DO NOT LGan be a! - REFERENCE Siar in education: chilies for democracy IN THIS ISSUE The Challenge of the General Disarmament Conference Laura Puffer Morgan The Teacher’s Responsibility for Nationalism Professor Robert Morss Lovett Teaching Peace Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz Interdependence of Peoples of the World Today Dr. Pitman B. Potter International Control of Child Labor Alice S. Cheney Radio and International Understanding Alice Keith The International People’s College Peter Manniche Education for Disillusionment A. H. Lass OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS Price 25 Cents January 1932 lr 2 g vite Met iS 14 mt ive H| p las - — | . a ‘‘ J * RVICE URL iy 1 HONESTY, AND,TRUTH =X (LIBERTY-OF, THOUGHT AND, SPEECH = = DEMOCRACY: IN-EDUCATION-EDUCATIONIN DEMOCRACY | sixt ‘gee dou hav , of THE AMERICAN TEACHER ne tain OFFICIAL ORGAN OF has THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS ha Editor spec Lucite WARING ALLEN that In I 7 - ecor " with VoL. XVI "January, 1932 No. 9 tion : etme air ¢ T Table of Contents is est | PAGE nat! THE CHALLENGE OF THE GENERAL DISARMAMENT the : nr re ... Laura Puffer Morgan 3 rope THe TEACHER’S RESPONSIBILITY FOR Pre POMTOUUIAE ABE. 5 occ cncccvcsses Professor Robert Morss Lovett 5 sion I Sib ash 0866004026 es eenes Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz 6 von INTERDEPENDENCE OF PEOPLES OF THE WoRLD cate Nee a ah eae wid Blais Dr. Pitman B. Potter 7 the | INTERNATIONAL CONTROL OF CHILD LaBor......... Alice S. Cheney 8 prot RADIO AND INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING........-. Alice Keith 10 natic oe Bg GS rn Dr. Henry R. Linville 11 arm: ROR cea aed | ete ee eae ea ay aoe 12 rem: i a ae iat ae ee aes 14 men THE INTERNATIONAL PEOPLES COLLEGE....-....... Peter Manniche 15 conf EDUCATION FOR DISILLUSIONMENT................005 A. H. Lass 16 ceed NEWS FROM THE FIELD..................-. gilda Pe Dated eae 18 dras EL EL TO TIE 23 may Se ee I I ggg ow ua occ awe se weeadbaeesvaeaees 23 terns the ment We regret that a change in business arrangements has delayed the issue of the January and February numbers |) poss: THE AMERICAN TEACHER. /t is hoped that a return to the former size and style of the magazine may be possibl'l serig in the future. : men 1 e future —The Editor. fact. ence the | UBLISHED monthly except August and Septem- conte ber by the American Federation of Teachers, — : UBSCRIPTION $2.00 for the year—F oreign $22 506 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois. En- Editorial Office —Single copies, 25c. At the time of exp It tered as second class‘matter October 27, 1926, at 506 South Wabash Ave., tion, a bill will be found in the copy. Subscribe" wher the post office at Chicago, IIl., under ‘the . ee are ‘requested to give prompt notice of chang? ginni Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at Chicago, Illinois of address. Remittances should be made! the special rate of postage provided for in Sec. 1103, P20 postal money-order, express order, draft, stam \; € Act of Feb. 28, 1925, authorized Nov. 3, 1926. or check. Nich No. bers 0! possi ditor. ign $22 f expt bseribe changé made * {, stam lawvary, 1932 The Challenge of the Disarmament ference for the limitation and reduction of land, sea, and air, armaments is called to meet at Geneva in February, 1932, with some fifty or ixty nations in attendance. It is doubtful whether we in this country have any conception of the importance of this conference or what it may mean to the world. There are cer- tain indications that President Hoover has some idea of its importance. In a speech before the International Chamber of Commerce, he said in speaking of this world conference, that there was nothing that compared in necessity and importance for the economic rehabilitation of the world with this conference for the limita- tion and reduction of land, sea, and air armaments. This conference, while I think it has in general created no great inter- est in the United States, is really dom- inating the international situation in the rest of the world, certainly in Eu- rope. At the last meeting of the Preparatory Disarmament Commis- sion, both the German delegate, Count von Bernstorff, and the English dele- gate, Lord Cecil, called attention to the fact that this conference furnished probably the last opportunity for the nations of the world to reduce their armaments. That was a very ominous mark on the part of these states- men. They feel that if at this next conference, the nations do not suc- ceed in making a beginning toward drastic reduction of armaments, it may retard the whole question of in- national cooperation, and will put the question of reduction of arma- ments back probably for a decade and possibly for a generation. That is the ‘rious way in which European states- men are looking at this thing. In ‘act, Lord Cecil said, “The confer- ‘ce must succeed. If it should fail, the consequences are too serious to contemplate.” it seems as if the words were trite when one says that we are at the be- pe, of a new era, or we are at \, end of an old era: but President ‘\icholas Murray Butler said before Ti: GENERAL Disarmament Con- Conference Laura Puffer Morgan We All Believe in National Defense But the Militarists Cannot Supply It— Harry Emerson Fosdick the meeting of the International Ro- tary Clubs in Vienna last week, “This year in which we are living is com- parable only to the period of the fall of the Roman Empire or the revival of learning after the Dark Ages.” Ten years ago the determination by international agreement of the arma- ments that a nation should be allowed to have was a thing unknown. But in the Washington Conference of 1921 a new step was taken; and then it became not a matter of intimate concern of individual nations, but of concern of the whole world as to how large each nation’s armaments were or how large they could be in the fu- ture. The Washington Conference had a certain measure of success, but it was followed by failures; and not until the London Naval Conference of 1930 was there another conference for the limitation of armaments which should be considered as any kind of success. Nor could the London Conference have been a success if it had not been preceded by the Kellogg Pact for the renunciation of war, that pact by which the nations agreed to renounce war as an instrument of national policy and to seek the solution of its international disputes only by pacific means. We are, I think, inclined to say that the London Conference was not conducted entirely in the light of the Kellogg Pact, at the same time, that was back of the international situation and that is what made pos- sible what success was found there and the success that we can hope for for the next conference. The Kellogg Pact, by which the na- tions renounced war as an instrument of national policy, means also that the nations have renounced the threat of war in carrying out their national policies. In other words, if they are not going to use war to settle their disputes, they must renounce the means of war; and that means that they must renounce their armaments. The reduction of armaments is nec- essary, not only for the good faith of all the nations which have become parties to the Kellogg Pact, but also for the nations who are parties to the League of Nations, Under Article VIII they have agreed to reduce their armaments to a point consistent with national safety; and more than that, the Allies and the Associated Powers promised Germany, before Germany would con- sent to sign the Treaty of Versailles, that this disarmament of Germany was only preliminary to a general dis- armament on the part of all the powers. This General Conference for the Limitation and Reduction of Arma- ments of 1932, if it succeeds, is to be the first step toward disarmament. It will be followed by succeeding con- ferences, It will be followed by a continuous process of the limitation and reduction of armaments, if it suc- ceeds. If it does not succeed, no one can tell what will happen. Now what does this mean to us? Every statesman who has made pub- lic speeches regarding this conference has said that the success of the con- ference will be due to public opinion in the various countries, will be due to the demand that the people of the country make upon their own govern- ments. The experts in Geneva agree practically that the success of the con- ference will be due very largely to the attitude and policies adopted by the United States delegation there, that the United States has really a decid- ing voice in this conference. The British Labor Government has already given it a strong lead. Then, if this country should throw in its lot with the British Government and should fight shoulder to shoulder with the British Government for dis- armament, we have great hopes that we can leave the conference with a high success. If the United States Government does not take the posi- tion that will lead toward the estab- lishment of peaceful means as distinct from means of force, then the con- ference may not be a success. Therefore, there comes a challenge to all those of us who have to do with the creation of public opinion. It is our job as teachers, if we are inter- ested in the maintenance of a world community the necessity of which has become increasingly evident this year, help toward the creation of this public opinion. Suppose we consider what we can do toward the creation of a public opinion which will help toward the success of the conference, I am going to ask you again to go back ten years and think of 1921 when practically the whole American public made it known, through one means or another, through one organization or another, to President Harding and Secretary Hughes that they would support the government in whatever steps it took toward the success of that conference for the limitation of naval armaments. You remember the step that Secretary Hughes did take, the generous offer that was made by him that electrified the whole world and from the very first day of the conference assured the success of the conference. It could be done by Secretary Hughes, only because he knew that he had the American people behind him. Now, what can we do to create such a public opinion which will, in the same way, give support to the admin- istration, to President Hoover who does recognize and who has publicly said that he believes that the success of this conference will do more than anything else for the economic re- habilitation of the world and for the maintenance of world peace? I am going to list two or three con- ceptions that have been prevalent in the American press, perhaps in the American public, which, I believe, we must re-examine and point out as fal- lacies. First, in the present-day world and in view of the kind of war that the next war would be if it should come, do armaments furnish any kind of security? That they do is, I be- lieve, a conception that we must re- gard as a fallacy, if we look at it anew from the point of view of the events of the last few years, Another conception that I believe we must regard as a fallacy is that the United States is already disarmed to a police status. This is a state- ment that is often made, and they talk about our army as being only 118,000. Our army is composed of 118,000 enlisted men; but in addition to the enlisted men, there are 12,000 officers, there are something like 200,- 000 National Guards. I do not know how many thousand reserve officers there are. There are at least 35,000 of the organized reserves trained every year. There are between 125.- 000 and 150,000 students in the R. O T. C’s. There are other thousands in the civilian training schools. There are 65,000 scouts in the Philippine army. As a matter of fact, as was pointed out by a member of the War Department Appropriations Commit- tee of Congress, we are appropriating money every year for something over 700,000 men, including the boys. Our regular army, counting the Philippine Scouts and the enlisted men, amounts to 180,000 instead of 118,000, a large proportion of which is officers who can be used to train other men, Third, there is the question whether the 5-5-3 ratio for navies, or any other fixed ratio between the armaments of various countries, is satisfactory. I believe that is another conception that we should re-examine in terms of the Kellogg Pact. There is no par- ticular virtue in the 5-5-3 ratio with Ingland and Japan unless we are planning for another war.’ Those ratios were determined from. that point of view, from the conception, of a future war. Since then we have all become parties of the Kellogg Pact, and yet our government is still thinking in terms of ratios, I want to point out to you one or two points in which I believe the atti- tude at Washington toward the Gen- eral Disarmament Conference is not satisfactory. They are things that w- should consider in the creation of public opinion. President Hoover has spoken of the General Disarmament Conference as a conference for the limitation and reduction of land armaments, which implies that the United States Gov- ernment does not- want to reopen the question of its navies; yet this con- ference is a General Conference in which all the civilized nations of the world are expected to take part, and it is to cover all forms of armaments. Should we treat it only as a confer- ence for land armaments? If we limit our navies and if we limit our armies, are we not then going to com- pete in the air, and is not the air the place where the war of the future will take place if it does? THe AMERICAN TEAcue, In conclusion | want to quote wha Dr. Edward Benes, the very brillian young Foreign Minister of Czecho. slovakia, said last summer: “Ther is going to be a Disarmament Cop. ference, and it will be called probab); in a year and a half. That confer. ence will succeed or it will not sue. ceed, and what the peoples of th world demand of their governments in that year and a half will determin which.” National Defense The basic fact about the interna. tional situation is that in any future world-conflict nobody can win the war. No matter whose armies and navies defeat whose, the total eco. nomic and social disaster on winners and losers alike will be so colossal as to submerge utterly the margin oi military difference between the two To rely on armies and navies, there. fore, for national defense, when the only defense they are capable of sup plying will still leave us in tragic eco: nomic disaster whether we win or lose is the last word in folly. We all believe in national defens: but the militarists cannot supply it The only way in which we can re alistically achieve national defense and security is not by armament but by disarmament, not by competitive military power but by the substitution of ordered law for anarchic violence, not by increasing the instruments of conflict and so the temptations to it but by decreasing them. Unless such disarmament is seri ously undertaken and _ successfully carried through by _ international agreement very soon, we shall cer- tainly have another war, and whether Western civilization can survive that is dubious. It is therefore impossible to exaggerate the critical importanct of the Disarmament Conference. With more men under arms ané more money being wa on armamen now than before the Great War, the world faces a desperate emergency and in this crucial hour nothing ca be done without the overwhelming support of the United States. —Harry Emerson Fosdick. An even greater mystery than who wo! the war is what were the ve - se 4 rea ach Str HER > what rillian: zecho- ‘There - Con- obabl; onfer- It suc rf the iments ermine iterna- future in. the eS and 1 eCo- yinners ssal as gin oj e two. , there- en the of sup: FIC CO: win OF le fens: yply it. ‘an Te- lefense ent but petitive titution iolence, ents of s to it is Seri ossfully ational all cer- vhether ve that possible ortance ce, ns and namen! ‘ar, the rgency ing cal relming d ick. vho wor xS. azelte. JANUARY, 1932 The Teacher’s Responsibility for HEN | studied history in col- Wes I remember with what enthusiasm the professors de- sribed the rise of national monarchy in Europe. The Middle Age had dung to two institutions of world unity inherited from Imperial Rome: one was the Holy Roman Empire, the other, the Papacy. These were both in theory guardians of the world peace, the Pax Romana of the Aug- ustan Age. That the Holy Roman Empire was of divine origin was the thesis of Dante’s De Monarchia, and he earnestly hoped for the re-estab- lishment of that institution, inaugu- rating the reign of peace, The Renaissance with all its en- thusiasm for classical culture was un- able to revive the great political ideal in which classical civilization had culminated. The Greek city state become the model for Renaissance political scientists, and the highest reach of statesmanship was the achievement of national unity within strategic geographical boundaries. The Holy Roman Empire became a comic figure among political concepts, and Dante’s devotion to it had to be ex- plained on the same grounds as the intellectual shortcomings of the heathen. Meanwhile the papacy had become one among many struggling talian dynasties; the petty pursuit of temporal power destroyed its univer- sal authority and laid it open to the irontal attack of the Reformation. Modern historians tend to regard the lailure of mediaeval supernational in- ‘itutions as proof of their theoretic unsoundness, They show an uncrit- cal enthusiasm in praising Spain, France and England for their early Success in achieving national mon- archy, a gratuitous pity in lamenting the evil case of Italy and Germany vhere owing to the survival of inter- tational concepts such national unity was delayed, and a fulsome flattery in ‘ongratulating these belated ones on their final achievement in the nine- enth century of this political sum- mum bonum. The intelligentsia of Europe from ¢ Renaissance onward were great Nationalism Robert Morss Lovett propagandists of the national ideal. They were especially fanatical on the subject during the so-called Romantic Period. Then their enthusiasm spread trom the larger units to the smaller racial bodies. Where these bodies al- ready had political independence and a national culture, as in the case of Holland and the Scandinavian coun- tries, the nationalist point of view did not lend itself to exaggeration. It was aniong the submerged peoples that the implanting of racial conscious- ness became a basis of political ac- tion. In the matter of reviving folk speech and folk lore, scholars took a leading part. Czechs, Magyars, Serbs, Croats, Bulgars, Slovaks, Slovenes, Ukrainians, all became race conscious and, under the guidance of teachers, began to assert and defend their local dialects against the larger cultures by which they had been absorbed, to re- cover primitive literary monuments, and especially to discover and honor their forgotten national heroes. The Magyars, suffering in pride from their association in the minds of men with Attila and the Huns, es- tablished a more respectable national hero in Arpad, gave him an “easy number” in the date 1000 A. D., and set all the sculptors in Hungary at work fashioning statues for simul- taneous unveiling throughout the country. The Irish revolt against economic oppression became a_na- tional movement in language, litera- ture, and art, as well as in politics Even in England there arose a ro- mantic cult of the Anglo-Saxon, a celebration of his virtues, and a de- preciation of the Norman conquerors —who were by way of being interna tionalists with their seats in London, Rouen, Sicily and Palestine. Free- man’s History of the Norman Con- guest was a scholarly effort in this direction, and the literary exploitation of Saxon heroes found expression in Bulwer’s novel and Tennyson’s play of Harold, and Kingsley’s Hereward the Wake. There was even propa- ganda, which James Russell Lowell felt it necessary to rebuke, in favor of using Anglo-Saxon words to the exclusion, so far as_ possible, of French and Latin derivatives. The Anglo-Saxon fever spread across the ocean, and gave a special form to the already exacerbated nationalism of these states. I used to recite at school a poem by a Unitarian clergyman named Robert Collyer, called “Saxon Grit”, in which after narrating how the Saxon stood off the Norman whose lust threatened the maiden ladies of the family, the poet intro- duces the United States as follows: Then, rising afar in the western sea A new land stood forth in the dawn of the day, Ready to welcome the brave and the free Who could wrench out their hearts and sail away From the narrow, contracted, dear old land, etc. A rather surprising identification of “the brave and the free” with a single land, and a single racial element of it at that! A parallel has often been drawn between the decline of the Western Roman Empire and the decline of our own civilization. In certain features the similarity is striking, as for ex- ample the rising cost of government and the extinction of private prop- erty through taxation, the reduction of a purchasing middle class to a state supported proletariat with the conse- quent annihilation of business prof- its, etc. In one respect the differ- ence is marked: we have no.barbarian tribes on our frontiers. We have, however, a greater menace than the Romans confronted, in our free and armed nations, which having just missed completing the ruin of civiliza- tion in war are by the law of their being compelled to resume the process at the next opportunity. Throughout the nineteenth century there was great hope that our material progress would automatically result in drawing the peoples of the earth together. Ease of travel and communication, inter- national financial interests, above all free trade seemed to offer means of gradually ameliorating nationalistic rivalry; but all have proved too weak to stand against the propaganda of nationalism. Consider in our own (Turn to page 17) THE AMERICAN TEAachup, Teaching Peace HE DIPLOMATS of Europe, aided by clever propaganda, diplo- matic stupidity and fear, pre- cipitated the World War and then swept the nations of the world into its maw. Victory and defeat alike left them groaning under huge arma- ment debts and taxes, Along with economic and political chaos came ex- treme unrest, the need for maintain- ing the maimed, for pensioning the veterans and for the support of the unemployed. The World War en- gendered changes which are under- mining the stability of existing gov- ernments, if not the whole economic order, So terrible has been its after- math that all but war mongers see the need for disarmament and peace, if civilization is to survive. With revolution, dictatorship and chaos as possibilities, a grave respon- sibility rests upon the teachers of the world to educate for peace. Our first task is to provide a fertile soil in which the germ of peace can be planted, nourished and strengthened. This means we must eschew national propaganda by making the teaching of TRUTH central in all education, and especially in the social sciences. Extreme nationalism or patriotism which feeds on belittling the achieve- ments of others by over-stressing the importance of our own achievements, must be abandoned Neither is it enough to stress the truth about contributions of the sev- eral nations to civilization. We must stress the truth about war, emphasiz- ing its insanity, its brutality, the mur- der and the maiming of millions of the world’s best citizens, the survival of the biologically unfit and the huge burden of debt it leaves in its wake. We further must emphasize the fact that war not only intensifies ancient animosities but also begets fears which militate against all efforts to usher in an era of peace. All such national animosities must be undermined and ultimately eradicated by teaching the truth about national relations and the lack of historic basis for such un- founded national fears. From time immemorial children have been hero worshippers. Since they are inspired by devotion to heroes Abraham Lefkowitz whom they expect to imitate and emulate, let us then, in our teaching, ignore or minimize the place of the military hero and stress instead, the heroes who contribute to the progress- ive well being of the human race such as inventors, discoverers, scientists, thinkers, or social pioneers who dare risk all for the common good. The Alexanders and the Napoleons and military strategists must give way to leaders like Voltaire, Bruno, Pasteur, E-dison, Amundsen, Watt, Keats. In teaching geography, mefe enu- meration of facts must give way to stressing the economic unity of the world and the inter-dependence of peoples; the need for allocating world resources to nations according to needs and ability to utilize the re- sources for human betterment or in- ternational welfare, rather than for mere nationalist welfare which inter- feres with the orderly advancement of man. Let us stress the contribu- tions of various peoples to progress, their humanity and special talents. Let us teach that nations and races constitute a great human family seek- ing a common goal—happiness through peace. A teacher who stresses race hatred or race superior- itv, or who justifies inequality of treatment of peoples because of race, religion or nationality is a greater menace to progress and peace than the carriers of malaria or disease germs, since such teachings make for race hatred, for extreme nationalism, and for another war, with its pos- sible collapse of civilization. Equally great is the responsibility which rests upon our teachers of sci- ence and economics. Modern war is but the harnessing of science to mur- der. Modern war is, to a large de- gree, the logical outcome of the de- ification in our teaching of competi- tion. If the teachers of these subjects will but stress the menace in the ap- plication of science to further destruc- tion, if they will stress, as did Prince Kropotkin, the importance of mutual- ity or cooperation as a basic factor in the progress of the human race rather than the one-sided and erronerous principle of competition, then the in- sane rivalry of nations and the greed which the principle of competition ep. genders will gradually disappear an with it the psychological basis of war Too many teachers, laboring unde; the handicap of false nationalism ani patriotism, have willingly or subcon sciously supported warlike sentiments and given support to the use of gov. ernment funds for the support oj military training in our schools and colleges. They have thus definite helped the development of a militar spirit and an attitude menacing to the development of social thinking an world peace. The support of mil- tarism and military training must le abandoned since they presuppose, th: inevitability of war, and recognize wa as a normal social phenomenon i which good citizens must participat: Disarmament conferences, howeve desirable and necessary, will achiev little without support from the pe ples of the world. That support wil not be forthcoming unless teachers appeal to the hearts and minds of youth by substituting education fo peace, for propaganda in support 0! war or its glorification. Our educa tional thinking, unhampered by m tional, religious or racial prejudices or the fears they engender, must b built upon the cornerstone of inter national cooperation rather than upo! the principle of nationalist compet! tion. When that is done our school will become breeding grounds {0 warriors of peace, for fearless war riors in behalf of justice—economi political and social. As the Legislative Program of th American Federation of Teacher well states, the essence of educatio' is to develop social thinking by givin a true picture of events. Hence, co troversial questions, especially in th social sciences, must be dealt with m partially because truth is basic a truth can be neither loyal nor disloya!. With an international outlook a truth as its guides, education can la a sound foundation for the grow! of a national spirit that leads to mter nationalism and peace, rather than ° imperialism and war. To that ta the teachers of America and th world may well dedicate themselvé tion en. ear an( of war g under ism and subcon 1timents of gov. port of ols and efinitel; militar g to th ing an of mil- must be ose, the 11Ze@ war 2non i ticipate 10Weve achiev he pe ort wil! reachers inds of ion for port 0! - eduica by na judices nust f inter an updo! -ompet school: ids for Ss wal onomi 1 of the “eachers Jucatio y giving ce, con r in the vith im sic an disloyal ok ami can 1a! grow! ‘o inter than ! at task ind the mselves JaNUARY, 1932 The Interdependence of the Peoples of the World Today OR CERTAIN individuals there seems to reside a certain delight, even an unholy glee, in pointing to the way in which the peoples of the world have, in these modern days, become interlocked in their interests and their activities. This corresponds to the sometimes vicious determina- tion of other individuals not to admit any qualifications, modifications, or limitations, in or upon the to them hallowed dogma of national independ- ence. More important than the sub- jective reactions of the antagonists mentioned is the state of the facts themselves, and the consequences owing therefrom. It is an incontestable fact that peo- ple in different countries of the world today do look to people in other coun- tries for aid in satisfying their desires toa degree greater than ever was true in the history of the past. That con- dition has been brought about largely by voluntary development of luxury appetites, not involuntary need, and it could be cut down with sufficient determination to do so, in case of necessity. It—this dependence on foreign peoples for aid—is not, more- over, complete, in most cases, in that it appears in a relatively restricted proportion of the satisfactions of a nation’s life. But it does exist today in point of fact, it is not likely to be reduced, but increased, in the future, and even where it appears in only a limited number of items or phases of national life those items may be of tritical importance to the nation—its wheat supply or its foreign credit. The variety of the ways in which the peoples have become dependent oe upon another is, indeed, striking and even amusing. Italian hat straw seems indispensable to Americans be- ween June and September. The writer purchased a cigar in Geneva, Switzerland, wrapped in a “Neenah- Menasha (Wisconsin) Paper Products ‘0.” envelope. He was delayed in ‘ealing with a student’s program a ‘Ww moments ago because he did not lave a copy of the catalogue of Tsing Hua College at hand. A Mexican gn in Chile wrote recently for ata on the Extension Division of the The eggs hiversity of Wisconsin Pitman B. Potter are scrambled in more complicated and fantastic ways than the imagina- tion could conceive without the aid of the facts—! The results are to be found in all sorts of directions. Psychological re- actions flow therefrom, unofficial so- cial organization is engendered there- in, and official interstate or interna- tional relations are influenced thereby. People—meaning individuals again now—come to look abroad, figura- tively speaking, for much of their satisfaction in life. They come to know of and know about, countries all over the globe of which they had not previously heard. They fore- gather with others interested likewise in the beauties of France or Rio or in the wool market in Capetown. They buy Chilean 5%’s or Japanese Im- perials. And they call for a new con- sulate in Berbera or Fort Churchill; they secure the convocation of an in- ternational conference on the trade in hides, skins, and bones. If the peo- ples have come to be interdependent or interinterested—if I may coin a horrible tautology—they seem to feel that their governments should be also! How far this sort of thing is going to go, what its further consequences will be no man knows. There are some who feel—or pre- tend to feel—that all this interlocking of the peoples may mean loss and trouble of various kinds. It may mean loss of independence to national states and loss of variety in national or international life ; it may mean fric- tion and confusion as well as soli- darity or cooperation. Such sugges- tions have some ground. Life among the nations may well tend to become less picturesquely varied, and less un- even. Certainly international organ ization must increase and national in- dependence be voluntarily restricted. Certainly the increased interlocking of actual interests will create con- fusion and trouble if not recognized by provision of increased organized international cooperation. There are those likewise who feel that we should try to stem this tide, this cosmopolitanizing of humanity. This love of world views, world news, and world life is misleading, say they, this fondness for “imported” goods and foreign styles degrading—and un- patriotic. Perhaps so, but as in its origins so in its later development, the economic and scientific cosmopoli- tanism of our day is almost mechan- ical in its nature. It sprang largely from mechanical inventions in the fields of communications and trans- portation, it grows on the almost me- chanical progress of travel, trade, and finance, and it hardly seems that hu- man impulses, except the normal and fundamental and hence rather per- sistent impulses for satisfaction of curiosity and material gain, have had or will have much to do with it all. Finally there are those who see this process continuing until it leads to a world society and a world state. Some who foresee such an event de- plore the prospect and some welcome it. Even the federal form of such a state fades in the imagination of the devotees of Mr, Wells until a unified world and a unified cosmopolis looms in view. Such an eventuality seems remote and fantastic and forbidding. These states of the United States have not yet coalesced into one society in spite of much greater unity and flexi- bility than the nations of the world, and the nations of Europe show few signs yet of deliquescence, culturally at least. Moreover, even if we had the world society we should have to organize our world state on federalis- tic or regional lines in order to make it workable: a unified world govern- ment would be a too colossal system for any body of humans to operate. But that, short of such fantastic ends, the present interdependence of peo- ples is going to grow rather than decline and is going to elicit more in- ternational cooperation rather than less is as certain as any other form of natural or social evolution. It would be gratuitous insult for one teacher to point out to others the implications of all this for education and for educators. For the study and the teaching of social and _ political science in general and the science of international relations in particular the implications are obvious. For the teacher there are implications even (Turn to page 17) THE AMERICAN TEACHg:, International Control of Child Labor E IN THIS country hear less than one might expect of the cooperative efforts which some fifty nations have been making for the past twelve years to develop and progressively put into force, a program for the exclusion of children under fourteen from all wage-earning employment. The items of the pro- gram have been embodied in a series of conventions or treaties, by which the several nations may voluntarily commit themselves to the passage and enforcement of legislation limiting child labor, The first of these conventions pro- hibited employment of children under fourteen in industrial undertakings. It was adopted by the first confer- ence of the International Labor Or- ganization, held at Washington in 1919, and has been ratified by eighteen countries, namely ; Belgium, Bulgaria, Chili, Cuba, Czecho-Slovakia, Den- mark, Estonia, Great Britain, Greece, Irish Free State, Japan, Latvia, Lux- emberg, Netherlands, Poland, Ru- mania, Switzerland, Jugoslavia. In two more countries, Finland and Italy, all but the formalities of ratification have been effected. The second convention, adopted by the same conference at its meeting in the following year, ruled against the employment of boys under fourteen on vessels, It has so far been ratified by all but three of the above listed countries and by seven others—twen- ty-two in all. The third convention, which was adopted the year after the second, pro- vided that children should not be en- gaged for agricultural work during the school year and stipulated for an eight months presumptive school peri- od. This convention has, up to date. been ratified by thirteen countries, all but two of which (Austria and Italy), are among those which ratified either the industrial or maratime convention or both. Austria has legislation to secure the object of the first child labor convention but has not yet made herself a party to the international agreement. In Italy the government has approved ratification of both the first and second conventions but the formalities have not been completed. A fourth convention dealing with work in stores and offices and certain Alice S. Cheyney other types of employment has just gone through the first stage of adop- tion. The work of drafting such an agreement was begun by the confer- ence held this June and that of next June will adopt a finished draft con- vention which will be immediately submitted to fifty-seven governments for their consideration. All four conventions exempt em- ployment of children in undertakings in which only members of their own families are engaged, thus making it possible for a child under fourteen to assume his share of genuinely do- mestic work. But the four conven- tions together will, wherever they are ratified and enforced, bar children under fourteen from any regular wage-earning employment. Wide observance of a common minimum age for employment has been advocated in our own country also but its achievement with us has been confined to different means. Ad- vocates of a common minimum tried to deal with our internal child labor problem by a single piece of legis- lation applying to the whole country. After two successive federal laws to control child labor had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, an amendment to the constitu- tion was proposed specifically to au- thorize such control. It did not im- mediately receive enough ratifications to be adopted but is still before the states for reconsideration. To protect our manufacturers from the competition of cheap juvenile labor it was suggested some time ago by Mr. Matthew Woll of the Ameri- can Federation of Labor that we ex- clude from the United States all products on which children under fourteen had been employed. The countries belonging to the In- ternational Labor Organization have chosen rather to attempt removing the mote and the beam at the same time by reciprocal agreements to establish a universal minimum age, below which no country shall permit employ- ment, while leaving each country still free to establish a higher national minimum if it can. The reasons for their action are the same as those which prompted the Federal Child Labor Amendment and Mr. Woll’s suggestion. They are, first, the fact that, under modern industria) and commercial conditions, difficulties beset the attempt to raise employmen standards in any one area much above those in competing areas with ever approximately similar social condj. tions, Second, the desire of progress. ive groups to stir a current of te. form in social back-waters. Originally, it was these same rea- sons which led to the establishment of that quasi branch of the League of Nations—the International Labor Or. ganization. This institution was cre- ated, along with the League and the World Court, by the treaties that closed the world war; it was agreed that all nations joining the Leagu should automatically become member: and it was provided that its suppor should come from pro rata contribu- tions of members to a budget voted annually by the League Assembly. Except for the inclusive membership agreement and the financial sanction of the Assembly, it is independent of the League both in set-up and opera- tion. Its sole and sufficient mandate for a busy and useful career, has been to occupy itself with those aspects of labor problems which outgrow na tional boundaries. Its dealings with child labor are oi especial interest to our organization which has repeatedly affirmed its an- tagonism to that abuse. Incidentally they illustrate a method which holds suggestion and encouragement for 2 professional trade union. The program for all conventions sponsored by the organization rests upon two assumptions of its constitu: tion; first, that such fundamentals 0! national standards of living as the agt at which children may regularly b put to work, social insurance policies, and standard working hours are the concern of the whole nation as rep resented by its government; secon ly. that labor should not be regarded merely as a commodity or article 0! commerce and that workers of @! sorts should be accorded the right ! organize. From these tenets, it has been 4 duced that in all deliberative and de cisive function of the organizatio there shall be represented three group at interest—governments, employes and workers. Each member nati! fa the wh qu Ot qui sec pal the ma lar, con mit tex of | dustrial ficulties loyment h above th even condi- “ogress. of re. ne rea- ishment ague of Dor Or- ras cre- and the es that agreed League embers Support ntribu- t voted sembly. bership anction dent of opera- 1andate as been ects of yw na are of ization its an- lentally 1 holds for 2 entions n rests ynstitu- tals of the age arly be yolicies, are the as rep condly garded ‘icle 0! of all ight te en de- nd de: ization group: ployers nati0! JANUARY, 1932 may send to the annual convention ‘our delegates, each casting one vote. All four bear credentials from their sovernments, but only two of them ome to speak for the government, the other two having been nominated re- spectively by the principal organiza- ons of employers and workers in their respective countries, Any government or organization with the right to representation at the Conference may propose a_ subject on which it would like to see inter- national agreement. The Governing jody (a sort of board of directors) receives the proposal and, if it thinks the subject of sufficient moment for such treatment and likely to receive the general support, asks the Perma- nent Office to prepare a report which shall contain a summary of “the law and practice in the several countries” and a tentative draft for a convention. This Permanent Office is a sort of in- ternational civil service, recruited by examination from all countries which can furnish trained experts. The re- port of the office is forwarded to the member governments and the subject put on the agenda of a prospective conference. During the conference, a large committee equally representative of governments, employers § and workers discusses the project for ap- proximately three weeks. It then makes a report to the full conference, which report may be accepted or re- jected, with or without amendment. So careful'is the preliminary consid- eration by the Governing Body and Office and that only two out of thirty- three convention projects have ever reached this stage and been rejected. If the vote of the conference is favorable, the subject continues on the agenda for the following year, the Office sending out in the mean- while to all member governments a questionnaire covering the points of difference which developed dur- ing discussion. The answers to this questionnaire are summarized in a second report and a new draft pre- pared which attempts to reconcile all major differences, This report, like the first, is forwarded to the members in advance of the annual conference. Again, like the first report, it is made the basis of discussion by a ‘arge and representative conference ‘ommittee. The report of this com- mittee to the conference includes the “xt for a draft convention which may % adopted by a two-third majority ot the conference. The draft convention is submitted to all member governments, and, by the terms of membership, they are committed to giving it consideration but not necessarily to ratifying it. Ratification rests with the people of each country and must be accom- plished in the same manner as other legislative reforms. The support of public opinion must be secured, op- position disarmed, the machinery of government brought into action and enforcement made good, in each lo- cality by its own citizens, The Organization does not take part in national campaigns but serves only as a coordinating agency. Yet the position of an item on the program of the International Labor Organization is very different from that of a merely domestically advocated reform. In the first place, it is hard to dis- miss as impracticable, or too sweep- ing, or sentimental, or economically unsound a proposal which has the en- dorsement of a conference represent- ing the governments of the principal organizations of employers and workers of upwards of fifty coun- tries. Secondly, the dread of eco- nomical disadvantage in international competition is partially exorcized by the joint nature of the undertaking, governments having the option of giv- ing conditional ratification to take ef- fect as soon as the ratifications of cer- tain competitors are assured. Thirdly, advocacy of an international program and discussion of the support given by successive ratifications, discourage the tendency to regard countries as wholly independent and irresponsible units and emphasize the economic and social inter-dependency of the modern world and the very real possibility of a nation holding up the course of progress outside its own borders. Fin- ally, there are the vague but potent moral effects of involvement in a col- lective undertaking that has its echoes all over the world. The rounding out, by the decision of this year’s conference, of a program for keeping children under fourteen from any wage earning work, the ratification of one or more of the al- ready existing treaties to this end by twenty-four countries, from Japan in the “ast to Canada in the West, and from Denmark in the North to Chile above the South Pole, including lands of various stages of industrial devel- opment and all possible climatic diver- sity, represents a new type of world solidarity which is managing to grow 9 up in the shadow of our armaments. The abolition of child labor is in any country an essential condition of really universal elementary education. For teacher trade unionists, the struggle of the International Organ- ization with child labor is of interest, not only for its achievement but for its vindication of the use of research and discussion in the formulation of successful practical programs and, above all, for its democratic method. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post Erects War Protest On Memorial Day, Helof Holm Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States presented to Winneshiek county the German how- itzer which stands at the northwest corner of the court house square, In October the post presented a German trench mortar to Ridgeway. It was made plain at both presentations that the cannon were not intended as me- morials to war, but as protests against war and as arguments for peace. But the V. F. W. isn’t going to leave anything to chance. The passers-by, who view these captured German war instruments, are not go- ing to be left to conjecture what the veterans of overseas service think of war. Metal tablets, made by the Art Bronze Co., of Waterloo, are to keep them reminded that the V. F. W. looks upon war as a horrible thing and hopes for peace. A bronze tablet, now in the Jour- nal office, will be set in cement along- side the howitzer at the northwest corner of the court house square. On it is this inscription: HAVING SEEN THE HORRORS OF WAR, THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS, HELOF HOLM POST 1977, PRESENTED THIS CAPTURED GERMAN HOWIT- ZER TO WINNESHIEK COUNTY MAY 30, 1931, TO SERVE AS AN ENDURING TESTIMONY TO THE CRUELTY AND WICKED- NESS OF WAR AND AS A LAST- ING ARGUMENT FOR SET- TLING OF ALL HUMAN DIF- FERENCES WITHOUT KILL- ING. A similar tablet will be erected close by the trench mortar at Ridge- way. Winneshiek county will be given good evidence that Helof Holm Post of the V. F. W. is not a mili- taristic nor war-minded group. —Decorah (lowa Journal). 10 THE AMERICAN TEACHE, Radio and International Understanding . LOWLY but surely nations are growing to know each _ other better through the agency of radio. We no longer have privacy in our group thinking, and our racial prejudices are becoming exposed to the view of the world. This is im- pressed upon one forcibly when travelling in Europe, It is a common thing in Holland to turn the dial from one station to another and _ receive programs from Sweden, France, Eng- land and Germany, within a few min utes of each other. In Budapest it is customary to announce each program in six different languages, In the United States we are apt to think that we have no prejudices and that we are on highly friendly terms with adjoining countries, but radio occasionally brings home some facts and feelings of which we were not previously aware. The American School of the Air, which is broadcast to the entire United States and cer- tain stations in Canada over the Col- umbia Broadcasting System, has been presenting a series of history dramas for three years. These dramas have been carefully checked as to their au- thenticity and they have been well re- ceived in the schools of the United States. Last year, however, an indig- nant message was received from Can- ada after the broadcast of a drama about Dolly Madison and the burning of Washington. The Canadians ob- jected seriously to having the Red Coats put in an unfavorable light. The writers of the scripts were wholly unconscious of having said anything that could possibly offend. Unques- tionably all nations must and will be- come more international minded as in- ternational broadcasting becomes more common. Knowledge, interest, understanding, friendship is the in- evitable sequence, we may believe. One of the most interesting series of programs sent out by the Colum- bia Broadcasting System is the Sun- day series which originates in Lon- don. When we actually hear the voices of Gandhi, Bernard Shaw, the Prince of Wales, John Masefield, Pre- mier McDonald, Michael Faraday and Hugh Walpole, we feel nearer to the nations across the Atlantic. During the Christmas week the Mayor of Nuremburg spoke on “Toys” and St. Thomas’ Choir of ‘armament Conference Alice Keith Leipzig presented a program of Ger- man Christmas Carols, The Choir of Kings College Chapel in Cambridge and a chorus from Heidelberg Uni- versity came to schools and homes in America. On the 17th of March, a chorus of school children will broadcast a pro- gram of Irish ballads to the inter- mediate grades, over the American School of the Air, and on April 12th, there will be a broadcast from Lon- don of British music. These are fore- runners in an extended series which will probably be broadcast next year. . Both of the national networks are broadcasting meetings of the Dis- By means of radio, every individual who listens in can participate in the making of his- tory, in a way that he never could have in years gone by. Because of the great interest in in- ternational affairs this year, the American School of the Air (broad- cast over seventy-three stations each afternoon at 2.30 E. S. T.) is concen- trating on the theme of world brother- hood, not only through its history pro- grams but through geography, litera- ture and current event talks. The American history dramas, instead of emphasizing the differences of opinion and the conflicts that have existed be- tween countries, are this year portray- ing the lives of men from different countries who have contributed to the development of the United States— Amerigo Vespucci from Italy, Ponce de Leon from Spain, Peter Stuyve- sant from Holland, Pere Marquette from France, Von Steuben from Ger- many, etc. The second semester of history is devoted to builders of civilization, rather than heroes of conquests, Fas- cinatingly interesting tales of the an- cients are presented in drama form— Hatasu, the Egyptian Queen; Herod- otus, called the “Father of History”; Archimedes, the inventor; Justinian, the lawgiver; and other characters like |Haroun-Al-Raschid, Charle- magne, Alfred the Great, Eric the Red, Marco Polo and_ Albrecht Diirer. These great men lived in Egypt, Greece, Rome, Bagdad, France, England. Scandinavia, Italy and Germany. Students who listen to these dramas become coriscious not only of their indebtedness to the past but also of their indebtedness to the great civilization builders who have lived in all parts of the world, In the Geography programs of the American School of the Air, the Folk and Art Music of many countries js presented from the point of view oj its ability to express the culture of different peoples. Dr. Paul Monroe. President of the World Federation oj Education Associations, was the first speaker on that series. Dr. J. Russell Smith, Professor of Economic His. tory at Columbia University, will give two talks—one on Scandinavia and one on the peoples who make up the United States. Madame Pirie-Beyea, who has travelled in all parts of the world, has discussed Russia, old and new, and the changed map of Central Kurope. In her inimitable gossipy manner, Madame Pirie-Beyea always seems to bring her listeners person- ally to the countries she knows s0 well. There is even an attempt in the music periods designed for the pri- mary and intermediate grades to bring international consciousness to the minds of the little children listening in. Miss Dorothy Gordon, widely known as a singer of children’s songs has presented folk songs, which she herself has collected from different countries, to the various age groups. In December, she gave a program of folk music of France to High Schools —songs which she _ herself had gathered in the provinces. The literature dramas also take on an international aspect—each play be- ing arranged from a famous story oF legend of some particular country. “The Chinese Legend of the Bell,” Cervantes’ “Don Quixote,” Pushkin’s “Russlan and Ludmilla,” the medieval “Song of Roland,” Ouida’s “Nur berg Stove,” “The Story of the Wooden Horse” from the [laid, the Anglo-Saxon epic “Beowulf,” “Lorna Deone” and the East Indian tale 0 “Harisarman” comprise the list pre sented during the course of the year. Perhaps the most important of al of the series from the point of view of emphasis on international under- standing is the Current Events Series. presented by Dr. Charles Fleischer At various times, authorities on i ternational problems have spoken. On (Turn to page 15) du to ine su of art bu ter the no ce cle vo CHER Ig to the > have Of the e Folk TIES is iew of ure of [onroe. tion of 1e first Russel] c His- ill give ia and up the Seyea, of the ld and -entral rOSSIPY always erson- WS SO in the € pri- » bring > the tening widely songs ‘h she ferent roups am of chools had ke on ay be- ory or untry. Bell,” hkin’s dieval Nurn- f the d. the Lorna ale of t pre- year. of all view inder- series, scher yn iM n, On IANUARY, 1932 11 The President’s Page From Profits to Poverty HEN captains of industry, financiers, stock gamblers, and employers in general are ‘ding on waves of prosperity and (000 per cent profits, they are con- ent with seeing wage earners receive od or even high wages. But let gme mills close, and stocks go down, and profits decrease! Movements won develop to reduce wages in order io maintain dividends and the ideal of profits—not low profits, but profits that are high enough to be attractive io investors. We who are not used to million-dollar incomes are not in 4 position to realize the state of acute suffering that may come to those who are suddenly obliged to adjust their affairs to half-million dollar incomes. But we do understand how it is that half-million dollar incomes may be raised somewhat by reducing wages. The Economic Loyalty of Boards of Education It so happens that the membership of boards of education is made up largely from the social groups that have incomes that represent the profits irom labor. Board of education mem- bers are not necessarily large income drawers, but they are the economic de- pendents of those who do have large incomes. For that reason, the mental transfer to regarding public school teachers as employees of a big busi- ness is a natural and easy one. The Schools Caught in the Net of a Formula — The movement for ten per cent re- ductions of teachers’ salaries happens to be exactly what has been made in industries. This identity of per cent Suggests the severe application of a measuring stick to the social industry of education with the idea that stand- ards and procedures derived from business will work anywhere. So long as teachers, school officials and others concerned with the main- ‘nance of the public schools accept the current interpretations of eco- tomic burdens, the schools will have 0 bear retrenchments. It may be ac- cepted that the schools should be kept lose to the sympathies and the un- derstanding of the people, but this in- Wolves us in obligations and restric- Dr. Henry R. Linville tions. Moreover, there are ways of fooling the school people since they are generally viewed as impractical and lacking in business sense anyway. But there is no way out of it. We must learn something about the game in which the cards are liable to be stacked against us. A Scene from the Tragedy It sometimes happens that the trag- edy of economic compulsion is so in- volved that not even a Eugene O’Neill could unravel its essential intricacies. but a striking scene of the drama was enacted recently in New York that makes the compulsion and its working out to affect the social institution of education as clear as noonday. Mayor Jimmie Walker, believing that the great bankers of Gotham were prepar- ing to “squeeze” the City of New York issued a strong denunciation, and tried unsuccessfully through Senator Copeland to induce Congress to offer a helping hand to indigent big cities. The bankers replied in genteel fashion to the bumptious mayor, stating that the City of New York must institute extensive econo- mies to put itself in a sound financial condition. The Mayor lost no time in sending word around to the muni- cipal departments calling for cuts in expenditures. On the morning these paragraphs are being written Mr. George J. Ryan, the President of the New York Board of Education an- nounced that after a conference with the City’s Budget Director, the Board of Education has fallen into line with the Mayor’s order. The Board has de- ferred the appointment of six hun- dred elementary and junior high school teachers, and also the filling of three hundred forty new high school teaching positions, and will fill the latter with substitute teachers. The deferred expenditure amounts to $1,- 380,000. There are also $3,318,760 worth of school building contracts which can be postponed. Thus, nearly $5,000,000 can be withdrawn at least temporarily from expenditure for what is acknowledged to be absolutely pressing needs. This was easy to do. But let us see where it leaves the problem of running the school system on anything like a social basis, or even on a business basis. The school contracts that are now to be held up in New York are for the construction of school buildings which were needed when they were first mentioned in the yearly program of the Board of Superintendents. Ordinarily, it requires three years to plan for and erect a school building in New York as against six months to one year for a skyscraper corporation building. Part-time classes, double or triple-session schools and _ over- crowded classes result. Somebody Must Do Some Thinking As against the condition of crowd- ing thus accumulating, New York City has five thousand licensed teach- ers who are awaiting positions, The schools are using some of this num- ber as substitute teachers at a wage lower than they would have to pay teachers holding regular positions. Perhaps two thousand or more of this number cannot be appointed within the three-year period in which a li- cense remains valid. Meanwhile, the teacher training colleges are pouring out thousands of potential teachers every year, most of whom are being prevented from getting on the eligible list by increasingly difficult examina- tions. As if to transform the tragedy into a cynical farce the training col- leges are increasing their facilities ap- parently in the race to become other examples of New York’s bigness, Why Not Teachers? It seems to me that in this era of depression we show ourselves in the school business to be as hysterical and as much without a statesmanlike pol- icy aS we were in the period of the World War. In that state of mind, and absence of policy, we have queer things done to us. When strong men become hysterical, the defenseless suf- fer. As teachers we have no call to be vain of our defenseless condition. But when the powerful are foolish, we might seize the opportunity to call attention to the fact that the schools are about our best chance to prepare for an order of society in which the blind and futile conduct of our social business may be changed to the prac- tice of enlightened procedures. This thought involves no provision for maintaining any dividends, except some dividends towards the building of a more highly endowed humanity. 12 It is easier to hate war than it is to hate in ourselves those things that make for war. —Ernest Fremoni Tittle. The opening of the General Dis- armament Conference in Geneva to the accompaniment of the bombs of a threatened war in the Far East has emphasized what thinking minds have long recognized, that treaties and pacts cannot prevent wars. The barking of the militarist press and the attempts to discredit all ef- forts toward armament reductions may be disregarded, but the coin- cidence may well emphasize the more fundamental work needed if nations are indeed to abandon war as an in- ternation arbiter. Not only must the world mind be turned against war as a futile means of attaining national good, but it must be led to revalue emotions and ambitions which have long been esteemed as patriotism and loyalty. The general consternation which swept over the world at the news of the hostilities in Manchuria and the haste with which governments brought to bear their diplomatic resources to stop them, gave ample evidence that the Paris Pact was a genuine expres- sion of the will to peace which has gripped the world. But that a Sino- Japanese war could be threatened shows that the world is not yet free from danger of outbreaks of the war mind. Undoubtedly Dr. Tittle has indi- cated the next objective to be at- tained. Hating war has become, for- tunately, easy for this generation, The Private Peets and the Remarques have done their work well. The glamour of war has happily been largely dis- pelled. The economists have aided by tracing to the 186 billion war costs the present economic conditions from which the world suffers. The thir- teen years intervening have heightened rather than lessened the horrors of the World War, and immeasurably increased the realization of its de- vastations. But that any great proportion of the people of the world grasp the signifi- cance of those psychological and eco- nomic forces which cause war no one can maintain. Herein lies the significance of the schools of all lands. Intellectual com- prehension of the economic principles Democracy involved is a matter of education. Still more is the elimination of nar- row nationalistic emotions and senti- ments and the upbuilding of broadly humanitarian sympathies and _ inter- ests a function of the schools, Emo- tional forces are the driving power of all life and these take their rise largely in childhood. So while the eyes of the world turn in hope to Geneva where the diplo- mats of the nations of the world seek for those agreements which shall lift the burden and the menace of huge armaments from the suffering peoples, teachers in every land can turn their eyes on their own classrooms and realize that therein lies the real hope for the lasting peace of the world. The Present Crisis State supported education is men- aced today with the gravest dangers. I-ducational journals the world around give evidence that economic condi- tions are reducing public revenues to an alarming extent, and that almost universally the schools are seen as the first place to cut. Actual decrease in public expendi- tures is undoubtedly necessary in many if not most American com- munities. The daily press reports show many cities with failing credit, if not actually bankrupt, because bud- gets do not balance. Unfortunately the social vision of those to whom the budget balancing falls is often not of the highest order, and the task is no child’s play. The salaries of teachers, as one of the largest items of public expense, inevitably presents itself as the easiest money in sight, Salaries of political appointees are sacrosanct—they are sources of revenue and votes for the politician and the party. Business contracts where enormous waste and graft might often be easily uncovered, are also invisible behind the screen of their political value. Educational salary funds, unprotected by political power or wealth, are the only un- resisting place for economies. Even policemen and firemen as guardians of property are less open to the attack of the political budget balancer. Offsetting this powerful protection of the politically useful, the schools have as their guard and defense the American reverence for education, the devotion of the American people to THE AMERICAN TEACHE; in Education the public school. This is real, it js powerful—powerful enough, if we have the means and know how t use it. But in thousands of America, AN communities the teachers are unor.§ ganized, inexperienced in political an; legislative work, unaccustomed t reaching the public, and the predica- ment of the schools is truly alarming The general public is interested jin the schools, but profoundly ignorant oj their needs. The political demagogue can make the school budget sound extravagantly large. The teachers are inarticulate because they ar scattered and leaderless. The chil. dren know not that they suffer, Organized teachers have in this crisis a challenge to prove their strength and their social vision, With machinery organized, workers trained, morale developed by unity, they are in a position to serve their communi- ties and its children, their country and its schools, In Re Salary Cuts Far from assuring are news items appearing in the press, of school boards who seek to reduce salary schedules, or in some cases to suspend annual increments. The reduction of the teaching force accomplished by increasing class size and teacher load does not get into the papers but we know it is going on. Unfortunately the psychology oi the time makes resistance hard Teachers and public alike can too easily drop into a non-resistance at titude—a hard time, everyone must take a cut, lucky to have a job at all For teachers this attitude of per- sonal resignation is more than unin- telligent, it is betrayal of a trust. It is failure to realize the significance of their work, and that failure is so cial crime. We let the world, we even let our- selves, forget that schools exist tor children. As individuals we may be selfish or we may be altruistic, but a teachers we have no right to keep stil and see children cheated, Adequate salaries do mean hap pier teachers, but the importatl thing is they mean better ones. Ade- quate salaries mean relief from nat cial strain which must affect school: room atmosphere. Adequate salaries mean release from outside wor .\ CHE, )n al, it is if we how to mericay > unor- ical ang ned to redica- arming sted in rant of lagogue sound eachers cy are e chil- er, in this + their . With Trained, ley are nmuni- try and > items school salary uspend tion of ed by r load jut we gy of hard in too ice at: must at all. f per- unin- st. It ficance iS SO- t OUr- st for ray be but as op still hap ortant 1932 ANUARY, 13 Education for Democracy sich drains physical, mental and siritual resources away from the ormously important work in the .achers’ hands, It isn’t self-seeking 1 ight for that—it is social service. No Time for Defeatists The extreme danger of acquies- nce now in a philosophy of despair an scarcely be exaggerated. The public schools of America have ing been its boast and its security. They stand today in this period of igos and bewilderment as a stabiliz- ag social force. Their demoralization vould not only be a present calamity wt would entail perhaps years of druggle for their rebuilding. The teachers of today have the seatest social opportunity and obli- ation accorded to teachers in a gen- sation. Amid the frantic blind seek- s¢ for a way out of the dilemma casioned by shrinking public reven- «s and increasing school population, ihe teachers must assume the respon- ibility of placing squarely before the wublic the gravity of the danger which ies in crippling the efficiency of their chool systems. In a number of communities it is »parent that public officials have en willing to put the schools last istead of first. Other public em- jloyees have been paid while teachers ave gone unpaid. Other functions i government are carrying on while chools are closing. It may be said with truth that this ‘the problem of the community— not of the teachers. Teachers have ” more concern with this than other ‘itizens, Very true, but they have no ss, On every citizen rests the re- ponsibility of remedying conditions 0 the full extent of his power. But power and will to do must grow out ' knowledge of conditions. And ‘herein lies the teachers’ unique re- ‘ponsibility. No one knows how far ‘om well it is with the schools ex- ‘pt the teachers—not the school wards, not public officials, not even ‘he parents. If the teachers fail to arouse their munities by frank and forceful brtrayal of the dangers existent and Ade- jinan- chool- slaries work threatened, fail to enlist the public nthe fight to protect this greatest of American institutions, they will have proved themselves inadequate in an ‘mérgency, they will have failed in a Crisis, Civil Rights for Teachers The Detroit Board of Education scores again! Compulsory high school courses in Economics last time, free speech for teachers this time. To Dr. Walter Bergman be great credit for the outstanding example he has given the educators of America of intelligence, courage and respect tor his profession. Professor of Education at Detroit Teachers College and commander of the Thomas Jefferson Post of the American Legion, Dr. Bergman pro- tested at the establishment of R. O. T. C. units in the Detroit City Col- leges as a violation of the Kellogg Peace Pact. The resolution offered by one mem- ber of the Board that Dr. Bergman be tried and dismissed if found guilty was not even accorded the attention of a vote. The substitute resolution which expressed the sense of the Board that teachers should feel free to express their opinions outside of the classroom upon all subjects with- out fear of official reprimand or co- ercion, carried by a 6 to 1 vote. Con- gratulated, Dr. Bergman expressed gratification that the way was now clear for the battle for free expression in the classroom—and that is the best of the story. The Detroit Times, itself a sup- porter of “preparedness” and military training, comments editorially on the fact that “a lot of thinking people appeared on the side of those who still feel that when a school teacher signs a contract he does not surrender those sacred and inalienable rights of an American citizen that are clearly de- fined in the Constitution.” On the fact that some of those present at the meeting expressed themselves as be- lieving in free speech “with reserva- tion” the Times observes, “There is no such thing.” The Times also quotes Judge Pat- rick O’Brien’s significant statement to the Board: “T am a firm believer in prepared- ness, but I am a stronger believer in the fundamental right of free speech. Shall we say that a man or woman must surrender independence of thought upon becoming a teacher and act merely as a parrot, reciting what the Board of Education dictates ?” It is not very conducive to pride of profession for teachers to hear their claims to the constitutional rights of American citizens the subject of de- bate, even if the “ayes” win; but we are gratified to find a Board of Edu- cation which had voted for the estab- lishment of a military unit yet voting 6 to 1 that an employee had a right to disagree and publicly to express the disagreement, If this is its Board of Education and Dr. Bergman is a teacher of its teachers, the world may expect some- thing in the way of intellectual leader- ship to come out of Detroit some day. An Illuminating Contrast To the National Office this week came two editorials from the Mem- phis press which reflect two widely differing reactions to the proposal to cut the salaries of the Memphis teachers. Says the CoMMERCIAL APPEAL: It is to be hoped that the teachers will accept the situation in good faith and face it with the courage that a crisis re- quires. The ComMMERCIAL APPEAL seems to know where a gallant resistance may be expected, It continues: Members of the teachers’ union may be inclined to follow the policy of their par- ent organization, the American Federation of Labor, in opposing reductiogs in pay. This would be unfortunate. The board of education does not recognize the school teachers’ union and failure to cooperate in the emergency might militate against fu- ture employment. The Commercial Appeal would like to see the school situation adjusted without friction and with the least possible incon- venience to anyone. From the Mempuis Lapor Re- VIEW we get a different note, As we reflect, life for the city school teachers has been just one betrayal after another. If the city of Memphis should ever de- fault a bank note what a roar would go up from the Shylocks of Madison and Monroe avenues. But if we default an obligation to our school system and our school teachers—well what of it? The Memphis public schools have been built up to their present standards through the instruction of competent teachers. To reduce the pay of our teachers would be not only a gross injustice to the teachers themselves, but it would weaken materially the entire public school structure. If the people of Memphis lose this fight for the supremacy of their educational in- stitutions over the three-ball tactics of the financial dictators then the shame of it will be visited upon posterity a hundred years hence. We shall not point the moral, but we commend these editorials from the CoMMERCIAL APPEAL and_ the L.aBor Review to the attention of all teachers who have not forgotten what their heads are for. 14 The First Line Defense UMANITY, according to H. G. Wells, is today engaged in a race between enlightenment and catastrophe. Several teachers in Chicago high schools, desiring to have definite data as to the chances for en- lightenment, in so far as the younger generation is concerned, presented to classes, from the first to the fourth year inclusive, lists of questions, call- ing for the pupils’ views on topics of current interest. “This is not a test,” the teachers announced. “You need not even sign your names unless you wish. Just give your frank opinion on each subject.” Under these conditions, the pupils went to work with more than ordinary enthusiasm, One student could not refrain from writing at the top of his paper, “This questionnaire is a good idea. It gives the pupil a chance to express his opinion, a thing which isn’t done very much here.” The papers were encouraging and heartening beyond expectations, re- vealing much of the independence of thought, of the world-mindedness, and the sense of the unity of the world for which progressive teachers are always searching. The discussions on the question, “What do you think of war and the future of war?” were par- ticularly interesting. The answers, of which there were 187, have been classified in two divisions, those which condemn war altogether, numbering 167, and those which see some justi- fication for it, numbering 20. Of the latter the following excerpts are typical: War is a terrible thing but unavoidable and in case of future wars think we should be prepared. If we're prepared they'll think twice before declaring war on us. A country fighting for herself and the benefit of her citizens should go to war; but poking around in other people’s business as the United States with China is drasti- cally wrong and should be prevented. % & I think there will be plenty more wars, and that war is the way God planned everything, when the earth is getting too crowded to kill them off. & % War? Everybody dislikes war. It brings many sorrows but in the end the war helps to make the country prosperous. The remaining excerpts are repre- sentative of the papers expressing en- tire condemnation of war. 2, 2, “° ~~ I think war is the most outrageous thing ever thought of. Why should a country sacrifice her young men to die or to be wounded just to satisfy the controversy over which two nations are fighting? War i - nothing but ruin a country and set it back. *, *, ~~ ~ Of course I am thoroughly against war and the horrors of war and personally am interested in some plan which would com- pletely guarantee the world forever against the ravages of war. At present I believe we are making some headway toward this goal, but I believe that it would be quite possible for war to break out between several countries in the near future. How- ever looking way ahead I think that some yd the world will be free from war—some day. Countries who start a war have a big army and want to show off. An example is Germany, she wanted to show the world how strong she was and lost—now it’s a different story for Germany. The same thing is going to happen to Japan. 2, i? “° “. I personally think that war is horrid. Many people think of war as fun and adventure, but i think that human lives shouldn’t be sacrificed because of a dis- agreement between countries. 2, , “° “ee I think war is a contemptible way to settle disputes. Why can’t countries settle difficulties peaceably ? 2. 2. “ ~° War is unnecessary—the terms can be settled peaceably by discussion. 2, °, Ld “° I do not believe there will be many more serious wars. Since the late “World War” people have come to realize that wars are too expensive and too dangerous. *, 2 “ ~ War is the very lowest form of settling disputes. It causes bloodshed, inharmony, and fear. To my mind there is, no future of war. In time it will be done away with entirely. 2, 2, ~~ ~~ Past wars were due to ignorance, dis- honest diplomacy and a fanatic feeling of patriotism. There would be no future wars if the League of Nations was a more per- fected piece of machinery and the members truly believed in its principles. % % I think it is ridiculous for the countries of the world to store up armaments which most assuredly agitate war after all the nations have pledged to outlaw war by the Kellogg Peace Pact. ee & ? I think that war is the rottenest thing that a man can wish for; although it leaves the victors in a very happy mood it leaves many people in a sad condition. THE AMERICAN TEAchup, I was never in a war to know the wors All I know is what I have heard or reg But, as far as my knowledge goes [ this, it foolish that a few men, leaders of th country they are representing, should tay the privilege of sending their countryme to fight. Why shouldn’t they, who rake up the quarrel, fight it out for themsely« instead of sending thousands and thousané of people to fight, some never to return? & I don’t think war is at all necessan Many people are killed and after thy people get together and decide what to d Whocver is supposed to have won the wa is 1cally not winning anything because yoy lose so much in winning a war. Oo % he To me, war seems a very unnecessary MS C thing. It is cruel and inhuman and can be t avoided by diplomacy if countries want tof. avoid war. . & % frail Candidly, I think war is the silliest thing E“™ on earth. I believe that it is brought on by PY | misunderstanding and greed and that t hon avoid it nations must learn to yield, wise) T of course, just as people living in the sam house must. hive & & It h War has never successfully settled any- Fsuc thing and has no logical place in a civilized iro society. Much has been done to abolish J... war forever, and much depends on the J, - coming Disarmament Conference. vu & % nite Personally I hate war—terribly destruc- ad tive of everything. But while there are je™ still some governments that are so greedy Bin and conceited enough to think of their ISy, power and not of the majority of peopl who suffer, we probably will have another I war. trac & & io I think war brings out the animal in Bi stincts in mankind and is degrading to all r civilization. I think we’ve seen the last big 9% war and I have high hopes for the coming Join conference at Geneva. hac a & far War is about the poorest way of settling I qy disputes between countries. The ones who am are indirectly responsible for it never ge § near enough to it, to realize how terrible §™ it is. n & & cer In my opinion war is all wrong. Thete Bo is really no sense to it. To send hundreds of thousands of men out to fight, perhaps to be killed, is certainly something any civil. Hi ter ized person would be against. Many % fy, these who go out to fight have just a vague a idea of what they are fighting for. Wa mn should be avoided by the use of compro Bin mise. in & % 4 I am a pacifist and deadly against wat. I 00 believe that war will die out and that there will never be another great war. At the rate at which destructive devices are beité fi ny invented a war ten or twelve years !ro@ an now would practically exterminate our & 9 tire “civilization”. There must never oe IC another war. ACHE; the wors d or rea es I think TS Of th 10Uuld take UNtrymen vho raked hemselye thousand ) return? necessary fter tha hat to dr n the War Cause vou necessary 1d can be $ want t iest thing zht on by | that ty ld, wisel; the sam tled any- civilized » abolish ; on the destruc- here are o greedy of their £ people another imal in- ig to all last big » coming settling nes who ever get terrible _ There undreds perhaps ny civil- [any ol a vague r. War compro- war. | at there At the WNUARY, 1932 HE INTERNATIONAL People’s Col- lege, Elsinore, Denmark, which was started ten years ago is the «t international college in the world. Vth an international staff, it is teach- .g students from many countries in sir own language with the view of tablishing human relationships be- ween representatives of the people ‘different nationalities. In the same teoree aS democracy all over the world scalled upon to take an active part » the rule of the several countries, s; representatives should also be ained for leadership in the inter- tational field, not only by books but Wy the establishment of human rela- bonships. The college began in a very primi- Wve way, but it has grown steadily. thas now had in all twelve hundred sudents for its regular winter courses iom November to March and its summer courses from May to July. luring its vacation courses from July ifteenth to the end of August it has iad about thirteen hundred students, among whom seven hundred are from England, America, Germany and Sweden, chiefly teachers. In its curriculum it follows the traditions of the famous Danish folk tigh schools which were founded by fishop Grundtvig, The Prophet of the North, as the Germans have called tim. These folk high schools have tad about one-fourth of the whole laming population of Denmark as tudents, They have educated also many of the leaders of the cooperative novement, which is so widely spread 1 Denmark that about eighty-five per ‘nt of all its agricultural exports goes through the cooperative agencies. Like the folk high schools the In- tational People’s College is per- onal in method, individualistic in imnciple, adapting its curriculum to he need of the individual, and ethical “its purpose, educating not only for a national, but for an international ‘operative commonwealth, The main subjects are the study of e being rs trom our ef- over nodern languages, cooperative culture aid international relations. The pedagogical problems of an interna- ional college are of considerable in- Peter Manniche terest. The attitude of the different nationalities toward education created in the beginning some difficulties in working out a valuable curriculum. The English students work from the standpoint that the whole truth is far greater than our conception of it, and prefer a teacher who can give them those fragments of the truth they have use for in the movement. They are interested in facts, but they want to know reality in order to rule over reality. Whilst the English are chiefly interested in results, the Germans are interested in ideas. They want to get at the whole truth, and prefer a teach er who can give them a picture of ordered system. The Danes again prefer the patriarchal system, where the teacher is a father or better, a primus inter pares. It took the col- lege some time to realize the different attitude of the students and to adapt itself to the various needs, But the very fact that the students are so dif- ferent made them valuable channels of instruction to one another. Therefore, the college has con- tinued to grow, and all the bodies who have supported it from the be- ginning are still with it, and through the national committees in Germany, England and America an increasing number of students come to the col- lege. Jane Addams is president and Professor E. C, Lindemann of the School of Social Work of New York, the chairman of the American Com- mittee. The student body forms in itself a little League of Nations, and in their fellowship each nation has a _ possi- bility of contributing characteristic national values; the English their practical sense and straight-forward- ness, the Germans their rich musical gifts, their industry, the Swedes their chivalrousness, the Danes their in- tensity. In the attempts to create harmony out of these various ele- ments the students must develop some of those personal experiences and ethical values for which a new world has use, a world where there is co- operation and mutual understanding, where there is the spirit to fill the out- ward framework of the League of Nations, — uw The International People’s College It will be of special interest to American teachers that the Scandi- navian Teachers’ Union for Peace will have a conference at the College next August. It is held every second year in one of our Scandinavian coun- tries. Teachers from America who visit Europe next summer could spend a fortnight at the vacation in Elsinore from July fifteenth with its excur- sions to various places of interest in Denmark and Sweden, and then stay to meet Scandinavian colleagues and discuss common problems with them. Radio and International Understanding (Continued from page 10) November 20th, W. S. Gard and Ruth Evelyn Henderson of Washington, D. C., told of the scope of the Red Cross work. On December 18th, Everett Colby discussed the World Court. On February 12th, during Boy Scout Week, the work of the Boy Scout organization throughout the world will be described, and on February 5th, Dr. Parker Thomas Moon will explain the Disarmament Conference. Radio can then, even with young students, act as a powerful means of bringing about international under- standing. Although it cannot take the place of a teacher nor act as a sub- stitute for study, it can enrich the curriculum immensely and open the classroom door to the outside world in a manner undreamed of a few years ago. Oxford University has accepted the chal- lenge of Harvard University to the first international collegiate radio debate. Short- wave transmission will be used to carry the English and American teams’ debate across the Atlantic for rebroadcasting in the United States. The National Broad- casting Company has invited the British Broadcasting Corporation to re-broadcast the debate in England. Estimates of governmental expenses for 1932, released recently by the treasury department, show a total payment in contemplation for past, present and future wars of $2,727,- 884,700.00. All other expenditures to be made by the government, ac- cording to the same estimate, will total $1,754,268,700.00. 16 THe AMERICAN TEacuyp, Education for Disillusionment EDAGOGICAL savants have been so Pereintcay unanimous in in- sisting that the school be con- verted into a miniature cosmos, and that the child be prepared for the exigencies of life in its very class- rooms, that one hesitates to lift even a tiny voice in timid protest. The doctrine is so firmly established, so universally accepted, that to question the advisability of preparing our stu- dents for life is to face social and professional ostracism. And yet so striking are the psychological and so- ciological maladjustments which con- front the products of our educational system, that it need not be considered impertinent to examine with an un- biased eye the foundations and im- plications of this phase of our educa- tional philosophy. Theoretically, it is unquestionably sound to use the curriculum as a means toward helping the student in his essays at individual and social happiness, The very raison d’etre of an education is its potency for con- tributing to the adjustment of indi- vidual desires and _ social aims. Whatever else we do in the form of enriching our pupils’ existence, giving their vision scope and depth, refining and directing their emotions into proper and profitable channels, is not to be decried; but, fundamentally, our duty is to produce an alert, intelligent, critical, harmoniously functioning cit- izenry. This is the return which na- tion, state and city have a right to expect on their stupendous invest- ment. This is the prime responsibility of education. Fragrant rhetoric, re- dolent of matters of the spirit, soul and beauty, cannot and must not be allowed to obscure this basic issue. We are preparing our students for life. That is all we know on earth and all we need to know. But the ardent advocates of this theory have considered it merely in abstracto. Much energy has been ex- pended in bringing this vital point to the foreground of our consciousness. But little consideration seems to have been given to a rather important mat- ter: What sort of life are we preparing for? What qualities shall we inculcate in our pupils to enable them to attain A. H. Lass the greatest happiness? And yet, it is the satisfactory answer to these ques- tions which determines the ultimate validity of the whole procedure. Without some attempt at working out the theory in practice, it becomes a metaphysical curio, interesting but useless. If we take as one of our cardinal objectives the careful and unceasing nurture of the spirit of critical in- quiry, we shall be introducing our stu- dents to the sorriest mess that man has ever made of the gifts allotted him. With that clarity of vision, with that detestation of cant and equivoca- tion, with that passionate thirst for truth, with that cool, impartial, disin- terested examination of the facts of existence, with which we as teachers seek to endow our students, how will our modern civilization appear to them? What will justice mean to them when we help them to under- stand that judges may be and are daily bought, that innocent men may die or be kept in prison on the flimsi- est kind of evidence or on perjured testimony? They will read it in the daily papers. We cannot hide it from them. With political corruption and nepotism rife in the land, on the tongues of the voters, can they escape the knowledge of it? When even cap- italists admit that our economic sys- tem is motivated by the laws of the jungle, when Christian pity and hu- maneness seem alien to Big Business, will they not be able to see it? Can they remain untouched by the intel- lectual despair and philosophic doubt which permeates almost every phase of modern life? Will they remain blind to the absence of spiritual and cultural forces in modern life? We cannot and dare not teach our pupils the devious chicanery which char- acterizes so much of political and economic life, and which plays such an important part in making for suc- cess in these fields. None of us is bold enough to tell our students that the greatest minds of our time are flound- ering in the bogs of metaphysical doubt. Legally and morally, we have no right to lay rough hands on the tender, beautiful illusions which our students have about God and Man. We cannot bring ourselves to tel them that organized religion is being savagely denounced from every quar- ter, and that in Russia God is dead We cannot point out the bitter, almos irreconcilable schisms which wage in. ternecine warfare within the ranks o/ religious devotees themselves. Sexual morality has changed. Victorian codes have been altered. Modern fiction js filled with half-articulate stirrings of these new notions. The movies, the tabloids actually reek of standards far from palatable to any intelligent, thinking being. The old gods lie smouldering in ashes, and no new phoenix has yet arisen. Shall we say it all? The picture is sad, sordid, be- wildering. And yet it is life today seen not through the eyes of one or two isolated observers, but drawn to life by the keenest and profoundest intellects of our day. Is this what we are preparing our students for? Is our teaching helping them to partici- pate in this seething wrangle of hos- tile forces? Do our precepts of un- selfish devotion to ideals enable them to combat the regnant philosophy of hedonism and opportunism? What of the virtues we teach— honesty, truth and spiritual integrity, critical inquiry, and all those other noble objectives? Will it not soon be painfully obvious to our students that these are not the sine qua non of success and happiness? Will they not be able to see the good man frustrated at every turn, and all his hopes turned to ashes? And will not the ways of Satan seem, as they undoubtedly are today, immeasureably more profit: able? And will we not become 4 mockery when the seed of critical in- quiry which we have so painstakingly planted and so solicitously fostered, comes to fruition in the minds of our young charges? Shall we not appear vain fools, impractical idealists, vr sionaries, Utopians? And will not the more bitter curse us for having lied to them about the world? When they have come to see more clearly, they will realize that we have not prepared them for a happy, ¥s¢ ful life. We have educated them for disillusionment and cynicism. We -—_- 2 = Te ~* o02os -s. ,..y _to tel 1S being Ty quar- 1s dead r, almost wage in- ranks oj Sexual an codes iction is rings of nes, the ards far elligent, ‘ods lie no new We Say id, be- - today, one or ‘awn to oundest that we or? Is partici- of hos- of un- e them phy of ‘each— tegrity, - other oon be ts that 10n of ey not strated turned ays of lly are profit- yme a cal in- kingly stered, of our appear S$, Vi- ‘ot the g lied more » have , use- ’ m for We IaNUARY, 1932 save taught them what is beautiful, noble, elevated. But we have not ven them the wherewithal to suc- ed. We have made them sensitive, qymane, tender, and increased their capacity for suffering in our modern yorld. And when, iike Job, . they rave followed in the ways of the righteous, and have reaped the re- yards of the iniquitous, they will ask, ‘Why didn’t you tell us of this?” And we shall not be able to answer. We shall be silent, knowing that we have broken their hearts on the rack of a nobly conceived philosophy. What are we to do? Are we to shandon what we know and feel to be right, and preach what our hearts and minds will not allow us to accept? The answer is obvious. We ought not, we Shall not, and we cannot. But we are still on the horns of a dilemma. We cannot, in all mercy to our stu- dents, continue to prepare them for disitlusionment. And yet, to prepare them for a willing acceptance of all that is unattractive in modern life, makes our hearts shrink within us. There seems but one way out. Preparation for life is a duty which we cannot shirk. But that life must be worth preparing for. The curricu- lum-makers should be less concerned with making courses of study fit into the patterns of contemporary life. The emphasis must be reversed. Our social, political, economic life must be 0 organized that what we teach may find full expression in it. Life must be the model for our courses. Our courses should not be essentially alien to our life. For it is cruel and futile to engender ideals and values which ahostile mileu will not tolerate. Our energies must be directed at life and at the course of study. These two factors must be brought into harmony if our educational efforts are not to sult in misery and maladjustment. We cannot allow our national life to diverge too markedly from the ob- jéctives of our curricula. Nor can we allow our curricula to deviate too radically from our national life. So long as this dichotomy exists, so long will education fail of its noblest pur- poses. If we want a healthy citi- €nry, we must give them opportunity ‘0 express what we have been at so great pains to impress. And if we want an effective, well-rounded, virile and meaningful educational scheme, W€ must nourish it with worthy ideals. he issue is clear, We cannot live differently from the way in which we are educated. And we cannot be edu- ‘ated differently from the way in which we live. It is a vicious circle. Our educational system and our na- tional life are, causally, so closely in- tervolved that to separate the two, or to allow such cleavage to exist, is to court disaster. There is no balm in Gilead unless we approach the prob- lem from these two angles. Plying the levers of pedagogical and social zeal for something better, with the frank and mutual recognition that this is not as yet the best of all possible worlds, we shall be able to extricate ourselves from the confused and tragic inertia of our day. With- out this combination of intelligently unified action, we must sit in monastic seclusion, spinning with our students phantasies whose alluring lineaments have no counterpart in actual life. And instead of fitting them to cope with problems of their time, we shall only prolong, their infantilism, and dispose them to hating and reviling the life that is so strangely, so cruelly indifferent to, and so shockingly dis- cordant with what we have taught them to hold precious. And they will want, with Omar, to rrr shatter it to bits—and then Remold it nearer to the Heart’s De- sire.” 3ut they will not do it. And their hearts will break. And they will turn from the repellant spectacle in upon themselves, and feed their warped and embittered souls on the delusions we have helped them to create. Interdependence of Peoples of the World Today (Continued from page 7) more acute: the scientist and the teacher, with the exception of the small group of historians and social and political scientists devoted ex- pressly to the story and the exploita- tion of their own nation and _ its prowess, has always been individually at the point of greatest international or cosmopolitan culture. He is today the natural spokesman of the facts of world unity, he should be the keenest critic of its values, and above all the most persistent observer of its unfor- seen future. Religion does not presuppose a def- inite belief in God or spirits. It is man’s never-ceasing attempt to dis- cover a road to spiritual serenity across the perplexities and dangers of daily life—Edward Sapir. 17 The Teacher’s Responsibility for Nationalism (Continued from page 5) country how the enactment of the body of special class legislation rep- resented by the tariff was promoted, against all logic and against the opin- ion of experts, by the patriotic argu- ment of a nationalistic economy. For this ideology the educated Philistines are chiefly responsible. It is among the workers that ideas of international solidarity and cooperation find their only welcome. Especially schools and colleges of all countries are recruiting stations for nationalism. A German professor is held up to ignominy for his explicit statement of the creed, but in fact it is a creed accepted im- plicitly everywhere as essential to the morale of citizenship. An American professor, raised to the position of impartial arbitrator in a world sick of war, ran true to academic form in thinking of the problem only on lines of national divisions, and rectifying the balance by calling into being a few more blatant and obstreperous nations. The intelligentsia, above all the teachers, have something of an op- portunity to correct the errors of their class in connection with the Disarma- ment Conference, soon to assemble. Not a very great one, perhaps. I agree with my colleague, Professor Gideonse, that disarmament will not of itself put an end to war. But armament is the chief expression of that national pride in power which is one cause of war, and the abolition, even the definite reduction of arma- ment, will be a rebuke and a discour- agement to the forces in every country which finds satisfaction in it. It is a commonplace that no one wants war. Nevertheless, the educated class of every so-called great nation wants something that can be got only by war, i. e., the consciousness of being the greatest power in Europe, in Asia, in the Mediterranean, on the sea, in the world, with consequent authority to impose its will on others This is what in the last analysis “security” means. If articulate public opinion in the United States is willing to re- nounce security in this sense, what- ever may be the course of other coun- tries, there will be a gleam of hope for the civilization of which we are a part. The teachers of this as of every other country have contributed might- ily to inflating nationalistic patriotism. Will they see the need, and have thev the courage to undertake the task of deflation ? School Relief Day Adapted from The Chicago Union Teacher LooMY indeed was the teacher situation when, on December 17, the special session of the legislature adjourned for the _holi- days. Toward this session the hopes of all teachers had been turned for relief since it had first been promised carly last summer, yet when it ad- journed there were no relief bills passed, and the key bill had been amended in the Senate to the point of emasculation! The teacher representatives and their lawyers decided that with the breakdown of the schools imminent, something must be done to give im- petus to the pressing need for school relief. Mr. Donald Richberg, at- torney for the Federation of Women High School Teachers, conceived the idea of School Relief Day as a dem- onstration for January 4, the first day of school after the holidays, and the day before the reconvening of the legislature. His plan included the se- curing of a huge petition for the lec- islature through reaching the parents of the school children affected, and a citizens’ mass meeting as the peak and culmination of School Relief Day. This plan was the outgrowth of his earlier suggestion, presented at the October meeting of the Federa- tion, that the 14,000 teachers cannot indefinitely carry the load of public schools alone, and must make an ap- peal for public relief that will def- initely shift the burden from the shoulders of the teachers, where it has so far solely rested, to those of the e* - * ‘ , 7 ",*. eg VS v4 “—— * a ad 26,000 Citizens Demand School Relief Dorothy Weil entire citizenry where it rightfully belongs. All of the teacher groups welcome and adopted Mr. Richberg’s sugges- tion, and all cooperated heartily to make the plan a success. The coop- eration of other groups was secured also. Most important of these prob- ably was the Illinois Congress of Parents and Teachers, whose officers appeared with the teachers at the meeting of the Board of Education on December 23, when the consent of the Poard was sought to circulate the petitions through the schools, and who cooperated on all the plans which followed. Immediately after permission to cir- culate petitions had been secured from the Board, THe Cnicaco Dalry NEws, recognizing the value of the civic service the teachers were at- tempting to offer, came forward to do its share in the enterprise by fur- nishing the Chicago Stadium for the mass meeting, entirely without cost to the teachers. It is impossible to esti- mate the further contribution of the News in keeping the project before the citizens in front page stories dur- ing the ten days preceding the mass meeting, but certainly the teachers and civic-minded citizens cannot fail to recognize the splendid constructive work of this newspaper in the serious Civic crisis. The churches were asked to cooper- ate by setting aside January 3rd as SavE Our Scuoorts Sunpbay, for a discussion of the school situation and THE AMERICAN TEacy; (International Newsreel Photo) the signing of petitions. Mang \ them responded with excellent an/ helpful talks, and leaders in all them—Catholic, Protestant, and Jew ish—signified their keen interest i what the teachers were attempting, During the holiday week the Stat: Street stores cooperated by having booths where interested citizens coul sign the petitions and learn about th projected mass meeting. — Thes booths were manned by the teacher: and their affiliated groups. Pract cally all of the radio stations an nounced the mass meeting, the nee of signing petitions and other features of the project. The Parent-Teacher groups, th Woman’s Trade Union League ani the Farmers Cooperative Associatio: contributed their regular broadcasting hours for discussions of the plat The Presidents of all the Illinois Fed eration of Women’s Clubs and Par ent-Teacher Groups were circularized and urged to cooperate in making the mass meeting a success. This splendid cooperative effort cul- minated in the huge dignified mass meeting where 26,000 citizems gathered to express their solicitude for the welfare of their schools an in the petition to the state legislature signed by nearly a million names. Perhaps the most difficult feature of the plan was the handing out 0! petitions to the children in the school and the securing of parents’ signe tures within 24 hours, so that the | Photo) Mang oi ent and n all oi nd Jew- erest in ipting., he Stat having ns coull out the Thes: teachers Practi ms an 1e need features ps, the ue and ciation casting > plan is Fed d Par- larized ing the rt cul- | mass -jtizens icitude Is and slature 2S, eature Jut of chools signa: at the JANUARY, 1932 monster petition could reach Spring- jeld by Wednesday, January 6th. Without the cooperation of the en- re teaching force and the efficient machinery of the organizations of principals and of teachers the colos- gl scheme would have been a total impossibility. But on Wednesday morning when the teacher representa- fives were ready to present the peti- ion, there it was, bodily, with a total of 927,339 names. Those from the shools were all classified by sena- rial districts, so that each senator and representative could see how many of his constituents wanted the Chicago schools kept open. The petition was presented at a joint session of both houses of the legislature called for the special pur- pose of receiving it. Two truckloads of petitions were rolled onto the floor of. the House; the committee presented it with brief discussion concerning the school situa- tion, while the other representatives of the teacher organizations sat on the speakers’ platform with Speaker Shanahan and Lieutenant Governor Sterling. The Jarecki decision invalidating the tax levies of 1928 and 1929 has so greatly complicated the financial situa- tion since School Relief Day that the carrying out of the project and the 19 presentation of the petition has not of itself brought immediate financial relief. But the key bill of the relief program, that providing for the reor- ganization of the taxing machinery, and the Income Tax bill have been passed as necessary initial measures. Of inestimable value too has been the thrilling sense of solidarity be- tween parents and teachers and the resultant feeling of their strength and their responsibility. To the teachers it has given a knowledge that they are not working alone, but that many thousands citizens of the City of Chi- cago are also interested in the wel- fare and the educational progress of the children. Donald Richberg Speaking E ARE living in a time of W world-wide distress. Millions of people are suffering. Cities and States are bankrupt. Govern- ments are breaking down. The se- curity of life in every community de- pends on the ability and character of its leadership. In the City of Chicago and State of llinois we have grown accustomed io muddled governments floundering in the mire of rotten politics. But to- day we are facing unparalleled dis- aster if we longer tolerate the control of public business by men too weak, oo ignorant or too dishonest to fulfil the responsibilities of public office, The schools of Chicago—the whole city—must have relief that the legis- lature alone can give. Our state ‘nators and representatives have Lessons HE PLIGHT of the unpaid teach- Te of Chicago has become an event of world-wide notice. Here sa body of public employees, teachers aid maintenance force, of some eigh- een thousand men and women who have carried on for nine months— ‘ven months of actual service—with inly six weeks salary. It is a phe- tomenon unknown in the educational, litical, or economic history of this any other land. It is a test of pub- li¢ devotion and professional loyalty outstanding significance. The immediate circumstances that lave precipitated and prolonged this been elected to write laws for the people. That is their job. We have a right to demand that they tackle the job, and that they stay on the job until they finish the job. Some legislators have been saying: “You people don’t agree upon what you want.” That is a poor excuse for the evasion of a public duty. The people never do agree upon exactly what they want. But they elect rep- resentatives to make agreements for them. That is what we call “repre- sentative government.” This mass meeting speaks for the people of Chicago who have no favored program to give advantage to any party, faction, class or special interest. They are simply out of patience with government that does not govern, with public servants who will not serve. If public opinion could be concentrated in one mega- phone tonight you would hear a voice of thunder roaring to all the wran- gling politicians: “Get together or get out of the way!” Let us be fair to our public servants. Their task is not an easy one. But it is their task. And so, in this time of urgent need, we have gathered here to call upon our representatives in the General As- sembly to represent us, to act for us, and to accept a new commandment for the Special Session in the New Year: Six days shalt thou labor, Nor on the seventh duck ; Keep faith with thy neighbor, And do not pass the buck! of the Chicago Crisis James Mullenbach condition of unrewarded service need not here be set out in detail, They are known to the readers of the AMERICAN TEACHER through previous articles on the situation. It is enough that the teachers are the victims of an antiquated system of taxation, manipulated to the disadvantage of both tax-payers and tax spenders and brought to a climax by bad “politics.” The attempt to remedy the inequities of one assessment failed to have the best effect through the mismanage- ment of the same interested tax offi- cials and the postponement of tax payments, combined with the loss of confidence by the public which broke the habit of tax-paying and thereby brought about large losses in tax re- turns. Added to these difficulties came the enormous dislocation of property values through the unpre- cedented business depression. The culmination of all these factors has furnished the condition for the ex- ploitation of the teachers, A beginning toward a remedy for the immediate condition could come only through creation by the legis- lature of a taxing body in whose as- sessments and rulings the people will have confidence and begin again to 20 support the government by regular payment of taxes. It will be well if teacher and citi- zen alike learn from this crisis a larger lesson as the incompetence of our present methods of government stands revealed. What is the real crux of this situation? It lies in the confusion of the legislative and ex- ecutive powers of government, terms that are well known to teachers of civics. The simple fact is that the founders of our governmental system and the formulators of the national constitution were careful to distin- guish between the legislative and ex- ecutive functions of government. Theoretically the legislative body was to represent public policy on any dis- puted issue. What party was able to command a majority of legislators of a certain conviction or persuasion de- termined to that degree the policy to be followed. They were there par- ticularly to enact into law the policy which a majority of the people wanted. It was not expected that the legislative would dominate the execu- tive in the government. Our forefathers probably had no anticipation of the intricate society that was to come into being a hundred and fifty years after creation of the constitution and that the complexities of a social order such as ours would be reflected in political and govern- mental processes. Our “founding fathers” had no adequate conception of the demands of professional train- ing for the executive positions that were to grow up under the new de- velopment. Right here lies the crux of the tax situation in Cook county or any other county. The assessing of taxes is a professional and not a “po- litical” function of local government. The ability to levy taxes with exact- ness and equity is as much a pro- fessional task as teaching school, pleading at law, or treating sick folk. Because in this relation we have not recognized this fact but have acted as if any man—no woman has gotten in on this yet—prominent in the po- litical counsels of the party could be trusted with this highly professional office. Wherever the taxing powers of the government have been intrusted to politicians as such just this kind of confusion of interests arises and the public suffers, more particularly the tax payers in the first instance, but in the last instance the public servants. Teachers, students and observers of the way they do things across the water, particularly in Britain and in Germany, come back with the impres- sion—and it is a correct one—that municipal politics in those countries is different and better than in this country. Not always do they recog- nize why this is so. It is because in Germany, for instance, governmental administration is a professional career, chosen deliberately by the young man and trained for as for any other professional career. The stand- ards of action and ideals are those, therefore, of a professional class, sep- arated and distinct from the “real politiker”, who seeks office through electoral franchise, and whose func- tion as a legislator is regarded as ly- ing in a different field. In the region of practical and professional admin- istration no legislator or “real politi- ker’’, office seeker or office holder, will presume to intrude. It is safe to guarantee that not even the German Chancellor would venture to suggest to his secretariat that he would like to have a place found for one of his relatives or political favorites. No burgomeister of the humblest city would think of interfering in any way with the professional tax assessor of his locality. So deeply in the con- sciousness of the people and the office holding class does this line of demar- cation lie that no one thinks of trans- gressing it. What is the significance of all this for us? For one thing it reveals an objective in the teaching and training of the new citizen, the child of our schools, toward a new ideal or rather to a restoration of the old ideals of cur forefathers—the strict separation of legislative and executive functions of government. Until the necessity for this is driven home so that we shall institute the same reforms that England did one hundred years ago, partly as the result of the Chartist uprising, we shall go stumbling and staggering along, falling in the mire. and apologizing for our stupidity and incapacity to govern ourselves. For another thing we may observe that it is along this line that organ- izations of teachers and other workers get one justification, Trade union- ism—and teacher unionism—is based upon the significance of professional standards. The unions start out as defense organizations to protect the interests of the membership. Almost invariably these interests whether wages, hours, better control of the conditions of work or service are found to be professional interests— that is bound up with the professional! standards of the trade or calling. In the present plight of the teachers they have a direct interest in their wage, THE AMERICAN TEAcuHp, but the alert teacher also knows th, the serious interruption of wage pa ments has a close connection with ¢ ficiency, and with the joy and sat faction which the teacher gets out » the professional phases of the wor, which are lost under the long strjj; of no salary or uncertain salary, Th. same interest lies in teacher teny: It is the assurance of profession; standing more than anything else th, is really lodged in teacher tenure ¢ office as laid down in our Illinois lay If the teachers of the city are |e by this bitter experience to recogniy, in truer measure the value of the: ewn organization, the central failur of our American system of adminis trative government, and shall be Ie to set themselves resolutely to the in. auguration of a reformation of ow political practices at this point, th gain to themselves and the advantag to the general public will be immeas urable. Detroit Dr. Burt R. Shurly’s attempt + have the Board of Education disci pline Dr. Walter G. Bergman, pro fessor of education at Detroit Teach ers College, for alleged seditious remarks before a City College stu- dent’s group boomeranged at the board meeting Tuesday afternoon and re sulted in a wide-open invitation t teachers to discuss anything the please outside of school hours. This invitation was embodied in é resolution offered by Inspector Eé- ward H. Williams. Shurly’s resolu tion, asking an investigation of thi 3ergman incident, by the superintené- ent of schools and a report to the board, with recommendations, was n0 even voted on. Williams’ motiot carried, 6 to 1. Spectators to the number of abou 125 jammed the small room in which the Board of Education meets, the largest attendance to grace a boaré meeting in years, The audience was well-packed with Bergman supporters who cheered all speeches in his favor lustily and occasionally hissed an op ponent. The Bergman gallery com prised teachers, students, and various leaders of liberal thought in the city Dr. Shurly had a few partisans ™ the room, which brought about some inter-audience repartee and by ™ means strong applause for pro-Shurh speeches. Following the meeting, Dr. Bert man expressed his gratification am said the way now was clear for the battle for free expression in the class EACH ‘NOWS th; Wage pa nN with e. and sati: ets out ¢) the wor Ng’ strair lary. Th -r tenure Ofession, r else th; tenure 0! Inois lay Y are |e Tecogniz: of thei; al failure adminis. Il be Jed 0 the jn. 1 Of ou Oint, the dvantag immeas empt t mn disci an, pro: t Teach- seditious ge stl 1 board and re. ition tr ig ther : ed ina or Ed resolu- of th -intend- to the was not motion F about which ts, the board ce was sorters ; favor an Op + COM- -arious e city ans in some yy ne shurh Berg: 1 and yr the class- IaANUARY, 1932 woms. He said that the Thomas Jef- jerson Post, American Legion, would fight the revocation of its charter, rec- ommended Monday night by the Wayne County Council of the Legion, through the State Department and in- to the Federal courts if necessary. The Council recommendation was based on the contention that Bergman, commander of the post, has expressed himself in Opposition to the national defense policy of the Legion; and that the post has not the required minimum of 15 members. Bergman said the post has 18 members. In the speech which caused all the furore, Bergman had opposed the es- tablishment of a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps unit in the Colleges of the City of Detroit. The Board of Education has voted to establish such a unit, but the War Department has ruled it cannot be instituted at pres- ent because of lack of funds and per- sonnel. Shurly opened the discussion Tues- day by offering a resolution which re- ferred the Bergman incident to Frank Cody, superintendent of schools, for “full justice and examination,” speci- fying that Bergman be “eliminated from the service if found guilty.” Dr. Shurly said Bergman’s remarks were inciting the students at the City colleges to “revolt and insurrection,” a remark which blew up a gale of shrill laughter from the audience. He admitted the right of free speech, he said, but not to the length of “inciting students of impressionable age to riot and disloyalty.” Inspector Williams, in introducing his substitute resolution, spoke of his own war service and jabbed at Dr. Shurly by remarking that “war has a glamour to a colonel at a base hos- pital which is lost to a private at the front.” The Williams’ resolution read: “It is the sense of this Board of Education that teachers may feel free to discuss and to express their honest opinion outside of the class- "0m, upon all subjects, including social, economic and political ques- tions, without fear of official repri- mand or coercion on the part of anyone connected with the Board of ucation,”’ Dr. Shurly offered an amendment, containing a proviso barring sedition or talk “against the Government or the Board of Education,” which brought a titter from the audience. twas not supported. When the vote was taken on the Villiams’ resolution, Dr. Shurly said € voted “aye, with reservations.” “What are the reservations?” asked Mr. Jamieson, ; “That the teachers be required to confrom to the laws of the United States and the rules of the Board of Education,” said Dr. Shurly. Scores pressed around Dr. Berg- man, who had stood the whole time at the rear of the room, to congratulate him as the meeting broke up. —Detroit Daily News. Buffalo During the year of 1929, the Buf- falo Board of Education voted an in- crease of $700 to the teachers, to be paid at the rate of $175 per year. Three payments have been received, of $175, $100 and $100 respectively ; slightly more than half. This year, after a fair vote, the teachers again decided to ask for their regular payment of $175, The school board voted to suspend all payments this year by a three to two vote. One member proposed to take away the $100 granted last year, but this was lost, three to two. A bill has been prepared and is ready for introduction in the New York state legislature to mandate the present salary schedule. It is being introduced by both republican and democratic men and stands a good chance of passage. This is a time when organization counts more than ever. Without it, the teachers would not have any way of forcefully registering their protest against unwise salary cuts. Seattle Four years ago the Seattle schools were governed by a smug, self satis- fied board of five school directors which had not had a change in per- sonnel for six years. Reelections were taken for granted. The admin- istration was in charge of a superin- tendent who had no educational policy but a complete subservience to the board which regularly raised his sal- ary, while both refused to consider increases to their low salaried teach- ers, : This board was horrified when it learned that teachers in the schools had joined an organization affiliated with labor. It not only required the teachers to withdraw from this or- ganization but to sign contracts which were forfeited if the teachers joined such an organization. The superintendent was either so opposed to labor or so anxious to curry favor with a reactionary board that he resigned his position rather 21 than associate himself with teachers connected with labor organization or with school directors who believed teachers should have the right to choose their own organization even if it were one not controlled by superin- tendents. Heroically, it was an- nounced that he preferred to teach at $4000 per year than to be an ad- ministrator at $12,000 with such low connections. Four years have passed and so have the five reactionary school directors. The last one is not a candidate for reelection, The present board is far from liberal but it has felt compelled to rescue Seattle from the disgrace of the yellow dog contract even if it re- fuses to employ union teachers. The superintendent, cloistered in a university where the contaminating influence of progressive teachers and ideas may not reach him, is still draw- ing his $4,000, unless, which God for- bid, the university in economical mood has reduced or eliminated it. Memphis Labor Runs True to Form Organized labor in full fighting strength turned out Thursday night at Labor Temple to protest the im- pending menance to the city’s public schools and the threatened injustice to the more than 1200. underpaid teachers, Every union labor organization in the city was represented at the execu- tive session of the Memphis Trades and Labor Council. The council cham- ber was filled to capacity. Workers came in delegations, They included wage-earners in all the crafts em- ployed in Memphis industry. Delegates from the Memphis Teach- ers Association were present, and at the close of the meeting thanked the council for its fight in behalf of the schools, The following resolutions unanimously adopted : The existing deplorable condition in the finances of the city schools is so serious and far-reaching in its ramifications as to practically paralyze the perspective outlook of this most important part of our city government. ; a : It is not a time for crimination or re- crimination; it is not a time for charges against individuals or groups of individ- uals. The loyal citizens of Memphis have given this loyalty on the pledges that their children would be given advantages in edu- cation laid out in educational programs heretofore prevailing. The Memphis Trades and Labor Council, in its position as the central force of or- ganized labor, has no inclination to criti- cize when it cannot act in a constructive way. We frankly admit we are not in a were N nN position to point out mistakes in the opera- tion of the city schools—if there have been mistakes—or in the management of the finances by the governing body. Nor do we assume that it is any part of our func- tions. We do know, however, that we cannot expect the service due our children at a time when there is dissatisfaction, and possible distress, among those to whom our children are entrusted. Teachers in the schools are second only to the parents in molding the lives and futures of the children. During the school life of a child the influence of mother and teacher are of equal importance. These teachers spend many years in preparation for this training, always dominated with the desire and ambition to so mold the young life that it will grow into manhood or womanhood that will reflect credit and honor to the school, and be able to take an outstanding place in the social, business and intellectual ranks of our great nation. Teaching is a profession in which the teacher never completes his or her own education. Pleasures are secondary, and find small consideration in their daily ex- periences. It is a sacrificial service for which the pay has always, and always will be, niggardly. This is not peculiar to Mem- phis, but is universal. This pay has been accepted without complaint, the reward be- ing satisfaction in results. However, there should be some limit to which the teachers can be called upon to sacrifice. Therefore, the suggestion that the already insufficient remuneration of our city teachers be reduced is unspeak- ably obnoxious to fair-minded citizens. It is unfair, unjust and discouraging. The Trades and Labor Council has con- fidence in our government. Those in office were placed there to work out the prob- lems of the various branches of our gov- ernmental system. It is not a time for shifting responsibilities. It is a time for close co-operation. This council stands ready to give assist- ance where it can be given, and will as- sume the responsibility that rightly be- longs to it. It will be glad to co-operate with any or all agencies involved in the present distressing situation. This council feels further that the pro- tection of the welfare of the teachers is fundamentally its responsibility. This re- sponsibility will in no way be evaded. Therefore, be it resolved, That the Mem- phis Trades and Labor Council condemns any and all suggestions of demands for a reduction in the already meager salaries of the teachers in our city schools. Kesolved further, That the Council en- dorses the pledges made by the president of the council to the members of the Mem- phis Teachers’ Association and commends him for his wise action in so doing. Further, we pledge to the teachers full co-operation and undivided support in re- sisting any reduction. —Memphis Labor Review. New York With Sheriff Farley at last in- dicted for theft, the discovered “tin boxes” of enormous cash supplies of Tammany Hall leaders, Jimmy Walker’s missing financial agent, his consuming night life and his incidental blood pressure of 105, too low by 20 points—all as a social and civic back- ground for the tragic misery of un- employed and starving hundreds of thousands in the great city—the edu- cational authorities have suddenly sprung a demand for 5 per cent con- tributions from public school teachers for unemployment relief. The levy if carried out would yield $400,000 a month. Local 5 is fighting the offi- cial demand for professional as well as for social reasons. It denies the right of officials to levy on the teach- ers’ incomes, Compulsion is an ever present evil in the school system. The professional spirit cannot be devel- oped under it. The Union fights this compulsion also for social reasons be- cause it is educationally wrong for the school system to collect and ad- minister funds for any purpose other than for education. Furthermore, the community is responsible for the feed- ing and the protection of needy adults and children, too. Principals and district superinten- dents, mindful of the uses of political cohesiveness, are calling on teachers to give “unquestioning loyalty and support” to Superintendent O’Shea. Check-ups on individual teachers are the practical means of applying pres- sure in spite of the expressed warning of Superintendent O’Shea that there was to be no compulsion. Superin- tendent O’Shea himself has said in this campaign that there are ways of “shaming teachers into doing their duty.” Other officials have inter- preted the warning of Superintendent O’Shea as one made for “public con- sumption”, as apparently it was. A sample circular letter issued by a principal bears the following ‘“‘cut- off” form: “Mr. Charles F. Thellusson Principal, J. H. S. 115, Manhattan Dear Mr. Thellusson, In accordance with the circular of Superintendent O’Shea, I herewith pleage 5 per cent of my salary minus pension and sabbatical leave deductions for five months beginning February 1, _ 1932. Date. Signature of Teacher.” The following letter and_ resolu- tions show what Local 5 is doing: January 26, 1932. Mr. George J. Ryan, President, Board of Education New York My Dear Mr. Ryan: The Teachers Union as heretofore is un- qualifiedly opposed to the assumption of authority and responsibility that is involved in the effort of the educational author- ities to levy 5 per cent on the salaries of New York City teachers to collect $400,000 a month for the unemployment relief fund. In the official appeal issued to the teachers by you and Superintendent ‘O’Shea on January 25, an item of $150.00 a month for out-of-school or family relief is listed. Tut AMERICAN $100,000 a month is requested for fre lunches for children, $30,000 for shoes $20,000 for clothing, $15,000 for salarief}’ for workers for new lunch centers and $85,000 for relief in the summer months This is a gigantic undertaking which the education department is totally yp. qualified to carry without enormous waste and is wholly unjustified in assuming 4s its business and social responsibility. When in your appeal you call on the teachers for concerted effort and self-denial in this “war on poverty,” you insult the intellj- gence of every competent leader in the educational system. You are not conduct. ing a war on poverty, because you have no economic program for so-doing. The public school system is established for the purpose of carrying on an educa- tional enterprise. It has had no direct re- sponsibilty for causing the economic disaster in which society is at present involved, Furthermore, no competent student of s0- cial problems would think of maintaining that the schools should slight their proper work of educating the children, as did Superintendent O’Shea on January llth when he proclaimed at a meeting of district TEACH E, eve! sho’ giv' ud RE Ml Ed Sc Ci in ch disaster involved. nt of so- Lintaining Ir proper » as did ary llth if district : schools ool work uccepting he com- ens. that the | as vol- | v_ better of this long the x tra-offi- officials r to es- mncerned | specially wing up ent, the a huge oftening whgse Depart- school itute in ugh to > claims eachers many res. At ve vol- toward ng the eatened iployed e con- living ions in nce. nd that rely to mploy- plus in he un- ealthy. rming their ich by termed bel it, f this a1 sys- se who ational -uctive nt re- h_ the r cent [AN Ct : City, State, 1932 TARY, ; their monthly salaries. In this crisis weryone must do his share, but teachers jould insist on their rights as citizens to ve for relief where and when their own udgments and needs dictate. Very truly yours, (signed) HENRY R. LINVILLE President. RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE TEACHERS UNION AT A SPECIAL WEETING FEBRUARY 2, 1932. Whereas, the President of the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools have asked the teachers of the City to assume full responsibility for feed- ing and clothing all the City’s needy school children, whether in public or private ghools; and, to a considerable degree, private family relief; and Whereas, the contribution is in the na- ture of a compulsory tax to which teachers feel they must submit in order to avoid persecution, despite their family and other obligations heretofore assumed; and Whereas, this policy forces teachers to withdraw funds from other needy and worthy causes to which they are contribut- ing, or else to lower their living standards ; Whereas, community responsibility for the care of the needy is thus shifted upon the teachers who have always been found to lend a ready ear to calls for assistance as shown by years of social work for the needy within their respective schools; and Whereas, the policy being followed di- verts the energies of the educational sys- tem to charity relief for which it is neither prepared nor its members qualified; there- fore Be It Resolved, that we ask the govern- ments of the City, State, and nation to assume full responsibility for family relief, for the feeding and clothing of children during this emergency, leaving to the teachers the same freedom that is enjoyed by other citizens to give relief to the full extent of their ability where and when their judgment dictates; and Be It Also Resolved, that teachers co- operate with those who seek to force the and national authorities to embark upon constructive programs of un- employment relief and to refuse to comply with the request to donate any part of their monthly salaries, and Be It Further Resolved, that the Teach- ers Union act as a clearing house for com- plaints of coercion, and that it give full support to those teachers who have been coerced into pledging their contribution and now refuse to pay. Whereas, the program of the Depart- ment of Education calling for a contribu- tion is not a war upon poverty, but is an attempt to conceal the lack of an effective war; and Whereas, unemployment and its inevit- able result, poverty, is so great an evil that an effective nationwide campaign must be inaurgurated against it, therefore Be It Resolved that we urge the adoption of the following program: 1. The shorter work day and work week to increase employment opportunities without wage reduction. The enactment of legislation embody- ing the principle of the Costigan-La- Follette bill, a Federal measure de- signed to give national aid for unemployment relief to the various localities incapable of financing re- lief to the extent needed; ~ 3. The enactment of unemployment in- surance at the cost of industry which will set up reserves to enable work- ers to continue buying commodities in periods of depression or unem- ployment, the reserves to be under the control of the workers; 4. The inauguration of extensive pro- grams of public works at prevailing rates which are superior to the pres- ent method of dispensing charity; The expansion of the tax program to obtain money for these purposes through the restoration of war rates on incomes, inheritances, corporation, excess profit taxes and by bond loans to alleviate poverty. ut News of Our Members 23 Whos Who in This Issue Dr. Henry R. Linville appeared January 18 before the Sub-committee of War Department Expenditures of the House of Representatives Com- mittee on Appropriations. Dr. Lin- ville presented the position of the American Federation of Teachers on military training. Dr. Harry A. Overstreet will ad- dress the Annual Conference of the Progressive Education Association, February 18, on the subject “Eco- nomic and social problems and the reconstruction of Education.” Dr. W. Carson Ryan is also on the program of the Progressive Educa- tion Conference. Miss Lillian Herstein addresses the Open Forum of Bloomington, Illinois, February 14, on The Newer Trends in Education. Miss Herstein has also been asked to make the address at the Washing- ton Bicentennial Celebration of the Chicago Federation of Labor. Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr was the speaker at the Chicago Sunday Eve- ning Club on February 7th. HARRISBURG, Pa.—A surprise move in the house by Representative Dar- lington Hoopes succeeded in striking out the 4 per cent limitation in the constitutional amendment to be sub- mitted te permit graduated income taxes-to raise money for unemploy- ment relief in Pennsylvania. Hoopes made the motion from the floor and caught the opposition off guard. Miss Dorothy Weil is a member of the Mayor’s Committee on the Wash- ington Bicentennial Celebration for Chicago. Miss Weil is also on the 3icentennial Celebration Committee of the Chicago Federation of Labor. Mrs. Laura Puffer Morgan, Local 198, Associate Secretary, National Council for Prevention of War. Professor Robert Morss Lovett, Lo- cal 5, Professor of English, Chica- go University, Editor, New Repub- lic. Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz, Local 5, Vice-President, American Federa- tion of Teachers, Legislative Repre- sentative, New York Teachers Union. Recognized authority on school legislation. Dr. Pittman B. Potter, Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin. Alice S. Cheyney, Local 192, Associ- ated with the International Labor Office in Washington and Geneva. Alice Keith, Broadcasting Director, American School of the Air, Co- author of Listening-In on the Mas- ters, organizer of Music Apprecia- tion programs for radio, former teacher, actor, and ~ playground director. Dr. Henry R. Linville, Local 5, Presi- dent of American Federation of Teachers, President, New York Teachers Union, author of scientific works. Interna- Elsinore, President, College, Peter Manniche, tional Peoples Denmark. A. H. Lass, Department of English, Manual Training High School, Brooklyn, N. Y. Contributor to Educational publications. Dorothy Weil, President of Local 3, Department of English, Crane Ju- nior College. James Mullenbach, Impartial Chair- man, Personnel Committee, Hart, Shaffner and Marx, former mem- ber of Chicago Board of Education, Donald Richberg, Attorney for Chi cago Federation of Women High School Teachers, Attorney for Rail road Brotherhoods