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4 FEBRUARY, 1920 


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The Clean Fight | 
Revenue For the Schools 


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The Workers’ University 


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The American Teacher 








Human Nature in Industry 


UMAN nature in industry 
has gone on strike. The de- 
cayed autocracy of financiers 

and business men cannot be restored 
by “profit sharing” and “copartner- 
ship.” The revolt is not against de- 
tails. It is against the purpose, 
products, methods and conditions of 
industry. The workers do not want 
the “wants” that fill modern life, 
the splatter of 


conquest. The motives that had 
driven them wore thin. So %t is 
with the workers. The familiar 
compulsions no longer avail, the in- 
dustrial organization crumbles, and 
the mines and railways and factories 
become a wasting asset: Militant 
strikes can be crushed by tanks and 
machine guns. But against the pas- 
sive resistance of the human spirit in 

the millions of 








the shops. Sec- 
tions of them 
have proved 
this by knock- 
ing off work 
for a day (or 
even two days) 
a week, when 


EDITORIALS 


REPORT OF THE 
RESOLUTIONS, 


VENTION II 


they attaina 


moderate stand- 
ard of living— 
the level which 
Professor Zim- 
mern defined to 
me as one of 
“reasonable sat- 
isfaction.” 
Something in 
the industrial 


THE WorkKeErs’ 


PROFESSION . 





CONTENTS 


COMMITTEE 
FourtH CONVEN- 


REVENUE FOR THE ScHooits . . 31 
UNIVERSITY 
EDUCATION AND LABOR... . 36 
THE Fepruary MeEssaGE . ... 37 


THE TEACHER WuHo LEAVES THE 


From THE LocaAts OF THE AF or T 41 


workers the 
owners make 
war in vain. It 
is a process of 
nature, a mole- 
ON cular change, 
invisible and 
29 universal. This 
life-force can be 
re-enlisted only 
34 on its own 


terms. 
* * * 


The Sankey 
report for na- 
tionalization of 
39 the coal mines 
has been reject- 
ed by the gov- 
ernment. But no 














system offended 





the soul of the 
worker. He resented the forced 
draught that played on his working 
day. He saw “an immense accumu- 
lation of the apparatus of life, with- 
out any corresponding elevation in 
moral standards,” creating a civili- 
zation of “technical efficiency with- 
out love.” 

There came a moment when Na- 
poleon’s soldiers tired of the gran- 
diose and expanding campaigns of 


settlement will 
the mines are 


be reached till 
nationalized. 

The government failed in its at- 
tempt to lower the wages of the rail- 
way men. And now it has offered 
the railway men the largest install- 
ment of workers’ control ever offici- 
ally proposed for a key industry, 
including seats on the commercial 


directorate. 
—Arthur Gleason, in article “The Year of Recon- 
struction,” from The Survey for February 7, 1020 








Volume 1X, No. ? 





The American Teacher 


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


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


Acceptance for mailing at special rate of 


postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized September 27, 1919. 








Velume 1X, No. 2 


FEBRUARY, 1920 


One Dollar a Year 








A GENEROUS POLICY 
The Fourth Convention of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers went on record as favoring the 
discussion of social and economic problems in the 


oficial organ. In accordance with this decision of 
the Convention, the article on Taxation prepared by 
Professor Brown at the request of the Convention, 
is offered to our readers in this issue. Other articles 
dealing with the live questions of the day in their 
relation to education will be printed from time te 
time. Writers within our membership, as well as 
outside, are urged to submit their best work for 
use. The present day is full of intellectual activity, 
and in spite of “the ring of iron” about our souls 
in educational systems, and about our minds in the 
general body politic, the time of the free and full 
expression of our ideas is coming soon. 


INTEGRITY IN PROPAGANDA 


In a debate held recently before a prominent edu- 
cational body in New York City on the now fa- 
miliar question of whether teachers should form 
unions and affiliate with labor, an important issue 
of professional honor arose. One of the speakers 
opposing the unionization of teachers, in reply to a 
claim that labor had been among the first to go on 
record demanding and supporting the organization 
of tax-supported schools, said, “Now, of course, 
we are not supposed to take this claim serjously.” 
The speaker, a prominent member of the National 
Education Association, then proceeded to ridicule 
the claim so elaborately that to a person ill-in- 
formed on the facts it might have seemed that the 
original argument had been made dishonestly, when 
as a matter of fact the person who engaged in the 
ridicule was himself dishonest in debate. 


We are not concerned with the ethical principles 
of those who are giving their energy to upholding 


They may have to employ every re- 
But with’ a new 
More or less as 


a dying cause. 
source to stave off dissolution. 
cause the situation is different. 
a moral guard and protection, the new idealism 
must come upon the forum backed by an invulner- 
able integrity of purpose, by sincerity, and by com- 
piete intellectual honesty. When the new idealism 
is properly equipped, ignorance of the fact on the 
part of the reactionaries fighting progressive move- 
ments is ultimately disastrous. But this is the con- 
cern of the reactionaries. 

lt is more to the immediate advantage and con- 
cern of the union movement among teachers to 
know of a certainty that every presentation of its 
principles and the facts for public consideration 
is based upon the absolute truth, as in the case 
of the interest of labor in the cause of the tax- 
supported schools. The intellectual honesty and the 
integrity of character of those persons who stand 
bc fore the public in our interest, and in the defense 
of our movement, must be above reproach. We 
cannot afford to take chances with anything less. 


THE CLEAN FIGHT AND THE STRONG 

The organization suggestion is abroad in the land. 
Teachers everywhere want to join the particular 
body which seems to offer the best hope of positive 
help in the great economic tragedy that has befallen 
us. Some of the interésted ones will continue to be 
joined to aggregations of “educators,” and thus 
make sure of respectability. Others will decide for 
themselves, in the search for an immediate living 
wage. But even respectability is fighting for its 
living; and it is becoming more human. 

There are 750,000 teachers in this country. The 
American Federation of Teachers naturally regards 
this enormous aggregation of social workers with 
hopeful eyes. And so does our only rival, the Na- 





28 The American Teacher 


tional Education Association. At the present time 
approximately five per cent of the teachers belong 
to the two organizations. Another year may 
show a material increase in this percentage, 
but without a striking change in the percentage, in 
view of the large numbers involved, the total in- 
crease may be exceedingly great. Into this un- 
harvested field the American Federation of Teach- 
ers must soon enter with increased initiative and 
with determination. 

We may as well be frank and say that important 
as has been the growth of the national within the 
past year, there must be put forth a more con- 
certed effort thruout the country. It is not enough 
that we have four organizers on full time. The 
tendency may be to count the number of our or- 
ganizers, and to calculate the probabilities of growth 
on that basis. But with that attitude of mind we 
shall attain stagnation only. It is better to think 
of the organizers in the position of taking the 
final steps to close the deals for which we, the mem- 
bers, have prepared the way. There are four or- 
ganizers. There must be twelve thousand! In 
other words, as one of the strongest of the A F L 
organizers has said, “Every Member an Or- 
ganizer!” 

Now, this desirable frame of mind will not be 
entered into by the members simply because the 
official organ suggests it. ‘There must be an or- 
ganized effort to bring it about. The California 
State Federation of Teachers has led off with a 
practical method, that of dividing the state into 
groups of towns for which each of the established 
Iucals will be responsible to visit, and there to teach 
the new idea of unionism among teachers. But 
back of the teaching there must be general under- 
standing of what unionism really means to the 
individual, to the profession; and to the cause of 
education in its social connections. 


Next in importance to the general understanding 
of unionism comes enthusiasm for the union, pride 
in its appeal, and the compelling desire to do some- 


thing for it. And always and everywhere the best 
thing to do for a cause is to fight for it. And the 
best kind of a fight is one along intellectual lines. It 
is the cleanest kind to begin, besides being the most 
fun while it lasts. 


Volume IX, No. 2 


We are aware that the college students all over 
the land are taking up in numerous debates the is. 
sue of unionism for teachers. We have been fur. 
nishing the right side with data and encouragement. 
But we have neglected to get into the fight our- 
selves. The Public Education Association of New 
York City recently staged an encounter between 
representatives of the N E A and the organized 
teachers of New York on the issue of affiliation with 
labor. It was a battle royal, and left both side 
anxious for another opportunity to say the things 
the chairman had ruled out for lack of time. Here 
was stimulus and enthusiasm for the debaters and 
their friends, and best of all, real interest on the 
part of scores of persons attending the dinner, as 
well as on the part of potential thousands who read 
about the debate in the newspapers. 

The Association has done a useful service in 
making the union issue vital and interesting, pos. 
sibly attractive, in a community where the move 
ment has had to fight for its life. Now the union 
is a thing to be feared by the enemies of progress, 
because in the batle of ideas it could force the 
fighting in an open and clear field. Local 5, New 
York, has already taken steps to issue challenges 
to debate the issue of unionism wherever there is 
an opportunity to call out an opponent. 

Some animals can be taught to swim by being 
thrown into the water. Let us toss our complacent 
unionists into the arena of intellectual strife for th 
great cause, and make them swim out. They wil! 
make good, and have their fun besides. 

THE MARCH ISSUE 
of The American Teacher will go to press on March 


10. Correspondents are urged to send in material 
promptly. 


- The American Teacher 


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


THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
at 7o Fifth Avenue, New York City 

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Report of the Committee on Resolutions of the Fourth 
National Convention of the American 
Federation of Teachers 


THE PLATFORM 


The Resolutions and the Code of Ethics were printed as the first section of this Report in theJanuaryissue. 


With the 


February issue the Report is concluded. 


Tue Economic ProGRAM 

The American Federation of Teachers believes: 

1. That the union movement among the workers 
as well as among professional groups that have af- 
filiated with the hand workers in a movement en- 
titled to protection under the laws of the nation, 
and is also thoroly American in spirit. 

2. That the economic interests of the members of 
labor unions are similar to, if not identical with, the 
interests of all who work at hard manual labor in 
shops, in mills, on farms, on municipal or other gov- 
ernment enterprises, as well as those who work at 
professional pursuits of any legitimate kind. 

3. That in no way do the rights of labor conflict 
with the interests of any individual, group or class, 
except those individuals, groups, or classes of per- 
sons who maintain their existence by exploiting for 
profit the services of those over whom they keep 
economic control. 

4. That the most feasible way that has yet been 
developed in this country to obtain for the workers 
a fighting chance for a living wage, and the estab- 
lishment of the principles of economic justice, ss 
thru the principle of unionization, including both 
collective bargaining and an unrestricted discussion 
of economic problems. 

5. That the increased cost of living is in no 
considerable or important way caused by the wage 
increases procured by labor unions, but is due in 
part to shortage of goods in Europe and to currency 
inflation. 

6. That the existing serious economic inequality 
is in part due to the control of our economic policies 
by special interests, and is not to be chiefly ex- 
plained by conditions growing out of the war. 

TEACHERS AND SociAr RIGHTS 

It is the sense of the American Federation of 
Teachers that no teacher should have his position 
brought in jeopardy because of opinions held or 


expressed either in the classroom or outside of it on 
any social, political or economic problem so long as 
he does not advocate violence or the use of uncon- 
stitutional methods; and we deprecate all attempts 
to limit the constitutional rights of any citizen to 
free speech. 

It is the sense of the American Federation of 
Teachers that the public school buildings of any 
community should be made available to any lawful 
organization of citizens without discrimination for 
the discussion of social, political and economic 
questions. 

The American Federation of Teachers believes 
that it is in the interest of professional efficiency 
of teachers, and therefore, in the interest of the 
schools, that educational authorities should give 
teachers opportunity to attend labor, political, and 
social conventions without loss of salary. 

It is the belief of the American Federation of 
Teachers that these conventions offer the oppor- 
tunity to teachers of coming into touch with men 
and women engaged in large relations to human 
affairs, thus supplying the inspiration that is often 
needed in school life. 

As it is to the best interests of the schools that 
married women teachers shall not be deprived of 
the great experience of motherhood, the American 
Federation of Teachers holds that absence of mar- 
ried women teachers due to pregnancy shall be 
compensated in the same way as is absence due to 
any other physical disability. The American Fed- 
eration of Teachers holds further that compulsory 
leave of absence should be granted to a mother 
teacher after the birth of a child in accordance with 
the provisions of the labor laws of the state, and 
that additional leave of not more than two years 
should be granted at the request of the mother 
teacher. 





30 The American Teacher 


TEACHER PARTICIPATION IN ADMINISTRATION 

It is the sense of the American Federation ot 
Teachers that administration of education in a com- 
munity is rendered less efficient by division of re- 
sponsibility, and that the common system of triple 
control, in which authority is divided, for example, 
between a board of education, a superintendent of 
schools ,and a city council, should be replaced by 
a single body of control in which all responsibility 
finally centers. 

It is the sense of the American Federation of 
Teachers that such authoritative body should in- 
clude classroom teachers nominated by the teachers 
themselves, subject to election to be carried out by 
popular vote. 


QUALIFICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL 
RESPONSIBILITY 

The American Federation of ‘1 eachers, recogniz- 
ing the necessity of close cooperation between the 
supervisors of vocational education and the various 
crafts unions in order that the larger benefits and 
aims of this form of education shall be attained, 
deems it essential that the supervisors have a 
proper background of industrial training. ‘The 
American Federation of ‘leachers therefore strongly 
recommends that all examining bodies shall estab- 
lish as a minimum requirement of eligibility for the 
license of principal of a vocational or trade school, 
or for license for higher supervisory positions in 
such schools, that applicants shall present evidence 
ot having been employed on full time as journey- 
men for a period of not less than five years in a 
trade taught in the vocational or trade schools. 


THe WELFARE OF THE CHILDREN 

We urge upon our people the serious study, and 
the ultimate political consideration, of those social 
and economic conditions which now interfere with 
the administration even of our present inadequate 
compulsory education laws, and we recommend the 
amendment of laws dealing with the compulsory 
education of children and urge especially, the estab- 
lishment of a minimum age of sixteen years. If the 
schools are actually to prepare the children for life 
in a democracy, it is necessary to protect them from 
the requirement of severe labor, and from unfavor- 
able moral environment during the early years of 


Volume IX, No. ? 


adolescence. It is only with this protection and 
under the organized and extended control of the 
schools, that the teachers can carry out the positive 
function of the schools, which is the interpretation 
to the children of the manifold relations in human 
life, along with the preparation of the children to 
meet life intelligently and effectively. 

We believe that the schools should not be used 
by any group of persons for organized propaganda, 
or to promote the special interests of any group, 
and that no pupil should be hindered in his pi ozress 
thru the schools, or prevented from receiving a 
diploma, or from graduating, because of the adher. 
ence to any political or social opinions, or member- 
ship in any political organization altho such opinion 
or membership may be offensive to school officials, 
or to business or other organizations. 

It is the sense of the American Federation of 
Teachers that history and other textbooks ought to 
contain relatively more material on industrial and 
social facts and problems as distinguished 
political and military occurences, and the Executive 
Council is instructed to call the attention of pub- 
lishers to the importance of such emphasis. 

We deprecate the practice of using the machinery 
of the schools for systematic collections of funds 
from pupils. 

We regard compulsory military service as und-- 
sirable and unnecessary in view of the succes:ful 


from 


conclusion of a war to destroy militarism. 
(Signed ) 
COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS 

AUGUSTINE AURIANNE Henry R LINVILLE 
H G Brown R N MatrrtinG_y 
HELENE CUMMINGS C E PuI.uirs 
ALicE DEAL FLORENCE Roop 
GeorcE HEALD Ciara K Stutz 
L V Lampson EpirH WHITE 

W T McCoy, Chairman 





In an examination in community civics hele in a 
girls’ high school in New York in December, 
1919, the following question was given a place: 

“TV. Show that New York’s food comes from 
various and distant places. How does it enter New 
York? Why is it so expensive? (Do not give 
the ‘war’ or ‘profiteering’ in your answer.) Can 
you suggest any improvement which would make 
our food better or cheaper?” 





Revenue for the Schools—and Economic Justice 


Harry GUNNISON Brown 


Ivofessor of Political Economy University of Missouri, Sccretary, Local 126, A F of T 


In considering the problem of revenue for the 
maintenance and development of free public edu- 
cation we have to make inquiry regarding two dis- 
tinct phases of this problem. Of these phases, the 
first has to do with the need of funds to make the 
system of public education efficient. The second 
relates to the effect which the securing of these 
funds may have upon the tax paying public and 
upon the general economic well being. Assuming 
larger funds to be necessary—as it is well known 
that they are necessary—it becomes tremendously 
important that these funds: should be secured in 
the best possible way. For the effects of different 
systems of securing public revenues are widely dif- 
ferent. And we who have lately become a part of 
the labor movement cannot afford to blind ourselves 
to the very great differences in the effects of rev- 
enue systems, on the welfare of the common man. 

In this article I shall discuss briefly the general 
property tax, taxes on commodities, on buildings, 
on land, on incomes and on inheritances. But it is 
impossible to discuss tax questions adequately with- 
out getting involved in the whole problem of 
economic justice and the expediency of the existing 
economic organization of society. These problems 
I can treat but briefiy in a short article. I have 
tried to present them with greater fullness in my 
books, The Taxation of Unearned Incomes, to be 
published this spring, and The Theory of Earned 
and Unearned Incomes, 1918 (both, Missouri? Book 
Co., Columbia, Mo.). 

The general property tax is uniformly a failure 
from almost every point of view. The attempt to 
tax personal property is, from the nature of the 
vase, foredoomed to failure. A recent article by 
Professor Gephart of Washington University shows 
from a number of probate records in Missouri that 
the amount of personal property actually assessed 
for taxation during the lives of the persons con- 
cerned was hardly more than one-tenth to one- 
eighth of what these persons were shown by the 
probate records to have possessed at death. Stocks 


and bonds, money deposited in banks, jewelry and 
other valuables are easily concealed. ‘Lhe person 
who declares such property begins to feel that he 
is subjected to an unfair discrimination. And so 
che practice of evasion grows. 

l'axes on goods produced or imported are less 
apt to be evaded but they are, | am convinced, not 
ideally managed. ‘ihey operate to discourage pro- 
duction or importation ot the taxed goods and to 
limit supply. Producers will not make and sell 
such goods unless they can add the tax to the sell- 
ing price. ‘The burden of such tax therefore falls 
upon consumers in proportion to their need or de- 
sire for the goods taxed; and this is likely not to be 
the proportion in which they ought to pay on any 
valid theory of taxation justice. 

Taxation of real estate as currently practiced is 
two kinds of taxation rather than one. For taxa- 
tion of real estate is taxation of land and taxation 
of buildings and the effect of taxing land is so dif- 
ferent from the effect of taxing buildings that 
separate consideration is essential. ‘lhe effect of 
the taxation of buildings is likely to be discourage- 
ment of building activity. And so we cannot take 
it for granted, as do some, that the burden of such 
a tax falls upon the well-to-do owner. On the 
contrary, it is quite likely to fall upon the probably 
poorer tenant or upon the ultimate consumer. For 
if taxation of buildings lesseas the number con- 
structed, it thereby makes buildings scarcer for 
renters and makes rents higher. ‘The cost of pro- 
ducing and distributing various goods, since this re- 
quires the use of buildings, may be higher. Tene- 
ments are more crowded. Children die for lack ot 
light and air. But still the ignorant, the prejudiced 
and financially interested will insist that not to tax 
improvements is to relieve of burden the rich 
owners of large buildings. And many of their 
dupes among the salaried and wage-earning classes 
will continue by their votes to fasten about their 
own necks the burden which they fondly think they 
ae putting upon others. 











32 The American Teacher 


Is the situation the same regarding the taxation 
of land values apart from improvements? On the 
contrary, the result of such taxation is quite the op- 
posite. For taxation of land values does not operate 
to decrease the amount of land. As it makes land 
no scarcer it does not make the charge for its use 
any higher. Indeed, taxation of land values at 
higher rates (taxes being removed from buildings 
and improvements and imposed on the value of land 
as such) puts a heavier burden upon the speculative 
holder of idle land and compels him cither himself 
to use his land or to dispose of it to others who may 
desire to use it. Hence, taxation of land values 
operates to reduce rents whereas taxation of build- 
ings operates to increase them. ‘Taxation of the 
potential rental value of all land, by compelling use, 
operates to increase the output of goods and to re- 
duce prices, whereas taxation of buildings, machin- 
ery and commodities may restrict supply and raise 
prices. 

In this connection, it may be emphasized that 
failure to tax at a high rate the rental value of land 
results in a high selling price for land . The price 
of land, unlike the price of goods produced by 
labor, is not held down by any cost of production. 


The price of land is the capitalization of the rental 


income expected from it. Also, speculative holding 
of land makes land harder to get, makes it scarcer 
to the buyer, in practical effect, ever if there is 
more land than can be used. Since speculative hold- 
ing and the prospective receipt of relatively untaxed 
rental incomes make the price of land high, it be- 
comes difficult for tenants to purchase. There are 
fewer owners of farms and fewer owners of city 
homes than otherwise there might be. Tenancy in- 
creases. The gulf between rich and poor widens. 
Discontent grows greater. Irrational radicalism 
thrives because few connect cause and effect well 
enough to understand the underlying economic 
forces responsible for the conditions. 

A special phase of this question of ownership is 
to be noted in our proposed policy towards the re- 
turning soldiers. Those who risked maiming, 
blindness, life itself, in the faith that they were 
serving the sacred cause of democracy, may perhaps 
be offered land in the swamp or the desert. Not 
even for these is it seriously proposed by those who 
control our legislation that the speculative holder 


Volume IX, No. ? 


of land shall be more heavily taxed. Tiberius 
Gracchus is reported to have said, more than twenty 
centuries ago: 

“The savage beasts, in Italy, have their particular 
dens, they have their places of repose and refuge; 
but the men who bear arms, and expose their live: 
for the safety of their country, enjoy in the mean- 
time nothing more in it but the air and light; and, 
having no houses of their own, are constrained to 
wander from place to place with their wives and 
children.” 

Does history repeat itself or does the system of 
exploitation merely remain substantially anchanged 
from age to age? It was less than a year ago that 
an American organization of soldiers and sailors 
(The Private Soldiers and Sailors Legion) pre- 
sented a petition to Congress which included the 
following: 

“We demand prompt action by 
open up for demobilized soldiers, sailors and ma 
rines the opportunity to employ their labor on the 
unused lands and natural resources of our country. 
And we don’t want to be confined to swamp lands, 
cut-over stump lands and desert lands, either. We 
hold that the hundreds of millions of idle acres of 
good agricultural, mineral and timber lands and 
vacant city lots are none too good for the use of 
the soldiers who are conceded to have saved civili- 
zation at $30 per month, minus large reductions for 
fines, insurance, etc. * * * Nature's bounty 
has provided Uncle Sam and all his nephews with 
ample opportunity for all to work if the govern- 
ment will only let down the bars of monopoly and 
privilege.” 

There is another, tho perhaps in the last 
analysis a related reason, why public revenues, 
whether for schools or other purposes, ought to 
raised more largely from taxes on the rental value 
of land. This is that the value of land— including 
mines and power sites—is almost entirely the result 
of social growth and development. The value of 
a building can not ordinarily rise above the cost of 
constructing another like it. But land cannot be 
made and its value grows as a city grows. The 
owner of the land receives an income which is not 
earned by service given to those from whom his 
income is derived. Suppose that A and B each 
own a $2,000 lot. A puts on his lot a $5,000 house, 


Congress to 





February, 1920 


making his real estate worth $7,000. The city 
grows until his property is worth $10,000. If the 
house could still be built for $5,000, his /and has 
more than doubled in price, for the house as such 
is no more valuable than before. And evidence of 
this fact is that B’s land if similar and similarly 
situated is now worth, though still vacant, $5,000. 
For the prospective purchaser—as B  himself— 
knows that with a $5,000 house on it, the value ot 
both will be $10,000. Thus, it should be clear 
that the effect of a community’s growth is to raise 
land values rather than building values. The rent 
of land is a community made product. It is not 
fairly earned by its individual recipient. And to let 
him enjoy it, while simultaneously taxing earned 
wealth and incomes, .is to produce landlordism and 
tenancy, poor housing conditions, and gross _in- 
equality of possessions. 

It is unfortunate that these facts are not more 
generally understood. Reactionary and Socialist 
join in lumping together all property incomes, in 
rfusing to distinguish property incomes, which are 
received for no service rendered and which are 
therefore purely exploitive, from property incomes 
which are fairly earned. To the reactionary, all 
incomes from property are sacred. To the Socialist, 
all incomes from property are anathema. Yet a per- 
son whose labor produces an orchard, a factory, or 
a machine and who does not consume an equivalent 
o goods in some other form, thereby adds to so- 
ciety’s industrial equipment. And he makes possible 
an addition, because of this better or larger equip- 
ment, to the annual output of goods. If he receives 
interest on this capital and if such interest does not 


exceed the addition to productive efficiency which it © 


brings about, he is robbing no one. The other mem- 
bers of industrial society receive incomes which are 
just as large as would have been theirs had this 
capitalist never been born and never produced and 
saved his capital. The Socialist, in asserting that 
interest, as such, is necessarily exploitation, brands 
his system as pseudo science. And too high a tax 
on the income made possible to the owner by capital 
80 produced and saved may discourage its produc- 
tion and accumulation, may “kill the goose that 
lays the golden egg.” 

The recipient of land rent, on the other hand, is 


The American Teacher 33 


not responsible for the land, which would equally 
have been there had he never lived. Neither is he 
responsible for its advantages of situation. These 
are due to the growth and groupings of population. 
‘The income which he draws dy virtue of his owner- 
of land—by virtue of his power to prevent its use 
except as tribute is paid to him— is not earned by 
equivalent service given. And no service would be 
lost by the community if this income were entirely 
absorbed in taxation. 

Those self-supposed progressives and radicals 
who think to secure a better economic order by 
high taxation of incomes without distinction as te 
source, are the unconscious auxiliaries of the forces 
of reaction. For the farther such taxation is carried, 
the more is land relieved of taxation. And in pro- 
portion as land is relieved of taxation, speculative 
holding grows; land prices rise; home ownership 
becomes, for most, impossible ; landlordism and ten- 
ancy flourish together; and the unearned incre- 
ment becomes a powerful cause of great fortunes 
which are not the rewards of great service. For 
this reason I am inclined to deprecate resobutions 
of labor parties which call for increased taxation 
of incomes and excess profits along with land rent. 
Such resolutions dissipate what might be an effective 
force in support of the change that I believe to be 
most important; and they fail to concentrate pub- 
lic attention upon the desirability of this most mm- 
portant change. 

The progressive taxation of inheritances may be 
a means of reducing inequalities which ought never 
to have been allowed to arise. There is much to 
be said in its favor, and no objection to such taxa- 
tion, carefully adjusted to the ends in view, is here 
made. But heavy burdens should not be placed 
on moderate inheritances going to direct descend- 
ants. Many persons save almost solely for their 
children. If we allow one man to profit by the 
educational advantages which his father’s wealth en- 
abled him to secure, may we not fairly allow an- 
other to receive from his father’s accumulations, 
advantages o fa different kind? And we hardly 
want to proceed so far in the direction of doing 
away with the family and not to allow a son or 
daughter to reap any benefits whateve: from par- 
ental care and sacrifice. But very large inheri- 








The American Teacher 


tances and funds going to remote collaterals are in 
a somewhat different category. 

No system of taxation, however, can take the 
place of a properly devised system of taxation of 
land rent. It is not possible in a short article to 
go into the entire economic philosophy of the dis- 
tribution of wealth, the causes of inequality, etc. 
Nor is there any intention to suggest, here, that 
any system of taxation can serve as a panacea for all 
sccial and economic evils, or can even do away with 
all unearned incomes—for example, those secured 
by monopolistic conspiracy and by business chi- 
cancery. But there is every intention to assert that 
orthodox socialism is so far astray in its economic 
analysis as to make support of socialism by the 
masses preferable to inertia only if and so ‘far as 
ignorant but active discontent is better than _ ig- 
norant lethargy. Socialists think of themselves as 
radicals. Many of them would doubtless brand the 


Volume 1X, No. ? 


writer of this article as a hopeless conservative. But 
if radicalism means accurate analysis, if it means 
ability to discover the root causes of the evils to be 
destroyed, and ability to find or even to compre- 
hend a simple, clear-cut, scientific and effective pro- 
gram for the elimination of these evils, then social- 
ism is hopelessly conservative. Indeed, if it were 
not that the privileged interests understand eco- 
nomic phenomena little if any better than the ex. ' 
ploited masses, and if they could feel entirely se- 
cure against Bolshevistic upheaval, one might well 
expect these interests to be exultant at the relative 
strength of socialism among economic reform move- 
ments. For the effect of socialist propaganda is to 
lure into economic confusions those who might be 
the most effective protestants against the private re- 
ceipt of incomes which are socially unjustifiable be- 


cause not earned by service rendered. 


The Workers’ University of the International Ladies 
Garment Workers’ Union 


TueE Basis or LAsor EpucATION 


Louis § Friedland, Educational Director 


methodology of adult and 
are still in their infancy. 


The principles and 
trade union education 
Every labor and trade union college. is an experi- 
ment for the discovery of the true aims and basis 
of adult education. Even in England and in Den- 
mark, where some progress has been made in the 
education of grown-ups, we find that no well-based 
curriculum for the trade unionist has as vet ma- 
terialized. While we in America can learn much 
from the Workers Educational Association of Eng- 
gland and from the reports of the English Govern- 
ment on adult education, from the accounts of 
higher school training for adults in Denmark, France, 
and Germany, and from the experiments in peasant 
education carried on by the former Zemstvos in 
Russia, and by such private educators as Tolstoy, 
our trade unions will have to work out curricula 
and methods peculiarly suited to industrial and 
trade union conditions in our own country. I will 
suggest very briefly a few of the things that appear 
to me as the basis of labor education, 


Labor education is not a training for a vocation. 
It is rather a developmentof avocations. Labor 
education should not transfer unchanged the cur- 
ricula and aims of accepted schemes of education. | 
am convinced that the primary basis of labor edu 
cation rest on the solid realities of our lives. We 
are members of families, dwellers in or citizens of 
a community, a state, and a nation; workers in an 
industry, and members of a trade union. The per- 
sonal and social contacts and relations formed in 
these ways give us the basis on which to erect th 
superstructure of an educational system suited to 
intelligent adults. In the past, such haphazard and 
undirected education as the adult acquired wa 
largely of a theoretical nature. We dabbled 1 
“isms” and in political and social “futures.” The 
time has come when we need to know the facts of 
our environment; their social, political, industrial, 
and economic implications. 

The second main prop or support of labor edu 
cation is our need, as workers, to have a clear knowl- 





February, 1920 


edge of the entire sweep of our industry. In the 
garment industries, for instance, we need to study 
the facts of production and distribution in all the 
stages from the growing of cotton, thru the textile 
mills, thru the final manufactured product in our 
shops and factories, and the distribution of these 


manufactured products. For this reason, we are in- . 


terested in the economics of the industrial system 
rather than in some generalized or theoretic type of 
economics. There is no stage in the gamut of edu- 
cation which cannot be based on the facts of an in- 
dustry. Such a re-basing of education will bring 
about, among the workers, a new and keener inter- 
est in the processes, hitherto somewhat mechanical, 
of ‘their labor. It will reveal to them all the so- 
cial and international implications of the work 
which they do from day to day. That such an 
understanding of work will help to make it more 
creative and self-expressive from the standpoint 
of the individual worker goes without saying. And, 
when to this, we add the definite and clear aim of 
organized labor—to share in the control and man- 
agement of production and distribution—our daily 
labor will assume a new dignity and importance. It 
is only by laying such foundations now that the 
workers will inherit the future. 

Finally, we cannot afford in labor education to 
lose sight of the human, the personal element. There 
is no doubt in my mind that the industrial condi- 
tions of the last century and more have resulted in 
a gradual deterioration of human material—a pro- 
cess which has not been stemmed, and for the pre- 
vention of which very little systematized effort has 
been made. We have used our energy, our intel- 
ligence, our enthusiasm, our forethought, for the 
production and perfection of machines and of manu- 
tactured material. We have ended by becoming the 
slaves of our own handiwork. We can work ma- 
chines, but machines and the conditions of industry 
have mastered us. It is necessary to regain control 
of ourselves as human beings, to assume mastery 
of our bodies and souls, to come to a knowledge of 
the human machine, to regain ease and grace of 
movement. For these reasons, health education and 
physical training and right modes of recreation are 
necessary ingredients of workers’ education. With 
the acquiring of greater degrees of leisure, we need 
to learn the right use of leisure. The worker will 


The American Teacher 35 


not translate his free time in terms of idleness, ex- 
travagance, and riotous living. For the worker, 
leisure must be filled with activity and self-expres- 
sion. Whatever powers, talents and faculties have 
lain dormant in the masses of workers for genera- 
tions must, thru education, be brought to light for 
the saving of workers, and for the salvation of 
society. 

These are some of the bases of labor education, 
as conceived by the International Ladies Garment 
Workers’ Union. The educatidnal activities of the 
International began as early as 1914. Since then, 
the work has developed in many directions, until 
today the educational system of the International is 
by far the most important, the most significant, the 
most practical of the experiments made in trade 
union education in our country. The large number 
of labor schools and colleges founded in the last 
two or three years bears testimony to the vision and 
forethought of those present at the International 
Convention in 1914 which initiated trade union 
education. At present, the International supports 
a Workers’ University, which meets at the Wash- 
ington Irving High School in New York City. 
There are classes for officers and for other active 
members of the trade union. The business agents 
and other officers of the local unions attend 
classes of an advanced or post-graduate character 
in the following required subjects: “Economics of 
the Industrial System,” “Advanced. English and 
Written Composition,” “Psychology,” “Public 
Speaking,” “Physical Training and Health Educa- 
tion,” “Trade Union Problems,” and “Labor and 
Management.” 


For the active members and other qualified uni- 
versity students there is a similar group of required 
subjects. Among the elective subjects are: “Pres- 
ent Tendencies in Literature,” “American History 
and American Civics,” “‘ Modern European His- 
tory,” “Current Events and Reconstruction prob- 
lems,” “The Cooperative Movement,” and “Ele- 
mentary Science.” These courses were arranged by 
the Executive Educational Committee of which Mr. 
Harry A. Wander is the chairman and Miss Fania 
M. Cohn, the secretary. 


The students participate thru discussions in the 
actual teaching. In this and other ways the proper 














36 


technique of teaching adults is being worked out. 

But it is in the Unity Centers of the I L GW 
U that the busy active pulse of the educational sys- 
tem beats most constantly and to best purpose. In 
cooperation with the Departments of Education of 
New York City, Philadelphia, Newark, etc., suit- 
able class rooms, gymnasiums, etc., are put at the 
disposal of the International. These school build- 
ings, chosen for their location in residential sections, 
are called Unity Centers. In New York City there 
are six such centers. 

The curriculum of these centers concerns itself 
largely with the study of the English language. 
There are classes in English, of elementary, inter- 
mediate, advanced and high school grades. The 
teachers are assigned by the Evening School De- 
partment of the Board of Education. At each 


Unity Center there is a recreation worker assigned 


Education 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 2 


by the Department of Community and Recreation 
Centers. The International arranges, in addition, 
series of lectures on the Labor Movement, Trade 
Unionsism, and kindred topics in economics. The 
rest of the curriculum deals with the more cultural 
interests, such as literature, music, art, educational 
films, lectures on health, hygiene, and sex educa- 
tion, physical training and social recreation. This 
gives each Unity Center a balanced program of 
educational activities. 

Another phase of the educational work is the Ex- 
tension Division which, combining art and educa- 
tion, arranges special lectures and concerts for locai 
unions, giving a form of education that reaches the 
homes and the families of the members. So many 
have had to enter shops and factories before they 
gain knowledge and have formed character, that 
now it is necessary to regain the lost ground. 


and Labor 


JOSEPH JABLONOWER 
Local 57, New York 


On Saturday, February 7th, a group of labor 
delegates, more than one hundred in number, met 
in conference on a matter which is usually not as- 
sociated by the uninitiated with labor unions. This 
group of leaders and potential leaders in the labor 
movement met to discuss the means whereby labor 
might educate itself. In the past the only con- 
sistent and persistent advocate of a tax-supported 
system of public schools, and at present the only 
element in society that realizes the menace which an 
under-paid and over-supervised staff of teachers is 
to the development of a school system is labor. 
Labor seems to realize also that no one knows so 
well the real spiritual and cultural needs of the 
laborer as does the laborer himself, thus reflecting 
in honest fashion the hopes and aspirations of the 
people whose children are entrusted to the schools. 

Labor does not trust the professional exponent ot 
culture, for it has found this exponent wanting in 
human sympathy and understanding. Labor will 
no longer accept the traditional values which edu- 
cational institutions have been preaching. In order 
to transvaluate the traditional cultural values, in 


order to have this transvaluating done by experts 
who are not themselves the tools of the forces in 
whose interests there has been an attempt to per- 
petuate the status guo, labor is organizing schools 
of its own. And it is calling to these schools men 
of scholarship who have established for themselves 
records of probity in scholarship, fearlessness in 
the statements of their conclusions. They have dis- 
played a human interest in the human factors which 
constitute the field of their studies. 

The Conference of the United Labor Educa- 
tion Committee, which is the official title of the 
gathering to which reference is made at the be- 
ginning of this article, is but an example of similar 
efforts that are being made thruout the country. 
The International Ladies Garment Workers in 
New York City and in Philadelphia, the Womens 
Trade Union League in Chicago, the Trade Union 
College in Boston, the Trade Union College in 
Washington, D. C., are other instances of a wide- 
spread effort on the part of the labor movement 
to understand its own tendencies and deeper im- 
plications. 





February, 1920 


Keen observers of contemporary events, such as 
Mr. John A Fitch, Mr. Charles A Beard, and 
Mr. Robert Bruere, men who have a full appre- 
ciation of the import of present tendencies in the 
labor movement, see in these educational efforts 
of the labor movement as epochal an event as can 
be found in all the history of education. 

The report which was rendered at the Confer- 
ence of the work done by the United Labor Educa- 
tion Committee during the past year showed that 
the educational work of the Committee was divided 
inte three parts: First, the concerts and popular 
lectures on contemporary problems, always given by 
experts, the object of which it is to arouse in the 
worker an interest in the finer things, and to give 
hin: the ability to appreciate them; second, the 
classes in English. and elementary subjects; third, 
the classes for leaders or potential leaders in the 
labor movement, in which courses are given in 
economics, sociology, and all the allied subjects. 

In New York City thousands of workers are 
Be- 


ginning in the needle trades, this work has reached 


already enrolled in the classes and courses. 


out into so unallied an industry as the shipbuilding 
trade. A significant thing, this fact. Where be- 
fcre, relentless necessity drove the workers together, 
no matter how diversified the industries in which 
they were employed, a common understanding and 
aspiration will hold them together. 


The American Teacher 37 


What that common understanding is to be and 
what that aspiration is, were voiced best by Mr. 
Joseph Schlossberg, the Secretary of the Amalga- 
mated Clothing Workers of America, when he was 
urged to speak at the conference. He said, in part, 
“We workers need education in order to do things 
better than they have been done. We are acquir- 
ing control of the industries because those who 
have exercised control up to the present, did not do 
it well. We want to understand the world in 
which we live, in order that we may function in it 
at our best. These classes, this great educational 
work to which we are going to devote more and 
more of our energies and resources will be the 
means whereby we shall acquire such an under- 
standing.” 

Teachers in all communities have a great op- 
portunity in this trade movement to function so 
cially, an opportunity which has never been ac- 
corded the professional intellectual before. “Teach- 
ers’ unions should cooperate with such activities in 
their localities, they should aid in initiating similar 
activities in the localities where they do not yet 
exist. They should sieze the opportunity to build 
for the future, with the help of those to whom the 
future belongs! 


Note: Teachers who are interested in the details of the 
work referred to in this article should write to the United 
Labor Education Committee at 41 Union Square, and to 
the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union at 31 
Union Square, New York City. 


The February Message 


F G Srecxer 


* Secretary-Treasurer, The American Federation of Teachers 


The striking event of the month is the selection 
of Miss Josephine Colby, Fresno, Calif., and Miss 
Isabel Williams, St. Paul, Minn., as Associate 
Field Secretaries who will give full time to organi- 
zation work this semester. The addition of two 
very capable, experienced and well informed women 
is an important step in the right direction. There 
is sufficient interest among the teachers of the 
United States and Canada to warrant a large num- 
ber of speakers. Gradually organization is being 
built up to take care of the situation. Thousands 
of teachers who know Miss Colby and Miss 


Williams will not only be interested in their ac- 
tivities in the next few months, but will also gladly 
cooperate in attaining success. 

This spirit of cooperation on the part of mem- 
bers with the officers of the locals and with na- 
tional officers is increasing rapidly. Cooperation is 
one of the elements which teachers have needed to 
acquire and are acquiring. Groups of teachers see 
that by joining together with other groups of teach- 
ers they have not only assisted the other groups but 
they have also assisted themselves. A local can do no 
more important work than to lend its efforts to the 











38 The American Teacher 








development of the American Federation of Teach- 
ers whose increased strength in membership, work- 
ers and influence will return again and again to its 
advantage. Every local should create a committee 
on organization, as many locals have already done. 
This committee should be composed of members 
with initiative and energy. Efforts should be made 
to get acquainted with unorganized teachers in 
nearby communities, and bring about meetings for 
discussion of the objects of the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers. Officers and members of the 
Executive Council will gladly communicate with 
any committees on organization, and assist them in 
their work. Literature may be obtained on appli- 
cation. In many cases arrangements may be made 
for a member of the Executive Council to assist 
in person. 

The Code of Ethics and the Resolutions 
adopted by the Fourth Convention have been print- 
ed in seperate pamphlets. ‘Two other pamphlets, 
“Objections to the Union Movement Among 
Teachers Answered” and the “Smith-Towner Bill 
Revised” are in the hands of the printer. Several 
other pamphlets are contemplated. Supplies of 
these together with “Labor and Education,” the 
Constitution, and Professor Dewey’s address will 
gladly be sent on request. 

Requests by debating teams in high schools, nor- 
mals, colleges and universities for literature deal- 
ing with the subject of affiliation of teachers with 
organized labor, are increasing to an extent that 
indicates a wide-spread interest in the question. 
This occasion is taken to request any reader of this 
rragazine knowing of a debate on this subject, to 
send the results of the debate together with a copy, 
if possible, of the briefs used to this office. 

Wonderful development of the cooperative 
movement in many countries of Europe will be 
rivalled in time no doubt, by a similar develop- 
ment in America. The cooperative long ago passed 
from the experimental stage. The increasing in- 
terest of teachers in the every day economic ques- 
tions is gradually bringing home to them the value 
of the cooperative. Little is to be gained by the 
teachers if the success of salary campaigns is to be 
more than offset by the decrease in the value of 
the dollar. It is both timely and wise to make each 


dollar go far by membership in the cooperative. 





Volume IX, No. 2 





When teachers undertake salary campaigns 
they encounter many experiences. Not only do 
they come in contact with practical politics and 
many other manifestations of human nature, but 
they also come sooner or later to do some serious 
thinking. Teachers have long listened to the stories 
of shortage of money in educational treasuries. 
Many times these stories have been doubted. Many 
times they have been believed along with other 
strange manifestations of nature. Now, however, 
there is a remarkable indication that the teachers 
intend to find out whether the chronic bankruptcy) 
of boards of education is a false alarm or pathetic 
truth. All too often it is the latter. Practical 
minded people then seek the cause. Is it due to 
legislation ‘which is influenced by heavy taxpayers? 
Is it the fault of administrative officers in assessing 
and collecting the taxes Or does it reach deeper, 
into the inadequacy of the present system of taxa- 
tion? The Illinois State Federation of Labor be- 
lieves that the schools cannot be properly main- 
tained under the present tax system. They ad- 
vocate that 

“Ample school revenue must be based upon a 
fundamental system of taxation of land values in- 
stead of the present taxes levied on labor and its 
products.” 

The following resolution submitted by Mr. Harry 
G. Brown, Secretary, Missouri University Teach- 
ers Union, Local No. 126, and adopted by th 
Fourth Convention. 

“Whereas, The taxation of buildings tends to decrease the 
number of buildings and so to raise rents and tofall heavily 
upon the masses who can least afford to pay; and 

Whereas, The taxation of any goods which are produced 
by labor tends to discourage their production and so raise 
their prices to the people; and 

Whereas, The taxation of land value tends to encourage 
ubilding and production by making unproptable the ho!ding 
of land out of use for speculation purposes, and so operates 
to reduce rents and prices; and 

WhereaS, The holding of land out of use for speculation 
makes rent high, discourages production, limits opportuni 
ties of employment, and so raises the price of land as to 
make home ownership difficult for the masses; and 

Whereas, The value of land as distinguished from the 
value of the improvements on it is chiefly a matter of sit 
uation and of population growth and is in no considerable 
degree due to any activities of the owner; and 

Whereas, The private enjoyment of this value is the 
cause of our present gross economic inequality; therefore, 
be it 

Resolved, That we recommend that the funds necessary 
to maintain and increase educational efficiency should be 
secured by taxes on land values rather than on buildings 
or other goods produced by labor.” 








The Teacher Who Leaves the Profession 


Epwin J BRUNNER 
Chicago, Ill 


During a period of stress and strain for our po- 
litical democracy, a period in which we are not only 
readjusting to fit in as a nation having definite in- 
ternational responsibilities, but also a period when 
our domestic economies are in a state of upheaval, 
teachers are leaving the school rooms fellowing 
the thousands who have left. 
of Chicago the anomalous condition is at hand of 
calling pupils from the high schools to do part time 
grade work. Chicago is short of the requisite num- 


In the great city 


ber of teachers to man its system. 
Chicago’s position is not unique. There is a 
shortage of teachers in every city and in every 
hamlet. There is a shortage of instructors in the 
colleges and in the great universities. 
It is admitted that the standards of qualification 
all along the line have been lowered to the cetri- 


ment of the youth of this country. 


When bricklayers receive higher wages than col- 


lege professors, and when milk wagon drivers’ sal- 


aries make salaries of young men teaching in high 
schools look insignificant, there is plain and _ in- 
disputable reason for thinning of the ranks. A 
white collar backed by a three thousand dollar in- 
will ‘be 


placed by the soft collar representative of toil, if 


vestment in education loosed and _ re- 
the owner of the white collar is forced below the 


income limit for having laundry work done. 


However, is there moral justification for a man 
or woman on whom a state has spent a consider- 
able sum out of its coffers to educate, to deliberately 
step out of the career he has chosen to take up a 
more lucrative profession at a time when he knows 
his stepping out will imperil the efficiency of the 
educational system? Is there moral backbone in so 
doing? 

Rather than to do this and leave only those 
who cannot get out in the profession, is it not the 
duty of American teachers to see to it that salaries 
commensurate with their training and standard of 
living are paid? 

Much has been written concerning the lack of 
ethics in organizations of teachers to secure better 


salaries thru cooperation. The taboo of doing 
what organized labor has done and profited by 
looms big in the mental perspective of many mem- 
bers of the profession. 

Which is the more American—to slink away one 
by one, or to stay on the job and unite to secure 
rightful dues owed by society to the educators of 
future society? 

There is a sounding of alarm on the part 
vested interests that teachers in are 
teaching un-American doctrines in the schools. This 


alarm on the part of society or rather one portion of 


many Cases 


society may result in raising wages. Wherein is 
manifested any American spirit in waiting until 
outside professions are so alarmed about your status 
that they take up the cudgel and wield it for you? 
At conventions of manufacturers, of engineers, of 
business men, the problem is discussed. Journals 
devoted to specific interests are full of editorials 


advising that teachers’ wages must be raised. 
Would it be American if coal miners left the 
work of mining coal and took up other work in 
such numbers that society in general would be com- 
pelled to say, “We must pay the poor coal miners 
more because they are so faithful? They work un 
ceasingly and they have such high standards of ethics 
that they will not help themselves. They are starv- 
ing to death—and besides, we must have coal.” 
There is just one American way out for the 
American teacher. Thru _ his efforts, not 
thru the charitable efforts of others, he must com- 
pel society to dignify him adequately and to recom- 


own 


pense him adequately. 





THE RIGHT ANGLE 
Incidental to the discussion of the $2,000: 
minimum for teachers at the Fourth Conven- 
tion of The American Federation of Teachers- 
which was held at Chicago during Christmas 
week, the correct emphasis on the question 
was applied in a new way by Mr. C. E. Phil- 
lips, the President of the Atlanta Teachers’ 
Union. Mr. Phillips said, ‘‘Every teacher 
may not be worth $2,000, but my own chil- 

dren are worth a $2,000 teacher.”’ 





The 


JUSTICE FOR ALL TEACHERS 
Mary L Mason 
Washington (D C) Elementary Teachers’ Union, 
Local 27, A F of T 

Like the new pupil in the primary school, who 
mutely observes procedure and studies with absorbed 
interest the personal abilities of the new teacher and 
classmates, and then having oriented himself, finds 
voice to join spontaneously in the life and activities 
of the school, so Local 27, The Washington Ele- 
mentary Teachers’ Union, now feels it time to give 
collective expression through its Press Committee to 
its emotions born of the new experience of working 
thoughtfully and systematically with fellow crafts- 
men in a great movement for changing for good the 
status of those who teach, and helping in the Her- 
culean task of bringing a just compensation, joy, 
and a measure of rest into the lives of the great toil- 
ing masses whom Kipiing so strongly painted in his 
poem, “Martha’s Sons.” 

Our first emotion is eager satisfaction—we have 
found a voice for our great body of more than four 
hundred souls, engaged in the basal work of teach- 
ing the colored youth of the nation’s capital. 

Hard upon this satisfaction follows chill doubt— 
East St. Louis and its expression of organized hate 
is too big, and too dark to be soon forgotten. 

Then comes the courage of the hereditary toiler 
—at least we may help smooth paths for later feet 
(that has been our creed always) ; at least we may 
realize ourselves other than impersonal cogs in a 
great machine—men and women, helping shape 
lives, helping mould citizens—more than any other 
group of different racial extraction, consciously 
forming a race for the highest self-expression, and 
for assuming the responsibilities of the highest type 
of citizenship, and what is more conscious of suc- 
cess, even tho working like ancient Israel to make 
bricks without straw. Shall we not also force even 
from an unkind fate, the meed of diligent laborers? 

But chief among our emotions has been a great, 
leaping, surging flood of hopeful light, born not only 
of the prospect of attaining a respectful hearing be- 
fore the powers which contro] the teachers fate— 
tho none have greater need; born not of a hope of 
a living wage—and we represent the teachers of 
a groaning burdened group of toilers, which has 


American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 2 


ever been expected to live and thrive on less than 
half of whatever scanty loaf is doled to others; born 
not of the consciousness that we come not to our 
co-laborers empty-handed, but rich in gifts which 
are ours in full measure, the gift of musical interpre- 
tation which is unique, the gift of large capacity to 
sympathize with all who suffer; the gift to laugh in 
the face of such terrors as might well crush souls 
less strong with the sinews of life; the gift of the 
joy of mere living—fine as these thoughts are, and 
inspiring, our new star of hope leaped above the 
horizon when we sensed these words of the Fed- 
erated Teachers’ slogan: 
Education for Democracy 

If this be as yet but a dimly conceived ideal, nev- 
ertheless it is clearly a new star in the constellation 
of new ideas, bursting into being with the mighty 
travail of the birth of a new world epoch. 

If we may truly believe, and have our faith con- 
tinually strengthened by such deeds as shall make 
further doubt impossible, that there is an ever-widen- 
ing circle of the mightiest force in American life- 
its teaching force—shaping itself into a mighty, 


a powerful dynamo, pledged to “Educate for De- 
’ then we are sure that the keynote of this 
newer and better system will be the fundamental 
idea of justice-—pure justice, without qualifying con- 
ditions of color, or sex, or class for all Americans, 
for men everywhere—and for ourselves we crave 
no greater boon! 


mocracy,’ 





THE PREAMBLE OF A CONSTITUTION 
Missouri University Teachers Union No. 126, American 
Federation of Teachers 

We believe in democracy and in the schools as the chief 
agency of democracy. 

We believe that the success of the schools depends upon 
the teachers and that it is necessary to obtain for teachers 
such conditions of work as will attract and retain men and 
women of independence and ability. Among these condi- 
tions of work we deem the chief to be security of position, 
adequate salaries, a freedom of thought and speech such 
that the use of the schools for propaganda may not even be 
suspected, and a large measure of control over policies and 
programs of education. 

We believe that the only dependable means of securing 
these ends lies in the oganization of teachers on a national 
scale to deal with problems that are national in scope 

We believe in the cooperation of all workers a that 
it is both logical and desirable for teachers to cast in their 
lot with other workers. We believe that the affiliation of 
the organized teachers with other organized workers will 


- promote the welfare of the schools, safeguard the freedom 


of teaching, and further the cause of democracy in edu- 
cation. ~ , 





From the Locals of the American Federation of 
Teachers 


FROM LOCAL 31 
The High School Teachers’ Union, Sacramento, Cal 

In the late fall of 1918, Local 31 of the Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers was formed by the 
high school teachers of this éity. Out of more 
than seventy teachers, sixty-eight at once joined the 
organization, almost without discussion. 

Such unanimity and expeditiousness in accepting 
the idea of a close-knit organization had its roots 
farther down than the immediate incentive of sal- 
ary increase. In the preceding year the high schoo! 
faculty had been shocked by sydden charges of dis- 
loyalty. Coming, as these did, in the midst of un- 
remitting patriotic efforts, and selecting, as the 
accusers insanely did, people distinguished for their 
character and self-sacrificing patriotism, the effect 
was an immediate rallying of all the teachers to the 
defense of those singled out for attack, and a per- 
manently awakened consciousness of solidarity of 
aims and interests as the situation was faced. 

The more serious results that might have ensued 
from such an episode were averted; but an unsatis- 
factory inconclusiveness over the issue, and a tot2! 
lack of reparation toward those so unjustly accused, 
brought us all to recognize the future value of a 
definite organization, one capable of defending its 
members against injustice, and of insisting upon con- 
ditions making possible a high standard of profes- 
sional usefulness. A year of preliminary discussion, 
somewhat reminiscent of the episode just referred 
to, but actively concerned with the pressing matter 
of salary, ended in the formation of Local 31. Fol- 
lowing so quickly upon this action of the High 
School teachers that we like to consider it a first 
fruit of our action, came the organization of the 
elementary school teachers as Local 44, with which: 
our progress is inseparably connected. 

After more than a year since our founding we 
feel that we have justified our existence, as we view 
certain desirable changes in conditions, notably that 
which was attained in conjunction with Local 44— 
a raise of salary. This raise, if still most inade- 
quate, yet represents a victory when it is compared 
to the first suggestion made by the school authori- 


ties, a suggestion of five dollars added to the 
This pitiful amount wa. multi- 
plied four times under the more virile pressure of 
federated effort, and the teachers of Sacramento re- 
ceived in July, 1919, a flat 


dellars a month. 


rronthly salary. 


increase of twenty 

Following the raise in salary there has been a 
steady, if tacit, recognition of the teachers’ place in 
the community and in the administration of the 
schools. It is true that this recognition has not been 
avowedly influenced by the organizations, but it has 
followed too closely upon their heels not to be con 
sidered a result, at least, of the sturdier attitude of 
the teachers under the backirg of federation. 

Concrete instances are not hard to quote. Preced- 
ing the last election for City Commissioner, all 
three candidates for office, for the first time in his- 
tory, asked permission to visit the high school and 
to address the teachers. 

Within the high school, individual suggestions 
from teachers are given more cordial welcome and 
are more frequently adopted than in the past. One 
interesting result is the formation of a disciplinary 
committee of teachers, to act directly with the 
principals upon cases of lawlessness. 

Similarly, the school superintendent has _recog- 
nized the teachers of the city as collaborators with 
him in the administration of the schools by forming 
a council of representative teachers, chosen by their 
colleagues, to meet with him in monthly conference. 

Within Local 31, esprit du corps, independence 
of thought, and breadth of sympathy have markedly 
Its interest has not stopped at personal 

During the past year the city voted 


increased. 

advantages. 
to erect new school buildings. At once the organi- 
zation appointed a committee to keep informed upon 
the progress of building operations, and to stand 
prepared to offer suggestions whenever fitting. And 
just as it has increased our sense of responsibility 
toward local school administration, the fact of fed- 
eration, connecting us with the whole industrial 
world, has emphasized to us, as instructors of youth, 
our vital relation with the greatest issues of the 
country. Only a virile generation will save this 





The American Teacher 


country, in the next two decades, and to produce 
such a manhood is largely the teachers’ task. In 
times past we have been charged, as a class, with 
stagnation. With the dawning of this new hope of 
recognition, of which the outward and visible sign 
is a remuneration that makes efficiency possible, that 
charge will be wholly a false one, for where there 
is hope there is life. 
Pus.iciry COMMITTEE 
Sacramento High School Local 31 


FROM LOCAL 111 
The High School Teachers’ Union, Portland, Ore 

The Portland High School Teachers’ Union, 
which was chartered last October, made its first 
public appearance at the Oregon State Teachers’ 
Association, held in Portland, December 29, 30 
and 31. Up to that time our union had been prac- 
tically unknown to the public. We had been too 
busy perfecting our organization to do much pub- 
licity work. We believed, however, that the time 
had come for some judicious advertising; so we de- 
cided to have union headquarters during the meet- 
ing of the State Association. It must be confessed 
. that some of our members had misgivings as to the 
wisdom of the undertaking, but being good union- 
ists and real democrats, they cooperate heartily, 
once the plan had been agreed upon by the 
majority. 

We rented an attractive room in one of Port- 
land’s leading hotels—a room on the main corridor 
of the first floor. This we kept open from ten 
a. m. to eight p. m. on the two days, December 30 
and 31. The members of the union were divided 
into groups of four or five, each group being sched- 
uled ‘to be at the headquarters for two hours at a 
time. “Tea was served during the afternoon hours. 
This did much to make the undertaking a success. 
There is nothing better than a cup of tea to make 
a visitor feel at home—and making visitors feel at 
home was our first concern. If they wished to talk 
unionism—and most of them did—they had plenty 
of opportunity to do so. But no one had the sub- 
ject thrust upon him. If it was evident that a per- 
son came primarily for the tea—and perhaps to see 
if we were really like ordinary folk—we gave him 
the tea, plus a hearty welcome and stopped with 


Volume 1X, No. 2 


that, leaving him to draw his own conclusions as 
to our similarity to the rest of mankind. 

The National Headquarters supplied us with 
literature which we distributed to the visitors. Oui 
visitors included representatives from all ranks o:! 
the teaching profession, from district school teach- 
ers to college professors. 

Announcements concerning the 
were published in the daily papers, and visiting 
teachers were further notified of our official pres- 
ence by cards distributed at the building where the 
meetings were held. This advertising seemed to 
have a salutary effect on our opponents. The fact 
that no anti-union resolutions were introduced in 
the sessions of the Association was largely due, we 
believe to the realization by the opposition that we 
were on the ground, ready, if necessary to defend 
our principles. 

Not least among the benefits derived from hav- 
ing the headquarters was the effect on the members 
of the union. Since we come from five separate 
high schools, located in different parts of the city, 
the matter of getting acquainted with one’s 
“brother” is a real problem. ‘The headquarters 


headquarters 


helped to solve this. By serving as a general meet- 
ing place for union members, it developed a spirit 


of friendship that had been somewhat lacking here- 
tofore. 

We believe that the undertaking paid in the 
friends gained for the union, in the opposition 
silenced, and in the friendly feeling and spirit of 
unity developed among the union members. 

Mae Dar.inc 


CALIFORNIA STATE FEDERATION OF 
THE AMERICAN FEDERATION 
OF TEACHERS 
SUMMARY OF ReEporTs From LOCALS FOR THE 
Montu Enpinc Nov. 15, 1919 

Membership returns show that on November 15, 
Vallejo, the oldest local in the State, had 62, or 
100 per cent of the teaching body, Sacramento High 
School 75, Sacramento Elementary 172, Visalia 
29, San Francisco 175, Fresno High School 66, 
Benicia 15, Fresno Elementary 188. These figures 
give a grand total of 783. During the month 
Sacramento High added 6, San Francisco 14, 
Fresno High 6, and Fresno Elementary 39, a total 





February, 1920 


increase of 65. A loss of three members who emi- 
grated to new places of work makes the net State 
increase 62. Since November 15, a very consider- 
able accession to membership has been made thru 
the organization of Bakersfield, Selma and Kerman. 
More will be said of these places in the December 
report. 

Sacramento High and San Francisco report the 
formation of committees to confer with the Central 
Labor Councils as to a closer educational connec- 
tion between the teachers and the other workers of 
the community. A committee from the Sacramento 
Elementary Local is working with the Chamber of 
Commerce in arranging for University Extension 
Lectures and other means of community education. 
Fresno Elementary has a committee engaged in 
framing a program of social and educational work. 
The Sacramento Locals, after taking a leading part 
in putting thru a $3,000,000 school bond issue, have 
appointed a Teachers’ Committee to deal with the 
construction of the new buildings. They are also 
undertaking an industrial survey of the city as a 
basis for a revised course of study and an improved 
scheme of vocational guidance. 

The relation between Locals and school authori- 
ties has been smooth, but it is hoped that super- 
intendents will soon avail themselves more fully 
of the efficient and unselfish service the teachers’ 
unions have placed at their disposal. With the 
aid of the Labor Council the San Francisco Local 
secured the reinstatement of two teachers unde: 
suspension by the Board of Education. 

The relations between Locals and their com- 
munities have been friendly in every case. The 
Sacramento “Bee” and the Sacramento “Union” 
have both, however, issued editorials attacking the 
right of the teachers to affiliate with Labor. 

The State Federation arranged for Mr. Chas. 
Pease, Sacramento, to speak at the Tulare County 
Institute at Visalia. As the president of the meet- 
ing gave Mr. Pease just twenty minutes in which 
to present our case, Mr. Pease reports that the ven- 
ture was not as successful as he had anticipated. 
On his way he addressed an open meeting at Fresno. 

The Sacramento Locals succeeded in electing 
Miss Ella G. McCleery as President of the N. 
Section of the California Teachers’ Association. 


The American Teacher 


Miss Mc Cleery is a charter member of the Ele- 
mentary Local. 

The most vigorous activity in Extension work 
during the month has been shown by the Fresno 
Locals. ‘They have organized Bakersfield, Selma 
and Kerman, and they have held extension meet- 
ings in two other towns. Reports indicate that 
Miss V. B. Carson, president of the Fresno Ele- 
mentary Local, deserves special mention for her 
energetic work on behalf of our extension campaign. 
Presidents have not had time to get into action the 
machinery suggested by the State Federation for 
the distribution of literature, etc., at the time a 
definite organization district was assigned to each 
Local. However with a supply of propaganda ma- 
terial obtainable on application to Miss J. Colby, 
124 N. Van Ness Ave.; Fresno, Cal., it seems 
quite possible to reach every teacher in the State 
within the next two months. Every teacher has a 
right to hear directly from us the aims and spirit 
of our movement. Our influence on school admin- 
istration and on the passage of proper school laws 
at the next Legislature will vary almost directly 
as our numerical strength. Our propaganda work 
must therefore be pushed vigorously. Our best 
policy, however, during these times of mental up- 
heaval is to avoid wars with our critics, and to 
spread quietly and persistently literature, etc., set- 
ting forth the altruistic basis and patriotic objects 
of our movement. 

Dec 5, 1919 S G McLzgan, 

President 
NEW ORGANIZING FORCES 

From time to time the American Federation of 
Teachers will be able to draw from the ranks of its 
membership capable leaders who will go out among 
the unorganized, and bring them into the fold of 
unionism. The national is very fortunate this half- 


year in being able to have the services of two of its 
Secretary 
Miss Colby, 
of California, and Miss Williams, of Minnesota, 
now appointed organizers, attended the Fourth Na- 
tional Convention, and gave important service in 


women members, as announced by 


Stecker in his “February Message.” 


the constructive work of that body. We bespeak 
for them a welcome everywhere, and plenty of hard, 
inspiring: work. 





The 


A LETTER TO THE FRENCH UNIONS 

The Fourth Convention of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers, on January 1, 1920, sent the 
following message of greeting to the Federation of 
‘Yeachers’ Unions of France: 


To the Federation of Teachers’ Unions 
of France, 
Tours, France. 
Fraternal Greeting: 

The honor conferred upon the American 
Federation of Teachers in convention as- 
sembled December 29, 1919 - January 2, 1920, 
by the kind message of greeting from the fed- 
erated teachers of the great Republic of 
France is only outweighed by their profound 
pleasure in realizing that there is a genuine 
and significant sympathy between the trainers 
of the youth of the great democracies which 
you and we have the privilege of representing. 

We trust that the solidarity of feeling so 
betokened may eventuate in educational poli- 
cies and agencies that will not only be mu- 
tually helpful to the teachers and schools of 
France and the United States but will also 
insure the perpetuation of those ideals upon 
which the security and development of mod- 
ern civilization rest, and for which we have 
worked and fought side by side. 


Please express to our honored fellow- 


workers of the Federation of Teachers’ 
Unions of France, our hearty good wishes for 
the early realization of the high destiny of 
French education, and accept collectively and 
individually our sincere assurances that the 
appreciation of the qualities of mind and 
heart which distinguish the French people and 
which we profoundly feel, will strengthen and 
endure. 
(Signed) The American Federation 
of Teachers 
Chas B Stillman 





Either the people are fit to govern or they are*not. 
If they are fit to govern, it is no function of govern- 
ment to protect them from any kind of propaganda. 
They will protect themselves. That capacity for self- 
protection is the very essence of self-government. 
Without it regular institutions are inconceivable. 
and the moment that a republican form of govern- 
ment sets itself up as the nurse maid of the people, 
to train their immature minds to suit its own pur- 
poses and to guard them from all influences that it 
considers contaminating, we already have a revolu- 
tion and a revolution backward, a revolution -by 
usurpation. 

-Frank I. Cobb, Editor of the New York World, from 

article, “The Press and Public Opinion,” .in the New 
Republic of December 31, 1919. 


American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. ? 


FORGOTTEN VANITY 


It was the intention of the Executive Council to 
have a photograph taken of the delegates to the 
Fourth Convention of the American Federation of 
Teachers that was in session in Chicago during the 
Christmas holidays. But the interest and the ex- 
citement of the convention were so great that it 
seems everyone forgot altogether about the plan to 
have the photograph taken. 





THE DEAD MARCH 


‘There is great commotion within the realm of 
the dead. The gleaming shanks tremble as mil- 
lions of ‘gaunt bodies turn uneasily from their ac- 
customed sleep. The dead are awaking. The new 
light and the strange sounds and the world of lif 
aie agitating the ether of the bodies of the dead, 
and they can rest no longer. 

The new light is the light of intelligence stream- 
ing down from afar, loosed from the bondage of 
ignorance, springing from the fierce grip of preju- 
dice, set free in the mind of man after years of 
a terrible war. The light strikes with heavy impact 
the sightless sockets of the dead, and the dull heads 
feel. It is the light that bears new ideas. 

The strange sounds are the voices of men raised 
in anger that the institutions designed to make 
citizens of their children have lapsed into heedless 
sleep; nay, they are dead. And there are other 
voices, the voices of Idealism and Service, calling 
the dead things from their slumber. But these 
voices were ever scorned by the dead as being 
the voices of dreamers, of malcontents, and of radi- 
cals. Yet their voices stir relentlessly and without 
mercy, and they make the dead writhe even more 
than do the pleading voices of the children. 

But the world of life, the great giant labor, 
strikes the dead with its mighty hand. And the 
dead shiver. It is the blow that warns, for, if it 
does awaken, education will be left to rot. Labor 
will make its own out of its image, and for its 
own purposes. 

Let the dead rot, and let their ghosts haunt the 
shambles of history; or let them awaken into life. 
Let them stand. Let the Dead March! 





February, 1920 


SOME RESULTS OF THE NATION-WIDE DEMAND 
FOR IMPROVED CONDITIONS FOR 
GRADE TEACHERS 


Houston, Texas 

Newton, Mass 

Montclair, N. RE 

Jersey City, N N. 

RE, CUB it at vtech ann dtedcnniiie eee 500 
Chicago, Ill. 

Portland, Ore. 

Winchester, Mass 

OE PE Bo ee vee ode ccctusccededs 

NE SE ae at Se eee, Aer Se 400-200 
en eS Pe Re ee ere fee 350 
I Sete aris, tn npddecaechsebeates 350-100 
PR, CORR, 5 oka sinc wtics eG eahavess «cape 300 
PS ee te Sr Pee ae 300 
Stratford, Conn 

San Diego, Cal. 

ECE cadcsts ccvdedraee sos ct es cones 4s tt 300 
Se I ie 62.c 5 ¥ sien ne dh ede 300-150 
Dayton, Ohio 

Clinton, Mass. 

Waterbury, Conn. 

Ms fo sche ps cps dtreeeeveece tere ea eet 250-200 
White Plains, N. Y. 

Montague; Mass. 

Grand Rapids, Mich 

Morloboro, Mass 

Palmer, Mass. 

Lewistown, Me. 


Waukegon, IIl. 

Beloit, Wis. 

OD Serer err on es eee 165 
Little Falls, Minn. 

Kearney, Neb. 

Woburn, Mass. 


PERCENTAGE INCREASES 
Per cent. 

St. Paul, Minn. 
Hamilton, Ohio 
Monroe City, Iowa 
Sioux City, Iowa 
New Orleans, La. 
Schuyler, Neb. 


Cambridge, Mart a a al aan aR A SEES Co EEL 
Missoula, Mont. 

Ironwood, Mich. 

Worcester, Mass. 

New Bedford, Mass. 

Monroe, La. 


Indianapolis, Ind. 
Birmingham, Mich. 
Lima, Ohio 
Some of the new salary scales established recently are: 
Minimum Maximum 
$2,000 
1,800 


Jersey City, N. 

Oakland, Cal. : 1,200 
OE. a, . ecanwese wade. oad 1,200 
Billings, Mont. 

Chicago, Til. 

Los Angeles, Cal. 

Missoula, Mont. 

TEE, Abs evi Fen. Ri, Rin 1,080 
Sioux City, Iowa 

Denver, Col. 

Ironwood, Mich. 

Worcester, Mass. 


The American Teacher 45 


ED eee ere 1,500 
St. Paul, Minn. 1,500 
Everett, Wash. 1,350 
Buffalo, N. Y. 1,600 
1,600 

1,400 

, 00 1,200 

—From Bulletin of Institute for Public Service, New York 


CHANGES IN COST OF LIVING IN THE UNITED 
STATES, 1913, TO OCTOBER, 19109. 

The following table is an estimate, made by the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics, of the average increase in the cost of 
living in the United States since 1919. The Bureau has not 
complete retail price data back to 1913 and it has taken 
the average increase in the prices of the different groups 
of items for a number of industrial centers for the period 
from December, 1914, to June, ro19. While it is not held 
that the prices in these industrial centers necessarily agree 
with prices in every section of the country, yet the experi- 
ence of the Bureau goes to show that the changes in prices 
in the industrial centers used are fairly representative of 
changes in the country generally except as to rents. 

From data relating to food prices and to the wholesale 
prices of other groups of commodities, the changes from 
1913 to December, 1914, and from June, 1919, to October, 
19190, have been computed and the increases for these 
periods added to those from December, 1914, to June, 1919. 
The final results are shown in the table. 

Rents are a purely local matter and changes in rents in a 
given locality can be obtained only by a special study in 
that locality. However, the percentages of increase in rents 
as well as in the other groups of items in the industrial cen- 
ters mentioned have been applied to the increase shown 
in this table. 

The first column in the table shows the average per cent 
of total expenditure that is devoted to the different groups 
of items—foods, clothing etc. This per cent is based on 
figures obtained from over 12,000 families in 92 localities, 
in a careful survey of the cost of living recently made by 
the Bureau. The second column shows the average per 
cent of increase in the prices of the several groups from 
1913, to October, 1919. The third column is the product 
of the first and second columns and shows the per cent of 
increase applied to the total family budget. To illustrate: 
38.2 per cent of the total expenditure goes for food; food 
costs have increased 80.7 per cent; this makes the per cent 
of increase in the price of food, as related to the total 
family expenditure, 30.8 per cent. 


ESTIMATED PER CENT OF INCREASE IN COST OF LIVING IN THE 
UNITED STATES FROM I013 TO OCTOBER, IQIQ. 





Items of expenditure 


Average per cent 
to October, 1919. 


Per cent of in 
crease as applied 


Per cent 

of total 
expenditure, 
to family 


' budget. 


Housing 
Fuel and light 
Furniture and -furnishings. . 





—From the Monthly Labor Review, of the U. 8. Depart- 
ment of Labor, Vol. X, No. 11, January, 1920. 





The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. ? 


CUART SHOWING COMPARISON OF TEACHERS’ SALARIES IN FIVE MIDDLE WEST- 
ERX STATES WITH THE UNION SCALE OF WAGES FOR CERTAIN OCCUPATIONS 
IN THE SAME SECTION AS INDICATED BY THE AVERAGE OF THE 
WAGES PAID IN CHICAGO AND CLEVELAND 


SALARY IN HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS 


Machinists 

Lathers 

Bricklayers 

{Inside wiremen 
Workers, structural iron 
Blacksmiths 

Machine tenders (printing) 
Compositors (English) 
Glaziers 

Plumbers 

Carpenters 

Hodcarriers 

Bakers 

High School Teachers 


Intezinediate Teachers 


Elementary Teachers 


i ie 7 ° ; 
































—From the Bulletin of the National Education Association of December, 1919 


OUR ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT 


Union teachers have to thank Dr. George Strayer of 
Columbia University, Dean William Russell of the Iowa 
University and President D. B. Waldo of the Kalamazoo 
state normal school for much effective advertising of the 
union movement among teachers, altho they had no in- 
tention of giving it anything of that kind. After brief 
mention of the subject he was scheduled to speak on, each 
of these speakers devoted most of his time and the best of 
his eloquence to this particular question. To do President 
Waldo justice, however, it must be said that his remarks 
were largely in the nature of a chorus to the preceding 
speakers, interpolated into the main body of his discourse. 
The emphasis of these three men has most certainly indelibly 
stamped the idea of unionism on the minds of teachers 
who had never before heard of it. No member of that au- 
dience will need to have explained what the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers is or how it works thru its affiliations. 
—From Editorial, in The. Minnesota Union Advocate, of 
November 14, 1919. 


THIS EXCITES OUR CURIOSITY 


It is very difficult to get news of constructive events in 
Russia today, and considerable interest attaches, therefore, 
to an article in The London Times educational supplement 
of a few weeks back. The writer tells us that the vast new 
educational scheme begun by the Bolsheviki is in the hands 
of a commissar named Lunachavski, who knows most Euro- 
pean languages and is highly cultured. All schools have 
been abolished and in their stead a Labor school, divided 
into two parts, is attended by all children alike. The first 
part is for children from 8 to 13 years, the second for 
those of 13 to 17 years. Attendance is compulsory, all 
schools are coeducational, the teacher is called a “school 
workman” and has 25 pupils under him. No religious in- 
struction will be given, no home lessons, no examinations, 
no punishments. One may see the influence of Tolstoy at 
work here. A hot lunch is provided for every child. 


—From the Christian Science Monitor. 





February, 1920 
A TENTATIVE QUESTION BOX 


The “American Teacher” has received several re- 
quests that a “Question Box” be made one of its 
ventures. Fortunately, the material for an experi- 
ment is ready to hand. An inquiry has arrived 
which supplies the immediate stimulus to action. 


A correspondent writing from Michigan de- 
sires to know in what localities there is a 
system of subsidizing teachers for attendance 
at summer normals, universities, or elsewhere. 

Anyone who has information bearing on 
this question should write to The American 
Teacher without delay. Answers will be 
published in the March issue.—The Editor. 





AMERICAN RED CROSS 


44 East Twenty-third Street 
New York City 


Motion Pictures IN CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS 


In connection with the peace program of the 
American Red Cross, it is announced that that or- 
ganization will develop a broad educational program 
by means of the motion pictures. According to a 
statement from Washington Headquarters the Red 
Cross will furnish not only pictures depicting its 
own work but will expand its film activities to in- 
clude subjects pertaining to governmental, indus- 
trial, scenic and such other pictures as may prop- 
erly be made parts of a broad program for a 
healthier and happier America. 

The Red Cross states that in entering the educa- 
tional film field its work is based on a definite de- 
mand for pictures of this character which are not 
provided in sufficient quantities by commercial con- 
cerns. Distribution will be made through the thir- 
teen Red Cross Divisions and 3,700 chapters 
throughout the country. 

Catalogues describing available films, suitable for 
churches and schols, will be sent to such institu- 
tions as send their addresses to National Head- 
quarters, American Red Cross, Washington, D. C. 





Contracts awaiting teachers for all classes of school 
work. No fee unless appointed. Select service, prompt 
and efficient. Write us fully today, we can assist in 
your promotion. 


OSWEGO TEACHERS’ AGENCY 
Box C, Oswego, N. Y. 


The American Teacher 


CONDITIONS FOR SCHOLARSHIP 


It is this overwhelming lack of proportion in responsi 
bility that is helping to drive active men out of university 
positions and reducing scholarly activity to a pedagogical 
dead level. The emasculated professor should have no 
place nor be tolerated in college teaching, and yet the man 
ner in which many universities and colleges are now being 
administered cannot help but breed this very type. And 
who shall then make vital the higher education of the 
state? Scholarship must have force, vitality, and inde- 
pendence; and if regents and members of our boards of 
administration persist in misunderstanding this essential 
need of the men who work under their control, theirs alone 
must be the blame. A university cannot be a factory un- 
der the control of a superintendent and a few foremen. It 
must consist of hundreds of independent individuals guided 
by intelligent and generous leadership. If democracy in 
government or industry is ever to be trusted it should here 
of all places be able to prove itself. 

—C Ferdinand Nelson, in an article on “Problems of De- 
mocracy in University Administration” in The Graduate 

Magazine, Univ. of Kansas, January, 1920. 





This is the Official Organ 
of the 


American Federation 


of Teachers 


ORGANIZED APRIL 15, 1916 
Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor 


Executive Council of the American Federation of Teachers. 


President, Cuartes B Stmiman, Chicago 
1620 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, II. 
First Vice-President and Editor American Teacher, 
Henry R Livviite, New York City, 
36 Terrace Avenue, Jamaica 
Second Vice-President and Field Secretary, 
L V Lampson, Washington, D C 
1336 Otis Place, N W 
Third Vice-President, JosepHine Coxsy, Fresno, Cal., 
124 N Van Ness Blvd. 
Fourth Vice-President, HermMAN Derrem, New York City, 
2875 Broadway 
Fifth Vice-President, Isanex Wrtu1aMs, St. Paul, Minn., 
554 Holly Avenue 
Sixth Vice-President, Jennre A Wutcox, Chicago, Il. 
212 North Grove Avenue, Oak Park, Il. 
Seventh Vice-President, ApranaAM LEFKOWITz, 
New York City, Grand Avenue, East Elmhurst 
Eighth Vice-President, C E Puuturrs, Atlanta, Ga., 
94 Brookline Street 
Ninth Vice-President, Ctara K Stutz, Washington, D C 
1628 Swann Street 
Secretary-Treasurer, F G Strecker, Chicago, Ill. 
1618 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, II. 


o-* 





_The American 


Teacher 


Literature and Music 
The COLUMBIA PLAN of Teaching True Appreciation of Literature 


In music and literature there is more than corre- 
lation; there is identification of thought, feeling, sub- 
ject matter, structure, and response. The message of 
literature and music is one—to preserve the spirit of 
youth, to arouse wholesome emotion, and to quicken 
the mind and spirit to joyous, complete living. 
Class-room study of literature may be clarified and 
vitalized through music. 

No teacher of English would neglect the oppor- 
tunity of having his class listen to the music records 
of the songs of Burns, Longfellow, or Tennyson. 
Music is here fitted to poetry. But poetry is music. 


Tell the pupils the story of Shakespeare’s “Cym- 
beline.” Describe the occasion that called forth 
that inspiring mor- 

ning song, “Hark! 

Hark! the Lark!” 

What kind of bird 

is a Lark? What 

are its habits? 

Who is Phoebus? 

Where is “heaven’s 

gate?” Then play 


Any Columbia Dealer will gladly place a 


Columbia Record A5484, “ Hark! Hark! the Lark?” 
piano solo by Godowsky. Forget the words. Note 
Schubert’s employment of brilliant chords for 
“Hark! Hark!” Observe the musical grammar in 
the phrase corresponding with “To ope their golden 
.. Study the musical progression in the Jast 
three lines, ““My lady sweet, arise, arise, arise!’’ 

There is no element of poetry—type, rhythm, 
metre, rhyme, figure of speech, stanza form, or sen- 
tence structure that cannot find its identical counter- 
part in music. 

What is true of Poetry is also true of the Drama 
and Fiction. There is the same element of organi- 
zation of material and emotional appeal. 


The booklet, “Literature and Music,” is a com- 
plete treatise of the subject, relating all types 
and elements of Poetry, Drama 

SS 


and Fiction to the correspondin 
and literature lists, exercises and 
Clip this coupon and mail today 


a bibliography of helpful bovks 
and magazines. Send for free 


form in music. It contains reco 
copy. 


Volume IX, No. 2 


Coie School Grafonola 
Pushmobile 
Doors fitted with lock and key. 
Seven shelves for records. 
Reproducer,. winding crank and 
turntable may locked in 


push mobile. 
Either Oak or Mahogany. 


Grafonola and Pushmobile with a number of 
Educational Recordsin your School on trial, 
without cost or obligation to you, so that 
you may prove, thru your own satisfaction. 
what great service Columbia material may 
be in your schools. 

he the coupon for Educational Liter- 
ature. 


EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 


Columbia Graphophone 


Company 
Woolworth Blidg., New York City 
London Factory: 102 Clerkenwell Read, E. C, 


i oa 


i] 
CoLumBia GRAPHOPHONE COMPANY 
Educational Degestenens 
Woolworth Building, New York City 
| Please send the f ollowing literature: 
heck subject desired) 


Literature and Music [_ | 

| Grafonola Catalog ["] 
Educational Record Catalog 
Musical Measurement Manual 


“AMT 
J Grade... ers sennneseennrmnmn AMT