oan?) PARY NOV 4 19397 “The AMERICAN TEACHER SHALL WE AFFILIATE WITH THE ClO? Opening a Forum for Union Members FORGING A NATIONAL POLICY by Richard B. Crosscup THE REPUBLIC BRINGS EDUCATION TO SPAIN by Fernando de los Rios SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN by Irvin R. Kuenzli TEACHERS UNION TRAINS FOR DEMOCRATIC SCHOOLS by Beryl Parker EXTENDING DEMOCRACY TO SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION by Frank E. Baker NORTHWEST TEACHERS ON THE MARCH by S. C. Menefee MIDWEST TEACHERS ORGANIZE by Mary J. Herrick OFFICIAL ORGAN of the AMERICAN FEDERATION of TEACHERS WHAT EVERY WELL INFORMED TEACHER SHOULD KNOW The How and Why of the A. F. T. The following publications answer in convenient form questions concerning the aims and organization of the American Federation of Teachers. They are well suited for distribution to prospective members. Samples wil! be sent on request. 1. Information about the A. F. T. Contains facts and figures 25c per hundred 2. Six Major Purposes How the A. F.T. can aid the nation’s educational program 3. TheA. F. T. Program of Action Adopted at the 1931 Convention 25c per hundred 4. Can Teachers Unions Be Called Out on Strike? Questions and answers on this important topic 25c per hundred 25c¢ per hundred 5. Objections Answered Will clinch that argument 6. Why I Am A Member of the Teachers Union Prominent educators state their views 3c per hundred 25¢ per hundred 7. Six Reasons for Joining the A. F. T. (Jerome Davis) (These are also printed in “Questions and Answers’’) 25¢ per hundred 8. Questions and Answers A convenient and inclusive resumé 35c per hundred 9. The Historical Setting of the A. F. T. (Ruth Gillette Hardy) A pertinent perspective 10. Why I Am Glad to Be A Member of the A. F. T. A message from Professor Goodwin Watson of Columbia University 35c per hundred 11. The Constitution of the A. F. T. (Correct as of February 1, 1936) Will settle that knotty question [0c per hundred 12. A Program of Objectives of the A. F. T. What we stand for, clearly set forth 50c per hundred 13. A Critical Evaluation of the A. F. T. (Aileen W. Robinson) A documented survey of the A. F. T. 50c per copy 35c per hundred ORDER BY NUMBER FROM AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 506 SOUTH WABASH AVENUE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS The New AFT Pin Smaller, simpler, brighter, the new button of the American Federation of Teachers is now ready for distri- bution. It is an emblem with which you will be proud to show your membership in the AFT and your convictions that the teacher has a place in organized labor and in world affairs. THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 506 South Wabash Avenue Chicago, Illinois NOTE: Pins will not be sent to locals on assignment. In order to avoid detailed bookkeeping cash must accom- pany orders. Any profits accruing from the sale of pins will be added to the defense fund. How Does the Remotest EARTHQUAKE Write Its Story with This Little Needle? HIS diagram of the seismograph, fully de- scribed in the New Merriam-Webster, “ff plains how earthquakes are recorded. Hun- dreds of other illustrations and articles de- scribe many kinds of scientific measuring instruments. You will find complete information on thousands of subjects in the New Merriam. Webster. 600,000 entries— 122,000 more than in any other dictionary. Edited by 207 outstanding authorities. The Supreme Authority-- A New Creation WEBSTER’S NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY - second Edition 8,350 pages @ 12,000 terms illustrat ed @ Over 13,000 biographical en- tries @ Thousands of encyelegees articles @ 35,000 geographical en- tries @ Synonyms and antonyms. Write for free, illustrated ~~~ contai specimen pages, color plates, and information. G. & C. MERRIAM CO. Springfield Massachusetts Fet Cot tion cast SEPT iL ion rat- en- sdic en- rite a etts AMERICAN TEACHER "VOLUME XXII IN THIS ISSUE: An Assessment for Organization—An Editorial............... 6 ~ Forging a National Policy—Ricuarp B. Crosscup. Highlights of Convention Speeches—D. A. WILKERSON, i Davis, A. Suuxororr, M. F. Grossman, S. Atwoop............ 10 Shall We Affiliate with the CIO? Resolution on CIO Referendum.......................05. 12 For the Affirmative—Cetm Lewis....................... 13 For the Negative—Wma. T. McCoy....................... 14 The Republic Brings Education to Spain—Fernanvo pe Los Rios. 15 Suffer Little Children—Irvin R. Kvenzir.................. sca, a Northwest Teachers on the March—Setpen C. MENEFEE........ 20 Teachers Union Trains for Democratic Schools—Beryt Parker.. 22 Midwest Teachers Organize—Mary J. Herrick inset tace ae Extending Democracy to School Administration—Frank E. BAKER 25 DEPARTMENTS: Editorial Paragraphs .. ee te eet er eae 3 CE 6 cas ccesvessesesc ner ee a Pic nckied ne eae s sw Kew cee 6 eee ee ee eee 14 I a ee 19 I 1) dca ig ea ohio ana slae Be we RE RR 27 rte aos es ae as Vee uel ce She eared 29 ee OP MO, os. ck ccc escdecesesesahswaeni 30 a i cies ha 6.9.0 oip em A acon oh alee ee 33 You Have Another page of this issue carries the resolu- the Floor tion dealing with the question of CIO affilia- tion, as adopted at the AFT convention in Madison this summer. It merits careful perusal. In pass- ing this resolution the convention voted down a minority - resolution which took no stand on the CIO itself and referred the matter of affiliation to instructed delegates of the 1938 convention. The majority resolution takes a strong stand in favor of industrial unionism and the achievements of the CIO and makes it possible for the entire membership to decide the important question of affiliation by a referendum vote to be conducted at some date after February 1, 1938, within the discretion of the Executive Council. Shall we join the CIO? No more important ques- tion faces organized teachers this year. To help each teacher cast his vote intelligently and effectively, the Executive SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 SEPTEMBER- OCTOBER, 1937 _ NUMBER vi Council is making a study of the situation, and a copy of its report will be placed in the hands of each AFT member. At the convention, the debate on the question was im- mensely valuable to the delegates, and it is a matter of regret that we could not all hear and learn at Madison. A remedy, however, is at hand. Beginning with the next issue of this magazine, and continuing until after the refer- endum, a special forum will be established in which various viewpoints on this vital question will receive an opportunity for expression. Every member of the Teachers Union who has sentiments for or against CIO affiliation should accept the responsibility of setting down his thoughts and sending them into the forum. How would such an affiliation affect teacher and pupil interests, both locally and generally? How would it affect relations with other labor groups in the community? How would it affect the organization of the unorganized? How have organizations similar to ours acted on the same problem; what were their reasons, and how have they fared? These are among the questions we all want discussed, and our pages are open for the answers. The floor is yours. Victories in Academic The Davis partial victory is sym- bolical of a new trend in academic freedom—the trend toward the pre- vention of victimizations. During the past year attacks on teachers have not been lacking. Violations of academic freedom have been practiced in states as widely separated as California, Wisconsin, Michigan, Montana, Massachu- setts and New York. Tenure has been under attack or teachers have been dismissed in violation of tenure regula- tions in Minnesota, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, and in other sections of the country. But increasingly during the past year the efforts of school boards to victimize teachers for their opinions and activities have been effectively de- feated. In Highland Park, Mich., six teachers dismissed because of their opposition to a superintendent in a salary campaign were restored to their posts after a union cam- paign which resulted in the defeat of an antagonistic school board. Success was also registered in the fight to retain the jobs of Dr. Colin Welles and Ira D. Pilliard of the Milwaukee Vocational School. In Flint, Mich., five union teachers were dropped after the union had expressed sym- pathy with the General Motors strikers, and after it had together with the Flint Federation of Labor and the United Automobile Workers of America supported pro-labor candi- Freedom and Tenure dates in the school board election. Backed by both these labor groups, the union forced a public hearing and secured the reinstatement of two of the five ousted teachers. In St. Louis, union teachers, aided by organized labor, com- pelled the Board of Education to rescind a statute outlawing union membership. At Brooklyn College in New York, the position of a tutor in the History Department, who had no tenure, was saved through a vigorous campaign under union leadership. There were many successful campaigns also waged to protect teachers through the passage of tenure laws. Tenure rights were won during the year by teachers in Louisiau.a, upstate New York, Pennsylvania, and other localities. All these successes invite two conclusions: to pro- tect teachers against victimization for opinions and activi- ties, we need strong, active teacher unions and vigorous, public campaigns backed by organized labor. In the partial victory won in the Davis case, a signal point has been scored. Professor Davis has not been rein- stated; but the Yale Corporation has voted to continue his salary for another year or unless he accepts a new post. By this action, the Yale Corporation has itself completely exposed its hand. It has openly labeled as a subterfuge its contention that the Davis dismissal was prompted by budgetary considerations. And it has at the same time given force to the contention of the AFT and other teacher or- ganizations that Professor Davis is being dismissed for his pro-labor views and activities. That the Yale Corporation has been forced into this public admission is proof, for those who doubted it, that the Yale Corporation may yet be compelled to swallow a more bitter pill and reappoint Professor Davis unconditionally. Whether this will be achieved is a question immediately facing every teacher organization. The American Association of University Professors, the National Education Association, the Pro- gressive Education Association, as well as the AFT, have issued reports against Yale. That the unanimity of these reports played an important role in winning the partial vic- tory is not to be doubted. It is also evident, however, that these reports were given force through activities conducted by the AFT alone. Without an articulate public opinion, the partial victory could not have been won. And it was the AFT that helped develop such opinion through a con- tinuous stream of publicity, and that brought the pressure of an adverse teacher and public opinion to bear on the Yale Corporation through the agency of telegrams, resolu- tions of protest, mass meetings, demonstrations, and through the now famous picketing in cap and gown of a meeting of the Yale Corporation. The partial victory is now a matter of record. The time is now ripe for the four national teacher organizations that have condemned Yale in words to express their condemnation in some form of joint action. The Yale Corporation can reply to such action in only one way: by reinstating Professor Davis. Partial Victory in the Davis Case “No greater obligation faces the govern- ment than to justify the faith of its young people in the fundamental rightness of our democratic institutions and to preserve their strength, loy- alty and idealism against the time when they must assume the responsibilities of citizenship. The splendid record of the National Youth Administration in helping some 600,000 young men and women from the despair of idleness seems to me excellent testimony that our means of meeting that obligation are sound.” President Roosevelt wrote these words to Aubrey Williams, Director of the N.Y.A., in June 1936. The American Youth Congress is now reminding the president of that statement in protesting the recent cut of $25,000,000 from the Congressional appropriation for youth aid. An economy-minded Congress saw fit to appropriate An Obligation to Youth 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 President Secretary-Treasurer Jerome Davis Irvin R. KveEnzi1 Vice-Presidents Mary J. Herrick Attire B. Mann Mercepes L. NELSON Stanton E. Situ Jor, SEIDMAN Georce E. AXTELLE Joun D. Connors Hvucu DeLacy Micuaet J. Eck ARTHUR ELDER Mary Forey GrossMAN Harry C. STEINMETZ Cuartes J. HENDLEY Paut W. PREISLER Doxey A. WILKERSON Board of Editors I. R. KLiNGsBEerG Cevia Lewis EstHER PETERSON Wa. W. WATTENBERG Georce E. AxTELLE Representative of the Executive Council Ricuarp B. Crosscue DorotHY DouGLas GeorcGe FincH A. S. Hancock Sara T. WALSH Contributing Editors Roperi Morss Lovert Ora McLAuUGHLIN SELDEN MENEFEE Beryt Parker Hotianp D. Roserts Co_ston E. Warne JouN WoopruFF Georce E. AxTELLE Micprep BERLEMAN STERLING A. Brown Epwin Berry Burcum ArTHUR ELDER Boris GAMZUE Ipa GLANTZ KLINGSBERG Business Offices 506 S. Wabash Avenue Chicago, IIl. Secretary, Board of Editors Cevia Lewis 8 West 16 Street, N. Y. C. —_—@——___ SUBSCRIPTION: $1.00 for the year —Foreign $1.10—Single copies, 25¢ Published bi-monthly except July- of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for August. Subscribers are requested to mailing at special rate of postage ive prompt notice of changes of a¢ provided for im Section 1103, Act ress. Remittances should be made in of February 28, 1925, authorized postal or express money orders. draft. November 3, 1926. stamps. or check ENTERED as second class matter October 18, 1933, at the post office at Chicago, Lllinois, under the act THE AMERICAN TEACHER —— ET — = in Cin diin a. Min «. i Mi le mt Mn); in a | ¢: ihe ao ME o> “rm- ung our loy- ime | of ems hat une the t of uth iate HER $75,000,000 for the N.Y.A. and then the Government relief authorities slashed the sum to $50,000,000. To those of us who have fought for the expansion of the youth program in which the government had made such a good start, this Administrational reaction is difficult to reconcile. According to Mr. Aubrey Williams this reduced figure will necessitate cutting off 65,000 needy college students, 120,000 high school students, and 60,009 jobless young people who are out of school, from the benefits of Federal youth aid. These young people will be forced to pound the pavements fruit- lessly seeking jobs in a still overcrowded labor market. If the National Youth Administration is to be an agency really equipped to meet youth’s legitimate educational and em- ployment needs in a land of equal opportunity, much more than the Congressional appropriation of $75,000,000 is needed. Four million young people between sixteen and twenty-five are still out of work and out of school. Why should 245,000 more young Americans be deprived of the opportunities to study and to work after Congress has made provision for them? “No greater obligation faces the gov- ernment.” The Fantasy of | During the recent epidemic of infantile Badia Education paralysis in Chicago, school lessons were broadcast by radio to the thousands of students temporarily deprived of classrooms and their regu- lar teachers. Though the experiment is interesting to us only as an educational expedient in an emergency, to some people in Chicago it did not demonstrate the patent inade- quacy of education by radio. Far from it. One enemy of teachers’ unions articulated his idea thus: “Now let the teachers get funny. We know we can do without them.” We may suppose then that children of impoverished parents, without radios, can also do without education. (In Chicago one-third of all high school pupils did not even learn of the opening of schools when announced by newspaper and radio.) And children can huddle around a radio all day waiting for their grade to appear on the air. Can a voice in a microphone replace for the child the experience of learning in company with other members of the child’s social group? Why not sell the dispensation of education to the great health-minded manufacturers of breakfast foods and give them the monopoly on the child’s mind? That would be the final logic of those who think that radio can dispossess the school from its position in American life. The American Teacher The new school year finds the teachers of the country facing their problems in a world which is moving rapidly through events that may change the future of the teacher in many ways. In our own country, for the moment removed from the chief points of world ten- sion, the heritage of social and educational problems from the depression remains. Our response to these problems will be an important part of our functions as teachers in the immediate future. The needs of the child for expanded educational opportunities, the outlook for the country’s Begins a New Year SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 youth, in school and out, the development of progressive forces in the labor movement and community life—all these are of vital concern to the teachers, and to them THE AMERICAN TEACHER will give its attention. We shall pub- lish a series of articles on education in France, Mexico, and Spain. And we cannot ignore the dark side of the world picture: the plight of education in the fascist countries. We shall present material on the improvement of the con- tent of education, on the expansion of the school system, on the furtherance of democracy in education and academic freedom; these topics go hand in hand with our reports on the day to day battle for the economic betterment of the teachers and the work of the union. As in the past, the Editorial Board will rely upon our teachers for in- formation about local problems and teaching conditions. Criticisms and suggestion from all teachers will be invalu- able to the members of the Board in preparing future issues. We earnestly solicit the contributions of our membership. In starting our work for the year, we are happy to have two new members on the Editorial Board, Dr. William Wattenberg, publicity director of the AFT, and Dr. George Axtelle, the representative of the Executive Council on our Board. THE CONTRIBUTORS FRANK E. BAKER is President of the State Teachers College at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a member of Local 79. He is a contrib- uting editor of Social Frontier. EDWIN BERRY BURGUM is Associate Professor of Literature at New York University. He is chairman of the college division of Local 5. RICHARD B. CROSSCUP is the organizer of Local 441, Boston, and represents his local at the Boston Central Labor Union. He is a member of the Board of Editors of Tue AmMeErIcAN TEACHER. FERNANDO DE LOS RIOS is the Ambassador from Spain to the United States. He has served in the past as Minister of Education, Minister of Justice, and President of the University of Madrid. BORIS GAMZUE teaches in the literature department of New York University. He is a contributing editor of THe American TEACHER and runs its book review department. WILLIAM GELLERMAN is Associate Professor of Education at Northwestern University. He is chairman of the Committee on Academic Freedom of Local 460. MARY J. HERRICK is Vice-President of the AFT for the Illinois area. She is a member of Local 3, Chicago. IRVIN R. KUENZLI is Secretary-Treasurer of the AFT and a delegate to the A. F. of L. convention. SELDEN C. MENEFEE teaches in the Department of Sociology at the University of Washington. He is a member of the Executive Board of Local 401, and a contributing editor of Tae American Teacuer. He is a contributor to the American Sociological Review, The Nation, and the New Republic. BERYL PARKER is Associate Professor of Education at New York University. She is a member of the Committee on Educational Policies of Local 5, author of Austrian Educational Institutes, and co-author of New Education in the German Republic. An ASSESSMENT for ORGANIZATION An Editorial HE 1937 convention of the AFT was marked especially by its recognition of the need to improve child wel- fare, and to equalize and expand educational opportunities for all our children. It set itself the task of bringing before the teachers of this country the need to change outworn curricula so that education might suit the actual needs of our children, so that it might include the study of labor and working conditions, so that it might become truly an educa- tion for democracy and against Fascism. The democratiza- tion of our school system is of course a corollary to this. It was recognized that the AFT should play a more im- portant part as a national organization in securing pension, Mr. Kuenzli reported an increase of 46 per cent in our membership in the past year. Yet the total paid up mem- bership is only 22,000. Obviously we must grow at a greatly accelerated pace if our membership is to be in pro- portion to our program. From all parts of the country came calls for organizers, for better organizational litera- ture, for money. The convention therefore voted an assessment of one dollar per member for the coming year so that we may build up a fund of about $25,000 for organ- izing purposes. A number of things must be made clear in regard to this assessment. It is for one year only and does not change increasing salaries, improv- ing tenure and in other campaigns for teachers’ interests. Hitherto most of our victories in this field had been won on a local scale by the local people involved. To this end plans were laid for a national pension and sal- ary committee and for a national tenure committee to make surveys of na- tional conditions and to help put our national or- ganization behind local campaigns. It is on the basis of this program, therefore, that the call for the organiza- tion of teachers, which was the keynote of the conven- tion, takes an added mean- ing. For as this far reach- ing program was worked out, it became clear that we could succeed only if we organized teachers much more rapidly than we have been able to in the past. There was a deep- felt conviction that we can not afford to continue or- ganizing at the slow rate of the past twenty years if we are to carry out quickly and effectively the program we consider vital. FROM THE SECRETARY-TREASURER To Att MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: GREETINGS: It is a pleasure to greet you, as school bells ring again, with the news that the American Federation of Teachers is launching the most active and progressive program in the history of the organization. Fair winds fill our sails as we embark upon the voyage of a new school year. During the past year our membership has increased 46 per cent. Our financial condition is sound. Our national legislative program has been greatly enlarged. Enthusiasm for the Federation program reechoed in the convention halls at Madison. As never before the American Federation of Teachers is ready to forge ahead to new victories. Sensing this fact the delegates at the annual convention passed a resolution calling on all locals to con- tribute one dollar per member in order to raise an organization fund of approximately $25,000. This additional revenue will make it pos- sible to employ organizers (possibly four) to carry out the organiza- tion program. The method of collecting the average amount of one dollar per member is left to the individual local. A graduated scale may be used if desired. The ultimate value of the Federation to the individual depends to a large extent upon the strength of the national organization. NOW IS THE STRATEGIC TIME TO BUILD THAT STRENGTH. Organized labor is backing education as never before. White collar workers and educated people are organizing in large numbers. For the price of a two-cent postage stamp per week the individual members may finance a program which will go far in providing Democracy in Education and Education for Democracy. As the whole world looks to America to point the way to demo- cratic living, our schools face the responsibility of creating “little democracies” in the class-rooms of our schools. Wil! you not will- ingly contribute two cents a week to a program which points in that direction? The one dollar per member voted by the convention is in the nature of an assessment rather than an increase in per capita. The obligation on the part of locals in paying the amount is a moral one rather than a constitutional one. Regular per capita remains the same as provided in the constitution. May each and all of us bend enthusiastically to the oar as we launch our trireme program of organization based on local, state, and national action. May the storm clouds which threaten make our united strength invincible. Fraternally yours, IrvIN KUENZLI. our dues or per capita payments. A direct levy is only one way of raising the money. Theatre par- ties, house parties, dances, forums, are a few of the suggestions received by the editorial committee as other ways. Affairs of this kind have been run with success by some of our locals to raise money for local needs, to considerable get contributions for Spain, and for other pur- poses. The important thing is to raise the money as quickly as possible if our organizing campaign and with it our entire program are not to remain on paper. If we consider our program important we must think in terms of a membership of 100,000. Organizers should be hired at once and an effective organizing machinery set in motion. We urge all locals to send us reports of success- ful methods of raising the assessment. Such reports, printed in THE AMERICAN TEACHER, will help our members throughout the country to raise money for the organizational drive. THE AMERICAN TEACHER —, ri.» te we 2 Our mem- at a pro- Intry itera- 1 an year rgan- ‘d to ange apita Vy is ising nces, ’ the by »€ as this with by raise 5, to for pur- ig is as our and ram per. ram rink ship zers nce ring ion. to eSS- the rts, >AN our the for ive. 4ER Forging a National Policy By RICHARD B. CROSSCUP HE TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION of the American Federation of Teachers, held in Madison, Wisconsin, August 23 to 27, 1937, reflected sharply the situation of the American labor movement: 1. a past year of striking gains in organization and achievements; 2. a present of critical decisions; 3. an immediate future full of challenge in a high degree. The organizational advance of the AFT during the past vear was clearly evident on the floor of the Convention itself. There were 324 delegates present, representing 108 locals and 515 votes—an increase of 97 delegates, 23 locals, and 120 votes over the Philadelphia Convention in 1936. The report of the Secretary-treasurer indicated an increase in paid-up membership of 46 per cent—the largest year’s growth in the Federation’s twenty-one years of history. Fifty-two new locals have been chartered and in a number of places established locals have more than doubled their membership. In the last few months of spring, the Chicago locals alone, upon announcement of their amalga- mation plan, added 4,000 teachers to their rolls. The treasury contains a substantial surplus, an encouraging improvement over last year’s deficit. These gains in numerical and financial strength have been accomplished by energetic campaigns and gratifying achievements. Among these are: the national legislative campaign for the Scott-O’Day Federal Aid Bill for the equalization of educational opportunity; the passage in Pennsylvania of the tenure bill drafted by Local 192, Philadelphia; the Massachusetts campaign for repeal of the Teachers’ Loyalty Oath Law; the successful action of locals in Washington, D. C., for repeal of the “Red Rider” from the school statutes of the District of Columbia. On the west coast AFT members were elected to important public office through trade union and progressive support —U. S. Congress, Washington State Superintendence of Public Instruction, Seattle City Council. Partial and com- plete salary restoration was wrung from many state and city administrations over the determined opposition of spe- cial interests. Cases of anti-union discrimination and of discriminatory dismissal have been contested vigorously and successfully by local unions. The “yellow dog” con- tract for teachers was rescinded in St. Louis; reinstate- ments were won in Milwaukee, Wis., Highland Park and Flint, Mich., Akron, O., etc., etc. Of great significance to the National—and most enthusiastically hailed by the Con- vention delegates—was the announcement of a partial vic- tory in the Jerome Davis case, won by militant trade union methods against the powerful Yale Corporation. In this SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 Convention reviews year's stirring achievements, discusses labor poli- cies and prepares for organization of the Nation's million teachers. campaign the academic cap and gown were worn on the picket line, perhaps for the first time in the history of American labor. In the light of a year of such achievements in organiza- tion and in campaigns for educational democracy, the Con- vention applied itself with animation and—despite the one dominant controversy—with a high degree of unanimity to the establishment of policies which would insure the in- crease and extension of these accomplishments. The key- note of the Convention was expressed by delegate after delegate: “Organize the million unorganized teachers!” The policies adopted were directed at the four phases of this task: 1. an educational program of a kind that dem- onstrates the leadership of the AFT in the struggles of teachers for education] democracy and for the highest edu- cational standards; 2. organizational policies such as to insure the widest and most rapid growth in the AFT on the firm basis of this educational program; 3. labor affiliation —the question of whether or not CIO affiliation would offer the most promising basis for organization and the most promising support for the effectuation of local and national programs; 4. the stand of the AFT on social issues and problems facing American and world Democracy—the reflection by the AFT of the awakening social consciousness of the American teaching profession. The educational program of the AFT was embodied in resolutions of two kinds, those dealing directly with the democratization and improvement of the schools and ex- tension of educational opportunities, and those dealing with the betterment of teacher standards and conditions. The program for improvement of the schools included cam- paigns for reduction of class size, for free medical, dental and optical care for needy children, for revision of cur- riculum to make content of education suitable to the pres- ent needs of large masses of people in an industrial, demo- cratic society, for the increasing participation of teachers in selection of text-books, and for the democratization of administration in all respects. The program calls for the extension of educational opportunity through continuation of WPA as a permanent federal educational service includ- ing workers and adult education and classes for children of pre-school age; through increased attention to children of varying capabilities, a program of remedial teaching, better school opportunities for youth of ages fourteen to eighteen, an increase in opportunities for academic, tech- nical, and professional training in free institutions of higher learning. The program of betterment of teacher condi- tions recommends or initiates campaigns for liberalization of leave of absence; continues the struggle for tenure legis- lation, promising financial support from the National Office in states where passage of a good tenure law is imminent; proposes a study of teacher pension systems; opposes the use of pupil-teachers, cadet teachers, apprentice teachers, etc., for the purpose of wage-cutting or of undermining tenure; initiates action for the inclusion of teachers and other civil employees under the provisions of the Wagner Labor Relations Act. The organizational policy adopted by the Convention is of great importance. The fundamental organization basis of the AFT—the responsibility of regional vice-presidents for organization in their respective areas—was left un- changed, its validity seeming well established by the year’s experience. But for purposes of an intensive campaign, it is to be supplemented by the maintenance of a number of full-time paid organizers. These organizers will work for various periods under the direction of the regional vice- presidents, who will arrange for their work through the Secretary-treasurer. The number of organizers to be en- gaged was left, on amendment, to the Executive Committee, but the original motion called for four, and prospects seem good for engaging this many if not more. To cover the expense of maintaining organizers, the Convention voted an assessment of one dollar per person on the locals. There was some initial discussion as to the form of this assessment —a 40 per cent increase in per capita having been orig- inally proposed. There was no difference of opinion as to the desirability of the assessment, however, and the enthu- siastic and unanimous approval of such assessment was one of the outstanding aspects of the Convention. Nothing more clearly indicated the temper of the delegates—the determination that the AFT should become a great and powerful organization of teachers, comparable to its fellow unions of Mexico and France. Other significant resolutions affecting organization were adopted. The most absorbing issue of the Convention was that of affiliation with the CIO; two of the fourteen sessions were devoted to this problem. Both those who opposed CIO affiliation at the present time and those who favored it agreed in considering it an issue of crucial importance in the organization of teachers and in the effectuation of the © =p YALE AFT program. No opposition was expressed to the CIO as such and no justification of the splitting policies of the A. F. of L. Executive Council. Even among the few delegates who expressed an emotional attachment to the A. F. of L., based in some cases on a quarter-century of association with central labor bodies, there was full recog- nition of the CIO’s achievements and of its historic mission in the lives of previously unorganized millions. There was no change of policy suggested regarding AFT support of CIO principles and the CIO organizing drive, and there was no disposition on the part of delegates in favor of paying special per capita tax into the A. F. of L. Executive Council’s war-chest against the CIO. Opposition to the referendum on affiliation with the CIO took substantially three forms of expression: 1. In various localities the CIO has not penetrated at all or has not effectively established itself and CIO affiliation at the present time would cut off AFT locals in these locali- ties from the labor support necessary for the accomplish- ment of their program. 2. Many teachers who might be ready to join a conservative organization like the A. F. of L. would hesitate to join the more militant CIO. 3. If the AFT affiliated to the CIO it would incur the enmity of the A. F. of L., but by retaining A. F. of L. affiliation it would not incur the enmity of the CIO. The position of the proponents of the referendum on affiliation took substantially four forms: 1. In many localities, as in the state of Pennsylvania, the CIO is vir- tually the only labor movement or the only source of suffi- cient vitality for support in the accomplishment of local programs in those areas. 2. The time allowed for the referendum is sufficient to help locals in other areas to make adjustments. 3. It is through the sweeping successes of the CIO that the AFT can establish locals in many parts of the country where no locals exist, in short, it is only through the organizational strength of the CIO that there can be any realistic expectation of organizing America’s million teachers. 4. The CIO represents the progressive forces of the American labor movement and it is through the successes of the CIO that labor unity can be reestab- lished as the basis for the preservation of democracy and the defeat of Fascism in America. The resolution for the CIO referendum was carried by a vote of 285 to 227. The vote by locals was 69 in favor of the CIO resolution, 33 opposed and 6 split. In addition to resolutions immediately affecting the growth and influence of the AFT, the Convention occupied some of its time with resolutions embodying the stand of the AFT on important social issues and expressing the solidarity of the AFT with the victims of racial discrimina- tion and of labor struggles. Funds were appropriated for fellow organizations among the most oppressed classes of workers—the Southern sharecroppers, tenant farmers, etc. Resolutions were adopted in support of the LaFollette Civil Liberties Investigation, opposing discrimination THE AMERICAN TEACHER > Ge 4.4 CO ppemamieAa aeaa, s”gen & sar me ee Se —- rH = * against Negroes and aliens on WPA, in support of the Scottsboro boys who still remain in prison, for the freedom of Mooney and Billings, the pardon of McNamara, etc.; for a federal anti-lynch bill in the next Congress. Political resolutions favored an act of Congress and a Constitutional amendment to curtail the powers of the Supreme Court to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional; for the promo- tion of state and local Farmer-Labor-Progressive move- ments and for the formation of a national Farmer-Labor Party. The Convention also adopted a strong position on Fascism, War and Peace, for the invoking of the Kellogg- Briand Pact to outlaw war, for the definition of an aggres- sor nation; for invoking the Nine Power Pact in the Sino- Japanese war; for the uniting of all labor forces with one another and with all liberals and anti-fascist groups to crush the menace of Fascism and the drive toward imperial- ist war; for the cooperation of the American Labor move- ment with the international labor movement against Fas- cism, especially in Spain. A resolution for the establish- ment of an American Teachers’ School and Home for Spanish Children was referred to the Executive Committee because it involved the appropriation of funds. Other progressive resolutions were pending and were referred to the Executive Committee at the hour of adjournment. In addition to the formal resolutions and actions of the Convention on social, organizational, and educational issues, there were two panel discussions in which delegates participated—one on tenure and the other on various phases of school democratization. There were numerous excellent addresses on educational problems. Three ad- dresses were broadcast from the Convention Hall to a listening public, two of these on the subject of “Demo- cratic School Administration”—one by John C. Rockwell, Minnesota State Commissioner of Education, the other by Stanley F. Atwood, former member of Local 200, and recently elected State Superintendent of Public Education in Washington through the efforts of labor and progressive organizations. Both addresses were unusually fine, Mr. Rockwell’s deeply reasoned and philosophical, Mr. At- wood’s very direct, full of concrete aspects of undemo- cratic school administration and ways to correct them. The other address broadcast from the Convention Hall was that of Doxey A. Wilkerson, Associate Professor at Howard University, a member of Local 440, and subse- quently elected AFT Vice-president at large by the highest vote accorded any candidate in the elections. This address, sober and scholarly, but profoundly moving, intensified the determination of delegates to press the passage of National Federal Aid legislation which would in some measure offset the glaring discrepancies in educational opportunities in different parts of the country and especially between Amer- ica’s white and colored children. The splendid sub-report of Arnold Shukotoff on the Jerome Davis case, in which Mr. Shukotoff outlined concrete methods of struggle in academic freedom cases, was given the status of an address by the unanimous vote of the Convention to print and dis- tribute. At the Wednesday morning session the Conven- SEPTEMBER-OCTOSBER, 1937 tion was greeted by Josquin Espinosa Prieto on behali of the five fraternal delegates from the Mexican Federation of Educational Workers. Mr. Espinosa, in one of the finest addresses of the Convention, described the Mexican union’s ninety per cent organization of Mexican teachers and the stirring educational program of the Cardenas labor-sup- ported government in Mexico. At one point in the proceedings, the Convention was given a welcome relief from the rigors of Convention-sitting by an opportunity for direct trade union action. During the animated debate on the CIO referendum on Thursday evening, a delegate suddenly entered and asked for the special privilege of the floor. He then announced a case of Jim Crow discrimination against one of the Negro dele- gates on the part of the manager of the Park Hotel grill, who—unsuccessful in his efforts to prevent the delegate from eating in the cafeteria—had carried his dishes out in a cardboard carton and broken them. The whole body of the Convention came to its feet in indignation and the chair was swamped in a chorus of motions and demands for the floor. A delegation was dispatched—including a regional vice-president from Virginia and a delegate from the deep South—to demand an apology. When the manager of the cafeteria was reported at home in bed, a picket line was thrown around the cafeteria and the pickets walked to an improvised slogan: “Is liberal Wisconsin a Jim Crow state?” The manager soon appeared from nowhere and proffered his apologies. The delegates returned and the debate was resumed—only to be interrupted shortly by another message, this time from the Business Agent of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union. If the teachers had been offended by the management of the Park Hotel grill, he’d pull out all the union men. He was only waiting for the teachers to say the word. On the whole the Madison Convention—despite the more serious character of the one major problem which divided the delegates—must be considered one of the finest in AFT history. This is true in respect to the constructive policies adopted, the dignified and intelligent level of the discussion, the enthusiasm instilled by a year of successes and by the anticipation of still further successes, and the democratic conduct of all sessions and proceedings. The Convention was a stirring example of trade union democ- racy in action. Especially fine in this connection—and very fruitful for arriving at an intelligent decision—was the hearing on the CIO referendum conducted by the Affilia- tions Committee and attended by all delegates. Propo- nents and opponents of the referendum spoke in equal numbers with a common time limit, discussing frankly and reasonably the bearing of proposed CIO affiliation on their local and state situations. In the subsequent floor debate, as well, the number of speakers was equally divided be- tween the conflicting positions. The debate was spirited —exciting, in fact—but on a high level and conducted with unchallengeable fairness. The issue itself has been referred by the Convention to its final democratic deter- mination—the referendum vote of the entire membership. Highlights of Convention Speeches @ Doxey A. Wilkerson FEDERAL AID AND NEGRO EDUCATION —— cAN be no “Education for Democracy” unless there be adequate education for all the children of al the people. Further, in a nation whose social-economic structure not only permits, but impels gross inequalities in opportunity in purely state-supported programs of public education, there must be Federal aid, and a measure of Federal control. During the last school year for which Federal reports are available, 1933-34, well over one million children of school age were not enrolled in school at all, either public or pri- vate. . . . Of those who did enroll, over 600,000 attended schools which were in session less than six months; over 100,000 attended schools which were open three months or less. Let us take the mythical “average” American child—imagine he is your boy or girl—and drop him here and there about our nation to see just what his educational opportunities are. Should we put him in school in the State of New York, he will receive instruction from the type of teacher who can be employed for approximately $200 a month, figured on a twelve-month basis. But should we put him in school in Mississippi, by the kind of teacher who receives only $39.50 a month. Now let us do this; take an average Negro child—my boy this time—to the segregated schools of the South... . The average Negro school we would find there would remain open but five months per year, a month and a half shorter term than that provided for the average white child a compliment, if you will, to the greater learning apti- tude of our Negro child. Were I to shift my Negro child about among the aver- age Negro elementary schools of the South, he would come in contact with teachers 22 out out of every 100 of whom have, themselves, never completed high school. If my boy wanted to go to high school—which, being an “average” Negro child, he would hardly dream of-—he would have to avoid 430 counties in the South which, though Negroes comprise 12'%2 per cent or more of their respective populations, provide no secondary school facili- ties for all Negroes at all. Our average Negro child would leave school by the end of the second grade. I do not exaggerate. Out of every 100 Negro pupils who enter grade one in the South, only 42 ever reach grade three. By contrast, our average south- ern white child would at least reach grade 7; and 20 out of 100 of his fellows would finish high school. Out of 10 every 100 Negro children who start in school, however, only three receive a high school education. This average Negro child of mine would live much farther from school than his white neighbor, and as he trudges along the highway of mornings on his way to school, he would be passed by the public school bus, which, of course, transports white children only @ Jerome Davis EDUCATION FOR A BETTER WORLD ey SOCIETY has become industrialized. We are living in a corpocracy, that is, corporations rule our eco- nomic life. Corporations are usually interested first, last, and all the time in profits. What is the consequence? It means that too often the dominant business cult builds a culture—social climate which is conducive to profits for the few. The result is that in our society we are still con- centrating attention on false ideals such as acquisitiveness, which we might popularly translate as greed. In the New Haven High School, for instance, the business interests actually hang on the wall a poster headed, “I Like Busi- ness.” Underneath is written: ‘I like business because it is honestly selfish thereby avoiding the sentimentality and the hyprocrisy of the unselfish attitude.’’ This is the way we train the rising generation in the city where one of our greatest universities is located. A second consequence of the corpocracy in America and one about which we can hardly be reminded too often is that inequality is still increasing. Thirty-six thousand families, one-sixth of one per cent receive an income equal to ten million others. In other words 180,000 persons re- ceive an amount equal to that received by fifty million others. A third consequence of corporation rule is that we still have irresponsible financial power. Look at the way the President of the United States is being fought by the eco- nomic bourbons. I have even heard individuals say openly they wish he might be assassinated. What a terrible cri- terion of the state of mind of the Tories and reactionaries. Even now the right of workers to organize is being op- posed. Ten workers are brutally murdered at the Repub- lic Steel Corporation’s Chicago plant, two others are killed ' at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube. If this is not irre- sponsible financial power, what is? What does all this mean for us? It means that our edu- cational policies must be made dynamic and not static. It means that education can no longer ignore the actual struggle of the farmers, the workers, and the common peo- THE AMERICAN TEACHER ae " . —>-— *> eS fz. ts i- al )- A a . ple for some justice. As members of the American Federa- tion we must be leaders in this revaluation of education in America. e Arnold Shukotoff LESSONS OF THE JEROME DAVIS CASE HERE WERE MANY who doubted that the AFT could function in the college field. There were many who doubted that labor’s methods of struggle would be effec- tive in the college field. But the Jerome Davis case should provide the answer to these doubts. In the Davis fight we used pressure . we used sys- tematic publicity . we used action. . On June 12 more than 250 teachers journeyed up to Yale and, dressed in academic gowns, picketed a meeting of the Yale Cor- poration. The Yale administration, which had previously refused three requests for interviews, including a request for an interview on that day, found a picket line irresistible . and listened. On June 23, twelve days after the picketed interview with members of the Yale Corporation, Professor Davis was informed by Dean Weigle that the Corporation had voted to continue his salary for another year provided he accepted no other post. Professor Davis’ ouster has been condemned by three national teacher organizations. As far as I know, this is the first academic freedom case in which the National Education Association, the Progressive Education Asso- ciation, and the AFT have achieved such unanimity. @ Mary Foley Grossman ORGANIZING FOR PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION — WINTER through the Howard University local of the AFT there was established a National Coordinat- ing Committee around the issue of adequate educational opportunities for Negro children. The work of this com- mittee in getting endorsements for our proposed amend- ments {to the NEA federal aid bill] was intensive and wide-spread. Endorsements of over three thousand Negro organizations were given to our proposals. One concrete result of this was to place before the Negro teachers of the nation the American Federation of Teachers and its role in protecting the educational rights of minority groups. Many of these teachers heard of the American Federation of Teachers for the first time. All were attracted to its pro- gram. The possibility of organizing this large and signifi- cant group of American teachers has been for the first time made real as a result of our Federal Aid campaign. Nor are the Negro teachers the only group aroused to the significance of the AFT. Conferences with many prom- inent educators on our Federal Aid program revealed that SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 they had acquired a new respect for our program and our earnestness in pushing it forward. Many of us have failed to grasp the bigness of the role the American Federation of Teachers can assume nationally. We must pull ourselves out of the rut of provincialism . . . and boldly strike out to organize the million and one-half teachers in America behind our progressive educational program. In our specific field, that of educators allied with labor, let us pledge ourselves to advance a program for a people’s culture, to fight for financial aid for such a program on a Federal and local scale. We must pledge ourselves to or- ganize the majority of the teachers of the nation in the AFT. The larger our numbers, the greater will be our strength for peace, for broad social legislation, and for democratic education. This is not impossible. It requires, however, a great confidence in ourselves and in our des- tiny, and, more important, belief in the good common sense of our colleagues to respond to a just and sane program. @ Stanley Atwood SECURING DEMOCRATIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION | ie IT BE SAID at the outset that the undemocratic nature of our schools is noi the tault of any individual, any one board of directors, trustees or regents, nor even of ad- ministrators as a class. To put it plainly, the blame lies with teachers themselves. It is they who permit the sys- tem to be what it is. No one who understands human nature would expect the possessors of power to surrender it voluntarily. At any rate, in the case of the schools it has not been done. The only way the objective of a dem- ocratic school system, as outlined above, can be obtained is for teachers to: 1) Organize themselves effectively. 2) Plan definite objectives. 3) Ally themselves with other groups with similar aims and objec- tives. 4) Interest themselves in the welfare of society as a whole. 5) Teachers must be a part of the community and be actively con- cerned with its affairs—social, economic and political—above all, political, though not in any offensive way. 6) Secure the enactment of tenure laws with teeth in them. 7) Revision of existing school laws to limit the powers of boards and to provide for teacher participation. In conclusion: The objectives of the founders of our pub- lic school system, which were to foster democratic institu- tions, have been perverted by selfish groups. They have made the system into a dictatorship with no provision for checks or balarices. To rescue the system from the throttling grasp of these “economic royalists” is the task of the teach- ers of America. This convention represents an attempt to undertake that task. The opportunity and the challenge are yours. I have confidence that you will meet them with vision, with courage and with faith. Shall We Affiliate with the ClO? a 1937 CONVENTION of the AFT had before it, as every labor convention at this time must have, the ques- tion of its attitude towards the CIO and A. F. of L. The resolution passed by the convention expressed support for the CIO, but left the question of affiliation to be decided by the membership in a referendum vote. This question will, no doubt, be the subject of discussion in every local of the AFT. THe AmeriIcaN TEACHER should serve as one of the forums for this discussion. We are therefore opening the forum with representative speeches made in the Convention discussion for and against the CIO. We trust this will be followed by expressions of opinion from our members in all parts of the country. The Board of Editors requests that statements be limited to 300 words. Resolution on CIO Referendum Wuereas, the American Federation of Teachers stands for unity in the American labor movement; and WHEREAS, a united labor movement is necessary for the continued success, both economically and politically, of the trade union movement in the United States; and WHEREAS, at the 1936 convention the American Federa- tion of Teachers went on record as being sympathetic to the aims and purposes of the Committee for Industrial Organiza- tion; and Wuereas, the American Federation of Teachers is on record as endorsing the principles of industrial unionism; and Wuereas, the CIO has achieved great success in its or- ganization campaigns in the steel, auto, rubber and other mass production industries; and Wuereas, The Committee for Industrial Organization has influenced and aided both the unionization of teachers and the securing of progressive teacher legislation; and WHEREAS, this convention of the American Federation of Teachers now has before it the question of the next step in its relation to the Committee for Industrial Organization, therefore, Be It Reso.vep: That the American Federation of Teach- ers reaffirm its endorsement of the principles of industrial unionism; and Be It FurtHER Resotvep: That the American Federa- tion of Teachers at this twenty-first convention direct the Executive Council to undertake a referendum of the mem- bership on the question of affiliation of the American Federa- tion of Teachers to the Committee for Industrial Organiza- tion; such referendum to be conducted in accordance with 12 existing constitutional provisions at a time and under con- ditions to be set by the Executive Council; such referendum to be conducted no sooner than February first, 1938; and Be It FurtHER Resotvep: That, preceding such refer- endum, the Executive Council be instructed to make an ex- haustive study on (1) the structure, functioning, dues, con- tracts, autonomy, etc., of the CIO in its relation to labor: (2) the significance to the American Federation of Teachers of the proposed affiliation with the CIO as concerns organ- izational campaigns and national and local legislative cam- paigns, as well as the future position and program of the American Federation of Teachers in the Committee for In- dustrial Organization, if affiliation is decided upon by the membership; and that the Executive Council be instructed to send a written report of its findings to every member of the American Federation of Teachers; and Be Ir FurTHER RESOLVED: That, the American Federa- tion of Teachers protest the undemocratic action of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor in suspending unions affiliated to the Committee for Industrial Organization; and Be It FurtHER Resotvep: That the American Federa- tion of Teachers refuse to pay the special per capita tax proposed by the Cincinnati conference of the American Fed- eration of Labor; and Be It Frnacty Resotvep: That for the purpose of unify- ing the American labor movement this Twenty-first Conven- tion go on record as favoring the holding of a national con- vention of all bona-fire trade unions, A. F. of L., CIO, Railroad Brotherhoods, and genuine independent unions; and accordingly instruct our delegates to the 1937 conven- tion of the American Federation of Labor to introduce such a resolution into that convention. THE AMERICAN TEACHER — eas 6 aa -on- lum the r of era- the r in trial era- tax Fed- lify- ven- such ) —A Forum for Union Members FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE: Celia Lewis, New York UCH HAS HAPPENED since last year in the labor move- M of this country. Yet the minority resolution is a step backward in the face of events moving rapidly. We have before us a resolution which takes a position far be- hind that which our convention took last year. This back- ward step, away from the progressive labor movement, is proposed to us in the name of the unity of the labor move- ment. We are for the unity of the labor movement. Many of you who were at the convention last year will remember that I—and others, too—addressed the Convention and urged that no step be taken at that time which would in any way make it easier for the American Federation of Labor to split the labor movement. It was because of our interest in the unity of the labor movement that we de- cided last year not to affiliate with the CIO. We decided to endorse its stand, to show that we sympathized with it and were squarely behind it, but to make every effort in the short time left between our Convention and the Na- tional Convention of the American Federation of Labor to do everything in our power to keep the labor movement unified. This we did everywhere in our central trades, and our President carried out our mandate at the National Con- vention. Our efforts to maintain unity in the labor move- ment had some excellent results. They made it clear to the rank and file of the workers in the American Federa- tion of Labor that it was not the CIO forces which were anxious for a split. Our action then, in trying to maintain unity made it possible for the CIO and A. F. of L. unions in many localities to develop a friendly spirit toward each other, so that even now they work together. But, unfor- tunately, we were not able to bring about what we desired so far as the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor was concerned. That Council proceeded with its unconstitutional and un-~ democratic splitting of the labor movement. That Coun- cil proceeded to expel the CIO unions, to form rival unions, to grant charters to company unions, even to unions which were engaged in attacking workers on strike. At every moment of intense struggle in the past year the American Federation of Labor was found on the side against the CIO. At the most important moment of the General Mo- tors struggle, William Green urged General Motors not to deal with the CIO. Whenever the CIO forces have been hard pressed, William Green and the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor have come forward and SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 said that the strike would be lost. They have constantly helped the enemies of the workers. On the other hand, the CIO, starting with organization of the mass production industries—automobile, steel, tex- tile, has proceeded to organize the timber workers, the agri- cultural workers, the transport workers, and is now branch- ing out in the white-collar field. In all these cases it has given genuine help to organization, and not mere lip serv- ice. It has conducted tremendous struggles and won vic- tories for the workers. It has suffered attacks on the part of the enemies of labor bravely and with determination; and after all these developments during the past year, we are presented with a resolution which is more than a step backward, which does not even condemn the American Federation of Labor and does not even support the CIO. Many of our delegates are very much concerned with their local situations, and I sympathize with them. I realize how important it is for them to maintain their con- ditions of work at a certain level, but I submit that should the forces which are attacking education—the same forces which are attacking labor—succeed throughout the nation, they would not be safe even in their own secluded corners of the country. We must be concerned with the organ- ization of teachers on a nation-wide scale and that means CIO. For the CIO has helped the Newspaper Guild and has helped other organizations to organize, and would help us to. We must be concerned with the organization of labor throughout the country and that, too, means CIO, as I have pointed out. We must go even further than that from our more local situations. We must remember that in several countries of the world the trade unionists and their friends are fighting now on the battle fields for the right to belong to trade unions. And we must realize that in our own country there are two contrary movements: One is a tremendous up-surging on the part of labor under the leadership of the CIO; and the other is the gathering of all the forces which would crush that organizing move, the vigilantes, those groups which have killed workers in the past strifes recently, and we must realize that this struggle between these two tremendous forces in our coun- try is too important for us not to take sides. Some of the speakers during the hearing indicated that our taking sides was not particularly important one way or another; but it is. It is very important, for we would help to rally professionals and white-collar workers to the defense of the workers of this country. If we and others do not do this, and if we and others allow the reactionary forces of this country to crush the rising trade union move- ment, I am afraid that our salaries and our tenure and our pension laws in Wisconsin and Chicago and New York, and wherever we have won victories, will be of very little use. In fact, if we fail to urge each other on, to help the forces of progress and help the organizing of labor under the leadership of the CIO, we may find that just as in Ger- many and Italy, we will have no educational system left to support which is worthy of the name, and no culture worthy of support. FOR THE NEGATIVE: William T. McCoy, Chicago I WANT TO KEEP very close to a practical basis in my discussion of this important question in the few minutes that I may take. We-who have been long in the labor movement have watched with horror and almost with de- spair what has split—and is promising still further to split —the great forces of labor in America. I do not intend to analyze the questions of fault, the stubbornness on either side, the revolt against authority on the one side and the neglect of opportunity on the other, which has led to this terrible situation in labor in our country. That is apart from the matter which is immediately before us. But I do wish to say to you that, having watched this tragedy occur- ring in the labor movement of our country, we certainly ought not to imitate it. If there is one practical issue that lies before this organization, it is the issue of unity and harmony in an effort to organize the teaching forces of this great country. If we can by any means preserve that sort of unity and harmony in our organization, we shall have achieved the greatest triumph that is within our reach in this critical time. I think you know pretty well what the Chicago situation is and why we of the Chicago delegations are opposing the idea of an immediate referendum on this question. We have six or seven thousand teachers organized and there are twice that number of teachers in the city that can be reached. If we can have time—for time is of the essence of our combat down there—to draw into the movement the teaching forces of Chicago, it means much, not only to us locally, but to this organization also. If you can add at a stroke a force of 7,000 teachers to our movement in a strategically located field like Chicago, it is fully worth while. We do not want to see a scission—and I don’t believe you want to see it either—and we are asking that even the question of referendum be not now raised before these teachers. They will be chilled and repelled by any hint that there is to be a breach between them and the loyal and faithful American Federation of Labor officials and the members in Chicago who have been their friends during the whole history of the movement. So we are pleading that if referendum must come, as long a post- ponement as possible may first take place, so that we can get these people into the movement and get them to have some of the ideas of unity and harmony, some of the ideas of union labor before we attempt to lead them off into some other new field which, at least for Chicago, has no 14 central body, no leadership, and no means of giving us the support and comfort to which, as teachers, we have been accustomed for twenty-one years. If necessity forces us to see the American Federation of Labor lapse and disappear, of course we will unite with whatever represents union labor in the country thereafter. Until that happens and until we are sure it is to happen, we in Chicago feel that it would be fatal to our own inter. ests and to the interests of locals in every part of the country—not in all, but in many—to take this step. It would be discouraging to the membership, discouraging to union labor, and I think it would be fatal to what we are trying to do in many of the most important fields. Welcome to New Locals No. 506 Floodwood, Minnesota, Federation of Teachers. No. 507 Cloquet, Minnesota, Federation of Teachers. No. 508 St. Louis County, Minnesota, Teachers Federation. No. 509 Virginia, Minnesota, Local. No. 510 Southwestern Pennsylvania Federation of Teach- ers. No. 511 East Chicago, Indiana, Teachers Federation. No. 512 Bellingham, Washington, Teachers Union. No. 513 Enumclaw, Washington, Teachers Federation. No. 514 Itasca County, Minnesota, Teachers Federation, No. 515 Hudson County, New Jersey, Teachers Union. No. 516 Jacksonville, Florida. No. 517 Uniontown District, Pennsylvania. No. 518 Jefferson County, Ohio, Teachers Federation. No. 519 Anderson, Indiana, Classroom Teachers Council. No. 520 Montpelier, Idaho, Federation of Teachers. No. 521 Tuskegee, Alabama, Institute Local. No. 522 Bergen County, New Jersey, Federation of Teach- ers. No. 523 St. Paul Adult Education Teachers. No. 524 Duluth, Minnesota, Federation of Adult Education Teachers. No. 525 St. Cloud, Minnesota, Federation of Adult Educa- tion Teachers. No. 526 Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, Area Adult Education Teachers. No. 527 New Orleans League of Classroom Teachers. THE AMERICAN TEACHER SEI _ the veen n of with fter. iter- the g to > are hers. tion. -ach- ncil. each- ation duca- -ation \CHER The Republic Brings Education to Spain HEN, AT THE END of 1931, the Spanish Republic W caste me with the responsibilities of the Min- istry of Education, I put into this cause all the enthusiasm and the devotion of a man for whom popular education had been for many decades the most cherished dream of his life. When the Republic was established, Spain needed no less than 40,000 new schools. There were cities, like Madrid itself, where thousands and thousands of children were lacking the opportunities of getting the most elemen- tary education. One month before the new institutions were inaugurated, the mothers of Madrid were standing in queues at the doorsteps of the schools, fearing that over- crowding might lessen the chances of securing admission for their children. Things of this sort testify for the eager- ness of the people to grasp whatever educational oppor- tunity is opened to them, showing by the same token that the pre-republican government did not bother to appease the hunger for culture that was gnawing at the people of Spain. Thus, our first and most urgent task was that of SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 The Ambassador, former Minister of Education, tells of his work in establishing people's schools. By FERNANDO DE LOS RIOS opening new schools, and within the period of two years, 10,500 new institutions were founded in both urban and rural Spain. Nevertheless, the children of the small villages—the children of the agricultural regions, where life is so shock- ingly miserable—found it impossible to attend these schools, because their parents had to send them to take care of the flocks, or to pick olives in the fields (which, by the way, they did not own), so that they might earn a few cents to help keep life going in their poverty-stricken homes. How were we going to rescue these children, and bring them under the influence of the school? The only way of accomplishing that was to organize the “cantinas” (school lunchrooms) and the “roperos” (cloth- ing storerooms) in the schools; that is to say, to give them food and clothing, so that the parents might release them from their work. To this effect the Republic increased its budget for “cantinas” and “roperos” an 800 per cent. As a result of this, there was such a run of children to the rural schools that it was practically impossible at the be- ginning, due to the lack of buildings, to accommodate them all. This situation compelled me to introduce a bill in Par- liament proposing a loan of 400,000,000 pesetas, for the exclusive use of school construction. Parliament granted me that money, and in eight years we planned to build a minimum of 20,000 new buildings. This was begun on a great scale in 1932. The school “cantina” and the school “ropero” established a bond of friendship and gratitude between the mother and the school. The mother saw in the school not only a place where her child was taught, but also a place where her child was given the basic necessities of life which her poor home could ill afford—food and clothing. Thus, the school became a link of both material and spiritual solidarity be- tween the family and the state. The state was the school; the state became the creating organ of culture. My next project was to make similar provisions for adult education—that is to say, I wanted to organize all over the country community suppers at the schools for the peasants, during the course of which they could be taught to read and write. This plan did not materialize, because the time factor did not enable me to carry out the idea systematically as first conceived. The education of the adult was accomplished, however, through another method, namely, the “Pedagogical Missions,” the theatre, and the traveling museum. In order to understand the Pedagogical Mission—the in- spiration of which was provided by the great Spanish ped agogue, Manuel Cossio, who died last year—it is necessary to get a more precise notion of what we mean by educa- tion. I do not believe that education is a strictly and ex- clusively intellectual affair; on the contrary, I think that primarily education is the cultivation of the affective tend- encies of the human mind, and the fostering of a sense of social responsibility in the student. Now, in my opinion, this is better accomplished, in most cases (and certainly it was so in Spain) through a concrete aesthetic process, rather than through an abstract, intellectualistic one. To educate a people aesthetically is to develop its sensibility and put it in condition to grasp to the fullest extent the meaning of culture, the meaning of collective work and duty. For this purpose the Pedagogical Mission was con- ceived and brought into being. We decided to carry the vivifying breath of culture into the most humble village and to develop in the people a spirit of social awareness of the problems of the world in which they live. We founded in the rural communities more than 5,000 traveling libraries. The Spanish Republic attacked with enormous enthu- siasm this enterprise. The Pedagogical Mission was com- posed of a group of true missionaries of culture: boys and girls, teachers of both sexes, university students, and young- sters from the workshops, who would go, with the traveling theatre or library, the radio, the movie, etc., to the vil- lage, to spend a few days with the peasants, putting within their reach some of the cultural facilities which they were lacking. Sometimes young medical students and nurses would also teach the peasant mother how to take care of her children, how to keep them clean, to prevent infectious diseases, etc. Students in agriculture would teach those peasants who owned some land how to cultivate it more efficiently, how to prevent or check tree diseases, how to take care of the domestic animals, etc. Thus, we were try- ing to enrich not only the intellectual world of the peasant, but also to improve the economic means at his command. One of the most gratifying experiences for those who were carrying out the work of the Mission Pedagogica came each evening at dusk, when the peasants and their children would gather in the village school and listen enraptured to records of the most beautiful popular songs of the famous Spanish Cancionero, or enjoy an educational film, or a movie of your great Charlot, so admired by the people of my country. The theatre, the concert, the chorus, and the traveling museum were supplementary to all this. With what interest and understanding the peasants would listen to Spanish classic plays of Calderon, Lope de Vega, or Cervantes. The young painters, musicians and poets of the “missions” collaborated in this work of aesthetic resur- rection of the classic theatre. We were not feeding the peasants with politically biased plays and paintings, as politically biased enemies of the Republic would contend. No! we were putting within their grasp the most valuable productions of our poets, painters and dramatists, which 16 until then had been inaccessible to them. With what ecstatic wonderment the peasant men and women of the quiet villages of Castille would look at the paintings of our Museo del Prado—they who had never before known the solicitous care of the state! The Pedagogical Missions were not trying to charm the ears of the Spanish peasants with the tunes of foreign songs, but rather with the most genu- inely popular Spanish melodies of our Romancero. We were trying to revive in the mind of the peasant the cul- tural values of which his ancestors had been the creators. We were attempting to make him conscious of his history, awakening in him a feeling for true “Spanishness”—and Spanishness, properly conceived, means no less and no more than awareness of the ideals and aspirations of the Spanish people. This we are endeavoring to do, not by means of an appeal to bellicose emotions, engendered by false political propaganda, but only by putting the peasant in contact with the great creative works of Spanish col- lective consciousness. All this required, however, an essential supplement. This was found in the Escuelas de Trabajo (Schools of Work- ers), the aim of which was to convert the untrained workers into skilled workers. Through establishment of horticul- tural and agricultural schools we found an affective medium for changing the ignorant peasant into a farmer knowing the economic possibilities of his land. This necessitated a special type of teacher, and with THE AMERICAN TEACHER what f the f our n the were with yenu- We » cul- ators. story, —and d no f the Mt by d by asant 1 col- This Vork- rkers ticul- dium ywing with CHER this purpose in mind we reformed the curriculum ot! the Normal School in such a way that a completed program of secondary education universal in character, was a pre- requisite for the specialized courses for those teachers who were to teach workers. Furthermore, we organized the in- stitution of the Pedagogium in the provinces—that is to say, intensive courses for the teachers themselves. Under this system the teachers took turns in giving demonstration lessons before the Provincial Congress of Teachers, which were followed by discussions on the ways and means of improving the teacher’s technique. We also fostered field-trips from one province to another, and during the Summer we used such palaces as that of Rio Frio, in the state of Segovia, for summer-schools. Here thousands of children lived in the invigorating air of the mountains, or else we would send thousands of chil- dren to the sea-shore for the same healthful purpose. We took great pains to do away with the over-academic atmosphere in the secondary schools; instead of a uni- versity in miniature we made of it an integrated educa- tional institution, in which the emphasis was less on indoc- trination and more on the give-and-take relationship be- tween teacher and student, and, above all, on the devel- opment of a spirit of social responsibility in both teacher and student. A cultural work of this kind, however, is incomplete if it has no repercussion on the institutions of higher learning, such as universities, research bodies, museums, etc. With this last purpose in mind, we founded on a similar basis, in 1932, in Granada and Madrid, the Centros de Inves- tigacion, the Centro de Estudios Historicos, and the Sec- cion de Monumentos Hispanicos, to bring to light un- examined documents of historical importance, of medieval Spain, and to reinterpret on their basis those which had been already uncovered. We also founded the Museo Iberico in Soria, the Museo de Epigrafia Greco-romana in Tarragona, and the Museo de Estatuaria Policromada, in Commendation To the Editors: I note with pleasure an account of the Pennsylvania tenure law in THe AMERICAN TEACHER written by Miss Sarah Walsh. I should like very much to have Miss Walsh’s address as I wish to extend to her the congratulations of the National Education Association Tenure Committee for her fine work. I should also like to secure from her a more detailed account of the methods used in passing this bill. I note with interest the account of the tenure situation in SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 Valladolid. We also founded centers of research in eco- nomics, physical science, international politics, etc., to which large sums were allotted in the federal budget. There never was before in Spain a greater interest for cul- tural problems than that witnessed between 1931-1932. Finally, we conceived the project, which fortunately I was able to put into effect, of creating the International University of Santander. In the magnificent Palacio de la Magdalena, in the midst of a forest, near the shores of the Mar Cantabrico—a palace which was formerly used as a summer resort by the Spanish kings—thousands of stu- dents and professors from all over Europe and America gathered, between July and September of each year, to discuss and analyze cultural problems of international character. In this way we were helping to develop an in- ternational consciousness in the realms of the arts and the sciences, and we were putting the University youth of the world in direct contact with each other, making them work together on problems of a universally human nature. The work accomplished so far by the International Uni- versity of Santander is, in my opinion, something which will have a lasting influence. This is in brief the educational program brought into effect by the Spanish Republic during the last six years, especially in 1931-33 and 1936. If it continues to receive the solicitous educational treat- ment embodied in our program, Spain, whose cultural potentialities are immense, will, I am absolutely sure, sur- pass the achievements of any other period of its history, even those of the beginning of the sixteenth century, and will also represent a new affirmation of the primacy of the spirit over brutal force, and a new evaluation of the mean- ing of life and history, of the meaning of humanity, in the fullest sense of the term. The democratic world cannot but benefit from such a program, from such a philosophy! from the N E A Texas. I made a trip to Texas this winter in the interest of tenure, appearing before the Senate Committee on Educa- tion. I found the situation about as you described it at that time. I hope all forces interested in tenure, not only in Texas but in Michigan, Wisconsin and other states having tenure campaigns now going on, form a united front in their efforts for tenure. Sincerely yours, Donatp Du SHANE, Chairman, Committee on Tenure. 17 Spanish Suffer Little Children ice dani os Te By IRVIN R. KUENZLI ERHAPS NOTHING, other than war itself, could bring home to one more vividly the horrors of war than to hold in one’s arms a little child, a stranger in a foreign land, whose parents have been lost or slain in the barbarous attack of modern military machines on civilian populations. Such was the experience of a small group of teachers who were attending the International Conference on Primary and Popular Education held in Paris this summer in con- nection with the Paris Exposition and the annual meeting of the International Federation of Teachers Associations which followed immediately. At Chantilly, a quiet village less than an hour’s ride by train north of Paris, is a home, maintained by the or- ganized workmen of France, for children who are refugees from the war in Spain. Funds are collected in small amounts from the working people of France by the French Federation of Labor and used to provide food and shelter for these needy children. Ordinarily visiting at such camps is discouraged because it is unwise to bring the children before the gaze of tourists and curiosity seekers. However, through the courtesy of the director of a progressive private school in Paris, who had been assigned by the secretary of the conference to the writer as a guide and interpreter, it was possible to arrange a visit to the home at Chantilly. Our little party included Miss Robinson from Local 5, New York; Miss Herstein and Miss Berleman, Local 3, Chicago; two teach- ers from Montreal; one from Scotland; the assistant to the secretary of the French Federation of Labor; Madam Janowska, our interpreter, and the writer. The home is maintained in an old chateau, once the pride of a wealthy family of France. Grandeur still ap- pears through the dilapidated walls, decorations, and sur- roundings, but the spacious rooms are now filled with rows of little cots with thin mattresses and plain covers. We were greeted in most cordial manner and seventy- five to a hundred children were assembled to sing their little Spanish songs for us and dance their native dances. One little girl of about eight or nine years, whom we called “our grand opera girl,” had a voice of surprising quality and beauty. When the writer picked up a little boy of five or six and spoke a few words of rusty Spanish to him, his face bright- ened and he cried eagerly, “Ah! Espanol, Senor?” He was quite surprised as well as disappointed to find his visitor was from far across the seas. provides a moving reminder that it must not happen here. Native Spanish teachers have been assigned to the groups so that some school work may be accomplished, even under great difficulties. Food is simple and plain, consist- ing largely of generous portions of bread and fruit. The dining room tables are cleverly made from cheap lumber, Discipline and order seems to exist without evidence of military control. Because the children may not wear their coarse shoes in the chateau for fear of damaging the beautifully de- signed hardwood floors, our little party, upon leaving, made up a small purse to buy gym shoes for some of the children. The home is badly in need of funds in order to carry on during the winter. Reluctantly we bade farewell and passed through the gate in the old stone wall, having learned things which cannot be written in words. A few days later as our plane nosed quickly upward through the heavy fog bank lying over Le Bourget field and rose to greet the morning sun we thought of other planes which carried cargoes of death and destruction to cities and people not far distant. As we winged our way north toward London, skimming clouds paved with the glistening gold of dawn, which excluded from our view the quiet countryside near Chantilly, we thought what ter- ror the roar of a plane must bring to the saddened hearts of the little refugees of war. The writer pondered, too, whether by chance any of the shrapnel he had heat-treated and tested in a munitions plant back in America, some years ago, might have de- stroyed the parents of the little girl he held in his arms at Chantilly—or the parents of several little girls like her. As we descended and bounced across the beautiful turf of Croydon Field we thought that we must say to the million teachers of America that it is our first duty so to teach the children of America that—IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE. The challenge to American teachers was well expressed by a well known reporter from the French press who came to us for a story about the American Federation of Teach- ers. “With all of Europe on the threshold of war,” he said, “France is looking more and more to America to point the way to successful democratic government. The teach- ers of America have a unique opportunity to build a model democracy.” Such is the challenge to the teachers of America. THE AMERICAN TEACHER nish ince der ere, the even isist - The nber. ‘e of shoes r de- made dren. ‘Vv on and aving ward field other on to way 1 the view t ter- learts of the itions e de- arms p her. | turf o the so to PEN ressed came ‘each- » said, point teach- model rs of \CHER Presidents Page HE most important problem be- fore the American Federation of Teachers is the problem of organiz- (| ing teachers. To face this problem > adequately full time organizers and a considerable funds are necessary. Un- \ Jo fortunately, the dues of the AFT are ridiculously low. Actually they are / % lower than any other international union in America. In Madison your hy) Executive Council heard a plea from some striking coal miners. These men with an annual wage of as low as / $500 to $600 were paying out a total of forty dollars in dues and assess- ments. Their loyalty and self-sacri- fice for unionism should put us to shame. We must pay more if we are to keep education free. Recognizing the urgent need of money for organiza- tional work this year, our Madison delegates agreed to a special assessment averaging one dollar for every member of the AFT. I wish you might have sat in the Executive Council with us recently and heard the report of your vice-presidents. Every one of them pointed out the strategic opportunity for organization. In one area of five great states we doubled the number of locals with hardly any money and no paid organizer. Chicago is going forward in a great united union movement which is bringing in members by the thousand. The Federation will soon have over half of all the teachers of Chicago enrolled. We can be proud of the work of our vice-presidents. Yet we have only scratched the surface. Considering our opportunities we are failing tragically. It is time now to enter a great for- ward educational drive. We should map out our organiza- tional campaign as carefully as a general does his battle stategy and we must double our membership. In other words, during the coming year we must concentrate our efforts on organizing the unorganized teachers. We must do for the teachers what the CIO has done for the un- organized workers. This must be done with the greatest skill and intelligence of which we are capable. This means not only affiliation with organized labor. It means enlist- ing the active support of the youth of the nation. We should be the leaders in the community enlisting support and directing the work of students, parents, teachers. In A short, we should not rest until all the j py) progressive forces of the community 7 are behind the best possible education IN program for the entire community, | state, and nation. Merely to enroll teachers who later drop out is of no advantage. We should probably con- centrate our effort in certain of the ( most promising localities in the United ( States. We should probably employ } ten full organizers. We should have a speaker on the program of every state labor convention. We should continue the policy of aiding the organizing ac- tivities of our national vice-presidents. We should give aid to those state committees and those locals which are willing themselves to pay part of the cost of an organizer. All of these efforts should be coordinated through the national office. Every local can help in this organizing movement in two ways—with money and with time. The raising of the special assessment will help to take care of the money. (Successful means of raising this assessment should be passed on to other locals.) How can you give your time? The Ohio Federation has suggested that each and every one of our local unions should definitely organize one new local during the coming year. This would mean each local should have a committee to decide which was the most promising place to build the new local and then go ahead to organize it effectively. If we dare to carry forward this program of building unions with our money and our time we shall be building democracy in education. It is our task to set on fire the enthusiasm of all union members for this great organizational drive so that they will be filled with the unquenchable determination to take part in this organizing campaign. I know we will not betray education and the American Federation of Teachers by failing in this effort. Let us give our money unstintedly, let us give our time to organize, to organize teachers, to organize new and stronger locals of the Federation. Jerome Davis. 16 Street, N. Y. C. NOTICE: TO SECRETARIES OF ALL LOCALS AND STATE FEDERATIONS OF TEACHERS Kindly put the American Teacher on your mailing list for all mimeographed and printed material issued regularly or occasionally by your organization. Address the Secretary of the Editorial Board: Celia Lewis, 8 West SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 Northwest Teachers on the March since the fights for the initiative and referendum, is witnessing a new rise of social consciousness in the field of education. The teachers are organizing. One reason for this is that the whole labor movement has in- creased by leaps and bounds, with the unionization of basic industries such as lumber and transportation. But the ideals of democracy in education and academic freedom, together with the need for better salaries and conditions, are the immediate motives. T “NueE Pacific Northwest, traditional seat of liberalism Two years ago there were three locals of the American Federation of Teachers in three Northwest states; today there are seventeen. Washington leads with eleven locals, with others soon to be formed in Longview, Raymond, Aberdeen, Yakima, Spokane and other cities. Oregon has three locals and Montana three. There is good reason for the comparative success at- tained in Washington. With the help of the Washington Commonwealth Federation, a liberal political coalition, the five locals in existence last Fall elected Stanley F. Atwood, a Seattle high school history teacher, to the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Mr. Atwood has been a member and a steady supporter of Local 200 in Seattle for a full decade. For a time his union was driven underground by a yellow-dog clause in all teachers’ con- tracts, but it survived to see the day when it elected one of its leaders to the highest office in the educational field in the state. Today there is an AFT local in the State Department of Public Instruction in Olympia. The charter of Local 483—the Washington Educational Employees’ Union—hangs proudly on the wall of Stanley Atwood’s office. It is no wonder that teachers throughout the state feel a new freedom to tackle social problems and to or- ganize for better conditions. The legislative program of the teachers’ unions met a sad fate for the most part, however. A reactionary Senate and a conservative Governor stood in the way. High on the program stood the Teachers’ Civil Service (tenure) Bill. It provided for permanent tenure for all competent teachers and librarians, and defined precisely the civil rights of teachers and the grounds for dismissal. A two- year probationary period was provided for, but transfers and demotions to prevent the teacher from entering the permanent tenure status were prohibited, and the burden of proof of incompetence was placed upon the employing 20 Rapid union growth and signal vic- tories have given teachers of the Northwest a new sense of freedom. By SELDEN C. MENEFEE board. Reasonable notice before dismissal and open hear- ings at the option of the discharged teacher with provision for appeal were included. The bill lost by only a few votes, and will be re-introduced at the next session. A bill providing complete equalization for the benefit of rural districts, and one providing for the compulsory teach- ing of social science and the economics of cooperation, were both supported by the State Grange, but failed of passage in the upper house. Other bills, including one providing $400,000 for the extension of the library system and one appropriating $100,000 for assistance to Junior Colleges, were vetoed by Governor Clarence Martin on the ground of economy. The University local fared better. It sent out commit- tees to the Educational Institutions and the Appropriations committees of both houses, at the request of the chairmen of those committees. Because of its efforts, for the first time in years there was no sniping at the University budget. The Governor had slashed it about half a million dollars, but the legislature for the first time in history raised it back up to within $75,000 of the amount originally asked. A bill to take money from the over-large building fund to put into the general fund for salaries passed the House, but was killed in the Senate. An educational campaign on the campus following the legislative session resulted in most of the budget increase going to salaries, however. The local also pushed through the legislature a retirement enabling act after other educational lobbies had left it to its fate at the last minute. So that lobbying will be more effective in the future, and so that organizing can be pushed more effectively, Washington teachers took a great step forward on May 1, when ninety-five delegates and members of the various locals met in Seattle to form the Washington State Fed- eration of Teachers. They elected as president Hugh DeLacy, militant young University English teacher who was elected to the city council on a labor ticket in March. State Superintendent Atwood addressed the meeting as a brother unionist—a unique event in educational history. Harold Pritchett, young president of the Federation of Woodworkers, pledged the support of his 72,000 affiliated members to the teachers’ organizational drive. (Last winter the powerful sawmill union at Sultan, Washington, helped to sponsor a teachers’ union and then proceeded to elect one of its own officers to the local school board.) THE AMERICAN TEACHER ric. the =ar- ion tes, | of \ch- ere age ling one Bes, ind nit- ons nen irst vet. ars, | it ed. | to but on ver. ent to who rch. Yas ry. of ited iter J to one HER Reports from locals were a source of inspiration. Public school local 200 of Seattle reported that it had conducted the successful campaign to re-elect laborite Jimmy Duncan to the Seattle School Board, and that it had multiplied its membership by four in the past year. The university local, 401, reported 25 per cent organization on the campus, and success at the legislature and in fighting arbitrary rulings affecting women teachers and the sub-faculty. Bremerton Local 336 reported that it had the great majority of Kitsap County teachers, and that when it planned demands for a higher salary schedule, a majority of the members of the school board sat in on the meeting and pledged their sup- port. Olympia Local 478 reported a doubling in size since its formation last fall, and all locals told of participation and leadership in community affairs such as local labor councils and public mass meetings. Washington teachers are widely publicizing one more recent victory. Late in May, Principal Springer of the Federal Way School, the vice-president of the Inter-county Teachers Union located between Seattle and Tacoma, heard rumors from his students that he was being fired. He is himself a classroom teacher in this union grade-school of 335 students, and is highly popular with the staff (which is solidly organized in the union) and the children. He had ruffled the school board by speaking strongly for higher salaries, retention of a teacher who was nearly ready for a pension, and re-routing of the school busses. Delegations from the two Seattle locals, as well as President DeLacy . ee a + ~~ —— ‘ << wd ne = = : 7 of the State Federation of Teachers, went before the school board at their May 27th meeting. The late date and lack of hearings were pointed out. Springer was re-hired. Elsewhere in the Northwest the same spirit prevails. The Portland local has had an infusion of new blood, with forty new members in one month. They forced the repeal in the Oregon legislature of the absurd law that every teacher must read “one book a year”. New locals have been formed in Astoria, Bellingham and Enumclaw, with the cooperation of central labor bodies and of Ben Osborne, executive sec- retary of the State Federation of Labor. In Butte, Mont., the teachers are practically 100 per cent SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 organized, and when the school board opposed the union, tae central labor council put the entire board on the unfair list. This so affected the businesses of a grocer and an em- balmer who were on the board that they quickly came to terms. A strong local has been formed at Anaconda, another well-organized mining town. At the University of Montana, at Missoula, however, it was a different story. Philip Keeney, head librarian at the University for six years, unsuccessfully sounded out the possibilities for a union on the campus more than a year ago. He believed in putting his high social ideals into effect, both in running the library and outside, and said so. He also drew criticism when he asked the State Board of Education by letter what was meant by the ban on “Passion Spins the Plot” and books of like character. The particular novel under fire was by Vardis Fisher, brilliant former Montana teacher. In the Spring of 1936 when Keeney’s three-year contract came up for renewal, President Simmons limited it to one year and scratched out the tenure guarantees. President Simmons is a self-made man. After getting his Ph.D. and teaching biology for one year at Missoula, he got himself elevated to the presidency of the institution. The faculty almost unanimously opposed the appointment, but that didn’t matter. He was approved of by a big mer- chant and banker in Missoula. Last winter, the unionized common school teachers of Montana got a retirement bill through the legislature with the help of the state labor movement. The University teach- ers, without this backing, saw their retirement bill die in committee. This started new sentiment for a union, and the organizing committee sent Hugh DeLacy from Seattle to help Keeney do the job that he had started by signing up several faculty members. He arrived only to find that Keeney had received his notice of dismissal two days before. Nevertheless a meeting was called, and twenty-six charter members signed up at the first meeting. Sentiment was stimulated by Keeney’s dismissal, arbitrary and lacking in formal charges as it was. The flagrant nature of the Keeney case rivals the Jerome Davis and Harvard cases. The organized teachers of the State Federation of Labor took the case to the State Board of Education and the Governor immediately after Keeney’s dismissal, without results. DeLacy and others were stopped from presenting fully their side of the case, but President Simmons argued for an hour before an executive session and obtained the backing of the state board. A committee on academic freedom, composed of business and professional people, has been organized in Missoula to fight the case, and mass méetings are planned in the cities of Montana. The case will be decided by the people, with the moral and financial help of organized teachers throughout the country. The state attorney-general has given his opinion that Keeney’s dismissal without a hearing is illegal. The story is not yet all told. 21 Teachers’ < jew FALL MANY TEACHERS have gone back to their classrooms wondering what they can do under pres- ent conditions to make daily life in the school help educate boys and girls for democracy. We must frankly admit that there are few sources of direct aid for teachers who want to organize their class- rooms on a democratic basis. Very few schools have per- mitted such reorganization and too few of us have been ready to work out details with sincerity and skill. It is one thing to say that you want all your pupils to share equally in making and carrying out plans, but it is another thing to shape conditions and to control yourself, so that you may create a pattern of democratic living with your school group. There are numerous obstacles to the management of classroom affairs by teachers and pupils. We must recog- nize two main problems if we wish to face them realistically and deal with these difficulties in practical fashion. The present organization of the school system and the social attitudes of many teachers are hindrances to development of democratic procedures in our classrooms. “It seems a strange contradiction that the United States of America, with its emphasis upon democracy, should have developed a school system which is administered upon a pattern diametrically opposed to democracy,” says William H. Kilpatrick in The Teacher and Society. The pattern of the existing school system has tended to habituate many thousands of teachers to undemocratic school scholarships in public and private schools. It re- quires clear analysis and determined effort to weaken the influence of autocratic administration. In childhood and youth all of us attended schools where we obeyed orders or evaded discovery in classroom situations where authority was the dominant control and social activity was always suspect. Our professional training and quest for jobs made us even more subservient to the powers who recommend appointments and sign contracts for teaching positions. Even when we joined groups of teachers in professional conferences we found our co-workers dominated by an hier- archy of administrators. Whether we attended state edu- cational conventions or sat through staff meetings in our own schools, we found little opportunity to state our views or to influence decisions affecting our work and the welfare of our pupils. Is it any wonder that the teachers, who are products of such a school system, feel they have no experience in Union Trains For Democratic Schools Active union membership builds new and healthier classroom relationships. By BERYL PARKER the democratic management of their own profession? They must look elsewhere for aid when they decide to organize pupils for participation in their own school affairs. Active membership in a teachers union will do more than all the books and courses in any school of pedagogy to start teach- ers on the right road for attaining real democracy in the classroom. At work in his own local, a teacher discovers for the first time in his professional career what it means to be a member of a group committed to democratic procedures and a social point of view. A union committee functions in quite a different way from a school staff. Active union members value and utilize their right to share in group discussions of all issues. They speak from their own knowledge and feeling with the certainty of a fair hearing. There is no fear or subservience toward a higher authority, who has the power to nullify a decision and to prevent action. From experience in the union, teachers go back to their classrooms firmly resolved that the same policy and pro- cedure shall gradually revolutionize their own schools. They bring into the classroom new respect for the rights and powers of individuals. Teachers find they have gained patience and skill for guiding the group life of pupils at school from their own experience with groups of fellow- workers in the union. Fear decreases when teachers under- stand the strength of a growing organization which sup- ports their program for better conditions of work in the schools. The realization that problems of the teaching profes- sion are related to the struggle of labor everywhere adds significance to the daily job. When we remember that our pupils are the children of workers in the main, it seems doubly worth while to guide them into widening oppor- tunities for activity and to make cooperation the basis of school life. Many teachers find new satisfaction in their work as they at last recognize their own dignity as leaders and their power to make the classroom a miniature de- mocracy. sin » “ 4) THE AMERICAN TEACHER | all il >) fo Se = gn Midwest Teachers Organize By MARY J. HERRICK HREE thousand teachers have been added to the Tei Federation of Teachers in Illinois and Indiana since September, 1936. Another thousand will be added in October, 1937, when the combination of public school locals in Chicago is complete. There is a real prospect that growth will continue in the coming year. Since this increase was a major item in the development of the American Federation of Teachers in the last year, a brief summary of the reasons for it in and out of Chicago will be of interest and may be of help to union teachers the country over. Let us take the Chicago situation first, since it is more dramatic as to numbers, although it is probably no more significant of the trend of the times than is the re-establish- ment of Local 4 in Gary, Indiana. The union teachers in Chicago have been a large and influential section of the teaching force for many years, averaging 15 per cent of the entire teaching body, a larger percentage than in most good sized cities; only St. Paul, Atlanta, and the more recently organized Cleveland, Chattanooga and Toledo locals exceed this proportion. Within the limits of the public school system, six locals of the American Federation of Teachers have been functioning through a joint board for eight years. Two of these, an active and successful group of school clerks and a well established truant officers’ local, have decided to continue their cooperation on the same basis as previously. The other four, the Men Teachers Union, the Federation of Women High School Teachers, the Elementary Teachers Union, and the Playground Teach- ers Union, voted in May, 1937, to combine into one local. A division of a large mass of teachers into cooperating groups has some advantages in facilitating democratic par- ticipation of the mass of the membership, and is not un- common in the AFT. Milwaukee, I believe, has five locals, and Madison, Wis., three; but in the critical situation Chi- cago teachers are now facing, the disadvantages stand out in sharp relief, and the vote for the new arrangement in all four locals was practically unanimous. In other words, the real reason for the sweeping growth of the union movement in Chicago is the realization on the part of the great mass of teachers that public education in Chicago is in the last ditch and that the strongest force able and willing to help is the Chicago Federation of Labor. Neither the advice from without nor small pressure groups within are the basis for the influx of thousands of new members. Inescapable cold facts have awakened the un- SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 How the need to help themselves brought unity and concerted activity to lake district teachers. organized teachers of Chicago to action, as well as younger members of Miss Margaret Haley’s once militant Federa- tion, and a considerable share of the membership of the anti-union Association who have cast in their lot with the new union. A carefully worked out constitution for the new local will be voted on in October and the new charter will probably be granted in that month. The membership of the Chicago Teachers Union now includes 44 per cent of the assigned teachers and there is no doubt that it will in- clude the majority shortly, in spite of the delay caused by the infantile paralysis epidemic. Just what are these cold facts which stare at Chicago teachers so gravely? Many of them are not of recent origin and are inherent in the political and industrial set-up of the third state of the nation. An antique state constitu- tion, almost impossible to amend, which perpetuates a pre-Civil War property tax system as the chief support for government in a huge industrial population, and which pre- cludes an income tax, according to rulings of the State Supreme Court, has been an obstacle ever since 1870. Chi- cago had a tax strike as early as 1872, and paid its teachers warrants instead of cash! Moreover, until 1932 this ana- chronistic property tax had been collected in Cook County by a system which fed $30,000,000 a year of public tax funds into the coffers of whatever party happen to be in power. In an attempt to stop this huge racket, a reassess- ment of property was ordered in 1927, then held up by injunction, and taxes were delayed so that 1929 bills were not sent out till 1931—and, oh the difference to the public treasury! Every local government in Chicago now owes three-fourths of a year to two years running expenses. In one recent year the debt charges of the Chicago Board of Education were more than one-fourth of its total budget. Add to this muddle the Insull debacle which so weakened the banking business in Chicago that the two largest banks in the city are still owned 52 per cent by the Federal gov- ernment lest they collapse, and you begin to see the reason for the long series of payless pay days for all employees of Chicago local governments from 1931 to 1934. The de- lays for teachers were longer because the Board of Educa- tion is more dependent on the property tax than is any other of the eight overlapping local governments. A 1933 decision of the State Supreme Court invalidating an income tax law, the failure to get enough votes to change the amending clause of the Constitution in 1932, and to rewrite the whole mess in 1934, all of which changes the teachers had worked for, brought further discouragement. 23 This financial muddle is bad enough. But when Chicago does anything, it does it in a big way—and it proceeded to put the finishing touches on the public school system by developing between 1932 and 1937 a local Tammany Hall unique of its kind. For the first time in Chicago history, the corrupt local machine set about annexing the educa- tional department of the schools. First it wiped out in 1933 all those antennae of sensitive adjustment of the schools to the community which the World’s Greatest News- paper, the Chicago Tribune, chief supporter of the present regime, attacked as “fads and frills”. It dropped the city colleges, the junior high schools, one-tenth of the teachers and, though checked in mid career in destruction, committed irrevocable havoc for a generation of Chicago’s children. Some of the services dropped have been returned and all the teachers were reassigned by 1935. The most recent de- velopment is the employment of a superintendent of schools, openly subservient to the machine Board of Education and the definite suspicion in the minds of a majority of teachers that all is not well with appointments and promotions. The opposition of the teachers to the attacks upon the merit system is without doubt the reason why teachers are the only group of local employees who have failed to get any considerable return of the 1933 pay cut. But where does labor appear in this picture? Right in the middle of the front! When the teachers and Citizens Schools Committee held a huge mass meeting of 30,000 people at the Stadium July 20, 1933, to protest the ruthless destruction of the school system, the only person who did not represent education or “civic” interests on the program was sturdy John Fitzpatrick, president of the Chicago Fed- eration of Labor, who read a fiery denunciation, passed by the Chicago Federation of Labor the Sunday before. The Federation of Labor has openly opposed the Chicago Tammany on its major issues, and has had the satisfaction of defeating it soundly on a vote on an all year round “Day- light Saving” scheme fostered by the Tribune not long ago. Every request made of the Federation of Labor for support for the schvols has been granted and thousands of dollars worth of free radio time over WCFL has been an important factor in arousing public interest. There is every reason why Chicago teachers should look to the Chicago Federation of Labor as their strongest support as they gird themselves for increased effort. The Chicago Teachers Union will not rest until the Illi- nois tax system is revised, until the merit laws are respected and some order brought into the mess of local government in Chicago. And because the thousands of teachers in the Union are learning to understand the economic and political causes of their own plight, they are well on the way to becoming more useful teachers and broader minded, more active American citizens. A special session of the Illinois legislature to consider a revision of the state constitution and the reorganization of the state school system is to be called in October, 1937. A local election of Chicago officials 24 occurs in February, 1939. The McCoy suit is one evidence of the downright determination of thousands of Chicago teachers to clean up the whole mess and set up a modern school system in Chicago worthy of the city, its children and the intent and ability of its teachers. There is a clear determination on the part of the ma- jority of teachers in the new Chicago union to use the permanent power of the union not only as an adequate force to protect the economic and civil rights of the teachers, and to play an effective part in untangling the hindrances to a state and local set-up more socially sound and economically just, but as a democratic device for making public education a more effective social instrument. It is this same determination to defend and extend the best of American education which is evident in the chain of locals along Lake Michigan, in Northern Indiana. Here a friendly state administration, a growing labor movement, and an able and respected lead- etn fi oti NH Wid) pint ership in the existing teacher IANNIS AW . unions augur well for the growth an of the American Federation of Teachers in the area. Likewise in the highly successful local in Bloomington, Illinois, the lead- ers of the union are clearly out- standing teachers. Because of their influence there is spread- ing through central Illinois a respect for and appreciation of the type of schools the teachers union works for. The extension of the teacher union movement in the Middle West area de- pends on the active enthusiasm of teachers who clearly are not using the union only for their own ends, but are energetic in using their joint power to make education more meaningful for children. There are now seven locals in Indiana and twelve in Illinois outside the large Chicago union. In Illinois approxi- mately one-seventh of the teachers in the state are union members. Since at present one-fourth of the teachers in the State are in one room country schools, almost com- pletely disassociated from each other, the actual member- ship of the teacher unions is really almost one-fifth of the potential membership. Out of twenty-three cities in Illinois of more than 25,000 population, seven already have locals, and active interest has already been evinced in seven more. The time has passed when the American Federation of Teachers should be content with being a critical minority. With statesmanlike leadership and with a sane program of action which can be understood and agreed with by the socially minded alert teachers of our great public school systems, the American Federation of Teachers can take its place as a dominant force in American education and a focal point in American democracy. THE AMERICAN TEACHER a — =! = ~*~ ft Ff or er he ol ke a Extending Democracy to School Administration must extend its control to every phase of American life. American society cannot endure divided against itself, politically democratic and economically autocratic. Either it must become all democratic or it will become all |’ AMERICAN DEMOCRACY is to persist in the future, it autocratic. Before I go further, it will be well to try to clarify our thinking about the meaning of democracy. Certainly it means something different to us today than it did to our forebears a hundred years ago. Like all things that per- sist, democracy has changed. Adaptation to a changing environment is a fundamental law of life and is just as necessary to a social as to a biological organism. The ideals of democracy, liberty, equality and fraternity are funda- mental and enduring, but their implementation changes. The democracy set up by our forefathers was largely political, expressing itself through the ballot and function- ing in the power of the police and the authority of the courts. Democracy has now gone into the phase of common agreement in the relations of labor and industry. This is the meaning of collective bargaining, the very essence of contemporary democracy. It is manifestly impossible to state accurately what this recent development of democ- racy means. The best description of it that I have seen is the formulation by Professor Boyd Bode in these words: “Democracy is that type of government in which the con- stant extension of the area of agreement is the sole stand- ard of progress.” If it is necessary to extend the practices of democracy into all phases of our social life, it is doubly necessary that they be extended into all phases of the limited area of edu- cation. While democracy breaks out at various times in all the different types of American public schools these phenomena occur in spite of, not because of the administra- tive control. The administration of education in demo- cratic America is autocratic from top to bottom, controlled by an employer-minded board, administered by an em- ployer-minded superintendent, and taught by teachers who govern their little woikls as autocratically as a Czar. And so any manifestations of real democracy that have occurred in the schools have been accidental and spontaneous, rather than controlled and fostered. Before there can be any real democracy in the schools the whole concept of their control and administration must be changed. The best statement of the democratic function of a board of education that I have ever read was made SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 Changing concepts indicate role of teacher-superintendence and limit function of control boards. By FRANK E. BAKER by President Robert Maynard Hutchins of the University of Chicago and published in the University of Chicago Magazine, January, 1936, in these words: If ideally a university is a group of professors, what is a board of trustees? A board of trustees is a body of public spirited citizens who believe in the aims of the professors; namely, the development of education and the advancement of knowledge. They have under- taken to relieve them of two responsibilities they can- not carry; the responsibility of managing their prop- erty and the responsibility of interpreting them to and defending them from the public. They fix the salary scale in order to make sure that the university’s money is not squandered. They find out all about the faculty in order to interpret them to the public. But they have renounced for all practical purposes any right to pass on their qualifications to be professors. The faculty is not working for the trustees; the trustees are working for the faculty. The analogy of business or what an employer may do in business is therefore in- applicable. If this concept of a board of control of a democratic iumetion is correct, and I think it is, then school boards are not employers. The teachers are not employed by the board; they are employed by society and are responsible only to it, under the rules of conduct and the code of ethics of the profession to which they belong. The teachers are not working for the board; rather the board is working for the teachers, the members having been chosen by society to interpret the schools to their constituents and to do a type of work that teachers cannot and should not be called upon to do. But some one will arise to say that society is the em- ployer and that the power of employment is delegated to the board. This is true, but the employment should be made and continued according to criteria and standards set up by the profession of teaching. The choice of teach- ers and their retention is one type of work that the teachers cannot do and which society gives a board the privilege of doing. But these functions should be exercised according to rules formulated by the profession. When the pro- fession of teaching shall have become as highly developed as it should be in a democracy, education will be controlled by them, just as law is controlled by lawyers and medicine by doctors. While the concept of the function of boards of control has been expanded far beyond the democratic ideal, the 25 distortion has not been either so great or so fatal as in the concept of the position and function of administrative officers—presidents, superintendents and principals. We shall make little progress in the development of democratic practices in American education until this concept is radi- cally changed. Not long ago, I was called upon to testify at hearings on the dismissal of two teachers, members of the AFT. Both of these teachers were supervisors, and I was asked if membership in the AFT was not incompatible with admin- istrative functions which might involve collective bargaining. This question goes to the very root of the matter. It clearly indicates the confusion in the minds of the public in regard to the position and function of school adminis- trators. Back of the question is the idea that the administra- tors represent the board and not the teachers. But accord- ing to the democratic concept, administrators represent the teachers to the board; in fact, they are teachers and should never have been separated from the teaching function. And still further back of the question is the idea of two camps bargaining with each other: in one is the board and the administrative officers, in the other the teachers. But in the first place, there should be no separate camps and under the democratic concept of administration there would not be. But granted that the employer attitude has created a gulf between the board and the teachers, there is no doubt where the administrator belongs. He is fundamentally a teacher, selected to interpret the teachers to the board. He cannot do that unless he understands them and he can- not understand them unless he is one of them. The dualism that has grown up in American education between administration and teaching has been fatal, not only to democracy but to the standing of the administrator. It has made him a puppet of the employer group and robbed him of the freedom necessary to the growth.of a colorful personality. Furthermore, the complete separation from the teaching function has taken him out of the atmosphere of scholarship and pretty nearly robbed him of all claim to intellectual respectability. The first step in the cure of this unfortunate dualism would be to restore all administrators to the teaching func- tion and, in the case of school principals and supervisors, that could be done at once. Most of the work done by school principals is routine and trivial and could be done better by trained secretaries, and the best method of super- vision is the demonstration of good teaching. In actual fact, the teaching in the schools would be improved by abolishing most of the supervisory positions and using the money so saved to employ more and better teachers. On this point I have one quarrel with the constitution and by-laws of the AFT, which make membership of administrators almost impossible and so perpetuate the unfortunate dualism between administration and teaching. So long as the administrators are lined up with employer- minded boards, there will be slight progress in the growth of democracy from above downward. Many teachers will say that they enjoy liberty under the present administrative set-up; many Germans will say that they have freedom under Nazism; and many Italians, under Fascism. What they say is partly true. The Italians have freedom so long as they remain within the framework of Fascism; the Germans have freedom so long as they do not violate the principles of Nazism; and the teachers have freedom so long as they cater to the system Many school administrators delude themselves into be- lieving that they administer their schools democratically be- cause they consult the teachers about the choice of texts and on curriculum problems. But all dictators do the same. Mussolini consults military experts and Hitler listens to his puppets. Democracy in school administration means much more than consulting experts or considering reports from committees. It means that no fundamental educational policy shall be adopted that has not been arrived at by common agreement among the administrators and the teachers concerned. Space will not permit the discussion of the democratic operation of the various relations of the school administra- tor to his staff. Two that seem to me vital are the appoint- ment of committees and the selection of new teachers. All committees of teachers should be appointed by the teachers, either by direct election or by a committee on committees, the members of which are chosen by ballot. Committees of teachers appointed by the administrator have all the ear-marks of the company union; they may not and usually do not represent the views of the rank and file and hence cannot function in extending the area of common agreement. The selection of teachers is not so simple, but of one thing I am certain: no administrators or group of ad- ministrators is competent to select a primary teacher for a certain elementary school or a history teacher for a cer- tain high school, for the simple reason that the democratic approval of those with whom the teacher is to be associated aap sty 26 THE AMERICAN TEACHER his citi In ten in met exp Pro SEPT the ion of the ng. er- vth the say ins, ans ork do ave be- exts me. ans orts ynal by the atic tra- int- the » on llot. nave not | file mon one ad- - for cer- ratic ated CHER js just as important to his success as any professional or academic requirements. After thirty years of administrative experience, I am convinced that the democratic way of selecting teachers offers no insurmountable difficulties. Just as candidates for a history position in a college can be required to inter- view the president, the head of the department and a com- mittee of teachers chosen by the staff of that department, so candidates for positions in an elementary school could be required to interview the superintendent or a member of his staff, the principal of the school and a committee of teachers appointed by the teachers. It will be objected that candidates for position in large city systems apply for a certain type of position in the system and if selected are assigned to a certain building by the administration. That is the efficient way in the factory system, but regimentation is never democratic and does not result in the happy professional relationships so essential in the educational process. But democratic administration will avail nothing unless it produces democratic teaching. The sole end of good administration is good teaching, and while any manifesta- tion of democracy is valuable in itself, the goal of educa- tion in a democracy can only be achieved in democratic teaching. Democratic administration must create the freedom and the incentive to carry democracy into every activity of the classroom. It cannot be too often repeated that the vision of the founding fathers of the public schools as the very foundation of the temple of democracy will not be realized until every lecture hall and classroom shall have become a laboratory of democracy, in which the youth of America will grow in the responsibilities of and capacities for democracy by experiencing democracy. Tt 5 Happening Now Facts on Our School Hazards A REPORT, prepared by the Federal Administration of Public Works, and submitted by Secretary Ickes to the Senate last May, placed the number of unsafe school build- ings in the United States at 1,178. Of these 501 are listed as fire hazards, and the rest are so overcrowded and so poor in sanitary conditions as to constitute “panic” haz- ards or to menace the health of the children. The report, however, lists only the schools for which applications for PWA funds have been made to eliminate the hazards; 1,178 may be considered a conservative estimate. The inquiry was stimulated by the disaster in the school at New London, Texas. After the Liberty League ON A CERTAIN KIND of organization, it might be well to quote Barnum . “There’s one born every minute.” The latest, we note, is the Knights of Progress—‘“dedicated to the struggle against any subversive activities, schemes or plans aimed at the sanctity and security of these United States.” So far only the name of the national organizer is available, Mr. L. B. Smith, who refused to reporters his address and the names and addresses of the leading citizens who are, according to Mr. Smith, already enrolled. In a twelve-point program released to the press, the main- tenance of “lawful” free speech and the universal adoption in educational institutions of a loyalty oath to the govern- ment stand out, amidst the conventional demagoguery, as expressive of the spirit which will light the Knights of Progress along the path of fascism. SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 NLRB Looks into the Vigilantes THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS Boarp, in opening its inquiry into the recent strike at the Johnstown, Pa., plant of the Bethlehem Steel Co., has uncovered some interest- ing facts about the national vigilante organization which grew out of the Johnstown Citizens’ Committee, supposedly a spontaneous development at the time of the strike. Rabbi Abram M. Granowitz, an early participant in the local organization as a member of its publicity committee, testi- fied that there was no connection he knew of between his committee’s work and the full-page advertisements which appeared in the press on a nation-wide scale July 16. This publicity, the publication in the Johnstown Democrat of news articles attacking the CIO, and other moves which he and members of the committee he knew had no part in led him to withdraw from the movement. Previously one member of the five who formed the National Committee, Don Kirkley, had resigned because of the obvious anti- labor direction of the committee. Mouthpiece of Destiny PUBLIC UTTERANCE by one of Japan’s leading bankers, Hirozo Mori, on the policies of his government in respect to financial and-economic policies arising from the invasion of China make clear the hypnotic power which pure fatalism exerts upon Japanese gentlemen of elevated rank: “Ex- pansion to the Asiatic continent is the Japanese People’s heaven-decreed destiny, which neither the world nor we ourselves can check or alter.”” Later on in his statement, however, he concedes the possibility of another turn of fate. 27 “When all China is red there will be no place for capitalists there. Our own very existence will be endangered.” One would suppose that a “Heaven-decreed destiny” had already provided for the very existence of those so sure of the inten- tions of Heaven. Peonage in Georgia THAT DUBIOUS PHRASE “right to work,” in some environ- ments, is a command to work or else—. Take Georgia. In September, Negro cotton pickers, working at 40 cents a hundred, were prevented from getting better wages at 75 cents a hundred in the next county, by armed deputies and growers. Also all Negroes on relief are taken off the rolls while there is cotton to be picked at 40 cents. Would you like to have your principal poke a gun in your ribs because you decided to take a better paying job in the next county? How Tenure Is Fought—Against OUR REACTIONARIES are aggressive, and nothing save, perhaps, the Supreme Court, is irrevocable to them. Their attacks on teachers’ tenure laws are an example also of a versatility in method. A report from Pittsburgh brings news of the activity of rumor-mongers who are spreading the story that “the new State Tenure Law has ruined all chances of college graduates ‘to find teaching jobs.”” Theo- dore A. Liedle, director of the Teachers Appointment Bu- reau and assistant dean of the School of Education of Pitts- burgh University, has this to say on the rumor: The new law hasn’t made a particle of difference. Instead of less jobs than there were last year at this time, there are actually more. Unscrupulous rumor spreaders have been throwing a fright into conscientious young people who are seeking teaching posts. Mr. Liedle further reports that 49 per cent of the School of Education’s graduates of last year are now employed as teachers. . In California less subtle methods are used. A neat little throwaway raises the “red scare” around the Tenure Law under the large type heading Repeal Teachers’ Tenure Law. Arguing that a minority, the radical teach- ers, are protected in their positions by tenure laws, the leaflet urges “all patriotic Americans to sign the petitions for the repeal of the Teachers’ Tenure Act, which will soon be in circulation. That is the only permanent way.” We might add—way of making insecurity of all teachers per- manent! King-Ramsay-Conner In Cairornia, the courts of justice have arranged one more monstrous frame-up of labor leaders to add to their unenviable record. Three men, Earl King, Ernest G. Ramsay, Frank J. Conner, all active members of the mili- tant marine unions in San Francisco (King is vice-president of the San Francisco District Council of the Maritime Fed- 28 eration) were sent to prison after a trial ending on Jan- uary 5, 1937. Before that time, confessions exacted by torture, stool pigeon evidence, perjury, a District Attorney directly connected with the reactionary Hearst-Fleishhacker interests in the state, a partial judge, a stacked jury, explain the history and the outcome of the trial. The trial fits per- fectly into the union-smashing efforts of the ship owners. But the King-Ramsay-Conner Defense Committee is fight- ing the frame-up through a national campaign to get them out of prison. The constitution must be re-introduced to California. The URWA Speaks on Fascism THE UNITED RuBBER WorKERS’ UNION, in convention at Akron, in September, singled out the enemies of trade unionism in plain terms. ‘Groups subversive to the welfare of the working class” are Chambers of Commerce, law and order leagues, vigilante groups, and, in the terms of the anti- fascist resolution, their efforts to secure legislation regulat- ing unions are “an aspect of fascist policy and constitute the greatest menace to trade unionism and to the rights and liberties of the working class.’ But the resolution also points out that the unity of all labor organizations, ‘no matter what may be their other differences,” is the force that can crush the fascist menace. Verboten EvEN IN GERMANY, every cloud has its silver lining. In a new section added to the criminal codes paragraph 185, dealing with utterances unfavorable to the National Social- ist Party and its leaders, soliloquizing cannot be proceeded against, provided one is not overheard. Diaries also are immune as long as they are the confidant of the diarist alone. Watch your step, however, in your family circle. One slip before children and wife over your breakfast of margarine and potato-corn bread may land you in jail. Thus privacy in one’s family becomes one more relic of the “degenerate past”. Charity Begins with the C. of C. LATE IN SEPTEMBER George H. Davis, president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, made public the results of a study which would indicate that half of the unemployed are, and have long been, unemployables. The natural inference then, to Big Business, is that industry has no responsibility to employ part of the unemployed, and furthermore, since unemployment is a problem for charity, control measures such as the thirty-hour week have no relevance for industry. Well, the dawn has been a long time in coming to the Chamber of Commerce, but we are glad to learn that “unemployables” and unemployment have nothing to do with industry. Says Mr. Davis, “its responsibility for these is charitable.” Since charity is notorious for robbing initiative, charity should be dispensed with at once—which completes the program of the C. of C. THE AMERICAN TEACHER de the we Cor wo the pre ear Sirc ere} SEP’ ute hts ion ns, the ing. 85, ded are irist rcle. t of jail. c of the the the The y has and rity, e no long e are ment , “its ty is ensed of C. CHER — Labor Notes Tre Guitp Goes CIO HE RESULT of the American Newspaper Guild’s national tetas which brought in a substantial majority of votes in favor of affiliation with the CIO, brings to mind an amazing recollection. Only a little more than one year ago, the Guild was not affiliated with any labor organiza tion. The newspapermen had been organized for approx- imately two years when they held their first convention in 1934. At that time the question of affiliating with labor was raised, but decision was postponed. Doubts as to the advisability of such a step took the old form so familiar among teachers: professional workers do not belong in a labor union. In the case of the newspaper employees, this conservatism presented an amusing contradiction to their ready adoption in practice of the strike and other militant union tactics. The following year, the question came up once again. The convention voted to submit the issue to a referendum, a two-thirds majority being required for affilia- tion with the American Federation of Labor. votes won by a narrow margin. The negative Finally in 1936, instructed delegates voted almost seventeen to one in favor of joining the Federation. Coincidental with the decision to join labor was an intensified interest in the industrial form of organization; and the determination grew to organize the ANG in industrial unions. It was natural, then, for the Guild membership as a whole to look with favor upon the organization and activities of the Committee for Industrial Organization. As the split in the labor movement widened, Guild sympathies swung so sharply toward the CIO that in the spring of 1937 the Executive Board rejected an invi- tation to send a representative to the Cincinnati meeting of the A. F. of L. Executive Council. A letter to Mr. Green set forth two reasons as the basis for the refusal: “Again and again we called for unity on the basis of democracy and we do not now believe it is going to be achieved on the basis of further departure therefrom. We find it difficult to regard this conference as bona-fide inasmuch as it makes no provision for the representatives of two million American workers. Nor is this even more open departure from democracy our only consideration in refusing to condone the proceedings by participating in them. With amazement, We note evidence that the Executive Council now permit connivance with employers for the purpose of defeating workers in their efforts to bargain collectively. . . . If the American Federation of Labor is to be an agency for preventing the free and independent association of wage earners, we will not be a party to such a betrayal.” The strong feeling evident in this letter culminated in the ref- erendum vote of 3392 to 1691 for affiliation with the CIO SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 but one year after the ANG had joined the American Fed- eration of Labor LABOR’S SLICE Last year a larger proportion of the national income went to the country’s workers than they received in any other year since 1929, when the U. S. Department of Com- merce initiated its annual analysis of the distribution of national income. The proportion for this year is expected to be greater, largely as a result of the wage increases won by the CIO in steel, automobile, and other industries. Na- tional income and average wages are still below the 1929 level. Moreover, a return to the actual 1929 income would not mean a restoration of 1929 living standards both be- cause of the sharp rise in prices during the past year, and also because of a substantial increase in population within the last eight years. PENNSYLVANIA’S 44-Hour Law While the Black-Connery thirty-hour bill languished in Congress last spring, the Pennsylvania Legislature took a step forward and passed twin maximum hour laws, one gov- erning occupations of women specifically, and the other a general law. The former went into effect on September 1, and the latter will go into effect on December 1. The limits prescribed on working hours are as follows: No employee may work more than forty-four hours in any one week, more than eight hours in any one day, more than five and a half days in any week, or more than five hours consecu- tively without a meal or a rest period of at least thirty minutes. These restrictions must be observed whether an employee works for only one or for more than one em- ployer. Moreover, the eight hours of work must be per- formed within ten consecutive hours.’ Several classifications of workers have been excepted from the provisions of the laws, among them, nurses, agricultural workers, domestics, and persons earning at least $25 in executive positions. The last category includes secretaries. A partial exception concerns employees in the canning industry, who, for one period in the year not to exceed twelve weeks, may be em- ployed as many as ten hours a day, but not more than forty-eight hours a week. However, the hours worked in excess of eight a day must be paid for at time-and-a-half rates. The laws carry penalties of fines or imprisonment for evasion, and also require the posting of time schedules together with an abstract of the law in each place of em- ployment. The Department of Labor and Industry, with the approval of the Industrial Board, may grant exemptions to employers where “the strict application of the law would cause unnecessary hardship”. Thus far, several requests 29 for exemptions have been rejected. It is interesting to note that a Philadelphia hospital announced the creation of thir- teen new jobs for women immediately after the law for women went into effect. The law is without question a step forward, a step that might well be emulated by other state legislatures in the interim pending federal legislation. The Pennsylvania law, however, fails to cover all occupations and to include minimum wage provisions. As might readily be expected, a number of employers were not slow in taking advantage of the second weakness, so that on September 11, the State Secretary of Labor, Ralph M. Bashore, found it The Teachers NATIONAL NEW S Appointments Made by Executive Council Mr. Irvin Kuenzli has been selected by the Executive Council to continue as secretary-treasurer of the AFT. Dr. William W. Wattenberg of the School of Education of Northwestern University has been engaged by the Execu- tive Council to assist in publicity work for the national organization and has been added to the editorial committee of THe AMERICAN TEACHER. Professor George A. Axtelle of Northwestern University, vice-president for the college section and formerly contrib- uting editor to THe AMERICAN TEACHER has been ap- pointed representative of the Executive Council on the editorial committee. Organizers Selected The Executive Council voted to employ four organizers, one for the east coast, one for the west coast, and two for the central states. William Card of Madison, Wis., mem- ber of Local 223, Wisconsin University Teachers Union, has been employed in the west central states. Mr. Ker- mit Eby, who has recently been employed as the Executive Secretary of the Chicago Teachers Union, will assist with the national organization work in the Illinois and Indiana areas. Organizers will be selected later for the east and west coast areas. Amendment on Per Capita The following amendment to Article VIII pertaining to per capita payments was passed by referendum vote: “A local may pay the per capita tax as designated in Section 1 for all members of the local at the average salary for the teachers of the school system—such average to be obtained by adding the minimum and maximum salaries of the salary schedule and dividing by two. If locals which adopt 30 necessary to issue a statement castigating certain employers for legal evasion of the law; namely, reducing of wages, which, he declared, evaded the intent of the law. “They are short-sighted,” he said, and “will be responsible if a minimum wage law is enacted.” But why must a min- imum wage law be a threat? This law is thus true to the general tradition of labor legislation in the past which has somehow always left loopholes. Such a law is still a far cry from the desired objective of organized labor, the thirty-hour week, and must be regarded not as an accom- plished goal but only as a good point of departure. nion in ction this have members on different salary schedules such as Elementary, Junior High and Senior High, they shall pay for all members in each group, such average to be secured by adding the minimum and maximum salaries on the salary schedule and dividing by two.” The amendment states that a local may choose this plan or continue to pay per capita as provided in Section 1 of the Constitution. The purpose of the amendment is to simplify bookkeeping in the large locals. Question of International Affiliation Miss Robinson of Local 5, Miss Herstein of Local 3, and Mr. Kuenzli were guests at an International Council of Popular Education held in Paris, July 22-29, and also of the International Federation of Teachers Associations, July 30-31. The latter organization is made up of teach- ers’ organizations from twenty-seven countries. Five hun- dred thousand teachers are affiliated with this organization. The meeting was devoted to reports from the various coun- tries as to the status of teaching conditions and educational advancement. The AFT has been invited to affiliate and is considering the question at the present time. NEWS LOCALS Hopeful Outlook for Full Restoration in Atlanta The Atlanta Teacher, organ of Local 89, reports a hope- ful outlook for full salary restoration. Under the Georgia State Board of Education’s plan for allocating funds in ac- cordance with the professional rating of teachers employed in any school system, the Atlanta School department is ex- pecting a revenue of $300,000 from state funds. In addi- tion, collection of city revenues is reported higher than last year. No announcement had been made of full restoration at the time of the publication of the Bulletin, but authen- tic information points to the possibility of accomplishing from THE AMERICAN TEACHER - cr er Ti St ac Yi 25 cel tio urs hel SEP PTs es, ey ble the 1as far the as pay red the rent pay ion. ding and 1 of o of ions, hun- tion. oun- ional and | ’ 7 2) | nope- orgia loyed is eX- addi- n last ation then- ishing CHER this before January 1, 1938. The Executive Committee of Local 89 is pushing this possibility. Teachers Warn Labor of Dangerous Legislation News received too late for inclusion in the May-June issues of THE AMERICAN TEACHER reported the unanimous adoption last spring by the Alameda County, Cal., Central Labor Union of an important resolution introduced by the Bay Cities Federation of Teachers, Local 349. This resolution was in opposition to the Hill-Sheppard Bill, to which attention was first called by the article “Fascism via Industrial Mobilization” in THe AMERICAN TEACHER of November-December, 1936. In adopting this resolu- tion, the Alameda County Central Labor Union also voted to send five sealed and addressed copies to every affiliated local and to the California State Federation of Labor, for mailing to Washington. The resolution in part reads as follows: “Whereas, the so-called Industrial Mobilization Plan, introduced into the United States Senate (S. 25) and the House of Representatives (H.R. 1954) as the Hill-Shep- pard Bill, would legalize the establishment of a dictatorship as rigid and complete as that found in Fascist countries, and . Whereas, the bill would give business interests power to suspend collective bargaining, break strikes, control pro- duction, fix both prices and wages arbitrarily, and wipe out all gains made by organized labor in years of struggle, and Whereas, Labor bears the heaviest burdens of war, in- cluding physical suffering and death, in addition to hard- ships during wartime and the depressions which always follow, therefore be it Resolved, that this organization express vigorous oppo- sition to the Hill-Sheppard Bill and any other proposal which involves conscription of labor for military or in- dustrial service, threats to voluntary collective bargaining, encouragement of profits from military preparation, and all dictatorships of a military or potentially fascist char- acter. . sy New York Opens Attack on Over-crowded Classrooms Local 5 has opened a major campaign against the over- crowding of classrooms with the publication of a pamphlet entitled “Save the Children—a Message to Parents and Teachers” available at Union headquarters, 114 East 16th Street, New York City. The statistics quoted—with the accompaniment of graphic illustrations—show that in New York City, from Kindergarten through grade 8B, there are only 455'% classes—or 2.6 per cent—of fewer than 25 pupils per class; whereas there are 5,907—or 33 per cent of all classes, with 40 to 55 pupils per class. Candi- tions are most aggravated in the poorer districts, especially in Harlem with its large Negro population. The pamphlet urges parents, trade unionists, teachers and all citizens to help put into effect the following program which “will SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 end the tragic ravages of retardation and sharply reduce waste in education”’: 1. A maximum of thirty children to a class of average children under normal conditions. 2. A maximum of twenty-five children in underpriv- ileged, low-income areas. A maximum of twenty children to a class in slow, adjustment, and opportunity classes. 4. A $200,000,000 bond issue for construction of new school buildings. Provision for temporary quarters, where necessary, for the immediate relief of overcrowding. 6. Appointment of additional teachers to end under- staffing of schools. 7. Extension of Federal aid to assist in financing this program if necessary. a uw Full Restoration in Springfield, Ohio Local 296 reports that the teachers of Springfield, Ohio, have received full restoration of salary for the present school year with the possible exception of a 5 per cent cut resulting from the shortening of the school term by two weeks. When Local 296 was organized in 1934, the teachers had taken a cut of 37 per cent in salary and the school term had been reduced to 8% months in spite of the fact that Springfield was one of the last of American cities to suffer from the depression and one of the first to recover. Teachers of Springfield had received a cut nearly twice the average for the state, in the face of a tax col- lection considerably above the average for the cities of Ohio. The present Superintendent, Homer Stevens, was formerly chairman of the Legislative Committee of Local 296, which has consistently maintained an average mem- bership of over 90 per cent of all teachers in the city and has battled unceasingly for the betterment of the public schools of the city. Buffalo Local Participates in Public School Exposition An Exposition of the Buffalo Public Schools is to be held October 28, 29 and 30, 1937, the centennial year of the appointment of the first school superintendent in Buffalo. The theme of the Exposition will be “The Buf- falo Public Schools at Work,” with the prime purpose of “interpreting the schools for the community”. The scheme and scale of the Exposition are ambitious and 45 com- mittees representing almost as many different phases of school activity—from plant operation to geography, spell- ing, and teacher-training, as well as the Teachers’ Union are at work. Model classrooms will be displayed, showing the different phases of school work; student works of art will be exhibited and there will be a daily showing of action pictures depicting the activities included in a typical daily program of the Buffalo schools. In the prospectus of the Exposition, special mention is made of the Buffalo Teachers’ Federation, Local 377, AFT, which is actively supporting the Exposition as a part of its education inter- pretation program. Mr. Ralph Fraser is chairman of the 31 union’s cooperating committee. No other teacher organi- zation is mentioned in the prospectus. Cleveland Local Summarizes Achievements A Bulletin published late last June by Local 279, Cleve- land, Ohio, summarizes some striking gains for the year 1936-37. As a result of aggressive work on the part of union teachers, salaries in Cleveland are now at 96 per cent of the schedule despite the attempts of opponents of restoration to “peg”’ salaries at 85 per cent. Three valu- able surveys have been published: ‘Tax Revenues of Cuyahoga County, City of Cleveland, and the Cleveland School District”; “Per Capita Pupil Costs in Eighteen Largest Cities”; and “Teachers’ Salary Restoration in Six- teen Largest Cities.” A study of teacher-pupil ratio is in preparation. A four-o’clock rule in elementary school was rescinded largely through union efforts. On the legislative field, the union has protected the foundation program from attacks of special interests, has worked for adequate tenure provisions, for the elimination of unfair aspects of the present certification law, and for the liberalization of the retirement system. The local has also protected teacher- authors from having their writings copyrighted by their supervisors and has exposed the manifest opposition to the schools on the part of the Cuyahoga Tax League, the Apartment House Owners’ Association, the Chamber of Commerce and other interests. Membership in the local during the year has increased over 500. Elyria Local Summarizes Achievements Local 334 of Elyria, Ohio, has summarized its achieve- ments of the past two years in a recent bulletin. The achievements for 1935-1936 include: The restoration of the school term to 38 weeks; restoration of salaries to 90 per cent; election of one labor man and two other favorable members to the Board of Education; establishment of group insurance plan; active participation in pushing school legislation. The achievements of 1936-1937 continue this record of accomplishments: Salaries were restored to the old maximum of $2,600 for high school and $1,900 for elementary school, along with the $100 annual increment. A credit union was established, a series of professional gatherings was promoted, political and legislative activity was continued, a study was made of the school sick leave program. A dismissed teacher was reinstated through union efforts. Toledo Local Summarizes Achievements A recent bulletin of Local 250, Toledo, Ohio, reports the following accomplishments: 1. Election of four members of the Board of Education sympathetic to Federation prin- ciples. 2. Four year contract for teachers—Toledo being the only place in Ohio that gives such a contract. 3. Right to hearing before dismissal of a teacher. 4. Residence rule for teachers rescinded. 5. Rule against married women teachers rescinded. 6. Rule against dual employment in family rescinded. 7. Marshall Act Scrip for delinquent taxes. 8. Single salary schedule for teachers established. 32 9. Cumulative sick leave for teachers—10 days yearly at full pay, 20 days at half pay, cumulative for 80 days. 10. Salary in 12 monthly payments instead of 10—an ar- rangement requested by Ohio teachers. 11. Leave of ab- sence for childbirth. 12. Union-sponsored Teachers’ Selec- tion and Placement Committee of 15 which will make recommendations for selection, placement, and promotion of all Board of Education employees. 13. Vocational Guid- ance Committee, now working on a program to be presented to the Board of Education. 14. 85 per cent of basic salary guarantee as against a previous guarantee of only 50 per cent. Commonwealth College Reorganizes Commonwealth College, Mena, Arkansas, has announced a plan of reorganization, affecting every phase of the school’s work. The reorganization plan provides that Common- wealth be a non-factional lab or school basing its activities in labor unions of the South and Southwest, especially Ladies’ Garment Workers in Kansas City, St. Louis, Mem- phis, Little Rock, Dallas, etc.; oil workers in the Arkansas- Texas-Oklahoma-Kansas area; lead and zinc workers in the tri-state area, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas; coal and bauxite miners; automobile workers and iron and steel workers in St. Louis area; Southern textile workers; Gulf Coast marine worke.s; lumber carpenters and sawmill workers; agricultural, cannery and packing house workers throughout the South and Southwest. Extension work will provide for field classes set up under faculty members of Commonwealth College, the Highlander Folk School and officials of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union; special summer courses for Negroes will be conducted at appro- priate Negro institutions. Student enrollment will be se- cured from the South and West as far as possible, not more than 25 per cent of the student body being enrolled from other areas. Claude Williams, nationally prominent for his relentless struggle for civil and economic rights in the South, became director on August 15. A former vice-presi- dent of the AFT, Mr. Williams has himself been share- cropper, carpenter, coal-passer on a Mississippi steamboat, preacher and teacher. Victory in Milwaukee The Milwaukee Vocational Teachers Association, Local 212, has withstood successfully the most severe attack ever leveled at the union by the administration of the Mil- waukee Vocational School and has won reinstatement for two leading members—Colin G. Welles, president of the Wisconsin Federation of Teachers, and Ira D. Pilliard, president of the local. In January, 1937, the acting director of the Milwaukee Vocational School, Mr. William F. Rasche, approached officers of Local 212 in an attempt to get union support for his efforts to be made director. Failing this, Mr. Rasche a few days later at a faculty meeting out- lined a plan for a so-called “Faculty Council.” The union branded the Faculty Council as a company union and union opposition to the proposed plan was countered THE AMERICAN TEACHER Samael if A a i hee eo ee) oe oe. en. en ee es <_2 fy, gat ws fc de sio the do: for the of for ize san tifik em effe the dist fun SEP vs. ar- ib- ec- ike ion ed ry er cal ack Lil- for the ard, >tor get ling yut- ion and red HER by the circulation of a petition of “loyal teachers.” In the struggle for existence which occupied the next few months, the union was aided in hearings before the Board of Voca- tional Education, and in conferences with Mr. Rasche, by the Milwaukee Federated Trades Council. Efforts to crush the union through slanders and to defeat it through a variety of company union schemes were not successful. The final attack was therefore leveled against the leader- ship and on May 3 Mr. Welles and Mr. Pilliard received notice that they were suspended from their positions, charged with being “in a state of insubordination, incom- petent, inefficient, and inattentive to their duties” and with having “induced apprehension, fear, and doubt” in the minds of teachers at the Vocational School. Local 212 immediately adopted a sharp resolution condemning the autocratic and discriminatory action of Mr. Rasche and with the backing of the Milwaukee Federated Trades Council pushed the case to a hearing before the Board of Vocational Education. The hearings lasted five days and four evenings. A school employee, who had been chauffeur to the director, admitted to spying upon the two union lead- ers in order to obtain the testimony which was presented. One teacher, who had resigned from the union after receiving a double increase in salary, was able to reproduce from memory remarks made by Mr. Pilliard fifteen years before! Among the Who Wants Child Labor? CHILD WORKERS IN AMERICA, by Katuartne Du Pre Lumpe- KIN and Dorotuy Wotrr Dovucias. Robert M. McBride & Co., New York. 321 pages. $3.50. There have been books and books on social problems in the last decade. Many of them were valuable only as an avenue of expres- sion for the author. The world would have been as well without them. But here is a book that attempted a job that needed to be done and has done it well. I am particularly glad to write a review of Child Workers in America for Tue American TEACHER and I wish every member would read the book. If I, as a teacher, ever had any doubt about the wisdpm of allying myself with the labor movement, they were banished forever by reading it. I have long known that the only large organ- ized group that spoke the same language that I do on education is labor; I did not fully appreciate that labor has worked for the same ideal; namely, equal educational opportunity for all. The approach of the authors to the child labor problem is scien- tific rather than sentimental. While there is plenty to arouse the emotions, soul stirring is not aimed at directly but is much more effectively achieved as a by-product of accumulated evidence and specific case studies. The case studies are particularly valuable in bringing home the realities of the economic standards that produce the supply of child labor and are sufficient in number and geographic distribution to preclude the charge of prejudicial selection. Because of the scientific approach the book deals naturally with fundamentals. Every page points relentlessly to economic forces as SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 The union leaders offered in their defense documentary evidence of obstruction of their work by the school admin- istration. Mr. J. F. Frederick, representing the Fed- erated Trades Council, presented the position of labor in regard to company unions and President Baker of Mil- waukee State Teachers College described the harmonious relation between his administration and the union. The two suspended union members were reinstated by a vote of three to two. Pension Gains in Michigan At the last session of the Legislature Michigan joined the ranks of the states which have assumed responsibility for partial support of their teachers’ retirement fund. The revised law provides for a state appropriation, and liberal- izes the present scale of annuities from the $500 maximum of the past to a new schedule ranging from $600-$1200. One feature of the new law which deserves mention is that all pensioners under the old scale of annuities which aver- aged slightly above $300 will soon receive annuities in accordance with the new schedule. C. C. Strickland, a member of the Gladstone local, has been appointed to a vacancy on the Teachers’ Retirement Fund Board. This appointment has met with the general approval of Michigan teachers. New Books producing both the supply of child labor and the demand for it. On the one hand it is poverty that produces the supply; on the other it is the desire for profit that produces the demand. In the relentless pursuit of fundamentals, the authors have pretty effectively exploded a pious fraud and allayed an educational fallacy. The Pecksniffian claim that labor is a necessary personal experience, is met by subtly pointing out that those who condone child labor on this ground, the upper and middle classes, do not demand the valuable personality producing experience of enforced labor for their own children. There is probably not yet enough scientific data wholly to disprove the claim that the great source of child labor is mental inferiority. The authors have taken full advantage of the existing proof and of the powerful weapon of suggestion by pointing out that there is not so much as a trickle flowing into the stream of supply from the middle and the upper classes. All friends of reform would do well to read the book. From its later pages they should learn, if they have not before, that the most efiective weapon used by the opponents of reform movements is com- promises, which, in most cases, whittle the proposed reforms to zero. Reform leaders need to learn that social progress will only be made under the leadership of its friends and will never be accomplished under the leadership of pious minded, class conscious industrialists and financiers attempting to salve their consciences under the guise of social reformers. As already indicated, the greatest service of the book arises from the clear definition of the advocates, and the enemies of the child 33 ki ay fa) labor amendment. Certainly all friends of the labor movement are eternally indebted to the authors on this score. I criticize the book on three grounds; namely, a minor digression, a major omission, and an unnecessary admission. To my mind there is just one digression in the book. Possibly that is excusable, but I fail to see it. I refer to the criticism of the New Deal policies in Chapter VI. The omission I can understand only on the ground that the authors are not close students of our educational system and hence may be excused for their failure to see that the continuation school is an educational fraud, in the acceptance of which the workers of America have received a stone in place of the bread they asked for and have a right to expect. In accepting sixteen years as the upper limit of child labor in all occupations the authors have agreed to deprive the children of the laboring class of the last two years of high school education, instead of setting the standard at a complete secondary course, which should be the minimum of educational opportunity offered to all the children of American democracy. Frank E. Baker. A Masterly Analysis of Fascism THE SPIRIT AND STRUCTURE OF GERMAN FASCISM. Ropert A. Brapy. The Viking Press, 1937. 420 pages. $3.00. Harold J. Laski, brilliant professor of political science of the University of London, calls Professor Brady’s analysis of German fascist institutions “the most complete . . . in the English language.” That should be sufficient recommendation. As one reads the book one is impressed with its thoroughness, moderation and excellent organization of subject matter. Professor Brady shows how in Germany the great bankers and industrialists used persuasion at first, and later coercion, to shift the attention of the common people from material to so-called spiri- tual values—such as national glory—-while business proceeded to have its way in the material area unhampered by popular restraint. Democratic elections and representative government were suspended when they interfered with the vested rights of the great monopolies. The machinery of the state was taken over and used as an instru- ment to control labor. Opposition was crushed. The big business principle of authority from the top down and responsibility from the bottom up was extended to every significant area of German life. Business through fascism attained complete control of affairs. Coer- cion took the place of persuasion in convincing the masses that business men were a born elite and were, therefore, entitled to rule. The book gives insight into the manner of life which prevails under such ruthless dictatorship. Under such rule science is not free to declare its findings when they run counter to vested economic inter- ests. Art and education are converted into tools of propaganda. Labor is not permitted to bargain with capital, but is required to accept the terms set forth by employers. Youth is regimented to obey orders from above. Women are edged out of occupational life and are urged to give birth to as many children as possible. An effort is made to fasten the peasant to the land and to fix social and economic status definitely from generation to generation in all walks of life on a hereditary basis. Of course, all these things are done in the name of the state and “for the common good.” Business is per- mitted to rule the economic area of life with an iron hand and the state is used to enforce the decrees of business upon the masses of the people. Profit-making is put at the very heart of the system, rather than actual service to the common welfare, although the profit-makers are careful to parade under cover of phraseology which continually stresses “the common good.” It is shown that capitalism has produced poverty and privation for the masses of the people at the same time that it has brought luxury and super-abundance to a few. When the masses have revolted against their under-privileged position, monopoly capitalists have sought, through fascist dictatorship, to deprive the people of those democratic political instruments which have threatened capital- istic control of the means of production for private profit. Professor Brady asserts that American business is already “organ- ized and politically conscious.” The difference between the propa- 34 ganda promoted by American business and that promoted by business in strictly fascist nations is not one of subject matter content. The difference is that American business must conduct its propaganda on the level of persuasion, whereas in fascist countries propaganda can be conducted on a coercive level. The book contains numerous illustrations of the type of propa- ganda which is used to promote fascism. This propaganda asserts that: 1. There is no basic conflict between capital and labor; any failure to observe a real harmony in their interests shows a lack of understanding. 2. Business is engaged in serving the general public: profits are merely a means to promote such service. 3. People who criticize business are either discontented neurotics or malicious rad- icals. 4. We need more attention to the spiritual welfare of indi- vidual men and less concern with material things. 5. We need dis- cipline, hard work and obedience rather than what is described as an “excess” of ease and an abundance of material things. 6. Those who are well-situated economically are the “born elite”: it is they who should rule society. Moreover, their ascendancy should not be challenged by the less successful, who are ipso facto less capable. Professor Brady indicates that most susceptible to such arguments have been business men, members of the middle class, and troubled intellectuals. What about teachers? American teachers could pre- vent fascism in America if they knew and had the courage to teach the facts so well documented by Professor Brady’s study. WILLIAM GELLERMANN. Modern Man in the Novel THREE WAYS OF MODERN MAN by Harry SLocHower. With a foreword by KENNETH Burke. New York: International Pub- lishers. 240 pages. $2.00. Professor Slochower has discovered that modern novels can be divided into three types, representative of what he calls the three ways of modern man. There are, first, the novels of escape, which, whether historical or devoted to a romantic picture of the con- temporary scene, alike reject the actual mores of modern culture. Second are the great novels of cynicism, that come to grips with the present world, try to accept its bourgeois standards, but are forced, by the clarity of their authors’ insight, to reveal these standards as leading to individual unhappiness and social disaster. Such novel- ists generally find the attempt to reach the truth about modern life so difficult through bourgeois assumptions that they can only attain expression by the indirect method of symbolism or some other involved technique which purports to reduce the disorderly to order and to show the apparently devious as having some sort of direction —the direction, it invariably turns out, of degeneration. The final group takes this analysis for granted, finds it true as far as it does, but brings it to an entirely different conclusion. In short, the third group has become conscious of the class struggle. It accepts pes- simism and decay as characteristic of bourgeois society, but it dis- covers in union activity and working class control a new direction and a new hope for mankind. These three ways of modern man are social rather than esthetic categories. For Professor Slochower has very sensibly assumed that in troubled times like our own the basic social points of view must dominate the esthetic patterns that derive from them. So, for the most part, books of the first group are cheerful and verbose; those in the second tend to obscurity and involved construction; whereas the third group combine optimism with a readily compre- hensible form. Professor Slochower recognizes that such cate- gories as these are dangerous since they reduce criticism to the appli- cation of fixed measures; and the novel is still too highly individ- ualized a product for a valid criticism to result from the hard and fast application of such a method. He wishes his divisions to be regarded as no more than the general tendencies of creative effort and therefore presents them through the analysis of what he con- siders the three representative novels of modern times: Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter, Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountam, and Martin Andersen Nexo’s Pelle the Conqueror. Many readers will feel that Andre Malraux’s Man’s Fate would have been a better THE AMERICAN TEACHER v Jc sté ev gr fas tic in’ sir 1siness . The ganda ganda )ropa- asserts +) any ick of ublic; > who $ rad- indi- d dis- as an > who ’ who ot be ments ubled | pre- teach YN. hetic med view , for Se ; ion; pre- -ate- pli- vid- and » be ffort con- grid tain, ders tter HER choice for the third type, and it is curious to read a letter from Nexo in the appendix in which he modestly deplores Slochow’s choice of what he considers his own outmoded book to represent the proletarian viewpoint. But Professor Slochower has more than made amends for this doubtful choice by adding a chapter on the novel in fascist Germany, which is one of the most detailed and valuable analyses that has appeared in English of the disastrous effect of fascism on creative literature. Epwin Berry BurcuM. Social Plays in Print CLASS OF ’29 by Orrte Lasnin and Mito Hastincs. Dramatists Play Service, Inc. 131 pages. $0.75. 200 WERE CHOSEN by E. P. Conxie. Samuel French. 149 pages. $1.50. BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD by Lagopoip Attias. Samuel French. 151 pages. $1.50. MARCHING SONG by Jouxn Howarp Lawson. Dramatists Play Service, Inc. 166 pages. $0.75. JOHNNY JOHNSON by Paut Green. Samuel French. 175 pages. $2.00. EXCURSION by Victor Wotrson. Random House. 186 pages. $2.00. The rise of the social theatre in America since 1929 has given our stage seven full years. And these recently published plays are further evidence of its vitality. For they have drawn their themes from today’s major problems—from the clashing interests of economic groups, with the resultant unemployment, disintegrating families, fading self-respect ; from the struggle of character against demoraliza- tion and towards understanding. The immediacy with which drama responds to these problems has made it an important medium for stimulating an awareness of them- selves in the new audiences to whom the labor theatres, independent professional groups, and the much harassed Federal Theatre have restored this once popular art. The publication of these plays is an invaluable service, especially for the ever increasing amateur produc- ing units and theatre lovers remote from the major dramatic centers. Class of ’29, originally produced by the Federal Theatre, is the weakest of these plays only because its characters are not too well realized, and its dialogue is often crude and repetitious. Nevertheless, it dramatizes sincerely the plight of the thousands of eager and able college graduates for whom there has been no place in the world since 1929. It suggests no conclusion and ends in a sense of defeat. But its clear statement of the problem of unemployed youth is par- ticularly moving in a year of heartless WPA layoffs. 200 Were Chosen is the dramatized story of the impoverished mid- western farmers selected by the government to colonize Southern Alaska. The play leans a little too heavily upon obvious melo- dramatic tricks but it is rich in dialogue and succeeds in showing the demoralizing effect of the depression, of life on relief and of bureaucratic red tape upon a group of proud American farmers. Like the familiar Crick-Bottom plays of its author it can be effectively presented by little theatre groups. But for the Grace of God is a bitter and tender play of the dis- integration of a slum household when the father, once a skilled worker, loses his job and with it his self-respect. The mother is defeated in her effort to keep the home together; one son dies because he cannot get adequate care after his health is broken by work in a miserable sweat shop. The younger boy, sensitive, proud, and dis- illusioned, is taken away for murdering the sweat shop owner to get money to save his brother’s life. The extreme realism of the form is softened by the sympathetic insight into the mind of the boy who symbolizes the pollution of the sweetest human relationships by the ruthless exploitation of childhood. Leopold Atlas has created unforgettable pictures of the helpless poor and has shown how much the stability of the home is dependent upon economic forces. SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1937 The tamuily 1s the center, also, ot John Howard Lawson’s most powerful play Marching Song, but here it is merged dramatically with an entire industrial community and that community in turn is shown as but a unit in a larger social whole, where the story of an evicted unemployed craftsman is identified with the story of intim- idated, homeless men in a city owned by industrial barons and ad- ministered for them by strike-breaking thugs, and this again is iden- tified with the whole issue of industrial fascism against industrial democracy and human progress. It is a tremendous dramatic task which Lawson has undertaken and at times his stage seems crowded, but he succeeds to a surprising extent in clarifying the problems that are in our headlines today. Furthermore, he makes Marching Song, in spite of its identification with daily events, more than merely dramatic reportage by providing his dialogue with imaginative, poetic roots that give it breadth and universality, and that gave its characters stature beyond surface realism when it was produced this year by the Theatre Union. Paul Green’s Johnny Johnson as produced by another of our dis- tinguished independent theatres, the Group Theatre, was the most original play of the season. It departs entirely from the realistic form and is made up of loosely connected scenes of fantasy, lyric, satire, pathos, and underscored by the delightful music of the famous German exile Kurt Weill. It is the story of the lovable small town youth, Johnny Johnson, whose troubles come from his belief that the world should be run by common sense and that even a war can be stopped by the same means. The play does succeed in emphasiz- ing the insanity of war and of the forces that make it, but it loses some of its effectiveness by the diffuseness of its scenes and by the sense of Johnny’s isolation. At times a most poignantly conceived bit of dream, such as Johnny’s discovery of a kindred feeling in the German sniper he captures, is spoiled by the intrusion of burlesque. But it remains an original dramatic experience and a strong indict- ment of war. Excursion, which lifted the end of the theatre season out of apathy into delightful appreciation, is the work of the keenly sensitive play- wright whose anti-fascist Bitter Stream was a Theatre Union success. This play, too, is an indication that the social theatre can now transcend the sledge-hammer technique of its formative years, and can add to its range and effectiveness by making full use of imagina- tive charm without sacrificing the seriousness of its aims. Although Excursion uses the Grand Hotel technique by bringing together a group of diverse personalities on the last voyage of an obsolescent Coney Island boat, it avoids the clichés of that technique and devotes itself to a sympathetic unfolding of the lives of its characters. Few plays have revealed so humanly and with so much charm and humor the economic causes of the frustrations of its people. Few have been so able to make an audience sympathize with the shop girls harassed by their jobs, with the overworked Jewish laundryman troubled by race prejudice, with the tired women escaping their dingy flats, with Captain Obadiah whose heart is with his passengers and who decides that instead of bringing thei back unsatisfied to the fearful prospect of another routine Monday he will transport them to a paradise south-southeast of Trinidad. But though the fight of the passengers of the S. S. Happiness for a new start is lost when they are overtaken by the Coast Guard, though they realize that they can’t escape, they take a new courage and understanding back with them. The parting advice of Captain Obadiah to his passengers, like the parting realization of the power of the workers in Marching Song reveals the confidence of the mature social theatre in America even when its conflicts end in temporary defeat: “Fight for the things y’ want back there, like y’ fought for your faraway island last night. Be men an’ women armed with love an’ wonder, mates, an’ make y’ life a glowin’ thing.” Borts GAMZUE. 15c Day School Singer 15c City and State Superintendents Endorse It Charlie Tillman Song Book Co., Atlanta, Ga. 35 Executive Council of the AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS PRESIDENT 506 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. ProFEssoR JEROME Davis 489 Ocean Avenue SECRETARY-TREASURER Irvin R. KuENZLI 506 South Wabash Avenue West Haven, Connecticut College Section GeorcE E. AxTELLE 1122 Colfax Evanston, Illinois New England Joun D. Connors 51 South Sixth Street New Bedford, Mass. Washington and Northwest Hucu DeLacy 2493 Sixth North Seattle, Washington Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky MicwHaet J. Eck 1000 Walnut Avenue Cleveland, Ohio Michigan ARTHUR ELDER 1670 Calvert Detroit, Michigan VICE-PRESIDENTS Pennsylvania Mrs. Mary Fotey GrossMAN 2302 Delancey Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania New York C. J. HENDLEY The Teachers Union 114 East 16th Street New York City Illinois and Indiana Mary J. Herrick 5529 University Avenue Chicago, Illinois Atlanta ALLIE B. MANN 858 Springdale Rd., N.E. Atlanta, Ga. VICE-PRESIDENT AT LARGE Doxry A. WILKERSON Howard University Washington, D. C. oes WATS a iy U ae Chicago, Illinois Minnesota, Dakotas, Wisconsin Mercepes L. NELSON 3439 Columbus Avenue Minneapolis, Minnesota Chattanooga and Area STANTON E. SMITH 28 Albemarle Apts. Chattanooga, Tennessee W.P.A. and Adult Education Jort SEIDMAN c/o League for Industrial Democracy 112 E. 19th Street New York, N. Y. California and Southwest Harry C. STEINMETZ 3518 Union Street San Diego, California Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas Paut W. PREISLER 4274 Shenandoah St. Louis, Mo. Groups of seven or more school teachers are invited to affiliate with this organization of classroom teachers for mutual assistance, improved professional standards, and the democratization of the schools. Such groups are cordially and fraternally invited to communicate with the nearest of the regional vice-presidents listed above. - a. The American Federation of Teachers desires to establi® ah intitRate ‘contact and an effective * cooperation between the fapchers and other workers’ of tf demmunity, and desires to cooperate with all civic organizations for improved civic life. e Democracy inf Education—Education for Democracy