DECEMBER, 1927 VOLUME XII, No. 4 


Democracy in Education ’ Education for Democracy 


The 
1American Teacher 


THE ORGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 











Increasing the Well-Known “Three \R’s’” to Four Proposed 
By Association of Education Committees of England 











Single Copy 25c—Yearly Subscription $2.00 











THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





HAPPINESS 


Happiness, at least, is not solitary; it joys to com- 
municate: it loves others, for it depends on them 
for its existence: it sanctions and encourages all de- 
lights that are not unkind in themselves; if it lived 
to a thousand it would not make excision of a single 
humorous passage: and while the self-improver dwin- 
dles toward the prig, and if he be not of excellent 
constitution, may even grow deformed into an Ober- 
mann, the very name and appearance of a happy 
man breathe of good-nature, and help the rest of 
us to live. 





—ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. 











VOY-CYCYCYCYCY,OF.CY.OY-0F.09.0F9,09.09.09.09-69,, 


CHILD LABOR LAW—1928 

Throughout the country Child Labor Day will be observed 
for the twenty-first year on the last weck-end in January, 
As in former years, this will be the occasion for religious and 
educational organizations, women’s clubs and other interested 
groups to bring to the attention of their members the facts 
that the problem of child labor is not yet solved. 

Child Labor involves more than the mere question of the 
age at which a child should be allowed to go to work. It 
includes the prohibition of all work for children under 14, and 
of dangerous work for children under 16; it includes the 
establishment of an 8-hour day and the prohibition of night 
work for children under 16; and evidence that the child is 
strong enough for work. 

Few states have adequate protection in all these respects. In 
14 states the law carries an exemption which makes it legal for 
children under 14 to work in factories or canneries, at least 
out of school hours; in 11 states children are permitted to 
work 9 to 11 hours a day; in 17 a physician’s certificate is 
not required of a child starting work; in 28 children of 14 
may work around explosives; in 22 they may run elevators; 
in 17 they may oil and clean machinery in motion. 

To make known these facts of child labor and to stir the 
public to demand their correction is the purpose of child labor 
day—January 28 for synagogues, January 29 for churches, 
and January 30 for schools and clubs. 

The National Child Labor Committee, 215 Fourth Avenue, 
New York City, will send free of charge to any interested 
groups an analysis of the law of their state and other material 
to aid in the observance of Child Labor Day. 




















CONTENTS 


Page 
Academic Freedom—Frank Orman Beck_._~ -_--------------------.--------- 3 
Social Value of Home Economics—Lena M. Crum_____-_------- SSRRAIRE TOLER eS 9 
Report of Commitese on Politics. a ee 10 
Report of Committee on Education, A. F. of L. Convention__._________________ 14 
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The American Teacher 


Entered as second class matter Oct. 1, 1927, at the post office at Oklahoma City, Okla., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Sec. 1103, Act of Feb. 28, 1925, authorized Nov. 3, 1926. 








Volume XII, No. 4 


DECEMBER, 1927 


Two Dollars a Year 











I said to your chairman a moment ago that I was 
frightened. I want also to humbly confess to you 
that I really am frightened. You will find it out and 
I might just as well admit it at the start. I have 
been scared ever since I consented to talk to you and 
if I could have honorably kept out of the thing I 
would have but I think there were constraints that 
led me to do it. 

You will pardon me if I say that I am possibly 
more academic than I am free, coming out of a 

‘ university atmosphere, and I hope no one will ques- 
tion my orthodoxy. I have evidences of it here if 
there is any necessity of proving it to anyone, but 
for various reasons I choose rather to approach ‘this 
subject this afternoon from the point of view that 
I will call a distinction without a difference. You 
may feel before I finish, that I may be accused of 
taking too long a leap to jump the mountain, that 
I have gone too far back in the consideration of my 
subject to give it any real momentum at the close 
of the presentation. 

I wish to say, however, that if by going back I 
have made a bit of a contribution toward giving 
you either the potency or the desire to jump the 
mountain, I have in part accomplished the thing 
that was in my mind. 

It is useless, of course, for us to start as far back 
as the thesis that one of the cornerstones of free 
government is freedom, a fact which nations are 
continually calling to the attention of their subjects. 
As recent as three-quarters of a century ago, Belgium 
had a contest to select an appropriate column which 
should stand at the heart of the city of Brussels to 
commemorate the establishment of that independent 
kingdom. It is significant that all the competitors 
had represented in some way or other in that com- 
memoration column the symbols of freedom, and the 
one that was ultimately accepted has the four sym- 
Pols, one at either corner symbolizing the freedom of 
ne press, freedom of education, freedom of associa- 
ion and freedom of public worship. 


Academic Freedom 
_ Address by FRANK ORMAN BECK, Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Illinois. 
Before the Eleventh Annual Convention of the American Federation of Teachers, June 28 to July 1, 1927. 


Every school child understands that at the base 
of the Constitution of the United States is that law 
or that statement to which we continually refer as 
the basis of our larger liberties, namely, that “Con- 
gress shall make no laws that shall in any way 
infringe upon the rights of the people.” 

Recently I went over the Constitutions of the 
states that entered into the compact for the estab- 
lishment of the United States of America and I was 
struck with the similarity of language in the expres- 
sion of the common ideals and the essential tradi- 
tions of the states then forming the new republic. 

The Constitution of Pennsylvania says: “Every cit- 
izen may freely speak, write or print on any subject, 
being responsible for the abuse of that liberty.” 

The Constitution of Connecticut has practically 
the same language: “Every citizen may freely speak, 
write and publish his sentiments on all subjects be- 
ing responsible for the abuse of that liberty. No 
law shall ever be passed to curtail or restrain the 
liberty of speech and of the press.” 

The Constitution of Pennsylvania in 1776 also 
says: “The people have a right to freedom of speech 
and of writing and publishing their sentiments.” 

The Constitution of Virginia in 1776 says: “The 
freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks 
of liberty and can never be restrained by despotic 
governments.” 

Of course it is unnecessary for me to say anything 
this afternoon in praise of freedom, when’ we have 
all thought and felt with Milton’s impassioned plea: — 
“Give me liberty to know, to utter and to argue 
freely according to consg¢ience, above all other lib- 
erties.” 

We have the praises of freedom sung by prophet 
and poet and seer. 

Like all abstractions the word “freedom” is hard 
to define. It is singularly true that no amount of 
culture, or that which we call civilization is able to 
wipe out of our manner of thinking the antithesis. 
We are still thinking in terms of up and down, good 







































and bad, true and false, So in the consideration of this 
question of freedom we have the age long conflict 
between freedom and its antithesis. We have in an 
ancient book of the East, a statement of that con- 
flict in the sentence: “Thy sons, oh Zion, against thy 
sons, oh Greece.” 

Every real contributor to that which makes for 
progress, sympathizes with the long struggles which 
liberty has had with this thing which we call 
authority. He sympathizes with the struggles which 
have gone on between culture and restraint, both 
inner and outer. The struggle is still going on be- 
tween freedom and legalism. The struggle is going on 
between the yearnings of reason to reach an adequate 
solution of the problems of life and the constraints 
of authority, which have sometimes been ruthless- 
ly super-imposed upon it and robbed it of its fertil- 
ization. 

We have always had authority arraigned against 
liberty. The story of Socrates, the yearnings of Mil- 
ton, and the statements of John Stuart Mills show 
us clearly that in every generation, liberty and free- 
dom are purchased at a great cost. 

They are facts that make it perfectly clear that 
progress in each age is dependent upon a renewed 
struggle with authority; this mighty giant which 
Goliath-like stalks through the years. We are able 
to thwart it at one place in one generation yet in 
the next generation it asserts itself at a new point 
and impresses its struggling energy upon human 
life in a way that it has not done in the past. It 
stalks like a mighty Goliath right down through the 
centuries, coming at the very moment when we 
thought life was to be free. 

From the standpoint of the schoolroom out of 
which we come and especially from the standpoint 
of freedom in the sphere of ethical and philosophical 
and religious truths, we find a very striking anomaly. 
Should I assert that the Turk is comparatively indo- 
lent, and that Smyrna, under the ravages of the 
foreigner who occupied it before the mandate was 
given to France, is desolate, and that the patriarch 
of the Coptic Church dwelling in Alexandria is 108 
years of age, you accept my statements of those 
things only on one condition. The mind of man 
approves staternents of information on the condi- 
tion that the fact is one that is capable of demon- 
stration or verification. 

Not all scholars, not all men who direct the insti- 
tutions of learning are always tolerant enough to 
accept the facts that are capable of verification and 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





demonstration. Also we have other mental furniture; 
such things as our beliefs and our opinions. Thes 
we hold on some sort of authority that we cannot 
verify or prove, they do not have mathematical pre- 
cision. They are in the realm of life. In this sphere 
there is a continual conflict. It is evident that life 
is larger than logic. 

I may say another thing which perhaps does not 
need to be said to this group but I rather think it 
needs to be said often in this generation. The two 
things which we have thought of as antithetical 
things are not antithetical in the strict sense of 
the word but they are correlative things and as cus- 
todians of the truth which we impassionately desire 
to give and which we recognize must be given 
under the limitations which are super-imposed upon 
us for the time being at least, by a social and political 
order, it behooves us to take into very tactful and 
very careful consideration the relation between these 
two things which I am calling now, liberty and law. 


We are perfectly conscious that life is a balance 
of these interferences. From the standpoint of our 
social responsibility as teachers of the truth, we are 
cognizant that law itself ends in tyranny, and 
equally cognizant that liberty itself will end in 
anarchy. These two seemingly combined principles, 
through a process of synthesis give the ultimate end. 
We need both culture and restraint in the processes 
of education. We say that life is free as the air. Of 
course, recognizing that the movements of air art 
dependent upon the sun and the sea and the ice and 
the desert. Civilization without restraint is impos- 
sible and we know that there is no restraint where 
there is no liberty. 

I am trying to say to you that the rival of free- 
dom is not law. We do not secure license at the bar 
of law. Freedom is related primarily to responsibility. 
The only rival which freedom has is justice and 
there is no freedom without justice and there is 10 
security for justice except in freedom, Then may ! 
give you Lord Acton’s definition? ‘By liberty ! 
mean the assurance that every man shall be protected 
in doing what he believes his duty against the in- 
fluence of authority and majority, custom and 
opinion.” 

I have said to you, by implication at least, that free- 
dom hts travelled a precipitous, stony, thief-infest- 
ed road in history. Rousseau, in “Social Contracts,” 
gave us the sentence which has so often been torn out 
of its context and presented to throw light on this 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 5 


I rather feel that the real impetus that comes to 
those who are engaged in the work of dictating the 
educational process would like to invert this state- 
ment this afternoon and say that man is born in 
chains and everywhere he has a tendency to become 
free. We are clearly aware of the long and tedious 
pathway over which we come to take our place in 
the accepted conventions of life. What a tedious 
process it is even to acquire the automatic ability to 
string one’s shoes which one wears upon his feet or 
to lace the garment on the body. 

The problem of development is a problem of re- 
moving the limitations which are placed upon life 
and giving life a larger and freer opportunity. It is 
rather significant that society has reacted so strangely 
toward the teacher, the one who is to lead in that 
process. If society disbelieves a demonstrable fact 
it simply causes amusement; ridicule perhaps is all 
that society repays for its failure to accept a demon- 
strable fact, but if we deny doctrine, society goes 
to the extreme in penalizing us. It has a different 
attitude entirely toward these two funds of knowl- 
edge which we are to dispense. Nevertheless, freedom 
must just march on triumphantly in the face of all. 

A word about the particular situation that con- 
fronts us today in this field. Charles Evans Hughes, 
before the American Bar Association, last year said 
that: “the most ominous sign of our times, it seemed 
to him, was the indication of the growth of an in- 
tolerant spirit.” I will leave that just for the 
moment. 

I have very little patience with the academic ap- 
proach to life which divides it into compartments. 
No doubt you have had the pleasure of expending 
energy in erasing the lines which thinkers have con- 
structed between the various funds of information 
and knowledge. To me there is no secular world be- 
cause there is no per se divine world. There is one 
world. In the largest sense then I come to say that 
all freedom is one. Men may be conscientious in 
reference to granting the privilege of freedom in one 
sphere and fail to recognize the right of freedom for 
individuals in another sphere of life. If freedom is 
anything it is a principle which is inherent and 
which touches life at all these various points. Then 
what about the rule of the university, especially in 
view of this fact? The university has prided itself 
in the fact that such large measures of truth in all 
generations have come out of its walls. It’ was 


Newton of Cambridge University of England who 
formulated the three laws of motion. It was Faraday 
of London who discovered electro-magnetic induc- 
tion. It was Curie of Paris who gave us radio activity. 
It was Huxley of the School of Mines, London, who 
gave us the idea of evolution, the most potential 
single idea of modern times. It was Schwann of Lou- 
vain who established the cell theory of life. It was 
Pasteur of Ecole Normale, Paris, who gave us the 
theory of serum inoculations. It was Lister of Glas- 
gow who gave us septic surgery. It was Banting of 
Toronto who gave us insulin, the specific for dia- 
betes. It was Von Behring of Halle who gave us 
diphtheria serum. 

You will notice, please, that I have spoken only 


_ of the universities of Europe but others not men- 


tioned here are shrines to which men make pil- 
grimages every year to express their debt of gratitude 
to that which in the past has come out of the asso- 
ciation of scholars which we have called universities. 

If I might attempt to define a university, I should 
say that a university is a self-governing body of 
scholars. ‘The implications of that definition may 
come to us a little bit farther along in the dis- 
cussion this afternoon. I should then, if you please, 
invite you to think with me a moment about the 
role of the scholar in contemporary life. There 
is an old world fable that the Gods in the beginning 
divided man into men that he might be more help- 
ful to himself, just as the hand was divided into 
fingers the better to answer its own purpose. So 
in the social state these functions have been meted 
out to individuals and there has been distributed to 
a group of folks whom we call scholars a certain 
function. 

May I invite you to read again, I am sure with 
fresh interest, Emerson’s Phi Beta Kappa address 
on the Role of the Scholar? Here we may get a 
new understanding of the sacrifice necessary to give 
the scholar group the consciousness of solidarity 
and their function in contemporary life. 

If there is 2 moment for discussion at the close 
of this hour I would like to throw. out for your 
consideration the difference in the attitude of the pub- 
lic mind toward the role of the scholar and toward 
the physician and surgeon. 

I should say that the stimuli for real development, 
not only in social responsibility but in the sense of 
mutual interdependence, and the atmosphere which 
will make for mutual freedom, among the group of 





6 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


men who are practicing medicine in America have 
come out of the group itself. 

I think it is very significant that an analysis of the 
public attitude toward physicians at least indicates 
that the physicians in their corporate capacity, organ- 
ized as units, have of themselves suggested and pro- 
moted any limitations which have been placed upon 
them by the statutes of the states in which they 
operate. 

Of course we are confronted with the fact that 
a scholar sometimes must be either a poor cringing 
wretch or else a man of honor in search of a job. 
Let us admit it for a moment, but the real role of a 
scholar is to be a member of an honored profession 
that has rights to be established on its own standards; 
that can create its own sense of duty to the public. 
The ethical code of the teacher must be fixed by the 
teacher. True, you have your own question of free- 
dom at this point, just as the thief said to Talleyrand 
or some other minister of France, ‘‘a scholar must 
live.” 

You have got to rule that out of court. That 
doesn’t belong now in the role of a scholarly ideal. 
I might quote from President Atwood of Clarke 
University: “I believe in absolute academic freedom 
within the university, but the problem is to define 
that term.” 

He said that to students a few days after he closed 
a meeting in which Scott Nearing was speaking. 

I quote from the Bulletin of the American Asso- 
ciation of University Professors, the December, 1915, 
issue: “The liberty of the scholar within the uni- 
versity is to set forth his conclusions, be they what 
they may, conditioned upon their being conclusions 
gained by a scholar’s method and held in a scholar’s 
spirit. That is to say, they must be the fruit of 
competent and patient and sincere inquiry, and they 
should be set forth with dignity, courtesy, and tem- 
perate language.” I am not quoting from the minutes 
of a meeting of the board of trustees of a university, 
I am quoting from a Bulletin of the American Asso- 
ciation of University Professors. “The university 
teacher in giving instruction upon controversial mat- 
ters, while he is under no obligation to hide his own 
opinion under a mountain of equivocal verbiage, 
should, if he is fit for his position, be a person of fair 
and judicial mind. He should, in dealing with such 
subject, set forth justly without suppression or innu- 
endo, the divergent opinions of other investigators. 
He should cause his students to become familiar with 
the best public expression of the great historic types 


of doctrine upon the question at issue, and he should 
above all, remember that his business is not to provide 
his students with ready made conclusions, but to 
train them in thinking for themselves and to provide 
them access to those materials which they need if 
they are to think intelligently.” 

We might quote some standard enforced by the 
public opinion of the profession. President Lowell 
is quoted as saying: “Experience has proved and prob. 
ably no one would deny, that knowledge can advance, 
or at least can advance more rapidly, only by means 
of an unfettered search for truth on the part of those 
who devote their lives in seeking it in their respective 
fields, and by complete freedom in imparting to their 
pupils the truth that they have found. In other 
words, he must teach the truth as he finds it and 
sees it. Any violation of this principle endangers 
intellectual progress.” He speaks from his chair, and 
his chair alone. 

I am simply trying to say that in statements of this 
kind we have certain standards that are endorsed by 
public opinion and the profession, by the public opin- 
ion of the group and offer that simply as one factor 
in the leading of education out into the sphere of 
absolute freedom. 

It might be of interest for us to stop and ask our- 
selves what are the obstacles to academic freedom we 
are meeting today. It would be repeating that which 
very casual thought brings to the mind of everyone 
of us, however. In the first place the average brain 
is lazy and does not want the labor of rearranging 
ideas in the light of the newer, better truths. 

Then I presume it is fair to conclude that there 
are men in authority who impose that authority and 
restrain the freedom of teaching because they have a 
positive feeling of fear. There are also other interests 
such as commercialism and business that restrict the 
freedom of teaching. 

Just a final word or two as to what we are going to 
do about it. I presume that if freedom is a principle 
that rules throughout life, the first essential for the 
people who are concerned with freedom is to recognize 
its worth; just to be free because we are meant to be 
free and to insist upon freedom hecause it is only thus 
that we dare deal with the truth. Beyond us, of 
course, is the state and the men who represent the 
state, The omnipotent state is always to be feared. 
We are confronting a new situation now. It is the 
product of the aftermath of the war. That is the 
way we talk about anything now, but I mean © 
say that it has only come to our attention in the last 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 7 


few years. It is that phase of the fight against free- 
dom which makes cowards of men under the guise 
of patriotism, The state was made for man and not 
man for the state. Standardized education itself may 
defeat the ends of patriotism. 

I suppose life will ultimately get unproductive be- 
cause it gets pattern-like. I was asked some time ago 
to one of the suburbs to speak to a group of women 
of one of the orthodox protestant churches. I found 
every evidence of comfort and luxury in the church 
edifice, a goodly number of women on upholstered 
chairs placed on thick piled carpets. I was introduced 
and began to speak, but got nowhere. After a bit 
I stopped and said, ““Well, this is the most uninterest- 
ing audience that I have been asked to speak to for 
a long time.” Some of the women woke up and 
wondered what I was going to say. I continued, 
“Yes, you are just positively commonplace and unin- 
teresting. I know you, you went to the same kind of 
a school that I went to.” You know you can tell 
them every time. 

I said, “You went to the same school and studied 
the same textbooks. Your professors had about the 
same sort of pedagogy. If you went to church I 
know the kind you went to, I know the music that 
was sung, I know all the background of your life and 
you are positively stale and uninteresting to me.” 

I hesitated a moment to find out whether there 
was any chance to go on. They were awake now 
and I continued, “You ought to know Anna.” I told 
them about the girl who had received from the 
Government of Russia the greatest honor that had 
been given to any woman during the period of the 
Revolution. I told about her education and about her 
religion and before I was very far into the subject 
there was an interesting response. I told them about 
another one of my friends in the city of Chicago, and 
I went along picking out folks that I spend a great 
deal of time with because, as I said to them, “‘as a 
matter of fact folks like yourselves are uninteresting 
tome. Not that you wouldn’t like to get away from 
it but just because you are systematized in a way 
and the public expects certain things from you,” and 
you know the rest, 


+ oe ca * * * + 


Here a batch of questions were introduced. 

I called up the president of one of the universities 
and told him what I was going to do today and told 
him I was scared to death. He told me a story, a 
story of a young man and a young woman in a canoe 

a storm came up and the young man made a 


desperate effort to keep the little craft free from 
water and in the effort he got sand in his mouth. 
After a while the solicitous young woman who was 
with him said, “Do you think we are going to 
weather it?” He made no reply. In a moment she 
said, ‘‘Well, why don’t you say something?” He said, 
“I have my mouth full of sand.” She said, “Well, 
swallow it, you will need it.” 

That was the advice I was given when I came down 
here and in fact that is the advice I would hand on to 
you at this particular juncture of the problem. You 
know in the practical analysis of the problem what 
you are up against, but are you thoroughly conscious 
of the fact that there are two big ideas that dominate, 
one is that truth is something, something precious 
and something with eternal value and something 
which is committed to you folks. 

Somebody comes along and says, “Oh, yes, 2 man 
can think what he pleases if he doesn’t speak it.” 
Well, he can’t. He just can’t. He can’t think it 
long if he is sincere. 

There is an element of the scholarly attitude and 
scholarly habit which goes when he makes that sort 
of a compromise. From the point of view which 
grips me this moment, the future of this whole issue 
is with the teacher; with teachers who can be socially 
responsible, doing those things which will make the 
truth effective in the largest, clearest way in their 
age. You take the consequences and that is all there 
is to it. There isn’t any other way to live except to 
live and take the consequences. That is all. Unhap- 
piness comes pretty largely to folks who are so cal- 
culating that they would like to be true to themselves 
and have everybody know it and appreciate it. It 
doesn’t help to feel that way. Happiness doesn’t 
come that way. That is not the way of life. 

We will have to go back many times to contem- 
plate the fact that a truth of itself is not adequate to 
win the way. But if the great body of teachers in 
America, from primary schools, from vocational and 
graduate institutions can get something of the con- 
sciousness that has stimulated and led other vocations, 
I cannot see why a consistent contemporary mind 
would not grant to that group the right to determine 
the truth and to work it out in their own way. 

It doesn’t seem that it ought to be necessary to 
fight it out alone. It doesn’t seem to me that a 
scholar ought to be a conspicuous, lonely person. 
Maybe there are others who share your thought in 
the matter but who do not have the courage to take 
the consequences. But if you try it alone you just 








8 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


become one of the persona non grata of the tragedy 
in the conflict of truth against authority. It may 
be awfully hard on your wardrobe and you may be 
hungry but you will do a good bit to overcome those 
obstacles. 

There have always been ways for free folks to 
express themselves. We have always had the free 
school. I am no prophet. I am not even a soldier 
but I doubt if the pendulum has swung that way the 
last time. You ought to have a pension within your 
organization for that kind of folks. There ought to 
be some endowment. 

There will be once in a while an erratic scholar, but 
the history of heresy trials in education I think reveals 
the truth that we have had a few really productive 
scholars deprived of their rights to teach in certain 
institutions. I think that is clear. That is a loss, a 
very distinct loss to society. 

Probably some of you had a letter a short time 
ago from Mr. Moore, asking if you would be interest- 
ed in some form of a free school in Chicago. Mr. 
Moore of the City Club, I mean, advertising or cir- 
cularizing some of the things to which you are 
friendly. Does that in any way answer your question? 


It is very interesting to know that most of the 
presidents of the American colleges champion acad- 
emic freedom. And I think it is rather interesting 
that there has been as little conflict with freedom of 
teaching as there has in America. When you take 
into consideration the tremendous objectives that 
would be robbed of their ammunition, or some of it 
at least, that are robbed by free education, I wonder 
why education is as free as it is. When you attempt 
to define the scope of the college president, when you 
come over into the question of the attitude of the 
board of education, the trustees, and place intellec- 
tual freedom up against endowed universities, I won- 
der that we have as much freedom as we have. 

I have been out of the university for 25 years. I 
know particularly the fight in one field, but we have 
passed certain milestones. The issue now for freedom 
of speech in this particular field of which I speak has 
been established. They conceded that to us. It is 
no longer a question. The struggle in the university 
in that group of content materia] isn’t around the 
same issues at all. 


Academic freedom. To say that thing and stand 
by it without. coming under the ban of authority, is 
established and we go on and I doubt whether 


anyone can stand any place along the stream of 


human freedom and get pessimistic as to what is 
going to come. I doubt it. 

Of course we have a particularly difficult aspect 
of the thing. We are living in a highly capitalized 
age. We are living in a time when that kind of 
power has by far a disproportionate amount of res- 
pect. You can go back and point your finger down 
through the current of evolving liberty when there 
were other kinds of power that had just as strong 
hold at the neck and throat of freedom as chat 
power has just now, so I am rather optimistic about it. 

I think there have been periods in the evolution of 
freedom when the teacher has had a harder time than 
he is having now. I said to you a moment ago that 
I recognize that this skyscraper method of determin- 
ing the policy of the university is a difficult situation 
but remember, in the evolution of higher education 
that there have been just as dogmatic groups domin- 
ating as we have today. It brought about certain 
cataclysms in human thought but maybe this will 
do the same thing. 

You must remember we have never had this man 
before, this one man domination. We have never 
had an age when one man had control over as much 
of the material resources of the world, where one 
man dominated his community life so much. Think 
how the name of one man has been related in the 
last fifty years to the spread of libraries in American 
communities. We are just facing a new situation. 
I am simply saying that I think if you throw the 
present situation against the years that have passed 
and see the battle that freedom has had at other 
times and the restraint that has been put upon it, 
there is still some chance for optimism today. 





The 
Opinzons and Reflectzons 
of Napoleon 


Edited By LEWIS CLAFLIN BREED 
Twenty-three Sections, 532 Pages, $5.00 


THE FOUR SEAS COMPANY 
Boston, Mass 


New Jersey Journal of Education says: 

“A work which should have a place upon the 
shelves of every school library, and should 
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Id 
or 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 9 


The Social Value of Home Economics 


Radio Talk Given Over WCFL 
By Lena M. Crum 
Fenger High School, Chicago 


The term, Home Economics, is broad, and in- 
cludes cooking, sewing, household management, san- 
itation and hygiene, child care, house furnishing, 
family and civic relationships. For purposes of our 
discussion this evening we shall think of this broad 
application rather than the separate phases, and seek 
to point out some of the most important social val- 
ues which are the outcome of Home Economics 
instruction in our schools and colleges. 

When we discuss the social value of any subject 
of instruction we thereby measure its educational 
value, for we all recognize the age old aim of educa- 
tion to be the development of socially efficient indi- 
viduals. By a socially efficient individual we mean 
that individual who plays his part on the great stage 
of human activities successfully, taking care of him- 
self and those in any way dependent upon him, con- 
tributing to the world’s progress and to the welfare 
of humanity as his abilities intelligently developed 
will permit, and placing no hindrance or handicap in 
the path of other individuals. 

We have heard much criticism, and strangely 
enough some of this criticism has come from educa- 
tors themselves, to the effect that Home Economics 
has no place in the curriculum of our public schools. 
The best proof of the fallacy of this statement lies 
in the measure of its social values. 

Therefore, the first justification for Home Econ- 
omics in some phase as a subject of instruction in 
the public schools for boys as well as girls from the 
kindergarten through the high school particularly, 
and better yet through college, lies in its universal 
application. 

These words uttered decades ago are just as true 
now as then, and will be just as true decades hence: 

“We may live without poetry, music and art, 

We may live without conscience, and live without 

heart, 

We may live without friends, we may live without 

books, 

But civilized man cannot live without’ cooks.” 

Knowledge of certain necessities must be had by 
everyone merely to exist, but expert knowledge is 
required to live and help others live. 

In the next place, Home Economics training 
makes a large contribution to the individual’s ef- 


fectiveness as a member of society. Healthy, happy, 
illuminating thoughts as well as logical reasoning 
come from a healthy mind. A healthy mind is the 
companion of a healthy body, and a healthy body is 
the outgrowth of proper food habits, proper cloth- 
ing, a healthful and sanitary dwelling, and a happy 
environment. The rightful heritage of every child 
is to be born with a healthy body, and to have this 
health guarded through the years until maturity 
places the responsibility on the individual himself. 
Consequently, it is the duty not only of parents, 
but of all educational agencies as well to let no 
opportunity pass unheeded to give all training pos- 
sible. When the age of maturity is reached it be- 
comes the duty of each individual to continue the 
training, and to practice the precepts. Let us hope, 
then, that the public school, our most potent edu- 
cational agency, will not fail in its duty because of 
il] advised criticism. 

A nation’s welfare in times of great struggles as 
evidenced in all the great wars, and particularly the 
great World War, reverts to the health of its indi- 
viduals. It is only the strong and able-bodied who 
can endure the hardships incumbent upon a soldier. 
The weaker ones because of malnutrition or other 
ailments are rejected, and the burden falls on only a 
part, while all must share the result whatever it 
may be. From this point of view, then, it is the 
duty of every nation to produce at all times the 
healthiest population possible. However, it seems 
sane to predict that more, attention given to health- 
ier minds and bodies would result in a sounder and 
healthier economic basis for any nation, and that 
war could be averted. 

Another contribution which Home Economics 
training can make to society is in its relation to the 
stability of the family group, society’s fundamental 
unit. Statistics show that marriage is decreasing, and 
divorce is increasing in parts, if not all, of our own 
country. Economic reasons are given as the explana- 
tion in many cases. When the young man is asked 
why he doesn’t marry, his answer oftentimes is, “I 
can’t afford it.” When the young lady is asked the 
same question, she is apt to reply that she wishes a 
lot of money to spend. Neither youth should be un- 

(Continued on Page 27.) 





TLITD ALSAOODICAR “TROACLIOCR a7 








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10 TH AMERICAN TEACHER 


Report of the Committee on Policies 
Eleventh Annual Convention American Federation of Teachers, June 28-July 1, 1927 


RESOLUTION I 

Be it resolved that the Committee on Promotion 
and organization be reorganized as the Organization 
Committee, with the secretary-treasurer as ex-officio 
chairman, the rest of the personnel the same as that 
of the Committee on Promotion and Organization 
as established by the Tenth Convention, in New 
York, 1926. 

The duties of this committee shall be to carry on 
a campaign of publicity through The American 
Teacher and such other means as the committee 
shall deem advisable, and to secure the organization 
of new locals by correspondence, visitation, or such 
other :nethods as may seem. suitable or necessary. It 
shall be the duty of the committee also to secure 
funds for these purposes by soliciting voluntary 
contributions from each local of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers. Funds so raised shall be kept 
as a separate fund by the Secretary-Treasurer and 
shall be separately accounted for in the annual con- 
vention report of the Secretary-Treasurer. Adopted. 

REsoLutTion XVII 

The American Federation of Teachers notes with 
enthusiastic approval the manner in which Dr. Glenn 

Frank, president of the University of Wisconsin, 
’ frustrated the efforts of Governor Blaine of that 
state, to punish a professor in the university for 
economic views. 7 

The American Federation of Teachers, in con- 
vention on June 29, 1927, applauds the statement 
with which Dr. Frank met this challenge to aca- 
demic self-respect: 

“As long as I am president of this university, com- 
plete and unqualified academic freedom will not only 
be accorded to members of the faculties, but will be 
vigorously defended regardless of the pressure, power 
or the prestige that may accompany any challenge 
of this inalienable right of scholarship.” 

The American Federation of Teachers applauds 
similarly the defense of free speech and free thought 
made on behalf of teachers by the Board of Regents 
of the University of Utah and by the governor of 
that state. 

The American Federation of Teachers expresses 
the hope that teachers, governing boards, and 
administrators everywhere will follow the noble 
example which has been set in the instances cited, 
that teachers will defend the right to think and to 


express their thought on all questions, that govern- 


ing boards will see in the exercise of that right the 
only available assurance that teachers are progressive 
and social minded, and that administrators will sus- 
tain teachers in their defense of that right. Adopted, 


RESOLUTION XVIII. 
Part A—CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 

WHEREAS, Many boys and girls are forced by 
adverse economic conditions or an ill-adjusted cur- 
riculum to curtail their educational opportunities, 
and 

WHEREAS, Such boys and girls have been forced 
into blind-alley jobs or compelled to add to their 
daily hours of toil by additional attendance upon the 
evening schools thereby sapping their vitality; and 

WHEREAS, Day continuation schools were estab- 
lished through the efforts of the organized labor 
movement and the State Departments of Education 
to take care of boys and girls when they are mentally 
alert, to provide them with teachers who are sympa- 
thetic and fully qualified to give them the special- 
ized training needed to fit them for their industrial 
and civic obligations; and 

WHEREAS, A movement has been launched to 
undermine or to destroy the continuation schools in 
order to force those boys and girls to attend evening 
schools or business schools sanctioned by state educa- 
tional boards, and 

WHEREAS, These evening or business schools are 
ill-equipped to do justice to the children now being 
taken care of by the continuation schools; therefore, 
be it 

RESOLVED: That the American Federation of 
Teachers urges all of its affiliated locals to co-oper- 
ate with organized labor to the fullest extent © 
prevent the weakening of the Continuation School 
Laws. 

Part B—THE VisttING TEACHER 

WHEREAS, The program for the prevention of 
delinquency has in the past five years demonstrated 
the strategic importance of the study of behavior 
and environment of the school child in the estab- 
lishment of a socially-minded and happy citizenry, 
and 

WHEREAS, In almost four score cities and cout 
ties throughout the country ahout 200 teachers af 
now carrying on such study and adjustment of school 
children who have appeared to be in danger of men- 
tal disturbance or delinquent conduct, or both, paft- 










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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 11 


ly as a demonstration of this program and partly at 
the instance of public Boards of Education, and 

WHEREAS, Their experience has demonstrated 

that freedom from the ordinary school time-table 
and special training are necessary for the proper 
prosecution of their work, therefore, be it 

RESOLVED, By the American Federation of 

Teachers that they support the work of visiting 
teachers and advocate their establishment as a part 
of every public school system which numbers more 
than one thousand school children with the appoint- 
ment of one additional visiting teacher as a minimum 
for each three thousand of the school population; 
that we set as the standard of minimum training: 

(1) Training in educational psychology and me- 
thod not less than two years (similar to a 
training school course); 

(2) Teaching experience not less than three years; 

(3) Training in social case work and the psychol- 
ogy of behavior and its disorders not less 
than one year; 

that we set as the minimum standard of pay not less 
than that given to special teachers in the salary 
group of the system in which the visiting teacher 
is appointed; and that we co-operate in every way 
with those other organizations and agencies, such as 
the National Association of Visiting Teachers, which 
is endeavoring to bring about a like improvement 
in our schools. 


Part C—StaTe Ar 

WHEREAS, Education is and ought to remain a 
state function in order to insure every boy and girl 
within the state equal educational opportunity; and 

WHEREAS, This imposes upon the state the ob- 
ligation of giving financial support to localities par- 
ticularly where the assessed values make impossible 
adequate provision for education as required by the 
educational law; therefore be it 

RESOLVED: That the American Federation of 
Teachers go on record as favoring, for the present, 
increasing state aid from localities until at least 50% 
of the cost of local education is borne by the state. 
Part D—Sociat Sciences IN TEACHER TRAINING 

WHEREAS, An examination of the courses of 
study of many of the teachers’ training schools 
throughout the country reveals the fact that the 
social sciences, so necessary to an intelligent umder- 
aeere of current problems, receive little attention, 


WHEREAS, In our efforts in trying to organize 


teachers in affiliation with labor we have discovered 
a lamentable lack of understanding on the part of 
teachers of the great social forces that shape our 
lives; and 

WHEREAS, We consider the fundamental ob- 
jective in education to be adjustment to chang- 
ing social environment; therefore be it 

RESOLVED: That the Executive Committee of 
che American Federation of Teachers is hereby in- 
structed to co-operate with the Education Commit- 
tee of the American Federation of Labor with a view 
to organizing 2 campaign to secure such preparation 
of teachers in all the social studies as to equip them 
more adequately for an understanding of the social 


order. 


Part E—Luncu Rooms 

WHEREAS, Many school systems have establish- 
ed lunch rooms for both pupils and teachers not 
only to provide wholesome food at reasonable cost, 
but also to meet the problem of the undernourished 
child; and 

WHEREAS, In many schools these purposes are 
being defeated by leasing the lunch rooms to private 
concessionaires who are largely if not solely interest- 
ed in profits rather than in service; therefore be it 

RESOLVED: That the American Federation of 
Teachers go on record as favoring: 

(1) ras Galati dd ilperttebtin. 0 chine Yanna 

rooms by the educational authorities; 

(2) The management of these lunch rooms by 
the Home Economics Department of Educa- 
tion; _ 

(3) The running of these lunch rooms on a non- 
profit making basis; 

(4) That the teachers be permitted to participate 
in the administration and management of the 
lunchrooms within their schools. 

RESOLUTION XXXI 

Whereas, It would strengthen and improve the 
organization work of the American Federation of 
Teachers by increasing the contact between the na- 
tional office and the locals; and Whereas, Informa- 
tion of local situations is imperative for effective 
work by the national office; 

Be it Resolved, That all local organizations be re- 
quired to select a member of its governing board, 
committee, or council, whose duty it shall be to keep 
the national office regularly informed on such activ- 
ities and situations as’ the national secretary. shall 





a eS ee ee CUWLS”YSSDrreS 


~~ ee 


12 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


request, and the governing board shall direct or 
approve. 

By request of the men’s local of St. Paul, 43. 
Adopted. 

PRESIDENT’S REPORT 

Your committee heartily endorses the President’s 
summary of the spirit and more indirect accomplish- 
ments of our movement. These indirect and more 
intangible achievements, are legitimate sources of 
stimulus and encouragement, which we do well to 
recall frequently. We recommend that the sugges- 
tion that we develop a direct appeal to the teachers 
along the line of professional ethics, be referred to 
the new Committee on Organization with power to 
act after approval by the Executive Council. 

Concerning the President’s reference to the gulli- 
bility and intolerance of present society as a reflec- 
tion on past educational processes, while your com- 
mittee does not believe that the schools can reason- 
ably be expected to counter-balance the combined 
powers of all other community forces, it agrees that 
there is urgent need for a conscious redirection and 
strengthening of the influence of the school in these 
all-important matters, and recommends that this 
suggestion also be referred to the Committee on 
Organization for action. 

The committee is in thorough agreement with the 
comments and suggestions of the president regarding 

“organization of work. We are confident that the 
year’s experience, and the reports to the convention 
will justify the experiment with all permanent com- 
mittees except that on Promotion and Organization. 
With that most important of all committees, the 
experiment was obviously a failure, and we believe 
that our president has put her finger on the reason. 
The functions of that committee should logically 
place it under the direction of the executive officers 
of the organization, the president and secretary- 
treasurer. 

Your committee therefore recommends to the con- 
vention concurrence in the two recommendations of 
the president: (1) that upon the president and sec- 
retary-treasurer be placed the responsibility for see- 
ing that the orders of the convention are carried 
into effect, and (2) that the purpose of the stand- 
ing committee on Organization be to bring about 
the organization of new locals and to extend the 
influence of the American Federation of Teachers. 
(3) Ie also recommends that the Chairman of 
Standing Committees other than the Committee on 
Organization be determined by the Executive Board. 


It will be noticed that we dropped the word 
Promotion from the committee title for brevity. 
We would further suggest that since the duties of 
this committee are so time-consuming, the burden 
of active chairmanship should be placed on the sec- 
retary-treasurer while that remains the only full time 
office, the president, of course, to have authority 
jointly with the secretary-treasurer. 

Your committee is in sympathy with the Presi- 
dent’s recommendations on finance, but since that 
subject is dealt with in another section of its report, 
there is no occasion for action at this point. 

In conclusion, the committee desires to express its 
appreciation of the devotion to the movement, and 
the unselfish service rendered under difficult con- 
ditions by President Barker and it knows that this 
brief acknowledgement is a very inadequate reflec- 
tion of the feeling of the convention. Adopted. 

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-TREASURER 
The American Teacher 

The committee desires to give particular commen- 
dation for the success of the American Teacher in 
this first year that the secretary-treasurer has been 
authorized to resume publication of the larger offi- 
cial organ. Special mention should be made of the 
high literary quality and general effectiveness of 
the magazine. The progress in securing advertising is 
very encouraging, and we believe has justified a con- 
tinuance of the experiment. The policy of special 
sectional numbers we believe a valuable innovation, 
both as to content material and to finance, and we 
recommend concurrence in the secretary-treasuret’s- 
suggestion of five such numbers a year, and five 
general numbers, the general numbers in that case 
not to be narrowly specialized in subject matter. 

The committee would also like to re-emphasize the 
request of the secretary-treasurer for better co-oper- 
ation from correspondents of locals. 

FINANCES 

The committee recognizes the seriousness of our 
perennial financial problem, but consultation with 
the delegates has convinced it that an increase in pef 
capita is not feasible at the present time. Another 
line of attack is suggested by the committee else- 
where in its report. Therefore non-concurrence in 
the proposed increase in per capita is recommended. 

ORGANIZATION 

The report of the secretary-treasurer on Organiza- 
tion is very inspiriting. Among the delegates to the 
last convention it was generally commented that 
opportunities for organization were at last opening 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 13 


up, and our secretary-treasurer is to be most heartily 
commended for her effective seizing of all oppor- 
tunities, and her uncovering of organization possi- 
bilities in spite of the handicap of lack of funds. We 
earnestly urge the locals to give substantial support 
to the development of the organization fund else- 
where recommended, and are confident that with 
even moderate financial backing, barring untoward 
developments not now on the horizon, our secre- 
tary-treasurer will be enabled to give the next con- 
vention a still more inspiring report. 

In conclusion, the committee feels that the dele- 
gates can scarcely be too often reminded of the 
intolerable burden of financial worry that has always 
been inherent in the office of secretary-treasurer, and 
apparently must remain inherent in it for some time 
to come. Secretary-Treasurer. Hanson has not es- 
caped this burden, and has met the situation with 
fortitude and skill. If all local officers realized how 
much that burden could be reduced by the prompt- 
ness in business relations shown by some of them, 
much invaluable time and energy could be con- 
served. 

Under great handicaps, Mrs. Hanson has fought 
the year through in varied fields to a successful con- 
clusion, and she should know that she has the un- 
stinted gratitude of the delegates and of the move- 
ment for her valiant and able service, and not only 
the best wishes, but the pledge of active co-opera- 
tion for a better year to come. 

Resolution on report of Secretary-Treasurer 
adopted. Chairman: William T. McCoy, 

Chicago Local No. 2. 
Secretary: Joseph Jablonower, 
New York Local No. 5. 


A TEACHER’S POINT OF VIEW 

The American Federation of Labor deserves the 
applause of the nation for its prompt and over- 
whelming repudiation of the proposal of representa- 
tives of the teachers’ federation to penalize freedom 
of thought and research. 

This proposal was to bar textbooks put out by the 
Institute for Research in Land Economics and Public 
Utilities, a department of Northwestern University. 
Mrs. Hanson of Chicago, a delegate of the teachers’ 
federation, does not favor the observations and con- 
clusions of the institute. In her wisdom the in- 
stitute is hostile to the best interests of the wage 
tarner and the farmer and therefore its books ought 
to be barred from the tax supported schools. 

In other words, the pupils of tax supported schools 





are to read works which are approved by Mrs. Han- 
son and such as think as she does, but not works 
which express views she and they deem erroneous. 
The latter are propaganda. Shut them out. Mrs. 
Hanson’s views are not propaganda. Feed them ad 


libitum to the taxpayers’ children. 


Does Mrs. Hanson represent a considerable body 
of our American public teachers? If she does, it is 
high time there was a drastic cleanup in the teaching 
personnel.—Chicago Tribune, October 15. 

Reply to above editorial but nof published by The 
Chicago Tribune: 

Chicago, October 19, 1927. 
Editor, Chicago Tribune, 
Tribune Tower, Chicago, Illinois. 
Dear Sir: 

There is a surprising amount of falsehood and dis- 
tortion of the facts in last Saturday’s short editorial 
entitled “A Teacher’s Point of View.” If all of your 
editorials are based upon the same meagre knowledge 
of facts, or perhaps, are actuated by the same ob- 
vious intent, I do not wonder that intelligent folks 
generally regard the influence of Tribune editorial 
opinion as negligible. 

Certainly the Tribune cannot claim ever to have 
fought as valiantly as the American Federation of 
Teachers does for “freedom of thought and research.” 
The present controversy is not over substituting the 
propaganda of one person or group for that of an- 
other. It rages over the question of whether anyone’s 
propaganda be allowed to parade under the guise of 
research. 

The Institute for Research in Land Economics and 
Public Utilities is not, as you say, a department of 
Northwestern University. While it is housed by the 
university, it is a separate organization with its own 
board of trustees and is separately financed. Curious- 
ly enough, the so-called research work of the insti- 
tute leads to “observations and conclusions” which 
coincide with those of its financial backers. This 
fact was established by the American Federation of 
Teachers through investigation of books and pub- 
lications of the insticute. 

The American Federation of Teachers favors and 
fights for a large measure of freedom in thought, 
conclusions and viewpoint, but recognizing its sol- 
emn duty in the field of education, it insists that the 
use of the name research be restricted to procedures 
which are genuine and it exposes bought and paid 
for propaganda parading under the guise of research. 

Yours truly, Leo R. Kure, 





14 THE AMERICAN 


FEACHER 


Report of the Committee on Education, Convention of Am- 
erican Federation of Labor, Los Angeles, 
Calif., Oct. 14, 1927 


Organization and Education are the hope for the 
advancement of humanity. Legitimate organization 
and true education should make of our citizens not 
only guardians of our heritage but also followers of 
those whe have sacrificed for a society built upon the 
principle of co-operative effort for the benefit of all. 
The development of character and nobility of soul 
should be our educational goal. 

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS 

Regarding the report of the Executive Council on 
outstanding achievements in education. 

We commend highly the achievements in the field 
of education this past year, and the active and pro- 
gressive spirit shown. 

The Workers’ Education Bureau has done a magni- 
ficent work and should receive the continued support 
of the entire labor movement. 

The Conference on the Elimination of Industrial 
Waste held under the auspices of the Philadelphia 
Central Labor Union and the Philadelphia Labor Col- 
lege is an outstanding educational achievement of the 
year. This was the first of its kind but should by no 
means be the last. A careful study of the work of 
this conference is recommended. 

At Passaic, N. J., the Workers’ Education Bureau 
served the labor movement immeasurably. The pur- 
pose and idealism of unionism were most forcefully 
and dramatically brought home to the workers. 

The American Federationist has been a leading ed- 
ucational agency and has again demonstrated that 
“the pen is mightier than the sword.” The Ameri- 
can Federationist compares favorably with any mag- 
azine published, in content, in form, in character 
and in usefulness. It should have unqualified en- 
dorsement and support. It is recommended that 
every officer of national and local organizations sub- 
scribe to and read The American Federationist and it 
is recommended especially that all editors of labor 
papers and journals read and use with suitable com- 
ment in the columns of their publication current 
articles. 

One other educational achievement deserves men- 
tion—that is the organization of the teachers into 
trade unions. The past year has seen a definite im- 
provement and growth in this field. This indicates 
that an increasing number of teachers is becoming 


socially minded, is developing a social awareness and 
civic conscience. The union teacher is one who re 
cognizes the labor movement as a great social 
movement for human betterment and regards it a 
a privilege and a duty to participate in that move- 
ment. He is seeking to develop for himself and oth- 
ers greater freedom and self-respect and thereby to 
make teaching a profession, a thing which can bk 
accomplished only when the teachers have the free- 
dom, strength and influence to establish the stand- 
ards of their calling. 

REPORT OF THE PERMANENT COMMITTEE ON 

EDUCATION 

The permanent committee on education has con- 
tinued its valuable work and presents evidences of 
satisfactory accomplishment, including model pro- 
vision for compulsory school attendance laws, present 
methods of apprenticeship training, and a study of 
how text books are selected. 

The work on compulsory school attendance is ¢- 
pecially commendable. The committee finds that 
the need of labor action to protect children is a 
great as ever. A few states have made progress, two 
in 1926 and five in 1927, strengthening their pro- 
visions for length of schooling required, on protec- 
tion of minors at work. Nine states failed to pas 
bills or parts of bills submitted to them. © 

The survey of vocational education work has not 
yet been completed. The provisions regulating ap- 
prenticeship contained in the constitution of each 
trade union organization has been summarized and 
the type of vocational training done by corporations 
and controlled by management has been considered. 

A vitally important work of the committee wa 
the study of the circulation of text books, showing 
what school authorities participated in the selection 
of the books, by whom the final decision was made 
and how frequently decisions are revised. In calling 
attention to omission of important social develop- 
ments from school texts for the teaching of history, 
civics and economics, as the labor movement and tht 
woman movement, the committee has done a work 
of tremendous importance, which will bring worth- 
while results through constructive co-operation o 
the part of publishers as well as of authors. — 

One of the most pernicious of legislative te 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 15 


dencies is the attempt to determine the content of 
the social and biological sciences by special interest 
or legislative enactment. The American Federation 
of Labor should be on the alert to combat all such 
tendencies, much in evidence at present. 

Your committee recommends that the Committee 
on Education be directed to maintain its work of ex- 
amining text books for use in the public schools and 
conferring with authors so that ic may further a 
fair and fully rounded presentation of social, econom- 
ic and political history. 

Free Text Booxs 

It may seem anomalous that a democracy which 
provides for free compulsory education should still 
force its school children to buy their text books, thus 
making equalization of educational opportunity 
more difficult. The American Federation of Labor 
urges its constituent bodies in the various states and 
in the District of Columbia to work for the enact- 
ment of legislation providing for free text books for 
all children of the public schools. 

CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 

Continuation schools were established to meet the 
educational and industrial needs of boys and girls 
who were forced by adverse economic conditions or 


ill-adjusted curricula to terminate their school careers 
too soon. These schools are now functioning with a 
large measure of success in twenty-six states. Anti- 
social, uneducated or misguided employers are seeking 
to undermine these beneficent laws which are not 
only doing much to enable children to lift themselves 
out of the blind-alley jobs but also to develop their 


educational possibilities to the utmost. This has 
been made possible by the stimulation that comes 
from the correlation of education to one’s work and 
by their contacts with reality. 

Recently efforts have been inaugurated tv under- 
mine the operation of these laws by suggesting 
amendments reducing the compulsory school age or 
substituting evening school for day school attend- 
ance or by other substitutes for the continuation 
school. We regard all these attacks upon the con- 
tinuation schools as undesirable and unwise attempts 
to undermine these beneficent laws and institutions 
and we urge every effort to defeat all such attempts. 

We suggest that attendance should be required 
from four to eight hours weekly, that the curricula 
be broadened to meet the varying needs of the pupils 
—cultural as we as industrial; that better special- 
ized equipment and buildings be provided by boards 
of education; that trained trade teachers be attracted 


to teaching by improving their status; that more lib- 
eral state and national aid be furnished to make these 
reforms possible and that the work of the continua- 
tion schools be strengthened wherever possible. We 
further suggest that vocational guidance be especially 
emphasized along with health education and medical 
inspection, using the resources of the physician, the 
dentist, the visiting teacher and the psychiatrist. 

The continuation schools in their experimental 
state, with their small classes, their factual approach 
and their contact with life, offer boards of education 
a challenge as well as a rare opportunity of testing 
the validity of our traditional educational policies. 

THE HANDICAPPED AND THE RuRAL SCHOOL 

The committee wishes to direct the attention of 
the American Federation of Labor to the plight of 
two classes of underprivileged children. The Re- 
search Bureau of the American Federation of Teach- 
ers has made exhaustive study and a report on the 
situation of the crippled child. ‘This report shows 
that of our 48 states only 15 have legislative provis- 
ion 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. 

Your committee is convinced that education and 
vocational training for the crippled child is human- 
itarian and can in many cases “make tax producers 
out of potential tax consumers.” 

Your committee is also convinced that the neces- 
sary education for these handicapped children re- 
quires that provision be made for medical, surgical 
and institutional care. Hence it desires to recom- 
mend that the American Federation of Labor and its 
various constituent bodies strive to bring this matter 
before the federal Congress and the legislatures of 
their respective states, to the end that legislation 
necessary to adequate educational opportunities for 
this class of children may be secured. 

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. 

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 requirements for teachers. Boys 
and girls just out of the eighth grade are often em- 
ployed as teachers and professional training among 
rural teachers is rare. 





16 THE AMERICAN 


Some states are making notable advances through 
a method of consolidated schools, state aid to poor 
districts and raising educational and professional re- 
quirements for teachers. 

The American Federation of Labor is deeply inter- 
ested in this injustice to children and this menace to 
our nation, and will take active steps that all con- 
stituent bodies 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. 

Nursery SCHOOL 

Your committee believes that in harmony with its 
interest in all educational matters the American Fed- 
eration of Labor should take cognizance of a new 
movement known as the Nursery School or training 
for the pre-school child. Many of our leading uni- 
versities and of our prominent psychologists are giv- 
ing much attention to study and experiment with 
this particular period. If it is intended that the 
junior kindergarten or nursery school become a part 
of our educational system, we should be informed as 
to its value or lack of value. 

Your committee therefore recommends that the 


permanent Committee on Education make a study of 
the nursery school movement with a view to deter- 
mining its advantage, if any, to human progress and 
the labor movement. 


PUBLICATIONS 

The attention of the members of the American 
Federation of Labor is called to the list of excep- 
tionally fine publications issued by the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. It is recommended that every 
effort be made to place these in the hands, not only 
of trade unionists, but of others as well. 

The attention of your committee has been called 
to the text books published for the Workers’ Educa- 
tion Bureau which are known as the Workers’ Book- 
shelf, and the criticism of some of our membership 
on the content of some of these books. 

The initial plan proposed by the Workers’ Educa- 
tion Bureau was to create an editorial board on which 
responsible trade unionists were to serve to pass on 
the books as they were published. The method prov- 
ed not wholly satisfactory in spite of the services of 
the members of the board. 

Criticism in certain portions of these texts was 
brought to the attention of the bureau with the 
result that changes were made or are being made in 
the existing volumes. A provision has been made 
whereby in the judgment of your committee there 


TEACHER 


will be a proper safeguard for the future. 

Your committee, therefore, desires to recommend 
that in the future all books to be published in the 
Workers’ Bookshelf that deal with trade union prob- 
lems receive the benefits of careful editorial read- 
ing by competent representatives of the American 
Federation of Labor, and we also urge all trade union- 
ists who read these books to make such constructive 
suggestions as they think will be helpful to the 
Workers Education Bureau. We believe in the value 
of such a bookshelf and we request the co-operation 
of the movement in making this of the greatest 
service to our membership. 

LaBorR PREss 

Your committee heartily endorses that portion of 
the Executive Council’s report dealing with the Labor 
Press and the very important part it plays with the 
development of the trade union movement. We 
recommend that the Labor Press of America be 
urged to give continued support to the program of 
the American Federation of Labor and to give extra 
emphasis to the value of extending Workers’ Educa- 
tion in every community. Your committee is deeply 
impressed with the opportunity for the development 
of this most important auxiliary of the labor move- 
ment and earnestly urges that our membership give 
greater support to its development and growth, to 
the end that it shall always, as it should, give ex- 
pression to the hopes and aspirations of labor as rep- 
resented by the American Federation of Labor. 

Workers’ EpucaTion BuREAU OF AMERICA 

The Workers’ Education Bureau has - become 
such an important part of the educational activity of 
the American Federation of Labor that your Com- 
mittee feels that further endorsement is hardly 
necessary. The Bureau has been a most effective 
and efficient agency for the promotion of Workers’ 
Education in the United States; it has won its sup- 
port by the merits of its service. It has been prompt 
to recognize its mistakes during its pioneer period 
and. willing to make necessary correction. We agail 
commend the Bureau for its constructive and valua- 
ble aid in furtherance of the educational program 
of the American Federation of Labor. 

The suggestion of the Executive Council that the 
Executive Committee of the Workers’ Education 
Bureau be so changed as to give more. responsible 
direction to supporting national and international 
unions and the American Federation of Labor is 4 
wise suggestion. We approve of it. It is a recom 
mendation by our Executive Council to the Execu- 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 17 


tive Committee of the Workers’ Education Bureau. 
We interpret this recommendation to represent an 
added express*-1 of interest and belief in the great 
service of this Bureau to the future of our Labor 
movement and a desire to be a more vital part of it. 
We do not understand that this suggestion repre- 
sents any want of confidence in the contribution of 
State Federations of Labor, Central Bodies and Lo- 
cal Unions in the administration of this program. 
We believe in their important part in the develop- 
ment of this educational program. 

We recommend therefore to this convention the 
adoption of this suggestion of the Executive Council 
and urge a more active affiliation and responsible 
co-operation by the other units of the American 
Federation of Labor in the development of this im- 


portant movement. 


Weex END CONFERENCE 

The plan of the Week End Educational Con- 
ference for the discussion of industrial questions 
which has been initiated and sponsored by the 
Workers’ Education Movement has been listed by 
the Executive Council as one of the outstanding 
achievements for the year. We concur in this be- 
lief. They open up a new and important method of 
securing important facts and of developing the tech- 
nique of industrial relations. 

Your committee notes with deep interest the in- 
tention of the Workers’ Education Bureau to hold 
such conferences in different parts of the country 
during the coming year. It recommends that all 
national, international, state federation and central 
labor bodies lend all possible assistance in making 
these conferences a success and of the greatest serv- 
ice to the members of the American Federation of 
Labor. 

Passaic WorKERS’ EDUCATION PROGRAM 

The establishment of an Educational Department 
in the City of Passaic to co-operate with the United 
Textile Workers of America in their difficult task 
and the achievements of that Educational depart- 
ment are of the first significance. Your committee 
can hardly imagine a center where the educational 
work would be more difficult. By the measure of 
the difficulty, is the accomplishment to be rated. 

What has been demonstrated in Passaic should be 
of great value in other centers. What has been won 
in the way of community support can not be over- 
estimated, 

Your Committee therefore recommends that this 
convention go on record as endorsing the educational 


program wholeheartedly and commend the Work- 
ers’ Education Bureau, the local Education Director 
of Workers’ Education and the United Textile 
Workers of America on their joint achievement. 
LaBor INSTITUTES AND SUMMER SCHOOLS 

The growth of summer schools and labor insti- 
tutes as a part of the program of the Workers’ Edu- 
cation Movement is’) a sound development. The 
utilization of college campuses in this country for 
such summer schools under representative workers’ 
educational committees is an important event. At 
the present time but a small proportion of over 700 
colleges and universities in the country have any pro- 
vision for summer instruction. If our Workers Ed- 
ucation Movement can utilize some of these plants 
for summer schools of their own it will be most 
valuable. 

The holding of Labor Institutes of shorter dura- 
tion to discuss problems of current interest to indi- 
vidual unions or groups of unions may be a most 
useful method of stock taking in union progress. 
They should prove to be a most valuable way of 
formulating or developing new methods for labor. 

Your committee recommends to this convention 
that they record their approval of the general pur- 
pose of such summer schools and labor institutes for 
wage earners when conducted under the auspices of 
the Workers’ Education Bureau. 

RESEARCH 

The work of the Research Department of the 
Workers’ Education Bureau is a much needed adjunct 
to the Workers’ Education movement. It should aid 
greatly in developing new methods of instruction and 
new material for study class use. While only a begin- 
ning has been made we feel that it is filling a real 
need. 

Your committee therefore adds its endorsement 
to this work and recommends to affiliated unions and 
study classes the wider use of its facilities. 

THe FirTtH NatTionaL CONVENTION 

We recommend the action of the Executive Board 
of the Workers’ Education Bureau in holding their 
fifth National Convention in the Boston Public 
Library. Libraries are public institutions, In America 
our public libraries are making conspicuous and worth 
while efforts to aid the adult education of the citi- 
zens of their community. We congratulate both the 
Workers’ Education Bureau and the Boston Public 
Library on this splendid expression of co-operative 
effort. 

Your Committee desires to recommend to this 





18 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


convention the endorsement and approval of the 
major actions taken by the Boston convention of the 
Workers’ Education Bureau in the development of 
its own work. 

AFFILIATIONS 

The affiliations of the National and International 
Unions, State Federations, Central Bodies and Local 
Unions have made a commendable increase during 
the past year. Yet no educational agency can func- 
tion up to the maximum unless it has an adequate in- 
come to carry forward its program and a constitu- 
ency through which to function. 

Your committee therefore recommends to this 
convention that the Executive Council of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor be authorized again to ap- 
peal to all national and international unions, state 
federations, central bodies and local unions to un- 
dertake active affiliation and support of the Workers 
Education Bureau so that it can be of the maximum 
service to the American Labor Movement. 


MEMORIALS 
Two memorials, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation 
and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 
were promoted actively through the office of the 


American Federation of Labor. Your committee re- 
commends hearty commendation and approval of 
these activities. 
Speciat Days 

Labor’s Memorial Sunday, the fourth Sunday in 
May; Labor Sunday, the day preceding the first Mon- 
day in September; and the following day or Labor 
Day are Labor’s special days. Fitting observance of 
these days is urged so that the power of the labor 
movement may be continually revered. “These are 
the days on which we turn from material things to 
their meaning or their spiritual purposes. The labor 
movement is fundamentally an effort to realize spir- 
itual purposes—to enable men and women to free 
themselves from situations and hardships that re- 
strict their development.” : 

Pusiic HEALTH 

We recommend that the President of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor bring to the attention of 
the President of the United States the failure of the 
Budget Bureau to provide necessary funds for the 
Public Health Service. We feel great satisfaction in 
the work of President Green to secure an investiga- 
tion of the harmfulness of the pneumatic hammer in 
its effects upon the workers. We commend the Har- 
vard School program and recommend that efforts 
be continued to co-operate with the United States 


Health Service to secure sufficient congressional ap- 
propriation for industrial hygiene research so that 
the service may be able to maintain adequate re- 
search. 
HEALTH 

One of the prominent activities of the American 
Federation of Labor has been to create conditions 
that would conserve the physical and mental health 
of the children of our nation. To this end your 
committee concurs in the recommendation of the 
Executive Council and urges that a joint resolution 
be presented to Congress asking the creation of May 
1 as Child Health Day, and that all affiliated bodies 
seek to have their state legislators approve May 1, 
as Child Health Day. 

TrRapE MARKS 

We recommend that efforts be continued to secure 
the passage through Congress of a bill providing for 
the registration of union labels. 

Cump LaBor 

It is hardly conceivable that in America where we 
pride ourselves on a sense of fair play and decency 
that a campaign marked by misstatements and 
vituperation could have been conducted successfully 
even temporarily by the opponents of the child la- 
bor amendment. In most cases the opponents of the 
amendment masqueraded as patriots. Yet in spite 
of the funds at their disposal in spite of their insid- 
ious propaganda and elaborate machinery for spread- 
ing their misrepresentations, they must ultimately 
fail in their efforts to keep the childhood of the 
nation in economic bondage. 

Notwithstanding the fact that some states have 
amended their statutes raising the standards for 
school attendance and work protection, child labor 
has increased the past year. The opponents of the 
child labor amendment have failed to make good 
on their statement that progress would be made. It 
has been found that governors and other public offi- 
cials who had demanded the right of the states to leg- 
islate on child labor just as actively opposed amend- 


ments to state labor laws as they did the proposed 


constitutional amendment. Most pernicious propa- 
ganda was sent to the various states against the 
amendment. Child labor has increased in 24 out of 
29 large industrial cities. Eight out of twelve states 
reported increases. This increase is a stain on Amefi- 
ca’s national honor. 

To make our work to bring about the ratification 
of the child labor amendment more effective, wé 
recommend that the American Federation of Labor 








for 


TSA See Be a_sese 


a 6 


& 





be empowered to enlist the fullest moral and finan- 
cial support of its members in their efforts to rouse 
the conscience of America against the evil of child 
slavery. 
RESOLUTIONS 
AUTHORIZING PROVISION FOR REGIONAL DIRECTORS 
ror Workers’ EpucaTION BUREAU 


Resolution No. 86.—By Delegates John E. Gross, 
Colorado State Federation of Labor, and Harry W. 
Fox, Wyoming State Federation of Labor. 

WHEREAS, The American Federation of Labor 
at previous conventions has given its whole-hearted 
approval of workers’ education and of the program 
of the Workers’ Education Bureau; and 

WHEREAS, Further experience offers convincing 
evidence of the value to the workers and their move- 
ment for emancipation from low wages, untoward 
working conditions and long hours of labor, of that 
knowledge to be secured by the formation of workers’ 
study classes and labor institutes; and 

WHEREAS, Such a movement to be wholly suc- 
cessful requires the services of regional or state direc- 
tors, men or women who are qualified both from the 
standpoint of acquaintanceship with the real problems 
of the worker and with the unions of workers and 
their programs; and 

WHEREAS, In most instances city and state cen- 
tral labor bodies, being voluntary associations of dele- 
gates representing affiliated local unions, are without 
the power to assess their affiliates to carry on this 
very important work of education; and 

WHEREAS, We believe that this work can best 
be conducted with regard to the proper selection of 
such regional or state educational directors by some 
central agency, whether that agency be the Executive 
Council of the American Federation of Labor or the 
Workers’ Education Bureau acting under and with 
its authority and with the approval and support of 
the various national and international unions com- 
prising the American Federation of Labor; now there- 
fore, be it 


RESOLVED, By the forty-seventh annual conven- 


tion of the American Federation of Labor, assembled 
at Los Angeles, California, October 3, 1927, that we 
again voice our approval of workers’.education and 
authorize the President of the American Federation 
of Labor, in conference with the Workers’ Education 
Bureau, to devise ways and means by which. State 
and Regional Directors may be selected; and, be it 
further 






THE AMERICAN TEACHER 19 


RESOLVED, That the incoming Executive Coun- 
cil of the American Federation of Labor give careful 
consideration to the raising of any additional funds 
made necessary by this designation of Educational 
Directors, such directors to be financed only for 
localities or states where it is impractical for any 
reason for the state or locality to finance such un- 
dertaking; and be it further 

RESOLVED, That any regional or State Director 
so chosen shall be qualified to interpret the principles 
of our recognized labor movement, as well as quali- 
fied from an educagional standpoint, shall become 
members of the American Federation of Teachers 
and maintain such membership while employed fn 
that capacity, and shall be designated as Volunteer 
Organizers of the American Federation of Labor— 
to receive such stipend as the Executive Council 
of the American Federation of Labor may determine. 

The subject matter of this resolution was given 
careful consideration by your committee, which 
agrees with the general spirit of this resolution and 
has so stated in its report on Workers’ Education 
Bureau. It does not find itself in agreement with the 
methods proposed and therefore non-concurs in the 
resolution. 

OrGANIzeD Lasor SHOoutD Be Property REPRE- 
SENTED ON ADMINISTRATIVE AND ADVISORY 
Boarps DrrecTInG VOCATIONAL 
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS 

Resolution No. 87—-By Delegates Matthew Woll 
and Henry F. Schmal of the International Photo- 
Engravers’ Union. 

WHEREAS, Organized labor has always advocated 
adequate provision under public control for the edu- 
cation and training of the workers; and 

WHEREAS, Thé American Federation of Labor 
was largely instrumental in the initiation of publicly- 
controlled programs of Vocational Education; and 

WHEREAS, Organized labor has continued to 
support and to co-operate in the development of such 
programs; and 

WHEREAS, Organized labor has always stood for 
the maintenance of the standards of the trade and 
for the proper selection and further training of 
those preparing to enter the trade, as well as for 
the widest opportunity for those already employed, 
to secure additional education and training at pub- 
lic expense; therefore, be it 

RESOLVED, That the American Federation of 
Labor endorses such programs of vocational educa- 

(Continued on Page 26.) 


















































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: 
327 South LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois 
Frorence Curtis Hanson, Secretery-Treasurer and Editor 








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“. ... The great and final enterprise of humanity 
is to let in the light, to let all the light all the way 
in.”—Joseph Fort Newton, Baccalaureate Address at 


University of Virginia. 





TEACHERS AS CITIZENS 

Are teachers functioning as citizens? Are they 
taking an active part in the civic life of their com- 
munities? I fear the answer with few exceptions is, 
“No.” The teacher needs to be aroused to a realiza- 
tion of the deplorably low status to which he has 
dropped. He needs to know that he has permitted 
himself to drop to this low status. He needs to know 
that the remedy lies in himself alone. 

Are the teachers citizens or are they serfs? Let 
them answer. Let us have some real honesty. When 
citizens’ committees are formed to examine into any 
community problem, educational or otherwise, are 
the teachers invited to send their representatives, 
or are they practically the only group omitted? Look 
into the personnel of school committees throughout 
the country and you will find every group and class 
represented except the teachers, whose business the 
schools are. No other group has so little to say about 
that which is its business, the schools, about the 
working conditions, about the standards that con- 
trol the teachers’ work. Teachers sign contracts that 
a street sweeper would scorn. Efforts even have been 
made to disfranchise the teacher completely by 
rules that teachers shall take no part in elections. 
Teachers accept with thanks a pension system that 
ties them to that particular community and makes 
it impossible to change their position without finan- 
cial loss. What is a serf, anyway? 


Of course there are some conspicious exceptions, 
The union teacher has won his freedom and self- 
respect. Unionization gives the teacher recognition 
both through Labor and through his own union. 
Unionization makes the teacher a power whose voice 
is heard and heeded. The union teacher is a real 
citizen with social awareness and civic conscience. 

ARE YOU? 





THE AMERICAN FEDERATION 
OF TEACHERS 


Eleven years ago the American Federation of 
Teachers was organized as a protest against the 
abuses of power that had grown up in school admin- 
istrations, as a means for combatting the influ- 
ence of autocratic domination of the schools by 
special interests and as an-expression of the social 
vision of a few teachers who were thinking in terms 
of community interest and social progress. 

During these eleven years wisdom has been justi- 
fied of her children, and today the founders of the 
American Federation of Teachers can watch with 
pride the growing membership, the widening influ- 
ence and the increasing interest in this significant 
movement. 

When our purposes mature we shall witness among 
other things the emergence of a real teaching pro- 
fession. Only when the members of a group them- 
selves fix the standards for the group, and function 
in the community as a self-directing agency, can 
such a group be called a profession. Measured by 
this yardstick teachers, comparatively speaking, have 
hardly begun to sense their responsibility. They must 
become group-conscious, determine standards fort 
themselves, develop solidarity, mobilize the intelli- 
gence and the spirit inherent in the group into 4 
group program. Only in this way can they protect 
themselves and their work from exploitation. Only 
in this way can they render the best and most effec- 
tive service as the architects of that social order 
which the youth of today are building for tomor- 
row. 

When the teacher becomes free from fear and 
intimidation the pupil immediately becomes the heir 
to new possibilities for growth and development. To 
quote from the preamble to the constitution of the 
American Federation of Teachers: 

“We believe that servility breeds servility, and 
that if the schools are to produce free, unafraid men 
and women, American citizens of the highest typ¢; 
the teachers must live and work in an atmosphere 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


of freedom and self-respect.” 

The American Federation of Teachers will not 
waver in its demand that every child have the best 
opportunity possible for self-development and every 
one those privileges which contribute to the life more 
abundant. 

The organization has been denounced, criticized, 
praised and congratulated for its affiliation with the 
American Federation of Labor. Those who have dis- 
approved that affiliation probably have little under- 
standing of the aims and purposes and practices 
of organized labor and the American Federation of 
Labor. The American Federation of Teachers is 
proud of the affiliation, for we know of no other 
large group that is so sincerely and intently and 
courageously and purposefully working for human 
uplift and social progress as is this group. The labor 
movement represents the struggle upward of man- 
kind. The different groups have organized and come 
into being for the same reason that we have. It is 
all the urge to human freedom and progress, and it 
is the natural thing for each new group to join 
those already in the struggle in order that weak- 
ness may become strength and success be more cer- 
tain of accomplishment. 

The American Federation of Labor is made up of 
autonomous national unions, each managing its own 
business. The American Federation of Teachers is 
no exception to the rule. In our great common in- 
terests we are one. If space allowed we could show 
how society at large stands to gain immeasurably 
by this teacher movement as it has gained and will 
continue to advance through the labor movement. 





“Citizenship today must be broader than nation- 
alism. There must be an international consciousness; 
there must be an ‘international heart,’ and a ‘world 
mind.’ This ‘world mind’ is largely an attitude or 
habit of thinking in the larger units of the world 
and the habit of regarding the nations as co-operat- 
ing parts of the great whole. It is learning to meas- 
ure other peoples by their own standards and getting 
their point of view. It is a recognition of those great 
Virtues, attitudes, traits, and ideals which constitute 
national character. The question now is, ‘Has the 
world progressed to such a point or will it ever 
come to such a point in the fundamental prin- 
ciples of morality that the nations can live together 
as sharers of the world’s civilization?” "—Dr. Augus- 
tus O. Thomas, at World Conference on Education, 
San Francisco, 1923. 


THE STORY OF THE AGES 

(Ernest H. Crosby, in California Labor Press) 

To make men pull together—that was the aim 
which civilization set before itself. 

And first slavery showed the way. Men pulled 
together at the word of command. The pyramids 
rose. Rome swallowed the earth—men worked long 
and wearily and without a doubt that here was the 
finality of things. 

Their dreamers and sages and saints avery picture 
no golden age without slaves. 

And the strong arm of the law made them toil. 

But man grew and looked, and asked why—and 
slayery shriveled and died. 

And still the object was to make men pull to- 
gether. 

And the wage system showed the way. 

One man grasped all the good things he could and 
hugged them and said to those who had none: “Work 
for me, and I will give you a little.” 

Men pulled together again with hunger in their 
eyes, 

Factories sprang up, railways encircled the earth 
—men labored long and eagerly and without a doubt 
that here was the finality of things. 

Their dreamers and sages and saints could picture 
no golden age without the wage system. 

And the strong arm of the law guarded the piles 
of good things.and let the men go. 

For now the men: strove to get work, and it was 
no one’s interest to keep them through the winter 
and the death of a man, such as once fetched his 
weight in coin, no longer was of consequence, for 
another would do as well. 

But man grew and looked, and asks why—and 
the wage system blanches with terror. 

There is.e.new. way.\to:teske.men pull. sogether. 

Love, free co-operation, equal service, true honor, 
and honesty—have you never thought of these 
things? 

Let us dream better than the old dreamers—and 
pull together. 





“If our schools are to serve toward and in the 
international world, the instruction in them must 
be modified to that end. . . . . In all the school 
work that affects our estimate of the policies and 
conditions of another country and our attitude 
toward it, we must substitute reason for prejudice, 
knowledge for ignorance, and information for pas- 
sion.”—School and Society, May 14, 1921. 





OO 0 Re oe. et 
* 
= - = = = = - " 


- a ee 
* —_ “ oss 








22 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


THE SERVICE OF WORKERS’ EDUCATION 
TO LABOR’S CAUSE 
By F. L. Kerchen, Director of Workers’ Education 
One of the most difficult tasks for one who pro- 
fesses the business of workers’ education is to show 
in clear detail its real significance to labor. It is 
all very easy to give glib, glowing generalizations 
on the value of education to labor, but to point out 
exactly how valuable and just where valuable, pre- 
sents many difficulties. The enumeration of a satis- 
factory bill of particulars showing precise applica- 
tions of the value of workers’ education to labor is 
an achievement which is yet to be accomplished. At 
present its value is potential rather than achieved. 
There are many quite obvious reasons for this 
situation. In the first place, there is the defensive 
position the educator must assume, due to much 
of the unsavory tradition of education. Education 
has been used in the service of every evil that has 
afflicted mankind. It has in turn served many keep- 
ers. In pre-industrial states of culture it was the 


mark of religious caste. It has always been the spec- 
ial prerogative of leisure class tradition and culture. 
In the Middle Ages it was the proper adornment of 


the lady and the gentleman. As the tool of ancient 
and modern states, it has justified slavery, feudalism, 
despotism and every form of industrial oppression. 
In view of these things, that it should be regarded 
with some degree of suspicion is only natural. 

In the development of American education atten- 
tion was first given to a training of the men of 
God. The second consideration was an education for 
the men of the state, that is, the lawyers, teachers 
and politicians. Scientific education during the mid- 
dle of the last century was strenuously opposed by 
the foregoing groups, but finally made entrance into 
the curricula of our schools because it conducted to 
the welfare of those possessing economic power. 
Education of the masses, the children of the poor, was 
shocking to all the privileged class, but most vigor- 
ously opposed by the more prosperous tax-paying cit- 
izens of our country. Free education for American 
workers was the result of the voting power that or- 
ganized workers had secured a few decades before. 

The second suspicion that labor sustains to edu- 
cation is: After all, is education worth while, so 
much as its promoters claim? In other words, do 
fundamental, causal forces in society arise because 
of education or independently of education? Even 
a very superficial analysis of our modern industrial 
life would reveal that the whole new business of 


living during these last hundred years, with its tre. 
mendous improvements in producing food, clothing, 
shelter, education, recreation and sanitation was du 
to the effects of machine industry and applied s¢j- 
ence, and developed almost wholly within the in. 
dustry, inside the shop and outside of formal educa. 
tion and the school. As educators we may phildso- 
phize about the event, but in reality we had littl 
if anything to do with it. This observation force 
us to face the question of whether or not of certain 
types of education, is not industry itself the best 
teacher. For training in vocations most likely it is, 
A third reason why labor suspects education and 
educators is that it is extremely difficult to note 
any characteristic superiority of the school man over 
the man of equal ability educated in the labor 
movement. Somehow or other the Gompers, the 
Greens, the Wolls, the Freys, and many others of 
the labor movement, leave the convincing impres- 
sion that somewhere they have received a mighty 
efficient education. They did not get it in school; 
they did get it in the labor movement itself. 
Then, again, labor asks the educator: Is not the 
very work of the local labor union, inherently, en- 
tirely within itself the best instrument for workers’ 
education ever devised? There is no other education 
so real as the education of the local union; no fel- 
lowship that is so close, no urge for human better- 
ment so keen and no practical democracy that is 
so genuine. Only in the union are the vital prob- 
lems of a wage earner properly emphasized and ade- 
quately praised. It is in the union that economic 
issues and labor problems take on a life-and-death 
significance.—Contra Costa County Labor Journal. 





VERMONT TEACHERS FINANCE CAMPAIGN 


The teachers of Vermont are financing their own 
illiteracy campaign. They not only volunteer to do 
the teaching, but the State Teachers’ Association 
appropriates the funds to carry on the movement. 
Vermont is a state which has a small percentage of 
illiteracy, but she is determined to blot it ont ¢- 
tirely. Her fight is being led by. a State Illiteracy 
Commission of which Mr. Frederick W. Wallace, 
District Superintendent of Schools, is chairman. The 
other members are Carl Batchelder, Deputy State 
Commissioner of Education; Mrs. Margaret Kelly, 
State Helping Teacher; Kenneth Sheldon, Deputy 
State Commissioner of Education, and Miss Caroline 
S.. Woodruff, Principal, Castleton State Normal 
Training School. 








Dres- 


BE &. 





EBRSSREESE SR ek Ses & 





NAPOLEON AS A CORRESPONDENT 
By L. C. Breep 

The greatest letter writer known in history was 
Napoleon I. Owing to the extent and variety of the 
interests that he personally directed after he became 
the ruler of France, the bulk of his correspondence 
was dictated to his secretaries, and naturally, in the 
main, these letters partook of the nature of instruc- 
tions in regard to carrying out his wishes. Indepen- 
dent, however, of the affairs of state, he wrote many 
letters to his relatives and personal friends with his 
own hand. Two volumes of his personal correspon- 
dence have been published and afford through their 
perusal what is doubtless the best and most reliable 
methods of discesning the human characteristics of 
the great emperor that is available to students of his 
career. 

The reader of the books referred to will perceive 
that Napoleon’s letters are characterized by the 
traits of his personality. In his enormous correspon- 
dence one might say there is not a superfluous word. 
Conciseness, energy, decision and perception stand 
out with the utmost force. “Write plain,” he said, 
“and the rest will follow.” A marked feature in his 
letters is the short sentence. 

Las Cases, in his Memoirs of Napoleon, states 
that an English military officer of rank asked him 
if Napoleon was really capable of writing. Las Cases 
inquired if he had ever seen“the Emperor’s military 
proclamation. On learning in the affirmative, but 
with the qualification that he supposed these had 
been prepared for him, Las Cases informed this 
English officer that at the age of twenty-seven, Na- 
poleon had been a member of the French Institute. 

At St. Helena, the Emperor avowed he did not 
suppose that a minister or other public official who 
was immersed in the duties of his official position 
could stop to write orthographically. He claimed 
that this ought not to be expected. “Under such 
circumstances, his ideas,” he said, “must flow faster 
than his hand can trace; he has only time to place 
his points; he must put words in letters, and 
phrases in words; and let the scribes make it out 
afterward.” The Emperor in later years, left a great 
deal for the copyist to do; he was their torment; his 
hand-writing actually formed hieroglyphics; he often 
could not decipher it himself. 

In reading Napoleon’s correspondence one soon 
discovers that he had a keen sense of humor and 
dearly loved to take advantage of any circumstance 
or remark that would afford him an opportunity to 












THE AMERICAN TEACHER 23 


display good-natured pleasantry. On the other hand, 
when the occasion called for it, he could write kind- 
ly, even, in some instances, tenderly in expressing 
his concern or offering his sympathy. When angry 
his words had the metallic ring given by steel. 

At St. Helena, he undertook to learn the English 
language, and while he ultimately was able to read 
books and papers tolerably readily, he did not suc- 
ceed either in writing or in speaking English. Here 
is an example of an attempt at writing a letter: 

“Count Lascasas: Since sixt wek, y learn the 
English and y do not any progress. Sixt week do 
fourty and two day. If might have learn forty 
word, for day, i could know it two thousands and 
two hundred. It is in the dictionary more of foorty 
thousand; even if he could most twenty; bot much 
of tems. For know it an hundred and twenty week 
which do more two years. After this you shall agree 
that the study one fomgue is a great labor who it 
must do into the young aged.” 

During the years of his life, spent in Paris, he 
accumulated a library of about 5,000 volumes. In 
addition to his duties as custodian, the librarian was 
charged with the analysis of all journals which were 
not political, and to furnish reports of literary and 
and religious assemblies. Any book which particu- 
larly interested him was covered in the margin with 
notes and his wonderful memory enabled him to 
remember much of the contems of the books in his 
private library. This marvelous man for upwards of 
fifteen years, not only could grasp the whole, but 
entered into the details the affairs of an empire con- 
sisting of eighty millions of people. 

Writers that have dealt with Napoleon are unani- 
mous in the opinion that his correspondence, which 
comprises upwards of thirty-two volumes, is a great 
literary monument. It is so expressive of the native 
temperament of its author, that the reader who 
opens a volume, no matter at what place, readily rec- 
ognizes that he who composed or dictated these let- 
ters and orders was the Emperor. His vocabulary was 
not especially wide, but always exact. He was happy 
in hitting upon metaphors and figures of speech, 
and his aphorisms are in the possession of the peo- 
ple. The study of Napoleon’s correspondence, inde- 
pendent of the light which it sheds on the history 
and life of his times, is of value for the.inspiration 
which his utterances impart. This study is calculated 
to broaden the mind, elevate the heart and sharpen 
the intellect, since in this manner one is brought into 
(Continued on Page 25.) 































































THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





BOOKS 


Books are the legacies that a great genius 
leaves to mankind.—Addison. 





THE MISSION OF THE NORTH COUNTRIES 
By John E. Kirkpatrick 
Light From the North, by Joséph K. Hart, New 
York, Henry Holt and Company, $1.50. 


The Folk High Schools of Denmark and the Devel- 
opment of a Farming Community, by Holger 
Begtrup, Hans Lund and Peter Manniche, with an 
introduction by Sir Michael Sadler. London, Oxford 
University Press. 

Here are two indispensable books for those who are 
interested in the most characteristic and perhaps sig- 
nificant, educational development of the past half 
century, and a little more, for the Danish folk schools 
have had above sixty years of history. The careful 
reader will be most interested in the book written 
by the three Danes who are themselves teachers in 
these schools. The casual reader will most readily 
get a clear idea of these unique schools from Dr. 
Hart’s book, though he will need to read also his 
Adult Education, if he wishes to know just what this 
pioneer in educational theory is thinking while he 
describes these Danish schools. 

In the first half of the nineteenth century, Prof. 
Hart tells us, “Denmark was nothing but problems,” 
problems which could be solved “‘only by developing 
a race of free men, intelligent citizens.” Bishop 
Grundtvig (1783-1872) who is known as the “Father 
of the Folk High Schools,” believed the primitive 
farm people of his native land could be trusted with 
freedom, if any way could be found to get it to them. 
A new type of schools was necessary, schools “not for 
learning but for life; and not for childhood uses, but 
for the use of the adult world .... Above all he 
determined not to be content with repeating knowl- 
edge unless such repetition produced intelligence in 
the adult generation.” Hence it is that these Danish 
schools came into existence to serve young people 
between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, aiming 
to “awaken” and not merely to “fill” the mind. And 
thus it was that certain Danish leaders set themselves 
the task of developing the latent intelligence of the 
peasant just as others undertook to recover the health 
and to make more of the old farms. Their “method 
grew out of the Danish—nay the wisely human— 
doctrine that education is a life-long process; that 
schools do not educate; that the most any school can 
do is to help the individual to find himself, somewhat, 
and initiate him into methods which he can use for 
his self-education.” Dr. Hart thinks the “best educa- 


tional instrument in the present world” is the Danish 
agricultural village which has itself in good part been 
produced by the folk colleges which bring into play at 
just the right time in the youth’s career the “leader. 
ship, the stimulation, and the spiritual guidance of 
the experience of the race as embodied in a few great 
teachers,” strong personalities who stand out in strik- 
ing contrast with our own “instruction foremen.” 


The last named of these little books has only 165 
pages but it supplies an historical review of this 
notable free school movement and at the same time 
furnishes a clear portrait of its early leaders. There 
is first the prophet of the movement, N. F. S. Grund- 
tvig, who did not himself succeed in organizing a 
school but lived to see several of them in effective 
service. ‘There is next Christian Kold, son of a shoe- 
maker, who organized the first successful folk high 
school and who worked on the theory that enliven- 
ing rather than enlightenment was necessary for 
young adults. There is also Ludvig Schroeder who 
taught the “poetry of active and practical human 
life,” and organized the most famous of the schools 
at Askov where now is found the center of the folk 
school life. Here also folk school teachers are trained 
for the entire country. We are shown how these 
schools helped recover the national spirit after the 
defeat by Prussia and Austria in 1864, how they 
saved the common people of the lost province of 
Schleswig when the townsmen and landlords would 
have submitted to Germanization, and hew the free 
and inventive mind of the high school farmer turned 
to turnips and butter when the foreign grains des- 
troyed the Danish markets, at the same time making 
Denmark the most highly organized and thoroughly 
co-operative society in the world. We see also these 
Danish farmers, led by men who studied life rather 
than agriculture in these high schools, contending 
successfully for political equality against the aristo- 
cracy, the urban commercialist and even ‘ the 
proletarians. 

This little English book, printed in Copenhagen, 
furnishes also a clear picture of these schools as going 
concerns. They are all privately owned, the pro 
prietor usually being the principal or warden. They 
are residence schools having usually about 200 stu- 
dents with a small staff of three or four teachers 
living with the young people who come to them 
voluntarily. Public aid is received both by the schools 
and by the needy students but the state exercises 
no control over either. There are no formal instruc- 
tional lectures, eloquence is discarded and the “living 
word” is depended upon as the chief means of “in- 
spiration.” Once the mind is free, it is said, once 
the spirit is alert, the youth will readily secure his 
information. Hence, these teachers deal with history 





RSRERR ES 


— 
i-J 
’ 


378 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 25 


in a large way, with literature as an expression of 
life, with science as a method by which man has 
gained control over nature, and they use the folk 
songs as an expression of the people’s spirit. They 
assign no lessons, impose no tests, give no credits and 
offer no degrees. The students, after one or two 
terms of five winter months for the boys (three 
summer months for the girls) may go on to the 
university, to the agricultural schools or back to the 
farms. Seventy-five per cent of them come from the 
farms (only 5 per cent from the towns and cities) 
and they usually all return to the farms, though 
these schools have not tried to make farmers of them. 
Denmark seems to have neither a “youth problem” 
or a “rural problem,” these “schools of life” for the 
farmer having solved both problems. 

The Danes are proud of these folk colleges and 
believe that in them they have a mission, the “great 
educational mission of the Northern peoples” as Bish- 
op Grundtvig said. As yet these schools are confined 
to the north, about 60 of them in Denmark—only 
one of these in a city where the proletarians are well 
organized but indifferent to the institution that has 
made the farmer powerful. There are 52 such schools 
in Sweden with 4,000 students, 32 in Norway with 
2,000 students and six in the United States with 
about 300 students. Perhaps there is here a “light in 
the north” for the American farmer—and citizenry. 
—New York Herald-Tribune. © 


| ee eee | 
The 


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for the Schools 
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find here a ready accurate answer. 2,700 pages; 

entries, including 408,00@ vocabulary terms, 12, ° 

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One of the wisest of our school superintendents says: “TI 

have never yet seen a person, whether pupil or teacher, 

who was accustomed to the frequent use of the dictionary 

who was not at the same time 

& good or superior all-round 

Scholar. A better test than 

this of the value of dictionary 

work could not be found.” 


Write for 
Helps in 
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\ Springfield, Massachusetts j 


AMERICANISM WELL INTERPRETED BY 
RUPERT HUGHES 

The American Legion Weekly for July contained 
an admirable article by Rupert Hughes in advocacy 
of free speech and particularly condemning the at- 
tempts that have been made by mistaken patriots 
all over the country to suppress it. The article 
should be read. We can quote here only a few of 
the striking sentences: 

“Many of the most violent protectors of Amer- 
icanism are doing their best to destroy it or make 
it a by-word of oppression and intolerance. I am 
such a lover of my country and of the liberties it 
is built upon that I actually think that there are 
good arguments for Americanism. I sincerely be- 


lieve that, properly stated and properly exemplified, 
Americanism is based upon reasons and sentiments 
that can be justified without appeal to force, the 
gag or mob rule. I hate to think that the only proof 


of American principles is a brick-bat. 


Ex-ServicE MEN FRIGHTENED COLLEGE PRESIDENT 
Into CANCELLING SPEAKER’s ENGAGEMENT 
“As late as 1926 it is actually true that a group of 

American ex-service men frightened a college pres- 

ident into cancelling the engagement of a woman 

who was to speak against what she calls militarism. 

A college professor claims that he has been investi- 

gated as a spy, and a public enemy. Pacifists are 

called traitors—a word which was used of George 

Washington once. ‘The favorite word of abuse is 

‘red.’ To call a person ‘red’ is supposed to end 

all argument, and amount to a sentence of imprison- 

ment. 

“Now I am as bitter against pacifism as anybody. 
But I have never said, never felt for 2 moment, that 
the ladies and gentlemen who disagree with me were 
traitors or Russians. ° 

“There is only one liberty that deserves the name, 
and that is the liberty that grants even to its enemies 
every privilege it claims for itself. So long as we 
hold to that creed we can not fear time or eternity. 
No other Americanism is American,”—National 
Council Prevention of- War News Bulletin. 


NAPOLEON AS A CORRESPONDENT 
(Continued from Page 23.) 
close contact with the greatest intellect that has 


appeared on this earth. To those wishing a study 
in psychology, these letters are commended, as it 
would be well nigh impossible to find a greater 
psychological enigma than that which the personality 
of Napoleon offers for solution. 











26 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 


(Continued from Page 19.) 
tional education wherever such programs are so or- 


ganized and conducted that organized labor is prop- 
erly represented on national, state and local admin- 
istrative advisory boards directing such educational 
programs. 

Your committee recommends concurrence in Reso- 
lution No. 87. 


Urcinc ORGANIZATIONS To DeEposir RECORDS OF 
Trapve Union History at A. F. or L. Heap- 
QUARTERS FOR AVAILIBILITY TO 
STUDENTS AND AUTHORS 

Resolution No. 88—By Delegates Matthew Woll 
and Henry F. Schmal of the International Photo- 
Engravers’ Union. 

WHEREAS, It is important that histories, text 
books and other literature which have a formative 
influence on national life be written so as to give 
due weight to economic, industrial and labor devel- 
opments, as well as political events, and that the 
panorama of history be so presented as to give a true 
picture of social development; and 

WHEREAS, Adequate records of trade union his- 
tory are essential to furnish material for this liter- 
ature; and 

WHEREAS, Numbers of valuable union records 
are now unavailable to students and authors because 
they are scattered among innumerable local and in- 
ternational unions, city central and state bodies, and 
private individuals, where their existence is known 
only to a few; therefore, be it 

RESOLVED, That the Committee on Education 
be authorized to provide for the safekeeping of these 
records in American Federation of Labor headquar- 
ters and to urge all unions and individuals to send 
to this central repository their records of union de- 
velopments, whether in the form of letters, clippings 
from periodicals, publications of their unions, litera- 
ture for ‘distribution, etc.; and, be it further 

RESOLVED, That the Committee on Education 
be directed to maintain its work of examining text 
books for use in the public schools and conferring 
with authors so that it may further a fair and fully- 
rounded presentation of social, economic and politi- 
cal history; and be it further 

RESOLVED, That the Workers’ Education Bureau 
be requested to arrange for the compilation of his- 
tories of the different trade unions. 

Your committee recommends that Resolution No. 
88 be referred to the Executive Council. 


Opposinc LEGISLATION RESTRICTING TEACHING 
IN PuBLIc SCHOOLS 

Resolution No. 98 — By Delegates Florence ¢, 
Hanson of the American Federation of Teachers and 
Mary C. Baker of the Atlanta Federation of Trades, 

It is the understanding of the committee that 
there have been several pronouncements on this 
subject by the A. F. of L. in the past. Therefore we 
recommend the reference of this resolution to the 
permanent committee on education for such con. 
sideration and report through the Executive Coun- 
cil to the next convention as seems warranted. We 
insist on the imperative need and the right of teach- 
ers to be free to present such scientific theories, facts 
or opinions as are necessary to sound teaching with- 
out interference by legislative enactment. 
FEDERAL Alp To RE-EsTABLIsH PuBLic SCHOOLS IN 

FLoop STRICKEN AREAS 

Resolution No. 99 — By Delegates Florence C. 
Hanson of the American Federation of Teachers and 
Mary C. Baker of the Atlanta Federation of Trades, 

(Resolutions 98 and 99 appeared in November 
American Teacher. ) 

CREATIVE EDUCATION 

Organized labor regards education as a means to 
a nobler and better life. It takes pride not only in 
the part it has played in making possible publicly 
supported schools, but in its progressive educational 
outlook. After a survey of our educational system, 
the American Federation of Labor believes the time 
has arrived for a thoroughgoing reconstruction of 
our educational aims, methods and curricula so a 
to bring them into harmony with present day life 
Such a change will make it possible for our schools 
to function more effectively in the preparation of 
boys and girls for social living. 

It therefore recommends to the sympathetic but 
critical study of individual members and of educa- 
tional committees, of such modification of tradi- 
tional curricula, subject matter and methods as tend 
toward allowing the child more individual develop- 
ment and toward developing in him social awareness 
and civic conscience. 

The report of the committee unanimously adopted. 

James P. Noonan, Chairman; Florence Curtis Han- 
son, Secretary; John H. Walker, Thos. F. Kearney, 
H. C. Griffin, Henry F. Schmal, Thomas Farrell, 
Thomas E. Burke, M. O. Van De Water, Wm. RB 
Trotter, A. O, Wharton, R. H. Koch, John B. Hag- 
gerty, Lewis Bowen, B. M. Jewell, Committee 08 
Education. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


A new organization, known as the American Vo- 
cational Association, meets in Los Angeles on De- 
cember 17, 19 and 20, for its second annual conven- 
tion. 

This organization, although new in name, is old 
in spirit, since it results from the amalgamation of 
The Vocational Education Association of the middle 
west and The National Society for Vocational Edu- 
cation. Its membership consists of those interested in 
the vast change that has come over modern edu- 
cation wherein the need for a training for life em- 
ployment has been recognized. It represents all of 
those interested in trade and industrial education, 
home economics education, manual arts education, 
foreman training, retail store training, agricultural 
education, vocational rehabilitation, and vocational 
guidance. 





SOCIAL VALUE OF HOME ECONOMICS 
(Continued from Page 9.) 
duly criticized, for the difficulty is that they do not 
appreciate what constitutes a happy home and family 
nor do they understand the management of the fam- 
ily income, large or small, in order to get the most 
out of what they have. The same situation holds 
true in many cases of divorce when the wife becomes 


dissatisfied or the husband is discouraged and the re- 
sults are disastrous. Responsibility for such situations 
should be placed where it is most apt to belong—on 


_their earlier training. 


It is not unusual to read in our daily papers ac- 
counts of suicide because of despondency over ill- 
health or business reverses. If each tase were an- 
alyzed to its source, it is probable that lack of 
training in the fundamentals of health or of business 
management may have been the real cause. 

Lastly, we wish to call attention to the part Home 
Economics plays in the fellowship of man, in that 
it \stresses right relationship and responsibilities not 
only within the family group, but each individual's 
great responsibility in various ways to his neighbors, 
community, state, and nation. Time will not per- 
mit of further discussion of the social values of 
Home Economics, but those discussed seem to us of 
enough importance to justify Home Economics as a 
part of every youth’s public school experience. Time, 
money and energy thus expended are not wasted. 
Nothing is wasted in making the best possible citi- 
zens of our boys and girls. 

Surely, our public schools should live up to their 
great measure of responsibility in this as well as in 
all other lines of instruction. 








Buy Union Stamped Shoes 


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 


ey 





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. 


COLLIS LOVELY CHARLES L. BAINE 


General President General Secretary-Treasurer 








LOCAL NEWS 


CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 

The state convention of the California Federation 
of Teachers was held in San Francisco, October 15, 
1927. There were present the officers, President, 
Paul J. Mohr, Local 61; First Vice President Olive 
Wilson, Local 26; Second Vice President Ida Bar- 
nard, Local 72; Third Vice President Celia Dahring- 
er, Local 44; Secretary R. W. Everett, Local 31; 
Treasurer A. V. Wilde, Local 31; State Organizer 
John L. Kerchen, and delegates from Locals 26, 31, 
44, 61, and 72. Mrs. Florence C. Hanson, the na- 
tional secretary-treasurer was present and spoke on 
the American Federation of Labor convention in 
Los Angeles and on the increasing interest among 
teachers everywhere in the American Federation of 
Teachers. She emphasized that the only deterrent 
to growth was lack of funds and urged support of 
an organization fund sufficient to present our pro- 
gram to the teachers of the country. 

In the afternoon committees made their reports, 
which, after discussion, were adopted. 

The Committee on Legislation reported the fol- 
lowing: 

Resolved, That the California Federation of 
Teachers continue its efforts in favor of the meas- 
ure permitting Sabbatical Leave, which passed the 
legislature at its last session. 

Resolved, That, in the interest of better educa- 
tion, steps should be taken to bring about relief of 
the teachers from excessive clerical work. 

Resolved, That the Locals be encouraged to under- 
take surveys of the local expenditure of school money 
to see that an undue proportion is not spent on 
buildings at the expense of teachers’ salaries. 

Resolved, That the Federation is opposed to any 
administrative operation of the new Minor Census 
Law, which compels the teacher to collect the data. 

The Committee on Professional Improvement and 
Freedom suggested that the California Federation of 
Teachers urge the Locals to organize a program of 
professional improvement so that its members will 
have a working knowledge of current educational 
theories in terms of social, economic, and industrial 
life. 

The committee further suggested that each Local 
should attempt to define and clarify the meaning of 
professional and academic freedom through study and 


research. 


The Committee on Extension and Growth sub- 
mitted the following: 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


‘publicity for the fact that locals are concerned with 


We feel that the lack of growth in number and 
strength of Locals, due to apathy, is deplorable. Ap. 
parently nothing short of social cataclysm will caus 
the great mass of teachers to take steps looking t 
their own emancipation and that of the schools, 

We look toward national expansion for encour. 
agement and help. We recommend to the Locals that 
they help to the utmost to finance the national ex- 
pansion program, as outlined by Mrs. Hanson. 

We recommend that labor-unionists be stimulated 
to inquire whether teachers amongst their relatives 
are members of a teachers’ local. 

We think that a greater display of interest in 
professional problems will help to relieve teachers’ 
unions of the stigma that they are simply a grievance 
committee. Every effort should be made to secure 












adjusting the schools to the needs of present day 
society. The community should be kept informed 
of the study programs of our locals. 

We recommend that each Local should see to it 
that its representatives to the central labor bodies are 
people who can establish a right co-operative atti- 
tude between the teachers and the other workers. 
We feel that a large part of our growth depends 
on this friendly attitude. 

We suggest that locals join with the State Federa- 
tion of Labor so that we can establish further con- 
necting links with labor bodies. We suggest that a 
good live delegate be sent each year to the conven- 
tions of the State Federation of Labor. We believe 
that the expenses of such a delegate should be paid by 
the State Federation of Teachers. The delegate 
should secure recognition for the teachers’ unions. 
The publicity secured by Mrs. Hanson suggests to us 
the usefulness of such a scheme. 

We suggest that wherever possible labor classes 
shall call for union teachers. 

We approve of the efforts of the State Organiztt 
to secure the co-operation of labor bodies in organ- 
izing teachers’ locals. 

The Resolutions Committee submitted the follow- 
ing: 

Resolved, That the thanks of this convention b 
extended to Mrs. Hanson for the manner in which 
she secured the support and co-operation of the 
American Federation of Labor at the Los Angeles 
convention. We recognize that this achievement i 
due very largely to her broad and sympathetic atti- 
tude to the whole labor situation. 

It is the sense of this convention that our Legi* 


































en 







THE AMERICAN TEACHER 29 


lative Committee should be on the alert regarding 
the impending investigation of the actuarial com- 
mittee on teachers’ retirement fund, as provided by 
the last legislature. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the convention be 
extended to Local No. 61 for their kind hospitality 
and entertainment, 

The Treasurer’s report showed a balance on hand 
of $864.00 as against $791.00 last year. 

Miss Wilson moved and it was seconded and car- 
ried that the State Federation appropriate $108.00 
as California’s share of the April American Teacher. 

All of the officers were re-elected for the ensuing 
year. 

Miss Moodey, Local 72, reported the convention 
of the American Federation of Teachers. 

A dinner and program was enjoyed by the dele- 
gates at the Hotel Stewart. Mrs. Hanson was the 
speaker of the evening. She gave a very able address 
which her hearers hope she will publish in an early 
number of The American Teacher so that all the 
members may enjoy it. 

R. W. Everett, State Secretary. 





Katonah, N. Y.—Brookwood Labor College op- 
ened for its seventh year here October 17. Forty- 
two students, representing 14 trade unions, are 
enrolled from 13 states and Canada. There are 8 
textile workers, 5 miners, 4‘railway carmen, 6 gar- 
ment workers, and 2 bakers, besides auto mechanics, 
cap makers, machinists, shoe workers, upholsterers, 
hotel workers, and tailors. Fifteen young women, 
including two colored girls, are among the students. 

The curriculum for the eight months term in- 
cludes economics, American and foreign labor his- 
tory, trade union organization and finance, sociology, 
psychology, government, current events, public 
speaking, English, journalism and labor drama. 

Tom Tippett, formerly in charge of educational 
work for the miners of Sub-District 5, Illinois, is to 
teach Economics at Brookwood this year. David J. 
Saposs, instructor in trade union organization and 
finance, has just returned from a year’s leave of ab- 
sence in France, where he made a study of the post- 
war labor movement. Other faculty members in- 
clude A. J. Muste, chairman and instructor in for- 
eign labor; Josephine Colby, English; Arthur W. 
Calhoun, sociology and government; Helen G. Nor- 
ton, journalism; and Jasper Deeter, public speaking 
and labor drama. The Brookwood teachers are or- 
ganized in Local 189, A. F. T. 


The Wisconsin State Federation of Teachers held 
its annual meeting in Milwaukee at the City Club, 
November 3. The following officers were elected: 
President, Neal Billings, Milwaukee State Normal 
College, Local 79; Vice President, Mary Binn, Mil- 
waukee State Normal College, Local 79; Secretary- 
Treasurer, Leta Nelson, Madison, Local 35. Secre- 
tary-Treasurer Hanson from the national office was 
present and outlined the work of the past year and 
made suggestions for future activity. A program of 
action for the coming year was adopted. It was 
decided to invite distinguished members of the 
American Federation of Teachers to address the Wis- 
consin State Federation of Teachers. Amohg those 
invited are Joseph K. Hart, University of Wisconsin, 
author of The Discovery of Intelligence, Adult 
Education, etc.; Harry A. Overstreet, College of 
the City of New York, author of Applied Behavior- 
ism, and Jerome Davis, Yale University, author of 
Business and the Church. 





THE FOURTH OCTOBER CONFERENCE 

TEACHERS’ UNION, CITY OF NEW YORK 
The fourth October conference was held at the 
Hudson Guild Farm, Netcong, N. J., on Friday, Sep- 
tember 30th, and Saturday and Sunday, October Ist 


and 2nd. The full capacity of the farm was again 
required to house the guests. One hundred and forty 
persons were in attendance. 

Five sessions were held. On Friday evening “De- 
velopments in Modern Education” were discussed by 
four speakers. These speakers were Miss Ruth Gil- 
lette Hardy, on the Locarno Conference; Miss Re- 
becca Shapiro on the Manumit Summer School; Miss 
Rose Davidson, principal of P. S. 61, Manhattan, on 
the experimental classes in that school, and Dr. Wil- 
liam E. Grady, district superintendent in Brooklyn, 
on “Where Is the Crust Breaking?” Mrs. S. S. Gold- 
water was chairman of the session. 

On Saturday morning the subject was “Demo- 
cracy in the Schools.” It was discussed by Professor 
William C. Bagley, of Teachers College, and Dr. 
Henry R. Linville. In the absence of Dr. Walter L. 
Hervey, Dr. Louis Marks was chairman. 

On Saturday afternoon, “Round Tables” were con- 
ducted by Professor William H. Bridge, of Hunter 
College, Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz, Dr..Benjamin C. 
Gruenberg and Mr. William F. Roantree. This new 
feature of the October Conference was very suc- 
cessful, 

On Saturday evening the subject discussed was 





30 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


“Adjustment and Uniformity in Education.” The 
speakers were Professor William H. Bridge of Hunter 
College, and Dr. Arthur E. Perry, district superin- 
tendent in Queens. The chairman was Professor 
Harold O, Rugg, of Teachers College. In the even- 
ing Miss Harriet F. Hale of Morris High School, en- 
tertained the conference with songs, accompanied by 
Mrs. Donald Smith. Dr. Alexander Fichandler prin- 
cipal of P. S. 189, Brooklyn, played several piano 
selections. 

On Sunday morning the subject of Character Ed- 
ucation was discussed by Bishop Paul Jones, of the 
Fellowship of Reconciliation, and Mr. Joseph Jablon- 
ower. Dr. John Lovejoy Elliott was chairman, 

The weather throughout the sessions was perfect 
for the purpose in hand, although a little warm for 
October. 

The tone of this conference was perhaps a trifle 
more settled and habitual than the previous three. 
As a consequence the technic was smoother, and pos- 
sibly a little more effective. Still the old spirit of 
Local 5 was alive and operating. We may rest assur- 
ed that we have a medium for live discussion and a 
source of influence of which we should be proud.— 
The Union Teacher. 





WOMEN TEACHERS LAUD MISS ROBINSON’S 
WORK AS SCHOOL LIBRARIAN 


Takes Definite Steps to Canvas Salary Question 


The Federation of Women Teachers held a well- 
attended meeting on Monday, October 31, at 4:15 
p- m. im the club rooms of the federation. Two 
matters of importance divided the attention of the 
meeting. 

After a presentation of the salary situation by four 
members selected by the Board of Directors, follow- 
ed by a general discussion participated in by mem- 
bers from the floor, there was a unanimous vote 
pledging the members to support an all-teacher 
movement for a study of the cost of living in rela- 
tion to teachers’ salary schedules, 

This action of the federation completes work be- 
gun last spring in co-operation with the Federation 
of Men Teachers. It is planned that the work, in 
which the Principal’s club is asked to join, shall be 
done through a central committee. 

ComMMENDs Miss RosBinson’s WorK 

There was also a unanimous vote of appreciation 
of the work of Miss Elizabeth Robinson as head of 
the school division of the Public Library and a com- 


mittee of three appointed to organize a campaign to 
bring all the teachers of the city to the support of 
a movement to retain Miss Robinson in the library 
service. 

Active co-operation with the Public Library is a 
part of the educational program of the federation, 
Quoting from the Great Survey of the Schoal System 
of St. Paul, Minn. (1917), under the direction of 
Dr. George Drayton Strayer, of Columbia University, 
the attitude and policy of the federation toward the 
library is set forth. 

“This close relationship and co-operation between 
the schools and the library seems to members of the 
survey committee to be more than justified by the 
splendid co-operation which exists between the 
schools and the library. 


TEACHERS’ INTEREST IN LIBRARY 

“The High School Teachers’ club, the Principals’ 
club and the Grade Teachers’ federation (now the 
Federation of Women Teachers) have each devoted 
time to the consideration of library questions and the 
last named organization has a standing library com- 
mittee, publishes library notes in its Bulletin, and 
has appropriated money from its treasury for the 
purchase of books and pictures of special use to 
teachers in the elementary schools.” 





St. Paul Federation of Women Teachers issued 
an “Ask Me Another” bulletin to its members in 
preperation for its first meeting of the school year. 

The meeting was held at the federation -club- 
rooms at 328 Cedar St., on Monday, Oct. 31, at 
4:15 p. m. 

Chairmen of committees answered inquiries re- 
garding the credit union and group insurance plans 
operated by the federation. Four members, Miss Alice 
Hosmer, Miss Mary McGough, Miss Florence Rood 
and Miss Flora Smalley reported on points related to 
the much discussed salary question. 

The activities of the federation for the year are 
in charge of the president, Miss Genevieve Hopkins; 
the treasurer, Miss Maud Gearing; the secretary, 
Miss Mabel Malvey, and the board of directors, con- 
sisting of the Misses Eleanor Bauer, Gertrude Cha- 
pin, Mabel Coulter, Lillian Cornelisen, Mary Mc- 
Gough, Marie Moreland, Evangeline Rouse and 
Eunice Witham. 

The club rooms of the federation at 328 Cedar St. 
are now open and available for social as well as the 
business affairs of the organization. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 31 


HOW WOODBURY (N. J.) TEACHER, AT- 
TACKED BY LEGION AND S. A. R., 
WINS VINDICATION 


On March 2, 1927, posts of the American Legion 
and Sons of the American Revolution in Wood- 
bury, N. J., sent identical letters to the members 
of the Board of Education, asking for the dis- 
missal of Mrs. Rachel Davis DuBois, teacher of civics 
in the Woodbury High School, on the ground that 
she was “a dangerous person in the community,” 
that she was a member of the Women’s International 
League for Peace and Freedom, “a radical organiza- 
tion,” and was alleged to have said, ““We are very 
radical, but must keep our aims submerged and try 
to get them across under the guise of education.” 


PROTECTED By New Jersey Law 

A member of the Board of Education thereupon 
visited Mrs. DuBois in her home and asked her to 
resign quietly. Mrs. DuBois writes, in response to 
our inquiry: 

“I asked him if the Board had anything against 
me as a teacher or as a person, and on being told 
‘No!,’ that it considered me one of its best teachers, 
I told the Board member that I then considered it 
my duty no¢t to resign but to claim the protection of 
the New Jersey State Teachers Tenure of Office law.” 

The law referred to guards teachers from dismiss- 
al except on charges. Nevertheless, in the days that 
followed, Mrs. DuBois’s fellow-teachers were re- 
elected but her reappointment failed to occur. Var- 
ious false rumors about her began to be circulated 
in the community. Finally she wrote the Board 
asking for a public hearing. ‘The President of the 
Board very promptly called upon the Legion to sup- 
ply the questions for the hearing. 


Lecion, UNABLE To Prove CHarcEs, WITHDRAWS 

The Legion met to consider the situation in which 
it now found itself. It could prove no charges. 
Mrs. BuBois flatly denied having made the state- 
ment they had attributed to her. So the wiser mem- 
bers of the post sponsored and passed a motion re- 
quiring the vote of the whole post on each question 
and the post voted to drop the matter. 

THe EvieENcE aND Its REFUTATION 

No hearing was held. Mrs. DuBois was shown 
the evidence that was now before the Board. It 
was from three sources. Mrs. Lucia R. Maxwell, 
under date of May 4, 1927, had written from the 
national headquarters of the League of American 
Pen Women: 


“At the Women’s International League Confer- 
ence, April, 1922, Grace Dodge Hotel, Miss Mary 
Winsor moved that it (the so-called “slacker” oath) 
be made a test of membership, and Mrs. Rachel Davis 
DuBois of New Jersey spoke im favor of the oath 
or pledge (see official minutes of Convention page 
8).” 

Dorothy M. Washburn had written from the 
headquarters of the committee known as the Massa- 
chusetts Public Interest League in Mrs. Robinson’s 
absence: 

“The remarks quoted on page 9 of our pamphlet 
of the Youth Movement by Rachel Davis DuBois 
were made in a talk with Dr. Harry Laidler, ex-sec- 
retary of the League for Industrial Democracy, in 
June 1923. . .-. It is possible that Dr. Laidler 
would recall his conversation with Mrs. DuBois.” 


The Military Order of the World War had parti- 
cipated in the attack on general principles but with 
nothing in particular to contribute. 

The refutation was swift and sure. Mrs. Max- 
well was disposed of by the fact that Mrs. Rachel 
Davis DuBois was not present at the Convention 
named. The Mrs. DuBois who was there promptly 
telegraphed the Board and established the alibi. The 
Massachusetts Public Interest League and its pam- 
phlet were disposed of by a rather severe letter from 
Dr. Laidler, not only denying recollection of any 
such conversation, but going on to excoriate the 
eavesdropper for the Public Interest League who had 
tried to make capital out of a private conversation, 
overheard—and misunderstood—four years previous. 
This but confirmed the earlier denial of Mrs. DuBois. 


Mrs. DuBors 1s Re-ELEcTED AND PUBLICLY 
EXONERATED 


The facts in the case being thus established, Mrs. 
DuBois was re-elected—but without the customary 
increase-of $100 in salary—and the Board gave to 
the Philadelphia press, which had reperted every 
move in the affair, the following statement: 

“After a careful consideration of the matter per- 
taining to Mrs. Rachel Davis DuBios, the Board 
feels that, while the evidence, as at first submitted, 
seemed to be of sufficiently serious character to 
arouse the interest and investigation of loyal Amer- 
ican citizens, the Board is not justified in declaring 
Mrs. DuBois to have been actuated by unpatriotic 
motives, nor to have been guilty of conduct un- 
becoming a teacher.”——National Council for Preven- 
tion of War News Bulletin. 





> 


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 
ETI 


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 democratization 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 subscription to the magazine. To all others the 
subscription price is $2.00 per year, 25 cents per copy. 








































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