> MERICAN. 
=| TEACHER 








y, JUNE, 1919 


Organization for Leadership 





St. Paul S:radae and 


Labor Assembly 





|. What We Have Accomplished 





From the Locals 


Democracy in Education 
Education for Democracy 





The American Teacher 


VV ARVLVPVAVLVVLVAVLVVVVSSVSVPCESSRBSBBSsSsSSsBVssssgssygzuq0ereo 


Democratization of Industry 


front of all others in every - 


T HE question which stands at the 


country amid the present 
great awakening is the question of la- 
bor; and perhaps I can speak of it with 
as great advantage while engrossed in 
the consideration of interests which af- 
fect all countries alike as I could at 
home and amid the interests which 
naturally most effect my thought, be- 
cause they are 


industry. Some positive legislation is 
practicable. The Congress has already 
shown the way to one reform which 
should be world-wide, by establishing 
the eight-hour day as the standard day 
in every field of labor over which it can 
exercise control. It has sought to find 
the way to prevent child labor, and will, 
I hope and believe, presently find it. It 
has served the whole country by leading 

the way in devel- 








the interests of 
our own people. 
eS * ok * * 

How are the 
men and women 
who do the daily 
labor of the world 
to obtain progres- 
sive improvement 
in the conditions 
of their labor, to 
be made happier, 
and to be served 
better by the com- 
munities and the 
industries which 
their labor sus- 
tains and ad- 
vances? How are 


From the Locals 
Book Reviews 
What They Say 








CONTENTS 


Editorii. . 0200. A... eee. 128 
Report of Trades and Labor Assembly 

of St. Paul ....... 
Symposium on Teachers’ Unions 


What We Have Accomplished 


bisasctess csoce S06 


Roster of Locals of the A F of T 
In Touch With Life Forces 


oping the means 
of preserving and 
safeguarding life 
and health in 
dangerous indus- 
. tries. It can now 
re PAGE help in the diffi- 
cult task of giv- 
ing a new form 
and spirit to in- 
dustrial organiza- 
tion by coérdinat- 
ing the several 
agencies of con- 
ciliation and ad- 
justment which 
have been 
brought into ex- 
istence by the dif- 














they to be given 
their right advantage as citizens and 
human beings? 

cS * * * * 


The object of all reform in this es- 
sential matter must be the genuine 
democratization of industry, based upon 
a full recognition of the right of those 
who work, in whatever rank, to par- 
ticipate in some organic way in every 
decision which directly affects their 


welfare or the part they are to play in. 


ficulties and mis- 
taken policies of the present manage- 
ment of industry, and by setting up and 
developing new Federal agencies of ad- 
vice and information which may serve 
as a clearing house for the best experi- 
ments and the best thought on this great 
matter, upon which every thinking man 
must be aware that the future develop- 
ments of society directly depends. 


—From President Wilson’s Mes- 
sage to Congress, May 20, 1919. 





Vol. VIII, No. 6 


The Americ 


Entered as second-class matt 
Published at 


21, 1912, at the Post Office at New Yo 
Fifth Avenue, New York, monthly, except July and August. 


an Teacher 


N. Y¥.; under the Act of March 8, 1879. 





Sa == 


— = a —— 





Vol. VII, No. 6 JUNE, 


1919 One Dollar a Year 





= = = = 





Excellent Matter Well 
Expressed 
AST month we printed the resolutions 
L of the Maryland and District of Co- 
lumbia Labor Convention. This 
month we have the similarly able document 
of the St Paul labor unions on the need for 
adequate appropriations for education. 
There is a force and elegance of diction about 
both these contributions that will go a long 
way toward convincing those for whom they 
were especially formulated. They also may 
serve as models for other communities that 
are looking for methods of penetrating the 
minds of municipal and state governments. 
Be Good Pay 
OME of the locals that collect dues from 
S their members only during the school 
months will think it a hardship to pay 
dues to the national during the two summer 
months. There may be mild wonder here and 
there as to what the A F of T does with the 
summer money. The first thing that is done is 
to pay on the debts that have a way of haunt- 
ing every new movement. The next thing is to 
send masses of literature to the many hun- 
dreds of places where teachers are congre- 
gating in county conventions and “normals,” 
and to the other groups of teachers in state 
and national meetings. The summer is the 
harvest time to bring the union movement 
to the attention of teachers when they have 
a moderate amount of leisure to think about 
it and to talk it over with teachers outside 
their usual work-a-day circles. 
All good union teachers will not begrudge 
the national its due and its dues. 


123 


More Than Business 

HE attention of our members is called 

to the notice of the Advertising Man- 

ager of THE AMERICAN TEACHER on 

page 143 of this issue. The periodical has 

grown to respectable dimmensions in the ex- 

tent of its circulation, and is a worthy and 

adequate -medium for advertising. This 

month we are printing 10,000 copies. In Sep- 

tember, the next issue, the number will be at 

least 15,000. After that the number of 

copies printed will increase still more rapidly, 
we have every reason to believe. 

Thus we have something valuable to ex- 
change for coin of the realm which we desire 
in order to help bear the heavy expense of 
getting out the paper. All good union mem- 
bers should call the attention of atvertines 
to this important matter. 


Organization for 
Leadership 


important question of organization 
has arisen in several localities where 
the American Federation of Teach- 


A 
ers has entered. In labor union terminology, 
it is the old question of industrial unionism 
against craft unionism. As might be sus- 
pected the teachers are settling the question 


here and there without realizing in the least 
that they are grappling with the big ques- 


tion of labor organization. And it is just 
as well that they are settling it without the 
quibbling waste of time that often goes with 
matters which are sometimes become more 
formalistic than fundamental. 
In certain large cities, such as New York, 
Philadelphia, and Boston, our union move- 
ment began with the effort to establish single 





124 


-large unions that would unite all groups that 
had been played off against one another from 
the beginning. The effort was commendable, 
but it has not been attended by entire suc- 
cess, if we are to judge on the basis of the 
percentage of teachers that have joined the 
union, or have expressed a determination to 
join. In other important centers, such as 
Chicago, Washington, D C, and St Paul two 
or more locals have been organized to in- 
clude groups that had been accustomed to 
work together. These groups have main- 
tained a close organic relation by establish- 
ing federations of local unions. In this way, 
the separate locals cease to be separate, and 
the union becomes in reality for all practical 
purpose a “big” union. 

There are a number of locals that cover 
the jurisdiction of their communities, and are 
apparently fairly in the way of approaching 
the desired one hundred per cent member- 
ship. The most recently organized of these 
is Atlanta, Georgia. The new Philadelphia 
local may become appealing enough to the 
teachers of Philadelphia to draw them all in. 
But when the local starts small in a large 


community, the fight is all up hill, as the de- 

velopment in New York has shown. 
Practically all the locals that have started 

in small communities control the territory by 


themselves. This could hardly be otherwise. 
Their situation is of no particular value in 
aiding the movement of organization so far 
as the technique of rapid organization in 
densely populated areas is concerned, altho 
their phenomenal record of one hundred pef 
cent memberships makes the large communi- 
ties take notice. 

The desire of these who are working on the 
problems of organization on the national 
scale is of course to increase the membership 
of the national body. Great numbers ob- 
viously mean power, and power for the little 
locals as well as for the large ones. Isolated 
locals that may feel themselves quite suffi- 
cient unto the present day, as well as for the 
future, should not fail to recognize the fact 
that the fights made in their units may be 
made successful by the mere fact that a large 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VIII, No. 6 


and powerful body has been built up in some 
other parts of the country. A local that de- 
sires to remain small in order to do things 
on a more intensive plan may be calculating 
unconsciously to profit by the existence of 
other locals that have given consideralle 
thought to increasing the percentage of their 
membership on the available one hundred per 
cent. 

It is impossible to lay down any formula 
for organizing teachers’ unions. But the ex- 
perience of Boston is illuminating and help- 
ful. Local No 66 started out with the inten- 
tion of uniting all the teachers of Boston into 
one great union. But the teachers of Boston 
would not unite under that rule. So the 
principle of self-determination came into ap- 
plication. Groups that have been accustomed 
to be together want to remain together. If 
that is the condition, the wisdom of prag- 
matists comes to the rescue. We then give 
up the idea of one large union in form, while 
retaining it in substance thru the device of 
the federation of locals. Washington and 
Chicago have had a phenomenal experience 
of good fortune by means of their federations 
of locals. 

Another consideration that must be 
thought over is the problem of leadership. 
There are some leaders who want to lead 
the whole town, while there are others 
who want the town divided so that they 
may have a bailiwick of their own. But 
organizations are not for the benefit of lead- 
ers. However, they are in a very important 
way useful for the development of leader- 
ship. One of the ablest of the presidents of 
elementary teachers’ locals in our Federa- 
tion of Teachers has called the attention of 
the Editor to this matter of leadership. She 
writes, “Do keep the grade teachers in mind. 
We have to drag ourselves up somehow, for 
we are after all the important factor in pub- 
lic education, and unless we are lifted from 
our hopeless mediocrity, how can the cause 
as a whole be benefited? I see some difficulty 
ahead when we have a larger proportion of 
college professors. With college professors, 
and high school teachers, how are we going 





June, 1919 T h e 


to get us poor things with our pitifully inade- 
quate training to stand up for ourselves and 
be self-respecting? If this distinctly teach- 
ers’ movement of ours does not help the 
grade teacher, where is salvation to be 
found?” 

Then let us have self-determination for 
leadership also, for out of leadership deter- 
mined by the group do we get the stuff for 
professional advancement. 


LOCALS, TAKE NOTICE! 


The new Business Manager of The American 
Teacher has sent blank forms for the lists of mem- 
bers of the locals to the Secretary of every local in 
the American Federation of Teachers. He desires 
to express his appreciation of the promptness of 
those whose lists have been received. But he would 
like to receive the lists of all the locals. The mem- 
bers of new locals that are paying dues om their 
membership for June are entitled to receive the paper 
for that month. An extra supply is being printed 
to accommodate those who are just coming into the 
national body. Remember, your new members will 
not receive the paper unless the names and addresses 
are sent to the New York office. The next issue of 
The American Teacher will be printed for September. 


Teachers should call the attention of boards of 
education to the steps taken in Massachusetts un- 
der the Loring bill. Industrial democracy is not 
educational democracy, but one may teach the other. 
Note the clipping in this issue, “Employees Repre- 
sented on Boards.” 








Ge American Teacher 





Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 
Published meee PN except July and August by 


THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City 
Henry R LINvVILLE, Editor 
Max ROSENHAUS, Business ss Manager. 


At the time of expiration, a bill will be found in the copy. 
Sobosstians 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 e). 





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


American Teacher 


125 


EMPLOYEES REPRESENTED ON 
BOARDS 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts recently 
took a step toward industrial democracy which bears 
directly on the development of shop committee sys- 
tems and plans of employe representation. This 
is the so-called Loring bill to enable manufacturing 
corporations to provide for the representation of 
their employees on the board of directors. The bill 
is short and almost self-explanatory: 


Section 1. A manufacturing corporation may pro- 
vide by by-law for the nomination and election by 
its employees of one or more of them to be members 
of its board of directors. 

Section 2. All elections under the provisions of 
sections one shall be held at the works of the corpor- 
ation on the day of the annual meeting, and the vot- 
ing shall be by secret ballot. 

Section 3. If less than a majority of those en- 
titled to vote participate in the election there shall 
be no election, and the vacancy shall be filled as the 
by-laws may prescribe. 

Section 4. A director elected by the employees 
shall have the same rights and powers and shall 
be subject to the same duties and responsibilities as 
a director elected by the stockholders. 


In its first draft the method of selecting employe 
directors was not clearly defined, and organized 
labor opposed the proposed legislation. When it was 
amended to provide for the selection of working- 
men—or workingwomen—directors, however, organ- 
ized labor withdrew its opposition and the bill was 
enacted. 


The bill is permissive in character. It does not 
require corporations to place employees on boards of 
directors. It simply amends existing Massachu- 
setts corporation law so that employes may be se- 
lected to serve as directors, thus radically changing 
the former requirement that only stockholders of 
corporations might select directors. Essentially, 
therefore, this bill regards employees as stockholders 
in the corporation for which they work, as investors, 
that is to say, of labor power or capital. 

The Loring bill is a logical part of any construe- 
tive program of industrial democracy. Doubtless 
more Massachusetts corporations which as yet have 
no dealing either with union committees or with 
committees of their own employees will take advan- 
tage of its provisions and will find that it is neces- 
sary to go one step further and, at the elections 
provided for, permit the workers to choose their 
own shop committees. 

British experience has shown that employe repre- 
sentation in management, if it is to be genuine, 
must be neither solely at the top nor solely at the 
bottom. 

Witu1amM L STODDARD. 
—From the Survéy of May 24, 1919. 





Report Made by the Trades and Labor Assembly to the 
Council of the City of St. Paul, Minnesota, in Regard 
to School Conditions, on March 29, 1919 


HERE is no greater need at the present 
T time than that the City of St Paul 
should realize that its public schools 
are facing the most serious crisis in their his- 
tory. And in order that the various elements 
of the city shall be drawn together in a con- 
structive program looking toward the adop- 
tion of not only immediate but also per- 
manent measures which shall remedy the 
situation, organized labor has requested its 
first conference with those whom the city has 
chosen to administer its affairs, namely; the 
members of the City Council. 

If there is a question in the minds of the 
Council as to why we are conferring with you 
as a whole, rather than with your member 
in charge of the schools, the Commissioner of 
Education, let us make it clear at this time 
that we believe it is the intent of the present 
charter, that the Council was to perform the 
functions not only of the school board, but 
of a board for each and every department; 
and if our present form of city government 
is to endure, your honorable body must as- 
sume and discharge this duty. 

Probably no lesson of the world war is 
more clear and sharp than as a nation is edu- 
cated, so is it efficient in time of need, and 
more than all, can it produce those intellectual 
and moral qualities in men and women which 
shall guarantee that it shall successfully re- 
sist its enemies, secret and open, at home and 
abroad. 

In the height of its struggle, England be- 
lieved it vital to the nation’s safety to adopt 
an educational program involving not only 
millions but a complete upheaval of her 
existing educational system. France, almost 
in extremity, refused to abate one jot of her 
educational program. These are matters of 
recent history and need no references to 
establish their validity. No less does the 


future of America depend on the education 
of her people. 

Therefore, in beginning at once to outline 
its school policy, organized labor is merely 
foresighted in the city’s interests and confi- 
dently expects to meet with the hearty coop- 
eration of all the elements of the city, 
believing it only fair to assume that they also 
have the city’s welfare at heart. 

This educational emergency which is our 
present concern, is wide spread. To be brief, 
St Paul in common with other localities, faces 
the probability, if indeed such is not already 
the case, that it will suffer an acute shortage 
of teachers for its public schools. 

For a city of the size of St Paul to neglect 
the truth of the situation would mark us 
as stupidly shortsighted. There are. other 
cities so much larger that are already draw- 
ing from us the best we have among our 
teachers, excepting those who are willing to 
accept a salary sacrifice in order to stay in 
their home city, that we are facing this con- 
dition now. Nor can we afford to ignore the 
keen demand for their services from other 
occupations that is depleting the teaching 
ranks; nor that normal schools, on which we 
must rely for our new teachers, for the same 
reason, are practically without students. 

It appears, then, that we have a two-fold 
problem: First, to establish the facts of the 
situation as they are at present, and find 
what immediate relief can be given; and, 
second, at once to outline a program which 
shall guarantee that our schools shall be op- 
erated under the most favorable conditions 
obtainable in the future. 

TEACHING CONDITIONS AND SALARIES 

In the last semester of 1917-18, there were 
959 teachers on the city pay-roll. From June, 
1918, to and including February, 1919, 172 
left the service for various reasons. To re- 


126 





June, 1919 


place these and to provide for a normal 
growth in school enrollment and the exten- 
sion of certain departments, during this time 
there have been more than 220 teachers ap- 
pointed. This means that more than 8000 
children, approximately 25% of the school 
enrollment, were in charge of teachers new 
to our system who must acquaint themselves 
with the prevailing methods used in St Paul 
not only in the regular but in the special lines 
of teaching, such as music, drawing, physical 
training, etc. These special subjects are al- 
ways a stumbling block to the new teacher 
because the method of teaching them has not 
as yet been standardized to the same extent 
as it has been in the regular studies. 

It may be urged that such fluctuations in a 
city’s teaching staff are usual. St Paul, how- 
ever, up to 1917 had been particularly fortu- 
nate in maintaining the stability of its teach- 
ing body. This grew out of the fact that we 
had our training school for teachers, a prac- 
tise obtaining in the majority of large cities. 
The graduates of the St Paul Teachers Train- 
ing School by their excellent work have 
justified the existence of the school. To sub- 
stantiate this statement we would refer your 
honorable body to the pages of the Survey 
of the schools of the city recently made by a 
large group of educational experts. Would 
any one take the stand that the products of 
our schools after training to meet the special 
needs of the system, would not be able to 
articulate with the system with less disturb- 
ance to the work and loss of time for the 
children than teachers brought in from out- 
side? 

The Teachers’ Training School was closed 
without notice in the summer of °1917. The 
Department of Education is considering 
establishing in thé near future various kinds 
of schools such as Intermediate and Voca- 
tional Schools, all new to our city. We sug- 
gest that the question of the Teachers’ Train- 
ing School be reopened and made a special 
matter of investigation and discussion at a 
later date, so that if it shall be so decided, 
this school may have its place in the plans 


The American Teacher 


127 


for the extension of the school system, and 
provision be made for its proper equipment 
and maintenance. 

The problem which must be solved at once 
is how we shall hold desirable teachers and 
avoid still more serious losses in numbers; 
and what shall be done to make the teaching 
profession attractive so that the class of 
young men and women whom it is essential 
shall be induced to train for teaching if the 
quality of teachers generally is not to de- 
teriorate. 

The remedy undoubtedly lies largely in bet- 
ter pay, but before taking up the salary 
question, it is necessary to discuss some 
phases of educational affairs which are un- 
derlying reasons why teachers are turning to 
other lines of work, and why young people 
will consider teaching only when no other 
openings can be found. 


THERE MUST BE GREATER DEMOCRACY IN THE 
ADMINISTRATION OF SCHOOL AFFAIRS 

Every superintendent has at his command 
two groups of trained workers, the super- 
vising and the teaching departments. 

From a knowledge of what is going on in 
the way of experiments in this day of educa- 
tional changes, the supervising departments 
should be able to suggest those plans which 
appear to suit best the needs of the locality. 
Out of the experiences gained in their daily 
contact with the life of the school, the teach- 
ing department should suggest those modifi- 
cations which will insure reasonable success 
for such plans before they are incorporated 
into any school system. A superintendent who 
bases his educational program on the super- 
vising viewpoint alone fails to take full ad- 
vantage of what the city invests annually in 
teachers’ salaries. 

Society is demanding of the schools results 
such as it has never before called for. Ex- 
perts at the top will no longer insure that 
these demands will be met, and the entire 
teaching body must be made up of men and 
women of intelligence and initiative as well 
as training. To demand such qualifications 
and then refuse them full activity is an un- 





128 


reconcilable: contradiction. Much of the un- 
rest among teachers can be traced to an 
unfortunate attitude on the part of the 
school authorities that this justifiable de- 
mand for a part in school management is 
merely a desire on the part of the teachers 
to run the schools. 

It would be deplorable if such an opinion 
should gain ground here, and we urge that 
every one interested in the welfare of. the 
schools should attempt to understand this 
spirit among the teachers which is not local 
but general, that it may react for the best 
interests of the schools. 

The over-supervision of the average school 
system has resulted in a reaction against 
school-teaching which causes not only young 
people who might otherwise choose it, but 
teachers to go in preference into almost any 
commercial position with its comparative 
freedom. 

Grade teachers in this city may be visited 
at any time by eight supervising officers and 
their assistants, to whom they are re- 
sponsible for class room work. 

Each supervisor with commendable zeal 
for the success of his department, exacts 
100% efficiency of the teacher in his subject. 
To be 100% efficient in the ten supervised 
subjects is not given to many human beings. 

The teachers are right, in their demand 
that there must be less supervision and more 
special teachers and teaching supervisors as 
a relief from the pressure of work at the 
present time. 

Fortunately for the schools, because other- 
wise we should have only inexperienced per- 
sons at work among the children, there are 
always teachers who love their work enough 
to remain in it despite some of its unfavor- 
able aspects; but unless such teachers can‘be 
guaranteed that there shall be intimation of 
unsatisfactory service and a chance to make 
good on helpful suggestions from supervis- 
ing officers before dismisal, there is likely to 
be doubt, at least, in their minds as to the 
desirability of choosing teaching as a perma- 
nent occupation. 

A very great cause of unrest among local 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VIII, No. .6 


teachers was the dismissal late last spring of 
certain of their members without previous 
notice of unsatisfactory work. Any worker 
has a right to reasonable peace of mind that 
he may discharge his duties in a:proper man- 
ner, and this should not be denied teachers. 

Let it be clear that no one is asking for 
the retention of incompetent teachers, but 
there seems to be no reason why any depart- 
ment should not realize, for selfish reasons 

The teachers have asked the Department 
of Education for an early assignment for the 
coming year, that those who are not to be 
retained may have an opportunity to look 
about and place themselves to the best ad- 
vantage in some other locality or in some 
other line of work. The request should be 
granted. 

PROVIDING FOR THE FUTURE 

It has been necessary during the past year 
to bring into the city a large number of out- 
side teachers. The increased schedule of 
other cities against the stationary schedule 
of St Paul has resulted in these teachers 
being paid salaries considerably in advance 
of what is given St Paul teachers for equal 
experience and training. 

There is no disposition to begrudge these 
outside teachers what they are getting, many 
of whom it is hoped may remain permanently 
in the corps. It is little enough, but for our 
home teachers to be discriminated against 
creates a most unfavorable condition. 

In spite of the fact that class-room teach- 
ers have had no increase in salaries, there 
has been an extension of hours. In Septem- 
ber, 1916, two hours were added to the High 
School working -day. The High School 
Teachers’ Club registered a strong protest 
against the new hours on the basis that it 
was unjust to require extra time without 
compensation; and that all medical and 
psychological authorities agree that a day 
lasting from 8:30 A M to 3 P M, with only 
a brief recess for lunch is detrimental to the 
physical and mental growth of the adolescent 
child. 

The Survey recommended that the High 
School day be shortened. We concur in the 





June, 1919 


recommendation. 

The Official Bulletin of the Department of 
Education for February, 1919, has an article 
on the Salary Situation, which opens as fol- 
lows: 

“The question of adequate salaries for 
school teachers has, for some time past, been 
engaging the attention and study of educa- 
tors thruout the country. There is no 
doubt that the question is important and in 
St Paul serious.” 

If we believe what is currently reported, 
we shall presently be asked to supply the 
schools with a very considerable increase in 
the tax levy for maintenance and operation. 
Organized labor has some opinions on the 
way in which such increased tax moneys 
should go. 

We want for all the children of the city— 
the best there is in the way of building and 
equipment, but after all, these are but, the 
machinery of the school while the teacher, 
we might say, is the motor force without 
which buildings and equipment are but dead 
things. 

We believe that before the public is asked 
to grant this increase in school revenue, there 
should be some agreement by all the inter- 
ested parties that ample provision shall be 
made for a considerable revision upward of 
the wage or salary scale for those among the 
teachers on whom the burden of the high cost 
of living has fallen most heavily. We refer 
to the classroom teacher. There has been 
no grade or high school salary increase, ex- 
cept some slight change in the annual in- 
creases since 1913. Other groups have fared 
somewhat better. The maximum for grade 
manual teachers was increased $200 in 
1913, and grade domestic science teachers 
the same amount. 

Before the war, St Paul was already be- 
hind the salary schedule for cities of its class. 
Minneapolis grade teachers were then $200 
in advance of the St Paul schedule. In addi- 
tion, this year Minneapolis gave its teachers 
a flat emergency salary award of $50 and 
there appears to be a reasonable certainty 
that teachers in Minneapolis, aside from 


The American Teacher 


129 


being placed on a greatly increased schedule, 
will be granted an emergency award of $200 
for the coming year. 

What has St Paul done for its teachers 
during the time in which the cost of living 
has gone steadily upward? Is it good ad- 
vertising for the city that we pay our teach- 
ers inexcusable salaries? In the salary 
schedule which has been presented by the 
teachers there is a demand for an emergency 
salary award of $100, to be effective on or 
before June, 1919. We believe it should be 
granted. 

The teachers have submitted their salary 
demands to the Department of Education 
which will, as the ordinance is brought up 
for passage, come before your honorable 
body. We believe they are justified in their 
demands. If a teacher is worth employing, 
she is worth $1000 a year. Let us draw your 
attention to but one comparison in commer- 
cial life. 

A young man or woman may go into one 
of our great railroad offices from the grade 
schools and earn $1050 without preparation. 
This is the minimum paid clerks. After six 
years additional training beyond the grade 
schools, St Paul pays its first year grade 
teachers $600, and after years of experience, 
the maximum grade teachers $1000. What 
inducement is there to enter the teaching 
profession ? 

Other things being equal, experience is a 
teacher’s greatest asset. Shall our maximum 
salaries be high enough to hold teachers in 
the profession? We believe the teachers are 
justified in the figure at which they have put 
the maximums. Salaries should be large 
enough for decent living, something beyond 
the bare necessities, something for culture 
and enjoyment, and something for saving. 
Teachers, in common with all workers, 
should not face an indigent old age. 

We would not have you believe that we 
have not weighed the interests of the other 
departments. We ask that you give them 
due consideration. An examination of the 
salaries of the supervising departments will 
show that there have been reasonably ade- 





130 


quate advances during recent years to care 
for the increased cost of living. Since 1913 
at various times, of the assistant superinten- 
dents, one has received a $900 increase, one 
$700, one $500, one $300, one $200 and one 
$250. In addition, according to report of the 
Civil Service Bureau of 1918, the Department 
of Education has given special increases to 15 
teachers, thru resignations and immedi- 
ate reappointment at figures ranging from 
$150 to $300 in advance. Also the super- 
visors of special departments such as draw- 
ing, music and physical training have had 
additional assistants given them, and this 
must have a bearing on the question of their 
salaries. 


Can there be any difference of opinion that 
our elementary schools must receive the 
greater portion of the attention of not only 
our educational experts but of the layman as 
well? They enroll the greater number of the 
children. Hundreds of pupils never go be- 
yond the eighth grade. Upon their efficiency 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VIII, No. 6 


depends the future of the child’s career, if 
he is to have one. 

St Paul cannot afford to lose the oppor- 
tunity of holding its place as a great indus- 
trial and commercial center of the northwest. 
We shall need, as we have never before 
needed, expertly trained men and women, not 
only in the professions, but in all the fields 
of industry. If our boys and girls are to be 
ready to take advantage of the openings that 
appear to be coming in the near future, it 
means specialized training of every kind en- 
tirely dependent on the foundations laid in 
the grade schools. If these lower schools 
cannot retain their best teachers, if their 
standards deteriorate, then we cannot hope 
that our children shall be able to compete in 
life with these from other localities where 
the common schools have not been neglected. 

And more seriously by far, it will mean a 
lower level of intelligence in the coming 
generation when education and training will 
count among the city’s assets as they never 
counted before. 


Symposium on Teachers’ Unions 


This symposium on teachers’ unions is made up of the opinions of newspaper editors thruout the 
country. These opinions will at least serve to indicate that the editors are thinking on the problem of 


organization for teachers. 
movement among teachers is favorable. 
sight of by teachers. 


with what we are trying to do in the union movement. 


CONCERNING A UNION OF TEACHERS 
However people may feel toward the organiza- 
tion of a teachers’ union, it is a pretty safe bet that 
most of them would join such a movement if they 
were teachers. Undoubtedly the idea presents some 
disagreeable possibilities, but the tendencies of the 
day, as well as circumstances immediately connected 
with the teaching profession, favor it. School teach- 
ers, as a general proposition, are ruthlessly under- 
paid. Their appeals for relief have fallen on pretty 
deaf ears. They face the necessity of turning to 
some other business or of securing better compen- 
sation by a method which has been proven fairly 
efficient, and which is apparently the only one lef 
them. eo 
It is of no use for individuals or newspaper to 
yowl in opposition to a school teachers’ union, or try 
to make it appear that the desirability of such a 
union is less obvious than it is in any other trade 
or profession. They enjoy the same rights, labor 
under the same handicaps and are sure to adopt the 


For the most part editorial opinion on union organization as a natural 
The value of free discussion on this subject must not be lost 
Moreover, every facility should be extended to the editors to become acquainted 


—Editor, The American Teacher 


same methods of working out their problems as do 
other groups of employees. The thought of a strike 
on their part may be peculiarly appalling, tho 
largely because the public would find itself more 
directly affected. It is to be hoped, of course, that 
nothing of the kind will eventuate, and the teachers 
are to be congratulated for adopting an attitude cal- 
culated to discourage it. At the same time, if unfair 
depression of pay is persisted in, it is only sensible 
to expect that there will either be a great exodus 
from the teaching profession, or that the teachers 
will resort to drastic measures. 

The organization of teachers-unions has really 
been forced by the public, and the teachers are 
nowhere nearly so responsible for the movement as 
are the boards and communities which have refused 
to recognize the justice of their appeals. Compared 
with the advance of wages in other fields, and com- 
pared with the increased cost of living, the com- 
pensation allowed school teachers is far too low. 
It is not such as to enable them to live on a parity 





June, 1919 


with people in similarly classed lines of work, and 
it is not such as will attract smart, wideawake men 
and women. 

The great fault with unions, whether trade or 
professional, is that they are directed more definitely 
toward securing of greater income than toward in- 
creased proficiency, but usually they are driven into 
being by lack of proper income, and that this is pal- 
pably the case with respect to school teachers there 
can be little doubt. The question for us to solve 
is not whether there will be a teachers’ union, and 
one which will probably develop to nation-wide pro- 
portions but whether the teaching profession shall 
be so relieved as will influence that union to devote 
its attention to improving the educational system 
rather than to a chronic bicker over salaries.— 
Editorial in The Houston (Texas) Chronicle of April 
7, 1919. ' 


UNIONISM AMONG TEACHERS 

The Galveston-Dallas News does not take kindly 
to the unionization of the public school teachers, for 
the reason that the American Federation of Teachers 
is allied with the American Federation of Labor, 
whose units relv ultimately on strikes to accomplish 
their ends. 

It is declared that those who join the American 
Federation of Teachers “are not subject to call for 
strike.” So even if the Federation of Teachers be 
allied with the Federation of Labor, it does not neces- 
sarily follow that federation members have to strike. 

But apart from the strike, which is not to be a 
weapon of the teachers, their union cannot only do 
much for the individual teacher, but it will do for 
the individual what the individual cannot hope to 
do herself. 

It happens in too many cases that some helpless 
young woman incurs the displeasure of a man over- 
lord and suffers such penalty as he may visit upon 
her, either directly or indirectiy, without any detailed 
examination of her treatment by impartial author- 
ity. If her cause could be pleaded by the united 
voice of all the teachers, reinforced by other organ- 
izations, there would be ears to hear her. 

One reason why the teachers of the United States 
have endured the hardships of the war period with 
no compensating increase of pay is that they were 
not organized. And another reason is that the great 
majority of them are women. 

The affiliation of the teachers’ union with organ- 
ized labor will be advantageous because of the cir- 
cumstance that three-fourths of the teachers being 
women, the chivalrous impulses of union men will be 
aroused to the well-being of these women to whose 
care and tenderness are confided the training of their 
children. 

Union men will thus add the strength of their 
great influence not only to the cause of the teach- 
ers, but to the cause of education itself. 


The American 


Teacher 131 


Unionism is not inimical to the public service when 
it exists upon a proper basis and adheres to sound 
principles, and no one is warranted in assuming 
that so intelligent a body as the teachers would at- 
tempt to secure recognition of any character that 
went beyond the bounds of justice and courtesy. Thé 
fact that it frequently happens that the individual 
teacher can obtain neither justice nor courtesy shows 
that the present system is at fault and perhaps col- 
lective insistence upon them may prove more satis- 
factory. 

Unionism will bring the teachers into a still more 
intimate relation with the patrons of the school, or 
possibly it would be better stated to say that it will 
bring the patrons into more active sympathy with 
the teachers, and thus obtain for the teachers a sure 
and more sympathetic hearing at the hands of school 
authorities. 

In this way, too, the people will obtain a larger 
voice in school matters than at present, at least in 
cities like Houston, where the school trustees are 
appointive, and where there is no immediate way 
for the public to be heard in matters of organiza- 
tion or policy, save by raising the issue in the elec- 
tion of the mayor, who appoints the trustees, who 
in turn elect a superintendent and, upon his recom- 
mendation—rarely deviated from—such teachers as 
serve the system. 

We believe there is no room to doubt that the teach- 
ing standards of Houston and other features of the 
system will be more effectually raised thru the teach- 
ers themselves acting unitedly, and out of a sense 
of professional pride, than has been the case here- 
tofore. And there will be many improvements when 
the teaching body can speak collectively and advise 
collectively, for then the rule of repression will neces- 
sarily give way and a spirit of genuine democracy 
be substituted for it. 

Surely if the public school system is entitled to 
be called the cradle of democracy, there ought to be 
at least enough of democracy in the operating force 
to be heard upon every vital issue pertaining either 
to the well-being of the teaching force or the train- 
ing of the children. ’ 

There is, of course, a possibility of the abuse of 
the true spirit of unionism in this newest Houston 
union, but The Post feels that it can state without 
reservation, from its own knowledge of the Houston 
teachers, that they will not violate any public in- 
terest thru the instrumentality of their organization, 
that they will correct the faults of the system which 
have resulted in injustice to them, and that alto- 
gether they will bring about many notable improve- 
ments.—Editorial in The Houston (Texas) Post of 
April 3, 1919. 


ORGANIZATION VS AFFILIATION 
The teachers of Philadelphia are discussing the 
question as to whether or not they shall organize, 





132 


and, if they organize, whether or not they shall 
affiliate with union labor. 

There has been a good deal of foolish and mis- 
chievous opposition to organization among teachers. 
The instructors of our children have common in- 
terests and common aspirations; they also have com- 
mon difficulties and are beset by common perils. 
There is no reason why teachers should not organize 
for mutual consultation and comfort, for common 
study of their difficulties and problems, for some 
agreement as to difficulties to be presented or re- 
quests’ to be made, for securing united action when 
deciding the time, place, and manner for presenting 
their requests and the information to support those 
requests, for agreement upon the methods and 
agencies to be used in pressing their requests or 
making plain their needs to those who have the 
power to relieve them. 

Clear as is the right of teachers to organize and 
much good as organization has done and may do, it 
will be exceedingly unfortunate if teachers, after 
organizing, ally themselves with other organizations, 
particularly with organizations which have for their 
purpose the advancement of the interests of any 
particular class of persons. 

In the case of many classes of persons, engaged 
in many different employments, it is only indirectly 
the concern of the public what those persons may 
do in the way of organization, or with whom they 
may decide to work for the advancement of their 
interests. Teachers in our public educational sys- 
tem, however, occupy a place apart. They must 
maintain an attitude of fairness and open-minded- 
ness, and friendliness towards all the children of all 
the people in the community. Children of laboring 
men and merchants and bankers and farmers and 
professional men and traveling salesmen and musi- 
cians, all attend the public schools. The teacher 
must give instruction in the fundamentals of knowl- 
edge, and likewise in the fundamentals of conduct, 
without discrimination or distinction. The teacher 
cannot favor the one class or the other in his teach- 
ings or in his sentiments, without departing from 
the attitude of impartiality which makes fair play 
for all the children of all the people possible. 

If an organization of teachers were to ally itself 
with the Chamber of Commerce of United States of 
America, such an act would at once lay that organ- 
ization of teachers under suspicion. The act would 
be observed by the public with the notion that what- 
ever the organization of teachers might do, their 
judgment would be influenced by affiliation with the 
great commercial organization. On the other hand, 
if the organization of teachers should ally itself 
with the non-partisan league of farmers, and de- 
pend upon their votes, and their influence, to get 
for the organization the benefits which they de- 
sire, teachers, members of such an organization, 
could hardly occupy any longer a position of impar- 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VIII, No. 6 


tiality, or entertain unprejudiced or unbiased views, 

In the same way, if an organization of teachers 
should ally itself with a labor organization, it would 
forthwith place itself in a situation where an im- 
personal view of matters in controversy would har ily 
be possible. Members of such an organization could 
no longer exercise that fine impartiality which is 
one of the essential qualities of the ideal teacher in 
an American school. 

It should never be necessary for teachers to do 
more than to perfect their own organization, com- 
posed of members of their own profession and d¢al- 
ing with their problems in a professional way. There 
have been a few instances in which the life of these 
associations and the welfare of their members were 
threatened by powerful interests apparently deter- 
mined to destroy the teachers’ organization. In these 
cases it has sometimes seemed necessary to the mem- 
bers that they affiliate themselves with some exist- 
ing strong organization, with large membership, in 
order that their own organization might not be 
crushed. In general, however, the members of the 
community are interested in the welfare of the teach- 
ers and quite ready to listen to arguments presented 
on their behalf. 

The heart of the great public is generally right 
towards its schools and towards the teachers in 
them. It is usually possible for the teachers, thru 
their own organizations, to prepare their case with 
sufficient detail, and sufficiently well reinforced by 
the facts upon which they base their claims for bet- 
ter working conditions or increased pay, so that 
when properly presented, the public will listen and 
grant the relief asked for. It is very rarely neces- 
sary, by an alliance with special classes or interests 
in the community, to arouse the antagonisms and 
create the prejudices which are quite certain to come 
when teachers ally themselves with one interest or 
another. Disastrous acrimonies and enmities seldom 
fail to develop sooner or later, under such circum- 
stances. 

All good wishes, therefore, to the Philadelphia 
teachers. May they have'the wisdom to complete 
and perfect an inclusive and effective organization 
of their own. May all the teachers in all the pub- 
lic schools of the city join heartily in the movement; 
but after they have formed their organization, may 
they retain their poise and their independence and 
avoid “entangling alliances” which will, in advance, 
commit them to certain predetermined views on m:ny 
questions on which their opinion may be sought and 
their cooperation and assistance asked for.—Editorial 
in The American School of February, 1919. 


One answer that may be given to this 
opinion of The American School is the fact 
that the Philadelphia teachers have organ- 
ized, and are affiliated with The American 
Federation of Teachers. They started. out in 





June, 1919 


March with about sixty members. In less 
than a month they have increased their mem- 
bership to one hundred and seventy-five. The 
editor of The American School is Dr Carroll 
G Pearse, of Milwaukee, Chairman of the 
Board of Trustees of the National Education 
Association. Answer to the arguments were 
given in the February and March numbers 
of THE AMERICAN TEACHER.—Editor, The 
American Teacher. 


TEACHERS AND UNIONISM 

The New York Board of Education has thrown 
down the gauntlet of mortal defiance to the Teachers’ 
Union. ‘The board intends to prohibit the union 
from further use of school buildings for holding its 
meetings. As a reason for this drastic action, the 
board alleges, first, that the union is unduly critical 
of constituted authority as represented in the Board 
of Education; and, secondly, that the sentiments ut- 
tered by speakers of the union have been disloyal 
to the Government. This incident marks the climax 
of a struggle that has been waged by an insistent 
minority of the teachers, representing less than five 
per cent of the entire teaching staff in the New 
York schools, for “Democracy in Education and 
Education for Democracy.” The other ninety-five 
per cent are either apathetic to the issues involved, 
or are unwilling to join a union in which radicals 
predominate. 

In carrying out its program of reform the union 
has consistently fought the ipse dixit attitude of the 
New York educational authorities both in and out 
of the class room. At times it has criticized them 
with much heat and asperity. The union has stead- 
ily maintained that the teachers ought to have a 
greater voice in the management of the schools, that 
they should be protected from the necessity of kow- 
towing to supervisors, that teachers ought to be 
given an opportunity to express themselves freely on 
all matters connected with educational policy. Not 
even their staunchest defender can say that in pur- 
suing their aims these teachers have always been 
discreet; but they have undoubtedly been the ideal- 
istic leaven in a system. stodgy in its apathy and 
incapable—because of its veneration for stereotyped 
forms of thought and a super-Chinese deference for 
tradition—of real progress. 

In the matter of disloyalty—a most serious charge, 
if true—Henry R Linville, the president of the union, 
has this to say: 

All suggestions of disloyalty thrown out pos- 
sibly from official sources are beside the issue. 
‘he record of the union is absolutely clear in 
this matter of loyalty. The ideas presented at 
our mee of March 29, to which the board 


objects, i no cornection with loyalty or dis- 
loyalty. The part to which the board objects 


The American Teacher 


133 


was in criticism of the board in denying to us 
the privilege of having a certain member speak 
at our meeting. 

It would seem from this that the hue and cry of 


disloyalty, one easy to raise in the present hysterical 
state of the public’s nerves, is the proverbial her- 
ring drawn across the trail to disguise the scent. It 
is strongly akin to the charge of Bolshevism levelled 
indiscriminately because of its unsavory implica- 
tions. There is much food for thought in the Freu- 
dian admission contained in the following extract 
from the New York Tribune: 

The names of many of the union members—of 
whom there are about 800 out of the 22 000 pub- 
lic school teachers in greater New York—are, 
it was said at the Board of Education last night, 
distinctively foreign. 

There are some people to whom a Jewish name 
sans camouflage is sufficient evidence to convict the 
bearer of all of the seven cardinal sins not to men- 
tion any of the minor lapses. The agitation against 
things “foreign” seems to be the fad of the moment. 
It must not be forgotten by those who are so ready 
to assail “foreigners” that only a miserable four 
centuries on American soil is all that the most “blue- 
blooded” can claim. Jones, Smith & Robinson are 
aliens, compared to Big Chief Rain-in-the-Face and 
Medicine-Man Snake-in-the-Grass. This talk of 
“foreigners” is seldom indulged in by hardy stock, 
sensible of past sacrifices and ready for sacrifices to 
come. Rather is it part of the slogan adopted by 
effete and ennervated families who, because of ster- 
ility of achievement, are forced to dwell almost en- 
tirely on memories of a by-gone age when their an- 
cestors were active. No American should yield one 
inch of ground to this mock aristocracy of pathetic 
human relics. 

The contest between the Board of Education and 
the Teachers Union will be watched with interest 
by the entire Jewish community and judged solely 
on its merits. Our long struggle against “consti- 
tuted authority,” as represented by tyrannical states 
too numerous to mention, has taught us to respect 
principles rather than persons and justice rather 
than presumption.—Editorial in The American 
Hebrew of April 18, 1919. 


The Beginning 
In the London County Council elections, which 
have just taken place, six teachers or former teach- 
ers have proved successful in their candidatures. 
Of these, Mr Gautrey, the late secretary to the 
London Teachers’ Association, was returned without 
a contest, and Mr Pincombe, the present secretary, 


won a seat in South London. Four of the six be- 
long to one party on the council and two to the 
other. This is thought to be a wiser course than 
to attach the teachers’ organizations to one party 
alone.—From The Christian Science Monitor of May 
16, 1919. 





What We Have Accomplished* 


W T McCoy, 
President, Chicago Federation of Men Teachers, Local No 2, A F of T 


tions have accomplished a great num- 

ber of very important things, and I am 
convinced that they have. I might name a 
list of fifty or one hundred activities in which 
the federations have engaged in the ‘past 
seven years, and claim them as federation ac- 
complishments. It is true that in many of 
the efforts which the organized high school 
teachers of Chicago have made for the bene- 
fit of the schools in the wider sense, as well 
as those which have been to the immediate 
advantage of the teachers, the federations 
have been the leaders in initiating action. In 
other cases they have shared leadership with 
the other organizations; in still others they 
have joined vigorously in support where 
others have taken the lead. It is obvious on 
the face of it that where there are a number 
of organizations in a common field with peo- 
p'e of the same general points of view, train- 
ing and equipment, a large group of common 
ends will be envisaged by several or all of 
these organizations at about the same time. 
The clearest proof that this has been true 
was the formation of a Central Commtitee 
which should coordinate the efforts of the 
various high school organizations. One of 
the things which I can claim freely for the 
federation is the steady growth in their ranks 
of this spirit of cooperation. 

To enumerate the most important activi- 
ties in which the federations have been en- 
gaged: 

They have brought Union Labor in Chi- 
cago and Illinois to a systematic backing of 
the welfare of the public schools and of the 
teachers. This great body of men and wo- 
men of Labor have shown their desire to help 
the union teachers to achieve their aims and 
have shown willingness to counsel with them 


I T is an easy thing to say that the federa- 


* Report presented at a dinner given by the High School 
Federations in honor of Mrs Hedwig Hochbaum Hume, First 
President of the Federation of Women High School Teachers, 
Local No 8, A F of T 


in formulating educational programs. Their 
solid support in times of trial have made pos- 
sible many a success where, without it, fail- 
ure was inevitable. 

The Chicago Teachers’ Federation led in 
the fight on tax dodgers and did its full share 
in financing that victory. 

The federations joined other teachers or- 
ganizations in educating the public against 
the Cooley Bill and winning the fight against 
the vicious dual system. 

They took a similar part in the matter of 
vocational education, and in state and na- 
tional legislation for it. 

They fought the six hour day with five and 
a half hours’ pay. 

They have attacked and are attacking the 
vicious school tax system of Illinois. 

They assisted in the teachers’ tenure cam- 
paign. 

They fought the Loeb proposition for 7.5 
per cent cut in salaries. 

They put mayoralty candidates on record . 
as to their school policies. 

They fought for investigation and pub- 
licity of schoo] funds and expenditures. 

They fought the unjust and unreasonable 
punishment of teachers in a number of in- 
dividual cases. 

They continually protested against the un- 
fairness of our city papers, showing them up 
time and again, and unceasingly educating 
the public as to their untrustworthiness. 

They have sent a representative to Spring- 
field at -all critical times in legislation for 
schools. 

They have broadened their scope to include 
the battle for progressive legislation to limit 
the hours of labor for women and children, 
and to improve conditions of work. 

They battled against the infamous Loeb 
rule, which was forced into its present state 
of quiescence. 


134 





June, 1919 


They organized the American Federation 
of Teachers and took the chief responsibility 
for its first two years of development. 

They were the first in the fight for salary 
restoration and a shortened schedule. 

They formulated and presented to the 
Board of Education convincing evidence of 
the wrong ratio of teachers to pupils and of 
overcrowding, and other evil conditions in 
the class rooms. 

They collected and administered the Emer- 
gency Fund to right a wrong done by the 
Board of Education. : 

They championed the teachers’ control of 
the teachers’ Pension Fund. 

They helped to bring about legislation re- 
organizing the Chicago Board of Education. 

They helped win tenure legislation. 

They have been among the foremost in 
every salary fight. 

They forced recognition of the right of 
high school teachers to become high school 
principals. 

They cooperated with other organizations 
to secure high school teachers’ councils. 

They are at work on the educational fea- 
tures of the new State Constitution. 

Among the great achievements for which 
the federations can claim sole credit I think 
are these: 

The development of a broader conception 
of the functions and relations of the teacher 
and an identification of his fundamental in- 
terests as a worker with those of other work- 
ers. 

The growth of a whole new body of ideals 
for teachers from the highest to the lowest 
and of a new spirit of independence and self- 
respect thru all their ranks. 

I should fail in my purpose, if, in closing, I 
neglected the tribute due to the men and wo- 
men who have served the federation on their 
executive boards. Thru fair and foul weath- 
er, by wise counsel, by faithful and toilsome 
committee work, at no light cost of personal 
sacrifice, of precious time and of money, these 
men and women have justified the faith in 
them shown by the federations. They de- 
serve the gratitude of all the teachers. 


The American Teacher 


The Educational Bill 


(Smith-Towner Bill Revised) 
FOR A DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND FED- 
ERAL AID 
NTRODUCED at the opening of the Sixty- 
| sixth Congress by Congressman Horace 
Mann Towner, of Iowa, at the request 
of the National Education Association, the 
American Federation of Teachers and the 
American Federation of Labor. 
Subject Matter by Sections 
Sec. 1. Creates Department of Education and 
Secretary of Education. 
2. Assistant Secretary and other subordi- 
nate positions. 
Transfer of offices, bureaus, etc., to 

Department of Education. 

. Powers and duties of Secretary of 
Education. 

. Duties and scope of Department. 

. Appropriation of $500,000 for admin- 
istrative purposes. 

. Appropriation of $100,000,000 to be ap- 
portioned as specified. 

. Apportionment of $7,500,000 for re- 
moval of illiteracy. 

. Apportionment of 
Americanization. 

. Apportionment of $50,000,000 for 
equalizing educational opportuni- 
ties. 

. Apportionment of $20,000,000 for phy- 
sical education, including health 
education and sanitation. 

. 12. Apportionment of $15,000,000 for prep- 
aration of teachers. 
.13. Conditions under which States may 
receive apportionments. 
.14. Administration of Act by state and 
local authorities. 
Duties of Secretary of Education in 
relation to States. 
Duties of Secretary of the Treasury 
in relation to the Act. 
Reports of States on administration 
of the Act. 
Reports of Secretary of Education to 

Congress. 

Sec. 19. Date of taking effect and repealing 


Sec. 


Sec. 3. 


$7,500,000 for 


Sec. 15. 
Sec. 16. 
Sec. 17. 
Sec. 18. 


clause. 
Abraham Lincoln once declared that he 
hoped the day would come when this country 
would guarantee to all “an unfettered start 


and a fair chance in the race of life.” The 
purpose of this bill is to hasten that day. 





From the Locals of the American Federation 
of Teachers 


Staff of Chairmen of Press 
Committees 


Local No. 3, Chicago, Ill, Eruer E BErers 

Local No. 5, New York, N Y, Witmer T 
STONE 

Local No. 
ULRIcH 

Local No. 
L Lapson. 

Local No. 25, Norfolk, Va, Juttan S. Hucu- 
SON 

Note: The names of the Chairmen of other 
Press Committees will be added as they are re- 
ceived from the locals. 


From Local No. 5. 


(The Teachers Union, New York) 

Local No 5, New York, is so used to mis- 
fortune that the dismissal of another mem- 
ber is no surprise. Perhaps our friends and 
fellows of the American Federation of 
Teachers will also get used to hearing news 
of that kind from Gotham. Our member, 
Benjamin Glassberg, has been dismissed 
from the service for “conduct unbecoming a 
teacher.” And why not? 

The educational system that prefers 
charges against a teacher is pledged perforce 
to justify the charges. The system selects 


8, Washington, D C, SUSANNE 


16, Washington, D C, GERTRUDE 


its own witnesses, refuses to call witnesses 
it does not like, coaches the witnesses it does 


like, and terrifies pupil witnesses of the op- 
position, as it did in this case. The system 
is represented at the trial by the superinten- 
dent who made the charge, by the lawyer 
who makes his living backing up the system, 
and by the judges, the members of the Board 
of Education, bound by the system to sup- 
port their immediate servants. We are com- 
pelled to say in all frankness fhat the judg- 
ment of guilty is the natural outcome. The 
teacher has no chance whatever, a condition 


for which eventually the teachers themselves 
are to blame. 

The Teachers Union, Local No 5, is print- 
ing for sale at cost the admirable statement 
of the case as made to the Board of Educa- 
tion of New York at the close of the trial. 
The counsel of the Union, Mr Gilbert E Roe, 
has prepared this statement concerning the 
facts and the issues in the case at the request 

‘of the Union. Teachers thruout the country 

are urged to send in their orders for copies, 
for never before have some of the funda- 
mental issues of freedom been more clearly 
formulated. 

The cost of the statement is 15 cents; 28 
pages. Address: The Teachers Union, 70 
Fifth Ave., New York. 


THE NEW YORK SALARY FIGHT 


HEN the revolution of March, 1917, 
overthrew the world’s worst au- 
tocracy, the sun of democracy be- 


W 


gan to peep from behind the clouds and shed 
its bright rays over the politica] and indus- 
trial world. Everywhere the people strove 


to make democracy real. This movement 
manifested itself not only in the industrial 
field, but also in our schools. In New York 
City the Teachers Union soon realized that 
its program of educational democracy could 
not be successfully carried out so long as the 
schools could neither attract new teachers, 
nor hold the able ones already in the service. 
Every appeal to teachers to help promote 
the spread of democracy in the schools fell on 
deaf ears, because all their energies were 
being absorbed by the problem of making a 
43-cent-dollar purchase 100 cents’ worth of 
goods. 

Accordingly, in September, 1916, the 
Teachers Union began a campaign for salary 
adjustment, which finally culminated in a 
hearing granted by William G Wilcox, Presi- 
dent of the Republican Board of Education. 


136 


. 





June, 1919 


The Teachers Union and various other as- 
sociations presented their arguments for sal- 
ary increases but the Board of Education, 
expecting to go out of existence soon, did 
nothing. As many of the teachers had helped 
the democratic administration to get into 
power, they hoped for much from the new 
board under the presidency of Arthur S 
Somers. The new board appointed a salary 
committee to study the problem. It held 
three salary hearings, gathered a mass of 
evidence, but made no tangible effort to ad- 
just salaries adequately. But Superinten- 
dent Ettinger, realizing that the increased 
cost of living was undermining the morale of 
the teaching corps and depleting the force, 
asked the city administration for the piti- 
fully small sum of about $3,000,000 to pro- 
vide increases for 23,000 teachers, and re- 
ceived but $1,800,000. This action aroused 
the teachers to such a fury that they rushed 
to Albany with several salary measures. 
With 57 varieties of teachers’ organizations 
fighting one another, success seemed unat- 
tainable. 

The Teachers Union, acting upon the ad- 
vice of the president of the State Federation 
of Labor, James P Holland, fought for 
months to get the various associations to 
unite upon a single measure, but all its efforts 
proved abortive. Thereupon the writer, act- 
ing for local No 5, requested President Hol- 
land to inform the Committee of Education 
of the Legislature that organized labor would 
support a committee state-wide salary bill. 
The Teachers Union submitted figures for 
New York City salaries which, with but 
slight modifications, were adopted by Senator 
Charles C Lockwood and incorporated into 
the measure prepared by him and passed 
and then signed by that sterling champion 
of labor, Governor Alfred E Smith. This 
law, which will cost New York City alone 
from 15 to 18 million dollars a year when 
in full operation, is state-wide in its scope, 
and provides equal pay for all teachers in 
the state regardless of sex. Its provisions 
are as follows: 

1. The salaries of all rural school] teach- 


The American Teacher 


137 


ers are increased $100 annually, this sum to 
be furnished by the state. 

2. The teachers in elementary schools in 
cities of the first, second, and third classes 
are to receive minimum salaries ranging from 
$720 to $800 with at least eight annual in- 
crements no smaller than what they are now 
receiving. The minimum salaries in the high 
schools of the above cities are fixed at sums 
varying from $1,000 to $1,200 with eight an- 
nual increments not less than the increments 
they are now receiving. 

8. For cities of the first class having a 
population of one million or over, that is, 
for New York City, it provides for an aver- 
age annual increase of about $600 per teacher 
to be reached in three years: one-third in 
1920. two-thirds in 1921, and all of it in 1922. 
This provision was accepted in order to make 
the initial cost much smaller and, therefore, 
more acceptable to the politicians. More- 
over, by making increases automatic when- 
ever services are satisfactory, it eliminates 
the “superior merit” provision from the high 
schools thereby making it impossible for a 
principal or superintendent to reward super- 
ior subserviency and to punish independence 
of judgment and criticism of superiors. The 
detailed schedules for New York City are 
as follows: 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 

Kindergarten to 6B grade, $1,005 to $2,160, 
to be reached in 11 annual increments. 

7A-9B grade, $1,350 to $2,700, to be 
reached in 9 annual increments. 

Special teachers, the same as 7A—9B group. 

Assistant to principal, $2,800 to $3,000, to 
be reached in 2 annual increments. 

Principals, $3,000 to $4,000, to be reached 
in 4 annual increments. 

HIGH SCHOOLS 

Assistant teachers, $1,350 to $3,150, to be 
reached in 12 annual increments. 

First assistants, $2,650 to $3,650, to be 
reached in 5 annual increments. 

Clerks, Lab Assts, etc., $1,000 to $2,000, 
to be reached in 10 annual increments. 
Principal, $5,000 to $5,500, to be reached in 
2 annual increments. 





138 


Why was this achievement less noteworthy 
than it would have been had the teachers 
been fully organized? First, because the 
teachers had the undivided and enthusiastic 
support of organized labor in both city and 
state. Secondly, because the teachers, at the 
last moment, united behind Senator Lock- 
wood’s State-wide Salary Bill; and, lastly, 
because the same economic forces that have 
made the industrial worker a class-conscious 
intelligent being fully aware of the value of 
his services to the community, have at last 
forced the educated but still unwordly teach- 
ers to analyze the idle pratings of politicians 
and business men who dominated our educa- 
tional system. They looked facts in the face 
and found that ignorant day laborers were 
getting an initial salary which they, the most 
educated (I was about to say intelligent) 
group in the community, did not receive until 
they had been in service for 16 years! Re- 
alizing, at last, how shamefully they were be- 
ing exploited, they fought desperately and 
vigorously for a living wage. Had they been 
under a common leadership they would not 
only have secured more adequate and scien- 
tific salary legislation, but they would also 
have raised teaching to the dignity of a pro- 
fession, giving each teacher a share in the ad- 
ministration of the schools. Such an organ- 
ization of 23,000 teachers, actuated by the 
professional idealism which animates the 
unionized teachers of America, would be the 
greatest power for good in the community 
and the best guarantee against future teach- 
er’ exploitation. May this heroic three-year 
struggle show the teachers that in wnioniza- 
tion lies the salvation of the teaching pro- 
’ fession, and of America. 

ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ, 
DeWitt Clinton High School, New York. 


From Local No. 45 
(Teachers’ Federation, Mahanoy City, Pa) 
UR union is a live wire organization. 
We started with one hundred percent 
membership. The teachers are tak- 
ing much interest in the movement. They 


The American 


Teacher Vol. VIII, No. 6 


all feel that “organization was the long- 
wanted need.” All are firm believers in that 
glorious saying, “In unity there is strength.” 

We owe our success to Mr D W Davis, 
Kewanee, Illinois, an international organizer 
for the United Mine Workers of America 
who, by his long experience in the labor 
movement, started us properly. He gave us 
a very interesting and instructive talk on the 
great benefits obtained thru the trade unions. 
Mr Davis called the meeting to order, per- 
fected the organization and obligated the 
officers. He was assisted by Mr Owen Cros- 
sen, Mahanoy City, Pa, board member for 
the United Mine Workers. Mr Davis ad- 
vised each teacher to pay one dollar initiation 
fee. We did it, and established a treasury 
which enabled us to pay for our charter and 
also to become affiliated with the National 
Federation of Labor, Pennsylvania State 
Teachers Federation and Mahanoy City, Cen- 
tral Labor Body. 

I trust the day is not far off when our 
national office will be in a position to place 
more field workers out to increase our mem- 
bership. The teachers should have one of 
the greatest and best organizations affiliated 
with the great American Labor Movement. 

BINA M RYAN, 
President, Local No 45. 





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 StTecker, Chicago, 
1618 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, II. 


National Organizer; First Vice-President, 
L V Lampson, Washington, D. C., 
1886 Otis Place, N. W. 





June, 1919 








“ Tendencies in Trade Union Development,” by 
George Milton James. Reprint from the Quar- 
terly Journal of the University of North Da- 
kota, Vol. IX, No. 2, January, 1919, pp. 169-180. 


The author states that “The trend of present-day 
development may be readily seen by an examination 
of the policies of various organizations which, on 
account of more or less similarity, may be divided 
into the following four groups: (1) Organizations 
whose members are employed directly by the Federal 
Government; (2) unions formed of men holding Fed- 
eral licenses; (3) train-service organizations whose 
members are employed on the railroads, and (4) 
a miscellaneous group at various stages of devel- 
opment.” 

In every group the unions started as fraternal 
and beneficiary organizations more or less in har- 
mony with the employing or managing body, but 
development has been along the line of greater 
and greater demands for economic rights, until at 
present nearly all of the organized bodies are clearly 
established on a policy of economic betterment for 
the entire group. There is, however, an exception 
to the rule of the employment of the strike in the 
case of government employees. Owing to the issue 
of a possible strike that was brought up in connec- 
tion with the National Federation of Post Office 
Clerks the American Federation of Labor, at its na- 
tional convention in 1911, adopted a resolution to 
the effect that the A F of L is “most emphatically 
opposed to strikes in the postal service as a means 
to bring about the improvement of working condi- 
tions in the service.” The stand taken by the A F 
of L has had important bearing in settling the re- 
lation of unions of public service employees in this 
country to the strike. But the author calls atten- 
tion to the fact that the attitude of the present 
Postmaster General is still clearly unfriendly to the 
postal service unions. In spite of the general op- 
position to striking on the part of public service 
employees, the recent successful strike of the Lon- 
don police indicates that the issue of the strike 
for public employees is still an open one. 

The author says that the “most advanced move- 
ment in the miscellaneous group is found in the 
American Federation of Teachers, organized April 
15 1916, and affiliated with the American Federation 
of Labor, which on November 18, 1919, included 
thirty-three local (at this writing fifty-three) 
unions stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
with one in the Canal Zone.” 

Professor Janes has written an intelligent and 
scientific study which will go far toward indicating 
that the development of unionism is a normal so- 
ciological process. 


“Imperial England,” by Cecil Fairfield Lavell and 
Charles Edward Payne. New York: The Mac- 
millan Company. $2.00, net. 

Since world federation is the problem of the hour, 
Imperial England, dealing with the solution of the 
imperial problems of the greatest empire, is timely 
indeed. In their well written volume Professors 
Lavell and Payne show that the trend of British 


The American 


BOOK NOTES 


Teacher 139 


imperialism has been characterized by three distinct 
phases: First, the policy of repression so notable 
in the treatment of the American Colonies and un- 
fortunate Ireland; second, the more advanced step 
of recognizing the fact that conquered peoples have 
certain rights such as the right to retain their lan- 
guage, customs, and to take a subordinate share in 
the administration; last, the policy of enlightened 
liberalism based on the modern principle of self- 
determinism. 

Fascinating indeed is their story of how England 
blundered into empire, how she muddled thru and 
finally evolved an imperial policy based on a scien- 
tific study of the problems that confronted her. Eng- 
land’s recognition of the ultimate right of her col- 
onies to self-government justified itself fully in the 
World War in which she was loyally supported by 
her colonies especially by the Boers under General 
Botha, their former commander-in-chief. Her policy 
is to undergo its acid test among the brilliant, pas- 
sionate, mercurial and embittered Irish, but that 
policy should ultimately triumph, since the war has 
taught the world a new lesson, that human sympathy 
and justice are more important in the solution of 
imperial problems than political boundaries, political 
forms or systems of law. To those who have to deal 
with the problem of local autonomy and world fed- 
eration, the history of England’s imperial admin- 
istration will prove both instructive and interesting. 


For Senate Inquiry of Miss Wood’s Case 

Senator Jones, of Washington, introduced in the 
Senate a resolution providing for an investigation 
by the Senate District Committee of the case of Miss 
Alice Wood, the public school teacher, who was 
suspended for a week by the Board of Education 
because it was alleged she had spread bolshevik 
propaganda in her classes. The resolution was re- 
ferred to the committee on audit and control. 

In presenting the resolution to the Senate, Senator 
Jones explained that charges had been made that 
Miss Wood was teaching bolshevism in the schools. 
He had no defense to make of bolshevism; if the 
charges were true, she should have been dismissed 
instead of being suspended. 

It was further charged that she was not given 
proper treatment by the Board of Education, but, on 
the contrary, had been subjected to autocratic and 
unfair treatment. If that was so it was an in- 


_ stance of the practice of bolshevism in high places, 


which was worse than the teaching of it. Senator 
Jones said he knew to a certainty that she had 
been assured that the hearing was to be informal 
and friendly, but that next day the papers came 
out in headlines telling of her suspension.—From 
The Evening Star (Washington, D C) of May 20, 
1919. 





140 


WHAT THEY SAY 





R: Join the American Federation of Teachers 
To the Editor, THE AMERICAN TEACHER: 

Have you anything that would arouse the in- 
terest of teachers in their problems? If so please 
ome it to me and I will try to get them aroused. 

Yours very truly, 





Williams, Iowa, March 24, 1919. 
P S—Our schools are awful. 


An Outcast 


To the Editor, THE AMERICAN TEACHER: 

The following note sent to me is submitted for 
what it is worth as a criticism of THE AMERICAN 
TEACHER: 

“When I considered placing THE AMERICAN 
TEACHER in the teachers’ room of the High School 
for propaganda purposes, I decided that the constant 
preoccupation with the subject of salaries, close as 
it is to all of us, might produce an unpleasant effect 
on many people. 

CHAIRMAN PRESS COMMITTEE, iin. 


Optimism Triumphant 
To the Organizer, The Teachers Union: 

I am enclosing my application for membership 
in the Teachers Union and check for $1.00. 

I have tried to stir up some enthusiasm and ac- 
tion on the Union in P § 39, but while a number of 
teachers believe in the principles of unionism they 
have no faith in the ability of teachers to act in a 
concerted manner on any matter whatsoever. So 
my efforts have as yet been barren. 

For myself I have sufficient optimism to believe 
that when teachers can’t stand still forever, per- 
haps twenty years hence even teachers may know 
the value of united action. So here’s my dollar. 

Yours very truly, 
HILDA BRAINOS. 


Promiscuous Shots 


To the Editor of THE AMERICAN TEACHER: 

Vital issues are at stake in the school business. 
We owe it to ourselves and to the justification of 
our cause to face those issues honestly and reso- 
lutely. If we are not worth our present salaries 
or more, then surely, as teachers, we are worth 
nothing. Again, if we are asking anything unrea- 
sonable, we invite the stanchest rebuke; a 
but a “ruffianly slap in the face.” 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VIII, No. 6 


You will not -doubt that very often a teacher 
winces inwardly at ill-natured remarks which must 
be borne with outward composure. You know a 
teacher is a biped without feathers; yes, he is an 
animal who gets drunk without drinking. (Read 
between lines). 

As a magazine, THE AMERICAN TEACHER may be 
termed a big-little paper. It is little as an object, 
but mighty big as a force in the teacher’s behalf. 
May it grow and grow in said force. 

Golden opportunity lies at our feet. Let us 
abandon our dreams, and get down to work. A\l- 
though knowledge and character are a teacher's 
fundamentals, they must be reinforced by all the 
teachers unionized actively for the common good. 
Those who are not with us are against us. 

Wo Hoy 

Local 22, A F T, Coal Township, Pa. 


Why Affiliate With Labor? 


To the Editor, THE AMERICAN TEACHER: 

No sane man or woman will to-day deny the value 
of organization or unionization; that is, the use of 
collective intelligence and collective power to achieve 
common and desirable ends. The only mooted aspect 
of the question is whether teachers should affiliate 
with organized labor. Professor Snedden (for whose 
pedagogic opinions I have the highest respect) repre- 
senting the intellectual heritage of a bygone age, 
maintains in THE AMERICAN TEACHER of January 
that since teachers teach all the children of all the 
people they must so conduct themselves as to he 
entitled to the support of all and not to strive for 
partisan ends, the implication being that such labor 
affiliation makes it impossible for teachers to do any- 
thing but act in a partisan way. I wonder if the 
professor is aware of the fact that all unions are 
autonomous bodies free to act according to their best 
judgment. If so, does he mean to imply that teach- 
ers, imbued with ideals of social service, will act with 
labor contrary to the best interests of the commu- 
nity? Does he believe that because one happens to 
be a teacher he has no right to take a stand on a 
public question which vitally effects the whole com- 
munity? Does he believe that because one is a teacher 
he must silently acquiesce in social or economic in- 
justice? I can conceive of no teachers’ local taking any 
action that would hurt the community. On the contra- 
ry, affiliation with labor will benefit the teacher and 
the schools because they will be brought into direct 
contact with the world of reality instead of the unreal 
world of the school room, will get a broader vision 
which will make for better teaching and, in addition, 
will establish a more sympathetic relationship be- 
tween them and their pupils and between them and 
the parents of the pupils. Just as the whole life of 
the teacher will be vitalized by affiliation with labor 
and the spirit of democracy made real, so will the 





June, 1919 


parents be brought into closer contact with the 
schools and contribute their collective intelligence to 
the solution of all school problems. What sort of 
democracy can a teacher (who feels she is too supe- 
rior to be affiliated with a worker) teach our grow- 
ing children? What sort of reality can a teacher, 
who lives in a world of her own creation, impart to 
her pupils? 


Again, Professor Snedden, himself the product of 
a mental and bookish world, believes that teachers 
who are working for something more than a “quid 
pro quo,” will lose their prestige by affiliating with 
labor and adopting militant methods. Good heavens, 
does the professor seriously believe that teachers 
to-day have any prestige to lose? It is because 
the teachers have pursued the suicidal and reaction- 
ary policy indicated by Professor Snedden that they 
have lost all iniative, all spirit, teaching morale and 
whatever prestige they once enjoyed! What adoles- 
cent to-day seriously looks upon making teaching a 
life work? Who to-day desires to dedicate himself to 
a life work? Who to-day desires to dedicate himself 
to a vocation in which self effacement mediocrity 
and intellectual servitude to autocratic superiors are 
the means of advancement What prestige can a pro- 
fession have which pays its workers wages that 
make it impossible for them to maintain their self 
respect or to get the respect of the community? What 
man or woman of spirit would do-day enter the pro- 
fession? What man or woman of ability, culture and 
refinement would think of entering a profession 
where ability is a hindrance, further culture unat- 
tainable and refinement impossible? 


If noble men and women are to be attracted to 
the teaching profession, if the respect of the com- 
munity is to be won, the teachers must possess 
power, and power can only come through unioniza- 
tion. With power will come courage and with cour- 
age an aggressiveness that will win the respect of 
even business boards of education. With that re- 
spect and the backing of organized labor, the teach- 
ers will eventually gain the right to administer the 
schools. Teaching will once more become a profes- 
sion; the teacher will once more develop self respect 
and professional idealism; and win the respect of the 
community. Only thru aggressive unionization 
will the teachers win from business boards of educa- 
tion that recognition and power to which their train- 
ing and ability entitle them. Those who desire to see 
the restoration of the teachers’ prestige, those who 
desire to see the teachers enthroned as the intellec- 
tual leaders of America must work for unionization, 
the one indispensable weapon through which their 
emancipation can be achieved. 


ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ. 
De Witr Cuinton High ScHoot, New York. 


The American Teacher 


141 


A Summer School in Organic Education 

Mrs Marietta L Johnson, head of the Fairhope 
School of Organic Education, will conduct a sum- 
mer school for teachers, mothers and social workers 
at Greenwich, Conn. Classes will be in session six 
weeks, beginning July 7, and closing Aug 15. 

As in previous years the Summer School offers 
an exceptional opportunity to the teacher desiring 
to improve school practise, to the mother, anxious 
to make home influences educative, and indeed to 
every one interested in present-day problems of edu- 
cation and child welfare. 

The Course of Study is planned to give the stu- 
dent a thoro understanding of the so-called “Or- 
ganic Principle” in education, and a degree of prep- 
aration for its logical use. In addition to Mrs 
Johnson’s lectures, the courses in the “Life Class Ac- 
tivities,” are designed to equip the teacher for the- 
special demands made by school practise that sub- 
stitutes occupations and experiences for much of the 
usual book work. 

Classes for a limited number of children will be 
conducted, duplicating, as nearly as possible, the 
school process of the Fairhope Life Classes for chil- 
dren from six to ten years of age. Mrs Johnson will 
have personal supervision of these classes and will 
be assisted by teachers who have been associated 
with her in the school at Fairhope. 

Mrs. Johnson’s Fairhope (Alabama) School is one 
of the “schools of tomorrow,” described by Profes- 
sor John Dewey in his book of that title. As a school 
of tomorrow it has already made its place as one 
of the few ideal schools of today. 

The rates for attendance at the summer school 
are very moderate. The Secretary is Mrs H C 
Allen, 151 Park Ave, Greenwich, Conn. 


Unionism Gets Results 
Memphis, Tenn., April 26.—The Teachers’ Asso- 
ciation in this city has been attempting to secure 
$70,000 back pay for its members since last Sep- 
tember, and as a last resort the teachers affiliated 
with the Memphis trades and labor council and 


elected three delegates to that body. When the 
unionists were told of the teachers’ troubles they ap- 
pointed a committee that was ordered “to stay on 
the job until the teachers are paid.” 

The committee organized, but that was as far 
as it got, as the Board of Education gave notice 
that they would immediately mail the teachers their 
checks. . 

In connection with the situation, The Labor Re- 
view asks: “Now isn’t it strange that $70,000 should 
bob uP» when, before the meeting of the trades 
council, it was impossible to get money from any- 
ae i the A F of L Newsletter of April 
26, 1919. 


Teachers in Line 
Atlanta, Ga., May 17.—Several hundred teachers 
in this city have affiliated with the trade union 
movement.—From the A F of L Newsletter of May 
17, 1919. 





Douctas H S, RuraL T F 
Mrs N E § Hill 
ALLEGHANY CouNTy T UNION 
Miss B A Noone 
MONTGOMERY COUNTY T UNION 
Mrs Grace L Ryan 
ATHENEAN LOCAL or A F T 
Miss Lucy Bell Evans 
PHILADELPHIA T UNION 
Miss Anna D Hershman 
MINNEAPOLIS F or T 
Theron B Castner 
DENISON TEACHERS’ COUNCIL 
B McDaniel 
SAN FRANCISCO F or T 
James A. Magee 
ROYALTON T F 
L E Humphrey 
AusTIN T U 
V R Schmidt 
GALVESTON T U 
Miss Annie L Bell 
CoaL County T U 
Miss Anna B Laughter 
GREATER BosToN F or T 
George Nasmyth, Pres 
SAN ANTONIO T ASSOCIATION 
Miss Frances Donecker 
PorTSsMoUTH T U 
Miss Williana Goode 
GRANITE City H S F or T 
Miss Emma M West 
LAUDERDALE COUNTY T F 
J. A Riddell 
ASSOCIATED T U or N Y City 
Herman Defrem 
FRESNO H S Loca 
Miss Jeannette Minard 
LINTON GRADE F or T 
Miss Bessie Sharpe 
BENICIA F or T 
Miss Elizabeth Driscoll 


HouSTON TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION 


Miss Elizabeth Baine 


ILLINOIS STATE NORMAL UNIVERSITY T F 


Miss Pear] Salter 
Los ANGELES F or T 
Geo A Rice 
OGDEN F or T 
A C Evans 


MILWAUKEE NORMAL TEACHERS ASSOCIATION 


Lucius T Gould, President 


WHITEWATER STATE NORMAL LOCAL 


Benjamin B James 


QUINCY TEACHERS FEDERATION 
Miss Alice L. McClatchy 


Roster of Locals of the American Federation of Teachers 


(With Names of Secretaries) © 


Ardmore, Okla. 
364 N Center Street, Cumberland, Md. 
Kensington, Md. 
107 Mill Street, Athens, Ohio 
537 Mountain Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
2616 Taylor Street, N E, Minneapolis, Minn. 
1115 W Gandy Street, Denison, Texas 
661 Phelan Building, San Francisco, Calif. 
Royalton, Il. 
Allan H §, Austin, Texas 
1821 Avenue J, Galveston, Texas 
Coalgate, Okla. 
40 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston, Mass. 
122 Dreiss Street, San Antonio, Texas 
1001 Mt Vernon Avenue, Portsmouth, Va. 
2310 D Street, Granite City, Ill. 
Lauderdale, Miss. 

Civic Club, 14 W 12th Street, New York, N. Y. 
311 Abbey Street, Fresno, Calif. 
510 Third Street, N W, Linton, Ind. 
Benicia, Calif. | 


812 Bell Avenue, Houston, Texas 


703 Broadway, Normal, Ill. 


823 S 2nd Street, Alhambra, Calif. 
Box 346, Ogden, Utah 

642 Prospect Avenue, Milwaukee, Wis. 
710 Janesville, Whitewater, Wis. 


67 Brook Street, Wollaston, Mass. 


Correction of Roster in. March Number 


No. 14 should read Jasonville, IIl., instead of Jason ville, Ind. 


Other new locals are in the process of organization in Atlanta, Ga., Newark, N. J., Jersey City, N. J. 
and Boston, Mass. 


142 





June, 1919 The American Teacher 








Beginning with the Next Issue 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


is prepared to receive local and national advertising. 
Business firms cannot choose a better medium to reach the teachers of the 


\MERICAN TEACHER. 
WHY: 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER is a national publication. 
lt is the official organ of the American Federation of Teachers, affiliated with the American Federation 
of Labor. 


At the rate at which new locals are being formed thruout the country, it is expected that there will be 
15,000 members of the Federation by September. This means that 15,000 teachers thruout the United 


United States than THe 


States will soon be reading THE AMERICAN TEACHER. 
Every teacher who pays dues to the Federation receives The American Teacher without extra charge. 
Hence the circulation of THE AMERICAN TEACHER is as large as the membership of the Federation, 


at least. 
By next year our national organizers predict a membership of 50,000 teachers. 


Does this mean anything to you, Mr. Advertiser? 





iown and gain a new source of income. 








We offer generous commissions to teachers who will solicit advertisements. 
For information regarding advertising rates, etc., address 
Advertising Manager, THE AMERICAN TEACHER, 70 F fth Ave., New York. 


Get on the job in your home 

















Enlightenment Helps 

In these days of reactionary tendencies in educa- 
tion, with the German language and the state of 
Soviet Russia alike taboo, it is encouraging to note 
that Boston is about to institute a Teachers’ Union 
under the approval of all five members of the Board 
of Education. The chairman of the Board, in a 
statement to the newspapers, expresses his convic- 
tion that teachers aught to organize in a union for 
several good and sufficient reasons—to maintain 
their self-respect and interest in the profession, to 
cultivate their moral and economic independence, 
to be able to demand higher salaries, and to exer- 
cise thru the union a measure of control over the 
policies of education. With such an enlightened 
attitude on the part of the authorities, the move- 
ment ought to gain immediate headway.—F rom The 
Nation of May 17, 1919. 


Oppose Teachers’ Union 


Ogden, Utah, May 17.—Two hundred teachers 
signed an application for a charter and are being 
assisted by the unions to secure improved conditions 
that have been denied them by the school author- 
ities who are refusing to reemploy them unless 
they again sign individual contracts—From the 
A F of L Newsletter of May 17, 1919, 


Character Education 

The organization work for the interstate $20 000 
research for the best methods of character educa- 
tion in public schools is nearing completion. The 
chairmen of research have been appointed in thirty- 
five states. They include eight state superintend- 
ents, one assistant state superintendent, twelve uni- 
versity and two college professors, seven superin- 
tendents of schools and one assistant superintendent, 
one normal school president and two professors, and 
one private school principal. 

The research year has been set for October 1, 
1919, to October 1, 1920. One hundred copies of a 
volume containing 600 pages of extracts from edu- 
cational literature on character education is being 
printed at the expense of the donor of the $20,000 
award for distribution and loaning to the collabora- 
tors as an assistance in their research thinking. It 
is hoped that in each state all educators interested 
in this phase of education will volunteer their co- 
operation to their state collaborators. 

The prize of $20,000 will be awarded to the state 
group (composed of nine persons) that presents the 
best plan for character education. 

Address: National Institution for Moral Instruc- 
tion, Chevy Chase Lodge, Washington, D. C, 





The American. Teacher 


In ‘Touch with Life 
Forces 








Since I had always been a sympathizer with organized labor, 
I thought that my joining a teachers’ union would be only a formal 
acknowledgement of that sympathy. It did not seem especially 
important that my name should be enrolled, except that it might, 
with others, help to advertise the movement. But after I had re- 
ceived my card of membership, a new feeling took possession of 
me. I met labor unionites in a spirit of manhood quite different 
from my former attitude of friendliness. In fact the change was 
very like that which takes place in a flat-dweller who visits his 
suburban relative, and enjoys the scenery and eggs that are part 
of that relative’s life, then, deciding to move, himself plants 
shrubbery and sets hens, and appreciates and suffers, and is stirred 
with bucolic love. The cook, the carpenter, the cigar-maker—all 
seemed to take on a new dignity as I fingered my card in my 
pocket, and correspondingly, I arose from the rank of parasite to 
the stature of a man dealing, not with the forces of expediency in 
favor of the few, but with life forces that are shaping a new earth. 


E DUDLEY PARSONS, 
‘Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, 
Local 59, A F of T 


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