JAN 21 1935 


idimerican 
| Ceacher — 


IN THIS ISSUE 
WwW 











Florence Curtis Hanson 
Warren C. Hawthorne 
Raymond F. Lowry 
Aileen W. Robinson 
John H. Walker 


Miriam Ziony 





























JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1935 








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TABLE OF 


Page 
eS On ok. wc ceccacsecsecevces Editorial 3 
A Critical Evaluation of the American 
Federation of Teachers........... Aileen W. Robinson 4 
Educational Opportunity for Employed 
weete ene Adults. ........00: Florence Curtis Hanson 


Importance of Apprenticeship Training...John H. I!’alker 11 


_ 
. 
wn 


Enemies of the Public Schools...... Warren C. Hawthorne 
Forty-two in a Class and Free Discipline.... Miriam Ziony 14 


The Teacher and the Social Mind— 


The President's Page..........+.. Raymond F. Lowry 17 
es abe eddkbeeees sens 18 
re eee ne cence ecewerececense 20 

Accident of Residence 
One for All and All for One 
Teachers Have Much to Learn About Collective 


Action 
Leisure Time 
Let’s Be “Union Label Conscious” 








PROCEEDINGS 


OF THE 


Eighteenth Annual Convention 


OF THE 


American Federation of 
Teachers 


Price 50 Cents 
NOW ON SALE 


AT THE 


National Office 


American Federation of Teachers 
506 South Wabash Avenue 
Chicago, Illinois 

















CONTENTS 


Page 
Academic Freedom Council............... 00.00 cece cecees 23 
II I Ns ns vibe pbwedlaen se 
emerel Aid fer TEGMCAROM, 6. oo cc ccc cccccccccccecucccess 23 
Book Reviews Ode 6S 66 OW 6 PEM OS OSS HEC eCeCeEDEeS ECE F OSS ORS 24 
Economic History of the People of the U. S.—Reviewed 
by Mark Starr 
Education and the Worker Student 
I Went to Pitt College—Reviewed by Mark Starr 
One Hell of a Business—Reviewed by Breaking the War 
Habit 
School Life 
SU a 
New Locals: Locals 5, 31, 35, 192, 193, 231, 240, 244, 
246, 250, 252, 276, 279, 332, 333, 345, Ohio State 
Federation 
I a I ee ss nw wane ew slew 30 
SE ECE EERE LA ERP OTET TOT 30 
ON SESE POOP OE LEP TEEEO S 








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, Ill., under the Act of March 3. 1879. 
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage 
provided for in Sec. 1103, Act of Feb. 28. 1925, 
authorized Nov. 3, 1926 


Editorial Office 
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T_T 










































THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








Vor. XIX 


JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1935 No. 3 











The Election in Kellogg 


NE DAY last May three teachers in Kellogg, 
O Idaho, which is in the copper country, read in 

their local paper that their successors had 
been hired by the Kellogg School Board. No notifica- 
tion had been given them by the Superintendent or 
the School Board that they would not be re-elected to 
their positions. No explanation of their dismissal 
could be obtained from either the Superintendent or 
the School Board. 

These three teachers, Miss Natalie Ferguson, T. B. 
Kelly, and L. H. Thornburg, were active members 
of A. F. T. Local 278, which had been successful in 
securing a substantial increase in salary for teachers 
through influencing the miners to vote more millage 
for education support in the face of the opposition of 
the bankers and mine operators. 

An attorney was at once employed and ouster pro- 
ceedings against the School Board started. Mr. George 
Vanderveer who handled the “yellow dog” contract 
case for the Seattle teachers, was also retained as 
attorney for the Kellogg teachers. Unfortunately the 
recall does not apply to school boards. Represen- 
tatives of the American Federation of Teachers 
and the Regional Labor Board visited Kellogg and 
investigated the case, finding no fair reason for the 
dismissals. Mr. Charles Hope of the Seattle Regional 
Labor Board, acting under instructions from Wash- 
ington, visited Kellogg in the effort to arbitrate the 
case. President William Green of the American Fed- 
eration of Labor asked the Federal government to 
send a conciliator to make a thorough investigation. 
Vice-presidents Darling and Satterthwaite of the 
American Federation of Teachers visited Kellogg and 
made a thorough investigation. All of these found 
no fair reason for the dismissals. 

The teachers believed, with reason, that 90% of 
the citizens were with them. Five hundred signers 
on the petition to oust the school board from office 
were obtained without difficulty. From the begin- 
ning the public showed that it was hot on the trail 
of a school board which would be guilty of such 
rank discrimination. They, therefore, decided to 
try their case at the bar of public opinion while 
waiting for court action. Since no press was avail- 
able to them, they distributed handbills for the in- 
formation of the public, and told their story in paid 
advertisements. 





All three teachers entered the primary election on 
August 14, Miss Ferguson for county superintendent 
of schools, Mr. Kelly for Probate Judge, and Mr. 
Thornburg for the state legislature, with the result 
that they all three not only won but by big majorities. 

In the campaign which -followed Mr. Kelly was 
State Committeeman and Miss Ferguson State Com- 
mittee woman of the Democratic Central Committee. 

In the general election in November all three teach- 
ers won by good margins. The Teachers and the 
Miners Union have achieved the most remarkable 
victory Shoshone county has ever experienced. They 
won all county offices except four; they have the three 
county commissioners who control the money of the 
county; they have chosen the county democratic 
chairman; they have sixteen precinct committeemen 
out of twenty-two; they have a state democratic 
governor. 

This is a marvelous victory. The Republicans and 
the old-line Democrats who lost the primary election 
were both whipped. Any amount of money; all the 
possible noise and ballyhoo; all the mud-slinging and 
branding as communists, reds, radicals, incompetents ; 
all the attempts to steal the election, came to naught. 
The labor ticket with three union teachers WON. 

And how? They organized, They brought in able 
speakers including Senator Wheeler and Congressman 
Monaghan of Montana. They knew their opponents 
and enemies and they watched them. They told the 
people the truth and the people backed them up 
with votes. 

We are indeed proud of our Kellogg teachers. They 
have been vindicated by the people, and the mine op- 
erators who had them fired have been slapped in the 
face by the voters of Shoshone County. 


Our Kellogg teachers have given an object lesson 
in the value of organization. They have shown the 
wisdom of joining with their friends to fight their 
enemies. They have put on a real demonstration of 
what the American Federation of Teachers can do for 
its members. 

It remains to be seen how well the lesson on Why 
Join the American Federation of Teachers has been 
learned by teachers everywhere. 

We can do, if we will do. 

But will we? 











THE 





AMERICAN TEACHER 


A Critical Evaluation of the American 
Federation of Teachers 


A Thesis 


Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the 
Department of Education at Smith College, May, 1934 


Aileen W. Robinson 


CHAPTER IV. 


MetTHOoDs AND ACTIVITIES OF THE AMERICAN 
FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 


way some of the outstanding aims and objec- 
tives of the American Federation of Teachers 
as found by a study of .their convention reports. 

Two questions, vital from the point of view of the 
effectiveness of the organization, now present them- 
selves. What does the group actually do to accom- 
plish its aims? What methods does it use? 

That accomplishment is a criterion of a social group, 
David Snedden avers. In commenting on teachers’ 
organizations in general, he says: 

These existing organizations rarely formulate or consis- 
tently pursue definite social policies, They frequently express 
lofty ideals in resolutions and then proceed to neglect their 
offspring as the codfish neglects its eggs. Their aspirations 
are but seed sown on the rock or else fleecy summer clouds 
that are speedily dissolved in thin air. Not so do strong 
social groups cherish their ideals and policies. (52, 533.) 

Therefore, in an attempt to determine whether this 
is a strong social group or not, the effectiveness of 
the American Federation of Teachers in translating 
its resolutions into action was examined. The AmeEr- 
ICAN TEACHER, since it devotes much of its space to 
an account of the activities of the various locals, pro- 
vided the chief source for this study. 


Methods 


When it is known that the Federation is organized 
on the union basis, many people raise an immediate 
objection to such an association for teachers, for they 
feel it means that teachers will employ the tactics of 
Labor in promoting their cause. Such is not the case. 
The Federation claims that no local within the or- 
ganization has ever resorted to the strike as a method 
of attaining its ends. Moreover, because the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor has given the teachers a 
charter of complete autonomy, no organization can 
call the teachers out on strike, nor does the American 
Federation of Teachers endorse the strike policy. 
(59, 91.) 

Looking back into its history, it can be seen that 
organization and affiliation were early recognized as 
effective means of securing results and power. That 
was why the Chicago Teachers’ Federation turned to 
Labor in 1902, when it felt that it could not secure 
results without a powerful ally. That was why the 
American Federation of Teachers when organizing 
in 1916 affiliated with the American Federation of 
Labor. It is an application of the old adage, “In 
union there is strength.” 


T:: foregoing chapter considered in a general 


It is on the point of choice of allies that much de- 
bate has raged. There are two main arguments ad- 
vanced against a union with labor; first, that it is 
“unprofessional” for the teacher to class himself with 
the common worker of America (30, 352) ; secondly, 
that the public school serves all classes, and the 
teacher in the interest of maintaining the impartiality 
of the schools should not side with any particular 
class. (53, 737.) 

Each of these arguments is supported by many 
educators, but it is quite safe to state that in general 
conservatives oppose affiliation with Labor while lib- 
erals favor such a step. 

From the point of view of the Federation both 
arguments previously stated are unrealistic and ignore 
conditions as they actually exist in the United States 
today. First, teaching is not as yet a profession, be- 
cause it does not embody the characteristics of a 
profession. Speaking of the “professional” attitude 
of some teachers, the American Federation of Teach- 
ers describes the situation as follows: 

For generations public school teachers have salved their 
pride with this pitifu! substitute (membership in a “profes- 
sion”) for adequate remuneration and a position of influence 
in the community. They have refused to face the obvious 
fact that whereas doctors, lawyers, architects, and other pro- 
fessional men can control their hours, the conditions under 
which they work, and the amount of their fees, teachers, as 
individuals, have almost no control over these matters so vital 
to their welfare. The results are that the vast majority of 
teachers receive a smaller annual wage than unskilled laborers, 


and exert far less influence in their calling and in the com- 
munity than any other skilled workers. (68.) 


John Dewey calls this unwillingness on the part of 
educators to face conditions as they actually are “a 
kind of intellectual and social exclusiveness, an aca- 
demic snobbery.” (17, 5.) Consequently, according 
to the Federation, in order to make teaching into the 
profession which it should be, one must be realistic 
and remedy root conditions. When one advocates 
remedying “root” conditions, one is a radical. There- 
fore, the position of the Federation on these questions 
is a radical position. 

Secondly, the argument that the teacher should re- 
frain from uniting with a class, in the interest of 
preserving the impartiality of the school, is based on 
the assumption that the school is impartial and free 
from class consciousness. This assumption would be 
difficult to support, in view of the fact that school 
boards are drawn almost entirely from one class— 
the upper-middle class of business and professional 
people (5, 74); that text books are sometimes sub- 
sidized by vested interests. According to revelations 
before the Federal Trade Commission the National 
































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JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1935 


Electric Light Association subsidized the Harvard 
School of Business Administration to the: extent of 
$30,000 a year for its research staff in public utilities 
management, for the avowed purpose of having them 
produce an adequate text book on public utility cor- 
porations, which “would better appear under aca- 
demic auspices than as a publication of this associa- 
tion.” In addition, the National Electric Light Asso- 
ciation said: 

It is obvious that such literature bearing the imprint of 


Harvard University would be quite generally adopted by 
other institutions. (45, 16.) 


Granted that the school should be impartial, does 
it follow that affiliating with Labor will make an im- 
partial teacher into an indoctrinator? If so, we should 
also ask teachers to refrain from joining Christian 
churches, for it might make them hostile to Jews who 
are in our public schools in large numbers, and to 
refrain from joining the Republican party since they 
might try to influence Democrats. 

It would seem that the arguments advanced against 
affiliating with Labor are inclined to be unrealistic, 
but when it comes to an examination of the effective- 
ness of affiliating with Labor as a method of achiev- 
ing aims, the situation must also be examined realis- 
tically. In the history of the organization it was 
pointed out that the Federation experienced growth 
when Labor was flourishing, and entered a period of 
decline with Labor. Thus, it would seem that union 
with Labor has its disadvantages as well as its ad- 
vantages. Moreover, it is true that in many small 
localities where Labor is not well organized or power- 
ful, the affiliation is a distinct handicap to the Fed- 
eration. (72, 66.) 

Consequently, in attempting to judge the effective- 
ness of the Federation, one must weigh the aid which 
organized Labor can give in the shape of trained or- 
ganizers, lobbyists, legal support, etc., against the 
hostility which it arouses to have the teachers affili- 
ate with Labor. 

Since the Federation has renounced the strike as 
a method of achieving its aims, it has chosen instead 
the way of propaganda, which it calls “publicity, or- 
ganization, and political action.” (59, 91.) Propa- 
ganda is a war of ideas, and whether it is good or 
bad depends largely on the correctness of the informa- 
tion given out. Mr. E. L. Bernays, the well-known 
public relations counsel, in his book entitled Propa- 
ganda, says, 

Propaganda will never die out. Intelligent men must real- 
ize that propaganda is the modern instrument by which they 


can fight for productive ends and help to bring order out of 
chaos. (3, 159.) 


Mr. Bernays further states: 


An occasional McAndrew case calls the attention of the 
public to the fact that in some schools the teacher is far 
from enjoying full academic freedom, while in certain com- 
munities the choice of teachers is based upon political or sec- 
tarian considerations rather than upon real ability. If such 
issues were made, by means of propaganda, to become a 
matter of public concern on a truly national scale, there 
would doubtless be a general tendency to improvement. 


(3, 124.) 


This is exactly what the Federation is attempting 
to do. Consequently, the question arises, why has the 
Federation not been more successful after seventeen 
years of attempting to arouse “public concern on a 
truly national scale”? 


5 


In writing of propaganda technique used in the 
World War, Harold D. Lasswell, a professor of 
Political Science at the University of Chicago, says, 

Propagandists are always likely to run foul of some deeply 
imbedded prejudice. (10, 186). 
and, 


Success depends upon traditional prejudices and the chang- 

ing level of popular irritability. (10, 192.) 
This offers an answer for the lack of success. Preju- 
dice against teachers uniting with Labor has offset all 
the efforts of the Federation to stir public opinion. 
However, this may not be a permanent obstacle to its 
success, provided the “changing level of popular ir- 
ritability,” as in this time of depression, shifts in 
regard to Labor. 

In addition to the prejudice of the conservative 
element in the community against the alliance of 
teachers with Labor, there is also a feeling among the 
radicals against such a union. To them the American 
Federation of Labor is “ineffective” and “bossridden.” 
They feel that 

The American Federation has just one “pure and simple” 
business—how to create a united front which is able to deal 
as one man with any situation regarding higher wages, shorter 
hours, slower speed, stricter shop control of jobs, and per- 
manence of unionism. (78, 26.) 

Another reason for lack of greater success might 
be a mistaken emphasis in propaganda for Bernays 
says (3, 124), 

The appeal must be predicated upon the actual present com- 

position of the public mind, * 
Judging from the criticisms of it (33, 191), the Fed- 
eration has created the impression that it is more 
interested in the welfare of the teachers than in the 
general good of the schools, the children, the public, 
etc., while the composition of the public mind is such 
that if it thinks the teachers are self-seekers, it will 
react with hostility. Consequently, if the Federation 
wishes to be effective, it must stress more the fact 
that the condition of the teacher must be improved 
for the sake of the school and the child. The public 
mind is used to such indirections, and not the direct, 
forthright propaganda of the Federation. 

In spite of its difficulties with propaganda, its type 
of organization is a distinct asset to effective propa- 
ganda. Because it is organized on the local plan, the 
local press is much more open to it than to an organ- 
ization of the type of the National Education Asso- 
ciation which is not concerned with local conditions. 
(1, 39.) Therefore, it has elements of strength as 
well as weakness inherent in its form of organization 
and propaganda. 

Activities 

Dr. Howard Beale, who was appointed by the Com- 
mission on the Social Studies of the American His- 
torical Association to study the problem of freedom in 
teaching, writes (71): 

The American Federation of Teachers is among organiza- 
tions at present in existence the one really effective friend 
of freedom for the teacher. 

He characterized the American Association of Uni- 
versity Professors as an organization lacking courage, 
vitality, and power. 


But, he says, 
The A. A. U. P. appears a tower of freedom when com- 











6 


parel with the NEA which most of the teachers in the lower 
school depend on for what protection they get. 

The American Federation of Teachers has made 
many fights for the freedom of teachers, and the 
struggle which it went through in Seattle was chosen 
for discussion here, not because it was the most suc- 
cessful or outstanding, but because it illustrates so 
clearly the method of procedure used by the Federa- 
tion and the advantages of the type of organization 
peculiar to it. 

In October, 1927, Local 200 of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers was chartered as the High School 
Teachers Union of Seattle, Washington. The teach- 
ers in Seattle had for many years had a low salary 
scale, ranking last for cities of their size in the maxi- 
mum salary for -high school teachers. In 1920 they 
had obtained a raise, only to be cut again in 1922. 
Finally, after vigorous, but futile, attempts in 1927 
to have the salary scale increased, the teachers de- 
cided to unionize. (46, 3.) . 

The purpose of organization was said to be “the 
welfare of Seattle youth and the teachers’ economic 
betterment.” Forty per cent of all the high school 
teachers enrolled at once, and more continued to join. 
Three-fourths of all high school heads of departments 
belonged, and the constitution soon had to be amended 
to admit the professors from the University of Wash- 
ington who wished to join. (27, 18.) 

Soon after they organized, the teachers launched a 
salary campaign, and formed a taxation and tenure 
committee. Interest of teachers all over the state was 
aroused, as tenure through the entire state was limited 
by contract to one year. They also declared that 
revenue rightfully belonging to the children of the 
state was never collected, and they proposed to in- 
vestigate tax evaders. (51, 31.) 

In May, 1928, the Teachers Union entered local 
politics. It opposed a reactionary member of the 
Seattle School Board, who was up for re-election, 
and supported a progressive in civic affairs. The vote 
cast was an unusually large one, showing that the 
teachers had stirred the public, and the reactionary 
member was returned to the board by a very small 
vote. Also, early in May the efforts of the public 
utilities and the power trust to dominate public opin- 
ion through control of school texts were exposed to 
the press by the teachers. (46, 3.) 

On May 8, the Board presented the teachers with 
new contracts, which demanded as a condition of em- 
ployment that the teacher sign a clause reading, 

I hereby declare that I am not a member of the American 

Federation of Teachers, nor of any local thereof, and will not 
become a member during the term of this contract. 
Thus, it should be noted, after the Union had made a 
distinct threat to power in local affairs, and had ex- 
posed the propaganda of the power trust in the state 
of Washington, the teachers were presented with a 
“yellow dog” contract. (46, 3.) 

The Seattle Teachers Union secured a temporary 
restraining order which prevented the Board’s action 
until a hearing before the courts on May 11th when 
it hoped to get an injunction against the enforcement 
of the Board’s demands. (46, 3.) 

The Seattle Union informed the National Office of 
the American Federation of Teachers of its plight. 
The National Office, in accordance with Article IT 
of the constitution, pledging it “to bring associations 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
of teachers into relations of mutual assistance,” went 
to work at once to afford aid and to arouse public 
opinion. It wired a vice-president of the American 
Federation of Teachers, living in Portland, Oregon, 
to go to Seattle to help the teachers. It instructed Miss 
Borchardt, legislative representative of the American 
Federation of Teachers in Washington, D. C., to see 
President William Green of the American Federation 
of Labor. It asked the California State Federation of 
Teachers, which had successfully fought the “yellow 
dog” contract, to advise Seattle. (46, 4.) 

President Green replied with advice, a statement for 
the papers, and offers of legal assistance. He also 
urged the Seattle Central Labor Union to support the 
teachers. Teachers’ unions, which had fought the 
same kind of contract, sent messages of sympathy 
and support. (46, 4.) 

Miss Borchardt in Washington, telegraphed as fol- 
lows to the National office in Chicago: 

Not going to Philadelphia. Busy on Seattle case here: 
working on national board of Y. W. C. A., Federal Council 
of Churches, National Catholic Welfare Council. Advise you 
ask their help also. Father Ryan wired protest. Expect to 
get protest from Washington senators tomorrow. Green’s 
statement will be read on floor of Congress. Wire me result 
of court decision. (46, 5). 

Dr. Henry Linville, president of Local 5 of New 
York City, put all the machinery and resources of the 
New York local to work. As a result Professor John 
Dewey protested to the Seattle School Board, as did 
also Rabbi Stephen Wise, Herman Oliphant, William 
Kilpatrick, William Bagley, Paul Douglas, Robert M. 
Lovett and Father Ryan, all of whom were eminent 
in civic and educational activities. (46, 5.) 

All of these facts are interesting and pertinent, in- 
asmuch as they show the machinery of the American 
Federation of Teachers at work, and demonstrate 
how the national organization stands ready to use all 
its channels of propaganda to aid a local in distress. 

The suit of Local 200, seeking to restrain the Board 
from enforcing a “yellow dog” contract was denied, 
and the case appealed to the State Supreme Court. 
While the case was pending, a temporary restraining 
order was refused, and the teachers were presented 
again with the contracts. Acting on the advice of 
labor leaders and the American Federation of Teach- 
ers, the teachers signed, with the exception of Mr. 
W. B. Satterthwaite, who drew a line through the 
objectionable clause in his contract. His connection 
with the Seattle schools was thereby severed. (50, 4.) 

Local 200 was now a teachers’ union without mem- 
bers in the public schools. Mr. Satterthwaite was 
made president, and the university professors com- 
prised the membership. According to an editorial in 
the AMERIGAN TEACHER (46, 6), the Seattle Cham- 
ber of Commerce adopted a resolution commending 
the school board for its action, and at the same time 
they wrote to Local 200, asking that Union to use its 
influence to have the American Federation of Teach- 
ers hold its national convention in Seattle in the near 
future. 

In July, the National Education Association held 
its annual convention in Minneapolis. A delegate to 
the convention from California introduced a resolu- 
tion condemning the Seatle School Board’s restrictive 
regulation. The resolutions committee refused to pre- 
sent the resolution to the convention, so the California 
delegate brought the matter up on the floor. The trend 


























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January-Fepruary, 1935 


of the argument against it was that “the National 
Education Association should not meddle in local af- 
fairs.” (47, 5.) The resolution was overwhelmingly 
defeated. 


To contrast the attitude of the National Education 
Association and the American Federation of Teachers 
on questions of civil liberty for teachers, the reply 
of the American Federation of Teachers to the state- 
ment of the National Education Association is perti- 
nent: 

This question is not a local matter. It would seem to be 
extremely short sighted and to show a lack of understanding 
to characterize this Seattle situation as a “local quarrel,” It 
is a matter that involves much more than the signing of a 
contract. It involves every teacher from coast to coast. The 
right of teachers to join an organization of their own choice, 
including as it does everything that is American, democratic, 
fair, and just, certainly cannot by any intelligent individual 
be regarded as a local dispute between the teachers and the 
Seattle School Board. One may as well say that slavery in 
antebellum days was a local dispute in which only the slave 
and his owner were interested, or that an anti-evolution law 
in Tennessee is a local difference between Scopes and his 
Board of Directors. The very fundamentals of education, of 
freedom, of Americanism are involved. It is a matter of 
grave concern to the future of our schools and of the Re- 
public that a group of educators could take a position so lack- 
ing in vision and understanding. (47, 6.) 

The Seattle labor bodies helped to finance the ap- 
peal to the State Supreme Court, as did also the 
Executive Committee of the American Federation of 
Teachers. While the appeal was pending, Local 200 
busied itself in a campaign for a state tenure law, 
and a movement to displace the reactionary school 
board in Seattle. It enlisted the Seattle Central Labor 
Council and the Washington State Federation of 


Labor in support of its program. 


The first sign of success came when a State Super- 
intendent, favoring a tenure law, was elected. (48, 
29.) The next gain was made when two school board 
members favoring the right of teachers to unionize, 
were elected to the Seattle School Board. These can- 
didates had been endorsed by the teachers, and, al- 
though a minority on the Board, marked the entering 
wedge of opinion favorable to the teachers. (49, 32.) 


In the meantime, the State Supreme Court affirmed 
the decision of the lower court, but was not unani- 
mous in its decision. The American Federation of 
Teachers was planning a further appeal to the United 
States Supreme Court, when the School Board, in 
January, 1931, dropped the offending clause from its 
contracts. (20, 10.) 


It is such struggles as this that give the American 
Federation of Teachers the name of a fighting, or 
militant organization. Because such fights are so 
utterly different from the activities of other teachers’ 
organizations (18, 72), certain educators mistakenly 
believe that it is the only form of activity which en- 
gages the attention of the American Federation of 
Teachers. Such is far from the case. 


In the summer of 1927, Local 5 of New York City 
carried on an experimental summer school at Manu- 
mit School in Pawling, New York. This school was 
planned to introduce public school teachers of New 
York to the technique, psychology, and philosophy of 
progressive education, in order that “ultimately the 
public schools may profit through learning a method 
that is now largely restricted to a few experimental 
private schools.” (29, 224.) 


7 


The school opened with seventy-five children and 
twenty-five “student-teachers.” The actual teachers 
for the groups of children were selected from some 
of the outstanding progressive schools in and around 
New York. The “student-teachers” observed the 
children, had a seminar, and a work-shop period. 
(25, 103.) 

As another indication of its interest in progressive 
education, Local 5 sent a delegate to the Locarno con- 
ference of the New Education Fellowship in August, 
1927. (24, 13.) The New Education Fellowship is 
the international organization of progressive edu- 
cators. 

In many localities the teachers engaged in cam- 
paigns for the adequate support of the public schools 
by an investigation into the local tax situation. (15, 
4.) In some places they protested against the prac- 
tices of Community Chest drives saying: 

The attempt to set for us the amount each of us should 
give is an effrontery, if nothing more. Who, but the indi- 
vidual himself, can be the true judge as to what he can give? 
If the amount wanted is to be a tax, then let us not call it 
giving. Furthermore, if the proposed day’s pay is to be in 
the nature of a tax, then the tax ought by all means to be a 
progressive one. In which case, the Community Chest should 
announce that whereas day laborers and teachers should give, 
perhaps, a day and one-fourth pay, lawyers and bankers, should 
give five days, captains of industry, ten days, etc., on up the 
line. But no, we hear only one day’s pay for everyone. It’s 
a safe guess that a day laborer did not sit on the original 
committee that devised that brilliant idea. (38, 30.) 

To return to David Snedden’s criterion of a strong 
social group, it must be said of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers that it formulates and consistently 
pursues definite social policies; that it does not work 
by formulating lofty resolutions, and then proceeding 
to neglect them. Its effectiveness of method and 
activity leads Dr. Beale to conclude, after comparing 
it to other organizations, 

Whether the union idea is accepted or not, the liberal out- 
look, methods, courage, aggressiveness, and group solidarity 
of the American Federation of Teachers must in some way 
be created in any organization which adequately protects free- 
dom of teachers. (71.) 


(To be continued. ) 





It would seem that a rich government with many 
idle musicians and thousands of people anxious to 
hear good music, might well interpret the “pursuit of 
happiness” to include an opportunity to become famil- 
iar with musical culture. A national orchestra and a 
national opera company may some day be an integral 
part of our life. They could by means of tours and 
the radio be made to serve the country even more 
completely than does our national park system today. 
The responsibility of our government along these cul- 
tural lines is late in being recognized, perhaps because 
of philanthropic efforts which in some cities have pro- 
vided the opportunities which in Europe have been at 
the expense of the state. The uncertainty of con- 
tinued philanthropic interest will no doubt result in a 
government undertaking when the government’s re- 
sponsibility for cultural recreation is more generally 
realized—Harotp L. Ickes, The New Democracy. 





Pleasure comes through toil and not by self-indulg- 
ence and indolence. When one gets to love work, his 
life is a happy one.—Rvuskin. 








8 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Educational Opportunity for Employed 
Youth and Adults 


Florence Curtis Hanson 


today and to talk with you for a few minutes 

on Labor’s interest and part in the topic before us 
—Educational Opportunity for Employed Youth and 
Adults. 

This topic divides itself into Evening Schools, Con- 
tinuation Schools, Special Trade Schools, Apprentice 
Training Opportunities, Workers’ Education, and 
Adult Education. I shall not take these up severally 
because with my special assignment, Labor’s View- 
point, it is not necessary, since Labor’s interest in 
each of these and all phases cf education is not divided 
nor greater in one field than in another. 

I am here speaking for Labor, but I hope you will 
say “She talks like an educator,” for that is what I 
should talk like, when speaking for Labor and the 
American Federation of Labor. It is my purpose to 
make it clear to you that the American Federation 
of Labor is an educational organization of high ideals, 
standards, and accomplishments in its particular field. 
It is peculiarly fitting to have the topic Labor’s View- 
point on Educational Opportunity for Employed 
Youth and Adults on this program, for this particular 
type of education as well as every other type of 
public education was initiated by Labor. Labor was 
the major instrumentality in the establishment of our 
free, tax-supported public school something over one 
hundred years ago. Public education owes almost its 
entire being to the interest and support of Labor. 
Horace Mann in Massachusetts, Henry Barnard in 
Connecticut, and Thaddeus Stevens in Pennsylvania 
did indeed do pioneer work in the educational wilder- 
ness of early America and represent leadership in the 
revolutionary problems of their time, but not to these 
humanitarian leaders alone do we owe our great social 
institution, the public school, founded on the prin- 
ciple of Education for All. 

The social force which translated their ideals into 
reality, the social force back of the demand for pub- 
lic schools for the children of the workers, for equal 
educational opportunity for every child regardless of 
the accident of residence, race, social status, or in- 
come of parents, was Organized Labor. Public edu- 
cation was born of the labor movement and its de- 
velopment has gone forward side by side with the de- 
velopment of the labor movement. The story of free 
education in America is the story of the constructive 
efforts of Organized Labor. 

Consistently since that early day when Labor 
founded the public school, Labor has fostered and 
protected the social institution for which it was so 
largely responsible. 

The Newark, N. J., Village Chronicle in May, 1930, 
reported: 


Within a few months past, we discern symptoms of a rev- 
olution second to none save that of ’76—universal education 
and equal advantage at the polls are the leading objects for 
which workingmen are contending. 


Address before the American Vocational Association, Pitts- 
burgh, Pa., Dec. 6, 1934. 


| es the opportunity to meet with you here 





The American Federation of Labor has carried on 
its fight for public schools, and a real fight it has 
been, as it is today, since its first convention in 188], 
when it went on record for compulsory education: 

We are in favor of the passage of such legislative enact- 
ments as will enforce, by compulsion, the education of the 
children. 


Beginning with its foundation in 1881, the American 
Federation of Labor has given problems of educa- 
tion, including those dealing with young and adult 
workers, a major part of its attention. This has re- 
sulted in an education program of unquestionable 
benefit to all branches of public education, of which 
Dr. John Dewey says: 

The educational record of the American Federation of 
Labor is conspicuous. A few years ago I went over a good 
many of the documents in that field and I say without any 
fear of contradiction that there is no organization in the 
United States—I do not care what its nature is—that has such 
a fine record in the program of liberal progressive public 
education as will be found in the printed records of the 
American Federation of Labor. 


and Professor Paul H. Douglas says: 


Perhaps the most important educational movement of the 
past decade has been that of industrial education, 


which we all know is the child of the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. 

The interest and effort of Labor for high standards 
of education have been continuous. Whenever well- 
considered, progressive, courageous proposals have 
been made for the improvement of public education, 
Labor has supported them and fought to bring about 
their adoption. It has stood for public-spirited educa- 
tional objectives without deviation from the first con- 
vention in 1881 to the last in 1934 when it declared: 


This arbitrary educational retrenchment with its inevitable 
result of limitation of educational opportunity is abhorrent to 
the American Federation of Labor. The American Federa- 
tion of Labor in relation to public education has a long and 
noble tradition to maintain. Labor’s children form the great 
majority of the pupils of the public schools.. The workers 
within the school system are our fellow workers with a com- 
mon cause, common objectives, and common enemies. And 
now the Organized Labor Movement of America, the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor, whole-heartedly and unreservedly 
pledges itself to the defense of the public school system of 
America, to its full and complete restoration, to the main- 
tenance of educational standards for the development of 
character, culture, and citizenship, and to the principle of 
equal educational opportunity for all the children of Amer- 
ica regardless of race, creed, or social status. It pledges 
itself to the preservation of the public schools for democracy; 
it pledges itself to the preservation of democracy in which 
public education can and will function for the building of a 
saner economic world and the good life for all. 


And President Green in a recent pronouncement 
has said: 

As citizens devoted to the preservation of our democratic 
institutions and to our democratic form of government, we 


in the American Federation of Labor shall fight for the 
maintenance of our schools, as the chief agency throu 


which to preserve our democratic government and our demo- | 


cratic institutions. 


Labor’s program for the education of young work- 

















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January-FEBRUARY, 1935 


ers which it regards as a public school problem, as 
shown in Senate Document 936 and compiled by A. D. 
Evans, Supezintendent of Girard College, includes: 


1. Industrial education should not displace any of the 
present general education, but should be added to it. 

2. Up to the age of 14 the pupils’ time should be devoted 
to general education; after that industrial education 
should begin. 

3. The economic need and value of technical training is 
not to be disregarded and cognizance should be taken 
of the fact that throughout the civilized world, evening 
and part time technical schools enroll 20 pupils to every 
one that attends the other types of vocational schools. 

4. Technical education should be conducted by the public 
at public cost. 

5. Industrial education must be based on a careful survey 
of industrial conditions and trade requirements and 
should meet the needs and requirements of the work- 
ers, as well as those of employers and industry. 

6. Industrial education shall include the teaching of the 
sciences underlying the various industries and indus- 
trial pursuits being taught, their historic, economic, and 
social bearings. 

7. There should be development of vocational guidance 
and industrial education in both urban and rural com- 
munities. 

8. It is important that industrial education have for its 
purpose not so much training for efficiency in industry 
as training for life in an industrial society. 

9. Continuation schools are recommended, of the part- 
time day type for the younger boys and girls, of the 
evening type for more mature workers, and of the all- 
day trade preparatory type for boys and girls between 
14 and 16 years of age. 

10. Compulsory part-time day schools for all children in 
industry between the ages of 14 to 18 for not less than 
5 hours per week at the expense of their employers are 
recommended. 

11. Teachers should have practical trade experience. 

12. The turning out of machine specialists and the flood- 
ing of the labor market with half-trained mechanics is 
condemned. 

13. While subscribing to any plan which offers efficient in- 
struction in practical product, Labor insists that em- 
phasis be placed upon education rather than product. 

14. The curriculum should include civic and social studies 
as well as trade technique. 


Early in its history, Labor began its campaign for 


continuation schools, not because it believed that this 
part-time education was an adequate substitute for 


full time education, but because it recognized and ~ 


understood a practical situation and would not con- 
sent to the limitation of educational opportunity for 
those handicapped in whatsoever way. Labor intel- 
ligently recognized the need for further guidance and 
training for young workers who have left the regular 
schools for whatever reason,—economic demand or 
need, genuine desire to go to work, inability to do the 
work of the regular school,—if they are to earn a 
living and live a life. Labor holds all three reasons 
mentioned for leaving the regular school,—compulsion 
of economic need, desire to work, and inability to do 
the work of the regular school,—however debatable 
these may be, sound arguments for the part-time 
school. Labor is concerned with the rebuilding of the 
present curriculum upon present social, industrial, 
economic, and avocational needs. It insists that the 
3 R’s are no longer enough. It pledges its full re- 
sistance to those who cry, 

_ Let’s get back to the 3 R’s. What was good enough for me 
is good enough for the children today. 

And it replies in clarion tones, 


What was good enough for us is not good enough for our 
children. 


It demands a complex curriculum to fit the child and 


9 


youth for the complex world in which he is living. 
Not the 3 R’s alone but the 3 C’s, character, citizen- 
ship, and culture, and the 3 G’s, grace, gumption, and 
grit, Labor demands from today’s curriculum. 

It is no criticism of any pupil that he cannot do the 
work of the regular school. I long since learned that 
the school is for the child, not the child for the school; 
that we are teaching the pupil; that the school must 
be fitted to the pupil’s need; that the only worth- 
while ability is not that shown in the regular class 
room. Had the public school system been meeting the 
needs of these young people who have left to go into 
industry, many of them would have remained. In a 
large number of cases what took them out was not 
inability to learn but unwillingness to do the work, 
and my years of teaching have taught me that the 
place to look for the responsibility for this condition 
is not at the pupil, as is usual, but at the teacher and 
the school. Is it not possible that their unwillingness 
to submit to such maladjustment indicates intelligence 
above, rather than below, the average? I am not 
criticizing school people only in so far as they fail to 
recognize the facts and to accept their responsibility, 
but I am criticizing those who control the schools and 
prevent school people from making them what they 
should be. But that’s another subject, though one 
that comes immediately to mind when one thinks of 
Labor and the Schools. 

Labor says the question of part-time education is, 
Shall the amount of education which any individual 
receives be determined by his ability to learn or by his 
ability to pay? And it answers today as it has an- 
swered for many years, Equal educational opportun- 
ity for all. 

Labor’s demand for equal educational opportunity 
for every child is not based merely on sentiment, nor 
is Labor solely concerned with keeping children out 
of industry and protecting them from exploitation in 
order to save adult workers from low wages and mak- 
ing them also an exploited class. It has had and has 
now sound educational ideals. (I’m showing you, do 
not forget, that the American Federation of Labor is 
an educational organization where the most profes- 
sionally and socially minded belong.) The part-time 
schools were a part of Labor’s demand for the square 
deal for whatever reason young people and adults 
were not getting it. Labor asked for a school whose 
curriculum would furnish real value, would meet in- 
dividual differences. The continuation school is one 
way to overcome the handicaps of the traditional, im- 
practical standard school. The continuation school is 
dealing with a selected group of young people. Labor 
is asking that through it they may have developed the 
same ideals and attitudes regardless of economic or 
social status or I. Q., but through a different type of 
subject matter,—a subject matter fitted to individual 
need, that will discover interests and aptitudes, and 
fit for life and living. 

And now at this time the enemies of public educa- 
tion in the name of “economy” are seeking curtail- 
ment and retrenchment in this particular educational 
field. One-fourth of the cities of the United States 
have closed their evening schools and part-time 
classes for youths and adults. One illustration will 
suffice. In Chicago the continuation schools have been 
reduced from 11 to one, and in percentages about 75 
or 80 per cent. In this same city, the apprentice classes 
are still available but the classes are smaller because 





10 


fewer are taking advantage of them. The other part- 
time work has suffered in about the same ratio as the 
continuation schools. Chicago is not a unique case; 
it merely serves as an illustration. Chicago has had 
much advertising but had I the time and you the 
patience I could show you that school conditions in 
Chicago, regrettable as they are, are paralleled and 
exceeded in hundreds of places. 

To return, part-time schools are being crippled by 
those who are interested in the public schools only as 
taxpayers and are being defended by those who are 
interested as tax-producers, as the founder and de- 
fender of the public school system, that is, Organized 
Labor. Let me quote: 

If society must pay the bill, anyhow, how much better to 
do it in the beginning; see to it that these boys and girls have 
an equal educational chance by sending them out equipped 
with the right ideals, attitudes, habits, and skills, and by help- 
ing them to secure positions where they have possibilities of 
happiness and success. 

I have been talking somewhat about what Labor 
did and why it did it prior to 1919 when continuation 
schools were first established. But I refer you to the 
very latest pronouncements of the American Federa- 
tion of Labor at its recent convention in San Fran- 
cisco. You will find there the evidence of the deep 
concern of the American Federation of Labor in the 
educational crisis. 

It is on record for 
Truly professional standards in and for the classroom 
Small classes taught by trained teachers. 

An enriched curriculum. 

Opportunities for growth and cultural advantages for 

adult workers. 

An equitable wage for all teachers. 

Security of tenure for all educational workers. 

Decent working conditions for teachers. 

Right of organization and affiliation with organized 

labor. 

Opportunity for culture and professional study for 

teachers. 

10. Maintenance of educational standards. 

11. Provision for old age pensions for teachers. 

12. Opportunity for teachers to participate in formulating 
educational policy. 


And, furthermore, it pledged its utmost endeavor for 
the protection of every branch of public education. 
It pledged also its full support of legislation for Fed- 
eral Aid for the support of public education, such 
legislation to provide that $600,000,000, collected from 
income and inheritance taxes, be appropriated and 
allocated to the States partly on the basis of need and 
partly on the basis of population, such funds to be 
disbursed and administered locally. And not of least 
interest to you, the A. F. of L. reaffirmed its belief in 
Vocational Education, pledged its efforts for ample 
appropriations and for the restoration of the Federal 
Board of Vocational Education. 

You will find that Labor is not satisfied just to talk 
about the crisis and the attack in the name of econ- 
omy that has been made upon continuation schools, 
vocational education, and the other additions to the 
curriculum and the public school system, which have 
been made to fit it to a modern complex society. A 
great many groups are talking, but Labor did some- 
thing in 1826, in 1830-50, and saw the first tax-sup- 
ported schools established; it did something in 1919 
and saw the continuation schools launched ; and again 
it did something and industrial education was estab- 
lished. Now it proposes to do something again. 
Decrease economic and social illiteracy we hear on 


SONA PWN 


© 


Tue AMERICAN TEACHER 
all sides, but Labor with its usual practical attitude 
says on this subject, 

That’s right. That's what we want. Let’s do something 
about it. Let’s get together on this principle in which we pro- 
fess to believe and get some real action. Let’s realize that 
we are under attack, that the reactionary forces attacking 
education are the same as are trying to undermine the living 
standards of Labor. Let’s recognize that we have a common 
cause and common enemies and join battle for a common 
victory. 

Do you, do the teachers of America want what 
Labor wants, security, leisure, freedom, plenty, hap- 
piness, the good life for themselves and for others? 

Do the teachers want what Labor wants for the 
schools and the workers in them? Do the teachers 
want to see Labor’s standard of equal educational op- 
portunity for every child made a reality throughout 
this broad land of ours? If they do, they must heed 
what Dr. John Dewey has said: 

It is only by the union of all those who work whether with 
their heads or with their hands that we can hope to build a 
better world. 

The future of the schools, the future of society, 
rests very largely with the teachers, far more than 
they have realized. The teacher’s own security depends 
in large measure on his own efforts to protect it. The 
security of the public school depends on the teachers’ 
effort to protect it. 

If we are to receive federal aid in support of public 
education, if vocational education is to be preserved 
and supported, if we in America are to have a school 
system that meets the requirements of the nation as a 
whole, social, economic, industrial, cultural, the friends 
of education must be united. Labor has a definite 
legislative program for the protection and advance- 
ment of education, for relief must come from legis- 
lative action. Let us take a lesson from the last Con- 
gress when eleven different school relief bills were 
introduced into Congress, each supported by some 
small group but opposed by the united powerful in- 
terests determined to keep down school costs and to 
secure low-wage workers, for ignorant labor is always 
cheap labor. And as a result we got little except the 
statement from congressmen, 

Teachers don’t know what they want. 
gether on a program. 

It is evident that no one group standing by itself 
can win in a struggle so vital to us all against a foe so 
strongly entrenched, so thoroughly prepared through 
organization, financial support, and propaganda re- 
sources. 

When the danger is pointed out, will we find a way 
to save ourselves? How shall we resist the mighty 
influences which attack and seek to destroy the public 
school system except by organization, by the banding 
together of all those who believe in the public school 
as the safeguard of the future of America, by the 
union of all those concerned with the schools as pat- 
rons and as workers therein! We shall not see pre- 
served our public school system and our democratic 
form of government and our democratic way of living 
and thinking except through the union of all those 
who know that only through fair wages, decent work- 
ing conditions, security in their jobs, freedom in or- 
ganization, educational opportunity, can an improved 
economic condition, a saner economic world with so- 
cial justice and the good life for all, be secured. 

Let us then unite with the American Federation of 
Labor and advance upon the legislative halls of state 


They can’t get to- 

































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on 
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to- 


elf 


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January-Fesruary, 1935 


and nation, twelve million strong, and get what we 
want, that is, make equal educational opportunity for 
every child, youth, and adult not a mere hope but an 
actuality. 

A square deal for the childhood, the young work- 
ers, the adult workers, every man, woman, and child 
of America is a possibility but only if the teachers 
and their fellow workers unite in strength, in courage, 
in vision to bring it about. 

The American Federation of Labor is dedicated to 
the good life for all. Equal educational opportunity 
for all is its standard. Its interest is fundamental be- 


11 


cause its whole program is one of education. It is 
interested to be sure in wages, hours, working condi- 
tions but in these only as promoting its larger pro- 
gram of the Good Life for all. It has set its face 
against the enemies of mankind—poverty, ignorance, 
disease, waste, and inhumanity—in order that social 
justice may prevail. To achieve this, education is 
fundamental and for this reason a major interest of 
Labor is education of children, education of youth, 
education of adults, education of workers. 

Labor has still to be shown that our faith in edu- 
cation is not justified. 


Importance of Apprenticeship Training 
John H. Walker 


where located or what industry, the more train- 
ing its employees have, the more highly skilled 
they are, the more efficient they are—the more pro- 
ductive that industry will be, everything else being 
ual, and the better quality its products will have. 
It follows, therefore, that not only will those involved 
as employees and employers have more out of which 
to get better wages, improved working conditions, 
shorter work days, and greater profits, but the public 
will get more and better quality goods for their money 
and the industry itself will grow and expand, adding 
to the standards and the material welfare of the entire 
community. 

And on the contrary, the less training the employees 
have, the less skill they have, the less efficient they 
are, in no matter what industry or where located, the 
less productive will be that industry and the lower 
grade will be its products. So that the returns from 
it to the employee in wages will be lower, the hours 
of labor will be the longer, the working conditions 
will be the poorer, and the profits to the employer 
will be smaller. 

The people purchasing those products will get the 
least quantity and poorest quality for their money, 
and the industry itself will bring the minimum of 
good to those directly involved and to the community 
in which it is located. 

Many influences, exerting almost determining power 
in different localities, have been fearful that the ap- 
prenticeship school might be used to supply men in 
their field in such numbers and at such times that they 
might themselves be displaced and their standards— 
wages, conditions, and hours—lowered. If precau- 
tions were taken to safeguard against that happening, 
it would be much easier to have a thorough-going 
apprenticeship arrangement functioning wholeheart- 
edly universally. 

If the codes shorten the work period so as to dis- 
tribute the work opportunities reasonably and fix the 
hours, wages, and conditions of labor, those matters 
will have been safeguarded and perhaps the strongest 
influence hampering universal apprenticeship training 
will have been removed. 

Everything should be done to provide these safe- 
guards. At the same time, not only for the good of 
the individuals directly affected but for the good of 


FE: the point of view of industry, no matter 


_ Address in part delivered December 6, 1934, at the Conven- 
tion of the American Vocational Association, held at Pitts- 
burgh, December 5, 6, 7, and 8. 


the nation in its every aspect, such a course of train- 
ing should be made universally available to all the 
youth of the land. The reasons for such an appren- 
ticeship being made available are almost as impelling 
as are those for free public schools and compulsory 
attendance, supported by taxation. 

The responsibility for the well-being of the nation 
must rest on those young folks in the future, to see 
that mankind is supplied fully with the best quality 
and a full variety of the things that they need or use 
in every-day life, those that are essential for its phys- 
ical well-being, its development in knowledge, men- 
tality, and character. 

To provide for himself personally and his depend- 
ents, every young person should be the most useful 
and productive citizen possible, because then he can 
most surely earn the best livelihood possible for him- 
self and his dependents. To be without training puts 
him in the category of common labor, which is the 
lowest in the scale and the most difficult in which to 
find employment; and when he finds employment it 
means that it will enable him to earn only enough for 
the lowest standard of living. In times of depression 
or industrial stagnation, he will have the least possi- 
bility of earning a livelihood at all. And if anyone 
is to be sacrificed and made to suffer lack of the 
necessities of life, to live on charity, he is the one to 
whose lot that falls. And even if compelled to work 
as a common laborer, a boy or girl who has had train- 
ing is of greater value in that work than is the com- 
mon laborer who has not had training. 

For the employer, the workers employed by him 
who are highly trained, will make for his surest and 
greatest success. The employer, whether an individ- 
ual, a corporation, or a public institution, in order to 
prosper, of necessity is required to have the most 
highly skilled and efficient workers in the different 
capacities in the operation of that industry or service. 
To have less than the best, means that a competitor 
has the advantage either in quality or in the quantity 
produced, or in both, and as the consumer will, every- 
thing else being equal, purchase the product that is of 
the best quality or that he can procure at the least 
expense, the employer who has the most highly trained 
workers has a decided advantage. It is, therefore, of 
vital importance to the owner of the private industry 
that those whom he employs be the most highly skilled 
and efficient workers possible for him to procure. 

In public service it is just as important that those 
who render that service be as highly trained as pos- 








12 


sible. In the event that they are not, it means a 
poorer quality of service to the public, a greater ex- 
pense to the tax-payer, and a reaction politically upon 
those public officials who employ that character of 
service. It ordinarily means their defeat at the first 
opportunity the citizens have to register a protest, 
which means their removal from office and the con- 
sequent loss of positions on the part of those employed 
in public service by him. Where the public service 
employee has had the benefit of the best training pos- 
sible, he renders the highest standard of service to 
the public, which means that the most satisfactory 
service will assure to him rendering it, as far as that 
applies to political employment, preferment and secur- 
ity in his position. It reflects credit on the man who 
had been elected to political office who employs that 
kind of service, and makes for his continuance in 
office. 

Where the worker is earning his own livelihood by 
engaging in a private industry of his own or a busi- 
ness enterprise or a skilled profession, the better he 
has been trained, the better his prospects are for being 
successful, the fuller and better living he will be able 
to make for himself and his dependents. For the best 
interest of the whole people and the government it- 
self, every young man and woman should have the 
best possible training to fit him for useful service in 
the productive and distributive industries. For the 
well-being of all the men, women, and children of 
the nation as a whole it is obvious that the more 
highly trained, better informed, more efficient the men 
and women are who are engaged in all the different 
activities of life through which the material well- 
being and the facilities for mental development, edu- 
cation, and wholesome recreation and character are 
provided, the better the quality and greater the output 
will be, the greater amount of leisure they will have 
and the higher will be the level of life in all of its 
aspects on the part of all the people. It is correspond- 
ingly obvious that the less of training, knowledge, and 
education there are on the part of those who provide 
these things, the poorer the quality and the less the 
quantity output will be; the less will be the leisure 
and the lower will be the standards of life—material, 
physical, mental, moral, cultural, and spiritual—of 
those people. And particularly in view of the fact that 
our productive capacity has been increased to the 
place where through inventions, new discoveries, new 
processes, it is agreed that on the basis of efficiency, 
a decreasing amount of time of the average citizen 
will be required to produce and to distribute all of the 
material things that are needed by all of the people, 
everything being produced and distributed by machin- 
ery, changed by chemistry, communicated by tele- 
phone, telegraph, television, radio all of which fields 
require training, technical knowledge, and a high level 
of skill for their control, it is clear that only through 
proper special training under the direction of experts 
with equipment of the most modern type may the boy 
or girl acquire the skill and knowledge essential for 
the different processes and techniques of those activi- 
ties. There are not only all these reasons that urge 
this training to be made available to all of the youth 
of our land, but it must be clear to all that the youth 
who has not that training is in the most unfortunate 
category amongst us. Students of biology agree that 
the acquisition of any information broadens the vision, 
strengthens the mind, and makes it easier to. acquire 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
more information. This apprenticeship training, ac- 
quiring skill and knowledge, means a higher level of 
men and women themselves. It is not only necessary 
to the most abundant life, but it is vitally necessary, 
if the men and women of the future are to be them- 
selves the best men and women that it is possible for 
them to be. 

Perhaps I am going beyond the jurisdiction given 
me in this matter, but, because I think it is closely 
related to this subject, is really a part of it, and of 
almost as great, if not greater, importance than the 
apprenticeship for youth itself, I want to add the word 
before closing that I believe it is just as necessary that 
we should have an adequate system of adult education 
established in our country, free public education for 
the mature, with the necessary teachers, buildings, 
and equipment to enable those who have passed be- 
yond the apprenticeship age of youth to continue tak- 
ing training for the higher vocations and activities of 
life, acquiring information on all subjects of interest 
or value to them, so that not only the time of our peo- 
ple may be occupied in a wholesome and beneficial 
way (in view of the great amount of leisure that we 
are going to have in the future, that is a rather im- 
portant item) but that they may continue to raise the 
standards of efficiency in the material aspects of life, 
still further reduce the burden of drudgery in neces- 
sary work, shorten the working period, further in- 
crease leisure with which to do the most important 
thing there is for human beings to do, that is develop 
themselves into more capable, better informed, more 
intelligent, more highly cultured, more altruistic, finer 
men and women. 

When a young person acquires knowledge, he has 
the advantage of that increased information and 
greater intelligence for a longer period of time than 
he would have had if his education had been deferred 
until later life; and as broader understanding and 
greater intelligence on the part of our people not only 
enable them to be more useful in the material aspects 
of their lives, but in intellectual pursuits, in under- 
standing the problems of others, and in assisting them 
to be more useful, a sound apprenticeship training 
followed by wide opportunity in adult education 
should result in the use of that increased knowledge 
and intelligence in registering strong influence in the 
most helpful way in the settlement of all govern- 
mental, economic, and moral issues. Thus a sound 
foundation may be laid on which all life is to be 
built, out of which comes our standards of ethics, 
morality, mental development, culture, life, the spirit- 
ual status of the people, the souls of men. It is of 
primary importance that the youth who is serving his 
apprenticeship to acquire knowledge and skill for 
purposes of learning a trade or profession, be at the 
same time given the general education that will fit him 
to discharge the obligations of citizenship on the 
highest possible standard. A liberal training and edu- 
cation should take first place. 


























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January-Fesruary, 1935 





Enemies of the Public Schools 


Warren C. Hawthorne 


And she had the assurance to complain that she 
couldn’t even pay for gas for her car, and I said to 
her, “What the hell right have you to have a car at 


all?” 


o, ungentle reader, this was not said to an im- 
pecunious, unemployed worker. It was the 
expression of a prosperous doctor, driving his 

Cadillac at the time, and “she” was a school teacher 
of long standing who had acquired an old fliver which 
took her to her daily work until months of no pay had 
left her without means of providing the running ma- 
terial. 

It seemed to me so typical of a common attitude 
towards teachers and schools that I began to notice 
other instances of the same feeling. Months later and 
2000 miles away, a friendly conversation with a city 
employee was suddenly punctuated with a pronuncia- 
mento: “Wages of school teachers will have to come 
down. They’re getting altogether too much for what 
they do. Preparation? Nonsense! It doesn’t need 
any education to teach a roomful of little kids their 
a b c’s.” 

Now here were two men, far above the average in 
education and intelligence, yet on this subject show- 
ing not ignorance merely but a rancorous ignorance 
against employees of an institution that must function 
effectively if this republic is to survive. Probably 
they would be surprised to be classed as enemies of 
public education, but that is the camp where they 
belonged. 

Many people talk about the enemies of the public 
schools with the vaguest notions only of who or what 
these so-called enemies may be. Is there any justifica- 
tion for this expression? Who or what are these 
enemies ? 

Suppose we start by defining as an enemy of the 
public school any individual or organization that would 
diminish its effectiveness in the least. This may be 
done by shortening the school year or the number of 
years the child can spend under the guidance of or- 
ganized instruction; or by impairing the value of the 
instruction, either by skimping on the appropriations 
so that inferior teachers must be hired, or overload- 
ing the teachers by long hours of work or such large 
classes that even a good teacher can not give the best 
that is in him. The commonest way of justifying any 
of these attempts is by raising the cry of economy, 
and while economy has been a dire necessity in thou- 
sands of places in the last three or four years it will 
not be difficult in most cases to distinguish between 
those situations and these where the cry is most obvi- 
ously a blind for the real reason or reasons. The 
easiest test to apply of course is to ask whether econ- 
omy has been impartially applied in all public ex- 
penditures, not only in the business management of 
the schools, where the greatest graft is always found, 
but in other branches of the civil government. When, 
as in recent glaring examples, economies are effected 
only in the educational department, and in such a 
way as to demoralize the entire system with, after all, 
very little actual saving of money, it is foolish not to 
look further for the reason for such attacks. 


Who are those, then, who may be expected to op- 
pose the spending of public money for public educa- 
tion? 

In the first place, the big tax-payer, who may be 
perfectly honest in believing that too much money is 
being spent on the schools. It is more likely, how- 
ever, that his motives are mixed. 

(a) He will, if caught unawares, probably de- 
clare that the poor boy is being educated beyond his 
capacity to make use of what he is taught. This, of 
course, is based on his ignorance of the content of a 
modern school curriculum. His notion of a public 
school is a place where the unwilling human cub is 
forced to acquire a smattering of those things that 
will make him a cog in the wheels of industry. Since 
that is to be his destiny, why waste time and money 
on fads? The superabundance of cheap labor from 
Europe having been limited by law and changing 
economic conditions, he wishes a domestic supply pro- 
vided for his mills. That the safety of the country 
demands a citizenry trained to think, to have an ap- 
preciation of the beautiful in art, science, and liter- 
ature, to know something of the mechanics of our 
modern industrial society and to know how to employ 
its spare time pleasantly and profitably, of this he has 
no conception. No wonder he classes nearly every- 
thing above the three R’s as fads. 

(b) He may well fear that the products of the 
public schools will make life harder for his own chil- 
dren, who are being educated at the best private 
schools he can afford. He knows very well the value 
of “fads” for his own offspring; in the positions in 
society, industry, and finance which they are to oc- 
cupy, these are among the fundamentals of the neces- 
sary preparation. And having spent time and money 
in giving his children these superior advantages, shall 
he permit the son of the hod-carrier, educated by taxes 
wrung from the rich man himself, to step in and 
carry off the prizes for which his own son was sup- 
posedly prepared? Is it not quite natural for him to 
oppose anything beyond primary education for such 
possible interlopers? 

Another class will oppose public education that is 
of any value, and for much the same reason as above: 
that their position is threatened. This is the profes- 
sional politician. The training that is creeping into 
even grammar grades now—a training in civics, in 
citizenship, in the understanding of public affairs— 
is fatal to the corrupt rule of the selfish politicians 
and well they know it. They don’t want an intelligent 
electorate, any more than the industrialist wants an 
educated factory hand. 

Corrupt politician, rich parent, and selfish business 
man have strong though unconscious allies in the 
superpatriots and conservatives who fear any change 
whatsoever in the present form of society, and under 
the guise of “purging the schools of communism, 
pacifism, internationalism” and what-not, would throw 
such restrictions on teachers and what is taught that 
no self-respecting man or woman would enter the 
profession. If all the demands of all the “patriotic” 
groups were met, sociology would vanish from the 
curriculum, economics would be reduced to business 





14 


training, civics would be limited to a study of the con- 
stitution, historians would revert to the Parson Weems 
type, and “patriotism” (defined as saluting the flag, 
singing My Country ’Tis of Thee, and drilling in the 
R. O. T. C.) would occupy the largest share of the 
daily program. 

Not until one has come in contact with it again and 
again does one realize the force of another current 
against schools and teachers: a feeling of bitter envy 
on the part of the narrow-minded and ignorant against 
any one who wears clean linen and uses good gram- 
mar. One found it again and again when teachers had 
gone month after month without pay. There was no 
fellow feeling for a companion in misfortune, but a 
rancorous exultation that at last educated people had 
“got what was coming to them.” Sometimes it took 
the form of diatribes against “feeders at the public 
trough” who were “bleeding the tax-payer white,” 
and intimations that they were the real cause of the 
depression. But if ever the charges became particular- 
ized, it was evident that the teachers were the class 
thought of. This feeling, of course, is common only 
among those whose educational ideas have never ad- 
vanced beyond the little red schoolhouse. But the 
persistence of this feeling among those who are mod- 
ern in almost every thing else is surprising. It is 
ignorance, of course, and it is axiomatic that man- 
kind instinctively hates that of which it is ignorant. 
The two men mentioned in the opening paragraph 
showed this feeling. 

A not inconsiderable obstacle, though not active op- 
position, comes from another class who feel them- 
selves unjustly taxed to support the public schools, 
since they already support their own schools (paro- 
chial). They can hardly be blamed for this attitude, 
and the fact that the public schools find so many 
stanch supporters among the leaders in the churches 
supporting their own parochial schools is to their ever- 
lasting credit. But it is too much to expect that the 
parents will take up the cudgels for public expendi- 
tures that will give their neighbors’ children better 





THe AMERICAN TEACHER 
schools than they are able to afford for their own. 
There can be no doubt that from among these people 
the active enemies of public education derive a great 
deal of silent support. The same thing might bé said 
of the owners and proprietors of various private 
schools, though this, of course, is not a very important 
group on account of its small size. 

It is easy, then, to enumerate at least seven classes 
of enemies of public education, whose attitude ranges 
from indifference, through the tendency to lower the 
effectiveness of the schools by slurring the teachers, 
to active opposition towards all the best of the work 
that the schools are trying to do. These classes men- 
tioned are: 


The patrons of various types of private schools. 

The ignorant and envious mossbacks from a previ- 
ous generation. 

The industrialist who wants a supply of ignorant, 
hence cheap labor, and is no longer able to im- 
port it. 

The “100% patriot” who is afraid of any new ideas 
being taught the young. 

The politician who is also afraid of new ideas in 
the minds of oncoming crops of new voters. 

The rich and aristocratic parents who want the best 
positions in society, business, finance, and politics 
reserved for their own children. 

The big tax-payer, who sees in the annual school 
bill the easiest place to cut public expenditures 
without raising the protest sure to be heard if 
outlays are pared from which business may profit. 


Some of these are conscious, others unconscious 
enemies. But the events of the last few years seem 
to indicate that the former have begun to organize 
the other elements and use them to their purpose. 
Unless the friends of the public school are aroused to 
the danger threatening, there can be little doubt that 
the chief safeguard of American Democracy will in 
future suffer even to a far greater extent even than 
it has thus far. 


Forty-two in a Class and Free Discipline 


Miriam Ziony 


HE techniques used in teaching children, it has 
been said recently, are ineffective and inadvis- 
able in the education of adults, who require such 
devices as group projects and discussion methods and 
who will not attend classes that are uninteresting. 
For many years the harmful effects of dull, routin- 
ized methods upon the mental and emotional health 
of the child have been recognized by progressive edu- 
cators and child guidance specialists. But the public 
school system has been slow to understand the im- 
portance of more vitalizing methods and curriculum 
to meet the individual needs and interests of the child. 
In general the child has not been consulted regard- 
ing his attitudes toward school. A compulsory system 
of education and authoritative disciplines have made 
him inarticulate regarding his likes and dislikes ; arbi- 
trary standards have rendered him incompetent to 
express a preference for more satisfying school pro- 
cedures. 
Too often the outward show and restraint, the at- 
tainment of “straight lines,” “perfect posture,” “quiet 





, 


classrooms,” have been considered indispensable to 
the development of character and inner discipline. 
The fear of punishment and the promise of reward 
still play an important part in the maintenance of 
superficial disciplines which, because of their super- 
ficiality, would be difficult to maintain in any other 
way. Rewards in the form of “stars,” “credits,” 
“merits,” “compliments,” ‘“A’s,” “honor cards” and 
other devices are now considered psychologically 
more productive of results than punishments; but 
the unwholesome psychological effects of reward 
methods are often unknown to those who advocate 
them. 

Scientific analysis of school failures; extensive 
study of the case histories of children who have come 
to the attention of the courts or the guidance clinic 
because of truancy, juvenile delinquency, and other 
forms of personality and behavior defects; and a bet- 
ter understanding of the psychological bases of mental 
and moral conduct are, however, gradually making 
manifest to school authorities the need for freer and 

































—_———— a gg _— 

















January-Fesruary, 1935 


more creative, more purposeful methods with children 
as well as with adults. 

Even the handicap of large classes, so often used 
as an excuse for the continuation of regimentation 
and disciplinary processes, can be overcome accord- 
ing to the extént to which outmoded controls are re- 
placed by genuine interest and initiative as incentives 
to the acquisition of knowledge and to the develop- 
ment of real self-discipline. 

The following is the story of a personal experience 
in a New York City school several years ago when 
projects and group work and individualized methods 
of instruction were not yet being encouraged to any 
large degree. 

Ever since I could remember I had wanted to teach, 
from the days when “playing school” was a favorite 
pastime until the summer after completing college 
when I gave up an opportunity in the field of journal- 
ism in order to enter my chosen profession. 

I was a teacher at last, but, somehow, teaching was 
not what I had expected it to be. 

The earlier years spent as a pupil in the public 
school system had not left with me any impression 
of the system from the teacher’s point of view. I had 
always been a quiet, obedient child and adored school. 
Only in the queer dreams I used to have sometimes 
of trying to grope my way to school through dark 
streets at night, there may have been, perhaps, the 
expression of an unconscious need for more life and 
light. 

My education at a little college where everybody 
knew everybody else, where many an hotr was spent 
in friendly argument and intimate discussion of topics 
ranging from simplified spelling to religious doctrine, 
where the students gave faculty teas and the presi- 
dent’s wife led the orchestra, had not included train- 
ing in unquestioning adherence to authority nor prac- 
tice in the technique of keeping a roomful of eager 
children at arms’ length day after day, sitting motion- 
less between immovable desks and seats. 

In the elementary school to which I had been ap- 
pointed, however, teaching meant administering doses 
of arithmetic and spelling and reading at regular in- 
tervals according to a fixed daily schedule. Together 
pens had to be taken up and together they were put 
down. Two minutes were allowed every hour for 
setting up exercises, then again the same clocklike 
routine. 

One had to be careful not to become too familiar 
with one’s pupils for familiarity bred confidences and 
had a way of upsetting the discipline. Tommy’s cat 
had new kittens but who could stop to hear about 
new kittens when there was still twenty minutes 
worth of penmanship to be squeezed into the program 
before lunch time. 

From 2:30 to 3 o’clock organized games were the 
order of the day. A few silvery aeroplanes flying 
over the playground might call forth a host of eager 
questions: ‘Teacher, what makes them stay up 
there?” “How do the aviators know where to go?” 
“Are there streets in the sky?” ‘What happens if 
they bump into a cloud?” But a hurried word of ex- 
planation had to suffice for this was a period sacred 
to physical training. Besides, children should not 
speak without permission! It spoiled the discipline 
and the straight lines. 

“If you learn to sit still all day long without mov- 
ing your hands and feet you will grow up to be won- 








1 


derful men and women,” the assistant principal told 
the children. Silence in the classroom was the cri- 
terion of the teacher’s efficiency. 

Where were Herbartian theories of fitting the 
school to the child or Montessori methods of learning 
by doing? “Dalton plans and free discipline are all 
right for private schools which have small classes and 
children from better homes,” the principal argued. 
“These children need training in order and self- 
control.” 

By the end of the first year I had decided that 
teaching was not the work for me after all. Then 
suddenly an opportunity presented itself. A special 
class was formed for foreign children who had just 
come to the United States and did not understand 
English. The class was assigned to a capable teacher 
who had earned a reputation as a model disciplinarian. 
But a two weeks’ attempt to apply standardized pro- 
cedures in this heterogeneous group of children of 
different ages and varying degrees of education, left 
her almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown. | 
volunteered to take the class and for three years en- 
joyed teaching. 

There were children from all parts of the globe— 
Russia, Poland, Italy, France, even China and Turkey 
and none of them could speak English. One day I 
remarked that all we needed were some foreigners 
from Africa and sure enough, two little colored girls 
arrived, not quite from Africa but from one of the 
southern states where they had had little schooling. 

The class register was never lower than thirty. One 
year there were as many as forty-two, from nine to 
nineteen years of age; two of the boys had been regis- 
tered as below sixteen according to their passports 
but later proved that they were older. Some had never 
even held a book or a pencil in their hands, nor seen 
the inside of a school; several had gone to high school 
in their own countries. 

The argument has been advanced that foreign chil- 
dren are more alert and more ambitious for learning 
than the American-born. But this did not prove to 
be the case. There were all types—good, bad, and 
indifferent ; some who in terms of I. Q.’s would have 
ranked superior and others who could have been classi- 
fied as mentally below normal. Most of them had 
come from the war torn areas of Europe. Some were 
orphans brought up by strangers or aged grand- 
parents, suffering hunger and cold in the period after 
the World War. One boy had seen his relatives shot 
to death by enemy soldiers; another bore the scar of 
a bullet wound on his own head. Certainly their en- 
vironment had not been superior. 

Since there was no alternative, I was given per- 
mission to conduct the class in my own way, with 
group work and free discipline included. The children 
were divided into groups according to ability and 
previous education. While one group was being helped 
the other groups would work by themselves in vari- 
ous parts of the room, reading to one another, solv- 
ing arithmetic problems together at the blackboard, 
hearing each other spell, the brighter ones advancing 
more rapidly and often assisting those who were 
slower. 

There were no “marks,” no rewards or punishments 
as incentives to greater effort, yet it was remarkable 
to see how absorbed everybody was under the stimulus 
of a group project. Even Tony, the little Italian boy 

(Turn to page 31) 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The Case of Dr. A. J. I. Kraus 


The case of Dr. A. J. I. Kraus appears to one of 
grave injustice and serious abuse of academic free- 
dom, and therefore one deserving of the earnest at- 
tention of all his fellow-teachers and all lovers of fair 
dealing. 

Dr. Kraus was a professor of philosophy in 
Poland, from which country he was compelled to flee 
in 1930 because of his protests against the injustice 
to minority groups in that country. He came to 
America and became an instructor in philosophy at 
the College of the City of New York. 

Dr. Kraus is an idealist and a firm believer in the 
rectitude of an aroused public conscience. He does 
not count the cost in a cause of social justice and 
he believes that if public opinion is informed and 
aroused, it will take a stand on the side of right. 

Acting on these life-long ideals and beliefs, in De- 
cember, 1932, he undertook a hunger strike to attract 
attention to political disturbances in the Polish uni- 
versities which were costing the lives of many stu- 
dents. In January, 1933, he was dismissed from his 
post at the College of the City of New York on the 
charge of being mentally unstable. Moreover, no ex- 
amination or tests were given to prove this allegation. 

Since Dr. Kraus has no teaching position or other 
work and may become a public charge, he faces de- 
portation from the United States. Shortly after his 
dismissal from the College of the City of New York, 
he was arrested and sent to Ellis Island for deporta- 
tion. A stay of execution was obtained through the 
efforts of educators and friends. Eminent psychol- 
ogists have found him to be sound mentally and 
emotionally. 

The liberal and church press are protesting the 
treatment accorded Dr. Kraus. The Christian Cen- 
tury asks a full investigation. The Living Church 
says: 

“The fundamental Christian social principle is the principle 
of respect for personality in all men,” the Archbishop of 
York has said. 

Arthur J. I. Kraus, one-time philosophy instructor at the 
City College of New York, is now a man without a country, 


a man without a profession, and to all intents and purposes 
a man without a mind. 


The situation of Dr. Kraus is deserving of earnest and 
prayerful consideration on the part of all Christians and 
Jews. 


The Kraus case is brought to the attention of readers of 
the Church press because the man, who is of unusual accom- 
plishments and the author of one book in this country, stands 
at present without a friend. Unless some support in the way 
of public outcry is given him a life-time of study and of 
humanitarian idealism will go for nothing. 


We wish to call the special attention of our readers to the 
important moral questions involved in the situation. Whether 
or not one approves of the cause for which Dr. Kraus stands 
and of his method of attempting to forward it, certainly one 
cannot help admiring his earnestness and his idealism. As 
Americans we insist that Dr. Kraus, and everyone else who 
comes to our shores, is entitled to a fair deal and it does not 
seem to us that he has received one. Can the Christian con- 
science of America be aroused to the extent of giving him a 


new opportunity to justify himself? 


Prominent educators, including John Dewey, George 
S. Counts, Wesley C. Mitchell, Reinhold Niebuhr, A. 
Bruce Curry, Ernest F. Scott, William R. Shepherd, 


Arthur L. Swift, Frank Gavin, Paul H. Douglas, 
Albert Einstein, the president and a number of pro- 
fessors at the University of Michigan, a similar group 
at the University of Chicago, and others, those in- 
terested in social justice and truth as well as edu- 
cators, are actively concerning themselves in this case. 

Professor Albert Einstein condemned the dismissal 
of Dr. Kraus in a letter from Princeton, N. J. 


Professor A. J. I. Kraus, formerly a teacher of philosophy 
at the College of the City of New York, has lost his position 
there, because he had shown the conscientiousness and the 
courage to defend in the life the same principles of justice 
which it was his duty to teach. That this has happened is a 
regrettable occurrence, and is certainly no mark of distinction 
to the responsible authority. 


John Haynes Holmes, pastor of Community Church 
of New York, urges the re-establishment of Dr. 
Kraus in the field for which he is so eminently pre- 
pared. He says: 


_I have known Dr. Kraus for a period of years and regard 
him as an exceptionally able scholar, a man of sweet and 
gracious spirit, and an undaunted idealist. He represents 
the temper and type of mind that I wish were more common 
in the field of learning. He is a great teacher, and an able 
leader of young men, as his record clearly indicates. He 
would have climbed quickly to a high place in his profession 
had it not been for the experience of the hunger strike, which 
I feel stands very greatly to Dr. Kraus’ credit. Single-handed 
he dedicated himself to this task of protest, and chose a meth- 
od which hazarded his life and for a time threatened to wreck 
his career. I know of nothing more impressive than the 
group of men who rallied to his support in this crisis, vouched 
for his sincerity and courage, and themselves protested against 
the treatment visited upon him by City College. Dr. Kraus 
has suffered much, but his spirit is unspoiled, and his ideal- 
ism as pure as ever. 


Norman Thomas has expressed his concern and 
his beltef in Dr. Kraus as a man and an educator. 

Idealists are not so numerous in our world, nor in that 
part of it dedicated to education, that we can afford to penal- 
ize a man for his ideal even though his expression of it may 
not appeal to all of us as the way of wisdom. 

Dr. A. J. I. Kraus is a man with ideals and courage. I 
should rather expose young people to him and those ideals, 
than to a great deal of what passes for pedestrian wisdom in 
our world. 

I cannot be too emphatic in asserting that to deprive him 
of an educational position because of his hunger strike, was 
a travesty on justice and good sense. 


The readers of the AMERICAN TEACHER are pledged 
to the cause of truth and social justice; they are be- 
lievers in the square deal. Academic freedom and 
security of tenure are deeply ingrained tenets of their 
being. They will, therefore, wish to be fully in- 
formed on this case, and they will be aroused to action 
to insure for Dr. Kraus an opportunity for investiga- 
tion and justification. 

Further information and literature may be obtained 
from the Kraus Defense Committee, 550 West 110th 
Street, New York. 





Sustains Board in Ousting Teacher.—Dismissal of 
Francis H. Seco as a teacher by the Rahway, N. J., 
Board of Education for inflicting corporal punish- 
ment upon pupils of his class and violating rules of 
the local board was sustained by Commissioner EI- 
liott of the Department of Public Instruction. 









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January-FeEsruary, 1935 





The Teacher and the Social Mind 


Raymond F. Lowry 


FEW months ago | attempted to draw the attention of 

the union teachers to the challenge of an intelligent, 

responsive youth for a friendly interchange of ideas 
and actions on the part of the adult citizen in their effort to 
acclimate themselves to a new world. My effort was to lead 
the teachers out of the classroom into life, to bring them into 
a sphere of activity where youth and age might think together. 
Such an intention was not conceived in any spirit of antago- 
nism to any class; there was no concealed motive of unjust 
criticism of any group either in social or economic life, but 
rather an overpowering awareness to the crisis which faces 
us in these realms unless we pool our experiences and ideas 
to a more humane adjustment in attitudes, relationships, hopes, 
and methods. Hope and soul must not be crushed from the 
breast of the great peoples of the earth by the nerveless 
sinews of the machine; neither should man, the creator, be 
compelled to cringe in fear before the power he has made, 
as slave instead of as master. 

Six months of travel through widely diversified sections 
of our country have only served to intensify the conviction 
that the time is at hand when the teachers of America, and 
of the world, must cooperate with the youth in the creation 
of a saner outlook, planned in service and not in self. We 
dare no longer allow the collusion of the mechanistic power 
of the machine and the selfishness of man’s worst nature to 
turn into the Frankenstein of tomorrow. Before such a 
monster, even the most sacred of ties are even now threatened. 
The life blood of the people is being stopped. Ruin follows 
closely upon the heels of misunderstanding and even greatest 
hearts may sicken of the short-sightedness which has at- 
tended their most altruistic efforts. 

Youth has been brought into a world which demands a 
readjustment which must first of all be mental before it 
can be sanely social or economic. Whether we like to make 
the admission or not, we have not sufficiently emphasized the 
importance of cooperation as opposed to competition. To 
compensate for lost opportunities, we cannot delay longer 
to make a personal adjustment in living in order that we 
may furnish the knowledge for a larger development of the 
best in the student as a governor for the control of the 
worst. The objectives of all creeds and faiths in society in 
furthering the onward march of civilization has been to 
bring into the foreground as determinates of action the better 
qualities of man’s dual nature. And it is this place of 
leadership in creating a mental attitude as a more powerful 
instrument for the building of characters dominated by social 
mindedness that must be filled more strenuously by the 
teacher. 3 

This does not mean condoning the swing to extremes 
either on the part of the teacher or pupil, graduate or under- 
graduate. It merely means that we must again get a clear 
vision of our functions in society; that we must not, with 
the older generation, forget the social function of the eco- 
nomic system—‘“to provide goods to supply the material needs 
of ALL, and to afford creative experience.” 

Throughout the ages, we must have learned that society 
looks to church and school to formulate the norms for life. 
It does not follow that the teacher or preacher should, if 
he could, seek to control life other than in the creation 
of normatives which establish concrete habits, attitudes, and 


That trite arid hackneyed 
phrase, “the youth of today 


The President’s Page 


is the citizen of tomorrow,” constitutes a judgment and a chal- 
lenge. Our generations are the youths of yesteryear. Ap- 
parent incongruities and misunderstandings threatening the 
social and economic life of the nation are the material real- 
izations of the habits, attitudes, and ideas with which we 
were impregnated. The present confusion of youth grows 
out of the harsh awakening of the world to the realization 
that all is not well and the awareness that they have not 
the mental and spiritual vision to determine the solution. We 
have passed on ourselves to the youth. 

Of course, many have not done the customary thing. They 
have honestly served. And yet, apparently, they have been 
greatly in the minority. I prefer to think that neither is 
the case; rather that all have been conscientiously engaged, 
consecratedly determined, seriously motivated, and yet wholly 
human. As products of their own training, tho in what pro- 
portions we are not as yet willing to agree, they have often 
fallen heir to the temporary blindness of the age. And the 
youth of America? Is it not tragic that they are being 
propagandized by unethical, unintelligent, inhumane, and often 
utterly undemocratic interests! They are looking for leader- 
ship. They are seeking guidance to meet a changing world, 
not that of ours of yesterday, but of theirs. 

They would reconcile the doctrines of honesty with ob- 
served malpractice, of selfishness and greed with altruism 
and social service, of enervating inaction with willingness to 
act. They are striving to find themselves in a world in which 
they have no part. In this dilemma they are coming to ques- 
tion the basis upon which civilization apparently rests. They 
are finding that too great an importance has been granted 
to material rather than to spiritual values, They cite the 
present crisis as irrefutable evidence that money does not 
create money; when employment ceases production stops and 
bonds lose their value. 

Herein lies one, at least, splendid reaction from this 
world economic depression. We may now, in this fertile 
field of discovery, better plant the seeds of a philosoph: 
which will develop into the attitude of courting happiness 
as an accompaniment of work, the idea of profession and 
labor filling the horizon of our planning as the opportunities 
in which spiritual values pay higher and more certain re- 
turns than the material, and that wealth really consists in 
the joyful employment of the many in a producing world. 

If youth learns this lesson, if service is to become the 
motivating principle, and if the end of education is going 
to mean to them fuller, happier lives in terms of thé ability 
to enjoy along with their task art, music, literature, the 
teacher must have played a large part. He must have entered 
more closely into their lives; he must have offered to youth 
the frank opportunity to think together. He will have ac- 
complished much in the creation of a social mind; he will 
have gone far in the creation of a new world if the resultant 
is one in which the pleasure derived from occupation shall 
weigh more heavily than the material advantages to be gained. 

Yet, the foregoing accomplishment may not stop here in 
the attempt to create the norms for a new day. This per- 
sona) .entact of pupil and teacher must not be allowed to 
come « any actual or even apparent termination. The grow- 


ing youth and the mature man need and must have the op- 
portunity for constant cultural and intellectual improvement 
A machinery for education must syncopate 
its wheels with the whirring 
machinery of industry, com- 
merce, and life. 


and activity. 





18 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


So This Is America! 


How Can Production Be Increased?—Unemploy- 
ment relief is America’s most urgent problem to- 
day. The number of persons dependent on relief 
has increased in the past year by over 5,000,000, 
from 13,338,000 in September, 1933, to 18,402,000 
in September, 1934. The total cost of relief has 
more than doubled; it was $59,206,000 last year 
compared to $143,227,000 this year in September. 
In addition $42,111,000 was paid to those em- 
ployed on PWA and CCC, so that the total cost 
of maintaining the unemployed is running more 


than $185,000,000 a month. 


Hit Chain Store. Wages.—The Parliamentary Mass 
Buying, Commission, in recent hearings, has re- 
vealed many startling facts in connection with 
wages paid chain store employees, which is ex- 
pected to result favorably for the workers. An 
example is cited in the case of the F. W. Wool- 
worth Company, Ltd., which, while making a 
profit of $1,800,000, representing 20% on their 
investment, in 1932, reduced employees’ wages 
10%. Average pay was found to be $10.80, with 
some getting as low as $7 for a full week. 


Teachers End Strike.—A brief strike of 66 teachers, 
employed to instruct the over 2,500 pupils in the 
Jessup Borough, Pa., schools ended when definite 
assurance that back salaries extending over eight 
months would be paid. Over $27,000 was due 
the teachers in overdue salaries. 


$2,500 Income Needed for Living.—The Rev. Fran- 
cis J. Haas, labor representative on the general 
NRA board, in an address in Boston, Mass., as- 
serted that, when minimum wages are being set, 
“not less than $2,500 a year” should be consid- 
ered as the amount required to maintain a family 
in reasonable comfort. Rev. Haas also made this 
significant statement: “If Section 7-A—the col- 
lective bargaining clause in the Recovery Act— 
had been allowed to operate freely during the 
past year, it would have had the certain effect of 
increasing purchasing power.” 

More “Company Houses” Proposed.—Cleveland, 
Ohio.—It is reported that the steel and coal in- 
dustries contemplate the biggest house-building 
project in the country’s history. Under the plan, 
about 50,000 steel and wood houses would be 
erected, at an estimated expenditure of about 
$150,000,000. For many long years, “company 
houses” have been regarded as a curse to mining 
and mill towns. Many instances are recorded 
where workers have been set out of their com- 
pany-owned houses during strike periods. The 
present plan, however, calls for cooperation with 
the Federal Housing Administration and eventual 
sale of the houses to workers on the same terms 
offered by the Administration. 


* Pay Raises of $89,000 Authorized—The Yonkers, 
N. Y., Board of Education has been assured of 
sufficient funds to operate the school system 
throughout 1935 without a December closing and 
without impairment of automatic pay raises for 
the teachers. The automatic salary increments 
for 1935 aggregate $89,900. 


Taxpayers Hit at Teachers’ Research Body.—A 


bitter attack against the Research Bureau of the 
Schenectady Teachers’ Association has _ been 
launched by the 12th Ward Taxpayers’ Associa- 
tion. 

The association is charged with intent to de- 
ceive the public in its choice of a name, the alle- 
gation being that it is sought to confuse it in the 
public mind with the Schenectady Bureau of Mu- 
nicipal Research, which the association is also 
accused of attempting to discredit by juggling 
facts and figures. 

“It is almost unthinkable that we have people 
in our school system who will stoop so low to 
accomplish their purpose,” says the taxpayers’ 
statement, and it admonishes the school to “out 
an effective stop to the deceit and subterfuge, 
distortion and. abuse so far indulged in.” 


Schools Group Answers Attack of Taxpayers.—The 


Research Bureau of the Schenectady Teachers’ As- 
sociation has replied to the attack upon it made by 
the 12th Ward Taxpayers’ Association and, inci- 
dentally, paid its respects to the Schenectady Bu- 
reau of Municipal Research. 

Of the taxpayers’ associations the teachers’ or- 
ganization says that if the truth of the city’s finan- 
cial condition were generally known “they wouldn't 
have an organization.” The Schenectady Bureau 
of Municipal Research is depicted as “living off 
taxpayers’ money, tearing everything down irre- 
spective of the truth.” 


Borough Teachers Ask Pay Cut End.—Teachers in 


Rutherford, N. J., schools have asked the Ruther- 
ford Board of Education to cancel 10 per cent of 
the 15 per cent reduction in salaries now in effect. 

Letters from the West Side .Improvement Asso- 
ciation of Rutherford and the Rutherford Taxpay- 
ers’ Association asked further reductions in the 
budget. The West Side Association requested 
there be no raise in salaries. The Taxpayers’ As- 
sociation asked the budget be published in Janu- 
ary, a month prior to the school election. 

The teachers’ letter pointed out living costs had 
increased, the federal government has adopted a 
policy of cancellation of pay cuts and the 15 per 
cent reduction in Rutherford salaries is 8.12 per 
cent greater than the average reduction of teachers’ 
salaries in the United States. 

The teachers compared their voluntary reduc- 
tion with police department cuts of 8 per cent last 
year and 10 per cent this year. 


Teachers’ Pay Increase Voted.—The New Rochelle 


3oard of Education overrode the City Council’s 
veto and voted to restore five per cent of the 17 
per cent salary reductions teachers have been 
obliged to accept in the previous two years. 

It was in effect a compromise since the board 
had planned to restore 10 per cent in the 1935 
budget and the council had demanded that 7 
per cent salary contributions by teachers con- 
tinue. 











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January-Fesruary, 1935 


Teachers Decline to Aid Miss de Lee.—The New 
York State Teachers Association at its annual 
meeting in November declined to intervene in the 
case of Miss Esther de Lee, Pompey Hollow 
teacher who was ousted by a trustee in a dispute 
over the hanging of the flag. 

The house of delegates of the association re- 
jected a resolution for appointment of a special 
committee to review the case and help the teacher 
if possible. Speakers declared that the State 
Commissioner of Education could adjust such 
cases. 

While considering the subject the delegates re- 
jected another resolution which would have pro- 
vided for a committee on “academic freedom” to 
consider future similar cases. 


Jersey Teachers Demand Full Pay.—A State-wide 
drive for the restoration of teachers’ salaries to 
pre-depression levels was mapped at the conclud- 
ing session of the eightieth annual convention of 
the New Jersey State Teachers Association. 


Laws Disfranchising All Persons on public relief 
rolls, prohibiting the general and the sympathetic 
strike, limiting picketing “to the mere announce- 
ment of an industrial dispute,” and limiting taxes 
on real estate to 2 per cent of the true value are 
recommended in a 15-point program adopted by 
the New York State Economic Council. 


Weymouth, Mass., Teachers to Get Pay Boost.— 
Thirty-nine teachers of the Weymouth school 
department will receive an increase in their 
pay checks on account of a redistribution of 
salaries made possible by the death and resigna- 
tion of teachers. The increase will average $100 
to each teacher. 

Economy forced by the depression precluded 
the normal increase in pay being granted in re- 
cent years and the redistribution is an effort to 
adjust the pay of the lesser-paid teachers more 
equitably. 

Woman Works 64 Years in Same Mill.—The ter- 
rible toll of child labor in the mills of the South 
prior to establishment of the NRA, is emphasized 
with the revelation that Mrs. Mary Deitz, now 
seventy-one years old, has worked continuously 
in one mill for sixty-four years. At the tender 
age of seven years, when any child should nor- 
mally be in school, she started to work in a 
cotton mill instead. 


Motor Coach Strike Won.—The four-month strike 
of motor coach employees of Chicago finally 
ended in victory for the workers. Following 
many wild scenes during the strike, which lasted 
from August 16 to December 6, settlement was 
finally effected through negotiations, the results of 
which, while not announced in detail, were re- 
ported as satisfactory to all concerned. 


Teachers to Act on Salarv Return.—No action has 
been taken on the part of the Oneida, N. Y. Teach- 
ers Association regarding the proposal of the Board 
of Education for a seven and one-half per cent re- 
turn of salaries of teachers. 

Several days ago members of the Association 
proposed giving back five per cent of salaries. 
The Board responded with a suggested compro- 

mise offer to seven and a half per cent. 


1Y 


Women Charge Men Are Favored in Tests.—The 


Unemployed Teachers Association, New York, 
has appealed to educators from the various col- 
leges and universities of the city for advice and 
assistance in its campaign against discrimination 
against women in the field of teaching. 
According to the teachers, the tendency toward 
discrimination against women teachers “assumed 
rather unwonted proportions” recently when it 
was announced that several important examina- 
tions to be given next year have been restricted 
to men candidates. In addition, the teachers de- 
clared, men received a “distinct preference” when 
the recent high school appointments were made, 


Head Commended for Winning Tutors Over to 


December Cut.—Miss Lillian Broderick, president 
of the Yonkers Teachers’ Association, received 
credit last night for the fact that instructors voted 
favorably on Mayor Loehr’s plan to open the 
schools in December. 

Board of Education members had just passed a 
resolution congratulating the city administration 
on its successful rehabilitation of finances, when 
Trustee Thomas §S. Reilly turned the plaudits to 
Miss Broderick. 

“T don’t believe there’s a citizen in Yonkers de- 
serving of more praise than the president of the 
Yonkers Teachers’ Association,” he declared. 

“IT recommend a motion of thanks for her for 
the work that she did. She eased the teachers’ 
minds and she had a hard time doing it but she 
got them to take the December cut.” 


New York City Teachers Received Pay Jan. 2.— 


New York City school teachers did not receive 
their December salary checks scheduled for Decem- 
ber 19 until Jan. 2. 

These checks will mark the restoration of the 
teachers’ salary cut made last May under the pay- 
less furlough plan. 

Lack of time before Christmas was given as the 
reason for non-delivery of the checks before the 
school vacation. In addition, the payroll, which 
ranges from $8,000,000 to $9,000,000 will bear in- 
terest for 11 more days. The city will gain $10,000 
to $15,000 interest on the payroll, Charles Gilman, 
deputy auditor of the Board of Education, ex- 
plained. 


Loyalty Oath Is Assailed as Blow to Truth.—Fear- 


less and social-minded leaders being forced out of 
jobs, says educator. 

“Education,” says Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz, leg- 
islative representative of the Teachers’ Union, 
“faces a crisis. Critical teaching is needed more 
than ever if America is to work out her economic 
and political salvation and preserve its democratic 
institutions and traditions against the assaults of 
those who believe in dictatorship or change by 
violence.” 


Child Labor Ban Held Invalid Now.—Amendment 


is criticized. As drafted, it gives dictator’s powers 
over labor of all under 18, the report declares. An 
opinion that the child labor amendment to the 
Constitution cannot be legally ratified because of 
the lapse of time since it was submitted to the 
States by Congress in 1924 was expressed on De- 
cember 27 by a special committee of the American 
Bar Association, appointed to oppose ratification. 





20 


THE AMERICAN 


TEACHER 


Democracy in Education 


American Federation of Teachers 
Organized April 15, 1916 


Affiliated with the American Federation 
of Labor 


506 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, IIl. 





President 
Raymonp F. Lowry, Toledo Local 250 
219 Fifteenth St., Toledo, Ohio. 





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


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
Official Organ 
Apvisory EpiTorIAL Boarp 


Lucie W. ALLEN 
Chicago Local 3 





New York Local 5 


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


SeLMA M. BorcHarpt A. D. SHEFFIELD 
Washington Local 8 Wellesley College 


JouHN M. GRAYBIEL CHARLEs B. STILLMAN 
San Francisco Local 61 Chicago Local 2 


FLorENceE Curtis Hanson, 
Executive Editor 
Publisher 
H. G. Aparr Printine Co. 

107 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, III. 


EB 20 





Child Labor Day—1935 
January 26-28 





Following. a custom of nearly 
thirty, years, the National Child 
Labor Committee has designated 
the last week-end in January for 
the observance of Child Labor 
Day. The keynote this year will 
be ratification of the Federal Child 
Labor Amendment. 

The temporary abolition of child 
labor in the major industries of the 
country through the emergency 
codes has won universal approval. 
These gains must not be lost when 
the codes expire. The Child Labor 
Amendment offers the only direct 
method of making them permanent. 

You can help in the following 
ways: 

Arrange child labor talks or pre- 
sent child labor plays or tab- 
leaux in churches, church 
schools, clubs, or schools. 

Exhibit poster and literature dis- 
plays in libraries, club rooms, 
etc. 

Take press stories to local news- 
papers. : 

Arrange a radio broadcast over 
your local stations. 


The National Child Labor Com- 
mittee will send a poster, packet 
of leaflets and other material to be 
used in preparing for Child Labor 
Day for 25 cents. 


RuTH GILLETTE HARDY 





The time will come when the principle of organization and 
co-operation and the recognition of common interests of 
all of those who work in any way, whether mostly with 
their head or with their hands, or mostly with their voice, 
will be so clear that the explanations and the apologies 
and arguments will have to come from those who are not 
members of the teachers’ unions. 


DR. JOHN DEWEY. 











Accident of Residence 

Equal educational opportunity 
for every child regardless of the 
accident of residence, race, creed, 
or social status. 

So says the American Federa- 
tion of Labor. 

Shall the child who happens to 
be born in New York have the ad- 
vantage of $152.85 worth of edu- 
cation a year, while just across the 
line the Pennsylvania child gets 
only $91.13 worth, and in Mary- 
land $86.10 worth, in West Vir- 
ginia $65.52 worth and in Virginia 
$42.73 worth? Shall the child who 
has the fortune to live in Massa- 
chusetts have spent on his school- 
ing each year, $108.91, while his 
neighbor in Vermont gets $78.80 
and in Maine $69.24? 

Shall the accident of residence 
give the New York child $152.85 
per year school cost and the child 
in Arkansas only $31.70? 

The childhood of the nation is 
its greatest asset. Education is the 
most important business in the 
United States. The amount of edu- 
cation which any child may receive 
should be determined upon his abil- 
ity to learn, not upon the ability of 
his parents to pay, nor upon the 
wealth of the community in which 
he chances to live. 

Eighty per cent of the children 
of the United States, 25 per cent of 
the total population of the country, 
are dependent upon the public 
schools. In this great education in- 
dustry, the largest in the United 
States, its workers, one-fourth of 
the population, we have invested 
13.6 per cent of our national wealth. 
We have received a return greater 
than any other industry can show. 

Is it not time we increased our 
investment and our return? The 
equalization of educational oppor- 
tunity is the first business of gov- 


ernment. Nine cents a day for each 
person of voting age for publicly 


supported education is not enough. ° 


When we put our money into 
school costs, we are investing it, 
not spending it, and the returns are 
not only health, happiness, free- 
dom from vice, crime and delin- 
quency, but also tangible, material 
things—better and more houses, 
better and more clothes, better and 
more food, better and more books 
and pictures and music, more pro- 
duction of wealth and a fairer dis- 
tribution. 


Let us increase our investment 
from 3.6 per cent to 7.2 per cent, 
and increase our return many fold. 
A square deal for the childhood of 
America regardless of the accident 
of residence is demanded. Let the 
money be taken where it is and 
spent where the children are. Con- 
gress will do this if parents and 
teachers and all friends of children 
and public education demand it. 





One for All and 
All for One 
The American Federation of 


Teachers is seeking to build such 
a loyalty among teachers that no 
teacher will accept a position made 
vacant by the unjust dismissal of 
another teacher. Also it has always 
held that teachers should be ap- 
pointed and retained solely on the 
basis of merit, regardless of race, 
religion, or social status, including 
marriage. It believes that trained 
teachers of character and initiative 
with teaching ability should be se- 
cure in their positions. It opposes 
the making of marriage a_ social 
crime for teachers for which they 
shall be penalized by loss of oppor- 
tunity for work in their chosen 


field. 











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January-FeEBRuary, 1935 


21 


Education for Democracy 


How far we have to go and how 
greatly an organization based on 
high altruistic principles is needed, 
is evidenced by the news from 
Newark, N. J. 

Proposed changes in the tenure law 
to permit the dismissal of married wom- 
en teachers was supported by a group 
of unemployed single teachers in Newark. 

The statement urges the support of 
parents, voters, taxpayers, and officials 
in ousting the married teachers as a 
move for economy as well as a benefit 
to the educational system. 

The dismissal of a few married 
women teachers in order to secure 
cheaper teachers, for the new 
teachers will be employed at lower 
salaries, is no solution of the prob- 
lem. The unemployed teachers mak- 
ing the protest need to join with 
their fellow teachers in the effort 
to maintain standards and to secure 
protection. Attacks on tenure laws 
are “economy” moves. Not better 
teachers, but cheaper teachers, is 
the motive. Married teachers first, 
teachers over 40 next, men teach- 
ers next, and so on for any reason 
whatsoever. 

These attempts to undermine tenure 
are generally fathered by interests which 
seek to use the public schools for sel- 
fish purposes. Such attempts, if suc- 
cessful, tend to destroy academic free- 
dom, to bring the teaching profession 
into disrepute, to lessen the possibilities 
of teacher leadership in the community, 
to deter prospective teachers from mak- 
ing teaching their life work, and to so 
intimidate, baffle, and distress teachers 
in service as seriously to affect the 
morale of the teaching force and thus 
impair the efficiency of the school sys- 
tem in which it occurs. 

Legislative Report, A. F. T., 1934 

Among the six major purposes 
of the American Federation of 
Teachers, we find these two, perti- 
nent to this subject: 

First, it can and must develop such 
a loyalty of teachers to each other that 
no teacher will accept the position of 
another teacher who has been unjustly 
dismissed. 

It will establish teaching on a sound 
basis of adequate compensation and se- 
curity of tenure in order that only the 
ablest and most self-respecting may be 
the teachers of our children. 

We believe this group of unem- 
ployed teachers in Newark will 
realize that the basic problem is an 
economic one, the satisfactory solu- 
tion of which is hampered not 
helped by the undermining of 
tenure laws and such changes as 
they have suggested. 

It is evident our work is cut out 
for us, but we are active in fashion- 
ing a good garment. 


Teachers Have Much to 
Learn About Collective 
Action 

In a recent issue of the A. F. A. Re- 
porter, the official publication of the 
American Federation of Actors, there 
appearel an article entitled, Actors Have 
Much to Learn About Collective Action. 
It is so applicable to teachers that we 
are here adapting it. 

We teachers have a lot to learn. 

We have been, for years, highly 
individualistic persons who have 
worked very hard to make a liv- 
ing. We have usually refused to 
join organizations—and if we 
joined any, we rarely took an ac- 
tive interest in them. We have felt 
that we could best advance through 
our own private efforts. We joined 
an organization if at all because 
our administrators and supervisors 
told us to and it seemed well to 
obey, or because it was the popu- 
lar thing to do. We never thought 
we had any responsibility in the 
organization. 

Times have changed. 

The teacher cannot make a liv- 
ing alone, as he used to. “Econ- 
omy” is the watch word in the 
schools today. Salaries are cut, 
teaching conditions are worsened, 
security of position is gone, free- 
dom is curtailed. It is harder than 
ever to find work, and it is even 
more difficult to get a decent sal- 
ary when you do find work. 

In other words, the day of fight- 
ing alone is over. This is the day 
for collective action. You can call 
it collective bargaining if you want. 
It is the same thing. 

For years, the teacher has been 
helpless when gypped. He could 
not sue very well, his contract was 
just a piece of paper, public senti- 
ment was against such action, and 
he could not count on the support 
of his fellow teachers. It was al- 
ways difficult, and sometimes un- 
profitable, to hire a lawyer. 

Furthermore, the teacher avoided 
suing or squawking too loudly. He 
was always afraid that too much 
squawking would label him a 


trouble-maker, and that he would - 


be blacklisted for other positions. 

Obviously the teacher cannot 
protect himself properly as an in- 
dividual, but he can through a 
group. Or, to put it another way, 
the teacher cannot do much as an 
individual teacher, but he can do a 
lot as a member of the American 


Federation of Teachers and the 
American Federation of Labor. 

If a member, the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers will fight for 
him in all cases of injustices and 
unfair discriminations. The Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers can 
lodge complaints for him with the 
N. R. A. compliance boards. The 
American Federation of Teachers 
can warn his School Board that 
the organization demands a square 
deal. The American Federation of 
Teachers can contact school boards 
and superintendents and demand 
arbitration of a dispute. It can in- 
stitute legal suit for its members 
in cases involving disputes over 
professional services. 

In other words, the American 
Federation of Teachers “can take 
it” for its members. What indi- 
vidual teachers are afraid to do, 
the American Federation of Teach- 
ers can attempt with no fear. 

The American Federation of 
Teachers exists because the teach- 
ers want it to. They keep it alive 
with their dues, their financial 
contributions, and their moral sup- 
port. When the teachers feel they 
no longer need an organization, the 
American Federation of Teachers 
will go, because the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers has no em- 
ployer or administrator backing. 
The American’ Federation of 
Teachers was organized by teach- 
ers, it is supported and run by 
teachers, and it is being run for 
the benefit of the teachers and the 
schools. 


Leisure Time 


Leisure time is really the time to 
do as one pleases. The hampered 
five-year-old child, whether in the 
tenement, the alley, or even in the 
pleasant apartment or the grand 
mansion, with an untrained mother 
or nurse, and the man who has 
spent practically all of his life in 
a single routine of hard work, 
have a similar difficulty with re- 
gard to leasure time. Neither one 
knows what he pleases to do; 
neither has had a chance to find 
out. The child is the better off of 
the two because his age is in favor 
of experimentation. He will be- 
gin to handle things. When he is 
rebuffed, he is likely to try out 
seeking pleasures through annoy- 
ing tactics. If out-of-doors, he may 





:-.: 3 





— eS OS ee eS 






























22 


throw stones or attempt other de- 
structive measures. In such cases 
habits will be formed for which 
society later will punish him, 
though he will not be to blame. 


Society should learn that it pays 
to take advantage of the age of ex- 
perimentation and exploration and 
see that the five-year-old has a 
chance to find worth while ways 
for spending leisure. Society has 
long known about kindergartens 
but ostrich-like has been poking its 
head in the desert sands of the de- 
pression and closing these classes. 
The kindergarten is the child’s— 
yes, more than that, the future 
man’s and woman’s—opportunity 
for experimentation and explora- 
tion in the field of doing what one 
pleases. As good an opportunity 
will never recur. Yet unless some- 
one who loves little children and 
who cares for the future of our 
country will take the initiative pub- 
lic school kindergartens will re- 
main closed. Good publicity ma- 
terial on this subject may be ob- 
tained from Mrs. Ralph E. 
Stringer, [Illinois Field Secretary 
for the National Kindergarten As- 
sociation, Robinson, Illinois. There 
is no charge for this. 


The kindergarten offers allure- 
ments in various directions. There 
the child is free to try out many 
different legitimate paths and so 
judge their separate attraction for 
him. Free manipulation is a first 
step in a variety of directions. The 
eager use of crayons or paint brush 
does not promise us an artist. It 
may be a first expression of a de- 
sire to create which will eventually 
find satisfaction in something quite 
different. It may be the bright 
colors that attract. When you see 
a boy delighting in building a play 
engine or in driving it, it does not 
mean, necessarily, that he will be a 
mechanic or an engineer, for that 
driving force which he is develop- 
ing may well be adapted to any 
business or recreational activity. 

Self-expression, adaptability, ap- 
preciation, cooperation, and fair 
play grow apace in the kindergar- 
ten, and we need them to make 
leisure time safe and happy in a 
democracy. 

—Florence Jane Ovens. 





The national convention of the 
American Physical Education As- 
sociation will be held in Pittsburgh. 
April 24-27, 1935. 


Let’s Be ‘‘Union Label 
Conscious’’! 


The one emblem that most truly 
represents the fruit of ceaseless 
toil and all effort for the better- 
ment of mankind, from Alpha to 
Omega, from the days of serfdom 
to the present advanced state of 
wage earners, as represented by the 
American Federation of Labor, is 
the Union Label. 

The Union Label, Shop Card, or 
Button, of each respective craft, 
affords the only positive assurance 
that the goods purchased were (1) 
made by capable workers fairly 
compensated for their work, (2) 
not made by child labor, and (3) 
not produced by “sweatshop” 
methods. 

When you demand Union-Made 
goods and Union services, you (1) 
help yourself, (2) help your fel- 
low-man, and (3) help the ad- 
vancement of civilization to higher 
standards and accomplishment. 


These simple truths must be 
plain to all who toil; their origin 
a part of the struggle of all wage 
earners and their worth apparent. 
Absolutely nothing has happened 
to detract from the meaning or the 
value of the Union Label. 

Let us, therefore, become more 
“Union Label conscious”; let us 
support, individually and collec- 
tively, with whatever buying power 
we may possess, Union-Made 
goods and Union services; let’s 
support “our own.” 

Won’t YOU become now and 
remain always a consistent sup- 
porter of this great emblem of 
progress? Won’t YOU urge upon 
your family and upon your friends, 
the advisability of always demand- 
ing the Union Label? Won’t YOU 
help make America “Union Label 
conscious,” for your own sake, for 
humanity’s sake? 

The Union Label Trades De- 
partment of the American Federa- 
tion of Labor, with the earnest co- 
operation of local organizations 
throughout the country, is conduct- 
ing a well defined and greatly 
needed campaign in behalf of 
Union-Made goods and Union ser- 
vices. Won’t YOU join in the 
spirit of the occasion and aid in 
practical results by helping to make 
all people “Union Label con- 
scious” ? 

Whatever the need in a com- 
modity, there is a UNION-MADE 
product; whatever the need for 
service, there is a UNION service. 


THe 


AMERICAN TEACHER 


Teachers Urged to Form 
Alliance with A. F. of L. 
An alliance of the 1,100,000 


school teachers of the country with 
the American Federation of Labor 
“to keep the schools open, to pro- 
tect their jobs, and to keep educa- 
tion open to the people,” was 
urged by two members of the fac- 
ulty of Teachers’ College, Colum- 
bia University, at the closing ses- 
sion of the regional conference of 
the International Industrial Rela- 
tions Institute, at Russell Sage 
Foundation, on November 27. 

“T would like to see them make 
such an alliance,” said Dr. George 
S. Counts, one of the Columbia 
professors. “I think that in the 
American Federation of Teachers 
you already have a beginning to- 
ward that step.” 

Dr. Harold Rugg, another Col- 
umbia professor, said: “I see no 
other way out of his difficulties for 
the teacher but that we align our- 
selves with the workers and join 
the American Federation of La- 
bor.”"—New York Herald-Tribune. 


THE NATIONAL VOCA- 
TIONAL GUIDANCE ASSO- 
CIATION will hold its Twentieth 
Annual Convention at Atlantic 
City, N. J.,. FEBRUARY 20, 21, 
22 and 23, 1935. The theme of 
the Convention is: GUIDANCE 
AT WORK. 

The aim is to make it a practical 
convention with demonstrations 


and discussion groups dealing with. 


the problems which the counselors 
in the schools, colleges, social serv- 
ice agencies, and industrial estab- 
lishments actually face. 

This year the association will 
join with the following organiza- 
tions who will be meeting at the 
same time: 

American College Personnel As- 

sociation. 

Institute of Women’s 

sional Relations. 

National Association of Deans 

of Women. 

National Federation of Bureaus 

of Occupations. 

Personnel Research Federation. 

Southern Woman’s Educational 

Alliance. 

Teachers College Personnel As- 

sociation. 


Profes- 





The 1935 meeting of the World 
Federation of Education Associa- 
tions will be held August 10-17, in 
Oxford, England. 








































































oe ns i 















th 
tic 


TS 
b- 
ill 


‘a- 
he 


s- 
ns 


us 


eel 


JAN UARY-FEBRUARY, 1935 


Academic Freedom Council 


At the call of the Progressive 
Education Association an unofficial 
meeting of representatives of the 
American Association of Univers- 
itv Professors, the American Civil 
Liberties Union, the American 
Federation of Teachers, the In- 
ternational League for Academic 
Freedom, the National Education 
Association, the N. E. A. Depart- 
ment of Classroom Teachers, the 
National Congress of Parents and 
Teachers, and the Progressive 
Education Association met in 
Washington, D. C., on November 
10 to discuss how national educa- 
tional, organizations might coop- 
erate in and combine for effective 
action in preserving academic 
freedom. The members of the 
conference decided to invite all 
national organizations primarily 
interested in education to send of- 
ficial delegates to a conference for 
the purpose of establishing an 
American Joint Council on Aca- 
demic Freedom, 

The second conference which 
was Official, was held in Washing- 
ton on December 15. The follow- 
ing delegates were in attendance: 


American Association of University 


Women. 
Kathryn McHale, General Director. 
(Mrs.) Harriet Houdlette. 


American Council on Education. 
Henry G. Doyle, George Washington 
University. 
International 
Freedom. 
Horace M. Kallen, New 
Social Research. 
American Federation of Teachers. 
Henry R. Linville, Teachers Union ot 
New York City. 
Selma M. Borchardt, Public Schools 
of the District of Columbia. 
National Congress of Parents and 
Teachers. 
John T. Webner, Executive Secretary. 


League for Academic 


School for 


Mrs. Wm. T. Bannerman, Staff 
Member. 
National Council on Religion in Higher 
Education. 


Dr. J. C. Merriam, Teachers College. 


National Education Association. 
William G. Carr, Research Division, 
N. E. A. 

Donald DuShane, Chairman, Commit- 
tee on Teacher Tenure, N. E. A. 
Hazel Davis, Research Division and 
Administrative Service, N. E. A. 

Mrs. Blanche Preble, Chicago. 
Emily Tarbell, Chairman, Committee 
on Academic Freedom, Department 
of Classroom Teachers, N, E. A. 
Progressive Education Association. 
Boyd Bode, Ohio State University. 
Frank Baker, Milwaukee State Teach- 
ers College. 
Howard K. Beale and James M. Shields 
as invited individuals. 


Three enterprises were taken up. 





First, a philosophy back of aca- 
demic freedom; second, profes- 
sional conditions relating to aca- 


demic freedom; and, third, a plan 
of organization. As « plan of or- 
ganization an Advisory Council 
was set up composed of two rep- 
resentatives of each national or- 
ganization participating, with a 
chairman and a paid secretary. 

The plan is chiefly one that in- 
volves the collection of informa- 
tion about academic freedom cases, 
or cases that are alleged to be of 
that kind, and the transmission of 
this information to the constituent 
organizations with the inquiry as to 
whether the organizations are wil- 
ling to take up the cases and on 
what basis. It was decided that a 
maximum of $200 contributed by 
each constituent organization would 
be sufficient to carry the enter- 
prise. 

A full report of the conference 
will be ready for distribution soon. 





Crime Conference Adopts 
8-Point Plan Designed to 
Check Law Violations 


By A. F. of L. News Service 

Washington. — The Attorney 
General’s Conference on Crime, 
concluded here December 13 and 
regarded by many as the most im- 
portant conference of its kind ever 
held in America, finally voted adop- 
tion of an eight-point plan of crime 
eradication. 

One of the outstanding features 
is establishment of a national sci- 
entific and educational centre for 
police. State “Departments of 
Justice” comes second among the 
recommendations. 

Organized Labor, having always 
been interested in proper crime 
prevention and law enforcement on 
the basis of equal rights for all, is 
expected to give every possible co- 
operation in the forthcoming drive 
against crime and can heartily en- 
dorse several of the suggestions of- 
fered. The eight principal points 
mentioned include the following: 

1. That a national scientific and 
educational centre be established 
in Washington for the better train- 
ing of police. 

2. That the States give serious 
consideration to a better form of 
coordinated control by means of 
State Departments of Justice or 
otherwise. Interstate compacts for 
law enforcement were urged. 

3. That the Federal and State 
Governments eliminate youthful 





23 


delinquency by facilitating con- 
structive educational, vocational, 
and recreational opportunities. 

4. That the use of methods not 
in accord with orderly and lawful 
procedure be condemned in dealing 
with industrial conflicts and racial 
antagonisms. 

5. That “abuse” of the parole 
system be eliminated. 

6. That State Legislatures con- 
sider a six-point program endorsed 
by leading legal organizations for 
“a substantial improvement in 
criminal procedure.” 

7. That a practice of unduly 
dramatic stories of crime and glori- 
fying the criminal in the press and 
periodicals be condemned. 

8. That improper conditions in 
many local jails throughout the 
country be condemned, as well as 
the possession of firearms by crim- 
inals, activities of “lawyer-crim- 
inals,” “political” protection, and 
“abuse of bail.” 


Federal Aid for Education 


Through the Federal Emergency 
Relief Administration the Federal 
Government is now spending ap- 
proximately $3,500,000 a month on 
its emergency education program. 
This includes adult education, aids 
to needy college students, nursery 
schools, etc. 

F. E. R. A. is also aiding in 
keeping open public schools in 
three drought affected states: 
North Dakota, South Dakota, and 
Arkansas. 

When Congress convenes on 
January 3, bills will probably be 
introduced for permanent Federal 
aid in education. 

The House Committee on Edu- 
cation will have a new chairman 
in the next Congress, since Repre- 
sentative John J. Douglass, of 
(Massachusetts, present chairman, 
was defeated in tha Democratic 
primary in his district. 

If in the selection of committee 
assignments, the regular system of 
seniority is followed, Representa- 
tive Vincent L. Palmisano, of 
Maryland, will become chairman, 
as he is next in line, but with so 
vast a number of Democrats to 
take care of in this distribution of 
chairmanships, someone else may 
possibly be selected by the Demo- 
cratic leaders for policy purposes. 

Senator David I. Walsh of Mas- 
sachusetts, reelected, will continue 
as chairman of the Senate Commit- 
tee on Education and Labor. 

—Congressional Digest. 






































































































































~~ oa 
¥ 











BOOKS 


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






Economic History OF THE PEOPLE 
OF THE UNITED States. Fred 
A. Shannon. Macmillan. 942 pp. 


$3.75. 


Starr. 


Using the same economic clue to 
development, which Fred A. Shan- 
non, Department of History and 
Government, Kansas State Col- 
lege, uses so brilliantly and con- 
vincingly in this most readable and 
up-to-date history, we would sug- 
gest that his book reflects the dis- 
illusioned clear-eyed vision pro- 
duced by the panic of 1929 and the 
continuing depression.» Lucky are 
the students and teachers who will 
use this volume as their text and 
every teacher and the general 
reader also can get from its pages 
much valuable insight into the story 
which begins with the discovery 
of the United States as a by-prod- 
uct of Europe’s transition from 
feudalism to modern industrialism 
and ends in March, 1934, with the 
possibility of “state capitalism un- 
der a fascist regime . . . .” Mr. 
Shannon’s viewpoint is that the 
problems of the present are rooted 
in the past development of this 
country and of the world. He has 
organized material that has been 
widely and wisely culled from 
many sources. His four big divi- 
sions are: (1) Period of Colonial 
Dependence to 1789; (2) The 
Period of Dominant Sectionalism, 
1789-1865 ; (3) The Rise of Capi- 
talism, 1865-1900; (4) The Capi- 
talistic Age, 1900-1933. In each of 
his main divisions he devotes a spe- 
cial chapter to the condition of the 
workers and their movements. 

One or two minor points could 
have been made clearer. Mr. 
Shannon (p. 620) writes as if the 
Social Democratic party continued 
after 1900 and ignores the merger 
with the group of dissident mem- 
bers of the Socialist Labor Party 
which led to the Socialist Party. 
He makes the guess (p. 813) that 
if “some intellectual go-betweens” 
had been employed to influence 
public opinion, the unions might 
have won recognition in the Steel 
Strike of 1919; he fails to note the 
weakness arising from the fact that 
the 24 craft unions involved did 
not pull together. The details of 


Reviewed by Mark 





membership given for the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor need 
bringing up-to-date and checking 
by the returns made by the con- 
stituent unions in their own rec- 
ords. However, in the main, Mr. 
Shannon is fair and accurate. He 
is keenly alive to the dark shadows 
—the awful return made to the 
Indians for the assistance they gave 
to the first white settlers and agri- 
culture, the evils of wage-slavery 
which made the chattel slaves in 
some cases wish to return to their 
old masters, the elaborate defense 
of property owners built up in the 
Constitution. He tells the story of 
the Molly Maguires, of the crush- 
ing of the strikes of 1877 by the 
unprecedented use of the Federal 
troops, of the Haymarket Martyrs, 
of Homestead, of the Pullman 
strike, of Sacco and Vanzetti and 
similar men and incidents. The 
scandalous profiteering in railroad 
construction by the directors of the 
Union Pacific and the Central Pa- 
cific when the first transcontinental 
line was built in 1868-1869; the 
consequent end of the _ buffalo 
(which would not give milk or 
pull the plough) and of the power 
of the Indians, who also would not 
conform to modern capitalism ; and 
the manipulation of railroad stock 
by “conscienceless pirates like Jay 
Gould, Daniel Drew, and Cornelius 
Vanderbilt” to enrich themselves, 
to impoverish the roads, to bilk the 
small stockholders, and to rob the 
shippers—all receive attention. Mr. 
Shannon thus sums up the tactics 
of the robber barons, the Morgans, 
Rockefellers, and Carnegies: 

The tactics were those of barbarian 
chieftains—combining foresight, bold- 
ness, courage, driving force, and execu- 
tive ability with greed, avarice, cruelty, 
trickery, and ruthlessness. The fight for 
mastery was a rough and tumble affair 
where no holds were barred and any 
form of mayhem was considered proper. 
Later their descendants built up 
supermonopolies more refined but 
not less effective. In many parts 
of the book, the author wields the 
irony of Veblen free from Veblen’s 
polysyllabics. Members of the A. 
F. of T. will appreciate the fol- 
lowing description of wartime: 

Salaried men, including teachers and 
college and university professors, who 
were too timid tod organize and too proud 
to let their wives take in washings, fre- 
quently were pinched with hunger and 
clothed in patches after buying the quota 
of liberty bonds forced upon them as a 
test of loyalty. 

Referring to the Monroe Doctrine 
(1823) Mr. Shannon says that the 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


minor American republics were led 
by later American action to regard 
it as 


merely a declaration of prior claim to 


the Latin-American apple tree, the fruit 
to be shaken into Uncle Sam’s plug hat 
as it became ripe . Seldom, how- 
ever, was the “white man’s burden” 


lifted from native shoulders unless it 
was considered worth carrying home. 
In similar vein a footnote dealing 
with Oriental policy remarks: 

_ In many of the events above men- 
tioned missionaries proved valuable to 
the nation desiring colonies. If a mis- 
sionary was eaten in an undesirable part 
of the world it was a regrettable inci- 
dent. But any aggression, even if well 
justified, against a missionary in a re- 
gion of potential profit was a_ national 
crisis making the subjugation of the tribe 
and the extension of imperial control a 
Christian duty. 

There are similar spicy footnotes, 
and the paragraphs on modern ad- 
vertising are masterly in their 
satire. They are the pepper and 
sauce to the solid meal of facts and 
tabular _statements prepared by 
Mr. Shannon which deserves the 
serious attention of all who want 
to understand just how we got this 
way in our social order. 





EDUCATION AND THE WORKER- 
StupENT. A book about work- 
ers’ education based upon the 
experience of teachers and stu- 
dents. Jean Carter and Hilda 
W. Smith. Publishers, The Af- 
filiated Schools for Workers, 
302 East Thirty-fifth St., New 
York City. 


This is the book for which you 
have been waiting. It explains the 
ever-growing and increasingly im- 
portant movement in workers’ edu- 
cation. It is designed to be of spe- 
cific assistance to those of you who 
are in contact with the many new 
centers for workers’ education 
which are opening up throughout 
the country. Education and the 
Worker-Student is the latest 
pamphlet prepared by the Affili- 
ated Schools for Workers at the 
request of the Office in Workers’ 
Education of the Federal Emer- 
gency Relief Administration. 

The authors of this pamphlet 
are keenly aware of the many 
questions which arise in connection 
with the teaching of worker-stu- 
dents. Their discussions are incor- 
porated under such chapter head- 
ings as these: The Teacher and 
the Student; What Shall We 
Teach?; Organizing | Workers’ 
Classes; How Shall We Teach?; 
Facing Problems of the Industrial 

















led 
ard 


to 
ruit 
hat 
w- 
en” 
; it 


ing 


en- 

to 
lis- 
art 
ICi- 
yell 
Te- 
nal 
ibe 
la 


es, 
d- 
oir 
nd 
by 
he 


1- 














By es 


January-FEBRUARY, 1935 


World; The Use of English as a 
Tool; Adventures in Creative Liv- 


The teaching of workers depends 
far less on set pedagogic rules than 
on the understanding of the indi- 
vidual educational needs of a 
worker or a group of workers and 
the ability to interpret education 
in terms of everyday industrial 
life. The worker is an adult whose 
formal education has been usually 
of fairly short duration. He has 
plenty of practical industrial ex- 
perience which he does not always 
comprehend. He comes to class 
eager to have industrial and eco- 
nomic conditions explained to him, 
to attain greater facility in under- 
standing and expressing himself 
both in the written and spoken 
word. For the worker-student, 
education must start with a fuller 
understanding of his own life and 
an interpretation of his own prac- 
tical experiences before he can ab- 
sorb the intricacies of our modern 
civilization. Education and _ the 
Worker-Student tells how the 
teachers of workers’ classes may 
accomplish this end. 

Both the authors have long been 
associated with this movement and 
are well qualified to speak on the 
latest developments and techniques 
therein. Miss Hilda W. Smith has 
been the Director of the Bryn 
Mawr Summer School for Women 
Workers in Industry, and of the 
Affiliated Schools for Workers. 
She is now the Specialist in Work- 
ers’ Education under the Federal 
Emergency Relief Administration. 
Miss Jean Carter has for some 
years been a member of the faculty 
of the Bryn Mawr Summer School, 
and is also a member of the Educa- 
tional Council of the Affiliated 
Schools for Workers. 

We believe that you will be well 
rewarded in ordering enough copies 
for yourself and your associates. 
The price is only 25c a copy. Or- 
der from the publishers. 


I Went To Pit Cottecr. Lauren 
Gilfillan. Macmillan. $2.50. 
Reviewed by Mark Starr. 


Adopted by the Literary Guild and 
listed for some weeks as a best sell- 
er, this striking firsthand impresion 
by a college girl of life in a Penn- 
sylvania mining village needs no 
introduction. The tragedy is that 
such a book is too often read as a 
“thriller” and nothing is done 
about the conditions it reveals. The 
miners asking for their rights un- 





der Section 7A will be met by the 
same tear gas, clubbings and shoot- 
ings. The book should be required 
reading for all those reared upon 
roseate pictures of a fictitious 
United States free from the class 
struggle and the poverty of the less 
fortunate lands. It is not the whole 
tragic story of the coaldiggers and 
their unions, but a section which 
no one has told more convincingly. 





One HEtt or a Business. H. C. 
Engelbrecht. Robert M. Mc- 
Bride and Co., New York City, 
1934. 96 pp. $1.00. 


Here is presented a useful sum- 
mary and interpretation of the 
early findings of the Nye Commit- 
tee. The public soon forgets. It 
is well therefore to have available 
such a handy reminder of the brib- 
ery and other corrupt practices of 
the munitions business. But the 
real value of this book derives not 
so much from its summary of the 
facts as from its intelligent inter- 
pretation of their meaning. Dr. 
Engelbrecht sees clearly that the 
armament manufacturers are not a 
special group bent upon a unique 
type of deviltry. Not at all: “The 
average munitions maker is above 
all a capitalist business man.” 
Profit-making is “the key-note of 
capitalist civilization,” and “the 
lure of profits has dulled many a 
sensitive conscience, 
capitalist competition this is almost 
inevitable.” The author is also 
skeptical of nationalization of the 
industry as a solution: “If na- 
tionalization is looked upon as a 
guarantee of peace, a sad awaken- 
ing will probably be in store for 
those who put their trust in this 
measure.” The diffculty is that 
wars are made by militarist and 
imperialist powers which use the 
private arms industry as their tool. 
Therefore, “as long as capitalism 
and nationalism use the arms in- 
dustry as an instrument for con- 
tinuing imperialist wars, it makes 
little difference whether the manu- 
facture of arms remains in private 
hands or becomes a governmen 
monopoly.” ' 

—Breaking the War Habit. 





Announcement 


The Federal Office of Education 
announces the printing of a splen- 
did picture of the President which 
he inscribed at the request of 
United States Commissioner of 
Education, John W. Studebaker. 


and under - 





25 


To the pupils and teachers of the 
United States, Franklin D. 
Roosevelt. 

Excellent copies of the original 
photograph on heavy paper suit- 
able for framing will be sent free 
with the December issue of School 
Life, official monthly journal of 
the Federal Office of Education. 

Copies of this December issue, 
with the picture insert, may be 
ordered from the Superintendent 
of Documents, Government Print- 
ing Office, Washington, D. C., at 
10 cents a copy. There is a 25 per 
cent discount on 100 or more copies 
sent to one address. Send check or 
money order (no stamps) with 
your request, 

December School Life contains, 
in addition to other features, quo- 
tations from speeches and state- 
ments in which the President has 
voiced his ideas on education. 


Child Labor Play 

A play suitable for presentation 
by groups of school or Sunday 
School children from 7 to 17 years 
has been prepared by the Young 
Women’s Christian Association.* 
From 25 to 60 children can take 
part in the production, which re- 
quires approximately half an hour 
for presentation 

Copies can be secured from the 


Womans Press, 600 Lexington 
Avenue, New York City. Price 
20 cents, 


“*The Child Labor Amendment: An 
Assembly Program by Margaret Hil'er. 


NEW YORK LEGISLA- 
TIVE PROGRAM 

Copies of the Legislative 
Program of the New York 
Teachers Union, Local 5 of 
the A. F.T., are available at 
the office of the Union, 70 
Fifth Avenue, New York 
City. 

This program contains ma- 
terial on legislative matters 
of general interest which will 
be of value to you. 

A copy will be sent to any 
local requesting it. 


25 Years Experience 


Send in your broken parts, or 
write, telling your troubles 


Most Complete Stock of Petecnes 


Parts in 











PARTS 
REPAIRS 
ALL MAKES 


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26 





] New: From the Field | 


New Locals 


The American Federation of Teach- 
ers welcomes into membership and its 
crusade for school protection and social 
betterment 14 new locals since the last 
previous issue of the AMERICAN 
TEACHER. 

Campbell County, Wyo., Federation of 

Teachers, Local 356. 

Eastern Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Teach- 

ers Union, Local 357. 
Marin County, Cal., 

Teachers, Local 358. 
Allentown, Pa., Federation of Teachers, 

Local 359. 

Wisconsin Workers Education Local 360. 
North Dakota University Local 361. 
Casper, Wyo., Federation of Teachers, 

Local 362. 

Sevier School District, Utah, Federation 

of Teachers, Local 363, 
Independence County, Ark., Federation 

of Teachers, Local 364. 

[zard County, Ark., Federation of Teach- 

ers, Local 365. 

Cheyenne, Wyo., Federation of Teachers, 

Local 366. 

McDowell County, W. Va., Federation 

of Teachers, Local 367. 

Caddo Parish, La., Federation of Class- 

room Teachers, Local 368. 

North Stutsman County, N. Dak., Fed- 

eration of Teachers, Local 369. 


New York Local 5 


Superintendent of Schools Harold G 
Campbell, on December 1, was asked by 
the Teachers Union to declare himself 
for full restoration of absence refunds 
for teachers. The issue rests with him, 
it was pointed out. 

Absence deductions were part of an 
economy program, which has since been 
nullified, Dr. Henry R. Linville, presi- 
dent of the union, wrote the superin- 
tendent. Further, they are being made 
illegally, he charged. 

Dr. Linville suggested that restora- 
tion of full state aid should be followed 
by restoration of salary deductions for 
absence caused by illness. 

He blamed the economy program for 
many teacher illnesses. The program 
increased the pupil load, he said, which 
burdened the teachers, “not only with 
larger classes, but also with increased 
assignments. 

“Those actions bore most heavily on 
a conscientious teacher who broke down 
under the added strain,” Dr. Linville 
wrote. 

“Instead of receiving sympathetic con- 
sideration because of the load he has 
borne, he is penalized by half pay ab- 
sence deduction. To add insult to in- 
jury, the deduction is made illegally, 
since it is based upon the salary of 
December, 1932, whereas the teacher now 
receives a much lower salary because 
of the pay cuts. 

Dr. Linville’s letter follows in full: 


On January 30, 1933, the Board of Edu- 
eation rescinded its resolutions governing 
refunds of salary deductions for absence 
caused by illness, and adopted in its stead 
a resolution making the schedules on file 
in the office of the Commissioner of Edu- 
cation on December 9, 1932, the basis on 
which absence deductions were to be made. 





Federation of 





Refunds allowed for such actions were 
limited in amount to one-half of the de- 
duction except that such deduction was 
noc to exceed ten dollars for each day of 
absence for which the refund is allowed. 

When the Legislature adopted the policy 
of decreasing State aid and educational 
appropriations were seriously curtailed, 
the board, contrary to sound public policy, 
adopted the above resolution. 

However inequitable this policy may be 
because it is discriminating, we object to 
it on the following grounds: 

First, the program of economy brought 
about an increase in the pupil load which 
burdened the teachers not only with larger 
classes, but also with increased assign- 
ments. Those actions bore most heavily 
on a conscientious teacher who broke down 
under the added strain. Instead of re- 
ceiving svmpathetie consideration because 
of the load he has borne. he is penalized 
by half pay absence deduction. To add 
insult to injury, the deduction is made 
illegally, since it is based upon the salary 
of December, 1932, whereas the teacher 
now receives a much lower salary because 
of the pay cuts. 

Second. the action of the Union, the 
United Parents Associations, organized 
labor, the Joint Committee of Teachers’ 
Organizations, and other groups which 
brought about the restoration of full State 
aid for schools, received your warm sup- 
port and benefitted by your leadership and 
that of President Ryan. In view of the in- 
justice of all absence deductions and the 
abandonment of the policy of cutting State 
aid which was the pretext which led to 
the adoption of the unfair and illegal ab- 
sence deductions, now that this policy of 
reducing full State aid has been nullified, 
are we not warranted in asking the aban- 
donment of the entire policy of absence 
deductions? 

Moreover, at the budget hearings the 
representatives of the teachers were told 
that the restoration of full absence de- 
ductions rested exclusively with you. 
Hence we urge you to demand the full 
restoration of absence deductions for ill- 
ness, and thus show appreciation of the 
heavy burden borne by teachers because 
of undue budget slashes and heavier pupil 
loads. New York Post 


Sumante Sausd 31 


A brief resume of the origin and ac- 
complishments of Chapter No. 31, A. 
F. T., might be of interest to all our 
members--to the older ones for the 
memories it will revive of the stirring 
davs of the post-war period and to newer 
members as a source of information and 
inspiration. 

The immediate cause of the organiza- 
tion of the chapter was economic; costs 
of living had been mounting for several 
vears; salary increases had been denied 
for reasons that were quite unsatisfac- 
torv; delays had been endured, when 
suddenly. in October, 1918, the faculty 
of the High School decided to ask for 
a charter from the American Federation 
of Teachers. 

This was granted, and Chapter No. 31, 
A. F. T.. came into existence February, 
1919. with 45 charter members out of a 
faculty of approximately 60. 

Mr. S. G. McLean was the first presi- 
dent, and Miss M .E. Baird secretary: 
23 of the charter members are still 
serving on the faculties of either the 
High School or Junior College today. 

Considerable interest was manifested 
in the movement, both locally and 
throughout the state, such a thing be- 
ing entirely unorthodox, undignified, and 
unprofessional, of course. Up to this 
time teachers had quietly accepted the 
status quo and loyally submitted to the 
rulings of the powers that controlled 
their destinies. 

Teaching conditions were as good as 
in the average citv school system. The 
maximum salary for classroom teachers 
in the High School was $1,680, which 


THE 


AMERICAN TEACHER 


was woefully inadequate to meet the 
ever increasing costs of living, and noth- 
ing apparently was being done to allevi- 
ate the situation. 

That teachers should organize, hold 
meetings, and take a real interest in their 
own economic situation was an entirely 
new idea in Sacramento—quite unusual. 
We had the City Teachers’ Association 
and the California Teachers’ Associa- 
tion. why the need for any more asso- 
ciations and especially why affiliate with 
the A. F. L.? What kind of support 
could they offer the teachers? 

At first, of course, the administration 
expressed its surprise and disapproval, 
but. upon being assured the teachers 
had not gone “Bolshevik,” became rec- 
onciled to the inevitable and later even 
sanoht our assistance in salary schedule 
revision, which was directed very def- 
initely upward. 

We had been told that a $5.00 per 
month increase was the maximum pos- 
sible on account of legal limitations, etc., 
and the prospects of a raise did not look 
very bright. 

An energetic committee was appointed, 
ably led by Miss Lauretta Ferguson, 
which stayed on the job through most of 
the summer of 1919, found ways and 
means of securing more funds for 
teachers’ salaries, and and succeeded in 
securing a $20.00 per month increase for 
the ensuing year. 

The following year, 1920, the salaries 
were again revised upward and our 
present schedule adopted. 

Having secured adequate salaries, our 
attention was next directed to teaching 
conditions in the classroom, and such 
matters as teacher’s load, causes for dis- 
missal, professional ethics, etc., came 
up for consideration. 

Committees were also appointed to 
study the labor movement activities in 
relation to education and the public 
schools, school bonds, the junior high 
school and its relation to our local sys- 
tem, school cafeterias, and physical edu- 
cation. 

In conjunction with six other locals 
in the state, we became interested in 
legislation pertaining to schools, Through 
our legislative committee, led by our 
zealous and untiring co-worker, R. W. 
Everett, we have been able to give 
much assistance in such matters as teach- 
ers’ tenure, professional relations, ete. 
Recently, credit unions and group in- 
surance have been under consideration, 
and so the good work continues. After 
sixteen years of achievement in battling 
for teachers’ rights and school improve- 
ment most of our members are as en- 
thusiastic as ever and look forward to 
even greater accomplishments in the 
future. 


A. V. Wipe, 
In The Teacher's Voice. 


Madison Local 35 

The Madison Federation of Teachers 
has joined with other groups of city 
employes in the formation of a central 
council with five delegates from each 
group. The council aims to do all in 
its power to secure the restoration of 
salaries and to correct the injustice 
which now makes teachers’ salaries sub- 
ject to greater waiver than those of 
other city employees. Dr. Arnold 
Zander, secretary of the Wisconsin 




















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JaNUARY-FEBRUARY, 1935 


Federation of Teachers, is acting as 
counsel. 

Local 35 was represented by two dele- 
gates at the convention of the Wisconsin 
Federation of Teachers in Milwaukee in 
October. 

A dinner, to which all Madison teach- 
ers are invited, is planned for Febru- 
ary 8 R. F. Lowry, president of A. F. 
T., will be the speaker. 


Philadelphia Local 192 

During the past months, events of 
great importance to our organization 
have followed one another in rapid suc- 
cession. First, by establishing a more 
fully equipped office, we were able to 
relieve members of much of the routine 
business of the union. They were then 
able to devote more of their time to the 
more pressing duties required of them. 

The first issue of our monthly maga- 
gine, The Philadelphia Teacher, was 
published in a sixteen page edition, and 
distributed to all teachers. Reports 
from many sources indicate it was re- 
ceived most favorably and has helped 
materially in obtaining still more sup- 
port for our organization. 

The major part of our energies, how- 
ever, has been devoted to an intensive 
campaign for the restoration of our sal- 
aries to the 1933 schedule. This drive 
was directed along a number of avenues 
of attack. First of all, union members 
circulated petitions asking for the res- 
toration. Citizens interested in the school 
situation were enlisted to help further 
by writing letters to the Board of Edu- 
cation urging the salary restoration. 
Figures, showing that the financial con- 
dition of the Board fully justified the 
return, were secured and given consider- 
able publicity. Finally two large mass 
meetings were held. One, primarily for 
teachers, was addressed by members of 
our salary committee, who reviewed the 
situation and presented a plan of ac- 
tion. We were especially pleased to 
welcome at this meeting, our national 
president, Mr. Raymond F. Lowry, who 
brought us a message of confidence and 
support. At the second meeting held in 
the Girls’ High School Auditorium, an 
enthusiastic audience of about 1,000 
teachers and parents heard addresses by 
Dr. Harold Rugg of Columbia and Dr. 
Luther Harr of Pennsylvania. Their 
topic was Retrenchment in Education. 
Members of the salary committee then 
again presented our plan of action and 
they were followed by representatives 
of labor organizations and women’s clubs 
who offered us their whole-hearted sup- 
port, A resolution urging the salary 
restoration was adopted unanimously at 
the meeting and sent to the Board of 
Fdreation, This brought to a close a 
meeting which marked a_ significant 
point in the history of the Philadelphia 
school system. 

On November 12, at the annual budget 
meeting of the Board of Education, a 
delegation of thirty representing teach- 
ers. labor organizations, and other civic 
groups appeared in support of our pe- 
tition. Three speakers presented our 
views: Mr. Jack Levitt, financial secre- 
tary of Local 192: Mr. Adolph Hirsch- 
berg, president of the Central Labor 
Union; and Miss Felice Darkow, bril- 

t lawyer and representative of the 
public at large. As a result of this meet- 
ing, two facts appear as a concrete basis 


for hope. First, the president of the 
board expressed himself as fully in 
favor of the restoration of salaries, if 
at all possible. Second, teachers’ organ- 
izations were invited, for the first time, 
to send representatives to discuss the 
question with the Board’s Committee. 

Local 192 continues to stride forward 
as the leader among teachers’ organiza- 
tions in Philadelphia. Although our sal- 
ary campaign failed in the sense that 
we did not receive the much needed sal- 
arv restoration. we succeeded along a 
number of very significant fronts, First 
of all, by revealing the necessary sur- 
plus for the restoration in the Boards’ 
accounts, we exposed the fact that the 
Board was not the “friend of the teach- 
er” as was generally believed. It is now 
clear to most teachers that the Board is 
more interested in appeasing the desires 
of the Chamber of Commerce and the 
Taxpayers’ and Consumers’ Leagues, 
than in satisfying the demands of the 
teachers. 

Meetings which we held during the 
campaign attracted unusual attention. 
The facts and figures we presented, 
more than anything else perhaps, helped 
to establish the Union in the eyes of the 
Philadelphia teacher, as a courageous, 
militant organization on whose leader- 
ship they could depend. The attitude 
toward the Union is now much more 
svmpathetic and friendly than it has been 
in the past, and our membership con- 
tinues to grow. 

Our publication, The Philadelphia 
Teacher, also continues to attract much 
favorable comment from __ teachers 
throughout the city. 

Activity among other committees 
must not, however, be forgotten. The 
Legislative Committee has already pre- 
pared a tenure law which will soon be 
presented to the membership. The Child 
Welfare committee has also prepared 
a bill authorizing the distribution of free 
milk to children in schools throughout 
the state. An intensive campaign is 
being planned to push this project. 


Commonwealth Local 193 


Albert Einstein, world-famous mathe- 
matician, is paying the tuition fee of a 
young friend of his, Paul Beeck of New 
York City, to Commonwealth College, 
the labor school near Mena. 

Beeck is coming to Commonwealth to 
better train himself for service in the 
American labor movement. Like all 
other Commonwealth students he will 
work 20 hours per week on the college 
farm, in the garden, office, library, etc., 
in exchange for his board, room, and 
laundry service. 

Einstein is now at Princeton, having 
been forced to leave Fascist Germany. 
He became interested in Commonwealth 
recently and approves of the work being 
done by the school. 

The only cost to the student at Com- 
monwealth is the tuition fee of $40 per 


quarterly term of three months. The. 


school is very economically oper- 
ated and raises most of its food on its 
mountain farm. Teachers receive no 
salaries but work beside the students 
at the necessary tasks. 

Courses to be offered during the win- 
ter quarter, which opens December 31, 
will include economics, history, journal- 
ism and creative writing, public speak- 
ing. imperialism, psychology, labor 


27 


problems, working-class history, sten- 
ography, etc. 

The purpose of the school is to train 
young men and women for service in 
the labor movement. It grants no de- 
grees nor certificates, but gives students 
training in the subjects and skills they 
most need if they are to be effective 
in the movement to abolish poverty. 


Detroit Local 231 


The Detroit Federation of Teachers, 
Local 231, is having a steady and con- 
siderable increase in membership. 

A grievance committee to protect the 
interests of individual teachers has been 
set up. 

The Local participated actively in the 
election of officers in the First District 
of the Michigan Education Association. 
It was represented by delegates at the 
conference of A. F. T. affiliates in the 
state of Michigan at Ann Arbor on 
December 15 called by the University of 
Michigan and Ann Arbor Local. 

The cooperation of the Detroit Fed- 
eration of Labor in opposition to con- 
stitutional amendments to Michigan con- 
stitution on gas and weight tax has been 
secured. 

LorEN WALTERS. 


Appleton, Wis., Local 240 


The Appleton Federation of Teachers 
through its committee, William Pickett 
and Carl Bertram, has issued the fol- 
lowing bulletin to acquaint the teachers 
with its purposes and activities. Re- 
prints may be obtained from the Na- 
tional office at a low cost. 





The American Federation of Labor 
has carried on the fight for public 
schools since its first convention in 1881, 
when it went on record for compulsory 
education; “We are in favor of the 
passage of such legislative enactments 
as will enforce, by compulsion, the edu- 
cation of the children.” Since that time 
the A. F. of L. has always strongly 
supported the public schools. 

Tue TEACHERS’ FEDERATION : 


I. What Is It? 

It is a classroom teachers’ organiza- 
tion affiliated with the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. 


II. What Are Its Objectives? 

To bring associations of teachers into 
relations of mutual assistance and co- 
operation. 

To raise the standard of the teaching 
profession by securing the conditions 
essential to the best professional service. 

To insure the support of organized 
labor generally by affiliation with the 
Federation of Labor. 

To direct and guide the forces of la- 
bor in behalf of Education through 
membership and by representation on 
National, State and Local labor groups. 

Through the support of labor, initiate 
and prosecute desirable social legisla- 
tion. (Statewide.) 

Interest local labor groups in the 
problems of Education. 

To create an agency for collective bar- 
gaining for teachers in salary discus- 
sions. 

Encourage intelligent participation in 
the political life of the Nation and in 
the State and its political subdivisions. 

























































































ne Se at we ee: 




















28 


To conduct research as a basis for in- 
telligent educational planning. 
III. Who May Be Members? 
Any classroom teacher. 
IV. What Is the Scope of Member- 
ship? 
Active membership in the local, state, 
and national Federations. 
V. What Is the Medium of Affiliation 
With Labor? 


Through local, state, and national La- 
bor organizations. 


VI. When Are Meetings Held? 

Once a month. 

VII. Who Are Some Nationally Known 
Men and Women Who Are 
Members? 

Eugene W. Lyman, Prof. of Philos- 
ophy and Religion, Union Theological 
Seminary. 

Gardner Murphy, Instructor in Psy- 
chology, Columbia University. 

Harold Groves, University of Wiscon- 
sin Local, and former member of the 
Wisconsin Tax Commission. 

John Dewey, Professor of Philosophy, 
Columbia University. 

Leroy E. Bowman, Instructor in So- 
ciology, Columbia University. 

Joseph K. Hart, former Professor of 
Education, University of Wisconsin. 

W. T. Stone, Teacher of English, De 
Witt Clinton High School. 

Caroline Pratt, Director, The City and 
Country School, New York. 

Jesse H. Holmes, Swarthmore Col- 
lege, President of Philadelphia local. 

Maynard C. Krueger, Professor of 
Economics, University of Chicago. 

Raymond F. Lowry, Instructor, Uni- 
versity of Toledo. 

VIII. What Prominent “Professionals” 
Are Members of the American 
Federation of Labor? 


John Dewey, professor of philosophy, 
Columbia University; Dr. Franklin 
Meyer, U. S. Bureau of Standards; 
Ethel Barrymore, Vice-President, Ac- 
tors Equity; Harry A. Overstreet, pro- 
fessor of philosonhv, College of the 
City of New York; Frank Gilmore, 
President, Actors Equity; Ethelbert 
Stewart, U. S. Bureau of Statistics; 
Robert Morss Lovett, editor, New Re- 
public; Paul H. Douglass, professor of 
economics, University of Chicago; Fd- 
ward F. Keating, editor, Labor; John 
Herman Randall, author and professor 
at Columbia University; John A. Brewer, 
professor of education, Harvard Uni- 
versity; and hundreds of others. 


IX. What Locals Exist in Wisconsin 
at Present and Where? 
Green Bay, Antigo, Madison, Sheboy- 
gan, Oshkosh, Racine, West Allis, Mil- 
waukee Vocational, Milwaukee Public, 
Appleton, Wauwatosa, Beloit, Milwaukee 
Teachers College, Wisconsin Extension, 
University of Wisconsin, Superior, Stout, 
Institute, Wisconsin Workers’ Education. 
X. Js Labor Affiliation Professional? 
Ts it professional for teachers to join 
the American Federation of Teachers 
and affiliate with Organized Labor? 
Progressive teachers affiliate with 
groups having advanced educational 
programs. Intelligent people accept the 
opinions of experts. 
Dr. Tohn Dewey, the world’s greatest 
educational exnert says: “The educa- 
tional record of the American Federa- 


NE A Nm A I A EN 





tion of Labor is conspicuous. A few 
years ago I went over a good many of 
the documents in that field and I say 
without any fear of contradiction that 
there is no organization in the United 
States—I do not care what its nature 
is—that has such a fine record in the 
broaram of liberal progressive public 
education as will be found in the printed 
records of the American Federation of 
Labor. 

It is, therefore, highly professional 
to affiliate with organized labor through 
the American Federation of Teachers. 
XI. Can Teachers Be Ordered to 

Strike? 


Under the constitution of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor, the American 
Federation of Teachers retains com- 
plete autonomy. It would be impossible 
for the A. F. of L. to order a strike. 
The constitution of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers contains no provi- 
sion for strikes. In the nature of the 
case teachers must place their chief de- 
pendence on an aroused public opinion 
and political action. 

XII. Js the American Federation of 
Teachers a Growing Organiza- 
tion? 

In June, 1934, the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers had a membership of 
134 locals. Of this number 81 new lo- 
cals were admitted during the . year. 
Many have joined since. 


XIII. Conclusion. 


If all teachers were within the teach- 
ers’ unions and if they were not merely 
somewhat nominal members who try 
to keep their dues paid but active 
working members who came into con- 
tact with the labor unions, with the 
working men of the country and their 
problems, I am sure that more would 
be done to reform and improve our 
education, and to put into execution 
the ideas and ideals written about and 
talked about by progressive educators 
and reformers than by any other one 
cause whatsoever, if not more than by 
all other causes together—Dr. John 
Dewey. 


Lawrence Local 244 


The annual meeting and election of 
Local 244, held November 20, 1934, at 
Columbia hall was well attended. The 
election of officers for 1935 resulted as 
follows: 

President, Walter A. Sidley; 1st vice- 
president, Albert V. Regan; 2nd vice- 
president, Elizabeth F. McKenna; re- 
cording secretary, Charles A. Reardon; 
financial-secretary, Edward F. Glynn; 
treasurer, Anna L. Carey. Elected to 
the executive board were Alicia T. 
Quealy, Marion Brown, Charles J. 
Stahle, Thomas H. McElroy, Cornelius 
F. Sweeney, Walter D. Lynch, Edward 
F. Praetz, Thomas H. Derby and James 
A. Griffin. 

The finance committee and _ special 
committee on waivers were instructed to 
seek the return of the full 15% volun- 
tary contributions to all teachers for 
1935. 

Heavy payment of dues at the meet- 
ing, and the initiation of a large group 
of new members made possible the 
showing of a balance of several hundred 
dollars in the treasury by the retiring 
Treasurer, Augustine A. Donovan. 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


It was voted to continue the member- 
ship drive until January 1, 1935, during 
which period all women teachers join- 
ing still constitute themselves. “Pioneers 


of 244.” 


Chattanooga-Hamilton 
County Local 246 


Establishment of a definite pay scale 
for city teachers, to replace what Presi- 
dent Stanton E. Smith described as “the 
hit-and-miss fashion” now dominating 
local salary policies, was demanded 
by the Chattanooga-Hamilton County 
Teachers Federation. 

A three-point program for the follow- 
ing year was adopted by the meeting of 
the association at University of Chat- 
tanooga calling for the following objec- 
tives: 

(1) A drive for the teachers’ tenure 
law; (2) a campaign to enlarge mem- 
bership of the organization throughout 
the state; (3) a drive to obtain adoption 
of the salary scale submitted by the city 
commission last summer. 

Committees were appointed to man- 
age each campaign, twenty-two teachers, 
headed by Miss Lassie Munsey, being 
named to the salary committee. 

While the meeting of the association, 
which is affiliated with the American 
Federation of Labor, was closed to out- 
siders, President Smith issued a state- 
ment of what transpired: 

“We are not asking for a pay scale 
even approaching those of other cities, 
but we do ask that salaries be paid ac- 
cording to some objective basis, not in 
the hit-and-miss fashion which for years 
has characterized local salary policies, 
particularly in the city,” the‘ president 
stated. 

“While it is true that the present com- 
missioner of education (W. E. Wilker- 
son) has stated that he is attempting to 
adjust salaries, it is also true that no 
definite basis has been made known for 
making such adjustments.” 

Mr. Smith charged that low wages 
paid Chattanooga teachers, who receive 
less than firemen and policemen, have 
prevented teachers from furthering their 
professional training. 

Officers of the association installed 
Saturday include Mr. Smith, president; 
G. M. Swingley, vice-president; Miss 
Lassie Munsey, vice-president; Miss 
Tean Petitt, recording secretary; C. P. 
Parsons, corresponding secretary; Mrs. 
Stewart Rogers, financial secretary ; Sam 
Harris, treasurer, and Paul Morris, 
sergeant-at-arms. 

—Chattanooga Times. 

Local 246 has opened an office at 201 
Ferger Building with a part-time office 
secretary. 

The president writes, and we heartily 
agree with him, “We feel that our new 
business set-up is a distinct advance and 
will add enormously to the effectiveness 
of our local.” 


Toledo Local 250 


The press has been carrying the fol- 
lowing interesting story about Toledo 
Local 250. 

Teachers Win in Toledo 

The school teachers in Toledo won a 
victory that seems of much importance 
at this time. 

The American Federation of Teach- 

















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January-Fepruary, 1935 


ers. Local No. 250, won the fight for 
academic freedom and job security. 
The question was over the right of the 
school board to demote teachers for 
radical views. The board, without re- 
yealing the grounds for its action, de- 
cided that any teachers demoted for 
radicalism could be reinstated, and that 
the matter should be a closed incident 
thereafter. 


Milwaukee Local 252 


The Milwaukee Teachers Union, be- 
sides the usual four executive officers, 
has several standing committees with 
specific duties. The chairmen of these 
committees together with the executive 
oficers and delegates to affiliated organ- 


izations form an executive committee 


that meets each week. The Union meets 
once each month during the school year. 

The first of the standing committees 
has for its duty the education of teach- 
ers to realize the value of a broad so- 
cial and educational point of view. At 
present it uses a mimeographed letter 
reaching only part of the local teachers. 
Mr. Welles, president of the Wisconsin 
Federation of Teachers, is making ar- 
rangements for a publication having 
state wide circulation. This will enable 
us to reach g much larger group of 
teachers. 

A second committee is active in help- 
ing to formulate a system of education 
concerned not only with intellectual 
training, but also with creating dynamic 
social and civic consciousness. It is at 
present working to achieve the enlarged 
course in social science described in the 
last issue of THe AmericAN TEACHER. 

A third committee is our representa- 
tive before the Board of School Direc- 
tors and other legislative bodies, The 
chairman and members of this commit- 
tee not only appear at board meetings 
but also confer with individual directors. 
It is largely through the efforts of this 
committee that we secured a six per 
cent restoration in pay cut. 

The fourth committee will estimate 
current social and civic problems, en- 
courage dissemination of information 
regarding them, and if advisable, recom- 
mend suggested solutions to such prob- 
lems. Interviewing candidates for pub- 
lic office and informing interested parties 
of the records of such candidates are 
functions of this committee. 

A fifth committee will interpret the 
aims and needs of the schools to the 
public through all available agencies. 
The duties of two other committees, on 
programs and membership, are self 
evident. 

The Union is affiliated with and main- 
tains close contact with local and state 
labor organizations. These organiza- 
tions have given us 100% cooperation at 
all times. We are also making contacts 
with Parent-Teacher and other public 
spirited civic organizations. 

Our program is an ambitious one. We 
are not functioning anywhere near 100%, 

hope to do so as our membership 
grows, The work we are doing is very 
interesting and is proving decidedly 


educational to those of us that are ven- 
r saad into public endeavor for the first 
e. 


SEVERIN SWENSEN, 
Press Secretary. 





Cleveland Local 279 


Cleveland Local 279 has been at work 
for ten months. Linkage of the per- 
sonnel of the city schools to the only 
strong organization representing the 
economic and social viewpoint of the 
average city parent and voter was the 
chief purpose of those organizing Lo- 
cal 279. Rightly they felt that such con- 
nection could, in the long run, result 
only in the welfare of the common 
schools. Cleveland teachers lost none of 
their independence, committed them- 
selves to no dark-actions by such liaison; 
on the contrary, they affected favorably 
the attitude of thousands of Cleveland 
workers toward their schools. 

The teachers’ union has championed 
the cause of the teachers low in the 
salary schedule and has led the fight 
for an adjustment in salaries restoring 
all teachers to their proper place in the 
schedule through a partial restoration 
of cuts and lost increments. At no time 
has the pressure of our claims endan- 
gered contracts. 

At our last presentation of these 
claims, an administrator congratulated 
the salary committee upon having made 
the best presentation of the teachers’ 
cause yet offered. One member of the 
Board of Education expressed his ap- 
preciation of the manner in which the 
negotiations were conducted, while an- 
other said that she hoped we would con- 
tinue to press our claims until the 
situation was corrected. 

Local 279 fired the opening gun 
against the proposed _ constitutional 
amendments taking automoive and liquid 
fuel taxes away from the schools. The 
Press of July 5 and 6 records that ac- 
tion in news and editorial columns. 

The challenge of the educational com- 
mittee of the Chamber of Commerce to 
academic freedom was promptly met by 
the Cleveland Federation of Labor 
through a resolution presented by its 
teacher-afhliate. The action was car- 
ried as important news in the papers of 
October 18. 

One hundred and fifty members of 
the teachers’ union, through one thou- 
sand calls on delinquent tax-payers, 
were directly responsible for the pay- 
ment of $350,000 into the county treas- 
urv. and indirectly responsible for an 
additional amount not yet determined. 
County-treasurer Boyle gladly vouches 
for this statement. 

The teachers union invites comparison 
hetween its slate of candidates for the 
legislature, and the state senators and 
representatives elected. The score is 16 
out of 24. 

Local 279, in spite of the defeat of 
the two-mill levy, believes that it was 
a potent factor in votes amassed. 
Through Frank B. Gillam it reached 
foreign language newspapers through a 
series of eight published appeals. 
Twelve neighborhood papers carried 
favorable editorial comments as the re- 
sult of M. J. Eck’s efforts. The union 
contacted 40 labor organizations. It 
secured the endorsement of the Cleve- 
land Central Labor Council for the levy. 
It assumed half the expense of publicity 
issued through the schools. Several 
chapters contacted parents of all home 
room pupils. 

The school financial situation in 
Cleveland, though discouraging, is by no 
means helpless. There is no reason to 


29 


believe that schools will close before 
the end of the school year, nor any 
need for teachers to go without being 
promptly paid for their services. 

The Board of Education may still (1) 
defer payment on notes; (2) borrow 
money on its excellent credit; (3) issue 
non-interest bearing notes; (4) trans- 
fer money by court order from the 
building to the operating fund. The 
difference between apparent funds avail- 
able and money due employees can more 
than be made up by a combination of 
these methods. Before September the 
state will certainly have provided 
means of continuing Ohio schools. If it 
has not, then and not until then will the 
crisis occur. 

Members of the union salary commit- 
tee met with various representatives of 
the Board of Education on November 10, 
12, and 13, to discuss and formulate a 
policy for meeting the financial crisis. 
A statement made by uninformed non- 
union members, that the union was com- 
mitted to closing the schools has no 
foundation in fact. The union’s poli- 
cies are formed by its general member- 
ship which has not yet received its com- 
mittee’s recommendations. 

Every Cuyahoga County senator and 
representative will be interviewed by the 
Cleveland Federation of Labor to se- 
cure support for schools. Do you be- 
lieve that 4,000 teachers in one organiza- 
tion will carry as much weight as 150,000 
members in 175 affiliated organizations? 

The state secretary of the affiliated 
Ohio locals of the American Federation 
of Teachers has a majority of senators 
and representatives elect on record as 
favoring (1) the guarantee of a basic 
program of education by the state; (2) 
the support of adequate revenue laws to 
carry out this program; (3) tenure for 
teachers. His full time is being devoted 
to furthering these three aims, not with 
a small group from one county, but with 
representatives throughout the state, 
with the active support of 18 locals in 
various parts of Ohio. 

Membership in Local 279 carries with 
it affiliation with the Cleveland Federa- 
tion of Labor, the Ohio Federation of 
Labor, the American Federation of La- 
bor; membership in the Ohio Federa- 
tion of Teachers, and the American 
Federation of Teachers, the only na- 
tional teachers’ organization active in 
local units throughout the year. 

Local 279 offers the best plan for 
protection of its members through true 
group health and accident insurance, 
group life policies, and jury indemnity. 
The local invites comparison in these 
respects. 


Tue CLevELAND TEACHER. 


Parma, Ohio, Local 345 


The Parma Federation of Teachers, 
Local 345, has completed its organiza- 
tion and has now enrolled 75% of the 
teachers of the city. It is anticipated 


‘that another month will show a mem- 


bership of at least 90% of those eligible 
to join. 

An active participation in local poli- 
tics has been a part of the local’s pro- 
gram which included a canvass of all 
the city’s voters and endorsement of a 
non-partisan slate of state legislature 


candidates. 
Cart McCierc. 









































































ea SO a at a Ce aac SX ve ae - 


= a ee 


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30 
Butte, Montana, Local 332 


The Butte Local, an_ enthusiastic 
group, professional and _ educational 
minded, has made rapid strides since 
organizing last April. It has been rec- 
ognized by the Butte School Board. A 
substantial raise in teachers salaries has 
been effected through its efforts, and im- 
portant matters of legislation are being 
organized for presentation at the next 
meeting of the Montana legislature. 

Though not all of the Butte teachers 
are members, the Local feels that the 
good it continues to accomplish, and the 
efforts it puts forth in the interest of 
the profession, warrants a rapidly in- 
creasing membership. 

Mr. Satterthwaite, National Field Or- 
ganizer, in an onen meeting before the 
Butte group gave a very convincing 
address on the need of affiliation and 
organization of teachers. 

A feeling of “strength in union” per- 
vades the Local and is well marked by 
the interest the Butte Trades and Labor 
Council has shown in all its activities 

Sure of success with, such fine affilia- 
tions, local, state, and national, the Local 
is proud to be added to the roster of 
Teachers Unions. 





Sharp Co., Ark., Local 333 


Sharp County Local 333 is increasing 
its membership and its activity. The 
local press carries accounts of its pro- 
gram and meetings. 

It is joining with other Arkansas lo- 
cals in the effort to secure additional 
allowance for teachers from relief 
funds, and is contributing financial sup- 
port to this campaign. 


Ohio Federation of Teachers 


Recommendations adopted by the 
State Convention at Cleveland, Ohio, 
October 20, 1934: 


We recommend a foundation program 
of education for the state of Ohio 
which will guarantee $45.00 for each 
grade pupil of the state, and $67.50 
for each high school pupil of the 
state. 

We recommend that the school law be 
changed so that local boards of edu- 
cation may be authorized to place 
special levies on the ballot by a ma- 
jority vote of the members of the 
board, instead of the now existing 
two-thirds majority. 

We recommend that an adequate tenure 
law be enacted in the interest of 
better teaching. 

We recommend that any program of 
state support of schools include a 
minimum salary of $1,000 per year. 

We recommend that no department of 
school activity be curtailed or elim- 
inated 

We recommend that a full term of 
school be provided in all school 
districts. 

We recommend that a permanent pro- 
gram of state support for the schools 
be financed by an income tax. 

We urgently recommend that the legis- 

lature enact the continuance of the 

liquid fuel or gasoline tax for the 
support of school funds. 


- 


PL EOL TORE RL ITT OOO GINO A: 





They Write— 
To the Editors: 

The article on “Teachers’ Strikes” in 
your last issue presents a number of 
statements that I feel called upon to 
challenge. 

First of all you say that the non-strike 
policy (which I was sorry to see re- 
affirmed at the last convention) is based 
on two beliefs—first, that “the teacher 
is the greatest conserver of the public 
interest”; second, that “the teachers’ 
grievances must not be remedied by any 
method that inflicts injury on the chil- 
dren.” 

I disagree with both statements. 
Teachers who refuse to strike (when 
necessary) help to keep fresh the stigma 
that employers have constantly en- 
deavored to attach to strikes. The 
phrase “conserving the public interest” 
has always been given by employers as 
the paramount reason for submitting 
disputes to arbitration boards “from 
w hom” (according to Mary Van Kleeck) 
“we have yet to get a real case of 
workers’ demands being satisfied.” 


On the other hand, how can we teach 
students who are going out into the 
world (to get jobs, we hope) that they 
are entitled to a decent working and 
living standard? How can we inspire 
them to fight for a better economic life 
—resist to the end every attempt to 
lower their living standards if we con- 
tinue to clave in the face of starvation 
wages, pitifully inadequate equipment 
and supplies, insecure tenure, and so on? 
Is no injury done to the child by hav- 
ine before him teachers who cover up 
their fear by their righteous concern 
for the public welfare? 

The fact that William Green approves 
our non-strike policy is nothing to boast 
of. This highly paid guardian of labor's 
rights by his frantic desire for arbitra- 
tion, has crippled every major attempt 
ot workers in recent months to secure 
their meager rights as supposedly guar- 
anteed by the N. R. A. 

This does not mean that I have no 
use for the more polite means at our 
disposal—strong organization, political 
action, support of organized labor and 
the general public. In many cases these 
methods work but there are also times 
when they don’t work! To have our 
hands tied at such times by resolutions 
which make no allowances for the fu 
ture, is to shackle ourselves just as we 
enter, what I am sure will be literally, 
an arena of terrific struggle. 

In conclusion, I earnestly solicit my 
fellow teachers to enter this discussion. 
I feel the subject is vital and should be 
thrashed out completely and thoroughly. 

Fraternally yours, 
es es 
December 3, 1934. 


Allow me to give you a great big 
compliment tied with a bow of sincere 
congratulations on the past two issues 
of THe AmericAn TEACHER. I feel, as 
well as thousands of others, that it is 
the outstanding magazine of education 
in our country today. 

Betry Starsuck, President, 
Duval County, Fla. Local 254. 


December 2, 1934. 






THE AMERICAN 


TEACHER 





Paris, France. 
Dear Colleague: 

The Secretarial Board of the I. F 
T. A. has been instructed by-the Prague 
Conference to convey to you the heartiest 
greetings and thanks of the Conference- 
members for your letter of July 5th 
containing wishes for the success of the 
Prague-Conference. 

The next Conference of the I. F. T. 
A. will be held in Oxford, in the second 
week of August, simultaneously with 
the Conference of the World Federation 
of Education Associations and we should 
much appreciate if your representative 
would be able to attend this meeting. 

With best fraternal greetings, we are, 
dear colleague, 

Sincerely yours, 


DuUMAS—LAPIERRE, 
The Secretarial Board. 
December 4, 1934. 


They Say— 


The Official Bulletin of the Cin- 
cinnati Teachers’ Association in 
reporting on a meeting of the Cin- 
cinnati School Masters’ Club has 
this to say: 

The third paper, presented by Mr. 
O. G. Martz, of Norwood, dealt with 
(strange to say), not the National Edu- 
cation Association, but the American 
Federation of Teachers. Mr. Martz 
said in part: “The American Federa- 
tion of Teachers is the only association 
organized on a union basis and affiliated 
with the American’ Federation of 
Labor.” 

To contrast the National Education 
Association with the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers the following differ- 
ences may be noted. The N. E. A. is an 
inspirational organization which deals 
largely with academic school problems. 

The A. F. T. is a democratic, militant 
org anization. It is primarily a protec- 
tive organization. 


C. D. Howe, of the Cincinnati 
Teachers’ Association, reporting 
on the same meeting in the Cin- 
cinnati Labor Chronicle, says: 


Report on the American 
Federation of Teachers 


The paper which aroused most inter- 
est was an excellent history and discus- 
sion of this national teachers union 
movement affiliated with the American 
Federation of Labor. He presented its 
history and purposes, with a growth to 
about 12,000 in 1920 and a subsequent 
slump. Recent growth has again been 
rapid. Letters from locals in Springfield 
where 92 per cent of the teachers be- 
long and in Cleveland where 1,800 out of 
3,800 have joined, were presented. They 
told of added strength and consideration 
in the face of present conditions. Mr. 
Evans mentioned that these unions ex- 
ist along with local professional organ- 
izations with many teachers belonging 
to both. The writer gave many of these 
facts to Hamilton teachers at their meet- 
ing last week and they had a representa- 
tive at this meeting who took back a 
copy of Mr. Martz’s paper. 

















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JaNUARY-FEBRUARY, 1935 


Forty-two in a Class and Free Discipline 
(Continued from page 15) 

who learned to talk English most readily but hated 
reading as much as he loved to make pictures, would 
abandon the drawing of favorite movie actors, in or- 
der to read his share of a story. The individualized 
and socialized group procedures used made it pos- 
sible for most of the children to learn enough after 
a year in this class to admit them to the regular grades 
in the school. One girl who had studied algebra and 
geometry in Europe, was able to master the English 
yocabulary and terminology so well that she was ac- 
cepted by a high school. 

Sometimes there were quarrels or disputes to be 
settled, but these were all part of the process of 
learning to live and work together. Silence for its 
own sake was taboo. Nearly always there was a buzz 
of voices. Inactivity was an indication of trouble. 
There was one boy who used to have toothache now 
and then. “What is the matter, does your tooth hurt 
again, Irving?” was the invariable question whenever 
Irving sat idly in his seat. 

The principal was very proud of the foreign class. 
“T never have to worry about what they are doing,” 
she would explain to the district superintendent when 
he visited the building. 

Monitors coming in on errands from other classes 
would stare in amazement at the phenomenon of chil- 
dren talking and moving about freely. “Some class,” 
they would mumble to themselves, “can’t even sit up 
straight.” 

The test of the method came one day in winter when 
I was delayed in a snowstorm and arrived twenty-five 
minutes late. As I opened the classroom door I was 





31 


greeted by a stillness such as 1 had never found there 
before. Everybody was working by himself without 
saying a word—and the bad boy of the class was in 
front taking charge. The principal had not yet come 
in on her daily morning tour of inspection. 


Teachers Petition for Old Salaries.—The ‘Teachers’ 
Taxpayers’ Association, an organization formed of 
teachers in the Paterson, N. J., public schools, has 
petitioned the board of finance for “the early re- 
turn” of the former salaries of the teachers, 

The resolution also was addressed to the mayor, 
the board of school estimate, and the board of edu- 
cation. 


Pay of Temple, Texas, Teachers Raised by School 
Board.—Temple teachers benefitted by a general 
salary increase by recent action of the school 
board. j 

Teachers who were making less than $900 an- 
nually were increased 10 per cent. Teachers mak- 
ing over that amount were given an increase of 
five per cent. 

New teachers were not raised. The raise will 
make a total of around $6.00 additional per month 
on the payroll of 100 teachers and janitors. 

The increase was made retroactive to Sept. 1 
and the increase for the first month’s services 
was received by teachers. 

The hike in teachers pay will not affect the 
school budget or require further funds from the 
city as cuts were made in other places to make 
the pay raise possible. 











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Established 1897 





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107.North Wacker Drive 
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American Federation 


of Teachers 


506 South Wabash Avenue 
CHICAGO, ILL. 


The American Federation of Teachers 


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


The American Federation of Teachers 


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


Groups of seven or more public school teachers are invited 
to afhliate 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 


published bimonthly by The American Federation of Teachers. 
Membership dues carry subscription to the magazine. 


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








To all others the