MARCH, 1927 | VOL. XI—No. 7 


wns in a Education for Democracy 


The 
Agnetioual Teacher 


THE ORGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 

















| 


ND as long as I am president of the Uni- 
| versity of Wisconsin, this complete free- 
(\ || dom of thought and expression will be accorded 
with utter impartiality alike to teachers who 
entertain conservative opinions and to teachers 
who entertain radical opinions. The fact that 
I may think, that an official of the state may 


think, or that a citizen of the state may think. 
a teacher’s opinions wrong-headed or even 
dangerous will not alter this policy. For the 
whole of human history presents unanswerable 
proof that only through the open and un- 


hampered clash of contrary opinions can truth 
be found.” 





—President Frank, University of Wisconsin . 




















Published : 
AMERICAN |! FEDERATION E> 20 327 So. La Salle St., Chicago 
Single Copy 15c—Yearly Subscription $1.00 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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“Believing, as I do, that the freedom of learning is the vital breath of democ- 
racy and progress, I trust that a recognition of its supreme importance will 
direct the hand of power and that our-public schools and state universities may 
enjoy the priceless ae of courses of instruction designed to promote 
the acquisition of all knowledge and may be placed under no restrictions to 
prevent it; and that our teachers may be encouraged to know and to teach the 
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This is the path of salvation 
of men and democracy.”—-CHARLES Evans HuGues, im an address before the 
American Bar Association, September, 1925. 





THEY ARE SLAVES 


“They are slaves who fear to speak, 
For the fallen and the weak; 
They are slaves who will not choose, 
Hatred, scoffing and abuse, 
Rather than in silence shrink 
From the truth they needs must think. 
They are slaves who dare not be 
In the right with two or three.” 
—James Russell Lowell. 



































CONTENTS Your Teacher’s 


Page 


Report of Committee’ on Academic 
Freedom and Tenure........... 


R. W. Everett 

Teachers’ Tenure in Minneapolis... 6 
Amy G. Edmunds 

The Legal Status of the Teacher.... 8 


John E. Kirkpatrick 


Teachers’ Unions in Fascist Countries 9 
Dorothy P. Gary 


Canadian and Russian Teachers’ Or- 
WANIZATIONS ... cd cceccensccsecce 12 


BUR ocd e- ape oe 14 | 


Report of Legislative Committee.... 17 
A. F. T. Convention 


Pete WNNNS. SoA ss Seva c tates 20 | 








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The American Teacher 


Entered as second class matter October 20, 1926, at the post office at Chicago, Illinois, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 


Acceptance 
for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1108, Act of February 28, 1925, authorized November 3, 1926. 








Volume XI, No. 7 


MARCH, 1927 


One Dollar a Year 








Report of the Committee on Academic 
Freedom and Tenure 


R. W. Everett, Chairman 
Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure 


At the Tenth Annual Convention of the A. F. 
of T. held in New York last summer, it was de- 
cided to appoint five Standing Committees which 
were to function during the year. The present 
report ‘concerns one of these. It was felt that 
the custom in the past of leaving all problems 
to the Executive Committee was defective since 
it was everybody’s business to do everything, 
hence nobody’s business to take up specific prob- 
lems such as State Legislation (relating to edu- 
cation), questions of Academic Freedom, experi- 
mental problems in education, professional im- 
provement, etc. With these problems assigned 
to special committees it was hoped that some 
definite work might be accomplished during the 
year. Without the specific assignment of special 
problems, the temptation is to meet in. annual 
convention, talk enthusiastically, resolve highly, 
and then go home and wait till the next Annual 
Convention. > 


The Convention thus created the Committee 
on Academic Freedom and Tenure with the fol- 
lowing instructions. 


“This Committee should deal with situations, either 
in the classroom or outside, in which the status and 
freedom of teachers may be concerned. It should 
develop as our financial resources allow machinery for 
obtaining information in all cases where freedom of 
teaching and of expression are interfered with, and also 
machinery for handling these cases. Until our own 
economic resources become sufficient. for more aggres- 
sive participation in defending cases, the Committee 


should work out the technic of dealing with such cases_ 


and help in the direction of local defense. The Com- 
mittee should secure ‘the cooperation, in this field, of 
labor groups, such as city central bodies and state fed- 
erations, and also civic organizations, and the American 
Civil Liberties Union. 


“For the chairmanship of the Committee on Aca- 
demic Freedom and Tenure, with headquarters on the 
Pacific Coast, we recommend the appointment of R. W: 
Everett.” 





The chairman decided to choose a member from 
each section of the country that was represented 
by a Local. He consulted the delegates at the 
New York Convention, so far as possible, to 
find who would be best in each locality. Upon 
returning home he corresponded with the people 
suggested, and by November 13, had the Com- — 
mittee organized as follows: Secretary, Miss 
Ethel! Battelle; Mr. S. G. McLean. These two, 
with the chairman, are members of Local No. 
31, and represent the California contingent. From 
the other States there are; Jas. P. Barron of 
Local 89, Atlanta, Ga.; Arthur W. Calhoun of 
Local 189, Brookwood, N. Y.; Miss May Darling 
of Local 111, Portland, Ore.; Miss Amy A, Fox 
of Local No. 59, Minneapolis, Minn.; Mrs. M. 
L. Hedges of Local No. 8 of Washington, D. 
C.; Dr. Lefkowitz of Local No. 3 of New York; 
ait Miss May V. Little of Local No. 52, Mem- 
phis, Tenn. 

Miss Fox suggested the advisability of asking 
each Local for a discussion of any or all cases 
where dismissal of teachers or administrators 
had occurred, because of personal or political 
reasons. Also we asked the Locals what action 
they had taken and with what result. Thirty-one 
of these letters were sent out on December 3. 
Eighteen schools have responded to date. Of 
these eleven reported no cases. The remaining 
seven have sent more or less full accounts. A 
digest will be made of these in the near future 
and the results made public. 


Meantime the case of President Suzallo of the 
University of Washington had attracted wide at- 
tention. Here was, very obviously; a flagrant 
case of a school administrator being dismissed 
for purely personal and political reasons by a 
Governor who was willing to prostitute his. ap- 
pointive power to win partisan or selfish ends. 





— 


4 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The Chairman of the Committee requested the 
California State Federation of Teachers, when 
in session on November 13, to go on record 
on this question. This they did in the following 
resolution : 

Whereas, the American Federation of Teachers 
holds, as one of its fundamental principles, that. teach- 
ers and school administrators should not be removed 
for personal or political reasons; and, 

Whereas, Dr. Henry A. Suzallo appears to have been 
removed from the Presidency of the, University of 
Washington for reasons entirely apart from his scho- 
lastic or administrative actions, 

Therefore, be it resolved by the California State 
Branch of the American Federation of Teachers, that 
we. unreservedly condemn the action of the Board of 
Regents of the University of Washington in arbitrarily 
removing President Suzallo, and we heartily commend 
the Washington State Federation of Labor in its efforts 
to recall Governor Hartley, to the end that it may be 
seen that our schools are not to be made the football of 
politics ; and, 

Be it further resolved, that this Organization will 
use its influence to resist any attack on the tenure of 
competent teachers and administrators. 


Copies of this resolution were sent to the 
Washington State Federation of Labor and to 
Mr. Suzallo. The latter answered expressing his 
appreciation for our attitude in the matter but 
assuring us, as he had assured the American Civil 
Liberties Union, that this was a State matter and 
would have to be handled by the people of Wa: s- 
ington. The State Federation of Labor attempted 
to start a campaign to recall Governor Hartley. 
Up to the present time the newspapers have not 
announced its success. The Committee corres- 
ponded with the American Association of Uni- 
versity Professors and the American Civil Lib- 
erty Union. Both organizations were glad to co- 
operate, but there was nothing else we could 
do, since we have no Local in that State. 

At the suggestion of Miss Borchardt, the Com- 
mittee took up the problem of the Anti-Evolution 
laws. Such bills have been introduced in Ar- 
kansas, California, Delaware, Missouri, Montana, 
Nebraska, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. A 
copy of the following letter has been sent to the 
Secretary of the State Federation of Labor in 


each State affected. 
“Dear Sir and Brother, 

“My attention has been called to the fact that an 
Anti-Evolution bill has been introduced into your Leg- 
islature. This is part of a nation wide movement to 
restrict freedom of thought and freedom of teaching. 
Even though the Bills were worded as mildly as the 
one introduced in our Legislature, to the effect that “The 


Theory of Evolution shall not be taught as a fact,” I 
think that you will agree with me that they should 
not be put on the Statute Books. As a matter of fact 
the “Theory of Evolution,” as popularly understaod, is 
never taught as a fact, but who can say how the 
Courts will interpret the “Theory of Evolution”? 

“Even though we may agree that the proponents of 
these measures are thoroughly honest and sincere, we 
cannot approve of their methods of striving to limit 
freedom of thought, and indirectly freedom of research... 
As Freedom of Thought is one of the cardinal princi- 
ples of Organized Labor, I trust that your State Feder- 
ation will take active steps to prevent such bills from 
being enacted. 

“Please let me know what action your Federation 
will take in this matter, as the American Federation of 
Teachers and the Science League of America are anx- 
ious to cooperate with you in stemming the tide of 
reactionary legislation. 

“As Chairman of the Committee on Academic Free- 
dom and Tenure I foresee in all such legislation a seri- 
ous, even though unintentional, threat against freedom 
of thought and academic freedom. A weapon is being 
created here, the ultimate use of which no one can 
foretell.” 


Mr. H. M. Thackery of Little Rock, writes that 
the bill has been killed in the Arkansas Senate. 
Their Organization has taken the position out- 
lined by the A. F. of L. The other States have 
not been heard from. We are also working 
actively with the Science League of America and 
The Civil Liberties Union in this campaign. 

Also, at the suggestion of Miss Borchardt, the 
Committee took up the question of Tenure in the 
States that have no adequate tenure laws. The 
following letter was sent to the Secretaries of 
the State Federation of Labor in the thirty-six 
States whose Legislatures were to meet in Janu- 
ary, and who had not Teachers’ Tenure Law in 
its statutes. 

“After a careful survey, we find that among others, 
your State is without Teachers’ Tenure Laws. As 
your Legislature is to meet this coming year it would 
be an opportunity for Labor to take some action in 
this matter. 

“Many teachers’ organizations are run by the super- 
intendents who are secretly opposed to Tenure, with 
the result that they make little effort and less progress 
in this direction. And in any case they are not well 
enough organized to accomplish much. We have found 
it very difficult to organize the teachers, one reason 
being that it is too easy to ‘fire’ any teacher who has 
temerity enough to try to organize without the leader- 
ship of the superintendent. It is for this reason that 
we write to you instead of the teachers. 

“I am sure that you agree with us that it is to the 
advantage of Labor and Society to have the teachers 
organized and affiliated with Labor. If Labor would 








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. make a gesture in this direction I feel that it would 


improve the attitude of the teaching profession toward 
Unionism. 

“We shall be glad to furnish you with copies of Ten- 
ure Laws now in operation in several states, or aid in 
any other way you may suggest. 

“As Chairman of: the National Committee on Aca- 
demic Freedom and Tenure, I am very anxious to 
cooperate with the forces of Labor in cases where 
teachers are removed for their political or economic 
ideas. I trust that I may hear from you as to the pos- 
sibilities in these matters. If it is too late this year, 
would you be interested next?” 

Ten State Secretaries of the A. F. of L. 
answered, expressing interest, and asking for 
copies of Tenure Laws from other States. They, 
were as follows: Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, 
Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, 
South -Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and 
Wyoming. Copies of the California laws and 
bills were sent them, but the Committee has not 
been able to collect tenure laws from other States. 
A copy of the N. E. A. Bulletin will be sent to 
each of the above Secretaries as soon as possible. 


The committeemen in the three States where 
we are represented, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and 
Tennessee, have been requested to co-operate 
closely with organized labor in at least making 
a start toward getting an adequate tenure law. 
In’ Minnesota the situation is very hopeful. In 
Alabama the situation has been referred to Com- 
mitteeman J. P. Barron of Atlanta who is also 
co-operating in the creation of a local at Birming- 
ham. 


We have to enact a new Tenure Law here in 
California this year. The ‘present statute, en- 
acted in 1921, applies only to schools of eight 
teachers or over. As this Constitution did not 
give the Legislature the right to pass special 
legislation, the law was attacked two years ago 
on the ground of special legislation. A Superior 
Judge declared it unconstitutional. Although the 


matter was appealed, the case looked so hopeless / 


that, with the assistance of the State Teachers’ 
Association and the State Department of Edu- 
cation, the Constitution was amended to empower 
the Legislature to classify. schools. This, how- 
ever, is not retroactive so does not validate the 
1921 law, 

The present bill does not, however, make use 
of the classification provision. It applies tenure 
to all teachers. We anticipate a severe battle in 
the Legislature. In the parts of the State where 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








a 





5 


4 ° 
‘the small schools predominate, the idea of per- 
manence has made little headway. The ordinary 
rural school trustee looks upon the right to “hire 
and fire” the teacher as the chief perquisite of 
his office. Since few rural teachers ever wish 
to teach more than three years in the same school, 
we have changed the probationary period from 
two years to three in the hope of satisfying both 
the teachers and the trustees. The trial board 
is changed from Local to County Board on the. 
application of either party, and the findings may 
not be reviewed in a court of law on the question 
of fact, Tenure is to refer to the person, not 
the position, i. e., a supervisor or principal may 
be demoted without trial but cannot be dismissed 
from the system. 

The relation between Tenure and Academic 
Freedom on the part of Federationists is well 
emphasized in the following quotation from a 
letter of Mr. James E. Kelley of Harrisburg, 
Penn. 

“Previous to Governor Sproul’s term of office many 
teachers of this State were organized and affiliated with 
the Federation of Labor. Through the importation of 
Dr. Finnegan from the State of New York to head the 
State Department of Public Instruction the teachers 
organization was ruined. One of his first rulings, sup- 
posed to have been written by some of the largest man- 
ufacturers of this State, was that teachers. had no right 
to become members of the American Federation of 
Teachers and that by retaining their membership in 
that organization he would urge the school directors 
not to hire union teachers. This ruling was fought 
very hard but without success.” 


The above statement may help to explain why 
Dr. Finnegan’s disappearance from Pennsylvania 
school system was not an unmitigated loss to the 
cause of education. 

The Committee solicits the active co-operation 
of all members in carrying on a campaign to 
establish adequate Tenure Laws im every State. 
So long as such laws are not on the statute books 
it is inevitable that incidents similar to the one 
described above will arise’ to wreck our efforts. 
Without wishing, in the least to detract from 
the very important service for tenure performed 
by the N. E. A., we know that many of the 
administrators give the idea only lip service, or 
are openly hostile. Ours is the ‘only organiza- 
tion that can successfully enlist the co-operation 
of organized labor in this campaign. With this 
co-operation we may confidently expect the estab- 
(Continued on page 11) 


Teachers’’Tentre in Minneapolis 


Amy G. Edmunds 
Minneapolis, Local No, 59 


The Hallam Tenure Bill is again up for pass- 
age before the Minnesota Legislature, now in 
session. Last year the bill failed to pass. This 
year, it stands a much better chance. The reason 
for this advantage is to be found in the dis- 
turbances which occurred last spring in the Min- 
-neapolis public schools. 


The turmoil arose upon the discharge of a 
number of teachers, two of whom were Federa- 
tion members, and subsided with the reinstate- 
ment of one Federation member and all but two 
others. At that time, whatever his conviction, 
the City Superintendent of Schools came out with 
a public avowal in favor of the Tenure Bill. 
This fall, he made an attempt to get the teachers 
to modify the bill by striking out the clause re- 
ferring to the granting of counsel, but the 
teachers refused to budge, so that there is noth- 
ing now for him to do but either to repudiate 
his signed statement of last spring, or to back 
the fight for tenure. 


The tenure rules adopted by the school board 
of Minneapolis (subject to change without no- 
tice) require, (1) that the period of probation 
shall be three years, after which, a teacher shall 
be discharged for cause only, such cause being 
given in written notice of dismissal, and specif- 
ically stated, at least four months before the 
end of the term; (2) that such discharged teacher 
shall be granted a hearing. 

In case of one of. the Federation teachers, who 
had taught in the Minneapolis schools for five 
years, and been re-appointed after a leave of 
absence, no catise whatever was given for her 
dismissal. 

In the case of the other member who had 
been employed in the service for fifteen years, 
general causes such as insubordination and lack 
of co-operation were given. 

The discharge of these teachers was given 
publicity in flaring headlines in one of the daily 
papers, and in the case of at least two of the 
teachers, this was the first intimation of their 
dismissal vouchsafed to them. 

Immediately upoti cognizance of the action 
of the school board, the Teachers Federa- 
tion called a special meeting of its members 


to do three things: First, to protest against: 


such public discrediting of teachers and mini- 
mizing of their chances for employment’ else- 
where; Second, to investigaté the reasons for 
the discharge of Federation members, and to start 
the work for possible reinstatement; Third, to 
insist that the board live up to its own tenure 
rules, and to show how frail is the security to 
be expected from any tenure rules that cannot 
be enforced by law. 

In this first meeting, which was most enthusi- 
astic, the emphasis was laid not so much on the 
personal aspect of the case, from the point of 
view of teachers discharged, but on the fact that 
the school board had failed to live up to its own 
rules. 

A letter was ordered to be sent to the Superin- 
tendent of Schools and the School Board of 
Minneapolis, covering the four following points: 

1. What probation really means. 

2. Requesting that the teachers’ hearing 
should come before dismissal instead of after. 

3. Requesting that the statement ‘of cause 
should be given specifically. 

4. Requesting that transfer with reasonably 
favorable conditions should be given to teachers 
trained in specialized subjects. 

This last -point refers to the first of the two 
teachers mentioned, who last year had been re- 
quired to teach Seventh Grade Grammar when 
her preparation and teaching experience had been 
in Senior High School history. 

An interim committee was appointed to handle 
the matter of funds for necessary attorney’s 
fees; a speaking committee, to appear before the 
Central Parent Teachers’ Association ; and a pub- 
licity committee to assist the secretary in pre- 
paring the letter of protest and other publicity. 

These committees functioned throughout the 
entire campaign. The interim committee, to- 
gether with the social committee, raised a defense 
fund for the teachers, and a continuous stream 
of letters of protest and inquiry poured in upon 
the School Board and the newspapers. The 
speaking committee met with a very conservative 
reception at the hands of the Central Parent 
Teachers’ Association ; but the local branches took 
the matter up and the city seethed with indigna- 
tion. The Central Labor Union backed the Fed- 














eration not only with their hearty support, but 
they engineered a mass meeting and passed reso- 
lutions calling upon the citizens of Minneapolis 
to protest against the school board’s action in 
failing to live up to its own rules, and to support 
the Hallam Tenure Bill. 


All this publicity was most welcome to the 
teachers, although most undesirable from the 
standpoint of the members of the School Board. 
But there was worse yet to come. When things 
had reached the ‘point at which some sort of a 
move had to be made by the Board, for school 


was nearing its close, one of the grade school! 
principals, a liberal and much-loved man, father \ 


of the Junior High School system in Minneapolis, 
but a man who had never “played the game,” 
committed suicide in his building, leaving behind 
him a most scathing indictment of the City Super- 
intendent and the entire administration of the 
schools, charging the demoralization of the force 
under the slave-driving tactics pursued and call- 
ing for the Superintendent’s resignation, and the 
enactment of a tenwre law to protect the school 
system. 

In the uproar that followed this act, the Feder- 
ation published an open letter to the people of 
Minneapolis, in part as follows: 

“Mr. Gullette was right: thé Minneapolis teachers 
need a tenure law. The lack of such a law has cre- 
ated a kind of advertising hysteria among the principals 
and supervisors that has resulted in an over emphasis 
on extra-curricular activities and inter-school rivalries. 
The consequent pressure brought to bear in the schools 
disrupts classes, lowers’ the standard of scholarship, 
and creates a wrong sense of values. Both students 
and teachers are breaking under the strain. 

“The dismissal of teachers without cause, the grant- 
ing of conditional five month contracts, the holding-up 
of contracts for trivial reasons—such as matters of 
dress, the ‘study of a teacher’s qualifications’ after she 
has been dismissed, the refusal of any proper hearing 
for such teachers—these things have given Mr. Gullette 
grounds for saying, ‘At no time during my term of 
service have the teachers been so anxious, so unhappy 
and so distressed as they are today.’” 

Shortly upon the heels of this dire tragedy, 
came the re-appointment of -all but three of the 
discharged teachers; indeed, it was said that 
some of the contracts which had been held up, 
for what reason the teachers concerned have 
never been able to find out, mysteriously appeared 
at their respective buildings that afternoon. 

It was just about this time, also, that the city 
Superintendent suddenly saw the light in the 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Paul. Loca 


7 


matter of the tenure bill and that the School 
Board committee unanimously endorsed it. That 
this sudden, enthusiasm was simply a case of 
“When the devil was sick; the devil a monk 
would be,” is shown by the fact that this fall, 
when the atmosphere had somewhat cooled off, 
two members of the committee repudiated their 
action. But nevertheless, the publicity given last 
spring to the lack of tenure enjoyed by the 
teachers, a lack which the administration had de- 
clared jdid_ not exist, because the School Board 
had passed tenure laws which covered all emer- 
gencies, was so convincing that tenure support 
has grown by leaps and bounds. 

In addition to the campaign for reinstatement 
carried on by the Federation, a drive for member- 
ship was instituted, and Mr. Stecker, then Na- 
tional Secretary of the A. F. of T., came to us 
from Chicago to advise. The result is that the 
membership of the Federation has increased. by 
thirty-five percent, and the teachers are saying, 
“The Federation is the only organization in this 
town that stands by. the teachers.” 

One principal was overheard to say, “I would 
not dare to dismiss a teacher, no matter how 
much I wanted to, for fear of getting that Feder- 
ation on my trail,” 

The \fight was’ certainly worth while, from 
whatever standpoint it is viewed; and if the 
teachers have won their right to tenure, it was 
certainly worth all it cost. 

Whatever mistakes were made, were largely 
the result of inexperience, and we have learned 
much. The School Board and the public also 
have learned, we think this lesson: THAT, 
WHEN A CRISES COMES, TENURE LAWS 
NOT BACKED‘ BY STATUTE ARE NOT 
WORTH THE PAPER ON WHICH THEY 
ARE PRINTED. 


Note: The’ Minnesota Tenure Bill \s now a-law 
chiefly po ag the efforts of the Minneapolis and St. 
s. 





A GOOD EXAMPLE 

To the International Federation of Trade Unions at 
Amsterdam we are indebted for the news that Sir 
Thomas Legge, England’s Senior Medical Inspector of 
Factories, has resigned his post because the British 
Government refuses to carry out the Geneva Conven- 
tion prohibiting the use of white lead for the painting 
of buildings. Although such cases of individual disin- 
terestedness are seldom very effective, they are never- 
theless among the finest records of humanity —Life 
and Labor Bulletin. 








THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE 
TEACHER 


John E. Kirkpatrick 


The status of the public school teacher and 
administrative seems to be almost, if not exactly 
the same as that of college instructors and of- 
ficers. If there is a difference, it appears in the 
entire absence of any traditional right of office 
for the public school teacher. It is a wholly 


contractual relation. But as such, the courts’ 


will defend the teacher against its arbitrary vio- 
lation by school officers. A California court 
decided in 1887, that the San Francisco board of 
education might not lawfully remove a teacher 
from her position without an opportunity for a 
hearing before a proper committee. The Wis- 
consin court, in 1859, decided that the superin- 
tendent of schools in Watertown might not be 
removed from his office except for “just cause,” 
and that charges brought against him based on 
actions of a previous year, after he had been 
reemployed, did not constitute such cause. This 
court also decided in this case that “due cause” 
was a question of law to be determined by the 
judicial department of government. It was not 
a power which warranted removal at discretion, 
but it acted as a limitation on the power by the 
legislature to inferior officers. 

This study of the legal rights of the teacher 
may perhaps be best summed up. by reviewing 
further the findings of the court majority in the 
West Virginia case of Hartigan vs. Board of 
Regents, 1901. The professor in a state uni- 
versity is not, it was then decided, a public of- 
ficer, neither is he a semi-public officer. He is 
like a teacher in the public schools, a sub- 
ordinate of the board of education, responsible 
to such board and not to the public or to the 
patrons. The professor takes no oath, gives no 
bond, does not account for misfeasance or non- 
feasance in a legal sense, has no term and no 
duties of a determinate character fixed by law. 
He does not share in the “sovereign” power of 
the state. For these reasons he was regarded by 
this court as a “mere employe,” “however dis- 
tinguished and learned” he might be. Here, it 
may be said, is clearly, if brutally, stated the 
present position of the American academic per- 
son. , 

Early in our national period, the professor 
was not entirely without the rights and dignities 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


of office. The common law accorded him the 
right of a hearing upon specific charges and the 
courts were ready, in part at least, to defend 
these rights. But toward the close of the last 
century, all right of office and all rights at com- 
mon law, had disappeared from the view of the 
courts. Whatever statutes, ordinances and con- 
tracts prescribed, the courts would consider. But 
right of office, freeholds, dignities, judicial 
powers, legislative powers, once the possession 
of the teacher in the school world, had passed to 
a new class—the lay governor of the school. 

And yet the teacher need not be without hope 
that some day, even in America, he may recover 
the dignity of his office. Let him be but worthy 
of his high office, let him command as he may the 
respect and devotion of his pupils today, the 
citizens and rulers of tomorrow. Let him take 
a lesson from his wiser proletarian fellows, and 
organize strongly enough so that he may bargain 
collectively with the education boards and gain 
a hearing in the legislatures. Let him be first 
citizen and man, that he may win again the posi- 
tion of respect and dignity that belong to his 
office. 


Lastly, for those who have faith in the law 


"as a consérver of rights and a respecter of per- 


sons, let him remember that there are neglected 
possibilities in the common law which might in- 
cline the courts to favor the professional resident 
and principal in the school, rather than the non- 
resident lay judiciary—the trustee. Let the 
courts be shown that the trustee is a “visitor,” 
and as such, exercises a judicial function. Then 
his arbitrary powers of inquiry and judgment dis- 
appear and he must deal with the professor, not 
merely as with a hired man, but as a “free- 
holder” with the rights of property in his office 
and of reputation in his profession. 





PROPOSED BILL WOULD ALLOW ARMY 
MEN TO HEAD COLLEGES 
Senator Broussard (Dem.) of Louisiana, has intro- 
duced a bill (Senate bill No. 4600) to authorize pro- 
fessors of military science and tactics to accept the 
presidencies of state universities. The bill was referred 
to the Committee on Military Affairs. 





The Trade Unions are both constructive and militant. 
They propose remedies for every industrial and political 
wrong. Their success is in proportion to the intelli- 
gence and unity of wage workers. 












Teachers Unions in Fascist Countriés 
Dorothy P. Gary 






\ 


Minneapolis, Local No. 59 


This title is a misnomer. It should be—the 
Destruction of Teachers’ Unionism in Fascist 
Countries. The post-war reaction has set up 
business dictatorships in twelve European coun- 
tries and temporarily engulfed all militant union- 
ism—that is, all unionism which has not been 
willing to take its orders from the new rulers. 
Especially have the unions of civil servants, in- 
cluding those of the teachers, been under fire. 
None of these countries was I able to visit, but 


I talked with union teachers from Italy, Greece, ' 


Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary, Portugal and 
Spain, secured data and literature from them, 
and heard their reports on conditions in their 
countries at the Teachers’ International Congress. 

It is significant that these teachers, who rep- 
resented the remnants of organization left among 
the teachers, had been forced to come, in most 
cases, without passports arid reported anony- 
mously. 


The situation of teachers in Italy is typical 
of the conditions prevailing. 


Mussolini vs. Real Unionism 
One of the first acts of the Duce after his 
famous March on Rome, was the attempted 
seizure and liquidation of the “free” trade-union 
and co-operative movements as well as the social- 
ist and communist parties, and the establishment 
of Fascist unions by fiat. The unions and co- 
operatives which would submit to Fascist dicta- 
torship of their affairs were countenanced. This 
dictatorship extended to such lengths as appoint- 
ment of Fascists as trade-union executives and 
the open regulation of organizational policies. 
The resistance of the unions and co-operatives 
was ruthlessly handled. Leaders were jailed, 
tortured and secretly shot. Many were forced 
to flee the country. The organizations’ property 
was looted, burned or confiscated by Fascists. 
Dr. Warbasse reports that seven hundred co- 

operative stores have been so destroyed. 

In addition to the military terror practiced by 
the government, various legal restrictions have 
been imposed. Non-Fascist unions are now “al- 
lowed” but employers can make legal contracts 
only with Fascist unions! Only Fascist unions can 


ditions. Further, by law, all unions are denied 
the right to strike. Strikers are subject to pun- 
ishment as criminals. The government decrees 
that all disputes between labor and capital must 
be settled by arbitration. When a representative 
of the Confederation of Industrials, the national 
manufacturers’ association, raised questions in the 
Chamber regarding compulsory arbitration, the 
Fascist answer was, “You have nothing to fear. 
Are we not there?” 


Mussolini claims that the workers have a free 
choice as to which type of union they will join— 
Fascist or non-Fascist. By an overwhelming ma- 
jority they have voted for the first. These union 
teachers declare this the rankest hypocrisy. This 
is the manner in which the vote was taken. All 
the workers in a factory are.called together to 
vote for a free vs. a Fascist union. Black Shirts 
are stationed around the walls while the vote 
is taken by a show of hands. Even at this so 
few are willing to vote for Fascism, though fear- 
ing to vote for free unionism, that Mussolini has 
had to decree that if as many as 10% vote for 
the Fascist form of union, that shall be declared 
“the choice of the workers.” 


This reign of terror persists to the present 
time. It is to the everlasting glory of the Italian 
workers that in spite of this terror they have 
continued to defy the Dictator by the thousands, 
both openly and by various indirect methods. 


Mussolini and the Teachers 
If non-Fascist sentiments and organizations are 
considered dangerous among the industrial and 
agricultural workers, how much more dangerous 
must they be among civil servants and teachers, 


The Duce is quoted as expressing himself on 
this question in the following manner: “In the 
national life the teacher accomplishes a function 
as delicate as that of the officer in action or the 
magistrate. The teacher who moulds minds :and 
consciences and who can make heroes or traitors, 
has an important role in the life of the nation. 
In the State then there should be-an atomic 
unity, no groupings nor organizations.” 

The following official Fascist document needs 


bargain collectively for wages and working con-, no interpretation. 


9 


Circular No. 172. 
Enclosed with No. 793. 
N. 43764/843. 
Pusiic EpUCcATION 
April 3, 1926. 

I have to point out that the Giunta Municipale (the 
executive organ of the local Authority) in its session 
yesterday, the 2nd instant, decided not to recognize any 
organization of local teachers with the exception of the 
National Association of Fascist Teachers. All teachers 
loyal to the present Regime who are in the service of 
this local Authority should belong to this Association. 

(Signed) VERGA, Secretary. 
GALLAVRESI, Assistant Secretary. 

Before the advent of Fascism, the national 
union of Italian teachers had 5,000 members. To- 
day, it-is an illegal organization which must carry 
on its work in secret.. The few hundred who con- 
tinue their membership do so at great risks, for 
every school has its Fascist spy. Union teachers 
and other “disloyal’’ educators who have dared 
criticize the Dictator have not only lost their 
positions and teaching licenses but have been im- 
prisoned, some times secretly’ murdered, and 
many exiled to islands in the Mediterranean. 

The economic situation of the teachers and 
workers has worsened as radically as their po- 
litical and social status. The real wage of an 
Italian teaciier is approximately one half that of 
an American teacher. The workers’ real wages, 
which by 1920 had been forced by the unions to 
above pre-war level, have fallen to four-fifths of 
the 1914 standard, reports “La Giustizia” organ 
of the Reformist Socialists. As a corollary to 
this, the eight-hour day has given way to the ten, 
eleven, twelve or even sixteen hour day in the 
major industries. 

Fascism and the Schools 

The so-called Gentile law of 1925 has upset 
the former educational system. Fascist propa- 
ganda has become an official part of education. 
Fascist hymns and songs, as well as the Fascist 
salute are compulsory for teachers and pupils. 
But of course this latter is not peculiar to modern 
Italy alone! ; 

Furthermore, religious ‘instruction has been 
made compulsory, and given an important place 
in the school curriculum. Fascism itself has been 
made a religion, with its own ritual, dogma, and 
“days of national thanksgiving and celebration.” 
Each attempt on the life of Mussolini is the oc- 
casion not orily for an increased reign of terror, 
but also for another lesson in 100%“Italyism” in 
the schools. | 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The following official document also tells its 


own story. 
FASCIST DOCUMENT 
TO SCHOOL GOVERNING BODIES 
Circular No. 176. 
Enclosed with No. 793. 
His Mayjesty’s ScHoot INSPECTORATE FOR LOMBARDY 

To the Governing Bodies of Primary Schools, Nur- 
sery Schools, Trade Preparatory Schools for Women. 

I am communicating to School Governing Bodies a 
copy of the letter of the 8th instant, as follows: “H. 
E., the Minister of Public Instruction, has telegraphed: 
Today a murderous hand was raised against the man 
whom the whole nation acclaims and venerates as its 
Duce and saviour, but once again Providence defended 
the life of Benito Mussolini, a life consecrated to the 
love of all Italians, to the safety and honour of -the 
country. 

“I instruct that, in all the institutions in the charge oi 
this Ministry, the flag shall be displayed as a sign of 
joy. Long live Mussolini! Long live Fascism!” 

In transmitting the order of His Excellency, the Min- 
ister, I instruct that in all Middle and Primary Schools, 
on the occasion of the reopening of the schools after 
the Whitsuntide Holidays, the head of the school, the 
inspector, the head-teacher or the teachers designated 
by the fore-mentioned, shall call upon teachers and 
scholars to take part in the joy of the nation on the 
occasion of the salvation of the Prime Minister, and 
that, while thanking God who has consecrated His 
glorious Duce to Italy, of which he is the Saviour and 
the Reconstructor, they invite all to accomplish their 
duties in full with a renewed faith, with devotion, dis- 
cipline ana with an ardency more and more effective 


both in thought and in deed. 
(Signed) RICCARDO TRUFFI, 
H. M. Inspector for Schools. 
FIORI, -Acting General Director. 

Not only is the educational system suffering 
from suppression of all freedom of speech and 
action among pupils and teachers, and through 
the revamping of the curriculum to meet the needs 
of jingo patriotism. It has likewise been crip- 
pled in its actual physical operation. For ex- 
ample, by the Gentile law, a transformation of 
rural schools into “temporary” schools was ef- 
fected, 100,000 pupils dismissed as a result, and 
a great number of teachers who were in tem- 
porary service found themselves unemployed. 

Also, the elective Educational High Committee 
and the local Committees have been suppressed 
and new Committees have heen created, all ap- 
pointed by the government. The teachers are 
thus deprived of any right of appeal against the 
injuries of the Executive power. 

But the spirited Italian teachers find ways to 








1T 


te 


fi 











THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


voice their indignation and defiance, even though 
they risk life itself in doing so. 

A recent declaration by the now-illegal Italian 
Teachers Federation demands : 

A. The re-opening of the closed rural schools. 

B. Restitution to the elementary school its 
character as a school of the people and a revision 
of the school program toward this end. 

C. Reform of school administration so as to 
make it equal to its tasks. 

D. Restoration of the Educational High Com- 
mittee and the local Committees. 

E. Political civic and personal liberty for 
teachers of all ranks. 

F. The right of the teachers to form bona- 
fide unions. : 





The World Acquaintance Tours appear to offer just 
what many travelers in Europe are seeking, that is 
something more than sight-seeing. They furnish, not 
only the unusual in sight-seeing, but also education, 
study, understanding, the world outlook and acquaint- 


ance with people and places which the average tourist 


would never be able to achieve. To teachers the most 
attractive feature of these Tours is, perhaps, that they 
give opportunity to meet men and women in the coun- 
tries visited of similar interests with themselves with 
whom they may exchange views on international and 
educations subjects. 














Hotel Continental 


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NEW YORK CITY 


Five Minutes from the Pennsylvania and Grand 
Central Terminals; Within Easy Access 
of the Retail Shopping District 
and Surrounded by Forty 
Theatres 


300 OUTSIDE ROOMS 
Each With Private Bath 


RATES: 


Single: $2.50 $3.00 $3.50 $4.00 
Double: $4.50 $5.00 $6.00 $7.00 


COMFORT OF OUR GUESTS 
Our First Consideration 


JOSEPH E. GOULET, Mgr. 























| The Roxbury School 


: for Boys 


Cheshire, Connecticut 


cArE you seeking a school to recom- 
mend to special students ? 


The attention of the teachers who read 
this ine is invited to the advantages 
of the ROXBURY SCHOOL, a boarding 
school combining sound scholastic train- 
ing with careful attention to the needs of 
the individual student. 


A large faculty and small instruction 
units admit of great flexibility in fitting 
a pas te program to his particular needs. 
Roxbury meets the requirements of high 
school students who wish special prep- 
aration for college. 
A. N. SHERIFF, 
Headmaster. 























Report of the Committee on Academic 
Freedqm and Tenure 


(Continued from page 5) 


lishment of the idea that the efficient teacher may 
do his or her work untrammeled by the fear of 
personal malice, purveyors of patronage, or local 
busy-bodies, who would punish able teachers for 
their independence of mind or freedom of ex- 
pression. 

When this ideal shall have been attained it will 
then be incumbent wpon us to develop an esprit 
de corps which will co-operate actively . with 
school administrators to remove those who are 
unfit or inefficient. When this timesarrives we 
may hope to be recognized as a profession whose 
services should be ddequately rewarded. We 
may hope to keep in our ranks men and women 
of the greatest ability, instead of seeing our call- 
ing used as a “Steppitg-stone to something 
better.” 

The Committee hopes to carry-on its work 
along the lines laid down above, to extend its 
contracts and to perform some work that shall be 
of value to the organization and to the cause of 
education. 








12 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


CANADIAN TEACHERS’ ORGANIZA- 
TIONS 


Based on Memorandum Furnished by Scott 
Nearing, Who Spent a Month in 1926 in 
Canada, Traveling from Toronto 
to Vancouver 

After a period of inconsequential financial edu- 
cation associations, the pressure of low salarie 
and problems of tenure led to the formation, in 
1914, of organizations modeled on the English 
National Union for Teachers. This organization, 
beginning in the west, engaged actively in fights 
to improve teaching conditions, and, by 1922, 
western groups demanded recognition of the or- 
ganization. Strikes and lockouts occurred in 
Edmonton, Moosejaw and Brandon. In Brandon 
all the teachers were dismissed. The difficulty 
encountered by the board in replacing them, 
caused a change of attitude in other places. 

Representatives from the’ western provinces 
met at Winnipeg in 1920 and founded the Cana- 
dian Federation. Since that time teachers or- 
ganizations in eight of the nine provinces have 
affiliated. The present membership is slightly 
more than 20,000. This membership is very un- 
evenly distributed. The cities are generally well 
organized; the country districts are very badly 
organized. - 

The Federation acts as a clearing house for 
information ; as a central agency where the prob- 
lems of teachers can be discussed. When any 
cases arise concerning tenure, etc., the Federa- 
tion raises funds, assists in defense and prevents 
strike-breaking. 

None of the provincial organizations is affi- 
liated to organized labor and none is directly 
engaged in politics, but the individual members 
are very active politically, and usually on the 
side of the farmer-labor movement; The group 
idea—electing political representatives to stand 
for an economic group—is gaining in the western 
provinces. This is bound to mean direct partici- 
pation of the teaching group in politics. 

There is a wide variation in dues, ranging in 
annual dues of from $1 to $25. Of these dues 
50 cents goes to the national federation. . | 

During 1927 the Biennial Conference of the | 
World Federation of Educational Associations | 
will meet in Toronto. The Canadian Teachers | 


Federation is acting as official host. 
Editor’s Note. The American Federation of T each- 
ers is a member of the World Federation of Educa- 


/ 






tional Associations due to the skillful work of Miss 
Borchardt and Miss Hardy in Glasgow, where they 
had to frustrate the determined efforts of representa- 
tives of the National Educational Association, who 
were bent upon limiting membership in the world asso- 
ciation to themselves among United States organiza- 
tions. 


DUCATIONAL WORKERS’ UNION—RUSSIA 

To give a better idea about the condition of educa- 
tional workers in the U. S. S. R., we shall state some 
facts indicating the general situation in the realm of 
public education. 

The Government appropriations for education are 
growing along with the improvement in the economic 
condition of the country. In 1924-1925 the public edu- 
cation item in, the Government budget amounted to 
121,056,000 rubles, and in 1925-1926 to 159,483,000 rubles 
or 31.1 per cent more; in the local budgets it grew 
from 226,753,700 rubles to 335,127,500, or 47.8 per cent 
more, in the same period of time. The wage item in 
the Government budget increased 29.2 per cent, in the 
local budgets—51.8 per cent. 

The material condition of educational workers has 
correspondingly improved. During the last two years 
the salaries of first grade (primary) school teach:.s 
have increased 32.1 per cent, and of second grade (sec- 
ondary) schools—57.1 per cent. 

The membership of the Educational Workers’ Union 
has been increasing along with the growth of public 
education. On January 1, 1925, the Union had 553,904 
members, and on July 1, 1926—713,000, an increase of 


members, or over 22 per cent. 
omen predominate in the Union. On April 1, 1926, 


they constituted 54.4 per cent of the membership. 
They take an active part in trade union work. In pro- 
vincial executive bodies women constitute 28.4 per cent, 
in county executives—26.5 per cent; in local commit- 
tees: in cities, 41.6 per cent and in rural districts, 37.2 
per cent. The percentage of women in the Union exec- 
utives is very high in Moscow province, being 48.8 per 
cent. 

The Educational Workers’ Union includes many 
nationalities. It has done a great deal of work in 
serving the workers of the different nationalities in 
their own tongues. In the primary union organiza- 
tions, business is conducted in the language of the pre- 
dominant national group; and in the higher union bod- 
ies it is done in two languages. 

The financial condition of the Union is growing 
stronger year by year. The budget of the Central 
Committee of the Union in 1925 amounted to 423,763 
rubles and in the first half of 1926 it was 260,045 
rubles; for the second half it has been tentatively fixed 
at 337,000 rubles. The budget of. local union organiza- 
tions has also increased. 

The Union possesses considerable special funds— 
educational, unemployment, health resort, traveling aid. 


The income of these grey pany of 1926 
at the Central mmittee ~and 


,150,741 rubles ‘at the local organizations.—Trqde 
S. S. FR. 








Union Bulletin, U. antl 





SoS oc ss 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER ) 13 


QUOTATION 


From School and Sofie’ Colleee 22, 1917 
John Louis Horn, Mills ” Calif. 


American education is a profession of blind 
alley jobs. Once a man goes into the high-school 
field he is, unless he can make heroic efforts, 
doomed to stay there. Within a year or two 
after beginning his work the average man or 
woman will have mastered the routine; there is 
no time and no stimulus for research and schol- 
arly effort, nor even an expectation or recogni- 
tion of it on the part of the administrative 
authorities ; life becomes dull and colorless. 

The work of the high school teacher is or- 
ganized quite definitely with a view to choking 
off forever any impulse he may ‘have had in his 
student days for further study and creative con- 
tribution to his field. Five hours a day, twenty- 
five a week, is his minimum, taking conditions 
the country over. If he has the economic good 
fortune to be in a large high school, he may 
have the intellectual misfortune of grinding out 
English I five times daily, finish the course at 
the end of the first semester, and begin the 
process all over again the second. 

That is not all. Extra-curricular activities 
myriad in number, and a hundred other demands, 
too well known to be enumerated here, engage 
him. Every effort is made, consciously or un- 
consciously, every element of the organization 
of the high school tends toward, the objective 
of preventing him forever from taking up the 
life of a student. And yet, who knows that the 
arrangement is not working to deprive the world 
of important contributions to knowledge? ‘Who 
knows that it was not the very impulse to scholar- 
ship,.the very interest in things of the mind 
and spirit, that sent him into teaching in the 
first place? 





WASHINGTON TEACHER ATTACKED 

The American Civil Liberties Union has announced 
that it is “watching with interest” the case of Dr. 
Henry Flury, teacher of biology in the Eastern High 
School of Washington, D. C., who has been threatened 
with expulsion by “patriotic” societies because he won a 
prize for defining socialism and made an anti-militaris- 
tic speech. 

The Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Daughters of 
the American Revolution, and the Citizeris’ Federation 
are saitl to be urging the Washington School Board to 
dismiss Dr. Flury. Union officials declare they are 
ready to defend his right of free speech and opinion 


and his privilege to discuss social questions outside of 
class rooms like any other citizen. 

The attack on Dr. Flury began last January when he 
rectived a $5 prize from the Forum, national monthly, 
for the best definition of socialism. General Amos A. 
Fries, chief of the chemical warfare service of the 
army and commander of the Washington Post of the 
American Legion, demanded his dismissal from the 
schools. The Board upheld Dr. Flury. The agitation 
spread to a group of patriotic societies who are still 
attacking the teacher. A resolution which-he offered at 
a. recent meeting of the Washington Secular League 
against the use of the U. S. naval radio station NAA 
for militaristic propaganda by the National Patriotic 
Council aroused further antagonism against him. 


' INSTRUCTOR OUSTED FOR DISCUSSING 


BERTRAND RUSSELL 


Though he was dismissed on the charge of “not 
teaching English,” H. J. Chambers, an instructor of 
English at the University of Washington, informs the 
Civil Liberties Union that he was actually discharged 
because he discussed Bertrand Russell’s “What I 
Believe” with his classes. 

Parents are said to have complained to university 
officials that Chambers was assailing the religious 
beliefs of his students through the first chapter of the 
book, “Nature and Man.” The matter was brought to 
the attention of Dean Thompson who declared he left 
it in the hands of Miss Jane Lawson, Chambers’ imme- 
diate superior. Miss Lawson denies making any deci- 
sion. She protests that she referred the case to Pro- 
fessor Dudley D. Griffith, head of the English Depart- 
ment, who in turn accused Chambers of “not teaching 
English,” 


CLUB WOMEN FIGHT SCHOOL BOARD BIAS 


Into the controversy between the Board of Superin- 
tendents of the Board of Education of New York City, 
and the Teachers’ Union enters the Woman’s City Club 
on the side of intellectual freedom. The club is “deeply 
interested,” it says, “in the principle involved in the 
case of the three teachers (Mr. Lefkowitz, Miss Hardy 
and Miss Hugham), whose. failure to secure promotion 
has been presented to the public Cone the Teachers’ 
Union. 

“This principle is the intellectual freedom of teachers 
and their duty to exercise all the rights and privileges 
of citizens to the fullest extent. Only persons enjoying 
this freedom and exercising these rights are, in our 
opinion, fit to be in charge of the education of the 
young, and any barriers set up by educational authori- 
ties to limit these rights and privileges can only result 
in the debasement of the teaching profession.” 


It is hoped that this right (of labor to organize and 
bargain collectively) will never again be called in ques- 
tion by any considerable number of employers.—Ad- 
ministrative Committee, National Catholic War Council. 





14 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








The American Teacher 


Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 
Published monthly, except July and August, by 
THE AMERICAN PEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
327 South La Salle Street, Chicago 
FiLoreNce Curtis HANSON 
Sec.-Treas. and Editor 











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EEO 


“This movement they call organized labor is the um- 
versal, vital problem of the world.” 
—Thomas Carlyle. 





























Competition is the law of death; co- -operation is the 
law of life—John Ruskin. 


THE GOOD OLD DAYS 

The “good old days” from which Labor Helped 
to free us. 

Not all the good things of the present day can 
be classed as Labor’s contribution, wholly or in 
part, but so many of them can that Labor may 
justly regard the present social improvement as 
its handiwork in a large measure and may with 
equal fairness claim that future advancement 
will be the result of Labor’s program. 

“Oh, Yes,” many will say, “Labor stands for 
shorter hours, higher wages, and better working 
conditions.” “True, but for what else? And 
what do these things mean? More leisure, better 
health, better education, better living conditions, 
more happiness, a better individual, a better 
world. 

The political program of early organized labor 
contained these clear and specific planks: the abo- 
lition of imprisonment for debt ; manhood suffrage 


in states where property qualifications still pre- 


vailed; free and universal education; laws pro- 
tecting the safety and health of workers in mills 
and factories; abolition of lotteries; repeal of 
laws requiring militia service, and free land in 
the west. The absence of these things marked 
the “good old days”; their presence marks our 
own. An 8-hour day has taken the place of the 
dawn-to-dark day; except in states where the 


workers are unorganized, the law requires clean, 
sanitary factories. Wages have not kept pace 
with the Gost of living (1913-100, 1922-166.6, 
1925-177.9) and have not regained the level which 
they held in 1920, but they rose somewhat dur- 
ing 1925, continuing the tendency of the previ- 
ous two or three years. The foolish, cruel, 
medieval custom of imprisoning for debt is gone; 
the morally corrupting and socially degrading 
lottery is no more. In Washington’s day re- 
ligious and property qualifications limited the 
voters to 4% of the male population, now uni- 
versal manhood suffrage is so well established as 
to have ceased to be discussed. Organized labor 
was the major instrumentality in establishing the 
public school system; one hundred years ago the 
courageous and far-seeing advocacy of free edu- 
cation by Labor was responsible in large part for 
the establishment of our system of public educa- 
tion to replace such a condition as the following 
quotation indicates : : 

“In the Massachusetts legislature of 1825, a commit- 
tee on education sent inquiries to the mayors and alder- 
men of all Massachusetts factory towns regarding 
hours of labor for children and opportunities for 
schooling. The replies were as favorable as shame, or 
local pride, could make them; but no town claimed less 
than eleven hours of steady work per day for children 
(from 6 to 17 years old) and only two reported so 
short a day. The, ‘dawn to dark’ day was frankly 
reported in many cases. Seekunk stated that its child 
operatives ‘work twelve hours; some may get eight 
weeks schooling.’ Waltham failed to state the hours 
of labor, but said, ‘As much opportunity for schooling 
as can be expected’ (!). Billingham honestly declared, 
‘Work twelve hours per day. No opportunity for 
school except by employing substitutes.’ [This long 
labor day meant every day in the year, save Sundays, 
be it remembered, except in a few places where condi- 
tions made it more profitable to close the factories for 
some eight weeks of the winter.] Southbridge 
reported: ‘Average twelve hours. These children are 
better off than their neighbors’ (!). Boston said con- 
cisely: ‘No schooling.’ Fall River with unconscious 
irony stated, ‘Work all day. There are good public 
and private schools and a free Sunday school.’ 

“These horrible conditions show even more plainly in 
a temperate statement by “Many Operatives” in the 
Mechanics’-Free Press for August 21, 1830, regarding 
children in the Philadelphia factories: 

“‘Tt is a well-known fact that the principal part of 
the helps in cotton factories consist of boys and girls, 
we may safely say from six to seventeen years of age. 

‘ We are confident that not more than one-sixth 
of the boys and girls employed in such factories are 
capable of reading or writing their own names, We 


have known many instances where parents who are cap- 
\ 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 15 


able of giving, their children a trifling education, oné at 
a time, [have been] deprived of that opportunity by 
their employers’ threats that if they did take.one child 
from their employ, a short time, for school, such fam- 
ily must leave the employment . 4 . and we have 
even known such threats put in execution. Fy 

“In 1832, at‘a Boston convention of New England 
Mechanics and_ Workingmen, a committee reported 
upon the schooling of working-class children with 
much detail. The summary of that report runs: 

“*The children employed in manufactories 
constitute about two fifths of the whole number of 
persons employed. On a general average the 
youth and children are compelled to labor at 
least thirteen and a half, perMaps fourteen, hours per 
day, factory time. Your-committee also learn 
that in general no child can be taken from a Cotton 
Mill, to be placed at school for any length of time, 
however short, without certain loss of employ. 
Nor are parents, having a number of children in a mill, 
allowed to withdraw one or more without withdrawing 
the whole—for which reason, as such children are gen- 
erally the offspring of parents whose poverty has made 
them entirely dependent on the will of their employers, 
they are very seldom taken from the mills to be placed 
in school. It’is with regret that your commit- 
tee are absolutely forced to the ‘conclusion that the 
only opportunities allowed to children generally, 
employed in manufactories, to obtain an education, are 
on the Sabbath and after half-past 8 o’clock of the 
evening of other days. Your committee cannot, there- 
fore, without the violation of a solemn trust, withhold 
their unanimous opiniorr that the opportunities allowed 
to children employed in manufactories to obtain an 
education suitable to the character of American free- 
men, and to the wives and mothers of such, are alto- 
gether inadequate to the purpose; that the evils com- 
plained of are unjust and cruel; and are no less than 
the sacrifice of the dearest interests of thousands of 
the rising generation to the cupidity and avarice of 
their employers.’ ” 

Education has come with the time and op- 
portunity for education. 

Organized labor is trained and efficient, intel- 


ligent and glorying in its performances; it is 
proud of its achievements; it faces the future 
with head erect, secure in its faith in what the 
future holds in store; it stands triumphant in the 
radiant dawn of a newer, brighter day. If the 
world is to progress labor must never be satis- 
fied with any condition that exists, but must con- 
tinually demand more and still more. This idea 
will eventually reach every intelligent wage 
worker and help to make him still more intelli- 
gent and still more insistent .on what many are 
now inclined to consider merely abstract rights, 
but which are at the foundation of any real prog- 
tess for humanity. Labor is the emancipation of 


humanity, of you and me and all the rest. It 
believes in brotherhood, in democracy, in hu- 
manity. Labor is the relentless foe of all forms 
of oppression and human degradation. Labor is 
fighting for the fundamental human realities. It 
has arrayed its strength against the five enemies 
of mankind: poverty, ignorance, disease, waste, 
and inhumanity that it may achieve social 
justice for all. And the days of the future will 
be better than the days of the present. The 
labor movement will do more than its share, as 
in the past, toward making future days better 
than present days, just as they did in making 
present days better than the “good old days.” 





ALIEN BILLS 

Apparently prompted by the idea that all aliens 
are suspicious characters’ and should be penalized 
for coming to America, a series of anti-alien 
bills has been appearing at each session of Con- 
gress since 1922. 

At the opening of this fall’s session, on De- 
cember 6th, there were in the Immigration Com- 
mittee of the House, the Aswell, Sosnowsky, 
McClintic, Taylor and Hayden bills; and in the 
Senate Committee, the Holaday Bill which passed 
the House when it was rushed in ‘at the last 
moment last June. 

The theory of those who propose these bills 
is that they will “regulate” the alien, and thus 
prevent crime—for which he is held largely re- 
sponsible. The Holaday bill is a deportation 
measure, which proposes to remove the statute 
of limitations and allow deportation of the for- 
eign-born no matter how many years they have 
been in this country. This bill would permit 
deportation of a person who had served a year 
in prison for any offense, no matter how mild— 
or an aggregate sentence of 18 months. It also 
proposes to allow any local officer representing 
the Department of Labor to issue warfants for 
deportation instead of the Secretary of Labor 
himself ; and deportation would follow upon the 
findings of this local officer who had made the 
arrest, without any chance for appeal. 

Of the bills still pending in the House, the 
Aswell bill is the most dangerous... It proposes 
registration of all aliens, with finger-printing 
and photographing of each registrant: An initial 
fee of $10 must be paid, with $5 additional each 
successive year; all changes in personal appear- 





16 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


ance—even raising a beard—must be reported; 
all permanent or temporary changes of address 
must be reported. Every registrant must show 
his certificate at any time upon demand of any 
federal, state, city or county official; and all 
aliens must be prepared to report at any time 
or place required by the President of the U. S. 
when he shall consider it necessary. 


The full implication of this last provision can 
be understood if one pauses to consider how it 
could be used against the workers in time of 
strike. This same possibility lurks in all these 
bills; they will be used against workers, espe- 
cially active trade unionists, and they will react 
upon the native-born._as well as the foreign-born. 
If an officer has the right to demand a regis- 
tration card at any time, how can he distinguish 
between aliens and citizens? And if the burden 
of proof is put upon the citizen, it will often be 
most difficult, even impossible, to prove that he 
was born; in this country. The scheme will 
eventually prove unworkable unless everyone is 
compelled to register and soon we shall have 
a truly Prussian espionage system fastened upon 
us irrevocably. 

All these dangers were seen clearly by Presi- 
dent Green of the American Federation of La- 
bor when he said of this bill, “It has all the 
elements of a strike-crushing, Union-breaking 
proposal.” And the Federation at its last Con- 
vention again expressed its unqualified condemna- 
tion of all such proposed legislation as is typified 
by these various bills. 

It is with the purpose of devoting itself solely 
to combating such anti-alien measures, and to 
carry on naturalization work among the foreign- 
born, that the National Council for Protection 
of Foreign Born Workers has opened headquar- 
ters in New York, at 41 Union Square, and is 
establishing branch Councils in one city after 
another throughout the country. Public senti- 
ment will be roused against these bills by each 
local group, and foreign-born workers will be 
shown the advantages of citizenship and given 
every help in taking out naturalization papers. 
Trade unions, fraternal organizations, and inter- 
ested individuals are being appealed to for en- 
dorsement and support, and in addition to con- 
tributions from these sources the work of the 
Councils will be made possible by the sale of a 
twenty-five cent stamp. There is infinite room 








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for expansion along the lines indicated, and es- 
pecially in the smaller industrial cities the natur- 
alization facilities are so inadequate that the 
Council’s proposed classes are: desperately needed. 

The officers of the National Council for Pro- 
tection of Foreign-Born Workers are President, 
Joseph Dean of the Moving Picture Operators 
Union; First Vice-President, Max Orlowsky, of 
the Machinists Union; Second Vice-President, 
P. Pascal Cosgrove of the Shoe Workers Pro- 
tective Union. The Executive Committee in- 
cludes such men as Timothy Healy, International 
President of the Firemen and Oilers Union; Max 
S. Hayes, of the Typographical Union; James 
Maurer, President of the Pennsylvama State 
Federation; William Kohn, International Presi- 
dent of the Upholsterers’ Union and Fred Suiter, 
International Secretary of the Quarry Workers 
Union. 





The organization of labor into trade unions and 
federations is necessary, is beneficent, and is one 
of the greatest agencies in the attainment of a 
true industrial, as well as a true political, de- 
mocracy in the United States. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 17 


REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE 


Tenth Convention, American Federation of Teachers, 
1926 

The Legislative Committee believes that ‘the schools 
can be made to, function fully as social instruments 
when the teachers and the American people, rather than 
dominant economic interests determine educational poli- 
cies. The effectiveness of social control can to a large 
degree be advanced or retarded by legislation. The 
Legislative Committee is of the opinion that teachers 
should organize or co-operate with social groups not 
only to advance legislation favorable to the cause of 
public education or to block anti-social legislation, but 
also to take every advance of charter revision or con- 
stitutional amendments to incorporate sound educa- 
tional principles hereiry recommended into’ the basic 
law of the state, or to bring about their incorporation 
into the platforms of political groups. 

In making a survey of legislation, affecting the 
schools, the conimittee feels impelled to warn the teach- 
ers against certain tendencies in legislation. 

Tenure 

Human life and human relations are poisoned by fear 
or the cowardice which it engenders. The havoc 
wrought by the cowardice of those charged with the 
responsibility of the teaching of our youth is almost 
greater than the havoc wrought by cowardice in public 
life or in international relations. ‘This cowardice is 
largely due to the fact that teachers who perform their 
duties efficiently and conscientiously lack tenure or 
security of position. Any attempts to weaken the ten- 
ure laws that now exist, or failure to guarantee efficient 
teachers a life position strikes at the heart of our great 
democracy, which depends on courageous thinking citi- 
zens. Such attacks, where made openly or insidiously, 
must be resisted. 

The most_notorious example of such efforts in insidi- 
ous legislation, undermining tenure was the enactment 
by the New York legislature of the so-called Lusk laws 
and its counterpart on the Pacific coast, the Green bill. 
Legislation of this type is usually fathered by selfish 
interests who seek to use the public schools for propa- 
ganda purposes. If successful, it destroys academic 
freedom, tends to undermine teacher morale and to 
bring the teaching profession into such disrepute that 
courageous teachers will be forced to resign, while 
prospective teachers will be alienated from making 
teaching their life work. 

Teachers should be warned against the attempts of 
local authorities to nullify the purpose of any state 
Tenure Law—particularly by the issuance of annual 
contracts or notices to be signed by the teacher as a 
requisite for employment for the said year. 

A novel method of undermining tenure was an 
attempt to modify the New York pension law, so as to 
empower the superintendent of schools to compel 
teachers to undergo an examination at the hands of 
physicians employed by the Board of Education to test 
their physical or mental fitness. Teachers refusing to 
undergo such an examination were automatically 
deprived of their salaries for four months. If at the 


end of that time they still refused to undergo a physical 
examination, they could be dismissed for neglect of 
duty without a hearing or trial. 

The American Federation of Teachers believes that 
persons unfit for their work should be dismissed 
according to the provisions of the tenure law. We 
regard efforts like the kind mentioned as unwise since 
the present laws provide a judicial method for ridding 
the system of unfit teachers and particularly because it 
places undue power in the hands of adminstrative 
authorities. who may, if they so desire, dismiss critics 
of the administration under the guise of ridding the 
system of unfit persons and without regard to the pro- 
tection: embodied in the tenure law. 

,\A more successful effort to undermine teacher ten- 
ute occurred in Buffalo and Minneapolis. Teachers 
with permanent teaching licenses who had been 
advanced to higher positions on probation were 
deprived of their positions without the preferment of 
charges, without a hearing or trial. The committee 
regards such action as arbitrary and un-American, a 
blow at the development of teacher morale and teaching 
efficiency. The committee recommends the enactment 
of legislation providing that teachers holding perma- 
nent licenses cannot be dismissed from the system dur- 
ing probation for higher license without a trial and the 
right of appeal as provided for in this section. 

Teachers who have tenure based upon local by-laws 
or upon regulations adopted by boards of education 
must not delude themselves into believing that they 
have permanency of tenure. Such a situation exists in 
the city of Minneapolis where despite local trial regula- 
tions teachers were dismissed without a trial and with- 
out having definite charges preferred against them thus 
demonstrating that tenure laws based on local regula- 
tion are inadequate. State tenure laws based upon the 
principles adopted by the American Federation of 
Teachers is the only safeguard against unwarranted 
dismissal. 

As teachers, we must not only resist all efforts to 
weaken tenure laws but we must do everything that we 
can to bring about the reinstatement of teachers who 
have been dismissed without the right of trial or the 
right of appeal and to enact tenure legislation in har- 
mony with the following principles adopted at our 
third annual convention : 

1. Tenure, after the lapse of a probationary period 
not to exceed two years, should be made permanent 
during efficiency. 

2.. All dismissals, both during and after the proba- 
tionary period, should be for cause definitely embodied 
in the law, such as immorality and inefficiency. 

3. After the probationary period, dismissal for any 
cause (including inefficiency) should be only by a trial 
board chosen as follows: Three by the school board, 
three by the teachers, the six to select a seventh-who is 
not to be either a member of the schocl board or of the 
teaching staff and who shall act as impartial chairman. 
At all hearings, teachers shall have the right to be rep- 
resented By counsel and appeals from the decision of 
the trial board may be taken to the courts or to the 





18 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


commissioner of education, where the teacher shall 
have the right of review on questions of law as well as 
of fact. 
Academic Freedom 

Change is the law of progress. If the social value of 
change is to be secured, teachers and pupils must be 
free. Unless such freedom is assured intellectual stag- 
nation is inevitable. In certain states of the Union the 
violation of the principle of academic freedom has been* 
seriously menaced if not nullified by legislation based on 
mistrust not only of the intelligence of teachers, but of 
their unselfish devotion to the state and to the ideals of 
the teaching profession. As teachers loyal to our pro- 
fession we cannot but deplore the growth of the 
un-American spirit of political, religious and economic 
intolerance abroad in the land. 


EVOLUTION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS 
Dr. Vernon Kellogg* 


In connection with the work of Mr. Everett and the 
Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure, we pre- 
sent a] reprint from American Federationist, Janu- 
ary, 1927. 


Evolution seems to be a real bugaboo to many péople. 
To scientific men, who are men no different from other 
people except that they observe more exactly and study 
more intensively the phenomena of Nature than others 
do, evolution is a well-proved natural phenomenon. It 
seems preposterous—and dangerous—to scientific men 
that the teaching of evolution in schools and colleges 
should be banned. If its teaching should be prohibited, 
then the teaching of the rest of zoology and botany and 
geology—in a word, of natural history in general— 
should be prohibited. For natural history can no 
longer be honestly taught without including evolution 
as a part of it. Even were evolution only a theory, and 
not yet a proved fact, a knowledge of it as a great and 
interesting theory which attempts to explain rationally 
many of the phenomena of life on the earth should be 
taught. Just as we teach, without hesitation and as a 
part of a full education, a knowledge of other theories, 
past or present, that attempt to explain various natural 
phenomena. The “atomic theory” is taught in all 
school and college courses of chemistry. Why not the 
“evolution theory”? But evolution is beyond the theory 
stage. Evolution is a reality. 

The attitude of those who will not accept evolution 
as a proved fact, and who attack it because of what 
they believe to be its implicatigns with regard to relig- 
ion, is pathetic and even tragic.. And this for two rea- 
sons: first, because, as revealed by the whole history of 
the relation between science and religion, science always 
finally wins in any conflict between itself and religion 
whenever and wherever religion tries to hold science 
back or "disregard it; and, second, because the implica- 


tions of an acceptance of evolution which many relig- 


ious believers assume are such as to be antagonistic to 
religion or to exclude it from human life really have 
no such meaning at all. It cannot be too often declared 


*Dr. Kellogg was formerly Professor of Entomology 
of Leland Stanford University; was associated with 
Mr. Hoover in the Belgium. War Relief Work and U. 8. 
Food Administration and is Chairman of the National 
Research Council. , 


that science, and evolution as a part of science, do not 
nullify religion. Many competent scientists and evolu- 
tionists are convinced religious believers. The only real 
conflict between religion and science comes when an 
attempt is made by too zealous followers of religion to 
explain all natural phenomena on the basis of the alle- 
gories of the Bible, or when too zealous scientific men 
carry their science too far and attempt to find in it a 
substitute for religion. These two fields of human 
understanding and belief are in~truth coexistent and 
supplementary, not exclusive of each other. In a full 
human life both play their part, and to limit our 
knowledge to either alone is bound to result in danger- 
ous ignorance and an incomplete life. 


The proofs of evolution have been so often and so 
abundantly set out in books and articles for the general 
reader that it cannot be necessary to repeat them here. 
What I may do here, however, is to stress the cumula- 
tive effect in proving evolution that the discovered facts 
along so many special lines of investigétion have. The 
agreement of all these facts as explicable by evolution 
and inexplicable on any other basis is positive, and, as 
an argument, literally overwhelming. 


We are used to accept most of the dicta of science. 
We guide our material life by these dicta. We bet our 
lives on them over and over again. Eagerly we await 
and accept the facts of mathematics and astronomy, of 
physics and chemistry, of geology and geography, as 
they are constantly being revealed by the scientific 
workers in these fields. But when the same kind of 
scientific workers, pursuing their investigations and 
reaching their conclusions by the same methods and in 
the same way, announce facts and conclusions in the 
the sciences of general biology, of anatomy, physiology 
and embryology, of psychology, anthropology and pale- 
ontology, that show the reality of evolution, we do not 
accept them—because emotions and traditions con- 
trol us. ; 

We once had emotions and traditions about the revo- 
lution of the sun around the earth, and about the 
earth’s flatness, which kept us for a long time from 
accepting the declarations concerning these matters 
founded.on scientific study, made by astronomers, phys- 
icists and geologists. But now we do accept them. 

Similarly we had emotions and traditions that post- 
poned our acceptance of the facts and their implications 
about the-seat of the mind, the circulation of the blood, 
the origin of worms and snakes from horsehairs in 
water and so on. We now accept the dicta of biologists 
about these things—but we do not accept their dicta 
about evolution. We do not want to. Hence, we just 
simply don’t. Curious attitude of mind—but one that 
cuts a figure, often a large figure, in all the history of 
the advancement of knowledge. 

The scientific evidences from any one of the great 
fields whose exploration has yielded irrefutable proofs 
of evolution are sufficient alone to warrant our accept- 
ance of evolution as a fact. But when we add together 
the evidences from all these fields, the proof of evolu- 
tion is simply inescapable. These major fields which 
have yielded the facts that prove evolution are paleon- 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 19 


tology, or the study of the fossils in the rocks; com- 
parative anatomy and the classification of the million 
known living kinds of animals and plants ; embryology, 
or the development of individuals belonging to any of 
these kinds; the geographical distribution of living and 
extinct plants and animals over the Continents and is- 
lands, the oceans, lakes and rivers of the world; and, 
finally, the comparative behavior and psychology of the 
different living animals. 

But there are still other fields of study which yield 
proofs of evolution, which while less in extent than the 
major ones are hardly less in importance. One such 
field, the exploration of which is comparatively recent 
and still going on actively, is the comparative study of 
the chemical tomposition and the physiology of the 
blood of animals. From this study, carried on with 
great refinement and delicacy of technique, have come 
results which reveal the much greater chemical and 
physiological similarity of the blood of closely related 
animals as horse and donkey, dog and wolf, etc., than 
of the blood of more distantly related animals. One 
recent result of this work is the proof of a distinctly 
greater likeness between the blood of man and that of 
the anthropoid apes than between the blood of the apes 
and that of monkeys! Although we are not descended 
from the anthropoid apes of ‘today, we are fairly blood 
cousins of them, and undoubtedly trace our biological 
genealogy back to common, although far distant, ances- 
tors. 

But it is superfluous to list the further sources of evi- 
dence for evolution. The major sources already referred 
to provide enough and more than enough proof of 
evolution for any open-minded person. It is not more 
proof that is necessary. What is needed is more expla- 
nation of what the acceptance of evolution as a provéd 
fact implies—and does not imply in connection with 
our understanding of Nature, of the universe, of God 
and religion. We do all want to know what an accept- 
ance of evolution means for us. 

In\ this connection the very first thing that I would 
say is that evolution has literally nothing to say about 
the existence or non-existence of God. It does not 
explain, in any way, the origin or existence of matter 
and energy. It does not explain the ultimate beginning 
of things nor the final outcome of things. It does not 
explain ultimate causes. It does not explain even its 
own causes. It is an explanation of methods of change 
and progress on the earth. It means a certain kind of 
natural procedure. It explains much of the orderliness 
of nature. It supplants irrationalness by rationalness. 

The acceptance of evolution involves no man in the 
necessity of casting off religious belief. It may make 
him cast aside certain theological dogmas, but it does 
not make him cast aside his belief.in true religion and 
the value of its guidance in his life. Theological dog- 
mas are only unfortunate excrescences that have grown 
on true religion. They vary with time and place and 
men. True religion is essentially /invariable. The 
good and the glory of it outlast all incidents of theolog- 
ical history. The true spirit of religion abides regnant 


in the human soul. It is undisturbed by the “conflict be- 


tween science and religion,” which is an unreasonable, un- 
fortunate and unnecessary conflict. Indeed, there should 
be no such conflict. The real conflict is between sci- 
ence-arid theology. Science and evolution do not invade 
the field of true religion. But theology does invade 
the realm of science. And the inevitable outcome of 
such invasion is defeat. It always has been defeat; it 


always will be. 





VASSAR AND THE CHANGING WORLD 


Vassar alumnae initiated a new venture this year 
by holding, in connection with the annual council 
meeting in October, a conference of all alumnae on 
the subject of “Vassar and the Changing World.” 
The second day of the conference, which was planned 
to| discuss the question, “Are we doing all we 
can as an intelligent and forward-looking group to 
help solve some of the vital problems of today?” had 
as its subject, “The Growth of the International 
Mind and Its Significance.” The speakers were 
Miss Dorothy Stimson, Dean of Goucher College, 
who spoke on “Intellectual Co-operation”; Miss 
Ruth. Morgan, Chairman of the International Com- 
mittee on Co-operation of the National League of 
Women Voters and Chairman of the Peace Commit- 
tee of the International Suffrage Alliance, who gave 
her impressions of the meeting of her committee at 
Geneva this summer, and Dr. Jackh, Director of the 
School of Politics at Berlin, who made a plea for the 
international spirit and gave first-hand information 
on “The New Germany.” 


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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Come and take choice of all my library. 
And so beguile thy sorrow. —Shakespeare. 


THE YOUTH MOVEMENT IN CHINA 
Tsi C. Wang, Ph. D. (New Republic) 
The Chinese revolution really began, accord- 

ing to Dr. Wang, when the first Chinese student 

went abroad to study; that is to say, in 1847, 

when Yung Wing came to the United States. 

It was many years before other “Argonants” 

braved hardships to find the golden fleece of 

Western learning; Japan was so much nearer. 

But in 1922 there were 2,600 Chinese students 

in American institutions, to say nothing of those 

in Europe and Japan. Could these thousands 
return home year after year and China remain 
the same? 

One of their first contributions to a new China 
was the creation of free schools, in which by 
1922 there were enrolled 6,000,000 pupils. An- 
other innovation was periodicals in the vernacu- 
lar. Today there are more than 300 of these 
magazines, comparing favorably with those on 
American news-stands, “Educate the masses!” 
—or its equivalent—is the slogan of New China. 

These reforms and many others made appeal 
to the idealism of youth. So one is not surprised 
to learn of the birth of the Chinese youth move- 
ment in 1911, a crusade that has swept the coun- 
try. Only youth would have the courage to 
battle against age-old customs, would dare defy 
the patriarchal system, Confucianism, imperial- 
ism and superstition, entrenched as they are 
in China. Only youth would dare defy the 
Powers to have a country as free as any other. 
And leading them is their own University of 
Peking. 

It is a thrilling story, one that has commanded 
the admiration of such men as John Dewey and 
Bertrand Russell. 

The footnotes furnish a valuable bibliography 
to those who seek peace through understanding. 

—Lydia J. Trowbridge. 





Have you seen the new Gazetteer put out by G. & C. 
Merriam Company? Webster’s Dictionaries have been 
dear to the hearts of many of us for many years, but our 
affection and appreciation will be intensified by the new 
book, so attractive in form and so complete in matter 
as it is. It contains more than 407,000 vocabulary 
terms, over 6,000 illustrations, 2700 pages, 12,000 bio- 
graphical entries, and 32,000 geographical subjects. It 
is right up to the minute in new terms. To its other 
virtues it adds a reasonable price. 


/ 


A new magazine (new to us at least) has come to 
the editor’s attention. “Industrial Psychology, the 
Monthly Journal of Human Engineering,” is its very 
alluring name, which means that it treats of applied 
psychology. In this letter, it annotinces “a gold award 
for proposals for strengthening the morale of the 
nation’s workers.” Ordway Tead, business book editor 
of Harper & Brothers, is chairman of the special jury 
of award; Whiting Williams is another juror. The 
contest closes Oct. 1. 

Those interested may address inquiries to Dr. Don- 
ald A. Laird, Colgate University, Hamilton, N. Y., Edi- 
tor of “Industrial Psychology.” 


Six-tenths of a book per person is the mental ration 
stored in the public libraries of the United States and 
Canada for the 114,000,000 people, according to figures 
compiled by the American Library Association during 
1926. 

But these books are available to only 64,000,000 peo- 
ple. Fifty million do not have local public libraries. 
Ninety-three per cent of those without public library 
service live in rural communities. They are scattered 
throughout every state and province except Massachu- 
setts and Rhode Island. 

Pennsylvania has three and one half million people 
without local public libraries and Texas follows close 
behind with three million three hundred thousand. 

The same spirit of research and investigation that 
led to the discovery of these facts in the interest of 
library extension has characterized all branches of the 
library movement in the year just closed, a year that 
was notable in library annals because it was the Fifti- 
eth Anniversary Year of the American Library-Associ- 
ation. _ 

A two-year study of the library and its relation to 
adult education was completed by a commission of 
seven prominent librarians of the United States and 
Canada and has been published under the title: 
“Libraries and Adult Education.” 

Interest in self-education among adults has also been 
encouraged by the publication in 1926 of twelve “Read- 
ing with a Purpose” courses on a variety of topics, each 
course compiled by a nationally known specialist in the 
subject. 


A comprehensive survey of library work throughout 


the United States resulted in the publication of two vol- 
umes on library administration and service to readers. 
Another study resulted in the publication of a book on 
the classification and compensation of library staffs. 

The advance in education for librarianship in which 
the Association has taken the leadership during recent 
years, was indicated by the establishment of new 
schools for librarianship at Columbia University, and 
the University of Michigan, and the announcement of 
plans of the University of Chicago for an advanced 
graduate school of librarianship. 


Capital is the fruit of labor, and could not exist if 
labor had not first existed. Labor, therefore, deserves 
much the higher consideration Abraham Lincoln. 








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“THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


YOU’LL BE INTERESTED IN—— 


Hart, Joseph Kinmont. Adult education. (Crow- 
ell’s social science series.) 341 pp. N. Y., Crowell, 
1927. 

Hart, Joseph Kinmont. Light from the North; the 
Danish folk high schools, their meanings for America. 
159 pp. N. Y., Holt, 1927. f 

Dunham, Francis Lee. The mental range of educa- 
tionally handicapped youth. 5 pp. Baltimore, 1926. 

Bridge, Gerard. Shakespeare’s Catholicity in Ham- 
let. 166 pp. Beatty, Pa., The Archabbey Press, 1927. 

Brinkmann, Carl. Recent theories of citizenship in 
its relation to government. (Yale lectures on the 
responsibilities of citizenship.) 126 pp. New Haven, 
Yale ‘University Press, 1927. 

Rees, David Dee. A hint to the wise; correcting 
some common errors in the use of the English lan- 
guage. 27 pp. College View, Neb., Union College 
Press, 1926. 

ihe An alternative use of force: When the earth 
trembled, by Richard J. Walsh; The moral equivalent 


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_of war, by William James. (International conciliation 
" November, 1926, No. 224.) 54 pp. Worcester, 
Mass., Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 
Division of Intercourse and Education, 1926. 

School Life: Volume XII, Number 2: Publislied 
Monthly by the Bureau of Education, Department of 
the Interior (except July and August); Subscription 
price, 50 cents per year; single copies, 5 cents each. 
The feature articles of the present issue are: Fresh- 
man Problems Are the Most Difficult that Colleges 
Meet: A City School Board Organized for Efficient 
Administration: Function of the College to Train the 
Common Citizen: Quality and Responsibility of 
Teaching. 

Humanity in Government. By Hon. James J. Davis, 
Secretary of Labor; Issued by the Department of 
Labor. Price, 10 cents per copy. Contents: The 
Department of Labor; Bureaus of Immigration, Natu- 
ralization, Children, Women, Labor Statistics; Concilia- 
tion Service, U. S. Employment Service, U. S. Housing 
Corporation and the Federal Board for Vocational 
Education. 


Annual Report of 
the American His- 
torical Association 
for the Year 1921. 
In One Volume with 
a Supplemental Vol- 
ume: Cloth: Price, 
40 cents per copy. 
Contents: Proceed- 
of the 36th 
Annual Meeting of 
the American His- 
torical Association: 
Proceedings of the 
17th Annual Meeting 
‘of the Pacific Coast 
Branch of the Amer- 
ican Historical Asso- 
ciation: Conference 
of Archivists: Con- 
ference on Teaching 
History in Schools: 
Problems of Eco- 
nomic History: 
Ancient and Medieval 
History: Conference 
on English and 
French History: 
Modern European 
History after the 
Congress of Vienna: 
The History of Civil- 
ization: His- 
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similar topics. 


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22 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


THEY PUT IT OVER 

A mighty interesting experiment was tried by the 
1926 graduates of the Alberta Normal School, Canada. 
The class organized and pledged themselves not to 
accept a salary of less than $1000 a year. Practically 
all of these graduates are now placed and they have the 
satisfaction of knowing that they not only assisted 
themselves into salary advances of $100 to $150 higher 
than was first offered, but that they have done a real 
service to the rural teachers of Alberta and to the 
teaching profession generally. 

All credit to these new teachers who had to do this 
for themselves and did it. Society and business are 
demanding more training, more technical efficiency, 
more securing of results from teachers, and the public 
should be educated to see that to secure the type of 
teacher who can do what society wants done in the 
schools, they must pay salaries, which will compete 
with those offered by business to bright young men and 
women, —_—_—_—_—— 

I think you know how genuinely I am interested 
in the fortunes of the American Federation of Labor 
and how earnest and sincere a hope I entertain that 
its labors will be crowned with the best sort of success 
in the promotion of the best interests of the working 
men of the country.—Woodrow Wilson. 


“My deep interest in efforts at self education is too 
well known to need emphasis, Any systematic effort 
on the part of the organized labor movement to edu- 
cate the rank and file should have the support of every 
one interested in intelligent democracy.”—Alfred E. 
Smith, Governor, State of New York. 


AUXILIARY CELEBRATES FIFTH 
ANNIVERSARY 
Twenty-five charter members of the Auxiliary met 
at a luncheon on January 17th, at the Town House, to 
celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Teachers Union 
Auxiliary. John Haynes Holmes and Ruth Gillette 


Hardy were the speakers. Mrs..S. S. Goldwater pre- 
sided. 

Mr. Holmes paid tribute to the Teachers Union as 
one of the few teachers organizations which “realized 
the responsibility of its members to the public interests 
they represent.” The Teachers Union Auxiliary, he 
said, is helping to bring about the needed co-operation 
between the teacher and the parent and the citizen. 
Mr. Holmes said that political control of the educa- 
tional system must be ended, intellectual freedom for 
teachers encouraged and modern methods of education 
intreduced into the public school system. 

“Politicians are just as corrupt and far more insidi- 
ous than they were forty years ago. The only differ- 
ence is that politicians are more refined than in the 
days of Boss Tweed. . . . The present outward 
decency and order is only a coating.” 

Miss Hardy told why she had joined the Teachers 
Union and declared that ‘the Teachers Union had, dur- 
ing the ten years of its life, proved its sincerity, cour- 
age, and absolute adherence to facts in working for the 
principles for which it stood —The Union Teacher. 


WELCOME LOCAL 195! 


The Cambridge Federation of Teachers lately organ- 
ized by Mrs. Florence Curtis Hanson, Secretary-Treas- 
urer of the A. F. T., held its first open meeting the 
afternoon of January 18. The report of Miss Bernice 
Rogers, the new president, says that seventy-five of the 
teachers came in at this first meeting and a number of 
others have sent in word of their desire to join. The 
new officers were installed in. office by Mr. Doran, 
President of the Central Labor Union. 

During the time of organization this group tried to 
arrange a debate on the question of affiliating with the 
A. F. of T. but could find no one to take the negative. 
In spite of this seeming public jndifference, much insid- 
ious and subtle propaganda was carried on against 
affiliation. A bill filed in the legislature, if passed, 
would withdraw state aid from any cities permitting 
their teachers to join extra-state organizations. 
Though this bill has no chance to pass, it was used by 
officials to prevent teachers from joining the new 
organization. 

The Cambridge Federation is to be congratulated on 
its excellent initial membership and organization tac- 
tics. 

Since the chartering of the new local, the Cambridge 
School Committee fas begun to organize its Council of 
Teachers, the very thing it said it would not do and 
about one month too late to head-off the union organi- 
zation, even if such a heading off were possible. Is its 
purpose to undermine the influence of Local 195? Is it 
aware that “Teachers’ Councils, controlled by the 
teachers and participating in the determination of edu- 
cational policies” is part of the program of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers? 

The older locals of the American Federation of 


-Teachers welcome gladly the new local and assure it of 


their sympathy and assistance. Organization and affilia- 
tion will mean for the new local what it has meant for 
the others: better teaching conditions, salary, and pro- 
fessional standards. 


‘ 


MICHIGAN STUDENTS CHAPERONED AT 
: TALK ON RUSSIA 

The University of Michigan gave permission to Sher- 
wood Eddy, Y. M. C. A. publicist, to make a favorable 
report of his trip to Russia before Ann Arbor students 
only on condition that a member of the faculty be pres- 
ent at the lectures to “point out the other sidé in the 
‘interest of fair-mindedness.’ ” 

The New Student, in a satirical editorial, intimates 
that there must be “some deep-seated flaw in college 
education if students can’t be trusted out of sight of a 
professor.” The editorial suggests that to keep both 
sides before the students during the whole year Scott 
Nearing be appointed supplementary professor of eco- 
nomics, Upton Sinclair professor of comparative litera- 
ture, W. Z. Foster professor of public administration, 
Bishop Montgomery Brown professor of Biblical liter- 
ature, Floyd Dell professor of sociology, Max Eastman 
professor of philosophy, and Judge Ben Lindsey dean 
of men, 


‘ 
‘ 





| THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
OUR LOCALS | 


St. Paul Men Teachers’ Federation, Local No. 43, 
reports that the teacher tenure bill is progressing favor- 
ably. 

At the March meeting, E. E. Lenander of Cleveland 
Junior High ‘gave an authoritative and interesting 
report of his extended study of extra-curricular activi- 
ties in St. Paul schools. 

On March 11th an especially delightful dinner was 
given at the Elk’s Club under Federation auspices, in 
co-operation with the St. Paul Alumni Association of 
Carleton Coilege. President D. J. Cowling of Carleton 
College, widely known as a brilliant after-dinner 
speaker of liberal tendencies, was the chief speaker. 


ST. PAUL MEN TEACHERS FOR RIGHT TO 
TEACH SCIENTIFIC TRUTHS 


At the monthly meeting of Men Teachers’ Federation 
No. 43 a resolation was passed opposing the passing of 
restrictive legislation on the free inquiry and instruction 
in the revealed facts of nature. This resolution is 
aimed at the proposed anti-evolution proposition now 
threatening before the legislature. It is as follows: 

Whereas, there is a movement on foot to pro- 
hibit the teaching in the schools of Minnesota of 
certain theories which some day may or may not 
lead to the Truth, - 

Whereas, our schools should remain free to teach 
and search for the Truth according to the best 
light of each generation, and no honest person 
wants untruth taught in schools, least of all teach- 
ers, : 

And Whereas, legislation embodying such 
restrictions would constitute a serious limitation of 
academic freedom, setting a precedent for other 
restrictive measures and whereas such law would 
discourage intellectually honest persons from 
becoming teachers, 

Therefore Be It Resolved, that the St. Paul Men 
Teachers’ Federation record itself as opposed to the 
passage of stich legislation. 

A resolution was unanimously passed petitioning 
President Coolidge to arbitrate the Mexican difficulties. 


RESOLUTION—LOCAL NO. 3 

Whereas the present relations of the United States 
with Mexico! and Nicaragua have reached a most 
unfortunate and critical stage, and 

Whereas the Mexican situation has been created 
largely by a small percentage of our nationals who 
have invested in oil lands, mines, and ranches, the 
greater percentage of such investors having complied 
with the laws of Mexico, and 

Whereas in case of the adjournment of the Congress 
the situation in Nicaragua may well lead to a condition 
which will seem to justify the President in proclaiming 
a state of war with this small republic, 

We, the members of the Federation of Women High 
School Teachers, Local No. 3 of the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers, do hereby urge that all difficulties in 


7 


both countries be submitted to arbitration, that peace- 
ful-relations with our sister republics be maintained 
and that we undeviatingly adhere to the principle of 
self-determination of small nations. 


The following letter was sent by Mr. Everett to all 
the California Locals. 

The following resolution was passed at the recent 
meeting of the Local No. 31, and has been sent to each 
of our Senators and our Representative. 

The Sacramento High School Teachers’ Federation 

is Opposed to armed intervention in Mexico and Nica- 
ragua, and favors a peaceable settlement of all disputes 
\with these Countries. 
\ I trust that your Local has sent something like this, 
or stronger, already, or if not, that you will do so at 
the earliest possible moment. You have, no doubt, 
received a request to this effect from the Chicago 
Office. I wish to add my assent to the request. When 
the question of peaceful vs. hostile policy hangs in the 
balance, as at present, it would be inexcusable for us 
not to show which side we are“*on. To allow our 
State Department to drift into a diplomatic impassé 
where war might seem a justifiable expedient would be 
a World tragedy and a National humiliation. 

I also suggest that your Locals take steps to inform 
their Representatives in the Legislature of your atti- 
tude on the Anti-Evolution question, A. B. 145, by 
Heisinger; on the questions of Tenure, Retirement, 
Sabbatical Leave, and any other Bill that may interest 
you locally. Have you copies of these bills? If not I 
will send you copies. I anticipate some hard battles in 
the Legislature over these quéstions before the end of 
the Session. Please look over the field and see what 
contacts you may have, not only with your own legisla- 
tors but with others also. 


The Research Department of the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers is the grateful recipient of another 
gift of $500 from the Personal Service Fund. » When 
sending this check Mrs. Davis says, “We are much 
interested in this experiment. We think that the 
money which we send will certainly be used to good 
advantage and we are happy to be able to help the 
work of your Research Department. 

The Research Department is taking up the appren- 
ticeship problem, in both its educational and its social 
and economic aspects. It is taking particular cogniz- 
ance of the corporation school. The organization 
whether it be the trade union or the corporation which 
determines and controls the apprentice or learning per- 
iod, seems to hold the real power in the industry 
affected. Could there then be a relation between the 
company union and the corporation school? 


I rejoice at every effort workingmen make to or- 
ganize. I hail the labor movement. It is my only 
hope for democracy. Organize, and stand together! 
Let the nation hear a united demand from the laboring 
voice,—Wendell Phillips. 








24 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 











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