eration 
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Organic Education 
= 


Teacher Cooperation in 
Administration 





The Homilies of Finegan 


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Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 





The American Teacher 





Married Women Teachers 


HERE has been a threat of a 

strike of teachers in the 

Rhondda Valley consequent 
upon the action of the education au- 
thorities in dismissing all married 
women from their posts as teachers 
in the elementary schools. Where 
this has been done to enable a man 
who has been to the war to resume 
his post, not a 


every capable teacher to have a grace 
term at times? And what better 
mothers can there be than those en- 
gaged in teaching the young? How 
many of our leaders in thought have 
been the sons and daughters of 
schoolmasters or clergymen, whereas 
now, if a woman devotes herself to 
teaching, she is vowed to celibacy no 

less than the 








word can be said 


novice _ taking 


Volume IX, No. 6. 


the veil. If a 
schoolmistress 
could marry 


against it; but, 
where married 
women are dis- 


CONTENTS 
eee Sat ae ee mee a re 
OrcGANIC EpuCATION 








missed and their 
places taken by 
unmarried wo- 
men or by new 
men, the step is 
surely retro- 
grade. Efficien- 
cy should be the 
test of employ- 
ment. If a wo- 
man, married or 
not, is more effi- 
cient than a 
male competi- 
tor, he should 
be turned down, 


ADMINISTRATION 


oF ILLINOIS 


UNDERSTAND? 


Book REviEws 








‘TEACHER COOPERATION IN 


THE Economic STATUS OF THE 
TEACHER AT THE UNIVERSITY 


‘TEACHERS, Do~ You BEGIN TO 


Tue TEACHERS UNION 

Tue Propuct oF AUTOCRACY 

THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE 
on Epucation, A F or L . 

LANCASTER TEACHERS LocKkEpD Out 


A STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES 
THE HomiILigEs OF FINEGAN 


and _ continue 
her work, she 
would be _ less 
likely to remain 
single, altho 
her chances of 
meeting her fu- 
ture husband 
are small, con- 
sidering how 
full of teaching 
her days are and 
her nights of 
correction and 

reparation. 


he London 


129 


131 
133 
135 


136 
137 
139 
142 
144 











and vice versa. 

But to say that no woman shall marry 
and be a teacher is one of the most 
absurd regulations of committees 
formed of men who have little 
knowledge of teaching or of human 
nature. A married woman must, 
from the nature of the case, know 
more of the management of children 
than a spinster. If she has to be ab- 
sent occasionally when she is adding 
future citizens to the State, ought not 


County Council 
has set a bad example in refusing to 
employ married women, and given 
provincial councils as excuse for 


their unwise action. 
—From the “Journal of Education” (Lon- 


don), for March, 1920. 


Following swiftly upon the adoption of the 
Amendment to the United States Constitution 
giving all American women the right to vote, 
the New York City educational system re- 
moved the last discrimination against mar- 
ried women teachers. 











The American Teacher 


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


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


Acceptance for mailing at special rate of 


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








Volume IX, No. 6. 


SEPTEMBER, 1920 - 


One Dollar a Year 








‘ 


OPINIONS AND THE LAW 


Our members will not be slow to interpret many 
things said against the union movement among 
teachers by officials who have a partisan friend- 
ship for our national rival, the National Education 
Association. We do not desire to interfere with 
the free expression of views by these officials, altho 
we shall feel bound to prevent by all the means 
within our power the unfair use of official prero- 
gative in the attainment of a partisan end. Let 
us observe these officials closely. They are used to 
“putting things over” on teachers. Unless we set 
a watch upon their actions they will be copying 
Finegan’s opinions, and setting them up as the law. 
In fact, Finegan’s opinions in the first use of them 
are as good as the law. They do the business as 
he and Griest want it done. 


THE NEW EDUCATION 


One of the products of the union movement for 
which we should be looking is the improvement 
of the teaching results. Under existing conditions 
ot work there is often scant desire to try to im- 
prove the character of the work accomplished. ‘This 
lack of professional desire thus itself becomes an un- 
favorable condition. In order to escape from the 
tangle, our thinking must leap without and strive 
to fasten to something in which there is substantial 
hepe, 

At the present time there are many experiments 
in adaptive education being carried on. One of the 
best of these is the movement for organic education 
established several years ago by Mrs Marietta 
Johnson at Fairhope, Alabama. The outline of 
Mrs Johnson’s purpose is presented in this issue 
hy one of her former students. We commend the 
article to all teachers who have reached the point 
where it is impossible for them to go forward to a 
worth-while end. To those who have known for 
a longer time that existing educational ideals and 


practises are antiquated and out of joint with 
present-day needs, the article will open a new path 
for the imagination. 

When the union movement attains some of its 
economic purpose, and even before, we may have 
the task of discovering a new way of interpreting 
life to children, or of making their development 
into what we are pleased to call life, more adapt- 
able to the psychology of youth. We make a mess 
of it now, heaven knows. 


THE NEW ITALY 
Very little that is circumstantial comes to us from 
Italy. For reasons best known to the interests 


controlling the press, we know chiefly that Italy 
“is coming thru”; that is, it has not become Bol- 


shevist. But from the liberal press we gain im- 
portant news. ‘The Nation tells us that the work- 
er: “calmly seized the metal factories, keys to the 
industrial power of the nation, then told the Gov- 
ernment what they wanted, and the Government 
is granting what they ask.” In this revolution 
there are involved on the side of the workers the 
Catholic People’s Party, the Socialists and the an- 
archist group lead by Malatesta, the veteran agi- 
tator. Prime Minister Giolitti, a member of none 
of these radical groups, has sided with the work- 
ers apparently as a wise statesman. He has said, 
“Tt is no longer possible to uphold the principle 
that in a great industry there must be one single 
chief in command, while thousands of dependenrs 
must obey with no guaranty of control over the 
activities of the chief himself.” 

The Italian Parliament is to be called into session 
to legalize the new status of the workers in indus- 
try. The revolution covers “the whole financial as 
well as the technical field of industry.” 

The newspapers of America have their own views 
of the need of suppressing the great news. Not 
only is the most tremendous aggregation of indus- 





124 


tries in the world looking on, but the teacher- work- 
ers have already begun to do some thinking. 

And yet, when the Teachers’ Union of the City 
of New York requests the Superintendent of 
Schools for a hearing on the case of a member 
slated for dismissal for belonging to an unpopular 
political party, the official replies, “Permit me to 
state that your request is hereby denied.” The 
Superintendent’s news also has been suppressed. 


ON A CERTAIN ARROGANCE 


Secretary Stecker reports that in June Mr T J 
Penfield, Vice-President of Fresno (Calif) High 
School Local No. 72, Miss Verna B Carson, Presi- 
dent of Fresno Elementary Local 84, and Miss 
Alice M Jeffords of 84 were not reemployed for 
the coming year. No charges were preferred and ap- 
parently it was a matter of punishment for union 
leadership and too great activity. The citi- 
zens as well as teachers were indignant. All 
demands for the preferring of definite charges and 
a hearing for the teachers were denied to both 
teachers and citizens committees. 

In the Spring of 1920 about ninety teachers uv: 
Lancaster, ‘Pa, joined the American Federation of 
Teachers, and became part of the movement to im- 
prove the conditions under which teaching is done. 
Specifically they began a strong campaign for im- 
proving salary conditions for all the teachers of 
Lancaster. They were picked out and warned, but 
they chose to go ahead as they saw their duty to 
their fellows. As the time for making new con- 
tracts arrived, the union teachers were not offered 
contracts. Immediately strong groups of citizens 
came to the support of the teachers. Meetings 
were held, resolutions were adopted, but the school 
board “stood pat.” The local Congressman was 
the power behind the board. The State Superin- 
tendent of Schools also stood by. 

The same superintendent, in an official opinion 
delivered in relation to the Lancaster teachers, 
says, “It is not proper or professional for teachers 
to affiliate as an organized body with another or- 
ganization representing a portion of the citizens 
of the community in which such teachers are em- 
ployed.” 
aroused by the arbitrary action of the Lancaster 
school board maintain that the teachers had a per- 


The American Teacher 


But when several large groups of citizens - 


Volume IX, No. 6. 


fect right to join with labor in trying to obtain 
their economic needs, the State Commissioner of 
Education and Congressman Griest stand sancti- 
moniously by and say it is improper for teachers 
to affiliate with labor. 

The California Federation of Commerce has 
spent a considerable amount of money advertising 
in the newspapers of that state, thus warning the 
teachers away from affiliation with labor, saying 
also that it is unprofessional for teachers to affiliate 
with labor. In the language of Big Business teach- 
ers are “wards of the state.” But if they do not 
behave like true wards, their economic heads will 
be cut off, and others who have been taught their 
places will come in. 

All these are the voices of power, crying out 
to terrify ali who have just begun to speak their 
protests. They are arrogant, of course, but they 
are beginning to grow angry. ‘They threaten after 
the manner of Big Business. They throw out the 
teachers without a hearing in Fresno. They tower 
in lordly professional self-righteousness, and then 
trv to wheedle the teachers into slinking away from 
their fellows, as does the sanctimonious Finegan. 
Must we be destroyed by al] this fury? Or shall 
we rather watch it play itself out impotently? 





NOTICE TO MEMBERS 


The Business Manager of The Amerian Teacher 
desires once more to press upon the attention of 
the officers of the locals the importance of sending 
in the names of new members. Also, wherever it is 
possible, arrangements should be made to have 
bundles of the magazine sent to one address in each 
school building for distribution to the members. 








- The American Teacher 





Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 
Published monthly, except July and August, by 
THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City 
Henry R Lovvitte, Editor 

Associate. Editors 
AvucusTIne AURIANNE Samuet G. McLean 
Harry GuNNISON Brown Autce L Woop 
Max Rosennaus, Business Manager 
At the time of expiration, a bill will be found in the 


copy. Subscribers are requested to give prompt notice 
of changes in address. 


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











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





Organic Education—The Hope of the Child 


Max RosENHAUS 
The Teachers Union of the City of New York, Local 5, A F of T 


By organic education is meant education along 
the lines of development of the organism of the 
child. It follows therefore, that only such studies 
will be given the child as are suitable to his 
physical organism. 

The movement was started at Fairhope, Ala- 
bama, about seventeen years ago by Mrs Mari- 
etta Johnson. At that time Mrs Johnson was 
greatly influenced by a book, “The Development 
of the Child,” by Dr. Nathan Oppenheim. This 
book pleads for developing the child according 
tu his age, and not according to adult standards. 
To quote: 

“The adult world has a grown idea of its children. 
They think the child is a little adult, only different 
from the adult in size, strength, knowledge and experi- 
ence, and that if he were only a little stronger, had a 
little more knowledge, a little more experience, he would 
be an adult. Nothing is farther from the truth. The 
child is a different kind of animal altogether—as differ- 
ent as is the caterpillar from the butterfly. He is so 
different in degree as to be different in kind; in anat- 


omy, nutrition, functioning of the nervous system, the 
child is different from the adult.” 


Accordingly, the function of education is to 
keep the child in a child state, and mot to impose 
adult tasks upon him. Any form of education 
that violates this principle is vicious. 

As a guiding principle it may be put down that 
the school process, to be educational, must develop a 
strong and beautiful body, an intelligent mind, and 
a sweet and sincere spirit. Im the measure that 
schooling develops the child along these lines it is 
educational; in the measure that it fails to do 
so, it is not, no matter how informational it 
may be. 

Mrs Johnson lays great stress on Child Con- 
servation. It must be remembered that a child 
at fifteen weighs twelve times as much as a 
child at birth. This means that at this early 
age the child must get a straight back, proper 
nutrition, and a healthy nervous system. This 
is the positive function on the part of parent and 
teacher. Negatively, we must help conservation 
by closing up avenues of waste. We must not 
scold, criticize, or nag a child. We should in- 
quire as to the reasons for a child’s doing a thing. 
Seek his motive. Study the child. 


Another avenue of waste may be the subjecting 
of a child’s eye to too great a strain at an early 
age. No child needs reading in his business unde: 
eight (some say ten), and hence should avoid it. 
The same applies to arithmetic and writing. Over- 
strain in the early years bears fruit later in the 
shape of poor eyesight, hatred for arithmetic, and 
iliegible handwriting. 

But the greatest waste is fear. Fear of teacher, 
fear of ridicule, fear of non-promotion repress the 
child. It produces self-consciousness. A child 
working for high marks, medals, promotions, or 
stendards, is leanning the wrong way. The nor- 
mal child learns because he wants to learn. But 
when demands are put upon him, his creative in- 
stinct is repressed, and he is really not learning. 
He is glad when the task is over. Do you remember 
when you were “cramming” for an examination? 

Mrs Johnson maintains that child conservation 
requires the happiness of the child. A normal 
child is not happy when forced to do unchildish 
tasks. A child must be fearless, and unself-con- 
scious. Fear is death. But true education is life. 
Life is health, happiness, sincerity, interest. The 
child who is happy will obey, will be sincere, and 
will be interested. 

At the Fairhope School, a child of six comes 
into a large room, movable chairs, a large table, 
and plenty of materials to engage his hands. 
He decides to make a certain toy. With a little help 
or guidance, or both, he constructs his toy. He 
is busy all the time, he is happy. He is creative. 
Children progress this way. from six to seven to 
eight, etc., coming to books as they need books, 
but not before. And they will be ready for the 
higher work because they will belong to that life 
class. (Im Mrs Johnson’s school children are 
promoted . according to age, not according to 
standard ability). There has been no forcing. 
As a matter of fact, children in that school at 
twelve read just as well as any other children, 
the only difference being that they were happy 
in the process of learning. There was no “ex- 
ternalism” to stir the children to do things. There 
was joy in the work, joy in the study. 


125 





126 


Mrs Johnson claims 
Discipline of 


A word as to discipline. 
there are two kinds of discipline. 
behavior, and discipline of the mind. When we 
say discipline of behavior, we mean that a child 
should behave, not interfere with other children, 
not disturb adults, and do what he is told even if 
spanking will bring this about. But at the same 
time we must be controlled in what we tell him 
to do. If we crush his spirit, if we dominaic 
him so that he does not know his own mind, 
we bring up a boy who is dependent and weak- 
willed. We must differentiate between conform- 
ity and obedience. The two are not at all the 
True obedience is the child’s will acting 
in harmony with the directing will. Proper di- 
rection is far better than dominaton. Do 
paralyze the child with fears. Let him have 
experience—within limits, of course,—and he will 
more surely be willing to accept guidance. 


same. 


not 


The second form of discipline is mental discipline. 
This is the joy of solving a problem, of finishing 
a thing, thus involving real interest and a desire 
fe. the end. What holds the children in the 
schools? Is it the joy of their work or the truant 
oficer? In New York City there isn’t room for 
ali the truants at the parental or truant schools! 
Comment is unnecessary. 

The greatest experience a child can have is the 
joy of overcoming, and this is discipline. Life is dis- 
cipline, but life is lost if we have no purpose. The 
joy of attainment, rather than “getting thru” or 
getting marks, is the only experience worth while. 
Organic Education builds on sincerity. Offer the 
child activities into which he can put_his whole 
being. And when he has finished his school day, 
let him go home to be free without homework tasks 
hanging over his head. These are repressing and 
bring about insincerity. All gradings, honors, fail- 
ures, results, standards, promotions make the child 
study for a “reason.” 

It re- 
Life is 


Organic Education means life building. 
quires continued growth. Growth is life. 
education. Education is life. 

Note-—A normal school in organic education for teachers 
and parents is conducted by Mrs Johnson at Greenwich, 
Conn., during the summer. Inquiries concerning the school 


may be sent to Mrs Marietta Johnson, Edgewood School, 
Greenwich, Conn. : 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 6. 


OUR WOMEN VOTERS 

For the first time many of our women members 
this year will have the new experience of voting in 
a national election. There was a time when one 
could have waxed sentimental over the lifting ot 
the ban of political exclusion from half the race. 
But now, after long years of striving for the boon 
of citizenship, the sentiment is worn threadbare and 
when the real thing comes, the women will take it 
and use it as if the right had always been theirs. 

In many of the states women have voted before. 
Not even the youngsters yelled ‘“Suffragettes!” 
when the new voters presented themselves perhaps 
a little shyly before the election officials. Certainly) 
the officials regarded the new voters only as more 
work for them—and adequate pay for time. In 
these states it is now an old story. Only the old- 
time politicians are worried. 

For the possibilities in the voting of large num- 
bers of women teachers there is still occasion if not 
fer sentiment, then for stimulation. 
of our voting women teachers will come strong] 
in its effect upon the young. At last they are 
citizens and will be regarded as such by the children. 


The influence 





CONSULTATION WITH TEACHERS 


During recent years there has been distinct evidence of 
the desire of the Board of Education to meet representa- 
tive teachers in consultation, and it is significant that 
there has been an accompanying improvement in the re- 
lations between the Board and the official leaders of the 


profession. At the same time, while there has been a 
deepening of cordiality in the association between the 
rank and file of the inspectorate and teachers, it is possible 
that a fuller measure of co-operation might be secured 
if the merely inspectorial function were completely sub- 
ordinated to the consultative. That there are still in- 
spectors who regard criticism as a prime function is a 
matter of common knowledge to teachers, and it is equally 
unfortunate that the existence of such officials should 
be regarded in the schools as one of the necessary evils 
of life. A greater use of the consultative function between 
local teachers and inspectors is a prime necessity if the 
proposals of the Education Act are to emerge success- 
fully into practice. The existing policy of, the Board of 
Education appears to include a generous degree of con- 
sultation with local education committees, but, on the 
whole, it does not appear to take much thought of the 
practical expert. And, after all, no scheme of school re- 
form has any prospect of success unless the faith and en- 
thusiasm of the teachers are behind it—From Journal of 
Education, of London, for March, 1920. 





Teacher Cooperation in Administration 


ETHEL M GARDNER 


President, Milwaukee 


The present persistent clamor for participation 
in school management is not a criticism of any indi- 
vidual superintendent or supervisor, but the re- 
action of intelligent teachers who love the work 
against the factory system in education. Just as 
the invention of labor-saving machinery took all 
personal initiative out of labor, the present type 
of supervision is rapidly removing all personalty 
trom teaching. Teachers of initiative and _ intel- 
lectual ability are beginning to live their real 
lives outside of the class room. The teachers’ job 
at present is like that of the worker in a factory 
who makes the same piece of machinery over 
and over, and never sees the finished product nor 
knows how it functions. If teaching is to be a 
profession instead of just a job; if teachers are 
tc be public servants instead of public parasites, 
two things are necessary—first, we must have in- 
spiring, stimulating leadership in place of the 
present type of supervision. Second, we must have 
satisfactory co-operation on the part of teachers 
in school administration. 

Of all the plans of co-operation which have 
been tried, that which seems ultimately to offer 
the best solution is some form of teachers’ council. 
Some may offer the objections that 
already too much system and that the creation 
councils will only complicate the 
machinery, but the broader view is that a council 
will not only co-ordinate the diversified elements 
of the school system but such a medium of organ- 
ized expression would also be a safeguard against 
educational autocracy and the consequent discon- 
tent and indifferent professional attitude of teachers. 


there is 


of advisory 


To make teaching not only a profession but 
ta place it in the front rank of the professions; 
to encourage individual research and experiment 
as well as increased professional training; to offer 
some incentive for individuality, initiative and pro- 
fessional advancement ; to develop qualities of leade:- 
ship among the rank and file of the teaching pro- 
fession and thus evolve a more desirable type of 


_ *Address delivered before National Education Associa- 
tion at Salt Lake City, July, 1920. 


Teachers’ Association 


supervisor—these should be the avowed purposes of 
a Teachers’ Council. 

A Teachers’ Council should not be a 
medium thru which complaints of dissatisfied en:- 
ployees may find expression and response, nor 
should it be an ordinary teachers’ association work- 
ing for the betterment of teaching conditions only. 
Questions of salary, tenure, pensions and the 
like may well be left to voluntary teachers’ organ- 
izations. The scope of the work done by a 
Teachers’ Council should be as broad as the school 
system and to accomplish it a large number of 
The fol- 


mere 


standing committees should be created. 
lowing are merely suggestive: 
Executive Committee. 

Courses of study. 

School records. 

Truancy and delinquency. 
Vocational 
Advancement of pupils. 

Organization and administration. 
Evening Schools and Recreation Centers 
Summer Schools. 

Parents’ 
Professional 
School Hygiene. 

School Sanitation. 

Physical Education. 

16. Community Needs, etc. 

In regard to the function of a Teachers’ 
Council, the majority of teachers take the more 
that such councils should act 
in an advisory capacity only, and should in no 
wise usurp any of the powers of the super- 
intendent or school board. The constitution of 
the New York Teachers’ Council states: ‘The 
Teachers’ Council shall have a two-fold function: 
1. The furnishing of information and the opinions 
of the teaching staff upon questions submitted 
by the Board of Education or by the Board of 
Superintendents; 2. The introduction of recom- 
mendations concerning any of the problems af- 
fecting the welfare of the schools and the teach- 
ing staff. All final decisions shall be left to the 


interests. 


10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. 


Associations. 
interests. 


conservative view 


127 





128 


Board of Education or the Board of Superin- 
tendents.” 

Opinions differ as to the best type of organiza- 
tion for 2 teachers’ council. Representatives may 
be chosen by voluntary organizations as they are 
in New York, Boston and Toledo; by the school 
units as they are in small towns; by district units 
as in Minneapolis; by group units as was done 
formerly in Portland. The most successful coun- 
cilz, however, are the result of a combination of 
types. For instance Minneapolis is a combina- 
tion of the district and group plans. New York 
is practically a combination of school, district, 
group and voluntary organization representation 
and in addition five representatives-at-large are 
chosen by the council itself. The chief difficulty 
in choosing a type of organization is that which 
besets all representative government. When we 


elect representatives do we delegate all authurity 
to them and are they to act solely as their indi- 
vidual judgment dictates, or should there be some 
means whereby such representatives may ascertain 
the views of their constituents? The latter seems 
the more democratic view. The rock on which 


most teachers’ councils have been wrecked has 
been just this—that representatives chosen by the 
teachers had no point of contact with the great mass 
of teachers, hence they acted only as ir dividuals and 
in many cases became the tools of administrative off- 
cers. Unless they have the backing of a large number 
of organized teachers, few would have the temerity, 
to express ideas not in accord with the views in 
authority, nor could they have the assurance that 
they were expressing the views of their colleagues 
and not merely their own individual opinions. 
Any council formation which does not provide for 
such democratic representation is pernicious because 
it prevents the co-ordination of the different ele- 
ments of the school. system and the development 
ot any wide-spread interest or participation on the 
part of the vast majority of teachers. Another 
factor which must be considered in the organiza- 
tion of a teachers’ council is the absolutely essen- 
tial element of publicity. To this end meetings 
of the council should be conducted formally and 
publicly. Matters investigated and discussed in 
committees should be formally presented to and 


adopted by the Teachers’ Council before being pre- 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 6. 


sented to the Superintendent or the School Board 
and the public thru the newspapers. 

It has been said that there are three points of 
view in regard to the school system; that of 
citizen, represented by the school board; the ad- 
ministrative, represented by the superintendent, 
and the teachers’ view which we hope to have 
represented by teachers’ councils. There is in 
reality a fourth point of view—that of the gen- 
eral public. School Boards at present have nv 
organized means of ascertaining the views of their 
constituents. To correct this there should be in 
every community a sort of community or central 
educational council to interest itself in educa- 
tienal matters, study conditions, and make recom- 
mendations. Such a council might be composed 
ot various public-spirited organizations such as 
every modern city contains. 

With such an organization as well as a teach- 
ers’ council in every community, working co- 
operatively for the common welfare, teaching will 
become the noblest of professions, the highest type 
of public spirited men and women will be at- 
tracted to it and the United States will develo) 
the finest, most democratic system of education in 
the world. 





We have reached a point where education is no less im- 
portant than the Organization itself. We must have it or 
we cannot cont’nue our work, unless we are satisfied that 
the Amalgamated shall sink to the level of a reactionary 
bureaucracy in which the members are mere dues payers 
and the officials are the Organization. 

—From the “Fortschritt,” the Jewish journal of the Amal- 
gamated Clothing Workers. 





EDUCATION FOR THE WORKERS 

In many communities there have been move- 
ments started for bringing educational ad- 
vantages to the workers in the form to be 
appreciated by the workers themselves, and 
not necessarily by the educational authorities. 
Members of the A F of T who are vitaiiy 
interested in the education of the workers, 
and know of enterprises of this kind actuaily 
in operation are asked to communicate with 
the American Teacher at an early date. A 
National Committee on Workers’ Education 
is being formed. The Committee will appre- 
ciate all definite information of the kind that 
will help in the formation of the Committee. 





The Economic Status of the Teacher at the University 
of Illinois 


Miriam A Franc 
Local 41, University of Illinois 


Early in its career, Local No. 41, composed of 
members of the faculty of the University of 
Illinois, adopted a program of activities to be 
undertaken during the first years of its existence. 
This program recommended particularly that the 
organization investigate certain vital problems 
that face the University teacher. The first of 
these investigations has now been completed, and 
the results are in the hands of the faculty mem- 
bers and administrative officers of the University. 

Because of the serious economic condition in 
which teachers now find themselves, Local No. 41 
decided that its first investigation should deal with 
the economic status of the University teacher. A 
committee under the chairmanship of Aubrey J. 
Kempner of the Department of Mathematics dis- 
tributed to members of the faculty a question- 
naire dealing with their economic situation. The 
167 answers to this questionnaire appear in the 
two sections of the report, the “Statistical Sum- 
mary” and the compilation of “Remarks.” 

The importance of this report can hardly be 
over-estimated. Appalling as are some of its 
revelations, it is a frank report of actual Uni- 
versity conditions. To quote from the preface: 
“While it is generally admitted that the econumrc 
condition of the Faculty is critical, it is certain 
that the nearly desperate character of the situation 
cannot be realized without full knowledge of 
the details. The present report contains in this 
respect much material that cannot be obtained in 
any other way. The ‘Remarks’ reveal an ominous 
picture, to which the statistical data form a fit- 
ting frame.” 

The “Statistical Summary” is introduced with 
the following reminder: “The statistics here pre- 
sented deal not with youths just finding them- 
selves and preparing for their careers, but ma- 
ture men and women, all but thirteen of them 
more than thirty years of age, who have invested 
ten or more productive years in preparation for 
tke work they are now doing. With that idea 
in mind, the most striking feature of the table, 


129 


perhaps, is the modest scale of life suggested, anu 
the humble limit of their aspiration. . . . The 
medesty of their suggestion condemns the mem- 
bers rather for lack of imagination than for 
anibition or greed.” 

The statistics reveal that over half of the 
faculty members answering the questionnaires re- 
port for 1918-19 on excess of actual expenses over 
their University salaries. 

Only about one-half aspire to a saving of more 
than a thousand dollars a year. Yet two-thirds 
of the answers reveal that the teacher cannot 
save even a half of what he considers a minimum 
for annual savings and insurance. 

A vast majority of the teachers whose answers 
are recorded report that in 1918-19 they omitted 
ove-half or more cf the professional expenditures 
that they consider necessary to maintain a high 
degree of efficiency in their work. 

More than one-third have refused positions 
outside of University work that have offered 
salaries higher than those they are now receiving. 

A large majority report that in case of death 
at the present time they would leave their fam- 
ilies poorly provided for, or actually in destitution. 

In answer to the question, “What do you con- 
sider a fair minimum salary for a man in your 
pcsition?” the majority require salaries over 30 
pe: cent larger than their present salaries, and 
a large group needs an increase of over 50 per 
cent. 

To summarize, over two-thirds of the married 
Instructors, two-thirds of the Associates having 
children, three-fourths of the Assistant Pro- 
fessors having more than one child, and a half 
o: the Professors having more than two children 
cannot live within their salares. And, disregard- 
ing the size of the families, half of the Instruc- 
tors, Associates, and Assistant Professors, and a 
third of the Professors cannot live within their 
salaries. 

The compilation of “Remarks” gives a vivid 
and realistic picture of the pitiful struggle for 





130 


mere subsistence to which a great number of Uni- 
versity teachers are condemned. ‘To quote the 
report: “Here is little room for that buoyancy 
and enthusiasm, that combination of free play 
ard concentration of mind essential to growta 
and success in intellectual life. ‘The reader of 
these recitals can not avoid the feeling that the 
conditions and preoccupations set forth must pro- 
duce on the part of our members a sense of 
failure, of anxiety, distress, or hopelessness which 
naturally follow when the pressure of sordid 
necessity and of inability to meet the barest needs 
ot daily existence is continually felt.” 

The report gives verbatim over 125 “remarks. 
O# these only a few typical ones can be quoted 
here: 


“Resorted to patching clothing. Cheap room- 


ing—not modern—kerosene light—no heat.” 
“Have worked every summer, sending my wife 
home to save money as I could not afford to take 


he: with me.” 

“Have had to work in outside fields during 
two of last three summers against advice ot 
physician. I should have operation on nose at 
present time which I can not afford.” 

“Have used food of inferior quality—meat 
once a week.” 

“Health of wife broke down following ‘flu.’ 
Absolutely unable at University salary to give 
he: rest and comforts needed. Left teaching 
after more than ten years at it for a commercial 
position paying nearly three times the salary. Am 
surprised to find the work every bit as pleasant 
and even less taxing.” 

“Not married because of 
funds,” 

“Bought one suit of clothes for self in nine 


lack of proper 


yesrs.” 

“IT have had but one vacation in eleven 
years. . . . My chief concern is that I can not 
save for the future or have the technical journals 
I should have or -ttend scientific meetings on my 
present salary.” 

“That ($1,700) is every cent my wife would 
have between her and debt in case of my death. 
We have postponed necessary medical services; 
use food of an inferior quality; have insufficient 
and cheap clothing; deny ourselves the ordinary 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 6. 


pleasures of other folks; avoid all social acti- 
ities, even the most simple—the whole situation 
makes a man bitter.” 

One correspondent has saved $600 in six years 
by the following methods: 

“We use butter substitutes; 1 run a garden 
and sole the family’s shoes; my wife make all her 
own clothing.” 

An Assistant Professor writes: “My only reason 
for not taking an active part in the Federation 
this year is the fact that I feel I can not afford 
the dues.” 

“During the summer vacation of 1918 I found 
it necessary to seek employment in a factory at 
$18 a week in order to keep pace with living 
expenses.” 

“Have stayed away from all social functions 
because the only clothes I have are those I wear 
in the laboratory.” 

“Adoption of a vegetarian diet with nut butter 
tor substitute. Cutting hair of children; _resol- 
ing, of shoes at home.” 

“Wear suit in class-room made in 1914, dis- 
carded in 1916, revamped in 1919. Wear suit to 
church made in 1915. . . . Help wife do famity 
washing.” 

“Dress like a tramp.” 

“University teaching would be a luxury which 
I could not afford to indulge in, if my wife were 
not also earning a salary as a teacher in public 
schools.” 

“Necessary medical service in family postponed 
three years, so that complete recovery is now 
doubtful.” 

And so it goes—page after page revealing 
sordid, heart-breaking scraping and _ pinching. 
Some of the nation’s most brilliant scholars forced 
t» leave their laboratories in order to sole shoes, 
repair their houses, help with the family washing! 

Professor Kempner’s report contains much ma- 
terial that has hitherto been unavailable. It gives 
in simple, clear terms the exact economic situa- 
tion of teachers at the University of Illinois—and 
is not pretty reading. University teachers 
realize their duty and will cling to ther Uni- 
versity jobs as long as they can. But—under these 
conditions—how long will they be able to hold 
on? 





Teachers, Do You Begin To Understand? 


Extract From a Report to President Gompers 


SAMUEL GERALD McLEAN 


President, The California State Federation of Teachers 


In California the forces of reaction seem to 
b: doing their full share in the anti-social cam- 
paign now being pushed thruout the United 
States. Under the guidance of men like Edward 
Trefz of the United States Chamber of Com- 
the Commercial Federation of California 


Los 


merce, 
with headquarters at South Spring Street, 


Angeles, has developed an organization the ramifi- 
cations of which reach into every part of the State. 
The breadth of its activities was revealed in the 
recent election when its branches in different cities 
came out publicly with indorsements of particular 


candidates. Its attempt to kill the union movement 
by the subtle method of substituting such forms of 
industrial organization as ““The Co-operative Plan,” 
“The American Plan,” etc., is cunningly contrived, 
vigorously executed, and definitely aimed at con- 
trolling the public mind years ahead. That it may 
fit more exactly with the psychological ‘“American- 
ism” now being proclaimed so loudly from the 
housetops, it has recently changed its name to the 
“Retter American Federation.” 

On Labor Day the A F of L unions,in Oakland 
had their celebration at Idora Park. The Bethle- 
hcm Shipbuilding Corporation of San Francisco 
and Alameda, the Union Construction Company of 
San Francisco, and the Moore Shipbuilding Com- 
pany of Oakland, all operating under the American 
Plan, arranged a special joint picnic to Nilés Can- 
yen. This scheme was designed, of course, to con- 
sclidate working groups of the American Plan from 
both sides of the Bay, and so cut them off from the 
distant union labor celebrations in Oakland and San 
Francisco. Edward Trefz was there to speak on 
“Co-operation and Americanism,” and it was decided 
to make the affair an annual one. 

In the Survey of August 16 you will find an 
article entitled “Attack on Los Angeles Y W C A,” 
which exposes the plans of the Better American Fed- 
eration in launching the attack simply because the 
Y W CA endorsed collective bargaining at its last 
annual convention at Cleveland. 

In order to keep the Los Angeles teachers from 


perfecting a union the Better American Federation 
thru Mr Trefz & Co waged their campaign for 
higher salaries. When the San Jose teachers had 
decided to unionize, the Better American Federation 
paid for half page advertisements in the local papers 
warning the teachers that like soldiers and policemen 
they are the wards of the State, that if they unionize 
they will be dismissed in favor of teachers “true to 
the traditions of the profession,” and that the Better 
American Federation will see that the teachers get 
adequate salaries without unionizing. The hand of 
the Better American Federation was visible in an 
attack made on the San Francisco teachers’ union 
some months ago. A week ago we entered suit 
against the School Superintendent of Fresno for libel 
for the dismissal of the President of the Elementary 
‘Tcachers’ Union, the Vice-President of the High 
S.hool Teachers’ Union, and one other union teacher 
0. the ground of “professional incapacity.” There is 
every evidence that his defense is being financed by 
the Better American Federation. As I write I have 
received news that the Board of Education of Fresno 
has just passed a resolution flatly condemning teach- 
e1s’ unions affiliated with the American Federation 
ot Labor. The fact that the Seattle Chamber of 
Commerce conducted the salary fight of the teachers 
there, the attack by similar agencies on the teachers’ 
unions of St Louis and Lancaster, Pa, and the sub- 
sidizing of the Arizona schools by the copper inter- 
ests all show that similar tactics are in force the 
country over. Even the National Educational As- 
sociation is bitterly opposed to the teachers’ union 
movement. 
Now what does all this mean? The following 
report sent out confidentially to employers by the 
Babson Statistical Service is significant: 
“There is no doubt about it—Labor is beaten 
; We have an organized labor force more 
numerous than ever before. . . . But that same 
labor force has lost its hold on the public. It is 
divided in its own camp. It fears capital. It fears 
its own factions. It threatens but it does not dare. 
. The war has taught the employing class 

the secret and the power of propaganda. 


Now when we have anything to sell to the Ameri- 
can people we know how to sell it. We have 


131 





132 


learned. We have the schools. We have the pul- 
pit. The employing class owns the press. There is 
practically no important paper in the United States 
but is theirs.” 

So reaction has learned and is successfully using 
the power of propaganda to manipulate the public 
mind. Reaction has set out not only to control 
the thinking of present-day adults, but also to see 
that the minds of the young receive only the par- 
ticular type of training that will serve “the inter- 
ests” in the generation to come. Universal suf- 
frage carries no dangers for reaction if only the 
people can be taught to be content with their lot 
and to vote the reactionary ticket. The fact that 
notorious grinders of labor are tumbling over one 
another to see that labor gets an education is a 
serious sign of the times. One is reminded of 
Lowe, the mid-Victorian statesman, who, when the 
English people got the vote, said: ‘We must edu- 
cate our masters.” 

If then reaction is so anxious to control the 
public school that organized labor has given 
America it seems that reaction sees in the school 
and the teacher the instruments that mould future 
social organization. And if that is true, then it 
appears that since justice, truth, and a truly human 
world constitute the basis on which organized labor 
stands, the American Federation of Labor is justi- 
fied in using every possible effort to see that its 
pelicies are projected into the public schoolroom. 

Now education is not a matter of curricula. It 
is rather a matter of the interpretation of curri- 
cula, of the type of work actually carried out 
in the class room. It is finally a matter of the 
social understanding of the teacher. To humanize 
education we must first humanize the teacher. To 
humanize the teacher we must give him the correct 
historical background of present industrial and 
social organization; we must keep him constantly 
supplied with the truth about industrial and 
social developments. To my mind then, the real 
and permanent progress of the labor movement is 
in the main a question of the development of the 
social sense of the teachers of the public schools. 
Every dollar and every ounce of energy spent by 
organized labor in that direction must bring back 
1000 per cent. dividends in the creation of a 
socially awakened American citizenry. 

What is the situation in the public schools at 


” 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 6. 


the present time? ‘The quotation from Babson’s 
reports proves that the philosophy of labor has 
not free access to the school room. The attacks 
on the teachers’ unions and the subsidizing of the 
schools show the fear reaction has that education 
may get into the hands of free liberal thinkers. 
Those of us who work under the direction of 
Boards of Education know that to teach the phil- 
osophy of capital carries no danger of dismissal ; 
to espouse the validity of labor’s claims is to risk 
exile from the public school. Even our text- 
books do not reflect the viewpoint of labor as to 
the rights of persons. The great bulk of the 
teachers of America have the capitalistic inter- 
pretations of life; they read surprizingly litle 
liberal literature; they get their conception of the 
social struggle from the accounts served up by a 
bigoted class-conscious press controlled by the em- 
ploying group. Not one teacher in a thousand 
knows the truth of the working day in the steel 
industry, or has learned that the Inter-Church 
Movement has issued a report on the subject, or 
believes otherwise than that the miners a year 
ago attempted to establish a minimum and _ not 
a maximum working week. Under such training 
what can we hope from the next generation? 

But what is the remedy? We teachers who 
have thrown in our lot with labor for no reason 
or reward than that we believe in labor find our- 
selves in this position: 

1. Capitalistic control of the schools hampers 
our liberty to speak the truth about labor, its 
struggles and its aims. To attack capitalistic plans 
means professional death. 

2. Our school salaries are not large enough to 
free us from constant dependence for bread and 
butter not only in retaining our day jobs but 
aiso in teaching in both day and evening classes. 
We are not left sufficient time for the struggle. 
So we try to fight a system that holds our em- 
ployment and even our very future in the hollow 
of its hand. If the teacher is dismissed for union 
activity he is in effect blacklisted, for, of course, 
school boards will not employ him without making 
careful official investigation as to his reputation and 
history. As head of the teachers’ union movement 
in California I have for two years donated my 
spare time to using the limited means at our dis- 





September, 1920 


posal to spreading union propaganda among the 
teachers of the State. We have accomplished good 
results. A point has been arrived at where I feel 
that each of the 2,000 high school teachers of the 
State must be reached once a month or oftener by 
a bulletin setting forth the facts as to present-day 
social, educational, and industrial developments. 
The campaign of reaction must be met by creat- 
ing a keen social sense among the teachers who 
are entrusted with the work of training the young 
men and women who are to be the leaders of the 
people. But two difficulties confront us: 

1. So far as I personally am concerned my 
teaching day and evening deprives me of any time 
tu see that the bulletin is properly got up and 
circulated. 

2. There is also the question of financing the 
publication. Such a bulletin issued by groups of 
teachers in a few of the principal States of the 
Union and having a local coloring would influence 
the trend of educational thought. 

The larger question of the development of a 
labor press for the United States is one that has 
already engaged the attention of the Executive 
Council of the A F of L, I understand. It is 
one that demands a speedy and vigorous answer 
as an antidote to the poison of reaction. We 
must aim at influencing the thought of the people. 
Therein lies the remedy. 


THE TEACHERS’ UNION 


HERBERT D LAUBE 


Milwaukee, Wisconsin 


This is a day of organization. The war has 
taught us that lesson. We realize as never before 
that efficient group expression demands organiza- 
tion. Responsive organization is the secret of all 
good government. Organization in industry to pro- 
mote general welfare achieved an allied victory. 
Organization among teachers promises to be the 
next step in democracy. 

But when one attempts to organize the great 
mass of teachers, the workers in the ranks, some 
autocratic superintendent who sees his power wan- 
ing cries “What is a union?” My own idea of 
the term is that it is something inclusive, asso- 


The American Teacher 


133 


ciated, combined. The idea of the typical school 
superintendent as I have known him, is that the 
union is something exclusive, dissociated, disunited. 
He mourns that he is excluded. He laments that 
anyone in the teaching profession should array class 
against class. Because he and his kind are segre- 
gated, he has a vision that society shall be precipi- 
tated to destruction. To him, the teachers’ union 
creates two hostile camps. He sees the end: hatred, 
distrust, ruin. Let us analyze the situation to dis- 
cover the superintendent’s true position. 

A school is designed primarily for instruction. 
Pupils and a teacher alone are needed. Where pu- 
pils and teachers are numerous and schools are de- 
pendent upon some public unit for support, in 
order to secure efficiency in graduation and opera 
tion supervisors are selected. A system is created. 
The supervisor of any school is called, usually, a 
principal. The notable fact to bear in mind is 
that supervisors, including principals, are not in- 
dispensable factors in achieving the objects of a 
school, and are justifiable factors only so far as 
they assist in perfecting relations between pupils 
and teachers in producing superior results thru 
organization. 

Consult your own experience. What was the 
vital part of your school life? Was it not those 
moments when some subject became a vivid reality 
because presented by a sympathetic teacher to an 
interested pupil? The mastery of that subject 
could no longer be unrelieved drudgery; the work 
was at least tinctured with joy. If you had that 
experience you sensed that a school is a place of 
co-operative effort. Any system that creates su- 
pervisors who do not assist, or who disturb unnec- 
essarily, or who jeopardize, that co-operative effort 
has no reason for being maintained unaltered. 

Do supervisors tend to create such a system? 
They do. They are human. We ought to under- 
stand their humanity well enough not to allow it to 
express itself at its worst, or even in undesirable 
ways. If we were principals, we would be just like 
the present principals. Some of us would be very 
helpful and indispensible in our own minds and 
much less helpful in the minds of the teachers we 
supervised. If supervision is designed to perfect 
a system of co-operative effort, who is best able to 





134 


judge when a supervisor has blundered? The con- 
clusion can’t be escaped; the best judges are the 
teachers supervised. No man endowed with in- 
telligence and free from prejudice who says he is 
a believer in democracy can consistently deny it. 


The analysis is nearly complete. Thus far it 
shows that a school system is made up of three ele- 
ments: the pupils, the teachers and the supervisors. 
Since pupils are not eligible to membership in a 
union, we shall consider the supervisors and the 
teachers supervised. The supervised formed a 
teachers’ union. Report has it that almost every 
principal in Jersey City opposed it. Yet, at the 
time of the formation of the union of the super- 
vised the principals had an association of their ex- 
clusive class. 

A teachers’ union is not organized for temporary 
gain. It is a sign of the times; it is a revolt of the 
supervised against the arbitrary conduct of the su- 
pervisors. Instead of assisting teachers, supervisors 
have often made the attainment of good results more 
dificult. The “office” and not the classroom, has 
been the convenience which has controlled. _Recita- 
tions have been interrupted without warrant. A sense- 
less filing of papers has been required. Written re- 
ports have become more numerous. The clerical work 
of a teacher often becomes so burdensome as to make 
teaching of secondary importance. ‘The time, en- 
ergy and enthusiasm that should go into professional 
efficiency are spent in completing office files. Dis- 
crimination among teachers has been obvious. The 
same privileges have been granted to all teachers 
on the same condition. The supervisor has bel- 
lowed “Those are my orders.” ‘Insubordination.” 
The faint-hearted have been stricken with terror; 
the strong-hearted have been inspired to action. 


A teachers’ union is the result. It includes teach- 
ers whose interests are identical; it associates them 
in a combination because they are eager that the 
public schools shall serve the purpose for which 
they were designed. A teachers’ union excludes su- 
pervisors because of the necessity of making a school 
an expressiion of the will of the people and not 
of the will of the man who supervises. It disasso- 
ciates and disunites the supervised and the super- 
visors, because at times a school has been made, 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 6, 


thru supervision, the servile instrument of the 
supervisor. If there are any who can interpret the 
will of the people of Jersey City, of the great, able. 
bodied, industrious mass, it is the teacher who hourly 
meets the boys and girls, the children of the people, 
who come to fill the recitation rooms and profit 
by their opportunity. 

I was not born in Jersey City. If Fate had de- 
creed it as my birthplace 1 should not have re- 
sented it. I served the people of Jersey City for 
six years—I hope they have no cause to complain. 
That service was to me a great denght. To recall 


memories of the hundreds and thousands of boys 
and girls who came under my instruction is highly 


pleasurable. As a group they were ever courteous, 
conscientious, earnest. The homes from which such 
boys and girls come and go must be deeply appre- 
ciative of Jersey City’s teaching force. I do not 
believe their parents would ever view with sus- 
picion any demands that teaching force might make 
if they were frankly presented, and fortified by the 
principle of justice. The dignity of justice will 
ever prevent the public discussion of it from degen- 
erating into petty squabbling. But if, without ef- 
fort ,the teachers of Jersey City who seek justice 
wait until it is graciously and sweetly ushered into 
their presence by love, humanity will mourn their 
inactivity and pity their judgment. 

The Czar is dead. The Kaiser reigns no more. 
The paling shadow of “His Majesty” wanders in 
foreign lands. Some few servile subjects are in 
his retinue, lingering under the delusion of devout 
loyalty. How strange that in this hour, Von Tir- 
pitz, that cruel and heartless advocate of inhu- 
manity should be, momentarily, the great analyst 
of Germany’s past. This, he says, is why Germany 
fell: “Everything was ordered from the head 
(Kaiser). Anything like initiative or independent 
motion has been suppressed in our scheme of 
things.” That was, and is, tyranny wherever 
found. The war is over; tyranny is in disrepute. 
This era shall carry to full consummation democ- 
ratization in government, in industry and in educz 
tion. The unions must lead even tho principals 
protest. "Tis a glorious end to which they may 
dedicate their energies. The teachers’ union is 3 
sign of the times. May it keep its purpose steadfast! 





September, 1920 


THE PRODUCT OF AUTOCRACY 
ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ 


Local 5, New York 


In the brilliant work of William Godwin, the 
English individualist and preacher, appears the fol- 
lowing paragraph: “As long as man is held in tram- 
mels of obedience, and habituated to look to some 
foreign guidance for the direction of his conduct, 
his understanding and the vigor of his mind will 
sleep. Do I desire to raise him to the energy of 
which he is capable? I must teach him to feel 
himself to bow to no authority, to examine the prin- 
ciples he entertains, and render to his mind the rea- 
son of his conduct.” 

While the above excerpt cannot be a satisfactory 
political guide, as an intellectual one it is most 
admirable and timely. The bane of the teaching 
profession is unthinking and unquestioned obedience 
to the authority of official superiors. Blind worship 
of educational principles heralded by superiors and 
propounded by self-developed experts seems to rule 
the teachers. Intellectual obedience has become a 


religion with them—something to be done, not 
something to be questioned. Not what is good for 
the schools but what is good for me, seems to be the 
Not educational efficiency based 
on individual contribution, but servile educational 
happiness (freedom from molestation by superiors) 


guiding principle. 


is the goal of too many of our teachers. Is it any 
wonder then that they cannot acquiesce in the 
admirable doctrine of Dr William H Allen who 
holds that teachers must not sit helplessly by when 
wrong ideas are proposed but that they are “under 
obligation to tell the public the truth by every rec- 
ognized means of advertising and publicity within 
their reach.” 

The result of making a fetish of authority is 
the creation of ‘an orderly mechanical school system 
where reason, initiative, and courage are largely 
absent. Not, how does the teacher like to teach a 
subject; but, rather, how does the superior want 
it taught? Not, what should be done to make the 
subject meet the needs and interests of the pupils 
and the times, but rather, what will satisfy the of- 
ficial “superior?” We teach largely to satisfy the 
“superior-man” conception of what is good for an 
ever-growing ever-thinking adolescent. 


The American Teacher 


135 


the result of this autocratic 
America, 


What has been 
domination of our educational systems? 
confronted by the greatest crisis in its history, de- 
manded men who could but, alas, it obtained men 
who knew but to obey. The occasion demanded 
new paths, new methods, new ideas, but instead, 
it obtained efficiency along old paths, old mechanical 
methods, and according to old ideas. And what else 
could one expect? Our schools breed servants and 
autocrats but not democrats; followers, not leaders; 
improvers, not inventors; imitators, not innovators; 
men fattened by the gratification of desire and not 
those consumed by the fire of great ideas; spine- 
less followers, not fearless and independent thinkers. 

When the late Dr William H Maxwell, New 
York City’s well-known and able head of education 
retired from active service, did the system have one 
person in its corps of 22,000 of such ability and 
scholarship as to ensure his immediate’ succession? 
It did not. Why? Because Dr Maxwell, the 
fearless, was nevertheless, an autocrat of autocrats. 
Autocracy develops obeyers, doers of assigned tasks, 
hewers of wood and drawers of water. It defeats 
its own end; it digs its own grave. Had Dr Max- 
well been a democrat, the system would have pro- 
duced many subordinates who, like their leader, 
would have developed initiative, resourcefulness, in- 
ventiveness, courage, ability, educational insight and 
leadership. Our loss in his retirement was great, 
but so ought to be our gain. We had the weak- 
ness of autocracy strikingly called to our attention. 
Will boards of education and superintendents have 
the wisdom and the courage to profit by the past 
and to substitute educational democracy for educa- 
tional autocracy? Will they be influenced in their 
decision by the world-wide economic and political 
tendencies which stress the need for functional, and 
not lip-democracy? Will they, like the newer en- 
lightened industrial heads of the type of Filene, 
Renold, Hart and others give their employes and 
teachers a great share in school administration, and 
thus harness the most powerful latent intellectual 
power which, if used fully and properly, can trans- 
form a nation of followers into a nation of lead- 
ers? May boards of education and educational ad- 
ministrators be inspired with faith in the great 
ideal for which ten million heroic souls made the 
supreme sacrifice. 





From the Report of the Committee on Education of the 
Montreal Convention of the A F of L 


TEACHERS’ UNIONS 


The Senatorial investigation of the schools of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia to which Executive Council refers has 
been completed, and the Teachers’ Unions, of which there 
are ten in the district, including in their combined juris- 
dictions every type of teaching work, were only incidentally 
involved. Nothing derogatory of the Teachers’ Union was 
established, no union officials were summoned to testify, 
and the official report of the Senatorial Committee con- 
ducting the investigation contained no word of criticism 
of the union. 

However, your Committee desires to call the attention 
of the Convention to a concerted attack upon the union 
movement among teachers, made by the organized inter- 
ests hostile to labor. In St. Louis, the Board of Educa- 
tion has adopted the following rule: 

“No person shall be employed hereafter in any capacity 
in the Instruction Department, who is a member of a trade 
or labor union or of an organization affiliated with a trade 
and labor union; and any person employed in the Instruc- 
tion Department becoming a member of any such organi- 
zation shall be subject to immediate dismissal from the 
service.” 

This rule was adopted, notwithstanding the fact that the 
Missouri law requires every member of the Board of Edu- 
cation to take oath “that he will not be influenced, during 
the term of office, by any consideration except that of merit 
‘and fitness in the appointment of officers and the engage- 
ment of employees.” 

In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, eighty-two teachers were 
given the option by the Lancaster Board of Educatoin, 
either of withdrawing from the American Federation of 
Teachers or of losing their positions; and upon their de- 
termined refusal to renounce their right as American citi- 
zens to maintain the religious, civic, or economic affiliations 
of their free choice. the Board of Education declared their 
positions vacant. This arbitrary action was taken in de- 
fiance not only of the rights of the teachers, but of over- 
whelming public opinion, as evidenced by the protests of the 
central labor union, business men, ministerial associations, 
mass meetings, and a petition demanding reinstatement, 
signed by thousands. 

Similar attempts are being made by autocratic boards 
of education in other communities. If the schools are to 
develop free, unafraid men and women, American citizens of 
the highest type, the teachers must live and work in an 
atmosphere of freedom and self-respect. 

Your Committee recommends that the officers of the 
American Federation of Labor be instructed by this Con- 
vention to use every effort to protect teachers against in- 
timidation and discrimination on account of affiliation with 
organized labor; and that affiliated state and central labor 
bodies be urged to resist with all vigor any attempt to 
coerce the judgment and conscience of the teachers of 
the public schools. 
* * 


* * * 
LABOR’S DECLARATIONS ON EDUCATION 


In order to make easily available labor’s position on 
education, and to add to the effectiveness of labor’s con- 
tribution to educational progress, your Committee recom- 
mends that the Executive Council be instructed to have 
compiled and published in pamphlet form the official dec- 
larations of the labor movement upon education. 

The recommendation of the committee was adopted. 


RE-ENDORSEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM 
Your Committee recommends the reindorsement of the 
educational platform adopted by the Atlantic City Conven- 


+ * 


136 


tion, with the modification of Sections 14 and 25 to 
read as follows: 

Section 14—Where there is sufficient demand, the schoo] 
authorities should grant the use of school buildings for 
public forums, conducted by democratically organized loca] 
community groups, responsible under the law for the lan- 
guage used, the topics discussed, and the speakers selected. 
The democratic method of organization of public forum 
districts along these lines in Washington, D. C., is com- 
mended as a helpful model. 

Section 25—Your Committee believes that the most ef- 
fective guarantee of democracy and progress in the schools 
is the affiliation of the teachers with the great democratic 
force of organized labor, which was the pioneer in the agi- 
tation of tax-supported public schools in the United States 
in the first half of the last century, and has ever since 
proved the steadfast friend of public education. The affilia- 
tion of the teachers with organized labor is not confined 
to the United States. 120,000 out of 140,000 French teach- 
ers are so affiliated, as are the great majority of the teachers 
in Holland. In England the teachers are affiliating with 
organized labor in constantly increasing numbers. In 
Australia, particularly in Queensland, the teachers have af- 
filiated. The teachers of the United States and Canada will 
find vigorous and effective support for progressive educa- 
tional measures through affiliation with the four and one- 
half millions of organized workers, as has been demonstrated 
by the growth and achievements of the American Federation 
of Teachers. Your Committee recommends that the Execu- 
tive Council of the American Federation of Labor and all 
state and city central labor bodies of the United States and 
Canada give every assistance to the American Federation 
of Teachers in the organization of teachers, and the im- 
provement of the schools. 

In face of the existing national emergency in edu- 
cation caused by wretchedly inadequate teachers’ salaries 
and the financial starving of the schools, and by the lack 
of self-respecting conditions under which teachers work, 
and the absence of any democratic voice of the teachers in 
the conduct of the schools, your Committee particularly 
stresses Sections 17, 18 and 109. 

“t7—A thorogoing revision upward of the salary 
schedule of teachers in public schools, normal schools and 
universities, to meet the increased cost of living and the 
growing appreciation of the value to the community and 
the nation of the teachers’ services. 

“18—The liberal, ungrudging reorganization and increase 
of school revenues as the only means of maintaining and 
developing the efficiency of our public schools. 

“t9—In order to secure a more democratic administra- 
tion of our schools, to develop a spirit of co-operation, and 
to gain for the community the benefit of the experience 
and initiative of the teaching body, boards of education 
and superintendents of schools should confer with con- 
mittees 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 schook 
submitted by the teachers thru such committees.” 

Respectfully submitted. 

MATTHEW WOLL, Chairman 
CHARLES B STILLMAN, Secretary 
JOHN WALKER 

FRANK GILLMORE 

DAVID J DAVIS 

JOHN B O’BRIEN 

H N LINK 

CHAS A SUMNER 

IRA M ORNBURN 





Stan 
Greg 
of ir 
at t! 
Jour 


September, 1920 


LANCASTER TEACHERS LOCKED OUT 
BY SCHOOL BOARD 


Because They Joined Union Affiliated with Labor, Edu- 
cators in Pennsylvania Town Fail of Re-election 
—State Superintendent’s Decision 


By W Carson Ryan, Jr 


Lancaster, Pa., August 13.—I came to Lancaster to look 
into a controversy over teacher affiliation with union labor; 
I found a case of lockout of school teachers by the school 
board, 

The most important immediate issue, as I see it, in the 
Lancaster school situation—and an issue important to every 
teacher and every citizen in the United States—is not the 
question of the propriety or impropriety of teachers affiliat- 
ing with labor unions, but the propriety of a school board 
locking out half its teachers without charges of any kind. 

The next important issue is political—whether machine 
politics shall or shall not control Lancaster’s schools. This 
is still a real problem in many parts of the United States, 
especially when school board members are elected on a party 
ticket or by a partisan administration. 

But behind both these issues there is still another—the 
industrial situation. Lancaster is still to a considerable ex- 
tent a non-union town. It is quite possible that members 
of the school board and those behind them are afraid that 
it would be a dangerous precedent to let the teachers have 
their union, because the organizing “bug” might get to 
some other groups in the city—to the trolley nren, for 
example, who are quite unorganized, and so on down the 
line. 


* * * * x * * 


Eicuty-two TEeacHers Dismissep 


‘The Lancaster story in its externals is simple enough. 
Like the teachers of other cities, those in Lancaster are 
grossly underpaid. They sought increases in salary. In 
April they learned, or thought they learned, that no action 
on salaries would be taken until June. Despairing of a 
decision in time to be of help to them, the teachers or- 
ganized a local of the American Federation of Teachers, 
with ninety-nine members—more than half the teaching 
force of Lancaster. At the next meeting of the board 82 
teachers “failed of re-election.” These 82 teachers were 
those who held membership in the teachers union. (I am 
told there were 85 on the rolls, but the board overlooked 
three.) No charges of any kind were brought against the 
teachers, and it was admitted on all sides that among them 
were some of the strongest teachers in the city. 


Tue CommMuNITYy AROUSED 


When it dawned upon the community that a large part 
of the teaching force of Lancaster was to be thrown out 
bodily, and the schools—especially the high schools—vir- 
tually wrecked, public opinion was aroused. “Lancaster 
Organizing in Every Corner to Aid Ousted School Teach- 
ers,” said the Intelligencer-News Journal, the strongest paper 
in the county, in headlines across the front page, and even 
the other paper, whose independence is evidenced from its 
standing _motto—*The Only Republican, Daily in the 
Greatest Republican State in the Union”—told of the wave 
of indignation that swept over citizens in all walks of life 
at the action of the school board. Editorially the News 
Journgl said of the situations: “The school system of Lan- 


The American Teacher 


137 


caster, once the pride of the Red Rose City, and for a num- 
ber of years one of the best in Pennsylvania, has colla) ” 
* * * * * * * 


A citizens’ committee of one hundred was organized. and 
this was later supplemented by a women’s committee of 150. 


The Ministerial Association of the city, after hearing both 
sides, strongly upheld the teachers, saying in their report: 
“We feel that the people of Lancaster ought to know 
that, while the Teachers’ Federation is affiliated with the 
American Federation of Labor, organized labor has no 
authority over the Teachers’ Association. . . . These 
teachers are among the best. Many of them have served 
our schools faithfully and well for years. They will not 
be the chief sufferers. It will be the children and youth 
of our city.” 

“REQUESTED TO WITHDRAW” 


There is not space to review all the details of the con- 
troversy as it went on. Suffice it to say that the board ad- 
hered to its decision not to re-elect, and the teachers also 
sat tight. Influenced by public clamor the board did. in 
due time, issue a notice that has been characterized as a 
“strange mingling of cunning obsequiousness and cruel 
power,” which read as follows: 

“Resolved, That all the teachers affiliated with the Lan- 
caster Teachers’ Association of the American Federation of 
Teachers be advised by the committee, supported by a 
majority of the board, that it is the conviction of the com- 
mittee that such affiliation is not for the best interests of 
our schools, and that all teachers so affiliated be respect- 
fully requested, if they will, to abandon such affiliation and 
that each teacher indicate in writing to the secretary of 
the board on or before Thursday, June 3, 1920, whether 
or not he or she is willing to comply with this request. 


Dr Frvecan’s DECISION 


But the board went on electing such teachers as it could 
secure, and the citizens and teachers appealed for a deci- 
sion to Dr. Thomas E. Finegan, State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction of Pennsylvania. 

It was five weeks before the appeal to the State Super- 
intendent was answered. The decision came on July 27. 
As was to be expected, it upheld the right of the Lancaster 
board under the law not to re-elect the’ teachers. Pennsyl- 
vania has no tenure of office law, and the School Board 
here can let any teacher go if the members do not like the 
color of her hair or her eyes or the way she dresses, or 
anything else about her. It shows the professional 
position in which American teachers are to-day—but it 
ought to be said in defence of Pennsylvania that only a 
a few States have tenure laws that protect teachers in their 
positions during efficiency and good behavior, and Penn- 
sylvania in this respect is no worse than many others. 


Legally, the State Superintendent was on firm ground. 
But he did not stop kere. He drew up a statement on the 
propriety of teacher affiliation that will return to plague 
him some day. Nobody who knows Dr. Finegan will be- 
lieve he wrote it himself, for it isn’t even an effective attack 
on labor affiliation. It repeats most of the erroneous as- 
sumptions that are current among those who have not taken 
the trouble to investigate; it answers in the negative the 
academic question: “Is it proper and professional for teach- 
ers to affiliate as an organized body with another organiza- 
tion representing a portion of the citizens of the community 
in which such teachers are employed?” yet says: the fact 
that such teachers are or are not members of an organisa- 
tion of any kind has no bearing upon the lawful action 
which a board may take in such matter,” and practically 
urges the teacher to quit her job if she can not get satis- 
faction—something the Lancaster teachers have been par- 
ticularly careful not to do. 





138 


How It Stanps Now 


A few of the teachers have gone back; fifty-three have 
held out to date. Nearly all of these fifty-three have ac- 
cepted other positions. A goodly proportion of them have 
gone into business or are taking special business courses 
for this purpose. They are disgusted with teaching as a pro- 
fession. The president of the organization, admitted on all 
sides to be an extremely capable school man, will probably 
be lost permanently to education—at least to public school 
work. Some of the teachers are going into factories and 
stores. A number are going out to other cities, so that 
Lancaster’s loss is somebody’s gain. 

The Superintendent says he is filling the positions sat- 
isfactorily. He would not admit to me that the standards 
are any lower, though it will be little short of a miracle if 
he gets worth while teachers for the slightly increased sal- 
aries that are paid, and under the conditions as they exist. 
The Superintendent himself thinks the teachers ought to 
have had more money, and he thinks Lancaster’s new tax 
for education—1o mills—is still too low, though he points 
out that it has doubled in the past eight years. 

Motives BEHIND THE FIGHT 


I have talked with members of the school board and 
members of the teachers’ organization. Many of the 
teachers, as well as many independent citizens, take the 
view that the real trouble is the political machine. They 
name Congressman W. W. Griest, who is the great political 
leader of the county or the machine boss who holds the 
whole county in his hand (depending upon how you view 
it), as the real cause of the trouble. The Assistant District 
Attorney, A. V. Hosterman, has been the most energetic 
member of the board in the union matter. He claims to 
have stood alone at first in opposing the teachers’ union, 
and this claim is generally recognized as just. He is very 
earnest in his opposition to teachers’ unions. He says some 
very appreciative things about the organized labor move- 
ment, but makes the usual mistake of insisting that in some 
mysterious way the teachers can be ordered out on strike 
by the American Federation of Labor and must in any case 
bring active labor promotion into the school room. He 
insists that the board did its own thinking and did not 
take orders from Griest. President Slaymaker, one of the 
three bank presidents on the board, thought labor affilia- 
tion might be all right up in the mining regions of the State, 
where everybody was organized and “it wouldn’t be no- 
ticed.” But he didn’t want to be on the school board any- 
way—he had really important things to do; “schools were 
only a side issue.” Another bank president, by the way, 
is the strongest supporter the teachers have on the board. 

At the beginning of this article it was suggested that 
the chief motive back of the School Board’s action might 
in the last analysis turn out to be industrial rather than 
political. “Lancaster is a conservative town,” I was told 
by people on both sides of the controversy. Those op- 
posed to the teachers were quite willing to assert their be- 
lief in the right of labor to organize, tho they were 
careful to assert that organized labor had its “proper 
sphere of action”—a phrase which often means, with those 
who use it, opposition to unionizing of workers in other 
fields than those already occupied. 

But in the end the question comes back to the lockout 
of union teachers by the Lancaster school board. No 
matter what one’s views on the desirability of teacher affil- 
iation may be, there will be few who will sympathize with 
the ruthless method of the lockout, whether, applied by 
industry or by a school board claiming to represent the 
public. As Josephine Colby said recently in describing a 
similar situation in California: “There is nothing to foster 
a good union spirit like denial of the right to organize.” 
There is something in the American spirit that fights hard- 
est for the thing that is denied. ; 
—From The Evening Post (New York) of August 14, 1920. 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 6. 


ANOTHER DEBATE 

A symposium on the urion movement among 
teachers is published in the Educational Review 
for September. The writers for the movement 
are President Charles B Stillman and Prof 
W C Curtis, president of our local in the University 
of Missouri, The writers against are Prof A 
O Lovejoy, president of the American Asso- 
ciation of University Professors and Dr James 
E Russell, Dean of Teachers College. In addi- 
tion, the Editor of the Review, Prof F P 
Graves, University of ‘Pennsylvania, takes part 
in the discussion on the side against unionism. 

The array of arguments for and against is 
the most pretentious yet assembled in one issue 
ot a periodical. The publishers of the “Review” 
are George H Doran Company, 244 Madison 
avenue, New York. 

Dean Russell’s argument was presented first at 
a mass meeting of students in the summer session 
at Columbia University, 1919. Professor Love- 
joy’s argument strikes us as being cold and cal- 
culating in the effect of its advice to teachers. 
His concluding paragraph is as follows: 


“It is by refusing to merge themselves in either of 
the great parties, by maintain‘ng their complete in- 
dependence of action and thus their ability to throw 
their influence now to one side and now to another, 
that small minorities, in political affairs, have not 
seldom been able to exercise great power. It is a some- 
what similar policy that American teachers, who will 
never be formidable by their numbers, can best retain 
and increase their power to serve the cause of justice 
and orderly social progress, to meet each new issue 
effectively as it arises, to trim the ship of state during 
the storms thru which it is certain to pass in the 
coming decades. Our position will be stronger and our 
influence and potential usefulness incomparably greater 
if we avoid all entangling alliances with organizations 
primarily economic in their objects and representing 
chiefly the special interests either of employers or em- 
ployees.” 

In our opinion “trim” is the correct term for 


a course of this kind. 





AN OPINION 

“As a teacher, I should be unwilling to join a union. | 
put the teacher in the same category as the soldier, a 
officer of the army of future defence.”—From an address al 
Convention of the Typographical Union, Albany, N Y, by 
John H Finley, Commissioner of Education of the State 
of New York. 

Yes, and so do others who need armies to help 
them out. See the activities of the California 


Federation of Commerce, 





September, 1920 


BOOK REVIEWS 
Department in charge of Alice L Wood, Associate Editor 


With the book notices of The New York Times, The 
Bookman, The New Republic and The Nation available to 
American teachers, the value of additional reviews in 
THe AMERICAN TEACHER may be questioned. How- 
ever, a personal opinion based upon reading for 
pleasure and not reading for professional review- 
ing may carry weight. In these book-talks as they 
appear from time to time, I shall list and comment upon 
books on any subject, that have proved worth while to 
me, books that, called out of the many, I can recommend 
to busy teachers. 

In this first paper, written as it is, far from libraries, 
where the only books are found in running brooks, I am 
compelled to look backward. Of all the books of last win- 
ters’ reading which stand out, which would I unwillingly 
have missed? 

Two discussions of the present industrial crisis seem to 
me fundamental. With these as a basis all of the later 
books and magazine articles on the subject seem clearer. 
They are Bertrand Russell’s “Proposed Roads to Freedom” 
(Holt) and Helen Marot’s “The Creative Impulse in In- 
dustry” (Dutton). In the first, Russell defines and analyzes 
with superlative clarity the terms we must understand if 
we would understand any of the world movements today 
in industry and economics. Without pias and thoro, it 
is an invaluable exposition of such terms as State Social- 
ism, Guild Socialism, Syndicalism, etc. 

Helen Marot’s book is not the easy reading created by 
Russell’s matchless style. It is well worth reading tho, 
as a discussion of the psychological basis of much of the 
discontent of labor. It is suggestive to the teacher, also, 
in its emphasis on the fundamental human impulse to 
create, to express one’s self in all activities. 

A third book that made a great impression on me as a 
teacher was “The History and Practice of Psychanalysis,” 
by Bjerre (Badger). This is purely a popular summary of 
the theories and discoveries of the great leaders in Psychan- 
alysis, elementary to students of the subject, But to one 
who has not the time to specialize it is valuable in giving 
an understanding of the underlying principles, and is most 
suggestive to the teacher or parent. The knowledge of the 
harm we teachers may unwittingly do, is terrifying but 
happily, as James comforts us, the protective faculties of 
the young are numerous, and, too, sympathy and com- 
mon sense save us from many pitfalls of which scientifi- 
cally we are all unaware. 

The Adams books! Who has not read them? In spite 
of all the reviews, let no one be frightened off. “The 
Education of Henry Adams” (Houghton, Mifflin), with 
its fascinating style, its ironic humor, its pictures of Har- 
vard, Boston and Washington, is well worth reading, once 


The American Teacher 


139 


for pure pleasure, and a second time with an American 
history at one’s elbow for reference. 

“The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma” (Mac- 
Millan) was so stimulating to me in its original suggestive- 
ness that it almost became an obsession. However, now 
that the excitement of the book itself has worn off, the 
introduction by Brooks Adams seems perhaps the most 
interesting part of it. The light he throws upon his for- 
bears, and the discussion of Adams’ view of the trans- 
portation problem in this country ane its relation to real 
democracy, is most timely. 

One more Adams book, “The Autobiography of Charles 
Francis Adams,” (Houghton, Mifflin), gives still another 
point of view of Bostonian education and American culture, 
this time the scholarly and political tradition becoming 
slightly tinged with business. While not so temperamental, 
nor nearly so fascinating, it is doubtless healthier. 


Before leaving the subject of biographies, I cannot for- 
bear naming as the most delightful book of my last year’s 
reading “Eminent Victorians” by Lytton Strachey. For 
style, insight and a picture of a period, it is without a 
peer in its realm, in my opinion. 

Novels? Where are the good novels of the days before 
the war? This writer does not find them. However. 
“Legend,” by Clemence Dane (MacMillan) so well re- 
viewed by the Nation’s excellent reviewer, proved to be 
all that he said. Artistically a gem, it held one a little 
breathless with the tenseness of one’s emotion and interest. 
“The Gay-Dombeys” (MacMillan) is also quite worth 
reading, especially enjoyable to one who confesses a love 
for Dickens. 

I find I have left out Keynes’ “Economic Consequences 
of the Peace” (Harcourt, Brace & Howe), which I con- 
sider as necessary to an understanding of all discussion of 
after-war economics as Russell’s book to an understanding 
of after-war industry. Or I might say as fundamental as 
Dewey’s “Democracy and Education’ to all discussions of 
Education. 





“Organized Labor in American History,’ by Prof Frank 

Tracy Carlton. D Appleton & Co. 

Prof Carlton’s book is not a history of the labor move- 
ment but a short understanding and sympathetic treatment 
of labor’s part in the evolution of our social life. Prof 
Carlton’s portrayal of the Constitution as an instrument for 
the protection of property rather than humanity, his anal- 
ysis of the types of labor legislation, his fine treatment of 
the relation of labor to such movements as land reform, 
slavery, etc., are interesting, but it is his treatment of labor 
and education that will particularly please the readers of 
the “American Teacher.” 

In Chapter 4 Prof Carlton shows that free tax-supported 
schools grew rapidly not so much because of the support 
of such humanitarians as Horace Mann or R Dale Owen, 
but largely because of labor’s enthusiastic support. Having 
secured free universal education, labor now desires to trans- 





140 


form our schools from commercialized agencies turning out 
cogs that will fit the industrial machine of today into a 
workshop of democracy, where the children can be trans- 
formed into socially-minded, clear-thinking citizens who will 
fight to eliminate social and economic inequality. Labor 
thus hopes to transform the schools into agencies of social 
progress instead of keeping them as defenders of the pres- 
ent unjust political and economic order. In this great task 
of democratizing and humanizing education, the American 
Federation of Teachers is playing a predominant part. 
Those teachers who desire to familiarize themselves with 
labor’s achievements and ideals should secure a copy of 
Prof Carlton’s book. 

“The College and New America,” by Jay William Hudson. 

D Appleton & Co 

The tremendous failure of world statesmanship is not only 
driving civilization into bankruptcy, but is instrumental in 
bringing about a search for the cause of this failure. Some 
piace the blame on our economic system, others upon our 
faulty educational system. Prof Hudson maintains that 
our colleges, with scholarship as the goal, develop the aca- 
demic mind. He would transform our educational monas- 
teries into laboratories of statesmanship in which men are 
to be trained to serve society and to realize its ideals. In 
other words, scholarship and truth are to be taught not for 
their own sake, but for the sake of society. 

While Prof Hudson clearly senses the problem of edu- 
cational reconstruction in its broad, rather than detailed 
aspects, nowhere does he intimate that organized wealth, 
thru its control of boards of trustees, makes impossible the 
realization of the educational reforms for which he so elo- 
fessors. The realization of the ideals advocated by 
making educators free, by democratizing our educational 
institution and that means the unionization of college pro 
fessors. The realization of the ideals advocated by Profs 
Carlton and Hudson means not only a complete transfor- 
mation of our educational system from the point of view 
of courses of study, methods of teaching and administra- 
tion, but from the point of view of completeness and use- 
fulness. With these reforms consummated education will 
not cease with graduation, but will begin and reach full 
fruition in an active social life. Only thus can the social 
ideal be realized. 





WILL DEFEND TEACHERS 


Fresno, Cal., Sept. 18—Organized oil workers have 
pledged $2,000 to three Fresno school teachers who have 
been discharged and who are now suing the city superin- 
tendent for slander. It is agreed by every one that the 
teachers were discharged because of their connection with 
the teachers’ union, which is opposed by the superintendent. 
This official, however, gives as his reason “official incapacity,” 
and the teachers resent a reflection against their ability 
that will deter them in securing employment in the future. 

They are without funds and when the case was pre- 
sented to the Oil Workers’ union these trade unionists 
unanimously voted $2,000. Other trade unions are taking 
similar action. 

—From the Weekly Newsletter of the A F of L. 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 6. 


DECLARATION OF GRIEVANCES 
IRENE R SINELNIK P S 165, Brooklyn, N Y 


Whereas, The progress of the elementary school 
is dependent upon the wisdom of the teacher-clerk, 
and 

Whereas, The clerk is both the right and left 
hand of His Honor, the Principal, and 

Whereas, The teacher-cierk deigts to grace the 
central office of the school with her personal charms 
and esthetic presence, and 

Whereas, The teacher-clerk raises the artistic 
standard of the school by exhibiting such noted 
masterpieces as Raeburn’s “Boy and the Rabbit,” 
Millet’s “Gleaners,” Teachers’ Time Books, Dis- 
trict Map and School Calendar, and 

Whereas, The teacher-clerk is the happy recipient 
of the munificent remuneration of $1200 per aa- 
num for these noble services, and 

Whereas, The teacher-clerk takes the vows of 
eternal celibacy in order to fulfil these duties in the 
manner of infallible statistical guardian, be it hereby 

Resolved, That said teacher-clerk be vested with 
the power to punish by decapitation, slow poisoning, 
higher license and eternal basement duty teachers 
and cthers guilty of the following misdemea: ors: 

. Sending to office for correct time. 
Criticizing the workings of the office clock. 
Sending for keys without a note. 
Submitting erroneous attendance sheets at 

end of month. 

5. Disturbing the peace of the office by per- 
sonal telephone calls. 

6. Asking for salary rate. 

7. Sending to office to find out if superintend- 
ent is in building. 

8. Principal’s asking clerk to take notes when 
she is engaged in manicuring, personal correspond- 
ence or sweet day-dreams. 

9. Using of the 
amateurs. 

10. Asking clerks if teachers may enter pri 
cipal’s office when His Honor is rotating in the 
Royal Swivel. 

11. Teachers’ appropriating. unto themselves 
such valuable office property as erasers, books, blot 
ters, past payrolls, etc., etc., etc., and PENCILS. 


Perfect Underbrush by 





Scptember, 1920 


12. Reading over clerk’s shoulder when she ‘s 
computing payrolls. 

13. Insisting on being sick and delinquent on 
payroll day. 

14. Parents’ appearing regularly at principal’s 
office to sing the eulogies cf their offspring. 

15. Assignment of clerks to classes. 

16. Elocution or oration by teachers in office 
after dismissal. 

17. Arousing the ire and envy of clerks by leav- 
ing school at noon on Jewish holidays. 

18. Principals’ tapping of desk bell when clerk 
is half way down a mile-long column of figures. 

19. Asking clerks to hold telephone receiver 
while waiting for number. 

20. Sending to office for postage stamps—a vile 
imposition. 

21. Singing the useless refrain of “More Heat.” 

22. Refusing to accept new admissions. 

23. Singing or humming off pitch within hear- 
ing distance of the office. 

24. Continual reverberating concert recitation 
on the first floor. 

25. Resenting criticism of teacher-clerks. 

Courageously submitted to His Honor, the Prin- 


cipal, on May 27, 1920. 





FREEDOM THRU UNIONISM 


The world having been made safe for political autocracy, 
the industrial Bourbons are now planning to destroy the 
un‘on movement among teachers with a view of making 
educational enlightenment, and with it intelligent economic 
action, impossible. The first step in this national movement 
to enslave the workers or keep them economically in serf- 
dom is the inauguration of an Open-sshop Campaign on a 
national scale and the characterization of the movemnet by 
a subsidized press as the essence of Americanism and in- 
dividual liberty; the second, the sabotaging of the splendid 
efforts of awakened Christianity as typified by the efforts 
of the various denominational churches to further the just 
demands of labor; the third, the determined efforts of 
chambers of commerce to capture the last citadel guarding 
the workers from political and economic slavery—the pub- 
lic schools and colleges. ' 

“The schools must be captured” is the motto of the 
chambers of commerce. In var‘ous colleges fearless eco- 
nomic thinkers have been dismissed for daring to serve 
truth rather than organized wealih. Thruout the West 
the business interests have undertaken a gigantic advertis- 
ing campaign in which they offer to make teachers the 
favored wards of the states with high salaries if they will 
but stand for the status quo. Those who refuse to sell 
the'r intellectual birthright for such a mess of pottage and 
who persist in joining the organized labor movement by 
affiliating with the American Federation of Teachers, are 
threatened with immediate dismissal—strong proof of the 
efficiency of our movement. In Frisco, Lancaster and St. 
Louis the fight is on. Unionism and Plutocracy have 


The American Teacher 


141 


locked horns at last. There is no turning back. The fight 
must be continued until intellectual and economic freedom 
or intellectual and economic slavery emerge triumphant. In 
Pennsylvania, our old “friend” Dr T F-negan (a most ad- 
m:irable choice for the steel barons who dominate the state) 
has ruled that affiliation wiih labor is unprofessional (what- 
ever thal may mean in a democracy) and those daring to 
do such an unprofessional thing may be denied a renewal 
of license by local authorit’es, and the Commissioner of 
Education will sustain such action because the public must 
be protected. Whenever necessary to maintain the iniqui- 
ties of the status quo that dear poor public is abused as 
often as the poor widows and orphans who own the stock 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

Is the Ed‘tor overstating his case? Is he soap-boxing? 
Is he preaching Bolshevism? Just read what the apostle of 
capitalism, the conservative statistician of the financial, 
commercial and industrial combines of America has to say. 
Mr Roger Babson of Babson’s Statistical Service says: 
“The war taught the employing class the secret and the 
power of widespread propaganda. Imperial Europe has 
been aware of this power. It was new to the United States. 
Now, when we have anything to sell to the American 
people, we know how to sell tt. We have learned. We 
have the schools. We have the pulpit. The employing 
class owns the press. There is practically no important 
paper in the United States but is theirs.” Oh, Mr Bab- 
son, we thank thee for thy truth-speaking. Evidently the 
industrial overlords must be sure of their control if their 
agent dares to speak so boldly and freely. 

Well, fellow teachers, how does it feel to be claimed by 
the Employing Class? “We have the Schools” keeps ring- 
ing in the Editor’s ears and urges him to renewed efforts 
to induce the teachers to exert themselves to prevent the 
consummation of this gigantic conspiracy to enslave the 
thought of America. 

In this portentous hour, when the people are dissatisfied, 
impatient, ground down by the profiteers, oppressed by the 
legalized violators of the law, and seem to be ready for 
almost any wild economic or political adventure, it ill 
behooves the owners of America’s industrial processes to 
launch a gigantic industrial and intellectual war. We, of 
the American Federation of Teachers, cannot but accept 
the challenge. The struggle is inevitable; let us meet it. 
Our cause is not only the teachers’ but also Aumanity’s 
cause. 

—From the News Bulletin of The Teachers Union (Local 

5, A F of T), for September, 1920. 





BONUSES FOR ATTENDANCE AT SUM- 
MER SESSIONS AND INSTITUTES 


200.00 to N.S. grad. 1st term 
150.00 to N.S. grad. 2d term 
100.00 to N. S. grad. 3d. term 


Railroad fare paid to teachers who attend 
summer school. 
Tlinois : 
Franklin County—$15.00 paid for attendance 
at State Teachers’ Convention. 





142 


A STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES 
Missouri University Teachers’ Union, Local 126, 
A F of T 
Our OBJECT Is THE PROMOTION OF EDUCATION 

We believe in democracy, and in the schools as 
the chief agency of democracy. We believe that in 
a democracy it is the duty of the schools to place 
within the reach of the whole community that train- 
ing in citizenship, industrial efficiency, and social- 
ized self-development without which freedom of 
thought and action is impossible. 

We believe that the success of the schools in real- 
izing these ideals depends upon the teachers. Con- 
sequently we believe that the teacher is one of the 
most highly productive of workers and that if his 
work is to be well done, he must live in an atmo- 
sphere of freedom and self-respect. We believe that 
the teacher’s freedom and self-respect involve a wage 
commensurate with the importance of his work and 
sufficient to attract men and women of ability, a 
voice in determining policies and programs of edu- 
cation, freedom of teaching and a secure tenure of 
office. 

We believe that instruction must be independent 


and non-partisan, the teacher being a servant of 
and responsible to the public only, similar to a Jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court who, tho appointed by 
the President and confirmed by the Senate, is there- 


after under the domination of neither. We believe 
that the teacher must be free to teach the truth as 
he has found it and that the conscience of the prop- 
erly trained teacher is the only guarantee against an 
anti-social use of the schools for propaganda. Be- 
cause we recognize that in this respect the teacher 
has one of the most responsible of callings, we be- 
lieve that the free exercise of the teacher’s conscience 
is the means by which the due acceptance of this re- 
sponsibility can be achieved. In cases in which the 
teacher’s action merits criticism or control, such 
criticism and control should emanate from the pro- 
fession. We believe that this freedom is as essen- 
tial in the primary and secondary schools as in the 
colleges and universities. 

We believe that in any association of public school 
teachers, the teachers in universities supported by 
taxation are in duty bound to take part, since such 
a university is an essential part of the public school 
system. We believe that the state supported system 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 6. 


of education is a whole in which the health of each 
part depends upon the health of all the others, and 
that in consequence the interests of the teachers are 
identical thruout the system. We believe that this 
identity of interests extends to the teachers in pri- 
vately controlled universities not operated for gain, 
or devoted to the interest of a sect. _ 

We recognize that for practical purposes there 
must be a division of function between the teaching 
staff and the staff of administration. We believe 
that the office of the administration is to maintain 
the highest possible degree of technical efficiency in 
the working of the educational plant, but we be- 
lieve that the subject matter to be taught and the 
methods of instruction fall within the province of 
the teacher. 

While we acknowledge that administrators are 
actuated by educational ideals, and while we fully 
recognize the need for loyal cooperation of teachers 
with executive officers, we nevertheless insist that 
the teaching staff should take all proper means to 
assert its right to a controlling voice in the determi- 
nation of educational policy. We believe that such 
action on the part of teachers will in the long run 
uphold the hands of administrators with right edu- 
cational ideals by strengthening the schools against 
outside influence that threaten to commercialize 
teaching, and to limit its freedom. 

We believe that the services of teachers ought not 
to be regarded as a commodity to be bought at the 
lowest possible price. “To follow such a policy can 
end only in the ruin of the profession, for it results 
in leaving the work of teaching to those who are too 
unambitious or too incompetent to enter callings 
with higher financial rewards. The low pay of 
teachers now prevailing we believe to be the most 
immediate menace of education, 

We believe that the only dependable hope for re- 
form lies in the organization of teachers on a nt 
tional scale to deal with problems which are national 
in scope. We believe, moreover, in the affiliation of 
teachers other workers, and that such affiliation 
will serve the best interests of both parties and of 
the general public. 

To the teachers affiliation will give more pow! 
to accomplish the purposes for which they organizt, 
since the problem of improving the conditions under 
which teachers work is essentially similar to that 








September, 1920 


Here's the 
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For every teacher 
For every school 


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The American Teacher 








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improving the working conditions of any other group Executive CouNCIL OF THE AMERICAN FEDERA- 


of workers. We believe that affiliation with other 
workers will make for freedom of teaching. As 
there is more cause for apprehension that the schools 
will be used for propaganda against the workers 
than for them, affiliation will be a counter-weight 
in favor of a genuine and evident impartiality. 

We believe that a permanent improvement in the 
condition of workers depends largely upon educa- 
tion, since it is only thru the public schools that the 
workers can gain the breadth of outlook and special 
knowledge required for solving their problems. The 
organized workers have an interest in public educa- 
tion and will inevitably adopt a policy toward it; al- 
ready they have resolved to seek representation on 
the governing boards of the tax-supported schools 
and universities. We believe that the affiliation of 
teachers with other workers can do much to direct 
such a policy into proper channels. 

We believe that the public at large has nothing 
to fear and much to gain from the cooperation of 
teachers with other workers, since such cooperation 
of all workers is a move in the direction of a more 
enlightened and more thorogoing democracy. 


TION OF TEACHERS 
President, Cuartes B Stmiman, Chicago 
1620 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, Ill. 
First Vice-President and Editor American Teacher, 
Henry R Linvitte, New York City, 
36 Terrace Avenue, Jamaica 
Second Vice-President and Field Secretary, 
L V_ Lampson, Washington, D C 
1336 Otis Place, N W 
Third Vice-President, JosepHine Cosy, Fresno, Cal., 
124 N Van Ness Blvd. 


Fourth Vice-President, Herman Derrem, New York City, 


2875 Broadway 
Fifth Vice-President, Isanex Wri1ams, St. Paul, Minn., 
554 Holly Avenue 
Sixth Vice-President, Jennie A Wiutcox, Chicago, Il. 
212 North Grove Avenue, Oak Park, Il. 
Seventh Vice-President, ApranamM LEFKowr7z, 
New York City, Grand Avenue, East Elmhurst 
Eighth Vice-President, C E Putturs, Atlanta, Ga., 
94 Brookline Street 


Ninth Vice-President, Ciara K Stutz, Washington, D C 


1628 Swann Street 


Secretary-Treasurer, F G Srecxer, Chicago, Ill. 
1618 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, Ill. 











THE HOMILIES OF FINEGAN 


(Extracts from the Decision of Thos E Finegan, Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, of the State of Pennsylvania, in the case of the appeal of the Lancaster, Pa, 
teachers who were dropped from the service for belonging to the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers.) pry 

‘‘The teacher-petitioners were not dismissed from service. They were 
permitted to teach the full period of time covered by their contracts. Their 
contracts terminated at the end of the school year. The board of school di- 
rectors passed a resolution expressing its conviction that the action of such 
teachers in joining an association affiliated with the American: Federation of 
Labor was not for the best interests of the schools and, respectfully re- 
questing that such teachers abandon the affiliation. The board thereafter de- 
clined to employ these teachers for another year. There is no legal obligation 
on the part of the board of school directors to contract for the ens'ting school 
year with any of the teachers employed during the past school year, and thd 
fact that such teachers are or are not members of an organization of any kind 
has no bearing upon the lawful action which a board may take in such; 
matter.’’ p. 3. 

‘‘Every effort possible was being made by the State, in cooperation with 
local authorities, to obtain increased compensation for all the teachers em- 
ployed in the schools of the State. Notwithstanding these facts the teacher- 
petitioners herein formed an organization which was affiliated with the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor, for the sole purpose of using the influence of such 
labor organization to coerce the board of school directors into granting the 
salary increases which such teachers had demanded. This procedure was im- 
proper and unprofessional.’’ pp. 5, 6. 

‘‘General education has been provided thru the maintenance of public 
schools, since such schools were first established in this country, upon the 
theory that greater security will be accorded human rights and prop: rty 
rights thru an educated citizenship. Teachers are, therefore, thru their 
work in giving instruction to the youth of the land, protecting and conserving 
these rights.’’ ‘Teachers must be as free and independent in the discharge 
of their public obligations and responsibilities, and in their devotion and 
loyalty to the public interests which they serve as are firemen, policemen, or 
soldiers.’’ p. 8. 

‘‘The authority conferred by law upon the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction will be exercised without delay or hesitation to protect the rights 
Meeee a superior authority attempts to destroy or limit such 

om & 

‘‘A teacher should understand when entering the profession that she be- 
comes a public servant to render a public service. In the interest of the public 
9 gona engined she must expect to make sacrifices and to endure hard- 

p.”’ p. 9. 

“‘If the teachers involved in this controversy desire to be considered by 
the board of school directors of the Lancaster City Schcol District in the 
awarding of contracts for the ensuing school year, such teachers should take 
such action as will remove their present disqualification. They should place 
themselves in a position to render that impartial service to the entire com- 
munity which the office of teacher demands they shall render. This may be 
done by properly disbanding the local branch or union of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers established by the teacher-petitioners in the Lancaster 
City School District, or by individual members simply resigning from mem- 
bership therein. It is, therefore, urgently recommended that the board of 
school directors shall renew contracts with those teachers involved in this 
controversy who pursue the course above outlined, and who have no other 
disqualification.’’:pp. 9,10. - 





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