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IN THIS ISSUE 


Educating the Masses for Leisure 
William Edward Zeuch 
These Are Not Fads and Frills 

Florence E. Clark 


Education and Racial Adjustment. 
O. Myking Mehus 


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1932 


May, 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


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Vor. XVI 


May, 1932 


No. 8 








Into the Fire! 


depression which is both the cause of it and caused 

by it are the result of a lack of purchasing power 
of the people. Apparently no one denies this statement 
of fact and all agree that something should be done 
about it. 

So serious has the situation become that our business 
leaders are organizing themselves into committees of 
one hundred, committees of seventy-seven and all kinds 
of numbers, whose purpose is to establish super-gov- 
ernments to supersede the regularly constituted authori- 
ties. The idea seems to be that the whole economic col- 
lapse has been due to high taxes and governmental ex- 
travagance and that therefore government officials must 
have taken from them their normal functions as well as 
the handling of the special situation. 

Let us consider both the personnel of these self-con- 
stituted supreme councils and the things they intend to 
do for what ails us. 

Just who are these supermen who are telling the 
duly elected officers how to do their jobs? They are 
the big butter and egg men who have been making such 
a conspicuous success of operating the industries of the 
country the past few years. 

Usually they are led by the bankers who have done 
their own job so well that only about half the banks of 
the country are closed. We shudder to think of what 
might have been the case if the banks were not on the 
dole to the extent of two billion dollars direct relief 
from the federal government. We have entrusted our 
money to these Napoleons of finance and have lost it. 
Should we now hand over our governments to them? We 
have taken their advice in all financial and investment 
matters because we believed and they admitted they were 
infallible. We bought stocks and particularly bonds 
which they advised us to buy and received a commission 
for selling to us. We even bought on their advice some 
billions of dollars worth of worthless foreign securities. 
After our experiences in following their advice about 
things they ought to know, we are asked to take their 
advice on how to operate our public institutions, a new 
feld in which even they do not claim to have special 
qualifications. 

Then the owners of the great newspapers are usually 
represented in these supergovernments. Yes, the same 


Tix is widespread unemployment. This and the 


newspapers who gave us such good advice before the de- 
Pression after having warned us it was coming and have 
had us patiently waiting at the corner for the return of 
Prosperity for more than two years, instead of advising 
us intelligently what active measures we might take to 
get out of the slump. 


- 


All the great industries are represented on these com- 
mittees by their captains who have done so well in their 
own businesses that their market values have not shrunk 
more than eighty per cent in the past three years. | 

What solution do these committees offer for the un- 
employment and depression problem? Astounding as 
it may seem, the remedy is to create more unemploy- 
ment by discharge of public employees and to decrease 
the purchasing power of the public by lowering wages 
and eliminating essential governmental functions. 
Though this may seem illogical and almost incredible, 
could much better be expected from the leaders ,who 
have made such a mess of industry? 

It does not seem to have occurred to any of them 
that it is not the machinery of government that. has 
broken down but the machinery of industry. Surely no 
one would contend that industry is creating the wealth 
and providing the employment that the resources of 
America and the resourcefulness of Americans could 
make possible. The richest and industrially the most 
advanced nation in the world has produced enough to 
operate all the public institutions we have and is capable, 
with the progress of the past few years, of producing 
immensely more. Why do they not put their industrial 
machine in order so that all may.have more comforts 
and luxuries and better schools and other public in- 
stitutions ? 

All must agree that it is time something’ was done 
about the present deplorable conditions, With the break- 
ing down of the industrial system, the archaic taxation 
system has failed. It needs revision. But why should 
the representatives of only one group, the extremely 
wealthy, who suffer much less in a period like the pres- 
ent than any other group, be permitted to muscle in and 
become what would amount to a plutocratic dictator- 
ship? 

In any community where conditions warrant a survey 
and revision of public affairs why should not all classes 
be represented in making such a revision? Certainly 
labor and especially unemployed labor, who dre the great- 
est sufferers from present conditions, should be repre- 
sented. 

In educational affairs the teachers who presumably 
know something of educational matters should be repre- 
sented. 

These governments of ours belong to all the people, 
not to a few of the largest taxpayers or as is often the 
case the biggest tax dodgers. . 

Let the teachers and other laborers in every com- 

(Turn to page. 8) 











THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Educating the Masses for Leisure 
William Edward Zeuch, Ph.D. 


many since the Great War and the state of unem- 

ployment in the States the past three years have 
forced to the fore educational problems that we have 
more or less dallied with heretofore. The millions out 
of work by their very idleness reveal glaring weaknesses 
in our present day education. 

The past two months I have been in Wales studying 
workers’ education. A considerable part of that time 
has been spent in the Rhondda, the famed mining center. 
In one section of the Rhondda with 45,000 miners I 
found that 20,000 had been completely unemployed since 
1926 and that the 25,000 who were employed were work- 
ing only four days a week. Thus there was really full 
time ermployment for only 15,000 of the 45,000 miners; 
30,000 men are out of work in that area every work 
day. 

In the same district a confidential report of the school 
authorities reveals that every year approximately 2,200 
boys finish the elementary schools. The government has 
established an official agency to place these boys in in- 
dustry either locally or elsewhere in Britain. Last year 
(1930) only about 450 boys were placed despite the 
efforts of the governmental placement agencies. That 
means that 1,780 youth were left jobless. This sort of 
thing has been going on in the district for years. The 
Rhondda is overrun with these unemployed youngsters. 
It is nothing uncommon to find young men of 24 or 
= years of age who have never had a steady job in their 
ives, 

The interesting thing to the educator is that the educa- 
tion received in the past by the older miners now un- 
employed as well as the present day education received 
by these unemployed youngsters has not been an educa- 
tion that fitted them to take advantage in any construc- 
tive way of this enforced leisure. The education of the 
masses for the past hundred years, or since we have 
been educating the masses, has been to enable them 
to acquire knowledge or to earn a living rather than to 
live a life. Consequently these unemployed, old and 
young, are for the most part rotting in idleness. 

The problem in Wales today will probably be our prob- 
lem in the States tomorrow. It is only reasonable to 
expect that the solution of unemployment derived from 
improved machinery, mass production, and scientific 
management will be found eventually in a shorter work 
day and a shorter work week. During the past century 
we have seen the work week decrease from eighty to 
forty-five hours while the standard of living of the 
workers increased greatly. Once our society has de- 
veloped intelligence enough to enter upon a planned 
economy it is inevitable that workers will be a more lei- 
sured class. That presents an immediate challenge to 
educators, How are we to prepare workers for a con- 
structive use of leisure? 

So far as workers of the older age groups are con- 
cerned it is probable that not a great deal can be done to 
educate them to lead a fuller life. To be sure we have 
done practically nothing in the States as yet in the way 
of adult education. Undoubtedly much can be done for 
limited sections of the older age group through adult 
education but for the larger mass I am of the opinion 
that we will have to develop some sort of adult enter- 


T= CHRONIC unemployment in Britain and in Ger- 


tainment—some sort of wholesome mass amusements. 
This will enable us to concentrate our efforts during a 
transition period upon developing in the elementary 
schools more of an education for leisure. 

That newer education for leisure must necessarily run 
counter to some deep-seated prejudices not only among 
our people but among educators themselves. It will ap- 
pear rank heresy to preach social salvation by construc- 
tive leisure to those inured to and enamored of the idea 
of social salvation by hard work and plenty of it. But 
an era of comparative economic abundance demands a 
somewhat different education than does an era of eco- 
nomic scarcity. Scarcity requires labor while abundance 
opens the way for other creative impulses. 

For years progressive educators reacting against edu- 
cation merely to acquire knowledge or to earn a living 
have demanded an education to release the creative im- 
pulses of the child for the child’s sake; they have been 
advocating the efflorescence of the personality for the 
sake of the individual. The growing and imminent 
greater leisure of the masses now leads us to demand the 
same flowering of the personality through creative edu- 
cation for the sake of society. The growing enforced 
leisure of the masses is dangerous to the individual and 
to society unless our education from infancy onward 
prepares for a creative or constructive use of that leisure. 

Education for leisure means an education that gives 
release to the creative and constructive capacities of the 
individual, an education that brings out and fulfills the 
personality regardless of whether the activities of the 
individual are economically valuable. It will be an edu- 
cation without a dollar sign. People will not ask, “Does 
this lead to a better job?” but rather, “Does this make 
life more worth living?” 

As I see these unemployed youngsters milling up and 
down the valleys of the Rhondda not knowing what to 
do with themselves I think, “What a condemnation of 
the education they have received.” With all the time in 
the world they do not know what to do with themselves. 
What good do cube root, historical facts, geographical 
locations, physiological data, and the other miscellany 
of most elementary education do these young men? 
Would it not have been far better for them had their 
education had less mathematics and more music; less 
geography and more dancing and athletics; less study of 
bones and alimentation and more of drawing, painting 
and modeling; less of grammar and composition and 
more of reading and theatricals for pleasure; less of 
orthography and more of gardening, landscaping and 
construction work just for the sheer joy of such creative 
work? Had these young men received such an education 
in the elementary schools, their lives during this period of 
enforced idleness and in the greater leisure that the fu- 
ture is bound to bring them would not be such a bore- 
dom of inactivity. Had the elementary education here 
in Wales striven to release the creative, expressive re- 
sources within each child, this period of leisure might 
have been a source of happiness to each and every one. 

We of the States observing such situations as that 
here in Wales and taking thought of the greater leisure 
in store for our own masses would do well to begin 
to insist upon some fundamental changes in the character 
of our own elementary education. 





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May, 1932 


These Are Not Fads and Frills 


Florence E. Clark 


wage cuts, early-closing of schools, non-payment of 

salaries have brought, union teachers are aware of 
certain perils to the schools in general. These are the 
threatened curtailments of all those new progressive 
features, slowly introduced into some school systems 
over the past ten to twenty years, which have been help- 
ing to shape and modify the school system of an earlier 
period to the needs of the social and economic life of 
today. Union teachers ever have faith that they will 
eventually see school systems molded to the needs of 
the day in which they are functioning and more, that 
the schools will be developing a youth so free, so crit- 
ical of present wrongs and injustices, and so courageous 
to correct them that a new society will eventually evolve. 

Forces in the name of economy are now attempting to 
seek out and destroy these newer developments of the 
schools, these so-called fads and frills, because they are 
“new”. Since they have been introduced last and be- 
cause they were not heard of in a school twenty years 
ago, in some localities they are doomed to go. 

It would be enlightening to get the reactions of these 
men and women who are raising the hue and cry against 
the new developments in education to ask the women 
to go back to the kerosene lamps, the wood-heated cook 
stoves; their husband to the management of factories 
with hand-operated machinery and of offices where no 
typewriter, no adding machine, no telephone exist; to 
ask both to spend a holiday in a vain attempt to reach 
the country in a horse-drawn buggy. It would be of 
real interest to get their reaction if in the case of critical 
illness in their family only doctors who knew nothing of 
recent researches in medicine and surgery were per- 
mitted to attend the sick one. 

What are some of these newer developments which 
certain forces are seeking to destroy? Ina recent article 
in the AMERICAN TEACHER* Miss Hardy discusses some 
of them. The child guidance clinic combines the ser- 
vices of many of these specialists, the psychiatrist, psy- 
chologist, visiting teacher, educational and vocational 
counselor.. Most school systems as yet have never 
financed adequately all the specialists. What has hap- 
pened is that in small cities a psychologist may be added 
or a visiting teacher or a vocational counselor who is 
also a social worker. These workers have struggled 
with the task of helping to individualize a school system 
which has grown increasingly unwieldy, with its large 
classes, large school buildings, and a more-than-ever 
heterogeneous school population. Just as the usefulness 
of their work is showing results and they have demon- 
strated that some of the evils of the factorization of the 
schools can be corrected, they are to be eliminated. 


The Psychologists Are Needed 


Talk of the elimination of these specialists comes at 
atime when their need is the very greatest. Industry 
and business have shut their doors to young people. 
They are crowding back into the schools as never be- 

*The Child Guidance Clinic by Ruth Gillette Hardy. The 
American Teacher, February, 1932, pp. 7, 8, 22 


I: THE MIDsT of personal suffering and distress, which 


fore, boys and girls with a wide range of mental ability 
and of social and economic background. Every educa- 
tional device and tool are needed to sort out the various 
groups so that they may be taught most effectively—and 
economically. It is not unheard of to have retained in 
some senior high schools these days boys and girls, com- 
pelled by the Compulsory Education Laws to be either 
at work or in school, whose mental measurements show 
a range of intelligent quotient far below “normal”. A 
division room in a senior high school in a certain large 
city in the middle west contains thirty students with 
intelligence quotients ranging from 52 to 76. Sorted out 
as they are, with the teaching adapted and modified to 
their needs, the students are benefiting from their school 
experience perhaps as much as those in the upper ranges. 
With no such grouping and individual study, the time of 
students and teacher is wasted. These students will 
form a portion of the voting population in a few years. 
A democracy dare not neglect their education. 


Vocational and Educational Counselors Are Needed 


Industry and business have shut their doors to the 
young people of today and of several years to come. 
The counselor of today can not guide the youth into 
industry and business—his task has become increasingly 
difficult. He must build up the morale of the youth who 
is already becoming discouraged because of lack of 
opportunity, who is already growing unemployable. 
England faced this problem of guiding unemployed 
youth after the war and planned for it in various ways. 
The United States, which has always placed’ great faith 
in the education of the masses, does not dare to scrap 
its constructive educational equipment when its need is 
the greatest. The task of the counselor today is largely 
educational: to help young people to find use for their 
unemployed time in ways that make for a future pro- 
ductive citizenship; to help them select educational 
courses; to assist them in understanding this strange 
economic chaos, which is blocking their development. 


Visiting Teachers Are Needed 


What is the depression doing to the children in this 
land? Physicians are already noting a change in their 
physical development.* We have not yet begun to meas- 
ure the effects on their social conduct or in their mental 
health. Broken and unhappy homes, discouraged par- 
ents, inability to get jobs and “to earn an honest living” 
will soon find expression in the statistics of the police 
and juvenile courts and of the institutions for young 
offenders. The social worker in the school, the visiting 
teacher, if allowed to function, will do much in the pre- 
vention of juvenile delinquency and juvenile crime. She 
will do much also in creating mental health. No one 
sitting day after day in a school office or visiting in the 
homes, hearing the stories of evictions, lack of food, 
mental stress in families can doubt that some positive 
force is needed to check the devastating effects of the 
“depression” upon children. The schools if allowed to 





* Some Urgent Problems in Child Health by Professor Anton 
J. Carlson. The American Teacher, Feb., 1932, pp. 5,+6. 








6 


function as well even as they have in the past year will 
do much for children whose environment is so chaotic 
that their world seems rocking on its foundations. It 
has much to offer in building up a sense of security and 
happiness in such children as Angelina who fainted on 
the way to school because she had slept in an unheated 
room (the family possessed only one stove), was mal- 
nourished, and had had no breakfast because she could 
not choke down the dry bread. The visiting teacher is 
trained not only in the use of social agencies but is 
charged with the duty of helping the child to adjust to 
his new and unprecedented problems. 

Some citizens see the relationship of schools and 
social behavior. Rodney H. Brandon, Director of the 
Illinois State Dept. of Public Welfare, talked recently 
on “The Cost of Crime”. He pointed out the alarming 
increase in the population of the state prisons in IIli- 
nois. “In 1920 55 felons for every 100,000 of the popu- 
lation were incarcerated, but the figure by 1930 had in- 
creased to 111 per 100,000, or a total of 10,600 male 
felons and 134 woman felons.” He suggests a part of 
the solution when he says: “Less than one per cent of 
the men in prison in the state are graduates from high 
school, although probably more than 25 per cent of the 
men and women of Illinois are graduates from high 
school. Did you ever realize before that a high-school 
diploma is practical immunity from prison? . . . A 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


composite picture of the man in prison is made up of 
the homeless, schoolless, workless boys of ten years ago 
now grown to manhood.” 

Union teachers in this crisis besides defending their 
own wage scale and hence their standard of living, are 
concerned with the social and economic work in which 
they and the children find themselves today. They chal- 
lenge the right of ignorant and selfish interests to dic. 
tate what parts of the educational set-up shall be elim. 
inated. They challenge the right of the school board 
of Spring Valley, Illinois, and their ilk to discharge the 
superintendent with several teachers and to raise the 
pay of the athletic coach who advertises the town with 
his champion team. They deny the ability of such 
organizations as. the Western States Taxpayers’ 
Association to decide what is an “adequate curriculum” 
and what “frills and non-essentials” shall be eliminated. 

Teachers and the educational supervisory staff are the 
experts who shall decide what parts of the school sys- 
tem are antiquated and need to be scrapped. Does the 
public dictate to the surgeon what instruments he shall 
use or what technique he shall employ when he is saving 
a patient’s life? The skilled surgeon alone is the judge. 
The time will arrive when teachers like the surgeons will 
be the sole dictators of what educational tools and tech- 
niques are essential to bring the young persons of this 
nation to a perfect, healthy development. 


Education and Racial Adjustment 
O. Myking Mehus 


the Peabody Conference on Dual Education which 

was attended by sixty southern education leaders, 
representing sixty institutions located in thirteen south- 
ern states, for the purpose of considering the opportunity 
and obligation of southern educational institutions, both 
colleges and public schools, to make a constructive con- 
tribution to the South’s peculiar problems of race rela- 
tions, The conference, held at George Peabody Col- 
lege, Nashville, Tennessee, July 20-23, 1931, was spon- 
sored by the following southern educators: Bruce R. 
Payne, President of Peabody College; Frank Graham, 
President of the University of North Carolina; Willis 
A. Sutton, Superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools 
and President of the National Education Association 
last year; R, E. Blackwell, President of Randolph-Macon 
College for Men; Robert H. Wright, President of the 
Eastern Carolina Teachers College; S. M. N. Marrs, State 
Superintendent of Schools, Texas; and James H, Hope, 
State Superintendent of Schools, South Carolina. The 
Carnegie Corporation of New York made a special grant 
which financed the conference. 

A very cordial and wholesome atmosphere prevailed 
during all the discussions. Everyone present seemed to 
be sincerely anxious to help bring about a better under- 
standing in race relations. It was pointed out by one of 
the leaders at the conference that the Negro was en- 
titled to equal educational opportunities with the Whites, 
the right to earn an honest living in industry and busi- 
ness, and justice under the law. It was further pointed 
out that racial misunderstanding and racial prejudices 
can best be eliminated through education. 

At the opening session of the conference N. C. New- 


L AST summer it was my privilege to be present at 


bold of the North Carolina State Department of Educa- 
tion gave a summary of a study conducted under the 
auspices of the National Education Association. The 
purpose of this study was to find out what contribution 
the colleges of the South are making toward intelligent 
interracial adjustment through their curricula, on the 
platform, in voluntary student activities and otherwise. 

This study embraced 155 colleges in 16 Souther 
states. It showed that there are 39 colleges that give 
specific courses in race relations and 76 colleges that 
give correlated treatment of race relations in sociology, 
history, and other subjects. Thirty-eight colleges re- 
ported other race relations activities. Twenty-five books 
on race were published by faculty members and twenty- 
four other books are ready for publication, while 4/ 
articles have been written. In these colleges 14 doctor's 
theses and 44 master’s theses have been written by 
students. 

In commenting on these figures, Mr. Newbold said, 
“These totals, surprising as they are, undoubtedly under- 
state the case. Not only are there many other institu- 
tions from which no reports have been received, but im 
a number of cases the data afforded was fragmentary 
and inadequate. We can‘ be sure, therefore, that the 
actual facts are even more encouraging than these figures 
indicate.” The institutions that are doing especially good 
work in race relations include the University of North 
Carolina, Peabody College, Duke University, University 
of Virginia, the North Carolina College for Women, and 
the Sam Houston State Teachers College. 

The success of the conference was due to a great ex 
tent to the excellent work done by R. B. Eleazer m 
making all the arrangements and plans so that everything 








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May, 1932 

went along smoothly. Mr. Eleazer is the Educational! 
Director of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation 
of Atlanta, Georgia. He gave an address at the con- 
ference on “The Quest for Understandifg,” in which 
he pleaded for intelligence in dealing with (race relations. 


He pointed out that the so-called intelligence tests 
are really tests of educational opportunity rather than 
pure tests of pure native intelligence. These tests showed 
that the Negro soldiers of New York averaged higher 
than the Whites from Alabama. This does not prove 
the superiority of New York Negroes over Alabama 
Whites, but rather that their opportunities have been 
better. He condemned the “lumping” habit, which means 
the assumption that the misdeeds of individual negroes 
are racial, so that when one negro commits a heinous 
crime the whole race is condemned, The whole white 
race is not maligned when a white man commits a serious 
crime. The same rule should,hold for both races. 


In discussing the educational opportunities of the 
Negro in the South Mr. Eleazer gave some significant 
facts. He showed that in 1930 eleven Southern states 
spent for public schools an average of $35.42 per year 
per white child enrolled, as against $12.57 for the colored 
child. In South Carolina the respective figures were 
$60.06 for the white child and $7.84 for the colored; 
in Mississippi they were $45.34 and $5.45. 

Mr. Eleazer continued: “But even these figures do 
not tell the whole story. Within these averages there 
are unbelievable extremes. In Alabama, for example, 
where the averages for the state are $36.43 for the white 
child and $10.09 for the colored, there is one county where 
in 1924 the figures were $57.00 for the white child and 
$1.51 for the Negro! In hundreds of counties in several 
states the proportion runs as high as ten to one, or 
twenty to one, in favor of the white child. In the light 
of these conditions the teacher of civics might well be 
asking his students why we started public schools in the 
first place—to educate the children of the well-to-do, or 
the children of the poor? Do we discriminate thus 
against the children of white people who pay no taxes? 
Is not the Negro’s relative poverty a sufficient handicap? 
Shall we further penalize him for it by denying educa- 
tion to his children? And if we do, what sort of citizen- 
ship may we expect from them?” 

Dr. Edwin L. Clarke, professor of Sociology at 
Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, spoke on “Educa- 
tion for Race Cooperation” and gave some very prac- 
tical suggestions that can be used in the grades, high 
school, and college classroom. He urged that every 
student become acquainted with the “Crisis” and “Op- 
portunity,” the leading Negro magazines dealing with 
race problems. He said it was desirable, where local 
sentiment permits, to have a Negro speak to the class 
occasionally, and to have the class take trips to Negro 
schools, churches, business districts, and social agencies 
when these are of high standard. 

He emphasized that the student should be led to form- 
ulate scientific views and attitudes. “This will mean,” 
Dr. Clark said, “that he will get over what social sci- 
entists call the ‘lumping fallacy.’ He will learn that 
Negroes are not all alike, and that it is a mark of gross 
ignorance or extreme prejudice for one to assume that 
they are.” 

Dr. Clarke pointed out that at the present time it is 
unproved that the races differ significantly in native 
ability and that limitations are imposed upon intelligence 


7 


tests because the different racial groups have unequal 
access to the data on which they are based, and that 
different racial groups have unequal incentives to do 
well at the time of taking the tests. 

A comprehensive outline for a course in race relations 
in history was given by Dr. W. C. Jackson, Vice-Presi- 
dent of the North Carolina College for Women, Greens- 
boro. Dr. Guy B. Johnson of the Sociology Department 
of the University of North Carolina outlined a course 
in “The Negro” that has been given for several years 
at that institution. Dr. Jackson said that the course he 
offers causes more comment in the college community 
than any other course given and that the students are 
greatly interested in it. He believes that a course in 
“Race Relations” should be given in every southern col- 
lege. The members of the conference concurred in this 
view. 

A need for the objective attitude in studying race 
relations was stressed by Howard W, Odum, Director 
of the Institute for Research in Social Science and Pro- 
fessor of Sociology in the University of North Carolina. 
He pointed out that in the study of race and race rela- 
tions and in the study of the American Negro, sociology 
finds one of its richest opportunities. Dr. Odum said, 
“Tt has been proverbial that the southern white man 
really knows very little about the southern Negro, and 
it has been proverbial that we have assumed many facts, 
many situations, and many relationships to be quite dif- 
ferent from what they really are. The sociological ap- 
proach, therefore, is of particular importance in the 
matter of research and study, so that our practical the- 
ories and programs may grow out of actual situations 
and factual findings.” 

Dr, Odum said further, “A desirable goal would be 
to bring about a situation in the South in which we 
look at the Negro and our race problems instead of 
feel about them—at his remarkable contributions in folk 
music:and folk song and in other aspects of creative 
effort; at the unusually attractive personalities of the 
Negro common man, instead of feeling that he is a per- 
son of the opposite sort; in which we center our intel- 
lectual activities toward objective processes rather than 
subjective emotions. It has been our universal experi- 
ence in the classroom that the rate of progress among 
students in courses and discussions of the Negro and 
Negro problems has been more marked than in other 
subjects in proportion as we have been successful in 
having them follow this general procedure.” 

“Courses in Dual Education in Teacher-Training In- 
stitutions” was discussed by Dr. Dennis H. Cooke of 
Peabody College. He told about the course that has 
been given at his institution since its founding. A spe- 
cial course was organized in the summer of 1931 for 
school superintendents entitled ‘Problems of Dual Edu- 
cation in the South.” The Julius Rosenwald Fund gives 
a scholarship to one county superintendent from each 
of the fifteen southern states so they may have an op- 
portunity of taking this course. The beneficiaries of 
these scholarships are selected by the state superinten- 
dent of public instruction and the state agents for Negro 
schools. 

Dr. Isaac Fisher, Y. M. C. A. Secretary of the Hamp- 
ton Institute, spoke on “The Negro—An Untapped Re- 
source in American Life.” He pointed out what the Negro 
has contributed to American drama, music, art, medicine, 
science, government and industry. He stressed that, since 





8 


Negroes have accomplished something in these fields while 
working under severe handicaps, they can accomplish a 
great deal more if given better opportunities to develop 
their talents. He said that the Negro is an untapped 
resource that the American people should develop in 
order that he may be a real asset to his country. 

The concluding word to the conference was given by 
Dr. Will W. Alexander, Director of the Commission on 
Interracial Cooperation of Atlanta, Georgia. He spoke 
on “The South’s Opportunity” and said in closing: “It 
is doubtful if southern white leaders have any greater 
opportunity than in contributing to the solution of this 
problem. In the long years to come, the success or fail- 
ure of the civilization of the South will be determined 
by its dealings with the questions involved in its bi-racial 
population. If we can approach this task with con- 
fidence, imagination, and long-time statesmanship, we 
shall be worthy of a high place in the estimation of 
future generations. If the best South finally prevails 
in the solution of this question, our position is safe. 
This is our great opportunity.” 

It was truly an inspiring conference and one that will 
surely bring good results. - If the best minds in the South 
attack this problem with sympathy and understanding a 
solution of our race problem will be worked out that 
will bring about a greater South for both Whites and 
Negroes. We cannot ignore the challenge—the problem 
is here and we must face it with courage, patience and 
intelligence. America has solved other difficult prob- 
lems in the past. I have confidence that we will solve 
this problem too in such a way that all our citizens, 
both white and black, will have an opportunity of living 
a more abundant life here and now. 


{Those who desire a complete report of the conference 
on “Dual Education in the South” may secure it from 
the Executive Committee of the Conference, 703 Standard 
Building, Atlanta, Georgia.] 








Into the Fire! 
(Continued from page 3) 


munity insist upon real representation in any group that 
attempts to supplement the regular governmental au- 
thorities even in an advisory capacity. Let them insist 
upon such representation even to the point of refusing 
to cooperate if such representation is denied. 

Let’s elect public officials capable of performing their 
official duties who will actually perform them as repre- 
sentatives of the whole people and will not supinely turn 
over their powers to any self appointed group repre- 
senting one class of the community. 

And this above all, let’s have no indiscriminate and 
hasty discharging and wage cutting or curtailment until 
careful planning will show us in advance whether it will 
improve matters or make them worse. 

The frying pan is bad enough. 


Argentina ’Phone Operators 
and Teachers Launch Strike 

Buenos Aires.—The teachers’ directorate of Argentina 
ordered a 12-hour walkout because overdue salaries had 
not been paid. 

The telephone operators, who demanded a 44-hour 
week, no more 11-hour shifts, and the reemployment of 
all workers dismissed for reasons of so-called economy, 
declared they would strike if their demands were not met. 














THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Every Member Get a Member 


On April 15, 1932, the American Federation of Teach- 
ers was sixteen years old. On May 9, 1916, it was 
chartered by the American Federation of Labor as an 
international of that body, having jurisdiction over the 
teachers of North America. 

As a protest against the abuses of power that had 
grown up in school administration, as a means of com- 
batting the autocratic domination of the schools by spe- 
cial interests and as an expression of the social vision 
of a few teachers who were thinking in terms of com- 
munity interest and social progress, this new union 
offered itself to the teachers of America. Like their 
fellow trade unionists these teachers recognized teacher 
welfare as fundamental to professional progress. These 
far-sighted pioneers watched with pride their growing 
numbers, their widening influence and the increasing 
interest in this movement which many thinkers regard 
as patricularly significant to the future of education. 

During these sixteen years the motto of the American 
Federation of Teachers, Democracy in Education—Edu- 
cation for Democracy, had become more than a phrase; 
it had become a growing reality. 

In actual accomplishment are to be noted revision of 
salary schedules upward, reduction in the size of classes. 
some sound tenure laws, retirement systems, sabbatical 
leave for teachers, increase of school revenues, wider 
use of the school plant, free text books, better enforce- 
ment of the school laws, teacher participation in ad- 
ministration, cooperation between boards of education 
and superintendents and committees representing the 
teaching body, successful opposition to the exploitation 
of the schools for propaganda. 

These illustrate some of the progress made in organ- 
ized communities by the American Federation of Teach- 
ers with the help of Organized Labor. It was fast 
moving to its goal when the “economy” wave struck. 
An organization founded on such principles and work- 
ing for such objectives is needed now more than ever 
before. This attack upon the schools must be met by 
devotion, unity, solidarity. As an organized method, the 
only effective method of combatting the present attacks 
on the schools, the American Federation of Teachers 
commends itself. More socially minded teachers must 
be informed of its work and invited to join its ranks. 
The activities of this organization devoted to the cause 
of the teachers, the schools and humanity must not 
be curtailed or abandoned for lack of support. The 
friends of the movement, who realize the significance 
of its aims, must aid by enrolling new members. 

EVERY MEMBER GET A MEMBER! 





Teacher Union Urged by Labor 


Kalamazoo, Mich.—The executive board of the Mich- 
igan Federation of Labor has been authorized by the 
state convention to interest teachers of the state in or- 
ganization, not only because of the benefits to be derived, 
but because it would restrain school boards from cut- 
ting teachers’ wages. 

It was declared that if teachers’ salaries are cut, the 
effect would revert back to labor. The convention aw- 
thorized immediate wires to Senators Couzens and Van- 
denburg, urging their approval of the injunction relief 
measure. 





W 
ithe 
sale 
me 











HER 


“each- 
t was 
as an 
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t had 
com- 
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vision 
com- 
union 
their 
acher 
These 
wing 
asing 
egard 
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rican 
-Edu- 
\rase ; 


on of 
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atical 
wider 
‘orce- 
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r the 


, 


‘ation 


rgan- 
each- 
fast 
ruck. 
vork- 
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ot by 
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Aich- 
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Van- 
elief 


ay, 1932 





What Shall Be the Answer of 

the Schools? 

A short time ago an Influential Educator 
sid in a company of responsible school 
men that within the coming year public 

ool systems must meet the challenge 
f apparently necessary reductions in ex- 

nditures. How shall this challenge be 
et? Some say by issuing a counter chal- 

ge to the holders of great wealth to 
stand and deliver! But suppose the -chal- 
lenge to the schools is made with the 
implication that they have been wasteful, 
or that public education is not worth what 
it costs ? 
The “Influential Educator” was not 
thinking of counter challenges. He was 
disposed to accept situations as he saw 
them, and did not have it in mind to 
question ‘the right of the practical busi- 
ness of our cities to say with finality 
whether or not the public schools are yield- 
ing results commensurate with their cost. 
Being a daring person, he was willing to 
undertake to prove that the schools are 
‘doing a worthwhile job, and one that is 
iperhaps better than the “reductionists” 
|may think it is. 
Do We Know the Answer? 

And if so, are we willing and ready to 
‘give it? Before we can deal with the 
| answer itself, must we not recognize the 
fat that the nature of the answer will 
bear a very close relationship to the points 
of view of those who put the question as 
well as those who receive the answer? We 
must also recognize the fact that there are 
at least two answers to the question, one 
of the kind that might convince and please 
the practical business men in key posi- 
tions in every community; the other, of the 
kind that might not please them and might 
even disturb them. 


Which Shall It Be? 


If we were good political platform mak- 
ts, we might give the answers to sections 
of the public where each would do the 
most good. But being simple folk, and 
without guile, it would be useless to try to 
dissemble. 








One Answer 

The public school is the social institu- 
ton through which is transmitted to the 
®-arriving generations the best traditions 
md culture of our civilization and of 
ther civilizations of the past. The public 
hoo] is the medium through which or- 
fanized society, at least in America, may 
immediately and effectively convey to the 





Dr. Henry R. Linville 


young the ideas of current significance 
which national crises develop. Without 
the public school as a resource in disci- 
plined personnel for eventually meeting 
the threatened problems or catastrophes 
of the present generation of adults, we 
should be inclined toward despair. 

Even the radical among us recognize the 
beneficent by-products of such formal pub- 
lic education as stimulates the mind of 
youth to stretch itself to comprehend in- 
tellectual problems, and to become nimble 
enough to examine and analyze the intri- 
cate in thought and actuality. And even 
the conservatives of goodwill who believe 
in the everlasting right of profit may yet 


trust that through the schools the young‘ 


may usher in a civilization with less sel- 
fishness and less cruelty than ours manifests. 

An able educational writer, Prof. George 
S. Counts, has said, “The public school 
is the American road to culture.” It is 
also America’s bulwark of safety and its 
enduring pride. It is the accepted symbol 
of our democracy! 


The Other Answer 

It is granted that the public school is 
our best organized social agency for insur- 
ing the stability and the continuity of our 
civilization through the generations. In 
fact, it is the only one we have. Before 
the days of the public school, the sources 
of general understanding among the peo- 
ple were limited; and they were based 
largely on authority. Today we are still 
under the spell of authority in all realms 
of thought and experience. But the num- 
ber of us who question the accuracy of 
authority, and the authority of authority, 
is increasing more rapidly than ever be- 
fore. Undoubtedly the general education 
of the people through the public schools, 
as they have drawn our minds toward the 
contemplation of the truth of nature, the 
discipline of thought and the power of 
ideas, has as a natural by-product made 
us less susceptible to the dictation of those 
who rule by authority and by fear. Yet 
public education in America is not without 
its incubus of authority and tyranny. It 
cannot be denied that authority puts upon 
the schools the restraining influence of 
conformity to a pattern which tradition 
has found to be safe for tradition. 


There Is More to the Answer 
Among those who realize the profound 
influence of the public school on American 
thought, there are many powerful persons 
on educational boards and elsewhere who 
believe that by ordering situations so that 
only ideas of conservative connotation may 
be offered to the minds of children through 
the aid of teachers who accept such ideas, 
the continuance of a certain social order 


The President’s Page 


may be insured. Similarly there are rad- 
ical folk who believe that whenever the 
opportunity offers, their followers should 
order situations for imposing their own 
ideas on the minds of the children. There 
is no observable difference in the techmic 
of these two exploiting groups. Precon- 
ceived notions of what truth is, identical 
convictions of solemn duty, and a common 
reliance on a dictatorship of power in- 
spire both. The difference that most per- 
sons imagine is that. one is “respectable,” 
and the other is not. 


How May We Rescue the Public 
School from Its Exploiters? 


In the first place, those whe want to sce 
the public school continue effectively in its 
profound function, that of educating the 
children, must direct their minds to the 
nature of education itself. We know that 
growth is the evidence that education is 
taking place; growth in initiative, growth 
in capacity, growth in skill, growth in un- 
derstanding, growth in character, growth 
in power, growth in the effectiveness of 
all coordinated abilities. The public school 
does not do all of this job, but it might 
improve on what it does now, if there 
were more of the condition of freedom in 
the organization of the school and in the 
attitudes of its administrators and its teach- 
ers—freedom with responsibility. Our 
minds range so narrowly within the con- 
cepts we hold from time to time that we 
fail often to make effective and workable 
connections between such ideas as freedom 
and responsibility. We fail also to see the 
weakness in the position which exploiters 
demonstrate when they claim the right to 
propagandize, because “everybody is do- 
ing it.” 


We Need More of Knowing How 


Perhaps just because the school has not 
yet been able to do its job well, we can- 
not yet break through the confining walls 
of our concepts and organize the public 
school on an effective basis for promoting 
growth. But the public school is not the 
ultimate source of ideas. It is rather the 
created product of our thinking. If that 
analysis is accepted, we must develop 
among ourselves in the union movement 
greater interest in dealing with the jeduca- 
tional work of the public school. We must 
also strive to prevent exploitation. 

This may be just the time at which to 
interpret the public school to the practical 
business men who up to the present have 
dictated, or approved, school expenditures. 
It may not be a bad time, also, to start 
some thinking. With all the good that the 
schools have done, they have not done 
much to improve our thinking. 








10 


Democracy in Educatioft 





Organized April 15, 1916 
Affiliated with the American Federation of 
Labor 
506 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, III. 
President 


Henry R. Linvitte, New York Local 5; 
70 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. 





Secretary-Treasurer 
Fiorence Curtis Hanson, Chicago Local 3; 
506 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, III. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
Official Organ 


Apvisory EpiTorIAL Boarp 


Lucie W. ALLEN RutH GILLETTE Harpy 
Chicago Local 8 New York Local 5 


Mary C. Barker Henry R. LINvILLE 
Atlanta Local 89 New York Local 5 


Setma M. Borcuarpt A. D. SHEFFIELD 
Washington Local 8 Wellesley College 


Joun M.Graysier CuHartes B. STILLMAN 
San Francisco Local 61 Chicago Local 2 


FLorENCE Curtis HANSON 
Executive Editor 


Publisher 
H. G. Apatr Printine Co. 
107 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, III. 
Sai 20 





Listen in 

All our Chicago readers and those 
owning radios in reach of WCFL, the 
station operated by the Chicago Fed- 
eration of Labor, should be interested 
in the daily broadcast by O. David 
Zimring, Director of the Labor Bu- 
reau of the Middle West. 

Mr. Zimring is working with the 
Committee on Public Information of 
the Chicago Federation of Labor to 
find out what is what in the Chicago 
taxation muddle. The public is get- 
ting some interesting information 
about some of the men who have set 
up a conspiracy to belittle and curtail 
essential public services in Chicago in 
order to escape their proper tax bur- 
dens. 

While the broadcasts are dealing 
with the situation in Chicago, they are 
pertinent in every city in the United 
States for each one is faced with 
similar problems, 

The radio talks are made each 
evening at 6 o’clock standard central 
time or seven o’clock Chicago day- 
light saving time or eight o’clock 
eastern daylight saving time. 


Iulia C. Lathrop 


Julia C. Lathrop’s long life of valu- 
able service ended April 15 when she 
died at Rockford, Illinois, where she 
was born and spent her early and 
late life. Her first two years of col- 
lege was spent at Rockford and then 
she went east to Vassar. In 1899 
when she came to Chicago to live at 
Hull House with Jane Addams and 
her associates, she became attached 
to the group that was described by 
Zona Gale in a recent issue of the 
Survey as “The Great Ladies of Chi- 
cago.” Back in 1905 William Hard 
listed her as one of the “Five Maiden 
Aunts of Chicago” because of her 
work here in the interest of less for- 


‘ tunate citizens in the community, In 


1893 and again in 1909 she served on 
the Illinois State Board of Charities 
and many of the best features in our 
public institutions in Illinois today 
can be traced to her work and in- 
fluence. 

Her interest in the care and pro- 
tection of children developed very 
early and it was natural that she 
should have been appointed by Presi- 
dent Taft as the first Chief of the 
Children’s Bureau in the United 
States Department of Labor. In 
Washington she was known as the 
non-political bureau chief as she re- 
tained her position through the two 
following administrations receiving 
re-appointments from President Wil- 
son and President Harding. Her in- 
fluence extended to other countries. 
Following the world war she called 
an International Child Welfare Con- 
ference at Washington so that we 
might begin to work for higher stand- 
ards. 

When Miss Lathrop wanted to find 
out what was wrong in the community 
she studied the family earnings and 
showed the relation of low wages to 
the problems of child welfare, 

After she left the Children’s Bu- 
reau she continued her work in the 
interest of public affairs. In 1925 
she was appointed assessor on the 
Child Welfare Committee of the 
League of Nations. She became the 
second president of the Illinois 
League of Women Voters and also a 
national officer. She was always vi- 
tally interested in the Women’s Trade 
Union League and was a member of 
the Chicago branch from the begin- 
ning. 













THE AMERICAN TEACH@A 


At the Illinois Conference of Pulp! 
lic Welfare held in her home gdo 
last November she advocated agphic 
worked for the Conference support “ 
the request for federal funds for wu 
employment relief and the Confef, 
ence sustained her. She lived in fhin 
small industrial community and gett 
knew the need for this relief. Hg 
last work was to help to save the Chie” 
dren’s Bureau when its appropriatid.,. 
was threatened in the economy drivhou 
with a $100,000 cut. She knew thi x 
would cripple the Bureau’s usefygro 
ness and was not economy that wa™ 
in the interest of the nation. Thi’, 
last effort, made almost on the eve, 
of her death, was successful. as $ 


Julia Lathrop had a rare gift of 
wit and humor. She had a keen if! 
tellect and good nature. These quali... 
ties won for her many battles an 
wherever she appeared to speak s 
was remembered as a brilliant woman 
She was a truly great woman. § 
was 74 years old but too young 
leave her useful life in this world. 

AGNES NESTOR. a 
hus 


Bia i Wi 
fOr 


May Married Women Teach} 


The Journal of the American As} 
sociation of University Women] 
April, 1932, has an article by Proq 
fessor Chase Going Woodhouse on™ 
May Married Women Teach? whic 7 
should be read by every member off ® 
the American Federation of Teachers] * 
We should like to reproduce this en- : 

a 

re 
et 
m 


0 
the 
rat 
tert 

it 


ma: 


tire article in the columns of the 
AMERICAN TEACHER but space pre 
vents. 


Professor Woodhouse, formerly of 
the Smith College faculty, is director 
of the Institute of Women’s Pro}] 
fessional Relations. In this article 
she gives authoritative information 
and interpretation on an ever present 
problem, one heightened not created 
by the depression. She asks a few 
questions which we hope to see at}. 
swered before this matter is arbitrar- | 
ily settled. 


“Are married women a class or a Cok 
lection of individuals differing one from 
another as markedly as do married men! 
Will dismissing one group of workers solve 
the unemployment situation? If such 4 
step is merely a palliative, why should ont 
group of women be singled out to give this 
temporary relief to others? Is it truet 
men are suffering from technological ut 


chee 


— ftp =e es .~s oe 








EaAcH@ay, 1932 





ofducation for Democracy 


€ Of Pufaployment and women are enjoying tech- 
10me ¢pdogical employment? What of the work 


‘ated agptich women have been carrying on tor 
support mturies at their homes and which the 
Is / ae achine has taken into the factories? 


“Specifically as to the married woman in 
Confebe ing, is it true that she offers some- 
ived infhing in the way of broader outlook, more 
and settled contentment, the experience of 
ief. Jars, added sympathy, and a greater 
the mowledge of youth? Is her interest in 
. “ier job divided? Does she devote more 
‘OPTiati@iime and energy to her home than her 
My drivhoung, single colleague to the hunt for 
‘new tha mate? Is the fact that the married 
$ usefygvoman is more permanently a part of her 
that wammmunity an asset or does it make her 
n Th a ruisance to the superintendent because 
: lof connections? What of the relative ef- 
the ey ficiency of the married and single teacher 
4s shown by comparisons between the same 
(asses in age, experience, and general in- 
k -Hidligence, as to absences, principal’s rat- 
een in. : : 
ings, turnover, professional study, and im- 
SE Qualifroyvement? Also, what of the ratings of 
tles ante same women before and after mar- 
peak sh@nage? What is the relative cost of ma- 
-womagtmity leave and turnover because of 
an. § withdrawal from the system on account of 
. marriage? How does the birthrate in fam- 
‘Oung t@iies of the married woman teacher com- 
world, fre with that in others of the same social 
ESTOR, 















gift 0 


ad economic group? What effect does her 
work have on her husband, at least on the 
husband who teaches in the same system? 
What does she do with her purchasing 
power? What are her obligations?” 


Teach! Of 1,500 city school system report- 
can As{itg their policies with regard to the 
Women| ‘mployment of married women as 
by Proftachers, at the request of the Na- 
use omtional Education Association, about 
> ~which| 7 per cent stated that they do not 
nber off ‘mploy married women as new teach- 
eachers§ fs. Only 37 per cent of the total 
this en permit women to continue teaching 
of the after marriage, and over half of the 
ce pre-{ maining 63 per cent require wom- 
tn teachers to resign at once if they 
erly off ™tTy. 
director 
s Pro- 
article 
rmation 
present 
created 
a few 
see all- 
rbitrar- 





True to Form 


Last month we recorded that a 
shool board in Monroe County, Ten- 
nessee, had passed a rule forbidding 
the teachers of their district to dance. 

The April American Association of 
University Women’s Journal says that 
in 1929, this same school board 
‘passed a regulation that only un- 
married men and women are eligible 
0 teach in its public school system. 

is was passed as an amendment to 
ttuling dismissing married women 
tachers and was moved by the fifth 
member of a deadlocked: board, a 
woman.” 


- a co 
ie from 
d men! 
rs solve 
such 2 
uld one 
rive this 
rue that 
ical un- 








Teachers and Thinking 


Teachers and other public em- 
ployees should realize at this time of 
wage cuts and curtailment proposed 
by the taxpayers’ association and the 
open shop movement who their 
friends are. 

The teachers certainly ought te re- 
alize that their friends are not the 
bankers who have refused to pay 
taxes nor the wealthy property 
holders who are evading their taxes. 

The teachers should understand 
that their friends are not the daily 
papers that are preaching wage cuts 
and tax reductions day in and day 
out. 

It is about time for teachers to do 
some tall thinking and discover who 
their real friends are. 

It is time for the teachers to know 
that these sallies against the school 
teachers and schools are just a part 
of the general plan of the exploiters 
to compel the workers to bear the 
burden of the depression. 

It is time for teachers, as well as 
all public employees, to hold their 
ground, It is time for them to unite 
and be prepared to put up a united 
front against the enemies of wage 
earners. 

No doubt, the teachers and public 
employees know that organized labor 
has on many occasions given staunch 
support to them when there have been 
controversies between them and their 
enemies. Labor has always fought 
for legislative measures in the interest 
of schools. Labor stands solidly in 
support of the teachers, and other 
public employees, in every effort they 
make to prevent further wage reduc- 
tions. 

It is time for the teachers to realize 
that the best defense for their rights 
is a union of activities with organ- 
ized labor. 

—Utah Labor News. 


Good News 


It is very gratifying to receive such 
a letter as the following from the 
president of the International Typo- 
graphical Union, Mr. Charles P. 
Howard, 

There is occasion for congratula- 
tion to the entire labor movement as 
well as to the International Typo- 
graphical Union. 

The following is the letter in part: 








1] 


“At a time when there is so much suf- 
fering and millions of people are the ob- 
jects of charity it is interesting to know 
that the International Typographical Union 
has accomplished so much in protecting 
the interests of its members. 

“During the past two years local unions 
have collected dues and assessments for 
relief among its employed and expended 
more than eight millions of dollars. The 
International Union is paying more than 
one and one half millions per year in old 
age pensions and a half million in death 
benefits. 

“The work week has been restricted to 
five days in many jurisdictions and im 
others hours have been reduced. The or- 
ganization has suffered no loss of mem- 
bership during the worst depression we 
have known. Our finances are unimpaired 
and this union has weathered the storm 
in a manner that clearly indicates it has 
builded upon a firm foundation.” 


Accompanying the letter is an at- 
tractive brochure Facts Concerning 
the International Typographical 
Union, which tells some things this 
union has accomplished, It is incred- 
ible that in the face of these facts 
there should be a non-union printer in 
the United States. Or a non-union 
teacher for that matter, 











Who's Who in 
This Issue 

















Florence E. Clark, Chicago Women 
No. 3, Vocational Guidance De- 
partment of Chicago Public 
Schools, Author of “The Printing 
Trades and Their Workers.” 


O. Myking Mehus, department of So- 
cial Science, Northwest Missouri 
State Teachers College, Maryville, 
Missouri, a frequent contributor to 
the AMERICAN TEACHER and other 
educational and sociological jour- 
nals, 


Agnes Nestor, president Chicago 
Women’s Trade Union League; 
vice-president National W. T. U. 
L.; member Federal Vocational 
Education Commission; member 
Labor Mission to Great Britain 
and France. 


William Edward Zeuch, Local 194. 
former director Commonwealth 
College; Guggenheim Traveling 
Research Fellow, studying educa- 
tional movements in Europe, espe- 
cially adult workers’ education. 





All Over the World 


























STUDENTS AND TEACHERS IN CHICAGO SCHOOLS GAIN 
SLOWLY BUT EXPENDITURES SOAR 





School Enrollment 
82% 
Gained in Past 20 Years 


Thousand Thousand 
Students Teachers 
600 15 





| 


400 10 





















































1910 1930 1910 








Number of Teachers 
108% 
Gained in Past 20 Years 


School Expenditures 
592% 
Gained in Past 20 Years 


Million 
Dollars 
75 








50 








IH . 


HI | 


1930 1910 1930 
Chicago Tribune. 






















































































S. F. Labor Council 
Backs Teachers’ Pay 


The San Francisco Labor Council 
Opposes any movement to cut teach- 
ers’ salaries or increase the teachers’ 
load. A recent resolution, introduced 
by delegates from Teachers’ Local 
No. 61, and adopted by the council, 
declares in part: 


“The San Francisco Labor Council 
goes on record in opposing the reduc- 
tion of wages of the city’s workers in 
an effort to make up the deficiency in 
the budget. 


“We oppose the reduction of teach- 
er pay and an increase in the teacher 
load, for this will endanger the effi- 
ciency of the public schools, of which 
labor is proud. 


“Tf boards of education find that re- 
trenchments are necessary, we advise 
that they curtail expenses in overhead 
by reducing the number of directors 
of special subjects, supervisors, and 
statistical research workers, and by 
the elimination of emergency schools 
and classes that serve the few, rather 
than. impair the education of the 
masses of our school children.” 


Labor Warns Public 
Men to Keep Their Pay 


Suit will be brought immediately 
under the Corrupt Practices Act 
against any public official who rebates 
any part of his salary to the public 
treasury, it was decided at a meeting 
of the executive council of the Utah 
State Federation of Labor. 

This action was taken to offset the 
suggestions that have been made to 
have state officers and other public 
officials rebate part of their salaries 
as a means of meeting the state mil- 
lion dollar deficit. 





Tacoma Teachers 
Resist Pay Slash 


The high school teachers of Tacoma 
“invite the earnest attention of the 
citizens” to the facts that their work 
has been increased 20 per cent by ad- 
dition of an extra class to each teach- 
er, that high school classes have in- 
creased 40 per cent in size since 1925, 
and that now they are forced to take 
a wage cut. They also point out that 
the secondary schools of Tacoma have 
been removed from the approved list 
because of the overload on teachers. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHE 


R 
The Sorbonne Invites You [ih 


The Sorbonne, University of Parsi 
offers for the summer of 1932 ten week 
of travel and study for $545, all expensegn0V 
included. The purpose of this course isthe 
to establish valuable contacts wi Lib 
French people, in a French atmosphere edg 

whe 












under French professors. Residence in 
a French home or pension supplement 
the work of the University. 

A six-weeks’ course is glowingly des. Un 
cribed in the News Letter of the Phila. 7 
delphia Teachers Association. Annef® 
Wright, Principal, Wissahickon Schoolfbef 
writes, “Would you believe me if I told 
you that for two hundred and ninety 
dollars you can not only attend the 
Sorbonne, but live in Paris for six weeks§)® 
without spending another cent for lux4L, 
uries? Because of a movement to foster 
world peace, many European Universi- 
ties offer unusual inducements to Amer. 
ican students. The Sorbonne charges a 
flat-rate. This sum _ includes _ tuition, 
board and lodging for six weeks in Paris, 
expenses on afternoon trips about Paris 
and Saturday excursions farther away. 
At the end of the six weeks University 
course you are taken on a ten day tour 
of the chateau country, Normandy and 
Brittany. ( 

“The professors are charming and 
more anxious to have you understand 
French people and French life than to 
have you working over assignments dur- 
ing your afternoons.” 

If this attracts you, address for fur- 
ther particulars, M. Henri Goy, Sor. by 
bonne, Paris. 





Rock Island Unionists Block _ [5 
Proposed Pay Cut for ha 
Municipal Employes} ”" 


Representatives of organized labor} y. 
in the Rock Island city council de-f ¢, 
feated a motion to slice ten per cent} ih; 
from the pay envelopes of city em-](q 
ployes. a 

“To have reduced the wages of City } he 
employes would have been nothing} ty, 
short of criminal,” declared the Tri- 
City Labor Review. “We are sure 
the entire community of Rock Island} § 
indorses the action of the city coun- 
cil.” 

Vice President L. C. Johnston and 
Delegate Ed. Engelbach of the Tri- 
City Federation of Labor also ap 
peared before the Scott County Board 
of Supervisors in defense of mait- 
taining present wage standards of 
county employes. They informed the 
board that county employes were re 
ceiving a very modest wage, and that 
if economies were necessary they 
could be made in a manner other than 
taking the money from the pay ¢@ 
velopes of the employes. 


Seogoemeoesapseosasonaaxsepss 








ACHE 


1932 


AY, 








sportant Victory Seen 
in Uhler Reinstatement 


Restoration of Dr. John Earle 
hler to the Louisiana State Univer- 
ity faculty, from which he was dis- 
sn weepgmssed last October for writing a 
expenseggovel held to reflect unfavorably upon 
course igiihe university, is viewed by the Civil 
a be liberties Union as “belated acknowl- 
dence ,fedgment that the trustees were wrong 
plementqwhen they cancelled his contract.” 
When Dr. Uhler was ousted, the 
¢ Phils Union offered to support a legal test 
Annfof the issues involved. On the night 
_Schoolfiefore a suit was to be filed, the uni- 
7 I toldfyersity blocked it by paying Dr. 
end. thjubler’s salary for the balance of the 
x weeks ear. “His reinstatement,” the A. C. 
for lux-§l, U, avers, “will have a salutary ef- 
© fosterfiect on the tenure of professors all 
5 Amecjover the country. It will make uni- 
versity authorities think twice before 
taking such summary action.” 





You 
»f Pari 













gly des. 


larges a 
tuition, 
in Paris, 
ut Paris 
r away. 
liversity 
lay tour 
idy and 





Dropped as Communist, 
Teacher Plans Suits 


Court action for libel is planned by 
attorneys for the Civil Liberties 
Union in behalf of Harry Dworkin, 
who was dismissed as an American- 
ation teacher in the Columbus (O.) 
tight schools following attacks on him 
by the D. A. R. and by Col. Grosvenor 
Townsend of the U. S. Army. 

Dworkin is a law student in Ohio 
ck State University, and for three years 
r has been president of the Optional 
sloyes Drill League. He was instrumental 

in having military training in the uni- 
1 labor versity made optional. There was no 
cil de-Foontention that he ever taught any- 
-t cent thing “subversive” in his classes, but 
ty em} Col. Townsend attacked Dworkin as 
a “Communist” in a speech, asserting 
he once distributed Communist litera- 
ture, Dworkin declares this is false. 


ng and 
lerstand 
than to 
nts dur- 


for fur- 
y, Sor: 


of city 
othing 
e Tri- 
e sure 
Island 
coun- 





School Bible Reading 
Case to Highest Court 


Backed by the American Civil Lib- 
tties Union, an appeal will be taken 
to the U. S. Supreme Court in the 
tase of Joseph Lewis versus the New 
York City Board of Education, to 
test the constitutionality of Bible- 
tading in public schools. Decision 
0 take this step follows the action of 
the N. Y. State appeals court Jan. 5 
affirming a lower court’s dismissal 
% an appeal by Lewis, head of the 
Free Thinkers’ Society, who sought 
© end Bible-reading in city schools 
o the ground that it is an illegal use 
of taxpayers’ money. 


yn and 
e Tri- 
30 ap 
Board 
main- 
ds of 
ed the 
re re 
d that 

they 
r than 
\y ef 














Message From Pioneer Youth 


Labor education takes on an added sig- 
nificance in a time of economic crisis. 
Changes are imminent, If they are to be 
affected by the workers themselves our 
laboring masses must be given opportuni- 
ties to gain the technique of group action. 
They must understand their economic sit- 
uation. And if their movement is to have 
a cultural as well as merely an economic 
significance they must have opportunities 
for fuller enjoyments on creative levels. 

It is with these ends in view that Pio- 
neer Youth of America is for the third 
summer planning to conduct recreational 
activities for the children in some of the 
southern industrial towns. The critical 
situation in the coal and cotton fields has 
led us to choose the basic industires for 
our activity. The children in these regions 
are necessarily limited by their environ- 
ments. We shall attempt to do for them 
what our progressive schools are learning 
to do for their children, Because of the 
experiences through which we help them 
to live we hope that at least some indi- 
vidual workers will be more ready to 
participate in a vital and cultural labor 
movement. 

Socially minded teachers who have had 
experience with experimental methods are 
needed for this work. College students 
and other young people are needed as as- 
sistants. It is an opportunity to do a sig- 
nificant and experimental type of labor 
education in the midst of critical industrial 
situatians. The fourteen leaders who car- 
ried on the work last summer were quite 
unanimous in feeling that it was a most 
valuable experience. 

We will welcome inquiries from any of 
your readers. 

Sincerely yours, 
Acnes SAILer. 


Teachers on Strike; 
Salaries Are Unpaid 

Jewish schools in Manhattan, 
Brooklyn and the Bronx are closed 
as a result of 300 teachers going on 
strike for payment of back salaries. 
Many have been unpaid for five 
months. 

Twelve institutions and more than 
6,000 pupils are involved in the walk- 
out. The teachers say the Rabbinical 
board owes them “close to $200,000.” 

According to Rabbi Abraham I. 
Faivelson, secretary of the board, the 
teachers are unpaid because of a sharp 
falling off of tuition fees and dona- 
tions—practically the sole revenue of 
the schools, 


Needs Independent 
School Teachers 


I am glad to note there are some 
school teachers in Utah with inde- 
pendence enough to become affiliated 
with the teachers’ union, affiliated 
with the A. F. of L. The teachers 
owe everything to organized labor and 
they should show appreciation of this 
by becoming members of the teach- 
ers’ union —A TEACHER. 














Coming Events 


American Federation of Teachers, 
Sixteenth Annual Convention, 
June 26-July 1, Hotel Knicker- 
bocker, Chicago, Illinois. Theme 
—Save Our SCHOOLS, 

American Association for Adult 
Education, Seventh Annual Meet- 
ing, May 16, 17, 18, Buffalo, New 
York. 

American Home Economics Asso- 
ciation, Annual Convention, June 
20-25, Atlanta, Georgia. 

Austro-American Institute of Educa- 
tion, Sixth Summer School, June 
16- August 10, Vienna. 


International Federation of Univer- 
sity Women, Conference, July 28- 
August 4, Edinburgh, Scotland. 


International People’s College, Sum- 
mer Term, April 20-July 10, Elsi- 
nore, Denmark. 

Manumit Associates Conference, 
Ninth Annual Meeting, June 4-5, 
Manumit School, Pawling, New 
York. 


Mid-west Institute of International 
Relations, American Friends’ Ser- 
vice Committee, June 20-July 2, 
Northwestern University, Evan- 
ston, Illinois. 


Michigan Labor Institute, Workers 
Education Bureau and University 
of Michigan, June 20-23, Ann Ar- 
bor, Michigan. Theme—Tue Sta- 
BILIZATION OF EMPLOYMENT. 

National Advisory Council in Radio 
Education, Second Annual Assem- 
bly, May 18, 19 and 20, Buffalo, 
N. Y. 


National Educational Association 
Convention, June 26-July 1, Atlan- 
tic City, N. J. 

New Education Fellowship, Sixth 
World Conference, July 29- Aug- 
ust 12, Nice, France. Theme— 
EpuCATION AND CHANGING So- 
CIETY. 

Secondary Education, Fourteenth 
Annual Congress, July 19-23, Lon- 
don, England. Chief Subject— 
GAMES AND Out-oF-Door AcrTIVI- 
TIES. 

World Federation of Education As- 
sociation, Regional Conference, 
July 25-30, Honolulu, Hawaii. 

Yale Summer Seminar in Educa- 
tion, July 5-August 5, Yale Uni- 
versity, New Haven, Conn. 















































































News from the 
Field 




















New Locals 


Charters have been issued this month to 
three new locals, San Francisco Federa- 
tion of Elementary Teachers Local 241, 
Wisconsin Local 242, and Madison Voca- 
tional Teachers Union Local 243. 

The American Federation of Teachers 
welcomes cordially these groups of teach- 
ers and assures them of the full coopera- 
tion of its members and of all trade union- 
ists in their efforts to protect themselves 
and their schools. 

It congratulates them on affiliation with 
a group—the American Federation of La- 
bor—whose members take and live up to 
the obligation, “I will never wrong a 
brother, or see him wronged, if it is in 
my power to prevent it.” 

Several other groups gave signified in- 
tention of taking out charters and many 
cthers have made inquiries. It is evident 
that teachers are realizing more and more 
each day the reliability of the aphorism, 
“In Union There is Strength.” 


Milwaukee County Federation 
of Teachers 


The Capital Times (Madison, Wis.) on 
April 13, 1932 carried as a leader on the 
front page an article by Dr. Colin G. 
Welles, Secretary of the Milwaukee 
County Federation of Teachers entitled 
“Schools Fail to Develop Leadership.” 
The editor in an introductory note of 
comment says: 

“Modern education has been found want- 
ing because it has failed to stimulate stu- 
dents to intellectual thought and daring re- 
search, Colin G. Welles of the Milwaukee 
County Federation of Teachers declares in 
the following pertinent article. Until our 
schools and colleges can turn out students 
qualified for leadership, Mr. Welles thinks, 
vital economic and social problems of the 
day will go unsolved. He does not believe 
that this is being done in the modern edu- 
cational mold that makes lawyers, engineers, 
and accountants out of its raw material 
who can think only in the old grooves and 
who fear to challenge the status quo.” 


Chicago Local 3 
The Chicago Federation of Women High 
School Teachers recently issued to its 
membership a stimulating bulletin entitled 
HOW TO LIBERALIZE THE 
SCHOOLS 
It quotes Professor Harry Elmer Barnes. 
Sociologist, Historian, Authority on World 
Politics, as follows: 
What He Finds Among Teachers 


_“You have this very discouraging situa- 
tion; that the great majority of teachers 








‘simply want to continue the old barbarous 


relations. They have been brought up in 
the school system, of which we are all 
victims, and you cannot expect them to 
think otherwise than they have been taught. 
ed few who would be willing ‘to 
make some few lame and halting and 
totally inadequate steps in the direction of 
civilization are terrorized by the patrioteers 
into acquiescence.” 
What He Suggests as a Remedy 

“That is the situation in which we find 

ourselves with regard to the ‘schools. 





What can be done? Obviously, the thing 
to do is for the liberals in the schools to 
organize against the patrioteers, stand be- 
hind the American Civil Liberties Union, 
which is the one great national group op- 
posing the patrioteers and LET THE 
TEACHERS JOIN THE TEACHER 
UNIONS! .. ; 

“Back up the liberal teachers, subscribe 
to liberal periodicals, liberal lectures, the 
people working along the lines this organi- 
zation desires to further. Don’t let them 
be assassinated in private without any pro- 
test—at least assassinated professionally.” 


New York Local 5 


The Teachers Union Is Sued 


The President of the Teachers Union 
and the Union are being sued collectively 
for $25,000 for alleged libel by the Prin- 
cipal of P. S. 127, Queens. This suit 
developed out of the campaign of the 
Union to put a stop to the coercive tactics 
adopted by some school officials to collect 
from teachers $400,000 a month for unem- 
ployment relief. 

A number of issues are involved in this 
suit. The Executive Board has voted to 
accept the challenge on all the issues, in- 
cluding the suit itself. 

x x * 


The Teachers Union Auxiliary held a 
symposium on Orienting Teachers to the 
Mental Hyaiene Viewpoint at the new 
school for Social Research on April 18. 

In addition to an address on the main 
topic by Dr. Lawson G. Lowrey, there were 
discussions led by leading psychiatrists on 
the following: 

The Teacher and the Pupil as Influenced 
by the Principal as a Father-Substitute, or 
Ego-Ideal, A Principal’s Best Approach in 
Helping a Teacher in Her Adjustment to 
Her Job, Transmitting the Mental Hy- 
giene Point of View in Extension Courses 
for Teachers in Service, Educating Teach- 
ers to a Mental Hvgiene Attitude Toward 
the Individual Child through a Clinic in 
the School, The Indirect Effect of a Schoot 
Child Guidance Clinic on Teacher-Principal 
Relationships, and The Effect of a Clinic 
in a School upon: a. Discipline; Pupil- 
Teacher Relationships; b. The Attitude of 
Teacher to Principal; c. The Growth of 
the Teacher’s Personality. 











Sacramento Local 31 


Local 31 in continuing its study of the 
tax situation, listened with much interest 
to Mr. Dixwell Pierce, secretary of the 
California Board of Equalization, who 
addressed the federation meeting on 
March 3rd. Mr. Pierce argued that al- 
though education takes the greater part 
of the local tax money, such money is 
spent to better advantage and with less 
waste than in other departments. Part 
of the school burden should be shifted 
to income and sales taxes in order to re- 
lieve property. 

The meeting of April 9th was addressed 
by Miss Mehlman, formerly an, Oakland 
teacher, who has been teaching for six 
years in Russia. Miss Mehlman is enthu- 
siastic about the spirit and ideals of the 
Soviet States and was glad and able to 
answer questions with first hand informa- 
tion. 

A committee has been working for some 
time on a plan of life insurance to be 
managed for and by teachers. A tenta- 














THE AMERICAN TEACHE 


tive plan was. outlined in the last isg 
of the Teachers’ Voice. 

In conjunction with the City Teach 
Association, the federation has been pr 
paring quictly to oppose any possible ¢ 
in teachers’ salaries. The first thing 
do is to get before the public somethi 
of the work of the schools and to sho 
why the school costs must necessarily ; 
crease. A) joint publicity committee ; 
conducting this campaign. 

The membership drive is being continue 
with especial reference to former mer 
bers who have dropped out. Many n 
ones are coming in. Fourteen were vote 
in at the last meeting. The continue 
public pressure in regard to salary cut 


shows the need of a strong, united mem 


bership. 
——-MArGARET Moore. 


Minneapolis Local 59 





The Minneapolis Federation of Teach 


ers Local 59, convinced that the tax situ 
tion and the tax attitude of people toda 
are of real importance to all friends o 
education, arranged a “Tax” dinner on 
Wednesday, April 6, which was largely 
attended by Minneapolis teachers and 
their friends. 

Charles F. Keyes, formerly chairman of 
the Board of Estimate and Taxation and 
now head of Mayor Anderson’s special 
committee on tax revision, spoke on “Tax 
Reform.” 

C. R. Reed, superintendent of schools, 
introducing Mr. Keyes, presented the Min 
neapolis tax situation as it immediately 
affects local schools and discussed the re 
port made by its Committee on_ Schod 
Costs to the Department of Superin 
dence. 


San Francisco Local 61 

The present crisis is awakening the 
teachers of San Francisco to a realization 
cf the fact that only in effective organ 
ization is there any hope to retain that 
which years of struggle has achieved 
Our labor leaders have done heroic work 
in an attempt to retain the present eft 
ciency of the public schools. They have 
given their time and energy without stint 
Mr. John A. O’Connell of the Labor Coun 
cil and Mr. Frank McDonald of the Build 
ing Trades Council have both made per 
sonal sacrifices of no small moment ™ 
behalf of the teachers and the schools. 
The results are becoming apparent. 


G. M. Kurncer, Secretary. 


Commonwealth Local 194 


In addition to its regular summer s¢& 
sion, Commonwealth College at Mena 
Arkansas, is conducting a summer camp 
to which teachers who wish to spend a 
economical, stimulating vacation in pit 
turesque mountain surroundings are espe 
cially invited. The camp will be open 
the public from June through Septembet 
and offers both educational and recre 
tional advantages. 

Discussion circles led by members of the 
Commonwealth faculty and visiting © 
structors will be held on such topics # 
“The Labor Movement Today,” “Looking 
Behind the News,” and “Changing Thought 
in a Machine Age.” Hikes to nea 
mountain tops, dancing, swimming an 
bor dramatics will also be part of the pre 





A 


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mi 2 
ine S 
er 
Th 
hat 
ihe 1 
rr 
| hi 
jo V 
olle 
ne 
dollz 


suc 


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fT | 











CHE} 










ay, 1932 





ast iss 






Teach 
een pre 
sible g 
thing 
omethi 
to she 
sarily j 
nittee j 










-ontinue 
er men 
any n 
re vote 
‘ontinu 
ary ity 
ed mem 









































Participation in all activities will 
optional, of course, and guests may lie 
» a big rock all afternoon soaking up 

sun or read in the shady woods when- 
er they feel so inclined. 
The cost of such a vacation is so low 
hat it will seem extravagant, even for 
he teacher who has been forced to accept 
srrants for “future cashing only” to stay 
thome. To those guests who are willing 
9 work fifteen hours a week about the 
oliege farm, kitchen, office, or garden, 
he rates will be $25 a month or one 
jollar a day. To those who want a com- 
ete rest, and therefore do not care to 
work alongside the Commonwealth stu- 
jents and teachers, the charge will be $50 
, month or $2 a day. 














Moore. 


9 


* Teach 
aX situa 
le today 
iends 0 
nner on 
; largely 
ers and 


















irman of 
tion and 
; special 
on “Tax 


schools, 
the Min- 
1ediately 
| the re 

Schod 
Superin- 


61 


ing the 
alization 
. organ 
ain that 
ichieved. 
ic work 
ent eff 
ey have 
ut stint. 
yr Coun- 
e Build 
ide per: 
ment im 
schools. 


etary. 







































The regular summer session, beginning 
une 27th, is open to accepted students 
rolled for the 10-week period, and the 
tuition is forty dollars. All students earn 
rom, board and laundry service by 15 
hours work a week. 

Inquiries should be addressed to the 
Executive Secretary, Commonwealth Col- 
lege, Mena, Arkansas. 














Cambridge Local 195 


The Cambridge Teachers Federation 
held a bridge party at the Hotel Commodore 
on the evening of May 10 which was very 
successful socially and financially. Miss 
Anna Katz, secretary of the Federation, 
was chairman of the committee of ar- 
rangements. 

The money raised is to be used in part 
to finance delegates to the National con- 
vention. 


Washington Local 198 


The Washington Educational Union has 
heen instrumental in organizing in Wash- 
ington the City Council of Adult Educa- 
tion for the Unemployed. Richard S. 
Harvey, President of the Union is chair- 
man of the Council. The objective of the 
Council is to provide educational facilities 
to occupy the enforced leisure of the un- 
employed. 

_At a meeting held at the Americaniza- 
tion School on April 11, Miss Jones, di- 
rector of President Hoover’s Committee 
cn Employment, was the speaker. 








Green Bay Local 233 


The Green Bay Teachers Union has pub- 
lished a booklet containing its constitution 
and by-laws and a declaration of principles. 

Under the caption, 


What Our Teachers Union Stands For 
it lists: 


1. Co-operation with all educational, civic 
and industrial organizations for improved 
civie life. 

2. High standards of qualifications for 
teachers, and a standard of living worthy 
of their calling, in order that the children 
of the country may have a fair chance. 

3. Equitable salaries for teachers, com- 
mensurate with the services rendered to 
society. 

4. Size of classes commensurate with 
efficient work and individual attention for 
pupils. 

5. Co-operation with school boards and 
administrative departments, through com- 


mittees representing class-room_ teachers, 
such committees to be selected by the 
teachers. 


6. Maintenance of adequate tenure laws 
so that teachers will feel enough security 
that they may be free to devote their best 
energy to their work. 

7. Protection of the public schools against 
propaganda and exploitation. 

8. Maintenance and careful protection of 
our retirement and pension system so that 
teachers shall not face poverty and dire 
need after the age of retirement. 

9. An adequate teachers’ credit union 
which shall afford protection in emergencies 
against unscrupulous financial agencies, as 
unworried teachers are community assets. 

10. Adequate child labor laws and careful 
enforcement of school attendance laws for 
all children of school age. 


The Union will be pleased to send 
copies of this booklet on request. 

An active membership campaign is bring- 
ing good results and increasing numbers 
of Green Bay teachers are realizing that 
their greatest protection lies in the Union. 





Grand Forks Local 205 


A Committee of Teachers of the Grand 
Forks Public Schools sponsored by Local 
No. 205 of the American Federation of 
Teachers is working in an endeavor to 
publish and circulate material throughout 
the state to defeat an initiated measure 
which calls for the reduction of the as- 
sessed valuation of property from 75% to 
50% without any increase in the mill levy 
for school purposes which is to be voted 
on by the people of North Dakota in June. 


15 


This bill, if passed, will reduce revenues 
334%. 

Leaflets entitled The Schools and Tax 
Reduction have been printed and circulated. 
These explain the proposed bill and its 
effects upon the schools if enacted into 
law. An arbitrary reduction of 334%% at 
this time would automatically discontinue - 
many of the schools of this state, and 
greatly embarrass many others that are 
taxing near the legal mill limit. Schools 
at Enderlin, Hazelton, Williston, North- 
wood, Cooperstown, and many others out- 
side of the Red River valley, would prob- 
ably be compelled to eliminate their High 
School departments. A recent survey of 
Grand Forks County Schools shows that 
eight rural, four consolidated, and four 
(of the five) classified schools would be 
most seriously crippled. In the Grand 
Forks City School district teachers’ sal- 
aries would probably be cut, at least, 40%. 
Of course, Grand Forks has other alter- 
natives: reduce the school year to six 
months (teachers are now on six months 
contracts), or run the school on half day 
sessions, or eliminate certain departments, 
etc. In every case, the efficiency of the 
school system would be seriously impaired. 
The example of Grand Forks is typical of 
nearly every school district taxing at or 
near the mill limit. 

The North Dakota Federation of Labor 
is cooperating with the teachers to defeat 
this bill. 

Ann Monson. 





Salt Lake City 

Mrs. Florence Curtis Hanson left 
Salt Lake City Tuesday for her office 
in Chicago after a week spent in 
Utah in the interest of the American 
Federation of Teachers. She ad- 
dressed several groups of teachers 
during her stay here with splendid 
results. A charter membership list 
for a local of the A, F. of T. was 
started in Salt Lake City and the 
new union will start with a splendid 
list of members. 

—Utah Labor News. 














A. F. T. Convention 


The Sixteenth Annual Convention of the American Federation of Teachers will meet in Chicago, at 
the Hotel Knickerbocker, June 26 to July 1, 1932. 

The theme of the meeting is SAVE OUR SCHOOLS. 

The chief topics of discussion will be the effect of the economic and social chaos upon the public school 
system and the necessity of teacher unionism to meet this situation. Other topics of vital interest, as the 
relation of mass education and gang rule, character education, credit unions, insurance, retirement systems, 
professional standards and training, will receive the attention of the delegates. 

Distinguished leaders in the educational and labor world will be present. 

President William Green of the American Federation of Labor has said that Organized Labor is keenly 
aware of the situation confronting public education and that he plans to be with us. 

The Hotel Knickerbocker is delightfully located on the near north side on Walton Place just east of 
Michigan Blvd. and offers exceptional advantages for a summer convention. 

The sessions are open to the public and friends of the schools are invited. 















es 











American Federation 


of Teachers 


506 South Wabash Avenue 
CHICAGO, ILL. 


_ 


The American Federation of Teachers 
desires to establish an intimate contact and an effective co-oper- 
ation between the teachers and the other workers of the com- 
munity. 

The American Federation of Teachers 
desires to co-operate with all civic organizations for improved 
civic life. 

Groups of seven or more public school teachers are invited 
to affiliate with this National Organization of Classroom 


Teachers, fot mutual assistance, improved professional stand- 
ards and the democratization of the schools. 


Our Slogan Is: 
Democracy in Education: Education for Democracy 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER ~~ 
is published monthly by The American Federation of Teachers. 


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