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A New Look Ahead 


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The American Teacher 


aA NR RR 


The Mounting Cost of Living 


Gentlemen of the Congress: 

HAVE sought this opportunity to 
address you because it is clearly 
my duty to call your attention to 

the present cost of living and to urge 
upon you with all the persuasive force 
of which I am capable the legislative 
measures which would be most effective 
in controlling it and bringing it down. 
The prices the people of this country are 
paying for everything that it is neces- 
sary for them to 


I need not recite the particulars of 
this critical matter; the prices demand- 
ed and paid at the sources of supply, at 
the factory, in the food markets, at the 
shops, in the restaurants and hotels, 
alike in the city and in the village. They 
are familiar to you. They are the talk 
of every domestic circle and of every 
group of casual acquaintances even. It 
is a matter of familiar knowledge, also, 
that a process has set in which is likely, 

unless something 





is done, to push 





use in order to 
live are not justi- 
fied by a shortage 
in supply, either 
present or pros- 
pective, and are 
in many cases ar- 
tificially and de- 
liberately created 
by vicious prac- 
tices which ought 
immediately to be 
checked by law. 
They constitute a 
burden upon us 
which is the more 
unbearable be- 
cause we know 
that it is willfully 


EpITORIALS 


CONVENTION 


From THE LocALs 








CONTENTS 


EpuCATIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 


THe SEPTEMBER MESSAGE 
Tue SEPTEMBER MESSAGE 
CoNSTRUCTIVE PARTICIPATION 


THE AWAKENING OF A PEDAGOG 


prices and rents 
and the whole cost 
of living higher 
and yet higher, in 
a vicious cycle to 
which there is no 
logical or natural 
end. 
With the in- 
crease in the 
prices of the nec- 
essaries of life 
come demands 
for increases in 
wages—demands 
which are justi- 
fied if there be no 
other means of 














imposed by those 

who have the power and that it can by 
vigorous public action be greatly light- 
ened and made to square with the actual 
conditions of supply and demand. Some 
of the methods by which these prices are 
produced are already illegal, some of 
them criminal, and those who employ 
them will be energetically proceeded 
against; but others have not yet been 
brought under the law, and should be 
dealt with at once by legislation. 


enabling men to 
live. Upon the increase of wages there 
follows close an increase in the price of 
the products whose producers have beeii 
accorded the increase—not a proportion- 
ate increase, for the manufacturer 
does not content himself with that—but 
an increase considerably greater than 
the added wage cost and for which the 
added wage cost is oftentimes hardly 
more than an excuse. 

—From President Wilson’s address be- 
fore Congress, August 9, 1919. 


Vol. VIII, No 7 


TITTLE 


sv WQMAMUAMAULANUMNLAA UULAAUULAANL 





The American Teacher 


Entered as second-class matter, February 21, 1912, at the Post Office at New York, 


Y.; under the Act of March 3, 1879. 


Published at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York, monthly, except Fits and August. 








ol. VIII, No. 7 


SEPTEMBER, 1919 


One Dollar a Year 








HARD WORK AND HAPPINESS 
HE September Message of our Secre- 
tary-Treasurer, Mr F G Stecker, of 
Chicago, should fill our members with 
pardonable pride. We are now a great or- 
ganization with hard work and heavy respon- 
sibilities ahead. But the work is of our own 
making, and we do not care how hard it is. 
The professional educational administrators 
should take note of this, and try the experi- 
ment of yielding immediately to us a share in 
the management of the schools. 

We feel that our members will appreciate 
the meaning of the fact that Mr Stecker is 
now giving all his time to his office. His 
work must be paid for on a self-respecting 
basis by persons who are making a strong 
fight for self-respect for all the members of 
their profession. 


FROM BACK FENCE GOSSIP TO CON- 
STRUCTIVE PARTICIPATION 


HE article of Miss Gardner’s in this 
issue strikes the correct note in the 

_ composition which teachers have been 
preparing with labored effort. We have 
been saying that we wanted to share in the 
management of the schools. In a number 
of cities we have been handed a crumb of 
comfort, and we have sung a joyful ditty of 
praise to the generous leader on the board 
who suggested that teachers’ councils be or- 
ganized and act as advisory bodies to the 
educational authorities. The bodies have 
been organized, and the work has busied us 
greatly. The advice has been given, but with 
seeming caution and fearsomeness. The au- 
thorities have been interested, and in some 
cases amused. 

Perhaps we may have expected these la- 
bored efforts, but now we come to the main 
theme in the composition. We want a real 
Share in the management. That share can 


be made real by being legalized. And when 
it is legalized, there will be responsibility on 
us which will inevitably lead us away from 
our “back fence” habits of gossiping, and 
possibly our tendency to scream at things 
like certain other visitors to the no man’s 
land of our village habitations, to a habit of 
participating constructively in the hard 
work of educational management. 


BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON EDU- 
CATION 


HE attention of our readers is called to 
the able address in this issue of Vice- 
President Lampson before the Com- 

mittee on Education of the House and Senate 
on the Smith-Towner Bill Revised. Not the 
least significant fact concerning the address 
is the point that our representatives are now 
accustomed to appearing before committees 
in Congress to present the claims of the 
teaching body of the nation. And what is 
more significant is the fact that these com- 
mittees are coming to regard the representa- 
tives of the teachers as authorities in the 
matters of which they speak. Our authority 
is more impressive because by the process of 
selection and of proved worth we are also 
speaking for our affiliated bodies, the labor 
unions. “ 


A JOINT TRIAL BOARD IN BEING 


HEN the New York City Board of 
Education was asked by the Central 

Labor bodies of New York whether it 

would approve of an amendment to the edu- 
cation laws to provide for a joint trial board 
to hear the cases of teachers, the answer was 


a curt “No.” (See the report from Local No 
5 in this issue.) The board at Jasonville was 
just as curt, and so are they all—the ques- 
tion itself smacks of impertinence to the 


147 





The American Teacher 


average mind, unused to the new ways of 
obtaining justice for the workers. 

But they now have a joint trial board at 
Jasonville, Indiana, the first for teachers of 
which we are informed in this country. High 
credit is due President Chas B Stillman for 
his able leadership in the conferences that 
developed the outcome. The central labor 
body also seems to have been effective. There 
is evidence also that the school trustees were 
amenable to reason. The report given by 
Local No 14 in this issue does not emphasize 
the activities of the teachers themselves in 
their fight for protection. It is, however, 
obvious that the officers of the local were 
strongly supported by the members, for there 
can be but one outcome for one hundred per 
cent organizations. Teachers sometimes put 
aside foolish fears, quit hesitating or resign- 
ing, and go in for the means to power and 
- self-respect. 


Grievances arising between teachers in the 
Jasonville schools and the Board of School 
Trustees are to be taken up for settlement by 
a joint committee consisting of the three 
trustees and three teachers selected by Local 
No. 14. This is the joint trial board. All 
persons concerned in the efficient manage- 
ment of the schools, and in the maintenance 
of self-respect on the part of those who do 
the work of teaching, will do well to note this 
one important mile-stone that we have 
reached. 


A NEW LOOK AHEAD 


VERY thinking person who has a vaca- 
tion takes a little time to go over his 
mental and moral penates for the pur- 

pose of taking stock. Intellectually as well 
as economically this pays, and no less for 
teachers than for others. The long vacation 
has just closed. With its end those teachers 
who look forward to a life of ever-increasing 
satisfaction because of certain professional 
accomplishments are lixely to feel that they 
have gone ahead by a veritable bound. Thus 
the more alert prepare themselves for greater 
service. 


But the more or less successful and self- 
satisfied teacher in the good school of an- 
other day will find that something has been 
left out of his accounting if he fails to realize 


Voi. VIII, No. 7 


that in this year more than in any earlier one 
his inventory must include some items bear- 
ing on world relations. The war has brought 
education into the position of a gigantic 
social force. And because of this the teacher 
will appear more and more clearly to be 
ineffective and provincial; a weakling deal- 
ing with tremendous events and their mean- 
ings, if he does not endeavor to add to his ac- 
complishments the ability to see and think 
in terms that transcend the limits of the oid- 
time pedagog’s domain. 

There is a great deal of evidence to show 
that in certain quarters teachers have begun 
to adjust their thinking to the new times. In 
the initial stages of adjustment conflicts 
have developed between the new as repre- 
sented in the evolution of man’s political and 
social destiny and the old as represented in 
the settled economic control of the rich and 
powerful. The rich and powerful are fully 
represented not only on boards of education, 
but also in the acquiescence of those pliant 
citizens who hold fiefs in the form of jobs, 
favors, and protection under the modern 
feudal system conducted by the lords of in- 
dustry and commerce. During the period of 
the war issues arising between these two 
forces were confused with issues connected 
with the prosecution of the war. But now 
the lines will be clearly drawn. And the 
teachers will find themselves on one side or 
the other. Either they will have to stand 
with the Chicago packers and their economic 
allies, the petty gougers, jobbers, middlemen, 
and their horde of economic dependents, or 
they will have to join with those who are 
struggling to find a way to exist. 


It may appear to be simple as well as safe 
to fight the food profiteers, but it may not be 
if they are represented on your board of 
education. Just now while the Government is 
selling its food at less than the retail price 
it is a patriotic and profitable thing to do to 
give some time to helping Uncle Sam dispose 
of his bacon and beans. Teachers in schools 
will have some of it to do in September; in 
fact they will be expected to do it. But think- 
ing teachers will find their minds running 
off into more fundamental ramifications. 
After the Government stock is exhausted, 
what next? Will it be safe and patriotic to 
join in the battle between the President and 





September, 1919 


the food exploiters? We should not be too 
sure that the Congress which will grant all 
the President has requested in his bold stand 
against the profiteers will continue to be 
sympathetic. Too many congressmen trace 
their political genesis to powerful economic 
combinations to yield finally to what they 
may already be calling a “flurry of presiden- 
tial sentimentality.” 

Then there is the Plumb plan before Con- 
gress. Is this too complicated for us teachers 
to try to comprehend, or shall we continue 
to get our interpretations of political and 
economic questions from our favorite news- 
papers, or to ask the local lawyer for his 
opinion? Not unless we are content to re- 
main provincial and ineffective, and to ac- 
cept what the public is willing to hand us for 
service inspired out of a restricted vision. 
Or if authority still impresses us, what of 
the stand of four million organized workers? 
Many of their representatives say they want 
the workers to share in the management and 
control of industry, and to have that share a 
large one, apparently what the Plumb plan 
leads to. 

Last May President Wilson clearly indi- 
cated that he believed the democratization 
of industry is inevitable, and many of those 
whose interests are with the great and 
powerful in industry and commerce frankly 
admit that a change from the present sys- 
tem cannot be avoided. Privately, repre- 
sentatives of important conservative news- 
papers agree that much of our social struc- 
ture will be altered materially in the near 
future. In the face of these facts, the Cum- 
mins plan for the immediate restoration of 
the railroads to private control under 
“regional” supervision, with the prohibition 
on strikes, seems like the manifestation of 
an effort to “tie down” the railroads before 
what is called inevitable picks them up and 
carries them off. All this is not merely in- 
teresting and curious to us as “Cook’s tou- 
rists” in life, but is full of meaning to us as 
social and intellectual leaders. 

If teachers permit themselves to think to 
the root of our human ills, their minds must 
run over paths indicated by the foregoing 
considerations. They will be fortunate if they 
avoid the pitfalls of political prejudice into 
which others have fallen. But if we have 


The American Teacher 


149 


minds at all our minds must work. And if 
we follow out the manifest destiny of the 
school as a social institution, we must take 
sides with the men and women of labor, for 
their need is the one fundamental to sheer 
existence. 

We cannot avoid the taking of sides. 
Teachers are being warned on every hand 
not to take sides in the political and economic 
struggle. Who is it that wants us to remain 
passive? A searching of the genesis of ideas 
will lead us straight to the lair of those who 
want the economic relations existing in 
American life to remain as they are. There 
is.no way out of it. We mist take sides. Four 
million of our boys have given their aid to 
the destruction of a political autocracy, over 
three hundred thousand are maimed for life, 
and over one hundred thousand are dead. 
Great industrial combinations made fortunes 
out of the nation’s need, and they seek to 
continue their control and to increase their 
gains while of our hundred million human 
beings there is an increasing perventage that 
must put forth heroic struggles to maintain 
existence. Of that increasing percentage 
teachers are a part. Should anyune be per- 
mitted to tell us that we shall not take sides 
with our own people? 

The new school year opens with evident 
dangers ahead, but our clearest thoughts 
concerning these dangers carry also a large 
measure of responsibility not only for own 
professional welfare, but as well for our 
leadership in the ranks of American men and 
women. We should be proud that the new 
day finds us measurably prepared by a habit 
of thinking for the heavy task that lies 
before us. 








The American Teacher 





Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 
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THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City 
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Educational Recommendations of the Atlantic City Conven- 
tion of the American Federation of Labor 


CHAS B STILLMAN 
President, The American Federation of Teachers 


T its Thirty-ninth Annual Convention, 
held in Atlantic City, June 9-23, 1919, 
the American Federation of Labor 

maintained its record for progressive educa- 
tional suggestions, and again proved the most 
sincere and influential friend and supporter 
of the public schools. Nearly every session 
of this Reconstruction Convention was 
marked by decisions on questions vitally af- 
fecting national welfare, but this report must 
be confined to actions on matters educational, 
and will consist chiefly, not of opinions or 
comments, but of excerpts from the official 
record of the Convention itself. 


District of Columbia Salaries 


The development of opposition in Congress 
to the schedule submitted by the teachers of 
the District of Columbia, caused teachers’ 
salaries to be the first matter to be brought 
before the Convention by the Committee on 
Education. Because of the emergency in 
Washington, the unanimous consent of the 
Convention was secured for the introduction 
of the following resolution on the sixth day: 

Resolution No. 212—By Delegate Chas B 
Stillman, of the American Federation of 
Teachers: 

WHEREAS, The teachers always wretchedly 
underpaid, have been unable to meet the double 
cost of living with the meagre salary increases 
which they have secured; and 

WHEREAS, The work of the teachers de- 
termines the quality of our future citizenship, 
and should receive financial compensation more 
nearly commensurate with its service to the 
community; and 

WHEREAS, The teachers of the District of 
Columbia have placed a very reasonable sched- 
ule before Congress, which is about to fix their 
salaries; therefore, be it 
_ RESOLVED, That this thirty-ninth conven- 
tion of the American Federation of Labor en- 
dorses the very moderate request of the teachers 
of the District of Columbia for a minimum sal- 
ary of $1006 .or grade teachers, and of $1200 for 
high school teachers; and be it further 

RESOLVED, That the President and Secre- 
tary of the American Federation of Labor be 
instructed to make every effort to secure the 
passage by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States of legislation 


establishing those minimum salaries for the 
teachers of the District of Columbia. ? 
The Committee on Education at a special 


meeting called immediately, concurred in the 
resolution, and within an hour, it had been 
adopted unanimously by the Convention. The 
action of the Convention and the letters from 
President Gompers and Secretary Morrison 
undoubtedly played a very considerable part 
in bringing about the favorable outcome for 
the Washington teachers. 


The Smith-Towner Bill Revised 


On the next day the following action was 
taken on the Smith-Towner Bill Revised, the 
passage of whith is so essential to the educa- 


tional development of the country: 
Resolution No 123—By Delegate Chas B 
Stillman, of the American Federation of 
Teachers. ; 
WHEREAS, In accordance with the instruc 
tions of the last convention, the Executive 
Council of the American Federation of Labor, 
working with the American Federation of 
Teachers and the National Education Associa- 
tion, has co-operated in the preparation and 
introduction of the Educational Bill (H R 7), 
which creates a Federal Department of Educa 
tion, and appropriates one hundred million dol- 
lars to be apportioned among the states to aid 
in the payment of more adequate teachers’ sal 
aries, in the equalization of educational oppor- 
tunities, in the removal of illiteracy, in Ameri- 
canization of immigrants, in physical education, 
and in the preparation of competent teachers; 


and 

WHEREAS, The present period of recon- 
struction is revealing even more clearly than the 
preceding period of the war the need for a na- 
tional educational policy to secure co-ordination 
among the states, and to promote national wel- 
fare, efficiency, and unity; and 

WHEREAS, The threatened collapse of our 
schools, which influenced the action of the last 
convention, is still more imminent now, through 
the forcing out of our best teachers by the thou 
sands by sheer economic pressure, and through 
the refusal of young men and women of ability 
and independent spirit to prepare themselves for 
a calling which does not offer a self-respecting 
living; and 

WHEREAS, The ultimate national need is for 
educated manhood and womanhood, a_ need 
which will become more urgent in the period 
we are entering; and 





September, 1919 The American Teacher 151 


WHEREAS, The recent past has forced upon 
us a realization of the necessity of more effective 
physical education, of the removal of illiteracy, 
and of the Americanization of immigrants; and 

WHEREAS, In the fields of vocational and 
agricultural education, the value of the stimulus 
to the states of Federal appropriations available 
to a state on its meeting specified standards, 
and on the appropriation by that state of equal 
amounts, has been proved by experience; there- 
fore, be it 

RESOLVED, That this Thirty-ninth Conven- 
tion of the American Federation of Labor, in 
conformity with the recommendation of the pre- 
ceding convention, endorse the Educational Bill 
(H R 7), and instruct the President and Execu- 
tive Council to use the full influence of the 
American Federation of Labor in its support. 

“The Committee considered the sections of 
the Executive Council’s Report on ‘Education’ 
and ‘Education of Adult Illiterates,’ and Reso- 
lution 123 together, since they deal with the 
same subject matter. After careful study of the 
Educational Bill (H R 7), your committee 
heartily commends the Executive Council and 
the American Federation of Teachers for the 
part they have taken in the preparation and in- 
troduction of that bill. The people of the 
country are realizing now as never before that 
a democracy must depend primarily upon an 
educated citizenship for its very life, and that 
the nation as a whole is under even deeper obli- 
gation to the schools than is any section of the 
nation. In recognition of that fact, the Educa- 
tional Bill provides for a Federal Department 
with a Secretary in the President’s cabinet, and 
assigns to the Federal Government a small pro- 
portion of the total cost of our public school 
system. But recognizing with equal force the 
value of local initiative and experimentation 
within the various states, which is an essential 
part of the genius of our American institutions, 
the Bill safeguards local autonomy, providing 
that all the educational facilities encouraged by 
its provisions shall be organized, supervised, and 
administered exclusively by the legally consti- 


Resolution No 34—By Library Employes’ 
Union No 15,590, New York City: 

WHEREAS, We believe that public libraries 
are public utilities and should be owned, con- 
trolled and administered directly by the State or 
City ,nancing such libraries; and ' 

WHEREAS, We believe the present low and 
inadequate salaries and intolerable working con- 
ditions in our public libraries are due to the fact 
that most of the libraries are under the control 
of private corporations who are not responsible 
to the community at large, although they are 
spending the public’s money; and 

WHEREAS, Since the right of workers to 
organize in trade unions and to bargain col- 
lectively is reeognized and affirmed by the 
United States Government, this right shall not 
be denied, abridged or interfered with by the 
employers of the library; therefore, be it 

RESOLVED, By the American Federation of 
Labor, in convention assembled at Atlantic City on 
June 9, 1919, that in the interests of the people 
and in order to secure good conditions for the 
workers, we declare ourselves in favor of Civil 
Service for librarians; and, be it further 

RESOLVED, That a member of a Library 
Union, to be elected by the Union, be placed 
upon all Committees having in charge Library 
activities, in which Union Labor is asked to co- 
operate, such as the War Service Committee of 
the American Library Association; and, be it 
further 

RESOLVED, That a member of Union Labor 
be represented on all Boads of Trustees for 
Libraries; and, be it further 

RESOLVED, That we earnestly urge all 
locals to give all assistance possible towards the 
organization of these workers; and, be it further 

RESOLVED, That the Executive Council of 
the A F of L be instructed to take action to 
remedy the situation. 

The Committee concurs in the resolution as 
amended and recommends its adoption by the 
convention. 

The report of the Committee was adopted. 


tuted state and local educational authorities American Scientists 


within the several states. * 4s 
“Your committee also calls attention of the The recent affiliation of twelve hundred of 


Convention to the effective co-ordination under the leading scientists of the country with the 
one broad agency in a comprehensive measure National Federation of Federal Employees is 


of all Federal educational activities, including responsible for the following resolution : 


Americanization, removal of illiteracy, and 
physical education, as contrasted with piecemeal, 
separate treatment of those closely connected 
subjects. 

“The committee concurs in Resolution 123, 
recommends its adoption by the Convention, and 
further recommends that this Convention ask 
all affiliated state and local central bodies to 
urge vigorous support of the Education Bill 
(H R 7) upon their congressmen. 

“The report of the committee was adopted.” 


Library Workers 
The Committee on Education was glad to 
have referred to it the following resolution, 
dealing with a group of workers who have 
received even less recognition from the pub- 
lic than the teachers: 


Resolution No 94—By Delegate Luther C 
Steward, National Federation of Federal Em- 
ployes; Charles B Stillman, American Federa- 
tion of Teachers; Florence Etheridge, National 
Federation of Federal Employes. 

WHEREAS, Scientific research and the tech- 
nical application of results of research form a 
fundamental basis upon which the development 
of our industries, manufacturing, agriculture, 
mining, and others must rest; and 

WHEREAS, The productivity of industry is 
greatly increased by the technical application of 
the results of scientific research in physics, 
chemistry, biology, and geology, in engineering 
and agriculture, and in the related sciences; and 
the health and well-being not only of the work- 
ers but of the whole population as well, are 
dependent upon advances in medicine and sani- 











The American Teacher Vol. VIII, No. 7 


tation; so that the value of scientific advance- 
ment to the welfare of the nation is many times 
greater than the cost of the necessary research; 


and 

WHEREAS, The increased productivity of 
industry resulting from scientific research is a 
most potent factor in the ever-increasing 
struggle of the workers to raise their standards 
of living, and the importance of this factor must 
steadily increase since there is a limit beyond 
which the average standard of living of the 
whole population cannot progress by the usual 
methods of readjustment, which limit can only 
be raised by research and the utilization of the 
results of research in industry; and 

WHEREAS, There are numerous important 
and pressing problems of administration and 
regulation now faced by Federal, state and 
local governments, the wise solution of which 
depends upon scientific and technical research; 


and 

WHEREAS, The war has brought home to all 
the nations engaged in it the overwhelming im- 
portance of science and technology to national 
welfare, whether in war or in peace, and not 
only is private initiative attempting to organize 
far-reaching research in these fields on a na- 
tional scale, but in in several countries Govern- 
mental participation and support of such under- 
takings are already active; therefore, be it 

RESOLVED, By the American Federation of 
Labor, in convention assembled, that a broad 
program of scientific and technical research is 
of major importance to the national welfare and 
should be fostered in every way by the Federal 
Government, and that the activities of the gov- 
ernment itself in such research should be ade- 
quately and generously supported in order that 
the work may be greatly strengthened and ex- 
tended; and the Secretary of the Federation is 
instructed to transmit copies of this resolution 
to the President of the United States, to the 
President pro ‘tempore of the Senate, and to the 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

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

The recommendation of the Committee was 
adopted. 

Labor’s Educational Platform 


Organized labor’s educational program is 
found at the conclusion of the report of the 
Committee on Education. Much of it had 
been adopted by previous conventions, and 
was here reendorsed, but attention is called 
particularly to sections 19-23, which were 
drafted in the light of sinister developments 
in several cities during the last year. 

“Your committee believes that in addition to 
the material presented in connection with sec- 
tions of the Executive Council’s report and reso- 
lutions, it is under obligations to recommend 
certain additional principles which should be 
incorporated in organized labor’s educational 
policy. 

“1. With regard to Vocational Education, the 
model laws recommended by the Executive 
Council to the St. Paul Convention, and the 
principles adopted by that convention, including 


the endorsement of the unit, as opposed to the 
dual system of administration, should be re- 
endorsed. In this connection commendation 
should be given to the various states which have 
enacted continuation school laws, and to the 
labor movement of those states for the part 
they played in securing such legislation. 

“2. Hearty support should be given the in- 
creasing demand for well considered methods 
of vocational guidance in our schools. 

“3. Careful consideration should be given to 
the simplification of courses of study, especially 
in the lower grades; but in connection with any 
movement toward simplification, the committee 
believes that 

“4, The upper years of the elementary school 
should be reorganized to afford diversified train- 
ing, so that boys and girls who can not go on 
to higher schools will receive training specific- 
ally designed for their needs, and not be com- 
pelled as at present to prepare for a role they 
will never play. These diversified courses 
should be flexible so that a pupil will be able to 
transfer from one to another. We must not 
compel the child to pay the penalty throughout 
life for a mistaken decision made in childhood. 
Organized labor should demand and help to se- 
cure an expansion and diversification of both 
elementary and secondary education so that a 
democratic equality of opportunity for prepa- 
ration for the callings of their choice may be 
offered the children of the people. 

“5. In all courses of study, and particularly 
in industrial and vocational courses, the privi- 
leges and obligations of intelligent citizenship 
must be taught vigorously and effectively; and 
at least in all vocational and industrial courses 
an unbiased industrial history must be taught, which 
shall include accurate account of the organiza- 
tion of the workers and the results thereof, and 
shall also include a summary of all legislation, 
both state and federal, affecting the industries 
taught. 

“6. The basic language of instruction in all 
schools, both public and private, should be the 
English language, foreign languages to be taught 
only as subjects in the curriculum. 

“7. The provision of adequate facilities for 
the teaching of English to non-English speaking 
people. 

“8. The establishment of complete systems 
of modern physical education under specially 
trained instructors. 

“9, The provision of ample playground fa- 
cilities as a part of the public school system. 

“10. Continuous medical and dental inspec- 
tion throughout the schools. 

“11. Better enforcement of compulsory edu- 
cational laws, and the universal establishment of 
a minimum school-leaving age of 16 years. 

“12. The extension of a free text-book sys- 

tem to the District of Columbia and such states 
and communities as have not adopted it. 
_ “13. Wider use of the school plant securing 
increased returns to the community through ad- 
ditional civic, social and educational services to 
both adults and children. 

“14. Public forms should be established in 
every school where there is sufficient demand, 
under the direction of the superintendent of 
schools, working in co-operation with advisory 





September, 1919 


committees, representing the various elements 
in the community. 

“15. The educational interests of the child- 
dren and the future welfare of the state demand 
a drastic reduction in the prevailing size of 
classes. 

“16. In view of the demonstration by war 
conditions of the industrial and educational 
value of the metric system, the committee rec- 
ommends that the Executive Council cause an 
investigation to be made of the advantages of 
the introduction of the metric system into this 
country with a view to determine what further 
steps, such as Congressional action, may be 
advisable. 

“17, A thoroughgoing revision upward of the 
salary schedule of teachers in public schools, 
normal schools and universities, to meet the 
increased cost of living and the growing appre- 
ciation of the value to the community and the 
nation of the teachers’ services. 

“18. The liberal ungrudging reorganization 
and increase of school revenues as the only 
means of maintaining and developing the effi- 
ciency of our public schools. 

“19. In order to secure a more democratic 
administration of our schools, to develop a 
spirit of co-operation, and to gain for the com- 
munity the benefit of the experience and initia- 
tive of the teaching body, boards of education and 
superintendents of schools should confer with com- 
mittees representing organizations of the teach- 
ers’ choice in all cases of controversy between 
school authorities and teachers, and should con- 
sider and make official public record of sugges- 
tions dealing with the conduct of the schools 
submitted by the teachers through such com- 
mittees. 

“20. Teachers should have tenure of position 
during efficiency. There should be no dismissals 
without full public hearings before a commis- 
sion on which the teachers are fairly represented. 

“21. Ina democracy the primary requirement 
is a citizenship educated to straightforward, 
logical thinking, based on facts established by 
careful sifted evidence. The schools cannot de- 
velop this essential mental fibre if the pupils are 
carefully shielded from knowledge of the topics 
men and women think about. Secondary only 
to a citizen’s ability to do his own thinking, is 
his ability to make his influence felt in his group 
and community by effectively presenting his 
views to his fellows, and meeting opposition in 
a spirit of tolerance. This power of effective 
self-expression and the habits of tolerance, and 
of intellectual fairness toward opponents, can 
not be formed without the discussion of topics 
that give opportunity for their exercise. There- 
fore, in order to enable the schools to perform 
one of their chief functions, preparation for 
active citizenship, the pupils should be en- 
couraged to discuss under intelligent supervision 
current events and the problems of citizenship. 

21, It is unquestionable that teachers have 
no right to impose their personal views on 
pupils. But it is necessary in some quarters to 
emphasize that neither do school authorities 
have that right. And it is further necessary to 
ask this convention to endorse with all its power 
the principle that men and women in becoming 


The American Teacher 153 


teachers do not thereby surrender their rights 
as American citizens, and that inquisitions by 
school authorities into the personal, religious, 
political and economic views of teachers is intol- 
erable in a free country, strikes at the very 
basis of our public school system, and can re-. 
sult only in the development of mental and 
moral servility, and the stultification of teach- 
ers and pupils alike. 

“23, The right of teachers to affiliate with 
organized labor is beyond question. And im 
that connection, the right of teachers to hold 
meetings in school buildings outside of school 
hours, for the purpose of discussing organiza- 
tion, or of conducting the business of their or- 
ganization, should not be questioned. Boards 
of Education have no proprietory right in the 
schools, but are simply trustees for the public, 
of which the teachers are a part. 

“24. The Committee recommends that this 
convention urge all state and local central 
bodies to make a Committee on Education one 
of their standing committees, where it has not 
yet been done, and to make vigorous effort to 
secure adequate representation of organized 
labor on all boards of education. 

“25. The achievements of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers, in co-operation with the 
labor movement, during the past year, lead the 
committee to repeat with greater emphasis the 
declaration of the St. Paul convention that the 
most effective guarantee of democracy and of 
progress in our schools is the affiliation of the 
teachers of the country with the great demo- 
cratic force of organized labor, and to again 
urge the recommendation that the Executive 
Council of the American Federation of Labor 
and all state and local central bodies give every 
support to the American Federation of Teach- 
ers in the work of organizing the teachers. 

“Delegate Strickland objected to the fourth 
section of the recommendation, as it implied 
that there are those among the laboring peo- 
ple whose children will not be able to get the 
same education as all other children. 

“Delegate Lennon, Bloomington, and Dele- 
gate Friedman, Ladies’ Garment Workers, 
commended the Committee on their splendid 
report. 

“The motion to adopt the recommendations 
of the Committee was carried. 

“Secretary Stillman: This completes the re- 
port of the Committee, which is respectfully 
submitted and signed. 

“JOSEPH VALENTINE, Chairman, 

“CHARLES C SHAY, 

“THOMAS J CURTIS, 

“MARGARET C DALEY, 

“TOHN P WHITE, 

=<. One. 

“JOHN J SULLIVAN, 

“M G SCOTT, 

“CHARLES A SUMNER, 

“LUTHER C STEWARD, 

“I W NELSON, 

“JOHN D O'BRIEN, 

“IRA N ORNBURN, 

“HENRY HILFERS, 

“CHARLES B STILLMAN, 
Secretary. 











The September Message 


F G STECKER 
Secretary-Treasurer, The American Federation of Teachers 


S a result of the remarkable growth in 

the membership and activities of the 

American Federation of Teachers the 
office of Secretary-Treasurer was placed on 
a full-time basis beginning with the month of 
August. I realize keenly the responsibilities 
which come with the effort to make this or- 
ganization run smoothly and effectively and 
function in the many expected ways. This 
office is the usual medium between the na- 
tional organization and the locals. The finan- 
cial secretaries of the locals become impor- 
tant assistants in the work of bringing to- 
gether the groups of teachers in a feeling of 
close relationship. To them goes a personal 
message each month, a financial report of the 
previous month, a report of standings of 
locals, a list of new locals, and other impor- 
tant news items. From them comes the re- 
port on membership, the per capita tax, a 
report on conditions and developments from 
time to time, and reports on special topics 
when called for. The latter frequently be- 
come important matters and the cooperation 
of every financial secretary is imperative. 
Otherwise the information desired is delayed 
and incomplete. From the locals must come 
the information which enables the American 
Federation of Teachers to serve its real pur- 
pose. 

It has been found from experience that 
some local officers are delinquent in report- 
ing situations which require immediate and 
careful attention. It is the intention of the 
officers of the national to give all the assist- 
ance the limited resources of the organiza- 
tion will enable them to give in every case of 
need on the part of any local or member. The 
officers are here for that purpose. Please in- 
form them of all campaigns, negotiations and 
movements started by locals, in regard to 
salary, conditions, or desired objectives. 
Events of unusual nature should be reported 
at once without waiting for serious results. 
All blanks submitted should be filled out and 
returned. “No Report” written in is much 
better than silence. 


A roster of locals and officers has been pub- 
lished and sent to local officers. A standard 
system of records is being formulated. A 
standard membership card will be issued. 
Every precaution will be taken to see that 
each member receives the official organ, THF 
AMERICAN TEACHER. Every local is invited 
and urged to contribute to the magazine. 
There is nothing that teachers are more in- 
terested in than the experiences and accom- 
plishments of other teachers. There is noth- 
ing they have heard less of. There has never 
been a means of communication or inter- 
change of stories concerning the course of 
events, happy or unhappy. The columns are 
now open for just that purpose. These col- 
umns will reach ten thousand teachers and 
more each issue. The editor will welcome 
your stories. 

It cannot be too often repeated that every 
local should affiliate itself with the Central 
Labor Body of the community and with the 
State Federation of Labor. If there were told 
in THE AMERICAN TEACHER stories of the 
many instances reported to the national offi- 
cers it would be a fine revelation of the true 
spirit of cooperation manifested, the deep in- 
terest in the public schools, the unusual sym- 
pathy for discouraged teachers, and of help- 
ing hands on the ways to better things. Some 
of these stories you wil! hear. You have read. 
and will read, very excellent educational pro- 
grams adopted by these bodies from time to 
time. Most of these have been written by 
leaders in the labor bodies themselves with- 
out a teacher to suggest ideas. However, 
teachers are invited to take part in the form- 
ulation of these platforms. Delegates to 
labor bodies can perform a great service for 
their locals and for education. This may be 
the educational reconstruction of which we 
have heard so much. Step by step new 
ground will be reached by those most inter- 
ested in the cause. And none are more in- 
terested than the teachers and Labor. It is 
worth while to know that this organization 
through its president acting as secretary of 


154 





September, 1919 


the Committee on Education, has been able 
to write its ideas into the platform of the 
American Federation of Labor. Many teach- 
ers have already performed the same service 
in other labor bodies. 

I wish it were within my power to extend 
a message of encouragement and helpfulness 
to the officers and members at the beginning 
of another year. Some find themselves well 
established, some face trying conditions left 
over from the previous year, some find them- 
selves but partially organized, some are dis- 
couraged because of the timidity or selfish- 
ness of the fellow-workers. It must be re- 
membered that teachers are human and, like 
the rest of the human race, are inclined to 
stand aloof in a crowd while the few with 


The American Teacher 


155 


more courage or initiative or leadership seek 
out the new path. Such is the cost of every 
advance. Its truth finds evidence in the files 
of this office. With this in mind I wish to 
invite every worker and officer to report 
difficulties and defeats as well as successful 
achievements. The year just opening offers 
remarkable opportunities for constructive 
work. The growing importance of the Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers will give it an 
increasing influence. It should come to thou- 
sands of teachers in the near future as a wel- 
come friend. 

Success and achievement for all whose 
efforts make up the sum total of our activi- 
ties! 


The Smith-Towner Bill Revised 


L V LAMPSON 
First Vice-President, The American Federation of Teachers 


ADDRESS AT THE JOINT HEARING OF THE COMMITTEES ON EDUCATION OF THE 


HOUSE AND SENATE ON THE SMITH-TOWNER BILL REVISED. 


N behalf of the American Federation of 

Teachers, I desire to discuss briefly the 

history of the bill now before the commit- 
tee and to present what I believe to be the 
sentiments not only of the organized but of 
the unorganized teachers of the country in 
respect to the proposed measure. By reason 
of the fact that in the last few months I have 
travelled from Bangor to Galveston, from 
Milwaukee to Atlanta, and in much of the 
intervening territory for the purpose of ad- 
dressing teachers, I am in a position to inter- 
pret their views. 

Mr. Chairman, the teachers of the country 
were very much opposed to certain funda- 
mental features of the first and second drafts, 
known as the Smith Bill and Towner Bill 
respectively. They are very much in favor 
of the final draft known as the Smith-Towner 
Bill Revised, which they believe will do much 
to improve the schools and to serve the cause 
of real democracy. 

The facts relating to the inception and 
history of this bill should appear in the re- 
port of these hearings for the information of 


(JULY 11, 1919.) 


the country. They are in substance as fol- 


lows. At its convention held in St. Paul in 
June, 1918, upon resolution introduced by 
delegate Stillman, the American Federation 
of Labor went on record in favor of th< 
creation of a Department of Education and 
the annual appropriation of $100,000,000 by 
the Federal Government in aid of teachers’ 
salaries. At its convention held in Pittsburg 
in July, 1918, the American Federation of 
Teachers went on record favoring similar 
resolutions. In conformity with these reso- 
lutions, a bill was in process of being drafted. 
In the meantime, the National Education As- 
sociation secured the introduction into the 
Senate of what is known as the Smith Bill 
which had as its object the creation of a De- 
partment of Education and the annual appro- 
priation of $100,000,000 for Federal coopera- 
tion with the States in the encouragement 
and support of education. Then followed the 
introduction of the Smith Bill Amended in 
the House under the name of the Towner 
Bill. As a result of various conferences be- 
tween the legislative sponsors of these two 











The American Teacher 


bills and the official representatives of the 
three organizations mentioned, there was in- 
troduced into the House and Senate at the 
request of the American Federation of Labor, 
the American Federation of Teachers, and the 
National Education Association what is 
known as the Smith-Towner Bill Revised. 
This bill, therefore, is not the result of snap 
judgment. The great educational program 
for which it provides has come about as a 
progressive development. It is required by 
the needs of the country, it is demanded by 
the sentiments of the people, and it is in ac- 
cord with American institutions. 

The Smith-Towner Bill Revised will do 
much to encourage the States in the promo- 
tion and support of education. Unlike the 
Smith Bill, it contains specific provisions for 
Federal aid in the payment of teachers’ sal- 
aries (see sections 10 and 13). The way to 


improve the schools of America at this criti- 
cal juncture in ourhistory is to raise teachers’ 
salaries. 

The average annual salary of the teachers 
of the country is said to be about $630, or 
measured in the terms of the former pur- 
chasing power of the dollar, at about $309. 


The low salaries, the high cost of living, the 
strain and stress of the times have wrought 
havoc with the teaching personnel of the pub- 
lic schools within the states. The teachers 
must be relieved from economic oppression 
for the sake of the children whom they teach 
and the people whom they serve. 

Of what avail is the appropriation of $7,- 
500,000 for the removal of illiteracy without 
well-paid and efficient teachers to do the 
work? Of what avail is the appropriation of 
$7,500,000 for Americanization without well- 
paid and efficient teachers? Of what avail 
is the appropriation of $20,000,000 for physi- 
cal education without well-paid and efficient 
teachers? Of what avail is the appropriation 
of $50,000,000 for equalizing educational op- 
portunities without well-paid and efficient 
teachers? There is a close connection be- 
tween the pay and the efficiency of teachers. 
The bill before your committee is fundament- 
ally sound. It not only provides for the prep- 
aration of teachers but also for Federal aid 
in the partial payment of teachers’ salaries. 
The country cannot afford to penalize its 
teachers. The latter must be paid in money 


Vol. VIII, No. 7 


and public respect these returns to which the 
value of their services entitles them. 


Even many of the so-called soulless cor. 
porations realize that the efficiency of the 
working personnel is fully as important as 
the efficiency of the plant. The product of 
the schools is human character. It follows 
that the happiness, the welfare, and the «f¥- 
ciency of the teaching personnel is more im- 
portant than the efficiency of the school plant. 
The teachers necessarily are the rea] educa- 
tors of the youth. You can have schools 
without school buildings and other parapher- 
nalia but you cannot have schools without 
school teachers. In these times of modern 
science, no country, whether in peace ov in 
war, is stronger than its schools. Vie\ ed 
from this angle, the teachers may be regaricied 
as the first and last line of a nation’s defense. 
The Smith-Towner Bill Revised gives recoz- 
nition to this fact. 

Mr. Chairman, there were certain funda- 
mental features in the first and second draft 
of this bill which were not in accord with 
American democracy. By vesting in the 
Secretary of Education the power to approve 
or reject plans as a condition laid upon th: 
states for obtaining Federal funds, the Smith 
Bill tended to set up an educational autocracy 
at Washington that could have resulted in the 
Prussianization of the American school sys- 
tem. It would have been possible for special 
interests or political parties to have domi- 
nated the thought of the youth of the country 
by the selection of text-books, the determina- 
tion of curricula, and the control of the teach- 
ers. It has been said that the Germany of 
today is the product of the German school- 
masters of yesterday and that the America 
of tomorrow, perhaps the world of tomorrow, 
will be the product of the American schoo! 
teachers of today. If there is any truth in 
this statement, the war for making the world 
safe for democracy can be won or lost in the 
public schools of the United States. 


The Towner Bill by its amendments re- 
moved the possibility of Federal domination 
of the schools. By requiring the States to 
turn over to their chief educational author''y 
the control of the schools as far as they were 
affected by this act, as a condition for ob- 
taining Federal aid, it did, however, tend to 
encourage the setting up, not of one over- 





September, 1919 


towering, but of forty-eight lesser educational 
autocracies. Too great a centralized control 
within a given state, while not as dangerous 
as a single one within the United States, is, 
nevertheless, a serious menace to the liberties 
of the people. 

Mr. Chairman, there can be no democracy 
in government or in industry unless there is 
democracy in education. The cave man knew 
what bodily slavery is. He fought it, and so 
has man ever ‘since the beginning of time, 
until it has been generally abolished thru- 
out the world. Democracy in government has 
been a conception of men for thousands of 
years, yet it has taken the greatest war in 
history to drive it home to the general con- 
sciousness of mankind. Democracy in in- 
dustry—and by that I mean that those who 
are employed shall have some voice in the 
determination of the conditions of their work 
—has been a conception of the last genera- 
tion. Democracy in education—and by that 
I mean that the teachers who are the real 
educators of the youth shall have some voice 
in the determination of text-books, educa- 
tional policies, and the conditions of their 
work, has been a conception of the past few 
years. The thought which they impart to the 
youth must not be imposed upon them. The 
teachers can hardiy train the youth in the 
ways of free men if they themselves are not 


The American Teacher 


157 


free. The last stand of autocracy, or rather 
plutocracy, will be in the dominion of the 
minds of men. The world cannot be made 
safe for democracy unless the schools are 
kept safe for democracy. 

The Smith-Towner Bill Revised does not 
require the states to set up a highly central- 
ized school control as a condition laid upon 
them for obtaining Federal aid. It absolutely 
prevents Federal domination. The removal of 
these objections explains the confidence and 
enthusiasm which not only the teachers but 
citizens generally have for this truly great 
educational program which is in accord with 
the form, the principles, and the spirit of 
American institutions. 

The recent world war taught us that suc- 
cess in war and achievement in peace depend 
upon a patriotic and educated citizenship. It 
has taught us that in the long run, at least, a 
democracy mobilized in its defense can pre- 
vail over an autocracy. The national inven- 
tory of our resources which preceded mobili- 
zation, however, disclosed certain defects in 
its parts which threatened the existence of 
the whole body politic. It is the object of the 
Smith-Towner Bill Revised to correct these 
defects in our democracy in order that 
America’s future may be more secure and 
that she may more effectively contribute to 
her own and the world’s reconstruction. 


Constructive Participation in Organization and Administra- 
tion by Teachers 


ETHEL M GARDNER 
Chairman, Educational Committee Milwaukee Teachers’ Association 


N these days of the glorious re-birth of 

democracy and the recognition of the 

righta of peoples everywhere to determine 
for themselves the kind of government under 
which they shall live, the desire of teachers 
to participate in the organization and admin- 
istration of the school system should cause 
no consternation nor alarm to the people of 
this greatest democracy in the world. We 
have seen the greatest military machine 
crumple and vanish from sight; we have seen 
the greatest autocracies pass from history 
forever; and we have seen a model educa- 


tional system “weighed in the balance and 
found wanting.” The world has learned the 
value of “team-work,” of cooperation. The 
victory of the Allies demonstrated its effec- 
tiveness. It is evidenced in the League of 
Nations. What should prevent its applica- 
tion in the industrial and educational wor!d? 

The Nation has awakened to the import- 
ance of the public schools. It is awakening 
to the need for better training for teachers 
and for better salaries that there may be bet- 
ter teachers, but it has not yet realized that 
the way to secure the best teachers is to 











The American Teacher 


allow them to become participators in the 
great scheme of education. 

We may appropriate millions for the train- 
ing of teachers; we may obtain better sal- 
aries for teachers; we may attract to the 
teaching profession the brightest of our 
young men and young women; but we must 
allow them to be something more than mere 
automatons if we want them to be real 
teachers. 

Laymen are surprised when we teachers 
talk about “democracy” in our school system. 
The average American citizen feels that the 
demands for democracy have been satisfied 
when a school board elected by the people has 
been provided for. He loses sight of the fact 
that school boards, as a rule, are composed of 
representative citizens, few, if any, of whom 
are trained educators; that such boards must 
necessarily employ educational experts to ad- 
vise them in matters of which they admit they 
have no knowledge; and that within the last 
quarter of a century there has developed in 
the educational system of every large city in 
the country a veritable Junker class of ad- 
ministrative officers who are chiefly respon- 
sible for the “superior-inferior” relationship 
which causes so much dissatisfaction and un- 
rest among the teachers of today. There can 
never be the right kind of cooperation, of 
“team-work,” in the school system until the 
representatives of the people on the school 
board and the instructors of the children of 
the people in the class room are brought into 
closer relationship. 

School directors and superintendents may 
call this “Bolshevism”; we teachers call it 
“democracy.” 

An effort to accomplish this was made in 
Toledo, Ohio. In a letter from the president 
of the Toledo Teachers’ Association, March 9. 
1918, she writes: “Our advisory committee 
was appointed at the suggestion of the Board 
of Education. It consists of twelve members 
appointed by the Board of Directors of the 
Toledo Teachers’ Association, and divided 
into three committees—Education, Building 
and Finance, corresponding to the three com- 
mittees of the Board of Education. The plan 
was that they were to be ready if called in 
conference by the Board of Education.” 

For several years the feeling has been 
slowly developing in this country that teach- 


Vol. VIII, No. 7 


ers should have some right to express opin- 
ions on matters pertaining to school admin- 
istration, and this has been evidenced by at- 
tempts in various cities to establish so-called 
‘Teachers’ Councils,” or advisory committees 
of teachers. Some school boards have allowed 
teachers to express in writing their opinions 
in regard to changes in text books. Some 
superintendents have appointed committees 
of teachers and principals to report on text 
books and changes in courses of study. 
These attempts at democratizing the schoo! 
system have met with varying degrees of 
success. Teachers soon discover that their 
written expressions of opinion serve but to 
accumulate dust, and discontinue writing 
them. Committees of teachers and principa!s 
usually find that it reacts to their persona! 
advantage to make recommendations which 
find favor with those higher up, and act ac- 
cordingly. Some teachers’ councils become 
involved in local political difficulties, or are 
rendered ineffective because of an antagonis- 
tic attitude of the school board or the super- 
intendent. 

Of the most successful teachers’ councils— 
those of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Toledo, Bos- 
ton, New York and Portland—no two are 
exactly alike in either constitution or pur- 
pose, except as they offer an outlet of expres- 
sion for teachers. This in itself is of value, 
for teachers must express themselves and do, 
though not always publicly ; and school direc- 
tors come into contact more or less with indi 
vidual teachers and listen, though not offi- 
cially. 

It is because of this gossipy, “back fence” 
method of communication that teachers are 
prone to magnify their grievances and schoo! 
directors believe that teachers have nothing 
to offer but complaints. Legalized recogni- 
tion by school boards of representatives 0! 
organized groups of teachers would clea 
away these misunderstandings. 


Superintendents and other administrativ: 
officers seem to fear this form of participa- 
tion by teachers, for the most generally ac- 
cepted type seems to be that of an advisor; 
body to the superintendent. A teachers’ coun- 
cil created by the Board of Education in 
Washington, D. C., in June, 1919, is to cor- 
sist of the superintendent of schools, two 
assistant superintendents and two represent- 





September, 1919 


atives of the administrative officers as well as 
delegates from the different groups of 
teachers. 

When a member of the Milwaukee Board 
of Education proposed that “the teachers of 
the various groups hold monthly meetings 
for the discussion of matters pertaining to 
school administration; that each group 
should select annually a representative to the 
committee on text books and course of in- 
struction with which these representatives of 
the teachers should meet every month and 
have a voice, but no vote,” it was bitterly op- 
posed by other members of the school board 
who seemed to fear that direct communica- 
tion between the teachers and the school 
board would disrupt the system. 

One director who feared that teachers 
would usurp the powers of the superintend- 
ent, said that “teachers have not that all- 
round and distant view” which is necessary 
in order to administer a school system. All 
teachers will readily agree to this statement, 
but we do feel that we have the “close-up” 
and intimate view which no other group in 
the school system has. We feel that a school 
board that would give equal recognition to 
the “all-round and distant view” of the super- 
intendent and the “close-up” and intimate 
view of the teacher, that would weigh them 
both judiciously and fairly, would be a demv- 
cratic and American school board, and we 
should have no other kind in the United 
States of America. 


THE AWAKENING OF A PEDAGOG 
BH 
NCE upon a time there lived in the 
city of New York an old blue-blooded 
New England yankee who had but one 
son, Archibald, who was trained for the most 
exalted of all professions—teaching. He was 
a courteous, refined, self sacrificing and cui- 
tured gentleman, so rare in the teaching pro- 
fession of to-day. One day while the young 
and enthusiastic Archibald was wending his 
way homeward, he was accosted by one of 
his co-workers, the plebian Bill Hogg and the 
following dialogue ensued : 
Bill—Hello, Archie, how’s Aristotle feel- 
ing to-day? 
Archie (resenting the plebian familiarity) 
—Quite well, thank you! 


The American Teacher 


159 


Bill—Say, Archie, why didn’t you renew 
your subscription to the American Historical 
Review? 

Archie—The cost of living has mounted 
heavenward so rapidly that I had to econ- 
omize on something; so I discontinued my 
subscriptions to my best friends, my maga- 
zines and books (Groans). 

Bill—That’s too bad. By the way, how do 
you like the lengthened school day imposed 
upon us so suddenly? It “gets your nanny,” 
doesn’t it? 

Archie—Don’t speak so disrespectfully of 
the acts of your superiors. Don’t you think, 
William, that we ought to do something to 
get an increase? 

Bill—Sure thing, Archie, why don’t you 
join the union. You know we are being ex- 
exploited even worse than the workers— 
longer school day, increased pension deduc- 
tions, extra school activities. What is still 
worse, we have become mere ciphers and 
our ideals so stifled that we have even lost 
our self respect. Thru the union we can 
force the community to respect our rights. 

Archie (nose tilted at an angle of 45 de- 
grees, drawing himself up majestically to his 
full height, forgetting for the moment his 
milk and biscuit salary)—Sir, how dare you 
take advantage of your familiarity to thus 
insult me? Do you desire to put me on the 
same plane with the blacksmith, the machine 
forger and the boiler maker? Are you aware 
that teaching is a profession? 

Bill (trying another tack)—Don’t you 
think it would be a good thing if we teachers 
had some say in determining the conditions 
under which we work? And some say in the 
management of the schools? 

Archie (horrified at the vastness and im- 
pertinence of the idea)—Sir, are you so un- 
American as to suggest such Bolshevistic 
ideas as the fixing of salaries (his soul can’t 
bear the word “wages”) or electing the su- 
pervisor? Sir, never speak to me again. You 
are an agitator and anarchist. 

Then began the education of Archie. 


Jolt 1. A news item informed Archie that 
designers, musicians and engineers had 
joined the American Federation of Labor and 
that the authors were seriously considering 
the proposition. 








160 


Jolt 2. A judge of a Federal court has de- 
cided that teaghing is not a profession. 

Jolt 3. Archie, earning about 40 cents an 
hour, accidentally obtained a copy of the 
Labor Review and learned much to his as- 
tonishment, that the ignorant and uncultured 
and unrefined machine forger was earning 
$1.48 per hour, the despised plebian black- 
smith $.90 per hour and the boiler-maker 
$.80 per hour and, furthermore, that they 
control the conditions under which they labor. 


Jolt 4 (still pondering on the power pos- 
sessed by the skilled worker). Archie learns 
that the reconstruction committee of his 
church had recommended the following: rec- 
ognition of the union and the seven hour day; 
the participation of the worker in the actual 
management of the industry, and in the prof- 
its, a property right to his job instead of 
holding his job until he saw the fatal words 
“Conduct unbecoming a teacher” and other 
reforms that made him wonder when his 
bishop had been converted to Bolshevism. 

Archie, after these jolts began to ruminate 
thusly :— 

I, a highly trained, cultured and intellec- 
tual being, possessing a Harvard degree, gets 
40 cents per hour, and the machine forger 
$1.48 per hour. The machine forger has a 
property right to his job and is a decisive 
factor in his shop, fixing his hours, wages, 
sanitary conditions, etc., while I tremble be- 
cause of the sword of Damocles hanging over 
me (conduct unbecoming a teacher) and fix 
nothing but my signature to a starvation 
ticket euphoniously called a “salary.” I, 
Archibald Adams, a descendant of the noble 
Adams family, an honor student of Harvard, 
the proud possessor of a PhD degree, am 
ignored by my superiors while the ignorant 
foreigner working in the boiler shop is treat- 
ed with courtesy and permitted the rights 
that belong solely to a professional. If that 
is what Unionism does, then I shall join the 
U-N-I-O-N. ° 

Later. 

Archie—Hello, Bill, I have joined the 
Union, and what’s more I am going to per- 
suade all I know to join. I may be a Bol- 
shevist in doing this, but I want a living 
wage, I. want decent working conditions, I 
want to be treated as an intelligent being, I 
want to be able to dress well, to read stimu- 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VIII, No. 7 


lating books and magazines. In short, I want 
to live like a human being so that I can hold 
my head up, look any man in the eye and say 
proudly—/J AM A TEACHER. 

That nightmare view awoke in my con- 
tented mind the thought that perhaps every- 
thing was not as perfect in this world as | 
had thought, and that while we were fighting 
to bring democracy to the oppressed peoples 
of Europe, we were neglecting to give it to 
the downtrodden and exploited workers of 
our own country. And it also awoke in my 
mind the hope that some day such things 
would no longer be, that some day: man 
would realize that his life was not created to 
be worn away, but that in it he should enjoy 
the good things of existence, and that h- 
would then be able to give to the world in re- 
turn the full product of a brain and body 
developed to the greatest extent. 


FROM THE UNIONS OF FRANCE 


Editor, The American Teacher: 

I have the honor to transmit to you the 
greetings of the Federation of Teaciers 
Unions of France in convention assembled in 
Tours, August 10, 1919. The teachers of 
France wish to convey, thru me, an expression 
of their cordial feelings to their American 
brothers and sisters. Like thein, they have 
felt the necessity of federating into unions in 
order to achieve the necessary aims of bring- 
ing about democracy in education aid the 
emancipation of the teacher from official op- 
pression. Comrades in arms, they desire also 
to be comrades in creating a new ideal of edu- 
cation which will realize the highest aspira- 
tions of humanity. They have chosen the 
field of unionism to accomplish these aims. 
Once more they extend fraternal greetings to 
their American comrades and hope that in 
the future more intimate relations may be 
established between the teaching forces of 
America and France. The convention, repre- 
sentative of all France, thus officially estab- 
lishes the first bonds of union between the 
Federation of Teachers Unions of France and 
the American Federation of Teachers. 


WILLIAM I. HELLER, 
Honorary President, Federation of Teachers 
Unions of France. 

Tours, France, Aug. 10, 1919. 





From the Locals of the American Federation 


of ‘Teachers 


Staff of Chairmen of Press 


Committees 


Local No. 3, Chicago, Ill, ETHEL E BEERS 

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

Local No. 8, Washington, D C, SUSANNE 
ULRICH. 

Local No. 16, Washington, D C, GERTRUDE 
L LADSON. 

Local No. 25, Norfolk, Va, JULIAN S&S. 
HUGHSON. 

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


FROM LOCAL NO. 5 
(The Teachers Union, New York) 


IT IS CUSTOMARY for teachers to claim that 
the school authorities of their particular city 
are the most autocratic and stupid. This 
peculiar form of rivalry happily has been fin- 
ally settled. The prize has been awarded to 
New York City, where it threatens to remain 
until the teachers thru their collective 
intelligence reduce the present powers in the 
Board of Education to “innocuous desue- 
tude.” -This is how the contest was decided. 

The New York Board of Education was 
greatly perturbed over the possibility of chil- 
dren falling a prey en masse to the doctrines 
of Bolshevism. It also felt, perhaps, that a 
few teachers lacking in the proper kind of 
subservience to officialdom, had so far es- 
caped the ax. The help of the pupils might 
cleverly be secured in preparing the way for 
the next “execution.” At any rate, one bright 
day in June it was calmly announced that all 
the children of the High Schools would be 
given a test on war facts. Occupying a most 
prominent place in this test tho was a series 
of questions concerning Bolshevism. The 
pupils were required to tell what it was, 
whether it was a danger threatening New 
York City, whether it was compatible with 


161 


the principle of representative government, 
and several other questions of a similar na- 
ture. Along with these came this other one 
—“State where you got your information 
about Bolshevism.” The teachers at the 
same time were ordered that if, in examining 
the papers, they discovered any pupils who 
seemed to know what Bolshevism really was 
they were to report such cases to the prin- 
cipal. The children in the elementary schools 
were also subjected to similar questions. 
Many: an unsuspecting parent was faced by 
a lisping child demanding an explanation of 
Bolshevism, for it would be in tomorrow’s 
test. 


The ridiculousness and viciousness of the 
entire proceedings was as evident to the 
pupils as to the teachers and the public. In 
an examination conducted ostensibly to dis- 
cover facts, an attempt was being made to pry 
into the private political opinions of pupils 
and their parents. The pupils knowing quite 
generally what the “official” explanation of 
Bolshevism was kept on the safe side of 
things by giving what was wanted. Teachers 
again, in order not to endanger their position, 
marked answers they knew to be absolutely 
wrong, as tho they were perfect. 


The Teachers Union, thoroly aroused 
because of the utter demoralization which 
this test had produced among both pupils and 
teachers, appointed a committee to consider 
what steps should be taken by the Union in 
the matter. In the meantime Dr. B. C. Gru- 
enberg, a teacher in the Julia Richman High 
School, and a member of the Union, sent a 
written protest to the Superintendent of 
Schools. At a very well attended meeting of 
the Union, held in the latter part of June, a 
set of resolutions was adopted strongly pro- 
testing against the spirit and form of the 
examination that had been imposed upon th< 
children. 

A short time afterwards the City Superin- 
tendent announced that nothing in the pupils’ 
answers would be used against any teacher 
or pupil. The reader has probably guessed 





162 


that the fertile brain of the renowned Tilds- 
ley evolved this aid to Americanism. 


Ever since April, when the Board of Edu- 
cation denied the Teachers Union the right 
to meet in the schools, the Union has carried 
on a vigorous campaign to enlist the support 
of organized labor to force the Board to re- 
scind its autocratic rule. The response of 
labor has naturally been most vigorous. Or- 
ganized labor is responsible for the creation 
of the public school system in the United 
States, and will not allow any attack on the 
teachers who best represent the democratic 
spirit in education to pass off lightly. All 
the Central Labor bodies in the city appointed 
a joint committee on education, as our read- 
ers will recall, to demand justice for the 
Teachers Union. 

After many delays, and the failure of the 
Board to answer letters addressed to it by 
this Joint Committee, the Committee by ap- 
pearing at one of the open meetings of the 
Board, finally arranged an interview. At 
this interview the Board promised to write 
the Committee in answer to the questions sub- 
mitted to it by the representatives of over 
500,000 organized workers. When the an- 
swer finally came, it was couched in vague 
and meaningless phrases that meant abso- 
lutely nothing. The Board was asked why 
the Union had been denied the right to meet 
in the schools; whether it would refuse the 
request of the Union to meet in the schools, 
and whether it would adopt a new plan for 
the trying of teachers whereby teachers 
would be represented on the Trial Board. 
The answer did not meet any of the issues. 

The Central Federated Union of New York 
thereupon again wrote to the Board submit- 
ting five very definite questions. To these 
the Board of July 29 again made answer, and 
again said nothing. The questions and an- 
swers follow: 

Q. What rules or regulations did the Teach- 
ers Union violate that resulted in a drastic 
ruling which denied the union use of the 
schools? A. Denial was based on the report 
of inspectors of the department showing that 
rules and regulations of the Board of Educa- 
tion had been violated at a meeting held 
March 29. 

Q. Why was such action taken without 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VIII, No. 7 


giving the union an opportunity to be hear 
in its defence? A. The board did not consider 
it necessary to go further than the repor: of 
its inspectors. 

Q. What action of the Teachers Union or 
its members induced the Board of Education 
to adopt the resolution providing for the in. 
vestigation of the loyalty of the members of 
the union and especially of the officers, 
regulation that seriously affected the growth 
of the union? A. Because of public utter. 
ances and printed reports of the organization 
over the signature of its officers. 

Arthur 8. Somers, a member of the beard, 
remarked on this question: “It is interesting 
to note that it seriously affected the growth 
of the union. I didn’t know that.” 

Q. Would the Board of Education approve 
of an amendment to the educational laws for 
the method of trial suggested by our commit- 
tee? A. No. ° 

Q. Will the Teachers Union be given the 
use of the schools if it makes application for 
it? A. As we have already advised, no school 
organization has been or will be denied the 
use of the school buildings so long as it con- 
forms to the rules and regulations of the 
Board of Education. 

The Union immediately sent in a request 
for the use of aroom. At the meeting of the 
Board held on August 6, the request was re- 
ferred to the one member of the Board who 
publicly declared his opposition to unions 
among teachers on the day of his appoini- 
ment. This member has referred the prob- 
lem to the Corporation Counsel of the City of 
New York. The Teachers Union awaits the 
judgment of the officials with calmness. 


FROM LOCAL NO. 14 
(Jasonville Teachers Federation, Indiana) 


A CONTROVERSY which threatened seriously 
to disrupt the schools of Jasonville, Indiana, 
has been adjusted thru the combined efforts 
of the Jasonville Teachers’ Federation No. 14, 
the Jasonville Central Labor Union, and 
President Stillman of the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers, in a manner which prom ses 
well for harmony and increased efficiency in 
the Jasonville schools. The school board had 
refused to reemploy three teachers, al! of 
whom had high success grades. They were 





September, 1919 


members of Local No. 14, one of them being 
an officer in the local. The Central Labor 
Union then took the matter up vigorously. 
At the annual election the president of the 
school board resigned and another member’s 
term expired, so that two new members out 
of a total of three were elected. This new 
board agreed to employ only union teachers, 
but refused to reinstate the three who had 
been dropped, and refused to sign a contract 
providing for arbitration of such differences. 


President Stillman was then called into 
consultation, and after a conference with the 
President of the new school board, arranged 
a joint meeting of the committee of the Cen- 
tral Labor Union and Local No. 14 and the 
school board. At this meeting Mr. Stillman 
presented the case of the teachers, including 
the grievance of the lowering of success 
grades by the Superintendent of Schools 
without giving the teacher his reasons, or 
suggestions for improvement. The Board 
finally reinstated the three ousted teachers, 
and agreed to the substance of the following 
resolutions which were drafted by Mr. Still- 
man and the attorney of the Board the fol- 
lowing morning. 

“1. Resolved by the Board of School Trus- 
tees of the City of Jasonville, Indiana, that in 
the case of a teacher whose work in the judg- 
ment of the Superintendent of Schools is of 
such character that he believes it may be in- 
cumbent upon him to lower her success grade, 
the Superintendent shall prepare in duplicate 
a statement of his criticism of said teacher’s 
work and of his suggestions for improvement, 
one copy of said statement to be filed with the 
teacher, and one in the Superintendent’s of- 
fice, at a time which would give the teacher a 
reasonable opportunity to profit by the Su- 
perintendent’s criticism and suggestions, anc 
to bring her work up to standard for the 
school year. dee, 

“2. Resolved by the Board of School Trus- 
tees of the City of Jasonville, Indiana, that in 
case any grievance arises between any 
teacher under contract and in employment 
and school officials, said grievance shall be 
taken up for settlement by a committee of 
teachers consisting of three members se- 
lected by the teachers’ organization, and the 
Board of School Trustees sitting as a commit- 
tee of the whole; in case agreement is not 


The American Teacher 


163 


reached, a disinterested arbitrator shall be 
selected by the above committees ; and in case 
of failure to agree on a disinterested arbitra- 
tor, the grievance shall be submitted to the 
Superintendent of Schools of Greene County 
for settlement. 

“3. Resolved by the Board of Trustees of 
the City of Jasonville, Indiana, that in case 
of the non-reemployment of a teacher, such 
teacher shall receive from the Board by the 
close of the school year a written statement 
of the causes for non-reemployment, and upon 
the written application of such teacher, a 
full, open hearing shall be granted within 
two weeks, at which such teacher shall have 
the opportunity to be represented in person, 
by any officer of her local or national union, 
or by attorney, to answer all charges against 
her, to summon witnesses, and to introduce 
evidence; the decision of said Board to be 
final. 

“The teachers, in cooperation with this 
resolution, shall file their applications for 
reemployment not later than one month be- 
fore the close of the school year.” 


The membership of Local No 14, which 
now includes all the teachers of Jasonville, is 
satisfied with this settlement, and we submit 
it briefly, thinking it may be of interest to 
the movement. 

MARY POWELL, 


Secretary Jasonville Teachers’ Federation 


FROM LOCAL NO. 59 
(The Minneapolis Teachers Federation) 


How Does the Board Stand? 
A Brief Analysis of Its Opinion of the Union 


The Minneapolis schools are administered by a 
board of seven. At present these members are: H 
N Leighton, contractor; C E Purdy, attorney; Nils 
Juell, dentist; Mrs T F Kinney; David F Swenson, 
professor of philasaphy at the University of Minne- 
sota; A G Bainbridge, painter, and Lynn Thompson, 
organizer for the American Federation of Labor, 
Knowing that the last two are both union men, 
teachers have generally assumed that they would 
sympathize with the new movement. Professor 
Swenson has been regarded as favorable to unioniza- 
tion and it has been expected that Mrs Kinney 
would react toward the idea. Gossip has generally 
opposed the remaining three members to the con- 
ception of teachers in affiliation with labor. We 
tried hard to obtain a statement from each member 





164 


for this issue, but one letter is all that we have to 
publish. Prof Swenson desires to be known as 
neutral and Mrs Kinney deeply ‘sympathizes with 
teachers in their desire for more self-expression. 
We honor Mr Purdy for the friendly frankness of 
his letter which follows: 

“June 9th, 1919. 

“Answering your question as to my personal 
views on the subject of the Minneapolis Teachers’ 
Federation, may I say, quite unofficially that: 

“I favor trade unions and teachers’ organizations, 
but I see no reason why the teachers who are do- 
ing professional work should affiliate with those 
in the mechanical trades. 

“Teachers are rendering a public service and no 
class is living off from the products of their industry. 

“To federate the teachers’ organization would 
naturally tend to generate rather than obliterate 
class consciousness, the standing menace to our 
democratic institutions. 

“A teaching corps part union and part non-union 
might introduce dissension and distrust, thus de- 
stroying the unity of our teaching body, and it was 
on this account, as I am advised, that Boards of 
Education have placed a ban upon the federation. 

“If this view is to be published may I ask that 
you publish it in its entirety as otherwise it might 
not reflect correctly the feeling which I have in the 
matter. Would you also be kind enough to send me 
a copy of the publication? 

“With best wishes, I am, 

“Yours very truly, 
“C BE PURDY.” 
—From the Federation News, 


Local 59, A F of T, Minnea- 
polis, Minn. 


FROM THE CALIFORNIA STATE FED- 
ERATION OF TEACHERS 


ELEGATES from the Benicia Element- 
ary, Fresno Elementary, Fresno High, 
Sacramento Elementary, Sacramento 

High, San Francisco, Vallejo and Visalia 
Teachers’ Federations met at the Labor Tem- 
ple at Sixteenth and Mission Streets, San 
Francisco, at 10 a m May 31, 1919, for the 
purpose of considering the formation of a 
State Federation of Teachers. 

Mr J P Utter, of Vallejo, was elected tem- 
porary chairman and Miss Virginia Yolo, of 
Sacramento, was elected temporary secre- 
tary. 

Mr Utter opened the meeting with a few 
remarks concerning the need of extending the 
organization of locals and assisting locals 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VIII, No. 7 


already organized. He then called upon ai! 
the delegates to express their views upon the 
subject, and all took part in a most interest- 
ing discussion. Points brought out by indi- 
vidual delegates were: The need of a central 
clearing house for information, assisting 
rural teachers, conducting an offensive and 
defensive campaign to defend our position, 
what a state federation would mean, what 
obligations it would entail, need for con- 
certed action in legislation, etc. The consen- 
sus of opinion was that a state federation was 
necessary to provide the machinery for action 
and that locals must be responsible for the 
activity and extension of the movement. 

Mr McLaren made a motion, which was 
unanimously carried, that a State Federation 
of Teachers be formed. 

Mr Baker moved that the temporary organ- 
ization be retained until after the report of a 
committee on constitution. It was unani- 
mously carried. | 

Motions were then made and carried that 


‘the following committees be appointed to re- 


port at the afternoon session : 


(a) Constitution and By-laws. 
(b) Platform and Resolutions. 
(c) Extension. 


The chairman then named the following 
committees : 


(a) Constitution and By-laws: 
Mr RG Baker, 
Miss Virginia Yolo, 
Miss J Colby, 
Mr P J Mohr, 
Miss Olive Wilson. 
Platform and Resolutions: 
Miss V Carson, | 
Miss A R Tracy, 
Mr Tetstall, 
Miss A T Crowley, 
Mr J P Utter. 

(c) Extension: 

Mr S G McLean, 
Miss M Thomas, 
Mrs J A Graves, 
Miss M McArthur, 
Mrs R G Baker. 


Mr Bonsar of the San Francisco Labor 
Council addressed the Federation in regard 
to the State Federation of Labor. 





September, 1919 


A recess was then decided upon until 2:30 
in order that the delegates might have lunch 
and the committees might have time to bring 
in reports. 

The San Francisco teachers furnished a 
most tempting dinner at a downtown hotel. 
Needless to say, this was thoroly enjoyed 
by all the delegates. 

The afternoon meeting opened with a re- 
port from the Committee on Constitution and 
By-Laws. The Constitution was adopted 
after a few minor amendments had been 
made. The Committee recommended that 
By-Laws be drawn up by a Committee ap- 
pointed by the President. 

The Committee on Platform reported a 
statement of Principles and Purposes of the 
State Federation of Teachers. Its reports on 
resolutions was also read and adopted. 

The Committee on Extension reported 
plans for extending the federation movement 
in California. The report was adopted. 

The machinery for action being thus pro- 
vided, the next business was the election of 
officers. The following were elected: 

President—Mr S G McLean, Sacramento 
High School. 

First Vice-Pres—Mr Davis, San Fran- 
cisco. 

Second Vice-Pres.—Miss 
Vallejo. 

Third Vice-Pres.—Miss Virginia Yolo, Sac- 
ramento Elementary. 

Fourth Vice-Pres.—Mr Royce Baker, Vis- 
alia. 

Fifth Vice-Pres.—Miss M McArthur, Be- 
nicia. 

Sixth Vice-Pres.—Left vacant. 

Corresponding and Recording Secretary— 
Miss J Colby, Fresno. 

Financial Secretary—Miss A J Crowley, 
San Francisco. 

Respectfully submitted, 
VIRGINIA YOLO, 
Secretary pro tem. 


Olive Wilson, 








—There is a great agitation in France at this 
moment among professors and teachers. The 
Chamber .of Deputies has been called upon to dis- 
cuss increases in salaries of all professors and 
teachers, which have not been changed since about 
1853.—From The Public of August 30, 1919. 


The American Teacher 


165 


POISONING THE WELLS 


Our children in the schools, our young people in 
the colleges and universities, are still *tbeing sub- 
jected to a propaganda of falsehood and suppres- 
sion, sometimes deliberate and calculated, some- 
times only cowardly and evasive, but in any case 
of a character to produce hatred and contempt, and 
now clearly in process of being turned from our 
late enemies to the new disturbers of our peace 
and quiet, the radical thinkers and “Bolsheviki” of 
every country. In what spirit would our peda- 
gogues have the children receive this message? 

* * + + * * 


A subservient citizenry, well dritled in falsehoods 
and hatreds, and trained to the duty of universal 
military service—what could be a finer or more fit- 
ting fruit of a war fought for democracy? 

If such is to be the outcome, there is no need to 
ask who has won the war; for we shall have turned 
over our children, bound in spiritual chains, to the 
very enemy against whom our conflict was osten- 
sibly waged. Shall these things be? Once the 
teachers themselves, and the public that supports 
the teachers, thoroly appreciate the situation, once 
they realize the incalculable injury that is being 
done to millions of innocent and impressionable 
children, even the passions of war must yield to 
the universal human instinct to protect the young. 
For on that day it will be realized that for the 
maiming and the slaughter, for the destruction of 
the means of life, for the ravaging of millions of 
homes and the snuffing out of all that made the 
life of tens of millions of human beings worth liv- 
ing—for these things, indeed, those responsible may 
perhaps find forgiveness at the judgment seat of 
a merciful God—but for the searing of the souls of 
little children with the blasting flame of hatred, for 
the closing of their minds against unwelcome truth, 
for the poisoning of their spirit with falsehoods 
concerning their future neighbors, whose only of- 
fence is that they are the children of fathers on 
whom we made war—for these sins against the 
Holy Spirit those who are to blame shall find no 
forgiveness though they seek with strong crying 
and tears.—From The Nation of March 8, 1919. 








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, Cuartes B Stittman, Chicago 
1620 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, III. 


Secretary-Treasurer, F G Strecker, Chicago 
1618 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, II. 


National Organizer; First Vice-President, 
L V Lampson, Washington, D C 
1336 Otis Place, N W 





166 


WOMEN WORKERS’ CONVENTION 
ADOPTS BROAD PROGRAM 


Philadelphia—Representing some 600,000 working 
women of the United States, and numbering among 
its visitors three representatives of the organized 
women workers of Great Britain, the seventh bi- 
ennial convention of the National Women’s Trade 
Union League, just held in Philadelphia, adjourned 
after a week’s discussion and the adoption of a broad 
fundamental program. There were about 125 dele- 
gates in the voting body of the convention, repre- 
senting localities from Salt Lake City to Boston, 
and the sessions were attended also by numbers of 
visitors. 

The British representatives were Miss Mary Mc- 
Arthur, secretary of the British Women’s Trade 
Union League, Miss Margaret Bondfield, fraternal 
delegate to the American Federation of Labor con- 
vention from the British Trade Union Congress, 
and Mrs Eleanor Barton, of the British Women’s 
co-operative Guild. 

Mrs Raymond Robins, national president of the 
National Women’s Trade Union League of Am- 
erica, presided at the convention and was re-elected 
for the next two years by unanimous vote, as was 
also Miss Emma Steghagen of the Boot and Shoe 
Workers’ Union, as national secretary-treasurer. 

The sessions were characterized throughout by 
breadth of outlook, most of the policies adopted 
having an international scope. Perhaps the largest 


single undertaking was the decision to call an inter- 
national congress of working women, to be held in 
Washigton in October, just preceding the interna- 


tional labor conference of the League of Nations. 
The women’s congress is to be called by the Na- 
tional Women’s Tradé Union League of America, 
and the British and French trade union women have 
already pledged their co-operation. Women labor 
leaders from all over the world are expected to at- 
tend this congress, the purpose of which is to voice 
the women’s demands for equal representation in 
the policy making councils of the international labor 
bureaus, and for adequate provision for dealing with 
the special problems of women workers in all coun- 
tries. 

The convention put itself on record as renewing its 
demands for equal pay for equal work by women 
and men and the proper rating of women’s work ac- 
cording to skill; for right of choice of occupation 
and equal opportunity for women in industry; for 
adequate répresentation of women in the policy 
making bodies of the Government, the American 
Federation of Labor, national and international 
unions and all other agencies that deal with work- 
ing conditions and standards of life; for the max- 
imum forty-four hour week; a minimum wage law 
guaranteeing to all women an adequate living wage; 
a federal tax upon employers whose record shows 
a labor turnover in excess of a given percentage; 
for the establishment of educational councils in 
local leagues and labor unions and the organization 
of classes for the teaching of the principles of in- 
dustrial democracy and trade unionism; for aboli- 
tion of the tipping system; for health insurance leg- 
islation; for public ownership of public utilities with 
workers’ control; for scientific taxation of land 


values; for a federal department of Eudcation as 


provided in the Smith-Towner bill and a campaign 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VIII, No. 7 


to overcome illiteracy; for revision of the federa! 
civil service law to provide equal opportunity and 
equal rights for women in public service; for th: 
Nolan minimum wage bill for Government em- 
ployees and a civil service retirement law; for re- 
peal of veteran preference legislation, which is d« 
clared to be subversive of the merit system and dis 
criminatory against women; for the permanence 
and expansion of the Women-in-Industry Servic: 
of the U S Department of Labor, the Working Con- 
ditions Service, and the federal Employment Serv- 
ice. The convention also called upon the Depari 
ment of Labor to study seasonal occupations in 
nation-wide distribution, and to make definite recom- 
mendations within a given period, for the contro] 
of seasonal unemployment. 

The problems of domestic workers were dealt 
with in a resolution pledging the League to use it 
utmost efforts to standardize the conditions 
domestic service, and to organize the domestic 
workers. At the same time the convention went on 
record in protest against the public attitude which 
classes the work of the housewife and homekeeper 
as not a “gainful occupation” under the Census 
classification. The League demands recognition of 
the wives and mothers who do their own work at 
home as fellow-workers in industry. 

A league of nations “that shall establish co-opera 
tion among all the peoples of the earth to the end 
that wars shall cease” was the subject of a unanimous 
resolution, and others demanded the restoration of 
the rights of free speech, free press, and free as 
semblage, called for amnesty for all political and 
industrial offenders, urged the lifting of the blockade 
against Germany and Russia as a matter of human- 
ity, and called for recognition of the Russian Soviet 
Government. 

The League adopted the principle of proportional 
representation for its own elections, and put the 
plan into immediate effect. The officers elected for 
the ensuing two years are Mrs Raymond Robins, pre- 
ident, Rose Schneiderman of New York, vice-pres- 
ident, Emma Steghagen of Chicago, secretary-treas 
urer. The executive board members are Agnes 
Nestor and Elizabeth Christman of the Glove-Work 
ers, Chicago; Julia O’Connor of the Telephone 
Operators and Mabel Gillespie of the Office Work 
ers, Boston; Hilda Svenson of the Commercial Tele- 
graphers and Jo Coffin of the printers, New York 
Pauline Newman of the Waistmakers, Philadelphia; 
Sarah Green of the Waitresses, Kansas City. 

—From Press Service of Na- 
tional Women’s Trade Union 
League. 








—The Norfolk Chamber of Commerce has a com- 
mittee on labor, of which a Negro has been made 
a member. The city also has a Negro Workers’ 
Advisory Committee, composed of three white city 
officials and twenty-five colored men and women. 
In the acute labor shortage of the past year both 
these committees have enlisted the interest and 
help of Negro workers of all grades—From The 
Public of August 23, 1919. 





September, 1919 


THE CASE OF THE SCIENTISTS 

The recent decision of the scientific and tech- 
nical employees of the Government stationed in 
Washington, representing many lines of science 
and branches of the service, to unite with Wash- 
ington Local No 2 as an occupational group, or 
branch thereof, is an event of more than passing 
interest and significance. This is shown by the 
comments of the press in various parts of the United 
States, which attach much importance to the in- 
cident as fraught with large meaning. 

Although many employees in this general class 
have been members of our organization for vary- 
ing periods, the action here considered marks the 
first step on the part of men of science as an in- 
tegral group to ally themselves with the trade- 
union movement. That the accession of this body 
of workers to the wage-earning brotherhood of 
the country carries with it great good is not open 
to serious question in the judgment of the writer. 

Our present-day life is so complex that scien- 
tific research touches our most vital interests at 
every turn. Problems affecting food, sanitation, 
housing, education, wages, child labor, insurance, 
and a thousand other things.are becoming more 
and more dependent for adequate solution on the 
investigations of the trained men of science. These 
investigations are naturally for the greater part in 
the field occupied by the wage-earning classes, 
from the “submerged tenth” up to and including 
that section of our population usually classed as of 
“moderate means.” Is it not essential to the proper 
understanding of, and sympathetic attitude toward, 
their problems, needs, aspirations, and limitations 
that the investigator should have as close knowl- 
edge as possible of the human material he is study- 
ing, knowledge which can best be gained by direct 
contact with the people themselves? 

The benefit to be derived from association of 
this kind, however, will inure at least as much to 
the men of science as to their brother workers. 
The necessities of the case constantly call for in- 
creasing allotments for scientific research, calls 
which do not always meet with the response to 
which their merit entitles them. The remedy lies 
in awakening a keener appreciation on the part of 
the average citizen of the necessity for liberal ex- 
penditures by the state for such purposes, and he 
can be brought into the proper frame of mind in 
no other way more effectually than by closer as- 
sociation with those who direct the work of re- 
search. In order to secure the highly desirable 
result, then, each class—the man of science on the 
one hand and the wage-earners in general on the 
other—must come together to a greater extent than 
they do now for the common purpose of advancing 
the well-being of both classes and that of the com- 
munity as a whole. 


The American Teacher 


167 


Our scientific brethren do not stand alone in the 
step they have taken. The old line of demarcation 
between the brain-worker and the hand-worker is 
rapidly approaching the vanishing point. Work- 
ers must frequently supplement the work of the 
brain with that of the hand and vice versa. The 
modern labor movement is gathering in its own in 
a steadily augmenting ratio. Teachers, physicians, 
newspaper reporters, actors, drug clerks, photog- 
raphers—even ministers—-are merging with the 
trade-union fraternity in the growing conscious- 
ness that they are wage-earners by the stern fact 
of their economic condition. It remains for them 
merely to decide whether they will be organized or 
unorganized wage-earners. 

—Editorial in The Federal 
Employee for June, 1919. 


CITY CHEMISTS JOIN UNION 


Skilled Men of Health Department Unite with the 

A F of L— 

At the headquarters of the Union of Technical 
Men of the American Federation of Labor, Local 
16,388, in the World Building, announcement was 
made last night that the skilled chemists and as- 
sistants of the New York City Health Department 
had become affiliated therewith. 

These scientists represent the highest form ot 
trained men employed in city service, and their re- 
solve to pool their interests with skilled labor repre- 
sents a radical departure from established tradition, 
the announcement pointed out. 

—From the New York Times 
of August 22, 1919. 


There are thousands of New York City 
teachers who profess to believe that it is be- 
neath them to join a union. And now comes 
their friend, the New York Times intimat- 
‘ing that teachers are not so highly trained, 
and hence not so professional as are some 
‘others—EpiTor, The American Teacher. 


REPORTERS ORGANIZE UNION 


Montreal, Canada,—Reporters on the French and 
English newspapers have organized a union with a 
charter from the International Typographical Union. 
It is claimed that this is the first newspaper writers’ 


union formed in Canada. The purposes are: “To 
promote the professional and general interests of 
the members by encouraging a higher professional 
standard, by raising the rate of remuneration by reg- 
ulating the hours of work, and by providing ade- 
quate compensation for overtime and special work.” 

—From the A F of L News- 

letter of May 31, 1919. 


There is another reporters’ union in Bos- 
ton which has been remarkably successful. 
The snobbery of professional pride is fast 
disappearing when reporters take a step like 
this.—EbitTor, The American Teacher. 





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The American Teacher. Vol. VIH, No. 7 


‘ 


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A Professional Creed 


In Common With American Teachers Generally 


WE BELIEVE in universal right education as the chief guarantee of human 
welfare and progress ; 

WE BELIEVE in the dignity of manhood and womanhood, in the essential 
equality of the sexes, and in childremas the hope of the race, for whom the 
best we have to offer is none too good; 

WE BELIEVE in non-partisan control of the schools; 

WE BELIEVE in the highest possible standards of professional preparation 
and work; ; 

WE BELIEVE in law and order, in reason above force, in co-operation in 
the spirit of the Golden Rule; 

As an organized unit of the American Federation of Teachers, 
affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, we recognize 
the brotherhood of brain and brawn; 

WE BELIEVE in the democratization of the schools and in the improve- 
ment of the condition of the teacher; 

WE BELIEVE in the conduct of the schools only by persons standing above 
all partisanship whether of sect or party, clan or clique; 

WE BELIEVE in organic teacher participation in school government in all 
its phases; but we ‘stand for unselfish service rather than for selfish 
domination ; for giving more than for mere getting; 


WE BELIEVE in the merit system of appointment and promotion, and in 
equal pay for equal work; 

We stand for the schools for democracy, and for more de- 
mocracy for the schools. And so, with malice toward none, with 
charity and justice for all, with an eye single to the right as God 
gives us to see the right, we press forward to achieve better 
schools for our free citizens, and more freedom for the schools of 
our beloved State. 


A Statement of the Principles and Purposes of the California 
State Federation of Teachers, Adopted at San Francisco, 
May 31, 1919. 


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