MAR 26 1934 


AMERICAN 
"i TAG 








IN THIS ISSUE 


James C. Adell 
Dr. Henry Harap 
Edward Emory Hill 
Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz 
Charles B. Stillman 
Dr. C. E. A. Winslow 























APRIL, 1934 
VOLUME XVIill. No. 4 





tGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 





























i8th ANNUAL 


CONVENTION 


OF THE 


AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
Hotel Knickerbocker 


CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 


June 25 to June 29, 1934 


Theme 
EDUCATIONAL RECOVERY 


Executive Council Meeting 
June 24, 1934 























1934 
PLACEMENT PROSPECTS 


gathered from seven states and prepared in printed 
form, free upon request. 


SCHUMMERS SCHOOL SERVICE 


W. A. Schummers, Mgr. 
13th year in placement work 


813 Lumber Exchange Bldg., Minneapolis, Minn. 


Good Positions Good Teachers Good Service 


LET’S CALL IT BUSINESS 


a 128 page book covering all phases of securing a 
position or promotion. An asset to every teacher. 


Price $1.00 








Table of Contents 


Page Page 
Educational Recovery—Editorial............. men nndssabasnsessatabanl 24 
ME CEINONDs cece ccccccccccccsese Edward Emory Hill 4 The American Year Book—Albert Bushnell Hart 
. ' t : fie Reviewed by Michael B. Scheler 
Why State Aid Is Necessary........ Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz 6 A Background Study of Negro College Students— 
The Nation Must Rescue Its Schools....Charles B. Stillman 7 Dr. Ambrose Caliver 
Shall the People Reclaim Radio?.......... Dr. Henry Harap 8 Reviewed by Mandelle B. Bousfield 
Ten-Point Program of Social Justice................. Voice of Youth—An Anthology of Poetry 
Sivindsaseddestcesescoes American Federation of Labor 12 Child higer e 7 tor ~~ EH ; 
Pea ildren of the Depression—M. E. Haggerty 
Labor Speaks on Teachers and Unionism............ bape is % 13 First Annual Report of the Guidance Department of the 
One Way to Reduce Taxes............ Dr. C. E. A. Winslow 15 Tilden High School—Elsa G. Becker 
Neen ee ccecbasssetusvcese 16 Reviewed by Florence E. Clark 
PED ELS co), cco cc nhebr ee ahesoesececsccteces sss 18 Women Who Work—Grace Hutchins 
Something for Teachers to Think About The Pictorial History of the American Negro— 
All Workers Should Enroll in Unions Michael B. Scheler 
Union Better Than Laws _ Book Notes 
Company Unions Te ME cekascaknls6echndiedn Senyécscecspcauel 27 
The Snake That Swallowed Itself Chicago Toledo 
Sales Tax Defeated Again New York Savanna ; 
Mrs. Roosevelt Scores Washington Grand Rapids 
Twenty Down—Sixteen to Go — Asian i all 
° . . . ortian Milwaukee ounty, 1S. 
Declaration of Faith in Music... satecsseeesseececcecssseees 19 eealiouned Mow Wudtasd 
A Strain on the “Faith and Hope” of Teachers.......... ses Commonwealth N. D. State College 
pevesccccssecscceess Gilbert Seldes in Chicago American 21 San Francisco Tooele County, Utah 
Are You Afraid?........... Walter E. Myer in Civic Leader 22 Chicago Elementary Lucas County, Ohio 
Pride of Profession Hinders Unionization of Teachers.... Washington Bloomington 
GGL. cckeses «vecevate dl Meade C. Monroe (UP) 22 epee - Kellogg, ,iteho 
, : : ; 4 ri-County, 1S. Clevelanc 
Educational Conference in North Carolina................. 22 Chattanooga-Hamilton Pulaski County, Ark. 
Bey Dep —Celd ~Hlaelth Day.......cccccscccccccccccccscves 23 County 
ee acne etedebesberccebecesense 23 31 


UBLISHED bi-monthly, 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, IIl., 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. 


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


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APRIL, 1934 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








Vor. XVIII 


ApriL, 1934 


No. 4 














Educational Recovery 


one cent for education? Does Congress have 

billions for battleships but not one penny for 
the training of the youth of our land? Does Congress 
have billions for this and billions for that and billions 
for every combination of letters except the letters that 
spell EDUCATION? Has the richest country in the 
world no money to perpetuate American democratic 
ideals through the schools? Are our future citizens to 
be deprived of the fundamental American right of a 
free and adequate education? Are thousands of closed 
schools and a million children deprived of their Amer- 
ican heritage a fighting challenge to the patriotic in- 
stincts of every liberty loving citizen in our democracy? 
Will every organization of red-blooded Americans fight 
and fight hard to protect and defend the helpless and 
defenseless children of our land? 

Must the meek and lowly classroom teachers stand 
idly by while the foremost American institution, free 
public schools, is strangled to death for lack of funds? 
Must the army of long suffering, patient, underpaid, 
and not paid defenders of education remain helplessly 
disorganized for the lack of an inspired leadership? 

Is there not some remedy which will aid all of Amer- 
ica’s children? Some remedy which will open the thou- 
sand closed school houses and prevent the closing of 
still other thousands? Some remedy which will re- 
store the American heritage to a million boys and girls 
and insure adequate schooling to other millions of the 
future leaders of our democracy? Some remedy which 
will help every community whether city or rural? Some 
remedy which is so practical that it will have the in- 
stantaneous support of all the defenders of education 
from coast to coast and from the Great Lakes to the 
Gulf of Mexico? 

Such a remedy is to be found in Federal Aid. The 
Federal government must take a hand in meeting this 
emergency. The parents and teachers of the entire 
country, the organizations interested in defending the 
rights of children, and every true patriot who cherishes 
the American ideal of equal educational opportunity for 
all must rise en masse in support of Federal Aid for 
EpUCATIONAL RECOVERY. 

Federal Aid to the schools will mean a redistribution 
of the national income which will help every child in 
the country and will represent the widest expenditure 
of funds thus far made by our Federal Government. 
This redistribution of national wealth will not be a bur- 
den to the average citizen as the funds are to be raised 
by increasing inheritance taxes and income taxes in the 
higher brackets—affecting the group composed largely 
of the un-Americans who have been defrauding the 
Government. 

The children did not cause the depression. They did 
not pick out economically unfortunate parents. They 
have no choice in the matter of what state or school 
district they happen to live in—whether in a poor rural 


D«: Congress have billions for bankers but not 


district or under an urban government on the verge of 
financial collapse. The children still have the basic 
American right to an adequate education in the wealthi- 
est country in the world—and it still can well afford to 
educate its children. 

Our schools are running a deadly parallel to the man 
who gradually trained his horse to go without food 
and just as he succeeded in getting the horse to go 
without food entirely the horse died. 

There are two big reasons why the schools are in the 
present condition. (1) There is a small but politically 
powerful group of un-Americans who are not content 
with cheating the Government and pillaging and robbing 
the common people but they insist on depriving Amer- 
ican children of the right to an adequate education on 
the grounds that this country can not afford to educate 
its children. (2) All teachers are not in one politically 
active organization to defend the schools and to per- 
petuate American democratic ideals. If all teachers 
were so organized, there would not be one closed school 
in any state. 

Just now the Congress is against Federal Aid to 
schools by an overwhelming majority. The politically 
powerful un-Americans have done their work well. 
These un-Americans have gotten billions for bankers 
and billions for battleships but they protest that this 
country is too poor to give the children an education. 
Furthermore they have indoctrinated a few of our 
otherwise intelligent educators with the fear that with 
Federal Aid in this crisis, the schools will be ruined 
by Federal control. But if the teachers and parents can 
everlastingly whip these un-Americans in one fight, they 
will do it as often as is necessary. We have not been 
able to find one class-room teacher who does not pray 
for Federal fodder for the horse. But what must be 
done besides pray? 

We must all unite for Epucationat Recovery. Our 
enemies will seek to divide our forces so that they can 
easily defeat us. Indeed this strategy is so uniformly 
successful that we must be constantly on our guard. The 
only chance which we have is to fight shoulder to 
shoulder for that which will help the children in every 
school district most. 

In the President’s recent radio address, he said that 
Congress was responsive to the will of the people. This 
is true. 

Every school district in the land should “be in hot 
pursuit” of its Senators and Congressmen to secure Epu- 
CATIONAL Recovery. The onslaught on Congress and 
the President should be without parallel in the history 
of our country. 

Every letter, every postcard, every telegram will urge 
the passage of Federal Aid for Epucatronart Recovery. 
You and all of the friends of America’s children will 
work and be thrilled as you HELP LOAD UP THE TRAIN 
to restore America’s ideal of equal educational oppor- 
tunity for all. James C. ADELL. 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Save Our Schools 


Edward Emory Hill 


“Religion, Morality and Knowledge, being necessary 
to good government and the happiness of mankind, 
schools and the means of education shall forever be 


encouraged.” 
—Ordinance of 1787. 


“Above all things I hope the education of the common 
people will be attended io.” 
—George Washington. 


“I view education as the most important subject 
which we as a people can engage in.” 
—Abraham Lincoln. 


“Education for the children of all the people extend- 
ing from the primary grades through the university con- 


stitutes America’s noblest contribution to civilization.” 
—Calvin Coolidge. 


ers, the American people have gone on to build up 

a public school system such as no other great nation 
of the world has ever equaled and in which it has justly 
taken great pride. As social conditions have changed 
and knowledge has increased the scope of free public 
education has been enlarged from the curriculum of the 
three R’s with which it started to include many sub- 
jects and activities that seemed necessary to meet ad- 
vancing social needs. Kindergartens, high schools, 
junior and senior, and colleges, schools for the deaf, the 
blind, and crippled children, parental schools, continua 
tion schools, and evening schools, have gradually found 
their way into our public school program, affording op- 
portunity for development to boys and girls and even to 
adults of all classes. 

Shall this great institution built up at large cost and 
sacrifice on the part of generations that have passed on 
and our own generation, which has meant so much to 
real democracy and our progress as a nation, which has 
served to enrich the lives of millions of people who 
without it would have been condemned to a narrow ex- 
istence of ignorance, inefficiency, and poverty, be de- 
stroyed now or strangled to a point where it will be 
looked upon as a pauper institution to be used only by 
the children of the very poor? This is the most vital 
question before the American people today. Other so- 
cial problems commanding public attention, serious as 
they are, dwindle in importance except as they are re- 
lated to this bigger question, how can we save our 
public schools? 


[= with the idea and spirit of these great lead- 


Struggle for Public Education 


For the fact must be recognized that the growth of 
this great institution has not gone on without struggle. 
It has had to encounter and overcome fierce opposition 
from many quarters: business interests concerned pri- 
marily with profits and dividends whose first thought is 
to keep taxes down, many who have no children to send 
to the public schools or who prefer to send them, if they 
have means, to what they consider as more exclusive 
institutions; careless, ignorant, and selfish parents who 
think little of their children’s future welfare or wish to 


exploit them as assets to increase the family income; 
some religious organizations which hold that education 
is the work of the church and not a state function: 
and apostles to the doctrine of “rugged individualism” 





who view with suspicion the education of all children at | 


public expense as a dangerous trend toward socialism. 

All of these opponents of our system of free public 
education are now marshalling their forces in a de- 
termined drive against this fortress of democracy, the 


| 


free public school, and are making their attack under | 


the smoke-screen of “economy.” The depression of the 
last four years has given them the opportunity that they 
have been waiting for. They are holding up before the 
eyes of the over-burdened taxpayer the enormous in- 
crease in the cost of education. They are focusing at- 
tention upon what they are pleased to call “fads and 
frills” that have crept into the school program and they 
are dreadfully shocked at the wasteful and corrupt ex- 
penditure of public money by grafting school boards. 
Some of these indictments have enough of truth in 
them to make a plausible appeal even to friends of the 
public school. It is quite possible that some educational 
leaders have been a little over enthusiastic sometimes in 
promoting pet notions and practices, the worth of which 
would hardly justify the expenditure, but is it not true 


that all progress is the outcome of experimentation? | 


Where is there a wide-awake industrial enterprise that 
does not experiment? There is no doubt about the 
wasteful and corrupt expenditures on the part of some 
school boards chosen, as they are many times, through 
political methods, not because of any fitness to serve 
the cause of education, but because they may be useful 
to certain business interests or a party machine. 
can it be overlooked that the mounting cost of education 
has become a serious burden upon the honest taxpayer, 
paid as it is almost entirely by local taxation. Influenced 
by such arguments as these, many friends of the public 
school have joined the ranks of its enemies in the clamor 
for drastic reductions in school expenditures. 


Federal and State Aid 


As a consequence of this determined attack upon the 
public school by its old time enemies supported by 
former adherents made bitter by unfair and growing tax 
bills, our public school system throughout the country 
is facing today the most critical situation of its ex- 
istence. Thousands of schools are closed entirely and 
thousands of others are running on part time only. 
Where they are managing to survive many teachers have 
been dismissed and the salaries of those who have been 
retained greatly reduced and in some places not paid 
at all. The consequent overcrowding in buildings and 
rooms, the increased burden upon teachers in lengthened 
hours and larger classes, and a drastic curtailment of 
school equipment has well nigh paralyzed effective in- 
struction in many of our schools. We come back, then, 
to the question; assuming that a large majority of our 
people still favor this great American ideal as expressed 
by Washington, Lincoln, and Coolidge, and even earlier 
by Jefferson and the other framers of that immortal 
document, the Ordinance of 1787, that “education 1s 


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APRIL, 1934 


the most important subject which we as a people can 
engage in,’ how can we save our public schools? 

As has been stated already, the burden for the sup- 
port of popular education has been imposed almost en- 
tirely upon local communities. With the growing de- 
mands upon the schools calling for a correspondingly 
larger outlay, this burden in many communities has be- 
come almost too great to bear. Is it not time then that 
our national and state governments should recognize 
more fully their responsibilities in this field, that the 
education of American citizens is a matter of national 
and state concern even more than of local importance 
and that they should stand their fair shares of the 
financial costs? 

Our national government has partially recognized this 
obligation in land grants for schools and colleges, in 
donations for the encouragement of specified studies, 
and in the establishment of a bureau of education for 
collecting and disseminating information about courses 
of study and educational theory and practice, and some 
states have made small contributions to local districts 
from what is called a distributive fund raised by a gen- 
eral state tax; but their contributions are mere pittances 
compared with the sums that must be raised by local 
governments for this great enterprise. 

There are a number of good reasons why the Federal 
government especially should come to the aid of the 
public schools at this time: first, because the universal 
education of its citizens is a matter of national concern 
even more than of local consequence; second, because 
the Federal government has powers for raising money 
denied to local governments, and in the exercise of 
these powers has drained local communities of much 
income that might otherwise be used for local purposes 
and third, because such action on the part of the Fed- 
eral government would be in line with the announced 
policies of the administration to get workers back on 
the job. 

Unemployed Teachers 

Many thousands of teachers and school administrators 
prepared for their work at great public expense are out 
of their jobs today to the great detriment not only to 
themselves but to the cause of education and the gen- 
eral social welfare. Is it not just as important to re- 
store these workers to their special field of usefulness 
as to employ men at great expense to reconstruct forests 
and to build roads, as valuable as those projects may 
be? The products of the labor of teachers and other 
social workers are not tangible, it is true; they cannot 
be measured in dollars and cents, but man does not live 
by bread alone; he wants health, knowledge, education, 
culture, and inspiration. Social economy and a return 
to prosperity demand not only that people shall get to 
work, but that they shall get to work producing those 
things that are most worth while to society according 
to their respective abilities. It is a great loss to society 
for a possible Edison to spend his life as an average 
mechanic or an embryonic Melba to settle down as a 
Singer in a country church choir. It is a like waste 
when thousands of men and women of high ability and 
character who have spent years preparing for the teach- 
ing profession are forced, in order to make a living, to 
become stenographers, clerks, mechanics, and even to 
enter the fields of unskilled labor, thus displacing thou- 
sands of people in occupations which do not demand so 
much in the way of preparation, ability, and character, 
while, in the meantime, our schools are going to rack 
and ruin and millions of young Americans are being 


5 


cheated out of their American birthright, a proper edu- 
cation. 

There was a long period of time when the efforts of 
man had to be devoted very largely to the production 
of those material goods that supplied his physical wants, 
such as food, clothing, and shelter, but with the coming 
of machinery and the harnessing of nature’s energies, 
that time is past. It is possible now and seems almost 
necessary that a constantly increasing number of work- 
ers should find outlets for their services in occupations 
not connected directly with the production of material 
goods. 

Teacher Oversupply 


The propaganda started by the enemies of our public 
school system that there is now an oversupply of 
teachers is without any substantial foundation. True, 
as has been said already, there are thousands of teachers, 
good, bad, and indifferent, without employment today, 
but if there is any other occupation about which a 
similar statement could not now be made, there are 
some eight millions of people in the United States who 
would like to know what it is. The fact is there is not 
now and never has been too many competent teachers. 
In normal times the lure of business and of the other 
professions has been such a constant drain on promis- 
ing material in the educational field that boards of edu- 
cation all over the country have been forced to raise 
salaries from time to time to attract and hold a sufficient 
supply of teachers and supervising officers who meas- 
ured up to standards set by themselves and state stat- 
utes. If the number of pupils in classes and school 
rooms in our public schools were reduced to a size that 
could be efficiently and economically handled, to a size 
that private schools are always holding up to their 
patrons as most desirable so that their children can get 
the necessary personal attention, there would be no 
seeming surplus of teachers, but a serious shortage. 

If the thousands and thousands of teachers who have 
been separated from their jobs in the name of “econ- 
omy” were put back to work, they in turn could give 
work to thousands of others with whom they are com- 
peting now for a chance to make a living. The re-estab- 
lishment of the schools would also give employment to 
many thousands of other workers who were engaged 
in furnishing text-books and other school supplies and 
in providing school buildings and their equipment. 

Aid from the Federal government should be supple- 
mented, also, by larger appropriations by the states. 
Over a large part of the United States the public school 
system has been developed largely through what is 
known as school districts. Each state is divided into 
several hundred such districts. These districts differ 
widely in size, population, and wealth. In Illinois, for 
example, there is one school district that has only three 
children of school age living within it while the Chicago 
school district has an enrollment of nearly half a million 
in its schools, There is also an overlapping of high 
school and elementary school districts with different 
administrative ‘officials. There are districts with much 
wealth and few children and other districts with many 
children and little wealth. If the children of all of 
these districts are to have anything like an equal chance 
for education, the state as a whole must come to the 
rescue, 


Reorganization of School System 


Along with Federal and State aid should come also an 
overhauling of the organization and adminstration of 








6 


our school system. The school district system, as useful 
as it was in the past in promoting not only educational 
but political progress, has come to be a wasteful and 
inefficient way of carrying on our schools. Under it 
the direct control and management of the school or 
schools in a district is left to a trustee or a board of 
trustees. This trustee or board is restricted only by 
general state laws and a state superintendent or com- 
missioner and county commissioners with limited powers. 
He has charge of the financial affairs of the district, 
makes contracts for school supplies and repairs to build- 
ings and grounds, hires teachers and other school em- 
ployees. He can even dictate as to courses of study, 
methods of instruction, and text-books to be used. This 
trustee or board is usually elected by the voters of the 
district, but in some cities he is appointed by the chief 
executive of the city. In the smaller districts the trustee 
or board is likely to reflect the character and desires of 
a majority of the voters of the district. If the ma- 
jority of the voters are intelligent and really interested 
in the welfare of the schools, the trustee selected by 
them is likely to be a rather high type of man or 
woman, honest, capable, and with a sincere desire to 
promote educational interests. If, however, the ma- 
jority of the voters of the district or its influential 
citizens are not interested in public education and are 
only anxious to get by state requirements with as little 
expense to the taxpayers of the district as possible, the 
trustee will reflect their attitude and school interests 
will suffer. 
School Boards 


In the larger school districts whether the trustees are 
elected or appointed, they are apt to be only the hench- 
men of powerful business interests or political machines 
without knowledge of or interest in educational matters, 
but bent upon serving the purposes of their masters and 
at the same time fattening their own pocket-books. The 
statement is attributed to a former mayor of one of 
our great cities that he had hardly been elected to his 
office when a committee representing a group of distin- 
guished business men presented him with a list of the 
names of persons whom they wished him to appoint as 


AMERICAN TEACHER 


THE 


members of the school board. The altruism of these 
gentlemen is somewhat open to suspicion since it is 
known that they had profited greatly through their 
financial dealings with former boards. In this same 
city a member of the board, a prominent lawyer and an 
attorney for a large railway corporation with extensive 
property interests in the city, once rose in a board meet- 
ing and solemnly objected in behalf of his client to an 
appropriation of money for a very desirable educational 
project and another member, a prominent business man, 
in discussing the desirability of cutting teachers’ salaries 
then ranging from two dollars to four dollars a day, 
stated with a good deal of indignation that he could not 
see any reason for paying teachers so much when he 
could get all the clerks he wanted in his store for three 
dollars a week, 

Two things then are essential for the salvation of our 
public schools: first, that the Federal and state govern- 
ments shall assume their fair share of the financial bur- 
den of education and second, that there shall be a re- 
organization of school districts and a greater centraliza- 
tion of control under competent officials that shall enable 
the schools to function more economically and efficiently. 

Under the Federal constitution, the matter of educa- 
tion is left exclusively to the several states. Each state 
can set up such educational system as it pleases or none 
at all. While the Federal government can aid educa- 
tion and greatly influence its trend, any centralization 
of authority must be within the state. It is for the 
state, then, to wrest responsibility for the management 
of the schools from the claws of selfish business and 
political interests and place it in the hands of honest, 
intelligent, and capable officials who have qualified them- 
selves to handle school problems and have a real inter- 
est in educational advancement. 

“Education for the children of all the people frowi 
the primary grades through the university constitutes 
America’s greatest and noblest contribution to civiliza- 
tion”—to use again the words of a former president. 
It is the corner stone of our temple of democracy. If 
this corner stone crumbles, the temple falls. Let us 
Save Our SCHOOLS. 


Why State Aid Is Necessary 


Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz 


economy programs are being advocated in every 

section of the Country. A few of these programs 
are the product of persons with vision as well as eco- 
nomic understanding because they embody the idea that 
constructive expansion may be necessary, and that mere 
blind budget cutting may prove not only uneconomic but 
socially dangerous. 

Those who, in their despair, strike indiscriminately 
at budgetary items without considering the more remote 
as well as the immediate consequences of their actions, 
are advocating, among other things, the curtailment of 
State Aid for educational purposes. If they succeed in 
their efforts they will have deprived thousands of help- 
less children of their fullest educational heritage. 

Why did the State embark upon a genuine program 
of State Aid after 1920? First, to equalize tax burdens; 
second, to relieve cities of the burdens of taxation; /ast 


‘= the depression has hit city, state, and nation, 


and most important, to equalize educational opportuni- 
ties for children in the rural and poorer sections of the 
State by taxing the localities where wealth is abundant. 
Hence New York City is taxed to give better educational 
opportunities to children in localities which’ haven't 
enough taxable wealth to give the schooling to which 
their children and all citizens of our state are really 
entitled. As every community has been hard hit finan- 
cially by the depression, to deprive them of State Aid 
at this critical time, would be disastrous. Such a policy 
would necessitate one of two things: (a) a serious 
curtailment of educational opportunity; or (b) an in- 
crease in the property tax which is already bearing, ex- 
cept for public utilities and certain large realty holdings, 
more than its share of the public tax burden. In New 
York real property which constitutes about one-third of 
the wealth of the State is now bearing about 70% of 
the tax burden of the State. Since local communities 





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APRIL, 1934 


can hardly find other adequate sources of taxation than 
real estate, it is necessary for the State to use its broad 
tax powers to tap so-called “hidden wealth.” 

Citizens who are interested in lower taxes—and who 
isn’t—must bear in mind that not a penny of State Aid 
comes from taxes on real estate because the State does 
not levy any real estate tax since that is left exclusively 
to the various localities within the State. Where, then, 
does the State get the money which it distributes to 
cities, towns and villages? It secures the money from 
the following taxes: franchises. corporations, incomes, 
inheritances, estates, motor vehicles, gasoline, mortgages, 
stock transfers, etc. 

How is State Aid to less fortunate localities used? 
It is spent upon the various phases of local education 
and, to the extent of State Aid, is used to lighten con- 
siderably the burden so largely borne by local real estate. 
Such an expenditure by the State means better schools, 
better educational opportunities for children and adults, 
and better qualified teachers for poorer rural sections, 
with little additional cost to them. 

If State Aid is not increased or even if it is decreased 
or remains stationary, what may happen? For every 
dollar of State Aid withheld because of a wrong con- 
cept of “economy,” the local governments will have to 
curtail—often somewhat severely—the schooling of rural 
youngsters, or else have to pay for the cost of education 
by additional taxes, in some cases unduly heavy ones, 
upon real estate. Hence, each locality must insist not 
only upon the maintenance of present State Aid but also 
upon increasing it. 

If children of rural communities are to have equal 
educational opportunity with the children of our larger 
cities with a minimum of state control; if rural real 
estate is to have its burdens lightened; if undue concen- 
tration of wealth should be made to bear its share of 
the tax burdens wherever that wealth happens to be, 
then we must not only maintain State Aid but increase 
it. Since not a cent of this money will come from real 
estate, since two-thirds of it will be raised from wealth 
wherever it is concentrated, we urge public spirited 
citizens and legislative representatives to do all within 
their power to strengthen State Aid and thus give all the 





7 


children of the State—not merely the favored ones—the 
educational opportunities to which they are fully entitled. 

Education is the best social investment. Any attempt 
upon the part of the bankers to liquidate education as 
they liquidated business, means a liquidation of social 
intelligence. Upholders of public education should rally 
to the defense of State Aid and help equalize educational 
opportunities, Shall the cry of our youth go unheeded? 

If this cry is not heeded what will happen? The 
existence of our public school system will be impaired if 
not seriously endangered. The ill-advised economy of 
reduction in State Aid will mean overloaded classes, the 
shortening of the school year, the interruption of extra 
curricular activities, the curtailment of necessary educa- 
tional facilities, the lowering of teaching standards, and 
a serious curtailment of educational opportunity. 

Ray Lyman Wilbur, speaking at the dedication of the 

Education Building in Harrisburg, Pa., November, 1931, 
said: “No mistake could be greater than to cut down 
the resources for the training of youth. This is just the 
time when new things should be undertaken. 
The present depression is like a forest fire which kills 
many trees and sears all. In some the scars are so 
deep that no future growth can cover them.” Alfred 
E, Smith in the New York “World-Telegram” said that 
there must be “no curtailment of educational facilities. 
; A State can afford to lose time on the construc- 
tion of a road, a bridge or a building, and by speeding 
up construction at a later time, possibly catch up, but 
education must be continuous. Time lost in preparing 
children to take their places in the world cannot be made 
up. There are only certain years in which the great 
majority of them can attend school and during that 
period it is the solemn duty of every state to provide 
tull and complete education. At no time in our 
history was there greater need for the influence of edu- 
cation upon future citizens. It goes without saying that 
at this crucial period, it would be a great mistake to 
weaken the services of any of our educational institu- 
tions. They should be strengthened, no matter what the 
drain may be.” 

With these sentiments the teachers are in hearty 
accord. 


The Nation Must Rescue Its Schools 


Charles B. Stillman 


world the conception of universal free public educa- 

tion should now lag far behind other depression- 
ridden countries in protecting its children from the loss 
of educational opportunities. The extent and the des- 
perate character of the national school crisis the public 
is just beginning to realize. It is not confined to the 
few centers where it has been chiefly dramatized by the 
press. Throughout the country, in both rural and urban 
communities over large areas in widely scattered sec- 
tions, schools have been closed completely, and few in- 
deed are the sections where school terms have not been 
drastically shortened and facilities reduced below any 
reasonable minimum. 

Admitting that schools are primarily a state and local 
responsibility, when states and localities have demon- 
strated their inability to cope with the situation, surely 
the nation as a nation cannot sit idly by and watch the 


1: Is a grim paradox that the country which gave the 





collapse of an essential line of defense of democratic 
institutions, And that at a time when the policies of 
the federal government depend, and will increasingly de- 
pend for their success, upon the intelligent comprehen- 
sion and cooperation of the people! It is a situation 
that will not cure itself—a policy of drift will not do. 
No possible industrial recovery can alone save the 
schools this year and next. Returning prosperity can- 
not possibly be reflected in increased property valuations 
and tax returns in time to meet the present emergency. 

Federal authorities have suggested that local banks 
should come to the rescue. Banks have failed to func- 
tion as sources of credit for local public and social pur- 
poses even more conspicuously than for private com- 
mercial and industrial purposes. The latter failure is 
forcing the federal government into the banking busi- 
ness. The provision of credit for the maintenance of 
schools is surely as essential and legitimate an activity 





er ee 


8 


of the federal government as furnishing credit to private 
enterprise. 

It may be said that some government P. W. A. funds 
have been allocated for school buildings. Excellent! 
In any true sense, schools will be among the most pro- 
ductive building projects the P. W. A. has undertaken. 
But functioning schools consist primarily of pupils and 
teachers, and it would be a grotesque social philosophy 
which would approve the use of federal money to erect 
school buildings and condemn the extension of federal 
credit to man school buildings with teachers. 

Some may say that the first consideration in govern- 
ment expenditures is the increase of purchasing power. 
On this level, also, federal aid to schools will be more 
effective than much of previous federal expenditures. 
Money for the tens of thousands of unpaid teachers 
who have carried on their own backs for months and 
years the burden of providing educational opportunities 
for children who would otherwise be on the streets, a 
burden that should have been shared by the whole com- 
munity, money paid so that schools about to close may 
be kept open, and those closed may reopen, will go into 
immediate circulation in channels where it will be rapidly 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


turned over, and will not lodge in bank vaults where 
so much federal money has found repose. 

It should be emphasized that in the main it is credit 
facilities that are needed to tide the schools over the 
remaining emergency, not outright grants. State and 
localities must make more vigorous efforts to meet their 
school revenue problems, and their citizens must be alert 
to see that they do not attempt to pass their proper re- 
sponsibility on to the federal government. But after 
the states and localities have done their utmost, in many 
cases Washington must extend its credit if children are 
to remain in schools worthy of the name, or in school 
at all. And it would be extending its credit on bonds 
and public obligations that, to avoid invidious compari- 
sons, would be among the best securities the R. F. C. 
has in its vaults, 

There are bills now before Congress authorizing fed- 
eral aid for schools in emergency situations. Congress 
and the administration should know whether the people, 
in the midst of their own distress, can still find energy 
and will to demand protection for the educational birth- 
right of their children. Let me urge each of you, by 
individual letter and in every practicable manner, to let 
them know. 


Shall the People Reclaim Radio? 


Dr. Henry Harap 


When Radio Belonged to the People 


UDGE IRA ROBINSON, former member of the Federal 

Radio Commission, describes the advent of radio 

in these inelegant but none the less graphic words: 
“Radio was born a crippled child, birthmarked by ad- 
vertising and commercialism, and it behooves every one 
of us to get it out of that deformity.” 

The law which governed systematic general broad- 
casting at its inception was that of 1912 which was de- 
signed to meet the requirements of the use of wireless 
telegraphy for safety at sea. The Secretary of Com- 
merce under this law had no power to reject applica- 
tions for licenses, but according to a ruling of the Court 
of Appeals of the District of Columbia, the Secretary 
of Commerce did have power to assign a wave length to 
an applicant, which privilege the Department granted 
rather freely. Although there were only ninety avail- 
able channels in the United States, the number of broad- 
casting stations increased to 578 in November, 1925. 
Mr. Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, appealed to 
Congress for the enactment of appropriate legislation 
but disagreement among the two houses left radio in an 
anarchic condition. In the summer of 1926, WJAZ of 
Chicago usurped an exclusive Canadian channel on full 
time and was upheld by the courts. In the seven months 
following the decision of the court, two hundred sta- 
tions edged their way into the overcrowded broadcast 
band. Other stations “jumped” to more desirable posi 
tions on the radio spectrum and increased their power 
at will. Then, finally, a compromise bill was enacted 
providing for the establishment of the Federal Radio 
Commission. Under the present law the Commission 
grants licenses, renewable every six months, and deter 
mines the amount of power and the amount of time on 
the air for each new station. 


The Sponsor Appears on the Scene 


The lack of foresight of governmental agencies and 
the vacillation of Congress gave commerce enough time 
to establish a vested interest which has grown enor- 
mously and from which entrenched position it is becom- 
ing increasingly difficult to shake it. In the beginning 
anyone with a few thousand dollars could set up a 
broadcasting station and experiment with this novel 
method of creating good will. The sole purpose of the 
five hundred watt station was to get the owner’s name 
on the air as often as possible. About nine years ago 
stations operating on five hundred watts or more were 
not permitted to broadcast advertising. Later the sta- 
tions were permitted to accept sponsored programs con- 
sisting generally of brief announcements for which they 
could not receive pay. Finally, all stations were given 
permission to accept paid advertisements. 

In ten short years radio has developed into a big busi- 
ness. An hour on the blue network comprising eleven 
of the largest cities costs $3,350; an hour on the red 
network of twenty cities costs $4,890; and a national 
hook-up of forty-seven cities costs $10,180. A quarter 
of an hour from the more important stations in New 
York costs about $300. The rates may vary from a 
few dollars to a thousand dollars an hour for a high 
powered, cleared channel station. Rates depend upon 
the time, power employed, the marketing area covered, 
and the station’s reputation for attracting an audience. 
A night time hour costs about twice as much as a day- 
time hour. The chain pays the local station for a spon- 
sored program; and the local station pays the chain for 
sustaining features. Each network is estimated to cover 
10,000,000 sets. Thirty-nine weeks a year in half-hour 
periods on the most extensive N. B. C. hook-up costs 
$250,000. Talent at $1,500 will cost $60,060 more, mak- 














































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ApRIL, 1934 


ing a total cost of $310,000. The actual costs for time 
only of six of the larger sponsors ranged from $200,000 
to $430,000 per year. The average high-powered sta- 
tion occupying a cleared channel and broadcasting on 
an unlimited time schedule has a budget of about $450.- 
000 a year and the total annual budget of all the broad- 
casting stations amounts to $75,000,000 a year. 

Commercial and educational broadcasters alike com- 
plain bitterly against the exorbitant, monopolistic charges 
for telephone lines used in relaying broadcasts from dis- 
tant points. The cost of a pick-up from Chicago to 
Evanston is $300. Telephone lines from Columbus to 
Cincinnati cost the Ohio School of the Air $6,000 per 
year, the charge being 30 cents a mile for the connec- 
tion charges, plus $300 a month for extra charges. A 
Cleveland station offered to relay the programs of the 
Ohio School of the Air without charge but was not 
willing to bear the telephone costs, the latter practically 
standing in the way of making an educational program 
available to several million Iisteners. 

At this point it would be helpful to have a brief 
picture of the control of radio broadcasting in Europe. 
Radio advertising is prohibited in twelve countries. In 
seventeen other countries it is limited to from five to 
twenty minutes per day, and rarely is it allowed to 
interrupt a program. In only one country is broadcast- 
ing supported exclusively by advertising. The most 
common method of financing broadcasting is by the pay- 
ment of a license fee by the listeners. In some coun- 
tries the revenue from this source is supplemented by 
government appropriations, the sale of concessions to 
operating companies, voluntary contributions, and ad- 
vertising fees. The European broadcaster is primarily 
interested in satisfying the listener. The American pub- 
lic spends $444,000 directly to maintain the Federal 
Radio Commission and indirectly contributes $75,000,000 
to finance over 600 stations. The four million British 
listeners pay a license fee of ten shillings, yielding an 
annual revenue of 2,000,000 pounds. 


The Sponsor Tells the Consumer What to Buy 


The radio is the most powerful and the most exten- 
sive carrier of misinformation of consumption which 
human ingenuity has yet invented. It has revived the 
medicine show on a grand scale. Grafters and dispensers 
of hokum who have been barred from the mails and 
some newspapers have found their salvation in the small 
fifty or hundred watt stations. Immigrant communities 
and neighborhoods especially are a fertile field for the 
quack and the faker. The broadcaster hiding behind 
the cloak of a foreign language makes the gullible and 
unsuspecting foreigner his prey. The Department of 
Justice, the Post Office Department, and the Federal 
Trade Commission have been attacking fraudulent ad- 
vertising but thus far they have been able to accomplish 
very little. The quack and the fly-by-night man are 
not the only offenders. The stuffed shirts and silk hats 
of commerce are making hay while the sun shines. This 
Bachanalia of Ballyhoo can’t go on indefinitely. While 
the law still allows it, the makers of cigarettes, tooth 
pastes, antiseptics, patent medicines, yeasts, gasolines, 
and soaps are running riot. 

The masses of people are swallowing the daily ethereal 
buncombe, hook, line, and sinker. Advertising patter 
becomes a part of their daily speech; theme songs a 
part of their vocal repertory. They are accumulating 
a new body of fears and superstitions. The selling 


9 


power of radio is enormous. At the end of five weeks 
of broadcasting over WTMJ, the George Ziegler Com- 
pany of Milwaukee sold twenty-seven tons of Betty 
Jane, a new brand of box candy in the Middle West. 
Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company, Chicago manufac- 
turers, bought three broadcasts on WMAO announcing 
new Bobolink full-fashioned hosiery and sold 200,000 
pairs in three weeks. About three years ago the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota told the farmers over a commercial 
station how to prepare a product which was supplied 
at a higher cost by one of the backers of the station. 
The university was informed that it was prejudicial to 
the interests of the station. 


The Sponsor Puts the University in Its Place 


Among the most bitter critics of the status quo in 
American radio are the various educational organiza- 
tions. They complain that commercial broadcasters are 
being favored at the expense of schools and colleges. 
They find it difficult to secure permission to operate 
during evening hours, on desirable wave lengths, with 
adequate power. Early in the career of WMAQ, the 
station sought the co-operation of the University of 
Chicago and Northwestern University in offering a series 
of lectures. From the classroom at Northwestern it 
broadcast for several years a popular series of lectures 
on contemporary thought at an early hour in the eve- 
ning but when the station became commercial the course 
was dropped. The University of Arkansas broadcasting 
station shared a wave length equally with a commercial 
station in Little Rock. When the latter station applied 
for full time on this wave length the Federal Radio 
Commission not only gave the Little Rock privately- 
owned station three-fourths of the time but also al- 
lotted certain hours to the University which were totally 
unsuitable for educational purposes, 

About a year ago WKBN, a commercial station lo- 
cated in Youngstown, Ohio, sharing time with WEAO 
operated by Ohio State University, decided that it must 
acquire more evening hours or operate at a loss. The 
University was reported to have a well organized pro- 
gram and more dependable state coverage. The exam- 
iner for the Federal Radio Commission very generously 
recommended that the State University surrender some 
of its evening hours to rescue the commercial station 
from financial distress, As a sop to the University the 
examiner threw in six Sunday hours which were use- 
less for its purposes. It should be noted here that the 
granting of a broadcasting license is dependent on the 
ability of the broadcasting station to demonstrate that 
it is serving the public interest, convenience and neces- 
sity. This contest between a great university and a 
provincial broadcasting concern epitomizes the issue that 
underlies the whole problem of the control of broad- 
casting. Mr. James Rorty states that since the advent of 
the Federal Radio Commission in May, 1927, the num- 
ber of educational institutions licensed to broadcast was 
reduced from 94 to 49. More recent data taken from the 
official lists published by the United States Department 
of Commerce show that stations operated by educational 
institutions and governmental units declined from 19.5% 
of the total to 9.4%. In the first six months of 1930 
alone, 23 educational broadcasting stations were forced 
off the air. Out of a total of 440 units available at the 
present time only 23.16 units, or about 5% of.the total, 
are allotted to educational stations. Of the forty sta- 
tions allotted forty cleared channels, not a single public 








10 


agency is found on the list; of the 24 stations granted 
the maximum power of 50,000 watts, not a single gov- 
ernmental or educational agency is included. 

Organized education through its official spokesmen 
particularly protest against the granting of cleared chan- 
nels and increased power to those stations owned by 
or affiliated with the Radio Corporation of America 
which the federal courts found guilty of unlawful com- 
bination, conspiracy in restraint of trade, and of mo- 
nopoly of tube sales. They point out that according to 
section 13 of the Radio Act of 1927 the Federal Radio 
Commission should have denied a license to these broad- 
casting stations. The apologists for the business inter- 
ests among whom one finds the majority of the Federal 
Radio Commission allege that educational stations have 
voluntarily discontinued their broadcasting services. 
The representatives of education reply that the schools 
and colleges have been squeezed out; that they have 
been granted undesirable wave lengths; that they have 
been forced to reduce their allotment of time on the air; 
that they have been forced to comply with new mechan- 
ical apparatus before they could make the necessary 
budgetary adjustments; and that they have been forced 
to squander a disproportionate part of what little re- 
sources they had for legal expenses and unnecessary 
trips to Washington to attend hearings. 

The objection of commercial broadcasters that edu- 
cational programs lack showmanship does not get at 
fundamentals at all. It is a question whether educa- 
tional programs should be theatrical in character. But, 
assuming that they should be, educational broadcasters 
should have that vast opportunity now held by commerce 
for the experimental development of effective programs. 
The tobacco mongers and halitosis hucksters have no 
right to dictate to the public agencies whether they shall 
be permitted to use a social possession in the interest 
of all the people. The basic issue is whether the listener 
shall continue to be at the mercy of the profiteer. 

In order to protect the interests of broadcasting sta- 
tions of land grant colleges, nine national educational 
organizations formed the National Committee on Educa- 
tion by Radio, which is waging a valiant battle against 
the entrenched commercial broadcasters. By the publi- 
cation of bulletins and legislative vigilance it constitutes 
a powerful threat to the ruthless advance of private ex- 
ploitation of a public possession. At the present time it 
is championing the Fess Bill which would reserve not 
less than 15% of the broadcasting facilities for the ex- 
clusive operation of educational agencies. It is my 
theory that the radio interests are opposing the Fess 
Pill simply because they do not wish the opposition to 
get into the habit of victory. With their backs against 
the wall they would cry surrender with a secret diabol- 
ical grin of satisfaction. The enactment of the Fess 
Bill would probably not affect the favored stations at 
all. The solution of the fundamental problems of radio 
would probably be postponed twenty-five years. 


The Sponsor Becomes Censor 


American radio has not only fallen into the lap of 
commerce but also is threatened by the domination of 
a monopoly. Before the recent voluntary projected dis- 
solution of the Radio Corporation of America it was 
characterized by Dane Yorke as an octopus whose arms 
reached out to grasp every market which was related 
to radio, including vaudeville circuits, phonograph com- 
panies, motion picture organizations, not to mention the 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


telephone, electric power, electric apparatus, and broad- 
casting stations. Directly and indirectly the radio com- 
bination controlled four thousand patents affecting the 
radio, Of 430 broadcasting units, 68% are owned, op- 
erated by, or affiliated with the two major broadcasting 
systems. The National Broadcasting Company controls 
43% of the facilities and the Columbia Broadcasting 
System controls 25% of the facilities. At the present 
time these two giants of the air influence the tastes and 
the thought of the mass of people in the most pro- 
foundly subtle ways. 

Freedom of speech has been violated on several oc- 
casions. In March of 1932, Mr. William Z. Ripley, 
eminent and revered professor of economics at Harvard 
University, revealed that the National Broadcasting 
Company had refused the scheduled broadcasting of his 
speech before the National Association of Mutual Sav- 
ings Banks unless parts of it were deleted. In this ad- 
dress Mr. Ripley sharply attacked the methods used to 
finance several leading utility companies and strongly 
urged the federal regulation of utility accounting as a 
protection for the investing public. Mr. James Rorty 
writing in Harpers testifies from personal experience 
that censorship by commercial broadcasters is a fact. 
Mr. H. V. Kaltenborn, who has had a long and varied 
career as editorial commentator over the air, shows that, 
under present conditions of private control, freedom of 
the air is extremely difficult if not virtually impossible 
to attain. 

Under any circumstances American broadcasting will 
have to develop principles governing radio censorship 
and the rights of free expression for minority groups. 
This issue was brought to a sharp focus in September, 
1928, when the Federal Radio Commission reduced the 
power and limited the broadcasting facilities of WCFL, 
owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor. The sta- 
tion is labor’s only outlet on the air. It began operating 
back in 1926 with an initial outlay of $200,000 collected 
in small amounts from union members. Despite favor- 
able reports by the chief examiner, the Federal Radio 
Commission has repeatedly denied the application of 
WCFL for a cleared channel on full time. 


_The Sponsor Gives the People What They Want 


The present standard of radio as judged by casual 
listening and by careful records is undeniably low. Taste 
is an individual and subjective matter about which 
it is easy to be superior. In spite of this as judged by 
the elemental considerations of kind and quality of sub- 
ject matter and artistic skill, radio programs, by and 
large, are below the quality which the collective listener 
would tolerate. In this respect, the radio does not differ 
from most privately owned and operated agencies of 
entertainment and communication. The middle class, 
especially, is penalized because, being the least gullible 
and being in the minority, it is most frequently ignored 
in the planning of programs. The sensationalism of 
the press, the cheap tawdriness of the cinema, and the 
vulgar banalities of the theater are overwhelming evi- 
dence of what to expect permanently of radio. How- 
ever, in the latter, the basic instrumentality belongs to 
the people, and an orderly remedy is possible. Canada, 
despite the obtrusive propaganda of powerful American 
broadcasting interests, is demonstrating that the errors 
of commercialism can be corrected. 

Daniel Starch studied the radio preferences of several 
million families. Although the data are not easy to 








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APRIL, 1934 


interpret accurately, there is fairly certain proof that 
there is a substantial demand for classical and semi- 
classical music. Both rank higher than comedy. Short 
talks on interesting subjects rank higher than athletic 
reports and plays. Grand opera ranks higher than 
comedy and drama. The most popular demand is for 
light orchestral and dance music. Two years ago, Mr. 
P. H. Patchin, assistant to the president of the Standard 
Oil Company of California, sponsors of a symphony 
hour, reported that his organization telephoned two 
thousand homes picked at random while the orchestra 
was on the air. Of this number; 726 were listening to 
the broadcast, of which 519 were listening to the or- 
chestral music. 

Contrast this with actual programs as found by some 
investigators. Charles Merz studied the programs oi 
ten smaller stations and found that out of 294 hours 
77 hours were devoted to serious music while 189 hours 
were devoted to jazz. For ten larger stations he found 
that out of 357 hours the musical fare consisted of 42 
hours of serious music and 259 hours of jazz. A 
survey under the direction of Commissioner Lafount 
made on February 1, 1931, showed that 17% of the 
radio time during one week was devoted to classical 
music. This does not mean very much because we do 
not know what the criteria of classical music were nor 
how much of the reported time was consumed in 
publicity. 

Mr. B. H. Haggin writing in the New Republic main- 
tains that British musical programs are incomparably 
finer than our own. The British Broadcasting Corpora- 
tion presents an orderly procession of masterpieces, 
renders the works of living composers, and devotes some 
time to experimental compositions which are not com- 
monly performed. It is not content to give the public 
merely what it likes; it also includes music a little better 
than it thinks it likes. 


Shall the People Reclaim Radio? 


We have seen that the danger of monopoly control, 
the limitation of the freedom of speech, the spread of 
misinformation, the decline of aesthetic standards, and 
the restriction of educational broadcasting have resulted 
from our present system of ownership and operation of 
radio facilities. The problem is acute and the post- 
ponement of the solution makes the possibilities of re- 
form increasingly remote. 

Several palliatives for the American ills have been 
suggested but none of these is entirely satisfactory be- 
cause they fail to go to the root of the ailment—private 
ownership of a public convenience operated primarily for 
profit. The privately endowed station would provide a 
modicum of relief to the discriminating listener: but 
would contribute practically nothing to the betterment 
of the present situation. The Fess Bill would do no 
more than to increase the present educational broadcast- 
ing facilities. The National Advisory Council on Radio 
in Education supplies a half-hour lecture per week which 
serves to give immense dignity and tone to the big busi- 
ness of broadcasting. 

Various proposals have been made for the recon- 
struction or the abandonment of the present system of 
broadcasting. One naturally turns to European prece- 
dents for guidance. Very few national systems are 
identical in their administrative patterns. The three 
principal variables which account for the differences are 
ownership, physical operation, and production of pro- 








ll 


grams. The most common practice abroad, found in 
seventeen countries, is government ownership with priv- 
ate operation, The government grants a concession to 
one or more companies which erect and operate stations 
and provide programs, In Great Britain, for example, 
a charter has been granted to the British Broadcasting 
Corporation, which receives about 65% of the income 
from license fees. The Postmaster General is the con- 
necting official between the corporation and Parliament. 
The announcement of the sponsor of a program is per- 
mitted but no other form of advertising. 

Seven European countries own and operate all sta- 
tions and provide programs as well. In Finland the 
programs are produced by an organization whose stock 
is held by universities, civic organizations, and co-opera- 
tive societies. Four representatives of the government 
and fifteen representatives of the stockholders constitute 
the managing committee, which in turn elects an execu- 
tive committee of five. In Sweden, the production of 
programs is assigned to a private company under the 
supervision of the Ministries of Education and Com- 
merce. The company receives one-third of the license 
fees and its profits are limited to six per cent. 

As a solution to our own problem, the writer inclines 
toward the adoption, in modified form, of the Belgian 
system of operation. The administration of broadcast- 
ing is vested in the Belgian National Institute of Broad- 
casting, composed of one representative of the govern- 
ment and nine representatives of civic, educational, and 
religious organizations chosen to represent all political 
parties, unofficially. Two major stations are operated by 
the Institute, entirely free from advertising, Eleven 
smaller stations are permitted to operate independently 
but may not sell time to advertisers. 

The major American stations should be owned by the 
federal government and operated by a small commission 
made up of representatives of intellectual, artistic, and 
civic societies that contribute in an expert way to the 
science and art of radio. Such a body would include 
those competent to speak for music, the drama, the hu- 
manities, public affairs, engineering, economics, and so 
on. A large advisory committee representing all interests 
which have a stake in radio could be set up, the mem- 
bers of which could have easy access to the commission 
for the purpose of guarding the interests of the groups 
which they represent. Smaller state and municipal 
broadcasting stations could be set up following the pat- 
tern of the federal units of broadcasting after a plan 
worked out by the commission and in consideration of 
the best technical adjustment. All stations should be 
financed by the payment of one listener’s fee, the total 
income from fees being distributed among all broad- 
casting stations, All commissions, federal, state, or local, 
should be entirely free from political domination. The 
members of all commissions should be appointed by the 
respective organized artistic, scientific, and civic socie- 
ties designated in the act of Congress. 

The discontinuance of the present system of owner- 
ship could be accomplished by the simple expedient of 
denying a renewal of license to operating stations at the 
expiration of a six-months period, as provided in the 
lederal Radio Act of 1927. The transference of owner- 
ship from a financial point of view would seem to offer 
no serious obstacle. Representative Edwin L, Davis of 
Tennessee, chairman of the House Committee on Mer- 
chant Marine, Radio, and Fisheries, estimates that the 
combined investment of all stations in America includ- 











12 


ing equipment and apparatus amounts to only $28,000,- 
000, If this is true, an extra tax on listeners of one 
dollar for two successive years would be sufficient to 
reimburse the private owners of stations, should the 
United States government decide to conduct the people’s 
radio for the people. Should the United States decide 
to buy the stations outright, it would require an appro- 
priation slightly larger than the cost of one battleship. 
Should the proprietors of broadcasting stations point 
to the magnitude of their investment, they need only to 
be reminded that the investment of the listening public 
in receiving sets is at least twenty times as great as their 
investment in the hawking of merchandise. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 

Based on recent data there are probably over twelve 
million homes equipped with radio. This is only about 
half of the total automobiles registered in the United 
States. It is obvious, therefore, from an economic point 
of view, that the population is destined to double the 
present consumption of radios. I should not classify the 
radio as a luxury both from the viewpoint of the pres 
ent buying habits of the people and from the point of 
view of the basic satisfactions it affords. As a means 
of mass communication, it ranks as an important supple- 
ment to the press. <A potential body of over twenty 
million owners of recetving sets should have no difficulty 
in financing the finest programs at very little expense 
to the listener. 


Ten-Point Program of Social Justice 


American Federation of Labor 


TEN-POINT PROGRAM Of social justice legislation, 
Ace and State, approved by the American 

Federation of Labor, has been made public by 
William Green, president of the Federation, in a state- 
ment explaining the proposed measures. 

“The American Federation of Labor is committed to 
the furtherance of a legislative program which relates 
to and affects very vitally the economic and social in- 
terests of all classes of working people,” the statement 
said. 

“It comprehends legislative measures which deal with 
vital economic questions relating to wages, hours and 
conditions of employment for government workers as 
well as social justice legislation which relates to social 
interests of the wage earner and his family. 


Labor Mobilized for Action 


“The organizations of State Federations of Labor and 
City Central Labor Unions have been called upon to 
present to state legislatures the legislative proposals 
affecting the interests of Labor which can only be dealt 
with by State Legislation. 

“The officers of the American Federation of Labor 
and its legislative representatives will specialize in the 
presentation of legislative measures to the Congress of 
the United States and in all efforts which are put forth 
to secure their enactment into law. 

“The legislative measures which will be proposed in 
the different states cover the Child Labor Amendment 
to the Constitution, improved workmen’s compensation 
laws, old age pensions, unemployment insurance, fac- 
tory inspection and minimum wage legislation for wom- 
en and minors. 

“The legislative program which will be supported by 
Labor and which will be submitted to Congress for ac- 
tion deals with: 


Amend Recovery Act 


“1. Amendments to the National Recovery Act and 
particularly to Section 7-A, as experience has shown to 
be necessary in order to make real and vital the intent 
and purpose of the labor sections of the National Re- 
covery Act. 

“2. The restoration of the wages and salaries of 
Government employes, which were taken away from 
them through the imposition of the 15 per cent reduction. 
“3. Legislation providing for a shorter work-day 





and shorter work-week without reduction in pay for 
both private and public employes; this reduction in the 
number of hours worked per day and the number of 
days worked per week to be secured and applied as a 
remedy for unemployment, either through direct legisla- 
tion or through the adoption of the shorter work-day 
and shorter work-week in the development and formu- 
lation of industrial codes of fair practice. 

“4. The strengthening of immigration statutes, to- 
gether with adequate enforcement of all immigration 
laws. 

“5. Federal legislation for the protection of the na- 
tion’s public schools and the payment of decent sal- 
aries and wages for public school teachers and officials. 

“6. Cooperation with the states in the enactment of 
legislation providing for old age pensions, unemploy- 
ment insurance, the abolition of child labor, and the 
minimum wage for women and minors. The purpose 
of Federal legislation on this subject is to stimulate 
state social justice legislation providing for unemploy- 
ment insurance, old age pensions, the abolition of child 
labor, and the minimum wage laws for women and 
minors. 


Protect Right to Organize 

“7. Legislation providing for the licensing of cor- 
porations. This legislation is designed to protect wage 
earners in the exercise of their right to organize and in 
the establishment and maintenance of decent wage stand- 
ards, hours of labor and working conditions. 

“8. Enactment of an old age pension law for the 
District of Columbia. 

“9. An amendment to the District of Columbia 
Workmen’s Compensation Act providing for the estab- 
lishment of the exclusive state insurance fund. 

“10. Legislation which will provide for continuation 
of relief measures as represented by the Civil Works 
Administration, and the acceleration of the public build- 
ing construction and public works program. This legis- 
lation is made necessary in order to overcome unem- 
ployment relief.” 

“The American Federation of Labor,” Mr. Green 
concluded, “is committed to this legislative program and 
will concentrate its efforts during the winter both in 
State Legislatures and in the Congress of the United 
States to secure the enactment into law of the legislative 
measures included in this program.” 














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APRIL, 1934 


13 


Labor Speaks on Teachers and Unionism 


Frank X. Martel, Secretary of Detroit Federation of 
Labor to the American Vocational Association. 


T THE invitation of your Committee on Arrange- 

ments, I come here this morning to discuss the 
A future functions of public education in those ad- 
justments now taking place in society. | welcome this 
opportunity to say a few things to you who are charged 
with the responsibility of vocational training. 

I am not an authority in any sense on the art of 
teaching or the details of the various trades and occupa- 
tions in which you are instructing the youth of the na- 
tion, but I would like very much, as one concerned with 
the future of this nation, to leave a new thought with 
you. Perhaps it is not one that will be popular, but a 
suggestion that unquestionably is entitled to your seri- 
ous consideration. 

Your job is to equip properly those who are placed 
in your charge so that they will become useful members 
of society. Heretofore this has been regarded entirely 
in the light of teaching the youth the art, mystery, and 
science of the trade or occupation in which they seem 
interested. And if you do a good job with the material 
in your hands, the finished product is a youngster who 
goes forth for the battle of life with a supreme con- 
fidence in his ability as a tradesman, and it takes sev- 
eral years of practical work in the field to take some 
of the conceit out of him. Then he is just another brick- 
layer, plasterer, or some other tradesman. 

There is a real need, in my opinion, for those charged 
with the responsibility of equipping these youngsters, 
to sec that they are educated not only how to do their 
work, but how to be properly compensated for it. 

To assume that the educational system of the country 
fulfills its obligation to the student by merely teaching 
him to do his work correctly, is unfair to the student. 
It is equally important to prepare the student for the 
battle of life by equipping him with the proper knowl- 
edge of industry, and the struggle of the working people 
to establish and maintain satisfactory conditions of em- 
ployment. 

Your students should be the leaders in imparting to 
their fellow workers the necessity of organizing and 
dealing collectively on the matter of hours, wages, and 
working conditions. 

They will be better equipped to do this if, while they 
are receiving technical knowledge of their trade, they 
are also instructed in the value of trade unionism and 
collective bargaining. 

Perhaps my suggestion in this respect will receive no 
response in this gathering. Perhaps I would not have 
had the temerity to have made the suggestion a year 
ago to a gathering of this kind but in the light of the 
action of the United States Congress in passing the 
N. R. A. and the pronouncements of our wonderful 
President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on the advisabil- 
ity of organization for workers, coupled with the recent 
statement of National Administrator Hugh S. Johnson, 
that there can be no success for the N. R. A. without 
complete organization of Labor and industry, I feel that 
my suggestion at this time at least is in harmony with 
the present philosophy of the government and leaders 
of the nation. 

The demoralized condition of our country which has 


resulted in the creation of an unemployed army of some 
14,000,000 wage workers with its attendant misery and 
degrad: ition is the product of so-called rugged indi- 
vidualism. 

America has executed a right-about-face in the pass- 
age of the National Recovery Law which was passed as 
emergency legislation and still has a year and a half 
to run, but already there is a deep-seated feelng that 
the labor provisions incorporated in section 7A will re- 
main as part of the basic law of the nation. 

It will be splendid tribute to the vocational educa- 
tional institutions of our nation if the next generation is 
able to say that the new philosophy in industry was suc- 
cessful in America because the teachers in vocational 
insitutions had properly imparted to their charges the 
information necessary to make its provisions workable. 

The Federal Congress, in the passage of the N. R. A., 
has recognized trade unionism in America and encour- 
aged workers to join trade unions, In advocating to the 
students in your charge that they join trade unions you 
would be carrying out the policy of the government 
under the N, R. A. 

Before closing, I want to avail myself of this oppor- 
tunity of inviting the instructors in our public schools 
to assume their proper place in the fight to save the 
school system. The public has a right to hear from 
those who are actively engaged in the school system as 
to their attitude on the present general move to curtail 
expenditures for public education. You can no longer 
hide behind your profession. You owe it to the public 
school system and to the people of this country to make 
yourself heard on this most important question. 


Adolph J. Fritz, Secretary-Treasurer, Indiana State 
Federation of Labor 


Whenever I have an opportunity to address a Teach- 
ers’ Association, I never fail to advise them to affiliate 
with the American Federation of Teachers. 

If an organizing campaign for teachers can be put on 
in Indiana, you will find me four-square behind this 
movement, as I do not know of anything that would 
be more beneficial to the teachers throughout the coun- 
try than the forming of unions affiliated with the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor through the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers. 


Thomas J. Donnelly, Secretary-Treasurer, Ohio State 
Federation of Labor 


I have always favored the organization of the teach- 
ers of Ohio under the A. F. of L. banner—The Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers. I am now in favor of 
such organization, and will always stand ready to assist 
in such organization. 

I have criticized teachers several times because of the 
character of their organizations which held aloof from 
the Labor Movement, but expected Labor to go into 
action for them upon programs open to serious objec- 
tions. 

I have on many occasions given aid to legislation 
desired by the teachers, such as the teachers’ retirement 
system, now established in Ohio, and tenure of office for 
school teachers, thus doing away with the one-year con- 
tract prevalent in Ohio, which makes thousands of 














14 





teachers in Ohio annual prey for so-called teachers’ 
agencies. 

The American Federation of Labor and President 
Green have given forceful expression as to the advis- 
ability and importance of the school teachers of Amer- 
ica organizing under the A. F. of L. and its affiliated or- 
ganization—The American Federation of Teachers. I 
am in full accord and sympathy with them and hope 
to see the unions of teachers increasing in the State of 
Ohio and elsewhere. 


Mary L. Garner, Vice-President, Indiana State 
Federation of Labor 


I feel very strongly on the subject of organizng the 
teachers in our schools. I want to see the teachers of 
Indiana organized. If there is any way that I can help 
you or be of benefit in any way, you may be assured 
that you can count on me. 

It really does seem strange that with their education, 
teachers cannot grasp the fact that they of all other 
groups should be in a bona fide union organization, 
where they could stand a chance of bettering them- 
selves, and would not unconsciously perhaps, but never- 
theless truly, pass fear on to the next generation. As 
I see it, it is nothing but job fear, and perhaps also, a 
better than thou feeling, that causes them to remain 
aloof from the organized labor movement, as _ repre- 
sented by the American Federation of Labor. They 
would feel like free born American citizens, if they 
were in a bona fide union. Perhaps they may come to 
it some day, but how long will we have to wait for 
them and the good they could do with their trained 
intelligence. 


Thomas E. Burke, Secretary-Treasurer, United Asso- 
ciation of Journeymen Plumbers and Steam Fitters 


I hope and trust when we emerge from this general 
depression that the teachers will have learned a great 
deal in relation to the necessity for organizing under 
the auspices of the American Federation of Teachers, 
affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, so 
that they can themselves know and can impart to the 
youth of our country the necessity for organizing and 
the great principles and philosophies of the American 
Labor Movement. 





Antiunion Textbooks Barred from Hannibal 
High School 


The geometry published by the anti-union John C. 
Winston Publishing Company of Philadelphia will soon 
be barred from the public schools of Hannibal, Mo. 

When the label committee of the Hannibal Trades and 
Labor Assembly and the Hannibal Typographical Union 
was informed by Philadelphia Typographical Union that 
the Winston concern had locked out its union employes 
and expressed its determination to operate a scab con- 
cern, the committee through J. H. Abrams, secretary of 
Typographical Union No. 88, urged the Board of Edu- 
cation to stop purchasing Winston’s textbooks. 





The Famous “Oxford Resolution” which pledged its 
backers never to fight “for king or country” has been 
carried, by a large majority, in a ballot at Canterbury 
University, New Zealand. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





THEY SAY 


JoHN Fitzpatrick 
President of the Chicago 
Federation of Labor 


Pror. JoHun Dewey 
Educator, Philosopher, 
Author, Member 

A. F. of T. 


Ray LyMAn WILBUR 
Former Secretary of the 
Interior 


Lotus D. CorrMAn 

President, University of 
Minnesota 

Address before Depart- 
ment of Superintendence 

February 27, 1933 


Marvin S. PittMan 

Director of Laboratory 
Schools, Michigan State 
Normal College, 
Ypsilanti 


I suggest a shorter work day 
to replace the daylight saving 
plan now in effect in Chicago. 
If the employers of labor desire 
that their employees should have 
an extra hour in the evening to 
themselves, give it to them by 
shortening the work day for an 
hour. This is so much more 
simple and so much more effec- 
tive than the daylight saving 
plan, that the employers have 
inadvertently overlooked it. 


Public education cannot be 
secure so long as its policies are 
dominated by financial interests. 


We must take an aggressive 
attitude for the schools if we 
are going to see our children 
through. This is not a matter 
of passing resolutions. It is a 
matter of fighting and there is 
no better thing to fight for than 
the American school child. 


If the political and economic 
leaders had followed the teach- 
ings of the schools, we should 
not be in our present difficulties. 
The schools never taught war, 
they taught peace; the schools 
never taught extravagance, they 
taught thrift; the schools never 
taught disregard for law, they 
taught respect for law; the 
schools never taught national 
isolation and selfishness, they 
taught international participa- 
tion and cooperation. Now the 
people, as they strike out blindly 
to save themselves from eco- 
nomic disaster, are about to 
wreck the schools as if that 
would accomplish their end. We 
can find millions for highways, 
billions for public enterprises, 
but we must pare and scrimp on 
education. We are making help- 
less children and youth in need 
of higher training for profes- 
sional leadership, pay for our 
folly. 


The two great educational 
tasks of the future are: 

First—to teach society that 
there must never be idleness for 
anyone all of the time but that 
there must always be leisure for 
everyone some of the time. 

Second—to teach everyone 
many ways by which to capital- 
ize his leisure to his own advan- 
tage and also to the advantage 
of society. 








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APRIL, 1934 


One Way to Reduce Taxes 
Dr. C. E. A. Winslow 


The first definition of a “tax” is 
a “contribution levied on persons, 
property, or business for support of 
government.” A second meaning of 
the word is a “strain or heavy de- 
mand” upon a person or a commu- 
nity. We hear a great deal today 
about the first kind of taxes. It 
might be wise to give some thought 
to the second. 

From the standpoint of “strain or 
heavy demand” some of our most ex- 
acting tax collectors are the germs of 
the communicable diseases. In 1900 
the bacillus of tuberculosis taxed the 
people of the United States to the 
tune of 195 lives for every hundred 
thousand persons in the population. 
That is this tax collector took the 
life of one person out of every 500 
each year. In addition it collected 
the cost of medical and hospital care 
and the cost of supporting in partial 
or complete idleness at least one per- 
son out of every 150. 

3y 1930 the death rate from tu- 
berculosis* had fallen from 195 to 
67 per 100,000. We had reduced the 
tax paid to this public enemy to one 
life out of every 1500 persons in the 
population with a similar reduction 
of two-thirds in the burden of sick- 
ness and disability. This is a sort of 
tax reduction which is well worth 
while. 

How has this result been accom- 
plished? By legislative machinery 
for the reporting of cases, by segre- 
gating or educating the consumptive 
so as to avoid infection of others, by 
eradication of bovine tuberculosis 
and pasteurization of milk, by public 
health nursing service to seek out 
contacts in early cases and bring 
them under medical care, by clinic 
service for early diagnosis, by sana- 
toria for treatment, and by system- 
atic follow-up and supervision of the 
arrested case to hold the disease 
process under control. Simple, effi- 
cient, well-tried public health ma- 
chinery has accomplished the task. 
Its efficacy has been fully tested dur- 
ing the past three years when the po- 
tential effects of the depression upon 
the death rate have been warded off 
except in certain relatively small sec- 
tions of the population where depriva- 
tion has been greatest. It is neither 
chance nor some hypothetical biolog- 
ical change which has brought about 
results; for these results, in individ- 


*Based on figures for Registration 
States of 1900. 


ual communities, have again and 
again been shown to vary in relation 
to the provision of community ma- 
chinery for controlling the disease. 

Recently, a new weapon has been 
placed in our hands. Experience has 
shown that many of the deaths which 
still occur from tuberculosis are due 
to previous partially controlled infec- 
tion which suddenly lights up in a 
form too severe to be checked by our 
routine methods. The hope of pre- 
venting such catastrophies lies in the 
earlier detection of incipient infection 
—preferably in childhood, when the 
seeds of later trouble are generally 
sown. The new methods of taking 
X-ray pictures of large groups of 
school children at a minimum cost 
brings promise of a better defense 
against the tubercle bacillus than we 
have ever been able to set up before. 

The cost of a well-organized tuber- 
culosis program (excluding the cost 
of sanatorium care which is largely 
treatment rather than prevention) is 
less than 10 cents per year for each 
person in the general population. The 
results far outweigh this insignificant 
expenditure. We may illustrate by a 
single instance. The reduction in the 
death rate from pulmonary tubercu- 
losis in Syracuse, N. Y., for the dec- 
ade 1922-1931 as compared with the 
decade 1912-1921 amounted to a sav- 
ing of 115 lives a year. This takes 
no account of the far greater savings 
accomplished between 1892 and 1912 
but merely measures the additional 
accomplishment after a more inten- 
sive community program was inaug- 
urated in 1923. On a conservative 
estimate, based on tables of the value 
of a human life at different ages, 
this additional reduction amounted to 
an economic saving of over a million 
and a half dollars a year to the com- 
munity—based on life-saving alone 
and with no allowance for the bur- 
dens of disability and medical care. 
The total cost of the enlarged and 
almost ideal tuberculosis-control ma- 
chinery of Syracuse was less than 
twelve thousand dollars. By paying 
one dollar in taxes to the city and the 
Community Chest, Syracuse saved 
paying one hundred dollars in taxes 
to the tubercle bacillus. 

The question then is not whether 
we shall pay taxes or not, but how 
much we shall pay and for what. We 
can contribute a small sum to our 
health departments and clinics and 
nursing associations and tuberculosis 
associations for prevention; or we can 
pay a much larger sum as a tax on 
unprevented disease for the care of 


15 


the sick, the support of the invalid, 
the burial of the dead, the loss of man 
power. We have reduced the tax 
levied by disease during the past 
thirty years to a fraction of what it 
once was. We cannot afford to let 
our progress be nullified by the panic 
parsimony which is the enemy of true 
economy. We must rather go on with 
all the weapons at our command to 
the ultimate conquest of tuberculosis. 
“A few cents for defense, rather than 
millions for tribute,” might well be 
our motto, The tax laid upon human 
vitality by preventable disease is one 
which we can abate if we have the 
courage to support in this crisis the 
official and the voluntary health agen- 
cies which have defended us so suc- 
cessfully in the past. 





Children Suffer Most 


“The costs of the depression are 
taken out of the hides of children,” 
commented Harry L. Hopkins, Fed- 
eral Relief Administrator, referring to 
the unemployment relief census taken 
in October, 1933. The census shows 
that 5,250,000 children under 16 were 
on relief, according to Federated 
Press. 

“And that’s only part of the picture,” 
added Hopkins. “The census ap- 
plied only to those on relief in Oc- 
tober, but undoubtedly other mil- 
lions of children have been subjected 
to the humiliation of being known 
as relief cases at other times during 
the depression.” 

The census shows 12,493,000 on 
relief, of whom half were in the em- 
ployable ages. Destitution is twice 
as great among Negro families as 
the average for the country. 





No matter how much the budget is cut, 
children must not suffer. This little 
boy is being protected against tuber- 
culosis by having a tuberculin test. 




















THE 





AMERICAN TEACHER 


So This Is America! 


Schools of Medford, Ore., Face Closing.—Twenty per 
cent cut in operating cost is said to be necessary. 
Short contracts only are offered to teachers. The 
number of teachers in the system has been cut to the 
limit so no more economy can be accomplished in 
that channel. 

The school board is determined to preserve the 
credit of the district, but apparently not equally de- 
termined to preserve the schools. 


School Board Cancels Contracts.—At a special meet- 
ing of the School Board of Minersville, Pa., it was 
decided to cancel all teachers’ contracts. All school 
boards in Schuylkill and Northumberland Counties 
received letters advising such action. “The introduc- 
tion of modern business practices into the finances 
and operation of our school districts will result in the 
savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the 
overburdened taxpayers of, these two counties. There 
are hordes of unnecessary employees on the school 
district payrolls. 

“Tt is urgently recommended that school boards in 
Schuylkill and Northumberland Counties immediately 
cancel present contracts with teachers and supervisors 
so that the directors will be in a position to lower the 
school costs for next year.” 


New Salary Plan for Salt Lake City—A new salary 
plan for teachers in Salt Lake schools, designed to 
enable ‘teachers’ salaries to recover gradually as busi- 
ness conditions improve,” has been presented by Dr. 
L. John Nuttall, Jr., superintendent of schools. Dr. 
Nuttall added that the board of education hopes a 
slight increase in salaries will be possible next year. 


Kansas Schools Closed.—Latest reports from Kansas 
show 700 schools in that state have closed. 


Detroit Colleges Merge.—The Board of Education of 
the City of Detroit, Michigan, and the Deans and 
Faculties of the College of the City of Detroit, the 
Detroit Teachers College, the Detroit College of Med- 
icine and Surgery, the Detroit College of Pharmacy, 
the School of Engineering, and the Graduate School 
announce the merger of their Colleges under the name 
of Wayne University. 


Professor Ousted; Blame Liberalism.—Dr. Walter S. 
Ryder, professor of sociology at Macalester College, 
St. Paul, Minn., has been dismissed. Officials refused 
to confirm reports describing the issues as “academic 
freedom” and “liberalism.” 


Board Opposes Solicitations.—Memphis, Tenn., Board 
of Education has taken action opposing solicitation of 
contributions from children to buy stationery or other 
supplies. 


Hunger Disease Spreads.—Beri-beri, a poverty dis- 
ease, is wreaking havoc in Newfoundland, where be- 
tween 20 and 25 per cent of the population have been 
reduced to subsisting on meager relief rations. In 
many of the villages, the fisher-folk have rations 
equalling no more than $1.80 a month, and beri-beri 
has resulted with devastating effects on the population. 





How Rich Is America.—About 44% of the homes of 
American farm owners are worth less than $1,000 
each and only 4% are worth more than $5,000, ac- 
cording to figures recently disclosed by the Bureau of 
Census. About 65% of farm tenant homes are valued 
at less than $1,000 each and only about 1% of them 
at $5,000 or over. 


This Rule Has Teeth.—The National Labor Board has 
ruled that “strikers are employes” when it comes to 
negotiating settlements. This “pulls the rug” from 
under employers who have been refusing to meet strike 
committees on the ground that the workers “are no 
longer employed by this company.” 


Poll Tax Repealed.—Poverty is no longer the political 
“bar sinister” in Pennsylvania. Governor Gifford Pin 
chot has approved a measure permitting every quali- 
fied citizen to vote without paying a poll tax. 

For years tens of thousands of workers, unable to 
pay this poll tax, were disfranchised. 


Schools.—Slash the school budget, is the first cry of 
a hard-pressed city’s commercial elements, and the re- 
sults are shown in a U. S. office of education report. 
Per pupil cost of education was cut 22 per cent be- 
tween 1932 and 1933. San Antonio, Tex., and Akron, 
Ohio, cut their per-pupil costs more than one ‘hird 
in one year, and New Bedford, Mass., El Paso, Tex., 
and Grand Rapids, Mich., were not far behind. 


Alabama Schools Begin Closing.—Under date of Jan- 
uary 26 the following news item appeared in the press: 
With the closing of schools in Montgomery County, 
closing of schools throughout Alabama is in sight by 
March 4. Nothing can stop such a step except im- 
mediate financial help, Dr. A. F. Harmen. superin- 
tendent of education, announced. 
Closing of Montgomery County’s schools affects 
20,000 school children and teachers. 


Teachers’ Salary Increases Voted.—Increases and ad- 
justments in teachers’ salaries aggregating more than 
$50,000 a year were voted by the Houston, Texas, 
school board and Dr. E. E. Oberholtzer unanimously 
was re-elected school superintendent for a four-year 
term. 

The salary increases, most of which consist of 
restoration of former cuts or of the placing of part- 
time and substitute teachers on a full-time and con- 
tract basis, will affect nearly 300 teachers. 

The increases were recommended by Dr. Ober- 
holtzer after his re-election and were adopted unani- 
mously. 


Teachers’ Wages Are Reduced.—The board of edu- 
cation of district 21, Montana, which includes Plenty- 
wood, has reduced the salary schedule for teachers. 

Grade teachers will receive $85 to $95 a month, and 
the regular high school salary will be $125, with 
bonuses paid to those who have charge of extra- 
curricula activities, such as band, athletics, and the 
like. 

This action was deemed necessary following a re- 
cent ruling by the county commissioners that a maxi- 
mum of 10 mills would be levied in the county for 
high school maintenance. 











of 


as 








APRIL, 1934 


No Compromise on Furlough Measure Is Acceptable 
to New York Teachers’ Union.—The compromise 
exempting the lowest-paid school employes from the 
payless furlough feaure of the municipal economy 
bill, and grading the furlough in accordance with 
salaries, is not acceptable, Abraham Lefkowitz, legis- 
lative representative of the Teachers’ Union, declared 
at a union general membership meeting in the High 
School of Commerce, 165 W. 66th St. 

Teachers will insist on reduction of interest on the 
city’s debt instead of “further taxation of civil em- 
ployes,” said Mr. Lefkowitz. He declared they would 
accept “no compromises.” 


What Is the Teachers’ Responsibility—The school 
teachers of Pittsfield, Mass., feel that the question of 
dropping teachers, discontinuing departments and cur- 
tailing classes is the business of the School Commit- 
tee, not theirs. Such is the consensus expressed by 
the staffs of several of the city’s larger schools 
in answer to a question concerning the present school 
situation there. The question submitted to many 
teachers by the executive committee of the Teachers’ 
Association brought no answer in some cases, merely 
an expression that the problem belonged to the School 
Board. 

At one school it was declared that the unanimous 
opinion of the teachers was that the “School Com- 
mittee knows what it’s doing and we abide by their 
decision.” At another it was voted to let the matter 
rest in the hands of the school board and in addition 
the teachers expressed a vote of confidence in the 
committee. They wished no meeting. 

Other schools took a similar position. 


Military Training Not Required.—The Committee on 
Militarism in Education quotes several authorities to 
prove that, according to the federal law, the land 
grant State colleges are not obliged to make military 
training compulsory. John W. Weeks wrote in No- 
vember, 1924, when Secretary of War: “The Na- 
tional Defense Act does not make military training 
compulsory at any of the institutions which receive 
the benefits authorized by the Act.” 

Teachers Start Action to Collect Judgment for $90,000 
Back Wages.—Employes of the Charlotte, N. C., 
public school system, from teachers to officials and 
janitors, brought mandamus proceedings in Mecklen- 
burg Superior Court against the Charlotte City Gov- 
ernment demanding payment of approximately $90,- 
000 to them in back salaries for the school year 1932- 
1933. The school employes recently secured judg- 
ments against the city in this amount and the man- 
damus proceedings are an effort to enforce the judg- 
ment. It is claimed the city had money available to 
pay the entire bill. 


Denial of Academic Rights on Increase in New York. 
—Violations of academic freedom in New York City 
schools and colleges are reported in a pamphlet re- 
cently published by the New York Academic Free- 
dom Committee, unit of the City Civil Liberties Com- 
mittee. Such violations have been increasing in re- 
cent years as authorities have grown determined to 
block protests against abuses, corruption, and injus- 
tice. Unquestioning support of the Board of Educa- 
tion is demanded of teachers. Rights of students to 
free expression are curbed. The pamphlet sells for 
fifteen cents and may be secured by writing the Union. 


17 


Poplar Bluff, Mo., Teachers to Get Full Pay Again.— 


Teachers in Poplar Bluff schools were given a sur- 
prise when the Board of Education restored the last 
cut in pay. The increase, which will amount to about’ 
15 per cent, was made possible by the large amount 
of delinquent taxes paid into the school treasury dur- 
ing the past two months, 


Income Changes.—Within the last four years accord- 


ing to the United States Bureau of Foreign and Do- 
mestic Commerce, wages paid have fallen off 60%, 
salaries have dropped 40% and income of all types 
from property has been diminished by only 30%. 
(See New York Times, Jan. 22.) 


Portland Street Car Union Wins Pay Boost.—An- 


other victory for organized labor in Portland, Ore., 
was achieved in the decision of the Arbitration Board 
which heard the wage controversy between the local 
Street Railway Men’s Union and the Portland Trac- 
tion Company. The board recommended that the 
six-hour day be retained and that the wage rate be 
increased to 72 cents per hour, which brings the 
hourly scale up to that paid in 1930. 


California Court Rules Against Drill Resisters.—On 


January 8 the Supreme Court of California denied 
the petition of Albert Hamilton and Alonzo Reynolds, 
Jr., conscientious objectors to military requirements 
at the University of California at Los Angeles. Sus- 
pended from the University last November because 
of their refusal to drill, Hamilton and Reynolds sought 
to gain a mandate for reinstatement with exemption 
from the military course by appealing to the courts. 


Ohio State Suspends Seven Pacifists—The suspended 


boys were better than average students, and gave every 
evidence of genuine and sincere conscientious objec- 
tions to military service. Each signed the University 
oath solemnly declaring himself to be a conscientious 
objector. 

“Ohio State University has again run up the flag 
of reactionary educational policy,” an editorial in the 
St. Louis Post-Dispatch comments. Referring to Ohio 
State’s dismissal of Professor H. A. Miller three 
years ago as an “exhibition of academic littleness,” 
the editorial vigorously declares the dismissal of these 
students—“because they want to spend valuable time 
at college in studying something besides how to carry 
a gun and how to stab the head of a dummy”—an 
even worse blow at academic freedom. 


Investigation of Arms Manufacture—The Women’s 


International League for Peace and Freedom requests 
sympathizers to urge the members of the Senate For- 
eign Relations Committee to pass the bill introduced 
by Senator Nye directing investigation of individuals 
engaged in the private manufacture of arms. 


National Navy Program.—The Conference on the 


Cause and Cure of War and the National Council 
for Prevention of War are urging individuals to pro- 
test against the national program for increasing the 
navy which includes the annual budget of $285,000,000 
for continuing construction on twenty vessels; $238,- 
000,000 borrowed from the Public Works Fund to 
build in addition 32 naval vessels, and the Vinson 
bill already passed by the House authorizing the con- 
struction of 65 destroyers, 30 submarines, 1 aircraft 
carrier and 1,184 airplanes, to cost about $500,000,000. 














18 


Me eetion for De 





American Federation of Teachers 
Organized April 15, 1916 
Affiliated with the ze, Federation of 

or 
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, IIl. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
Official Organ 
Apvisory Eprtor1at Boarp 
Lucie W. ALLEN  RutH GIL_etre Harpy 
Chicago Local 3 New York Local § 


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


Se_ma M. Borcuarpt A. D. SHEFFIELD 
Washingten Local 8 Wellesley College 
Joun M.Graysre. Cuartes B. STILLMAN 
San Francisco Local 61 Chicago Local 2 
Florence Curtis HANson 
Executive Editor 
Publisher 
H. G. Avarr Printinc Co. 
107 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IIl. 
toe 











The memory of the people 
is proverbially short. Today 
they may surrender without 
a struggle precious rights or 
privileges for which they 
made the supreme sacrifice 
but yesterday. If the leaders 
of American business today 
have no_ suggestions for 
meeting the present situation 
beyond proposing a general 
restriction of the educational 
opportunities of boys and 
girls of the nation, then are 
they intellectually bankrupt. 

—GEORGE S. COUNTS. 











Something for Teachers 
to Think About 


The Cleveland Press in an editorial 
says: 

But there has certainly been prog- 
ress when the schoolmasters can agree 
on the objective, however much they 
may disagree as to the means for 
reaching it. 

What have we done in the past to 
justify this comment? 

What are we going to do in the 
future in order that it may not be 
repeated ? 


All Workers in Unions 


The 1933 convention of the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor emphasized 
the necessity of 100 per cent organ- 
ization of working men and women 
in bona fide unions in order to equip 
themselves with the machinery neces- 
sary to secure their full rights under 
the codes of fair competition estab- 
lished by authority of the National 
Industrial Recovery Act. 

The importance of the convention’s 
admonition is illustrated every day 
in Washington in the hearings held 
by the Recovery Administration on 
the various codes, as well as in the 
procedure before and after the 
hearings. 

The codes are practically all drawn 
up by organizations of employers, 
called trade associations, without con- 
sultation with the employes, organ- 
ized or unorganized, despite the fact 
that the labor sections affect very 
vitally the welfare of all the workers. 

In actual day-to-day practice it is 
a truism evident to all serious- 
minded persons that the labor sec- 
tions of the codes receive much more 
consideration from both employers’ 
representatives and Recovery Admin- 
istration authorities when the em- 
ployes covered by the codes are ef- 
fectively organized than they do in 
industries where the employers for 
years and years have bludgeoned their 
employes into joining subservient 
company unions and similar schemes 
of employer “welfare work.” 

After the codes are signed by the 
President it is equally apparent, from 
months of observation, that the labor 
sections. according the workers the 
right of collective bargaining without 
employer interference and setting up 
maximum hours and minimum wage 
standards, are much more adequately 
enforced if the workers are organ- 
ized in bona fide trade unions strong 
enough to fight vigorously every in- 
fraction of labor’s rights both under 
the National Recovery Act and the 
codes themselves. 

Workers everywhere should enroll 
100 per cent in unions affiliated with 
the American Federation of Labor. 
Otherwise the labor guarantees con- 
tained in the Recovery Act will be- 
come just what employers of the Weir 
and Budd and Ford type desire them 
to be—mere paper declarations with 
the workers kept in economic serf- 
dom and unable to maintain their 
rights under the law. 





AMERICAN TEACHER 


THE 


mocracy 





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 support 
from public education. 

DR. HENRY R. LINVILLE. 











Union Better Than Laws 


We have long sought, we are still 
seeking, protective legislation for 
teachers. We have secured a few 
tenure laws, some pension laws, some 
minimum wage laws. Some of these 
have been lost, swamped in the “econ- 
omy” wave, 

There is a better way to insure 
protection of salaries, position, teach- 
ing conditions, personal liberty, aca- 
demic freedom; and that is organ- 


ization. Let the teachers organize in 
strength, joined with their fellow 
workers. Then and only then can 


they be sure of adequate compensa- 
tion, security of tenure, decent teach- 
ing conditions, a voice in administra- 
tion, professional standards  de- 
termined by themselves and therefore 
high. 

They can be sure because they 
speak with a collective voice. The 
collective voice is the strong force 
and can name the terms of contract 
and the standard of their calling. The 
potential power of the teachers is 
greater than of any other group. 
When the teachers speak collectively, 
all the world will listen. 

Professor H. M. Cassidy of the 
University of Toronto told the Stev- 
ens committee inquiring into unsatis- 
factory industrial conditions in Can- 
ada that trades unions in the men’s 
clothing industry in Canada have been 
more effective in insuring satisfac- 
tory working conditions than mini- 
mum wage laws and factory acts, 

How equally true this may be in 
the educational industry. 

How long will it be before the 
teachers realize this truth and learn 
to act collectively. 





Company Unions 

We have long been looking for 
something on the subject of company 
unions that would with some degree 
of adequacy explain this type of or- 
ganization. We have finally found 
it in the Christian Science Monitor, 
well known for its fair and impartial 
treatment of controversial subjects. 











or 
1y 
ee 
T- 
id 
mr, 
al 








APRIL, 1934 


19 


Democracy in Education 


Because organized labor is about to press 
Congress to outlaw company unions, and 
because the legality of company unions 
under the NIRA already has been ques- 
tioned in the courts, many persons soon 
will be asking what company unions are 
and what are their virtues and defects. 

Company unions are schemes for em- 
ploye representation instituted by employ- 
ers during the last 20 years, and especially 
during the last 12 months, principally as 
an alternative to ordinary unions. 

Since a company union is organized 
among the workers engaged by one em- 
ployer, the scope of the union fits the area 
of thé most numerous industrial griev- 
ances. The company union is a shop affair 
with outsiders excluded. The conferences 
that are features of such organizations in- 
form employers concerning labor problems 
and educate labor in management problems 
so the unions can be mutually beneficial. 
These unions extend responsibilities to la- 
bor over matters of labor welfare—savings, 
building and loan, lunch services, recrea- 
tion and the like—as well as over hours 
and wages. Thus workers are trained to 
enlarge their functions. By bridging the 
gap between the front office and the shop, 
company unions promote loyalty and dis- 
courage resignations, friction and strikes. 


On the other hand, no workers ever of 
their own initiative have organized a com- 
pany union—it is a boss-inspired union. 
The power that creates company unions 
can destroy them. Worker representatives 
not only must not antagonize the manage- 
ment—tor that means discharge—but are 
ignorant of labor conditions in other plants 
and other sections even in the same in- 
dustry, and moreover are untrained in the 
tactics of bargaining; thus the representa- 
tives are usually timid, ignorant and un- 
skilled negotiators. No truly equal-sided 
collective bargaining is possible in com- 
pany unions. A company union cannot 
strike because it has either no treasury or 
one limited to its own members; it cannot 
get the help of other workers in the same 
industry. Consequently a company union 
has no power of compulsion over an em- 
ployer. 

Under a_ benevolent administrator a 
company union may produce harmonious 
relations, but most of the enterprises that 
have introduced company unions belong to 
the autocratic class of employers. Under 
the latter’s administration, company unions 
exist mainly as a barrier to real unions; 
if in those instances the company union 
should destroy the regular union, the day 
of the company union probably soon would 
set. 


lf the New Deal aspires to balance a 
strong united employer group against an 
equally strong organized labor group, this 
ideal cannot be obtained through company 
unions; indeed, the existence of company 
unions hinders the attainment of the goal. 
Therefore, except in those few cases 
where employe representation means a 
genuinely democratic control of working 
conditions, the attitude of tha ordinary 
citizen toward company unions must be 
related to that citizen’s attitude toward the 
control of industry. Shall it be autocratic 
if sometimes benign individualism, or col- 
lectivism balanced between employer, em- 
ploye and the government or the public? 


Declaration of Faith in Music 


Oy SCHOOLS are facing serious problems. The cultural subjects, 
especially, are being attacked. There is urgent need for a 
declaration of faith that the arts are not optional luxuries for the 
few, but are essential for the complete living of the many. 


{ Music and the allied arts give cheer and comfort and richness to 
life. They bring beauty to our materialistic civilization. Beauty 
contributes to the morale and stability of a nation. Social unrest 
gains its readiest recruits among men who have not found beauty 
and joy in their work and in their environment. 


{ Our fathers faced a simpler world than ours, with relatively 
simpler needs. Modern inventions are shortening the working week 
and greatly increasing the hours of leisure. But in making this 
advance we have also incurred some penalties. Science and the ma- 
chine have added so much to living that we may have rated them 
above human values. Life tends to be overmechanized. Education 
today must concern itself with physical and mental health and with 
emotional, social, and spiritual responses as well as with reasoning 
powers. 


{ The responsibility of the present generation for the education of 
those that are to follow should not be shifted to the future. Youth 
must be served while it is youth. If we fail in our duty to the boys 
and girls of today, it cannot be made up to them in after years when 
prosperity returns and public funds are more easily available. We 
have no right to unload upon the youth of today the burden of our 
adversity. 

{ We, therefore, declare our faith in the arts. Curtailments in edu- 
cational budgets must not be permitted to affect vitally the cultural 
subjects, especially music. Avocations as well as vocations must be 
provided for the sake of the present times and for the days of larger 
leisure which lie ahead. 


The foregoing statement was adopted at a meeting of official delegates appointed by 
fifty-seven national organizations (representing a total membership of over five million 
American citizens), held at Chicago, July 4, 1933. 











A democratic state demands a 
democratic system of free public edu- 
cation, limited only by the capacity 
of youth to profit by its opportuni- 
ties; and by the depth of the national 
purse. The system of education in 
Ontario provides free education for 
all between the ages of seven and 
twenty-one; with a compulsory at- 
tendance between the ages of seven 
and sixteen—Mrs. Adelaide M. 
Plumptre, Chairman, Board of Edu- 
cation, Toronto. 


Of course, I am in favor of 
the Child Labor Amendment. 
A step in the right direction 
was achieved by demonstrating 
the simplicity of its application 
to industry under the N.R.A. 
Those connected with indus- 
tries which had been the worst 
violators, were the first to see 
the wisdom of that step. 


It is my opinion that the 
matter hardly requires further 
academic discussion. The right 
path has been definitely shown. 


FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. 





“Before you try to convince any- 
one else, be sure you are convinced, 
and if you cannot convince yourself, 
drop the subject.” 


—John H. Patterson. 

















E ee 


DONTE eS Eee. 








Misunderstanding 


Misunderstanding of the nature and 
program of the American Federation 
of Teachers and propaganda against 
the organization are unhappily fre- 
quent. 

For a better understanding we re- 
produce a portion of a letter sent to 
1000 high school teachers in Mil- 
waukee by the Milwaukee County 
Federation of Teachers for the pur- 
pose of making clear “the high pro- 
fessional character of the American 
Federation of Teachers.” 


To the Milwaukee High School Teachers: 

“The American Federation of Teachers 
is an international organization having 
absolute control over its own policies and 
actions,” according to a statement made by 
Samuel Gompers, former president of the 
American Federation of Labor on De- 
cember 16, 1919. “No local or state cen- 
tral labor body nor the American Federa- 
tion of Labor has the right or the power 
to call upon teachers, under any circum- 
stances, to strike.” 

Thus it is seen that the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers is an autonomous body 
affliated with the American Federation of 
Labor. Its locals are self-governing, and 
are free to do their own work without 
interference, but! at the same time are 
united for mutual support and counsel in 
county and state teachers federations and 
with state and national crafts federations, 
which formulate policies and exercise in- 
fluence without the use of force in the 
various fields. 

John Dewey, world famous educator and 
a member of A. F. T. Local No. 5, says: 
“There certainly should be no objections on 
the part of officials or teachers to affiliate 
with labor. Such objections as have arisen 
have been due to snobbery or cowardice.” 

The American Federation of Teachers 
is striving to promote progressive educa- 
tional ideals, and the economic, social, and 
professional welfare of the teachers of 
this country. 





Dr. Jesse H. Holmes 


Dr. Jesse H. Holmes of Swarth- 
more, noted educator and liberal, has 
been nominated for governor on the 
Socialist ticket. 

Professor Holmes was chosen 
president of Philadelphia Local 192 
at the first reorganization meeting 
after the addition of several hundred 
members to the Union. He has been 
active in A. F. T. for several years. 





Hon. Lynn Frazier, U. S. Senator, 
North Dakota—It is very evident 
that if the NRA is to be a success 
that the teaching profession will 
have to be given consideration to- 
gether with the other professions. 





What shall it profit a nation to 
balance its budget and let its children 
go hungry? 





The Snake That Swallowed 
Itself 


A lumberman in a southern camp 
once told a story of a snake that held 
its tail in its mouth and rolled to 
its destination like a hoop. It seemed 
the snake did very well in the open 
spaces but when it rolled into the 
woods it hit a tree and swallowed 
itself. 

A great many of our legislatures 
are making hoop snakes out of their 
taxation programs. In their desire 
to secure revenue to finance public 
enterprise and to keep governmental 
agencies off rocky shores the repre- 
sentatives of the people run the ship 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
ceives more from government than 
the individual with a low income. If 
the protection of the right to receive 
the income were the only benefit de- 
rived, it would still be greater than 
that received by those in the lower 
income brackets. With all the genius 
of those whose ego teaches them they 
are superior it is not likely that they 
would have much income if placed on 
a deserted island. 

A time will come when we will all 
realize that an income tax is the only 
equitable tax, but the following table 
will show the necessity for it at the 
present time. The figures are from 
the United States Department of 


Labor. ay 




















ANNUAL INCOME IN THOUSANDS OF 


Distribution .... 0-1 1 2 3 5 

re  wiethae 66% 33.6 32.2 20.7 14.8 10.4 
rs 18.5 15.8 14.3 17.4 24.4 
Transportation... 14.4 15.8 16.0 10.8 8.8 
. ane 9.0 8.8 12.8 13.6 16.8 
PE cndwe ¢éie 11.6 10.8 10.1 8.3 6.4 
Recreation ..... 2.3 3.2 5.3 7.5 9.5 
EE, cae nei nh be 2.2 2.5 3.0 5.0 3.2 
Dn tprewvadce 1.5 2.1 2.2 1.5 1.6 
DD deceadeaes 0.8 0.9 1.7 1.8 2.5 
eee 2.4 1.4 0.8 0.2 0.2 
Education 1.1 1.7 2.5 2.9 3.2 
SAVINGS ...... 2.7 4.8 10.6 16.2 14.0 


DOLLARS IN THE UNITED STATES) 


10 25 5 100 150 3006 500 1,000 
7.6 4.1 2.2 1.8 1.7 0.6 0.4 0.2 
21.7 19.6 25.5 26.3 18.5 5.4 3.9 1.8 
8.1 7.1 4.4 4.3 4.0 1.2 0.6 0.2 
12.0 8.2 6.2 3.7 2.2 1.0 0.5 0.2 
3.5 1.8 1.1 0.8 0.9 0.3 0.1 0.1 
10.4 12.2 8.6 6.9 7.0 3.2 1.7 0.6 
5.0 3.1 2.5 1.5 1.1 0.7 0.4 0.1 
1.7 2.2 2.5 2.6 2.5 2.8 3.6 2.7 
3.5 7.8 12.6 145 16.1 16.3 16.7 17.2 
0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 
4.5 3.7 3.0 2.4 2.4 1.2 0.8 0.4 
21.9 30.1 31.4 35.4 43.5 67.2 71.3 76.5 








of state headlong into icebergs and 
shoals. For four years the watch- 
word of those trying to solve the eco- 
nomic jigsaw puzzle has been “pur- 
chasing power in the hands of the 
masses.” In state after state the law 
makers have passed sales taxes that 
must, in every instance, reduce the 
purchasing power of the individual 
who must of necessity spend his en- 
tire income for goods. 

It does not take a mathematician to 
understand that the goods sold in any 
state will be diminished by the amount 
of taxes collected upon the sale of 
goods. If a tax of two percentum is 
levied on sales it means that two per 
cent less goods will be sold and that 
two per cent fewer men will be em- 
ployed in the manufacture and dis- 
tribution of goods. Men so displaced 
are bound to add to the tax burden. 

The people of Ohio did a very 
good job of legislating for themselves 
when they initiated and passed a con- 
stitutional amendment limiting tax to 
ten mills on real estate, but they have 
not gone far enough in their tax pro- 
gram to solve the problem. The ser- 
vices of government are just as es- 
sential in modern society as services 
rendered by individuals. If the pub- 
lic wants police and fire protection, 
roads, schools, and services for which 
they collectively contract, those ser- 
vices must be paid for by taxation. 

It is only reasonable to assume that 
the individual with a high income re- 





From this data it can be seen that 
the percentage of income spent for 
consumption goods and service varies 
inversely with income, and that unex- 
pended surplus varies directly with in- 
come. These savings must be in- 
vested in a manner to produce in- 
come. It is difficult to conceive of an 
investment that does not become a 
debt burden since every interest bear- 
ing investment becomes a debt obliga- 
tion of the person, corporation, or 
government agency that borrows it. 
When the interest or principal is paid, 
the payment goes back into an unex- 
pended surplus and must be invested 
again. It must be evident that this 
increasing debt burden can only re- 
sult in a paralysis of the whole eco- 
nomic structure of which the schools 
are a part. 

To return income surpluses to the 
consumers of goods, two methods may 
be used. The method in common us- 
age at the present time is borrowing. 
The method proposed by the income 
tax compels the recipients of large in- 
comes to contribute to the society 
trom which these incomes were re- 
ceived something for the privilege of 
receiving them. If those who have 
more income than they can use do 
not believe teachers can use more 
goods than they are now consuming, 
let them try us out for a while with 
a full salary and dinner pail. 


Crype E. KIKer. 


Monthly Bulletin, Toledo Local 25u. 























































= 

















we ar te wa SS 


‘'ionrAaiee i qawftrY-woar-oarwanvm’~ 















———— ae 





APRIL, 1934 


Sales Tax Defeated Again 

In rejecting the proposal for a 
$400,000,000 sales tax the Ways and 
Means Committee of the Federal 
House of Representatives reflected 
the view of the great masses of the 
American people. 

The American Federation of La- 
bor, representing millions of workers 
and all persons receiving modest in- 
comes, has fought the sales tax as a 
policy of raising revenue for the Gov- 
ernment from the very inception of 
the propaganda launched by the 
wealthy in favor of it. 

The scheme is an open and unpa- 
triotic attempt to shift taxation from 
the rich and well-to-do, who are able 
to pay it without the sacrifice of any 
useful element in their lives, to the 
masses of the people who are least 
able to bear the tax burden and whose 
living standards are necessarily re- 
duced by every dollar extorted from 
them by tax collectors. 

The sales tax is also reprehensible 
because it is a concealed tax. It is 
collected from every purchaser of an 
article, but the tax is not revealed 
so that consumers can see and under- 
stand the amount they are called upon 
to pay. 

Frequently sales tax advocates 
throw a sop to working men and 
women and all other small-income 
groups by exempting the necessaries 
of life from their reactionary pro- 
posal. This is an attempt to deceive 
the masses. If the sales tax limited 
should become a law, the wealthy and 
their propagandists would immedi- 
ately endeavor to have the limitations 
removed and extend the scheme to 
cover sales of all articles, including 
products necessary to sustain life. 

Where the sales tax has been de- 
feated, its proponents are coming 
back now with the promise that the 
monies collected from the sales tax 
shall be used exclusively for school 
support. This sudden interest in the 
schools by those who have been loud- 
est in their demands that school cost 
be lowered is at least suspicious. 

We congratulate the members of 
the Ways and Means Committee for 
their refusal to adopt a system of 
taxation which is nothing but an in- 
strument of “soak the poor.” 





The Oxford Union, century-old de- 
bating club of young Britons which, 
a month ago, voted that “this house 
will in no circumstances fight for its 
king and country,” recently rejected 
by 750 to 138 a motion to expunge 
from the records its previous motion. 





Mrs. Roosevelt Scores 


The public school authorities of the 
District of Columbia were adminis- 
tered a just rebuke by Mrs. Roosevelt 
in connection with the inauguration 
of free lunches for over 4,000 school 
children whose. parents were unable 
to provide them with food. 


When the lunch system was opened 
the event was celebrated with appro- 
priate eclat. The First Lady was in- 
vited to attend the ceremony and eat 
one of the lunches, which included 
milk and fruit. Later a rumor 
reached her that the lunch, which she 
had pronounced good, was a phony 
lunch prepared especially for the oc- 
casion and not a sample of the real 
lunches given the children. The First 
Lady determined to find out the truth 
by a personal visit, without the knowl- 
edge of the authorities, to one of the 
schools at lunch time and eat an ac- 
tual free lunch. 

The First Lady was surprised. The 
lunch consisted of clam chowder. No 
fruit. No milk. Of course Mrs. 
Roosevelt condemned this parsimony, 
which proper medical authorities de- 
clare is not conducive to the chil- 
dren’s health. The school officials 
immediately got busy and made ar- 
rangements to include fruit and milk 
in the free lunches. They will prob- 
ably serve no more phony lunches to 
the First Lady. 





Twenty Down—Sixteen to Go 


Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania 
has signed the bill that made his state 
the twentieth state to ratify the Child 
Labor Amendment. 


Sixteen states must still ratify be- 
fore the Amendment is adopted as a 
part of the Constitution of the United 
States. 

Whether you live in Maine or Cali- 
fornia, in Florida or Washington, it 
is your task to further this great ob- 
jective of the American Federation 
of Labor, and to use every possible 
influence for its ratification in the 
states still on the dark side in order 
that at an early date the United States 
Congress may pass sound legislation 
protecting the childhood of the nation. 

The states which have ratified the 
Amendment are Arkansas, Arizona, 
California, Wisconsin, Montana, Col- 
orado, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Mich- 
igan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, 
New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, 
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, 
Washington, and West Virginia. 


21 


A Strain on the “Faith and 
Hope” of Teachers 


Dr. John L. Tildsley, district su- 
perintendent of schools in New York, 
has listed the qualities a pupil should 
have by the time he (or she) leaves 
high school: a will to perfection, 
habits of work, the power to analyze, 
a critical, open and sympathetic 
mind; tolerance; courage; imagina- 
tion; curiosity and so on. For these 
ends, Dr. Tildsley says we need 
teachers of first-rate ability, “with 
faith and enthusiasm.” One of the 
first things generally required of 
teachers is that they have faith in 
America and some enthusiasm, at 
least, for American political institu- 
tions. 

Teachers in Chicago have virtually 
been ordered to abandon both that 
faith and that enthusiasm—to aban- 
don hope, also, of ever being paid 
a decent living wage. Teachers all 
over the country are being told that 
the work they do, in creating the 
character of the next generation of 
Americans, is of so little importance 
that schools will drop courses, drop 
subjects and years, or close alto- 
gether. And these things are de- 
fended not only on the ground that 
the community is poor, but on the 
ground that education has always 


been wasteful and will be more 
wasteful in the future. Dr. Tildsley’s 
ideals and requirements are both 


sound ; all that is left is to get a few 
politicians to believe in them.—Gil- 
bert Seldes in Chicago American. 





Fingers in the Pie 

Dr. Willard W. Beatty, superin- 
tendent of the Bronxville schools, 
opened the annual “fingers in the pie” 
series of luncheon discussions for the 
New York Teachers Union on Feb- 
ruary 3. He spoke on “A New Free- 
dom for the Secondary Schools” at 
the Town Hall Club, 123 West Forty- 
third street. 

Dr. H. Gordon Hullfish of the Dal- 
ton School at Ohio State University 
led the discussion. Dr. John R. 
Clark of Lincoln School, Columbia, 
served as chairman. 

Other talks in the series include 
mental health, adult education, and 
foreign affairs 





Thus far the NRA hasn’t protected 
labor to any great extent. Its chief 
accomplishment is to make the work- 
ing man believe that he has a right 
to organize. 

WILiraAM GREEN. 


es ere 
— 





Are You Afraid? 

“One reason, I think, why so little 
attention is given to the real, effective 
forces, and to the vital problems and 
issues, is that schools are too often 
conducted in an atmosphere of fear. 
Students are too afraid of what the 
teachers will think. Teachers are 
afraid of principals. Principals are 
afraid of superintendents, superin- 
tendents are afraid of boards of edu- 
cation, and members of boards of 
education are afraid of organized 
minorities and professional dema- 
gogues. I am not saying that this 
condition prevails in all schools, or 
even in most of them, but I am cer- 
tain that it does in very many. Now 
a situation like that is not conducive 
to candid study of vital problems. It 
does not encourage a spirit of inde- 
pendent manhood and womanhood. 
It is destructive of the sort of calm 
and unafraid thinking which leads to 
the intelligent appraisal of our public 
problems. It does not encourage citi- 
zenship fit for the assumption of 
democratic responsibilities.”—-Walter 
FE. Myer in the Civic Leader. 





Pride of Profession Hinders 
Unionization of Teachers 


Editor’s Note: Seeking a consensus of 
the vital question of “unionization” of 
teachers, the United Press sent an inter- 
viewer among educators gathered in Cleve- 
land. The correspondent gathered com- 
ment at random from teachers of educa- 
tion, college professors, school superin- 
tendents and just plain teachers. Results 
of the inquiry are shown in the following 
article. 


By Meape C. Monroe 


Cleveland—(UP)—Pride of pro- 
fession stands as a bulwark between 
the average American school teacher 
and any plan of unionization to re- 
duce his hours of work and raise his 
salary. 

This became apparent today when 
the United Press, seeking to gain a 
cross-section of opinion on the vital 
question of “unionization” of teach- 
ers, interviewed a score of educators 
here fer the convention of the Na- 
tional Education Association’s De- 
partment of Superintendence. 

A large majority of those inter- 
viewed stated emphatically that they 
would not favor “labor” unions for 
teachers. Professional clubs or guilds 
might be acceptable, they acknowl- 
edge, but not any form of organiza- 
tion which tended to reduce the teach- 
ing profession to the laboring level. 
A few were convinced that only 








through complete unionization and 
affiliation with the American Federa- 
tion of Labor could teachers hope to 
improve their lot and place them- 
selves in a position to demand and re- 
ceive better working conditions, 
shorter hours and higher salaries. 

The interviewer asked the follow- 
ing questions of the educators: “Do 
you favor unionization of teachers? 
Do you think teachers are justified 
in striking for higher wages if it 
meant even temporary closing of 
schools? If you favor some sort of 
organization, do you think affiliation 
with the American Federation of La- 
bor should be sought?” 

The opinion of Mrs, Edura Filet- 
cher, principal of public school No. 
180, Brooklyn, N. Y., reflected that 
of several other educators. 

She said, “The average teacher, | 
believe, feels that he is a ‘profession- 
al’ and not of the laboring level. | 
am not in sympathy with the union 
way of doing things. I prefer to 
fight my own battles.” (Rugged indi- 
vidualist! We still have ’em.) 

C. T. Stone, superintendent at 
Long Branch, N. J., was just as em- 
phatic in his contention that teachers 
have the right to organize and to strike 
if necessary. 

“Tf matters continue as at present,” 
he said, “we'll have to have unions. 
I see no reason why they should not 
affiliate with the A. F. of L. Strike? 
Why not? There is no reason why 
teachers should not strike if condi- 
tions become unbearable.” 

—The Ashland, Pa., Daily News. 





Intelligence Improved By Diet 


Dr. Daniel R. Hodgdon, elementary edu- 
cation department of New York University, 
has completed a study of the effect of 
diet upon intelligence. He finds that in- 
telligence is improved by diet. Accord- 
ing to Dr. Hodgdon, I. Q’s are frequently 
dependent on physical conditions, and 
many children who are rated “slow” by 
intelligence tests can attain a higher rat- 
ing after a few weeks of proper feeding. 

Dr. Hodgdon recommended that school 
boards provide well-trained individuals 
to examine children critically from the 
standpoint of mental and physical sub- 
normality and that in the latter case they 
provide specially trained teachers and 
special conditions to correct them. 

“No teacher should be permitted to 
fail a pupil until all means have been 
exhausted to discover the cause of his poor 
achievement,” Dr. Hodgdon declared. 





A man may hold a candle to en- 
lighten the people so as to burn his 
fingers.—Proverb. 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





Educational Conference in 
North Carolina 


Dr. A. T. Allen, Superintendent of 
Public Instruction for the State of 
North Carolina, issued a call for dele- 
gates from every state organization to 
attend a conference in Raleigh, Feb- 
ruary 16, for the purpose of discuss- 
ing the changes that should be made 
in the subjects taught in the public 
schools of the State. 

Some fifty-six organizations re- 
sponded to this call and the North 
Carolina State Federation of Labor 
was numbered among those attend- 
ing. Mr. Roy R. Lawrence, presi- 
dent of the State Federation of La- 
bor, and C. S. Boger, secretary of 
the Charlotte Central Labor Union, 
attended as delegates. 

Mr. Lawrence addressed the meet- 
ing with seven points for its consid- 
eration and thought: 1. That the 
schools should be for the boys and 
girls and not the boys and the girls 
for the schools. 2. Not any of the 
present academic subjects should be 
dropped or eliminated from the 
schools. 3. A complete course in Vo- 
cational Guidance should be taught. 
4. Complete courses in Industrial 
Arts and Vocational Training should 
be taught, meeting the needs of In- 
dustry and Commercial Business. 
5. Intelligent and beneficial courses 


of Physical Education, Health, Hy- 


giene, and Competitive Athletics 
should be given instruction under 
trained and directed supervision. 


6. Complete courses of instruction 
should be taught in the cultural sub- 
jects such as: Music, Dramatics, 
Art, and Aesthetic Dancing. 7. Un- 
graded Classes for the backward and 
sub-normal child are important and 
should be carefully planned. 

Mr. Lawrence emphatically stated 
that the schools should be taken out 
of politics and the politicians’ hands 
and given over to the educators to 
operate, and further, that there is a 
certain group seeking to abolish edu- 
cation above the fifth grade. In clos- 
ing it was stated that the public 
school teachers should receive a wage 
commensurate with their standard of 
living, requirements of their position, 
and the place that they occupy as 
builders of a community, state, and 
nation, and that the state should seek 
all possible Federal Aid for the sup- 
port of the schools. 

Organized Labor should feel duty 
bound to support the program of pub- 
lic education because of its importance 
in the educating of the boys and girls 











of 
of 
le- 


-b- 
$s- 


lic 


OT 


ice 
rls 





APRIL, 1934 


in its homes. This matter should be 
given the unselfish, unrelenting sup- 
rt and assistance of every member 
of Organized Labor and when the 
call is sent out for aid for this edu- 
cational program every member of 
Labor should respond as one man, 





May Day—Child Health Day 


On May Ist will be celebrated the 
tenth anniversary of National Child 
Health Day. In the years since its 
initiation by the American Child 
Health Association in 1924, the ob- 
servance of the day has undergone 
significant changes. Each year it has 
struck a deeper note. Each year new 
groups have realized that they had a 
contribution to make. Steadily from 
May Day to May Day communities 
have come to understand that team- 
work for child health is for the best 
interests of children. 

Of all the values of May Day- 
Child Health Day, perhaps the great- 
est is the opportunity it presents to 
enlist the active interests of groups 
which might otherwise not give the 
subject of child health any particular 
thought, and to draw them into the 
general program. 

The spirit of cooperation, be it 
purely local or state-wide, has been 
fostered by the activities which have 
had May Day-Child Health Day as 
their inspiration. Communities work- 
ing together for a single project, have 
got a taste of real cooperation, and 
have discovered its values as well as 
its difficulties. They have found that 
working together was time-saving, 
money-saving, and even sometimes 
life-saving. 

At this time, more than ever, when 
appropriations and budgets are being 
almost universally cut, individuals 
and groups should strive to come to- 
gether for child-saving programs con- 
nected with the desperate needs of 
the hour. 

The Conference of State and Pro- 
vincial Health Authorities of North 
America, the body which last year 
assumed the future responsibility for 
the national conduct of Child Health 
Day, believes that adequate care for 
babies and for expectant and nursing 
mothers must be the foundation on 
which to build a nation of healthy 
children. They have therefore elected 
to continue the use this year of 
the slogan, MoTrHers AND BaBIEs 
First. The health officers are fight- 
ing to maintain the public health 
measures which they believe most 
necessary to protect infant and ma- 
tcrnal health. They need popular 





support as never before. They will 
welcome the cooperative activities of 
groups of citizens drawn together in 
May Day-Child Health Day pro- 
grams. In nearly every state the 
State Chairman for May Day is to 
be found in the State Board of 
Health—in the Bureau of Child Hy- 
giene, where such exists. So that, 
where it seems desirable, the oppor- 
tunity exists for promulgating a state- 
wide May Day program covering 
some particular aspect of child health. 

More often, however, communities 
decide on their own local projects, 
which may cover babyhood, the pre- 
school age, or the child at school, or 
all three. Wherever or whatever the 
project, National Child Health Day 
is becoming year by year more pro- 
ductive of practical results. 

From the first year of its observ- 
ance, May Day-Child Health Day 
has had for its symbol the daisy. 
There is something in the milk white 
beauty of its petals which recalls the 
innocence of childhood. But those 
who know this flower will recognize 
also its vitality. Drought cannot kill 
the daisy ; storms pass over it in vain, 
We want this vitality for our chil- 
dren; we want so to build that, as 
Calvin Coolidge once said, “America 
may produce men and women worthy 
of our standards of citizenship.” 
This can only be done by joint ac- 
tion. No home, no school, no public 
or private agency can take on the 
whole task. Teamwork and under- 
standing between all are needed to 
reach the goal of May Day—children 
whole and healthy in body, mind, and 
spirit. 





Annual Youth Week Celebra- 
tion Set for April 28-May 5 


The annual observance of Youth 
Week has been set for April 28 to 
May 5, inclusive, by the National 
Youth Week Committee for the 
United States, of which Mr. Walter 
W. Head, nationally prominent finan- 
cier and president of the Boy Scouts 
of America, is the chairman. 

Starting as Boys’ Week in 1920 
through the initiative of the Rotary 
Club of New York City, this annual 
event has been taken up in thousands 
of cities all over the world, and each 
year assumes increasing importance 
and attracts additional support by 
organizations and individuals who 
have come to realize the value of de- 
voting greater attention to the na- 
tion’s greatest asset—youth. 

During the past several years the 
feeling has gradually developed that 





23 


girls as well as boys should be pub- 
licly recognized by a week devoted to 
their interests. In many cases girls’ 
weeks have been observed but in gen- 
eral it has been found more satis- 
factory to combine Boys’ Week and 
Girls’ Week into a Youth Week. This 
year the national committee has ac- 
ceded to popular demand and changed 
its name to the National Youth Week 
Committee for the United States, and 
recommends that insofar as possible 
communities make their observances 
joint affairs, giving recognition to 
girls as well as to boys. 

The special observances of each day 
of Youth Week will be: Saturday, 
April 28, Youth Recognition Day; 
Sunday, Youth Day in Churches: 
Monday, Youths’ Vocational Day, 
Tuesday, Youths’ Health Day and 
Evening at Home; Wednesday, Youth 
Day in Entertainment and Athletics; 
Thursday, Youth Day in Schools; 
Friday, Youth Day in Citizenship; 
Saturday, May 5, Youth Day Out- 
of-Doors. 

Various striking features have been 
developed and adopted widely in con- 
nection with the week’s celebration. 
On Youth Day in Schools, for ex- 
ample, efforts are made to have par- 
ents visit the schools, and speakers 
give talks emphasizing the value of 
an education. In some schools ar- 
rangements are made for boys and 
girls to act as school officials and to 
conduct classes for one or more 
periods. 

Cooperation of the schools with the 
Youth Week program, of course, does 
not stop with Youth Day in Schools. 
School officials generally assist in 
planning the parade which is the fea- 
ture of Youth Recognition Day. 
Likewise, the help of school men is 
essential to a successful carrying out 
of Youths’ Vocational Day, Youths’ 
Health Day, Youths’ Day in Enter- 
tainment and Athletics, and Youth 
Day in Citizenship. In the case of 
the latter day the election of boys 
and girls to public offices in the com- 
munity is usually handled by the 
schools. 

Teachers desiring a manual of sug- 
gestions containing additional in. 
formation about the 1934 Youth Week 
program may obtain one free of 
charge by writing to the National 
Youth Week Committee for the 
United States, Room 900, 211 West 
Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois. 





“PEACE ON EARTH,” a vivid 
anti-war play, has run now for two 
months at the Civic Repertory Thea- 
tre in New York City. 






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BOOKS 


“There is no frigate like a book 
To bear us lands away.” 
—Emily Dickinson. 

















THe AMERICAN YEAR Book, 1932. 
Edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, 
LL.D. The American Year 
Book Corporation (The New 
York Times), New York, N. Y., 
pp. 947. $7.50. 


Here is a Year Book that stands in 
a class by itself, both in methodical 
and scholarly treatment. The Ameri- 
can Year Book is devoted almost en- 
tirely to the American scene of the 
year 1932, and international events 
receive treatment only when they had 
affected American life, directly or in- 
directly. The entire panorama of 
American life is compressed into 
seven major classes: HIsToRICAL, 
AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, GOVERN- 
MENTAL Functions, ECONOMICS AND 
BusINEss, SocIiAL CONDITIONS AND 
Aims, SCIENCE—PRINCIPLES AND AP- 
PLICATION, and THe HuMANITIEs, 
each of which is in turn divided into 
appropriate sections and treated by 
men and women who form the cream 
on the American intellectual horizon. 
A few names will suffice to indicate 
the position and the credibility of the 
preeminent contributors to the Amer- 
ican Year Book: John B. Andrews, 
B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Secretary of the 
American Associatica for Labor Leg- 
islation, writes on Workmen’s Com- 
pensation and Insurance; Charles E. 
Baldwin, former Acting Commis- 
sioner of Labor Statistics of the U. S. 
Department of Labor, writes on La- 
bor Conditions and Organizations; 
Albert Croll Baugh, Ph.D., Profes- 
sor of English at the University of 
Penna., writes on English language 
and Literature; Irving Fisher, Pro- 
fessor of Political Economy at Yale 
University, writes on the Prohibition 
controversy; Thomas N. Hoover, 
Professor of History at Ohio Uni- 
versity, writes on Election Statistics 
of 1932; and few of the rest of 200 
contributors are less distinguished in 
their respective fields of endeavor. 
The articles on the various sciences, 
such as medicine, chemistry, electro- 
chemistry, oceanography, meteorology, 
climatology, surgery, psychology, etc., 
are handled by men and women who 
have acquired national and interna- 
tional renown in their fields. Not 


a branch of human cognition is over- 
looked. Under Social Conditions and 
Aims—The 


Humanities—there are 





extremely interesting articles on the 
progress of sociology, socialism, trade 
unionism, literature, poetry, music, 
sculpture, painting, the theatre, etc., 
in the United States during the year 
1932. Each section is complemented 
by an interesting and up-to-date bib- 
liography concerning the _ subjects 
treated in the section, and by a com- 
prehensive list of cognate societies 
from which readers may obtain more 
information concerning the subject or 
movement they are interested in. 

The American Year Book reads 
like a thrilling novel, and as we read 
chapter after chapter the entire pano- 
rama of American life, with its shady 
and sunny sides, passes before our 
eyes and as we conclude the book a 
permanent record of America of 1932 
remains indelible upon our minds. 
Without fear of contradiction, I pro- 
nounce the American Year Book as 
the best and the most scholarly an- 
nual record of contemporary Ameri- 
can life published in the United 
States, and I fervently wish that all 
the teachers could afford to buy it 
each year! 

» 


MicHaet B. ScHeter. 





A BackGrounp Stupy oF NEGRO 
CoLiece StupEeNTs. By Dr. Am- 
brose Caliver, Senior Specialist 
in the Education of Negroes, U. 
S. Office of Education, Bulletin 
No. 8, 1933. 

As its name states, this study is an 
effort to survey the social, economic, 
cultural, academic, and _ intellectual 
background of Negro college stu- 
dents. Its purpose is twofold; its 
immediate objective is to establish 
criteria and to reveal trends for com- 
parison; its ultimate aim is to im- 
prove educational conditions by fur- 
nishing information and suggesting 
principles to serve as guides in estab- 
lishing and conducting a personnel 
program. 

Data for the study were gathered 
from 1880 freshmen students from al- 
most every state in the union attend- 
ing 33 colleges for Negro youth, lo- 
cated in 13 southern states, 3 border 
states and in the District of Co- 
lumbia. A personnel questionnaire 
which appears as Appendix II in the 
study was submitted to each student; 
and in addition the 1930 Edition of 
the American Council on Education 
psychological examination for high 
school graduates and college fresh- 
men was administered to each stu- 
dent. 

The tabulations and discussions of 
the results of the questionnaire and 
of the psychological tests are treated 





THe AMERICAN TEACHER 


in three parts. Part I has to do with 
certain personal interests, activities, 
and factors (health, etc.) ; Part II is 
concerned with relationships between 
kinds of schools previously attended; 
Part III approaches the problem from 
the status and educational equipment 
of the parents, brothers, and sisters 
of the students studied. 

In discussing the need of the study, 
Caliver points out that “although this 
is a study of a large group of stu- 
dents its main justification is that it 
will assist in better understanding the 
individual.” Effort should be made to 
identify those students who deviate 
from the average, either above or be- 
low, and to arrange to give them the 
special treatment which they need. 
Again and again he deplores the fact 
that students of superior minds are 
lost in the crowd and are never given 
the opportunity and stimulus to de- 
velop in their particular fields of su- 
periority. In his conclusions he 
states that “there is serious lack of 
selectivity in Negro colleges as shown 
by the heterogeniety of their student 
bodies ;” that some of the brighest 
students were found in colleges hav- 
ing lowest average scores, and vice 
versa, Furthermore he claims that 
the strongest indictment against the 
schools is the fact that superior stu- 
dents fail as much as average or in- 
ferior students, due to lack of atten- 
tion to student interests. 

One fact which constantly emerges 
from the study of the findings is that 
of individual and group differences 
among Negro college students; dif- 
fering from white college students in 
degree rather than in kind. The 
median psychological scores of fresh- 
men in the different colleges ranged 
from 26.33 to 131. 

There appears to be lack of defin- 
ite educational and vocational guid- 
ance programs in Negro schools and 
colleges. This is clearly shown in 
the students’ expressions of prefer- 
ence for a college major and a life 
career, and in the intelligence of those 
students choosing certain careers. 
Every college should at least furnish 
students with objective scientific in- 
formation concerning his curriculum 
or vocation. 

One paragraph in the findings de- 
scribes the typical Negro college 
freshman. He is 20 years old, has a 
mean psychological score of 76; comes 
from a family of 5 children, of which 
1 has already graduated from col- 
lege. His mother had 8 years of 
schooling, his father 9. In high 


school he read 21 books voluntarily, 
engaged in 3 hobbies, belonging to 3 











ie 


es 


APRIL, 1934 


organizations, and held 2 offices. His 
family has a monthly income of 
$95.00. His home contains 5 or 6 
rooms, and is occupied by 4 or 5 
persons. His parents have 96 books 
in their home and take two mag- 
azines. 

The study concludes with several 
concrete suggestions of interest to 
every one concerned with education 
of Negroes, emphasizing especially 
the need for personnel work and out- 
lining briefly a concrete plan by 
which such work might be begun and 
conducted. 


MAUvuDELLE B. BousFIELD. 





Voice oF YoutH—An Anthology of 
Poetry. The Viking Print Shop. 
Voorhis School for Boys, San 
Dimas, Calif. 75 cents postpaid. 


If you are a parent, a teacher, are 
interested in boys, were ever young 
yourself, you will want to see Voice 
of Youth, an anthology of poems by 
pupils of the Voorhis School for 
Boys. 

Twenty-eight poems have been 
selected from among hundreds. 

This one will make you want to see 
the others. 

A MURDER 
Ben O’Brien 


She ran laughing to meet me 
All the way up to the pump— 
It’s a litthe more than a mile from the 


house— 
And gayly called to me 
Panting like a little puppy 
Because she had run so far. 


“Mommy told me I could come, 
And I ran all the way.” 

And she stretched out her arms 
To be picked up, 


Her eyes shining with excitement and hap- 
piness. 

And then what did I do? 

I said, “Lord, child, what a dirty face!’ 


She stared at me just a minute, 

Then turned and trudged back without an- 
other word, 

Her excitement and happiness killed. 

Some day I must account for that murder. 











The CRY of the 
CHILDREN 


Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz 


Price 10 Cents 


Order from 
THE TEACHERS UNION 
70 Fifth Avenue 


NEW YORK 





CHILDREN OF THE Depression. By 
M. E. Haggerty. Bulletin No. 
6—Day and Hour Series. Uni- 
versity of Minnesota. 


Have you read Professor M. E. 
Haggerty’s bulletin entitled Children 
of the Depression published as Bul- 
letin No. 6 of the “Day and Hour” 
series of the University of Minne- 
sota? 

Professor Haggerty states in this 
bulletin that the teachers have been 
fighting their own battles for too long 
a time. Their committees appear di- 
rectly at the legislature and other 
places to plead their own cause and 
their own cause only. In answer to 
their arguments they are told that 
they are simply asking benefits for 
themselves, 

Professor Haggerty develops the 
idea that education, as we have it in 
the United States now, is due to the 
efforts of other organizations such as 
the American Federation of Labor. 
He urges that the agencies interested 
in education be brought into alliance 
with the teachers to help fight the 
battle of the “Children of ‘the De- 
pression.” He also urges that the 
teachers be brought into alliance with 
those agencies which are seeking a 
cure for the world’s social and eco- 
nomic ills. The need for an outlook 
beyond the school world is required 
for the protection of that world. 

It is only in a society built on a 
sound social and economic basis that 
a competent public school system can 
function. The teachers must help to 
build that society and join with those 
working to the same end for the 
greater as well as the lesser ob- 
iective, 





First ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GUID- 
ANCE DEPARTMENT OF THE SAM- 
vEL J. Trupen Hicn ScHoov. 
By Elsa G. Becker. Samuel J. 
Tilden High School, Tilden Ave- 
nue East 57th Street, Brooklyn, 
New York. 24 pp. 


In these days when “fads and 
frills” are being eliminated from many 
school systems all over the country, 
this pamphlet, which tells the story 
of how one school in New York City 
started a progressive program in‘ the 
field of guidance is, to say the least, 
encouraging. Not only does the 
pamphlet tell about what was ac- 
complished in the school year of Sep- 
tember, 1932, to June, 1933, but it 
maps out its own concrete, forward- 
looking Five-Year Plan. 


25 


The pamphlet in tables and text 
answers such questions as: Who 
came to the Guidance Office, Why 
did they come, Who counseled the 
students who came, Is the interview 
a pleasant chat—and nothing more, 
What about testing, What besides in- 
terviewing made up a counselor’s 
day, What machinery did the Guid- 
ance Office set up to facilitate its 
work, What became of the counseled 
students ? 

From the report one gathers that 
a knowledge of good vocational guid- 
ance techniques and a progressive 
educational approach characterized 
the work of the year. As a fellow 
union teacher, one cannot help but 
ask the following questions, however: 
Where did these teachers get their 
free time, were they allotted free 
time in the administrative set-up to 
do this work, or did other teachers 
in the school carry their teaching 
loads? 


FLorENCE E. CLark. 





Women WuHo Work. Grace Hutch- 
ins. International Publishers. 
381 Fourth Ave., New York. 
Price $2.00. 


With a wage differential for women 
workers now officially recognized in 
about one-quarter of the N. R. A. 
codes, the question of equal oppor- 
tunity for women in the United States 
once more comes sharply to the fore. 

This question is discussed in a new 
book, Women Who Work, by Grace 
Hutchins—the first book in this coun- 
try to deal with this and other prob- 
lems from the viewpoint of women 
workers themselves. It is a volume 
of 288 pages, prepared under the 
auspices of the Labor Research As- 
sociation, fresh and unusual in its 
approach, carefully documented but 
popular in style. 

Topics dealt with include what 
women are doing in various occupa- 
tions, as shown by the 1930 Census; 
problems of farm women and the 
part played by women in the recent 
agricultural strikes; teachers, nurses, 
office workers, telephone operators, 
saleswomen, domestic service work- 
ers, and their working conditions; 
factory workers and how the “New 
Deal” affects hours and wages in the 
main women-employing industries; 
problems of accidents, health, old 
age, and unemployment; problems of 
Negro women and the discrimination 
against them; women in the strikes 
of American labor history; extent of 







































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26 


trade union organization among wom- 
en and the outlook for the future. 
A chapter is included on the status of 
women in the Union of Socialist 
Soviet Republics. An index adds to 
the value of the book for ready 
reference. 





Tue Pictrortat History oF THE 
AMERICAN NEGRO. Pictorial 
History, Inc. Memphis, Tenn. 
1933. 375 pp. $5. 


I wish some philanthropist would 
consent to send a copy of this book 
to Fihrer Hitler and to each of his 
deluded cohorts! And, incidentally, 
a copy could have been profitably 
sent to Chancelor Dollfuss before he 
loses his head and goes mad like his 
blood-relative in “Kuitur” land. What 
a revelation—and perhaps an eye- 


opener—they would find, in the 
dramatic story of the American 
Negro! Think of it! The black sav- 


age, the very antithesis of Hitler’s 
conception of “pure Aryanism,” who 
only a few centuries ago was hunted 
like cattle in Africa, loaded in freight 
ships, brought to the shores of “free 
America” against his will, and sold 
to the slave owners in the colonies 
as part of their property in perpetu- 
ity; who up to the sixties of the last 
century did not know how to read, 
write, and philosophize—could rise to 
intellectual and spiritual heights with- 
in the brief space of a few decades 
of so-called “freedom” that 
would put to shame many an “Aryan 
apostle”. What surprises yet the 
Negro has in store for the white man 
when he receives his genuine emanci- 
pation and freedom from his present 
economic and cultural shackles. 

From obscure beginnings and in 
the face of despicable persecution, 
prejudice, and discrimination alike in 
the South and the North, despite the 
Emancipation Proclamation and the 
Fifteenth Amendment, the Negro 
slowly but surely attained positions 
in all fields of American life that 
are enviable as they are remarkable. 
Today there is not a nook or cranny 
in American civilization where the 
Negro’s influence is not felt. In 
literature, philosophy, art, science, 
politics, religion, sociology, social 
work, etc., the Negro is doing his 
noble part and by his contributions 
has made America of today and will 
mould America of the future. 

In format, in binding, in typog- 
raphy, in illustrations, in the simple 
but exhaustive tale of the rise of the 
Negro from the wilds of Africa to 
his present status in North America 
as told in the Pictorial History of the 








American Negro, it has no compeer 
in the English speaking world. 
Moreover, it constitutes a valuable 
and timely contribution to the clarity 
of human thought at a period when 
a recrudescence of racial fanaticism 
and national bigotry threatens to en- 
gulf the civilized world and plunge 
humanity back to the Middle Ages. 


MicuHaet B. SCHELER. 





Book Notes 


MANAGEMENT AND TEACHING TECH- 


NIQUE IN THE ELEMENTARY 
Scuoot. George A. Retan, Ph.D. 
Prentice-Hall, Inc. N. Y., 1933. 
356 pp. $2.00. 


This book is intended for use by 
Sophomore classes who begin their 
teaching experience in the training 
school and who expect to go into 
rural one-room and_ consolidated 
schools before continuing their col- 
lege work. It is a general treatment 
of a subject that has been more than 
amply covered during recent years. 
For those sophomores still optimisti- 
cally expecting to find a teaching posi- 
tion the book may be used as a be- 
ginning guide. 
An IntTrRopucTIon To Brotocy. El- 
bert C. Cole, Ph. D. John Wiley 
and Sons. N. Y., 1933. 496 pp. 
$1.75. 


A general and up-to-date introduc- 
tion. The illustrations and diagrams 
are excellent. A good feature of the 
book is its division of subject matter 
which allows the individual teacher 
great leeway in planning the work in 
accordance with the available living 
material in the community without 
destroying the general unity of the 
study. 

Tue Nations at Work. Packard, 
Sinnott, Overton. Macmillan. 


N. Y., 1933. 634 pp. $1.75. 


A high school text-book in economic 
and commercial geography, excel- 
lently printed and admirably illus- 
trated. A valuable, interesting, timely, 
and worth-while text. 

ScHoot BroapcastinG. World Peace 
Foundation. International In- 
stitute of Intellectual Coopera- 
tion of the League of Nations. 
Published in Paris. 201 pp. 
$2.00. 


A study of what has been done, 
and the results gained, in the use of 
the radio for education in many coun- 
tries. Interesting reading. 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Tue Epucation or VisuaLLty Han- 
DICAPPED CHILDREN. Ralph Vick- 
ers Merry. Dayton, Ohio. Vol. 
19. The Harvard Studies in 
Education. Harvard University 
Press. 1933. 211 pp. $2.50. 

A highly specialized work covering 

every phase of the subject from a 
general consideration of the whole 
field of education for the blind, 
through the intelligence, personality 
problems, and guidance work for the 
children, and concluding with an ex- 
cellent section devoted to the train- 
ing of teachers. 


We Look Asout Us. Craig and 
Burke. Ginn and Co. N. Y., 
1933. 194 pp. 


The first book in a new series de- 
signed to meet the needs of young 
children who are curious about ele- 
mentary facts in general science. 
Some teachers will like it—and some 
won't. It depends on your teaching 
philosophy. In general, the material 
is presented in an interesting fashion, 
and is simple enough to interest the 
first grader for whom it is intended. 





DyNAMICS OF THERAPY IN A 
CONTROLLED RELATIONSHIP. Jes- 
sie Taft. Macmillan. N. Y., 
1933. 296 pp. $1.50. 


The author makes careful an- 
nouncement of the fact that the word 
therapy is used instead of the word 
“treatment.” She is a psychologist 
and has done much work in child 
guidance—indeed it is the child guid- 
ance type of work which comes clos- 
est to her usage of the word therapy. 
The book is carefully and exactingly 
prepared, and should be of interest 
to anyone concerned with child guid- 
ance in any of its forms. 


THE 


Tue Ricut Book For THE RIGHT 
Cuitp. American Library As- 
sociation, by a committee under 
chairmanship of Mary S. Wil- 
kinson, graded by committee un- 
der Vivian Weedon and Carle- 
ton Washburne of the Winnetka 


Schools. John Day Co., N. Y., 
1933. 288 pp. Index and di- 
rectory. 


An invaluable book for the teacher 
interested in guiding the reading of 
any age child. Books are noted by 
title and author, with short and ex- 
cellent summaries for each. Particu- 
larly valuable for school libraries. 











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APRIL, 1934 








News from the 
Field 


New Locals 


The following locals have been char- 
tered since the last issue of the American 
Teacher : 

















| 


A Cede tvecece at Local 273 
Lucas County, Ohio......... Local 274 
Toledo Principals .......... Local 275 
Bloomington, Ill, ........... Local 276 
EE EN chins oan e<he-n4n Local 277 
Memome, idaho ..........<<. Local 278 
Greater Cleveland ......... Local 279 
New Rochelle, N. Y........ Local 280 
Valley City State Teachers’ 

oe een ead Local 281 
Pulaski County, Ark. ...... Local 282 
OS RS Ee Local 283 
University of Michigan and 

I ee Te Local 284 
Tintic District, Utah........ Local 285 
Carolina School for 

PE ae Local 286 


This is a significant list—city and coun- 
try teachers; grade high school, normal, col- 
lege, and university teachers; twelve states 
represented, three of which have not had 
teachers’ unions within their limits before. 

To the question, “Who Are Your 
Friends?,” an ever increasing number of 
teachers appear to know the answer. 

he American Federation of Teachers 
welcomes these earnest groups into the 
campaign for educational recovery. 


Chicago 

The general situation in Chicago is well 
known to our readers. No pay for the 
teachers for months; irregular pay days 
with tax warrants discounted 5% to 20% 
and little cash as payment; reduced sal- 
aries now unpaid for months. 

The teachers have been compelled to 
live.on credit. In some cases their credit- 
ors are becoming impatient. A Chicago 
teacher has received this letter from a law- 
yer for a Loop firm. This letter not only 
indicates a lack of patience on the part 
of the creditor, but what is much more 
important and informing, that the Chicago 
Board of Education has set up machinery 
for the protection of the creditors of the 
teachers to whom the city is indebted. 

“I am, therefore, taking this opportu- 
nity to remind you that the Board of Edu- 
cation has provided a committee to hear 
the complaints of creditors upon whom 
Chicago teachers are working unreason- 
able hardships. It is my intention to place 
your case before them at their next meet- 
ing unless you call at ...... ...... within 
five days and make satisfactory arrange- 
ments for settlement of the account.” 


New York Local 5 


In conformity with the long-time ad- 
vocacy of teacher and labor representation 
on Boards of Education by both A. F. T. 
and A. F. L., the Teachers Union of New 
York is seeking to place a teacher on the 
Board of Education and to obtain labor 
representation. 

he Union Teacher, publication of the 
Teachers Union, says: 


The movement on foot to increase the size 
of the Board of Education is gaining mo- 


mentum. The union is working not only 
for the larger board but for teacher and 
labor representation. In these days of edu- 
cational reorganization, the int of view 
of both teachers and labor should be full 
represented. This step is in harmony wit 
the tendencies of the times. 


The Union urges upon the new superin- 
tendent, Dr. Harold G. Campbell, the es- 
tablishment of an advisory council of 
teachers. 

The Union Teacher says on this subject: 


We hope Dr. Harold G. Campbell will lose 
no time in availing himself of the latent 
talent within our great system, and select 
an educational advisory council composed of 
our foremost educators and teachers. We 
hope he will seek to substitute for the pres- 
ent useless Teachers’ Council a Teachers’ 
Council which is truly representative of the 
teaching staff, which is non-political, and 
which is educationally progressive in out- 
look. 

The Union reaffirms its program and 
asks the cooperation of the new superin- 
tendent in the attainment of these ends: 

The Teachers Union will continue its ac- 
tivities to establish the merit system, to 
make education creative, to assure teachers 
full academic freedom to individual instruc- 
tion, to make cooperative activity the basis 
of our educational structure, to centralize 
educational responsibility, and to utilize to 
the fullest extent the potentialities of the 
entire school system. 


Washington Local 8 


The officers of the Teachers Union Lo- 
cal 8 for the year 1933-34 are: 


President—Miss Mary C. Dent. 

Vice-President General—Mrs. Edith Paul. 

Vice-President Normal School—Miss Bes- 
sie Lacey. 

Vice-President Senior High School—Miss 
Clara Stutz. 

Vice-President Junior High School-—Mrs. 
Elizabeth Draper. 

dices Grades—Miss Annie Keli- 
er. 

Recording Secretary—Miss Eva Horvath. 

Corresponding Secretary—Miss Florence 
Grant. 

Treasurer—Miss Katherine Harrington. 

Assistant Treasurer—Miss Jessie B. Ed- 
mondson. 

Custodian—Miss Elizabeth Grahame. 


Miss Dent, the president, says in THE 
District TEACHER, the official publication of 
the Union: 

“During the coming year our organiza- 
tion will continue the work it has carried 
on so faithfully in other years. We shall 
keep in touch with school policies, express- 
ing our approval or disapproval of them. 
We shall seek to remedy injustices where 
they are found. We shall propose new 
measures where they seem necessary. We 
shall continue our legislative work. We 
shall endeavor to interest all teachers in 
our organization. As always we shall 
stand ready to give advice and active help 
wherever they are needed. 

“We have petitioned the Board of Edu- 
cation for the placement on a preferred 
eligibility list for reappointment of those 
teachers forced to resign because of the 
operation of the married person’s clause 
in the Economy Act. We shall work dur- 
ing the coming year to secure the repeal 
of the clause which made these resigna- 
tions necessary. 

“Last year there was much said about 
a new rating system for teachers. Un- 
fortunately the elaborate and _ indefinite 
system drawn up by a committee of of- 
ficials, no teachers being on said commit- 
tee, did not meet with the approval of our 
organization. As an organization we reg- 











27 


istered our disapproval of it and petitioned 
the Superintendent to have the old system 
used last year. We then, after careful 
study, drew up a very simple rating sheet 
embodying the principles of rating fair to 
the teachers cai submitted it to school of- 
ficials. This year we shall work for the 
adoption of our rating sheet, because we 
feel that it is fair to the teacher, simple 
to administer, and gives a definite place 
for suggestions for the teacher’s improve- 
ment. We are sure that in the matter of 
rating, that subject so near to every teach- 
er’s heart and capable of causing so much 
sorrow and dissatisfaction to the individual 
teacher, the teachers’ views should be con- 
sulted and a rating system fair and ac- 
ceptable to them adopted. We, should like 
to see our system a opted because it is a 
fair and dignified one.” 


Memphis Local 52 


A double victory has been won by 
Memphis’ 1200 school teachers in abolish- 
ing summer school and postponement of 
their second “payless pay day” during the 
fiscal school year. 

The Board of Education has decided to 
abolish summer school this year and to pay 
teachers’ salaries for the month of March, 
which previously had been selected as the 
second payless month of the year for 
teachers. 

Both moves were asked of the board 
two weeks ago by a delegation from the 
Memphis Teachers Association and a dele- 
gation from the Memphis Trades and La- 
bor Council. 

The board reserved the right to select 
the month when teachers will not be paid 
between now and July 1, when the new 
school year begins. 

Miss Vivian Poindexter, president of the 
Memphis Teachers Association, told the 
board the teachers favored June and ex- 
plained why. She said that June checks, 

aid July 1, would not be so badly missed 
“ teachers because schools would be re- 
cessed for vacation days and _ teachers 
would not have carfare and lunches to pay 
for during July. 

Since teachers were paid for only 10 
months last and this year and face another 
10 months pay for the coming year, the 


association had petitioned the board to 
abandon summer school. 
Until the depression started, teachers 


were paid 12 months a year and required 
to teach summer school every third sum- 
mer and attend school every third summer, 
leaving them one vacation of three months 
every third year. 

Last year the requirement of attending 
school themselves was abolished. 

Under the new set-up, teachers will teach 
nine months each year, have three full 
months vacation and be paid salaries for 
10 months. They have six months more 
leisure during a three-year period and are 
paid six months less salary. 

A committee from the Memphis Trades 
and Labor Council, which not only called 
on the board, but also conferred with 
Mayor Overton, is still endeavoring to 
have teachers paid salaries for 12 months 
instead of 10. 

W. J. Prescott, president of the board, 
says salaries for 12 months will be re- 
stored when finances permit. 

Night schools were dropped two years 
ago, one of the first economy measures 
taken by the school board. 














Portland, Ore., Local 111 


The new officers of the Portland Teach- 
ers’ Union are President, Edna Scott; Re- 
cording Secretary, Hazel Browne; Finan- 
cial Secretary, Hilma Anderson. 

The Union is deeply concerned about the 
sales tax referendum and together with 
organized labor in the state is opposing 
this attempt to soak the poor. 

After considerable negotiation with the 
Union the School Board raised the pay of 
a few substitutes. Also it righted the 
wrongs of substitutes in the schools in the 
number of required class periods. 

The Union protested the use of 
the schools by bankers for their 
programs successfully. 

Helping to collect delinquent taxes and 
to secure additional school revenue has 
been a major activity. 

The Union is growing in numbers and 
influence, That influence extends beyond 
the city. Miss May Darling visited Salem 
and assisted a group of teachers there to 
form the Salem Teachers Union, Local 


the 
thrift 


Miss Darling also addressed all teachers 
and school employees of Kellogg, Idaho, 
and installed the Kellogg Teachers Asso- 
ciation, Local 278. 


Brookwood Local 189 


Forty-five teachers and secretaries of 
workers’ education projects attended the 
annual workers’ education conference held 
at Brookwood Labor College February 24- 
25 under the auspices of Local 189. 

The upsurge in workers’ education is in- 
dicated by the fact that of the 30 projects 
reported on, 15 have been organized in the 
last six months. With thousands of new 
members flocking into the trade unions, the 
necessity for education as to the tactics, 
history, and aims of organized labor has 
impressed union leaders anew. 

Public speaking, parliamentary law, eco- 
nomics, labor history, and trade union tac- 
tics are the subjects most frequently dealt 
with, although English, labor drama, cur- 
rent events, and recreational classes are 
also numerous. 

Four new projects have been started in 
the South—the Highlander Folk School at 
Allardt, Tenn., the Carolina Workers’ 
School at High Point, N. C., the Richmond 
(Va.) Workers’ School, and a school for 
adults and children in the mining town of 
Holly Grove, W. Va. 

The Amalgamated Clothing Workers 
have set up classes over a wide area in 
Pennsylvania and the educational depart- 
ment of the International Ladies’ Garment 
Workers has classes in many centers. 
Locals of the American Federation of 
Hosiery Workers are subsidizing Brook- 
wood extension classes in Boonton, Dover, 
and Washington, N. J., and Bangor, Pa. 

Other projects reported on include Read- 
ing, Philadelphia, Roseto, and Pen Argyl, 
Pa.; Newark, Paterson, and Passaic, N. J.; 
Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; New York, 
Boston, Milwaukee, New Haven, and Cali- 
fornia; the Bryn Mawr, Wisconsin, and 
Southern Summer Schools; the Women’s 
Trade Union League, Pioneer Youth, Com- 
monwealth College, and Brookwood. 

Federal funds are available through the 
F. E. R. A. and the C, W. A. for the em- 
ployment of otherwise unemployed teach- 
ers, but various obstacles to the satisfac- 
tory development of workers’ classes under 
this plan were cited: Local superintend- 
ents of schools sometimes refuse to O. K. 
the projects or refuse the use of school 


buildings and facilities. Teachers with a 
labor viewpoint and a technique of teach- 
ing workers are hard to find. As one edu- 
cational director put it, “They are more 
interested in getting their students to ‘pub- 
lic speak’ on ‘Inferiority Complexes’ or 
‘Sex and the Movies’ than on NRA and 
unemployment insurance.” (Here is a field 
for the A. F. T.—not only to make these 
teachers union-conscious but to see that the 
standard of pay for such “relief” teachers 
does not undermine the standards of full- 
time teachers.) 

More serious than these drawbacks is the 
danger that freedom of teaching and dis- 
cussion will be curtailed, particularly where 
cee gS magma are sharp and “leading 
citizens” ate on the school board. (“One 
boss objected to the labor dramatics class 
because it made his employes feel that 
they were something besides shirt work- 
ers.”) Although those in charge of the 
federal funds at the moment may be 
friendly toward workers’ education, there 
is the possibility that another administra- 
tion might take over the whole machinery, 
still under the guise of workers’ educa- 
tion, for the sort of “power through glad- 
ness” propaganda of the Hitler regime. 

The NRA has been the central topic in 
many economics classes and _ institutes. 
“Our students are very critical of the 
whole plan and are convinced that the 
workers will have to fight for anything 
they get, just as they have always done,” 
was the general report. 


Heten G. Norton. 


Commonwealth Local 193 


Nineteen thirty-three has not been a 
spectacular year at Commonwealth Col- 
lege, but it has been a year of steady prog- 
ress. The work of the school, academic 
and industrial, has been improved. En- 
rollment for the year was about average, 
although it has become increasingly diffi- 
cult for working class students to raise 
the relatively low tuition fee. 

The financial situation of 
changed very little, if at all, 
year. 

The personnel of the faculty has re- 
mained practically unchanged for the past 
three years, and these teachers have, of 
course, increased their efficiency. 

The curriculum has been improved from 
year to year, and a constant effort is made 
to adapt the training at Commonwealth to 
the needs of active workers in the move- 
ment. The aim is to give the student not 
only a theoretical background but to add 
as much as possible to his factual knowl- 
edge. 

An unflagging effort is made to imbue 
each student with the notion that radical 
activity is the only activity now-a-days 
worth his consideration and that in the 
labor movement he will find ample outlet 
for all his energies and sufficient oppor- 
tunity to exercise whatever talents he may 
have or can develop. 


San Francisco Local 215 


The San Francisco Federation of Ad- 
ministrators is doing a craftsmanlike piece 
of work. It is (1) holding discussion 
mectings; (2) working throuch a number 
of consolidated committees on _ tenure, 
teacher load, etc.; (3) preparing an NRA 
code; (4) securing vital and valuable pub- 
licity through non-teacher organizations; 
and (5) it has stopped curriculum elim- 
inations. 


the school 
during the 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Chicago Elementary Local 199 


The Elementary 
Chicago is gaining 


Teachers’ Union of 
in membership rapidly, 
It is recouping its treasury with an elab- 
orate card party. Its publication contains 
an excellent graphic chart indicating the 
high degree of cooperation by unions with 
worth while efforts to ameliorat 
ing school conditions. 


Washington Local 27 


“If the hills are high before, and the paths 
are hard to climb, 
Keep a-pluggin’ away. 
And remember that successes come to him 
that bides his time; 
Keep a-pluggin’ away.” 
—Paul Laurence Dunbar. 


distress- 


This little motto has been the slogan of 
Local 27, 

We have tried to keep a-pluggin’. Be- 
fore school opened we held a get-together 
meeting of those executive members in 
town, mapping out plans for the ensuing 
year. 

Our first high spot after school opened 
was the pleasant visit of Mrs. Hanson to 
our local in October. The words she spoke 
along the line of showing the importance 
and necessity of our unionized effort to 
better education sank deep. All were im- 
pressed by her depth and sincerity. To 
our surprise Mr. A. Phillip Randolph and 
Mr. Webster of the Brotherhood of Sleep- 
ing Car Porters came to see us also, speak- 
ing words of encouragement, 

In November we gave a very delightful 
card party to help our finances; this ob- 
ject we accomplished and were able to pay 
some of our obligations. Miss Norma 
Boyd headed up the project. 

Appeals have come to the union to help 
members hit by provisions of the economy 
act. We interviewed all of the Board 
members in their behalf and in some cases 
were able to modify the blow dealt by cir- 
cumstance. We have placed before the 
House and Senate District Committees 
pleas for Community Center workers who 
desire to remain under the District Board 
of Education and not under the Commis- 
sioners directly. Through the good offices 
of Miss Selma Borchardt we were put in 
touch with Mr. Leroy A. Halbert, in 
charge of relief for unemployed teachers. 

A committee of Local 27 gave three 
hours each evening for a week at the 
Phyllis Wheatley Y. W. C. A. where we 
interviewed and certified unemployed teach- 
ers. In this period of time we registered 
thirty-one persons of high qualifications, 
from those holding their master’s degrees 
to others who were three and four year 
Normal graduates with records of success- 
ful teaching experience. Some had tech- 
nical training in commercial, art, library, 
science, etc. Of this number so far only 
three have received CWA appointments. 
We are, however, still at work for them. 
We are making community research to find 
out what the adults need educationally in 
the hope of securing more employment and 
of improving the community itself 

Local 27 is now planning a campaign for 
new members. 

At this writing, we have just lost by 
death a new member, Miss Jane Fleanor 
Dyson, teacher of Science at the Dunbar 
High School, who passed away after a 
very brief illness. A graduate of Cornell, 
she had given more than forty years of 
devoted service to the youth of this city. 


Mary Mason Jones 














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APRIL, 1934 


Superior Local 202 


Last fall was a critical time for the 
school teachers of Superior, Wisconsin. 

Checks were being honored by the city 
in scrip only; the 5% deductions from the 
teachers’ checks for the state retirement 
system were over-due at the state capital; 
teachers could not get enough scrip re- 
deemed to pay insurance premiums and 
similar debts and most appalling of all, the 
city council was contemplating a further 
pay cut of 25%. The City Council was 
smarting from the lash of an organized 
attack led by an interested minority of 
tax payers bent on this further reduction 
of 25%, effective January, 1934. Teachers 
were already on an 18% cut basis and in 
addition were losing $100.00 in increases 
guaranteed by the schedule because the 
$100.00 a year raise had not been granted 
the previous year. This last loss applied 
to all teachers who had not reached the 
maximum. This, then, was the situation 
last fall. 

A few teachers had been interested in the 
A. F. of T. for some years and the group 
which had started the organization some 
years before, now reorganized and made a 
determined drive for membership. One 
committee prepared and distributed the 
following arguments in order to aid the 
drive. 


Reasons for NOT Joining the Local 
Teachers Union 


1. If you feel that your present wage is 
just and sufficient—Don't join the Union. 


2. If you believe that this democracy Is 
going to continue to be ruled by an in- 
finitesimal minority — Don’t join the 
Union. 


3. If you think the teaching profession de- 
grades itself by even remote association 
with the American Federation of Labor 
—Don't join. 


4. If you are against the spirit of the N. 
R. A.—Don’t join the local union of the 
American Federation of Teachers. 


5. If you think the joys of teaching, pro- 
fessional ethics, and personal satisfaction 
in work well done are sufficient com- 
pensation for your work—and you can 
live on those beautiful abstractions— 
Don’t join the A. F. of 


6. If you value the opinion of a very small 
group above the convictions of 98% of 
the city’s population—Don’t join the local 
union of the American Federation of 
Teachers. 


To the Open-Minded Teachers of 
Superior 


John Dewey, one of America’s most famous 
educators belongs to the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers. 


In 1919, salaries were increased in Superior 
for school teachers as a result of the 
support of wage earners and the labor 
group. 


Not so long ago the city government decided 
the question of salary cuts of city em- 
ployees including teachers. In the decid- 
ing vote—of the five that voted against 
the salary cuts suggested, three were la- 
bor endorsed councilmen. 


The Superior Trades and Labor Assembly 
and every other organized labor group in 
the city has opposed salary cuts of school 
teachers. If it were not for the deter- 
mined opposition of the labor group we 
would find ourselves with much more 
drastic reductions of salary than we have 
now. 


Do You REALIZE THAT THIS OPPOSITION 
REPRESENTS THE WILL OF THE MAJORITY 
OF THE CITIZENS OF SUPERIOR? 


Superior is a city whose large majority of 
population is engaged in either skilled or 
unskilled labor. Your membership in the 
Teachers Local of the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers will help insure the con- 


tinued support of labor in struggles over 
salaries in the near future. 

In Superior there is no risk of antagonizing 
public opinion if you join the local unit 
of the American Federation of Teachers. 
If you expect to win back some of the 
ground lost it will be necessary to have 
the support of Labor. 


To GUARANTEE THAT Support, JOIN THE 


LocaL A. F. or T., Now. 


J. Henry Ohl, state official of the American 
Federation of Labor, has been the man 
that has been, time and again, responsible 
for killing legislation at Madison threat- 
ening the interests of teachers. In other 
words, Ohl has been fighting the battles 
down there of people who do not belong 
to the American Federation of Teachers. 


Do you expect that Ohl at Madison and the 
Labor leaders here in Superior will con- 
tinue to battle for you while you hold 
aloof from the A. F. of T.? 


Join the local group of this powerful, na- 
tion-wide organization NOW. 

In any case your good-will toward this 
movement will have everything to do with 
its success. 

We were encouraged in our membership 
campaign by local labor leaders. We now 
have a membership of over half of the 
teaching force of the system, 

Since last fall the Union has been active 
in accomplishing the following program: 


1. Prompt payment of retirement fund 
checks. 


2. Establishment of Cash Fund for pay- 
ment of insurance premiums and 
similar debts by teachers. 


3. Passage of School Board budget bv 
City Council without further reduc- 
tion in salaries. 


The Union is a member of the Trades 
& Labor Assembly with delegates in reg- 
ular attendance. A sympathetic ear has 
been turned to every plea we have made 
for cooperation. The Assembly has mili- 
tantly backed every action we have taken, 
endorsing our efforts to maintain a fair 
wage scale with the entire organized labor 
forces of the city. 

The local union recently sponsored a 
radio program over the local broadcasting 
station. The program, which was intro- 
duced by a prominent labor leader and 
member of the City Council, consisted 
chiefly of a dialogue between two Union 
members. The subject matter was taken 
from an article appearing in the Decem- 
ber, 1933 issue of the “AmeERICAN TEACH- 
ER” and entitled “Federal Taxation and 
the Schools.” The author was Irving 
Brant. 


R. A. MacDonaro, 
Correspondent, American Teacher. 


Tri-County, Wis., Local 240 


On February 10, Tri-County Local 240 
held a luncheon meeting in Appleton. Dr. 
Colin G. Welles, vice-president of A. F. 
T., was the guest speaker. He gave a 
most interesting and stimulating talk on 
the need of the unionization of teachers. 

Sixty-five people representative of ten 
Wisconsin cities were present. An in- 
creasing interest in the union movement is 
evidenced. 

Local 240 is advertising the A. F. T. and 
Chicago broadcasts and getting many lis- 
teners to the programs. 


MABEL JOHNSON. 


29 


Chattanooga-Hamilton County 
Local 246 


FeperATION News, bulletin of Local 246, 
is a union publication all right. It pub- 
lishes an “unfair to union labor” list and 
explains the method by which a more pro- 
gressive militant leadership in the State 
Association was secured. 

The Local is promoting a series of lec- 
tures. 


And This Is Charlotte, North 
. Carolina 


The Charlotte Public Schools were given 
a vacation of one day on December 7, so 
that the children from the first through 
the eleventh grade (we have but eleven 
grades in our high school now) could go 
downtown and witness a SANTA CLaus 
PARADE, a display sponsored by the Char- 
lotte Merchants and the Chamber of Com- 
merce, as an advertising scheme to stim- 
ulate a Christmas buying Orcy. The 
PARADE was as near NOTHING as anything 
that this writer has ever witnessed, and 
if there was anything EpucaTionaL shown, 
I failed to see it. The facts of the case 
are, first, the CHAMBER-MERCHANTsS pre- 
vailed upon the School Board to lend the 
schools for the purpose of promoting busi- 
ness enterprise and propaganda. It is 
doubted very seriously whether the CHAam- 
BER-MERCHANTS would close their business 
houses for the purpose of letting their 
employees witness fifteen minutes of a 
school work project, which by no possi- 
bility could amount to so little as this 
thing they dismissed school for; second, 
the whole work of three days was dis- 
rupted because of it; third, that the day 
that was lost must be made up by both 
teachers and pupils by adding one more 
day to the length of the school year. 
(There must be 160 teaching days in the 
1933-1934 school year. Last year there 
were 180); and fourth, although a com- 
mittee waited upon the School Board and 
protested against this holiday the Cuam- 
BER-MERCHANTS had so sold their propa- 
ganda to the members of the Board that 
the protest had no effect. It is these same 
CHAMBER-MERCHANTS who voted down a 
tax supplement this past fall to keep the 
twelfth grade, nine months school and a 
livable wage for the teachers. 

The Charlotte City Schools closed De- 
cember 15 for the Christmas holidays and 
re-opened January 2, a vacation of eigh- 
teen (18) days. The teachers received 
salary checks ($90.00 maximum) on De- 
cember 8. The next one that the teachers 
received was on January 27, a total of 
fifty-one days with Christmas in between 
—on $90.00. How do we do it? That's 
easy; just by not buying anything except 
what we eat and paying for the place in 
which we live, or by spending and going 
farther into the pit of debt. To many of 
us the CHAmMBEeR-MERCHANTS have refused 
credit, because we cannot pay for what we 
have bought in the past. 

The city of Charlotte owes the Char- 
lotte teachers approximately two months’ 
back salary from the school year of 1932- 
1933. In order to obtain this back salary 
the teachers were forced to enter a 
“friendly” suit with the city. The teachers 
won the suit in both the Superior and 
Supreme Courts before November 1. 
The joke is still on the teachers, as 
they have not received one penny of 









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30 


the back salary up to the present time, 
in spite of the winning of the judgment 
in two courts. (Our lawyer has been 
paid for his services.) Yes, there is 
a reason for this, and the reason lies 
with our Frrenps, BrorHers, and NEIGH- 
Bors, the Charlotte BANKERS ASSOCIATION, 
and with the City Manager of the City of 
Charlotte. The former refuses to loan 
the city any money whatever for the pay- 
ment of teachers’ salaries either past or 
resent. That we call a fine spirit of 
rotherly, Friendly, and Neighborly Love. 
(We have been aware for a long time that 
they hold such for the teachers and schools, 
as they have evidenced the fact before.) 
In the case of the City Manager, the man 
“ogre all of his time alibiing and passing 
the buck, or trying to see how many ways 
there are of getting out of paying the 
debt, instead of trying to see how many 
ways there are of making payment pos- 
sible. We are beginning to believe that 
it would be a good idea to hire another 
City Manager, and there are other organi- 
zations who are beginning to feel the same 
way about the matter. It is a shameful 
fact that the judgment does not. carry at- 
tachment papers with it. If it did, we 
might lay claim to a couple of the best 
fire-fighting trucks in the South, or the 
fleet of police cars. The whole amount 
owed to the teachers totals approximately 
$90,000.00 and were it paid, 99% of it 
would be handed out right here in the 
city of Charlotte in less than two days to 
our CHAmBER-MERCHANT and BANKER 
Frrenps. They fail to see that. 

Well, we know that schools and teach- 
ers all over the country are in dire straits 
of necessity and suffering, but we could 
not refrain from letting you know that 
this is Charlotte, North Carolina, the 
Home of Southern Hosprrauity, GENER- 
osiry, and ARISTOCRACY. 


Toledo Local 250 


The Toledo Federation of Teachers is 
carrying on an intensive campaign for 
school protection. 

It has requested the School Board to 
repeal the residence limitation rule and 
the regulation barring married women 
teachers from the schools of Toledo. It 
has also urged the Schoo! Board to in- 
crease compensation to 85% by the issu- 
ance of script against delinquent taxes. 

A representative of Local 250 is looking 
after school interests in the pending legis- 
lation at Columbus. Plans for the initia- 
tion of an income tax law are being car- 
ried forward. 

_ The delinquent tax drive of the Federa- 
tion is now taken up and supported by 
county officials and the press. 

The organization is growing in strength 
and influence. One hundred seventy-five 
new members have been added this month. 
Offices are maintained at 912 Adams St. 
A monthly bulletin is published under the 
editorship of Berenice Rairdon. 


Gerturpe KINzLeE. 


Savanna, Ill., Local 255 


The Savanna Teachers Union Local 255 
is taking an active part in the school board 
election. 

Miss E. Burns gave a very interesting 
talk on Alaska at a special meeting in Jan- 








uary. 

The social side of the Union is not 
neglected and a closely knit fraternal or- 
ganization is resulting. 





Grand Rapids Local 256 


Grand Rapids Local 256 is carrying on 
an energetic campaign to interest the 
teachers in effective organization for 
school protection. 

It is investigating tax delinquency and 
taking an active part in the school board 
election. 

A public meeting is being planned for an 
early date in the spring. 

AGNES LINSLEY. 


Ashland Local 257 


At a recent meeting this local passed 
resolutions commending the County Com- 
missioners of Schuylkill County for fight- 
ing in Court the appeals of the coal-min- 
ing companies to have the assessed valua- 
tions of their holdings reduced to the ex- 
tent of from twenty to twenty-five per 
cent. If these reductions are granted it 
will become necessary for most school dis- 
tricts in the county to repay out of re- 
duced budgets approximately twenty-five 
per cent of the taxes paid by these com- 
panies during the last three years, Such 
reductions would, of course, also reduce 
to a similar extent the taxes to be paid by 
these companies in the future. In most of 
these districts ‘mining is the only import- 
ant industry and the coal lands constitute 
practically the only source of wealth. 
These lands are largely exploited for the 
benefit of absentee landlords who have no 
interest in matters pertaining to the wel- 
fare of the community. In many districts 
the taxes on these lands amount to from 
a third up to nearly the whole amount of 
the tax duplicate, so that the requested re- 
duction, if granted, would bring about a 
serious crippling of educational and other 
socially useful activities. 

Ashland Local 257 is doing what it can 
to combat the attempt to reduce school 
budgets by publishing articles in the 
county newspapers and by contact with 
other labor organizations. 

Circulars calling attention to Mrs. Han- 
son’s broadcast on Feb. 5 were sent to 
principals throughout the county for dis- 
tribution to their teachers and newspaper 
publicity has also been used for the same 
purpose. 

Although this local has been in existence 
for less than a year its membership has 
increased by more than one hundred per 
cent and several problems of importance 
to non-members as well as members have 
been solved by its help. 

A night school giving employment to 
several previously unemployed teachers 
was started here recently under direction 
of the Federal Emergency Education Re- 
lief Council. Pay is at the rate of eighty 
cents an hour plus an extra hour’s pay 
for every five hours of teaching. This 
would be equivalent to the present begin- 
ner’s salary if computed on the basis of 
a full-time schedule. 


Milwaukee County Federation 
of Teachers 


“More than 500 new members have been 
added to the recently organized State Fed- 
eration of Teachers in the last three 
weeks,” Dr. Colin Welles, chairman, told 
the County Federation of Teachers at its 
annual dinner on Feb. 7 in the City Club. 

Dr. Welles pointed out that a year ago 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


there were only three locals and that there 
now are six in the county federation. 

The dinner was given by Local No. 212, 
Milwaukee, affiliated with the American 
Federation of Labor, as a welcome to a 
new local chartered in West Allis public 
schools. More than 200 attended. 

“We who represent labor believe that 
teachers should become more closely affili- 
ated with labor and the state federation 
is behind you in your efforts.” Henry Ohl, 
president of the Wisconsin State Federa- 
tion of Labor, told the group. 

“This nation got into the mess it is in 
because the schools did not measure up 
to their possibilities. We have insisted 
that teachers must be free and teach that 
freedom to their pupils.” 

A new American society was advocated 
by Dr. Goodwin Watson, Teachers’ Col- 
lege, Columbia University. 

“The notion that profit is to continue 
from ownership must be set aside and 
groups from every occupation must plan 
for the new society,” he said. 

—Milwaukee Leader 


New Bedford Local 263 


The New Bedford Teachers Union has 
an able printed bulletin with a thoroughly 
union approach to its problems. 

It has some outstanding accomplish- 
ments to its credit, of which it may well 
be proud. It has successfully fought a 
Taxpayers’ Association and kept its school 
system intact. It gives radio talks over 
WNBH. It has succeeded in stopping the 
virulence of the press attacks by insisting 
thal all material given the newspapers be 
printed in full. 

Naturally the membership is growing. 


North Dakota State College 
Local 265 


The North Dakota State College Local 
has some excellent mimeographed material 
stressing organization. If you would like 
it, write the secretary. 

Watch this local; it will grow. 
organization in the state. 

The officers of Local 265 are Dr, Wil- 
liam C. Hunter, president; Dorothy Hatch, 
vice-president; Dr. Herbert C. Hanson, 
secretary-treasurer. The address is State 
College Sta., Fargo, N. D. 


So will 


Tooele County, Utah, Local 270 


The Tooele County Federation of Teach- 
ers held an open meeting at the Central 
school, Tooele, Monday evening, March § 
All teachers of the county, whether mem- 
bers of the union or not, were invited and 
most of them responded. 

President Gerrish and a delegation from 
the union met with the board of educa- 
tion on March 2 at its regular meeting to 
confer with the board regarding the 
teachers’ contracts to be issued for next 
year. A contract modeled by the local 
union will be submitted to the board for 
consideration. 


Madison Local 35 


Madison Local 35 has changed from a 
minority to a majority group, In two 
months its membership has increased 700%. 











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APRIL, 1934 


Lucas County, Ohio, Local 274 


The Lucas County Federation of Teach- 
ers was started by fifteen charter mem- 
bers early in January, 1934. The charter 
was granted the second week in January 
to include the seventeen taxing units in 
Lucas County, Ohio. Our organization, 
which is growing every day, now includes 
31% of all the teachers in Lucas County, 
92% of Washington Twp., 52% Spring- 
field Twp., and 100% Waterville Village. 

The officers are: 

President—Henry Lincke of Whitmer High 
School. 

Executive Secretary—Robert Thompson of 
Whitmer High School. 

Financial Secretary—W. 
Place High School. 

Chairman of the Membership Committee— 
Russel Bear, Point Place High School. 

Chairman of the Legislative Committee— 
Frank Duvendack of Point Place High 
School. 

Chairman of the Publicity Committee— 
Florence Kukuk of Whitmer High School. 
The teachers have received one back- 

pay check for September; the validity of 

their contracts has been guaranteed; and 
the tenure of their positions has been as- 
sured them. 

The local newspaper is giving the teach- 
ers and the schools fine support. 

It is planned that each of the seventeen 
individual taxing units will form its own 
organization for the study of its local prob- 
lems. The entire county federation meets 
once each month, 

The Lucas County Federation of Teach- 
ers is affiliated) with the Central Labor 
Union of Toledo, Ohio; the Ohio State 
Federation of Labor; and the American 
Federation of Teachers. 

Rozert L. THompson, 
Executive Secretary. 


Bloomington Local 276 


The Bloomington Federation of Teach- 
ers is growing rapidly in membership. It 
now has a majority of the teachers of the 
city enrolled. 

We are delighted with the way the or- 
ganization is progressing, and we feel that 
we have accomplished a great many things 
already which we could not have accom- 
plished were-we not organized. At the 
meeting on March 5, we voted to affiliate 
with the local Trades and Labor As- 
sembly. 


H. Mall of Point 


WAHNETAH BRUMMETT. 


Kellogg, Idaho, Local 278 


On February 6 a group of the Kellogg 
public school teachers met and organized 
a locak of the American Federation of 
Teachers known as the Kellogg Teachers 
Association. L. H. Thornburg was elected 
temporary president and Thomas B. Kelly, 
temporary secretary. An interesting meet- 
ing was held with visitors from the Min- 
ers’ Union from Mullan, Wallace and Kel- 
logg. Among the features discussed in the 
way of a program were Parent-Teachers’ 
Associ: ations for each school, open night 
in the schools, adult education, school 
buildings as community centers, federal 
aid for public schools. 

On February 9 Miss May Darling from 
Portland, Ore., addressed all teachers and 
school employees. Miss Darling presented 
views of vital interest to the teaching pro- 
fession to a large group. 


Greater Cleveland Local 279 


Unorganized—Helpless ; 
Organized—Powerful! 


With the above spirit and a_ charter 
membership of 314, the Greater Cleveland 
Local organized as Local 279 of the Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers on February 6. 

George J. Davis, East Technical High 
School, has been chosen president. The 
other officers elected are: 

C. V. Vollbrecht, Cleveland Trade 
school, first vice president; M. J. Eck, 


John Adams High school, second vice 
president; E. F. Helman, John Adams 
High school, secretary; Carl H. Kocts, 
West High school, treasurer; L. H. Mills, 


Glenville High school, sergeant-at-arms. 

Trustees are Dr. Henry Harap, School 
of Education; Stanley Cornelius, East 
Technical High School, and Miss Anna B. 
Osborn, West High school. 

The Local has employed an executive 
secretary and opened an office. The mem- 
bership has already more than doubled. 

The Union plans three methods of im- 
proving salary conditions for the teaching 
force in the public schools. One of the 
major efforts will be to “show up” those 
persons who can but do not pay their 
taxes. A special committee will be a sort 
of watchdog of the tax treasury. A legis- 
lative committee will watch legislative mat- 
ters in Columbus in connection with school 
financing. The social studies curriculum in 
the schools also will receive special atten- 
tion. 

The Union has affiliated with the Cleve- 
land Federation of Labor and its delegates 
have been seated in that body. 

The Cleveland press, both in news stories 
and editorials, has given the new Union 
a good send off. 

The Cleveland Plain Dealer says edi- 
torially, “Clearly the teachers have a case. 
Their right to present it, by the method 
they think best is unassailable.” 

An open meeting with Dr. John Dewey 
as the speaker was largely attended. The 
press account Says: 

“The eminent educator, one of the first 
members of one of the first teachers’ 
unions in the country, advanced three main 
reasons why the teaching profession should 
align itself with organized labor. 

“First,” he said, “I believe that it is an 
abnormal situation when the hand is dis- 
connected from the brain. Organized labor 
represents the hand—teaching the brain. 
The hand accomplishes what the brain 
directs. 


Recognizes Debt to Labor 


“Of course’ Dr. Dewey continued, “I do 
not believe in all those things for which 
labor unions have sometimes stood in the 
past, but unions are founded on a com- 
mon democratic principle, joining those 
who do the work of the world. 

“Had it not been for the active support 
of the labor movement, Horace Mann and 
those educators who strove to obtain tax- 
supported public education, could not have 
accomplished their purpose, Dr. Dewey 
said, For this, teachers owe a debt to la- 
bor and this debt is the second reason for 
the desirability of affiliation, he added. 

“Thirdly,” Dr. Dewey said, “most pro- 
fessional organizations as now constituted 
fail to meet the full needs of the teachers. 
Any organisation which looks out for the 


31 


economic welfare of its members needs no 
apology. 

“But that is not the sole activity of teach- 
ers unions. They resist the encroachments 
of politicians into the schools more effec- 
tively than any other group. They are in- 
terested and concern themselves with pro- 
gressive education, and their collective ef- 
forts do more to stem attacks on public 
school systems than anything else.” 


Pulaski County, Ark., Local 282 


The Arkansas Gazette of February 18 
carries this interesting news item accurate 
except for numbers which should read 56. 


Paul H. Harrison, teacher in Mabelvale 
school, was elected temporary chairman and 
Miss Jane Mayo, teacher at Badgett school 
temporary secretary-treasurer of a Pulaski 
county unit of the American Federation of 
Teachers, affiliated with the American Fed- 
eration of Labor, at a meeting of teachers 
of rural schools at the courthouse yesterday. 

More than 40 teachers signed the petition 
for membership, and another meeting will 
be held within a week to perfect the organi- 
zation. It was predicted that all rural teach- 
ers in the county will join the organization. 

When the organization has been completed 
it will apply to the American Federation ot 
Labor for a charter, it was said, and D. T 
Henderson, su erintendent of the Pulaski 
County Speci School District, announced 
that he intended to aid in the organization 
of similar chapters throughout the state. 

Speakers yesterday besides the teachers 
who debated the merits of the organization 
for two hours, included Mr. Henderson, Ben 
D. Brickhouse, H. M. Thackrey, secretary- 
treasurer of the Arkansas State Federation 
of Labor, and Herbert Latkin, publisher of 
the Union Labor Bulletin. 


The organization has been completed 
and the charter granted. This is our first 
public school local in the state of Ar- 
kansas, but from the reports which we are 
receiving it is but the beginning. Others 
will follow (Lonoke County already has) 
and soon we shall have a different story 
to tell of educational progress in Arkansas. 








Who's Who in this Issue 














James C. Adell is teacher of science 
at the John Hay High School, 
Cleveland, and holds the office of 
organizer in Greater Cleveland 
Local 279. 


Dr. Henry Harap is professor of so- 
ciology at Western Reserve Uni- 
versity and a charter member of 
Greater Cleveland Local 279. 


Edward Emory Hill was for many 
years head of the history depart- 
ment of the Chicago Normal Col- 
lege. 

Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz is_ vice- 
president of A. F. T. and legisla- 
tive representative of New York 
Teachers Union Local 5. 


Charles B. Stillman is past president 
of A. F. of T., present vice-presi- 
dent, and assistant principal in 
charge of Sabin High School in 
Chicago. 

Dr. C. E, A. Winslow is professor of 
Public Health, School of Medicine, 
Yale University. 






{ 
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American Federation 


of Teachers 


506 South Wabash Avenue 
CHICAGO, ILL. 


_p- 


The American Federation of Teachers 


desires to establish an intimate contact and an effective co-oper- 
ation between the teachers and the other workers of the com- 


munity. 
The American Federation of Teachers 


desires to co-operate with all civic organizations for improved 
civic life. 


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