Federation 
of Teachers 














|| Americanization and Com- 
mon Decency 


Bur of Education 
gton 


Waebin 
DSO 


a 
<a> 


Organized Teachers and 
Organized Labor 





Democracy in Management & 


Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 





The American Teacher 








Method of Approach to Adult Education 


HE chief lesson to be learned 
from the interviews with the 
different nationalities, and 

from the study of the social and in- 
dustrial conditions is that the pres- 
ent method of approaching the prob- 
_lem of adult education is psycholog- 
ically unsound; that is, the tendency 
has been to work out plans for the 
people, not with them. It is the old 
story of endeav- 


schools belonged to them, and were 
for their use. But the bulk of the 
foreign born people who should be 
attending the schools have no com- 
prehension of the fact that the 
schools belong to the people and 
should grow and change in accord- 
ance with their needs. They do not 
even know that if a certain number 
of people ask for a course in any sub- 

ject, the schools 





oring to work 
changes from 
‘the top down in- 
stead of from 
the bottom up. 
Such a method 
can not produce 
enduring re- 
sults, since no 
plan for educa- 
tional progress 
can be ultimate- 
ly successful un- 
less it has its 
roots in the in- 
telligent under- 
standing of the 
masses of the 
people. If the 
schools are to 


EpIrorIALs 


IZED LABOR 


EDUCATION 


From THE LOcALs 





CONTENTS 


AMERICANIZATION IN MINNEAPOLIS . 53 
ORGANIZED TEACHERS AND ORGAN- 


Sruvigs oF AMERICAN Boarps OF 


Democracy IN MANAGEMENT . . 63 


THe MarcwH Message ... . 65 


must provide 
such a course. 
The school is to 
them a public 
institution 
which spells au- 
thority; they do 
not think of it as 
a place to go to 
for recreation 
and instruction 
59 and inspiration. 
They do not 
think of it as a 
place in which 
they can expand 
and grow, but 
rather as a place 
in which they 
must conform, 





51 


55 


67 











function in the 
lives of the people, they must be sen- 
sitive to the people’s needs, but that 
is not possible except by establishing 
a means of connection with the peo- 
ple, so that they may make their 
needs and desires known. 
ca * » * * 
In the early days in this country, 
the school was a social gathering 
place for the people, and all the peo- 
ple in the community knew that the 


and above al! 
they do not think of it as their insti- 
tution which they are responsible for 
developing until it adequately meets 
the needs of all the people. 

—Alice Barrows Fernandez, in “The Problem of 


Adult Education in Passaic, New Jersey”; Bull. 
No 4, Bureau of Education. 1920. 





“We can’t stem the tide of teachers unionizing 
in the big cities, but in the small towns we can 
keep them down.” 

—A Chance Remark of an Opponent. 








Volume IX, No. 3 





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 8, 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 8, 1917, authorized September 27, 1919. 





Volume IX, No. 3 


MARCH, 1920 


One Dollar a Year 





THE NEW STAFF 

As announced in the January issue, The American 
Teacher is to have four associate editors. In ac- 
cordance with the recommendations of the Commit- 
tee on Official Organ reporting at the Fourth Con- 
vention at Chicago, nominations for the four posi- 
tions were made by the locals. The nominations 
were then submitted to the members of the Execu- 
tive Council for balloting. The vote has been taken, 
and the result has just been announced by Secretary 
Stecker. Miss Augustine Aurianne, of Local 36, 
New Orleans, represents the Southern Division on 
the editorial staff, Mr Harry Gunnison Brown, of 
Local 126, Univeriity of Missouri, represents the 
Northern Divisior., Mr Samuel G McLean ,of Lo- 
cal 61, San Francisco, represents the Western Divi- 
sion, and Miss Alice L Wood, of Local 8, Washing- 
ton D C, represents the Eastern Division of the 
country. 

This is the beginning of greater work by The 
American Teacher. The entire union movement 
will benefit by having a number of persons working 
together to make the official organ truly and com- 
pletely representative of the best thought and spirit 
of the times among teachers. 


THE EASTERN CONFERENCE 

At least twelve locals from the area of Boston, 
New York, Philadelphia and Washington will meet 
in Philadelphia April 1, 2, 3 to hold a conference 
of the Eastern Division of the American Federation 
of Teachers. This Conference is not officially recog- 
nized as a subdivision of the authority of the A F 
of T, but is to be held for the purpose of strengthen- 
ing the union movement wherever help is needed. 

One of the practical ways of giving power and 
vitality to the union movement is for the locals to 
get to work on their local problems with might 
and main. 


TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH 

Strong drives are now under way thruout the 
entire country for adequate salary schedules to make 
good the shortage of teachers. But do we honestly 
think that if the schedules are adopted the shortage 
will be made good? If we do we are deceiving our- 
selves. In a competition with commerce under con- 
ditions existing in that line of human endeavor, ed- 
ucation can never catch up. The ablest men nad 
women will continue to be paid more for ability in 
commerce than they can ever hope to receive in edu- 
cation. It may not be right, it is not, when we eval- 
uate ability in terms of economic return. But there 
never should have been competition between trade 
and education for the service of the best minds. And 
there never would have been under humanly possible 
conditions in education. 

Teachers themselves have allowed the public to 
get its education as cheaply as possible. Immediate 
results have been that the public has suffered from its 
own law of supply and demand, and is getting a 
cheap kind of education, and in many respects a 
cheap kind of educator. The disposition of the 
American public to measure its great social agency 
of education as it measures the value of commercial 
products has all but made it impossible to get results 
fn educational systems except thru the approach of 
economic evaluation. 

A sad result of the major emphasis of material 
value has been the incidental elimination of condi- 
tions which in their nature tend to develop the so- 
cial, the spiritual, and the generally human, aspects 
of education. Along with the development of these 
qualities in education go the decent and generous 
consideration for the rights of others working under 
the best attainable conditions. We cannot make 
teaching attractive by paying for it. We can only 
succeed in this matter by cooperating to make teach- 





52 The American Teacher 


ing really and inherently worth while for the job 
itself. ‘The job ig not worth while if the conditions 
are unjust, if the supervisors are cruel and narrow, 
if they take advantage of their positions to command, 
and to punish. And the job is not worth while if 
the educating gets nowhere, any more than making 
harness would be attractive if the straps broke al- 
ways, or the buckles tore out. 

While we have the ear of the public let us not 
fail our ideals. Let us tell the whole truth about 
what is the matter with the job. Then, only, will 
it be possible for education to compete with trade 
which has few ideals, and makes chiefly the personal 
and the economic appeal. 


AMERICANIZATION AND COMMON 
DECENCY 


Mr ‘Parsons’ story of Americanization in this is- 
sue would be unbelievable at another day and age. 
But the impossible has actually occurred so often 
within the past year and longer that careful ob- 
servers know that the same thing will occur again, 
and yet again, many times before America recovers 
from what we have been calling hysteria. But it 
is not hysteria that menaces us now. At one time 
hysteria was the correct word, but now the proper 
term is cunning and malignant reaction. 

The dismissal of teachers for betraying an intel- 
lectual interest in some alien government and its 
people, the suspension of legally elected Socialist as- 
semblymen in New York, the conviction of workers 
for defending their lives against assailants, are acts 
very much alike in being committed with studied in- 
difference to common decency.and fairness. If those 
who are responsible for these and all similar acts 
proclaim themselves to be 100 per cent American, 
they do not weep for their country, so foully at- 
tacked, but they clothe themselves in the lamb’s 
coat of hypocrisy, and lay plans for destruction. 

The success of the 100 per cent American wolves 
has been phenomenal. Repeatedly and without so 
much as the slipping of a toe, attack has followed 
attack, and the victims have fallen. Success is al- 
ways to be admired. It keeps the wolves interested, 
and frightens the victims. But wolves are greedy, 
and that is where they are liable to fall into error. 

The Minneapolis wolves appear to have disgusted 


Volume IX, No. 3 


many of the possible victims, and some who were 
watching the hunt. The technique fell off for the 
moment, and the people immediately began to feel 
resentment that one of their number was hunted 
with obvious unfairness. But these mistakes in execu- 
tion will grow less frequent as the technique of elimi- 
nation and destruction develops. Good wolves in 
the last analysis are successful wolves. 

There is an element of the fortunate, however, in 
the stupidity displayed by the Minneapolis pack. 
The incident may serve to acquaint the teachers of 
the country with the stern facts of our social crisis, 
Truth and justice are of no avail. Common de- 
cency makes no appeal. ‘These ideals themselves are 
under attack, and they will be brushed aside with the 
same brutish indifference to human safety that is 
displayed in the savage instinct to destroy. The 
only protection available for the ideals which we be- 
lieve to be not only American, but universal as well, 
is the stern power of organized intelligence backed 
by the determination of the workers who know their 
rights and will fight to maintain them. 

Little boys and girls.must learn to recognize the 
wolf either under the lamb’s coat, or in the night- 
caps. of their grandmothers; teachers must recognize 
the social wolf when he appears in the guise of the 
president of the board of education, or as the speaker 
of the assembly, or as the judge on the bench, and 
the teacher must insist on his right to tell the chil- 
dren all about the disguises, and how they may learn 
to protect themselves against the new and dangerous 
variety of disguised wolf. 








The American Teacher > 





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


THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City 
Henry R Lovviite, Editor 


Avucustine AURIANNE 





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Americanization in Minneapolis 


E Dup.ey Parsons 
Local 59, Minneapolis, Minn 


The chief topic of discussion, not alone for teach- 
ers, unionized or not, but for the entire North- 
west, has for some time been the Ball case. Stated 
briefly the case is as follows: 

Mr: Wm R Ball, a member of the Minneapolis 
Federation of Teachers, Local 59, A F of T, in 
charge of the Americanization work of the public 
schools, was charged with being un-American in his 
teachings. It was asserted that pamphlets prepared 
by him were biased against the government, and 
that Mr Ball, in his instruetion of foreigners who 
were preparing for citizenship, urged criticism of 
the government rather than approval of it. These 
charges were formulated by an ex-superintendent of 
instruction for Minnesota. He is employed by 


what is known as The American Committee, a mere 
name behind which bankers and other business-men 
are fighting Socialism and other liberal ideas. It 
has been revealed by the labor press that these men 
gathered, thru assessment collected by the clearing 


house, a fund of $250,000 for this purpose. Why 
they did not come out openly insisting on their right 
to oppose doctrines which challenge their privileges 
has been widely questioned ; but the fact is that they 
chose to remain hidden behind the flag. The office 
of The American Committee is in one of the most 
expensive suites in the city, and is luxuriously 
equipped and adequately manned to carry out the in- 
tentions of the subscribers. 

The American Legion came to the support of 
the American Committee and found Mr Ball guilty 
before he had had more than one conference with 
its committee appointed to investigate the charges. 
The World War Veterans, an organization of lib- 
eral ex-service men, found quite otherwise. The 
Parents’ and Teachers’ Association, thru its central 
council, also cooperated with The American Com- 
mittee; the teachers generally, especially the union 
teachers had confidence that there could be no truth 
in the charges, 

The charges were filed with the board of educa- 
tion; and that body appointed a committee consist- 
ing of three members, all with interests involved 
with the aims of the men subscribing to the “slush 
fund” to oppose liberalism. This committee was 


53 


directed to “investigate the citizenship teaching un- 
der Mr Ball and to inquire as to the origin of the 
pamphlets and lessons.” At the first hearing the 
accused found himself opposed by one of the most 
astute lawyers in the city who proceeded to dom- 
ineer over the proceedings in a way that evoked 
loud protests from the spectators. Evidently it was 
expected that the “defendant,” who had come merely 
to answer the committee’s questions, never dreaming 
that a court case was to be made of the inquiry, 
would be disposed of before sundown. 

These unfair tactics, however, won support for 
Mr Ball; and when the second session was held he 
was protected by legal advice. The committee, 
however, especially the chairman, was prejudiced 
from the beginning against Mr Ball, for it refused 
to permit the attorney to use the forms customary 
in the courts. For instance, when the lawyer asked 
the complaining witness, who paid him to bring 
the charges and what he was paid, in order to es- 
tablish the fact of an interested motive on the part 
of the American Committee, the chairman roughly 
declared: ““We don’t care anything about that,” and 
another member called out: “Sit down; you make 
me nervous,” and then declared that the commit- 
tee would have to hold an executive session after 
the public hearing. 

For several more sessions marked by heated inter- 
changes between the opposing attorneys, the case 
dragged on until the counsel for the “prosecution,” 
knowing that the charges were not to be sustained, 
withdrew. Witness after witness testified as to the 
effective work of the accused, as well as to his loy- 
alty. These witnesses were pupils in his classes, 
teacher, and other citizens who had watched his 
work. On the other hand, affidavits presented by the 
American Committee to prove the charges, were dis- 
covered to have been obtained under false representa- 
tions, especially one by .a stool pigeon, a tormer 
saloon-keeper, in the employ of the American Com- 
mittee. University professors attested to the sound- 
ness of the teaching of the pamphlets which were 
shown to be compiled from such sources as Fisk’s 
Critical Period, Beard’s United States History and 
other books on the shelves of the school libraries, and 





The American Teacher 


in the hands of the students by act of the adminis- 
tration. 

An amusing incident is typical of the tactics em- 
ployed by the accusers. It seems that Mr Ball, to 
explain why the Constitution was adopted, directed 
his pupils, who had used Fisk, to a chapter entitled, 
“Drifting Toward Anarchy.” One of the affiants 
swore solemnly that Mr Ball had told him to read 
a book by the Socialist, John Fisk, entitled “Drift- 
ing Toward Anarchy.” 

In short, so complete was the defeat of the ac- 
cusers that the chairman of the investigating com- 
mittee offered to “call it off” if Mr Ball would 
consent. But he and his attorney were determined 
to win an unqualified exoneration, and consequently 
completed the case with a full summary of all the 
testimony. Despite the prejudice of the commit- 
tee hearing the case, it was universaily believed that 
it would not dare to insult public opinion, which by 
this time had been expressed in Mr Ball’s favor on 
various occasions. 

On Tuesday, March 9, the committee reported to 
the Board as follows: 

“After considering all the evidence, the committee 
has no reason to doubt Mr Ball’s character, devo- 
tion, sincerity and loyalty as a citizen, but feels 
that lessons used were not such as in its opinion 
would produce the best results. 

“The committee further believes that public opin- 
ion has been aroused to such an extent that it is 
unwise to continue Mr Ball in the Americaniza- 
tion work.” 

The teachers and others gathered to receive the 
report were stunned. After all the publicity that 
had been given to the evidence—and the dailies had 
filled pages with it—and after its admission that 
the charges were not sustained, the “investigating” 
committee had registered the still small voice of the 
American Committee against the free schools of the 
city. Under the disguise of patriotism Big Business 
had been able to dictate its terms in the face of fact 
and reason. 

What the end will be we do not know. Too 
many citizens are concerned over the affair to take 
this verdict as final. It will scarcely be necessary 
for the teachers of Minneapolis to prosecute a cam- 
paign against the suppression of free instruction in 
the schools—the citizens are aroused to the impor- 


Volume IX, No. 3 


tance of safe-guarding that freedom as never before. 
A feeling pervades the teaching forces, not only in 
Minneapolis, but thruout the Northwest, that more 
than ever it is essential for them to get together in 
a really effective body for the educational well-being 
of their country. 

This seems to prove once more that “out of the 
eater came forth meat; and out of the strong came 
forth sweetness.” 


COMMISSIONER CLAXTON’S REPORT 
Teachers’ Unions 


Part XV of the Report for 1919 issued by the 
Bureau of Education is devoted to teachers’ organi- 
zations. A specialty significant statement made on 
the first page is, ““The teachers of the United States 
are organizing, and the only question is as to what 
form the organization will take.” 

“There are 535 educational associations listed in 
the Educational Directory of the Bureau of Educa- 
tion for 1918. Of course, 200 were classed as na- 
tional and sectional, 243 as State associations, 39 
as city bodies, and 53; as learned and civic organi- 
zations.” These figures it would appear are far 
too low, especially in the item of the local organi- 
zations. 

An interesting contrast is made between the nun- 
ber of members in the two largest national organi- 
zations and the number of possible members. For 
years the National Education Association has had 
a membership list of 10,000, but in 1919 a drive 
resulted in increasing the list to 24,000. The 
American Federation of Teachers in July, 1918, 
had a membership of about 2,000. Before the end 
of 1919 the membership was 11,000. But the united 
States has about 750,000 teachers in the various 
types of educational institutions. In England, out 
of 108,732 certified teachers 101,994 are members 
of the National Union of Teachers. 

The larger share of attention is given in the Re 
port to the union movement, the statement being 
fair, altho incomplete as the space available would 
determine. Unfortunately, the important social 
appeal of the union movement is left out; but for 
that the union movement has itself largely to blame, 
since constant repetition is necessary before a new 
idea “gets across.” 





Organized Teachers and Organized Labor* 
Harry A OVERSTREET 


Professor of Philosophy, College of the City of New York; Member of the Associated Teachers Union, 
Local 71, A F of T 


Ladies and Gentlemen: I should like first to 
congratulate the Chairman upon his very ex- 
cellent rules of debate. I hope that even tho I 
am the terrible being that I am—for of course a 
teacher-trades-unionist must be a terrible thing—I 
shall preserve my proper urbanity and not say very 
hard things. I particularly feel the value of the 
Chairman’s request that we emphasize service to the 
community rather than rights. It is in such a spirit 
that I wish particularly to speak. If we who have 
affiliated ourselves with labor have done that which 
goes counter to the public welfare, it is for us to 
know this very quickly. If, on the contrary, we 
have done what is, from the community point of 
view, wholly proper and good, then I think it is for 
the public itself to know this very quickly. 

May I also, in passing, express my appreciation 
of the type of thing that this Association is doing 
to-day? In these times, when it seems to be a sign 


of good citizenship to suppress all discussion what- 
ever, lest perhaps some “dangerous” truth should 
emerge, it is a fine vindication of our fundamental 
Americanism to throw a vexed question of this kind 


open to public debate. For it is a question upon 
which men and women, both within and without the 
profession, differ not only intellectually but emo- 
tionally. In fact, emotion has run so high that the 
joining of a teachers’ union has become at times, to 
those that ventured, a matter of grave peril. I 
should like to believe that this occasion will serve as 
a precedent; and that, thruout the country, the 
question before us will be thrown open to frank and 
“uncensored” discussion. 

And now to come to the issue: “Should teachers 
afhliate with organized labor?” My own immediate 
reaction is: “Why not?” We teachers are laborers. 
We belong to the “working class.” Certainly we 
shall not be accused of being capitalists. We are 
not employers who give wage and receive the profits 


*The first address on the affirmative of a debate on the 
question “Should Teachers Affiliate with Organized Labor?” 
at the Luncheon Conference of the Public Education As- 
sociation of the City of New York February 14, 1920. Re- 
printed from Bulletin of Public Education Association. 


which wage workers are able to earn. Now as 
hired workers, it does not seem a strange nor repre- 
hensible thing to me that we should establish a 
cordial, cooperative relation with others who like- 
wise are hired workers. For obviously there are 
certain respects in which our outlook and our needs 
are identical, respects in which we may naturally 
and with profit consult with each other to the end 
of mutual enlightment and support. 

And yet that is not the whole story. For when 
we declare that we are workers, some persons make 
a reservation: “Yes,” they say; “You are indeed 
workers, but of a very special kind. Most work- 
ers work for their own interests. They are a 
‘class’ in the community. You teachers work for 
the public interest. Hence, when, in any sense, you 
cease to represent the public, you demean yourselves, 
you degrade your profession.” 

That, it seems to me, touches the very heart of 
this problem. The glory of the schools is that they 
have, in theory at least, served the public interest. 
Now when a number of teachers appear who say: 
“We are going to affiliate with labor,” there comes 
to us the horrifying thought that the schools are to 
lose their fine universality and become instruments 
of partisan or class interests. 

Is that true? Does affiliation with labor mean 
affiliation with a class? If it does, then I for one 
will have none of it; and I believe that practically 
everyone else who is associated with this movement 
will have none of it. Why, then, do we affiliate? 
Because we believe that affiliation with labor does 
not necessarily mean affiliation with a class: 

The reason, I take it, why this seems to many a 
rather curious and self-contradictory thing to say 
is that most of us think in terms of conventional 
labels and not in terms of realities. Suppose one 
asks the question: “How can one truly represent 
the public interest as over against class interest,” 
what would be the answer? Would one say that a 
person stands for the public interest, when he stands 
for everybody in the public—for the numerical ag- 
gregate? Then he must stand for the burglars, for 


55 

















56 








the political grafters, for the suppressors of free 
speech, for the exploiters of women and children. 
No. If one stands for the public, one stands inevit- 
ably for the ideas and activities of only a portion 
of the public. And of what portion? Surely of 
that portion which has most deeply at heart the 
fundamental public good. 

I suppose that one of the most public-minded men 
that ever lived was Jesus of Nazareth. When he 
died he belonged to an insignificant minority of a 
few hundred. Would one say that a man who 
cast in his fortunes with Jesus of Nazareth and his 
small band of followers was joining a “class”? Or 
would one not rather say that in joining a body of 
people who had transcended “class” interest, who 
were working for the interest of a finer humanity, 
he was indeed acting in the spirit of the public 
good ? 

Again, take the slave revolts. Were they “class” 
movements? In a sense, yes. The slaves were re- 
belling against the cruelty of their lot. They were 
fighting for themselves. And yet, as over against 
the aristocrats who were living upon the labor of 
these slaves, I think we should say that the latter 
were by far the public-spirited ones. They were 
fighting for the fundamental human realities. 

Now if that is true; if the service of the public 
is to be found not in the undiscriminating service 
of the numerical aggregate, but in cooperation with 
that group whose intent is public, I ask you, la- 
dies and gentlemen, where, in the long history of 
the world, do we find more continuously, more 
heroically, more effectively an intent for the better- 
ing of human conditions than in the labor move- 
ment? It is a flagrant, nay, it is a pathetic mis- 
understanding of that movement to say that it has 
been a movement solely for the material benefit of a 
class. It has indeed concerned itself with material 
benefits and with benefits for a special group. But 
it has concerned itself with far more. Fundamen- 
tally it has fought for a humaner world. Funda- 
mentally it has thrown down a challenge to the ar- 
rogances and autocracies and cruelties that have set 
themselves up for the governance of life. It has 


fought for human emancipation—for yours and 
mine and all the rest of us. 

So the labor mevement, I say, is not in its essence 
a class movement. 


It is a movement that stands for 





The American Teacher 








Volume IX, No, 3 


what is fundamental to public welfare, and when 
teachers affiliate themselves with it they are not 
thereby lowering themselves to the level of partisans 
of a class interest. They are, in a very real sense, 
raising themselves to the point of view of res publica, 

I have been interested in the labor movement for 
almost twenty years; and in all that time I have 
found to my sorrow that the group that compre. 
hended it least, that gave it least vital support in 
its essentially humanistic struggle was the teacher 
group. The teachers, with all their ostensible 
“public mindedness,” have not even known, in a 
deep and sympathetic sense, what has been the sig- 
nificance of this great struggle in the history of the 
world. There has been a queer kind of indifference, 
a queer kind of alignment of the teacher, not with 
the more deep reaching interests of the public, but 
with the interests of a dominant class. 

The best proof of this is that the teacher has 
freely lent himself to the partisan or “class’’ atti- 
tudes of our schools and colleges. Am I in error in 
saying that the attitudes of the schools and colleges 
have been partisan? I challenge anyone here to 
find me a single case of a college professor or of a 
teacher in the common schools who was dismissed 
because he taught the economics of capitalism. For- 
merly, schools and colleges were partisan religiously. 
Teachers were dismissed because they would not 
conform to religious doctrine. Now they are parti- 
san politically and economically. And again teach- 
ers are dismissed because they will not conform to 
the conventional ruling class politics and economics 
of the day. Had the teachers, as a group, really 
understood the fundamental import of the labor 
movement, they could never, I believe, have been 
brought to acquiesce in such a prostitution of edv- 
cation in behalf of partisan interests. 

It is in behalf, then, of a more adequate under- 
standing of the labor movement, an understanding 
of it as a movement in the interest of the humanizz- 
tion of life, that I welcome the affiliation of teachers 
with labor. 

But I welcome it for another reason. The world 
is making new alignments. Free born and _ base 
born, noble and serf, master and slave, employer and 
wage worker—these have been the old alignments. 
And we teachers have cherished our own little snob- 
bish alignment in setting ourselves apart as “intel- 








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- -=- 2A = lc lUcrrhllC rr lr OlUlUlCrr OO UC hUhUCt:StCOY 





March, 1920 The American Teacher 57 


lectual” workers as over against “mere” manual 
workers. There is, I believe, emerging out of the 
confused yet powerful idealism of our day, a signifi- 
cant new alignment: the alignment of those who do 
useful work and those who live on the useful work 
of others. In that new alignment there is only one 
place for the teacher. I know of nothing finer in 
its promise of the type of relationships that are to 
be established than the clarifying phrase of the 
British Labor Party: “Labor, whether of brain or 
of hand.” We teachers have long enough held our- 
selves snobbishly apart. It is time that we affiliate 
ourselves frankly and gladly with the great body 
of useful workers of the world. . 

In a very real sense, the teachers can help labor. 
They can help with their understanding of history, 
of economics, of politics, of science. They can bring 
to the labor struggle intellectual balance and pene- 
tration; they can help to give to those struggles a 
direction that is unfalteringly social. Labor hith- 
erto has stumbled along in all sorts of confusions and 
blindness). 'Why? Because the laborers, in their 
pressing need, have had to work out their own sal- 
vation, while we teachers, with trained intelligence 
to contribute, have sat superciliously apart and 
thanked God that we were not as they. 

But in a yet more concrete and immediate way 
teachers can help labor. The working man of late 
has felt increasingly the need of a more adequate 
education for himself as an adult. In certain re- 
spects education is open to him in the schools and 
colleges. But he finds that in many ways the con- 
ventional educational institutions are not organized 
to meet his needs. With their “ruling class” lean- 
“ings, they neither understand his problems nor in 
any effective way attempt to meet them. He is 
asking therefore for a different type of education. 
Nay, he is not asking; he is organizing that educa- 
tion for himself. The New York Ladies Garment 
Workers’ Union, for example, has for years or- 
ganized classes for its members. The Labor Edu- 
cation Committee has more recently begun to do 
likewise. A Workingmeri’s University is being pro- 
jected. It is here that the teacher who has been 
quickened to a wider vision and a deeper under- 
standing can render immediate and valuable service. 

But labor likewise can help the teacher. The 
teacher’s position today is not an enviable one. It 


has not been enviable for many years. In the first 
place financially. The teachers notoriously have 
been among the lowest paid workers in the land. 
They have been willing to endure this condition in 
return for certain apparent advantages—social posi- 
tion, joy in their work, a sense of real service to the 
community. But the laborer is worthy of his hire; 
and when a group of laborers for years have not been 
able to convince the public that their hire should 
approximate more nearly to their worth, it either 
means that there is something wrong with the group 
or with the public. Some of us have come at last 
to believe that the trouble has been with the teacher 
group and not with the public. The public is an 
indeterminate mass swayed this way and that by the 
prevailing agencies of publicity. The trouble with 
the teachers has been that they have not known how 
to gain legitimate publicity for themselves and their 
working needs. And so the public has simply passed 
them by. Teachers, with their exaggerated “class 
consciousness” —the fact of which is an amusing 
commentary upon those who fear that affiliation with 
millions of other workers will degrade them into 
a “class’”—teachers, I say, with their exaggerated 
“class consciousness” have organized their teachers’ 
councils, their high school associations, their pro- 
fessors’ associations and what not. But the sound 
of them—to the public—has been as of a stone 
dropped into the ocean. What the teachers need is 
a great body of organized citizenry who sympathize 
with their services and their needs and who will 
make their cause their own. I say organized ad- 
visedly; for the vague sympathy of unorganized 
citizenry counts for little. Every realist in politics 
knows that, for practical achievement, an organized 
minority is far more effective than an unorganized 
majority many times its size. 

Now where are the teachers to find an organ- 
ized citizenry who will make their cause their 
own? Shall the teachers affiliate with the Tax- 
payers’ Associations—ask them to raise the taxes, 
forsooth?—the Real Estate Associations, the 
Chambers of Commerce, the Bar and Medical 
Associations? The interests of these are in every 
respect far more special than the interests of the 
great organized body of laboring people. The 
bulk of our school children are the children of 
manual laborers. Labor, therefore, has an imme- 





The American Teacher 


diate, vital interest in the fitness of those who 
teach in the schools. Hence the sympathy of labor 
is there for the asking. It is but for the teachers 
to emerge from their artificial, futile exclusiveness 
and join with organized labor in prosecuting the 
social aims that are common to both. 

Can organized labor help the teachers? That 
question is best answered by another. Has organ- 
ized labor been able to help itself? The splendid 
history of the emergence of labor from practical 
serfdom to a condition in which it begins to par- 
ticipate democratically in the organized production 
of the world is sufficient answer. 

“To participate democratically.” That brings 
me to the most significant matter of all. Labor’s 
fight for many years has been simply for a decent 
wage and for humanly tolerable working condi- 
tions—a materialistic fight, it has been called. 
Its fight has already passed beyond that stage. 
It is now fighting for the great spiritual thing we 
call “industrial democracy.” What is industrial 
democracy? It is that condition in which the 


worker is first of all a free man in his craft, in 
which he is no longer the mere “commodity,” the 


mere usable slave of his employers. In the second 
place, it is that condition in which, as a ‘free citi- 
zen of his craft, he has his citizen’s voice in the 
organization of his craft work. It is for indus- 
trial citizenship that the worker is now fighting— 
and winning in his fight. 

Is the teacher to-day a free man in his craft? 
Is he a citizen with full rights of participation in 
the organization of the work of his craft? Thanks 
to the labor movement, a common manual laborer 
may not, in most cases, be dismissed save as his 
dismissal is approved by his peers. Not so a 
teacher. A principal, a superintendent, a board of 
education, a board of trustees—in these still re- 
sides the right, with a sheer arbitrariness that is 
often revolting, to wreck a teacher’s career. Shall 
not the teacher have the workingman’s right to a 
review of his case by his peers? 

Again, thanks to the labor movement, the com- 
mon workingman is beginning to participate in the 
councils of business and production. Is the 
teacher? For the most part, he is told what is to 
be done. The orders come from above: And 


Volume IX, No. 3 


woe to the teacher who is not pliant to the will 
of the petty autocracies that rule many of our 
schools! Does the college teacher sit on the board 
of trustees? He is delegated certain powers, but 
the real power, the ultimate power—as to that, 
let the professor keep well within his appointed 
place! 

Industrial democracy is the great spiritual need 
of the workingman. It is the great spiritual need 
of the teacher. Shall they not, then, strike hands 
in a great comradeship of common interest—an in- 
terest—not partisan, and not degrading; an inter- 
est, rather, which is as deeply valid as human 
nature, as profoundly inevitable as the ongoing of 
fundamental democracy. 

May I say one word in closing? We teachers 
recognize that there is a difference between workers 
employed by private individuals or corporations 
and workers employed by the public. We believe, 
indeed, that that difference is not great enough to 
divide us into two groups which must hold them- 
selves rigorously apart. But we do believe that 
the difference is significant, and that it must be 
reflected in a difference of behavior towards our 
respective employers. The effective weapon of 
organized labor hitherto has been the strike. Like 
all good citizens, we look forward to the time 
when the strike will no longer be necessary, when, 
in terms of a more humane organization of indus- 
trial life, it will be relegated, with machine guns 
and submarines, to a barbaric past. But even 
now, in this age of industrial barbarism, we teach- 
ers are firmly convinced that as employees of the 
public the strike is, for us, without justification. 
Organized labor has joined with us in this con- 
viction. We have, therefore, in the most solemn 
manner possible—by incorporation in the body of 
oul constitutions—made our. declaration that we 
will not employ that weapon. Our strength is to 
lie not in threats but in persuasion; not in the 
power of organized withdrawal but in the power 
of organized public understanding. We workers 
o: the brain, retaining all the fundamental dig- 
nity and independence of our calling, unite with 
the workers of brawn in the cooperative effort to 
secure for ourselves and our fellows the things o/ 
finer human value. 





Studies of American Boards of Education 


I 


Henry R Linvitie 
President, The Teachers Union of the City of New York 


Our people have long since grown accustomed 
to boards of education. In fact, these bodies are com- 
ing to stand, in our way of thinking, for the pub- 
lic itself. Legal powers are granted by legisla- 
tures, and state courts very often decline to re- 
view the acts of both local and state boards of 
education. ‘Thus, the boards of education them- 
selves come quite naturally to regard their acts 
as the acts of the public itself, tending because 
of this view, perhaps, to seek more power and 
greater immunity from undesired interference. 

With the increasing prestige of school boards 
in American communities there has developed a 
sincere desire to keep the administration of the 
schools out of the mire of unclean “politics.” Va- 
rious methods have been devised for accomplish- 
ing this end, and these will be referred to in this 
article. There is a general willingness also to 


have the diverse elements of the population rep- 
resented in the membership of the board. Even in 
cities where there are considerable racial antipa- 
thies representatives of “alien” races may be found 


on the boards of education. Perhaps the most 
noteworthy exception to this general policy is the 
frequent absence of Negroes in the membership 
of boards of education in Northern as well as in 
Southern cities. The City of Washington has met 
the well-recognized difficulty by having represen- 
tatives of the colored race on the school board and 
an assistant superintendent in charge of the col- 
ored schools. 

Each community develops its own notions, under 
the general influence of the national idealism, of the 
elements in the community that constitute the real 
body politic. Among the forces that determine 
whose claim to represent at least a portion of that 
body politic shall be recognized, are likely to be 
numbered those persons who belong to the longer 
established social units. The decision of these 
longer established social units may seem on occasion 
to be narrow and provincial, but they are not dis- 


honest or unfair, so long as freedom of action is per- 
mitted to those younger and less well established 
units that seek representation in the administration 
of the schools. 

In view of the early influence of the labor move- 
ment in the establishment of the public school sys 
tem of America, and in view of the paramount im- 
portance of public education to the producing class 
in American life, it is a matter of concern to know 
to what extent organized labor is represented on our 
boards of education. In October, 1919, the writer 
undertook to find out. 

A circular letter was addressed to the secretaries 
of the 200 cities of the country that, according to the 
latest available reports had populations of 40,000 or 
over. In November a follow-up letter was for- 
warded to those who had not replied. The result 
of the two letters was 164 replies. The replies were 
signed by various officials representing the educa- 
tional authorities. In some cases the president of 
the board signed the letter; in other cases, the super- 
intendent of schools. But in every instance, with 
but one exception, the replies were given with cour- 
tesy. The fulness of some of the replies gave leads 
to important information which the few questions 
could not have been expected to bring out. 

The distribution of the cities from which informa- 
tion was obtained may be indicated briefly by nam- 
ing the state, and then giving the number of cities 
of the 40,000 and over class in the state, followed 
by the numeral representing the replies from the 
state: Alabama 3, 2; Arkansas 1, 1; California 16, 
10; Colorado 3, 2; Connecticut 6, 6; Delaware 1, 
1; District of Columbia 1, 1; Florida 2, 0; Geor- 
gia 4, 3; Illinois 8, 8; Indiana 5, 3; Iowa 7, 5; 
Kansas 3, 2; Kentucky 4, 4; Louisiana 1, 0; Maine 
2, 1; Maryland 1, 1; Massachusetts 26, 24; Mich- 
igan 7, 5; Minnesota 3, 3; Missouri 5, 4; Montana 
1, 1; Nebraska 2, 2; New Hampshire 1, 1; New 
Jersey 13, 12; New York 12, 11; North Carolina 
1, 0; Ohio 11, 9; Oklahoma 1, 1; Oregon 1, 0; 


59 





60 The American Teacher 


Pennsylvania 16, 13; Rhode Island 3, 2; South 
Carolina 1, 1; Tennessee 3, 2; Texas 7, 6; Utah 
2, 2; Virginia 4, 3; Washington 4, 4; West Vir- 
ginia 2, 2; Wisconsin 6, 6; Total 164 replies, 


Lasor REPRESENTATION IN EDUCATION 

The important part of the inquiry about the rep- 
resentation of labor on boards of education read: 
“Are there one or more members of your present 
Board of Education who were appointed or elected 
as representatives of labor?” A great many of the 
replies indicated that labor union men were mem- 
bers of boards of education, but were not elected or 
appointed because of that fact, according to the state- 
ments of those replying. Probably the persons reply- 
ing would be in good position to know, but their 
judgment of the influences operating in the minds of 
the electors, or of the appointing power might not 
be always accurate. However, the point of the 
question, which seems to have been generally under- 
stood, was to ascertain the influence of organized 
labor in getting representation on boards of educa- 
tion. - 

The answers to this question indicate that 25 
cities in 14 states have representatives of organized 
labor on their boards of education. The details are 


No. Rep. Membership 
of Labor of Board 
II 
II 


VN @OUNO Ms~MOOCOCO4OwO OOM 


Thus, it agpeare that labor is not ‘alihiate repre- 
sented on any board of education in the country, ex- 


Volume IX, No. 3 


cept in Chester, Pa. ‘True, the cities of Bay City, 
Mich, Minneapolis, Butte, and Huntington, W Va, 
have two members each, where their influence for 
the labor point of view may be effective. But there 
are labor representatives of labor in three cities of 
Iowa, a state that is primarily agricultural, and not 
industrial. It may be fair to suppose that labor has 
not been active generally in pushing its claims to 
representation on boards of education. 

There are probably at least two reasons for this 
apparent lack of interest on the part of labor. 
Labor men and women cannot afford to give the 
time required of members of boards of education. 
For this reason the generally unpaid board of educa- 
tion is made up of citizens who can afford to give 
the necessary time. At least in the larger cities 
where the duties of the board of education make 
serious inroads upon the time and energy of 
the members, the representation of active labor 
is practically impossible. If the social class of pro- 
ducers which organized labor specifically represents 
is to have representation on our boards of educa- 
tion, the members of the boards must be paid. _If 
some are paid, then all should be paid, and for serv- 
ices rendered. 

Another reason for the apparent lack of interest 
on the part of organized labor in possible represen- 
tation on boards of education is that labor does not 
yet comprehend the significance of its tactical posi- 
tion as the organized representative of the most im- 
portant social group in every community, the pro- 
ducing class. It lets the school problem slide as it 
lets many other problems slide, contenting itself with 
criticising those who may be conducting the school 
business in the interests of special self-seeking groups 
of the community. The obvious solution of the 
problem of the indifference of labor is for leaders 
of labor to begin a campaign of education to show 
the workers their responsibility in the social admin- 
istration of educational systems. 


Tue Size or Boarps or EpucaTion 


For many years there has been going on a move- 
ment to decrease the size of boards of education. 
Recently, the City of New York (1917) changed 
from a board of forty-six members to orie of seven 
members. In the year 1906, Boston changed from 








March, 1920 


twenty-four to five. So far as this inquiry goes, 
there are but three boards of education now in the 
country that have a membership of above eighteen, 
those in the City of Wheeling, W Va. with a mem- 
bership of twenty-one, the city of Providence, R I, 
with a membership of thirty-three, and the city of 
Augusta, Ga., with a membership of forty. Out of 
the one hundred sixty-four cities heard from, but 
fifteen have boards of education of more than twelve 
members. The largest cities of the country have 
boards of education of comparatively small size, as 
follows: New York, 7; Chicago, 11; Boston, 5; 
Los Angeles, Cal., 7 ; Indianapolis, 5; Baltimore, 9; 
Detroit, 7; Minneapolis, 7; St. Paul, 1 (Commis- 
sion government) ; Kansas City, Mo., 6; St. Louis, 
12; Buffalo, 5; Cleveland, 7; Toledo, 5; Seattle, 5. 
The following diagram shows that.a very large 
majority of the boards of education thruout the 
country group into boards of five, seven and nine. 


NUMBER OF Memsers IN Boarps (ABOVE) 
NuMBER OF CiTigs or 40,000 (BELOw) 


& 9g 10 It I2 


6 7 


20 Ff 8 OS 2° Oo.s 7 6 


Tue Mernuop or SELECTION 


Another matter of general public interest in con- 
nection with boards of education is the method by 
which they are selected. The circular sent to the 
secretaries of boards brought a mass of interesting 
data. At the present time, by far the commonest 


The American 


Teacher 61 


method of selection is by popular vote of the entire 
city. The method of selection by wards or districts 
is going out of use. In only nine states and seven- 
teen cities are there partial or complete systems of 
selection by wards. ‘These are Delaware, W ilming- 
ton; Illinois, Peoria; Massachusetts, Chelsea, Hol- 
yoke, Newton, Pittsfield, Springfield, W orcester; 
Michigan, Bay City, Lansing; New Hampshire, 
Manchester; New York, Elmira; Oklahoma, Oéla- 
homa City; Rhode Island, Providence, W oonsocket ; 
Utah, Ogden; Wisconsin, Oshkosh. It does not 
follow, however, that cities that are still holding to 
the method of selecting members of their boards of 
education by wards are unenlightened. One factor 
that automatically tends to do away with the ward 
method is the increase in the size of the city, caus- 
ing the number of wards to increase, and this bring- 
ing about the existence of a board of unwieldly 
size. Another factor that may result in the reten- 
tion of the ward system is the ability of a particular 
city to avoid the very common evil of unscrupulous 
ward politics, 

Of the one hundred sixty-four cities covered by 
this inquiry thirty-eight have appointed boards of 
education, one hundred eight have boards elected 
at large, thirteen (wholly) elected by wards, three 
have a system of combined appointment and election, 
and two have an arrangement for electing at large 
and by wards. Expressed in percentages, 74.99% 
have elected boards, 23.11% have appointed boards, 
and 1.83% have combined appointed and elected 
boards. 

There are sixteen states with forty-one cities, 
counting Washington, D C, in which appointments 
are made to boards. There are twenty-seven states 
with one hundred eleven cities in which election to 
the boards is made by the city as a whole. The 
latter figure covers the case of the city of Charles- 
ton, § C, which has six members elected by the city 
and four appointed by the Governor of the State. 

There has been not a little changing of the 
method of selecting boards. It is evident thruout 
that the reason for the changes have been practically 
the same in every instance, altho that reason is not 
always expressed in the replies received. And the 
reason is to avoid the contamination of dishonest 
politics. In this the writer believes we may trust 
the good intentions of the American public. What- 





62 


ever else the crooked politician may be allowed to 
do, he will generally not openly succeed in doing 
as he pleases with the public schools. It does not 
follow, however, that the public frees itself from in- 
competency, or even dishonesty, by changing the 
method of selecting board members from the ap- 
pointment system to the elective system, ar con- 
trariwise, for each method is claimed to be effective 
by the officials responding to this inquiry. 

So far as information contained in the answers 
to the circular goes, no city has changed from the 
system of electing at large to electing by wards. 
Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich., mention chang- 
ing from the system of electing by wards to electing 
at large. 


Citizgs CHANGING From System or ELECTING 
Boarps To SysTEM OF APPOINTING BOARDS 


Alameda, Cal, “Judgment of freeholders in mak- 
ing new charter.” 

San Jose, Cal, “Because elected school boards 
meant and always will mean rotten politics.” 

New Haven, Conn, No reason given. 

All cities in New Jersey, “By State Law passed 
in 1892.” 

Albany, N Y, “By the argument that better mem- 
bers could be secured by appointment by the Mayor 
than could by election.” 

New York, N Y, “Change made by Legislature 
in 1869.” 

Troy, N Y, “Too much politics in method of 
electing.” - 

Pittsburgh, Pa, “Greater efficiency” (Appointed 
now by Court). 

‘Houston, Texas, 
politics.” 


“Appointment _better—no 


Cirrzes CHANGING From SysTEM OF APPOINTING 
Boarps To System or ELectinc Boarps 
Atlanta, Ga, “Because of the need of separating 
schools from politics.” 
Quincy, Ill, “To take school business out of city 
politics.” 
Springfield, Ill, “Law required change.” 
Louisville, Ky, “Present system in existence nine 
years. Change made because of unbearable condi- 
tions of other system.” 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 3 


Malden, Mass, ““To remove schools from politics.” 

St. Louis, Mo, “For the good of the public 
schools of St. Louis.” 

Woonsocket, R I, Formerly selected by City 
Council; no reason given for change to popular elec. 
tion. 

Forth Worth, Texas, “To give the people , 
chance to say who should administer the schools.” 

San Antonio, Texas, “To get out of general 
politics.” 

Milwaukee, Wis, “To the end that members 
should be directly responsible to the people.” 


THE Mayor on THE Boarp 

In twelve of the one hundred sixty-four cities the 
Mayor is a member of the board of education dy 
virtue of office. In a few of these the President of 
the City Council or the Board of Aldermen is also 
a member of the board of education along with the 
Mayor. These cities are, Atlanta, Ga; Peoria, Ill; 
Lawrence, Mass; Medford, Mass; New Bedford, 
Mass; Salem Mass; Somerville, Mass; Waltham, 
Mass; Manchester, N H; Woonsocket, R I; Osh- 
kosh, Wis; Superior, Wis. 


BIPARTISAN BOARDS 
It is well known that many boards of education 
have members from both of the two dominant 
parties. But a few have definite plans for main- 
taining the balance. ‘They are, New Britain, Conn; 
New Haven, Conn; Lansing, Mich, Springfield, 
Mo. 


ScHoot Execrions SEPARATE From GENERAL 
ELECTIONS 

A very common device for keeping politics from 
interfering with the schools is the method of hav- 
ing the school election take place at a different time 
or under different auspices, or on a separate ticket, 
from the general election. The following cities have 
arrangements for caring for this matter: The cities 
of Indianapolis, Ind; Dubuque, Iowa; Sioux City, 
Iowa ; Louisville, Ky; Duluth, Minn; Kansas City, 
Mo; Omaha, Neb; Jamestown, N Y; and Fort 
Worth, Texas. 

A study of the means by which the public may 
have the schools administered not only free from 
unclean politics, but also efficiently and intelligently, 
will naturally follow this presentation. 





‘Democracy in Management of the Schools 


Cuarves B STILLMAN 


President, The American Federation of Teachers 


Democracy in the management of the schools is 
a subject on which both the American Federation 
of Teachers and the American Federation of Labor 
have definitely and repeatedly declared themselves. 
In fact, the American Federation of Teachers at 
the time of its organization adopted among the ob- 
jects laid down in its Constitution the following: 

“to raise the standard of the teaching profession by 
securing the conditions essential to the best pro- 
fessional service; and to promote such a democrati- 
zation of the schools as will enable them better to 
equip their pupils and take their place in the indus- 
trial, social and political life of the community.” 

And that ideal of a domocratic participation of 
classroom teachers in the conduct of the schools has 
been at least as strong a driving force in our move- 
ment as the ideal of some approach to economic 
justice for teachers. Our calling must be made self- 
respecting as well as self-supporting, if it is to re- 
tain and attract strong men and women. 

But it is the system that is at fault, even more 
than individuals—a system that from the primary 
grades thru the university has never been within 
hailing distance of democracy. During the first half 
of the last century we sent educators to Germany, 
of all places, for a model for our school system. We 
adopted and have developed the Prussian type of 
autocratic school administration. Classroom teach- 
ers, thru whom the schools function, who are daily 
in direct contact with the educational problems, have 
practically no voice in the determination of policies, 
but all power and authority originates at the top, 
and extends downward from the upper reaches of 
the educational heirarchy. In the field of higher 
education, despite many exceptions, this condition 
has led to the familiar diagnosis that the chief disease 
afflicting our colleges and universities is ‘“‘presiden- 
titis.” 

And the public schools are in no better plight. 
And again it must be emphasized that it is super- 
ficial to single out individuals for condemnation. To 
indulge in personalities is futile, altho often soothing. 
The responsibility must be placed squarely upon the 
deadly system. Human nature cannot reasonably 
be expected to withstand the insidious influence of 


autocratic power. We all know strong liberal men 
and women who have disappointed, though they may 
not have surprised us, by yielding after a brief strug- 
gle to the traditions of the heirarchy. It is encour- 
aging to add that we all know also, although in 
smaller number, broad-gauge men and women with 
sufficient vision and character to protect themselves 
and the schools from progressive demoralization, by 
cooperating in defiance of the system, in developing 
the spirit and methods of democracy in the teaching 
force. 

The most dangerous center of arbitrary power 
has sometimes been the board of education, and 
sometimes administrative and supervisory officialdom. 
Both must be brought within the category of demo- 
cratic institutions. ‘The board of education should 
be the agency fairly representing the public in the 
determination of the policies of the public schools. 
So that the public may have direct, effective control, 


we believe that school boards should be elected, at 
judicial or other special elections, subject to recall, 
rather than appointed by public officials whose elec- 
tion has usually turned on public utility or other 
non-school issues. In the past the groups dispropor- 


tionately, and often exclusively, represented on 
school boards have been real estate and commercial 
interests, physicians and lawyers. Surely workers 
in other lines, both so-called artisan and so-called 
professional, who are the parents of the great ma- 
jority of school children, should have adequate rep- 
resentation. And it would make for both democ- 
racy and efficiency if the teachers, in their capacity 
as citizens, and citizens with specialized training and 
experience, were represented on boards of educa- 
tion. There could be no question of their first- 
hand knowledge of the needs of the schools, and as 
to their disinterestedness—surely no one mentally 
competent can believe that anyone with a drop of 
mercenary blood in his veins could deliberately enter 
the calling of teaching. The Convention of the 
American Federation of Teachers in Chicago last 
month declared : 
“It is the sense of the American Federation of 


63 





- 64 


munity is rendered less efficient by division of respon- 
sibility, and that the common system of triple con- 
trol, in which authority is divided, for example, be- 
tween 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 fin- 
ally centers. 

“Tt is the sense of the American Federation of 
Teachers that such authoritative body should include 
classroom teachers nominated by the teachers them- 
selves, subject to election to be carried out by pop- 
ular vote.” 

But representation of classroom teachers before 


boards of education is in many respects even more es- 
sential to the democratization of the schools, than 
representation on such boards. Some of our locals 
have arranged for a standing committee to be pres- 
ent at board meetings to counsel with the board. 
Practically all of our locals appear before both their 
superintendents and their boards by committee, as 
occasion may arise. Our attitude there is expressed 
by the following statement adopted by the Atlantic 
City Convention of the American Federation of 
Labor in June, 1919: 

“In order to secure a more democratic administration 
of our schools, to develop a spirit of co-operation, and 
to gain for the‘ community and benefit of the experi- 
ence and initiative of the teaching body, boards of 


education and superintendents of schools should con- 
committees 


fer with representing organizations of the 
teachers’ choice in all cases of controversy between 
school authorities and teachers, and should consider and 
make official public record of suggestions dealing with 
the conduct of the schools submitted by the teachers 
thru such committees.” 


In some cases, but not in all, teachers’ councils 
have proved effective. Among the recommendations 


of our recent Chicago Convention are: 
“That there be a council of teachers in each town 
or city elected by the body of teachers with legally 
i right to initiate and participate in deter- 
mination of policies. 
“That there be a Teachers’ Council in each school.” 
A previous statement, adopted by the A F of L 


in 1917 and 1918, and endorsed by our Pittsburgh 


Convention, follows: 


“Your committee is alarmed by the lack of democ- 
racy in the conduct of our schools. Our denesicen 
is administered 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 3 


When such councils have failed to function ef- 
fectively, it has apparently been due to an undemo- 
cratic type of organization, or to a lack of power 
and influential backing which tends to reduce them 
to mere rubber stamps for the school authorities, 
But we believe that, properly organized, given real 
responsibility, and vitalized by the support of vigor- 
ous teachers’ organizations, teachers’ councils are a 
democratic agency. Quoting again from the pro- 
ceedings of our last convention : 


"eome, sorupees, See: heme Sent: ten. ther seppniaation 
of teachers’ councils toward correcting this spirit- 
quelling system of dictation from above. Yet, even 
this measure of reform is confined to a few cities and 
is so recent as to seem a daring innovation.” 


These proposals have of course aroused bitter op- 
position, but it is significant that the proposition has 
relied chiefly on epithet. The teachers’ council con- 
ception has been termed a Soviet. Epithet has 
sometimes been substituted for argument because of 
mere laziness—it requires no intellectual effort— 
but much more often it is used because the argument 
is all on the other side. When organized labor 
nearly a century ago made possible the establishment 
of our public school system by its vigorous and suc- 
cessful agitation for tax-supported schools, they were 
called “revolutionaries,” and the other popular 
equivalents at that time for “Bolshevik.” But op- 
position of that character is never permanently suc- 
cessful, and advocacy of teaclier participation in 
management has almost reached the stage of re- 
spectability. 

But democracy in our schools will require more 
than machinery important as that is. There must 
be tenure. So long as a teacher’s position and pro- 
fessional future may be depended on his advocating 
nothing in conflict with the views of his official 
superiors, democratic devices will avail little. There 
must be tenure during efficiency, with removals only 
for cause, and by a tribunal on which the teachers 
are adequately represented. 

Nor will democratic machinery of school admin- 
istration show its full value until the teachers aban- 
don their traditional aloofness, connect themselves 
intimately with the economic, social and civic life 
of the community, and exercise to the full the rights 
and obligations of American citizenship. For it 
is that community life and that citizenship for which 
it their high task to prepare pupils. 





March, 1920 


Let no one raise the objection that the teachers 
are not qualified to participate in management. Fac- 
ulties tend to atrophy thru disuse, and the wonder 
is that they are so well qualified. But the value 
of the contributions of the classroom teacher has 
been demonstrated. And the sense of increased re- 
sponsibility, the feeling of no longer being a mere 
cog in the machine, would prove a stimulus of un- 
told value to the schools and to the community. 

Mention of salaries may seem irrelevant here, 
but without radical improvement in the economic 
status of the teacher, we will not long have in our 
calling the kind of human material which can be 
made the basis for democracy. We stand for a 
$2,000 minimum salary for teachers. While some 
teachers are not worth $2,000, every child is worth 
at least a $2,000 teacher. 


I cannot close without reference to the increasing 


The Amerioax Teacher 65 


number of superintendents, principals, and other 
school officials who welcome the present insistent 
demands for administrative reforms. They as well 
as the teachers feel the new spirit of the times. The 
large majority of our locals have established rela- 
tions of cordial co-operation with their school au- 
thorities. Democracy cannot be handed down from 
above, it must originate with and be worked out by 
the teachers themselves. But the schools of many 
a city have profited from the atmosphere of co- 
operation made possible by the response of school 
officials to the democratic ideals of the teachers. 

In conclusion, the American Federation of Teach- 
ers believes that the children cannot be prepared 
for self-government in a democracy unless the teach- 
ers have living contact with democracy within the 
school system, and with the realities of community 


life. 


The March Message 


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


The past month has been one of greatly increased 
activity. This is the season of the year when teach- 
ers are considering the matter of contracts for the 
coming year. It is one of the most serious defects 
in our educational system that teachers are engaged 
on a contract for one year or even a shorter period. 
Aside from a few cities where tenure prevails, the 
result is a constant turn-over of teachers and re- 
peated disorganization and reorganization. Nor is 
the disorganization which attends the replacement 
of the established corps of teachers by a new corps 
necessarily more serious than the other phase of dis- 
organization which takes place during the period 
when contracts are under consideration. The pres- 
ent system of individual bargaining tends to keep 
every teacher on the alert until the board of educa- 
tion hands down the dictum as to whether or not 
she is to be offered a contract, and if so, the salary 
and other conditions which enter into the document 
which she is asked to sign on the dotted line. Only 
those familiar with school work can understand the 
degree of distraction which the school suffers during 
this period which may last for weeks or even months. 
The school is fortunate indeed if at this time lack 


of understanding by members of the board of educa- 
tion has not brought about unpleasant relations and 
an unconscious spirit of resentment. Those who do 
know the schools can best appreciate the fine spirit 
which has been manifested by an overwhelming ma- 
jority of teachers during these critical days which 
recur each year, in their unquestionable loyalty to 
the interests of the schools while under stress of 
unpleasant negotiations. The teacher who remains 
true to her trust in spite of injured pride and invol- 
untary spirit of resentment due to automatic spirit 
frequently manifested by boards of education, should 
be accredited as a heroine. Her name is Legion. 
And so while this regime of annual contracts and 
individual bargaining continues, the months of nego- 
tiation will be annual periods of great activity. It 
is then that teachers are brought face to face with 
practical problems. Teachers are doing a great deal 
of thinking. They are beginning to see that there 
are serious defects in our school system. Among 
these defects are: lack of tenure which results in a 
turn-over of teachers injurious to the schools and 
the migratory nature of the teacher which prevents 
her from becoming a real force in the community; 





The American Teacher 


inadequate salaries and unfavorable working condi- 
tions which fail to retain the best fitted teachers 
and to attract adequately prepared new teachers; un- 
democratic administration of the school and inade- 
quate functioning by the teacher as a well-trained 
specialist in her line of work; failure to recognize 
teachers as members of a profession. Doubtless the 
analysis could be <arried further, but these defects 
alone will require the careful attention of teachers 
and all friends of the public school for years to come 
if they are to be remedied. Nor is the last-men- 
tioned the least of all. It is doubtful if an educa- 
tional system can be a real success unless its most im- 
portant element, the teachers, occupy a higher posi- 
tion in public recognition than now prevails. He 
who boasts that we Americans have been able to 
live up to our ideal of freedom from class lines has 
never been a teacher. Let the reader who doubts 
this follow the daily press in its frequent quotations 
from school executives. If we could strike an aver- 


age of all the estimates of the rights, privileges and 
prerogatives of the teacher, what would it be? Why 
does the public place about the teacher repressive re- 
strictions as it does in the case of no other profes- 
tion or public service? Is this a measure of precau- 


tion or a manifestation of indefensible discrimina- 
tion? These are questions the teachers everywhere 
are asking themselves. 

So these are busy days. There are campaigns 
for salary increase. Strangely enough there are many 
communities which have done nothing during the 
present school year to safeguard its schools from 
complete destruction. Teachers are leaving the 
schools for better paid employment. Little effort 
can be made to select new teachers on the basis of 
training and fitness. In the midst of all this there 
is many a Sleepy Hollow totally unconscious of the 
changes. In many cities both large and small, school 
authorities seem more bent on repressing the teachers 
than on saving the schools. Not only will the teach- 
ers become aroused to a realization of the position 
they occupy, but a large element of the public will 
also direct its attention to the schools which they 
have so long neglected. 

The membership of the American Federation of 
Teachers is increasing its activities. Its members 
are assuming their positions of responsibility as agen- 
cies of public welfare in their own community as 


Volume IX, No. 3 


teachers have never done before. One of their most 
important achievements lies in acquainting the pub- 
lic with school conditions and outlook. Many groups 
are much less interested in salaries from a personal 
standpoint than in the safety of the schools. Possi- 
bilities of commercial employment are too favorable 
to admit of much concern over school salaries by the 
majority of teachers. The teachers today are ask- 
ing “What of the schools?” The value of bringing 
the question before the public was recently demon- 
strated by the Murphysboro Teachers’ Fellowship 
Local 50, A F of T. Their successful appeal to the 
public may well serve as an example to the teachers 
in other communities. With a deep interest in the 
future of the schools and in an effort to avoid the 
lowering of the standard of the teachers, this group 
undertook a salary campaign thru an appeal to the 
public based upon information and conducted in a 
spirit of good feeling. The entire membership was 
placed upon committees to canvass the members of 
the board of education individualy, the woman’s 
club, the mothers’ club, the clergy, the local papers, 
the commercial clubs, the central labor body and 
such other groups as represented the civic interests 
of the community. Every committee was received 
in a friendly manner and secured cooperation. News- 
paper space was paid for in which to publish well- 
prepared articles on the educational situation. Ad- 
vertising columns were also patronized. Tax payers, 
parents and friends of the schools were asked to 
clip the coupons from the paper, sign them and mail 
to the board of education. When this had been 
done there was no longer any question as to public 
sentiment in regard to schools. There were other 
features of this campaign which aroused the people 
to a realization of their responsibility and left the 
community in a much better condition than before. 
Let us hope that thousands of other campaigns may 
be carried on in the same fine manner that charac- 
terized this one. 

These are history-making days in the school 
world. These are equally important days for the 
American Federation of Teachers. We have learned 
to cooperate and function as a national organization. 
The amount of work to be done is appalling. Let 
us maintain a spirit of courage, patience, endurance 


and hard work. 





From the Locals of the 


American Federation of 


Teachers 


Local 159, The Minneapolis Federation of Men 
Teachers has just received its charter. Just a year 
ago the first Minneapolis union, Local 59, was 
born. 

Associate Field Secretary Miss Isabel Williams 
reports that a meeting is to be held at Mankato, in 
southern Minnesota, to discuss federation. Twin 
City members will cooperate. 


The Minneapolis and St. Paul unions are work- 
ing for a state federation which they hope to see 
brought to being before the end of this year. 


FROM LOCAL 5, NEW YORK 
THe New York SALAry STRUGGLE 


With 143,000 teaching vacancies in the United 
States, America faces a crisis. Shall we, as a na- 
tion, conserve dollars and make dullards, or shall 
we conserve intelligent citizenship at the expense of 
dollars? This is the query every community is 
compelled to ask and solve, and New York City, 
unable to furnish instruction to 50,000 school chil- 
dren, is no exception. 

In May, 1919, thru the efforts of the State Fed- 
eration of Labor, Local 5 and other teachers’ or- 
ganizations, a new salary law was enacted which 
contained the following major salary schedules: 
Kindergarten to the 6B grade, $1,005 to $2,160; 
7 A to the 9B grade, $1,350 to $2,700; high school 
teachers, $1,350 to $3,150. As the cost of the bill 
was 15,000,000, the legislature, to reduce the initial 
cost to the city, added a provision to the bill known 
as the “spreading clause,” which provides that teach- 
ers are to receive one-third of their increase in 1920, 
two-thirds in 1921, and the full increase in 1922. 

Nine months of patient waiting during a period 
of soaring prices and higher rents (some increases 
amounting to 100%) forced the long-suffering and 
too-patient teachers to do a little thinking. In this 
process they were aided by Local 5 and the press, 
which enlightened them as to the earnings of both 
skilled and unskilled workers. The knowledge that 
even dog-catchers were being paid more than teach- 
ers was too much for even these patient souls, and 


then came the awakening. For the first time in our 
educational history the teachers united on one meas- 
ure introduced by Senator Lockwood (Bill No 
20) which provides for the elimination of the 
“spreading clause” by June 1, 1920. Should the bill 
become a law, as it undoubtedly will, then the teach- 
ers will receive their entire increase in 1920, 
and not be compelled to wait until 1922. 

The revolt against the injustice of the “spreading 
clause” spent itself in that one effort—in so far as 
the other associations were concerned. Not so with 
Local 5, which felt that the scarcity of teachers, the 
decreased purchasing power of the dollar, and the 
nobility of the calling which entailed such arduous 
and extensive preparation, warranted it in seeking 
such legislation as would secure for all teachers a 
wage commensurate with the H C of L. It felt 
that the services of the teachers would never be 
adequately compensated unless the teachers realized 
the value of their services to the community and 
then proceeded to educate the community into the 
acceptance of that evaluation. 

In the meantime, several principals who believed 
with Local 5 that something more should be done 
than forcing thru Senate Bill No 20, which merely 
eliminated the “spreading clause,” formed a com- 
mittee to bring the warring teachers together to dis- 
cuss the situation. Local 5 was represented in this 
Harmony Committee, which had selected Mr. Cor- 
nelius D Fleming, one of its moving spirits, as chair- 
man. While the Harmony Committee was debat- 
ing the course of action to pursue in this crisis, the 
Chairman of the Legislative Committee of Local 5, 
taking the initiative, persuaded the State Federation 
of Labor to appoint a salary committee to draw up 
a salary schedule which would show labor’s mini- 
mum evaluation of the services rendered by the 
teachers. This committee, composed of Thomas D 
Fitzgerald, Chairman of the Legislative Committee 
of the State Federation of Labor, Abraham Lefko- 
witz, Local 5, and Paul Augustine, President of 
Local 24, prepared a salary schedule which, with 
slight modifications was adopted by the Harmony 
Committee. 

Just as the Harmony Committee was about to 


67 





68 The American Teacher 


prepare a bill embodying this salary schedule, the 
Deputy Commissioner of Education, Frank B Gil- 
bert, suggested that it would be better to ask for 
percentage increases rather than to open the whole 
salary question. To get the endorsement: of the 
State Department of Education, and because the sug- 
gestion had the support of many powerful groups, 
and as the maximum salary schedules prepared 
by the State Federation of Labor and the Harmony 
Committee, harmonized with the percentage in- 
creases suggested by Commissioner Gilbert, the Har- 
mony Committee agreed to support a percentage bill. 
Thereupon Senator Charles C. Lockwood and 
Assemblyman Charles D. Donohue introduced a bill 
providing for a 40% increase for those earning less 
than $2,260; 30% for those earning more than $2,- 
260 and less than $4,000; and 20% for those earn- 
ing over $4,000 
The Lockwood-Donahue Bill, which entails an 
expenditure of $30,000,000 has the support not only 
of Local 5 and organized labor, but also of prac- 
tically every important teachers’ organization. It 
is not the bill of Local 5 but of all associations. 
Our motto is S-O-S (Save Our Schools). With 
the support of organized labor and the enlightened 
public, the teachers have every reas sn to hope that 
success will crown their united efforts. The teach- 
ers are awake to the danger confronting the pro- 
fession and the schools. They realize more than ever 
their worth to the community and are determined 
to impress upon the citizens the fact that they no 
longer propose to work for less than a living wage; 
that if the public desires the services of able, so- 
cially-minded meu and women it must pay for them; 
that they are determined to make the public pay 
more for riolding character than for molding 
clay, more for making citizens than for making 
clothes, more for inspiration than for perspiration. 
Should the teachers succeed in winning increases 
cominensurate with the social value of their services, 
it will mean a rebirth of teacher confidence and 
professional dignity, and that means the dawning of 
a new day for America. 
ABRAHAM LEFKOwITz, 
Chairman Legislative Committee 
Local 5, New York 


~ Nore :—Since this bee eae was submitted the Sen- 
the Legislature 


ate Bill’ No 20 has passed in unanimously. 


Volume IX, No, 3 


THE IRISH WIDOW 
Mrs. Gitticuppy on Costity ScHoots AND Happy Tracuers 


“I met that nice girl, Annie What’s-her-name this mor- 
nin’,” said Mrs. Gillicuddy. “Ye know who I mean—her 
that lives at three-eighty across the way. She was lookin’ 
as happy as a lark. ‘What ails ye?’ says I, ‘are ye goin’ 
t’ be married?’ 

“‘No,’ says she, ‘P've raysigned me position.’ 

“‘Quit taychin’, have ye?’ says I. 

“*T wouldn’t wonder,’ says she, kinder cute. ‘Taychin’, 
was mixed up with th’ job. F'’r th’ most part I was 
joovenile intertainer, fr th’ rist a T, an’ a nurse- 
maid in me spare moments. There was time f’r taychin’ 
now an’ thin. Most iv ahl, I've quit tryin’ to’ satisfy an 
army iv high-salaried critics, knockers, an’ supervisors, not 
t’ mintion th’ parints, th’ ward boss an’ th’ janitor. There 
was th’ children sivinty iv thim, on forty sates, three 
windersills an’ shtandin’ up behind. "Twould have been a 
sporty thing t’ stick to it,’ says she ‘but f’r one thing.’ 

“‘*Was it th’ pay?’ says I. 

“‘No,’ says she. “Twas me own fault; I shud have taken 
a vow iv poverty before I wint in. The salary itself was 
like a lot iv th’ children. A case iv Arristed Divilopment. 
But afther ahi, taychin’ th’ children’s th’ last iv it. What 
worries ye, is th’ sivin hundred an’ fifty thousand diplicate 
rayports. Ye can burn th’ light t’ home fr’m dark til! th’ 
milk cans rattle through th’ strates, six nights a week, an’ 
niver catch up with yer paypers. Also, hour by hour, 
there’s another female that’s got her eye on ye. An’ there’s 
thim that’s watchin’ her. Ye can always tell whin th’ 
Principal’s behind th’ dure an’ the Supervivor’s On Th’ 
Way Upstairs. They watch ye t’see if ye register enough 
joy an’ radiate sunshine. Also if ye make decimals 
a burst iv delight an’ grammar th’ same as candy. They 
niver asks ye did ye have the toothache, but they puts 
ye down on record “Faulty in th’ art iv Presintation.” 
*Twas too much f’r me. 

“*T wint t’ see th’ doctor,’ says Annie. “No,” says he; 
“you're _not goin’ imsane; you're sufferin’ fr’m chronic 


supervision. 

“‘Art iv Presintation!’” continued Mrs. Gillicuddy, 
scornfully. “Th’ prisintation was ahl on th’ pupils’ side in 
my time. They was two prisintations—one whin ye pri- 
sinted yesilf fr a wallopin’, an’ th’ other whin ye shtood 
up fr y’r diploma. But, sure, we was a bunch iv simple 
souls in thim days! I always suspicted the taycher loved 


her job.” 
* »’ said Father Michael gravely.” The call to 
teach is neither the school rr check.” 


dentists, nurses an’ cooks, ahl it 
injine an’ a paddle wheel t’ take it round th’ 
a sight seein’ tower. 
oe ome fr wonder th’ taychers is under paid. 
‘miracle they’re paid at ahi.” 
Pui Doran, in the New York Globe. 





March, 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. 


To the Editor, The American Teacher: 
Dear Sir: 

Answering the question by the Michigan corre- 
spondent in the February issue, relative to teachers’ 
subsidies for attending summer normals, etc., will 
say that the public school system of Lead, So. Dak., 
has had such a system for several years. Details of 
the plan could probably be obtained by writing to the 
Superintendent of Schools, Lead, So. Dak. 

L P DOVE, 
University of North Dakota 


To the Editor, The American Teacher: 

| was much interested in the query in your tenta- 
tive question box in the February issue. The only 
information | have may not be in line with what you 
are asking, but | will give it for what it is worth. 

Last summer the Easter State Normal School in 
Castine, Maine, held a summer school attended by a 
hundred girls whose expenses were paid by the State 
to stimulate interest in teaching. | fancy the same 
may have been true with regard to other Maine nor- 
mal schools. 

This may be only a sporadic case and not part of a 
system, but at least it has a set towards the ten- 
dencies of the times. 

MARION SAYWARD. 

Dorchester, Mass. 


TEACHERS’ CLUB HOUSES 
To the Editor, The American Teacher: 

A very effective manner of extending union organization 
and bringing about a greater increase in the membership, 
as well as a better spirit of cooperation among the mem- 
bers, is the promotion of various social activities within 
the union itself. The union movement has long since jus- 
tified its existence on the intellectual and the economic side. 
It must now pay very much more attention to the social 
needs of the teacher, and help in a large measure to solve 
the problem of what to do with possible leisure hours. 

In my opinion, the union local should constitute itself 
a factor in promoting social intercourse among teachers. 
This is one phase of union work that has been neglected. 
In this way the union meeting thus becomes not only a 
means for the interchange of experience and professional 
improvement, but also an occasion for the manifesting of 
good fellowship, and an outlet for the social cravings and 
desires of the teacher. In union locals in small towns, no 
doubt, this mutual need for social communication is the 
very basis of union organization, but in the larger cities, 
social activities must be constantly stimulated and en- 
couraged. 

While the Teachers’ Union local in New York was oc- 
cupied with matters so grave as to affect its very existence, 
it was of course out of the question to devote much thought 
to entertainments, dances and other seemingly trivial ac- 


The American Teacher 69 


tivities. But now that all danger of imterference and all 
doubt of the permanent benefits of unionism among teach- 
ers have been definitely removed, it is appropriate to turn 
our thoughts to the social side of the teacher’s life. The 
success of the Teachers’ Union dinners, and the few dances 
and entertainments held so far, prove that a continued in- 
terest can be sustained in such functions in the futdre. 
Business and professional men have their clubs to which 
they resort in their leisure moments for interesting com- 
pany. Why not the teachers? I should like to see a move- 
ment originate in this country whereby every teachers’ local 
thruout the country can have its own clubhouse, where 
the teachers may be made to feel at home, and where also 


feel certain then that others will imitate the example. 


WILLIAM I HELLER, 
Local 5, New York 


THE NEW TYPE OF LEADERSHIP 
Autocracy has almost always resulted in the killing of 
autocrat. Co-operation will far more 
irection, and the work will be more wholesome and 

concerned. ion means growth for all, 


eae 


ri 


| 
f 


signia not the almighty dollar, but 
child. The choice is with the superintendents 
boards of California and I know it will be wisely 
But do not, I earnestly beseech you, wait until it is 
late. The new democracy is in the making and wi 
settle into institutional forms. Now is the time to 
those forms to the larger ends of democracy. 
—Supt. Will C. Wood, in The Los Angeles School Journal 
of March 1, 1920. 
Let inquiring California superintendents and 


school boards write to Miss Josephine Colby, Fres- 


ue 


i 


“forms to the larger ends of democracy.” —Eprror. 





70 The American Teacher 


BOOK NOTES 
HANDS OFF MEXICO—John Kenneth Turner, Rand 
School of Social Science, 

The statement has often been made that teachers, be- 
cause of their aloofness, seem to be unaware of the power 
of economic forces to influence the daily intellectual, eco- 
nomic and political life of the nation. In “Hands Off 
Mexico” Mr. Turner, with his merciless logic, riddles the 
arguments of the interventionists and shows how the finan- 
cial interests of England and America, thru their propaganda 
associations (such as the National Association for the Pro- 
tection of American Rights in Mexico) have, with the 
tacit support of the administration, interfered directly with 
the Mexicans in their attempts to restore order and to 
reconstruct their economic structure. Those who believe 
that Mexico should be permitted and encouraged to work 
out its own economic salvation, those who believe that 
American lives and money should not be sacrificed at the 
altar of Mammon will welcome this well-written book. 


THE COCKPIT OF SANTIAGO KEY. Davw S. Grezn- 
BERG. Boni and Liveright, New York. 

The Cockpit of Santiago Key is a story of Porto Rican 
life intended for boys and girls. It is one of a series of 
books for young people which Mr. Greenberg is writing 
from personal observation of the life and customs of peoples 
in all parts of the world. The Cockpit of Santiago Key 
is written about the personality, the growth of character 
and the education of a sixteen-year-old boy, who has to 
struggle out of the sordid environment of gambling on 
cock-fighting in Porto Rico. It is an interesting story. 


POINTS TO PONDER 


We need more precise labels. “Privilege” and “privileged” 
are more accurate than “capital” and “capitalist.” 
+ . * 
Why do people fear that the abolition of poverty would 
give the “mudsills” an advantage the “highbrows”? 
+ * 
With the exent of modern haiidindy, it is absurd that 
a masses should spend their lives in earning the means to 
ve. 
oe" gY Ms 
Why should you pay a banker interest for notes issued 
to you on security furnished by yourself? If your security 
is good for the notes, why not be free to issue the notes 
yourself? 
—From the Equitist of February 6, 1920. 
tne 
ON AMERICANIZATION 


There is not even a philosophy of Americanization or 
democratization, much of the stuff bearing that label a 
concerned with what shall be dne for or to the 
by instruction or philanthropy and very little with the idea 
of what we must do for ourselves so that the things he sees 
and knows and experiences—and these constitute by far the 
greater part of his Americanization—may be constructive 
factors in that process. There are many cities which are 
talking about what they could do for the foreigners when 
4 Cadet Sie er eee Se ter Se wane oe 

make themselves clean, decent communities. 
—Ruby a an, Superviser of Evening Schools, Los An- 

geles, Calif. eview in School Life of January 15, 

1920. 


Volume IX, No, 3 


A NEW BASIS FOR SALARY ADJUSTMENT—SHALL 
WE MISLEAD THE YOUNG FOLKS. 

Hon L N Hines, 

Indiana State Sup’t. of Instruction, 

Indianopalis, Indiana 


Dear Superintendent Hines: 

I do not know how to comply with your request tha 
superintendents of schools urge their high school seniors to 
enter teachers’ training courses upon graduation. Can you 
not send to me and other superintendents similarly situated 
the arguments that we should use to attract high schoo! 
graduates to the teaching profession? 

Unfortunately our students believe that the position of 
teacher does not help the social position of either men or 
women in the larger towns and cities. Also they believe 
that with teachers’ salaries they cannot expect as high a 
standard of living as either stenographers or common 
factory laborers. 

I am enclosing a table which gives the comparative net 
earnings of stenographers, common factory laborers and 
teachers for the first sixteen years following graduation from 
high school. The average high school students do not ex- 
pect to teach even sixteen years, so what happens after 
that time does not interest them. I shall be greatly pleased 
to receive your comments as to the wisdom of using such 
a basis for determining the minimum salary for teachers, 
and a reasonable differential between the salaries of ele- 
mentary and high school teachers. 

The minimum daily wage for a ten-hour day in the steel 
mills at Gary, and practically everywhere else in the United 
States, is $5.06 for the lowest paid common labor. Boy; - 
are leaving school before reaching high school and are earm- 
ing more than $1500 the first year as mill laborers. Girls 
and boys are leaving high school at the end of the second 
year and are earning higher salaries than those given in the 
table for stenographers. 

The tables are based on the assumption that the amount 
to be deducted for bare cost of living per individual! should 
be the same for all persons. In Table 1 $750 is deducted 
each year for living costs and in Table 2 $1000. Six per 
cent interest is allowed on savings and indebtedness. 

The salaries in the columns headed “Teachers 1” repre- 
sent the earnings of teachers on the basis of present Gary 
salary schedule. The salaries in the columns headed 
“Teachers 2” represent the salaries recommended by the 
Superintendent of the Gary Schools as a minimum, if a 
sufficient number of young men and women are to be 
attracted to the schools to maintain the present standard of 
two years of normal training for all elementary teachers and 
four years of college or normal training for all high school 
teachers. 

Teachers do not expect to make as much money in teach- 
ing as in other professions and occupations. Many persons 
can probably be attracted to teaching because of the op- 
portunities for social service, love of the work and the five- 
day week and ten-month year. But we must also take into 
consideration that laborers have the opportunity to realize 
much more than six per cent on a wise investment of their 
early surplus earnings while teachers do not have any early 
surplus earnings and have the risk of losing their original 
investment entirely thru loss of position, not being able to 
succeed as a teacher or premature disability. Also much 
more is expected from teachers in the way of standard of 
living than is expected from stenographers and common 
factory laborers. Certainly the salary schedule recom- 
mended must be considered only as an absolute minimum. 

I am making this letter public because I know that you 
wish in every way possible to assist in reaching 2 jut 
opinion concerning teachers’ wages. 

Very sincerely yours, 
Wuiuas War. 


Gary, Ind., Feb. 17, 1920. 





March, 1920 


Tastes or Net Earnincs 
The numbers with a star (*) represent indebtedness duc 
to living expenses while attending normal school or college. 

The elementary teacher does not begin teaching until the 

third year and the high school teacher until the fifth year 

after leaving high school. It is the absolutely necessary 
expense of normal school or college training that makes 
the present salaries of teachers so utterly inadequate. 

The totals represent the net surplus earnings four, eight, 
twelve and sixteen years after leaving high school. 

Table 1 
“Teachers 1 
Ele. H.S. 
750* 750% 
750* 750* 

950 750* 

1050 750* 

1274*  3378* 

II5O =: L000 

1250 1100 

1350 1200 

1450 1300 
792 2053* 

1450 1400 

1450 

1450 

1450 

4060 

1450 

1450 

1450 

1450 








~ Teachers 2 
Ele. H.S. 
750% 750% 
750* 750° 
1200 750* 
1350 750° 


738*___—3450* 
1500 1500 
1650 1750 
1800 1900 
1950 2050 
3297 224 
2025 2200 
2025 2350 
2025 2500 
2025 2650 
9732 7451 
2025 2800 
2025 2950 
2025 3100 
2025 3100 


“™~ Stenogra- 

phers Laborers 
810 1500 
900 1500 
1020 1500 
1140 1500 
gir 3300 
1260 1750 
1400 1750 
1400 1750 
1400 1750 
3813 8498 
1400 1750 
1400 1750 
1400 1750 
1400 1750 
761I_ _14,996 
1400 1750 
1400 1750 
1750 


1400 
1400 1750 














Total 12,360 33,124 8137 $566 17,744 10,170 
The above table is based on the assumption that the 
annual cost of living is $750 per person. 


Table 2 


Teachers 1 Teachers 2 

Ele. H.S. Ele. H.S. 
1000* rooo* r100co* 
1000* rooo* rooco* 
950 1200 1000* 
1050 1350 r00o* 
1823 4511* 
1500 1500 
1650 1750 
1850 1900 
1950 2050 
8905 2202* 
2100 2200 
2100 2350 
2100 2500 
2100 2650 
5927 3427 
2100 2800 
2100 2950 
2100 3100 
2100 3200 
Total 6072 16,782 1755 S60* 12,221 13,040 
The above table is based on the assumption that the 
annual cost of living is $1000 per person. 











Stenogra- 
Years phers Laborers 





I 810 
900 
1020 
1140 
177* 
1260 
1400 
1400 
1400 
1363 
1400 
1400 
1400 
1400 


3457 
1400 
1400 
1400 
1400 


1500 
1500 
1500 
1500 


2388* 4511* 
1150 1000 
1250 1100 
1350 1200 
1450 1300 
1707* _sor7* 
1450 1400 
1450 I50u 
1450 1600 
1450 1700 


168* 
1450 
1450 
1450 
1450 


2186 
1750 
1750 
1750 
1750 


6012 


1750 
1750 
1750 
1750 


10,797 
1750 
1750 
1750 
1750 








3902* 
1800 
1900 
2000 
2000 











The American Teacher 71 


FOR THOSE WHO “HATE” PRINCIPALS. 


A subscriber to The American Teacher, a principal 
teaching in the Far West, writes, “We are trying to 
form a local here. If successful, |, as a ward prin- 
cipal, intend to join a principal’s local next fall. We 
are encountering some opposition from (1) The Ro- 
tary Club, (2) The Chamber of Commerce, (3) The 
newspapers, and (4) Some lawyers and their wives. 
We also think the Superintendent of Schools and 
some of the members of the Board of Education are 
not very “enthusiastic” for the movement here,—to 
say nothing of some of the supervisors and some of 
the weak-kneed and servile ward principals.” 

And yet, we know that local will be formed. 

—Editor. 





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. 





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, Cartes B Stmuman, Chicago 
1620 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, III. 
First Vice-President and Editor American Teacher, 
Henry R Livviizez, 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, Josepuine Corsy, Freeno, Cal., 
124 N Van Ness Blvd. 
Fourth Vice-President, Herman Derrem, New York City, 
2875 Broadway 
Fifth Vice-President, Isaset. Witt1ams, St. Paul, Minn., 
554 Holly Avenue 
Sixth Vice-President, Jennre A Wucox, Chicago, Ml. 
212 North Grove Avenue, Oak Park, II. 
Seventh Vice-President, ApranamM LEFKOwITz, 
New York City, Grand Avenue, East Elmhurst 
Eighth Vice-President, C E Puttures, Atlanta, Ga., 
04 Brookline Street 
Ninth Vice-President, Crara K Stutz, Washington, D C 
1628 Swann Street 
Secretary-Treasurer, F G Stecxer, Chicago, Ill. 
1618 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, Ill. 





The American Teacher 


~ How should be upto date Yond know 


Bee new words to pronounce them. 


AEAST 


GREAT WAR 
fourth arm empennage 


camouflage 


Supreme 
WE BSTER’S 
NEW INTERNATIONAL 
DICTIONARY 


inormattn tb fo So Seems? Ask tor 





UPON WHAT MEAT HAS THIS 
CAESAR FED? 


Office of 
ROBERT R. TEMPLETON 
Superintendent of Perry County Public Schools 

‘Pinckneyville, tl. 
Feb. 17, 1920 

County Superintendent Ing, 

Benton, Illinois. 

Dear Mr. Ing: 

Some time this week one of your teachers, Sullivan 
by name, was in my county trying to organize my 
teachers into a union and also trying to create dis- 
cord in general. 

Adhering to the “Monroe Doctrine” | consider this 
“an unfriendly act.” Will you please handle this 
matter as merits warrant and report to me your 
findings? 

Thanking you, | am 


Sincerely, 
(Signed) R. B. TEMPLETON 


THEY ARE WAKING UP 
State superintendents and representatives of state 
superintendents of nine of the eastern states met 
at the Hotel Astor, New York City, on January 6, 
1920.. At that conference the following states were 
- represented: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 


Volume IX, No, 3 


Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania and West.Virginia. By vot. 
of those present the following statement was pre. 
pared for publication: 


Reports from the various states indicate Jat the short. 
age of teachers has reached a most critical stage, and that 
remedies must be found and adopted or it is certain that 
many more public schools must be closed. To this end 
there must be material increase in teachers’ salaries and , 
thorough reorganization of the means of teacher-training. 

The public schools of the Nation ure facing a critical 
situation. In the states of the Atlantic seaboard hundreds 
of schools are closed because teachers are not available for 

. There are being employ} as teachers large num- 
‘of persons who do not pos: ss the qualifications that 
hitherto been required. -. loss of students in the 
normal schools, amounting to twenty-five, thirty and, 
me states, —— per cent, in licates that young persons 
turning their attention to other occupations than teach- 

. Commercial and industrial « pportunities are not only 
attracting teachers from the schools, but they are drawing 
away from supervisory positions in education those upon 
whom reliance for leadership should be: placed. 

Education, as the chief concern of the people, reiated 
closely to their every social, civic and industrial enterprise, 
must have at once the serious attention of all citizens, to 
the end that the compensation of teachers be established on 

as will attarct into and hold in all schools, 
and city, competent instructors of youth that 
rd of professional qualification in the school ° 
encouragement to young 

upon the work of teaching; that 

be retained in supervisory posi- 


ties, of the state and of the Nation, each in its appropriate 
way, to prepare forthwith to meet the necessities of this 
most urgent situation. 


—From Bulletin of the Department of Education, State of 
New York, January 5, 1920. 


STANDARDS UNSATISFACTORY 


Taken From Commission Series No. 3 and Other Sources 
Of the 600,000 public school teachers in the United States 
it has been estimated by competent authorities that : 
200,000 have had less than four years’ training beyond 
the eighth grade; 
300,000 have had no special pootegapal preparation for 
the work of teaching; 
1§0,000 are not beyond 21 years old; 
teaching on permits, not being able to meet the 
minimum reuirements of county superintendents ; 
I ooo dropped out of the profession in 1919. 
the 20,000,000 children of the United States 10,000,000 
are being taught by teachers who have had no special prep- 
pn for their work, and whose general education is 
clearly inadequate. 
As a necessary requisite for improving standards teach- 
ers’ salaries must be increased and placed on a living and 
saving basis. 


—From Bulletin of National Education Association of 
January, 1920.