NOVEMBER, 1927 VOLUME XiIl, No. 3 





- 


Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 


The 
American Teacher 


THE ORGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 

















i 





NEW YORK 
NUMBER 











“The longer on this earth we live 

And weigh the various qualities of men— 

The more we feel the high stern-featured beauty 

Of plain devotedness to duty. 

Steadfast and still, nor paid with mortal praise, 

But finding amplest recompense 

For life’s ungarlanded expense 

% In work done squarely and unwasted days.” 

—JaMeEs Russet, LOWELL. 








Qitice of Publication ; Editorial Office 
Leader Building, Se $27 South La Salle St, 
vklahoma City, Oklahoma Chicago, Illinois 


Single Copy 25c—Yearly Subscription $2.00 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


VOY CY LUCYLY YRC Ve VIR VI YIN I LN 


AMERICAN RED CROSS JUNIORS INSPIRING 
WORLD-WIDE FRIENDSHIP 

There are nearly 6,000,000 members in the United 
States, each and every one a flourishing influence in 
forty-two other countries of the world. All these 
groups, whether separated by land or sea, are closely 
united through ties of common service and a con- 
stantly growing interchange of supervised corres. 
pondence between school rooms of the various coun- 
tries. The Annual Roll Call of the American Ne 
tional Red Cross, held this year from Armistice Day 
through Thanksgiving—November 11-24—is for the 
development of much of this work of our Juniors 
as well as the many other services this great organi. 
zation -will be called upon during the coming yea 
to render to humanity everywhere. 


MEKEXEXEREXEXREREREREXERERERERERERS) 





CONTENTS 


Gigantism in School Building—Henry R. Linville 

The Story of a Struggle for a Living Wage—Abrabam Lefkowitz 
Pensions and Politics—Mabel L. Rees 
An Estimate of the New York Teachers Union Auxiliary 
Report of Committee on Education, A. F. T. Convention 
We, The Teachers, Meet—Selma M. Borchardt 








A. F. T. Resolutions at A. F. L. Convention 





Spcial Adjustment at the World Conference—Jennie A. Wilcox 





Local News 












Acceptance for mailing at special rate of 





The American Teacher 


da cl matter Oct. 1, 1927, at the post office at O 
Entered as second class 1, 2, 


oma City, Okla., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
1103, Act of Feb. 28, 1925, authorized Nov. 3, 1926. 











Volume XII, No. 3 





NOVEMBER, 1927 


Two Dollars a Year 




























All who have seen at least the picture of the new 
sky-scraper in which is housed the University of 
Pittsburgh doubtless have been thrilled, or shocked, 
according to their understanding, or preference in 
such matters. For many years the principal of the 
De Witt Clinton High School in New York has had 
the distinction of being at the head of the largest 
high school for boys in the world. Although there 
have been 8,000 boys in this school for some time, 


uniors 

. 1 they are scattered in one main building and five an- 
‘gal nexes, in various parts of the city. In other words, 
z yeat i they are big, but they only sprawl. They had to be 


made to stand up, and be conspicuous and con- 
vincing. 

The principal cast his eye over the landscape, and 
finally decided that a considerable body of land in the 
Jerome Park Reservoir tract would give the. school 
its chance to have space for the gigantic building, 
and some left over. He found, however, that the 
member of the Board of Superintendents whose duty 
it was to pass on all school building plans, was not 
willing to approve plans for the structural mon- 
strosity which the principal craved. 

The principal was not to be denied. He had 
friends in Tammany Hall, and he proposed to use 
them, for had he not done things for them? In a 
short time the then President of the Board of Alder- 
men came out for big school buildings. In an ad- 
dress delivered on the opening of the new George 
Washington High School, where the corridor on each 
floor is one-half mile long, the President of the Board 
of Aldermen maintained that anything less gigantic 
than the school building about them would be un- 
worthy of the Father of his country. The result of 
the intervention of the political influence of the 
President of the Aldermen was that the expert sup- 


erintendent was forced to give his approval of the 
plans, 


The plans of thexnew De Witt Clinton High 
School building were getting on speedily, and the 
contract was to be let in a few’ months, after which 



















Gigantism In School Building 


By HENRY R. LINVILLE 
President of Local $, New York, and Member of the Editorial Board of the Union Teacher 


situation, the Citizens’ Committee on New School individual responsibility of the boys and girls tends 


Building, which had been started by the Teachers 
Union Auxiliary in the Autumn of 1925 as the 
result of a previous study of several of the new, 
large school buildings, began to investigate the plans 
of the proposed De Witt Clinton building. The Com- 
mittee conferred with Associate Superintendent 
Shallow, who for many years until his death early in 
the present year had charge of all school construction. 
From Dr. Shallow the Committee learned that it 
would be futile to try to have the plans changed 
unless a public hearing on the plans could be ob- 
tained. The Board of Education was asked to hold 
a public hearing, and finally on March 5, 1926, a 
hearing was granted. At this hearing, Dr. Shallow, 
true to his promise to the Committee, proclaimed 
his objections to the building monstrosity which was 
planned to house 7,000 boys. ‘He charged the inter- 
ference of politics, but President Ryan of the Board 
of Education could hardly believe that politics would 
show itself. It didn’t seem possible! 

Some well-known architects had given their names 
to the committee, and such educators as Professor 
William H. Kilpatrick and Prof. Franklin Johnson 
spoke at the hearing. However, on March 15th Pres- 
ident Ryan wrote to the Committee stating that the 
Board of Superintendents, to whom the matter had 
been referred; had reaffirmed its purpose to go ahead 
with the plans as originally drawn. This was true 
to form. The Board of Superintendents finds it hard 
to confess error. 

So, on March 25 and on April 8 the Committee 
appeared before the Board of Estimate, the controll- 
in ial. body of the city. At the request of the 

yor, the Committee prepared a. comprehensive 
statement of its activities. It reviewed its work in 
making studies of school buildings of . various sizes, 
studies in which the experience of principals were 
brought out. It went into details to show the great 
additional burdens which the gigantic sehool build- 
ings put on principal, teachers and pupils. Not only 
did the Committee point out to the Mayor the exces- 


sive waste of time which large buildings induce, but 


it also made clear the fact that in large buildings 








4 





to be lost, as individuality is obliterated in the im- 
personal mass. 

Not until October, 1926, did the Committee hear 
from the report to the Mayor. Then it heard that as 
early as April 16th, an official group-consisting of 
President Ryan, Superintendent of Schools Dr. 
O’Shea, Dr. Shallow, the principal of the school and 
others, had met and decided to modify the De Witt 
Clinton plans. They lopped off several features of 
the building, among which were one story, two 
wings, one auditorium, and gave up a certain pavil- 
ion plan. Incidentally, the number of seats was re- 
duced by 1,365, and $1,000,000 was saved to the 
city. The building is still too large, but the wave 
of gigantism in school building construction got a 
shock from which it may not recover. As an indi- 
cation that the reversal of policy is permanent, the 
Board of Superintendents has adopted a resolution 
stating that the erection of five-story school build- 
ings shall cease; only four story buildings may be 
erected hereafter. 

“The normal child and normal adult alike . . . 
are engaged in growing. The difference between 
them is not the difference between growth and no 
growth, but between the modes of growth appro- 
priate to different conditions. With respect to the 
development of powers devoted to coping with 
specific scientific and economic problems we may 
say the child should be growing in manhood. With 
respect to sympathetic curiosity, unbiased respon- 
siveness, and openness of mind, we may say that the 
adult should be growing in childlikeness.”—John 
Dewey. 


GIVE THEM INTELLECTUAL LIBERTY 
Radicals opposed to the rights of school teachers 








to intellectual liberty and free speech received a 


bloody nose when they went to listen to President 
S. S. Mencken of the National Security League. He 
said: “No man is good enough to do another man’s 
thinking, and teachers, who are in the main hard- 
working, self-sacrificing, grossly underpaid pyblic 
servants, should not be humiliated by being denied 
the rights.of free thought and free speech.” 

Isn’t there a world of truth in those few words? 
If any class of people should be able to stand on their 
own feet, hold their heads high, do their own think- 
ing and have the right to express their opinions, 
it is the teacher. Humiliation such as some of our 
teachers. throughout the nation are subjected to is 
bad for society, bad for the teachers, bad for the 
taught. We want no moulding of the minds of youth 
by sneaks or slaves.—Ashville Advocate. 





poets git | ee ee 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


¥ 


THE TEACHERS’ UNION SUMMER SCHOOL 

Local 5, New York, carried on an experimental 
summer school from July 8 to August 31 on the 
property of Manumit School, at Pawling, N. Y. Aa 
evaluation of the experiment will appear in one of 
the November issues of the Survey. But for the 
benefit of those members of the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers who may not see the Survey story a 
few words here will be necessary to show what kind 
of an experiment was carried on. 

The Committee on Experimental Education of the 
Union has given several years to the study of the 
new or creative education. In 1923 it issued a care- 
fully worked-out plan for the establishment of an 
experimental school within the New York City 
school system. The school autherities found that the 
school law didn’t provide for such a school, and $0, 
regretfully turned down the proposition. The Union 
has always been against breaking the law, reactionary 
suspicions to the contrary notwithstanding. We dis- 
tributed large numbers of our experimental propo- 
sal, however, feeling that those school officials who 
read it would never be the same men again. That 
may, or may not, be. 

Within the past year or two the Union has been 
working on the idea that the new education would 
have to enter the public school at least by the “fam- 
ily” entrance, if you know in 1927 what we mean. 
Out of that thought came the idea to establish a 
summer experimental school and conduct therein two 
schools, a junior of children organized into groups 
as in the regular private experimental schools, and 
a senior school to consist of public school and other 
teachers, 

The school was. planned and announced within 2 
few months, and the children came in flocks. The 
student-teachers, as we called the members of the 
senior school, came in slowly. But finally 
they came, nearly twenty-five, which was a full 
house. They observed, held seminars, and studied t 
get the feel of creative education. There were sev- 
enty-two children. The staff consisted of four pef- 
sons who acted as administrators in one or another 
specific function, five group teachers and three spe 
cial téachers. 

This fall the Committee on Experimental Educa- 
tion is holding a series of four conferences with 
members of the former staff of the summer school 
and a representative of the student-teachers for the 
purpose of determining whether the Union 
continue the venture another year. 





Communication is essentially an engineering prob- 
lem—the transportation of an idea from one mind 
to another.—John M. Clapp, New York City. 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The Story of a Struggle for a Living Wage 
7 By ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ : 
Vice President of she American Federation of Teachers, and Member of the Editorial Board of 
the Union Teacher 


In 1919 the morale of seniante had reached its 
lowest ebb. Mounting prices and stationary salaries 
had sapped their inclination to fight for a living 
wage. While hundreds were deserting the teaching 
profession, the representatives of Local No. 5, in- 
spired by the aggressive and hopeful spirit of the 
convention of the A. F. of T. returned to New 


_ York and raised the battle cry of the St. Paul Con- 


vention: “Every teacher may not be worth $2,000, 
but every child is worth a $2,000 teacher.” Union 
optimism and courage heartened the teachers and 
soon the Harmony Committee was formed. It inau- 
gurated the salary drive which culminated in the 
$35,000,000 salary increases for’ 1919-1920. This 
unusual struggle, which had for its battle cry S-O-S 
(Save Our Schools), the Harmony Committee united 
with the Federation of Teachers Associations or the 
Company Union which was dominated by the ad- 
ministrative staff and which, héretofore, had enjoyed 
a monopoly on teacher leadership. 


One of the striking features of this campaign 
was the first emergence of the Union and the 
younger leaders as factors in this decisive struggle. 
The older leaders, who headed the educational com- 
pany union, attempted to discourage the Harmony 
Committee. As their policy proved abortive, they 
turned their energies toward making the salary 
schedules as low as possible, When the representa- 
tive of the Kindergarten-6B group asked for a $1,200 
minimum for her group, the Union fepresentative on 
the Harmony Committee, still animated by the bat- 
tle cry of the A. F. of T. fought for a $2,000 mini- 
mum and succeeded in winning the committee to 
his point of view. And strange to relate, the legisla- 
ture granted that group a $1,500 minimum which 
the Federation leaders at first regarded as impossible 
of attainment. 

The signal victory of 1919: 20 would have satis- 
fied the teachers had the 1913 price been re- 
stored. The continuance of high prices led the Union 
once more to launch its publicity to rouse the teach- 
ers to the need for another salary campaign for the 
restoration of the purchasing power of the pre-war 
dollar. The Union, undaunted by the mocking of 
the Federation leaders, continued its publicity until 


the High School Teachers’ Association issued a call 
for a unification of the teaching force for the com- 
ing salary drive. Fortunately for the teachers, so 
confident were the Federation or company union 
leaders of the futility of the campaign about to be 
launched that with two or three exceptions, they 
ignored the call. The result was the formation of 
the Joint Salary Committee and its Executive Com- 
mittee of Fifteen with its younger and more aggres- 
sive and untrammeled leadership, The Union was well 
represented in the first chairman of the committee. In 
addition its members headed the Committee on Sta- 
tistics, on Publicity and other minor sub-commit- 
tees. Illness forced Mr. Silberstein, the first chair- 
man, to make way for Mr. William R. Lasher under 
whose leadership the teachers are marching to vic- 
tory. 

The Executive Committee of Fifteen of the Joint 
Salary Committee on which the Union had four 
members, followed the tactics and methods of organ- 
ized labor, launched its excellent publicity program, 
mapped out its legislative activities and then inaugu- 
rated its aggressive campaign to rouse a sleeping 
public to the menace of having a discouraged and . 
disgruntled corps which had to transform teaching 
into a part-time job to satisfy economic needs. So 
successful were their efforts, so overwhelming their 
youthful enthusiasm that without the active support 
of a single notable company ‘union leader, and despite 
the dire predictions of seasoned political veterans, 
they succeeded in having the Ricca Bill passed by two 
successive legislatures only to have it vetoed by Gov- 
ernor Alfred E. Smith who was reluctarit to force 
an added expense of $14,000,000 or more upon New 
York City without additional state aid. 


The Joint Salary Committee thereupon aided the 
Governor to bririg about the passage of the Dick- 
Rice Bill which provided for additional state aid 
to the localities for educational purposes amounting 
to $16,500,000 for 1928 and $5,000,000 additional 
each year until 1931. The Republican Legislature 
passed the Dick-Rice Bill which the Democratic 
Governor promptly signed. New York City could 
no longer plead poverty as an excuse for denying 
teachers much-delayed salary adjustment since they 














6 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


would receive from $14,000,000 to $19,000,000 
from the state for such purposes. 

The enactment of the Dick-Rice Law led Mayor 
James J. Walker and George J. Ryan, President of the 
Board of Education, to appoint a Committee of fif- 
teen under the Chairmanship of Lincoln Cromwell. 
The Mayor’s Committee of Fifteen recommended in- 
creases involving an expenditure of $14,000,000. It 
embodied the single salary idea for the elementary 
schools and a super-maximum for additional cultural 
qualifications. The Mayor’s Committee schedules 
involved a smaller expenditure than did the sched- 
ules of the Ricca Bill, fathered by the Joint Salary 
Committee, or the schedules of the Citizen’s Com- 
mittee under the Chairmanship of Robert E. Simon, 
which called for expenditures of over $20,000,000. 


The Union, led to believe that dilatary tactics 
were likely to be pursued, co-operated with the Joint 
Salary Committee in rousing social and civic organi- 
zations to the danger involved in delay. Months 
passed, the summer came and went and still the “do- 
nothing” policy of the Board of Education contin- 
ued. The Board was no doubt studying the situa- 
tion, but even busy business men who can devote 
only part of their time to this arduous and often 
thankless public service, could have~had schedules 
ready on time because they had the work of the 
other three qualified committees to guide it. Delay 
began to exasperate the teachers, so the Union again 
took the initiative in demanding the publication of 
the schedules and a public hearing. Its leadership 
was followed by other organizations. But no sched- 
ules were made public though the item of $14,000,- 
000 had been incorporated into the educational 
budget early in the summer. 

As October was approaching when the arin 
would finally -be acted upon by the Board of Esti- 
mate, the Joint Salary Comimittee visited members 
of the Board of Estimate and were told that unless 
schedules were submitted by the Board of Education 
the $14,000,000 item for teachers’ salaries would 
not be approved. On October 5th, Acting Mayor 
McKee rebuked the President of the Board of Edu- 
cation for having failed to submit schedules and 
said a “shell game” was being played on the teachers. 
The result of Mr. McKee’s attack was an immediate 
promise by President Ryan that schedules would be 
submitted in time for the Board of Estimate to adopt 
the $14,000,000 budgetry item for increasing the 
salaries of teachers. As this magazine goes to press 
the victory ‘of the teachers seems assured. 










































Throughout this struggle one significant fact 
stands out. In the salary struggle of 1919-20, Union 
co-operation was tolerated though deplored by the 
Federation leaders, even though its power was felt. 
In the present salary agitation Union representatives 
were voluntarily selectéd by the representatives of 
non-union teacher organizations, to represent the 
teachers in positions of leadership and responsibility. 
Its constructive proposals were generally adopted and 
its leadership and co-operation appreciated and warm- 
ly praised. The Union publicity, the co-operation of 
the New York State Federation of Labor and the 
Central Trades and Labor Council, the efficient work 
of labor’s legislative representatives John M. O’Han 
lon and Emanuel Kovaleski, the influence of the elo- 
quence and the ability of the representatives of Local 
No. 5 were greatly appreciated by the teachers and 
were recognized as a decisive factor in the victory 
about to be consummated. : 

The triumph of the Joint Salary Committee of 
teachers’ associations in New York City will give 
a national impetus to the movement for giving teach- 
ers a cultural or, at least, a living wage. Victory 
is made possible because of the intelligent application 
of aggressive union tactics and united action of all 
teachers’ organization except the Federation of 
Teachers’ Organization representing the company 
union group. Once more teachefs are learning that 
only through militant, union tactics can they achieve 
emancipation from economic want, from fear and 
from intellectual subservience. 





THE OCTOBER CONFERENCES 


The first week end in- October Local 5 and its 
Auxiliary held its fourth annual conference at Hud- 
son Guild Farm, Netcong, N. J., about 50 mile 
from New York. At these conferences the Union 
and its friends to the number of about one hundred- 
forty discussed current educational problems, thus 
developing breadth of understanding and a critical 
examination of its beliefs. 

This year Professor William C. Bagley of Teaches 
College, Columbia University, was-a guest of the 
Conference, as also were Dr. William E. Grady and 
Dr. Arthur ©. Perry, Jr., New York district supe 
intendents, and Dr. Louis Marks, member of th 
Board of Examiners. : 

Thus, the Union increases its contacts with ti 
enormous school system of New York City, and al 
meets: our officials on a non-official basis. We 
they are mostly good fellows after all. Some 
even join the Union, if our Constitution permitted it 

















“ 







































Teacher in P..S. 144, Brooklyn, and Member 


Until this July, the present pension law for New 
York City teachers, passed by the Legislature in 
1917, has been satisfactorily administered by the 
Board of Retirement of seven members as pro- 
vided for in the act. This summer, however, an 
attempt was made on the part of the four non- 


teacher members of the board to constitute them- 
selves a “majority” within the meaning of the re- 
tirement law, ignore the teacher-representatives, 
and declare a “decision” of the board valid without 
an affirmative vote of any one of the three teacher- 
members. This unprecedented and menacing move 
was immediately and courageously met by the teach- 
er-members of the board who at once engaged coun- 
sel and started suit to compel the city members to 
withdraw from their untenable and high-handed 
position. The issue precipitating the trouble cen- 
tered about the election of a secretary and to make 
the situation clear it is necessary to quote two pro- 
visions of the law reading as foclows: 

“A Retirement Board of seven members is hereby 
constituted which shall consist of the following: the 
president of the Board of Education, the.comptfoller 
of the City of New York, two members appointed 
by the mayor of the City of New York, one of 
whom shall be a member of the Board of Educa- 
tion;—and three members of the Retirement Asso- 
ciation elected from the contributors, (the teach- 
ers). 

“The concurrence of the comptroller or of one 
member appointed by the mayor, of a member elected 
by the Retirement Association, and of at least two 
other members shall be necessary for a decision of 
the Retirement Boatd.” 

Just as vacation began, with many senchers’ ol; 
ready out of town, the secretary of the board (who 
is not a voting member but is the head of the office 
force with many important duties, receiving a sal- 
ary of $5,000 per annum) handed in his resigna- 
tion to take effect at once. Thereupon the city 
members nominated as their candidate for the posi- 
tion a business man having no connection with the 
school system, and reputed to be the choice of 
one of the city’s political associations, The teacher 
members nominated an efficient high school teacher 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Pensions and Politics 
By Manet L, REEs 


of the Editorial Board of the Union Teacher 


with a wide knowledge of pension matters. As the 
president of the Board of Education was absent from 
the meeting of the Board of Retirement the vote 
resulted in a deadlock, three to three, with the city 
members absolutely unwilling to meet the teacher 
members half way and agree upon a temporary sec- 
retary until the-beginning of the fall term, which 
plan would have allowed ample time for a fair con- 
sideration of the qualifications of candidates and an 
opportunity to present the matter before teachers’ 
organizations. 

Within a week a special meeting was called and 
this time the president of the Board of Education 
was on hand to cast his vote with the non-teacher 
members for their candidate for secretary. The city 
members forthwith declared him elected, the chair- 
man of the board, in defense of this declaration 
reading an opinion obtained between meetings from 
the corporation counsel (the city’s legal adviser), 
stating that the term “decision” in the retirement 
law referred only to cases of specific retirements and 
that for administrative matters, the approval of one 
or more of the teacher members was not legally 
required. 

Here, indeed, was a new and dangerous interpre- 
tation of a most important and specific provision of 
the law that the teachers had heretofore depended 
upon to insure them against any invasion of their 
pension. rights. They had steadfastly believed that 
the city could adopt no policies, pass no decisions of 
any kind without the consent of at least one of 
their own representatives. If they were wrong in 
this contention, as pointed out by one of the teacher 
members, the retirement law was not worth pa- 
per on which it was written. Henceforth it appeared 
there would be no need of securing the approval 
of the teacher members for the selection of an actu- 
ary any more than for a secretary, nor for the ap- 
pointment of clerical assistants, nor for the adop- 
tion of annual reports, nor for the investment of 
funds, nor for many other administrative matters. 
Except for passing upon specific retirement cases, 
generally a routine proceeding as outlined in the 
law, the spokesmen ‘of the thirty thousand teachers 
were reduced to figure heads with the entire centrol 
of the Teachers Retirement System in the hands of 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 9 





the victory ‘of the teachers seems assured. 





even join the Union, if our Constitution permitted » 














4 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


political appointees, the teachers having no choice 
but to pay into the pension fund, as compulsory 
deductions from their salary checks are made every 
month. With about forty million dollars in the trust 
fund, over twenty-five millions of which is teach- 
ers’ money and the memory of the bankruptcy of 
the former pension fund, (although the teachers 
retired under the same continue to receive their pen- 
sions and the present teachers were made some allow- 
ance for their contributions) the teaching force is 
almost a unit in its whole hearted support of their 
representatives in starting a tax-payer’s suit, (in the 
name of one of the editors of the Union Teacher), 
’ to test the legality of the city’s endeavor to run the 
retirement system without the endorsement. of one 
or more of the teacher members of the board. 


So far court action has resulted in signal victory 
for the teachers, the judge of the supreme court 
ruling that the word “decision” was unrestricted in 
the pension law and applied with equal force to 
every act of the board, requiring at all times the 
approval of at least one teacher member to make 
it valid and binding. The city has appealed the case 
and the attorney for the teachers has submitted a 
strong brief to prevent what he characterizes as a 
“gyp game” being put over om the thousands of 
members of the Retirement Association.. 


The teachers have every hope of winning their 
case and are willingly contributing to a defense fund 
to be used in defraying all legal expenses. The soli- 
darity of their support is practically unbroken in 
spite of two abortive attempts on the part of “com- 
pany union” leaders to embarrass the teacher repre- 
sentatives and mislead the rank and file. The first 
suggestion emanating from this source was made 
with the hope of lulling the teachers to sleep with 
a falsg sense of security. It was declated that no 
pension crisis existed, and that the question of the 
election of a secretary was a matter of small moment 
anyway. The collection of funds was discouraged 
and the teachers were advised to let the matter 
drop. The chief spokesman in this instance was one 
who had recently been made a director of a newly 
created educational department. 


The second discordant note was sounded by a 
principal who is also a lawyer. He undertook pub- 
licly to point out to-the teacher members on the 
Retirement Board that in as much as the suit simply 
restrained the newly elected “secretary” from receiv- 
ing his salary that it would obviate all legal compli- 


cations of administration, pending final decision of 
the case, if he were recognized as “secretary de 
facto.” The teacher members were acting on the 
advice of their own counsel in refusing any and all 
official recognition of the so-called secretary’s service 
and the board is now functioning on that under- 
standing without any possibility of invalidating 
the suit. 


If the teachers win their appeal, the law now 
financially sound and providing, on the whole, fair 
benefits for retirement, will be on a better basis 
than ever. The next move will be to establish more 
equitable death benefits for teachers dying suddenly 
while in service. By making a choice of optional 
benefits teachers who retire either for disability or 
service may make substantial provision for their 
heirs, but teachers unable through lack of time to 
comply with all technicalities of the law die “in 
service” and although they may have toiled for many 
years in the city schools, their heirs receive no por- 
tion of the city’s contributions, with the exception 
of teachers who are entitled to service retirement 
after thirty-five years when their dependents receive 
a half year’s salary. 


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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 9 


AN ESTIMATE OF THE NEW YORK TEACH- 
ERS UNION AUXILIARY 


September 14, 1927. 
Mrs. S. S. GOLDWATER, 
CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, 
TEACHERS UNION AUXILIARY, 
2 East 100TH Sr., 
New York, N. Y. 
Dear Mrs. GOLDWATER: 

I have been authorized and instructed by the Ex- 
ecutive Board of the Teachers Union to send you a 
letter expressing the gratitude of the“Union for the 
whole-hearted and effective, support which the 
Teachers Union Auxiliary has given us in the five 
and one-half years of the existence of the Auxiliary. 

As you know, the Auxiliary was organized in 
April, 1922, for the purpose of affording to the 
Teachers Union che concrete economic and social 
support of which the Union was in great need. The 
help the Auxiliary gave the Union was immediate 
and generous. 

Important as has been the economic assistance 
given to the Union by the Auxiliary throughout 
these years, we believe that the social aid given to 
the Union’s program,for improving the physical 
conditions in~and about the schools has been of 
still greater value. The study of the janitorial 
problem in the schools, and the publication of the 
pamphlet on this question has set a milestone in ad- 
vance of anything that has been done in the same 
field. This work was altogether the work of an 
Auxiliary Committee. The campaign carried on to 
bring about the reduction in the size of school build- 


ings brought a considerable success, far more than 


had been anticipated, The extent of the Auxiliary’s 


accomplishment may be realized more clearly when 
it is understood that this success won the commenda- 
tion of school officers who had tried in vain to stem 
the tide of big school building construction. The 
success of our bolder enterprises, such as.the October 
Conferences, the fight for the professional rights of 
teachers in the three-teacher case, and the raising of 
a special ten thousand dollar fund, have been in 
large measure due to the ready application of the 
technique and the spirit of savoir faire for which the 
Auxiliary has come to be known. ~ 

Another fine thing for which the Auxiliary should 
be especially praised is its intelligence as ‘shown in 
the acceptance of a situation in which the Union 
takes the initiative in the breaking of ground for the 
new order in education. Never has the Auxiliary 
shown a tendency to dictate a policy for the Union. 
The sole objective of the Auxiliary from the first 
has been to aid the Union, and meyer to dominate 
it either directly or indirectly. To preserve this gen- 


érous attitude, and still to maintain its own charac- 
ter intact, is a sign of an uncommon understanding 
and .of positive ability in leadership. 
‘ Most cordially yours, 
Henry R. Linvitte, President. 





WHAT OUR CHILDREN LEARN 


A number of new instruments of education have 
come into the field in recent years and some of the 
older ones have adopted new appeals to the interest 
of the young. The newspapers and magazines are 
now used in the schools, while tabloids, the funny 
page, the picture section, the movies and the radio 
offer their respective wares at every turn and corner. 
Is the child properly guided and guarded in the whirl 
of miscellaneous influences, or is he left to. make his 
own selection from the sound, the sordid, the worth- 
while and the superficial? In what direction are his 
tastes leading him? : 

With a view to ascertaining what our youth are 
interested in and how he satisfies his tastes, the Re- 
view of Reviews gave a test toward the end of the 
last school term. The test was composed of seventy 
questions relating to persons prominent.in various 
fields, important political, social and economic 
events, subjects of public interest and photos of 
persons and various scenes for identification. The 
test was sent to all schools which requested it and 
large numbers were. distributed. The results indi- 
cated clearly the potent influence of the movie, the 
tabloid and the sport column and showed startlingly 
the need of attention to the more sober but deeper 
aspects of current life. 

Ignorance of basic facts and significant events is 
shocking. A large percentage of students state that 
they read only the funny page or sports section of 
the paper. High school students generally know who 
is governor of their respective states, but a small per- 
centage do not possesg even this minimurn of knowl- 
edge. Edison was identified by the largest number, 
and Valentino, Mrs, Coolidge: and Gertrude Ederle 
by smaller numbers in the order named, while Root, 
Hughes and Queen Marie fell hopelessly behind. The 
claim to fame of Ty Cobb, Aimee McPherson, Gene 
Tunney and Suzanne Lenglen- is known to about 
one-third of those tested but Bernard Shaw, Leonard 
Wood and Parkes Cadman are below the horizon. 
President Coolidge’s policies and the third term tra- 
dition are unknown and will have no bearing on his 
political prospects. Reparations are generally a mys- 
tery-and to many Nicaragua is in South America, 


. Mexico or Panama. 


The interests of youth are obviously becoming 
more diverse, but can they not be directed more 
advantageously in school and home? 









































THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Report of Committee on Education 
Eleventh Annual Convention of the American Federation of Teachers, Chicago, Ill., June 27, 1927. 


An explanation is due to the convention from the 
chairman of this committee. The plan devised for 
the standing committees was that each chairman 
should have as the nucleus of his committee a local 
group and in addition should have one member in 
each of the districts or sections where we have locals. 
The plan is good. Some chairmen have been able to 
follow it. The nature of the work of the education 
committee is such that it will always be difficult 
to keep the outlying members in touch with the work 
the main body is doing. But the value of the infor- 
mation that can be secured as to the status of edu- 
cational thought and conditions in different parts 
of the country willbe so great that another year 
a more persistent attempt should be made to make 
use of this plan. 

This year we have been pioneering and have been 
able to accomplish far less than we hope may be 
possible another year. On account of heavy local 
organization work it seemed impossible to carry on 
the necessary correspondence to organize the country 
wide committee, hence the report as submitted is 
entirely the work of Locals 2 and 3. 

As to the nature of the work to be done by the 
education committee, I quote the report of the Com- 
mittee on Promotion and Organization of the Tenth 
Annual Convention: “It was agreed that the Com- 
mittee on Education should study and make recom- 
mendations to each convention concerning educa- 
tional experiments, practices and tendencies in the 
field of‘ education, whether of a constructive char- 
-acter or otherwise. Not only should this committee 
concern itself with such experiments as the junior 
high school, intelligence tests, the work-study-play 
plan, creative activity, etc., but it should examine 
the results of current educational practices in what- 
ever way they may be observable.” 

This is an admirable agenda, but a very heavy 
undertaking for a group, all of whom are carrying 
the usual heavy work of the class room teacher and 
most of whom are burdened with heavy local organ- 
ization work. The committee accepts the program 
as an ideal toward which future committees should 
work. It presents the report of the first committee 
very humbly, as a short start toward that goal. 

Some obligations were placed on the committee 
by the resolutions of the last convention and some 
arose from the fact that the American Federation 


of Labor has concerned itself with certain educational . 


innovations on which they have a right to have an 
expression of our views. With these the committee 
concerned itself first. 


Resolution No. 2 in the form adopted by the con- 
vention, called for a committee to study the possi- 
bilities and the feasibility of founding an experi- 
mental school to be owned and operated by the 
American Federation of Teachers, and directed that 
this committee study the methods whereby the enter- 
prise may be financed—such plans to be reported at 


.the 1927 convention. 


The committee finds that the establishment of 
such a school would require a generous endowment 
fund since’such a school to be valuable and to secure 
recognition in the educational world, must continue 
its experiments over a period of some years. The 
committee doubts whether it would be possible to 
secure such an endowment fund unless a full time 
field worker could be financed. Should the financial 
condition of the American Federation of Teachers 
warrant the organization in putting such a_ worker 
in the field for this purpose, it might be feasible to 
undertake such an enterprise. The difficulty of 
securing funds for greatly needed organization work, ° 
as shown by the secretary’s report, makes the plan 
seem impracticable at present. 

Resolution No. 7 calls on the American Rederation 
of Teachers to confer with the Educational Com- 
mittee of the American Federation of Labor on some 
feasible plan for making the findings of the experi- 
ments carried on at Manumit and at Brookwood 
available to all. Our representative on the Educa- 
tion Committee of the American Federation of. Labor 
reports that up to the present time nothing’ definite 
along this line has been done. Reports on some 
phases of the work of these schools have been 
reported from time to time in publications of the 
American Federation of Teachers. 

The committee believes that another year an eval- 
uation of the methods used at these schools and their 
adaptability to public schools might profitably be 
made by one of the eastern locals that can come into 
direct contact with the teachers and the schools. 
The committee, working entirely from reports, finds 
the conditions of these schools so different from those 
which we face in our crowded city schools, that i* 
was unable to vision their methods applied in 4 
typical city school system. We hope, however, that 
they may prove pathfinders in new educational meth- 
ods and that the American Federation of Teachers 
may have a part in giving the benefits of their find- 
ings to the less happily situated public schools, 

A resolution adopted by the convention as a sub- 
stitute for Resolution No. 1 called for an investi- 
gation of the Institute for Research in Land Eco- 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER _ — 


nomics and Public Utilities, an organization affiliated 
with Northwestern University and under the direc- 
torship of Dr. Richard. T, Ely. 

These two resolutions came from the Chicago 
locals. A similar resolution calling for an investigation 
of this institution was passed by the convention of 
American Federation of Labor. Several conferences 
have been held by your committee with E. R. Der- 
rickson of the Order of Railroad Telegraphers who 
introduced the resolution in the convention of the 
American Federation of Labor. 

Your committee, after investigation, submits the 
following findings and recommendations: 

The American-Federation of Teachers has always 
vigorously defended academic freedom, and* your 
committee believes that a peculiarly dangerous attack 
on academic freedom is involved in the present con- 
duct, control, and financing of this institute. The 
American Federation of Teachers believes that 
unbiased research and the scientific method honestly 
used offers the best hope for sound solutions of our 
social, economic, and political problems, and that 
anything which must‘discredit the agency of scien- 
tific research in the public mind is blocking progress 
at its source. Your committee finds that the Insti- 
tute for Research in Land Economics is so misusing 
the conception of research, and the offense is the 
more serious and far-reaching because it inescapably 
involves a great privately endowed university. There 
is not sufficient compensation for those concerned 
in the intellectual integrity of higher education, in 
the fact. that the institute had previously left a 
great publicly supported institution, the University 
of Wisconsin. 

This serious charge is based on the violation of a 
cardinal principle of scientific research, open-minded- 
ness, the avoidance of pre-conceived, fixed ideas. The 
scientist may set up a hypothesis, but when it 
becomes an obsession, he ceases to be a scientist. The 
following is an example of this advance determina- 
tion of what the “research” is guaranteed to show. 
In 1922, early in the history of the institute, Pro- 
fessor Ely published the “Outlines of Land Eco- 
nomics,” three base books, as the groundwork for the 
future research which would result in an announced 
fifty volumes. On page 117 of Vol. 3 is found, “If 
regulation of size of land holdings is needed, this 
should be brought about by other methods than by 

' taxation.” In Ely’s pamphlet, “Taxation of Land,” 
published the same year, on page 47 we. find, “If 
regulation of the size of land holdings is needed, this 
should be brought about by other methods than by 
taxation—Let us get the facts first and then under- 
take the proper regulation, but not by taxation.” 
(Italics, ours.) He may be right—we are not here 


concerned in any theory of taxation—but closing 
the door in advance to any solution, however dis- 
tasteful or wrong that solution may seem to the 
director of the institute and his trustees and backers, 
Vitiates any claim to disinterestedness, and degrades 
research to the level of special pleading. 

In view of this spirit it is not surprising to find 
the President of the National Association of Real 
Estate Boards, Robert Jemison, Jr., saying under the 
caption Research in his annual report to his organi- 
zation for 1926: 

“The Institute for Research in Land Economics 
and Public Utilities of which Dr. Richard T. Ely is 
the head and which is now affiliated with North- 
western University, has undertaken to make an 
extensive study of the taxation of urban land values. 
This is one of the great problems with which we 
are vitally concerned, An impartial, scientific sur- 
vey of the facts in this connection, will, we believe, 
help us to convince the nation, in a manner which 
our own statements can not do, that real estate is 
bearing more than its just proportion of the tax 
burden. Moreover such a report will emphasize the 
social and economic results of our present tax policies 
in a manner which will lift the discussion of the 
question far above any mere consideration of dollars 
and cents.” 

Mr. Jemison’s frankness did not go so far as to 
add that a still greater advantage in the affiliation 
of the institute with a great university lay in the 
opportunity to influence the minds of thousands of 
students. who would carry the predetermined results 
of supposed research stamped genuine by a great 
university, into the schools and communities of every 
section of the nation. 

Nor is it surprising to find that while the insti- 
tute receives from Northwestern University the use 
of valuable facilities, it is also largely financed by 
private foundations and organizations, among them 
the National Association of Real Estate Boards—nor 
that last June the National Association of Real Estate 
Boards doubled its dues for the avowed purpose, 
among others, of aiding research and education. 


Your committee desires to avoid any misunder- - 


standing. It is not questioning the sincerity of Pro- 
fessor Ely’s convictions, nor the right of the organ- 
ized real estate interests to finance research. The 
growing control of research by private endowment 
creates a complex social problem, which, happily, this 
committee is not called on to solve, but we gladly 
grant that scholars of high integrity may and do 
legitimately serve private foundations. But the issue 
here is one of a masquerade under false colors. We 
have an institute affiliated with Northwestern Uni- 
versity, and vouched for by Northwestern as a gen- 








es THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


uine institute of research. This institute is largely 
supported by private groups, and it is obvious that 
much of that support would cease the moment the 
announced results of the research ran counter to the 
economic interests of those groups. The law of 
self-preservation may be presumed to operate in the 
case of institutions and even institutes. Certainly 
with the handicap of so equivocal a position, research 
can not gain and maintain the confidence and respect 
of the public. And this unnatural union of uni- 
versity and research in the interest of supporting 
groups, must react disastrously on the university. 
It seems to your committee an acute and insidious 
form of a disguised control of higher education. 


The committee recommends that the \American 
Federation of Teachers use all available means to 
secure adequate publicity for this report. 

This concludes the report on the resolutions of 
the Tenth convention referred to this committee by 
the Committee on Promotion and Organization. 

Another question on which the committee felt 
constrained to take a position because of the interests 
of the American Federation of Labor, was that of 
the junior high schools. Local groups of the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor have taken divergent posi- 
tions on the question of this form of organization 
of the intermediate grades. The question at present 
is in the hands of the Education Committee of the 
American Federation of Labor, which has reported 
progress in the investigation of the subject, but 
made no recommendation at the last convention. 
~ Your committee reports that it has made a careful 
study of the junior high school movement in the 
United States, its genesis, its progress in various cities, 
the criticisms that have been directed against it, and 
the defense that has been offered to meet these criti- 
cisms. The committee acknowledges that it has been 
greatly aided in this investigation by having at its 
disposal the preliminary study of the subject made 
by the Education Committee of Local No. 2. 


The following points are submitted as stating the 
position of the American Federation of Teachers on 
junior high schools: 

The Federation recognizes that the junior high 
school is still an experiment. It believes, however, 
that it is an honest effort to meet justifiable and 
searching criticism of the traditional school = 
ization. 

It believes, moreover, that this type of school is 
not inherently dangerous or undemocratic, and that 
it can be a factor of high effectiveness in the training 
of our youth. But it recognizes that there -is a 
danger that this type of. schools can and may be used 
to the injury of democracy, and that in some cities 
_ it has been so misused. 


It recognizes that in too many junior high schools 
are the same undesirable features which are common 
to the elementary and to the senior high schools, and 
against which the Federation has protested and still 
protests, i. ¢., over-crowding of shops and clas 
rooms, over-large classes, over-regimentation. 

The Federation holds that it has an imperative 
duty to watch the development of the courses of 
study of these schools, and their administration, in 
order to give warning of the beginning of any dan- 
gerous tendency if such should appear. 

The question of the use of intelligence tests in 
the schools is also one with which labor bodies have 
concerned themselves. Your committee finds that 
the value of these tests and the uses to which. they 
may legitimately be put, are still debated questions 
among educational experts. 

Dr. Joseph K. Hart in his valuable work, “Adult 
Education,” quotes President George B. Cutten, of 
Coalgate University as saying some years ago: “If 
present hopes and expectations are realized they (i. ¢. 
the intelligence tests) will result in a caste system 
as rigid as that of India, but 6n a rational and just 
basis. It must inevitably destroy universal suffrage 
by cutting off at least 25 per cent of the adults, 
whose intelligence is so low as to be impossible of 
comprehending the significance of the ballot.” 

In contrast with this view, we find Doctor 
William C. Bagley drawing a very different conclu- 
sion from his study of intelligence tests. We quote 
from Dr. Bagley’s “Determinism in Education.” 

“These papers deal with the old problem of 
heredity vs. environment—a problem now brought 
into the very focus of social significance. by the 
mass of appealing and plausible evidence drawn to 
the support of the hereditarian hypothesis from the 
results of the so-called intelligence tests. The papers 
set forth certain facts and arguments that tend to 
discredit the fatalistic implications of this evidence, 
and, by the same token, to confirm and justify the 
two hypotheses upon which, in the writer’s judgment, 
a rational faith in democraty must rest: 1. That 
education, far from being merely an expression of 
concomittant of intelligence, plays a positive and 
indispensable role in the development-of intelligence 
and, 2. That, perhaps in a limited and yet in a very 
real sense, education does operate as an equalizing 
force among individuals of varying degrees of native 
endowment,—in short, that education is (or can be 
made) in some measure a ‘leveling up’ process.” 

Another significant statement is cited by Kil- 
patrick in his Source Book in the Philosophy of 
Education. He quotes Leonard Powers in the N. E. 
A. Bulletin of Elementary School Principals of 1923. 

“Eventually our schools will, in ‘certain respects, 





THE AMERICAN: TEACHER 13 


resemble great manufacturing plants. The achieve- 
ment tests will become accurate gauges of the edu- 
cational (manufacturing) processes. In each subject 
the children will pass through a given number of 
tests in as definite and sequential an order as the 
steps in a manufacturing process. The standard tests 
will measure the accomplishments as the machine 
products are gauged, Each process within each sub- 
ject will be mastered before an advance is made. 
Each process will be taught by an expert, automatic 
devices and machines used where possible. 


“The achievement tests compel the child to aim 
each educational effort at one object where we are 
now aiming at a flock. For a certain definite and 
limited time, each child will attack his own specific 
difficulty after the application of the tests has shown 
him what that difficulty is. The children will be 
grouped in such a manner that all who are overcom- 
ing a specific obstacle concentrate their efforts upon 
it at the same time.” j 

Whether this statement was made by Mr. Powers 
seriously or, as satire, it calls attention to dangerous 
tendencies toward regimentation and mechanization 
which are prevalent in our educational movements, 
and in which the intelligence tests are being made 
to play an important part. 

The committee recognizes that some value may 
be derived from dividing pupils into groups based 
on ability in doing certain types of work, but feels 
that the reliability of tests so far devised is an open 
question. It feels that if such classification be made 
on the basis of intelligence tests great flexibility in 
passing from group to group should be preserved 
and that the experience of the teacher with the pupil 
should be the ultimate deciding factor. 

The American Federation of Teachers. through its 
educational committee and its locals should be on 
guard against the introduction of methods which 
either unconsciously or by design lead to mechaniza- 
tion, regimentation and limitation of opportunity to 
individual children or to groups of children. 


The committee wishes to direct the attention of 
the American Federation of Teachers to the plight of 
two classes of underprivileged children. The-atten- 
tion of the committee was’ called to the situation of 
the crippled child by the report of the Research 
Bureau. This report, combined with further investi- 
gation by the committee, shows that of our 48 states 
only 15 have legislative provision relating to the 
education of the crippled child and of these 15 only 
10 have legislative provision for surgical treatment 
and care necessary to make such education possible. 


_The committee’s study has been convincing that 
éducation and vocational training for the crippled 


child is humanitarian and can in many cases “make 
tax producers out of potential tax consumers.” 
The committee is also convinced that the neces- 
sary education for these handicapped children requires 
that provision be made for medical, surgical and 
institutional care. Hence it desires to recommend 
that the American Federation of Teachers and its 
various locals strive to bring this matter before the 
legislatures of their respective states, and to interest 
labor and other local and national organizations in 
securing the legislation necessary for adequate edu- 
cational opportunities for this class of children. 


Your committee also finds that the educational 
opportunities of the children in most rural districts 
is so inadequate as to constitute a severe indictment 
of our nation, and to be a leading cause of illiteracy 
and other social and economic dangers. 


Our investigation has found that the inability of 
many districts adequately to finance their schools 
has resulted in short compulsory school year, in some 
states as low as four or five months, and low require- 
ments for teachers. We find that boys and girls just 
out of the eighth grade are often employed as teachers 
and that professional training among rural: teachers 
is rare. 

Some states are making notable advances through 
methods of consolidated schools, state aid to poor 
districts, and raising educational and professional 
requirements for teachers. 


The American Federation of Teachers, though 
largely composed of city locals, should not be indif- 
ferent to this injustice to children and this menace 
to our nation, but should urge upon its locals that 
they inform themselves upon the conditions in their 
several states, and seek to interest all forces in their 
states in the matter of improving the rural schools. 


The committee finds many movements in educa- 
tion to which it could not give an adequate study 
this year. It recognizes that teachers also are subject 
to the common faults of humanity, among the most 
disastrous of which are suspicion of that which is 
new, fear of that which disturbs the established order, 
and disinclination to study faults in that which is and 
possibilities in that which might be. We feel that the 
American Federation of Teachers is composed largely 
of that element in each school system to which these 
criticisms are least applicable. Its members are usually 


that leaven which must leaven the whole. 


It therefore, recommends to the sympathetic but 
critical study of individual members and of educa- 
tional committees, of such modification of traditional 
curricula, subject matter and methods as tend toward 
allowing the child more individual development and 





- 
—--* 


a a ee ee 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


toward developing in him social awareness and civic 
conscience, 
Respectfully submitted, 
Education Committee. 
Lucie W. Allen, Chairman, 
Jennie A, Wilcox, 
Charles B. Stillman, 
Nell Peterson, 
Leo Klinge, 
Ada Zarbell, 
Lucy Schact, 
Geo. W. Tanner, 
Lillian Ackerman, 
Edward Davis, 
Anna Henry. 





RED CROSS MEMBERSHIP AS A LINK WITH 
ACTIVE DAYS OF WAR SERVICE 


November 11, 1918—November 11, 1927; nearly 
ten years. The past year thoughtful people every- 
where have meditated on, the fact this is the tenth 
anniversary of America’s entry into the World War, 
that the coming year will be the tenth since we 
emerged from that conflict to shift our frenzied 
war activities into the more measured pace of normal 
life. There are few material links connecting us 
with those days. The vast uniformed forces which 
were camped everywhere have merged into the per- 
sonnel of shop and office, coming and going with the 
rest of their fellows. Only one group of that army 
still stands apart; they are the disabled. 

There are still other reminders of war days; the 
special occasions when the American Legion parades, 
and the Annual Roll Calls of Red Cross Membership, 
which have taken place each year from Armistice 
Day to Thanksgiving since the war. Not everyone 
can belong to the American Legion, that privilege 
is reserved for those who served in the uniformed 
ranks of the Nation in war. But there is one service 
which is universal, one through which the great ma- 
jority of the American people in war time rendered 
one of their obligations to the country and to their 
sons; through membership in the American Red Cross. 
Many of its war-time members have never permitted 
themselves to be demobolized from that~ service. 
For many thousands of others each year, the Roll 
Call, which this year is from November 11-24, is 
an. opportunity to identify themselves once more 
with an organization of humanitarian helpfulness 
to the whole world, and the demand for whose ser- 
vices is as strong each year as it was ten years ago. 





Originality exists only when it is unconscious.— 
Boulanger. 


~ 


WE, THE TEACHERS, MEET 


“To promote the cause of education and to elevate the char- 
acter of teaching throughout the world; to cultivate inter- 
national good will and to promote the interests of world wide 
peace. For this the World Federation of Teachers’ Education 
Associations has been organized. 

Four years ago, in San Francisco, representatives of 


teacher groups from throughout the world met and 
decided that it would be wise, that it would be uni- 
versally profitable, if in-some way, those, who in the 
class room should inspire and cause to have developed 
a sense of social responsibility, could meet and know 
each other and know each other’s problems. And 50, 
two years ago in Edinburgh there was born this World 
Federation of Education Associations, Much of the 
time in Edinburgh was taken up with the forming of 
the organization and with the formulating of the 
organization’s constitution. But a spirit was there, 
a something which made each teacher from each 
country feel that his was a sacred trust, and that 
that trust demanded that he truly know his fellow 
men and that the children with whom he, éame in 
contact know their fellow men. When we know 
folks we like them better; we trust them more. And 
so, we are more loathe to fight them. 

And then, this August the World Federation of 
Education Associations met again; this time in To- 
ronto. The Canadian Teachers Federation was our 
host; a delightful host it was. These Canadian 
teachers made us feel that we were indeed welcome 
guests, and ‘more than that, that they were happy 
to have us there to plan this great project in which 
we are all so deeply interested. There’s a sincerity 
about the Canadians—often a rugged sincerity— 
which seemed to find expression in everything they 
did or said. We thank them for letting us know 
them better; we thank them for having made it 
possible for us to know them on_such a delightful 
work-play occasion. 

Of primary interest to all the delegates were the 
reports of Herman-Jordan Committees. There are 
five of them. Each concerned itself with a par- 
ticular approach to the relation of education to peace. 
A significant characteristic of the reports of these 
committees was that they were all practical. We 
are so wont to “play with the idea of peace,” as 
Wells says. The recommendations from all these 
committees, however, contained specific recommen- 
dations which are thoroughly practicable. 

Dr. P. W. Kuo’s committee on Education for Inter- 
national Understanding and Peace presented a report 
containing a number of specific recommendation’, 


= 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


including such® projects as “the making of a com- 
prehensive survey of the ways by which organiza- 
tions are seeking to cultivate world-mindedness 
through geography, world civics, history, literature, 
sports, modern languages, special programmes and 
special days, books of good will, visual education 
projects, borderline conferences, correspondence 
among school children, educational exchange and 
other methods of value to teachers;” “the publica- 
tion and distribution of periodic. reports and special 
bulletins regarding new developments in methods of 
promoting international goodwill” and other similarly 
important far reaching plans. Dr. Laura Ulrich’s 
committee on the Teaching of History proposes to 
continue its analysis of history text books. The 
gross historical inaccuracies, the alarming amount of 
racial and national prejudices, the preponderance of 
space given to war rather than to peace activities; 
the slighting, often to the point of omission, of vast 
social movements, like the labor movement, the 
woman’s movement—are grave faults revealed in 
even a mere cursory analysis of history text books now 
in use in the schools throughout the world. Truth, the 
whole truth, in history text books! A big piece of 
work at which this committee is to continue its 
work. The menace of military training: in our 
schools to our educational as well as to our social 
standards was pointed out in the full report of Mr. E. 
J. Sainsbury, Chairman of the committee on Military 
Training and Military Preparedness. Deploring the 
present tendency to excessive military training, Mr. 
Sainsbury’s report urged the eventual substitution of 
sports and exercises for disciplined military training. 
A number of delegates, however, wished the resolu- 
tion adopted by the Federation to embrace in full the 
spirit of the purpose of the Federation, and therefore 


sought to have adopted several amendments to the re- - 


port of this committee when that report was present- 
ed. They raised the question as to why the resolutions 
called for the removal of military training in civil 
educational institytions only for boys under eighteen 
years of age. Thete were objections also to the reso- 
lutions which put the Federation on record as urging 
the “eventual removal of all unnecessary armaments.” 
It was held by the “opposing forces” that the support 
of a resolution urging the “eventual” removal of 
“unnecessary” armaments left the Federation in a 
rather negative position. A portion of this report, 
after much discussion, was held over for considera- 
tion at the next biennial conference. Dr. A. E. 
Marty, chairman of the committee on the Study of 


Methods and Instruments Used te Settle Inter- 
national Disputes Without Resorting to War, in- 
cluded in her lengthy and comprehensive report the 
recommendation that a_special conference be called 
for evolving some practical means for giving special 
preparation in the various teacher training institu- 
tions of the world, which preparation would aid in 
inculeating a spirit of international brotherhood; a 
recommendation that the Federation advocate and 
promote in schools and colleges the study of inter- 
national -civics including especially a study of 
methods and instruments already in operation to 
facilitate international economic and political co- 
operation and friendship, and a recommendation that 
steps be taken at once to investigate the practicabil- 
ity of an international language in realizing the aims 
of the Federation. The report of the Committee on 
Special Arrangements for Training Youth in World 
Amity, presented by its chairman, Mr. Daniel Chase, 
reported on specific special arrangements for train- 
ing youth in world amity, including such media as 
international school correspondence, exchange of 
school children, international athletic sports, the 
world hero contest, and the world citizenship league. 

A world gathering is a tremendous thing and the 
program of this organization was so vast, so all- 
inclusive, that one would be awe struck by simply 
looking at it. We doubt whether even Bacon who 
would “take all knowledge for his province” would 
presume to take in all the meetings of the World 
Federation. In fact those who planned the program 
very definitely did not intend that any one person 
should take in more than a wee bit of the program, 
for there were given simultaneously twenty odd good 
programs. To do justice to any one of the group 
discussions which had been arranged, or rather to 
enable one to understand and appreciate any of these 
group discussions, demanded one’s full attention’ and 
denied him the opportunity and privilege of enjoying 
any other section. 

Trade unionists, to whom education never did 
mean simply the three R’s, to whom education did 
and always must be the means by which and through 
which social adjustment in its broadest sense is ef- 
fected, were interested in the-section of the World 
Federation of Education Associations which was 
known as the ‘section on “Social Adjustment—The 
Relation of the School to the Community.” There 
were three meetings in this section. The first con- 
cerned itself with the subject: “To what extent, 
and in what manner is the cultural tone of a com- 








16 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


munity reflected in the school and interpreted by it?” 
We, Americans, are hard hit by this question. Our 
culture is practical; our schooling still painfully 
humanistic. 

This meeting was presided over by a bobbed haired 
girl from China, and somehow that in itself tells a 
story. Miss Grace Li,. the daughter of a former 
Chinese president, the product of a rich oriental cul- 
ture and of a thorough occidental training in Ameri- 
can colleges, a brilliant young woman who now will 
be given an opportunity in her own land to make 
use of all those rich endowments which she pos- 
sesses, presided. In her introductory remarks, she 
told briefly of the tremendous struggle for adjust- 
ment which her country was at present undergoing: 
What should be ‘kept; what should be changed; what 
should be taken on? Let China decide that for her- 
self! 

The kaleidoscope was whirled. The girl from an- 
cient China introduced the representative from 
Mexico, Senor Motses Saenz, under secretary of edu- 
cation from Mexico. Dr. Saenz’s talk will later ap- 
pear in full in some of the labor papers. Here, we 


can but say that the vast and sweeping changes 


which have occurred and are occurring in Mexico 
are significant not only politically, but far more so 
socially. A people suddenly awakened to the degree 
that they want education! An educational depart- 
ment awakened enough to know what education is! 
No, they are not taking a somewhat crude Mexican 
Indian and “educating” him ‘by making him learn 
the three R’s first, and asking him to meet the col- 
lege entrance requirements as the next step. They 
are educating him by letting him develop along his 
natural lines. Basic sanitation, social ministration of 
a primitive sort, that is where he starts. And of 
course with it he starts painting, modeling—that 
growth of feeling, of spirituality, which every human 
must have. Yes, in his education it is remembered 
that he has a soul, and that that soul must have 
color and expression for its true development. An 
old civilization—an old Indian civilization somewhat 
maladjusted, perhaps, by a transplanted Spanish cul- 
ture and by a pseudo efficiency mported from the 
north of them—is being allowed to develop along 
its natural lines and is recognizing that it is dis- 
tinct. The Indian remains an Indian and is not 
forced to adopt the culture, the manners and “souls” 
of others, but is allowed to develop with his own. 
And from Mexico we are taken by Mr. Rajarem V. 
Gogate, representative of the native state of Armah, 


to his homeland, India. The family as an institution 
in social development, not in a conventional sense, 
but rather in a broad social sense, was Mr, Gogate’s 
approach. He plead for a recognition of the social 
value of family life. He deplored Fordized indus. 
trialization which denied the worker a soul, which 
robbed the individual of spirituality, and which in 
so doing completely disrupted the family of its true 
social functioning. He pointed out. that there were 
industrial plants which ground out matter, and paid 


_in dollars and cents a salary which the world often 


misconstrued as being high, but that in reality this 
Fordized industrialism which boasts of its wages, 
grants but a false gift, a pseudo return, a few 
shekels of no real value. Such “improvement” India 
does not want! Such “progress” at such a price must 
be fought in India! “Cannot my people,” he asked, 
“be discriminating in accepting what you offer? Can 
we not assume that some of the things that you offer 
us may not be valuable to us and therefore should 
not be accepted? Must we assume that what you 
offer us is right and best simply because you west- 
erners offer it to us? May we not work out our 
adjustment for ourselves in our manner, slowly but 
in keeping with our cultural tone?” 

The second session was given over to a discussion 
on “What efforts have been made and are being made 
to effect Social Adjustment in Industry Through 
Education?” ‘The presiding officer, of course, was 
a trade unionist. Who else could preside properly at 
a meeting at which such a question was to be con- 
sidered? Mrs. Florence Curtis Hanson, ‘secretary- 
treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, 
presiding officer, in her introductory remarks told 
of Labor’s contribution to the development of the 
public school in America and of the mission and 
purpose of the union in which she carries her card, 
the Teachers’ Union. 

The discussion was opened by the presentation 
of an historical treatise. Mr. Fred Mander, president 
of the National Union of Teachers of England, spoke 
on “The Relation of the School to Industry.” With 
characteristic British thoroughness and precision, a0 
exteremely interesting and valuable presentation of 
actual facts was given. Facts make an excellent 
starting point for any question, and Mr. Mander's 
data with their scientific correctness and logical af- 
rangement were just what a fact finding body, such 
as this world gathering of teachers is, earnestly de 
sires. Following Mr. Mander, Mr. C. M. Ripley of 
the General Electric, told of the educational work 





EP EEE S 


5 
5 


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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 17 


which his organization was attempting. He pointed 
out how little is known of the organization itself and 
its functioning, and how much better it would be 
if more could be known thereon. 

And then came Spencer Miller, secretary of the 
Workers’ Education Bureau of America. An inter- 
esting picture of the American fabor movement, a 
truly eloquent interpretation of American labor phil- 
osophy, a sympathetic analysis of Workers’ Educa- 
tion and all that it means—this was Spencer Miller’s 
job; and it was a job beautifully done! 


Paul Hansen of Denmark gave us a picture of the 
Danish folk high school. When we think that Den- 
mark has an educational movement which is, really 
functioning, schools which are not simply restrictive 
institutions, but places of true learning and develop- 
ment—Workers’ Education in its real sense—we see 
why Paul Hansen fitted in so well on this program. 
Miss Gertrude Wilson, industfial secretary of the 
Y. W. C. A. of Buffalo, in telling of the splendid 
industrial work of the Y. W. C. A. made one réalize 
the very effective Workers’ Education the Y. W. is 
conducting. She made one realize full well what an 
active group of women in a non-sectarian quasi- 
religious organization really can do! A good example 
for men’s organizations, this Y. W. C. A. work, 
might well be. 

The third session concerned itself with the sub- 
ject, “What methods and educational technique can 
best effect a richer, truer, and fuller interpretation 
of life?” The presiding officer, Mr. Frank Hoare, a 
member of the Executive of the National Union of 
Teachers of England, was chosen to preside, not only 
because the group of which he was a representative 
has vitally interested themselves in this question, 
but also because he, himself, an English Laborite, is 
sincerely and actively interested in this question. Our 
Dr. Joseph K. Hart spoke on “Our Revolutionary 
Public Schools,” in which, with tremendous force 
and vividness he plead for a different, unregimented 
form of education. The Toronto press in comment- 
ing on Dr. Hart’s speech deplored the fact that a 
speech so constructively revolutionary should not 
have been heard by many, many niore. 


And then Dr. Otto Tacke, representing the Ger- 
man teachers, told most interestingly of how their 
schools are financed in a way more pleasing to both 
the citizenry and the school people, and of how school 
councils composed of the representatives of the city’s 
officialdom, of the parents, of the teachers, and of 


the pupils, form a joint council which determines 
the policy of the schools, and then conducts them 
in. keeping with that policy. 

Israel Mufson, secretary of the Philadelphia Labor 
College, and known to us trade unionists a: one of 
the most capable and efficient men in Workers’ 
Education, in a delightfully informal manner spoke 
on “The Conference Method in Education.” I is 
the method of Brookwood, where Mr. Mufsen got 
so much of his traisfing. It is the method being 
adopted by practically every forward-looking edu- 
cational institution and educational group. It is the 
method which recognizes the individual and which 
concerns itself with an appreciation of events and 
experiences and not with isolated, disconnected facts. 

Mrs. H. P. Plumptre, a member of the Toronto 
School Board, told of the traveling school of Can- 
ada. We Americans may well profit hy the emmple 
to the north of us. When we realize that 21 states 
in the Union exempt a child from attendatce at 
public school because he lives too far from a school, 
it is well for us to remember that in Canadk, a far 
more sparsely populated country, the child whe lives 
far from the city and the town is not being handi- 
capped and penalized because his is the life of the 
frontier; no, the school is brought to him| Let’s 
follow that example! 

A vast program in which a large number ¢/ labor 
people participated; a program bearing the m@sage of 
organized labor, and so, of course, a social message. 

To attempt to report on twenty odd sectioas would 
be impossible. “Rich and interesting were tlt papers 
presented in every gathering. Encouraging was the 
report in the Illiteracy Section on the reduction of 
illiteracy in many places; disheartening was its re- 
port on the vast amount of illiteracy still to be 
found in the world. Just what will the Feleration 
do about this, just what can the Federations do? 


The tremendously interesting talk of Dr, Dorian 
Feigenbaum, the celebrated Viennese psychiatst and 
psycho-analyst, given before the section on the Edu- 
cation of the Behaviour Problem Child; th< impor- 
tance of the recognition of the psychical aswell as 
the physical health of the child as discusse¢ in the 
sectian on Health Education; the difficult problem 
of developing a “technique” in character.an] moral 
education; a concrete analysis of some of th actual 
problems incident to the preparation of teacters for 
promoting international co-operation and gad will; 
the work of Parent-Teacher—Home School Associa- 





18 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


tions; 2 discussion of the problems of the rural school 
and the rural community in which “our” Paul Han- 
sen of Denmark (how we should like to adopt him) 
took such a prominent part; the development of the 
Nursery School; and many, many other vitally im- 
portant, highly significant discussions. MUCH! 
MUCH! MUCH! Did we take it in? No one 
could really take in all of this. How much did we 
digest! How much will be assimilated? 


Take the question of the Ynotion pictures. We 
all admit the high potential educational value of the 
silver screen, but what are we, the teachers, actually, 
practically doing to see that the screen is used for 
education and not for false propoganda? When 
pictures appear, as we all know they do appear, tend- 
ing t arouse racial prejudices and national hatred— 
pictures showing our country in preparation for war 
with jome cguntry with which we are at present at 
peace (and just such pictures, we know, were shown 
last winter)—what do we do about it? What did 
we do about it? What will we-do about it? Reso- 
lutioni, alone, mean nothing. Let us carry out our 
resolutions. 


Anc do we really appreciate that grave responsi- 
bility which is ours? Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, Direc- 
tor of Education of the Philph-Stokes Fund, who 
has jut returned from Africa, deplored the futile 
faith artificial education and plead for a re-defi- 
nition of education which would be based-on an 
appreciation of truly social values. He pointed out 
that th: Occident must reform its educational leader- 
ship. . “Sixteen per cent of the worlds’ population 
is detemining the methods and objectives of educa- 
tion fer the remaining 84 per cent,” he told us. A 
tremetdous challenge and a tremendous responsi- 
bilicy., Are we ready for it? 


But this is our job. Meeting folks and knowing 

- 
them § a very happy experience. Meeting folks when 
one’s hosts provide for magnificent trips to nature’s 
wondé land, and for luncheons, dinners, garden 
parties, concerts, and pageants, which in themselves 
are a gorious vivid feast of color and music, as did 


the Cmadian teachers in co-operation with the very ~ 


hospitdle Toronto government, made for us a happy 
week. We thank our hosts because from this oc- 
casion we have enlarged our vision and enhanced 
our evr earnest desire to work, and work hard, for 
the full realization of these glorious ideals for which 
the World Federation of Education Associations was 
founda. 


A. F. OF T. REPRESENTATIVES AT THE 
W. F. E. A.. TORONTO, CANADA, 
AUGUST 7-13,. 1927 

Selma Munter Borchardt is the vice president of 
the American Federation of Teachers and its legis 
lative representative. She is also chairman of the 
Legislative Committee of the Washington Branch 
of the Women’s. Trade Union League. Born in 
Washington, D. C., and educated in its public 
schools, she took her A. B. and B. S. at Syracuse Uni- 
versity, and her post graduate work at Johns Hop- 
kins and the University of Chicago. After teaching 
and supervising in the rural schools of Maryland, she 
joined Local 8 of the A. F. of T. For two years 
(1922-1924) she was delegate from the Women’s 
Trade Union League to the Washington Central 
Labor Union, and a member of the legislative com- 
mittee. She has served as representative of the A. 
F. of T. on the Women’s Joint Congressional Com- 
mittee and the National Council for the Preven- 
tion of War. She is a contributor to the Washington 
Trade Unionist. 


Laura Puffer Morgan, a charter member of the 
Washington Educational Union, Associate Secretary 
of the National Council for Prevention of War, 
spent the summers of 1924 and 1925 in Europe, 
studying social and political conditions affecting in- 
ternational relations and the European peace move- 
ments. She visited England, France, Norway, Ger- 
many (including the‘occupied areas of the Ruhr and 
the Rhineland), Czecho-Slovakia, Austria, Switzer- 
land and Holland, where she had personal interviews, 
not only with the leaders in the peace movements, 
but with statesmen and diplomats, such as President 


Masaryk of Czecho-Slovakia, and his daughter; cabi- | 


net officers, various members of Parlizment and the 
Reichstag; leading industrialists and workers’ repre- 
sentatives. In England she had the unusual experi- 
ence of speaking on the peace movement before 4 
specially invited gathering in the House of Parlia- 
ment. 

She attended the Biennial Conference of the Inter- 
national Federation of University Women in Christi- 
ana, the World Federation of Education Associations 
in Edinburgh, and a number of other international 
conferences in England, France, Germany and Swit- 
zerland. In the summer of 1925, after making 2 
study of the League of Nations through the Institute 
of International Relations at Geneva, Mrs. Morgaf 





‘THE AMERICAN TEACHER } ae 


ws present at three sessions of the Assembly of 
League and a session of the Council. 
During the past summer, she attended the Wil- 


liamstown Institute of Politics, being a member of * 


the roundtable on limitation of armaments. 

Mrs. Morgan’s work for world peace follows 
several years of active work with war-time 
organizations. She arranged the first Women’s Lib- 
erty Loan Conference in Washington. As a member 
of the War Service Committee of the Association of 
Collegiate Alumnae, she established a national home 
for College Women in government service. 

At the time of the Washington Conference, Mrs. 
Morgan organized under the auspices of the National 
Council, a series of international forums designed 
to acquaint the public with the problems being dealt 
with by the Conference. Immediately thereafter she 
took up legislative work for the Council. 

Mrs. Morgan’s interest in peace is largely con- 
cerned with education. She has been a teacher in 
both public and private’ schools and was later adjunct 
professor of mathematics in the University of -Ne- 
braska. She has recently completed a term as mem- 
ber of the Board of Education of the District of 
Columbia. 

As one of the legislative representatives of the 
American Association of University Women, Mrs. 
Morgan has served on the Women’s Joint Congres- 
sional Committee since its organization, an experi- 
ence which has fitted her well for legislative work 
in connection with the peace movement. For two 
years she was chairman of the Women’s World 
Court Committee, composed of representatives of 17 
national women’s organizations, which conducted an 
active campaign in Washington for the adherence 
of the United States to the World Court. In Octo- 
ber, 1925, she made a tour of colleges and universities 
in Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado in co-operation 
with the World Court campaign of the Council of 


Christian Associations. 


Jennie A. Wilcox was one of the organizers and the 
second president of the Federation’ ef Women High 
School Teachers (Local 3), Chicago. As a teacher 
of history, her life has been devoted to the study of 
Constitutional government and the championship of 
human rights. For more than thirty years she has, 
through her popularity and recognized scholarship, 
literally moulded characters innumerable. 

“One of the most loyal and generous friends and 
sage advisers the American Federation of Teachers 


has had the good fortune to have,” wrote Mr. Stecker 
in one of the A. F. T. Bulletins; and added (she) “has 
attended nearly all the conventions and has been a 
member of the Executive Council for several years, 
until she found it necessary to resign.” And this 
active interest has always had in it the quality of 
parenthood, for she was one of the organizers of the 
National Federation. In the beginning she helped 
determine its policies, as she had the policies of her 
own local. And never has the impulsive or snap 
judgment of others swayed her thoughtful balance. 

Some of the reforms for which she has stood 
in tthe Women’s Federation are fair salaries, the sab- 


. batical year, better teaching conditions, limiting 


the size of high schools to 2,000 pupils, and teacher 
participation in determining educational_ policies 
through ¢lective school councils as part of the school 
administration. She has given active aid to work- 
ers’ education, and has fought for academic freedom. 
The Women’s Trade Union League counts upon her 
co-operation. Last year she retired from teaching. 


Dr. Sarah A. Wallace, of Washington, D. C., al- 
ternate from the A. F. of T. to the World Federa- 
tion meeting at Toronto, has-been active for years in 
women’s activities and in the labor movement. ‘She 
has been a member of the committe on education of 
the local Women’s Trade Union League, a member 
of the Board of Directors of the local Trade Union 
College, a delegate to the Central Labor Union, and, 
for some time, a member of its Committee on Edu- 
cation. She is, moreover, active in the Women’s 
City Club, and in social and philanthropit work. 

In addition to her teaching, she has been faculty 
adviser for the school’s publication and has inspired 
the editors to produce a paper of real value. A bril- 
liant scholar, her work for a doctor’s degree won 
high commendation. 


Florence Curtis Hanson came suddenly into prom- 
inence in Chicago Local No. 3 when, by a sweeping 
campaign for members, she raised her own school 
from a place of insignificance in the Women’s Fed- 
eration to one of the foremost in point of numbers 
and ability. It followed as a matter of course that 
one responsibility after another was laid upon her. 
She showed a winning personality, a level head, and a 
remarkable capacity for work. -Shortly she was made 
president of her federation as well as of the Chicago 
High School Teachers’ Council. She became prom- 

(Continued on Page 29) 





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20 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The American Teacher 


Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 
Published Monthly, except July and August 
Official Organ 
THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 





_ Office of Publication, Leader Building, Oklahoma City, Okla. 


Editorial Office: 
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Nothing is needed but collective effort—Our pov- 
erty, our restraints, our infections and indigestions, 
our quarrels and misunderstandings, are all things 
controllable and removable by concerted human ac- 
tion.—H. G. WELLS. 














SEEING OURSELVES 

We are over half way through our twelfth year 
as the American Federation of Teachers. This is not 
a long time, but long enough for us to have thought 
out the value of our experience. 

We like to think that we are a part of the labor 
movement. But to some of us this idea once seemed 
to oscillate about the fancy that joining with labor 
meant coming into contact with greasy overalls. And 
then we turned clammy! But possibly the era of silk 
shirts for workingmen has seemed to counteract the 
clammy thought, and we have been saved. And yet, 
there was something very much in the economic or- 
der that brought us into the labor movement. 

In spite of our petty, scholastic snobberies, we 
went in with the thought that we would immediately 
better our lot. In the beginning there were few who 
joined for any other reason. If the result of join- 
ing the American Federation. of Teachers had been 
an immediate increase in salary for every person 
joining, it is conceivable that our membership would 
now be 500,000, or some such number. As a matter 
of fact, very. little happened at once in the increase 
of salary movement that could be ascribed to mem- 


bership in the national organization. is 5: vests, 


membership dropped rapidly by the withdrawal of 
the “disillusioned” brethren. 

Ie was just as well, for now we who have gon 
through the experience of the past twelve years real- 
ize a number of things that no one could have pre 
dicted beforehand. We are aware of the fact that 
by joining the labor movement and placing ourselves 
in its intellectual environment, we gradually took 
on the manner, the spirit, and the real attributes of 
professional self-respect. We found ourselves mak- 
ing what in our former miserable attitude of mind 
would have been ridiculous demands. a 


The old-timers among us will remember how in 
the National Convention of 1919, we enthusiastically 
seized upon the suggestion of an Atlanta delegate 
that we demand a $2,000 minimum wage, on the 
theory that public school children are worth the 
care of at least $2,000 teachers. We New Yorkers 
came home and soon thereafter were deep in the 
local campaign for salary increases of 1919-20. In 
one of the meetings Local 5’s representative sprung 
the $2,000 surprise. Most of our fellow teachers in 
the company unions who were not dazed were 
amused. ‘Who ever heard of such a thing?” they 
chortled. But our disturbing representative kept on. 
As the campaign came upon rough going, the other 
leaders began to attack our man for making the 
teachers appear like grafters. The point of view of 
these company union leaders was that, since the then 
minimum for elementary teachers was $900 a yeat, 
$1,200 was quite engugh. We were adamant, and in 
spite of themselves the elementary teachers weft 
granted $1,500 as a minimum and the high school 
teachers $1,900. 

Without knowing it, the New York teachers have 
taken to heart the lesson we gave them. Three years 
ago we were instrumental in starting the Joint Sal- 
ary Committee, a body made up of representatives 
of all classes of teachers and supervisors in the entirt 
school system. The very tactics of this group, and 
the careful, thorough, nay, militant, program of this 
Committee came to be pretty nearly what Local 
5 made them. The Committee has fought its way 
through three sessions of the State Legislature. Al 
though it has met defeat each time either from ut 
favorable vote by the Legislature or by veto of the 
Governor, yet it has stirred the understanding of the 
whole state. Finally, the Dick-Rice bill was passed 
at the last session of the Legislature, and $14,000, 





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000 were made available fot the increase of salaries 
for New York City teachers. The city perennially 
3tubborn and willful in matters of dealing fairly 
with its teachers is now in the final throes of doing 
the inevitable in adopting a schedule of teachers sal- 
aries which go into effect January 1, 1928. 

Incidental to the recent three-year campaign, we 
have ceased to stress the raising of the minimum, and 
have adopted the policy of raising the maximum. In 
the long run, that is what counts. Those who were 
dazed by $2,000 in 1920 would have passed out on 
hearing of the bird (to be) in the hand of $4,650.00, 
the suer-maximum available to New York City 
high school teachers in January. Yet this increase 
does not measure the loss in the purchasing power 
of the dollar due to post-war depreciation. This very 
statement is menacing to the attitude of mind that 
demands rest. But we are not satisfied yet; we may 
come back. 

There was a time when the opponents of union- 
ism among teachers talked impressively about “pro- 
fessional dignity,” and the like. President Gompers 
touched on this feeling at one of our meetings 
(1915) preliminary to unionizing, in answer to a 
teacher who asked if he didn’t really think it was 
undignified for a teacher to join a union. He replied 
that he thought it was, if dignity was tied up with 
the notion of being satisfied with one’s lot. 

We didn’t make good in 1918 and 1919, when 
our membership was large, in delivering the goods as 
many expected we would. But we have developed the 
driving, confident spirit that seems to be the social 
by-product of being a part of the labor_ movement. 
Trade unions from the beginning, through their ef- 
forts to aid their own members, have actually set up 
standards of far-reaching social importance. So have 
we. The teachers of the company unions, as well as 
those who stand for nothing at all, have benefited 
by our efforts, and we do not begrudge them their 
good fortune. For it is thus that we all progress 
socially. 

The only question is on the score of professional 
dignity. Do we want to be the pow that moves the 
wave, or the chips that are carried along on the 


surface? 





Education is the eternal and divinely significant 
Process of superior adjustment to and control of the 
intellectual, emotional, and volitionalenvironment by 


| Physically and mentally developed free conscious 


human beings.—Herman Harrell Horne. 


TEACHERS’ UNIONS—WHY? 

The American Federation of Teachers is the na~ 
tional profession#t organization of classroom teachers 
chartered by and affiliated with the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. I say an organization of class- 
room teachers: One of the chief oppositions that the 
American Federation of Teachers has met with: has 
been because it is anyorganization of classroom teach- 
ers. This opposition has been among old line educa- 
tors who fear any innovation originating with the 
teachers themselves, rather than with administrative 
officials. Teachers’ organizations have proved futile, 
both in cultivating solidarity within the profession 
and in obtaining for the rank and file, more satis- 
factory conditions of work and a better economic 
status. It seems clear that the forms of association 
likely to succeed are the fighting units which assert 
themselves and which are able to develop leadership 
among the teachers of the “line” rather than among 
the administrative officers set over teachers by ex- 
traneous authority. The American Federation of 
Teachers is better able to develop in the teaching 
group as a whole, the qualities needed for resistance 
to repression in the freedom of teaching than is any 
other organization now in the field, because it has 
originated among the classroom teachers and because 
it recognizes the distinction between “the staff and 
the line.” 

The usual type of school organization is autocratic, 
all authority originating at the top and extending 
down through the upper reaches of the hierarchy, 
the classroom teachers through whom any school 
functions having a negligible voice. Such a hierarch- 
ial system is destructive of freedom, honesty of 
thought, spirituality. We stand therefore, for the 
voice of the teacher. Qur preamble says: 


“We believe that servility breeds servilicry, and that if the 
schools are to produce free, unafraid men and women, American 
citizens of the highest type, the teachers must live and work in 
an atmosphere of freedom and self-respect.” 


The real and fundamental reason for opposition to 
teachers’ unions is none of those usually given; any 
opposition is only incidental to the real one which 
is the recognition of the certain power and strength 
and influence that comes to the teacher through 
union. If teachers form a social club, a bridge club, 
a dancing club, even a study club if the subjects of 
study are determined for them, will there be oppo- ~ 
sition? Teachers are frequently encouraged to or- 
ganize into local groups but discouraged from form- 
ing unions. The reason is so clear that I hesitate to 



































22 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


mention it. One is futile and dominated by admin- 
istrators; the other is strong and free. Unionization 
will give the teacher a power and recognition in 
school policies which he never had before. Why is 
it that the non-teaching bodies recognize this and 
the teachers themselves do not? Why did the Amer- 
ican. Legion concern itself so actively with the 
resolution of the American Federation of Teachers 
against military domination of education and say 
nothing about a similar one of the N. E. A.? They 
know we will put it over. The fact is that union- 
ization makes the teacher™a real power. It is the 
only organization that stands for the voice of the 
teacher and that makes it possible for the voice of 
the teacher to be heard in educational policies, 


And therefore we have an opposition to the Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers in something of which 
we think we have most reason to be proud—our 
labor affiliation which is the outgrowth of our vision, 
our social consciousness, the spirit of social idealism 
which has been the driving force in our movement 
from the beginning. Where shall we turn to find 
a constructive social force to which our spirits re- 
spond? What organized body of citizenry is on record 


for the highest social and educational ideals? There 


is but one answer, organized labor. 


Our labor affiliation is sometimes misunderstood 
by those who have a distorted conception of the 
labor movement, who are ignorant of organized la- 
bor’s splendid record in the development of our 
public schools, and who do not realize how com- 
pletely the American Federation of Labor is built 
upon the principal of autonomy of the constituent 
organizations. The American Federation of Teach- 
ers conducts its affairs democratically through annual 
delegate conventions, absolutely without dictation or 


interference of any kind. 


Do you remember what John Dewey said? 


“Why is it that teachers who have not had to live by the 
labor of their hands nor suffered the privations and difficulties 
of many of the members of the trade unions, have found it nec- 
essary in the time of need and extremity to turn for active sup- 
port, not to manufacturers’ associations and bankers’ associa- 
tions and lawyers’ associations, and the so-called respectable ele- 
ments of the community, but have had to turn to these bodies 
of organized labor? I think that is cause for shame and humil- 
iation on the part of the so-called respectable classes; but I 
think on the other hand it is a source of pride and self-respect 
for the members of these labor unions and is a reason why every 
teacher should feel proud to be affiliated with labor unions.” 





Minorities lead the world, and the world knows 
them not until long afterward.—John Burroughs. 


TEACHERS ENJOY ABOUT AS MUCH FREE 
DOM. AS GOLDFISH AND CANARY BIRDS © 
(Adam Coaldigger, in Springfield, Il., Miner.) 
Another class of workers badly in need of organi- 

zation is school teachers. And by organization | 

do not mean mambede bambede burial or mutu: 
admiration societies, but militant labor unions com- 
manding fear and respect. The teachers are supposed 
to educate the future citizens in the ways of freedom 
and democracy, but as far as they themselves are 

concerned, they enjoy about as much freedom a 

goldfish and canary birds. 

In proof thereof I submit the following case: The 
other day the 22-year-old principal of schools. of the 
benighted burg .of New City, New York, was 
bounced by a pious school board. During the trial 
it was brought out that the young educator had 
increased the academic efficiency of his school 200 
per cent in one year and that in all respects, save 
one, his conduct was all that it should be. Wel 
then, why bounced? 

+ * : 

Ah, this promising young educator had com- 
mitted the unpardonable sin of walking the streets 
of New City with one of his pretty school marns 
a little too often to suit the busybodies of the com- 
munity. 

From walking on public streets in broad daylight, 
to sitting on a front porch in moonlight, to holding 
hands in a dimly lit parlor, to kissing in the dark, 
it is only a few steps and we all know where thex 
things lead to. Amyway, marriage usually has is 
beginning in walking together, holding hands, kiss 
ing in the dark and similar iniquities. 

oF * 

Our young principal had not yet hit the bottom 
rung on the ladder to perdition. In fact, he was still 
in the first, or walking on the street in broad day- 
light, stage. But, what of it? The good people of 
New City had experience and imagination. 
could figure out where it all would end. In their 
mind’s ear they heard Mendelssohn’s Wedding March 
and in their mind’s eye, they saw, perhaps, even 4 
baby buggy. So Holden was figed in a nice letter is 
which the school directors informed him that while 
he had been an excellent teacher and had committed 
no greater off than walking on the street is 
broad daylight with a pretty school marm, he’d better 
hunt a new pasture to stop the wagging tongues of 
New City, N. Y. 

Now, the point is that if the young Holden had 
been an ice man, bookkeeper, street car conductof, 
hod carrier, steeple climber, paperhanger or button 
hole maker, nobody would have paid the slightest 
attention when he paraded the streets of New Cit) 
with that pretty school teacher. Most normal young 
















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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


people walk with members of the opposite sex on 
occasions. Some even hold hands, sit on front porches 
and kiss in the dark, as preliminaries to the main bout 
which happens to be the perpetuation of the race, 
But school teachers must not do these evil things. 
Only celibates, total abstainers from the joys of life 
and slaves can bring up our children in the ways of 
righteousness, freedom and democracy. 

So, I say, what the school teachers of the land of 
the free need above everything else, is a rip-snorting 
labor union to protect their right to life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness. Without such a union, they 
are but abject slaves of the community and I can 
think of nothing sadder than slaves as teachers of a 


supposedly free people. 





7,000 SCHOOL CHILDREN KILLED IN HIGH- 
WAY ACCIDENTS; TEACHERS ASKED 
TO COMBAT TOLL. 


School teachers of the United States have been 
urgently requested to co-operate in a national cam- 
paign designed to reduce the number of child lives 
lost on the street-and highway each year. The an- 
nual number of casualties involving school children 
now reaches the alarming total of 250,000, with the 
annual fatalities surpassing 7,000. 


The principal causes of accidents to children are 
playing in the streets and crossing intersections in 
violation of traffic regulations. School teachers are 
asked to deliver a series of short talks on highway 
safety, explaining the necessity for the observance of 
traffic regulations and warning the child against 
playing in the streets. The school teacher must 
shoulder a large part of the responsibility for the 
safety education of children. Teachers may render « 
real service through the devotion of an hour or more 
each week to lessons in safety, and by tactfully se- 
curing the interest of the pupils in the problem of 
highway safety. 

Safety education of the child should have three 
distinct objectives: First, the discouragement of 
Playing in the public street; second, the discourage- 
ment of crossing at intersections when traffic is mov- 
ing in the opposite direction; and third, the instilla- 
tion of an habitual courtesy and caution and the 
creation of a desire among the children to safeguard 
each other. 

Care must be taken in making talks to the chil- 
dren not to present dangers of the street in a man- 
ner that will arouse the natural bravado that per- 
vades every young spirit. Talks should stress the 
importance of the hazards and the honor accruing to 
those who refrain from creating them. Particular 
cases of “negligence should~be noted and the assist= 
ance of parents requested where it is warranted. 


It should be remembered that every accident, how- 
ever serious or trivial, brings sorrow and unhappi- 
ness to one or more of our American homes. In the 
five years ending 1927 more than 4,000,000 homes 
have suffered as a result of careless and discourteous 
conduct on the public thoroughfare. By the prac- 
tice of courtesy and caution; construction of wider 
streets and highways; removal of grade crossings; 
and by the enforcement and observance of traffic 
regulations, the safety problem may be reduced in 
importance. 

Starting October first, every school teacher -is 
urged to devote at least one hour each week to the 
safety education of the pupils. The first effort should 
be to each to sign the safety pledge issued by 
the American Road Builders’ Association, in return 
for which the child will receive a membership card 
in the Highway Safety Club. This card will serve 
as a constant reminder to the bearer and will be fur- 
nished by the Association without cost to each 
signer of the pledge. A copy of ‘the pledge printed 
on this page may be pasted on a sheet of paper and 
each child permitted to sign beneath after a careful 
reading. Its meaning should be explained by the 
teacher. 

CHILDREN’S PLEDGE 

“Wishing to do my part in removing from every 
home the suffering, sorrow and unhappiness caused 
by street and highway accidents, I promise that I 
will practice courtesy and caution whenever on the 
streets or highways; that I will not play in the 
streets; dnd that I will not cross the street without 
first looking in both directions. I will urge other 
boys and girls to become a member of the Highway 


(Sign and return to American Road Builders’ As- 
sociation, Washington, D. C: A Highway Safety 
Club membership will be mailed free.) * 





Our day’s work is in the main directed to the im- 
mediate aspects and demands of the struggle, but 
we cannot act wisely nor fully understand the mean- 
ing of the hour in which we live, unless we keep in 
mind the underlying cause for these conditions and 
the fundamental principles of justice. ~Today, as 
yesterday, “where there is no vision the people per- 
ish,” and today, as yesterday, the spirit must be born 
to see the Vision, to hold it, to live and die for it.— 
MarcaRET DrererR ROBINS. 








BOOKS 


In the highest civilization the book is still 
the highest delight —EMERSON. 





PUBLIC OPINION AND THE TEACHING OF 
HISTORY IN THE UNITED STATES, By Bessie 
Louise Pierce. New York, Alfred Knopf, 1926. 

The public has seen so much discussion of his- 
' tory textbooks and historians in the daily press that 
the public’s mind is nothing short of “scrambled.” 
Such a book as Professor Pierce’s ought to be as wel- 
come to the average citizen as it has been to the 
teacher of history, for it is objective, fair, and au- 
thoritative. If the public is seeking only one sided 
accounts of historical personages, events, and move- 
ments, then this book is not for them; but if the 
* public has any desire for the truth of history, as 
one desires the facts about a business investment 
or about one’s health, to such this book will give 
reliable and amazing information. 

Part I discusses the statutory regulation of the 
teaching of history—regulations beginning in the 
United States about one hundred years ago— 
although regulations for teaching date to colo- 
nial times—and continuing until the present when 
great stimulus has been given by public controver- 
sies over the teaching both of science and of his- 
tory. During the World War there were many 
charges of disloyalty against teachers, charges con- 
tinuing in some places at present. 

Part II discusses the activities of propagandist 
agencies. This section of the book will not surprise 
teachers, who have known of these activities, but it 
will amaze the man who has not had an immediate 
contact with the educational system. Such a man 
might well read in connection with this part Norman 
Hapgood’s Professional Patriots and J. F. Scott’s 
Menace of Nationalism in Education for one sort of 
propaganda. All sorts of groups have tried to regu- 
late the writers of history text books and the teach- 
ers of history. There are controversies over wars— 
for the guns are still roaring at Bunker Hill, the 
Civil War was not closed at Appomattox, and the 
World War was not stopped by the Armistice; 
religious disputes still rage with the bitterness of 
the sickening fights of the seventeenth century; our 
national groups cry out whem one of their heroes is 
omitted in a book for, forgetting that we are 
Americans, they are trying to boost, each, his own 


HE AMERICAN TEACHER 


nationalistic virtues; and there are quarrels over eco. 
nomic problems as bitter as the other disputes, fer 
some men are consciously fighting for the contra 
of social wealth and some vaguely hear the rum 
bles of the battle and ful! of fear are being drawn 
into the fray. In all the differences each group 
wishes its own interpretation of history taught in 
the schools. One wonders where the American will 
emerge from this confusion. ““O Mouse,” cried Alice, 
“do you know the way out of this pool?” The 
logical conclusion of all this censoring by all sorts 
of groups is that might alone makes right. Thea 
what becomes of our ideals of tolerance, freedom 
of discussion, love for our neighbors? “How Gin 
you possibly know anything about yourself if you 
won’t hear a word about yourself unless it’s praise,” 
asks a character in a recent novel. : 

Professor Pierce’s book is not partisan. Facts and 
authorities are there for all to read. Public Opinion 
is an admirable, courageous piece of investigation 
and of writing. 

Lucie H. ScHacnrt, 
Chicago Normal College, 





MAKERS OF FREEDOM, by Kirby Page and 
Sherwood Eddy. George H. Doran Company, New 
York, 1926. 311 pp. $1.50. | 

Would you like ta sit down for two evenings and 
enjoy the companionship of eight great men ani 
women who have eternally benefited humanity by 
winning freedom for their fellow men at some chal- 
lenging crisis in history? . 

In this well-written book of 300 odd pages th 
two most influential liberal leaders of the young 
men and women of America have set down the it- 
spiring story of William Lloyd Garrison’s struggle 
against slavery; Booker T. Washington’s heroic e- 
forts to liberate his race from ignorance and poverty; 
Francis of Assisi’s sacrifice to free the world from 
materialism; Martin Luther’s fight for freedom from 
ecclesiastical bondage; John Wesley’s remarkable vic- 
tory for freedom from the moral and spiritual inser 
sibility of his day; Keir Hardie’s fight for freedom 
from social injustice; Susan B. Anthony’s half ceo 
tury’s contest for freedom from man’s dominatios, 
and Woodrow Wilson’s appeal for freedom from it 
ternational anarchy. 

The outstanding fact in the lives of all of thet 
Makers of Freedom is the tremendous sacrifices they 
made to overcome the ignorance, indifference and 
opposition of the so-called wise and respectable ad 
politically powerful people of their day. When Gat 
rison launched his fight against slavery, the clergy 






















































- 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 25 


men of both the North and South. were arrayed 
against him and “statesmen” of both sections de- 
nounced him as henatic and criminal. Booker T. 
Washington had to remove a mountain of prejudice 
before he finally won the good will and respect of 
the white leaders of the South. Francis of Assisi, 
Luther and Wesley all found the ecclesiastical au- 
thorities of their day arrayed against them until by 
a courageous appeal directly to the hearts of the 
people they started moral and spiritual revolutions 
which won greater freedom for their fellow men. 
How incredible it seems that Susan B. Anthony 
should have been stoned and booted and reviled less 
than fifty years ago for ‘demanding such a conserva- 
tive reform as woman’s suffrage, now taken for grant- 


ed in every civilized land. 


The story of these Makers of Freedom shows how 
truly the progress of the race is bought by the suf- 
fering and sacrifices of a few consecrated leaders— 
how the rebels of today become the saints of tomor- 
row, even as La Follette, maligned as a living pro- 
phet of political righteousness, was eulogized as a 
| matchless patriot only a year after his death. 


On the whole these biographical sketches are ex- 
ceptionally well done, even though the dynamic per- 
sonalities of these freedom-seeking leaders of the peo- 
ple are somewhat restricted by the authors to con- 
form to six arbitrary divisions for each career. This 
limitation is especially blighting to the story of Keir 
Hardie, the great-hearted Scotch miner who founded 
the British Labor Party and focussed the attention of 
the Empire on industrial wrongs. We miss in this 
biography the glowing fire of deep moral earnestness, 
the prophetic wrath against social injustice, and the 
consuming love for his fellow men, that made Keir 
Hardie the greatest British labor leader of the last 


generation. 


With the conclusion of the ‘authors regarding 
Woodrow Wilson we cannot entirely agree. The 
tragedy of his career—the colossal’ failure at the 
Paris peace conference in the face of unprecedented 
opportunity to make a new and better world—cut 
him just short of the personal greatness and immor- 
tality that his ideals deserved. Certainly never with- 
in the history of living men~were the peoples of the 
world aflame with such lofty longings for abiding 
world peace—and never were they so grievously dis- 
appointed. 


Makers of Freedom concludes with a brilliant 
chapter on the present struggle for social, economic 
and political freedom and the dangers that make this 
struggle both difficult and heroic. The book ends 
on a high note with constructive suggestions for in- 
dividual action, and contains in an appendix a biblio- 


graphy of the most challenging recent books pointing 
the pathway to freedom and justice. Makers of 
Freedom bears an invaluable message for the young 
people in your home whose ideals of life are now 
being formed, and should be equally inspiring for all 
of you whose minds are still young...The Locomo- 
tive Engineers’ Journal. 


ADULT EDUCATION VERSUS WORKERS’ 
EDUCATION 

A 95-page pamphlet, “Adult Education versus 
Workers’ Education,” has just been issued, contain- 
ing the proceedings of the 1927 conference of teach- 
ers in workers’ education held at Brookwood in Feb- 
ruary. It includes discussion of the meaning of 
adult education by Nathaniel Peffer and of workers’ 
education by Arthur W. Calhoun, a survey of the 
educational situation in Great Britain, France, Ger- 
many and other European countries; a paper on “Can 
Adults Be Educated,” by Harrison Harley with dis- 
cussion by A. J. Muste, Israel Mufson, John P. Trox- 
ell and others; a description of the educational work 
of the Y. W. C. A. and Bryn Mawr summer school 
for women in industry; and a discussion of educa- 
tion versus propaganda by A. Lefkowitz, J. H. Ran- 
dall, Tom Tippett and Algernon Lee. 

The pamphlet, issued by Brookwood Local 189, 
American Federation of Teachers, may be obtained 
for 50 cents. 

This is the fourth in the series of conference pro- 
ceedings. Others are “Promotion and Maintenance 
of Workers’ Education” (1926), “Mass Education 
for Workers” (1927), and “Psychology and Teach- 
ing Methods” (1924). The three togethér are priced 
at $1.00. : 





EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES, NURSERY- 
KINDERGARTEN- PRIMARY ~ 


Published by the International Kindergarten Un- 
ion. Price 50c a copy, in lots of 25 or more, 35c. 

The pamphlet lists all approved furniture, con- 
structive materials, toys, pictures and books for 
nursery school, kindergarten and primary grades; 
also the names and addresses of publishers, manufac- 
turers, and distributors and the prices of most of 
the articles. 

Suggested equipment for a nursery school of twen- 
ty children is outlined, also for 2 kindergarten of 
thirty-six children and a primary grade of the same 
size. 

This publication is the result of two years study 
and research by the committee on equipment and 
supplies. 





26 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


A. F. T. RESOLUTIONS AT A. F. L. CONVEN- 
TION 
The following resolutions were submitted d by the 
American Federation of Teachers at the Los Angeles 
Convention of the American Federation of Labor. 


I. “Whereas, There have been adopted in many 
localities measures which seek to prevent the teaching 
of factative data and the examination of theories in 
the natural .social sciences in our public schools and 
colleges, and 

“Whereas, Such restricted measures are a serious 
menace to our American traditions and our Ameri- 
can constitutional principles, for they deny the right 
of freedom of thought and freedom of speech; and 

*“Whereas, There is in these restrictions on academic 
freedom also a serious menace to the basic democratic 
principles upon which our government is founded, 
for such restrictions imply the right of those tem- 
porarily in control of the machinery of state to de- 
termine the social, political and religious views, not 
only of the community as then constituted, but also, 
the right to prevent future citizens from forming 
their own views on these subjects; and 


““Whereas, Such academic restrictions are funda- 
mentally unpatriotic in principle, unsocial in-prac- 
tice and unsound in educational theory; therefore, 
be it 

Resolved, That the American Federation of Shien. 
in convention assembled, does oppose in principle the 
enactment of any legislation or regulation which 
would seek to prevent the teaching of true facts and 
the examination of theories in the natural and social 
sciences in our public schools and colleges; and, be 
it further 

Resolved, That it does pledge its -active support 
to fight such un-American attacks upon our schools. 

Referred to Executive Council. 

II. “Whereas, The great flood disaster has left 
many of our people homeless and in dire need; and 

“Whereas, Immediate relief may minister to the 
. physical needs of these stricken people; and 

“Whereas, The general help which we feel the 
federal government should and will give to these 
poor people, may be delayed; and 

“Whereas, The schools and school children have 
suffered tremendously by this disaster; therefore, be it 

“Resolved, That the American Federation of La- 
bor, in convention assembled, pledge itself actively 
to work to secure general federal aid from congress 
for the sufferers in our devastated areas; and, be it 
further 

“Resolved, That we work immediately to secure 
federal aid in building up the schools, and in secur- 
ing the amaen re-establishment of the public school 


system in these areas to the end that permanent harm 
may not be done to the citizens of tomorrow a 
well as those of today. Concurced. 

Ill. ‘Whereas, The American Federation of Labor 
has always stood for democracy in education and 
vigorously opposed the carrying on, in our public 
schools, of propaganda to advance the special inter. 
ests of a few; and 

““Whereas, There has been established in North- 
western University in Chicago, under the direction 
of Prof. Richard T. Ely, an ‘Institute for Research 
in Land Economics and Public Utilities’-—which In- 
stitute, though financed by the National Association 
of Real Estate Boards, railroads, public utilities and 
other private corporations, declares itself to be impar- 
tial and disinterested in its activities; and 

““Whereas, The American Federation of Teachers, 
after a full and careful investigation finds that this 
institute is hostile to the best interests, not merely 
of the wage-worker but of the farmer—that it is 
carrying on in our educational institutions, under the 
cloak of disinterested research, propaganda against 
the further taxation of land values and other natural 
resources speculatively held—measures which the A. 
F, of L. has long favored—and propaganda in FA- | 
VOR of the further taxation of sales of goods and 
articles for consumption—measures which the A. F. 
of L. has long opposed; and 

““Whereas, The American Federation of Teachers 
has further found that this institute, having started 
out with fixed and preconceived conclusions detri- 
mental to the working classes and advantageous 
the corporations supporting it, is misusing -the con- 
ception of research and masquerading under fale 
colors; therefore, be it 

‘Resolved, That the American Federation of Labor 
in Annual Convention- assembled in Los Angeles, 
Calif., October 3 to 15, 1927, join with the Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers in condemning the Ely 
Institute for Research in Land Economics and Public 
Utilities as unworthy of the confidence and trust of 
the American people; and, be it further 

“Resolved, That all local. and affiliated bodies of 
the American Federation of Labor put forth every 
effort to have all text and reference books prepared 
by the Ely Institute barred from the tax-supported 
schools, colleges and universities of the United 
States.” Non-concurred. 





How can the cultural life, how can the spiritual 
life, be promoted to that higher standard that the 
Creator intended if the body is to be given to ceast 
less toil in the whirl and noise and strain of a mod- 
ern factory?—William Green. 








RSE 








SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT AT THE WORLD 

CONFERENCE 
Perhaps no session of the Conference of the World 
Federation of Education Associations created greater 
interest or caused more comment than that con- 
ducted by the Committee on Social Adjustment, or 
the Relation of the School to the Community. Of this 
committee Miss Selma Borchardt, Legislative Rep- 
resentative of the American Federation of Teachers 
at Washington, was chairman, and’ due to her resi- 
dence in the capital of the United States where con- 
tacts with representatives of all nations could the 
more easily be made, to her, chiefly, fell the import- 
ant task of preparing the program and securing the 
speakers. 

This program, contributed by representatives of a 
dozen different nations, was‘ exceedingly rich and 
varied, and it is deeply to be regretted that this brief 
article can present only a bird’s-eye view, as it were. 

At the opening of the session held Tuesday morn- 
ing, Miss Grace Li of China, after being introduced 
by Miss Borchardt, presided in a very pleasing and 
able manner. 

The subject of the morning was: The Cultural 
Tone of the Communtiy—How Reflected in the 
School and How Interpreted By It, and Senor Motses 
Saenz, Under-Secretary of Education in Mexico, told 
of Mexico’s problem and how she was trying to solve 
it. Her problem, he said, was mainly one of social 
adjustment, due to two causes: first, that two thirds 
of the population were Indians, many of whom had 
inherited a very old culture and civilization which 
could not be overturned and a European culture 
forced upon them without demoralizing, if not dis- 
astrous results; secondly, that the Indians had been 
exploited for centuries and forced to occupy a very 
low economic status in comparison with the white 
descendants of the original c6nquerors. Now many 
of the leaders in the educational moverfient in Mexico 
were trying not to obliterate the existing Indian cul- 
ture, but to use it as a basis for developing, in a 
simple, natural fashion an Indo-Latin culture, so to 
speak. He further asserted that the labor movement, 
which has had a phenominal growth in Mexico, is now 
getting strong enough to stabilize the country, i. ¢. 
avoid strikes and other disturbances’ which would 
hinder or destroy this forward movement in 
education. 

To illustrate, he told how artists had investigated 
and discovered the basic principles underlying Indian 
Painting and designing and were using these prin- 





27 





ciples as a foundation upon which to build present 
day art. He brought with him and distributed a num- 
ber of books containing the results of efforts made’ 
both by children and by adults, conducted by teach- 
ers, often in mere sheds or in the open air in the rural 
districts or little villages of Mexico. This method, 
Senor Saenz declared, is being applied to literary cul- 
ture as well as to art. 

Mr. Rajaram Gogate, chairman of the committee 
on Education of the Hindustan Association of Amer- 
ica, in his address pointed out the striking difference 
between the concept of the family in the orient and 
that in the west. In the east the chief support of 
civilization is considered to be the family, while in 
the west it is the individual that occupies that po- 
sition. The family prepares the boy or girl for 
further responsibilities in the community or state, 
while in the west a strong individualism prevails. 
The attempt, therefore, of the east to substitute a 
western civilization often ends in failure. The west 
can aid the east but the east should evolve its own 
methods of co-ordinating the home, school and in- 
dustry and not permit industry to undermine the 
family as it has done in the west, nor allow its meth- 
ods of education to develop a selfish individualism. _ 

Mrs, Florence Curtis Hanson acted as presiding 
officer at the session on Thursday, devoted to the 
subject: Efforts now being made to effect social ad- 
justment in industry through education. 

The first speaker, Mr. Fred Mander, president of 
the National Union of Teachers of England and 
Wales, reviewed the school system of England and 
gave a brief outline of attempts to educate the 
400,000 children turned out of the elementary schools 
each year. Wide disagreement exists as to the most 
desirable curriculum for the different types and class- 


- es of children, in other words, how best to carry out 


the theory that “education and industry are not two 
separate things, but it takes both to make dp life.” — 

Mr. C. M. Ripley spoke upon, “The Corporation 
School” as it has been developed by the General Elec- 
tric Company of Schenectady, New York, and point- 
ed out its many advantages. 

Mr. Spencer Miller, Jr., Secretary of the Workers’ 
Education Bureau of the U. S., gave a brilliant and 
forceful talk upon the Educational Activities of the 
American Labor movement, strongly emphasizing the 
idea that the worker must be educated for leadership 
in his own class, not as usually happens, out of his 


« class-into a “white collar job.” He must know the 


relation of his own industry to the economic needs 






























28 


of society as a whole; in other words, he must have 
some grasp of the entire industrial system and under- 
stand its methods and get rid of the idea that he 
is a menial and a lower order of being because he 
works with his hands. 


To carry out this new ideal of preparing the work- 
er for his place in the larger social and industrial 
whole, not merely must there be a change in edu- 
cational content, but a new method must be devised 
—a new technic of teaching evolved. 


* As if to supplement Mr. Miller’s address, Mr. Muf- 
son, director of the Philadelphia Labor College, spoke 
upon the conference method in education the next 
morning and the many good results obtained from 
its use in that institution. 


Miss Lucy Carter, who. was scheduled for an ad- 
dress upon the Educational-Industrial Program of the 
Y. W. C. A. was absent, but the subject was well 
handled by Miss Wallace, an able substitute. 


Mr. Paul Hansen, director of the Internatjonal 
College at Elsinore, Denmark, gave a most interest- 
ing sketch of this unique experiment. This new 
college had eighty students the past year coming from 
all parts of the world. Mr. Hansen became very 
popular among the delegates of the conference and 
addressed several sections; The Farmers’ Union of 
Canada has secured him for a lecture tour next sum- 
mer. 


Mr. Frank Hoare of the National Union of Teach- 
ers of England and Wales presided over the third 
and last session which was given over to the con- 
sideration of the question: By what technique or 
method can the school effect a truer, richer and fuller 
interpretation of life. 


Dr. Joseph K. Hart, associate editor of the “Sur- 
vey” and the recently chosen head of the department 
of education of the University of Wisconsin, was 
at his best and literally held his hearers spellbound 
as he dissected our modern educational system and 
laid bare its most serious faults. His address might 
well have been entitled “J’Accuse” instead of “The 
Revolutionary Public School,” so little did he try to 
extenuate the gradual.mechanization of the educa- 
tional process, and so pitiless was his arraignment of 
the standardization of the product. 

He reviewed the evolution of the public school 
from the days when the pupil of seventy-five years 
ago obtained only five per cent of his education in 
the school to the present time when we have sepa- 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


rated the schools from life and fondly believe tha 
they “prepare the pupils for life.” 

“Due to the growth of large cities and the need 
for mass education,” he asserted, “education has be. 
come increasingly mental,” while we are being man. 
ipulated by experts with very little help towards find. 
ing the way to develop in the pupil a complet, 
rounded personality. 

Now the school child reads about the experience; 
of others, but never regards his own experiences 
“real life”—that is to be lived at some time in th 
future when he has finished his education. 

In the days of the pioneer, said Dr. Hart, the child 
shared the experiences of the rest of the family and 
was easily inducted into the life of the community, 
The problem of education today is not necessarily to 
imitate or go back to the past, but to ‘reintegrate 
education, so that we shall not produce so many 
human Aailures—produce so many with “the hunch- 
back mind:” and that must be done by interpreting 
the educational process, not through the mind alone 
but in terms of the child’s total experience in a gen- 
uine community. 

Dr. Otto Tacke of Berlin spoke upon the difficul- 
ties in the way of school reform in Germany. How 
to develop a responsive and responsible school admin- 
istration was the main problem before the German 
people at present. Custom, tradition and the church 
all make progress difficult and very slow; but democ- 
racy in education is making headway and reforms 
worthy of the new Germany are surely coming. 

After Mr. Mufson’s address, Mrs. Plumptre of the 
Toronto Board of Education gave a most interesting 
account of the Traveling School as it has been de 
veloped in the Province of Ontario. The traveling 
school follows either the railroads and wagon roads 
or the waterways, thus reaching the remote dis 
tricts. The railroads fave been of great assistance, 
sometimes providing and aiding in furnishing a caf 
which they haul and leave on some “siding” to which 
the children come for instruction and help in their 
lessons. Work is mapped out for them in which they 
are also assisted through correspondence and books 
from the traveling library. 

After each session there followed some discussion 
and exchange Of ideas. Measured both by the degree 
of interest and enthusiasm manifested and by the 
high quality and brilliancy of the addresses given, the 
work of the committee on social adjustment was 4 


¢ noteworthy success. 


JENNIE A. WILCOX. 











ces as 


many 


BR SERSE BEER 


FRRERR EES SES 


es EAS 


y 


(Continued from Page 19) 

inent in the Federation of Labor. The following year 
she was elected to the only salaried position in the 
A. F. T., the secretary-treasurership, and re-elected. 

Here again she has demonstrated her ability as an 
organizer. A new era of activity has begun among 
the teachers of the country. In colleges, as well as in 
elementary and secondary schools, teachers are wak- 
ing up to the value, the necessity of organizing. 
New locals have been added in New York and Wash- 
ington, D. C. Conservative centers like Cambridge 
and Providence have joined the movement. At 
present Mrs. Hanson is touring the South by invita- 
tion of Nashville, Memphis, Jackson, and Chatta- 
nooga. Next week she goes to California for the 
A. F. of L. convention at Los Angeles, after which 
she will visit old locals at Fresno, San Francisco, 
Tallyo and Portland. Three towns in Wyoming have 
sent her invitations that must be accepted. Southern 
Illinois is asking for her. It would seem that Mr. 
Stecker’s prophecy on introducing her as his suc- 
cessor is being realized in that she is bringing 
into this office “‘new ideas, new viewpoints and fresh 
inspiration.” 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


29 


WHY NOT HAVE PLEASANT DREAMS ON 
UNION SHEETS AND PILLOW CASES? 

Information comes to us from the United Textile 
Workers of America that negotiations have been 
concluded with the Naumkeag Steam_Cotton Mill 
Company, which means that something like three 
thousand wage workers of that concern are under 
a working and wage agreement, which makes the 
Naumkeag Company a strictly union establishment. 
This company is the maker of the famous Pequot 
Sheeting and Pillow Cases, a product of the loom 
which has gained an ever-widening circle of friends 
because of the quality and utilicry of the mentioned 
product. 

The Naumkeag Company has always been friendly 
toward the organization of the textile workers, and 
in entering into an agreement with that concern, 
proved that it means what it has heretofore expressed 
—a real friendship for their workers. Those of our 
readers who are called upon to make purchases of 
bed room furnishings should keep in mind the name 
of the product fabricated by the Naumkeag Com- 
pany. Just write it once with pen or pencil and 
you won’t forget, “Pequot Sheeting and Pillow 
Cases.” Add to your list of slogans—Let’s sleep on 
Pequot. 





Buy Union Stamped Shoes 











COLLIS LOVELY 


We ask all members of organized labor to 
purchase shoes bearing our Union Stamp on 
the sole, inner-sole or lining of the shoe. We 
ask you not to buy any shoes unless you 
actually see this Union Stamp. 


Boot & Shoe Workers’ Union 


Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor 


246 SUMMER STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 


General President u 


























CHARLES L. BAINE 
General Secretary-Treasurer 









THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


INVITING LATIN-AMERICAN 
CO-OPERATION 

“In supervising and conducting the elections of 
1928 in Nicaragua, in order to guarantee that they 
shall be free, the Government of the United States 
‘should share its responsibilities with the other nations 
of Latin-America.” That pertinent suggestion was 
made in the address of Mr. Toribo Tijerino, former 
Consul General and Financial Agent of Nicaragua, 
at the annual conférence of the Fellowship of Re- 
conciliation at Asbury Park, N. J., om September 
10, 1927. 

After recounting what the Nicaraguans had ex- 
perienced at the hands of the Untited States, and 
how the friendship of the Latin-American nations 
for the United States has, in more recent years been 
¢hanging to suspicion and fear, Mr. Tijerino turned 
to the question of the coming elections as an oppor- 
tunity for improving the situation. 

“If it is the desire of the United States,” he: said, 
“to help the people of Nicaragua elect freely a 
Nicaraguan government that will legally and rightly 
represent the Nicaraguan nation, the military 
should not be employed in this connection. 
If the United States means to extend a 
friendly hand to us, let not that hand be 
the mailed fist of the military . . . . Have you no 
other agencies for the advancement of democracy 
in Latin America but bankers and marines?” To 
emphasize the impropriety of putting the elections 
under the charge of the marines, Mr. Tijerino re- 
ferred to the evidence gathered by the Committee 
on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate in 
its investigation of the election of Diaz in 1912. 
He then made the proposal for inviting the co-opera- 
tion of representatives from Latin-American coun- 
tries in conducting the election. 

“Apart from the singular benefit to my country 
there is, as I see it,” he said, “a larger benefit to 
be derived from seizing this opportunity, in that 
it would provide an occasion for the United States 
and the sister nations of the continent to get together 
with the full realization that in this hemisphere the 
great communion of democracy forms something 
stronger than twenty-one isolated countries—forms 
a union of independent and self-governing nations, 
each and all ready upon a basis of equality to assist 
any of their number in time of trouble, 

“Should the United States, determined as it is to 
watch closely and conduct the elections of Nica- 
ragua, realize also that for shat task civilians are 
better fitted than military men, and realize . also 
that this is a great and unequalled opportunity for 
regaining its lost prestige in Latin-America, and 
appoint for that task civilians of the highest stand- 


ing and invite to co-operate with that board the 
Latin-American jurists at the Hague and _ those of 
the Rio Janerio conference for drafting- principles 
of International law, I believe that a great victory 
for good will and for conciliation and fellowship 
would have been won. I am confident also that 
elections conducted under such auspices would be 
as fair as it is humanly possible to have them, and 
that a government would result in Nicaragua truly 
representative of the Nicaraguan people, a govern- 
ment which all the other governments of the conti- 
nent would not hesitate to recognize.” 


The conference of more than 250 people enthus- 
iastically endorsed the suggestion and appointed 4 
committee to give it further publicity, believing that 
it would commend itself to the best spirit of all 
Americans. You are urged to bring it to the at- 
tention of as many people as possible. 





HOME HYGIENE INSTRUCTION PROGRESSES 
OVER NATION 

Each year sees home hygiene instruction by the 
Red Cross increasingly in demand, with new thous- 
ands of women and girls trained in this science. 

One of the outstanding features of this progres 
is the rapidity with which schools over the nation are 
adopting this course as a standard part of the curfi- 
culum, each class that completes the course apparent- 
ly resulting in renewed demand from others desiring 
the same training. 

In the past year 67,000 women and girls received 
this instruction from the Red Cross,though the stu- 
dents were not confined to those in schools. * Classes 
have been organized among industrial and othet 
groups as well as in the school rooms, but the popu- 
larity of the course is explained in part by the an- 
swers which some girl students gave to the question 
as to what they had gained by the course. 

“As a result of my instruction in home hygiene,” 
one girl wrote, “Ihave helped my sister take cart 
of her two children in such a way that she is not 
afraid to trust them to me.” 

Others were equally enthusiastic, and one school 
superintendent wrote that “one of the wisest and 
most progressive things I ever did in school work was 
to give home hygiene a place in the regular school 
program.” 

Home hygiene instruction is one of the services 
stressed by the Red Cross all-year program, though 
it has many other branches of activity. 

These activities are supported by membership due 
in the Red Cross, new members being invited each 
year during the Annual Roll Call, which this yeaf 
is from November 11 to 24 inclusive. a 





PPESAPTR SQ a at 


7-8 & 


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Rats BRERBSE A 


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Afi Fe 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


LOCAL NEWS 

On October 12th the President of Local 5 by 
invitation addressed the Social Problems Club of 
Columbia University on the Work and Program of 
the Teachers Union. 

Students clubs throughout the country now have 
an amazing amount of freedom. Administrators 
themselves are learning to cease interfering. 

Selma M. Borchardt, A. F. T. legislative repre- 
sentative and delegate to the W. F. E. A. at Edin- 
burgh and Toronto, was chosen a member of the 


Executive Board of the World Federation of Educa-. 


tion Associations at Toronto. The committee on 
Social Adjustment, of which Miss Borchardt was 
chairman, was continued as a permanent committee. 
Miss Borchardt is already making plans for the pro- 
gram at the next meeting in Geneva. 

Mrs. Hanson served as secretary of the Education 
Committee of the A. F. L. Convention in Los Ange- 
les, October 3-14. A report of the work of the 
committee will appear in the next number. While 
in the west Mrs. Hanson visited the California and 
Oregon locals and visited Washington and Wyoming 
for organizing work. 

President Mary C. Barker was also in Los Angeles 
as the delegate of the Atlanta Federation of Trades. 
She spoke in Los Angeles. Miss Barker and Mrs. 
Hanson believe that effective work was done at the 
convention and that we shall soon see some satis- 
factory results. ? 





UNIONIZED TEACHERS IN VANGUARD - 

The unionized teachers of the United States again 
demonstrated that they.are the vanguard of the pro- 
fession by their convention pronouncements in Chi- 
cago the past week.. The American Federation’ of 
Teachers, though enrolling less than 1 per cent of 
the country’s 800,000 or more teachers, has through 
its locals in the bigger cities and its members at 


large enlisted an imposing array of education workers 
for its progressive program in the field of better 
schooling as well as in the broader field of social 
justice, national and international. The convention 
re-elected Pres. Mary Barker of Atlanta and Secy- 
Treas. Florence Curtis Hanson of Chicago.—Mon- 
tana Labor News. 





PATERSON TEACHERS’ LOCAL No. 92. 

On Wednesday afternoon in the Odd Fellows Hall 
the regular monthly meeting of Local 92 took place 
at which the following officers were elected: Presi- 
dent; A. K; Harris; Vice-President, Otto Durholz; 
Secretary, Peter Maronpot; Treasurer, M. Savage. An 
enthusiastic discussion of several school problems was 
begun. Teachers in and around Local 92 have caught 
the significance of collective bargaining and have 
mapped out a definite program, the developments of 
which will appear in future issues of ““The American 
Teacher.” Reports from locals are not only inter- 
esting, but inspiring. 





FILES OF._THE OLD AMERICAN TEACHER * 

The office of Local 5, New York, is trying to as- 
semble several complete files of the American Teacher 
from the date of the founding in January, 1912, to 
its temporary suspension in 1921. 

We should like to get into touch with anyone 
who has on hand a partial series or duplicate copies 
of any. issue. One complete file will be presented 
to the office of the American Federation of Teachers 
for historical purposes. . 





Move upward, working out the beast, and let the 
ape and tiger die—TENNYSON. 





Nothing is ever done so; badly but that somebody 
is willing to do it worse for less money. 








NOT 


BACK IF 





DEALERS 


send for catalog , 
— Won't 





———s es te hee hts on ed 








Thr Orr SSlUceSe ee SlhlUC AT , 








32 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 














American Federation 


of 


Teachers 


327 S. La Salle Street © 
CHICAGO, ILL. | 
Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor 


Organized April 15, 1916 
jj 


The American Federation of Teachers desires to - 


establish an intimate contact and an effective co-opera- 
tion between the teachers and the other workers of the 
community. 


The American Federation of Teachers desires to 
co-operate with all -civic organizations. for improved 
civic life. 


Groups of seven or more public school teachers are 


invited to affiliate with this National Organization of 
Classroom Teachers, for mutual assistance, improved 
professional standards and the demoeratization of the 
schools. 


Our Slogan Is: 
Democracy in Education: Education for Democracy 


“The American Teacher” is published monthly by the 
American Federation of Teachers. Membership dues 
carry subseription to the magazine. To all others the 
subscription price is $2.00 per year, 25 cents per copy. 

















l 


In