wewvTae ee NwTlUrOhrerlUrl le lOO DOE OD Hina PERI ROOM Tee: N IBRARY , et UNTYA, aign for Tenure - - - - M. F. T. Tenure Canimittee”* ERICAN ACHER November-December, 1936 Yale Corporation vs. Freedom Jerome Davis Discharged by Vested Interests—American Federation of Labor Protests Dismissal—A Letter Sent by Yale Alumni—Suggestions for Action Victory in Washington - - - - - - - + Selden C. Menefee Children Strike for Teachers - - - - - - - - Haym Jaffe A Time for Federal Aid - - - - - - Mary Foley Grossman Eyes on New Jersey - -'- - - + + + + + + Bernard Forer Fascism via Industrial Mobilization - - Warren D. Mullin In Lieu of Proxy Voting - -.- - - - Walter G. Bergman The Classroom - - - - A New Department by Beryl Parker OFFICIAL ORGAN of the AMERICAN FEDERATION of TEACHERS WHAT EVERY WELL INFORMED TEACHER SHOULD KNOW The How and Why of the A. F. T. The following publications answer in convenient form questions concerning the aims and organization of the American Federation of Teachers. They are well suited for distribution to prospective members. Samples will be sent on request. ———— — . Information about the A. F. T. Contains facts and figures 2c per hundred 2. Six Major pee How the A. F. T. can aid the nation’s educational program 25c per hundred 3. The A. F. T. Program of Action Adopted at the 1931 Convention 25c per hundred 4. Can Teachers Unions Be Called Out on Strike? Questions and answers on this important topic 25¢ per hundred 5. Objections Answered Will clinch that argument 25c per hundred 6. Why I Am A Member of the Teachers Union Prominent educators state their views 35c per hundred 7. Six Reasons for Joining the A. F. T. (Jerome Davis) (These are also printed in ‘Questions and Answers”) 25c per hundred 8. Questions and Answers A convenient and inclusive resumé 35¢ per hundred 9. The Historical Setting of the A. F. 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You will find complete information on thousands of subjects in the New Merriam- Webster. 600,000 entries— 122,000 more than in any other dictionary. Edited by 207 outstanding authorities. The Supreme Authority-- A New Creation WEBSTER’S NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY - Second Edition tries @ Thousands of encyclo tries @ Synonyms and antonyms. Write for free, illustrated phlet ——e specimen pages, color plates, and information. G. & C. MERRIAM CO. Springfield Massachusetts 3,350 pages @ 12,000 terms illustrat- ed @ Over 13,000 biographical en- articles @ 35,000 geographical en- _—llULW East ees = oA MERICAN TEACHER NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1936 NUMBER 2 VOLUME XXxXI CONTENTS ch PP MO, «os ccs ekdeeksesteedseweeed An Editorial 4 Yale Corporation vs. Freedom................ Arnold Shukotof 5 i PUD... ccnaadccdcdovesenss sonééewonseesseddee 7 Si, PUREED HOUND. 6 vk vncin ns vcocdevcdsdccasesccecons 7 ee ee NS ys od ads swceinh sMbewe senwnen 8 A Letter Sent to Members of Sociology Societies Deedes Mo aes 8 Suggestions for Action................4:. Benjamin Davidson 8 A Campaign for Tenure............ Michigan Tenure Committee 9 Children Strike for Teachers................ /catel Haym Jaffe 11 ME OE DUO JOTOGY. 2 0. 2. ence rec cccccrcccseces Bernard Forer 13 Fascism via the Industrial Mobilization Plan...Warren D. Mullin 15 Victory in Washington.................+.... “Selden C. Menefee 17 A Time for Federal Aid.................. Mary Foley Grossman 18 Child Welfare is Teacher Welfare............. Sylvia Bergsmann 20 emeen G6 Prony Voting... .. .ccvccsesccccs Walter G. Bergman 23 Springfield Tax Opponents Close Schools...A Springfield Teacher 27 DEPARTMENTS BFC EPR Ee FE Oe nee ee 1 nd ccnk nde eoeeenseeuenedenan> a4 Jerome Davis 18 i es acc cv eacbe tid cee uniabssecueee™ 5 Pectirs 21 EE GN DUNO. 6 os ioc a.6s cca reeevecescnceessies 24 A. Ct ste eee d dakéenseesodt voabeie Beryl Parker 28 iE did kotha ccedndbe stabeswhoews coccteeUnves eres 30 Leading Union Labels: First Series... .......0..0ccecceccecess 31 I Ei. GLUON ie thee cond ycsedechcenetes ean 32 ro. a SSE bebo as cenvedscdvah }vaeeade 33 Contributors’ Column Yale and Elsewhere in this issue will be found an Jerome Davis article dealing with the dismissal of Pro- fessor Jerome Davis from Yale University. The Davis case raises, as no other case recently has, the whole question of academic freedom and tenure for col- lege teachers. Professor Davis is a nationally known scholar and teacher. He has taught at the Yale Divinity School for more than twelve years, three years as Assistant Pro- fessor, nine years as Associate Professor. During those years he was sharply criticized, as Professors Charles Beard, Coiston Warne, Paul Douglas and Edward A. Ross have indicated in a report they issued in the New Republic of November 18, for “(a) taking part in trade-union educa- tional activities opposed to open-shop interests; (b) advo- cating the recognition of Soviet Russia; (c) attacking the methods of Samuel Insull in the utility business; (d) ac- cepting the findings and conclusions of Professor Fay and Professor Barnes on the question of responsibility for the origins of the World War; (e) inviting Ferdinand Pecora to lecture at the University; and (f) inviting Senator Nye to be the annual speaker for the Henry Wright Cottage of the Divinity School.” The Yale Corporation that is dismissing Professor Davis on the flimsy grounds of “the budget situation” includes men who hold directorships in the country’s leading banking, insurance, railroad and manu- facturing concerns. In terminating Professor Davis’ stay at Yale, they have overruled the recommendation of the Faculty of the Yale Divinity School and have thrust aside two petitions of the faculty asking that Professor Davis be reappointed for a regular three year term. The Yale Corporation will have nothing of a scholar and teacher who has exposed the workings of financial interests in his speeches and researches and who has been friendly to or- ganized labor. But the Yale Corporation has failed to reckon with the reaction of the working people who, as a resolution of protest adopted by the International Asso- ‘ation of Oil Field, Gas Well and Refinery Workers of America indicated, “largely create the wealth on which the structure of higher education is built.” The Yale Cor- poration failed to consider the reaction of teachers, reli- gious organizations, the press and the public at large. Pro- tests have already been registered by the Social Action Committee of the Community Church of New York; by the League of American Writers; by the Book and Maga- zine Guild of America; by Teachers Union chapters at St. Louis, New York, Philadelphia, Sacramento, and other communities, and at Yale University and Howard Univer- sity; by Central labor unions at New Haven and El Paso, Texas; and by the A.F.L. in convention at Tampa. Professor Davis’ dismissal involves the right of scholars and teach- ers to carry on research, to speak and to act in behalf of organized labor. It raises the question whether a college teacher shall have any security; whether a university shall have the power to oust a professor, who has served it for more than twelve years, without so much as a hearing before a jury of his peers. Yale may have a $95,000,000 endowment, but it needs more than wealthy donors. It cannot do without scholars devoted to an honest search for the truth. It cannot do without the good will of stu- dents, teachers and workers. Protests from every nook and cranny of the religious, labor and educational worlds will decide the issue. _> E ro ly ty eee a Bu November-December, 1936 playgrounds. . . . Spain must protect itself against this barbarism. The Government of Spain is a constitutional democratic one fighting outlaws. The French Foreign Min- ister in a statement to the New York Times on August 1 said: “Free commerce with a friendly nation is in com- plete accord not only with international law but with Ameri- can tradition. Full sympathy toward a sister democracy that is fighting for its life against militaristic foreign in- spired terror is obligatory on every democratic American.” .. . The American Federation of Teachers Convention, in Philadelphia August 17, adopted a resolution in support of Spanish democracy, to take the form of voluntary con- tributions for medical help and relief. The need is greater than ever. We urge locals to continue their collections of money, food and clothing. Economic Recovery As “recovery” displaces “depres- for the Teacher sion” in the household vocabulary, and “prosperity” begins to nudge “recovery”, the teacher is wondering whether his profes- sion is peculiarly exempt from the beneficent influences of an economic revival. Within the last six months the upturn in business in the steel industry alone has been represented by a phenomenal rise in net profits of 290 per cent, but an average gain in wages of only 19 per cent. However, with the exception of the schools of a few communities, there has been no restoration of de- pression pay cuts in teachers’ salaries and on the whole the teachers of the country find themselves no better off than they were in 1934, the year when the effects of the economic crisis were felt to the fullest extent in the schools. In many states no effort has been made to remove re- strictions placed on school budgets; in fact, the tendency is to make permanent the measures taken in retrenchment of education costs during the crisis. . . . It is becoming clear that only through organization, through their own united efforts, can teachers achieve the restoration of their salaries and remove from themselves the burden of bear- ing any longer the effects of the economic crisis on educa- tion. Too many people have believed that the school system would be the last in recovering from the depression, but if the teachers wait for action to come from others, they may very well expect never to emerge from their de- pression status. Now is the time for teachers to press for legislative action on salary restoration and other ques- tions; to insist that administrators and school boards give heed to them and their interests, and to consolidate their own power through effective organization, are paramount tasks. An Absurd Congress cannot too quickly repeal the ab- Law surd “Red Rider” law to the effect that things communistic must not be mentioned in the schools of our national capital. It is as silly to close one’s eyes to what is going on in Russia as it would be to close one’s eyes to what is going on in Germany or Eng- land or Spain. . . . Any course in geography which omits 3 mention of a sixth of the earth’s surface because it hap- pens to be under communistic control is not only incom- plete but ridiculous. Any educational system offering a course in government or economics or modern European history, and afraid to cite Russia as the outstanding ex- ample of socialistic theory in action, is merely laughable. . . . Education does not consist in blindness and ignor- ance. If we are to handle the forces at work in the world we must understand them, whether they be yellow fever germs, the law of atmospheric pressure, communism or fascism. Apparently the federal lawmakers think that if good little boys and girls in Washington will just shut their eyes or let their teachers bandage their eyes for them, these modern political goblins won’t find them such tempting morsels. It’s a new thing to teach American children thus to hide their eyes, to run away, to be afraid to face their problems in the open. . . . The most intelligent way for the American public school authorities to han- dle the problems of socialism, communism, fascism, re- publicanism and democracy is to employ teachers for their scholarship and teaching ability regardless of their politi- cal affiliations or their economic beliefs; then let them teach the truths as they see it. Teachers chosen by this method are likely to represent a pretty fair cross section of in- formed opinion. Children can have no finer opportunity to secure a well-rounded education than by coming into contact with these varied opinions. In the process of com- paring them, these young people will learn to think for themselves, an indispensable accomplishment in a democ- racy. An The Editors wish to take this oppor- Acknowled gment tunity to express their appreciation of the generous assistance given by union members in the task of bringing out the AMERICAN TEAcHER. We wish to record the general literary work done by Dr. Dorothy Douglas, of Northampton, Massa- chusetts; Mr. A. S. Hancock, of Trenton, N. J.; and Mr. Richard B. Crosscup, of Watertown, Massachusetts. We wish particularly to thank Mr. George Finch, of New York, who, in addition to general literary work, has written It’s Happening Now; Mr. Boris Gamzue, of New York, for work done upon Among the New Books; and Miss Helen Ann Mins, of New York, who has given most unselfishly of her time in proofreading and improvement of manuscripts. YALE ON TRIAL The New Republic has issued a special supplement en- titled Yale on Trial, dealing with the dismi of Jerome Davis. It consists of a statement by Yale University, and the report of an investigation by Charles A. Beard, Paul H. Douglas, Edward A. Ross, and Colston E. Warne. This supplement should be in the hands of each person interested in knowing all the facts of the case. Copies are available at five cents each, and should be ordered from the American Federation of Teachers, 506 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago. 2 ea oo —Sa i j The cAMERICAN TEACHER Tenure Can Be Won AN EDITORIAL present time, is indicated by replies sent to the edi- torial committee from some thirty locals representing all parts of the country. It precedes even salaries and academic freedom since tenure is a prerequisite for both. In twenty-seven states teachers have yearly contracts or no contracts at all. How teachers fare under this hire-and- fire system can be judged from the dismissals of teachers active in organizing the local in Wisconsin Rapids; the wholesale firing of teachers in Highland Park, Michigan; the dismissal of union leaders in Jasper County, Alabama, in an attempt to break up the union; the threats of with- holding contracts successfully used to destroy the union in Memphis, Tennessee. The court ruling quoted in the report of the Michigan tenure committee shows an amazingly insolent attitude towards teachers. It says plainly that teachers may be dismissed for any reason—union activity, color of complexion—or for no reason at all! 54% of the teachers in this country are in this deplorable condition. And the “continuing contract,” which depends on the good will of the Board and has no legal standing, is of little help when the Board is out to keep teachers from organizing. T= TENURE is the chief problem before us at the Four states have uniform state-wide tenure regulations. Ten others have tenure regulations which cover only parts of the state. Reports sent in by our locals make it clear that the actual situation is worse than these figures would indicate. California, for example, is listed as having a tenure law. Yet this law does not protect teachers in schools with a daily average attendance of less than 850. In addition, there is a provision (1933) that teachers may be dismissed for “aiding in the commission of acts of criminal syndicalism”. Since the California criminal syndi- calism act of 1918 has been used to imprison trade union organizers, this special provision for teachers is regarded by union members as a threat to tenure. New Jersey is one of the few states which has a state-wide tenure law. But in parts of the state a probationary teacher is dismissed a few days before completing her probationary period, and subse- quently rehired as a new teacher. In New York City, the Board has, for a number of years, followed a policy of making very few regular appointments, and of employing substitutes to fill regular positions. There are hundreds of teachers in the New York City school system who have for as.many as four, five and six years filled regular positions without tenure protection and at substitutes’ rates. In formulating a tenure bill, the problem of protec- tion for probationary teachers and of provisions to prevent mis-hiring of substitutes must be carefully considered to avoid loopholes for the evasion of tenure regulations. Requests have come to us for aid in framing tenure bills. The Michigan Federation suggests the following basic points: 1. State-wide provision. 2. Adequate protection of the rights of probationary teachers. 3. Probationary period of two years (in most places the probationary period is three years). 4. Continuous tenure following probation- ary period. 5. Causes for dismissal clearly and specifically stated in the act. 6. Opportunity for hearing and appeal on the part of teachers. 7. Provision for the immediate application of the law to protect experienced teachers. A bill being drafted by a joint tenure committee in Ohio includes provisions for the right of teachers to counsel, witnesses, and a copy of the proceedings. It specifies that a definite percentage of the teachers must be on tenure. (This removes the possibility of using substitutes to evade the tenure law.) The Pennsylvania locals ask, in addition, for the right of appeal to the Court of Common Pleas. In New York the aim is to extend tenure to all parts of the state. These are, in general, essential points to keep in mind in drafting a tenure bill. This is a good time to bring tenure regulations into state legislatures. In many places the voters have made it clear that they will support progressive legislation. The A.F.L, at the Tampa convention passed a resolution favoring tenure laws for teachers. It should be possible to get the support of Central Labor Unions and State Federations of Labor. The question of the relation of the Union to State Teachers Associations is very important. In California, the State Teachers Association fought the tenure amendment of the Union and was an important factor in its defeat. The failure of leaders of the Michigan State Teachers Association to support the A.F.T. bill in 1935, as they had promised to do, helped defeat tenure. However, tenure is a fundamental need for all teachers on which it is very important to work with other organizations. In Georgia, some of our locals are working with the State Association. In Ohio, representatives of the Union have met on a joint committee with the State Association in an attempt to agree on one bill. The New York locals are anxious to work with the State Association, which has just come out for tenure. The Philadelphia local has called 4 conference to work out a joint bill. Wherever possible efforts should be made to reach agreement on a good tenure bill. A division in the ranks of the teachers gives legis- lators an easy excuse for defeating tenure entirely. A united campaign for tenure supported by all teachers’ organizations, by progressive citizens’ groups, and by labor has a good chance of success. Tenure should be the very center and focus of our legislative drive. c | es Aare Se aSrSsa S856 RUS eo SS + _ SS = Fe te eo of (S84>FRF.RE BSS E November-December, 1936 Yale Corporation vs. Freedom Jerome Davis Discharged by Vested Interests ARNOLD SHUKOTOFF truth in a way that makes a linotypist no unimpor- tant person in the labor movement. On October 22 the New York Times published a story in which President Angell was quoted as saying that finances, not Professor Jerome Davis’ views, ended his contract with Yale. In the Times index of that day, however, the story summary ap- peared with the following typographical error: “Angell says that financiers ended Davis contract with Yale.” . TYPOGRAPHICAL ERROR may accidentally uncover the President Angell’s statement to the press followed the usual! form adopted by universities in cases of the violation of academic freedom. (1) It denied that there was any “abridgement of academic freedom or liberty of speech” involved in the case. “Mr. Davis has always been accorded full freedom of speech and action both in the classroom and outside. Neither the action of the Board of Permanent Officers of the Divinity School nor that of the Corporation is based upon dissent from his views.” (2) It implied that Professor Davis’ teaching and scholarship were not what they should be. Dean Weigle of the Divinity School, sup- plementing his chief’s statement, announced that Professor Davis’ book, Capitalism and Its Culture, “does not show a very great degree of scholarship” and that “his work as a whole and his teaching were very uneven.” (3) It insisted that Professor Davis’ reappointment (to a chair supported by an endowment, be it observed) was really made impos- sible by “the budgetary situation.” The charge of incompetence or inefficiency has frequently been used by reactionary administrations to cloak victim- ization of teachers whose views they have found unpalatable. Such a charge was unsuccessfully levied against Morris U. Schappes of City College, who was restored to his position through a vigorous campaign led by the College Section of the Teachers Union of New York. One doubted that the Yale Corporation would raise so transparent a charge against a nationally known scholar and teacher. Professor Davis has been at Yale for more than twelve years. He is on the executive committee of the American Sociological Society, a member of the editorial board of the American Sociological Review, and president of the Eastern Sociological Conference, a section of the American Socio- logical Society. He is editor of the Social Relations Series published by D. C. Heath and Co. He has published several sociology texts which have been extensively used in college classes, an Jntroduction to Sociology (written in col- laboration with Harry Elmer Barnes) having been adopted in more than 150 American colleges. Capitalism and Its Culture, the book to which Dean Weigle made slighting reference, has been highly praised by John Dewey, Charles Beard, Professor J. H. Gray (former president of the Amer- ican Economic Association), Professor Henry Pratt Fair- child (present president of the American Sociological Society) and Professor Harold J. Laski of the London School of Economics. As a teacher, Professor Davis has been the subject of such encomiums as Professor Luccock’s recent public statement: “He has been one of the most effective and influential teachers in the School.” Equally high praise has been given by Professors Douglas MacIntosh and Richard Niebuhr, also of the Yale Divinity School. In 1931 the Conference on Theological Seminaries in the U. S. A. and Canada, and the Institute of Social and Religious Research published an investigation into “The Education of Amer- ican Ministers.” The survey found that students gave Professor Davis’ course in “Christianity and Social Prog- ress” the highest ranking of any course in the Yale Divinity School. But Professor Davis has not merely been a good scholar and a stimulating teacher. He has also been actively con- cerned with such crying social problems as friendly relations between nations, the danger of war, and the hard lot of labor. In the words of a well-known college president, he was “persuaded that, if our universities are fully to justify to the increasingly critical public their intellectual and moral freedom, which they so jealously and wisely cherish, they must explicitly and definitely turn some of their atten- tion toward those urgent and compelling problems upon whose solution depends the very existence of civilization itself.” It was the same college president’ who, in announcing the dismissal of Professor Davis, stated: “Pro- 1 President Angell delivered, fe address from which the preceding quejation is taken, on Feb: 22, 1 , exactly two weeks after Professor had been notified of corminesion of his contract. The address was entitled “Shall the University Be Free?” and was ted before a meeting of the Yale Alumni. We are sorry to be unable to refer students of h isy to the com academic address. An excerpt is to be found in the A.A.U.P. for April 1936. vy ¢ i ; TSS a ee er Re ee e- =f ay er esac. ne 6 fessor Davis has always been accorded full freedom of speech and action both in the classroom and outside.” Consider the freedom enjoyed by Professor Davis as scholar. In December 1925, President Angell, recommend- ing Professor Davis for a Guggenheim Fellowship, wrote to him expressing concern over “your apparently unquali- fied acceptance of the sort of material which Mr. Sidney Fay and Mr. Harry Elmer Barnes have been publishing on the responsibility for the War.” In 1934 when Pro- fessor Davis was being granted a leave of absence to write a book and was contemplating completing Capitalism and Its Culture, Dean Weigle warned him that it would be better for him to write in the field of crime rather than in the controversial area of capitalism. In 1929 after Pro- fessor Davis had undertaken an inquiry into wages paid in dining halls of large American universities, he was in- formed by Dean Weigle that the Yale Treasurer was opposed to his continuing the inquiry. Consider the freedom Yale accorded Professor Davis as a citizen. In October 1927, he spoke in Madison Square Garden advocating American recognition of the Soviet Union. Wealthy alumni protested to President Angell. E. M. Roberts of Chase, Roberts and Co. of Long Island City wrote: “Do you think that a man who associates with and believes in Anarchist, Bolshevist and Communist teachings (different names but all mean anarchy) is a fit person to teach in Yale College, to come in contact with our boys when he holds such ideas as he does, and I ask as a 100% American that he be thrown out of Yale head first.” As a result of these protests, President Angell wrote to Professor Davis suggesting that he did not promote “the interests of the cause you have at heart, to say nothing of the reflex effects upon Yale, by joining the brotherhood of out-door Sunday orators.” In 1931, as a result of a speech before the Chicago Ministerial Association, in which he characterized the Insull interests as “higher racketeers,” and which was protested by Samuel Insull, Jr. (Yale ’21), Professor Davis was asked by Dean Weigle and Treasurer George P. Day to have written copies of his outside speeches ready for sub- mission to the University authorities at their request. In January, 1936, Professor Davis, together with 44 other religious leaders, signed an open letter to President Frank- lin D. Roosevelt criticizing certain aspects of existing capi- talism. When Professor Davis’ promotion came up later in the month, he was told by Dean Weigle that the President and members of the Yale Corporation opposed it. Among the activities which they found objectionable were (1) Professor Davis’ action in starting the Religion and Labor Foundation; (2) his primary responsibility for the open letter to the President; and (3) his trouble-mak- ing public utterances. Perhaps the activities which most agitated Yale author- ities was Professor Davis’ work in the American labor movement. In 1926, Mr. Howell Cheney, a member of the The cAMERICAN TEACHER Yale Corporation, wrote to Dean Weigle stating: “The New Haven men are particularly exercised by Professor Davis’ efforts to unionize the non-union factories and employees.” Mr. Cheney went on to tell of “the appeal of friends to do something to counteract the activities of Professor Davis in the labor world.” In 1928, Professor Davis helped launch the Yale and New Haven local of the A. F. T., today the oldest college local in the country, During 1929 Professor Davis was called on the carpet for a letter he had written concerning the wages of janitors. In November 1932, Dean Weigle warned Professor Davis that, since he was coming up for promotion shortly, it would be unwise for him to represent local unions at the 1932 A. F. L. Convention. Such was the freedom enjoyed by Professor Davis as scholar and citizen. For more than twelve years, Yale authorities sought quietly with all the sly and insufferable ways of a University financed by Wall Street to throttle Professor Davis. They promised advancement. And then at each point (as was clearly indicated in the investigation made by Charles A. Beard and others, and printed in the New Republic, of November 18, 1936) prejudiced the appropriate faculty against recommending it. They slan- dered Professor Davis before his colleagues, both directly and by veiled reference. President Angell contributed an article to the Yale Alumni Weekly for November 29, 1935 in which he contrasted the mass of teachers who are “sensitive to the dictates of good sense and good taste” with those few “eccentrics” who “cherish delusions of grandeur concerning their insight into ultimate economic and policital truth and suffer from an irrepressible urge to publish their insight far and wide.” When ridicule and promises of advancement failed, they tried threats of dismissal. But Professor Davis stood firmly and courageously on his rights as teacher and citizen and on the righteousness of his opinions and activities. Publication of Capitalism and Its Culture in 1935 was the last straw. Yale authorities had failed to break their man. There was only one step left. Dismissal. The problem for the Yale authorities was how to accom- plish dismissal without revealing the real face of Yale. The usual methods were tried. Professor Davis was called in and asked by Dean Weigle whether he would consider accepting the presidency of some small college, say Buck- nell. Some time later, on April 29, 1936, President Angell advised Professor Davis against publicizing his case on the ground that publicity would make satisfactory relocation difficult. When it appeared that both of these maneuvers had failed, Yale authorities fell back on the last refuge of academic reaction: the budgetary situation. But the issue is not to be confused. Yale authorities have grossly violated the principle of academic freedom. President Angell, for all his speeches on academic freedom, has not only permitted vested interests on and behind the Yale Corporation to throttle academic freedom, but has himself taken part in the attack on a scholar’s right freely oe TE ee ae ae a ee ee ee ee i= ao to - Oo =F > = weet put hts Its oft. ws November-December, 1936 to investigate and publish accurate research, and freely to participate in the activities involved in democratic citizen- ship. Neither Yale nor any other institution has ever ousted scholars whose research and activities have served the vested interests. The Davis case raises the issue of the right of American scholars to speak and act in behalf of labor. The dismissal of Professor Davis focuses attention on another problem. Professor Davis has served on the Yale Divinity School Faculty for more than a decade. Dur- ing that period, according to Professor Robert Seneca Smith of the Faculty, there was no extended discussion of Professor Davis’ teaching and in the few instances when it was mentioned, it was always commented on favorably. Yet the Yale authorities dare at this time suddenly to broadcast insinuations regarding the quality of Professor Davis’ teaching. The indication is that college teachers in general have not established the principle of tenure on a working basis. If institutions are effectively to be pre- vented from victimizing teachers whose views or activities are unpalatable and if administrations are effectively to be prevented from publicly blackening the reputations of teachers they do not like, the principle must be established that once a college teacher has served an institution a given number of probationary years, he shall not be dismissed except on charges formally made and proved before an impartial jury of his peers. New York City public school teachers have won such a system of tenure. Within the last year, as a result of the campaign waged around the Schappes’ case, the Board of Higher Education of New York has established such a tenure policy for the three city colleges. The Davis case provides the center around which college locals may initiate campaigns to establish a sound system of tenure. Such activities should lead to the calling of a national conference of college teachers at which the Code of Academic Freedom and Tenure agreed upon in 1925 by the A. A. U. P., the Association of Amer- ican Colleges and other organizations, may be recast in the light of the changed conditions of the university world. Since the latter part of October when President Angell released his statement to the press, the Yale administration has maintained a guilty silence. It has refused to avail itself of the opportunity afforded it by the New Republic to answer the charges made by Charles A. Beard and his associates. It has refused to see the College Committee 7 on Academic Freedom of the A. F. T., which has been investigating the case since September. Instead it has attacked the Chairman of the A. F. T. Committee as an incompetent investigator and the Committee as partisan; and it has characterized the Beard report as guilty of “sup- pression of evidence, distortion of fact and partisanship.” At the same time, while maintaining that it has evidence to prove such distortion and suppression, it has steadfastly refused to present its evidence. The A. F. T. College Com- mittee indicated its willingness to conduct an interview with the Yale administration before representatives of religious and educational organizations. The Yale administration would have nothing to do with such an interview. And, after it had agreed to meet with the A. F. T. Committee alone, it suddenly cancelled that appointment. Before the students of the Yale Divinity School, the administration has maintained a similar silence with regard to its evidence. In a vain attempt to head off student action, it urged stu- dents to suspend judgment until the A. A. U. P. had con- ducted an impartial investigation. When the students made arrangements to hold a mass protest meeting on December 10 at which Professor Charles A. Beard was to be the main speaker, Dean Weigle banned the meeting. It was only after the students had agreed to exclude “outside” speakers that the students were permitted to meet. Yale’s attempt to dismiss Professor Davis has aroused colleagues, brother sociologists, students, alumni, church or- ganizations, teacher organizations and organized labor. The Divinity School Student Council has urged Professor Davis’ retention. The head of Professor Davis’ department has urged his retention. The Divinity School Faculty, which originally had recommended Professor Davis for a regular three-year reappointment, has twice petitioned the Yale Corporation to remove the terminus date on Professor Davis’ contract. But the Yale Corporation, dominated by men who are part of America’s interlocking directorate,’ has ridden roughshod over the will of department head, students and faculty. The Yale Corporation is anxious to rid itself of a scholar whose research and activities have involved expo- sure, not glorification, of the vested interests. Professor Davis stays at Yale until June 30, 1937. Whether he remains beyond that date is up to the religious leaders, the teachers and the workers of America. 1 Six members of the Yale Corporaticn are directors or officers of 5 Kuhn- Loeb firms, 15 Rockefeller firms, and 18 Morgan firms. A Sheaf of Protests A.F.L. Protests Dismissal Resolution introduced at the A.F.L. Convention by Delegate Irvin Kuenzli, of the American Federation of Teachers. Wuerras, The Yale Corporation voted to terminate the service of Professor Jerome Davis, president of the American Federation of Teachers, as of June 30, 1937, and Wuereas, This disciplinary action against Professor Davis has been taken against him because of his opinions, writings, affiliations, and activities—for example, his helping organized Labor in New SOP RT eS re epee eee ee SO Sone emes, Dee Esl eae =. Haven in educational work and other activities, his criticism of the Insull Utility interest of the Midwest, and Wuenreas, Professor Davis’ educational work has been outstanding as shown by (1) his own publications and his editorial work in the Social Relations Series of D. C. Heath & Co., (2) the enthusiastic endorsement of the head of his department, Dr. Douglas C. Mac- intosh, (3) his election to the presidency of the Eastern Sociological Conference, (4) his election to the Board of Editors of the Amer- ican Sociological Review, (5) the petitioning of the Yale Corpora- tion by the Student Council of the Yale Divinity School to keep Professor Davis as a teacher, therefore be it Resotvep, That the American Federation of Labor at its fifty- sixth convention protests the refusal of the Yale Corporation to ratify the recommendation of the Board of Permanent Officers of the Yale Divinity School faculty and calls upon it to reconsider its action and reappoint Professor Davis as recommended by the Divinity School Faculty, and be it further Resotvep, That copies of these resolutions be sent to President Angell of Yale University, the general press and the American Federation of Teachers. (Referred to Committee on Resolutions, and unanimously adopted by the American Federation of Labor November 24, 1936.) A Letter Sent by Yale Alumni November 10, 1936 The President and \ellows Yale University New Haven, Conn. Gentlemen: Your action in failing to reappoint Professor Jerome Davis, tantamount to an expulsion for social and economic views distaste- ful to you, fills us as Yale men with greater shame for the name of Yale than any action of the University within our memory. Recommended for reappointment by the Board of Permanent Officers of his own Faculty, reinforced by the expressed desires of his own students, after twelve years of courageous and creditable teaching service to the Divinity School and to American education, we feel convinced his virtual dismissal was not due to the causes assigned. The Pharisaical statements by Dean Weigle that his only objection to Professor Davis’ analysis of Capitalism and its Culture was to its lack of scholarship, and by President Angell that Pro- fessor Davis’ “liberty of speech” has never been interfered with by the University, speak for themselves. The real explanation of your action would seem to lie in the following significant fact: three years in succession, 1933, 1934, and 1935, vacancies in your number on the Corporation have been filled by what amounts to appointment rather than election, since only one candidate in each year was nominated, and in each case the new member was high in the roster of America’s discredited finan- cial fraternity, with qualifications largely dependent on connections The cAmMERICAN TEACHER with great Wall Street institutions. When Professor Davis in his powerful book, Capitalism and its Culture, demonstrated the con- nections between our Universities and those whom President Roose. velt refers to as our “economic royalists,” he was challenging that kind of control of an institution whose motto is “Lux et Veritas,” How can there be “Light and Truth” in an institution dominated by the powers of reaction, at a time when change is the order of the day? With the fascist nations of Europe engaging in “elections” in which only one candidate appears, with Nazi-controlled Univer- sities dismissing, often in the interests of “economy,” all those mem- bers of the faculty of whose views they disapprove, with many alarming symptoms in American life and American education show- ing similar trends, it was incumbent on you to be over-zealous in avoiding even the appearance of interference with academic free- dom. Instead, you have taken an action in direct contravention of everything for which Yale should stand. Very truly yours, Atrrep M. BrncHAm ’27 SELDEN RopMAN ’31 (Signed) SrepHen Vincent Benet 19 (Signed) Jonn CHAMBERLAIN ’25 (Signed) Ricmarp Storrs Cups '32 (Signed) Wurm Hartan Hate ’31 (Signed) Dwicut MacDonatp ’28 A‘Letter Sent to Members of Economics and Sociology Societies October 29, 1936 Dear Brother Sociologist: The dropping of Dr. Jerome Davis from the chair of practical philanthropy in the Yale Divinity School ought to rouse our group like the clangor of a fire bell in the night. President Angell, ab- sorbed in grandiose schemes for building Yale’s endowment and en- larging its plant has become exceedingly responsive to protests from alumni who have given or may give liberally to their Alma Mater. So Dr. Davis, after twelve years of professional service, is thrown “to the lions.” Take note that there is nothing whatever blameworthy in Dr. Davis as man, as scholar, and as university teacher. He is learned, wise, fair-minded, inspiring and hard working. Not in the least is he extremist, visionary or fanatic. He has a profound respect for facts, his conclusions develop out of the concrete and measured. His chair being what it is, he was bound to draw the attention of the young men studying to become Christian pastors to industrial diseases, industria] accidents and unconscionably low wages; to com- pare alms-giving with “social security” as a method of coping with the destitution arising from unemployment and old age. Dr. Davis’ masterly appreciation of social forces and processes so impressed me that for years I used one of his books as the text Locals should do the following: 1. Get resolutions adopted by the Teachers Union and other local unions in the city, parents’ organizations, educational associations, civic bodies, church bodies, local chapters of fraternities and sororities, local chapters of college alumni groups. _ 2. Get prominent educators, ministers, and other citizens who are in sympathy with the campaign to reappoint Prof. Davis, to address appeals and letters to their colleagues to do the same. 3. Get local unions to organize public meetings with prom- inent speakers to educate the general public on the significance of the case. Send resolutions from the meeting to the Yale authorities. 4. See that your Academic Freedom Committee or Re- Suggestions for Action appoint Davis Committee is on the job to organize the cam- paign in your community. Individual members should do the following: 1. Become acquainted with the facts by reading the special supplement entitled “Yale on Trial,” in the November 18 issue of the New Republic. 2. Send letters or telegrams of protest to President Angell and Dean Weigle. 3. Get fellow-teachers in your school and your friends to do the same. 4. Raise this question in every organization of which you are a member. BEenyJAMIN Davipson Chairman, AF.T. Committee on Academic Freedom Bees for FS SEFRERPE SR Freee S8aS75 8 28557289 58 & i November-December, 1936 for my largest class in sociology. Ten years ago, we in sociology here sounded him out with reference to joining us at the University of Wisconsin, but he decided to remain where he was. Keeping himself clear of every improper entanglement, Dr. Davis has faithfully done exactly what a professor of practical philanthropy in a divinity school is supposed to do. But because one with such ideas and so gifted with tongue and pen irritates Yale donors, actual and potential, he is eliminated. If Yale can do this to one of its outspoken professors with im- punity, it may do it to others; if Yale can do such a thing, other institutions will dismiss professors in the social sciences whose utter- 9 ances offend prospective donors. A determined effort will be made to convince the public that Professor Davis is not a representative sociologist and that there has been no violation of his academic freedom. Therefore, I urge you to acquaint yourself as soon as possible with the facts in the case and, if it appears to you as it appears to me, to make every effort to defeat the attempt that will be made to belittle and discredit him. Sincerely yours, (Signed) E. A. Ross, Professor of Sociology, Chairman of Department, University of Wisconsin. A Campaign for Tenure Report of the MICHIGAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS TENURE COMMITTEE HE FIGHT for teachers’ tenure in Michigan is on. To unjust dismissal of teachers in Corunna and, more recently, in Highland Park has been a jolt even to the most complacent teachers in the state, and the need for adequate protective legislation is being gen- erally discussed. The truth has become evident that there is no tenure for teachers in Michigan, that dependence upon the benev- olence of administrators or the dignity of the profession for security is precariously founded, and that teachers may be dismissed for any or no cause whatsoever. Nine compe- tent and experienced teachers in Corunna were dropped for no reason. In Highland Park, a city of fifty thousand, forty-two teachers failed of reappointment because of their activity during a school board election campaign. Thirty- six were reinstated because of popular indignation, but six are definitely “out”. That teachers in Michigan have no legal basis for reinstatement, or even the right to a hear- ing, is clearly shown in the following ruling: (Ruling Case Law, Volume 24, page 613): “Under the general powers usually reposed in local school boards is included the power to enter into contracts with teachers and fix their compensation and term of employment. The discretion of a school board in this respect is very broad, and the courts will not interfere to aid anyone whom the board does not choose to employ. The board has the absolute right to decline to employ or re-employ any appli- cant for any reason whatever or for no reason at all. It is no infringement on the constitutional rights of anyone for the board to decline to employ him as a teacher in the schools, and it is immaterial whether the reason for refusal to employ him is because the applicant is married or unmarried, is of fair complexion or dark, is or is not a member of a trade union, or whether no reason is given for such refusal.” Detroit teachers have long felt that, despite the lack of teacher-security in the state, their own conditions of employment are much more stable. In evidence they mar- shal two arguments: that there are no unjust dismissals of teachers in Detroit and that teachers in that city are protected by their “continuing contracts”. The continuing contract in Detroit may be given the teacher after a period of substitute service and probation, and is supposedly in effect so long as that teacher per- forms his duties competently. That such a contract pro- vides a measure of security cannot be denied, but its inade- quacies are only too clear. A substitute in the schools may be kept in that role indefinitely . . . there is no guarantee of a contract at any time. Again, a probationary teacher’s contract is subject to cancellation by the Board of Edu- cation for cause upon thirty days’ notice. “For cause” is not specifically defined, and the only recourse of a dis- missed probationer is a hearing before the Personnel Com- mittee, which rarely, if ever, reverses a decision. More- over, any teacher “whose work is judged to be unsatisfac- tory shall be placed upon the probationary list at the end of any semester.” The judgment is rendered by depart- ment supervisors, principals, and district principals. No reports are given to the teacher, and there is no possi- bility of a hearing before an impartial board. The catch concerning the continuing contract is the question of its legality. It has never been tested in the 10 courts, but its status there has been doubted by many competent lawyers. Further than that, it is possible for the Board of Education to reverse its policy at any time and discontinue continuing contracts on thirty days’ notice. Demands for a tenure law in Michigan were first in- stituted in 1933, when teachers in southeastern Michi- gan succeeded in having tenure accepted as an issue by the State Federation of Teachers Clubs and the Michi- gan Education Association. In 1934, the State Depart- ment of Education and the M.E.A. officials declared them- selves in favor of a tenure bill, provided one could be drafted which avoided the bad features present, in their judgment, in all known bills. The insecurity of teach- ers’ positions in Michigan had been interesting teachers’ clubs for some time. Many of these set about energetically to educate their members. An enthusiastic and able tenure committee was set up in the Classroom Teachers Depart- ment of the M.E.A. Nevertheless, for reasons not then apparent, a tenure bill was not forthcoming. When the legislature met for the 1935 session, therefore, teachers interested in tenure approached the Michigan Federation of Teachers, which was preparing to support the pros- pective M.E.A. bill, and urged that we sponsor a bill. Accordingly, on March 28, 1935, our organization intro- duced House Bill 414. That same week, when the M.E.A. Representative Assembly met, a resolution was adopted calling for a meeting of the various tenure committees, with a view to securing join support for a bill. Such a meeting was held on the invitation of the M.E.A. and a compromise apparently agreed upon calling for united sup- port of H. B. 414. The M.E.A. Legislation Committee, however, later repudiated this action and on April 23 sub- mitted its own bill, H. B. 530, to the Legislature. The Michigan Federation of Teachers bill was buried in the usual House graveyard, the Committee on Religious and Benevolent Societies. About a week later, the M.E.A. bill, H. B. 530, was referred to the House Committee on Edu- cation, from which it failed to emerge. A study of the tenure laws in the states which have adopted them leads the Michigan Federation of Teachers to believe that an adequate bill should conform to the following minimum standards: 1. State wide provision Adequate protection of the rights of probationary teachers Probationary period of two years Indefinite tenure following probationary period Causes for dismissal clearly and specifically stated in the act Opportunity for hearing and appeal on the part of teachers Provision for the immediate application of the law to protect experienced teachers = ff ? + The bill now being proposed by the Michigan Federation of Teachers was framed with these requirements in mind. The M.E.A. bill meets the second requirement partially; The cAMERICAN TEACHER it definitely fails to conform to the fifth, and it makes no such provision as is set forth in the seventh. These omis- sions are fundamentally detrimental to any tenure bill, The law that the M.E.A. proposes would leave a great number of probationary teachers without any certainty of a contract, even if their services were satisfactory. Pro- bationers would be used as they have been in the past, as easily obtained and cheaply employed labor within school systems. They are easily dismissed at the end of their probationary periods and their places are filled by a new crop of beginners who will serve their purpose for a year or two. The omission of the seventh principle in the M.E.A. bill is fraught with catastrophic possibilities. It allows the tenure law to become a threatening weapon against thousands of capable and experienced Michigan teachers who could at one stroke be reduced anew to the status of probationary teachers. Governor Fitzgerald has stated that he is opposed to this provision of the M.E.A. bill which would place experienced teachers on three years pro- bation from effective date of the act. So far the M.E.A. bill has evoked little enthusiasm among teachers in the state; indeed, dissatisfaction with it has been expressed in resolutions at regional meetings and in teachers’ clubs which have urged the State Association to seek the cooperation of the Michigan Federation of Teach- ers and the State Federation of Teachers Clubs in press- ing for joint support of a mutually satisfactory bill. To such a cooperative promotion of tenure, the Michi- gan Federation heartily subscribes. The M.E.A. is an in- fluential body and its support would be most welcome. Such joint action, however, must be undertaken only upon the basis of the minimum requirements of a truly ade- quate law and must be made in good faith on behalf of the teachers of Michigan. Never before have conditions in Michigan been so favor- able for the passage of a tenure law as they are at present. The Corunna and Highland Park dismissals have aroused teachers and other citizens to the need of tenure protec- tion. The incoming administration is openly committed to the principle of civil service, and Governor-elect Frank Murphy, widely known for his liberalism, has given defi- nite support to the tenure principle. The Democratic Party, victorious in the last election, incorporated tenure for teachers as an essential part of its state program during the campaign. Many of the recently elected Republican legislators are also on record as favorable to tenure legis- lation. Attainment of a tenure law in Michigan is a goal within grasp. The chief danger is that the law passed will fall short of the real requirements of the teachers. Failure to secure the passage of a sound tenure law can be antici- pated only as a result of continued opposition and sabotage. If such opposition is successful, Michigan may find itself on = ec > 8 to h- nt. efi- November-December, 1936 with what is euphemistically labelled a “tenure law”, but its teeth will be drawn. Only alertness and knowledge on the part of the teachers can prevent such a consequence, for previous experience shows us that the most dangerous opposition will come not from without the profession, but from within. It is the sincere hope of liberal administra- 11 tors, the professionally awake members of the M.E.A., as well as classroom teachers throughout the State that the campaign for tenure, in which the Michigan Federation of Teachers members have played no inconsiderable part dur- ing the past few years, may come to successful fruition early in the legislative session of 1937. Children Strike for Teachers HAYM JAFFE an opportunity this fall to affirm its interest in the welfare of teachers. It did not hesitate. Par- ents kept 10,000 pupils out of school when three mem- bers of the A.F.T. Local 436, were fired. Only on the urgent request of the A.F.T. and the Governor of Ala- bama did the Central Labor Body and the Farmers Union agree to suspend the strike. The report of the Gover- nor’s investigator is now anxiously awaited by the teach- ers, the parents and the entire community of Walker County. ("en LABOR in Walker County, Alabama, had This strange strike occurred about 35 miles northwest of Birmingham, Alabama, not far from the iron and coal district that rivals Pittsburgh. Walker County, popula- tion 59,000, understands the importance of unions. The miners are 100% union men; the textile workers, retail clerks and others are well organized; and 3500 of the 4000 farm families belong to a Farmers Union, which sends fraternal delegates to the Central Body. The Farm- ers Union actually refuses to sell its produce to stores that do not have their clerks organized, and in parts of the county parents won’t permit their children to ride in school buses because the bus drivers are not orgarized. Last year 15 or 20 teachers, feeling that classroom teach- ers had no say in either the Walker County Teachers As- sociation or the Alabama Education Association, since these are completely dominated by principals, supervisors and superintendents, decided to organize a local of the AF.T. Principals were then getting their full salaries, while classroom teachers had to apply for Federal relief for three months out of the year. During these three months they received a small supp 'ementary payment from the School Board. Of this additional payment, the teach- ers had received only 9 per cent of what was due them. Calling on the superintendent, Mr. A. S. Scott, they learned that the Board had no money to pay them. Mr. Scott was, however, strangely affected by the news that the teach- ers were organizing into a union. Five hours later, the teachers received the money for nearly all the supplement due! Local 436, A.F.T., began last year with 20 members. 34 others signed application cards, and about half of Walker County’s 375 teachers were showing interest. The teachers of Walker County now received a letter from Superintendent Scott. In a most paternal tone he ex- plained that he had Refrained from advising teachers on this matter, because I have wanted them to exercise perfect freedom in making up their minds. ... But when I am informed that some of our teachers have been intimidated and threatened with the loss of their jobs unless they joined this organization, then I feel called upon to give definite and emphatic expression to my attitude on the ques- tion. .. . While I am aware that some members of the Federa- tion may have been inspired by honest but mistaken zeal, I appreciate very deeply the professional loyalty and good judg- ment of those teachers who have refused to join a movement which is disapproved by both the State Department of Educa- tion and the County Superintendent's office. This very definitely threatening communication natur- ally cowed the teachers. In reply, George Davis, Secre- tary-Treasurer of the A.F.T. wrote: I can’t understand why you express a belief in the right of teachers “to exercise perfect freedom in making up their minds” as to what professional organization they shall join, and immedi- ately limit that right, as far as you are able, to affiliation with the organizations of your choosing. .. . You know very well, Mr. Scott, that your teachers have not been intimated and threatened by any representative of the A.F.T. I'm not so sure your February 11 communication is not intimidating; I should so consider it if I were a teacher in Walker County and de- pendent on you for continuance in my position. During the summer of 1936, four teachers, officers of the union, were dismissed. Scott told them that the School Board had unanimously decided that all people participat- ing in the union would not be rehired. Cecil Clark’s prin- 12 cipal was finally able to save Clark’s job, on the proviso that Clark was to have nothing more to do with the union. The dismissal of union teachers aroused the community. Nor did they want “scab teachers” for their children. Con- sequently, on the reopening of school on September 15, the Farmers Union passed a resolution: all teachers must join the A.F.T., or else the pupils would be kept out of school. In this action the Central Labor Body fully con- curred. The teachers now were in a dilemma. The fate of the union officers was a clear warning, but they also knew the temper of the community. Many teachers were ready to join the A.F.T., while others suggested they await further developments. By September 21, the parents of 30 per cent of the children were not permitting them to attend school. Some schools were practically empty and had to close. The strike threatened to spread. The Governor of Alabama, Bibb Graves, offered to make a full and impartial inquiry into school conditions. He sent Mr. Hughes of the State Department of Labor to Walker County. The Central Labor Body had meanwhile called a mass meeting. At this meeting the labor unions and parents passed three resolutions: they demanded that the School Board insist on the unionization of the county’s teaching corps; the dismissal or resignation of A. S. Scott, County Superintendent of Education; and they demanded assur- ance that teachers would not be dismissed for joining the A.F.T. To call on the School Board, a committee was formed. In it were George Googe, A.F.L. Representative; William Mitch, President of the Alabama State Federation of Labor; Mr. Hughes of the State Department of Labor; Bill Reily, a miner; Mr. Guthrie, editor of the Labor paper; and Mr. Burkett, President of the Farmers Union. The Walker County School Board is an elected board consisting of a manufacturer of leather goods, the wife of the richest man in town, the superintendent of Galloway Coal Co., an executive of the Nashua Mills, and an em- ployee of a second-hand store. The School Board refused to take any action. Meanwhile, Mrs. Nancy Lea Smith, A.F.T. Vice-presi- dent, tried to convince the committee that the A.F.T. does not want teachers forced into joining it. If the teachers of Walker County were definitely assured of their jobs, most of them would join anyway. The committee finally decided on a compromise: they would recommend that the strike continue only until the Board and the Superintendent make a public statement that there would be no discrimina- tion against A.F.T. teachers. Hon. William Bankhead, Speaker of the House of Rep- resentatives and a resident of Jasper, the county seat of Walker County, was interviewed. A year or two before, he had quashed an impeachment move against some of the members of the School Board. Bankhead agreed that the A.F.T. position was fair, but he didn’t want to get into The cAmseRICAN TEACHER this local fight. However, he would see if he could do something without incurring any publicity. On September 30, the Walker County Teachers Asso- ciation (non-A.F.T.) held a meeting at which the princi- pals sat with their teachers. A resolution was offered en- dorsing the stand of Mr. Scott and the School Board. The resolution expressed opposition to the A.F.T. and preference for “a professional organization,” the Alabama Education Association. . . . A motion to amend the resolu- tion to provide that there be no discrimination against those now in the A.F.T., or wishing to join, was ruled out of order. . . . The resolution was passed with about 40 per cent of the teachers not voting. Superintendent Scott now denied that he had threatened or intimidated teachers. He even denied that the School Board had discussed the question of whether teachers would be fired if they joined the union. The governor's commission, consisting of the State Superintendent of Edu- cation, the Commissioner of Labor, and a representative of the Attorney General, suggested the following settle- ment: That the Union should allow no coercion on its part, and that the School Board should not intimidate teachers wishing to join. The Central Labor Board agreed. The Superintendent would now make no concessions. He would not agree to re-employ the teachers that were dismissed. The School Board sided with the Superintendent, and turned the settlement down. The situation was definitely an impasse. Mr. George Googe, of the A.F.L., suggested that the best solution would be to get the parents to send their children back to school, and straighten out the dif- ficulty at the next election. The A.F.T. does not believe in closing schools, or paying teachers tragically low salaries, (wrote Jerome Davis, President ‘ of the A.F.T. in a letter to William Mitch, President of the Ala- bama State Federation of Labor). We believe that teachers in free America should be free to join any organization through which they can best serve the highest ideals of American democ- racy and the best traditions of the free public school system. ... I have just sent the following telegram to Senator Black at Washington in regard to the situation: “Strongly protest out- rageous situation in Jasper, Walker County, Alabama, whereby teachers are prohibited from belonging to A.F.T. The parents of 1700 children are refusing to send their children to school. Can't you bring influence to bear to permit the retention of constitu- tional rights of teachers? A.F.T. is a strong progressive organi- zation embracing thousands of members including professors in Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, and other colleges.” The committee in charge of the strike had meanwhile agreed to call off the strike, if Governor Graves would intervene, conduct a thorough investigation and serve & a mediator. The Central Body endorsed the committee action. The governor agreed, and sent Lawrence H. Le as his personal mediator. The Labor Committee presented evidence to Mr. Lee d Scott’s opposition to the organization of a classroom teach ers association from the start; his subsequent actions, sud as his intimidating letter to all teachers, his calling dow one of the principals who attended a union meeting, his Ss 2. 2 &@ & wm, cg = FEES FERRER He weorseeus a, 2 es. at ve November-December, 1936 _ firing union officers; all for the purpose of disrupting Lo- cal 436 and discouraging its growth. The committee pointed out the fact that the School Board had not arranged for an election for trustees due this year. The A.F.T. posi- tion on forced membership was explained. The committee asked that the governor use his influence to secure: (a) the hiring of dismissed teachers, (b) a public statement 13 from the Board that they will not discriminate against union teachers, and (c) an assurance from the Board that there will be no pressure to prevent teachers from joining the A.F.T. The children are now back in school. Teachers, aided by Labor and assured of their support, should continue to join organizations of their own choosing. Fiyes on New Jersey Union in Spotlight at State Teachers Convention BERNARD FORER vention in Atlantic City on November 13-16, the American Federation of Teachers occupied a prom- inent place. A high-light of the convention was a “Town Hall” Debate on the question: “In the pursuit of their expressed purposes should teachers’ associations affiliate as regular unions with organized labor?” The program stated: “The above question has been selected for the discussion program at the Convention, as likely to provide a sharp clash of opinion on a topic which interests many teachers. Its choice implies no expression of opinion on the part of the Association or its Executive Committee.” . T THE New Jersey State Teachers Association con- Upholding the union position were Dr. Jerome Davis of the Yale Divinity School, president of the A.F.T.; Dr. J. Raymond Walsh of Harvard; and Miss Addie L. Weber, secretary of Local 437. The negative side of the question was presented by Dr. Isaac L. Kandel, of Teachers’ Col- lege; Dr. Carmon Ross, President of the State Teachers College at Edinboro, Pa.; and Miss Lelia O. Brown, a teacher from Newark. The chairman was Dr. Lyman Bryson, of Columbia. Dr. Davis explained the purposes and principles of the American Federation of Teachers. He explained that the A.F.T. is autonomous, non-striking, and working for the general welfare of the schools. He traced the history of the Teachers Union idea briefly, and gave concrete exam- ples of how cooperation with labor had helped teachers. He emphasized the fact that the working class has always defended free public education. In short, he summarized the entire union position. Dr. Kandel next addressed the thousands of teachers and presented his views. He questioned the non-striking policy that was stated so openly, expressing fear that the A.F.T. might be called upon to strike in an emergency. The old idea of teaching as a profession was brought up by Dr. Kandel, who stated that he was reluctant to see teachers make political alignments. In general, he said that some of the union ideas were valuable, but that neither the teach- ers’ association nor the union made up a real professional group. Dr. Kandel stated that we must consider the public as a whole, not a section of it. “Labor can help, but labor alone cannot do the job.” Dr. Walsh, next in order for the A.F.T., presented a practical analysis which brought affairs to earth with a thud. “The matter of the ‘whole public’ is entirely aca- demic,” he said. He brought out the point that one can- not tie up with all types and classes, but only with the interests of the majority of people. These remarks were heightened by Dr. Walsh’s dramatic description of what happened in a Massachusetts town. In order to maintain unfair working conditions at a large factory, the owners conspired with the chief of police, local politicians and other leading lights; an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union was “railroaded” out of town. The papers hushed up the scandal, and teachers were threatened with dismissal, on the basis of the loyalty oath, if they allowed discussion. Ordinary teachers’ groups did nothing, but the A.F.T. brought the matter out into the open and saw that justice was done. . .. Dr Walsh emphasized that teachers were classed with workers in this attack by selfish interests, and asked which side represented more nearly the “whole public”. Dr. Ross followed with an emotional speech which did his side of the argument little good. The unionists present were amazed to’ hear him wax oratorical over what he de- clared to be the “cardinal principle” of the A.F.T. which ex- cluded administrators. Dr. Ross did everything but wave a flag as he made the charge that the A.F.T. denied the inherent right of freedom. The American Federation of Teachers is indoctrinating . . . every state teachers’ asso- ciation has high ideals . . . teachers should serve all the 14 public . . . politics should not creep into the schools—this was his type of reasoning. “We must not sovietize the teachers in this country!” After this hysteria, Miss Weber spoke. Her precise man- ner, her calm voice, and careful presentation produced a profound effect. She exposed conditions in New Jersey and showed the reverses that education had received. Miss Weber explained the futility of expecting help from the “big shots” in the cities, and showed how the industrialists and business men had fought the schools. In her talk she stressed the necessity of cooperating with the working peo- ple whose children are the majority in our public schools. Then she analyzed teachers’ associations and their dom- inance by administrators. She spoke with a frankness un- heard of in that assembly. One could almost see her verbal darts whistle through the air as she showed that undemo- cratically run associations cannot fight for democracy. Spontaneous applause greeted her remarks, as it did those of Drs. Davis and Walsh. Miss Lelia O. Brown, who closed the presentation, stated that she was not influenced by the union arguments she had just heard and was not convinced on certain points. She pleaded ignorance on a few topics, and set herself up as just a classroom teacher who did not know expertly all the details in the argument. She decried the “cleavage” the A.F.T. would cause between teacher and administrator. Don’t we love our principals and administrators? Haven’t they helped us in the past? She, as a past president of the Classroom Teachers Association, loved and revered them. The administrators applauded heartily. (Miss Brown forgot to mention that the Classroom Teachers As- sociation excludes administrators.) Unfortunately, though other general sessions had run over the time limit, President Neulen found that this particular debate had to end at the designated moment. The “rebut- tal” was therefore omitted, and the proceedings terminated abruptly. However, the “damage” had been done. In- quiries concerning the union came in from individuals and from groups in the state. Teachers wanted to know about people who came out courageously and spoke their minds. The spirit of intellectual freedom had at last evidenced itself among the teachers of New Jersey. Mercer County Teachers Union showed its fighting quali- ties in other ways, also. First of all, it registered protest against the political sleight-of-hand in the voting procedure. Voting for the Nominating Committee was scheduled in the program for fifteen minutes after the close of one of the general sessions. In fact, the Constitution of the Associa- tion stipulates such a length of time, and it is impossible for the administrator-politicians to plead ignorance of that. At any rate, by the time some teachers reached the des- ignated rooms (voting is split up by congressional districts) , the whole procedure was over. Meetings had been started ahead of time. Later on, during the convention, Wallace L. Larrabee, The cAmsERICAN TEACHER president of Local 437, introduced amendments to a reso- lution calling for a broadened tax base for the relief of edu- cation in the state. He gave a carefully-planned talk show- ing amounts to be anticipated from his suggested gradu- ated income tax. He analyzed weaknesses in the past policy of the Association, and showed that the organization should not back a levy such as the sales tax which would hurt large numbers of people on the poverty or near-poverty level. The amendment failed, largely due to the fact that the ruling clique in the Association showed its hostility to the suggestion. However, it served to show up, in sharp relief, past policies and their haphazard philosophies. A dramatic moment in further proceedings arrived when another union member from Trenton, Herbert H. Cole, put on a fight for a resolution against the New Jersey loyalty oath bill. Various teacher groups in the state had sent in resolutions which had been disregarded by the Committee on Resolutions. As the committee chairman, Mrs. Eliza- beth H. Horgan, later admitted, resolutions against loyalty oaths had come in from “several” sources. The matter was arbitrarily killed in committee, though a statewide in- terest was evidenced. Mr. Cole tried to push the measure through. He stated that he was dissatisfied with the work of the Committee on Resolutions, and desired to present his addition to the list. (This resolution, by the way, had been passed by the State Federation of Labor, and the State Convention of the American Legion, through Local 437’s work.) After he had read this condemnation of loyalty oaths, Mr. Cole was told by the President that he could not contribute a resolution from the floor but must work through the Com- mittee! Only if a majority of the members present desired it, could the unusual procedure be allowed. The President called for a vote by ayes and mays on the question of allowing consideration of the resolution. The votes seemed equally divided. He asked for a show of hands, and professed to be still undecided. Finally he called for a standing vote. There apparently was a clear majority of 3-2 or 5-3 in favor of the Cole resolution. The President wavered, then asked three members of his Executive Committee on the platform to assist him. (In- cidentally, one of them was a former administrator, re- cently elected to the state assembly, who was pledged by his platform to fight loyalty oaths!) The verdict: the Cole resolution did not have the majority. Yet a great deal was accomplished at this convention. Thousands of teachers for the first time heard A.F.T. speak- ers present the case for unionism among teachers. The question of democracy within the organization was brought up before the members. The group in control was not allowed to sidestep the important issue of loyalty oaths with- out protest. In such supervisor-dominated, almost-compul- sory associations, it is difficult for the classroom teacher to present his point of view. The Union members from Trenton have shown that it is not impossible. Ro = © eo a ee ae he Cle ye | SOC OO, = 38 CD tate = = aT & ez Ff? FT BPR & BetT FP S Ba >? November-December, 1936 15 Fascism via the Industrial Mobilization Plan WARREN D. MULLIN brink of a disaster far greater than it realizes, for the ugly head of fascism—via the War and Navy Departments’ Industrial Mobilization Plan—is trying to push its way through the door of Democracy. ‘y HE AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT today stands on the To digress for a moment, a few years ago, a national emergency was declared in France following a strike of railway workers. Under French law the strikers found themselves drafted into the Army, and as soldiers they were ordered to run the railways, thus breaking their own strike. Had the workers attempted to remain on strike they would have been court-martialed for desertion, an offense pun- ishable by long imprisonment or death. “But it can’t happen here?” Don’t be too sure! If the plans of the War and Navy Departments which have been worked out over a period of sixteen years, and which are ready to be presented to Congress for passage during a war hysteria, are not strangled before it is too late, American workers may get a double dose of the medi- cine forced down the throats of striking Frenchmen. The Industrial Mobilization Plan approved by the Sec- retary of War and the Secretary of the Navy will invoke an iron-heel dictatorship with every citizen over eighteen years drafted into the armed forces of the nation. This scheme was disclosed by the Nye Munitions In- vestigating Committee just before it closed its investiga- tions. The “universal draft” plan has been carefully an- alyzed by Senator Clark of Missouri, a member of the Nye Committee and the first National Commander of the American Legion. The plan provides that every male citizen between the ages of 18 and 45 will be drafted into the armed services of the country. In case any worker “fails or neglects to fully perform any duty required of him,” the penalty is court-martial. These sections of the plan do in effect enforce a draft of labor and remove the right of any worker to refuse em- ployment in private industry under conditions or at wages which do not satisfy his needs. Senator Clark on this section of the “universal draft” says, “the power to call into military service any union or other representative of labor, who become spokesmen for other employees of labor in attempts to secure higher wages, is the power to break strikes. This can also be done through the use of military force in removing the union spokes- man from the plant involved to other plants or into active service. It can likewise be done by cutting off the food allowance of all strikers.” There is nothing in these plans, the Senator points out, to prevent the use of men in the military forces to operate industrial plants. This was done on a smaller scale in the last war when soldiers were sent into the lumber mills of the Northwest. The Industrial Mobilization Plan would set up a Labor Division to be known as the “Administration of War La- bor.” The plan states that “the Administrator should be an outstanding citizen who is thoroughly familiar with the problems entering into the relationship between employer and employee and who is capable of dispassionate judg- ment in their solution. He should have the complete con- fidence of both management and labor in industry.” It further sets forth that “the Administrator of War Labor is assisted by an advisory council consisting of ten mem- bers, four of whom shall represent industry, four repre- sentatives of labor, and two representing the general public.” The “Labor Division” is given jurisdiction over issues which are vital to organized labor. The following are some of the problems assigned to it: (1) “Measures to prevent grievances of employers or employees, whether ac- tual or imaginary, from interfering with war production;” (2) “The effect of organization of employers into trade associations and of labor into trade unions and the effect (of the maintenance of the right of collective bargaining between such organizations) on industry’s ability to meet the material requirements of the armed forces;” (3) “Standards of wages, hours of labor and working condi- tions;” (4) “Equality of pay for identical work;” (5) “Necessity for modification of the statutory work day with due regard for the national necessity and the welfare of labor;” (6) “Maintenance of maximum production in all war 16 The cAMERICAN TEACHER work, and the suspension for the period of the actual emer- gency and a reasonable adjustment thereafter of restrictive regulations not having the force of law which unreason- ably limit production.” (Italics ours.) We can thus see the elaborate preparations for destroying the foundations of collective bargaining. Rose M. Stein, in her book M-Day says on this section of the “universal draft”: “The absurdity of charging a wartime organization with settling this list of problems is made evident by the fact that the question covered by sec- tion two alone has occupied the attention of the Govern- ment, Capital, and Labor for almost three years under the New Deal, to say. nothing of the long years of earlier struggles in that direction, and is as unsettled today as it was when all sides cheered section 7-a as labor’s Magna Charta.” For many long years, labor, liberal and progressive groups have struggled against child labor in this country. The gains which have been made will be swept away, for our “brass hats” make this statement on child labor: “While the employment of children under the age of sixteen in industry or agriculture will be avoided wherever possible, it must be recognized from the beginning that the nature of the emergency may require such employment... . In the ealier stages minors over eighteen . . . and in some cases over sixteen years can be utilized to advantage.” (Italics ours.) On the question of women wage earners, the mobiliza- tion plan reads: “The specific mission of this division is to divert the great possible number” of women and girls employed in industry, commerce and professions “to muni- tions and essential civilian industries. . . . The division also must be prepared to undertake an active recruiting campaign in cooperation with the employment service for the securing, training and infiltration of Women, not gain- fully employed, into industry, commerce, and auxiliary services tu fill vacancies caused by the withdrawal of men to the coiors and to provide for the labor expansion of many essential industries.” The Industrial Mobilization Plan does not intend to over- look the American woman in its fascist schemes, for this section clearly sets forth that “women who comply with the occupational specifications of the War and Navy De- partments” may be recruited “for duty with the armed forces.” The universal draft plan, through the Labor Division, suggests wiping out the hard-won gains of organized labor in the field of child labor; and the courageous fight led by the National Women’s Trade Union League and other labor organizations for benefits to women in industry. After the complete regimentation of labor, this plan out- lines, the War Department then suggests a Hitler-like con- trol over wages, hours of labor, and working conditions. This power over wages is given to the “Price Control Com- mission” which like the “Labor Division” is made up in part of big industrialists who will have contracts to sup- ply war materials. There are more than 10,000 contracts between the United States Government and industrialists carefully filed in their safes, awaiting only the outlook of war to be signed. Sena- tor Clark claims that in all but one or two instances the owners of these contracts were notorious profiteers in the last war. The War Department justifies its program on the grounds that a war will create a shortage of labor and labor will take advantage of this fact to strike for higher wages or better conditions which would boost prices. “The real object, however, is,” according to Senator Clark, “to keep wages down to the lowest possible point, creating an intolerable position for labor.” An Administration of Public Relations is provided for, which will include the Administrator of Public Relations and an Advisory Committee composed of representatives from the State, War, Navy, War Industries and War La- bor Administrations. Among the duties of this board will be “to enlist and supervise a voluntary censorship of the newspaper and periodical press.” The War Department says that “immediately upon the outbreak of war it is essential that special provisions be made, on the one hand, to control the giving of information to the public regarding matters of military import and, on the other hand, to make known in an authoritative manner such information as it is right and proper that the public should have.” There is no doubt but that this ends all semblance of freedom of the press. One of the “interesting” parts of the “mobilization plan” is that while labor is put under a complete dictatorship it does not propose to regiment capital. Big industrialists will be put into control in all departments. The “cost- plus contract” which has been thoroughly condemned by the Nye Committee because it opens the way to such enormous profits has been replaced with an “adjusted compensation contract” which guarantees a basic profit of six per cent and an opportunity for larger profits through a government bonus. The profiteers will be in control and there is very little to stop them from creating another “happy hunting ground.” The Nye Committee ends its report on this fascist scheme with this solemn warning: “In view of the increasing growth of governmental dic- tatorships, enforced by the military powers, and the con- stant temptation presented to certain elements in democra- cies to solve their problems by force, the committee finds of c- ae November-December, 1936 that it is not in the interest of the nation to attempt in wartime to draft civilian labor. “It is very important that the people weigh carefully the grave dangers to our democracy involved in the War Department’s program. The price of a war will be an actively operating dictatorship, under military control. “But in this matter the committee suggests that Con- gress put a limitation upon its powers and submit a national referendum at the election of 1938 on the military draft of men for service outside continental America. “The democratic treatment of labor, under the Consti- 17 tution, is essential to the survival of our institutions, and should not be replaced by a military control over labor unless a change in our institutions has been previously authorized by the people in the amendments to the Con- stitution.” The War and Navy Departments’ plans for regiment- ing labor under a military dictatorship prove conclusively labor’s thesis that war will bring fascism. Fully aware of this danger, labor must now be more than ever determined that it will throw its strength with other liberal groups to the side of peace, with the same inspir- ing energy it has employed against industrial evils. Victory in V¥ ashington SELDEN MENEFEE HE ELECTION of November 3 was a milestone in the development of the A.F.T. in the state of Washing- ton. Stanley F. Atwood, a teacher at West Seattle High School, a staunch progressive and a member of Seattle Local 200 since before the days of the yellow-dog contract several years ago, was elected to the important post of State Superintendent of Public Instruction. On January 1 he will replace the reactionary Noah Showalter, who was the only Republican elected to a state office in 1932. The Republicans put on a terrific red-baiting campaign against Atwood, but it had little effect in a year when Washing- ton was voting for the “red” Roosevelt by a 2-to-1 margin. Atwood won in all parts of the state. The six A.F.T. locals in the Puget Sound region are chiefly responsible for Atwood’s election. Last summer they organized a Joint Council with offices in Seattle, and proceeded to outline a legislative program. They chose Atwood as their candidate, got his endorsement by a pow- erful progressive Democratic group, the Washington Com- monwealth Federation, and by the State Federation of Labor. They campaigned for him, and this support from several quarters won him the Democratic nomination, which was tantamount to election this year. The unions will surely grow rapidly now, with a state office that will favor unionization of teachers, and an active regional vice- president to push the campaign. The legislative program of the Washington Joint Coun- cil covers four main points, of which at least some will be passed by the legislature with the support of labor and the W.C.F. bloc. Tenure is one serious problem; the Uni- versity suffered severe attacks on its liberal teachers by the Republicans in the last campaign; and at the State College the latest suppression of academic freedom was the dis- missal of Sam Steward from the English Department. Steward had written a frank but excellent novel called Angels of the Bough, which had drawn some criticism. In spite of the attempts of his department head and dean to defend him, he was summarily dismissed on commence ment day, without warning and without a chance to de- fend his position, by President Holland. In his 20 years as president, Holland has frequently been criticized by his faculty (but not openly) for his invasions of academic freedom and democracy in the removal of such men as Robert Lahr, and Dr. T. M. Raysor, now head of the English Department at the University of Nebraska. Now sentiment is growing for a union at Washington State College. The union’s legislative program provides for permanent tenure after one year of probation, with removal only after open hearings before a jury of the teacher’s peers. Other points on the program would change the composition of the Boards of Regents of all higher institutions to include a group'representative, of the general population, such as a labor representative, a farmer, a woman and a teacher; put the higher institutions on a millage, instead of an ap- propriation basis, and provide for a retirement plan. With powerful labor and liberal backing, at least some of these proposals should go through; if they do, it will provide still more impetus for organizational work. And already the effects of the election are to be seen in a new feeling of freedom among teachers and dozens of applications for union membership. i ~ ld 18 Presidents Page Teachers of America Must Choose |= ELECTION is over: the heart of America has spoken. The people have refused to turn down the road of reaction, but have chosen to follow after social security and the Roosevelt way. Similarly it is time for the teachers of America to choose. On the one hand we can belong solely to large professional organizations which are pleasant and which permit our professional pride to remain undisturbed. This is the road to individual action, individual success and complete impotence, in facing the real organized finan- cial controls of our time. The second road we can follow is progressive group action, organization with those who dare to break with smug professional complacency. It means joining in a federation affiliated with the organized labor movement. This is the road which leads to se- curity for salaries, pensions and tenure. It is the only road which is likely to yield liberty. Teachers need to play their part in the great epoch making movement The cAMERICAN TEACHER within the American Federation of Labor for industrial unionism and the unity of labor. The struggle for academic freedom is as old as human history itself. Galileo was forced out of the University of Pisa in 1591 because he insisted on freedom to speak scientific truth. The sincere professors of his day masked their opposition under misleading phrases. The times have not changed. At the International Congress of Universi- ties at Oxford not long ago, those who represented Ger- man education declared that complete academic freedom was everywhere a reality in Germany!! Similarly today, when a teacher or professor is discharged because of his convictions, teachings or activities which demonstrate un- comfortable truth about the economic order, superintend ents and adminisirators are scrupulous in their insistence that the issue is anything but academic freedom. “Sin- cere and naive professors sometimes let themselves be fooled by such declarations. Every violation of academic liberty is like pain in the human body, a warning signal. Teachers, professors, must organize or pay the penalty. Time marches on. If we are to win freedom for America, we must establish the principle that no teacher who has served for three years or more should ever be discharged without a public hear- ing, and then only on proved charges. Teachers of Amer- ica, sacrifice for organization—sacrifice your time, your money and, if necessary, your positions. It is the only road to liberty and freedom. Jerome Davis A Time for Federal Aid MARY FOLEY GROSSMAN N 1924, before the House of Representatives Commit- tee on Education, in connection with hearings on a bill which included a form of Federal Aid, Dr. John K. Norton (at that time Director of the Research Division of the National Education Association) made this state- ment: “It is right to tax the Nation’s wealth wherever it exists to educate the Nation’s children wherever they may live.” I believe this sums up most succinctly the duty of a Nation toward the education of its youth. Further we need hardly plead in the pages of this magazine to the members of a teachers union affiliated with labor. The American Federation of Teachers, following the traditional concern of the labor movement and of teachers for ade- quate educational opportunity, has long insisted upon this duty of the Federal government to “balance” the educa- tional budget of the Nation. Other educational associa- tions, and parent-teacher groups, have also been interested in the matter of Federal Aid to education, but never before has the time seemed so ripe and the possibility so near for a unified program to this end. While the American labor movement has always been in the front in the fight for free public schools, from 1834 when the Mechanics’ Trade Union in Philadelphia demon- strated on the streets for the passage of the Breck bill, establishing free public schools in Pennsylvania, to the plea of President Green for education before the Democratic ‘¥ — — —_ a November-December, 1936 and Republican conventions in 1936, it was not until the Tampa Convention of the A.F.L. that labor went on record formally endorsing for the first time in its history, a specific federal aid bill. Such action lends considerable strength to the coming fight for federal aid. Again, the increase in the progressive bloc of legislators in the incoming Congress augurs favorable action for the socially important help to schools throughout the United States. Further, we have rumors of a possible shake-up in the House Committee on Education with new and progressive members added. The National Education Association has prepared a cam- paign for the Harrison-Fletcher bill which was introduced at the close of the last session of Congress. The sponsoring of a specific piece of legislation on federal aid by the N.E.A. is a most hopeful indication of the wide-spread desire for such legislation on the part of the nation’s educators. All of these facts would seem to point to a strong possi- bility of the enactment of some form of federal aid to education at this session of Congress. Two principles stand out conspicuously as underlying any satisfactory bill for financing of the schools through federal funds. First, the fact that the national govern- ment has the right and is alone able to “balance” the support of education by taxing wealthier communities for the educational benefit of poorer ones. Second, the neces- sity for retaining within the local communities the control of education. All interested parties seem to be agreed on these two fundamental principles and yet the achievement of both ideas in one bill so that every child may have an adequate education in keeping with the needs of his special environment is not easy. For example, we are well aware that in many of the southern states local school boards openly discriminate in apportioning funds for the education of Negro children. In such states, it is not uncommon to find as much as ten times more money allotted per child for the education of white children as for Negro children. Shall the bugaboo against federal control prevent any attempt to right this injustice to the Negro children where federal funds are allotted? Should the minimum number of school days not be required as a prerequisite for the obtaining of federal funds? May the federal government not limit the use of its funds to instruction, educational supplies, maintenance of buildings? Hasn’t the government the right to insist upon fully qualified teachers where its funds are used? To speak of “equalizing educational opportunity” under any other conditions is futile. Merely to supply additional funds for local boards to misuse for political bounty, or to continue with greater ease a school system based on antiquated standards and inexcusable dis- crimination, far from being helpful, may be a real menace to American educational progress. Nevertheless, there is an equal danger in centralizing control in the hands of a Federal government whose 19 remoteness from the concrete problems and actual needs of a local community makes it somewhat incompetent to deal fairly with that community. In the last Congress several bills for federal aid were introduced. The Legislative Committee of the American Federation of Teachers felt that Congressman Lundeen’s bill was the most satisfactory of the group. The Harrison-Fletcher bill, introduced at the close of the session, put before us another bill worthy of considera- tion. This bill has the endorsement of several political, social and educational groups and was the specific bill endorsed by the American Federation of Labor at its recent convention. Briefly, it provides: (1) For an initial appro- priation of $100,000,000, with an increase of $50,000,000 a year until $300,000,000 per year is provided. (2) Funds to be appropriated to the states provided (a) they main- tain a system of public schools for at least 160 days, except during forced closing of schools for epidemics, fires, etc.; and, (b) spend from state or local revenues or from both combined as much per person five to twenty years old for schools as was spent in the school year ending 1934. (3) All control, administration and supervision of schools and educational programs are reserved strictly to the state and forbidden to all federal officers and agencies. You will observe among the good features of the bill that it appropriates a gradually increasing sum of money for permanent aid for education. It does prescribe the mini- mum number of school days, and requires that the state make an effort to raise sufficient revenues to maintain its educational system according to some standard. Note, how- ever, that the year selected for that standard, 1934, is the one when educational standards were at their lowest ebb in America. Also in the attempt to avoid federal control, no attempt is made to insure real equality of opportunity for education for the children in backward states by requiring qualified teachers, etc. In spite of these inadequacies there is a working basis in the bill and by cooperating with the various groups inter- ested in the bill, the American Federation of Teachers may be effective in having amendments to the bill that would eliminate its deficiencies. Study the Harrison-Fletcher bill and the Lundeen bill; read the arguments and statistics on federal aid. (The Legislative Committee has a bibliography on federal aid. This will be forwarded on request.) Send the Legislative Committee your opinion on the bill and any suggestions you may have for improving the provisions of the bills. The Legislative Committee believes that our best course of action is to introduce our own federal aid bill; then to press for open hearings on federal aid at which time a single satisfactory bill may be approved. Remember the time is ripe, the opportunity for enactment of a federal aid bill, great. Cooperate-by sending your ideas to the Legis- lative Committee. Let us have your recommendations for action, and then let us all join in a determined effort to make federal aid to schools a reality. CHILD LABOR DAY January 23-25 1937 EACH YEAR, for over 30 years, the National Child Labor Committee has set aside the last week-end in January as Child Labor Day. EACH YEAR has brought some victory for the thousands of American children whose lives are still shadowed by the threat of industrial ex- ploitation. BUT—EACH YEAR reveals that the job of eradicating child labor is still far from finished. CHILD LABOR conditions in many sections of America are still a disgrace to a “land of op- portunity.” Only 8 states have laws prohibiting factory employ- ment for children under 16. Child labor still flourishes in the beet fields. Turpentine farms and other branches of the southern lumber industry still thrive on child labor. Youngsters who, in our own homes, would be con- sidered babies, work a “sun-up, sun-down™ day. YOU—have achieved what gains have been made. ONLY through your continued and heightened support _Can the job be completed. Can ratification of the Child Labor Amend- ment be achieved. WHETHER OR NOT YOUR STATE HAS RATIFIED YOU CAN HELP: Arrange child labor talks and programs in churches, church schools, clubs and schools. Exhibit poster and literature displays in libraries, club rooms, etc. Take press stories to local newspapers. Arrange radio broadcasts over local stations. Work for the Child Labor Amendment if your State has not already ratified. NATIONAL CHILD LABOR COMMITTEE 419 Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y. (Space contributed by THz AMERICAN TEACHER) The cAmmrIicAN TEACHER Child Welfare Is Teacher Welfare SYLVIA BERGSMANN HAT DO YOU KNOw about the children in your W\ classrooms? Your local has received a question- naire from the National Legislative Committee, the results of which will serve the dual purpose of helping you to get acquainted with the needs of the children you teach, and helping the Committee to frame a bill which it intends to introduce into Congress. The proposed bill will cover the following aspects of child welfare work: nutrition, medical and health services, and building facili- ties. On a local and state wide scale, much can be done by forward-looking teachers, particularly teachers organized into the American Federation of Teachers, to help the chil- dren in their school communities. In some cities, work of this character has already been done. In Philadelphia, the Teachers Union was responsible for the decrease in the price of milk in school cafeterias, with the immediate result of a 70 per cent increase in the consumption of milk. A bill to provide milk free of charge to needy chil- dren was introduced into the 1935 State Legislature. While the bill did not pass, it did much to bring the problem of malnutrition before the attention of the public, and to place the teacher on the front line in the campaign to improve the physical standards of the children in the schools. Pupil issues are teacher issues. Happy, healthy, well- fed children are an indispensable requisite for good teach- ing. No teacher organization program is complete unless it takes cognizance of the needs of the children, and takes practical and effective steps to supply these needs. The Twenty-four Delinquent States Twenty-four state legislatures have ratified the Child Labor Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Ratification by 12 more states is required in order to make that amendment a part of the Constitution. The following state legislatures that have not ratified the amend- ment will meet in January: Connecticut New Mexico Delaware New York Florida North Carolina Georgia Rhode Island Kansas South Carolina Maryland South Dakota Massachusetts Tennessee Missouri Texas Nebraska Vermont Nevada Other states that have not ratified but may hold special sessions in 1937 are: Alabama Mississippi Virginia Kentucky Louisiana a> — a a — hea Tm one rT as oo mo eaB8e? = November-December, 1936 children in our schools are practically defenseless. More and more the teacher will have to assume the responsibility not only for the mental, but also for the physical well- being of the children. Aside from the children themselves, no single group of people is more concerned with the passage of the Child Labor Amendment than the teachers. Every member of the American Federation of Teachers, individually and in his organization, should do all in his power to press for the passage of this amendment. Teachers must become ac- tively interested in the kind of legislation which is passed. Their primary concern is to secure the passage of legislation 21 beneficial to the members of their profession; they must concern themselves no less with the passage of legislation of aid to the pupils they teach. The National Legislative Committee, at a meeting early this fall, voted to include specific child Welfare Legislation in its national legislative program. For this reason, a questionnaire was sent to every local to gather information on (1) Nutrition, (2) Medical and Health Services, (3) Building Facilities and (4) Youth. On the basis of the facts returned, the Committee hopes to submit a bill to Congress—a bill which, on a National scale, will attempt to do what various locals have tried to accomplish in their State Legislatures. Tt 5 Hayapen in g Now Universities Go Bergoff STRIKEBREAKING is now being taught at some of our best universities. At the University of California the ROTC department gave an examination based on a carefully worked out analysis of the methods to be used in break- ing a strike of waterfront employees involving a sympa- thetic action by other workers. From Bethlehem, Pa., comes the news that a police school is being organized at Lehigh University by Rev. Fred Trafford, chief of the Bethlehem police, which will feature courses in ‘Break- ing up Mobs’ and ‘Illegal Picketing’. Eugene Grace, the president of the Bethlehem Steel Company, is a trustee of Lehigh. . . . Sam “Chowderhead” Cohen, dean of Ameri- can finks, will in all probability soon be awarded his hon- orary degree by one of these schools. An Attack on Tenure? AN article in the press from Syracuse, N. Y., on October 26, began as follows: “Preparations to change the present rigid tenure law for New York State teachers were made today by members of the New York State School Boards Association at their annual convention.” .. . Concrete changes Suggested were: younger teachers to replace ‘old and in- competent’ teachers; also, a probationary period of one year after each five years of service. The ambiguity of statement does not conceal the intentions behind such pro- posals. Teachers should begin to prepare for these ‘prepa- rations’. Steel Terrorist, No. 1 PHILIP Murray of the Steel Workers Organizing Com- mittee charged Ernest T. Weir, chairman of the board of the National Steel Company with being ‘personally re- sponsible’ for the campaign of terror against members of the committee. A letter setting forth the evidence was sent by Mr. Murray last month to the Governors of Ohio and West Virginia. Gang attacks and kidnapping of or- ganizers in and around Steubenville and Weirton, the usual cooperation of the police with armed thugs, hired by the steel company, refusal of relief to steel workers, etc.,—< ll have come directly from Mr. Weir, Murray asserts. His domination in these steel towns is so complete that not a city or state official dares to oppose him. Among the Indigent YALE University is in the throes of ‘economic recovery’. Freshman enrollment in 1936 numbers more than 850, a gain of 100 in two years. Fifty instructors of last year are no longer teaching; only twenty replacements are re- ported. Service employees have not had last year’s 10 per cent cut restored, and the 10 per cent increase in rent for students in the residential colleges remains. Endow- ment is regular—around $80,000,000. It Happened After All LATE in October, the WPA Theatre Project presented its premiere of /t Can’t Happen Here in New York City. An overnight hit, the demand for seats exceeded that for any production in the commercial theatre. Frowned upon by Will Hays, Hollywood’s movie czar, its production can- celled by M-G-M, Sinclair Lewis’ anti-fascist novel—as dramatized—can now be seen in over 20 theatres in all parts of the country. Protestant Clergy on Fascism THE Rev. Martin Niemueller, the Protestant church leader of Germany, most courageous in opposing the domination 22 of the church by the Nazi regime, recently admitted that the church under German fascism had lost its freedom and might even soon be forced to give over its buildings to theatres and raise no voice against the anti-Christian teach- ings of Dr. Alfred Rosenberg. . . . In this country, the Pres- byterian Church, at a meeting of the New York Synod, heard a report on the ‘Church and the Fascist Mood’. Rev. Phillips P. Elliott, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, said that effective support of our principles of government must come through a defense of free speech. On loyalty oaths he said: “..... we would condemn the teachers’ oaths being required by this and other States, calling upon our churches to oppose this requirement in the realization that only a freely given loyalty is worth the having.” Berkshire Mills Owners Acknowledge Der Fuehrer THE labor policy of employers who are fervent admirers of Hitler is being demonstrated now at Reading, Pa., by the owners and general manager of the Berkshire Knit- ting Mills. Since September 26, Branch 10 of the Ameri- can Federation of Hosiery Workers has been on strike . . . against a reduction of the standard rate of pay, amounting to 50 per cent in certain operations; a contract system unde,’ which production is raised on the double-machine while the pay is less than the old rate for a single-machine operator. In the meantime, the general manager, Hugo Hemmerich, contrasts, in interviews to the press, the “‘prog- ress” under Hitler in labor relations with the way in which “in the U. S. we just let them run loose.” It is scarcely needful to explain that them refers to “radicals”, always in the Nazi mind synonymous with union members. First Victory on School Issue THE first favorable court action in suits brought by mem- bers of the religious society, Jehovah’s Witnesses, to com- pel reinstatement of the children of members after their expulsion from school for refusal to salute the flag or to take allegiance oaths is reported from California. Superior Court Judge Peter J. Shields of Sacramento, Cal., recently issued a writ of mandamus ordering his school to reinstate Helen Gabrielli, a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses. No Equation SECRETARY of Labor Perkins reports an increase in the index of living costs of 2.1 per cent in October 1936 over October 1935. . . . Other indices, however, indicate a greater increase in individual items of the family budget. For example, the Fairchild, retail price, index of depart- ment store articles shows a 3 per cent rise over October 1 of last year. The National Industrial Conference Board finds that rents had risen 11.4 per cent above their level of September 1935 and 28.1 per cent over the low of Janu- ary 1934. As for retail food prices, it must be remem- bered that all increases came on top of a 41 per cent rise between the low of 1933 and the September 1936 level. . . . Employee representatives of the Duquesne works The cAMERICAN TEACHER of the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp. have taken a courageous stand against the efforts of the steel trust to tie wage in- creases to the level of living costs. One paragraph of the resolution of the employee representatives on the wage rise reads: “And furthermore, by accepting the proposed agree- ment, we would be assuming that the present wage is adequate for the present cost of living and would in effect be denying everything we have stated in the past year with regard to the necessity for an increase in wages.” Little Gems from Germany FOR the truth to come out of Germany in any form is headline news. The blunt confession which follows, taken from a brief article on an inside page of the New York Times of October 29, puts a question aptly, but fails to answer it. Taken from the Aktivist, a Nazi weekly maga- zine, the article calls the Nazi writers ‘cowards’ for cau- tiously ignoring the present and playing safe by select- ing the past to write about. “That there is scarcely one among the professional authors who has the courage to deal with German reality as created by National Socialism, be it in the political, economic or cultural sense, is a cause for thought.” . . . However, a later dispatch (of Novem- ber 12) suggests an answer: the popularity of a new Ger- man invention—a spy monocie, apparently an _ or- dinary eyeglass, actually a mirror, which when held at the proper angle permits the wearer to note, “unobtrusively,” whether anyone is spying on him. Courage is really not wanted here, but another invention, an eyeglass which would make visible what Hitler would dare to have his trained literati write about. Some Quotations to Remember ALFRED Einstein told an audience of educators at Albany in October that the “worst thing” he could conceive happening to education was “for a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority.” (He also condemned as pseudo-scientific the doctrine that Darwin’s theory of the struggle for existence and the sur- vival of the fittest justified the teaching of the necessity of competition between individuals in a “destructive economic struggle.”) . .. From Harry W. Colmery, National Com- mander of the American Legion, as a tardy recognition by the Legion of the civil rights of minority groups: “The time has come for the American Legion to give serious thought to our traditional Americanism policy and deter- mine whether certain misguided individuals within our or- ganization are setting a good example of true American- ism.” ... “A Christian can never be a fascist,” said Ossorio Y. Gallardo, a devout Catholic, Spanish Ambassa- dor to Belgium, in Madrid in October. ‘Christianity stands for liberty of thought and respect for human per- sonality, whereas fascism is the negation of liberty, the setting up of oppression, the empire of force; and all this not to serve the masses of people, but solely to defend certain privileges which were once taken from the people.” y November-December, 1936 In Lieu of Proxy Voting A Suggested Procedure for A.F.T. Conventions WALTER G. the part of any organization receives its acid test in the way in which the affairs of the organization itself are conducted. From its inception, the American Federation of Teachers has expressed its belief in democracy by transacting all of its important business in open meetings at its annual conventions. These conven- tions, constituted from the various locals, were designed to give the widest possible expression to the various points of view in the entire membership of the Federation. . DEVOTION to the ideal of democracy in education on However, as the Federation grew in numbers and in geographical extent, the conventions increasingly failed to represent all of the membership of the various locals, par- ticularly the more remote ones. Many were too small to be able to afford the expense of sending delegates, and others were so remote that the expense was prohibitive even when the membership was considerable. In order to give these locals the voice which our philosophy of educa- tional democracy demanded, proxy voting was developed. The experience with proxy voting has not been uniformly satisfactory, either to the convention or the locals which were represented by the proxies. One delegate could not express the several points of view which might be held by the locals which he was representing, even if he knew them, as he seldom did. Likewise, the local lost something of real value when they did not get a report from the conven- tion from one who had been there in person and made his report in person. As a result of these and other considerations, the system of proxy voting has been the target of considerable criticism in recent years. I do not intend to add to these attacks, but rather hope to outline a plan which I hope will achieve the ends sought by the proxy system without its attendant disadvantages. Briefly, the proposal is to assist the remote locals to send one delegate to each convention and to abolish proxy voting entirely. To illustrate the way in which such a convention fund might work, I undid my slide rule the other evening and performed a few operations upon the last report from the national office, October 26, 1936. First I had to choose some convention city for the purpose of my illustration. Since I did not care to be accused of partiality to the cities now competing for the privilege of entertaining the 1937 convention, I chose the one most convenient to me for the BERGMAN basis of my computing. Secondly, I decided to interest myself only in the cost of transportation. Accordingly I found the cost of a round trip coach ticket between Detroit and the capital of each state in which the Federation had locals in good standing on October 26, 1936. Upon the basis of these assumptions, I discovered that the round trip coach fare of one delegate from each local from the capital of his state to Detroit would in the aggre- gate be about $4,500. If a per capita tax of one cent per month for each mem- ber were levied for the convention fund, about $1,830 would be available at the end of one year, if the mem- bership remains at the level existing on October 26, 1936. If this amount were to be apportioned in accordance with the proposals outlined above, payments of the round trip coach fare, less $25, could be made to the 58 locals whose round trip fares would be greater than that sum. No payment would be made to the 86 locals whose fare would be less than that sum. If a per capita tax of two cents per member were levied, the sum available would be $3,660. This amount would provide the round trip coach fare, less $7, to the 133 locals whose fares would be greater than that amount. No payments would be made to the eleven locals whose fares would be less than that amount. If a per capita tax of three cents per member were levied, nearly $5,500 would be available. This would pro- vide full round trip coach fares and $5 additional to the entire number of locals in the organization (144 at the date on which these data were compiled). Essentially, this is a plan in which the locals near to the site of the convention and the large locals would subsidize the attendance of the locals further away and the smaller locals. Nevertheless, despite any sentimental attachment to such assistance, I wanted to know just how this would affect the various locals. Accordingly for the six states with the largest number of locals, 72 out of 144, I com- puted just what the size of locals in the state would have to be in order that the local would receive more in benefits from this plan that it would contribute through the additional per capita. Under the one cent assess- ment, locals in California under 622 members would be the only ones in this group of six states which would re- Hi 24 HH { Me ceive more than they contributed. Under the two cent | assessment, locals in California under 386, in Illinois un- ‘it der 43, in New. York 74, and in Wisconsin under 40 i would receive more from the convention fund than they had paid in assessments. All other locals in the six states having the largest number of locals would receive less than they had paid in assessments. Under the three cent assessment, locals in California under 294, in Illinois un- _ der 65, in Michigan under 27, in New York under 85, in Ohio under 37, and in Wisconsin under 63 would re- ceive a greater return from the fund than their contri- butions had been. All other locals in these six states would receive less than they had paid in the fund. Any one of these three suggested levels of payments The cAMERICAN TEACHER would make comparative small increases in the amount of per capita to be paid to the national office. The three cents per capita assessment would amount to an increase of 15.9 per cent, the two cents assessment to an increase of 10.6 per cent, and the one cent rate to an increase of 5.3 per cent. It is my personal belief that the existence of a con- vention fund raised and expended in the manner here ad- vocated would remove the last argument for the proxy system, the abuses of which have been so evident to the membership for a long time. It would permit the Ameri- can Federation of Teachers to justify its boast of democ- racy in its own affairs at a price within the ability of the organization to pay. The Teachers Union in Action NATIONAL NEWS National Legislative Program News the latest Washington Relay contains two facets: one is a broad legislative campaign on Federal aid to education during the 1937 session of Congress, as author- ized by the Council meeting following the Convention. The other is a plan for Child Welfare which was later included in the program and approved by a majority of the Coun- cil. Two sub-committees have been set up to take care of each program; a committee on Federal aid which will study all Federal aid bills, collect data, and prepare a pamphlet to be nationally distributed; and a committee on Child Wel- fare which will collect data throughout the country with a view to formulating a bill for the protection and assist- ance of youth. As the first step in this direction, the A.F.T. National Child Welfare Subcommittee has sent to the various locals a questionnaire covering the questions of nutrition, health and medical services, building facilities, and miscel- laneous questions including enrolment numbers, juvenile delinquency, and city and state college facilities. Te Legislative Program for 1936-37 as stated in A.F.T. Executive Council to Meet Among the agenda to be considered at the meeting of the Council in Chicago on December 30-31 are the fol- lowing: 1. Report on organization and discussion of plans for furthering organization. 2. Discussion of membership in the A.F.T. (Irvin Kuenzli, committee chairman.) 3. Report of the editorial staff of THe AMERICAN TEACHER and discussion of future plans for publication. 4. Discussion of simplified method of calculating per capita. (Miss Allen [Chicago], committee chairman.) 5. Choice of city for 1937 convention. (Miss Mann of Atlanta has been appointed by President Davis to prepare suggestions for program of 1937 convention.) 6. Report of committee on choosing a temporary secre- tary-treasurer to serve until the next national convention. (Mr. Hendley, chairman.) 7. Report of committee on literature and publicity. (Nancy Lea Smith [Chattanooga], committee chairman.) 8. Report of delegates to A.F.L. Convention at Tampa. (Jerome Davis, Allie B. Mann, Irvin Kuenzli.) 9. Report of Legislative Representative. (Mary Foley Grossman. ) 10. Discussion of Federal Aid program. 11. Consideration of problems pertaining to teacher wel- fare: tenure, academic freedom, salary schedules. 12. Discussion of a plan whereby all locals would be taxed a small per cent of per capita in order to establish a con- vention fund to be allocated to delegates according to dis- tance from the convention city. (Walter Bergman, com- mittee chairman.) 13. Report of committee on literature and publicity. (Nancy Lea Smith, chairman.) 14. Discussion of relationship of A.F.T. to adult edu- cation and the Youth Act. nt se & November-December, 1936 NEWS from LOCALS Chattanooga’s Struggle for a Salary Schedule.—In 1934, the teachers in Local 246 succeeded in having passed by the General Assembly of Tennessee four laws: two tenure and two salary laws, one of each for Chattanooga, and for Hamilton County. Neither tenure law has been challenged and both are operating successfully, although there are enemies at work seeking to undermine public con- fidence in them. The salary laws enjoyed no such good fortune, no doubt because they touched the pocketbooks of the taxpayers’ leagues and their allies. Both Chatta- nooga and Hamilton County refused to recognize the laws last year and continued to pay teachers at the old rate. After negotiations with the authorities proved unsuccessful even in effecting a compromise, Local 246 brought suit to force the city and county governments to pay the salaries required by law. The decision was favorable in the lower courts, but the State Supreme Court declared the county law unconstitutional. This decision laid the groundwork for ruling out the county tenure law should it ever be chal- lenged. This “blow to the midriff” served only to rouse the fighting spirit of the teachers and they went to work on the ruling body of the county to secure additional appropriations, and on the Board of Education to adopt the salary schedule. The Board did adopt a modified form of the schedule; but the County Court, which makes appropriations, appropriated only one-fifth of the necessary amount. However, this did effect approximately 7% aver- age increase in salaries for all county teachers. In the case of Chattanooga, the Supreme Court remanded the suit to the lower court for a hearing on the facts, the appeal hav- ing been taken on a demurrer. The city then raised the surprising defense that it does not operate an independent school system but came under the county system. If this contention be true, the invalidating of the county law would apply also to the city. The city holds that it has not met the conditions of the Tennessee school code for the operation of an independent system by a city. There is little chance, however, that the city teachers’ salary law will not stand, as a similar law for firemen and policemen has already been upheld by the courts. In the meantime, the teachers are pressing for salary increases and have already secured an increased appropriation sufficient for an average 3% increase in salary for all city teachers. The suit continues and will soon be on its way to the Supreme Court for final disposition. Berkeley Local Exposes C.T.A.—Berkeley Local 349 in the latest issue of its monthly publication, The Union Teacher, clearly exposes before all California teachers the directors of the California Teachers Association, who, without seeking a referendum of their members, opposed the Instructors’ Tenure Amendment, known to voters on the November ballot as Constitutional Amendment No. 11. 25 The amendment, partly as a result of this opposition, was defeated. The local answers its question, “Are they (the C.T.A.) at heart opposed to genuine tenure for teachers?” with an enlightening bit of history in the form of a synopsis of the C.T.A. record on this important issue. In 1923 the C.T.A. approved a change in the state law of 1921 which made tenure mandatory in school districts above 850 daily attendance, whereas the mandatory figure had previously been 450. This deprived more than half the teachers in the state of tenure. From 1930-1932 the C.T.A. recommended changes which prevented a permanent teacher from seeking a re-trial in order to present new evidence. In 1935, an officer of the C.T.A. violently opposed a measure for- bidding school officials unduly to influence teachers in their choice of membership in a teacher organization. In 1935 signers of petitions against Amendment No. 11 approved the inclusion of criminal syndicalism as a cause for dis- missal in the 1935 tenure law, “criminal syndicalism” hav- ing its own especial interpretation in California. C.T.A. claims there is ideal security in the face of the following facts: half the teachers have no tenure; any legislature can take away tenure from any teacher; no school board can be forced to grant tenure to its teachers; long-term substi- tutes are permitted, as are wholesale dismissals of teachers, however efficient, at the end of the three-year probation period. Finally, C.T.A. collects from each teacher it places a commission of 5% of her first year’s salary. Crisis in Toledo Schools.—Schools in Toledo are facing a serious financial situation. A sales tax on food had, until recently, provided some of the school revenue. The Toledo local, however, as unionists, supported the repeal of this sales tax. The repeal went through, but no action has been taken by the legislature to replace these funds from other tax sources. A one-mill levy for the support of the Toledo schools, in spite of active campaigning by the local, failed to pass. As a result, telegrams and letters were sent to the Governor urging a special session of the legislature to secure adequate school revenue, and to Mr. Kuenzli urging immediate action. Erie Local Fights Dangerous Legislation.—A warning bulletin has been sent to all Erie teachers by Local 337, Erie Federation of Teachers, to oppose as actively as pos- sible the Ziesenheim Constitutional Amendment, limiting combined taxation on real estate to ten mills. The Erie Federation calls this “the most dangerous legislation for the cause of education,” and urges that all Pennsylvania teach- ers follow its example in the work to defeat this amend- ment. Ann Arbor Local Wins Contract Renewal for Ousted Teacher.—In addition to sending speakers through the state for organizational work and holding a summer rally at Ann Arbor during the Summer Session of the University of Michigan, the Ann Arbor Local 284, points with 26 pride to its success in winning the reinstatement of a high school teacher, whose contract the Board of Education, without a hearing and without due cause, failed to renew. The local has also been active in behalf of other teachers similarly dismissed at Corunna and Highland Park. The activity of the local was a considerable factor in the elec- tion of members to their Board of Education, “who are qualified to serve the best interests of the public schools.” A Reprimand from the Butte Local.—Local 332, Butte, Montana, initiated extensive plans for legislative action on teacher retirement. To insure the passage by the Montana State Legislature of a sound teachers’ retirement law based on the Buck Bill will be the union’s major endeavor for the ensuing year. . . . The launching of a state-wide drive to interest Montana teachers in organizing unions in their respective localities forms a secondary com- prehensive project in the union’s 1936-37 plans. Such a project was inspired by the generous welcome which the union’s delegates, first teachers to attend a Montana State Federation of Labor Convention as affiliated members, received at the 1936 Convention. So significant to the teaching delegation was the manifestation of understanding and good will of labor toward education and the teaching profession that the local deemed it advisable for all Mon- tana teachers to be acquainted and affiliated with a move- ment so important to its welfare. . . . At a meeting of Local 332, the action of the National Convention in endorsing collection of $5000 to send to Spain was vigorously pro- tested. For principles of neutrality the action was pro- nounced foolhardy and detrimental to the best interests of our country, the International and the Butte local. Ques- tioning the advisability and justification of such procedure, a motion was approved to the effect that the International be reprimanded and that the Butte organization go on record in protest against the action taken. Sacramento Teachers Win Salary Restoration.—Sev- eral encouraging items are reported by the Sacramento local. Preliminary studies by the local pointing out the feasibility of salary restoration were used as a basis for the program of the Sacramento City Teachers Association. This work resulted in a complete restoration of salaries. Close cooperation of the two groups made this possible. . . . The local’s paper, The Teacher's Voice, which is published each month, has been made self-supporting through adver- tisements. Detroit Local Heads Defense of Ousted Teachers. Union and non-union teachers alike are giving a splendid demonstration of solidarity by the manner in which they are coming to the support of the six teachers who were recently dismissed in Highland Park, Michigan. A full account was given in the last issue of the AMERICAN TEACHER, telling how these six were singled out of a group The cAMERICAN TEACHER of over two hundred for reprisal. The dismissed teachers are remaining in Highland Park upon the advice and with the approval of the members of the Citizens Emergency Committee, which actively continues to work for their reinstatement. Local teachers, union groups, and teachers’ associations in various parts of the country are forwarding contributions to the fund being raised to support these teachers who were, without question, dismissed upon the superintendent’s recommendation in an attempt to intimi- date the teaching body. A.F.T. locals in Michigan and elsewhere may continue to send funds to Miss Huldah Fine, Secretary, Detroit Federation of Teachers, 2970 Blaine Street, Detroit, Michigan. News from Philadelphia.—Two items come from Phila- delphia, one concerning Local 192, and the other the Cen- tral Labor Union of that City. The Philadelphia local several months ago started somethig new, a Teachers’ Book Club. The project met with immediate financial success. Membership is open to non-union teachers and their friends as well as to union teachers, and, from the enthusiastic response, the local feels that other cities may be tempted to embark on this novel fund-raising venture. Individual members receive 10% discount on any four books pur- chased during the school year, and 20% discount on every book purchased thereafter during the same period. Faculty The American Federation of Teachers welcomes to membership the following locals, whose charters were issued since the last issue of the magazine: No. 474 Association of Recreation and Educa- tion Workers, Philadelphia, Pa. No. 475 Berrien Federation of Teachers, Ber- rien County, Mich. No. 476 Snohomish County Teachers Federa- tion, Snohomish County, Wash. No. 477 Dutchess County Local, Dutchess County, N. Y. No. 478 Olympia Teachers Union, Olympia, Wash. In the list which appeared in the September- October number, an error occurred. Local 470 is the Northfield Federation of Teachers, North- field, Massachusetts. November-December, 1936 book clubs receive a 25 per cent discount on the entire list selected. The union, of course, receives its own dis- count from the book agency. . . . The Central Labor Union of Philadelphia recently passed by a unanimous vote a resolution urging local unions to send food, clothing, and money to the Spanish workers. Likewise endorsed was the mass meeting on Spain held on December 10. One of the prominent speakers at this meeting was the Spanish priest, Father Sarasola. An active participant in the meet- ing was the Trade Union Conference Against War. A Unique Labor School.—Proving their unity with labor, teachers of the Highlander Folk School in Mont- eagle, Tennessee, with the cooperation of the A.F.T. local, have organized classes, discussion groups, and other activi- ties for five hundred strikers of the Holston Hosiery Mill in Knoxville. An idea of manifold and interesting activi- ties of the school is given in the following items gleaned from their paper, the Highlander Fling. The major pur- pose of HFS is to serve the growing labor movement in the South by educating Southern workers for places of leader- ship and greater usefulness in the organized labor move- ment. To this end there is a program of short residence courses through the year, week-end conferences, community services and extension work, including follow-up work among former students. Recently a staff member spent some time in the Knoxville area checking up on the work of alumni. . . . “If workers cannot get to HFS, we take HFS to them through our extension work. Thus a large part of the staff’s work is done away from home. Labor dramatic groups have been organized in Knoxville . . . for the Holston Hosiery Workers Union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, and the Junior Union. Workers’ songs are being taught to a number of unions.” New York Local Gathers $3000 for Spain.—With the New York State Legislature due to meet in January, Lo- cal 5 is organizing its legislative campaign. The items on which the membership of the local will concentrate are: full salary restoration; Ives Loyalty Oath repeal; state- wide tenure; full absence refund for sickness. The legis- lative committee is making arrangements to send a special train to Albany early in the session to ask for full salary restoration and the repeal of the Ives Loyalty Law... . As part of the fight against the Ives Law and the McNaboe Investigating Committee, the union held a very effective mass meeting on December 4 which received considerable notice in the press. The speakers were: Dr. J. Raymond Walsh of Harvard University, Vice President of the A.F.T.; Professor Howard K. Beale of the University of North Carolina; Mr. Redefer of the Progressive Education As- sociation; Mr. Roger Baldwin of the American Civil Lib- erties Union. Chairman: Professor Robert G. Speer of the New York University. . . . The union is continuing the collection of money and clothing for the legitimate gov- ernment of Spain. To date five thousand teachers have 27 contributed $3,000 through the local. . . . The membership is growing at an even pace; about 250 a month. With the present membership at 4600, we hope to reach the 5000 mark by February 6, when a tea and dance will be held at the Hotel Astor to celebrate the 20 Anniversary of the local. . . . Following the organizational plan laid down at Philadelphia last summer, a state organization committee was set up in Local 5 under the chairmanship of Mr. Hendley, the president of the local. This commit- tee organized a meeting in New York City for the purpose of organizing a State Federation. Seven of the nine locals in the state sent delegates as did the newly organized local at Vassar College. The delegates accepted the plan for a State Federation. Their locals will be asked to ratify the action. A meeting of delegates is contemplated for the Christmas holidays. . . . A number of teachers from various localities in New Jersey were also present. Mr. Cole and Mr. Larrabee of the Trenton, N. J., local took over the tasks of forming new locals in New Jersey. Springfield Tax Opponents Close Schools A SPRINGFIELD TEACHER HE EYES of the nation were turned upon Springfield, Ohio (Local 296, A. F. T.) when on November 13 the Board of Education, following the overwhelming défeat of a three mill levy for operating expense, declared the schools closed for an indefinite period of time. For several ~ years Springfield schools had been in serious financial straits and had been operating under a seriously curtailed school program with heavy salary cuts for teachers and shortened school terms. A crisis had been reached and the Board of Education stated frankly that if the levy failed the schools must close. Recently, the General Assembly of Ohio enacted one of the most progressive school programs in the nation, a so-called foundation program which guarantees that there shall be not less than $45.00 for every grade school child, and not less than $67.50 for each high school child in the state. However, the average cost of education in Ohio is approximately $60.00 per grade school child and $90.00 per high school child. Under this program the state pro- vides approximately one-half of the operating expense, but the local school districts must, by local taxation, raise the other half. The plan makes it absolutely essential that Ohio cities vote special levies, outside the prevailing ten mill limitation, in order to continue adequate school programs. Politicians, not only in Springfield, but throughout Ohio have seized upon this new state program as a means of Sp ee es Se 28 misinforming and misguiding the people into believing that the state will finance the schools and that local revenues are no longer necessary. When the state officials promised before the election to carry out their part of the foundation program, local politicians twisted the statement to mean that local revenues were no longer needed. In Springfield the real estate board advertised “There is Something Rotten in Denmark”, “The Schools Will Not Close”. They confused the voters with unreliable statistics pertaining to school funds. Consequently the levy failed by a two to one vote. The Springfield Federation of Teachers met on Wednes- day following the election to consider the seriousness of the situation. The future of the boys and girls of Springfield was at stake. Two courses of action were possible. The schools might be closed immediately and the people informed as to the actual needs of the schools, or the teachers might teach without pay and possibly drag out an eight month term. Teachers had received only one month’s pay since last June. The suggestion had been made that teachers sign personal notes at a bank in order to receive their back pay. The final action taken by the Federation was a recommendation to the Board of Educa- tion that the teachers hereafter receive their pay “only through the regular channels”. The Board of Education promptly met and voted to close the schools. The people of Springfield want good schools, and when it was broad- cast from coast to coast that the schools must actually close, public spirited citizens were aroused, mass meetings called, and plans are under way for a special election. With renewed public confidence the schools have opened and a citizens’ committee of fifty is working on a permanent school program. It is too early to predict the outcome but there is reason to believe that Springfield ultimately will come through and that the Federation will rejoice in the part it has played in securing for the boys and girls of Springfield an adequate school program in spite of the disgraceful political scheming of organized opponents of the schools. Democracy in education will prevail. The Classroom Beryl Parker {This new department in the American TEACHER is to serve as a forum for the exchange of ideas on our work in the classroom and its relation to life inside and outside the school. What problems give us much concern? What connection do these problems have with social conditions affecting pupils and teachers? What steps should the Teachers’ Union take toward improvement of classroom procedures? What kind of school life do we consider worth while for children? What type of school program will help us find satis- The cAMERICAN TEACHER faction in our professional work? What sort of school is needed for the regeneration of society? These questions have been raised by other teachers. Will you discuss them by letter and send further problems that you have been turning over in your mind?} The Activity Program Today many teachers, particularly in elementary schools, are asking specific questions about the Activity Program: What is it? How can it be carried out under present school conditions? What results may be expected in the learning of required subjects? This trend toward newer practices will be analyzed in three successive issues of the AMERICAN TEACHER, be- cause the “activity movement” is giving much concern to teachers all over the United States. Whatever theory starts in the elementary school eventually reaches the secondary school and affects outlook and practice there. Emphasis on student activity and an integrated program is already causing marked changes in the high school and is influ- encing the college and university likewise. We are all in- volved in a current of social reorganization which has its counterpart in school reforms. That means we must ex- amine the Activity Program carefully and not toss it aside as just another pedogogical fad of passing interest. When- ever an idea receives world-wide attention, coincides with evolving political philosophy and reveals deep roots in his- tory, it must command our attention and it deserves thought- ful analysis. The Activity Program is important to us because of its social implications. At last American schools are finding their way toward a social pattern of school life and a cur- riculum with social content, two things which are badly needed by a democracy-in-the-making. The Activity School is not a general panacea for social ills, but it does offer a path along which children and teachers may walk together, gaining some understanding of the forces that shape our modern world. Following the first article on The Meaning of Activity Program, there will be another on Ways of Developing an Activity Program, and a third on Results from the Activity Program. Questions on any problems arising in your school, reports of experiences in the field, and comments on the arti- cles as they appear should be sent to the editors, in order to help them keep this department close to your needs and your interests. Meaning of the Activity Program Anyone who spends much time with children knows that the average child with reasonable health is active in body and mind, if given half a chance. Questions, plans, make-believe and experiments reveal the mental activity of childhood to anyone who will listen. Games, stunts, construction and work with materials of all . ~~ = 2. = >. > November-December, 1936 sorts disclose the drive of physical activity to everyone who watches. One would think that parents and teachers should have recognized the importance of this drive to ac- tion and utilized it in education long ago. It seems so obvious a thing to take the natural power at hand and direct it into useful channels. But schools are just begin- ning to follow consciously by “trying the activity program”. All of us remember the schools of our childhood by the way they repressed action. We marched into our class- rooms, took our places at rows of desks, and were expected to sit quietly through the lesson periods except when or- dered by the teacher to make some specific movement. The rule was: Bodies must not be active. Teachers were pleased when we sat up straight and made no noise. There we were with three or four dozen classmates con- demned to silence during school hours, forbidden to exchange ideas with one another, speaking only in answer to the teacher’s questions and commands. A second rule to be obeyed was: Tongues must not be active. Whispering was an offense and talking aloud an outrage. Modern pupils memorized lessons from their books and recited them in response to the teacher’s questions, adding nothing from their own experience or thinking. Another regulation seemed to be: Minds must not be active. Spon- taneous queries or comments were suppresed as irrelevant or impertinent. All of us know this type of school. Many of them still exist today. They are unsocial in atmosphere and undemo- cratic in procedure. They deny the importance of activity in child development. They ignore the record of human activities since the dawn of history, when groups of peo- _ ple began working and talking and playing together, en- gaging in conflict by word and deed, especially when re- pressive measures limited their freedom for action beyond endurance. It is a signficant fact that most periods of struggle for human rights have also been times for the establishment or regeneration of educational institutions. Therefore, it was not chance that we heard much about the Activity Program as a school reform in those European countries which under- took to set up democratic forms of government after the World War, although some of them gave way to reaction later. In Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Germany, Turkey and a few other lands there was great enthusiasm for school life that should be social in spirit and social in content, to the end that the rising generation might develop power to use well the liberties and responsibilities of citizenship in a republic. In the Soviet Union even more sweeping re- forms were inaugurated, since the new regime was to be built on the changed attitudes and increased powers of the youth of the land. At the same time, heightened interest in “progressive education” appeared in the United States. It is a curious fact that American schools have always possessed the 29 Opportunity of embodying democratic principles in the classroom life of boys and girls. Yet teachers have been slow to utilize possible liberties and communities have sometimes hesitated to permit a freer school regime. We worship democracy in government, but fear to practise it in education. Now definite advances are being made. Watch pupils at work with their teacher on a group enterprise, such as the publication of a school paper, the study of Colonial life, the investigation of a city’s water supply, or a hundred other things which form units of work within which are centered many of the regular school subjects. No longer is the teacher a taskmaster, but she is now an accepted mem- ber of the group, respected as a leader, and respectful of the rights of pupils. Mutual aid has supplanted competitiveness among the children and their vigorous activity is controlled by them- selves as they judge what is appropriate and fruitful in each situation. Very readily children sense the right moment for talk and the time for silence, but they must have ex- perience in order to develop behavior standards and to gain control of their own actions. They need many oppor- tunities for discussing “rights and wrongs”, for deciding what course is best “for the good of the group”, and what allowances should be made “in fairness to the individual”. Social experience is the basic method in every classroom developing a genuine activity program. Voluntary partici- pation of each child is a further essential, since real activity springs from desire, not demands. Let us imagine the de- velopment of any typical school project as the group of children make plans with their teacher and discuss each step, choosing materials, searching for information, divid- ing the labor, trying to gain necessary skills, criticizng the results and enjoying the fruits of their effort. The class- room becomes a laborary for experiments and growth in democracy whenever teachers regard such procedures, not as pedagogical tricks, but as fundamental means of learn- ing social techniques and building social attitudes and values which function at every stage of life. Social experience is likewise the basic “subject matter” for units of work in the activity program. For example, study of any industrial process, such as weaving, may be followed from primitive times down through the ancient and medieval periods into the modern machine age, thus disclosing the long story of handicrafts, labor, capital, inven- tion, production, mechanization and distribution. Accord- ing to the age and understanding of pupils, the connection is made between common products and processes near at hand and the benefits or problems they bring to mankind. To teachers whose interest in their profession is equalled by their concern for the survival and evolution of democracy in the United States, it is very gratifying that our schools are now pursuing with some vigor a definite program seek- ing fuller realization of social ideals in school life. Many teachers have long felt that the rights of children were ig- nored and their abilities actually injured by the rigidity of an autocratic school regime. Always there have been wise teachers who managed to relax “discipline” to establish good human relations in the school group and effect changes in the class program similar to that now being made officially. Such teachers know well that their own capacity for ef- fective work in professional organizations and community groups is markedly increased because of the wisdom and skill they gain in developing active groups of children. These teachers inevitably extend their concept of democratic school life te include supervision and administration, where reforms are needed in order that the powers of teachers may be re- leased. When schools are reorganized as cooperative com- munities, work becomes meaningful. Standards of achieve- ment in traditional school subjects tend to rise, and learning in new fields, such as the arts, sciences and social relations, makes remarkable gains. When teachers and children are permitted to develop a rich program of school activities, they begin to make notable contributions to the regenera- tion of community life. Beyond the classroom, we see the implications of the Activity Program for social and political groups, as children grow up and participate in adult ac- tivities. Whether we consider the welfare of children in the years of immaturity, their role in adult society, or the professional and civic rights of teachers, it is clear that the Activity Program possesses social meaning which should be our main guide as we undertake to introduce its procedures into our classrooms. The practical side of the program will be discussed here in the next issue. Labor Notes INDIAN GIVER HORTLY following the November third elections, the press carried news of large dividends declared by lead- ing corporations, notably the steel companies. The declara- tion of dividends was accompanied by announcements of wage increases ranging from 5 to 10 per cent. Several leading Democratic newspapers in the East published their opinion that the two announcements had been withheld for two reasons: in order, first, not to give any implied credit to the present Administration; and, secondly, in case of a Republican victory, to impute to that victory an imme- diate favorable upswing. These political subtleties, how- ‘ever, fade into complete insignificance beside two facts of prime importance not only to the steel workers but to labor as a whole. One of them lies in an eloquent com- The cAmmRICAN TEACHER parison of percentages. In 1935-36 net profits in the steel industry increased 290 per cent, the profits in U. S. Steel alone rising 825 per cent over those of last year. In the same period, average weekly earnings (not hourly rates) in the steel industry rose 19 per cent. The second fact is the string attached to the present wage rise by the Car- negie-Illinois Steel Corporation, the largest subsidiary of the U. S. Steel. Following the example of General Elec- tric, Carnegie-Illinois made the wage rise contingent upon the signed agreement of their employees to a sliding wage scale pegged to cost-of-living index figures of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The effect of this plan is to declare the present living standards of workers a maximum beyond which they cannot hope to go; this, incidentally, during a period when living costs, practically overnight, have soared far ahead of wages. The “Wage Committee” of the company union signed the agreement, ostensibly rep- resenting sixty thousand of the company’s employees. Thirty thousand refused to sign, denouncing the agreement as a yellow-dog contract. During a meeting on the question at the South Works plant in Chicago, a motion was made to accept the money and reject the rest of the contract, which also carried a provision forcing the company union upon the men. Thereupon, the company union chairman adjourned the meeting. In Gary Tin Mill, the employee representatives rejected the sliding scale and the company union clause, accepted the 10 per cent increase, and de- manded 25 per cent more, in addition to a six hour day. Likewise, in Gary Works, the company failed to get a deci- sion in its favor. The “rebels” nevertheless received the increase along with the other workers. President Roose- velt had at first shown favor toward the sliding wage scale, but later declared that the cost-of-living index should not be used to prevent improvements in wage standards. . Several important implications are contained in the situa- tion. One concerns the motives of the companies in grant- ing the increase. It is probable that the employers conceived the plan as a many-edged weapon: first, as a means of forcing the company union upon the workers, at the same time frustrating legitimate organization which has lately taken a spurt; second, as a means of tying labor in a knot as far as future pay rises are concerned (are they look- ing forward to increased profits resulting from an expected war?); third, as a method, in conjunction with increased dividends, of dodging the new tax on undivided profits. Is the move really a master-stroke in clever strategy? If the rise was intended as a sop, why is it so small? The disparity in the division of tremendous profits between stock- holders and workers is glaring. It is doubtful that the contract will slow up organization; the effort to force the company union was transparent to too large a proportion of the employees. In general, there is a strong savor of illegality about the agreement. Is this “freedom of con- tract”? What would the Supreme Court say about it? Unfortunately, there is little reason to doubt the answer. Finally, and most significant, exactly how far is such @ ¥ oo. November-December, 1936 contract removed from the conditions which obtain in Ger- many today? THE Mysterious CONSUMER T THE TIME of a labor dispute, the reactionary press A is wont to befog the issue with copious crocodile tears in behalf of a vague third party to the controversy known variously as the Public or the Consumer. The reaction- ary newspapers as a rule prefer not to come out flat-footed for the employer against strikers. Instead they discredit the strike by weeping piously for the innocent consumers who are helplessly crushed between two stubborn forces. Who are these consumers? Closer analysis reveals the fact that the vast majority of them consist of the strikers them- selves with their wives and families, and their brother work- ers of all kinds whose interests are likewise ultimately in- volved in a successful settlement of the strike, whether they are aware of it or not. In view of that fact, con- sumers are in a position to exercise a powerful influence in behalf of labor. There are several ways in which buying power can be used as such a weapon. First, trade union- ists can make it a point themselves, and persuade their friends likewise, to patronize the union label, shop card and button—to buy the products of their fellow trade union- ists. The Union Label Trades Department of the Ameri- can Federation of Labor publishes information concerning union labels and also puts out a pamphlet carrying fac- similes of the various labels, etc. THz AMERICAN TEACHER, in this issue, carries reprints of several such insignia, and will in subsequent issues endeavor to familiarize A.F.T. members with the labels of products and insignia of unions most likely to be patronized by teachers when shopping . Since they are responsible for the bulk of the buying that is done, women are in a strategic position to aid the labor movement. Their power can be expressed in many direc- tions. For example, a number of women’s auxiliaries to trade unions and to local branches of the Union Label Trades Department have been organized. These auxiliaries can, and in some instances do, carry on vigorous campaigns to stimulate patronage for union products and services. Women can use their power even more extensively. They can swell picket lines, and their systematic withdrawal of patronage from a struck store can be a weighty factor in leading to a successful settlement. They can be of service in gathering and disseminating information concerning la- bor conditions in shops and stores in their localities. They can take action in cases of unwarranted price rises such as the increased price of milk. An organized movement in this direction has found expression in the East in the League of Women Shoppers with established branches in New York, Philadelphia, Newark and Baltimore. The New York branch of the League early this year rendered material assistance in the successful conclusion of a long dispute be- tween the Ohrbach store and some of its employees... . A third method of stimulating public interest in the labor conditions under which commodities are produced 31 LEADING UNION LABELS FIRST SERIES Facsimiles of other labels and shop buttons will appear in subsequent issues. We suggest that A. F. T. members cut and file these union insignia. Buy Union-made goods. A. F. OF L, LABEL egy Bib Ai Cand aie rey S) M4 * fc wp ee of t eu GRESSSPEST. FERRSzS8 i = = Fw aH November-December, 1936 philosopher, clarifying to the perplexed, and methodologically in- structive to the teacher. Mr. Soule decides that socialism is the requisite pattern of liberty. In fact, he takes it concretely to be “an effort to realize American aspirations in a way appropriate to the needs of today and the existing means of satisfying them.” He rejects a return to Jaisses- faire as impracticable and involving greater changes than socialism itself. His criticism of reforms within the capitalist framework may be judged from his condemnation of the most radical one— heavy taxation of profit and indirect redistribution of income—on the ground that it would leave untouched the methods by which profits are made, of which restraint of production is a usual consequence. The last part of the book contains valuable hints for the analysis of socialist procedures to meet the current clichés about “centralized dictation,” “intolerable regimentation,” and so forth. This discus- jon, which gets down to essentials, might profitably have been ed. The question of civil liberties especially requires more careful examination. The author indicates that these are not endan- geted by socialism or a democratic transition to it, but only by the turmoil that would result from a violent attempt on the part of the propertied class to stop this transition. In line with the historical tone of a great part of the book, it would have been useful to 1 examine the historical reasons why civil liberties have come to be almost ends as well as means in America, to estimate in the light of existing forces the probability of their preservation, and to point out the specific alignments of forces and the immediate objectives which should constitute the direction of progressive striving. ABRAHAM EDEL. The Near-Tragedy of a Tenant Farmer TMKE ALL TO NEBRASKA. Sorpuus Keira WintHer. The acmillan Company. 305 pages. $2.50. Is NOVEL is important for city dwellers and for a generation which knows little of farm life. The intensity of personal experience burns throughout this account of the seven-year struggle of an immigrant family as tenants on a midwestern farm. Their hopeless, unending battle with debts, drouth and loneliness in an alien land is doubly revealed in the bitter lives of the parents and the baffled hopes of their children. What a glittering promise », America has held out to immigrants who came with youth and Srength, full of eagerness to prove their mettle and win higher stawus for their offspring! “Success” was gained by a few, but an uncertain subsistence level has been the lot of many. Peter Grimsen was typical in his determination to wrest from the Nebraska soil the products that would make him a “successful” » farmer. Terrified by the increasing burden of debt and the risks of tenancy, he was a hard taskmaster to his boys and closefisted with his wife. Never did he think his way through the network in which he was caught. Neither did his wife, Meta. She played the role traditionally ascribed to woman, in that her patience, skill, diplomacy, good humor and great love kept the family together in spite of hardships and divergent interests. Her pathetic efforts to secure the little things which symbolize a “higher standard of living” ran parallel to her husband’s determined struggle to improve his ferm and make it produce a harvest to meet outstanding debts. For the Grimsen boys life was full of conflicts. Their father’s desperate anxiety to increase the yield of the farm caused him to drive them in long hours of hard labor as he drove himself. To ease their toil, the mother sought every possible means of giving them comfort and winning small pleasures for their enjoyment, but twists of circumstance often prevented fulfillment of her plans. School was a place of torture much of the time, since the boys were foreign in background and therefore a target for ridicule, which usually culminated in bloody fights. With no chance to find better pursuits, the boys picked up the usual cheap distractions of unguided adolescence. } The succession of vivid incidents in this novel builds up tension in the reader and creates expectancy of some definite climax to the _ Situation. Instead, there is a weak and unconvincing close to the 35 It’s Intelligent to be Radical! The trend of events, the recent election, indicate that one must be informed on the progressive forces at work in America today. The best way, the most concise and simple way is to read America’s most popular radical monthly, COMMON SENSE, edited by Alfred M. Bingham and Selden Rodman and written by some of the best writers in America. “One of the most meaty and relevant monthly maga- zines ever published in this country,” says HARRY ELMER BARNES. BEGINNING NEXT MONTH—A new department called WHAT'S LEFT, short 300-word Reviews of the 10 Outstanding Magazine Articles of the Month from a Progressive View Point. Nobody today can read ALL the magazines. Here, battle-scarred reader, is another helpful hand: within a short space ten reviews of the month's most significant articles—not just any articles, but the articles with a definitely modern and progressive angle. The gist of the story and a criticism thereof. Afterwards—read the article—if you still want to. A 7-MONTH INTRODUCTORY SUBSCRIPTION FOR ONLY $1 Read COMMON SENSE for 7 months. Use the coupon below. COMMON SENSE... 315 4th Avenue ... New York Please send me COMMON SENSBE for 7 months. En- closed is $1 in payment. “WHY I AM RESIGNING FROM THE TEACHERS UNION” by Professor H. Gordon Hullfish of Ohio State University in the January, 1937, issue of THE SOCIAL FRONTIER A journal of educational criticism and reconstruction How should his arguments be answered? THE SOCIAL FRONTIER will be glad to give space in its columns to short, convincing replies to the position Dr. Hullfish has assumed. Also in the January issue: the story of how Congress enacted the “Red Rider” prohibiting the “teaching of communism.” 25 cents a copy—$2 a year THE SOCIAL FRONTIER 44 West 90th Street New York, N. Y. LOYALTY OATH LAWS STAND INDICTED AS AN ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM IN AMERICAN EDUCATION Finally, a true education depends upon freedom in the pursuit of truth. No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned. The truth is found when men are free to pursue it. Genuine education is present only when the springs from which know]l- edge comes are pure. It is this belief in the freedom of the mind, written into our funda- mental law and observed in our everyday dealings with the problems of life, that distinguishes us as a nation. Panmedive Rocesvatt Letting every man have his say is the constitutional method of solving our prob- lems. Why should we make teaching into a suspect profession by making our teachers take a special oath? Reneee M. Latest The real danger which democracy faces in America today is the result of the increase of undemocratic tactics in the guise of loyalty to democratic ideals. Proressor Kirtiey T. Matuer, Harvard University That high sounding phrase “the oath of allegiance” is but the forerunner of other seductive phrases that represent an assault on freedom and the debasement of demo- cratic ideals. Dr. Isaitan Bowman, President of Johns Hopkins No educational association has ever advocated the passage of a loyalty bill. People do not seem to realize that such compulsory Oaths of Loyalty are copied from fascism. Dr. Henry M. Wriston, Pres. Ass'n. of Am. Colleges The freedom of teachers to teach facts without a bias and of scholars to learn facts without bias must never ‘cease. The Americanization Committee of the N. Y. County Branch of American Legion When they (teachers) are forced by law to take oaths of allegiance to the govern- ment, a step is being taken in a dangerous direction. National Catholic Education Association To subject teachers to oaths of allegiance, thinking thereby to restrict them in what they teach, is the height of folly. Teachers must be free individuals to exercise their inalienable rights as citizens in their personal behavior and as professional people they have the right to teach the facts as they appear. % Dr. Arvie Exprep, Secretary of the House of Delegates of the New York Teachers Ass'n. There are groups who are very eager to protect selfish interests through the use of so-called patriotism. They will use a law like this to compel the teacher to instruct in line, not with the truth, but in line with theories that will support and bolster their pri- vate interests. J. R. Wausn, Instructor, Harvard University FIGHT FOR THE REPEAL OF THE LOYALTY OATH LAWS