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The Congressional Record of February 
1, 1939, carries a reprint of Chairman Dies 
vs. Founding Fathers which appeared in 
the Deeember, 1938, issue of the AMER- 
ICAN TEACHER. Congressman Lee Geyer, 
former president of Local 430 (Los An- 
geles) for the past two years, liked the 
article so much he had it read into the 
Record. 

* ” . 


Mrs. Dilling: Recently a citizen in a 
large midwestern town gave $500 to a local 
civil-liberties organization which he had 
never heard of until you denounced it in 
your talk there. ... Mr. J. P. Morgan: 
Your sweet peas won a prize in a recent 
New York flower show. ... Mr. Chamber- 
lain and Mr. Mussolini: Your respective 
nations have been assigned adjoining 
pavilions at the New York World’s Fair 
and the rumor is that you will divide up 
the space allotted to smaller nations... . 
Mississippi: You are the only state with- 
out some form of workman’s compensa- 
tion law. .. . Massachusetts: Your house 
of representatives just voted down the 
child-labor amendment by a vote of 195 
to 13 which is the fifteenth time in fifteen 
years that the amendment has been re- 
jected by you. ... Senator Reynolds: On 
February 21, 1939, you referred to, and 
had printed in the Congressional Record, 
excerpts from a “very interesting book- 
let, evidently prepared by an extremely 
able man,” one Louis B. Ward of Detroit. 
... Did you know, Senator Reynolds, that 
Mr. Ward is Father Coughlin’s chief lob- 
byist?... A. T. & T.: Now that the state 
supreme court of New York has declared 
it is legal to swear over the telephone, 
what are the rates to Berlin? ... Na- 
tional Teachers Union of England: Is 
it true that English infants are being 
encouraged to play with gas masks until 
they are old enough to wear them?... 
Texas via Mr. Garner: Thousands of 
W.P.A. workers, most of them Mexicans, 
have been dropped in your state under 
the new citizenship requirements. .. . 
Senator Wagner: You may be the first 
witness if and when the N.L.R.B. hear- 


ings are held. 
* . * 


After the “Town Hall of the Air” pro- 
gram in which the Ickes-Gannett debate 
on freedom of the press took place, the 
Newspaper Guild made a study of the 
treatment of the story in fifteen news- 
papers in which Gannett had exclusive or 
majority control. They found that these 
papers gave an aggregate of 487 inches 
of space to Gannett’s speech and 158 
inches to Ickes. Two stories failed to 
mention that Ickes also spoke, while one 
newspaper claimed that Ickes’ speech 
was not available so published only the 
complete text of Gannett’s talk. 

A recent summary of an investigation 


of the newspaper reviews of George 
Seldes’ Lords of the Press indicates that 
the newspapers can’t take it. Apparently 
the only newspaper criticized in the book 
which gave it fair treatment in its col- 
umns was the Boston Transcript. The New 
York World-Telegram, after inviting its 
readers to write their frank opinions of 
its editorial policies and news content dis- 
covered that out of some 700 letters 28.7 
per cent gave the paper a favorable rating 
while 25.6 per cent wrote unfavorable 
comments. 
* ~ * 

To members of the Educational Policies 
Committee: The March issue of the 
Adult Study Guide (Division of General 
Education, New York University, 20 
Washington Square North, New York, 
N. Y.) is entitled, “Understanding Our 
Schools and Colleges.” It lists and de- 
seribes a number of excellent publica- 
tions which interpret various aspects of 
education to the public. I was a little 
disappointed in the “Know Your Schools” 
series which is being published by the 
Office of Education. Three pamphlets in 
this series, “Know Your Principal,” 
“Know Your Superintendent,” and “Know 
Your Teacher,” have been published. Un- 
fortunately they deal with these subjects 
in a technical manner far beyond the 
comprehension of the layman, and one 
looks in vain for one little photograph. 


. * * 


According to an analysis of bank de- 
posits made by the Federal Reserve Board 
and the W.P.A. of the 1933 bank holi- 
day, the wealthy depositors had slready 
withdrawn much of their money, leaving 
the small depositors holding the bag. An 
account of the report appearing in the 
March issue of the Federal Reserve Board 
bulletin declares that in the period of 
1930-33 a decrease of 70 per cent took 
place in the balances of demand deposits 
of $100,000 or over. This was contrasted 
with a reduction of 6 per cent in the 
balances of accounts of less than $500. 

* + 7 


Two members of the United Mine 
Workers Union who were elected to the 
Wyoming state legislature were praised 
by the Wyoming. Eagle for their work 
during the session which just ended. The 
editorial said that David Gilfillan of 
Superior and A. L. Zeiher of Reliance, 
“who make their living by digging coal 
in the coal mines in Sweetwater County, 
were definitely the outstanding members 
of the house of representatives.” 

- * . 


The office employees of the Foreign 
Policy Association, publishers of books 
and pamphlets on world affairs, did a 
clever job which won them a contract 
involving salary increases of $1 to $6 
weekly, a $21 minimum instead of a $15 


minimum, seniority rights, and a griev- 
ance committee. The employees, using 
the style of the charts which appear in 
the Foreign Policy pamphlets, did a chart 
which showed how much lower their sal- 
aries were than the minimum for women 
suggested by the state labor department 
of New York. 
. . » 

Federated Press is peddling these two: 
On the day that the C. I. O. and A. F. of L. 
peace committees met at the White House 
to begin peace negotiations, some of the 
local correspondents, at the instigation 
of the horse-loving press agent of one of 
the organizations, bet on a horse named 
Perfect Peace, running at a race track 
in Florida. Perfect Peace finished a limp- 
ing last. 

Later at the New York peace sessions 
newspaper men amused themselves by 
pitching pennies in the corridor while the 
session dragged on. An A. F. of L. man 
won 82 cents from C. I. O. tossers whom 
he had warned in advance of his prowess, 


* * * 


One of the most interesting letters 
from a member of the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers is one which disagrees 
with an editorial appearing in the Febru- 
ary issue and asks us to: 

“Kindly omit my name from your 
mailing list in the future. I am a 
proud member of the D. A. R. What 
that organization does with its private- 
ly owned property is not the business 
of the public. Only evil and corrup- 
tion need fear the Dies Committee. 

“W. P. A. appropriations should be 
reduced as I know many could find 
employment if they so desired.” 


* - * 


This month’s orchid goes to the Ameri- 
can Federation of Actors (President, 
Sophie Tucker) which decided recently 
that jokes about W. P. A. will be con- 
sidered punishable by fine or suspension. 

. . Reason: it humiliates A. F. of A. 
members and other unionists employed 
on government projects. .. . JAUREZ 
which runs some fifteen reels will be 
shown in two parts, one day or one week 
apart. ... Not to be missed is R. K. 0.’s 
BOY SLAVES, an exceptionally honest 
screen play about peonage of children in 
the south ... credit goes to Albert Bein 
and P. J. Wolfson and Anne Shirley and 
a great cast of new kids. ... A CARGO 
OF INNOCENCE, a story of Spanish ref- 
ugees has been shelved by M. G. M. be- 
cause it’s not entertainment. ... Maxine 
Sullivan, Negro Swing singer, quit house- 
maiding two years ago because she was 
too slight to stand the strain ... comes 
from Homestead, Pa. ... never took a 
singing lesson . . . started singing with 
a family band .. . received $50 for the 
“Loch Lomond” recording which sold over 
100,000 records .. . is making ST. LOUIS 
BLUES in Hollywood ... the Screen 
Directors Guild has signed a contract 
with the producers which will give direc- 
tors more to say about their own work 
and makes them directly responsible to 
the studio head. .. . France and Russia 
use the same system... G. T. G. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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AMERICAN TEACHER 


Published by The American Federation of Teachers 





VOLUME XxXill 


MARCH, 1939 


NUMBER 6 





IN THIS ISSUE 
REET oe eee Farm Security Administration 
Photograph by Nydans 
The Pattern of American Culture.............. Robert Lynd 6 
Democracy and Intellectual Freedom............ Franz Boas 9 
i i Cn ois 66 oe nen evhevtnesseenescues doen saans 
ceeceeeeeeeess-Mary E. Keister and Dorothy E. Bradbury 10 
The Sterility of Scholarship................ Porter Sargent 13 
Bronson Aleott’s School...............4. Robert Morss Lovett 16 
The National Health Program............ Robert F. Wagner 18 
An Interview with Tom Mooney........ Haakon M. Chevalier 20 
DEPARTMENTS 
a ee ere eee eee 7.6 3% 
ici sc Seibel ned acted ds sun eee ee wen 73 
ee WOOUSD PEE, Praqmdind. .c. cs cccsccccccccssccees 5 
EE ET ES eee er re eer 22 


Among the New Books: 
The Promise of Tomorrow, Life and Growth............ 


Pee ee ee TT eee Tee eee Te Te James P. Mitchell 23 
Unions of Their Own Choosing, American Labor........ 
LO eT Te TELE POTTER TTT TT er ee Colston Warne 24 
The School for Dictators........... William Van Til, Jr. 25 
One Fifth of Mankind, The Patriot.......... Kermit Eby 25 
Philanthropic Foundations of Higher Education, Money 
Rey rr errr R. C. Me Vey 26 
er 26 
gE re re ee eee ry 27 
ee ee ne ee a ee 31 


Drawings by Chandler Montgomery 


THE EDITORS of the American TEACHER request that no material be 
reprinted from this magazine without an accompanying credit line stating 
the source and the issue in which such material appeared. 


a 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Grorce T. Guernsey, Editor 


ENTERED as second class matter January 3, 1939, at the post office at 
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1925, authorized November 3, 1926. 


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Be a 








EARINGS ON THE Senate Federal Aid for Education 

Bill, 8.1305, were held in Washington March 3 to 10 
before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Edu- 
cation and Labor, with the witnesses testifying before 
the capable and efficient Committee chairman, Senator 
Elbert D. Thomas of Utah. 

Among others, representatives from the National 
Education Association, the American Council on Edu- 
cation, the Advisory Committee on Education, the 
W. P. A. Education Division, the American Federation 
of Teachers, the American Federation of Labor, the 
Congress of Industrial Organizations, and the Friends 
of the Public Schools testified before the Committee. 
All of these organizations were in favor of the Federal 
Aid Bill except the Friends of the Publie Schools which 


MARCH, 1939 


was represented by its president, Major Amos R. Fries, 
Washington, D. C., and its vice president, Wilbur Helm, 
Evanston, Ill. The Friends of the Public Schools have 
already charged in their bulletin that the Bill provides 
for ‘‘a Soviet system of nurseries’’ for the benefit of 
career mothers and paves the way for an entirely new 
kind of centralized education. 

This organization which, according to its officers, has 
some 6,000 dues-paying members, stressed the fact that 
it was appearing before the Committee as a lay group, 
not realizing apparently that the representatives of the 





A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. were certainly representing 
a significant portion of the lay public at the hearings. 

The ‘‘Report of the Hearings on the Federal Aid 
Bill’? may be obtained by writing to Senator Thomas. 
We urge all members of the A. F. of T. to get this, read 
it, and circulate it as a means of rallying support for 
the Federal Aid Bill. 

x * * 


HE First ‘‘LirrLeE Dies CoMMITTEE’’ has been cre- 
‘haa in the State of Colorado where its job will be 
to investigate the Denver schools. Charges against the 
Denver schools have been made by Representative Eudo- 
chia Bell Smith. Because the legislature failed to appro- 
priate any public funds for this Committee, it has 
appealed to Dies for federal funds and the loan of fed- 
eral investigators. Press dispatches have reported that 
private sources have offered to finance this Committee 
of the State House of Representatives. Commenting on 
this plan, the Greeley, Colorado, Times Republican 
asked editorially, ‘‘What could be more un-American 
than the private financing of a legislative club to be 
used in an extra-judicial manner to punish those who 
do not agree with the committeemen’s preconceived idea 
of what Americanism is ?”’ 

Ilow thorough and how accurate such investigations 
are likely to be may be judged by the recent investiga- 
tion by the Detroit School Board of charges made 
against Detroit teachers at a local hearing of the Dies 


ee ee 





Committee. The Detroit Educational News of March 15, 
under the heading, ‘‘ Board Exonerates Teachers of Dies 
Committee Charges,’’ published the complete report of 
the Board’s investigation of these charges, which was 
adopted unanimously by the Detroit Board of Educa- 
tion at its meeting on February 14. In its report the 
Board Committee called attention to the fact that it not 
only investigated the outside activities of the teachers 
involved, but also investigated ‘‘the teaching of subver- 
sive doctrines in the classrooms of the Detroit schools.”’ 
Needless to say, the Committee found that the teachers 
in question had ‘‘records of long and satisfactory serv- 
ice which prompted confidence in their statements and 
their answers to our questions. 

‘‘Without exception, although in varied degree, the 
Committee was told by Principals, Directors, and Super- 
visors to whom the investigated teachers are respon- 
sible, that their teaching records are satisfactory, and 
that they are rendering valuable service; we were told 
also that there has been no indication or evidence of 
any sort of the introduction of personal political beliefs 
or subversive doctrines in the classroom or in any other 
way so far as the knowledge of the Supervisors is con- 
cerned. The service of some of those in question was 
characterized as outstanding.’’ 


xk * 


URCHASES OF INDUSTRIAL MUNITIONS by anti-union 
P employees is the principal cause of violence in labor 
disputes, the Senate Civil Liberties Committee, headed 
by Senator Robert M. La Follette, declared in a report 
submitted to the Senate this month. 

Following two and a half years of intensive study 
of industrial warfare, the Committee is sponsoring a 
bill in the Senate to forbid the sale of gas or firearms 
to industrial concerns for use in any kind of labor 
dispute. 

The Committee reported that for the years 1933-37 
corporations purchased more gas equipment than all 
law-enforcement agencies combined. 

‘In fact,’’ the report stated, ‘‘the largest purchaser 
of gas equipment in the country, the Republic Steel 
Company, bought four times as much as the largest 
law-enforcement purchaser.”’ 

The Committee found that 20 corporations or em- 
ployer associations in the five-year period purchased 























$375,992 worth of gas and gas equipment while 18 
law-enforcement agencies in the same period spent 
only $183,635. The four largest industrial purchasers, 
Republic Steel, $79,712; United States Steel, $62,028; 
Bethlehem Steel, $36,173; and Youngstown Sheet and 
Tube, $28,386, together accounted for more than the 
entire purchases of the 18 largest public purchasers. 
xk 
s CONGRESS DEBATES the $150,000,000 emergency 
W. P. A. appropriation, few educational leaders 
seem aware of how much is at stake. There is no need 
here to recount the fine work which has been done by 
the W.:-P. A. cultural projects or to emphasize the suf- 
fering among W. P. A. workers which will inevitably 
follow their dismissal from the projects. Rather, we 
want to discuss what may happen to public education if 
Garner’s ‘‘economy bloc’’ prevails. If the projects 
should be abandoned, it will be only a short time before 
the local relief agencies will be faced with providing for 
the dismissed W. P. A.-ers. 

Let us see what this may mean in a city such as Chi- 
cago. According to some relief officials, in a relatively 
short time there would be an increase of approximately 
50 per cent in the number of relief clients dependent on 
the Chicago Relief Administration. The relief officials 
would either have to find an additional $1,500,000 a 
month from state and city funds or reduce relief allow- 
anees. The latter can hardly be done; already Chicago’s 
relief administration—incidentally, one of the best in 
the country—is providing only 85 per cent of its mini- 
mum subsistence budget for food, shelter, and heat. The 
effort to secure additional funds for relief would be 
almost certain to result in a serious retrenchment drive 
in every city. In fact, we already have illustrations of 
the unwise measures that legislatures may adopt to find 
money for relief; in New Jersey the state legislature 
raided the teacher’s pension funds in its frenzied search 
for means of getting money without raising taxes. In 
short, a slash in W. P. A. funds this year may mean that 
next year school funds will feel the axe. And, the same 
groups that lead the fight against W. P. A. are those 
which will be in the vanguard of a future attack on 
education. 

There is another important consideration. Until re- 
cently relief has been financed on an emergency basis. 
Now, as the realization dawns that unemployment and 
relief are not to be treated as transitory phenomena, a 
change is being made to more stable methods of budget- 
ing and financing relief. As this transition proceeds, 
teachers and friends of education must be on the alert 
and must help formulate practical and humane policies. 
For there are those who want to finance relief at the 
expense of the schools. Unless we make sure that the 
Federal Government bears the share appropriate to its 
power to tax wealth wherever that may exist, the shift 
of burden to the states and cities will have disastrous 
repercussions in drastically curtailed school opportuni- 
ties for America’s children. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


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PREJUDICE 


soon acquire it from society. The school environ- 

ment may be a fertile breeding ground since the 
contagion passes from person to person. Oftentimes 
children will bandy around such epithets as ‘‘dago,”’ 
‘“‘nigger,’’ ‘‘Jew,’’ without the slightest comprehension 
of what they mean. 

Propaganda has much to do with the inculeation of 
these attitudes in others. Everyone knows the terrible 
consequences of the anti-Jewish persecutions in Ger- 
many. In the United States the government does pot 
foster such propaganda but there are about eight hun- 
dred pro-fascist and pro-Nazi organizations which do. 
They have conducted a studied campaign to make 
‘“‘Jew’’ and ‘‘Communist’’ terrible ogres in the public 
mind. In large measure they have achieved this as far 
as ‘‘Communist’’ is concerned and they have gone a 
long way in making the term ‘‘Jew’’ odious to many. 

To show how they operate let us cite a few instances. 
The conservative columnist for the Herald-Tribune has 
attacked the German Government. Therefore, Libera- 
tion, the Silvershirt weekly, denounces her as a Jew, 
declaring her real name is Dorothy Thompson Levy. 
Another propaganda sheet, the Defender, declares that 
the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America 
is Communist. The American Nationalist Confederation 
declares that John A. Ryan, a well-known Catholic 
educator, is a Communist, while the Revealer has pur- 
ported to show ‘‘ Roosevelt’s Jewish Ancestry.’’ 

In addition to this type of propaganda America has 
her own special brand of racial prejudice against the 
Negro. Even Congress has thus far been unwilling to 
act to stop lynching. It is not only in the South that 
racial intolerance occurs. Every year our Federation 
has the greatest difficulty in finding hotels which pro- 
vide equal treatment to all delegates, white and black. 
Even at our Convention in 1937 in Madison, Wisconsin, 
we found racial intolerance. A waiter in one of the lead- 
ing hotels actually broke up the dishes that one of our 
Negro delegates had used before the very eyes of the 
Negro himself. 

Racial prejudice is like a dread contagion which 
sweeps Over mountains, across oceans, and brushes aside 
national barriers. No one should be naive enough to 
think anti-semitism ravages only Nazi and fascist cul- 
tures. It is true it is incubated and propagated in such 
culture pockets. Just as the deadly malaria mosquitoes 
breed in the swamps, so anti-semitism lives and moves 
and has its being in the Nazi and fascist culture, but 


C HILDREN START LIFE Without race prejudice. They 


MARCH, 1939 


it also comes even to free America. And the worst of 
it is that we have not discovered a real method of quar- 
antining this deadly pestilence. It comes to us by cable 
in the morning newspaper; it dazzles our eyes in the 
movies and we can’t help absorbing it as we listen to 
the radio in our homes. 

One index of all this is the restrictions imposed on 
Jewish students in our eastern colleges, not to mention 
prejudice within campus walls. Consider the Jewish 
student graduating with honors and winning his doc- 
torate with brilliance, yet having almost all college 
teaching positions denied him. Indeed, anti-semitism 
is so ingrained in the very fibre of the social order in 
which Americans grow up that they hardly know that 
they have been subjected to it. Let me cite two 
examples: 

A friend of mine, whose whole life has championed 
racial equality, was invited to lecture in a leading 
Jewish synagogue. Much to his surprise when he took 
the platform and looked at the audience, it was only 
here and there he could detect a Jewish face, and so he 
concluded that it was Gentiles who had come to hear 
him. Afterwards he asked the presiding Rabbi why it 
was that more Jews had not attended the lecture. 
‘*Why,’’ said the Rabbi, ‘‘they were all Jews.’’ My 
friend suddenly came to the realization that all his life 








he had been carrying around a mental stereotype of a 
Jew and so he had thought there were few in the 
audience. 

Again, the son of a Protestant minister who was very 
proud of his absolute racial tolerance told me about his 
son who attended public school and gradually learned 
from some of the students that Jews were to be looked 
down upon. When the boy communicated these ideas to 
his father, he was told that this was a very wrong atti- 
tude, that Jews were just as good as anyone else, and 
that some of the greatest leaders, including Jesus of 
Nazareth, were Jews. The boy said nothing but the next 
day after school came back to his father and said, ‘‘ Dad, 
is it really true that Jesus was a Jew?’’ ‘‘ Why, yes, 
of course, my son. I am trying to build the pattern 
of my life on his ideals.’’ ‘‘ All right, Dad,’’ said the 
boy, ‘‘but if that’s true, I just want you to know that 
I’m off this Jesus business for life.’’ 

Now, what can be done to stop this deadly infection 
which, if allowed to persist, may destroy the ideals of 
free democratic America? It is not enough to teach 
the realities of the Nazi menace, to portray the terrible 
example of the destruction of culture in Germany, we 
must also do positively and creatively. 


Our schools must not only teach racial equality, they 


_°must demonstrate it in the school and community life. 
’ Racial prejudice must be painted in its true colors, just 


as murder, theft, and lying are. The man or woman 
who insinuates that someone must not be elected because 
of his race should be pilloried as a traitor to American 
ideals. In the schools, over the radio, in the press, and 
in the moving pictures, the great achievements of Jewish 
and Negro writers, thinkers, and doers should be 
recorded so that no American could longer tolerate 
the myth of Nordic superiority. 

Thus, just as we can reduce the incidence of disease 
by building strong, healthy bodies in healthy com- 
munities, even if an occasional individual is struck 
down, so we can prevent racial prejudice and political 
intolerance by building individuals and communities 
which are propaganda-proof. Our communities must 
so understand and practice democracy that racial prej- 
udice and the hurling of ‘‘Communist”’ at all we dis- 
agree with will be a thing of the past. Prejudice is the 
very antithesis of democracy. 

Let every member of our Federation be an educator 
of racial understanding and good will. 

JEROME Davis 


The Pattern of American Culture 


@ ROBERT LYND 


in urban units. The portion of the total 

population of the United States living in 
urban places with 8,000 or more population has 
risen from 3 per cent in 1790, to 7 per cent in 
1830, to 16 per cent in 1860, to 33 per cent in 1900, 
and to 49 per cent in 1930." ‘‘By 1930 there were 
nearly 15 times as many rural people in the 
United States as there were in 1790, but there 
were more than 300 times as many urban peo- 
ple... . In 1929 there were concentrated in 155 
[of the more than 3,000] counties containing the 
larger industrial cities, 64.7 per cent of all of 
the industrial establishments, 74 per cent of all 
industrial wage earners, 80.7 per cent of all sal- 
aried officers and employees. Moreover, 78.8 
per cent of all wages and 82.9 per cent of all sal- 
aries in the country were paid in these [155] 
counties.’ Not only does the urban pattern 


O URS IS A CULTURE Of increasing mass-living 


1U. S. Census, Population, Vol. I, 1930, p. 9. 

2Qur Cities: Their Role in the National Economy. Report of the 
Urbanism Committee to the National Resources Committee (Washington : 
Government Printing Office, 1937), pp. 1-2. 


6 





= = = 





@ This article, which is printed with permission of the 
publishers, is a section from Dr. Robert Lynd’s new 
book, Knowledge for What? which will be published 
on April 10 by Princeton University Press. Robert 
Lynd is one of America’s outstanding scholars and co- 
author of Middletown and Middletown in Transition, 
two studies which have been widely praised by stu- 
dents of American life. 








now dominate our culture quantitatively, but 
with growing intercommunication and the con- 
centration of the sources of diffusion within large 
cities, the urban population is increasingly call- 
ing the tune for the patterning of the entire cul- 
ture. 

While this growing urbanization derives pre- 
dominantly from economic causes, such as the 
concentration of industry in the ‘‘easy labor 
market’’ which a dense population affords and 
the resulting multiplication of retailing and 
other service activities among such a dense 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





or 


he 


population, the growth of cities has also been 
influenced by other factors. Urban living rep- 
resents the most favorable environment for those 
wishing to benefit by the resources of the cul- 
ture. On the personal side, the city presents 
the opportunity for rich, selective acquaint- 
anceship in the pursuit of personal growth. On 
the material side, the overhead cost of provid- 
ing desirable modern services—from labor-sav- 
ing utilities to schools and the arts—can best 
be borne when widely shared. Without, there- 
fore, by any means going to the extreme of 
Marx and Engels in speaking of ‘‘the idiocy of 
rural life,’’** one may nevertheless say that the 
city is potentially a ‘‘natural’’ as a way of life 
for modern man. The inchoate character of ur- 
ban life in our culture, which prompts some to 
characterize great cities as ‘‘wens of civiliza- 
tion,’’ is not an evidence of the intrinsic weak- 
ness of urbanism, but rather of the pathologies 
that occur when urban units are allowed to de- 
velop casually as an adjunct to the individual 
scramble for wealth. We have not as yet ad- 
dressed ourselves to the task of building urban 
communities in the social sense.’ Fifty thousand 
families, paying their gas bills, mowing their 
lawns, jockeying their way through traffic to jobs 
in offices and factories, and sitting side by side 
watching movies, do not necessarily constitute 
‘‘a community.’’ 

Whereas the close, personalized contacts of 
the neighborhood encouraged spontaneous social 
cohesion in the rural, village, and small-town 
matrix in which our culture took shape,* unguided 
spontaneity may not be relied upon to tie in the 
individual so securely as the population-base 
grows to city proportions. The rough general- 
ization may be made that, as the size of a com- 
munity grows arithmetically, the need for de- 


3The Communist Manifesto. 


4It is important to bear in mind that the lack of common purposes 
under our type of culture is neither a new nor a transitory phase, despite 
its identification with the spirit of the passing “frontier”; but, rather, 
that it is dictated by the very structure of a culture which assumes that 
the community derives the best out of the conflict of private interests. 
Urbanism points up this tendency in the culture as sharply as it does pri- 
marily because cities embody most unrestrainedly the restless, predatory 
quality which the cuiture encourages. De Tocqueville described the 
resulting inevitable conflict a hundred years ago in words that are if 
anything more true today than when he wrote them: ‘‘Not only are the 
rich not compactly united among themselves, but there is no real bond 
between them and the poor. Their relative position is not a permanent 
one; they are constantly drawn together or separated by their interests. 
The workman is generally dependent on the master, but not on any par- 
ticular master; these two men meet in the factory, but know not each 
other elsewhere; and while they come into contact on one point, they 
stand very far apart on all others. The manufacturer asks nothing of the 
workman but his labor; the workman expects nothing from him but his 
Wages. The one contracts no obligation to protect, nor the other to de- 
fend ; and they are not permanently connected either by habit or by duty. 
: . Between the workman and the master there are frequent relations, 
but no real partnership.” (Democracy in America, Vol. I1, Part II, Bk. II, 
Chap. xx.) 

5 See Lewi; Mumford’s The Culture of Cities (New York: Harcourt, 
Brace, 1938). 


_6Six out of every seven of the urban places in the United States of 
1790 had less than 10,000 p»pulation. 


MARCH, 1939 


liberate (as over against unplanned, casual) 
organization that weaves the individual into 
the group life increases in something like a 
geometrical progression. Urbanism in our cul- 
ture has been almost entirely a matter of mate- 
rial change. As just pointed out, under the doe- 
trine of casualness virtually no attention has 
been paid to the planning and perfecting of the 
non-material factor of social organization. 

Many of those who migrate to our larger cities 
pride themselves on the fact that ‘‘Now, thank 
God, I don’t have to know my neighbors, go to 
Rotary, belong to a church, or participate in an 
annual Community Chest drive!’’ And the big 
city does little to disabuse them of this attitude. 
Individuals can and do live comfortably in our 
large cities with no formal ties between them- 
selves and the structures of the culture save the 
money tie between them and their job. One 
may or may not elect to exercise one’s political 
right to vote; one may or may not own prop- 
erty, marry, or belong with anybody else to any- 
thing; but one must tie into the structure to the 
extent of getting money regularly. The culture 
puts an extreme reliance upon this money nexus 
between the individual and his job to hold the 
culture together. As jobs are given to indi- 
viduals and not to families, the latter institu- 
tion suffers. Urban folk delay marriage and in 
some cases elect not to marry; and kinship ties 
are narrowing and attenuating. Citizenship ties 
are weakening in our urban world to the point 
that they are largely neglected by large masses 
of people.” Neighborhood and community ties 
are not only optional but generally growing less 
strong; and along with them is disappearing 
the important network of intimate, informal 
social controls traditionally associated with liv- 
ing closely with others. Religious ties are so 
completely optional and tenuous that the church 
has sunk to its weakest point in our national 
history as an active instrument of cultural strue- 
turing. Leisure ties are increasing in number 
but are highly unstable. 

The individual’s identifying tag derived from 
his job and the property it yields him tends to 
be heavily overworked as the fragile basis for 
social cohesion. The common focus is not on 
living together but on ‘‘the job.’’ Such feelings 
of community as our culture has had in the 
smaller and more localized world of the past are 


7 In the mayoralty election of 1923 in Chicago, studied by Merriam 
and Gosnell in Nouw-Voting (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1924, 
pp. viii-x), only 723,000 of the 1,400,000 eligible electors bothered to 
go to the polls. 





actually declining throughout the culture today.‘ 
This carelessness about common sentiment is 
part of the general orientation toward matter- 
of-factness in a culture stressing material devel- 
opment, personal mobility, and postponement of 
the subtleties of living. At point after point our 
culture plays down extensive, acute, and subtle 
feeling. To be ‘‘businesslike’’ is to be ‘‘imper- 
sonal’’; in our moments of deep, personalized 
emotion we tend to retreat from others into our- 
selves or to the trusted tolerance of our imme- 
diate family; a businessman who is ‘‘artistic’’ 
may be somewhat suspect; being ‘‘romantic’’ or 
‘*idealistic’’ is regarded as an evidence of youth; 
and the person who ‘‘gets enthusiastic about 
things’’ is mildly disparaged as immature and 
‘*unsound.’’ Human beings do not easily live so 
emotionally sterilized. So we burst out peri- 
odically in sex, drinking, hard-driving week ends, 
and gusts of safe, standardized feeling at the 
movies and football games. Mickey Mouse and 
Charlie McCarthy tend to displace Uncle Sam 
and local symbols as repositories of common sen- 
timent. They sweep the country because there 
is so little else to feel about in common. They 


offer little identification of our personal rhythms 
of feeling with the deeper purposes of the cul- 


ture as a whole and with our common goals as 
members of it. 

No large society can long exist which is eare- 
less of this element of community in feeling and 
purpose. The tactics of a Hitler are profoundly 
right in so far as they recognize and seek to serve 
the need of human beings for the constant drama- 
tization of the feeling of common purpose. In our 
own culture, the roots of the earlier forms of 
common sentiment were in certain structuralized 
forms of authoritarian security: church, nation, 
local community, and family. These latter, with 
the exception of nationalism, have weakened or 
disintegrated with the growth of historical criti- 
cism, science, and a mobile individualism. The 
democratic right of the individual to think—or 
to think that he thinks—has played its part in 
the discrediting of some of these earlier authori- 
ties that were wont to focus men’s feelings. And 


8 The decaying structure of American “holidays” as occasions contin- 
ually rebuilding common sentiment is a mute and too little recognized 
evidence of this process of emotional disintegration. Washington's Birth- 
day, Lincoln’s Birthday, Decoration Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor 
Day have lost their ceremonial observations and are occasions for private 
holiday ; while Thanksgiving is so sunk in football games and turkey- 
dinners that the annual Presidential proclamation has become a quaint 
curiosity. 

It is not the loss of specific meaning of these “‘holidays’’ to which 
reference is here made. The point is, rather, that they formerly helped 
to contribute the binding mortar of common sentiment to the culture ; and 
as their specific traditional meanings have worn thin to modern man, 
they have simply been abandoned and no emotionally rich substitutes 
put in their place. 


democracy, interpreted largely as the right to 
be free to take or leave the world about one and 
to acquire private property, has afforded little 
new basis for deep common sentiment. The heavy 
current reliance upon a man’s job (and the re- 
sulting offensive-defensive balance of property 
rights) to hold our culture together is caused, not 
so much by the fact that people want only money, 
as by the fact that this is the clearest value that 
remains in a culture which has allowed other 
values to trickle away. The popularity of the 
disillusioned sophistication of a book like Thur- 
man Arnold’s The Folklore of Capitalism is an 
evidence of how little modern capitalist democracy 
has left us to work for and to feel strongly to- 
gether about. 

Nationalism remains and it is taking over the 
role of creating common sentiment on a grand 
seale. But common sentiment sprayed over a 
population from the top down, and not living and 
growing richly at the grass-roots of a culture, 
loses its vitality. Human beings crave big, ag- 
gregating symbols on a culture-wide scale, but 
they also crave localized and highly personal- 
ized meanings. Human loyalties are largely built 
of an infinite number of shared purposes in com- 
monplace daily acts. 

Whatever one may think of the over-all right- 
ness or wrongness of the Soviet Union, the social 
scientist must approve the basic soundness of 
the social ‘‘activism’’ it encourages in individuals. 
A member of the Communist Party in the U.S.S.R. 
is expected to be active ‘‘politically, culturally,’ 
and in his trade union.’’ As a result, these in- 
dividuals undertake responsibility for helping, 
through their active social participation, to build 
or to operate some small part of the social struc- 
ture. This social activism spreads beyond Party 
members, though the Party remains the insti- 
gating nucleus. As a result, ‘‘something over 
half’’” the entire adult population of the city 
of Moscow, for instance, is estimated to be ac- 
tively engaged in some form of this socialiy in- 
tegrative work. Children of our Boy Scout age 
begin to learn habits of socially directed partici- 
pation in the Young Pioneer organization, while 
in the late ’teens and early twenties the Com- 


9 “Culturally”’ here refers to reading and study and to participation 
in those aspects of life not comprised in the immediately political and 
economic. ‘‘Cultural activism" appears in the mounting consumption of 
books of all kinds, and in the vigorous and pervasive development of the 
arts, athletics, and other varied group activities in communities and 
neighborhoods of all sizes. 

10 This is a “‘rough estimate’ made to the writer by a Soviet official in 
Moscow in the summer of 1938. The estimate includes al] grades and 
degrees of activism, from the Party member to the non-Party person, 
e.g., including the housewife who assumes responsibility for seeing that 
the people in her apartment building know about a given group activity 
and are invited to participate. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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somols (junior Party members) undertake such 
work in earnest. Underlying such activism are 
the two assumptions that it is bad for a culture 
to allow its human participants to become so- 
cially lost in the shuffle and that every human 
being has somewhere within him an active or 
potential interest in something which, if shared 
with others, will make both him and the culture 
stronger. To a student of American urban liv- 
ing, any such organized effort to build a neigh- 
borhood, a city, or a collective farm socially 
around the common interests of individuals 
stands out in sharp contrast to our own casual- 
ness in regard to such things. If cities and strag- 
gling countrysides are not to continue to isolate 
an unduly large number of individuals and to dis- 
sipate their potentialities for group living, some 
such fundamentally sound selective and orgarriza- 
tional program of social activism will have to be 


adopted and pushed for all it is worth. Whether 
such a program can be developed within the di- 
visive dynamics of private capitalism is another 
question which would have to be examined by 
itself. 

We are today living through the end of that 
phase of our cultural history which was dom- 
inated by the quest for the conditions of indi- 
vidual liberty. Heavily laden with institutions 
developed to that end, we are reluctantly moving 
into a new phase in which we must somehow man- 
age to rewrite our institutions in terms of or- 
ganized community of purpose. To this end we 
may no longer conceive of the state as simply a 
kind umpire over what Sir Henry Maine called 
‘‘the beneficent private war which makes one man 
strive to climb on the shoulders of another and 
remain there through the law of the survival of 
the fittest.’’ 


Democracy and Intellectual Freedom 


@ FRANZ BOAS 


to recognize that the economic actions of 

each individual have such a profound in- 
fluence upon the well-being of our fellow citi- 
zens, even of members of foreign nations, that 
we cannot indulge in that robust individuality 
characteristic of earlier days, when every house- 
hold was much more nearly self-sufficient than 
it is now. The causes of this change are well- 
known and primarily due to the achievements 
of science. 

The restrictions which we accept as unavoid- 
able consequences of the inventive genius of man- 
kind and the size of our population do not extend 
over the domain of thought. Even if we wanted 
to do so, we could not maintain absolute individ- 
ualism in social and economic life, but it is the 
goal to which we strive in intellectual and spiri- 
tual life. It took us a long time to free thought 
from the restraints of imposed dogma. This 
freedom has not by any means been achieved 


Tic COMPLEXITIES OF MODERN LIFE compel us 


1Address delivered at a meeting sponsored by the Lincoln’s 
Birthday Committee for Democracy and Intellectual Freedom, 
held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York City, on Sunday, 
February 12. This address was broadcast over station WHN. 


MARCH, 1939 


completely. The thoughts of many are uncon- 
sciously or consciously so restrained, and at- 
tempts at forcible repression of thought that 
runs counter to accepted tenets of belief are 
still all too frequent. A bigoted majority may 
be as dangerous to free thought as the heavy 
hand of a dictator. For this reason we demand 
fullest freedom of expression, so that our youth 
may be prepared for an intelligent use of the 
privileges and duties of citizenship. 
Notwithstanding all the lapses of which we 
may have been guilty, the ideal of our democracy 
is freedom of thought and expression. This is 
clearly expressed in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and in the Bill of Rights: free speech, 
free assembly, free press, prove that our aim 
is to strive for intellectual freedom. Science 
certainly cannot live in an atmosphere of re- 
straint. In democratic states it has largely suc- 
ceeded in shaking off the chains of dogma, at least 
insofar as the natural sciences are concerned. 
We still have to learn much in regard to freedom 
of research and expression in the social science, 
but at least we have the will to achieve it. The 
disposition to consider as heresy a view different 


9 





from that in vogue and to incite passionate per- 
secution of those holding it must be overcome. 
If we wish to fight prejudice, the results of hon- 
est research, whatever they may be, must become 
accessible to all. 

There was a time when in absolute monarchies 
science was free as long as it did not interfere 
with the autocratic government, when the results 
of research did not find their way into the masses 
but remained confined to the small group de- 
voted to intellectual pursuits. 

The modern totalitarian states take a differ- 
ent view. They ordain what the results of scien- 
tific research shall be and do not allow work to 
be carried out or results to be published that run 
counter to their preconceived notions. Whole 
branches of knowledge that seem to them dan- 
gerous or irrelevant are suppressed. The value 
of scientific research is not measured by its in- 
trinsic value but by the question whether the 
investigator is acceptable to the dictator or not. 

The evil effects of such a policy are not con- 
fined to science. The tyranny extends over 
everyday life. No criticism, no divergent opinion 
is allowed and since draconic punishments are 
meted out to transgressors, the people become 
cowards; even more, since denunciation of op- 
ponents is considered a virtue, their whole morale 
is undermined. 


“Try, Try Again!” 


@ MARY E. KEISTER and DOROTHY E. BRADBURY 


ically for an afternoon or for the better 

part of a morning is amazed to discover 
the number of things he comes up against that 
are difficult for him to do or the number of occa- 
sions on which he meets failure. Often she can 
see that his failures arise out of his limited pow- 
ers of reasoning, out of his physical incapacity 
for certain tasks, or out of his limited ability to 
make himself understood through the use of lan- 
guage. At other times, however, his failures 
result from his own inability to persist at a task, 
his lack of self-confidence, or his emotional re- 
sponse to possible failure. 


' NY MOTHER WHO OBSERVES her child systemat- 


The uninformed among ourselves are too apt 
to overlook the sacrifices by which the success 
of totalitarian states is purchased, and there 
is danger that the apparent security may allure 
weak souls to search for similar remedies. Irre- 
sponsible propaganda is at work to exploit such 
disposition. 

For this reason it is our duty to be on guard. 
We deem intellectual and spiritual freedom the 
inalienable right of every individual. Democracy 
as conceived in our Constitution and as expressed 
in our daily life is a treasure that we are deter- 
mined to guard under all circumstances. We 
have not attained the fullest measure of such 
freedom, but where it is not fully realized, we 
struggle to develop it. We consecrate ourselves 
to its perfection, to fight every form of censor- 
ship, exercised by government, church, vested 
interests, irresponsible control by governing in- 
dividuals or bodies, and all other forms of sup- 
pressing freedom of expression. Our democracy 
gives us the right and imposes upon us the duty 
to devote ourselves to the development of intel- 
lectual freedom. 

Today we can express our convictions only in 
words, but you may rest assured that we shall 
create an organization to strengthen democracy ; 
that steps have been taken which will lead to 
the realization of this end. 


John’s tricycle is stuck and will not budge be- 
cause the wheel catches against the corner of the 
door frame each time he turns. There is the 
chest which Tommy cannot move, try as he will, 
though his teddy bear has fallen behind it. There 
are the children in the yard next door who, on 
the basis of some whim, shout when John ap- 
pears, ‘‘You can’t play with us! We won’t let 
you play over here.’’ Sara’s oval peg refuses 
to drop into a round hole. David is faced with 
the difficulty of explaining to a playmate that 
he is going to be the ‘‘filling-station man’’ since 
he supplied the wagon and the length of old hose. 
Frank has difficulty manipulating the mechanism 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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by which the cars in his electric train are coupled 
together and one of the sections of track will not 
fit readily into its neighbor. 

What are we to do if Tommy responds with a 
tantrum and blames the whole affair on his teddy 


bear, or if Sara runs away from the peg board,. 
maintaining, ‘‘Oh, I can’t. It’s too hard for a 
little girl like me to do.’’ What shall we say 
when Joan turns back in a burst of tears or 
when David starts for home, minus his posses- 
sions, shouting, ‘‘Anyway, my mother didn’t 
want me to play with you.’’ Shall we ignore 
Frank when he gives his train a semivicious 
kick and pulls up the track he has laboriously 
put together, throws them on the floor, and stalks 
from the room crying bitterly? Or shall we at- 
tempt to help and encourage him to succeed in 
coupling the cars of his train? Time was when 
we told ourselves we should spare our children 
the anguish of such situations as these, that for 
them to face such problems and to be unable to 
solve them was to undermine their self-confidence. 

But psychologists tell us now that children 
need to come up against some problems which are 
hard for them, that they need some failure in 
order to learn not only new facts but also to 
learn how to persist, to discover what their own 
limitations and capacities are, to gain ideas of 
cause and effect, to learn what behavior is so- 
cially acceptable and will rightfully earn for them 
a place in a social group. Thus we are led to 
believe that it is a far greater mistake for par- 
ents or teachers to interfere to prevent children 
from experiencing failure than it is a virtue to 
get them to succeed. 

A recent investigation carried on at the Iowa 
Child Welfare Research Station, using children 


MARCH, 1939 


from three to six years of age‘as subjects, encour- 
ages us to believe that young children can be 
taught acceptable and satisfactory ways of meet- 
ing difficulties, that they can actually be trained 
to face failure. Two experiments were used to 





test the children’s reactions in situations which 
were difficult for them. In one the child was re- 
quired to move a heavy box in order to obtain 
the toys that were placed underneath; in the 
other situation the child found himself unable to 
replace a group of small blocks and figures in a 
little flat box where a moment before he had seen 
them lying. 

Special individual training was given to a 
group of fifteen children who were shown by 
tests and by the ratings of their nursery-school 
teachers to be giving ‘‘babyish’’ and undesirable 
responses. Julia, for instance, always cried when 
she faced a difficult task. Jane sulked and asked 
an undue amount of help from the teacher. 
Sammy gave up immediately and refused to work 
at difficult tasks longer. Frankie excused his 
failures by blaming them on someone or some- 
thing else. He said, ‘‘I won’t try any more be- 
cause your box is anyway too little. My mother 
always helps me when I have to put things in 
too little boxes.’’ Betsey became discouraged 
and gave up long before she had exhausted all 
of the possibilities of solution in the problems. 
She kept repeating, ‘‘It’s too hard for me to do,”’ 
and ‘‘My mother doesn’t want me to do hard 
games like this.’’ 

Plainly, reactions such as these are undesirable 
in a child. Apparently these children needed 
special training to help them meet such situa- 
tions in a more desirable, straightforward, and 
grown-up manner. Accordingly a study was made 











to determine whether children who showed such 
immature responses in the face of failure could 
be helped by special training to develop more 
desirable responses. The method of training 
used consisted in giving the children a number 
of problem situations which grew progressively 
harder as the program of training proceeded. 
One situation included twenty jig-saw puzzles 
bound together into three different books, each 
book of puzzles telling a connected story which 
held much interest for children of these ages. 
The puzzles became harder and harder as the 
child proceeded through each book. The first 
situations were made easy purposely, so that the 
children could achieve success in them and gradu- 
ally build up modes of reacting to the situations 
which would enable them to meet adequately the 
demands of the more difficult ones. A block-build- 
ing problem which was fully as difficult for the 
children and demanded as much persistence as 
any of the tasks required of them in the original 
experiments or tests was also used. 

As the child progressed on to tasks that became 
harder for him the examiner would say to him, 
‘*You did those puzzles in the train story all by 
yourself yesterday. You will know how to do 
these by yourself, too, because they are made 
the same way.’’ Or she said, ‘‘Remember the 
way you worked the other day? You tried and 
tried until you found the way to get it finished. 
Keep on trying now and you can get this finished 
too.’’ The children were continually encouraged, 
‘*Keep ontrying. Try it different ways until you 
find how to do it. If you keep trying, you will 
find the right way in a minute.’’ The children 
were given some praise if they made an effort to 
solve the more difficult problems without asking 
for help. The examiner said, ‘‘Good for you! 
You kept right on trying until you found the 
way to do it, didn’t you?’’ Or, ‘‘That’s fine! 
You are learning to try hard and you don’t need 
to ask me to help you any more, do you?’’ When 
the child had difficulties with the block construc- 
tion tasks, the adult said to him, ‘‘Now you have 
a chance to build it again better than ever.’’ 
Or, ‘‘Now this is a good chance for you to start 
over and make it straighter and steadier than 
before. This time you can make it still better.’’ 

It was most essential in employing these tech- 
niques to be sure that the tasks were so adjusted 
to the child’s ability that they were not easy but 
also were not too hard. As the training periods 
proceeded it was noted that the children being 
trained asked less help of the examiner, even 





though the problems were growing harder, they 
spent longer and longer times on the tasks with- 
out becoming discouraged or ‘‘giving up,’’ and 
they showed greater interest in doing the work 
for themselves without help from anyone else. 
Billy began to say, ‘‘I’ll try and try till I find 
how it goes. Oh, look! I finded the way. I tried 
and finded the way.’’ Joan often said, ‘‘O-o-0, 
I’m finding a way. There! I made it alone. See, 
I tried every every way till I made it alone.’’ 
David said, ‘‘I1’m sure havin’ a hardest time. 
but look, I’m makin’ it gooder. It’s gonna be 
gooder this time.’’ 

After the training periods were finished and 
the children were again tested, using one of the 
original experiments, much improvement in their 
responses was distinctly shown. Now not one of 
these children cried or sulked in the face of the 
difficulty. They asked for help less frequently, 
excused their failures less often, worked with in- 
terest, even absorption, for much longer periods 
of time in the face of continued failure, and 
showed by their own words a marked improve- 
ment in their attitudes toward their failures. 
Their attitudes changed from ones of ‘‘I can’t. I 
ean’t. You do it for me,’’ accompanied by ery- 
ing or sulking, to ‘‘I’m almost gettin’ this right. 
Pre’ soon I’m gonna know how this goes. I’m 
tryin’ and tryin’, hard, to get these in.’’ 

Furthermore, children of the same ages as these 
children, who had not been given this special 
training, after being retested on the original 
tests did not show these improved attitudes. 
Evidently this change in attitude was not a fune- 
tion of age or attendance at nursery school. 

These results of an actual experiment show 
that children, even very young children, can be 
taught to feel that a hard problem is an excit- 
ing challenge to their patience and ingenuity and 
that the process of working at it can afford as 
keen enjoyment as the actual successful solution 
will afford when they finally reach it. Thus, 
while still very young, children can learn that 
even if they do not succeed at first the thrill of 
working at the task for a time makes the effort 
worthwhile. A child can come to understand 
and to feel, more and more clearly as he grows 
older, that ultimate success in itself is insignifi- 
cant in comparison to the infinitely more im- 
portant fact that, in the process of achieving it, 
he faced the problem honestly and straightfor- 
wardly, kept his composure, and depended only 
upon himself for help in solving it. 

These principles are of major importance to 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








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- 


~~ 


parents and teachers. First of all they must 
remember that although in the study described 
here the problems used with the children were 
difficult, they were all possible of accomplish- 
ment. These principles have no reference to 
tasks which are impossible and against which any 
efforts of the child would be unavailing. Thus, 
the parent’s problem in adapting these methods 
for use with his child will test his own insight 
and understanding of his child’s level of devel- 
opment and achievement. First of all he must 
see that the task faced by the child is within the 
child’s ability to accomplish. He must know 
when he is expecting too much of a child. But 
the instant the parent decides that the child 
should be able to do that for himself at his age, 
then his attitude should be one of encourage- 
ment for the child to stay with the task until 


the child accomplishes it. Most children respond 
quickly to such comments as, ‘‘ You can do it for 
yourself, Dear. You can do it all alone. You 
try it and see if you can’t. Keep on trying and 
pretty soon you will have it done.’’ Telling the 
child that the parent will be in the next room 
so that the child can come and tell when he has 
accomplished the task set by the parent is some- 
times a good method to use. With the swagger 
of a conqueror, the child will exhibit himself 
clothed in his snowsuit, complete to cap and 
mittens, and say, ‘‘I can put it on. See, I could 
do it all myself!’’ 

Thus the old adage, ‘‘If at first you don’t suc- 
ceed, try, try again’’ (providing the task is possi- 
ble of accomplishment), is not only good, prac- 
tical common sense but a good mental-hygiene 
principle as well. 


The Sterility of Scholarship 


@ PORTER SARGENT 


tional affairs we might well look for guid- 

ance to those who in endowed chairs have 
had nothing else to do but to understand and 
interpret. The news presented by our privately 
owned press and radio, it is possible, and we 
suspect may be, controlled by powerful interests 
to their own ends. Much of it originates in prop- 
aganda agencies and filters through foreign cen- 
sorships. There have been many detailed studies 
of how this was effected in the last war. Since 
then the technique seems to have improved so 
much that it’s less obvious. 

University teachers of history, diplomacy, in- 
ternational affairs, social studies, should be heard 
from at this time. They should be better able 
to analyze propaganda and detect the untruths, 
and to warn us. But few of them have anything 
vital enough to say to reach the public, to win a 
place in the pages of the magazines, or to place 
their books among the brilliant jacketed that 
sell. We are dependent on commentators, journ- 
alists, men of affairs who write in a lively enongh 
way to sell their articles, but who seldom have 
university connections. 

Most of this army of endowed, subsidized col- 


I THIS TIME OF increased interest in interna- 


MARCH, 1939 


lege professors who occupy these chairs and 
settees in our universities seem to have nothing 
to say, and those who do express it in ‘‘heavy, 
stolid prosing,’’ as Allen Nevins, professor at 
Columbia, describes it. In a recent magazine 
article, he accuses his colleagues of destroying 
the public’s interest in history and characterizes 
his fellow historians as ‘‘squeezing out mono- 
graphs and counting footnotes.’’ Moreover, 
they falsify, garble, and distort history, he tells 
us in his latest book, The Gateway to History. 

William L. Langer, professor of history at 
Harvard, though he has won wide recognition 
through his scholarly interpretation of modern 
diplomatic history, does not hesitate to speak 
out in a way to show he has withstood the Har- 
vard tendency to make antiquarians of historians. 
Reviewing Nevins’ book, he writes, ‘‘Curiosity 
about the past is innate in man. . . . We his- 
torians are chiefly to blame if historical writing 
is no longer vital . . . no longer has any attrac- 
tion or any meaning for the average man... . 
We write untold quantities of history, but no one 
reads us. We read each other to some extent, 
but chiefly as a professional obligation. . . . We 
disapprove of Emil Ludwig and his kind, but at 


13 


+ ere tere meee 


A i ee A ay te em ae 


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bottom we know why they are read and we are 
not, and we cannot blame the reading public.’’ 

And there are other exceptions at Harvard. 
Samuel Eliot Morison is a brilliant writer who 
makes the scene live and gives significance to it. 
And Sidney Fay won opprobrium from the ortho- 
dox by revealing the untruths that were being 
taught and promoted on the causes of the last 
war. Among the emigrés, Carl J. Friedrich tells 
realistically of ‘‘Foreign Policy in the Making,”’ 
and Gaetano Salvemini strips falsity from Italian 
propaganda. At Williams College Schuman and 
Lamb, of the Tyler Dennett irreconcilables, re- 
cently joined by Max Lerner, speak out boldly on 
the current scene. 

The Harvard Guardian is an undergraduate 
publication which attempts to introduce a little 
life into the futile teaching of the social sciences. 
The Guardian broadcasts whenever it can find a 
professor who the editors think may have any- 
thing to say. Recently they organized a sym- 
posium of Yale and Harvard professors of the 
social sciences and published a book, Before 
America Decides, which deals with the imminent 
problem of future war or peace. Their learned 
and erudite, but cautious, sterile contributions 


justify Nevins’ ‘‘stolid prosing.’’ One thing is 
so carefully weighed against another that there 
is no excitement in their writing or in their lives 
or in their world. They are conditioned out of 
all enthusiasms. They live in a stale, stultified 
atmosphere which produces a kind of intellectual 


claustrophobia. Students exposed to their lec- 
tures for three or four years, one finds, show 
those same qualities. 

But it is naive to cavi!l at this. The universi- 
ties have their traditional functions to perform 
and their contemporary obligations to meet. The 
flow of funds to them is influenced or directed by 
men whose lives have been spent in the financial 
game, who have been conditioned to its limita- 
tions, and whose imagination and views are re- 
stricted by it. They are devoted to ‘‘those ele- 
ments that make for a reign of law’’ as Thomas 
Lamont put it at Exeter, to be reiterated by 
Dr. Perry at the opening of school. ‘‘Law is a 
body of rules laid down by group authority in 
the interest of the group members as a whole,”’ 
writes John Foster Dulles, a Wall Street lawyer, 
in his recent War, Peace and Change (Harpers, 
1939). 

‘*Practical’’ men, loyal to the present order, 
naturally have contempt for the impractical who 


14 


hold blueprints for the future, mostly vagabond 
rebels who unconsciously and imaginatively are 
forging new fetters for future generations. The 
fetters of the past are good enough. So the uni- 
versity authorities must see to it that they have 
servitors, loyal to the present order, if they 
would avoid deficits and secure the annual incre- 
ment that is necessary to carry on. Once they 
are chosen and conditioned on this basis, why 
should they unnecessarily interfere with their 
own welfare, contentment, security, salary, and 
future pension? So the teaching of the social 
is entrusted to ‘‘time-servers’’ and 


sciences 


_ **time-binders.’’ 


What the world and the universities need is an 
enlarged willingness to come in contact with 
reality, an acknowledgement that we do not know, 
but should question, investigate, and plan one 
step at a time in our exploration, doubting and 
questioning all maps and blueprints that point 
the way to where the great treasure is buried. 
Let us dream if we may, theorize if we must, but 
not fail to scrutinize and analyze. This is the 
scientific method, which is the common sense of 
primitives and yokels who have been close to the 
soil, to nature, to reality. 

Scholarship is so reverenced at our universi- 
ties that it has become a great fetish. It deter- 
mines who and what shall be rewarded. The 
shadow of this bogey lengthens out over our high 
schools and even grammar schools. Scholarship 
is so venerated that few have dared to challenge. 

What is scholarship? As nearly as I can find 
out, it is nothing but knowing what others have 
written or printed on a subject. It’s what the 
scientist dismisses as a mere preliminary study. 
Before he starts an investigation, he masters 
the ‘‘literature,’’ knows what has been printed 
on the subject. But that’s as far as the scholar 
goes, and seldom that far. The scientist, with 
that start, sets out to prove something wrong, 
setting up something for a successor or his col- 
leagues to question. Science is merely the body 
of knowledge which has survived such repeated 
and continuous attacks. 

But scholarship is an accumulation of tradi- 
tions, myths, and hocus pocus, carefully pre- 
served to lumber up many a mental attic. True, 
there is ‘‘eritical’’ scholarship, which sorts out 
out-moded myths that no longer serve a purpose, 
and there is ‘‘creative’’ scholarship, which form- 
ulates new myths or theories about what others 
have written and why. But scholarship avoids 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








reality and deals with things at second or third 
or fourth hand. The product of an acquisitive 
society, the scholar preens himself upon his col- 
lection of antique junk. 

From the scientist the scholar has borrowed 
terms like ‘‘original research.’’ To the scientist 
this means discovering things unknown. To the 
scholar it means digging up something someone 
has written that is not generally known, adding 
to his pack something that some other scholar 
has not stuffed into his. The scholar avoids the 
present and disdains the future, leaving all that 
to the ‘‘charlatan.’’ ‘‘The Moving Finger 
writes; and, having writ, moves on.’’ Not till 
long after will this be of interest to the scholar, 
a subject of ‘‘research.”’ 

No wonder academic circles are pervaded by 
a tired feeling that tempts few to stray beyond 
their own safe compartments where, without 
danger, they may show such boldness as they 
possess in separating the chaff from the ‘‘meas- 
ure of sound grain sifted by rigorous criticism.’’ 

Behind a screen of sophistication or cynicism 
some hide their timidity, but there is no question 
that a pall of fear overhangs most universities. 
There i a feeling that it’s of little use in the 
social sciences to disentangle truth and falsehood, 
and anyway it does not matter much. A promi- 
nent Harvard undergraduate remarked recently, 
‘*T don’t know of any Harvard section man who 
wouldn’t go back on any statement he had made, 
if he knew the department head didn’t approve.’’ 

Veblen, once an academic outcast, has now en- 
tered Valhalla, and though he is not paraded 
much before undergraduates in university circles 
where he might stir up trouble, he is read by the 
most circumspect. President Conant of Harvard 
in his Lincoln Day address, reported the Boston 
Herald, February 15, 1939, ‘‘quoted liberally 
from Thorstein Veblen.’’ 

It was Veblen who sardonically characterized 
academic scholarship. ‘‘This highly sterilized, 
germ-proof system of knowledge, kept in a cool, 
dry place, commands the affection of modern 
civilized mankind. . . . This esoteric knowledge 
of matter-of-fact has come to be accepted as some- 
thing worth-while in its own right, a self-legiti- 
mating end of endeavor in itself, apart from any 
bearing it may have on the glory of God.or the 
good of man. . . . This learning has ... . become 
an avowed ‘end in itself.’ ’’ 

When into. a company of such scholars there 
come iconoclastic ‘‘movers and shakers,’* break- 


MARCH, 1939 

























































ers of ancient fetters, who question accepted 
values, there is but one thing to do—snub them, 
depress them, degrade them, or throw them out. 
And that’s the current practice. They are cor- 
rupters of youth, as was Socrates. 

In a static world, in an acquisitive society, in 
a social class that is becoming parasitic, not pro- 
ductive or creative, such a situation becomes 
inevitable. America still has vitality, but some 
think it is dying at the top. The dying top may 
look to older societies—parasitic, feudal, ecclesi- 
astical, Tory England—for guidance and model. 
The aim and purpose of life then becomes to pre- 
serve what they value, what they know, to justify 
what is, to sanctify the past, to divert attention 
and interest from change. 

Byzantium lasted many times longer than 
Britannia. Gibbon gives us a picture of Byzan- 
tine scholars and scholarship of the Tenth Cen- 
tury. He portrays what those in ‘‘our intellec- 
tual graveyards’’ may yet become if they are 
not jarred out of their secure complacency. 
‘‘They held in their lifeless hands the riches of 
their fathers, without inheriting the spirit which 


had created and improved that sacred patrimony : 
They read, they compiled, but their languid souls 
seemed alike incapable of thought and action. 
. . . A succession of patient disciples became in 
their turn the dogmatic teachers of the next ser- 
vile generation.”’ 

President Conant, at the 1936 Tercentenary, 
the time of his bold outspeaking, quoted the above 
and declared, ‘‘That must not be allowed to hap- 
pen at Harvard’’ (Time, September 28, 1936). 
But since then, this virile young scientific re- 
searcher has heard, they would say in London, 
‘‘from ‘The City.’’’ He has become ‘‘condi- 
tioned,’’ ‘‘successfully and _ intelligently in- 
tegrated.’’ With greater caution his more meas- 
ured words today show realization that the uni- 
versity is an ‘‘assemblage of scholars’’ whose 
function is to know and preserve the myths that 
are their heritage and stock-in-trade. So the 
university that was the hope of the world and 
the center of enlightenment in 1936 faces the 
danger that it may remain a ‘‘time-binding”’ 
institution, though man’s task is to be ‘‘time- 
annihilating.’’ 


Bronson Alcott's School 


@ ROBERT MORSS LOVETT 


editing in dealing with the vast mass of 

material of Bronson Alcott’s journals. 
Even the liberality of his publishers has allowed 
him to retain less than one-twentieth of the 5,000,- 
000 words contained in the original fifty volumes 
of manuscript (now in the library of Frederic 
Wolsey Pratt, Alcott’s great-grandson, at Con- 
cord), but he has presented fairly all of Alcott’s 
intellectual and social interests, his relations 
with many of his distinguished contemporaries, 
his family life, and his inner, spiritual expe- 
rience. In fact, he has recalled from the past and 
recreated a character of singular attraction and 
significance and added a star to the famous 
galaxy of New England writers with all of whom 
Alcott was associated—Emerson, the Channings, 
Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Lowell, Agassiz, 
Henry James, Sr., Hawthorne. One of the re- 
markable qualities of Alcott’s mind was his sane 


O's SHEPARD HAS DONE a superb piece of 


16 


judgment of men. Coleridge, Emerson, Thoreau, 
Hawthorne, he recognized as of original genius, 
distinguished from the secondhand—Longfellow, 
‘‘a purely literary man,’’ W. E. Channing, who 
‘‘never makes an idea,’’ Sumner, ‘‘conventional, 
scholastic, commonplace. His attainments are 
all of the Harvard cast.’’ Altogether the journ- 
als give a most specific and delightful presenta- 
tion of the extraordinary richness and intimacy 
of social life among those who made America’s 
Golden Day. 

The aspect of Alcott’s character and career of 
most interest to readers of this journal is that 
of a teacher. The importance of this function in 
Alcott’s life, and the transcendental spirit in 
which he undertook it, is indicated in a paragraph 


of Mr. Shepard’s introduction: 
First of all, then, and always, Bronson Alcott was a teacher. 
His teaching bound his life together as firmly as his thought 
was unified by a single article of faith. He held that true 
i by which he never meant mere instruction—in- 
volves an ascent to a common spiritual level. Far more so- 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 











cially minded than Emerson, who said that “we descend to 

meet,” he believed that for all true meeting of minds we 

must rise above dispute and fact-peddling to the heights of 

Spirit on which we realize that we are one. Good teaching 

was therefore a sharing of mind with mind. It was a process 

in which all those concerned were engaged in recollecting what, 
in some sense, they already knew. 

It was natural that, dealing directly with the 
soul through ‘‘intimations of immortality’’ de- 
rived from a primal unity of spirit, Aleott should 
have found the best material for his pedagogic 
art in children. At the age of fifty he wrote with 


a certain nostalgia: 


Children were once my companions. Time was when I! 
lived almost exclusively with them, and was privileged beyond 
most men in being the centre of a lively circle—I was the 
greater gainer, and those days were golden. But of late | 
have been drawn aside from this intimacy by pursuits and 
objects more intellectual and ideal. The diversion has come 
against my will and wishes and by force of circumstances. | 
have accepted and submitted against long-cherished hopes and 


endeavors, seeing it must be so. . 


These words embody the tragedy of Alecott’s 
life. Preeminently fitted by temperament and 
understanding te be a teacher of children, he 
was driven from that occupation time and again 
by the hostility of conventional and stupid peo- 
ple. Alcott’s attitude toward society was colored 
by a wholesome anarchism, which, as in the case 
of Francisco Ferrer, made him the more original 
and inspiring teacher. He was not called like 
Ferrer to face the firing squad, but he was no 
less truly a martyr in the cause of education. 

Alcott forsook peddling for teaching when he 
was twenty-five years old. The first entries in 
his journal, begun a year later, concern almost 
entirely his experience in Cheshire, Connecticut, 
where he tried to introduce the methods of Pesta- 
lozzi. The first entry in Mr. Shepard’s volume 
is the protest of the honest teacher, from Socrates 
to Ferrer. ‘‘Those who in modern times attempt 
in education anything different from the old 
established modes are by many regarded as pub- 
lie innovators on the peace and order of society, 
as persons desirous of destroying the structure 
which secures present happiness, and of substi- 
tuting in its place anarchy and confusion.’’ 
Driven from Cheshire by opposition to his meth- 
ods, he took a school at Bristol, Connecticut, at 
a salary of $23 a month and board. Here also 
his engagement was not renewed, and accord- 
ingly he turned from the provincial hostility of 
Connecticut to the larger freedom of Boston, 
where in June, 1828, he opened the Salem Street 
Infant School, which soon increased from seven- 
teen to sixty. In the autumn he opened a school 
for boys, which for a time enjoyed success. His 


MARCH, 1939 





contributions to the Journal of Education at- 
tracted favorable notice, and he was invited to 
open a school at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 
association with William Russell, the editor of 
the Journal. Later this school was transferred 
to Philadelphia. In 1834 he returned to Boston 
and opened the Temple School, of which Miss 
Elizabeth Peabody, who acted as his assistant, 
wrote the Record of a School, the best account of 
Alcott’s method. It was in consequence of his 
religious views embodied in Conversations on 
the Gospels that the Temple School was broken 
up. There was such indignation in the city that 
Alcott was hooted at in public and subjected to 
threats of physical violence. Preachers regarded 
him as an interloper, and teachers were hostile. 
Nevertheless, Aleott reopened his school in his 
own house, but when the parents of several pupils 
objected to the presence of a Negro child, he 
found himself with only five children, his own 
three daughters, the son of his friend Russell, 
and the Negro. To close this record of Alcott’s 
formal teaching it is only necessary to add that 
he was elected superintendent of schools in Con- 
cord in 1859, at a salary of $100, and after what 
Mr. Shepard calls ‘‘an almost embarrassingly 
conscientious performance of his duties,’’ he 
was defeated by a political deal in 1865. 

On June 22, 1839, Aleott wrote in his Journal: 
‘**T closed my school today. It is quite obvious 
that labours like mine cannot take root in this 
community, and more especially in this city, until 
parents and adults are better instructed in the 
principles and methods of human culture. . . . 





17 





I have a mission to parents, and must enter upon 
it. When their eyes shall be opened to the wants 
of the Soul, then shall I be permitted to minister 
to the needs of childhood.’’ It was thus that 
Alcott turned to adult education—for the sake 
of the children. 

The method he used was that of the conversa- 
tion, an enlargement of the Socratic dialogue. 
He had begun to hold conversations on the Gos- 
pels in Boston while still conducting his school. 
In 1838 he wrote: ‘‘My theory of Conversation 
as the natural organ of communicating, mind with 
mind, appears more and more beautiful to me. 
It is the method of human culture. By it I come 
nearer the hearts of those whom I shall address 
than by any other means. . . . Conversation 
must be my organ of address to the public mind.”’ 
It was for Alcott what the lyceum platform was 
for Emerson. From Boston he extended his 
circle to neighboring towns. An entry in 1839 
is illuminating. ‘‘The Conversation at Lynn, 
this evening, was well attended. Very was there. 
We had a splendid talk on Instinct. It was seen 
that on all great occasions of life the Soul acted 
from instinct, and various instances from the 
corporeal, mental, and spiritual life, were enum- 
erated, in illustration. We had deep insight into 
the Soul.’’ From the vicinity of Boston Alcott 
extended his tours, at first with little popular 
success. Once he returned with a single dollar 
to show for his labors. But gradually he built 
up audiences for himself in cities as far west as 


St. Louis, and could add several hundred dollars 
a year to the family budget. Indeed his wider 
associations made Concord seem narrow. In 
1875 he wrote: ‘‘Home is home; yet I should 
enjoy a wider and more intimate association 
than opens for me in my immediate neighborhood 
and throughout New England. Life seems a little 
tame after the closer fellowships of the last 
months at the West.’’ On his last tour of the 
West when he was eighty-one, he spoke in thirty- 
seven cities over a period of seven months, travel- 
ing some 5,000 miles and speaking sometimes 
three times a day, earning more than $1,200. 
It was at home, however, that he was to bring 
to fruition the last of his educational projects. 
The Concord School of Philosophy was opened 
in the summer of 1879, at which Alcott continued 
his conversations. These are summarized in 
the journal for that year and seem to show little 
change in subject matter or method from those 
given at Lynn forty years earlier. The Concord 
School was the last step in Alcott’s progress 
toward higher education. This was a continuous 
and unified process which began with the district 
school at Cheshire; and its key is found in the 
words which he chose when in 1839 he found that 
he must transfer his teaching to adults: ‘‘Ex- 
cept ye be converted, and become as little chil- 
dren, ye shall not apprehend the doctrines and 
disciplines of the Kingdom of the Soul.’’ 
“Odell Shepard, who edited The Journals Of Bronson Alcott 


(Boston: Little, Brown. 1938), is president of Local 556 of the 
American Federation of Teachers. 


The National Health Program 


@ ROBERT F. WAGNER 


EAR IN AND YEAR OUT, in good times and in 
¥V ras, sickness takes a staggering toll. On 
the average day, 5,000,000 persons are dis- 
abled by illness. Sickness causes a total wage 
loss of more than a billion dollars a year. It is 
responsible for over a third of all dependency 
on public relief or private charity. 
The United States has already made tremen- 
dous strides in the advancement of national health 


1Excerpt from a talk given by Senator Robert F. Wagner on 
January 30, 1939, over the radio network of the National Broad- 
casting Company. 


and standards of medical care. But while we 
boast of the world’s finest resources of medical 
knowledge, equipment, and personnel, we are 
still sadly deficient in bringing those resources 
within the reach of all who need them. 

The day has long since passed when govern- 
ment’s responsibility for the health of the pop- 
ulation ceased with sanitation, quarantine, and 
asylums for the insane. Today, medical care is 
tax-supported to the tune of $500,000,000 a year. 
This is one-sixth of the national health bill paid 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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from all sources. Even as a cold business propo- 
sition, bearing in mind the extent of preventable 
losses and the public drain of dependency, little 
additional outlay would be needed in the long 
run to make available to all groups of the popu- 
lation a minimum of adequate medical care. We 
will be repaid many times over in renewed na- 
tional vigor and human contentment. 

What we require above all is to give impetus 
and direction to the sum total of our present 
expenditures and efforts—public and private— 
by framing a long-range national health program. 
Such a carefully considered program has now 
been put forward by a committee representing 
the departments of the Federal Government 
directly concerned in health problems and health 
needs. 

This program presents the minimum essentials 
for bringing the blessings of modern medical 
science to every man, woman, and child in 
America. It was not framed in haste, but only 
after exhaustive studies and investigations. It 
is not intended to be made effective in haste, but 
only after careful building over a period of ten 
years. 

The initial costs of the program have been 
kept within the limits of our immediate resources. 
I am exploring every possibility of providing 
temporary as well as permanent disability bene- 
fits without increasing the pay-roll taxes already 
authorized by the Social Security Act. The 
grants in aid to the states . . . will be made 
available on the basis of matching formulae 
which take into account the special health needs 
and financial resources of the several states. 
(It is important that a beginning, however mod- 
est, be made now.) 

The question of compulsory health insurance 
arises only in connection with state plans of gen- 
eral medical care. The bill will not impose a 
federal straight-jacket upon the development of 
state plans. Subject to necessary basic stand- 
ards, each state will be at liberty to set up a plan 
of its own choosing and geared to the needs of 
its own people. 

Health insurance for medical care is entirely 
compatible with American concepts. Old-age 
insurance and unemployment insurance are 
familiar analogies. And in the history of our 
own country, there are ample precedents for 
health insurance itself. The very first step taken 
by the Federal Government in the field of health 
was to create in effect a compulsory health-insur- 


MARCH, 1939 


ance system for seamen in the American mer- 
chant marine. Today the system is administered 
by the United States Public Health Service and 


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supported by general tax funds. A better and 
more widely known American precedent is work- 
men’s compensation, the first type of social 
security adopted in this country for industrial 
workers at large. Insurance against industrial 
accidents operates to the advantage of industry 
and worker alike, and with the complete indorse- 
ment and approval of our medical profession. 
[ see no reason why similar, systematic safe- 
guards should not be established against a risk 
nine times as great. 

The National Health Conference held in Wash- 
ington last year disclosed overwhelming senti- 
ment for an American health program. I am 
confident that with the advice and active co- 
operation of the medical profession, the states 
will work out plans of medical care suited to the 
requirements of our own people and safeguard- 
ing the best interests of all concerned. We can 
make a substantial start by enacting a national 
health bill such as I propose. That start we ought 
to make, for the benefit of the health, happiness, 
and economic security of our own and future 
generations. 








An Interview with Tom Mooney 


@ HAAKON M. CHEVALIER 





In a recent statement by Tom Mooney he charged 
that there were newspapers in America which “delib- 
erately plan to smear me, and thereby attempt to dis- 
eredit the labor movement and its liberal allies which 
won my freedom; and thereby also attempt to smear 
our great liberal governor, Culbert L. Olson, who had 
the courage to do justice in my case...” Mooney also 
charged that his telephone wires were being tapped. 

For many years the organized labor movement sup- 
ported Tom Mooney in his fight for freedom, and his 
pardon is one of labor’s greatest victories. The 1938 





convention of the American Federation of Labor in 
Houston, Texas, after a resolution introduced by 
Mooney’s union, reaffirmed its support of his cause. 

In a recent letter to the Chicago Federation of Labor 
Mooney indicated that he intended to devote the rest 
of his life to working for Billings’ pardon and helping 
the cause of organized labor. The editors of the 
AMERICAN TEACHER are glad to be able to present this 
exclusive interview which was secured by Professor 
Chevalier of the University of California, president of 
Local 349 of the A. F. of T. 








destined to be of importance in the labor 
movement. In San Francisco a bomb ex- 
ploded in a Preparedness Day parade, and in 
Chicago the American Federation of Teachers 
was founded. During the intervening years 


T 1916 THERE OCCURRED two events that were 


thousands of American teachers have joined the 
ranks of labor, and many more thousands have 
rallied to the support of Tom Mooney, whose 
pardon by the newly elected democratic governor 


of California, Culbert L. Olson, is one of labor’s 
most spectacular recent victories. It seemed 
appropriate for a representative of the A. F. of T. 
to interview Tom Mooney and ask him for a word 
of greeting to our members. 

I found him late one night in his hotel room in 
San Francisco upon his return from a meeting 
of the Oakland Warehousemen’s Union where 
he had been the guest of honor. His warm hand- 
shake and gentle, patriarchal manner immedi- 
ately established a mood of cordial informality 
that simmered on pleasantly beyond the mid- 
-night hour. With him were several friends who 
joined in the conversation. He was so much a 
part of the general animation, so much at ease 
in this casually hospitable room with its imper- 
sonal and efficient comfort, with the restless 
noises and lights of the city beating upon the 
windows overlooking Market Street, that it was 
difficult to imagine his ever having been with- 
drawn from everyday life in which men come 
and go, and share experiences, and interweave 
their common destinies. 

Unlike the others, who had attended him dur- 
ing the recent strenuous weeks, Mooney was 
fresh and buoyant, and quite disposed to talk. 
He has great respect for teachers and a sympa- 


20 


thetic understanding of their problems based on 
his experience in the labor movement, his amaz- 
ingly wide and detailed knowledge of American 
history and present-day world affairs. He him- 
self has had little schooling. He was forced to 
go to work at the age of fourteen, and his school 
attendance up to that time was extremely irreg- 
ular. But he has the far-sighted trade-unionist’s 
appreciation of the importance of education for 
the growth of the labor movement and the devel- 
opment of democracy. As for his own educa- 
tion, he has more than made up for his lack of 
formal schooling. He speaks with an ease, a com- 
mand of language, and an authority based on 
knowledge, experience and character that many 
college professors would envy. 

The message that Tom Mooney would like to 
convey to the teachers of America can be ex- 
pressed in one word: ‘‘Organize!’’ He regards 
organization, however, not as the answer to all 
teachers’ problems, but as the essential condition 
for their solution. 

‘“Teachers,’’ he said, ‘‘regard themselves as 
exceptional by virtue of their specialized profes- 
sion. But they must learn that specialization 
does not exempt them from the effects of social 
and economic change. This is hard for them to 
realize. You’ve got to strike them between the 
eyes—show them what has happened to certain 
highly specialized jobs. 

‘‘Twenty-five, thirty years ago the molders 
used to say, ‘The hell with the Polocks, Bohunks, 
Hunkies, and Dagos.’ They were the aristocrats 
of labor, they had a strong union, and they got 
good wages. They looked down on the unskilled 
workers. But today there are only 7,000 em- 
ployed members in the union. And look at the 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








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glass-bottle-blowers. They were one of the 
strongest unions in the country. They used to 
earn twelve dollars a day when two or three 
dollars was considered a good wage. Tech- 
nological improvement destroyed their jobs and 
their union. . . . Who could dream twenty-five 
years ago that the artist would ever be affected 
by the machine? Today the cinema and the radio 
have displaced thousands of actors and musi- 
cians. And the same thing is happening in the 
other professions—in journalism, for instance, 
with newspapers all over the country consolidat- 
ing and throwing people out of work—and it’s 
going to happen to teachers.’’ He went on to 
discuss the increasing number of experimental 
educational courses that have recently been given 
over the radio, particularly in England, where 
successful study courses have been carried on for 
several years. ‘‘The time is not far distant,’’ 
he said, lifting a prophetic finger, ‘‘when 100 
teachers in New York City are going to teach the 
nation by television and radio.’’ 

But Mooney does not deplore this tendency of 
the machine to displace human labor. ‘‘The 
tendency,’’ he said, ‘‘is a natural one. The weav- 
ers in England burned and smashed the first 
machines that were introduced and that threw 
them out of employment. But the answer to 
technological unemployment is not to destroy the 
machine but to use it and make it serve its func- 
tion by lightening the burden of human labor, 
increasing leisure, and raising the standard of 
living for all.’’ 

Now and again the discussion would shift to 
other subjects. The President’s name came up, 
and Mooney said: ‘‘I believe Roosevelt is the 
greatest president America has ever had. And 
I’m not forgetting Washington, Jefferson, and 
Lincoln.’’ Someone asked him how he explained 
Roosevelt’s failure to realize a great part of his 
program. Mooney answered: ‘‘The President 
is surrounded by men who are hostile to every- 
thing he stands for. It is the duty of the labor 
movement to strengthen the President’s hand, 
to give vigorous support to the progressive meas- 
ures initiated by the New Deal.’’ 

Returning to the subject of teachers, Mooney 
paid a warm tribute to A. F. of T. President 
Jerome Davis. ‘‘He has been one of our staunch- 
est supporters,’’ he said. ‘‘He was the only pres- 
ident of a national union who appeared before 
the Congressional Committee on the Murray- 
O’Connell resolution. ..’’ Mooney said he 


MARCH, 1939 





felt particularly grateful for the help he had 
received from the many teachers throughout the 
country who had worked for his liberation. 

When I rose to take my leave he made a final 
exhortation. 

‘* Arouse the social consciousness of teachers,”’ 
he said. ‘‘Make them realize that they have 
no right to isolate themselves. They are a part 
of the whole social organism. They bear a heavy 
responsibility for the future and they must face 
it, not as isolated individuals but as a powerful 
organized group. 

‘‘To the teachers I would say: Don’t think 
you are secure; don’t imagine you will be unaf- 
fected by the changes that are occurring all 
around us and that are continually transforming 
every trade and profession. The only way you 
can control those new developments so as to 
safeguard your own economic security and ex- 
ercise an influence in maintaining and improving 
the standards of your profession and the ideals 
of democratic education, the welfare of the young 
people who are in your charge, is by building a 
strong organization. Labor is the friend and 
natural ally of a free and progressive educa- 
tional system, and will give teachers its powerful 
support. 

‘If the message of trade unionism as the em- 
bodiment of living democratic ideals could be 
brought home to teachers, they could be the 
greatest force in America today, because it is 
they who mold the minds of the young genera- 
tion.’’ 

The story of Tom Mooney belongs to American 
history, and should be in the history books of 
every boy and girl in the United States. It is 
the story of a labor leader who, because he took 
democracy literally and believed in the right of 
labor to organize, was framed by California 
business interests and sentenced to death on per- 
jured testimony; who spent twenty-two and a 
half years in prison and was finally freed when 
the rising tide of protest from workers was heard 
throughout the world and the outraged sense 
of justice of all mankind had made the name of 
Tom Mooney a battle ery. Both aspects of the 
story, the bright and the dark, belong to Amer- 
ican life. But it is the fact that Mooney has 
won his long fight—that his story is a success 
story—that justifies our faith in the future. As 
American citizens we may take measured pride 
in the fact that Tom Mooney is today alive and 
free. 











Correspondence 








New York City 
TO THE EDITOR: 
F BY PROGRESS IS MEANT acceptance not only in 
I theory but in practice, then progressive educa- 
tion has made tremendous advances in recent 
years. The theory of education as involving human 
growth and development has made notable progress. 
I can testify from very recent visits all over the country 
that there are now hundreds, even thousands, of schools 
that operate on this theory. They are furnishing a 
wholesome, attractive, worthwhile education, as con- 
trasted with the handful of such schools a decade ago. 

Much remains to be done, however, even in this 
aspect of education development—that education is 
operating under the philosophy herein assumed. It is 
confined almost entirely to work with young children ; 
it is conspicuously evidenced in the nursery school and 
in the better types of parent education, but it is almost 
wholly lacking in the education of youth. Even the 
thirty schools in the Progressive Education Association 
eight-year experiment, with all their praiseworthy ad- 
vance in educational insight and procedure, have a 
long way to go before it can be said that they really 
conceive of education as growth and development. 

Professor Watson undoubtedly concedes the kind of 
progress that I have just indicated. What he is con- 
cerned with, I take it—what we are all concerned with 
—is the influence of education in the whole present 
urgent problem of democracy. It is literally now or 
never with education in America. 

No one can listen to Erica Mann and others who 
know the world situation without realizing that we may 
indeed be too late to make the changes that will have 
to be made if anything is to be done to save the day 
for the kind of decent human living we mean by 
democracy, not only in America but everywhere. We’ve 
got to build a different kind of attitude toward people 
—positive, not negative. Just keeping school, as many 
of us have been content to do, is almost useless. With 
every developmental agency we can summon—school, 
community, church, youth organization, press, radio, 
motion pictures—we must help people to be willing not 
merely to tolerate, but to understand, the attitude of 
others ; to work with them in any and all things we can 
find to do in common. 

First of all we must, as Felix Green has warned us, 
put our own house in order. Let us confess at once 
that we have our sore spots—very real ones. Let us do 
something about these. Our attitudes toward minorities 
in this country are indefensible. Let us build as quickly 
as we can, through education, by living and working 
with other people, the kind of understanding and appre- 


22 


ciation toward them that show our real belief in human 
beings everywhere. The attitudes of many of us toward 
labor, our ignorance of the simplest elements in labor 
history and other social conditions, are a little worse 
than other forms of illiteracy. They must be remedied 
as far as we can do it in the schools. The condemnation 
some people utter of any and all attempts to improve 
economic and social conditions must be made as un- 
fashionable as intelligent information and concern for 
human welfare can make it. We still have the Dies 
Committee, for example. If it does constructive work 
toward making a better America, we as educational 
workers should help it. If it continues to misrepresent 
progressive attitudes and forward-looking leaders in 
American life, we shall have to help the people to see 
how mistaken it is and do all we can to set up some- 
thing more valuable in its place. 

Our own school education in the past has been 
regimented and undemocratic, from classroom to admin- 
istration. It is getting better, some of us hope. We’ve 
got to help it get better fast. 

Our pending proposals for federal aid for education 
should be supported and then made to work effectively 
for democracy. If the resources to be allotted 
under the new program are used by us as a nation 
merely to increase certain kinds of useless, already too 
numerous schools, to perpetuate existing wrong kinds 
of teacher education, and to expand educational re- 
search of the trivial, limited, statistical type so common 
today, then they will be worse than wasted. But if 
they are used to provide a really better program, to 
meet individual and social needs, not only of the pres- 
ent emergency, but for the future, they can be the 
means of transforming our teacher preparation. 

We need all the help we can get from Goodwin 
Watson and others to make sure that we have this imme- 
diately urgent problem in mind. It must be remem- 
bered, however, that progressive education is not a 
device or a system, and that the Progressive Education 
Association is in no sense an organization with a single 
purpose. It is designedly made up of many diverse 
elements, with very little in common except the desire 
to push forward, to apply to education the best that is 
known and can be found out with regard to the maxi- 
mum development of individuals for their own sake 
and for society. 

Almost the only common element I have been able 
to find is a philosophy that puts human beings first. 
In spite of the immediate emergency, we are obliged 
to take a long-range view of education. We cannot, 
as an association, accept blindly the decisions of a par- 
ticular group at a given moment, and I think recent 
evidence indicates the wisdom of this attitude. What 
we urgently need at all times, however, is the stimula- 
tion that comes from fundamental questioning on the 
part of men like Goodwin Watson. 

Carson A. RYAN, President 
Progressive Education Association 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 

















New Books 








Among the 


THE PROMISE OF TOMORROW, by Watter E. 
Myer and Cuay Coss. Washington: Civic Education 
Service. 557 pages. $2.50. 

LIFE AND GROWTH, by Auice V. Kewiner, with the 
CoMMIssION ON HumAN Rewations. New York: 
D. Appleton-Century. 245 pages. $1.20. 

VERYONE REMEMBERS Alice’s distressing discovery 
that there was jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, but 

no jam today. The Promise of Tomorrow seeks to offer 
reassurance and guidance to the thousands of American 
youth who are wondering about jam, or for that matter 
bread, today. The general organization is interesting. 
Conscious of the mistakes in offering educational and 
vocational advice in a social vacuum, the authors use 
about a hundred pages on both ‘‘The Social Scene’’ and 
‘‘Individual Responsibility’’ before their major section 
on ‘‘ Vocational Adjustment,’’ in which they analyze 
the nature of various occupations, the training they 
require, the satisfactions and opportunities which they 
may or may not offer. People interested in helping 
youth face and deal with social realities will turn to it 
in hope of finding something which can be put into the 
hands of young people with some confidence that it will 
provide orientation and perspective. 

The insistence on active and informed participation 
in society is refreshing and persuasively addressed ; 
the emphasis on democratic values is all to the good 
even though the authors seem none too clear as to what 
those values are; but the faults and weaknesses are so 
numerous and exasperating that the total effect is of 
well-intentioned trash. Much of the description of the 
social scene is platitudinously inexact. There is no clari- 
fication of the various programs and policies of social 
action now offered to America. Indeed, the authors are 
so determined to maintain an air of impartiality (they 
clearly have liberal sympathies) that they make such 
mistakes as implying that labor unions are as likely as 
employers to pursue tactics ‘‘hurtful to the common 
good,’’ that they ‘‘dictate wages,’’ and ‘‘have raised 
wages unduly.’’ The section on mental hygiene is scan- 
dalously superficial if not really harmful. 

In the main section, on vocations, there is some useful 
if simplified information. But among other faults the 
erucial question of what occupations will be available 
in the future is glanced at or ignored. Teachers will be 
particularly sensible of this and other weaknesses in the 
section on teaching, where, for example, adult educa- 
tion and the tremendous importance of developments in 
secondary education are unmentioned. 

Dr. Keliher and the Commission on Human Rela- 
tions present, in Life and Growth, a very different 


MARCH, 1939 


approach to those problems of guidance on which so 
much good and bad work is being done these days. 
**The book is based on a collection of hundreds of ques- 
tions which young people asked. ... They . . . showed 
that young men and women want, not only the infor- 
mation fcr which they ask, but also the social meanings 
of the facts.’’ Thus the content emerged from a process 
very similar’ to that which the Educational Policies 
Committee of the A. F. of T. is advancing in its excel- 
lent effort to bring about an overhauling of the whole 
content of American education. 

At the very heart of such an approach there must 
be a warm, full, critical acceptance of democracy and 
a deep confidence in people. Life and Growth is per- 
vaded by such a spirit, revealing itself openly in what 
the author says about democracy but even more in the 
whole tone and approach. Dr. Keliher clearly believes 
that only the truth is good enough for young people 
(an idea platitudinous in statement but revolutionary 
in action) and that truth is not to be found in accept- 
ance of conventional standards but in the integration 
of the most rigid scientific accuracy with the deepest 
possible understanding of human needs. Thus there is 
an essential validity in the title of her last section, 
‘*New Life and Social Change.’’ 

The earlier chapters on intelligence, normality, cus- 
tom, social action, needs and frustrations, lead to the 
long middle section of the book on heredity, body build, 
the influences of glands, sex. It is this part which makes 
the book invaluable to every teacher. No doubt there 
are regions in our country where it could not be given 
to students; but even in those, there is some reasonable 
chance that teachers who have read and understood 
Life and Growth will be able to open to students its 








profound insights. Here Life and Growth is far better 
than any other work on its subject; the reviewer’s 
temptation is to set off the pyrotechnical superlatives 
which the book makes unnecessary. Excellent if over- 
simplified diagrams on male and female sexual physi- 
ology—the menstrual cycle, fertilization, the stages of 
pregnancy—support and clarify the text in its union 
of inflexible honesty with flexible human beings. 

To make niggling objections to this book is to expose, 
no doubt, either a failure of the reviewer’s values or a 
thorough confidence in Life and Growth. Perhaps it has 
too much kindness to some of our hypocritical attitudes 
about sexual activity. Perhaps the pressures on young 
men not to be virgins go uninterpreted. At the end of 
Chapter V Dr. Keliher may give the impression that 
heredity and environment are equal forces. If this is 
true, nevertheless we have available to us much knowl- 
edge to change the environment and many opportuni- 
ties, while we are still very limited, if not blocked, in 
influencing heredity for good. Such points should be 
raised exactly because the excellence of Life and Growth 
makes it possible to raise them with an understanding 
not available before. Here is new access to truth. 

Francis W. Parker School. James P. MitTcHEL.. 


x* * 


UNIONS OF THEIR OWN CHOOSING, by Rosert 
R. R. Brooxs. New Haven: Yale University Press. 
296 pages. $3.00. 

AMERICAN LABOR, by Herpert Harris. New 
Haven: Yale University Press. 459 pages. $3.75. 
l’ YALE UNIVERSITY has not established an enviable 

reputation for equitable dealings with its staff, its 
satellite, the Yale University Press, seems determined 
to dissociate the word, Yale, from being symbolic of 
reaction. These two volumes are a welcome addition to 
liberal scholarship. 

One is not disappointed in Robert Brooks’s Unions of 
Their Own Choosing. It is a timely sequel to his When 
Labor Organizes (Yale University Press, 1937). There 
exists no other souree book which presents as accurately 
or as forcefully the battle centering about the National 
Labor Relations Board. The work might well be ‘‘re- 
quired reading’’ for members of Congress as well as for 
students of labor problems. The executives of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor would also be well advised to 
give it more than a passing glance before they seek to 
marshal their legions in an attack upon some of the 
basic principles of the Wagner Act. 

There is really very little that Brooks says that is not 
a commonplace among specialists in the field, yet one 
here sees in perspective the almost unequalled barrage 
of lies and misrepresentation laid down by the oppo- 
nents of the Act since it surmounted the constitutional 
barrier in the spring of 1937. What the National Asso- 
ciation of Manufacturers really desires is the abolition 
of the Labor Board and all of its works. Realizing 
the impossibility of accomplishing this by a frontal 


24 














assault upon the now accepted principle of collective 
bargaining through unions genuinely of the workers’ 
own choosing, they now seek to emasculate the law by 
making it unworkable. In this ambition, the hierarchy 
of the A. F. of L. has been of signal service and has 
employed tactics of distortion of the Board objectives 
which would do credit even to Senator Burke of 
Nebraska. Brooks mercilessly punctures the many fic- 
tions which are current concerning the Labor Board, 
although he couches his arguments with an atmosphere 
of gentility which befits a Williams professor. He 
demonstrates that the Board is not a breeder of strikes ; 
that it does not employ arbitrary tactics; that it does 
not compel collective bargaining, although it lays the 
basis for assisting it; and that it has not developed a 
C. I. O. bias. Indeed, he points out that the A. F. of L., 
in its march toward reaction, has even turned its back 
upon the ‘‘San Francisco Declaration of 1934’’ which, 
designed as a working compromise between industrial 
and craft forces, accepted the principle of industrial 
unionism in mass production industries where craft 
lines were not clearly delineated. The Federation is now 
seeking amendments to compel the Board to base union 
representation upon craft groupings. Brooks contends 
that the Board has if anything too greatly favored the 
A. F. of L. Where a showing of membership could be 
made, it has gone so far as to allow certain minority 
erafts to determine whether or not they would bargain 
separately through their own craft union or be included 
in an industrial union. Many leaders of A. F. of L. 
affiliates have, however, not been satisfied, since they 
have in recent years discovered that employers, choos- 
ing what they seem the lesser of two evils, tend to tele- 
graph for A. F. of L. ‘‘organizing assistance’ when 
beset by the C. I. O. The union executives who con- 
clude contracts of this character are anxious that the 
dues-paying members so recruited shall not be allowed 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








) 
2 
3 





~~ 


<4“ 








to enter unions of their own free choice through Labor 
Board intervention. 

Brooks’s book deserves wide attention as a straight- 
forward statement of the structure of the Board, the 
manner in which it has handled its many difficult prob- 
lems, and its function in laying the groundwork for an 
expanding industrial democracy. It is on this note that 
the work closes: ‘‘In the contemporary conflict between 
democracy and dictatorship, whether political or indus- 
trial, the National Labor Relations Board is in the 
center of the struggle. Its influence and power are 
wholly on the side of democracy.’’ 

Herbert Harris has written a vivid but rather dis- 
jointed work. The first 100 pages deal with general 
labor history and bring the story up to the downfall 
of the Knights of Labor in the late ’eighties. At this 
point, he branches out into sketches of seven groups of 
unions; the miners, the carpenters, the newspaper 
guildsmen, the ladies’ garment workers, the railway 
organizations, the auto workers, and the textile workers. 


These sketches are of real value in throwing emphasis 
upon the divergent background and development of dif- 
ferent branches of the American labor movement. They 
give one a better appreciation of the reasous for internal 
struggles in the movement. Yet neither in these chap- 
ters nor in the long concluding chapter does Harris 
sueceed in presenting an adequate total picture of the 
American labor development. One could, however, 
recommend the work as a colorful supplement to a 
standard labor-problems text. It is a work which is 
provocative and often most discerning. It is never 
lacking in militancy. Its value is, however, lessened 
by the presence of a number of obvious errors which 
raise doubts as to the unquestioned reliability of all of 
the most interesting intimate titbits of information con- 
cerning labor leaders. Space permits but a few samples. 
On page 374, for example, the A. F. of L. is credited 
with a 1920 treasury balance of well over a billion dol- 
lars. On page 206 it is suggested that the brewery 
union was the only industrial organization in the 
A. F. of L. at the turn of the century. On page 203 the 
I. W. W. is placed as an organization of the 1890’s. 


One is considerably surprised that the author, after 
so many pages of sharp condemnation of many A. F. 
of L. leaders, finds that the road to industrial peace 
between the A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. is comparatively 
simple. He says: ‘‘ Outside of the clash of personal am- 
bitions and rivalries and the desire to retain old or to 
achieve new prerogatives of power and place, there are 
no genuine obstacles to harmony that could not be over- 
come if the will to peace itself prevailed. It is silly to 
think that leaders of both sides . . . could not—by 
pooling their experience and their knowledge—devise 
formulae that would lay the ghost of jurisdictional 
disputes. The principle of industrial unionism, more- 
over, has been vindicated. ... It is also daily more 
evident that the common interests of A. F. of L. and 


MARCH, 1939 


C. I. O. members transcend the differences between craft 

or industrial forms of occupation or organization.’’ 

One hopes that he is right. 
Amherst College. 


CoLston WARNE. 
xk «re 


THE SCHOOL FOR DICTATORS, by Ianazio SILONE. 
New York: Harper. 336 pages. $2.50. 


he A NATION JITTERY over a vague undefined fascist menace, 
books which treat with the theme of The School For Dictators 
are weleome. Ignazio Silone has written of the quintessence of 
fascist conquests of power. The attention of Americans must 
be directed to analysis of fascism and to indigenous outcrop- 
pings in this nation. If the menace is regarded as external and 
foreign, the sanctimonious imperialists who defend the status quo 
may successfully channel the current hysteria toward American 
participation in a new European gang war, with fascism mas- 
querading as Americanism a probable consequence. 

In a series of dialogues, Mr. W., the would-be dictator of 
America, and his aide, Professor Pickup, founder of Neo-Soci- 
ology, are instructed in the origins and methods of fascism by 
Thomas the Cynic, a refugee in Switzerland. At one point 
Thomas concludes, “Thus the working-class parties had shown 
themselves incapable of achieving power, and the old democratic 
leaders were no longer capable of holding it. Since nature abhors a 
vacuum, society was forced to create a substitute—Fascism.” Silone 
points up the democratic dilemma. “The democrats of the present 
day no longer have an ideal to realize. They are traditionalists, 
conservatives.” Yet those democrats who “propose an extension 
of the democratic principle to spheres of social life from which 
it has hitherto been excluded, by means of control over a part 
of private economy,” are fought bitterly by privilege. 

If the modern reader can endure the dialogue curriculum, with 
weoden, static characters as teachers, with history a prolix subject, 
he will unearth some mature reflections in persistent study at 
the satirieal School for Dictators, 


Ohio State University WILLIAM VAN TIL, JR. 


x** 


ONE FIFTH OF MANKIND, by Anna Louise Strona. 
New York: Modern Age. 215 pages. $0.50. 


THE PATRIOT, by Peart S. Buck. New York: John 


Day. 372 pages. $2.50. 


NE FIFTH OF MANKIND has for its purpose the explanation 

of present-day events in China so that they are understand- 
able to the lay student who has no detailed background of Far 
Eastern knowledge. Anna Louise Strong’s account is stimulat- 
ing and interesting, as first-hand accounts usually are. How- 
ever, there are times when Miss Strong oversimplifies her parallels 
with American history, and times when she neglects to emphasize 
the China which is neither nationalistic nor revolutionary. It 
is not only necessary to give the elements of strength in a situa- 
tion, but the elements of weakness as well. For those who wish 
a sympathetic interpretation of contemporary China, Miss Strong’s 
book is both practical and interesting. 

Pearl Buck’s books are simple and direct. They create the 
impression she desires. I-wan, the hero of The Patriot, is the 
son of a Shanghai banker of great wealth. His human sympa- 
thies lead him into participation in the activities of a group of 
young revolutionaries. When thousands of other revolutionists 
are arrested and executed, he is saved by Chiang and sent to 
Japan by his father. In Japan, he secures employment in the 
business of his father’s friend. During the period of his employ- 
ment, he sees one of his employcr’s sons commit suicide to avoid 
eonseription and another brutalized by war. 1I-Wan falls in love 
with the daughter of his employer and later marries her. The 
marriage brings out the startling contrasts in cultures. As the 
war progresses, I-wan’s loyalty to China calls him home. He 
serves in the communists’ army, but remains a humanitarian. To 
him, the ends of life are in personality, not revolution. 

KERMIT Esy 


25 





PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATIONS OF HIGHER 
EDUCATION, by Ernest Victor Hows. New 
York: Columbia University Press. 365 pages. $3.50. 

MONEY TO BURN, by Horace Coon. New York: 
Longmans, Green. 352 pages. $3.00. 


HESE TWO BOOKS are careful, clear expositions of the his- 
tory, organization, activities, and social significance of 
philanthropic foundations in America. 

In both books we see a picture ‘unbiased by the glare of anti- 
social motive, such as radiates from the intricacies of the Duke 
Foundation with its tieup of utility interests and tax evasions, 
or the optimism of observers heartened by the courage of such 
trustees as President Pritchett of Carnegie Foundation. 

Dr. Hollis’ book represents the more scholarly approach of 
the two. However, we need only to quote from the last page of 
Mr. Coon’s book to see how valuable his analysis is to all educa- 
tors or socially minded realists today. Both books have the 
power of incorporating the study of the institution in its social 
matrix, as the following quotation from Coon shows: 

“A scientific library is endowed with securities in an oil com- 
pany, an educational institution is endowed with securities in 

a steel corporation, a hospital is endowed with securities in a 

public utility. That is splendid. But if the government tries 

to break the corporate control of the United States held by 
the oil, steel, publie utility interests, then the ery goes up that 
the government is wrecking our endowments. By these means 
privilege is entrenched, by these means corporate philanthropy 
plays its part in protecting the interests of corporate wealth.” 
Austin High School R. C. Me Vey 


Pamphlets Received 


Labor and Education 

AFFILIATED SCHOOLS SCRAPBOOK: Workers’ Education 
Through Action, published monthly. New York: Affiliated 
Schools for Workers. 43 pages. $0.25. 

ANNOTATED LIST OF LABOR PLAYS, by JEAN Carter. 
New York: Labor Education Service, Affiliated Schools for 
Workers. 36 pages. $0.15. 

LABOR AND EDUCATION: A Radio Presentation of the Amer- 
iean Federation of Labor, The Workers Education Bureau of 
America and its services over Station WEVD, New York, and 
Station WOL, Washington, on November 29, 1938. New York: 
Workers Education Bureau of America, 34 pages. 

*THE NEGRO WOMAN WORKER, by Jean Couuier Brown. 
Bulletin No. 165. Washington: Women’s Bureau, U. S. Dept. 
of Labor. 17 pages $0.10. 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL CON- 
VENTION OF THE CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGAN- 
IZATIONS. Washington: Congress of Industrial Organiza- 
tions. 302 pages. 


Federal Aid to Education 

*THE EXTENT OF EQUALIZATION SECURED THROUGH 
STATE SCHOOL FUNDS, by Newron Epwarps and HeEr- 
MAN G. Ricuey. Staff Study No. 6. Washington: Advisory 
Committee on Education. 55 pages. $0.15. 

*PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF DISTRIBUTING FED- 
ERAL AID FOR EDUCATION, by Pau R. Mort, Evaene 8. 
LAWLER, and Associates. Staff Study No. 5. Washington: Ad- 
visory Committee on Education. 99 pages. $0.20. 

RACIAL INEQUALITIES IN EDUCATION. New York: Na- 
tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 24 
pages. $0.10. 


Educational Policies Committee 

ADULT-STUDY GUIDE: A Pamphlet Research Service for the 

Adult Reader, published eight times a year, October to May. 

New York: Service Bureau for Adult Education, Division of 

General Education, New York University. 4 pages. $0.15. 
Annual subscription $1.00. 


COMMUNITY PLANNING IN ADULT EDUCATION: A Prae- 
tical Handbook for the Administrator of Classes for Adults, 
prepared by the Staff of the Department of Adult Education, 
School of Education, New York University. New York: Service 
Bureau for Adult Education, Division of General Education, 
New York University. 66 pages. $0.50. 

*KNOW YOUR SCHOOL: Know Your Superintendent, by W. 8S. 
DEFFENBAUGH. Leaflet No. 48. Washington: Office of Educa- 
tion, U. 8. Dept. of the Interior. 9 pages. $0.05. 

*KNOW YOUR SCHOOL: Know Your Teacher, by W. S. Der- 
FENBAUGH. Leaflet No. 50. Washington: Offiice of Education, 
U. 8. Dept. of the Interior. 12 pages. $0.05. 


W.P.A. and Education 
*EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE WORKS PROGRESS 
ADMINISTRATION, by Doak S. CAMPBELL, FREDERICK H. 
Barr, and OswaLp L. Harvey. Staff Study No. 14. Washing- 
ton: Advisory Committee on Education. 185 pages. $0.25. 
*INVENTORY: An Appraisal of Results of the Works Progress 
Administration. Washington: Works Progress Administration. 
100 pages. $0.30. 


Miscellaneous 

*AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS. Monograph 
No. 19. Washington: Office of Education, U. 8. Dept. of the 
Interior. 21 pages. $0.10. 

CONGRESS AT WORK. Pittsburgh: Scholastic Bookshop. 31 
pages. $0.25 per copy; class supply of 20 or more, $0.15 each. 

LOOKING AHEAD WITH TENNESSEE SCHOOLS: Pro- 
eedures for Developing Curriculum Materials. Bulletin No. 2. 
Nashville: State Dept of Education. 268 pages. 

THE NEW NATIONAL OCCUPATIONAL INFORMATION 
AND GUIDANCE SERVICE, by Joun W. StTuDEBAKER, re- 
printed from Occupations, the Vocational Guidance Magazine, 
for November, 1938. New York: National Occupational Con- 
ference. 5 pages. 

*SALARY AND EDUCATION OF RURAL SCHOOL PERSON.- 
NEL: Status and Trends, by W. H. Gaumnirz. Pamphlet 
No. 85. Washington: Office of Education, U. 8. Dept. of the 
Interior. 19 pages. $0.05. 

WATCH YOUR P. Q.: An Anthology of Helpful Information, 
Biographical Sketches, and Tests for Modern Young People on 
Ways of Improving Their Personalities. Pittsburgh: Scholas- 
tic Bookshop. 32 pages. $0.25 per copy; class supply of 20 
or more, $0.15 each. 

*WHAT THE HOUSING ACT CAN DO FOR YOUR CITY. 
Washington: U.S. Housing Authority, Dept of the Interior. 
88 pages. $0.20. 


Books Received 


INVISIBLE STRIPES, by Warpen Lewis E. Lawes. New 
York: Farrar & Rinehart. 315 pages. $2.50. 

JAPANESE TERROR IN CHINA, by H. J. Timpertey. New 
York: Modern Age. 220 pages. $0.75. 

JOHNNY GET YOUR MONEY’S WORTH (AND JANE TOO), 
by Rut Brinpze. New York: Vanguard. 230 pages. $2.00. 

THE MAN WHO KILLED LINCOLN: The Story of John 
Wilkes Booth and His Part in the Assassination, by PHILIP 
Van Doren STERN. New York: Random. 376 pages. $3.00. 

SKIING IN THE EAST: Ski Trails and How to Get There, 
compiled and written by members of the Federal Writers’ Project 
of the Works Progress Administration in New York City. New 
York: M. Barrows. 334 pages. $1.50. 

THIRD DIGEST OF INVESTIGATIONS IN THE TEACH- 
ING OF SCIENCE, by Francis D. Curtis. Philadelphia: 
P. Blakiston. 419 pages. 

THROUGH BY RAIL, by CHARLES GILBERT HALL. New York: 
Maemillan. 152 pages. $1.50. 

YOUR COMMUNITY: Its Provision for Health, Edueation, 
Safety, Welfare, by JoANNA ©. CoLcorD. New York: Russell 
Sage Foundation. 249 pages. $0.85. 


*This publication is for sale by the Supt. of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 


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LIBERTY MAGAZINE, A MACFAD- 

den publication, paid $500 to avoid a 
lib@l suit brought by Lucien Koch, New 
England organizational director for the 
Industrial Union of Marine and Ship- 
building Workers, C.I.0. The magazine, 
which in an article two years ago re- 
ferred to Koch as a “Red,” also retracted 
the statement and assured Koch it would 
never republish the article. 


* 

WHILE A. F. OF L. AND C.1.0. CHIEFS 

negotiated for an end to the split in 
labor’s ranks, members of the two 
branches of organized labor established 
a joint picket line in Corpus Christi, 
Texas, around the one-and-one-half-mile 
bayfront project, which has been declared 
“unfair” by the Building Trades Council, 
A. F. of L. 

Although the $950,000 improvement is 
being financed by the city, the picketing 
was directed against the private con- 
tractor, who, the council charges, has 
failed to live up to the terms of the con- 
tract, which provides that preference be 
given to local labor. 

Last November a joint council of 
A. F. of L. and C.I.0. locals was estab- 
lished in the community but was dis- 
banded this year. 

Meanwhile to speed up unity between 
all branches of labor, Federated Press 
reported a move in the A. F. of L. to 
seek submission of the question to the 
rank and file. It was reported that the 
International Brotherhood of Electrical 
Workers was one of the leaders in the 
move. 

* 


BECAUSE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

has refused to sign a union contract, 
James J. Bambrick, president of Local 
329, of the Building Service Employees 
International Union, A. F. of L., has asked 
the State Labor Relations Board to inter- 
cede. 

The Board cannot act directly because 
it has no authority over educational and 
non-profit institutions. 

Columbia’s 340 building service work- 
ers voted to strike if the university re- 
fused to sign a contract. Demands in- 
elude minimum wages of $25.00 for a 44- 
hour week and abolition of the existing 
company union. 

The union signed a contract covering 
New York University’s building service 
workers last May. 

* 


HERSHEY, PA., SCENE OF A SHARP 

conflict between A. F. of L. and C. I. 0. 
workers and of an assault by club-swing- 
ing vigilantes, has apparently settled 
down for a period of peace following an 
A. F. of L. vietory in an election con- 
dueted by the N. L. R. B. 

Tabulation of ballots cast March 10 by 
employees of the Hershey Chocolate Com- 


MARCH, 1939 


pany showed 1,123 votes for the Bakery 
and Confectionery Workers International 
Union, an A. F, of L. affiliate; 733 for the 
United Chocolate Workers, C. I. O., and 
157 for no union. Out of 2,300 workers, 
2,013 participated in the election. 

The rival unions held rallies three 
days before the election. Senator James 
J. Davis, Republican, addressed the 
A. F. of L. meeting at the Hershey High 
School. The rally was jointly sponsored 
by the Young Republican Club, the Leb- 
anon Valley Citizens Committee, and the 
union, 

* 


LABOR’S SHARE IN THE SOAP IN- 
dustry is only 6 per cent of the whole- 
sale value ef soap, as compared with 17 











per cent average labor costs for all manu- 
facturing industries. 

So found the U. 8. Bureau of Labor 
Statisties in a survey in 1935, republished 
recently in connection with an analysis 
of soaps by the Consumers Union. The 
low percentage of wages, the study found, 
was partly explained by the large pro- 
portion of company unions and the low 
degree of genuine organization in the 
soap industry. 

Of the soap manufacturers operating 
under union conditions, Consumers Union 
lists the Los Angeles Soap Company, 
makers of White King toilet soap and 
Cosray skin soap, which operates under 
an A. F. of L. agreement. The Manhat- 
tan Company, makers of Sweetheart 
soap, has an agreement with the United 
Soap and Glycerine Workers Union, 
C.1.0. 

Only part of the plants of Colgate- 
Palmolive-Peet Company, and of Lever 
Brothers Company, are covered by C.I.0. 
and A. F. of L. contracts, respectively. 
Procter and Gamble Manufacturing Com- 
pany has long been known for its com- 
pany unions, although an A. F. of L. 
contract is reported at one of its plants 
in Portsmouth, Va. 

Manufacturers, some of whom have 
company unions and do not operate under 
union contracts include Haskins Brothers, 
J. Eavenson and Sons, Kirkman and Son, 
and Andrew Jergens Company. 


On the Labor Front 


Edited from the Labor Press and the Federated Press 








OPPOSITION TO ANY REVISION OF 

the Wagner Act continues to pile up 
while proponents of the anti-labor legis- 
lation are preparing to bring the meas- 
ure out on the floor of Congress. 

A survey by the Guild Reporter showed 
that 13 A. F. of L. international unions 
have gone on record indorsing the present 
Act, as well as many state and city 
bodies, and more than 300 A. F. of L. 
local unions, Also among those protest- 
ing the proposed amendments are three 
international presidents of A. F. of L. 
unions, including A. L. Wharton, Machin- 
ists; Daniel J. Tobin, Teamsters; and 
George Harrison, Railway Clerks. 

Other support for the Wagner Act and 
the present set-up of the National Labor 
Relations Board came from the National 
Lawyers Guild and from the Methodist 
Federation for Social Service, headed by 
Bishop Francis J. McConnell and Dr. 
Harry F. Ward of the Methodist Epis- 
eopal Church. 

Commenting on the Wagner Act, the 
Methodist Federation’s monthly bulletin 
says, “The Wagner Act is a milestone 
in the progress of American democracy. 
It marks the establishment of democratic 
control over industrial relations. If that 
control is impaired by crippling amend- 
ments the development of economic 
democracy is halted. 

“The criticism of the Act has come 
mainly from the same open-shop forces 
that fought the law’s enactment and 
tried desperately to block appropriations 
for its enforcement. 

“The Walsh bill proposes amend- 
ments to the Act that would enable it 
to serve the interests of business rather 
than of labor, of suppression of labor 
unions rather than of their develop- 
ment.” 

* 


INFINITESIMAL SIGNS OF DEMOC- 

racy have been gingerly popping up in 
Nazi Germany. And it is in the sphere of 
“organized labor” that the shreds of lib- 
erty are emerging. 

A half century before Der Fuehrer, the 
labor movement of Germany was consid- 
ered the strongest in the world, next to 
Sweden. With facism, labor unions were 
liquidated, and all semblances of collec- 
tive bargaining disappeared. In their 
place, Hitler presented the German work- 
ers with the Labor Front, which every 
employee in the country was forced to 
join. As a fake substitute for the tradi- 
tional factory committee of the unions, 
the Nazis set up a system of “confiden- 
tial spokesmen” or “Trusted Men” to rep 
resent the workers. These stooges—usu- 
ally two or three in a plant—are chosen 
by the Nazi district leaders and the em- 
ployers, with the expectation that the 
workers will automatically indorse the 
candidates. Under the Nazi labor code, 


27 





if employees of a factory do not approve 
the slate, new nominations are made. 
What has been happening is that Ger- 
man labor, quietly organizing under se- 
vere hazards in the face of six years of 
repression, has learned to reject the Nazi 
Trusted Men again and again until names 
of men either sympathetic or pliable to 
labor’s program are submitted. In this 





way, German labor is achieving a voice 
—however faint—in industrial relations. 
But organized labor is still far from legal 
or even respectable in the Third Reich. 
There are no strikes as such. There is 
still no such phenomenon as a labor 
“movement.” But by picking Trusted Men 
who can be trusted, German labor is edg- 
ing along. 

In hundreds of isolated incidents, labor 
in Germany is awakening and expressing 
its discontent. For example, when men in 
a plant are summoned to listen to a long 
speech by a Nazi functionary, they’re not 
paid for time lost; recently, in a number 
of factories men have dared to demand 
pay for listening. They’re also holding 
out for time spent in cleaning machinery, 
at present deducted from their pay en- 
velopes. Sabotage is prevalent through- 
out the country, and in several sections 
a concerted slow-down drive has been in- 
augurated in protest against the speedup 
and slashing of wages. More and more 
“aecidents” are happening to brutal fore- 
men, and considerable expensive machin- 
ery has been wrecked. 

Recently in one of the world’s biggest 
armament plants—Siemens, in Silesia—so 
many wage cuts for taxes, winter relief, 
and other Nazi funds had been inflicted 
on the workers that the men decided to 
organize a drive for higher wages. It took 
months of work; leaflets were secretly 
printed and distributed, word passed from 
mouth to mouth; and even the under- 
ground movement’s radio station, “Twen- 
ty-nine Eight,” had two special broad- 
casts on the fight. One after another, the 
plant’s Trusted Men were won over. The 
pressure became so strong that the board 
of directors was forced to raise the wages 
of skilled workers from twenty-nine cents 
to thirty-three cents an hour, and similar 
wage increases were granted to other 
classes of employees. In totalitarian Ger- 
many a wage boost is on a par with a 
miracle. 

* 


DELEGATES FROM 27 CITIES EX- 

pressed their opposition to Governor 
W. Lee O’Daniel’s transactions tax plan 
at the convention of the Texas Allied 
Printing Trades Council in Austin, Tex. 


28 


Growing unity between the A. F. of L. 
and C, I. O. in Texas was indicated in an 
announcement by P. F. Kennedy, execu- 
tive secretary of the Texas State Indus- 
trial Union Council, that the two rival 
groups would share a radio program op- 
posing the tax. 
s 


DEWEY JONES, MARAUDING CAP- 

tain of Tom Girdler’s private army, is 
heading for trouble with the Depart- 
ment of Justice because of his assault on 
witnesses who testified against him before 
the Senate Civil Liberties Committee. 

Jones, according to affidavits in the 
last published report of the La Follette 
Committee, invaded a garage in Elwood, 
Ind., and beat up two individuals because 
they had presented evidence to the Com- 
mittee charging that a gun and spy re- 
port had been found in Jones’s car. Jones 
is captain of the Republic Steel Company 
police at Cleveland, Ohio. 


os 
WARNER BROTHERS HAS DISTRIB- 

uted with each paycheck a copy of a 
Nazi pamphlet entitled Rassenschaendung 
(Defilement of Race), by Dietrich Hutten. 

The cover states in part: “This is a 
translation . . . of a German work so 
widely distributed ... as to be almost a 
textbook ...of Nazism .... Here... 
is the whole sordid and almost incredible 
proof of the danger that threatens not 
only the decencies but the very existence 
of civilization. Subtitles of the volume 
are: “The mission of German nationality 
in the world is to free the world of Jews 
and Christians,” and “Germanic blood and 
Christian baptismal water can never 
mix.” 

More than 3,000 copies of the pam- 
phlet have been distributed, with no word 
of propaganda or instruction attached. 
Warner Brothers has taken a definite 
lead in the production of anti-fascist, 
pro-democratiec films. 


* 


BETWEEN 550 AND 600 VOTING DEL- 

egates, representing 200,000 average 
paid-up members of the United Automo- 
bile Workers, C. I. O., are expected to be 
seated at the special convention opening 
in Cleveland, March 27, according to 
President R. J. Thomas. 

Clearing the desks for the meeting, the 
executive board, meeting in Cleveland, 
permanently expelled Homer Martin, for- 
mer president, following his trial on 15 
counts of disruption and company union- 
ism. 

Thomas, named to succeed Martin un- 
til the election of a new head at the con- 
vention and formerly his closest associate, 
testified under oath at the trial of the 
deposed president that Charles Coughlin 
had in Thomas’ presence advised Martin 
to pull out of the C. I. O., and that he, 
Coughlin, could arrange for a deal be- 
tween Martin and the Ford Motor Com- 
pany. He also said that Coughlin de- 
elared that democracy was not working 
out in America and that a corporate (fas- 
cist) state might be a good substitute. 

In Royal Oaks, Michigan, the radio 
priest denied charges that he had con- 


spired with Martin in an attempt to sever 
the U. A. W. from the C. I. O. He said 
that he had offered to arrange a meeting 
between Martin and Harry Bennet, head 
of Ford’s huge army of company police. 

Officials of the U. A. W. also reported 
the failure of Martin’s abortive conven- 
tion of auto workers at Detroit last month 
when he attempted to form a rival union. 
According to official union records, dele- 
gates at Martin’s meeting represented less 
than 18,000 U. A. W. members. 

In New York, David Dubinsky, head of 
the International Ladies’ Garment Work- 
ers Union, denied that he had supplied 
financial aid to Homer Martin. 


* 


HITTING AT THE HEART OF WASH- 
ington’s second most important indus- 
try, the spring tourist season, the strike 
of 2,200 hotel workers in the nation’s 
capital grew as teamsters, building trades, 
and building service workers joined the 
list of those refusing to cross picket lines. 
New Dealers who made their homes at 
the struck hotels moved or stayed with 
friends rather than go through the picket 
line, while Senator James Hamilton Lewis 
of Illinois and Senator Carter Glass of 
Virginia ostentatiously posed for news 
eameras while crossing the lines. 

C.1.0. Director John Brophy walked 
across the street from the C.I1.0. offices 
to join the line maintained in front of 
the Mayflower Hotel by the workers, 
members of the Hotel & Restaurant Em- 
ployees International Alliance, A. F. of L. 

The White House Correspondents As- 
sociation, composed of newspapermen ac- 
credited to the White House, cancelled 
plans for its regular annual dinner to 
the President, feeling that neither the 
President, cabinet officers, nor prominent 
persons invited to the dinner should cross 
the picket lines. 





As the nation’s capital watched with 
interest the largest strike in its history, 
police maintained a strict hands-off policy. 
It was even reported that police arrested 
four persons who were molesting the 
picket lines. There were no general at- 
tempts to shove pickets around or limit 
the numbers. 

* 


BRIEN McMAHON, ASSISTANT AT- 

torney general of the United States, 
has urged Governor A. B, Chandler of 
Kentucky to pardon the four Harlan union 
miners now serving life terms for alleged 
participation in the Battle of Evarts, May 
5, 1931, the Kentucky Miners Defense has 
announced. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








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McMahon, who prosecuted the Harlan 
conspiracy cases last summer, took this 
almost unprecedented action in the form 
of a letter to Chandler in which he ad- 
mitted that his recommendation was 
“somewhat unusual.” 

During the Harlan trial last summer, 
MeMahon wrote, he examined the rec- 
ords of the Evarts miners’ trial. 

“T then became aware that many of the 
personalities who testified against the men 
who were convicted were defendants in 
our case whose reputation for lawlessness 
and violence in the community was well 
known,” he said. “Frankly, I would not 
believe many of them under oath. 

“It is my considered judgment and 
opinion that the deputy sheriffs them- 
selves provoked the Battle of Evarts and 
that they were responsible for the 
troubles which occurred.” 

The Kentucky Miners Defense also an- 
nounced that the Kentucky State Federa- 
tion of Labor (A. F. of L.) has urged 
“immediate clemency” for the four framed 
miners. 

* 


THE DETROIT MAILERS UNION OF 
the International Typographical Union, 
A. F. of L., recently signed a contract 
providing wage increases with the 
Safran Printing Company of Detroit after 
the United Auto Workers, C.I.0., had ex- 
ercised gentle pressure. The U.A.W. 
paper is printed in the Safran plant. 
The mailers local originally turned 
down the A. F. of L. proposal to double 
the per capita tax to build up an organi- 
zational fund against the C.I.O. 


* 


THE CANDID CAMERA PHOTO SERV- 

vice Company, which employs 60 pho 
tographers at the Golden Gate Interna- 
tional Exposition in San Francisco, has 
signed a closed-shop agreement with the 
Photographers and Allied Crafts Union, 
A. F. of L., providing a 44-hour week, 
pay raises, and time-and-a-half for over- 


time. 
_ 


THE U. 8S. GOVERNMENT SUCCESS- 

fully ended its first criminal prosecu- 
tion under the wage-hour law when the 
Brown Stitching Company of Lawrence, 
Massachusetts, and its treasurer-manager, 
Nathan Brown, were fined a total of 
$1,500. It was estimated that the com- 
pany had saved between $700 and $1,000 
through violations. 

The company unexpectedly pleaded 
guilty to four indictments charging fail- 
ure to pay the minimum wage, falsifica- 
tion of records, failure to keep required 
records, and interstate sale of goods made 
under sub-standard conditions. The con- 
eern does stitching work for shoe manu- 
facturers. 

During the trial Assistant Attorney 
General Joseph E. Brill showed that one 
woman had received as little as $2.38 a 
week and another $2.64. It was also 
brought out that the company’s 300 em- 
ployees had to punch time cards for fewer 
hours than they had worked. 


MARCH, 1939 


THE REGIONAL N. L. R. B. OFFICE 

has nullified an election held in Janu- 
ary among employees of the Firth Carpet 
Company, Firtheliffe, N. Y., which the 
Textile Workers Organizing Committee 
(C. I. 0.) lost by a vote of 421 to 379. 
The Board upheld union charges that the 
company had used intimidation and coer- 
cion to influence the vote. 

Prior to the election, the company had 
agreed to withdraw recognition of a 
dummy organization known as the Firth 
Workers Protective Association. At 
Christmas time, however, the company 


WAGNER 
ACT 


Wu 


began to hold parties on company prop- 
erty. Foremgn and former officials of the 
company union quit work on election day 
and drove employees to the polls. 























SETTLEMENT OF THE SIX-MONTH- 

old strike of the American Newspaper 
Guild, C.1.0., against the three daily 
papers of Wilkes Barre, Pa., has been 
reached, following three-way parleys in 
New York which ineluded publishers, 
A.N.G. representatives, and President 
John L. Lewis of the C.1.0. 

The pact calls for immediate reinstate- 
ment of all strikers and recognition of 
the Guild as bargaining agent for em- 
ployees in the cireulation, editorial, busi- 
ness, and advertising departments. The 
papers which were forced to stop publi- 
eation immediately after the strike will 
resume publication at ‘once. 

Meanwhile, the Guild strike in Chicage 
on Hearst’s Herald and Examiner and 
Evening American entered its fifth month 
as advertising and circulation continued 
to drop heavily on the two papers. 

Media Records, which prepares official 
statisties on advertising linage, showed 
a loss of nearly 2,000,000 lines on the 
two papers, representing nearly $1,000,- 
000 in revenue. Circulation on the two 
papers was down 250,000, strike leaders 
announced, 

In Chicago a committee of 25 mem- 
bers representing leading clergymen and 
laymen of the Catholic, Protestant, and 
Jewish churches of the city found the 
Hearst management “guilty” of unfair 
labor practices. 

In Boston the Guild signed an indus- 
trial union contract providing a $75,000 
vearly wage increase for employees on 
the Herald and Traveler. The contract 
grants the highest minimum wage scale 
in the New England area and is the 
first agreement to cover both editorial 
and commercial departments on the 


paper. 
. 
DEMANDING A FIFTY-CENT DAILY- 
wage increase and a 30-hour week, 
the United Mine Workers of America, 


C. I. 0., began negotiations early in March 
with Appalachian coal operators. 

Early in the conference the union’s 
demands were met with a hint by spokes- 
men for the operators that a fifty-cent 
wage cut would be in order. President 
John L. Lewis also attacked an alleged 
$6,000,000 health swindle of the coal oper- 
ators. A survey by the Bureau of Co- 
operative Medicine revealed outrageous 
medical and hospital care by company 
doctors, paid for by the men under the 
checkoff system. 

Chief demands of the union are a six- 
day, 30-hour week, a fifty-cent increase 
per day over the present $6.00 basic scale, 
a fifteen-cent per ton increase on the cut- 
ting and loading rate, and a guarantee of 
200 days’ work a year. Other demands 
call for the strengthening of the recog- 
nition clause, extra compensation for 
higher productivity resulting from mech- 
anization, time-and-a-half for overtime, 
vacations with pay, seniority rights, a 
voice for the miners in the supervision 
of hospital and medical services, and 
stronger safety provisions. 

Vice-President Philip Murray revealed 
that the miner is in the lowest income 
group although he works the hardest, un- 
der dangerous conditions. The bituminous 
industry for ten years, he pointed out, has 
paid its workers an average of $400 less 
than the competing fuel industries and 
some fifteen or sixteen other basic indus- 
tries. 

An audible stir ran through the con- 
ference room filled with 400 miners and 
operators when, during the roll call, a 
voice answered “present” as the name of 
the Harlan County Coal Miners Associa- 
tion was called. It marked the first time 
that the operators from “Bloody Harlan” 
—now organized—have participated in 
the conferences. 

* 


OREGON’S RAMPANT ANTI-LABOR 
legislature has moved to repeal the di- 
rect primary law, first founded in the 
state, and return to the boss-controlled 
convention system. Another move would 
deny opportunity in the state for Cath- 
olic and Jewish refugees from fascism by 
closing major professions to aliens. 

Most ominous of the new proposals is 
a set of amendments to the statutes regu- 
lating the professions by excluding aliens 
from practice. The first to pass was Sen- 
ate Bill 291, barring aliens from practice 
of law. Then, against the earnest pleas 
of the Oregon Commonwealth Federation 
leaders, appeared an amendment to the 
optometry law adding a citizenship-re- 
quirement clause. A similar clause was 
added to the dentistry code. 

Aroused progressive sentiment, sup- 
ported by Catholic and Jewish forces of 
the state, is rallying for a showdown bat- 
tle in the house, before which all three 
exclusion acts are now ready for action. 

State A. F. of L. and C. I. O. leaders 
have registered vigorous protests against 
proposed amendments to the Unemploy- 
ment Compensation Act which would 
emasculate the law and severely restrict 
benefits to the unemployed. The proposed 
changes would lengthen the waiting pe- 


29 








riod before benefits start, reduce the total 
amount of the benefits, bar locked-out 
workers from receiving benefits, and com- 
plicate the process of registration. 


* 


INDEPENDENT MILK DISTRIBU- 

tors and unionized dairy farmers are 
fighting to prevent the New York milk 
trust from grabbing the 20 per cent of 
the New York market that is still outside 
the monopoly. Leaders of the Dairy 
Farmers Union, an organization of 14,000 
members, and Milk Industries, Inc., are 
negotiating the terms of a marketing 





agreement to cover about 20 per cent 
of the milk sold at retail in the New 
York area. 

* 


THIRTY DAYS’ MASS PICKETING 


won the second big C.I.0. strike in 
Canada, 20 months after the General 
Motors strike in Oshawa. Locals 67 and 
80 of the United Rubber Workers at 
Dominion Rubber System’s two plants in 
Kitchener, Ont., now have the first con- 
tract with any rubber firm in Canada, 


binding until October 31, with termina- 
tion possible on 30 days’ notice after that. 
The strike received active assistance 
from C.1.0., A. F. of L., and national 
unions. 

Thirteen hundred workers, more than 
1,000 of them union members, are af- 
fected by the contract, which provides 
union recognition, a nine-hour day, time- 
and-a-half for overtime, seniority rights, 
and a grievance committee. Only demand 
not definitely won is the pay raise of 
five cents an hour, which is to be settled 
by an arbitration board, to be composed 
of one member chosen by the union, one 
by the company, and one mutually. There 
is also protection against discrimination, 
two hours’ pay for employees reporting 
for work and finding none, and compen- 
sation for loss of work to employees 
wrongfully discharged. 

The one-month strike was a classic ex- 
ample of the failure of the Mohawk Val- 
ley formula in a labor-conscious commun- 
ity. Employees of one of Kitchener’s two 
other rubber plants struck last year and 
gained no contract, but their leadership 
was skillful and both citizens and sur- 
rounding farmers have come to realize 
that the interests of 5,000 rubber work- 
ers in a city of 35,000 are closely knit 
with their own. 

Every section of the Mohawk Valley 
formula was utilized except the creation 
of a large police force and fixing the date 
for the opening of the plant. The “back- 
to-work movement” never had more than 
the 300 non-strikers and even lost many 
of those. 


30 


FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION WOULD 
be restricted by a so-called anti-Nazi 
bill pending before the Connecticut leg- 
islature, according to the American Civil 
Liberties Union which is opposing similar 
legislation throughout the country. Arthur 
Garfield Hays, A.C.L.U. counsel, warned 
that the Connecticut bill and similar 
measures introduced in New York, Penn- 
sylvania, and other states violate the 
constitutional rights of free speech “and 
establish no definite test of guilt.” 


* 


THE TEXTILE WORKERS ORGANIZ- 

ing Committee, C. I. O., formed less 
than two years ago to organize 1,250,000 
workers, will hold a constitutional con- 
vention in Philadelphia, May 15. Dele- 
gates from 32 states, representing sev- 
eral hundred thousand organized textile 
workers, are expected to attend. 


* 


A STRIKE BY 2,500 MEMBERS OF 

Local 463, United Associaticn of 
Plumbers and Journeymen Steamfitters, 
A. F. of L., for restoration of the six- 
hour day and two-dollar hourly wage scale 
has crippled construction work at the 
World’s Fair and at other large buildings 
in Manhattan and the Bronx. 


* 


A. F. OF L. UNIONS PICKETING THE 

University of Missouri will carry their 
fight for unionization of university serv- 
ices to the legislature now meeting in 
Jefferson City. 


ON THE RECOMMENDATION OF 
Republican Governor Heil, the Wiscon- 
sin assembly passed an anti-labor bill 
which repeals the little Wagner Act of 
1937 and curbs many rights of unions in 
the state. 
* 


AN ALMOST SOLID FARM-MEMBER 

vote in the Kansas House of Represen- 
tatives defeated a bill which would have 
required payment of prevailing wages on 
all building projects of governmental 
units. Only one rural representative voted 
for the measure, which was backed by 
organized labor. 

* 


ITEMS: AMERICA’S LARGEST HOUS- 

ing project, the new $100,000,000 Metro- 
politan Life Insurance Company’s project 
for New York’s upper Bronx, housing 
12,000 families, will be union designed 
and union engineered. . . . The Federa- 
tion of Architects, Engineers, Chemists 
and Technicians, C.I.0., has a contract 
for the job. ...A program of economic 
reconstruction calling for the organiza- 
tion of 30,000 small industrial coopera- 
tives to produce consumable goods for 
homeless Chinese is reported to be under- 
way in the interior of China, ... Thirty- 
five thousand members of the Interna- 
tional Ladies’ Garment Workers Union 
gave a full day’s pay, totalling $250,000 
for the relief of German and Italian 
refugees. ... And at least 8,000 of the 
workers who donated their labor are 


Italians. . . . The first radio station in 
Australia, owned and operated by a single 
labor union, began broadcasting this 
month at Lithgow in New South Wales, 
. - « The Professional Radio Employees 
Institute, radio artists and technicians 
union, are the owners. 


* 


FIGHTING INDICTMENT OF 27 C.I. 0. 

officials in Redding, Cal., on felony 
charges, because they protested against 
being arrested for picketing, the Tunnel 
Workers Union is preparing to carry the 
issue of picketing to Washington if nee- 
essary. 

Louis Goldblatt, state C. I. O. secre- 
tary, charged the Redding tunnel work- 
ers were thrown out of employment when 
they insisted upon belonging to a union 
of their own choosing. “Because they 
protested by the establishment of a picket 
line, they were thrown into jail, and be- 
cause they continued to protest they have 
been indicted as felons, 

“The right to organize without the 
right to picket is practically meaningless; 
picketing is the keynote of labor’s arch. 
We fought this whole thing out at the 
polls and defeated the anti-picketing 
measure. Now employers are passing local 
anti-picketing ordinances.” 

The C. I. O. is demanding the appoint- 
ment of a fact-finding committee by Gov- 
ernor Culbert L. Olson to hold public 
hearings and eall witnesses from the 
C. I. 0., A. F. of L., and the employers. 
The resolution charges that civil liberties 
have been violated at Redding and that 
workers have been deprived of their 
rights under the Wagner Act. 

There are now 88 pickets scattered in 
various jails in the vicinity because of 
overcrowding in Redding. 


* 


ONLY A MONTH BEFORE THE 

opening date and the New York World’s 
Fair has found itself with a Consumers 
Interests Building and enough written 
protests against its commercial exploita- 
tion of the consumer to provide a fair- 
sized exhibit. 





The protests were signed by more than 
a score of experts representing consumer 
groups, labor unions, cooperatives, fed- 
eral agencies, universities, and scientific 
foundations. All of the signers had 
served as members of the fair corpora- 
tion’s advisory committee on consumer 
interests. 

Not only has the fair lost its non-com- 
mercial advisers but also half of its non- 
commercial consumer exhibits. Only one 
bona-fide consumer exhibit remains, the 
displays by Consumers Union, although 
Prof. Colston E. Warne, its president, 
also resigned from the committee. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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THE CONTRIBUTORS 


Franz Boas is professor emeritus of anthropology at Columbia 
University and a member of Local 537 of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers. 


DorotHy E. Brapsury is at the Iowa Child Welfare Research Sta- 
tion of the State University of Iowa. 

HAAKON M. CHEVALIER teaches in the Romance Language Depart- 
ment of the University of California. He is president of Local 
349. 

KERMIT Esy is executive secretary of the Chicago Teachers Union 
and formerly taught in the Ann Arbor public schools. 

Mary E. KEISTER is with the Institute of Child Welfare at the 
University of Minnesota. 

RopertT Morss Lovett is a former president of Local 259 and 
has just retired from the English Department at the University 
of Chicago. 

RoBerT LYND is a member of Local 537 and teaches at Columbia 
University. 

R. C. Mc Vey belongs to Local 1 and teaches in the Chicago pub- 
lie schools. 


James P. MITCHELL is a member of Local 464 and teaches at 
the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago. 

PorTER SARGENT is an educational advisor to parents and schools 
and is editor and publisher of Sargent’s Handbooks. 

RoBerT F. WAGNER is the outstanding Progressive senator from 
the State of New York. 


CoLSTON WARNE is a member of Local 230 and is teaching at 
Amherst College. 


WILLIAM VAN TIL, JR. is a member of Local 438. He teaches 
at Ohio State University and is the author of The Danube Flows 
through Fascism, published reeently. 





In order that the AMERICAN TEACHER may serve as a 
medium for the discussion of the educational problems of 
today, the contributors are not necessarily expressing the 
policies of the American Federation of Teachers. 

















THE KEENEY CASE: 


Bic Business, 
HicHer Epucarion, 
AND ORGANIZED Lasor 


This is a report of an investigation 
made by the National Academic Free- 
dom Committee of the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers into the causes of 
the recent dismissal of Professor Philip 
O. Keeney, librarian, from Montana 
State University, and the role played by 
certain business and political interests in 


the affairs of the University. 


Price: 10c per copy 


Published by 


The American Federation of Teachers 
506 $. Wabash Ave. Chicago, Ill. 





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 
Editor, GrorGE T. GUERNSEY 


Consulting Editor, Kermit Epy 


Editorial Board 


MERCEDES L. NELSON 
Irvin R. KUENZLI 


Mary J. HERRICK 
GEORGE E. AXTELLE 


President Secretary-Treasurer 
JEROME Davis Igvin BR. KUENZLI 


Vice-Presidents 


Mary J. HEegrick 
Lita A. HUNTER 
ALLIE B. MANN 
MeERcEDES L. NELSON 
Pau. W. PREISLER 
JOEL SEIDMAN 
STANTON E, SMITH 
Doxey A. WILKERSON 


Grorer E. AXTELLE 
HarROLp CHaPMAN BROWN 
JoHn D. Connors 

MICHAEL J. Eck 

ARTHUR ELDER 

Mrs. Mary FoLry GROSSMAN 
C. J. HENDLEY 











SPECIAL OFFER for MARCH 


Issue of 


AMERICAN TEACHER 


We shall be glad to send this issue of the AMERICAN 
TEACHER to any 10 teachers in the United States for the 
special price of $1.00. If you have 10 or more friends who 
would like to see the magazine, fill out the blank below and 
return it with $1.00 for each group of 10 names to: The 
AMERICAN TEACHER, 506 8. Wabash Ave., Chicago, IIl. 


Please send the March AMERICAN TEACHER to 
the attached list of names for which I enclose 
> in payment. 


Signed: 





Street : 





City: __ State: 








MARCH, 1939 





31 

















A Complete Set-up of Materials for 
PROPAGANDA ANALYSIS 


Courses or Units 


In Junior and Senior High Schools 


And in Adult Study Groups 





1. (Monthly ) 


Propaganda 
ANALYSIS 

12 bulletins and worksheets 
plus special reports 











2. (Manual) 


Group Leader’s 
Guide to 
Propaganda 
Analysis 


3. (Background ) 
Bound Vol. I 


Containing 
13 monthly bulletins and 
3 special reports 














One-year subscription $2.00 


10 or more to the same 


address $1.50 scribers 


20 or more to the same address 


address $1.00 


address 


Sample Copies Free 


Single copies, each 
Special price to sub- 


10 or more to the same 


20 or more to the same 


30-day Approval 


$2.00 Single copies, each $2.00 
Special price to sub- 


$1.00 scribers 


$1.50 


$ .85 10 or more to the same 


address $1.00 


$ .75 
30-day Approval 


Propaganda Unit Experiment for Spring: 


Try the Unit in one Ctass—Social Studies, 
English, or a special course—to test its value 


for wider use in your 1939-1940 curriculum 


The GROUP LEADER’S GUIDE TO PROPA- 
GANDA ANALYSIS, the revised edition of the 
Institute’s experimental study materials, is now 
being used in more than 450 high schools and 
colleges, and in approximately 100 adult study 
groups. It provides experimental discussion ma- 
terial; it suggests techniques and methods for 
carrying on propaganda study in areas of gen- 
eral education, such as English literature, 
American history, social studies, mathematics, 
journalism, art, music, speech, home economics, 
general science, and current events. All these 


suggestions are based upon actual classroom 
experience. 


The GROUP LEADER’S GUIDE is especially 
designed for use in connection with the BOUND 
VOLUME 1 of the Institute’s publications, 
which give necessary background material in 
the study of propaganda, and the monthly 
PROPAGANDA ANALYSIS bulletins, which 
describe today’s propagandas, tell what is be- 
hind them, and suggest procedures for analyz- 
ing them. 


INSTITUTE FOR PROPAGANDA ANALYSIS 


A Non-profit Corporation to Help the Intelligent Citizen Detect and Analyze Propaganda 


130 MORNINGSIDE DRIVE 


NEW YORK CITY 

















cals 


ae SAD] ; i 





Push Federal 


A 





| Urged to 


for Month 


A three-point national legislative program designed to 
bring greater pressure for the enactment of the federal aid 
bills now before Congress was announced by Mrs. Mary Foley 

Grossman, national legislative representa- 
tive. 

The program calls for a drive for resolu- 
tions from municipal and labor bodies in- 
dorsing the federal aid legislation, a speak- 
er’s campaign, and a call for a public meet- 
ing, backing the measures. 

Mrs. Grossman urged all locals in the 
American Federation of Teachers to carry 
through these objectives during the coming 
month, and to report all progress to her 
and to the American Teacher. 

The complete schedule follows: 





ruary. Be sure that these three points | - 
have been covered. 

A. Get municipal labor body to pass a 
resolution in favor of S.1305 and H.R.3517. Be sure 
to have copies sent to the city council, national leg- 
islature, and Mrs. Mary Foley Grossman, national 
legislative representative, and to Senator Elbert 
Thomas, chairman, Senate Committee on Education 
and Labor, United States Senate, Washington, D. C., 
and Representative William F. Larrabee, chairman, 
House Education Committee, House of Representa- 
tives, Washington, D. C. 

B. Be sure that resolutions memorializing Congress to 
adopt the federal aid bill have been introduced into 
state legislatures. Write your state senators and 

' representatives to support the resolution. 

C. Have your town or city council memorialize Congress 
to adopt the federal aid bill. 

2. Send speakers to local labor and civic groups to speak on 


Mrs. Mary F 
Grossman 


federal aid and the specific bills, S.1305 and H.R.3517. 
Send results of action taken by such bodies to Mrs. 
Grossman and the proper committees in the House 


and Senate. 


3. Arrange for a public meeting and prepare a program 
based on the suggestions in the pamphlet, Dramatizing 


Federal Aid. 





AFT Committee 
Publishes Report 
On Keeney Case 


The National Academic Free- 
dom Committee headed by Arnold 
Shukotoff (Local 537) has just 
released a 30-page study called 
“The Keeney Case, Big Business, 
Higher Education, and Organized 
Labor.” 

The report deals with the dis- 
missal of Prof. Philip O. Keeney 
from the University of Montana. 
Dr. Keeney’s case has been taken 
to the supreme court of Montana 
and is being backed by the state 
labor movement. 

The report, which is signed by 
the investigating committee of 
Hugh DeLacy, formerly of the 
University of Washington, H. J. 
Phillips, University of Washing- 
ton, and Arnold Shukotoff, chair- 
man of the N.A.F.C., may be se- 


cured by writing to the national 
office of the A. F. of T. and en- 
closing ten cents. 





Springfield: 11. 


Local Wins Fight 
A gainst Pay Cut 


Because of united action by 
members of the Springfield (Ill.) 
Teachers Federation, Local 601, 
teachers will not be forced to 
accept a one-week pay cut this 
year. 


Since the local school board is 
faced with a deficit at the end of 
the year, all employees have been 
ordered to waive one week’s pay. 
Local teachers regarded this ac- 
tion as unfair to them, because 
the board had balanced its bud- 
get last year and used educa- 
tional funds for building pur- 
poses. 

Local 601 unanimously rejected 
the proposal and members turned 
over all waivers to the union’s 
attorney, Edmund Burke, who 
returned the slips unsigned to the 
board. The board then accepted 
the teacher’s resolution and used 
other means to reduce the deficit. 

The union represents nearly 
three-fourths of all the Spring- 
field teachers, according to Flor- 
ence Breen, local secretary. 








e AMERICAN 


In Two Paris 
Part fe 
- #4 M. 


*. TEACHER 


Official Organ of the American Federation of Teachers 





VOLUME oo 


March, 1939 


ae No. 6 














aan THE PLANK 


1. Check program for January and Feb-|: 





THF ae Sie 


Not Wanted 
O. S. U. 


i en 


" HMinois Stote Jeoraah “March a 1939 


“Walking the plank” in this cartoon are not only the teach- 
ers and children of America, but American Democracy 


itself. 


Throughout the country, as a hasty reading of the 


American Teacher will show, drives are being conducted 
against the allocation of necessary school funds. The Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers is engaged not only in fighting 
local budget slashes, but by its constant efforts in behalf of 
a federal aid law is providing the necessary foundation for 
the future of American Democracy. 








Teachers Union Organizes 


Kight New Locals in Month 


Eight new locals of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers have 
been chartered by the national 
office during the last month, ac- 
cording to Irvin R. Euenzli, secre- 
tary-treasurer of the A. F. of T. 
Thirty-eight new locals have been 
organized since October, 1938. 

New locals chartered last month 
are as follows: 

No. 621, San Antonio Federa- 





Trenton Teachers to Fight 
Proposed Salary Slashes 


The Mercer County Teachers 
Union, of Trenton, N. J., is pre- 
paring for an anti-waiver cam- 
paign in the face of slashes pro- 
posed by the Trénton board of 
education. 

Trenton is threatened with a 
large tax boost since the city 
council has refused to assess per- 
sonal property in accordance with 
the law, according to Bernard 
Forer, local corresponding secre- 
' tary. 

Representatives of the public 
employees, including teachers, 
firemen, policemen, clerks, and 
janitors, are mapping plans for 
an effective protest agains: pro- 
posed cuts below the legal limits 








of the tenure act. A giant mass 
meeting is being planned, at 
which a positive program will be 
proposed, showing how Trenton 
can pay its employees according 
to the salary schedule without 
any need for tax increases. 

Representing the union at a re- 
cent conference of public em- 
ployees were Addie L. Weber, 
Elizabeth Elder, and George 
Krall. 

Through its legislative chair- 
man, Lois St. John Smith, the 
union has asked the local board 
of education to set up a new sys- 
tem of accumulative sick leave. 
The union’s plan is the result of 
two years’ study. 











In This Issue 


Page 
The Teachers Union in 
I a ccinnenitiininbitieeacs i 2 eS 
Federal Aid Measures Ana- 
lyzed in AFT Study......... as 
...Mary Foley Grossman.... 4 
New York WPA Local Seeks 
Teacher Credit 
Laura Liebman 5 
WPA Curriculum Determined 
by Study of Student Inter- 
Anne Mae Brady 5 
Teachers Union Backs Grad- 
uated Income Tax........... RES 
Stewart Y. McMullen € 
Democratic Process Must Be 
Strengthened to Endure 
Howard Edminster 6 
Policies Committee Forges 
New Program ‘«..................... 
Abraham Edel 7 

















tion of Federal Teachers, Bexar 
County, Texas. 

No. 622, WPA Educational 
Workers Union of Washington, 
mc 

No, 623, Albay Teachers Union, 
Albany County, New York. 

No. 624, Ingham County Fed- 
eration of Teachers, Ingham 
County, Michigan. 

No. 625, Bronxville Teachers 
Union, Bronxville, New York. 

No. 626, Westchester County 
Adult Education Teachers Asso- 


ciation, Westchester County, New | 


York. 


No. 627, Allegheny County WPA 


Teachers Federation, District 15, | 
Pennsylvania. 


No. 628, Federation of Teachers | 


O’Fallon Township High School, 


O'Fallon, Illinois. 


Local Urges Unity 
In Labor Movement 


A resolution urging labor unity 
and _ solidarity throughout the 
labor movement was adopted re- 
cently by the Western Massachu- 
setts Teachers Federation, Local 
230, of Northampton, Mass. 














AFT Opens _ 
“|New Drive 
in South 


Smith, Waggoner 
Hired to Organize 


A new organizational drive by 
the American Federation of 
Teachers, centering chiefly in the 
South, was inaugurated last 
month in cooperation with George 
L. Googe, southern representative 
for the American Federation of 
Labor. 

Working as full-time organizers 
are Stanton Smith, national A. F. 
of T. vice president from Chatta- 
nooga, Tenn., and Vental F. Wag- 
goner, director of physical educa- 
tion of the Wood County Schools, 
West Virginia. Also participating 
in the drive will be Allie Mann, 
A..¥,of T. vice president from 


en eS 


Will Establish Contacts 

The work for the balance of 
the school year, according to pres- 
ent plans, will revolve largely 
around reviving inactive locals, 
and developing contacts with cen- 
tral labor bodies and trade unions 
for a more intensive organization 
program next fall. 

Mr. Smith; who is also presi- 
dent of Local 246, will carry on 
the work in Tennessee and Ala- 
bama, and already is working on 
the establishment of a new Knox- 
ville, Tenn., local. Mr. Wag- 
goner, who is president of Local 
382 at Parkesburg, West Virginia, 
will be available for work in Ohio 
and Virginia. At present he is 
meeting with teachers in Wheel- 
ing, W. Va. 


Mann Explains Drive 

Reasons for centering the drive 
in the South were explained by 
Vice President Allie Mann who 
said that “the general interest 
in Federal Aid in the South will 
give an impetus to the present or- 
ganizational drive of the A. F. 
of T., particularly in the South- 
east. The growing interest of the 








Allie Mann Stanton Smith 


labor movement in the South in 
education will be helpful to us at 
this time as will be Mr. Googe’s 
wide contacts and experience in 
the southern labor movement. I 
feel that he will be of great help 
to us in this organizational cam- 

(Mr. Googe spoke at the last 
convention of the-A. F. of T. 

(Continued on page 2) 








e ee : ae beara 





AFT Launches 


New Drive 
in South Area 


(Continued from page 1) 
Copies of his talk may be secured 
from the national office.) 


Mr. Smith stated that he had | 


already received several inquiries 


about the Teachers Union from | 


Alabama and that he hoped to in- 
vestigate those after he left Knox- 
ville. He pointed out that there is 
a real opportunity to organize 
southern teachers, particularly in 
the urban areas where the labor 
movement has been making steady 
progress for the last few years. 

“It is not to be expected,” Mr. 
Smith stated, “that the job can 
be done i:..two months or even 
six months. We hope to lay the 
groundwork and demonstrate the 
real possibilities of this region for 
organizing teachers’ unions. We 
must show the southern teachers 
the part which the American 
Federation of Teachers has played 
in the present drive for Federal 
Aid, and especially the part or- 
ganized labor has played. This 
will be extremely helpful in our 
organizational campaign.” 

Mr. Waggoner, who has been 
president of the West Virginia 
State Federation of Teachers for 
the last two years, also pointed 
out that, “the work right now 
will be mainly establishing con- 
tacts with central labor bodies 
, and trying to work up some of 
the inactive locals. If I can bring 
in one or two new locals and work 
up some of the old locals I'll con- 
sider it a good job.” 

The Wood County School Board 
by unanimous consent gave Mr. 
Waggoner leave of absence for 
his organizing work, and Supt. 
John A. Davis, Jr.. gave him a 
general letter of introduction 
which said of the A. F. of T.: 

“This organization has a mem- 
bership of three-fourths of the 
fBtal ‘number of teachers iff Wood 
County and includes our best 
teachers. At all times the organ- 
ization has been cooperative, loyal, 
and has constantly supported the 
board and myself in promoting 
higher professional standards, bet- 
ter salaries and working condi- 
tions for teachers, and greater 
opportunities for the youngsters.” 


Atlanta Averts 
Pay-Cut Crisis 


A financial crisis which threat- 
ened to force retrenchment in the 
Atlanta public-school system has 
been solved without resort to sal- 
ary cuts, the Atlanta 


cal 89, announced. 

Cause of the crisis was a de- 
ficiency of $190,000, while the 
state failed to allocate Atlanta 
the full amount of state aid. A 
ruling of the city attorney en- 
abled the school board to antici- 
pate full payments and budget ac- 
cordingly. The tentative budget 
was reduced $90,000 by reducing 
the accounts for fuel, supply 
teachers, electricity, and similar 
expenses. 


_ +>- — 

Gary, Indiana, school teachers 
will receive salary increases this 
year amounting to $100,000 in a 
plan adopted by the local school 
board following a campaign by the 
Gary Teachers Union and the 
Gary Labor Council. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Published monthly except 
June, July, and August by The 
American Federation of Teach- 
ers, 506 S. Wabash Ave., Chi- 
cago, Ill. 

EDITOR 
George T. Guernsey 
EDITORIAL BOARD 
Mary Herrick, Chairman 
Mercedes Nelson 
George E. Axtelle 


CONSULTING EDITOR 
Kermit Eby 
Subscription: $2.50 per year 
Foreign, $2.60. 








Public | 
School Teachers’ Association, Lo- | 


























Mich. Fights 


Reactionary 


State Bills 


f the Michigan 
is pushing a six-pant | 
legislation program for enactment | 


| 


Fighting reactionary legislat‘on, 
Federation 
Teachers 


| this year. 

| One of the principal objectives 
|of the program is a drive for 
| strengthened tenure laws. In the 


| current session of the state legis- 
lature an attempt is being made 


| to amend and weaken the present 





Dr. Floyd W. Reeves, who is 


chairman of the Advisory Commit- 
tee on Education, is a member of 
the A. F. of T. Local 259, the col- 
lege local, Chicago, Il. 


Washington, D. C., 
Seeks Propaganda 
Analysis Course 





The Washington, D. C., (No. 8) 
Teachers’ Union recently passed 
a resolution petitioning the board 
of education to establish a course 
in propaganda analysis at the 
Teachers’ College and provide the 
study of Spanish in the lower 
grades as a step toward a greater 
understanding of the Latin-Ameri- 
can people. Local 8 also sponsored 
a luncheon at which Jay Franklin, 
noted newspaper columnist, spoke 
on “The State of the Union.” 

In the field of legislation the 
local is working for the enact- 
ment of a sabbatical leave bill, a 
bill establishing a_ single-salary 
schedule, and an amendment to 
the pension law which will allow 
a teacher to name a beneficiary 
to receive any contributions to 
the pension fund which hayg not 
been pai k before death. 


Jessie Cline Heads 


Bloomington Local 


Jessie Cline is the new presi- 
dent of the Bloomington (IIl.) 
Federation of Teachers (No. 276). 
Other officers are James Hostet- 
ler, vice president; Louise Lange, 
secretary; Edwin Rakow, treas- 
urer; and P. C. Kurtz, parliamen- 
tarian. 

Miss Cline and Mr. Hostetler 
have been active in organization 
work during the last five years. 
They assisted in organizing locals 
at Rockford and Springfield, and 
in organizing the Tri-City Local 
at La Salle, Peru, and Oglesby. 
Mr. Hostetler is also vice presi- 
dent of the state organization. 


+ 
> 








Radio Program 

Uniontown, Pa., Local 517, has 
contracted with the local radio 
station for a series of ten broad- 
casts. The first program presents 
County Superintendent Harry J. 
Brownfield, on ‘‘Tenure.” Subjects 
to follow are “The Program of 
the American Federation of Teach- 
ers,” “Financing Our Schools,” 


| tenure law. 


Against Loyalty Oaths 

Other points call for a cam- 
paign against discriminatory 
legislation such as loyalty oaths, 
extension of franchise in school 
elections, use of school buildings 
as community centers, and basic 
revision of the Michigan tax set- 
up. The federation also is back- 
ing the federal aid program. 


Michigan teachers are favoring 
the proposal to incorporate mini- 
mum salary provisions into the 
State Aid Law during the present 
session of the legislature. Present 
average teacher salary for the 
state approximates $1,300, al- 
though nearly five thousand teach- 
ers in rural schools average only 
$650 yearly. 

The Michigan Federation of 
Teachers favors the adoption of 
schedules which will guarantee 
minimum salaries based on train- 
ing and the type of certificate 
held, as follows: $100 monthly 
for teacher holding any type of 
certificate, $110 monthly for teach- 
er holding life certificate, and 
$120 monthly for teacher holding 
life certificate and degree. 


In Detroit, school teachers, 
backed by progressive organiza- 
tions, last month were preparing 


saptiate See 


were scheduled to open. 
Federation of 


Detroit Faces Slash 

The Detroit 
Teachers pointed out that while 
enrollment had increased during 
the last eight years, the building 
program and teachers’ staff had 
remained the same. A slash of 
nearly $3,000,000 in the school 
budget had been proposed by the 
city council, fixing the appropria- 
tion at $12,600,000. This would 
be the lowest appropriation since 
1925 when the enrollment in 
schools was 30 per cent less. 

The Detroit local sponsored a 
dinner honoring five visiting A. 
F. of T. members attending the 
Progressive Education Associa- 
tion convention last month. 


Guests included Carleton Wash- 
burne and Russell Babcock, of 
Winnetka, Ill; Dr. Holland D. 
Roberts, Stanford University; 
Dr. George M. Hartmann, editor 
of the Social Frontier; and Dr. 
George E. Axtelle of North- 
western University, A. F. of T. 
national vice president. 

Se 

A movie showing the inequali- 
ties of education in the country 
is being undertaken by the Phila- 
delphia Local (No. 474) with the 
aid of the Rosenwald Foundation. 











Cleveland Local Fights to Save 
School PW A Building Program 


Strenuous efforts to salvage all 


/or part of an $8,000,000 program 


for building ~ and _ rehabilitating 
school buildings in Cleveland is 
being made by the Cleveland 
Teachers’ Union. ~ 

A Supreme Court ruling forbade 
the school board to issue a neces- 
sary $4,382,000 in funds to secure 
funds to match those of the Pub- 
lic Works Administration. Such 
a bond issue could be made, the 
court ruled, only after a referen- 
dum in which 65 per cent of the 
voters favored the proposal. 

The Union also has launched an 
intensive study of junior-college 
problems, preparatory to taking 
action to seek establishment of 





such an institution in the city. 
The studies include probable 
cost and methods of financing, 


population trends and school en- 
roliment statistics, cultural Jevels, 
community attitudes towards 
higher education, probable junior- 
college attenNdance, and adequacy 
of existing institutions in the vi- 
cinity of Cleveland. 

Irvin R. Kuenzli, A..F. of T. 
secretary - treasurer, and Prof, 
Maynard Krueger, professor of 
economics at the University of 
Chicago, discussed “Why Teachers 
Should Affiliate with Organized 
Labor” before an open forum 
meeting of the Clevaland Local. 








of | 


sod akg aaa’ 


Ohio University Local Aids ~ 


= oe re PERO RES € =" 
ye Ro 


in Teaching Staff Survey 





IN THE NEWS 














Jerome Davis Michael Eck 


In the News 

this month are President Jerome 
Davis who is sailing for England 
to speak at the convention of 
the National Teachers Union of 
England and Vice President 
Michael J. Eck, Ohio, who was 
recently promoted to assistant 
supervisor of printing in the 
Cleveland public schools. 


U. of Cele, Local 
Works with AAUP 


on Joint Program 





A program of cooperation with 
local trade unions and the Amer- 
ican Association of University 
Professors is being carried out by 
the University of Colorado Local 
(No. 562). 


In its union activity the local 
is working with the Denver Union 
and Trades Council. At the Janu- 
ary meeting, members of the local 
heard Austin Beasley, regional 
president of the Agricultural and 
Cannery Workers, C.I.O. 

Working jointly with various 
groups, the lecal is fighting to 
vent conversion of income 
revenues into the general funds 
of the state. Heretofore, the in- 
come tax has been used as re- 
placement revenue in school dis- 
tricts to permit lowering of the 
property tax, or to increase the 
aggregate amount of funds avail- 
able for schools. Governor Ralph 
Carr, elected last fall, has em- 
barked on a program of economy, 
which has turned out- to be econ- 
omy especially in educational ac- 
tivities. 

Together with the A.A.U.P., the 
local is working on a plan to se- 
cure elective chairmen of depart- 
ments. A joint committee of the 
A.F. of T. and the A.A.U.P. are 
framing the plan. 


Ohio Sets Up 
State WPA Group 


Ten Ohio W.P.A. locals, under 
the leadership of Lida Auville, 
member of the National Organiz- 
ing Committee, have set up a 
state W.P.A. teachers section of 
the Ohio Federation of Teachers. 

The Cleveland, Ohio, W.P.A. 
Local (No. 448) is working with 
the Federal Adult Teachers Asso- 
ciation, affiliated with the N.E.A., 
in a campaign to save the W.P.A. 
educational program. Petitions 
bearing 4,000 signatures have 
been collected. 








The proposals of President 
Roosevelt’s advisory committee on 
the federal program of vocational 
education were discussed at the 
March meeting of Local 438, Ohio 
State University, in Columbus. 
The discussion was led by Nor- 
man Woelfel. 

Other reports were given by 
William McDonald and Merries 
Cornell, chairman of the local’s 
legislative committee. 


Seeks Labor Unity 

At the meeting members passed 
a resolution calling for a referen- 
dum vote by rank and file A. F. 
of L. members on the A. F. of L- 
C.I.O. peace issue. The local 
voted to send copies of the resolu- 
tion to other A. F. of T. locals, 
the Ohio State Federation of 
Teachers, and the national execu- 
tive council of the A. F. of T. 

The Conference Committee of 
the Teaching Staff of Ohio State 
University published its first an- 
nual report. The committee was 
formed jointly by Local 438 and 
the American Association of Uni- 
versity Professors. The Com- 
mittee is planning to expand its 
survey this year, including a study 
of administrative integration of 
all state supported institutions 
under a single board and of the 
preparation of the budget. 
Indorse Survey 

The local has indorsed a pro- 
posal by State Education Director 
E. N. Dietrich for a survey of the 
entire educational structure of 
the state. 

At its January meeting the local 
also voted against the continuance 
of the Dies Committee and urged 
the lifting of the embargo by the 
United States against Loyalist 
Spain. The teachers also voted to 
urge the American government to 
consider ways of aiding refugees 
and victims of fascism in Europe. 

Guest speaker was Ted Silvey, 
state secretary of the C.LO., who 


ror ge gr no 


pects for labor unity in the nation, 


Editorial Board 


Urges Comments 





All locals of the A. F. of T. 
have been requested to take some 
official action on the work of the 
editorial committee of the A. F. 
of T. These resolutions must be 
in the office of the American 
Teacher by May 1. 

“A number of members have 
written in about the newspaper 
supplement,” George T. Guernsey, 
editor of the American Teacher, 
stated. “The newspapers are be- 
ing published as an experiment 
this year with the possibility of 
establishing a regularly issued 
newspaper next year. They are 
mailed with the magazine in order 
to save extra wrapping, address- 
ing, and postage.” 


4 


Atlanta Credit Union 


Mary C. Barker is the new 
president of the Atlanta Teach- 
ers’ Association Credit Union: 
Other officers are G. L. Keith, 
secretary, and W. Salem Brown, 
manager. Since its organization; 
the Credit Union has made loans 
amounting to $150,000, serving 
nearly 500 teachers. The organ- 
ization how has a reserve of 
$270,000. 

















Send for More Information About 


The American Federation of Teachers 


affiilicted with the 
American Federation of Labor 
506 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, TM. 





Union. 


Name 


I am interested in more information about the Teachers 
(All replies confidential.) 








Address 





City. 























eee 





6861 “PIeEW 


YaHROVAL NVOMIGAY AHL 





| Buffalo Union 
Fights School 
Budget Slash 


Buffalo Teachers’ Union Local 
(No. 377) is fighting a threatened 
cut in teachers’ salaries as a re- 
sult of an attempt by the local 
municipal administration to re- 
duce the board of education budg- 
et. 

From an original plan to trim 
$1,000,000, it is now reported that 
the budget will be slashed $280,- 
000. 

In an effort to protect teacher 
salary schedules, members of the 
local are urging the enactment 
of a state salary equalization law 
for teachers. Such a measure 
already has the indorsement of the 
Buffalo Federation of Labor, the 
State Federation of Teachers 
Unions, and the New York State 
Federation of Labor. 

Local members and other union 
members are being urged to write 
letters to members of the state 
legislature, urging immediate en- 
actment of an equalization bill. 

Dr. Bella Dodd, legislative rep- 
resentative of the New York 
State Federation of Teachers 
Unions, attacked state taxpayer, 
business, and industrial associa- 
tions who recommended a $31, 
000,000 cut in education under the 
State budget. 

The slash, Dr. Dodd noted, was 
proposed by the Real Estate Tax- 
payers’ Association, the Mer- 
chants’ Association, and the Asso- 
ciated Industries, who cited the 
budget deficit of $33,000,000. 


Model Tenure 
Bill Published 


Dr. Ross Thalheimer, chairman 
of the Model Bill Bureau of the 
National Legislative Committee, 
has just issued a model bill on 
tenure which has been sent to all 
locals of the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers. 

The bill is intended to serve as 
a guide to A. F. of T. locals 
and other teachers’ organizations 
throughout the country in draft- 
ing of tenure bills for their re- 
spective states. The bill should 
not be introduced in any state 
legislature without being amended 
in accordance with the distinctive 
features existing in the state con- 
cerned. . 

Inquiries concerning the bill 
should be addressed to Dr. Thal- 
heimer, 5603 Roxbury Place, Bal- 
timore, Md. 


Schuman ‘Talks 
for Local 460 


Local 460 (Evanston, Ill.) has 
devoted its last two meetings to a 
discussion of the Illinois tenure 
bill by William Voss, legislative 
chairman, and a discussion of the 
function of a teachers’ union led 
by Kermit Eby, executive-secre- 
tary of the Chicago local (No. 1). 

Lillian Herstein, who has charge 
of lectures for the junior colleges 
in Chicago, will speak to Local 
460 on April 5. Headed by John 
Eberhart, the college section is 
working on a midwestern con- 
ference of college unions to be 
held on April 29. Dr. Frederick 
L. Schuman of Williams College 
spoke for the Educational Poli- 
cies Committee on “Hitler’s Next 
Move” on March 30. 











Lehman Appoints Barr 

Mrs. Minerva Barr, one of the 
thirteen Depew teachers ordered 
reinstated by the New York Su- 
preme Court, has been appointed 
to the State Tenure Commission 
by Governor Herbert Lehman. 
Mrs. Barr, who was one of the 
leaders in the fight to secure the 
passage of the state tenure law, 
was presented by Governor Leh- 
man with the pen with which he 
igned the state tenure bill. 














FIGHTS TO PROTECT TENURE 








TY, FSR 


ir a EIS POET 
2 a ts ee a : Se em *333 


SSMSSS SUE IVER Lis t USE: 


Philadelphia, Pa. (No. 192), sponsors a city-wide meeting in defense 
of the Mundy Tenure Act which is being subjected to a barrage of 


amendments in the state legislature. 


Speakers in defense of the 


Act were State Senator Leo Mundy, Representative Herbert Cohen 
of York, Pa., Dr. Rheinhold Goll of the Principals’ Club, and Sarah 
T. Walsh, chairman of the local’s legislative committee. Roland Eaton, 
representative of the School Directors’ Association which is seeking 
to amend the Act, spoke in favor of amending it. 





Philadelphia Local Protests 


Revision of Bill 


Five speakers, including two 
members of the state legislature, 
addressed the tenure meeting of 
Local 192, Philadelphia, Pa., on 
March 10 in the auditorium of 
Girls’ High School. The meeting 
was held to rally teachers against 
the amendments to the Tenure 
Act which have been introduced 
recently. 

“I am for maintaining the 
Teachers Tenure Act in its en- 
direty,” stated Senator Leo Mun- 
dy, author of the Act, at the meet- 
ing. He warned against the forces 
working to amend the Act which 
sought control of “not only who 
shall teach, but what shall be 
taught.” 

Mr. Roland Eaton, representing 
the School Directors’ Association 
which is leading the fight to 
amend the act, was the next 
speaker. Not interested in pull- 
ing his punches, Mr. Eaton said, 
“The school directors do not be- 
lieve that any appreciable number 
of teachers needed or wanted ten- 
ure. We do not believe it is good 
for the schools or the teaching 
profession generally.” Advocat- 
ing the married teachers amend- 
ment to the Act, Mr. Eaton stated, 
“The employment of two adults 
of a family is as bad as the con- 
centration of wealth in a few 
families.” 

Surprise of the meeting was 
Dr. Rheinhold Goll, president of 
the Principals’ Club, who ap- 
peared on the platform to chal- 
lenge Mr. Eaton with the state- 
ment that his group had gone on 
record in favor of the Tenure 
Act and against all amendments. 

In answer to an objection voiced 
by Mr. Eaton to teacher pressure 
groups, State Representative Her- 
bert Cohen of York, Pa., answered, 
“I wish to say to you that it is 
refreshing to have some pressure 
from the teachers, differentiating 
from the pressure of the direc- 
tors. We are in a democracy.” 





at Meeting 








SUPPORT CIVIL 
LIBERTIES BILL 


All locals of the American 
Federation of ‘Teachers are 
urged to write their senators te 
support the continuation of the 
LaFollette Civil Liberties Com- 
mittee which is just conclud- 
ing its valuable work. For 
more information about the 
work of this committee write 
to the U. S. printing office for 
copies of Report No. 46, Parts 
1-4, 75th Congress, and Report 
No. 6, 76th Congress. 


meme 


No. 39 Celebrates 
20th Anniversary 


Local 39, Buffalo Industrial 
Arts Teachers, celebrated the 20th 
anniversary of its affiliation with 
the A. F. of T. on January 30. 
More than 100 members and 
friends were present. President 
F. K. Quirk welcomed the guests 
and Norman O. Kleason acted as 
toastmaster for the evening. Ar- 
thur Soloman read some of the 
early minutes of the local but the 
high spot of the evening was the 
cutting of a birthday cake baked 
by the boys of the Emerson Voca- 
tional High School. 

The Industrial Arts Union also 
has appointed a committee to 
study the advisability of combin- 
ing Locals 39 and 377, the Aca- 
demic Teachers’ Union. The re- 
port of this committee will be 
given next year. 


Indoree F. D. R. 


The El Paso, Texas, Local 236, 
has passed a resolution, indorsing 
President Franklin D. Roosevelt 
for a third term. At the recom- 
mendation of the union, the reso- 
lution has been adopted by the 
Texas State Federation of Labor. 

















Toledo, Ohio, Local Fights 
Teacher Payless Pay Days 


Toledo teachers are receiving 
only a portion of their salary, 
and payless pay days are immi- 
nent. In -March, teachers re- 
ceived only 88 per cent of their 
February checks. 

In an appraisal of the imme- 
diate future, the Weekly Bulletin 
of the Toledo Federation of 
Teachers editorializes, “From now 
on the picture, financially speak- 
ing, looks rather black. By the 








first of May there will probably 
have dribbled in enough money 
for one month's pay, or it may be 
possible to borrow enough money 
on anticipated local taxes to fur- 
nish the amount necessary to 
meet a month’s payroll. This 
check may be divided in two, giv- 
ing us two weeks before our an- 
nal spring lay-off and two weeks 
at the end of April.” 





7=ACHER 


Members Attend 
State Conference 


An _ anti-coercion bill, which 
would give freedom to each teach- 
er to join any organization of his 
choosing, has been sponsored by 
the California Federation of 
teachers and introduced into the 
state legislature. 

The bill was introduced by 
Ralph Dill, chairman of the com- 
mittee on education of the Cali- 
fornia Assembly and a member 
of the Los Angeles Local (430) of 
the A. F. of T. 

The bill would prevent adminis- 
trators from exercising pressure 
on teachers to join organizations 
favored by the supervisors. 

Another bill introduced with 
Union backing would set up a 
free employment bureau for pub- 
lic-school teachers in every county 
of the state except those appoint- 
ing teachers upon the basis of 
competitive examinations. 


Other Bills Sponsored 


A third Union sponsored bill 
would prohibit investigation into 
the religious, political, economic 
or other affiliations or beliefs of 
applicant teachers. Another meas- 
ure would give tenure to teachers 
in state colleges and universities; 
another would entitle teachers to 
100 days sick leave in each school 
year, ten days of which would be 
cumulative to a total of 50 days. 


Teachers’ problems cannot be 
isolated from the problems of re- 
lief, public health, youth, and 
housing, Dewey Anderson, Cali- 
fornia state relief administrator, 
told a delegation of teachers 
meeting in a two-day legislative 
conference in Berkeley, Calif., 
February 17 and 18. 


Sponsored by the Stanford Uni- 
versity Local of the American 
Federation of Teachers, the meet- 
ing was attended by delegates 
representing virtually every major 
teacher organization in the state. 
The delegates studied nearly 280 
state bills on education and made 
recommendations for presentation 
to the state assembly. 


Professor Harold Chapman 
Brown, head of the philosophy 
department at Stanford, of the 
A. F. of T. local, and national 
vice president of the A. F. of T., 
was a delegate to a “people's 
parley” at Sacramento, on March 
12 and 13, attended by 120 rep- 
resentatives of 50 state-wide or- 
ganizations. Another -. delegate 
was Marguerite Ellis, head of the 
state teachers’ body. 

Called by Lieutenant Governor 
Ellis E. Patterson, the conference 
was designed to hear the views of 
representative groups on neces- 
sary legislation for the state, and 
to discuss means of carrying out 
Governor Culbert Olson’s pro- 
gram, which swept him into office 
at the November elections. 


ae 





— 








BAR MARRIED 
TEACHERS 


The Ohio State Federation 
of Teachers is fighting a bill 
introduced into the state house 
of representatives providing for 
the dismissal of married teach- 
ers in Ohio’s public schools, 

The clause containing the 
provision reads, “It shall be 
the duty of every board of 
education to discharge every 
married teacher, principal, 
supervisor, or school superin- 
tendent, or other officer or 
employee ef the board of edu- 
cation, whese wife or husband 
is engaged in a gainful ercupe~. 
tion.” 





os 





Patterson Local 
Defeats 10% Cut 
in School Budget 


Seeking full restoration of pay 
to teachers below the maximum 
salary, the Increment Com- 
mittee of the Patterson, N. J., 
Teachers Union (Local 482), is 
circulating petitions among cit- 
izens of Paterson. 

A hearing on the proposed 
school budget last month devel- 
oped an unusual contest between 
representatives of the Patterson, 
N. J., Teachers’ Union and the 
local Taxpayers’ League, in which 
the program of the latter went 
down to substantial defeat. 


Lobbyists for the Taxpayers’ 
League demanded a cut of 10 per 
cent in the school budget. Letitia 
Willett of the A. F. of T local 
urged the board to grant incre- 
ments to teachers in the lower 
brackets of the salary schedule 
who had suffered from 
of increments during the early 
1930's. . 

After the hearing, the board of 
education adopted a budget of 
$2,817,359, an amount approxi- 
mately $8,500 less than the 1938- 
39 budget request. 

Members of the local, in line 
with the action of other locals in 
the state, are fighting the appeal 
of the state mandatory laws 
which would permit further wage 
slashes of teachers and other 
municipal employees throughout 
the state. 

The local recently became af- 
filiated with Labor’s Non-Partisan 
League of New Jersey. 

Election of officers will be held 
Tuesday, April 4. 


Madison Studies Co-Ops 


The Madison Teacher of March 
15 is a Co-op issue. Copies of 
the four-page issue may be se- 
cured from Local 223 by writing 
to the Teachers’ Union, Box 147, 
Madison, Wis. The lead editorial 
is entitled “Cooperation and the 
Trade Unions.” 














$5.00 for 1,000 


ORDER NOW! 


Supply Limited 
Copies of the March Newspaper 


for distribution to 


Non-Union Teachers 


le apiece for less than 500 
No more newspapers to be published this year 


$3.00 for 500 





Enclosed find 


for copies of 





the March Newspaper. 


Name 


(Local No. 








Address 




















oo 2 oe a, Ae 


California AFT Loc 
Sponsor Education Bills 


Re: 


om \ 
ee 
- 
. dae 











YWaHOVAL NVOIAANV AHL 





4 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





Federal Aid Measures 
Analyzed in AFT Study 





Legislative Chairman Discusses Two 
Proposals Now Before U.S. Congress 





By Mary Foley Grossman 
National Legislative Representative 

HE SEVENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS has before it two significant bills 

for federal aid; H.R. 3517, sponsored by Representative William F. 

Larrabee, chairman of the House Education Committee, and S. 1305, 
sponsored by Senator Elbert Thomas of Utah, chairman of the Senate 
Committee on Education and Labor, and Senator Pat Harrison of Missis- 
sippi. The House bill was introduced first and consequently the Senate 
bill seems to have come along with slightly better phraseology. ‘There 
are other minor differences which have little bearing on our concerted 
drive to have the two bills passed. The Senate bill does not make any spe- 
cific reference to funds for non-public schools. The House bill contains 
the original permissive clause from the old Harrison-Fletcher bill. 


There are two fundamental points in 
both bills: 

1. The definition of the fields of 
educational work covered and the 
amounts appropriated. 

2. The method by which appro- 
priations should be calculated. 

An analysis and discussion of S. 1305, 
cited as the “Federal Aid to Education 
Act of 1939,” can give a complete pic- 
ture of the educational needs of any 
community, which is the surest way of 
measuring its potency. This is a con- 
densed picture under the different titles 
and does not cover fully the working 
; plan or the restrictions under each title. 


Title I. Grants to States for the 
Improvement of Public Elementary 
and Secondary Schools 

Part 1. Plan of general federal aid. 
—For “equalizing opportunities for ele- 
mentary and secondary education.” 


APPROPRIATION 
For fiscal years ending: 
June 30, 
June 30, 
June 30, 
June 30, 
June 30, 
June 30, 1945 


For general expenses, salaries, and 
maintenance; for the purpose of improv- 
ing the training of teachers in service; 
for school library service, including 
books and salaries; health, welfare, and 
recreational activities as placed under 
public elementary and secondary schools 
through community plans; nursery 
schools and kindergartens; junior col- 
leges; services for handicapped pupils; 
educational and vocational guidance; 
adult educational and recreational ac- 
tivities carried on by public-school sys- 
tems; textbooks, reading materials, and 
other instructional supplies; transporta- 
tion of pupils. 

Part 2. Improved teacher prepara- 
tion.—For improving the preparation of 
teachers and other educational per- 
sonnel. 














Courtesy of Farm Security Administration 
Photograph by Rothstein 
Bas-relief called “Promote the General 
Welfare” which appears on the new 
school at Greenbelt, Md. Necessary to 
the general welfare of the American peo- 
ple is the present Federal Aid Bill 
(8.1305) which Dr. Floyd Reeves has 
characterized as “necessary to meet the 
needs and supply the opportunities that 
are basic to the perpetuation of our 
democratic institutions.” 





APPROPRIATION 

For the fiscal years ending: 
June 30, 1940.. 
June 30, 1941 
From 1942-45 inclusive: 
Annually 


$2,000,000 
4,000,000 








6,000,000 





USES 

Provides for separate teacher-prepa- 
ration institutions of more than junior- 
college grade; teacher-preparation divi- 
sions operated as parts of colleges and 
universities; and other schools, colleges, 
and departments operated as parts of 
colleges and universities in which sub- 
stantial proportions of the students are 
preparing for elementary- and second- 
ary-school teaching and administration, 
student guidance, school-library service, 
adult-education service, and educational 
research. 

Part $. Construction of school build- 
ings.—To enable states to facilitate the 
construction, improvement, and equip- 
ment of buildings for public elementary 
and secondary schools. 


APPROPRIATION 
For the fiscal year ending: 


June 30, 1940.. $20,000,000 








Courtesy of Farm Security Administration 
Photograph by Vachon 


In Greenhills, Ohio, not only the children of this community have the advantage of 
attending this fine school, but adults as well may use the building as a center for 
community living. As the problems of American democracy grow more compiex, 
cenvers ot this sort are necessary for adult discussion if democracy is to be maintained, 








From 1941-45 inclusive, 


Annually 30,000,000 





USES 
For general construction, including fa- 
cilities for school libraries and commu- 
nity-center activities in connection with 
such schools, but not for the purchase 
of land for such school purposes. Pro- 
vides for the establishment of state 
standards for the location and con- 
struction of school buildings, the mak- 
ing of surveys, and preparation and 
maintenance of these state standards 
for the development of improved ad- 
ministrative units and attendance areas. 
Part 4. Administration of state de- 

partments of education. 


APPROPRIATION 

A. Flat sum of $5,000 is appropriated 
to every state wishing to participate in 
the benefits of the Act. 

B. The remainder is appropriated on 
the basis of financial need as follows: 
For the fiscal years ending: 

June 30, 1940 

June 30, 1941 
From 1942-45 inclusive: 

Annually 


For facilitating the improvement of 
state departments of education and to 
enable them to carry on effectively the 
additional duties vested in them by 
states accepting the provisions of this 
Act. No fund appropriated under this 
part can be used for salaries of mem- 
bers of boards, officials elected by popu- 
lar vote, or the chief state school offi- 
cer. 

Part 5. Provisions applicable gener- 
ally.—This part provides for the state 
support of education in addition to fed- 
eral aid and also covers the acceptance 
and administration of funds to be re- 
ceived including “a just and equitable 
apportionment of such funds for the 
benefit of schools and teacher prepara- 
tion institutions maintained for minor- 
ity races, in States where separate 
schools are maintained for separate 
races.” 

It also provides that the state treas- 
urer, or corresponding official in that 
state, serve as trustee for funds appor- 
tioned. It provides for the payment of 
the apportionment in four equal install- 
ments, as soon after the first day of 
each quarter as may be feasible, be- 
ginning with the quarter commencing 
July 1, 1939, and the auditing of the 
apportionments, including the suspen- 
sion of succeeding payments for ir- 
regularities in expending of preceding 
payments. 

Title 1. Grants to States 
for Adult Education 


In order to assist the states to make 
adequate provision for adult educa- 
tional services. 

APPROPRIATION 
For the fiscal years ending: 

June 30, 1940. 

June 30, 1941 
From 1942-45, annually 

USES 

For current operating expenses, in- 
cluding salaries and books, necessary 
to provide for the teaching of illiter- 
ates, citizenship classes for aliens, work- 
ers’ education, facilities for self-educa- 
tion, and other adult educational serv- 
ices, through public schools, public li- 
braries, colleges, universities, and other 
public educational institutions and 
agencies. In connection with this pro- 
gram, the state adult educational au- 
thority shall appoint and consult with 
a representative council composed of 
one member from each major type of 
adult educational activity, both rural 
and urban. 

Title II. Grants to States 


for Rural Library Service 
In order to facilitate adequate pro- 


vision for library service primarily for 
rural inhabitants throughout the vari- 
ous states. 
APPROPRIATION 

For the fiscal years ending: 

June 30, 1940 

June 30, 1941 
From 1942-45 inclusive: 

Annually 


$5,000,000 








USES 

For salaries, books, periodicals, other 
publications, library supplies, equip- 
ment, and for other current operating 
and maintenance expenses of public-li- 
brary services. For salaries and other 
expenses of the state library adminis- 


trative agency. It also provides for a 
plan to be submitted to the Commis- 
sioner of Public Education by each 
state, for effectively lessening inequali- 
ties of opportunity for library service. 
Title IV. Grants for Co-operative 
Educational Research and Demon- 
strations, and for Administration 

For the purpose primarily of making 
necessary surveys and plans in con- 
nection with the best utilization of the 
grants to states authorized in this act, 
and for other cooperative educational 
research and demonstration projects. 

APPROPRIATION 
From June 30, 1940, to fiscal year 

ending June 30, 1945, inclusive... . 

3 per cent of total grants each year 
USES 

Available to the Office of Education 
and other competent agencies of the 
states, 60 per cent. The remaining 40 
per cent will be available to the Com- 
missioner of Public Education for direct 
expenditure in research, survey, plan- 
ning, and demonstration activities. 
Title V. Education of Children 
Residing on Federal Reservations 
and at Foreign Stations 

APPROPRIATION 

Such sums as may be necessary, not 
to exceed $3,000,000 for fiscal year end- 
ing June 30, 1940, and ensuing fiscal 
years. 

USES 

To assure opportunity for public ele- 
mentary and secondary education to 
children legally residing on federal res- 
ervations and properties and to chil- 
dren of United States citizens on duty 
at foreign stations of the United 
States, and to be comparable in qual- 
ity and availability to the education 
provided in the public schools of the 
various states. Children are eligible to 
the benefits of this title when it is de- 
termined by the Commissioner of Public 
Education that provision has not been 
made for the education of the children 
at public expense. Transportation is 
also included for the children under this 
title. 

Not for children of the Indians and 
of the natives of) Alaska already , pro- 
vided for, nor for expenditure in. the 
Canal Zone. 


Title VI. General and 
Miscellaneous Provisions 
Provides for a definition of terms 


used throughout this Act and also out- 
lines special areas of possessions. It 
contains no appropriations, but provides 
for a representative committee of in- 
dustry, labor, agriculture, homemaking, 
the professions, and the public gener- 
ally to meet not less than twice a year. 
It decrees that the whole Act and the 
Commissioner will be under the direc- 
tion of the Secretary of the Interior, 
and also provides for a full and com- 
plete report on the status of education, 
published annually, and reporting sepa- 
rately on educational facilities for any 
minority racial group. 

Under all titles there are provisions 
for strict accounting for federal aid 
funds between the Federal Government 
and the state, and the state and local 
educational authority. Also for report- 
ing and counseling, for the regular 
preparation and submission of data on 
the funds and on surveys, research, and 
future forecasting of needs. The gen- 
eral theme all through S. 1305, how- 
ever, is that the state will have a free 
hand in conducting its own educaticnal 
campaign. 

The second important phase of the 
bill (S. 1305) is the method to be used 
in apportioning funds. This will be 
done on the basis of objectively deter- 

(Continued on page 7) 








Courtesy of Farm Security Administration 
Photograph by Rothstein 


A bas-relief on the subject, “Establish 
Justice,” which appears on the newly 
built school at Greenbelt, Md. The pas- 
sage of S. 1305 will provide a more just 
system of education for all children. 





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‘QAISNOUL Ch-ThET WoT 





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YaEHOVAL NVOIMANV AL 





March, 19 








New York WPA Loeal 
Seeks Teacher Credit 





More Than One Million Trained by Federal 
Program; Value of Work Recognized 





By Laura Liebman 
Chairman, National WPA Committee 


ORE THAN A MILLION MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN are 
now participating in the W.P.A. Education and Recreation Pro- 
gram in New York City. Adults are learning to read and write in 

unprecedented numbers; many thousands are attending trade and technical 
courses; civic and cultural subjects are reaching new strata of the popula- 
tion. Neighborhood centers offer profitable leisure-time activities, with a 
varied program that includes athletics, games, arts and crafts, music, 
puppetry, dramatics, etc. In the public schools of the city, new teaching 
techniques are being devised for backward and handicapped children; a 
new approach is employed for problem, truant, and delinquent children. 


This bold educational venture has at- 
tracted wide attention. 

After more than four years of contin- 
uous operation under the supervision of 
the Board of Education and under the 
scrutiny of many other experts in the 
field of education, the value of the Edu- 
cation and Recreation Program has been 
generally recognized. 

But the teachers, counsellors, and 
other professional personnel engaged on 
these projects have, until now, received 
no such recognition. 


Recognition Campaign for 
Services Being Rendered 

The organization of the educational 
workers on the projects, the W.P.A. 
Teachers Union, Local 453, has been en- 
gaged in a campaign to obtain recogni- 
tion for the services being rendered. The 
Union’s Experience Credit Committee 
succeeded in channelizing the apprecia- 
tive response by educators, teacher or- 
ganizations, parent organizations, and 
the community in general to the splen- 
did work done. As a result, the Board of 
Education is now discussing the advisa- 
bility of granting experience credit to 
W.P.A. professional personnel. A~hear- 
ing was held by the Board of Education 
for this purpose on January 31. 

The hearing was conducted by Asso- 
ciate Superintendent William E. Grady, 
chairman of the Joint Committee on 
License Requirements. This Committee 
was assigned to make recommendations 
to the Board of Education regarding 
credit for W.P.A. experience after a 
conference on the subject between Colo- 
nel Somervell, W.P.A. administrator, 
and James Marshall, Board President. 


Granting of Experience Credit 
Requested for WPA Teachers 

At this hearing the W.P.A. Teachers 
Union requested that experience credit 
for service on the W.P.A. Education and 
Recreation Program be granted to teach- 
ers, counsellors, recreation teachers, 
recreation workers, and professional per- 
sonnel engaged in the medical, psycho- 
logical, and social service. The reasons 
advanced for this request were: 

“1, The W.P.A. Education and 
Recreation Workers are engaged in 
educational activities that are an 
essential part of the public-education 
program of this City. 

“2. Experience credit will facili- 
tate admission to the regular school 
system of a personne] skilled in re- 
medial and diagnostic techniques, in 
the individual approach desired, as 
embodied in Remedial Reading and 
Arithmetic, Lip Reading, Activity, 
Recreation, Adult Education, and 
Nursery Schools and Parent Educa- 
tion Programs. 

“3. Experience credit will facili- 
tate admission of a skilled personnel 
into the State, Federal, and other 
educational systems. 

“4. Credit for work done on the 
W.P.A. Education and Recreation 
Program has been granted in a num- 
ber of instances. 

‘5. In extending credit for 
W.P.A. work, the Board of Educa- 
tion and the State Department of 
Education will be following their 
own precedents.” 

Leonard Hanken, president of the 
Adult Students League, in his plea for 
credit, cited the following statement by 





William E. Grady: 

“To the teachers on this project 
who have carried the brunt of the 
work special praise should be given. 
After facing misfortune and even 
disaster in their own lives, they have 
been assigned to the difficult task 
of teaching for a minimum wage, 
with little technical training, with 
no assurance of security of position, 
with no vacations for recuperation. 
They have been compelled, at times, 
to work without supplies and equip- 
ment necessary to do a good job, 
and with pupil groups that, despite 
the best of intentions on their part, 
present extremely difficult teaching 
and personality problems. Yet, in 
spite of all these handicaps, the 
teachers have been loyal, indus- 
trious, honest, and efficient in the 
performance of their duty. One 
might be accused of extravagance 
if one were to praise them as highly 
as they deserve.” 

Other speakers at the hearing unani- 
mously praised the work of the projects 
so that when the conference was ad+ 
journed, it appeared that there was no 
question on the principal issue, the only 
problems being: amount of credit, age 
requirements, and in-service training. 


Other Speakers Agree that 
Credit Should Be Given 

Speakers at the hearing included Mrs. 
Margaret Lindquist, president of the 
New York Principals Association; “Dr. 
Frederick Houlaw, representing the 
Joint Committee of Teachers Organiza- 
tions; Mrs. Cahan of the Teachers Guild; 
and Dr. Bernard Riess, spokesman for 
the Joint Board of Teachers Unions. 

The first three organizations cautioned 
against the lowering of professional 
standards but were agreed that credit 
should be given. Dr. Riess gave his un- 
qualified approval. 

Following the hearing, the Teachers 
Union made the following recommenda- 
tions: 

1. Amount of credit.—Hour-for- 
hour credit for work performed on 
Education and Recreation Projects. 

2. Age requirements.—The same 
age limit permitted applicants who 
formerly served in positions under 
the direct supervision of the Board 
of Education. 

3. In-service training.—To be ex- 
tended and credited toward educa- 
tional requirements. ? 
James Marshall, president of the 

Board of Education declared: 

“We have several thousand W.P.A. 
teachers in the city and at present 
they are in blind-alley jobs. For 
their morale and the good of the 
service it seemed to Colonel Somer- 
vell and myself that it would be a 
good idea to try to give to those 
who are qualified otherwise an op- 
portunity to meet the specific educa- 
tional and service requirements for 
teaching licenses. 

“It is not our intention to lower 
*the standards required of teachers 
or to interfere with the merit sys- 
tem.” 

The whole question is now under con- 
sideration by the Joint Committee on 
License Requirements; and friends of 
the W.P.A. workers, who are interested 
in seeing this credit granted, should 
communicate with the committee. 


_ — 


Tr : CHEF 


Courtesy of Farm Security Administration 
Photograph by Rothstein 


Children in Skyline Farms, Ala., attend this schoolhouse for their three R’s. Notice 
the tree-stump chairs for the students and the oil barrel which apparently has been 
made into a stove. Recent reports show that 2,500,000 children of elementary-school 
age in the United States are not in school and that 2,500,000 are in schools that are 


little better than none. 





WPA Curriculum 
Determined by Study 


of Student Interests 


By Anna Mae Brady, 
Local 346 

ORN DURING the deep de- 
B pression, the Workers’ Edu- 

cation Division of the Adult 
Education Program of W.P.A. was 
largely without benefit of the pat- 
terns of its progenitors. But it was 
a lusty infant, fired with the vision 
of its potentialities and the pure joy 
of adventure. Soon it was on its own 
feet, organizing into classes workers 
from the fields and the factories. 
Then—what to teach them? 


Should the curriculum be based on 
the experiences of the workers? That 
idea, excellent as it was, was not enough, 
it was soon decided. In order to train 
the workers to become aware of the ex- 
istence of social and economic forces 
which play so large a part in fashioning 
their lives, and to develop a sense of re- 
sponsibility for engaging, as workers, in 
intelligent social action—in order to ac- 
complish these things—it was deemed 
necessary to build a curriculum based 
on the needs and interests of the stu- 
dents. 

How to discover the needs and inter- 
ests of the students? That was easy. 
All the teacher had to do was to ask 
them why they had come to class and 
what they expected to get out of it. 
WPA Teacher’s Role Differs from 
That of Traditional Instructor 

At this point it became increasingly 
clear that the role of the leader of 
workers’ classes differed fundamentally 
from that of the traditional instructor. 
It was not the function of a workers’ 
education teacher to decide what a 
group of students should know, but to 
discover what these students wanted to 
know; not to tell the class what its in- 
terests should be, but to find out what 
its interests were; not to deal with 
problems which were found in either a 
textbook or the teacher’s experience, 
but to deal with the problems which 
the worker-students felt were their 
problems. 

This, naturally, led to certain con- 
clusions; first, that such questions as 
the causes of poverty, unemployment, 
and relief, as well as all highly contro- 
versial issues, would have to be dealt 
with, not avoided; second, that in order 
to assist the worker to become an active, 
intelligent participant in our democracy, 
workers’ education classes would of ne- 
cessity have to be laboratories of demo- 
cratic living; third, that new techniques 
would have to be employed in order to 
solve the student problem, satisfy or 


adjust his need, and develop skill in 
meeting life situations. 

After several years’ experience in de- 
veloping student-centered rather than 
subject-centered classes throughout the 
country, it has been deemed advisable 
to attempt to get a picture of the com- 
munity of interests of students from 
different states, from varied industries, 
from different educational levels. 


Survey Now Under Way 
Representing Varied Group 

To that end a survey is being con- 
ducted which shows what 825 men and 
women from seven states want to study. 
These 519 men and 306 women repre- 
sent Such varied occupations as ‘steel, 
packing, railroad, lumber, agriculture, 
office, household, and W.P.A. Their class- 
es are held in union halls, settlement 
houses, Y.M.C.A.’s and Y.W.C.A.’s, li- 
braries, public schools, and educational 
centers. 

The broad subject of unemployment 
appears, at the moment, to constitute 
the problem of many students to whom 
this survey was directed. 

The tool subjects, English, reading, 
writing, spelling, are seldom selected as 
an end in themselves. The students say, 
rather, that they want to learn to read 
so they can find out what is happening 
in America and in all parts of the 
world. They are avid to learn to write 
and spell, not that these subjects are 
important as subjects, but they want 
to know how to write and spell in or- 
der to be able to fill out the innumer- 
able questionnaires put out by their 
unions, their shops, the relief stations, 
and be able to write the minutes of 
meetings, reports, and letters to their 
congressmen, and put out leaflets. 





Miss Brady’s chart, which we were 
unable to publish, shows that of the 
students she studied 29 per cent were 
interested in unemployment problems, 
21 per cent in tool subjects, 13 per 
cent in trade-union problems, 10 per 
cent in national and international af- 
fairs, 13 per cent in labor legislation, 
10 per cent in farm problems, and 4 
per cent in miscellaneous. 











At the moment, workers from all sec- 
tions of the country are flocking into 
classes to find out what all this talk 
about changing the Wagner Act really 
means, what is this Social Security Act 
anyway, and are they going to lose 
W.P.A. jobs if the $150,000,000 Deficien- 
cy Appropriation is not passed. The 
teacher who avoids such subjects is 
destined to find himself without any 
students. 

To have significance, workers’ educa- 
tion must not only be based on. the 
needs and interests of the students as 
they are evidenced today, but it must 
have, in addition, enough freedom and 
flexibility and be administered by those 
with enough vision to anticipate the 
needs and the interests of tomorrow. 





- 





Teachers Union Backs | 


Graduated Income Tax 


poses Retroactive 


Op 


Principle > of Taxation 


By Stewart Y. McMullen, 
Local 460 

VER SINCE THE INTRODUCTION 
E; of the Federal Income Tax in 1913, 

salaries of municipal employees and 
interest on municipal bonds have been 
exempt from tax. For reasons which will 
be discussed later, it is probable that this 
special treatment will be ended in the 
present session of Congress. 

The exempt status of municipal sala- 
ries and interest was originally forced on 
Congress by the Supreme Court. This 
exemption has its basis in our dual (na- 
tional and state) form of government, the 
underlying constitutional theory being 
that the national and state governments, 
which are supreme within their own 
spheres, may not burden or otherwise 
interfere with one another, either through 
taxation or in any other manner. In the 
year 1819 John Marshall, then Chief Jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court, said (McCul- 
lough v. Maryland, 4 Wheat 316): “The 
power to tax involves the power to 
destroy” and held invalid a tax levied 
by the State of Maryland upon bank 
notes issued by the Bank of the United 
States. Not until 1870 was the doctrine 
extended to prevent the federal taxation 
of the salary of a state official (Collector 
v. Day, 11 Wall 113). 


Judicial Trend Toward Extending 
Immunity Now Being Reversed 

There is now evidence that the Su- 
preme Court has reversed the judicial 
trend toward extending the immunity 
and is working back toward the original 
meaning of McCullough v. Maryland. Last 
summer (in the Gerhardt case) the Court 
held the salaries of officials of the Port 
of New York Authority subject to tax; 
the opinion of the Attorney General of 
the United States is that this decision 
has swept aside the exemption of munici- 
pal salaries and interest. The Court ruled 
that only those functions essential to the 
preservation of a state government are 
exempt from tax and a non-discrimina- 
tory income tax on all salaries and 
interest, including the salaries of munici- 
pal employees and the interest on mu- 
nicipal bonds presumably no longer is 
considered a burden which endangers the 
existence of a state government. The 
Court has adopted the doctrine of the late 
Justice Holmes that “the power to tax 
is not the power to destroy so long as 
this Court sits.” 

While it is now apparently constitu- 
tionally proper to tax municipal salaries 
and interest, the existing federal income- 
tax law does not do so. A bill has been 
prepared and will be introduced into Con- 
gress during the present session. Teachers 
are therefore called upon to take a stand 
upon certain issues. 


Decision on These Issues 
Now Face Teachers 


1. Are they in favor of the taxation 
of municipal employees’ salaries received 
during 1939 and thereafter? The federal 
income tax is levied only on amounts of 
income in excess of $1,110, if single, or 
$2,775, if married. These amounts take 
into account the earned income credit. 
The tax is $40 per $1,000 of excess in- 
come. 

2. Are they in favor of the retroactive 
taxation of municipal employees’ salaries 
received prior to 1939? Congress has the 
right to make the tax retroactive for 
twelve years where (as is usually the case 
with municipal employees) no return has 
been filed. Although the Treasury De- 
partment has to date refused to make 
its position definite on this issue, it would 


appear that the intention is to make the 


tax retroactive for three years. 

3. Are they in favor of the taxation of 
the interest on municipal bonds not now 
outstanding? To state it otherwise, 
should municipal bonds to be issued in 
the future be offered to the public with 
the understanding that the interest will 
be subject to tax? 





4. Are they in favor of the taxation of 
the interest received in 1939 and there- 
after on municipal bonds now outstand- 
ing? 

5. Are they in favor of the retroactive 
taxation of interest received prior to 1939 
on municipal bonds now outstanding? 


Most prominent of those who oppose 
all such taxation is an organization called 
the Conference on State Defense. This 
organization came into being May 31, 
1938, at a conference in Washington 
called by the attorneys general of New 
York and Connecticut; forty attorneys- 
general are participating in the work of 
the Conference. The published objectives 
of the organization are “to oppose any 
attempt to” tax the interest on municipal 
bonds now outstanding “without first se- 
curing ...a constitutional amendment”; 
to prohibit “absolutely any federal taxa- 
tion of the revenues and outstanding 
securities of the states . . .; to prevent 
the retroactive application of any federal 
tax upon municipal employees.” 

Assume that Henry Robinson had an 
income of $1,000,000 derived entirely 
from corporation bonds and that Frank 
Jerrems had an income of $1,000,000 de- 
rived entirely from municipal bonds. Rob- 
inson would pay a federal income tax 
of approximately $640,000; Jerrems would 
not pay one cent. Furthermore, though 
George Trainor might have an income 
from municipal bonds and also from 
other sources, the exempt municipal bond 
interest is freed of tax at the highest 
rate of tax to which he might have been 
subject; the federal income tax is gradu- 
ated all the way up to 79 per cent and 
an individual in the highest bracket 
would save tax amounting to $790 per 
$1,000 of income. This is the reason why 
the exemption of municipal bond interest 
is a major means of defeating the federal 
income tax on large incomes; it is prob- 
ably a more important loop-hole than 
the capital gains provisions. And this is 
the reason why the taxation of municipal 
bond interest has been favored by so- 
called liberals and conservatives alike. 
Presidents Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, 
and Roosevelt and the late Secretary of 
the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, are all on 
record as favoring the taxation of munici- 
pal bond interest. 


Series of Resolutions Passed 
by AFT Executive Council 


The Executive Council of the American 
Federation of Teachers considered the 
issues involved in this problem on Decem- 
ber 29 and passed a series of resolutions. 

It was resolved that the American 
Federation of Teachers is “opposed to 
retroactive taxes on salaries,” but that 
“we reaffirm our position in favor of the 
principle of a graduated income tax on all 
groups, with adequate exemptions in the 
lower income brackets.” The Council was 
of the opinion that as the present income- 
tax law provides for graduated taxation 
according to size of income, and provides 
reasonable exemptions in the Jower in- 
come brackets, there was no reason why 
teachers should not assume an income-tax 
burden comparable to that assumed by 
other citizens. 

It was resolved “that the American 
Federation of Teachers favors the imme- 
diate passage of a bill subject to the 
federal income tax all interest on state 
and municipal bonds to be hereafter is- 
sued; that it favors also the taxation of 
all interest on state and other municipal 
bonds now outstanding provided some 
reasonable means is devised to maintain 
the market value of such bonds, but not 
otherwisé; that it favors the immediate 
passage of legislation to accomplish the 
above purposes and that it favors re- 
course to a constitutional amendment 
only if the Supreme Court holds that no 
other remedy is adequate to achieve the 
desired end; and that it favors, under 
like circumstances, the taxation of all 
interest on bonds issued by the federal 
government and its instrumentalities.” 
That the taxation of municipal bond in- 
terest would raise the interest rate on 
such bonds and thus increase the costs of 
the state and local governments was rec- 





ognized. However, the substantial assist- 
ance the federal government is already 
giving the states through grants-in-aid, 
and the probability that, through federal 
aid to education and other measures, such 
grants would be increased in the future, 
were deemed to be offsetting factors, 
It was also recognized that pension funds, 
invested in municipal bonds, would be 
adversely affected by the taxation of in- 
terest on bonds now outstanding, and it 
was provided that such taxation was 
favored only if “some reasonable means 
is devised to maintain the market value 
of such bonds, but not otherwise”; as 
future issues will carry a higher interest 
rate the objection was felt to apply only 
to the taxation of interest on bonds now 
outstanding. 


In support of the taxation of municipal 
bond interest a great variety of reasons 
was developed. It was recognized that 
fairness in income taxation requires the 
closing of all loop-holes whereby large 
incomes escape their fair tax burden and 
that if a tax on intangibles, difficult at 
best to collect, is escaped by some, the 
willingness of others to pay their proper 
taxes is destroyed. 

It was seen also that not only does the 
exemption of municipal bond interest dis- 
criminate in favor of certain taxpayers, 
it discriminates in favor of unearned in- 


Pw 


come at the expense of those who earn 
their incomes. It was believed, further- 
more, that the exemption entices capital 
away from productive enterprise and re- 
tards the flow of new capital into indus- 
try because those with large incomes 
often find the net return from a risky 
investmerit actually lower, after taxes, 
than the tax exempt yield of a municipal 
bond; therefore, those of substantial 
wealth, who would normally be expected 
to make the high-risk investments, have 
no incentive to do so and bid instead for 
large quantities of municipal bonds, thus 
driving down the yield which financial 
institutions, pension funds, and other de- 
positories of savings, primarily seeking 
safety and not tax exemption, can hope 
to enjoy. 


In short, the Executive Council felt 
that a matter involving the national wel- 
fare was involved and that the policy of 
the American Federation of Teachers 
would be to support the closing of an 
important loop-hole in the federal income 
tax, while vigorously opposing any action 
which would discriminate against or un- 
duly burden teachers. Accordingly, it 
was “resolved, that the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers refuses to endorse 
the legislative program of the Conference 
on State Defense because of the confusion 
of the salary and bond interest issues.” 








Democratic Process Must 
Be Strengthened to Endure 


By Howard Edminster 
Local 61 


OST PERSONS believing in de- 

mocracy seek today a new orien- 

tation of political faith. Munich 
has illustrated harrowingly that democ- 
racy as a system can be operated by the 
sinews of the enemy. Consistent demo- 
crats, faced by the demonstrated strength 
of reaction within and without the de- 
mocracies of the world, either must 
claim the sinews of the system inalien- 
ably as their own or abandon their 
faith. Claiming the sinews involves a 
redefinition. 

Democracy is basically a process, not 
a system. It is the construction and 
reconstruction of the environment, physi- 
cal, social, ideological, aimed at in- 
creasing the amount of material and 
cultural satisfaction of the mass. 


For the reason that historical move- 
ment under government by popular 
representation has advanced this process 
steadily, concurrently working through 
and transforming various institutional 
vehicles, it is evident that the process 
is the reality. Form has altered, 
process has persisted. Government by 
consent of the governed is an instru- 
ment which takes meaning according to 
use. “By consent of the governed” de- 
notes a means, a system, and states- 
men can stretch “consent” to cover both 
the abolition of the system and the sub- 
version of the process. But this is not 
the real meaning of democracy. The 
real meaning is in the good experienced 
through the direction taken and the 
goal set. Democracy is menaced today 
for this essential meaning which, as 
the continuation of a process, calls for 
an expansion of cultural and material 
production even though it may entail 
a reorganization of the prevailing sys- 
tem of commodity distribution. 


Civil Liberties Fundamental 
for Survival of Democracy 


Democracy is a process through which 
social cooperation is rewarded and 
predatory rivalry is penalized. It is the 
bolstering of conditions of voluntarism 
and the sapping of conditions of com- 
pulsion. It is the disciplining of the 
mass by the mass through the achieve- 
ments of mass action and the necessity 
of consolidating such achievement. It 
is the fostering of civil liberties, the 
very fundamentals of reasoned move- 
ment through history. Holding them 
as essential to the total process as 
vision is to mapping new country, de- 
mocracy permits them to be restricted 
only when the survival of the process is 
at stake—as vision is restricted by 
goggles in a sandstorm—and orders them 
to be extended as the process is. 


The meaning of democracy cannot be 


. . cee ‘ ‘yee 
rs a7 re ewe AS,» 





considered apart from the problem of 
power. Fascism stalks the earth for new 
markets and raw materials, bullying all 
nations, firing and gutting any govern-' 
ment so scrupulous as to want mass 
support. In capitalist countries still 
without dictators, vast pyramids of 
wealth stand frozen solid, and popular 
parliaments go begging. Monopoly and 
cartelized oligarchy control not only the 
fabrication and flow of goods from-hu- 
man labor, but the preponderant means 
of m@hufacturing thought and feeling 
as well. As men dwell in decaying war- 
rens and search hungrily for work, other 
men, mastered by industry, convert bil- 
lions of hours of toil into armaments to 
blot out trillions of hours of toil. The 
greatest power man knows is that which 
tenders or withholds his food, or speaks 
of death. This is the power democracy 
confronts, 


Bitter Contest Necessary to 
Counter Fascist Leadership 


Just as it has always meant, today 
democracy means a fight. It means 
pushing from the bottom, taking the 
social lag out of the congresses of the 
people, graduating minority into major- 
ity, making lobbies less eloquent than 
mass meetings. It means that special 
interests, to subvert systems of progress, 
put forward barren pursuits and meth- 
ods of stultification for adoption by the 
mass, and it means that the mass, on 
pain of loss of all rights to mold con- 
ditions of living, resists them passion- 
ately. It means that growing mass 
participation in social functions is a bit- 
ter engagement, a contest backed up to 
the abyss of fascism, with every step 
toward safety marking a crucial new 
form of social evolution. It means, in 
this fateful day of world politics, in 
order to counter authoritarian leader- 
ship which drives toward a permanent 
expropriation from the mass of all social 
tools, the elevation of a mass leadership 
armed with vast voluntary centralization 
of power. 

Democracy distinguishes sharply be- 
tween aggressor and victim, violating 
and violated, on the basis of opposition 
to or support of the total process. 
Democracy, militantly and implacably, 
with the immediacy of the need of the 
mass for every decency, halts and steri- 
lizes all barbarism, all regressions, 
throughout the world. Steadily dissolv- 
ing restrictions on movements of 
thoughts and things, Democracy pro- 
motes the internationalization of the 
mass, while still it encourages special- 
ization, cultural and economic, so that 
differences in peoples are expressed in 
their need of sharing and in 
ploiting potentials of 
further sharing. 





ree 
oes 


” 


* $. 


te 


= 


4 


a , ; 


' AFT Analyzes 


Proposed Bills 
for Federal Aid 


(Continued from page 4) 
mined educational need and relative 


taxpaying ability. It is computed by 
the following formula: 
State’s Index of Educational Load 





85 Per cent of State’s Index of Financial 
Ability 

The index of educational load of each 
state is defined as the “percentag=2 that 
the number of inhabitants five to nine- 
teen years of age, inclusive, of that 
state is of the total number of such 
inhabitants of all the States: Provided, 
That in computing such percentage, in 
order to take account of educational 
costs due to sparsity of population, each 
rural inhabitant five to nineteen years 
of age, inclusive, shall be counted as one 
and four-tenths inhabitants.” 

The index of financial ability of each 
state is defined as the “percentage that 
the financial ailit of that State is of 
the total financial ability of all the 
States with respect to the support of 
public education. The Secretary of the 
Treasury shall estimate annually the 
financial ability of the respective States 
to support education and certify such 
estimate to the Commissioner of Public 
Education, as soon as feasible after the 
enactment of this Act.” In making out 
a financial estimation, the Treasury De- 
partment will develop an index of rev- 
enue that can be raised in the respective 
states from a uniform tax plan, utilizing 
the following: 

1. The wealth and total income 
of the respective states, the total 
net incomes of over $5,000 but less 
than $25,000 in the respective states, 
and the total net incomes of $25,000 
and over in the respective states. 

2. The total population, rural 
population, and urban population 
of the respective states. 

3. The total motor-vehicle reg- 
istrations in the respective states. 

4. The total value added by 
manufacture in the _ respective 
states. 

5. The total farm cash income 
in the respective states. 

6. The total gross postal receipts 
in the respective states. 

7. The total retail trade in the 
respective states. 


Educational Load and Financial 
Ability Estimated Annually 
Estimates of. both educational load 
and financial ability will be compiled 
annually. There are disparities of dif- 
ferent types within the states. Where 
most of America’s children are, there 
is little wealth. Where most of the 
wealth is, there are few children. Cali- 
fornia, a wealthy state, has consider- 
ably more adults than children of the 
present standard school census age, five 
to nineteen years’ inclusive; while 
Mississippi, a poor state, has consider- 
ably more children than adults in the 
same classification. The proportionate 
educational burden of the twelve poorer 
states is nearly 60 per cent greater 
than that of the twelve richer states; 
whereas their per capita tax-paying 
ability is only one-half as great. 





Conservation 

“Here we have conservation in 
its broadest aspect—the conservation 
of the American Nation as a function- 
ing society of human beings. It is 
here, in the relationship between the 
people and their representatives, that 
the mischievous hand of a powerful 
and unscrupulous propaganda can 
wreck the processes of representative 
Government. What proportion of the 
keenest brains in America—not the 
best, but the keenest—what propor- 
tion of the keenest brains in America 
are devoted to making Government 
function for the people, and what pro- 
portion to keeping it from functioning 
for the people? Answer this, and you 
answer the question: Where lies the 
danger to America?” 

Harold L. Ickes 











But there are other factors to be 
considered. Some states have unusual 
problems which would enter into the 
amount of their appropriation. For 
instance, California, despite the high 
proportion of its taxable wealth to edu- 
cational load, has a large group of itin- 
erant farmers, whole families which 
follow the crops or travel up and down 
the state (often into adjoining states, 
further complicating the problem) dur- 
ing the fruit-picking season. It is neces- 
sary that their children should have 
adequate schooling, even if teachers 
traveling with them is the only solu- 
tion. Similarly in certain cities and 
sections of the country it is found that 
for about three months of the year 
there is a noticeable influx of families 
with children who leave again at regu- 
lar periods every year. This necessitates 
additional facilities or teachers for 
short periods. These are only a few of 
the problems. At present there is no 
one in a position to accurately estimate 
the exact amount of money any state 
or any one community within that state 
will be apportioned. 


Summary of Bills and Plan for 
Federal Aid to Education 


In summing up the bills and the plan 


of federal aid to education we may say: 


1. It is the recognized necessity 
of the Federal Government, in step- 
ping in and counseling the states on 
their educational liabilities, to take 
into account the diversities in the 
states in regard to child population. 

2. To do this on a basis of ne- 
cessity of government to referee and 
fix eligibility to get money, accord- 
ing to states’ financial ability to 
support education, as well as other 
objective features, so that the Fed- 
eral Government will really stand 
as an equalizer of educational op- 
portunity. 

In the “Statement of Policy” of S. 
1305 it is said: “It is the primary pur- 
pose of this Act to assist in equalizing 
educational opportunities, among and 


within the States, insofar as the grants- - 


in-aid to the States herein authorized 
will permit, without Federal control 
over the educational policies of States 
and localities.” 

The primary criticism of the original 
Harrison-Fletcher Bill was that it 
lacked this equalizing factor. Equaliza- 
tion is achieved in the new bill while the 
states still have a free hand in shaping 
their own educational policies. 








FOR READING 


. CHISM, LESLIE L., The Economic Ability of the States to Finance Public 


Schools. 
Columbia University, 1936. vi. 169p. 


Contributions to Education, No. 669. New York: Teachers College, 


. CLARK, HAROLD F., The Effect of Population upon Ability to Support Educa- 
tion. Indiana University School of Education Bulletin. Vol. 2, No. 1. Blooming- 
ton: Bureau of Cooperative Research, Indiana University, 1925. 29p. 

. MORT, PAUL R., Federal Support for Public Education. New York: Teachers 
College, Columbia University, 1936. xvi. 334p. 

. MORT, PAUL R., “An Objective Basis for the Distribution of Federal Support 
to Public Education,” Teachers College Record, 36: “91-110, November, 1934. 

. MORT, PAUL R. and LAWLER, E. S., The Equalization of Educational Oppor- 
tunity and the Burden of Support for Education. Washington, D. C.: American 
Association of University Women, September, 1933, 29p. 

. NATIONAL TAX ASSOCIATION, Second Report on a Plan of a Model System 
of State and Local Taxation, Columbia, South Carolina: National Tax Associa- 


tion, 1933. 68p. 


7. NEWCOMER, MABEL, An Index of the Taxpaying Ability of State and Lo¢al 
Governments. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1935. 85p. 

8. PHILLIPS, FRANK M. “Educational Rank of the States, 1930,” American School 
Board Journal. 84: 25-29, 37-39, 20-30, 39-40, February, March, April, May, 1932. 


Policies Committee 


Forges New Program 


N.Y.C. Local 537 
Makes M any Gains 


By Abraham Edel, 
Educational Policies Committee 
Local 537 


The new system of administration 
under which the several colleges of the 
City of New York have been operating 
since October 1 is one of the greatest 
experiments in educational democracy 
in American colleges today. 


A major factor in these reforms was 
the active campaigning of the College 
Teachers Union over a period of two 
years, first as a section of Local 5, and 
then as the separate Local 537. 


Main Steps in Campaign 
by College Teachers Union 


1. The development of the democracy 
program.—This involved wide discussion, 
in the Union Committee, in chapter meet- 
ings, and membership meetings, of prin- 
ciples and special issues. Reports were 
issued on special points, such as how to 
treat a probationer or what kinds of 
department committees to set up. These 
were several times revised. * Union mem- 
bers in many devartments began to -as- 
sume more active roles in departmental 
affairs and in a number of cases demo- 
cratic procedures became _ established 
within the autocratic framework. The 
growing Union program was tested and 
revised in the light of such experience. 
The example proved very contagious. By 
the time the Unicn formally adopted its 
program on departmental democracy in 
January, 1938, there had been more than 
a year of wide discussion and considerable 
experimentation. The growth of the 
program was thus integrated with the 
growth of the movement to achieve it. 

2. Cooperation with other organiza- 
tions.—This was attempted even in the 
stage of working out the program. The 
Union called an informal conference of 
college-teacher organizations, such as 
local staff associations and the Ameri- 
can Association of University Professors. 
This group worked out a program cover- 
ing faculty organization, participation in 
the fashioning of the budget, selection of 
administrative officers, and so forth. This 
was the beginning of firm cooperation 
with some of the organizations repre- 
sented. In the campaign which followed 
joint bulletins were frequently issued. 


Three Forms of Campaign 
for By-law Revision 


3. Starting the campaign for by-law 
revision.—_The campaign took three 
forms. One was the intensification within 


departments of the drive for more demo- ‘ 


cratic procedures. Every forward step 
was publicized. Another was wide pub- 
licizing of the evils of the old system. A 
third was appeal to the trustees. The 
emergence of a liberal bloc in the Board 
of Higher Education was a crucial factor. 
This was the result of a realignment of 
forces in the city’s politics, particularly 
the growing influence of labor. A number 
of Mayor LaGuardia’s appointees recog- 
nized the need for a major overhauling, 
and took the lead in the task. Open hear- 
ings were held by a special Board com- 
mittee at various stages in its working 
out of plans for reorganization. 

4. The issue becomes city-wide.—At 
the hearings lines were drawn sharply. 
Pressure was brought to bear to delay or 
emasculate the plan. This ranged from 
personal expression of opinion and for- 
mal petitions, to the cry of: communism 
raised in the public press. The Union 
obtained the support of trade unions and 
progressive groups in the community, 
whose solid voice balanced the clamor on 
the other side. 


5. An educational forum as a step in 
the campaign.—iIn the midst of the cam- 
paign the Union held a forum on “De- 
mocracy and Higher Education.” It 
served to clarify the educational issues 
involved. Its several panel discussions 
showed that teachers would have the 
tasks of working out standards of com- 
petence, of revising the curriculum to 





suit student and community needs, of 
working out a plan for greater student 
participation in college affairs, and so 
forth. The forum showed that the strug- 
gle that was taking place was not a fight 
for power, but a justified demand by 
college teachers for a share in the re- 
sponsibilities of education. 


Steps Necessary to Solve 
Remaining Major Problem 


The by-laws finally adopted were a 
definite victory for democracy in college 
administration although the Union did 
not win every point in its program. Fur- 
ther democratic extension will come as a 
consequence of the functioning of the 
new system. For example when a va- 
cancy occurred for the presidency of 
Brooklyn College, an elected faculty 
committee was set up to cooperate with 
the Board in considering candidates. 


The major problem remaining is that 
of securing the fruits of this reorganiza- 
tion in terms of student, staff, and com- 
munity welfare. The Educational Poll- 
cies Committee has proposed the follow- 
ing specific steps: 


1. Analysis of the functioning of the 
democratic system.—A series of bulletins 
will be published on the techniques af 
organization being employed in depart- 
ments and faculties throughout the four 
colleges. These bulletins will also criti- 
cize the functioning of the system in the 
light of the Union’s program. Changes 
in the by-laws will be recommended as 
they are found desirable in practice. 


2. Extension of the system to the non- 
instructional staff—The Union is seeking 
to have non-teaching departments, such 
as the library, the registrar’s office, the 
student guidance departments, and such 
categories of workers as laboratory as- 
sistants, included in the democratic 
setup. Their omission is one of the 
deficiencies of the present by-laws. 


3. Encouraging wide discussion of ob- 
jectives.—This was begun at a second 
forum held in December, 1938, at which 
Professor Harold Laski of the University 
of London spoke on “The Place of the 
Teacher in the Modern State,” and the 
Honorable Ordway Tead, chairman of 
the Board of Higher Education, spoke 
on “The Place of the Democratic Idea 
in Education.” There were seminars on 
“What Is Scholarship?” “Shall Univer- 
sities in a Democracy Indoctrinate?” 
“What Rule Shall the Colleges Play in 
Community Affairs?” “Vocational Vers- 
us Cultural Values in the Curriculum,” 
and “Who Shall Control Educational 
Policies?” The proceedings of the forum 
will be published shortly. Monthly cur- 
riculum forums are being planned as a 
regular part of the Union’s educational 
work. 


4. Extending the gains.—Great interest 
has been shown in the developments at 
the city colleges by members of the staffs 
at private universities, and a number of 
tendencies toward democracy there have 
been strengthened. In some of them 
committees are already at work investi- 
gating the possibilities of increased de- 
mocratization, or dealing with specific 
problems of procedure that have arisen. 
The Local plans to issue a pamphlet on 
its program shortly as an aid to other 
colleges and other locals. 


Three Points Emphasized as 
Result of Union’s Experience 


Three general lessons stand out from 
our experience. The first is that the 
development of a Union program is not 
the work of a small group, but a demo- 
cratic cooperative activity of all Union 
members, in both action and reflection. 
The second is the necessity of seeing 
clearly the educational consequences of 
any program. The third is the crucial 
importance of making large groups in 
the community conscious of their roles 
and their interests in the functioning of 
higher education, and therefore even in 
so apparently local and technical a prob- 
lem as that of how the faculty shall be 
constituted. 

















Teachers Union 
in Action 











Pension Primer Issued 
The pension committee of Local 
5 (New York City) has revised 
The Pension Primer, a 48-page 
booklet dealing with the problem 
of pensions. The committee, 
headed by Samuel Greenfield, 
chairman, includes the following 
union members: David Ayman, 
Leo Gross, Abraham C. Heller, 
Helen Ney, Laurence Prendergast, 
Herman Ruchlis, Erling Tholfsen, 
Max F. Weiss and Helen Worts- 
man. Copies of the primer may 
be obtained by sending 10 cents 
to The Pension Committee, 114 
East 16th Street, New York City. 


‘eciatekencilh a 
Amlin Edits Pamphlet 

Americanism is the title of a 
sixteen-page pamphlet published 
by Charles Amlin, member of Lo- 
cal 430 (Los Angeles) and so- 
cial-studies teacher at the Roose- 
velt High School in Los Angeles. 
The pamphlet, which is a series 
of quotations from Lincoln, Jef- 
ferson, Jackson, Washington, and 
others, can be obtained by writ- 
ing Union-member Amlin at 1124 
Hutirgton Dr. and enclosing five 
cents. Quantity lots may be had 
at the rate of fifty for one dol- 
lar. 


, > 
Seek Free Textbooks 

Backed by the Central Trades 
Council the Belleville Federation 
of Teachers, Belleville, Ill., is 
sponsoring a drive for free text- 
books in the school system in East 
St. Louis. The board of education 
has decided to submit the ques- 
tion to a public vote in the April 
election. Six teachers have re- 
ceived salary raises of $50.00 
each as a result of a campaign 
by the local union. 


Rural ) wren 


The St. Louis County Teachers 
Federation, Local 508, is consid- 
ering revision of its sick-leave 
plan, according to Harold Rise, 
secretary-treasurer. The union, 
composed solely of rural teachers 
and one of the few of its kind in 
the country, is growing rapidly, 
he reported. A goal of 100 per 
cent enrollment has been set by 
the next school year. 


Members of the Teachers Union 
of Erie, Pa., are supporting a 
state bill which would raise teach- 
ers salaries in certain districts 
and a bill which would make it 
a criminal offense to disseminate 
information causing racial or reli- 
gious hatred. The Union’s annual 


spring banquet was held on March | 


7. Mr. Warren was elected cor- 
responding secretary to replace 
Mary Brown. 
imag ee 

Lawler Makes Study 

Dr. Eugene S. Lawler, member 
of Local 460 (Evanston, IIl.), is 
the co-author with Dr. Paul R. 
Mort of a new study published 
by the Advisory Committee on 
Education. The title of the study 
is “Principles and Methods of Dis- 
tributing Federal Aid for Edu- 
cation” and it may be obtained 
from the government printing of- 
fice for twenty cents. 


Chicago Union 
Joins Medical 
Aid Center 


The Chicago Teachers’ Union 
has signed a written agreement 
with the Civic Medical Center 
which provides complete medical 
care for Union members, teachers, 
and their families for $30.00 a 
year. Single teachers may get 
this service for $18.00 a year. 

The contract also provides for 
some Union control, supervision, 
and administration. The service 
allows an unlimited number of 
office calls and periodic medical 
examinations plus a reduced rate 
on house calls. Union member 
C. C. Crew of Austin High School, 
is the Union administrator of the 
plan. 


Active in Politics 

The Local is playing an active 
role in the current mayoralty 
campaign, because of the impor- 
tance of the school issue. 
| ‘On February 4, more than 3,000 
|members of the local heard the 
'three candidates for mayor and 
'the incumbent, Mayor Edward J. 
| Kelly, in a meeting at the Audi- 
|torium Theater. The purpose of 
|the meeting was to hear directly 
ifrom the candidates on _ their 
policy regarding the schools. 


Credit Union Grows 


The local Credit Union reported 
a phenomenal growth for the year 
with present assets totaling nearly 
$100,000 compared with $21,000 
of a year ago. During December 
the local admitted 86 new mem- 
bers. 

More than 2,000 friends and 
members of the Chicago Teachers’ 
Union attended the annual card 
party at the Sherman Hotel in 
February. Bridge, Chinese check- 
ers, and bunco were enjoyed until 
about 11 o’clock when the center 
of the floor was cleared for danc- 
ing. 

The Union established an im- 
portant precedent when President 
John Fewkes was granted a leave 
of absence by the board of educa- 
tion to work on problems of the 
Chicago Teachers’ Union. 


Reckfeed Seashore 
Receive Back Pay 





| 


Divisional back pay, amounting 
to 3.69 per cent, was distributed 
to Rockford teachers last month, 
following a drive by the Rockford 
| Federation of Teachers of Rock- 
| ford, Ill. 

The local is supporting the 
Baker-Stuttle dual unit bill, which 
is now before the state legisla- 
ture. The bill would provide an 
increase in educational funds. 


—_——- 
Backs Wagner Act 
The Cheyenne, Wyo., Teachers 
Union has gone on record vigor- 
ously opposing the Burke and 
Walsh bills which seek to amend 
the Wagner Act, according to A. 
L. Buck, secretary of the local 
and head of the A. F. of L. Cen- 
tral Labor Union legislative com- 
mittee. 














Cincinnati to Present Two Talks 
In Series; Forms College Section 


Two final lectures in the series | 


on “Better Schools for Democ- 
racy” will be given this month 
under the sponsorship of the Cin- 
cinnati Federation of Teachers, 
Local 479. 

On April 13 Paul Kelly, class- 
room teacher at University School, 
will speak on “Are Teachers Peo- 
ple?” The following week James 
D. Stover, assistant superintend- 
ent of the Cincinnati Public 
Schools, will talk on “An Evalu- 
ation.” 

The series was opened March 1 
by Dr. Goodwin Watson of Teach- 
ers College, Columbia University, 
who spoke on “Psychological 





Foundations of the Democratic 
School.” The lectures are open to 
non-members and the general pub- 
lic, without chargé. 

At its February meeting, Local 
479 voted to call on the board of 
education, urging patronage of 
union book companies only. An- 
other -resolution urged the Central 
Labor Council, school board, and 
city council to indorse the pro- 
gram of federal aid for education. 

The local announced formation 
of a university section at the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati and creation 
of two new committees, a dues 
committee and an educational 
policies committee. 











THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





WHY | 
I 


Local 537, for these reasons: 


Ned H. Dearborn, Dean 
Division of General Education 
New York University 





TAKE BOTH PRIDE AND PLEASURE in being considered 
for membership in the New York College Teachers Union, 


JOINED 


First, because teachers who 
identify themselves with unions 
thereby identify the profession 
with the cause of American 
labor. The importance of labor 
in the structure of our democ- 
racy compels a consideration, of 
labor in the operations of dem- 
ocracy. I construe labor as in- 
cluding professional workers as 
well as wage earners and hence 
believe teachers add to the 
dignity of their work by such 
an affiliation as the Union rep- 
resents. 

Second, because the Union 
movement is just as important 
in colleges and universities as 
in public schools for the needed 
democratization of our educa- 
tional system. This Union has 
given ample evidence of its 
usefulness in helping to define 
American democracy and to 
find new and effective methods 
of democratic practice in our 
schools, 














N. J. Teachers Win Pay 
Increases in 4 Towns 


Four New Jersey communities 
have voted increments in teach- 
ers’ salaries, and favorable action 
is pending in two other towns. 

Newark’s annual school bud- 
get, including the regular in- 
crements for teachers, was 
adopted by the board of educa- 
tion last month. The mayor, in 
his vote of approval, declared 
that annual increments are a 
part of the salary schedule which 
was the basis of teacher employ- 
ment, and payment of these in- 
crements is only an act of justice. 

Passaic’s school board acted fa- 
vorably on: a budget which con- 
tained $44,000, representing a 
four per cent salary restoration 
and $26,000 for teachers’ incre- 
ments. 

Elizabeth’s board of school esti- 
mate voted pay increases total- 
ling $31,698 for the 500 teachers 
in its schools, partly compensat- 
ing for increments omitted in 
the seven-year period from 1930 
to 1937. 

The Verona board of education 
has ratified a resolution provid- 
ing $5,000 for salary raises. 


Midwest Locale 
Hold WPA Meeting 
Plan AFT | Drive 


Unemployed and_ work-relief 
professionals must organize to 
protect and preserve American 
democracy was the keynote of 
an all-day WPA educators’ con- 
ference held at the Chicago Teach- 
ers’ Union recently. 

Representatives from the 23 
counties of northern Illinois were 
present. Speakers included Dr. 
Harry T. Fultz, Illinois WPA 
education director; Mary Herrick, 
A. F. of T. vice president; Wil- 
liam Jones, president of the Union 
of Chicago Teachers of Adult Edu- 
cation; and Mrs. Anna Mae Brady. 

A committee of seven was elect- 
ed to carry out an organization 
campaign in Decatur, Blooming- 
ton, Peoria, DeKalb, and Rock 
Island County. The members of 
the committee are G. Harry An- 
derson, chairman; Norman Brown, 
secretary; Irving F. Friedman, 
treasurer; Edward Kotche, Rock- 
ford; Beatrice Gruner, Moline; 
Grace Potter, DeKalb; and Wil- 
liam Jones, Chicago. 


La Brant to Speak 

Dr. Lou La Brant, of Ohio 
State University and a member 
of the A.F. of T. local there (No. 
438), is scheduled to be a speaker 
at the April meeting of the Seat- 
tle, Wash., Local (No. 200). 











Blue Island (Ill.) Community 
High School closed its doors this 
month, when voters failed to ap- 
prove additional taxes. 








ELYRIA SETS UP 
SPEAKERS UNIT 


The Elyria, Ohio, Teachers’ 
Federation (No. 334) has set up a 
speakers’ bureau under the direc- 
tion of A, T. Smith of Elyria 
High School, who is chairman of 
the Educational Policies Com- 
mittee. 

Lillian MHerstein, director of 


lectures in the Chicago City 
Junior Colleges, was the guest 
speaker at the fifth anniversary 
party of the Elyria Union on 
March 28. 








Cambridge Issues 


Report on Tenure 


Establishment of a tenure sys- 
tem and a democratic procedure 
based upon the principle of 
departmental autonomy is rec- 
ommended in a report on appoint- 
ment and tenure, published re- 
cently by the Cambridge Union 
of University Teachers, Local 431, 
at Harvard University. 


The four-page printed report 
carries proposed rules of tenure 
for all ranks of faculty members, 
and also recommends depart- 
mental processes in appointments 
and promotions. 


Copies of the report, published 
this month, may be obtained from 
Arnold Iserman, secretary, Cam- 
bridge Union of University Teach- 
ers, Phillips Brooks House, Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 


Local 5 Plans 
‘New Award 
in Education 


The individual who has done 
the most for education for de- 
mocracy will be awarded a plaque 
by the Educational Policies Com- 
mittee of Local 5, New York City, 
at its Educational Conference on 
April 29. The winner of the 
plaque will be chosen by J. Ray- 
mond Walsh, Floyd W. Reeves, 
William Hinkley, and Mrs. Ada 
Whitney. 

“A Living Newspaper” will be 
presented to the conference by 
the Child Welfare Committee as 
one of the highlights of the con- 
ference. Other events scheduled 
are a model lesson on teaching 
democratic ideals by the Social 
Studies Committee and a round- 
table on Teaching Curriculum 
Building by the Elementary 
Schools Committee. 


Sponsors Legislative Program 

Erika Mann, author of School 
for Barbarians, and Dr. D. A. 
Wilkerson, of Howard Univer- 
sity, spoke to the New York 
Teachers Union (No. 5) on Feb- 
ruary 5 on the subject, “Racial 
and Religious Intolerance: A 
Menace to Education.” 

The Union is sponsoring eight 
bills in the New York legislature, 
including bills on absence funds, 
a bond issue for school buildings, 
reduction of hours in the voca- 
tional schools, and a _ nursery- 
school bill which has the support 
of the State Department of Edu- 
cation. Dr. Bella Dodd will rep- 
resent Local 5 at a special meet- 
ing which has been called by the 
New York Kindergarten Associa- 
tion to consider state aid for 
kindergartens. 


Indorse Resolution 
The Union, under the leader- 
ship of President Charles Hend- 
ley, is pushing the Bonaschi 
Resolution which will guarantee 
fair and equal treatment to all 
teachers’ organizations and 
stresses the right of teachers to 
organize without discrimination 
and intimidation. Labor organ- 
izations representing more than 
1,700,000 people have endorsed 
this resolution which has been in- 
troduced to the New York City 
Board of Education. 
minnie 


Indianapolis Backs 
Health Legislation 





The Indianapolis Teachers 
Union is concentrating this year 
on a campaign to improve health 
conditions in the city’s class- 
rooms. Among the items in its 
drive is legislation to regulate the 
construction of future classrooms. 


The proposed legislation would 
make illegal the construction of 
buildings in which classroom con- 
ditions could not be regulated to 
produce a relative humidity of at 
least 40 per cent and a light index 
of at least 20 foot candles. 











Charles A. Beard 
Harold Benjamin 
George S. Counts 
Alvin C. Eurich 

Franklin Fearing 


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