™% AMERICAN. 








The Organ of 
i American 
Federation 
Bee Teachers 











Democracy in Education 






NOVEMBER, 1920, oF : 


Safety First and Good 
Business 






O 





Democracy in Education 







O 






Democracy in Industry 






Oo 
To A New Delegate 





TEACHER 


aa lan 





Bur of Education 
¢ 


Wasbington 


D 


Education for Democracy 





The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. & 








The Labor Movement 


HAT shall we say of the relation 
W of the Church to the Labor Move- 

ment, which is one of the out- 
standing factors in the industrial world? 
cannot claim a good record with regard 
to labor questions. Since the beginning of 
the industrial revolution only a minority of 
the members of our Church have insisted 
on the social application of the Gospel. 


lution. But we ought, in all fairness, to 
judge the labor movement at its best, and to 
consider what is to be the relation of its 
idealism to the idealism of the Church. The 
purpose of the labor movement, at its best, is 
cure fulness of life, the opportunity of a 
complete development of their manhood and 
womanhood for those who labor ; it seeks to 
furnish a better world for people to live in. 
While this is also the Church’s aim, our su- 
preme task must be 














Now that the con- 
science of the eo 
Christian communi- 

ty has been stirred, 

we must be content EpIToRIALS 
to bear the accusa- 
tion that we are 
only trying to make 
ourselves popular 
with labor, because 
labor is now a dom- 
inent power. The 
accusation is not 
true. We are hon- 
estly trying to see 
and to speak the 
truth, and _ those 
who make that ef- 
fort will not, in the 
long run, be popu- 
lar with any party. 


TEACHERS 


SHop 


FORM 


Book REvIEWs 








~ CONTENTS 


DeMocRACY IN EpucaTiIon A . 
DeMocRACY IN INDUSTRY 
Democracy IN EpucaTIon B . 


THe AMERICAN FEDERATION OF 
Tue CLosep SHOP AND THE OPEN 
A ProGRAM oF EpUCATIONAL RE- 


To A New DELEGATE To Our Na- 
TIONAL CONVENTION 


to provide better 
people to live in the 
world. The labor, 
movement can help 
the Church by 
bringing us _ into 
touch with actuali- 
ties, and increasing 
our discontent with 
mere pious aspira- 
tions ; and assured- 
ly the Church can 
help the labor 
movewent by point- 
ing the way to that 
spiritual power 
which alone can 
bring the law of 
righteousness and 
love into permanent 














The question is not 
whether labor is friendly to the Church, or 
whether we can attract labor men to the 
Church, but whether the ideals of labor are 
sound and its claims just. No doubt there 
are strata in the labor movement, as in “the 
world” generally, which are secularist and 
materialistic. Certainly, also, there are labor 
men (though not so many in the English- 
speaking peoples as on the continent of 
Europe) who are advocates of violent revo- 


action. “He who 
can spiritualize democracy,” said Mazzini, 
“will save the world.”—From Report of a 
Committee at the Conference of Bishops of 
the Anglican Communion, Lambeth Palace, 
July 5 to August 7, 1920. 


The inherent social stimulation within the 
labor movement is destined to spread thruout 
all the creeds. In that movement they will 
realize their own ideals of service to mankind. 


SO EE er rr ee ca 











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. 8 


GETTING NEARER 


It is obvious that where our analysis of school 
conditions becomes thoro we shall be getting 
close to our own lairs. Professor Hart, himself 
a teacher of many years’ standing in college work, 
cuts close to the quick in his address on “De- 
mocracy in Education” printed in this issue. 
Many of us, indeed, have taken advantage of our 
positions to browbeat and insult those who can- 
not or dare not talk back. Habits developed un- 
der these circumstances are easily developed and 
retained for use when the teacher later has made 
his promotion and become a superior. But there 
are many petty tyrants left to abuse the children. 


THE LONG TRAIL 


Mr George Soule, whose article on Democracy 
in Industry appears in this issue, has made an un- 
commonly intelligent analysis of the conditions 
and reasons leading to workers’ control in in- 
dustry. Anyone who has acquaintance with in- 
dustry knows that especially since the war the 
complaiit among employers has been that the 
workers have been “slowing up.” This has been 
going on in spite of the general improvement in 
wages. The usual intepretation suggested by the 
employers has been that the men had been spoiled 
by prosperity, and think of nothing but getting 
still higher wages without working. The true 
interpretation may be quite different. 

Mr. Soule calls attention to this very common 
“drag” on industry. As he says, progressive en- 
gineers and employers have learned that active in- 
terest in production on the part of the workers 
is aroused whenever an increased measure of 
control is granted to them. In other words, in- 
dustry gains in the co-operation and interest of 
the workers when responsibility is granted them. 
The quoted statements of Hart, Schaffner and 
Marx is proof enough that the sharing by workers 
in the control of conditions pays the employers. 


171 


' NOVEMBER, 1920 


One Dollar a Year 


The task of organized teachers, therefore, is 
to carry this lesson to their fellow teachers. It 
is necessary to stimulate teachers to want what 
other workers have learned to want, and many 
have learned how to obtain. Let us not be dis- 
couraged in traversing this long trail. It is a 


- long way, but it appears to be the only way. 


THE OPEN SHOP IS UNDERSTOOD 


It is evident that some of our fellow unionists 
thruout the country are becoming nervous as the 
lines are drawn closely. for the struggle on the 
issue of the “open shop.” This is unfortunate 
but natural. At the same time there is little to 
be nervous about. It is as clear as day that the 
“open shop” means a shop closed against the 
unions. It is also clear that the interests that 
now close the shops against the organized work- 
ers are the most gigantic aggregations of selfish- 
ness existing in our American life to-day. 

The Steel Corporations are out to destroy the 
unions. Is there any doubt about this? And if 
they accomplished their object is there any teacher 
in the American Federation of Teachers who be- 
lieves the era of justice and freedom will be 
brought nearer? Does it seem by yielding to the 
Steel Corporations the right to determine the con- 
ditions under which men and women shall work | 
for the shareholders, that we have approached the 
ideal standards of life for humanity? As honest 
persons we cannot say the Steel Corporations have 
any social purpose except that of taking advantage 
of their position to retain economic power, no 
matter what happens to the workers. 

If our timid members will look about them 
they will see evidences of a form of distrust that 
is menacing to the selfish interests. The en- 
lightened socially-minded ranks of the country 
that up to the present have escaped the attacks 
of the name-callers are doing some keen observ- 
ing and some plain speaking. The Catholic clergy 





172 


have spoken strongly, and will be a powerful aid 
to the unions. No group outside of labor has 
taken a more definite stand against the ‘open 
shop” than has this one. The clergy are begin- 
ning to say the “open shop” campaign is an 
anti-union campaign. 

In this issue we quote from the Report of the 
Lambeth Conference of the Anglican church on 
the social purpose of the union movement. One 
thing is certain, the churches are coming to realize 
the nature of the vast social undertaking lead by 
the union movement, the task of making this a 
better world. It is safe to predict that the 
churches will approach one another closely in the 
near future on this extraordinary platform which 
labor has initiated. 


SAFETY FIRST AND GOOD BUSINESS 


“Good Business insists that sufficient insur- 
ance be carried to meet contingent cases. We 
have always dodged the issue of am adequate 
or sufficient insurance for the protection of our 
Government. As a consequence, few of us will 
live to see the receipt bills for the World War.” 


This statement might be mistaken for one 
which the chairman of military affairs had an- 
nounced to the country. But it is the statement of 
a superintendent of schools speaking to the teach- 
ers of Oakland, California. Since Mr Fred M 
Hunter, the superintendent, is President of the 
National Education Association, it is proper to 
say he is speaking to the teachers of the nation. 

The vehicle of the quoted statement is the 
“Superintendents’ Bulletin” of the date of Oc- 
tober 29, 1920. The bulletin contains twelve 
pages. Six of these pages are given to sentiments 
about the need of national preparedness and to 
news about the personnel of the officers that 
conduct the training of the Reserve Officers’ 
Training Corps in the schools of Oakland. In 
this portion of the “Bulletin” are many sections 
designed to convince teachers and pupils of the 
need of having a reserve corps to lead our boys 
in another war. We may conclude that President 
Hunter believes in the policy of preparing to 
the hilt for the next war. We may also infer 
that he is not interested in a somewhat prevalent 
desire on the part of the workers in all coun- 
tries to eliminate war altogether. 

In another section of the “Bulletin” President 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 8 


Hunter discusses “Politics.” He says, “All prin- 
cipals in the Oakland schools are responsible for 
calling to the attention of the teachers the necessity 
for carefully refraining from any participation 
in political campaigns, national, state and local.” 
After making an exception in regard to a proposed 
amendment to the state constitution which Mr 
Hunter thinks is good, he goes on to say, “This 
caution in no sense restricts any teacher in exer- 
cising his functions as an American citizen” 
(italics ours). 

Then Superintendent Hunter prints in capitals 
“A LITTLE MESSAGE.” 

“VOTE ‘YES’ ON AMENDMENT 16. 
THIS AMENDMENT WILL ESTABLISH 
EQUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL OP- 
PORTUNITY FOR EVERY CHILD; 
WILL PROVIDE ADEQUATE SUPPORT 
FOR. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, AND 
WILL RE-OPEN THE HUNDREDS OF 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS NOW CLOSED BY 
POVERTY.” 

The principals are instructed to see that the 
little message or one like it is copied and taken 
home by each child on November 1, 1920. 

The President of the National Education As- 
sociation has had a great deal to say elsewhere 
about training the children for democracy. Are 
we to understand that militarism and no political 
activity for teachers (with judicial exceptions, of- 
ficially approved) are the natural springs for ac- 
tivity in democracy ? 


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 LINVILLE, Editor 
Associate Editors 
AUGUSTINE AURIANNE SAMUEL G MCLEAN 
HarRRY GUNNISON BROWN Auice L Woop 

Max ROSENHAUS, Business Manager 








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Democracy in Education— A* 


JOSEPH K HART 


Editorial Staff, The Survey, New York 


All that may be said about democracy in in- 
dustry may probably be said with equal truth 
about democracy in education. The school sys- 
tem may be likened to a factory system: each has 
its hierarchy of management; its buildings and 
equipments; its working forces; its raw mate- 
rials; and its finished products. In each, the 
workers who perform the actual productive pro- 
cesses feel themselves deprived of certain ele- 
ments essential to the completest success of their 
work: they do not select for themselves the par- 
ticular tasks they are best fitted to perform; 
they do not have a voice in determining the con- 
ditions of ‘service: wages, tenure, promotion, es- 
sential morale. They are subordinates, under 
authority. They are told to go and they must 
go; to stand and they must stand. In short, in 
so far as the school system is an organized sys- 
tem for the production of certain social goods all 
that needs to be said concerning democracy in 


industry applies with equal force to the schools. 


But that is not all. 
calls for the assumption of certain moral atti- 


Democracy in industry 


tudes on the part of the worker. He must ac- 
cept responsibility; he must know and under- 
stand; he must think, as well as feel. That is 
to say, democracy in industry is calling for a 
more responsible, a better educated, a more 
rounded type of individual workingman. Surely 
the school has some responsibility here! 

And, now we see that subordination in educa- 
tion has two possible references, whereas sub- 
ordination in industry has but one. In industry, 
the worker is subordinated to the management, 
and he asks for democratic relief. But no one 
spends much time thinking about or lamenting 
the fact that the iron is subordinate to the 
worker, nor would a crusade to deliver the iron 
from the cruel hand of the tyrant machinist get 
many followers,—even in this day when ‘follow- 
ers’ are ready for any cause. 

On the other hand, in the school system, sub- 
ordination can take two turns; indeed, it always 


*Address delivered before the Teachers Union, 
New York, November 20, 1920. 


does, and democracy in education involves each 
of these subordinations,—the one quite as much 
as the other. That is to say, the teacher is sub- 
ordinate to the educational management, just as 
the worker is subordinate to the industrial 
management; and democracy in education calls 
for release of the teacher from the demoralizing 
aspects of this subordination. But, in a sense 
in which the iron he works upon is not morally 
subordinate to the mechanic, the pupil is subor- 
dinate to the teacher. And, not infrequently, the 
most vociferous leader of the cause of democracy 
in education is the most complete tyrant in the 
actual classroom. For not alone does the teacher 
need to be freed from the ‘tyrant’ who sits in the 
office of the board of education, or in the super- 
intendent’s sanctum, or in the principal’s chair. 
He needs quite as much, and ever so much more 
fundamentally, to be freed from the tyrant who 
rules in his own stern manner, who handles the 
children with short and worried ways, and who 
frequently deals with these raw materials of 
the democratic industrial order of the future 
with such high-handed insolence. 

Illustrations of this undemocracy of the class- 
room are too numerous and too personal for me 
to introduce them here. Democracy in educa- 
tion is not primarily needed for the sake of the 
teacher. Democracy in education will not mean 
primarily the “freeing” of the teacher. Democ- 
racy in education cannot be fully stated in terms 
of the teacher. 

But the teacher is dealing with, is working 
in, the next generation: the society of tomorrow 
is being molded and formed in the school rooms 
of today,—-not completely, not finally, not irrevoc- 
ably,—but in part, at any rate. A free society 
of the future cannot be made by unfree work- 
men. Teachers must be free, in order that their 
work for tomorrow may be free. Democracy in 
education must be achieved in order that we may 
work out the intelligent and democratic social 
order of the future. 

And the assurance of that social order is not 
in the books, nor in the schools, nor*in the fu- 


173 





174 


tilities and stupidities of our conventional knowl- 
edges and folkways. All these things, so highly 
prized by the statesmen who periodically wreck 
the world, are assurances of social disorder, 
rather than of order. No, the hope of the fu- 
ture is in the freed lives of our children. Free- 
dom is the only real restraint in the world. Op- 
pression, repression, suppression: these promise 
nothing but disorder,—world without end. 


Democracy in education goes far beyond the 
needs of the teacher, tho it always includes 
the teacher. It is the conception of a system of 
education in which free teachers shall bring 
hungry, hopeful, stumbling children into contact 
with free experiences, including free knowledge, 
in order that naturally, thoughtfully, patiently, a 
free social order may grow up in these children 
to take the place of the servile social orders of 
today. Democracy for the teachers is but one 
item in this program—tho when conceived in 
the largest light it is the most important, the 
crucial item. But democracy in education implies 
and involves so much more than freedom of the 
teachers. It implies and involves the ultimate 
freedom of society as a whole,—the assurance of 
that democratic freedom and intelligence which 
can underwrite all the longed-for developments 
of democracy in industry, in religion, in morality 
and even in politics. 


THE ENEMY WITHIN 


The Lockwood Housing Commission which was 
charged with the duty of discovering the true causes 
of the prevailing shortage of homes in New York, 
has discovered, incidentally, traces of a horrible 
cancer which has eaten into a considerable part of 
the body of our movement in this city. 

We say purposely “a considerable part” of our 
labor movement and have not in mind Brindell’s 
unions and his Building Trades Council alone. To 
begin with, it is a shame and a heartache that this 
sore had to be discovered by a Lockwood Com- 
mission, and that the entire labor movement, rep- 
resented by the American Federation of Labor, had 
kept silent about this shameful corruption. The 
excuse, that it had not known these facts, is too 
frail, indeed. Had the American labor movement 
stood at the height of its obligations, it could not 
have helped knowing these facts. The shame is 
even greater when it is admitted that the corrup- 
tion in the building trades was never a secret in 
the labor movement of New York. 

There were enough men in the Building Trades 


who have loudly protested against this apr oe od 


The Lockwood Commission discovered but little for 
these men. Articles about the deplorable situa- 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 8 


tion in these unions have been published from time 
to time in various newspapers. And yet, the A F 
of L, with its entire force and influence, did not 
do the least thing to make an end to this horrible 
scandal. Could anyone, under the circumstances, 
be blamed for asserting that if the A F of L and 
the entire labor movement of New York has kept 
silence in this situation, it is an eloquent sign that 
the state of affairs in many other unions is not 
much better? Would not such conclusions be fully 
justified? And it is because of this that we say 
that the shame of the Unions in the Building 
Trades of New York is not the shame of Brindell’s 
unions alone, but of our entire labor movement. 


Any person with a degree of intelligence, could 
have understood that such strikes were not be- 
ing called for nothing. It was known, in fact 
that all these strikes were a means for extor- 
tion of money from building contractors by Brin- 
dell and his gang, tho, not everybody suspected 
that such huge sums were involved in it. The labor 
movement, nevertheless, kept silent, and Brindell 
was not only not boycotted, but he played a big 
role in labor circles. This man never lost an op- 
portunity to condemn the radical unions as “Bol- 
shevist” organizations under the cloak of patri- 
otism, the customary refuge of every scoundrel. 

Years ago, we had in this city another such fel- 
low in these same building trades. His name was 
Sam Parks. His misdoings, too, were not dis- 
covered by the union themselves, and he was not 
punished by the labor movment. It was a capital- 
ist court which sentenced him to a term of years 
in prison, for bribery, where he died. I€ was 
thought that the fate of Sam Parks would serve 
a horrible example for those of his kind, and it 
was hoped that these unions would never permit 
a repetition of such a scandal. It appears, how- 
ever, that Sam Parks is a saint in comparison with 
those involved in the recent revelation, and that 
the unions in the buildings trades have sunk even 
deeper under the domination of Brindell. There 
is only a Brindell on one side and thousands upon 
thousands of obedient slaves on the other side, men 
who have lost every sense of honor for the few 
additional cents in wages which he had gained for 
them. This latter factor, the practical disappear- 
ance of the unions, is the most deplorable factor 
in the entire story. It makes one despondent, in- 
deed, to see so many thousands of workers ready 
to sell the best and the noblest within them—their 
independence, their right to self-determination— 
for a mess of pottage. 

It must be kept in mind, however, that no matter 
how we may hate and despise Brindell, if the great 
mass of workers in the building trades unions had 
stood on a higher plane of intelligence, Brindell 
could not have operated among them as he did. It 
is the stark ignorance of the workers and their 
complete indifference to all that is beyond their 
petty interests, that has made possible the domina- 
tion of a Brindell. 

The only thing that can and must be done is for 
the few clear-headed and intelligent men in these 
unions to continue their ceaseless agitation and 
educational work among their fellow workers, no 
matter how ungrateful their work may be to-day,— 
for, light is bound to break through the dark walls 
of corruption even in their ranks.—From “Justice,” 
the official organ of The International Ladies Gar- 
ment Workers Union, of November 5, 1920. 








Democracy in Industry * 


GEORGE SOULE 


Labor Bureau, New York 


In recent years we have been hearing many 
phrases such as industrial democracy, workers’ 
control, and so on. What do these phrases really 
mean? What do they stand for in people’s minds, 
and what do they signify in actual experience ? 

It is easy enough to draw the parallel between 
democracy in political government and democracy 
in industry. In politics we have long been accus- 
timed to the idea that just government must be 
based on the consent of the governed, and that 
everyone affected by laws and other conditions of 
society has a right to an equal voice in the fram- 
ing of those laws and conditions. Yet a great in- 
dustrial establishment, or an industry itself, is 
just as much subject to a government as the state, 
and its laws and conditions may affect the daily 
lives of those who work in it much more than the 
laws of the state. Why should not the workers 
in an industry, who are vitally dependent on it, 
have a right to a voice in its government, just as 
they have a right to a voice in political affairs? 
It was in this sense of rights that industrial de- 
mocracy was first talked about. 

There is also a parallel between the development 
of industrial democracy and that of political de- 
mocracy. The beginning of the growth of one is 
almost as old as the beginning of the growth of 
the other. _ Political democracy was achieved by 
a series of steps, one class after another rising 
and demanding its rights from those in power, the 
rights themselves being elaborated as time went 
on. In England it was first the great barons and 
noble land owners who were admitted to their 
share of power, then the business and trading 
classes, then the workmen, and last of all the wo- 
men. Sometimes, as in France, there was an at- 
tempt to achieve democracy by a sudden revolu- 
tion, which was followed by reactions. But in 
either case the growth of democracy was a grad- 
ual spreading of power, sometimes begun by a 
violent overturn, sometimes punctuated by out- 
bursts of violence. Industrial democracy has fol- 


* Address delivered before The Teachers Union, 
New York, November 20, 1920. 


lowed much the same course. Not long after the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, when the 
large establishment and the control of capital had 
begun to fasten themselves upon industry, a move- 
ment arose in England for the abolishment of in- 
dustrial autocracy and the sudden overturn of the 
system. Robert Owen and the Chartist movement 
were the first proponents of the “One Big Union,” 
Lut the times were not ripe, and their efforts had 
little permanent result. Then began the organ- 
ization of the workers into trade unions, which 
little by little encroached upon the control of the 
employer in such matters as hours and wages, and 
won a partial freedom for favored groups of 
highly skilled workers. It was not until much 
later that the great mass of unskilled labor began 
to participate in the limited industrial democracy 
which had been achieved, and apparently the 
“brain workers,” like the women in political af- 
fairs, are to be the last group to receive the in- 
dustrial franchise. 


The whole trade-union movement, which has a 
history of over a hundred years in both England 
and the United States, is one long struggle for an 
increasing measure of industrial democracy. It 
has changed its form, its policies and its aspira- 
tions many times according to the conditions in 
which it found itself, but all its victories have 
been expressed in terms of greater control by the 
worker, over the conditions surrounding his work- 
ing life. Wages and hours are the first battle- 
grounds of the campaign, which has since gone 
on to such questions as security of tenure, dis- 
tribution of work, management. of the productive 
process itself, and even penetration of the com- 
mercial and financial fields. 


During the war a new movement arose in Eng- 
land for workers’ control. It was known as the 
shop-stewards’ movement, because it was carried 
on by the representatives of the workmen in the 
individual shops. The hands of the higher union 
officials were tied by war legislation forbidding 
strikes, and they could not efficiently negotiate 
about matters in the various shops anyway, on ac- 


175 





The American Teacher 


count of the craft divisions among the unions. 
But the shop representatives of the various unions 
got together and formed unofficial shop commit- 
tees, which negotiated as units with the several 
employers, particularly in the munitions and ship- 
building plants. These committees not only con- 
cerned themselves with questions of hours and 
wages, but with complicated questions of man- 
agement, like the development of new processes 
and systems, and the admittance to the industry 
of unskilled or semi-skilled persons used to op- 
erate automatic machinery which crowded out old- 
fashioned manual skill. Many times they made 
valuable suggestions about the efficiency of in- 
dustry, on account of their intimate acquaintance 
with the work. 

Progressive engineers and employers welcomed 
the tendency toward increasing control on the part 
of the workmen, because it led to increased effi- 
ciency. They had long recognized that the 
greatest obstacle in the way of the introduction of 
new methods and technique, as well as_ the 
greatest drag on the operation of the existing 
methods, was the lack of interest on the part of 
the workman who was regarded as a machine and 


consequently contributed nothing but a grudging 


manual labor to the productive process. If they 
could arouse the active interest of the worker in 
production, they could afford to grant him in re- 
turn an increased measure of control which would 
prevent the new technique being used to his detri- 
ment. They recognized that you cannot get in- 
terest without granting responsibility. 


This marked a new phase in the development 
of industrial democracy. It was the entrance of 
the concept of function. The workman should 
have democracy not only because it is his right, 
but because with it he can perform his function 
better. He can produce more if he is an intelli- 
gent participator. We are now beginning to re- 
alize that the development of political democracy 
itself was not merely a progressive assertion of 
rights on the part of oppressed groups. The old 
autocratic systems fell not merely because people 
protested against them, but because they became 
inefficient ; they ceased to function properly and 
hence could not satisfy the people living under 
them. The development of democracy has really 


Volume IX, No. 


been in a larger aspect the development of th 
technique of administration. It is the same wit! 
industrial democracy. We must tap the sourc< 
of wisdom and power lying dormant in the ran! 
and file of industry, because without their ai: 
production will fail and civilization will be i: 
danger. It is not merely necessary to gran 
rights; it is also necessary to organize industria! 
administration properly, and to do so the worke 
must win an opportunity to function. 

In America, long before the war, the develop 
ment of the shop committee had begun, and sho) 
committees were exercising control in som: 
plants. On the railroads, in the shop and repai: 
departments, the “system federation” parallele:! 
the shop committee in the British metal trades. 
During the war the lines of development here and 
the lesson of British experience converged so that 
the establishment of shop committees in munitions 
plants, ship-yards, and arsenals was consciously 
encouraged by the various labor administrations 
of the government, and was carried out with the 
cooperation of the national unions themselves. 


Perhaps the first functioning shop committee 
here was in the clothing industry, where a strike in 
1910 resulted in the recognition of the shop com- 
mittee in the plant of Hart, Schaffner and Marx 
in Chicago, this being the beginning of the power 
of the trade-union group which has since devel- 
oped into the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of 
America. This committee has now operated for 
ten years without interruption, and has built up 
a body of industrial laws which virtually form a 
constitution. It protects, for instance, the rights 
of the worker against arbitrary discharge. No 
worker can be discharged by his foreman; the 
foreman may merely suspend, and can make a 
complaint to the labor manager of the plant. This 
manager can dismiss, but the discharge is subject 
to review by a board composed of equal numbers 
of representatives of employer and union. If this 
board finds the discharge to be unjust, the worker 
is reinstated with back pay. I think that is more 
protection than the teachers have. 

Hart, Schaffner and Marx, testifying before 
the U. S. Industrial Relations Commission in 
1914, made this remarkable statement: ‘Not the 
least of the advantages we have derived from our 





November, 1920 


system is the reaction of the ideas and ideals, first 
applied in the labor department, upon the other 
departments and particularly upon the executive 
staff of the manufacturing department. Ineffi- 
cient methods as to prevailing conditions on the 
part of higher executives; these could not long 
survive when every complaint brought by a work- 
man was thoroly investigated and the root cause 
of the trouble brought to light. The unexpected 
and indirect results of our labor policy in increas- 
ing the efficiency, reforming the conduct, and rais- 
ing the intelligence of the executives coming in 
contact with the system, have been as profitable 
and satisfactory as the direct result, i. e., the cre- 
ation of harmony and good will on the part of the 
people toward the Company.” 


In the United States Arsenal at Rock Island, 
Illinois, a shop committee functioned very effec- 
tively thru the war, and after the war actually took 
part in the larger management of the plant. The 
men desired to avoid the unemployment which 
would result from a slackening of the war demand 
for munitions, and so they urged that the arsenal 
develop a market for peace-time products. Their 
request was granted, and they helped to transform 
the arsenal and to develop the market. The con- 
ventionally-minded army officers in charge, how- 
ever, soon became afraid that so successful an 
example would lead farther than they intended, 
and the Rock Island experiment was abolished, 
not because it was a failure, but because it worked 
too well. 


A word of caution is necessary about shop com- 


mittees and forms of “industrial democracy” in- 
stalled by employers where the demand does not 
arise from the workers, and the employer does 
not cooperate with an independent union which 
can if necessary protect its members. A number 
of the largest steel companies installed such paper 
schemes during or after the war, and it was in 
these very companies that the steel strike was most 
effective. The men were unable to gain any real 
security from committees controlled by the com- 
pany. 

Industrial democracy does not stop within the 
walls of the shop. It is reaching out toward the 
drastic reorganization of large industries. The 
coal miners in England have asked for a form of 


The American Teacher 


177 


national ownership in which a preponderant share 
of the management shall be in the hands of those 
who actually work in the industry, and the Amer- 
ican railway men have pointed out how the rai! 
roads could be operated to the better advantage of 
the public under some such scheme as the Plumb 
Plan. Thought and research along these lines is 
growing by leaps and bounds, because we are 
coming to see that we cannot systematize and 
make efficient our whole machinery of production 
and distribution until democratic management 
supplants the autocratic management of the pri- 
With all our enormous 
advances in science and technique, we have not 
yet installed an administration of industry which 
can produce enough to enable everyone to live 
decently, or which, in fact, can avoid catastrophes 
that threaten to be disastrous to civilization. In 
order to save the world, the power and wisdom 
of the workers must be functionally connected 
with the administration of industry, and this can 
be done only by the proper organization of 
workers’ control. 


vate owner and banker. 


GUNS AND BASEBALL BATS URGED BY 
FRESNO EDUCATOR 


Riverside, Cal., Nov. 6.—A demand for law and 
order and gatling guns and, baseball bats to use 
against teachers who join trade unions were fea- 
tures of a harangue by Jerome O. Cross, before a 
meeting of city superintendents of California pub- 
lic schools. 

Cross is head of the Fresno public school system 
and toadys to the two-by-four autocrats and cheap 
wage employers who are opposing trade unionism 
among teachers in Fresno, Oakland and other cities 
in the state. 

Cross attempted to take the sting out of his 
anarchistic utterances by approving “some things” 
that organized labor has done. 

“This is a problem that we cannot settle through 
conferences or counsel,” he shrieked. “It looks 
to me that a baseball bat or a gatling gun is 
needed.” 

Then the “educator” urged law and order, de- 
manded respect for authority and scored the “in- 
sinuating influences that are at work endeavoring 
to undermine constituted authority.” 

After the meeting destroyed the teachers’ unions, 
it took up the question of conducting school bonds 
campaigns. One superintendent, who joined with 
the rest in their high regard for public opinion, 
doubted the wisdom of holding public meetings to 
discuss bond issues. He said public meetings pro- 
posing side to get in their damaging work.” —From 
the A F of L Weekly Newsletter. 





Democracy in Education—B 


This report was made at the meeting of the North Dakota State Teachers’ Association at Grand 


Forks, North Dakota, before the Section of Higher and Professional Education. 


The committee, 


which was continued for working out further details, wishes a full and frank discussion of its re- 


port and will welcome any suggestions which may be made. 


Address—Dr ERNEST SHAW REYNOLDs, 


Agricultural College, N. D 


In the discussion of this subject it must be 
recognized at the outset that the remarks made 
are in no way intended as a reflection upon any 
particular person, nor upon administrators as a 
class, nor do they reflect upon the administration 
of any institution. When autocracy is mentioned 
it does not necessarily imply either an inefficient, 
an unsympathetic or an unfriendly administrator, 
but purely and simply a system in which one man 
or a small group has the large measure of con- 
trol in determining the policies and the practices 
of an institution. An opposite system of control 
is the democratic which presupposes ultimate 
control of the institution by a balanced co-opera- 
tion of all who are directly involved in the work 
of education but does not imply any special 
formula for organization. 

An autocratic system is such whether its lead- 
ers are benign or baneful in their methods of 
administration. And here in America we are 
committed to a policy of democracy of govern- 
ment. Why then should we tolerate the op- 
posite method in the educational system which is 
the very fountain head of our governmental life 
where our future leaders are trained and our best 
intellects are associated? We should not be de- 
ceived by the paternalistic arguments of advocates 
of the autocratic system that it is more efficient 
and provides better for those controled. 

It might be held that, comparing Germany with 
the United States prior to 1914, the government 
of Germany was more efficient and provided for 
the people’s comfort better than our own, yet 
the final result was not such as to justify the 
conclusion that that Nation was fundamentally 
better than ours. Immediate results are not to 
be the final test of a system. Democracy can be 
made ultimately more efficient than autocracy and 
will be so when we consciously set to work to 
determine the best methods. That has been the 
effort of this committee in relation to education. 
To attain a fundamental, permanent change in 
a system which is well established, it is neces- 
sary that all concerned shall be somewhat pre- 


pared for the change and that it occur in an evo- 
lutionary manner. This does not mean that the 
processes must be imperceptibly slow, but that no 
complete and sudden revolution can be expected 
to bring permanent and noticeably advanced 
progress. Changes may be rapid and the net 
result a great modification of former conditions 
yet the process be orderly. It will be the effort 
of this report to indicate something of the steps 
by which a change from an autocratic form of 
administration to an efficient democratic one ma) 
be effected, and some of the prominent safeguards 
which are necessary to prevent reversion to the 
former type. 

Democracy in education implies among other 
things the following : 

1, That those engaged in daily classroom 
work shall have a large part in the deter- 
mination of the policies and practices of the 
institution. 

That all such shall have the freedom in the 
classroom to teach their subjects as they 
believe they should be taught, under such 
supervision as shall be determined in a 
democratic fashion after a fair and full dis- 
cussion among teachers. 

That all shall be free from any special cen- 
sure for acts and utterances outside the 
classroom aside from that to which any 
other citizen is subject. 

. That no financial control or fear of loss of 

position shall hold the teachers in subjec- 
tion. 
That for each institution there should lhe 
democratic representation of the faculty 
on the board, when it is considering mat- 
ters relating to the institution. 

The most important safeguard is that each edu- 
cational unit shall have a constitution which shall 
clearly state the degree of protection and of 
responsibility of the teachers, and the method of 
organization of the group. 

This implies that each group should be or- 
ganized upon a democratic basis with its elected 


178 





November, 1920 


officers and committees. If the administrative 
officers are elected by the group, they may be 
given certain ex-officio powers subject to veto 
by the group and then other powers may be dele- 
gated from time to time. If the administrative 
officers are merely appointed by superior authori- 
ties the democratically elected committee of the 
group should have coordinate powers of recom- 
mendation to the superior authorities. Only un- 
der exceptional conditions should there be two sets 
of recommendations since cooperation between 
the administrators and the committees would be 
the usual policy. Democracy does not imply in- 
dividual freedom from restraint, but rather a 
mutual or co-operative restraint on the one hand 
and on the other an insurance of justice to the 
individual and protection of the rights of all col- 
lectively. 

Three groups are concerned in the democratic 
administration of an educational institution—the 
public, the faculty and the board, whether given 
the designation of Trustees, Regents or some 
other. The public, of course, includes the clien- 
tele of the institution, but also in a more general 


way the whole people. “The students also must 
be considered as a part of this group. The 
faculty should include those directly concerned in 
the teaching and executive positions; and the 
board consists of those chosen to represent the 
public. 


Whether we conceive of the faculty members 
as employees of the public or as experts to direct 
the educational activities of the public, we must 
recognize that they are co-partners with the 
board in determining the practical methods of 
placing education in its proper place in society. 
This principle gives us the foundation upon which 
to base democracy. The public, thru appropri- 
ate legislation and the appointment of the board 
should voice the general will concerning educa- 
tion. The details should be left to those best 
acquainted with them. All matters pertaining to 
any given institution, then, should be determined 
by joint consent of the board and the faculty. 


To protect the individual, as well as the cor- 
porate, rights of the Faculty the principle of 
democratic control should be adopted and guaran- 
teed. We must not wait until overt acts compel 


The American Teacher 


179 


us to form a policy, but rather with calm un- 
impassioned judgment provide the principles upon 
which proper adjustments can be made. We have 
seen numerous instances where Boards, Presi- 
dents, Deans or other officials have arrogated 
to themselves autocratic powers and whether 
wisely or unwisely, whether with justice or in- 
justice, have determined not only the educational 
policies of the public, but also the personal ac- 
tivities of the faculty members. As we have seen 
then, to insure the preservation of the truly demo- 
cratic spirit in an institution the basis principle 
must be cooperation between the public, repre- 
sented by the Board, and the Faculty. 


The principles suggested by this committee are 
not new and untried in the educational field but 
are in most cases well established in institutions 
of higher education in America and Europe. To 
list all of the institutions where these principles 
are more or less in operation would be to call 
a roll of our best and most progressive colleges 
and universities. Oberlin, Dartmouth and Smith, 
Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Cornell and the 
Universities of Minnesota, California and Wis- 
consin are prominent in the list, tho many others 
could be named. Nevertheless, the movement 
toward democracy has been spasmodic and with- 
out broad consideration of the inter-relationships 
of the various steps. It has simply grown, like 
Topsey, so that there is a strange mixture of 
democratic and autocratic methods. The former 
have too often been the result of the necessities 
of the moment without much regard for the prin- 
ciples involved, or their relationship to the major 
portion of educational policy. This committee has 
attempted to synthesize in a calm and unimpas- 
sioned manner, the best of these methods into 
a constructive, unified and consistent statement of 
principles which shall be at once democratic in 
spirit and efficient in execution. The details as 
applied to any specific institution must be left to 
the cooperative action of the Board and the mem- 
bers of the institution. 

GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND CONCLUSIONS 

To summarize and put into concrete form the 
recommendations of the committee, each institu- 
tion should have a written constitution, based 
upon the following principles : 





180 


1. The legislative body of the institution to 
include all who are on permanent appointment or 
who have been in the institution a given number 
of years in the grade of assistant professor or 
above. 


2. Selection of the President, Deans and other 
officials, who have simi'ar powers, by concurrent 
action of the Faculty and Board. 

The nominations might be made by either 
Faculty or Board or both. These two bodies 
would meet separately and a majority vote 
(or any stated percentage) in each would 
voice the decision of the body. Nominations 
for positions of Deans and other officers 
might also be made by the President or a 
Faculty Committee or both. 


3. The President as one member of the 
Faculty chosen to act as an Executive to carry 
out the plans for the institution as determined 
cooperatively by the Faculty and Board. The 
President to have power of veto, over which any 
measure may be passed by a two-thirds vote of the 
Faculty. 

The Faculty may (and will normally) dele- 


gate many functions to the presidential of- 
fice, and also to other administrative offices, 
in order to gain efficiency. 


4. Selection of faculty members by the Board, 
nominated by the Faculty or its representatives 
in cooperation with the President. 

To the heads of departments should be left 
the right of nomination for those within the 
department. To the Dean and an elected 
committee should be left the nomination for 
heads of departments, or in the larger de- 
partments, at least, the heads of departments 
should be nominated by all the members. 


5. Recall, under proper limitations, applicable 

to all administrative officials and representatives. 

In the case of those officials for which con- 

currence of the Board is necessary in appoint- 

ing, the concurrence of the Board in the re- 

call would be necessary. In all cases, the 

electors would have the power of recall. 

Definite provisions concerning the size ot 
vote necessary to recall should be made. 


6. Demotions, dismissals, etc., only thru co- - 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 8 


operation of an elected faculty committee and the 

President, and a trial before peers. 
Such a committee and the procedure should 
be definitely arranged at regular times so that 
when the emergency should arise, special ac- 
tion would not be necessary upon the part 
of the Faculty as a whole. Permanent ap- 
pointment on the Faculty should only be 
after a considerable period of temporary 
tenure such as two years as instructors and 
three years as Assistant Professor. 

7. Frequent reports from all administrative 
officers to the factulty summarizing their activi- 
ties. 

8. Complete cooperation between the Faculty 
and Administrative officers, and between Faculty 
and Board thru democratically elected commit- 
tees or directly. 

All major matters should be arrived at by 
concurrent action with the President and 
Administrative officers. 

9. A democratically administered method of 
rating the Faculty with reasonable requirements 
for progress. 

Regular rules worked out thru complete co- 
operation between Board, Officers, and Fac- 
ulty; and these (not the caprice of admin- 
istrative officers, heads of departments or 
others) made the basis of action. One item 
to be taken into consideration should be the 
recommendation of the head of the depart- 
ment, or the dean of the school, but more 
than this is necessary. 

10. Salaries and increases dependent upon this 
democratically administered rating system. 

A salary scale with provision for regular in- 
creases should be provided. 

11. Sabbatical periods provided for and to be 
democratically adjusted. 

Regular rates for such should be provided 
and at least some of the years of temporary 
appointment should be counted as well as 
those of permanent appointment. 

12. Determination of Educational policies by 
the faculty. Where additional expense is in- 
volved, the concurrence of the Board is necessary. 

In a State system of schools, the inter-rela- 
tionships of components of the system should 





November, 1920 


be determined by conference between demo- 
cratically elected representatives of the facul- 
ties of the institutions concerned. Final 
confirmation by the Board would be neces- 
sary where finances or matters of general 
jurisdiction are involved. In case of final 
disagreement the Board would decide. 

13. The secret ballot in all election of com- 
mittees and where personalities are concerned, or 
differences of opinion between the faculty and 
administrative officers are concerned. 

In addition, a secret ballot should be used 
whenever desired by any member of the 
group of electors. 

14. All legislation relative to the institution, 
whether by act of legislature, board, faculty, or 
administrative officers, to be open to the inspec- 
tion of all. 

15. Election of all official committees, either 
directly by the faculty or thru an elected com- 
mittee. 

16. Freedom in classroom teaching to be 
guaranteed. In the case of instructors, the 
method of teaching, subject to supervision as may 


be determined by the faculty. 
Regular rules governing this matter should 
be made by the faculty to prevent snap judg- 
ment or infringement upon the proper rights 


of the instructor. No one should be elevated 
to the higher grades, who needs this super- 
vision. 

17. Freedom of extra-mural activities for all 
members of the faculty subject only to such con- 
trol as is afforded by society. 

18. Representation of alumni and elected rep- 
resentatives of the faculty on the governing 
Board. 

19. If possible, the participation of students 
in the inauguration and enforcement of rules for 
student discipline. 


“A SQUARE DEAL FOR TEACHERS” 


Mr Chairman and Gentlemen: St Peter was re- 
ceiving a group of new arrivals at the gate of 
heaven, in answer to his question as to what each 
of the group did for a living while on earth, the 
first man in line said: “On earth I was the repre- 
sentative of justice between man and man; I also 
defended the oppressed and the unfortunate; I 
was a lawyer.” The second said, “I brought the 
new-born babe into the world; I cured the sick; 
when that was impossible I lightened the pains of 
the dying; I was a doctor.” The third said, “I 


The American Teacher 181 


tried to have men lead good lives; in prosperity I 
advised them to practice self-restraint; in adver- 
sity I bade them hope; I was a clergyman.” The 
fourth said, “I defended my country against her 
enemies within and without; on the field of battle 
1 faced death bravely; I was a warrior.” The 
fifth said, “I made my country’s laws; I cham- 
pioned and voted for the greatest good to the great- 
est number; I was a Congressman.” [Applause.] 
The sixth member of the group was slow to answer; 
she had a worn and tired look and a subdued man- 
ner, but she was encouraged to speak for she was 
a woman, and then she said, “I was the teacher 
who introduced these five distinguished gentlemen 
to knowledge. I guided their childish footsteps up 
the height of learning in their early days, but when 
fame and wealth came to them they not only forgot 
me, but also denied me a living wage. That ac- 
counts for my weariness, which you will please ex- 
cuse, for I had grown so tired thru the incessant 
demands of teaching, I had become so worn out 
trying to make both ends meet on my poor salary, 
and had been so depressed from the long struggle 
against discouragement over not being appreciated 
on earth that death was a relief when it came and 
I am glad that at last I am here.”—From a speech 
by Hon John W Rainey, of Illinois, on “A Square 
Deal for Teachers,” in the House of Representa- 
tives,, Washington, March 27, 1920. 


WOMAN’S PART IN CAMPAIGN CIVICS 

Salt Lake City’s N E A election began, not with 
voters’ analysis, but with insiders’ wires. Several 
states wanted Waldo of Kalamazoo for president, 
several wanted Owen of Chicago. But upon ar- 
rival man after man was corralled by a small group 
and told it was “all fixed for Hunter of Oakland.” 
This was not the year for a Pacific coast president, 
for it had last year’s president. This was essen- 
tially the year for a teacher-training leader, a year 
for emphasis upon teacher recruiting. Five men 
did the thinking first for forty men, then for a 
thousand women voters. 

Promises were broken, alignments shattered, next 
year’s election dangled just as undemocratically as 
at any bossed party convention. And women pulled 
the chestnuts out of the fire. 

President Owen was sidetracked altho he has for 
years done the hard work for the reorganization of 
the N E A which finally won at Salt Lake City. 
President Waldo’s friends bowed to the cabal. 
Supt Hunter was rewarded for distinguished servic- 
es—political, not educational—rendered before and 
at Pittsburgh N E A, 1918, when the opportunity 
to put public education at the helm was sacrificed, 
—at colossal cost to education. 

Next year’s election has already been agreed upon 
by the same little group which did the N E A’s 
thinking and pulling in 1918, 1919 and 1920. A 
woman principal from N Y City is to be president 
if voters continue abdicating, not for any service to 
N E A or education, but for services to the cabal 
that has nearly wrecked the summer N E A. 

After schools teach campaign civics educational 
politics will strike a higher plane. Any profession 
that does not organize and manage itself demo- 
cratically cannot and will not train others for 
democracy. Campaign civics will rejuvenate edu- 
cators themselves as voters, and perhaps at least 
stop us from paying employees to organize against 
the membership and to keep cabal fires lighted. 
—From the “Public Service” Bulletin of Sept 21, 
1920. 





The American Federation of Teachers* 


CHARLES B STILLMAN 


President, The American Federation of Teachers 


Despite its youth the union movement among 
teachers has passed the experimental stage, and 
has justified itself by its record and achievements. 
An indirect but convincing indication is the con- 
centrated opposition which has been developed 
in some reactionary quarters, and the heavy ar- 
tillery which has been brought to bear among the 
old-line educators who fear any innovation 
originating with the teachers themselves, rather 
than with administrative officials. Opposition is 
wholesome, and we welcome it whenever it is 
based upon fact, and is an honest clash of opinion. 
But much of the present rather hysterical oppo- 
sition is based upon misconception and distortion 
of underlying fact. That this misconception and 
distortion is not always deliberate, but is fre- 
quently sincere misunderstanding, does not alter 
its viciousness. One of the most unfortunate 
aspects is the revelation of how easily those who 
are supposed to be imbued with the ideals and 
methods of scholarship ignore verification of data 
in a controversy which challenges their tradi- 
tional attitudes of mind and strikes close home. 


The American Federation of Teachers is the 
national professional organization of classroom 
teachers affiliated with the American Federation 
of Labor. Our labor affiliation is sometimes mis- 
understood by those who have a distorted con- 
ception of the labor movement, who are igno- 
rant of organized labor’s splendid record in the 
development of our public schools, and who do 
not realize how completely the A F of L is built 
upon the principle of autonomy of its constitu- 
ent organizations. The American Federation of 
Teachers conducts its affairs democratically 
thru annual delegate conventions, absolutely 
without dictation or interference of any kind. 


The question of the strike is frequently raised 


in this connection. While unaffiliated teachers, 
helpless and desperate in their isolation, have used 
the strike, no local of the A F of T has used that 
method. Our recent convention by formal reso- 


*Reprinted from The Educational Review for 
September, 1920. 


lution reindorsed our non-strike policy. Nor is 
the sympathetic strike possible. Some of our 
prominent opponents are so little familiar with 
the labor movement that they speak of this as a 
special concession and guarantee to teachers. It 
is, of course, merely part of the fundamental 
-autonomy upon which the A F of L is built. 
There are several strong unions which do not 
strike. 

But our independence, far from stopping with 
mere immunity from the strike, includes absolute 
freedom of thought, judgment and action. The 
only obligation assumed by a teacher in affiliation 
with our movement consists in endorsement of the 
principles of our Constitution. And those prin- 
ciples are briefly summarized in our motto, “De- 
mocracy in Education: Education for Democ- 
racy.” 

Some opponents, because of their failure to 
grasp the far-reaching implication of autonomy, 
are fond of stressing such phrases as “entangling 
alliances,” and “proselyting and propaganda in 
the schools.” Entangling alliance is an effective 
catch phrase that may easily mislead large por- 
tions of the public and of the teachers who are 
ignorant of the fundamenta’s of the labor move- 
ment. But it cannot be used by one who scrupu- 
lously verifies his facts. 

One sincere critic has put it—“an alliance (with 
labor) will tend to destroy the impartiality and 
independence so essential to the teaching profes- 
sion.” There can be no question of the essen- 
tial value of such impartiality and independence, 
but one’s first reaction is that nothing can be de- 
stroyed until it has been created. The teacli- 
ers have long been the usually unwilling and fre- 
quently unconscious agents of propaganda im- 
posed upon them from above. For example, the 
school authorities in one of our large cities or- 
dered the teachers to impress on their pupils the 
wisdom of universal military training in time of 
peace. It is not inconceivable that that doctrine 
may ultimately become a part of accepted Ameri- 
can tradition, but it is very far from being that 
uow. One of the reasons for the affiliation of 


182 





November, 1920 


teachers is the securing of the degree of strength 
and influence which alone can enable them to 
develop and maintain impartiality and independ- 
ence in their teaching. One of our chief prin- 
ciples, and a principle with which organized 
labor heartily sympathizes, is tenure of position 
based on efficiency. That is the pre-requisite for 
independence and impartiality. 

As to proselyting and propaganda, it is un- 
fortunate that we have forgotten the hard fight 
required to establish the right of the teacher to 
be a member of the political or religious organi- 
zation of his choice. It ought not to be neces- 
sary to wage a similar fight for the freedom of 
the teacher as an American citizen to join any 
professional and economic organization of his 
choice. Methodist teachers do not try to make 
Methodists of their pupils, nor union teachers 
unionists. It is significant that that charge has 
never been raised against any of our locals. 
When economic subjects are treated in the class 
room, all that organized labor asks, and all that 
anyone has a right to ask, is that facts be fairly 
presented. If a teacher’s thinking should be af- 
fected by affiliation, it would be due simply to 
additional data secured by the opening up of 
new and more direct channels of information. 
This is a very potent factor in the bitter and in- 
tolerant opposition to us in many quarters. Re- 
actionary interests are not willing to have the 
teacher placed in a position to have first-hand 
knowledge of the labor side of controversies to 
balance with the knowledge of the employer’s side 
in which teachers are habitually steeped. They 
are afraid to trust the trained judgment of teach- 
ers with all the facts before them. And again 
it should be emphasized that nothing in our affilia- 
tion would prevent the free exercise of the teach- 
er’s judgment whether friendly or hostile to the 
labor side of the controversy. There is no 
pressure of any kind. The teachers have known 
enough of masters. They entered the labor move- 
ment in search, not of another master, but of 
freedom, and they have found it. 


Some may ask what return organized labor 
does expect from the teachers. The teachers do not 
strike; not a penny of the one cent per member 
per month, which is all they turn in to the treasury 


The American Teacher 


183 


of the A F of L, goes for the support of strikes. 
Teachers and labor alike are determined to free 
the schools of special propaganda ; what does labor 
expect in return for its admittedly powerful sup- 
port? For one thing, labor believes, rightly or 
wrongly, that the trained intelligence of the teach- 
ers should be able to make a contribution to 
the solving of vexed social and economic, as well 
as educational problems. The teachers have 
the heavy responsibility of showing that the 
vaunted value of their education is not overrated 
when faced with the living problems of this re- 
construction period. For the first time they have 
the opportunity, not merely to teach history, more 
or less ancient and indirectly to influence future 
history, but actively 40 assist in the making of 
current history. 

But the chief return that organized labor ex- 
pects is a square educational deal for the children 
of all the people. They are making no class re- 
quest, they ask nothing for their own children 
that they do not demand with equal force for all 
children. In fact, they have deeply and effectively 
resented all efforts of the manufacturers’ associa- 
tions to create separate, dual systems of schools, 
which would inevitably result in the training of 
the children of artisans to become mere adjuncts 
of machines. They know that children are not 
afforded a square deal and equal educational op- 
portunities now. Two of the causes they can 
put their fingers on even as laymen—underpaid 
teachers, and overcrowded classes. But they are 
not trained to diagnose the ills of a school sys- 
tem. And they want the teacher to affiliate, pri- 
marily, so that thru delegates of the teachers, 
local central bodies and state and national labor 
conventions can be informed of conditions at first 
hand by classroom teachers on the educational 
firing line, and so that the teachers with their 
specialized training and knowledge, and organ- 
ized labor with its influence in the community and 
the nation, working shoulder to shoulder, may 
develop a more efficient system of public schools 
from the kindergarten thru the university. 


The objection of alleged class affiliation is some- 


times raised. If by class is meant group, the 
term may apply. The great public is a resound- 
ing phrase, but is after all an intangible abstrac- 





184 


tion. Our chief method is an appeal to public 
opinion, but such an appeal to be successful can- 
not simply be turned loose into the general at- 
mosphere; but must be made to definite, articu- 
late group organizations. That kind of effective 
group affiliation we have. 

But our opponents know very well that the 
term class affiliation carries with it to the great 
majority of people the extreme socialist inter- 
pretation, and in that sense the A F of L is not 
a class organization. It is founded on the belief 
that there is room in our society for both em- 
ployers and employees, and that differences should 
be adjusted by conferences of representatives 
through mutual education and negotiation. The 
I W W with its class-war $hilosophy is the an- 
tithesis of the A F of L, as the extreme bitter- 
ness between them helps to show. And certainly, 
as I have said above, the worst enemy of or- 
ganized labor cannot claim that the A F of L has 
ever made class demands in educational matters. 

The ironic and tragic fact is that many of our 
opponents in their efforts to turn teachers and 
the public against us, have done a great deal to 
introduce the European conception of caste, to 
betray their own intolerant class consciousness 
and introduce its poison where it did not exist 
before. The A F of L is an integrating, not 
a disruptive force in our society. In affiliation 
with it we find that 1200 of the leading scientists 
of the country in the employment of various gov- 
ernment bureaus, physicians in the health depart- 
ments of some of our large cities, technical en- 
gineers, musicians, actors, librarians, and teach- 
ers in public schools, normals and universities. 
Surely an affiliation which draws together such 
diversified groups tends to break down the un- 
American tendency toward petty caste lines of 
division between profession and artisan workers. 


Another fact often overlooked is that there is 
nothing exclusive in our affiliation. Our move- 
ment stimulates our locals to utilize every avenue 
of intimate contact with the communities they 
serve. Often where our locals are composed of 
women they affiliate with the Federated Women’s 
Clubs of their state. Wherever opportunity 


offers they are found working with all other avail- 
able civic agencies. We go out of our way to co- 


The American Teacher 


‘ teachers’ associations. 





Volume IX, No. 8 


operate with all forces for improvement of the 
schools. 

Nor do we believe in the so-called “closed 
shop” for teachers. We desire as members only 
those teachers who share our idealism and feel 
that they belong with us. We work harmoniously 
with other teachers and teachers’ associations. 
We secure our members by the presentation of 
our movement, and simply insist that each teacher 
must have the unchallenged right as an American 
citizen to determine what organizations he may 
choose to join, without intimidation by his col- 
leagues or by school authorities. There is room 
in America for honest difference of opinion, but 
there should be no room for the coercion of in- 
dividual judgment and conscience. 

Some fail to understand that we are funda- 
mentally an organization of classroom teachers. 
We now have a few locals of principals, but such 
officials as superintendents of schools and presi- 
dents of universities are not eligible. Some ad- 
ministrative officials, after giving at considerable 
length their arguments against our existence, then 
proceed to berate us for excluding them. To any 
one familiar with the type of administrative or- 
ganization which is universal in our public schools 
and universities, the reason must be clear. This 
type. of organization is autocratic, all authority 
originating at the top, and extending down 
thru the uppet reaches of the hierarchy, the 
classroom teachers thru whom any school 
functions, having a negligible voice. The fact 
that an increasing number of liberal-minded ad- 
ministrators survive this deadly system furnishes 
no defense for its presence in twentieth century 
America. The only real exception would be sup- 
plied by a university with a genuinely demo- 
cratic constitution, or by the very few public 
school systems in which the initiative and expe- 
rience of the teachers is given adequate voice in 
the conduct of the schools. 

From its inception the American Federation of 
Teachers has stood primarily for democratization 
of the schools, and its first plank demanded teach- 
ers’ councils. We are very glad that the advo- 
cacy of teachers’ councils has reached the stage 
of respectability and been taken up by other 
But watchfulness is nec- 

















November, 1920 


essary to prevent even teachers’ councils from 
degenerating into tools of autocratic administra- 
tions. Usually the method of organization of as- 
sociations of teachers makes possible their domi- 
nation by supervisory and administrative official- 
dom, thru the subtle means of intimidation 
the “system” places in their hands. We have 
excluded such officials from membership simply 
because experience has shown during the last 
half century that any organization admitting them 
has rapidly become an organization primarily of, 
by, and for such officials. But our quarrel is with 
the system rather than with individuals, and 
many school officials of broad vision are working 
with classroom teachers to change the system. 
Meanwhile we are very glad to co-operate cordially 
with democratically-minded supervisors and ad- 
ministrators. And since they have freely and 
properly formed their own associations, it is 
rather narrow and illogical for them to begrudge 
the same elementary privilege to classroom teach- 
ers. 


Space does not permit even mention of all the 
outrageous misrepresentations to which some 
responsible educators have given currency. For 
example, one attributes to us the claim that teach- 
ers are “laborers merely.” We would not give 
that characterization to any human being, and least 
of all to teachers. We do state the obvious fact 
that teachers are employees, and as employees 
have the privilege and right, if they so de- 
sire, to associate themselves with the other public 
and private employees comprising the great demo- 
cratic force of organized labor. That this is 
sinply a historical evolution is shown by the fol- 
lowing quotation from Professor Ely’s “The La- 
bor Movement in America”: “At every period of 
our history public school questions have been 
labor questions or labor measures. And when I 
say this I do not exclude our universities. What 
then has the labor movement brought us? I reply 
first of all: It has been one of the chief causes 
which have brought us a public school system. 
Where shall we find guardians against assaults 
on our public schools? Where shall we find those 
who will not only protect what we have, but help 
us forward in new achievements in education, 
particularly by means of public schools? To both 


‘The American Teacher 





185 


questions I reply, in our labor organizations. All 
over the world labor organizations are supporting 


and bearing forward every popular educational 


movement.” 

Another absurd charge is that we believe in a 
flat compensation for all, when in every campaign 
we have demanded salary schedules giving 
proper weight to experience and professional 
training. But we do not believe in discrimina- 
tion on account of sex or official favoritism. 
Similarly with regard to the charge of lowering 
qualifications, no group has been resisting more 
vigorously the present dangerous tendency to 
lower professional standards now inadequate. 

The effectiveness of our organization has been 
amply demonstrated. Opportunity does not re- 
main here for the recital of detailed achieve- 
ments, but with the assistance of organized labor 
in various sections of the country we have been 
able to secure material increases in teachers’ sal- 
aries, administrative reforms, such as reduction 
in size of classes, and the more democratic par- 
ticipation of classroom teachers in the conduct 
of the schools; the election of progressive boards 
of education; the enactment of such legislation as 
provisions for continuation schools, for free text- 
books, and for increases in school revenues. In 
the increasingly important field of federal edu- 
cational legislation, as a result of our co-operation 
with the N E A, the moribund and objectionable 
Smith Bill has been transformed into the 
strengthened Smith-Towner Bill Revised, with 
the backing of the four and a half million of or- 
ganized labor. 

What has proved an important factor is the 
extension of the professional influence of the 
teachers thru the seating of their delegates in 
city central labor bodies and state and national 
conventions where they have an effective voice 
in the formulation of the educational and legis- 
lative programs of powerful local and state fed- 
erations of labor and of the A F of L, and are 
in a strategic position to secure labor’s support 
for progressive educational measures. The value 
of the resulting contributions of state and na- 
tional labor bodies to educational policy and 
achievement is unquestioned. 


But of even greater importance, from the stand- 






se 





186 


point of the professional equipment of the teacher, 
our affiliation enables teachers to come into first 
hand contact with the economic, civic, and social 
conditions for which they are supposed to be 
preparing their pupils. And it is high time that 
teachers recognized the tragic farce of holding 
aloof from, and remaining ignorant of the reali- 
ties of community life, when the schools succeed 
or fail as they prepare or fail to prepare pupils 
for effective participation in that life. This spirit 
of social idealism, which has been the driving 
force in our movement from the beginning, is 


The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 8 


admirably expressed in the following quotation 
from Miss Mabel Colter, President of the St. 
Paul Federation of Women Teachers: “We have 
more self-respect and more respect from the cit- 
izens of St. Paul. We have gained a sense of the 
solidarity of the teaching force. We have ‘come 
alive’ to the industrial, economic and social prob- 
lems of the day. We touch real issues as never 
before. We are a part of the reconstructing 
forces of to-day and we hope we have awakened 
to a sense of our responsibility to society. These 
gains have come to us as a part of organized labor. 


The Closed Shop and the Open Shop 


ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ 
Local 5, New York 


When the Industrial Revolution became a 
reality the system of paternalism was displaced 
by the laissez-faire policy because the economists 
contended that it would lead to industrial ef- 
ficiency and general prosperity. Instead, there 


resulted poverty, long hours, low wages, unsanita- 


ry factory conditions, over-employment of women 
and children; in a word, a general race deterio- 
ration. To prevent the killing of the geese that 
were laying the golden eggs, the more enlight- 
ened employers and statesmen determined to use 
the government forces to curb the more rapa- 
cious and unscrupulous employers. As govern- 
ment regulation availed the workers little, the 
toilers developed their own organizations or 
Unions. 
gradually improved their conditions and, in some 
cases, even gained a share in the management of 
industry. 

Not only has collective bargaining proven ef- 
ficient from the point of view of the worker, but 
its retention is absolutely necessary if society is 
to be saved a: bitter and destructive class war. 
The issue looming on our industrial horizon is, 
“Shall the financial and industrial autocrats de- 
stroy collective bargaining under the guise of an 
Open Shop campaign?” This coming struggle 
presents various aspects. First, the more reac- 
tionary and courageous industrial leaders, like 
Gary, are absolutely opposed to the recognition 


By means of collective bargaining they _ 


of unions in any form, altho they profess to be 
willing to meet their employees as individuals or 
even in groups. Secondly, a seemingly more en- 
lightened group which believes in recognizing 
shop organizations, but not the representatives of 
the unions who are not employed by them because 
they are “outsiders.” These employers, how- 
ever loudly they may protest their belief in col- 
lective bargaining, are dishonest, because the) 
refuse to recognize the essence of collective bar- 
gaining which is “equality of bargaining power.” 
While capital is united, class conscious, and em- 
ploys the ablest brains available, it refuses the 
workers the right to select their representatives 
to champion their cause, thus demonstrating that 
what they seek is not true collective bargaining, 
which is capable of forcing an issue, but lame 
collective bargaining that is easily crushed. 
Hence their advocacy of the American Plan or 
the Rockefeller Type of “good” union. 

‘The third and most dangerous group of em- 
ployers is composed of those who are willing to 
recognize the representatives of the unions but 
insist upon their right to employ non-union as 
well as union men; that is, they want the Open 
Shop. In this fight they are supported by the 
other two groups who realize that an open shop 
means a scab shop, since unionism can be easily 
undermined by hiring union men last and laying 
them off first. In other words, the open shop 





November, 1920 


campaign means the destruction of labor’s most 
effective weapon,—trade-unionism, and is the pre- 
lude to wage slavery or the most terrible in- 
dustrial war this country has ever known. It 
is unfortunate that the seeming fairness of these 
employers coupled not only with the inconve- 
nience suffered by the general public in such a 
struggle, but also with the insidious propaganda 
spread by a subsidized press, may induce the so- 
called public to take the wrong side of a struggle 
on which the fate of our institutions depends. 


While this struggle is but an incident in the 
further wealth accumulation of the employers, it 
means life or death to the organized workers, 
who are determined to fight for their organiza- 
tions which were won by two centuries of travail 
and struggle. The meaning of this struggle was 
so well stated by Peter Finley Dunne. Dooley, 
in speaking of the open shop says to Hinnessy, 
“Tis like this, Hinnissey: Suppose wan av these 
free-born citizens is workin’ in an open shop f’r 
th’ princely wages av wan large iron dollar a 
day of tin hour. Along comes anither son av a 
gun, an’ he sez t’ th’ boss,—‘Oi think Oi could 
handle th’ job nicely f’r 90 cints.’ ‘Sure,’ sez 
th’ boss, an’ th’ wan dollar man gets out into 
th’ crool woruld t’ exercise hiz inalienable rights 
as a free-born American citizen an’ scab on some 
other poor devil. An’ who gits th’ benefit? 
Thrue, it saves th’ boss money, but he don’t care 
no more f’r money thin he does f’r his right 
eye.” 

“It’s all principle wid him. He hates t’ see 
men robbed av their indipindence, regardless av 
anything else.” “But,” said Mr. Hinnissey, 
“these open shop min ye menshun say they are 
f’r unions iv propertly conducted.” “Shure,” 
said Mr. Dooley, “iv properly conducted An’ 
there we are. An’ how would they have thim 
conducted? No strikes, no rules, no contracts, 
no scales, hardly any wages an’ damn few mim- 
bers.” 


The war on the closed shop means the replace- 
ment of real unions by unions “properly con- 
ducted” on the Rockfeler Plan which do not pro- 
tect the workers because they are absolutely 
under the control of the employers and because 


The American Teacher 


187 


they are too local in their nature to be effective. 
If workers in one factory go in strike they can- 
not win because other factories will finish the 
work and meanwhile, they are starving. Since 
their own fellow workers are scabbing on them 
they will soon be forced to surrender. Do the 
employers fight that way? No, they have pow- 
erful Chambers of Commerce, Employers Asso- 
ciations. All that the workers ask is the right 
to organize as effectively as their employers. 
What then is the meaning of this struggle? 

The open shop means an increase in industrial 
unrest, incessant industrial war, lower morale and 
wage slavery. The closed shop means the most " 
efficient economic instrument yet developed by 
experience for the protection of the workers as 
well as the other parties engaged in production 
and the so-called public. The right of the free 
born to work where he pleases is the hypocritical 
cry of the owners of wealth who even deny their 
own fellow capitalists that freedom of economic 
action they so madly seek for the individual and 
helpless worker. A splendid illustration of their 
dualistic industrial philosophy is the refusal of 
the financial autocrats to lend money to a Ship 
Building Company that had secured $46,000,000 
worth of contracts, because they proposed to con- 
duct their factories under strictly union condi- 
tions. The issue is clear. The citizens of Amer- 
ica must decide whether labor or capital is to 
triumph and it is our task to enlighten the “pub- 
lic” in this great crisis. 


GOOD CONDUCT 


Play develops habits of good conduct. All 
games must be played according to rules. To 
obey thé rules, especially under stress of conflict 
and excitement, develops self-control, courage, 
honesty, quick judgment, co-operation and will 
power. The nervous system has developed many 
centers of reflex action; without thinking we re- 
spond to certain stimuli or assume a defensive 
attitude toward threatening danger. Boys and 
girls, in playing competitive games, are continually 
called upon to render decisions involving honesty, 
fairness, co-operation, and will power. These 
decisions must be rendered quickly and accurately. 











Character reflex actions are developed thru the 
instinctive desire to play.—From Joy and Health 
thru Play, Bulletin, Bureau of Education. 


A PROGRAM OF EDUCATIONAL 
REFORM 
Submitted by a Committee of the Associated Teach- 
ers of the University of North Dakota 
Believing that a system of universal demo- 
cratic education is necessary to ensure the per- 
manence of democracy and other democratic in- 
stitutions ; and believing that our present public 
school system is in need of some modifications 
and improvements, we submit the following pro- 
gram of educational reform: 


1. The creation of a Federal Department of 
Education and a liberal appropriation by the Fed- 
eral Government for the promotion and support 
of education. 

2. The liberal, ungrudging re-organization 
and increase of school revenues and raising of 
revenue for education in North Dakota from the 
mining of the lignite coal of this state; or from 
other separate sources of revenue. 

3. The participation of teachers in educational 
management thru representatives chosen by them- 
selves for boards of education and administra- 
tion. 

4. A minimum salary, after one year’s expe- 
rience, of $2,000 for all teachers, and a minimum 
educational qualification of a high school educa- 
tion and professional training in pedagogy and 
psychology for all teachers. 

5. Higher educational qualifications for teach- 
ers of rural schools and a requirement that all 
teachers do some professional improveraent work 
once in every three years. 

6. An expansion and diversification of both 
elementary and secondary education so as to af- 
ford equality of opportunity to all students for 
preparation for the callings of their choice. We 
approve of the Smith-Hughes law. When in- 
dustrial and vocational training is given, it should 
be under the direction and supervision of an ad- 
visory committee composed of equal numbers of 
members of the union and employers belonging 
to the trades taught. 
7. The employment as teachers of married 


188 The American Teacher 


Volume IX, No. 8 


care of children as valid grounds. for leaves of 
women and the recognition of pregnancy and 
absence. 

8. Academic freedom as to religious, politi- 
cal and economic views and no dismissals for any 
cause until after a hearing before a committee, on 
which there shall be at least some representatives 
of the teachers. 

9, Free text books in the public schools. 

10. An observance in spirit as well as in letter 
of the law providing for free tuition in all of the 
public schools of the State, including the insti- 
tutions of higher learning. 

11. Continuous medical and dental inspection 
of pupils in public schools. 

12. A wider use of the school plants for social, 
educational and civic purposes of both children 
and adults including the teachers. 

13. A plan of Americanization which shall re- 
quire (a) the giving of all instruction during 
the school year in English as the basic language 
in both public and private schools, (b) the teach- 
ing of foreign languages only as subjects in the 
curriculum, (c) the use of histories which stress 
economic and social facts more than political and 
military facts, (d) the study of current events and 
problems of citizenship and (e) instruction to 
adult non-English speaking people. 

14. Modern physical education under compe- 
tent instructors. 

15. The allotment of not more than twenty- 
five students to any one class or teacher. 

16. The encouragement of scientific research. 

17. The supply of hot school lunches where 
feasible. 

18. Better enforcement of compulsory educa 
tion laws, requiring full-time attendance of pu 
pils under sixteen and the establishment of con- 
tinuation schools for pupils who leave schoul a! 
sixteen years of age. 

19. The recognition of the unquestioned righ: 
of teachers to belong to the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers and to affiliate with organize: 
labor. 

20. We recommend the work which the A |: 
of T has already done for the teaching profe- 
sion and for the cause of education. 








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wh 
the 
vir 
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per 
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November, 1920 


BOOK REVIEWS 
DEPARTMENT Conpuctep By ALICE WOOD, 
Associate Editor 
“What’s on the Worker’s Mind?” By Whitting 

Williams. Charles Scribner’s Sons. 


“A New obinson Crusoe.” By Gilson Gardner. 
Harcourt, Brace & Howe. 


“Main Street.” By Sinclair Lewis. 
Brace & Howe. 


Harcourt, 


“Jailed for Freedom.” By Doris Stevens. Boni 
& Liveright. 
“Darkwater.” By W E B DuBois. Harcourt, 


Brace & Howe. 


To find, not the six best sellers, but six worth 
buying, out of many hundreds each month is not 
always easy. But I have found five worth read- 
ing and worth recommending to other teachers, 
not as teachers, but as human beings, members 
of present day society. 

A New Robinson Crusoe, by Gilson Gardner, 
purports to be a discarded manuscript of Selkirk 
and Defoe written in collaboration, in which the 
stress is ilaid on the economic problem of an in- 
dividual in Selkirk’s situation. “To him his 
island world became an economic microcosm 
wherein he found, reduced to simplest terms, all 
the elements of the problems which make up the 
economics of the most elaborate civilization. 
Every new experience on his island contributed 
something to his analysis and conclusions, and it 
is these analyses and conclusions, instead of re- 
ligious homiletics, which make up the background 
of this earlier work.” The familiar story thus 
serves as a medium for setting relations of man 
to man, and seemingly unescapable. It is only 
where we multiply the numbers and complicate 
the nomenclature that we can succeed in con- 
vineing ourselves that to multiply both sides of 
the equation by a million changes that relation. 

Some years ago Walter Wycoff wrote a book 
on The Workers, an interesting chronicle of ex- 
periences of a college profesor as a worker with 
his hands. But I think the interest of all of us 
in today’s book is a little less academic. We ad- 
mit, however grudgingly or even resentfully, 


The American Teacher 


189 


that what is on the worker’s mind concerns us 
very vitally. It was the recognition of the im- 
portance of understanding the worker that led 
Whiting Williams, Personnel Director of the 
Hydraulic Pressed Steel Company, of Cleveland, 
Ohio, to work and live as an unskilled laborer 
for seven months, and to publish the results of 
his experiment in ‘““What’s on the Worker’s Mind.” 
He did not try, as he says, to learn what feelings 
his new environment gave him, but aimed to use 
the job and its surroundings to carry him close 
enough to his fellow-workers to learn their 
thoughts and their feelings. His jobs took him 
to steel plant, rolling-mill, coal mine, ship-yard, 
oil refinery, and iron-mine, and not the least value 
of the book, I think, for those who live outside 
of industrial communities, is the knowledge 
gained of actual conditions in factory and mine. 
The greater emphasis, however, is laid on the 
human element. The effect of the fatigue of the 
twelve-hour day on mind and on morals, the re- 
lation between boss and men, the result of non- 
participation of the laborer in entire. processes, the 
detachment or resentment due to absentee-owner- 
ship and management, the terror of non-employ- 
ment, the gulf between the skilled and the un- 
skilled laborer, are all brought out most impres- 
sively. Whether one agrees or not with what 
conclusions or interpretations Mr Williams ar- 
rives at, his account of his experiences makes, | 
think, an extremely valuable book. I recommend 
it for absorbing interest. It ought to make one 
think. 


Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis, is a novel of 
the small town. I recommend it to every school- 
teacher in every small town “in this broad land 
of ours.” It is keenly observant, but the mul- 
titudinous detail is not photographic, but the in- 
numerable fine lines of an etching that make it 
a work of art. It is provocative. From much 
of it I wish to dissent, but the essential truth 
of it defeats me. If it is true, that the small 
town is narrow, bigoted, dull and hideously ugly, 
(and can we say it is not true even if it is not the 
whole truth?) what are we teachers doing? 
Must the mass in a democracy always be blind to 
beauty and devoid of a thirst for truth? If 
the next problem beyond the present one of gain- 





190 The American Teacher 


ing leisure for man is the use of the leisure, what 
beginning have we made? Of course the problem 
is not only that of the small town, it is the whole 
problem of life. But that is the fascination of the 
book. It is bound to make one think. 


Jailed For Freedom, by Doris Stevens, is 
the story of the seven years’ campaign for politi- 
cal freedom waged by The National Woman’s 
Party, culminating in the passing of the Susan 
B Anthony Amendment and its ratification by 
the required number of state. Miss Stevens has 
done a fine piece of work in her selection from 
a vast mass of detail, her emphasis upon the 
logical, clearly thought-out plan of battle with its 
sequence of reactions, her discriminating char- 
acterizations and temperate tone, and the nar- 
rative’s sustained interest. To me it was a thrill- 
ing and inspiring book. 

Dr W E B DuBois, author of Dark Water, is 
also the author of the “Souls of Black Folk.” 
Both of these books are poignant revelations of 
a phase of our so-called civilization destined to 
call more and more imperatively for our atten- 
tion. Beyond the burning impression of terrible 
injustice, and the inexpressible suffering of a 
1ace, however, is the shining truth that Dr Du 
Bois is a poet—that none can rob him of the joy 
of the knowledge that what others may only own 
he actually possesses. The eternal solace of the 
world is Beauty, and the poet and the artist find 
that healing. One finishes the book with con- 
gratulations to a conqueror. 


100%—THE STORY OF A PATRIOT 
By Upton Sincuair, Pasadena, California 


To uninformed citizens who happen to rely for 
their “news” on such journals as the “New York 
Times” and who still believe in the American- 
ism of the “Fathers,” Upton Sinclair’s book will 
bring a blush of shame because they will be 
enlightened as to the methods by which the De- 
bureau for the incitement of crime or into an 
agency of Big Business to rid the country of 
partment of Justice has been transformed into a 
dangerous “Reds”—a euphemism for champions 
of a new democratic order. In this 300-page book, 


Volume 1X, No. 8 


replete with dramatic incident, Sinclair shows how 
America, using “agents provocateurs,” of the 
Peter Gudge type or police officials like Guffey 
who is a mere tool of the Tractions Interests, in- 
cites radicals or members of the chambers of 
commerce to commit acts of violence, slips dan- 
gerous phrases into “red” documents for the 
sole purpose of enabling the Department of Jus- 
tice to rid the country of all those who oppose 
a system that battens upon economic injustice, or 
who are so un-American as to believe in the 
Americanism of Jefferson and Lincoln. 


Now and then the overflowing anger of the 
reader is relieved by such incidents as Guffey’s 
cursing of Peter Gudge for arresting the brother 
of a United States Senator for quoting the Dec- 
laration of Independence! Poor, simple and un- 
tutored Peter cannot understand why a man 
should be permitted to break the law just be- 
cause he happens to be a hrother of a senator 
or why seditious things may be said just because 
they happen to be in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence or in the Bible. One cannot help- smil- 
ing when Peter Gudge receives a letter from 
the head of the “Society of the Daughters of the 
American Revolution,” hurries with it to Guffe) 
and asks what kind of a “red” plot is being 
hatched by these female parlor Bolshevists who 
have the hardihood to openly flaunt the word 
“revolution” on their letter heads at a time when 
America is fighting to save itself from the reds. 


Upton Sinclair, as usual, has done America a 
service. His book will no doubt help to bring 
about a conversion from 100% Americanism to 
the Americanism on which most of us have been 
nurtured and then America, and not secret agents 
of the Department of Injustice, will once more 
be the trustee of liberty and civilization. 

A Lerxow!ItTz 


The co-operative movement has been, and is, 
effecting a silent and sure revolution, not only in 
Ireland, but thruout the world, which is not brought 
about by blood and iron,. but by brains and per- 
severance. In this revolution the captains of the 


companies are the managers of the co-operative 
societies, and they are captains in a democratic 
army in which the voice of the youngest officer can 
be heard in the highest councils—L P Byrne and 
D Coffey in Better Business. 














———— 
























November, 1920 


STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGE- 
MENT, CIRCULATION, ETC., REQUIRED 
BY THE ACT OF CONGRESS OF AUGUST 
24, 1912, 


of The American Teacher, published monthly ex- 
cept July and August, at New York, N. Y. for 
October 1, 1920. 


State of New York, County of Queens, ss.: 


Before me, a Notary Public in and for the State 
and county aforesaid, personally appeared Henry 
R Linville, who, having been duly sworn according 
to law, deposes and says that he is the Editor of 
the American Teacher and that the following is, to 
the best of his knowledge and belief, a true state- 
ment of the ownership, management (and if a daily 
paper, the circulation), etc., of the aforesaid pub- 
lication for the date shown in the above caption, 
required by the Act of August 24, 1912, embodied 
in section 443, Postal Laws and Regulations, printed 
on the reverse of this form, to wit: 


1. That the names and addresses of the pub- 
lisher, editor, managing editor, and business man- 
agers are: 

Publisher, The American Federation of Teach- 
ers, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 

Editor, Henry R Linville, 36 Terrace Ave., 
Jamaica, N. Y. 

Managing Editor, None. 

Business Manager, Max Rosenhaus, 70 Fifth Ave- 
nue, New York, N. Y. 

2. That the owners are: (Give names and ad- 
dresses of individual owners, or, if a corporation, 
give its name and the names and addresses of stock- 
holders owning or holding 1 per cent. or more of 
the total amount of stock.) 

The American Federation of Teachers—Presi- 
dent, Chas B Stillman, 1620 Lake Avenue, Wil- 
mette, Ill.; Secretary-Treasurer, F G _ Stecker, 
1618 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, Ill.; approximate 
number of members, 12,000. , 

3. That the known bondholders, mortgagees, 
and other security holders owning or holding 1 per 
cent. of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other 
securities are: (If there are none, so state.) None. 

4. That the two paragraphs next above, giving 
the names of the owners, stockholders, and security 
holders, if any, contain not only the list of stock- 
holders and security holders as they appear upon 
the books of the company but » in cases where 
the steckholder or security holder appears upon the 
books of the company as trustee or in any other 
fiduciary relation, the name of the person or cor- 
poration for whom such trustee is acting, is given; 
also that the said two paragraphs contain state- 
ments embracing affiant’s full knowledge and be- 
lief as to the circumstances and conditions under 
which stockholders and security holders who do 
not appear upon the books of the company as trus- 
tees, hold stock and securities in a capacity other 
than that of a bona fide owner; and this affiant 

| no reason to believe that any other person, as- 
sociation, or corporation has any interest direct or 
indirect in the said stock, bonds, or other securi- 
ties than as so stated by him. 

_ 5. That the average number of copies of each 
issue of this publication sold or distributed, through 
the mails or otherwise, to paid subscribers during 


The American Teacher 





191 


the six months preceding the date shown above is 
(This in formation is required from daily publica- 


tions only.) 
HENRY R LINVILLE, 
Editor. . 
Sworn to and subscribed before me this Ist day 
of October, 1920. 
(Seal) ALVIN M DUNHAM. 
(My commission expires March 30, 1921.) 








INSTRUCTION IN POLITICS FOR WOMEN 


Goucher College has received the sum of $25,000 
for the establishment of the Elizabeth King Ellicott 
fellowship for the political education of women. By 
this fund Goucher College becomes the first women’s 
college in the country to provide definitely for the 
education of women voters.—F'rom School Life for 
November 1, 1920. 








This is the Official Organ 
of the 


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





Executive Council of the American Federation 
or Teachers 
President, CHARLES B STILLMAN, Chicago 
1620 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, IIl 
First Vice-President and Editor, American Teacher, 
Henry R LINVILLE, 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 COLBY, Fresno, Cal, 
124 North Van Ness Boulevard 
Fourth Vice-President, HERMAN DEFREM, 
New York City, 2875 Broadway 
Fifth Vice-President, ISABEL WILLIAMS, 
St Paul, Minn, 554 Holly Avenue 
Sixth Vice-President, JENNIE A Wi1cox, Chicago, IIl, 
212 North Grove Avenue, Oak Park, Ill 
Seventh Vice-President, ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ, 
New York City, "Grand Avenue, East Elmhurst 
Eighth Vice-President, C E PHILLIPs, Atlanta, Ga, 
94 Brookline Street 
Ninth Vice-President, CLakA K Stutz, 
Washington, D C, 1628 Swann Street 
Secretary-Treasurer, F G StTecker, Chicago, IIl, 
1618 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, Ill 





bo frag, UV ate 


The American Teacher Volume IX, No. 8 





To a New Delegate to Our National Convention 


What is it that your local has a right to expect when you 
bring back your report from the National Convention? Is it a 
mere catalog of the business transacted at each session? The 
official report gives that in more exact detail than you can hope 
to do. Do you go merely to shape the policies of The American 
Federation of Teachers? And do you return merely to render 
an account of your participation therein? In short, are conven- 
tions important solely for the business transacted? Are you to 
render a sort of phonographic service, and when you return, 
judiciously cut, and with costumes and scenery omitted? 


No delegate who understands our movement,—and under- 
standing is not of the mind solely, but of the heart as well,—can 
attend a national convention of The American Federation of 
Teachers without being strengthened and confirmed in purpose, 
inspired and encouraged to greater activity. Without being 
Pharisaical, he thanks God that this is not as other conventions 
are. It is the DIFFERENCE that is your justification for ex- 
istence. 

Is it not then this thing which is unique, this spirit which is 
the source of our loyalty, this type of discussion and interplay 
of personality which are the inevitable expression of an.essential 
agreement,—is it not this that your local wants to hear about? 
If you yourself are not immune to the contagion of ideas, you 
will have gained more than facts at our convention. In addition 
to facts, this is what your local wants you to bring back. It is not 
the performance merely. It is the quality of the performance. 
See that you take home to your local the thing that makes the 
American Federation live in spite of difficulties, and grow, in- 
evitably, in spite of opposition. 





JOSEPHINE COLBY, 
Field Secretary. 


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