JUNE, 1928 VOL. XII, No. 10 


Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 


The 
merican Ileacher 


THE ORGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 








WHY TEACHERS SHOULD AFFILIATE 
WITH THE A. F. OF L. 


FLORENCE FisH, Minneapolis No. 59 


N ORDER to produce a higher type of human kind, greater freedom and greater 

I responsibility for the use of that freedom are necessary in the workers of the world. 

Such freedom can be increased by greater control, by the workers, of working con- 
ditions. With this greater control will come greater co-operation and understanding. 


This increase in control of conditions is just as vital in teaching as in any other 
work. It means greater freedom and greater sense of responsibility in teachers and this 
will bring about finer schools and thus make a greater people. 


We of the American Federation of Teachers believe: 
(1) That humanity becomes better through greater freedom; 


(2) That through education to the effect that the freedom of each must be limited 
by the freedom of all will come responsibility for the use of freedom; 

(3) That workers can best obtain this freedom by a co-operative and orderly prog- 
ress towards greater control of working conditions; 

(4) That teachers should, in common with other workers, work towards this 
same end; 

(5) That teachers ina special way need this responsible freedom in order to help 
make it a heritage of generations to come; 

(6) That teachers should therefore affiliate with the A. F. of L. as the largest 
body of workers striving towards this goal in order to help and be helped by them. 


—Reprinted from A. F. T. Bulletin, April 5, 1924. 








Office of yr ag - — eo oi 
Leader 99 uth Wabash Ave. 
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma > Chicago, Iinois 


Single Copy 25c—Yearly Subscription $2.00 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





American Federation 


of Teachers 


Twelfth Annual Gonvention 


CONGRESS HOTEL, CHICAGO, ILL. 
June 26—June 29, 1928 


AGENDA 
Teacher Contract System 
(a) “Yellow Dog” 

Teacher Load 
Company Union 
Merit System 
Injunctions 
Organization 


Many distinguished educators and labor leaders 
will be present. 


MEETINGS ARE OPEN 


If you are in Chicago you will find attendance 
worth while. 


The third appeal to the labor organizations 
of the United States for money and food for 
the mine workers in Central Pennsylvania, 
Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and 
other bituminous coal fields has been issued 
by the Executive Council of the American Fed- 


eration of Labor. 


The members of all trade unions are re- 
quested to contribute one day’s pay for the re- 


lief of the miners and their families. 


The appeal states that suffering and distress 
among the striking miners and their families 
continue in a most aggravated form and that 
hunger, woe, poverty and human distress which 
cannot be described in words prevail in the 


strike communities. 

















Contents 


Seattle 


Address to A. F. of T 
William J. Bogan 


Esperanto, the Linguistic Bond for 
Humanity 
Henry W. Hetzel 


Education Made Field of Alleged Propa- 


Address to A. F. of T.__- 
Harry E. Scheck 


Conference of Teachers in Workers Edu- 


cation 


Editorial 








TEACHERS ADVISED TO STAND FOR RIGHT 

University, Va., April 7.—‘“Teachers will be slaves 
if they act like slaves,” said Walter Lippman, chief 
editorial writer for the New York World, in an 
address on “American Inquisitors” at the University 
of Virginia. 

The address was a stirring appeal to teachers to 
own themselves, and can be accepted by citizens im 
every walk of life. 

“It might be argued,” said Mr. Lippman, “that 
the teaching profession could establish its independ- 
ence if it were better prepared to stand up and 
fight. I believe that to be true. I believe the great 
body of educators hardly realize the power they 
could exercise if they chose not to endure this pef- 
petual bullying from ignoramuses. 

“Weakness always tempts the bully. If teachers 
cower they will be bullied. The tragedy and absurd- 
ity of the thing is that they could so easily rally 3 
following if they had the imagination to realize how 
strong they are. If they chose to say they would not 
endure the intolerable indignities to which they af 
subjected they would very soon command a new 
kind of respect in the nation.” 





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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. 10 


JUNE, 1928 


Two Dollars a Year 





Seattle 


The American Federation of Teachers issued char- 
ter No. 200 to the Seattle High School Teachers 
Union on October 21st, 1927. 

About the middle of March, 1928, in the Seattle 
school board election the Union teachers supported 
Mr. Shorett, a progressive in civic affairs. Contrary 
to the usual practice an extremely large number of 
citizens voted and Mr. Shorett received 38,200 bal- 
lots, losing by only 1,600 votes. The result showed 
clearly the power exercised by the Seattle Teachers 
Union. 

Early in May the efforts of public utilities and the 
power trust to dominate public opinion through con- 
trol of school tests were exposed in the press. On 
May 8th the board of education demanded as a con- 
dition of employment that each teacher sign an in- 
dividual contract, one clause of which was: 

"I hereby declare that | am not a member of the 
American Federation of Teachers, nor of any local 
thereof, and will not become a member during the 
term of this contract.” 

The Seattle local thus attacked had shown its 
effectiveness locally during the election campaign and 
was known to be a part of the American Federation 
of Teachers, the only teacher organization which has 
been actively and continuously fighting propaganda 
in the schools and colleges. We ask our readers to 
ponder this connection of events: 

The Seattle teachers affiliated with the American 
Federation of Teachers, the vigorous foe of propa- 
ganda in the schools; this same local exhibiting 
unusual power in a local school election; the expose 
of the propaganda of the Power Trust in the state 
of Washington and the part in this propaganda of 
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction; 
and the school board’s insistence upon a contract 
which forces teachers not to join the American 
Federation of Teachers. 

With spirited @pcrity the Seattle Union fore- 
stalled the board of education by securing a tempo- 
tary restraining order which prevented the board’s 
action, until a hearing before the court on May 11th. 
The local hoped to secure an injunction against en- 


forcement of the board’s demand as a result of this 
hearing. 

Officers of the Seattle Local wired the secretary- 
treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers of 
the board’s action and their own on May 8th. 

In accordance with the charter pledge to afford all 
possible assistance to locals in the assertion of their 
rights, the officers of the American Federation of 
Teachers plunged at once into the fight. The follow- 
ing telegrams tell a part of the story of the efforts of 
the National Office. 


From Seattle to the National Office May 8th: 


Board delayed election of teachers until Friday. 
Passed resolution electing all high school teachers sub- 
ject to strongest anti-union clause in contract. We secured 
temporary restraining order until May 1ith. If then dis- 
solved we will be required to sign immediately. Local 
labor behind us. Any suggestions helpful. 


The National Office immediately sent the follow- 


ing telegrams to Seattle: 


Telegraph anti-union clause. Send entire contract full 
particulars air mail. 


To Vice President E. E. Schwarztrauber, Portland, 
Ore., May 8th. 

Communicate with Seattle. 
trip necessary expenses paid. 
To Legislative Representative Selma M. Borchardt, 

Washington, D. C., May 8th. 


Seattle high school teachers elected subject to strong- 
est anti-union contract. Local 200 secured temporary 
restraining order until May 1ith. Local labor helping. 
Wiring Green. Will you see him? Advise me best pro- 
cedure. Letter follows air ‘mail. 


To Mary C. Barker, president A. F. T. and Dr. 
Linville; president New York Teachers Union, sim- 
ilar messages were sent. 


Give every assistance. If 


To William Green, president American Federation 
of Labor, Washington, D. C., May 8th. 


Seattle high school teachers elected subject to strongest 
anti-union clause in contract. Local teachers union se- 
cured temporary restraining order until May 11th. L. A. 
Morrow, 1412 Second Avenue, West, president. Strong 
and dependable group. Local labor helping. Please advise 
best procedure. ; 

To Seattle Local May 8th. 


Doing all possible. Count on us and American Federa- 
tion of Labor to fullest extent. Now is time for Seattle 
teachers to show calibre. Action now will determine 
teacher freedom in Seattle. Suggest consulting J. H. Ral- 
pred F. of L. attorney, Palo Alto, Calif. Keep me 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


full report. If you send such telegram it should be de- 
signed for immediate publicity. 
From Legislative Representative to National Office, 


May 11th. 

Keating wired Seattle for full story. Offers us all pos. 
sible support. Wire me Green’s statement for use at 
Capitol. 

To President Seattle Local from President Chicago 


Federation of Men Teachers, May 10th. 


Proud of spirit of Seattle teachers. Confident they 
will never give up the fight for freedom. Chicago teach- 
ers won similar battle. Seattle can do the same. 


To President Seattle Local from Chicago Federation 
of Women High School Teachers. 


Sympathy and support from Federation of Women 
High School Teachers of Chicago in your struggle to estab- 
lish democracy in the public schools, 


To President Seattle Local from President Chicago 


To Paul J. Mohr, president California State Fed- 


eration of Teachers, San Francisco, Cal., May 9th. 


Please contact with Seattle local and advise them from 
San Francisco experience how to fight vellow dog con- 
tract and win. Serious situation there. Anti-union clause 
in contract. 


To Seattle Local, May 9th. 


Suggest consult state labor leaders also. President State 
Federation very valuable. Sure you will win. Been tried 
before and teachers always won when they kept courage to 
fight. Remember Chicago. 


From Legislative Representative to National Office, 
May 9th. 


Green in Cincinnati. Had your telegram forwarded. 
Advise you call him long distance, Cadillac Hotel, New 
York, Wednesday afternoon. Ask him to give statement 
to press in form you think best. Follow Green’s state- 
ment to press with one from Woll as chairman Educa- 
tion Committee. Woll at Continental Hotel, New York, 
Thursday. Am seeing Keating tomorrow for lead article 


in Labor. Letter follows. 


To President Green from National Office, May 9th. 


School board Seattle issued order that as condition of 
employment, teachers, especially members of the Ameri- 


ican Federation of Teach- 
ers must sign individual 
contracts reading: “I here- 
by declare that I am not 
a member of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Teach- 
ers or any local thereof 
and will not become a 
member during the term 
of this contract.” Judge 
Charles P. Moriarity is- 
sued injunction tempo- 
rarily restraining board 
from circulating contract 
and from denying em- 
ployment to members of 
our organization except 
for causes affecting their 
other qualifications as 
teachers. Case comes up 
Friday. It should be 
matter of grave concern 
to people everywhere that 
a public school board has 
now actually gone to the 
length of seeking to en- 
force upon teachers the 
identical notorious yellow 
dog contract being used 
by mining corporations 
against unfortunate mine 
workers in West Virginia 
and other places where 
miners are denied right of 
organization. While chal- 
lenging teachers’ right to 
associate with labor which 
includes parents of the 
very children they teach, 
Seattle’s school board uses 
against those teachers pre- 
cise tactics mining corpo- 
rations use against labor. 
It would be helpful if 
you will telegraph Seat- 
tle Central Labor Union 
stating your opinion of 
occurrence and asking for 


Elementary Teachers Local, May 10th. 


Apprised of the Seattle situation, President William 
Green, of the American Federation of Labor, sent the 
following telegram to Mrs. Florence Curtis Hanson, 
Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of 
Teachers: 

"Have wired Secretary Charles Doyle of Seattle Cen- 
tral Trades Council as follows: ‘I have been advised that 
the Seattle school board has peremptorily demanded that 
as a condition of employment all teachers in Seattle 
must sign individual contracts declaring they are not 
members of the American Federation of Teachers or any 
local thereof and will not become members of said or- 
ganization during the term of the proposed contract. 
It seems incredible that the Seattle school board would 
assume such an un-American position. 

*T he right of voluntary association for human bet- 
terment and social advancement is an American right 
which must not be abridged. The right of free assem- 
blage and association is one which every true American 
will cherish and defend. It is an insult to the teachers of 
Seattle to call upon them to surrender their constitu- 
tional rights voluntarily to join an American organiza- 
tion of their own choosing. The action of the Seattle 


- school board calls:for the condemnation and opposition 


of organized labor and its friends. 

** *In the name of the American Federation of Labor I 
urge the organized labor movement of Seattle to employ 
every honorable means at your command to defeat the 
action of the school board. Serve notice on its officers 
and members that the Seattle school teachers must not 
be compelled to sign a yellow dog contract. They must 
be allowed to enjoy the blessings of freedom and liberty 
as free Americans in free America. Let the labor move- 
ment of your great city be the moral and economic force 
which will prevent the imposition of a form of involun- 
tary servitude upon the school teachers who render such 
faithful, patriotic and efficient service in your public 
schools. Please send me a full report of situation as 
promptly as possible,’ ” 


We are deeply interested in your courageous fight to main- 
tain democracy in schools of Seattle and to uphold the 
principles of unionism. You will and must be victorious. 


Our sincerest wishes for 
the triumph of your 
cause. 


From Seattle to the 
National Office, May 
10th. 


What cities if any re- 
fuse to elect or permit 
union teachers? Where 
have courts decided 
against union teachers and 
why? Wire answer to 
Geo. F. Vanderveer, 1011 
Alaska Bldg. Must hear 
at once. 


To George F. Van- 
derveer from National 
Office, May 11th. 


Los Angeles and St. 
Louis only large cities 
barring union teachers. 
Some small towns as Pe- 
oria, Ill. San Francisco 
teachers won. Chicago 
teachers won in appellate 
court, Supreme court re- 
versed in 1916 but rule 
rescinded. I. T. Green- 
acre, 38 S. Dearbon St., 
Chicago teachers attorney. 
New York court of ap- 
peals decision Interboro 
Rapid Transit against 
union valuable to you. 
Attorney Oliphant of Co- 
lumbia Law School will 
advise on request. 


Figjm President A. F, 
T. to National Secre- 
ry, May 10th. 


Hope you are consider- 
ing advisability of secre 
tary going to Seattle. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


To Seattle Local 200 from National Office, May 
11th. 


Have laid case completely before President Green who 
wired strong telegram to Secretary of Central Labor Union, 
Seattle, which I suggest be given full publicity. Professor 
Oliphant who took leading part in securing decision of 
New York Court of Appeals vacating injunction secured 
by Interboro Rapid Transit against union has protested 
to school board of Seattle. He will assist you. Have so 
notified Vanderveer. All familiar with cases of this kind 
agree we are fortunate in having Oliphant’s support. 


To Secretary Central Labor Union, Seattle, from 


National Office, May 11th. 


Astounded to learn that Seattle school board in fight 
against teachers has resorted to tactics of West Virginia 
mining corporations. Contract pledge teachers of Seattle 
called upon to sign as condition of employment identical 
with so-called yellow dog contract used in mining fields 
and which as result of recent investigation by United 
States Senate is now in evil repute throughout America. 
Gratified to know trade unionists and other liberty loving 
citizens in Seattle opposing school board action. Confi- 
dent you will continue to support our members in their 
effort to maintain their organization. 


From Seattle to National Office, May 12th. 


Hearing on restraining order today. On motion of 
our attorney whole case asking permanent injunction will 
be tried May 15th. Restraining order holds till trial. If 
you have anything to help our attorney please wire. Morale 
of teachers good. 


From Legislative Representative, Washington, to 


National Office, May 12th. 

Not going to Philadelphia. Busy on Seattle case here, 
working on national board of Y. W. C. A., Federal Coun- 
cil of Churches, National Catholic Welfare Council. 
‘Advise that you ask their help also. Father Ryan wired 
protest. Expect to get protest from Washington senators 
tomorrow. Green’s statement will be read on floor of 
Congress. Wire me result of court decision. 


To Legislative Representative from National Office, 
May 12th. 


On motion of teachers’ attorney restraining order holds 
until May 15th when case for permanent injunction will 
be tried. Attorney G. F. Vanderveer, 1011 Alaska Build- 


ing. Wire him anything that will help. All high school 
teachers solidly back of. union. Morale good. Copy of 
Green’s telegram sent yesterday. 


President Linville of Local 5 put all the machin- 
ery and resources of the New York Local at work 
and laid the matter before distinguished educators 
belonging to Local 5, the Central Trades and Labor 
Council of New York, the American Civil Liber- 
ties Union and prominent liberal citizens. His let- 
ter to Professor John Dewey follows: 


My Dear Professor Dewey: 

In the matter of the fight of the teachers of Seattle 
for the right to join a union, I have received today the 
following telegram from Mr. L. A. Morrow, the President 
of the Seattle Teachers Union: 

“After several weeks’ delay other groups of teach- 
ers having beet elected board elected high school 
teachers subject to their signing following statement 
Prior to being offered contract, ‘I hereby declare I am 
not a member of the A. F. T. or any local thereof 
and will not become 2 member during the term of 
this contract.’ Board intended to require immediate 
compliance before teachers could meet. Secured tem- 
porary restraining order. Hope to get temporary in- 


junction at hearing May 11th. Central Labor Council 

leading fight. Vanderveer already employed. Your 

message most encouraging. All help thankfully re- 
ceived and badly needed. Thank Dewey and others 
for us. Will keep you informed.” 

The American Civil Liberties Union has received from 
the Seattle Board of Education a response to its telegram 
of inquiry: The telegram says: 

Board has ruled that no teacher belonging to teachers 
union will be employed next year and teachers seeking 
employment are required to declare that they are not and 
will not become members. 

Temporary restraining order is an order for the board 
to show cause why a temporary injunction should not 
issue in enjoining the enforcement of the board rule. 

Evidently the issue is clear, and the teachers are put- 
ting up a good fight with the aid of Mr. George Vander- 
veer, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer whom 
we recommended to the teachers. 

Tomorrow (Friday) there will be a hearing on the re- 
straining order, and we shall soon know more concerning 
prospects. Many thanks for the aid you have already 
given. 

If it is convenient, could you send me a copy of the 
telegram which you sent to the Seattle board? 


Professor Dewey responded with a vigorous tele- 
gram of protest sent to the Seattle board, a copy 
of which has not yet been received at the Na- 
tional Office. Protests were also made at the in- 
stigation of the National officers by Rabbi Stephen 
S. Wise, Professor Herman Oliphant, William H. 
Kilpatrick, William C. Bagley, Paul Douglas, Robert 
Morss Lovett and Father Ryan, all of whom are emi- 
nent in civic and educational activities. 

From President of Chicago Federation of Women 
High School Teachers to L. A. Morrow, President 


Seattle Teachers Union. 


The Executive Board of the Federation of Women High 

_ School Teachers, at our regular meeting, has authorized 

me to offer you more substantial sympathy and support 

than we have just sent by telegram. Can you use a sum 
of money up to a hundred dollars? 

We recognize that you are making the fight for free- 
dom of expression and for democratic ideals, as we made 
it twelve years ago; and we wish this gift to be concrete 
evidence of our earnest desire for your success. 


From Seattle to Natienal Office May 18th. 


Arguments in our case will be heard Saturday morn- 
ing, May 19th. Will wire you when result is known. 
Prospects good and case will be appealed if lost. If we 
lose do you advise us to sign yellow dog contract or be 
dropped if that is the option? We meet Saturday night 
to decide. 

The National Office immediately wired Seattle. 


If decision unfavorable May 19 advise immediate appeal 
and request school board to withhold yellow dog contract 
pending appeal pointing out enforcement now is denial of 
citizenship right of teachers to appeal to courts and also 
repudiation of courts as proper tribunal in which rights 
of citizens should be decided. Any attempt to enforce 
contract now is attempt to destroy organization making 
appeal therefore attempt to prevent courts from acting. 
Suggest request be drafted in thoughtful resolution con- 
servatively worded, public effect of which can be greatly 
enhanced if large number of members attach personal sig- 
natures. Similar resolution addressed to all civic bodies 
and citizens also adopted. While this matter pending 
would be folly for any teacher to surrender rights by 
signing contract. My opinion if members stand firm for 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


time being we shall be able to secure fair adjustment with- 
out surrender of membership. Outcome depends largely 
upon loyalty of membership. Cannot lose if steadfast. 
Please keep me fully informed on this point. Organized 
teachers and the rest of organized labor will support you 
to the limit. 


In reply Seattle wired National Office, May 20th. 


Your letter and telegrams received. Many thanks for 
your assistance and interest. Our case was argued Sat- 
urday morning. Decision to be announced Wednesday 
forenoon. Are hopeful. Morale good. Wonderful meet- 
ing last night. Your advice regarding policy to be pur- 
sued appreciated. Our board most obdurate. 


From Seattle to National Office, May 23. 


Injunction denied. Case appealed. Restraining order 
against Board dissolved today. By agreement of counsel, 
teachers not required to sign yellow dog contract before 
preliminary hearing before state supreme court Friday 
when our attorney asks for restraining order until case is 
decided in this court. 

Reply from National Office. 


Hope no one is discouraged by injunction denial. End 
is not yet. Just beginning to fight. Steadfastness will 
surely win. 

There the case stands as we go to press. 


The obvious reasons for printing this long 
story are its inherent interest for us all; its crit- 
ical importance to teachers’ status throughout 
the country; its possible significance as an effort 
of a branch of big business to discipline the sole 
organization which has persistently opposed 
propaganda in the schools; its evidence that the 
National officers are keeping faith with the per- 
secuted local; that union labor has been equally 
loyal in our support and finally because of the 
magnificent courage of the Seattle local and the 
generous solidarity of the whole high school 
force at Seattle. 

, Wuat Is THE PRINCIPLE? 

The trustees of the Seattle Chamber of Com- 
merce adopted a resolution commending the 
school board for requiring the teachers to sign a 
contract that they will not join the American 
Federation of Teachers; and at the same time they 
wrote to the Seattle High School Teachers Union, 
Local 200, asking the Union to use its influence 
tc have the American Federation of Teachers hold 
its national convention in Seattle in the near future. 

By what principle is the Seattle Chamber of 
Commerce motivated, or for what does it want us 
to come to Seattle? 





Everything I can do to give my boys and girls the 
mastery of fear is worth a hundred times more than 
knowing the whole history textbook word for word. 
—Ellen McFarlane. 





There is nothing more fearful than ignorance in 
action.—Goethe, 


SCHOOL LAWS IN NEW YORK STATE 
LocaL ScHOOL ExPENDITURES MaDE KNown 


Governor Smith, on March 26th, signed as Chap- 
ters Nos. 592, 593, 594 and 595, a series of four 
bills introduced by Senator Mastick, which have for 
their purpose the separate statement of moneys 
allotted for school purposes in local budgets so that 
citizens may know exactly how much local tax 
money is being expended for education and how 
much of the school funds are derived from state 


moneys. These new laws take effect at once. 


CONTINUATION SCHOOLS FOR EMPLOYED MINoRS 


The Labor Law and Education Law were amended 
so as to fix the compulsory school attendance maxi- 
mum age at seventeen years and to provide that all 
minors under seventeen years of age must have 
employment certificates, which can only be issued 
after the physical fitness of the minor for the occu- 
pation he is engaged in is tested. 


CONTINUATION SCHOOLS STANDARDIZED 

Governor Smith on March 26th signed as Chapter 
No. 591 of the Laws of 1928, Senator Dick’s bill 
(S. Print 1848), which places all part-time and 
continuation school principals and teachers of all 
grades on an equality with principals and teachers 
in the academic elementary and high schools. This 
new law includes part-time and continuation schools 
as equal participators in the state school funds appor- 
tioned for teachers on the same basis as other public 
schools and thus assures their permanence, improve- 
ment and extension. The law took effect immedi- 
ately on being signed. 





ABILITY GROUPING IN NEW YORK HIGH 
SCHOOLS 

Pupils are grouped according to ability in approx- 
imately 35 per cent of the junior and senior high 
schools in the State of New York, according to 497 
replies received to a questionnaire sent out by the 
educational measurements bureau of the State depart- 
ment of education, to ascertain the extent to which 
grouping is carried out in high schools. Grouping 
is usually affected in the ninth grade, and is generally 
based on intelligence tests, though frequently on the 
teachers’ estimate of the pupil’s ability or his marks 
in school. In 147 schools pupils of different ability 
are grouped in separate classes, and 109 schools 
reported that ability groups are formed within classes. 
Some schools use both procedures.—School Life. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


7 


Extracts From Address to the American Federation of Teachers 


By Wiu1aM J. BoGAN 
Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Chicago 


I am expected to talk on the practical aspects of 
the new education, making a prophecy, as it were, 
regarding educational changes of the near future. 

That person is rash who ventures to make prophe- 
cies of any kind relating to methods in school teach- 
ing. Guessing is more fun and much safer. Some 
prophecies return to plague the prophets but luckily 
most false prophecies are forgotten. However, it does 
appear safe to prophesy that certain fundamental 
changes will occur in the near future. For instance, 
the old time recitation will probably disappear. In fact 
it has disappeared already from many schools, and 


its revival appears doubtful. Those of you who are — 


progressive must have qualms of conscience as you 
recall the educational sins of your youth. The read- 
ing lesson particularly was an offense against educa- 
tion. Have you not time and again halted a class 
in the most thrilling paragraph to pronounce, spell 
and give derivations of words? And before the pupils 
got into their stride again did you not require them 


to give the geographical and historical allusions of 
every dry item in the story? 

You have all heard the story of the bright little 
boy who could read so rapidly that he was always 


ahead of the class. Once when a slow reader was 
struggling letter by letter, and word by word, the 
teacher, in order to expose the smart one called upon 
him to read. As he hurriedly thumbed the pages 
backward she said, in a rasping voice: 

“Johnnie, can’t you keep your place?” 

“Sure, I can keep my place, but I can’t keep his.” 


MEDIOcRITY STANDARDS 

One of the fundamental faults of the old recitation 
system was its retardation of the bright pupils for the 
supposed benefit of the others. Mediocrity tended to 
become the standard of achievement. Now we are 
inclined to place the children on their own resources 
and make them independent. 

We analyze and outline their tasks and prepare 
recipes for their accomplishment, just as the house- 
keeper does in making cakes, giving the pupils all of 
the essentials and directing them to proceed with the 
work, each according to his ability. This method 
makes allowance for individual differences and devel- 
Ops initiative, judgment, and ambition. At once the 
objection arises; “You can not eliminate the mechan- 


ics of the recitation. Papers must be marked by the 
teacher.” As a matter of fact, much of the marking 
of papers required by the old time recitation was 
worse than useless. It encouraged laziness on the part 
of the pupil and made teacher drudgery a virtue. A 
large part of the marking can be done by the pupils 
and should be done by them for the purpose of devel- 
oping independence. The new form of recitation, or 
whatever it may be called, will be more like study. 
It will consist of a period of supervised study in 
school, real study under the skillful direction of a 
teacher; but the pupil will do his own work. 


Derects IN OPPORTUNITY 

There is a very strong tendency at present toward 
adult education although the opposition of some tax- 
payers is very strong. The attitude of many objec- 
tors is illustrated by the attitude of the president of 
the Board of Education in a large city who said a 
few years ago: 

“Our duty is toward the young children. I don’t 
believe in continuation schools, or evening schools, or 
opportunity schools, or any other kind of school for 
adults or minors who have left school. Our duty is 
toward the young children. When we have educated 
them we can feel that we have done our full duty.” 

When asked, “What are you going to do for the 
adults who have a thirst for education?” he answered: 

“If we wait a few years they will be gone and in 
the meantime the youngsters will all have had their 
educational opportunity.” 

“They will all have had their educational opportu- 
nity?” Nothing of the kind! Many will never have an 
opportunity as children. Perhaps they may have the 
opportunity to go into a classroom and listen to 
teacher and pupils but unless the course of study is 
fitted to their peculiar needs they will be lost to edu- 
cation. Is there any sense in saying that the wayward 
boy had his opportunity but would not take it? The 
problem of education is accentuated in the case of 
the child who has had his opportunity and would not 
take it. There was probably a serious defect in the 
opportunity. 

The people of the United States have cause to blush 
with shame when they learn what other parts of the 
world are doing in adult education. A man spoke 
before one of our clubs a few weeks ago on the 





8 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


great labor schools of Europe. We have some in this 
country doing a wonderful work, but he was partic- 
ularly enthusiastic regarding the labor colleges of 
England. He made the astounding statement that 
among the five hundred or more classes in labor col- 
leges, twenty-five per cent of the papers turned in for 
regular marking and review ranked with the papers 
of honor students at Oxford. In the list of your 
friends in labor organizations are great men who have 
acquired education with very little schooling. True, 
they had great natural abilities and the will to im- 
prove them, but they had many handicaps. Notwith- 
standing these handicaps they are a credit to the 
ideals of the labor movement. A few weeks ago a 
group of contractors and laboring men appeared 
before the School Administration Committee of the 
Board of Education to urge the establishment of an 
apprentice school in Chicago. In Chicago, as you know, 
we have about three hundred apprentices attending 
school, one day a week, but the educational facilities 
for this group are not of the best. The men appeared 
before the Committee in order that they might pre- 
sent the case for the school and get redress. I never 
heard a better argument. A college professor of Eng- 
lish could not have marshaled his facts in better order. 
It was a remarkable demonstration of what practical 
unschooled men could do. Some of these men lacked 
schooling but none lacked education. One man spoke 
with a strong foreign accent. The audience had to 
listen very carefully to understand some of his 
unusual expressions but he made an argument of 
unusual force and dignity. I maintain that when 
men of that age and that type ask for more educa- 
tion the nation should provide it. 


One of the strong tendencies in modern education 
is toward what we call progressive education. There 
are several schools of this type in France, Belgium, 
England and the United States where the ordinary 
credits, rules and regulations have gone by the board. 
In these schools the children are thrown upon their 
own resources, upon their honor, and made inde- 
pendent. Fine character training, refinement and cul- 
ture permeate these schools, and formalism is reduced 
to a minimum. 

Another tendency, rather spasmodic, is toward the 
reduction of size of classes. Much of our trouble, | 
think, in the public schools, is due to an economic 
insistence upon large classes. Many of our troubles are 
administrative troubles. It is difficult to get away 
from them if we must deal with large classes. It is 
impossible to give the individual attention that chil- 
dren should have except in small classes. We should 
eliminate mere mass instruction. A reduction in size 
of classes should be one of the most important of our 
aims. Many years ago John Dewey said, in substance, 
“In classes of the progressive type six is company 
and twelve is a crowd.” That ideal seems impossible 
of attainment in any public school system within a 
century, perhaps, but who knows? Some of us believe 
that miracles occur even in modern times. 

One of the tendencies of greatest hope to the nation 
is the growth of democracy in the schools, but if we 
are to train children in the principles of democracy 
our teachers must be democratic. They must have 
spirit, they must have convictions; and they must 
have independence enough to express these. convic- 
tions. We will have no cause to fear for the future 
of democracy if all teachers are given an opportunity 
to practice what they preach. 





Esperanto, the Linguistic Bond For Humanity 
' By Henry W. Hetze1, Philadelphia 


It is evident to thinking people that the peace of 
the world, if it is ever to be realized must be estab- 
lished by means of and maintained by the greatest 
possible degree of ‘mutual understanding and co-oper- 
ation. To a large extent this necessity is already 
being met (but without any conscious idea to insure 
peace) by an enormous, even a feverish, urge to 
shorten the distance and time between ourselves and 
our neighbors. However, irrespective of our pref- 
erences in the matter, and whether the immediate 
result be a quickening of moral progress or not, we 
all realize that the peoples of the world are being 


brought together in contacts increasingly numerous 
and intimate. Big movements of all kinds are becom- 
ing as much at home in one country as in another. 
Problems of statecraft, education, science and indus- 
try are arising which only the united intelligence 
of mankind can solve. Acknowledging the nature 
ordained fact of their interdependence, the peoples 
of the earth must seek the fulfillment of their highest 
ideals through world-wide co-operation. 

Yet in the very tool of communication and 6 
operation, language, there have always been and aft 
potentialities for keeping alive the spirit of suspicion 





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even 

The © 
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to hur 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 9 


and aloofness. National tongues are not only dis- 
tressingly numerous, exceedingly cumbrous, illogical 
and difficult to master, but each is notoriously tinc- 
tured with the characteristics, psychology and even 
prejudices of the country where it is native. The 
admitted truth whose significance time certainly in- 
tensifies, that the diversity of tongues is a serious 
barrier to world progress and that eventually civili- 
zation must adopt a common speech for all peoples, 
is thus qualified by the further thought that no 
national tongue can serve the purpose; the “world 
democracy,” heralded on all sides by far-seeing states- 
men and enlightened thinkers, demands neutrality 
even in its choice and use of a vehicle of thought. 
The universal adoption of any national language 
would confer such diplomatic, commercial, political 
and cultural advantages on one certain group of 
nations as to make such a proposition absolutely 
intolerable to all others. 


LinGuIsTic BARRIERS 

The world has been, and still is, suffering from an 
over-emphasis on mere nationality. A national con- 
sciousness is, of course, not to be deplored,—at least 
as a step from a narrow tribal isolation toward a 
wider solidarity. But today, mountains and deserts, 
rivers and oceans have lost their power to divide man- 
kind; the chief barriers are linguistic ones, which 
determining as they do, in large measure, the confines 
of nationality, tend to fix even the economic fron- 
tiers. When, with an increasing knowledge of other 
countries and their inhabitants, man comes to realize 
his essential oneness in thought and feeling, in hopes 
and in aspirations, with his fellow men on the other 
side of the ocean or mountain chain, these barriers 
stand out glaringly as monstrous anachronisms and 
tragic absurdities. 

Mankind has long ago gotten used to certain codes 
for the universal communication of ideas. For in- 
stance, there is nothing strange to us in the inter- 
nationality of the Arabic numerals, musical nota- 
tion, the metric system, the graphic arts, the chemical 
symbols and signaling at sea, and yet in the matter 
of mere speech we have been well-nigh helpless. A 
mariner by means of signals raised aloft may convey 
some crude idea to a passing ship of another nation- 
ality, but should he step upon its deck he and its 
commander would find an ordinary conversation im- 
Possible, 


To the obvious thought of the reader at this point 
that an international language would be a blessing 
to humanity there is only one objection; the verb 


should be is. The International Language brought 
forth in 1887 has had a breadth of application and 
a success which rightly claim the attention of educa- 
tional and similar movements everywhere. The world 
will some day give high honor to Dr. Ludwig Lazarus 
Zamenhof of Warsaw (died 1917). whose genius and 
whose devotion to the idea of a world of brothers 
united by the bond of a common speech has made 
him one more prophet with which the Jewish race 
has blessed mankind. His project, Esperanto, though 
not the first that had been devised to meet the grow- 
ing world need, immediately attracted an attention 
that was more than academic, and in a few years it 
had far outdistanced its competitors, both as to the 
extent of its literature and the number of its adher- 
ents. Its root-words, prefixes and suffixes were 
selected on the basis of “maximum internationality” 
and so easy and logical is the formation of derivatives 
that only a few hundred primary words need be 
learned. An Esperantist actually coins words as he 
goes along, and, even by a person who may never have 
heard such words before, he is instantly and precisely 
understood. The spelling is phonetic, the tonic accent 
is always on the penultimate syllable, and the whole 
grammar is stated in sixteen simple rules (without 
an exception) which many people have actually 
learned in a couple of hours! A translation will hardly 
be needed for the following specimen: 


“Simple, fleksebla, belsona, vere internacia en 
siaj elementoj, la lingvo Esperanto prezentas al 
la mondo civilizita la sole veran solvon de lingvo 
internacia; char tre facila por homoj nemulte 
intruitaj, Esperanto estas komprenata sen peno 
de la personoj bone edukitaj. Mil faktoj atestas 
ia meriton praktikan de la nomita lingvo.” 


Far from being a “universal” language in the sense 
of attempting to displace existing national tongues 
for home use, Esperanto has a record of accomplish- 
ment as an auxiliary language that has long ago 
lifted it above the level of a mere project. It has 
become, say its advocates, an everyday, practical 
means of communication between thousands of peo- 
ple in all parts of the world. Correspondence in it is 
a commonplace, all the way from stamp collecting 
and the mere exchange of picture post cards up to 
high brow discussions of philosophy, scientific mat- 
ters and world politics, as may easily be seen by any- 
one who cares to glance through the correspondence 
columns of the journals, (now about 125 of them) 
regularly published in the language in all parts of 
the world. Text books for instruction have appeared 








12 


10 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


in about fifty languages including such little known 
ones as Catalonian, Finnish, Japanese, Croatian, 
Arabic, Icelandic and Welsh. Limitations of space 
prevent all but a reference to the literature of Esper- 
anto. That it is rapidly growing and already exten- 
sive, both in translated works and originals, in prose 
and poetry, covering practically every use of the 
printed word, is a statement that can easily be veri- 
fied. 
Tourists HELPED 

Quite in line with one of its objectives, Esperanto 
is of considerable help to the tourist. Thousands have 
visited foreign shores and journeyed through distant 
countries where, by the aid of the International Lan- 
guage and the “Universala Esperanto-Asocio” whose 
thousand-odd delegates or consuls are practically 
everywhere, they have had their travels made more 
pleasant and profitable than could otherwise have 
been. This statement will not seem significant to the 
person who can “get along in Europe on English 
alone.” He can “get along,” but the traveler who can 
do merely this must limit his conversation to the 
“business English” of waiters, ticket-sellers and por- 
ters. To the Esperantist alofe belongs the joy of 
meeting foreigners, well-educated and intelligent, as 
many as one has time to see in any journey or in any 
visiting city, and of conversing with a freedom and 
on a linguistic equality that is never experienced when 
a national tongue is a medium. In at least a dozen 
cities of Europe there are Esperantist policemen spe- 
cially trained (in the case of several, specially com- 
pensated) to be of service to the visiting foreigner 
who has already taken the little trouble to meet the 
world on the linguistic middle ground, Thanks to the 
system in use among Esperantists the visitor is assured 
of a hearty welcome and friendly guidance which no 
mere tourist agency can supply. The testimony is 
unanimous that the fine spirit of helpfulness thus dis- 
played is due to a bond of union stronger than the 
mere possession of a language in common; it is a 
fine faith in the possibility of a better world through 
complete mutual understanding. 

Fairs Use EsPERANTO 


In addition to its abundantly demonstrated utility 
for general commercial purposes, Esperanto has a 
special field for advertising the expositions and fairs 
which, in spite of the war and the blunders of diplo- 
mats, are doing a great service in bringing together 
the business men of Europe. At least a dozen of such 
annual fairs are regularly using Esperanto,—but that 
is a story in itself. That other international institu- 


tion, the world congress of the usual kind, whether 
for professional, religious, commercial or scientific 
aims, not only has felt the diversity of tongues to be 
a serious handicap, but it has never been able to forget 
the nationalistic differences among its members, 
Compared to this kind of a gathering with its inevi- 
table division into mutually uncomprehending groups, 
its restriction to two or three “official languages” and 
the waste of time spent in translations, a congress of 
Esperantists stands out in refreshing contrast. There 
have been nineteen of these since 1905, attended by 
as high as five thousand delegates from forty-three 
different countries and representing nearly as many 
national tongues. 


Here, not only in the general business sessions, 
where the formal speeches, the unprepared discussion 
and even the chance remarks are all in the Interna. 
tional Language, but in a dozen or more “side con- 
gresses” it is the sole medium heard. Teachers, editors, 
Red Cross nurses, physicians, railway and postal em- 
ployes, vegetarians, Socialists, Roman Catholics, 
theosophists and spiritualists,—to name only part of 
the list—form groups each having its own meetings. 
Here the delegates “talk shop” with no uncompre- 
hending auditor, with perfect geysers of technical 
terms, too, and with a vigor and a naturalness that 
are only paralleled where everyone speaks the same 
mother tongue. There is usually a play and a mus- 
cal evening, a travel-talk and a scientific lecture or 
two, an opera and perhaps even a vaudeville show,— 
to say nothing of several excursions and many infor- 
mal social gatherings; and not a word of any national 
tongue is heard the whole week through! As an indi- 
cation of the fact that congresses wherein Esperanto 
is used are not limited solely to propagandists of the 
language, let us take’ the Commercial Congress which 
met in Venice in April, 1923. Here were over two 
hundred official delegates from twenty-three different 
countries, representing eighty-nine Chambers of 
Commerce, thirty tourists’ associations, twenty-on 
international fairs, and over sixty industrial federt 
tions, (business men, and not long-haired idealist 
merely) conducting its three-days’ program entirely 
in Esperanto. As an indication of the ease with which 
the language may be acquired, it is significant that} 
number of participants, even speech-makers, actually 
learned all they needed of Esperanto on their wi 
to the Congress. 


PRONUNCIATION UNIFORM 


In all these gatherings, and in truth, upon ever) 
occasion when the International Language is 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER ii 


orally, one striking fact makes itself evident,—the 
absolute uniformity of pronunciation. As far as 
speech is any indication, you can not tell the Span- 
iard from the Bulgarian or either from the Swede, 
and the laughable mistakes that are made in such 
guesses at one another’s nationality are among the 
commonplace of Esperanto world-gatherings. The 
significant fact is impressed upon all, visitors as well 
as participants, that the sense of nationality is com- 
pletely lost in such an atmosphere and is all but for- 
gotten! 

The idealistic side of an Esperanto congress finds 
its climax and appropriate symbol in the religious 
service, always a feature of such a gathering. Here 
you are in a big church filled with worshipers from 
at least twenty different countries and you hear, in a 
language perfectly understood by all, the priest, pas- 
tor or rabbi, as the case may be, preach the brother- 
hood of man, now being realized through a neutral 
medium when heart speaks to heart across the boun- 
dary line. Here, when you see every head bowed in 


reverence before the same and all important verities 
and realize that before you is actually assembled the 
world, you will concede the claim that something big 
has come to pass in the affairs of men; here, at least, 
is one new thing under the sun. And however unim- 
aginative you may be, does not the sight before you 
hold a promise of tremendous significance for civili- 
zation and the spiritual welfare of the race? 

That there are untold possibilities for good in 
such an instrument of civilization is now being real- 
ized, particularly in Babel-cursed Europe. In many 
a place in England and on the Continent Esperanto 
is a regular, even an obligatory, part of the course of 
study. School children broaden their knowledge of 
foreign peoples and their human sympathies by let- 
ter and post card correspondence with students in 
other lands. Here is a practical and at once usable 
means for applied idealism which, as a substantial 
contribution to a new and better world-order, will 
not be overlooked by forward-looking educators and 
leaders of men. 





Education Made Field of Alleged Propaganda 


The Chicago Tribune Publishes Story of Insull Fellowships in Aid of Utilities 


WASHINGTON, D. C., April 13—(Special.) — 
Early in 1919 Samuel Insull called together his execu- 
tives in the public utility field and ordered them to 
“get busy and do something” to counteract the wave 
of antagonistic propaganda then depressing the utility 
industry in that state. 

The story of how his subordinates carried out that 
order and developed a publicity organization carry- 
ing information favorable to the utilities to every 
person above the eighth grade in Illinois was related 
before the federal trade commission today. 

Inquiries by commission examiners now investi- 
gating public utility financing and propaganda 
against government and municipal ownership dis- 
closed that virtually every avenue open to the spread 
of favorable utility information had been explored 
by an Illinois committee on public utility informa- 
tion developed to carry out the Insull orders. 

Rob Roy McGregor, assistant director of the com- 
mittee, told the commission that similar committees 
had been organized in other states as an outgrowth 
of the Illinois movement. He asserted that all these 
organizations existed mainly to spread accurate 
information, but admitted that efforts were also 
made to show the fallacies of government ownership 
and to fight such measures as the Boulder dam and 
Muscle Shoals legislation. 


It was disclosed that the Illinois committee not 
only used the movies, the radio, the public press, the 
Chautauqua platform, civic clubs, Kiwanis and 
Rotary clubs, women’s organizations, and pamphlets, 
but also had invaded high school and university in 
the interest of public utilities. 


Examination of correspondence between the Insull 
committee and colleges disclosed that the utility 
interests now maintain scholarships for students and 
fellowships for professors. ‘They revealed that in 
some cases the utility interests aided professors in 
gathering material for these and books on utility 
subjects and offered on many occasions to finance 


text books. 


The Insull committee made a study of utility text 
books and texts on economics and inaugurated a 
campaign to have alleged inaccuracies deleted. 


In letters passing between committees certain pro- 
fessors were described as “sound” and others as 
“unfair.” Prof. Charles E. Merriam of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago was named among those as “all 
wrong on certain utility questions.” 


The Illinois committee, it is said, aidéd in estab- 
lishing public utility courses at Northwestern and 
Illinois universities.—Chicago Daily Tribune, April 
14, 1928. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 13 








12 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


ADDRESS 


By HARRY E. SHECK 
of Chicago Trades Union Label League 


Before the Eleventh Annual Convention of the American Federation of Teachers, June 28, to July 1, 1927 


Throughout the ages the struggle for human 
freedom has always been attended by suffering and 
This has been especially true in the 
It is an 


sacrifice. 
experiences of working men and women. 
historic fact that in the beginning those who per- 
formed labor were classified as slaves, were bought 
and sold upon the open slave markets of the world. 
As one nation conquered another, the victors made 
subjects and slaves of the vanquished. Forced labor, 
compulsory services, was the rule followed, for 
among the dominating class those who performed 
work of any kind whatsoever were considered both 
ignoble and degraded. 

Then came the change from the condition of 
slavery to that of serfdom. Slowly, as civilization 
progressed, the workers became more mindful of 
their positions in life, and sought ways and means 
to elevate and improve their living standards. There 
were marty defeats, many disappointments, but even- 
tually success came and the workers became free. 

With this freedom as a basis for action they form- 
ed into what were later known as trades unions. These 
unions were formed for the purpose of strengthen- 
ing their economic power through collective bargain- 
ing. Like all great movements which came into 
being because of a deep-seated sense of injustice 
this movement met with terrific opposition. Men 
were discharged because they had joined a trades 
union. They were despised and considered enemies 
of society, but they did not falter, fully realizing 
that they might never enjoy the feuits of their labors 
yet willingly making sacrifice for those who were 
to follow. 

I believe, my friends, that spirit is exemplified in 
the most beautiful way in the following lines: 


An old man going along a lone highway, 
Came in the evening, cold and gray 

To a chasm vast and deep and wide 

The old man crossed in the twilight dim, 
The sullen stream had no fears for him; 
But he turned when safe on the other side 
And built a bridge to span the tide. 


‘Old man,’ said a fellow pilgrim near, 


‘You are wasting your time with building here, 
You never again will cross this way, 

Your journey will end at the close of day. 

You have crossed the chasm deep and wide, 

Why build you this bridge at evening tide? 


“The builder lifted his old gray head, 
‘Good friend, the way I have come,’ he said, 
"There followeth after me today, 

A youth whose feet must cross this way; 

And the stream that was as naught to me, 
To the fair-haired youth might a pitfall be, 
He too must cross in the twilight dim, 


Good friend, 1 am building this bridge for him.” 


I believe that would fit the trades unionists, those 
who are active in building up this movement—for 
those who are to follow. Surely there cannot be 
very much satisfaction in the selfish person among 
the working people who says, “Oh, I will take care 
of myself, and let the other fellow struggle for him- 
self.” There can’t be much satisfaction in that, 

I pointed out to you in the beginning of my little 
talk the fact that organized labor is here becavse of 
necessity. Necessity will keep it alive. We owe a great 
deal to the pioneers of the labor movement, the cour- 
ageous men and women who have built up this organ- 
ization that we now call the American Federation of 
Labor. They have gone through all kinds of sacri- 
fices and through all kinds of hardships and they 
have done that because they knew that others were 
going to follow them to enjoy the fruits of their 
labors. They have done that willingly. 

Having that in mind why should there be any 
hesitancy on the part of people to do anything in 
the way of service at this time? We know why 
the labor movement has been brought into being. 
Some say that it is not as perfect as it ought to be. 
We agree with them. It is not nearly as perfect 
as we hope it will be some day. We have a move- 
ment now that years ago did not exist. Men and 


women then were not allowed to gather in meetings. 

I believe you will be interested to know some- 
thing of my own progress in this work. My father 
was a member of the Building Trades of Chicago 


when 
you W 
came 
famil} 
izatior 
obliga 
his sig 
beside 
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to, wa 
of his 
ternal 
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I hope 
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“The } 
respons 
strugg’ 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 13 


when it was not very safe to let anyone know that 
you were a member of organized labor. My father 
came from the other side and raised a very large 
family. He was not able to join any fraternal organ- 
ization. He couldn’t read well enough to take the 
obligation that would make him a member. When 
his signature was required he had to make a cross 
beside his name. The only secret society (if that 
is what you want to call it) that he ever belonged 
to, was the labor union and now I believe every one 
of his ten children are members of two or three fra- 
ternal organizations. 

If there is anyone in the world who appreciates the 
value of organized labor it is such families as that 
where they have really “got their start” so to speak 
through an organization of men and women such as 
ours. 

You may say, there are certainly people employed 
) to do organization work for the labor movement, 

and they are expected to do it, we expect them to do 
their work, that is absolutely true. . And yet there is 
this much about it, when you go back to your city 
I hope that every one of you will think of the 
things you have heard and the contacts you have 
had and lend all the enthusiasm you can and say to 
your membership at home, that the officers in any 
organization can do much better work if they get 
the co-operation of the membership. 

The department that I happen to represent is what 
is known as the Advertising Department of the 
American Federation of Labor. It is considered that 
way among the employers at any rate. We never 
advertise it that way but the employers feel that 
way about it. The men we have employed in the 
label department are all men who have come out 
of some shop and are by no means expert advertising 
men. I happen to be a member of the Printing 
Pressmen’s Union. I was put on the staff of the 
label department to create a greater demand for 
union label products. 

I haven’t had the opportunity to get the education 
that most of you have here. Everything I got was 
before I left school at the age of eleven years, and 
just what I was able to pick up myself since then. 

One of the things that happened when I was 
traveling in the west for the A. F. of L., when we 
showed “Labor’s Reward,” which picture showed 
“The Evolution of the Labor Movement,” was a real 

response from a man who knew something of the 
struggle of the workers. This man, who was an 





ex-judge, was very much pleased with the picture 
and also the lecture that went with it. He said, 
“Never before did I know that the American 
Federation of Labor sent out men for anything but 
to condemn everybody who was not in their own 
organization. The business men and my friends 
here have been very much pleased with the presenta- 
tion that has been made to the people here in this 
town.” This happened out in Lander, Wyo. When 
the picture was shown there, the high school was 
shut down. The children marched down the street 
over into the theater. It was a picture that didn’t 
appeal to the average person that was in the habit of 
seeing the kind of movies we usually see, Charlie 
Chaplin and the others, or the two gun fellow. This 


was an educational picture. 


As the reels were thrown on the screen they point- 
ed to the fact that organized labor has been largely 
responsible for the free public schools that we have 
in this country today. No church, no organization 
that we know about has ever made the effort that the 
American Federation of Labor has made to give the 
children of this country an education. 

The judge said: “I have been a business man for 
many years and I have had many opportunities to 
talk to organizations such as the Lions Club and the 
Kiwanis Club and others and I have also talked over 
the radio and tomorrow morning I am coming down 
to the hotel to show you some of the letters that 
have come in from people who wanted to know more 
about this. I am about seventy years of age and 
I have had a lot of experience. I want you to arrange 
it with the label department. If you caw, I am will- 
ing to go on their staff, even though I am getting 
along in years I am in pretty good shape yet, and I 
am willing to put in the gest of my life for the labor 
movement itself. This picture has converted me. 
I have always had the idea that the labor movement 
was managed in a different way than was brought 
out by this picture.” 


To me this was a very excellent spirit. He was 
a good speaker and very well thought of by business 
men, so I wrote to the department of which I am a 
part and told them about this discovery I made out 
there in Wyoming. By golly, the way I felt about 
it at that time if the devil himself would have said 
something to help the labor movement along I would 
have been glad. 

To my surprise there came the question “Where 
did this fellow ever carry a card?” The fact was he 








14 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


had never belonged to a labor union in his life, but 
he was a business man and could get before the 
groups and tell our side of the story. You know 
the American Federation of Labor likes to know 
where men have worked and what their history 
has been. This is the reason you see men like myself 
who have been taken out of shops, trying to tell the 


story to you. 

Of course you know all of these things just as 
well as I do, but it is just for the sake of reminding 
you of some of these things that we come here. 


Before you leave Chicago I wish you would find 
time to see the results of an effort made by the 
Chicago Trades Union Label League. If you don’t 
take advantage of this invitation you may be a little 
bit sorry later on, because I am sure that some day 
this little effort that we have made here in Chicago 
has started something that is going to grow. 


When I started out this morning it was so beauti- 
ful, the temptation was strong to go any place 
except to a place where I would have to be inside and 
talk, but I just thought I would come over and say 
“hello” to you and wish you all kinds of good luck. 
I shall certainly be disappointed if you don’t come 
down to the Union Label Store, located at 423 South 
Dearborn-st. I don’t care whether you spend a 
cent or not in the store. I just want you tc look 
around and see what we have there. 

I will tell you the reason why we started this 
store. One of the main reasons was the prison con- 
tract labor evil. Do you know that in the city of 
Chicago the stores are being flooded with the product 
that comes from prisons? They are selling these 
goods in the stores and there is no mark of any kind 
on them, and consequently the temptation is so great 
that you can hardly blame some of these working 
men’s wives, when they make a purchase of a house 
dress for ninety-eight cents, that couldn’t be pro- 


duced in any factory even though it is non-union, _ 


and sold at that price. 
We are the only organization that I know of, 


outside of some of the churches, that has taken a. 


prominent stand against this prison contract evil in 
this country. The A. F. of L. has tried year after 
year to get these manufacturers to tell the truth, that 
is all. If it is prison-made, let the people know it. 
Stamp it that way so that when a man who is in 
business and who has made up his mind that he is 
not going to sell that kind of product will not be 
considered as a merchant who is trying to hold up 


the customers when his price is a trifle higher than 
those who sell prison made goods. 

If I remember correctly the statement was made 
by John Walker, president of the Illinois State Fed- 
eration of Labor, that the bill requiring the manufac. 
turer to stamp prison made goods as being prison 
made, was killed. If that is a fact, if it is so hard 
for us to put that kind of a law on our statute 
books, which any decent person will say, is only 
fair, then we should, as members of organized labor 
make up our minds that when we make a purchase, 
ask for the union label. And when we ask for that 
label we are protesting against that great evil we 
have in this country, namely prison made labor com- 
petition. 

I happened to address a church gathering out west. 
The subject was prison labor competition. I noticed 
the preacher was taking notes. He was very much 
worried about what was going to happen to these 
poor prisoners. He said, “They are liable to go in- 
sane. What are you going to do about these people 
if you do not give them something to do?” asked 
the preacher. 

I said, “Has it ever occurred to you, sir, these 
fellows walking along the streets who have a wife 
and several kiddies, and who can‘t find a job, can’t 
find employment, are in a bad way? You evidently 
don’t think about them, that as soon as they become 
desperate because of lack of work they may commit 
a crime; and then they are sent to prison and then 
they go to work for these prison labor contractors 
—and so it goes.” 

We found that they make work shirts. Millions 
of them have been made, according to statistics. 
They have come into this country from the outside, 
many have been made here and sent outside, men 
working at that kind of business in the prisons in 
which women are employed in our factories and you 
should understand what that does. These men come 
back after serving a year or two perhaps for killing 
somebody, and while they are serving their time, 
they compete with some honest person who is trying 
to find a job. They probably worked on work shirts 
for a year or two, served their time there in the 
prison and they are back searching here and there and 
everywhere for a job. They have the mark of prison 
around them, sometimes they even change theif 
name or try to disguise their name in some way 
suddenly somebody in the factory spies them ad 
says, “Why, that is a jail bird.” This is a good 





SBaaB RBS 2 a 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 15 


Christian employer who has hired him and he can’t 
have anything like that in the factory so back he 
goes again to the prison and competes with honest 
men and women in the garment trade. 

I can’t think of anything we have in this country 
which we should take a more decided stand 
against than that particular evil. We found in Ghi- 
cago there were so many stores selling that kind 
of stuff it was, and is appalling. 

In our store we have only a few things for women, 
it is mostly a store for men. We have handkerchiefs 
for ladies and we have umbrellas and stationery but 
outside of that there isn’t much for the ladies. The 
Ladies Garment Workers don’t use the label as yet. 
The label they use has never had the O. K. of the 
A. F. of L. The only labels we recognize are those 
that are registered with the international unions or 
the American Federation of Labor. 


I want to see you over in our store. I want you 
to know more about it and when you go back home 
we hope you will start something like it in your own 
cities. I think we have a few outside of Chicago, but 
owned by private individuals. If we had these chain 
stores all over the country they would be distribut- 
ing agencies for union factories, then we could over- 
come this evil we have right now where we haven’t 
a chance in the world to put our products before the 
public, because chain stores are controlled by the 
non-union factories. 


Before I leave I want to recite a little poem that 
I think is very fitting and very pretty. It fits any 


one connected with the labor movement. Sometimes 
when you read the stories in the newspapers, some 
of them pointing the finger of scorn at the labor 
movement you feel that some of the people connect- 
ed with the movement do not deserve much con- 
sideration. Well, we can’t expect a perfect organ- 
ization any more than Christ himself had in His 
group of twelve men. You know He had one who 
doubted Him, one who denied knowing Him three 
times, and even a traitor in the group. We have 
that kind in every movement in the country or on 
this earth. But we in the labor movement have the 
satisfaction of knowing that we are doing our best 
and that counts a great deal. We can be the best of 
whatever we are as this little poem will express. 


If you can’t be a pine on the top of the bill, 
Be the shrub in the valley, but be 

The best little shrub at the side of the rill; 
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. 

If you can’t be a bush, be a bit of grass, 
The highway happier to make, 

If you can’t be a musky then just be a bass, 
But the liveliest bass in the lake. . 


We can't all be captains, some must be crew, 
There are things for all of us here; 

There are big things to do, there is lesser to do, 
The task you must do, is quite near. 

If you can’t be a highway then just be a trail, 
If you can’t be the sun, be a star, 

It isn’t by size that we win or we fail, 
It’s by being the best of whatever we are. 





COLORADO 


The Opportunity School of Denver is living up to 
its name. During the past year, 9,500 students were 
received and 1,500 placed in employment. The school 
was founded on the idea of Miss Emily Griffith, to 
offer training in any occupation “that gives service 
to the public and provides a living for its workers.” 
There are no entrance requirements and no set rules 
for attendance. Students come at all hours up to 
9:30 at night. 

Three hundred working people are enrolled in the 
high school department. The course is flexible but 
certain standards are maintained, and a regular high 
school diploma may be earned. 

Miss Griffith-is receiving the co-operation of em- 
ployers, and is confident that the idea has come to 
stay.—Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Public Educa- 
tion and Child Labor Association. 


IS THERE A POWER TRUST? 
Josiah T. Newcomb, chief Washington lobbyist of 
the Power Trust, is out with a speech entitled, ““The 
Power Trust Myth.”* This reminds us that Mark 


Hanna claimed there were no trusts. Former Gov- 
ernor Pinchot in a letter to Senator Walsh, in offering 


to support Walsh’s proposed investigation of the power 
trust, says he has had an expert on the job for over 
a year who has discovered that “41 corporations have 


a total capitalization of $10,200,000,000. They 
monopolize all the sources of electric power for four- 
fifths of our people—three quarters are already known 
to be dominated, owned or controlled by five men or 
corporations.” 

These five are the General Electric Company, Doh- 
erty, Morgan, Ryan of New York and Insull of Chi- 


cago. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





~ 


BOOKS 


“There is no frigate like a book 
To bear us lands away.” 








—Emily pngeele 


\ 


EDUCATION AND THE FUTURE—EDUCA- 
TION FOR A CHANGING CIVILIZATION 
By Wiiu1aM Hearp KILpaTRick 
New York: The Macmillan Co. $1 
Reviewed by I. L. Kanpet, Teachers’ College 





Unrest in education is no new theme, but at no 
period has it been so widespread and universal as in 
the last decade. Everywhere the chief preoccupa- 
tion is with the reform of content and methods of 
instruction. Outside of the United States there is 
the additional complication that arises out of the 
new attempts to evolve systems of educational or- 
ganization that are more consistent with the de- 
mands of democracies. In general the unrest is 
caused by a recognition that much that was taught 
whether in the elementary or secondary schools fail- 
ed to carry over into life activities, that education 
in general had become encrusted with tradition and 
formalism, and with content that had lost its mean- 
ing for modern societies. The keynote of the new 
movements is a desire to cultivate personality through 
content that has at once meaning for the individual 
and value for social progress. So stated the problem 
seems apparently simple and the very simplicity of 
statement has elicited greater interest among parents 
and laymen than educational questions have done 
hitherto. It is only as one examines the professional 
proposals for reform that revolve around this central 
aim and that are appearing in almost every import- 
ant language of the civilized world, that one realizes 


the essential difficulties involved in the problem. 
oe cd coe 


Professor Kilpatrick presents in the first two of 
his three lectures on “Education for a Changing 
Civilization” an excellent and clear statement of the 
problems that confront education and society today. 
Starting with the thesis that the chief characteristic 
of the present age is rapid change due to the 
rapid development of science and the changed mental 
attitude consequent thereon, to industrialization, and 
to democracy, he draws attention to the intellectual 


moral and social “lag” between the school and 50. 
ciety as it is coming to be. Authoritarianism, while 
declining to some extent in the intellectual field, stil] 
dominates the religious, moral, social, legal and po- 
litical outlook. While a critical attitude and tested 
thought characterize modern science they do not 
carry over into other activities of life. The task of 
education is to develop a new freedom which asks 
why and demands an answer before it accepts. The 
tempo of modern life is rapid, old solutions will not 
satisfy, and the new generation is facing an un- 
known future, for which youth should be prepared. 
The cultivation of dynamic personality able to face 
new problems and situations is, then, the problem, 
or, in Professor Kilpatrick’s words, “Our problem 
then would seem to be to help our young people 
make the shift from external authority to internal 
authority.” : 

The solution of this problem lies in a close approx- 
imation between education and its process to imme- 
diate life and its educational processes. In other 
words, the content of the school must have meaning 
for the pupil and be of value for life in society, 
while the methods must follow the methods common 
in life outside of the school. The separation between 
education and life resulted in formalism, conserva- 
tism, and neglect of the individual, and the estab- 
lishment of a purely literary and bookish ideal of 
education. “Only as the school is placed on a basis 
of actual living can certain necessary social-moral 
habits and attitudes be built, certain necessary meth- 
ods of attack upon problems and enterprises be de- 
veloped.” The purpose of education from this point 
of view is, then, to develop a critical attitude, a 
scientific habit of mind, ability to judge and open- 
mindedness, breadth of view and readiness to co-oper- 
ate in the interest of social progress and well-being 
even at the risk of questioning the validity of exist- 
ing institutions. 

Up to this point no one who holds a rational con- 
ception of liberal education would differ from Pro- 
fessor Kilpatrick’s main thesis. It may be objected 
that he does not state how many pupils could profit 
by such an education and takes no account of the 
contributions of the psychologists on individual dif- 
ferences. One may question both the economy afd 
validity of “the internal authority, of how it works 
when tried” in any type of activity, without point- 
ing to crime statistics and moral standards due t 
some extent to the elimination of external authority 





SHREPEES 


er s. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 17 


in our education, while still another criticism may be 
found in the still inadequate knowledge of the fac- 
tors that make for progress. Yet in the main his 
thesis on the aims of modern education may be ac- 
cepted without following Professor Kilpatrick in all 
his implications. 

The third lecture in which these implications are 
worked out, is, as the author admits, the most con- 
troversial. Here Professor Kilpatrick develops his 
ideas on curriculum and method. Taking as his point 
of departure the necessity of preparing the younger 
generation to face an unknown future and to be 
prepared to meet unsolved social problems, he is pre- 
pared to discard “for most pupils” Latin as well as 
Greek, mathematics, much of present history study 
and modern foreign languages, while “English and 
the sciences need remaking from within rather than 
rejection.” He leaves, then, for major consideration 
the study of social problems. This is a serious in- 
dictment of current practices, all the more serious 
because it finds wide acceptance among educators. 
And yet it may be seriously questioned whether the 
indictment can ever be against subjects as such. 


‘Those who criticise subjects because of their failure 


to achieve anything, fail always to take into account 
what is today a far more serious indictment of our 
system of education, and that is the large number of 
teachers who are either inadequately prepared in, 
or entirely unfamiliar with, subjects that they pro- 
fess to teach. Before subjects can be discarded, it 
would be well to discover what can be done with good 
teaching; otherwise the time will not be distant when 
“social studies,” too, will follow the rest into the 
discard. Assuming, however, that Professor Kilpat- 
rick’s contention is sound, can the unknown future 
be anticipated, can the future social problems be fore- 
seen? Attempts to discover lines of future interest 
have been made, as, for example, in the sciences. 
Newspapers and magazines were analyzed to discover 
the major scientific trends of the day; ten years later 
it was found that the emphasis had shifted. The 
same would no doubt be true in any field. It would 
be unjust to Professor Kilpatrick, however, to leave 
the impression that he wishes to discard everything 
that has come from the past. “Many old demands 
remain substantially unaltered.” ‘Accordingly, to 
such of the older limited stock of precise subject- 
matter as should survive from this generation to the 
next, there must be added certain more generalized 
methods and attitudes of attack that especially fit 
for meeting novel situations.” 


Knowledge of what has been done and said in the 
past is still essential, and without knowledge new 
methods of attack cannot be developed. It is highly 
problematical, however, whether teachers can go be- 
yond this, whether education can undertake more . 
than transmission of the inheritance of the race and 
adjustment to the present through content that has 
meaning and by new methods that would be valid 
in new situations. Granted that “we face as never 
before an unknown shifting future,” how can “child- 
ren learn to adapt themselves to a situation which we, 
as teachers, can only partially foresee?” Dealing 
with similar proposals for an education in civic and 
social predaredness Walter Lippman in “The Phantom 
Public” offers a criticism and suggestion that apply 
in the present instance. “If the schools attempt to 
teach children how to solve the problems of the day, 
they are bound always to be in arrears. The most 
they can conceivably attempt is the teaching of 
patterns of thought and feeling which will enable 
the citizen to approach a new problem in some use- 
ful fashion.” And again, “No scheme of education 
can equip him (the citizen) in advance for' all the 
problems of mankind; no device of publicity, no 
machinery of enlightenment, can endow him during 
a crisis with the antecedent detailed and technical 
knowledge which is required for executive action.” 


How great is the difficulty of anticipating the ed- 
ucational demands of a “shifting future” can best 
be realized by a comparison of the varied “job analy- 


ses” and enumeration of objectives for adult life. 
The criticisms offered of the solution proposed by 
Professor Kilpatrick do not affect the value of his 
analysis of the present educational situation. Indeed, 
Professor Kilpatrick does not claim to legislate, he 
recognizes, as has been long recognized in England 


and is today in a new sense recognized in Germany, 
that the ultimate solution of the educational prob- 
lem can only be found in a well-prepared teacher 
enjoying a freedom that is limited only by sound 
Such a condi- 


professional knowledge and insight. 
tion is still remote and especially in the United States 
where the chief danger lies not in inadequacy of 
theory, solutions, and panaceas, but in preaching the 
philosophy of freedom for the pupil and in denying 
it for the teacher by a welter of courses of study, 
textbooks, supervisors, and experts. The older theory 
lent itself to such hierarchy of controls. If Pro- 
fessor Kilpatrick’s general survey has any value, it 
lies in directing attention to the incompatibility be- 








18 


tween new theories of education and old systems of 
organization. 

How difficult is the task of reform is well illus- 
trated in Miss Josephine Chase’s “New York at 
School,” whose publication was made possible by the 
Public Education Association. The volume does not 
attempt to do more than present a descriptive ac- 
count of the public educational system of New 
York City. The task is well performed and one can 
not read it without realizing the immensity of the 
educational problem that confronts New York. Ob- 
viously the danger lies in the development of a vast 
machine. While schools have been set aside for var- 
ious experiments, New York City is still far from 
encouraging that variety and freedom that is found 
in the educational system of the London County 
Council. It is unnecessary, however, since the vol- 
ume does not invite it, to enter into any considera- 
tions of the quality of education offered in New 
York, the size of buildings, the inbreeding of teach- 
ers, and other questions. As a survey of the fabric 
of the educational system “New York at School’ is a 
valuable contribution for giving the parents and 
taxpayers an intelligent insight into the largest edu- 
cational enterprise in the world.—The Saturday Re- 
view of Literature. 





A SHORT HISTORY OF WOMEN—By John 


Langdon-Davies. Viking Press, 30 Irving Place, 

New York, 1927. $3.00. 

It is indeed gratifying to find a book such as 
“A Short History of Women,” by John Langdon- 
Davies, since most historians seem to be unaware 
that there has been such a thing as a woman move- 
ment or even that woman has had any part in history 
or its’ making. 

This eminent English scientist presents a clear ac- 
count of the social status of women throughout 
the ages, from primitive days to the present. He 
shows us the source of the difficulties which confront 
the women of today in their struggle for freedom 
and self-respect. 

Mr. Langdon-Davies turns prophet in conclusion 
and predicts woman’s future destiny. 

The book is recommended to both men and women 
for its sane solution of the “woman question” and 


its hopeful outlook. 





MORE CHILD LABOR 
Two hundred thirteen factories in Mississippi em- 
ploy women and child labor, an increase of 34 mills 
since January 1, 1927. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





With the January issue, the English Journal began 
to appear in two editions—the first educational mag. 
azine to adopt such a policy. The regular edition 
will be devoted to the work of the senior and junior 
high schools, and the “College Edition” to English 
in higher education. 

Originally the English Journal, which is the offi- 
cial organ of the National Council of Teachers of 
English, dealt with curriculum and methods in the 
traditional four-year high school and in college. With 
practically a five-grade span, The Journal was able 
to cover its field satisfactorily. Then came the great 
increase in high school and college populations, with 
consequent increase in number of teachers and in 
the amount of good pedagogical writing. About'the 
same time the scientific movement in education 
began to be fully felt, and the editor’s manuscript 
drawer overflowed while the pages of The Journd 
bulged. 

The demands upon The Journal and the material 
offered it were still further increased by the rise of 
the junior high school, which has grown with start- 
ling rapidity. The United States Bureau of Educz- 
tion has a list of about 1200 such schools. One pub- 
lisher has the name of 5000 junior high school teach- 
ers of English. No one, indeed, knows how many 
there are, and if he knew today his figures would 
need revision tomorrow. Less noticeable, but not 
unimportant, is the extension of the influence of the 
National Council of Teachers of English, of which 
The Journal is the official organ, upward through 
the college. . 

One magazine was no longer adequate to cover 
this wide grade span, and the two editions wert 
planned. ‘The two editions will have jackets of dif- 
ferent colors and interesting typographical change 
make both more attractive than even the wel 
printed Journal has been. 

















































“Forests and Water,” a booklet, originally a pat 
of the Final Report of the National Waterways Com- 
mission, has just been published by the Department 
of Agriculture. This gives the results of years of 
scientific investigations by noted men both in Am#- 
ica and in many other countries. To procure a Cop! 
write to United States Department of Agricultutt 
Office of Information, Washington, D. C. 

















A small number of choice books are sufficient- 
Voltaire. 












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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 19 


RURAL SCHOOL LEAFLET 42, By Eprrn A. 
LaTHROP, of the Bureau of Education, Washing- 
ton, is an interesting report, setting forth the work 
of the State School Improvement Associations 6f five 
states. These associations were pioneers in securing 
co-operation between schools and their communities. 
While the first was formed in that northern-most 
state, Maine, the idea found heartier welcome in the 
South, and between 1902 and 1912 found expression 
in nearly every Southern state, creating an alliance 
of teachers and laymen for the betterment of local 
schools, yet developing harmoniously throughout each 
state by linking itself with the State Superintendent’s 
office. Perhaps one reason for more active associa- 
tions in the South was the financial assistance at their 
disposal through the Southern Education Board till 
1915; The Peabody Education Fund; the women’s 
clubs and private donations. 

Of the fourteen states once so organized, in five 
the School Improvement Associations still function 
as state organizations, “promoting school improve- 
ment on a state-wide basis.” They are Maine, Ala- 
bama, Arkansas, South Carolina and Virginia. And, 
since they were pioneers, no two of them had the 
same beginning. ‘Thirty years ago, in 1898, the 
State Superintendent of Maine found himself single- 
handed unable to improve educational conditions and 
called upon the public for help. In Alabama, the 
Federation of Women’s Clubs took the initiative. In 
Arkansas, eleven Little Rock women organized the 
state. In Virginia, the Governor came to the aid 
of the State Superintendent and called a meeting— 
Note the aim—‘to unify educational forces”; and 
the means proposed: “to sink differences and seek 
identities among all educators.” But most signifi- 
cant of a new era was the beginning in South Caro- 
lina. Here President Johnson, of Winthrop College 
laid a plan for improving rural schools before his 
seniors; and as a result thirty-three of these girls 
banded together under the name of the South Caro- 
lina Women’s Association, and pledged themselves 
to the betterment of the rural schools of the state. 
Through the alumnae of Winthrop College they 
began a work that has carried on for twenty-six 
years. 

Naturally we ask: What have these associations 
accomplished? All that the P. T. A. has in improve- 
ment of buildings and grounds and increase in equip- 
ment; in putting libraries into schools and agriculture 


into the elementary grades, and in campaigning for . 


health. But more, they have provided university 
extension courses, they have beautified their towns, 
and have brought town and country nearer together 
by building better roads and bridges. Virginia, 
thoroughgoing, even organized the school children 
into junior leagues and helped the Negroes create a 
similar association. Prizes, pictures, trophies helped 
keep enthusiasm alive. 

The fact that at the end of thirty years the 
Bureau of Education has thought this work signifi- 
cant enough to incorporate in its Rural School Leaf- 
lets is high commendation. 

Lyp1a J. TROWBRIDGE. 





SUGGESTIONS FOR PARENT - TEACHER 
WORK. By The Parents and Teachers Association 
of the Ethical Culture School. New York. 1927. 
Pp. 67. $.50. 

This pamphlet, based on the experiences of the 
Parent-Teacher Association of the school, has, so 
far as we know, no rival in its field. Under three 
heads, Organization and Efficiency, Education, and 
Welfare, are given lists of 26 standing committees 
that perform the work of the association. The work 
of each committee is discussed in some detail, usually 
under the following heads: history, purpose, pro- 
cedure, suggestions. A sample program for a year’s 
work is also included. This pamphlet ought to be 
of considerable value to all groups purposing to 
organize a parent-teacher association, and even to 
groups already organized. 

F, W. SCHACHT. 





WEBSTER’S NEW INTERNATIONAL DIC- 
TIONARY. G. & C. Merriam Co., Springfield, 
Mass. 1927. . 

Possibly in no way do we get so definite a view 
of changes in social conditions, in art, literature, and 
science, as when we examine a list of reeent words 
such as is here contained. Airplane—did you realize 
that this is the standard form adopted by the United 
States Army? Black and Tan is common in press 
and speech. Here is explained the full meaning of 
the name. Carrell-Dakin Treatment, Cargile Treat- 
ment and Dakin’s Solution record the progress made 
in surgery when war’s necessity became the mother 
of these successful methods of treating deep wounds. 
Dail Eireann—note the pronunciation and the record 
of its early activities. Esch Cummins Transportation 
Act of 1920 is well covered, even though no one yet 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


knows what the results are to be. Facista—note the 
plural Facisti. Flapper. WHere she is, though the 
word is already losing vogue, and here are the best- 
known explanations of how the term originated. 
Fourth Dimension. The subject is so involved that 
only the trained mathematician can cope with it 
successfully but here is the best statement we have 
ever seen. Realtor. This word, which knocked for 
admittance in 1908, has at last deserved a place. 
SociAL SCIENCE. 





SAFETY EDUCATION; A MAGAZINE OF THE 
GOOD ADVENTURE 


Under the above title The Education Division, 
National Safety Council, is publishing a really beau- 
tiful magazine. This magazine meets a real need. 
Safety education is now a live and thoroughly 
accredited subject in the curriculum. With the 
incorporation of safety teaching in the regular course 
of study has come the demand for materials that 
will be of definite and practical help to the teacher. 


There is offered two handbooks, “An Introduction 
to Safety Education” and “A Junior Safety Council 
Handbook.” 

A series of short safety plays by authors of recog- 
nized ability, and miscellaneous pamphlets dealing 
with various phases of safety teaching are also avail- 
able. 

Perhaps the most valuable service which the Edu- 
cation Division of the National Safety Council has 
to offer is Safety Education—a Magazine of the Good 
Adventure. ‘This magazine brings to the teacher 
each month practical lesson material in the form of 
projects, plays, stories, verse and humor. “Safety 
Studies for the Month” deal with the hazards of the 
changing seasons and suggest correlations which are 
refreshingly new and interesting. Nature articles, 
and suggestions for combining safety instruction 
with manual work are also regular features of Safety 
Education. Several pages are devoted to news of 
junior safety councils, patrols and other school safety 
organizations. The price of the magazine is one 
dollar a year; with special reduced rates for quantity 
subscriptions. The address is 120 West Forty-Sec- 
ond-st, New York. 





“What is an engineering education?” general series 
bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 4, Missouri School of Mines 
and Metallurgy, Rolla, Mo. 

This bulletin of seven pages was prepared to place 
before students and advisers of secondary schools 
information regarding the study of this branch of 


learning. It was written in response to a suggestion 
made by a research engineer engaged in the study of 
engineering education, under the direction of the So- 
ciety for the Promotion of Engineering Education. 

The bulletin was prepared, not with the thought 
of influencing boys in the choice of a career, but to 
place before them, while they are yet in the pre. 
paratory schools, information that will help them in 
choosing their preparatory work for this difficult 
branch of learning. The bulletin analyzes typical 
engineering curricula, showing the percentages of 
time required in various subjects to complete the 
work required for a degree, and suggests broadly 
courses to be pursued in the preparatory schools by 
those who expect to follow engineering as a pro- 
fession. 

Copies of the bulletin may be obtained without 
cost from The Registrar, Missouri School of Mines 
and Metallurgy, Rolla, Mo. 





NEW TESTS 


The Educational Research Bulletin of the Ohio 
State University, November 23, 1927, contains an 
interesting list of new tests. 

From the Public School Publishing Company, may 
be obtained the Sinis Score Card for Socio-Eco- 
nomic Status “designed to ascertain and record the 
general cultural, social and Economic background in 
the homes of school children,” a Test at the Comple- 
tion of Good Preparation Courses in the Junior High 
School by Miss Nina Streeter and Miss Mabel Trilling 
in which judgment, as well as information, are in- 
volved and the German Reading Scales of the Ameri- 
can Council on Education devised by M. J. Van 
Wagener and Sophia Hubman Patterson co-operating 
with the Modern Foreign Language study. Scott 
Foresman and Company have issued two sets, “The 
Compass Survey Tests in Arithmetic,” in two sef- 
ies, elementary and advanced, and the “Arithmetic 
Neatness Scale” of F. B. Knight and W. E. Mc- 
Clure. The World Book Company has published an 
interesting Rating Scale for School Habits developed 
by E. L. Cornell, W. W. Coxe and J. S. Orleans, 
of the Educational Measurements Bureau of New 
York State. 





Teaching is not a profession. It is a part-time job. 
This is proved by the fact that large numbers of 
teachers are engaged in various avocations in order 
to supplement their small salaries. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 21 


CONFERENCE OF TEACHERS IN WORKERS’ 
EDUCATION 
KATONAH, N. Y.—The place of workers’ edu- 
cation in the labor movement was discussed at the 
fifth annual conference of teachers just closed at 
Brookwood Labor College here. 


Four possible spheres of workers’ education were 
outlined by Eduard C. Lindeman of the New York 
School for Social Work: 

1. Workers education wholly under the control of 
dominant labor organizations and financed by them. 
“The learning which such organizations promote will 
undoubtedly be stereotyped, conservative, and dis- 
tasteful to all who belong to minorities,” said Dr. 
Lindeman. “But if those minorities should by some 
lucky accident become the majority, would they not 
make the same claim for control, and would they not 
in the end become equally stereotyped, conservative 
and distasteful to the new minority?” 

2. Educational enterprises possessing a higher 
standard of excellence and a broader freedom, organ- 
ized within the labor movement but exercising equal 
control in its councils with other organized branches. 
This type would, presumably, consist almost solely 
of labor colleges. 

Groups HoLtp THER OwN 


3, Educational enterprises which do not in any 
sense presume to represent existing labor principles 
and policy, but which maintain an independent status 
for the main purpose of criticism, challenge and ex- 
perimentation. 

4. Educational enterprises which include repre- 
sentatives from organized labor, from organized agri- 
culture, and from intellectual groups prorhoting a 
type of education designed to create and experiment 
with those values and principles which need to be 
realized if the workers are to influence and guide 
those economic processes which have their setting in 
government and the law; in other words, education 
for future political action. 

“If we could have all these varieties of educational 
enterprises and their relationships, we might find our- 
selves to be a part of a labor movement which actu- 
ally moved, resolutely and intelligently, toward a 
changing social order in which enlightened workers 
and learners could find new meanings and new moti- 
vations for their values,” said Dr. Lindeman. 

A survey of workers’ education for the past year 
showed many of the groups not more than holding 
their own, though in certain localities new impetus 


seems to have been given, notably in Pennsylvania 
where, under the direction of Leonard Craig, a Brook- 
wood graduate, labor colleges have recently been 
started in Pittsburgh and Shenandoah, with prospects 
for classes in at least two more cities. An awakening 
interest in workers’ education on the part of groups 
other than workers was evidenced by the summer 
schools held at Bryn Mawr, Wisconsin University, 
Barnard College, Sweet Briar, W. Va., and various 
industrial groups of the Y. W. C. A. 
LaBor MEN ON ScHOOL Boarps 

Textbooks and syllabi for class use adapted to 
workers’ needs and minds, and competent teachers 
with a labor viewpoint were felt by field workers to 
be the greatest needs. 


If city school boards had labor men on them in- 
stead of only doctors, merchants and real estate 
agents, and if the teachers were organized, children 
would not come out of the public schools with their 
present attitude of suspicion or contempt for trade 
unions, it was pointed out. 

The recommendation of the A. F. of L. that the 
executive board of the Workers Education Bureau 
be made up exclusively of representatives of the A. 
F. of L. and international unions—thus depriving 
state and city federations, labor colleges and classes 
of representation—was discussed, and there was gen- 
eral agreement among the teachers present that this 
would be detrimental to the movement. 

About 25 teachers, representing 15 branches of 
the work, were present at the conference which was 
held under the auspices of Brookwood Local 189, 
American Federation of Teachers. Proceedings of the 
conference are being published and will be available 
shortly. 





\ 
NOTES ON COURSES IN MILITARY TRAIN- 
ING IN LAND GRANT COLLEGES 


Following the decision by the Attorney General of 
Wisconsin that the land grant colleges are required 
to offer courses in military training, but not to com- 
pel the students to enter them, and consequent action 
by the University of Wisconsin making military 
training optional, the subject has received wide dis- 
cussion, notably in the University of Minnesota, 
Northwestern and Chicago Universities. It is pro- 
posed to substitute physical training for military drill 
if the latter is optional. 

A final decision on the law is expected in the 
near future. 





22 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: 
$06 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois 
Fronencs Curtis Hanson, Secretary-Treasurer and Editor 


At the time of expiration, a bill will be found in the copy. 
Subscribers are requested to give prompt notice of changes 
in address. 

Remittances should be made in postal money-order, express 
order, draft, stamps or check. 


SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, TWO DOLLARS FOR THE YEAR 
FOREIGN $2.10—SINGLE COPIES, 25c 


Advertising rates made known on application. 


EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 
President 
Mary C. Barker, Atlanta No. 89, 685 Myrtle Stieet, N. E., 
Atlanta, Georgia. 
Legislative Representative and Vice-President 
Seutma M. BorcHarpt, Washington No. 8; 1741 Park Road, 
N. W., Washington, D. C. 
Vice-Presidents 
Lucrs W. ALLEN, Chicago Women No. 3; 
Avenue, Evanston, Illinois. 
Amy A. Fox, Minneapolis No. 59; 2809 Park Avenue, Minne- 
apolis, Minnesota. 
ABRAHAM LeFxowrTz, New York No. 5; Grand Avenue, East 
Elmhurst, New York, N. Y. 
Henry R. Linvitrz, New York No. 5; 70 Fifth Avenue, 
New York, N. Y. 
A. J. Mustre, Brookwood No. 189; Brookwood, Katonah, N. Y. 
Frorence Roop, St. Paul No. 28; 328 Cedar Street, St. Paul, 
Minnesota. 
E. E. ScHWARtzTRauBER, Portland No. 111; 
Box 68, Portland, Oregon 
W. J. Scorr, Atlanta No. 89; 212 Kings Highway, Decatur, 
Georgia. : 
F. G. STecxzr, yg 2; 1618 Lake Avenue, 


Wilmette, Illinois. 
CHaares B. Stmiman, Chicago No. 2; 827 Ridge Avenue, 


Evanston, Illinois 
Secretary-Treasurer 


FioreNce Curtis Hanson, Chicago Women No. 3; 506 South 
Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois—Telephone Harrison 2950. 


AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
Orcanrzep Apa 15, 1916 
Affiliated With the American Federation of Labor 




















1803 Livingston 


R. F. D. 5, 





LOW-PRICE TEACHERS SUBSTITUTED 

DES MOINES, Ia.—(FP)—The Des Moines school 
board has increased the pay of about one-third of the 
teaching force, the total raise amounting to $15,000 
annually. The superintendent assured the board that 
this will not increase the budget, as during the past 
year 75 highly-paid teachers were dismissed and low- 
haid ones substituted. 


WELL! WELL! 


Marriage a ban to employment. 

A report has iust come to us that the Newport, 
R. L, Board of Education has passed a rule that the 
marriage of any teacher will be regarded as a resig. 
nation. To the teachers who must submit to this 
encroachment upon their personal liberty or seek an- 
other field we can offer one suggestion. 

Organize and affiliate with the American Feder. 
tion of Teachers, the one educational organization 
that has long and vigorously protested this injustice 
to teachers. 

Then as the first activity of this new chapter we 
advise that Helen Taft Manning, daughter of ex 
President Taft, and Dean of Bryn Mawr, be invited 
to present the subject to the sitizens of Newport. 

The following article by Mrs. Manning from the 
April issue of McCall’s Magazine is a most forceful 
statement of the case and should be used with: telling 
effect on reactionary school boards. 

SHOULD WOMEN TEACHERS MARRY? 
By HELEN TaFT MANNING 

A short time ago an item appeared in the news- 
papers describing the efforts of the administration in 
one of our largest cities to collect evidence which 
might be used to weed out all married women among 
the public school teachers. Whether or not this report 
was true, there can be no question but that in many 
cities the career of the teacher who has been rash 
enough to marry’is very hard. The reasons advanced 
for the prejudice against married womén on the part 
of boards of education are: first, that their employ- 
ment is detrimental to the schools, and secondly that 
it is an injustice to their own families. 

Thus‘ it is said that when a woman marries het 
heart will no longer be in her work. Just why sh 
should not have given it up voluntarily, if that i 
the case, does not appear. The truth of the matter is 
that the woman who wants to teach after she mat- 
rics is probably one who feels an unusual aptitude for 
the profession, and it is not likely that the changt 
in her circumstances is going to upset her equilibrium 
for any length of time. 

And surely we may waive the old argument thi 
the advancement of married women is an injustict 
to the unmarried teacher who stands more in need of 
the economic benefits of promotion and may suffer 
from any overcrowding in the profession. Anyot 
who has been in touch with the schools and college 
knows that the number of gifted teachers, married 
or single, is so small that the number of ineffectivé 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 23 


teachers is large enough to make it desirable that more 
of them should be discouraged from going on in the 
profession. While it is true that the teacher who be- 
comes a mother may have to suspend her teaching 
for a time, the very fact that plenty of unmarried 
girls are ready to take over her work should enable 
the schools to fill her place and to fill it permanently 
if the substitute proves to be a better teacher. We are 
talking about good teachers, not claiming that a bad 
teacher should hold her position merely because she 
is married. 

An overwhelming proportion of school teachers in 
this country are women. They have for the most part 
received the same rather restricted education and 
started their professional careers with little experience 
outside the schoolroom. The very fact that their pro- 
fession is under close observation by the rest of the 
community tends to make their social experience 
more limited than that of other girls. Is it not absurd 
that as soon as these young women develop the nor- 
mal feminine emotional life they are expected to 
abandon their duties? Marriage can scarcely fail to 
bring for most of them new contacts and new ideas 
which will make them doubly useful as teachers, and 
motherhood will certainly give them fresh insight into 
the psychology of other people’s children. 

The difficulties of the married teacher which arises 
inevitably from her divided interests may prevent 
for years to come any considerable number from 
attempting to persevere in their professional duties. 
But I believe it is the duty of the boards of education 
tc seek ways of making their path easier instead of 
making it impossible. 





BETTER SCHOOLS SEEN IN HIGHER 
TEACHERS WAGE 


By Harper LEECH 

Cost of government increases so steadily, despite 
federal economies, that there must be a great force 
behind it. Probably we will get further by trying 
to get value received from our governmental expendi- 
tures than by trying to reduce their aggregate. 

Schools account for no small part of the total 
which now tops 11 billions per year by a substan- 
tial margin. Interest on school debt will constitute 
a more substantial item in: future budgets of state, 
County, and local governments, 

In the 24 years in which our annual budget for 
grammar and high schools rose from $214,965,000 
to $1,820,743,000, the annual output of school 
district bonds jumped from $7,672,000 to $174,- 


407,100 and a large part of the $206,823,100 of 
county bonds issued in the last year of the period 
under review were for educational purposes, 


% 


As the financial magnitude of the school system 
grows, the topic becomes of more interest to the 
business community—it is at once a great collective 
enterprise, which must be supported by other enter- 
prises, and it is the source from which business must 
recruit its workers, bosses, and managers. 

Probably we shall never get the maximum social 
dividend from our school investments until we have 
plowed much more money into the system—more 
money for personnel rather than plant. Despite an 
increasing number of women Careerists in business, 
the leadership of modern industry will remain pre- 
dominantly masculine. The pioneers of America were 
largely fashioned by school masters. 

It is not at all unlikely that the best means for 
making the schools more immediately productive of 
more available personnel for trade and industry 
would be the general raising of teaching salaries to 
the point where an increasing proportion of men 
would become teachers. Higher salaries will attract 


the dynamic type of man. 
ce ce ae 


The school master should be an outstanding figure 
in the community. He was once so universally and 
plenty of modern educators carry on the tradition, 
but the rewards are hardly such as to give school 
teaching an even break in the bid for ability against 


other lines. 
that’s certain. 

Cursory reading of some educational journals gives 
one the impression that a considerable proportion 
of present day teaching staffs are smitten with the 
“socializing” idea. We hear a great deal about 
“mission” of the schools to prepare for a more col- 
lective or social sort of life. What the vast majority 
of Americans expect of the schools is the training 
of more efficient, clear thinking, capable, and clean 
individuals—they are convinced that such indi- 
viduals will work out satisfactory social relations, 
without any enforced regimentation or artificial 
““group mindedness.” 


The best men in it are underpaid— 


+ coe * 


The same note is to be found in some of the civic 
text books—an overemphasis on the social and col- 
lective—less of the individualism which made 


America. It is an indefinable thing—something 
which no politician could touch except to aggravate, 





24 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


But if remedy is needed, it will be obtained by pay- 
ing salaries, which will attract more of the indi- 
vidualistic types into the teaching profession.— 
Chicago Tribune, Sept. 27, 1927. 





“And that sweet city with her dreaming spires, 
She needs not June for beauty’s heightening.” 

So reads the cover on the announcement by the 
American Association of University Women of “A 
Summer Vacation Course at Oxford,” July 6-27, 
1928. This course is designed primarily for the 
women teaching in the secondary schools in the 
United States. 

The subject will be “England in the Nineteenth 
Century: 1815-1900.” Each morning there will be 
two lectures, short series having been arranged on 
literary, historical, political, economic, and scientific 
topics. In addition to these morning lectures, there 
will on one or two evenings a week be addresses on 
outstanding features of the period—‘“The Develop- 
ment of Women’s Education,” “The Pre-Raphaelite 
Spirit in Poetry and Painting,” “The Happiness Phil- 
osophy of the Nineteenth Century,” “Religious Move- 
ments at Oxford,” being among the subjects chosen. 

Lectures on the following subjects will be given 
by some of the most distinguished British lecturers: 

Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, and Byron. 
(Five lectures. ) 

The Nineteenth-Century Novel. (Three lectures.) 

Victorian Poets. (Three lectures.) 

. Ruskin. (One lecture.) 

Carlyle as an Historian. (One lecture.) 

The Pre-Raphaelite Spirit in Poetry and Painting. 
(One lecture.) 

Political Thought. (Three lectures.) 

The Development of the State. [Three lectures.) 

The Treatment of Native Races: 

enaiia tandipins } ctwo lectures. ) 
(2) 1850-1900. 

Foreign Policy. (Three lectures. ) 

The Labor Movement. (Two lectures.) 

The Value of Economic Theory. (One lecture.) 

The Scientific Outlook. 

The Birth and Growth of 

Sociology. 

Queen Victoria. (One lecture.) 

The Happiness Philosophy of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury. (One lecture.) 

Religious Movements at Oxford. (One lecture.) 

The Development of Women’s Education. (One 
lecture. ) 


(Two lectures. ) 


The opening address will be given by Sir Micragr 
SADLER, C.B., K.C.S.I., LL.D., Master of University 
College, Oxford, and the closing address by James 
W. Heapram-Mortey, C.B.E., Historical Adviser 
to the Foreign Office. 

Discussion classes under a tutor will be held on 
Wordsworth, The Nineteenth-Century Novel, Polit- 
ical Thought, and Economic History and Theory, 
Any accepted candidate wishing to join such a 
group is requested to make application before May 
Ist to The Organizing Secretary American Summer 
School, 1928, Somerville College, Oxford, mention- 
ing which subject she prefers, when a list of books 
suggested for previous study will be sent to her. 


Students will be lodged in the Women’s Colleges, 
where they will have the opportunity of meeting 
some of the Tutors, who will be in residence as in 
Term. Every effort will be made to provide as many 
glimpses into typically English life as possible. Stu- 
dents will have the opportunity to become acquainted 
with English music, folk-dancing and singing; they 
will drive to Stratford-on-Avon, for a performance 
of one of Shakespeare’s plays by the well-known 
Festival Company; to Sulgrave Manor, the ancestral 
home of the Washington family; and to other places 
of interest in the neighboring country. They will 
be shown Oxford’s own architectural treasures under 
trained guidance. 

The fee of $125 will include full board and resi- 
dence, lectures and classes, excursions and plays. The 
number of students will be limited to 350, 325 of 
whom will be housed in the Women’s Colleges and 
the remainder in the town of Oxford. Candidates 
are therefore urged in their own interests to apply 
as soon as possible after October Ist to 
The Secretary of the Committee on International 

Relations, American Association of University 

Women, 1634 Eye Street, Washington, D. C. 





WORLD FEDERATION OF EDUCATION 
ASSOCIATIONS 

The World Federation of Education Associations 
will shortly go into the field for a ten million dollar 
fund to put the work of the Federation on an endur- 
ing basis. One of its chief objectives will be the 
removal of illiteracy. 

Sixty per cent of the world is illiterate, dependent 
entirely for information upon what can be seen and 
heard in their immediate environment. Universal 
knowledge can not be brought to these people until 





their 
to al 
natio! 
ation. 
tion 
ment 
Th 
catior 
the | 
Toros 
atten 
sociol 
These 
Th 
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a firs! 
The ] 
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histor 
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(3) T 
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INTER 
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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 25 


their illiteracy is removed, Literate men are open 
to an understanding of the viewpoint of other 
nations, and such men will ultimately acquire toler- 
ation. The Federation believes that universal educa- 
tion will result in world friendship and the settle- 
ment of international disputes by arbitration. 


The Federation is an organization to further edu- 
cational interests, to serve as a clearing house for 
the best educational thought of the world. The 
Toronto Conference, August 7-12, 1927, was 
attended by approximately seven thousand educators, 
sociologists, and others interested in human welfare. 
These came from all parts of the world. 


These Proceedings give the statements of ministers 
of education, of teachers actually engaged in instruc- 
tion, of sociologists and investigators writing with 
a first hand knowledge of their respective countries. 
The Proceedings have, therefore, an unusual author- 
ity in that they represent the opinions of persons 
native to the countries of which they write. 

For the purposes of reference, this volume will be 
needed in every library. Schools will find the mate- 
rial contained therein invaluable for their classes in 
history, sociology, current events, debating, etc. 

The volume describes the social and educational 
conditions in China, Japan, India, Persia, Germany, 
Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Greece, Den- 
mark, England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, United 
States and Mexico. 

The Herman-Jordan Plan for World Friendship 
and the valuable work of its committees are fully 
set forth embracing (1) EDUCATION FoR Peace and 
the aims and methods of peace organizations; (2) 
TEACHING OF History FOR WorLD TRUTH, to in- 
culcate loyalty and fidelity to one’s country without 
hatred to others; (3) TRAINING OF YOUTH IN 
Wortp Amity, methods and results; (4) Mrrrary 
TRAINING AND MILITARY PREPAREDNESS, containing 
a valuable statistical survey; (5) METHODS AND 
INSTRUMENTS TO SETTLE INTERNATIONAL DisPUTES 
Without Resort To WAR. 

World-wide Studies in (1) HEALTH; (2) ILLITER- 
ACY, a survey of conditions and national programs; 
(3) THe BeHavior-PRoBLEM CHILD, AND ADOLES- 
CENTs, how to educate the exceptional child; (4) 
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION EXCHANGE, exchange 
of students and teachers; (5) CHARACTER, Morat, 
AND RELicious EpucaTion, methods and view- 
Points; (6) PREPARATION OF TEACHERS FOR Goop- 
WILL, aids and standards; (7) PARENT-TEACHER, 


HoME AND SCHOOL AssocIATIONS, home and school 
co-operation, the new international organization; 
(8) INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE OF SCHOOL 
CHILDREN, methods and results; (9) INTERNATION- 
AL ASPECT OF LIBRARY SERVICE, EDUCATIONAL PER- 
JODICALS AND EXCHANGE OF EDUCATIONAL NEws; 
(10) TEACHER ASSOCIATIONS, AND THE INTERNA- 
TIONAL ASPECT OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION, or- 
ganization and objective of teacher associations 
throughout the world; (11) Socta, ADJUSTMENT 
—THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOL TO THE ComM- 
MUNITY, labor schools, corporation schools, relation 
of schools to industry, education as a preparation 
for life; (12) Country YouTH aND CouNTRY 
SCHOOL, the social and educational problems of rural 
communities; (13) Nursery, Pre-ScHOoL AND 
KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION, education and training 
at the plastic age; (14) HaNpbICAPPED CHILDREN 
AND Wuat Is Bernc DoNE FoR THEIR EDUCATION 
AND WELFARE, the problem, methods and results; 
(15) Motion Pictures, development of visual edu- 
cation, its place in the general education of the peo- 
ple; (16) INpustriaL EpucATION IN ELEMENTARY 
ScHOOLS, the importance of handicraft in the school 
curriculum; (17) CoLLEGEs AND UNIVERsITIES, the 
unification of scientific terminology, the universities 
and international relations; (18) Humane Epuca- 
TION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, materials, meth- 
ods, results; (19) ApuLtT EpucaTIoNn, survey of 
world efforts; (20) SEconpaRY EDUCATION, moral 
conduct and social ethics, extra curricular activities, 
international aspect of science, modern language, 
etc.; (21) ELEMENTARY ScHooLs, psychological 
problems of childhood and youth and their relation 
to education; (22) GEoGRAPHY, modern concepts, 
how taught in various countries. 


The volume will be 64% by 9% inches, will con- 
tain from eight hundred to one thousand pages, will 
be printed in ten point type, on good paper and let- 
ter press, and bound in blue buckram. The price 
is $2.50, carriage prepaid. Address orders to Mr. 
Charles H. Williams, 101 Jesse Hall, University of 
Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. 

Educators, sociologists, philanthropists, - public 
libraries, school and college libraries, clubs and any- 
one interested in world welfare will find this volume 
fresh, inspiring, and authoritative. 

Water R. SIDERs, 
Field Representative. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING 

Compulsory military training in colleges and uni- 
versities and all army drill in high schools are given 
the spotlight and condemned in “Militarizing Our 
Youth—The Significance of the Reserve Officers’ 
Training Corps,” a pamphlet just published by the 
National Committee on Militarism in Education, and 
written by Roswell P. Barnes, Executive Secretary of 
the Committee. 

Professor John Dewey of Columbia University, 
who writes the introduction, states: ‘““The militaristic 
movement is well organized, is energetically active, 
unrelentingly aggressive. It has a definite program 
and is taking definite steps for its execution. The 
nature of the program and of the steps in its execu- 
tion are set forth on the authority of official docu- 
ments in the pages of this pamphlet. Peoples do not 
become militaristic or imperialistic because they delib- 
erately choose so to do. They become militaristic 
gradually and unconsciously in response to conditions 
of which militarism is the final consequence. Edu- 
cation of youth and the reflex of that education on 
parents and friends is an important part of the 
forces which have militarization for their conse- 
quence.” 

The pamphlet lists twenty-three national organi- 
zations which have attacked compulsory military 
training. This list includes the American Federa- 
tion of Labor, the Federal Council of Churches, the 
Federation of Women’s Boards of Foreign Missions 
of North America, the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church, the National Council of the 
Congregational Church, the National Council of Jew- 
ish Women, the National Education Association, the 
Northern Baptist Convention, and the Rabbinical 
Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary of 
America. 

The Army List and Directory is quoted as naming 
278 American schools and colleges which give gov- 
ernment-supported military training. The pamphlet 
lists 86 colleges and 20 high schools as having com- 
pulsory R. O. T. C. 

President Coolidge’s opposition to ‘Compulsory 
military training for school or college students and 
to anything even that stimulates a military spirit in 
the youth of the land” (New York Times, June 16, 
1926) has been one of the important developments 
in the controversy during the last two years. 

United States Senators, college presidents, and emi- 
nent clergymen who have opposed the present com- 
pulsory drill have recently been attacked as enemies 


of their country, “possessed by constipated men. 
tality,” by the honorary fraternity of the R. O. T. C, 
the Scabbard and Blade Society, in one of its bulletins, 
Mr. Barnes, in his pamphlet, brings this attack t 
light and mentions some of the individuals involved, 
—Senator Borah, Senator Norris, President Henry 
Noble MacCracken of Vassar, Professor Alexander 
Meiklejohn, Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin, Dr. Charles 
W. Gilkey, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Rufus M. Jones, 
William E. Sweet, and others. 

The foes of compulsory training, the pamphlet 
explains, do not believe that the drill makes boys 
eager for war. Among features of the system to 
which they object are military coercion in civil edu- 
cational institutions; suppression of public discussion 
of War Department policies; militaristic text-books; 
the teaching of military fatalism and military states- 
manship and the fact that other nations point to the 
recent increase in training in the United States to 
justify their own increases. 

Recent correspondence from the Secretary of the 
Interior, and a statement from the Secretary of War 
in 1924 explain that the compulsory training is not 
required under the National Defense Act or any 
other federal legislation. 

The organization which publishes the pamphlet, is 
a citizens’ committee, the Committee on Militarism in 
Education, with headquarters in New York City 
and autonomous branches in several states. It is 
composed of prominent clergymen, educators and 
publicists. Professor George A. Coe, recently retired 
from Columbia University, is Chairman. 





CHILD LABOR STILL WITH US 
Some people still ask why Child Labor Sunday, 
just observed, and the general campaign for adequate 


child labor laws. The National Child Labor Com- 
“mittee answers the question in summarizing prog- 
ress made in curbing the exploitation of children by 
industry. The summary shows that while encourag- 
ing progress has been made, there remains much to be 
done. For example, fifteen years has been adopted # 
the minimum age for entering industry in seve 
states, but fourteen states have laws permitting chil- 
dren even under fourteen to work in certain occup? 
tions. New York has for some years closed the doors 
of its factories to children at 5 p. m., but in nine 
states they are open after 7 p. m. Numerous othet 
examples are given to show that many states still 
lag behind. Great progress has been made since the 
days of child glass blowers and breaker boys. Child 
slavery has been mitigated, but not eliminated. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


ARE IDEALS BUNK? 
James A. Patten, multimillionaire “wheat king,’ 
on his seventy-fifth birthday tells a Chicago paper 
that having a set ideal and striving for it is bunk. 


> 


Well, it does seem natural for a board of trade 
man to look upon it as bunk. 

But it would not be bunk for the average man. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who did not make any effort 
to accumulate millions, advised the young to find a 
worthy and unpopular cause, and work for it. That 
is opposite advice, and much better. 

Nothing ‘toughens the moral fibre so much as 
working for a great but unpopular ideal, for it re- 
quires moral courage. Going in for money making 
and trying to please everybody in order to get them 
to fit into the money-making plans, is not calculated 
to make for strength of character. 

It is a great mistake to suppose that the captains 
of industry are great or remarkably able men. Luck 
is a big element in business success. You will find 
far more greatness in the humble ranks of labor 
where men and women are unselfishly serving their 
ideals, often in the face of misrepresentation. Here 
you will find real toughening of moral fibre.—The 
Signalman’s Journal. 


COST OF POWER 


Do you know what it costs to generate at the plant 
a kilowatt hour of electricity for which you pay, say 
10 cents in your home? The engineers of the Giant 
Power Survey of Pennsylvania discovered that it costs 
about 1-5 of a cent when made in a big water power 
plant and '4 of a cent when made in a big steam 
plant. This is super power stuff. Engineer Watson, 
Manager of the Municipal Plant of the little city of 
Hastings, away out on the prairies of Nebraska, gen- 
erating by coal at high freight rates, reports that it 
costs him 1.48 cents at the plant and 2.09 cents deliv- 
ered. Hence, there are millions in electricity if pres- 
ent rates prevail. 





The twelfth annual convention of the American 
Federation of Teachers will be held at the Congress 
Hotel, Chicago, June 26-June 29. Morning sessions 
will begin at 9:30; afternoon sessions at 2 o'clock. 
Banquet in the Florentine Room, Congress Hotel, 
Wednesday, June 27,7 p. m. 

Many persons distinguished in educational and la- 
bor fields will be present. 

All teachers in the city on the above dates are in- 
vited to attend the sessions. 





Buy Union Stamped Shoes 





COLLIS LOVELY 
General President 





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


Boot & Shoe Workers’ Union 


Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor 


246 SUMMER STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 


"iat 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


GREETINGS FROM IRELAND 


IrisH NATIONAL TEACHERS’ ORGANIZATION 
36 Bulfin Road, Inchicore, Dublin 


To the Editor THe AMERICAN TEACHER. 
Dear Sir: 

Through the kindness of some unknown friend 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER has reached me regularly 
during the past couple of years. I have grown to look 
forward with pleasure to its arrival and to peruse 
with interest every line of its contents. 

Up to less than a decade ago we teachers of Ireland 
worked for less pay and under worse conditions than 
possibly any teachers anywhere. Agitation for redress, 
though persistent enough, was hampered by general 
public indifference to education and by the desire of 
the capitalist class to keep control of the worker 
through keeping him ignorant. 

About eight years ago the Teachers’ Organization 
made a bold bid for freedom and progress by affilia- 
tion with the Irish Trades Union Labor Congress. 
Since the date of that affiliation we have never looked 
back. Within a year or so the Labor Body secured for 
us recognition before an Arbitration Board which in- 
creased our salaries over 300 per cent. Reform after 
reform has followed. The Labor Party has been a 
successful opposition in the new Dublin Parliament, 
and aspires to be returned with sufficient majority to 
form a government. The leader of the labor opposi- 
tion in Parliament is a teacher and general secretary 
of the Irish National Teachers’ Organization. At the 
annual Trades Congress, the teacher delegates occupy 
an influential place. Their fellow delegates come 
from all trades unions and, after all, represent the 
entire body of our own past pupils. 

This idea of the teachers following their pupils and 
keeping in touch with them through means of trade 
union contact, right through their whole after-school 
life, is worthy of serious consideration. The pupils 
of the primary schools become the masses of the pop- 
ulation and it will be to the general good if the influ- 
ence of the teachers amongst them can be maintained. 

I write this letter solely to congratulate you upon 
the fearless, progressive tone of your paper and to 
wish The American Federation every success. I be- 
lieve I met Miss Borchardt at the Edinboro Confer- 
ence of the Worlds Federation. I follow her writings 
very closely, as she seems to me to be an inspiration to 
the teachers of the world. 

With sincerest thanks to the friend who sends me 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER and with the fervent hope 
that every teacher in America will soon be found on 


your roll and thus affiliated officially with their ow, 
past pupils, I beg to remain 
Fraternally and sincerely, 
Patrick J. QumINN, President, 





THE WHY OF THE CRY OF “NO GOVERN. 
MENT IN BUSINESS” 
By Jupson Kinc 
Director National Popular Government League, 
Washington, D. C. 

George B. Cortelyou, formerly progressive Secre- 
tary of the Treasury under Roosevelt, is Chairman of 
the lobby of the Power Trust formed to kill Senator 
Norris’ Muscle Shoals Bill and the Boulder Canyon 
Bill of Senator Hiram Johnson. It is the largest and 
most powerfully financed lobby in American history. 

The slogan selected by Cortelyou’s Committee is 
“Keep the Government out of Business.” They charge 
“Bolshevism and destruction of the American system 
of Government,” with the inference that public oper- 
ation of a power plant is unpatriotic. 

The real reason why the power crowd fear the pro- 
posals of Norris and Johnson is that they will show 
up the extortionate profits the power interests are 
making. 

For example, since June, 1925, the War Depart- 
ment has operated three units of the great Musck 
Shoals Hydro-Electric plant. This energy has been 
sold to the Alabama Power Company for 2 mills—1-5 
of a cent per kilowatt hour, which is about what it 
costs the company to produce the juice in its own 
private plants. , 

The company sold this juice to domestic users all 
over the territory in which it operates for 8 cents—o 
80 mills, per kilowatt hour, and sometimes 15 cents 
in small towns. Figure the profit. 

Florence, Alabama, is a small city which lies within 
a stone’s throw of Muscle Shoals Dam and is served 
electrically by the Alabama Power Company. Last 
Spring I heard Mr. McFarland, Financial Director of 
the city, tell Secretary of War Davis that his town 
paid the Alabama Power Company $10,000 a yeaf 
for street lighting and that the current used by the 
company for this purpose was purchased of Uncle Sam 
at a cost of about $336. 

If the Norris Bill were in action, the town of Flor- 
ence could buy juice direct from Uncle Sam and savé 
the taxpayer’s money. 

This is the only “Bolshevism” in the Norris pte 
posal. 





Mind unemployed is mind unenjoyed. 





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=» = 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 29 


‘Here’s Something N ew | 


In Vacations! 


During the period from June 18 to September 
A F [ W k 2 the New Hotel Sherman, Chicago, will pro- 

u ee vide a weekly schedule of entertainment and 
sight-seeing, offering motor tours in luxurious 


* 7 
in Ch Ica go parlor coaches, theatre parties, Lake Michigan 


boat trips, visits to the beaches, golf courses, 
parks, public buildings, museums, and race- 
tracks—all activities, including room and meals 
at Hotel Sherman covered in the initial cost of 
$77.50, exclusive of fare to and from the tour- 
ists home. 


A BRIEF RESUME OF THE PROGRAM 


Breakfast served in the Celtic Grill, luncheons and 
dinners in the famous College Inn. 


There will be an all-day trip on a Great Lake steam- 
ship—trips to Chinatown—Black Belt—Race tracks— 
Fort Sheridan—Great Lakes Naval Training Station— 
Municipal Airport—Tours of 40 miles of Chicago boule- 
vards—public buildings—Stock Yards—Museums — An 
evening at a radio broadcasting station—Evenings at 
the theatre—White City—Afternoons at a Big League 
baseball game—Golf course—Bathing beach—and many 
other features, with, as well, plenty of time to go-as- 
you-please. 


The visitor may pick up the tour on any day of the 
week and follow through up to the same time seven 
days later. 


Hotel Sherman has 1700 rooms, each with bath. 
There is a floor reserved for women. A special hotel 
rate will prevail for those who wish to remain over 
for an additional period. ‘ 


Here is an opportunity to see more of Chicago than 
the average Chicagoan sees in a lifetime. 


A full week of entertainment with hotel accommoda- 
tions for only $77.50. 



































For Complete Information Send Coupon to 
Vacation Tours Department 




















N. E Ww . HOTEL SHERMAN, C 


Vacation Tours Department 


, 
Please send me your descriptive 
booklet of vacation tours. 


Randolph, Clarke, Lake and La Salle Sts. 
i CHICAGO 

















Local News 


Cuicaco Locals 2, 3, AND 199 

The membership drive of the Chicago locals has 
been a gratifying success. Chicago Men, No. 2 re- 
porting an increase of 46 per cent now has the larg- 
est membership in its history. Chicago Women No. 3 
reports an increase of 31 per cent and a continually 
growing interest. The Elementary Teachers Union 
No. 199 is growing in membership and interest daily. 
May 6 was a great day in Chicago school history for 
on that day six delegates from the Chicago Elemen- 
tary Teachers Union were seated in the Chicago Fed- 
eration of. Labor. 

On May 26 the annual Spring luncheon of the Fed- 
eration of Women High School Teachers was held 
at the Palmer House. Professor Ferdinand Schevill, 
formerly at the University of Chicago, was the prin- 
cipal speaker. 

The newly elected president is Mrs. Lucie W. 
Schacht, of the Chicago Normal College, and the new 
secretary is Natalie Chapman, Lindblom High. Mary 
E. Robb and Helen E. Taggart continue as vice pres- 
ident and treasurer. 











WasHINncTon, D. C. Local 27 

On March 29, Local 27 held its regular meeting, 
having as its guest in the Library of the Dunbar High 
School at Washington, D. C. Professor Garnet C. 
Wilkinson, First Assistant Superintendent of Schools. 

Professor Wilkinson had previously agreed to an- 
swer questions put to him by the teachers concern- 
ing their work. 

These questions concerned probable changes in the 
public schools as a result of a survey made by the 
U. S. Efficiency Bureau; the possibility of the admin- 
istration and the teachers entering into a conscious 
and persistent effort of mutual co-operation in order 
that the best possible work may be done for the 
schools; the superintendent’s attitude toward anony- 
mous letters sent to administration headquarters by 
parents or others; the pressure put upon teachers to 
compel joining N. E. A. and other local educational 
organizations, by building principals. 

The Superintendent was frank, very clear-cut, 
democratic in his attitude, complimentary in his 
praise of the persistent efforts of Washington teachers 
to improve themselves, outspoken in his condemna- 


tion of anonymous accusers and very emphatic in his 
condemnation and determination to deal with any 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


principal who should attempt to force teachers into 
the joining of organizations purely voluntary. 

The representatives of Local 27 appeared before 
a sub-committee of Congress dealing with educational 
bills on Friday, May 4, to advocate the cause of higher 
salaries without further examination for teachers pos- 
sessing the same qualifications in junior high school 
service, as for those in senior high service. 

Local 27 has also worked to secure better pay and 
better working conditions for matrons in the public 
schools. 

M. L. Mason, President. 





St. PauL WoMEN Loca. 28 


The St. Paul Federation of Women Teachers held 
its regular May meeting on May 21 at the Federation 
Rooms. 

Miss Mary McGough, chairman of the Salary Com- 
mittee, gave a stimulating report on the salary cam, 
paign. Miss Helen Conway, chairman of the Inter- 
ruptions Committee, reported on the original St. 
Paul investigation of the time taken from actual 
school work by teachers selling milk, weighing, col- 
lecting book money, etc. These reports will appear 
in a future issue. 

Miss Lillian Cornelisen, chairman Group Insurance, 
spoke on the importance of teachers insuring them- 
selves against hospital bills, illness, and accidents. 

The chairman of the Credit Union explained the 
value and importance of the Credit Union thru which 
the teachers may borrow for emergencies or for vaca- 
tions. A share in the Credit Union is $5 and it will 
save the members money. 

Four delegates to the National Convention in Chi- 
cago, June 25—June 29, were elected. 





BuFFALO INDUSTRIAL LocaL 39 

The Buffalo Industrial Teachers Association has 
had a gratifying increase in membership and stimvu- 
lation in interest as a result of a membership drive 
and a change in the charter by which members are 
accepted without an initiation fee. 

At the meeting on the evening of April 28 exten- 
sion work for industrial teachers, activities of the 
Local’s members in other school organizations, the 
possibility of summer work in the school department, 
salary and a better adjustment of pay days were dis- 
cussed. 

The organization has succeeded in having two edu- 
cational institutions in Buffalo grant degrees to indus 
trial teachers. A. C. Dayman, President. 




































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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 31 


MINNEAPOLIS LocaL 59 

The spring has been a busy season with the Minne- 
apolis Federation of Teachers with two business 
meetings and two open dinner meetings. The dinners 
were largely attended and stimulating of interest. 

The present Pension Law of Minnesota is receiving 
the attention of the Federation. 

The membership committee has sent out an invita- 
tion to join to non-members, containing the follow- 
ing statement: 

“You, no doubt, know the principles of our group. 
We are actively engaged in the studying of our own 
teacher problems and have more often than not sup- 
plied the constructive leadership for their solving. 
We are affiliated with labor because we believe the 
labor movement to be the strongest modern force 
working to establish freedom and security for all of 
us who are wage earners, and because we believe that 
the labor movement has accomplished some of the 
greatest social reforms of modern times.” Imme- 
diate result a 25% increase in membership. 

The Federation News was published in May. 

SaIDEE R. INGRAM, Publicity Chairman. 


PoRTLAND TEACHERS UNION LocaL 111 


The regular April meeting of the Portland Teach- 
ers Union had as its guest a former Oregon Labor 
official who spoke on Labor and what Teachers Unions 
can do to help. 

The matter of a Labor candidate for school director 
in the next election was discussed. 


Brooxwoop Loca. 189 

KATONAH, N. Y.—Extension classes in workers’ 
education are to be added to the activities of Brook- 
wood Labor College, according to plans perfected by 
the board of directors at their annual meeting April 
21-22. Tom Tippett, formerly educational director 
for the United Mine Workers of Sub-District 5, Illi- 
nois, will be in charge. Mr. Tippett, who has been 
teaching economics at Brookwood this year, will 
organize classes in New England and New York, and 
will be available to trade unions and other groups 
for lectures. 

Two labor directors on the board whose terms ex- 
pire this year were elected to succeed themselves— 
Phil Zeigler, editor of the Railway Clerk, and Robert 
Fechner, vice president of the Machinists’ Union. 
James H. Maurer, president of the Pennsylvania State 
Federation of Labor, was re-elected as president of 
the corporation. 


A summary of the activities of Brookwood gradu- 
ates showed one as director of workers’ education in 
Pennsylvania, and four in active charge of city labor 
colleges in Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and Salem, 
Mass. Others are union organizers and officers, labor 
journalists, co-operative managers, and teachers of 
local workers’ education classes. 


PROVIDENCE TEACHERS COUNCIL LocaL 197 

The Providence Teachers Council has elected the 
following officers: 

President, Mr. R. E. Bailey; Vice President, Miss 
M. Grace Meagher; Secretary, W. H. Hibbard; Treas- 
urer, Ethel C. Jameson. 

A constitution and program of action have been 
adopted. Affiliation with the Rhode Island State 
Federation of Labor and the Providence Central Labor 
Union has been completed. The Education and Eco- 
nomic Committees are doing active work and a splen- 
did program to inform the teachers of Providence on 
the principles and purposes of the national and local 
organization is being carried forward. 


CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 

The regular spring executive meeting of the Cali- 
fornia Federation of Teachers was held at the City 
Hall, San Francisco, April 21. The officers of the 
organization are: 

President, Paul J. Mohr, San Francisco 61; First 
Vice President, Olive Wilson, Vallejo 26; Second 
Vice President, Alice Smith, 72; Third Vice President, 
Celia. Dahringer, 44; Fourth Vice President, C. W. 
Peck, 26; Secretary, R. W. Everett, 31; Treasurer, 
A. V. Wilde, 31; Organizer, John L. Kerchen, 61. 

The resignation of Miss Ida Bernard as second vice 
president was regretfully ‘accepted. 

Mr. Kerchen reported progress on extension work. 
A general appeal was sent through the Labor organi- 
zations to the teachers of the State. Encouraging 
reports have been received from Santa Barbara and 
Richmond and the outlook is favorable. 

After discussion, the plan of placing the Retire- 
ment Salary on an actuarial basis was approved. 

Reports from locals were very interesting and 
the tone on the whole was hopeful for progress. Re- 
organization of the State body was discussed and 
changes favoring reorganization referred to the mem- 
ber locals. 

R. W. Everett will represent the California locals 
at the national convention in Chicago. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 











American Federation 


of 
Teachers 


506 S. Wabash Ave., 
CHICAGO, ILL. 


Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor 
Organized April 15, 1916 


9 ofp 9 


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.