wie 


AMERICAN 
TEACHER 


A Life Long Process 


It is a mistake to say, “Today educa- 
tion ends, tomorrow life begins.” The 
process is continuous: the idea into the 
thought, the thought into the action, the 
action into the character. When the mul- 
berry seed falls into the ground and 
germinates, it begins to be transformed 
into silk. 


This view of life as a process of educa- 
tion was held by the Greeks and the He- 
brews—the two races in whose deep 
hearts the stream of modern progress 
takes its rise; the two great races whose 
energy of spirit and strength of self- 
restraint have kept the world from sink- 
ing into the dream-lit torpor of the mys- 
tic East, or whirling into the blind, rest- 
less activity of the barbarian West. 

—Henry van Dyke. 












































Sates 
N ue i 








DECEMBER, 1933 
VOLUME XVIll. No. 2 





IGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHELS 




















hl 


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Page 
oo eck a cccnsesececunt W. B. Satterthwaite 3 
MER, GE A PDIOCEIVES... 00.00. ec cccceccccccccceed & F..7..4 
i i ie OO Oe Sees... ow cccccccccsccccscccces 6 
High Spots of the A. F. of L. Convention................. 8 
Dangers Threatening Education............. James P. Barron 10 
Federal Taxation and the Schools............. Irving Brant 11 
Ne Reed. di wdceccsn bled ethegoceecceccesss 13 
a 14 
Vocational Education in the Public 
Ee sec ccc wtsdvecscusn Dr. Wm. J. Bogan 16 
nn. Ol caste seen ebee ee eeebcscesen me 
Nene ee. ic enwagns Sbectesescceceses 18 


Why Teachers Get the Sack 

Disorganized Opinion 

Fear 

A Little Plain Speaking 

Organized Labor 

Too Many Teachers 

Education for the Status Quo 

Shall the Blue Eagle Fly Over the Little Red School House 
Sales Tax Fallacy 

Age Limit for Federal Employes 


School or Jail............ Clarence Darrow—Llewe!lyn Jones 22 


UBLISHED bi-monthiy, except August, by the 
American Federation of Teachers, 506 South 
Wabash Ave., Chicago, Ill. Entered as second 


class matter October 18, 1933, at the post offce 
at Chicago, Ill., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage 
provided for in Sec. 1103, Act of Feb. 28, 1925, 
authorized Nov. 3, 1926. 





Table of Contents ! a % 


EES LE 2S DE Se 2, 9 


Editorial Office 
506 South Wabash Ave., 
Chicago, Illinois. 


B20 


( ame eee} 
v4 







J 
Christma 


{ . 
( T _ Greetings) 
on PRP ann 
Page 
State Federations of Labor Resolutions, N. C. and Mass.... 23 
ER LN Oe PPR? A, — 


The Propaganda Menace—Mark Starr 
National Ideals and Internationalist Idols 
Taxes and Tax Dodgers 
An Introduction to Biology 
Christmas Program 
That Strange Little Brown Man: 
Michael B. Scheler 
The Paint Creek Flood and Other Stories 
Children, Why Do We Have Them—Bertram Enos 
Vocational Guidance in Engineering Lines—)). E. Carpenter 
Two-Hundred Years of Education—1733-1933 
Savannah, Ga. 
The Churches and Modern Thought 
Book Notes 


News from the Field...... SG i le «ig shane 6 haw se 29 


Chicago 

Chattanoega, Hamilton County 
Southern Illinois 

Franklin County, Illinois 
New Locals 


Mark Starr 


Gandhi- 


Radio Programs 
g 


UBSCRIPTION $1.00 for the year—Foreign $1.10 

—Single copies, 25c. At the time of expira- 

_tion, a bill will be found in the copy. Sub- 
scribers are requested to give prompt notice of 
changes of address. Remittances should be made 
in postal money-order, express order, draft. 
stamps or check. 


























DECEMBER, 1933 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








Vou. XVIII 


December, 1933 No. 2 











The Status Quo 


phase of the present kaleidoscopic economic picture 

in words so suggestive of permanence as the status 
quo. However, the plight of public education in the 
rapidly changing economic order must be causing great 
concern to all the friends of that well-known bulwark 
of democracy. 


I REQUIRES considerable imagination to describe any 


In the sincere, if belated, attempts of the governing 
powers to build up a new system of economy, essential 
public services including the education of the children 
of the masses seem to have been somewhat overlooked. 
In its frantic effort to stay increasing unemployment and 
lessened income with its attendant elimination of pur- 
chasing power, the brain trust apparently has forgotten 
those persons in public employ including, at one time, 
almost a million teachers. 

Codes have been made to protect thousands of em- 
ployers from themselves by prohibiting such outworn 
business practices as competition, long hours, and low 
wages to their employees. These codes likewise aid 
millions of laborers by minimum wage restrictions, by 
shorter hours of labor, and, not least, by the right to 
organize for their own protection. 

N. R. A. banners are found in all establishments ex- 
cept public buildings. Government exacts from all in- 
dustries an industrial code it is not willing to accept in 
conducting the greatest of all, the industry of govern- 
ment. Why should there be an N. R. A. banner flying 
from an automobile factory and none from a public 
school ? 

It can hardly be maintained that an unemployed 
teacher does not suffer from hunger as much as an 
unemployed mechanic, or that purchasing power is not 
decreased from cutting the wages of a postal clerk as 
much as the same cut to a bricklayer. As a matter of 
fact, intolerable conditions for teachers are reflected in 
the lives of millions of children. Due to the lack of 
employment, hundreds of thousands of children are re- 
ceiving no education at all. 


Why have public services been so neglected in the 
New Deal? In particular, why is public education per- 
mitted to lag, yes, even to be pushed ever lower while 
other industries are being pushed upward? We can 
dismiss the repeated assertion that the schools are be- 
coming better because of the economies forced upon 
them and the teachers more efficient through the benefi- 
cent effects of starvation and insecurity. 


However, a few morons holding high positions in the 
educational world are still roving up and down the coun- 
try, telling the teachers and the patrons of the public 
schools that the schools have been “purified” and made 
more efficient through difficulties. These high priced 
“mspirational” speakers are not called to the mining 


districts of Southern Illinois where salaries have been 
dropped to $400.00 per year and less and are still drop- 
ping, or to other sections where there are no salaries 
and no schools. 

It is just possible that those in authority, following 
the example of a still higher power, are most likely to 
help those who help themselves. Organized industry 
demands and receives help. Organized labor, not so 
well organized, receives help, not as much as the better 
organized group, but nevertheless it gets attention. 


The teachers upon whom rests the prime responsibility 
of caring for their own industry, education, as well as 
for themselves, have not seen fit to organize themselves 
to as great an extent as other citizens and are therefore 
not in as favorable a position to ask for the assistance 
they need for themselves and their industry. 


It must be said, however, that teachers, driven by 
necessity, are showing much more interest in the matter 
than ever before. Lack of experience and ignorance of 
modern economic trends leaves many of them bewildered. 
Many are looking for some one to lead them. They must 
be shown that they must do things for themselves. No 
one can help them much working for them, but millions 
of organized people keenly interested in the public 
schools in which their children are being educated are 
anxious and willing to work with them. 

There are two strongly organized economic groups in 
America. Organized business and organized labor. Or- 
ganized business, led and controlled by men of great 
wealth who neither need the public schools for their own 
children or are willing to pay through taxes for the kind 
of schools for the masses which they demand for their 
own children, is one group, Organized labor becoming 
much stronger through the operating of the industrial 
codes, always the friend of the public schools, is the 
other. 

Are the teachers of America ready to organize and 
affiliate with the only group that wants them and the only 
group with a forward looking educational program; the 
only group with a national interest in the school and its 
teachers? Or are they willing to be the only unorganized 
group satisfied to accept the humble place in the new 
order after the strongly organized sections of society 
have chosen and taken theirs? 

An affiliation with the American Federation of Teach- 
ers, which is affiliated with the American Federation of 
Labor, is open to all teachers in the public schools. If 
the teachers of America take advantage of this oppor- 
tunity, education and the teachers will assume the place 
in the new order to which they are rightfully entitled. 


W. B. SATTERTHWAITE. 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


A Program of Objectives 


Adopted by Seventeenth Convention, American Federation of Teachers 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 26-30, 1933 


PREAMBLE 


E GREAT Cultures of the past have based their 

] greatness on a general acceptance and devotion of 

their people to what humanity at its best has re- 
garded as individual and social virtues. Honor, fidelity, 
self-mastery, altruism, cooperation have marked the 
flowering of these cultures and these cultures have faded 
and failed only with general loss of such sanctions of 
individual and national character and conduct. 

There are ominous indications throughout the world 
that society is passing or has passed into an era of such 
loss of ethical standards as marked the decay of earlier 
cultures. It is the great function of education to restore 
and maintain these standards and to take possibly the 
greatest part in the substitution of true standards of 
duty and social living for the false and destructive mo- 
tives of selfishness and greed. Probably no ten com- 
mandments nor other rigid code of ethics can be framed 
which will perpetually endure the corrosion of time and 
change and act as a preservative suited to all the com- 
plexities of human experience. Changing and growing 
social, economic and political systems require, instead 
of static codes, growing and changing and fluid adapta- 
tions of eternal principles so that their appeal may be 
ever fresh. In this process the schools, in contact with 
youth, constitute the greatest and most general instru- 
ment for establishing and confirming adequate standards 
and in affording opportunity for thefr exercise in living. 

If society looks to the schools to perform this vital 
service, surely it is irrational for it to expect the desired 
result so long as a condition exists in which the schools 
pour out wave after wave of youth taught to believe 
in probity and duty into a world organized to reward 
rascality and greed. 

It is irrational to expect teachers who are sincere to 
abstain from attacking this massed corruption in society 
which continually stultifies the teachings and ruins the 
product of the schools. 

The teaching profession must attack and destroy the 
sources of corruption where they exist or yield the battle 
as hopeless. This imperative duty must be the sufficient 
excuse, if one is needed, for teachers to invade with 
ever-increasing energy and numbers the fields of poli- 
tics, economics, industry and finance as critics and as 
rebels against prevailing practices in those fields. 

Teachers can do this only after establishing for them- 
selves such standards of conduct and character as will 
justify their revolt and such that to them society in 
general will repair and conform. 

For the American Federation of Teachers to reach 
this objective, so indispensable to the cleansing of the 
nation, involves first, the formulation of a specific and 
practicable program and second, the rallying to that 
program of all who are worthy and courageous in the 
teaching profession. 

These two aims are too tremendous to be hastily at- 
tempted, yet too vitally pressing for long postponement. 
The first step toward their attainment, we believe, is to 
draft a concise list of objectives, immediate and more 
remote, 


I. 


Accelerated decay of wholesome home surroundings 
and parental influence is adversely affecting large num- 
bers of children. The schools are called upon more 
and more to supply a corrective for this situation. This 
task the schools can accomplish effectively only if the 
teacher-load is kept within reasonable limits and if space, 
equipment and a program for social living are supplied 
in the schools. These facts must be impressed upon the 
people by every available means. 


II. 


Degraded literature and vicious drama, as well as poor 
examples in adult behavior, surround the children at an 
age when they are most susceptible to such corrupting 
influences. The means of training taste to avoid these 
pitfalls must be developed in the schools. Community 
sentiment should be aroused to prevent the use of two 
great educational agencies, literature and the drama, for 
the purpose of perverting the youth of the nation. 


IIT. 


The times demand the promotion of social intelligence 
without the advocacy of isms. This requirement em- 
phasizes the necessity for the development of curricula 
and of texts, especially in the fields of history, civics 
and economics, which will permit the dynamic social 
teaching for which the American Federation of Teachers 
stands. Such teaching will tend more deeply to interest 
pupils in social problems so that they will regard their 
study and solution as matters of profound concern and 
serious pleasure. 

IV. 

The pressure of the present crisis reveals the danger- 
ous degree of perplexity or of indifference among the 
people about government and popular control of public 
affairs. Democracy is on trial with its whole future at 
stake. Powerful special interests are using all their re- 
sources to mold the development of our social, economic 
and political structures according to their purposes and 
desires and to create and perpetuate a stratified America. 

The only surety for democracy is more democracy. 
safeguarded by more intelligence. The special inter- 
ests which have in the past dominated America are well 
aware of the peril to their purpose embodied in popular 
education. They have entered into a general conspir- 
acy to cut educational expenditures at any cost to na- 
tional destiny. Taking advantage of the prevalent dis- 
tress of the tax-paying public, they have in part veiled 
their malice against the schools under a plea for emer- 
gency economy. By these so-called “depression eco- 
nomies” they have lessened school opportunity at a time 
when the school enrollment and the need for schooling 
is at the maximum. Their economies affect the teaching 


service, the service of supplies and equipment, and the . 


buildings, and grounds of schools. 

They have observed no equity in reducing educational 
costs. Nearly everywhere an outrageous and disgraceful 
discrimination has thrown the heaviest burden of econo- 
mies upon the teachers and pupils in the schools. 





| 








‘ 


i ee. ee 


ove 4 


Vv 














DECEMBER, 1933 


Teachers have the profound obligation to the public 
and to the children to make use of every available 
means of designating and of exposing to public indigna- 
tion those individuals and groups who participate in this 
conspiracy. 

The teachers have a sacred obligation to discharge in 
using all available channels of information to the pub- 
lic about the value of education to society and about 
the perils which beset the schools. This involves an 
enlargement of the use of radio and of the friendlier 
newspapers and journals in keeping the people informed. 
Most effective use can be made of friends of popular 
education, men and women of standing in the community 
who will speak, write, and hold meetings to combat 
attacks on the support of schools. 


V. 


The essence of the issue regarding public education 
is whether the carpenter’s son and daughter are to have 
an equal educational opportunity with the children of 
the banker, and of the president of the great industrial 
corporation. The conspiring interests say “No.” To 
the handicap of poverty they would add the vaster 
handicap of ignorance so that the race in life may be 
a hopeless one for the poor. 

America has hitherto said “Yes, let the poor man’s 
child have an equal educational start and let intelligence 
and ambition determine the result.” We do not believe 
that the majority of Americans are willing to sit still 
and see that decision reversed by the conspiracy of a 
small and selfish minority. 

VI. 

We recognize that while adversity rests upon the re- 
sources of our country it is vain to expect the public 
to be much distressed about the economic condition of 
teachers. Yet for the sake of the public as much as for 
their own interest, teachers must not cease to emphasize 
certain economic aspects of their condition. Indeed the 
times call for increased emphasis upon the need of sal- 
ary and tenure protection for teachers for the sake of 
retaining in the schools and keeping fit for their work 
that type of men and women which is the prerequisite 
of effective teaching, and for the sake of securing new 
recruits of the upper levels of intelligence and character. 

There must be also a more vigorous resistance to the 
tendency to increase teacher-hours and tteacher-load—a 
persistent and growing tendency, curiously in contrast 
to that in all other lines of employment, most pernicious 
to efficient teaching and wholly out of harmony with 
the existing national policy with regard to labor and 
employment. 

VIL. 

Restriction of educational facilities is violently op- 
posed by the logic of facts. In view of the certainty 
that machinery is unceasingly to decrease hours of 
labor for all, that adolescents are to be excluded from 
employment and that the age at which youth can find 
employment will continue to rise, the public schools 
offer the only profitable haven to which society can 
consign its youth, 


VIII. 


Teachers, then, must by every means convey to the 
public what it will mean to a society of increasing leis- 
ure if on the one hand untrained minds are left in idle- 
ness and boredom or if, on the other hand, increased 
educational opportunity makes possible equally increased 






5 


profitable use of leisure for recreation and sport, for 
self-culture or for productive ends in the creation of 
beauty in music, art and literature. 

It is a literal matter of exact calculation that the cost 
of legal and corrective treatment of one idle and bored 
youngster who falls into antisocial living and crime 
costs the public enough to maintain three or more in 
the public schools, 

IX. 

We must not leave out of consideration (nor permit 
the people to do so) the high social values of increased 
opportunity in vocational education aimed at the equip- 
ment of youth with a broad enough training to permit 
economic adaptations to the present rapid technical re- 
adjustment, so that vertical displacements in employ- 
ment shall not result from the loss of position in one 
field since those so trained may find positions in another. 

X. 

Has American education been too individualistic? Do 
not history and experience prove the necessity for group 
action to carry social concepts over into the realm of 
actuality ? 

The social ideals we have inculcated have too fre- 
quently been an unthinking conformity to her impulses 
which are a thin veneer for individual selfishness. Must 
not the American teacher begin to teach the child that 
alone the individual is weak and helpless to change the 
massive factors which condition his existence; that, only 
as he persuades others to accept his sound ideas or is 
persuaded by others to accept theirs, can he join with 
them in attack and defense; that he must think and 
work with others to attain desired social ends; that 
these ends, to be worth attainment, must first be defined 
by true thinking illuminated by clear and worthy social 
ideals? Along with this must we not teach the child 
to test evidence, to distrust dogma and propaganda and 
to be wary of those who attempt to confuse thinking 
and to hamper progress? 


XI. 

“Democracy and ever more democracy !” 

We reiterate our challenge to the betrayers of the 
people’s control of their own. The child must be taught 
to think of the Country, the State, the City, the School 
as his own, of life, not as a condition imposed upon him 
by forces vague, indefinite yet irresistible to which he 
must submit but as an adventurous march, the direction 
of which by wisdom and goodwill he can himself co- 
operating with others determine and alter. 


CoNCLUSION 


In conclusion let us pose the question squarely as it 
is set for citizens by the enemies of public education. 
That question really is: How poor a school system will 
you endure? We propose to limit it—not too suddenly, 
but as soon as you will permit—to an elementary school 
which shall. deal with reading, writing and arithmetic 
and with as little else as you will endure. If you con- 
sent, we will wipe off kindergarten, continuation schools, 
the high schools, the colleges, from the educational map. 
There shall be no public schools beyond the elementary 
grade. In this way you will save 40 cents on your 
tax bill and we will save a billion dollars for our 
stockholders.” How poor a school system will the 
American people endure? The people must answer. 


—— 








The A. F. of L. and the Schools 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





Adopted by the 1933 A. F. of L. Convention, Washington, D. C. 


Preservation of Our Public School System 


Wuenreas, The destructive tendency incidental to the retrench- 
ment movement against public education has resulted in the 
closing of schools, the dismissal of teachers, the housing of 
children in dilapidated and overcrowded school buildings, the 
shortening of the school year, the curtailment and elimination 
of important subjects, and of the much needed social services; 
and 

Wuereas, The slogan of “Balance the Budget” has been used 
as the excuse for the reckless slashing of vitally necessary 
expenditures, many of which are the only social guarantees 
we have for the maintenance of standards in education and 
in health and safety; and 

Wuereas, We believe that the destruction of the very social 
fibre of this nation must come from the continuance of this 
policy; be it 

Resotvep, That the American Federation of Labor reaffirm its 
position of unswerving support of public education, the neces- 
sary elements of which entail: 

(1) Truly professional standards in and for the classroom. 

(2) Small classes taught by trained teachers. 

(3) An enriched curriculum. 

(4) Opportunities for growth and cultural advantages for 
adult workers. 

(5) An equitable wage for all teachers. 

(6) Security of tenure for all educational workers. 

(7) Decent working conditions for teachers. 

(8) Right to establish teachers’ unions, affiliated with or- 
ganized labor. 


(9) Opportunity for culture and professional study for 
teachers. 

(10) Maintenance of educational standards. 

(11) Provision for old age pensions for teachers. 

(12) Opportunity for teachers to participate in formulating 


educational policy; and, be it further 

Resoivep, That it renew its pledge of utmost endeavor for the 
protection of education from kindergarten through university, 
and that it call upon all affiliated state and local central bodies 
to fight to the utmost to maintain intact our free public school 
system in this country. 


Federal Aid to the States for Education 


Wuereas, In every section of the country public schools have 
suffered materially through the lack of funds made available 
for educational work, in some localities amounting to the actual 
collapse of the American Free Public School system; and 

Wuereas, Local communities and the several states are 
for the most part utterly unable to maintain their public schools; 
and 

Wuereas, While it is undoubtedly the responsibility of the 
state to seek to preserve its public schools for the state, it is 
just as certainly the responsibility of the nation to assure oppor- 
tunities for education to all the children of the nation; and 

Wuereas, The citizens of the several states are, in the form 
of income taxes and other taxes giving to the federal govern- 
ment many millions of dollars; be it 

Resotvep, That the American Federation of Labor seek to 
secure legislation making available to the several states funds 
sufficient to enable these states to maintain a free public school 
system worthy of the best traditions of our land, and schools 
which would afford equal educational opportunity for all the 
children of America. 


Federal Relief Programs for Teachers 


Wuereas, The. education of our working people, employed 
and unemployed, on a part-time continuing program, is an 
essential feature of our industrial recovery, not as a temporary 
makeshift nor on a “made-work” plan for idle persons to 
teach, but as a permanent part of our placement and after- 
service to all of our working people who need courses to im- 


prove their technical skill and broaden their economic plan of 
living; and 

Wuereas, Such educational program is dependent for its 
success on properly qualified teachers with an industrial, tech- 
nical and practical background improved and made available 
by professional teacher training courses for such teachers; and 

Wuereas, Such teacher training program may and should 
continue té be an integral part of our whole program for adult 
education, in order that our working people, idle and employed, 
have the best trade, technical, industrial, and general teachers 
that can be procured; and 

Wuereas, Such a program of teacher training was for years 
recognized by the Federal Board for Vocational Education and 
made by such Board an essential part of its whole plan for 
federal aid to states in promoting adequate and worthwhile 
educational courses for our working people, rural and urban, 
juvenile and adult, idle and employed; and 

Wuereas, The Federal Emergency Relief 
authorized and is promoting a “made-work” program whereby 
needy unemployed persons may be employed on “work relief 
wages” only to teach the unemployed working people of the 
country, the “teachers” to be selected and certified for this im- 
portant work by state and local “relief agencies”; and 


Administration has 


WHEREAS, Those responsible for the promotion of this pro- 
gram undoubtedly have the best interests of our people at heart 
but fail to appreciate the reaction of such a program on the 
whole problem of adult education as as on the teaching 
profession; and 

Wuereas, The NRA has definitely set up various codes of 
fair competition in industry in order that the country may 
slowly but surely return to an era of prosperity, and inasmuch 
as this “made-work” program for teachers is inconsistent with 
and contrary to the principles set forth under the NRA codes; 
therefore, be it 

Resotvep, That the American Federation of Labor, in con- 
vention assembled, deplores the government’s program of em- 
ploying teachers or others in public service on a basis of pauper 
wages on a “made-work” theory and under the guise of 
“relief” programs; and be it further 

ReEso_vep, That an adequate teacher training program be main- 
tained for those who would teach our working people, em- 
ployed and unemployed, and that wherever extra teachers are 
employed they be employed at the pre-depression wage schedule 
for teachers of the locality where they are employed, and that 
their competence as teachers be passed upon by boards of edu- 
cation or boards of vocational education as the case may be; 
and be it further 

Reso.vep, That in order to continue this important work with 
professionally trained teachers, the Federal government make 
available to the states directly the funds necessary therefor. 


we I] 


Protection of Public School System 

WueEreEAS, The nation is threatened with grave disaster inci- 
dent to the tragic breakdown of the free public school systems 
of our states; be it 

Reso_vep, That the American Federation of Labor in con- 
vention assembled petition the President of the United States 
to use his good offices during this emergency to help save our 
schools; and be it further 

Reso.tvep, That the President of the American Federation of 
Labor with the available members of the Executive Council 
present this appeal to the President of the United States dur- 
ing this convention, if possible. 


Educational Program for Civilian Camps 
Wuereas, There is at present no educational program planned 
for the thousands of young men who are in our civilian camps; 
and 
Wuenreas, The vital need for a truly social program in these 
camps is glaringly apparent; therefore, be it 
That the American Federation of 


RESOLVED, Labor be in- 











eR 








of 
cil 
ir- 











DECEMBER, 1933 






structed to present to the director of the Citizens’ Conservation 
Camps the request to plan an educational program for these 
camps and to administer it in cooperation with the properly 
constituted authorities. 


Other statements by the convention of interest to 
teachers are: 

Teachers like other workers must be assured the 
right to establish teachers unions and to affiliate with 
Organized Labor. 

* * * 

We believe in the essential value of kindergartens 
and recommend that every possible effort be made 
to preserve this service necessary to “starting our 
future generations on the road toward a high type of 
citizenship”. 

* * * 

We maintain that there should be no discrimina- 
tion in the amount of salary paid to men and women 
teachers, and that payment of salary should be made 
and promotion granted on the basis of the service 
rendered without regard to the sex, race, the religion, 
or the social status, including marriage, of the teach- 
ers concerned. 

We hold also that for equal and required qualifica- 
tions and preparation for professional work, the sal- 
ary should be the same in whatever grade a person 
may be teaching. 

We propose that the lowest salary paid in any lo- 
cality to a professionally qualified teacher shall not 
be less than will provide him or her with proper liv- 
ing conditions, economic security, and opportunity for 
professional improvement. We propose also that 
proper basic salaries shall be protected by minimum 
wage laws. 

* + * 

The American Federation of Labor has always 
stood for the adoption by the states of adequate 
tenure laws for public school teachers. It believes 
that the principle: of permanent tenure of position 
after a probationary period of two or three years 
should be embodied in the law of every state. 

* *” * 

In a country where even the profit-making cor- 
porations provide retiring allowances for long- 
service employees, the local and state governments 
should not long delay the acceptance of their social 
obligation to provide adequately for the retirement 
of faithful employees. 


The delegates of A. F. T. presented these resolu- 
tions : 


Child Labor Amendment 


Wuereas, The highly gratifying child labor legislation of the 
National Recovery Administration is but emergency legislation 
and will cease to function after two years’ time, and 

Wuereas, Even under the present emergency child labor 
legislation, violations of this legislation are constantly being re- 
ported as being practiced by unscrupulous employers; and 

Wuereas, Child labor at any time is detrimental to the 
progress, advancement, and security of our civilization; and 

Wuereas, Child labor is particularly unwise and indefensible 
at the present time when millions of men are without employ- 
ment; and 

Wuenreas, The legislatures of several States, recognizing these 
facts, have ratified the child labor amendment to the Constitu- 
tion ; be it 

Reso_vep, That the American Federation of Labor call upon 
its Locals and individual members to carry on unceasing activ- 





ity for the ratification of the child labor amendment by their 
respective State Legislatures. 


Nationalization of Banking 


Wuereas, The power of banks has been increased and abused 
to an extent that makes their control by irresponsible individu- 
als a public menace; and 

Wuenreas, Bankers have so far departed from their traditional 
occupation of safeguarding and loaning money as to include; 

(1) A control of the business and industry of the country 
through their power to withhold credit, 

(2) The manipulation of the sale of stocks and bonds, many 
of them worthless, 

(3) The flotation of highly speculative real estate securities, 

(4) A conspiracy to control governments through their power 
to withhold credit, and 

(5) Bribery of public officials by the issuance to them of 
stock in corporations under their control at less than the actual 
value; and 


Wuereas, The departure from sound banking practices due 
to the improper interests of the bankers in various business 
ventures has caused the failure of many banks and the re- 
sultant loss to millions of depositors; and 

Wuereas, The collapse of the banking system and the fail- 
ure of many banker-controlled business enterprises have brought 
about a great loss of confidence in banks, as well as suffering 
to the general public; and 


Wuenreas, The bankers have used their power to curtail con- 
structive activity of government and especially of appropria- 
tions for public education and for salaries—often too low; be it 

Reso.vep, That the American Federation of Labor urge the 
national government to establish a system of national banks 
under federal ownership and control, and that as immediate 
steps, remove the limit placed upon the amount that may be 
deposited by any one depositor in the Postal Savings Bank, 
arrange for checking accounts in this bank and permit the use 
of money deposited in the Postal Savings Bank to be used for 
financing government costs. 


To Combat Attacks on Representative Government 


Wuereas, There has been in Europe an alarming attack on 
representative government with tHe consequential destruction 
of personal liberties of the people of these countries, therefore 
be it 


Resotvep, That the American Federation of Labor pledge its 
full moral and economic support to combating these destructive 
movements, in whatever form they may take, be they from the 
extreme right or from the extreme left. 


Protest Against the Hitler Regime 


Wuereas, The overthrow of the German Republic by the 
Hitler regime has resulted in the complete loss of personal 
liberty in Germany and consequently in the destruction of the 
trade union movement; and 


Wuereas, Under the present German government there has 
been a campaign of revolting sadist orgies, of direct cruelty 
inflicted on men, women, and even children; and 


Whereas, The very peace of the world is again seriously 
menaced by the military and quasi-military activities of the 
present German government, be it 

Resotvep, That the American Federation of Labor express its 
profound sympathy for the splendid German citizens now being 
so mercilessly persecuted; and be it further 


Reso_vep, That we pledge our moral and economic assistance 
in the fight against present German terrorism, and call upon 
the international unions, the state federations and the city 
central bodies, and liberty-loving citizens everywhere to refrain 
from purchasing goods produced or manufactured in Germany 
until this outrageous program of racial and political persecu- 
tion ceases, and be it further 

Reso.vep, That copies of this resolution be sent to the Presi- 
dent of the United States, the Secretary of State, the United 
States Tariff Commission, and to the members of the Foreign 
Relations Committee of the United States Senate and the 
Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives. 





Every stroke of a sword somehow dishonors and 
hurts the whole of humanity. Every cut of a spade 
enriches it—Gerhart Hauptmann. 






ae 











8 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


High Spots of the A. F. of L. Convention 


Samuel Gompers’ Memorial—The dedication cere- 
monies were beautiful and impressive, worthy of this 
superb monument to Labor’s great leader. It stands 
as a permanent testimonial to that peerless leader in 
the cause of social justice and human betterment, 


Samuel Gompers. 
ok * * 


Secretary of Labor Perkins 


This is a very great day in my life, one of the most important 
and solemn days and a day to which I shall look back for many 
years with a deep sense of responsibility to you and to the 
millions of people who are not here, but who, although without 
organization, find their voice and find their opportunity for 
expression of their desires and their needs in this great in- 
dustrial commonwealth of ours through you and through your 
organization. It is with a sense of solemn responsibility of the 
functions which I have been called upon to assume in the Gov- 
ernment of the United States that I address you today, a sense 
of very solemn duty to you and to all of the people in this 
country who work for wages, for it is to me that the President 
and his other advisors are bound to look for information which 
shall be the guide as to what are the conditions and needs of the 
working people of America in these days of trial and trouble. 

I want to say at the outset that although I may not 
always know the truth, I shall strive to find the truth, and to 
find that truth through cooperation with you and with others 
who are in position to know what are the desires and the 
needs of the working people of these United States. 

* * * 


I want you to make many demands on us, for this Division 
will not grow to its full stature unless you make demands full 
of common sense and reasonableness and immediate usefulness, 
which will put our government servants who want to be helpful 
to the test of being immediately practical in the work they do 
for the wage earners of this country. 

* * * 


What we want in this movement today, what the Department 
of Labor needs and asks from you is a positive, whole-hearted, 
constructive co-operation, and on that I feel we can most 


surely count. 
* * * 


President Green, Opening Address 


I am going to voice my personal opinion, and it is an opinion 
arrived at after careful and mature deliberation. I will express 
it enthusiastically here. It is my opinion that unemployment 
will not be overcome, that the eleven millions of workers who 
are begging and pleading for an opportunity to work cannot 
get back to work until we face this issue boldly and uncom- 
promisingly and establish in these industrial codes of fair 
practice the 6-hour day and the 5-day week. 

* @ ‘s 

Now for a moment may I refer to the rising tide of interest 
manifested by the workers of the nation in organization. I am 
glad I have been permitted to live in this day. We are witness- 
ing a sight that even the old, tried veterans of our movement 
never saw before. From every city and every town and every 
hamlet, from the Canadian border line to the Gulf of Mexico 
and from historic Boston to the Golden Gate, the workers are 
marching, organizing, keeping step, coming with us into the 
great American Federation of Labor. 

The door of opportunity has been thrown open to them. 
They have been held back by persecution, by the threat of 
discharge, by the company union and the yellow dog contract, 
and now they reason that somehow or other that is all gone 
and they are coming in, and nothing is going to stop them from 
coming in. It is the duty of this convention, and I know it will 
discharge that duty manfully and magnificently, to sound the 
clarion call sincerely and enthusiastically, so that the workers 
of the nation may hear the invitation to come on and stand 
with us, and the full force and power and economic strength of 
the American Federation of Labor will be thrown around every 
worker who dares to step out and join our ranks. 

I am of the opinion that the time has arrived when the success 
of the Industrial Recovery Act requires unionization, the com- 





plete unionization of all the workers in every trade and in every 
calling in every city and town of the nation. 
. & «© 

The Union establishing decent standards, decent wages, decent 
hours through the exercise of its economic strength, and on the 
other hand are those who are kept from coming in and joining 
with us because the employer insists on carrying out some fool- 
ish philosophy or because he threatens them with discharge if 
they come in, or because he forces them either directly or in- 
directly to join a company union. I hold that is unfair practice 
to the working men of the nation, and the only way it can be 
eliminated is through the complete unionization of the workers 
of the nation standing together, protecting themselves against 
the unfair trade practices engaged in by a minority. 

’ ¢ « 

When dollars are cheapened commodity prices rise, but wages 
stand still, and until they can assure labor that we will get more 
of these cheap dollars for the day’s work we perform so that 
it will conform with the increase in commodity prices, it is 
my judgment that labor will stand unflinchingly against inflation. 

* *« x 

But the men of labor have supported the whole program 
patiently, and it is my opinion that the President himself will 
rely upon the hosts of labor to see this thing satisfactorily 
through, and I believe in the end that righteousness and justice 
will prevail. 

+ * * 

We have refused to be swayed from our path and our policy 
by any strange philosophy. We have refused to listen to the 
appeals of those who have asked wus to accept a substitution 
for our great trade union philosophy, and I know that we will 
still refuse and we will stand here fairly and squarely upon the 
principles that have made our movement great. We will carry 
on in that same militant, earnest spirit until men and women 
are made free, homes are made prosperous, and every idle man 
and women given an opportunity to earn a decent living. 

* * * 

Education Committee’s Report and Adoption of 
12-point Program of Education. 


Child Labor and Child Labor Amendment—Dele- 
gate William R. Trotter, Typographical Union. 


In considering this particular resolution it needs to be pointed 
out that there is a difference between abolition of child labor 
by industrial codes adopted under measures which might prove 
temporary and the abolition for all time of child labor by 
making such abolition a part of the Constitution. There is a 
danger of allowing the present notable achievements to appear to 
render unnecessary immediate further efforts to add to the 
present total of fifteen States. 

Those charged with the duty of extending the number of 
ratifications to the child labor amendment should, however, 
understand that until a reversal of policy is openly expressed 
and the daily press of this country quits its official opposition 
to abolition of profit-making from the labor of children, that 
the proud “Fourth Estate” is committed to the use of every 
method in their peculiar means of warfare to stifle every 
attempt to free the children from industry, even to the extent 
of seeking for themselves the inglorious position of being the 
only industry in the country which shall collect tribute from 
infants. If this be one of the glories of the daily press, then 
surely we are entitled to say that their glory is their shame. 


Amendment to Constitution to increase the size of 
the Executive Council.—Defeated after dramatic de- 
bate led by proponent John L. Lewis, president U. 
M. W. A. and opponent Daniel J. Tobin, president, 
Teamsters and Chauffeurs. 

Hitlerism and the German Boycott—Selma M. 
Borchardt, delegate A. F. T. and President Green. 

President Green: 

No information has come to me that has hurt me and dis- 
tressed me more than this information, indicating and showing 




















DECEMBER, 1933 


the destruction, the absolute annihilation of one of the finest 
organized trade union movements ever established by the 
workers in any country under the sun. A situation of that kind 
is most extraordinary, and because it is extraordinary it requires 
extraordinary treatment. 

We love the German people, we love the German trade 
unionists, and it is because we love them and admire them 
that I feel, as I think most of you feel, that it is the duty of this 
convention, the stern duty of this convention to make such a 
strong declaration as will hearten and strengthen and encourage 
our German trade unionists and their splendid officers who 
have led them so well and who have administered their trade 
union affairs so ably. 

An organization as powerful as ours, as well officered as 
ours, led by men that measure up to the men here, trained from 
childhood as trade union leaders, thrown into prison, their 
organization wiped out, and not only the leaders but their 
relatives persecuted. 

Then on the other hand, why should any person be per- 
secuted in any land because he may belong to some particular 
race? The test of citizenship ought to be, do you obey the 
law, and are you a good citizen? It must not be whether you 
are a Gentile or a Jew, it ought to be what you are as a man. 
And do we sit still when the Jewish race in Germany is being 
persecuted merely because they are Jews? That to me is in- 
defensible. Some of the most brilliant men the world has ever 
produced or that America, Germany, England or any other 
country has ever produced, men of genius, men of brilliant 
minds have been persecuted and driven out of Germany merely 
because they belong to a particular race. If there is one organ- 
ization in the world or in America that stands for the pro- 
tection of men, regardless of race, creed or nationality, it is 
the American Federation of Labor. 

I could not, as a responsible leader here, allow this case to 
come up without registering not only my judgment, but attempt- 
ing to convey to you my feelings. I hope, my friends, that the 
report of this committee will be adopted and that in ringing 
and clear tones will carry across the sea, so that those in 
charge of the persecution of our German friends, your brothers, 
your sisters and families who are suffering, will know and 
understand what we say. Let the word go there that there is 
one great movement in America that will protest against the 
persecution of our trade union representatives in any land, 
wherever it may be. I believe such a declaration will encourage 
and hearten and strengthen the morale and the purpose and the 
determination of our German trade unionists abroad to fight 
for the re-establishment of the trade union movement in 
Germany. : 


Miss Borchardt: 


The schools of Germany are in an iron cast. They are trained 
for the Spartan state to conquer the world. I have here the 
statement of the German Kultur Minister, Rust, who said: 
“Let no one doubt but that we train for the Spartan state. We 
aim to mould an iron cast for everyone.” The Spartan state 
to conquer the world! A devotion to peace has been mentioned 
here. I yield to no one in my devotion to peace and inter- 
national gool will; I yield to no one in my devotion to friendli- 
ness among men and nations; I yield to no one in a devotion to 
a lofty idealism which says that we, in consecration to the 
ideals of this country, must remain loyal to those principles 
which have guided us in seeking to serve humanity and promote 
justice. But I, as a trade unionist, have been brought up to be- 
lieve in the boycott; a weapon free from physical force. 

The boycott is an economic weapon which is characteristically 
a trade union weapon, When the question came up of boy- 
cotting the lumber camps of Russia that were being manned 
by slave labor, I was one of the people who was a party to 
the request for their boycott. At least, I have been consistent. 
The boycott is the only message that can get across to those 
Germans. Censorship prevents their getting any other message. 

You read in our papers today that the protest of the American 
Government was not published in the German papers. How can 
the thousands of fine Germans know how we feel. We have 
got to help our fellow trade unionists. Because censorship 
prevents their knowing the attitude of the world in any other 
way, we ask for the boycott. Furthermore, it isn’t only we that 
are doing the boycotting; they are doing a little of it them- 
selves. Here is an order, under the seal of Hitler, ordering 
xerman seamen never to buy anything in America. The order 
tells them it is a crime against their government. 

In this plea for peace, in this plea for the trade unionists 





9 


with whom we serve, I feel that I am loyal to the real Germans, 
to those Germans who were ancestors of mine; I feel that I 
am loyal to the ideals of this country, for which my father 
and brothers, as officers in the United States Army have fought, 
and I feel I am loyal to the finest ideals of the American 
Federation of Labor and of the trade union movement, which 
stands for the loftiest spirit of American idealism. 


Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Sid- 
ney Hillman, President—A charter was granted to 
the Amalgamated by the executive council of the A. 
F. of L. on October 12 during the convention of the 
Federation. The convention unanimously approved 
the action of the council. ? 

Edward F,. McGrady, Asst. Secretary of Labor.— 
Testimonial banquet attended by 700 friends and 
admirers. 


Age Limit Is Rapped.—A strong protest against age 
limits was voiced by the convention. 

There is no more tragic picture than that of a com- 
petent, able, and well man or woman barred from em- 
ployment for no other reason than that they have 
reached the age of 45 years, and in many case only 35 
years. 

The practice must now be stopped. It is cruel, it is 
unreasonable, uneconomic, and brutal. 


Old Forge Schools Remain Unopened 


The teachers of Old Forge, Penn., have had no sal- 
ary for six months, Relying on the principle “No Pay, 
No Work,” they have for four weeks refused to con- 
duct classes, They are holding out for payment of their 
justly earned salaries with determination and unity. No 
settlement is in sight. 











The H. G. ADAIR 
PRINTING CO. 


CONSTRUCTIVE 


PRINTERS 








Telephones: 
FRAnklin 8124-5-6 








107 No. Wacker Drive, Chicago 





























THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Dangers Threatening Education 


James P. Barron 


Ee American public school has become the symbol 
of our national life; it is the manifestation of the 
desire of the citizens of the republic to perpetuate 

those ideals and traditions which have created our na- 
tion. It is an expression of the hope for a better day 
through the creation of greater opportunities for devel- 
opment of those who will build our civilization of 
tomorrow. 

The free public school has come to America only 
through bitter struggle against the forces of greed and 
predatory interests which have always grown rich at the 
expense of helpless childhood and an ignorant citizenry. 
Our citizens have come to take for granted our free 
public school system and have been wholly unprepared 
for the undisguised attempts that are now being made 
to throttle educational opportunities and to destroy the 
effectiveness of modern educational opportunities to 
children of all our citizens except those of the upper 
classes. 

An industrial system based on the profit motive will 
inevitably clash with an educational system which trains 
the worker to think for himself. Greed will challenge 
any educational philosophy which produces a higher level 
of living for the worker out of whose labor excess profits 
are made, because such an educational process creates 
a demand for higher wages to secure the advantages oi 
a higher standard of living. It has not been surprising, 
therefore, that the American public school should have 
been opposed always by short-sighted capitalists. It 
was entirely reasonable that such interests should oppose 
and seek to modify an educational system which was 
translating culture to the masses. 

That an organized attempt on a nation-wide scale is 
being made to destroy free public schools, no one can 
deny. That the greatest economic depression in history 
furnishes a timely opportunity for success is self-evident. 
A citizenry faced with difficulty in providing the neces 
sities of life for its children is not apt to awake to the 
dangers until it is too late to save the opportunities 
which they desire for their children Particularly when we 
have passed through an era of graft and inefficiency in 
our local and national governments which have saddled 
higher tax burdens on our citizens, it has been easy for 
destructive onslaughts to be made on education under 
the guise of economy in government. The situation has 
been made doubly dangerous because political interests 
are willing to sacrifice the schools in order to protect 
themselves. Proof of this may be seen nearly every 
where, as teachers remain unpaid for months while other 
municipal and state employees receive their pay. Big 
business has always been able to corrupt our political 
life and I charge that today corrupt politicians are busy 
in selling the birthright of our children to. save them- 
selves from destruction. 

I have been asked to give the impression that prevails 
in the South, and in accord with this request I shall 
discuss the school situation in Chicago and Atlanta, Ga. 
Although comparisons are odious, I shall be frank. 

The general impression is that the campaign to destroy 


Men Teachers Union of Chicago, Radio Series at 10:00 P.M., 
WCFL, Qctober 30, 1933. 





the American public school has made the greatest 
progress in this, our second largest city of the nation. 

Educators and the friends of education believe that in 
all that has been done to the Chicago schools the interest 
ef the children has either been ignored or entirely for- 
gotten. The abolition of kindergartens, junior high 
schools, and night schools for the sake of economy sac- 
rifices the welfare and educational opportunity of large 
groups of children. Overcrowding of classes and the 
placing of unbearable burdens upon teachers is destroy- 
ing the opportunity of those teachers to teach effectively. 
The limited courses of study provided by these so-called 
economies is depriving the children of adequate training. 
In addition teachers who are distracted by their per- 
sonal economic situation and are desperately fighting to 
secure the necessities of life cannot under any conceiv- 
able possibility do their best work. As I interpret the 
sentiment which I have found about the Chicago school 
situation, the general impression prevails that the citizens 
of Chicago, perhaps unknowingly, have called upon the 
children and the teachers to bear the entire burden cre- 
ated by governmental inefficiency and incompetence. 
That such procedure should be permanent seems inhu- 
man and inconceivable. 

As to the situation in Atlanta, Ga., | must admit that 
the same organized effort, under the guise of economy 
in government, has been made. It is extremely gratify- 
ing to be able to report that little success has rewarded 
these efforts. In voting voluntarily to take additional 
cuts above other city employees the teachers have kept 
the school system intact, in spite of the effort to elim- 
inate kindergartens and other departments. In co-opera- 
tion with organized labor the teachers finally secured a 
pill from the legislature making mandatory a larger per 
centage of the city’s income for school purposes, thus 
protecting the system from being dismembered. 

Fortunately the city government of Atlanta has set 
up a revised tax-collecting system, whereby the wealthy 
tax-dodgers no longer escape. In spite of drastic re- 
ductions in tax assessments, increased efficiency in tax 
collections has resulted in considerably larger revenue 
than was anticipated by the city budget. The result has 
been the restoration of the 5% cut in August with the 
provision that the restoration was to be retroactive to 
the time when the cut was made operative. A continued 
rise in tax receipts made possible an additional restora- 
tion in cuts ranging from ten to sixteen per cent, ef- 
fective as of September 15, leaving the teachers and all 
other city employees with only one flat ten per cent cut 
on the basic salary of 1930-31. No department of the 
Atlanta schools has been abolished, although teachers 
are carrying a very greatly increased pupil teaching load, 
and all other possible economies have been effected. A 
resolution has already been introduced into the city coun- 
cil to provide next year for the restoration of all salary 
cuts to all school and city employees and at the same time 
for a modified program of tax-reductions for the small 
home-owner and the owners of vacant business prop- 
erty, rather than a wholesale tax-reduction on downtown 
real estate property, as demanded by certain organized 
groups in the city. 




















DECEMBER, 1933 


It is the firm belief of the Atlanta school teachers that 
the reason our lot has been so much happier than those 
of school teachers almost everywhere else is the fact that 
practically every Atlanta teacher is a member of the 
Teachers’ Union which is affiliated through the Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers with the American Fed- 
eration of Labor, the Georgia Federation of Labor, and 
the Atlanta Federation of Trades. Without the support 
of organized labor the teachers would never have been 
placed on the same basis with other city employees as to 
cuts and the payment of salaries. Nor would it have 
been possible through the legislature to have secured a 
law making mandatory an increase in the percentage of 
the cities’ revenue which must be given to our schools. 
In addition our Board of Education has been able to 
maintain the principle that child welfare shall be the de- 
ciding factor in its decisions. The fight is not yet over, 
but the fact that we are on the upward grade lends en- 
couragement and gives hope that organized greed will 
not sacrifice Atlanta childhood under whatever guise it 
might try to hide itself. 

Chicago in celebrating its greatest Century of Progress 
has unfolded to the eyes of the nation our marvelous 
progress in science, invention, commercial and industrial 
development. At the same time she has denied her own 
children the type of education necessary to understand 
and interpret this new mode of life. Every civilization 


Federal Taxation 


11 


of the past whose material progress exceeded her educa- 
tion and social development has perished. It is to be 
hoped that the nation will refuse to follow this calami- 
tous example, but will adhere to a modern program of 
education which will keep our civilization progressive 
and democratic. 

In his inaugural address, President Roosevelt, in pro- 
claiming a New Deal for the nation, stated that the 
“money changers have been driven from the temple of 
our civilization” when they had been driven from con- 
trol of the national government. Sad to say, it seems 
that the money changers with sword in hand have en- 
tered the temple of education and are in the process 
of sacrificing on an improvised altar of greed, American 
childhood. The only solution for Chicago, and the na- 
tion, as I see it, is for the teachers to join their unions 
and align themselves with organized labor, which has 
already an adequate “Save Our Schools Committee” 
and has demonstrated from its inception its genuine 
interest in education by fighting for the establishment 
and maintenance of public schools. Together they may 
arouse the citizens of Chicago and the United States 
and, in co-operation with the Parent-Teachers’ Associa- 
tion, drive out of high places those who are ‘sacrificing 
and destroying the future of America’s greatest asset— 
her childhood. 


and the Schools 


Irving Brant 


QO. Mr. Brant, in your book of questions and answers 
in finance, do you deal with the financial crisis confront- 
ing the schools of America? 

A. Not as a separate problem. The school crisis is 
a part of the general breakdown in municipal and state 
finance, growing out of the inability of citizens to pay 
taxes, 

QO. Js it entirely inability to pay taxes? Isn't it 
partly unwillingness? 

A. People are always more or less unwilling to pay 
taxes. Inability to pay, and unwillingness to pay, in- 
crease together. You have had a taxpayers’ strike in 
Chicago, with many property owners, large and small, 
defying the government. That does not mean that Chi- 
cago citizens are different from other people. It is the 
result of special conditions. The breakdown in assess- 
ment machinery five years ago prevented tax collection 
for two years. During those two years the depression 
came on. Incomes were going down. Property owners 
did not, generally they could not, establish a tax reserve. 
That is, they did not set aside the money they would 
need to pay their back taxes after the assessments were 
straightened out. Later, this piling up of back taxes 
made the burden so great that people were unwilling to 
start paying. It made conditions especially bad in Chi- 
cago. But all over the country the complaint is heard 
that taxes stay up while income goes down. 


©. That is used as an argument to cut the school 
budget. Taxes are hard to collect, so part of the schools 
are closed, the courses are cut down and teachers laid 
off. Is that a sound policy? 
A. No. It is a ruinous policy. But it grows nat- 
urally out of the defects of our taxation system. It 


affects every city in the United States, and all branches 
of city government. 


©. Why is it directed mainly at the schools? 


A. Because few people realize that next to the main- 
tenance of order, the education of our boys and girls is 
the main concern of government. Nearly every Amer- 
ican wants public schools, and good ones. The hunger 
for education is universal, But those who control our 
policies often fail to see that in this modern world demo- 
cratic government can only survive in a nation of edu- 
cated people. I would go farther and say that the pre- 
servation of modern civilization under any form of gov- 
ernment, whether a democracy, a monarchy, or a dicta- 
torship, depends upon the public school system, There 
are individuals in America, a few individuals, who want 
to break down the school system, believing that ignorance 
will make the masses of the people content with poverty. 
That policy, throwing the burden of leadership upon the 
children of the well-to-do, might have worked in an 
earlier and simpler human society. It will not work 
today. Our high-geared, complex modern civilization 
demands a technical and. scientific leadership which can 
only come from the masses of the people. It can be pro- 
duced only through universal education, through a school 
system designed, not merely to teach everybody to read 
and write, but to develop every individual to the limit 
of his mental ability. Make the people realize that, 
and they will come to the aid of the schools. You can 
postpone the paving of a street, and it will merely mean 
rough driving for one year or five years. But you can’t 
postpone the education of American youth. Education 
postponed is education lost, and education lost is Amer- 
ica lost. 
















12 


QO. How is the problem to be met? 

A. First, by doing the best that can be done under 
existing handicaps. Insist that public officials collect 
taxes from all who are able to pay, and let no political 
influence or shortsighted financial interest stand in the 
way of using those taxes for the proper maintenance of 
the public schools. Second, overhaul the taxation system. 


Q. How? 

A. Municipal government in Chicago, and state gov- 
ernment nearly everywhere, is sustained on too narrow a 
base of taxation. Too much reliance is placed on the 
general property tax. In a period of prosperity, owner- 
ship of property uusally indicates ability to pay taxes, 
but in a depression a man’s entire income may be wiped 
out without his taxes being reduced a dollar. For non- 
payment of taxes, thousands of families lose their homes. 
Public revenue collapses. At the same time, men with 
large incomes may be paying no direct taxes whatever 
to support the schools or the city or state government, 
because they own no real estate. Why shouldn’t these 
men help support the schools and the local government 
as they do the federal government, through an income 
tax? 


Q. An income tax levied by the state? 

A. No. Levied and collected by the federal govern- 
ment for the benefit of the states. About half of the 
states now levy income taxes. The trouble is that they 
are not uniform. Wisconsin has so high an income tax 
that in combination with the federal tax it tends to drive 
wealth out of the state. Missouri has a graduated in- 
come tax which is a wonderful benefit to the schools 
and does not impose an unfair burden upon anybody. 
Illinois has no income tax at all. The tendency with the 
state income tax is to go to extremes. In one state, 
every attempt to levy an income tax will be blocked 
through the political power of men who object to paying 
it. In another state, after the income tax is established 
it will be raised so high that, when added to the federal 
tax, it is confiscatory. Then. as the state income tax 
spreads, some states are certain to write a clause into 
their constitutions promising perpetual freedom from 
this tax. 


QO. Why would that be done? 

A. To induce wealthy men to establish their resi- 
dence in the state. That is what Florida did with the 
inheritance tax, put a clause in the constitution forbid- 
ding it. Millionaires at once began to flock there from 
all over the country. Instead of saying, “Live in Flori- 
da,” the booster shouted, “Die in Florida.” It was a 
great piece of propaganda, while it lasted. 


QO. What stopped it? 

A. Congress. Congress levied a federal inheritance 
tax with a provision that part of it, up to a certain 
amount, should be given back to any state that levied 
a state inheritance tax. After that, estates located in 
Florida paid the same inheritance tax that was paid in 
other states, the difference being that in the case of a 
Florida estate Uncle Sam got all the money, while in 
other parts of the country the state got part of it. The 
result was that Florida amended the constitution and 
levied an inheritance tax. That is exactly what should 
be done with the income tax. Let Congress levy an 
income tax high enough for both state and nation, and 
rebate part of it to the states in which the income was 


we 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


earned. [Illinois would reach for its share in a hurry, 
and you people here in Chicago wouldn’t be worrying 
about where to get money for your school system. 


Q. Why couldn’t the sales tax be used to broaden the 
base of taxation? 

A. It could be, and is being used by many states. 
But the sales tax is not based on ability to pay. It is a 
tax on the entire income of the poor man who spends 
all his money, but it reaches only a fraction of the in- 
come of the rich man—the part that he spends. Taxes 
should fall most heavily on surplus income—the money 
a man does not need to live on. The test of a fair tax 
is what a man has left after paying it. Which is fairer, 
to take $500 in taxes from a farmer with an income of 
$1,000 a year, leaving him $500 to live on, or to take 
$1,000,000 from a man with an income of $2,000,000, 
leaving him $1,000,000 to live on? The income tax, the 
inheritance tax, and the excess profits tax are the fair- 
est of all taxes now in general use. They are the only 
taxes which cannot be shifted from the rich to the poor. 
They are the only taxes which can be employed for that 
redistribution of wealth which must come in the United 
States if we are to avoid the utter breakdown of the 
established order. 


Q Doesn't the income tax fall off in a depression? 

A. Certainly. But the states which have state in- 
come taxes and a system of state aid for schools are 
the bright spots in the picture today. Furthermore, the 
violence of this depression is forcing the government 
into policies that will stabilize business and thereby sta- 
bilize the income tax. The income tax itself must be 
perfected. It is full of loopholes, many of them left 
there intentionally. The greatest loophole of all is the 
failure of tax income from tax-exempt securities. A 
man may invest $100,000,000 in tax-exempt securities, 
state and municipal bonds, drawing an income of $4,000, 
000 a year, yet on that income he will pay not one cent 
of taxes, while his neighbor, having the same fortune 
invested in taxable securities, pays more than $2,000,000 
a year to the government. 


QO. Why is that allowed? 

A. Because the people do not demand that Congress 
put an end to it. For years the people have been mis- 
led by false arguments. They have been told that such 
a tax would be unconstitutional. They have been told 
it would mean a great increase in the interest rate on 
state and municipal bonds. That would be true only if 
the principal of the bonds were taxed. Nobody pro- 
poses to tax the principal. 


QO. Wouldn't it be unconstitutional to tax income de- 
rived from state and municipal bonds? 


A. The Constitution says, in the Sixteenth Amend- 
ment, that Congress shall have power to levy taxes on 
“incomes from whatever sources derived.” Congress 
has never attempted, in the twenty years since that 
amendment was adopted, to levy taxes on incomes de- 
rived from state and municipal bonds. The Supreme 
Court has never had a chance to pass on it. Those who 
want to preserve this great loophole in the income tax 
argue that when the Sixteenth Amendment says, Con- 
gress shall have power to levy taxes on “incomes from 
whatever sources derived,” it really means, “from what- 
ever sources derived except state and municipal bonds.” 











i 


‘eo eo 


rT == rr 











OcToBerR, 1933 


Q. Js that honest reasoning? 


A. Perfectly. The world is full of such reasoning. 
A physician will say to his patient, “Eat nothing for 
twenty-four hours.” After he has been gone for some 
time, the patient will interpret this to mean, “Eat noth- 
ing for twenty-four hours except three eggs and a ham 
sandwich.” It is a perfectly honest interpretation. The 
patient is interpreting through his stomach. And Con- 
gress for twenty years has been interpreting the Six- 
teenth Amendment through the stomachs of tax-evaders. 


QO. But some argument must be offered to support 
that view. Why is it claimed that Congress cannot tax 
the income from state and municipal bonds? 

A. Becausé the Supreme Court, years before the Six- 
teenth Amendment was adopted, held that it could not 
be done. It threatened, a majority of the Court said, 
to destroy state sovereignty by reducing the borrowing 
power of the state. That decision, made in 1895, does 
not apply at all today. because the Sixteenth Amend- 
ment gave Congress authority to tax all income, and 
a tax levied equally on all income would no more destroy 
state sovereignty than it would destroy federal sover- 
eignty. The argument about destruction of sovereignty 
is nonsense, and there are indications that it will be 
stamped as nonsense in the next session of Congress. 


QO. What indications? 


A. Last June, Senator Bennett Champ Clark offered 
a surprise resolution in the senate, to abolish this tax 
exemption loophole. It carried. The resolution was 
finally beaten in a conference committee of the two 
houses, but that vote on the Clark Resolution means 
it will come up again in January, and this time it will 
have the force of public opinion behind it. The Ameri- 
can people are tired of seeing the income from $40,- 
000,000,000, much of it concentrated in the hands of the 
wealthiest people of the country, totally escaping taxa- 
tion while thousands upon thousands of citizens, in the 
cities and on the farms, are having their homes sold for 
taxes. That contrast has got to stop, and it will stop 
if the people insist upon it. All that is asked, on the 
score of constitutionality, is that the question be referred 
to the United States Supreme Court. Let me repeat, 
in a concluding sentence, that in the twenty years since 
the Sixteenth Amendment was adopted, Congress has 
never once tried to tax this mountain of concentrated 
wealth. Eliminate this and other glaring loopholes in 
the income tax, turn back part of the income tax to the 
states, and you will have money to support a school 
system adequate to the needs of Chicago and the nation. 





Some Quotations 


Robert Maynard Hutchins, President, University of 
Chicago: 


I have come reluctantly, even painfully, to the con- 
clusion that the federal government must enter actively 
into the business of public education. No one can 
watch the progress of education in this country without 
being at length convinced that the federal government 
must equalize educational opportunity among the states. 

I never have heard any argument advanced which 
can justify condemning one child to illiteracy because 
he was born in one part of the country, whereas another 
born in another part may at public expense proceed from 
the nursery school to the highest scholarly degrees. 


13 


Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, The University of Chi- 
cago: 


The second set of problems, however, are those with 
reference to which the social worker can speak not 
only with the assurance of an interested citizen but 
with the knowledge as a professional social worker 
of the waste and misery resulting from the action of 
the board of education. These are the reduction in 
the number of kindergartens, the change in the char- 
acter of the lunchroom service, substituting a busi- 
ness for an educational experience for the child, the 
abolition or reduction of physical education, the aboli- 
tion of the continuation schools and the Crane college, 
of the bureau of vocational guidance and of the 
services of the visiting teachers. The educational im- 
portance of all of these services is known to social 
workers from their immediate contact with the lives 
of the poor and disadvantaged. It is partly out of 
the evidence submitted by social workers that the un- 
dertakings along these various lines have developed 
and the validity of their claim on the school system 
has been established. 

The group of professional social workers see their 
own load, whether they are relief workers, child 
welfare visitors, juvenile court officers, members of 
the staff of institutions for delinquent boys or girls, 
or connected with the institutions in which the fail- 
ures in community life are kept in custodial care, 
enormously increased; but they deplore especially the 
volume of incompetence and the misery which must 
result from the lessened educational opportunity in 
the face of the increasing complexity and difficulty 
of community life. They are, in fact, aghast that the 
board of education having assumed such responsi- 
bilities as inhere in their public office could take ac- 
tion so reckless and ruthless in its effect on the lives 
of untold thousands of the young and helpless mem- 
bers of the great metropolitan center of the middle 
west. 





Remember that to change thy mind and follow him 
that sets thee right, is to be none the less the free 
agent that thou wast before—Marcius Aurelius. 





Let me see the beauty of truth, and immediately I 
am persuaded. Truth always overcomes, though 
for a time it is found among the few.—Athanasius, 











Biographical Directories under the editorship 
of J. McKeen Cattell, editor of 
“School and Society” and of “‘Science’”’ 


LEADERS IN EDUCATION 
Over 11,000 biographies $10 


AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 
Fifth edition 
Over 22,000 biographies $12 


1,037 pages 


1,278 pages 


THE SCIENCE PRESS 
Grand Central Terminal New York, N. Y. 























Teachers Spend for Education—The teachers of 
Bridgeport, Conn., spent a total of $101,731.81 for 
professional education during the two year period be- 
ginning September, 1930, and ending in June, 1932, 
according to a survey undertaken by the Publicity 
Committee of the Bridgeport Teachers’ Association. 
A total of 546 teachers representing more than 60 per 
cent of the teaching corps devoted an average of 
$186.32 each in order to equip themselves with the 
latest and most advanced methods of educational 
procedure. 

And for this they received salary reductions, increase 
in the size of classes, and dismissals. 


Relief Funds Pay Two New Teachers for Avera, Ga., 
School.—Two new teachers have been added to the 
Avera, Ga., school. The teachers, it is understood, 
will be financed by the federal government as a part 
of its program of unemployment relief. 


Chicago Teachers Get Pay.—On November 2 Chi- 
cago teachers were paid for the last half of February. 
It was their first cash payday in two months. 


Teachers’ Board Reduced.—At the request of the 
local school teachers, on account of state salary cuts 
New Bern, N. C., school authorities have reduced the 
price of board at the city teacherage and placed the 
charges on a calendar month basis instead of the pre- 
vious 28-day school month basis. 


Guernsey County, Ohio, Teachers Unpaid After Dec. 
1.—“Our teachers in many districts face the pos- 
sibility of not being paid before next summer, but in 
spite of this they have almost unanimously announced 


that they will carry on,” was the announcement made 
by W. G. Wolfe, County School Superintendent. 


Teacher of Closed School Sues Town.—Miss Emma 
P. Hall, for 22 years teacher at the Whiteville School, 
Mansfield, Mass., until it was closed by order of the 
School Committee two days after it opened for the 
fall term, has sued the municipality for $5,000 in an 
action of contract which will be called for trial ir 
the Superior Court on December 4. 


$360,000 is Slashed from Denver School Employes’ 
Salaries —The Denver school board has asked its 
teachers and other employes to accept a pay cut total- 
ing $360,000, or 8 per cent of the salary item in the 
tentative budget for the year beginning Dec. 1. 
In choosing the salary cut method of reducing ex- 
penses the board rejected the alternative of trimming 
costs by eliminating part of the tremendous overhead 
of the school system, which includes thousands of dol- 
lars for direction, supervision, and administration. 
The salary cut has been worked out on a graduated 
scale varying from no reduction at all for employes 
in the lower brackets to 13 per cent for the highest 
salaried officials. 


Michigan Has 15,000 Jobless Teachers.—There are 
upwards of 15,000 jobless teachers in Michigan at 
present, and the number is growing at the rate of some 
3,000 a year, it was revealed at a conference on the 
problem of teacher unemployment at Lansing, Mich- 

igan. 


So This Is America 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








Minimum Salaries for Teachers in Alabama.—Under 
the law eight ranks for teachers have been created, 
In other words, they are graded according to their 
educational qualifications and are paid accordingly. 
In rank No. 1, which is made up of teachers holding 
masters’ degrees, the minimum for the first year is $85. 
It steps up to $95 in two years, to $110 in four years, 
and to $135 in six years. 

In rank No. 2, which is made up of college graduates, 
the minimum for the first year is $75. It steps up to 
$80 in two years, to $95 in four years, and to $110 in 
Six years. 

In rank No. 3, which is composed of those who have 
had three years’ college experience, the minimum is 
$65. It steps up to $70 in two years, to $80 in four 
years, and to $110 in six years. 

In rank No. 4, which is composed of those who are 
two-year normal school graduates, the minimum is $50, 
It steps up to $63 in two years, to $70 in four years, 
and to $80 in six years. 

In rank No. 5, which is composed of one-year normal 
graduates after high school, the minimum is $45. It 
steps up to $53 in two years, to $60 in four years, and 
to $70 in six years. 

In rank No. 6, which is composed of those having life 
and first grade certificates from examination, the mini- 
mum is $45. It steps up to $8 in two years, to $55 
in four years, and to $65 in six years. 

In rank No. which is composed of those having 
second grade certificates by examination, the minimum 
is $40. It steps up to $43 in two years, to $50 in four 
years, and to $60 in six years. 

In rank No. 8, which is composed of those holding 
third grade certificates by examination, the minimum 
is $40. It steps up to $42 in two years, to $45 
four years, and to $50 in six years. 


New Jersey Referendums to Authorize Twelve Mil- 
lion for Emergencies.—$7,000,000 originally in- 
tended for water rights is for relief of destitute school 
districts, while $5,000,000 from the highway allotment 
goes for unemployment relief. 


Teachers Urged to Take United Action.—Dr. Francis 
G. Blair, superintendent of Illinois public instruction, 
told the teachers’ meeting at Jackson, Ohio, that “it’s 
time teachers quit being human rabbits,” and Dr. Don- 
ald H. Tippett, pastor of the Bexley M. E. Church, 
said, “Instead of ‘crabbing,’ teachers should blame 
themselves in the failure of the state legislature to 
provide sufficient funds for the operations of schools. 
“Had the teachers been as strong and as active as the 
lobbies representing the moneyed interests, Gov. 
George White would have listened to them instead of 
the way he did,” Dr. Tippett declared. 


New Style in Reducing School Costs.—Portland, 
Oregon, has slashed its school budget another $44,165. 
This reduction includes $29,700 cut in salaries for 
janitors and their assistants, $4.200 off the fuel esti- 
mate. $720 for a consulting engineer dropped, $500 
cut from traveling expenses for administrative offi- 
cials to conventions, $1,500 salary for a combustion en- 

gineer dropped, and $17,500 taken from the loaned 

text book account, $15,000 of this last amount trans- 
ferred to pay interest on short-term loans. 














DECEMBER, 1933 





Teachers May Join the Union.—I. C. Valentine, sec- 
retary of the Jacksonville, Florida, Central Labor 
Union, appeared before. the school board and pre- 


r sented the advantages of organization among teachers. 
a A resolution asking the school board’s approval of 
r teachers’ joining the American Federation of Teach- 
ers was presented. 

g The board said it had no objection to the membership 
of the teachers in the Federation, but did not wish it 
5 understood that it urged all teachers to join. 

Preston County, W. Va., Without School Funds.— 
, There is no money in the school funds for payment 
° of second month’s salaries of teachers and only enough 
. to pay janitors and school bus drivers. The first 


month’s payment to teachers was only their basic 
salaries, and the highest amount of money received 
. last month was $90, 


. Wilkes-Barre, Penn.—Teachers and other employes 
, | of Wilkes-Barre School District must become resi- 
, dents of the city and help support the school system. 
‘ | Members of the School Board voted that non-owners 
y of real estate who live outside of the city and who 
| are employed by the district must establish residence 
, by July 1, 1934, and that employes of the district who 
own and live in real estate in other municipalities must 
| be city residents by July 1, 1935. 
Philadelphia, Penn., Reduce School Costs.—Philadel- 
: | phia teachers are assured that they have nothing to 
‘ worry about. They are told, “Not a single teacher 
dismissal is contemplated.” 
: Only salaries are to be affected. Cuts in salaries from 
5% to 10% will be made. 


| Lowell, Mass.—Is this a Roman Holiday or some 
other kind? 
City schools closed all of Friday. Teachers attend 
annual convention of the Middlesex County Teachers’ 
Association in Boston. Each year the lectures be- 
come more interesting and of more practical value. 
Lowell Thomas, famous world-traveler and author, 
spoke to the high and junior high group on the sub- 
ject, “Tales from Far Countries.” 
The elementary groups were addressed by Cameron 
Beck, director of the New York Stock Exchange In- 
stitute, whose subject was, “The Necessity of Closer 

) Relations Between Business and the Schools,” and by 

| Dr. Ernest T. Butterfield, of Hartford, on “Satisfac- 

a, tion in School Discipline.” 

| Pittston, Penn., Teachers Strike—Forty teachers 

| unpaid for twelve months walk out at Pittston Town- 
ship. The teachers are owed for the entire term of 
1932-33, ten months, one-half month of the 1931-32 
term, and one and one-half months of the present 
term; twelve months in all. 

Teachers Unable to Pay Institute Expense.—A reso- 
lution was presented to the state superintendent of 
schools of Washington, requesting that teachers of 
Longview be excused from attendance at the South- 
west Teachers’ Institute at Vancouver on the ground 
that they cannot afford the trip because of their pres- 
ent low salaries. 

Hudson, Mass., to Bar Married Teachers.—The schoo! 
committee voted that all married women teachers must 
conclude their services at the end of the school year 
next June and that after that time no married teacher 
will be employed. There are six married women 
teachers here at present, two at the high school and 

four in the grammar schools. 


—_— = 








15 


Ask School Teachers to Donate Services.—The school 
board of New Bedford, Mass., at a meeting on Oc- 
tober 27 adopted the following resolution: 

“That the superintendent be instructed to keep the 
schools functioning until the school funds are ex- 
pended, and that the teachers be asked to donate their 
services for such time as is necessary to keep the 


9 


schools open as in the past. 


Married Teachers Asked to Resign.—The town of 


Wildwood, N. J., has asked its married school teach- 
ers to resign, thereby rousing a storm that is likely 
to have repercussions throughout the State. The Board 
of Education also demands that its teachers reside in 
the community and spend their earnings there. 


Teachers of Syracuse, New York, Set Up New Credit 


Union.—The newly organized Syracuse Teachers’ 
Credit Union has been issued a charter by the New 
York State Banking Department. 


Teacher Salary Plan Advocated.—I. M. McConihay, 


of Chesapeake, a member of the county school board 
of Kanawha County, West Virginia, says guaranty 
of year’s pay for teachers should become law. 
Teachers in the schools of Kanawha County and West 
Virginia should be protected against financial string- 
ency by the establishment of a 12 months basic salary 
under civil service requirements. 

Such a guaranty of payment could be assured through 
legislative enactment, and legislation should be enacted 
prohibiting the employment of other than West Vir- 
ginia teachers in the schools of this county and state, 
Mr. McConihay said. 

The only exception would be in those instances where 
it appeared there were not teachers qualified in this 
state for the positions. 


Four Months’ School Term.—William D. Foster, 


County Superintendent of Schools, Upshur County, 
W. Va., says that at least four months of school, and 
possibly five, is assured the county schools. 


Bars Lifted for Married Teachers.—Couples who re- 


cently resigned from the San Diego, Calif., schools 
in compliance with an order from the board of edu- 
cation because they were drawing “double salaries” 
were reinstated after the board of education had de- 
cided to give up its plan. Lack of co-operation, less 
than half of the 15 couples complying with the re- 
quest, resulted in an abandonment of the order, it 
was stated. 

With thanks for their co-operation the board rein- 
stated the seven married women who had resigned or 
taken leaves of absence. Nothing is reported regard- 
ing thanks by their fellow teachers or the school 
authorities to those teachers who did not retire for 
their courage, intelligence, and adherence to profes- 
sional standard. 


School Pension Cut Studied by Trustees.—Revoca- 


tion of the teachers’ compulsory and voluntary retire- 
ment law, under which members of the educational 
force may be retired on a pension when they reach 
65 years of age, is being considered by Chicago s-hool 
trustees as one of the new drastic slashes planned for 
1934. 

In addition to the proposals that all salaries be slashed 
to make the reductions total 40 per cent, and that com- 
mercial courses be dropped from the public schools, 
the trustees are discussing the advisability of seeking 
a change in the state laws that would eliminate or 
greatly reduce the present pensions. 

















THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Vocational Education in the 


Public Schools 


Dr. William J. Bogan 


F THE schools do not educate the youth of the land 

what will become of them? With the disappearance of 

juvenile labor, to say nothing of the disappearance of 
skilled occupations, society is faced with the problem 
of training and re-training for vocation and avocation 
and leisure. True, the educational agencies of life out- 
side the schools are many but they are extremely ineffi- 
cient. Problems of unemployment, poverty, and juve- 
nile crime show the need for the utilization of all 
agencies that may aid society. Americans profess be- 
lief in free public education but quite generally this 
belief applies only to a select type of education—the 
education that has been popular with the intellectuals 
for several centuries. This type of education is beauti- 
ful indeed, and, for clergymen, teachers, and other pro- 
fessionals it is highly practical, but for the crowd it is 
unattainable because of financial, mental, or physical 
lack. Therefore, all education for the crowd has been 
neglected through the centuries. Until it is provided 
we shall have the spectacle of a so-called democracy 
guided by political or financial bosses for their own 
benefit. 

For the education of the people society must set up a 
type of education to meet the needs of every day life. 
In other words, it must provide education for livelihood. 
This may seem to be a low ideal to those with their heads 
in the clouds, but it is not necessarily low. It does not 
preclude the acquisition of the highest type of culture 
by those of ability. In Chicago, vocational education is 
dear to the hearts of pupils and parents, for it provides 
through its happy combination of shop work, drawing, 
science, and citizenship, gateways to the trades, the pro- 
fessions, and supervisory positions in commerce and in- 
dustry. 

In a changing world, however, vocational education 
cannot remain static. Fundamental principles are ex- 
cellent guides, but modern discoveries and inventions de- 
mand adaptation to the new day. Vocational education 
in Chicago looks upon itself as a clearing house receiv 
ing and passing on to its students all the educative forces 
of the community that may aid them in adjustment to a 
society and an economic system in constant flux. As a 
matter of economy and efficiency it restricts its energies 
to such activities as the educative forces of life outside 
the school system cannot be induced to provide. 

In the Middle Ages the public insisted upon its right 
to provide for the trade education of youth above and 
beyond the selfish needs of employer or apprentice. 
This public interest has continued down to the present 
in greater or less degree, varying with economic con- 
ditions. It took America under a slower civilization 
many years to accept the idea of compulsory school at- 
tendance in the interest of the community and the state, 
but in a faster moving civilization under the whip of a 
depression such as the world has never known, society 
may be forced to consider state supervision of training 
for industry. In fact, the suggestion is often made that 
the state may again be forced to take on the wartime 
supervision of industry itself. 

The group most interested in the economic return, the 


employer, should take a keen interest in every program 
for the development of vocational education. Whether 
industrial processes are old or new, workmen of high 
caliber will always be needed in great number, and even 
though machines supplant workers those workers with 
a basic knowledge of industry will prove most adaptable 
to new conditions. The education and training of work- 
ers is of more importance to the employer than to any 
other group of society. In the coming era the interest 
of employer and employee will merge—they must merge 
for the salvation of each. 

In our day over-production, by new and improved 
machinery, is so serious as to make it necessary to 
shorten days and weeks, equalize wages and extend the 
period of school life to eliminate the competition of min- 
ors with adults. With the lengthening of school life, 
schools will be forced to provide an education for mod- 
ern needs. Machinery, science, and technology will be 
emphasized in the new system. Will the schools rise to 
the occasion and give an education that will enable pupils 
to adapt themselves to the needs of the coming years? 
Or will they continue to follow the prescription of the 
dead hand of antiquity? Will they ignore the teachings 
of science and machinery? 

Man in the near future will perhaps be offered a 
choice of three courses: (1) A narrow education for 
leisure based upon the traditional teachings of the class- 
ics; or (2) a narrow training for work; or (3) a judi- 
cious mixture of science, technology, machinery, and 
culture—an education for adaptability. 

Let us hope that in this democracy the choice will be 
made not on the basis of social rating but on the needs 
and abilities of the choosers. 








Unemployed Teachers Appeal to Mrs. Roosevelt.— 
The following letter has appeared in hundreds of news- 
papers in all sections of the country. It was not sent 
to the American TEACHER, but we feel sure it will 
interest our readers. 


Codes for Teachers 


On September 8 the national recovery administration ruled 
that since schools, colleges and universities are nonprofit- 
making institutions they do not need to comply with the NRA 
provisions. Thus the more than 80,000 unemployed teachers, 
instructors and professors whose numbers are daily increas- 
ing, now know that they cannot look to NRA for considera- 
tion of any kind, and that they are discriminated against 
without parallel, although urged like all other citizens to 
sacrifice with increased purchasing at increased prices. 

An attempt has been made to enlist in the cause of the 
group the support of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who has 
already proved in many ways her unselfish devotion to the 
welfare of the oppressed. A reply from the White House 
stated that the matter is being referred to Mr. Hopkins, 
administrator of the federal emergency relief bureau. 
Deeply appreciative of this interest in us, we realize that it 
is a purely temporary measure and therefore we are now 
trying to show Mrs. Roosevelt by the strength of our num- 
bers that she is justified in asking for NRA codes for 
teachers. 

MARTHA PILGER, 
New York City. 














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DECEMBER, 1933 


17 


The President’s Page 


Have We Tried It? 

I wonder how many of our mem- 
bers have had the satisfaction of 
adding to the membership of the 
American Federation of Teachers! 
There are some obstacles to con- 
spicuous success in this field of en- 
deavor, but they can be overcome. 
Experience a Good Persuader 

All of us have heard of the “ex- 
ceptionally difficult” locality for mn- 
ion organization and the “very con- 
servative’” school group or _ indi- 
viduals in situations where a teach- 
ers’ union already exists. And we 
hear how “impossible” it would be 
to organize here and there. By ex- 
perience we come to realize the fact 
that fears and prejudices are the 
most serious obstacles to the ac- 
ceptance of the union ideal. Eco- 
nomic distress or menace are per- 
haps the most effective removers of 
prejudice. Sometimes it requires a 
great deal of distress to stir a non- 
union group of teachers to action, 
in part because long-continued sub- 
mission to injustice dulls the capac- 
ity to react normally. Within this 
area of experiences the union move- 
ment among teachers makes a si 
nificant appeal. 

Reason Number One 

Street noises, either continual or 
periodic, come to be endured while 
the voice of the teacher adjusts it- 
self to the situation without con- 
sciousness of the effect on the 
nervous system and the _ general 
physical reserves. The addition of 
“just a few more” children to a class 
of forty leads automatically to a 
“stepping-up” adjustment of the 
nervous system of the teacher to a 
point where destructive strain is 
operating, but is unnoticed in con- 
sciousness. Likewise, teachers have 
long endured the distraction of 
numerous petty interruptions, espe- 
cially from the school office, di- 
rectly and indirectly. The radio 
age is now placing at the disposal 
of the school principal the “loud 
speaker” through which he may ad- 
dress all the teachers and all the 
pupils. What this may lead to, no 
one can say. 

Going further into the area of the 
daily experiences pf teachers, we 
find that bad schoolroom lighting, 
unclean floors and desks, narrow 
hallways, and chilly basement play- 
grounds and lunch rooms which 
teachers are required to police—all 


(r- 
Pa) 





Dr. Henry R. Linville 


tend to break down what there may 
be left of the physical reserves of 
the teachers. 
The Union as Protector 
Experience has shown that for 
the most part teachers have failed 
to act in defense of their well-being 
and their capacity for service 
against these forces of professional 
and personal disintegration. Nay, 
teachers seem scarcely to be fully 
aware of the facts and their sig- 
nificance. In a situation in which 
individuals can no longer react ef- 
fectively, the teachers’ union be- 
comes the protective agency with 
its sensitized capacity to receive, 
record, and react to stimuli orig- 
inating in the experiences of all the 
teachers. It is well for us to realize 
that we are in a position to do ex- 
actly the same thing that has been 
done in the development of the la- 
bor movement. We can set up our 
social standards of how much a 
classroom teacher can and should 
endure while performing the educa- 
tional job well. Do we not realize 
that no other agency than the teach- 
ers’ union would do this? I have 
had occasion to lay these facts be- 
fore teachers as a demonstration of 
the way our union movement nat- 
urally works in behalf of teachers. 
The explanation constitutes one of 
the best arguments for joining the 
union. In order to keep the union 
in a properly sensitive state, we 
must urge upon it the obligation to 
do just that kind of work, 


Reason Number Two 

Another kind of work which 
needs to be done is protecting the 
economic rights of the _ public 
schools. We know first of all that 
the reason the economic rights of 
the schools must have protection 
now is because the general eco- 
nomic order itself has demanded 
protection at the expense of the 
schools and other social agencies. 
Teachers are getting worried about 
the future, with or without the 
N. R. A. Attempts have been made 
by the usual company union type 
of teachers’ organization to react to 
these worries and to do something 
for their members. The reason 
these attempts have not resulted in 
success seems to be because there 
is lacking in the leadership that 
courage which is born of social un- 
derstanding and that practical in- 
telligence which derives its inspira- 


tion from the trade union movement 
itself. Babes in the woods have lit- 
tle chance while economically hun- 
gry wolves are at large. The pro- 
ceedings of the Conventions of the 
American Federation of Teachers 
are full of the records of our dis- 
cussions concerning the economic 
and social factors that relate to the 
welfare of education. If some have 
doubted the importance of these 
discussions in former years, their 
significance now cannot be ques- 
tioned. Without that early think- 
ing, we would now be regarded as 
negligible tyros by our opponents 
in the economic field. As it is, we 
have a chance to hold our own, and 
at the same time offer skilled leader- 
ship to defenseless teachers, 
Reason Number Three 

One of the purposes of the unton 
movement among teachers is to im- 
prove education. This we do in 
proportion as we succeed in improv- 
ing the conditions under which 
teachers and children work. But 
we undertake to improve education 
directly, too. We know that public 
education tends to reproduce itself 
and to avoid substantial change. 
School officials, under pressure of 
exacting critics in the general pub- 
lic, avoid experiments which would 
cost more money than mass educa- 
tion does. The members of the 
teachers’ union have learned that 
their efforts in behalf of their ob- 
jectives tend to carry them out of 
the range of early fears into the 
realm of constructive effort where 
fears tend to fall away. As we gain 
prestige with striving for our basic 
objectives, we shall be able to do 
more and more for education. 
Reason Number Four 

Have our members realized that 
the very fact that we are in the un- 
ion movement automatically places 
our members in an educational sit- 
uation? The union educates its 
members in proportion as it gives 
them something to do. We then 
have education by doing. 

I am presenting these four rea- 
sons for belonging to a _ teachers’ 
union in the hope that they may be 
found useful in bringing teachers 
into the movement: 

1. The union strives to protect 
teachers from the tendency of 
school conditions to exhaust their 
physical resources, 

(Turn to page 31) 

















18 


Education for De 





American Federation of Teachers 
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 EprrortaAt Boarp 


Lucite W. ALLEN Rutu GIL_etre Harpy 
Chicago Local 3 New York Local 56 


Mary C. Barker’ Henry R. LInvIL_e 
Atlanta Local 89 New York Local 6 


Se_ma M. Borcuarpt A. D, SHEFFIELD 
Washington Local 8 Wellesley College 


Joun M.Graysie. CnHartes B. STILLMAN 
San Francisco Local 61 Chicago Local 2 


FiLorence Curtis Hanson 
Executive Editor 


Publisher 
H. G. Apatr Printine Co. 
107 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, III. 
Sw 10 





Wk Ak Oak ek Sek ek ek es 
“Thanks for Health” 





oe youth scorns caution 
in the joy of living. Health fre- 
quently is the price of that ges- 
ture. The chief foe of cnet is 
tuberculosis. Itcan be prevented 
andcured, yetitstillisthegreatest 
cause of death among children 
between 5 and 20. Thousands of 
adults, remembering timely aid 
from their local tuberculosis 
association, can look with grati- 
tude at Christmas Seals and say, 
“Thanks for Health.” 





The National, State and Local Tuberculosis 
Associations of the United States 


Buy CHRISTMAS SEALS 


rath Ete 





Disorganized Opinion 

There is much comment today on 
the education situation in America. 
The liberal press, particularly the 
magazines that appeal to the intelli- 
gentsia, devote pages to a discussion 
of what is happening to the American 
schools, and to an analysis of the 
forces behind these happenings. <A 
glance over the contents of such 
magazines appearing in October and 
November of this year shows that 
there is a certain amount of advanced 
public opinion on this whole ques- 
tion. There is not, however, an 
aroused public opinion, and the rea- 
sons are obvious. 

In general these magazine articles, 
as well as the radio talks, addresses 
by public spirited men and women, 
and other evidences of advanced pub- 
lic opinion, are individual statements 
and summaries, with no common di- 
rective force behind them. 

There is, for instance, an article in 
Pian Tak, Nov., 1933, called Soak 
the Teachers. The preface to this 
article tells the story of Earnest M. 
Lunt, a solicitor of the U. S. Chamber 
of Commerce, alias the National 
Economy League, who has declared, 
“The next mob we operate on will be 
the school teachers.” And PLaIn 
TaLtK herewith dedicates itself “to 
debunking the false anti-school teach- 
er propaganda which has already been 
started by our organized wealthy tax 
evaders.” The article does debunk, 
and its figures and charts are authen- 
tic and illuminating. PLarn Tak 
has a new axe to grind, and its pages 
may well be a source of useful in- 
formation, and a means of making 
more people realize the gravity of the 
education situation. 

In Poxity, Oct. 15, 1933, there is 
another article. This is called Grind- 
ing the Seed Corn, and is a very neat 
exposé of the Kelly regime in Chicago 
and its consequent effect in smashing 
the Chicago school system. 

According to the heading of an arti- 
cle in Hearst’s INTERNATIONAL-Cos- 
MOPOLITAN, Nov., 1933, The Little 
Red Schoolhouse Is in the Red. The 
writer of this article was commis- 
sioned by her magazine to get the 
facts on the school situation and to 
find out how people felt about it. She 
has gathered many facts and many 
statements and these, while known to 
most teachers, may be a source of 


AMERICAN TEACHEk 





THE 


mocracy 


surprise to many readers of that 
magazine. 

Harper’s, Nov., 1933, carries an 
article called Deflating the Schools. 
This article is informative, analytical, 
and marked by strong common sense. 
The author makes no bones of the 
fact that the economy measures in 
effect in most schools today are strik- 
ing directly at those elements in edu- 
cation where the schools are perform- 
ing their plain social duty. He has, in 
general, effectively answered all the 
arguments advanced by those most 
anxious to pare American education 
to the bone. 

Tue ATLANTIC Montuty, Nov., 
1933, runs a different kind of arti- 
cle. It is the Spasmodic Diary of a 
Chicago School Teacher, and is hu- 
man and revealing. The writer of 
the article shows her gradual disillu- 
sionment with the dignified methods 
of getting paid, and finally ends up 
in a demonstration with the observa- 
tion that she will probably be the 
next one to be clubbed! She clearly 
shows that what she calls the nuisance 
tactics of the Chicago teachers are the 
only ones that have been effective, and 
at the same time gives an excellent 
historical picture of the situation in 
Chicago from March 28 to Septem- 
ber 11 of this year. 

Here then are five articles—there 
are dozens more—quite different in 
tone and character, and all dealing 
with the same thing—the breakdown 
of public education in America. That 
the situation is a serious one is agreed 
to by all. That the articles are in- 
formative and do represent an ad- 
vanced public opinion is undoubtedly 
true. But the fundamental and all 
important question is not considered 
by any one of them. That question 
is, of course, what are we going to do 
about it? The reason the question 
is ignored is, as I said before, ob- 
vious. These writers are widely sep- 
arated individuals. They have no 
common directive. They do not rep- 
resent a single concrete group in any 
one case. 

It is most important that teachers 
be not misled by these articles. Not 
that such publicity isn’t good. It is. 
But it is ineffective. Direction is 
needed, and organization, if we are 
to save the American schools. And 
that directive and organization can 
be supplied by only one group; the 
rank and file of the American teach- 











ae Tr Pwr * 


yn 











DECEMBER, 1933 





ers. They are the ones most vitally 
concerned. It is their life-werk that 
is being threatened, their jobs that 
are being wiped out, their past excel- 
lent work in building the American 
public school system that is being 
undermined. 

Teachers themselves, however. 
while most vitally interested, can do 
nothing as individuals. They must 
organize, they must build themselves 
into a strong labor union, they must 
unite on a common basis and supply 
a common directive to the opinion 
that is showing itself all over the 
country. 

For teachers to be encouraged by 
magazine articles, by the various 
sporadic movements in their behalf, 
and to be lulled into confidence by 
such encouragement is and will be a 
grievous mistake. There is a rank 
and file organization of class-room 
teachers, the only teacher organization 
capable of providing the directives 
and the force necessary if our schools 
are to be more than schools in name 
only. That organization is the 
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, 
affliated with the American Federa- 
tion of Labor. Every wide-awake 
teacher, every teacher interested in 
his life-work and in his job must join 
this organization. Every teacher al- 
ready a member must bring other 
teachers in. I repeat, to have faith 
in public opinion being aroused 
through individual magazine articles, 
radio talks, etc., is to believe in Santa 
Claus. Such opinion is disorganized 
opinion, lacking in force and direc- 
tion. The rank and file of the class- 
room teachers, organized in the 
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, 
can supply the directive that is 
needed, can effect an aroused and 
organized opinion that will force the 
money-changers out of the temple, 
that will drive the financiers out of 
education. 

BERTRAM ENos. 





Fear 


The worst indictment of the pres- 
ent economic system controlled by a 
few powerful financial overlords is 
the fear engendered by it. Probably 
never in American history was there 
less courage manifest among the peo- 
ple in dealing with their problems 
than at present. Thousands in all 
stations of life will speak confiden- 


Democracy 


tially in private of the misdemeanors 
of those in financial control but few 
will openly criticize or join with 
others to seek a remedy. 

Teachers, alas, educational leaders 
as they are supposed to be, are not 
immune from this universal fear even 
in the face of the almost certain de- 
struction of public education and of 
their livelihood unless drastic opposi- 
tion is organized against the enemies 
of education and democratic institu- 
tions. Many refuse to join with the 
friends of education because they fear 
its enemies. 

The attitude of such teachers was 
expressed recently by a member of a 
teachers’ association which is affiliated 
with the local chamber of commerce 
in these words, “We pay $25.00 a 
year to the Chamber to fight us. We 
send a letter of thanks to the Central 
Labor Union for fighting for us.” 

How long can the teachers expect 
their friends to fight for them if they 
affiliate and support the common 
enemy ? 


A Little Plain Speaking 


October has been the month of 
state and county teachers meetings. 
From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from 
Canada to the Gulf, thousands of 
teachers have gathered in hundreds of 
these state and county meetings to re- 
ceive inspirational leadership in their 
great work. 

In the main speakers have stressed 
the need of high morale and the 
teacher’s responsibility to keep on the 
job, to keep up standards, and pa- 
tiently wait till the clouds roll by. 

An occasional exception is found, 
and it is indeed occasional. 

In St. Paul William Trufant Foster 
of Newton, Mass., described public 
education as the forgotten cause of 
the N. R. A. “Schools are N. R. A. 
orphans,” said Dr. Foster. “The 
Federal public works program pro- 
vided money for sewers, bridges, 
highways, harbors, tunnels—nearly 
everything except schools.” 

At the southern Ohio meeting at 
Jackson, Dr. Francis G. Blair, super- 
intendent of public instruction in II- 
linois, told the teachers “it’s time 
teachers quit being human rabbits,” 
and Dr. Donald H. Tippett urged 
them to take united political action 
and reminded them that the teachers 
themselves are to blame for the fail- 


in Education 





19 





ure of their legislative program. 

At the Sangamon County (IIL) 
Teachers Institute, Florence Curtis 
Hanson urged upon the teachers a 
realization of their opportunity in the 
present crisis and the need of mili- 
tant organization. She reminded them 
of the tried support of organized la- 
bor and advised them to join with 
their friends to fight their enemies. 
She said that teachers had been fool- 
ish a long time but that was no rea- 
son they should be foolish forever. 

At the Williamson County (IIl.) 
Teachers Institute, President Frank 
E. Baker of the Milwaukee Teachers 
College told the teachers that they 
were wage earners. He did not, how- 
ever, tell them they were not as in- 
telligent as the other wage earners in 
this county, practically all of whom 
are organized for their protection. 

A little plain speaking may be very 
helpful at this time. 


Organized Labor 


“The American Federation of La- 
ber with its affiliated state and local 
unions has taken a consistently posi- 
tive stand in favor of the ideal of 
free education. Local labor groups 
can be depended upon to support 
schools at all times.” 

The above statement is taken from 
the national publication of a large 
“company union” of teachers. This 
eulogy of the American Federation 
of Labor as a great source of strength 
to teachers from a body that has re- 
fused to affiliate with it, indicates a 
sharp awakening to a realization of 
where teachers belong. Organized 
Labor invites the teachers to join with 
it in its program for human better- 
ment of which its support of free 
public education is a part. This sup- 
port is admittedly great and assured. 

It is not possible that those who 
realize the value and high purpose of 
the American Federation of Labor 
will refuse its invitation to share with 
it the struggle for a better world, or 
will accept the benefits of labor sup- 
port without participating in the sac- 
rifices and efforts. 


The present time is one in which it 
requires unusual courage to be cour- 
ageous. A weary acceptance of ap- 
parent defeat is easier. 





20 


Too Many Teachers 


We hear from a good many sources 
that we have in this country too many 
teachers. 

In his radio broadcast of October 
13, President Roosevelt said, “We 
have today a large surplus of so- 
called qualified teachers—men and 
women who even if we had full pros- 
perity would and probably should be 
unable to find work in the field of 
education, Even today we are turn- 
ing out too many new teachers each 
year. That is just as much an eco- 
nomic waste as building steel rail 
plants far beyond the capacity of rail- 
roads to use steel rails.” 

From this we may conclude that 
the surplus of teachers is due to over- 
production and not maldistribution. 
Thousands of schools closed and 
classes of 50 to 60 pupils per teacher 
in others (an average in the state of 
New York of 52 pupils for each 
teacher) because we have too many 
teachers! 

And we conclude further that in 
America there is no illiteracy, there is 
no crime, no vice, no delinquency, no 
civic indifference, no poverty, no ig- 
norance, no disease, no waste, no in- 
humanity. All that ails us is too 
many teachers. 

God’s in His Heaven, 
All’s right with the world. 





Education for the 
Status Quo 


There are yet many teachers out- 
side the AMERICAN FEDERATION OF 
TeacHers. There are many who feel 
that their professional dignity, their 
self-respect, demands that they do not 
affiliate with Labor Unions. They 
feel that as teachers their problems 
are different, that they are more con- 
cerned with ideals than just a job, 
that their profession is a noble one 
carrying within itself a certain im- 
munity and freedom from the cares 
of a more sordid world. 

Such teachers are mistaken, Their 
profession, while it may be noble in 
intent, has become ignoble in prac- 
tice. Their dignity and self-respect 
are brushed aside daily by groups in- 
terested in promulgating their own 
particular doctrines through the 
schools. For stating a minority opin- 
ion teachers are often discharged, 
they are always in danger. Such 
teachers may continue to hold to their 
so-called dignity and respect, but at 
the same time the educational system 
is crumbling around their feet. 


Roger N. Baldwin, in an article in 
PROGRESSIVE EpucaTion, April, 1933, 
entitled Education for the Status Quo, 
gives example after example of con- 
vincing evidence of the futility of 
teachers holding such ideas. And he 
sounds a call for teacher organization 
and control that cannot be ignored. 
This pressure on the schools, says 
Mr. Baldwin, “cannot be offset except 
by a determined program in the hands 
of a militant teaching profession 
solicitous for its own self-respect and 
independence.” And further on he 
says, “The present pattern of control 
from on top down must be replaced 
by control from the bottom up.” 

Here is a call for organization from 
a man in a position to know. Here 
is a program of action which must 
enlist the sympathy of all teachers 
who care at all for the ideals of their 
profession. The AMERICAN FEDERA- 
TION OF TEACHERS is a rank and file 
class-room teachers organization, It 
stands ready to welcome, organize, 
and direct those teachers who insist 
that our educational system must not 
go by the board. Is there one of 
us who cannot heed this call? 





Shall the Blue Eagle Fly 
Over the Little Red 


Schoolhouse? 


The American Federation of 
Teachers is not entirely alone in its 
belief that the education industry 
should have the support and pro- 
tection of the N. R.A. At least one 
school board has taken seriously the 
provision of the N.I. R. A. and the 
requests of President Roosevelt. 

The Board of Education, City of 
West Allis, Wisconsin, adopted the 
resolution here included, at its 
meeting on September 18, 1933. 


WHEREAS, President Roosevelt has _ re- 
quested the co-operation of all employ- 
ers in the fight he is leading against 
unemployment and low wages, and 

Wuereas, the Board of Education of the 
City of West Allis is an employer, and 

Wuereas, The president and his aides have 
made it clear that they desire to be 
guided by the advice of workers as well 
as by the advice of employers in making 
necessary re-adjustments of wages and 
hours of employment, and 

Wuereas, the American Federation of 
Labor has, by many years of faithful 
service in the cause of education, proved 
that it is in fact a most potent sup- 
porter of public education; 

Now TuHererore, Be It Resorvep, by the 
Board of Education of the City of West 
Allis, that as employers, they are in full 
accord with President Roosevelt’s aims 
and methods in his efforts to do away 
permanently with unemployment and 
low wages, and that all employees of the 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Board of Education be hereby informed 
that efforts on the part of teachers and 
other school employees to organize 
themselves into the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers or the American Fed- 
eration of Labor, respectively, have the 
hearty support of the Board and should 
receive the support of public opinion, 
and 

Be Ir Furruer Reso.ven, that a copy of 
this resolution be sent to each execu- 
tive in our school system with instruc- 
tions that it be prominently and perma- 
nently displayed in such manner that 
every employee shall have frequent op- 
portunity to study its contents, and 

Be It FurtHer Resoivep, that copies of 
this resolution be sent to President 

Roosevelt, President Green of the Amer- 

ican Federation of Labor and President 

Henry Ohl, Jr., of the Wisconsin State 

Federation of Labor. 

The American’ Federation of 
Teachers is continuing its search 
for another progressive board of 
education to assist in securing rec- 
ognition of the education industry 
by the N. R. A. and public hearings 
in Washington on the school crisis. 


Sales Tax Fallacy 


William Randolph Hearst is a deep- 
seated enemy of the Federal income 
tax and insists on substituting the 
sales tax for it. 

The income tax is levied, as its 
name implies, on the amount of net 
income received by the individual or 
corporation. 

The sales tax is levied on the price 
of the articles purchased—food, cloth- 
ing, drugs, and all the things which 
go to make up a living. 

The inequity of Mr. Hearst’s posi- 
tion is clearly shown by the Senate 
Banking and Currency Committee’s 
investigation of the financial affairs of 
Albert H. Wiggin and his three fam- 
ily corporations for the five-year 
period 1928-1933. 

Mr. Wiggin frankly admitted that 
he had resorted to practically every 
device possible to evade the income 
tax. Nevertheless for the five years 
he surrendered to Uncle Sam $2,288,- 
049.15 in income taxes, His wife and 
daughters during the same period con- 
tributed $1,203,978.55 to the Federal 
exchequer. 

If Mr. Hearst had his way, the 
Wiggin family would not have paid 
a dollar of this tax on their incomes 
into the Federal Treasury, but would 
have limited their contribution to a 
very modest amount from a tax on 


the things they ate, drank, wore, and ' 


otherwise used in their daily lives. 

Opposition to the sales tax is fun- 
damental with the American Federa- 
tion of Labor. 











— oe lUee,lCO a ee Ol 


ts 
et 
or 


ce 


h- 


Si- 
ite 
ES 


of 


ar 














DECEMBER, 1933 


It opposes the sales tax “because it 
represents an attempt to transfer the 
burden of taxation from wealth and 
those who are able to bear it”—the 
Wigginses, for example—‘“to the 
masses of the people and to those 
who are least able to bear the burden 
of taxation.” 

But with the striking illustration of 
the justice of the income tax and the 
injustice of the sales tax exhibited 
by the revelations regarding the Wig- 
ginses, Mr, Hearst continues to harp 
about the desirability of letting the 
rich go practically free of taxation 
and piling it all on the backs of the 
already oppressed masses. 

Propagandists against the interests 
of the people have frequently re- 
ferred to the income tax as an attempt 
to “soak the rich.” That cannot be 
said regarding the sales tax. It is 
openly and avowedly a movement to 
“soak the poor.” 

It is regrettable that Mr. Hearst 
should ally himself with those who 
are opposed to the welfare of the 
masses. 


Age Limit for Federal 
Employes 

The decision of the United States 
Civil Service Commission to reverse 
its decision barring stenographers and 
typists over 40 years of age from 
Government employment by refusing 
them permission to be examined for 
those occupations and raising the limit 
to 53 years was inevitable. 

The justifiable wave of protest that 
went up against such a reactionary 
position was overwhelming. 

The American Federation of Labor 
has persistently opposed the victim- 
ization of older workers by either 
private employers or the Government. 
The 1933 convention of the Federa- 
tion did not mince words on this ques- 
tion. It said: 

“There is no more tragic picture 
than that of a competent, able and 
well man or woman barred from 
employment for no other reason 
than that they have reached the age 
of 45 years, and in many cases only 
35 years. 

Older workers must live. Unless 
they are given an opportunity to earn 
a living, they must become a charge 
upon society. Places must be pro- 
vided for them in both Government 
employment and private industry. 

The order of the Civil Service Com- 
mission placing a ban on _ stenog- 
raphers and typists over 40 years old 
was distinctly anti-social and reaction- 
ary, The reversal of the order was 
absolutely necessary not only in the 


interest of justice to the older work- 
ers but also to restore in part the con- 
fidence which the people lost in the 
commission by reason of its proposed 
victimization, 





Frances Perkins Hits Forty- 
Year Job Ban 


Frances Perkins, Secretary of La- 
bor, went on record against the estab- 
lishment of a forty or even a fifty 
year age limit in the employment of 
men and women in or out of the gov- 
ernment service. 

The Civil Service Commission in- 
dicated that 40 years of age would 
be the limit for applicants in most 
government jobs. 

“I think it is not good economic 
policy, but on the contrary, very short 
sighted to bar people from employ- 
ment at forty, or even at fifty years 
of age,” she said. “There are many 
positions in which the maturity of 
judgment of older people is essential, 
their experience invaluable, and their 
willingness to modify their own per- 
sonalities in order to meet the needs 
of a situation an asset. In my own 
experience, I have found older groups 
of employes extremely satisfactory.” 

Miss Perkins said she had not been 
consulted by the Civil Service Com- 
mission. 


Why Teachers Get the Sack 


J. Clark Waldron, teacher of eco- 
nomics in the Beaumont High School, 
distributed leaflets for the striking 
clothing workers and was dropped 
from the faculty because he “brought 
notoriety to the public school system.” 
There was no effort, the superintend- 
ent of schools says, to interfere with 
his freedom of opinion. 

That being the case, it follows that 
Mr. Waldron would have been dis- 
missed from the faculty if he had 
circulated leaflets upholding the em- 
ployers. Would he? Nonsense. 

Discreet teachers, and others, take 
things as they find them, and exer- 
cise their rights as citizens with due 
regard to the pressures which may 
be exerted upon those who control 
their bread and butter. There would 
be no “notoriety” attaching to the dis- 
tribution of strikers’ handbills if those 
who favor the distribution had as 
much influence in public affairs as 
those who don’t. If Mr. Waldron 
wants redress, the place to obtain it 
is in the next school board election. 
Fundamentally, all citizenship rights 
are determined in the ballot box, not 
in the Constitution —St. Louis (Mo,) 
Star-Times. 





21 


School Economies Going Too 
Far, Ickes Declares 


Economies in schools are going too 
far, Secretary of the Interior Harold 
L. Ickes warned in a radio address 
broadcast from Washington. “Our 
schools ought to be the last to feel 
the pinch of economy,” he said, add- 
ing that some persons are taking ad- 
vantage of the “economic strain” to 
strike at the future of education. 

“I do not deny that of necessity 
some economies must be made in our 
schools,” the Secretary said, “but we 
are going too far in that direction.” 

Organized labor has repeatedly pro- 
tested against economies that curtaijl 
educational facilities and has de- 
manded that every effort be made to 
maintain schools at their full effi- 
ciency during the depression. 





Some Figures on Illiteracy 


The National Committee on Illiter- 
acy, which has just dissolved for lack 
of funds, reports that the proportion 
of illiterates in the United States has 
declined in the last ten years; but 
that even now, nearly 4,500,000 per- 
sons ten years or more of age, cannot 
read and write. This is well over 4 
per cent of that part of our popula- 
tion. 

By contrast, Denmark, with 3,518,- 
000 inhabitants, had 672 illiterate per- 
sons of school age or over at the last 
census. These persons had not been 
neglected—except by nature. They 
were imbeciles, who couldn’t learn. 
Finland has not been quite so suc- 
cessful as Denmark in her school sys- 
tem—but considering the century of 
Russian despotism which ended only 
with the World War, it seems almost 
a miracle that the census of 1920 
found only 1 per cent of the popula- 
tion over 15 years unable to read and 
write. 

Norway, Sweden, and Germany 
likewise have practically banished il- 
literacy. America can only “report 
progress,” and that rather vaguely. 

The next step in abolishing illiter- 
acy is to abolish child labor. 





We have committed the Golden 
Rule to memory; let us now commit 
it to life. 

We have preached Brotherhood for 
centuries; we now need to find a 
material basis for brotherhood. Gov- 
ernment must be made the organ of 
fraternity—a working-form for com- 
rade-love. 

Think on this—work for this. 

Edwin Markham 












22 


Save City Schools from Wreck- 
ers or Build More Jails, 
Says Darrow 


Lawyer Traces Crime to Under- 
education; Gangs Lure Youth 


Need ‘Special’ Work to Make Child 
Social-Minded Citizen 


By Llewellyn Jones 


Clarence Darrow, who has dealt 
with criminal problems for nearly 
fifty years, declared yesterday the 
present school- wrecking program 
would mean a prison building pro- 
gram later. 

I asked him to tell Herald and 
Examiner readers just what the pre- 
sent school cuts mean to the child 
and the child’s future chance of going 
wrong. 

“The criminals you have known 
were for the most part uneducated.” 
| began. 

“There are some educated crim- 
inals,” was the answer. “A banker 
may be a criminal. But men who get 
into jail are uneducated. The text- 
books say that ninety-nine out of a 
hundred have had practically no edu- 
cation. My own experience tallies 
with this. 


Child Needs Herd 


“The child is helpless and depend- 
ent. He may have certain native in- 
stincts, but the channels into which 
they compel him depend on society. 

“He has to learn. If he cannot 
learn in the schoolroom he will learn 
in the gutter. He never goes alone— 
he is a herd animal. If we deny him 
the herd led by a competent teacher 
we drive him into the herd known as 
the gang. 





Jail Expense Grows 


“The present board members, given 
in some cases a few days, at most a 
few weeks, to learn their job”—and 
Mr. Darrow added parenthetically: 
“Only educated people can direct 
education”—‘“plead economy. It’s the 
only argument they have advanced. 

“But they cannot prove it. We sim- 
ply cannot tell how much we will have 
to spend on the children they are 
allowed to cripple and deform mental- 
ly. If we have to guess we should 
guess in the child’s favor. 


Social Feature Needed 


“Meanwhile, we know we are build- 
ing penitentiaries all the time. Let 
the board members look into the 
prisons. Wardens know lack of edu- 
cation leads to crime; and they have 
prison schools. Why not begin now 





and short-circuit the prison out of 
it?” 

“The board would admit the neces- 
sity of the three R’s,” I remarked, 
“but how about the rest of the school 
functions ?” 


“If they were bound to put over a 
program of cutting, and if they knew 
the elements of education, they would 
cut out the three R’s and leave in 
the rest. Any child can learn, in some 
way, to read, to write and to add 
figures. That’s not what he goes to 
school for, really. He goes to school 
to be made a social animal. 

“Through art, through class sing- 
ing, through all the co-operative enter- 
prises of the school, through leader- 
ship of his teachers, he is turned from 
a natural anarchist—which the un- 
trained child is—into a social crea- 
ture. With every year of this social 
life a criminal career is made more 
and more impossible for him. 


Thievery Lures Him 


“On the practical side he learns 
jobs and techniques which enable him 
to make a living; a child prematurely 
thrown out of school with nothing 
but the three R’s can do nothing but 
perhaps displace a cheap sweatshop 
laborer. Today that is discouraged. 
What’s left? The gang, petty thiev- 
ery, moral degeneracy.” 

Mr. Darrow sees no sign that the 
school board is aware of the real 
problem or touched by the public pro- 
test. He thinks the fight may be a 
long one; it is a campaign, not a 
sortie. The public must not let its 
interest flag. 


Cites Newspaper’s Aid 


“You may quote me,” he added, “as 
saying The Herald and Examiner has 
done a lot of good by its fight. 

“New York and other large cities 
have not only junior, but free senior 
colleges. We should have them, too. 
The poor child should be given all 
the education he can take advantage 
of; his subsequent contribution to so- 
ciety pays back the bill with interest.” 


Chicago Herald and Examiner, 
August 9, 1933. 





The present expense of public 
school education has come about 
through definite need and to curtail 
any of these activities will actually 
harm the welfare of children and 
ultimately, the future generations of 
men and women. 

Dr. Melvin E. Haggerty, 
University of Minnesota. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


School or Jail 


State of Missouri 
DEPARTMENT OF 
PENAL INSTITUTIONS 
Office of J. M. Sanders, Warden 
Jefferson City, Mo. 
September 4, 1933 
Mr. Grover C. Ramsey, Chairman, 
Committee on Publicity, 
American Federation of Teachers, 
Chicago, Illinois 
Dear Sir: 

In reply to your letter of September Ist, 
beg to say that I am not in favor of re- 
ducing the public school curriculums one 
iota, and what I have to say on the subject 
comes from thirty years personal experi- 
ence as an officer of the law and finally 
as Warden of the third largest prison in 
these United States. 

Crime costs the tax payers thirty mil- 
lions of dollars daily. This amount is fifty 
percent greater than the combined net 
earnings of all our corporations. The aver- 
age age of those convicted is nineteen, 
and this means that ten years ago the 
average prisoner was in the grade school. 
But what is more significant is the fact 
that the men who will be in the prisons 
in 1943 are the boys that are in the public 
schools today. Today, in this country, we 
have an army of boy hobos numbering 
over 300,000 and most of them mere 
youths. There are nine and one half mil- 
lion school children in the United States 
that are faced with bad schools or none at 
all. This is serious; it must be remem- 
bered that Ignorance is the Siamese-Twin 
of crime. 

One fifth of all the arrests last year 
were mere boys and over 42% were re- 
peaters. It is an ugly picture when we 
know that 75% of all the habitual crim- 
inals were convicted before the age of 
eighteen. You cannot start at the penal 
institution. You can only expect returns 
if you start with the child, the parents, 
the home, and our public schools with 
their parent and teachers organizations. 

Our average population last year in 
the Missouri State Penitentiary was 4613 
inmates, with ages ranging from 14 to 87 
years. Of this number 7% had no school- 
ing; 18% up to the 4th grade; 25% gradu- 
ated the 8th grade; 4% went to High 
School and 1% went to College. 

With the above in mind, how can a man 
with an honest conscience reduce our pub- 
lic school systems and give more idle time 
to our children and young men and women 
in their teens. Surely there must be 
other means of saving money than taking 
knowledge from the coming generation. 

It is best that all of us remember, we 
are not dealing with dollars and cents— 
we are dealing with lives and young 
thoughts that are human. When we leave, 
let us be sure that our children and our 
children’s children have the educational 
advantages that we knew; in that, we can 
be assured of a future race well educated 
and with less crime and criminals. 

Trusting this may be of interest to you 
and be of some benefit in your work, I am, 


Yours very truly, 
(Signed) J. M. Sanpers, Warden. 





“Truth for authority 
for truth.”—Lucretia Mott. 





A nationally-owned radio system 
for Canada is practically assured. 


not authority 



























33 


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DECEMBER, 1933 


Resolution, North Carolina State 
Federation of Labor 


Be Ir Heresy Resorvep by the North 


Carolina State Federation of Labor in 
convention at Charlotte, North Carolna, 
August 14, 15, that the following resolu- 
tion of objectives be adopted by the North 
Carolina State Federation of Labor. 


1. A state board of education shall be 
appointed by the Governor with over-lap- 
ping terms of office for its members and 
vested with the duty of appointing a state 
superintendent of public instruction who 
shall be a trained educator. This state 
board of education is to exercise control 
only over the state budget for public in- 
struction, and the allocation of funds shall 
be in accordance with the pupil enrollment 
of the school district. 

2. Adequate support of the legislative 
minimum school term of eight months. 
Recognition that the present state financ- 
ing of schools is very inadequate. Funds 
for the support ef public instruction by 
the state shall be derived from a sufficient 
proportion of the gasoline tax, motor ve- 
hicle tax, income tax, sales tax, and a 
minimum property tax. 

3. We fully realize that one central body 
such as the state board of education can- 
not be aware of the educational needs of 
the many and various communities, such 
as industrial, farming, and urban, each of 
which presents very different problems of 
public instruction. The blanket or state 
wide program can never fit the needs of 
the many diversified programs in the school 
districts of the state. 

Full local self-government in the local 
districts providing for increased educa- 
tional opportunities over and above the 
state provided minimum, with local con- 
trol of local funds and state supervision 
of state provided funds by the state board 
of education and the state superintendent 
is endorsed. 

The North Carolina State Federation of 
Labor recognizes the inadequacy of the 
present state financial support, and insists 
that each local district be permitted to 
supplement the state support at the dis- 
cretion of the local school officials and the 
will of the people and that this local unit 


shall determine the use to which these 
local funds shall be placed. 
That educators in each school district 


are the logical persons to determine the 
content and the methods of educational 
procedure that is best suited for applica- 
tion in a particular school district. <A 
school run according to standard set by 
the state should represent the minimum in 
education, not the maximum. 

4. Teachers salaries shall be such as wil! 
attract to and retain in the profession 
the type of teacher the childhood and 
youth of North Carolina deserves—and 
shall be such as to permit growth in the 
profession and standard of living com- 
parable with those of members of other 
professions with equal training, ability, and 
responsibility. 

We believe that the minimum salary for 
a white school teacher should be fixed at 
$1500.00 per annum (Colored teachers at 
$1200.00) with increase of salary based on 
professional training, years of experience, 
and ability in extra-curricular activities, 
and that the present rating by certification 
should be dissolved, with a maximum sal- 
ary not to exceed for white school teachers 

00 (colored school teachers $2400.00) 
per annum. 


5. We believe in a strict character de- 


velopment program, all-pervasive but as 
definite and purposeful as possible, through- 
out the entire curricular and extra-curri- 
cular activities of the schools. 

6. We recognize public education to be 
the most important function of govern- 
ment, whether it be city, county or state. 
We also recognize the process of educa- 
tion to be a matter that requires a special 
technical and professional training that is 
not possessed by laymen. We therefore 
recommend, that in determining all matters 
of educational policies, experts in the field 
of education be consulted and followed. 
We will therefore recognize only those 
candidates for public office who in the ad- 
ministration of the educational problems 
will consult and be guided by those edu- 
cators who know the needs, rather than 
by the moneyed interests who are cmiefly 
concerned with the saving of money re- 
gardless of the welfare of the childhood 
and youth of North Carolina. 


7. Weaffirm our loyalty to the objectives 
of the American Federation of Teachers 
and its affiliated teachers locals. 


8. We endorse the organization of 
teachers into the American Federation of 
Teachers as the only teachers body cap- 
able of maintaining a bitter fight aganst 
the enemies of public school education. 
We therefore urge teachers over all the 
state of North Carolina to affiliate with 
the American Federation of Teachers, affil- 
jiated with the North Carolina State Fed- 
eration of Labor and the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. 


New Federal Office of Education 
Service 

How the Federal Government is 
moving swiftly and _ vigorously 
through 10 new agencies and estab- 
lished departments to pull the United 
States out of depression will be re- 
ported this year in ScHoo. Lr, 
official monthly journal of the Fed- 
eral Office of Education. The arti- 
cles are especially planned to help 
teachers of history, civics and current 
events who wish to keep their pupils 
informed about the swift changes in 
national affairs. 

September Scuoor Lire carries ar- 
ticles on “Ten Thumbnail Sketches 
of the Ten New Agencies of Govern- 
ment,” “The Children’s Code”, des- 
cribing the effect of the child-labor 
ban, and “Public Works Funds for 
Schools.” ScxHoor Lire will also tell 
how to obtain free, or at small cost, 
the laws, important documents, and 
mimeograph material describing the 
new work of the Government, 


If paying more taxes gets for those 
who pay them either directly or in- 
directly more, much more, than the 
individuals who pay the taxes could 
get for themselves through individual 
expenditures, may it not be an econo- 
my to pay more taxes? 

—J. M. Gwinn, 

Supt. of Schools, San Francisco. ° 


23 


Resolution on the Organization 
of Teachers’ Unions in the 
State of Massachusetts 


Adopted by Massachusetts State 
Federation of Labor 
1933 Convention 


WHEREAS, organized labor in Amer- 
ica a century ago was the first and 
only social group to encourage and 
promote the young institution of pub- 
lic education, and 


WHEREAS, since the year 1916 the 
American Federation of Labor has 
advocated the organization of teach- 
ers. in its affiliated international, the 
American Federation of Teachers, 
and 

Wuereas, the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers has stood loyally by 
the organized labor movement in this 
country, aiding it and cooperating 
with it through its representatives in 
the A. F. of L. conventions, in the 
state federations of labor, and in the 
city central bodies, and 

WHEREAS, we recognize the im- 
portance of having strong unions of 
teachers who are a part of every 
public school system where they may 
be on guard to protect labor interests 
and point of view as against those 
who would attack and destroy the 
ideals for which organized labor has 
always stood, and 


WHEREAS, organized teachers have 
consistently made known their ob- 
jectives of striving to improve the 
working conditions in the _ public 
schools, and to raise the standards 
and to increase the effectiveness of 
education in the ultimate interest of 
our children in these schools, and, 

WHEREAS, in the present economic 
situation in America organized labor 
needs increased support for its pro- 
grams of recovery, and believes that 
the understanding of labor’s objec- 
tives will come more speedily through 
the general education of the people, 
therefore, 


Be 1T Resoivep, that the Massa- 
chusetts State Federation of Labor 
urges all city central labor bodies 
throughout the state to seek actively 
to encourage the organization of local 
teachers’ unions in cooperation with 
the Executive Council of the Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers, and 

Be 1T FurTHER ResoLven, that the 
Secretary of the State Federation of 
Labor immediately undertake through 
the proper channels to promote this 
work to the end that a State Federa- 
tion of Teachers’ Unions be made a 
possibility within the present year. 





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24 
“There is no frigate like a book 
To bear us lands away.” 
—Emily Dickinson. 
THe PropaGANDA Menace. _ By 


Frederick E, Lumley. D. Apple- 
ton-Century Company, Inc. $3. 


NATIONAL IDEALS AND INTERNATION- 
ALIST Ipots. Wallace B. Don- 
ham. Free from Chemical Foun- 
dation, Inc. 


Professor Lumley examines propa- 
ganda in its many varieties and meth- 
ods and suggests that education and 
the scientific impartial spirit of the 
university, in the best sense of that 
term, is the necessary antidote. But 
the rub is that teachers must teach. 
Even before any formal education be- 
gins the child imitates and even our 
examples are propaganda. In social 
science as Professor Lumley well 
knows it is impossible to get even a 
fair statement of facts on which to 
found the would-be impartial con- 
clusion. The open mind is in danger 
of becoming the mind empty of all 
leads to action. Pressure from our 
companions, from the mores and in- 
stitutions of our environment is un- 
avoidable. 

In making his propaganda against 
propaganda, as implied by the very 
title of his lengthy book, Professor 
Lumley heaps up definitions of the 
word made by numerous writers. 
Finally he attempts his own: 

“Propaganda is promotion which 1s 
veiled in one way or another as to (1) 
its origin or sources, (2) the interests in- 
volved, (3) the methods employed, (4) 
thd content spread, and (5) the results 
accruing to the victims—any one, any two, 
any three, any four, or all five.” 
Accepting this would-be comprehen- 
sive definition, all the promotional 
work done by various bodies to se- 
cure a new social order should be re- 
garded as education for it certainly 
does not attempt concealment in any 
way. The Labor movement like sci- 
ence “thrives on free and full ex- 
pression, complete revealment, exact 
portrayal, the ruthless tearing away 
of all masks.” A statement of the 
facts about wealth maldistribution is 
in itself education for change, but to 
the ruling capitalist class it will cer- 
tainly sound like propaganda. 

The fundamental weakness of this 
book despite the industrious garner- 
ing of much reading and observation 
is that a static and classless attitude 
is taken throughout. Professor Lum- 
ley. does not connect the debasement 


of propaganda by the World War and 
the decadence of capitalism in its im- 
perialist stage. In its struggle with 
the old fuedal system the capitalist 
class developed and used natural sci- 
ence. When it is no longer a pro- 
gressive force it resorts to propa- 
ganda ‘in the worst sense of the term 
with all the concealment of the Lum- 
ley definition. In the matter of social 
classes Professor Lumley adopts the 
above-the-battle pose necessary to all 
educators who wish to retain their 
jobs in orthodox institutions of learn- 
ing. Yet with tongue in cheek and 
somewhat shamefacedly Professor 
Lumley chiefly concentrates on the 
various forms of capitalist propa- 
ganda and for these reasons: 

“For one thing the capitalists have more 
money to spend and effective propaganda 
costs money. For another, having more 
money to spend, this group is able to com- 
mand the best talent. Therefore it is able 
to do propagandistically what the other 
two groups are unable to approach. There 


is more and more propaganda from the 
farmers and from the labor unions, and 
it all does its pernicious work of mental 
obfuscation. [This sweeping charge is not 
substantiated in the many pages of this 
volume but it gives Professor Lumley his 
getaway if he is accused of being partial. | 
3ut the group with the funds—among them 
we may look for propaganda par excel- 
lence.” 

He too sees that the farmers and the 
workers, in contrast with the capital- 
ists, are “more willing to rest their 
cause on the facts” because “the facts 
are entirely sufficient to turn public 
sympathy in their favor,” if known 
“The facts as to wages paid to labor- 
ers and as to incomes from agricul- 
ture in comparison with profits made 
by employers are so damaging that 
the latter must engage in propaganda 
to defend themselves. It is probably 
not far wrong to say that the party 
with the weaker case is more tempted 
to use propaganda.” 

Another weakness of the book is 
that it ignores the fact that the com- 
plete school system is a bolster to 
keep things as they are. Professor 
Lumley exposes how the power in- 
terests and the other individual vested 
interests seek control of public opin- 
ion, but he thinks that “By and large 
there is no elaborate propaganda on 
behalf of the capitalistic system as 
against the communistic system in 
this country.” Obviously propaganda 
sanctioned by usage and embodied in 
the history texts is not so easily recog- 
nized as the advocacy of an entirely 
new system. 

Despite these failings and Profes- 
sor Lumley’s liberal prejudice against 
revolution, this book well serves as a 
book of reference for most of the 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


mental aberrations and fallacies thrust 
upon our generation. The best in- 
surance against future deception is to 
analyze the falsehoods of the wartime 
propaganda. (By the way, “Lord 
George” (p. 235) is not the name of 
“the man who won the war.”) The 
best antidote to the machinations of 
the armament mongers is to recall the 
activity of such men as Wm. B. 
Shearer and the more recent exposure 
in the Senate investigation of the 
steamship owners’ racket and its “lec- 
turer,” Clara W. McQuown. The 
professional patriots and red baiters’ 
lists have one item of special inter- 
est, for “Scabbard and Blade” in list- 
ing the opponents of military train- 
ing named “George A. Coe. He isa 
member of the American Federation 
of Teachers which has many extreme 
socialists and radicals in executive 
capacities.” Teachers particularly 
should read the chapter on propa- 
ganda in education for although, as 
quoted above, Professor Lumley de- 
nies elaborate general propaganda for 
the existing system he endorses the 
findings of Dr. Bessie L. Pierce and 
others on the nationalist bias of 
school textbooks. 

Presumably the Chemical Founda- 
tion gives away the address by the 
lean of the Graduate School of Busi- 
ness Administration, Harvard Uni- 
versity to aid in the spread of scien- 
tific knowledge but, fresh from read- 
ing “The Menace of Propaganda,” we 
wonder if there is not a connection 
between attempted national self-suff- 
ciency and chemical preparation for 
the next war, or it may be the annex- 
ation of some foreign patent or the 
displacing of some foreign rival firm 
is involved. Dean Donham pleads 
for planned equilibrium in the United 
States and the fixing of prices and 
regulation of working hours without 
any reference to world standards. He 
proposes, it is true, the continued ex- 
port of American cotton, tobacco, and 
other raw materials, but these would 
be paid for with such raw materials as 
silk, rubber, coffee, and sugar. With- 
out in the least subscribing to the old 
Manchester ideals of rugged individu- 
alism in trade and the blind competi- 
tive wasteful development of industry 
and international trade, we feel that 
what has been done in international 
trade cannot be quickly undone. The 
United States government cannot buy 


wheat and dump it abroad without, 


danger. At the moment the United 
States warships are in the waters of 
Cuba ready to protect the United 
States investments there. It seems 
that withdrawal from world affairs 1s 

















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DECEMBER, 1933 


Economic 


impossible. 
ence is a fact. American imperialists 
and financiers will not be content to 
stay at home and give increased pur- 
chasing power to the native American 


interdepend- 


workers. Dean Donham sees the dif- 
ficulties involved and the relative 
smallness of foreign trade and the in- 
creased competition for the world 
market as the other nations mechan- 
ize and speed up their industries. If 
American society were an organic 
unit, instead of congeries of rival in- 
dustries in addition to the funda- 
mental division between the workers 
and their exploiters, social planning 
could be applied. The difficulties of 
applying the modest regulations of the 
NRA indicate what can be expected. 
Mark STARR. 





TAxES AND Tax DOopGERS 

There are two fundamentally con- 
flicting concepts of government. One 
regards government as a necessary 
evil, while the other views it as an 
instrument for public service. The 
attack on the schools, on relief funds, 
and on other essential but financially 
unremunerative public services is 
gaining in strength today. There is 
a nationwide move to “cut cost of 
government.” 

The depression and all of the evils 
attendant on it are laid to the high 
cost of government. The plea to 
lower taxes is being heard on every 
hand backed by the weight of cham- 
bers of commerce and merchants and 
manufacturers associations, 

John Dewey’s “The Crisis in Edu- 
cation,” published by the American 
Federation of Teachers, has attacked 
this problem particularly from the 
teachers standpoint. Up to now, how- 
ever, there has been no general an- 
swer to these viciously anti-social at- 
tacks. Mayor Daniel W. Hoan of 
Milwaukee has filled this breach by 
writing a short and simple pamphlet 
called “Taxes and Tax Dodgers.” 

In it he discusses the purpose of 
taxation, do taxes cause depressions, 
duplication and graft in government, 
cheap government, efficiency an econ- 
omy, the debt burden in cities, land 
taxed, income, inheritance and gift 
taxes, and program of taxation which 
will enable essential public functions 
to be carried on and yet not burden 
the worker. 

Mayor Hoan’s exposure of the 
groups fighting to cut taxes is two- 
fold: First, the answers to the argu- 
ments they advance; then, he shows 
up the personal interests they repre- 
sent. “In local affairs,” he states, “it 
is nearly always the real estate swin- 


dler who runs the taxpayers league.” 
Other typical quotations are: 

“Racketeering in private business 
far exceeds that in public affairs, even 
in the most corrupt of cities, Where 
is the civil service examination for 
the incompetent relation of the boss 
who sits with his feet on the desk 
behind the door marked ‘Third As- 
sistant Vice President’ ?” 

“When business men began to fail 
because of their collective stupidity, 
they looked about for a scape goat 
and they chose the government.” 

“We are still imposing taxes on the 
basis of a minimum of public assist- 
ance to our most exploited class.” 

“If the sheriff catches a thief with 
stolen goods, the goods are returned 
to the owner. We Socialists want 
high income and inheritance taxes for 
the same purpose.” 

This pamphlet is number 2 in the 
Issues of the Day series published by 
the Socialist Party of America at 549 
Randolph Street, Chicago. The cost 
is 10c, 





An INTRODUCTION To BroLtocy. By 
Elbert C. Cole, Associate Pro- 
fessor of Biology at Williams 
College; formerly Instructor in 
Biology, Hartford Public High 
School, Hartford, Conn. 518 
pp. $1.75. John Wiley & Sons, 
Inc., New York. 

Teachers of Biology in secondary 
schools, and normal schools, will 
find that this text not only provides 
ample material for a full year’s 
course but also allows considerable 
choice in the selection of topics to 
be studied. 

The text has been organized to 
facilitate instruction in the exten- 
sive use of living things in the 
course and the subject matter lays 
stress upon the following series of 
ideas. 

1—The basic similarity of organ- 

isms in structure and function. 
2—The dependence of all organ- 
isms upon the inorganic world. 
3—The complex and ever-chang- 
ing interrelations existing be- 
tween living things, tending 
to attain and maintain a con- 
dition of balance in Nature. 


4—The economic importance of 
organisms — their relation to 
human health, wealth, and en- 
joyment of life. 

5—The increasing control man 
exercises over; the living 
world, involving problems of 
conservation and  improve- 
ment. ¥ 


25 


6—The importance of a knowl- 
edge of the kinship of organ- 
isms as a basis for more nearly 
complete control. 

Fresh illustrations with detailed 
legends are included and a Related 
Readings section is given at the 
close of each chapter which makes 
possible the use of the book in 
courses where the order of treat- 
ment differs from that of the text. 





Christmas Program 


Suggestions and ideas for your 
Christmas Program this year, em- 
phasizing goodwill among all na- 
tions has been prepared by the 
Women’s International League. 
This pamphlet is one of a series of 
similar publications and contains 
suggestions for songs, plays, games, 
and other entertainment suitable 
for school purposes. Definite Pro- 
gram arrangements are given with 
an index of where the suggested 
material is available. The leaflet 
may be obtained at cost (five cents) 
by applying to the Women’s Inter- 
national League, 1924 Chestnut 
Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 








REHEARSE 


To Harrow Again 
The farmer, after plowing his field, goes 


over it with a harrow to break up the 
clods and level the ground. Sometimes, 
in order to make the field still smooth- 
er, he harrows it over again. 

Old French Aerce meant “a harrow,” 
hercier“to harrow,” and rebercier “to har- 
row over again,” borrowed in Middle 
English as rehercen, Modern English re- 
hearse. Now we rehearse, not the plowed 
field, but a speech, a play, or the like. 
There are thousands of such stories about the 
origins of English words in 

The “Supreme Authority” 

WEBSTER’S NEW 
INTERNATIONAL 


DICTIONARY 


A Merriam-Webster 
Write for Free Illustrated 
Booklet of Word Origin 
Stories--Are you receiving 
our helpful publication, 
“Word Study”’? It will be 
sent to you regularly, with- 
out cost, upon 


G. & C. Merriam 
Company 
Springfield, Mass. 




















26 


Tat STRANGE LitTLE Brown Man: 
GanDHI. By Frederick B. 
Fisher. New York: Ray Long 
& Richard R. Smith, Inc., 1932. 
239 pp. Price, $2.50. 


Strange as it may sound, it is 
nevertheless true: India was once a 
prosperous country. Its town, Daca 
—the Lancashire of India, exported 
to England in 1787 muslin to the 
value of a million and a half pounds. 
Thirty years later this export dropped 
to an almost negligible figure. On 
the other hand, the export of raw cot- 
ton increased from nine pounds in 
1813 to the spectacular sum of forty- 
eight million pounds in 1838. What 
caused this radical transformation in 
the character of India’s foreign trade? 
The answer is: the presence of the 
English East India Company and the 
increasing domination of the political 
and economic life of India by the 
white Englishman. 

About the time the Indian cotton 
industry reached its zenith, machine 
looms were introduced and rapidly 
applied in Lancashire. The English 
cotton industry was soon to be found 
in feverish activity and a howl was 
soon raised for protection of its gains. 
As a result of this agitation, a duty 
of sixty-seven per cent was placed on 
Indian goods coming into England 
and only a duty of three per cent 
was placed on British goods going 
into India. The effect of this clearly 
discriminatory taxation was the 
strangulation of India’s sole source 
of revenue at that time, the ruin of 
its cotton industry. Daca soon be- 
came a desert. 

This is the first singular result of 
English exploitation of India. But 
this was not to be the end. English 
greed and thirst for exploitation knew 
no bounds. In 1858 the British 
Crown “bought” India from the East 
India Company—every dollar in- 
volved in the “purchase” being 
“charged” to India and coming out 
from taxation on Indian _ goods. 
Now English exploitation shed its 
veneer of hypocrisy and proceeded 
unmolested in its course. India be- 
came merely a tool for the enrichment 
of England and the welfare of over 
400,000,000 Indians was totally dis- 
regarded. 

And this is the effect of England’s 
domination of India: 95 per cent of 
350,000,000 natives live upon small 
strips of soil, and it is a life of de- 
gradation. Their wages range from 
seven to eleven cents a day. During 
four or five months of the year they 
have no employment and no wage at 








all! On the other hand. while 
India’s wealth was being drained by 
the English exploiters across the sea, 
their henchmen in India—the white 
English officialdom — built knightly 
castles, appropriated the gifts of in- 
dustrial civilization for their own 
kind, and wallowed in luxury. 

And you wonder, how could such 
a small number of English officialdom 
and civilians hold under their heels 
a race of 400,000,000 souls for such 
a long time? It is true the Indians 
have rebelled on many occasions but 
their rebellions were ruthlessly and 
easily suppressed by the few English 
regiments posted in India. The In- 
dians are poor adepts in the art of 
revolution. And the background for 
this Indian docility is both psycho- 
logical and moral. Ancient India 
taught its children “Ahimsa,” which 
literally means the glory of non-vio- 
lence, and this teaching left an indel- 
ible impression on the Indians’ men- 
tality. “Ahimsa” is ingrained in his 
very nature, and thus his rebellions 
become ineffective and the rule of 
the English mailed fist rendered pos- 
sible. The soil of India was: not, 
therefore, propitious for the emer- 
gence of such revolutionary apostles 
as Nicholas Lenin or Leon Trotsky. 
India needed a different leader. And 
such a leader presented himself in 
the person of Gandhi who was to 
transform “Ahimsa” into the most ef- 
fective instrumentality for India’s 
liberation from the English yoke. 

And what irony of fate! Gandhi 
was a child of the favored caste of 
India; a descendant of those privi- 
leged Indian families who sold their 
souls to English bureaucracy; whose 
two uncles were prime ministers of 
the State of Porbandar and whose 
father, Kaba Gandhi, was chancellor 
of the Exchequer of the court at Raj- 
kot, another native state. Moreover, 
his parents were of the Jains stock, 
the Puritans of Hinduism. Mohandas 
himself received a training designed 
to fit him for government service and 
thus to be able to carry on his fam- 
ily’s tradition. He was educated in 
a law university of England where he 
completed his studies with distinc- 
tion. Though Mohandas Gandhi in 
his early student career indulged 
freely in the wild life of English 
youth, it is also in England that he 
first caught the spirit of the Sermon 
of the Mount and of his own Hindu 
Bhagavad-Gita, the Song of God. He 
found their teachings fundamentally 
uniform. After obtaining his di- 
ploma, he returned to his native land. 
After a short stay, he accepted an 









THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





offer to go to South Africa and settle 
a claim of $200,000 of one of his In- 
dian clients. He intended to make 
his African visit brief—but it ex- 
tended to twenty years. In Africa he 
became a successful barrister and very 
wealthy, and it is also in Africa that 
the opportunity presented itself to him 
to apply the truth he saw in his stu- 
dent days to a practical test. 

The despicable exploitation of black 
laborers in the mines of Africa, their 
miserable wage, the shameful dis- 
crimination accorded them in all 
walks of life, their segregation in 
“lowly” quarters, of which crime even 
the churches were guilty—all of these 
factors brought Gandhi to a realiza- 
tion of the wide chasm between the 
theory and practice of religion as ex- 
isting in modern society. It is to the 
bridging of this gap that he was soon 
to dedicate himself, 

After many years of service in 
behalf of the English judiciary and 
of the business world in Africa, 
Gandhi decided to break with them, 
He renounced his titles. He gave 
up his wealth. He donned the 
simple clothing of the Indian peas- 
ant. And he vowed himself to the 
cause of India’s freedom through 
the Indian philosophy of Ahimsa. 
From that day all Indians became 
his equals, his brothers. There 
were no longer “untouchables” in 
his eyes. “A divided India _ will 
never win!” “Forged in the love 
of God, it will conquer all ob- 
stacles.” 

Soon Gandhi returned to India and 
in 1916 he settled in Ahmedabad and 
established the Ashram—a _ com- 
munity where the truth was to be 
sought and where the Gospel of 
Passive Resistance against the Eng- 
lish yoke was soon to be proclaimed 
and disseminated to all the corners 
of the world. 

Strange, indeed, were the teach- 
ings of Gandhi in a country which 
was washed by the blood of Eng- 
lish gunfire. . . “Love shall rule 
the world.” “Moral force shall de- 
feat the force of machine guns!” 
“The enemy may be conquered 
without hate.” “Love 1s greater 
and more endurable than navies!” 

Passive resistance was soon to be 
supplemented by another and as 
equally effectual a weapon: the eco- 
nomic boycott. Gandhi exhorted 
his native brethren to 
spinning wheel once more, settle to 
a simple life, and subsist on the 
products of their native soil. 

And Gandhi at first had his op- 
ponents, even among the Indians. 











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ve 
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DECEMBER, 1933 





Some of the leading Indian intel- 
lectuals and rebels, including the 
famous philosopher and poet, Ra- 
bindranath Tagore, found Gandhi’s 
ideas objectionable. Especially his 
teachings of passive resistance they 
found impracticable. But gradually 
the Indian intelligentsia fell in line 
with Gandhi’s movement. Many 
of them, following in the footsteps 
of their teacher, renounced their 
titles, honors, medals, wealth, and 
“privileged” ties, and adopted the 
humble life of their prophet. 

Gandhi's teachings demonstrated 
their soundness. The passive re- 
sistance and the economic boycott 
on the part of the Indians cost the 
British Government “more in time, 
worry, and actual cash than any 
other uprising within the empire 
since the American Revolution.” 
And in 1932 Lancashire became an- 
other Daca! 

The Sermon of the Mount is now 
being relived in India, and its ef- 
fectiveness already proves’ con- 
clusively, in the opinion of Dr. 
Fisher, its superiority over the bul- 
lets of the imperialists and over the 
dictatorships of the Marxian revo- 
lutionists. 

However, Mr. Fisher overlooks 
one singular lesson of history. 
What may be effective in one coun- 
try, may prove destructive in an- 
other. What is meat for one man 
may be poison for another, 

MicwHaec B. ScHELeEr. 
THe Patnt CrEEK FLoop AND OTHER 
Stories. Alice Paddleford. Pi- 
oneer Youth, New York. 

Teachers have long been clamor- 
ing for story material that can be 
used to rouse children’s interest in 
social issues. Something that gives 
a labor slant and yet is not crudely 
propagandist. Something that is 
well written and interesting. 

During the summer of 1932 Alice 
Paddleford was on the staff of Pi- 
oneer Youth working in some of the 
mining towns of West Virginia. 
She took pains to absorb the local 
color of the region and gathered ex- 
act information as to events that 
had taken place. With this back- 
ground she wrote stories concerned 
with the lives of mining town chil- 
dren. “The Paint Creek Flood” is 
an exciting tale of how Kitty and 
Robbie are washed out of their flim- 
sy home during a storm at night. 
“Poked Out” tells of how the fam- 
ily was evicted from their house for 
joining the Union. To each is ap- 
pended information as to the factual 
basis of the stories. 


The NRA may gradually bring 
about changes in the coal industry. 
However, the social structure re- 
mains. If one would understand 
the raw side of capitalist exploita- 
tion it can still be seen in West Vir- 
ginia. We offer these stories to 
teachers who want to present to 
their children the challenge of the 
economic crisis, 

They may be obtained in attrac- 
tive mimeographed form from Pi- 
oneer Youth of America, 69 Bank 
Street, New York City, at 10 cents 
a copy. 

CHILDREN— Wuy Do WE HAve 
TuHeM? Harper Brothers. New 
York and London—1933. 287 
pp. $2.50. 

“He, (the child) must make the 
world in which he is to live. It is we 
who must set him free from the past.” 

With this sentence as the opening 
one, and the book written consist- 
ently around the theme, Mrs. Russell’s 
book would have been a vigorous 
and spirited exposition of a definite 
point of view. However, the sentence 
is the last in the book, and comes 
after a wandering and indefinite— 
although always very lively— treat- 
ment of the theme set forth in the 
title. 

The sociological books of both Mr. 
and Mrs. Russell always promise 
much and always leave this reviewer 
somewhat disappointed. CHILDREN 
—Wuy Do We Have THEM? is 
no different from the others. It 
hastily reviews all that has been said 
in recent years of the rise of the 
family, its place in society, parental 
attitudes, the moral forces of religion, 
birth-control, divorce, and the more 
popular aspects of education. It is, in 
substance, old stuff, and without the 
occasional penetrating barbs of Mrs. 
Russell’s always facile wit would be- 
come very dull reading. 

The second half of the book, called 
Tue Epucators, is the most valu- 
uable to teachers. Here the author 
seems more sure of herself, has some- 
thing more definite to say, and blasts 
and bombards many conventional 
points of view in her very best man- 
ner. Mrs. Russell has a wealth of 
experience gained in her own school 
and home, and is always honest with 
herself in her reactions to child be- 
havior, It is this prestige which gives 
her words such import. One wishes 
she had outlined a program of action, 
had given inspired leadership to the 
great cause of freeing education from 
the shackels of convention, prudery, 
and sheer nonsense which still én- 








27 





cumber it. And yet, one wonders, 
what could that program be? At 
least Mrs. Russell has stirringly called 
attention to much of the witch-dogma 
that exists, and she should inspire 
every teacher who has ever felt in 
revolt against the many inconsisten- 
cies of our present educational sys- 
tem. 

Her remarks on freedom of move- 
ment and expression for children 
both in the class-room and out, her 
wise criticism of our existing sex 
standards for little children, her care- 
fully thought out analysis of our 
treatment of children which so often 
results in stereotyped and dull adults, 
will give great encouragement to any 
forward-looking teacher. 

In substance Mrs. Russell says, 
“Children, like women and the pro- 
letariat, are an oppressed class.” 
They must achieve their own eman- 
cipation. They must make the world 
in which they will live. And we as 
parents can help, not by the heavy 
hand of authority, nor by the sugar- 
coated pills of precedence and guid- 
ance, but by the active work of freeing 
them from the heavy hand of the 
past that they might go forth better 
fitted than we to make a better world 
than the one their parents have to 
offer them as heritage. 

There is not much about why we 
have children in the book. What 
there is in that respect is not very 
new or interesting. But what there 
is about children is sound and ably 
presented. This is a book which 
offers a direct challenge to all parents 
and educators. 

BERTRAM ENOs. 





VocaTIONAL GUIDANCE IN ENGINEER- 
ING Lines. Published by Ameri- 
can Association of Engineers, 8 
S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IIl. 
Price $2.50. 560 pages, 50 illus- 
trations. 


I have just been attending a great 
display, an exposition, in which skilled 
salesmen have just been explaining 
to me the merits, not of automobiles, 
but of vocations. For I have been 
reading the new book—“VOCATIONAL 
GUIDANCE IN ENGINEERING LINEs,” 
sponsored by the American Associa- 
tion of Engineers. The aforesaid 
salesmen have made me wish I were 
skillful in several of these vocations. 
If I were back at the place where a 
youth must choose his life career, this 
book would help me amazingly. It 
would tell me truthfully and clearly 
what to expect in nearly three score 
distinct vocations, what preparation 
I would need and what difficulties I 





28 


must surmount to achieve success in 
any one of them; in many cases, the 
book would give me valuable hints 
as to where and how to prepare. 


I know of no other book that sets 
forth the facts concerning vocations 
in ‘engineering jlines so clearly, so 
forcefully, and so authoritatively as 
does this one. Each writer has 
achieved success in his line. He need 
not theorize for he knows. Having 
been over a considerable part of the 
route he can advise from experience, 
the advice that every thoughtful youth 
is anxious to get before setting out on 
his life career. The book makes the 
reader of mature years think how 
much more favored is the youth of 
today than was he of yesterday who 
aspired to a career in engineering and 
who knew not where to turn for in- 
formation such as is here recorded. 

A copy of this book ought to be 
in every home in which parents and 
sons are trying to determine the ca- 
reer in which the latter can be most 
useful and most successful. The par- 
ents ought to read it, as well as the 
sons. The information about those 
vocations with the strongest appeal to 
such readers ought to be studied care- 
fully, especially the one finally chosen. 
Such fundamental knowledge of the 
chosen vocation will help greatly to- 
ward success in it. 

Every teacher or other person who 
may be in a position to give vocational 
advice ought to be familiar with the 
contents of this book. It is the prod- 
uct, not of one author but of many 
authors, each with achievement to his 
credit in the line about which he has 
written. The book seems destined to 
be invaluable for guiding the youth of 
today and of future generations into 
suitable careers. The editorial com- 
mittee that elicited, edited, and ar- 
ranged the contents have completed 
a task that will bring lasting credit 
to all concerned in this compilation. 

D. E. CARPENTER. 





Two Hunprep YEARS OF EDUCATION 
—1733-1933—SavaANNAH, CHAT- 
HAM County, Georcia. Hay- 
good S. Bowden. 381 pp. Dietz 
Printing Co., Richmond, Va. 
1932. 


This book is distinctly local in its 
interest, and yet, because of its 
comprehensive treatment of the ac- 
complishments of education in 
Georgia over a period of two hun- 
dred years, is always interesting, 
and at times fascinating reading. 
The earlier part of the book, deal- 








ing with the first schools in Georgia, 
contains much valuable historical 
material. Indeed, one wonders 
where Mr. Bowden could have 
gathered so much early information. 
That he has, is a tribute to his 
scholarship and ability. 

One might wish that the book 
spoké more searchingly of the pres- 
ent crisis in education, but that is 
hardly to be expected in a book 
which deals with historical facts and 
more particularly with the progress 
made in education since its incep- 
tion in Georgia. 

Mr. Bowden should now bend his 
energies towards a similar book on 
a national scale. He is eminently 
fitted for the task, and such a book 
would be of the greatest value. 


THE CHURCHES AND MopeRN 
Tuoucut. Vivian Phelps. The 
Thinker’s Library, London, 1931. 
298 pages. One shilling, 


This book, having run through four 
editions, now appears as a fifth edi- 
tion in The Thinker’s Library. Such 
demand must be merited. 

The book is a truly scholarly work, 
in the very best scholastic tradition, 
and represents the gradual growth of 
the writer’s philosophy from ortho- 
dox Christianity to Rationalism. This 
is no diatribe—the book contains not 
one drop of invective—rather is it 
judicious, scientific, and exacting. 

The reading of such a book as this, 
in a day when scholarship is only too 
often a mere froth of seeming erudi- 
tion upon a few startling facts, is a 
privilege. One is happy to know that 
by its inclusion in The Thinker’s Li- 
brary the book will now be available 
permanently to those, and they are 
constantly increasing, who will be in- 
terested in its fine treatment of such 
a controversial subject. 

The book contains a meaty index 
which gives further proof, although 
such is not needed, of the author’s 
true erudition, intellectual honesty, 
and indefatigable scholarship. 





MEETING THE EMERGENCY IN EDvu- 
CATION. Dept. of Sec. School 
Prin. of the N. FE. A. Bulletin 
No. 46. April, 1933. 27 pp. 


The findings of the Principal’s 
committee, together with a sum- 
mary of what the organized profes- 
sion through the Joint Committee 
on the Emergency in Education is 
doing, with suggestions as to meet- 
ing the emergency. 








AMERICAN TEACHER 





THE 








Economy In Epucation. Hill and 
Kelley. The Carnegie Founda- 
tion, N. Y. 116 pp. 1933. A 
bulletin. 

An objective study of principles 
of Economy and Economic Admin- 
istration, laying no claim to any- 
thing new, and having no special 
axe to grind. Its very objectivity 
is misleading when one considers 
the present crisis in education. 





THE STATE AND HiGHER EDUCATION. 
Kelly and Savage. The Carnegie 
Foundation, N. Y. 269 pp. A 
bulletin. 

An objective study of the status 
of higher education in 10 selected 
States. Objective and worthwhile 
as material for further studies, etc. 





INSTRUCTION IN ENG.IsH. Dept. of 
Interior. Bulletin, 1932, No. 
17, National Survey of Second- 
ary Education. Monograph No. 
20. 89 pp. 
Study of the existing status of 
English teaching with emphasis on 
newer trends. 





ScnHoot Text-Book REVISION AND 
INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING, 
International Institute of In- 
tellectual Co-operation, Paris, 
1933. 193 pp. Cloth bound, 
$2.00. 

A study of progress made by in- 
terested groups in all coumtrees in 
eradicating from school text-books 
—primarily history books — pas- 
sages likely to compromise interna- 
tional understanding. An excellent 
point of departure in considering 
this whole matter for any history 
teacher. 

CHILDREN OF THE Depresston.—M. 
E. Haggerty—No. 6, The Day 
and Hour Series—University of 
Minnesota—Pamphlet. 

An address delivered to the Amer- 
ican Association of University Wom- 
en, May 18, 1933. A statement of 
economizing in schools in_ several 
states, with a summary of three types 
of attack against the schools; viz.; 
1. Newspaper attempts to blame 
school expense on teachers and school- 
men. 2. Efforts of certain national 
groups to restore tuition charges at 
secondary school level. 3. The crea- 
tion of extra-legal committees who 
actually determine, and without au- 
thority, school expenditures. The 
pamphlet is well worth reading, al- 
though one wishes the indictment had 
been delivered with more strength— 
certainly it is a damning one. 




















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rf en -« 


0° Ee a Manatee 2) 


os 
4 





. 
“ey 


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1933 


DECEMBER, 














News from the 
Field 




















To the Men Teachers’ Union 
of Chicago 


Striving to make a city better, 
Trying to keep a city free, 

Fighting to win for voiceless children 
Their education and their liberty; 


Cheerful in spite of threats and censure, 
Daring, enthusiastic, true, 

Fighting like knights for forlorn causes— 
O dauntless leaders, we will follow you. 

For C. L. V.—C. B. S—J. A. M.—G. C. R. 


CeLinpA B. Aspor. 


To the Lantos of the Federation 
of Women High School 
Teachers, Chicago 


Superwomen you seem to me— 

Such courage and ability— 

Such bravery always to fight— 

Such eagerness all wrongs to right— 
Such knowledge of bewildering laws— 
Such deep devotion to the cause 

Of children and those suffering wrong— 
All show you are the super-strong; 
And your adherence to your goal 
Is one proof of Chicago’s soul. 





CeLinpA B. Asport. 





Chattanooga-Hamilton County 
Local 246 


The publicity committee of Local 246, 
C. W. Burton, Chairman, has released to 
the press and public the following state- 
ment: 

The public school system of America is 
in danger and has in many places been 
almost destroyed by the demand of pow- 
erful and selfish interests, the promotion 
of which makes prey of the defenscless 
children of the nation ‘The public schools 
are the property of the people of the re- 
public and must be preserved even in 
times of stress like the present. The poli- 
cies of inequality and injustice which are 
begun will break down the morale of the 
teachers and destroy the schools, if pur- 
sued. All teachers condemn them, and all 
intelligent thinking citizens must condemn 
them. The inarticulate child cannot com- 
plain, but it is unfair to mistreat him. We 
ask for a fair deal for the child, due re- 
gard for his health, his mind, and his 


training. 
The abuses appearing elsewhere have 
made their appearance in Chattanooga. 


The allowances for the schools have been 
reduced in this city to the lowest sum 
ever spent directly by the authorities from 
the actual city taxes. There is in the De- 


partment of Education of Chattanooga no 
Standard for the qualification of teachers. 
Neither is there a salary standard. Today, 
the average teacher receives about half the 
annual salary paid the employees of the 
City Fire Department. 

Many of the school buildings are in a 





deplorable condition as is shown by the 
recent survey made by local architects and 
by the Chattanooga Safety Council of fire 
prevention. Some schools are crowded, 
and not a school in the city has standard 
equipment. 

Such conditions we protest. It is time 
for the public to know of them and to 
bring pressure on the city authorities to 
correct them. The matter is not altogether 
a matter of finance. It is largely a matter 
of the distribution of finance. 

In view of the crisis which public edu- 
cation generally is facing and which the 
schools of the Chattanooga system in par- 
ticular are experiencing, we, members of 
the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Teach- 
ers’ Association in regular assembly, pre- 
sent the following pprotest: 


Wuereas, the Mayor and Commission- 
ers of the City of Chattanooga have seen 
fit to reduce the budget of the Denart- 
ment of Education from approximately 
$890,000 to approximately $821,000. of 
which sum only approximately $61,000 is 
contributed from the actual taxes of the 
city, and 

Wuereas, the city schools are not guar- 
anteed a standard nine months term for 
the school year of 1933-34, and are return- 
ing to other policies not known in the Chat- 
tanooga schools since 1907, and 

WHEREAS, some teachers in the schools 
have received contracts calling for salaries 
hundreds of dollars less than the pay of 
employees in other departments, less than 
half of the salaries paid teachers of sim- 
ilar training by the other cities of the 
State, approximately half of the salaries 
paid by Hamilton County for teachers do- 
ing similar work, and less than half the 
median salaries for the entire country. 
Therefore, be it 

Resotvep, that we protest the inequality 
of placing the main burden of necessary 
economies upon the schools and upon the 
teachers and demand a fair deal for the 
children, for the schools, and for the 
teachers. 





Local 246 has petitioned the Governor of 
Tennessee to call a special session of the 
legislature to pass enabling acts to make 
federal funds apportioned to the state on 
a public works program available to coun- 
ties and cities for the use of schools and 
other public services for repair work and 
construction of essential nature. 





Resolutions on unjust dismissals and 
salary adjustments have been adopted by 
the local and made public. c 

Whereas, those in authority have seen 
fit to dismiss a large number of our fel- 
low workers without due notice, at a time 
that was most unjust, and without giving 
a reasonable or satisfactory basis for said 
dismissals, and 


Whereas, those same authorities have 
seen fit to replace a large number of those 
teachers with new teachers and to make 
trades and transfers between the County 
and City systems and in so doing to re- 
fuse to recognize the prior claim of the 
teachers let out, be it 

Resotvep, that we the Chattanooga- 
Hamilton County Teachers’ Association, 
Local 246, American Federation of Teach- 
ers, deplore such action and hereby enter 
our vigorous protest and demand that in 
the future the welfare of the teachers re- 
ceive consideration and that dismissals be 
only for just cause and at a proper time. 








29 


Wuereas, those in authority have seen 
fit indiscriminately to readjust salaries of 
teachers without regard to experience, 
qualifications, or service, and 


Wuereas, while this action may have 
served in some cases to rectify partly 
previous injustices, it has at the same time 
created new ones, and 


Wuereas, the manipulation of salaries 
was carried on in such secrecy and with- 
out consulting authorized representatives 
of the teachers, be it 


Reso.vep, that we, the Chattanooga- 
Hamilton County Teachers’ Association, 
Local 246, American Federation of Teach- 
ers, do respectfully petition the Commis- 
sioner of Education and the Superintend- 
ent of Schools that our co-operation be 
accepted in working out standards of 
qualifications for teachers and an equit- 
able salary schedule based thereon, and be 
it further 


Reso.vep, that we desire that in the in- 
stitution of such changes the welfare of 
those already serving as teachers and prin- 
cipals be given due consideration to the 
end that they shall be given proper oppor- 
tunity to meet those requirements in such 
cases as they do not already do so. 


The Southern Illinois Educa- 

tional Crisis 

The school situation in Southern 
Illinois has become a desperate one. 
This is largely due to the fact that 
assessed valuations of properties in 
this part of the State have decreased 
30% to 50% since 1929, and at the 
same time delinquencies i® tax collec- 
tions have increased 25% to 50%. 
During the past three years the op- 
erating costs of our schools have been 
reduced to a minimum through reduc- 
tions in teaching staffs, reductions in 
salaries, discontinuance of depart- 
ments, curtailment of needed supplies, 
and the shortening of school terms. 

Notwithstanding this earnest at- 
tempt to keep the operating expenses 
of school systems within the decreased 
revenues, some of our schools have 
not yet opened, many of them are 
threatened with immediate closing, 
and the larger percent of them are 
threatened with shortened terms. 

The teachers themselves have car- 
ried the burden of keeping many of 
our schools open by holding unpaid 
warrants, in some instances three 
years old. Under the present Retail 
Code these cannot be accepted by lo- 
cal merchants in payment for neces- 
sities, so that the teachers in many 
communities are faced with the prob- 
lem of keeping their families for the 
winter on non-negotiable paper. 

On account of this desperate situa- 
tion of the schools, something had to 
be done. The idea that it might be 
possible to secure aid for our schools 
originated in the meeting of the 
Southern Illinois Principals’ Club on 

















30 


September 19. From that time until 
now many things have been done to 
help secure aid, either federal or 
state. 

On September 30, a meeting of the 
teachers of Franklin County was 
called by the County Superintendent 
of Schools. At this meeting, a code 
to insure standards in the teaching 
profession, and to encourage a closer 
relationship between the teachers and 
the school boards and the public was 
adopted. A committee was appointed 
to continue work for relief for our 
schools, Williamson County joined 
this organization on October 11. 

This bi-county organization ex- 
panded into a Southern Illinois or- 
ganization when at West Frankfort 
on October 19 was effected an organ- 
ization of the thirty-three counties 
south of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
road. 

There are two committees at work 
all of the time. These committees 
are a federal and a state committee. 
The federal committee is trying to en- 
courage the Federal Government to 
include the teachers and the schools 
in the N. R. A. program. Also, the 
commiteee wants to make it possible 
for the schools to borrow funds from 
the Federal Government in order to 
keep open the schools that we now 
have. The Federal Government will 
loan money for the building of new 
buildings, but that is not our need. 

The state committee is working for 
new legislation for the schools. Pe- 
titions were circulated in the South- 
ern Illinois towns to which more than 
40,000 names were attached. These 
petitions ask Governor Horner to in- 
clude a provision for immediate and 
continued financial legislation for our 
schools in the agenda for the next 
session of the General Assembly. On 
November 4, the legislative commis- 
sion of the Southern Illinois organiza- 
tion appeared in Springfield before 
the Illinois State Teachers’ Legisla- 
tive Committee. At this meeting the 
details of the legislative program de- 
sired for the schools were presented 
and discussed. 

To further their cause for educa- 
tion, the teachers have become inter- 
ested in, and are joining, the Ameri- 
ican Federation of Teachers. Several 
locals of this organization have been 
established in the county, and other 
locals will be organized in the near 
future. We teachers feel that our 


movement needs the support of other 
natural friends. We feel that we can- 
net solve our tremendous problems 
without aid from other friends of 
education. 


Thus, we have turned to 


the American Federation of Teachers 
where we expect to find help in solv- 
ing our problems in this educational 
crisis. 
ByNna HARGROVE, 
MarTHA LAYMAN, 
Benton, Local 264. 





Franklin County Teachers’ Code 


Franklin County is located in southern 
Illinois, Benton ts the county-seat. The 
schools of this section have suffered great 
loss and retrogression. The teachers have 
suffered from msecurity of position, in- 
adequacy of salary, and long delay in its 
payment. 

The following code prepared by them 
and signed by the majority is ample testi- 
mony to their sound professional spirit 
and their right to professional status and 
treatment. 


We, the teachers of Franklin 
County, being mindful of the unrest 
and stress of the times, and realizing 
that the evils attendant thereto must 
be minimized if we are to preserve 
for this and succeeding generations 
the liberties bought and paid for by 
the blood of our forefathers, do ask 
the co-operation of our fellow Amer 
ican citizens in carrying into execu- 
tion the following declaration of 
principles and code of fair dealing for 
the teachers of Franklin County: 

1. We reaffirm our faith in the 
principles of democracy as set forth 
in the Declaration of Independence 
and the Constitution of the United 
States, and pledge ourselves to sup- 
port those principles both in and out 
of the classroom. 

2. It is the duty of the teacher to 
know and teach the truth, omitting 
religious, partisan, or sectarian criti- 
cisms. 

3. It is the teacher’s task to be 
such a person as good people want 
their children to become; to love 
learning and virtue and to inspire 
boys and girls to love them; to be 
master of what he teaches; to make 
school a place which those who go 
there will hold in loving memory; to 
be a fountain head of encouragement 
and inspiration to those whom it is 
his lot to lead. 

4. No profession calls for greater 
diversity of talent and skill than that 
of teaching; few are more exacting 
in their preparatory requirements; 
therefore its members are deserving 
of a monetary remuneration com- 
mensurate with the service rendered. 

5. Believing that the present 
downward trend of teachers’ salaries 
to a point far below what is neces- 
sary to provide for the necessities of 
life and allow for professional 
growth is injurious to the school as 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


well as to the teacher, we hereby 
adopt a minimum salary scale of 
ninety ($90.00) dollars per month for 
the school year 1934-1935. 

6. We think it a fair and reason- 
able demand that teachers’ orders be 
redeemed in money at the close of 
each month. A failure to receive 
such money as is due constitutes a 
just cause for suspending school until 
payment is made; and it shall be con- 
sidered unethical and unfair for any 
other teacher to teach or offer to 
teach in lieu of the teachers who are 
thus idle because of such suspension. 
7. We consider it unfair for one 
teacher to try to acquire a position 
held by another by underbidding. In 
case of vacancies each teacher’s bid 
is a matter of his or her own choice 
so long as it does not conflict with 
the minimum wage requirement of 
this code. 

8. It will be unfair for a teacher 
to waive his or her right to regular 
monthly salary payments as provided 
in section six of this code in order to 
secure a teaching position. 

9. We believe that a national code 
for teachers together with federal aid 
through loans to impoverished dis- 
tricts should be one of the paramount 
steps in the government’s recovery 
plan. 

10. Nothing in this code is to be 
construed as conflicting with the pow- 
ers and duties of school officers, but 
it is intended to secure a closer co- 
operation between teachers and offi- 
cers to the end that better teaching 
service may be rendered. 


selieving that the above declara- 
tion of principles and code of fair 
dealing for teachers will help to put 
in order the chaotic conditions into 
which many schools have fallen, I 
pledge myself to support its provi- 
sions. 








While I agree there is stringency 
and bad trade and unrest in the world 
position to make us all feel rather 
depressed, I have always denied and 
still deny that there is any necessity 
to stop social services and social edu- 
cation; and because of this I hope 
educationalists will fight as hard as 
ever they can for a continuance of 
education and its development to the 
fullest extent—Right Hon. George 
Lansbury. 

















~~ ah 2 Aa Ao 


~ -— - AS 




















DECEMBER, 1933 


New Locals 


Ten applications for charter for 
ten new locals have been received 
since the last issue of the American 
Teacher, nine of them during the past 
thirty days. These new locals are 
located in six different states. Both 
the number and the geographical dis- 
tribution of the new locals are an en- 
couraging indication of the better in- 
terest of teachers in saving the schools 
and incidentally preserving their own 
interests in the only practical way, 
through organization. 

The following is a list of the new 
locals with their numbers and loca- 
tion: 

Hellenic Teachers Association, Inc., 
Local 260. A nation-wide organiza- 
tion with headquarters in New York 
City. 

Highlander Folk School, 
eagle, Tenn., Local 261. 

Baker County, Florida, Teachers’ 
Association, Local 262. 

New Bedford, Mass., Local 263. 


Mont- 


' This local was the result of a very 


fine meeting arranged by the New 
Bedford Central Labor Union and 
particularly through the efforts of 
Ferdinand Sylvia, the Central Union’s 
Secretary. The meeting was ad- 
dressed by President Linville. 

senton, Ill., Local 264. 

North Dakota Agricultural College, 
Fargo, North Dakota, Local 265. 

Zeigler, Ill., Federation of Teach- 
ers, Local 266. 

Christopher, IIL, 
Teachers, Local 267. 

Oshkosh, Wis., Vocational Teach- 
ers, Local 268. 

Zeigler, Ill., Community 
School Federation, Local 269. 

In behalf of the thousands of or- 
ganized teachers and the millions of 
other organized laborers, the Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers welcomes 
the newcomers who have shown a de- 
sire to cooperate with us. 


Grade School 


High 





The National Geographic Society 
announces that publication’ of its 
weekly Geographic News Bulletins 
for teachers will be resumed early in 
October. 

These bulletins are issued weekly, 
five bulletins to the weekly set, for 
thirty weeks of the school year. They 
embody pertinent facts for classroom 
use from the stream of geographic 
information that pours into The So- 
ciety’s headquarters. The bulletins 
are illustrated from the Society’s ex- 
tensive file of geographic photographs. 


Att. 





New Jersey Schools in 
Desperate Plight 


Speakers before the recent annual 
convention of the New Jersey Con- 
gress of Parents and Teachers at At- 
lantic City, N. J., made fervent pleas 
to voters to support two referenda 
for the transfer of a $7,000,000 bond 
issue to school relief. 


The convention was told that con- 
ditions in town and rural schools were 
desperate and half of those in the 
State would have to close unless vot- 
ers approved the loan. 


It was declared that not only was 
$4,000,000 of teachers’ salaries un- 
paid, but $3,800,000 of current ex- 
penses including high school tuition 
fees, text books and supplies and $1,- 
390,000 for debt service also was un- 
paid. 


It was announced that the school 
at Chesilhurst, Camden County, had 
been closed because the principal, 
himself unpaid, was ill and there was 
no way to pay a substitute. 


In another school near Camden, 
one of the speakers disclosed, a 
teacher whose salary was unpaid for 
eight months had copied text books 
on mill-ends of wall paper so her 
pupils might have something from 
which to study. 


In another school, 48 children 
shared five text books in history and 
geography, one of the mothers re- 
ported. 


A supervisor told of finding in one 
day three teachers who lacked car- 
fare to come to work and others who 
feared to go home lest they find evic- 
tion notices for non-payment of rent. 





The President’s Page 


(Continued from page 17) 


2. The union is the only type 
of teachers’ organization that 
trains its members to deal with 
the forces of reaction that are 
bent on withdrawing economic 
support from public education. 


3. The union is the only teach- 
ers’ organization that tries to pre- 
pare its members to understand 
the need of fundamental improve- 
ment in public education. 


4. The teachers’ union is itself 
an educational opportunity. 


31 





Are You Listening? 


Radio broadcast sponsored by the 
Men Teachers’ Union, Chicago Lo- 
cal No. 2— 

WCFL (970 kc.) 
10 P. M. every week day. 
KYW (Hearst) 
6:45 P. M. Tuesdays. 

The Federation of Women High 
School Teachers, Chicago Local 
No. 3, can be heard every Saturday 
night at 7:35 P. M. over WCFL. 

If you listen, you will hear dis- 
tinguished educators of the world 
discuss the problems of public edu- 
cation. 











N. B. C. Broadcasts 


Federation of Women High 
School Teachers 


Chicago Local 3 
Station WENR—4:45-5:00 P. M. 


Dec. 6—JAMES MULLENBACH 
Former Member, Chicago 
Board of Education. 


Dec. 13—DR. CHARLES H. JUDD 
Director, School of Educa- 
cation, University of Chicago. 

Dec. 20—FRANCIS G. BLAIR 
Superintendent Public In- 
struction, Illinois. 

Dec. 27—MRS. HELEN S. HEF- 


FERAN : 
Member, Chicago Board of 
Education. 














Who's Who in this Issue 

















James P. Barron is principal of the 


Maddox Junior High School and 
former president of Atlanta Local 
89. 


Dr. William J. Bogan is superinten- 
dent of schools in Chicago. 


Irving Brant is editor of the St. Louis 
Star and author of Dollars and 
Sense. 


Bertram Enos is a teacher of Eng- 
lish in progressive education 


schools, now at the Graduate 
School of Education, Winnetka. 


He is the author of Writing With 
Children. 


Michael B. Scheler is a free lance 
writer whose work appears in many 
periodicals. 


Mark Starr is instructor in Labor 
Problems at Brookwood. 

















zz 


American Federation 


of Teachers 


506 South Wabash Avenue 
CHICAGO, ILL. 


i aad 





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 afhfliate with this National Organization of Classroom 


Teachers, for 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 bimonthly by The American Federation of Teachers. 
Membership dues carry subscription to the magazine. To all others the 


subscription price is $1.00 per year, 25 cents per copy.