| may, 1929 CHICAGO NUMBER __ V0: xi—no9, Democracy in Education Education for Democracy | The — | American Teacher THE ORGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS CHICAGO—THE OLD AND THE NEW 13836 “i ; ‘ . | as iyi ala i mora A — ————— —_— —_ ee , 7 oS ‘ (Ep \ E f =e. P= ex = ‘hea | -—<« ——< Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 5,- Sie Office of Publication Editorial Office Leader Building oe 99 506 South Wabash Ave. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma i Chicago, Illinois . Single Copy 25c—Yearly Subscription $2.00 sks > oy The Trip of a Lifetime DOWN EAST THROUGH THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA The Greatest of All Two Weeks Tours Make your trip by motor coach with HOGLE The itinerary includes SPEARS and enjoy a A Sail Across Lake Erie real vacation tour... The 1000 Islands Remember only the Mo- Adirondack Mts. tor Coach takes you Lake Placid OVER the mountains, not Ausable Chasm Lake Champlain Green Mts. White Mts. Gloucester Old Cape Ann Boston Mohawk Trail Berkshires Storm King Mt. 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Valuable information is also given as to how you can use the mails to secure orders and inquiries for your products or services. Write for Your FREE Copy R. L. POLK & CO., Detroit, Mich. Largest City Directory Publishers in the Werld Mailing List Compilers—Business Statistics Producers of Direct Mail Advertising ‘ PES ES SPS SS SES SRE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS. July 1—July 6, 1929 Congress Hotel, Chicago, Illinois. The Thirteenth Annual Convention of the Ameri- can Federation of Teachers will be held in Chicago, at the Congress Hotel the week of July first. The Executive Council will meet on Monday, the first and the regular convention will open the morning of the second. President William Green of the American Federa- tion of Labor has been invited to be the principal speaker at the banquet on the evening of Wednes- day, July 3. It is expected that there will be a large attendance of labor and civic leaders at this meeting in addition to the delegates and the teachers of Chicago, to hear this eloquent speaker in what is sure to be a message of importance to the educational and labor world. A number of distinguished members and speakers will appear at other times on the program. Tuesday afternoon will be given to the discussion of organization and Wednesday to the reports of permanent committees. There will, of course, be no sessions on the Fourth of July. The delegates will be the guests of the Chicago Locals on a trip through the city and to some pleasant resort for recreation. A complete program of the convention will appear in the June number of THE AMERICAN TEACHER. CONTENTS Page The Place of Individual Education in a Democracy 1 James E. McDade The American Federation of Teachers Charles B. Stillman Editorials Our Critics and Others Group Insurance School Legislation in Illinois James A. Meade Why a Teachers Union Sabbatical Leave for Chicago Public School Teachers 17 Nellie Marie Quinn Teachers Councils C. L. Vestal Can Ashland College Remain Free? J]. E. Kirkpatrick Local News Gi diffi tabli: their ditios previ rising harne solutic intelli § these « The American Teacher Entered as second class matter Oct. 1, 1927, at the post office at Oklahoma City, Okla., under the Act of March 8, 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. 9 MAY, 1929 Two Dollars a Year The Place of Individual Education In a Democracy By James E. McDape, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Chicago. Great social changes universally bring with them difficult problems of readjustment. When the es- tablished order is disturbed, old streams overflow their banks, breaking the dykes of custom and tra- dition that confined them, and spreading over areas previously secure from their influence. Before the rising floods find their new channels and are again harnessed for service, they may work much mischief, and destroy many an old landmark. There are sure to be regrets in some quarters for the more orderly things that have been swept away. There is no more striking example than the liber- ation of the forces of popular power during the past century. The many have at last wrested control from the clutches of the few, and the conduct of affairs is no longer with a small minority of men, however wise. At the very moment when its prob- lems are intricate and difficult beyond imagining the destinies of mankind are committed, for better or worse, to the unpracticed millions who have pre- viously had little share and little interest in planning the future or shaping the present. Many a tyran- nical old captain is being deposed. Can the crew con the ships and lay the course? Cai For INTELLIGENCE The control of the people’s complex affairs and the solution of their difficult social problems call for intelligence and initiative. Too often, unfortunately, these qualities have not been in evidence at the bal- lot-box. When the people are aroused to an issue, and permeated with its significance, we are en- couraged by their response; but political questions cannot easily be brought to this high level of interest, nor kept fresh in the minds of the people. Every be- liever in democracy has been depressed and disquieted again and again by the too-prevalent indifference of the people to their own interests, by their frequent failure seriously to face fundamental questions, by their slowness in coming to an effective political consciousness. Always reforms have been effected but slowly, after a long period of educational effort on the part of a devoted few. It is universally admitted that any real hope of speeding up the process lies in an education of the children of our schools which will fit them for in- telligent and independent citizenship. But it may be replied that we have long had a good school system. Why have its graduates not done their part more ef- fectively in leavening the body of citizens into an alert and aggressive electorate? It can hardly be claimed that the school system has altogether failed, great as may be the work remaining to be done. There are many promising signs in our political life, that seem unquestionably traceable to the stimulation and enlightenment of the classroom. But the fact remains that there is good ground for believing that the type of education which has been traditional with us, and which is still too prevalent, is not fundamentally adapted to produce the maximum oi independence and initiative. CHANGES IN A CENTURY A century ago the life of the pupil outside of school was so full of challenge and responsibility that it developed independence and self-reliance in a high degree. The school in those dzys supplied but a minor segment of the education of its pupils, Even in school, each teacher had but a small group to deal with, and this was divided into classes so small as hardly to deserve the name, so that there was abun- dant scope for the individuality of every pupil. The child of the pioneer hunted and fished, and swung the ax. He forded streams, herded. cows, helped in shearing and planting and harvest. He lived his life actively and aggressively. The school had no need to cultivate independence in its pupils, but rather to temper their angular personalities into 2 THE AMERICAN TEACHER some sort of social amenity. Alertness and initiative were in the very air they breathed. The apartment- dwelling child of today has no such outlet for the drive that is in him. He gets little practice in being himself. He goes to the movies, listens to the radio, and lives generally a passive and receptive life. The school has not failed to make the attempt to restore children their lost opportunities for active living, but the difficulties have been tremendous, and the problem is far from a complete solution. ScHOOLROOMS SWAMPED Perhaps the greatest reason for the failure is the fact that just at the time that the school had to adopt the task of restoring active life to the pupils, it was swamped by the enormously increased attend- ance due to the cityward movement of population, and to the heightening popular estimate of the value of education. The average child of today stays in school twenty times as long as the average child in Washington’s time. The present-day teacher faces, not a dozen or so pupils straggling through ail the grades, but forty or fifty, all of one grade. This was not all gain, for there were developed as a result teaching methods designed to administer education in wholesale fashion to large groups at once. A dozen or fifteen children under an unskilled teacher have greater opportunity for free living, for making their own adjustments, and for doing the varied things dictated by their individual needs and wishes chan have forty-five children all under similar circum- stances. The modern school brought many advant- ages, but here was an incalculable loss. Outside of school the children of today have few responsibilities that are genuine, and that are their very own. They have been deprived in the home of the scope for free activity that was the birthright of the children of an earlier and cruder day. Inside of the school these children are regimented in large classes, and too often dealt with by standardized wholesale methods. The change in social conditions that crowded the parents together in big cities at the same time took from the children the challenging life of the farm or the village. They were herded instead into classrooms in forties and fifties, and it was impossible even for progressive teachers to give them back the independence they had lost. RESPONSIBILITY GREATER Increased membership is not the only added diffi- culty with which changing conditions burdened the schools. There is a greatly extended curriculum for the teacher to administer. No one can understand the problem of education who does not realize that the present-day school is asked to answer for much more of the pupil’s education than was the school of 2 century ago. Of course, it must give the child, a; the old school did, the tools of learning, the three R’s. But it must also take over responsibility for the development of character, which the out-of- school life is so apt to undermine. It must answe: for health and right physical growth. With this the school of the fathers, dealing with rugged outdoor children, did not trouble itself. The child of today has so little active part in the conduct of affairs at home that the school sets up as a definite ideal, training for “worthy home membership.” The pioneer schoolmaster let the parents care for that item. Then, every child on the farm or in the vil- lage saw wheat ground and cloth woven, and had close contact with all the occupations likely to be open to him when he grew up. Today the occupa- tions are remote from his experience, and infinitely specialized, so the school must give vocational edu- cation to bridge the gap. The specialization in industry and the wide use of machinery are liberating the worker from the old daylight-to-dark slavery, and giving him many 4n hour free from toil. The five-day week with its days of leisure, will come, no doubt, to every worker; and a new responsibility is laid on the teacher's shoulders,—to prepare his pupils to use this leisure time wisely. Cause OF Mass INSTRUCTION These are some of the increasingly difficult con- ditions under which the modern school is developing. It operates with vastly increased memberships, and with a curriculum widening to embrace studies un- dreamed of in former years. By sheer numbers of pupils and enhanced volume of things to be taught, it is not to be wondered at that teachers have been driven to the adoption and elaboration of methods of mass instruction. ‘There resulted an educational process that necessarily kept the pupils perpetually at the receiving end. The emphasis had to be on teach- ing rather than on learning. Individual activity was confusing and disorganizing, and interfered with the smooth working of the process, so it had to be sup- pressed. You can easily tell a thing to fifty children. To have them experience it was to court disorder, 50 discussion instead of activity filled the school day. For real living, there was substituted talk about it. Educators realized the shortcomings of the system and much was done to ameliorate it. In the attempt to | was whi typ futi they spec subj whe purs alwa instr own. face the « recit supp were unre] form and { signe him ; the t feren the re days, color deed our e Chi not ec a der perien acted Opinio: when Opinio: till th them, some s trained Rec this pr ing the ual, so ism of to be « there is liance wae tT OF. ®& GG THE AMERICAN TEACHER 3 to make discussion really vital, an elaborate technic was worked out for the conduct of the recitation, which took its place everywhere as the fundamental type of teaching procedure. It was seen that it was futile to have children simply “recite” back what they had‘read, so they were led by the teacher in a specified manner over the logical organization of the subject, topic by topic. The trouble was that even when the recitation was at its best they did not pursue the subject under their own steam, but were always carried along by the active and dominating instructor. Their next thought was never to be cheir own, but the teacher’s. At every point they were face to face with the arbiter whose decisions settled the questions at issue. The trouble was not that the recitation was poorly done, but that it was ever supposed to be a substitute for living. The pupils were led to a reliance on talk. The facts of life, unrelated to the child’s experiences and academically formalized, were discussed until they became pale and futile. The whole machinery was admirably de- signed to undermine a child’s independence, and make him a follower. His days in school were ordered by the teacher and the clock. Followerism and indif- ferentism were inevitable. If in this drab picture the reader does not catch a glimpse of his own school days, relieved, perhaps, by an occasional dash of color lent by some teacher with a vision, he is in- deed fortunate. Such, however, was too much of our education for the last generation. ARE UNEQUIPPED Children subjected to this type of education are not equipped for the rugged responsibilities of life in a democracy. They leave school without the ex- perience of having been truly themselves, of having acted responsibly on the strength of their own opinions. They are trained to be hangers-on, and when they leave school are still ready to take their opinions second-hand. They look about helplessly till they find some new arbiter to settle things for them, some prop to lean on in place of the teacher, some substitute for the leadership on which ny are trained to be dependent. Recent years have witnessed a great peratede to this problem. The schools of today are surely grop- ing their way back to a rediscovery of the individ- ual, so long lost sight of in the standardized formal- ism cf mass education. School buildings are coming to be equipped for activity as well as receptivity, and there is no longer in the best schools an exclusive re- liance on the old autocratic device of the recitation, the effect of which, so far as it is effective «t all, is to stamp on each little mind the same stereo- typed and lifeless images. Modern research has revealed the astounding differences between in- dividuals, and in its -first flush of discovery seemed ready to classify pupils by degrees of intelligence, so that some might be set aside to be educated for so-called higher pursuits, and others for lower. But educators no longer believe that the problem is so simple, and there is an increasing volume of opinion which holds that human beings through wide and important ranges of. their educational development must be dealt with as individuals and not as groups. The classification of pupils into rapid, medium and slow groups, (X, Y, and Z,) for separate treatment is a wholesome sign of waning confidence in the old mass education methods. But insofar as it substitutes mass educa- tion of selected groups for mass education of un- selected groups, the gain is far less than might have been hoped for. Homogeneous group teaching may keep a child a vassal as well as miscellaneous class teaching, only refining the stereotypes impressed on him, and may even lead him at the same time to snobbery or discouragement. “Har-way House” . By the very device of grouping we are led to as- sume similarities that justify common treatment and mass procedure, and this very mass procedure is ad- mirably adapted at once to produce the similarity we assume and to conceal from us the unimaginable range and variety of human capacities which are really involved. The writer ventures to believe that homogeneous classification for purposes of instruction is only a poor half-way house to outright individual- ization, which, instead of shaping many to a common pattern, will afford the conditions for every child freely to realize his own genuine possibilities. The human being is far too complex to. classify so easily. A leading mathematician, speaking before the American Association for the Advaricement of Science a few months ago, emphasized this fact in technical but unmistakable language; “It is not ap- parent that there exists any small group of variables sufficient to characterize the phenomena of a living organism.” And further: “Statistical. prediction deals with organisms in the mass, while our vital human concerns are with organisms as individuals.” In the face of the difficulties inherent in the great memberships of our schools. and of the wide range of subjects to be taught, is there any hope that we THE AMERICAN TEACHER can so reorganize our education as to set the pupil free, and make him an alert, independent, self-reliant individual, instead of a docile and spineless depen- dent? The answer must be that it is already being attempted in scores of towns and cities, not merely in America, but in Europe, and elsewhere. It is be- ing done in a thousand places, imperfectly and ten- tatively, and yet with the definite idea of giving the individual pupil the opportunity of progressing at his own rate under his own drive, and of realiz- ing the best possibilities peculiarly his own. SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTS There is not space here to describe the procedures that are being worked out to make these results pos- sible. The Dalton plan, originated by Helen Park- hurst, reveals the appeal individual instruction makes to the interest of children. Superintendent Carleton Washburne has developed in Winnetka a detailed and successful method, and has done a great service in breaking down prejudice that retarded the movement. The difficulties incident to large mem- berships have heretofore practically excluded »syste- matic individual education in large cities. But there has been elaborated in Chicago during the past ten years, a definite technic, workable with larger mem- berships. Beginning in the Wentworth School, Chicago, it is now operating successfully in scores of the schools of. this city, and is rapidly being adopted elsewhere. A distinctive feature of the plan is that the work is pupil-managed in every detail, and to this is due the fact that it operates as well with large as with small memberships. With the conservation of individuality now be- coming practicable even in the midst of the in- finitely subtle compulsions of masses and classes, there is a hope to found democracy on a solid foun- dation of uncompliant and independent citizens. RESULTS ASTONISHING It may be said that the response of children to the plan of placing the management of school work in their control is not merely gratifying. It is abso- lutely astonishing. We are so accustomed to have to order and regiment children in their work, that the dynamic quality of self-managed learning takes us completely by surprise. It is this response in en- thusiastic interest and effort that makes us sure we have hit on a genuine clue, and are headed in the right direction. The farther we go with individual education, the more evident it becomes to us that the old school procedures concealed from us the tremen- dous energy and capacity of children, and the more our faith grows that here at last we have begun to supply the conditions for clear-headed, forceful, in- dependent life in school, and consequently for genuine citizenship later. We may hope for such an independent electorate as a democracy needs only when the school gives every pupil the best environment for free, active living, and the maximum opportunity honestly to find himself. He must be encouraged to think his own thoughts, uncoerced by group or teacher intimi- dation, and allowed to test their value in fearless but responsible doing. Group education we must have, but not exclusively, for while it gives the basis fot co-operation and a field for responsible conduct, it can readily lead to complaisance, followerism, “let- George-do-it-ism.” Group education needs to- be balanced and supplemented by the poise and vigor and independence that come from solitary reflection and individual striving. The American Federation of Teachers Address of Charles B. Stillman at the banquet in honor of Superintendent Bogan, Palmer House, Fri- day, December 7, 1928. It seems appropriate that a representative of the American Federation of Teachers should have the privilege of opening this program in honor of our superintendent. For I gratefully remember the sympathetic attitude and helpfulness of Mr. Bogan in the difficult early days of the launching of the American Federation of Teachers. And as my prin- cipal through those hectic years he was in a position where his attitude was of decisive importance so far as any possible effectiveness of the president of the A. F. of T. was concerned. I have been asked to compress into ten minutes the spirit, philosophy and objectives of the American Federation of Teachers. It can’t be done. Even the high spots I can only try to touch suggestively. We are a national, professional organization © teachers, affiliated with labor. Let me take up out labor connection first, both because of its importance and because we find misconceptions still rife on that score. Too few people, for example, seem to appre ciate the determining role organized labor played in the. and the auto! ment natia any its o tion prop: A. F. right But ¢ educa in co: equal the s demai crafts fordec it like educa’ and c dren | Eve witho substit should son, a1 in the an exa our la tee on the A: strateg ized te nouncé¢ educat Wit! ly fror in an e school “Th movem the int Organiz their o isa gre whose the establishment of public schools a century ago, and in their development and protection down to the present. And still fewer realize the absolute autonomy of the component parts of the labor move- ment. The American Federation of Teachers as a national organization, conducts its affairs without any possibility of dictation from any souree except its own membership. A rather amusing misconcep- tion caused by insufficient contacts and misleading propaganda is that organized labor is too radical. The A. F. of L. is a cross-section of American life from right to left, but is preponderantly conservative. But one thing it is united on is the essential value of education. One thing all its various elements have in common is the will to create and protect genuine equality of educational opportunity. Believing in the social value and personal dignity of labor, it demands such opportunity to develop and improve craftsmanship, as well as to broaden vision, as is af- forded in continuation and apprentice schools, but it likewise and with equal force demands that every educational door—vocational, technical, professional, and cultural—shall open on even terms to the chil- dren of all the people. INFLUENCE ORGANIZED LABOR Even in my limited time I cannot leave this phase without reference to the fact that I am here as a substitute. The representative of the A. F. of T. should be our national Secretary-Treasurer, Mrs. Han- son, and she would be if her duties did not detain her in the south. And by the way, her southeren trip is an example of one of the opportunities afforded by our labor affiliation. As secretary of the Commit- tee on Education at the New Orleans convention of the American Federation of Labor, she was in a strategic position to make the counsel of the organ- ized teachers influential in the thinking and pro- nouncements of the millions of organized labor on educational matters. Without her knowledge, I am going to quote brief- ly from an article of hers which will appear shortly in an educational magazine circulating chiefly among school boards and administrators: “The labor movement is a great constructive Movement for social betterment; a movement in the interest of the humanization of life. It is the Organized expression of the workers’ struggle for their own welfare, and for the public welfare. Labor isa great forward-looking body of men and women Whose strength is in the fact that they are doing THE AMERICAN TEACHER 5 something for themselves and not waiting to have something done for them. What workers, including the teachers, do for themselves, is more significant, not only to themselves, but also to social welfare, than what is done for them. The teachers unions have joined hands with labor in the hope of being a part of a great movement for making this world a better place in which to live.” At the outset, I said that the A. F. of T. is a professional organization. Perhaps it would be bet- ter to qualify that by saying that we are a pro- fessional organization to the degree that teaching is a profession, and that we are constantly striving to remove the handicaps and disabilities that prevent us from enjoying full, genuine professional status. TENURE LEADING PLANK A profession controls its own qualifications and membership. One of the leading planks in our pro- gram of action demands tenure of position during efficiency for teachers of approved qualifications. We have it in Chicago, but the mass of the teachers of the country are still so at the mercy of political spoils and administrative favoritism, that the term profession becomes farcical. Twelve state legisla- tures have passed tenure laws, and Washington, as a result of the notorious Seattle yellow dog contract case, will undoubtedly be the thirteenth. Everywhere constant watchfulness is necessary to protect the gains already secured. Professions participate in the control of their own activities, as do, for that matter, many callings not so labeled. Another of our leading planks asks that democratically constituted teachers’ councils be es- tablished so that teachers may participate in a con- structive way in the conduct of the schools, so that administrative leadership may be given the benefit of the experience and initiative of the teaching force a suggestions always resented by administrative drivership. We have had such councils in the past in Chicago—not perfect, but opening up possibili- ties of development in the right direction—and we confidently expect to have them again in the not distant future. Professions should surely hold themselves to standards of excellence in their work at least the equal to the highest craftsmanship. But these can be achieved only under professional conditions. In- tolerably overcrowded classes gravely handicap the very best of teachers, and fortunately in Chicago we are no longer hearing any defense of them from the (Continued on Page 12) Pema e 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 FirorENcE Curtis HANson, Secretary-Treasurer and Editor At the time of expiration, a bill will be found in the copy. Subscribers are requested to give prompt notice of changes in address. Remittances .should be made in postal money-order, express order, draft, stamps or check. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, TWO DOLLARS FOR THE YEAR FOREIGN $2.20—SINGLE COPIES, 25c Advertising Rates Made Known on Application eee =e . EXECUTVE COUNCIL President Mary C. Barxer, 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 Way, Sacramento, California. Amy A. Fox, Minneapolis No. 59; 3300 Stevens Ave., Minne- apolis, Minnesota. ABRAHAM LerxowrTz, New York No. 5; 10414 27th Avenue, East Elmhurst, Corona, New York, N. Y. A. J. Muste, Brookwood No. 189; Brookwood, Katonah, N. Y. FroreNnce Roop, St. Paul No. 28; 328 Cedar Street, St. Paul, Minnesota. W. B. Satrertuwarre, Local No. 200; 1837 12th Ave., West Seattle, Washington. W. Jj. Scorr, Atlanta No. 89; 212 Kings Highway, Decatur, Georgia. F. G. Srecxer, Chicago No. 2; 1618 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. Cuartes B, StmimMan, Chicago No. 2; 827 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, Illinois. Western Organizer E, E. ScHwartztrauBer, Portland No. 111; R. F. D. 5, Box 68, Portland, Oregon. Secretary-Treasurer FLorENce Curtis Hanson, Chicago Women No. 3; 506 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois——Telephone Harrison 2950. AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS ORGANIZED Aprit 15, 1916 Affiliated With the American Federation of Labor. THE CHICAGO NUMBER This number of THE AMERICAN TEACHER is jssued as the Chicago Number. Local 2, the Chicago Federation of Men Teachers, Local 3, the Chicago Federation of Women High School Teachers, and Local 199, the Chicago Elementary Teach- ers Union, participated in its publication. THE AMERICAN TEACHER Our Critics and Others When an article on the American Federation of Teachers by the editor of THE AMERICAN TEACHER appeared in The Nation’s Schools as an answer to a previous article in that magazine by the president of the Seattle Board of Education, giving a distinctly biased and unfair account of the differences between the Seattle Teachers Union and the Seattle School Board, the editors of The Nation’s Schools opened their columns to all superintendents to a symposium on the value of the American Federation of Teachers. Our friends among the superintendents—and we have some good ones—were too busy to take part in this discussion, or perhaps felt for some reason that it was unnecessary. A few who were neutral or un- friendly had something to say. To these whose reasoning seems to us not quite logical and whose opinions are based on misapprehensions, we have something to say. The fair and unprejudiced , edi- torial comments of The Nation’s Schools must not pass unnoticed. Our administration critics are agreed apparently that “Neither should public school teachers be allied with any class, their allegiance being to the public.’ Our best answer is given by Professor Harry A. Over- street, professor of philosophy, College of the City of New York and author of a number of well- known books: “Where in the long history of the world do we find more continuously, more heroic- .ally, more effectively, an intent for the bettering of human conditions than in the labor movement? It is a flagrant, nay, it is a pathetic misunderstanding of that movement to say that it has been a movement solely for the material benefit of a class. It has, indeed, concerned itself with material benefits and with benefits for a special group, but it has con- cerned itself with far more. Labor offers its co- operation in working out problems and in carrying through plans for the achievement of higher levels of excellence for all groups. Labor expresses its be- lief in the principle of co-operation for all the re- lationships of our industrial life. -It believes in brotherhood, in democracy, in humanity. Labor's belief in the sanctity of human personality has made it the relentless foe of oppression and human degra- dation. . FIGHTING For REALITIEs. “Labor has arrayed its strength against the five enemies of mankind—poverty, disease, ignorance, waste, and inhumanity—that it may achieve social justi hum ment welf. not parti sense res p foug! throv autoc for t huma the re River Labor nomic social when many fear ¢ in the —tha liberal printe Labor: natura fessior why v of Lak zenry ciency of a p _ Ciency, have t: for it 1 lated ¢ going 1 seme o Agai Organiz tions h; associat labor 0 terest, vice. If th -- a wf justice for all. It is fighting for the fundamental human realities. The labor movement is a move- ment that stands for what is fundamental to human welfare, and when teachers affiliate with it they are not thereby lowering themselves to the level of partisans of a class interest. They are in a very real sense raising themselves to the point of view of res publica. Fundamentally the labor movement has fought for a humaner world. Fundamentally it has thrown down a challenge to the arrogancies and autocracies and cruelties that have set themselves up for the government of life. It has fought for human emancipation—for yours and mine and all the rest of us.” Hector L. Belisle, superintendent of schools. Fall River. Mass., says: ““The American Federation of Labor is an organization whose aims are purely eco- nomic-social.” If public school education is not a social matter, what is it? Is Dr. John Dewey wrong when he says, “A few years ago I went over a good many documents in that field, and I say without any fear of contradiction that there is no organization in the United States—I do not care what its nature is —that has such a fine record in the program of liberal progressive education as will be found in the printed records of the American Federation of Labor?” Superintendent Belisle says: “Teachers naturally belong with the groups interested in pro- fessional-social advancement.” ‘To be sure. That is why we are affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Is there any other group of organized citi- zenry on record for tenure of position during effi- ciency? One of the fundamentals for the building of a profession is tenure of position based on effi- ciency. The laborer has security of tenure, and we have taken a leaf out of labor’s book. We are asking for it through the powers with which we have affil- iated ourselves, and through these powers we are going to professionalize the teaching industry just as some of the other industries have been profession- alized. Doctors Do Discuss FEEs. Again Superintendent Belisle says: ‘‘Professional organizations like medical, dental and bar associa- tions have professional-social aims. The professional ‘sociations rarely, if ever, discuss either hours of labor or payment for services rendered. “Their in- terest, almost exclusively, lies in the improvement of stvice.” If the Medical Association did not raise the cost THE AMERICAN TEACHER 7 of a doctor’s visit from $2 to $4, who did? Did the Chamber of Commerce go around to the doctors and offer them this increase in behalf of the public? If the Chicago Medical Association in its recent differ- ence with Dr. Schmidt and the Public Health Insti- tute has been interested solely in ethics and profes- sional service and not primarily in financial returns, the press accounts and some prominent physicians have done the Association a grave injustice. Lawyers’ fees also have increased very materially and we be- lieve it is indisputable that the Bar Association brought this change about. What a remarkable coincidence that the cost of dental service increased at the same time with the growth and strength of the Dental Association. These professional associations know as we do that a profession is based on adequate returns for service. We have no apology to make for the eco- nomic program of the American Federation of Teachers. We do believe in an adequate wage and we work to secure it. Moreover, we have been suc- cessful. If criticized for that and accused of sel- fishness, we reply that no profession can be built except on a sound economic basis, that no profession has been built on any other basis. “The cat is out of the bag. Fine phrases cannot conceal the fact that under cover of a professional organization the American Federation of Teachers is intended to operate as a labor union,” says Superin- tendent Belisle. Is this supposed to be a joke? No cat is out of the bag; there is no cat to be released. We BOAST that we operate as a labor union. There is nothing of which we are so proud as of our labor affiliation, which is the result of our vision, our spirit of social idealism. Wir SHow PoTenTiaAL Power. It is not our intention to ignore any organizations. It is our purpose to show what constitutes an effec- tive organization and to arouse the teachers to a real- ization of their amazing potential power for effecting social changes. We have never said of any other teacher organization that “no need exists for such an organization,” but we have said that other or- ganizations have their field and we have ours, which is an important one. We do not believe that any one organization “is sufficient for this purpose” (the progress of education). We certainly are not disposed to turn over the building of true profes- sionalism to any organization dominated and con- trolled by administrators. We believe in the voice of the classroom teacher. Our motto is—Democ- racy in Education; Education for Democracy. To Superintendent Thomas B. Portwood, Atchison, Kansas, and to Superintendent L. C. Ward, Fort Wayne, Ind., may we recommend the research study of Dr. E. W. Anderson, Columbia University? Mr. Portwood thinks that we have given an exagger- ated and gloomy picture of the teachers’ lot based on insufficient data and says: “It would seem that a few unusual incidents have been collected and from these a sorry picture of the teacher’s lot presented. According to the writer, so deplorable has this perse- cution become that teachers are being driven from the profession and others deterred from entering it.” If our information that the average school life of a teacher is six years, is incorrect, we shall welcome authoritative correction. If this statement is cor- rect, it would seem to indicate that there are call- ings more attractive. Dr. Anderson’s study of 427 school systems in 46 states made public in March after our article was published, shows that we were far too mild in our statements. Ninety per cent of the school systems require annual contracts. Rules and regulations of public school officials in different parts of the country concerning the conduct of teachers are so numerous and cover such a wide variety of detailed items that the exact status of a school teacher today is almost undefinable, accord- ing to Dr. Anderson. We speak of this condition because we want to improve it. No one ever ac- cused Pollyanna of being intelligent. For all teachers we want the best that any group has secured. “An injury to one is the concern of all.” AGREES WITH COLE Superintendent Thomas R. Cole, Seattle, Wash., says: “It has been said that America’s greatest con- tribution to civilization has been her public school system.—The greatness of our public schools springs from the fact of their open door of equal oppor- tunity for every child. The continuance of a fair chance for every child depends upon the universal support of the schools by all classes of the American people. This can only be secured in the future, as it has been in the past, through absolute freedom of the schools from interference or control by those who are affiliated with any group promoting special inter- ests.” We find ourselves in complete accord with Superintendent Cole. This is absolutely our position and Labor’s position. Organized labor was the ma- jor instrumentality in establishing the public school THE AMERICAN TEACHER system. One hundred years ago the courageous and far-seeing advocacy of free education by Labor was responsible in a large part for the establishment of our system of free tax-supported schools. See Pro- fessor Commons’ “Documentary History of Ameri- can Industrial Society,” and Professor Ely’s “The Labor Movement in America.” Labor asks nothing of the schools except an education for its children. Teachers and labor alike are determined to free the schools of special propaganda. Professor Ely says: “At every period of our history public school ques- tions have been labor questions or labor measures. What then has the labor movement brought us? I reply first of all: It has been one of the chief causes which have brought us a public school system. Where shall we find guardians against assaults on our public schools? Where shall we find those who will not only protect what we have, but help us forward in new achievements in education, particularly by means of public schools?. To both questions I reply, in our labor organizations. All over the world labor organizations are supporting and bearing forward every popular educational movement.” OpposING VIEWPOINTS. “From an executive’s standpoint a federation is not desirable,” says. D. E. Wiedman, superintendent, Bellingham, Wash. This is the honest frankness we admire. From a teacher’s standpoint we think that a federation is desirable, and that for the betterment of school conditions we need all the intelligence and character available. We do not believe that- these are confined to any one group. We agree that “school executives, as a whole, irrespective of how much they may be accused to the contrary, are just and charitable even to a fault in the consideration of the retention of teachers in their corps.” But a benevolent despotism may end and then where are you? It is a democratic system based on law that we are seeking. We regret that anyone should so misunderstand our program as to think that “Under the narrowing restrictions of the federation this (the removal of the superannuated and incompetent) would be- come impossible without the virtual consent of the teacher involved and the federation of which she happened to be a member.” We advocate sound tenure laws based on efficiency and a pension system to care for the superannuated. We seem also to have failed to get our message across to Superintendent Ward of Fort Wayne, who thin “pul that tion thou We | belie for t but ment W the « tate” class: minis tion tate!’ Ag tentic tion | affili: is no No c schoo: is SO ¢ tion < Suf think: tion t good | organi now | Twels Georg Lloyd The but to Most are im ship y the co of mir THE AMERICAN TEACHER 9 thinks that we have ignored the principle that “public schools exist solely and wholly in the hope that a better citizenship must result from the educa- tion of all the children of all the people.” We thought that this was our fundamental principle. We have said very often that with Dr. Dewey we believe that the public schools were not established for the sole purpose of teaching reading and writing but to perpetuate the democratic form of govern- ment. ; We have sought apparently in vain to make clear the distinction which we recognize between “dic- tate” and “participate.” Why is it that when the classroom teacher asks to “participate” in school ad- ministration some superintendent or board of educa- tion immediately cries, “The teachers seek to dic- tate!” . CoMPLETE LocaL CONTROL. Again and again we find it necessary to call at- tention and to emphasize the democratic organiza- tion of the American Federation of Labor. Every affiliated group has complete local autonomy. There is no such thing as “obedience to any authority.” No orders are given or taken. Is it because the school system is so autocratic that school men find is so difficult to understand the democratic organiza- tion of the labor movement? Superintendent A. S. Jessup, Cheyenne, Wyo., thinks there may have been a need for our organiza- tion twelve years ago and that we have done some good things, before we were outstripped by another organization but that our minority position should now exclude us. Virtue does not lie in numbers. Twelve disciples of Christ and one of them a traitor. George Washington and his little army. William Lloyd Garrison and no followers, etc, etc. The American Federation of Teachers asks nothing but to be listened to with that rarest, most beautiful, most desirable of attributes—an open mind. If we are imbued with the ideals and methods of scholar- ship we cannot ignore verification of data because the controversy challenges our traditional attitudes of mind and strikes close home. GROUP INSURANCE The idea of group health and accident insurance is growing among teachers in various parts of the country, and while health and accident insurance has been used by men for many years, it is a compara- tively new thing to professional women and there are certain. basic principles underlying it that should be made clear to them. It is‘so important that a teacher’s salary should be protected, at least in part, in the event of serious loss of time from disability that it is a service to teachers to give them an understanding of this pro- tection so that they shall not harm their own in- terests by an unwise use of the privilege. First of all, health and accident insurance is for protection and not for investment. Life Insurance has an investment feature and Annuities written by insurance companies are pure investments. But auto- mobile insurance and fire insurance and burglary in- surance and health and accident insurance and other forms of casualty. insurance have no investment features; they are pure protection. The person who takes out health and accident insurance with the idea that, every year, he is going to get his premium back, will sooner or later find himself without any protection. It takes only a moment’s thought to realize that if everybody got his premium back every year, the Casualty companies would be put out of business. It is the operation of the law of average that makes insurance possible. As you look about and see people seriously dis- abled by accident and illness and realize that the blow might have fallen upon you, it is enough to have the sense of protection that if it should, in the future, fall on you, you will not be left without in- come—this is as good a return for your premium as is the income when the blow does: fall. If you are not a first-class risk, you are rendered an especial service by your organization that has made it possible for you to get protection at all. In this case, you should be even more careful than others in the kind of claims that‘ you present, for you are fairly sure to sometime need your protection very much. Many of the most insurance-minded people would not present a claim for one or two days or for a week-end; they would rather keep their record clear for a serious emergency. Some companies will not write iramediate coverage on a group; if you are fortunate enough to have it, protect your good fortune. There is another point which needs to be made clear. Some of the locals of our organization have started’ their groups with 75% and 100% of their membership, and in these cases it is possible to main- tain the law of average and still to cover members of the group for disabilities growing out of condi- 10 THE AMERICAN TEACHER tions that existed when they came into the group. However, in a big city, it is difficult to get 75% of an organization to start a group, and, if a company issues insurance to a smaller proportion of an or- ganization, it is then necessary to eliminate from coverage a person suffering from a disability which grew out of some condition that existed when he came into the group. In some large cities, groups have been started with a small proportion of the membership of the organ- ization, but with the understanding that insurance education will be continued and the numbers of the groups increased as rapidly as possible, but until the required proportion of the organization has come into the group, it is necessary to limit the protection to conditions originating after the person secures his group protection. In these cities, the insurance committees work hard and lay good foundations for permanent and successful groups, and they deserve the co-operation of the teachers of their organizations. When these groups have grown to 75% or 100% of the member- ship of their locals, the protection will be extended to cover all disabilities experienced by their members. Group insurance gives cheaper and wider coverage than individual insurance and teachers are fortunate to have it, and we are giving these facts, not in the interest of the companies, but in the interest of teachers, for our judgment tells us that if insurance is used unwisely, this complete and cheap protection will not be written by the companies. We want to feel that in a real emergency teachers are protected and that when one is not suffering from such an emergency, he shall have the peace of mind that if a calamity comes, financial worries will be lessened. In order that this may be true, teachers should get their protection while they are well, and they should be judicious in placing their claims. The consideration of this question of group in- surance is urged upon the attention of every local of the American Federation of Teachers. The pro- tection of the teachers’ salaries in time of disability is of similar importance to the teachers’ pension and it is a service which teacher organizations should render their members. SCHOOLS SAVINGS Inasmuch as we are now approaching a school election, a discussion of one subject that warrants attention, is clearly in order. 4 This is the system of school savings that is carried out in every school, for the alleged purpose of in- culcating ideas of thrift and the like in the minds of the children attending school. The Labor Advocate believes that this system is wholly wrong, and positively indefensible. ‘That it inculcates thrift notions is merely a matter of opin- ion and there is no argument offered that will con- vince this paper that it does anything of the kind. What it does is to set the condition of one family against that of another, and subject those who are unable to contribute to the painful position that such a contrast entails. Anything that will hurt the feelings of one child, one sensitive scholar, has no place in the public schools, and merely because it may be found to be a matter of profit to some financial institution is no reason for maintaining it. If all school children were upon an equal footing as far as the financial status of the parents is con- cerned, and if the children were saving their own money and placing savings in a regularly constituted savings bank themselves in person, doubtless thrift tendencies might to some degree be promoted. But to make the schools the medium for some comfort- ably situated families providing with their contribu- tions to the individual savings funds while those not so well off have to grudge every penny given, is to cultivate not thrift but snobbery on one side and not thrift but hurt feelings on the other. It is essentially a vicious system in pitting the one against the other in the rivalry of the classes and the schools for savings bank supremacy and it is as we declared morally indefensible. To plead that it has the support of school organi- zations generally and that it is general throughout the country is no criterion whatever for upholding it, and certainly the years during which the system has been in use has resulted in no good manifesting itself in the way of results that would warrant the continuance of a wholly bad system. There are banks with savings departments attached thereto, and those who can afford to use them may wisely be urged to do so. The experience would not be bad for the child to visit such an institution with his parents and he would manifestly be more easily convinced of the values of thrifty savings by such experiences, The school system offers no such advantages. Its drawbacks are manifest, its evils so obvious that it is re bef of 1 will hop. rect only ishin voca ous natu ance for | com worl: over amor Ac over are t of it! immi Nativ read Th count that 1 illiter for in thous not r Th eracy the w tion 1 genitc A} tiary illiter: Cause An rapid] educa situat: In ; 000 ¢ THE AMERICAN TEACHER 11 is remarkable tu us that there has not been a protest before this. It is high time that it was thrown out of the public schools, bag and baggage. Undoubtedly it is now so well entrenched that it will be hard to affect it, but The Labor Advocate hopes that when the attention of the people is di- rected to this vicious system, we may eventually not only reform it, but reform it altogether by abol- ishing it.—Reprint from The Tacoma Labor Ad- vocate. THE CURSE OF ILLITERACY There-is no country in the world today as prosper- ous as the United States—no other country so rich in natural resources, so highly favored as to trade-bal- ances or so well fed, well clothed, and well housed. On the material side of affairs we have many reasons for feeling grateful and satisfied. But before we be- come too proud over things in which we lead the world it is well to admit that there are many matters over which we have little reason to be puffed up, and among these items is illiteracy. According to the latest figures available there are over four million citizens of the United States who are totally illiterate! Four million of them! Think of it! And not, as you may suppose, all foreign-born immigrants. No indeed. There are over one million native-born whites in the United States who can not read or write. This is indeed a shameful record for the richest country in the world, particularly when we realize that there are no fewer than ten nations that have less illiteracy than we have. In Germany and Denmark, for instance, there are only two illiterates out of every thousand. We have sixty of every thousand who can not read or write. The Secretary of the Interior estimates that illit- eracy costs this country $825,000,000 a year. And the worst feature of our illiteracy is its close connec- tion with crime. Illiteracy is one of crime’s chief pro- genitors. A recent investigation of the Ohio State Peniten- tiary revealed that 42 per cent of the inmates were illiterate. Here is indeed one important clue to the cause of the high crime record we suffer from. And, unfortunately, illiteracy is not decreasing as tapidly as it should, for the simple reason that our tducation facilities are not sufficient to cope with the Situation. In a census taken in 1920 it was found that 1,400,- 000 children from seven to thirteen years of age did r not attend a school of any kind between September 1, 1919, and January 1, 1920. The problem has grown beyond the states’ ability to handle.—Toledo Union Leader. LABOR’S IDEALISM The labor movement is frequently misunderstood by those who have a distorted conception of this great social movement, by those who do not under- stand the spirit of social idealism which has been a valiant force in it from the beginning. It is true that Labor seeks higher wages, shorter hours, better working conditions, but it seeks these not selfishly for themselves alone as an end, but because they make possible a better life for themselves, for their families, for all humanity. Organized labor fundamentally is seeking a life of service. The following from an exchange might well be entitled, ““Labor’s Idealism.” * co co % Live for something. Yes, and for something worthy of life and its capabilities and opportunities for noble deeds and achievcments. Every man and woman has his or her assignments in the duties and responsibilities of daily life. We are in the world to make the world better; to lift it up to higher levels of enjoyment and prog- ress! to make its hearts and homes brighter and happier by devoting to our fellows our best thoughts and activities and influences. It is the motto of every true heart and the genius of every noble life that “no man liveth to himself”—lives chiefly for his own selfish good. It is a law of our intellectual and moral being that we promote our own happiness in the exact proportion we contribute to the comfort. and enjoyment of others. Nothing worthy of the name of happiness is pos- sible in the experience of those who live only for ’ themselves, all oblivious of the welfare of their fel- lows. THE WORLD FEDERATION OF EDUCATION ASSOCIATIONS. Equality of Opportunity for all People: Is a Federation of 22 National Education Associa- tions. Has 33 Associate Membership Organiza- tions. Has an Operative Plan for World Friend- ship—The Herman-Jordan Plan. Plans to Serve 12 - as an Agency for Educating all the People of the World. SPECIAL OBJECTIVES 1. To promote friendship, justice and good-will among the nations of the world. 2. To bring about a world-wide tolerance of the rights and privileges of all nations regardless of race or creed. 3. To develop an appreciation of the value of inherited gifts of nations and races. 4. To secure more satisfying information and more adequate statement of facts for textbooks used in the schools of the different countries. 5. To foster a national comradeship and confi- dence which will produce a more sympathetic ap- preciation among all nations. 6. To develop the consciousness of an interna- tional morality in the minds and hearts of the rising generation. 7. Finally, throughout the world, in all schools, to emphasize the essential unity of mankind and the evils of war and to develop a psychology of peace, together with a true patriotism based upon love of country rather than upon hatred of other peoples and countries. THE HERMAN-JORDAN PLAN An Educational Plan for World Peace Five COMMITTEES ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN 1. Education for Peace. Aims and Methods of Peace Organizations. 2. The Teaching of History. World Truth In- stead of National Bias. 3. Training Youth in World Amity. Methods and Results. 4.° Military Training and Military Preparedness, The Standing Incentives to War, and the Possibili- ties of their Abatement Through Education. 5. Methods and Instruments to Settle Interna- tional Disputes without War. Mr. Raphael Herman, a public spirited and patri- otic citizen of Washington, D. C., offered $25,000 for the best educational plan calculated to produce World Peace. The plan of Dr. David Starr Jordan, Chancellor-Emeritus of Leland Stanford University, was selected by the jury of award. This plan is already functioning in and through Educational Institutions. The Federation is working for its universal adoption. A three-month campaign to raise $100,000 for the establishment of a World Education Foundation is THE AMERICAN TEACHER being entered upon by the W. F. E. A. It is hoped that 100,000 persons, professional teachers and others, will contribute $1.00 each toward the cause of international understanding through education. THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS (Continued from Page 5) central office, but are finding efforts toward relief, Rigorous standardization, mechanized routine. un- reasonable restraint of the freedom of the teacher, inspectorial supervision, are symptoms of a disease of autocratic drivership that attacks and wrecks whole school systems in all parts of the country, with dis. astrous reactions on the pupils. Fortunately again in Chicago we passed the crisis of that disease some time back, and any schools which may still be suf- ' fering from it are at least not being systematically reinoculated from above. They rather represent areas of local irritation which would probably yield to local treatment. No More STANDARDIZATION The spirit of our country needs no prodding in the direction of further standardization. An able Frenchman, Siegfred, makes two observations in his America Comes of Age which I must quote: First, “America is a materialistic society, organized to produce things rather than people, with output set up as a god.” Again, “And yet a house, a bath, and a car for every workman—so much luxury within the reach of all—can only be obtained at a tragic price, no less than the transformation of millions of workers into automatons.” Siegfred is only partly right—we certainly would not exchange our living conditions for those of his people—but he is right enough to place upon the schools a definite obligation to create an atmosphere and afford a training which will give our children a spirit and equipment for successful defense against the mechanization of their adult lives. The Au.neti- can Federation of Teachers stands opposed to the factory ideal in education. It is not materialistic to raise the question of adequate compensation. For years the chairman of one of the A. F. of T. convention committees brought in a plea for a “cultural wage”—and he came from New York, not Boston (and by the way; he comes pretty close to having his cultural wage now). The term “cultural” has imperfections, whether applied to education or wages. But choose THE AMERICAN TEACHER 13 your own word. The fact that counts is that « city cannot long attract and retain in the service of its children men and women of high character, ability and initiative on salary schedules far below pre-war purchasing power—inadequate as those were. And any delays or uncertainty as to receiving even the present schedule does not obscure that issue in the least in the minds of the teachers, or, we are con- fident, in the minds of the school authorities. Sabbatical leave, adequate pensions, elective boards of education, reduction of clerical work to free the teachers’ energies for instruction—I cannot even mention the remaining planks in our platform. But I cannot close without seizing the unusual oppor- tunity Chicago now offers us to stress one of our cardinal principles. And that is that wherever a school administration makes it possible, organization for effective co-operation is just as important as or- ganization for effective protection. Happily in Chicago we can now talk to the public and among ourselves about co-operation between teachers and school authorities without being suspected of insin- cerity. I remember in my first visit to one of our latgest early locals I labored two days to get the con- sent of the superintendent of schools and of a teacher union executive to have lunch with me at the same time to talk things over. And I learned later that it took a year for me to live down the suspicion aroused in the minds of the teachers because the superintendent agreed to come. I couldn’t blame them very much. In the impossible existing condi- tions, talk of co-operation was not very timely. We have known conditions at one time and another in the past, even in Chicago, when teachers’ organiza- tions were forced to concentrate on the vital, but negative function of protection, sometimes to the crippling of their constructive energies. And the most hopeful thing on the school horizon in Chicago, which even financial emergencies cannot eclipse, is the opening up of stirring possibilities of progress through a liberal administrative leadership working in cordial co-operation with the teachers and the public. School Legislation In Illinois The fifty-sixth General Assembly, now in session, has been asked by Illinois teachers for legislation in the interest of public school education in the form of a number of bills now pending or passed. Some of these bills affect the state as a whole, some of them affect Chicago alone, and others have to do only with that part of the state outside of Chicago. Senate Bill 150 on Compulsory Attendance con- cerns the whole state. It was introduced February 20, 1929, and has passed both houses and become a law. It combines and clarifies the present three incon- sistent sections of the Attendance Law; puts teeth in the requirement that all children must yo to school until they are sixteen years of age regardless of educational attainments, unless legally excused to go to work at fourteen. In cast they go to work at fourteen they must attend continuation school eight hours per week. Also this bill provides for the enforcement of school attendance by truant officers. Senate Bill 113 on Certification affects only that part of Illinois outside of Chicago; but Chicago teachers are interested in helping their down-state friends improve their schools by raising the stand- ards for the certification of teachers. At the present time the minimum standards there are unbelievably low. This bill has passed the Senate and is now on third reading in the House of Representatives. FEATURES OF CERTIFICATION BiLt (SENATE BILL 113, CUTHBERTSON ) Provides for life certificates issued by Superin- tendent of Public Instruction and for certificates limited in time, issued by state’ examining board and a county superintendent. The latter correspond to present “county certificates,” but will be state certificates. Present teachers receive by exchange certificates equally as good as those now held. Be- ginning elementary teachers after July 1, 1929 must, aside from passing examination, have equivalent of high school graduation; and after July, 1931 they must have one year of advanced training, thus equalling requirement for candidates examined for kindergarten and special certificates. Elementary, kindergarten, and special certificates may be obtained through credits for two years of appropriate higher- education. High school and supervisory certificates require bachelor’s degree if earned by credits, and two years of college work when obtained by examin- ation (the supervisory under either condition re- quiring four years of experience). Emergency certificates issued when facts justifying them are submitted to state examining board. Examining 14 board to include a city superintendent, a high school principal, and an elementary school teacher as well as Superintendent of Public Instruction and three county superintendents. Limited certificates are re- newable in four year periods, and if earned by ex- amination require one year of further college work for renewal (the supervisory and high school requir- ing for second renewal the baccalaureate degree). House Bill 130 provides that the Chicago Board of Education may when necessary pay as high as 6 per cent interest instead of 5 per cent as at present when it borrows money on tax anticipation warrants. All other school districts in Illinois have this right al- ready. As amended in the Senate to make it appli- cable for only two years, the bill passed both houses and was signed by the governor. The quick passage of this bill, with an emergency clause attached makes it possible for us Chicago teachers to draw ou pay checks regularly. Otherwise we surely would be out of luck. As it is, the Board of Education is like a corporation which has gone into the hands of re- ceivers; in this case the bankers are receivers and the Chicago Board of Education has to go down on its knees figuratively each month to get money enough to pay the teachers. On April 9 at 3:30 in the office of Superintendent Bogan representatives of various Chicago teacher or- ganizations met with Auditor Brackett of the Board of Education who informed them that if the Board paid all its bills the Chicago schools would have to shut down July 1, because of the exhaustion of its borrowing power. He said the Board had antici- pated the danger of such a crisis as this two years ago and had attempted to provide needed funds by ap- pealing to the people for an additional tax rate for educational purposes by means of a referendum. This attempt to hold a referendum, he declared, was defeated by a group of Chicago teachers who thought that such a move would defeat their project for the revaluation of property for taxation. He pointed out that an increase in the tax rate for the city of Chicago had not operated to interfere with revalua- tion. - Oppose Tax RalsE He further pointed out that while the revaluation of property for the purpose of equalization is a valuable and public-spirited enterprise, it is not a project calculated to produce revenue for the schools. Chairman-Malone of the State Tax Commission is reported in the public press to have declared that equalization will not and must not raise the total THE AMERICAN TEACHER amount of taxation in the county. It is not possible now to get relief by legal action in time to avert closing the schools. Therefore, the Board of Educa- tion is planning an appeal to the Legislature for relief without referendum in the form of an increased tax rate for educational purposes. They are asking for this increase as a temporary matter to be applied only for two years. Permanent relief must come from the people of Chicago themselves in the form of an increased tax rate of fifty cents which they may adopt by a refer- dum vote authorized by the City Council. One other legislative measure shrould be mentioned in this report, and that is House Bill 201, appropriat- ing thirteen million dollars to the state school fund. This bill if passed will help Chicago and the whole state besides, especially the poorer and underprivi- leged sections. When we consider that the state of New York appropriates this year about $90,000,000 to its state school fund and Pennsylvania, California and many other states appropriate substantial sums greatly in excess of anything Illinois dreams of ask- ing, it will be seen that our state stands in no en- viable position educationally among the states of the Union. Anyone desiring to help pass House Bill 204, or any other bill, can be of real assistance by writing his Senator and Representatives, requesting their support. The address of any of these legislators for this purpose is Springfield, Ill., State House. James A. MEADE, President Chicago Federation of Men Teachers, Local 2. ; THINKING ABOUT EUROPE FOR YOUR VACATION? To those teachers who, during their vacation, are finding enjoyment not only in the ephemeral effects of viewing mountains and shopping curiosities, but who are seeking the companionship of men and women with a corhmunity of interest on a tour which offers the lasting impression gained from ob- servations and studies in a country whose marvelous transformation is the wonder and awe of the modern world—it will be of interest to know, that a trip to Russia under the auspices of The Open Road, under the personal supervision of Mr. Savage is now being organized. Since arrangements must be made promptly, kindly communicate immediately with M. Savage, 638 E. 22nd St., Paterson, New Jersey. THE AMERICAN TEACHER Why a Teachers’ Union Freedom of education, the suppression of employer propaganda in schools and textbooks, organization of school teachers in trade unions, and the demand by trade unionists for the union label, are among the points stressed at an open meeting of the Elemen- tary Teachers’ Union, at the City Club, Chicago, on April 5. Miss Agnes B. Clohesy, president of the Union, presided. Charles J. McMorrow, of Boston, national repre- sentative of the Boot and Shoe Workers’ Union, made an address before the teachers which was well received. To many of them the message he brought about the union label was new. ‘They had heard about the union label and its purpose vaguely before, but had never been informed of its intrinsic value to the employed class in every walk of life. Mr. McMorrow said in part: “The only thing we lack in the organized labor movement is power. We are obliged to admit that a lot of the blame lies with ourselves. We can get that strength, so that we can take charge of the calamity that is fast approaching. That is the dis- placing of human labor by technical machinery in industry. None but organized labor can properly take charge of that condition of affairs. Must Betrer HuMAN LIVING “It seems to me that we ought to get stronger, so that the American labor movement can stand for the betterment of the lives of human beings. I feel that trade unionists who purchase sweat-shop, non- union and prison-manufactured products, are not doing their full share in promoting the trade union cause, “If we cannot get our people in this movement to understand the noblest, most practical movement that is, and to put their hearts and souls into it, nothing else makes much difference. “I hope you will agree with me that this can be done. When you go into a store let them know that the union label is going to be the paramount issue in this city.” TeacHers Have Non-STRikE Po.Licy Charles B. Stillman, of the Lane Technical High School, vice-president and former president of the American Federation of Teachers, was introduced by Miss Clohesy. She said that he, has been identified with the movement for the organization of school’ teachers since it began in Chicago. He said that sometimes teachers object to joining a.union of teachers because they have a misappre- hension that they may be called out on strike by milk -wagon drivers, or members of some other union. “We have a non-strike policy,” said Mr. Stillman, “and in that policy we have the whole-hearted sup- port of the American Federation of Labor. We have complete autonomy and the executive board of the A. F. of L. is in complete sympathy with us on that score. Every labor union has complete autonomy. No one else can in any way dictate to us what we shall do. We joined the labor movement in order to secure ample backing and enough power to make our alleged independence an actuality. “} heard of one man who said that our affilia- tion with organized labor would tend to impair the freedom and independence of teachers. The thing that organized labor desires above anything else is that the schools shall be free of propaganda. We are trying to be strong enough to throw that out of our school systems. There is not much of it in Chicago. But in Seattle a superintendent of schools permitted the use of text books that contained prop- aganda favorable to the power trust of Washington. “I am happy to say that the lady is no longer superintendent of instruction in that state. The con- dition found in Seattle is typical of what school teachers find themselves in. Oppose PrivATE INFLUENCES “Usually they are a little smoother in their meth- ods than in Washington. One of the reasons we affiliated with the organized labor movement was to get rid of that sort of thing. We believe that the parents of children attending our schools have a right to know that in the class rooms private in- fluences are not making the teachers say certain things because they will lose their jobs if they say anything else. “I have often been asked if the unions can call us out on strike and whether we are required to make little unionists out of our pupils. We pay the American Federation of ‘Labor one cent per month per member, and this money is not used for ‘strike purposes. They say, if organized labor welcomes us, it must have an ulterior motive. “What is its ulterior motive? When we applied for a charter from the American Federation of Labor 16 : THE AMERICAN TEACHER we very definitely asked them for permission to join them—they did not ask us. The members of the organized labor movement want their children to get a square deal in the public schools. That is their ulterior motive. They know that the children in the public schools by far and large are not get- ting a square deal. They know they are taught by underpaid teachers in overcrowded rooms and that they are not getting a proper education. NEED PusBLic ScHooL DEMOCRACY “Working together we can develop public school democracy. ‘That is the return the organized labor movement wants. That is what we can give them. “I am taking the: place of Mrs. Hanson, of the American Federation of Teachers, here today, be- cause she is in Charleston, South Carolina. It is a ten to one chance that she has gone there because the teachers in Charleston have been getting a raw deal of some kind that creates a reason for her trip. “I believe the teachers do need a protective or- ganization and I believe they need to keep it in functioning order all of the time.” The speaker said that one of the functions of the school teachers’ or- ganization is co-operation with a progressive school administration, such as Chicago has at present. CO-OPERATION Bic Factor “We had reached a point,” he continued, “where the teachers and the school administration hated to acknowledge each other’s existence. It was abso- lutely impossible to do anything constructive. We should keep our organization in good functioning order to obtain the maximum of progress and the maximum of co-operation—when that is possible. We get more pleasure out of the co-operation phase than the other. Sometimes school boards play one group among the teachers against the other. They divide the school force and keep the teachers divided and if they succeed in doing that they can get by with what they want. We should join together to get the kind of progress we should have in our schools. “In Chicago we have separate groups of teachers, joined together, and we think it worked out well in bettering our situation, more than if there was only one group. But we must have all groups thresh out their differences before they go to the public.” UNIONIST PROFESSOR Professor John A. Lapp of the Department of So- ciology of Marquette University, and a member of Milwaukee Local 79 of the American Federation of Teachers, spoke on “Freedom in Education.” Pro- fessor Lapp is an authority on the social movement and on social questions. Miss Clohesy said that he is a practical member of the organized labor move- ment, although a college professor. The speaker referred to Thomas Paine as a man who was out of accord with his day and time, be- cause of his freedom of thought. All men who have insisted on freedom of thought have suffered be- cause of that, he said. Business men, as well as workers, he continued, are influenced by the fear that they will be checked on their loans, or lose their jobs, if they don’t vote for a certain party at the polls. “Who is left?” continued Professor Lapp. ‘‘Noth- ing but politicians who make a business of poli- tics.” He pleaded for freedom of thought in schools and that children be taught to think for themselves. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE INFLUENCE “In the schools,” he continued, “the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t care a rap about spelling, whether the books are revised for simplified spelling. They don’t bother with arithmetic and I think probably the teacher of writing in the elementary schools can get by. Also a teacher of English might get by, but when it comes to teaching economics and civics and possibly even geography and when we come to ques- tions involving somebody’s pocketbooks, then we are in danger. We might as well abandon the teaching of economics if we do not make reformers out of our children. The persons who stand still and are willing to accept things as they are are standing for amonstrous wrong. Anyone who looks at. the world at any point must realize that reform must be continuous. “Whom shall we turn to in these matters? Shall we look to the book companies that publish the books used in the public schools? We have been doing that. Our text books are not as progressive as they should be. We cannot depend upon outside forces to make them so. “Nobody can fix up a curriculum and a source of study but the teachers themselves, if we are going to choose text books and a course of study that is going to get us somewhere. “Tt is a fortunate thing in this country that these things have been exposed. If we don’t get our boys THE AMERICAN TEACHER 17 and girls in an inquiring frame of mind, we have failed. “I am pessimistic about the situation we are in today about education in the United States—not only in the schools, but what follows afterward. We take what we get in the newspapers, over the radio. We have an easy attitude of mind toward the whole thing. Let us seg if we can’t do some- thing for the freedom of education. That’s what the American Federation of Teachers stands for.” Sabbatical Leave for Chicago School Teachers Improvement of teachers in service is recognized as one of the problems in a system of public educa- tion, second in importance only to that of securing teachers with adequate initial preparation. The right to sabbatical leave for the public school teachers of the city of Chicago was incorporated in the rules of the Board of Education in July, 1927. Its pur- pose is to encourage teachers to broaden their learn- ing through study and travel. Universities and col- leges have long granted sabbatical leave to enable their professors to improve themselves by travel. It is commonly believed that the best prepared to teach are those who have enjoyed opportunities which come from study and travel in cities and countries beyond their native environment. College training is only a beginning of the prepara- tion required for any field of professional work. Books and lectures are not the sole, although some- times the best, source of learning. They are merely supplementary aids related to and emerging from, the experiences of life. Reflecting on the seventh-year-off idea may pos- sibly improve the spirit of the teacher and his teaching of the first seven years as much as it will stimulate the seven years following. Looking forward and planning for relief from grinding routine keeps the spirit alive and the heart young. The exacting routine of any teacher’s daily work allows but little time and furnishes meager incentive to continue study beyond the requirements of the fixed program. Unless some hope is extended the teachers they lose touch with the broader aspect of their work and fail as leaders; they tend to live and think in the field of their earlier academic training, and the treadmill foutine eventually deadens their spirit and does not tend to a deeper understanding of their vocatiou. But this is only a minor aspect of the situation. There is a much more vital one tied up in the conse- quent potency of the prepared teacher. The public schools of America help to determine public opinion and fix national attitudes to a greater degree per- haps than in any other country. The presentation of certain events in American history in the public schools creates an American mind kindly disposed towards some nations and too often latently antagon- istic towards others. To have the teachers of Ameri- can youth understand and appreciate by personal contact the life and culture of neighboring couutries will improve international understanding and .nake for good will. If sabbatical leaves are properly or- ganized, supervised, and directed from within the school system, they will be no doubt adequately recognized and supported by public opinion as they should be. A proper sabbatical leave system backed by public opinion would have a far-reaching effect on our international relations. The development of modern science which united us with the rest of the world economically and there- fore politically has led us as a people to devote our attention primarily to the exploitation of the re- sources of our own continent and the building up of our own social and economic organization. Consid- ering the history of over-industrialized nations, it has now become imperative for us to realize that America must become a world leader and that our place can be neither properly filled nor-our part properly performed, unless our people have an ade- quate basis of real knowledge of the rest of the world upon which to predicate,their thinking and feeling. The most important educational problem we now have is to acquire basic international knowledge and sympathy. That was the one great lesson of the war. The old view which classified everybody else in thé world as foreigners must now be replaced by « per- spective which regards other people as associates so far as we have common interests and competitors only in so far as we vie for access to raw material, resources, and markets of the world. These resources make possible the comforts of modern American life. To foster enterprises nations as well as individuals must understand them. There are sixty-eight cities in the United States each of which has a population of one hundred thousand and over. More than half of these cities 18 have adopted plans for granting teachers in the public school system leave of absence for purposes of study and travel. The movement is constantly growing. The average number of teachers per year who avail themselves of sabbatical leave opportunities is * about one per cent of the profession. In the city of Chicago the average is about one and one-half per cent. So far most of the leaves taken have been by the high school teachers and principals whose maxi- mum monthly salary averages one hundred sixty-five dollars above that of the elementary school teachers. It is expected in the near future that an adjust- ment will be made by which a commensurate salary will reward alike, elementary, junior and senior school teachers where equal preparation is shown. When this adjustment is made then the teachers in the elementary schools can afford to take advantage of sabbatical leave as well as high school teachers and principals. In the past two and one half years in Chicago, the ratio of the former to the latter has been about twenty to one. In other words one hundred eighty high school teachers and principals have availed themselves of sabbatical leave to nine elementary school teachers. Sabbatical leave as effective in the city of Chicago operates at no extra expense to the Board of Educa- tion or to the taxpayers. Some people contend, how- ever, that the number of pupil failures as a result of poor substitute teaching is much greater since the advent of the sabbatical leave. Others maintain lack of organization and supervision are prime factors in student failures. There are no scientific data available at present. There are, furthermore, a large number of teachers.in the public school system who have taught for many years who do not care to take leaves for either study or travel as the rule demands. Many would be willing and anxious to observe work in other schools, attend lectures and travel leisurely, but who would not be interested in working for credits at a particular university, or traveling on a THE AMERICAN TEACHER the present ruling. For such teachers Superintendent Bogan has plans pending before the Board of Educa- tion at the present writing which would extend to teachers who have given twenty years of service to the profession, leave for one year for rest, study or travel. In other words, “sabbatical leave with no strings.” John Dewey, when asked recently what he thought of this move said: “This is one of the most humane measures accorded the teaching profession in many years. It is an ideal form of doubling the life of perhaps the cream of our teachers. May its extension prosper.” The dividends paid to Chicago for its total in- vestment in sabbatical leave to date can be meas- ured only as we measure the last drop of water in a foaming cataract. But it takes one who traffics in humans and their production to measure results which come in the form of better ideas, methods, understandings, lectures, essays, souvenirs, pictures and movies. All of these have been profitably show- ered on thousands of Chicago’s boys and girls by those who have taken sabbatical leaves. This kind of cul- ture directed in the interest of society is a commodity for which no city can pay adequately. This spread of a common culture of ideas is priceless. A contemporary historian submits this contribu- tion: “No conqueror can make the multitude dif- ferent from what it is, no statesman can carry the world’s affairs beyond the capacity of the generation of adults with which he deals, but the teachers can do more than conquerors or statesmen; they can create a new vision and liberate latent powers in our kind. Or, if the perversity of their possibilities hold them, they cap continue to put out the eyes of the children of men and let the world go on still under blind leaders of the blind.” NELLIE Marie QUINN, Chicago High School Women, Local 3. The prospect that teachers’ councils will be re- established in the Chicago school system renders timely another brief discussion of them, in spite of the fact that much has, from time to time, ap- peared about them in these columns. Therefore to restate elaborately |the argument here is unnecessary. It will not be out of place, however, to re-emphasize i ° . ‘Teachers’ Councils a phase of it which has received less attention than has the alleged “counselling” function, although, the writer’s mind no less important, and that is the effect upon the teachers themselves of participating in a free and open discussion of school administta- tion policies. That effect, it seemed to me, from several years as a representative in the Central Coum- time-table schedule from place to place, to satisfy - THE AMERICAN TEACHER 19 cil, was wholly good. I noticed that such discussion, and the knowledge it brought with it, secured and re-enforced on the part of the teacher a highly desirable attitude of more cheerful and willing and efficient co-operation with the administration, be- cause it is, finally, upon the shoulders of the class- room teacher that rests the burden of carrying out policies. Teachers’ councils may prove to be the long-desired substitute for the present military type of educational organization. The military idea of a school system is not only archaic and unjust, but is in the long run inefficient, because its theory of efficiency is purely that of the machine, which has a constant tendency to re- duce the teaching force, and most of the officials, to the level of automatons. Its ideal teacher, as its ideal soldier, is a robot. Under such a system the spirit all but goes out of both teaching and learning, except under an extraordinarily wise and inspiring superintendent. Of course few school sys- tems in America have been able to apply the mili- tary theory completely, but there are very many indeed whose officials, whether consciously or un- consciously, make unceasing effort to go in that direction. Such an. ideal, however sincerely held, cannot be too strongly condemned. It is the very antithesis of everything America stands for. In the end, moreover, it defeats its own avowed purpose of making better citizens—unless, indeed, the robot is also the ideal citizen—because it gradually takes the meaning and hope out of life. SysTEM APPEARS MILITARY It may possibly be denied that our school sys- tems are organized on such a basis, but when we examine the plan of organization it is hard to see how such denial could be successfully maintained. A series of ranking officials is the groundwork of it, and each of these officials may give orders to the one under him, and, if he chooses, may make that one’s position precarious. Fortunately he does not often so choose. Our school officials, taking the country over, average very high grade men and women, gentlemen and ladies as well as officials. That, however, does not make the plan of organiza- tion any the less military, especially when we re- member that, as a rule, any one of these officials May give orders to the class room teachers. Such ficial may even have a teacher cashiered, so to speak, without redress. In the vast majority of ‘chool systems the country over at the present time the local Board of Education can dismiss or fail to re-engage any teacher or school official for the most trivial of reasons or even for no reason at all, and when exercising such dismissal may do so without warning to the victim, and without giving him a hearing or even any reason for the action. To be sure there are a few states in which the Board of Education cannot do this so arbitrarily, but it still can in most. It is no answer to say that such cases are relatively rare. ‘That still does not alter the fact that knowledge of this possibility has operated to make teachers the most timid of all professional classes. Now, of course, nobody intended oppression. The military type of organization grew up gradually and is still taken for granted. It apparently does not occur to either officials or teachers that this situa- tion could, or even should, be different; that, if we set our minds to it co-operatively we might begin the gradual substitution of mutual understanding and agreement between administration and teachers. The defects of the traditional system have largely gone without much comment because they were not of the spectacular kind. The danger to the teacher in his position and work is not the only objectionable feature of the military theory of school systems. It does two other unfortunate things: it keeps the of- ficials of the system from intimate knowledge of the classroom teacher’s daily professional problems and point of view, and it keeps the teacher from taking an intelligent interest in the aims and processes of educational policy, and therefore from intelligent and cheerful co-operation. Councits HoLtp Out Hope It is this situation which teachers’ councils, if planned by friends of the idea, hold out a hope of altering for the better. It is surely difficult to see how the school administration could possibly have anything to lose by putting its cards on the table before the teachers, by seeing to it that the regular classroom teacher understands what it is trying to do, and why, and how. Teachers are not naturally either captious or wild-headed. A very few among them are so, perhaps, but if the way is left open for the development of responsible leadership from their own ranks the mere dreamers and trouble-makers seldom come to wield any great influence. The very conspicuousness of exceptions proves the rule. Teachers as a class are conservative, and they do not need military organization to keep them so. This 26 THE AMERICAN TEACHER is likely, indeed, to produce the opposite effect of a smoldering, sub-surface radicalism, dangerous only because it is suppressed. Of recent years some highly placed educators have come to see these realities of the situation, and the proposal for teachers’ councils is one of the experi- mental ways in which a path is being sought toward a more wholesome and enlightened relation between the school administration and the teachers. We in Chicago are fortunate to have already had a trial of this method, and while it-did not revolutionize any- thing—it was certainly not intended to—we found it good, especially in the way described above, by keeping the teachers informed on educational poli- cies. No doubt some details of procedure could be improved, and changes toward that end will prob- ably be made, but the central idea that the teachers have a thoroughly constructive interest in the school system and its policies was vindicated, and that the best of all bases for cheerful and efficient co-opera- tion is understanding. In closing, may there be added just this caution: if you in some other city are contemplating a trial of the teachers’ council idea, take very great care to have the machinery and procedures of the council meetings themselves entirely under the control and management of the teachers, not merely formally, but really.—C. L. VestaL, Chicago Men, Local 2. THE GENEVA CONFERENCE. C. H. Wituiams, Secretary, W. F. E. A. There are fifty educational organizations in the world whose slogan just at present is “Geneva, 1929,” and there are approximately five thousand individual teachers whose thoughts are turned toward Geneva waiting for vacation time to come, when the Third Biennial Conference of the World Federation of Education Associations will be held from July 25 to August 3 in the cosmopolitan Swiss city whose name has become synonymous with international co-oper- ative endeavor. “International Understanding and Goodwill Through Education” is to be the theme of the meet- ing. The general program will deal with the subject from a variety of standpoints and will include many of the most eminent educators in the leading coun- tries of the world. This general subject will be con- stantly in the minds of the chairmen in preparing the programs for the various sections into which the Conference will be divided. The American Federation of Teachers has ap- proved the Travel Bureau of the National Union of Teachers to conduct trips of delegates from their organization and of other visitors to the Conference, Arrangements with this Bureau can be made through Captain Anderson, care of Canadian Pacific Railway Company, New York City, or through Miss E. L. Spence, care of Canadian Pacific Railway Com- pany, Montreal, Canada. In a similar way the Na- tional Education Association has approved Thos, Cook & Son, 585 Fifth Avenue, New York City. In addition, the World Federation has arranged with three other bureaus to conduct approved trips of visitors, namely, Walter H. Woods Company, 80 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts; Temple Tours, Incorporated, Boston, Massachusetts; and In- ternational Travel Club, Terminal Tower Building, Cleveland, Ohio. All indications at the present time point to a splendid attendance from teachers all over the world. Several Asiatic countries, including China and Japan, are preparing to send delegations. India has already appointed a delegation of more than twenty educa- tional leaders. The International Bureau of Educa- tion is making special arrangements by which prob- ably every country of continental Europe will be represented. Moreover, it seems certain that the British Isles, Canada, and the United States will send large delegations. The meeting is especially con- venient for teachers from the United States who may be spending the summer in Europe. All such teach- ers should plan to include the Conference in their itinerary. The opportunity of visiting the fine old city of Geneva, of hearing many of the most emi- nent educators of the world, and especially of form- ing friendships with teachers of other lands, is one no teacher can afford to neglect. Those who attend will experience a benefit and an enjoyment not soon to be forgotten. THE ORIGIN OF GOOD WILL DAY It was in 1899, on the 18th day of May, that a number of notable statesmen and wise judges from many lands, great and small, came together at The Hague in Holland to discuss how quarrels and dis- putes among the nations of the earth might be set- tled by peaceful methods and thus forever abolish war. And so came to be created the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, where, in the future, it was hoped that, all international disputes would NA MS In re to thei has dec of 1926 cially Si BOF FB» &s 4 be settled in the spirit of justice and good will by wise judges from different lands. But alas! the world forgot all about the good will upon which it had agreed, forgot there was a Court of Arbitration at The Hague, where difficul- ties might be adjusted, and the nations plunged madly into the deadliest war in history. Then in 1923, leading educators from many lands met at San Francisco to discuss how the school children from everywhere might be trusted to spread the message of good will among all the people. And then it was decided that May 18, the date when the world’s first Arbitration Conference was held, should always be observed. How much better a world this would be, if the nations would try to get along in Friendship, based on Justice and Good will. SCHOOL PROGRAM FOR THE OBSERVANCE or Goop Witt Day 1. Song, America the Beautiful—Bates. 2. Origin of Good Will Day. 3. Concert recitation: “The fishes, the wild beasts and the birds devour one another, but the gods have made Justice—their gift to man, and of all things that are—Justice is the best.”—-Hesiod (900 B. C.) Song, God of All Nature—Tschaikowsky. Recitation, Abou Ben Adhbem—Hunt. . Essay, Charles Lindbergh—Hero of Peace. . Concert recitation: “Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new; That which they have done, but earnest of the things that they shall do; Till the war-drums throb no longer, and the battle flags are furled. In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the world.” —Tennyson. 8. Song, Speed Our Republic—Keller. Nays UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE BOARD OF EXTRA-MURAL STUDIES SUMMER SESSION 23 July—20 August, 1929 In response to requests which have been brought to their notice during the last few years, the Board has decided to arrange during the summer vacation of 1929 some courses of study which shall be spe- tially suited to the needs of students from English- Speaking countries overseas. THE AMERICAN TEACHER | 21 This summer session will be held for four weeks, beginning on Tuesday, July 23, and closing on Tuesday, August 20. For the sake of those who cannot stay for the whole time, the session will be divided into two sections—Part I, from July 23 to August 6, and Part II, from August 6 to 20. Pref- erence will be given to those who can stay for the whole session. The summer session is designed for college and university graduates, teachers and persons of simi- lar standing. It will consist partly of systematic courses of lectures, and partly of some general lectures on English life and institutions. Its aim is to provide education in the widest sense of the word and to offer opportunities for students to gain for themselves by residence in Cambridge and by visits to neighboring places of interest some understanding of the country, which many may perhaps be visiting for the first time. There will also be opportunities of meeting a number of students from European countries who will be in Cambridge during the same weeks, Courses OF STUDY There will be two principal subjects of study, History and English Literature, each of which will be treated in courses of lectures as shown below. These courses will be selective rather than ex- haustive: they will concentrate attention on the more important aspects of a subject rather than at- tempt to cover the whole field. Further inquiries may be addressed to Stephen P. Duggan, Ph. D., L.L. D., director, the Institute of International Education, 2 West Forty-fifth street, New York, N. Y., or G. F. Hickson, M.:A., Board of Extra-Mural Studies, Stuart House, Cam- bridge, England. CHILE “FIRES” 100 TEACHERS, IMPRISONS THIRTY AS REDS. SANTIAGO, Chile.—The minister of education dismissed more than 100 school teachers who are ac- cused of having red ideas. To day the police in- vestigated thoroughly and more than 30 were im- prisoned, including the former inspector general of the primary schools. A plan is being developed at the University of Hawaii for the furthering of international relations between the Orient and Occident by an exchange of pupils between the University of Hawaii and Doshisha University, Japan. CAN ASHLAND COLLEGE REMAIN FREE? Now that Ashland College is fully organized and also incorporated by action of the state, can it re- main as it has been, free? This question is in more than one mind and it has been well stated by Aage Moller, one of the incorporators and soon to be a resident member of the college staff. This spirit of freedom has been, perhaps, without their sensing it, the attraction which has so moved the friends of the new Ashland. Can it remain free, and if so, how? If we are to have a roof over our heads and live in the modern world, there seems no way to avoid some form of organization, and, finally, the formal recognition of the state. And the state license just granted us, of the seventh of this month, is verily a charter of liberties, academically considered. It guarantees Ashland College against the usual ab- sentee trustee government fox a period of 99 years. It permits us to pay our own way and to avoid, as we plan to do, seeking gifts or subsidies. It frees us from all academic traditions, customs, programs and supervision. But this very unusual charter can- not guarantee the liberties now enjoyed at Ashland. It cannot prevent us from that worst sort of bond- age, self-enslavement. Freedom is to be found and retained only by the individuals who make up the organization and the school. Do we know what freedom is, and, having found it, do we prize it above all the values of life? It is in this way, and only in this way, that Ashland College can remain free. I have gotten much help toward an understand- ing in this matter from reading a little book, just published in this country by Horace Liveright, New York City, on Life in Freedom. It is written by a young man of India, Jiddu Krishnamurti, who re- fused the opportunity of becoming a messiah, or pope, for the theosophists. He might, however, well be designated as the Messiah of Freedom. He shows that each individual, to be free, “must find his own salvation, must break free of traditions,” authorities and revelations, and “make his own peace with life and the universe.” “The ultimate good for the in- dividual,” he says, “is the perfection of the self, which means the development of individual happi- ness and understanding.” Not only creeds and bibles are regarded as a possible menace to freedom, but gods and religions as well. ‘Truth does not be- long to any individual. Truth does not belong to THE AMERICAN TEACHER any religion. Truth cannot be found in the dark sanctuary of temples, nor in the well-lit halls of or- ganized societies, neither can it be found in books or in ceremonies.” “To find the truth, you must give up the worship of the image and fall in love with life.” “Do not follow, do not obey, do not be loyal to any person but yourself, and then you will be loyal to every passer-by.” “It is much easier for you to follow and worship blindly than to understand and so become truly free.” “Life is a process of struggle, a continuous gathering of the dust of experience.” As I have read and reread this little book, I have had occasion to think of some of our Ashland peo- ple. Ashland Coilege will remain free as long as its members remain free like a few of the first summer’s people. And the message of this little book? I can think of no more uplifting experience than to con- sider it with out Ashland group. Truly, J. E. Kirxpartricx. Olivet, Mich., February 9, 1929. EXCLUSIVE CHANNEL DEMANDED BY LABOR WCEL Station in Chicago Will Construct 50,000-Watt Transmitter Looming as a factor to be further reckoned with in the crowded and troubled Chicago situation is station WCFL, built and supported by the volun- tary subscriptions of labor unions and laboring peo- ple. This station was recently granted a construc- tion permit for a 50,000-watt transmitter, but is now adding to the gray hairs of the Radio Com- mission by more or less demanding an exclusive channel on a better frequency. Also certain conces- sions in the short-wave field. In connection with the latter, the Chicago labor station is contemplating a country-wide network of its own, in return for which it is apparently to re- ceive the financial support of farmers’ unions. “We have asked for a short-wave channel to be used in rebroadcasting WCFL programs to substa- tions to be erected in various parts of the country,” E. N. Nockels, secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor, explained, “from which the programs will then be rebroadcast on the same wave length 4s WCFL. By this.system we can send our programs into every part of the country without interfering with any other station, and shall serve on one broad- cast channel practically the entire Nation. This a step far in advance of the present practice where- by a Nation-wide hook-up requires the use of thirty or forty channels. “In addition to all of the foregoing, it is an im- pressive fact that the Farmers’ Educational and Co- operative Union of America, with affiliated farm- ers unions in many states, has entered into a con- tract with us to participate in the program offerings of WCFL, and to contribute on a per capita basis to its support. In this way the farmers of the coun- try will be served by this station more fully and eficiently than by any other radio station. “Altogether, it is not too much to say that when WCFL has completed its broad program—already approved by the best radio engineers in the country —it will serve, with a high degree of efficiency, sev- ° eral times as many people as any other radio station in the world. It is the only radio station in Amer- ica built and supported by the listeners themselves. It is the only station in the world owned and op- erated by organized labor.”—-The Washington Post, January 20, 1929. INSTITUTE OF PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION. A three weeks’ Institute in the principles and prac- tice of progressive education will be conducted by the Progressive Education Association at Pennsylvania State College, July 1-19. It is open to teachers, principals, superintendents, and others interested in the newer attitude toward childhood and in better schools. The courses carry college credit. Topics for the sessions are: The Principles of Progressive Education, The Progressive School in Practice. Development Through Expression. The instructors and lecturers are: Dr. W. Carson Ryan, Jr., Swarth- more College; Mr. Morton Snyder, Rye, New York, Country Day School; Mr. Stanwood Cobb, Chevy Chase Country Day School, Washington, D. C.; Miss Rachel Erwin, Winbrook School, White Plains, New York; Dr. Otis W. Caldwell, Teachers College, New York; Dr. Robert D. Leigh, Bennington, Vt., College for Women; and Mr. Hughes Mearns, New York University. The Progressive Education Asso- ciation has its headquarters at 10 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C. As the result of a joint resolution presented to Congress, the president issued a proclamation call- ing upon the people of the United States to observe May 1 as Child Health Day. ; THE AMERICAN TEACHER : 23 MISSOURI UNIVERSITY TEACHERS OUSTED _ IN SEX QUESTIONNAIRE The full Board of Curators of the University of Missouri by unanimous vote has upheld the dismissal of Dr. Harmon O. Degraff, assistant professor of sociology, for his part in the circulation of a sex questionnaire among students, and granted re-instate- ment to Dr. Max F. Meyer, suspended professor of psychology. Dr. Meyer, however, was ordered sus- pended for one year. The board did not mention G. H. Mowrer, student assistant instructor in psychol- ogy, who thereby remains permanently ousted from the faculty through previous action of the execu- tive committee of the curators. The three faculty members had sanctioned circulation of a question- naire among 1,000 men and women students asking them questions regarding their attitude to sex and marriage. The replies were to be unsigned, and were to be used as material for a graduate study of chang- ing attitudes to sex. The two hundred replies re- ceived were ordered destroyed. “In order to protect the university from a recur- rence of similar indiscretion,” the board stated, “‘it is recommended that the general faculty establish by committee or otherwise some system providing for the careful supervision of all investigations affecting students.” The American Civil Liberties Union, when the university first took action, offered the teachers legal aid in bringing any possible suits on their contracts. The Union’s Committee on Academic Freedom is preparing a report on the case. The National Council for Prevention of War has prepared a very beautiful two-color poster which presents in a very striking and appealing form the actual text of the essential articles of the Paris Pact renouncing war. It is perfectly adapted for use in schoolrooms and assembly rooms. Every school should have at least one poster. It is furnished at the low price of 15 cents each or 10 for $1.00. The presence of this poster will be a great aid to the study and discussion.of the Pact by high school students and to teachers who will be teaching it. It is suggested by the A. F. of T. office that locals secure these posters for presentation to the high schools of their communities. They may be obtained from the National Council for Prevention of War, $23 Seventeenth Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. BOOKS “There is no frigate like a book To bear us lands away.” —Emily Dickinson. XY y, SCHOOL AND SOCIETY IN CHICAGO. By George Counts, Associate Director of the Interna- tional Institute and Professor of Education in Teachers College, published by Harcourt, Brace & Co. The spectacular deposing of William McAndrew as the superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools inspired Professor George Counts to study the local social and socio-political forces which so commonly affect the administration of public education. He characterizes the defeat of Chicago’s superin- tendent as a triumph of politicians in a setting of Poles, Germans, Russians, Italians, Irish, Swedes, Czechs, Slovaks, Austrians, Mexicans, Chinese, Negroes, of all shades of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, of capitalists and laborers—all pushing, loving, hating, and hurrying in smoking, teeming, and vibrating industrialism. To discover the cause of this great political in- fluence the author analyzes the legal status of school administrators and administration, the philosophies of Chicago’s superintendents, and the work and in- fluences of teacher groups and organizations. Out- side the school itself he scrutinizes the power and’ activities of the Association of Commerce, the Fed- eration of Labor, the Women’s Clubs, the churches, the City Hall, and the daily press. With the co-operation of thirteen students in a Chicago University class the author gathered much evidence from the files and records of organizations wherever available and accessible. Proper recogni- tion for such material is given throughout the text. On the other hand there is much matter gotten by word of mouth from sources not recorded in the text. From the standpoint of validity and relia- bility this latter material should receive little weight because evidently it is not far removed from idle gossip and personal prejudice. For example, the Fed- eration of Men Teachers wants to know the source of information for the characterization of them as, “To a considerable degree the organization seems to have attracted the dissatisfied teachers in the second- ary schools.” This statement, they say, is far from the truth. THE AMERICAN TEACHER The study as a whole partakes of the nature of a survey more than an analysis. The array of evi- dence is massive and dramatic and colorful, too, be- cause of the personalities introduced. However, the whole is an-admixture of “fact and fable,” “exag- geration and distortion,” “stories,” “rumors,” “tales of persecution,” all so closely interwoven that the reader must persistently and clearly distinguish between the genuine and the spurious in order that the whole situation not take on the mantle of tragedy. The solution of the Chicago school situation, or that of any other large city, is not easy nor very optimistic. The author concludes not to remove the school from politics, but that “the real business of politics is to provide the channels through which the living energies of society may flow into new forms and patterns.” In the second place he proposes that “in recognition of the pluralistic qualities of a mod- ern city, the boards of control of education be gen- uinely representative of all dominant social and in- dustrial agencies.” Then lastly he advocates a stable professional staff who, from class room teacher to superintendent, will and can assume the “responsibility of forming general policies and of transforming these into educational programs and procedures.” C. A. UNNEWEHR, Chicago Local 2. PROPAGANDA TEXT BOOKS Charging that the revised Elementary Principles of Economics, by Ely and Wicker, a textbook used in approximately 1,800 high schools in the United States, is carrying propaganda for the public utility corporations and the real estate boards, the Educa- tional Protective Association of America, Inc., lo- cated in Chicago, has taken steps to have this book ousted from the schools. In an open letter addressed to Superintendent William J. Bogan of Chicago, the association’s sec- retary, Emil O. Jorgensen, declared that the revised edition of the text book is taking a viewpoint which is diametrically opposed to the viewpoint which Dr. Ely has long held; moreover, that the measures and policies favored in the text are the very measures and policies which the public utility and real estate corporations who have contributed several hundred thousand dollars to Ely’s private institute in North- western University, are eager to secure. Superii- tendent Bogan is asked to strike the book from the approved list and drop it from the Chicago schools. ee ool. tw haSt—‘C;™P ' “SS Cae bee ow A oe 5 oe i ee ee — Blindfolded, He Can Tell— NLY what he is told. He takes everything with his eyes shut and sees only what the boys who put on the , blinders want him to see. Why wait until the house is on fire before you begin to “think you smell: something”? And if you want to know why you’re blindfolded and why all you ever get of any Old Gold is ‘hs smell, read— The Vansuard Series (13) Company Unions— ROBERT W. DuNN (Intro- duction by Louis F. Budenz)—How they got that way and what they are doing for you. (2) Don’t Tread on Me— Woop, CoLeMAN, Hays— What Labor can do with the law. (25) Soviet Trade Unions *—Rosert W. DUNN—When everybody is a union man, what ha (S56) Dan Minturn—M. H. Hopces—A novel about a union leader who married a swell girl with lots of kale. The other 70 books in the series are just as good—and Only 50 cents each Choose quickly because the 50 cent price will last only as long as the edition, because a new 75 cent edition is on the way. A quarter of a million copies have gone het editions—they’ These are not pants-poc library books which you'll want to re-read and pass on to the family. Write for a complete list—buy at prefer, Tene a dime in a dollar b ros choose and mail with the coupon. If you want ten ooks send $5 and forget the postage. At that, you could check any number on the list—blind- fold—and be sure of a good time. The Vanguard Press 100 Fifth Avenue (16) The Remedy for Overproduction and Unem rployment— Huco egestas Teyof wait next to take Fd to read this. (i 1) IsConscienceaCrime? Pry oy ofl ae bak About ti who fought hodad in the war— ineide themselves. 43 The of the (43) Theory asey of Se ocr os: HEP who packs a nasty punc prt (32) What is Socialism? — Jessis W. HuGHAN— Find out just bow terrible it is. re real New York (41) Social —H. G. WELLs ( rest by W. Laidler)— On a clear day, Wells can see a hundred years away. (46) Individual Liberty — BENJAMIN R. TUCKER— You're free—adead give-away. 61 ey f Zarepewn on) orale W.E H CKY Oe snappy by Clement Wood)— ha morals under a microscope. (34) War—Patriotism— Peace—Leo Totsro! (In- troduction by Scott Near- ing)— ‘‘Thewartoend war” is over—enlist for the next. donot ss et fill out the cou- pon—check the numbers you want. To your Bookseller or VANGUARD PRESS 100 Fifth Ave., New York City Please send me copies of the following: 2, 1a,. 38,...14) 2%... 3% | books If 34, 41, 43, 56, 61 Be whee geen be a > ; | for which I enclose $........ at the | ‘Fate of 55c per book (including | postage). | Name WETTTIETICTICCOLOOEL LITT TTT 2 " PDGE sd 05d0b0s boddedasveckedcteu ° LET FREEDOM RING By ARTHUR GARFIELD Hays Arthur Garfield Hays has been in the thick of every recent battle of the war against bigotry, ignorance, suppression and hate. He was at Dayton defending Scopes, he was on the Boston Common when the milling crowds tried to buy copies of Mr. Mencken’s Mercury, and again in Boston protesting vainly against the execution of the two Italian workers. During the great coal strikes he cham- pioned the cause of the miners when their meetings were broken up and their rights of free speech denied. In New York he stood four-square against the stupid censorship of the stage; in Detroit against race prejudice. Now Mr. Hays tells the story of these stirring events as only an insider could do. He has included many incidents and much material of the keenest human interest never before put into print. He has made a moving narrative of dramatic suspense, a story of significant episodes in the age-long fight for freedom. The publisher, Horace Liveright says: “JT am proud to publish this book, hopeful that its dramatic recital of discrimination, injustice and op- pression on the part of organized majorities, may stir the blood and quicken the thought and action of every real American.” Copies may be obtained at $2.50 per copy from the American Civil Liberties Union, 100 Fifth Ave., New York City. The current issue of Child Study discusses the age- old subject of heredity and environment. Having as its topic “Capacity and Training,” the magazine contains the following articles: ‘The Interplay of Heredity and Environment,” by Samuel J. Holmes; “Heredity, Environment—and Ethics,” by C. Jud- son Herrick; and “Making the Most of Heredity,” by Benjamin C. Gruenberg. In addition to these there is a discussion of two biographies, one of Eddie Cantor and the other of Boss Tweed, which show challenging contrasts in development, furnishing a broad field for discussion. No other phases of life are both so inescapable and so misunderstood as are heredity and environment. How may parents equip themselves to deal with these difficult adjustments constructively? They cannot hope to “know all about” a problem regard- ing which sciertists as yet actually know so little. THE AMERICAN TEACHER But they can keep themselves informed as to cur- rent trends in scientific thought. At present these seem to point to a realization that it is neither sound nor helpful to think of the problem as one of a choice between capacity and training as mutually exclusive. We must recognize this inseparable action and reaction. Our ideal will then become not a visionary “perfection,” but progressive adjustment. ‘There are news notes covering the entire field of parental education. Each issue of the magazine contains parents’ questions and notes. These are the problems which have been discussed in Study Groups and express the desire to substitute the finding of science for tra- ditional beliefs. There are both book and magazine reviews. LEADERSHIP STRESSED AS VITAL FACTOR IN EFFICIENT SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. New Book Discusses Educational Efficiency. “Leadership is one of the easiest things to lose— yet it is the one asset that perhaps more than any other makes for efficiency all along the line especial- ly when superimposed upon other abilities.” This is the opinion expressed by Dr. J. C. Wright and C. R. Allen in their new book, “Efficiency in Education,” just published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. , Dr. Wright is director of the Federal Board for Vocational Education while Dr. Allen is editor and educational consultant for the Board. From years of experience both in education and industry they have become aware of the value of leadership in efficient school administration and have in their book analyzed the characteristics and results of good and bad leadership. “In the thinking of most persons,” the authors continue, “leadership seems always to be connected with leading the group toward a desirable end. The term ‘desirable end’ means nothing unless it is defined in terms of some objective, and in the particular case with which this discussion is concerned the ulti- mate object is to increase the efficiency of an educa- tional program through efficient leadership. Many people consider that some of the great military or po litical leaders were not leaders because in their opinion the objectives were not socially desirable. Yet if the question is considered dispassionately on the basis of the evidence it must be admitted that these men showed very high qualities of leadership. A position a.rre “s © ee an of leadership is, therefore, very much like the pos- session of a gun. It may be used for a desirable or an undesirable purpose; and from the standpoint of promoting efficient education, nothing is more dangerous than an efficient leader who is headed the wrong way. Such an individual is more dangerous than one not possessing the qualities of good leader- ship, since the most that the latter can do is to go astray himself, whereas if he is a strong leader he carries his whole personnel with him.” The authors go on to show that permanence of leadership and attainment of leadership are two dif- ferent things; that the old proverb ‘of “more haste, less speed” applies in the case of anyone aiming at leadership; how necessary it is in the field of leader- ship to ally himself with the particular type for which he is best adapted; how certain natural human characteristics tend to work against certain types of leadership, such as the “boiler-room type;” the dangers of accepting the apparently easy road lead- ing to “‘pseudo-leadership” as against the longer road leading to the only kind of leadership which has real social value in any scheme of education. CHILD LABOR IN CONNECTICUT In the summer and fall of 1927, the National Child Labor Committee joined five state agencies in making an inventory of the child labor situa- tion in nine Connecticut towns and cities. Child Workers in Two Connecticut Towns, by Claude E. Robinson, presents the results of the study in Nor- wich and New Britain. In making public the report, Wiley H. Swift, act- ing general secretary of the National Child Labor Committee, points out that, compared with other states which. the committee has studied, the showing in Connecticut is not bad. “In some respects it is good,” he said. “On the other hand, a careful read- ing of this report indicates that Connecticut has yet something to do before she can allow herself to be reasonably sure that none of her boys or girls are being employed to their hurt and that all of are being given such training and education for citizenship and industrial efficiency as they are capable of receiving.” Mr. Robinson’s report indicates that persistent en- deavor is being made to enforce the laws now on the statute books. Few children leave school before their fourteenth birthday; only one boy was found gainfully employed below the legal age; the school THE AMERICAN TEACHER | 27 grade requirement—the sixth in New Britain and seventh in Norwich—were strictly adhered to. How- ever, 21 violations of the night work restrictions and 50 violations of the certificate provisions were found among the 897 children studied. Mr. Robinson’s study gives a clear picture of the conditions under which these young wage earners start their industrial careers. Among the most sig- nificant of his findings are: Twenty-seven per cent of the 14- and 15-year- old children in New Britain, and 32 per cent of those in Norwich, were excused from school for purposes of labor either in the home or elsewhere. The children of foreign-born parents were employed more prevalently than the children of native-born parents. In New Britain the children completed an av- erage of 7.02 grades before leaving school to go to work, and in Norwich 77.33. The two chief rea- sons given by the children for leaving school were economic difficulty and dislike for school. Retarda- tion was more frequent with the employed children than with the pupils-at-large. In Norwich 70.5 per cent and in New Britain 17.2 per cent of the children found their first em- ployment in factories. In general, for a period of ten months following the fitst gainful employment, the children were occupied approximately nine- tenths of the time; during this period one-half of the children had held but one job, a third had held two, and the remaining one-sixth from three to six positions. The typical weekly wage of the children was around ten, eleven and twelve dollars. The boys earned slightly more than the girls. Signalizing the long-awaited meeting of the Dis- armament Conference at Geneva in mid-April, Robert Cecil’s book, The Way of Peace, was pub- lished in this country by the John Day Company on April 18. Lord Cecil has brought together in this volume his ideas on public life and policy, and the essays and addresses which express his views on in- - ternational peace and his “‘unconquerable faith in the League of Nations as the future hope of the world.” If you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter—that is to say, with real accuracy—you are forevermore in some measure an educated person.— Ruskin. JOHN DEWEY ON HENRY GEORGE. Simultaneously with the release of a new (third) edition of Significant Paragraphs from Progress and Poverty by Henry George, the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation invites attention to a new booklet— John Dewey on Henry George. The noted essay of Professor John Dewey of Columbia University is probably one of the finest tributes to the life and work of Henry George that has ever been penned. In reprinting it in conveni- ent form, along with the expressions of important public men, the Foundation hopes to afford a fur- ther opportunity to enlist the interest of the stranger in the great message of the author of “Pro- gress and Poverty.” Copies of the pamphlet are available at the Foundation Offices, 11 Park Place, New York City, one hundred for One Dollar, postpaid, or two cents the single copy. Meyer Levin and his publishers, the John Day Company, are about to enter his newly published newspaper novel for its title-changing sweepstakes. Starting out under the name As Is, it soon became As Was and then Proof. By-Line supplanted Proof. For a brief period during the author’s absence from the country the book was called One After Another. Now it is finally printed and published as Reporter. Before it was released for publication a second print- ing of Reporter was already being rushed from the presss. THE AMERICAN TEACHER The following resolution was passed at a meeting of the National Board of the Women’s International League for. Peace and Freedom, held January 29 and 30: RESOLVED: That the National Board of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom meeting in Boston on January 29, 1929, earnestly request Postmaster New to arrange for a special stamp commemorative of the sign- ing of the General Treaty for the Renunciation of War. We ask this because we believe that ‘the ratification of this Pact is a great achieve- ment of American diplomacy and marks the beginning of a new era in the history of the world and it should be so commemorated. I. F.T.U. DEMANDS EARLY DISARMAMENT Demands that the preparatory commisison of the League of Nations cease further delay in arranging for the Disarmament Conference which was pledged by the Versailles Treaty and by the League ‘were voted by the executive council of the International Federation of Trade Unions, in session in Amster- dam March 23. ‘ Speaking, as it said, for 14,000,000 organized workers, the I. F. T. U. declared that “the will to peace of the workers of the whole world shall be heeded, that peace through disarmament and arbi- tration shall at last be organized by the League of Nations, which exists primarily for the achievement of this purpose.” GO-GETTERS FILCH Founded 1862 A Big Bank With a Warm Welcome The Foreman National Bank The Foreman Trust And Savings Bank La Salle and Washington Streets, Chicago Resources Exceed 125 Million Dollars Without the Aid of Consolidation CHILD’S CHANCE CLEVELAND.—(FP) — Frank D. Boynton, official of the National Education Association, flayed business go-getters who would rob American childhood by cut- ting down the public school budgets at the 59th annual convention of the N. E. A. N. B.— The only non- teaching body of organized citizenry on record for i- crease of school revenues to maintain and develop public schools is the American Fed- eration of Labor. THE AMERICAN TEACHER Local News Cuicaco, Loca 3 Those who attended the regular business meeting of Local 3, held on March 22 at the Women’s City Club, were much interested to hear Mrs. Florence C. Hanson, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers (and also member of Local 3) tell of her trip through the South, organizing teach- ers in Birmingham, Augusta, Savannah, and Charles- ton. ' Committee work is in full swing. Mrs. Florence Kirkpatrick has laid out her campaign to raise funds for the Ethel E. Beers Scholarship to Brookwood Col- lege and has sent literature to all the building repre- sentatives. The Executive Board, meeting April 5, voted to continue its support of the Bryn Mawr Summer school also, as it had done in previous years. Miss Lenore Leins, Chairman of the Legislative Committee has sent two Bulletins into the schools. The first urged members and friends to write their representatives to vote for the bill revising the Com- pulsory Education Law. We are happy to report that largely through the work of Mr. James Meade, president of Local 2, who was loaned by the Board of Education to watch and direct its passage, the bill has been voted upon favorably by both houses and now awaits the signature of the governor. The scond Bulletin urged the support of the Women’s Eight Hour bill, the Old Age Pension bill and a bill “which aims to raise the standard of qualifications for teachers by prescribing the requirements for ob- taining certificates.” Mrs. Catherine Williams, Chairman of the Working Conditions Committee, is gathering information on the methods used in the twenty-four high schools in closing the work of the old semester and beginning the work of the new. Some schools have the work well organized; others have not, and as a result the teachers are much overburdened. A special committee has been formed to study the extent of the use of the temporary certificate for iixty-day appointments among the teaching staff. iss Lena Crum has been made chairman. The Education Committees of Locals 2 and 3 are Working together on a joint resolution and a plan, to be presented to the superintendent of schools, on organization of departments. “Elected chairmen” (not “Heads”) are to be recommended. _ The Education Committee of Local 3 is also work- mg on another project, that of the teaching load. At the present time the loads of the senior high ‘chool teachers are being tabulated from the program tards by a faithful “crew”, consisting of Mary Robb, Marcella Nell, Bertha Farnam, Margaret Hill, Maude Sheldon, Letitia Snively, Bertha Peterson, Charlotte Smith, Lena Crum, Catherine Williams, Myra Whit- worth, Mary Reynolds, Lenore Leins, Gertrude Webb. Two years ago a similar study was made and recom- mendations drawn up, two of which were: A maximum of 5 classes per day for each teacher; A maximum of 200 pupils to be taught per day by each teacher (of English, Language, Mathematics, History, General Science), this maximum to be re- duced to 175 as rapidly as possible. This check will show what schools have attempted to equalize the load and have attained these. stand- ards. At the regular Executive Board meeting, April 5, Mr. Gjesdahl of the Illinois Joint Tax Committee spoke on the work of the Committee to revise present methods of taxation in Illinois and urged teacher groups to co-operate. The Executive Board voted to join with the thirteen other organizations and to send a representative to all meetings. Mrs. Lucie Schacht, president of Local 3 and Mrs, Marcella Nell have been appointed delegates to at- tend the meeting of the Women’s Trade Union League to be held in Springfield the end of April. May 25 has been set aside for the Spring Luncheon. Arrangements have been made by Mrs. Nieland, chairman .of the Social Committee, to have the luncheon at the Palmer House. The two women assistant superintendents, Miss Isabella Dolton and Miss Rose Pesta, are to be the guests of honor. For a speaker we are to have Dr. Ludwig Mueller, presi- dent of a junior college in the Rhineland, now Ex- change Professor at Northwestern University. He is to tell us about certain phases of education in Ger- many after the Revolution. FLORENCE E, CLARK. New York, Locar 5 : The New York Teachers Union has scored two recent victories, the anti-militarism-in-the-schools victory, and the pension victory. The plan of the Board of Superintendents to es- tablish an R. O. T. C. nit in the Jamaica High School first became known in the Christmas holidays. The opposition of the Teachers Union to militarism in the schools was immediately made known. Other organizations co-operated with the Union in the de- mand for a hearing before the Board of Superin- tendents. The promise of a hearing was solemnly made at a meeting of the Board of Education. Never- theless, the Board of Superintendents again, on Jan- uary 9, quietly presented to the Board of Education its recommendation to establish the unit. When this fact became known, the Union sent a communication to President George J. Ryan of the Board of Educa- tion protesting against the failure of the Board of Superintendents to keep faith with organizations of teachers and citizens to whom the promise of a hearing had been made. As a result of our action and the protest of other organizations, three hearings have now been held, 30 and the Board of Superintendents has taken no fur- ther action. There is no way of knowing whether the Board of Superintendents has been convinced by counter arguments that it should not invite the War Department to take charge of the education of our high school boys, but at least no R. O. T. C. unit has been established in the Jamaica High school. THe PENSION VICTORY. The union of the O’Shea Pension Committee with the Teachers Pension Committee under the chairman- ship of Mr. Louis Taylor made victory possible for those seeking to eliminate the death-bed gamble. After being amended and reprinted five times, the Moffat Assembly bill, rearranging the provisions of the school teachers’ retirement pension law for New York City so as to eliminate the so-called death-bed gamble feature was enacted on adjournment day under an emergency message from Governor Roose- velt. Dr. A. Lefkowitz of the New York Teachers Union was active in behalf of the bill at the Capitol for several days prior to adjournment. The Teachers Pension Committee, the three teacher members of the Retirement Board, the active repre- sentatives of the Union, Mrs. Johanna M. Lindlof, Miss Elizabeth Ferres, Miss Lillian Hatch, Mrs. Mabel R. Rees, Mr. Fred Z. Lewis and Dr. Abraham Lefko- witz, have secured against great odds the best terms for the rank and file. In this championship of the rights of the teachers the members of the Union were leaders as was to be expected. The victory is a notable one. If congratulations are in order they go first to the Union’s Retirement Board members; to Miss Agnes Craig for her city vote endorsing the Union’s bill and for standing loy- ally by the teachers; to Dr. O’Shea and Mr. Edward Mandel and their committee for their hard work which made victory possible; to Mayor Walker, Arthur J. Hilly and Deputy Comptroller Frank Prial. The victory is big enough to congratulate all who participated in any way. Membership gains for the month have been for the Union, 49, for the Auxiliary, 26. Wasnincton, D. C., Locat 27 The Washington Teachers Union, Local 27, has sent out the following letter to the teachers, from time to time, during the year. The response has been gratifying to the officers and members. Dear Fellow Workers: The recent presidential poll conducted by the Literary Digest elicited only three million responses from twenty million questions sent out with return postage. This was.another striking illustration of the fact that only a minority ever bothers itself to think. Yet the thinking minority controls not only elections but our food, clothing, cars, homes, amuse- ments, etc. It is therefore well worth while to be- long to this minority. Boasting no monopoly nor superiority of men- tality, the Unionized teachers of this country and of THE AMERICAN TEACHER this city do essay to think about problems affecting their own welfare in the firm belief that it is pos- sible for the rank and file of classroom workers to so effectively unite as to promote and improve their mutual welfare along all lines. We believe in the ultimate professional freedom of the efficient teacher; We believe in co-operative supervision; We believe in discussion and expression of opinion upon all matters to be brought before the Teachers’ Council affecting our welfare; We could accumulate funds for substitute pay, necessary legal expenses; We could do some educational research as the re- sult of our own initiative. All we need for this work is you, whole-hearted, enthusiastic, live, progressive. What do you think a Union ought to be and do? Start the New Year right by linking up with the Teachers Union and experimenting for our own wel- fare in co-operative effort. We plan to have our next meeting an Open Forum meeting. - Question: What are the chief needs of Wash- ington Teachers? This open forum to be followed by an inexpensive supper. Place of meeting: Cleveland School. Time: Each quarter and at need. Dues: Three fifty per annum. A cordial invitation to join us is again extended. Mary Mason Jones, President. Mary Hire Appison, Recording Secretary. ELEANOR RoBINSON LEE, Secretary-Treasurer. St. Pau, Locats 28 AND 43 School Teachers will Give Dance at Oxford. Feder- ations Embark in New Line of Activity to Promote Social Relations. Having decided to explore new and unusual fields, the teachers’ federations, through their joint com- mittee, are energetically promoting their forthcom- ing dance, to be held at the Oxford ball room on Grand avenue, near Lexington, Friday, April 26. Because of the novel character of the undertaking, the membership is watching the arrangement pro- ceedings with keen interest. Heretofore the joint activities of the federations have been, primarily of a business nature and the fine co-operation shown and the success achieved lends color to the hope that the contemplated venture into the realm of pleasure will be equally successful. The school teachers’ federations, while carrying their “own load”, have shown a genuine interest and practical co-operation in the affairs of the general labor movement and have rendered substantial assist- ance whenever called upon. The forthcoming en- tertainment at the Oxford ball room will afford an opportunity for representatives of labor to get a new view of the intellectual workers in the labor move- ment and a cordial invitation is extended to mem- bers of organized labor who enjoy music and dancing. Miss Genevieve Hopkins is general chairman of the arrangement committee.—S¢. Paul Union Advocate. St. Pau WoMEN, Locat 28 The St. Paul Federation of Women Teachers have made a virtue out of necessity and greatly improved their situation by the forced move from the Women’s building at 4th and Cedar streets, which is now being demolished to make way for the new Minnesota building. The Federation is now housed at 372 St. Peter street, on the second floor in the re- modeled structure, which was at one time occupied by Carling’s Up-Town Cafe. The Federation has taken an extended lease on the quarters and have had the rooms remodeled and dec- orated to order, and have made their new home a marvel of art and convenience. Located in the very heart of the city, accessible to the leading hotels, theaters and office buildings of the city, yet free from street car noise and still within a block of every line in the city, the members of the federation are to | be congratulated on the good luck of the organiza- tion in reaching such a happy solution of their housing problem. The part of the building occupied by the teachers was completely overhauled and is practically a new structure. Members of the federation designed the remodeling and decorating and the home has really been made to order. Miss Florence Rood will have charge of the rooms and will have her office there as secretary of the Teachers’ Retirement Fund and will keep open house for the members. It has been announced that in a short time the federation will give a “House Warm- ing Party” to let their friends get a peep into dream- land.—S#. Paul Union Advocate. St. Paut Men, Loca 43 A committee from the Men Teachers Federation in conjunction with the teachers’ legislative commit- tee, secured a satisfactory amendment to Teachers’ License bill, which was introduced by Commissioner McConnell of the State Department of Education. The amendment provides that local boards of educa- *THE AMERICAN TEACHER _. ae tion may secure the services of skilled tradesmen to teach manual training or shop subjects in junior or senior high schools of the state, as ia the past. There has been agitation for the past several years to ex- clude this type of instructor from teaching, giving the positions only to college-trained men. However, the shops and machinery may continue in charge of practically trained people rather than those whose knowledge of mechanical affairs is second-hand. The amendment in question provides that it shall only be necessary that mechanics meet the require- ments as set up by the Federal Smith-Hughes law. Many years’ experience show that these requirements meet every need where the superintendent doing the employing is conscientious. The teachers’ legislative committee secured an amendment to Teachers’ License bill, which provides for a hearing within the county where the teacher is employed. The bill originally provided only that hearing be held at the state capitol, which would often mean a long, expensive trip from different parts of the state. A number of minor changes were agreed upon be- tween the committee and the state department to the satisfaction of all.—St¢. Paul Union Advocate. ATLANTA, LocaL 89 The officers and members of the Executive Com- mittee of Local 89 have been busily engaged in directing a publicity program in the daily news- papers and The Journal of Labor in regard to the program of the Atlanta school system in order to give to the citizens of Atlanta correct information concerning the school program and the educational system of Atlanta. The Atlanta schools have been recently subjected to a series of rather vicious and abusive attacks which haye had for their purpose a program of economy which would entail the elim- ination of kindergartens, junior high schools and many other progressive features of the system. It has always been the policy of our Local to insist on a progressive school program and to co-operate with the administrative officials in securing such a program. We are very proud of our school sys- tem and expect to exert every effort in preventing the abandonment of a progressive program and the return to more antiquated and less progressive methods. At the February meeting of the Local. it -was unanimously voted that we affiliate with the Georgia Federation of Labor. ‘This affiliation has taken place and Miss Allie B. Mann, the incoming presi- dent, and James P. Barron, president, will act as delegates to the convention which meets in Augusta, on April 17, 18, 19, 20. Miss Mary C. Barker, $$$ ———$——— 32 THE AMERICAN TEACHER president of the American Federation of Teachers, was selected as a delegate from the Atlanta Federa- tion of Trades. These delegates expect to urge that the Georgia Federation of Labor use its influence to correct the deplorable and unfair methods which have been in existence for many years for financing the state school system in order that the injustice to the teachers of the rural schools in the state by which their salaries are withheld for a number of months be corrected. At the April meeting the annual election of officers who will serve during 1929-1930 was held and the following officers were unanimously elected: President, Miss Allie B. Mann, of the Girls High School; first vice-president, W. J. Scott of the Tech High School; second vice-president, Miss Lamar Jeter, of the Joseph E. Brown Junior High School; third vice-president, Miss Lucile Nolan, of the Adair Elementary School; secretary, Miss Ira Jarrell, of the Charles J. McLendon Elementary School; financial secretary, Mrs. R. B. Whitworth, of the Fair Street Elementary School; treasurer, E. L. Floyd, of \ the Boys High School. The spontaneous and whole- hearted applause which greeted Miss Mann’s election assures her of the support of the entire membership and promises for her a most successful administra- tion. Miss Mann has been a teacher in the Girls High School for many years and is head of the science department of that institution. She is a woman of forceful personality, keen intellect, and splendid executive ability, and will prove to be one of the best presidents in the history of the Local. The delegates to the convention of the American Federation of Teachers will be Miss Mary C. Barker, Miss Allie B. Mann, and W. J. Scott. Most of the members of the Local will be busily engaged in assisting in carrying out the many details of the entertainment prograrh for the convention of the N. E. A. which meets in Atlanta on June 28- July 4. All teachers are being urged by the ad- ministrative officials to remain in the city for the convention and practically all will co-operate in showing to the N. E. A. members our conception of Southern hospitality. It is hoped that at some future date we may,have the pleasure of entertaining our own convention of the American Federation of Teachers in Atlanta. James P. BaRRON. CaPpiroL COUNTY TEACHERS ASSOCIATION Loca. 188 The Capitol County Teachers Association, Georgia, Local 188, has been restored to good standing in the American Federation of Teachers after an absence of several years. We are indeed happy to welcome back into active membership this group of old friends and are looking forward to a period of mutual assistance and benefit. The officers of Local 188 are: President, Mrs. R. P. King. Vice President, Mrs. Mexico Hembre. Secretary, Miss Lois Jenkins. Corresponding Secretary, A. M. Kemp. Treasurer, Mrs. Sarah Evans, SEATTLE, LocaL 200 Seattle teachers have scored a big gain. With the election of two school board members favoring the right of teachers to organize, trade unionists have scored a gain in their fight on the yellow dog contract. While the two new members, John B. Shorett and Judge Austin E.’ Griffiths, will be in the minority they will be able to check arbitrary action. The third candidate endorsed by the teachers failed to win over an incumbent running for re-election. And tomorrow is another day. GRAND Forks, Locat 205 The Grand Forks Teachers Federation is saddened by the death of their loved and esteemed superinten- dent, W. C. Stebbins. Mr. Stebbins had been super- intendent of the Grand Forks schools for many years and had won the high regard of the teachers and the community by his tireless devotion, energy and en- thusiasm. Mr. Stebbins had been a classroom teacher and a principal before coming to the superintendency. His loss will be seriously felt in the educational and social life of the community. Dr. Jacob Perlman of the University of North Dakota, formerly a member of Madison Local 35, was the speaker at the regular meeting of the Feder- ation on March 20. His subject was, “The attitude of organized labor in America toward popular edu- cation.” FLORENCE Fyeustap, Recording Secretary. CHARLESTON, S. C., LocaL 208 . The Charleston Chapter, Local 208, was organ- ized April 8. Miss Barker and Mrs. Hanson visited Charleston on the invitation of the Charleston teachers and the Central Labor Union. They found an unusually intelligent, open-minded group very responsive to the advanced educational and social program of the American Federation of Teachers with the result that a promising local has been formed. The Chapter is comprehensive in its membership, being open to men and women and city and county teachers of all grades. The American Federation of Teachers is indeed happy to welcome into its membership this group of co-workers and is confident that this affiliation will be of great advantage both locally and na- tionally. We were fortunate in having the enthusiastic and intelligent co-operation of E. R. Jenkins, president of the Central Labor Union, and James A. Coles, chairman of its membership committee. ‘Ul Office o