) FRANCIS N. MAAFIELE I the AMERICAN .. TEACHER Who Runs Our School Boards? - - - - - HAROLD C. HAND Married Women Teaching - - - - - - ROBENIA ANTHONY Union Growing Pains - - - - - - - WILLIAM S. BERNARD New Materials for the Modern School - JAMES E. MENDENHALL Workers’ Education on the March - - - - - ALICE HANSON Democracy and the N.L.R.B. - - - - ROBERT R. R. BROOKS 4 = a > = I = - a > Z = ms > 2) a SI 7 The Regents’ Inquiry (Part 1) - - - - ALONZO F. MYERS THE NEXT STEP FOR THE PROGRESSIVES Lee Geyer Ellis E. Patterson Representative from California Lieutenant Governor of California Howard G. Costigan William Allen White Commonwealth Federation Editor, the Emporia Gazette rr Inside the Cover THE DIFFERENCE . . . in the recent ho- tel strike in Washington, D. C., President Roosevelt refused to cross a picket line in front of a hotel in which he was to have y tame but former President Hoover went pee -~- a picket line in front of a Los es hotel, after being requested not to oo so by the A. F. of L. Hotel and Restau- rant Employees . . . The New Yorker has coined a new name for the follow- ers of Vice President Garner in the Democratic Party: “Sudeten Democrats.” “IT am past sixty,” says Edna Wal- lace Hopper, “yet, boys, scarcely above college age, often try to flirt with me’ . but the Federal Trade Commission ruled that this was one of the untrue claims made by Edna for her “White Youth Pack.” . . . Lorenzo Murias, hazel-eyed, dark-haired Spanish orphan of 12 years, has been adopted by Mrs. Eleanor Roose- velt under the Foster Parents Plan for Children in Spain ... she is paying $9.00 a month for his care in the children’s colony near Biarritz. * * * In his Jefferson Day speech in Philadel- phia Attorney General Frank Murphy said, “There may have been times in our history when it made little difference to the peo- ple who was president—times when it would have made little difference if there had been no one in the White House. “But our times are not and will not be such times.” + * a The Guild Reporter of February 1 did a tabulation of the number of inches given to Harold Ickes and Frank Gannett in the Gannett newspapers the day after their debate over the “Town Hall of the Air.” In the debate on the air Editor Gannett said, “There has been no suppression of Mr. Ickes.” The following tabulation does not include follow-up stories, editorials, where parts of story appeared in the newspapers, slant given in headlines, or slant used in reporting story. This summary includes only the first-day stories on the Gannett- Ickes debate as reported in the Gannett newspapers : Gannett Ickes Se 26 0 Malone (N.Y.) Telegram 24 0 Ogdensburg (N. Y.) EE 604k 5 eee xahos 0 0 Danville (Ill.) Commer- SEL 5 800406 si0 22 2 Plainfield (N. J.) Courier-News ....... 95 18 Utica a Y.) Daily i i ten lla sda tte 78 19 Utica ey SET SIRE 78 19 Rochester (N. Y.) Democrat & Chronicle 28 17 Rochester Times-Union. 29 14 Albany (N. Y.) Knickerbocker News. 22 13 Ithaca (N. Y.) Journal. 8 8 Hartford (Conn.) Times 27 16 Newburgh (N. Y.) News 10 6 Elmira (N. Y.) Advertiagr .......... 17 12 Elmira Star-Gazette ... 18 11 Saratoga (N. Y.) Saratogian .......... 5 3 EN Lk an ean eae 487 158 Another interesting table was concocted by a friend of ours with the aid of a thesis in Journalism, the Federal Writers Proj- ect, and some of his students. They in- vestigated how four Chicago newspapers treated the first 13 days’ testimony before the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee and the first 11 days’ testimony before the Dies Committee. They also investigated the treatment of these two committees over the same period of time by the New York Times. The following results were obtained: Dies La Follette Chicago News ......... 101 33 Chicago Herald & EE nn a-ere 60 4b 91 6 Chicago Tribune ...... 423 39 Re 65 41 Total for Chicago —- an 0 eee 680 119 New York Times....... 356 324 “Freedom is as freedom does,” said Mr. Ickes to the National Convention of the Lawyers Guild. * + * Massachusetts, Georgia, and Connecticut recently ratified the Bill of Rights... . at the same session the Connecticut legisla- ture turned down the Child Labor Amend- ment for the fourth straight time. .. . The American League for Peace and Democracy has started several radio pro- grams throughout the country called “Amer- ica Answers Coughlin.” . . .The program usually comes on over a local station at the time Father Coughlin signs off. * * * A recent survey by Fortune magazine shows that President Roosevelt and his policies are approved by 63.5 per cent of the voters who have an opinion on the subject. Less than 6 per cent of those polled lacked a definite opinion one way or the other. The survey also showed that of the voters who now approve of Roosevelt, approximately 58 per cent would vote for him in 1940, while about 21 per cent say they would not, and about 21 per cent are doubtful. The first figure is roughly about 37 per cent of the whole electorate and the others are about 13 per eent each, These figures would seem to indicate that the New Deal is not washed up and that a third term for Roosevelt is not beyond possibility. * . * The Dies committee has hired a technical expert, one J. B. Matthews, who was ac- tive in the A. F. of L. Consumers Research strike. . . . The committee has not hired (as we go to press) John L. Spivak, author of the newly-published, Secret Armies... . WGN, owned by the Chicago Daily Tribune, has just signed a contract with the Ameri- ean Federation of Radio Artists. ... Sena- tor Joshua Bailey is leading the fight against labor for the shipowners, accord- ing to the National Maritime Union... . Woodrow Wilson Square in Olmutz, Czecho- slovakia, has been renamed Hermann Goer- ing Platz. . . . George F. Johnson, ehair- man of the anti-union Endicott Johnson Corporation, has been given the Forbes Humanizer of Business medal. o * * Three new documentary films which you might ask your local theater to book are Joris Ivens’ The 400,000,000, which tells the story of Japanese aggression in China as nothing before ever has . . . Crisis, a picture of day-by-day life in Germany and Czechoslovakia ... filmed by Herbert Kline with comments by Vincent Sheean . and The Fight for Peace, probably the most gruesome film ever made. . deals with fascist bombings. . . . Mary Pickford who saw the private showing of The 400,000,000 is reported to have said that this is the kind of film which the people want to see and is working hard to get it a commercial release. ... I Was a Nazi Spy was released on Hitler’s birth- day, April 20... . M.G.M. is publicizing. above all its films, Jt Can’t Happen Here, whieh was dropped a few years ago on Mr. Hays’s advice but has now been given the go signal... . The New York World’s Fair borrowed Grant Wood’s “Daughters of the Revolution” from its owner—Ed- ward G. Robinson. . . . Walter Wanger is releasing his six-year-old The President Vanishes but this time it has a straight anti-fascist slant. * * o From the Associated Press comes the item that the Gannett Company, publisher of nineteen newspapers, reported a net profit for 1938 of $1,165,515, an inerease over 1937 of $42,300. In his recent speech to the New York Newspaper Guild, Secretary Ickes named the following columnists as worthy of the profession: Raymond Clapper, “one of the fairest, most objective and most in- telligent of them all,” Frederic V. Wile, G. Gould Lincoln, Herbert W. Agar, Ernest K. Lindley, Howard V. O’Brien, Drew Pearson, Robert 8. Allen, Joseph Alsop, Robert E. Kintner, and Jay Franklin. Heywood Broun, said Mr. Ickes, “belongs in a category by himself.” G. T. G. THE AMERICAN TEACHER oe bee et ee ee eet = sa | wee ms on a | you are ells ina , a any vert ean bly ary ing aid the ard V as rth- ng. pre, on ven ld’s ers Ed- r is lent ght the her net ase A\MERICAN TEACHER Published by The American Federation of Teachers VOLUME XXill APRIL, 1939 NUMBER 7 IN THIS ISSUE Who Runs Our School Boards?............. Harold C. Hand 6 Married Women Teaching................ Robenia Anthony 9 OOM? POM... cccccccvceccses William 8. Bernard 10 New Materials for the Modern School. .James E. Mendenhall 12 Workers’ Education on 3 Alice Hanson 15 Democracy and the N. L. R. B........... Robert R. R. Brooks 18 The Next Step for the PORNO s « 5 0 v0 vintevns Lee Geyer, William Allen White, Howard G. Costigan, Eliis E. Patterson 22 DEPARTMENTS EE ee ee G.T.G. 2 EOC CPT ET EECT EE Ce eee 3 The President’s Page, Academic Freedom....... Jerome Davis 5 Among the New Books: Preparation of Sehool Personnel, School and Community, The School Health Program, Motion Pictures and Radio 1 SE sen er ee Alonzo F. Myers 24 a een Green Oh DOOR. 06. sc ccacccccecscsccseccecee 27 is cede ee deeedee bank Menanet 29 Books and Pamphlets Received..................020eeeee 31 I ween ees 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. —_—_—» THE AMERICAN TEACHER Grorce T. Guernsey, Editor ENTERED as second class matter January 3, 1939, at the post office at Chicago, Illinois, under the act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of — ee ‘eal in Section 1103, Act of February 28, 1925, authorized ember 3, SUBSCRIPTION: $2.50 for “a ear—Foreign $2.60—Single copies, 35c. Published monthly except June, July and August, at 506 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, Ill. Subscribers are requested to give re notice of changes of address. Remittances should be made in postal or express money orders, draft, stamps, or check. a HE OUTLOOK for public education in the United States is none too bright this month. In Pennsy!- vania, the second largest state in the nation, more than 6,000 teachers in eight counties have not received any pay for periods ranging up to ten months. One-sixth of the 2,400 school districts in the state are operating on emergency funds. One-fourth of the school districts in more than a dozen counties are not paying their bills or interest on their bonds. Thousands of teachers are suf- fering ; some have been forced to go on direct relief. In Georgia, schools in approximately 100 counties will be forced to close early because of lack of funds. In Missouri, a bill to reduce the schools’ share of state revenue from 33 1/3 per cent to 30 per cent was de- feated in the House. A bill to reduce aid to dependent children by $104,000 a month passed in the House but was defeated in the Senate. Toledo teachers are still getting but 88 per cent of their salary checks, and Minneapolis teachers face a possible 12-per-cent salary cut. In Detroit, a recommended cut APRIL, 1939 of approximately $2,500,000 has just been defeated. In Buffalo, two cuts recommended by the mayor have already been defeated and the Union is now fighting a $280,000 cut in the educational budget. These events indicate a precarious future for public education, especially when so many state legislatures seem to think they are confronted with a choice between inadequate public education or inadequate relief. This is not the choice, but a clever campaign is being con- ducted in many states to make it appear so. It might be wise in connection with this problem to turn to the symposium on ‘‘The Next Step for the Progressives.”’ x «re HE PERMANENT COMMITTEE ON EpucaTIoN of the A. F. of L. was host this month to Floyd Reeves, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Education ; Ben Graham, president of the A. A. 8S. A. of the N. E. A. ; Sidney Hall, legislative director of the N. E. A.; and R. H. Woods, president of the American Vocational Association. These men, recognizing the part organized labor has played in American education, met to consider revisions in the Smith-Hughes Act. x* rt fi AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC OPINION reports in its recent survey that only one American in sixteen thinks of himself as belonging to the lower class. Fourteen out of sixteen think of themselves as middle class while one out of sixteen thinks himself upper class. How ‘‘middle’’ the middle class really is may be discov- ered from the fact that the National Resources Commit- tee reports in 1935-36 only one out of every seven wage- earning families received an income of $2,000 or more. During the same period two-thirds of the wage-earning families received less than $1,500 and one-third received less than $1,000. One-third of all families averaged $471 per year. The Social Security Board reports that in 1937 30,000,000 workers averaged $975 per year. There are (}\ (Hebei (i TAN MDDD DDD) many important things for the schools to do today, but none is more important than an honest facing of the facts about the division of incomes in the U. 8. x *k * OR ONE HUNDRED YEARS the University of Missouri has operated as a large employer of craft labor in the town of Columbia, Mo. For the past forty-one years there have been affiliated unions of the A. F. of L. in Columbia. At no time, however, has the University been willing to recognize the right of its employees to organize. Only the electricians working for the Uni- versity have been union men. As one of the largest employers of labor in the com- munity, the University has been a powerful influence in driving down wage standards until University wages today run from one-fourth to two-thirds of the union seale. For the last seven years the central labor body has made a continuous effort to organize men working for the University. Recently, according to the central labor body of Columbia, the University apparently col- laborated with certain private employers to smash the local painters’ union. The central labor body was already involved in the dispute between the University and the Allied Printing Trades Council and because of this action by the University, was forced to call out the electricians’ union and to picket the administration buildings of the University. Already the strike has received support from labor organizations throughout Missouri, especially in Kansas City and St. Louis. The central labor body is urging all the labor organizations in Missouri to influence their legislators to hold up the appropriation for the University in the state legislature until such time as union recognition is granted by the University. During the first day’s picketing some students from the University picketed the pickets. Later, however, members of the American Student Union issued hand- bills urging the University to abandon its antilabor attitude. Other events in higher education indicating a fairer attitude toward organized labor and the part it plays in American life were two conferences sponsored by the University of Minnesota and Stanford University, At Minneapolis, Roger Baldwin spoke on the civil rights of labor, while a panel, ‘‘Can Labor Be United?’’ with representatives from the C. I. O., A. F. of L., and the I. L. G. W. U., was held. At Stanford the Second Annual Industrial Relations Conference invited both Harry Bridges, West-Coast C, I. O. director, and state Senator John F. Shelley, president of the San Francisco A, F. of L. Council, to speak. x * * Fagen THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS greeted the investigation of the T. V. A. with banner headlines, they have not, as a rule, given the same headline space to the report on the T. V. A. which is now finished and was signed recently by six Democrats and one Repub- lican. The investigation cost the United States taxpayers $75,000, but the following facts which it disclosed may be worth that to the American people. Injunction suits filed against the T. V. A. cost a total money loss of $13,545,903. In addition, serious damage to the opera- tions of the organization occurred. Schedules were delayed by injunetion and suspended operations dis- rupted the T. V. A. work. In all, the T. V. A. was attacked in the courts on constitutional grounds in 57 cases, but the constitutionality of the T. V. A. was finally upheld by the courts in January, 1939. The cost of the court cases to the T. V. A. was $518,159. The loss in wholesale power revenues to the T. V. A. was $5.325,644, while the iosses of consumers resulting from delays in obtaining the benefit of low rates has been estimated at $7,702,100. The costs of the suits of the power companies is prob- ably greater than the cost to the T. V. A., and these costs will eventually be borne by the consumers of privately owned power. Findings of the committee indicated that: (1) The administration of the T. V. A. Act, as amended, by the board of directors of the T. V. A. and its subordinates, has, on the whole, been economical and efficient; (2) The total cost of the project charged to power will be recoverable by the United States Treasury, together with reasonable interest within a period of 50 years; (3) Private power companies have attempted to affect the actions of farm organizations and municipalities in the T. V. A. area ‘‘by the expenditure of money, the use of misleading propaganda, the construction of spite lines, and the institution of a multiplicity of vexatious legislation’’; (4) Charges made by former chairman A. E. Morgan are ‘‘not well founded’’; (5) The retail electric rate of the T. V. A. provides a ‘‘legitimate and fair yardstick.’”’ And finally, we wonder whether any large private American corporation could stand up as well under a searching investigation as has the T. V. A. THE AMERICAN TEACHER sity. rhts with the dual irry ator KF the nes, race and rub- vers nay uits ; of era- vere dis- Was D7 ally the ; in 44, 3 in ited “ob- osts tely rhe the tes, (2) be her Irs ; Fect ties the vite ous 1an tail ind ate IER The President's Page ACADEMIC FREEDOM CADEMIC FREEDOM is the life-blood of democracy. Without it democratic institutions are trans- muted into autocracies. Freedom of speech, of press, and of association are an inherent right of the human mind. They are as inalienable a part of the human heritage as life itself. The processes of society must also be free. Victims of race prejudice, mental starvation, and economic exploitation do not have free- dom. Freedom is possible only in soil which is favor- able to happiness, justice and unhampered search for truth. The Fascist-Nazi soil is deadly to freedom. There thought is regimented, truth is suppressed, the press is controlled, and education itself has become a tool of propaganda. In Germany 1,600 professors and teachers have been dismissed. Naturally education is in a state of coma. Even in the United States the attacks on academic freedom are increasing. From 1916 to 1935, 322 cases were brought to the attention of the American Associa- tion of University Professors, and the National Aca- demic Freedom Committee of our own Federation is constantly engaged in defending teachers who have been unjustly dismissed. Yet without academic freedom teaching becomes a mask for regimentation. In the Japanese schools the teachers told me that their only freedom was in unex- pressed thoughts. Is it surprising that students in Japan now tend to have copy-book minds and that the rape of China is sold to the public by the military machine as ‘‘ justice and honor’’? Without academic freedom educational institutions become propaganda machines. As freedom is throttled, education is stifled. In America, particularly where trustees are often influenced by the financial interests and where public school boards may be reactionary, we must be on our guard against the warping effect of special privilege. Any attack from the public or the graduates of an institution on freedom of teaching or freedom of action on the part of the teacher should be resisted as a threat to the very life of America itself. To the extent that any institution does not allow the teacher full freedom to discuss such questions as unem- ployment, trade unions, or capitalism, education is being propagandized. As teachers we must beware of being mere ‘‘theor- ists’’ falling victims to the rationalizations of adminis- trators who charge the fearless teacher with being unscientific when they really mean he is too effective in portraying uncomfortable truth. APRIL, 1939 Without academic freedom the pupil is penalized. Many of the greatest issues confronting mankind have not yet been decided. The student should learn that the pocketbook nerve in our modern society is highly sensitive. Touch a man’s pocketbook and one gets instantaneous response. A corollary of this is that the human animal resists new habit patterns of thought. especially when they interfere with vested interest. There are few pains more severe than the pain of a new idea. Parcel post was fought by most of the wealthy class. It was called ‘‘communism.’’ People speak of a new idea as ‘‘upsetting’’ or ‘‘dangerous.’’ What they really mean is that their habit patterns are disturbed. The noblest ideas are often the most unpopular and ‘*dangerous.’’ Intelligent controversy with the truth as the goal sharpens intellect and makes the mind grow. Free search for truth is just as important as sunlight and air to the organism. Without it we eventually get mental stagnation, dangerous rationalizations and intel- lectual paralysis. Without academic freedom society is penalized. To crush opposing points of view means inevitably to crush the truth in some measure. A characteristic of all governments and all societies is that they tend to think their particular beliefs and patterns of social organiza- tion are final. All history teaches the contrary. No present organization of society can be wholly right. Indeed, the presumption is that it may be in some measure wrong. Therefore, if freedom is denied, the right to create a better society is impaired. If there is no freedom in the schools, there cannot be freedom in society. The teacher must have liberty to know, to utter, to argue freely. To silence the instructor is to rob posterity, the oncoming generation, indeed all of the human race. If the opinion expressed is right, society is denied the freedom of choosing truth from error. If the expressed idea is wrong, society loses again because it is prohibited from that clearer vision of truth and justice which comes from the clash of one contrary opinion against another. In such a process truth is always sharpened and clarified. Sup- pression postpones the free emergence of the truth. Denial of the right to freely discuss controversial issues sets the brakes on social progress. In the end censorship and suppression usually bring about war and social explosion. He who would rob his fellow citizens of a new idea is the greatest enemy to human freedom and liberty. Free discussion promoting intelligence, quick- ening thought, acts as a prophylaxis against nearly every one of the social diseases threatening mankind. Obviously freedom has its dangers, but so does every great heritage of progress. Democracy itself is fraught with dangers. How comfortable autocracy and mon- archy seem to those who benefit from its favors! One of the advantages of freedom is that time can be trusted to cure its evils. We should remember the dis- senting opinion of Justices Holmes and Brandeis who said: ‘‘If in the long run the beliefs expressed in proletarian dictatorship are destined to be accepted by the dominant forces of the community, the only mean- ing of free speech is that they should be given their chance and have their way. . . . Serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the func- tion of speech to free men from the bondage of irra- tional fear.’’ As teachers we must insist that the highest patriotism, the greatest democracy, demands freedom of speech, of press, and of association. Within our own great Federa- tion, locals should have the right to differ on policies, programs, and attitudes. No one local should be able to say, ‘‘Thou shalt not pass such a resolution.’’ We should, of course, take into account the feelings of others, but we must recognize the freedom of the group as well as the individual. We cannot function as a democratic organization if we do not allow members to belong to any race, to hold to any religious faith, and to be members of any political party. All over the United States individuals and groups are being attacked because they have dared to express or write the truth as they saw it. The American Federation of Teachers will fight with all its power to protect this precious heritage of liberty. For without freedom in the lives of teachers, students, and organized groups, no school ean really be said to exist at all. The real traitors to our country are not those who express the truth honestly and courageously as they see it, but rather the individuals masquerading under the guise of patriotism or even a verbiage of scientific jargon who would throttle and prevent the teacher or anyone else in American life from expressing his true beliefs. JEROME Davis. Who Runs Our School Boards? ® HAROLD C. HAND policies in effect in the public, tax-supported schools must represent the total social in- terest if democracy is to be nurtured and not hampered or crippled by the program of educa- tion it makes compulsory for all children and adolescent youth up to the age of sixteen or eighteen. To the degree that our educational policies and consequent classroom practices re- flect only a partial social interest—say that of a privileged minority of the population—the dis- semination of knowledge and the creation of public opinion inevitably become a function of partisanship and prejudice. Instead of an educa- tion of, by, and for the people, which our demo- cratic social theory clearly makes imperative as a necessary condition for its own continuance, we then have an education of and by the people for the furthering of the economic and other in- terests of a privileged minority of the popula- tion. Any such minority group control over educa- tional policies, if long continued, cannot fail to turn the school away from its avowed task of if A DEMOCRACY SUCH as OURS the educational 6 working for the improvement of the general wel- fare. However public-spirited or humanitarian the members of the controlling minority group may sincerely believe themselves to be, they will never typically portray anything other than the truth of that maxim of social psychology which holds that individuals who live differently think differently, aspire differently, fear differently, value differently, and hence conclude differently on the basis of the same facts or evidence. Espe- cially is this true when we are dealing with indi- viduals who are living on widely separated wel- fare levels in a material or economic sense. This fact is seldom recognized and even less fre- quently acknowledged by the members of any given welfare group, be it low or high in the material scale, so universally prone are men to read the socio-economic situation in terms of their own station in life—this by virtue of the fact that whatever one has not experienced he cannot in any real sense know. For example, the gnawing frustration of unemployment, the misery of abject poverty, and the terrifying fear that one’s children may be compelled to suffer THE AMERICAN TEACHER We Ss of roup AS a Ss to and the eked ruth hers ious lives hool who they ider tific r or true vel- ian yup vill the ich ink tly, tly pe- di- 7el- his ny the to of the le, the ar fer these degradations, which are daily being expe- rienced by millions of our people, can only vaguely and very imperfectly be imagined by the individual born into a position of even modest comfort and security in our society. Conse- quently, practically all men, rich or poor—but more especially the well-to-do by virtue of the heightened self-esteem which their way of life usually induces — quite sincerely but nearly always mistakenly believe that ‘‘what is best for our class is best for all others.’’ This easily understood psychological quirk or mechanism explains why it is that any minority group monopoly of educational policy-making inevitably results in an education heavily weighted, to say the least, in favor of the mate- rial and other interests of the economic class whose representatives hold this monopoly. It also explains why all true friends of democracy should keep vigilant watch at the council tables of pub- lic education and attempt to make every public- school board representative in its membership of the total, rather than of a narrowly partial, social interest of the community. These truths were voiced by Counts over a decade ago when he wrote, ‘‘The fundamental character of public education in the United States is, in the last analysis, determined by the board that controls the school. ... The basie service the board renders to society is the formulation of general educational policy. .. . If this major contention regarding the function of the board is granted, it naturally follows that the compo- sition of boards of education is a matter of great social significance. . . . To permit one class or element to legislate for another would seem to be dangerous. Such a practice would open the way to exploitation of the grievous type. More- over, the whole of wis- dom resides in no single class or group.’” When one has sen- sitized himself to the dangers to democ- racy inherent in a ‘*packed’’ school board, regardless of _— 1George S. Counts: The Social Composition of Boards of Edu- cation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1927), pp. 90, 91. APRIL, 1939 I~ whether the packing be accidentally or designedly effected, he cannot fail to be perturbed, provided he is desirous of seeing the democratic way of life maintained and strengthened, by the picture of the school-board situation in the United States which researchers probing into the facts of board mem- bership have made available to us. Let us proceed now to reproduce the major outlines of this not-so- pleasant picture. In so doing, we shall draw upon the findings of Nearing, Counts, Ludeman, and Snell.? The findings uncovered by these four investi- gators are practically identical. Without excep- tion, all point to the same conclusion; namely, that our boards of education are predominantly made up of representatives from the upper and more privileged socio-economic groups in our social structure. Nearing found that over 75 per cent of the board members in the 104 cities which he studied Were either business or professional men. He con- cluded that ‘‘. . . nine-tenths of the school-board members of the large American cities are se- lected from one-sixth of the gainfully employed population.’’ The ranks of labor supplied only 39, or 4 per cent, of the 967 school-board mem- 2Scott Nearing: “Who's Who on Our Boards of Education,” School and Society. Vol. 5, January 20, 1937. A study embracing 104 cities of over 40,000 population. Nine hun- dred and sixty-seven city school-board members were studied. George 8S. Counts: Op. Cit. This investigation included 6,390 members of public boards of edu- cation of several types (district, county, city, state, and college and uni- versity) in all sections of the United States. W. W. Ludeman: “Study of School Boards,’’ American School Board Journal. Vol. 78, February, 1929. A study of 300 school-board members in 64 towns in South Dakota. James L. Snell: High School Board Members in California: Their Occupations and Memberships in Organizations. Unpublished M. A. thesis, Stanford University, 1938. An investigation including 1,025 board members in 205 of the 298 high-school districts in California. { ' ; bers in the communities included in his investi- gation. In the Counts investigation, which included rural and small community as well as large city situations, 55 per cent of the 6,390 school-board members belonged to the proprietary, profes- sional, and managerial classes. If agriculturists (presumably for the most part farm owners) may be regarded as representing property interests, the percentage of members representing this in- terest was 85. Labor filled only 3 per cent of the school-board posts covered in this study. In the South Dakota situation (Ludeman) it was found that slightly over 70 per cent of the school-board memberships were held by repre- sentatives of the business, banking, and profes- sional (less than 15 per cent) classes. This per- centage rises to 95 if farm owners and retired farmers are included. Less than 3 per cent of the 300 board members studied by Ludeman were classified in the labor category. In his very extensive sampling of California high-school boards, Snell reported that 35 per cent of the memberships were filled by indi- viduals drawn from the proprietary, professional, and managerial groups. The inclusion of agri- culturists (nearly all of whom, it is safe to assert, were farm owners) would increase this per- centage to 73. He found that representatives of labor interests held only 6 per cent of the 1,025 school-board posts covered by his study. Thus we note the widespread and heavily one- sided representation, so far as the advancing of labor and other non-property-centered interests are concerned, on our public boards of education. Predominantly shaped at their source as they are by conservative business, property, and allied interests, the educational policies typically opera- tive in our schools are not congenial to the study of progressive proposals for social, economic, and political reform. Considerable insight into the type of educational control which the moder- ately well-to-do majority on our school boards may be expected to exercise is afforded by the following observation concerning the psychology of those who are found on this level of material well-being: ‘‘In no other economic or social group may one find so mucli so-called 100-per- cent Americanism. Vociferous observances of ruling social ideals and conservative attitudes toward all prospects of change are highly char- acteristic of this group.’ Little wonder, then, that Roger Babson could declare that ‘*however *Paul H. Nystrom: Economic Principles of Consumption, pp. 293-4. successful organized labor has been in many ways, it has never succeeded in directing the education of its children. Capital still prepares the schoolbooks and practically controls the school systems of the world.’”* The study of the social bias of school-board members was carried by Snell beyond an inquiry into their occupational status, however. He also investigated the interest- and pressure-group affiliations of the high-school members in Calli- fornia. He found nothing to controvert conelu- sions previously drawn concerning the predom- inant conservatism of the vast majority of those who control the educational policies which shape the publie opinions engendered in our schools. On the contrary, he uncovered certain evidence which leads one to suspect that the voice of reae- tion speaks in a tone considerably above a whis- per at many of our educational council tables.® If it is permissible to classify as conserva- tive or reactionary those groups which take one or more of the positions of demanding or favor- ing oath laws for teachers, of requiring flag salutes, of opposing the teaching of pacifism, of favoring or conducting Red hunts among teach- ers, of favoring a colored or biased teaching of history, of insisting that the curriculum typify ‘*100-per-cent Americanism,’’ of opposing the publie ownership of utilities, or of opposing any discussion of communism, fascism, and socialism in the schools, then it may be said that 70 per cent of the interest- and pressure-group affilia- tions of California high-school board members make it likely that the individuals concerned would bring highly conservative or even reac- tionary attitudes to the council table with them. Less than a total of 2 per cent of the affiliations reported to Snell were with groups or organiza- tions which could realistically be called consist- ently liberal or progressive in their social, eco- nomic, or political outlook, The research findings to which we have alluded make it erystal clear that the total social interest is in no sense typically represented on our pub- lic boards of education. Until this condition is remedied, it is utterly futile to believe that the school curriculum can ever be made to take ae- count of the total social interest, or to hope that we can ever have either democracy in educa- tion or edueation for democracy. The ballot box is open, and can and should be used to alter the present grievously un-representative character 4Quoted by Merle Curti in his The Social Ideas of American Educa tors, p. 2038, ‘This is the writer's interpretation of Mr. Snell's reported findings. THE AMERICAN TEACHER of the bodies which form our educational polli- cies. Nothing could be clearer than that it must he so used if public tax-supported education in America is to play any significantly constructive part in improving the general welfare. There is Married Women @ ROBENIA ANTHONY ust Now the subject of married women work- ing outside the home is confusing people’s thinking and inciting them to injustice. For instance, in Springfield, Mass., as a repercussion from Boston, we have been feeling the strong movement to drive women back to economic de- pendence. In fact, recently in the legislature there have been five bills introduced against their working. In my own efforts to help through the Teachers Union and the High School Women’s Club, I have become thoroughly convinced of the insidious implication of this attempt to under- mine the position of women as citizens. Those in our system who have husbands also teaching have been subjected to the Means Test; I know some who, in order to resist pressure to make them resign, have had to lay bare their financial obligations. It is discouraging when we remember the strug- gle to acquire our present legal status. It took years of thought and action to gain a higher edu- cation, a chance to prepare for a profession, and the freedom to work at it even though we have never reached equal pay or an equal consideration for appointment to the higher positions. Now that we are attacked from another side, we must make plain the source of this prejudice. What- ever the rationalization, ‘‘ positions are scarce,’’ ‘*the young girl has no chance,’’ ‘‘woman’s place is in the home,’’ ‘‘taxpayers object to husband and wife on the city pay-roll,’’ we know that what motivates this intolerance is the desire through economic dependence to control the free expres- sion of woman’s ideas. It is a form of domina- tion hard to resist. Much tyranny takes this guise of protection. As a recent letter to a Springfield paper quaintly expresses it: ‘‘ Wherever married women are allowed to work there is always hard- ships put on the single girls, as first, the mar- APRIL, 1939 here suggested a public-relations task second to none in importance to which every teacher who believes in ‘‘Democracy in Education—Educa- tion for Democracy”’’ should give his continued best efforts. eaching ried woman can sport more clothes, second, she ean be free, or feel free, to say or act towards men differently than single girls can.’’ If it is wrong for a married woman to teach when her husband is working, it is equally wrong for anyone else who does not need the money. Who is to decide the standard of need? I won- der if we have reached the stage where the right to work is regulated by law? Here in America marriage should not relegate us to an inferior position. Our place is where we wish to be; otherwise, marriage is a badge of servitude. What if men were asked to choose between mar- riage and work that they have spent years pre- paring for and would like to do? It is undeniable that forcing women back into the nursery is a fascist principle. Anyone who has read the women’s magazines of Germany is sickened by the emphasis on the development of the ‘‘womanly’’ virtues, which means child-bear- ing for factories and armies—an ideology closely allied with discrimination because of race and religion, with militarism, and with non-unioniza- tion. Besides, this practice is contrary to the tradi- tional credit system. The married teachers have served well. No one complains of their faithful- ness and the quality of their work, but how are they rewarded? By being discarded. Teachers should be chosen for their ability to educate, and those that do that best should be retained regard- less of marital status; consequently, justice re- quires that they be given consideration, and intel- ligence dictates that people do not yield to the mass hysteria caused by unemployment. In fact, the Fourteenth Amendment definitely states the illegality of abridging the privileges of citizens and of denying them equal protection of the law. Now to prevent married women from teaching is abrogating their privilege to work. Again, when this right is taken from only one group (married women), they are denied equal protection of the law. So that legally, as well as socially and morally, such action is unsound. In this connection it is illuminating to see how foreign countries have settled the question. The Swedish Government’s report on women in gain- ful employment cites that in Denmark, Finland, France, Yugoslavia, Norway, and Rumania there are no restrictions on married women in public service. Although our school boards and legis- lators would hesitate to place restrictions on the employment of religious or racial groups, they feel free to hamper women in their efforts to sup- port themselves. This restrictive tendency is extremely danger- ous because it leads to further infringement of individual rights. Unmarried women will receive the next broadside. We should clearly under stand that in times of economic stress individual rights should be jealously guarded. We in Spring- field have been told, ‘‘In a period like this, which we may call an emergency, you teachers should not stand on your rights.’’ However, these rights are the bulwark of our democratic system. If they are lost, we are likely to find democratic ideals replaced by fascism. I[t is not democratic to dis- qualify for the accident of birth or the condition of matrimony. If there is any meaning to the word ‘‘democracy,’’ citizens should be granted their full civil liberty without discrimination be- cause of sex or marital status. Union Growing Pains @ WILLIAM S. BERNARD formed on democracy by the political sur- geons of Europe and the increasingly direct attempts to anesthetize her counterpart in our own United States, perhaps no more significant a voice has been raised in opposition than that of the American Federation of Teachers. Determined to preserve at least our own ancient liberties, this organization has aligned itself with all elements in our society resisting the totalitarian way of life, particularly with labor. Thus it has earned the label of ‘‘radical’’ T THE FACE OF the amputations being per- bestowed upon it by those social zombies who cherish the dead hand of the past. ‘*Radical’’ it may be, if by that term is under- stood the intention to challenge the philosophy of a static culture, and to make the dynamics of modern life square with the objectives of the founding fathers. And certainly the Union has endeavored to implement its ideals, to bolster democracy wherever under fire, to champion the cause of the underprivileged. In most respects it has been successful. But there are still defects to be remedied within the Federation before it can utilize all of its potential strength—flaws not in the structure of the organization itself, but in the characteris- ties and attitudes of some of its members. Such traits, even when exemplified by a small minority, inhibit the effectiveness of the Union in different situations and frequently render it completely innocuous. Most evident of these defects is the tendency THE AMERICAN TEACHER to verbalize. Upon any issue, concerning any topic there are always members given, as was Ajax, to extended mouthings. Round and round the discussion whirls, here neatly turning a phrase, there impounding a dangling participle, elucidating, elaborating, and generally avoiding the heart of the subject. At one meeting of a local recently it took longer to report a conver- sation held with another labor group than was ot IN PASSING WnECTION, at ahs, % \9 As 1 is we of e taken by the actual conversation itself. At another the whole time was occupied in debating whether or not to make public a given resolution, the proponents of publicity claiming no harm would be done by such an action, and the oppo- nents declaring that that was just the trouble. Associated with this symptom is its natural corollary—inertia. A union of non-teaching employees is being formed on a certain campus. Its representatives approach several A. F. of T. members, explain in detail their purposes, origin, and nature, and ask for support. The teachers involved relate fully to their chapter meeting all aspects of the matter. The chapter, not out of suspicion, but in line with traditional routine, votes ‘‘to investigate further.’’ Several weeks later the same data are presented by the proper committee members. The chapter then re- solves that the new union is officially supported. Nothing further is done. Other groups on the campus, notably the American Association of University Professors (admittedly revitalized by the appearance of the A. F. of T.), submit reports to the faculty on certain innovations in academic affairs and work for objectives professed by the A. F. of T. The latter is content that this condition prevail, on the theory that reforms proposed by the Teach- ers’ Union would only provoke opposition; hence ‘let George do it’’ is the order of the day. Just as serious a defect, but perhaps more surprising, is the unfamiliarity on the part of many teachers with the processes of education as they relate to the Union. Obviously the Union APRIL, 1939 cannot flourish without members, and, almost as patently, the general run of teachers has not been conditioned by past life and training to a pro- labor aggressively democratic attitude. Thus the need is clear for the Union to educate non-union teachers to an understanding of current social, political, and economic realities. It is not enough to link by organizational bonds the small group of teachers already liberal upon a conservative eampus. An active and intelligent local will seek to increase its membership by educating the unconvinced, the indifferent, the middle-of-the- road-er, and even the knights of the ivory tower. Yet this clear duty lies undone by some locals. Cooperation with the membership committee is more honored in the breach than in the observ- ance, and there have been pitifully few ‘‘con- versions,’ At the same time, the opportunity to educate the young—outside of the classroom, of course— has been almost wilfully neglected. Wherever a liberal student organization exists would seem to be fertile field for extra-curricular educational processes to be set in motion. Often this chance is ignored, and a serious damage ensues; so it is that the Student Union, needing guidance, help, and interest, has lately suffered from an attack of anemia. Indeed, the few men courageous enough to ‘‘mingle with the students’’ after hours are accused of lack of dignity, immaturity, and other unacademic characteristics. And lastly a fault may be cataloged for which the original responsibility lies not with the teacher, but which may certainly be remedied by him. Behind all protestations of his love for labor, his concern over the plight of the working- man, and his intent to aid labor as labor has aided him, the teacher in too many instances is utterly unfamiliar with labor, its point of view, or its problems. Even the earnest teacher of a course on the subject may never have had real dirt under his fingernails. And the loudest academic sym- pathy-shouter does not necessarily understand the psychology of the objects of his affection. Nothing makes for realism and clarity of ideas in this field better than the act of laboring. The total result of these defects is to damage the local possessing them in two ways. First, it makes it less effective in the dynamies of carry- ing out its job. And second, the consequent emas- culation is not only unattractive to the non-union teacher—it sometimes repels him. It may be argued that such characteristics flow from the HE WORLD OF EDUCATION, like the rest of the world in which we live, is changing, and with increasing speed. Teachers undoubt- edly feel much as did Alice in Through the Look- ing Glass. As you recall, Alice was chasing the Red Queen and finally caught up with her. The Queen then turned and said, ‘‘Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.’’ The point is that today teachers must read while running if they are to keep posted regarding sig- nificant developments in education and in the world outside the school. In the past, teachers had a much easier job. Almost all education was conventional. The in- structor literally ‘‘whipped reading, writing, and ’rithmetic’’ into his pupils. The main emphasis was upon memorization of textbooks, and on the whole these textbooks were dull and didactic af- fairs. In the middle eighteen hundreds a_ boy scribbled this poem on the flyleaf of his school history: If there should be another flood, Then to this book I[’d fly; If all the earth should be submerged, This book would still be dry. What was true of teaching, subject matter, and textbooks was equally true of classroom equip- ment. About 1900 Dr. John Dewey was search- ing for new-type desks fer his laboratory school in the University of Chicago. In his book, School 12 occupational disease of teaching, or it may be said that they are merely the growing pains incidental to any vital organism. Whichever origin is true, it is still truer that no organiza- tion can carry on to the fullest extent of its powers until they are eliminated. In this view, the academic ‘‘radical’’ is not so red as he is painted. Except to the color-blind or to the pro- fessional witch hunters, he often seems to be no more than a pallid pink. New Materials for the Modern School @ JAMES E. MENDENHALL aud Society, Dr. Dewey wrote: ‘‘Some few years ago | was looking about the school supply stores in the city, trying to find desks and chairs which seemed thoroughly suitable ... to the needs of the children. We had a great deal of difficulty in finding what we needed, and finally one dealer, more intelligent than the rest, made this remark: ‘I am afraid we have not what you want. You want something at which the children may work; these are all for listening.’ ”’ Fortunately, there are more and more com- munities in America where the old-fashioned ‘‘listening schools’? are being replaced by new- style ‘‘doing schools.’’ To see what this change means, one needs only to step into the modern classroom of a good progressive school. There are chairs and tables which are not fastened to the floor. Pupils can move their chairs into a circle for reading or for listening to stories. They can form smaller circles for special com- mittee work. They can move this equipment into a corner of the room, thus clearing the floor for activities which require space. This modern classroom may have a work bench with carpentry tools for making all kinds of projects in wood. It may have a small library. It may have an aquarium, an animal pen, boxes with growing plants, easels and paper and crayons and paints -all the materials with which children can learn and create, The modern progressive school makes use of certain materials in the field of drill. It uses THE AMERICAN TEACHER workbooks in reading, arithmetic, and spelling. It employs standardized tests to check upon what pupils have achieved. Yet the school gives, say, only fifteen or twenty minutes a day to a drill in reading, in arithmetic, and in spelling. No more than an hour a day is devoted to the so- ealled skill subjects. The rest of the time is spent in carrying on projects or units of work, that is, units of study which more nearly meet the needs and interests of the learner. In a typical class, the students undertake a variety of projects—a study of the milk supply, of the water supply, of electric power, of the post office, of government—in their own community. Such a study requires many kinds of materials. Some of these materials may be textbooks, say three or four copies of each basic text. Others may be reference books, pamphlets, charts, maga- zines, slides, movie films, and other aids to project work. Whether made up of projects or of liberalized courses of study, the modern curriculum requires the use of a great variety of enrichment mate- rials. These materials must have content which is both interesting and vital. Among such mate- rials are the Scholastic (New York) and the American Observer (Washington, D. C.), both valuable student magazines. Also there are the illustrated study units in Building America (New York) which cover such important topics as: Housing, Food, Clothing, Our Constitution, War or Peace, Labor, Our Farmers, and Civil Liber- Tae APRIL, 1939 i iz ties. Noteworthy are the Headline Books (New York) and the Public Affairs Pamphlets (New York), the former dealing with problems of inter- national scope, the latter treating basic domestic problems. Valuable also are the bulletins pub- lished by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (New York). Divisions of the United States Government (Washington, D. C.) have produced outstanding materials of great value to the teacher. The United States Soil Conservation Service has pub lished Soil—The Nation’s Basic Heritage and many other pamphlets describing America’s cam paign to check erosion, dust storms, and floods. The United States Forest Service includes Here Are Forests in its excellent bookshelf for schools. Outstanding, too, is the collection of photographs which has been assembled by the Historical See- tion, Division of Information, Farm Security Ad- ministration. These photographs show ways of living in the underprivileged rural areas of America—the lives of tenant farmers, share croppers, casual laborers, and Dust Bowl refu- gees. These photographs are available to schools. Consumers Guide (free) is a splendidly illus- trated magazine published by the Consumers Counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Admin- istration. Labor Information Bulletin (free) is published by the United States Department of Labor. These are only a few among many gov- ernment publications of value to schools seeking enrichment materials. In addition, the United WTTCl States Film Service has prepared and is dis- tributing (free) two remarkable films: ‘‘The Plow that Broke the Plains’’ and ‘‘The River.’’ The United States Office of Education has printed its series of radio scripts under the challenging title, Let Freedom Ring. Many commercial companies have published pamphlets which are available free to the schools. The American Telephone and Telegraph Com- pany (New York) has a series of pamphlets de- scribing the history and present status of the telephone. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company has a splendid series of health bulletins and a sound film describing the new serum treat- ment of pneumonia. The United States Steel Corporation has a number of pamphlets pictur- ing the methods of producing this important prod- uct. These are a few among hundreds of com- panies which have recognized the importance of preparing free or inexpensive materials for school children. In using these materials or any other materials, however, the teacher must keep in mind the particular point of view or bias of the agency which produces and distributes these materials. It is to be assumed that any agency wishes to popularize its own point of view and to withhold information that is critical of this point of view. The use of advertising material in the schools raises a serious question. Professor Jessie Coles of the University of Missouri has pointed out that ‘*such advertising material is never unbiased, since attention is always invited to the product of the producer in some way,’’ and that ‘‘in one study of advertising booklets and pamphlets it was found that more than three-fourths the in- formation contained in such materials was with- out question available in unbiased sources,’’ and that ‘‘only 25 per cent of a sample of such mate- rial used by teachers in Missouri was free from false, misleading, and unsubstantiated state- ments.”’ There are a number of commercial companies such as Erpi Pictures (New York) and Eastman Educational Films (Rochester, N. Y.) which are producing valuable sound films for schools in the fields of the social studies and sciences. The Columbia Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company each has its own series of educational programs, a number of which are excellent. The modern progressive school relies for its materials more and more upon the world outside 14 the classroom. Students of a class take journeys into the community to see at first hand the many phases of government activities, the operation of various industries, and other resources which the community provides. By visiting the poorer section of a community, students can observe the mores of life of the one-third of our nation which is ‘‘ill-fed, ill-clothed, and ill-housed.’’ There is a movement to organize extended field trips to dis- tant places. Recently the eleventh grade of the Lincoln School, New York, took a two-weeks’ trip to the Tennessee Valley. On the way, the class visited the homes of impoverished sharecroppers. Also the students saw how the Tennessee Valley Authority was transforming the ways of living of the people in that area. Afterward, these young people felt that they had learned more through this trip than they could have through reading dozens of books and pamphlets alone. This is a development which should be en- couraged in more and more schools of America, recognizing of course that added funds must be supplied to carry out such projects. Summer vacations offer special opportunities to carry on journeys outside the local community. The struggle for a more progressive curric- ulum as well as new materials of instruction touches upon a controversy now taking place in many communities. This is the battle between ‘*the essentialists,’’? who want a return to the old three R’s curriculum, and ‘‘the progressives,”’’ who want a curriculum better adapted to the needs and interests of children and to the de- mands of a changing world. Because the essen- tialists propose a curriculum which is more rigid and more limited, it so happens that their pro- gram is one of restriction in certain school serv- ices. In other words, it is a retrenchment pro- gram which gains support from so-called tax- payers’ associations and citizens’ budget com- missions. The progressives recognize that their enrichment program involves a better use of present funds spent for schools and a reasonable increase in these expenditures for additional materials and services. The modern methods of education require new materials of instruction, new methods of teach- ing, and adequate funds. All these will help to bring a richer life to children and youths now. These also will aid young people to prepare themselves for intelligent and active citizenship later—a preparation which will assist them in using democratic means to build a better world for all our people in the near future. THE AMERICAN TEACHER orkers’ Education on the March @ ALICE HANSON 0 THE EXTENT THAT Workers’ education is a part of the labor movement, it is constantly changing and adapting to fit the changes und needs of trade unionism itself. The change has been particularly rapid and the need par- ticularly great since the organization spurt of 1933. Hundreds of thousands of new union members have joined up and paid up without much background, tradition, loyalty, or under- standing of the trade-union movement. As a result, we are, as J. B. S. Hardman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers pointed out at a recent conference, entering a second period of growth in the history of workers’ education. The first came in the fine flush of labor optimism following the war. Then Brookwood, Common- wealth, and the Bryn Mawr Summer School were all founded within a few vears. At the same time, a labor college movement of organized evening classes was established in many cities. The A. I. of L. set up its Workers’ Education Bureau. Other summer schools and residence schools got their start, and the Affiliated Schools was organized as a coordinating center for work on teaching methods, materials, teacher training, promotion of summer-school-extension activity in winter classes, and the like. Although hundreds of trade unionists and many unorganized workers attended these schools and classes, a few of them financed by their unions, these schools, except the Wisconsin Summer School, were not officially part of the labor movement, nor did their support come from the unions to any large extent. The LL.G.W.U. Edueation Department, which celebrated its twenty-first birthday at a coming- of-age party last September, was one of a few outstanding exceptions to the rule that workers’ education for the most part was outside or on the edge of the labor movement. As the new unions sprang up they faced the problem on the one hand of training thousands of green union officials and shop stewards; and on the other hand of bringing along as rapidly as possible, through mass methods, the hundreds APRIL, 1939 of thousands of interested rank-and-filers. Coincidental with this growth in union mem- bership came one source of help in the W.P.A. workers’ education services. Thanks to the efforts of Hilda Smith, workers’ education was from the beginning one of the accepted educa- tion projects in the W.P.A, This meant that teachers were trained and paid with federal funds and, where their services were not inter- fered with by local political considerations, were available to local union study groups. The main problem remained, however, with the unions, and the interesting feature of the rebirth of workers’ education in this country is what the unions themselves have done. For the most part, the organizer in a new territory had to be his own local educational director and to carry his activities program along with his duties as organ- izer and business agent. Some of the most inter- esting educational projects have arisen as virtues out of this necessity. Normal union activity in legislative, entertain- ment, relief, work load and wage, and publicity committees became infused with an educational purpose and content. This ‘‘functional educa- tion’? means training leadership and educating membership while they carry out their regular union functions. A legislative committee, for instance, must not only do some studying on its own account so as to become acquainted with legislation and the action necessary to be taken on it, but it must then extend the educational function to the union membership by informing them on the same subject and laying before them a plan of action. This kind of an educational program does not take the place of classes in supplying background and fundamentals, but it is a device which reaches more people and which puts the functioning com- mittee on its mettle to extend the educational process to the mass. One serious charge made against workers’ education in the past has been that the classroom method tended to drain off the serious-minded students from activity to study. When study is no longer even in form i A dypector -fEnasse ery an end in itself, but a delegated responsibility of the union to the com- mittee, the chance of in- tegrating the education- al program with the or- ganizational work of the union is much greater. In the interests of activating as many mem- bers as possible, union recreational programs have assumed new importance. A page of union sports and sportsmen is a regular part of many union papers and reflects the growing conscious- ness of trade unions that they are responsible not only for conditions in the shops, but for shaping the leisure lives of their members in coordinated, cooperative group activity. The need for mass education has rejuvenated the labor press and raised the standard of labor journalism. Pictures, charts, readable discus- sions of current problems, cartoons, comic strips, humorous columns, timely editorials, and special departments for women, children, athletes, and sports fans, have livened up labor’s press. Dramatics has come inside the union not just with ‘‘Pins and Needles,’’ but with dozens of original skits and plays like ‘‘The Graveyard Blues’’ in Roanoke, Va., or ‘‘Strike’’ in Wil- mington, Del. Unions have learned to exploit the ‘‘Eye Route,’’ as one pamphlet of the LL.G.W.U. describes in detail. Local and regional union offices have hiked the sale of movie projectors so that pictures like ‘‘People of the Cumber- land,’’ ‘‘ Millions of Us,’’ Department of Labor movies and talkies, Co-operative pictures, and others might reach the new thousands of union members. The LL.G.W.U. has developed film strips, as well, for use in their classes where pictures thus help words in giving an under- standing of union history and industrial develop- ment. But along with all this there remains the Be CAR te my "2? “3 i . ae ete TRAINING oF LEADERS TOONS Bi: St oe iy T's mm serious job of training union lead- ership. Again, the L.L.G.W.U. has gone fur- thest, with a regulation that new union officers must have completed certain courses as set up by the Education Department. Mark Starr, director of the Department, reports the gratifying re- sponse of more students than can be handled in the ‘‘Training for Trade Union Service’’ courses, The Steel Workers’ Organizing Committee has worked out a seven- to nine-weeks’ training course for union officers. In one Pennsylvania community these classes were so effective that foremen who had to deal with ‘‘trained’’ union stewards stormed the class and demanded a share in the course themselves. However, at best, serious limitations are set on any type of workers’ education in evening classes. The demands of pressing union work, home problems, shift work, unemployment, all present distractions which make aecomplish- ment spasmodic. Several unions have therefore adopted the plan of having one- and two-week resident institutes where worker-students get away from all other demands for a short period to concentrate on their own training. In work of this sort the established workers’ schools and the W.P.A. have been very helpful as resources both for teachers and locations for the institutes. Last summer the S8.W.O.C. took over an aban- doned C.C.C. camp on Mt. Davis in Pennsyl- vania and brought two groups of 100 union officers and their wives there for a week each. In such an environment it was possible not only to work hard on union problems, but to have ‘‘union fun’’ as well. Afternoon games, evening plays, movies, sings, hot dog roasts helped bring out skills which might be used later in the local union. This summer a group of unions including the Amalgamated, the S.W.O.C., Flat Glass Workers, Rubber Workers, and others plan to take over such a camp for ten weeks. The Hudson Shore Workers’ School (formerly Bryn Mawr Summer School) has made arrangements to have its facilities at West Park, N. Y., used during the weeks before and after the regular six-weeks’ summer-school session. The Hosiery Workers THE AMERICAN TEACHER and Textile Workers’ Organizing Committee will use Southern Summer School; the T.W.O.C, and the Amalgamated will use Highlander Folk School. Wisconsin last summer had a Truck- drivers’ Institute, among several others, on its Madison campus. But in many areas even shorter educational projects have had to be undertaken. The Summer School for Office Workers in Chieago had a weekend institute last year in which 18 white- collar unions participated. Southern Summer School and Highlander have cooperated with many southern unions in setting up weekend conferences in Durham, Chattanooga, Charlotte, Richmond, Roanoke, and Parkersburg. The Affiliated Schools has had successful conferences with local trade unions not only in the South, but also in Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Boston. Wisconsin cooperates with local central labor bodies throughout the state on such projects. Like the longer institutes, an attempt is made to combine lectures and discussions with dramatics, folk-dancing, community singing, movies, exhibits, and other devices which will be helpful when the delegates return to work on education and recreation in their local unions. Some mention has been made of the eduea- tional programs in white-collar unions and of the Summer School for Office Workers. The outstanding institution is unquestionably the Federal Workers School in Washington estab- lished two years ago by the United Federal Workers for their membership who are govern- ment employees. Here a variety of classes in cultural, economic, labor, and historical fields have met with great interest and success. The United Office and Professional Work- ers Association have found in their educa- 7 Loe 2 4a) hee Ad BSF £$S) SHES: 2 BS. Fg; = rS-B 1s! Kigit4, ee. ae) D¥R phed be ON89 “ Shiatited « The S.S.E.U. in Philadelphia have undertaken studies of professional standards via the com- mittee method of investigation and report. What this means is that educational needs and methods here described are not limited to the unions of factory and farm workers, but that professional and white-collar workers may have an even greater need for a frank educational approach to the problems of trade unionism and of their work relationships. Professional workers are used to studying, reading, discussion. Meth- ods and materials for study do not present the problem in these groups that they do in other unions, yet perhaps for this very reason, the educational program in the teachers’ and other professional unions is often neglected. The fact is that Teachers’ Union members particularly have a special opportunity for con- tribution to the labor movement in the field of workers’ education, if they are only prepared to make it. This preparation would involve for the teachers a close and intimate knowledge of the history of the labor movement, of the prob- lems of trade-union organization and adminis- tration, of many fields in which the trade unions are functioning more and more actively such as housing, cooperatives, administration of labor law in labor boards, workmen’s compen- sation, unemployment compensation, unemploy- ment registration, relief, and W.P.A. personnel and project policies. Knowledge and training in these fields will help in integrating the Teachers’ Union more closely with the rest of the labor movement in their day-to-day relationships too. ’ Three serious problems dog the workers’ education movement in spite of its accomplish- ments. Where to get competent teachers or lead- ers, usable materials, adequate finances? Although the W.P.A. has helped to some extent in training teacher-leadership, still in many isolated industrial communities volunteer leader- ship is the only possibility. In just such com- munities teachers who might conceivably help with the educational programs in local unions are usually out of touch or downright unsympa- thetic with labor; or, assuming a spark of interest, their training and experience does not give them confidence with adult groups. How- ever, where an A. F. of T. local exists whose members are eager to help, as in Parkersburg, W. Va., the other local unions benefit immeasur- ably by help with discussion groups, recreation, field-day plans, handicraft, music, and leadership 17 | : for women’s groups. In towns like Northampton, Mass., Bennington, Vt., and New Haven, Conn., the unions have been able to call on union teachers in nearby colleges for expert help which many a college student might envy. One reason, of course, why teachers are hard io get is that many of them frankly admit they are not prepared to cope with union and work problems. The plain fact of the matter is that, although a number of agencies have worked on materials, pitifully little is available which is at once sound, thorough, and usable by worker students. Of course, the unions themselves are working to fill this gap. The Rubber Workers, for instance, regularly prepare notes for organizers and syllabi for discussion leaders. The Labor Edu- eation Services of the Affiliated Schools pioneered in preparing materials by competent economists, dramatists, historians, etc., for workers’ classes. But in spite of these helps, the teacher in workers’ classes must still rely chiefly on his realistic judgment of a problem from the workers’ viewpoint to guide him in gathering, compiling, and interpreting materials which he can use. And finally there is the problem of finances. With notable exceptions, unions have been unwilling and unable to spend substantial sums on their education programs. This means that organizers have carried double burdens; or that education programs have been turned over in toto to outside agencies like the W.P.A., not always with the most fruitful results for the unions; or that private agencies like the resident schools extension services and the Labor Educa- tion Service of the Affiliated Schools have been asked for help. It should be added that none of these private agencies have had easy going either, and some of the most important, like Brookwood, have gone down in the heavy financial seas. More and more, of course, union treasuries are helping them out, but unions have not yet taken over even a major share of the budgets which are carried thus precariously on the shoulders of private contributors. Wisconsin is the one state which has worked out a system of state aid for workers’ education by establishing a school for workers as part of the State University. No greater service can be done the labor move- ment by the A. F. of T. than to promote a closer alliance between union teachers and union work- ers at the point of the educational program. This means that teachers must become a vital, integral part of the local union movement, for only such teachers are valuable in workers’ classes. Not theory or mere sympathy but real labor experi- ence counts when a teacher faces a group of fellow trade-unionists to help them in discussion and solution of their work problems. The service to be rendered may mean meeting with a legislative committee to help dig up mate- rials; leading a discussion group in labor history ; leading singing at a union meeting; or holding a cooking demonstration for the ladies’ auxiliary. But whatever form it may take, it will bear fruit later in intelligent and loyal union members, and in a closely integrated teachers’ and labor move- ment behind the publie schools. Democracy and the N.L.R.B. @ ROBERT R. R. BROOKS OST OF US WANT to save democracy, Few are agreed as to how it should be done. Some are preoccupied with deporting aliens. Others attend primarily to the threatened ascendency of foreign dictatorships. Still others demand a return to the simple economic and social life of our forefathers. Many are con- cerned over the steady drift toward the cen- tralization of economic and political power in the hands of our Federal Government. The parallel concentration of economic control in the hands of the corporate fraternity entrenched in the banks disturbs not a few. Equal anxiety is felt over the emergence of local fascist plagues of a familiar domestic variety. What shall we attack? What shall we defend? What shall we do? Democracy is the association of people with THE AMERICAN TEACHER each other to solve their own problems. It means majority rule with a minimum of trampling on the rights of minorities. Its economic base is a wide distribution of economic power, income, and leisure. Its cultural climate is tolerance, hu- manism, and regard for the dignity of the indi- vidual. Civil liberties, economic security, and opportunity and education for evervone—these are the conditions of its growth. How can economic power and income be more widely distributed when in fact they are con- stantly becoming more concentrated in the hands of a few? How ean political control be spread among the mass of citizens when a generation of political growth has wrested powers from the states and localities and centered them in the government at Washington? How can this cen- tral Federal Government be protected from the raids of powerful minorities stemming from antisocial economic interests? One thing is clear. We cannot do it by turning back the hands of economic development. Con- centration of economic power and income emerges from the corporate system. Upon the corporate system we are dependent for the specialized, large-scale, interdependent, mass _ production which has provided us with at least potential surplusses of goods, services, and leisure. We cannot break up this economy into an agglomer- ate of self-sufficient, small-scale producing com- munities without losing enormously in the quan- tity, quality, and variety of the goods and services to which we have become accustomed. We should also lose most of our leisure. Greater equality in the distribution of economic power and income would be achieved at the expense of the other conditions necessary to a healthy and growing democracy. If a large-scale, integrated, centrally admin- istered economy is indispensable to the provision of the material conditions of democracy, it must be controlled by the majority in the interests of the society. Dependence upon the intelligence, altruism, and paternalistic impulses of a corpo- rate and banking elite is the antithesis of democ racy. Noblesse oblige is an even weaker reed in modern economic life than it was in an earlier feudalism. If control in the interests of the mass is to be achieved, no agency short of the Federal Government is equal to the task in its widest aspects. Some problems are of local origin and incidence. States and towns can deal with them. But the basic characteristic of contemporary in- dustry is specialization, and its shadow, inter- APRIL, 1939 dependence. Industry knows no state lines. Con- trol of wages, hours, employment, dividends, in- terest rates, profits, prices, perhaps even health, old-age dependence, industrial accidents, and the conditions of work can be achieved by the state only in limited areas. Daily these areas decrease in relative importance. If control is to be exer- cised, federal administration is increasingly es- sential. The growth of federal administrative power is deep-seated in the prior evolution of modern industry. This clock, also, cannot be turned back without wrecking the works. But of what avail is it to substitute a powerful and remote federal bureaucracy for a remote and powerful economic oligarchy? Can we depend upon the intelligence and benevolence of civil servants and elected officials more than upon the wit and altruism of corporate bureaucrats and financial wizards? It is true that we have the electoral machinery, public deliberation, and open scrutiny of administrators in federal politi- cal life, while corporate officials are largely self- perpetuating and inbred, their deliberations are relatively secret, and their administration secure from the public gaze, But only the utterly naive or hypocritical do not recognize the extent to which our political life is confused by meaning- less symbols, perverted by minority interests, remote from the influence of the mass. How can majority rule be asserted in a society which is of necessity politically centralized and economic- ally integrated? What is the source of our political confusion and corruption? It is usually held that the con- flict between private privileges and social con- trols corrupts the controllers and confuses the niass. Lincoln Steffens made his life the proof of this adage. Suppose we agree upon its de facto validity. What then? If the controllers are not to be corrupted and the people confused, there is a problem in the mass organization of social power to be solved. We are at present politically organized in territorial units: towns, counties, states. These units, adequate in an agricultural society, are now nearly meaningless. Each state includes a multitude of conflicting economic inter- These interests, industrial, agricultural, financial, commercial, and professional, march ruthlessly across state lines. No representative can possibly represent them. To be elected, he must hew close to the line of outworn platitude and hollow symbol. The people are confused. Confusion breeds apathy. From confusion to corruption there is a wide political, as well as ests. 19 alliterative highway, to put it one way. People’s most intense interests follow eco- nomic, not territorial lines (barring, perhaps, those of the nation itself). If economic issues are to be simplified so that the people can grasp and deal with them, the people must be organized around their economic interests. This means trade and industrial unions, farmers’ associa- tions and co-operatives, white collar workers’ unions and professionals’ guilds—of these is the vast majority composed. Local problems are the most immediate and often the most intense, Many ean be handled locally, provided that people are organized to consider them with an interest and intensity impossible, for example, in a town meeting. Com- plaints and grievances can be settled or dissolved in the act of expression. But economic problems follow economic organization upward and out- ward. Local groups must be joined through dele- gates, representatives, and financial ties to or ganizations which cover the trade, the industry or the profession, or way of life. Through these ties the individual and the local organization 20 may participate in the control of conditions in which there is an intense interest, but which are susceptible only to centralized administration. Beyond this lie problems which no single eco- nomic organization can handle. Here, at last, we must fall back upon a territorial unit since inter- national anarchy compels our nation to be politi- cally, if not economically, self-sufficient. Within the nation there must be a congress of repre- sentatives of mass economic interests to deal with matters of mutual economic concern. At the present stage of political symbolism this does not mean state socialism, syndicalism, communism, or guild socialism. It probably means no more than the realignment of parties so that one political organization may represent the common concerns of workers, farmers, and professionals. If such a party comes to power, it need not face the dualism between social con- trol at the top and economic privilege at the base. Before such a party should accept political power, its component loeal and economic organ- izations should have drastically widened the control of economic privilege at the base. THE AMERICAN TEACHER Where are we now? On the road to federal administrative ascendency—danger ahead. But we have travelling companions in the form of the rising mass organizations of workers, farmers, and professionals. Moreover, we have a guide. In an act of atonement for its inescapable self- aggrandizement, federal polities gave us the National Labor Relations Act and Board. The task of the Board is to make possible the selec- tion by workers of representatives of their own choosing. This involves minimizing the opposi- tion of powerful economic minorities among employers and establishing the principle of majority rule among workers. The Act does not apply to farmers, teachers, or other profession- als. Federal encouragement to democracy among farmers has assumed other forms. Professionals are neither encouraged to organize nor pro- tected in their right to do so, as far as the Act is concerned, since Congress is still in bondage to its intrastate past. But it is a beginning. The objectives of the Act are primarily economic rather than political. Its preamble speaks of strikes, wage rates, collective bargain- ing, commerce, and depressions, rather than of democracy. But its implications for democracy are inescapable. Collective bargaining is eco- nomic democracy. It is the roots of political democracy. It is of importance to establish the precise relation between the Board and the furtherance of the democratic process. Ninety-five per cent of the Board’s cases are handled informally. Fifty-five per cent are settled by adjustment. Adjustment is the result of conference, conciliation, perhaps compromise. In these conferences a fundamental job of education in the nature of collective human rela- tions in industry is being carried on. It is next to impossible to overemphasize the value of this educational work in a society which must recog- nize the necessity for the interrelated functions of management, work, and the provision of capital, Divergent group interests within the labor movement result in jurisdictional conflicts. These threaten the stability and progress of the movement. When there is no machinery for settlement, the Board steps in on appeal from one of the parties, holds an election among the workers concerned, and the issue is peacefully resolved—by ballots. These are the munitions of democracy. Antiunionism and paternalism are repetitive APRIL, 1939 figures in the pattern of American industry. Kither may result in company unionism. Both are antithetical to economic democracy. When the charge of company unionism can be sup- ported after investigation or hearing, the Board tells the employer to stop paying the orchestra and the masquerade is over. Many workers don’t want to join a particular union—or any union at all. Democratic organ- izations cannot be based upon force or intimida- tion. All group action, democratic or otherwise, involves some pressure, but when the pressure passes beyond moral and mental persuasion the product is of questionable value—if you really mean democracy. Threats and the use of brass knuckles, brick bats, ard even dynamite have been employed as organizational techniques on occasion in the American labor movement. But who wants a labor movement based on their use? They cannot be used in the voting booths pro- vided and watched by agents of the National Labor Relations Board. The corruption of union leaders is a game at which two must play. There is a corruptor who pays the bills, as well as the leader who sells his constituents down the river. The hiring of this form of industrial Judas and the employ- ment of spies, finks, nobles, missionaries, and stool-pigeons are forms of antiunionism which the Board is prepared to outlaw after open hearings following procedure established by law and affirmed by the courts. A contract which is the result of collusion between an employer and a union into which workers have been coerced is a flat denial of a basic principle of democracy and a violation of the Act. The Board has repeatedly denied the validity of such contracts. The precise relation between the N.L.R.B. and democracy could be elaborated at much greater length, but lack of space forbids. It may be flatly asserted, however, and supported by refer- ence to the actual record, that the influence and power of the N.L.R.B. are wholly on the side of democracy within the labor movement. It may also be hazarded that those who are most vocal in their attack upon the Board are those whose formal adherence to the principles of democracy are most at variance with the details of their behavior. Democracy within a powerful movement of workers, farmers, and professionals is the core of democracy within the nation. 21 Se ee ee The Next Step for the Progressives* @ Lee Geyer William Allen White LEE GEYER ips NEXT stEeP for the progressives is the step that will bring them closer together, the step toward unity. In each community and in every field of activity concrete problems and conditions will dictate how that step is to be made. But everywhere—in the trade-union movement, on the peace front, in the states and munici- palities, in the Congress, and among progressives from all political parties—unity is the thing that counts today. The next step for progressives is the step that will carry them forward. And they cannot move forward if they are out of step with each other. It is only if they learn to move forward together that they can avoid being plunged backward by a united offensive of reaction. As I see it, there are three major problems facing all of us who call ourselves progressives. Those problems are: first, to hold the social and economic gains made under the New Deal and to advance along the same lines in the present session of Congress ; second, to hold back the march of fascism which is moving on the world front to another war from which no nation can be certain to escape; and third, to assure that the 1940 elections shall result in a progressive victory and permit us to continue along the course charted by the New Deal. [ believe that all of us can agree that these problems must be solved, that we must find a way to achieve our objectives of economic recovery, peace, and continuing progress. And I believe that we can all see that the only way to achieve them is to build a broader and more solid unity, to teach progressives to march together in closed ranks. The keystone of progessive unity is labor unity. And so all of us have our eyes turned to the unity conferences which President Roosevelt so wisely initiated at this time. But it is not enough for us just to watch the conferences now in progress between the A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. Each of us has something to contribute to the cause of unity. Every trade-union local, every central labor body ean speak for the desire of all workers that the way to ‘**peace with honor’’ in the labor movement be found as quickly as possible. Every worker and every friend of labor can do his bit toward speeding the day when we shall have one united and invincible labor movement in America, standing as the bulwark of democracy and leading the march of progress. While we are working to heal the split in the labor movement we need also to be working for the political unity of progressives of every class and party, and for *This is the second of a series on short statements on the next step for the progressives. 22 Howard G. Costigan Ellis E. Patterson unity of all who struggle against war and fascism. We cannot sit and wait for labor unity, as a pre-condition of the broader unity of all the anti-fascist people. On the contrary, we must hasten the coming of labor peace by drawing together on political issues that are vital to workers, farmers, the middle class, and all the common people of America. So I say again that the next step for progressives is the step toward unity, the hundreds of little steps that bring us together and that each of us can make alone. WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE 2 pear? cannot live if the American school teacher is put on a leash. The truth and nothing but the truth will save the American school system as a weapon of democracy. It is the chief weapon. For if the child drinks of the poison spring he will travel through life a warped and cramped existence. The schoolhouse should be open as an altar of democracy and publie discussion when school is not in session, and when school is in session, the great aim should be to ineuleate truth in the minds and the hearts of the children. HOWARD G. COSTIGAN N THE UNiTED STATEs there can be only one next step for progressives, of whatever political party. That step is not a new party, but establishment of unity to finish building by 1940 the party which Franklin Roose- velt began through the New Deal in 1932. American democracy will go on trial for its very life during the 1940 presidential election. That trial will take place, not in the glare of the general election, but in the comparative obscurity of the Democratic national convention. At that convention, the old Plantation Club of the deep South, with its carpet-bagging allies from the industrial East, will exert strenuous efforts to prevent the nomination of a pro-New Deal liberal. Since four-fifths of the pro-Roosevelt supporters in the South are virtually voteless, the administration can do little to gain votes from the southern delegations. Before 1936, when action by liberals brought an end to the two-thirds nomination rule, the solid opposition of the South would have been fatal to liberal aspirations in a national Democratic convention. The South always controlled more than one-third the votes of the delegates present. Now, however, the convention opposition of the South need not be fatal to the cause of liberalism and anti-fascism. The industrial East, the agricultural Middle-West, and the states west of the Rocky Moun- THE AMERICAN TEACHER UNITE FOR PROGRESS In 194° tains can still send enough - delegates to the national = convention to nominate a New Deal ticket. It must be emphasized, however, that the liberals must thwart, at the con- vention, the reactionary South’s desire to nomi- nate a Tory Democratic presidential candidate like Garner, in order to keep a pro-fascist admin- istration out of the White House. Paradoxical as it seems, New Deal Demoe- racy cannot win without the traditional southern vote, which it can secure if it can capture the nom- ination for its candidate at the convention. Nor can the Democratic Party hope to be victorious if it spurns the New Deal and nominates a reactionary. For the western liberals would desert to a third party, permitting the Republicans to take the White House. A New Deal victory requires that liberals dig into the dirt and grime of precinct work, which used to be solely the province of the ‘‘nasty ward heeler.’’ Unionists, who have learned that the New Deal is their best business agent, must join with the unemployed, old-age-pension seekers, and middle-class liberal and anti-fascist groups in the precincts, for the purpose of electing delegates to ihe Democratic party caucus of their own district and ultimately of their own state, pledged to support the continuance of a liberal platform and of liberal candi- dates. In states where candidates for political office and dele- gates to the national convention are both on the primary ballot, these forces must build a pre-primary political apparatus to assure the election of a common slate of delegates pledged to New Deal candidates and platform at the national convention of the Democratic Party. Arousing the American people to the significance of the 1940 Democratic convention and preparing them for the intelligent use of their votes in defense of democracy -there is the important job of progressives today. Per- haps regional conferences embracing all organized forces interested in the extension of the New Deal—conferences which would set up the machinery for pre-primary ac- tivity in mobilizing the New Deal vote—should be held this summer, and certainly no later than this fall. These conferences, if attended by outstanding progressive spokesmen, could sound the alarm that the only alterna- tive to the New Deal in 1940 is the return of Tory reac- tion, which is determined to disenfranchise the growing underprivileged who threaten Wall Street profits. Progressives have their differences; but they must learn to beat down those differences with an olive branch before reaction beats American civilization to death with a fascist club. If they ean accomplish this before 1940, their resultant common sense will drive them into APRIL, 1939 a democratic front to defend the New Deal at the 1940 Demo- cratic convention. ELLIS E. PATTERSON I‘ CONSIDERING the next step for the progressives, one of the most important factors is the maintenance of freedom of teaching in the public schools. Eduea- tion has taken swift strides forward in our modern times. We must recognize this fact and govern our schools accordingly. Today we have advanced until our children are en- abled to attain a degree of education that excels edu- cational endeavors in years past. School facilities have been measurably extended ; teachers are better trained and more competent; and our desire for education is continually becoming more intense. But there remains one obstacle to further advance- ment in the field of education. It is unfortunately true that we do not accord the freedom to our teachers which is so necessary to encourage clear thought, cour- ageous pioneering, and continued advancement in the science of teaching. It can be taken for granted that teachers should receive adequate salaries; that periods of sick leave be granted when necessary; and that they are enabled to work under healthful, normal conditions so that the dignity of their position can be upheld. It must also be taken for granted that teachers are guaranteed the civil liberties so necessary to our demo- cratic form of government. Teachers should have freedom to organize into groups which they believe are beneficial to them. Company unions are distasteful in the industrial world because they hamper freedom of expression and are of no value for advanced industrial improvements. They are even more damaging in the field of education. Given the opportunity to organize their own groups, teachers will form intelligent, forceful unions which will oper- ate not only for their own benefit, but for the enact- ment of higher standards of education. Too often teachers are dismissed because they have exercised their constitutional rights. Such arbitrar) action violates the spirit of free education that is the foundation of our American schools. We must main- tain those principles of our forefathers which were established to guarantee a firm foundation for all our lemocratic institutions. We must dedicate ourselves to the task of making democracy function as our fore- fathers intended it should. 23 | mong the New Gooks PREPARATION OF SCHOOL PERSONNEL: Report of the Regents’ Inquiry, by CHarzes H. Jupp. New York: McGraw-Hill. 151 pages. $1.50. SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY: Report of the Regents’ Inquiry, by Jutius B. MaLLEr. New York: McGraw- Hill. 360 pages. $3.50. THE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM: Report of the Regents’ Inquiry, by C. E. A. Winstow. New York: McGraw-Hill. 120 pages. $1.50. MOTION PICTURES AND RADIO: Report of the Regents’ Inquiry, by KEuizasern Laine. New York: McGraw-Hill. 165 pages. $1.75. EW EDUCATIONAL SURVEYS of greater magnitude or of greater | peso have ever been undertaken than the one that is here under review. There can be no doubt but that it will exert a profound influence upon educational policies and programs in New York State and in the United States. Both friends and enemies of adequate support for public education will find in the eleven volumes comprising the report abundant ammunition. This survey, like most educational surveys, reflects in large measure the personal educational and social philosophies of the men and women who were entrusted with the major responsibility for its planning and execution. This could searcely be avoided. Unfortu- nately, in certain instances, it also reflects deep-seated prejudices and partisanship that should have no place in such an inquiry. The failure to publish a volume dealing with elementary educa- tion after approximately $138,000 was spent on this most impor- tant aspect of education must stand as a severe indictment of those responsible for the Inquiry until a satisfactory explanation is made. The report is written; publishers are ready to print it without cost to the Regents’ Inquiry Committee. Dr. Brueckner, who made the elementary education study, is a reputable authority in this field. Teachers and the public would like to know what he had to say about elementary education in New York State. Why should they be denied this privilege? I am ready to print in the May issue of the AMERICAN TEACHER any statement that Dr. Gulick may care to make in answer to this question. PREPARATION OF SCHOOL PERSONNEL I have chosen this as the first of the eleven volumes to be reviewed. It was written by Professor Charles H. Judd, University of Chicago. This volume illustrates perfectly the statement in the preceding paragraph relative to prejudice and partisanship. Judd sees little that is good in the teachers colleges and normal schools of New York State. He thinks that they should be closed but regrets to say that he sees no practical way of bringing about their closing. If they cannot be closed he wishes to make them as much like liberal arts colleges as possible. He asks the question at the end of the chapter dealing with the faculties: “How can the faculties of the New York State public teacher-preparing institutions be made more like the faculties of standard institu- tions of post-secondary grade?” He supplies his own answer to the question elsewhere in this chapter when he states in criticism of the higher degrees held by faculty members of the New York State Normal Schools: “Furthermore, the degrees are in strik- ingly large numbers Masters’ degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University. The degrees received from other institutions were in many cases secured through departments or schools of *Professor Alonzo F. Myers’ review is reprinted with permission from the New York Teacher, the official journal of the Teachers’ Union, Local 5, American Federation of Teachers. 24 education.” Judd’s implication clearly is that such degrees are worthless. It is pitiable to observe an old man who upon retire- ment after having spent an entire professional lifetime as professor, department chairman, and director of a school of education suddenly discovers that degrees from such an institu- tion are worthless. It makes one wonder why he did not get out long ago. However, he did his good deed. Before he retired the School of Education of the University of Chicago was wiped out of existence as such and became a department of the graduate school. Presumably Dr. Judd expects to spend the remainder of his life atoning for his sins by striving valiantly to kill off all remaining professional schools for teachers. Perhaps one may understand Professor Judd’s point of view best by considering the statement made by his colleague, Professor Mortimer J. Adler, relative to teachers’ colleges and schools of education. I quote from Adler’s article in the Social Frontier for February, 1939, entitled “Contemporary Education in the Crisis”; “Organized education is one of the largest rackets in this country, and the teachers’ colleges, especially such influential ones as those at Columbia, Chicago, and California, are the gangs which control what goes on, in ways that do not always meet the eye and would not stand inspection. To call education a racket is, of course, to speak metaphorically, but the comparison has point. Reforming education will have to use racket-busting techniques or it will not succeed.” Professor Judd does not say that he is in complete agreement with Adler, but the clear implication to be drawn from this report is that he is. Judd is opposed to observation and practice-teaching and to the policy of close coordination of theory and practice. In this he is in opposition to almost every recognized authority on teacher education in the United States. He complains that “it is the official policy of the State Education Department to require that the student’s education in methods of teaching shall be largely the responsibility of the eritie teachers.” Most sensible persons will agree that this practice is infinitely preferable to the customary practice in Judd’s beloved liberal arts colleges and in many teachers colleges of having methods taught by faculty members who have not seen the inside of a public-school classroom for years and who would not have the remotest notion of how to apply the methods they teach. Judd states: “The theory on which the New York State Education Department is oper- ating . . . is that constantly repeated direct contacts with practical classroom situations, with pupils and their learning processes, and with the personal traits and forms of behavior of pupils are so essential to the preparation of teachers that observation in classrooms and apprentice teaching should re- ceive major emphasis in 4a teacher - preparing curriculum. “The great emphasis on direct contact with pupils which is insisted upon by the State Education Department must be thought of as open to pointed criticism on the ground that fruitful observation of human behavior or of classroom procedures requires intellectual maturity and a background of scientific THE AMERICAN TEACHER training lacking in the students whom the members of the Inquiry Staff found in many of the teacher-preparing institutions which they visited.” Where is the evidence? The members of the Inquiry Staff made brief visits to the normal schools, during which they could not possibly form reliable judgments of the intellectual maturity of the students. About what this observation amounts to is that as a man grows older college students look younger. Actually, the students observed are the same age as other college students. I challenge Professor Judd to cite a single study that ever has been made of the judgments of teachers relative to the value of their professional training that did not show that they regarded practice-teaching or observation and practice-teaching as the most valuable part of their professional training. The real difficulty, as Professor Judd admits, is that the liberal arts colleges have difficulty in meeting the requirements in observation and practice-teaching established by the New York State Eduea- tion Department. Actually, these requirements are modest—one hundred and twenty clock hours. An institution that cannot meet this requirement ought not to be engaged in the preparation of teachers, just as a medical college that could not provide clinical and laboratory facilities would not be permitted to engage in training physicians. It would be unfair to the Judd report to leave the impression that it contains no good and constructive proposals for the improvement of teacher education. One of the best of these is the proposal that the Regents organize a state council on the education of school personnel. Such a council, if properly consti- tuted, should serve a useful purpose. Judd proposes that this council should serve “the explicit purpose of modifying the present policy of the Teacher Education and Certification Division of the State Education Department” which now operates in far too arbitrary a manner both with reference to the publicly supported and the privately supported teacher-preparing institutions of the state. The council, rather than Dr. Cooper, would then become the policy-proposing body relative to teacher preparation and certification. Judd proposes that the proposed Council on Personnel consider plans for improving the training-school administrators and super- visors. He suggests that “it may prove to be desirable for the State to adopt as centers for training supervisors certain non- publicly supported institutions.” Perhaps Dr. Judd is unaware of the fact that without such adoption New York already has the two largest centers in the United States for the training of administrators and supervisors. The proposal that dormitories be provided in the state teacher- preparing institutions is excellent, although not new. Dr. Lynn E. Brown of the Cortland State Normal School faculty covered this subject thoroughly with reference to these institutions in a doctor’s thesis at New York University about five years ago. No one will quarrel with Judd’s recommendation that greater attention be given to the general education of teachers. This would have been accomplished by the normal schools without benefit of the Judd report with the extension of the curricula to four years. The proposal that the state teacher-preparing institutions be made centers for supervision of schools in their respective service areas merits serious consideration. It should be tried out experi- mentally in at least one of these institutions in order to evaluate it properly. My conclusion is that the Judd report has been harmful to the cause of the professional education of teachers in New York State. It is definitely biased against professional schools for teachers, and in favor of the liberal arts colleges. It fits in with a well- organized campaign to wipe out of existenee those institutions, public and private, the teachers colleges and the schools of education in universities, which have done most to advance the professional education and the professional status of teachers in this state and in the nation. APRIL, 1939 SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY This study by Julius B. Maller provides an interesting contrast with the one just reviewed. One may be dismayed at some of the findings, but at any rate he realizes that they are based on factual data and not on the bias and prejudice of the investigator. This reviewer believes that any other competent investigator going over the same ground cov- | | ered by Dr. Maller, and con- sidering the same data, q would have reached substan- tially the same conclusions A he reached. It may be said, oF ; also, that Dr. Maller’s selec- U tion of communities and ‘ A \ sampling of data were ade- quate. 2 This study is of the great- est possible importance to < the determination of educa- = —_ . = tional policies and the re- — direction of the educational program of the state. It deals with trends and characteris- ties of population, with trends in school enrollment, with such social factors as crime and delinquency, with economic resources and their relation to educational support and program, with com- munity backgrounds and their relation to various educational factors, and with detailed and exceedingly interesting studies of neighborhoods of New York City. New York State and City face exceptionally difficult and complicated problems as a result of changing population trends. The population increased from 340,120 in 1790 to 12,586,066 in 1930. During the decade from 1920 to 1930 the population gained numerically more than in any previous decade. During this same decade the farm population of the state declined 10 per cent. In this same decade the suburban communities showed the largest percentage gain in population, 38 per cent. It is estimated that the net population gain for the state in the decade from 1930 to 1940 will be about 392,000. For New York City the estimated gain for the present decade is 194,000, or one-seventh of the gain during 1920 to 1930. It is estimated that in 1940 the population of the state will be about 12,980,000, and that this will be about the all-time peak. In 1960 the population probably will be less than it was in 1930. These population trends are tremendously significant to the entire social, economic, and political life of the state. Let us consider the situation as it affects education. The total number of pupils attending school] in the state increased each year until 1935. The total number attending school in 1936 was lower than that in 1935 by 88,000. The elementary-school enrollment has been declining since 1931. Enrollments in first grade began to decline in 1928. Clearly this is not solely a depression problem. Secondary schools have shown a continuous increase. However, the enrollment in the first year of high school began to decline in 1935-36. It is likely that in the very near future, the enroll- ment in secondary schools will reach its peak and follow a pattern similar to that of the elementary schools. Dr. Maller concludes this section of his report with the timely advice: “The best educational efforts which in the past were directed toward the expansion of the school plant should now be directed toward reducing class size (particularly in New York City), giving greater attention to individual differences, and emphasizing character education and personality adjustment. The future direction of educational planning in New York State should be vertical rather than horizontal.” In 1930 the population of New York City was about evenly divided into three groups: foreign born, native born of foreign parentage, and native born of native or mixed parentage. The dominant foreign groups include those born in Italy (15.5 per cent), Russia (13.6 per cent), Germany (8.7 per cent), and Ireland 25 (7.7 per cent). These figures have considerable significance with reference to illiteracy, as illiteracy was very high among those of foreign birth and extremely low among the native white popu- lation. Liliteracy figures for various population groups: foreign birth, 10.8 per cent; Negroes, 2.5 per cent; native white, 0.2 per cent. A comparison of the juvenile delinquency rates for New York City and for the rest of the state is interesting. It shows that the estimated delinquency rates per 1,000 children in New York City were 6.0, and 6.4 for the rest of the state. New York State, which includes only one and one-half per cent of the area and 10 per cent of the population of the United States, receives more than one-fourth of the volume of the national income on which income tax returns are filed. It should not be surprising then that New York State ranks highest in the ability to support an educational program. It is also highest in the total expendi ture per pupil in public schools. Dr. Maller adds: “However, the proportion ef total income or of capital wealth devoted to educa tion is smaller in this State than in several other states.” This reviewer believes that to be an excellent example of understate ment. Dr. Maller’s excellent chapter dealing with neighborhoods of New York City cannot be adequately reviewed in limited space. Every New York City teacher should read it. The following summarizing statement gives some idea of its importance: “Delinquency is largely a neighborhood problem, the cases coming primarily from underprivileged areas. Two districts, Harlem and Red Hook, contributed about one-fifth of all delinquency cases in recent years. A comprehensive program of crime prevention must include improvement of housing and health conditions, provision for recreation, reduction in class size, special attention to indi- vidual problem cases, and a careful adaptation of methods and eurriculum to the needs and interests prevailing in the respective neighborhoods of the city. “Greater cooperation between the school and the community agencies, both public and private, is needed, and would be facilitated if the school boundaries were revised to correspond to those of neighborhoods. Only then will it be possible to articulate the program of the school with the programs of other local agencies, and to make the school a truly cultural center of each neighborhood.” THE SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM This volume by C.-E. A. Winslow is a colorless and, in the opinion of the reviewer, a rather superficial study of the health program in New York State. The report concerns itself with sanitation in the schools, mental hygiene, health instruc- tion, physical education and recreation, and health services. Among the principal recom mendations are the follow- ing: ehange the present law requiring foreed ventilation: instead of requiring an annual health certificate of pupils, as at present, a certificate should be required upon entrance and twice thereafter during the school life of the pupil; legal pro vision or formal procedure by which any superintendent or prin- cipal may refer to the State Edueation Department the case of a teacher or administrator whose mental-hygiene status is suspected of being harmful in its effects upon teachers or pupils. In order that the AMERICAN TEACHER may serve as & medium for the discussion of the educational problems of today, the contributors are not necessarily expressing the policies of the American Federation of Teachers. 26 In conducting the study, field agents visited selected schools and reported on what they saw. Some were good; some were bad: and that was that. MOTION PICTURES AND RADIO “Motion Pictures and Radio” by Elizabeth Laine is a good treatise on the history and present practices in the use of motion pictures and radio as they re- late to education. However, the report is not illuminating as to what is being done in the State of New York in the Nag utilization of these modern techniques of education. In- stead of being an inquiry into the character and cost of these techniques as they apply to education in New York State, ae the report is a generalized dis- cussion and not much more than that. It is just as ap- plicable to any state in the Union as it is to New York. Most of the examples that are used to indicate the best present practices are drawn from other states rather than from New York. Prae- tically the only references to conditions in New York State are those that relate to the work being done in the cities of New York, Rochester, Buffalo, Schenectady, and Binghampton. The study itself is divided into two parts, the first half being devoted exclusively to motion pictures and the second half to radio. The report gives a very good and reasonably complete list of the resources that are available for both motion pictures and radio. Both treatments follow the same general lines ending with a suggested state program for the utilization of both motion pic tures and radio in the State of New York. The only major statistical compilation is that which occurs on page 46 wherein facts and figures are given on the number of films and projectors owned, borrowed, or rented with the price of rental and the number of showings in the City of New York. This is in itself meager and fragmentary and does not appear to give any illuminating information on either the use or cost of motion pictures in the City of New York. In reading the report one is struck with this sentence appearing on page 31: “The Bureau of Radio and Visual Aids of the New York State Educa tion Department does not as yet include motion-picture films in its library as part of its lending service to schools.” The recommendation in the report for a state educational program in both motion pictures and radio is perhaps the out- standing contribution of this part of the Inquiry. This is in itself fine enough, but it would be a much better contribution if some survey had been made to determine what is now being done in all the schools of the state. If there had been a random sampling of different types and sizes of school districts which could have been made at reasonable expense, showing what is being done, a state program, which would be feasible and desirable, could be set up. For example, the report does not indicate what schools or how many are using motion pictures, whether projectors that they have are 16 mm. or 35 mm., how frequently these pietures are used in the classroom, what is the nature of the subject matter, and what are the results that have been obtained in the use of this technique as a teaching device. The same might be said with respect to the radio. There is no way of knowing how many schools in the State of New York have receiving sets, what kind of programs are listened to, and whether or not school time is utilized for directed listening to radio broad- casts that come over the air. On the whole, the entire report leaves unanswered a very pertinent question: “What is being done with motion pictures and radio in the schools of New York State and what does it cost!” ALonzo F. MYERS and members of his New York University Seminar THE AMERICAN TEACHER The Teach ers Unio OUR NEW LOCALS HAVE BEEN CHARTERED by the American Federation of Teac*ers since the last issue of the AMERICAN TEACHER was published. Long Island Federation of Teachers, Nassau Co., N. Y., No. 629. Progressive Teachers’ Union, Orange Co., Va., No. 630. Southern [llinois State Normal Uni- versity Local, Carbondale, Ill., No. 631. Tuscarawas Federation of Teachers, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, No. 632. National Chairman Wanda Taeschner, Educational Policies Committee, reports a regional meeting of the chairmen of the educational policies committees of the Indiana-Illinois locals, Another regional meeting is being planned in the New York area under the direction of Abraham Edel. A midwest meeting of all college locals is being held in Chicago on April 29. More than a dozen locals are expected to attend, according to National Vice Presi- dent George E. Axtelle. Dr. John Eber- hart, Local 460, is chairman of the arrangements committee of the college conference. \{ resumé of legislation throughout the country which A, F. of T. locals have been working on has been prepared by Mrs. Mary Foley Grossman, national legislative representative, and mailed to all loeals. Sara T. Walsh, chairman of the National Tenure Committee, received a letter from Dr. Donald DuShane, chairman of the N. E. A. Committee on Tenure, in which he said: “I believe the present Pennsy]- vania Tenure Law should not be amended at this time. It is a progressive law which contains several new features in tenure legislation, which I hope will be of great value in the tenure field. I am referring, specifically, to the elimination of the pro- bationary period and of the provision for direct appeal to the courts. If after a num- ber of years’ trial weaknesses in the law develop, it can then be amended by its friends. It has been my observation that whenever a tenure law is passed in a state, it is subjected to vigorous attack by its enemies for a period of from four to six years thereafter. Any attempt to amend the law during this period is very likely to result in injurious changes in the law.” * CLEVELAND, OHIO (No. 279)—The Citizens’ School Committee, in a cam- paign directed by Roy T. Deal, president of Local 279, has been victorious in securing the passage of the school bonds issue for over four and a half million dollars by a substantial majority at a special election. Local 279, according to the Cleveland Teacher, has played a predominant part in this Committee, APRIL, 1939 which was successful last fall in secur- ing passage of a 4-mill operating levy. The new program, already under way, is counteracting somewhat a _ ten-year lapse in construction and major repairs in the public schools, and the recent significant victory has raised hopes for the resumption of an annual 5/10 mill levy for building purposes, which has been defeated twice by the voters. * CHICAGO, ILL, (No. 259)—Union Mem- ber Paul Douglas was elected this month to the Chicago City Council by an over- whelming vote. He has been made vice- chairman of the committee on labor and assigned to the committee on education, fire, and civil service and to the commit- tee on recreation and aviation. * MISSOULA, MONT. (No. 497)—Michael J. Mansfield, treasurer of the University Teachers Union, may be a candidate for Congress on the Democratic ticket in 1940, according to the Montana Labor News which recently devoted two-thirds of a column to him. The story stressed Mansfield’s labor background which in- cluded his work in the Butte Mines. He is a member of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars and since 1933 has been at the State University where he teaches history and political science. * ATLANTA, GA. (No. 89)—Delegates to the Representative Assembly of the Georgia Educational Association which met in Atlanta March 25 were entertained by A. F. of T. Locals 89 and 183 with a motion picture at the Fox Theater. Schools in approximately 100 Georgia counties will be compelled to close before the semester ends because of lack of funds. Loeal 89 will elect officers this month. * KENOSHA, WIS. (No. 557)—The Keno- sha Birthday Party was celebrated by speeches from Ed Rice, labor representative on the school board, Paul Porter, editor of Kenosha Labor, Mercedes Nelson, national vice president for Minnesota and Wisconsin, Irvin Kuenzli, national secretary-treasurer of the A. F. of T., and Leroy Wolfe, presi- dent of Loeal 557. J. R. Redstrom, Kenosha principal, was admitted into the Union. * CHICAGO, ILL. (No. 1)—The Chicago Teachers Union has been recognized as the bargaining agency for Chicago school teach- ers by Mayor Kelly and James B. McCahey, president of the Board of Edueation. This n in Action recognition has promoted a great influx of membership into the Union. The Union is affiliated with the Citizens’ Committee for Adequate Medical Care. Maurice Crew, a member of the Union’s House of Representatives, is chairman of the city-wide Committee for Medical Care. At present the Union is actively promot ing 8.B. 177 which would provide tenure for all Illinois teachers; 8.B. 325 which would increase the pegged levy for Chicago and give the teachers the restoration of 7% per cent of their salary cut; H.B. 599 which would give $600,000 more to the Chicago education fund; and H.B. 270, the dual unit bill, which would do for the other cities outside of Chicago what the pegged levy does for Chicago, namely, make it pos- sible for them to raise the tax levy for their schools. Recently it was the Chieago Teach- ers Union whose influence helped to bring about the defeat in committee of 8.B, 536 which would have prohibited gainful em- ployment for married women whose hus- bands earn more than $1500 a year. ” SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. (No, 61)— Hearings are being held before the Board of Education for restoration of increments suspended during the earlier years of the depression. In the essay contest sponsored jointly by Loeal 61 and the San Francisco Labor Council, the four best essays were written by Elizabeth Baget and Arden Huston of Lowell High School and Albert Ander son and Robert Henderson of Mission High School. Prizes will be awarded to these students and their essays will be submitted to the National A. F. of T. contest which is being judged by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. * MASSACHUSETTS STATE FEDERA- TION OF TEACHERS—The Third Annual Conference of the Massachusetts A. F. of T. locals was held at Emerson Hall, Harvard University, on April 15. Speakers at the Conference included Professor Kurt Lewin, Mrs. Dorothy W. Douglas, Anna Mahony, Professor Rupert Emerson, John D. Con- nors, Professor John G. Pilley, Professor Gordon W. Allport, Robenia Anthony, and Dean Ned H. Dearborn, _ PHILADELPHIA, PA. (No, 344)—Aet ing President Eleanor Parrish has been re- stored to her W. P. A. teaching post as the result of an active campaign by Pennsyl- vania teachers’ unions and the local labor movement. * EVANSTON, ILL. (No. 460)—Dr. Harry F. Ward was the guest of honor at a recent dinner given by the Educational Policies Committee of the North Shore Local. Dean Ralph Tyler (Local 259) will be the main 27 speaker at the Third Anniversary Dinner which will be held on May 13. * PATERSON, N. J. (482)—The Pater- son Teacher for April reports the Union is fighting the pension diversion plan of the state. The Union suggests that the percentage of contributions by the teach- ers and the state be reduced after a care- ful investigation instead of diverting $10,000,000 of the state’s contribution every four years. o NEW YORK, N. Y. (No. 537)—A tenure bill drafted by the Legislative Conference of Municipal colleges has been introduced into the state senate by Senator A. Spencer Feld. The Conference voted down the Board of Higher Edueation’s suggestion that an “enabling bill” be introduced in- stead of a detailed tenure law. The Union is protesting a cut of $265,779 in the proposed budget for Higher Educa- tion. It is also sponsoring a forum on the Re- gents’ Inquiry to be opened by a state- ment by Professor Alonzo F. Meyers of New York University. The forum will deal with the implications for higher education in the Regents’ Inquiry. - ICHITA, KAN, (No. 586)—Bertha Neff, W.P.A. journalism teacher, has been elected president of Local 586. Herbert L. Cook, former president of the local, is editing the bulletin of the Union. * MINNESOTA STATE FEDERATION OF TEACHERS—The Fourth Annual Conven- tion of the Minnesota A. F. of T. was held March 31 in St. Paul. Speakers at the con- vention were Harold Peterson, state repre- sentative, and Robert Olson and William Brennen, for organized labor. Reports were given by E. M. Paulu, St. Cloud Teachers College local; Harry Schmid, Minneapolis; Walter Loben, University of Minnesota; and Mary MeGough, St. Paul. The resolu- tions of the convention included a strong appeal for labor unity and urged no amend- ments to the Wagner Labor Act. Mrs. Luella B. Cook was reelected president of the State Federation. * TRENTON, N. J. (No. 437)—Lois St. John Smith, Legislative representative of the N. J. State Federation of Teachers spoke at a conference on state legislation which was supported by all branches of organized labor. A. F. Whitney, president of the Railway Trainmen, gave the main address. * NEW YORK, N. Y. (No. 5)—The Elemen- tary School Curriculum Committee has prepared a three-page bibliography on “Democracy and Tolerance.” The bibliog- raphy, which is being added to by the Committee, is one of the best pieces of work done by any local in the A. F. of T. this year. Write to the Committee at 114 East 16th Street, New York, for a copy. The Union is organizing a Teachers’ Union Auxiliary. “In order to preserve democracy 28 and advance the welfare of the children and the teachers we must organize the friends of education.” Dr. Bella Dodd spoke for the Union at the hearings on the $8,000,000 cut in the minimum budget submitted by the Board of Education. She pointed out that the state aid fund might be cut $31,- 000,000, one-third of which would come out of the New York City educational budget. * COLUMBUS, OHIO (No. 438)—The State- ments and Policies Committee of the Ohio State University local has issued a fine two- page report on “The Democratic Principle in a State University.” The report was done by Edgar Dale, chairman, H. H. Giles and Margaret Willis. The local unani- mously approved the recent labor unity reso- lution of the Central Labor Council, fought the state act discriminating against mar- ried women, and urged defense of the Wagner Act. * CINCINNATI, OHIO (No. 479)—The Union has decided to take a three months’ trial subscription to the local labor paper and to raise the money by a card party. A special column on the Teachers’ Union will appear in the labor paper. Speakers for the local in the last month were Miss Margaret Daily on “Worthwhile Activities,” Mrs. Lowell Hobart, Jr., on “Parents in a Chang- ing World,” Miss Mildred Meador on “Working with the Principal,” and Mr. Paul Kelley on “Are Teachers People?” The Central Labor Council endorsed the Ohio Tenure Law. * ROCKFORD, ILL. (No. 540)—AIl the men social science teachers of Lincoln and Senior High Schools are members of the A. F. of T. The Rockford Teacher notes that the Illinois Teacher has reprinted a section from the September issue of the AMERICAN TEACHER and that Irving Pearson of the I. 8S. T. A. in the same issue says, “The Illinois Federa- tion of Teachers ... are following develop- ments closely and are giving effective assist- ance to this (legislation)—perhaps the most united effort the profession of teaching in Illinois has enjoyed.” * OHIO STATE FEDERATION OF TEACHERS—A bill to foree discharge of married women teachers was killed by a vote of eleven to one in the House Edu- cation Committee as the result of a sue- cessful fight against it by the State Teachers’ Union, supported by the State Federation of Labor. The bill ordered boards of education “to discharge every married teacher, principal, supervisor or school superin- tendent or other officer or employee of a board of education whose wife or husband is engaged in any gainful occupation.” * NORTHAMPTON, MASS. (No. 230)— Edwin Berry Burgum, president of the New York College Teachers Union, spoke to the Western Massachusetts Teachers Federation which was presided over by the newly-elected president, Prefessor Arthur Locke. Professor Burgum ex- plained the work of the College Teachers Union in New York and stressed the com- munity role of the A. F. of T. * PROVIDENCE, R. L. (No. 197)—The pub. lic-school teachers of Providence have revived Local 197 in the face of a threatened three-per-cent pay cut, in addition to the seven-per-cent reduction under which they are now working. John F. O’Connell has been elected president, Lillian Kelman secretary, and Jerome L, Fisher treasurer. A budget committee has been appointed to give effect to a resolution urging the speedy completion of a W. P. A. Realty Survey. The Survey would provide prop- erty valuation data for a tax rate that would sustain the salary schedule, * WASHINGTON, D. C. (No. 440)—The Union has been active in the field of organi- zation, and has organized the following new locals recently: Peninsula Teachers Union, No. 607, which includes teachers from Hampton Institute and the public schools of Newport; the Fisk University Local, No. 611, at Nashville, Tenn.; and a new W.P.A. local in Washington, D. C., made up of Negro and white teachers. National Vice President Doxey A. Wilkerson has been the key figure in this organizational drive. The Union is also seeking a hearing for Dr. Henry Callis who has been dismissed from Howard University without a hearing. . BUFFALO, N. Y. (No. 377)—The Union is fighting the $280,000 cut in the eduea- tional budget after defeating the mayor on two larger cuts. Saily Loomis spoke on Workers’ Education at the March meeting of the Union, describing the growth from 1920 when the A. F. of L. set up the Work- ers’ Bureau to the many programs which are being carried on today. The Union lodged a protest against charging children fees to use the public swimming pools. * TACOMA, WASH. (No. 458)—The Fed- eral Teacher, official publication of Loeal 458, reports commendable work by the Labor Relations Committee in adjusting grievances, reinstating teachers to teach- ing status, and relieving teachers of the “burdensome expense of materials pur chases for their classes.” * DETROIT, MICH. (No, 231)—The City Council of Detroit restored $783,000 to the Board of Education budget, making the 1939-40 school budget equal to that of the current year, as a result of a hearing spon- sored by Local 231—this in spite of the fact that Mayor Richard W. Reading had recommended a cut of approximately $2,500,000 and the council had stated that no review of budget reductions would be allowed. * ANDERSON, IND. (No. 519) — Less crowded schoolrooms, equal advantages for all classes of children, and livable wages for teachers compose the three- point program of action adopted by Local 519. THE AMERICAN TEACHER On the Labor Front Edited from the Labor Press and the Federated Press ——- -— —- ~~ AT THE END OF LAST YEAR, THERE were 8,000,000 workers in the ranks of organized labor, according to the U. 8. Bureau of Labor Statisties. An article by Florence Peterson of the Bureau in the Monthly Labor Review, published by the Department of Labor, declares, “It was evident that organized labor not only held its own (in 1938) by maintaining most of the local unions and by renewing agreements as they expired with no reduction in wage rates, but also had made some extensions into new trades and industries and localities.” Unions made the biggest membership gains, according to the article, in the electrical, cannery, machine, trucking, packinghouse, laundry, hotel and restau- rant, retail trade, and commercialized agricultural fields, Gains were also re- corded among clerical and professional workers, such as actors, insurance agents, state and county employees, teachers, and newspaper workers. The most notable union agreement of the year, it is stated, was that between the Harlan County Coal Operators Asso ciation and the United Mine Workers (C. I. O.). Other notable contracts were those between the International Brother- hood of Teamsters (A. F. of L.) and truck companies in 12 midwestern states (1,000,- 000 workers); Postal Telegraph-Cable Company and the American Communica- tions Association (C. I. O.) (13,000 work- ers); and the General Electrie Company and the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers (C. I. O.). Industries almost entirely under written union agreements were listed as breweries, men’s and women’s clothing, coal mining, glass, musicians, newspaper printing and publishing, performers, and railroad train and engine service. * HEADED BY WILLIAM ALLEN White, Kansas editor; Bruce Bliven, editor of the New Republic; Robert Lynd, author of Middletown in Transition; Os- wald G. Villard, editor of the Nution; Paul Kellogg, editor of Survey Graphic; and many other American leaders, a na- tional committee, “Friends of the La Fol- lette Committee,” has been formed in Washington, D. C. The purpose of this national committee is to perpetuate the Senate Committee on Civil Liberties. APRIL, 1939 — — A special California committee has been set up to push the unfinished investigation of vigilante groups in California which was started by the Senate Committee but was cut off because of lack of funds. Sponsoring the nation-wide campaign in California are prominent educators, writers, motion picture actors, such as: Professor H. C. Brown of Stanford Uni- versity; Professor Holland Roberts, Stan- ford University; Dr. Glenn Hoover of Mills College; Dashiell Hammett; Miriam Hopkins; Melvyn Douglas; Senator John Shelley; Louis Goldblatt of the C. I. O.; A. F. Gaynor of the Railroad Brother- hoods; Professor Max Radin of the Uni versity of California, and Rabbi Jacob Weinstein. * AT THE RECENT TWO DAY EMER- gency meeting of the executive council of the A. F. of L., a motion was introduced by President Daniel Tobin of the Team- sters Union, asking the Senate to appro- priate further funds to the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee to investigate the “unjust and unlawful persecution of legitimate labor unions in the states of California, Oregon and Washington.” It was adopted unanimously by the council. + A DRIVE AGAINST SWEATSHOPS IN the Orange, N. J., area is being con- ducted by Public Affairs Director Thomas A. Maloney, who said, “We’re forced to pay supplemental relief to girls who work hard all week and then get a pay enve- lope containing $3.” After stating that workers in the classified advertising department in the Hearst San Francisco Examiner would be fired for joining the Newspaper Guild, the paper posted a no- tice on the bulletin board stating that workers were free to join any union of their own choosing (thanks to the Wagner Act). ... Opposition to any amendment to the Wagner Act was voted by the Southern California lodge of the Brother- hood of Railway Clerks (A. F. of L.), neeording to the organization’s magazine. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company lost a close decision to the United Office and Professional Workers Union (C. I, O.) when the New York Court of Appeals upheld the “little” Wagner Act and found the $1,000,000,000 company guilty of unfair labor practices and ordered it to bargain with the union. . .. Representative Fred A. Hartley, Jr. (R), who previously expressed opposition to the C. I. O., joined a T. W. O. C. picket line in Kearny, N. J. The Linen Thread Company, which refused to arbitrate a 10-per-cent cut which it was asking the workers to take, stated that it would close down its American plants permanently and import merchandise from its affiliates in England and Ireland, Said Representa- tive Hartley on the picket line, “I am in full sympathy with the strikers, They are not reds but full-blooded Anglo-Saxons. I believe in arbitration and that is why I joined the picket line.” * THE CALL TO THE FORTY-THIRD annual and third biennial convention of the Missouri State Federation of Labor, which will be held in Springfield, Mo., May 22, stated that “no delegate shall be eligible to a seat in the convention unless all clothing, hat, shoes, ete., worn by said delegate shall bear the union label; this section to apply in all eases where there is a union having a recognized union label.” The call emphasized the beneficial legis- lation in the interests of workers enacted by Congress since 1932 and concluded with the warning that “while the Wagner La- bor Relations Act has run the gauntlet of the United States Supreme Court and has been declared Constitutional, that does not mean that we will not have to continue to battle to retain upon the statute books of our Nation this great piece of legisla tion which means so much to the future happiness and enjoyment of the workers of the Nation.” * PRESIDENT W. H. LOWE OF THE Paraffine Companies, Inc., San Fran- cisco, tells in a recent issue of the Christian Century how cooperation with unions pays, not only in increased plant efficiency but in additional business for the company. The company employ 1,500 workers and 18 labor organizations have locals in the plant, 15 of which are A. F. of L., and 3 of which are C. I. O. In two years these locals have worked together peaceably and there has been no stoppage of the machines. President Lowe points out that “when we first signed up with the unions, the ‘bellyache meetings’ among our executives used to last till midnight. Now we’re will- ing to hand it to the unions. We’re paying the highest wages in our history, but we get more for our wage dollar. The unions not only inereased efficiency in our plant, but they are helping to sell our products. That’s what we get out of playing ball with them.” Greater loyalty and efficiency were the only benefits President Lowe expected to 29 get out of the Parafline Companies’ cam- paign of cooperation with the unions, but here are some of the additional benefits received, One night, when the city fathers of a neighboring community were deciding on the floor covering for a public building, a delegation of union men appeared, to urge the purchase of the Pabeo brand. Their voice swung the deal. Another union delegation promoted the company’s 0) unten mae linoleum for a new school in another city. A union business agent uncovered a big paint deal and hot-footed to the sales manager in time to land the order. When the state highway commission was buying paint to mark the highways, a labor dele- gation lined up the business for the com- pany. * WEARING NEW OVERALLS AS UNI- forms, 15,000 union members who have helped to build the New York World’s Fair will march in the parade on opening day, April 30. Three hundred and fifty members of the United American Artists, headed by Rockwell Kent, will be among the marchers. . . . For nine years the 1.L.G.W.U. has been trying to get a contract with the Forest City Garment Company of St. Louis. The contract was finally signed in the middle of an N.L.R.B. hearing which was then called off. . Judge Maurice Dooling of the State District Court of Appeal was overruled by the Appellate Court of California when it decided that picketing for a closed shop violated the state antiyellow- dog contract. The A. F. of L, Auto Salesman’s Union will appeal to the Supreme Court and also seek revision of the yellow-dog-contract law so that it will outlaw nothing more than discrim- ination against a worker for union mem- bership. * ONE OUT OF EVERY FOUR LUMBER- jacks is killed or injured every six months, figures compiled by the Oregon Industrial Accident Commission show. In western Oregon alone during the last three months of 1938, 19 loggers were killed or permanently disabled and 3,185 claims for minor injuries were settled. This heavy toll is 98 per cent prevent- able, the Commission admits. Experienced loggers say that the speedup is responsible for two-thirds of the accidents and that faulty equipment causes the other third. Writing in the Timber Worker, jour- nal of the International Woodworkers (C. I. O.), Julia Bertram tells how men fall in the western woods: “Roy Waters received a broken back at Flora’s because an order was given to siwash a sapiing instead of moving the block, which would have taken a few minutes longer. Hill was killed at Clarke 30 & Wilson because the two minutes re- quired to clear a young tree off the high line might have reduced the company’s profits by a few cents.” Seriously injured men get secant atten- tion, Mrs, Bertram says, since the lumber companies are not interested in running special gasoline speeders to take accident victims down the logging railroad to the nearest hospital. “ ‘Let the maimed logger lie back of the stump until the log train is ready to go,’ is the typical company attitude,” she says. “If he dies in the meantime, it will be easy to replace him, with the Chamber of Commerce running a free enticement serv- ice for dust-bowlers from Kansas and Nebraska. Manpower is cheap, but high- grade yellow fir logs bring from $16 to $18 per 1,000 board feet on the Portland market.” * A SURVEY BY THE STATE LABOR Department of Connecticut revealed that the average wage of 1,900 beauty- parlor employees is only $625 a year, or $12.02 a week. Only one-fifth of the girls reeeived commissions, and these averaged $3.40 a week. Tips averaged $1.50 weekly. While steadily employed, the average worker gets $17.07 for a 48- hour week, but in some shops girls get as little as $4 and $6 for a full week’s work. In other shops a 60-hour week prevails. Girls have to pay $200 to $400 for a training course, $17 for the first year’s license fee, $13.50 a year on uni- forms, and $0.88 a week on laundry. * SIGNS OF THE TIMES: THE BUILD- ing Service Employees Union is not taking any chances that the publie will be misinformed by newspaper stories in case of a strike. In 1936 the Union won a three-year contract after a bitter strike. The contract is due to expire this month and the Realty Board has refused to negotiate a new contract. Result: a large ad in the New York papers explain- ing the Union’s case. The National Mari- time Union has just installed teletype machines in its three district headquarters and in Washington, D. C., to coordinate its activities. The Central Labor Council at Terre Haute, Ind., has started a series of radio programs explaining the function of each of its affiliated unions. * GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS OF OVER $12,000,000 went to 32 member com- panies of the National Metal Trades Asso- ciation while they were using labor spies furnished by the N. M. T. A., the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee an- nounced in the first of a series of reports dealing with employers’ organizations. Other reports will deal with the Cieve- land Associated Industries, the National Association of Manufacturers, and “Citi- zens’ Committees.” “It cannot be claimed that these firms need labor spies in order to meet their obligations to the government,” the re- port declared. “They exhibit the anoma- lous situation where beneficiaries of gov- ernment contracts willfully violate the spirit of national labor policy.” As the result of the Committee’s investi- gation the N. M. T. A. has been forced to pay back taxes amounting to around $100,000. A fund of close to $215,000 for strike-breaking services is maintained by the Association, it was reported. The Asso- ciation spent $171,035 between 1933 and 1936 providing 103 labor spies who oper- ated in the International Association of Mechanics and the National Molders Union (both A. F. of L.) for 69 com- panies, Since the Committee’s investigation, the report said, “there has been no change in leadership and personnel, there has been no change in institutional and finan. cial structure, there has been no change in the fundamental anti-collective bar- gaining attitude of the Association as ex- pressed by its open-shop policy, there has been no change in the obligation of the Association to render services to its mem- bers in time of labor disputes.” * PRESIDENT WILLIAM GREEN, speaking on a radio program arranged by the American Council against Nazi Propaganda, urged a broader boycott of German goods, pointing out that Hitler's recent actions had “aroused to a high pitch the indignation of all peoples throughout the civilized world who love liberty, freedom and democracy and who, in their daily lives, practice the principles of tolerance, justice and fair dealing. “The working people of our country be. lieve that the moral and economic strength of the world should be mobilized and united in opposition to the Hitler polisy in Europe. There are many things we can do which will bring home to Hitler and his associates the concentrated oppo- sition of the democracies throughout the world. © THE CORPUS CHRISTI (TEXAS) Building Trades Council won the fol- lowing concessions on the $950,000 Bay- front project after a two-week strike which was supported by C. I. O. unions: all skilled craftsmen are to be _ hired through the unions and laborers are to be hired through the Texas state employ- ment office. Other developments indicating labor solidarity were the refusal of 10 A, F. of L. unions connected with Alaska salmon packing to bargain with the Alaska Pack- ers Association unless all unions involved, ineluding C, I. O. unions, are included in the negotiations ... the A. F. of L, Sail- ors Union and the C. I, O, National Mari time Union both fought the attempt of the U, S. Maritime Commission to extend its anti-labor policies to the West Coast ... the first New Jersey Legislative Con- ference, which was held in Trenton, N. J., and was attended by 229 delegates from all branches of organized labor 17 teams have joined an A. F. of L.- C. I. O. Trade Union Athletie League, which will sponsor a softball league dur- ing the summer and bowling and basket- ball leagues during the winter . . . Vice President William Ross (C. I. 0.) pointed eut that, “our trade unions have succeeded in reducing working hours. Now we are going to use some of our extra leisure for a good purpose.” THE AMERICAN TEACHER THE CONTRIBUTORS Rosenia ANTHONY belongs to Local 484 of the Ameri- can Federation of Teachers and is vice president of the Massachusetts State Federation. Witt1AM S. Bernarp teaches in the Department of Economics, Political Science and Sociology at the University of Colorado and is a member of Local 562. Rosert R. R. Brooks is a member of the faculty of Williams College and author of Unions of Their Own Choosing, recently published. Howarp G. CostTIGAN is executive secretary of the Wash- ington Commonwealth Federation. Lee Geyer of Los Angeles, Calif., is in the House of Representatives. He was president of Local 430 for the past two vears. Haroip C. Hanp teaches in the School of Education at Stanferd University and is a member of Local 442 there. Auice HANSON is an organizer for the Textile Workers’ Organizing Committee and has been active in work- ers’ education in Philadelphia. James E. MENDENHALL, the editor of Building America, will shortly take up his new work in the field of con- sumer education with the Harold P. Sloan Fund at Stevens College, Columbia, Mo. He is a member of Local 537. Atonzo F. Myers teaches at New York University and is a member of Local 537. E.uis E. Patrerson is the newly elected lieutenant-gov- ernor of California and is a member of Local 61 in San Francisco. WitniamM ALLEN Wutre, a member of the Republican Party. is editor and owner of the Emporia Gazette of Emporia, Kan. Pamphlets Received AMERICANISM: Some Ammunition for Use of the True American Patriot, compiled by CHARLES AMLIN, 214 Loma Drive, Los Angeles, Calif. 15 pages. $0.05 each, 4 for $0.15. DEFENDING AMERICA, by Groror FreLtpine Euiot. World Affairs Pamphlet No. 4. New York: Foreign Policy Associa tion in Cooperation with the National Peace Conference. 33 pages. $0.25, EDUCATIONAL TRENDS IN LATIN AMERICA: Number 2, by Ernesto GALARZA. Washington: Division of Intellectual Cooperation, Pan American Union, 35 pages. EDUCATION OF CHILDREN ON FEDERAL RESERVA TIONS, by Lioyp Fk. Brauch and WiiuiaM L. Iversen. Staff Study No. 17. Washington: Advisory Committee on Educa fiom, 145 pages. $0.25, APRIL, 1939 SCHOOLS FOR TOMORROW'S CITIZENS, by Maxweut 8. Stewart. Public Affairs Pamphlet No. 30. New York: Pub- lic Affairs Committee. 31 pages. $0.10. "PROCEEDINGS, NATIONAL HEALTH CONFERENCE. Washington: Interdepartmental Committee to Coordinate Health and Welfare Activities. 162 pages. $0.35. “THE NATION’S HEALTH: Discussion at the National Health Conference. Washington: Interdepartmental Committee to Coordinate Health and Welfare Activities. 116 pages. $0.20. *FEDERAL AID AND THE TAX PROBLEM, by CuLarence Heer. Staff Study No. 4. Washington: Advisory Committee on Education. 101 pages. $0.15. A MEMORANDUM ON THE PROBLEM OF BIG BUSINESS: Submitted to the Temporary National Economie Committee by the Corporation Survey Committee of the Twentieth Cen- tury Fund. New York: Twentieth Century Fund. 35 pages. $0.25. “PATTERNS OF RESOURCE USE: A Technical Report, pre- pared by THe INDUSTRIAL SECTION under the direction of GARDINER C. MEANS. Washington: National Resources Com- mittee. 149 pages. $0.35. THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT, presented by AMERICAN ForUuM OF THE AIR. Washington: Burland Print- ing Co. 19 pages. Free. THE GUILD’S HEARST STRIKE AGAINST THE CHICAGO EVENING AMERICAN AND HERALD & EXAMINER: Churchmen’s Report on the Issues Involved in the Strike, with Findings and Recommendations. Chicago: Rev. W. B. Walt- mire, Chairman, Churchmen’s Fact Finding Committee. 8 pages. $0.05. HELP WANTED, by Cara Cook, New York: Women’s Trade Union League. 24 pages. $0.05 each, 25 for $1.00. *This publication is for sale by the Supt. of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 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, Grorcr T. GUERNSEY Consulting Editor, Keruir Bry Editorial Board Mercepes L. NELSON Irvin R. KENZI Mary J. HeRRIcK GrorGce E, AXTELLE President Secretary-Treasurer JEROME Davis Irvin R, KUENZLI Vice-Presidents Mary J. HERRICK Lia A, HUNTER ALLIE B, MANN MERCEDES L, NELSON Pau. W. PREISLER JOEL SEIDMAN STanton E. SMITH Doxrty A. WILKERSON Grorce E, AXTELLE HaROLD CHAPMAN Brown Joun D. Connors MICHAEL J, Eck ARTHUR ELDER Mrs. Mary Fo.ey GrossMAN C. J. HENDLEY 31 CONVENTION CALL AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION Buffalo Hotel, Buffalo, N. Y. The Twenty-third Annual Convention of the .\merican Federation of Teachers is hereby called to convene at the Buffalo Hotel, Buffalo, New York, Monday, August 21, 1939, at the hour of 10 A. M. and will remain in session five days, or until such time as it has given full consideration to such matters as may be legally brought before it. One delegate may be elected by each affiliated local having a membership of twenty-five or less. For each additional 25 members up to 500, one additional delegate may be elected. Beyond 500 members and up to 1000 members, for each addi- tional 50 members one additional delegate may be elected. Beyond 1000 members, for each additional 100 members, an additional delegate may be elected. No local in arrears for two months (June and July) or more shall be entitled to representation. Locals chartered after July 15, 1939, will not be entitled to representation. Locals chartered on or before July 15, 1939, must have paid at least two months’ per capita (June and July, or July and August) and have no arrearages to be entitled to representation. It should be noted that fractions of 25 are not to be counted in determining the number of dele- gates or convention votes. Locals of 1 to 49 members will have one vote. Locals of 50 to 74 members will have two votes, etc. At the 1937 convention the credentials com- mittee ruled that a delegate carrying proxy votes for locals must be a member of one of the locals represented. RATES: Hotel Buffalo. ROOM FOR ONE PER DAY ......$2.00-$4.50 ROOM FOR TWO PER DAY ke tees a cundenass 4.00- 7.00 CE 4.00- 6.00 ROOM FOR THREE PER DAY... 6.00- 8.00 Each room has private bath—shower, or tub and shower. Representation is based upon the average per capita paid for the 12 months preceding the con- vention. It is not necessary to pay per capita for the month of August before the convention. The month of August will not be used in computing the number of delegates or votes at the conven- tion. Locals chartered more than 12 months before the convention must have paid per capita for the month of June in order to be entitled to representation. The books will be closed on August 10 and no per capita will be accepted at the convention. RESOLUTIONS The Executive Council urges locals to present resolutions only on matters of the utmost im- portance and directly related to “Democracy in Kducation—Education for Democracy.” Specifically, the average number of resolutions presented at the convention cannot exceed one resolution per local. Resolutions and other material which locals desire to have placed in the hands of delegates should be sent to the National Office as soon as possible and will not be accepted for mimeo- graphing after July 15, 1939. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS. Irvin R. Kuenzwt, Secretary-Treasurer. JeroME Davis, President. CONVENTION COMMITTEE C. J. Henpiey, Chairman M. J. Eck Joun D, Connors Jerome Davis, E-x-O fficio IrvIN R. Kuenzwi, Ex-Officio