting system must be adopted for pay- 
ing in ample degree the best possible work- 
ers for full time, in such numbers as the 
conditions justify, and paying to some extent 
for part time service of certain other work- 
ers who do the hard, unending routine work. 
The zeal of pioneer workers who give most 
of their time outside school hours and incur 
considerable expense for incidentals and 
membership in various civic organizations in 
order to get results must not be exploited 
for an indefinite time. The teachers like 
all other workers must learn to appreciate 
the work done for them. They will not do 
this, nor understand, until they come to pay 
liberally for all work carried on in their 
behalf. 


The American Federation of Teachers con- 
sisted, on July 1, 1918, of the following lo- 


cals: 
Federation of Men Teachers—Chicago, IIl., 
April 15, 1916. 
Federation of Women H S Teachers—Chica- 
go, Ill., April 15, 1916. 
Teachers’ Federation—Gary, Ind., April 15, 
1916. 
The Teachers’ 
April 15, 1916. 
High School Teachers’ Union—Washington, 
D. C., April 15, 1916. 
Armstrong-Dunbar H S Teachers’ Union— 
Washington, D. C., September 14, 1916. 
Manual Training Teachers’ Association— 
Washington, D. C., May 10, 1917. 
Teachers’ Union—Jasonville, Ind., October 
22, 1917. 
Teachers’ Federation—Schenectady, N. Y., 
December 17, 1917. 
Grade School Teachers’ Union—Washington, 
D. C., February 5, 1918. 
Teachers’ Federation—Johnston City, 
March 4, 1918. 


Union—New York, N. Y., 


Iil., 


American Teacher 


- Balance at July 1, 1918 


Vol. VIL, No. 7 


18. Dunbar Teachers’ Federation—Pauls Valley, 

@% Okla., March 11, 1918. 

19. Federation of Teachers—Olean, N. Y., March 
25, 1918. 

20. Teachers’ Federation—Westville, Ill., May 
6, 1918. 

21. Teachers’ Union—Norfolk, Va., May 6, 1918. 

22. Coal Township Teachers’ League—Shamo- 
kin, Pa., May 6, 1918. 

23. Teachers’ Federation—Valparaiso, Ind., May 
6, 1918. 

24. Vocational Teachers’ Council—New York 
City, May 20, 1918. 

25. Colored Teachers’ Union—Norfolk, Va., May 
20, 1918. 

26. Teachers’ Association—Vallejo, 
25, 1918. 

27. Elementary School Teachers’ Union—Wash- 
ington, D. C., June 3, 1918. 

28. Federation of Women Teachers—St. Paul, 
Minn., June 18, 1918. 

29. Canal Zone Chapter of A F of T—Canal 
Zone, July 1, 1918. (Not in report.) 


SUMMARY OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES FOR TOTAL 
PERIOD TO JUNE 30, 1918 


Cal., May 


Receipts $5,186.08 
Charter fees 
Per capita 


Contributions 


Expenditures 


$4,950.21 


Activities 
Printing 
Organizers 
Delegates — Confer- 


$451.80 
$1,521.00 


Telephone & Teleg.. 

Stenographic — 
Clerical 

Office supplies .... 

Stationery 

Seals and charters. 


$235.87 


Lack of space prevents giving the detailed ac- 
counting for first and second fiscal years, ending 
April 30, and period of two months in third fiscal 
year, as presented to the convention. 





Resolutions 


ADOPTED BY THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS IN CONVENTION ASSEMBLED, 
AT PITTSBURGH, PA., JULY 5, 6, 1918 


Education in Relation to World Democracy 

President Wilson has said, “The war is 
bringing to the minds of our people a new 
appreciation of the problems of national life, 
and a deeper understanding of the meaning 
and the aims of democracy. These and other 
lessons of the war must be learned quickly, 
if we are intelligently and successfully to 
defend our institutions. When the war is 
over we must apply the wisdom which we 
have acquired in purging and ennobling the 
life of the world, and in these vital tasks of 
acquiring a broader view of human possibil- 
ities the common school must have a large 
part.” 

The American Federation of Teachers 
finds in these words of the President an im- 
perative call to duty. The Federation be- 
lieves that there can be no world democracy 
in government, or in industry, unless there 
be democracy in education. Therefore, this 
organization directs the attention of the pub- 
lic to the following situation in our elemen- 


tary and secondary schools, and in our col- 
leges and universities: 
(1) The autocratic administration of the 


schools and the colleges. 

The peculiarly subtle state of mental 
slavery which is produced by constant 
subjugation to rules, imposed curri- 
cula, and dictated policies in which 
the individual has no voice and no 
opportunity for personal initiative. 
The inability on the part of teachers 
so restricted mentally to do effective 
work, and to develop in their pupils a 
true democratic consciousness. 

The general discouragement on the 
part of teachers who are liable to feel 
the futility of combatting conditions 
existing under the present form of 
school organization and management. 
The totally inadequate salaries for 
teaching. 

The unparalleled exodus of teachers 
from the profession, due to the above 
stated conditions. 

The prevailing practise of filling po- 
sitions left vacant with untrained and 
inefficient teachers, in the interest of 
a false economy, and thereby endan- 
gering the future of the nation. 

To remedy these conditions the American 


(2) 


Federation of Teachers offers the following 
proposals : 

(1) That there be established a minimum 
salary of $1,000 for all teachers, rural, 
city, and federal. 

That there be a teacher member of 
all boards of education, because none 
other has the first hand knowledge of 
the needs of the pupils and of the 
teachers. 

That there be a council of teachers in 
each town or city elected by the body 
of teachers, the duty of which shall 
be to meet with the various super- 
intendents and administrative officers, 
and advise with them as to the cur- 
ricula, methods and policies to be car- 
ried out in the schools. 

That there be a similar advisory coun- 
cil in each school. 

That such democratic procedure be 
urged each teacher in his work, as 
will tend to establish early in life, 
the mental habit of feeling and ac- 
cepting the responsibility laid on each 
individual in a true democracy. 

That the school become in spirit and 
actually a part of the community, co- 
operating with civic organizations, 
not only in affording places for public 
meetings, but also by providing in the 
course of study the means of becom- 
ing acquainted with the economic en- 
vironment of human beings. To this 
end the American Federation of 
Teachers strongly urges upon educa- 
tional authorities the introduction of 
instruction in industrial history. This 
should lead to a clearer understand- 
ing on the part of the public than 
now exists of our social conditions and 
institutions. In the interpretation 
given to industrial history it is rec- 
ommended that there be included 
such correlation with commercial 
geography, as will demonstrate the 
adjustment problems of all peoples of 
the world to the best American eco- 
nomic standards. A special course for 
high schools should include a mini- 
mum of one year of civics and econ- 
omics and one year of American his- 
tory. 


(2) 


151 





152 The American Teacher 


(7) That high standards be maintained in 
all normal and other training schools 
for teachers, and that all appoint- 
ments of teachers be made probation- 
ary, so that efficiency may be guar- 
anteed. 


Loyalty 


The American Federation of Teachers de- 
sires to go on record as taking a firm and 
loyal stand for the winning of the Great 
War. Prussian defiance to democracy must 
be answered by all the force necessary to a 
complete victory. The Prussian spirit of 
autocracy which exists in fields of American 
industry and American education can be 
most effectively weakened and rebuked by 
the crushing of its great exemplar in Ger- 
many. We are gratified by the democratic 
means adopted by President Wilson to evoke 
the spirit of loyalty in the people, and by the 
patience and wise statesmanship which he 
has shown us in its application. 

As against the chorus of newspaper crit- 
icism directed at our able Secretary of War 
we desire to assure Secretary Baker of our 
enthusiastic endorsement of his efficient con- 
duct of his Department, and of our very 
warm approval of his consistent refusal to 
abandon his position on the question of uni- 
versal military service, until the results of 
this war shall show the necessary course. 


The Abolition of German Language Teaching 


It is the belief of the American Federation 
of Teachers that the teaching of the German 
language in our schools should not be abol- 
ished. We make no war on a language. We 
recognize that the results of patient research 
and scholarship in many fields have found 
expfession in German, that German literat- 
ure contains treasures precious to the world, 
and that at the lowest, mere prudence and 
caution warn us to retain the means of 
searching the mind of a possibly terrible foe. 

We do demand, however, that all danger- 
ous tendencies be removed from the study of 
the German language as carried on in Amer- 
ican schools by a careful selection of texts 
and teachers. The texts must be free from 
alien propaganda, and the teachers must be 
Americans whose loyalty to American ideals 
cannot be questioned. Furthermore, no ad- 
vantage should be granted to German over 
other foreign languages, as was the case 
often before the war, by including it in the 
elementary course, or by giving bonuses to 
teachers of German, as such. The language 


Vol. VII, No. 7 


should be considered absolutely on a par with; 
other foreign languages. 


The Welfare of the Children 


The American Federation of Teachers de- 
plores the fact that the National Child Labor 
Law, which was designed to prevent the ex- 
ploitation of children in industry, is no longer 
operative because of its unconstitutionality, 
as declared by the United States Supreme 
Court. 

In this crisis we call upon the people to 
take such action as shall result in the pas- 
sage of a law by Congress which shall come 
within the standards set up by the decision 
of the Court. If such a law cannot be framed, 
we advocate constitutional amendment at the 
earliest possible moment. In the meantime, 
we urge the several states to pass child labor 
laws which shall supplement federal action. 

As an incident to the protection of our chil- 
dren we deprecate the unorganized use of 
their generous activities in the sale of sav- 
ing stamps, Red Cross memberships, and 
bazaar contributions. We recommend to 
municipalities and to states the consideration 
of the police regulations in operation in the 
District of Columbia which prohibit young 
children from engaging in promiscuous com- 
mercial dealings in public places. For the 
proper administration of all protective legis- 
lation for children we urge that teachers 
everywhere cooperate actively with the po- 
lice and with the officers of voluntary organ- 
izations especially interested in the protec- 
tion of children. 

With careful supervision and organization 
the services of children may still be used in 
the sale of stamps, etc., and lessons of pro- 
found value in American citizenship be 
taught. 

We recommend the amendment of laws 
dealing with the compulsory education of 
children, and urge especially the establish- 
ment of a minimum age of 16 years. If the 
schools are actually to prepare the children 
for life in a democracy, it is necessary to 
protect them from the requirement of severe 
labor and from unfavorable moral enviro)- 
ment during the early years of adolescence. 
It is only with this protection and under the 
organized and extended control of the schoois 
that the teachers can carry out the positive 
function of the schools which is the inter- 
pretation to the children of the manifo!( 
relations in human life, along with the pre- 
paration of the children to meet life intelli- 
gently and effectively. 





= fo tt ote at lel lCUlClU ee ee CURlClC lO CU lel Ole ee 


fol asa ae Sst lm mM 


oOo 


September, 1918 


We urge upon our people the serious study, 
and the ultimate political consideration, of 
those social and economic conditions which 
now interfere with the administration even 
of our present inadequate compulsory educa- 
tion laws. When boys are seemingly com- 
pelled to leave school at an early age to as- 
sist their parents in the economic struggle, 
we submit that the difficulty is not to be 
met by extending the age limit for leaving 
school to 16 years. More adequate economic 
recognition of the social value of labor must 
be made in justice to the adults who work, 
as well as to the adolescents who are pre- 
paring for work. These recommendations 
we hold to be valid under normal conditions 
in our national progress. They are especially 
valid in view of the urgent necessity of re- 
construction after the war, when all the 
strength of our national man and woman 
power will be put to its severest test. 

We favor the extensive development of 
systems of playgrounds in connection with 
schools and as separate institutions under 
municipal control. “With full opportunity for 
play under conditions of physical and moral 
safety we look forward to the normal and 
healthy growth of our oncoming generations. 
We regard as an essential element in the sat- 
isfactory administration of playgrounds the 
development of the kind of play opportuni- 
ties which lead to the perfection of qualities 
of initiative and of leadership—qualities es- 
sential to the existence of democracy in our 
country. 

We regard with grave doubt the current 
tendency to introduce into the playtime of 
young boys the formal military training. As 
valid objections to the introduction of mili- 
tary training in the public schools we urge 
the consideration of these two propositions: 
1. The effect of severe regimentation of 
thought and action on the developing ten- 
dencies toward organized freedom in Amer- 
ica. 2. The probability that widespread mili- 
tary training in the schools would become 
an important step toward compulsory mili- 
tary service in the nation. 

We regard compulsory military service as 
logically absurd—in view of the fact that the 
allied nations are loyally and effectively giv- 
ing their blood and treasure to the elimina- 
tion of militarism from the world. In this 
understanding of our national aspirations we 
stand with our President, the recognized 
spokesman of Democracy thruout the world. 

A fundamental necessity in seeking the 
welfare of children is the guarding of the 
conditions which relate to the public health. 


The American Teacher 


153 


The American Federation of Teachers 
strongly urges that more efficient medical 
and dental inspection under school author- 
ities be established in the schools, and that 
adequate compensation be provided to guar- 
antee the services of men and women fitted 
to carry out a modern health program. 


Free Textbooks 


The American Federation of Teachers calls 
the attention of the public to the fact that 
for large numbers of children public educa- 
tion will not be free until all the states or 
the municipalities furnish textbooks to all 
elementary and high school pupils in day 
schools and in evening schools as part of the 
regular equipment. 

This step must be made one of our final 
ones toward democracy of opportunity in ed- 
ucation. 


The Twelve-months School Year 


We recognize the fact that the traditional 
long summer vacation of the schools under 
modern urban and industrial conditions has 
lost, at least in part, its basis of necessity. In 
spite of the fact that serious economic re- 
strictions hold many children in crowded por- 
tions of cities in the hot summer weather, 
and seem to compel the granting of the sum- 
mer vacation in such places, we regard these 
conditions of life as no more inevitable and 
necessary than we do the severe nervous ten- 
sion under which the work of the schools is 
done generally. All these unfavorable con- 
ditions should be done away with in order 
to make possible a fuller and more efficient 
use of our physical and mental resources un- 
der conditions of comfort and satisfaction. 

The coming of the 12-months school year 
in some form is, therefore, probably inevi- 
table. But the advent of such a system needs 
careful safeguards. These should include 
provision for the withdrawal of pupils or 
teachers for one of the four quarters of the 
school year—such withdrawal to be without 
penalty to the pupils in loss of class stand- 
ing, or to the teachers in loss of salary or 
position. It has been the bitter experience 
of teachers that when lengthening of the 
school day or year has taken place, their 
burdens have been increased correspondingly, 
while their pay has not. 

So great is the economic pressure on teach- 
ers that it is probable that many teachers 
under a 12-months year plan would desire 
to teach the full twelve months, waiving the 





154 


alteration of unfavorable conditions, after 
being assured of a corresponding salary in- 
crease. But the American Federation of 
Teachers holds that before an extension of 
the school year should be made the present 
conditions of low pay for the usual school 
year and of extreme occupational tension 
must be corrected. 


The Salary Issue 


The Great War has emphasized as has 
never been done before the importance of the 
teacher in the growth of the country and 
the development of its citizens. To meet 
the coming still greater responsibility of the 
teacher we need men and women of broad 
training, liberal view point, and wide under- 
standing. We cannot induce such persons to 
enter the profession, to say nothing of re- 
maining therein at the remuneration received 
for teaching. — 

It is obvious that as the result of social 
adjustment the members of a profession 
whom the country rewards in so niggardly 
a fashion will be lacking in influence upon 
their constituents in proportion to the meas- 
ure of their importance as indicated by the 
scale of wages. 

We, therefore, maintain that there should 
be a minimum salary of $1,000 for all teach- 
ers in the United States, and we urge the 
Congress of the United States to further this 
end by appropriating from the national treas- 
ury the sum of $100,000,000 to assist the 
states which may need assistance in carrying 
out a salary law for teachers. Ample prec- 
edent has been established for this in the 
Smith-Hughes Act. 


Equal Suffrage 


We urge the immediate passage by the 
Senate of the United States of the Susan B 
Anthony amendment to the Constitution 
granting the right of suffrage to women. 
The position of the United States as a leader 
in the fight for world democracy carries with 
it the supposition that we have a real de- 


mocracy at home. This cannot be true so 
long as a large portion of the citizenry bears 
much of the common civic burden without 
exercising the rights of citizenship. 


Tenure of Position 


The struggle for the professional rights 
of teachers is no where more vital than in 
the effort to establish the security of the 
teacher’s position. There is general recog- 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VII., No. 7 


nition of the desirability of this security of 
tenure both from the point of view of the 
teacher and also from the side of the public 
interest. Tenure laws are passed from time 
to time by the state legislatures as the resu!t 
of the common endeavor of the teachers and 
the public spirited citizens. 

However, during the past academic year 
the dismissal of teachers in cities where 
tenure of position laws do not prevail have 
been no less easy than in communities where 
tenure laws were supposed to give real sv- 
curity. We urge upon all teachers the neces- 
sity of standing together on this question, 
and of demanding that the security of the 
teacher’s position shall not be subject to per- 
sonal whim or emotion, unchecked by re- 
spect for the legal and social rights of the 
teachers and of the public. 


A National Department of Education 


We desire to reassert our statement made 
at the American Federation of Teachers Con- 
vention in 1916, that we favor the creation 
of a national Department of Education which 
shall be coordinate with other departments 
of the Federal Government. As before, we 
urge the appointment as the head of this 
department a Secretary of Education who 
shall be a member of the cabinet of the Pres- 
ident of the United States. 


The illiteracy, the physical and economic 
unfitness, and the lack of understanding of 
American principles and ideals shown by 
American citizens during the formation of 
our national army demands a complete re- 
organization of our educational system and 
methods on broad national lines of American 
spirit and tradition. 

In order to created a national educational 
system which shall guarantee full opportu- 
nities to the children of the whole nation we 
must create the machinery thru a national 
Department of Education. 


(Signed) 
THE COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS, 
The American Federation of Teachers 
MAUDE E AITON, 
The Grade Teachers Union, Washington, D. ( 
ALICE DEAL, 
The High School Teachers Union, Washington, D. ( 
L V LAMPSON, 
The High School Teachers Union, Washington, D. C 
HENRY R LINVILLE, Chairman, 
The Te-chers Union of the City of New York, 
W T McCoy, 
Men High School Teachers Union, Chicago, II! 
CLARA K STUTzZ, 
The Grade Teachers Union, Washington, D. C 
WILLIAM J WALLIs, 
The High School Teachers Union, Washington, D. ( 





Amendments to the Constitution of the American 
Federation of Teachers 


ADOPTED BY THE THIRD CONVENTION, HELD AT PITTSBURGH, JULY 5, 6, 1918 


ARTICLE III 
Membership 


Section 2. This organization may admit to mem- 
tership associations of public school principals in 
their capacity as teachers or as public school em- 
ployees under such rules and regulations as may be 
fixed by the Executive Council of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers; provided that there shall be 
not more than one local of principals in a commu- 
nity, that there shall be no local of principals char- 
tered except where a local of teachers shall exist 
and shall have been in existence for at least two 
years, and that no charter shall be granted to a 
lecal of principals without the formal approval of 
such local union or unions of teachers. 

Section 3. In communities where there are fewer 
than fifteen principals, after a local of teachers has 
been chartered and active for two years, any public 
school principal may be admitted to membership, 
provided the constitution of the local does not pro- 
hibit admission of principals, admission to be a 
majority vote of members present at a meeting the 
business of which shall have been previously an- 
nounced, 

Section 4. The Executive Council may exercise 
its discretion in the chartering of groups of teach- 
ers in educational institutions not supported by pub- 
lic funds, provided that such institutions are not 
conducted primarily for religious purposes, or for 
private gain. . 

ARTICLE IV 


Officers 

The officers of this organization shall be a Presi- 
dent, a Secretary-Treasurer, and nine Vice-Presi- 
dents; these eleven shall constitute the Executive 
Council. 

ARTICLE VII 
Representation 

For the purposes of this article, membership shall 
mean the average number on which the per capita 
tax has been paid for the twelve months imme- 
diately preceding the convention; provided that no 
local in arrears for two months at. the time of the 
convention shall be entitled to representation; and 
provided further that, in the case of locals which 
have been chartered during the year preceding the 
convention, the average shall be computed on the 
basis of the number of months of affiliation, the 
minimum for such computation to be two. 


ARTICLE VIII 
Revenues 

Section 1. Every affiliated local shall pay directly 
to the Secretary-Treasurer a monthly per capita 
tax graduated as follows: ten cents per capita on 
all members receiving a regular annual salary of 
$500 or less; fifteen cents on all members receiving 
more than $500 and not more than $1,500; twenty 
cents on all members receiving more than $1,500 
and not more than $2,000; and twenty-five cents on 
all members receiving more than $2,000; five cents 
a month in every case to cover subscription to the 
official organ, THE AMERICAN TEACHER, unless a 
smaller sum for that purpose is fixed by the Exe- 
cutive Council. For the purposes of this section 
salary shall mean the regular annual stipend ex- 
clusive off pay for service in night school, or Satur- 
day or other vacation schools. 

ARTICLE IX 
Charters 

Section 3. Subject to the provisions of Article III, 
Section 2, a charter may be issued to an association 
of seven or more public school principals upon appli- 
cation to the Executive Council and the payment 
of a fee of $10.00. 

Section 4. Upon application to the Executive 
Council and the payment of a fee of $10.00, a charter 
may be issued to an association of seven or more 
teachers in educational institutions not supported 
by public funds, provided that such institutions are 
not, in the judgment of the Executive Council, con- 
ducted primarily for religious purposes, or for pri- 
vate gain. 

Section 5. 


A charter issued to any local may 
be revoked by the Executive Council when the ex- 
istence of such local is detrimental to the devel- 
opment of democracy in education; such revocation 
to be subject to the approval of the National Con- 
vention. 





To the Editor, THE AMERICAN TEACHER: 

I inclose money order for $1 to pay for subscrip- 
tion to THE AMERICAN TEACHER. A friend gave 
me the April number, and it was so full of good 
things along the line of Democracy in Education 
that I felt I could not afford to miss.what it has 
in store for us this year. I especially enjoyed the 
“Confessions of a Good Student.” 

FLorRA B CorrTeri_t, 
President Dayton Teachers’ Club, 
Dayton, Ohio. 


155 





> 


The American Teacher Vol. VIL, No. 7 
4, 


THE MEANING OF THE UNION 
MOVEMENT AMONG TEACHERS 


The union movement among teachers means the beginning of profes- 
sional spirit and independence in the classroom, and in the relations of teach- 
ers to their supervising officers and the educational system. Teachers 
have always obeyed orders, asking only that they be given orders, never 
questioning in a professional or united way the wisdom of superiors. The 
union teacher realizes that he is doing the work and should have something 
to say concerning the control of the work, the ways of getting it done by 
collective methods, the supervision of it, the determination of standards of 
quality, the conditions under which it is done, and the pay for it. 


The stimulus that is responsible for the union movement is the growing determi- 
nation among other workers to throw off the domination of bosses and exploiters, and 
thereby to begin to determine life for themselves. The response to the stimulus means 
the beginning of thinking among teachers in terms of social welfare, naturally enough 
their own social welfare first. 


When thinking among teachers begins there are two immediate results: first, the 
development of plans for the improvement of conditions for the benefit of the craft, 
and, second, the inevitable and logical establishment of connections between the inter- 
ests of the craft and the interests of society. In other words, real thinking takes place 
thru the act of seeing facts and conditions in relation. Thus, the union movement 


means that teachers are coming to take an interest in society in a vital way, and: that - 


as time goes on they will cease to think of their work either as the occupation of a 
privileged, cloistered body, with the exclusive rights of an “ educated” class, or as an 
aggregation of second-rate, indifferent, and unrespected pedagogs, and will come to 
regard themselves as constructive workers as important as any for the upbuilding of 
citizenship in a democracy. 


The union movement among teachers works out naturally to improve conditions for 
the children and to give the parents a feeling of confidence in a public institution which 
in possibilities is greater than any other. This is true because union teachers unlike 
educational supervisors of the present day are not concerned with the maintenance of 
established traditions relating to coursés of study, official prerogative, or with the 
innumerable checks and balances of antiquated systems of educational procedure. For 
economic reasons, and for reasons of professional satisfaction, union teachers with a 
voice in the control of the schools would Jogically strive to establish conditions in their 
work under which results could be produced with ease and with the interested coopera- 
tion of the children themselves. Thus, the traditional antagonism that exists between 
the schools and the children. resulting from autocratic management and from much 
meaningless teaching, would tend to disappear. 


The desire of educators and of the general public is to turn the educative process 
into a real preparation for life, or better,to make the learning period an essential and 
satisfactory part of life in itself. The attainment of this desire under the autocratic 
system of educational management has béen lamentably slow. There is still very slight 
progress in getting away from the traditions of static idealism. The union movement 
among teachers means that the knowledge which teachers already possess relative to 
the fruitlessness of much of their work would, under democratic management. be th- 
stimulus for an immediate effort to avoid the continued waste of human effort. The stuff 
of real life in industry, in commerce, and in the adequate understanding, and the con- 
trol of the natural and the man-made conditions of human life, of itself offers educative 
material now scarcely touched. The transformation of this material into usable form 
in the schools will be an important inspiration and a great social service for union teach- 
ers everywhere. 


yr HM " ett 
iid 


di 


wl MMi i 


HAsAoLAHW ANNU HAs 


SWUM 040 LAIONTAAANILANAA ELLE