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NOVEMBER A YEAR'S VICTORIES 
DECEMBER An Editorial 
1937 


A PROGRAM OF DEFENSE 


By Arnold Shukotoff 


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ETHICS OF BIG BUSINESS - - - - - - by George E. Axtelle 
| DEMOCRACY IN UNION LIFE - - - by W. W. Wattenberg 
| MEXICO REPORTS - - - - - - - by Joaquin Espinosa Prieto 


The AFT Makes the Headlines 
Calling College Teachers 
Shall We Affiliate? 

In Black and White 
A Bid for Unity 














“4 OFFICIAL ORGAN of the AMERICAN FEDERATION of TEACHERS 




















Denver, Colorado 
October |4, 1937. 


FELLOW MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: 


| am writing from Denver where, with Irvin Kuenzli, | am attending the Convention 
of the American Federation of Labor. This letter is to remind you officially of the 
special one dollar per capita assessment, which our last convention unanimously and 


enthusiastically voted to levy for organizational work. 


President Green at the A. F. of L. convention now in session has publicly chided 
our organization for not having succeeded in organizing a larger percentage of the 
teachers in the Nation. Even so, we now have more teachers organized than ever 
before in our history, and there are only three unions in the American Federation 
of Labor that have grown faster since 1929 than we have. Our votes in the A. F. of L. 


Convention in 1937 were approximately four times as many as in 1929. 


The Convention of the American Federation of Teachers in Madison recognized 
the crucial necessity of going forward now. We have an unparalleled opportunity 
to organize the teachers this year. The Federal Administration is friendly to our efforts 
and so are many of the state departments of education. Relying on the payment 
of this dollar assessment by every member, your Executive Council has already 


definitely employed organizers. 


The entire success of this organizing campaign depends upon your paying as 
promptly as possible the dollar assessment. May | urge you to send this money in 


now, if possible, and, if not, to inform the national office when we can probably 
expect it. 


With fraternal greetings and wishes for the success of your local during the coming 


year, | am 
Loyally yours, 
JEROME DAVIS, 


President 
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS. 





























It’s 














™ AMERICAN TEACHER 





VOLUME XxXil 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


NUMBER 2 











IN THIS ISSUE: 


A Year’s Victories—An Editorial................. 2.00 eeeeeeee 6 


A Program of Defense—ArNoLD SHUKOTOFF.............-.... 7 


90660 sSwhtereneaseveeceteoctvessevene 11 
Shall We Affiliate ? 

Continuing the AFL-CIO Forum........................ 12 
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Mexico Reports—JoAQuIN ESPINOSA PRIETO.............-.... 16 
Democracy in Union Life—WiLLIaM W. WATTENBERG.......... 18 
The Ethics of Big Business—Grorce E. AXTELLE............... 20 
cc teebasseeenadesheeeessteseceteenteerace 22 
Calling College Teachers—Georce E. AXTELLE........ Fike kates 
DEPARTMENTS: 

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At a conference arranged by 
Mrs. Grossman, our national 
legislative representative, the 
American Federation of Teachers and the National Edu- 
cation Association established a joint committee to work 
for the enactment of legislation providing federal aid to 
education. Last year the NEA and the AFT submitted 
separate bills. After hearings before the Senate commit- 
tee the Harrison-Black-Fletcher bill supported by the 
NEA was amended to meet the AFT proposals that money 
be allocated so as to give proportionately more money to 
poorer states and to make sure that no discrimination 
would be practiced against Negroes. The AFT then sup- 
ported the amended bill. The formation of a joint com- 
mittee of both organizations improves the prospects for 
equalizing educational opportunities. It makes it possi- 
ble to hope, for example, that the pupil in Mississippi upon 
whose education only nineteen dollars is spent per year 
may come nearer to the level of the New York pupil 
upon whose education $124 is spent per year, and that 


NEA-AFT Unity 


on Educational Equalization 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


educational opportunities for Negroes may be increased. 
This is the first time these two national organizations have 
united for a common drive. It is of tremendous importance 
that the teachers of the nation have been able to put aside 
all differences in fighting for the welfare of the children of 
this country. Let us hope that this first step may lead 
the teachers to unite on a broader program for the im- 
provement of education and teaching conditions. 


In 10,000 schools throughout the country 
80,000,000 hot lunches were served to 
1,000,000 under-nourished school chil- 
dren during the past year and a half. These startling figures 
tell the story of a great service rendered through the Works 
Progress Administration lunch program. The fact that 
many pupils who benefited by the hot school lunch were 
receiving their only real meal in twenty-four hours reveals 
the appalling handicap under which many children are 
forced to attend school. The midday meal has been manna 
to the poor Georgia pupils whose typical home meal consists 
of cold bread or cold sweet potato; it has supplemented the 
corn bread-and-molasses which forms the mainstay for many 
Colorado children. Cause and effect were never so patent 
as in the case of these children who were given decent 
nourishment. Official WPA and school records show remark- 
able improvement in their physical appearance and general 
health. These pupils gaining in energy and alertness im- 
proved scholastically to an astonishing degree. Books and 
other classroom paraphernalia can be completely ineffectual 
when pupils are hungry. The educational problem has to 
be tackled on a broader and more fundamental basis, taking 
into consideration the physical as well as the mental needs 
of the children. The lunch program is a step in the right 
direction. Whatever good has been accomplished must not 
be eradicated by the general curtailment of WPA funds. 
Instead, there is a crying need for an extension of the lunch 
program to include school children who are still in want. 
Surely a demand for food for hungry children is not too 
much to ask for the future citizens of our country. 


A Million Pupils 
Get Lunches 


: Considerable resentment was expressed 
Pro-Fascist 

L p - by teachers who attended the Geog- 
ecture Protest raphy Section of the Northwestern Ohio 
Teachers’ Association at Cleveland, October 29, following 
an illustrated talk on “The Mediterranean in World 








= 


—= 


= 


Affairs” by Dr. Michael M. Dorizas, Professor of Geography 
at the University of Pennsylvania. He repeatedly and 
incorrectly characterized the conflict between the demo- 
cratically elected government of Spain and the Fascists who 
took up arms against their legal democratic government as a 
war between Communism and Fascism. The intervention 
activities of the Germans and Italians and the murder of 
civilians by Nazi and Fascist bombers were overlooked. 
Among those who protested was Mr. David Pierce, a mem- 
ber of the AFT, who wrote to Dr. Dorizas: “Your interpre- 
tation was false in painting Franco in glowing colors. Your 
efforts to win laughs from the audience while concealing 
the massacre of innocent women and children by Nazis and 
Fascists did not, however, go unnoticed. We are aware that 
you have furnished hundreds of uninformed teachers with 
dangerous misinformation.” We urge our members to be 
on the alert to protest against speakers who, like Dr. 
Dorizas, use their official title and reputation to spread 
among teachers a pro-Fascist interpretation of the legiti- 
mate fight of the Spanish people to preserve the government 
of their own choice. 


AFT Before the President's nad eng spoke in 
Advisory Committee November at a conierence ar- 


ranged by the President’s Ad- 
visory Committee on Education. Dr. Davis explained the 
general policy of the AFT which aimed to make democ- 
racy in education a reality. Miss Walsh urged that the 
committee advocate a Model Tenure Bill for all states, 
after describing the merits of the Pennsylvania Tenure Bill. 
Mrs. Grossman recommended educational equalization in 
Federal Aid, describing the features which make it su- 
perior to the Harrison-Black-Fletcher Bill. The Advisory 
Committee was definitely interested in an equalization bill 
such as the AFT bill obviously is. Mrs. Grossman pleaded 
that the Arts Projects be made permanent as provided in 
the Coffee Bill. She stressed the need for the development 
of an American culture through federal aid and guidance. 
At present the general prognostications are favorable. The 
NEA is cooperating with the AFT to achieve Federal Aid. 
The President’s Advisory Committee shows interest in real 
equalization features. It remains for the teaching body 
of the country to influence public opinion and to exert such 
tremendous pressure in Congress that an effective Federal 
Aid law will be the result. 


The Department of Commerce has 
recently shown a conspicuous inter- 
est in radio education. Following a 
series of thirty weekly broadcasts on great American indus- 
tries, which ended in August, the Department began a new 
series on October 19th. Significant to teachers is the fact 
that the new series of the Department will be produced 


Industry's Program 
of Radio Education 


4 





in active cooperation with the United States Office of 
Education. The scripts, partly narrative, partly dramatic, 
will be edited by the Office of Education. But the Depart- 
ment has another “educational” ace up its sleeve. On each 
program a six minute talk will be given by a representative 
of big business on “some social or economic topic of vital 
timely interest.” Already listed are chairmen of some of the 
largest monopolies in America—Clarence Francis, Presj- 
dent of General Foods Corporation, Walter Teagle, Chair- 
man of the Board of the Standard Oil Company, E. R, 
Stettinius, Jr., Chairman of the Finance Committee of 
U. S. Steel, and Gerard Swope, President of General Elec- 
tric Company. What will these men, and others, have to 








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 


Secretary-Treasurer 
Irvin R. Kvenzui 


President 
Jerome Davis 


Vice-Presidents 


Mary J. Herrick 
Atuie B. Mann 
Mercepes L. NELSON 
STANTON E. SmitTH 
Jort SEIDMAN 


GeorcE E. AXTELLE 
Joun D. Connors 
Hucu DeLacy 
Micuaet J. Eck 
ARTHUR ELDER 
Mary Fortey GrossMAN Harry C. STEINMETZ 
Cuarites J. HENDLEY Paut W. PREISLER 
Doxey A. WILKERSON 


Board of Editors 


I. R. KLIncsBerG 
Cevia Lewis 
FstHER PETERSON 
Wa. W. WATTENBERG 
Georce E. AXTELLE 


Representative of the 
Executive Council 


RicHarp B. CrosscuP 
DorotHy DouGLas 
Georce FincH 

A. S. Hancock 
Sara T. WALSH 


Contributing Editors 


Ropert Morss Lovert 
Ora McLAuUGHLIN 
SELDEN MENEFEE 
Beryt PARKER 


Mi_prep BERLEMAN 

SterLinc A. Brown 

Epwin Berry BurcuM 

ArTHUR ELDER 

Borts GAMZUE Hottanp D. Roserts 

Ipa GLANTz KiINGsBERG CoL_ston E, WARNE 
JoHN WoopruFrF 


Business Offices 


506 S. Wabash Avenue 
Chicago, Ill. 


Secretary, Board of Editors 


Cera Lewis 
8 West 16 Street, N. Y. C. 


———_- - > - - 


SUBSCRIPTION: $1.00 for the year 
Foreign $1.10—Single copies, 25c. 
Published bi-monthly except July- 
August. Subscribers are requ to 
ive prompt notice of changes of ad 
ress. Remittances should be made ip 


ENTERED as second class matter | 
October 18, 1933, at the post office | 
at Chicago, Illinois, under the act 
of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for 
mailing at special rate of postage 
provided for in Section 1103, Act 


of February 28, 1925, authorized postal or express money orders, draft. 
November 3, 1926. stamps, or check. 
lho a9 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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say about their labor policies, about the security of the 
wage-earner, and about his wages? Will they attempt to 
educate their listeners on these most fundamental questions 
of industry? Will the programs dramatize unemployment, 
methods of strike-breaking, and the anti-union formulas of 
employers in operation? On the series, Secretary Roper 
savs, “I long have felt that the best way to solve many of 
our most profound social and economic problems is to give 
the public a complete understanding of all the facts 
involved.” Then, why not, as President Davis has already 
suggested to Mr. Studebaker, add representatives of labor 
to the programs? 


Speaking before the United Par- 
ents Association on November 6, 
Aubrey G. Williams, director of 
of the National Youth Administration, pointed out that 
farmers in some sections of the South get as little as $180 
per year to live on, and that 30,000 families in America 
have total incomes that equal the incomes of 10,000,000 
families “at the bottom of the heap”. Free education, 
according to Mr. Williams, is something that we “find 
ourselves romancing about”. Of 9,500,000 persons between 
the ages of fourteen and seventeen, 3,500,000 do not attend 
high school. “But you say the schools are free,” he said. 
“Why don’t these children go to school? For the great 
bulk of these children there is but one answer. They cannot 
afford to. They have neither the clothes to wear nor the 
food to eat, so they stay at home; or the school is so far 
away that they have no means of transportation. 

... On the role of the teacher and the school in this situa- 
ation, he commented, “I often wonder why educators do 
not spend more of their time discussing the great spread 
of family income. There is no use talking to a boy in South 
Carolina about going to school when the average income 
of his father is $129 per year. . . . These boys want to go 
to school. They don’t know why there is no more pay in 
their parents’ pay envelope. One of the great functions 
which the public schools could furnish is to tell them why. 
I never meet a teacher who has the courage or the guts to 


teach these facts that I don’t feel like saying, ‘God bless 
him!’” 


Facts and the Courage 
to Teach Them 


Now is the The Tories at this session of Congress gre 
Time for Unity united in their drive against progressive 

and labor legislation. If for no other 
reason than to supply the nation with a unified labor move- 
ment to help insure the passage of the much needed wages- 
and-hours bill and other labor legislation, the AFL-CIO 
peace parleys, now being conducted in Washington, should 
not adjourn without constructive achievement. Numerous 
messages calling for unity have been sent to the conference 
by AFL and CIO unions. Presidential pressure for unity in 
the labor movement has recently been evident, and this may 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


help in the formulation of a workable arrangement. The 
fact that the meetings have taken place and that the discus- 
sions are continuing, lends substance to the hope. . . . The 
commencement of the conferences witnessed the presenta- 
tion of the 100 per cent program of each group. Briefly, 
the AFL demanded dissolution of the CIO, agreed to take 
back the original CIO unions, with the fate of the many 
other new CIO unions to be decided by the AFL. The CIO 
demanded the right to continue to function as an autono- 
mous body within the AFL, and stipulated that industrial 
organization must continue to be the method of organizing 
the mass production industries. The serious question that 
must now concern us all lies in the degree to which com- 
promise can be made by the CIO without sacrifice of prin- 
ciple. . . . The American Federation of Teachers has for 
many years recorded its full support of the principle of 
industrial unionization. Today it is evident that with pro- 
duction organized in large industrial units, labor must 
likewise be organized industrially to cope with the situ- 
ation. In these industries, the craft-union set up bogs 
down hopelessly. That industrial organization is impera- 
tive, and that it really works may now be taken as demon- 
strated fact. For this reason, there can’t be any retreat 
from the principle of industrial unions for the mass produc- 
tion industries. Nothing else will organize the unorganized. 
Add to this the fact that the rank and file members of both 
organizations want unity and believe it possible, and the 
demand for a peace formula becomes doubly powerful. . . . 
Can such a formula be found? Preliminary discussions 
in Washington are not yet sufficiently definitive at the 
present stage, but any solution will have to follow these 
lines: (a) an agreement must be reached upon which indus- 
tries are to be organized industrially, presumably with the 
understanding that the remaining industries are to continue 
and extend their craft organization, and (b) specific juris- 
dictional disputes are to be settled by committees of the 
conference. Subcommittees of the conference are now work- 
ing on precisely these problems. . . . If unity is to be 
achieved, now is one of the best moments for it. 





The AFT National Legislative Committee has set 
up a Model Bi! Bureau to draw up model bills on 
tenure, sabbatical leaves, pensions and retirement, 
absence refunds, etc. 


Locals desiring this service should submit their 
problems to 
Dr. Ross Tahlheimer 


2311 North Charles Street 
Baltimore, Md. 




















A YEAR'S VICTORIES 


An Editorial 


vances and achievements which accompanied the 

growth of the AFT in organizational strength. Vic- 
tories have been of five distinct kinds: 1. salary increase 
or restoration; 2. legislation affecting teacher conditions; 
3. legislation affecting academic freedom and civil liber- 
ties; 4. reinstatements; 5. elections to public office. 

Full salary restoration was won in New York, in Elyria 
and Springfield, O., and.in Sacramento, Cal. Atlanta, Ga., 
reports full salary restoration in this issue. Toledo, O., 
received a guarantee of 85 per cent of salary schedule in 
place of the 50 per cent guarantee which had prevailed. 
In Cleveland salaries were restored to within 96 per cent 
of schedule. AFT locals in the Canal Zone won salary 
increases through legislation in Congress. 

In the way of legislation, one of the outstanding achieve- 
ments of last year was the passage of the Pennsylvania 
tenure law introduced by AFT locals. In New Jersey, 
the teachers unions succeeded in preventing passage of a 
bill which would have undermined tenure by making it 
possible for a teacher to be discharged after physical ex- 
amination by an administration-picked physician. The 
efforts of the Seattle local won an appropriation for the 
Washington State University $388,000 in advance of the 
budget as it was prepared by the Governor. Toledo won a 
four-year contract, the right to hearing before dismissal, 
the rescinding of discriminatory rules against married 
women teachers and against dual-employment in one fam- 
ily. The teachers unions in Michigan were successful in 
winning revision of the pension system. The previous 
system provided for annual pensions of $500. The new 
system provides for pensions from $600 to $1200. 

Victories were also won in legislation affecting academic 
freedom and civil liberties. In New York the McNaboe 
investigation of “subversive” activities in the schools was 
killed. In Washington, D. C., the “red rider’”—under 
which, each month before they could receive their pay 
checks, teachers were subjected to the indignity of swear- 
ing they had not taught (i.e. mentioned) Communism— 
was repealed. A sedition bill, aimed primarily at Common- 
wealth College, where there is an AFT local, was killed 
in the Arkansas legislature through a nation-wide protest. 
The repeal of the Teachers Loyalty Oath law was voted 
in both houses of the Massachusetts legislature, though 
final repeal was blocked by the veto of a reactionary gov- 
ernor. The right of St. Louis teachers to organize was 
firmly established when, after a two year struggle on the 
part of the St. Louis local and the AFT nationally, the 
Board of Education repealed a yellow dog ruling against 
AFT membership for St. Louis teachers. 


] AST YEAR’S RECORD offers evidences of striking ad- 


é 


Among struggles for reinstatement, two victories, though 
only partial, are especially indicative of growing power. 
The Yale Corporation, yielding to well-organized pressure, 
granted Professor Jerome Davis full salary for a year despite 
original claims that the dismissal was the result of budgetary 
considerations. The Harvard Corporation granted Dr. J. 
Raymond Walsh and Dr. Alan R. Sweezy two-year ap- 
pointments “without prejudice” in place of concluding ap- 
pointments. Other reinstatements have been won in Akron, 
Cleveland (WPA local) and Elyria, O. The Milwaukee 
Vocational School Local won reinstatement for two union 
members and a Milwaukee public school reinstatement has 
just been reported. The AFT has been under heavy fire 
in Michigan, and has won victories there. Two of five 
teachers in Flint, dismissed because of their sympathy 
with the automobile strikers, were reinstated and the strug- 
gle for reinstatement of the other three continues. Rein- 
statements were won in Wisconsin Rapids, Ann Arbor, and 
Highland Park. 

In Wisconsin Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Highland Park the 
reinstatements were accomplished through political action 
—the election of people sympathetic to the union cause to 
School Committees. In Wisconsin Rapids, the election vic- 
tory was preceded by a successful petition for recall. In 
addition to the election of union sympathizers to school 
committee positions, the AFT has won direct victories in the 
election of union members to various public offices. Stan- 
ley Atwood of Local 200 was made State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction in the State of Washington; Hugh 
DeLacy, regional Vice-President for the Northwest, was 
elected to City Council in Seattle; in San Dimas, Cal., 
Jerry Voorhis was elected to United States Congress. These 
instances do not include numerous elections of labor can- 
didates in which locals participated. The victories re- 
ported in this issue from Boston, Mass., and Cincinnati, O., 
are merely first returns. Local 5 participated in widely 
successful campaigns of American Labor Party candidates 
in New York. Through its labor affiliation—even in places 
where locals are small—the AFT is beginning to break the 
strangle hold of reaction on the sehools. 

It is to be hoped that many locals will be distressed to 
find their particular victories omitted in this summary and 
that such locals will be inspired to send in brief summaries 
of their own. It is an enviable record from which no local 
would want to be omitted. Nevertheless, in relation to de- 
cisions of the Madison Convention—the policies derived 
and the committees established to implement them—last 
year’s successes appear only a part of an accumulative 
process which will be carried much further in the year on 
which we are now entered. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 











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A Program of Defense 


By ARNOLD SHUKOTOFF 


come many questions regarding the tactics to be used 
in defending victimized teachers. “Is publicity 
good?” they ask. Do protest meetings help? What purpose 
is served by condemnatory telegrams and resolutions? Is 
not quiet, inside pressure more effective than a public cam- 
paign? There are other questions. Shall we take up imper- 
fect cases? Would it not be more effective to fight for tenure 
laws rather than combat individual cases of victimization? 
Can we not look to the courts for protection of academic 
freedom? How shall we work to prevent victimizations? 
To answer all of these questions would require a good- 
sized booklet. But before we attempt to answer a few of 
these, we must face a basic fact. School boards and college 
boards of trustees are overwhelmingly dominated by 
America’s economic royalists. By far and large, these men 
are not concerned with extending educational opportunity ; 
they are not interested in securing for teachers decent sal- 
aries and tenure; nor are they willing to grant that degree 
of freedom which will make it possible to secure these things. 


| \RoM TEACHERS throughout the country have recently 


1. How Shall We Prepare to Defend Victimized Teachers? 


This question may also be rephrased to read: How shall 
we discourage school boards from attempting dismissals? 
There is only one answer: Build strong, active teacher 
organizations. The probability of dismissals may almost be 
expressed as an equation. Where the power of teachers as an 
organized group is equal to or greater than the power of the 
board, there the board will hesitate to dismiss. By the word 
“power” we mean the ability to muster a favorable and an 
articulate public opinion. Recent cases reveal that, where 
the boards expect overwhelming protest, they will not even 
dare a real test of teacher power. In Darby, Pa., for 
example, the school board threatened several dismissals. 
Immediately, the Darby and Philadelphia teacher unions 
demanded an open hearing such as is required by the new 
tenure law. When the representatives of the locals appeared 
at the hearing, it lasted two minutes during which a repre- 
sentative of the board announced that the boards had 
decided to retain the two teachers. Similarly, at the Uni- 
versity of Washington, no sooner had the local teachers 
union sent letters to the press and no sooner had the local 
Central Trades and Labor Council made representations to 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


Outlining concrete methods 
that have been found 
effective in protecting 
victimized teachers 


the board than the administration backed down on three 
contemplated dismissals. 

It should be recognized that effectiveness is ultimately 
determined by activity as well as membership. Most teacher 
unions are smaller than corresponding state teacher or- 
ganizations and parallel AAUP chapters, yet it is no secret 
that the smaller unions have won greater gains in many in- 
stances than the larger organizations. This is so because 
they have a clearer understanding of the forces lined up 
against them, a clearer perception of teacher needs, and a 
greater willingness to act. 


2. What Are the Essentials of a Campaign to Reinstate 
an Ousted Teacher? 


The preceding discussion suggests that whoever wields 
effectively the lever of public opinion wins. This assertion 
gives the answer to the question regarding the forcefulness 
of inside pressure as against public pressure. We need not 
deny that the intervention of a friendly board member or 
a liberal governor or mayor at times is helpful to recognize 
that the basic need in any campaign is the creation of a 
favorable public opinion. The cases are legion in which 
reliance on inside pressure unsupported by public pressure 
resulted in defeat. The decisive force in organizing public 
opinion today is organized labor. 

It ought also to be noted that the need for favorable 
public opinion does not disappear at any point. It some- 
times is necessary, as in the Jewett case of California, or the 
Keeney-Rowe case of Montana, to carry a fight from admin- 
istrator to school board, from school board to lower courts, 
from lower courts to higher courts and so on up the scale. 
Yet public pressure is necessary at every point. Experience 
indicates, in fact, that the further the case is carried, the 
greater the pressure needed to achieve results. We should, 
therefore, spare no effort to force capitulation at the earliest 
stage. But having suffered a setback here, we must not 
neglect any avenue for securing reinstatement. Investiga- 
tions and reports, appeals to school boards, petitions to city 
and state officials, court suits—all may be of some assis- 
tance. But ultimately their usefulness depends upon the 
motor power we put behind them. 


Another basic need is speed. Once a dismissal is threat- 
ened or announced, we must avoid delay in ascertaining the 


7 








facts and in fighting a case of unjustified dismissal. 

Experience has shown that the longer the delay in taking up 4 
a case, the more difficult it becomes to secure reinstatement. ’ 
And reinstatement—not simply loud protest—must be a 
objective. re 


saint BOR 










The danger of delay appears in several factors. First, ? 
false rumors spread by the administrator take effect upon 
colleagues, and unified teacher protest is prevented. Second, {, 
the fighting morale of the teaching body, usually quite low,‘ 
is lowered still more. No matter how unjustified the dis- 
missal, unorganized teachers shrink from expressing dis-; 


approval unless organized teachers take a bold stand and ch ie 
#3 sidewalk, and with remarkable effect. 


take it quickly. Third, dismissals, not unlike greater trage- 1 | 
dies, become accepted facts. The longer the delay in initiat-|\@ 
ing protest, the more accepted the dismissal becomes, and 
the more difficult it is to arouse resentment. 


3. What Instruments Are to be Used in Campaigning for rr 
Reinstatement? ‘cd 
While we work to arouse the widest public resentment, ‘eh 
we must strive also to project that sentiment at its greatest 
intensity upon the offending party. 
ments are available for that purpose: written protest; pro-; 
test action; newspaper publicity; political action. 


A. Written protest may take various forms: telegrams, * 
resolutions of condemnation, personal letters of protest, peti-: at 
tions, and the printed postcard barrage. All are useful. 
Nothing so plagues an unjust administrator as a stream of ! 
protests pouring in upon him day after day from every part 


of the country and from a vast variety of organizations ~ 
and people. 

The College Section of the New York Local learned this | 
during the Schappes case. A delegation visiting a member .. Ps 
of the Board of Higher Education was confronted with a “| 
sheaf of papers and the hysterical cry: “When will this ’ 
stop? We've heard from everybody. It’s ridiculous.”’ And ‘ 


ae 


S| 


- | 


holding up a letter of protest from one of the unions, he « " 


exclaimed: “Will you gentlemen tell me what in the world | 
meat cutters have to do with academic freedom?” That the , 
Board was sensitive to all this protest was indicated not only ; 4 

by the Board member’s hysteria, but by the friendly letters a 
of acknowledgment received by most protestants, including 4 
the meat cutters. ¥ 


B. One form of protest action, the union mass meeting, has 5 
long been employed by teachers. Lately, however, extremely gy, 
effective use has been made of outdoor meetings, parades, 
and even picket lines. On May 15 last, for example, a group ‘sj 
of sixty teachers journeyed to Yale, held a protest meeting 4 
on the steps of the Yale Divinity School Chapel, and then 3% 
marched as a body to the home of President Angell to ;.° 
present a demand for Professor Davis’ reinstatement. The! 
following day, the New Haven press, which had avoided ; 

mention of Professor Davis’ ouster from the end of October 


‘. Bearing placards aloft and attired in cap and gown, they 
‘’ marched single file on the sidewalk from the station through 


ye wrere non-plussed. 


Four general instru-—m * 


iy 
. J 4 
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until the middle of May, printed a story of almost a column. 
. The press blockade had been broken by action, where no 
other device could have worked. 

i In the Davis case, picketing was also used with tremen- 
. dous effect. On Saturday, June 12, at 11:00 A.M., more 
than 250 teachers met at the New Haven Railroad station. 


the center of the town, to Woodbridge Hall. Town officials 
No parade permit had been requested 
because the teachers knew none would be granted. But 
this was not a parade. The single file line moved on the 
Citizens, who had 
come into town for their Saturday shopping, could not avoid 
reading the placards as they walked toward the marchers, 
while others walking in the same direction as the marchers 
asked questions and, proceeding along next to the marchers, 
experienced an unavoidable sense of participation in the 
moving picket line. Strange as it may seem, one of the citizens 
g fumed to a marcher, and asked: “Who is this Professor 
\, Davis? Some professor who was fired from a mid-western 


university?” Nothing could have played a more effective 


— role in press-silent New Haven than the 


> picket. 


But this was not all that was accomplished by the roving 


pats 


| Bee line of June 12. The marchers proceeded up to the 
+ Yale campus, and began weaving around Woodbridge Hall, 


a building in which a meeting of the Yale Corporation was 
in session. Prior to June 12, the Yale Administration had 


; Urejected three requests of the AFT for an interview on the 


Davis case. Earlier that week it had refused a request for 
"a conference on the very day of the picket. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 











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But the picket line was irresistible. As the marchers 
began moving around the building, the Secretary of the 
Yale Corporation suddenly appeared on the steps and 
announced to the head of the delegation that the Corpora- 
tion would see a small committee. Five members of the 
Federation went in and, each in turn, presented a demand 
for Professor Davis’ reinstatement. According to the 
New York Times, this was “the first hearing ever given to 
an outside organization” by the Yale Corporation in the 
history of Yale. Twelve days after the picketed interview, 
Professor Davis was notified that the Corporation had voted 
to continue his salary for another year. 


C. Publicity is a potent but difficult weapon to wield. 
School boards and administrations always have more ready 
access to it and frequently are in a position, as in the Davis 
case, to shut out all notices coming from the opposition. 
Ultimately, there is only one way of breaking such a press 
blockade—action, and the more dramatic the action, the 
more likely it is to secure space. The press may ignore no- 
tices of written protest; it may ignore union analyses of a 
case, but it cannot ignore activity. 


At times an unfriendly press may be brought to terms 
through pressure. Delegations to the editor are quite effec- 
tive. Protests from advertisers work—if you can get them. 
Letters from readers are influential. All of these instru- 
ments acquire special force if prominent citizens in the 
community, or nationally known figures, lend their names. 
But quantity—a series of delegations, a barrage of letters— 
is undoubtedly equally, sometimes even more, effective. 


Columnists are sometimes friendly even where news and 
editorial columns are not. Locals should therefore make 
a practice of supplying the men who write columns with 
the most complete information. A number of national 
liberal magazines are friendly. Releases should also be sent 
to the student press and to labor papers and journals 
throughout the country. 


Since the press and periodical publicity are always uncer- 
tain, the only really reliable instrument for union publicity 
is a union publication. Through such a publication, we may 
present the facts of the case in detail; analyze the issues 
and develop the implications; give proof of the victimized 
teacher’s ability; describe new developments; answer false 
rumors; show in detail the support given to the union’s cam- 
paign by persons and organizations. 


The appropriateness of these remarks is vividly shown 
in two of the Federation’s most recent victories. In the 
Klein case at Brooklyn College, a bulletin was issued weekly 
for several months. In the Schappes case at the College of 
the City of New York, a bulletin appeared daily for more 
than thirty-four days. Both cases resulted in the reinstate- 
ment of the men threatened with dismissal, and the union 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


bulletins are recognized as having played critical roles in 
the achievement of victory. 


4. Political Action. 


In a number of recent cases, teacher unions have found 
the pressure exerted by written protest, protest action, and 
publicity, inadequate to achieve their demands. They have, 
therefore, been compelled to resort to the use of still greater 
pressure—political action. In Highland Park, Mich., for 
example, the union found, after a year of struggle, that it 
could not reinstate six unjustly ousted teachers. When 
the time for electing a new school board came around, the 
Michigan Federation of Teachers determined to oppose re- 
election of all the candidates who had upheld the dismissals. 
Instead the Federation supported candidates whose sole 
campaign platform was reinstatement. The election was 
successful and the six teachers are now back at their posts. 


Perhaps a more significant instance is offered by the ex- 
perience of the St. Louis local. It found, after some efforts, 
that the Board of Education would not rescind a fifteen- 
year old rule barring employment to teachers who were 
members of a union. Working against great odds, the 
St. Louis local put up its own candidate for the school board 
on a non-partisan ticket. After the necessary 9,000 signa- 
tures had been secured for the nominating petition, the 
election commissioners turned the petition down. A writ 
of mandamus to compel inclusion of the candidate was 
asked. Five days before election it was granted. 


The union’s candidate polled only 6% per cent of the 
vote cast. But a week after election, a motion was put 
on the books to rescind the anti-union rule. One month 
later, the rule was rescinded. The union’s candidate had 
lost, but the pressure of independent political action had 
won. 


These two cases suggest the possibilities implicit in po- 
litical action. Teachers throughout the country have found 
that organized labor is their friend. In Pennsylvania, for 
example, it was the labor men who introduced the liberal 
teacher tenure bill under which teachers now work. In 
Milwaukee, it was the labor members of the school board, 
together with an employer who ran a closed shop, that voted 
the reinstatement of Dr. Colin Welles and Ira D. Pilliard. 
In Flint, dismissal of five teachers led to the sponsoring of 
a huge mass meeting by the United Automobile Workers 
of America, for which more than half of the town popula- 
tion turned out. 


All of these cases, as well as those cited earlier, indicate 
that in order to protect and extend academic freedom, 
teachers require that united action of their profession, 
organized labor, and the community which ordinarily is 
sought in campaigns for reinstatement, but which is most 
forcefully achieved in independent political action. 

















CHART |. INCOME PER INHABITANT, 5 TO 17 YEARS OF AGE 
> 1930 








oe ef Set el 





GEE Less than $1,000 
UZ 1,000 & $ 2,000 ' 

42,000 % $3,000 ra. 

isstamet Gear $ 3.000 National Average $ 2.171 29 






































| LEGEND: tas 
ie a Less than 3.8% ee 
_) 39 @ S% 
—) Over 5 en 
CHART Il. PER CENT OF TOTAL INCOME FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION 
1930 











THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





2 — 








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“IN BLACK AND WHITE” 


ATA ISSUED IN A PAMPHLET, School Money in Black 
and White, by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, Chicago, 
indicate graphically the need for educational equalization, 
while offering some insight into the comparative ability and 
attempts of the various states to provide schooling for their 
children. The booklet argues powerfully, by the mere 
presentation of charts and graphs, the crying need for such 
legislation as is embodied in the NEA-AFT Equalization 
Bill. Especially striking is the discrimination against the 
Negro child in the distribution of moneys for schooling. 

The comparative poverty of the South, long recognized 
(its average per capita wealth in 1930 was $1,785 as com- 
pared with $3,609 for the states outside the South, and, 
while the national average wealth per school child was 
$10,200, the median of the thirteen southern states except 
Maryland was $4,900) is perhaps best indicated by a chart 
(No. 1) showing the income per school child (5 to 17 
years). The national average of annual income was $2,171; 
the median for the thirteen southern states is two-fifths of 
this, $872. National extremes range from Mississippi with an 
annual income of $512 per child, to Nevada with $3,788. 

A fact frequently not noted is that the South makes at 
least as great an attempt to maintain schools as the rest 
of the country, in the proportion of funds it expends. In 
the percentage of tax money put into schools, for example, 
the average state spent 40.2% of all local and state tax 
collections for schools. The average for fourteen southern 
states is 41.3. A better measure of effort to support educa- 
tion is the percentage of total income spent (Chart No. 2). 
Georgia and Maryland are the only southern states spend- 
ing less than the national average, which is 3.8. 

Figures that amply bear out the conclusions of Dr. 
Charles H. Thompson’s article in THe AMERICAN TEACHER 
last spring show the discrimination among various classes 
of school children in America (Chart No. 3). Compared 
with a national average annual expenditure of $99 for each 
pupil, the expenditure for white children in the South was 
$44.41, and that for Negro children was $12.57, about one- 
eighth of the expenditure for the average pupil of the nation. 

In certain states with large Negro populations the dis- 
crimination is still greater; Georgia, whose record is ‘bad 
in every tabulation presented in the Rosenwald booklet, 
spends an average of $35.42 for each white pupil and $6.38 
for each Negro per year. The figures for Mississippi are 
$45.34 against $5.45. Children of the three million Negroes 
of the deep South have less than one-fifteenth the oppor- 
tunity of the average American child. Negro public schools 
in eleven southern states for which records are available 
received in 1930 a total of $23,461,959, while the white 
pupils in the same states received $216,718,221. 

Teachers’ salaries show the same discrepancies (Chart 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


No. 4). In 1900 the Negro teacher’s annual salary in thir- 
teen southern states was $106, or 65% of the white teach- 
er’s. In 1930 the salaries of both had increased, but the 
Negro’s salary, $423, was only 47% of the white teacher’s 
$901. Public school properties carry out the same dispro- 
portion. It would require $240,000,000 to bring the per 
pupil investment in Negro schools up to that of the white. 
Value of school plant in 1930 for each white southern pupil 
was $157; for each Negro pupil, $37. 


910 ‘IS 1920 ‘25 1930 





$99 

96 . 
93 
90 
81 
84 
BI 
18 
15 
12 
69 
66 
63 
60 
57 
54 
5! 
48 
45 
42 
39 
36 


45 


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"OW 


OWOoOWNUO-~A 


12 
9 


) 


(Above) Chart Ill. Average Annual Expenditure per Pupil (from 
U. S. Office of Education and State Departments) 


(Below) Chart IV. Trend in Average Annual Teachers’ Salaries 
White and Negro—!3 southern states 


ANNUAL 


SALARY i509 was 1910 1915 1920 251980 


$1,000 
900 
800 


700 


500 


300 


200 


100 











Shall We Affiliate? 


Continuing the AFL-CIO Forum 


To the Editors. 

We in the American Federation of Teachers will be 
called upon very shortly to make a definite decision upon a 
fundamental trade union policy—the question of affiliation 
with the CIO. Our stand upon this issue will to a very 
great extent determine the future of the AFT. It is a 
decision not to be lightly made. It is a decision to be made 
upon only one basis: the records of the A. F. of L. and the 
CIO in the past two years. 

As a teacher in the Philadelphia school system, I should 
like to begin at home by citing the support given by the 
CIO in the successful campaign for tenure and sabbatical 
leave. As a result of this support, Pennsylvania teachers 
now have the strongest tenure law in the country. This is 
but one of the instances in which the CIO has aided pro- 
gressive teacher legislation. 

In the broader field of organized labor, the CIO stands 
for the progressive principles of industrial unionism—prin- 
ciples which the AFT has endorsed, and which have brought 
into the organized labor movement thousands of unorgan- 
ized workers in the mass production industries. No single 
organization could have achieved this, had there not been 
a tremendous need for just such a movement on the part of 
the workers of America. It was the CIO which took cog- 
nizance of this need, and directed this movement into 
progressive and constructive channels. 

While the CIO has been building a stronger labor move- 
ment, the A. F. of L. has been using all its resources to hold 
on to its waning power and prestige. There has been no 
thought in the minds of the A. F. of L. leaders for the 
welfare of the worker. They 
have been actuated by a single 
motive—to save the A. F. of L. 
That vast changes in industry 
require corresponding changes 
in trade union organization 
means nothing to them. That 
a newer, stronger organization 
may supersede their own seems 
to mean everything. 

History is moving forward, 
carrying many things with it, 
leaving others behind. The 
American Federation of Teach- 
ers belongs with the forward 
movement. And the forward 
movement today is the CIO. 

CAROLINE R. PoTAMKIN, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 





To the Editors: 

After giving myself a little time for reflection on the 
question of labor affiliation, I am persuaded that the logical 
course for the American Federation of Teachers in the 
present crisis is that of independence. By this I do not 
mean neutrality. Nor do 1 propose aloofness or separation 
from the labor movement. Nothing could be farther from 
my thought than cowardice or backing off from an issue. 
All I want is a course answering to the realities. What are 
these? 


1. The first “whereas” of the referendum resolution 
declares that “the AFT stands for unity in the American 
labor movement.” Close affiliation with either the A. F. 
of L. or the CIO would not make for unity at the present 
moment, though friendship with both and with all other 
organizations of labor would do so. 


2. Members of the AFT, equally sincere in devotion 
to the principles of the Federation, are honestly divided as 
to the best course. A policy of independence should allow 
for these differences without offending the conscience of 


any one. 


3. The AFT should reassert solidarity with labor and 
moral affiliation with both of these organizations, as well 
as with the great Railway Brotherhoods. 


4. Continued integral affiliation with the A. F. of L., 
in view of some of its reactionary policies, is embarrassing 
and compromising 

5. Indorsement of the prin- 
ciples of industrial unionism and 
appreciation of the aims and 
successes of CIO should be con- 
tinued. 

It is regretted that the ques- 
tion to be submitted does not 
allow for expression in favor of 
the course here recommended. 
If not in violation of the instruc- 
tions of the 1937 convention, I 
suggest that the course here 
proposed be included in the 
referendum. 

Joun C. GRANBERY, 
Professor of Philosophy, 
Southwestern University, 
Georgetown, Texas. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








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|- 


ie 








Presidents Page 


HE NEXT WAR is already on. In China, Japan is 
TL ivi to bomb, bayonet and shoot her way to mili- 

tary power and glory. In Spain Franco with the aid 
of Mussolini and Hitler is trying to carve out another state 
through violence and bloodshed. London has begun to fear 
a possible raid of one thousand German airplanes which 
might attempt to blow up and burn up the metropolis with- 
out a declaration of war. 

Europe has today about 6,000,000 men under arms with 
28,000,000 in reserve. She is spending $20,000 a minute 
in preparation for war with her military budgets now ex- 
ceeding ten billion dollars. Some 22,000 war planes are 
prepared for bombing while over 12,000 tanks and 1000 
fighting ships are awaiting the signal for the next world 
carnage. 

The next war is already being waged and it is a strug- 
gle to the death between democracy and fascism. Can we 
in America avoid participation for long? Certainly not 
unless we face fearlessly the social problems of youth and 
the economic order. 

Confronting us are several major choices: dictatorship 
versus democracy, individualism versus collectivism, an 
economy of scarcity over against an economy of abun- 
dance, millions of unemployed or work for all, a material- 
istically centered society or one that is socially centered. 

Now if we are to solve these problems, if exploitation is 
to yield to justice, a major responsibility rests on the 
teachers of the nation. The schools must be democratically 
organized and controlled. Dictatorship on the part of su- 
perintendents and principals must yield to democracy. 

This is why the organizing campaign of the American 
Federation of Teachers is so necessary and vital to Amer- 
ican welfare. Organization of teachers means organized 
schools, which means that education runs first, last and all 
the time in the interests of the child life of the nation. 

There probably never was a time in the history of the 
Federation when we had a more spectacular opportunity 
to go forward. Teachers all over the country are clamor- 
ing for help. The groundswell from the millions of work- 
ers who have joined the ranks of the CIO and the A. F. of 
L. has somehow seemed to awaken the teachers who have 
been quiescent for decades. How heartening it is to have 
all the Chicago teachers unite into one great powerful 
union! 

No wonder that your convention voted so enthusiastically 
for an assessment for organizational purposes. But the 
dynamic enthusiasm of the convention will be of little avail 
unless it is transmitted to the rank and file. By the time 
you are reading these words every local in the American 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


lederation of Teachers should have collected and sent to 
the National Office this special assessment. The American 
Federation of Teachers is paying less per capita than prob- 
ably any other organized labor union in the United States, 
in face of the fact that while we have a million potential 
members, we only have 25,000 organized. 

In a brilliant article in the October Harper's Donald 
Slesinger discusses academic freedom. He points out that 
it is not capitalism nor entrenched greed which has directly 
taken away our liberties. We teachers have voluntarily and 
complacently given up our own rights and have been 
proud in our professional superiority and isolation while 
we did so. As he points out, the only answer to intoler- 
ance, injustice and the denial of freedom is fearless organ- 
ization of the teachers. 

The next world war is already in progress in Spain. No 
one knows how soon the general cataclysm will burst with 
appalling consequences on the rest of Europe. The proba- 
bilities are that America has no more than five years to go 
before we ourselves become involved. To some extent we 
are engaged in the preliminary skirmishes in selling scrap 
iron to Japan and taking part in the Nine Power Con- 
ference. 

All of this means that, as teachers, we must make sacri- 
fices in order to forward organization here and now. We 
must take our part in the fight for new legislation, for tenure, 
for state and Federal aid, for sabbatical leave, and for the 
host of other educational conditions which are indispensable 
for freedom. 

We have over 25,000 members now. We should have 
double that number by the time our next convention meets. 
Shall we? Not at all if we are as complacent as we have 
been in the past. ° 

Your Executive Council is employing more paid organ- 
izers than the American Federation of Teachers has ever 
had. What will you do to make this campaign effective? 
If war ever comes the American people will be compelled 
to contribute billions of dollars and millions of lives. Every 
dollar of time or effort put into the organization of teach- 
ers now is worth a thousand when America is actually 
involved in international conflict. Are we intelligent enough, 
patriotic enough and sacrificing enough really to build our 
organization mow and protect our heritage of freedom 
while we still have a fighting chance? 

If we fail now, when war does come our union will be 
crushed, smashed by the organized power of fascist reac- 
tion, even though it may masquerade under some such 
banner as a “liberty league”’. 

JeroME Davis 


13 











The AFT Makes the Headlines 


. . . and Wins a Victory in San Antonio 


Ww THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, the Manufactur- 
ers’ Association, the Superintendent of Schools and 
the President of the School Board of San Antonio lined up 
against the right of teachers to join unions, Mr. Irwin R. 
Kuenzli and Congressman Maury Maverick addressed 800 
of the city’s 1300 teachers in the interests of unionism. It is 


story. 


significant to note that there was a mass lay-off of teachers 
last year; that this year twenty-nine rehired teachers have 
been employed at a salary of $600 per year; and that the 
budget for teachers’ salaries has been cut. 

The following excerpts from local newspapers tell a clear 





S. A. Evening News, Wed., Oct. 27. 


TEACHERS DECIDE TO VOTE 
ON UNION ORGANIZATION 


Seven hundred San Antonio public school 
teachers lustily applauded Congressman 
Maury Maverick and Irvin Kuenzli, organ- 
izer for the American Federation of Teach- 
ers, when they lambasted school officials 
Tuesday afternoon. 

The meeting was called so that Kuenzli 
might present to local teachers the program 
and benefits to be derived from a teachers’ 
union. Both he and Maverick criticized the 
stand taken by school officials, the Cham- 
ber of Commerce and the Manufacturers’ 
Association on the matter of organization 
of teachers. 

Supt. J. C. Cochran’s recent statement 
that any teacher who joined the union 
would be dismissed was termed by Mav- 
erick a violation of the Constitution of the 





S. A. Light, Thurs., Oct. 28. 


SCHOOL BOARD 
SPLIT OVER 
UNIONS 


At least two members of the Board of 
Education definitely were at odds Thursday 
with Superintendent of Schools J. C. Coch- 
ran relative to teachers joining a union. 

Koger Stokes declared Thursday that 
Cochran had made a “grave mistake in pro- 
nouncing himself so definitely against teach- 
ers’ unions.” He added that he believed 
teachers are entitled to handle their own af- 
fairs as long as such activities as they may 
carry on do not interfere with the efficient 
operation of the schools. 

Dr. Hollers took an even more definite 
stand, assuring teachers that they need never 
fear for the positions as far as he was con- 
cerned. 

A member of the board, who refused to 
be quoted, expressed the belief that Cochran 
would be unable to muster sufficient votes 
in the school board to discharge a teacher 
for union affiliation. 

“No teachers need be afraid that I as 
a member of the school board will vote 
to fire them as long as they are rendering 


14 


United States. ... 


Kuenzli was both bitter and sarcastic in 
his criticism of the resolutions and state- 
ments condemning a teachers’ union for San 
Antonio. The resolutions were based largely 
upon ignorance, he said. One referred to 
the danger of teachers being induced by the 
union to teach “isms.” “I wonder if they 
have ever heard of altruism?” Kuenzli 


asked. “Perhaps they are afraid that the 
teachers will teach genuine Americanism.” 

Kuenzli read from records of the organi- 
zation because, he said, he was delighted 
that the presence of the stenographer would 
give him an opportunity to get facts on 
the record. He traced the teachers’ union’s 
growth from its founding in 1916. 

Kuenzli closed his address with a re- 
view of the Federation’s accomplishments 
and a statement that the Chamber of 
Commerce has a right to its viewpoint, but 
both it and Supt. Cochran had committed 
a “grievous fault” in dictating to teachers 
what organization they might join. 





S. A. Evening News, Wed., Oct. 27. 


250 MORE TEACHERS TO GET AX, 
MAVERICK HEARS, HE TELLS LIONS 


The San Antonio board of education is 
now planning to dismiss 250 more teachers, 
Congressman Maury Maverick said he un- 
derstood today in a speech before the Lions 
Club. 

A storm of protest arose last spring when 
the board failed to re-elect 100 regular 
teachers, placing them on probationary 
status until shortly before school opened 
when all but 43 were reinstated. 

Maverick said he was not informed as to 
the cause of the reported dismissal plan, 
and it was unknown whether it had any 
direct connection with the threat of teach- 
ers to join a union. 

The congressman severely scored the 
threat that any teacher who joined a union 
would be dismissed. 

Maverick said he understood the board 
was secretly planning the wholesale dismis- 
sal of teachers, and keeping the public and 
the teachers in the dark about the plan. 





efficient service—union or no union. 

“I believe that Superintendent Cochran’s 
statement prohibiting teachers from organ- 
izing was ill advised.” 

A member of the board, who refused 
to be quoted, expressed the belief that 
Cochran would be unable to muster suffi- 
cient votes in the school board to dis- 
charge a teacher for union affiliation. 





S. A. Evening News, Thurs., Oct. 28. 


Youngblood Denies 
250 More Tutors 
to be Discharged 


“Maverick’s reported statement at the 
Lions Club on Wednesday to the effect that 
the Board of Education is contemplating 
the dismissal of two hundred and fifty 
school teachers is not true, is absurd and 
ridiculous,” Hull Youngblood, president of 
the board, charged today. 

Maverick reiterated today that he was 
convinced from the information he received 
that the School Board had been considering 
the discharge of 250 teachers. 

“If my statement has forestalled such ac- 
tion,” he said, “I am glad I have been able 
to do some good. The official denial pro- 
tects the teachers involved and I am glad 
of that. 

“The fact remains that the school sys- 
tem is in a demoralized condition, that 
teachers are jittery and scared, and that 
they do not receive equal treatment with 
teachers in other places,” Maverick con- 
cluded. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 











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ave 
the 


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S. A. Express, Fri., Oct. 29. 


SCHOOL BOARD MAJORITY 
APPROVES TEACHERS’ UNION 


San Antonio school teachers Thursday 
night won the right to join the American 
Federation of Teachers without fear of be- 
ing discharged, despite warnings issued by 
J. Chester Cochran, superintendent of 
schools, when it was revealed that a ma- 
jority on the San Antonio Board of Edu- 
cation, four members, will refuse to au- 
thorize the dismissal of any teacher for 
union activities if the case is brought before 
the board. 

Strongest statement issued was that of 
Dr. James P. Hollers. “I will not vote to 
discharge a teacher for joining or failing to 
join any religious, social, or other groups. I 
am sure that the teachers have the ability 
to decide what’s best for them. 

“I do not think any board member or 
employe of the board has the right to en- 
courage or discourage any teacher or other 





employe in the exercise of any right.” 

He expressed the belief that “any organ- 
ization is entitled to settle its own prob- 
lems. I don’t think the board should have 
anything to say unless it affects the effi- 
ciency of teachers.” 

In a surprise move last week, Cochran 
made the announcement he would recom- 
mend to the board that all teachers who 
joined a labor organization be fired. The 
authority to recommend the dismissal of 
all teachers rests with Cochran. 

Koger Stokes scored the intimidation of 
teachers. “If the teachers so desire, they 
should be entitled to join a union.” 

The statement aroused the ire of teach- 
ers, who immediately called a meeting of 
the Teachers’ Council to hear a labor or- 
ganizer list the advantages of membership 
in the American Federation of Teachers. 





S. A. Light, Fri., Oct. 29. 


TEACHER UNION 
ATTITUDE TO 
BE SOUGHT 

AT MEET 


Procedure for determining the true atti- 
tude of San Antonio teachers in regard to 
joining the American Federation of Teach- 
ers will be discussed by the executive board 
of the teachers council in a meeting next 
Tuesday, Charles S. Ware, president, an- 
nounced Friday. 

Mrs. E. R. Lewis Friday had joined 
three other members of the school board 
in agreeing that school teachers should be 
permitted to organize if they so desire. The 
four constitute a majority of the board. 

R. L. Hogan, Koger Stokes, and Dr. 
James Hollers Thursday took a definite 
stand against Superintendent J. C. Coch- 
ran, who recently announced that teachers 
joining a union would be discharged. 





Repercussions 


On November 5, Mr. Kuenzli sent a letter to the teachers 
of San Antonio, parts of which we quote: 

Our attention has been called to the fact that a paper 
known as The Texas Commentator is being widely distrib- 
uted among teachers of San Antonio in an attempt to pre- 
vent organization of the teachers by means of the “Red 
Scare”. 

The Commentator states “Red agitators are attempting 
to undermine the principles of one of San Antonio’s finest 
body of men and women—the teachers in our public 
schools.” Why did they not add “whom, as college trained 
experts, we pay the splendid average wage of approximately 
$29.00 per week and whom we dismiss in large numbers 
without warning and without reason?” 

Why have the Chamber of Commerce and Manufacturers 
Association suddenly become so interested in the welfare of 
the schools and the teachers? When hundreds of schools 
were closed, three millions of American children deprived 
of any schooling, teachers’ salaries slashed and terms short- 
ened—W here were the Chamber of Commerce and Manufac- 
turers Association then? Who shouted “isms” then? What 
kind of “ism” is it when representatives of Chambers of 
Commerce appear before committees of legislatures to de- 
feat school support bills regardless of the effect on the educa- 





tion of the children and the welfare of the teachers? 

THE TRUTH is that the American Federation of Teach- 
ers has no political connections whatever and receives no sup- 
port whatever except from the small dues of its members 
which average $2.00 per year. No record is kept of political 
or religious affiliations of members. It is probable that the 
large majority are Democrats as are the majority of the 
citizens of Texas. 

The teachers of San Antonio undoubtedly will accept this 
concerted attempt to prevent their organization as the most 
persuasive argument that they need organization badly. The 
ultimate result will be better schools for San Antonio, a 
better and more prosperous city, happier and more efficient 
teachers—to the end that even the Chamber of Commerce 
and Manufacturers Association will reap large profits. 

The labor movement, in spite of bitter opposition, has 
been a constructive force in American society and is largely 
responsible for care of widows and orphans, old age security, 
care of crippled children, and higher standards of living in 
general. In like manner the American Federation of Teach- 
ers is a constructive force in the schools and community life 
of many American cities, assisting to protect the schools 
from strongly organized groups which represent only a small 
minority of the citizens. 





aaa! sia 


an 





NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 








Mexico Reports 


By JOAQUIN ESPINOSA PRIETO 


of several teachers unions and organizations, there 

originated the Mexican Federation of Teachers (Fed- 
eration Mexicana de Trabajadores de la Ensewyanza). More 
than 70,000 teachers are affiliated to the F.M.T.E. They 
constitute ninety-five per cent of the organized teachers in 
the country, and ninety per cent of all our teachers. 

Our organization is intimately related to the labor move- 
ment; we have cooperative agreements with such unions as 
those of the railroad men, miners, artists, and electricians. 
Through our program we have demonstrated that we place 
confidence in the workers of Mexico, by whose side we must 
struggle, on an equal basis, in order to attain our social, 
economic and cultural aims. We acknowledge that we form 
part of the working class and that we must play our part in 
all its social movements. 

Moreover, we have accepted the example of other workers 
and have used their methods when defending the interests 
of Mexico’s educational workers. These methods include 
strikes, suspensions of work, demonstrations and meetings. 
The valuable teachings of other workers have enabled us to 
win our most important rights. As a consequence we have 
been able to gather round our organization the immense 
majority of Mexican teachers, who have found their inter- 
ests perfectly guaranteed and defended. 

We are affiliated with the most important cultural organ- 
izations of Mexico, and with juvenile, and student organ- 
izations. We have a cooperative agreement with the Con- 
federacion Campesima Mexicana, whose membership of one 
million peasants renders it the most powerful farm group 
in the country. 

We have taken part in local and national struggles of 
workers against the increase in cost of living, for a minimum 
salary, and for payment of wages for the seventh day of 
the week. We have struggled side by side with the peasants 
for agrarian reform, for rural credit, for the formation of 
Agrarian Defense. This has obtained for us the sympathy 
both of the laborers and the peasants, who decidedly sup- 
port us in our own battles, and who constitute one of the 
most important factors in bringing about our victories. 


| N THE MONTH of February of this year at a convention 


16 





Reading, Writing and Organiz- 
ation Below the Rio Grande. 
The second article in a series on 
education in foreign countries. 


The trade union movement of teachers has been con- 
tinuously increasing in Mexico, and it has included tens of 
thousands of teachers in its strikes, demonstrations, and 
meetings. In the Capital of the Republic we have organized 
demonstrations involving twenty thousand teachers coming 
from all parts of the country. Last year we held two 
national strikes and 103 local ones. Most of these actions 
were directed against reactionary state governments which 
refused to follow the progressive policies of President Car- 
denas. These state governments were paying their teachers 
miserable salaries, were not even meeting their paydays 
and were making arbitrary collective dismissals. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 











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In its battles the F.M.T.E has been spurred on by the 
grave danger to democracy everywhere resulting from the 
attacks of Fascism internationally. The F.M.T-.E. has given 
its full support to the struggle of the Spanish people to pre- 
serve the liberties brought by the Republic and threatened 
by Fascist invasion. Everywhere we educate for peace and 
democracy and against Fascism. 


Facing the progressive reforms initiated by General Car- 
denas, the F.M.T.E. has made patent its support and 
solidarity with this tendency, maintaining, nevertheless, in 
the strictest sense, its political and trade union independ- 
ence, that it may contribute in full measure to the demands 
made by a changing society. The F.M.T.E. acknowledges 
that it owes a great part of its progress and its achievements 
to the progressive attitude of President Cardenas and par- 
ticularly to the Secretariat of Education, with whom it 
keeps relations of cooperation, to such a degree that it is 
cooperating with that organ in a plan for the elevation of 
the cultural and technical level of education in Mexico; and 
for the improvement of professional standards and school 
methods. The mentioned plan consists of five points: 


The campaign against illiteracy. 

The increase of enrolment in schools. 
Professional improvement. 

The hygienization of the schools’ environment. 
The organization of women, youths and children. 


unt Ww ro 


In appraising this plan, the reader must remember that 
because of its condition as a semi-colony of American im- 
perialism, Mexico’s economy is retarded. When the Span- 
iards conquered the country, there existed already an 
educational system which satisfied the needs of a privi- 
leged minority, but the great masses of natives did not 
receive any other education than the one established by 
religious tradition. 


During all the colonial period, and even much after the 
War of Independence and the establishment of the Republic, 
this situation continued, the privileged minority consisting 
of the group of Spanish conquerors and their descendants, 
the creoles. 


Because of this condition, at the outbreak of the Revolu- 
tion in 1910, the demand for a popular and democratic 
education constituted one of the greatest national aspira- 
tions. (It is enough to say, as interesting data, that the 
number of illiterates ran as high as eighty-nine per cent.) 


The most important expression of recent educational re- 
form is the present rural school. It has been from the 
beginning a cultural agency, not only for the child, but 
for the whole community. The rural teacher in Mexico is a 
social leader, who takes care of the construction of the 
school building, fosters physical culture through sports, 
cares for the improvement of agricultural technique, strug- 
gles for the construction of new roads and highways, estab- 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


lishes offices and collaborates efficiently and actively in the 
revolutionary organization of the different popular sectors. 


Besides the rural schools, there exist boarding schools 
for Indians, the mission of which is to care for the educa- 
tion of the groups of aborigines who had been kept out of 
all contact with civilization. There are thirty-four regional 
schools for peasants to take care of the education of 5,000 
pupils, who will become practical farmers or rural teachers. 
Cooperating with these schools are twenty cultural missions 
composed of teachers specializing in such different subjects 





as physical culture, education, art, and music. These cul- 
tural missions periodically devote intensive attention to each 
of the different school zones. In each they organize insti- 
tutes of improvement for the teachers and promote the 
intensive development of social activities in the communities 
they visit. Lately, the government has ordered that these 
missions devote their attention to the most retarded indige- 
nous regions. 


In the city zones many elementary and secondary schools 
have been created, . . . some by the Federal Government 
and others by the governments of the states. But what best 
characterizes the educational effort in the city zones is the 
creation of many technical schools which tend to satisfy 
the needs of a national industry which has begun to grow 
in a vigorous form. This system of technical schools, which 
includes the pre-vocational establishments, culminates with 
the Polytechnical School (something like a central high 
school), operating in Mexico City. The primary and 
secondary night schools for workers are also very important. 
These are supplemented by some night schools specializing 
in the improvement of the worker’s capacity. 


This is, in few words, the effort of Mexico in education, 
aside from higher education imparted by local universities 
and the National Autonomous University. To make culture 
reach the lowest strata of society is the greatest wish of the 
revolutionary Mexico of today and of the Mexican Federa- 
tion of Teachers. True emulation has been aroused among 
the teachers of all the country who have formed brigades for 
the successful carrying out of this purpose. 











Democracy in Union Life 


By WILLIAM W. WATTENBERG 


democratic, ask one question: “Who really runs the 

organization?” If one person, or a small executive 
board, exercises more power than all the rest of the mem- 
bers, then you are confronted with an autocracy or a bureau- 
cracy. If the organization truly is governed by its member- 
ship, you have democracy. 


I YOU WANT TO FIND OUT whether a given group is 


Simple as democracy may be in conception, in practice it 
may be extremely hard to attain. One need not look far 
to find educational associations which started as demo- 
cratically ruled groups and which have become the tools of 
a few self-interested supervisors. Many of the state teach- 
ers’ organizations, although they claim to represent the will 
of all teachers, nevertheless are actually governed by the 
wishes of a small clique,—a fact which is well known to any- 
one who has had considerable contact with these groups. 
Moreover, their very constitutions function as if designed 
to entrench the small ruling clique and to prevent the gen- 
eral membership from securing effective control. 


II 


Before dealing with the question of how to make our 
locals as democratic as possible, it may be worth while to 
indicate briefly why democracy in organization is essen- 
tial. An autocratically governed group, no matter how 
pure may have been the intent of its original rulers, is 
almost certain either to die or to end its career as a com- 
pany union or as an instrument of racketeers. 


Several years ago I made a study of some two hundred 
teachers’ associations. At that time I encountered a type 
of group best described as a “paper organization”. In 
every such case, the group had once been powerful, had 
once fought the battle of teachers and fought them rather 
well. In every case, the group had been run by one person 
or a small “inside” clique. In every case, criticism had 
been stifled and members found it impossible to change 
the policy of “their” group. In every case, the mem- 
bers became disgusted and abandoned the group for others 
which represented policies they favored. In every case the 
paper organization’s present membership consists solely of 
the origina] leader or the small circle of “insiders”. The 
lesson would appear to be that if a group is so governed 
that the voices of its membership are ignored, the members 
will drift to another group, one more to their liking. Autoc- 
racy is synonymous with death. 


Internal democracy is 
necessary basis for 
members’ activity and 
external effectiveness, 


The strength of the American Federation of Teachers 
at the present time is that its locals, by and large, are 
more democratic than any other educational groups. 
Teachers see that many state teachers’ associations and old- 
line local groups are little more than company unions 
used by a small group of insiders to secure personal ag- 
grandizement. Many such groups confess the truth of this 
charge when they find it necessary to force teachers to join 
their ranks. Pressure from administrators and clauses in 
contracts are used to swell the number of members. Out- 
raged by this state of affairs, teachers are turning to our 
locals. 

We may take just pride in this trend. But, let it also 
serve us as a warning. We must begin to study democracy 
and the ways of achieving it, lest we unintentionally stray 
into the paths of autocracy. Should we ever permit that 
to occur we shall die, or—even worse—be used as the very 
instruments that destroy the democracy in education for 
which we now battle. 


III 


How, then, can we make sure that power continues to 
reside in the hands of all members of our locals? Prob- 
ably there is no single sure answer to that query. We 
must experiment with many devices and procedures to find 
those which best further our purpose. At present, it is 
possible to describe a few of the characteristics which seem 
to make for true democracy in our locals. 


First, the most democratic of our locals do not hesi- 
tate to trust their own members, to let them make all 
important decisions of policy. In the case of small locals, 
there are frequent meetings of the entire membership to 
transact all business. All decisions are made by these gen- 
eral membership meetings. The executive committee re- 
ports to the general membership—for either approval or 
rejection—all actions it may have had to take in the in- 
terim between meetings. 


Some locals have grown so large that general membership 
meetings are unwieldy. Power to legislate has been trans- 
ferred to a representative body whose members are elected 
by the general membership and who are urged to report 
their actions to the groups they represent. To make sure 
that the general membership retains control, provision is 
made for general membership meetings at which important 
issues are discussed and voted upon. In addition, initiative 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 











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and referendum on important matters should be part of the 
local’s legislative procedure. 


The frequency of meetings appears to be a matter of 
great importance. A local association that holds meetings 
once a year cannot be democratic. The membership loses 
touch with what happens, and the officers find themselves 
free to do almost anything they choose. To forestall such 
a development, our locals usually meet once or twice 
a month. In the case of the large locals, in which frequent 
meetings of a representative body determine policy, general 
membership meetings are held nevertheless. When such 
meetings are held less frequently than once every two 
or three months, members are apt to get out of touch 
with the affairs of their group. Worse, officers lose touch 
with the sentiment of the members; and the drift towards 
autocracy may begin. 


An important device for maintaining democracy is the 
dissemination among members of news concerning their 
local. Thus, those unable to attend meetings receive news 
of every important move that has been made or is pending. 


The usual procedure is that of publishing a news bulletin 
or a magazine. The principal function of this publication 
is to present to teachers the policies, program, and view- 
point of the local and of the American Federation of 
Teachers, as democratically determined by the membership. 
A department for correspondents should be included in 
order that varying points of view may receive a hearing. 


Even more important for the purpose of maintaining 
democracy is the use made of committees. A well-organized 
local should have committees for every important function 
and for every important field of endeavor. Ideally, every 
member should be on at least one committee. By spreading 
the work, the local makes sure that as many as possible of 
its members have vital contact with what the local is doing. 
The members become familiar with the officers and they 
learn what their organization is trying to accomplish and 
what methods it is employing. To use the term current in 
pedagogical literature, the local sets up an “activity pro- 
gram” for the education of its membership. 


This “activity program” furnishes a key to that most 
vexing of problems: What is the role of the executive com- 
mittee? Because executive committeemen in the course of 
their work acquire many important facts and much “inside 
dope” they feel that they know more than the ordinary 
teacher. They fear that if decisions are made by persons 


with less background of information, mistakes will be made. 
True though that may be, the moment an executive com- 
mittee acts upon the assumption that it knows better what 
is good for a local than does the general membership, at that 
moment is taken the first and longest step towards paternal- 
ism, toward autocracy. 


When an executive committee declares to itself that it 
cannot trust the general membership to make wise decisions, 
then the executive committee is confessing failure. For, 
one of its most important tasks is so to exercise its powers 
that the general membership is and wants to be well- 
informed. One of the most important devices for main- 
taining equality of knowledge between general membership 
and executive committee is that of seeing that a large pro- 
portion of the members is actively working on the problems 
confronting the local. In short, herein lies the importance 
of the “activity program” mentioned before. 


What is the duty of the executive committee? Perhaps 
most important is its function as a policy-making body 
which acts for the local between membership meetings. 
Here, it is essential that all its actions be subject to review 
by the membership. In addition, the executives have two 
important jobs. The first is that of carrying out policies 
fixed by the membership. The second is that of caring for 
details and arranging programs so that the membership is 
made free to devote its time to deciding the important ques- 
tions before the local. 

The constitutions of most locals are simple and flexible. 
The amending process is usually easy to operate. Two 
dangers in an amending process are that if it is too easy, in 
a time of internal stress one faction may “pack” a meeting 
and push through constitutional changes which may ham- 
string the local; the second danger is that if the amending 
process is too difficult a small entrenched minority may 
thwart the will of a majority. To avoid these two possibili- 
ties, most locals require advance notice to all members 
before an amendment is acted upon and then allow a simple 
majority vote to pass the amendment. 


This article has described some of the methods used by 
our locals to further the functioning of democracy. That 
so large a number are truly striving to practice democracy 
is a good sign of the earnestness of our purpose. If we are 
vigilant to see that we preserve our internal democracy, 
then we will grow mightily in numbers and power. We 
will guarantee freedom and happiness for the schools and 
the teachers and the children of America. 





























NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 








The Ethics of Big Business 


By GEORGE E. AXTELLE 


ANY PEOPLE have felt there is little distinction be- 
tween the ethics of modern business enterprise and 
that of Al Capone, Dutch Schultz and their ilk. 

This position now has well-documented support in the evi- 
dence so reluctantly given before the La Follette committee. 
Nor need we feel that racketeer ethics in business is but a 
sporadic manifestation, a sort of fungus growth upon an 
otherwise healthy organism. On the contrary, we now have 
ample evidence that such manifestations, far from being 
sporadic, are rather the normal, even essential practice of 
modern business. 

Most Americans resent the ideas of class consciousness 
and class war which, they feel, are so utterly foreign to the 
essential spirit of the American tradition. But whether we 
designate the situation as class warfare or no, there can be 
no question about an unremitting, relentless, ever-present 
labor war, a merciless warfare upon the workers by their 
employers, a warfare as cruel, as brutal, as uncompromising 
as any Al ever waged. Moreover, employers wishing to treat 
with their workers on a humane basis are coerced by em- 
ployer organizations, which, through their membership, can 
bring irresistible economic as well as personal and social 
pressures to bear. However much the employers may resent 
the organization of their workers, they themselves are organ- 
ized to the limit. No employer of labor fails to belong to 
every organization that will be of service to him in coercing 
and intimidating his workers. These organizations in turn 
coerce their membership to maintain as solid a front against 
their enemy—by their own designation—labor, as labor 
ever.dreamed of. 

The above remarks are not made idly, nor are they a 
matter of theory. They are the mildest conclusions one can 
arrive at, if we are to believe the reluctant testimony of the 
representatives of business enterprise themselves. Leo 
Huberman, in his The Labor Spy Racket, has performed an 
invaluable service to American Democracy in making the 
evidence presented before the La Follette committee avail- 
able to the American people. In order that this vitally 
important material not be buried in archives on shelves and 
lost to us, he has combed it and produced a short and excit- 
ing book, devastating in its revelations, nauseating in the 
picture it presents of the accepted practices of the “pillars” 
of American civilization. 

Not only do we owe Mr. Huberman a great debt, we 
likewise are indebted to his publishers, Modern Age Books. 
They have published the book in very attractive paper 
covers for thirty-five cents. Many books are published 
which should be widely read, but the price makes them 


20 


High finance's new 
low—an eighty million 
dollar annual invest- 
ment in labor spies. 


prohibitive for the people who most need to read them. 
Here we have material which is available in a real sense to 
everyone. 

Mr. Huberman confines himself to the story of the labor 
spy. That is enough. In slightly less than two hundred 
pages he reveals a practice which in its various aspects is 
the very depth of moral degradation, inhumanity, brutality 
and deception. An economic system which must be founded 
upon such practices has reached moral bankruptcy. It has 
no further to go. Yet in their private conversations among 
themselves or when off guard, our industrial giants insist 
that there is no other way of handling labor. 

Democratic tradition abhors the practices of secret police 
and terrorism employed by totalitarian states. Yet for 
decades business enterprise in America has employed much 
the same tactics as an accepted, normal and essential phase 
of their labor policy. At a conservative estimate they spend 
$80,000,000 a year on spies alone. This does not count 
their expenditure for munitions, gas and armed thugs which 
itself runs into a staggering total. 

The varieties of techniques whereby this $80,000,000 
worth of service is delivered are legion. The following let- 
ters reveal the sort of service sold. 

Your letter of July 28 is received. With reference to your 
inquiry about my experience and what I am prepared to do in 
case of disturbance, etc. 

First, I will say that if we are employed before any union or 
organization is formed by the employees, there will be no strike 
and no disturbance. This does not say there will be no unions 
formed, but it does say that we will control the activities of the 
union and direct its policies, provided we are allowed a free hand 
by our clients. 

Second. If a union is already formed and no strike is on or 
expected to be declared within 30 or 60 days, although we are not 
in the same position as we would be in the above case, we could— 
and I believe with success—carry on an intrigue which would result 
in factions, disagreements, resignations of officers, and general de- 
crease in the membership. 


Again: 

You have doubtless learned from the reports that our No. 20 is 
likely to be elected Recording Secretary of the local in Wichita, and 
for fear that you may not understand this in the right light, we 
wish to advise you that all of our operatives are instructed to accept 
the office of Recording Secretary if possible; as the Recording Secre- 
tary has nothing to do with agitation, simply keeping the records 
which are valuable to us, and from which we obtain all our infor- 
mation. You will understand that if No. 20 is elected to this office 
he will be in a position to give the name and record of every man 
who belongs to the union, and as to whether or not he pays his dues, 
and attends the meetings regular, and all the inside information that 
we desire. 


But these racketeers are engaged in a business of their 
own. When serving the employer’s interest fails to serve 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 











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their own they do not hesitate to doublecross him to make 
themselves necessary to him. 

According to Senator Wheeler these operatives would 
induce the workers to commit various forms of sabotage to 
frighten the employers. Then they would expose the work- 
ers whom they themselves had instigated. Moreover, when 
they cannot stir up trouble they fake it, making their reports 
spicy, keeping the employer jittery. 

The Agency sends one of its spies into a plant through the back 
door to stir up trouble; then it sends one of its smooth salesmen 
through the front door to sell its services in putting down the very 
trouble that it itself brewed! And a duped frightened plant manage- 
ment usually falls for it. 

They make a practice of following union papers and 
union movements, rushing to any threatened employer with 
their service. So, too, the munitions manufacturers drum 
up trade. Let us quote again: 

I am doing a lot of missionary work in anticipation of a strike 


this spring, and I’m in a position to send in some good orders, 
if it will only mature. Wish a hell of a strike would get under way. 


Two months later this salesman, writing his boss about 
a meeting of union officials in which they voted a strike 
says: 

This looks like some business, and if this strike matures it would 
be a bad one. Hope you have something definite as to the new 
long range guns .. . | hope this strike develops and matures and 


that it will be a damn bad one. We need the money. Everyone wants 
to be on their toes watching this situation and work fast. 


In order to get on the inside of a developing labor move- 
ment the delicate art of Hooking is employed. This consists 
in trapping a worker through getting him to furnish certain 
innocent appearing information, then blackmailing him to 
perform regular spy duty. The agencies are very careful in 
selecting their candidates for this work. They investigate 
the prospect thoroughly in order to assure themselves of a 
high moral and intellectual calibre. They want no bunglers. 
Moreover they want men whose status and record with their 
fellows are above reproach. Again let us look at the record 
to see how this is done. 


Senator La Follette: Now tell the committee, Mr. Gray, just how 
you approach these men. For instance, suppose there is a labor 
dispute going on and the Railway Audit & Inspection Co. is assigned 
to the job by a client. Now just how would you go about it? 





NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


Suppose you found the type of man you thought was all right; 
just what kind of sales talk would you give him to get him to be 
your contact man? 


Mr. Gray: Well, perhaps I would approach him as an insurance 
inspector. 

Senator La Follette: You never revealed your connection, did 
you, at the outset? 

Mr. Gray: Oh, no. 


Senator La Follette: As connected with the Railway Audit & 
Inspection Co. ? 


Mr. Gray: No sir; no sir. 

They are very careful not to let the men know for whom 
they are working. They pose as representing an insurance 
company, a minority group of stockholders wishing to 
improve the conditions of the workers, or they may even 
pose as representing the government. Once the men are 
hooked they are then blackmailed to continue their work, 
fearing the reaction of their fellows if their activities are 
known. 

Now notice the role of an employer association, the 
National Metal Trades Association, which combines spying, 
strike breaking, union smashing and any other functions 
contributing to the continued exploitation of labor. On 
January 15, 1937, the N.M.T.A. had a membership of 


952 plants. 
r 

Senator Thomas: So you have an organization which has all 
the possibilities of collective action on the part of the employers? 


Mr. Sayre: Yes; I presume that is correct, in the preservation 
of the open shop. 

Senator Thomas: So you have certain machinery set up that 
you can bring unity of stand, unity of action, unity of opinion 
about certain definite things? 


Mr. Sayre: Yes; for the principle of the open shop that we 
stand for. 


Note what happened when the workers in the Morse 
Twist Drill and Machine Company of New Bedford, Mass., 
held an election under the auspices of the NLRB on 
April 25, 1934. Of 284 workers, 272 voted affiliating with 
the union. But this did not embarrass the N.M.T.A. An 
agreement can’t be signed with a union that doesn’t exist. 
Their job was simple. Their Mr. Lichtenberger went into 
the plant, joined the union, was soon able to demoralize the 
men by discrediting the organizers and by other disruptive 
activities in the union. The union was killed. 

This same employers’ association on other occasions 
framed the officials of a growing union by destroying their 
homes, sending anonymous letters, writing to the wives that 
their husbands were familiar with other women, writing 
letters to the men signed with the names of other women, 
knowing that the wives took care of the mail. 

The last resort and probably the most effective attack 
upon the labor movement is to organize citizens’ committees, 
Law and Order Leagues, and other vigilante organizations. 
The object is two-fold. First, to make it appear that the 
mass of law-abiding citizens are spontaneously aroused by 
unjustified and illegal activity of outside trouble-makers. In 


2! 














this way the employers hope to discredit the organization 
of the workers. The second object is to get their strike- 
breaking done free of charge by the local community. The 
role of the spies in all this is carefully concealed, yet they 
assume the responsibility of organizing the movement under 
the direction and pay of the employers. 

These are but a few samples of the evidence uncovered 
by the La Follette committee. Leo Huberman has collected 
some of the choice nuggets in this little book which held me 
as fascinated as a dime novel did in my boyhood. 





Union Teachers! You must get this book. Read it; pass 
it on to your neighbors. Or better still, order ten copies for 
the price you would pay for a full length novel and dis- 
tribute it among your friends and encourage them to do 
likewise. This material must be spread throughout the 
working and professional classes. It is obvious that the con- 
flict has only begun. From the evidence in this little book 
there is nothing at which the employers will stop to destroy 
those whom they designate as “the enemy”. Time is of the 
essence of this situtaion. Do not delay and do not forget. 


A BID FOR UNITY 


Jerome Davis Writes to William Green 


{To supply the background against which this exchange of letters 
may be better understood, the Editors reprint herewith several ex- 
cerpts from President Davis’ report upon actions taken by the 
A. F. of L. convention: 

The A. F. of L. Executive Council was given practically blanket 
power to do anything which they considered necessary to safeguard 
and promote the best interests of the Federation. By majority 
vote any convention was authorized to levy as high an assessment 
on the membership as it pleased. Since the Executive Council can 
now suspend any union at its pleasure this means that protesting 
unions can be suspended, which would guarantee the necessary 
majority vote. 

The Convention also voted that for non-payment of assessments 
any union can be suspended after three months by the Executive 
Council. It should be remembered that this affects the American 
Federation of Teachers for at our last convention the majority of 
the membership voted against such payment. . . . 


November 4, 1937. 
Mr. William Green, President 
American Federation of Labor 
American Federation of Labor Building 
Washington, D. C. 
Dear Mr. Green: 

I want to write urging you to give serious consideration 
to the proposals made by the committee of ten of the 
Committee for Industrial Organization. It seems to me 
that it is suicidal for labor not be re-united. 

It is obvious that any form of unity must involve keep- 
ing intact all the workers who have joined on an industrial 
basis thus far. 

If the proposals for unity could be consummated, the 
American labor movement would go forward to unprece- 
dented heights in the next few years. It would have a 
friendly administration in Washington and nothing could 
stop its advance. 

The rank and file of American labor will not be mis- 
led by appeals to technicalities if this unity is blocked. 


22 


The Convention ended in an optimistic note, for the CIO had 
offered to confer. While the original proposal to meet with a 
hundred representatives was refused by the Executive Council of 
the A. F. of L., the CIO responded by agreeing to meet on any 
terms. ... 


It is my judgment, however, that it will be impossible for an 
agreement to be reached unless the A. F. of L. committee is willing 
to recognize the industrial unions which have been built by the 
CIO throughout the country. If these unions are recognized, and 
affiliate with the A. F. of L., it will mean a new day for American 
Labor. Seven million organized workers can march forward to- 
gether with a dynamic power one hundred times stronger than is 
possible if they are split. 


It would almost be a miracle if this happens but anything is 
possible to those with sincerity, courage, and sacrificial devotion to 
the welfare of the millions enrolled in labor’s ranks.] 


You have an opportunity to do a strategic and generous 
act which will advance labor’s cause for decades to come 
or you have the opportunity to block this advance. 

I sincerely trust that through your influence labor may 
be once more united. 

Fraternally yours, 
JEROME Davis. 


November 10, 1937. 

Mr. Jerome Davis, President 
American Federation of Teachers 
506 South Wabash Avenue 
Chicago, Illinois 
Dear Sir and Brother: 

In making reply to your letter dated November 4th, may 
I ask you what you have in mind in the suggestions you 
offer? Do you feel that the American Federation of Labor 
should surrender to the Committee for Industrial Organi- 
zation, accept its proposal as you recommend which would 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


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mean the full and complete surrender of the American 
Federation of Labor? 

I feel I should frankly say to you that I always read 
with some feeling of reservation any recommendation which 
you make regarding the policies to be pursued by the 
American Federation of Labor. I have never known you 
to commend the American Federation for anything it has 
ever done, but instead I have found you to be a constant 
critic of the American Federation of Labor. For that rea- 
son, I must ask you to clarify your proposals made in 
your letter. What do you mean in the recommendations 
you make? What do you feel the American Federation of 
Labor should do? 

Fraternally yours, 
WILLIAM GREEN. 


November 17, 1937. 
Mr. William Green, President 
American Federation of Labor 
American Federation of Labor Building 
Washington, D. C. 
Dear Mr. Green: 

Thank you for your letter of November 10. I am not 
certain what you mean by “surrender” to the Committee 
for Industrial Organization. I do believe and I think the 
overwhelming majority of the working class of America feel 
that some agreement should be reached between the CIO 
and the A. F. of L. This agreement should permit the 
organization of industrial unions and the retention and ex- 
tension of industrial unions already chartered by the CIO. 

In your letter you say you have never known me to 
commend the American Federation of Labor for anything 
it has ever done. As a matter of fact this cannot be true 
because ever since I began to teach in 1920 I have sup- 
ported the American Federation of Labor, even at great per- 
sonal sacrifice to my own future. May I remind you that 
during my first year at Yale I helped the New Haven 
Trades Council to establish an educational forum? I as- 
sisted in educational classes for the workers and these 
workers represented unions belonging to the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. 

I say this not in any spirit of boastfulness but because I 
want you to know that I have sincerely tried to promote 
the interests of organized labor in the United States. I 
think my record for the last seventeen years speaks for 
itself. 

It is true that I did not believe the American Federation 
of Labor should have suspended the great national trade 
unions prior to the A. F. of L. Convention in Tampa. It is 
true I believe that this action was illegal and unconsti- 
tutional because in the A. F. of L. Constitution it says that 
labor unions can only be expelled by a two-thirds vote of 
the Convention. Now, if an Executive Council can sus- 
pend unions in advance it in effect nullifies the rule of 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


the Constitution. All those who would oppose their rulings 
can be suspended and so deprived of exercising their vote. 
I therefore believe the action was illegal. 

I am sure you will agree that I would have been a traitor 
to my conscience and the labor movement had I not voiced 
this on the floor of the Convention. 

It is true that at the Convention at Denver I opposed 
the resolution to debar President Howard of the Interna- 
tional Typographical Union from the floor. He was unan- 
imously elected to represent his union and I do not think 
the Convention acted wisely in debarring him. 

It is also true that I opposed the granting of unprece- 
dented powers to the Executive Council by constitutional 
amendment, powers which President Gompers and the found- 
ers of the American Federation of Labor never saw fit to 
give the Executive Council. 

You emphasized several times during the Convention that 
each delegate should speak honestly what he believed. I 
believe that my convictions are in line with eminent stu- 
dents of the American labor problem, such as John R. Com- 
mons, and that they have the support of millions of the 
American laboring classes. I feel certain that you want 
me to express these convictions. 

Under these circumstances it hardly seems fair for you to 
say that because I have conscientiously stood for justice 
to the working class at several points with which you disa- 
gree you have never known me to commend the American 
Federation of Labor for anything it has done. The fact 
is that for the past twenty years, in nearly every address 
which I have made on labor, I have commended the A. F. 
of L. and the work it has done. 

I am glad that the committees of the CIO and the A. F. 
of L. seem to be making progress. It does not seem to 
me that I am in a position to outline specifically and in 
detail the agreement which should be reached by these com- 
mittees. 

As president of the American Federation of Teachers I 
do want to say that all of our thousands of teachers through- 
out the country believe that it is imperative that some agree- 
ment should be reached which will make for the unity of 
the labor movement. We believe that there is an unpar- 
alleled opportunity confronting American labor if it moves 
forward united now. We see grave dangers ahead if labor is 
split. We believe that almost no sacrifice is too great for 
you to make to reach some agreement with the CIO and 
to promote the interests of all the working class of America. 

Regardless of who is at fault, if an agreement is not 
reached the rank and file of American labor are going ahead 
to demand unity. I feel confident that if you and mem- 
bers of the Executive Council desire peace and unity in 
the labor movement it can be reached. We are counting, 
both on you and the CIO leaders, to make whatever sacri- 
fices are necessary to achieve this unity. 

Fraternally yours, 
Jerome Davis. 


23 














CALLING COLLEGE TEACHERS 


Teachers held a very significant meeting at the last 

annual AFT convention at Madison. The significance 
of the meeting lay much more in the mood of the meeting 
than in any specific action taken. It had aggressiveness 
and determination, as well as a realization of the role of 
college teachers in the contemporary scene which assures 
an effective dynamic ‘participation of college men and 
women in the present critical situation. 

It was decided that we must bend every effort to secure 
the membership in the American Federation of Teachers 
of every college teacher in America who is informed and 
interested in orderly reconstruction of our society and the 
preservation of our profession against the Fascist attacks 
of reactionary forces. This must be done during the cur- 
rent year. It was further decided that the membership 
of the American Federation of Teachers should extend its 
leadership among intellectuals generally by the continual 
discussion of the role of intellectuals in our changing precari- 
ous world. This discussion could take place through many 
avenues. One medium for discussion of this issue is for 
members of the College Section to see that at each meet- 
ting of the learned societies there is some time given for 
the discussion of the problems of the American Federation 
of Teachers, the role of college teachers in a period of crisis, 
or the relation of college teachers to the labor movement 
generally. This could take place either through a special 
luncheon or through a given speaker on the program or dis- 
cussion section. 

A second avenue would be for members of our College 
Section to attempt to make an analysis of the relationship 
between their particular field and the labor movement gen- 
erally. This analysis should be prepared for publication in 
learned magazines in this field. 

Members of our Section should prepare book reviews on 
the materials that are especially significant for journals, 
such as those in the field of religion, law, medicine, etc. 
Every attempt should be made to see that the intellectual 
workers in America become informed with respect to the 
relationship between their own special field and the larger 
social issues. 

Further, they should become informed about the sig- 
nificance of our College Section in relation to the labor 
movement generally in order that they may see ways in 
which ‘they may make themselves uniquely effective in 
relation to the general social scene. Without doubt, active 
membership in the College Section of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers gives numerous opportunities for ex- 
erting influence in the contemporary scene. The benefit 


r [ COLLEGE SECTION of the American Federation of 


24 


and contributions are mutual. I am sure that the active 
participation in the labor movement will contribute as much 
and more to the members of the College Section as member- 
ship in the College Section can contribute to the labor 
movement itself. 

The College Section is to prepare a News Letter, which 
will go out to all the members of the Section informing 
them of the activities of the various locals throughout the 
country. In this way we can be informed as to the most 
effective method of organization and participation, and at 
the same time be kept alert with respect to the peculiar 
threats that may be directed against critical free intelli- 
gence. 

A page in THE AMERICAN TEACHER is to be devoted to 
the interests of the College Section. It was further decided 
that the College Section should prepare a rather compre- 
hensive bulletin which might be published as a handbook, 
and might be entitled ““The Relation of the College Teacher 
to the Labor Movement”’. It was hoped that such a pam- 
phlet or bulletin may be the cooperative work of the entire 
Section, using the office of the Vice-President for the Col- 
lege Section as a clearing house. It was suggested that 
each local as a whole consider this handbook, or appoint 
a committee to study its possibilities, contents, and contribu- 
tors, and report back to the local for further discussion. It 
is our wish to secure the fullest possible participation in 
the development of this material. 

Another function of our College Section is to develop an 
organizational program. In doing this we wish again the 
fullest possible participation of the membership. What 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 














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type of meeting is most successful? How can we most 
effectively transact the business of the local? How most 
effectively engage the fullest participation in practical ac- 
tion which will best further the interests of the local, the 
College Section, the AFT, and the labor movement gen- 
erally? What objections do you most frequently meet? 
How can they best be overcome? What arguments are 
most effective? How get entry to establish new locals? 
How can the College Section be of most aid to new locals, 
to all locals? What type of service can we best per- 
form? What errors avoid? What sort of material should 
go into our news letter? How best use THE AMERICAN 
TEACHER? What activities can locals or individuals en- 
gage in most effectively? 


These are but a few of the questions we wish your locals 
would give thought to, and communicate to the college 
section Vice President the results of your deliberations. 


If members of any local know of good leads for organi- 
zation purposes—schools or colleges not now organized— 
will these members get in touch with the Vice President 


of the College Section? Every letter will be appreciated. 


It is particularly important that we know who are inter- 


ested and sufficiently aggressive to be effective in our pro- 
gram with respect to organization and education. 


A further obligation was placed upon your Vice Presi- 
dent. He was instructed to organize a committee on re- 


search which may serve not only the American Federation 
of Teachers, but the labor movement generally. It is not 


expected that this committee will confine itself to research. 
It is thought rather that this committee will be responsi- 
ble for securing the most authoritative sources available in 
preparing materials on such items as tenure, salaries, aca- 
demic freedom, class size, conditions of labor, taxation, etc. 
—in short, any problems with regard to which the execu- 
tive council and any committees of the organization need 
authoritative material. When and as such calls come in, 
we will request names of people willing to serve on a com- 
mittee working on the specific problem. 

GrEorGE E. AXTELLE, 

Vice-President 

in Charge of Colleges. 


Tt 5 Happening Now 


Things Slowing Up; Steel Dull 

SEVERAL PHASES of the aftermath of the struggle of the 
CIO to organize “Little Steel’ and the strikes last summer 
are interesting. In Youngstown no jury would convict 
Robert Burke and John Steuben, organizer and strike 
leader on the charges trumped up against them by the 
steel company’s “legal department” in the town. {n Gads- 
den, Ala., where the anti-union terror of Republic Steel 
has been reigning “time out of mind”, indictments against 
six steel company thugs were handed down by a Grand 
Jury as a result of investigations of the National Labor 
Relations Board and the efforts of the labor unions them- 
selves to expose the terrorism. Finally, with lay-offs and 
slackening of work in Johnstown, “right to work” is no 
longer a sacred phrase. In fact, no one mentions it— 
strangely it has passed out of circulation. The steel workers 


are asking themselves, however, the meaning of the Right 
to Work! 


A Subject for the Novel 

Tue State DEPARTMENT of Education of Mexico has re- 
cently announced a prize competition for novels dealing with 
life among the rural school teachers of Mexico. The prize is 
$1500 (Mexican currency) and among the judges are the 
well-known Mexican writers Martin Luis Guzman, Rafael 
F. Munoz and Arqueles Vela. Though the hardships of our 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


rural teachers may not compare with the ordeals of our 
Mexican brothers and sisters—fanatics in our rural com- 
munities are not usually armed against teachers—our in- 
attention to the rural school teacher and his life contrasts 
sharply with the Mexican interest in the men and women 
who are vital in Mexico’s reborn educational system. 


Michigan Farmers Oppose Vigilantism 

WILL THE VIGILANTE GANGS, organized by anti-union 
employers, get the support of the farmers? Not in Michi- 
gan! The convention of the Michigan Farmers Union at 
Detroit in October branded the vigilante movement as 
lawless and designed to take from the people by violence 
“those rights guaranteed by the Constitution.” The resolu- 
tion also named Mayor Knaggs of Monroe, the man who 
organized everything in his town but the SPCA to break 
up picket lines last summer. 


St. Louis Prepares for Nazi Convention 

WITH CONSIDERABLE GUSTO, the Nazi Bund of America, 
Hitler’s pet German-American organization for the propa- 
gation of Nazism to America, set about organizing a 
national convention for St. Louis on November 21. But the 
convention is not proving very popular with progressive 
people in St. Louis. To organize a counter-demonstration, 
representatives of more than seventy-five groups from 


25 











churches, clubs and labor have formed the St. Louis Council 
for American Democracy. The Council maintains that the 
purpose of the Nazi convention is to “expose our community 
to the influence of the highly developed technique of 
propaganda which is so successfully used by totalitarian 
states.” The Council proposes to see that the swastika is 
not flown and that Hitler is not “Heiled” for the benefit of 
the people of St. Louis. 


California Ahead of Florida Here 

SIX MEMBERS OF THE KLAN, accused of the murder of 
Joseph Shoemaker in Tampa, Fla., in 1935, were acquitted 
in October. After a weak prosecution of the defendants by 
District Attorney Rex Farrior, conducted in an atmosphere 
of prejudice and anti-labor incitement, and a directed ver- 
dict for acquittal from the Judge, the men who were 
involved in the atrocious abduction and beating were freed 
to continue their vigilantism under the sponsorship of the 
Klan. About the same time a great victory for civil liber- 
ties was won in California when the Court of Appeals, after 
a three years’ fight by the International Labor Defense, 
set free eight victims of the criminal syndicalism laws in 
1934, arrested during a strike of agricultural and canning 
workers. Though justice was long delayed, no better proof 
of the victory labor won here can be given than a paragraph 
in an editorial from the San Francisco News: 

“The entire case is an outstanding example of how 
the Criminal Syndicalism Act can be used to imprison 
persons whose offense consists in holding unpopular 
political and economic views or in combining the 
expression of these views with strike activities hateful 
to an influential element in the community.” 


NYA Note 

A grave danger to the careers of many students at present 
in college lies in the fact that the NYA appropriation has 
been severely cut for this year. Thus far only $20,000,000 
has been allocated for NYA work although the initial appro- 
priation in the relief budget called for $75,000,000. The 
threat of the interruption of a college eduction already is 
hanging over many heads, and the American Youth Con- 
gress is now considering means of presenting the problem 
to Washington. In the New York area high school and 
college students have already drafted an appeal to the 
President. 


Censorship Around the World 

AFTER PRESIDENT VaRGAS of Brazil had clamped down 
a new state of martial law, following the usual myths about 
plots against the government and Marxist agitation, one of 
the first fruits of his drive on subversive influences was a 
ban on Mark Twain’s immortal “Adventures of Tom 
Sawyer.” The American picture “The Road Back” was 
also considered harmful to “spiritual public well-being.” 


26 





We wonder, then, if the banning of the Ernest Hemingway 
film about Loyalist Spain, “The Spanish Earth” by the 
British censor is also in the interests of public well-being 
of the spirit, or just another indication of the pro-Franco 
bias of the Tory Government. When we come to America, 
we find that the University of Pittsburgh put a censor over 
the student press after the printing of a column which 
pointed out, among other things, that Rubens and Titian 
were not appreciated by $3 a day miners. Whose well- 
being was affected here, however, the faculty censors leave 
us in no doubt. 


From Me to You 

AFTER SANTANDER, a Roman triumph for Franco at 
Rome. After Gijon—‘I send you my personal congratula- 
tions” Mussolini wires Franco. Franco wires in return— 
“TI accept your message with deep emotion.” And soon, we 
suppose, just for the sake of fair play, the Non-Intervention 
Committee will grant Mussolini—beg pardon, Franco—his 
“belligerent rights”! 
The Physiology of Academic Freedom 

DURING A REGIONAL CONFERENCE of the Association of 
American Colleges at Poughkeepsie in October, the vexing 
problems of tenure and academic freedom in colleges were 
discussed. It remained for Professor Sumner W. Slichter of 
Harvard to get down to the profound anatomical reason 
why college teachers, fired in academic freedom cases, most 
times stay fired. Stiff necks, says Professor Slichter— 
because the administrator just hates to back down once he 
has fired a man. But, according to the professor, if the 
ousted one “takes his case to the public in a big way”, the 
result is a farce. Or perhaps, to be more profound, the 
result, to the administrator, is an increasing pain in the 
neck. 


Slander-Monger 

At the head of an anti-Jewish propaganda agency, Edward 
W. Hunter spreads rumors and libels which have cropped 
up wherever prejudice will nourish them in America—such 
as “‘the Jews are the power behind the throne . . . the invisible 
government in Washington.” But Hunter also engages in 
industrial espionage. Solicits money for his campaigns 
among DAR and American Legion members. Receives 
anonymous contributions for his anti-Jewish propaganda of 
$9,000 yearly. 


Polish Teachers Against Fascism 

RECENTLY, the elementary school teachers of Poland 
lined up solidly with other trade unions and the peasants 
against the repressive measures of a government which is 
trying to convert a semi-Fascist State into a hundred- 
percenter. After the removal of its leadership, the Union 
of Polish Teachers protested against a government- 
appointed leadership by calling a one-day general strike. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 














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The Teach ets Un (on in fiction 


Welcome to New Locals 


No. 528 Macoupin County, Illinois, Teachers Union. 
No. 529 Klickitat County, Washington, Teachers Union. 
No. 530 Taylor Springs, Illinois, Teachers Union. 
No. 531 Aitkin, Minnesota, Federation of Teachers. 
No. 532 Gilbert, Minnesota, Association of Teachers. 
No. 533 Chisholm, Minnesota, Federation of Teachers. 
No. 534 Federation of Federal Teachers, 
WPA District No. 10, Pennsylvania. 
No. 535 Federation of Federal Teachers, 
WPA District No. 8, Pennsylvania. 
No. 536 Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Colored Teachers’ 
Institute. 
No. 537 New York City College Teachers Union. 
No. 538 Columbus Classroom Teachers Association 
Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio. 





NATIONAL 


Appointment of Professor Counts 

Professor George S. Counts of Teachers College, Co- 
lumbia University, has been appointed chairman of the 
AFT National Educational Policies Committee. 


NEWS 





AFT Protests Chicago Plan 

The AFT has protested the plan of the Superintendent 
of Schools in Chicago to give about 80 per cent of the high 
school students of that city a purely trade school educa- 
tion. It was pointed out that such a program would lead 
to higher education only for the privileged few and that 
modern education should be concerned not only with learn- 
ing a trade but with successful living in both working 
and leisure hours. 


Speed the Assessment 

The National Office reports greatly increased demands 
from locals for organizational purposes and a greatly awak- 
ened interest in organizational work. The special assess- 
ment of one dollar per member for organizing purposes is 
coming in slowly. The National Office urges special atten- 
tion to this task to meet the increased demands for printed 
literature, mimeographed material, and organizers. 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


a 


Executive Council to Meet 
The National Executive Council will meet in Chicago 
on December 29-30, 1937. 





NEWS LOCALS 


from 





Cincinnati Local Victorious in School Levy Campaign 

The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Local 479, en- 
tered the recent city election campaign with a vigorous ap- 
peal to the citizens to vote for the school tax levy and the 
bond issue for a school building program. In a stirring 
news sheet, entitled “You and Your Children” and issued 
by the local with the assistance of the Newspaper Guild, 
the Cincinnati Federation called to the attention of the 
public the degenerating effects of prolonged enforced vaca- 
tions. The tendency of prolonged vacations to produce 
delinquency among children in homes where economic con- 
ditions make proper care and proper leisure-time facilities 
impossible, together with the desirability of passing the 
school tax levy and the school bond issue, was attested 
to by two presidents of Parent-Teachers Associations, by a 
Referee of the Girls Division of Juvenile Court, and by the 
Regional Director of the A. F. of L. and the president of 
the Cincinnati CIO Industrial Council. Seventeen of Cin- 
cinnati’s school buildings are between 50 and 80 years old 
and several were built before the Civil War. In some 
schools the classrooms are heated by stoves. One school 
has outside toilets. A photograph in the news sheet shows 
a class being held in an ill-lighted basement under the 
shadow of a large hot water tank. 56,000 of these news 
sheets were distributed by the local. A teachers union 
speaker addressed every labor union meeting held in Cin- 
cinnati during the month of October. The result was a 
victory. The elections granted the schools a two year oper- 
ating levy of 2.39 mills. 


WPA Section Plans Work for Year 

The following set of principles has been issued by the 
WPA section to guide WPA work for the coming years: 
1. A national organization committee shall be formed (is 
now being formed) with a representative from each area 
to be chosen by the WPA locals in that area. 2. The 
fight against dismissals and for continuation and expan- 
sion of WPA shall be the central theme of the campaign. 


27 








3. The national organizing committee together with the 
WPA vice-president shall work out a complete legislative 
program, and use the facilities of the Workers Alliance 
as well as those of the AFT for matters in Washington. 
4. There shall be an exchange of publications between 
WPA locals throughout the country. 5. The WPA locals 
shall closely cooperate with the Workers Alliance and local 
WPA organizations. 


Teachers in Akron Live on $75 a Month 

One hundred and fifty teachers in Akron, Ohio, receive 
an annual income from their teaching which amounts to 
only seventy-five dollars a month. A recent survey con- 
ducted by the Akron Federation of Teachers, Local 287, 
shows that in the case of these teachers—according to 
their own statements—financial worries detract from their 
efficiency. They are not able to buy suitable clothes, can- 
not pay their debts and are becoming a prey for loan sharks. 
The Akron local, for the relief of such conditions as these, 
has waged a forceful campaign for the adoption of a school 
tax levy in the recent municipal campaigns. 


Election Victory in Boston 

The election of Joseph Lee to the Boston School Com- 
mittee in the recent municipal elections is considered a 
signal victory for the Boston Federation of Teachers, Local 
441. The son of the late philanthropist of the same name, 
Joseph Lee has built a large following through his single- 
minded devotion to the cause of securing recent play-ground 
and recreational facilities for the children of Boston. He 
has had the support of labor in a number of enterprises. 
His candidacy for the school committee received the en- 
dorsement of Labor’s Non-Partisan League, the Boston Fed- 
eration of Teachers, and other labor, progressive, and lib- 
eral groups, together with the personal endorsement of a 
number of labor leaders. In addition, he was endorsed 
by three of Boston’s leading newspapers, which could 
hardly have failed to endorse his candidacy without giv- 
ing up all pretense of supporting decency and honesty in 
city government. 


Philadelphia Local Protests New Contracts 

Having waged last year under the leadership of the Phila- 
delphia Teachers Union, Local 192, a successful fight for a 
state tenure law, the teachers of Philadelphia are now asked 
to sign a contract which, according to legal opinion, per- 
verts the intention of the tenure law. 1. The School Board 
has classified all new appointees as substitutes, thus depriv- 
ing them of tenure rights under the law. 2. Contracts have 
been drawn on the basis of twelve months of service—i.e., a 
teacher could be impressed, under the contract, for sum- 
mer teaching without additional salary. 3. The salary 
schedule written into the contract is not that of the Phila- 
delphia schedule. The School Board, according to The 
Philadelphia Teacher, official organ of Local 192, is at- 


28 














tempting, by including these measures in the contract, “to 
discredit the tenure law and to induce teachers, fright- 
ened by these strange developments, to ask for their former 
status as subjects of a benevolent despot.” At a meeting 
of 1,000 teachers, sponsored by the Teachers Union, Dr, 
Clarence E. Ackley, Chief of the Division of School Law 
of the State Department of Public Instruction; Senator 
Leo C. Mundy, sponsor of the tenure law in the state senate, 
and Lieutenant Governor Thomas Kennedy, vice-president 
of the United Mine Workers of America, gave the teachers 
assurance of their rights under the tenure act. At this meet- 
ing a resolution was passed without dissenting voice call- 
ing on teachers not to sign contracts until a satisfactory 
contract is offered. To date, less than 100 contracts out 
of a possible 9,000 have been signed. 


Correction from Buffalo 

We are informed by the Buffalo Teachers Union, Local 
377, of an important error in this department in the Sep- 
tember-October issue of THe AMERICAN TEACHER. The 
Buffalo Teachers Federation, largely responsible for the 
successful Buffalo Public School Exposition, is not Local 
377, and is not affiliated to the AFT. It is a general federa- 
tion of teachers associations. Local 39, the Industrial 
Teachers Association, is affiliated with this federation. Local 
377 had no official connection with the exposition, and does 
not wish to take credit which it does not deserve. 


North Shore Local Active in Chicago 
Educational Conference 

Members of Local 460, North Shore (Winnetka, etc.), 
Ill., attending the three day conference of the Progressive 
Education Conference in Chicago, October 29-31, seized 
the opportunity to organize a teachers union luncheon. 
Despite the short notice and the absence of a general an- 
nouncement, the dining room engaged proved too small. 
More than half the people present were non-members. 
Dr. John G. Rockwell, Minnesota State Commissioner of 
Education, addressed the group. In the question period he 
stressed the need of union organization for professionals. 
It has been reported from other sources that members of 
AFT locals all over the country were active in holding AFT 
meetings at the Workshop in Secondary School Curriculum 
of the Progressive Education Association in Bronxville, 
N. Y., last summer. 


Camden Students Strike for Transferred Teachers 

As a result of the transfer and demotion of five of their 
teachers—four of them union members active in the cam- 
paign for restoration of salaries in New Jersey—students of 
the Cooper B. Hatch High School went out on strike on 
September 29. On the thirtieth, less than 100 out of 900 
students were in school, and the striking students promised 
to “sit in Farnham Park until our teachers are reinstated”. 
Commissioner Mary W. Kobus, president of the Board of 
Education, was able to persuade 150 students to enter the 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








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school auditorium to talk things over with her. Walter 
Skiba, mayor of the student government, speaking for the 
strikers, said: “We want to know why our teachers were 
demoted and transferred and why we can’t have them 
back.” Miss Kobus’ efforts were unavailing. However, 
on Saturday, October 2, the students in order to prevent 
the threatened arrest of their parents for violation of the 
law requiring compulsory school attendance of children un- 
der sixteen, promised Mr. C. Paul Nay, chief attendance 
officer of the Board of Education, and Police Judge Mitchell 
Cohen, that they would return on Monday. They were 
assured the right of selecting a committee which would 
present their case to the School Board. The five trans- 
ferred teachers have appealed to the State Commissioner 
of Education. The City Solicitor of Camden has announced 
his opinion that such teacher demotions are illegal. The 
union expects that within a short time these teachers will 
be restored to their former positions. 


Election Victory in Cleveland 

The election of John E. O’Connell in the Cleveland, O., 
school board elections, together with the election of Dr. 
George J. Greene as his running mate, assured Cleveland 
labor of five of the seven places on the school board. Two 
labor candidates—Frank T. Jamieson and Norman W. 
Schaeffer, were defeated. The Cleveland Federation of La- 
bor (A. F. of L.) and the Cleveland Industrial Council (CIO) 
joined in a public statement urging the support of the labor 
candidates. Although the daily press in Cleveland has been 
urging labor unity, it was necessary to apply outside pres- 
sure to force the leading paper to make a brief acknowl- 
edgment revealing that a certain measure of unity had been 
attained. 


Salaries Saved in Trenton 

The struggle of the New Jersey educational employees 
for full salary restoration has culminated in the order of 
the State Commissioner of Education for full salary pay- 
ment in Trenton. This order was issued to the Trenton 
Board of Education following the appeal of Mr. Frederick 
H. Kriser, janitor in a Trenton primary school, and Mr. 
Herbert Cole, teacher in a Trenton junior high school, 
member of Local 437, and president of the New Jersey 
Federation of Teachers. The state tenure law forbids 
reduction of teachers salaries. Mr. Cole and Mr. Kriser 
refused to sign waivers and made the appeal as a test case. 
If higher courts uphold the decision of the State Commis- 
sioner—and it is considered by legal experts an “iron-clad” 
case—refusal to sign waivers will oblige New Jersey school 
boards to pay full salaries. The Cole-Kriser case has 
been watched by teachers throughout the state. It is, how- 
ever, merely the dramatic climax of a vigorous campaign 
waged by AFT locals throughout New Jersey. Non-union 
teachers, notably in Clifton and Montclair, have cooper- 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


ated. In Atlantic City, Jersey City, Hawthorne, and 
Passaic, where there are no AFT locals, waivers have been 
signed and salary reductions are in effect. The teachers 
union in Paterson has issued blanks for teachers to send 
to the Secretary of the Paterson Board of Education, stat- 
ing that the salary check has been accepted “on account 
or in part payment for services rendered.” New Jersey 
teachers unions also played an important part in prevent- 
ing the passage of a state law making salary cuts permissive. 
New Jersey labor organizations have supported the teach- 
ers in their struggle. A valuable document recently pub- 
lished by the New Jersey State Federation of Teachers 
contains an exchange of telegrams between the legislative 
agent of the State Federation of Teachers, Miss Lois B. 
St. John, and Governor Harold G. Hoffman, relative to the 
teachers’ protest of illegal use of state troops in a strike last 
spring at the Thermoid Rubber Company plant in Hamilton 
township. As a result of the Federation’s exposure of the 
clear illegality of Governor Hoffman’s role as strikebreaker, 
the reactionary press of Trenton had to change its tune, and 
to find Governor Hoffman’s use of troops “another act of 
questionable judgment”’. 


Amalgamation Completed in Chicago 

A charter has now been issued to teachers of Chicago 
as Local 1 of the American Federation of Teachers. This 
number originally designated the Chicago Teachers Federa- 
tion and has not been carried by any local in twenty years. 
The present Local 1 is the result of the amalgamation of 
Chicago Men Teachers, Local 2; Chicago Women High 
School Teachers, Local 3; Elementary Teachers, Local 199, 
and Playground Teachers. The amalgamation, now com- 
plete, has been in process for some time. During last spring, 
the machinery of amalgamation was set up in the form of 
a joint Executive Committee for the existing locals. Or- 
ganizational growth of about 100 per cent accompanied 
the movement for amalgamation. The Chicago Local—the 
new Local 1—has over 6,000 teachers, representing about 
half the teaching staff of Chicago’s public schools. 


Jewett Case Goes Before Committee 
in California Legislature 

Local 349, Bay Cities, California, has carried the case 
of Victor Jewett, former Eureka teacher, discharged for 
union activities in connection with the 1935 lumber strike, 
to the California Assembly Interim Committee on Labor 
and Capital. The letter of the local to the legislative com- 
mittee summarizes the case and requests an opportunity to 
present the facts in fuller detail. As a teacher of social 
studies, Jewett was rated as outstanding over a period of 
six years. No attempt was made to dismiss him until he 
publicly supported efforts of the lumber workers union to 
obtain improved wages and conditions. Jewett was then 
illegally dismissed and later trumped up charges were filed 


29 








and prosecuted by the district attorney. “Circumstances 
surrounding the dismissal of Mr. Jewett,” says the Defense 
Committee’s letter to the Legislative Committee, “. . . throw 
grave doubt upon the administration of the law, and, in 
the minds of those familiar with the facts, tend to bring 
the courts into disrepute as agencies of justice.” Locals 
are advised to adopt resolutions urging the California State 
Board of Education to drop the case against Victor Jewett, 
and give him active aid in his efforts to reestablish himself 
in his chosen work. 


Reinstatement in Milwaukee 
Milwaukee Public School Teachers Union, Local 252, has 
won a brief campaign for the reinstatement of a union 





member, Earl Raisen. Mr. Raisen was not reassigned in 
September because he was forty-five years of age. The 
contention of the local to the effect that merit and skill in 
teaching should be the basis for appointment, and not 
age, received the recognition of the Milwaukee Board of 
School Directors, when on November 2nd the Board voted 
to suspend the rules in favor of Mr. Raisen. Mr. Raisen 
resumed teaching duties on November 3. . . .Wives of teach- 
ers in Local 252 met on November 12 and organized a 
union auxiliary. It is reported that the organization wil] 
admit to membership the wife of any teacher in any of the 
five Milwaukee County Locals. The purposes of the aux- 
iliary include social activities, organized buying power, and 
assistance to unions in membership drives. 


Labor Notes 


The International Labor Organization 

a. IDEA of the International Labor Organization had its 

inception as long ago as 1914 in a resolution adopted 
by the American Federation of Labor at its annual con- 
vention. In 1919, at the conclusion of the World War, 
the ILO was established with headquarters in Geneva, Swit- 
zerland. The United States, however, did not become a 
member until 1934. The constitution of the organization 
states its purpose as the achievement of world peace through 
social justice, notably through improvements in the 
economic status of labor. There is a General Conference 
which meets once a year, a Governing Body or executive 
council, which meets four times a year, and a permanent 
office in Geneva known as the International Labor Office. 
Members of these bodies consist of employer, labor, and 
government representatives from the member nations. 
Membership in the League of Nations automatically en- 
tails membership in the ILO, which, nevertheless, is inde- 
pendent of the League. Four nations, including the U. S., 
which are not League members have joined. In all, sixty- 
two nations are members. The ILO investigates, discusses, 
and makes public labor problems of an international im- 
portance, and adopts treaties or conventions dealing with 
labor reforms, which members must submit to their re- 
spective legislative bodies for ratification. The Office 
is composed of more than four hundred executives, research 
workers, and experts from about forty different countries, in- 
cluding several from the United States. The work of this 
staff consists chiefly in collecting, analyzing, and prepar- 
ing for publication the available data on labor and indus- 
trial subjects from all countries, in making and keeping 
contact with the member nations, and in. carrying on the 
secretarial and clerical work connected with the Confer- 


ence. The organization is supported by contributions from 
the member nations, the amounts being determined on 
the basis of relative economic importance. . . . Agreement 
thus far has been reached upon a number of standards 
such as minimum wage provisions, child labor, work- 
men’s compensation, etc. When a Convention has been 
approved by a two-thirds majority of the represented mem- 
bers, it becomes the duty of all members to submit the 
Convention to their treaty-making bodies. If not rati- 
fied immediately, the treaty remains permanently open 
to full ratification. A Convention becomes effective when 
it has received the number of ratifications stated in the 
treaty as necessary to render it operative. Ratification 
carries with it the obligation to enforce the treaty through 
legislation or otherwise. It then becomes a labor treaty 
among the ratifying nations. Countries accepting such 
conventions are, of course, free to establish higher stand- 
ards within their own boundaries. Government ratifi- 
cations have up to the present time been slow. . . . There 
are several weaknesses inherent in the set-up of the ILO 
and the way in which it works. One weakness lies in 
the method of proportioning delegates. In the General 
Conference and on the Governing Body, the various na- 
tions are represented by an equal number of employer and 
labor delegates, and by government delegates equal in 
number to the other two groups combined. Superficially, 
this appears to be an equitable arrangement; but, actu- 
ally, the instances have ‘been too numerous in which 
government delegates have joined employer delegates in 
opposing specific reforms, thus outnumbering the labor 
delegates three to one. Largely as a result of this ar- 
rangement, the activity of the Conference tends to become 
dissipated in research, resolutions, and recommendations 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








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for further investigation to the Governing Body. A second 
weakness lies in the method of adopting draft Conventions. 
This is the method of “double discussion.” The full Con- 
ference first debates the general subject of a convention, 
and then lists a series of points on which governments 
are to be consulted. The following year, the Confer- 
ence again goes over the same field, and, taking into con- 
sideration the observations of the various governments, 
votes upon the final draft. Sometimes, in case of dis- 
agreement, the draft is referred back to a committee for 
revision and then brought up once more for a vote. A 
two-thirds majority is required for adoption. Once sur- 
mounting the difficulties of adoption, the convention then 
starts upon the slower and even more uncertain route of 
ratification. Moreover, ratification, while carrying an 
obligation, does not carry a guarantee of enforcement. 
Certainly, the ILO could never be charged with rashness. 
On the whole, the realization of concrete international re- 
forms in this fashion is at worst meager and at best 
snailpaced. Nevertheless, the movement even in its pres- 
ent form embodies certain advantages. There is some- 
thing to be gained, perhaps, in the way of increased in- 
ternational understanding merely from the discussion of 
common problems and conditions. Such discussion can 
be fertile in engendering in delegates, particularly the 
labor delegates, an inquiring critical attitude toward the 
interaction of political and economic factors in other 
countries. The ILO is a step in the right direction. It is 
to be hoped that an improvement in set-up and pro- 
cedure will carry the organization further toward definite 
achievements. 


Minute Men, 1937 

In the spring of 1937, a man was standing on a box, 
exhorting a gathering of mill workers to join the American 
Federation of Hosiery Workers. The meeting took place out- 
side the Apex Hosiery Mill in Philadelphia, which had 
long been embattled in a struggle for union recognition. 
At that particular time, however, no strike was in progress. 
Suddenly, a man in the crowd fired at the organizer, who 
fell severely burned and almost blinded by tear gas. Five 
or six months later, as a result of this incident, a new vigi- 
lante organization, calling itself the Minute Men and 
Women of Today, blinked in the broad spotlight of news- 
paper publicity. The organization, started specifically for 
the purpose of stopping the CIO, was engineered by a char- 
latan named Blanchard, who is wanted in several states for 
a long list of swindles and crimes. Revealed as honorary 
president and “vice-president general” were the names of 
two prominent local men, one of them a member of a well- 
known law firm. Revealed, also, were letters in Blanchard’s 
possession from former President Hoover and other promi- 
nent Republicans. An impressive list of sponsors and 
contributors included the Duponts, ubiquitous fairy god- 
fathers of many a vigilante outfit. Examination of Blanch- 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


ard’s person, car, and headquarters yielded a varied assort- 
ment of tear-gas guns and rifles. Members of the organiza- 
tion who did the actual dirty work were supplied with 
tear-gas guns, badges, and one-dollar membership cards. 
When questioned about their connection with the group, 
the prominent wealthy gentlemen, whose names had ap- 
peared either as officers or sponsors, disclaimed any knowl- 
edge of the anti-labor basis of the organization, and declared 
that they had believed its purpose to be purely that of 
“upholding the Constitution”. Philadelphia’s one liberal 
newspaper gently chided these men for “buying a gold 
brick”, magnanimously refusing to believe that they gave 
their support “with their eyes open, actuated by an anti- 
CIO motive.” We are asked to believe that these hard- 
headed business men contributed thousands of dollars to 
a mushroom organization with the vague purpose of 
“upholding the Constitution” because they liked the ring- 
leader’s “sound” views on the Constitution! Trade union- 
ists and American lovers of democracy are not so naive 
and stupid, nor can they afford for one moment the indul- 
gent attitude of Philadelphia’s “liberal” paper. Vigilante 
organizations exist throughout the country, and their exist- 
ence is a constant menace to the labor movement. Unmis- 
takably fascistic in character, these organizations operate 
behind a pseudo-patriotic mask, recruiting into their ranks 
the ignorant and the uncritical who are misled as the 
Messrs. Dupont are not. Their ranks are further swelled 
by the lawless and by thugs and gunmen who make their 
living in that way. Their method of operation recognizes 
neither law nor humanity. Their fascistic nature is further 
demonstrated in that, under the hue and cry of a Com- 
munist witch hunt, they strike deadly blows at the labor 
movement precisely as Hitler did in Germany and Mussolini 
in Italy. The specific anti-CIO basis of the Minute Men 
is a case in point. Another dangerous symptom meriting 
serious thought is the connection that has been established 
in a number of instances between government officials and 
vigilante strike-breaking movements. For example, in a 
Pennsylvania town named Elkland, in which the annual 
tax revenue of $40,000 has never been adequate for street- 
paving or sewer-installation, the town burgess used $7,000 
of public funds to import Burns operatives to break a recent 
strike of leather workers. In Johnstown, during the steel 
strike, Mayor Daniel Shields accepted $10,000 from Bethle- 
hem Steel through the banker-head of the vigilante band 
known as the Johnstown Citizens Committee. He then 
proceeded to use the police as out-and-out strikebreakers. 
Whether anything definite will come of the three distinct 
investigations of the Minute Men, undertaken over a month 
ago, is highly problematical. That incipient fascism in the 
form of vigilantism must be checked is indisputable. Labor 
must assume a more active responsibility toward the solu- 
tion of this immediate and vital problem. Since that is the 
case, how very vital is labor unity to a successful fight 
against the vigilantes! 








Among the New Books 


Integrating Modern Teaching 


THE CHALLENGE OF EDUCATION by the STANForRD UNIvER- 
sity Epucation Facutty. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 
1937, New York. 471 pages. $3.00. 


This is a book worthy of attention from teachers on every level, 
for the contact is richer than one would expect from the sub-title 
“An Introduction to Education.” 

Present problems in education are examined realistically in the 
light of recent findings in sociology, psychology and biology. Cur- 
rent trends in the schools are summarized and responsibility for 
future development is laid at the door of a nation which boasts 
it is a democracy. 

P. E. Davidson states concisely the viewpoint of the educational 
sociologist, who regards school as only one part of the total eco- 
nomic-cultural setting which shapes individuals and groups. He 
notes wide variations of socio-economic status in the United States 
and cites eight levels from poverty to luxury, as designated by a 
competent economist. Obviously the education of children from 
all these levels does not attain “equality of opportunity”. Thus the 
study of education in a democracy leads to “the growing convic- 
tion that political power in the last analysis is an economic matter, 
and that classes and groups are prone to use such power as they 
have in their own behalf rather than in the general interest.” 

The social psychologist, Reginald Bell, carries further the argu- 
ment that persons are creatures of their environment and the work 
of the schools a social task. He raises the question as to “how far 
any particular school or any particular teacher should go in being 
a force for bringing about social and economic readjustments in 
the interest of healthful child life.” 

The educational hygienist, Walter H. Brown, brings evidence to 
show the paradoxical ‘situation which exists in the United States 
today. “We live in an age in which the medical sciences have 
reached an unusual state of development”, yet “only a small per- 
centage of individuals receive adequate medical, dental and nursing 
care”, and “we have failed to provide sufficient preventive services 
through properly equipped and adequately staffed health depart- 
ments.” Teachers know well the truth of these statements as they 
face classes of children below normal physically. Although modern 
teachers are concerned with the “whole” child, they cannot be ex- 
pected to work wonders for the physical and mental health of 
pupils in the schools, but this responsibility should rest squarely 
upon the whole community and the whole nation. 

Several chapters deserve special comment. Almack has dealt with 
history of education from the scientific viewpoint and brought out 
social meanings. “Trends in Education” are summarized by Hand 
with strong emphasis upon the active role of teachers in a democracy. 
In another chapter written with Hanna, he discusses teaching as a 
group enterprise and gives illustrations of curriculum building by 
the staff of a school system to help pupils understand social change 
and to prepare them for intelligent participation in government. 

As usual, the writers on major subject fields tend to become 
abserbed in their special areas and to neglect the foundations of 
education set forth earlier. Yet notable connections with the basic 
social viewpoint of the book are made in chapters on music, home 
arts, industrial arts, social studies, English, foreign languages, and 
commercial subjects. 

The superintendent’s job is treated idealistically, with no refer- 
ence to politics. The principal’s role is discussed cynically at first, 
and then a practical analysis is made to show his functions as a 
leader and his responsibility for the development of the teaching 
group. 

In the final chapter on “Education as a Life Career”, facts re- 
garding salaries, contracts, tenure and unemployment are set forth 
along with the usual points on ethics, status, qualifications, and 


32 


rising standards. Freedom of teaching is discussed at length, with 
stress laid on Newton’s statement: ‘Each teacher must choose 
whether he will stand with the forces of repression or the forces 
of enlightenment. If he elects to be neutral, he has taken his 
stand with the forces of repression.” Unfortunately professional 
organizations are not discussed as factors in the development of 
teachers and forces in shaping education. 
BERYL PARKER. 


Into the Mouths of Babes 


40,000,000 GUINEA PIG CHILDREN by Racuet Lynn PALMER 
and IsaporE M. ALPHER, M.D. 249 pages. The Vanguard Press. 


“Write for a free product map of the United States,” says a 
packing house in advertisements directed especially to teachers and 
pupils. “Write for a free literary map,” advertises a candy manu- 
facturer. Write for a free world atlas; send for tree cards; for a 
bird chart. . . . And the school rooms become unwitting factors in 
prepared food and patent medicine promotion. 

The food and drug advertisers have discovered the “child sales- 
men” and are spending millions of dollars each year in expanding 
their markets through the medium of comic strips and radio pro- 
grams especially designed for the 36,000,000 juveniles. Through this 
maze of advertising appeals gropes the mother whose moderate 
budget must provide a well-balanced diet for her growing children, 
and who has no means of recognizing the insufficient, inferior and 
ofttimes dangerous product. 

Rachel Lynn Palmer, an authority on consumer problems and 
the author of “Facts and Frauds in Woman's Hygiene”, and Dr. 
Isadore M. Alpher, who is associated with the Resettlement Adminis- 
tration, have prepared a valuable guidebook for the mother, sur- 
rounded as she is by high pressure promotion. The book “debunks” 
those relatively expensive prepared foods whose dietary value, it 
would seem, is in inverse proportion to cost. It punctures the 
fraudulent claims and advertising lures put forth not only by food 
manufacturers but also by the manufacturers of patent medicines, 
laxatives and drug preparations. And what is more, it “names 
names”’. 

“40,000,000 Guinea Pig Children” furnishes constructive advice 
about diet. It tells facts about vitamins and the roles of cereal, 
milk, bread and other foodstuffs in the diet of young people. The 
few chapter headings that follow will indicate the scope of the 
work: Child Welfare and Business, Foods Children Need, The 
Sweets They Eat, What to Do about Colds. 


The authors point to the inadequacy of the present Food and 
Drug Act as partly responsible for mulcting the consumer of mil- 
lions of dollars annually, and for exposing countless children to 
great health hazards because of the popularization of actually 
dangerous products. Wider knowledge and a greater imperviousness 
to the blandishments of super-advertising, as well as concerted 
consumer action, are a means of protection. Mrs. Palmer and Dr. 
Alpher also offer brief hints on the handling of food and health 
problems of children which will result in the correction of capricious- 
ness—or what passes for such—and also in the greatest food value 
received for the budget allowance. 

The book, though brief, is broad in scope. One wishes there were 
an index appended. There is much information crowded into its 
249 pages and numerous food and drug products are mentioned by 
name. Its effectiveness as a reference book in the home would be 
greatly increased if one did not have to thumb through the pages 
to find the information on burns, or Rem, or Vitamin Concentrate 
of Cod Liver Oil. Perhaps its second printing will be thus im- 
proved. It should have a wide circulation. 

LILLIAN FINE. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








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When Men Become Heroes 
THE MAKING OF A HERO, by Nicuotas Ostrovski. Translated 
from the Russian by AtEx Brown. New York: E. P. Dutton 
and Co. 440 pages. $2.50. 

One feels sure that the publishers of The Making of a Hero gave 
the book its title after its author’s death. For Ostrovski was a 
modest man, and all his attention in this thinly disguised autobio- 
graphical novel was given to the events of which he was a part. 
To his mind the heroism was certainly in the rebelling people, and 
he was quite unconscious of anything especially heroic in his par- 
ticipation. He accepted the revolution as a beneficent historical 
event in which he found himself involved; involvement in which 
afforded him education, the fullest exploitation of his talents, the 
satisfying combination of personal development and altruistic ac- 
tion. A childhood in a small town railroad center, where he was one of 
the outcast poor; then the coming of the Soviets as a spontaneous 
movement among the railroad workers; and thereafter a rapid suc- 
cession of events that took him to Moscow, to the Polish border, 
to the Black Sea. Paralysis halted this active life and was taken 
as an opportunity to translate its values into literature. 

As in much Soviet fiction, these episodes are kaleidoscopic. The 
events are as fragmentary and disorderly as social life in a country 
undergoing revolution and rapid shifts of population. What dis- 
tinguishes the work is the vivid human quality of these separate 
scenes. Whatever the limitations of the book as a novel, it is an 
unforgettable portrait of the new manhood in the Soviet Union. 

EpwiIn Berry Burcum. 


Fascists Against Singing Spain 
THE SPANISH WHITE BOOK. The Italian Invasion of Spain. 

Official documents and papers seized from Italian units in action 

in Guadalajara. Spanish Embassy. Washington, 1937. 319 

pages. 

The 101 photostatic reproductions of documents found in the 
possession of Italian officers and soldiers captured in the battle 
of Brihuega, in March, 1937, which are contained in this book and 
translated into English, furnish the most shocking proof of Italian 
intervention in Spain. It is only lately that England and her Non- 
Intervention Committee have openly recognized Italy’s part in the 
Spanish civil war. For a long time the Spanish authorities strove 
in vain to be heard before the Non-Intervention Committee and 
the League of Nations on this point. The fine group of men heading 
the Spanish Government and ably represented by Alvarez del Vayo 
finally succeeded, over the protests of Italy and Germany, in having 
these proofs admitted. Of course, it would be ridiculous to think 
that England and her allies were ignorant of the facts that Spain 
was trying to make public, yet Lord Plymouth at one stroke ab- 
solved all European countries of guilt in interfering on the penin- 
sula. It is impossible to read these documents without becoming 
convinced of the flagrant violation by the Italians of all precedents 
of international law. 

Aside from a short note by Fernando de los Rios, Spanish 
Ambassador at Washington, to the people of the United States 
and a note from the Spanish Government, signed by Alvarez del 
Vayo, to the British Empire, the League of Nations and Russia, 
there are no comments, for the documents speak for themselves 
and prove beyond a doubt that Italy stands accused officidlly of 
fighting on the side of the rebels against the duly constituted 
democratic government of Spain. 

No attempt has been made to add to this book any other interest 
than that furnished by the bare facts, which should be sufficient to 
convince the most skeptical reader of the crying injustice that has 
been perpetrated and continues to be perpetrated against a people who 
are fighting and dying, not only to retain the form of government 
that expresses them, but, with a full sense of their responsibility, to 
defend the principle of democracy throughout the world. 


. .. AND SPAIN SINGS. Fifty Loyalist Ballads, edited by M. J. 
BENARDETE and Rotre Humpuries. New York: The Vanguard 
Press. $1.00. (All royalties from the sale of this volume will be 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


—— a —— 


paid to the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy.) 

This little volume of poems, written in the white heat of Spain’s 
heroic struggle to hold her own against the enemy from without and 
the traitor from within, is gripping in its intensity. Originally in 
Spanish ballad form, for which, unfortunately, there is no English 
equivalent, these poems have nevertheless been adapted with fine 
skill and a true sense of their spirit by a distinguished group of 
American poets. As ballads, they are being sung in the trenches, 
the poets expressing themselves through the people, the people through 
the poets. 

To read them is to become momentarily part of the very conflict 
itself, to feel the pathos, the irony, the contempt for death, the pride, 
the fierce defiance of a spirited race. One sees the wheat fields, left 
burning by the marauders, and the olive groves whose fire, unquench- 
able, shall spread through all Spain; hears the poignant cry in 
“Against the Cold in the Sierras”: “O September wind and rain, 
Be compassionate for Spain’’; one feels anguish in its utmost depths 
at the loss of a friend expressed in the exquisite rendering by Edna 
St. Vincent Millay of “The Arrival’, written by Emilio Prado and 
dedicated to Federico Garcia Lorca, one of Spain’s foremost poets, 
who was executed by the Fascists in Granada. 

Throughout, one is profoundly stirred by the amazing courage 
of the people. Despair is not in these poems. Songs of a newly- 
awakened consciousness, they fling a rousing challenge to a sick and 
almost disheartened world. 

PEDRO VILLA FERNANDEZ. 


Society in the Classroom 
CURRICULUM MAKING IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES, by Leon 

C. MARSHALL and Racuet MarsHatt Goetz. Part XIII, Report 

of the Commission on the Social Studies. American Historical 

Association, Scribner’s, New York, 1936. $1.75. 

This is a book for people who welcome a scientific approach to 
social education and an active program for intelligent control of the 
forces now shaping society. The authors have summarized findings 
from basic sciences in order to sketch the process of human adjust- 
ment to changes in environment. They stress the social nature and 
role of man, in order to point out the kinds of social action that 
should be encouraged in school life and work. 

Here is a broad outline for teachers who are trying to make the 
classroom a place where knowledge is used and experiences in group 
living are guided to break down prejudice, to build standards of social 
justice, and to train children and youths in techniques of group action. 

“Building America”, published monthly through May by the 
Society for Curriculum Study, is unique in the field of periodicals. 
Each issue is a monograph on some subject of social significance 
and of general interest. There have been seventeen numbers published 
to date covering such subjects as housing, communications, recreation, 
the constitution, safety, the movies. The information is reliable, 
concise, absolutely up-to-the-minute and amazingly comprehensive, 
considering the scope and importance of the subjects covered. The 
articles are interesting and stimulating and each issue contains an 
excellent bibliography on the subject. This bibliography, one of the 
most valuable features of the publication, gives references to books, 
magazines, pamphlets, government documents, etc. It is briefly 
annotated and gives complete information as to publisher, price and 
means of obtaining material to which it refers. 

All issues are available singly in the original pamphlet form; the 
first nine may now be had in a cloth bound book, “Building America” 
Vol. I. 

ELIzABETH MERRITT, 
Librarian—Walden School. 


Book Notes and Recommendations 

In other issues in this department the reader will find reviews of 
books issued under the imprint of Modern Age Books, Inc., of 155 
East 44th St., N. Y. C. This marks not merely the emergence of 
a new publisher, but of a new idea of such importance to American 
teachers that it deserves further emphasis here. Good books generally 
cost $2.00 to $5.00; most MA books are sold for 25 and 35 cents. 
Few people’ have formed the habit of going to bookstores, whereas 
millions buy newsstand periodicals regularly. MA books are sold 


33 










on stationery counters and newsstands where they will soon be 
available to every one. 


The real value of this new venture, however, lies in the excellence 
of the books published. The list includes new books in many fields 
as well as reprints of titles of established value, the whole showing 
an understanding on the part of the editors of what the American 
public, with its growing consciousness of its own economic and 
cultural needs, really wants to read when it can afford the price. 
Jn addition to the books reviewed here, others of special interest 
include an excellent juvenile list; volumes of short stories by Walter 
Duranty and William Saroyan; “The United States: A Graphic 
History”, and many more coming. 


Further increasing the cultural value of the newsstand is the quar- 
terly “Photo-History”, an exciting, attractive and informative maga- 
zine of pictures. It differs from other picture magazines by devoting 
each issue to 1 single phase of our changing world, a phase so important 
that no one can afford to be ignorant of its nature and implications. 
The first two numbers, “War in Spain” and “Labor’s Challenge”’, are 
admirable achievements in pedagogy as well as in intelligent and 
honest editing; “War Is Here” is the current issue. 

Boris GAMZUE 


Correspondence 





Letters dealing with issues of interest to union teachers 
will be printed in these columns. Inclusion of a letter does 
not necessarily mean that the Editors endorse its sentiments. 











Psychologists Study Social Issues 


To the Editors: 

The tradition that psychology is a sterile science concerned only 
with such problems as the length of time it takes a white rat to get 
from one point to another, or the qualitative variations in negative 
after-images, has long annoyed the more socially minded members 
of the psychological profession. Many of us have felt for years that 
psychology is really useful in the analysis of social problems. There 
had been, however, no organization through which the efforts of such 
individuals could be coordinated and made more fruitful. 


After considerable preliminary planning and work, we were finally 
able at the Dartmouth meeting of the American Psychological Asso- 
ciation to organize a group specifically devoted to the psychological 
study of such problems. Yielding to demands for description rather 
than a meaningless title, we called it the Society for the Psychological 
Study of Social Issues. 


The purposes of the Society are defined by the By-Laws as follows: 
“to work effectively for both the immediate and ultimate freedom 
of psychology to do its utmost to make contemporary American 
society intelligible to its members; and to test hypotheses regarding 
social change. This society shall be a body for the promotion and 
protection, by any means decided upon by its membership, of psy- 
chological research on controversial topics, especially those related to 
the central fields of economics and politics; and the encouragement 
of the application of the findings of psychology to the problems of 
society.” 

The activities of the Society have not yet become extensive. The 
main project under consideration at present is the establishment of a 
series of yearbooks on controversial problems in the field of social 
psychology. The Council of Directors has already decided to begin 
this series in 1938. The subject will be chosen from among such 
topics as: the psychology of industrial conflict; problems of war 
and peace; race prejudice and race relations, etc. 


It has also decided that the Council shall act as a committee on 
public information when matters of psychological nature are before 
the public for consideration. This means not only that erroneous state- 
ments on psychology are to be refuted, but also that a certain amount 


34 






















































of positive educational work is to be carried on. It is hoped, for 
example, that the fallacious “instinct theory” of war can be com- 
pletely discredited by planned action of this type. A recent activity 
of the Council was in connection with the action of the Ohio Welfare 
Department in hiring a graphologist as advisor to the state parole 
board. We issued a statement calling attention to the danger of 
such untried techniques in matters of probation and parole. This 
statement received wide publicity in Ohio and may have some ulti- 
mate value in preventing the continuance or recurrence of such 
actions. 


Since society as a whole is composed of human beings, the science 
of psychology should be useful in the study of social problems. We 
hope that the S. P. S. S. I. will be an important agent in promoting 
a significant and effective social psychology. 

Ross STAGNER 
Akron University. 


Associated Film Audiences 
To the Editors: 


There was a time when educaters disdained recognition of the 
motion picture, or attempted to counteract its effects by ignoring it. 
Then, there followed the period of recognizing the movies as an 
agency concomitant with the school in conditioning our culture. 
Today, most alert adults, if not educators, are only too well aware 
that it would be well with the schools if they possessed a fraction 
of the influence that Hollywood wields over the young. Conse- 
quently, it becomes the function of teachers, particularly the pro- 
gressive variety who recognize the importance of extra-school agen- 
cies, to estimate the effects of this powerful force for moulding public 
opinion. It even becomes our duty, where we can, to bend our ener- 
gies in any direction which might serve to make this vital tool serve 
the progressive interests of democratic America. 


Associated Film Audiences represents the interests of church, social 
racial, labor, educational and youth groups. Its purpose is to give 
Hollywood every encouragement to produce films that give a true 
and socially useful portrayal of the contemporary scene; to encourage 
production of films that will better the understanding between 
racial and religious groups and to encourage the production of anti- 
war films. Conversely, it is opposed to any film portraying militarist, 
anti-labor or reactionary attitudes in a favorable light. 


The A. F. A. at present consists of representatives from a host of 
labor, peace, church, social, youth, and racial groups. Honorary 
Chairman Dr. Worth M. Tippy, of the Federal Council of Churches 
of Christ of America and Dr. William H. Kilpatrick are members 
of the Executive Board. Other affiliated organizations, in addition to 
those mentioned, are National Urban League, I. L. G. W. U., United 
Textile Workers, American Jewish Congress, American Youth Con- 
gress, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Inci- 
dentally, the A. F. A. has been received with interest and acclaim in 
the movie colony, as well as in the press, both of which feel it is a 
force to be reckoned with. 


The operation of the group is quite simple. Three members of a 
Review Board, composed of representatives from affiliated organiza- 
tions, preview pictures. A bi-monthly news bulletin is distributed to 
member groups and individuals. The reports contain comments on 
pictures, shorts, newsreels, etc. Recommendations about films are 
made, either for support or opposition. 


Member groups may then act in any way they deem advisable. 
They may, for example, seek further light, pass resolutions, or relay the 
information by publications for individual member action, or organ- 
ize picketing campaigns, or use the press or a mail barrage, or indulge 
in any other action. 

ABRAHAM TAUBER 
New York City. 





5c Day School Singer 15c 
City and State Superintendents Endorse It 
Charlie Tillman Song Book Co., Atlanta, Ga. 














THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








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Social Change in Europe 
To the Editors: 

A selected group, especially interested in the processes and results 
of social change, will visit next summer the four countries of Europe 
where the most extraordinary cultural transformations of recent years 
have been attempted: Italy, Turkey, Soviet Russia and Germany. 
In each country visits and interviews are being arranged to bring out 
some aspects of the civilization which have undergone drastic change, 
and others which have stubbornly resisted change. Attempts will be 
made to discover how individual lives have been affected—for better 
or for worse—by what has happened in the social order. 

There is opportunity for a limited number of teachers who may 
be interested in joining this study expedition. It is neither a commer- 
cial enterprise nor a credit course. Dates: July 1 to September 1. 
Total cost about $800. Further information may be obtained from 
Goodwin Watson, 525 West 120 Street, New York City. 

Goopwin WATSON. 


A Request for Information 
To the Editors: 

In studying the A. F. of L-CIO question, I have felt the need of 
reading some of the official literature of the CIO. Can you supply 
me with a list of such of their publications as would be pertinent to 
the AFT problem? I would also appreciate knowing their prices and 
the address to which orders should be sent. 

HERBERT HArkis, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 


The publications listed below are issued by the Committee for 
Industrial Organization, 1106 Connecticut Avenue N. W., Washing- 
ton, D. C. Orders should be sent directly to them. 


GENERAL LEAFLETS 

*The CIO and the White Collar Worker. (Sc.) A discussion of the 
need of government employees and other white collar workers for 
a vertical union. 

*The ClO—What It Is and How It Came to Be. (5c.) A brief his- 
tory of the Committee for Industrial Organization. 

*Labor and the Nation. By John L. Lewis. (10 for 20c.) A reprint 
of a speech delivered over the Columbia Network, September 3, 
1937. 

The Case for Industrial Organization. (10c.) A study of the situa- 
tion in the crafts and the industries with regard to labor organiza- 
tions. 

Industrial Unionism—The Vital Problem of Organized Labor. (10c.) 
A reprint of the minority resolution (favoring industrial unioniza- 
tion) as submitted to the 1935 A. F. of L. Convention, and the 
speeches of Charles P. Howard and John L. Lewis at the same 
convention. 


News SERVICE 
Union News. A weekly news sheet. To individuals, $1 per year. 


PROBLEMS IN SPECIFIC INDUSTRIES 
How the Rubber Workers Won. (5c.) 
Industrial Democracy in Steel. By John L. Lewis. (5c.) 


*Issued during 1937. 


Attention, Playwrights 
To the Editors: 
Please publish the following item in The American Teacher: 
The Teachers’ Union of New York, Local 5, is offering a prize 
of $50 for the best one-act or full length original play submitted 
by January 1, 1938. The play must deal either with Trade Union- 
ism, Teacher-Parent Problems, the Fight for Free Schools, or any 
other theme of great social interest. The judges are: 
Prof. Edwin Berry Burgum, Chairman, College Division 
of Local 5 
Harold A. Clarke, Vice-President, Local 5 Author of 
Chalk Dust 
Maurice F. Riedman, Chairman, Arts Committee, Teach- 
ers’ Union, Local 5 


NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1937 


All plays will be considered with the view of production by the 
Players Group of the Teachers Union, Local 5. and by other locals 
of the American Federation of Teachers. 

Send all plays to Maurice F. Riedman, The Teachers Union, 114 
E. 16th St., New York City. 

Jures W. ApoL_PHe 


Secretary, Art Committee 


THE CONTRIBUTORS 


GEORGE E. AXTELLE is professor of education at Northwestern Uni- 
versity. He is AFT vice-president for the colleges and represents the 
Executive Council on the Editorial Board of THe AMERICAN 
TEACHER. 


PEDRO VILLA FERNANDEZ is professor of Spanish at New York Uni- 
versity. He is a Catholic Spaniard and a staunch supporter of the 
Loyalist cause. 


LILLIAN FINE is a teacher in the New York City public school 
system. She is in charge of the make-up for THe AMERICAN 
TEACHER. 


JOAQUIN PRIETO is a teacher in the secondary schools of Mexico 
and is a member of the Commission of Foreign Relations of the 
Mexican Federation of Educational Workers. 


ARNOLD SHUKOTOFF is a member of the English department of 
the College of the City of New York. He is chairman of the 
National Academic Freedom Committee of the AFT. 


WILLIAM W. WATTENBERG is publicity director at the national 
office of the AFT and a member of the Editorial Board of Tue 
AMERICAN TEACHER. 





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35 








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