President’s Page AMERICAN ‘TEACHER September-October, 1936 Two Parts—Part 1 Victory in Wisconsin Rapids—A Report upon the 1936 Convention—Kansas Education—Trade Unions and Spain—A Statement by Sir Walter Citrine Attacks on Tenure in Michigan - - - - Arthur Elder Student Failure - - - - - - - - William E. Drake California Organizes - - - - -- - - A Symposium A Trade Unionist Views the Curriculum 00 0 6 0 6 0 ow 6 oe 2 © © « Mark Starr Keynotes of the 1936 Convention J. Raymond Walsh—Louis M. Hacker—Jerome Davis With This Issue: An Index to Volume XX. OFFICIAL ORGAN of the AMERICAN FEDERATION of TEACHERS The School Activities Magazine Dr. Harry C. McKown, Editor The editorial goal of Dr. McKown and his assistants has been that of constant progress in presenting an increasing variety of fresh, usable, and inspiring materials for education through activities. Your job is, to say the least, a most exact- ing one. You need the keenest tools obtain- able. Scnoot Activities is such a tool. It can assist you in keeping your school in the front ranks of progress. Successful educators everywhere are using ScHoot Activities to assist them in their vital job of helping our youth to make the needed adjustments in a rapidly changing world. We invite you to join this group. Subscription Price $2.00 If you mention The American Teacher and send remittance with your order, we will send you free a six months subscription to THe Cooperative Bumper. THE SCHOOL ACTIVITIES | MAGAZINE TOPEKA - - KANSAS The American Federation of Teachers welcomes to membership the following locals, whose charters were issued since the last issue of the magazine: No. 462 Goose Creek Teachers Federation, Goose Creek, Texas. No.463 Toledo Federation of Recreation Supervisors, Toledo, Ohio. No. 464 Federation of Private School Teach- ers, Chicago, Illinois. No. 465 Marshall County Federation of Teach- ers, Marshall County, West Virginia. No. 466 Chapel Hill Federation of Teachers, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. No. 467 Jackson Federation of Teachers, Jack- son County, Michigan. No.468 Richmond Federation of Teachers, Richmond, Virginia. No.469 Administrators Local of Minnesota, Minnesota. No.470 Northfield Federation of Teachers, Northfield, Minnesota. State Wide Teachers Local, State of Minnesota. No.472 South Carolina Federation of Teach- ers, State of South Carolina. No.473 Escambia Teachers Union, Escambia County, Florida. No. 471 A. F. T. Badges AS Pin or Button Pins (with safety catch) or buttons (for coat lapel) are available in either red or green gold; the size is the same as that shown in the facsimile. Prices: $0.50 each, $5.00 per dozen, $38.00 per hundred. (Enameled upon request at slight extra cost.) Order from AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 506 South Wabash Avenue Chicago, Illinois a wan < T ae The AMERICAN TEACHER Union Teachers Deliberate: A Report upon the 1936 Convention... 25 DEPARTMENTS i... .cecedeleghedsebdonuscteauaennéeatae 1 Rr Pee ee re ane PERE, ORE et oy 16 = rs o> MONO. . conchccccuksaeesccoseunmdacets 22 Mi 22. oc ck his chen etiees uo.ne bun. seleneeen al 27 : i doi 6 ouaib dies) tadoae the sah oweedetaweus 28 { in. ii, oe spenks edadbadeowessssees Contes 30 ' i, «ies be pkaaecbntshimoakaseuweeiet aces 32 Hail and The organized teachers of America congratu- Farewell late the newly elected officers of the American ’ Federation of Teachers, with a deep awareness 4} that in electing these officers they are on the one hand bestowing an honor, and on the other hand charging them with an important task. Organizing teachers is consider- ably easier today than it was in the pioneer days when our earliest officers far-sightedly battled up hill against difficult odds, and yet the tasks facing organizers are today made none too easy by the increasingly organized forces of reaction. . . . Union members are gratefully aware of the services rendered by Mr. Raymond Lowry, who resigned | as president shortly before the convention. It is regrettable that Mr. George Davis, who so capably served as Secretary- Treasurer, found it desirable to return to teaching service in Cleveland, though elected at the convention without a dis- senting vote. His place at the national office will be taken by Mr. Irvin R. Kuenzli of Ohio, who was elected by the National Executive Council to serve as temporary Secre- tary-Treasurer until the next Executive Council meeting on December 30, 1936. | | | | | | VOLUME XxXI SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1936. NUMBER 1. —_ = — = ConTENTS Unity in Recent developments in the A.F.L. indicate Victory in Wisconsin Rapids. ..............ccccececcccccccecs 3 the A.F.L. that the action of many central trades bodies, OS GUND. oo cccscesccccesevetacstepenekeaetess 4 state federations of labor, local and inter- iin cenccseesanesétuaseaes shine Sir Walter Citrine 4 national unions in calling for unity in the A.F.L. is leaving Announcement concerning Labor’s Red Cross Fund......... 6 its effect. One hopeful sign is the notice received by cen- Kansas Education » 90 hd sske aes weeded ava eb ess Codecs 7 tral trades bodies to take no action against delegates from Jerome tie to Governor Landon pvloeccecvonseccsstlbestes 7 the suspended unions. Another is the meetin g of Mr. Green Mr. Landon’s Secretary Replies... ...........ccceeeeecceees 7 : nD GHONDD GUE ann ocncccceveghibebetedesdieees 7 with several leaders of the C.I.0. for the pape of arene: SIIIID . ..cccvcwsccvededeossann Dr. William E. Drake 8 ing a split. The leaders of the C.1.0. are trying to achieve Keynotes of the 1936 Convention. .............ccceeccocceees 12 unity with a guarantee that the drive to organize the The Time to Act Is Always Now.......... J. Raymond Walsh 12 workers in steel, rubber and automobiles into industrial An Historical Precedent ..................-- Louis M. Hacker 12 unions will be pushed forward. The A.F.T. took sub- The Need for Vigilance..................cee0e- Jerome Davis 12 stantially this position at the last convention. It reiter- Attacks on Tenure in Michigan................... Arthur Elder 13 ated its belief in the principle of industrial unionism Photographs Taken at the 1936 Convention.................. 17 and its support of the efforts of the C.1.0. to organize A Trade Unionist Views the Curriculum............ Mark Starr 18 in steel and rubber. But at the same time, it made the California Organizes: A Symposium. .......0..cccccccvcccces 19 plea for the unity of the labor movement the keynote of its C.1.0. resolution. It called upon the Executive Council to seat the delegates of the C.1.0. unions at the A.F.L. convention in November. Our delegates will be among those who will demand that C.1.0. delegates be seated, and that the convention itself decide the issue. The hope is that a mandate from the A.F.L. convention will make it possible for the C.1.0. to continue the steel organizing drive within the federation. This is no time for the American labor movement to be paralyzed by a national split into two factions which employers hope they can play off against each other. The drive to bring local unions and central trades bodies into the fight for unity in the labor movement must go on right up to the Tampa convention. Tenure and The enemies of tenure for teachers often “Competence” make use of the plausible argument that incompetent teachers must be put out of the schools for the good of the children. In New York City, for example, there has been in the past few months a concerted drive on “incompetent” teachers. Concurrently, attacks have been made on the right of a teacher who is recommended for dismissal to a hearing with counsel. Thus the cry of “incompetence” is raised to break down tenure. It is interesting to observe, however, that where tenure does not exist teachers are rarely, if ever, dismissed because of actual incompetence. The cases of Mr. Jewett in Cali- fornia, of Mr. Schappes in-New York, and of a number of leading union members in Wisconsin Rapids indicates that differences of opinion, political considerations, and efforts to organize are much more often the real reasons for dismissals. In Michigan, the dismissals of teachers in Corunna and Highland Park are additional instances of the misuse of the “incompetence” charge. . . . Members of the A.F.T. are very much concerned with good teaching and with the best possible education for our children. However, we do not think that attacks on tenure and the use of ratings to intimidate teachers are proper methods for inspiring good teaching. The emphasis should be on appointments based on merit, sympathetic and helpful supervision and counsel after appointment, and above all proper teaching conditions, good school buildings and a . sufficient quantity of school books and other supplies. If our school boards are really concerned with the question of competence for teachers and good education for children, they will work towards providing these basic necessities which are so generally lacking, rather than towards under- mining tenure and security for teachers. Loyalty Oaths The maintenance of civil liberties Can Be Defeated and academic freedom, opposition to Hearst, and the repeal of loyalty oath legislation became the main theme at our last convention. Tremendous enthusiasm greeted Dr. Walsh’s brilliant attack on loyalty oaths. Our stand at the convention is in no smal] measure responsible for the fact that the question of loyalty oaths has become a national issue in this election. Governor Landon, attacked by teachers for his school policies in Kansas and for his Hearst support, found it necessary to come out against loyalty oaths in a campaign speech in Buffalo. Sentiment against loyalty oaths is increasing. Determined efforts against them have a good chance of success this year. Aid for Teachers everywhere will be gratified to Victor Jewett note evidence, on the part of the National Education Association, of an increasing willingness to deal directly with repressions of academic rights. Disapproval of the dismissal of Victor Jewett (an A.F.T. member) in California, in violation of the principles of tenure and academic freedom, was expressed in the report of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Department of Classroom Teachers at the Portland Convention of the N.E.A. in July, 1936. The Committee further recom- mended aid to victimized teachers in securing new positions; prompt investigations; stronger support of persecuted teach- ers by local and state associations; continued effort by teachers to give unbiased instruction, and more effective procedure on the part of the N.E.A. to bring about a solu- tion of the Jewett case and similar cases. . . . The opening brief in Mr. Jewett’s appeal was filed recently. Among eight specifications of error, a leading one deals with the court’s lack of jurisdiction arising from the fact that the Board of Education did not comply with specific provisions of the tenure laws. Another specification indicates that there is no evidence to support the finding of “unprofes- sional conduct” . . . Teachers have a right to expect that The AMERICAN TEACHER Mr. Jewett will be restored to service. The A.F.T. is of course continuing to help Mr. Jewett; funds to aid the defense may be sent to Local 349 at 1598 LeRoy, Berkeley, California. Teachers in the East have, in recent months, found in their mailboxes a monthly magazine, in the October 1936 issue of which was printed a violent attack against the American Federation of Teachers, coupled with the query “Are our children safe?” . . . The National Republic reaches the classroom teacher through the “subscription” of some unknown, mysterious benefac- tor. None of the many teachers asked about this important item has reported that he or she actually paid for the magazine received. This is of importance because the publication quite obviously is not self-supporting through advertisements. . . . Now we ask, who is interested in paying for publishing such propaganda as these choice items: Who Pays for the “National Republic?” Anti-A.F.T. “The Communist Party Candidate for President addresses teachers’ convention in Philadelphia. Given wide ovation on August 19.” (Issue of October 1936, page 27) (In view of the fact that neither the presidential nor any other candidate or representative of the Communist Party addressed the August THE AMERICAN TEACHER Official Organ of THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 506 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois Organized April 15, 1916 AFFILIATED WITH THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR -_———~_-——”S Temporary Secretary-Treasurer Irvin R. KueNnzL! President Jerome Davis Vice- Presidents MAyYNarD C. KRUEGER Irvin R. KUENzZLI Mercepes L. NeELson Nancy Lea SMITH Harry C. STEINMETZ J. RaymMonp WaLsH CLauDE WILLIAMS Sopuus KEITH WINTHER Water G. BERGMAN Henry ARTHUR CALLIS FRANCIS FRANKLIN Haroip J. Gipsons Mary FoLey GrossMAN Cuar_es J. HENDLEY Mary HERRICK —_——_____ Board of Editors Epwin Berry BurcuM Cevia Lewis 1. R. KLINGSBERG Sara T. WALSH = Editorial Offices Business Offices 506 S. Wabash Avenue Chicago, Illinois 114 East 16 Street New York City _—_ @———_ ENTERED as second class matter _ SUBSCRIPTION: $1.00 for the year October 18, 1933, at the post office —Foreign $1.10-—Single copies, 2%¢. at Chicago, Illinois, under the act Published bi-monthly except August. of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for Subscribers are requested to give mailing at special rate of postage pro- rompt notice of changes of address. vided for in Section 1103, Act of Reueanen should be made in postal of © February 28, 1925, authorized No- vember 3, 1926. express money orders, draft, stamps, or check. 2a 2 ; Batshre September-October, 1936 19 or any other session, this is an absolute and we think de- liberate falsehood.—Ep!rtors) A sneering allusion to the fact that some of the men at the August convention wore no coats, and that some women dele- gates smoked cigarettes. (Issue of October 1936, page 2) Anti-Labor Advocacy of the infamous Tydings-McCormack Military Disaffection bill, the anti-labor Kramer Sedition bill, the Anti-Alien Dies bill. (Issue of February 1936, page 8) That John L. Lewis is a front for a movement to destroy the A. F. L. (Issue of October 1936, page 10) In Favor of Loyalty Oaths That teachers’ oaths are being sponsored by “rapid growth in public sentiment.” (Issue of May 1936, page 9) That “in spite of defeats and opposition, the teachers’ oath is making great progress.” (Issue of November 1935, page 32) Anti-Roosevelt That social security plans would prevent people from look- ing into the future and would permit them to “spend freely and recklessly.” (Issue of June 1936, page 11) “Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt openly endorsed Miss Smith’s program for these (FERA) schools even though she had been informed of the ‘communist’ teachings therein.” (Issue of October 1935, page 21) That Mrs. Roosevelt dotes on coddling communist-inspired enterprises. (Issue of November 1935, page 9) That all Federal bureaus, WPA, relief agencies are under radical domination. (Nearly every issue) That proposals by duly elected legislators to amend the Con- stitution are a violation of their oath to uphold it. (Issue of January 1936, page 12) (This, in spite of the fact that the maga- zine frequently expresses abhorrence of change by violence, and points to provisions in the Constitution that permit amend- ments.) Pro-Hearst That William Randolph Hearst is “fighting the good fight of the ‘Father of His Country’.” That “all true Americans” “applaud” and “support” him. (Quoted in issue of May 1936, page 26) In view of these scurrilous and unscrupulous statements, thoughtful teachers everywhere will realize how much credence is to be given to the National Republic attacks upon the American Federation of Teachers. . . . The maga- zine is a direct descendant of the National Republican, formerly published by the Republican National Committee, and is now edited by Walter Steele, who is former secre- tary of the Delaware County (Indiana) Republican Cen- tral Committee. . . . It is quite obviously distilling potions of reactionary political propaganda, and the baseness of its motives is at once brought to light by the utter lack of responsibility with which it casts aspersions on individuals and makes wild charges against organizations. Victory in Wisconsin Rapids (The school board of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, last April re- fused to rehire thirteen teachers, all members of a recently or- ganized teachers union. (See AMERICAN TEACHER, May-June 1936). In spite of the fact that a board member interviewed five of the dismissed teachers, including the four officers of the union, and promised them a fair hearing at which they would be judged on merit alone if they would leave the teachers union, the school board has continuously denied union discrimination. However, the facts are plain. The board refused to rehire every officer of the union, every teacher who had protested the unfair bonus distribution, every teacher who was a delegate to the Cen- tral Trades Council, the chairman of every committee, and every spokesman of the teachers union. The school board based its dismissal of these teachers upon such charges as misspelled words on the blackboard, “disloyalty,” at- tempted “intimidation” of the school board, and “timidity.” One teacher was accused of having a “strong bent of mind” and another of being “nervous after union meetings.” All of the teachers have given from three to seventeen years of satisfactory service to this community, yet suddenly thirteen of them were found to be “unsatisfactory.” Petitions asking the reinstatement of the teachers were circulated by the parents of the community; a committee of interested citizens attempted to arbitrate the matter; organized labor protested, but all were without result. The school board not only disregarded every protest, but immediately filled every vacancy caused by the dismissal of the thirteen teachers. The new appointees were granted non-cancelable contracts. The Union thereupon decided to bring the issue to a recall election.) PONSORED by the Central Trades Council, recall petitions were circulated and nomination papers for a new school board were filed. The date for the recall election was set. The school board then brought an injunction against the new slate of candidates, seeking to prevent the recall on the grounds that the nomination papers had been filed incorrectly. The decision of the Court was in favor of the new slate, and the recall was held. The union forces were successful in electing three of their candidates, thus giving them a four to three majority on the school board (one member of the school board was already favorably disposed to the union). Two court actions have been brought against the new Board of Education by the board members who were recalled. One action contests the legality of the recall election on the same grounds named in the first injunction: namely, incorrect filing of the nomination papers. The other ac- ‘tion is a restraining order preventing the hiring of any teachers or the canceling or repudiating of any contracts. Recently the opposition has become more insidious and underhanded. A group of business men threatened to boy- 4 cott a railroad unless the company could “persuade” one of its employees to resign from the Wisconsin Rapids School Board. The board member did not resign and the railroad company supported him in his decision. Another member of the school board is a postal clerk working under civil service. A group of business men com- plained of his school board activities to the postal authori- ties with the result that he was told to resign from the board or lose his civil service position. (This man had previously received from the first assistant postmaster gen- eral permission to serve on the Board of Education.) A storm of protest went up from liberals and organized labor throughout the state. The National A.F.T. Convention, meeting in Philadelphia in August, took quick action on this matter by sending a committee to Washington. Re- sult: this school board member is permitted to remain on the board pending a federal investigation of the case. On September 5 the case was heard, testing the right of the union board members who had been victorious in the recall election to hold office. While Judge Reid’s decision was pending, the restraining order preventing the hiring of teachers was modified to permit the board to fill vacancies where such hiring would not interfere with existing con- tracts. Acting swiftly following the amendment of the injunc- tion at the hearing, the union board members issued a call for a special meeting the same evening and rehired Joseph Berger, president of the Wisconsin Rapids Teachers Fed- eration, Local 421, thus filling a vacancy caused by the resignation of one of the newly hired teachers. Marie Coon, another of the 13 dismissed teachers, was rehired for the teaching of a special development class. The school board had refused a contract to Miss Coon on the grounds that there were only three or four pupils eligible for her class. Recent testing at the request of the union board The AMERICAN TEACHER members, however, revealed a need for a class of this type. Miss Coon now has a class of twenty, the maximum al- lowed by the state. At the regular board meeting in September, Mr. Ode- gard’s right to serve on the Board of Education was again challenged. Mr. Amundson, one of the board members defeated in the recall election, claimed that Mr. Odegard was ineligible for office because he owned one share of stock in the Wood County Telephone Company—a com- pany furnishing service to the schools. This telephone company is one of the first cooperatives established in Wood County. The shares are limited to one to each tele- phone installed and the dividends are paid as a rebate on the monthly telephone bill. In spite of the fact that Mr, Odegard claimed he had transferred the stock to his wife in 1927 and later proved his point, Mr. Sherman, president of the board, denied him the right to vote. On September 17, Judge Reid declared the recall elec- tion legal. A special meeting of the board was promptly called, Mr. Odegard was given status as a voting member, and two more of the dismissed teachers were rehired. To date, four of the thirteen dismissed teachers have been rehired, two are in Workers Education Projects (WPA), one has secured a better position, one has returned to school to study accounting, one has married, and four are still worrying. What will be done now is uncertain, but what is certain is that the old board members and their followers have completely revealed themselves to the people of Wisconsin Rapids as prejudiced and determined at any price to suppress organization of teachers. The local Teachers Union, on the other hand, has gained and retained the confidence of the teachers, and with the help of organized labor and an interested citi- zenry, has met the situation with success. Trade Unions and Spain Including a Statement by Sir Walter Citrine Greetings I am delighted to have this opportunity of communing with the readers of the AMERICAN TEACHER. Some time ago I heard, whilst I was in Chicago, of the excellent sup- port which they were giving to the work of the Labor Chest for the Liberation of the Workers of Europe. Why is it we are so concerned about this matter just now? Is it really true that the freedom of the workers is menaced? I don’t think anyone can have any doubt about this if he considers for a moment just what is happening abroad. In the United States and in Great Britain, we are so used to exercising the rights of free citizens that we can’t com ceive the possibility of a different situation anywhere elsé The great Italian patriot, Matteotti, who lost his life in defending liberty against the Fascist regime, once gave a definition of freedom which I think is worth repeating. He said, “Freedom is like the air you breathe. You nevet know you have it until it begins to get scarce.” Just think of this statement for a moment, and you will see what it means. Fancy being suddenly deprived of your right to be a member of the Teachers Union! Fancy S2sg&e SBRABHP FP A September-October, 1936 being told that you could not belong to any political party except one that the government chose for you! Fancy being told that your trade union must not exist any longer! Fancy the money that your union has accumulated to help you better your conditions suddenly being confiscated by the government! Imagine all the newspapers coming under the government censorship and your not being allowed to read anything except that which had been written by a journalist licensed and supervised by the government! Can you imagine your not being allowed to talk over such a question as the presidential election quietly with your friends, without the risk of being put in jail? All these things seem so remote that you have difficulty in believing they are true. Yet that is exactly what takes place in countries like Germany and Italy. Even the churches, both the Catholic and the Protestant, are con- tinually being interfered with by the government. Hitler seeks to control the religious views of the people just as he controls their political opinions. Liberty is a very precious thing. I know you don’t want to lose your liberties. Is it too much to ask you to help other people to preserve or recover their liberties? The workers in Germany, Italy and Austria realize what they have lost. The workers in Spain are supporting their government against an attack by Fascist rebels who want to stifle their freedom. There is great distress in all these countries among the lovers of freedom. The International Federation of Trade Unions, with the help of the Labor Chest, is doing something to help these unfortunates in their hour of affliction. Good luck to the Teachers Union and its members for the ready help they, too, are affording. Wa ter M. Citrine, President, International Federation of Trade Unions General Secretary, British Trade Union Congress matter. It carries with it obligations and connections which must be fulfilled at all points if trade union- ism is to continue to exist in any one place. Already, in Italy, Germany and Austria, the trade unions have been completely obliterated by a force which has killed trade union leaders, sentenced thousands of active unionists to imprisonment and forced the workers to be the mute and degraded instruments of their own inevitable destruction. What fascism has done to the workers in these countries, the Spanish rebels, with an avowed fascist program, are attempting to bring about in Spain. Spanish workers are defending their freedom with a valor that is tragic; and trade unionists, universally moved to profound admiration for this heroism, have been swift to provide a measure of relief to the sufferings of their Spanish brothers. In recognition of its trade union obligations, the national Convention of the American Federation of Teachers passed, with one dissenting vote, a resolution which endorsed the Spanish workers’ struggle for democracy and which pro- r | RADE UNIONISM is neither a light nor an isolated 5 vided for a contribution, voluntary on the part of members or locals, to Labor’s Red Cross Fund for Spanish Workers. The status of Labor’s Red Cross Fund for Spanish Workers can best be determined by a knowledge of its sponsors. Heading this fund is Sir Walter Citrine who, as president of the International Federation of Trade Unions in Europe and General Secretary of the British Trade Union Congress, holds a position in British Labor analogous to that of Mr. William Green in America. The fund was launched in America by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union with Mr. David Dubinsky, the president of this international, as sponsor. A recent letter from Mr. Citrine to Mr. Dubinsky defines the disposition of the fund: The charge that money sent by you to Labor’s Red Cross Fund for Spanish Workers, of which | am President, bas been used for war purposes is utterly and ridiculously false. Not one cent has ever been sent to the Spanish government and not one cent has ever been spent except for humanitarian pur- poses such as the relief of suffering, and the purchase of medi- cal aid in accordance with the best Red Cross tradition. This statement by Mr. Citrine was evoked by the dis- tortion of the function of this fund by campaign orator John D. Hamilton and by certain newspapers, notably the New York American, a Hearst paper. Similar distortions and the appearance of utter fabrica- tions as news are an important indication of the subter- ranean level to which the press has sunk in reporting the entire Spanish situation. An American correspondent in Europe, writing in The Nation, September 19, 1936, charges that journalists, debarred from material by the censorship of both sides, have had recourse to their own inventiveness, routine atrocity stories, or these three other sources: “Lisbon, in complete sympathy with the rebels; London, cursed by a press entirely without scruples; and Paris, where almost any paper can be bought for a picayune sum.” Similar evaluations of press integrity have appeared in the New Republic. However, the authorized announcement, appearing in the New York Times on August 29, of the program of the fascist General Mola can unquestionably be taken as fact. The program is simple but comprehensive: “Rule without Parliament; suppress the right to strike; suppress !abor organizations; replace them with fascist units; suppress lock-outs; wipe out Catalonia and Asturias.” This program, which means disaster and the end of democracy in Spain, has caused at least eighty-five per cent of the Spanish people to come to the defense of the Popular Front government which guarantees that de- mocracy. . The foreknowledge of this program was the reason for the union of the Spanish people into a Popular Front before the last election. At that election the reactionary and fascist parties together were reduced from a majority of 352 deputies to a minority of 205. The present insur- gents represent but a minority of this minority. More important, they represent those who will put an end to 6 the long overdue land reforms and modern factory laws that were beginning to emerge under the present gov- ernment. | It is almost incredible that a group whose purpose is the continuation of the excessive economic domination decried in papal encyclicals should be pictured as the defender of the Catholic church. Spain is a country predominantly Catholic, with no dissident religion. Of that predominantly Catholic population, at best only three million out of a total of twenty-four million support the fascists. The remaining twenty-one million support the Peoples’ Front, which placed the present government in power. This coali- tion includes the Republicans, leading six millions; the Martinez Barrio Republicans with five million adherents from the small shop keepers and middle class; the two great trade unions which dominate central and southern Spain; the provinces of Catalonia and Asturias, and the radical political parties. From the extent of this largely Catholic support it should be plain that the issue in Spain is not Catholicism, but fascism versus democracy. It is true, in the present war, that churches have been burned. It is also true, according to J. Allen of the Chicago Tribune, that these churches were used as fortresses, storehouses for ammunition, and meeting places for the fascist Phalanx Espagnola. Robert Neville of the New York Herald Tribune reports in the New Republic that steady fascist machine gun fire came from the churches in Granada, and includes names of churches where ammunition was stored. Where the churches have been used as military buildings they have been treated as such. Other churches have apparently suffered no damage. William Carney, the Madrid correspondent of the New To All Locals Funds sent by locals to the national office of the American Federation of Teachers (in connection with the resolution mentioned above) will be forwarded direct to Labor’s Red Cross Fund for Spanish Workers, in care of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, 3 West 16 Street, New York. Wherever local labor bodies have set up local committees of Labor’s Red Cross Fund for Spanish Workers, our locals are urged to deliver their contributions to these local com- mittees, and notify our national office of the amount. The American Federation of Teachers has authorized no collection other than that for Labor’s Red Cross Fund for Spanish Workers, in which the International Labor Chest of the American Federation of Labor is cooperating, and which is collected and spent under the immediate direction of the International Federa- tion of Trade Unions. The AMERICAN TEACHER York Times, cables that churches are not being looted and asserts that they have been closed to prevent use of the buildings by fascist snipers. The Christian Science Monitor receives from its correspondent a denial that nuns and priests are being molested, and Time magazine, October 5, while reporting atrocities, indicates that they are fabri- cations. Far from being subject to attack, many priests and bishops are staunch believers in the justice of the Loyalist cause. The statement of Father Juan Garcia Morales, Republican and supporter of the Loyalists, is enlightening. “I have not been excommunicated or unfrocked, nor have I abandoned my religion. Our mission is to defend the people from their oppressors.”’ These priests, together with many American Catholics, know that fascism, which has attacked the Church in Ger- many, holds no future for the Church in Spain. The national Catholic weekly, the Commonweal, August 28, says of Spanish fascism: “Jt will not liberate creative Catholic social energies, which have struggled to emerge for hundreds of years. Even if it wanted to it could not. A right social order cannot be promulgated from on top. The change must start among farmers, in the factories. .. We cannot see any reason for stridently applauding the rebels. The lessons of history are too plain for that.” In the trade union movement sympathy and aid for the Spanish workers has been great. The annual meeting of the British Trade Union Congress, as reported in the New York Times, September 8, “endorsed the heroic struggle of the Spanish workers” and sent “warmest fraternal greetings to |their] respected trades union colleagues, Francisco Largo Caballero, as head of the new Spanish government.” The American trade unions have offered similar sym- pathy. The New Jersey and the Rhode Island State Fed- erations of Labor, the first a notably conservative group, recently endorsed the defense of the Spanish democracy. The contributions to the $100,000 goal of the American branch of Labor’s Red Cross Fund for Spanish Workers have been generous and swift. Mr. Dubinsky has reported that by September 24 over one hundred trade unions had contributed close to $80,000. Listed among these unions are locals of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, the Inter- national Ladies’ Garment Workers, the Fur Workers, the Bakery and Confectionery Workers, the International Association of Machinists, the Hotel and Restaurant Work- ers, the International Jewelry Workers, the United Brother hood of Carpenters and Joiners, the Cigar Makers Inter national, and the American Federation of Musicians. This response indicates that distance has not made American trade unionists hermetically unaware of the danger of fascism. It is impressive proof that Americam workers, cognizant of their trade union obligations, have sent ready assistance for the relief of their suffering Spanish brothers. —_— "ss ss? 1 eed ~~ or —— SeY Bae & @ September-Cctober, 1936 Kansas Education Jerome Davis to Governor Landon AUGUST 26, 1936 GOVERNOR ALFRED LANDON. AS PRESIDENT AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, CANNOT RECONCILE YOUR AD- DRESS ON EDUCATION WITH DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS IN SCHOOLS OF KANSAS UNDER YOUR LEADERSHIP, AS DESCRIBED BY YOUR OWN SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, W. T. MARKHAM. I UNDERSTAND THAT THERE ARE ONLY TEN STATES IN UNION HAVING A | LOWER NUMBER OF DAYS SCHOOL THAN KANSAS. LAST YEAR YOUR SUPERINTEND- —. STATED 458 SCHOOLS WERE CLOSED WITH MANY TEACHERS LOSING SALARIES. THOUSANDS BOYS AND GIRLS HAD NO OPPOR- TUNITY TO COMPLETE SCHOOL YEAR. YOUR SUPERINTENDENT DECLARED, “KANSAS _ IS ONLY STATE IN UNION WHICH HAS MADE NO PROVISION FOR STATE AID FOR SCHOOLS.” ENTIRE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACH- ERS WITH 20000 ENROLLED EDUCATORS THROUGHOUT NATION SENT YOU TELEGRAM PROTESTING THESE CONDITIONS. PROBABLY YOU HAVE NO DIRECT POWER AND CONTROL OVER THE SCHOOLS IN KANSAS, BUT SURELY COURAGEOUS GOVERNOR SHOULD ENDEAVOR TO MAKE HIS SCHOOL SYSTEM THE BEST IN THE NATION. PEOPLE OF AMERICA WILL JUDGE YOUR QUALIFICATIONS BY THE REC- ORD IN KANSAS. DOES KANSAS REPRESENT WHAT YOU BELIEVE TO BE SOUND EDUCA- TIONAL POLICY? JEROME DAVIS, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS. Mr. Landon’s Secretary Replies September 2, 1936 Jerome Davis, President American Federation of Teachers New Haven, Connecticut Dear Mr. Davis: This will acknowledge your telegram of August 26 to Governor Landon. Records will show that Kansas ranks at the top of all States in number of students attending college per each thousand of popula- tion; also Kansas ranks among the first five States in literacy, according to the World Almanac of 1936, and Kansas illiteracy is only 1.2 per cent, while the two high States, Washington and Oregon, have 1 per cent illiteracy. Am enclosing re-prints of daily newspaper articles, among which are statements from W. T. Markham in which he points out that no school child in Kansas was deprived of an education. For your further information, it may interest you to know that the State Superintendent’s own records show that only 114 Kansas school districts advised him that sufficient funds were not available to complete the school year of 1936. A re-check of these districts shows that only six had applied to the State Tax Commission for emergency relief and that relief was granted to all six schools. Very truly yours, Wrtarp MAYBERRY Secretary How Kansas Keeps Schools N AN address at Chautauqua, N. Y., on August 24, Governor Landon made the following statements on Education: “My own state devotes 40% of every tax dollar to the support of the schools. . . . In Kansas, we believe education is the birthright of every American child, and to provide for it is the common obligation of the community and the state.” We accepted the Governor’s invitation, during the same speech, to look into Kansas schools. . . . We learned that $38.00 per month is the average salary paid to 7,267 teachers in district schools—almost half the entire teaching force in the state. Some teachers get no more than $25.00 a month. Kansas kindergarten teachers, in the largest cities only, received $1,155.00 last year, thereby sinking to third from bottom of the nation’s list. (The average for the United States is $1,926.00 per year.) The state of Colorado, next door to Kansas, unhonored and unsung, and less wealthy than Landon’s domain, pays its kindergarten teachers $700.00 more, or $1,858.00 per annum. As for teachers in the small cities and towns of Kansas—that is, most teachers—the average elementary and kindergarten salary is $990.00 per year. In Colorado it is $1,986.00 for elementary teaching. Junior high school eachers are paid $1,535.00 in the largest cities of Kansas pe $1,228.00 per year in all other places, setting Kansas own to fifth from bottom of the list. The same teaching in Colorado brings $2,318.00. In its pay to teachers of senior high schools, Kansas drops to second from last, the only state that is lower being Florida. $1,632.00 per year ys the rate in principal cities. The salary in Colorado is $2,349.00 or $717.00 more than its neighbor. The average pay of school employees, with supervisors and superintend- ents included, was $16.00 per week last year, or one-third less than that of the country as a whole. “It is a lamentable fact,” was the report of Kansas State Superintendent of Schools*Markham, “that 458 schools had to be closed the past year with many teachers going without pay.” The number of pupils affected was 8,557. Moreover, Kansas has 7,267 one-room schools in which 170,000 children “can aspire to climb to the highest rung,” to quote the Governor. Also, there is no free text-book system in Kansas as there'is in other states. And yet the Sunflower State is one of the wealthiest in the Union. Governor Landon points to it with pride. The per capita wealth of its citizens is $3,626.00. It exceeds that of Colorado by $208.00. Surely the state can afford a decent educational system. But Mr. Landon doesn’t think as educators do. He is a man of property. “Since 1929, Kansas property taxes have been reduced 32%,” is his boast. This may give us a clue to the mystery of the pauperized schools of rich Kansas. “The per capita cost of state and local government has been cut 24%,” the Governor added. He did not say where the 32% saved on property taxes, and the 24% saved on government went. To those who most needed it, like teachers or underpaid civil servants, or the unemployed? We know how deeply teachers’ salaries were cut during Landon’s term. We know The AMERICAN TEACHER that the civil servants fared no better. (Kansas has no system of civil service, though there has been a statute on the books for years providing for it.) We know that the unemployed have benefited nothing (Landon calls $1.08 weekly relief for a family of three reasonable). Who else but realty owners profit from budget balancing, and who but Governor Landon is the great “Budget Bal- ancer”? Is it any wonder that the state of Kansas is among the lowest in social services? Finally, as regards public education, Kansas bears a unique disgrace in the Union. It has no state aid at all. (Condensed from an article by Arthur Hinds in The New York Teacher, October 1936.) Student Failure Do Environmental Factors Influence Teacher Classification of Children? WILLIAM E. DRAKE NE OF THE most astounding inconsistencies of our present age is the desire on the one hand to find and determine the causes of physical disease, and on the other the continued acceptance of traditional phrases concerning the social and economic life of the individual and of society. In fighting the disease of tuberculosis we fight with a knowledge of the cause of the physical malady; in fighting the social disease of crime we fight results, through a hope to perpetuate our privileges and our prejudices. To a man or a woman who has achieved success in life we give all the credit; to an individual who has failed we give all the blame. It is conventional to say that America is a land of equal opportunity; it is scientific to try to find the causes of our many individual! differences. There is at least one major difference between dealing with our physical problems and those of our social and economic life, and that difference is the human attitude. All of our activities are backed by certain attitudes of value, of rightness or wrongness, and it is these attitudes which determine the nature of our classifications. Actions which are sometimes listed as crimes against the state quite often become the highest examples of human self-sacrifice. What is considered as goodness by one group of people is certainly not always considered as goodness by another group. In that fool’s comedy, To the Pure, Morris L. Ernst and William Seagle show that certain books have become obscene or pure according to the erratic tendencies of the courts. Teachers’ attitudes toward children must certainly fall in the same category. Boys and girls are ranked and graded in school according to certain preconceived or tra- ditionally held ideas of success or failure. It is not the purpose of this study to deal with these dif- ferent attitudes on social values of an educational nature, but rather to study them in relation to several environ- mental factors. An opportunity for a study of this kind was found ina Character Education Extension Class offered by the Penn- sylvania State College in the City of Altoona, Pennsylvania. This city, with a population of 80,000, is located in the mountains of the central part of the State. Although known to the outside world as a railroad center, the eco- nomic life of the community is supplemented by many other industrial and mining activities. Having a population well diversified in race and religious beliefs, if not in politics, the city seemed to afford an excellent opportunity for a study of this kind. School records of the State show that the Altoona School System ranks among the best of the systems in Penn- sylvania, in number of pupils enrolled, salaries and certifica tion of teachers, and school buildings and equipment. The method of approach to the problem was to have each of 138 teachers select from her classroom the three students, boys or girls, who best characterized, in a general way, what she considered the superior, average and below average type of child. Here was a subjective selection of quality which is characteristic of life, but here was also @ desire to determine the objective factors which were back of this subjective selection. Phrased differently, it was realized that social relationships are stated in terms of abstraction; Lean ta YY»? . & OD & e; )- i- een rere _ 0: ¥ 7? & BBee 2aesea September-October, 1936 but it was also realized that these subjective school con- cepts are not independent of physical and environmental forces. The results of this study are thus based upon 412 case studies. (Two studies were thrown out because of incom- pleteness.) Teachers submitting these studies were selected from no particular grade or group, but were representative of the school system as a whole. For working purposes the classification of the materials of the three groups fol- lows under three heads: paternal occupations, special condi- tions of the home, and special conditions of the child. For the purpose of visualization and study the results are presented in bar and circular graphs. The bar graphs show in terms of the environmental factors the distribution of the subjective concepts: above average, average and below average children. The circular graphs show the dis- tribution of the environmental factors in each subjective concept. Each of the graphs will be presented and analyzed separately. The first graph presented deals with paternal occupations and their relation to a subjective classifica- tion of school children. The writer need not point out in detail the various phases of the graph. It is self-explanatory. However, it would be wise to bear at least two things in mind before drawing any conclusions. The proportion of professional people to skilled and unskilled laborers is particularly low in Altoona, consequently there is on the average less oppor- tunity for the children of professionals to fall in the above average group. Also, the offspring of the more educated parents, as shown by social and economic studies already published, are fewer in number. Recognition of these two factors considerably accentuates the significance of the graphs. The predominance of the skilled labor parental group is due to the classification of the railway laborers. Interestingly enough, the children of professional and commercial parentage have more than a fifty-fifty chance of being classified as above the average. Children whose parents are absent or missing have more than a 75 percent chance of falling within the below average group. Where is our right to praise those who succeed and to condemn those who fail? What shall we now do with the American myth of the orphan boy always making good? The predominance of children from skilled labor parentage is peculiarly evident in the average group. PATERNAL OCCUPATION “ Distribution of the Entire Group Number of Occupations 20 30 40 SO 60 7% 680 960 Oo 10 Skilled Labor Cler: € Comm. Unskilled Labor Dead Absent or Professiona/ Legend ve Average verage low Average “Total of 245 Paternal Occupations tabulated IN 42 cases Studied in the Altoong Schools ler & Comm led Labor Legend Unskilled Labor Dead nt or Missing 10 Now for an analysis of the second set of data. The value of home training in a child’s life is without question. Here we have a graphic study in terms of spe- cial conditions. In setting forth these special conditions, no effort was made to reduce them to anything other than a recognized difference. Poor neighborhood refers to the well known crowded slum district or street; otherwise, the neighborhood was classified as excellent. An income of less than $1,200 a year per family was characterized as inadequate, this being much below the standard set by many well known sociologists. Parental excellency was selected in contrast with parental incompetency, the latter being considered where there was crime, immorality, drunk- enness, insanity or vagrancy in evidence. An abnormal home condition was one where there were more than six children in the family and less than two, or where there was present in the home some person other than the father, mother and children. Some of the results are almost unbelievable. Not a single below average child came from an excellent neigh- borhood, and the percentage of parental excellency in this group is very small. Notice the decreasing significance of * The AMERICAN TEACHER parental excellency and of excellent neighborhood as en- vironmental factors as you go from the above average group to the below average group in the circular charts. Notice the increasing significance of parental incompetency, inadequate income, and of abnormal home conditions. A closer analysis makes it more than probable that a combina- tion of special conditions rather than any one factor makes up the total effect of the home. Now for the third and last set of graphs. A brief interpretation of the special conditions of the child is desirable. A child was classified as athletic who had participated in one of the major sports of the school; and as talented, if such talent had been expressed in music, painting, drawing or dramatics. Quotient Tests. Physical deficiency had to be expressed either in terms of a deformity or abnormality, or in terms of an anemic condition. Social adaptability and social unadaptability were determined by teacher character ratings. The results, as is in evidence by a study of these graphs, would destroy some of our conventional concepts. Athlet- SPECIAL CONDITIONS OF THE HOME * Distribution of the Entire Group Number of Conditions Oo 10 20 30 40 SO 60 70 8 90 100 iO 120 80 Above Average Average Beiuw Average "Total of 457 special Conditions of the home observed in 4/2 Cases Studied in the Altoona Lilementary Schools Parental /ncompetence Poor Neighborhood Distribution Within Each Sub-Group ent c HU Arcome te or Abnormal MW Abnorma!’ Home Conditions Both mental deficiency | and mental superiority were based upon the Intelligence | DD D&D & > > | Cala OC ar | ica terl riot Wit September-October, 1936 11 SPECIAL CONLITIONS OF THE CHILD * Listribution of the Entire Group Number of Conditions Oo 20 40 Socialhy Socially Adapted Physically Deficient Mentally Superior Mentally Deficient Talented Athletic Legend Above Average verage Below Average "Total of 468 special Conditions of the child observed in 4/2 cases Studied in the A/toonq Schoo/s ically the three groups are not glaringly variant. The above average group seems to be much the superior in terms of talent, but even here the difference is not nearly so great as it is in some of the other special conditions. Notice that with the above average child mental supe- riority and social adaptability are the significant factors. With the below average child social unadaptability and physical and mental deficiency are the determinants. Out- side of the problem of social adaptability, physical defi- ciency seems to be the significant special condition in the average child's rating. Although occurring infrequently, the presence of mentally superior children in the below average group is easily understood upon a reconsideration of the basis on which the material was selected. In summary, a study of the three groups together show the following major environmental characteristics: Above Average Children Professional and commercial parentage Y Excellent neighborhood Parental excellency Menta! superiority Social adaptability Good health (recognized) Listribution Within Each Prysically Deficient entally Superior enta/ly Deficient 60 80 100 120 40 {60 @j@ > Legend thietic ocially Adapted Jally Ffon mn al Talented Average Children Skilled labor parentage No outstanding special conditions of the home (Poor neighborhood, parental incompetency and abnormal home conditions were most significant.) Athletic (on comparison) High physical deficiency and social unadaptability Below Average Children Unskilled labor, dead, absent or missing parentage Inadequate income Poor neighborhood Parental incompetency Abnormal home condition Mental deficiency Physical deficiency Social unadaptability The major conclusion. of this study is that the child’s life rating is a resultant of the interaction of the biological unit upon the environmental forces with which it is thrown in contact, and that the reaction of the biological unit under similar conditions tends to produce similar results. In the light of these facts, the enlightened teacher will see her task more and more in terms of a change in our social and economic patterns of life and less and less in terms of formalized class instruction which aims at nothing more than a stupid submission to the forces of the status quo. The AMERICAN TEACHER Keynotes of the 1936 Convention EXCERPTS FROM NOTABLE SPEECHES The Time to Act is Always Now CADEMIC FREEDOM, let us be secure in this, need no longer be discussed in general terms. Let it be dis- cussed in terms of the precise point in the academic picture wherein the invasion to civil liberties and academic free- dom is to appear. It is going to appear not in the field of biology, not in the field of theology, not in the field of any and sundry other departments of our academic life, but squarely in those fields wherein our economic and political system is subjected to the free and ranging inquiry of scholars, wherein students and teachers alike wish to fol- low along unfettered lines of inquiry into those institutions that go to make up our economic and political system. It is there, I think you will agree with me, that our academic freedom is in danger. It is as teachers interested in those subjects, and workers interested in those subjects, that you will find your freedom imperiled either in ways direct and brutal, as in Arkansas, or in ways subtle but equally com- prehensive as in the teachers’ oath of Massachusetts. (And I call upon you, as I was saying to somebody last night, “Christianity to the Christians”—I call upon you to let us be men and women for whom the visible world exists. Let us not have this world of ours a place wherein these threats are to be found. Let us become as fully informed about these threats in our community as we can.) Let us or- ganize in such way as to make the resistance intelligent and relentless. I think there is no more strategic time to defy the threats of academic freedom than the present mo- ment; and no matter what the present moment is, that is the strategic moment. Some of my friends, whose integrity I am sure is just as good as mine on this matter, have somewhat disheartened me at times by saying, “In Massa- chusetts I am all for this movement against these interests that are interested in getting at our academic freedom and impairing it, but it is not quite the strategic time to act.” My answer to them is that they will be caught with their backs against the wall and shot down as our brethren were in the City of Vienna not so long ago; that they will be caught some place, in some pocket, deplorably to have this mountain, this wave roll over them and fall, and forth- coming from them will be a muttered sentiment of despair. If they do not realize that this moment is the strategic moment, that all moments are strategic moments, for a resistance to these influences, that is what will happen. That, of course, is one of the main reasons why I am so much interested in belonging to the Federation and in see- ing it become a mass moment indeed among the teachers of America. We need it gravely for America. We need it gravely for the workers of whom we are a part. We need it gravely for the dearest possessions that we as Americans have. J. RayMonp WALsH An Historical Precedent ET ME TELL you an historical anecdote that our school books, unfortunately, do not teach. In February 1775, two months before the Battle of Lexington, General Gage, the British Commander-in-Chief, sought to get ready for trouble by strengthening the fortifications of Boston Harbor. Knowing that Boston carpenters and masons would not supply him the needed materials and men, he sent his emissaries to distant cities for help. But the Boston Committee of Correspondence was swifter, for when Gage’s agents got to New York the New York arti- sans were already familiar with their quest. The New York carpenters and masons refused the British offers of employment in the creation of weapons to be used against their fellow Americans. (Applause.) They stood shoulder to shoulder with their fellow craftsmen of Boston. A magazine writer, discussing this incident in a popular magazine in 1921, had this to say: “It is impossible to withhold admiration from action such as this. It was sabotage; but sabotage boldly and publicly recommended in the face of the bayonet.” Of course, this was not sabotage; it was working class solidarity. This was written, as I have said, in 1921. One may wonder whether a popular magazine today would give its endorsement to working class solidarity in this fashion. Yes, I should tell you the name of the magazine. It was the magazine of the Daughters of the American Revolu- tion. Louis M. HackKER The Need for Vigilance 7 THE TEACHER is not to be sheltered in the cloistered halls away from the throbbing problems of the world, if he is not to become a bookworm eating his way through life in the narrow scholastic pursuits of book learning, he must join with his fellows in trying to make the world in which we are immersed a better place than it is. If the teachers ignore the great outside forces, they may be sure the outside forces will not ignore them. A teacher may be ever so proud of his so-called scholarly attainments, of v H& sews - bh d , h e d e e J of September-October, 1936 his brilliance as a lecturer or writer. He may pledge in his own mind that he will not mix in politics, or in the vexa- tious procedure of trying to apply his science to improve humanity. In a word, a teacher may keep himself un- spotted from the world, devote himself unsparingly to what he considers to be the highest welfare of the students under him, but the world outside marches on. In 1929 the teachers may have been unconcerned with business and banking and property and politics; but in 1936 they see that the business leaders were not uncon- cerned about them. The worst depression in the history of our country swept across every school in the land, scattering unemployment and drastic salary reductions in every direction. The teacher may have been unconcerned, but the depression smote him in the face just the same. 13 No teacher can be totally unaware of the great social problems of our epoch, nor of our theoretical heritage of liberty, equality and fraternity. But the mere fact that we were born in a country dedicated to freedom does not guarantee its perpetuation. Freedom is not like a grave- stone which, for a sum of money, will be guaranteed “per- petual care.” It is only men and women, whose lives are devoted to the common good and to liberty who are willing to sacrifice themselves at the altar of these ideals, who make their perpetuation possible. This, the American Fed- eration of Teachers has tried to do ever since its incep- tion. This, it is doing today, and it is my hope that as long as the American Federation endures it will stand for these great principles, not alone in theory but in practice. Jerome Davis Attacks On Lenure in Michigan ARTHUR r. Powers, a lecturer at the University of Michigan Summer Session, on July 29, 1936, included the following statement among some mimeographed notes on the subject of Tenure: “The qualities of competence are a teacher’s best safeguard of tenure in any school system. Except in cases of complete incompetence on the part of the supervisory or administra- tive staff she requires no legal safeguards for her tenure.” Michigan teachers should read and reread the above statement and then consider the following facts. It is be- lieved that they indicate that all too frequently the ques- tion of competence is disregarded and that the enactment of legal safeguards is required, Dr. Powers to the contrary notwithstanding. Nine teachers with local service records of from two and one-half to nine years were refused contracts for the school year 1936-37 by the Corunna Board of Education early in April 1936. The Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Butter- field, said these teachers were competent. He had recommended every one of them for re- appointment. The school board refused to reappoint them at a session from which Mr. Butterfield had been asked to absent himself because, to quote a board member, “They in- tended to make some decisions he would not approve of.” In those cases in which marriage was the pretext advanced for the action of the board, ELDER no policy regarding the employment of married teachers had either been announced or adopted. The married women in almost every instance had family responsibilities. “Ineffi- ciency” was charged against one single woman teacher and two men, one of whom had had a local teaching record of four years, and the second, of nine years. All local efforts to persuade the board members to re- consider their action proved unavailing. Interviews with the board president, Mr. Lowell Bouch, and the secretary, Mr. Nelson Kincaid, revealed them to be quite narrow, opinionated and definitely satisfied that they were acting correctly and that reconsideration would be out of the question. In response to questionings of representatives of the Michigan Federation of Teachers, Mr. Bouch inti- mated that the matter was closed. New teachers had been employed, and he was satisfied. Board members were better able than superintendents to pass upon the qualifications of teachers. According to Mr. Bouch, it was a very simple matter to se- cure Ph.D.’s and A.M.’s for $1000 to $1100. Mr. Bouch refused to bring up the matter of the dismissal of the nine teachers for dis- cussion at an open meeting where the teachers concerned might be present. He did ask our M.F.T. representatives to attend a discussion to which he agreed to invite certain local busi- ness men. Since this seemed to confirm the information we had been given that certain local bosses controlled the board, our repre- 14 sentatives expressed no interest in attending such a meeting. Latest information does not indicate whether all nine Corunna teachers have secured positions for next year. The point that concerns us is that here we have nine mem- bers of our profession established in a community for years, all having reason to assume their work was satisfactory, until suddenly uprooted to shift for positions as apprentices in strange systems. Indeed, in several instances, there seemed extreme likelihood that no positions would be se- cured by several of the Corunna teachers, because of the tendency of some hiring boards to consider every type of dismissal as being to the discredit of the teacher. In Highland Park, where six teachers with local service records of from eleven to twenty-two years were refused contracts, the action taken by the board on recommenda- tion of the superintendent, Dr. Allen, at the meeting on Tuesday, August 4, constituted the culmination of a series of events which had their beginning three years ago. In the spring of 1933, the school board’s attorney, ad- dressing the teachers, told them in a take-it-or-leave-it fashion that they would be obliged to waive their contracts and make shift with a portion of their salary. For some months thereafter they received the bulk of their salary in scrip not generally acceptable. That year (1933-34) the teachers received 55 to 58 percent of their scheduled sala- ries. They got 76 percent last year, and next year are to receive 85 percent of their scheduled rate. During this period, obligations on indebtedness have been met 100 per- cent; delinquent tax collections are as good as they were in the late twenties, and the district closed the year with a cash balance of $180,000, after reducing the school tax rate by $1 per $1000. This perhaps constituted the basis for a growing be- lief among the teachers that Dr. Allen has not properly represented their interests in his dealings with the board. They have never intimated that they were unwilling to take necessary salary cuts. They have every right, how- ever, to point out that the credit of their district has been restored, debt charges have been met, and taxes have been reduced—all at the expense of their salaries. The experience of the Highland Park teachers follows a very old pattern. They depended first upon their super- intendent, Dr. Allen, to present their case. During the year 1933-34, they asked that the difference between 58 percent and 75 percent of their salary be paid them in delinquent tax notes. This request was refused; Dr. Allen, who boasted of his ability to see the board’s point of view, naturally proved no pleader for the teachers. Isaac DeVoe and Jean McKay, officers of the Classroom Teachers Association, were threatened for their activity in associa- tion affairs. Then, as if to pile insult upon injury, Dr. Allen ordered principals to transmit statements for the signatures of teachers in which they were to promise to acquiesce cheer- fully in any action taken by the school board. More than The AMERICAN TEACHER one principal, outraged at this attempted coercion, did not bririg the statements to the attention of his teachers. In this situation, therefore, teachers saw that their only means of securing appreciation for their point of view was to attempt to elect members to the board who would con- sider their problems. From this decision dates a consid- erable increase in interest in school affairs among Highland Park citizens. The school election vote has risen from former totals of three, four or five hundred to close to five thousand. The school teachers were not successful in electing all the candidates they supported, nor did all of those elected remain loyal to their viewpoint on the board. When the question of renewing Dr. Allen’s contract as superintendent was considered at a board meeting early last Spring, no decision was reached, due to a 3-3 deadlock of board members. Decision as to the superintendency therefore hinged upon the outcome of the school board election which was to be held late in June. The matter of the attitude of the Classroom Teachers Association to the renewal of Dr. Allen’s contract was con- sidered. By secret ballot of association members, a vote of non-confidence in Dr. Allen was recorded by a count of two hundred and twenty-six to fifty-one, forty teachers turning in blank ballots. On the basis of this vote, candi- dates who were known to favor the engagement of a new superintendent were supported by the Teachers Associa- tion. No one questiond the right of the teachers to sup- port the candidates of their choice. At more than one meeting sponsored by the pro-Allen Citizens Committee, teachers were reproached for their failure to attend. The teachers perhaps made the mistake of assuming that their opponents were gentlemen. No public reference was made by them to the many occasions Dr. Allen had mis- represented them and shown a desire to build his own pres- tige, rather than take a stand in the interest of the system. The pro-Allen group, however, hesitated at nothing in the way of vicious campaign tactics. Their house-to-house canvassers, as the occasion seemed to dictate, charged the teachers with communistic teaching, loose morals, Catho- lic intrigue, foreign control, Protestant domination, etc., etc. Statements appearing in their advertisements in local papers and on hand bills were equally unscrupulous. So heated did the campaign become, indeed, that some doubt of the honesty of intention of pro-Allen candidates toward the teachers, in the event of their success at the election, was expressed. Mr. H. M. Robins and Rev. William Abbott, in response to direct questions at public meetings, admitted the right of teachers to participate in the campaign and stated they would sanction no reprisals. Mr. Robins specifically stated that, if elected, the com- petence of the teachers in the classroom would be the only element he would consider in connection with any proposed dismissals. Mr. Doll, the board secretary, also declared he would oppose any suggestion of reprisals. Ps S&S wBbe = ~-— = aadas * * = © September-October, 1936 Judge George Bushnell of the Michigan Supreme Court, who acted as chairman at one of the meetings sponsored by the Citizens Committee, although quite patently biased against the teachers, made the statement, “The people of this community will not stand for any reprisals after this election.” The supporters of Dr. Allen won the election by a mar- gin of seventy-two votes out of a total of nearly five thou- sand. This gave them four out of the six positions on the board. At the first July meeting of the newly constituted board, Dr. Allen’s contract was renewed for two years. The superintendent presented a list of over two hundred recom- mended teachers, together with a list of forty-two teachers who were not recommended for reappointment. The board members who had publicly declared against reprisals were present at this meeting. No hint of professional incom- petence was advanced. Dr. Allen merely stated that he had advised these teachers that on the basis of their ex- pressed attitudes, he no longer felt satisfied of their ability to “cooperate” in the maintenance of “harmony” in the system. No explanation was made as to why the forty- two were singled out of a group of over two hundred who had been active in the campaign. (Incidentally, prior to the closing of school, principals had been requested to list the names of their weakest teach- ers. In no instance, according to our information, were the names of any of the non-recommended teachers on such lists. ) This open attempt at intimidation resulted in the im- mediate formation of a Citizens Emergency Committee. Mass meetings were held. Petitions bearing over five thou- sand signatures urging reconsideration were submitted. These, together with the nation-wide protest that poured in upon the board throughout the month of July, may have been responsible for changing the attitude of the board to some degree. It was arranged that the non-recommended teachers should interview Dr. Allen to assure him in per- son of their loyalty. Later they were to confirm these assurances in writing. Accounts of these interviews are interesting. Dr. Allen, obviously in the position of a teacher who had first failed to secure the cooperation of a group and had later been invariably unsuccessful in his attempts to discipline, now was put in the most embarrassing position of justifying his request for an interview. Statements such as these of Dr. Allen’s, indicate the tenor of the dialogue: “Yes, you are an excellent teacher—one of the best in the system. The trouble with you is that you have too much influence in the community. New teachers wouldn't have as much influence.” “You have a perfect right to engage in political activity— that’s not why you're here. But Miss ............, why did you campaign against me?” ere I'd like a letter; nothing formal or set—merely the assurance that we may count on your loy- alty and cooperation.” 15 . Seven teachers failed to satisfy Dr. Allen as to their loyalty, and according to arrangement with their attorney, Mr. Dewey, were given private “hearings” by the board. All requests for presentation of charges at open hearings had been refused. The “hearing” under the circumstances proved to be a mockery. No concern was evidenced by the majority board members as to the service records of the six teachers of from eleven to twenty-two years. Dr. Allen himself was not present, nor were any charges sub- mitted. The teachers felt that they had been prejudged, that hostile board members seemed chiefly interested in whether they had properly repented their participation in the recent election. “Harmony” through intimidation was finally achieved when the board on August 4 voted contracts to six new teachers to replace the seven dismissed. Mr. Doll, Mr. Robins, and the Rev. Abbott voted for the replacements, in spite of campaign promises concerning which they have been reminded many times these past few weeks. The Hon. Supreme Court Justice Bushnell admits no responsi- bility in the matter, in spite of the fact that he publicly pledged in behalf of these very board members that there would be no reprisals attempted. Michigan teachers should make it their business to confirm the currently expressed conviction among Highland Parkers that Judge Bushnell is politically dead. Michigan citizens are now generally convinced of the need of tenure legislation, as the result of the Corunna and Highland Park dismissals. The Citizens Emergency Com- mittee in Highland Park will continue to function. Colonel Cole, its chairman, expressed the spirit of the entire com- mittee and of thousands of citizens when he stated it was their intention to continue actively until every teacher had been reinstated. Michigan teachers have several challenges presented to them in these cases. First, they must give financial aid to their colleagues in maintaining themselves in their com- munities until their reinstatement. Equally important is the necessity for actively working for tenure legislation. Salary, pensions, state aid, all of these questions are im- portant and must be equitably provided for, but the first need is that of security—tenure for teachers. With all due respect to Dr. Power, who is quoted at the commencement of this article, may we suggest that for Michigan teachers his statement might well be altered to read: “The qualities of competence s/ould be a teacher’s best safeguard of tenure in any school system. Due to the in- creasing frequency of dismissal of Michigan teachers for reasons absolutely unconnected with their competence, however, some form of legal protection is necessary. This should take the form of a tenure law based upon the expe- rience of the states which have adopted such legislation within the past twenty-four years.” Rs a SS == SS 16 The AMERICAN TEACHER Presidents Page JEROME DAVIS Dr. Jerome Davis, A.B., M.A., Ph.D., LL.D., D.D.; taught at Columbia (1920-1921), Dart- mouth (1921-1924), Yale 1924- ); author of a number of important books and articles on sociology and kindred subjects; active in socio- logical societies and on the editorial boards of sociological reviews; chairman of the Legislative Commission on Jails in Connecticut; member of the Board of the Family Welfare Society of New Haven; chairman of the A.F.T. Committee on Colleges (1935-1936). Forward, Teachers of America! DUCATION still faces a crisis. Although the United States Chamber of Commerce has declared that we are in a boom period comparable to that of 1929, educational expenditures have dropped over $500,000,000. Thousands of schools have closed their doors. A million children are receiving a form of mental starvation called shortened schoo! terms. Teachers from the Atlantic to the Pacific still await the restoration of pay cuts. Education is part and parcel of the existing social order. A new and better education demands a new and better social order. Teachers can no longer trust to their own individual efforts to secure freedom and tenure and equitable salaries. Today we are living in a period of group pres- sures, group responsibility and group justice. At the present time, the organized labor movement of America is threat- ened with one of the worst splits in all its history. Teachers cannot be indifferent to the break up of labor. They must demand a united labor movement. It is only as the workers both of hand and brain unite in a strong progressive social movement, demanding education for democracy and justice for all, that we can ever go forward. Teachers used to feel that they were superior to the rank and file of their community, particularly the working class, without recognizing what this smug class complacency was costing them in salaries, tenure and freedom. It is only as we join hands with the workers of America that we can secure the justice which is our due. Back of every superin- tendent of schools, back of every school board, are the workers and citizens. Teachers who hesitate to affiliate with organized labor now are jeopardizing educational progress for decades to come. Even now the right to organize is threatened in certain localities and, if reaction or war does come, the employee’s right to improve his condition will face formidable restrictions. It was only in 1930 that the Board of Education of Seattle, dominated by an electric power company, forced a yellow dog contract on the teachers of that city. This year such a contract was forced on the teachers of Memphis. Even as this is being printed, we witness the valiant struggle for organization waged by the teachers of Jasper, Alabama. There, when the contracts for the new year were distributed, the most active members of the federation of teachers were left out. At the same time, we find the encouraging spec- tacle of the mothers and fathers of the children of that community protesting the discharge of the union teachers and demancing that the superintendent be dismissed. The parents were so aroused that they kept 1700 pupils away from the schools. In Alabama as a whole the average pub- lic school teacher’s salary is about $500. There never was greater need for the American Federa- tion of Teachers than now. Each one of us must act as a committee of one to increase membership in our organiza- tion. This year should see at least 100,000 members, if every member does his part. The teachers of America are burdened with heavy responsibilities. They sometimes forget the necessity of work outside the classroom to protect salary, tenure, freedom, in fact, all that makes democracy in edu- cation possible. At the start of this year, may I remind you briefly of some of the diseases which are likely to strike us down in this outside area of educational endeavor? — or = Gy ee ——— ee eee —5o September-October, 1936 (1) Pernicious Inertia. We are indifferent to the claims of the union on our time. We fail to recognize that it is our job to enroll every teacher whom we know in the Ameri- can Federation of Teachers, whether in our community or elsewhere in another state. (2) Parasitic Mania. We assume that our individual welfare will be taken care of by the officers of the union. We forget that it is our own responsibility, if union meet- ings are not what they ought to be, or if the national organi- zation does not function as we think it should. (3) Intellectual Paresis. Weare so interested in our own little special field of teaching that we ignore the great press- ing social problems outside, forgetting that we are affected by our own failure to organize for progressive social change. (4) Activity Paranoia. We are constantly busy flitting here and there and getting nowhere. We do not spend our time in what is really fundamental. There is nothing more fundamental than that the teachers of the United States should be organized into a strong progressive trade union Entrance to Philadelphia’s City Hall, as it looked before and during the 1936 Con- vention. 17 organization which is serving the children, the community, and promoting education at its best. (5) Moral Arteriosclerosis. This is a hardening of the moral arteries. We want organization, but we fear to pay the price of social action, either because we haven’t the time or we lack the courage. You who read these words can think of other more dan- gerous maladies. Let us avoid them by daring to go for- ward! A union is just as necessary in a school as in a factory. Your president wishes to remind you that he has a full time position in a great university, which, with other commit- ments, demands all that he has of time and energy. He nevertheless pledges to do all he can for the best interests of the American Federation of Teachers. He asks every single teacher to join with all the rest of us in helping to organize the teachers of America into the most powerful and creative organization that America has ever seen. JEROME Davis, President, American Federation of Teachers. An informal view of George Davis, former Secretary-Treas- urer; Allie B. Mann, Chairman of the 1936 Convention; Jerome Davis, President of the Ameri- can Federation of Teachers. | del COME ~ AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS a\4 ae. oy ‘. As ~F eR a ENN a So a ee SEF A a Sn eS ee ee ee 18 The AMERICAN TEACHER A Trade Unionist Views the Curriculum MARK STARR to its hopes and its ideals by orthodox education. And this evil goes deeper than the recently exposed “vocational schools” built by WPA grants, in which fore- men were “instructors” and unpaid workers were “students.” In the first place, the majority of the school children are never given any idea that it was the organized labor move- ment in the United States which gave them a chance of education at all. No other group did so much to open the school door and shut the factory gate to children who had not exercised sufficient care in choosing their parents and had not the foresight to arrive in a family equipped with a bankroll big enough to finance private education. The schools do a further injustice to ‘tabor by emphasiz- ing over-much the literary arts. The schools egteem most highly the person who can speak 20 languages,\ although he may talk nonsense in all of them, rather than the person who can “think with his hands.” Many parents assist unconsciously in this attitude of looking down upon physi- cal labor. They think the man who writes down figures in a book indicating the cost of steel rails is more to be honored than workers who themselves produce the rails. Many workers think of education as the way out of the working class. Much of our difficulty in uniting white- collar and professional workers with their co-workers in overalls is due to the false standards built up in the schools. Furthermore, the textbooks tend to elevate the men who have destroyed cities rather than those who built them. The laurels go to the generals who order the burning of wheat fields. rather than to the farmers who plant them. We badly need a new evaluation which will show that the garbage collector, as well as the doctor, in his way, con- tributes to the health of the city. The spotlight of history should be shifted to illumine hitherto neglected heroes and heroines; to Mother Jones and Mary Ellen Leese, as well as Betsy Ross and Barbara Fritchie; to Daniel Shays and Nat Turner, as well as George Washington; to Eugene Debs, as well as Woodrow Wilson. We have no right to expect young men and women to appreciate and understand the labor movement, when they have been left in the dark. Nor should we be sur- prised that in the University of Oklahoma in a class test given to fifty students recently every one could identify correctly Joe Louis; 38 of them knew that Sinclair Lewis was a famous American novelist; only 8 of the 50 students | ABOR needs to be much more alive to the damage done knew who a L. Lewis was and one student described him as “a U. S. Senator with pink whiskers”. Well might President ht of the University of Detroit ask (Detroit News—February 7, 1936) for millionaires to support his school as ‘a bulwark against communism.” Of course no serious adult wishes precipitately to force such ideas upon immature minds in unhealthy hothouse fashion. However, parents and teachers should realize that they have responsibilities to immunize their children against the nationalist and anti-labor bias now prevalent. Educa- tion is propaganda, whether we like it or not. Effective propaganda has been defined as the presentation of material in such fashion that the student arrives at the conclusions you desire by what he regards as his own mental processes. In other words, give the students the facts and let him make his own conclusions; labor has nothing to hide and nothing to lose in this process There can be no doubt that today the true facts are not given in n the history books. Both the worker and the Negro have ample justification for demanding their revision. Any book which attempts to get near the realities of the Twentieth Century is likely to be subjected to a taboo and an exclusion from the school system. Recently Sinclair Lewis’ “It Can’t Happen Here” and Heywood Broun’s “It Seems to Me” were excluded from the Townsend Harris High School library because the New York State Educa- tion Department disapproved of them. Arguments have raged since January about the use in N.Y.C. high schools of J. Alexis Friedman’s “Current Problems in European History.” This book was first excluded by the Board of Superintendents. In one awful sentence the author had observed, “The sixteen years that have elapsed since the World War ended are replete with proof that no one country can completely detach itself from others.” Mr. Friedman had also asserted that America’s failure to par- ticipate in the League of Nations had “undoubtedly les- sened its prestige and robbed it (the League) of much of its effectiveness.” Even the illustrations in the book came under fire because a traveller was shown marching towards the “Sunshine of Peace” with milestones marked “World Court,” “League of Nations,” “Kellogg Pact,” and “Locarno,” but hampered by a ball and chain marked “Fear of Aggression,” and “Suspicion and Mistrust.” Another picture is alleged to show Stalin presiding “serenely over magnificent buildings, superb bridges, beau- owee Ss co oe. Of mM & Se ». we = A SE AT i Septembder-October, 1936 tiful roadways, a scene peaceful and tranquil . . .” Only after a three months controversy, during which progressive- minded educators defended it warmly, has the book been included as a permissive text. Truth in the schools can be purchased only by eternal vigilance. At Bridgeport, Conn., the Board of Education was generously offered a supply of text books in Novem- ber 1935, by the Italian Consul at New Haven, Mr. Pasquale Di Cicco. These books, printed in Rome and Milan, showed the Fascist march on Rome, and glorified Il Duce and Militarism. The offer was refused. Just now in England they are preparing to face the dangers of aerial attack by training instructors and school pupils how to use gas masks. There is a mental gas for 19 which, as yet, we have no masks. It is necessary to develop at once preventives against the propaganda in favor of things-as-they-are which sacrifices truth ruthlessly in order to preserve out-of-date fetishes of nationalism and racial hate and prejudice. We protest against the setting up of the R.O.T.C. in the schools. We should carry our protest further, and insist upon mental disarmament so that we can be prepared to face the facts of inter-dependent economic life in the Twentieth Century. In some schools, the students are actu- ally using the same textbooks as were used by their grand- fathers. This is a dangerous, suicidal proceeding, unless we are prepared to be sacrificed for Imperialism at the altars of the tribal gods of the stone age. California Organizes A SYMPOSIUM ON TEACHER ORGANIZATIONS URING the last few years, in the face of difficult odds, D the teachers of California have been increasingly successful in organizing A.F.T. locals, in setting up a State Federation of Teachers, and in their endeavor to establish security of tenure. Late in 1935, the organization drive reached San Mateo, and there then followed a series of statements giving the pro-union and anti-union viewpoints, in a manner that organized teachers everywhere will find of prime interest. The opening shot was fired on January 16, 1936, by Mr. Homer Martin (Superintendent of Schools in San Mateo), when he sent the following, in the form of a letter, to the public school teachers of the community: The Teacher and Partisan Organizations Recently some of our teachers have been invited to consider the feasibility of associating with the American Federation of Labor. Not as an erecutive but as a teacher I wish to discuss this mat- ter, and furthermore I would be glad to meet with a group of interested teachers at any time to consider their point of view. As a teacher ] deem it unwise for us as a group to join any organization other than professional organizations which have for their aims solely the advancement of knowledge and culture and the betterment of our profession. Individually a teacher may be a Republican, a Democrat, a Theosophist, a Baptist or a Catholic; but as a group we teachers should not join a political party nor a religious sect. As teachers of the children of all beliefs and of all classes we must be free from prejudice and must retain our independence of thought. The only way we teachers can secure and maintain liberty and independence of thought is to keep free from organizations, how- ever meritorious, that exist for the welfare of only part of our people. If our democracy is to prosper, the public teachers of America must exert a unifying rather than a cleaving influence, and if we hope to be able to test and weigh facts, to praise the good and condemn the bad, we must work as a group independent of any religious or party organization. The American public school, where the sons and daughters of all classes meet with equal opportunities, with understanding, and often with lasting friendship, has done more than any other organi- zation to bring about mutual sympathy and understanding between the classes. And if class enmity and warfare is to be avoided in the future, as I hope, by a gradual decrease in selfishness and an increase in tolerance and understanding, it will be due largely to our public schools and through the efforts of our public school teachers who, free from prejudice, can view independently the good and the bad wherever found. Should at this time all our teachers join the Federation of Labor, hundreds of private schools would spring up for the children of anti-labor groups and we would soon have a sharp 2nd dangerous cleavage, with one system of schools, poorly supported, for the poor and another system, probably better supported, for the rich. 1 believe the public school teachers of America will find it not only for the interest of our democratic social order, but also for the interest of our profession to keep as a group entirely free from obligations imposed by partisan organizations. Homer Martin. January 16, 1936. The newly organized local at Palo Alto arranged a sym- posium in the spring and invited Mr. Martin, among others, to present his views. It is unfortunately impossible, for lack of space, to report in full all of the speeches that were made. The necessary cutting was done with an eye toward retaining discussion of the basic issues at stake. It is a document of the times. Mr. Canning: The meeting will come to order. It may seem strange that a group of teachers having organized should discuss in open meeting among themselves and others whether they should organize and why they should organize. We have sev- sliivanitiieee et es sca a ae Sa Se Re ee eral guests with us this evening who will give us their views on the subject from their experience and some members will speak. The first speaker will be Mr. Poytress, of San Jose. Mr. Poytress: The viewpoint which I shall take on this matter is very simple. I take the viewpoint that an organization of this kind, as I have seen fit and felt it necessary to join, is a kind of organization that is needed in times like these. . . . We might say that this is a period of insecurity, and so far as education is concerned, we are as inse- cure there as we are in our economic life. . . . Those of you who have taught in schools know that there are many ways of decreas- ing expenditures and of increasing the teachers’ burden. For example, by increasing the number of pupils or students in classes; of extending the hours of teaching; of increasing the teaching load in one way or another. We are feeling that in the institution where I am. Already there has been a move afoot to make us teach four quarters in the year—to run summer schools, but have us teach in summer school as a regular program. Already the salaries for summer schools for this year have been fixed at a maximum of $300 for 15 hours teaching irrespective of who you are. There have been discussions of tuition fees in Junior Colleges and of raising them in Teachers Colleges and State Universities. There have been attacks already upon the liberty of teachers—the freedom of teachers. . . . And, of course, there is the question of tenure, which is perhaps one of the most vital questions . . . and insecurity will result by wage cutting and low teaching morale. What can the individual do in such a case? Nothing. The indi- vidua) is lost. What can the ordinary usual type of teachers’ organization, the so-called professional organization, do under such circumstances? Again I answer nothing, if experience means anything. I feel myself there is need for a different type of organ- ization, ome that is fearless; one that is well organized; one well disciplined; one not afraid to fight, not afraid to roll its sleeves up and take its kid gloves off and go to it, if necessary... . Mr. Barker (Supcrintendent at Palo Alto): Ladies and Gentlemen: I have had only one experience with the Teachers Union. A few years ago I was a member of a school in which every member and every teacher belonged to a union. During the war, as you know, expenses increased but their salaries were not increased. And about 1918 they thought of taking action to secure higher pay. They were very generous when they came to the Board. They said: “We want more pay and we want the Superintendent’s salary raised as well as ours.” Consequently I was not hostile. I want to say that they are the only group of people in my life time that have ever appeared before a Board of Edu- tion and recommended that my salary be raised. The Board of Education raised the salary of those teachers three times during the year.... In reading the constitution of the American Federation, I find I am in agreement with all their objectives. Let me quote from some of the recommendations of the legislative program of the American Federation of Teachers: extension of adult education; increased revenues for the schools; academic freedom of the teach- ers; equal educational opportunities for all children; a single salary schedule . . . actuarially sound retirement allowances . . . a sabbati- cal leave with half pay .. .; tenure; sick leave with pay; a maximum of 25 pupils to a class; a The AMERICAN TEACHER trenchment and purchase of supplies; (supplies are a necessity in oper- ation of the physical plant—heat is quite essential in cold weather) ; possible postponement of capital outlay for buildings and replace- ments; transfer of supervisors to classrooms; simplify -overhead, shorten the school day one hour; increase size of classes; increase teaching hours; postpone repairs and maintenance of physical plant; suspend automatic increase of salaries; shorten school year not to exceed 12%; discontinue evening classes; discontinue kindergarten; reduce elementary schools by consolidation from eight to seven years; reduce high schools from four to three years; impose a fee on high school students. That is your United States Chamber of Commerce. I take my choice with this, the American Federation of Labor. Mr. Conover: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: Coming from the Uni- versity of California, you may think it odd that I take an interest in Palo Alto activities. But I assure you the same problems occur on the Berkeley Campus as prevail in Palo Alto and Stanford University and throughout the country. I welcome the opportunity of discussing this evening with other speakers the issue which Mr. Martin has raised in the idea of teachers joining the American Federation of Labor. The issue which he has raised is, as I under- stand it, that to associate with the labor movement means neces- sarily we are going to inject a class point of view into education, and this, in his opinion, is contrary to what he considers to be the essential function of education. Are we really teaching in an impartial fashion? Are we presenting in our classrooms all the material, or is it possibly the case that in the very organization of our work, the very necessity of the times, we have to use certain criteria, by which to judge the selection of material? We have to exclude certain material . . . and in the use of these criteria . . . I ask if it is not the case that you have already set up some partiality in your teaching methods. Second, Mr. Martin indicates that the role of education should be to effect a reconciliation or understanding between the sons of the working population and the sons of the more wealthy. I should like to see education do that, but I have certain doubts that it is possible. In the philosophy we have used and are using, we are injecting the philosophy of business and not the philosophy of labor. We are not teaching our people and our stndents the ideas of collective organization. We are not preparing them to deal with the situation which demands collective action. Third. Mr. Martin says that if teachers identify themselves with organized labor, the result will be that capital will withdraw its support from the public schools. . . . Quite voluntarily, as Mr. Barker has pointed out, the United States Chamber of Commerce and local chapters of the Chamber of Commerce throughout the country have been sponsoring a program, which, in its essence, is a withdrawal of public support of education. . . Mr. Martin (Superintendent at San Mateo): (The speaker begins by avowing that although he is a super- intendent, his 15 years as a classroom teacher has left with him the “stand point of the teacher’”.) Another point which I wish to make clear is that I believe in the Federation of Labor. Some mistakes have been made in that great organization as mistakes have been made in teachers’ organizations, chambers $2,000 minimum salary. I think that it is a mistake for teachers to have held aloof in the past from those who have been their strongest supporters. The strongest supporters of teachers—I refer to an economic program—have been organized labor. . . . In the past the opposition that has come to a lib- eral educational program in this country has come very largely from tax associations and or- ganized wealth. This opposition has not come from the mass of the people; neither has it come from the organizations of the unions. Are all of you aware what the United States Chamber of Commerce’s attitude has been toward the schools of this country? Let me read: possible fields of economy in school re- of commerce, and all organizations, but I believe that the American Federation of Labor has done vastly more good than harm, and the conditions of the working people and all of us are better because of the existence of the American Federa- tion of Labor. .. . I think affiliation with the American Federation of Labor would be a very poor thing for the boys and girls of our land. All classes, practically, must attend the public schools. There is a law to that effect, and parents, in sending their stu- dents to the public schools, have a right to an impartial treatment and an impartial discussion. One of the gentlemen brought out the fact that we have not been impartial. I will grant that — woe — a Se a eh oom ae oo ee a Ul _!_> September-October, 1936 Perfect impartiality is something that lies only with the gods. As long as we have human beings, we are not going to have perfection, but I think that there would be much less impartiality if affiliated with a political party. If, for instance, we are discussing some of the fine things that have been accomplished by the American Federation of Labor, and if we discuss some strike, some situation where there has been a great struggle, and if we praise the American Federation of Labor under those circumstances and our students know we belong to that organization, they will say that that is what we are sworn to do. If, on the other -hand, we criticize some of the acts of privileged classes, we will not have very much weight with our stndents and people. They will say, “Oh, they are prejudiced to that sort of thing. They belong to the other group.” ... So, from these standpoints, I think we have everything to lose and nothing to gain by affiliating with the American Federation of Labor. (Mr. Martin had also pointed out that the A-F.L. would continue to be friendly toward the teachers even if they didn’t affiliate with that body.) (Mr. Martin then went on to urge that teachers continue to support the professional teachers association like the California Teachers Association, even though “lots of things go on in these organizations that we do not like.”) 1 will tell you what will happen (from another standpoint) .. . If all the teachers join the American Federation of Labor, the first thing that would happen when a candidate comes to the board meetings would be: “Does that teacher belong to the American Federation of Labor? If so, we will have to find someone who doesn't.” Let us face the facts. Let’s be fair. We can't jump into this without knowing what it means. (Al this point, Mr. Martin points to his humble origin in proof of the fact that he is in sympathy with labor and hence with the AF.L., and concludes his speech.) Mr. Satterthwaite: If the Superintendent of Schools can get more salary, more buildings, better schools, and better conditions for the teachers and children by affiliating with the local Chamber of Commerce, all right. But if teachers can get better conditions for themselves, more buildings, better conditions for the schools, extensions, consolidated schools, by having the support of the labor of the community behind them why shouldn't they do it? . .. 1 am not criticizing the Superintendent of Schools for that affiliation, but I am criti- cizing a number of Superintendents who have told me that they thought it was unwise for the teachers to affiliate with one group, and the children with another. Mr. Iliff: I am one of Mr. Martin’s teachers. I am inclined to ask this question. I wonder if Mr. Martin thinks the big tax payers are ever going to give up anything that they don't have to give up, especially when it comes to the battle to support the schools and they are asked to give up something in the way of taxes for the support of the schools. Mr. Martin: . . the power is for us to make them do so. The trouble is that not enough public opinion has been brought to bear, and we haven't had sufficient leadership and sufficient organization to do those things. But you are not going to do it in this way. The American Federation of Labor is our friend and the local organiza- tions will remain our friends and will help us as much, whether we sign on the dotted line or not. As I see it, you have everything to lose and nothing to gain by going ahead and joining as a group of teachers, one political body in this United States where two or more political bodies are legal and have their rights. Mrs. Dart: I should like to ask the speaker how it is that an executive board member of the California Teachers Association was the next one (iLe., after Mr. Martin himself) to put out this article (Mr. Martin's circular on the wisdom of joining the A.F.T.) to intimidate us; Mr. Bachrodt circulated that in the San Jose schools. Mr. Martin: I want to assure you people that that article I wrote is in no sense a letter to intimidate or frighten people away. If they con- 21 sidered the matter thoroughly and decided to go into the organiza- tion, Homer Martin would not fail to work his best for their interests. I wanted them to see my viewpoint. I wrote it as a teacher, not as a superintendent of schools. Rather than think any of my teachers were cowards and were not joining the organization _ because they were afraid of me, I would have a lot more respect for them, if they would join the organization. Mr. Klinger: . .. In a district in Utah, which, I understand, covers approxi- mately one-tenth of the State, in the district governing a number of schools, practically all teachers joined the American Federation of Teachers. A few years ago, Mrs. Hanson said that when the question came up in the spring of the year of selecting new teachers, the Board of Education went to the local in that district and asked the local to supply the teachers needed in that district. Mr. Barker: I understood that no teacher in Seattle could be elected without signing the statement that he was not a member of the American Federation of Teachers. I wonder whether or not that condition has changed. Mr. Satterthwaite: I will answer that, as I was there at the time. In 1926, when Local 200 of the A.F.T. was established in Seattle, the Board, each and every member, five of them, was extremely hostile to anything connected with labor or closely allied with it—which was one of the reasons we organized it. It was necessary for our pro- tection. Our union believed that the action of the Board was unconstitutional—that it was a citizenship right of teachers to belong to an organization of their own choice. We appealed to the courts and we lost, even in the Supreme Court of the State. But with our labor facilities, we appealed to the polls, and we won there! That condition does not exist and has not existed now for more than five years. ... Miss Bijornson: The question I wanted to ask was the one that Mr. Martin brought to mind when he said that we had in the State of Cali- fornia a professional organization, and that it was democratic. If you look into the set-up of this organization, you will find that three-fourths of the members of the Board of Directors are Super- intendents and Principals, and that seventy-five percent of the State Councils of the organization are Superintendents and Prin- cipals, although ninety-five percent of the teachers contribute to the organization! When the question came up regarding academic freedom, no assistance was given by this organization; in all cases of academic freedom, no assistance has been given, in spite of the fact that the cases were those of members of the organization. Further, although the number of students has increased since 1929, we have no more teachers in California teaching today than we had then—and no fight has been made on this. Another thing: we had in the legis- lature last year the case of three teachers who came from the southern part of the state to testify that they were not given their salaries in their county, unless they joined the California Teachers Association. Finally, if the Superintendent of Schools is running for Council member of the C.T.A. against one of his teachers, what chance has the teacher to be elected? In other words, just how can an organization like this be made democratic, which is now organized as a company union? (Mr. Martin's reply to this is that the presence of superintend- ents in the leadership does not necessarily hurt the organization, and also, that if the teachers have not made progress in democ- ratizing this organization, then surely they will not be of any help to the AF.L. He concludes, “You had better stay with your own organization [the C.T.A.] and make it run.”) Mr. Graybiel: The whole public school system is a product of the labor move- ment. Labor demanded a free public school. The class that you don't want to offend says that it is time to stop this... . Will labor hinder free speech? If anything will give us free speech, labor will do it. All through, labor has been a forward movement... . The whole thing is what is best for the public schools and the boys and girls. 1 will leave it right there. SS ae Sa ee qi ' ; 4 4 { { ' The AMERICAN TEACHER The Teachers Union in fiction NATIONAL NEWS Ta Executive Council of the American Federation of Teachers has as its chief problem the matter of organization. By organization is meant not only the organization of new locals, but the functioning of the Inter- national for the coming year. The following is a brief resume of actions taken in the Council on the various pertinent problems confronting it: National Sections A report from Dr. Krueger for the College Section was approved as presented. Included in this report was a recommendation that there be set up in the College Section a lecture bureau and that a news letter be published regu- larly to aid organization of college teachers. A report by Mr. Gibbons for the WPA section was also approved. The report included a recommendation that a bulletin be issued to all WPA teachers. Committees The following committees were set up by the Executive Council: 1. Education Problems Committee: The chairman is to be selected. As part of this committee, a sub-division to be known as the Research Committee was decided upon. 2. Committee on Membership and School Employees: Chairman, Mr. Irvin Kuenzli. It was recommended that this committee notify all Executive Council members when new locals are to be chartered, so that Executive Council members might enter any objections to charters before they are issued. 3. Taxation Committee: Chairman, Mr. Harold Groves. Legislative Committee: Chairman, Mrs. Mary Foley Grossman. Academic Freedom Committee: Chairman, Mr. Benja- min Davidson. Labor Relations: Dr. Steinmetz of California to serve on this committee. 4. American Teacher: To be edited until the December meeting of the Council, under the arrangement in exist- ence from January 1936, with enlarged Editorial Board. The report of the editors was accepted. Efforts are to be made to place the magazine upon self-sustaining basis through advertising. (Each Executive Council member has been asked to suggest names for the enlarged Editorial Board.) Meetings The next Executive Council meeting was scheduled for Chicago on December 30-31, 1936. Subsequent meetings of the Council will be arranged for at that time. (There will probably be an Easter meeting.) The 1937 Convention of the International is arranged for August 16 to 20; and Toledo, Ohio, was tentatively selected as the place of meeting. Finances In addition to the above, the report of the Secretary- Treasurer for 1935-36 recommends as follows: First, the Secretary-Treasurer is to be instructed to write off $72.75 as a credit in notes payable and non- existent as recommended by the auditor. Second, a sum of approximately $700.00 is to be appro- priated to each organizational area for organization expenses. Where organization activity warrants it, addi- tional money may be allocated to an area. Similarly, where organizational ripeness is not apparent, this sum of $700.00 should be reduced. Third, it was further recommended that 20% of A F.T. funds allocated to organization for the coming year be set aside for special emergencies. Fourth, no national organizer should be employed for the year 1936-37. Organization The area plan for organization as adopted by the con- vention was arranged for. Each Vice-President was assigned to a specific area. The following areas were determined definitely by the Council. 1. Dr. Steinmetz—California, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico. 2. Dr. Winther—Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Mon- tana, Wyoming. 3. Miss Nelson—Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin. 4. Mrs. Smith—Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia. 5. Mr. Franklin—Virginia, Carolinas. 6. Mrs. Grossman—Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland. 7. Mr. Hendley—New York and Northern New Jersey. 8. Dr. Walsh—New England. 9. Mr. Kuenzli—Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. 10. Miss Herrick—To determine own area. 11. Dr. Bergman—To determine own area. 12. Rev. Williams—Arkansas. Adjustments in these area divisions are to be made by the Secretary-Treasurer. cr —_—_ US lca SS Oe ee ee Jia -* ws Ff September-October, 1936 Miscellaneous 1. The Executive Council recommends the holding of regional conferences for the purpose of organization and to aid in the decision of educational problems during the year. 2. Council also recommends that the Legislative Com- mittee begin a campaign to secure federal aid for educa- tion. 3. A sub-committee composed of Miss Herrick, Miss Nelson and Mrs. Hanson made the following recommenda- tions to define the functioning of the Secretary-Treasurer: “For day to day efficiency, authority must be delegated to an executive empowered to make the decisions that a busi- ness of any size constantly requires. Right of decision, in all business questions of recurrent character; of final decision in questions of minor importance; in employment and dismissal of office staff, in accordance, of course, with agreements in force; and in planning and carrying through all organization work according to the general policy worked out by the Executive Council, should be given to the executive officer, the Secretary-Treasurer of the A.F.T. It is suggested that the change of the title of this office to General or Executive Secretary be considered.” 4. The proceedings of the convention were ordered printed. 5. The admission of teachers of Hebrew to the A.F.T. was approved. 6. It was recommended that a letter be sent to all locals on the equalization plan for sending delegates to the next convention of the A.F.T. This plan was submitted by Dr. Bergman and Miss Herrick. The committee appointed by the Council in December proposes a financial assessment on locals to pay the expenses of delegates to the next convention. NEWS from LOCALS Butte Local Achieves Recognition.—It will be recalled from the article which appeared in the March-April AMERICAN TEACHER that the Butte local has a signal vic- tory to its credit in the acceptance by the Board of Education of a single-salary schedule. In connection with this fact, the following quotation from the Butte School Board Journal of October 1936 will be of intense interest to members of the American Federation of Teachers: “The new schedule has been made in such form that it includes recognition of the Butte Teachers Union Local 332 and a contract for its acceptance by the union.” Oklahoma City Local 373 Starts Organizational Drive. —In the face of loyalty oaths and bitter opposition on the part of city and county school authorities, and despite the complete absence of effective tenure laws, organization of teachers into the A.F.T. is proceeding in Oklahoma City. The initial result of the organizational drive of Local 373 was the trebling of the number of union engineers in the school system. With the active support of the Central Trades Council, the teachers blocked the appointment of a Superintendent who was supported by the School Board of Oklahoma City, the city manager’s machine, and the oil company interests. The successful candidate, at present principal of one of the largest high schools in the county, will be favorable to the Federation and promises her sup- port in securing new members. The local intends to nominate labor candidates for the city school board when elections take place in the Spring. Organized Labor in Ohio Active in School Problems. —The Ohio State Federation of Labor, meeting at Spring- field on September 21, indicated a lively interest in state school affairs. One resolution, opposing the existing sales tax, urges “a fair and equitable system of taxation, based upon ability to pay, in order to meet the financial require- ments of schools .. .” Another resolution asks that class- room teachers be represented on the State Board of School Examiners, which has the power to interpret rules con- cerning certification of teachers and revocation of certifi- cates because of “conduct unbecoming to the teacher’s position.” The recently enacted State Certification Law, under which this board has been set up, has been used as a device to discriminate against union teachers. The Fed- eration also urged the passage of an adequate tenure or civil service law which would prevent the dismissal of teach- ers except for just cause, such as inefficiency or immorality. Columbia Chapter Does Yeoman Work During Sum- mer.—More than 9,000 students attending the Summer Sessions at Columbia University were reached by the Columbia Summer Session Committee of the College Sec- tion of Local 5, New York. Three large general meetings, two social events, two bulletins, and distribution of more than 1,000 copies each of the A.F.T. Program, the A.F.T. Constitution, and the AMERICAN TEACHER helped spread the idea of unionization to teachers gathered at Columbia from all sections of the country. The stimulus given these teachers by this splendid work should be of great value in recruiting them to union membership in local areas. Salary Gains, “Red Scare” and Loyalty Oath Opposi- tion Mark Chattanooga Activities.—Chattanooga teach- ers have felt the force of the opposition on many fronts during the summer and early fall. First the state supreme court nullified the salary law for county teachers and left the way open for the city administration to evade the city law. The city administration followed the cue and declared through the city attorney that the city does not operate a separate system, although it has obviously been doing so for many years. In spite of these blows the local suc- ceeded in salvaging from the wreckage slight salary increases for both the Hamilton County and the Chatta- nooga teachers. .. . On top of these disasters attempts 24 have been made to persecute the leaders in the local through trumped up charges including the venerable red scare. In these persecutions the reactionaries in the county admin- istration were ably assisted by the new Hearst-style daily, the Chattanooga Free Press. These attacks were beaten back decisively as the teachers and the decent citizenry rallied behind the union leaders. . . . On October 5 the county court of Hamilton County adopted a resolution calling on the local delegation to the state legislature to pass a loyalty oath bill for all governmental employees. It was introduced by Wilkes Thrasher, successful squire-elect and also county registrar, who was opposed by Labor in the recent election. Squire Thrasher asserted that it had come to his attention that several of the teachers are mem- bers of the Communist Party and that he didn’t feel that such persons should draw salaries from the public coffer. He failed to name the Communists and also failed to show how his proposal could effect their elimination from the payrolls. Many teachers look on the squire’s proposal as a weapon for a future attempt to break up the union. Local 246 is stifiening its fighting front, and there may be a different story in Chattanooga from that in Memphis. Mercer County Teachers Plan Legislative Fight—Local 437, the Mercer County Teachers Union (Trenton, N. J.), has a legislative program under way and is lining up support of other interested groups in an effort to secure the repeal of the New Jersey Teachers’ Loyalty Oath Law; to prevent the repassage of the present law which allows municipali- ties to avoid mandatory salary legislation; and to secure the passage of an income tax. In addition to the above three-point program, Local 437 is endeavoring to secure joint action with other groups toward learning the attitude of candidates to the legislature concerning the teacher pen- sion fund, the protection of tenure, and relief for the unemployed. Duluth Local Resolutions Adopted by State Federation of Labor.—A concern for social as well as teacher prob- lems is manifested by the Duluth Federation of Teachers, Local 381, in a series of resolutions offered to, and adopted by, the Minnesota State Federation of Labor. These include, among others, resolutions on: a state-wide cam- paign to organize teachers; state-wide tenure for teachers; elimination of relief restrictions concerning er loyment of teachers for adult education in connection with WPA; a commission to investigate youth problems; opposition to Youngquist amendment; consumers’ and producers’ cooper- atives and credit unions; opposition to war and fascism; more stringent pure food and drug laws; and opposition to teachers’ loyalty caths. Portland Local Initiates All-Day Conference.—A novel kind of meeting was initiated by Local 111 of Portland, Ore., in the form of an all-day conference held on Sep- The AMERICAN TEACHER tember 27. At this time all reports were considered and questions of policy discussed. . . . The local has secured the endorsement by the Portland Central Labor Council of a bill to amend the state constitution in such a way that School District No. 1 will be enabled to restore salaries of all school employees to the pre-depressicn level and restore the school system to its normal schedule f ten months. Washington University Local Prepares for Extensive Legislative Program; Enters Picket Line in Seattle News Guild Strike.—At the Washington Federation of Labor Convention (July 13-16), the delegate of the University of Washington Local, along with delegates of other teachers locals, obtained the Convention’s unanimous endorsement of the educational program of the Washington Joint Coun- cil of Teachers, which is to present to the next legislative session the following bills: a teachers retirement plan; a law placing higher educational institutions on a millage instead of appropriation basis; a tenure bill, and a regents bill for placing control of higher education institutions in a body representative of the people. . . . The local is cam- paigning for the election of Stanley Atwood to the office of State Superintendent of Schools in return for his support of the above program. .. . The A.F.T. sigh is being dis- played by local members on the picket line of the News- paper Guild strike of the Hearst-owned Seattle Post- Intelligencer. . . . New locals are being organized through- out the state and the Washington University Local expects to intensify this activity and also to join with Local 200 in issuing a publication which will ultimately reach all state locals. Members of Springfield Local Appointed to Superin- tendency.—H. L. Stevens and C. A. Corwin, members of the Springfield Federation of Teachers, Local 296, have been appointed, respectively, superintendent and assistant superintendent of schools in Springfield, Ohio. Both men were active Federation members at the time of their appointment, and their continued loyalty is evidenced in the following statements. Said Mr. Stevens: “Had I not believed in the high purposes of the Federation, I should not have been a Charter Member.” Mr. Corwin said: “The Springfield Federation of Teachers has done a great work in its brief history. Whole-hearted support can make it of even greater service in the future.” Stout Institute Teachers Union Polls Wisconsin Legis- lature.—The Stout Teachers Association, Local 354, was host to an all-faculty party in the spring. During the summer, questionnaires were sent to the candidates at the primaries for the Wisconsin Legislative Assembly from this district, to determine their attitudes toward extension of educational facilities. The results of the poll were pre- sented in printed form to all employees of Stout Institute a few days before the primary election. rem e&s & ew ee aw ae Oe ae Oe oe ia) oa:28Qan & wa ~~ —_———— -_—— — September-October, 1936 Union Teachers Deliberate A REPORT UPON THE A.F.T. CONVENTION can Federation of Teachers, which met in Philadel- phia on August 22, 1936, was a most significant event. The largest membership the International has ever enjoyed in its past twenty years sent delegates to the num- ber of 227, representing eighty-five locals and 390 votes. The meetings, open to non-delegate teachers and interested citizens, were attended by as many as a thousand persons at a time. T= TWENTIETH ANNUAL CONVENTION of the Ameri- If the business of a convention is arduous, that of pre- paring for it is even more difficult. Who shall be the speakers? How many speakers shall there be? On what topics shall they speak? The convention committee was swamped with requests for speaking time. It tried to be polite and, at the same time, firm to the point of being adamant. In spite of this there were too many speakers, a fault common in conventions. It is to be hoped that the Executive Council, in line with a motion of the convention, will make plans to refuse speakers for the 1937 convention unless they speak on educational problems. This is difficult to do. What are “educational prob- lems”? Is the threatened split in the American Federation of Labor our concern? Most certainly it is. We rely for our strength largely upon organized labor, upon the work- ing class parents of the great majority of our pupils. Surely part of the business of a national convention, at a time when the unity of that labor body of which we are an integral part is in jeopardy, should be a consideration of how to avoid the impending disaster. Again the matter of the charter rights of a local comprising a quarter of our membership (Local 5, New York) could not be passed over lightly nor relegated to a committee. Nor can an international union ignore the call of its trade union broth- ers and sisters across the seas when they are struggling to keep their organizational integrity by defending the demo- cratically elected government under which they function; in answer, the convention passed a resolution to raise, through voluntary contributions, funds for Labor’s Red Cross Fund for Spanish Workers. Except for these matters mentioned, all other topics of importance were purely educa- tional in nature. One of the most successful meetings of the convention was the luncheon meeting. At this meeting sectional re- ports from the several regions of the United States were presented. The story of the growth and consolidation of our locals was laid before the delegates. Various problems of teachers and pupils as well as the individual methods of handling them were dramatically unfolded. Two of the major speakers, J. Raymond Walsh of Har- vard and Louis M. Hacker of Columbia, spoke on that most vital topic, academic freedom. A report on the situation in Wisconsin Rapids was given, and as a result, a delegation was sent to Washington, there to take up the matter directly. This delegation reported back to the Convention upon its return, and elsewhere in this issue of the AMERICAN TEACHER there is reported the largely successful conclusion of an important fight to re- store the positions of ousted union teachers and to retain on the local board of education the duly elected labor rep- resentatives. A very important and spirited discussion arose over the question of WPA teachers and their right to membership in the American Federation of Teachers. As a result of this discussion, the national section for WPA teachers was set up and a delegation from that section was sent to Wash- ington to take up the question of threatened dismissals of WPA educational workers. This delegation, which re- ported back to the Executive Council meeting following the convention, succeeded in persuading the officials at Wash- ington to permit a representative of the American Federa- tion of Teachers to sit in at a meeting for a reconsidera- tion of the dismissal of educational workers on WPA. The matter of the organization of college teachers was discussed in a special meeting of college teachers during the convention. Subsequently, a national college section was set up to take care of the problems and organization of college teachers. There is a fertile field for organiza- tion in the colleges and the convention’s action should spur organization in this direction. The following is a brief summary of the convention, ses- sion by session: Monday, August 17 A. Morning Session Convention called to order. Welcoming speeches by Jesse Holmes, President of the Philadelphia Local 192; Walter Biddle Saul, member of the Philadelphia Board of Education; Miss Allie B. Mann, unanimously elected Convention Chairman; and Adolph Hirshberg, President of the Philadelphia Central Labor Union. Telegrams were read from various organizations and in- dividuals. B. Afternoon Session Address by Oliver Peterson, Administrative Assistant of Workers Education of the WPA; adoption of convention rules; appointment of committees; report of Credentials Committee; resolution re Wisconsin Rapids; appointment of committee to go to Washington to confer with the Post- master General. Tuesday, August 18 A. Morning Session New committee assignments and changes in assignments, discussion re exhibit of American Educational Press (al- leged to be anti-union; charges later withdrawn). Address on Civil Liberties and Education by Louis M. Hacker of Columbia University; and addresses by Louis G. Hines, personal representative of President Green, Ameri- can Federation of Labor; and by John A. Phillips, Presi- dent of Pennsylvania Federation of Labor. Discussion on WPA and teacher standards. Report on organization via the “Area Plan,” led by Policies Committee and Secretary Davis. B. Evening Session Continuation and final disposal of debate on report of Policies Committee re “Area Plan.” A plan was finally worked out whereby there would be twelve vice-presidents, each to serve in one region. In addition, three vice-presidents were to be elected: one to be in charge of the WPA section, another to be in charge of the college section, and the third to be elected at large. Wednesday, August 19 A. Morning Session Address by John Brophy of the American Federation of Labor; address, The College Teacher's Place in the Union by Jerome Davis; address, Academic Freedom by J. Ray- mond Walsh. These addresses were particularly well re- ceived by the delegates. Supplementary report of the Credentials Committee was made and additional assignments to various committees were also made at this time. A resolution condemning the McNaboe Investigation Committee in New York was endorsed and reported to the Cémmittee on Resolutions. The AMERICAN TEACHER B. Afternoon Session Legislative report by Mary Foley Grossman. Address by S. Davis Wilson, Mayor of Philadelphia. Report of Nominations Committee. Nominations from the floor. C. Dinner Session Address, Improving the Standards and Scope of Public Education by Ralph M. Bashore, Department of Labor and Industry, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Address by Norman Thomas. Thursday, August 20 A. Morning Session Reading of telegrams, etc. Address by Ira Cotins, Cooperative Distributors. Address of I. M. Ornburn of the Union Label Trades Department (A.F.L.). Address by Dr. Siegfried Lipschutz, director of Labor Chest for the Relief and Liberation of Workers of Europe (A.F.L.). Resolution for support of Spanish Democracy passed. Greetings from fraternal Mexican delegate, Juan Carlos Hidalgo (motion passed to send fraternal greetings to Mexican Teachers Union). Report of Committee sent to Washington re Wisconsin Rapids matter. Acceptance or rejection of nominations. Supplementary report of Credentials Committee. B. Afternoon Session Address by Charles A. Marlies, Consumers Union. Address by Alfred Chakin, Coach of the American Team of the Peoples Olympics in Barcelona. Address by Britton Harris, American Student Union. Election of officers. C. Evening Session Report of the Affiliations Committee on C.I.O. Report of Nominations and Elections Committee on vice- presidents, and on American Federation of Teacher dele- gates to the American Federation of Labor convention. Resolutions to Newspaper Guild on suspension of Post- Intelligencer of Seattle, and to Governor Futrell on ap- pointment of Claude Williams to Commission for the Study of the Conditions of Tenant Farmers in Arkansas. Delegation appointed to go to Washington re cutting off of various WPA educational projects in New York. It was during this session that a most interesting debate on the C.1.0. took place. The action of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor suspending —nrA = * 8 wee hee lke eo oo September-October, 1936 the ten internationals in the C.1.0. was debated and dis- approved. The resolution on the question adopted by the Convention called upon the Executive Council of the A.F.L. to reinstate the ten suspended internationals with full rep- resentation at the Tampa Convention of the A.F.L. in November, and demanded that the issue be decided by the Convention as provided for in the A.F.L. constitution. The resolution further pledged the American Federation of Teachers to endeavor, before and at the Tampa Conven- tion, to secure the reinstatement of the ten international unions. The Convention did not accept a suggestion that the A.F.T. Executive Council be empowered to take action in the event that the suspension action is made final at the A.F.L. Convention. Friday, August 21 A. Morning Session The recommendation of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor re New York Local 5 was first on the agenda. A resolution proposed by the Execu- tive Council of the American Federation of Teachers was adopted by the convention after a roll-call vote. For the resolution, 266—opposed, 107. The resolution in essence reads: Whereas, There is nothing in the conduct and con- trol of the New York local with which the American Fed- eration of Teachers feels justified in interfering to the ex- tent of revoking its charter, Be It Resolved, That no action on the recommendation of the American Federation of Labor Executive Council be taken by this convention rela- tive to revocation of the charter of Local 5. A substitute motion introduced by Miss Taggart, President of Local 3, Chicago, was lost by viva voce vote. Several amendments to the constitution of the American Federation of Teachers proposed by Local 3, Chicago, and Local 192, Philadelphia, were referred by the convention to the locals for a referendum vote. Several other amend- ments defining membership limitations were referred to the next convention. The action on the amendments to the constitution was taken because of a technicality preventing their consideration at this convention. The constitution requires that such amendments must be submitted to all locals within thirty days of the convention. This had not been done and therefore the convention could not prop- erly vote on them. Report of National Academic Freedom Committee. Several motions concerning the business of the conven- tion were taken up at this time, among them the limitation of the number of speakers at the next convention. The Executive Council at its meeting in December similarly made good resolutions to limit the number of speakers, to which the local Arrangements Committee made every effort to adhere. The chief difficulty seems to be the introduction of last minute speakers and the inclusion of too many of 27 the “must” speakers (A.F.L.; local dignitaries). It is to be hoped that this will be remedied at the next con- vention. B. Afternoon Session Report of Resolutions Committee. Report of Policies Committee. Report of School Problems Committee. Report of Committee of Academic Freedom and Tenure. Report of Legislative Committee. Report of Resolutions Committee. Report of Affiliations Committee. Report of Committee on the Officers Reports. Adjournment. Labor Notes Wuo Stirs Strire? The Senate Civil Liberties Committee, under the chair- manship of Senator Robert M. LaFollette, has been con- ducting hearings on the union-busting and strike-breaking conspiracies between the largest industrial corporations in this country and certain “detective” and “investigating” agencies. The activities of these agencies, as has been brought out in testimony before the Committee, include spying upon workers in the factories, shadowing workers after hours, joining unions for espionage purposes, as well as for provocative acts, scabbing during strikes and indulg- ing in open terror against strikers. Already officials of the Railway Audit and Inspection Company have been in- dicted by a grand jury for failing to turn over evidence to the Committee in charge of the Senate investigation. At recent hearings, it was revealed that one Sam “Chowder- head” Cohen, a notorious gangster with a police record of fourteen arrests, was in charge of the Sherwood Detective Agency’s operations against the recent strikes of elevator operators and building service employees in New York City. Officials of the Pinkerton Detective Agency have testified before the Committee that their Company’s in- come, in recent years, has been over the $2,000,000 mark. On the list of Pinkerton clients were included such cor- porations as Chevrolet, Pontiac, Fisher Body, and Cadillac, all subsidiaries of General Motors. Among other com- panies listed were Curtis Publishing Co., the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Reading Railroad, Bethlehem Steel, R. C. A. and Goodrich Rubber. It was revealed by William H. Shoemack, Superintendent of the Pinkerton Agency, that “probably” one of the General Motor’s assignments to his agency was that of shadowing Adolf Germer, employed by the Committee for Industrial Organization. The facts which are being brought out during these investigations of the LaFollette Committee prove that many large corpo- rations are illegally engaged in obstructing their employees’ attempts to join labor organizations of their own choos- ing. The results of the hearings to date also indicate that blame for violence during strikes must be placed upon those same corporations whose one cry against trade unions has been that they stir up strife. Eyes WEstT As a result of the 1934 strike, the longshoremen on the West Coast, under the deadership of the International Longshoremen’s Association, secured a six-hour work day and union control of the hiring halls. Waterfront employ- ers on the West Coast resented the gains made by the dock workers. Upon the expiration of this agreement on Sep- tember 30, 1936, the union demanded a new agreement including a raise in wages, preferential employment for members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, and a clause which would make it possible for them to re- fuse to handle goods on ships against which strikes were being conducted by sailors. At the same time, the union offered to continue under the 1934 agreement until a new one was reached. . . The employers refused and an- nounced that after December 30 the work day would be lengthened to eight hours and that the hiring halls would have to be taken out of the hands of the dock workers. If the men would not work according to these terms, the employers declared, all operations would be shut down. This obvious effort on the part of the waterfront employers to wipe out at one time all the gains that the workers made in 1934 can be construed only as an attempt to destroy the The AMERICAN TEACHER dock-workers union on the West Coast, and as an attempt to stir up that very violence for which the employers blamed the unions in 1934. An ENTERING WEDGE The American Federation of Hosiery Workers is engaged in a strike against the Berkshire Knitting Mill in Reading, the largest full-fashioned hosiery mill in the world. The strike was called because the company violated wage and working provisions of the voluntary NRA of the industry. Nearly six thousand employees are involved in this strike. One life has already been lost, as a result of violence grow- ing out of the unwarranted assaults of the local police and deputies upon the strikers. Governor Earle of Pennsyl- vania ordered the local officers away from the mill when brutality was charged and placed state police in charge. The leaders of the strike state that there will be no settle- ment until the mill agrees to pay prevailing wages and to establish a five-day, forty-hour week. The eyes of the entire hosiery industry are upon the outcome of this strike. If the company wins, it will be a signal for wage cuts throughout the industry. The Berkshire Mill is the largest in the country, and the owners will be in a position to undersell all other manufacturers if they are successful in their attempt to effect a 15 percent wage cut against their workers. This will in turn force their competitors to insti- tute similar wage cuts in order to enable them to compete successfully. It is the threat of this wave of wage cuts inevitably following a lost strike that makes it of key im- portance for the workers to be successful against the at- tack of the Berkshire Mill. Tt 5 Happening Now Employer Protection for Steel Workers THE drive to unionize steel workers has placed before the public some new information on the methods used by the big steel companies to protect their employes from the influence of “outside labor agitators.” Joseph Timko, an organizer in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, reports that the steel companies buy up land which has been leased by the union for mass meetings. (Maybe they plan to build model homes for workers on the land later?) In Gads- den, Alabama, William Mitch'said that the Central Labor Union wires the Governor before attempting to hold a meeting. Unless State police sent by the Governor are on hand, meetings are broken up by acts of violence and “mob outrages” which are “inspired” by the employers. This type of employer inspiration explains why the cam- paign to organize the steel workers is also a crusade for civil liberties in whole communities that have never had them under the long domination of the steel trust. General Sees Brown THE latest general to succumb to an admiration for the militarized youth formations of Germany and Italy is, apparently, Major General Moseley of the Fourth Corps Army area who has suggested to President Roosevelt a plan by which the boys in CCC camps would be “given muskets and schooled in war.” Is an open advocate of fascist measures towards the youth of our country implant- ing alien ideas or not? Let’s get that straight! NYA Cuts Down on High School Students APPLICATION for NYA aid from high school and parochial school students in New York City exceeded the ——-— i | cor tio Sy aT wT we September-October, 1936 number which the monthly allotment of funds can take care of, it was reported in October by George Chatfield, liason officer between the NYA and the Board of Educa- tion. From 127 schools applications have been received, and with 37 schools still to be heard from and 1800 stu- dents from the Adult Education Project asking for aid, there will be many more students who need aid than the 9,000 which the NYA can handle on its $54,000 a month. The only way in which aid can be further extended is by cutting the $6.00 monthly payment to high school stu- dents. Mr. Chatfield considers $5.00 the “basic minimum payment.” “Anti-Gathering” in the DuPonts’ State WHEN pickets appeared for the first time on the streets of Harrington, Delaware, following a strike by women workers in the Kent Shirt Company, an ordiance prohibit- ing “gathering” on the streets was passed by Harrington’s City Council. Permission of the Council might be sought, but to the members of the union it was not granted. Fines for “gathering” were levied on seven women at Dover. The strikers gained public support, however, and the strike continued in spite of arrests and fines. An agree- ment from the employer was finally won by the union, and Harrington has had its first view of an effectively organ- ized strike. Dr. Butler and the Seattle “Terror” AT exercises opening the 183rd academic year of Columbia University, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, apropos of the situation arising from the strike on the Hearst Post-/ntel- ligencer, called the attention of his listeners to the inability of the authorities of Seattle “to preserve order or to pro- tect the right of the individual citizen to go about his daily job in orderly fashion.” The reason? “Some 650 working people who are under contract to carry on their daily employment and who are anxious to do so, are kept in idleness by the disorderly and lawless force of a group of disturbers of the peace of whom the city, the county and the state authorities are in terror.” A few days later, Isaac Comeaux, accountant and deputy controller of Seat- tle, while in New York City, told newspapermen that Dr. Butler’s statement was “just plain silly.” Mr. Comeaux went on to say that “these rumors that come to me are stirred up by the Hearst organization.” . . . The ques- tion is—what newspapers has Dr. Butler been reading lately? Legal Comfort for Married Teachers THE Supreme Court of New Jersey in a July ruling has upheld the right of public school teachers under tenure to continue teaching if they marry. The Board of Educa- tion of Wildwood, New Jersey, carried the appeal to the Supreme Court after the State Education Commissioner, Charles H. Elliott, and the State Board of Education had reversed the board’s dismissal of Mrs. Elsie Hokanson and Mrs. Beatrice Ehsarp. Justice Parker said: “The fact that a female public school teacher under tenure marries does not constitute a legally sufficient reason for the dis- missal of such teacher.” Singing Pickets IN Winston-Salem, N. C., striking employees organized in the American Federation of Hosiery Workers established a singing mass picket line around the Hanes Hosiery Mills, the largest seamless hosiery plant in the world. . . . P. S.—There were no scabs inside the mill to be sung to. Retrenchment, Nazi Style RECENT progress in National Socialistic Germany has been marked by the substitution of a coal-tar compound for chocolate bars and the replacement of imported cork for German wine bottles with native polar wood. Perhaps a more significant achievement has been the reduction of the period of pre-university schooling by three years. Last year when the sixth school day of every week was given over to Nazi propaganda, the student had two years cut from a normal school period of about 15 years. By a new ruling of Bernhard Rust, Minister of Education, to take effect next Easter, another year is being cut from the German student’s schooling. According to present plans, an alteration in the university curriculum will cut out the vacation periods which have long been devoted to inde- pendent research by professional students. With every German male at 18 entering the Labor Service for one year, followed by two years of military training, the edu- cation of those who still plan to enter a profession will be interrupted just at the point when they would nor- mally begin their advanced studies. Financial Note UNITED States Steel reports paying dividends on its common stock for the first time in five years. A compila- tion of the statements for 14 steel companies for a nine- month period ending in June showed an increase in total profits of 563 percent over the same period last year. . . . Remington-Rand, Inc., reports net profits for the year end- ing March 31, 1936, of $3,010,288, about double the profits of 1935. . . : Editorial Note: Have you read about the campaign of intimidation and terrorism which these corpo- rations are waging against unions in their plants through- out the country? Columbia Democratically Refuses to Reinstate Burke DEAN Herbert E. Hawkes of Columbia in denying rein- statement this fall to the university of Robert Burke of Youngstown, Ohio, president-elect of the junior class has the full backing of Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, presi- 30 dent of Columbia. Burke took part in an anti-Nazi dem- onstration last May at the home of Dr. Butler. According to a statement in the press, Dr. Butler is not “disposed to overrule the Dean’s findings.” Meanwhile suit has been filed by Arthur Garfield Hays, Burke’s attorney, in the Supreme Court to request the reinstatement of the ex- pelled student. . . . Yet on October 9 Dr. Butler, at a college dinner, described colleges as “the most responsible trustees of democracy.” From Relief to Forced Labor IN many parts of the country relief officials are becoming adept in applying the old formula of “killing two birds with one stone.” At Memphis, Tennessee, on the insist- ence of Chamber of Commerce officials, WPA projects were suspended so that relief workers could become cotton pickers for “distressed” plantation owners. And in Detroit young girls of families on relief who refuse to accept work as domestic servants will find that an amount equivalent to the offered wages will be deducted from the family re- lief allowance. Rugged individualism: the preservation of the right of relief workers to accept forced labor. Low and High AN interesting sidelight on the increase of living costs is thrown by a recent survey made by the U. S. Department of Labor. In a study of the families of employed work- ers with a family income of $500 or more a year, it was found that 43 percent of these families living in Birming- ham, Alabama, did not spend enough money on food to buy even the “adequate diet at minimum costs” which was Among the Education for Fundamental Change EDUCATION AND THE SOCIAL CONFLICTS. Howarp Davin Lancrorp. The Macmillan Company 1936. 200 pages. $1.75. 66 Ww™ educational program will best meet the needs of our de- veloping social and economic situation?” Professor Alfred Hall-Quest has described the answer given in this book as “a brilliant and scholarly study of the problem. .. . His (the author’s) copious documentations, vigorous and often rapier-like style and white heat defense of the faith he holds entitle the book to a unique place in educational literature.” This estimate from a sharply critical conservative educational thinker may well stand as an early acknowl- edgment of a volume which is the first important departure in educational theory since the publication of Dewey’s lectures as School and Society in 1900. Teachers, specialists in education and interested laymen will find in it a guide and handbook to the devel- opment of educational ideas during the period in which the Dewey school of thought gradually broke down the classical, formal con- ception of education developed to meet the needs of an aristocratic The AMERICAN TEACHER worked out by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Of the families studied in New Orleans, 31 percent were in the same category. . . . But while the drought and crop scarcity have contributed to the rising costs for the con- sumer, the picture has been rosy to manufacturers of food products, dairy companies and meat packers. . . . A few comments from the Wall Street Journal are indicative of their sentiments. August 19, 1936: “A marked change for the better in volume and profits has been experienced in the food products during the past two months.” . August 21, 1936: “So far the drought and country-wide hot weather have been more of a help than a hindrance to the large dairy companies.” . . . August 31, 1936: “This will be a fiscal year of good earnings (for food canners).” College Presidents Disagree on Danger Signals CONVOCATION exercises at universities throughout the country put many of our leading college presidents on rec- ord again. President William Lewis Mathew of Lafayette: “There is a very great number of people de- veloping habits of shiftlessness and laziness, and a cynical attitude toward honest labor because of participation in government bounty is likewise obvious. The increasing army of lackadaisical red flag wavers along the highways of America unintentionally gives a danger signal which we do well to heed.” President William L. Mc- Conaughty of Wesleyan University characterized Hearst and Governor James L. Curley of Massachusetts as “the greatest menaces to freedom in the academic world today.” Freedom he spoke of as a “trite subject but the biggest problem facing the world today.” New Bo oks society and brought in those progressive reforms created and made possible by mass production. The contribution of Education and the Social Conflict is chiefly critical. It attempts to clear the ground of outworn educational thinking and outline a solid foundation for a system of education and of life designed to realize the tremendous productive power of American natural and human resources. To accomplish this objec- tive and to meet the educational and cultural needs of the masses of the people, Langford proposes that we must meet certain require- ments. First, the school must transmit the useful knowledge and skills which society has developed in the past. Second, we must center attention not alone upon subject matter, but upon the growth of the child wherever his learning takes place. At present school is too much a “hothouse environment” which offers “a temporary and misleading escape” from the realities of the outside world. The primary emphasis in our era should be upon the solution of the third problem of education—the creation of “a social system devised primarily to insure a full, rich life for all. It is a problem not simply of instruction in school or out, but of social transformation.” The recognition which contemporary educational leaders give this > ek elUre.hCUe COU Ce! 66k. he 62h b : - —) e ° es e id ist th ol ry he he ed ot ‘ his September-October, 1936 problem Langford finds confused and the attempt to solve it inade- quate. He contends that the problem of social betterment is de- pendent upon the building of a planned society. In his preface, Langford indicates the general outline of such a society. “The education discussed here is not alone the education of the schools and colleges nor of those potent informal agencies—the press, the radio, and the talking picture. It includes all these in a more comprehensive program. It is the education—in action and in theory —of the masters and builders of the society of the future—millions of obscure but struggling individuals, moved less by any thought of a coming golden age than by their own wants.” The uses of this book are many. Its primary value is that it provides the information and the outlook which will allow Ameri- can teachers to see the application to education of the forces now rapidly dividing the world. The intellectual poverty and the in- adequacy of certain theories of education in our universities and colleges are briefly indicated, and the area of thought which would produce an American democratic schoo] at work on the building of a planned democratic society is outlined. Those teachers who have been stultified by escapist courses in education will find them- selves particularly indebted to Langford for the exactness, clarity and force with which he has written this book. By reason of this same exactness, those who disagree with him cannot fail to know the position he takes. The courage and vitality of every page of Education and the Social Conflicts compensate to a considerable degree for certain weaknesses. As an outline it is frequently bare. Many of the anal- yses are in need of amplification and supporting data. The work of George Counts is not evaluated and the Report of the Commission on the Social Studies of the American Historical Association is not mentioned. To dismiss Cubberley in less than half a page with one secondary quotation from Woelfel’s Molders of the American Mind is scarcely introductory. A more serious inadequacy is that both the criticism and the educational proposals are based chiefly upon educational theory and not upon the verifiable facts of education in America. We have had enough of fine spun theories—thinking about thinking about thinking. Such recognition of the deficiencies of the book in no way limits the contribution which it makes. It is a profound addition to our voluminous literature on education and one that is of primary importance to those leaders in American education who are a part of the growing Union movement. Ho.ianp D. Roserts. Psychology for Teachers PSYCHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS IN SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT. PercivaL M. Symonps. American Book Co. 362 pages. $3.00. PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SUBJECTS. Luewia Core. Farrar & Rinehart. 326 pages. $2.00. Pp SYCHOLOGY has at its command today, Professor Symonds points out, not only tests of intelligence and of abilities and aptitudes, but also measures of behavior, of interests, of attitudes, of adjust- ments and of environments. So active has been research in recent years in these fields that he is able to list and describe two hundred and ten tests, rating scales and questionnaires. These he has assembled in convenient groupings, dealing with personality, character, conduct, and good citizenship; with teacher rating; with adjustments; with extroversion-introversion; with social attitudes; with interests; with knowledge, judgment, opinion, or discrimination on ethical, moral or conduct issues, and so forth. The first half of the book is given over to a discussion of the methods and the values of psychological diagnosis in regard to par- ticular aspects of social adjustment. Its four chapters deal respec- tively with the diagnosis of tendencies towards delinquent behavior, the diagnosis of incipient personality disorders, the diagnosis of vocational fitness, and the diagnosis of citizenship and leadership. The second half of the book is an annotated catalog of tests bearing on personality and conduct. Here is given such useful information as the name of the publisher and the price, the exact purpose of the test, a brief description of it, its norms and its reliability, and references for further study. Tentative and heuristic though these techniques still are, yet they nevertheless can already be considered 31 as valuable tools in the study of various phases of character and behavior. Professor Symonds will have the gratitude of psychologists and educators for the completeness and the convenience of this reference work. Dr. Cole’s book is designed for immediate, practical use by teach- ers. From the vast amount of research concerning the child and the curricula of the elementary grades, the author has selected and organized her material with two criteria in mind: first, will it con- tribute to an increase in the efficiency of teaching; and second, can it be used as a basis for the daily routine of the average schoolroom. With ease and mastery, Dr. Cole treats of the achievement of skill in reading, of reading in the social sciences, of “spelling our illogical mother tongue,” of achieving legible handwriting. The producing of acceptable English and the mastering of the fundamental processes of arithmetic are handled with critical originality. Chapters on the solution of verbal problems and artistic self-expression complete the discussion of curricular subjects. The last chapter of the book is unique. “There is no drudgery worse than the work of the teacher who presents the same facts in the same manner year after year,” remarks the author, and goes on to say: “The best way to remain happy and successful in the teaching profession is to study one’s job from a research point of view, to try something new, and to verify the results.” Hence this chapter is devoted to the consideration of interesting, easy and profitable research for teachers in the elementary grades. For each curricular subject a selected bibliography is given, and the appendix contains an annotated list of diagnostic tests and remedial exercises. HERMAN DE FREMERY. A Good War Novel EDUCATION BEFORE VERDUN. Arnotp Zwetc. Viking Press. 447 pages. $2.50. eEFoRE VERDUN in 1916 with the German soldiers entrenched in Douaumont and the French still holding Verdun, months passed in which two armies faced each other. This is the period of Zweig’s new novel, a story of private revenge and of general slaughter. Although the principal plot of this book has to do with Lieutenant Kroysing’s attempt to convict an army captain of sending Kroysing's younger brother to death in order to prevent a trial which might have cleared the brother’s name, the main theme of the book is hatred of war. The novel is a study of the German soldiers and of their growing consciousness of the futility of the great combat. Bertin, a Kreuzberg Jew, and an army private, is the protagonist of the story. He is a writer who comes gradually to understand the significance of the war and of its psychological effect upon them. Bertin is, of course, identified with the author, Zweig. The novel has a vast canvas. We see the German soldiers, good, bad and indifferent, of low and of high rank—all of them more interested in their own private lives than in their work save when they believe their work may bring them personal honor. Scholars, writers, professional men, tradesmen, workers and aristocrats, even, indeed, the Crown Prince of Germany himself live in or cross the great battle field. All of these men at war are conditioned first, by their earlier mode of living, and second, by their months in fighting fields. They change for better or for worse. The long enervating months drag on; great weariness settles down over the whole group. Death is as nothing in contrast to grievances about food or drink or warmth. Bloody and horrible scenes are described, scenes of wholesale gassing, of burial alive, vignettes of a single soldier killed for his stupidity in handling war machines, or of a man sleeping in the midst of an air raid, or of a private taking enormous comfort from a yearly bath. Loves and hatreds between men thrown together in herd life spring up. In the months before Verdun we see the beginnings of racial hatred and of Jewish persecution. We see socialists confirmed in their beliefs and organizing. We see post-war Germany and fascist Germany being born. But for the most part we see men accepting their horrible tasks, yielding like sheep to any show of authority. We see the brutal treatment some officers give their men. We see men deliberately plotting to get away from it all 2 ee oa ~ 32 by self-inflicted wounds and other men bearing bravely all that must be borne. The novelist is intent in making his readers aware of common man’s great humility and servitude, and at the same time of man’s essential nobility. Education Before Verdun paints such a terrible picture of war weariness, injustice, and purposeless slaughter that it is unforgettable. Meantime the novelist has identified his readers with his main char- acters and their personal antagonisms. When the book ends all of these main characters, with the exception of Bertin, are dead. Kroy- sing’s younger brother’s death is not revenged. The meanest of the leaders in command has received the iron cross and honor. All of the sensitive younger men have been destroyed. In the last chapter Bertin has returned to his home to walk in the woods with his young wife. He cannot bring himself to tell Kroysing’s family any of the story. It is all too purposeless before the death that has ended it. The world is left scarred and battered. Men have returned home convinced that the whole thing was “a put-up show.” So much for the story.. Why has Zweig given this full and vivid and human account of the war scene? Obviously, the author, now exiled from Germany, is willing to tell the truth as he learned it from behind the German lines. Thousands upon thousands of lives have been taken, but that is not all: the survivors know that they were thrown into war for the gain of the powers who instigated the war. These survivors have come back maimed, insane, uprooted from any sort of good life. Some are as stupid and as docile as ever. Others have analyzed the war and its psychological results. A few have concluded that in socialism alone is there any hope. A wrecked people and a wrecked country remain. Massed numbers. as the author says, have drained the sap out of men. All finer feelings have been flattened out like trampled grass. Only bitterness and preparedness for another struggle point a possible future. No one can read this book without fully realizing what a war of long duration can do to an entire nation. The Germans are pictured as very like the French. The few French characters who do appear in this book are as bewil- dered as are the German characters. Victory itself means nothing. Life has been long torn up by the roots and there will be no new seeds sown for many a long year. Epa Lov Watton. An Important Book of Reference THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE. H. L. Mencken. Fourth edition. Completely revised, enlarged, and corrected. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 800 pages. $5.00. HE NAME of H. L. Mencken is synonymous with prejudice. He has given the title of Prejudices to most of his books of essays. Back in 1920 he was the great iconoclast when Stuart Sherman was defending the popular American mores. The great majority of Ameri- can teachers at that time were in sympathy with Professor Sherman. And it is to be doubted if they now like any better the bitter attacks upon democracy Mr. Mencken is publishing in the American Mercury, which is rapidly becoming an openly fascist magazine. Teachers, nevertheless, should not be prejudiced against the A meri- can Language because the same Mr. Mencken wrote it. The all too rugged individualism which makes him surly when dealing with people, with social problems, disappears when his attention turns to the study of words. He has the same fondness for them that some people have for animals. He likes human emotion, in other people, at one remove, as it appears colorfully in language. And it is also possible that his personal dislike for England as a social and political power gave him a perspective for the study of language that most English teachers in America lacked. At all events when the first edition of the American Language was published *in 1919, Mr. Mencken stated his observation, which few English teachers then liked to acknowledge, that a new language was growing up in the United States. He made the prediction that the American language would continue to grow away from the English used in England. Now in the preface to the fourth edition, he is pleased to admit that his prediction was partly wrong. Principally as a result of the talking picture, according to Mr. Mencken, the languages of the two countries are once more growing together, only The AMERICAN TEACHER it is the American that is tending to dominate the popular speech of England. One factor Mr. Mencken points out as making for the spread of American English is the competence and alacrity of its inventive power. It is a live language now as English was during the Eliza- bethan era. It spawns slang with hearty vulgar recklessness. Many of these new words are nonce-words which do not survive in common usage; many become counter-words, so vague in meaning that they _ are shortly discarded. But a large number of them, those which fit the new conditions of life, are taken into the respectable literary language; so that, to Mr. Mencken's amusement, the English them- selves today in their very complaints against the domination of American English unconsciously use American idioms. Life means change and development; language will reflect them in spite of the rules that pedants have garnered from the dead and dying language. Mr. Mencken’s book ought reassure those English teachers among us who are afraid of this untamed beast that the witless so often ride and the courageous must accept and manage. We teachers have a natural desire for a language with clear and permanent rules of grammar and word usage. It makes teaching easier. But it also makes teaching dull and socially useless because such teaching is con- trary to fact. Mr. Mencken shows us the uselessness of trying to cripple the spirit of the language. His own joy in accepting it makes lively reading of a subject that has almost invariably been treated either with matter-of-factness or pedantry. At the same time, the American Language is a work of reference that no library and no teacher of English can dispense with. Even those owning earlier editions should buy this latest, which has been completely rewritten and vastly expanded. It contains chapters of the various pronunciations of the language, on the grammar of popular speech, and on the nature of proper names. In addition, there is a history of the development of the language in America, its gradual separation from English, the influence from other tongues and other races in the United States—all done with astonishing knowledge and easy handling of philological and historical authorities. Extensive indices make this material accessible to those who wish to use the book as a work of reference. =k EpwIin Berry Burcum. Contributors’ Column WALTER CITRINE is president of the International Federation of Trade Unions and general secretary of the British Trade Union Congress. og oe ty DR. WILLIAM E. DRAKE is president of the Pittsburgh local and of the Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers. He is assistant professor in Social Sciences at the Pennsylvania State College. ARTHUR ELDER is president of the Michigan State Federation of Teachers and an active organizer for the A. F. T. in his state. LOUIS M. HACKER is a member of the history department at Columbia University, and has written for The Nation. HOLLAND D. ROBERTS is president of the California State Fed- ~ eration of Teachers. He formerly edited the English Journal and is now at the School of Education at Leland Stanford University. MARK STARR is the educational director of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. J. RAYMOND WALSH is the vice president of the A. F. T. from the } New England area, and is a member of the economics department at Harvard University. EDA LOU WALTON is assistant professor in the English department at New York University. She has written many poems and reviews and is now at work on a book dealing with modern American pe