SEPTEMBER, 1928 ‘VOL. XIII, No. 1 


Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 


The 
American Teacher 


THE ORGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 








If our imagination is strong enough to accept the 
vision of ourselves as parts inseparable from the rest, 
and to extend our final interest beyond the boundary 
of our skins, it justifies even the sacrifice of our lives 
for ends outside of ourselves. The motive to be sure is 


the common wants and ideals that we find in man. 


Philosophy does not furnish motives but it shows men 


that they are not fools for doing what they already 
want to do. It opens to the forlorn hopes on which we 
throw ourselves away, the vista of the farthest stretch 
of human thought, the chord of a harmony that 
breathes from the unknown. 


--JUSTICE HOLMES. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Labor Day---1928 


By FRaNK Morrison 


Secretary, American Federation of Labor 


National holidays in America call attention to spe- 
cific instances in history. Labor Day is an exception 


to this rule. 


The first Monday in September is not intended to 
remind us of one particular advance by wage work- 
ers, but rather to attract us to their problems, their 


triumphs and their wrongs. 


Labor Day is a milestone that marks the progress 


from serfdom to human dignity and worth. 


Labor Day is an American institution. It was sug- 
gested by Peter J. McGuire, union carpenter, in 1882. 
It was adopted by the American Federation of Labor 
in 1884, and has been declared a holiday by Congress 


and by state legislatures. 


European workers copied the idea, which they ex- 
press in different form through their May Day politi- 


cal agitations and demonstrations. 
INJUNCTIONS AND MECHANIZATION, 


Our unions were born of the necessities of wage 
workers. The nation-wide scope of this voluntary 
army of millions of working men and women is proof 


that there are deep-seated causes for their unity. 
Two questions of major interest to trade unionists 
this Labor Day are the misuse of the injunction writ 


and the mechanization of industry. Labor will carry 


its opposition to the injunction misuse into this fall’s 
campaign. Candidates for both branches of Congress 
will be asked to state their position on a writ that 
classifies human beings who work for wages with a 
commodity that is subject to the laws of trade. 
Courts OF CONSCIENCE 
Labor power is the ability to produce. It is man’s 


creative faculties. This power is distinct from the 


product itself. Labor power is inseparable from a 
human being. It involves memory, understanding 
and will—elements wholly lacking in Labor’s product 
—a commodity, a property—that should be protected 
by the injunction writ when the owner of such prop- 
erty has no remedy at law. 

By refusing wage workers fundamental rights ac- 
corded other citizens, the injunction judge rejects 
government by law and sets up a court of conscience 
that is subject to his moods and his economic outlook. 

AcitaTIon WiLL Go ON 

The injunction process is necessary. Labor does 

not ask its abolition. The workers, however, insist 


TLIT AMERICAN! TRACHER 


that it be used as originally intended, and not to cur. 
tail human rights, and to establish one-man govern. 


ment. 

The workers will continue their agitation against 
this wrong, confident that an enlightened public opin- 
ion will overcome the power of the comparative few 
who profit by court usurpation, even though faith in 
our governmental theory be weakened. Because law- 
makers respond to an enlightened public opinion, we 
purpose to carry this question on to the political 
field in this fall’s election. 

NATION “OVER-ENGINED” 

The mechanization of industry is the outstanding 
problem on the economic field. Observers agree with 
labor that this country, in the language of Hon. 
George Otis Smith, Director of the United States 
Geological Survey, is ““over-engined.” 

We are producing more than we can consume. 
Higher wages and shorter hours appear to us to be 
the solution for this condition. We will continue to 
emphasize the importance of these two issues, while 
urging the doctrine of self-help, organization and 
education among all wage workers, regardless of race, 
sex or creed. 


























Contents 
Page 
i 2 
Frank Morrison 
Twelfth Annual Convention of A. F. of T. ~—---- 3 
Seattle to Date hihi — 
Seattle and the N. E. A.__-- ee 
Is There Propaganda in the Schools of Seattle?____-- 6 
* The Dismissal of Wesley H. Maurer________------ 7 
Brookwood Asks Hearing on A. F. C. Charges__---- 8 
Labor Day—1928 SE 
William Green 
Just Observations ae 
Selma M. Borchardt 
Report on Industrial Education__________---_---- 13 
Abraham Lefkowitz 
Summary of Conference on How To Organize the 
Unorganized, Israel Mufson_________--------- 18 
Editorials 
Local News 
Report of California Delegate 
























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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 XIII, No. 1 


SEPTEMBER, 1928 


Two Dollars a Year 





The Twelfth Annual Convention of the American 
Federation of Teachers 


The Twelfth Annual Convention of the American 
Federation of Teachers has come and gone. It was 
important for several reasons. Delegates were present 
from nine states not previously represented; creden- 
tials had been received from thirteen locals not before 
in attendance, but some found themselves at the last 
moment unable to attend. 


The vital and alarming issues in education drew 
this widely representative group together. The Con- 
vention struck vigorously at the two great evils in 
the educational world today, Power Trust propa- 
ganda and the “yellow dog” contract, and made plans 
to organize the teachers to combat these outstanding 
evils. 

ORGANIZATION THE NEED 

The American Federation of Teachers believes that 
to fight successfully against these “crimes against edu- 
cation” and against the children of the land, the 
fundamental need is organization. It is planning such 
an organization campaign as will make the teachers 
alert to the menace of the situation and to the social 
and economic condition, educate them in the ideal- 
ism of the labor movement, arouse in them greater 
self-respect and a desire for greater freedom and de- 
velop solidarity and a true profession. 

The disclosures of Power Trust propaganda by the 
Federal Trade Commission are but an extension and 
confirmation of the contention of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers since the very beginning of its 
organization and especially of its report last year on 
the Ely Institute for Research in Land Economics 
and Public Utilities. 

DANGER OF PROPAGANDA 

The pronouncements of the Convention on this 
matter of the injection of covert propaganda into the 
public schools and the attempts to censor text-books 
in the social sciences which do not harmonize with 
the views held by the power interests were very vig- 
orous. 

Dr. John C. Lapp, Marquette University, gave a 
very forceful address and urgent plea to the Nation’s 





teachers to release themselves from the stigma of being 
the cheap purchase of the power interests. The per- 
manent committee on education reported at length 
on this “spectacle of this nation-wide organization 
spending unlimited effort and money to reach with 
its propaganda every pupil above the 8th grade in our 
schools and colleges,” and says, “The contemptuous 
attitude expressed toward these same educators can 
do little toward increasing their pride in their posi- 
tion.” The committee’s report as adopted concluded, 
“The American Federation of Teachers, as the first 
organization of educators publicly to call attention to 
this danger, owes it to itself and to the profession it 
seeks to protect, to protest against the use of our 
schools by any business interests to inculcate in imma- 
ture minds principles of economics favorable only to 
those interests. The American Federation of 'Teach- 
ers should urge its members to be alert to detect other 
attempts so to use our schools and to realize their 
own importance as the protectors of the minds of 
the youth of the land and hence of the future of the 
nation.” 


CHILDREN’s WELFARE AT STAKE 


To the Seattle case, representing as it does the denial 
of a fundamental civil right and the imposition of 
humiliating conditions of employment which will 


‘inevitably alienate from, teaching that type of self- 


respecting men and women so greatly needed in our. 
schools, the Convention pledged the fullest moral and 
financial support and called upon all the Labor forces 
of the country to come to the aid of the teachers of 
Seattle with all the resources at their command, to 
the end that not only may they be guaranteed the 
protection of their rights as citizens, but also the 
teachers in Seattle may be freed, thru the enactment 
of sound tenure-of-position legislation and thru an ap- 
peal of their case to the Supreme Court of the United 
States, from the intellectual servitude now being 
forced upon them by this arbitrary action of the Seat- 
tle School Board, stigmatized by President William 
Green of the American Federation of Labor as un- 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 5 








4 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


American and as an insult to the teachers, because it 
deprives them of their constitutional right to join an 
organization of their own choice that is animated by 
the highest American idealism. 


Teachers who cherish their Americanism and free- 
dom should support this movement for the protection 
of the Seattle teachers. They should unite with a 
progressive educational organization not primarily 
for their own sakes, not from selfish or personal mo- 
tives alone, but for the sake of the children of the 
nation and the nation itself, for it is evident without 
explanation or argument that unless teachers are free 
and unafraid, they can not do the job which America 
has set for its schools, they can not develop citizens 
of the highest type who are free and unafraid, fit to 
rule in a democracy. Only those who are themselves 
free can release the children in their care to creative 


freedom. 


The infringements upon freedom of teaching and 
personal liberty of teachers as exemplified not only 
by the Power Trust propaganda and the restrictive 
contract imposed upon the Seattle high school teach- 
ers, but also by the dismissal of teachers for personal 
views as in the case of Professor Wesley H. Maurer, 
assistant professor of journalism at Ohio University, 

























received the careful attention of delegates. Professor 
Maurer and his struggle for justice for all teachers 
interested the convention extremely. (See page 7.) 
WESTERN REPRESENTATION INCREASED 

A few changes only were made in the personne 
of the officers entrusted with carrying forward this 
important program for education, social justice and 
democracy. It was deemed advisable in view of the 
necessity of carrying the case of Seattle Local 200 to 
a successful issue in the courts and of promoting 
sound tenure laws in the state of Washington, to 
increase Pacific Coast representation on the Executive 
Council. R. W. Everett, Sacramento 31 and W. B. 
Satterthwaite, Seattle 200, were elected vice-presi- 
dents. E. E. Schwarztrauber, Portland 111, was made 
western organizer. (See page 21) 
The chairmen of the permanent committees are: 
Education, Lucie W. Allen, Chicago 3; Tenure, Amy 
A. Fox, Minneapolis 59; Academic Freedom, Dr. 
Henry R. Linville, New York 5; Legislation, Charles 
B. Stillman, Chicago 2; Professional Improvement, W. 
J. Scott, Atlanta 89; Retirement System, Florence 
Rood, St. Paul 28; International Relations, Selma M. 
Borchardt, Washington 8. 
Full proceedings of the Convention and reports will 
be published in September. 





Seattle 


The last report on the Seattle situation in this mag- 
azine stated that the suit of Local No. 200 seeking to 
restrain the Seattle School Board from enforcing a 
“yellow dog” contract against the high school teach- 
ers had been appealed to the State Supreme Court. 
The case is now pending in this court, a temporary 
restraining order having been refused. 

The School Board then immediately presented the 
contracts to the high school teachers. After serious 
consideration and consultation with labor leaders and 
A.-F. of T. officials, the teachers reluctantly signed. 
As they were told by the labor officials in Seattle, a 
battle can not be won if the army is destroyed. The 
removal of the union teachers was certain. Schools 
of Seattle would have been terribly crippled, but it 
is only too evident that the school directors in Seattle 
have no great concern about the welfare of the 
schools. 

SATTERTHWAITE FIRED 

W. B. Sattetthwaite, not an official of the Seattle 
Union, but president of the High School Teachers 
League, drew a line through the objectionable clause 


to Date 















and signed the contract. This was later returned to 
him with the explanation that since he had not com- 
plied with the requirement of the School Board, his 
services were dispensed with. 
Regarding the signing, Mr. Satterthwaite says: 
“About two days before the limit (none of the union 
teachers signed the contracts for a week or ten days, 
they agreed to hold up until it was decided) most of 
the teachers signed. None of the real ones signed early; 
some of them did, I am sorry to say, and I don’t ex- 
pect them ever to belong to the Union again. Most 
of them held off and held off fine. The thing I want 
to impress upon you is that there are out in Seattle at 
least seventy-five or a hundred, and more than that, 
high school teachers who are not members of the 
American Federation of Teachers, they have beta 
and they were members for about six months, but 
while they are not actually members now they at 
not ‘yellow dogs’ and their spirit is as good as the 
spirit of union members anywhere.” 
SEND DELEGATE TO CHICAGO 
Local 200 has not been destroyed; it will be kept 





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up, even on a small scale. It will be kept alive as a 
nucleus around which another union can be formed. 
Mr. Satterthwaite is president, John C. Kennedy, 
former Seattle School Board member, at one time 
instructor in the University of Chicago and now at 
the University of Washington, is secretary-treasurer. 
Several professors in the University of Washington 
are members and there are a few others. While these 
are in some danger of losing some means of livelihood, 
they are not wholly dependent upon the mercy of the 
Seattle School Board. The danger has been carefully 
explained to each of them and he has said that he is 
perfectly willing to take the chance, 

The first action of the small union was to send 
its president as delegate to the Convention of the 
American Federation of Teachers. He assures us that 
Local 200 is going to function during this year. It is 
going to work very hard in the Legislature this winter 
for a tenure law. The work is already started. From 
the evidence in court of a Seattle school director, this 
teacher tenure principle is the chief objection of the 
Board to the American Federation of Teachers. 

The lawsuit now pending in the State Supreme 
Court of Washington, if unsuccessful there, will be 
appealed to the United States Supreme Court. 

In the March election, Local 200 will do its very 
best to get two members of the Board of Education 
defeated. 

CHEERED By LABor 

The Power Trust propaganda will be exposed, thus 
thwarting the very purpose of the action against the 
union. The material for this is already collected. 

The concluding words of the president of the 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 5 


Union to the Convention were full of hope and cour- 
age. “The Seattle teachers in spirit are, I think, prob- 
ably a good deal stronger than if we had gone ahead 
and formed a union and had no troubles. Seattle Local 
200 still exists and expects to exist indefinitely.” 

Mr. Satterthwaite stopped on his return at Wen- 
atchee, Wash., to attend the annual convention of the 
State Federation of Labor. He presented a resolution 
endorsing a state tenure law for public school teach- 
ers, intended to prevent arbitrary dismissal of an 
instructor who has a record of competent service. 

Mr. Satterthwaite was heartily cheered by the State 
Federation delegates when he outlined the fight made 
by the union teachers, and declared, “I had rather be- 
long to labor than be an employe of the Seattle 
School Board.” 

In his talk, Mr. Satterthwaite warned organized 
labor that within a few years the teachers in grade 
and high schools would be named by power trusts of 
this country, to serve and teach propaganda prepared 
by them. He named a large coal company and power 
company as two organizations attacking organized 
labor. 

Mr. Satterthwaite, delegate at the N. E. A. meet- 
ing in Minneapolis as president of the High School 
Teachers League, mildly poked fun at the N. E. A. 
resolution committee of forty superintendents and 
directors, and one teacher, who refused to consider 
the recommendation that Seattle teachers who fought 
for organized labor be supported. 

And this is the work and program of the Seattle 
Teachers Union under fire. What are YOU doing to 
help? How much does this mean to YOU? 





Seattle and the N. E. A. 


It has been said that teachers do not desire freedom 
and it would seem that there is a large measure of 
truth in this statement when we consider the treat- 
ment of the Seattle case by the N. E. A. convention 
in Minneapolis in July. 

R. W. Everett, of Sacramento Local 31, American 
Federation of Teachers and vice president, a delegate 
to the N. E. A. Convention from the California State 


Teachers Association, presented the following resolu- 
tion: 


Whereas, The Board of Education of Seattle, 
Wash., has required as a condition of employ- 
ment, that all the high school teachers of the city 
shall sign a contract which restricts their liberty 
to a professional organizations of their choice; 
an 





Whereas, The effort to control a fundamental 
civil right of teachers inevitably has the effect of 
hindering the movement for democracy in educa- 
tion in this country, and tends to encourage 
those who seek to dominate the thinking of 
teachers in behalf of certain large corporate 
interests; and 

Whereas, The unreasonable increase of restric- 
tions in contracts of Boards of Education with 
teachers will inevitably weaken the movement 
for promoting sound tenure laws for teachers by 
giving educational authorities local power-to dis- 
miss for trivial reasons, thus tending to keep 
intelligent, discerning young men and women 
from entering the profession; therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the National Education Asso- 











6 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


ciation in convention assembled condemn the 

conduct of the Seattle Board of Education and 

demand that the Seattle Board withdraw the 
restrictive regulation now applying to the high 
school teachers of that city. 

The resolutions committee gave Mr. Everett five 
minutes to present the case and then told him, 
through members P. P. Claxton, Geo. D. Strayer and 
M. S. Bentz of Pennsylvania, that the resolution was 
undignified and that the National Education Asso- 
ciation never took part in local quarrels. Mr. Everett 
then brought the matter up on the floor, presenting 
the resolution as an addition to the N. E. A. amend- 
ment on Academic Freedom. Mr. W. B. Satterth- 
waite, president of the Seattle Teachers Union, Local 
200, and also of the High School Teachers League, 
from which latter organization he was a delegate to 
the N. E. A., spoke for the resolution. He pleaded 
with the National Education Association for their 
own sakes not to defeat the resolution, calling atten- 
tion to the fact that their organization is considered 
undemocratic, citing the absence of class room teach- 
ers from committees, etc., and especially appealing to 
them not to slap the American Federation of Labor. 
A school principal from Seattle, in the absence of the 
Seattle superintendent, replied, asking that the Con- 
vention take no action as the matter was still in the 


courts, and the chairman of the resolutions commit. 
tee, Rosier of West Virginia, spoke against the resolu. 
tion, explaining again that the N. E. A. did not take 
part in local quarrels. The resolution was overwhelm. 
ingly defeated. A striking demonstration of being 
dominated by principals and not by principles. 

This question is not a local matter. It would seem 
to be extremely short sighted and to show a lack of 
understanding to characterize this Seattle situation 
as a “local quarrel.” It is a matter that involves every 
teacher from coast to coast. It is a matter that in- 
volves much more than the signing of a contract, 
The right of teachers to join an organization of their 
own choice, including as it does everything that is 
American, democratic, fair and just, certainly can not 
by any intelligent individual be regarded as a local 
dispute between the teachers and the Seattle school 
board. One may as well say that slavery in antibellum 


days was a local dispute in which only the slave and | 


his owner were interested, or that an anti-evolution 
law in Tennessee is a local difference between Scopes 
and his Board of Directors. ‘The very fundamentals 
of education, of freedom, of Americanism are in- 
volved. It is a matter of grave concern to the future 
of our schools and of the Republic that a group of 
educators could take a position so lacking in vision 
and understanding. 





Is There Propaganda In the Schools of Seattle? 


Testimony of Members of Seattle School Board in Case of Seattle Local 200 vs. Seattle School Board 


Q. You have read in the local press, have you not, 
the accusation, true or false—I do not refer to 
it because I have any information about that— 
that the power company has in some way con- 
trived to have circulated through the schools 
and have taught in the schools, things relating 
to municipal ownership, condemning munici- 
pal ownership? 


A. Not in our schools in Seattle. 


Q. I say you have heard that—in the schools of 
- Washington? 


A. I have heard that they—I saw in the press, I 
think it was in the Star, that they had written 
some pamphlet which had been used in certain 
schools. I know that we watch very closely 
to see that no propaganda gets into our schools 
in Seattle. 

Q. But you have read of such things being done 
in schools? 


A. I have read that, yes. I have not seen it done. 
I don’t know what they are. 

The chairman of the-Board and another member 
stated in an interview that if any teachers in the Seat- 
tle schools were caught using anything like that in 
the schools he or she would be “shown the door.” 

THE Facts oF WHICH THESE BOARD MEMBERS 
SEEM TO Have BEEN IN COMPLETE 
IGNORANCE OR 

The following monographs were placed in the Seat- 
tle schools: 

1. The Puget Sound Power and Light Company. 

The Utilization of our Water Powers ani 
Their Relation to Industry. By Clare Ketchum 
Tripp, Executive Director, Washington Indus 
tries Education Bureau. Additional information 
can be obtained by writing Norwood VW. 
Brockett, director of Public Relations, Pugtt 
Sound Power and Light Co., Stuart Building 
Seattle, Wash. 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 7 


2. Household Refrigeration. The General Electric 
Refrigerator, Its Construction and Operation. 
By Clare Ketchum Tripp, Executive Director 
of the Washington-Oregon Industries Educa- 
tion Bureau, Seattle, Washington. Additional 
information can be obtained through distribu- 
tors listed on last page or from General Electric 
Refrigeration Department, Hanna Building, 
Cleveland, Ohio, and mentioning this mono- 
graph. 

3. The Great Northern Railway Company, St. 
Paul, Minnesota, Railway Transportation and 
what it means to the State of Washington. 
Prepared under the direction of Clare Ketchum 
Tripp, Director of Education, Washington- 
Oregon Industries Education Bureau, Seattle, 
Washington. 

4. The Organization and Operation of the Plant 
of the Olympic Portland Cement Company, 


Bellingham, Washington. By Clare Ketchum 
Tripp, Executive Director of the Washington 
Industries Education Bureau, Seattle, Wash- 
ington. 

The text book in Civics used by every high school 
pupil carries a frontispiece of the plant of the Puget 
Sound Power and Light Company, with the com- 
pany’s name blazing in electric lights. No mention is 
made of the Municipal Power Plant. 

At the conference of the Public Ownership League 
in Seattle in July, J. D. Ross, Manager of the Munici- 
pal Power Plant, made a complete expose of the Power 
Trust propaganda in the public schools of Seattle. 
One thing he failed to mention—all evidence points 
that the Seattle High School Teachers Union Local 
200 had been attacked and the teachers compelled to 
sign a “yellow dog” contract because the facts of 
this propaganda and other similar abuses would be 


exposed by them. 





The Dismissal of Wesley H. Maurer 


Resolution Adopted by the Twelfth Convention of the American Federation of Teachers, Chicago, 
June 26-29, 1928 


Mr. Wesley H. Maurer, assistant professor of 
journalism in Ohio University, at Athens, Ohio, is 
being dropped from the faculty of that institution on 
June 30, 1928, without a trial or even a hearing. 

Mr. Maurer has been holding the position of assist- 
ant professor of journalism at the university a few 
years and at the same time has been acting as city- 
district editor of a daily paper, the Athens Messenger. 
Mr. Maurer’s salary has been paid jointly by the Uni- 
versity and the publisher of the newspaper, who is a 
member of the Board of Trustees of the University. 

When the strike in the bituminous coal fields of 
Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia began, Mr. 
Maurer undertook to report correctly what was hap- 
pening in the industrial conflict. Immediately pres- 
sure began to be applied to prevent the reports from 
appearing. 

On May 1, 1928, a meeting of about seven hun- 
dred business and professional men of Athens was 
held for the purpose of endeavoring to bring the coal 
strike to an end. Professor Maurer attended the meet- 
ing. When the matter of collecting funds was under 
discussion, Mr. Maurer arose and asked what was to 
be done with the funds, and whether the purpose was 
to assist the strikers in their struggle. He was assailed 
with cries of “throw him out.” Within a few days a 
Committee waited upon the publisher of the Athens 


Messenger and demanded Mr. Maurer’s immediate dis- 
charge on the ground that he was hindering the open- 
ing of the mines. 

It appears that the pressure exerted upon the news- 
paper extended to the university with the result that 
Mr. Maurer has now been dismissed from his dual 
position. It is the view of the American Federation 
of Teachers that the control of commercial enterprises 
over the positions of teachers constitutes an intolera- 
ble situation. There can be no freedom in teaching 
and hence no freedom of thought or discussion in 
connection with social problems when college trustees 
are allowed to seize control and bring about the dis- 
missal of teachers whose ideas do not please them. 
However, it is our belief that the solution of this 
problem which has faced American education for 
many years can not be worked out in the absence of 
a substantial and extensive movement among teach- 
ers that tends to develop a considerable degree of soli- 
darity with loyalty to the principle of freedom of 
opinion for teachers. 

While condemning the action of the trustees of 
Ohio University for their arbitrary action in dismiss- 
ing teachers for their views, we insist that the respon- 
sibility for the continuance of the suppression of free- 
dom in education rests on teachers themselves, 
through their failure to insist on academic freedom. 


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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Brookwood Asks Hearing On A. F. of L. Charges 


KATONAH, N. Y.—Telegrams of protest against 
the action taken by the Executive Council of the 
American Federation of Labor to advise all affiliated 
unions to withdraw support in the form of scholar- 
ships from Brookwood Labor College, began to come 
in as soon as the Council’s statement was issued to 
the press. 

Word of the action reached A. J. Muste, chairman 
of the Brookwood faculty, in Paterson, N. J., where 
he was acting as impartial arbitrator in successful 
negotiations to bring an independent union of several 
thousand textile workers into the American Federa- 
tion of Labor. He expressed amazement that such 
action should have been taken without giving the 
Brookwood Board of Directors a chance to be heard, 
and declared the charges, as reported in the papers, 
to be utterly without foundation. He immediately 
asked that a complete copy of the Executive Coun- 
cil’s statement, which was not made public, be sent 
to him. 

The action was taken, according to the papers, on 
the basis of an investigation made by Matthew Woll, 
chairman of the A. F. of L. Education Committee. 
No one connected with Brookwood knew anything 
of such an investigation. 

MEMBERS OF TEACHERS UNION 
Concerning Brookwood’s policies, Mr. Muste said: 
“Brookwood, as an educational institution, insists 

upon maintaining freedom of opinion and expression 
on all matters affecting Labor. As an educational insti- 
tution, it teaches no doctrine or ‘ism’ of any kind, 
and therefore the charge of the Executive Council as 
reported in the papers that Brookwood is teaching 
‘doctrines antagonistic to A. F. of L. policies,’ is un- 
founded. The charges concerning ‘Pro-Soviet demon- 
strations’ and ‘anti-religious’ doctrines are equally 
absurd for the same reason.” 

All the teachers at Brookwood are members of 
Local 189 of the American Federation of Teachers, of 
which A. J. Muste is a Vice President, and which is 
affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. 
Practically every member of the Brookwood Board 
of Directors holds an important position in an Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor union. 

Labor MEN PROTEST 

A telegram requesting that the statement condemn- 
ing Brookwood be not sent to the affiliated A. F. of 
L. organizations until the Brookwood Board could be 
given a hearing was sent to President Green, signed 


by the following: Fannia Cohn, Educational Director, 
International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union; Ros 
Schneiderman, President, National Women’s Trad 
Union League; John Fitzpatrick, President, Chicago 
Federation of Labor; Fred Hewitt, Editor, Machinists 
Journal; Florence Hanson, General Secretary, Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers; Gustav Geiges, President, 
Hosiery Workers, United Textile Workers’ Union; 
B. C. Vladeck, Manager, Jewish Daily Forward; A. |. 
Shiplacoff, Manager, Pocketbook Workers’ Union; 
Phil Ziegler, Editor, Railway Clerk’s Journal; Charles 
L. Reed, Vice President, Massachusetts State Federa- 
tion of Labor; Abraham Lefkowitz, Vice President, 
American Federation of Teachers; A. J. Muste of 
Brookwood. 

A telegram was also sent to Secretary Frank Mor- 
rison, asking that no final action be taken until Brook- 
wood was given a hearing, and signed by the follow- 
ing officers of the Massachusetts State Federation of 
Labor: John Van Vaerenewyck, President, Michael 
O’Hare, Vice President; Charles Reed, Vice President; 
Martin T. Joyce, Secretary-Treas., and Legislative 
Agent; Joseph J. Cabral, Vice President; also by John 
F, Gatelee, President, Springfield Central Labor 
Union; Thomas F. Conroy, Secretary Worcester Cen- 
tral Labor Union; Leo F. Barber, Secretary Local 33, 
United Textile Workers; Frank W. Gifford, Secretary, 
Brockton Central Labor Union; Roy W. Caney, 
President, Salem Central Labor Union; E. A. Johnson, 
Secretary, United Building Trades Council-of Boston 


com ce oo 


These charges against Brookwood and the invest 
gation said to have been conducted have never been 
brought to the attention of the American Federation 
of Teachers. 





GENEVA, 1929 

Keep Geneva July 25—August 1, 1929, in you 
plans for the World Federation of Education Associ 
tions Conference in that historic city will be a gath 
ering of momentous importance. Great preparation 
are already under way for the sessions of this cot 
ference and many members of the American Feder 
tion of Teachers should be in attendance. Begin you 
plans now. 


Those who talk of W. C. T. U. propaganda in tH 





schools and put it in the same category as the Pow# 


Trust propaganda have as little respect for the public’ 
intelligence as the Power Trust has. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Labor Day---1928 


By WiLt1aM GREEN 
President, American Federation of Labor 


Labor Day, 1928 comes to us with a new challenge 
to action. We have made progress and that progress 
opens up opportunities that demand resourcefulness 
and perseverance. Let us meet the challenge with 
courage and that determined endurance necessary for 
achievement. 

The memorial day set aside by national enactment 
to honor Labor naturally becomes the time for taking 
account of achievements and planning for the future. 

As taking account involves making comparison, 
one’s mind turns backward over the early years of 
the trade union movement when our trade unions 
were virtually outlaw organizations. 

Trade unionists who realized that individual work- 
ers had very little chance of a square deal from em- 
ployers unless they could point out to employers 
which things were injustices and what better stan- 
dards would be, have built up our trade union move- 
ment until now it is a respected, national institution. 

A VITAL ORGANIZATION 

Only an organization is impersonal enough to do 
this for workers. Our movement first sought to cre- 
ate the channels for establishing fair work conditions 
for wage earners. The devotion and personal sacrifice 
that have attended the development of wage earners’ 
organizations have stamped the movement as an 
authoritative, vital organization. . 

The great human ideals that sustained this courage 
and devotion found justification in the growth of the 
movement that brought higher wages, shorter hours, 
and better work conditions. Trade unions are paying 
over 26 millions in union benefits and have secured 
wage increases of incalculable value. 

When primary objectives have been realized, our 
unions have been able to enter developments of larger 
usefulness. They seek to secure for their membership 
opportunities to have a more important part in indus- 
try and to give workers opportunity to present their 
experience and information for the better decision 
of policies involving them. When the principle of 
collective bargaining is extended to continuous use 
in work problems of all sorts wage earnefs find their 
fullest opportunity for participation in the benefits 
of production. We find unions moving toward a very 
real partnership in production. 

We have made progress in extending the principle 
of collective bargaining in the past year; we have 


maintained our high wage level and we have made 
progress in establishing our new work standard—the 
five-day week. 

We have our problems—serious problems—but they 
are problems that have grown out of progress. We 
find the principle of organization of employes finding 
increasing acceptance. In time all industries will rec- 
ognize the value of the real trade union. We find 
American industries boasting of the high wage prin- 
ciple as a part of American prosperity. There are ex- 
ceptions—such industries as coal and textiles that 
have failed to keep pace with efficient practices. 

Though hostile employers have in a most daring 
way been using the writ of injunction as a weapon 
against workers in industrial disputes, in the past 
year we have made distinct progress toward legislative 
relief for the abuse of the injunction and are urging 
this as our chief concern in the present political cam- 
paign. 

New ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL 

We have made progress in our educational work so 
that our membership can deal with problems with 
greater understanding and resourcefulness. Our 
unions are looking not for domination over other 
groups in industry and society but for a square deal 
and for the right to share with other groups in the 
wealth and opportunities that result from social prog- 
ress as well as in the adventures of production. 

The year 1928 marks a new level of achievement 
in establishing the ideals of the labor movement. Let 
us in appreciation of what this progress has cost in 
human suffering and privation and what it has gained 
for human well being, dedicate ourselves to the reali- 
zation of greater progress in the coming year. 

Let us lift higher the torch of trade unionism so 
that more workers will see its light and follow. 

May each trade unionist pledge himself to personal 
service during the coming year. The movement has 
need of that service which each member can give by 
telling other wage earners of the value of union mem- 
bership and by bringing into the movement at least 
one new member during the coming year. 

Let us take for our obligation during the coming 
year: DOUBLE UNION MEMBERSHIP BY SEP- 
TEMBER, 1929. This will give us an organization 
strong in preventing injustice and effective in indus- 
trial progress. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Just Observations 


SELMA M. BoORCHARDT 


And now evolution is to be decided by the refer- 
endum. The good state of Arkansas adopted an anti- 
evolution law a short time ago, and now it seeks to 
confirm its good judgment. 

On November 6 the people of this state will go to 
thé polls to vote—on evolution. Yes, we do believe 
that the public schools belong to the people, but 
haven't the people developed a rather peculiar concept 
of the function of schools and schooling when they 
decide to submit to the electorate a question of scien- 
tific content? It is indeed to be hoped that the teach- 
ers of Arkansas will realize that their professional 
obligations extend beyond the classroom, and that 
they will engage themselves in a bigger form of public 
education, and one which will show its good effects 
at the polls on November 6. 


% * + co 


We are a member organization of the World Fed- 
eration of Educational Associations. Let’s be a func- 
tional organization in it. 

Right now there is before the directorate of that 


organization a report on a preliminary survey for the 
Geneva meeting of the organization, Your represen- 
tative on the directorate wants and needs your advice 
and suggestions in considering that report. Here are 
some of the salient proposals it contains: 

1. That there be a Geneva Conference Committee 
for the purpose of exercising complete control over 
the organization of the Conference. A real business- 
like proposal it would seem to be. 

2. That the following sub-committees be ap- 
pointed: (a) Hotels and Reception Committee; (b) 
Committee on Halls and Meeting Places; (c) Com- 
mittee on Publicity and Press; (d) Social Committee; 
(e) Committee on Exhibitions; (f) Ladies’ Com- 
mittee. 

The functions of these committees are self-explana- 
tory through their names, except in a few instances. 
It is not quite clear what would be included in the 
jurisdiction of the committee of Publicity and Press 
in keeping with the following sentence in the pro- 
posal: “A special committee would be set up to draft 
the general programme, and to translate it.” We may 
assume, probably, that this sentence refers only to 
the mechanics of drafting the programme and not to 
the conception and planning thereof, for certainly no 
democratic organization would vest such vast powers 
in an arbitrarily appointed sub-committee which may 


in no sense be representative of the constituent organ. 
izations in the Federation. 

It might also be suggested that still another sub. 
committee be appointed, a Committee on Credentials, 
Inasmuch as the Federation is still in a formative 
period it would seem desirable that the democratic 
regulations governing the equitable provision for rep. 
resentation, be strictly observed, in the conduct of the 
plenary sessions of the organization. 

It might also be observed that while the report 
ptoposes that exhibitions could be arranged by a local 
committee this proposal probably assumes that the 
local committee would be in close working contact 
with the several constituent bodies of the federation, 
and would put into effect their recommendations and 
proposals. 

Languages 

3. The report proposes that the question of lan- 
guages to be used at the conference should “only he 
determined after more mature consideration.” 
Invitations 

4. “It is suggested that the official and general 
invitations to attend the World Confercnce for 
speakers and others specially desired should be issued 
after further consultation and agreement between the 
European directors and the Genevese Committee. The 
invitations in Anglo-Saxon countries, America and 
the Far East will be issued by the World Federation 
Committee.” A number of questions could be asked 
on this proposal. 

Finance 

5. The report proposes a division of expenses a 
by the W. F. E. A. and the Finance Conference Com- 
mittee. The report also suggests a sliding scale of 
registration fees for the delegates, said fee to be in 
some way proportionate to the financial situations of 
the teachers in the different countries. An equitable 
proposal it would seem. 

Religious Services 

6. It is proposed that religious services be arranged, 

if desired, as follows: 
(a) For Protestants at the Protestant Cathe- 
dral. 
(b) For Roman Catholics at the Cathedral 
of Notre Dame. 
Educational Programme Suggestions 

7. Om the educational programme itself it is sug- 

gested that the number of sectional groups be reduced 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 11 


to 7 or 8 and include the following: “‘1.. Rural Youth 
and the Rural School. 2. Industrial Education and 
Labour, to be undertaken by the Labour Bureau of 
the Bureau de Travail. 3. International Co-operation 
and Good-will. 4. School Libraries. 5. Behaviour 
Problem—Child and Adolescent. 6. Nursery and Pre- 
School. 7. Parent, Teacher, Home and School.” 

“We propose that a special section be devoted to 
every one of these seven subjects. According to the 
suggestion of Mons. Malche, Head of the Public 
Instruction of Geneva, we should like to add an eighth 
theme, which seems to us of very special importance 
in many European countries. It could be worded, 
“Press-School and Public Opinion.” We are, of course, 
quite prepared to admit that the other sections may 
be of primary importance to others, hut we venture 
to suggest that some of the themes listed on Page 789 
of the Toronto Report might be effectively dealt with 
without devoting a whole section to them. For ex- 
ample: 

(1) Character—Moral and Religious Education 
will be dealt with in the Cathedral Service, not to 
speak of Section 11 above. (2) Health Education, 
could be efficiently presented in an exhibit with one 
commentary address. (3) Where our special interest 
lies at the present moment in the relations between 
Elementary and Secondary Education, and this might 
also give occasion for an Exhibit. (4) Geography. 
The same thing could be arranged for this. (5) Han- 
dicapped Children. (6) Motion Pictures could be 
dealt with in the course of a special evening where 
films, carefully chosen, might be commented upon. 

“In view of different International Conferences of 
a special character which are to meet in the near fu- 
ture on subjects such as Adult Education, Moral Edu- 
cation, Health Education, Motion Pictures and Educa- 
tion, we are rather anxious not to give the impression 
that the Geneva Conference is over-lapping in all 
directions, and we think it would be wise to restrict 
the number of our fully equipped sections. We think 
it will be possible so to arrange the daily schedule 
that not more than four or five simultaneous meetings 
should ever compete for the interests of the con- 
ference.” 

The report continues: 

“The five big subjects which we suggest as suitable 
for the afternoon meetings would be intimately con- 
nected with some of the sections. They might be, 
for instance, Labour and Education—by Mons. Albert 
Thomas, Director of the International Labour office, 
International Education—by Tagore or Dr. Nitobe, 


The Needs of the Rural Districts—By Marcucci 
(Italy), Some Behaviour Problems—by Dr. W. 
Healy, Home and School—by a prominent English- 
man or by Dr. Dengler of Austria. 

“We think that the Chairman and Secretaries of 
the Sections might be chosen by taking into account 
both the special Conference and the contribution of 
the different countries. Among the names suggested 
we venture to quote: Kerchensteiner, Foerster, Paul- 
sen (Germany), Nito Cabelliero of Columbia, Car- 
neiro Leao of Brazil, Bovet of Switzerland, Pinke- 
vitch, Madame Radlinska of Poland, Miss MacMillan 
of England Nursery Schools, Dr. Louis Meek of U. S. 
—Behaviour.” 


The proposed programme suggests a number of 
questions. What is the advantage of a small number 
of large groups over a large number of small groups? 
It would appear that the sectional groups should be 
the places where the discussions are held. The fewer 
sectional groups we have the larger the groups will 
necessarily be and the less actual teacher participa- 
tion will we have. The problem of the. amount of 
physical space for meetings is not the determining 
element in the proposed plans for the report points 
out that there will be nine available rooms for sec- 
tional meetings and that there will be at least six 
working days for the convention, making thereby a 
grand total of fifty-four available rooms. And if we 
assume that we have eighteen groups, each with a 
maximum of three full meetings we may utilize the 
fifty-four available rooms. 

Nor would it seem that the other contention is ten- 
able, that the division of interests necessitated by a 
large number of groups is objectionable. Surely, there 
can be no harm in having teachers pick the particular 
question in which they have the greatest interest and 
devoting themselves to that. No teacher is compelled 
to divide his time and interest if he has the opportu- 
nity of making a choice between sectional groups. 

The proposal is also to be carefully considered in 
that it does not take into consideration the between- 
convention work of any section. Would it not be a 
little unfortunate to state definitely that the W. F. 
E. A. is an organization which meets once in two 
years at which meetings it makes no provision for a 
consideration of between-conyention work? 

The report also points out that we should not con- 
sider adult education, moral education, etc., because 
other groups are at work on these questions. Might 
it not be observed that if the World Federation is to 
be a world federation it should be all-inclusive? It 





12 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


would seem that it would welcome the reports and 
contributions which any special group has to make 
on any special question, but should it exclude from 
its own agenda any question of educational concern 
because some one else is interested in that question. 

The report further suggests that the question of 
character—moral and religious education—could be 
taken care of in a sermon. To those of us who are 
especially interested in this problem a question pre- 
sents itself. Would a cathedral sermon be apt to pre- 
sent a consideration of the development of the func- 
tional curriculum, as compared with the present sub- 
ject curriculum in relation to moral education, regard- 
less of how inspiring the sermon may be? And again, 
would an exhibition on health education, as proposed, 
take the place of a discussion on the functioning of 
the several types of clinics, or of the adjustment of 
the curriculum to meet the physical needs of the 
child? This proposal on the programme merits our 
earnest consideration. 


Time of Meeting 

8. The report suggests that sectional meetings 
be held in the morning from 9 to 12, that group 
meetings be held from 5 to 6 in the afternoon and 
that the evenings be left free for such social engage- 
ments as may be provided. 

Those of us who have experienced conflicts at pre- 
vious meetings of the W. F. E. A. of the plenary ses- 
sions and group sessions and of plenary sessions and 
sectional meetings recognize the value of these sug- 
gestions on the division of time. 


Time Limit for Preparation of Programme 

9. The report suggests that the programme be 
completed by Easter and that the list of delegates be 
closed by June 1. Wise suggestion indegd. 


Travel Arrangements 


10.’ The report states that the American Express 
Company has offered its services with regard to tak- 
ing over the full control of transportation, etc., and 
suggests that we do not commit ourselves in any way 
as the Travel Bureau of the National Union of Teach- 
ers of England has already undertaken much of the 
work and would be glad to be appointed official 
agents. 

It would seem desirable that each organization 
determine its own policy on group travel provisions. 
For us, it would be quite satisfactory it seems to util- 
ize the offer of the National Union of Teachers. 

Ever so much to think about, and may we have 

*your thoughts? 


The United States Bureau of Education announce 
that in December there will be a meeting in Wash- 
ington of the several state superintendents of educa- 
tion, constituting themselves into a Council of Edu- 
cation. 

It is interesting to observe that this council meet. 
ing which will take place to consider the devising of 
uniform report provisions and other such questions, 
was not specifically authorized by statutory law. Of 
course, it doesn’t have to be, as this Council will not 
undertake any administrative functions in relation 
to the conduct of education in the several states. But, 
does this not even more strongly raise the question 
of the necessity or even of the advisability of having 
Section 10 in the bill to create a federal department 
of Education? We repeat the question raised by us 
before, “If the Council of Superintendents proposed 
in the Curtis-Reed Bill is to be purely advisory and 
not administrative why does it have to be provided 
for by statutory law?” 

+ ce oe ae 

We might suggest to the Board of Education of 
Seattle that they read the Congressional Record of 
1924. There were, at that time, some people who 
wanted to deny employes of the United States classi- 
fied federal service, and employes in the United States 
Post Office Department the right to join an organiza- 
tion of their own choosing. Our federal Congress 
recognized that the 14th Amendment was a part of 
the United States Constitution, and adopted as a rider 
to the Appropriation Bill of that year, a very definite 
and positive provision saying, that “it is the’ right of 
workers in the employ of the United States Govern- 
ment to join any organization of their own choosing.” 
Of course, this applies only where there is federal jur- 
isdiction. But it’s a good precedent, don’t you think? 

Perhaps even the attorney for the Puget Sound 
Electric Light and Power Company, who is also the 
attorney for the Board of Education of Seattle, might 
be interested in knowing this. 

cn * * Xe 

An interesting and valuable book has just been 
written, by R. H. Jordan, Extra Curricula Activities. 
It discusses a subject of real interest and concern 


all of us, seeks to help evaluate this work for us. 
* coe co os 


The press reports of the International Federation 
of Trade Unions at Amsterdam tell of a conference 
held in June, on Youth and Education. The prelimi- 
nary report sounds so interesting that we shall try © 
get the full report and give it to you later. 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Report on Industrial Education 






UNCEs 





Vash- Prepared by the Committee on Legislation and Teachers’ Interests of The Teachers Union of New York 
luca- City, Local 5 | 
Edu. Dr. ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ, Chairman 





We are living in an economic age, dominated by must periodically examine the subject-matter and 
industrial forces. - Hence, training for industry with the courses to ascertain whether they still fit the 
a view not only to understanding our economic life changing industrial needs. This constant industrial 
and to becoming efficient workers and citizens, but orientation will show whether the work of the in- 
also to maintaining Amercian industrial efficiency, dustrial schools has become too theoretical or solely 
is essential. This is especially necessary because of practical, thereby making it difficult for graduates 
the waste, inefficiency and great labor turn-over to meet new industrial problems that arise. More- 
due in part to haphazard training given to young over, teachers should be required to use one vacation 
workers. In this work of preparation for industrial in three or four to work at their trades. Then, 
life, we have three types of schools: 1: the pre- in the light of their latest industrial experience and 
vocational schools, essentially too cultural or aca- job analysis, the courses can be re-examined and mod- 
demic in outlook. They are “try-out” schools or ified so as to function more efficiently in preparing 
elementary vocational guidance institutions. 2: Vo- students for industrial life. In a word, vocational 
cational schools, providing a two-year course for education must be understood as a social instrument 
graduates with the least possible friction and eco- which will make easy adjustment to one’s life task 
nomic loss. 3: Continuation schools for students and to his community obligations. 
under 17 (and by September, 1928, under 18), who 3. Cultural: After all, while the emphasis should 
are gainfully employed, and who must attend four be on the practical trade aspects of training, life is 
hours weekly, twenty hours a week when not em- more than earning a living. Life is citizenship; life 
ployed. is the development of all potentialities so that the 
young worker should become not only a vigorous, 
wholesome, self-supporting person, but should be 





neet- 
ig of 
ions, 







| not 
tion 
But, 







Ving 












At the present time the work of these various 








1ssi- types of schools is under the direction of three in- ; “dial 

si dividuals. As there is no uniform policy or plan, able also to enjoy music, literature and the other 
nr we find much duplication, loss of efficiency and tS as well as to participate intelligently in all 
site waste. This work should be unified in policy and social relations. Hence, as much of the social and 
: of administered by one person having a broad industrial natural sciences as possible should be woven into 
and academic perspective. The work of industrial the courses, to the end that we may develop not only 





skilled mechanics, but understanding mechanics, who 
will become intelligent, critical and progressive cit- 
izens, performing their civic obligations cheerfully. 
1. Craftsmanship: The best teachers of indus- Oy, industrial education must be based essentially 


education could then be visualized under three ma- 
jor heads: 








g.” a subjects in vocational or industrial schools are upon trade efficiency, enlightened and broadened 
a. ikely to be men and women skilled in their trades. by a cultural outlook. 





As such men and women are not generally trained In our survey of the states which have part-time 
teachers, it is absurd to assume that they can teach | continuation industtial training, we find that al- 
well. In this connection we congratulate the State most four millions of boys and girls between the ages 
Department of Education and the Director of Indus- ¢¢ 14 and 18 are out of school without the benefit 
trial Education on their recognition of the fact that ¢ industrial education. Twenty-six states are at- 
these men and women must be equipped with the tempting to mect this social void through vocational 
technic of teaching, so that they may make the full- 2.4 part-time education. In 1925 New York alone 
est use of their practical experience and skill in pq 110,593 boys and girls enrolled in part-time or 
craftsmanship to impart, skillfully and scientifically, continuation schools. We find that the operation of 
their knowledge acquired on the job. The estab- the continuation school laws in most of the 26 states 
lishment of two-year day training courses at the jg working out in a satisfactory manner. Industrial 
state normal schools of Oswego and Buffalo is an inefficiency has been reduced by making for better 
important step in this direction. social and educational adjustment; children have been 

2. Research: Industry is changing constantly kept in school longer and thus have become better 
because of the multiplicity of new inventions and equipped to meet the problems of life; their civic 
greater centralization and specialization. Hence the intelligence has been enlarged by developing a 
Director of Industrial Education and his assistants stronger sense of social obligation. In the light of the 






















14 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


above facts should not our city do everything in its 
power to make our part-time schools function as the 
framers of law and educators intended they should? 

A study of our part-time schools made by the 
Committee of Education: of the New York State 
Federation of Labor shows the following weaknesses: 


1. That suitable buildings have not been provid- 
ed to house continuation school pupils. In fact, 
some of the buildings are so unfit as to be looked 
upon as a menace to health. 

2. That no satisfactory plan of organization of 
courses of instruction or policy has been developed 
though steps have recently been taken in that direc- 
tion. With expert advice, more time, help and co- 
operation this goal is likely to be attained. 

3. That essential central buildings based on in- 
dustrial or vocational lines have not been generally 
established. We are glad to note, however, that 
steps are being taken in that direction by our Board 
of Education. 

4. That no adequate research staff has been em- 
ployed for the purpose of making studies and in- 
vestigations. 

5. That no adequate equipment and facilities 
have been provided for most of these schools. 

The buildings provided for the continuation 
schools are generally woefully inadequate—not only 
because they had never been erected for the pur- 
pose for which they are now being used, but also 
because some buildings are almost dilapidated, hav- 
ing been erected over 70 years. Some, according 
to the study of the New York State Federation of 
Labor, ought to be condemned as health or fire haz- 
ards and, if they had been under private control, 
would probably be so condemned by the health and 
fire departments. The Queens Continuation School 


is a leased loft in the building of the American Drug > 


Syndicate in Long Island City. The location is bad, 
the school is disturbed by manufacturers who occupy 
the other lofts; the place is noisy, the lighting often 
artificial, ventilation in some rooms is impossible. 
The whole environment is unfortunate for adoles- 
cents going through a trying period of adjustment 
and handicapped in some cases by a low intelligence 
quotient and unfortunate home environment. Why 
not give these unfortunate children buildings that 
will make education possible and bring a littleight 
and sunshine to lives already too long dwarfed, 
cramped and darkened by inadequate homes? We wel- 
come the support of the advisory Board on Industrial 
Education which advocates new, modern up-to-date 
buildings and regard the vote of the Board of Edu- 
cation for a modern building to house the Queens 
Continuation School as a welcome step in the right 


direction. We hope other buildings for each borough 
will be voted and erected as promised by President 
George J. Ryan of the Board of Education. 


Not only are buildings unsuitable but equipment 
is often very inadequate. The most noteworthy ex- 
ceptions are the Central Commercial Continuation 
School and the Central Building Trades School and 
the Printing Trades Continuation School. The latter 
Owes its equipment not only to the generosity of the 
Department of Education but also to the enlightened 
interest of the employers and the unions concerned. 
Even here expensive machinery lies idle because of 
the failure to vote $700.00 for power allotment. 


Moreover, teachers are not adequately equipped for ] 


their tasks. About 30 to 40 per cent of the teaching 
staff is composed of substitutes with no tenure, and 
hence no life interest in their jobs—a condition that 
has a bearing on a proper outlook and educational 
efficiency. Though these facts have been brought 
to the attention of the Board of Education, the Board 
of Superintendents has not as yet placed the con- 
tinuation school teachers upon a permanent tenure 
nor granted them high school licenses nor provided 
for high school qualifications or their equivalent. 
These steps are essential to attract to the teaching 
staff excellent mechanics who now refuse to take the 
examinations because the remuneration is less than 
they earn in the trades. Should the policy suggested 
be followed, the Board of Education will make it pos- 
sible to attract the kind of men and women who will 
be fully qualified to give the children of the workers 
the training to which they are entitled. We are glad to 
note that the new by-laws increase the qualifications 
and we hope that high school licenses and - salaries 
will soon follow. 

Not only are teachers poorly equipped and their 
status undetermined, but the pupil load is too high, 
sometimes reaching 135 or more per teacher. Such 
a heavy pupil-load makes effective teaching difficult 
if not out of the question. * Though the best inform- 
ed industrial experts and our director of continuation 
and evening schools believe that no register in a0 
industrial class should exceed 15 students, yet New 
York has a minimum register of 22 and an actual 
register and attendance often much larger than this. 
Some continuation schools have a register varying 
from 40 or more pupils so that individual industrial 
teaching, the only kind that is effective, is hardly 
possible. We earnestly urge that special consideration 
be given the question and that the pupil load be im- 
mediately reduced to at least 100 per teacher, and 
later to 75. This change is vital and cannot be long 
deferred. 


Even if these evils were eliminated, the work of 





sist 
def 
sec 
ans 
res 


cu 
the 
act 
tri 
tin 
ass: 


ap] 
em 
sit 


hoy 


of 

kn 
tio 
sen 





28 


BP SSER FE 


R 


a. 


industrial education will suffer as long as the sta- 
bility of industrial education is constantly menaced 
by some opposition within the Board of Education, 
the Board of Superintendents, or the Legislature. We 
congratulate -’ 3oard of Education and the State 
Department ducation for having opposed all 
legislative efforts to undermine the Continuation 
School law, either by reducing the age limits or by 
substituting evening school service, or by combining 
both of these ideas or by recommending that all 
pupils who had finished the ninth year of the junior 
high school or the first year of the senior high school 
be permitted to substitute evening high school at- 
tendance for the continuation school. The best in- 
formed opinion is that the law works no hardship 
upon any boy or girl, since adjustments can be made 
within each school so as to eliminate any hardship or 
injustice. Should this prove impossible. we suggest 
the formation of a committee composed of represen- 
tatives of unions, employers and the educational au- 
thorities with power to make necessary adjustments 
without undermining the law. Such a committee 
might, at the same time, also perform the necessary 
task of enlightening uninformed parents or employ- 
ers. 


In addition to the above suggestions, we respect- 
fully submit the following plan of reorganization for 
industrial education in our city. 

All education to be under one head—the Director 
of Industrial Education with the rank of Associate 
Superintendent and each sub-division under an as- 
sistant director. Only by centralizing and clearly 
defining power and responsibility can efficiency be 
secured. While the assistant directors should be fully 
answerable to the director, all policies should be the 
result, whenever possible, of a decision reached by the 
director and his assistants after a full and free dis- 
cussion. Since responsibility and unity are desired, 
the director must have the power of veto over the 
action of his subordinates. If a director of indus- 
trial education is out of the question at the present 
time, we suggest that an associate superintendent be 
assigned to act as a unifying and harmonizing force, 
so that a consistent policy may be worked out and 
applied. The recent selection of an educator of 
eminence to supervise this work does not meet the 
situation, except in part, because the person selected, 
however well qualified academically for the position 
of district superintendent does not know the work 
of the continuation schools, does not intimately 
know industry, and hence is hardly capable to func- 
tion as efficiently as would a qualified director cho- 
sen from those who understand this work. 


The assistant director of pre-vocational and voca- 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








15 


tional schools, and assistant director of continuation 
schools, and the assistant director of evening trade 
schools and trade classes should act, in conjunction 
with the director, as a Board of Industrial Educa- 
tion for the development of policies, standards and 
plans. It shall be their function to co-ordinate the 
activities of the various schools by making all work 
continuous so that there will be no overlapping and 
no waste, when pupils are shifted from school to 
school or from class to class. 


Students graduating from an elementary school 
will have had two years of pre-vocational work. 
This means that they will have had an opportunity 
of finding the type of work for which they are best 
fitted and which they prefer. The pre-vocational 
schools should emphasize the matter of vocational 
guidance so that young men and women will know 
upon graduation, just what kind of work they desire 
to specialize in. This work might be best performed 
as a special phase or development of the junior high 
schools, which are centrally located in each neigh- 
borhood. After the completion of this tryout or 
preliminary training, the graduate of the pre-voca- 
tional schools should enter the vocational continua- 
tion school with a definite object in mind of pre- 
paring for a particular trade. 


The vocational schools should be specialized or 
centralized as the students have been tried out in 
a school conducting a general course. These should 
be established in the appropriate industrial areas. 
There should be such schools for the following 
trades: (1) printing trades; (2) needle trades; (3) 
building trades; (4) machine trades; (5) auto 
trades; (6) commercial occupations; (7) selling 
trades; (8) food trades. Each of these central trade 
schools will give students an opportunity to see 
the trade or industry as a whole and, at the same 
time, give an opportunity to specialize in the par- 
ticular phase of industry in which he is interested, 
whether carpentry, electrical wiring, plumbing, etc. 
We are glad the Board of Education is moving in 
this direction. 

The vocational schools should give a two-year 
course—one year for general work and one year in 
the special branch of the trade for which the student 
is best fitted and in which he desires to specialize. 
The work should be largely co-operative in nature— 
not only to enable the boys and girls to help support 
their family, because economic conditions have gen- 
erally been the cause of their entrance into early 
training for industry, but also to prevent the flood- 
ing of the labor market, to give a better understand- 
ing of the educational process and to make the work 
more interesting. 
































































16 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


After the vocational course has been completed, 
the young workers should be placed in some position 
through the efforts of a Centralized Placement Bu- 
reau, which should be under the assistant director of 
continuation schools. When the graduate of the vo- 
cational school has been placed in a position, he 
should attend a specialized continuation school, in 
order to obtain supplementary trade education, and 
to continue his training while at work, and to so 
supplement his work as to fit him for advancement 
as well as for greater efficiency. This training should 
continue until the young person has become a full- 
fledged journeyman in his trade. A young man who 


cannot afford a two-year course in a vocational. 


school should be permitted to enter the continuation 
school after leaving the pre-vocational school. 

The general continuation school should not be 
specialized as the vocational schools, because unlike 
the central continuation schools or vocational schools 
which seek to help the boy specialize for his life 
task, they are concerned chiefly with enabling the 
pupil to find himself and the occupation for which 
he is best fitted. In a word, the general continuation 
school is to do in the industrial field what the junior 
high schools do in the cultural field. Moreover, 
whenever possible the student should be grouped ac- 
cording to advancement and ability. 


The courses in the continuation schools, vocational 
schools, and evening trade schools should be so ar- 
ranged that they will co-ordinate. This will make 
it possible for 2 young worker to continue from 
the pre-vocational school to the evening trade or 
continuation school without waste of effort or loss 
of time. This means that the training will be con- 
tinuous or progressive without any overlapping. 
Hence, graded lesson plans far each sub-division of 
a trade such as plumbing, carpentry, etc., must be 
worked out for the entire length of the course. 
Wherever possible, it is desirable to excuse especially 
qualified teachers from regular teaching to work out 
such courses, subject to the approval of the Board 
of Directors of Industrial Education. This will give 
uniform courses for every trade and every type of 
school, making possible a transfer from school to 
school without any great educational loss. 

Since many maladjusted students, or students 
with greatly varying intelligence quotients at- 
tend these schools for industrial education, each 
central school should have a qualified psychiatrist, 
dentists, nurses and physicians in charge to co-operate 
with the teachers in making possible a wholesome 
development of each child. 

The new types of schools, made necessary by 
changes in our economic life, offer the Board of Edu- 


cation and the Board of Superintendents not only a 
challenge but also an opportunity to experiment with 
new material and new methods without endangering 
or upsetting the system as a whole or traditional 
educational policies. In these new schools, the edu. 
cational authorities can more conveniently experi- 
ment with both method and content and thus evolve 
new methods and procedures which may revolution- 
ize our whole educational structure. The world is 
in educational ferment, and it behooves educators 
to keep abreast of these changes. Nay, it is incum- 
bent upon them to take the lead in experimentation 
and industrial education. We hope our adminis. 
trators will rise to the golden opportunity given 
them by these new types of technical schools. 





THE CHAINED EAGLET 
By OLIveE SCHREINER 

There was a bird’s egg once, picked up by chance 
upon the ground, and those who found it bore it 
home and placed it under a barnyard fowl. And in 
time the chick bred out, and those who had found 
it chained it by a leg to a log, lest it should stray 
and get lost. And by and by they gathered round it, 
and speculated as to what the bird might be. One 
said, “It is surely a duck, or it may be a goose; if we 
took it to the water it would swim and gabble.” 

But another said, “It has no webs to its feet; it is 
a barnyard fowl; should you let it loose it will 
scratch and cackle with the others on the dung- 
heap.” But a third speculated, “Look now at its 
curved beak; no doubt it is a parrot, and can crack 
nuts.” But a fourth said, “No, but look at its wings; 
perhaps it is a bird of great flight.” But several 
cried, ““Nonsense! No one has ever seen it fly! Why 
should it fly? Can you suppose that a thing can do 
a thing which no one has ever seen it do?” And the 
bird, with its leg chained close to the log, preened 
its wings. So they sat about it, speculating, and dis- 
cussing it; and one said this, and another that. 

And all the while as they talked the bird sat 
motionless, with its gaze fixed on the clear, blue sky 
above it. And one said, “Suppose we let the creature 
loose to see what it will do?” and the bird shivered. 
But the others cried, “It is too valuable; it might 
get lost, if it were to try to fly it might fall down 
and break its neck.” 

And the bird, with its foot chained to the log, sat 
looking upward into the clear sky; the sky, in which 
it had never been—for the bird—the bird, knew 
what it would do—because it was an eaglet!—From 
“Woman and Labor.” 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER | 17 


HOW YOUR TAX DOLLAR GOES 
Eighty-two Cents for Wars, Past and Future 

In the report of the secretary of the treasury for 
the fiscal year ended June 30, 1927, submitted last 
month to Congress, Secretary Mellon attributes 82 
per cent of the federal expenditures for 1927 to past 
and future wars. With this statement he ranges him- 
self squarely on the side of the peace and welfare 
organizations in their controversy with the War De- 
partment—of several years’ standing—over the ques- 
tion of what proportion of the tax dollar is due to 
war. 

The public first became interested in this inquiry 
in 1920, when the late Doctor Rosa of the United 
States Bureau of Standards published his tables and 
charts of federal expenditures which brought out the 
startling fact that out of every dollar 93.7 cents 
was being spent for past and future wars while only 
one cent was going for research, education and devel- 
opment. The figures were immediately taken up by 
organizations interested in education and other con- 
structive projects and were published from one end of 
the country to the other. They played a large part 
in the general demand for reduction of armaments 
which culminated in the Washington Conference. 


Three years later, in response to a request from one 
of the Senators, the United States Bureau of Efficien- 
cy brought the Rosa figures up to date, and prepared 
by the same method a chart of estimated net expen- 
ditures for the fiscal year 1924, which was published 
by the National Council for Prevention of War. By 
this time military expenditures had returned to some- 
what more normal proportions and the percentage 
due to wars had been reduced from 93.7 to 85.8. 
Nevertheless, the figures were bitterly attacked by 
the War Department, which issued a statement in 
the name of Secretary Weeks, completely ignoring 
the fact that two government bureaus had been re- 
sponsible for this method of calculation of expendi- 
tures, and characterizing the Bureau of Efficiency 
chart as “‘a carefully conceived effort to deceive.” 


One of the main points of the War Department’s 
Contention was that the interest and retirement of 
the public debt should not be included among war 
expenditures. However, since the debt, except for 
the negligible proportion of a fraction of one per cent, 
Was incurred for past wars, the Treasury Department 
has consistently so classified it. In his report for 1925, 
Secretary Mellon attributed over 80 per cent of fed- 
eral expenditures to war and issued the warning— 

“This will be the inevitable situation as long as war 


is the method of settling international disputes.” 

This year he treats the question still more seriously. 
Three. pages of the report are devoted to discussion 
and to tables and charts showing the functional dis- 
tribution of expenditures for the fiscal year 1927. 
Moreover, the classified figures for the years from 
1910 to 1924 prepared by Doctor Rosa and by the 
Bureau of Efficiency are not only referred to as “the 
best-known compilation of data in readily available 
form for answering this inquiry,” but are reprinted, 
thus completely vindicating the method of classifi- 
cation. A similar computation which excludes civil 
agencies used for war purposes, such as the Emergency 
Fleet Corporation, is made for the years 1915 to 1927. 
By this method the war percentage for 1927 is com- 
puted as 82 per cent. 


“When the average citizen grumbles over the size 
of his income tax payment,” says Secretary Mellon, 
“he often visualizes his hard-earned money being 
spent by the government to compile reports on busi- 
ness or agricultural conditions, or to erect public 
buildings, send diplomats abroad, carry on scientific 
investigations, or make and enforce laws. As a matter 
of fact, a small part of the taxpayer’s dollar goes 
into work of this sort, only about one-sixth being 
used for all the multitudinous types of ordinary civil 
functions added together. One-half of each tax dollar 
is used for the service of the public debt. . . . The re- 
maining one-third of the taxpayer’s dollar is spent on 
military expenditures for national defense or pay- 
ments to military veterans. 

“This table shows that in modern times the Fed- 
eral tax burden of one generation is largely deter- 
mined by the military activities of the preceding one. 
In the fiscal year 1927, expenditures for interest on 
the public debt exceeded by over $140,000,000 the 
aggregate amount of ‘ordinary civil expenditures, 
while military expenditures were almost twice civil 
expenditures and exceeded the amount of all retire- 
ments of the public debt by nearly $70,000,000.” 





“Among the social movements of our age, the 
greatest adventure is beyond all question the search 
for world peace.”—Dexter Perkins. 





War is the result of misunderstanding. Misunder- 
standing and national hatred are the result_of igno- 
rance, and ignorance is a direct problem of education. 





A rare jewel is the mind, free from the influence 
of habitual environment—and ever open to all truth.” 









































18 


SHORT SUMMARY OF CONFERENCE ON 
“HOW TO ORGANIZE THE UNORGANIZED” 


By IskaEL MUFSON 
Secretary, Labor College of Philadelphia, Local 192 


The four outstanding policies expressed as most 
necessary in tackling the problem of organizing the 
unorganized at the conference were the development 
of some form of industrial unionism to meet the large 
scale production methods of the basic industries; pay- 
ing more attention to the psychology and problems 
of women in industry who are entering the factories 
in ever increasing numbers; giving heed in more con- 
scious manner to the young people in the movement 
and to their desire for expression, and the need for 
advancing a wider conception of the labor movement 
—a conception that would visualize the movement 
as a social force working towards such change in so- 
ciety as will give the workers a hope of greater 
power and control to direct their own lives. Through 
all the four sessions of the conference, whether ex- 
pressed by speakers on the program or by the dele- 
gates from the floor; whether the speaker was‘a vet- 
eran official of a well established craft union or a 
young man or woman of the rank and file, these four 
points were brought into the discussions as necessary 
measures with which to capture the imagination and 
the loyalties of the unorganized millions. Surround- 
ing these four features, and one that was taken for 
granted as a common aid to all the measures proposed, 
was workers’ education. Workers’ education was ac- 
cepted by all as a process that should be continuously 
carried on no matter what other policies were to be 
pursued. 

The great concentration of industry and the evolu- 
tion of machinery to displace skill, make organization 
of workers divided along craft lines untenable. Dif- 
ferences among craft unions working for individual 
advantage cause inter-union squabbles, jurisdictional 
dispute and divisions which tend to weaken all organ- 
ization efforts. In addition modern production meth- 
ods require a much closer coordination of different 
groups of workers in one industry than their organi- 
zation along craft lines makes possible. The remedy 
as pointed out repeatedly, is some form of industrial 
unionism that will best fit each particular industry. 


Women are entering industry in overwhelming 
numbers. And though they themselves may not 
know it, they enter industry to stay. If any success- 
ful attempt to organize the unorganized is to be 
made, these women must be reckoned with. ‘Their 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 






problems, and methods of approach to them must 
be given greater consideration than hitherto. It was 
suggested that the American Federation of Labor 
establish 2 Women’s Bureau, much like the various 
State and Federal Governments have established, for 
the purpose of giving the women problem in organi- 
zation work its proper consideration. 

The young delegates to the conference were ardent 
exponents of the value of youth to the labor move- 
ment. It was brought out that in some industries 
50 per cent of the workers were young people. Their 
special needs will have to be catered to if they are to 
be drawn into the ranks of organized labor. Their 
criticism should not be resented but they should be 
given work to do in order to keep them interested 
in the movement. For the unorganized youth, stress 
should not be laid so much upon wages and hours 
as upon the field of adventure which the movement 
holds open to them. Their imagination should be 
aroused by the great opportunities organized labor 
gives them to become fighters for a cause in which 
all the things most worthwhile in life are involved. 

And finally, the job of interesting the unorganized 
in the movement can be made infinitely simpler if 
the movement were made a crusade for human rights 
and human values. The conception of life as a grad- 
ually unfolding process, with the masses all through 
history fighting for recognition and expression, until 
the workers finally achieve control of the industries 
which they operate—and the Labor Movement as the 
only force that ever paid any attention to these aspi- 
rations—such conception would eventually. win the 
unorganized for the Labor Movement. 

The part education is to play in this process of 
organization was not once forgotten during the con- 
ference. Many speakers stressed the fact that the first 
need was to organize the organized. In too many 
instances trade unionists were just card holders with- 
out any real idea what the labor movement actually 
meant. To overcome such a condition workers’ edv- 
cation was the only remedy. Knowledge of the struc- 
ture and function of the Labor Movement, of our 
economic society in which we live and of the partic- 
ular industry in which we are employed is absolutely 
necessary to make a cohesive, intelligent and effective 
force out of the membership. 


The Conference on How To Organize the Unor- 
ganized was stimulating and inspiring. Those present 
felt a new enthusiasm as the sessions continued. 
at its conclusion, every one agreed that something 
really worthwhile was accomplished. 










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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


History and Bias 


Mr. Stanley Baldwin, offering not long ago what 
he called the “‘desultory thoughts of an unscholarly 
layman” to English and American historians 
assembled in conclave at King’s College, challenged 
contemporary doctrine by taking up the cudgels for 
biased history. Shocked educators throughout the 
world could doubtless be found in numbers to make 
protest against such heresy, yet there is no denying 
force to Mr. Baldwin’s doctrine. After all, to the 
young at least, and it was particularly of the young 
that the Prime Minister was speaking, it is not detach- 
ment but partisanship which makes appeal. Youth 
itself feels hotly, and gives of itself most lavishly 
where its fancy is enlisted. It knows no pains too 
severe to endure for what it cherishes, and will evince 
infinite patience with detail once its ardor is awak- 
ened. Its code is that of championship, and it carries 
its habit of conduct over into its intellectual 
reactions. 


Set before a child a compendium of historical data, 
admirably devoid of all personal bias, and conse- 
quently in all likelihood without the quickness of 
enthusiasm that is bred in the heat of advocacy or 
hostility, and you are apt to leave him cold to history. 
But present him with that same history, vitalized by 
the strong sap of admiration or hatred, and he will 
in all probability respond to it with lively interest. 
You will have made a reader of history, even though 
you have not made a historian. You will have per- 
suaded him that history is of the stuff of his daily 
living, envisaged though it be through a gap of years, 
and that the figures of history are no lay models but 
men and women moved by the same loves, and hates, 
and ambitions that spur on the personalities of his 
day. A little bias, a little partisanship go a long way 
to make the past live. And yet, and yet . . . What 
is to become of history as truth, and the force of 
history as example, if it is not to have freedom from 
prejudice and exaggeration? What is there left to 


energize it if fervor is to be eliminated from its: 


chronicle? 


ca * 


Imagination, we suppose, and by imagination we 
mean not only that gift of foresight that permits its 
fortunate owners to descry the future, but that hardly 
less rare gift which permits him to look into the 
Past and recreate it as it was lived. The historian’s 
imagination, indeed is in this different from the poet’s, 
that whereas the poet’s builds on the basis of reality 


‘19 


an ideal world, the historian’s in projecting itself out 
of the present must evolve a real one. This world 
it evolves must be clothed in the garments of fact, 
and yet if it is to be more than inanimate data, it 
must be invested with spirit, and color, and move- 
ment. It must, in fact, have what life itself has, an 
overlay of romance relieving the drab struggle and 
monotony of existence. It must embody the dreams 
as well as the achievements and the failures of 
nations, the serenity of their undistinguished years as 
well as the heroisms of their lofty ones. All nations 
have their dreams, whether they be of liberty, equal- 
ity, fraternity, or, less worthily, of a place in the sun. 
What makes history moving, and inspiring, and 
tragic, is exactly the measure of relation between its 
aspirations and its realizations. 

What makes it fascinating is such presentation as 
depicts the development of political society as a con- 
tinuous evolution, proceeding not without disaster 
and agony, not without pitiful backslidings, but 
nevertheless with majesty. Imagination ranges fur- 
ther than emotion. History that is written with 
imagination will be biased, perhaps, but not partisan, 
for its bias will be not for an individual or a cause, 
but for mankind and the march of humanity. It 
will have the compulsion of a passionate enthusiasm 
without its distortions. It will have the virtues of 
biased history without its dangers.—The Saturday 
Review of Literature. 


FREEDOM OF OPINION IN AMERICA 

In America the majority raises very formidable 
barriers to liberty of opinion; within these barriers 
an author may write whatever he pleases, but he 
will repent if he ever steps beyond them. If great 
writers have not at present existed in America, the 
reason is very simply given in these facts; there can 
be no literary génius without freedom of opinion, 
and freedom of opinion does not exist in America.— 
De Tocqueville in “Democracy in America.” 








CLASSICAL STUDY MAINTAINS ITS HOLD IN 
PROVIDENCE 

Of slightly more than 5,000 students enrolled in 
the three high schools of Providence, R. I., 840, or 
about one-sixth, are in Classical High School, This 
represents the same proportion of Providence students 
pursuing classical courses as in 1881, when-one-sixth 
of the students in Providence High School were in 
the classical department. All students in Classical 
High School take Latin, but fewer than half study 
Greek.—School Life. 








22 


20 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


THE ORIGIN OF “FASCISM” 
THE Story or How THE ConortTs oF “It Duce” 
Got THEIR NAME 


The Fascisti, or Fascists, of Mussolini, the Italian 
dictator who goes under the stern name of “Il Duce” 
(The Leader), are continually in the public eye these 
days. The name Fascism is a hard one for many peo- 
ple to pronounce—but on the authority of Webster’s 
New International Dictionary it is simple enough, as 
follows: Pronounce the 4 as in ask and the i as in 
Il, saying the word as though it were spelled 
“fas-i7’m.” Fascist is pronounced in a similar manner, 
but Fascista (singular) and Fascisti (plural) both 
have the “sc” pronounced as thought it were “‘sh.” 

Of, particular interest is the origin of the name. 
The Italian word is ‘“‘fascismo,” which comes from 
“fascio,” meaning a group, usually political, or a club 
or bundle. This ties the word at once to the old 
Latin “‘fasces,” the plural of “‘fascis,” meaning a bun- 
dle. The fasces, as taught in the history of old Roman 
days, were a bundle of rods with a symbolic ax in 
the middle, the blade of the ax projecting through 
the rods. This bundle was carried in front of Roman 
magistrates as a sign of their authority. 

AUTHORITY AND PUNISHMENT 

The man who has a reputation for sternness and 
unquestioned authority has made the name of the 
Fascists live up to its ancestry and thoroughly sub- 
stantiate the old Roman idea of law and order. The 
principles of Fascism are strictly those of law and 
order and obedience to authority. 

The whole significance of the name is found in 
the figurative meaning of fasces, the Roman symbol 
of law and its enforcement. In the words of Web- 
ster’s New International Dictionary this is “the au- 
thority or punishment symbolized by the fasces.” The 
Italian language being the most intimately related to 
the now dead Latin of the Romans, the adoption of 
the fasces into the name of the present political party 
is thus seen to be quite fitting, with a well established 
tradition behind it. 

Il Duce, meaning The Leader, is Italian, of course, 
but the Duce comes from the Latin “‘dux, ducis,” 
for leader. The same word is found in our own Eng- 
lish duke, and in combination in such words as in- 
duce, reduce—to lead into, to lead back to an original 
condition, and so on. 





Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occa- 
sionally find men that disgrace labor.—U. S. Grant. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


MEN OF DESTINY—By Walter Lippmann, The 
Macmillan Company, 60 Fifth-av, New York, 
1927. 12 mo. cloth-bound, $2.50. 

Ever since Walter Lippmann wrote The Phantom 
Public every word that has dropped from his facile 
pen has been eagerly welcomed. 

Do you want to know who will be president? Do 
you want to know whom you will want for pres. 
ident? Well, read Lippmann’s Men of Destiny. 





HEALTH EDUCATION IN CHILDHOOD Is 
NOW RECOGNIZED AS OF PRIMARY 
IMPORTANCE 
By KaTHERINE Guover, National Health Council. 

The physical examination of school children has 
become an accepted thing in most classrooms, 
Weighing and measuring at regular intervals as an 
index of development, protection of the teeth and 
eyes, some form of health education, all these things 
the schools along Main street report. One of the great 
general gains which may be counted in this progress is 
the recognition of health as one of the primary 
objectives of education. 

One of the most interesting phases of one survey 
was an inquiry into the habits of 35,000 school chil- 
dren of the fifth grades of schools in 86 cities. The 
composite which this habit picture gives is hopeful. 
It shows an eleven-year-old who gets ten hours’ sleep, 
who averages a fraction over two glasses of milk: 
day (not enough, of course, and with one-fifth of 
the 35,000 drinking no milk at alk), it shows him 
familiar at least with the Saturday night bath, given 
to brushing his teeth and visiting the dentist. He 
goes to school in a building which is, in most cases, 
clean; where the common drinking cup is a thing of 
the past, where the vacuum cleaner is beginning t0 
displace the duster and the broom, and the radiator 
is displacing the open stove. 

Main street, in a word, is awake to health.—Trades 
Council Union News. 





The Women’s Foundation for Health, 370 Seventh 
Avenue, New York City, has ready a one-act play; 
“A Wise Woman at the Court of Hygeia,” which ® 
particularly adapted to the use of older girls, students 
in health education. The theme of the play is th 
health examination and its follow-up, a difficult sub 
ject to think of in any sort of dramatic terms. Th 
play, however, is full of color, swift in action, and # 
the same time puts the whole story across in a 80 
educational way. Fleven speaking characters 
twelve attendants are required. ‘Time about forty 
minutes. Price 35 cents. 








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OREGON COLLEGE RADIO HEAD BANS TALK 
ON NICARAGUA 

A discussion of the American intervention in Nic- 
aragua, scheduled for presentation over KOAC, the 
radio of Oregon State College at Corvallis, Oregon, 
on January 11, was banned at the last minute by 
Prof. W. L. Kadderly in charge of the station, accord- 
ing to a message received by the American Civil Lib- 
erties Union. 

This is the same institution which cancelled 


. engagements of Kirby Page, peace advocate, to ad- 


dress classes and a meeting on the college grounds 
a few weeks ago. 

The discussion on January 11 was to have been 
given by a member of the University of Oregon 
debating squad as part of an Irving Grange program. 
It was stated later by indignant Grange officials that 
Professor Kadderly arbitrarily barred the talk after 
he had inquired as to the nature of the discussion 
and had been informed that in part it was critical of 
the administration policy as regards the Nicaraguan 
question. 


“This is in line with the same policy that banned 
the discussion of peace by Mr. Page, editor of The 
World Tomorrow,” said a leader of the Irving 
Grange later. “Every person there to represent the 
Grange on the program was indignant over the action 
of Professor Kadderly.” 

The official indicated that the matter will be taken 
up in future meetings for possible protesting resolu- 
tions or other action, and that other Granges may be 
asked to consider the matter. 

The radio station is completely controlled by the 
college, which has a strong military department and 
draws heavy federal subsidies. 





MILITARY TRAINING CREATES WAR MIND 


So says the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and 
Enginmen’s Magazine in an article commenting on 
the widespread repudiation of compulsory military 
training of youths in high schools and colleges 
throughout the United States. 

“The fact is that military training and military 
Preparations of all kinds necessarily create the state 
of mind out of which wars grow. Of itself, the 
abolition of compulsory military training in schools 
and colleges will not guarantee peace, but it’ will 
help the nation to preserve the type of mind which 
believes in peace and will work for peace.” 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 21 


THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 

Dr. Henry R. Linville, New York 5, retired volun- 
tarily from the Executive Council to make room for 
extra representation on the Pacific Coast since the 
Seattle situation and the State of Washington tenure 
law will need the attention of some one in the field. 
Dr. Linville assures us of that of which we really 
needed no assurance, that he will always be ready 
with advice and assistance exactly as if he were a 
member of the Council. He is chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Academic Freedom. 

R. W. Everett, Sacramento 31, who has had wide 
experience in school legislation in California in addi- 
tion to his other qualifications, is the logical person 
for the place. Mr. Everett was previously vice presi- 
dent and chairman of the Commigtee on Academic 
Freedom and Tenure. 

E. E. Schwarztrauber, Portland 111, who did such 
splendid service last year in Seattle and has already 
a number of communities lined up for organization, 
was officially made Western Organizer. 


OUR NEW VICE-PRESIDENT 
W. B. SATTERTHWAITE 

Graduate University of Kansas. 

Graduate work, State College of Washington. 

Teacher, Sunnydale High School, 1910-11. 

Superintendent, Irondale-Hanlock Public Schools, 
1911-13.” 

Principal, Kent High School, 1913-15. 

Superintendent, Renton Schools, 1915-18. 

Teacher Webster grade school in 8th grade 1922- 
23 for eight weeks. 

Teacher, Seattle, one semester at Broadway High 
School, spring semester 1923, History Department. 

Assigned to Queen Anne High School in fall of 
1923, History Department. 

Refused to sign “yellow dog” contract presented 
him by Seattle School board. 

President Seattle Teachers Union, Local 200. 

A fellow teacher in Seattle says of him: “I am 
sure you will be proud of Mr. Satterthwaite, as he is 
a man of courage, good sense, generosity, vision and 
one who wins the confidence of all those who have 
contacts with him.” 








“The most effective way to make it possible to 
translate policies into class room habits and technique 
is to have the teachers assist and co-operate in the 
formulation of program or policy.”—Dr. E. A. Fitz- 
patrick in “The Teachers’ Responsibility to the Board 
of Education, Schools and Society.” 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 23 





sionally find men that disgrace labor.—U. S. Grant. 


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 
Frorence Curtis HANson, Secretery-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 $2.20—SINGLE COPIES, 25c 


Advertising rates made known on application. 











EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 
President 
Mary C. Banxer, Atlanta No. 89, 685 Myrtle Street, N. E., 
Atlanta, Georgia. 
Legislative Representative and Vice-President 
Secma M. BorcHarpt, Washington No. 8; 1741 Park Road, 
N. W., Washington, D. C. 
Vice-Presidents 
Lucm W. ALLEN, Chicago Women No. 3; 1803 Livingston 
Avenue, Evanston, Illinois. 
R. W. Everett, Sacramento No. 31; 2740 Portola 
Sacramento, California 
Amy A. Fox, Minneapolis No. 59; 2809 Park Avenue, Minne- 
apolis, Minnesota. 
ABRAHAM LeFKow!Tz, New York No. 5; Grand “Avenue, East 
Elmhurst, New York, N. Y. 

A. J. Musre, Brookwood No. 189; Brookwood, Katonah, N. Y. 
FiroreNnce Roop, St. Paul No. 28; 328 Cedar Street, St. Paul, 
Minnesota. 

W. B. SarrertHwalrrTe, Local No. 200; 1837 12th Ave West 
Seattle, Washington 
W. J. Scorr, Atlanta No. 89; 212 Kings Highway, Decatur, 
Georgia. 

F. G. Stecxer, Chicago No. 2; 1618 Lake Avenue, 
Wilmette, Illinois. 

Cuartes B. Stmiman, Chicago No. 2; 827 Ridge Avenue, 
Evanston, Illinois. 

Western Organizer 
E. E. ScHWwARtzrrauser, Portland No. 111; R. F. D. §, 


Box 68, Portland, Oregon 
Secretary-Treasurer 
FioreNce Curtis Hanson, Chicago Women No. 3; 506 South 
Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois—Telephone Harrison 2950. 
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
OrcANizep Apriz 15, 1916 
Affilisted With the American Federation of Labor 


Way, 





“To watch the corn grow, and the blossoms set; to 
draw hard breath over ploughshare or spade; to read, 
to think, to love, to hope, to pray—these are the 
things that make mea happy . . . The world’s pros- 
perity or adversity depends upon our knowing and 
teaching them these few things; but upon iron or 
glass or electricity or steam, in no wise.”—Rauskin. 


minutes. Price 35 cents. 


ORGANIZATION 


The American Federation of Teachers has pledged 
itself to a bold and aggressive program. It promises 
to fight Power Trust and all other: propaganda in the 
schools. It assures a continuance of loyalty to the 
principle of freedom of opinion for teachers and an 
ever more vigorous struggle for academic freedom. 
And above all, it pledges every resource to carry toa 
successful issue the fight of the Seattle teachers 
against injustice. This means that this insult to all 
American teachers, the “yellow dog” contract, must 
be removed by carrying this case of the Seattle Teach- 
ers Union, Local 200 vs. the Seattle School Board 
through the United States Supreme Court, and by 
securing sound tenure-of-position legislation in the 
state of Washington. 

How are these pledges to be kept? Is it not only 
through organization and growth? The teachers of 
the nation must be behind these principles and pur- 
poses. As the convention statement declares, “The 
responsibility for the continuance of the suppression 
of freedom in education rests on teachers themselves.” 

There are two fields for organizational growth. 
Each local recognizes the responsibility of building 
up its own union in its own community. But has it 
not a larger, wider responsibility to the cause of all 
teachers, of all education? If the message of your 
organization is to be carried to the teachers of the 
nation, who are in so many cases waiting for it, even 
asking for it, how is it to be done? Can not every 
local of the A. F. of T. make itself responsible for at 
least one new local? Can not each individual member 
of the A. F. of T. pledge himself to a renewed sacri- 
fice for the cause in which he believes—and thus 
build up a fund that will make possible the carrying 
out of this program? 

The Carpenters’ Union started with seven mem- 
bers. It now has half a million. How was it done? 
By the sacrifice again and again of these first seven, 
the first ten, the first hundred. Can we not take 
lesson from this union? We have given; we have 
sacrificed. But we must continue to give and give 
until our righteous cause is victorious. 

Protests are futile when not backed by action 
Opponents of social progress may publicly symp* 
thize with teachers while they secretly smile at ther 
inertia. ‘These opponents do not fear resolutions 
passed by those who depend on others to remove 
wrong. The union teachers must learn the lesson that 
we must depend upon ourselves. Self-help alone breeds 


respect. 





uni 
col 
sen 


Re; 


gre 
tra 
ers 

pris 
ind. 
rac’ 
que 
agi 
nal: 
giv 
wit 


opi 


fro 
the 


Sta: 
the 
vel 
are 
the 


vid 


abl 





BREE EE 


om. 


ir at 
aber 
cri- 
thus 
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ke a 
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give 


apa- 


ove 


that 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 23 


TAKE YOUR CHOICE 

The Wall Street Journal says: “If the power to 
unionize were conceded, the taxpayer would lose 
control of his own school district and his repre- 
sentation by electing directors would become mean- 
ingless.” 

Robert Morss Lovett, associate editor of The New 
Republic and professor of English at the University 
of Chicago, said in an address before the American 
Federation of Teachers: 

“The only way, it seems to me, to remedy this 
situation is to put the schools gradually but largely 
in the control of the teachers themselves. I know 
that there are many dangers connected with this 
proceeding; I have heard all sorts of objections, but it 
seems to me that all the objections together do not 
weigh heavily in the scale which is balanced on the 
other side by a situation revealed by the examples 
I have given. 

“The teachers in control of the schools will give 
to the schools an efficiency and a dignity which they 
now lack. After all, every workman, every trade, is 
asking for industrial democracy, is asking for a 
greater share in the control of the work. In every 
trade where it has been tried, it has shown that work- 
ers under these conditions think in terms of the enter- 
prise as a whole instead of the job. Profits to private 
individuals may be diminished by industrial democ- 
racy but, after all, in the case of public schools the 
question of profits to private individuals is merely 
a question of crime. You are depriving certain crimi- 
nals of their opportunities to plunder the schools by 
giving the teachers control. You do not interfere 
with any legitimate vested interest.” 

Take your choice—opinion of vested interest or 
opinion of distinguished scholar and thinker. 





THE ASSEMBLY 

Leadership and training differentiate the audience 
from the mob, says Perley W. Lane, in an article in 
the August issue of the American Educational Digest. 
Mr. Lane, who is vice principal of the high school at 
Stamford, Connecticut, considers the school assembly 
the pertinent place for group experiences and the de- 
velopment of pupil leadership. The nation’s schools 
are the training ground for citizenship, and upon 
them depends the decision. Will the final result be 
a mob or a unity of intelligently co-operative indi- 
viduals; an unguided moil, swayed by every inflama- 
tory speaker, or a judicious, well-poised citizenry cap- 
able of listening, weighing, accepting and rejecting? 


Group citizenship is as important as that of the 
individual. Crowds are fundamental and emotional. 
In the assembly the school is a whole, a crowd; and 
the emotion, the heart that makes the school outstand- 
ing as an educational factor in the community, is 
found here. But the assembly, if it is not to be a mob, 
must have a leader. The principal who is to accom- 
plish all that the situation offers can be neither a 
swivel-chair executive or a cold intellectual. He must 
have the character that ignites the fuse of enthusiasm. 

For the principal with these qualifications, Mr. 
Lane outlines a plan of procedure. He discusses the 
outside speaker and the legitimate place of the pupil 
program. The teacher and the development of audi- 
ence decorum are touched upon. School assemblies, 
when properly planned, says Mr. Lane, give the pupils 
practice in group discipline. They furnish a breadth 
of vision, glimpses of life as it really is, an acute 
sense of moral values, respect for achievement and 
culture, and personal courage to lead and to create. 





Pr 





The American Teacher . 


Excerpt from testimony in the case of Seattle 
High School Teachers Union, Local 200, vs. 
Seattle School Board, L. A. Morrow, President 
Local 200, testifying: 

Q. And in what sense are the articles ap- 
pearing in there (THE AMERICAN 
TEACHER) official? 

A. Oh, they are official in the same sense 
that—well, of course, if you mean this: 
is everything printed there, or is every 
union member expected to agree with 
everything printed there?—of course, 
they are not, official at all in that sense. 

Q. That is to say, articles discussing aca- 
demic questions are printed in that mag- 
azine merely as an open forum? 

A. Yes. It (THE AMERICAN TEACHER) is 
one of the best educational and most 
suggestive educational magazines that 
comes to any of us. It is more sugges- 
tive than almost any other teachers’ 
magazine that we can get hold of. We 
are not expected to accept the sugges- 
tions, of course, unless we want to. 
Unless they appeal to you? 

Unless they appeal to us—just as when 
we read Harper’s Magazine. 


> O 











24 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


TRADE UNIONISM IS HIGH MORALITY 


The Department of the Treasury refused a request 
of the Fall River (Mass.) Central Labor Union that 
a contractor be required to comply with trade union 
conditions in the erection of a post office building. 

The purpose of the law “is to avoid favoritism and 
to secure freer competition,” treasury officials said. 
Attention is called to a similar decision by Secretary of 
the Treasury McAdoo on November 16, 1916. 

“To secure freer competition” sounds brave. It will 
attract the unthinking, but logically it leads to sweat- 
shop conditions and prison contract labor. 

If this is incorrect, who will decide where the divid- 
ing line shall be drawn? 

Organized labor demands recognition and support 
by society because it is a barrier to conditions that 
debase workers. 

The government never avoids “favoritism” in 
selecting material for its public buildings. It is im- 
possible to do otherwise, as durability and an artistic 
effect must be considered. . 

But when labor is involved, the wildest competition 
is permitted, regardless of its effect on the home and 
society in general. 

The government, instead of encouraging the high- 
est wage that wilf serve as a model for private employ- 
ers, takes contrary action. 

Government officials are not to be blamed for 
this position. They but reflect public standards that 
are no longer accepted by thinking individuals. 

When our ethical standards are higher, the public 
will support representatives who insist that the human 
element in these buildings must not be ignored. 

Cheap material can be replaced, but cheap labor 
damages our social structure. Its consequences are 
found in the homes and schools, in disease and short- 
ened life. 

It is not “favoritism” if our national morality calls 
for the highest living standards for workers employed 
in the erection of public buildings, and for employes 
who work in these buildings after they are completed. 

Neither would it be “favoritism” if our national 
morality recognized the trade unions as the one force 
that has established these standards. 

Agitation and education by organized labor will 
hasten the day when society rejects the theory of com- 
petition between wage workers.—A. F. of L. Weekly 
News Service. 





There is no happiness in having or getting, but 
only in giving. 


THE FIVE-DAY WEEK 


The five-day week, long advocated by Labor as 
humane measure and one means of solving the prob- 
lem of unemployment, is beginning to find favor 
with employers as a check upon overproduction, 
Recently the Magazine of Wall Street sent out a 
questionnaire upon the subject, to which Mr. A. M. 
Jennings, of Granite City, Ill., made reply on behalf 
of the Central Trades Council of that city. We quote 
briefly from his argument which represents the view- 
point of Labor in general. 

“Let us analyze for a moment, the situation exist- 
ing today and we shall readily see why the agitation 
for the five-day week is receiving so much attention 
and so much favorable comment. Industrially, our 
welfare depends upon the operation of our basic 
industries. These industries are today measured upon 
the eight-hour six-day week rule. Not one of them 
can find a market for more than 60% of their capac- 
ity output. They are constantly increasing in effi- 
ciency so far as capacity is concerned. The Depart- 
ment of Labor of our Government is authority for 
these figures and they can be relied upon as fairly 
conservative. What then is the inevitable result if 
the eight-hour six-day week is to be continued? Either 
more markets must be found or a vast part of their 
output must be stored away to rot and waste; of 
more disastrous yet, be destroyed in some future wat. 
Certainly it is justifiable to look for more market 
but market is not so easy found as in former years. 
Every civilized nation is fast becoming not only a 
self-supporting nation but also a market seeker. There 
is but one way for us to build sure markets and that 
is by increasing our own purchasing powers. This can 
only be done by putting more of ourselves to work 
and in increasing our wage, thereby increasing ouf 
purchasing power. By reducing our daily hours from 
eight to six and our working week from six days to 
five, we will for the time being, add considerable to 
our national consumption rate and thereby take up 2 
great part of our unemployed army. As machinery 
advances in the future, both hours and weeks will 
have to be shortened in the same proportion as devel- 
opment occurs if we expect to keep the wheels of 
industry humming. 

“You may say that if this policy is followed to its 
final conclusion, the time will come when the hours 
of labor will be infinitesimal. I do not agree with 
such logic. As man is gradually released from mat 
ual or physical labor he will inevitably turn to mem 
tal development. Just so fast as man is released from 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 25 


the old drudgery that was necessary to retain his hold 
on life; just so fast will he turn his spare time to those 
things he enjoys most. Man has never been an idle 
thing and never will be. The future race will be more 
cultured, stronger physically and mentally and better 
in every way. His limit of development along these 
lines will be determined wholly by the extent of his 
release from the task of commodity production. 

“Until such time as nations realize that their tools 
of production are for social betterment rather than 
for institutions of social servitude, they may expect 
to be continually faced with economic problems that 
will shake their very foundations. Let them learn 
once and for all time the true function of the produc- 
tive systems and these serious problems will be easily 
solved. 

“The time for the five-day week is at hand. It will 
come just as the eight-hour day came, in the face of 
stubborn opposition. It may, for a time, lead to an 
intolerable speeding up but that will adjust itself 
and the five-day week will remain with us until 
machines develop to a point where weeks even shorter 
than five day will become necessary.” 





IS FREE SPEECH DANGEROUS? 


The Supreme Court of the United States has 
recently upheld state laws making it a felony for citi- 
zens to express certain unpopular views in public, 
even apart from any act of violence. These are the 
so-called “criminal syndicalism” laws put on our 
statute books during the hysteria of the war. The 
word syndicalism comes from the French word syn- 
dicate, meaning trade union. These laws were adopted 
under the plea that they were necessary to curb the 
I. W. W. and other radical workers’ organizations 
which advocate opinions offensive to the government. 
Their greatest menace lies in the fact that they can 
be readily used by unscrupulous public officials to 
throttle all workers’ organizations, or, indeed, any 
criticism displeasing to those holding positions of 
public power. 

The most severe possible rebuke to persons who 
would muzzle the constitutional right of free speech 
is contained in the minority opinions of Justice Bran- 
deis and Holmes, disapproving of the California syn- 
dicalism law. “Fear of serious injury,” says Justice 
Brandeis, “can not alone justify suppression of free 
speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt 
women. It is the function of speech to free men from 
the bondage of irrational fears . . . The fact that 
Speech is likely to result in some violence or in 


destruction of property is not enough to justify its 
suppression. There must be the probability of serious 
injury to the state. Among free men the deterrents 
ordinarily to be applied to prevent crime are educa- 
tion and punishment for violations of the law, not 
abridgement of the rights of free speech and assem- 
bly.” We stand not only with these distinguished Jus- 
tices but also with Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jeffer- 
son, Justice Cooley and other great Americans of 
unquestioned patriotism when we assert that free 
speech is not only necessary to social progress but that 
its suppression is the first sign of national decay. 
“You tell me that law is above freedom of utterance,” 
says William Allen White, “and I reply that you can 
have no wise laws nor free enforcement of wise laws 
unless there is free expression of the wisdom of the 
people—and, alas, their folly with it. . . . This state 
today is in more danger from suppression than from 


violence.” 


The practical danger of the suppression of free 
speech to the progress of a free people is indicated 
by the recent publication of a new blacklist of “‘unde- 
sirable citizens” by the National Society of Scabbard 
and Blade. Most of the great liberal leaders of Amer- 
ica, ranging all the way from Miss Jane Addams and 
Senator Borah to Professor John Dewey and Rev. 
Henry Sloane Coffin, are included under the ban of 
this military society, which would have them all sup- 
pressed and silenced. 

For its own self-preservation the American trade 
union movement must combat attempts to destroy 
freedom of speech. Gag laws are always the first 
step towards tyranny, and tyranny always seizes its 
first victims among the working class. The ringing 
words of Wendell Phillips are still true: “No matter 
whose the lips that would speak, they must be free 
and ungagged. The cOmmunity which dares not pro- 
tect its humblest and most hated member in the free 
utterance of his opinions, no matter how false or 
hateful, is only a gang of slaves.” I'he Locomotive 
Engineers’ Journal for June, 1927. 


LORD, TEACH US 
Teach us the Strength that cannot seek 
By deed or thought to hurt the weak; 
That, under Thee, we may possess 
Man’s strength to comfort Man’s Distress. 
Teach us Delight in simple things, 
And Mirth that has no bitter springs; 
Forgiveness free of evil done, 
And love to all men ’neath the sun. 


—Rudyard Kipling. 











26 


MUDDYING THE WATERS 
The Wall Street Journal approves the “‘yellow dog” 


contract enforced on Seattle public school teachers. 


Speaking of the American Federation of Teachers, 


this authority on finance assures us: 


““*# * * the objects of the American Teachers 
Union are bluntly personal—employment regard- 


less of fitness, high salaries, pensions out of the 
public pocket, promotions by rote and all the rest 
of that deadening inefficiency which such organ- 
izations bring about. 

“If the power to unionize were conceded the 
taxpayer would lose control of his own school 
district and his representation by electing direc- 
tors would at once become meaningless.” 
Newspapers in no other nation would print such 


stuff, Only in America are the purposes of organized 
labor misrepresented by those who pose as “molders 
of public opinion.” Their stock in trade is cuttle-fish 
tactics of muddying the waters. , 


Organized public school teachers ask a voice in 


educating the youth, because they are experts in this 
work. It is more reasonable to suppose they can han- 
dle this job better than politicians, who are selected 
as school directors and who are interested in securing 
contracts for the business groups that back them. 
These include building contractors, supply men, real 
estate brokers and book publishers. 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 







The education of youth by school directors in many 
cities is a side line. It is stage scenery for a purpose 
unknown to the average American parent. 


This is the system financial authorities would con. 
tinue. They would make the schools a part of their 
program, just as the public utilities recently 
attempted.—A. F. of L. Weekly News Service. 


And this is the way The Wall Street Journal and 
the financial interests it represents characterize the 
teachers who are “aligned with that group which 
sees though even so dimly the need for shifting the 
emphasis from things to human values,” who have 
joined themselves to a movement of lofty idealism. 

Why? 

Is not the reason the same as doubtless motivated 
the Seattle School Board? Here is an organization 
that has fearlessly and aggressively stood against pro- 
paganda in the schools. It is the one teacher organi- 
zation that will expose the Power Trust and other 
propaganda and the misuses and abuses in the school 
system. Therefore, the financial interests and their 
mouthpiece, The Wall Street Journal, attack the 
American Federation of Teachers. Weare proud. 
Even The Journal recognizes that we stand for prin- 
ciples and fight for them. 








Buy Union Stamped Shoes 











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


Boot & Shoe Workers’ Union 


Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor 


246 SUMMER STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 


COLLIS LOVELY 
General President 


& 
WORKERS 


U 





CHARLES L. BAINE 
General Secretary-Treasurer 





——__—_—_~~~_ 




















































vated 








Local News 


Cuicaco Locals 2, 3 AND 199 

The Chicago Federation of Men Teachers, Local 2, 
has the largest membership in its history and is look- 
ing forward to a successful year under the leadership 
of James A. Meade, president; G. A. Stauffer, secre- 
tary; and F, G. Stecker, treasurer. Delegates to the 
Convention were J. A. Meade, W. T. McCoy, F. G. 
Stecker, and C. B. Stillman. 

The Chicago Federation of Women High School 
Teachers has just closed one of the most active and 
successful years of its career. Its membership also is 
the largest in its history. The officers for this year 
are, president, Lucie H. Schacht; vice president, Mary 
E. Robb; secretary, Natalie Chapman; treasurer, 
Helen Taggart. Convention delegates were Mrs. 
Schacht, Lucie W. Allen, Buelah Berolzheimer and 
Dorothy Weil. 

The Elementary Teachers Union, Local 199, has 
developed a compact organization this past year and 
is looking forward to an active year in promoting 
its membership and progressive program. Agnes B. 
Clohesy is president, Elsa Wolf, Helen Orwell, Mae 
Reed, Edith Brogan, vice presidents, Florence Green, 
secretary, Althea Whitlock, treasurer. Delegates to 
the convention were Miss Clohesy, Miss Green, and 
Miss Emily Meyers. 

Many Chicago teachers not delegates attended. Mr. 
William J. Bogan made his first public appearance as 
Superintendent of Chicago schools at the Convention 
banquet and the Chicago teachers made it an occasion 
for rejoicing. They look forward to a thriving regime 
under Mr. Bogan’s superintendency. In his address 
on this occasion, Superintendent Bogan said: 

“This organization and affiliated organizations have 
been a tower of strength to me and I doubt if I would 
be holding the title of Superintendent of Schools 
tonight if it had not been for the very loyal support, 
the untiring energetic support, of many of the mem- 
bers of this and affiliated organizations. I am grateful 
to you all.” 

This is enough of a change to almost constitute 
a revolution, is it not? 











New York Locats 5 AND 24 
The Teachers Union of the City of New York, 
offices 70 Fifth avenue, New York City, was repre- 
sented at the convention by its president, Dr. Henry 
R. Linville, Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz, and Professor 
Robert Morss Lovett. 

Miss Truda T. Weil, the union’s very efficient 
Executive Secretary, is spending the year in study 
abroad. She is devoting herself to the study of social 
problems and organizations. 

The New York Vocational Teachers Council, presi- 
dent, Paul Augustine, treasurer, Dazine Blumberger, 
offices at 247 Lexington Ave., New York City. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 27 


The Council was not represented at the Convention. 
We hope to present a report in a later issue. 





‘ WASHINGTON, LocaLs 8, 27, AND 198 

The Teachers Union of Washington was most hap- 
pily and ably represented at the convention by Selma 
M. Borchardt. The past year has been one of excep- 
tional growth, and great and successful activity. The 
program for this year is equally worth while. Mary 
C. Dent is president and Elizabeth Draper, financial 
secretary. Offices are maintained in the Foreman 
building. 7 

The Washington Teachers Union, Local 27, has 
also had a year of growth and accomplishment under 
the able leadership of its president, Mary L. Mason. 
Walker L. Savoy, who was in attendance at the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, was the Local’s delegate. 

The Washington Educational Union, Local 198, 
President, Richard S. Harvey; secretary, Daida Hart- 
man, office, Union Trust building, was not represented 
at the Convention, but reports bright prospects for 
the coming year. 





VALLEJO, LocaL 26 
The Vallejo Teachers Association, president, F. A. 
Wright, financial secretary, Helen C. Lynch, moving 
spirit, Olive Wilson, was represented by R. W. Ever- 
ett. We wanted and needed Miss Wilson with us and 
hope that next year will bring her wise counsel and 
inspiration to us. 





St. Pau, Locats 28 AND 43 
The St. Paul Federation of Women Teachers, presi- 


‘dent, Genevieve Hopkins, financial secretary Maude 


P. Gearing, offices, 328 Cedar Street, St. Paul, Minn., 
is Carrying on, inj co-operation with the St. Paul Fed« 
eration of Men Teachers and the Principals Club, a 
campaign for salary adjustment which promises to be 
successful. E. J. Harrell, chairman of the Joint Salary 
Committee, was delegate from Local 43, and Florence 
Rood, Lillian Cornelison, Maud P. Gearing, Elizabeth 
B. Daly and Isabel Williams represented Local 28. 


SACRAMENTO, LocaLs 31 AND 44 

The Sacramento High School Chapter has changed 
its name and charter in order to include members of 
the Junior College who were seeking membership. 
Mrs. George Sim is president and Abby Ruth Tracy, 
financial secretary. R. W. Everett was the delegate 
to the Convention. He also represented the Sacra- 
mento Elementary School Chapter, president, Jose- 
phine Gurnett, financial secretary, Henrietta Marrill. 
Plans are already under way for an active year. Mr. 
Everett also represented Fresno 72 and Vallejo 26. 
His report to the Locals appears on page 30. 








Maptson, Wis., Locan 35 
The Madison Federation of Teachers has an in- 
creased membership and is working on a constructive 
program. A. E. Croft is president and Mrs. Marguerite 
Baker, financial secretary. Delegates to the Conven- 
tion were A. E. Croft and Josephine Brabant. 

















































28 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


GRANITE City, Ixxt., Locat 38 


Miss Beatrice Cooley, delegate of the Granite City 
Federation of Teachers, gave a most interesting report 
of the activities and accomplishments of Local 38 
and most encouraging promises for the future. Ruby 
Bachtel is president and Josephine Banbracke is treas- 
urer, 


BuFFALO LOCALS 39 AND 182 


To the disappointment of the Convention, neither 
one of the Buffalo Locals sent delegates, tho the Buf- 
falo Vocational Teachers Association, 39, reports an 
active and successful year with a large increase in 
membership. A constructive program has been 
planned for this year. Aubrey C. Dayman is president 
and Herman Eschner, financial secretary. 


Murpnuyssoro, Iti., Locat 50 


The Murphysboro Teachers Fellowship is active and 
in good standing tho not represented at the Conven- 
tion. Mabel Mileur ‘is president and Ruth Jenkins, 
treasurer. We are looking to the Murphysboro Fel- 
lowship, together with the Granite City Federation, 
for help in organizing all of southern Illinois this fall. 


MEMPHis, Loca. 52 


The Memphis Teachers Association with an increase 
in membership of 200, a salary adjustment campaign, 
a tenure program, has a past year of which to be 
proud. A constructive program for this year is under 
way. Carlotta Pittman is president and Vivian Poin- 
dexter, financial secretary. Convention delegates were 
Miss Pittman and Miss Genevieve Oakley. A cordial 
invitation to hold the 1929 convention in Memphis 
was brought from Memphis and is being considered. 


MINNEAPOLIS, LocaAL 69 


The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, Amy G. 
Edmunds, president, Lettie G. Hunt, financial secre- 
tary, carried on a successful salary adjustment cam- 
paign together with its usual constructive program. 
We may be very sure that the same successful work 
will mark the coming year. The Federation’s dele- 
gates were Miss Edmunds, Amy A. Fox and Mrs. 
Alice Drechsler. 


SaN Francisco, Loca 61 


The San Francisco Federation of Teachers was to 
have been represented by C. A. Colmore and Miss 
Anne Fiske, but at the last moment, Miss Fiske was 
unable to be present. Mr. Colmore reported activity 
and growth in the Local. The friendliness of the presi- 
dent of the Board of Education, a Labor man, has 
helped in bringing to a successful issue the Local’s 
undertakings. A salary campaign resulted in a dollar 
a day raise. Plans for this year include a strenuous 
effort to improve conditions. A committee is making 
a scientific study of salaries. Paul J. Mohr is president 
and C, A, Davis, financial secretary. 


MILWAUKEE, Loca 79 

C. H. Sears, of the Milwaukee Normal College, and 
Dr. John A. Lapp of Marquette University were 
present from the Milwaukee Teachers Association. Mr, 
Sears reported a more aggressive and fearless spirit in 
the Association and increased respect on the part of 
outsiders. The Local is paying the expenses of a stu- 
dent at the University of Wisconsin. Several worth 
while projects are planned for this year. Mr. Murray 
is president and Mrs. Allison, financial secretary. 


Jersey Crry, Loca 87 
The Jersey City Teachers Union was not repre. 
sented this year. Adele Cox is president and Camill 
Felvis, financial secretary. A fuller report will appear 
in a later issue. 


ATLANTA, LocaL 89 

The Atlanta Public School Teachers Association, 
J. P. Barron, president, Mrs. R. B. Whitworth, treas- 
urer, has had a full and successful year which it is 
planning to match this year. The Association is espec- 
ially interested: in seeing its neighbor communities 
organized and enjoying the blessings of affiliation 
equally with itself. The delegates to the convention 
were Mary C. Barker, J. P. Barron, and W. J. Scott. 


PaTERSON, N. J., LocaL 92 

The Paterson Teachers Union has had a successful 
year in growth and accomplishment. It will continue 
the publication of The Paterson School News. A. K. 
Hafris is president and Ella Jargstoff, financial sec- 
retary. Mr. Harris was sent by the Union as a dele- 
gate, but at the last moment was detained by illness 
in his family. 


PORTLAND, ORE., Loca 111 
Margaret Reid is president and Laura’ Northup 
financial secretary of the Portland Teachers Union. 
Two delegates were credentialed but were unable to 
attend. W. B. Satterthwaite therefore represented the 
Union. The story of the always worthwhile doings 
of the Portland Union will appear in the next issue. 


FULTON County, LOcaL 183 

The Fulton County Local has had a remarkable 
growth the past year and expects to include the whole 
county this year. It is doing effective work. W. F. 
Dykes is president, succeeding Boyd E. Taylor, who 
has left the teaching field for the editorial department 
of The Atlanta Georgian. Mrs. Lena H. Cox is the 
financial secretary. Mrs. R. L. Aderhold was the very 
able delegate to the convention. 


Brook woop, Loca 189 
President, Josephine Colby, former field secretaty 
of the A. F. of T.; Financial Secretary, A. W. Cal 
houn, delegate to the convention, A. J. Muste, chait- 
man of Brookwood faculty and vice-president of 
A. F. of T. Brookwood Local made the largest pe 
capita contribution to the A. F. of T. organization 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 29 


fund last year. The present situation mentioned else- 
where in this magazine will be more fully explained 
next month. 


PHILADELPHIA, LOCAL 192 
Israel Mufson, president and delegate, sounded an 
optimistic note for the future of the Philadelphia 
Union, which has had a hard struggle. 


COMMONWEALTH, LOCAL 194 
William Cunningham, president and delegate, has 
furnished us with an account of the spirit of this 
local which will appear later. 


CAMBRIDGE, Mass., LocAL 195 

The delegate of the Cambridge Teachers Federation 
was prevented by illness from attendance, to the gen- 
eral regret. We wanted to hear first hand about the 
vigorous campaign for salary adjustment that the 
Federation had carried on. While it was only in a 
measure successful, the Cambridge Federation had the 
joy of a fight bravely and wisely waged, preparing 
them for a continuance to a better victory. 


YippisH TEACHERS ALLIANCE, LOCAL 196 

The Yiddish Teachers Alliance was represented for 
the first time this year at a convention of the A. F. of 
T. The delegates were P. Backel and M. Pomerantz. 
Dr. N. Kamanetsky is the secretary and the offices 
are at 427 Lafayette St., New York City. The objec- 
tives and policies of this interesting organization will 
appear in THE AMERICAN TEACHER soon. 


PROVIDENCE, LocaL 197 
The Providence Teachers Council, Richard Bailey, 
president, Ethel Jameson, treasurer, has been develop- 
ing a compact organization and has worked out a 
cohstitution and progressive program of action. It is 
planning to take an active part in the civic and edu- 
cational life of Providence this year. 


SEATTLE, Loca. 200 


See page 4. 


Rock Sprincs, Wyo., Loca 201 
The Rock Springs Teachers Union has only just 
perfected its organization, but it reports that a vig- 
orous program is planned for the coming year. Roy 
Burt is president and Miss D. M. Cummings, secre- 
_tary. Elmer Halseth was chosen delegate to the con- 
vention. 


Superior, Wis., Loca 202 
The Superior Federation of Teachers has carried 


out a campaign of education the past year and will 


inaugurate a worth while program of action this year. 
P. A. Baechle is president and Maurice Hennessy, sec- 


retary. 


DENVER, Local 203 
The Teachers Federation of Denver is organized 


and functioning. Raymond Holwell is president and 
Frank Hafner, treasurer. The Denver Evening News 
in a column article announces the organization pro- 
gram: of the Federation. A membership drive in 
Denver will be inaugurated with the opening of the 
schools, and an endeavor will be made to extend the 
movement through other Colorado cities. 


YALE, Locat 204 
Yale Chapter of the A. F. of T. is composed of 
those university men who desire to show their sym- 
pathy with and give their support to our ideals and 
program. The organization welcomes them heartily 
and rejoices in their unselfish, altruistic spirit. Pro- 
fessor Jerome Davis is secretary of the chapter. 


GRAND Forks, N. D., Loca 205 

The Grand Forks Teachers Federation was only a 
few weeks old at the Convention, but you would 
never think it to hear the report of Delegate J. Grace 
Greenwood. Organization is perfected and a splendid 
program of action outlined. C. K. Baarman is presi- 
dent and Elizabeth A. McGee, secretary. Membership 
includes almost every teacher in Grand Forks. 


CLEVELAND, LocaL 206 
The Cleveland Chapter is too young to have a 
history, but it has a future of which we are very 
hopeful. The president is Clarence Senior and the 
secretary, Elizabeth S. McGee. 


Locals unmentioned this month were omitted for 
lack of space, sometimes lack of information, since 
they were not represented at the convention. 





PLATOON PLAN FULLY ADOPTED IN 34 
CITIES 

The platoon plan of school organization as a city- 
wide policy has been adopted by school systems of 
34 cities in the United States. These cities, which 
are located in 15 different states, range in popula- 
tion from 2,500 to more than 100,000, and represent 
a total urban population of 6,000,000. In 22 of the 
cities every school is of the work-study-play, or 
platoon, type. In all, 110 cities in 33 different states 
have one or more schools organized according to the 
platoon plan. These cities have a combined popula- 
tion of more than 17,000,000.—School Life. 





I think we may assert that in a hundred men there 
are more than ninety who are what they are, good or 
bad, useful or pernicious to society, from the instruc- 
tion they have received. The least and-most imper- 
ceptible impressions received in our infancy have con- 
sequences very important and of a long duration. 
. « » We may turn the minds of children to what 
direction we please,—Locke in The New Age. 





30 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Report of the Delegate of California Locals to the Twelfth 


Annual Convention of the A. F. of T. 
Chicago, June 25-29, 1928 


I wish first to thank the California Locals for 
the privilege ‘of representing them. It is always an 
inspiration to attend these Conventions. This was 
accentuated by visiting the N. E. A. during the next 
week. At the latter place a few high-powered execu- 
tives sit in solemn conclave, and determine policies 
and rules. More teachers are to be seen but not heard. 

The Chicago Locals received the delegates with 
their usual hospitality. They were particularly happy 
at this time as Assistant Superintendent Wm. J. Bogan 
was, during the week, elected City Superintendent. 
He is extremely friendly with Organized Labor and 
the Teachers Federation, so that the Chicago teachers 
are looking forward to a period of administrative 
friendship in place of the strained relations that have 
existed in the past few years. Mr. Bogan gave one of 
the addresses of welcome, and was the chief speaker 
at the banquet, Wednesday evening. He particularly 
emphasized the fact that our schools are not doing 
their fair share for that great mass of pupils who 
leave before graduation. 

The addresses were of high quality and stimulating. 
I shall speak of only four others. Mr. Victor Olander, 
of the Illinois Federation of Labor, gave a very infor- 
mative discussion of the evils of the injunction in 
Labor disputes. He made a plea for its limitation 
except for the protection of tangible property. 

KirKPATRICK’s EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 

Former Attorney General Ekern, of Wisconsin, 
told us of the difficulties of establishing a scientific 
Teachers’ Retirement System. He particularly pointed 
out the necessity of making it actuarily sound; nam- 
ing California as among those that are not so. 

Prof. John E. Kirkpatrick spoke of the evils and 
waste of compulsory education. He would abolish 
everything of the sort and teach people only what 
they want to know. This would be motivation with a 
vengeance. To those of us who were taught to believe 
in the virtue of doing the things that we did not like 
to do, this philosophy seemed somewhat revolutionary, 
not to say a bit Utopian. 

In the “New Menace to Education,” Dr. John A. 
Lapp, of Local No. 79, Marquette University, dis- 
cussed the danger presented by the “Power Trust” 
and similar groups that are using varied methods, 
direct and indirect, to get their grip upon the schools, 


in order to make sure that “the dear children” are 
taught only what they ought to know. This danger 
has been clearly demonstrated by the investigation 
of the Federal Trade Commission, during the last 
four months. Having bought up or bought off most 
of the papers, either directly or through their adver- 
tising, they have turned their attention to the schools, 
They have a well organized and well financed cam- 
paign for the purpose of censoring our text-books 
and influencing our teachers. There is probably a 
close connection between this activity and the Seattle 
case, which was the outstanding problem of the Con- 


vention. 
WorRTHWHILE REPORTS 


Of the many worthwhile reports I shall speak of 
only three. Miss Borchardt, who is on the Executive 
Council of the World Federation of Educational Asso- 
ciations, told of that organization, and of the legis- 
lative program at Washington. 


Mr. W. J. Scott, of Atlanta, Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Professional Improvement, gave the results 
of a two year study of such questions as the length 
of the school day, salary reward for advanced work, 
Sabbatical leave, extra-curricular activities, etc. The 
Committee sent out a hundred sets of six question- 
naires each; one to each local and about sixty others. 
The replies from the Locals were not very encourag- 
ing, only eleven answered. These included only Fresno 
and San Francisco in this state. The conclusions wert 
that, of the schools studied, most of them were satis- 
fied with the length of the day; about 40% reported 
a tendency to increase it. There is quite a general 
policy, in the large school systems, to provide salary 
promotions for professional study. Doubt was shown 
as to the special advantages of social sciences as 4 
form of teacher training. The professional advantages, 
of Sabbatical leave was recognized by both adminis- 
trators and teachers, where it has been adopted. Little 
has been done to standardize or equalize the burden 
of extra-curricular activities. There is evidence of # 
tendency to improve the safeguards for the health of 
teachers. The recommendations of the Committe 
were all approved except the one in favor of a supéf 
maximum. Mr. Lefkowitz objected to the idea as did 
Miss Rood, of St. Paul; while Mr. Barron of Atlante 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 31 


spoke in favor of it. At Mr. Scott’s suggestion this 


part of the recommendation was tabled. 


Tue SEATTLE CASE 


Before taking up Mrs. Hanson’s report I want to 
tell of the Seattle case. On Wednesday morning time 
was allowed for Mr. Satterthwaite to tell the story. 
As President of the Teachers League he had carried 
on a two year campaign to get better salaries for the 
High School teachers, but with no tangible results. 
Mr. Schwarztrauber, of Portland, had prepared the 
way so that when Mrs. Hanson arrived in October of 
27 Local No. 200 was immediately formed with Mr. 
L. A. Morrow as president. Tie Local, however, did 
not actively take up the salary fight, except as its 
members were in the League. Feeling that the Board 
was hopelessly reactionary, the teachers generally 
opposed the re-election of one of the members in the 
March election but the incumbent was returned by a 
small vote. When the time arrived for the choice 
of teachers the Board re-elected the elementary group 
but deferred action on the High School teachers. On 
the next Friday it leaked out that a “Yellow Dog” 
contract was to be sent to each one on the following 
Monday for immediate signature, so a temporary 
injunction was obtained. Upon presentation of its 
case, by the Board, however, the injunction was dis- 
missed and the teachers were presented with the fol- 
lowing contract: “No person shall be employed bere- 
after or shall continue to be employed in the district 
as a teacher while a member of the A. F. of T. or any 
local thereof; and before any election shall be con- 
sidered binding, such teacher must sign a declaration 
to the following effect: ‘I hereby declare that I am 
not a member of the A. F. of T., or any local thereof, 
and will not become a member during the term of 
this contract’!” 

On the clear cut issue of withdrawing from the 
Local or disrupting the school by the resignation of 
half of the teachers the local labor forces advised the 
former, on the ground that an army could not fight 
if there was no army; all except Mr. Satterthwaite 
then signed. He crossed out the offending paragraph 
and was thereupon dismissed. 

DEcIsSION APPEALED 

There are enough other members to hold the char- 
ter of No. 200, with Mr. Satterthwaite as president. 
The Seattle Labor bodies are financing the appeal of 
the case to the State Supreme Court, and, if necessary, 
to the U. S. Supreme Court. We have here a question 
of an old English Common-Law idea called “freedom 
of contract” which is now being revived and given a 


new and unforseen interpretation by the vested inter- 
ests in carrying on their struggle against the “un- 
vested” ones. 

The campaign in Washington will follow along 
two lines: one an attempt to put over a tenure law in 
the state, and the other an effort to displace the reac- 
tionary Board in Seattle. Obviously the former mem- 
bers of No. 200 can not openly finance this struggle, 
so the Executive Committee of the Federation under- 
wrote the campaign to the extent of $500.00. This 
is where the matter stands at the present time. 

The militant attitude of the A. F. of T. stands in 
marked contrast to that of the N. E. A. The en- 
closed resolution was presented both to the Resolution 
Committee and on the floor of the Assembly. The 
only reaction was a mild rebuke to the effect that 
it is not dignified to call names, and the further state- 
ment that the N. E. A. does not take part in local 
quarrels. 

ORGANIZATION’S GROWTH 

This struggle is a fitting introduction to the Sec- 
retary-Treasurer’s report, which I presume you have 
received. Mrs. Hanson has been indefatigable in her 
three fold capacity as Secretary-treasurer, Editor of 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER, and National Organizer. 
She has accomplished wonders and succeeded in all 
three, but we can not expect her to keep this up indefi- 
nitely. Nine new Locals have received Charters during 
the year, and the present membership is 660 more than 
last year. If we really value our organization we must 
be prepared to make financial sacrifices for the benefit 
of the National. We are now on the up-grade. If the 
sinews of war are forthcoming we shall make a great 
advance, if we fail now we shall have missed that tide 
in the affairs of men of which Shakespeare has told 
us. I am in hopes that the California Locals will sub- 
scribe enough toward the organization fund so that 
they can feel that they have done their share in the 
good work. 

All of the officers were re-elected except that Mr. 
Satterthwaite and your delegate were made vice-pres- 
idents in the place of Dr. Linville and Mr. Schwarz- 
trauber. 

Respectfully submitted, 
R. W. Everett, 
Delegate from Locals No. 26, 31, 44, 72. 





The habit of failure is mental and is the daughter 
of fear. It gets fixed on men until they throw up the 
task without even giving themselves a chance to try. 
—Henry Ford. 














32 





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 afi Sye 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. 




















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