IN THIS ISSUE Richard Aspinall Albert E. Croft Dr. Jerome Davis Dr. Jesse H. Holmes Paul Jarvis : Irvin R. Kuenzli ) Raymond F. Lowry Aileen W. Robinson W. B. Satterthwaite Michael B. Scheler Digs: No. 5 MAY-JUNE, 1935 i i f fi ee ee ne Il i li li i i i i i a WEBSTER Workbooks CREDITS and } Seatwork Books j _ paenceananners = 100 Titles A Millions in Use Daily } ~ The use of Webster books eliminates waste } of teachers’ and pupils’ j time, raises the standard of work performed, cre- } ates a new interest in the } classroom, and reduces upil failures. These } sare based on the j subject and are not ; restricted to any partic- } ular test. j Sentne gtpewen hove j pilmiature of page trom Primer = Sconemieal fo. wo than ( 8x11 inches, 64 pages. .... 20c blank paper. f } open. SEND FOR FREE CATALOG ; Some Representative Titles —There Are Many More i Seatwork Activities for Beginners in Reading, 64 pages... . 20c / PrePrimer Seatwork, 64 pages ........... 2.6... 66 eee . 20¢ / ce eas ccecccocceccese : 20¢ } First Reader Seatwork, 96 pages.............. 25¢ College, } Eyeand Ear Fun, Series I, II & III for Ist, 2nd & 3rd gvades, cosh. 25e } My Seatwork Book No. 1, Ist grade; No. 2, 2nd grade, each. . 20¢ } } Happy Hour Projects No. 1, Ist grade; No. 2, 2nd grade, each. 14e } WEBSTER PUBLISHING COMPANY } } 1808 Washington Ave. St. Louis, Mo. } s7 ) Oi i ee TABLE OF CONTENTS Why the American Federation of Teachers . .Professor Jerome Davis Must Free Education Disappear?...................W. B. Satterthwaite Critical Evaluation of the American Federation as oC EELS os ac ccbace bees s Aileen I’. Robinson Relation of the Federation to State Programs a. eee CEC Goa cahde ws beseredsesses Irvin R. Kuensl ee ia a sails Con adteneece ess of {Ibert E. Croft i i EE Soe wb bade uae etecsccssesowe Richard Aspinall Financial Emergency Facing Schools; Federal Office of Education....... The Unemployed—Pariahs or Freemen?.............. Michael B. Scheler i MEL MS Messen tcoscccsscssscscccvcccess Local 230 i diab actccccccescovcesesesees Dr. John Dewey I EU ia wav bic oon vecessey eee Raymond F. Lowry a pclae sev nadeceescedeseeesen NR Se rr © El BGMOMENN, su sccerccvccccccccccccess Dr. Jesse H. Holmes Teacher Population vs. Pupil Population..................... Paul Jarvis mown Reviews stadia and HUMAN A momentous opportunity! uates of 60 universities from 20 States and 4 | foreign lands enrolled in the Anglo-American | Section of Moscow University and lived as they learned! both MOSCOW | Anne) Last year grad- traveled Registration now 1935 session July 16-Aug. 25. 12 courses surveying contemporary Soviet life. tion by Soviet faculty in English. University credit possible. George S. Counts and Heber Harper, Teachers’ booklet AR-4 to: EDUCATIONAL DEPT., 4 1} 13 15 17 20 20 21 2? 24 26 27 28 a”; , 35 . 6 sump bi-monthly, except August, GuBscriprion $1.00 for the year—For- by the American Federation of eign $1.10—Single copies, 25c. At Teachers, 606 South Wabash Ave., the time of expiration, a bill wil! be Chicago, Ill. Entered as second class found in the copy. Subscribers are matter October “, 1933, at the post requested to give gree pt notice of office at Chicago, I under the Act of changes of address. ittances should be made in postal money-order, press order, draft,

— tg May-JuNneE, 1935 for the ultimate good of the school, have in affiliating with Labor, seemed to seek their own economic gain. The first might be called a mistake of strategy in choosing allies; the second, a mistake of emphasis in propaganda. SA ; It was pointed out that its activities are of the type, and conducted in such a manner as to win for it the epithet of “militant.” It enters into local situations in the interest of protecting the rights of the class- room teacher, in marked contrast to the policy of other teachers’ organizations. It was examined in relation to the existing crisis in education, an economic and social crisis, and found to have a philosophy which enabled it to see, analyze, and prepare to meet the crisis in advance of the other educational organizations. It was suggested that, due to the crisis in educa- tion and the depression, public opinion is changing in a direction which may offset the previous offended prejudices, and win for the Federation both popular support, and the support of a large body of educators. Its philosophy is characterized by John Dewey as standing openly and aggressively for the realization of the social function of the profession. (17, 9.) Y The Federation serves as a rallying point for the more liberal and progressive teachers in the profes- sion. There is no argument here that all teachers should join it, for it is more effective with its small, vigorous group than any organization made inert and conservative by gathering to itself all the teachers. Dr. Beale sees it as The one really effective friend of freedom for the teachers, and says rightly: Whether the union idea is accepted or not, the liberal outlook, methods, courage, aggressiveness, and group solid- _arity of the American Federation of Teachers must in some way be created in any organization which adequately pro- tects freedom of teachers. (71) In conclusion, the writer feels with Dr. William Kilpatrick that: The general position herein set forth is at present a min- ority view. Socially, there is, of course, nothing wrong in a minority view as such. It is of the essence of historic free speech that a minority shall] have the right to present its views and, if possible, win a majority of them. A deceiving propaganda cannot be defended, but the fair exposition of merits (so that intelligence may have a better chance to judge and choose) seems the only defensible program fer a free people. (8, 62) The Relation of the Federation to State Programs of Education Irvin R. Kuenzli HE American Federation of Teachers is faced with a new problem in the fact that education is rapidly passing from a local function to a state function. In the simple social structure of colonial days when the ox-cart, the candle light, and log cabin were in vogue, the rude country or village school was a matter of concern for a very limited neighborhood. With the development of a great commonwealth, highly organized systems of transportation, great cities with gigantic industries, and a complex social structure, education has be- come a state problem and is rapidly becoming a problem of national concern, The states have been slow to recognize education as an inherent part of the state program. The schools have lagged far behind the development of industry, the building of roads, and the general social structure of the state. In a day of airplanes and automobiles many communities still maintain an ox-cart type of education. The charge of the sociologist that social progress lags far behind scientific and industrial progress is well founded in the case of the public schools of America. The dis- interestedness of parents, the complacency and languor of the teachers, and the political influence of certain organized interests, have prevented the schools from growing into their deserved position of social service in the complex organization of society. The teachers themselves have not been entirely blameless in this lack of progress. There was needed only a depression of national scope to reveal the fundamental unsoundness of our educational struc- ture. For years the pedagogue has shouted his theory unto the heavens that the schools would solve the crime problem, promote world peace, pro- vide for complete living, and build upright citizens for tomorrow. With the rising cost of crime, with the vanishing of world peace into an idle dream, and with the development of the most turbulent society in the history of the nation, it is quite evi- dent how miserably the schools have failed in their basic objectives. Practically every state in the nation has, there- fore, been faced with the problem of reorganizing its educational system to meet the needs of a rapid- ly changing social order. There has been clearly demonstrated the imperative need of creating school systems in the various states which will function not only during the embellishments of prosperity but also during the adversities of depression. Thinking men have come to realize that if there is to be anything of unfailing stability in the social structure it should be the public school system, and that no great nation can afford to permit its chil- dren to pay for the mistakes of its adult citizens. Only a few of the states, to date, have satisfac- torily met the challenge of establishing an adequate school system. Every teacher is cognizant of the sad plight of the schools throughout ‘the nation. Never was there a more serious need for coura- geous thinking on the part of the individual teacher, and for constructive collective effort on the part of organized teachers. If the incessant attacks of in- terests opposed to the schools are to be met, if the serious curtailment of the school program is to be prevented, if the social security of.the teachers of the nation is to be maintained, there must be a mili- tant aggressiveness on the part of the individual teacher in order to add all possible strength to the organization as a whole. The fight to save the schools is primarily a teachers’ fight and the success Se a Re tee Se. Lote 10 or failure of the school program of any state will depend ultimately upon the willingness of the class room teacher to participate actively and unceas- ingly in the united effort against the interests which are attempting to crush the public school system. With education passing out of its present chaos from a local function to a state function, the need of organizing the various locals of a state into a state organization becomes apparent. No longer will the teachers of separate communities be able to solve their problems irrespective of the needs of other districts of the state. The success of the school system and the security of the teachers of any district will depend upon action in the state legislature as well as upon the action of the local boards of education. The Ohio State Federation of Teachers has made a distinct effort to adapt its program of action to the changing social and educational status of the state. At a convention in Cleveland, Ohio, October 20, 1934, there was formulated a state program as a basis for legislative action. This program was built around certain fundamental principles as follows: 1. The state, recognizing education as a state function, should guarantee a minimum standard of education for every child in the state. 2. This minimum standard should be provided through state funds secured by the most equitable form of taxation—the income tax. 3. Boards of education or school districts desir- ing to provide a standard of education higher than the minimum should be permitted to place special school levies on the ballot by a majority vote of the governing board. 4. To provide for efficiency in the school pro- gram, there should be a full term of school, a tenure law for teachers, a minimum salary of not less than $1,000.00, and a complete curriculum in which no essential school activity should be eliminated or curtailed. Obviously such a program is merely a statement of general objectives, and requires extensive elab- oration before it can become effective in operation. However, a goal is established and a general pro- gram set up in simple language so that any legis- lator may easily understand what is desired. Legis- lators have repeatedly declared that the school men have no definite program and that they do not know what they want. Many of them have asserted, too, that the professional phraseology of the pedagogue is beyond the comprehension of the average legislator. The most serious handicap of the State Federa- tion is the lack of ample funds with which to operate effectively in securing the enactment of a satisfac- tory school program. The fact that class room teachers are so closely confined to the daily routine of their positions makes it imperative that one or more full time executive secretaries be employed for purposes of legislation and organization. This program requires a small per capita payment from all members. The price of a postage stamp per week from each member linked with down-right hard work will go far in meeting the thousands of dollars of those opposing the school program. A second difficulty involved in statewide Federa- tion activities is the fact that teachers, unaccus- AMERICAN TEACHER THE tomed to responsibilities of leadership, do not fully appreciate the necessity of concerted action on a large scale. It is undoubtedly true that classroom teachers are more alert today than ever before in matters pertaining to their own welfare. Neverthe- less many Federation officials believe that the great- est weakness of the organization lies in the lack of enthusiasm of individual members, and that the greatest need of the organization is education within its own ranks. Teachers have been only too prone to criticize and crucify those who have the courage to fight their battle for them and to have been too quick to fall prey to the soft praise and blandishments of those who would exploit the teacher for selfish gain. Teachers must come to realize that their security lies within themselves and in the strength which arises from absolute solidarity. Members of new locals should not anticipate miraculous results over night, but must appreciate that permanent progress is a matter of gradual accomp arene (Crescit eundo. ) The classroom teacher stands today at the cross- roads. He may go upward and onward on the road to success in solving his own problems, or he may weakly succumb on the pathway of retrogression paved with promises unfulfilled. How many times have we heard the challenge “Teachers cannot suc- ceed because they are hopelessly divided among themselves, too critical, too complacent!” It has been said by our enemies that the teachers possess inadequate leadership in solving teachers’ problems. These challenges must be met by a dem- onstration on the part of the teachers that languor, inertia, damnable criticism, jealousy, and idle talk have been replaced by enthusiasm, action, construc- tive cooperation, respect, and intelligent study. It should be kept in mind that no state program can succeed ultimately and permanently which is based wholly upon selfish motives. It is the duty of the teacher as a citizen and a builder of citizen- ship, to cooperate in all movements which make for a better school and a better society. The pro- fessional progress of the teacher must be associated with the social progress of the state. Only under such conditions will society accept the teacher as a leader in the community and state. When once the schools have met their obligation to society more adequately, it is quite possible that society will rally more enthusiastically to the support of the schools. The goal of the State Federation must be, there- fore, not merely an adequate school system but a better state founded on a brotherhood of mankind in which every individual may live as abundantly as possible. It is true, as the terrified Technocrats say, that a single turbine now has a capacity of 300,000 horse- power. But it has not a single horsepower capacity for editing a newspaper, or creating beauty, or caring for the sick, or governing a city, or ministering to human souls who are weary and heavy-laden. And all the turbines in the world cannot develop enough horsepower to take the place of a single school teacher. Dr. Wma. TRUFANT FOSTER. vw Py fem Ss aw S d vw ey May-JuNeE, 1935 11 The Inevitability of Unionism Albert E. Croft Five Years of Chaos VER five years ago most of us here today were meeting in scattered groups in at least six different cities. At that time we agreed, much to the concern of others, that we were not faced with a depression, but with the failure of what was once a great economic order. It is highly significant that our separate but similar thinking on social events has brought us together here today. We are now a homo- geneous body of like-minded friends devoted to a common cause. During these five years in which we have been thinking along similar lines we have been motivated to common effort by the observation of a series of social collapses. Every field of our civilization has been cracked or strained: economics, government, religion, education, and along with them our philosophies. Economic Collapse Our capitalistic economic system cracked with such completeness that it was forced to resort to every ac- ceptable means of preventing utter chaos. Unem- ployment piled up until we had over one-half of the unemployment of western civilization. Capitalistic community leaders were forced to adopt public owner- ship of production and consumption goods in caring for the poor who when articulate were branded “so- cialists.” Thus good Rotarians were actually adopting communism to keep socialists from starving in a cap- italistic system—a system which was so committed to value based on scarcity that when we had an abun- dance we actually had to manufacture scarcity by arti- ficial means—the destruction of foodstuffs. It is absurd for intelligent Americans to call each other names. In American life, in the folkways and mores of the people, we now have anarchism, cap- italism, and fascism on the “right” and cooperation, socialism, and communism on the “left.” But there is no “right” or “left.” The folkways of American life contain all these elements which will go forward together in the social process. We need to see the facts in their entire relationship and go “Forward with Roosevelt,” emphasizing with him the need for cooperative economics. Governmental Collapse In the field of government we have seen the greatest upset in American history. We can clearly recall listening to radio reports on the last presidential elec- tion, and we can clearly remember how one of our greatest parties went down to defeat. It was nothing short of revolution. However, an expression through the ballot box may record the feeling of the people at a given point of time, but it cannot change the habits and memory of the constituency of the elected leaders. As a result it is fair to raise the question, “What fundamental reform has been made in our social order since this change of political parties?” I deeply sympathize with our President. His problem is well stated in the spring, 1934, bulletin of the International Insti- Digest of address given at Green Bay, Wis., February 9. tute of Economics, Rome, an associate of the League of Nations, which says that all the leaders of the countries of Western civilization now realize that they must as rapidly as possible make the transition from free to controlled and planned economic orders. The only stumbling block in the march of western civiliza- tion is in the United States where the President and his advisors know what should be done but cannot do it because an ignorant constituency would vote them out of office. Truly here is a colossal task for edu- cation! Other Fields of Chaos We have also seen during the past five years the challenge to religious bodies, and endless effort to bring them into the field of social action. Church after church has set its best minds and leadership to making social programs. All realize now that laissez faire and individualism is passé in religious life and that the order of the day calls for group action. The demoralization of the educational profession has also been witnessed. While normally we need nearly one and one-half million teachers, we are actu- ally employing less than 800,000, and we have about two million persons trained to teach. The net result is a collapse of educational standards and such a pre- ponderance of problems that local leadership has often succumbed to political influence. Laissez-faire as a regulator upon all phases of life has not regulated anything, and an uncurbed individ- ualism has brought us face to face with the necessity of protecting ourselves through group action. He who does not function through groups is virtually of no social significance. Sources of Social Intelligence As I have traveled throughout Wisconsin during the past five years, meeting with groups of every kind, | have been impressed with the plainly visible fact that there have been certain sources of social intel- ligence. We have lots of intelligence of the individual sort, like that of the great surgeon who did not realize the similarity between the clot in the bloodstream and the Wall Street clot in our money-stream, and who would correct all ills by turning the clock back. But we have few sources of social intelligence and they stand out like oases. ' The first source is in the social science departments of our state universities. They have supplied such a body of socially intelligent leadership for the nation that they share the seat of business as counsellor to government, and the metropolitan dailies subservient to ultra-capitalistic groups have found it necessary to ridicule them to save the prestige of business. A second source of social intelligence is found at our labor temples. Here gather people who are on the margins of our social life. They react to every minor change since they are first affected. They openly, honestly, discuss issues and search for solu- tions. They have nothing to conceal; everything to reveal. They serve no selfish motive, but are dedi- cated to benefit all. Democracy and brotherhood are characteristic of their actions. The programs which , € i % 4 Ss Sees PAN AES 8 Tathes i - i x NR ar re er, aecthgler mr araet 12 they give us are statesmanlike documents, and the opposition they invite is merely a revelation oi the anti-social nature of vested interests. The several liberal movements are important sources of social intelligence. These movements are both urban and rural, and Progressive and Socialist. In Wisconsin we find they are associated with the Pro- gressive Party, or friendly toward it. Teacher unions have been a generous source of in- telligence regarding the present needs of social life. For many reasons, however, this source is limited. Ex- perience in Wisconsin shows that in cities where there are teacher unions less than ten per cent of the teach- ing staff have the knowledge and conditioning prere quisite to good union membership. The little locals of sixes and eights have been very constructive and should keep the craft together at all cost. However, the time is ripe for large unions since we have good leadership and can take care of an indefinite expan sion. Wherever a teacher union exists there is a matrix for the development of social intelligence and the membership should heed their major responsibility of leavening the lifeless organizations about them. Then in every major field we have individuals who stand out almost alone by virtue of their social in- telligence like the Franklin Roosevelts and Frances Perkinses in government, and the John Deweys in education. These are isolated cases and not to be confused with the demagogs so plentiful in times like these. This surveys the major seats of the social minded leadership that during the past five years has brought our thinking to the present point where we desire to save the foundations of democracy and re- construct the social order in the service of common justice and social efficiency. The Impact upon Education What has been the result of the five-year period of chaos upon the educational profession? And what has been the effect of our union source of social in- telligence upon our profession? It is now time to apply the generalizations specifically to the educational field. To answer these questions it is necessary to go into the structure of the social organizations of education. There are two general organizations, known as the N. E. A. with its subsidiaries, and the A. F. T. based upon its locals. The former is based upon the military pattern of hierarchy of authority. It is the same sort of organization used for the direction of physical effort and for the sole purpose of controlling non- thinking units in the rank and file. Since it is pur- posed to control, it cramps initiative, consequently in- hibits creativeness. The A. F. T., on the other hand, knows no hierarchy of privates, corporals, sergeants, on up to the four-star general. It is based on the democratic principles of social participation and in the stimulated interaction between members, locals, and leadership. It is therefore relatively far more productive of men- tal activity and social accomplishments than its dom- inating rival. Any scientific examination of the programs of the two organizations, the N. E. A. and the A. F. T. consequently places the former in an unenviable posi- tion. It is always at least a five year lag behind the times; on the other hand the A. F. T. began its first program, before our entrance into the Great War, THE AMERICAN TEACHER on the sound platforms of the British and the Canadian national teacher unions. It rapidly added to these programs to meet American needs, and since 1917 has monopolized the realm of social intelligence in our educational profession. It is difficult to see how an N. E. A. organization can lay any claims to originality and creativeness when it is at a five year lag behind the A. F. T. Ordinary observation of the plans and programs of the latent organization and its tardy leaders definitely reveal them as simulations. Their leaders who would urge non-socialized young teachers to back their forward looking views are at least unwitting simulators since they combat an organization that is one of the seats of our social intelligence, and they urge teachers to enter into a system of control that can only make them obstacles to essential change. ; This does not mean that the time has come for union teachers to divorce themselves entirely from other organizations. In many cases it may be better wisdom to join even latent organizations to stimulate them to advance. Also education needs all the sup- port against other groups that it can get and much educational support has to be marshalled under a system of control. The relation between teacher unions and other groups in Wisconsin has usually been welded by the former furnishing leadership and programs to the lat- ter. This arrangement has many advantages that should not be overlooked. In conclusion we see unionism setting the pace in education in America. This unionism rests upon sound social intelligence scientifically substantiated by every branch of social learning. We must not feel disturbed if our fellow teachers do not immediately see Our viewpoint and join us. Their personalities are still pre-industrial, and their emotions attached to ideas and things they do not realize have been super- seded. Whether unionism will ever come fully into its own in its own name is immaterial. Nevertheless I think it will. However, as we today study the personality of the typical N. E. A. member, we note that it is comparable to that of the union teacher of 1920-1925. They are rapidly unionizing as they are socializing As class lines are drawn tighter in American life, and they are bound to do so, unionism will be fully ac- complished. American teachers will then be abreast of British teachers in their democracy. Meanwhile let us carry on. | The Tree and Life Beneath a giant oak that gently tossed Its waving top to heaven’s canopy I sat one day in pensive revery Enthralled by many massive limbs embossed With myriad leaves untinted by the frost, Which, sun-kissed, in their joyous ecstasy Drew forth from rugged earth’s profundity The gorgeous beauty where my gaze was lost. It seemed that life, as countless seasons roll, Might draw from out earth’s dark and lifeless form The boundless beauty of the human soul And strength to meet the devastating storm. Thus beautiful my passing life might be As passing beauty crowns this noble tree. —Irvin Kuenzli. SY a (Ph DB bete CD Ss, ee May-June, 1935 13 Public Education Costs As Costs Are Lowered, Taxation Totals Will Rise Richard Aspinall HE purpose of this discussion is to show that huge curtailment in public education costs will reflect the same principle as “penny wise and pound foolish.” If too much of the American tax dollar is spent for education, either by reason of too many students in the secondary and higher grades, (we assume none would forbid free instruction to all in the grammar school grades), or because the school terms are too long, then retrenchment should be sum- marily applied. Or, if formal instruction teaches noth- ing more than love of books and if only a few folks acquire that yearning and if most college graduates and their instructors turn out to be high-minded bigots enclosed within cultural walls of, conceit, then the state cannot justify its outlay of public funds in a vaunted gesture to spread informations and inculcate scholarly habits and attitudes and citizenship skills to its future electorates. Or, if the grammar grade pupils are hopelessly biased toward evil and general social maladjustments, then the all too common charge obtains that formal instruction produces educated rascals. Or, if the net results of education are that the pupils by and large abidingly cherish a dislike for honest toil, and that our professional educators are chiselers and wolfish pillagers upon the public treas- uries, then public education is a colossal and abject failure in that it has completely missed the mark. For ordinary personal methods of dialectic there are two sides to any question:—our own and the wrong one. Yet, accumulated informations tend to induce compromise and arouse keener abilities of dis- cernment. It may later be driven home to us that there are three sides to the problem of the High Cost of Public Education :—ours, the wrong one, and the correct one. The right attitude may be in a zone far removed from the poles of rabid radicalism and wary conservatism. “Truth is the organic unity of opposed parts,” and it is absurd to aver that anyone has gath- ered all the informations of a problem so intricate and far-reaching as public education costs to enable one to speak upon it with finality. One of the ironies of our social set-up is that folks are still just as eager as ever to argue—and die if need be—for their ideas, regardless of how patent ts the evidence in point to the contrary. Advancing civilization does not seem to have changed that atti- tude in people. This ego centric reservation to cling with unreasoning devotion to indiscreet notions des- pite consequences is outlined by Safed the Sage in a parable of a gander and a big red automobile. The gander seemed fully conscious that he was just too adorable in the eyes of his flock. It happened that one day while crossing the highway the big red auto- mobile bore swiftly upon them. The geese flapped their wings and scurried to safety, but the gander imagined such haste was undignified, therefore he joggled along at a semi-majestic gait, hissing at the automobile as he went. After the car had pulled up and the driver had settled with the farmer for the ex-gander which the farmer took home to stew, the owner of the car said in soliloquy: “If the high- minded gander had carried his head lower and put the energy of his hissing into the manipulation of his legs, it might have fared better with him and cost me five dollars less.” Unfortunately, not all who argue without reason are run down. The majority of them, alas, become vehemently vitriolic and querulous. Bitterness closes their minds to compromise. They cry for the heads of all who dare question the status quo. A cursory glance through European History discloses against scholarship and reform a long list of shamefully pathetic exhibitions of bigotry by those ensconced in high places. The most glaring are typified by the murders of Giordano Bruno and John Huss. Even in the vaunted free thinking days of the French Rev- olution, Lavoisier, the formulator of the theory of combustion as now accepted in scientific circles, was denounced by Marat as the “Master of Charlatans”; and the judge who sentenced him to death vainly boasted—“The Republic has no need of chemists.” Recently there came to our attention a positive phase of the episode recorded of the assailants of Galileo, who sustained by refusal to look through the tele- scopes their beliefs that Jupiter had no moons. In the modern circumstance it appears that a sanitary engineer was endeavoring to locate the cause of a typhoid epidemic when an irate rustic loudly pro- claimed there were no such things as germs and melo- dramatically demanded in the presence of a group of curious listeners that the engineer produce one and show it to him. The sanitary specialist not quite pre- pared for such an emergency, temporarily lost pres- tige. It is lamentable also that so much public opinion is systematically made to order by professional and un- principled propagandists. Slogans and political catch- words that rarely have any. meaningful connotation are foisted upon an unsuspecting public. Every biologist knows for instance that we are not all cre- ated free and equal, and every educator knows that we are not all born equal in mind. These are two of the very good reasons why our government cannot be successfully conducted upon the theory that all men are able to bear equal burdens of taxation, or that all men have equal monetary earning abilities. Despite the violent prejudices, mass instabilities, and general frailties to which mankind seems so naturally bent, this writer subscribes very definitely, vet with becoming humility, with that long list of the choicest educators to the thesis that only informations broaden the outlook to the stage of tolerant charity. The differentiating factor between the Dark Ages and the Renaissance was an intelligent public opinion. Of course it is puerile to claim that any particular year or decade was more “awakened” than any other in the Renaissance, yet it is easily demonstrable by con- trast at this late date that there was a vast difference between these two periods by reason of the factor of intelligence in the one and the lack of it in the other. It would be inconsistency itself, in view of what has been stated above, to extol unduly the glories of 14 this present era, but extreme modesty will permit the suggestion that our set-up of public education has brought untold and manifold social benefits in terms of happier homes, more healthful activities, better sanitary conditions, and a larger proportion of com- petently equipped citizens. Consider that in this coun- try there were no hospitals, pharmacies, trained nurses, anaesthetics, or vaccination against smallpox during the Revolutionary Period. District schools were few and far between and were open for onl) two months each winter. In those schools there were no maps, blackboards, slates, or pencils, and girls were not eligible to matriculate. In many respects it was a cruel age. Victims were imprisoned even for debts of less than twenty-five cents. It was thought to be entirely in keeping with Christian ideals to cut off the ears or other bodily members, or to burn people at the stake for such mild recalcitrancy that would in this day be hailed as progressiveness. Education is the only antidote to an undesirable regimented society. It may be that owing to present financial conditions a longer moratorium of formal education costs should and will be declared. But it is safe to assume that if the states cut down the teaching terms, or close col- leges and universities, either temporarily or perma- nently, that private and sectarian institutions would make the most of the situations and probably the public purse would not be spared for education costs. It is granted that under such conditions the burdens of costs would fall upon those best able to bear them. but these same people would not be disposed or able to assume the charitable and religious benefactions that are now carried by their voluntary endeavors. The total expenditures of public elementary and secondary schools in the U. S. in 1930 were $2,316,- 790,000 or more than ten times the expenditures for the same grades in 1900. School property in the country was $6,211,327,000 in 1930, or more than eleven times the value in 1900. There were 25,678,000 pupils enrolled in all the elementary and secondary grades in 1930 as against 15,503,000 in 1900. The state supported colleges and universities cost approxi- mately 20% per year of the total amount of public instruction. It may be beside the point for professional edu- cators to insist that public education costs ought not to be seriously curtailed since so much money is spent for chewing gum, cosmetics, golf, automobiles for pleasure, to say nothing of tobacco, intoxicating liquors, and narcotics, because our citizenship may think these expenditures are very worthwhile. It is to the point, however, if it can be shown that money invested in public education eventually spared the public purse by and large in terms of what was saved from what inevitably would have been other items of state expense. Let crime costs be considered. There is virtue in the assertion that the public school is a social agency for the prevention of crime. Investigations by the U. S. Department of Commerce of 18,000 prisoners showed a smaller proportion had gone beyond the ae- mentary school than had done so in the general popu- lation. The same study revealed that 11% of the above group was illiterate, while for the general popu- lation the illiteracy was only 7%. This may prove only that the literate are more successful in avoiding imprisonment. But in a study of 500 criminal careers, Glueck and Glueck found that 90% had not gone THE AMERICAN TEACHER beyond the eighth grade. The same investigators also found that of a large group of reformatory chil- dren there was a greater degree of retardation in the group than among the school population of the city of Boston. Slawson reports that the number of mentally deficient children among the delinquents in St. Paul was nearly five times as great as among the public school population. It is deserving of serious consideration that crime costs in the United States are almost as much as those of public education and that the average cost per person of those incarcerated in our jails and peni- tentiaries is higher than the average cost per pupil in our public schools. In 1928 for every $2.00 spent on elementary and secondary school pupils, we spent $1.50 to control the criminal. It costs about $400.00 a year to maintain a delinquent in a public institution, $300.00 for an adult prisoner, and somewhat less than $100.00 for each public school pupil for the same period. These data are taken from the 1932 Septem- ber Research Bulletin of the N. E. A. which thus comments on the situation: In a sense, then, if the $100.00 spent annually on each pub- lic school pupil does not produce a “good citizen,” the state must later pay three or four times that amount for penal or correctional treatment. There are also the indirect losses of crime that can never be estimated in dollars. The innumerable griefs, fears, worries, and ultimately deaths among the innocent relatives and friends of the convicted are ghastly and should be diminished and prevented as much as possible. The sufferings and tortures of the recreants should also enter the picture. Two quota- tions from Horace Mann on this particular subject are characteristically thought-provoking : Governments do not see the future criminal or pauper in the neglected child, and therefore they sit idly by, until roused from their stupor by the cry of hunger or the specta- cle of crime. They erect the almshouse, the prison, and the gibbet, to arrest or mitigate the evils which timely caution might have prevented. The people do not yet seem to see that the intelligence and the morality which education can impart is that benef- icent kind of insurance, which, by preventing losses, obviates the necessity of indemnifying for them; thus saving both premium and risk. It may be that public education should stop at the high school level, and that all who desire more train- ing should pay for it out of their own pockets. Yet on every hand and in an increasing number of coun- tries the tendency is to socialize. Soldiers, sailors, civil service employees, and other public servants are secured by the state against old age and infirmity. It will not be in the remote future that greatly in- creased numbers of physicians, dentists, nurses, san itary engineers, and the like will be paneled on the public pay roll to protect and professionally admin- ister to the populace. It would appear logical that if the state in its wisdom takes such precautionary meas- ures for the physical health of its citizenship, that it will not be shortsighted respecting the mental and cultural health of its people. Insistence for self-pro- tection in terms of an educated youth is not offered as a threat, but it may be the part of wisdom to have our youth well-informed. A people that neglects the education of its oncoming citizenship might not be able to protect itself against a self-willed, maladjusted, ignorant adolescence. Finally, relief from taxation for adequate public school instruction may not make for a happier and — so a eS May-JuNE, 1935 more contented people. A new day of that kind might prove to be a sad one. The urbanization of our peo- ple and the general complexity of our social life, with the attendant added leisure time on our hands, have made the raising of a family a seriously difficult prob- lem. These factors are reasons why more parents than are commonly credited undergo great privations that their children may receive more and more formal education. It is obvious that if the depression continues there will obtain a very much lower rate of spending. There will perforce be an increasingly larger proportion of our wage earners permanently unemployed unless some plan is forced upon us by a dictator type of gov- ernment whereby all legitimately gainful occupations will be increased by dividing what there are so that each adult will have opportunity to provide for him- self and those dependent upon him. It may be that the so-called laboring classes will have to be scaled down to work a limited number of weeks per year so that all will have employment; school teachers and administrators may not be allowed to teach more than one semester per year and then be replaced by an- other staff for the second semester, and so on, and so on. Such divisions of labor would be infinitely better than conditions wherein half of the legitimately em- ployable are on full time, but in addition to providing 15 for themselves and their own they must feed and clothe and house the other half. Albeit, it may be that serious discussions of costs of public education in these days are just so much prattle, that the intensified and elaborated system we indulged during the last generation was a flourish attendant to an unprecedented wave of mechanized prosperity, and that the builders of our nation do not perceive it to be an organic element of a great de- mocracy. That is to say, the state will gladly sup- port public education when money is very plentiful, but if and when sacrifice is required to maintain it, then it must go by the board as an ornament, or another “noble experiment” of a rich society. Or, the judgment may obtain since society is hard pressed financially, that the higher education of the masses should revert back to the Church, or private enterprise, so that the state may attack what are sup- posed to be problems of more moment. If such mores become the vogue, then all that will be required to ring down the curtain on this chapter of civilization, so far as it affects this country at least, will be for one underfed and malnutritioned generation to reach a feeble maturity coincident with one that has grown up more or less devoid of secondary and higher formal instruction. The inevitable result is best left to the imagination. Financial Emergency Facing Schools Federal Office of Education HE emergency in education this year is fully as extensive as last year. More than one-eighth of the school children of the United States are in school districts without sufficient funds to operate schools the customary school term. This is the central conclusion of a final report on the financial situation in rural schools and independent school districts for the current school year presented by United States Commissioner of Education John W. Studebaker to Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. A copy of the report was also forwarded to Relief Administrator Harry L. Hopkins. The survey was requested by Secretary Ickes last October at the time President Roosevelt authorized the use of relief funds to keep financially distressed schools open. A preliminary report was submitted on December 10. Approximately 42,200 schools are in districts re- porting insufficient funds to operate schools for the number of months to which they were accustomed ‘n past years. In these schools located in 25 States there are 3,429,920 pupils and 102,116 teachers. “Although numerous reports of sounder financial conditions in school districts—especially city school districts—have reached the Federal Office of Educa- tion, this improvement should not obscure the con- tinuing emergency in many rural school districts and even some city school districts,” declared Commis- sioner Studebaker, commenting on the report. Outstanding Facts Disclosed by the Survey In 467 school districts in eight States there were no available funds to operate schools this year. In these districts there are 57,090 pupils and 1,745 teachers, Without the receipt of additional funds the school term for one-eighth of the school children of the United States will be shortened on an average of 3 months. Deficits in operating funds reported by officials of the schools involved a total of $31, 816,010. Adding deficits estimated officially for six additional States the total is $37,316,010. Of this amount $24,544,874 represents contract sal- aries for teachers. Rural schools reported without sufficient funds total 37,513, with 2,122,468 elementary school pupils and 562,712 high school pupils. City or independent schools without sufficient funds for normal ‘terms total approximately 4,700, with 687,650 elementary school pupils and 501,165 high school pupils. Closed Schools “It is rather difficult to define what a closed school is,’ says Dr. Howard A. Dawson, who prepared the survey at the’ request of Commissioner Studebaker. “But it is relatively easy to determine whether or not a school has any money with which to pay its teachers. In many cases, last year and this, schools which did not have any money remained open only because the teachers served in a missionary capacity. From a technical standpoint, at least, such schools may be designated as closed schools.” Some schools began the year without funds; others were able to operate a few months. This is revealed by a summary showing that 1,745 teachers are in schools that are financially un- able to operate at all; 4,018 teachers in schools that are able to operate less than 2 months; 6.859 teachers in schools able to operate less than 3 months; aad | acne ee sect 16 11,712 less than 4 months; 26,968 in schools less than 5 months; 38,698 less than 6 months; 59,320 less than 7 months; 85,551 less than 8 months; 102,116 teachers in schools that are financially unable to operate in excess of 8 months. “One of the significant facts revealed by these data,” continues the report, “is that the average monthly salaries paid to teachers in these distressed school districts are certainly among the lowest teacher Salaries in the United States. Sixty-four per cent of the teachers affected are in States where the average salary paid to teachers in distressed school districts is less than $100 a month.” Teachers’ Salaries How low teachers’ salaries go in the United States is revealed by the facts assembled for districts in 33 States which received Federal emergency aid last year. The Relief Administration agreed to pay these teachers the salaries called for by their contracts with boards of education up to $100 per month. Reports show that the average contract salaries of elementary teachers in aided school districts was less than $58 per month and one-fourth of all elementary teachers received less than $50 per month. This is less than the minirnum for unskilled labor in most codes. In 16 States many teachers received less than $20 per montk. In 22 States a considerable number of teachers received less than $40 per month. Causes of Emergency Local school officials were asked to report the causes.of the financial emergency in their school dis- tricts. Following is an analysis of the reasons given in order of greatest frequency: Delinquent or unpaid taxes Decrease in taxable valuation resulting in lower returns from general property taxation Drought conditions 7 Districts carrying the maximum current or bonded indebtedness. Unusual or unexpected increase in population Maximum tax limitations too low Insufficient State aid Reduced valuations due to acquisition of prop- erty by United States Government Calamities, such as storms Small weak school districts State salary schedule requires increased ex- penditures Non-payment of taxes by corporations holding cut-over lands or abandoned mines “There is no reason to believe that reports concern- ing all districts in distress have been received,” ac- cording to the report. “But the data presented are more complete concerning this educational problem than any heretofore presented.” F. E. R. A. Commenting on the report United States Commis- sioner of Education John W. Studebaker said: “Last year the emergency in education was relieved by the agreement of the Relief Administration to place teachers of schools faced with closing short of the THE AMERICAN TEACHER regular term on relief rolls. Approximately $14,500,- 000 was advanced to 33 States. This money was used to pay salaries of about 100,000 teachers of 3,000,000 pupils for periods ranging from a few days‘to 16 weeks. “This year,” continued Commissioner Studebaker, “the Relief Administration placed on the relief rolls teachers in sections of four States; South Dakota and North Dakota, Arkansas and Alabama. More recently four additional States—Oklahoma, Mississippi, Flori- da and New Mexico—have been added to the list to receive funds for teachers in schools faced with clos- ing. Fourteen additional States have applied for aid. According to the Relief Administrator approximately $5,000,000 has already been authorized for this pur- pose this year. This authorization should not be confused with the employment of needy teachers for special adult classes and nursery schools. “Legislatures of 44 States are meeting or have met this winter. All of them have school legislation un- der consideration or passed. One State, Ohio, has taken action on a new school financing program. In- formation reaching the Federal Office of Education is that all of the States included in this report, with the possible exception of Ohio, will experience con- siderable difficulty in keeping financially distressed schools open this spring. “States have not shirked their responsibilities to education,” said Commissioner Studebaker. ‘Most of the States which now have many districts in need are States that have for years led the list in percentage of funds for schools supplied from State sources. Many States also have, at the urgence of the Federal Government, extended and raised their tax system to the breaking point to cooperate in financing gen- eral relief. The curtailment of school term, teachers’ salaries and services does not indicate failure on the part of localities or States to do what they can for themselves. Quite the contrary. “Administrator Harry L. Hopkins has declared that aiding the distressed schools through the Relief Administration is not satisfactory. The difficulties the F. E. R. A. faces in aiding schools have been re- vealed in reports to the Federal Office of Education. The Relief Administration was created to aid indi- viduals rather than schools. Rules practicable for individual relief prove awkward when applied to a school situation. “First of all, as Mr. Hopkins says, the placing of teachers on relief rolls is anything but desirable. Then, other difficulties crop up in applying relief rules to the school situation. In some rural schools both man and wife are teachers. If such schools were to be kept open, only the men or the wives could be paid from relief funds. This means that in each of these cases one teacher must teach without compensa- tion, or resign. Then a new teacher must be em- ployed. Last year, moreover, the Relief Administra- tion paid teachers their contract salaries up to $100 per month, although few received anything near this figure. This year the limit a teacher may receive teaching a school included among those eligible for aid, is $60 per month. The individual viewpoint in relief also means that nothing may be advanced for books, operation of the school bus, or to purchase fuel, even in cases where there was absolutely no money for such needs and no way to raise money. As Administrator Hopkins points out, schools are in “ty Yo ~——_ — — — May-JUNE, 1935 a different category, and if the Federal Government is going to help keep schools open for children it should from relief for schools. 17 “Cities of 5,000 and more population are excluded Some of the most distressed set up a special program for this purpose. In other situations in the country are in cities 5,000 to 10,000 words, what is needed is ‘school-relief,’ not individual- teacher relief. population, Fottow1nG Are Facts Reportep ny 31 STATES Number of Number districts of with cur- schools in Number of Number of Provision also needs to be made for as- sisting the schools in such situations.” Deficits in districts without sufficient funds Teachers State tailed schools _districts* pupils teachers salaries Total I ion cy cates weal, 6,838 519,145 13,029 $ 3,184,160 $ 3,614,901.00 0 SE eee eee 103 121 44.054 1,395 356,855 627,177.92 ae is eam aga aed a 690 1,095 220,312 5,721 2,241,924 2,500,000.00 Col« rat Es odo sad sabe oated 279 375 19,041 691 l 78,207 368,609.00 |” le eee, ¢ 965 1,147 164,231 4,052 605,464 859,335.00 RS on capes Bae maaee 146 171 7,602 298 55,882 103,525.00 ES SE a re ee 62 62 681 63 4.095 12,725.00 OS ee eee 234 268 25,844 549 107,089 267,653.00 ne vabiceeehawale 180 243 13,574 547 96,764 208,907.00 SES. cccaccenssccuadubeat 5,134 6,148 482,685 15,169 1,905,562 2,708,707 .67 NN Eee oc awene eu 192 331 16,826 688 120,505 267,118.00 i enkee 880 930 11,500 950 95,700 180,000.00 OE. oc anceaencns 1,977 2,307 78,851 3,987 1,005,954 1,400,615.30 ew cte cle tutate tenes 1,773 3,546 443,395 11,445 3,548,512 9,000,000.00 OE ee a ee 2,523 3,435 340,809 8.600 2,271,857 2,585,189.00 nce dundncrans naked 125 142 6,750 450 131,406 181,275.00 EEO |. co cccaceeacsuseias 1,020 1,585 87,750 5,765 829,282 1,200,000.00 Err Ar 2,476 2,682 172,429 5,674 900,083 1,132,639.58 Er ee ee 2,133 4,014 300,620 10,134 1,370,194 2,239,883.15 EERIE aici cel Se 20 ea 49,201 1,789 351,288 424,058.00 tn deka Nite eee 2,442 2,945 230,018 3,984 462,836 951,821.00 NS in. 6 cco inet desue 38 41 2,035 80 12,120 25,366.00 RN nn sé cee na tmeee 3,149 3,149 159,547 5,725 627,044 605,761.00 PRTC ee 437 457 27,250 1,090 457,456 200,000.00 SEE nies pcaditensmukeaee 101 140 5,770 250 78,635 150,743.00 PES Oren eta 5 32,139 42,172 3,429,920 102,116 $20,998,874 $31,816,009.62 Other States Estimated oe as. a ce utig an ce emeesdanducednse Udaie cee adds » é' ga acaba uadentel $ 2,000,000 $ 3,000,000.00 EE cn we heb eaae on mein babe oc aelde- «ce iat eel elias: 65 one k ee 150,000 200,000.00 lh a eae mr a Ny mpm 150,000 300,000.00 SNE, . cas kde whdleeeawbiemes ab ae~w ne be uines die ke Dn ibis sane baleen 150,000 200,000.00 SS ee re anne om came nce err eee ge Ee 600,000 1,000,000.00 Se ce pune a ath dha Wwe ale 6 ed wa oils abs kobe cake ce a ee 500,000 800,000.00 RE ONE: as a ein a Kak Minehead Kaede cckweasdut tes dahdesnsndk daa cael $ 3,550,000 $ 5,500,000.00 RE Be ED neath ceidancanccndekh 6cnacdeReckees bukkake. sakecialeeeeee $24,548,874 $37,316,010.00 *An elementary school and a high school] both in the same building are counted as two schools. The Unemployed—Pariahs or Freemen? Michael B. Scheler schools, and even colleges and universities have the face of truth has grown quite numerous and F: of the boys and girls in our grammar, high years the crop of historians who dared to look into an inkling of the fact that our country was not at all times “the land of the free” and that it is far from being such to this very day. The authors of the stereotyped history texts used in our schools made sure that no loophole in their works would make it possible for this truth to filter through and lodge in the minds of our young folks. But truth is an obsti- nate entity. It defies barriers, excisions, and pro- scriptions, whether emanating from fascist councils or “brain-trust” cabinets. Somehow, sometime, !t forces itself to the surface and finds its heroic cham- pions in all branches of human cognition. In recent more bold. They dug into the musty documents and archives of American history and uncovered some of the more unfavorable angles of our national develop- ment. Thousands of our youngsters may be shocked to learn that few white Americans in the colonial period of our history and in the early decades of our Republic had the right to vote and that many restric- tions, religious, political, and financial, deprived them of the privileges of free citizens. It may be news to many that until 1691 “no person who was not a mem- ber of a Puritan congregation could vote in Massachu- setts” and that in many of the original thirteen states 18 Catholics, Unitarians, Jews, agnostics, and other non- conformist sects were excluded from “places of po- litical trust” by numerous religious tests. It may also be news to many of our citizens that the fathers of our Republic were aristocrats from the caps of their heads to the soles of their feet, that they despised and looked down upon the poor and the propertyless, and that they feared those who earned their bread by the sweat of their brow, namely, labor- ers and mechanics, as Cicero feared “the proletariat and debtors of ancient Rome.” Accordingly, the framers of the first state constitutions, in conformity with their predilections, incorporated provisions therein which virtually disfranchised all white men who could not pay property taxes or who did not own any property,—and those elements constituted the majority at all stages of our history, not excluding our own times. Moreover, the framers of the first state constitutions couched their artifices with one end in view, namely, to keep out from public office all those who did not possess substantial property. Then the Negro holds some surprises in store for many of our gullible folks. Nearly all school chil- dren in the North and in the West are certain—so the textbooks say—that since the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment all the male Negroes born in the United States have had the right to franchise and to partici pate in the unlimited political opportunities of our democracy. And it may be news to them that in all Southern States the Fifteenth Amendment is observed more by its breach than compliance and that the Negro is virtually barred from all political office, and tha: even in many states outside the South numerous obstacles are placed in the path of the Negro and that few succeed to political office, and when they do get political plums they are generally of the less de sirable sort, such as jobs of street cleaners, elevator operators, snow shovelers, firemen, and policemen. It never occurred to millions of our school children that women, too, were citizens of our Republic and as such were entitled to franchise and to the enjoy- ment of our political and economic opportunities. And so it may be news to many of our rising genera tion that it is only since the ratification of the Nine- teenth Amendment in the Summer of 1920 that Amer ican women have become free politically, and that fourteen years after the passage of this Amendment, women, like the Negro in the South and in the North. face open or subtle discriminations in all walks of life. And bitter as this truth may be millions of our yoting citizens in public schools and students in col- leges and universities, it must be told: Millions of our black citizens in the South are for all practical purposes disfranchised, and there seems to be no likelihood that their position will be materially im- proved in the near future. Thousands of our Indians, whose great grandfathers certainly had a more just claim to our soil than the white immigrants from Eng- land, are virtually the pariahs of modern American society. Millions of our gifted talents and ambitions frustrated as a result of medi- eval prejudices still entertained by twentieth-centur) men. But Negroes, Indians, and women are not alone singled out for prejudice and discrimination. What may be news to thousands of school youngsters and even many history textbook compilers and college professors, even white American men, by the thou- 3ands, are virtually disfranchised and disqualified for women-folk find their TEACHER THE AMERICAN political office in the. United States today. A study of the “qualifications for voting” in a good number of our states will prove extremely illuminating. | will reproduce some of them in alphabetical ~ order, “qualifications” which are indisputably designed to bar certain white elements from the polls and political othce. Alabama—to be qualified to vote, property” and “must pay a poll tax.” and tramps disqualified.” Arkansas—‘‘must pay a poll tax.” Connecticut—“must be of good moral character.”’ Delaware—‘paupers disqualified.”’ Florida—‘‘must pay a poll tax.” Georgia—‘‘delinquent taxpayers disqualified.” Louisiana—‘‘inmates of charitable institutions dis- qualified.” Maine—‘paupers disqualified.”’ Massachusetts—‘must pay poll tax.” qualified.” Mississip pi—‘must pay poll tax.” payers disqualified.” Missouri ‘paupers disqualified.” New Hampshire—‘paupers and — - New Jersey—‘paupers disqualified.” Oklahoma ‘“poorhouse inmates disqualified.” Oregon—‘must have property.” Pennsylvania—‘must have paid a State or county tax within two years.” Rhode /sland—‘paupers disqualified.” South Carolina “must own and pay on $300 worth of ry “Paupers disqualified.” ‘must pay a poll tax.” lexas—‘must pay poll tax.” ‘“Paupers disqualified.” V ermont—‘must take freeman’s oath and be of good behavior.” Virginia—‘‘must pay poll tax.” fied.” West Virginia— “must have “Vagrants citizens ‘“Paupers dis- “Delinquent tax- non-taxpayers dis- ry “Paupers disquali- ‘paupers disqualified.” “qualifications” or disqualifica In 3 States: Alabama, Oregon, and South Carolina, white Americans, in order to be politically articulate, must own property, in South Carolina to the value of $300. In 2 States: Georgia and Pennsylvania, only taxpayers are eligible to the polls, in the former ‘delinquent taxpayers are dis- qualified” and in the latter, voters who failed to pay a State or county tax “within two years.” In 7 States, Arkansas, Florida, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, voters mut pay a poll tax to be qualified to vote. In 12 States: Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, paupers, inmates of poorhouses and charitable institutions are disquali- fied. In Connecticut voters “must be of good moral character” and in Vermont they must take a “free- man’s oath and be of good behavior.” What, may we ask, is “good moral character” and “good behavior,’ and who is to determine it? What do these qualifications for voting mean and what are their implications for the near future? Some 4,000,000 American families, comprising around 16.- 000,000 men, women and children, are now (October 1934) dependent upon the public for support in one form or another, and 6,500,000 men and women over Let us analyze these tions more carefully. ~~ May-JuUNE, 1935 65 years of age constitute a large percentage of. all persons on relief, particularly in rural districts. Only a little stretch of the imagination will make us realize that one day these unemployed men and women may wake up to find themselves politically disfranchised, if and in the event the “qualifications for voting” in the States I listed are to be literally interpreted. Here is an interesting Associated Press dispatch apropos ot this subject, which undoubtedly escaped the attention of many sports and sensation-news readers, printed in the metropolitan press for October 20 and 21, 1934. Three States have laws or constitutional provisions “which might be invoked to deny the ballot to those on relief rolls.’ For instance, New Hampshire has a law which provides that “persons receiving direct aid within 90 days of the election are not eligible voters.”” And then the same dispatch adds: ‘“Accord- ing to the opinions of some officials in several states, the poll tax requirements would make voting difficult for many destitute unemployed.” (My italics.) And here is an instance of “an overt act’ which shows in which direction the wind is blowing. The Kansas Relief Committee recently declared that “transients on relief would be taken off the transient rolls if they cast ballots.” There is now in our midst a more or less steady army of 20,000,000 unemployed men, women, and children, who are out of work and destitute not through any fault of their own but as a result of the unregulated and anarchistic management of our cap- italist system. They regard themselves as free men and are determined to exercise their inalienable rights of free American citizens. But there is the danger that they may band themselves into independent revolu- tionary organizations, or form an independent militant political party with a platform of “impossible” de- mands for the unemployed, or that they may use their collective political force and influence as a lever to unseat or elevate men and women in the two major parties and thus indirectly mould their character, ideology, and political strategy. This is a threat that “the powers that be” cannot countenance and so the unemployed are coming to be feared in the councils of the rich, the mighty, and by the beneficiaries of the age-old system of political spoils as the proletariat and desperate debtors of ancient Rome were feared by Cicero, and as the inarticulate laborers and mechanics were feared by the fathers of our Republic. Already voices have been raised in “influential circles’”’ to the effect that ‘recipients of public and private relief,” which means all the unemployed, should be disfran- chised in the interest of the welfare of the nation at large. And what the Kansas Relief Committee has done in the case of “transients on relief” may be done to those permanently on relief in those States where voting is limited to taxpayers and property owners and withheld from paupers, inmates of charitable in- stitutions, and persons with moral defects, by some legislative or judicial hocus-pocus. Are not the mod- ern unemployed the paupers of capitalist society? Are not the methods employed by most of our “relief agencies” as humiliating as those used by charitable institutions, and is it not possible te lump both agencies in one category? And so 20,000,000 of Americans are face to face with the danger of losing their constitu- tional birthright, the right to franchise, and of be- coming the modern pariahs in American society, simply because they were so unfortunate as to be born 19 under an economy that places greed and profit above human welfare and happiness. This eventuality must not come to pass! Every red-blooded American must and will oppose the potential development of a pariah class of 20,000,000 souls in our democracy, which our vociferous reactionaries openly or clandestinely covet. very red-blooded American must intensify his vigil against the enemies in our midst who are constantly plotting against the sacred liberties and rights of our Constitution and democracy. But vigil alone is not sufficient. All progressive and liberty-loving elements in America must forget their individual and ideolog- ical grievances, must line up behind one united, powerful progressive party, which will pose foremost in its platform a demand for a new XXII Constitu- tional Amendment guaranteeing the right to franchise to recipients of unemployment relief or insurance for ail time, and a determination not to rest content until this Amendment shall have become the law of the land. The single State of Massachusetts was far- sighted and progressive enough to show the way by placing a statute on its books specifically assuring those in receipt of relief the right to vote, and from now on no American who has the noblest traditions of his nation at heart will rest content until every State in the Union will fall in line with Massachusetts or until the XXII Amendment to the Constitution, which will safeguard the free exercise of American citizenship of the unemployed, regardless of color, creed, or race for all time to come, becomes the law “in this land of the free.’ Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you promise. —Benjamin Franklin. sentence — | In NEW YORK | ... It’s Preferred Teachers visiting New York have shown a preference for Beekman Tower . . . the | modest rates give them more to spend on _ | other things . the location is both smart | and convenient . . . the rooms are all outside, comfortably and cheerfully furnished. | Beekman Tower, 26 stories high in the fash- ionable Beekman Hill section, commands a panorama of the city and the East River. Single Rooms from $2.00 a day Attractive weekly and monthly rates Game Rooms Restaurant Roof Solarium Cocktail Lounge WRITE FOR BOOKLET “B” BEEKMAN TOWER | (PANHELLENIC) | 3 Mitchell Place 49th St., just one block from East River | | | | 20 Analysis of Opposition to A. Dear Mrs, Hanson: Local No. 230 wishes to ac- knowledge your letter of March 8, telling of the recent attack by Con- gressman Dickstein on the floor of Congress, when he dubbed the American Federation of Teachers “communistic” because, forsooth, he said the Federation had con- tributed money to the Theatre Union. We have heard from you since that Congressman Dickstein has withdrawn his statement about the A. F. of T. from the Con- gressional Record. We _ think, however, that this incident should not be closed without locals of the A. F. of T. taking cognizance of its real significance. ° As the AMERICAN TEACHER for March-April, 1935, points out, "Hearst leads drive for U. S. Gag Laws. With Hearst Newspapers beating the drums, an anti-red drive of more serious proportions than in years is being conducted by military and patriotic groups, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, the American Legion, and the D. A. R. “ But “red drives,” whose result is always the suppression of basic American rights, are never limited to an attack upon just the left- most wing of the labor movement, in this case, the Communists. Any labor group whatsoever, if it is active and militant to better its con- ditions and defend its rights, soon finds itself the object of precisely the same attacks. As Mrs. Hanson tells us in her letter, Congressman Dickstein “groups us with the YWCA, the Socialist Party, and others whom he classes as com- munist because of their support of the Theatre Union. en America, among the forces of re- action, “red” and “communistic” are used merely as devices to in- cite fear and distrust in people’s minds against the labor movement. Once it was “anarchistic” and “so- cialistic.” Sometimes all three are thrown together indiscriminately, as when, in Massachusetts last year, in the legislative hearings on the proposed child labor amend- ment, the amendment was termed by a representative of one group a “socialistic, communistic, anarch- istic” measure! When reactionary forces begin a “red drive,” we can be certain that their aim is to dis- rupt workers’ organizational efforts to better their living and working conditions. If this is the real significance of the incident, we should ask why these interests wish to prevent American teachers from joining the A. F. of T. Let us look at the following facts: 1. The American public school system has in many places com- pletely broken down. Accord- ing to the AMERICAN TEACHER for Nov.-Dec., 1934, more than 30,000 fewer teachers were at work this year, and one teacher out of every six will receive less than $450 for the school term. 2. The American Federation of Teachers has been growing in numbers and in locals. Many new locals have been formed only recently, and there is evi- dence that teachers are becom- ing aware of the fact that if they are to win security not only for themselves but also for the free public school sys- tem of America they must or- ganize to do it. But the organization of teach- ers into a union, affiliated with the American labor movement, is precisely what the reaction- ary forces in this country do not want. To see how they are fighting such organization, one need only call to mind the “anti-red” drives in the col- leges and schools, the teachers’ oath bills now under considera- tion in various state legis latures, this Dickstein incident, and other such symptoms. , ae In short, it is not precisely because labor in general and teachers in particular have been organizing and have been showing a de- termination to fight for decent con- ditions that such attacks have be- gun? Are we sufficiently awake to the fact that there is in this coun try a determined reactionary min- ority whose aim is to weaken and eventually to crush the whole or- ganized labor movement? The response of the organized teachers to this threat must be a redoubling of efforts. ‘We must hang together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Let us declare our solidarity with all labor in the determination to re- THE AMERICAN TEACHER pulse every invasion of our basic liberties and rights. Western Mass., Local 230, James J. Gipson, President. Northampton, Mass., April 18, 1935. Government and Children Dr. Jonn Dewey, Chairman, Joint Committee Unemployment The depression has told with ferocious brutality upon children. It is depriving them of schooling and undermining their health. Two million dollars less a day are spent on education than in 1930. Two thousand rural schools are closed. On the average, the school year has been shortened from one to two months over the country, al- though it averaged before from a month to two months and a half shorter than in European coun- tries. Teachers are dismissed in great number. The depression and the shutting down of child labor has resulted in sending children in greater numbers to high schools. One out of every four teachers in the United States is teaching for less than the N.R.A. codes fix for unskilled factory workers. Kinder- gartens are closed. Music, physi- cal education, art, home economics, and health services are lopped off. In 1930 President Hoover esti- mated there were 6,000,000 under- nourished children in the United States. The Children’s Bureau estimates that one-fifth of the chil- dren of the country are suffering from bad nutrition, bad housing, and inadequate medical care. Ofh- cial investigation shows families who suffered a loss of income be- tween 1929 and 1932 have a 60 per cent higher rate of illness than families in which there was no drop. One-third of the children in a low-income region of New York City were rated poor or very poor in health by examining physicians -only one-quarter good, Loss in education and health cannot be made up in later life for either child or nation. The federal gov- ernment must come to the rescue and grant appropriations for edu- cation, scholarships, food, and care, to maintain future citizens in sound body and mind, th ng vO vO d. ar ilf n- nd or ed au 1il- ing ng, ffi- ies be- per an ) in ork 00r ans in be her Ov- cue du- ind in Mental Attitudes, Incorporated Raymond F. Lowry HE American Federation of Teachers is facing at this time many major problems. Along with their affiliates in the world of production the principal one, however, is that this professional body must be educated to the ideals of the American Labor movement. It is not sufficient that great numbers add their strength to the growing member- ship, although such a numerical proportion of educators is a glorious daily incentive to greater organization efforts on the part of every individual teacher and local. The more realization that in the defense of ideals and for the mainte. nance of the public school system a more intelligent and less fearful attitude is being expressed by action would seem to declare the victory won, when it has, i fact, only begun. The most difficult ordeal is yet to be endured; the hardest fight is yet to be fought: During this dark night of social unrest and economic in- security, the air vibrates with agitation for the adoption of some new system—Fascism, Hitlerism, Communism, Social- ism, or the like. Intelligent people within every group in society are to be found in varying degrees of sympathy with one or the other. Such is not according to the teaching of Labor. Those aged with the years and seasoned by the campaigns of scores of struggles are the living examples of the lesson which we must learn. Attitudes of mind, of course, came first with even them. Repeated failure and occasional vic- tory taught them a further truth—the way out of economic troubles and social malpractices does not consist in changes of system bnt of fundamental changes in human nature to the destruction of selfishness. Not even under the applica- tion of the New Deal have these great leaders forgot the lesson of the years—the best results are obtained not by placing the emphasis on the introduction of new systems but on the human factor in the operation cf them. We must learn that the real good to be obtained through organiza- tion is the improvement of the individual for cooperation, divorced of ignorance and intolerance, and inspired by a desire to serve. Open-mindedness must play a major role even in the act of affiliation, but with affiliation must come complete co- ordination of mind and heart. The temptation to achieve through added strength the objectives long sought by our profession may early sidetrack us from the course to be followed in the interests of the many. Local and personal problems loom large, but the more distant ones need not receive only secondary attention. In every scientific and moral sense we “live not to ourselves alone.” The welfare of the children must come first, in state and nation, but we dare not climb to security over the faces of our friends. To be union-minded carries an inseparatlile corollary, we must be union-hearted. As we shall continue to receive greatly, our gratitude should exert itself in seeking to render greater service. As we have become a part of a great or- ganization so should the functioning of our body conform to the demands of the united structure. We dare not allow that we become so interested in contending for our rights and credits, that we miss large opportunities for service. In immediate conjunction with the fulfillment of our ob- ligation to our friends is that of maintaining a closer and livelier unity with the The President’s Page National Office, particularly at this time of imperative growth and crisis. It is entirely in keeping with the much-needed program of education that the entire membership should come to realize what vital part the officers there are playing in drawing an increasing number of teachers into a program of defense and progress which local organizations are powerless to accomplish by themselves. This function is entirely due to the peculiar privilege which they alone may extend to locals throughout the Nation, namely, the charter of affiliation with the American Federation of Labor. And in so doing, they serve as a clearinghouse for local problems, keeping the membership informed of trends within the Federation as well as other organizations. Through this office we also participate in national and international conferences. Confusion and chaos would immediately result if this head were not in turn served faithfully by the body members. The strength of our defense of the schools and of the profession depends upon the subjugation of personal or in- dividual desires in the interest of service and the abandon- ment of selfishness. This is the ideology of Labor. Power and truth have not suddenly come to grips. The long ad- vance of science to the more perfect emancipation of man has ever been accompanied by those forces in society which through personal interest and greed have seized their power in utter disregard or ignorance of the greater good. This trend will never result in the utter debasement of man as a servant to the machine because organized labor has fought for generations against it and is winning gloriously right before our eyes. Under the New Deal the worth of the individual is being restored to a truer, higher valuation. The Age of Science has not been brought to a close, but the Age of Humanity is about to dawn. Power and truth are at grips perhaps as never before. Through spurious propaganda and the use of weak instru- ments within the throng of the teaching profession destructive discrimination has been effectively wrecked on the schools. The normatives which have controlled or inspired this result were largely the teacher’s responsibility. Too long have we feared to approach the anvil where truth is put to the test of fire and is tried. On questions of social, political, and economic significance we have stepped backward, fearful of the cost required in exposing the truth. To reverse the process, to step forward now instead of backward is our professional and highest duty, yet it should not posit in our thinking the belief that we can authoritatively command the leadership in all matters not primarily concerned with the administration of the schools and the advancement of knowledge. Selfishness comes of ignorance. It breeds ruthless power. It is in the main responsible for the suffer- ing of the world and must give way to the clear light of truth. Again, may I repeat the line from that great poet and philosopher I have quoted so often before? “He who carries the lamp shall not despair, though the night be long.” The lamp of love, faith, hope and, of course, understanding points the way to a New Day. Systems may fail; normatives may undergo eternal change, but the application of one principle to our times and to our state can meet the challenge —The Golden Rule. THE AMERICAN TEACHER So This Is America! Where Your Treasure Is, There Will Your Heart Be Also.—The U. S. Congress appropriates 400 million dollars for the army 40 million dollars for schools The United States is spending 1% billion dollars to incarcerate 1% million prisoners 200 million dollars to educate 26 million chil- dren. Pennsylvania Committee Wins for Teacher.—After more than six months of negotiations and pressure, the Pennsylvania Civil Liberties Committee was successful in securing a permanent teaching cer- tificate for James J. Stewart, a high school teacher of Plumville, Pa. The certificate had been denied on the grounds of alleged radicalism by James Chapman, supervisor of Indiana County Schools, and by Dr. James _N. Rule, superintendent of the state department of public education. Handling the case for the Committee were its chairman, Dr. Philip D. Bookstaber, and Lewis G. Adler, Harris- burg attorney. The case received wide attention throughout the state from teachers and liberals. Nationally Prominent Lawyers Favor Child Labor Amendment.—Support of the Child Labor Amend- ment is steadily gaining ground in that stronghold of conservatism—the legal profession. The Journal of the American Bar Association gives welcome if tardy recognition to the strength of the case for ratification through publication in its April issue of an article, “The Need for a Federal Child La bor Amendment,” by Charles C. Burlingham, former President of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. 7,400,000 Children Are on Relief Rolls —Some 7,- 400,000 children under 16 years of age are on the relief rolls of the Nation, it was stated by Arthur Williams, Assistant Administrator, Federal Emer- gency Relief Administration in the paper read be- fore the National Conference on the 1935 Needs of Children, meeting in New York City. Newspaper Guild Wins.—After being on strike since November 17, members of the American Newspaper Guild won a sweeping victory when it settled its controversy with the Newark morning “Ledger.” N. Y. Tenure Bill Becomes Law.—The Feld-Mc- Grath tenure bill, making the State Education De- partment’s proposed new certification regulations inapplicable to teachers in New York City and Buffalo, has become law. The act grants to teachers in those two cities the strongest tenure protection in the country. It has been interpreted as providing that a teacher may re-enter the school system without examination no matter how long he or she has been away from teaching duties, Three Courses of Study at New Haven High School.—The number of courses of study have been reduced from seven to three at the New Haven high school. A stringent policy on teachers’ leaves has been adopted. The C. of C. “Friendship” Where is West ?— to the Schools.—The latest ‘‘friendly” act of the Chamber of Commerce is the proposal that the state of New Jersey reduce its contributions to the Teachers’ Pension and An- nuity Fund. The president of the State Teachers Association says such action would make the fund insolvent. And still teachers uphold the C. of C. and do not make the choice between their defenders and their attackers. Tenure for Teachers Opposed.—The N. E. A. is distributing a report of the Joint Conference on the Emergency in Education held in Washington, D. C., in December opposing permanent tenure for teachers. Illinois House Resolution Seeks U. S. Aid for Schools.—A_ resolution introduced by Mrs. Ber- nice T. Van der Vries and adopted by the House requested Gov. Horner to make application to the federal government for assistance for Illinois schools in financial distress. “Because of financial difficulties schools have remained closed for several months, school terms have been shortened, many teachers are not receiv- ing a living wage, and many schools are threatened with permanent closing,” said Mrs. Van der Vries. “The federal government has appropriated a large sum of money for relief purposes, including edu- cational relief, and Illinois should be allotted some of this fund for its schools.” For those of Cook county’s schools in need of financial aid $268,000 would carry them through this school year and permit them to reopen after the summer recess, the woman legislator said. Social Security Laws.—W yoming has passed an old age pension law and Utah an unemployment insur- ance law, both of them the first to be passed con- forming to the terms of the Wagner-Lewis-Dough- ton bill. Wyoming and Utah have organized a number of teachers’ unions. Are these two statements irrelevant? We say not. Which is Cause? Which is Effect?—Between five and six thousand of the teachers in these elementary altars of freedom have themselves but one year more than an elementary school education. About four thousand of them quit school after two terms of secondary work and went to teaching, says Collier's. The U. S. Office of Education says about 250,000 teachers, nearly one in three, are receiving less than $750 annually. Approximately 54,000 teachers, one in sixteen, are receiving less than $450 — We raise the question whether, granting the in- adequacy of the preparation, the community is a getting more than it is paying for. Miss Daisy Lord, president of the Classroom Teachers’ Dept. of the N. E. A., talk- ing to Newburgh, N. Y., teachers, says there are no longer any closed schools in the West. What West—West of the Alleghenies, West of the Mis- sissippi or West of the Rockies? ‘he rce ice \n- ion not eir is the Ga for for eT- use the 101S ave rms eCiv- ned “1S. irge ‘du- yme | of ugh fter old Ssur- -on- igh- r of say five tary year bout ‘rms says 000 than one ally. » in- not ‘ the talk- are Vhat Mis- May-June, 1935 Teachers War on Large Classes.—A call to the Board of Education “to abandon idealistic state- ments and to take definite steps toward smaller classes which will make possible better teaching in the real sense of the word,” was sent out by the Teachers Union through its president, Dr. Henry R. Linville. The Union asks a maximum of 35 pupils, saying that average size misleads. Board of Education Sets Up Hierarchy.—The new regulations of the Flemington, N. J., School Board provide that “any teachers and _ other employees of the Board having business with the Board shall present the same in writing to the su- pervising principal. The supervising principal shall present such business to the Board of Education at the next regular meeting with or without recom- mendation.”’ Hits New Voters’ Oath.—A bill to require all new voters to take a loyalty oath, introduced in the New York legislature by Assemblyman Fife, “passes the bounds of rational legislation with respect to the inherent rights of citizens,” according to Dr. Henry R. Linville, president of the Teachers’ Union. Dr. Linville says that the measure would classify young people as suspects in loyalty, adding that “it the young people are potentially disloyal, their elders may be still more deeply involved in crim- inality.”” A logical extension would be the finger- printing of all citizens and daily report of their movements to the police, he said. Tenure Law in Tennessee.—A tenure bill has been passed in Tennessee through the efforts of Chat- tanooga-Hamilton County Local 246. It provides higher standards for selection of new teachers, but does not affect present teachers; a probationary period of two years during which teachers are employed on contract basis as at pres- ent; after two years indefinite tenure during good behavior and efficiency of the teacher and the right of appeal in case of dismissal. Labor Backs Connery Proposal to Bar U. S. Arms in Strikes —Strong support for the Connery bill, prohibiting the use of Federal supplies and military equipment by state troops in labor disputes, without the express permission of the Secretary of War, is ‘being given by labor organizations throughout the nation. Punishment for “Reds.”—Rear Admiral Clark H. . Woodward says: “These college reds should be punished as they deserve—summarily expelled and deprived of citizenship, or, if foreigners, deported at once.” He complains that “first class brains” are spreading communism in the navy; he prefers second class brains. Fascism.—Political fascism is the dictatorial rule of a single capitalist party. President Green says: ae Because Fascism is opposed to democracy as it exists in the United States and in the trade unions afhliated with the American Federation of Labor, the officers and mem- bers of the American Federation of Labor will resist it and oppose it with all the force and power at their com- mand. Teachers need to recognize it when they see it. It is found in loyalty oaths, attacks on academic freedom and civil liberties, ‘“red-baiting,” etc., etc. See the Hearst Press. 23 Abolition of Compulsory Military Training. —Stu- dent government heads of 150 colleges in the United States started the new year by declaring for the abolition of compulsory military training. At Princeton University, where military training is optional, a change has been made, substitut- ing in sophomore year a course on civil and military law for the instruction in gun firing and in junior year a course on international rela- tions for the one on the operation of an artillery battery. Army officers will be retained as instruc- tors as well as members of the politics department. The alumni are almost unanimously for the R. O. T. C.; the undergraduates are divided, many be- lieving that military training should not be included in a course for a B. A. degree. Some More Cause and Effect—Campbell County, Wyo., teachers organize themselves in Local 356 A. F. T. The school trustees vote salary increases of $50 and $60 per year. Quite a return on that investment. Child Labor Amendment Two-Thirds of the Way.— 36 states are needed. 24 have now ratified. Among the twenty-four that have not ratified are those that have the most inadequate child labor legislative protection and the worst child labor conditions, Taxpayers’ Leader Hits Pay Increase.—Criticism of the upward revision of teachers’ salaries has been directed at the Board of Education of Madison, N. J., by James Alexander Smith, president of the Madison Taxpayers’ Association. True to form and loyal to the principles of Taxpayers’ Leagues. Charlotte, N. C., Teachers Get a Raise.—A salary schedule for teachers has been adopted in Char- lotte, N. C., home of Local 249, providing an in- crease in salaries. But look at the figures! The schedule for next year will provide a maxi- mum salary of $1,200 a year for nine months’ teaching as compared to the present maximum of $720 a year with eight months’ teaching school term. Those teachers who do not receive the maxi- mum are also given salary increases at exactly the same proportion as those who will obtain the maxi- mum. All increases will be effective at the begin- ning of the school term next fall. Cheyenne, Wyo., Raises Teachers Pay.—The Chey- enne school board has voted to increase the pay of all school executives, teachers, and employees in 1935. Cheyenne Local 266 is young but vigorous. Teachers Given $3,600 in Back Pay.—Pay checks for two weeks’ work were given out to teachers in the Wheeling, W. Va., public schools on April 16. This brings them up to February 1, leaving two months in arrears. Salary Schedule Bills for Chattanooga and Hamil- ton County Enacted.—Salary Schedule Bills, part of the legislative program of A. F. T. Local 246, providing a payroll increase for the next two year period of 45% and 35% respectively have beer signed by Governor McAlister. Schools Now Closed.—The latest reports from Washington say that of 27 states investigated 12 states have from 1 to 1000 closed schools and 16 have from 1 to 4800 schools which would be forced to close if teachers’ salaries were required to be paid in cash. af ee A ee oe pe es en a 24 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 EpitTor1IaAL Boarp Luciz 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 JOHN M. GRAYBIEL CHARLES B. STILLMAN San Francisco Local 61 Chicago Local 2 FLorence Curtis Hanson, Executive Editor Publisher H. G. Aparr Printinc Co. 107 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IIl. EB 20 The Cutting Amendment The Cutting Amendment for federal aid for public education benefiting the children in twen- ty-six states or more has been made a part of the works relief bill. A Washington press despatch says: Against opposition led by Sena- tors Tydings, Walsh, Byrnes, and Glass, U. S. Senator Bronson Cut- ting of New Mexico by a vote of 55 to 25 got over his amendment to the works relief bill providing that not to exceed $40,000,000 “shall be made available to the states, on the basis of demonstrated need, to enable them to maintain their pub- lic schools for the remainder of the current school year.” How much of this sum shall be expended is left to the discretion of the presi- dent. The amount is based on U. §S. surveys and vigorous appeals from the AmericAN FEDERATION oF TEACHERS former Rep. Ross Collins of Mis- sissippi, representing the public education league, the national par- ent-teachers association, and others. The amendment, it is declared, will prevent closing of schools in 26 states on April 1; affects 3,500,- 000 pupils, or one-eighth of the to- tal in the U. S.; keeps open 42,000 schools and affects 102,000 teachers. Mississippi and New Mexico where $250,000 was diverted from school funds for relief, are two of the principal states affected. RutTH GILLETTE HARDY Teachers’ Loyalty Oath Fifteen states have passed laws requiring teachers to take an oath of allegiance or loyalty and sim- ilar bills are pending in other states. There seems to be some confusion as to the meaning of “loyalty” as applied to teachers. By the interpretation of the Chi- cago Tribune the test of a teach- er’s loyalty is his willingness to take such an oath. The Tribune asks why not. The proper ques- tion is why. A clarification of the meaning of loyalty and of the teachers’ status and constitutional rights seems called for. There are ominous possibilities inherent in this legislation which need the consideration of every worker. Teachers’ oaths and chil- dren’s oaths will be followed by workers’ oaths and subject oaths for us all. Americans will soon lose their proud status as citizens and become subjects as in some European countries. We need but to make a cursory study of what has happened in Italy and Germany and to recall how the fascist state was built up in those countries to realize “that Teachers’ Oaths are but the subtle opening wedge, the diabolical instrument for under- mining our democracy with its freedom of speech and of press, of teaching and of learning, and of ushering in the dreaded fascist or totalitarian state.” The motivation back of this legislation is certainly not true to the spirit or to the letter of the Constitution. Examination of the Federal Constitution will make clear that teachers in public schools are not “executive, legislative, or judicial officers” within the mean- ing of the Constitution or within the intent of the founding fathers. The oath that the Constitution de- vises is not a loyalty oath. The Constitution makes the oath purely affrmatory of performance of duty, as specified by the Constitu- tion, and under laws enacted thereunder. They are limited to executive, legislative and judicial officers, The widest stretch of the imagination or the wildest seekiny for status could not place public school teachers in this classifica- tion. Such legislation is a gratuitous insult to teachers for no group has so demonstrated its loyalty to the schools, to the children, and to the community as have the teachers, The requirement of a special oath casts upon them the unjust suspi- cion of disloyalty. The implication would appear to be that teachers are an especially dangerous class, The futility of such a measure is evident. It will not accomplish the purpose it is claimed is in- tended. If there be disloyal teach- ers they will not hesitate to take the oath. Their disloyalty will be but continued. A report on the Ives Law of New York says: The Ives law was obviously intended to entrap radical teachers who, it was presumed, were employed in the schools or might later be employed. No more futile device could be invented to guard against radicalism than an oath. So far as known, every teacher in the state of New York has taken the oath and not a single dangerous radical has been dis- covered. But a large number of teachers have been stunned by the manifestation of a suspicion that they are less than loyal as citizens and less than honorable as teachers. In the fifteen states having such laws not a single disloyal teacher has been uncovered. Not loyal teachers but a class of intellectual slaves will be developed. This bill deprives teachers of their right of freedom of opinion. It is part of a movement to destroy freedom of speech. Governor Al- fred E. Smith in his veto of a similar bill If this law had been in force prior to the abolition of slavery, opposition to that institution which was protected by the Constitution and its laws, would have been just cause for the disquali- fication of teachers. said, Such legislation creates an at- mosphere of fear in which it 1s impossible to develop. critical in- telligence. Critical teaching is needed more than ever if America is to build a saner economic and political world and preserve its democratic institutions and tradi- tions against assaults of those who believe in any type of dictatorship or in change by violence. The school is a place where may be de- veloped change by education but only if manned by teachers free and unafraid. Effective teaching can be carried on only under con- ditions of freedom from fear of official discipline for thinking thoughts that may be different from those approved by an educa- he he ith Di- on TS Ss. ire ish in- ~h- ike be the ded was 01s ore ard far » of not dis- ers tion han able uch her yal ‘ual ot T yn. roy Al- rior m to 1 by ould uali- but free hing con- r of king rent uca- May-JuNeE, 1935 Education tor Democracy tion administration. Discipline may be for thinking Republican rather than Democratic thoughts. Without freedom to think there can be no inspiration for teachers and no worth while learning for stu- dents. Such a bill enacted into law will introduce a system of espionage into the schools. The teacher will be at the mercy of his colleagues, his pupils, and their parents as well as of the politicians and selfish and aggressive minority groups. The relationship of con- fidence and trust between teacher and pupil essential to effective teaching will be destr« yyed. In this atmosphere of fear, espionage, and intimidation, learn- ing cannot thrive. And who will be attracted to a work which has neither security nor freedom? Will the more intelligent, self- respecting, better qualified of our young people be attracted to a calling with such restrictions? To quote again from Governor Smith in his veto message of a like bill. It permits to place upon any teacher the stigma of disloyalty, and this even without hearing or trial. It unjustly dis- criminates against teachers as a class. It deprives teachers of their right to free- dom of thought. Jt limits the teaching staff of the public school to those only who lack the courage or the mind to ex- ercise their legal right to just criticism of existing institutions. The bill con- fers a power of interference with free- dom of opinion which strikes at the foundation of democratic education. Dr. Felix Adler said of the same law, The provisions are capable of great and sinister abuse, and the public should awake to the fact that ‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty’ and was never more true than at present. Just who is back of this legisla- tion and why this hysteria are things we need to consider. The basic principle back of this legisla- tion is absolutism in government and industry. This is part of the “red baiting” program of the Hearst press. This same Hearst who by his jingo propaganda got us into the Spanish American War and who by the same methods hopes to precipitate a war with Japan, who is trying by every des- perate means to Hitlerize America. The 100% “patriotic” societies who sometimes don’t know any better and fall a prey to evil, vicious, silly propaganda and are tools of those seeking to lead us to war, fascism, and the totalitar- ian state. The Chambers of Com- merce representing the Big Busi- ness interests determined to main- tain the status quo and an eco- nomic system based on the profit motive,—profits for them, starva- tion for the workers. These are the forces behind this legislation putting one stone in the foundation of the fascist state. No thinking teachers; no thinking pupils. In this way we shall have cheap teach- ers and cheap workers for our in- dustries, Against this we, teach- ers and Labor, stand for our democratic ideals of freedom, toleration, and justice and our right for security, leisure, plenty, and freedom. To summarize: Labor opposes this proposed oath of allegiance: 1. As a gratuitous insult to the teaching group whose record of loyalty cannot be questioned. 2. As subversive of academic free- dom, as engendering fear and thereby paralyzing the teaching of the social sciences by hampering discussion as well as making im- possible critical and constructive thinking. 3. As prejudicial to the morale and the integrity of teach- ers. 4. As giving a handle to re- actionary administrators for penal- izing teachers for their civic activi- ties in support of labor‘s view- point, social legislation, and op- position to fascism and war. 5. As tending to the creation of a fascist or totalitarian state. We face a crisis. The tragedy of our situation is the lack of evi- dence of Americans’ belief in lib- erty. More than ever before joint action on the part of all groups is essential if the campaign to de- feat this and other’ subversive measures is to be intensified and to be successful. Taxes and the Depression Taxes have never caused a single panic in this or any other country. . Nor have they contributed to the lag of recovery. On the contrary, if it were not for increased taxes and the social services they make possible such as unemployment re- lief, the stability of government it- self would be endangered. Those who regard the advocates of in- creased taxation as enemies of re- covery, must. bear a few basic facts in mind. 1. That our bankers and specu- lators, who helped precipitate the depression, did nothing to make re- covery possible. On the contrary, the policies they have pursued have done much to retard recovery. 2. Bankers, economic councils and tax commissions have sought to cripple recovery by curtailing or seeking to bring about the curtail- ment of essential government ser- vices; by reducing salaries and purchasing power, and by seeking to curtail social expenditures—a a factor in bringing about recovery through increased _ purchasing power. 3. That money spent for taxes brings a return far in excess of any other dollar spent by our citi- zens, 4. That tax delinquency not high taxes is responsible for municipal and state government troubles. The greatest disservice to good government, to recovery and to social progress is rendered by those who oppose the payment of taxes or the levying of neces- Sary taxes. 5. Heavy taxes for unemploy- ment relief constitute a major factor in bringing about recovery since they divert money from cap- ital outlays into social expenditures which increase money in circula- tion and help business recovery. 6. That the greatest service teachers can render is to start a pay-your-tax-now campaign. Let us start now. —New York Union Teacher. Too good and too true not to repeat. Wallop Published accounts of the recent educators’ convention at Atlantic City give the impression that the anti-Hearst campaign among teach- ers is petering out. Insiders say there was plenty of evidence to the contrary—but it didn’t get much of a play. The organization which passed the very mild resolution in favor of free speech—apparently a victory for Hearst—was composed solely of school superintendents. ES ae 26 They represent only one division of the National Educational Asso- ciation and probably the most con- servative one at that. Other edu- cators scoff at the idea that their views are representative of the Association as a whole. Moreover school superintendents from Hearst cities did_ their darnedest to push through a reso- lution extolling the publisher for his “great services.” They couldn’t get to first base with it—which was quite a defeat in itself. Blistering anti-Hearst resolu- tions by an Educational Associa- tion group in Washington and by various chapters of .the American Federation of Teachers got prac- tically no publicity. Those who form the spearhead of the educa- tional freedom drive claim they have just begun to wallop. James McMullin Column. Subjects or Citizens The first step toward fascism is already an accomplished fact in many American communities and the efforts to make a Fascist America are many and varied and, unhappily, meeting with success. Every attack upon our civil lib- erties guaranteed under the Fed- eral Constitution in the first amendment which reads: “Congress shall make no law re- specting an establishment of re- ligion, or prohibiting the free ex- ercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peace- ably to assembly, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” is a fascist attempt. A cursory study of the development of fascism in Italy and Germany will make this clear to even the most naive and unthinking. Fas- cism is built on suppression. First the communists were suppressed, then labor, then socialists and other liberals, then racial and re- ligious groups, and finally any one who disagreed. There were no longer any citizens but all were subjects, compelled to take an oath of allegiance. We have made a good start in America. Aided and abetted by the Hearst press, the Chicago Tribune, and other papers of their ilk, fifteen states have passed loyalty oath laws for teachers, re- quiring them to take an oath of allegiance, taking from them their civil rights as guaranteed under the Federal Constitution making them subjects, not citizens. Teach- ers have long been discriminated against as a class. They have not been treated as citizens or in some instances even as human beings, and now in the present fascist drive we find them to be the first selected for oaths of allegiance. Teachers’ oaths will be followed by children’s oaths, then parents’ oaths, and sub- jects’ oaths. We shall quickly find ourselves not citizens of a demo- cratic state operating under the Constitution but subjects of a fas- cist state operating under a dicta- tor with our Federal Constitution with its Bill of Rights but a scrap ot paper. Are we going to do anything about it? A Word to All Teachers Dear FRIENDS AND FELLOW- WORKERS: This is an invitation to you to join the Federation of Teachers, affliated with the Federation of Labor. Why? Listen. The teacher is probably the most helpless and the least protected of workmen. He should have pro- longed, skilled, and expensive in- struction in preparation for his life work; but so imperfect are the methods of testing his skill that he is at the mercy of institutions pre- paring by cheap short-cuts or showy and superficial stunts. Mul- titudes use the profession as a temporary stop-gap while they are preparing for other activities, which cuts down salaries and seri- ously interferes with security of tenure and continuity of work by which alone skilled teachers are developed. School boards are never experts in education and are often crude politicians preparing formore powerful positions, quite ready to use the schools to further their ambitions. Principals and superin- tendents stand between the teacher and local government, usually with the interests of the school at heart, but they are obliged, in the nature of things, to play the game with the powers that are. The teacher has an intense task demanding all his attention and all his energy; usually he is given his room, some small equipment, too many children not very well graded, and a free hand. He is expected to pass his regimented section to the next THE AMERICAN TEACHER grade, with few failures, and with a minimum of difficulties in the way of discipline, trouble with parents, and the like. There are frequent cases when he should come into conflict with the preju- dices and habits of his neighbor- hood; but standing alone he is helpless. Society needs a strong, competent organization of teach- ers for the protection of the com- ing generation. That coming generation has a difficult and dangerous path to tread; it needs every advantage in the way of correct information and above all a power impartially to use information to shape policies and to plan a rich and nobler civil- ization. The industrial and political forces that control our schools stand squarely across the way of advance; their influence is con- stantly used to prevent free dis- cussion, to hush up new and un- popular opinions, to maintain all their advantages in the system of things as they have been. They push a false pride and patriotism, they confuse important issues, they threaten to use and do use their very real power over the livelihood of the teacher. So the teacher with no power to back him, is timid, cautious, afraid, and set- tles down to the conservative course of teaching only that which can offend no one, and of placat- ing all dangerous powers. One who has really done this is no longer fit to be a teacher; for one inevit- ably teaches what he is as well as what he knows, and we need men and women of independence and initiative for work of the new day. The Union thus supports the teacher in the two ways of his es- sential weaknesses; his own per- sonal welfare and his best service to his pupils. It gives him assured backing when his security and his livelihood are threatened: and it supplies the strength of organized numbers when efforts are made, as at the present time, to destroy or to lower the value of the schools. 3ut why affiliate with the Fed- eration of Labor? Because the laborer of all others needs the best schools and will make sacrifices to have them. Organized labor was the most active agent in getting public schools started in this coun- try and has been their bulwark ever since. The well-to-do can make use of private schools and are glad to escape taxation for -ER vith the vith are yuld eju- 0r- ong, ich- Om- Sa to > in and to cles vil- ical ols of on- dis- un- May-JuNeE, 1935 universal education. The working- man must have the public schools or his children will have none. Finally it is a wholesome thing for teachers to emancipate themselves from the anomalous position of be- ing a kind of superior class, allied rather to the people of leisure than to the workers. We belong,—and all should belong,—with those who do their part. We should be proud of ourselves as skilled laborers and we belong with those who labor. We need them and they need us. We invite you,—all of you,—to join us in building such a union as will uplift both the teacher and his teaching. —JressE H. Hoimes. In the Philadelphia Teacher. Schools Assist in Crime Curb Touching as it does every social problem, the school has a rare op- portunity for early recognition and treatment of personality disorders and anti-social tendencies, Miss Bertha Ferguson, a member of the American Federation of Teachers declared in an address over radio station WTCN. The talk was spon- sored by the Minnesota Crime commission. “The entire approach to the problem of juvenile delinquency is slowly changing,” Miss Ferguson declared. “I use the word slowly advisedly,” Miss Ferguson said, “for there are no wonder-working formulas in dealing with either ju- venile or adult delinquency. There is only the slow spread of ideas derived from research in the fields of medicine, psychology, psychiatry and sociology. There is only the slow giving up, in the light of this new knowledge, of prejudice and traditional procedures. There is only a slow arriving doubt in re- gard to the efficacy of a punish- ment—approach for the final rec- lamation of the wrong doer.” The problem of juvenile delin- quency and adult crime will one day be solved, Miss Ferguson de- clared. “How far distant that day is depends upon the willingness of the general public as well as upon schools and other social agencies to take into consideration the facts of modern science in regard to human behavior,’ she asserted. The attitude of the progressive school to delinquency is sometimes interpreted merely as sympathy to wrong doers. “ ‘Sympathy’ is not the word. It is ‘understanding’.” she declared. Teacher Population vs. Pupil Population Today pupil population has in- creased at a greater rate than teacher population in American schools, with the results—over- loaded classes, heavier teacher loads, and lower pay for greater service. Professionalism rages with teacher rights in the mind of every teacher. Should more ser- vice be given at reduced pay? Does the public really understand the teacher problem? Should wages be cut without a cut in ser- vice? If the public really under- stood the situation, would they sanction it? Should the public re- ceive greater service for less pay? What to do about it, that is the question. The North Central Association and other Associations have rules as to class size. Should teacher organizations expect school boards to appoint permanent teachers to all classes created for the purpose of living within the rules of the North Central Association or some other such association, or will the appointment of a substitute teacher suffice? Is there a danger of an over teacher population after the depression? Would not such a situation hamper teacher rights? Does permanent appointment of teachers at the present time hazard the entire teaching force? Does permanent teacher appointment at the present cause a decrease in the wage scale which would not be tampered with so seriously, other- wise? If teacher over-population exists after the depression is over, and many pupils find employment, will there not be a danger of 3oards of Education selecting for dismissal either teachers older in point of service, or those of their own whim as a recent New Jersey case would authorize?* If, how- ever, all teachers were kept on the payroll, would not teacher salary and pension rights suffer? In New York, the court has held that there is. no authority to ap- point a substitute teacher. The question arises, shouldn’t there be such a right? Shouldn’t teacher organizations consider the above problem, and apply a solution of their own to it? Permanent ap- pointment should leave room for temporary appointment, or use of substitute teachers. It should not be necessary to appoint, and then 27 discontinue the service of proba- tioners within the provision of teacher tenure statutes. Lack of funds is usually due to unpaid taxes, either by tax dodg- ers, or by those unable to pay. Heavy penalties should be meted out to tax dodgers, while leniency should be granted the taxpayer who finds himself unable to pay. Tax collection laws of this nature would be more reasonable than the same penalty for all. The practice in New York of appointing 1200 substitute teach- ers may not be good as this num- ber is, no doubt, too many, as pointed out by the New York court.2, Perhaps Judge Lehman’s thought that no permanent teacher may be appointed where there are not enough funds to pay the pres- ent permanent teachers is a good one, provided that it be modified to allow teacher appointment under certain definite conditions. Per- haps a law requiring that the teacher population per thousand inhabitants based on say 1928 con- ditions would be correct. Perhaps the Boards of Education should be required to give permanent ap- pointment to a definite number of teachers per thousand, whether there were funds enough to meet the required salaries or not. The teacher number per thousand in- habitants could be revised every ten years to meet the changing conditions of the times. The actual positions these teachers should fill should be left to the discretion of the Boards of Education. Substi- tute teachers should be appointed to fill pupil need during economic emergency. Such a policy would do away with over-pupil populated schools, and tend to eliminate any over-teacher population after the depression is over. In addition to the above pro- tective teacher methods, tenure, with seniority rights, should be ad- vocated. When dismissal of teach- ers with tenure becomes neces- sary, those with the shortest time of service should be dismissed first.* PAUL JARVIS. 1. Downs v. Board of Education of Hoboken District et al. (1934), 171 Atl. 528 2. Jaffe et al. v. Board of Education of the City of New York (1934), 192 N. E. 185, 265 N. Y 0 3. See Teacher Tenure—Does It Hold?, American Teacher, Volume 19, Part One, Page 26. BOOKS “There is no frigate like a book To bear us lands away.” —Emily Dickinson. THe Worwtp Boox ENcyctopepia, 19 Vols., 1934 Edition, New York and Chicago, W. F. Quarrie & Company; cloth binding, $66.00; also terms; 7,990 pp. THe Wortpd Book ENCYCLOPEDIA ANNUAL, 1933 Edition, 160 pp. $1. Reviewed by Michael B. Scheler. The publishers -and editors of the World Book Encyclopedia deserve our admiration for putting out two editions of the _ nineteen-volume World Book Encyclopedia within a period of one year. The 1933 edi- tion, which was issued in the summer of 1933, was printed before the ad- vent of the Roosevelt Administration and his NIRA and, unfortunately, as I pointed out in my review of that edition in THe AMERICAN TEACHER (June, 1933), the epochal events of the early months of the Roosevelt Administration were omitted. This was a serious defect and threatened to imperil the distribution of the set. The publishers, therefore, decided to issue a new edition, and hastily and at great expense produced another edition within several months. The 1934 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia is the most timely encyclopedia on the.market today. The Roosevelt Revolution is compre- hensively and authoritatively treated. The important developments of the years 1933 and 1934 are covered by the addition of extensive articles on the Century of Progress, Mural Paint- ing, National Recovery Administra- tion, Russian Literature, Banks and Banking, Fascism, Federal Trade Commission, Income Tax, The Story of Money, Legal Tender, Mortgage, Muscle Shoals, Franklin D. Roose- velt, Rural Credits, St. Lawrence Waterway, Sales Tax, Tax and Taxes, and others. Several dozen articles were substantially revised “to include the changes involved in the New Deal, in altered Federal Depart- ments, in Repeal of Prohibition and in World Affairs.” According to the editors, the World Book Encyclo- pedia, 1934 edition, had “more con- tributors and more signed articles than ever before.” Another valuable service rendered to the public and to the subscribers of the World Book Encyclopedia by the publishers, is by their publication of an Annual, which in format and subject treatment harmonizes with the Encyclopedia itself. All outstanding events of the year in every field of human activity are extensively cov- ered by the same illustrious contribu- tors to the Encyclopedia. The Annual is richly illustrated with numerous maps, charts, graphs, and latest pho- tographs of men and events of note. The Annual forms an independent and intelligible compendium of the events of the year, and at its modest price is within the reach of all. MOLDERS OF THE AMERICAN MIND. Norman Woelfel. Reviewed by Bertram Enos. This book suffers as all synthetic productions must suffer. The lead- ing educators, from whose princi- ples the book is made, become somehow strangely wraith-like fig- ures, and that quality of theirs which is most important for edu- cators—their individual personali- ties—seems entirely to disappear. Some of these men I have known personally. Others I have heard speak on several occasions. And yet, in this book, they are not recognizable. However, we must not assume that Mr. Woelfel has not done a decent job of what he set out to do. In the first section of the book, the author draws some implications from contemporary social change, a rather indicative sample being— “Organized education, properly conscious of itself as the integra- tive agent of all socially educative forces, holds the key to social sta- bility, social decay, or _ social progress.” The next section gives us the viewpoints of several leading American educators, and this sec- tion is followed by one which at- tempts to make an interpretative criticism of these viewpoints. Again, a quotation will suffice to give the general tenor of this syn- thesis. “American education will emerge from its present theoretic confusion when educators face more squarely than they have in the past the fundamental issues of social life and human destiny as they apply to the American scene and to the problems of education.” The book concludes with a list of proposed objectives for educa- tors on the basis of the earlier discussion, It is almost impossible to give any kind of picture of this book in a short review. In fact, this kind of boiling down makes the book THE AMERICAN TEACHER seem slight. Such is not the case. While the conclusions drawn by Mr. Woelfel in his work.may not be all-inclusive or even particular- ly startling, the reading of the book completely, savoring to the full all the innuendoes, implications, bits of brilliant logic, is the only satis- factory way to get the benefit of Mr. Woelfel’s always clear and pertinent analysis of these molders of the American mind. Your Money. Barnet Hodes, Member, Illinois State Tax Com- mission. The Reilly & Lee Com- pany, Chicago. 216 pp. $1.00. Consolidation of uselessly overlapping government units, elimination of wholly unnecessary and inefficient units, and abolition of purposeless offices. Establishment of an effective means of budgetary control of expenditures, thus attaining savings without destroy- ing function. Broadening the It’s tax base to bring our taxing system in line with changed eco- nomic conditions as a means of elim- inating excessive burdens upon partic- ular classes of citizens or types of wealth. The central purpose of this objective is the realization of the prin- ciple that a taxing system be based upon “ability to pay” together with “benefit received.” These are the principal “planks” in a program of “common-sense” tax reduction contained in the book by State Tax Commissioner Barnet Hodes, called It’s Your Money, re- leased on January 14, by The Reilly & Lee Company, Chicago publishers. Commissioner Hodes, in the book, makes a plea to taxpayers generally, and in Illinois in particular, to follow the injunction of President Roose- velt to “modernize government” and get rid of the forms left over from the “oxcart era.” He likewise pleads for adequate maintenance of essen- tial services. The book hammers at the point that Illinois is the worst state in the Union in the number of local govern- ments with tax-levying and .ax- spending powers. Commissioner Hodes writes: When one studies the list of local governments in Illinois, and recognizes that many, although not all, of these governments perform functions that either overlap the duties of other units or which could as easily be performed by other units, the puzzle is not why taxes are high but how it happens that they are not still higher. Illinois has no patent on this condi- tion. The same kind of multiplicity of local government units exists through- out the United States so that some esti- mates place the total number in the country at considerably more than 500,- 000. As President Roosevelt observed, the state of New York has more than 13,000 local governments,- while more than 10,000 are accounted for in Minne- sota. However, to Illinois goes the doubtful - “n- LX- ler cal ZeS se rat its ed hy iat di- of rh- ti- May-JuNeE, 1935 honor of having probably more units than any other state. In other words, Illinois, a state which boasts of its pro- gressiveness, actually has permitted it- self to be most reactionary in this respect. Commissioner Hodes rips into the argument that eliminating useless local units violates the principle of “home rule.” Another excerpt from I7r’s Your Money follows The benefits of consolidation are at- tainable without sacrificing desirable local government. There has been con- siderable misunderstanding on this point, some of it no doubt fostered by self- seeking politicians, and, as a result, less progress has been made than otherwise. Surely, no one can argue intelligently that reorganization within a county, with municipalities kept intact, robs anyone of “home rule.” It could not be main- tained successfully, for example, that less home rule exists for citizens in Illinois now living in county-commission counties, than they enjoyed under town- ships. The program in mind here, while holding the promise of the saving of millions of dollars, involves nothing more drastic. Mr. Hodes declares that the matter of thousands of small school districts in Illinois is tied up very directly with this whole problem, pointing out that one-third of all taxes collected in Illinois go for support of educa- tion. An excerpt dealing with the school districts follows: If there were ever an anachronistic situation in this era—in the state which gave to the world the A Century of Progress exposition—it is the condition whereby Illinois permits its school sys- tem to be so uncoordinated as to be divided, sub-divided, and still further divided into more than 12,000 separate, independent, and virtually sovereign jurisdictions. When it is considered that of these 12,000 districts, approximately 10,000 districts, each with a _ school board, whose schools are one-room affairs, this state of affairs seems nothing short of appalling. Not even the state of New York, with twice the popuiation, has so many school districts . . . Illinois’ neighbor, Indiana, has fewer than 1,300. Rhode Island has only 39. . There may be some justification for a one-room school in certain peculiarly situated localities, but what justification there is for a state’s whole system to be based upon such a unit is beyond an intelligent citizen’s understanding. And it can be no source of pride to Illinoisans to know that Illinois, without question, is absolutely the worst state in the Union in this respect Certainly Illinois has permitted something to be put over on it in this respect. When it is con- sidered that there are nearly 40,000 school trustees in Illinois, nearly as many as the total number of teachers, the extent of disorganization and waste necessarily resulting, may be pictured easily. The book continues on this point: Back in the old prairie days of Illinois, such a system may have had some rea- son. But today, when good roads and motor transportation make it possible to get students to a school in the next township quicker than before they could have reached one “just down the road,” all common sense is assaulted by the continuation of this system . . Now, it is not contempl. ited that the remedy for this situation would be the creation of only one district for the entire state. That might be as bad as the present condition. But certainly a common sense pro- gram would provide for organization of our schools on at least a county basis. In such a case, there would be only 102 school boards, rather than 12,000. Ad- ministrative functions could be consoli- dated, purchases of supplies made more economical and efficient, facilities im- proved and used more adequately, ANnp Betrer INSTRUCTION PROVIDED. Commissioner Hodes adds that the charge that such a program is spon- sored by “enemies of education” is the “‘sheerest nonsense,” pointing out that the Illinois State Association is behind it. He writes: The teachers recognize that until this program is in effect, there is little hope of raising educational standards in Illinois. Thousands of Illinois school teachers are miserably paid, not because the taxpayers have been stingy, but be- cause lack of organization makes pos- sible the dissipation of funds in other directions. Anybody knows that the more win- dows or doors in a house, the easier it is for smoke to get out. It is the same with tax money. The book likewise calls for an ex- amination by the taxpayers of the townships and their functions, point- ing out that there are 1,444 townships in Illinois “with some 8,700 elected officials, with no telling how many hired employees.” The book com- ments: This is not to say that these officials do not perf.:m work. They do. No doubt many of them labor hard and long for their community. So does the manual laborer work hard in digging a tunnel with pick and shovel. The question is, hadn’t we better bring in a steam shovel to get the work done cheaper and better? As a first step toward proper bud- getary control, which he views as an important corrollary of consolidation, Commissioner Hodes suggests that in each county there be set up a com- mission, representing both officials and citizens, which would act as a “County Coordinating Commission.” Such a commission, he writes, should be staffed with certified accountants and have the “duty to suggest ways of effecting economies, gf coordinat- ing activities, and of achieving struc- tural reforms.” He adds: Such a body would not have the power to force its recommendations but it could publicize the facts. On the theory that, possessed of the facts, the public will act, I know that tremendous sav- ings would result from such a step. Once it is established definitely that certain governments are failing to give a good account of themselves, those governments are bound to be changed. 29 In addition to Commissioner Hodes’ program for cutting down costs and revenue reform, It’s Your MONEY explains clearly many complicated tax questions. Through it all, runs the theme that there are two objec- tives—tax relief and the maintenance of adequate government services. The book is illustrated by the Chi- cago artist, Leo Wolf, carrying four- teen attractive drawings in a special technique. It carries a foreword by Professor James Weber Linn of the University of Chicago. Tue RELaTIoNs oF LEARNING. Wil- liam Bennett Bizzell. University of Oklahoma Press. 1934. 178 pp. $2.50. Reviewed by H. R. Latham. The author has been the president of the University of Oklahoma since 1926. The volume consists of a series of convocation addresses, an address delivered at Ames, Iowa, a magazine article, and the ingugural address of 1926. Doubtless the stimulus of a young university rapidly growing up in a western environment has afforded a competent college president much material for a philosophy of higher education. Consequently the inter- pretation of modern college life to a group of expectant students exhibits various social tensions and a chal- lenge to propose wise solutions of problems. These addresses are virile, timely, replete with wisdom, and belong to the best level of educational reflec- tion. The volume is not only a treas- ury of thought to be cherished by the alumni of this institution, but it is also a source-book of educational data that should be absorbed in a description of social currents of the day. The mechanical appearance of the volume is a distinct credit to the Uni- versity of Oklahoma Press. OrpDER ON THE Arr. James Rorty. No. 44 of the John Day Pam- phlets. 32 pages, 25 cents. Those who may have awakened but recently to the major social conse- quences of radio will find Mr. Rorty’s brochure a conscientious exposition of the ABC’s of the subject from the so-called “radical” viewpoint. A brief account of the problem of radio censorship leads to an encour- agingly succinct conclusion: “What ir all comes down to is that, under the law, financially powerful groups have the same advantage on the air as with respect to the use of other instruments of social communication.” While Mr. Rorty feels strongly that this is not as it should be, the reader is kept somewhat in suspense as to why more should’ be expected of 30 radio than of the press or the movies Finally he does learn that whereas he pays (if he is an average radio listener) some $20 a year for power, new tubes, repairs, and replacements in order that he may sit in at the great American ether-show, the show is actually put on the air at a cost of about $3 per year for each listen- ing family. This Mr. Rorty takes as an indication that government might well take over the production and transmission of programs, and pay for them by a $3 annual listen- ing tax, or even less because of sav- ings in cost through “functional rationalization of the system.” An all-too-evident contradiction in a frankly socialist dissertation is the anxiety displayed lest government wrongfully expropriate the radio channels held by dubious exhorters of the Shuler and Brinkley stripe, with little or no thought given to the thousands of unlicensed controver- sialists who might with equal justi- fication demand what Shuler and Brinkley once enjoyed—i. e., a grant from the government of sole power to govern all the programs at a city, om a dial-point. Thus, Mr. Rorty manfully espouses the long fight of Labor in Chicago to retain its radio channel against commercial attack, but makes no allusion to the fairly obvious question of why, or whether, Labor should expect to go forever without direct access to the air in other cities—at least in those which, like New York and Los Angeles, are as well supplied with channels as 1s Chicago—simply because it did not have, like Chicago Labor, the fore- sight to preempt, years ago, those al- leged ‘squatters’ rights” in the air for which Mr. Rorty exhibits as little regard as does Congress itself. The booklet contains an insert soli- citing the reader’s cooperation with the American Civil Liberties Union’s program for freedom on the air, which likewise appears solicitous that whom the government may have ap- pointed to boss the air, it shall not lightly depose. Perhaps one should not hope for more, from a pamphlet of this kind, than that the reading of it should better prepare a thoughtful person to face what is, after all, the only problem that really matters much —just whom should the government appoint in the first place as a boss over program traffic; why and for how long should he be appointed, with what financial subsidies if any, and with what restrictions, if any, on his freedom to sell access to the listening public (at the prevailing juicy prices) to all and sundry ad- vertisers and propagandists who may be, in his opinion, beyond the pale of those deserving “free time.” No partial and inept “solution” is desirable, alleges Mr. Rorty—without however claiming to supply a com- plete one. Having passed unhesitat- ing judgment upon advertising in general in his larger book Our Master’s Voice, he seems not to have considered the possibility that what radio might be in need of at the mo- ment is not the summary application of any complete “solution” so much as a policy of free and open experi- mentation in various cities with va- rious concrete answers to the basic question just stated PARTNERS IN PLuNDER. J. B. Mat- thews and R. E. Shallcross. Con- sumers’ Research, Inc. 403 pp. Reviewed by Joel L. Seidman. Partners in Plunder is in reality two hooks, one superimposed upon the other. The first marshals additional evidence, in the tradition of Your Money's Worth, 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs, and Skin Deep, to that under capitalism the pressure of com- petition and the drive for profits force the quality of goods much lower than our technical equipment makes read- ily available. The files of Consumers’ Research contain vast stores of in- formation on this score, and it is from this material that the authors have compiled their story. The particular techniques of busi- ness examined in detail include trade puffery, high-pressure sales tactics, the testimonial racket, adulteration, and profiteering by absence of stand- ards. The authors abundantly prove their case that by the use of these and similar techniques private busi- ness inevitably lowers the standard of living of the masses and helps to create a host of other social evils. The author’s second theme is that there is grave danger of fascism in the United States today, and that the practices and needs of business lead logically to it. prove All the elements necessary for a first- rate regime of fascist reaction are pres- ent in American tradition or in Ameri- can social forces of the day. That they have not yet coalesced into a nation-wide movement of overt business dictatorship is due solely to a few minor mitigating circumstances in the American crisis. One by one these mitigating circum- stances are being liquidated, with a re- sulting drift of the most pronounced tendencies toward fascism. Apparently in an effort to justify the inclusion of these two books un- der the same covers, the author’s single out the means of exploiting consumers as the most dangerous evi- dence of a fascist danger. In a society where commercial leaders have habituated the populace to a system of promising-everything-and-delivering- nothing, there is no tradition powerful enough to immunize it to fascism. THE AMERICAN TEACHER The authors place entirely too much emphasis, however, upon infe- rior quality and competitive adver- tising. If these and allied evils were cured by a program of reform within the structure of capitalism—which is entirely possible, however improbable —the evils of unemployment and starvation wages would still exist, and the dangers of war and fascism would be as great. Advertising in particular riles the authors. They assert: _ Advertising, in its spirit and purpose, is germinal fascism This, of course, is pure nonsense. If advertising is associated more with fascism than with the classless co- operative society, it is because fascist leaders have been astute observers of mass psychology, while radicals have been too busy quibbling over Marxian formulae. The authors see fascists and their allies everywhere. They whack almost all heads in sight, including those of liberals, the lower middle class, the clergy, teachers, labor leaders, social- democrats, and pacifists. In this re- spect, their book well illustrates why radicals have appealed so little to the American masses. In their hatred of the barbaric reaction of fascism, the authors seem, unfortunately, to have sacrificed their balanced judgment. If a fascist menace is arising in the United States, it will take more than a case of jitters and a lot of name- calling to combat it. Certainly one does not create a powerful movement by attacking possible allies. There is a note of flippancy, a tendency to crack wise, that lowers the tone of the book and may antag- onize The authors would have been wiser had they kept their discussion on a higher plane. some _ readers. Maria Patuna. Blair Niles. Long- mans, Green and Company, New York. 334 pp. $2.50. Frederick Houk Law, head De- partment of English, Stuyvesant High School, New York City, writes : “Maria Paluna” is an unusually good book for all who are inter- ested in reading about the life of the past in the romantic cities of Central America, and it is an ex- cellent and most informing book for young people and for general reading circles. I myself am familiar with the lands the book describes; I have explored the ruins, and I know the Indian people and their history. “Maria Paluna” is intensely true too \fe- rer- ere hin 1 is ible ind ist, ism the se, ise. ith co- “ist ers als yer eir ost of he al- re- hy he of he nt. he an 1e- ne nt 'y; e- nt ly + to of of mA ’k al 1€ ye 1e y: 1€ 1935 May-JUNE, to the spirit of the past. The au- thor wrote with understanding, and best of all, with human sympathy, both for the Indians who lost their civilization and for the victors, the “conquistadores,” who destroyed it. The book is compelling in inter- est, and for me it has not even one uninteresting page. It is so rich in detail, and so accurate, and so filled with local color, that reading it is much like visiting the lands con- cerned. I know of no other book of fic- tion that tells the story of the Span- ish Conquest so charmingly and so powerfully. I recommend “Maria Paluna” as a book that should be named in every general reading list. It has permanent value. The book is really a triumph of sympathetic and artistic presenta- tion and historical and local ac- curacy. EpuCATION VERSUS INDOCTRINATION. Horace M. Kallen. The Uni- versity of Chicago Press, Chi- cago. 23 pp. $.25. Reviewed by H. R. Latham. Professor George Counts and Professor Horace M. Kallen both argue for indoctrination and yet con- tend against each other on this sub- ject of indoctrination. Perhaps here and in similar debates there are many emotional explosions dressed up in argumentative garb. The parade of phrases in this tractate is worth wit- nessing whether we agree with either contestant or not. It is brilliant writing, particularly in the cavalierly attacks on Mr. Counts. Mr. Counts advocates, we are told, an intramental injection of collectivistic theory as a means of saving the coun- try. Mr. Kallen says “not at all;” the only indoctrination we can afford is that which teaches a method of procedure in learning and experiment- ing. Progressive education should stand for freedom and not stultify itself by upholding a_ reactionary pedagogism. But do not let any re- viewer keep you from reading Pro- fessor Kallen’s discriminating ex- position. THe Worker as a CONSUMER. 26-page pamphlet. “John Jones does not think of himself as either a producer or a consumer. He just wants to earn enough money to buy groceries and pay the rent and get new shoes for the Jones kids. Of course he is really both a producer and a con- Sumer. On the production end, he digs coal or makes coats or drives a truck to help produce and deliver goods that other people will use. In turn he eats the potatoes and wears the clothes and lives in a house that other workers have labored to produce for his con- sumption.” So begins a pamphlet on The Worker as a Consumer just issued by Brookwood Labor College, Ka- tonah, N. Y. The authors, Mark Starr and Helen Norton, show how gains in wages made on the trade union field may be wiped out by high prices or by the purchase of widely advertised but inferior products, and how legislation af- fects workers as consumers as well as producers. The pamphlet de- scribes the various consumers’ or- ganizations now in existence, and suggests other consumer defenses which may be built up. References for additional read- ing and a list of questions are in- cluded for the benefit of study groups. The price is 25 cents for single copies, 20 cents each for 25 or more, and 15 cents on orders of 50 or more. You anp Macuines. Wr. William F. Ogburn. American Council on Education, Washington, D. C. 1934. 55pp. 5c single copy; 10c in lots of 25 and over. Much discussion has waged over Dr. Ogburn’s pamphlet You AND MACHINES since it was decided by the education supervisors of the C.C.C. to be unsound and unfitted to the use of the camp classes. Comments have been favorable and unfavorable. The New Republic in an editorial comment says, It is a calm discussion of advantages and disorders produced in society by the introduction of machine production. The Journal of Electrical Workers and Operators in its issue of Decem- ber, 1934, says, Ogburn’s book more rhetoric than reality. You ANp Macurines describes but fails to analyze problems, and offers no solution. Sut President Elliott of Purdue holds a different opinion, The pamphlet is a dramatic presenta- tion of social phenomenon of which our people cannot afford to be ignorant. We recommend that you read the pamphlet and find out for yourself who is right. There can be no ques- tion of its attractiveness with its clear type, clever illustrations, and striking cover. PARTS pgs MAKES 25 Years mention Send in your broken parts, or write, telling your troubles Most Complete Stock of fttemas ‘arts in PHONOGRAPH REPAIR SHOP We Repair All Makes 315 So. Wabash Avenue CHICAGO, ILL. 3! Suggestions for Textbooks or School Charts Lucia Ames Mead 1. Our danger to life, pros- perity, and property has always been far greater from within our country than from attack of for- eigners from without. No nation has ever yet declared war against us. 2. Justice Hughes said: “So far as we can see into the future, the United States is not in the slightest danger of aggression. We recognize our immunity, not that we may boast, but rather that we may appreciate our duty and responsibility. We know that in no power or possible combination of powers lies any menace to our security.” 3. Our loss of life every year from preventable accident and pre- ventable disease is approximately 600,000. 4. Our total loss from our Civil War and from our five foreign wars, including loss of deaths in battle, wounds, disease and every other cause is less than that. These figures of loss in both war and peace do not include the im- mense number who are annually ill or injured from accident and preventable disease. 5. The losses of the Civil War as given from the War Depart- ment are: deaths in battle, 110,- 000; disease, 224586: other causes, 24,872: total, 359,458. In the Revolutionary War, fewer than five thousand were killed in battle: in the War of 1812, Mex- ican War and Spanish War, 51,- 000 were killed in battle but others are still dying from wounds and from being gassed. In 1920, the sum total of all recorded deaths in all wars for every cause was 502,427. Civil war is in another category than international war and may occur after international war has been outlawed and ended and an organized world has established an international police to replace rival armies and navies. When- ever there is tyranny there may be rebellion. But after arsenals and armaments have been greatly diminished, after no nation in civil war can get munitions from other countries, civil war will not be easy and will finally end. The nation needs merely parity of security, not parity of tonnage. The slogan for all nations should be: “Above all nations is Hu- manity. Organize the World.” ars . 4 ee a RA A CE Reet le News from the Field | New Locals The American Federation of Teachers welcomes into membership and its cru- sade for school protection and social betterment 16 new locals since the last previous issue of the AMERICAN TEACHER. Parma (Ohio) Federation of Super- visors Local 389. Kanawha County (W. Va.) Federa- tion of Teachers Local 390. Wayne County (W. Va.) Federation of Teachers Local 391. Clarke County (Ala.) Federation of Teachers Local 392. Bridgeport (Conn.) Teachers Union Local 393. Hammond (Ind.) Teachers Federa- tion Local 394. Superior (Wis.) Vocational Teachers Union Local 395. : Claiborne Parish (La.) Federation of Teachers Local 397. Logan County (W. Va.) Federation of Teachers Local 398. Michigan City (Ind.) Teachers Fed- eration Local’ 399. Pittsburgh (Pa.) Federation of Teach- ers Local 400. University of Washington Teachers Union Local 401. Workmen’s Circle Teachers Alliance Local 402. St. Tammany Parish (La.) Federa- tion of Teachers Local 403. Boone County (W. Va.), Federation of Teachers Local 404. Washington Local 27 Through a conference with our ad- ministrative officers, Local 27 has made some substantial gains for all the teach- - 2 Divisions 10-13 in Washington, We have secured reduction of cleri- cal work, and eased the strain of educa- tional tests and measurements on the classroom worker who was required ‘to supplement a hard day’s work with the joy of several hours correction of tests. We have gotten the message of our Federation over to more of the teach- ers; we have petitioned for educational relief legislation, and have contributed fifteen dollars as a special gift to the N. A. A. C. P. in support of the Costi- gan-Wagner Bill. We have been active in promotion of the Adult Education Program, have helped secure some consideration for some white collar workers, and we are now working on a plan to get together the best type of personnel worker with the employers who are willing to pay a living wage. Our members have been active along many associated lines. Mr. O. W. Tin- ner, living in Falls Church, Va., is a leading civic spirit; he helped get a closed school for colored children open, painted the building himself, and later was successful in having four thousand dollars placed in a budget for Negro education in that particular county where nothing had at first been placed. March 3i to April 8 was Negro Health Week, originated by Booker T. Wash- THe AMERICAN ington because of certain special needs which Negroes have over and above what is normal for our citizenry in gen- eral; Mr. Tinner, with a civic associa- tion, succeeded in making secure a very splendid and impartial health set up for his community, over the opposition of a newly organized pseudo-medical or- ganization. Miss Charlotte Atwood of the Dun- bar High School, active in inter-racial affairs and one of Local 27’s earnest supporters appeared on the panel on inter-racial understandings at the May- flower Hotel on Feb. 22; she set forth the advantage of training children of minority groups to know certain psy- chological situations calling for forti- tude and control which they are bound to meet in life, and preparing them as far as may be for the most helpful re- actions. This was part of the Progres- sive Education Convention. Mrs. Esther Popel Shaw has pub- lished a beautiful collection of poems called “A Forest Pool.” She has been called upon to read her poems at the Miner Teachers’ College. Mrs. Shaw is also President of the College Alumnae of Washington, D. C., which has just celebrated its twenty-fifth year of valu- able achievement. Mr. Ernest Holmes, instructor in the department of philosophy of Howard University, has taken out a membership with Local 27. Mrs. Virginia L. Williams, musician of distinction and member our local, has been training a chorus of two hun- dred voices during the winter and spring and on April 23 and 24 presented this chorus under the leadership of R. Na- thaniel Dett, formerly Head of the Hampton Music Department and inter- nationally known for his beautiful compositions. We have lost one of the rarest and choicest spirits of our city in the pass- ing of Mrs. Rachel Guy Moore, instruc- tor in mathematics at Miner Teachers’ College. Mary Mason Jones. Philadelphia Local 192 Primary interest during the past two months has been centered around our Legislative program which includes the following activities: 1. Securing passage of our Milk Bill, H. R. 1076, to provide free milk to all needy children; ~ Securing passage of our Tenure Bill, H. R. 1075; 3. Securing passage of the Aron Bill, S. B. 109, which provides for re- turn of salary cut six months earlier than scheduled; 4. Blocking passage of Omensky res- olution and bills directed against married women teachers. To these ends the Legislative Action Committee was formed. It consists of four groups, The Teachers Relations Committee, the Citizens’ Relations Com- mittee, the Legislators’ Relations Commit- tee, and the Labor Relations Committee. Contacts have been made with the vari- ous groups by means of letters and speakers in pursuance of our policy of securing mass public support for our measures. The foundation is also being laid for a united front with other teacher TEACHER organizations and for a state federation of all Pennsylvania locals. So popular is our campaign among teachers that an appeal for a $1000 fund to carry on our work was speedily over- subscribed. Tentative plans have also been made for securing public hearings on at least one of our bills. We have also been active on the na- tional legislative front by sponsoring the Lundeen Bill for Unemployment and Social Insurance. We are cooperating with the Interprofessional Association for Social Security in backing the bill as the only bill before Congress now which gives security to professionals, and the only genuine social insurance measure for all workers. Milwaukee Local 252 On March 15 and 16, Milwaukee was host to the Progressive Education Asso- ciation in Regional Conference. It was a great time for teachers who think they are progressive in educational outlook. For the benefit of our readers who were unable to attend the conference, we re- produce the substance of content and points of view set forth by the chief speakers in the sections and sessions indicated. At the first General Session, James L. Mursell, Professor of Education at Lawrence University, indicated that Pro- gressive Education must be afforded in terms of the best things for those who need them most. The teacher, being the key to the whole situation, must be a learner, and his status of freedom must be conserved. William Trufant Foster, Director of Pollack Foundation, spoke on Educa- tion and the Economic System. Schools have failed largely to adapt themselves to what is going on around us: they must be brought into closer relationship with the process of accelerating change in social concept. There are too many stupid adults in authority; they are prone to accept things as they are and to resist change. Fortunately this isn’t the way with youth; youth wants change; youth cannot stand still. Since change is the law of progress, we must place more of the control in the hands of youth; that is if we want to push out frontiers and widen the horizons. Edu- cation has never at any time been adapted to the needs of the times, and nothing we can do or will be likely to do about the situation will probably be too wild or too radical. Friday night session sparkled with wit and brilliancy, with Supt. Milton C. Potter as chairman. William Trufant Foster, the speaker, made a pretty good case for the technocrats; he showed that there is no justified excuse for this de- pression, no economic necessity—that on the contrary we possess every means of creating wealth and enjoying prosperity, that the only thing we lack is the sense to use what we have and what we could have. He attributed our trouble to the fact that the most powerful impulse of the human race is the instinct to sit down. He offered the hopeful assurance that the forces of education, if they want to, can mend the ways and preserve civilization—barring the possible frus- tration of it all by anothér world war, which, by the way, looms dangerously near. tion ong und ver- also ings na- the and ting tion bill 10W als, ince was 3SO- was hey 0k. rere re- and rief ons May-JuNeE, 1935 Saturday morning session was in the hands of George S. Counts, on the theme: Responsibility of the School for Social Progress. He took up the theme where Mr. Foster left off the night before, showing that the old individual- ism of 150 years is gone forever, and some form of collectivism stands at the door; he advised us to see the facts and to reveal the emergence of this new reality. Since we are always teaching social arrangements of some kind, we must choose our course, and go ahead. It will be indoctrination, but what of that? We have always had it! Now we are to change the direction and em- phasis. The world today is tremen- dously interrelated; each is involved in the welfare of all. Let us make chil- dren intelligent about issues, strains, and problems of the age in which they live; help them to decide whose interests are to be served by our inter-dependent economy and economic mechanism. Any system of society may be judged by what it does for the underlying masses of the people. Shall we educators craw! further into the shell? Shall we keep on passing on the platitudes of the past? Shall we come to grips with problems as they arise? If we respond as we very clearly should, the underlying popula- tion will see that it wants education that will protect its interests. It may be entirely too late to develop a genuinely democratic society in America. Power- ful vested interests will use every means at their command to frustrate any edu- cational program that seeks to develop such a society. We choose this day whom we shall serve. The Social Studies Section of the Convention held two sessions. Interest was keen, so keen that the room just couldn’t hold all who tried to attend. Dr. Counts presented the report on the social studies. We educators are re- sponsible for the failures in public edu- cation. Social problems are not solved by mere accumulation of facts; we need a frame of reference, must operate un- der some interpretation of history and of social science, must make choices on some basis of principles, for we are al- ways imposing something. Possibly we have thought too much about method, have been too much just technicians manipulating a course of study. We need to become real people in the class room and must face squarely the trouble- some problems that bother the world. Providing that kind of teaching and securing proper working materials con- stitute the most important work of the profession in the forum of the social studies, tf we are to save the day for democracy. We must see to it that no adverse, vocal, selfish minority is per- mitted to block our effort in producing informed, thinking, social minded young people. Unfortunately teachers have always been afraid to say what they think, Timidity now on our part may mean the frustration of the American ideal of democracy. The Secondary Session discussed the curriculum on a functional basis. Prin- cipal Otto Gilbert of Lincoln (Milw.) High School led off with “Does the thing we are teaching function in life?” That led to the caution uttered by Alex- ander Pope: “Be not the first by whom the new is tried, nor yet the last to lay the old aside”—consistent advice to any group of people. He pointed out the fact that transpiring change calls for continuous revision. The entire high school curriculum should be done over, drastic revision being needed in the social studies. Of course good teachers change the curriculum as they go along, irrespective of boards of edu- cation and the like, but anyhow the schools are cluttered with children who are not getting what they want and what they need. Mr. Giles from the department of public instruction noted the fact that educators have grown skeptical about the dogma of transfer of training, and after all it shouldn’t make much difference what children study as preparation for college. What does matter is what boys and girls are doing day by day about and with the tools of learning. There has been too much spoon feeding, not enough cultivation of self dependence, not enough in school of what they’ll be doing outside. It was a great conference of seekers after truth. Here were some hundreds of teachers, the kind Otto Gilbert must have had in mind when he suggested that good teachers aren’t likely to be frustrated by the inertia of curriculum or of administration. One rarely sees such spread in ages, of diversity of fields of instruction with such kinship of spirit and outlook, such promise of progress. H. J. PARMLEY. Local 259 Fights Teachers’ Oath Bill A bill to force all public and private school teachers to swear allegiance to state and national constitutions has passed the Illinois house and is now be- fore the senate. Local 259 of the A.F.T., including college and university teachers of the Chicago area, has been carrying on a vigorous fight against the bill, aided by other teachers’ union lo- cals, the Chicago Federation of Labor, and the Illinois Federation of Labor. Ross Stagner, of the People’s Junior College, has been elected chairman of a committee to oppose the bill, with Frank Spencer, Central Y.M.C.A. Col- lege, and Maurice Krout, Medill Junior College. This committee has been using petitions, public addresses, the radio, and resolutions from central labor unions, over the state to bring pressure on the legislature. “Politicians as well as selfish minori- ties will define ‘loyalty’ to suit them- selves,” says a statement by the com- mittee against the bill. “Teachers will work under the handicap and constant fear of having their teaching misinter- preted. Espionage and gossip of students and parents will destroy the necessary relationship of confidence and trust be- tween teacher and student. Teachers will be at the mercy of any student or parent who has an axe to grind, or bears a grudge. : “The bill deprives teachers of the right of freedom of thought, it limits the teaching staff of schools to those who lack the courage and mentality to exercise their legal right to just criticism of existing institutions. “In being applied to private schools, the bill permits the invasion of the free- dom of schools not under state control, 33 and opens the way to espionage and control of labor, religious, and other schools.” Generous cooperation from other teachers’ federation locals and warm support from labor bodies of all kinds are reported. Dr. Stagner, who has spoken to several groups to explain the opposition to the bill, states that he has found no one who continues to support the bill after learning of its true sig- nificance. “Teachers can expect] just treatment from the citizens if they go out and explain their point of view; otherwise the people will be misled by the propaganda of selfish interests in the newspapers,” he said. State College, N. D., Local 281 When dirt farmer Ole Olson, gover- nor of North Dakcta, stood before a strike meeting of General Drivers’ Lo- cal 173 last fall in Fargo and said to men ready to declare a strike against the milk companies: “I have taken an oath. And I can never forget what I learned at my mother’s knee, that my word is a sacred bond,” he spoke with the profound sincerity of a plain man who takes his morals literally. That was before the men took his advice and voted to accept the compromise which the Governor, working with NRA and Labor Board officials, had induced the committees representing the milk com- panies and the union to agree to. And that was also before he sat again with the committees and heard the employers squeal with chagrin when faced at last with the necessity of signing the paltry compromise which they had been con- fident the drivers would be silly enough to reject. Dirt farmer Ole Olson saw the employers, whose bluff had been called, trying frantically to argue the bluff out of existence. And being an honest man who takes his morals liter- ally, he did his magnificent bit in hold- ing those business men to their bar- gain. The joint committee for the milk companies accepted the contract, finally, although practically every step of the way had to be fought over again that night, a way that had already consumed fifteen days of heated controversy The appearance again of a farmers’ governor as referee in a labor contro- versy was a noteworthy event. The weight of his honesty did much to in- sure a victory for the union. It was a small victory indeed, but an important one, for the drivers gained, above all else, recognition of 173 as the collective bargaining,agency for the milk drivers in the neighboring cities, Fargo, North Dakota, and Moorhead, Minnesota, and fairly good stipulations to enforce this recognition. In this hitherto unorgan- ized industry, these were the points fought most stubbornly by the employ- ers, but the union was shrewd enough to stand pat for collective bargaining as of first importance. However, the men also gained small wage increases, the forty-eight hour week, exemption of driver-salesmen from responsibility for company losses due to delinquent ac- counts, and other minor reforms. This first victory of the General Drivers came as the climax of fifteen days of truce and negotiation last fall which the union was obliged to force by a one day strike tying up all milk de- livery. Credit for the strike itself was 34 due to the short-sighted, obstructionist policy of the employers, supported by business interests organized to sabotage the NRA. After union officials, carrying tentative contracts and hoping for peace- ful negotiations, had for many weeks met with only insult, rebuff, cries oi ‘Red,’ and other forms of civic inde- cency, as a last resort the milkmen voted to strike. When the strike issue came up in thc regular meeting of the central labor body, the delegates from the local union of the American Federation of Teach- ers, recently organized at the Agricul- tural College, became active. The teachers had affiliated with the labor movement with a conviction that their place was with the rest of the working people of the community and a feeling that, in such a crisis, their influence might loosen a deadlock and save the community the evils of a prolonged strike. Led by Dr. Herbert Hanson, secretary-treasurer of the Teachers Union, and with the active cooperation of Dr. William C. Hunter, union presi- dent, the teachers set out immediately on the trails of civic-minded people of the community, whose help they enlisted to press the employers to be reasonable and to enter into negotiations with their men, arguing the justice of col- lective bargaining under the NRA. Thus sufficient contacts were made to enable the leaders of the central body to exert enough moral and civic pres- sure to bring about the first steps toward negotiation between employer and employee. The employers’ first steps were made with extreme reluc- tance and were taken back many times before the forces of civic virtue made the retreat more tortuous than the ad- vance. The real suffering of those em- ployers will never perhaps be fully chronicled: they were being led into the very hell-hole of collective bargaining by the quickly marshalled righteousness of the community—and of a very conserva- tive community. Finally, after the drivers had demonstrated how completely they could tie up milk distribution, the em- ployers agreed to negotiate: a truce ended the strike pending the outcome of negotiations between an employers’ com- mittee and an employees’ committee, aided by a committee of neutral citizens selected by the two contesting parties. Dr. Hanson of the Teachers Union was selected by the drivers to serve as a member of their committee. The employers resorted to their char- acteristic strategy of evasion and delay. One of their favorite tricks, however, was, for the time being, out-maneuvered. In the face of the substantial respect- ability that had been recruited in sup- port of the principle of collective bar- gaining by the teachers the raucous shout of ‘Communism’ became a feeble gargle in the throats of the partisans who found their opponents stealing the role of virtue. Generally, however, the negotiations went badly; the original ten day truce had to be extended five days, although nothing but deadlock was in sight. Then was the time when the Teachers Union did its best service in preventing the strike which the em- ployers now seemed to be willing to cause. Organized in the Agricultural College, the Teachers Union had made good con- tacts with the organized farmers of the state. Governor Olson was a mem- ber of the Farmers’ Union and of the Holiday Association. When it seemed apparent that the milk companies,. sup- ported by other employers in the two cities, were ready to risk a strike in the hope of breaking the union, the teachers brought about a meeting between the local labor leaders and the officers of the Farmers’ Union; the latter in turn arranged a meeting with the Governor, in which he agreed to come to Fargo and use his influence to bring about a peaceful settlement. In the meantime a man from the Regional Labor Rela- tions Board had appeared on the scene. Because of the danger of the case being thrown into the hands of the Board and the consequent public scrutiny of the companies’ books, the employers were ready to argue their case before the Governor. His influence moved the employers to offer a compromise agree- ment; and his influence only, caused them to stand by their bargain after the men had unexpectedly voted to ac- cept it. The teachers at the Agricultural Col- lege are being educated. They are learning some of the facts of life. They have learned, for example, that, while there may be good in everyone, a man in the rdle of an employer con- fronted with economic issues will be- have, not as a human being, but as an employer. Butte, Montana, Local 332 Single Salary Schedule Adopted In keeping with its policy of high standards of attainment within the pro- fession, the Butte Local presented to the Butte School Board a _ schedule for teachers’ salaries in accordance with qualifications and experience. Salaries with qualifications and experience as the determining factor should be the ideal situation in the teaching profession and toward that end the Local made every effort. The result was highly gratfying. On March 26 the Butte School Board adopted the schedule prepared by Local 332 after a hearing at which the Silver Bow Trades and Labor Assembly and the Butte Teachers Union appeared in behalf of the measure. Through its influence standards were upheld when a request that Osteopaths without professionaji training teach Os- teopathy in the High School, was refused. The signing of a petition to be sent to Washington, D. C., that the proposed grant of money from the government toward building a new Butte High School be obtained if possible, was at- tended to by this body. Keeping in touch and in sympathy with the work of Silver Bow Trades and Labor Council through its delegates, and the making of a survey of pensions, tenure, salaries, and conditions of teach- ers in other sections of the country through committee study, occupy an im- portant part of the routine program of the Butte Local. After every storm the sun will smile; for every problem there is a solution, and the soul’s inde- fensible duty is to be of ‘good cheer. —Wm. R. Alger. THE AMERICAN TEACHER An Appreciated Message I just want to add my congratulations concerning the magazine. The reports of news relating to teachers and their organizations are the best I see. I wish that all teachers were reading THE AMERICAN TEACHER as eagerly as I do —then we would have an educational movement with genuine vitality. Goopwin WATSON. Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N. Y. March 26, 1935. So This Is America! Today, April Ist, as a _ classroom teacher. I cast my ballot to do my part in electing delegates from this section of the state to the N. E. A. convention. On the list of candidates I found seven- teen superintendents, five principals, three supervisors, and eight classroom teachers. I noticed that seven of the teachers were from one large city. All of which means that several thousand classroom teachers of this part of the state are represented by a total of one name on the ballot. I do not mention this situation in a spirit of criticism, but it is quite obvious that the teachers’ problems cannot be solved by such gross inequalitv in representation. When will the teachers of America awaken to a need of organized effort? A Crassroom TEACHER. International Fellowship School, Gland-Sand, Switzerland, March 21, 1935. The American Federation of Teachers. Dear Friends: The Armenian war-victims in Aleppo Syria are hand-spinning and weaving Rainbow Peace flags, the seven colors signifying the divers national gifts, in- terwoven in mutual service to form up- on earth the footstool of the Prince of Peace. In Aleppo little boys with toy pistols have been quite pleased to bring them to be bonfired, when they carried home Peace flags in their place. On Goodwill Day, we are planning International Maypoles. The refugees are making rainbow tints as strands to be woven round the pole, with a pro- gram of peace-songs and dance, which we should be glad to supply. The refugees also make Tablecloths, Towels, etc., with rainbow edging, by which they are helped to keep off starvation. I hope that in some way we may find cooperation with your teachers. Yours faithfully, Moro Epiryu Ropserts. A Parisian school-teacher has been taken to task for adding a “smile course” to the curriculum. An unimaginative school committee didn’t know the Miltonic stanza: Smiles from reason flow, To brute denied, and are of love the food. ns rts ir sh IE lo al Ono 1 - Oe — OP ms OP MD ne — vi - The School Activities Magazine Dr. Harry C. McKown, Editor Offers you an invaluable educational engineering service that no progressive school, educational director, or teacher can afford to be without. Each issue will be of material assist- ance in your work of vitalizing all educational procedure. you to attain with greater ease the true objective of all education—a better citizen, a more wholesome life. It will enable Subscription Price $2.00 Sample Copy Free if you mention this advertisement. THE SCHOOL ACTIVITIES MAGAZINE TOPEKA KANSAS THE NATIONAL HOSIERY CLUB FUR- NISHES A SERVICE FOR THE THOU- SANDS OF INDIVIDUAL CLUB MEMBERS WHICH ACTUALLY ENABLES THEM TO PURCHASE HOSIERY OF THE FINEST QUALITY, FRESH FROM THE MILL, AT A . SAVING WHICH IS EQUIVALENT TO SECURING AT LEAST EVERY THIRD PAIR FREE For a nominal membership fee of ONE DOLLAR you have the privilege of buying one dozen boxes (thirty-six pairs) as required. The net profit to the Club Management is less than three cents per pair and results in your securing your hosiery at the following prices: UNION MADE Price Style Per Box Number (3 Prs.) 304 Certified silk, full fashioned, chiffon, ringless, four thread, beautifully sheer, retailing usually at $1.00 per pair....... $1.75 we i) oy) Three thread ringless, so exquisitely sheer that they give the most delighful grooming to the legs, imparting only a lovely glow of their own self coloring to the backgrund of the flesh. Retailing usually at $1.35 per pair................ $2.00 307. Seven thread ringless service, lisle top and foot, silk plated heel............... $1.75 The procedure is this: Upon receipt of your ap- plication you will receive by mail a complete color card, your quota of twelve order blanks, each good for one box (3 pairs) of hosiery, and a supply of addressed envelopes. Fill out order, enclose money- order or check, and mail. You will receive within ten days, FreEsH FROM THE MILL, your box of hosiery. PerFect, UNHANDLED BY ANYONE BuT THE PACKER AT THE Mut, postpaid and guaranteed satisfactory or your money refunded, your membership cancelled, and fee returned. Members who require more than one membership card per year may secure same on terms as stated above. National Hosiery Club, 162 N. State St., Chicago, Illinois. I enclose herewith $1.00 for which payment I am to receive—as outlined above—the opportunity to buy my hosiery requirements at savings indicated. (Full particulars and printed forms to be mailed me at once) PROGRAM Nineteenth Annual Convention of the American Federation of Teachers August 25-30, 1935 Hotel Hollenden, Cleveland, Ohio Theme FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE SCHOOLS Sunday, August 25—10 a.m. and 2 p. m. Executive Council Meeting Monday, August 26—10 a.m. Addresses of Welcome: George Davis, President Cleveland Local 279 Dan Moley, President, Cleveland Federation of Labor Ray C. Miller, Member, Board of Education Thos. J. Donnelly, Secretary, Ohio State Federation of Labor Harry L. Davis, Mayor President's Address RayMonp F. Lowry Secretary-Treasurer’s Report Adoption of Rules Appointment of Committees 12:30 p.m. Get-Together Luncheon Sectional Reports R. J. Ahlstrom, Minneapolis,. Minn. May Darling, Portland, Oregon G. D. Hargrave, Grand Forks, North Dakota Clyde E. Kiker, Toledo, Ohio Abraham Lefkowitz, New York, N. Y. Allie B. Mann, Atlanta, Georgia Barbara C. McGlynn, Wilkes Barre, Penn. Homer J. Odell, Jacksonville, Florida. F. C. Purviance, Norphlet, Arkansas Bernice Rogers, Cambridge, Mass C. L. Vestal, Chicago, Illinois John H. Swan, Sacramento, Calif. 2:30 p.m. Committee Meetings ° 8 p.m. Open Meeting—Academic Freedom and Civil Liberties for Teachers, HEywoop Broun, President, American Newspaper Guild. Tuesday, August 27—9 a.m. Legislative Representative’s Report Organization Secretary Hanson President Lowry W. B. Satterthwaite 2 p.m. Committee Meetings 7 p.m. Banquet Address—Where Are We Headed—Right or Left?— Max S. Hayes, Editor, Labor Journal Address—Outlook for Public Education, CHArtes H. Lake, Supt. of Schools, Cleveland Wednesday, August 28—9 a.m. Address—America’s Future, Appa HILiLet SILVER. Reports of Permanent Committees Academic Freedom and Tenwre—Dr. LINVILLE. Education—Dr. HENry Harap Finance—Dr. Harotp M. Groves International Relations—Sretma M. Publicity—Grover C. RAMSEY Henry R. BORCHARDT 2 p.m. Address—The Out-of-School Youth, Georce P. Ham- BRECHT, Director Vocational Education, State of Wis- consin; President, American Vocational Association Committee Reports 3 p.m. Report of Committee on Nominations 5 p.m. Excursion Thursday, August 29—9 a.m. Address—Why the Union Label, I. M. Ornpurn, Sec., Union Label Trades Dept. Committee Reports 2 p.m. Committee Reports 3 p.m. Election of Officers Friday, August 30—9 a. m. Committee Reports 2 p.m. Committee Reports Saturday, August 31 Executive Council Meeting