THE 
AMERICAN 
=| TEACHER November, 1940 


PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 

















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Neglected Youth: 
America's Peril 


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Goodwin Watson 


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BUILDING SCHOOLS AND CHILDREN (see page 1/8) 


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Blitzkrieg on a Labor School Board 


A Report On International Relations 
AFT Releases Federal Aid Film Strip 


y A Survey of Tenure Laws in the U. S. 


@ HENRY L. JOHNSON IRVIN R. KUENZLI GEORGE S. COUNTS 
SELMA BORCHARDT JAMES M. ROSS NATHAN SHRAGER 


Five Page Section—Teachers Union in Action Among the New Books 











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33 BREMERTON, WASH.—Local 
336 has made definite gains for 
its teachers since its inception in 1934. 
A salary schedule promoted by the 
Local, based on the state minimum sal- 
ary of $1,200, gives raises of $60 per 
year for five years and $120 during the 
next five to a maximum of $2,160. It 
recognizes outside school activities as 
well as advanced degrees with extra 
compensation. 
A three-day sick leave, cumulative 
to nine days, has been granted on full 








pay. The latest gain is sabbatical leave 
for 2 per cent of the staff each year 
at a maximum salary of $800 and leave 
of absence without loss of position in 
the salary scale upon the teacher’s re- 
turn to service. Preference is given to 
teachers on the basis of either service or 


age. 
* * * 


43 TRENTON, N. J.—A drive to 

secure the appointment of three 
liberal candidates to the Mercer Board 
of Education is the present work of 
the Mercer Union. The candidates are 
Annie P. Hughes, retired teacher and 
former head of the Department of So- 
cial Studies in Trenton High School; 
Lawrence Miller, veteran AFT member 
active in Labor’s Non-Partisan League; 
and the Rev. Robert Smith, prominent 
Episcopal clergyman. 

* * * 

2 CHATTANOOGA, TENN.— 

Asking how teachers can expect 
to be optimistic, dress neatly and better 
themselves on a monthly salary of $85, 
a front-page editorial in the Chattanooga 
Labor World, publication of the Central 
Trades Council, takes to task Dr. Fred 
C. Smith who made those suggestions at 
a meeting of the Southeastern Tennessee 
Education Association. Dr. Smith is re- 
ported to have said that “compensation 
of teaching is not in money.” 

“This is the usual claptrap fed to 
teachers,” the editorial says, citing the 
fact that Chattanooga teachers are ap- 
parently unwilling to accept the idea 


2 


that they should be satisfied with low 
pay. 
“The advice given by Dr. Smith would 
have been more plausible had it been 
delivered by a classroom teacher,” the 
editorial concludes. 
* * * 

MADISON, WIS. — Academic 

freedom properly applies to 
students’ expression of views on public 
questions as well as teachers’ freedom of 
utterance. 

So said Professor Edward A. Ross of 
the University of Wisconsin, national 
president of the American Civil Liber- 
ties Union, in a sharp letter to President 
Ruthven of the University of Michigan 
which last semester barred the re-entry 
of thirteen students. 

Professor Ross declares in his letter 
that during his long and varied connec- 
tions with universities during a period 
of forty-six years, he cannot recall a 
single case in which a student has been 
barred from a university because of 
opinions on public questions. He closes 
his letter with a plea that such a prece- 
dent will not be set by the University 
of Michigan. 

* * * 
NEW JERSEY STATE FEDERA- 
TION OF TEACHERS.—Further ex- 
tension of the tenure and pension rights 
of drafted teachers beyond the provi- 
sions of a bill already introduced as 
A519 is being proposed by the New 
Jersey State Federation of Teachers. 
The organization now seeks to compel 
the payment of premiums by the em- 
ploying body for the duration of a 
drafted teacher’s military service. The 
bill, as it stands, provides that a mem- 
ber of a pension or annuity fund may 
continue his or her rights by payments 
during the draftee’s term of service. 

* * * 


43 LOS ANGELES, CAL.—“Every 
overloaded class is composed en- 
tirely of under-privileged children.” 
This is the conclusion of an editorial 
in the Local’s newspaper by Winifred 
Betts, Local president, in which she tells 
of the facts behind the increasing class- 
room load of Los Angeles teachers. 
President Betts punches holes in the pre- 
cise figures handed down by the Board 
of Education statisticians—figures which 
show that the classroom load this year is 
35% children, a supposed gain of a half 
child over last year’s figure. 
The tax situation is bound up with the 
city’s overloaded classrooms, she reports, 


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and the best method of providing action 
to reduce “underteachered” classes is 
wide enrollment by teachers in the 
Union. She demands that ways and 
means be found to enforce equitable 
taxation to provide schooling. 

She contends that a reduced number 
of teachers are now expected to handle 
an increased elementary-school enroll- 
ment and that 800 teachers have left the 
school system during the past five years. 
Of these 500 have been elementary 
teachers of which only 140 have been 
replaced, leaving a loss of 360 teachers. 

President Betts shows that many of 
the classes have 45 students, and that 
the total teacher time per student, per 
working day, per subject amounts to one 
minute of individual attention. 

* * * 

557 KENOSHA, WIS.—A political 

symposium sponsored by the 
Local brought three well known 
speakers before Kenosha voters at a 
meeting at the.Town Hall with Dr. 
George Axtelle of Northwestern Univer- 
sity and college vice-president of the 
AFT acting as moderator. 

On the symposium were Senator El- 
bert Thomas for the Democratic party, 
D. J. Kenney, Republican state leader, 
and Maynard C. Krueger, member of 
University of Chicago Local 259 and 
vice-presidential candidate on the So- 
cialist ticket. 

x * * 
NEW YORK STATE FEDERATION 
OF TEACHERS—The State Federation 
of Teachers Unions brought to half a 
million upstate farmers at the Syracuse 
State Fair the slogan “Well educated 
children are the best defenders of democ- 
racy.” In addition to the State Aid 
Booth, the Federation presented three 








motion picture films: “Safeguarding the 
Schools,” “The Activity Program,” and 
“Negro Education.” Nearly a million 
pamphlets were distributed. 

Teachers Unions of the state are con- 
ducting a continuous campaign to ac 
quaint the voters with the real needs of 
their schools and thereby forestall the 
attacks of budget cutters. 

(Continued on page 26) 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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NOVEMBER, 1940 Vol. XXV, No. 3 


BLITZKRIEG ON A LABOR SCHOOL BOARD Henry L. Johnson 7 
NEGLECTED YOUTH: AMERICA’S PERIL Goodwin Watson 9 
CONVENTION COMMITTEE REPORTS ON WORKING CONDITIONS 14 
A SURVEY OF TENURE LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Nathan Shrager 16 
James M. Ross 18 


BUILDING SCHOOLS AND CHILDREN 
Selma Borchardt 20 


A REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 


AFT RELEASES FEDERAL AID FILM STRIP 27 
DEPARTMENTS 
THE TEACHERS UNION IN ACTION 2 
EDITORIAL PARAGRAPHS 3 
THE PRESIDENT’S PAGE: AFL GENEROUSLY SUPPORTS TEACHERS’ 
ORGANIZING DRIVE 5 
THE SECRETARY-TREASURER’S PAGE: DEFENSE IN DULUTH: 
AN OPEN LETTER TO DULUTH TEACHERS 6 
AMONG THE NEW BOOKS 
INDUSTRIAL CONFLICT: A PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION 


Ralph H. Gundlach 30 

PUBLIC EMPLOYEE CREDIT UNIONS Maurice C. Crew 30 

THE CONTRIBUTORS 31 
Member of Educational Press Association 


Drawings by Chandler Montgomery 
THE EDITORS of the American TEeacHer request that no mate- 
rial be reprinted from this magazine without an accompanying credit 
line stating the source and the issue in which such material appeared. 

GEORGE 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. Accept- 
ance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 
1103, Act of February 28, 1925, authorized November 3, 1926. 
SUBSCRIPTION: $2.50 for the year—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 prompt 
notice of changes of address. Remittances should be made in postal 
or express money orders, draft, stamps, or check. wR 





Special Christmas Gift Combinations 


The AMERICAN TEACHER is arranging a number of 
combination offers of magazines to be used as Christmas 
gifts by AFT members. Two combinations are ready to 
be announced. You may get Propaganda Analysis and the 
AMERICAN TEACHER for one year for $2.75 or Survey 
Graphic and the AMERICAN TEACHER for $3.75. Send the 
AMERICAN TEACHER to some teacher-friend for Christmas 
and send the other part of the combination to another 
friend or to yourself. Incidentally, Chandler Montgomery 
has designed a special Christmas card which will be sent 
out with your signature. 


AFL Meets on Vocational Education 


Desire for a general overhauling of the vocational edu- 
cation program of the administration was evidenced in 


Washington, D. C., on October 4 by the AFL when Vice_ 


President Matthew Woll, chairman of the Federation’s 
Permanent Committee on Education, called a meeting of 
his Committee for October 16. 

The meeting was called, the Federation said, “in view 
of the wide-spread confusion in the field of vocational edu- 
cation due to the many agencies undertaking defense train- 
ing and the general lack of effort to co-ordinate plans, 
methods or purposes.” 

“While the AFL recognizes that time is an essential 
element in the defense program, it also recognizes the dan- 
ger to labor, to production and to national progress in 
revolutionizing apprenticeship training without safeguard- 
ing the present and future interests of the workers con- 


NOVEMBER, 1940 





THE 
AMERICAN 
TEACHER 


Published by 
The American Federation of Teachers 


AFFILIATED WITH THE 
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR 











cerned and of other employed workers,” a statement said. 

“Workers trained in only segments of a craft are not 
craftsmen. Labor wants safeguards in connection with 
quick training that will safeguard workers against becom- 
ing merely machine tenders and the lack of education 
that hinders adjustment to the changes and responsibility 
of industrial and national life.” 

Members of the Federation’s Permanent Committee on 
Education are Woll, John P. Frey, Elmer E. Milliman, 
Irvin Kuenzli, and Thomas Burke. 

George Googe, Frank Fenton, Henry Ohl, Jr., Marion 
Hedges, E. C. Davison, and Michael J. Colleran were 
asked to consult with the committee. 


AFT Wins Indiana Tenure Suit 


Friends of teacher tenure, one of the requisites for good 
teaching, will be glad to learn that the AFT has been vic- 
torious in its suit in the Peru, Indiana, case. The judge, 
in handing down his decision on October 10, 1940, stated 
that there was no doubt in his mind that “Schedule E” 
was designed as a means of evading the State Tenure Law 
and that its use would actually set aside the Law. 

In the spring of 1939 the Peru school board adopted a 
new salary schedule and included in the schedule a provi- 
sion called Class E, as follows: 

(1) Teachers who are considered inefficient. 

(2) Teachers who lack sufficient control over the tech- 
nique of teaching. 

(3) Teachers who lack sufficient classroom discipline. 

(4) Teachers who lack initiative. 

(5) Teachers who fail to put forth a sufficient amount of 
effort to secure justifiable results. 

(6) Teachers who have a nonprofessional attitude. 

(7) Teachers who fail to carry out the recommendations, 
suggestions, or requests from the principals, super- 
visors, superintendent or board of school trustees. 

(8) Teachers who neglect further training in an accepted 
and recognized summer school. 

(9) Teachers who are under-qualified. 

(10) Any other justifiable cause. 








Final decision as to teacher placement in Class E rests 
with the board of school trustees. Those teachers who 
rank in Class E will be reduced to the minimum state 
wage. 

Three teachers were placed in Class E and their salaries 
were reduced to the state minimum. 

The American Federation of Teachers has made several 
investigations and is convinced that Class E is being used 
unjustly in Peru and that it constitutes a threat against 
all teachers in the State. In consequence the AFT has 
been paying the costs of a suit in court to test the validity 
of Classification E. 

On October 10, 1940, the following decision was ren- 
dered in circuit court: 

“It is found by the court . . . that Classification E is 
illegal and void and it is therefore considered and adjudged 
that the defendants and each of them be and they are 
hereby enjoined from using and applying Classification E 
. . . in the School City of Peru, Indiana”. 

If the Board of School Commissioners in Peru decides 
to appeal the decision of the circuit court, the American 
Federation of Teachers is prepared and has already de- 
cided to carry the case to the United States Supreme Court. 

The significance of this decision lies in the fact that 
teachers affiliated with labor were able to bring about a 
remarkable victory which helps to guarantee that all the 
children of Indiana shall have teachers who are judged 
on merit rather than on the whims and fancies of those 
vested groups who have tended always to discriminate 
against courageous and forthright teachers who understand 
the demands of our period of history. 


AFT to Ballot on Amendment 


The Howard Teachers Union, Local 440, has submitted 
the following amendment to Article IV (Charters) to the 
national office with the request that it be sent to all AFT 
locals in accordance with Article XII of the Constitution: 
“Section 7: Where there is an existing local in good finan- 
cial standing with the Federation, no additional charter 
shall be issued with jurisdiction which is identical with, 
or which overlaps, the jurisdiction of the existing local 
without that local’s consent.” 

The following locals representing 9,029 members (more 
than 10 per cent of the total membership as required by 
the Constitution) have endorsed the amendment: Local 
440 (Howard University), Local 5 (New York City), 
Local 453 (WPA, New York City), Local 460 (Evan- 
ston, Ill.), Local 470 (East Northfield, Mass.), Local 479 
(Cincinnati, Ohio), Local 537 (New York College Teach- 
ers), Local 27 (Washington, D. C.), Local 623 (Albany, 
New York), Local 441 (Boston, Mass.), Local 622 (WPA, 
Washington, D. C.), Local 431 (Cambridge, Mass.), 
Local 230 (Northampton, Mass.), Local 481 (Essex 
County, New Jersey), Local 611 (Fisk University), Local 
442 (Palo Alto, Calif.), Local 192 (Philadelphia, Penn.), 
and Local 484 (Springfield, Mass.). 

On November 20 ballots will be mailed from the 
national office to the treasurer of all locals; they must 


4 


be marked by individual members of the Union. No bal- 
lots will be accepted postmarked later than January 
19, 1941. Both the marked ballots and the result of the 
local’s vote must be returned to the national office. 


Use and Support Your Labor Paper 


According to the papers received by the AMERICAN 
TEACHER, two AFT locals, No. 346 (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 
and No. 89 (Atlanta, Ga.), publish weekly columns deal- 
ing with educational problems in their respective labor 
papers. While it is probably true that labor papers are 
not flush with space, we suspect that they would use 
more AFT news with a local slant than they do now if 
they were pushed a little. We also suspect that many 
locals have been lax in getting subscriptions for the local 
labor press. There is no reason why labor papers should 
not carry feature articles on child care, parent education, 
problems of taxation as they relate to education, and sym- 
pathetic articles on the problems of teachers written by 
AFT members. 


Hendley Refuses Membership Lists 


Again those staunch friends of public education and 
collective bargaining, the press, have been featuring arti- 
cles on the refusal of Charles J. Hendley, president of 
Local 5, New York City, to turn over the membership 
list of the local to Senator F. R. Coudert, Jr., head of 
the state legislative committee investigating “subversive 
influences in the schools.” President Hendley has been 
held in contempt by Judge John F. Carew for his refusal 
to surrender the membership list but a stay of execution 
has been granted pending an appeal to the appellate divi- 
sion sometime in early December. 

What the press has not pointed out in this case is that 
outstanding educators, labor leaders and friends of civil 
liberties have issued statements upholding Mr. Hendley’s 
action. President Counts called the Committee’s sub- 
poena of the membership list a “tendency toward the 
totalitarian practices and outlook” which the AFT is 
fighting. 

Matthew Woll, vice president of the AFL, has also 
issued a statement pointing out the dangers of complying 
with the Committee’s request. The American Civil Liber- 
ties Union and the American Committee for Democracy 
and Intellectual Freedom have both asked Senator Coud- 
ert to withdraw his request for the Union’s membership 
list because “of the misuse to which the membership list 
may be put.” 





In order that the AMERICAN TEACHER may serve as 4 
medium for the discussion of the educational problems 
of today, the contributors are not necessarily expressing 
the policies of the American Federation of Teachers. It 
also should be ciear to readers of the AMERICAN TEACHER 
that the various Convention Committee reports which are 
published in the journal are not to be interpreted as AFT 
policy, except where they coincide with action taken by the 
delegates to the National Convention. 











THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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AFL Generously Supports 
Teachers’ Organizing Drive 


AT ITS MEETING in Washington last May the Execu- 
tive Council of the American Federation of Labor passed 
the following resolution: 

“Wuereas, Public education, appropriately conceived 
and adequately provided, is the surest defense of demo- 
cratic institutions at all times; and 
“Wuereas, The critical and difficult tasks now confront- 
ing the American people call for the extension and im- 
provement of the program of public education; and 
“Wuereas, A concerted and widespread effort is being 
made by reactionary interests to reduce school expendi- 
tures, to abolish indispensable educational services, to 
impair the quality of the entire educative process, and to 
reverse the long trend toward the equalization of educa- 
tional opportunities in the United States; and 
“WHEREAS, The teaching profession, when organized as an 
integral part of the labor movement and when supported 
by the organized working people of the country, has 
proved itself the most powerful and effective defense of 
public education; and 
“Wuereas, The time is ripe for the launching of a vigor- 
ous campaign to bring a substantial proportion of the 
teachers of the nation into the organized labor movement ; 
therefore, be it 
“Resolved: That the American Federation of Labor re- 
affirm its support of and confidence in the American Fed- 
eration of Teachers, co-operate with it and in every possi- 
ble way assist the American Federation of Teachers in a 
nation-wide campaign to organize the teachers of the 
country, and appoint an organizing committee to work 
with a similar committee from the American Federation 
of Teachers to formulate plans, marshal resources, and 
prosecute the campaign.” 

At its post-convention meeting in August the Execu- 
tive Council of the American Federation of Teachers 
responded to this resolution by appointing an organiz- 
ing committee to work with a corresponding committee 
from the American Federation of Labor. Those appointed 
to the committee are Arthur Elder, chairman, John D. 
Connors, President Counts, and Secretary Kuenzli. Mark 
Starr was asked by the Council to work with the com- 
mittee because of his wide knowledge of the labor move- 
ment and the esteem in which he is held by leaders of the 
American Federation of Labor. 

On September 4, President Green appointed a strong 
committee of three to represent the American Federation 
of Labor. This committee is headed by Vice-President 
Matthew Woll and includes also John P. Frey, President 
of the Metal Trades Department, and E. E. Milliman, 
President of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Em- 
ployees. These men have been interested in and familiar 
with the problems of education for many years. 


NOVEMBER, 1940 


The joint committee met for the first time on Septem- 
ber 27 in New York City. At this meeting the general 
problem of the organization of teachers was discussed 
and a program for the current year outlined and adopted. 
This program called not only for the vigorous moral sup- 
port of local, state, and national bodies of the American 
Federation of Labor but also for generous material assist- 
ance from President Green’s office. The latter took the 
form of a request for two full-time organizers and addi- 
tional financial aid for paying the travelling expenses of 
volunteer organizers—members of our local unions who 
will devote week-ends and holidays to organizational work 
in neighboring communities. The request was presented 
to President Green by the American Federation of Labor 
representatives of the joint committee. 

Word has just been received that the request has been 
granted in full. This means that a vigorous organiza- 
tional campaign can be conducted throughout the coun- 
try during the current year. In addition to two full- 
time organizers who will be named shortly by our Ex- 
ecutive Council a considerable sum will be available for 
voluntary work. Under the plan developed by the joint 
committee Secretary Kuenzli will co-ordinate the national 
effort. 

This generous and whole-hearted support on the part of 
the American Federation of Labor is extremely welcome 
for two reasons. In the first place, it should make possible 
during the year the formation of a number of strong new 
locals, the strengthening of many old locals, and a gen- 
eral increase in membership. If 
the American Federation of Teach- 
ers is to play its proper role in 
the defense of public education 
and the cause of democracy in the 
very difficult period ahead, it must 
attract to its ranks a far larger 
proportion of the teachers of the 
country. Our present member- 
ship of thirty or forty thousand 
certainly does not include all teach- 
ers who accept or can be persuaded 
to accept the philosophy of the 
Federation. We should aim in the next few years to 
enroll at least 10 per cent of the profession and increase 
our membership to 100,000 members. This is certainly 
not impossible. 

In the second place, this support of the American Fed- 
eration of Labor is clear evidence of confidence in our 
union and marks a decided improvement in our relations 
with the parent body. Since we are so dependent on the 





(Continued on page 31) 





She Secretary-Jreasurer 3 iZ age 


Defense in Duluth: An Open 
Letter to Duluth Teachers 


Dear Fellow Teachers: 

Allow me first to express my deep appreciation of the 
cordial and friendly attitude of the many teachers of 
Duluth whom it was my pleasure to meet in my recent 
visit to your city. There is something in the sound, sens- 
ible spirit of liberalism among the teachers of the Far 
North which exemplifies a type of genuine Americanism 
far deeper than the current display of the colors and 
wearing of patriotic pins. 

On the day before I arrived in Duluth, the local press 
announced with large front-page headlines, “City School 
Levy Cut $107,832.00.” I was informed that representa- 
tives of organized business groups had appeared before the 
board of education and presented arguments that the bud- 
get must be cut because it will be necessary to divert tax 
funds to the national defense program. Perhaps thought- 
lessly, these men of big business are demanding that the 
children in the schools today be asked to finance the re- 
armament program by sacrificing part of their education. 
I emphasize the word “thoughtlessly” because these men 
of business certainly have not pondered carefully the ulti- 
mate consequences of cutting school budgets during an 
emergency such as the Nation now faces. Free enterprise 
in America can exist only so long as democratic govern- 
ment exists. Since public education is the only guarantee 
of democratic institutions, the destruction or serious cur- 
tailment of the public schools can 
result only in eventual suicide for 
business itself. 

Two years ago I happened to 
attend a dinner meeting of school 
board members at the historic 
Queens Highcliff Hotel at Mar- 
gate, England, near~Dover. Beside 
me sat a British business man, a 
school-board member from a city 
approximately the size of Duluth. 
When I inquired of him whether 
organized business men in England had attempted to 
curtail public education, he was astonished and said, “I 
would have you understand, sir, that the education of 
our children is the Jast place we would cut expenses.” 
It is probable that the United States is the only large 
nation in which organized business groups actively oppose 
the education of children. 

It is difficult, however, to convince practical-minded 
American business men of the philosophical need for ade- 





6 


quate educational facilities as an essential concomitant 
of democratic government and of a successful national 
economy. The business man thinks in immediate terms 
of dollars and cents and red and blue ink. To the man 
of business, $107,000 is a tremendous “saving.” But, is 
it? The total “saving” amounts to approximately $1.00 
per year per citizen of Duluth—about one-fourth cent 
per day—less than a penny a day for the average family. 
Less than the price of a one-cent postage stamp or a ciga- 
rette per day “saved” to take from the children of the 
city a month of schooling or equivalent curtailment! 
Obviously, the “saving” for the average home owner is so 
small as to be inconsequential but the effect on the school 
system is tragic—even though camouflaged. Only those 
who can well afford to pay are favored by any substantial 
“saving.” 

Purposely I have placed the word “saving” in quotes 
to indicate that the trivial one-fourth penny per day 
is not actually an economic saving. What is the effect 
of the curtailment program on business? Since more than 
90 per cent of operating costs of public schools are spent 
for salaries of teachers and other employees, it is obvious 
that the retrenchment program means that approximately 
$100,000 will be subtracted from the expenditures of these 
employees in Duluth business houses, life insurance com- 
panies, and other agencies of industry. Furthermore, 
real estate values decline and cities are less attractive to 
new industries when educational facilities are curtailed. 

You will scarcely believe that a few teachers in Duluth 
expressed the opinion that “if the funds are not available, 
we should teach without pay.” While there are few teach- 
ers in America who would not be willing to make any 
necessary sacrifice in defense of American democracy, 
these visionary teachers who would teach without pay 
should ponder the fact that such action is (ipso facto) 
economically unsound and that the employment of free 
labor or cheap labor tends to aggravate the very condi- 
tions which caused the depression. These teachers should 
ponder the fact, also, that while they are working without 
pay the community is spending many times the cost of 
education for luxuries. In one city comparable to Duluth, 
business groups sponsored a vigorous campaign to curtail 
public education and to cut the salaries of teachers and 
other school employees. While the teachers nobly and 
generously contributed their services without pay, the 
citizens spent more than twice as much for liquor and 
tobacco as the total cost of education and almost as much 
for movies and beauty parlors as for teachers’ salaries. 

On October 12, Mr. R. A. Olson, President of the 
Minnesota State Federation of Labor, and I conferred at 


(Continued on page 31) 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








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Blitzkrieg on a Labor School Board 


Henry L. Johnson 


The free press in America is free to tell the truth. It also is 
free to tell part of the truth, to misrepresent, to misinterpret, to 
color the news, to play favorites, to decry the faults of one public 
official and to condone the same faults in another. 

School people are most sensitive to press reaction because public- 
school systems, particularly in metropolitan areas, succeed or fail 
in gaining public support as that support is reflected by the daily 
newspapers. 

Here is the story of Cleveland, its schools, its three daily news- 
papers and its Board of Education which since 1936 has been 
controlled by four or more “people’s” candidates, as distinguished 
from the “‘blue-stocking” candidates who had controlled the schools 
for almost two decades. 

The author tells how the schools have fared since organized 
labor won majority representation on the Board of Education. 


A 30 PER CENT salary reduction for every one of the 
Cleveland school system’s 6,000 employees, teachers and 
charwomen alike, went into effect last September for a 
four-month period. Another cut may be forthcoming 
next year if the schools encounter further reductions in 
tax income, and it is entirely possible that the entire sys- 
tem may be shut down if a levy which supplies 31 per cent 
of school income is not renewed this fall by the voters. 

The morale of the teaching corps may well be imag- 
ined with this resumé of the financial situation in Cleve- 
land. 

Esprit de corps of the teaching staff was dealt a body 
blow during the early 1930’s when shortages in school in- 
come were taken out of employees’ salaries almost exclu- 
sively. Since that action first was taken by a hireling 
of the former “blue-stocking” Board, almost $10,000,000 
was transferred from salaries to other purposes. 

Morale made a comeback when spokesmen for human 
rights as opposed to property rights were voted four of 
the seven School Board places by the electors in 1936. 
But then the “dead cats” began to fly in the daily press, 
and hardly a week has passed that some piddling action 
has not been magnified into a major blunder by critical 
journalists. 

The anomalous result has been that Board members 
under fire have been elected and re-elected, but several 
school finance measures have been defeated even with 
majority newspaper support. 

Of course there are other factors in addition to con- 
tinued newspaper criticism of the Board, one of them 
being the well organized and well financed campaigns 
against teachers’ salaries. These campaigns have been 
supported by combines of real estate owners and down- 
town building managers. 

Last May, to be specific, certain real estate interests 
printed and distributed in almost every home in Cleveland 
a handbill listing the names and salaries of 3,800 Cleveland 
public-school teachers. The handbill called for defeat of a 


NOVEMBER, 1940 


one-mill levy which would have enabled the schools to 
pay teachers their regular salaries in full. 

Now note the conduct of one newspaper in respect 
to this campaign. On May 8, 1940, The Cleveland Press, 
first newspaper in the chain founded by the late E. W. 
Scripps, said: “To insure adequate instruction at ade- 
quate pay vote ‘Yes’ on the school levy May 14.” Ten days 
before the vote on the levy, The Press announced that 
the levy would pass by a 57 per cent vote, a judgment 
based on a voters’ poll. On May 14 the levy was de- 
feated, and The Press concluded editorially that the de- 
feat was “a resounding repudiation of the policies of the 
majority bloc’”—meaning the policies of the labor-en- 
dorsed Board members. 

Actually the defeat was due to the resentment of citi- 
zens influenced by the building owners’ argument that 
teachers’ salaries are too high. This was evidenced by 
The Press poll, which showed 57 per cent of electors pre- 
pared to vote for the levy before the salary list was pub- 
lished. 

None of the three Cleveland dailies took the slightest 
editorial notice of the salary handbill. None of them 
criticized the group which brought about a 30 per cent 
paycut for school employees. 

Six months later—a similar handbill was distributed, 
listing “high salaries” as an argument for defeating a four 
mill levy which the Cleveland schools need vitally to con- 
tinue normal operations. Whereupon The Press repeated 
its endorsement of the levy, and rebuked the building 
owners in ladylike fashion, to wit: 

“No one would deny the right of any citizen or group 
to campaign for a lower salary rate for teachers. We 
do not, however, believe that the proper course is to 
wait until election time when a levy essential to the opera- 
tion of the schools is at stake. It would be more appro- 
priate for them to campaign for lower salaries between 
elections, and try to force a decision on that question 
on its merits.” 

Strangely inadequate language was this in the opinion 
of teachers who had to face children in the classroom who 
did not hesitate to say, as one child did, “My father thinks 
you get too damm much money.” Scores of teachers in- 
curred the ill will of their neighbors because they were 
revealed as making more money than many workingmen. 
Inadequate was this also in light of the violent abuse 
showered on Board members for far less heinous offenses 
—abuse which painted them as reckless, careless, spend- 
thrift, ignorant, unpatriotic and conscienceless. 

Teachers Union officials have good reason for believ- 
ing that the salary question motivates most of the oppo- 


7 








sition to the Board of Education and to school levies. 

Board members and union leaders have been told on 
several occasions by Chamber of Commerce representa- 
tives that the only way to win their support for the Board’s 
financial policies is to put school salaries permanently on 
an 85-per-cent basis. If this were done, they perceive 
that most of the civic groups which have been clamor- 
ing noisily against them would cease their opposition and 
that newspaper hostility would be softened in consequence 
of the lessened verbal barrage. 

But the Board has proceeded in its determination to 
give teachers and other workers a voice in school policies 
and to return them to the salary schedule first adopted in 
1921. 

It was the anti-labor Cleveland Plain Dealer which blew 
the first sour note against the Board shortly after the 
election which overturned the old order. The Plain 
Dealer announced that a “labor bloc” had secured control 
of the Board, and the other two Cleveland dailies chimed 
in with stern dicta against “blocs.” The fact was that a 
bloc supported by the “better people,” as righteous civic 
groups always think of themselves, had been elected just 
two years before without the least bit of newspaper com- 
ment or criticism. There was then no feeling on the part 
of the editorial writers that “blocs” were out of place in 
the schools. 

Newspaper comment on Board actions after the crucial 
1935 election became increasingly critical of the labor-sup- 
ported Board members, but that criticism was trifling in 
comparison with the torrent of feeling stirred up by the 
newspapers since 1937, when the labor “bloc” made known 
its decision to restore salaries from the depression level of 
85 per cent to the new level of 96 per cent. Since that time, 
editorial pundits have been unceasing in their diatribes, and 
reporters diligent in “blowing up” every slightest indication 
that Board members are not precisely angelical though, 
apparently, they were pluperfect in the “good old days.” 

So much feeling against the Board and the schools has 
ensued that this year the directors of the Cleveland Wom- 
en’s City Club were moved to urge defeat of the school 
operating levy even though the schools might be forced to 
close. The president of the club, who does not herself live 
in the Cleveland school district and has no children in the 
Cleveland schools, gave point to the directors’ action by 
revealing that they sought to achieve a “repudiation of the 
work and tactics of the majority bloc.” 

Most of the large civic groups which have been fighting 
the Board and its efforts to finance the schools adequately 
are composed of well-intentioned persons who live outside 
Cleveland proper, but who consider it a sacred duty to take 
an active part in Cleveland civic affairs. Many of these 
persons live in suburbs whose schools are in a far better 
financial position than the Cleveland schools and whose 
school tax rate has been for years higher than the Cleveland 
school tax rate. 

A Cleveland resident who wrote to the editor of The 
Cleveland News recently to that effect was roundly chas- 


tised by the editor, himself a suburban resident, in these 
words: 

“A Touch of Stupidity. 

“The News regards passage of the school levy on No- 
vember 5 as most important, but it is bound to defend 
the right of civic organizations to express their opinions, 
no matter on which side of a local boundary line some of 
their members live.” 

Of course the editor missed the point made by the letter- 
writer. The point was that, to be consistent, those who 
take great interest in a school system of a district in which 
they do not live might take an interest, possibly even a 
critical interest, in the schools of their own community. 
But none of the Cleveland school critics ever make inflam- 
matory statements about the finances of their own schools, 
so far as this writer has learned. 

And the Cleveland schools, for those interested in 
finance, have a most excellent record for efficiency and 
economy. This is true in the face of a bitter struggle to 
maintain an outstanding school system crippled by reduc- 
tion in tax income, reduction in property valuation, and 
a state law which requires schools to go frequently to the 
electorate for a large part of the continuing expense of 
operating the schools. 

The Cleveland newspaper readers well may be bewild- 
ered by the continuing hostility of the daily newspapers, 
the Association of Building Owners and Managers, the 
Citizens League, the League of Women Voters, the Wom- 
en’s City Club and other groups of well-to-do suburbanites, 
in the face of this record: 

The Cleveland school tax rate on real property has 
been, for several years, the lowest among the twelve cities 
in Cuyahoga county. 

The Cleveland school district receives a smaller part 
of the taxpayer’s dollar—32 per cent—than any of the 
other eleven city school districts in Greater Cleveland. 
The suburb in which many of the most vocal Cleveland 
school critics live receives 62 per cent of the tax dollar. 

The per capita debt of the Cleveland schools is, and 
has been for some years, the lowest of the county’s city 
school systems. 

The Cleveland school district has, since 1929, reduced 
its share of the property tax from 40.5 per cent to 31.3 
per cent, and its operating expenses have been cut more 
than $2,500,000 a year. Few subdivisions can match this. 

School enrollment since 1929-1930 has declined 12 per 
cent. Current expenditures have been reduced by 14 per 
cent, while the number of teachers has been cut 18 per 
cent. 

In the face of all these facts, it is incomprehensible to 
school people that newspapers, civic groups, and voters 
generally do not give credit where credit is due—why they 
do not, in a phrase, separate the sheep from the goats 
and lead a civic crusade for support of a school system 
and a financial policy which are second to none in the 
State of Ohio. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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Neglected Youth: America’s Peril 


Goodwin Watson 


IN THE excitement of an emergency when people lose 
their heads, they are said to throw the baby out of the 
window and tenderly carry the mattress downstairs. The 
defense program has thus far been based upon some such 
topsy-turvy values. Washington is apparently quite given 
over to the production of tanks, airplanes and guns. If 
anyone has remembered that Hitler began a far-reaching 
youth program some years before he started rearmament, 
that fact has made little impression. Congress has given 
our all to make sure that manufacturers can count upon 
profits and has even agreed to pay for new plants with 
public money—then hand them over scot-free to industry. 
That, they tell us, is necessary to build up morale among 
the half-hearted industrialists. Nobody that is anybody 
is concerned about what is necessary to build up the mor- 
ale of youth. They will, of course, be eager to fly the 
planes and squeeze into the cramped quarters of tanks 
and submarines. Industry will stall, it seems, unless some- 
thing better than the average profits for the period, 1935- 
1939, can be promised, but youth, Mr. Willkie says, should 
sacrifice. President Butler thinks youth should sacrifice. 
Mr. Ford, Mr. Du Pont and lots of people think youth 
should sacrifice. It certainly is wonderful for youth to 
live in a free country where they can lay down their 
lives for something fine like democracy, isn’t it? Of 
course youth ought to toughen up a bit. Youth is getting 
pretty soft from too much riding in Cadillacs. 

A few lonely voices have been concerned about the 
human side of cannon fodder. Gallup polls during the 
summer found 44 per cent of well-to-do adults, 
over fifty years of age, for intervention in the European 
war but less than a third of youth under thirty taking 
that attitude. “Wars,” wrote Ralph Ingersoll in a pas- 
sionate editorial in PM, “are fought by kids.” Not 
dollars, not guns, but kids. If the kids don’t find the 
game worth the candle, of what use are the shiny war- 
machines going to be? Is it true that some American 
young people have been wondering whether they would 
be any worse off under Hitler? Didn’t Hitler give every- 
one a job? 

The most futile pastime of adults who attempt to deal 
with youth is to scold. What good will it do to call one 
another “irresponsibles”? Youth is strangely unimpressed 
by the superior wisdom of the adult leaders who have 
gotten our economy and our world into the present mess. 

Leslie Gould gives an effective illustration in the first 
chapter of his book, American Youth Today. He begins 
with the scene on the White House lawn that rainy, 
sleety, February Saturday when 5,000 expectant youths 
from every corner of the United States were scolded by 


NOVEMBER, 1940 


the President for passing resolutions on subjects about 
which they could not have complete knowledge, for asking 
legislative panaceas, and for the “unadulterated twaddle” 
of their views on foreign policy. Leslie Gould knows those 
Youth Congress youngsters personally and intimately, and 
the soliloquy which he writes is probably not far amiss. 

He said in his message to Congress, didn’t he, that we 
unused youth were a primary concern. Then he went 
and cut millions out of NYA, CCC and WPA, didn’t he? 

. . .» We don’t want hand-outs. We don’t want any 

“permanent remunerative occupation of our own choos- 

ing.” We want a simple little American want—to talk, 

pray, and think as we please and eat regular. We want 

a chance to work and learn, to enjoy the Bill of Rights, 

to live in peace, not die in pieces. .. . 

This is a terrible problem we face and we know it 
can’t be solved by calling a lot of names. We know that 
lots of toes are going to be stepped on when we start 
putting the answers into practice. . . . That’s why they’re 
smearing us all right. Trying to keep us divided. But it 
won’t work. We've seen the way and we’re heading there. 
Suppose we haven’t thought things through to the very 
end. Suppose we haven’t got 100 per cent sure-fire knowl- 
edge of everything we’re batting about. Well, who has? 
Has the President? Or his Cabinet? Or the Republican 
mucky-mucks? 

Gould writes each line with a punch. The story of 
youth and its needs in the United States of today is told 
in facts and also in cases. Cathy Robinson, age only 
sixteen, had been part of a share-cropper family—evicted, 
camped along Highway 61, but rounded up by police to 
keep the highway from disgracing the State of Missouri. 
Seventy families in an old warehouse without sanitary 
facilities of any sort was less disgrace, as they saw it. 
Ernest works in a shoe factory, to take care of a family of 
five including a brother with tuberculosis. “I’m on piece- 
work now,” reported Ernest, “you get 42 cents for fifty 
pairs of shoes. Highest I ever made by working at a 
headache pace allatime was $11. I never made less than 
seven but usually hit in between with eight-fifty or 
nine.” Talk about the Dead End Kids, says Gould, why, 
85 per cent of working youth feel that they’re on dead 
end jobs! “If you work for a living you’re in business,” 
say the billboards. “Save the American way!” “Why?” 
ask Cathy and Ernest and others of the four million out-of- 
school, out-of-work, ‘and out-of-luck youth. 

The Federal Government has a youth program, to be 
sure. Gould doesn’t forget this. But “NYA reaches only 
one-tenth of those in need and provides them with the 
princely wage of $3.86 per week. Remember that this is 
am average...... Youth’s voice is too infrequently 
heard on the advisory boards and counsel tables of NYA. 
(a. #6 Biggest paradox about the CCC is the ‘Civilian’ 





in its title and the military in its control...... Educa- 
tion in the camps is inadequate. Fifty cents per boy 
per year is the expenditure on education.’ Thirty-five 
per cent turnover exists among the educational advisers. 
eevee Adjustment to the working world is not adequately 
provided...... Young women are untouched by any 
of the work of the CCC.” 

Gould is properly impressed with the National Resources 
Committee report that thirteen million families—many of 
them with several children—are having to get along some- 
how on an average income of $471 a year. On the dollar 
a week per person which they can spend for food, they 
get less than half of what might be their share. And 
“despite marked shifts during depression-bottom years, 
the basic national-income pattern was virtually the same 
at the end of the Roosevelt ‘revolution’ as it was prior 
to it.” 

He is the spokesman for those youth who think some- 
thing can and should and must be done. The closing 
chapter is called “Tomorrow Always Comes.” 

We’re going to be frank about the American Dream 
business. We like the idea, but we hate the way it’s work- 
ing out. . . .We’ve got a pioneering spirit but it’s high-geared 
and streamlined. . . . We want to take what exists and 
make it better and more of it. What is lacking we want 
to create. We want to rejoice in the sweat and tiredness 
that follow a job well done. We want to feel the glow 
of being sons to our fathers and daughters to our mothers. 
We want to extend the continuity of teacher and pupil, 
craftsman and apprentice, that is the golden thread of 
America’s success. . . . We are the America of tomorrow. 
We'll have to foot most of the bill. . .. We are not afraid 
and we are not alone. Joined with us are all the others— 
the Negro, the white, the Catholic, the Protestant, the 
Jew, the free-thinker, the countless faiths. Marching with 
us are the young in white collars, dirty overalls, muddy 
boots, gingham aprons, clergy’s vestments. . . . America’s 
greatest songs are yet unsung. Her greatest battles are 
not yet won. 

Many a teacher, responding to the fire of youth’s spirit 


as reported by Gould, may wonder, “Why are my pu- 
pils not more like that?” The sad truth is that American 
Youth Today is about the actives who are less than 
1 per cent of the total youth population. They count 
for more because they are leaders, and it is important 
to know what they are thinking, but they aren’t typical. 
They may sometimes be extreme in their reactions, but 
America need worry far less about them than about the 
apathy of the 99 per cent. Maxine Davis some years 
ago wrote of the “Lost Generation”; “The tragedy of 
this generation is that it has no faith. They do not 
rebel, because rebels must have a glowing faith in 
something. Our boys and girls neither believe nor dis- 
believe. ..... In effect, they shrug their shoulders, 
spread their hands and say ‘Kismet.’” Pearl Buck calls 
them “docile, and nothing is so unhealthy in the young 
as docility.” Ruth Fedder finds youth “stagnating, in- 
tellectually, emotionally and morally.” Fortune, in June, 
1936, summarized college youth, as “fatalistic, cautious, 


1Reviewer’s note: this must be an error; it wouldn’t begin to pay the 
adviser’s salary. 


The present day college gen- 
It keeps its shirt on, 
its pants buttoned, its chin up, and its mouth shut. 
Security is the summum bonum of the present college 


subdued, unadventurous. 
eration will not stick its neck out. 


generation.” Howard Bell observed, after his study of 
Maryland youth: “In the old a smug conservatism may 
be a menace, but in the young a listless apathy can 
quite easily become a national calamity.” The virtue 
of Leslie Gould’s book is that it shows some youngsters 
who do care and who are trying to do something. The 
immediate problem for America is that neither the “ac- 
tives” nor the “passives” seem likely to be enthusiastic 
about making their contribution through military service. 

A more moderate, balanced and somewhat prosy ac- 
count of modern youth is given by Bruce L. Melvin in his 
Youth—Millions Too Many? ‘The book is “dated” in 
that war developments have changed some of the aspects 
of the problem, but youth comes into these new devel- 
opments handicapped by the economic limitations, wasted 
natural resources, poor housing, dull village life, “‘incon- 
gruous education” and inadequate recreation which Mel- 
vin discusses. Only about a third of farm youth can 
hope for a future on the land. Village youth have noth- 
ing in prospect. City youth crowd the relief programs. 
So what to do? Melvin urges community councils which 
will study the situation and bring together leaders of all 
agencies concerned to work out a plan of action for the 
local needs. 

Millions too many youth? Not if the needs of America’s 
unemployed millions are satisfied—hungry and miser- 
able in their wretched homes. Not if America’s marginal 
families are given a little more security. 


Melvin believes this can be done by an extension of 
present planning efforts within our time-honoured eco- 
nomic system. He does not remark, as Gould does, upon 
the lack of any youth welfare program from such or- 
ganizations as the National Association of Manufacturers 
or the United States Chamber of Commerce. He does 
not take as seriously as would some the difficulty which 
the American Youth Congress has had in getting any co- 
operation from business leaders in its efforts to work out 
plans to meet youth’s needs. 

As soon as one mentions the American Youth Congress, 
there is a raising of eyebrows. Communists? Fifth 
columnists? Few of the reporters who have written about 
the Congress saw what Fortune (May, 1940) recognized 
as the “story behind the story . . . one of a generation 
of bewildered, passive and sold-down-the-river young- 
sters, 4,000,000 of whom just hang around the towns and 
villages of the U. S. waiting for an economic system to 
expand and take them in.” Rather than an appraisal of 
the actions and programs of this group of youth, the press 
has given us instead the semantically silly struggle to get 
the Congress to say the patriotic shibboleths. Even when 
the Congress took the stand into which they had been 
hounded, the press was not satisfied. The account in 
Time magazine of the American Youth Congress meet- 
ing at Lake Geneva in the early summer of 1940 was 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








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“Where tu?” 
“What next?” 


Carl Sandburg’s people ask. And so do 
the American young people pictured here 


Photographs by Ann Rosener, 
National Youth Administration 


as complete a misrepre- 

sentation as one can 
find in American journalism. The AYC 
adopted a resolution condemning “all 
forms of dictatorship regardless of whether they be 
communist, fascist, Nazi or any other type.” The story 
in Time played up the idea that the Congress must 
be under red control because it failed to condemn com- 
munism by name. The bald contradiction between the 
facts and the report is not much illumined by the fol- 
lowing letter of explanation from the editors. 

It is true, however, that the Congress did not condemn 
communism, fascism, or Nazism by name, as we said in 
our story. They did reaffirm a resolution made at last 
year’s convention to this effect: “Be it Resolved That this 

as Congress of Youth record its opposition to all forms of 
“2 dictatorship regardless of whether they be communist, 
‘> fascist, Nazi or any other type.” But since this was 
merely a reaffirmation, it did not seem to us to be par- 
ticularly newsworthy. 

at So it was not Time-newsworthy that the Youth Con- 
gress opposed all communist and other dictatorships. Time 
could give space only to the utterly false charge that 
they had failed to do so. The puerile alibi then is made 
that anyhow the Congress had condemned these dictator- 


ships the year before, so it couldn’t be news when they 
did so again. 

The point of this little digression is to show that co- 
operation of all elements in the community may not be 
so easily won as Mr. Melvin would like to think. Time 
magazine was not alone in this distortion. The press with 
almost complete accord has hinted at communist influence 
in the Youth Congress and has left out the problems 
the young people tried to face and the solutions they 
tried to propose. The more credit to Fortune for its 
Youth Congress article which recognizes that witch-hunt- 
ing solves few youth difficulties. 


To shout “Communist” at leaders of the Congress may 
or may not be fair; but in any case it does not exorcise 
the unhealthy condition of society that has evoked the 
Youth Congress like pus in a wound. True, the gov- 
ernment has tried to help youth by means of the National 
Youth Administration and the CCC—stopgaps that are 
providing jobs for 600,000 young people today, plus part- 
time work for 470,000 students. But the NYA and the 
CCC are not enough. 

The basic weakness is obviously an educational system 
that does not prepare youth to meet the problems of 
living in the modern industrial economy of the U. S.; our 
system of vocational education is weak and spasmodic 
and needs drastic overhauling. Finally, the economy as a 
whole is sick; therefore youth, which is the most vulnera- 
ble age is sick along with it. . . . Captious oldsters who 
deplore the bad manners of the junketing kids may also 
be warned by the objects of their wrath. And that warn- 
ing may best be phrased as an admonition: get busy, find a 
prime mover for the economy, or eventually, under siege 
conditions the children will pull down the republic in 
understandable, if not justifiable, spite. 


Of all American youth the most sorely neglected are 
the two million whose skins are dark. The bitter tale 
will be felt more strongly by readers of Native Son. 
The American Youth Commission has forged ahead, slowly, 
carefully, collecting facts, and building up a trustworthy 
picture of many youth problems. Two of their publica- 
tions of recent date are devoted to Negro youth. Ira deA. 
Reid has written a truly remarkable booklet under the 
haunting title, /x a Minor Key. He presents the avail- 
able facts about the situation of Negro young people, 
first in gist, then in salient statistics. His sound psycho- 
logical thinking is well illustrated in the following typical 
paragraph from the introduction. 


Race may not dominate but at least it throws its 
shadow across every phase of the Negro youth’s life in 
the North and envelops every aspect of it in the South. 
From birth to death his is not only an outer environment 
of social and economic problems and adjustments, but 
also an inner environment of being Negro—which in the 
United States is interpreted to mean inferior, impover- 
ished, and inconvenienced. Both of these environments 
are real, effective, and inescapable. They not only de- 
termine the status of Negroes but they also create the 
Negro personality—a personality that has had to develop 
in whatever way and to whatever extent it could within 
the iron ring of race prejudice. Like the simplest plant, 
the Negro youth has developed protective devices for 
survival and has been shaped by the environments that 
have nurtured him. 


The reader is told, with the aid of simple graphic charts, 
the story of higher birth rate, more sickness, higher mor- 
tality, inferior medical services, dreary dwellings in neg- 
lected residential sections, lower literacy, fewer and poorer 
schools, more farm tenancy, lower wage scales for harder 
labor, more unemployment, more families on relief, woe- 
fully inadequate recreation, little access to libraries, excess 
of churches but lack of trained ministers, higher delin- 
quency and homicide rates, and a score of states in which 
white and black are not equal before the law. The 
problem with these young people is not that they are 
likely to be unwilling to join the defense program but 
that their potentialities in health and intelligence and 
training have been so little utilized and developed. Mod- 
ern warfare and modern defense is not tolerant of depend- 
ence, stupidity and inertia. The role which has been 
set for Negro youth in almost all Southern communities 
and in most Northern cities is almost the direct opposite 
of the kind of vigor, enterprise, initiative, self-reliance, 
intelligence, leadership and quick co-ordination with which 
the young Germans have been winning battles. Democracy 
can hardly point with pride to what we have done for 
our Negro youth to evidence the superiority of our social 
arrangements. 

The second contribution from the American Youth 
Commission is called Negro Youth at the Crossways. This 
book by Dr. E. Franklin Frazier is a research project 
based upon an excellent idea. Two hundred and sixty- 
eight Negro young people were interviewed in Washing- 
ton, D. C., and in Louisville, Kentucky. Those cities 
of the borderland were chosen because it was thought 
that one might expect there a mixture of Southern tra- 
ditions and Northern urban conditions. The study has 
the further high merit of recognizing that class differ- 
ences exist among Negro youth as well as among whites, 
and that family life, neighborhood conditions, school ex- 
periences, life ambitions, sex relations, work opportuni- 
ties, and religious and political experiences will be quite 
different for lower-class youth from the experiences com- 
mon to middle-class Negroes or to the very few upper- 
class individuals. The hundreds of quotations from Negro 
young people giving their experiences in each of these 
social institutions and movements make interesting read- 
ing. Competent social scientists will be troubled, no 
doubt, by the fact that it is quite impossible to tell from 
Dr. Frazier’s account whether the particular individual 
is representative of a universal viewpoint among Negro 
youths or of a particular clique, or of none but himself. 
The lay reader is likely to be frightened off by sociological 
verbalism of which a very little will suffice to confuse 
a simple matter. For example: 

The general pattern which the Negro community as- 
sumes in the border city results from the impact of 
economic and social forces upon the expanding Negro 
population. These forces tend to select and segregate 
various elements in the population as the city expands, 


thus giving a definite character to different areas of the 
Negro community, and affecting the social structure and 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 

















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institutions that develop. Our description of this phase of 

the Negro community will be limited to the social strati- 

fication of the community. 

Somehow a project which was full of high promise has 
become difficult and tedious. Everything is in order 
from preface to appendices, but somehow the book lacks 
vitality. Every page elaborates the obvious, and few 
theses emerge far enough above the clutter to be recog- 
nizable. 

We turn with a sense of relief to a book which is both 
about youth and by youth and which is much the most 
fun to read. Joe, Lillian, George, Helen and Mel left 
Brooklyn College in a borrowed car to make their cur- 
riculum the life of people in these United States. They 
managed in one trip to get into a Newspaper Guild con- 
vention, a Moral Rearmament session, Hollywood studios, 
a Cleveland picket line, the Associated Farmers’ offices, a 
federal migratory camp, Mexicali and Juarez, the Wash- 
ington Commonwealth Federation, the Citizens’ Fact-Find- 
ing Commission of Georgia, Grand Coulee, the Highland 
Folk School, Bloody Harlan, the United States Senate and 
a scattering of NYA projects. These sincere and spon- 
taneous youngsters interviewed John Steinbeck, Deanna 
Durbin, Jay Franklin, Ella Winter, Anna Roosevelt Boet- 
tiger, and other celebrities. Since the men weren’t home, 
they talked to Mrs. Maury Maverick and Mrs. John Rust. 
They swam in Mischa Auer’s pool, visited Lionel Stander 
and Albert Bein, were escorted around “Tagus—the 
world’s largest nectarine, peach and apricot orchard” by 
none other than Huelett C. Merrit, Jr., son of the owner, 
but didn’t fail to talk also to Carey McWilliams. They 
picked up hitch-hikers, talked to filling-station employees, 
hamburger-stand cooks, beauty parlor girls, and youth 
leaders. They told people that they were writing a book 
about America and people scrambled to be included in 
the story. Somehow they managed to live on fifty cents 
per person per day for food and fifty cents each day for 
lodging. (Is American youth too “soft”?) They were 
often broke, but always managed. Through their racy 
journalistic account, one can see how the American scene 
looks to bright, socially-conscious youngsters from Brook- 
lyn. 

We saw a country full of immense and wonderful possi- 
bilities, but we saw too many people without self-confi- 
dence, without the dignity of youth... . 

We remember the goodness of Doug, the star reporter 
who wanted to live in Mexico . . . the two girls at the 
market in Kansas City who had different religions but 
still were good friends . . . the dead land in Kansas chok- 
ing all life out of farmers and their crops . . . the gro- 
cery boy who never had a chance to go to school... 
Mayor Scott drinking Coca-Colas and expounding the 
virtues of relief cuts . . . dark and chunky Ted Lang 
searching the skies for rain clouds, and his son learning 
to hate the Jews... . 

We remember how we followed the Redwood trail and 
marveled . . . we still grow silent when we think of the 
tall thick trees in the night. .. . 


The war in Europe started, and we began to hear the 
chant of the people .. . KEEP OUT... “It’s a rich 
man’s war and a poor man’s fight,” said young Evan who 


NOVEMBER, 1940 


wanted to farm a piece of land some day... . 

We grew up on this trip. We learned disillusionment; 
but we did not become cynical. We discovered America, 
and we drew from its people the lesson that great things 
still remain to be done before the dignity of both youth 
and man is victorious. Above all, we learned that this 
dignity is possible, because we became confident in the 
ability of the Eddie Wagners and Tex Dobbses and 
Hartford Knights to achieve it. 

The Argonauts close their account in these words: 


We entered the subway and bought early editions of 
the next morning’s papers. We rode home, reading the 
HELP WANTED ads. 


If I were to choose for them, I think I would have 
chosen another passage to reveal in closing, their hearts 
and the heart of American youth. They wrote of them- 
selves: 

We felt that we were living in a century of unlimited 
possibilities. Anything could happen. But could we 
make good things happen? 

Yes, that’s it! There they saw the real significance of 
their generation. An old order has gone—never to re- 
turn. While the new arrangements are still unformed and 
tentative, our efforts and youth’s efforts can make a dif- 
ference. When old institutions fail to work, the time 
is ripe for new and often unexpected possibilities to 
emerge. Precisely because everything is now so upset 
in the world, and because it will be much worse before 
it is stable again, it may be possible to bring about 
changes that ordinarily would take generations. 

These five books* about youth are packed with familiar 
problems but are evasive about solutions. Haven’t we 
had nearly enough of problem-posing for a while? Isn’t 
it full-time (or past time) for some creative imagination? 
Let’s put at least as much time, money, high ability and 
high governmental position into the design of constructive 
proposals for youth as we eagerly put into designing as- 
sembly-line production for airplanes. It is regrettable 
that the American Federation of Teachers, in its 1940 
convention, had so little program to offer to American 
youth. Our high-school programs have moved far in the 
last ten years, but they haven’t begun yet, for the most 
part, .o make the changes which would be required if 
youth’s full range of problems were met with clear-headed 
planning. Colleges seem much less helpful than high 
schools; the devotion to subjects-out-of-tradition quite 
overshadows what their students need in the present world. 
The few experimental colleges have been sabotaged by 
the academic world itself. Hope for a new program can- 
not rest on the college people. Where then? Youth- 
serving organizations of the old philanthropic type are 
duds. They have.increasing difficulty each year to raise 
their budgets. What is going to be done will be done 


2Franklin E. Frazier: Negro Youth at the Crossways. Washington, 
D. C.; American Council on Education. 301 pages. $2.25. 

Leslie Gould: American Youth Today. New York: Random House. 
307 pages. $2.00. 

Bruce L. Melvin: Youth—Millions Too Many? New York: Associa- 
tion Press. 220 . $2.00. 

Ira deA. Reid: In a Minor Key. Negro Youth in Story and Fact. 
Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education. 134 $1.25. 

Lillian E. Ross, George Whitman, Joe Wershba, Helen Ross and Mel 
Fiske: The Argonauts. New York: Modern Age. 340 pages. $2.75. 








in the future with public funds. All we can see now is 
the draft, but that seems unlikely to attempt much beyond 
drill-sergeant, time-serving routines. What we know 
about youth suggests that any doubts the recruits may 
bring about military training as a way of expressing devo- 
tion to democracy will be aggravated rather than elim- 
inated by their year in the army. There remains the possi- 
bility of a genuine youth program—beginning early and 
continuing on to adult life. All American youth ought 
to be served and serving in enterprises which tackle 
basic social problems and result in both educational and 
social gains. Perhaps we shall move soon into some 
kind of universal citizenship service for youth after they 


complete the secondary school and before they go out 
into jobs or on to college or into the army. Whatever 
the form of the proposal, it will have to be something 
new, something challenging, something nation-wide, some- 
thing which builds genuine morale rather than spurious 
flag-waving; something which tackles the defects in our 
democracy rather than asserts blindly our supposed su- 
periority. Unless we can rise to the opportunity of a time 
like this and can meet the frustration of the hopes and 
energies and ideals of our over-taking generation with a 
program more significant and more inspiring than any 
which the Old World has devised, our kind of democracy 
will deserve its unhappy fate. 


Convention Committee Reports 
on Working Conditions* 


DURING the year, 1939-1940, education has been under 
severe attack in all parts of the country. Through other 
reports to this convention we know what techniques are 
being used by reactionary forces to undermine education’s 
financial support. From our own experience we know 
what reduced budgets for education mean to the schools. 
We know that they result in reduction of educational 
opportunities for the children and tremendous hardships 
and difficulties for the teachers. 

This Committee has made no survey of the status of 
teachers’ working conditions, but certain trends were in- 
dicated in the Committee’s discussions. These were that: 

1. Salaries are being threatened, either by direct action or by 
such devices as the reclassification scheme used in Peru 
and Anderson, Indiana; 

2. In some areas the school day is being lengthened, appar- 
ently to reduce the number of teachers; 

3. School plant standards, supplies, equipment and textbooks 
are being reduced, creating a particularly pressing prob- 
lem; 

4. Class size is increasing in many communities, in an at- 
tempt by local boards of education to economize by 
reducing the number of teachers; 

5. Increasing teacher-unemployment offers a threat to em- 
ployed teachers in many ways; 

6. Teacher morale is being undermined through fear of dis- 
criminatory supervision and administration of the schools, 
which is accentuated by the tensions and hysteria of the 
present time. 

Because of these retrenchment trends, and because 
there will be more attempts at retrenchment in the coming 
year, the Committee feels very strongly that there is no 
committee whose work is more important to the locals of 





*This report was drawn up by the Working Conditions Committee at 
the American Federation of Teachers Convention in Buffalo, August 
19—24, 1940, but was not presented to the Convention for adoption because 
of lack of time. The report is being printed to aid local working condi- 
tions committees in their work and to serve as a basis for discussion of 
these problems. 


14 


the AFT than the Committee on Working Conditions. At 
present there is no machinery set up which furnishes 
the locals with the information and techniques necessary 
to improve working conditions in the schools. 

The Committee therefore recommends to the Executive 
Council that the machinery be immediately set up to make 
this Committee function as a clearing house on all matters 
related to this vital problem. The Committee recom- 
mends, first, that the national office send out as soon as 
possible a letter to all AFT locals requesting each to re- 
port to the national chairman of the Working Conditions 
Committee as soon as possible on the following items: 

1. The name and address of the chairman of the local’s com- 
mittee on working conditions (if the local does not have 
one, a request to be made that the local set up one immedi- 
ately and forward the information requested as soon as 
possible) ; 


' 


2. A report of the efforts made by the local during the past | 


year to improve any of the conditions under which teach- 


ers are working (involving such matters as salary cuts and | 


restorations, salary schedules, overcrowded classes, length | | 


of working day, extra-curricular activities and amount of 
clerical work required, atmosphere of work, relations be- 
tween teachers and supervisors and administrators, par- 
ticipation by teachers in the formulation of and the 
methods for carrying out any policies and programs by 


teachers, discriminations, health insurance, sick-leave, 
maternal and sabbatical leave, equipment, school building 
replacement and repair, conditions in rural and under- 
privileged areas, etc.), such report to include the methods 
used (whether successful or not), the results obtained, and 
any suggestions and comments growing out of the experi- 


ence which would be helpful to others working on the 


same matter. 
The Committee further recommends that the national 


office send out from time to time to all locals’ chairmen 
on working conditions statements from the National Com- 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


which they are affected, teacher-ratings, promotion of | 











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mittee on their findings, with particular emphasis on the 
techniques that have been successful, in order that all 
may benefit from these experiences. 

The Committee also urges all the locals’ working con- 
ditions committees to use the National Committee to the 
fullest extent, by requesting information, sharing expe- 
riences, making suggestions for improving the work of 
the Committee. 

For the immediate aid of all working conditions com- 
mittees, there has been distributed a report of the chair- 
man of the Standing Committee on Working Conditions, 
which gives briefly the status, the trends, certain recom- 
mendations that are being made by the more progressive 
authorities with a bibliography appended which covers 
material, for the most part published or recommended by 
the U. S. Office of Education, the National Education As- 
sociation, and our own locals. This report covers salaries, 
teacher-ratings, sick-leave, and teacher-administration re- 
lations. 

The Convention Committee, having studied the report, 
makes certain recommendations: 

1. With regard to salary, the committee endorses the prin- 
ciple of the single-salary schedule but raises a warning 
against the danger of attempts by the school boards to use 
this as a means of reducing salaries; it endorses the 
principle of equal pay but opposes the establishment of 
any principle of family allowances, which the committee 
feels could be used to cut salaries and to discriminate be- 
tween those with and without dependents; it recommends 
continued activity on the part of the AFT to push the 
drive for federal aid and to establish the policy of a salary 
schedule which states a minimum and a maximum salary, 
with provision for regular increments; it recommends 
continued activity on the part of state federations to 
carry out the AFT program, to force adherence to salary 
schedules already adopted, to work for more equitable 
state aid programs, and to secure minimum salary legis- 
lation ($2,000 has been the previous AFT recommenda- 
tion); it recommends continued activity on the part of 
locals to carry out the AFT and state federation programs 
and to lead in local drives to improve salary conditions. 

With regard to teacher-ratings, the Committee agreed 
that all subjective ratings and merit ratings should be 
discarded because they further the spirit of competition 
in a field where co-operation is most desirable. 

The Committee endorsed the principle of cumulative 
sick-leave until such time as it would be possible to 
achieve the ideal reported by at least five cities, namely, 
unlimited sick-leave at full salary. 

The Committee feels that the matter of teacher-su- 
pervisor-administrator relations is of vital importance, as 
it underlies all the conditions under which teachers work. 
Fear must be removed; the teacher must be able to do 
his best work. The Committee recommends, therefore, 
that every attempt be made to improve relations so that 
there shall be achieved the utmost co-operation and 
teacher participation in all matters affecting the teacher. 
It suggests that conferences be held with progressive 
supervisors and that attempts be made constantly to 
square the practice with the liberal philosophies with 
which the newer books on administration abound. The 


NOVEMBER, 1940 


A Survey of Tenure Laws 
in the United States 


THIS SURVEY and analysis of existing state teacher 
tenure laws in the United States was prepared by the 
members of the Legislative Research Committee of the 
Philadelphia Local of the American Federation of Teachers. 
The material presented is based upon a questionnaire sent 
to all the State Superintendents of Public Instruction dur- 
ing May, 1940. In addition, the laws themselves in the 
latest editions available were examined. As far as we 
know, all 1939 amendments are included. 

No reference is made in this study to continuing con- 
tract laws. Our criteria for differentiating continuing con- 
tract laws from tenure laws were as follows: 

Continuing contract laws permit continuous service with- 
out the necessity of making annual contracts. If the 
teacher is not notified of her dismissal by May 1 (or 
some such date), her contract is automatically renewed 
for another year. The school board, however, retains the 
power to dismiss teachers without cause and without hear- 
ing whenever the contract period expires. The teachers’ 
only protection is the notice of dismissal before the end of 
the term. 

Tenure laws, on the other hand, insure continuous 
service during efficiency and proper conduct. Contracts 
remain in force indefinitely unless terminated for causes 
listed in the law. Provision is made for hearings and 
appeal from adverse decisions. When properly worded, 
tenure laws offer real protection to competent teachers. 

The items used as the basis for the analysis were selected 
with a view to their importance and our space limitations. 
Plans are in progress for a more detailed study covering 
suspension and dismissal procedures. The problem of 
married women teachers is receiving separate considera- 
tion. 

Special mention should be made of Mr. Nathan Fox 
who did much of the work in connection with this study. 
Misses Bobman and Greenbaum were of great assistance 
with the questionnaire. This report was submitted by 
Nathan Shrager, former chairman of the Standing Com- 
mittee on Tenure. 








Committee is aware, however, that the present frequently 
unsatisfactory relationship can best be overcome by the 
building of strong unions in the schools which will con- 
stantly strive to democratize the administration and pre- 
serve democracy in education by practising it. 

The year ahead will not be an easy one. With the 
immense sums which are being spent on a defense program, 
there will be the attempt to retrench in education all 
along the line. The policy of the AFL and AFT has 
always been that in time of crisis more education, not 
less, is needed. 

The best defense which we as teachers can make in 
this crisis is to see that’ every child has the opportunity 
to acquire an adequate education. The Committee rec- 
ommends that all locals’ working conditions committees 
take up at once the challenge of the present crisis, not only 
to fight retrenchment in education, but to bend every 
effort to guarantee to every child in this country of ours 
the opportunity for a truly adequate education. 


PLEASE TURN TO PAGES 16 AND 17 > 








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NOVEMBER, 1940 





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Building Schools 
and Children 


James M. Ross 


“If the needy children of the Southern mountains can 
be cared for so that they can attend school, the perplex- 
ing problem of that wide area is no longer hopeless. Last 
year, the Federation through distribution of clothing kept 
20,000 of these children in their small neighborhood pub- 
lic schools. This year it aims to double that number, 
reaching fifty-seven of the two hundred mountain coun- 
ties. In three years, the organization should be able to 
grapple with the entire situation and have every child in 
the mountains in school.” 

This statement briefly sets forth a major objective of 
the Save the Children Federation, formed ten years ago 
to help meet the urgent needs of “forgotten boys and 
girls” in the highlands of the Southern states. Educa- 
tion is really the great need of the mountains. 

Through widespread and practical co-operation with 
public schools in isolated and impoverished areas of the 
southern Appalachians, the agency is giving thousands of 
children a chance for an education. It receives help from 
many leading educators over the country, as well as the 
co-operation of more than 500 county school superintend- 
ents, supervisors, teachers, boards of education and other 
outstanding forces in more than 100 counties in which it is 
active. The Federation now operates in West Virginia, 
Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina and 
has given some school help in Georgia. The work reaches 
about half the rural counties in the five first-named states 
and in some way benefits approximately 50,000 young 
people. 

Public schools are already open in the Southern moun- 
tains. They must begin sessions early in the autumn to 
save the fuel essential for the cold weather which militates 
against long terms. Money is too scarce in those regions 
for a penny to be wasted or spent unnecessarily. 

To the Federation headquarters in the Metropolitan 
Tower, 1 Madison avenue, New York, daily come ap- 
peals from school officials, teachers and patrons declaring 
that unless shoes, clothing, books, desks and other sup- 
plies are furnished at once the children will suffer men- 
tally and physically, large numbers will be unable to at- 
tend school, and the cause of education will receive a seri- 
ous setback. 

This telegram which was recently received by the Fed- 
eration from R. C. Neneau, superintendent of Clinton 
County, Kentucky, schools, reveals a situation which is 
typical in many sections: 

Have visited our fifty schools. Many children out for lack 
of clothing and supplies. Many pupils hungry and under- 


nourished. Need daily lunch. We need outside help. Local 
agencies unable to meet needs. We are deeply grateful for 





Photograph by Lee 


past help of your Federation to our poor mountain children. 

During 1939 the Federation supplied approximately 
100,000 pounds of usable clothing and several thousand 
pairs of shoes, enabling more than 25,000 pupils to con- 
tinue in school. More than 15,000 desks were given to 
schools, making a total of over 25,000 distributed in the 
highlands by the agency. About 87,000 school text and 
library books were provided in 1939, bringing the total 
to well over 500,000 shipped to the mountains in the 
nine years of the Federation’s work. These results were 
made possible through contributions by the public, boards 
of education, publishers, schools, church groups, women’s 
societies and other interested organizations. 

The organization has made it possible for numerous 
one- and two-room rural schools to remain open by furnish- 
ing food, clothing, shoes, books and school equipment 
and has enabled a number of schools to reopen after sus- 
pension when enrollment dropped to almost nothing be- 
cause pupils were inadequately clad and shod. 

The Federation’s field worker in Knox county, Ken- 
tucky, writes: “We visited Bull Creek school, one of the 
most isolated in the country. We drove ten miles over 
a rough gravel road, a mile over a country road full of 
rocks and ruts, and finally parked the car to walk the 
remaining distance of one and a quarter miles—it seemed 
like three—over a dusty road, the temperature ninety in 
the shade. We felt repaid for our hard trip, for the 
teachers appreciated our coming and the children were 
responsive.” 

Pupils frequently walk as much as five or more miles to 
school in the morning, after doing home chores, then 
trudge back in the afternoon—all to “get an education,” 
which is the goal of most of them. Some have struggled 
barefoot to school through snow, ice and frozen mud. 
Many have only a bit of bread and milk, sometimes a 
potato, now and then a slice of meat, an apple, maybe, 
for breakfast. They have no lunch unless their school 
is one where the Federation is enabled, with community 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Courtesy of Farm Security Administration 






















ration 





help, to serve a hot lunch. This is being done in numer- 
ous small schools. It is estimated that at least 3,000,000 
of these meals are necessary to meet the school-term re- 
quirements of the needy pupils in the Federation’s terri- 
tory. Their supper at home is equally as sparse and unap- 
petizing as the breakfast. 


Notwithstanding the hardships they are compelled to 
endure, the Southern mountain children are bright as 
the average, learn quickly, reap adequate value from their 
lessons. In the schools where hot lunch is provided, pupils 
have benefited immediately. Their weight increases, their 
health improves, they are more eager for study, their 
disposition and deportment are promptly bettered. Ad- 
vances in weight have been as much as eight pounds in 
a month or two in certain instances. 

Numerous school buildings are in such dilapidated con- 
dition that they seem almost ready to fall in. In many 
localities parents give of their time and labor to improve 
these structures. Pupils work, too, in beautifying the 
grounds. The following letter is from a Tennessee moun- 
tain county superintendent: 


We have a little school with about twenty-four enrolled. 
It is a small community and the parents are afraid their 
school will not be approved. (Approval is based generally 
by state educational authorities on a certain number of 
pupils enrolled and attending.) So these parents have decided 
to help themselves, but with some help from the Save the 
Children Federation they will have a fine school. Here is what 
the parents propose to do to get the school approved: build 
safe concrete steps, underpin the floor, make cloakroom shelves 
for hot lunches (the Federation with community aid pro- 
vides material for one hot meal daily), coats and hats, make 
a mud scraper and mat, buy shades for windows, get a first- 
aid kit, serve hot lunches, furnish toilet paper, paint the 
toilets, clean the school grounds, make all-weather walks, 
lunch storage place, supply window boards. 

I beg you to help us all you can in this county in the way 
of food, clothing and toys. I am going to organize workers 
in the schools in each community. 


It is not lack of will or industry that brings about the 
distressing conditions—it is that the people are deprived 
by economic stress of having money and means to accom- 
plish much in the way of progress. 

The Federation field worker in a tier of Virginia moun- 
tain counties reports: 


One boy who lives with his grandfather was made ashamed 
because other children laughed at his ragged clothing and 
refused to come back to school. When I made a home visit 
he ran into the woods and I had a hard time to catch up 
in chasing him. When I made him understand that I had 
come to bring him clothing I have never seen a child so 
pleased. He put on the coat and shoes and tried his best 
to see how well he looked, but there was no mirror, so all he 
could do was to believe what I told him. He went back with 
me to the school as happy as could be. The parents are dead 
and the grandfather is so old he cannot work. All they 
have is $9.00 a month. 

In one schoolroom I found three children so dirty I could 
hardly tell if they were white or black. I made a visit and 
found that the family of seven lives in two filthy rooms, 
with only a cot and a bed. The father had tuberculosis and 
was lying on the bed without sheets or pillow cases. A baby 


NOVEMBER, 1940 


fifteen months old was in the same bed with a bit of bread 
in its hand. There were three more small children there, and 
although it was very cold the flies were on everything. The 
only food they had was beans. The mother works at sewing 
some distance away and must leave home before daybreak 
and cannot return until after dark. Therefore there is no one 
to look after the family except this sick man who cannot get 
out of bed. The children’s clothing was so dirty it was stiff 
and was all they had. 


Mr. and Mrs. Lee, teachers at Parker’s Lake school, in 
southeastern Kentucky, make this report on their institu- 
tion, which is one of the best in the entire area: 


The building is made of native sandstone and is very 
beautiful. It is located in a grove of native trees and has a 
large playground in the rear. The building consists of two 
rooms and two small cloakrooms. 

We started our soup making project in October and it 
continued until school was out the last of March. Some of the 
children were able to bring foods from home to put into the 
soup. Some foods brought were beans, potatoes, rice, onions 
and oatmeal. The children usually brought a part of their 
lunch from home. They brought crackers or bread and their 
spoons and bowl since we had no means of washing or storing 
at school. We made our soup in a large canner on an old- 
fashioned coal stove that was used to heat the room. The 
soup was put on at morning recess and was cooked by noon. 
One of our patrons lived close by and she washed our canner 
and ladle each day. 

The children have gained in weight considerably. At best 
a cold lunch is not very appetizing or nourishing and lots of 
the boys and girls do not have sufficient to satisfy their 
appetites. The gains in weight have been from two to twelve 
pounds, the greater gains being made by the pupils who 
ate soup daily. 

Through the efforts of Miss Hurlbut (Federation worker) 
we were able to get some clothes for the most needy cases. 
It meant the difference between coming to school and staying 
at home for some of the pupils. Some large fifteen-year-old 
girls that were in the second grade have come every day 
due largely to the fact that they got the clothing and had 
soup at school. A few days that I could not make soup 
I have seen pupils eat dry bread for their lunch. Our school 
had a vegetable garden near the school and we raised vege- 
tables that were used in our soup. The 4-H Club boys 
helped with the work and the NYA and WPA women did the 
canning. 

For recreation the larger pupils play ball at recess on fair 
days. Each Friday afternoon we have a ball game with the 
neighboring schools. Patrons attended as there are very few 
forms of amusement in this rural district. During the winter 
we enjoy Chinese checkers, bingo, bob jacks, puzzles and 
marbles on the inside. ; 

Our pupils are interested in their work and their school. 
They have the ability if they had the chance to develop 
their minds. Their contacts with the outside are meager. 
Some of the children have never seen a show or ridden on a 
train or bus. Few of them have seen electric lights and only 
one family in this community has them. 

We hope to have a hot lunch project next year for we feel 
it is worth the time spent on it. 


Although the states provide schoolhouses and teach- 
ers, it is difficult for thousands of poor children to attend 
school. Poverty denies them the barest necessities of life. 
The school superintendents of fifty-seven mountain coun- 
ties reported last winter that 37,859 children need shoes 
and clothing in order to go to school, indicating at least 








130,000 in two hundred counties. 

The Federation has inaugurated a plan of “sponsored 
schools.” These are one- and two-room rural public 
schools. The purpose is to give essential aid to the very 
needy children, enabling them to have an education and 
also to interest teachers in home visitation, kindling a 
greater consciousness of child need and training them in 
the principles of social service. Last but not least, these 
schools are intended to demonstrate in their neighborhoods 
and the surrounding country what can and should be done 
for underprivileged children. 

The cost of sponsoring a mountain school of from fifteen 
to twenty-five pupils is $60 a year or $5.00 a month. 
This amount enables the Federation to secure for the 
needy children in the school necessary shoes and clothing 
(used and new), to help provide a daily lunch and to 
furnish a general welfare service. The actual value is 
considerably more’ than $60. Donors are given the name, 
a picture and a description of “their” school and receive 
periodic reports of progress. 

Whole communities have become interested in the spon- 
sored schools. Fathers and older brothers have helped 
to make necessary repairs upon the school buildings. 
Where WPA housekeeper help could not be secured, the 
older girls in the locality have helped. Transformations 
have taken place not only in the children but in the whcle 
school situation. Ugly, drab, uninviting buildings have 
taken on a new appearance. They were painted both in- 
side and out. Curtains hang at the windows. Pictures 
are on walls. Desks, contributed by schools in the North, 
have taken the places of worn out, knife-scarred, uncom- 
fortable desks at which the children have tried to study. 
Supplementary books have been given and put to use 


and school libraries established. 

Vacation schools are conducted for a few weeks each 
summer under auspices of the Federation in numerous 
communities. Agency workers, public-school officials and 
teachers give of their time establishing and operating the 
classes. A number of teachers forego a part of their own 


vacation to instruct the children, who in some instances | 


must be taught how to play and sing, so narrowly con- 
fined by circumstances are their lives. All the pupils are 
trained in useful crafts as well as games and other 
pastimes. In some neighborhoods parents attend the vaca- 
tion schools with their children. 

As described heretofore, the Federation was able to raise 
100,000 pounds of clothing, sufficient to keep 20,000 chil- 
dren in school last year. This was done through “bundle 


days” in public schools throughout the North. Some of + 
the best results were obtained in relatively small com- | 


munities. The “bundle days” method is simple, practical 
and imposes no undue labor on the principal and teachers. 
The steps are: (1) the Federation furnishes a circular for 
each pupil to take home and for distribution by teachers 
a few days in advance; (2) the Federation supplies bur- 
lap bags for each school; the packages brought to school 
on “bundle day” are placed immediately in bags so that 
no sorting or handling of clothing is necessary; (3) bags 
are taken to the nearest freight station and shipped to a 
depot in the Southern mountains for which shipping tags 
are supplied. 

The clothing so contributed is mended and reconditioned 


by PTA, NYA and Mothers’ Club groups in the moun- | 


tains during the summer and is ready for the reopening 
of the next term of school, when it is the direct means of 
enabling children, who could not do so, to start school. 


A Report on International Relations* 


Selma Borchardt 


“WE BELIEVE in democracy and in the school as the 
chief agency of democracy.” This is our creed, and to- 
day our loyalty to the substance of democracy rather 
than to the word is being tested and tried in our attitude 
to the world’s problems and the relation of those problems 
to education. 

Tragic it is that there is no true education in most of 
the world today. Communist-Nazi dictatorship has de- 
stroyed it and threatened to destroy everything we hold 
dear. The ruthless destruction of the beautiful Italian 
creative spirit, by cruel and mechanized Fascisti, the 
sadism practiced at home and the political rape practiced 


*This report was condensed by a member of the editorial board of the 
American Teacner from the full report which was prepared by Selma 
Borchardt for the recent AFT National Convention. Copies of the com- 
plete r —~ be had by writing to the national office, 506 S. Wabash 
Ave., Chicago, Il. 





abroad by a spiritually devastated Nazi Germany, the 
ruthless butchery of men and the complete obliteration 


of all decent ideas by a tragically degraded Communist | 


Russia have shocked us for many years. Nation after 


nation destroyed; people enslaved, some by one of these | 


dictators, some by another. 


We are grieved as we see democracy itself and all which 
is an integral part of the democratic process being ravaged. | 
We feel deeply with those who suffer acutely today. We | 


wish we could clasp the hand of our friends in Austria, 
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Spain, Norway, Holland, Bel- 
gium, Finland, Denmark, and say “We share your grief. 
We know that the joined forces of Communism and 
Naziism have temporarily destroyed your identity, but 
we know that these forces cannot destroy your spirit, and 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





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with you we know that this enslavement is but temporary. 
Our faith in democracy and in you lives stronger than 
ever today.” 

To our French confreres who suffer most acutely today, 
we wish we could say, “Your faith and high ideals have 
inspired us in the past and will, again, in the future. 
We know that the true spirit of France still lives.” 

To our British colleagues to whom we can still send 
a message, I urge that we immediately, from this con- 
vention, send a message of sympathy and of admiration 
for the magnificent way in which they have defended and 
are defending those ideals of democratic life which we 
hold so dear. 

A brief survey of reports on what has happened and is 
happening in a number of countries gives us a single pic- 
ture—of conflict. 

ARGENTINE. There has been an increase in the 
national school budget with special attention being given 
to increase and improvement in school buildings and 
equipment, in school medical services and in provision 
for experimental education. A small fund for holiday 
camps is also provided. 

The National Education Council is preparing and pub- 
lishing an Anthology of Argentine Folklore, which would 
develop a national pride. (It is reported that the Nazi 
centers do not like this.) Confederacion de Maestros is 
seeking a basic school law which would recognize: (1) 
a statutory automatic progressive salary schedule; (2) a 
just pension and retirement system; (3) a truly profes- 
sional plan of teacher selection for service and promotion 
in service; and (4) research and planning in educational 
administration. 

Their efforts last year to obtain a basic national edu- 
cation act were not successful. The bill which the Teach- 
ers Federation supported was a progressive, fine piece of 
legislation taking cognizance of the social and economic 
problems of schooling in its broadest sense. 

AUSTRALIA. The several provinces continue to urge 
federal aid for education. 

The Teachers Association during 1939 sought to arouse 
the public through meetings, posters, forums, etc., to con- 
sider critically: “Does our present system of education 
meet the demands of a changing world?” 

The threat of invasion has changed all. Australia 
Teachers Association, once the source of the bitterest 
opposition to military conscription, now favors “all means 
to keep invaders from our shores.” 

The January issue of one of their educational journals 
commented sorrowfully: “Once we should have wel- 
comed news of a union of Japan and Russia, Today 
we know they unite for one reason only: to destroy us 
and all we live for.” 

AUSTRIA. While Hitler announces to the world that 
Austria is intensely Nazi, his representative in Vienna, 
Herr Biirckel, establishes “political shock troops” in all 
works employing more than a hundred workers to sup- 
plement the Gestapo agents! But even these precautions 


NOVEMBER, 1940 


seem not to be enough, and workers are continuously 
being shifted from place to place to prevent the devel- 
opment of any cohesion in the various groups and so 
delay the day when this discontent will become articu- 
late. All reports show that the economic situation is 
growing worse among the workers, the number of indus- 
trial accidents increasing rapidly, as is the civilian death 
rate. 

BELGIUM. The three large Belgian teacher organ- 
izations are not permitted to exist. Belgian teachers 
must prove their loyalty to the invaders before they will 
be permitted to teach. Temporarily all schools are closed 
and all meetings are prohibited. 

BRAZIL. Brazil, a land of breath-taking beauty, is 
a nation of contrasts. An old feudal, Portuguese civil- 
ization with only a limited classical education for a lim- 
ited few is coupled with a teeming, modern, industrial 
community with modern “progressive” public schools; 
a rigid dictatorship which uses the buildings of its former 
House of Parliament as a museum of national history is 
yet a dictatorship which offers the first effort at strict, 
socialized control ever extended over the once all-powerful 
coffee industry; a government which outlawed free trade 
unions, yet gave the workers, by government decree, the 
first social legislation they have ever had—wages and 
hours provisions, maternity and health benefits, work- 
men’s compensation, etc. 

There are province-wide teacher organizations (unions 
they call them) which function under official direction. 
A new nation-wide, truly professional organization is in 
the making, an organization worthy of the very large 
number of unusually fine teachers to be found at all 
levels of education here. 

CHILE. Chilean Teachers Union is a functional body 
in fact. It had much to do with the planning of the 
Chilean Six-Year Plan, a program through which, if and 
when it is adopted, popular education would actually be 
widely established in Chile. Two concepts of education 
still prevail; one is the traditional classical one, the other 
the “progressive school” with a practical vocational pro- 
gram. More and more there is a belief that there is 
room for both. 

Educational research is receiving governmental recog- 
nition and support. An interesting paper on this subject 
was submitted by Dr. Sallas at the Inter-American Con- 
ference on Intellectual Cooperation in Washington last 
May. 

CUBA. The traditional schooling of Cuba, limited 
largely to the cities, is of a high grade, though badly in 
need of funds—funds for salaries, buildings, equipment, 
etc. In addition there has been developed a system 
of rural, military, resident school centers serving the com- 
munity and emphasizing vocational training. These cen- 
ters are doing splendid work in Cuba in helping eradicate 
illiteracy and in promoting health among rural children. 
These institutions were founded by Batista, first of all 
as a form of workmen’s compensation; they were first 








government boarding schools for the children of those 
workers who had been injured or killed on the job, and 
whose children thereby became “government wards.” 

The social program of these centers is excellent; their 
potential danger lies in their present emphasis upon the 
military. 

Perhaps the present military school will develop into 
a means of creating a sense of disciplined appreciation 
of a nation thereby helping develop a true democracy; 
perhaps they will be the center through which there will 
be developed the worst type of military dictatorship. 
Today they have great possibilities; their future and 
their future use for the real good of people is a matter 
which can be answered only by Batista and the future. 

CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Since Hitler took over this 
country the plight of the teacher has been particularly 
hard. Thousands of teachers were immediately dismissed 
for “disloyalty to the German Reich,” a charge they 
courageously admitted. 

Children in many schools were compelled to take a 
foreign language, German, and were denied the right to 
use their mother tongue. All old textbooks were de- 
stroyed; even science and mathematics books had to be 
Germanized before they could be used. Czech mayors in 
Bohemia have been purged for refusal, among other 
things, to Nazify the schools. 

Most terrible of all is the cruelty of the Nazis to the 
Czech children. They have been given live tuberculin 
serum under the guise of anti-typhoid serum, the teacher 
“underground” reported. 

Sixty-seven Prague high-school students on a school 
excursion to Zlin, Czechoslovakia, whistled in the local 
movie when Hitler’s picture appeared. The Gestapo 
arrested them with force and brutality. One child was 
shot through the lungs. At Treboico, a child on an ex- 
cursion train was reported to have thumbed his nose at 
a German soldier. All the children on the train were 
then imprisoned in Sumperk, Moravia, for a week under 
terrifying conditions. 

DENMARK. The Danish Volk school was closed by 
the invaders as one of their first acts. 

ENGLAND—National Union of Teachers. Report of 
The Training of Teachers and Grants to Intending Teach- 
ers (submitted in March, 1939) is of particular interest 
to those concerned with the field of teacher training. 
Significant are the “Village Education Centers” (higher 
primary schools) in comparison with the function of our 
consolidated schools. A brief account follows: 

Village Education Centers. Many countries attach 
great importance nowadays to rural education. 

In England, the Hadow report in 1936 recommended 
that older pupils should be grouped together in large 
centers rather than in smail village schools whose edu- 
cational resources are necessarily very restricted. These 
recommendations resulted in the setting up of higher 
primary schools in the villages, equipped with workshops 
and appliances for giving training in domestic science, 


22 





woodcraft, manual labor and applied art, as well as / 
rural science. In the county of Cambridge plans have | 
been worked out for setting up educational centers which | 
would have a twofold task: that of a community center | 
used during the day for higher primary education and | 
becoming in the evenings a center for the cultural, social 
and recreative life of the adult population in the neigh. | 
borhood. Nowadays the organization of adult recre. | 
ation is considered to be an essential function of the | 
community center. The social hall, library and work. 
shops are proportioned and furnished suitably for adults, | 
while the meeting hall and lecture hall are reserved for | 
their exclusive use. | 
The rural higher primary school has naturally an agri. | 
cultural bias, and the school garden plays an important | 
role. It is there that vegetables are grown for the school | 
canteen. The pleasure garden, provided with a hothouse | 
for seedlings, enables practical horticultural work to be | 
carried on. Thanks to the close correlation between | 
the work carried on by the boys in the scientific lab 
oratories and in the open air, a living link is established | 
between the practical and theoretical aspects of agri- 
cultural and horticultural activity. The arts and trades 
taught are wide in scope: bookbinding, weaving, linocuts, | 
elementary industrial drawing, etc. In addition the boys | 
do carpentry work while the girls learn dressmaking, 
cooking, laundrywork and all kinds of domestic work. 
The scientific training they receive is directly connected 
with practical housekeeping. The classes in music and | 
dramatic art are very well attended. Both boys and girls | 
have physical training every day. 

For the adult population there is a musical society, 
a dramatic society, a housewive’s club, popular dance | 
evenings, courses in physical culture, in cutting-out and | 
dressmaking, in carpentry, university extension lectures, | 
etc. A local employment agency for the pupils functions | 
at the college.’ 

FINLAND. The moment Communist Russia invaded | 


y 


Finland, teacher organizations of every country in Europe | 
came to the aid of this magnificently courageous little} 
nation. Particularly did the Swedish Teachers Union 
render aid of every kind. Evacuated children were taken 
into Sweden, ambulances and medical aid sent to Finland, 
funds were raised for the temporary support of Finnish 
teachers. The IFTA reported in April, “Today the 
number of Swedish Teachers who have offered to take 
in Finnish children or Finnish mothers with their chil 
dren is far greater than the number of refugees who have 
actually arrived in Sweden.” Every Swedish teachet 
donated at least one day’s wages to help the Finnish 
victims of Communist outrages. 

The following is an appeal from the Finnish Teachers 
Association at Helsinki on January 3, 1940: 

To our Sister Associations: Through no fault of our owl, 
the people of Finland are passing through a time of terrible 
trial. 





1Reported by the International Education Office. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHE 





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Yet we have faith in the strength of our national character 
and in our work as teachers and believe that this will prove so 
firm a support to our resolute determination to defend our 
country that we shall succeed in maintaining our independence 
and repulsing the danger which now threatens Western civiliza- 


tion. 

In our desperate struggle we count on your sympathy to 
bring us strength and courage. We hope too that more prac- 
tical expressions of this sympathy will be forthcoming to help 
us in the fight and to bring comfort to the stricken families of 
those of our comrades who have laid down their lives for their 


country. 
To you all we send our best wishes for this New Year just 


begun. 

FRANCE. As soon as the war was declared 35,000 
members of the French Teachers Union (The Syndicate) 
answered the call to the colors. Yet the organization 
continued to make its characteristic, heroic contribution 
for the well-being of French children and the promotion 
of French education. In fact, their efforts were increased 
and intensified. They co-operated closely with the French 
Ministry of Education. 

It is to be noted that the French Teachers Union which 
in May, 1935, inspired by ideals of the highest sort and 
believing that it would be practically possible for free 
trade unions to work with the representatives of groups 
of all types, helped in the formation of the French Pop- 
ular Front. But the leaders of the French Syndicate, being 
themselves intellectually honest and fundamentally de- 
cent, courageous men and women, were frank to admit 
their error in having accepted collaboration with the 
Communists. They found, sadly enough, that the Hitler- 
Stalin pact for the destruction of democracy and all that 
is decent had actually been functioning in their country 
(as it has everywhere) for a number of years. And so 
the leaders of the great liberal French Syndicate—in 
order to preserve their great liberal tradition—voted on 
September 19, 1939, to expel all Communists and that 
“all Communists who have been elected to office should be 
mercilessly deprived of such functions.” 

On May 29th the representatives of all the organiza- 
tions of manual and non-manual workers held a meeting 
in the French Ministry of Labor and issued a joint state- 
ment. 

The free trade unions, the employers’ organizations, 
technicians, professional groups, non-manual workers— 
all the productive forces of France, expressed their “un- 
shakeable determination to do everything to bring about 
a complete, effective and permanent victory, out of which 
a new world of justice should rise.” This meeting, rep- 
resenting all groups, agreed to “unite all their forces in 
order to increase production to the maximum to avoid the 
waste and overlapping which would be crimes against our 
nation.” This joint group then set up machinery for 
co-operation nationally and locally in all regions for pro- 
duction. The statement closed with “Today there is only 
one employer—France. And all French people are her 
employees.” 

On May 30th, following this meeting, the Confederacion 


NOVEMBER, 1940 


Generale de Travail issued its own statement, thanking 
the French workers and stating that their “thoughts are 
with the soldiers who are fighting and the workers in the 
great industrial districts of the North, who are carrying 
on their work in spite of the imminent danger... . 
The workers have given an admirable example of sang- 
froid and will maintain this attitude. The enemy had hoped 
that this furious attack and other barbarous action would 
sow panic behind the lines, but this was not the case 
and will not be the case!” 

(Note the late date at which this was issued.) 

HOLLAND. The “Bund,” on January 26th, in Utrecht, 
condemned “Russia’s cowardly attack on Finland which 
proves that there is not the slightest difference between 
National Socialism and Communism. It confirmed its 
decision of 1933 that “membership in a free trade union 
is not compatible with membership of a Fascist organiza- 
tion, of the Communist party or of sympathizing organ- 
izations.” 

“Persons whose attitude leads it to be believed that 
they feel themselves morally bound to any Fascist or 
Communist organization,” can also not belong to an 
organization affiliated with the Dutch National Trade 
Union Center. 

The Holland teacher organizations have now in effect 
been disbanded. 

IRELAND. Leave and pension provision still occupy 
these teachers. The efforts being made to try to force the 
learning of Erse seems to some Irish teacher groups as 
somewhat artificial. They feel it is an interesting class- 
ical study, but not an immediate social issue. 

ITALY. The “reforms” now in progress aim at a 
training on “a deeper and more permanent basis,” says 
an official communique. German “teachers” have been 
imported into Italy to help plan this “reform.” 

Primary education will now include two years’ infant 
school, three years’ elementary school and two years’ 
“labour” school. Children go to the infant school as 
soon as they are four years old. At the age of eleven 
when they finish their primary education, a child can 
pass into a trade school (for three years) or a technical 
school (for two years) if “he does not wish” to go on 
with studies of this kind. Otherwise he passes to a 
“middle” school (for three years) where the curriculum 
is unified on a basis of Latin as a “foundation for moral 
and intellectual development.” 

When he leaves middle school at fourteen, a boy has 
the choice of classics (reserved for the more gifted pu- 
pils), scientific studies, training college or technical and 
commercial institutions. Here he stays for five years, 
which is reduced to four years in institutes for specialists 
in agriculture and commerce. 

The special feature in this scheme seems to be the 
introduction throughout of manual labour from the age 
of eight upwards, with a view to developing “social and 
production consciousness.” 

LATVIA. These people tragically believed that Hitler 








opposed Russia, and in the school year, 1938-39, started 
Hitlerizing their schools. 

In the first half of the school year, 1938-39, were held 
the regional Teachers’ Congresses. These congresses did 
not include discussions. The inspectors of education ad- 
dressed them only on the problems enumerated in the 
official organ of the Ministry: (1) introduction into the 
schools of satchels for the pupils in place of portfolios 
at present used; (2) institution of a uniform for primary- 
school pupils; (3) discouragement of the habit among 
pupils of wearing the hair too long; (4) homage to the 
Liberty Memorial and commemoration of the combatants 
for freedom; showing the contribution Germany had made 
toward this; (5) propagation of agriculture; (6) use of 
the sayings of the “Fiihrer” of the Letts as mottoes for 
school exercises; comparison of his sayings with those 
of “The Great Fiihrer”’; (7) maintenance of cleanliness 
in the schools during the holidays; (8) declaration of 
Aryanism; (9) study of Nordic culture. 

Teachers were forbidden to belong to Masonic or 
Catholic educational groups. 

Since the Latvians have been “liberated” by Com- 
munist Russia all of these regulations have, according to 
a wire just received, been intensified. 

MEXICO. There is no question as to the “drive” of 
the teachers’ organization of Mexico. It has often enun- 
ciated a fine program of social reconstruction. The big 
question today is: Will the combined forces of the Com- 
munists and their Nazi confreres in Mexico destroy all 
the great good that has been gained through the Mexican 
Revolution and also all good that existed before the 
revolution? 

NORWAY. The “freed” Norway has been forced to 
abolish its fine teacher organization in the form it had 
once existed and had rendered great service. 

Norway had just begun the develop:nent of a pro- 
ductive, significant program of vocational training, which 
it was planned to have made not an addition to but an 
integral part of the educational and social life of the 
community. 

Incidentally, a laconic statement just received sets 
forth that “The teachers’ conference for the Nordic states 
(Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) which 
was to have been held in Oslo on August 7 to 9, 1940, 
will not be held.” The agenda of the conference included 
“Liberty and Authority in Education,” “Study of the 
Child’s Character from the Educational Point of View,” 
and “The School and the State.” 

The workers’ college, Sormarka, at Syverud (near 
Oslo) is closed, states a recent announcement! Even the 
schodl gardening program must be abandoned in the 
face of Nazi enlightenment for “in gardening, supervision 
is required to prevent improper conversations.” 

POLAND. In the fall of 1939 a plan was to have been 
put into effect for extending medical aid in prenatal and 
infant care into the rural areas. 

Teachers in Poland were very badly paid, badly housed 


and had a heavy pupil load (75 per teacher in some areas). 
There was actually not enough space in schools for all 
children. Yet, they fought and died to prevent the intro- 
duction of Nazi “improvement.” 

The official appeal from the Polish government issued 
in the early stages of the war tells its own story:? 

“To you who represent hundreds of thousands of teach- 
ers in allied and neutral countries, I send this appeal on 
behalf of the people of Poland, who need your help. 

“I ask you to take an interest in the fate of the Polish 
culture, in the masters who, in Polish schools, taught 
the youth of the nation. 

“The occupiers of our country have burnt a great part 
of our museum collections, our art galleries and libraries. 
They are carrying off all that has escaped the flames. 
They are pillaging works of art from churches and treas- 
uries. They have closed or disbanded the Universities. 
All the professors of Cracow University are shut up ina 
concentration camp. Some famous professors have been 
shot, amongst them M. Bialebrzesky, Professor of Physics, 
Warsaw School of Engineering. Professor Estreicher, 
of Cracow University, who refused the German offer to 
be “Protector” of a vassal Polish state, died in a concen- 
tration camp at Buchenwald. 

“Collections and instruments of Universities and scien- 
tific laboratories have all been seized. 

“The majority of the elementary and secondary schools 
in Poland have been closed; teachers and professors have 
been driven away from their posts. 

“They have, in many instances, deported boys and girls 
of over fourteen into labour camps in Germany. At 
Bydgoszcz (Bromberg) they shot Barciszewski, the teacher 
and mayor of the town; they shot 130 school boys who 
refused to sing the Hitler anthem. 

“The Russians have interned hundreds of Polish 
teachers. 

“Hundreds of teachers and thousands of children, driven 
in flight from their country, have no homes and no re 
sources. Children who have lost their parents, killed by 
bombs or machine guns, are in a state of bodily wretched- 
ness and nervous depression. 

“Such teachers as succeeded in crossing the frontier, 
who have previously taken part in anti-Hitler or anti- 
bolshevist activities, are in the same state of destitution. 

“Above the Polish people, above workman and peasant, 
above teachers and pupil, there hangs the danger of death. 
That is why in trying to do something for them, I make 
appeal to the IFTA. We are not asking for charity, what 
we need is your help as brothers. 

“Help the teachers and the children of Poland. Take 
orphan Polish children into your homes. Show them 
how warmhearted you are, how ready to mitigate the suf- 
fering of these children born under the shadow of mis- 
fortune. 

“Collect medicines and clothes for the children, clothes 





2Appeal to the IFTA from Mr. Stanczky, Minister of Public Assist 
ance to the Polish Government. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








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and linen for the teachers.” 

RUMANIA. A short time before Rumania was “lib- 
erated” by the joint effort of the Nazis and the Com- 
munists, it had planned to establish a Confederation of 
Intellectual Workers of Rumania. 

The preliminary plan as outlined by the ILO was in- 
teresting and gave promise of developing into a unique, 
constructive project. 

It was planned that these intellectual workers were 
to be grouped in “colleges” through which they would 
study all aspects of national professional problems, moral, 
economic, social, aesthetic. 

The proper governmental authorities were to co-operate 
in every way in this project. 

SCOTLAND. “War Service and Superannuation. 
Where service pay (including allowance) is less than the 
salary a teacher would receive in ordinary circumstances 
and there is no salary supplement paid from the teach- 
ing post, the teacher then pays no contribution into the 
pension fund. But where service pay is greater and is 
supplemented by teaching salary in whole or in part, 
then the teacher and the employer each continues to 
contribute 5 per cent of the salary as usual to the pen- 
sion fund.” (Summarized from the Journal of the Edu- 
cational Institute of Scotland.) 

The Scots are alarmed over the effect the war up to 
April had on school enrollment. 

In April the total percentage of children receiving full 
time education was 60.39 per cent. The total of children 
receiving part time (less than one-half time) education 
was 35.6 per cent, and those receiving no education was 
4.1 per cent. 

The spirit of the Scotch teacher is tersely expressed by 
the president of the EIS who said, “But in these dark 
days the shape of the future cannot be seen. Only our 
immediate duty is clear; in the faithful performance of it, 
let us spend ourselves utterly.” A desperate effort was 
made all year to maintain schools and schooling. 

The sample broadcasts published in the EIS Journal 
show a remarkable desire to try to keep the schools from 
being centers of hate. 

SPAIN. Schools and universities are reopened in Spain, 
but schooling has not returned to normal. In the first 
place the actual number of school buildings is nowhere 
nearly adequate to meet the needs. In the second place 
there are not enough teachers to carry on in even the small 
number of schools that are left. Thousands of teachers 
died in battle; thousands more under bombardment. The 
living are divided among the exiled, the “professionally 
excluded,” the sick, the aged, and the few still able in all 
ways to teach. Less than 20 per cent returned to their 
jobs. 

All free teacher and student organizations have been 
abolished. Learning, learner, and the learned are regi- 
mented. Membership in the state so-called educational 
organization is required of teacher and pupil. 

It can only be hoped that the spirit of the free republic, 


NOVEMBER, 1940 


the spirit which was betrayed by Fascist and Communist 
alike will rise again, and in its rebirth, recreate the moral, 
spiritual and intellectual life of the people. 

SWEDEN. With characteristic courage and vision 
these people have continued to maintain their free educa- 
tion at a high level. They have done more; they have 
helped the victims around them with bounty and kindness. 

A terse official statement shows a remarkable calm- 
ness: (1) heads of schools shall provide, if need be, 
for the provision of substitutes for those who are called 
to the colours; (2) should the number of classes have to 
be cut down on account of war, risk of war or evacuation, 
or should the syllabus or the number of school-hours 
have to be curtailed, school authorities will make the 
necessary arrangements to meet the case; (3) should it 
become necessary for any of the above mentioned rea- 
sons to suspend teaching for a time, every effort shall be 
made in due course to make up for time lost; (4) in case 
of evacuation, boys may be allowed to attend girls’ schools 
with the permission of the school authorities, and vice- 
versa; and (5) heads of schools shall take all necessary 
steps to be ready for evacuation, and their staffs must be 
prepared to help them in every way in this matter. 

Yet even in these times Teachers Association calmly 
reports, “Carrel’s book on The Njurunda Methods for 
sane, healthy living has given great impetus to a positive, 
vibrant, health program.” 

SWITZERLAND. In the face of the immiment threat 
of Nazi invasion these sturdy people have worked for 
democratic ideals in a democratic way. For example, the 
question of raising the school-leaving age was being con- 
sidered as a social and as an economic problem. So they 
held a referendum. Ten per cent voted legal leaving age 
should be fourteen; 15 per cent voted a limit between 
fourteen and fifteen; 40 per cent voted fifteen. The 
result of the vote as well as the taking of it shows a fine 
social intelligence. 

The teacher organizations here continue to be vigor- 
ous forces in the community’s life—in and out of school. 

Federal subsidy to the cantons has just been increased 
for compulsory training in “the practical domestic science.” 

TURKEY. Popular education continues to be extended 
in Turkey. Particular stress is laid on rural education for 
which now a five-year course is provided. 

A shortage of trained teachers and of schools makes edu- 
cational progress a little slower than is to be desired. Yet, 
the remarkable development of adult education here is 
most noteworthy. 

VENEZUELA. The Convention in December, 1939, 
urged close co-operation between teachers and the com- 
munity’s social program, to make the school the center 
of community life “especially with the workers of the 
country who are to be better equipped to share the cul- 
tural life of the nation, and in fact to give it a rebirth.” 

A fine study was presented of aiding in adjustment of 
the underprivileged child to the community. Especial 
attention was given to rural problems, and to Indians. 








Miishers Un ton in , 


(Continued from Page 2) 
DES MOINES, IOWA—A com- 
mittee to protect democratic 
policies now followed in selecting text- 
books for the Des Moines public schools 
is being formed by the Des Moines 
Teachers Union, according to President 
Nathan Weeks. 
Organization of the committee began 
recently following charges that textbooks 





THE AFT UPHOLDS THE RIGHT 
TO TEACH THE TRUTH 











by Dr. Harold Rugg now used in the 
local schools were “subversive.” Headed 
by President Weeks, for 37 years a 
teacher in the local schools and from 
1923 to 1935 Principal of the Lincoln 
high school, the committee will be drawn 
from leaders of civic and labor organiza- 
tions. This committee will fight any 
movement to take away the rights of 
teachers to use textbooks of their own 
choosing. Weeks said that the Rugg 
textbooks have been in use in the Des 
Moines schools for more than fifteen 
years and that four of the Columbia 
University professor’s books are cur- 
rently in use. 

On November 1 the News Bulletin, 
mimeographed publication of the Local, 
made its initial appearance. On the front 
page appears the following brief state- 
ment from A. A. Couch, president of 
the Iowa State Federation of Labor: 

“Organized labor has always felt a 
particular interest in the problems of 
public schools. We are interested in 
anything that concerns the education of 
our children and in anything that pro- 
motes the welfare of those who teach 
our children. We believe that through 
co-operation of labor and teachers, we 
can help to promote the advancement of 
our educational system.” 

. *_ * * 


PITTSBURGH, PA.—The futil- 

ity of attempting to solve teach- 
ers’ problems without reference to larger 
social issues is forcefully illustrated by 
the effects on the Pittsburgh school 
system of the falling birth rate. This 
year there are 4,103 fewer children in 
the Pittsburgh schools than there were 


26 


last year. The result is 76 fewer teach- 
ers, four fewer supervisors, and one less 
principal than last year. In the ten 
years, 1930-1940, despite a total gain 
in population, there have been lost 400 
teachers, 136 supervisors, and 112 prin- 
cipals. 

Logically, one might expect the drop 
in child population to result in a better 
pupil-teacher ratio. However, Pitts- 
burgh is compelled by the state school 
code to have an average daily attend- 
ance per teacher and supervisor of at 
least 32 students for lower grades and 
25 for high schools in order to receive 
state aid. Actually the present teacher 
load is 36 per teacher in the grade 
schools and 31 in the high schools. 
Classroom conditions are far worse than 
they look on paper. 

The possibility of even worse threat- 
ens. Taxing powers are limited by the 
state legislature for the Pittsburgh and 
Philadelphia boards, and under pressure 
from real estate and business groups the 
Republican legislature has set the Pitts- 
burgh tax rate at 1114 mills, which is too 
low to meet the present budget. 

So far no teachers have been fired or 
suspended because of the decreased en- 
rollment. Death, retirement, leaves and 
resignations take care of some of the 
vanished positions. Also, formerly many 
substitutes were used, often on a more 
or less permanent basis. Now these 
“permanent substitutes” are being re- 
placed by surplus teachers who would 
otherwise be fired. 

The paradox of fewer children and 
larger classes has not gone unnoticed. 
Classes that have 40 to 50 very young 
children have caused some parents to 
complain. The $50,000 Strayer Survey 
last spring sharply criticized the com- 
bination of large classes and the out- 
moded platoon system. It was pointed 
out that certain departments, notably 
art and health work, are suffering from 
this crowding. Earlier, the Pittsburgh 
AFT, Local 400, had published a survey 
which described the losses from lack of 
individualized instruction and inordinate 
attention to disciplinary problems aris- 
ing under crowded conditions. 

No piecemeal solution for these prob- 
lems is possible. State law must be 
changed to encourage instead of to pe- 
nalize small classes. Small classes will 
require more teachers; the added costs 
resulting from this will require local tax 
autonomy, greater state support of the 
schools, and a complete revamping of 
the state tax structure. None of these 
objectives can be gained except by the 
Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers, 


working through labor’s support. 
Even so, with the broadest community 
support, it will be necessary to replace 
the Republican administration with pro- 
gressive forces more sympathetic to the 
needs of our youth. In short, the Pitts- 
burgh Federation must work locally to 
arouse interest in the plight of the 
schools, but at the same time the fight 
can be won only on the broadest social 
front. 4? «iy 


43 FLINT, MICH.— During the 

convention of Region II, Mich- 
igan Education Association, held in 
Flint on October 10 and 11, Local 435 
entertained two of the convention speak- 
ers at a luncheon. Guest members, both 
of Northwestern University, were How- 
ard A. Lane, associate professor of edu- 
cation, and Paul A. Witty, professor of 
education and director of the psycho- 
educational clinic. 

Dr. Lane emphasized the need for 
co-operation between various groups in 
the community such as labor groups, 
PTA groups, and other civic organiza- 
tions for the best interests of the child. 
Professor Witty deplored the trend 
toward increasing external discipline in 
our schools, pointing out that in a 
democracy self-discipline is to be de- 
sired. Guests from Saginaw and Bay 
City were present. 

The Union in co-operation with the 
Flint Teachers Club and the Flint Class- 
room Teachers Association, is carrying 
on an active campaign to urge the adop- 
tion of the state tenure law in the Flint 
school district. The work of the cam- 
paign is being directed by a joint com- 
mittee composed of the legislative com- 
mittees of the three teachers’ organiza- 
tions. This is the only tenure campaign 
being carried on in Michigan at this 
time. Flint teachers realize the great 
influence its success will have on further- 
ing the adoption of teachers tenure in 


— 








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LUNCHEON 


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———— 











other school districts in the state, the 
Union reports. The joint legislative 
committee is also interviewing the polit- 
ical candidates for state offices concern- 
ing their educational policies. 

* * * 


89 ATLANTA, GA.—Atlanta Public 
School Teachers Association held 


its anniversary party on November 8 at 
the Atlanta Athletic Club. Planned by 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 

















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the social committee, the affair was in 
charge of Miss Mary Favor of Highland 
School, social chairman. 

Dr. Boyd Henry Bode, author and 
professor of education at Ohio State 
University, is to be invited to address 
members of the local at a special meet- 
ing in January, 1941, according to plans 
of the executive committee. 

The October Atlanta Teacher in- 
cludes a long tribute to Jerome Jones, 
outstanding Southern labor leader and 
editor of the Journal of Labor (At- 
lanta), who died recently. Upon a mo- 
tion of Mary Barker, former national 
officer in the AFT, Local 89 decided to 
appoint a committee to investigate the 
possibility of setting up a professional 
project as a tribute to Jerome Jones. 

Allie Mann, former national AFT 
vice president and Secretary-Treasurer 
of the Georgia Federation of Labor, is 
writing a column of labor news for the 
Journal of Labor. 

* * * 

CHICAGO, ILL.—The Chicago 

Teachers Union is carrying on one 
of the most extensive programs in its 
history, according to reports from its 
officers. 

One of its principal campaigns has 
been directed at securing the amend- 
ment to the Social Security Bill which 
would protect the pension rights of 
teachers. In its weekly news bulletin 
for October 26, the local published the 
results of a survey of Illinois members 


BETFER WORKING CONDITIONS 
BETTER LEARNING CONDITIONS 


POPULATION 
TRENDS 









EDUCATIONAL 
= OPPORTUNITIES 








of the House and Senate on their atti- 
tudes toward the bill together with 
statements of rival candidates for the 
offices. The Local also led the drive for 
the passage of a resolutien by the Chi- 
cago Federation of Labor supporting 
the amendment. 

In its campaign to protect the merit 
system in the Chicago schools, Local 1 
reported distribution of thousands of 
copies of the legislative committee’s re- 
port on a proposed board of examiners. 
The Local also took steps to draw up 
the recommendation into a bill to be 
introduced at the next session of the 
state legislature. 

The local further reported comple- 
tion of a survey of the schools to ascer- 
tain the number of temporaries and 
political substitutes serving in the 
schools at the present time. 

As part of its activities for better 
working conditions, the union analyzed 
the effect of population trends on class 
loads, made plans for conducting a sur- 
vey of class loads in Chicago, urged 


parent-teacher associations and the 
forty-eight constituents of the Citizens 
Schools Committee to campaign for the 
reduction in class loads. 

To maintain adequate financial sup- 
port for schools, the Local studied the 
effect of the defense program on school 
budgets, requested a study of the tax 
situation by the United States Office of 
Education, began a study of the trends 
in educational expenditures in the 
United States, and took steps toward 
the analysis and modification of the tax 
structure in Illinois. 

In its program to foster professional 
growth, the Local’s monthly magazine, 
the Chicago Union Teacher, devoted its 
November issue to “Character and 
Scholarship.” Contributors included 
John M. Fewkes, president of the Local, 
Charlotte Russell, secretary of the Local, 
Edward E. Keener, principal of the Hay 
School, Beulah Berolzheimer, and How- 
ard A. Lane of the School of Education, 
Northwestern University, member of 
Local 635, the North Shore College 
Teachers Union. 

Further professional activity included: 
(1) bringing together teachers of Eng- 
lish, commercial and social science sub- 
jects and others, to discuss the prob- 
lems of their particular subject groups; 
(2) analyzing the Board of Education’s 
ruling on master’s degree for high-school 
teaching positions and publishing the 
Union’s reaction thereto; (3) organiz- 
ing an In-Service Training Committee 





AFT Releases Federal Aid Film Strip 





“FEDERAL AID TO THE STATES 
for Education” is the title of a strip 
film with accompanying recorded lec- 
ture to be released immediately by 
the American Federation of Teach- 
ers. The lecture, requiring about 
thirty minutes, is illustrated with 100 
pictures and charts. The 35 mm film will be available in 
either single or double frame, and sound machines may 
be available to locals and to other organizations. 

The illustrations contrast school buildings and equip- 
ment in poor and wealthy sections of the country, drama- 
tize the handicaps to children where equipment is poor, 
and depict in the form of simple charts and drawings the 
economic causes for educational inequities. 

The accompanying lecture, recorded on both sides of a 
sixteen-inch disk, presents the subject matter in the follow- 
ing sequence: (1) dramatizes the democratic principle un- 
derlying the free public-school system; (2) shows the prin- 
ciple in practice; (3) presents evidence of widespread 
failure to put in operation the principle; (4) reports the 
current attack against the public-school system; (5) ex- 
plains charts showing the educational inequities throughout 
the country; (6) explains charts showing the economic and 
social conditions resulting in these inequities; (7) intro- 
duces the work and personnel of the Advisory Committee 
on Education; (8) analyzes Senate Bill 1305; (9) contrasts 





the proposed expenditures for education with the national 
budget, the national defense program, and other expend- 
itures; and (10) appeals to individuals to urge support of 
Senate Bill 1305. 

The film is the result of experimentation over a period 
of two years by Professor Wesley H. Maurer, Department 
of Journalism, University of Michigan, and president of 
the Michigan Federation of Teachers. The film in its 
earlier forms was shown before teacher groups, labor and 
civic bodies. Comments and criticisms from interested 
viewers were used as a basis for revisions. Dr. Floyd W. 
Reeves, Dr. Paul T. David, members of the President’s 
Advisory Committee on Education, Dr. George S. Counts, 
president of the American Federation of Teachers, Irvin 
R. Kuenzli, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation 
of Teachers, and Arthur Elder, executive secretary of the 
Michigan Federation of Teachers, aided in criticising the 
experimental films. 

If this film is well received and proves effective, other 
films will be produced, Professor Maurer states. Two other 
subjects, “Taxation and the Public Schools” and “Organized 
Labor and the Public Schools,” are being studied for future 
projects. 

Persons interested in the field should write to Irvin R. 
Kuenzli, 506 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, Ill., for announce- 
ments of release dates and arrangements for showing the 
film to locals or other interested groups. 














NOVEMBER, 1940 


27 








which is formulating plans in conjunc- 
tion with the universities for in-service 
training for teachers; and (4) continued 
promotion of the study class. 

The local’s program to further the 
interests of academic freedom advo- 
cated a close watch on Superintendent 
Johnson’s Americanization program and 
support of the case of Mr. Drake of the 
Moseley School. 

As part of its work for co-operative 
self-help, the union continued promo- 
tion of group medical service and health 
and accident insurance, assisted the 
Credit Union to grow into a half-million 
dollar organization, and began a Union 
sinking fund. 

As part of its social program, the 
Union has organized and staged a suc- 


cessful card party. 
“Teachers 


* * * 

56 BOULDER, COLO.— 

should be organized in order to 
promote the cause of education, to bring 
about equality of educational oppor- 
tunity for the young people of our land, 
to raise the standards of the teaching 
profession and to obtain for teachers 
that security and respect proper to their 
calling.” 

This is the statement of Dr. Francis 
Ramaley, whose message for Colorado 
and Wyoming Educators appeared in 
the November issue of the Colorado 
Teacher. Dr. Ramaley points out that 
schools which are unable to offer ade- 
quate salaries are unable to hold com- 
petent teachers, and that as a conse- 
quence, youth from areas where schools 





are neglected are at. a great disadvantage 
when they enter college. He also cited 
the unfair situation existing in areas 
where well to do communities are doing 
only a small share of their part in helping 
to provide sound educational training 
to the youth. He called on labor groups 
to insist on well-paid teachers. 

Copies of the issue were distributed 
to the faculties of Denver University, 
University of Wyoming, Colorado Col- 
lege and all state-supported Colorado 
colleges. a 


33 BUTTE, MONT.—Charles C. 

Davis, co-ordinator, Vocational 
Training of the Butte Public Schools 
and a member of Local 332, was one of 
a delegation of the local labor council 
which appeared before the city council 
to urge construction of a second hous- 


ing authority project of 300 dwellings. 
A project of 225 units is now under 
construction. 










BAN Nw 


HOME FOR THE /LL-HOUSED THIRD 


ee Tet 


Although the proposal had the full 
support of all local labor bodies, the 
council voted the recommendation down 
and referred it to the voters at the next 


municipal election. 
7 - * 


WISCONSIN STATE FEDERATION 
OF TEACHERS—The largest conven- 
tion of the Wisconsin Federation of 
Teachers, with two new locals partici- 
pating, was scheduled for November 8 
at the Hotel Astor in Milwaukee. 

Sponsored as the eighth annual meet- 
ing, the convention was to feature a 
panel discussion on the “Teachers Union 
and its place in Wisconsin education” 
and an address by Kermit Eby, execu- 
tive secretary of the Chicago Teachers 
Union and consulting editor of the 
AMERICAN TEACHER. The new locals 
participating for the first time included 
the La Crosse local and the West Allis 
local. 

Dr. George Axtelle of Northwestern 
University, member of the North Shore 
College Teacher’s Local and national col- 
lege vice president, will present for dis- 
cussion the proposals of the special na- 
tional committee on “The Emergency 
and Education.” He is chairman of 
that committee. 

* * * 

53 NEW YORK, NEW YORK— 

New York City’s college local 
recently won a point on its protest to 
President Gideonse’s refusal to accept 
the Department Appointments Commit- 
tee’s recommendation of Dr. May Edel 
to a post in anthropology at Brooklyn 
College. The Board of Higher Educa- 
tion announced that it had voted to 
defer decision and hold hearing on the 
case. The Union as well as the Depart- 
ment Appointments Committee will be 
heard. 

Professor Franz Boas, dean of Amer- 
ican anthropologists and member of 
Local 537, scored President Gideonse’s 
avowed reasons for nonappointment of 
Dr. Edel. In a letter to the chairman of 
the Board of Higher Education and to 
the Brooklyn College Administrative 
Committee, Professor Boas wrote: 

“The practice of my teaching has 
always been to educate students to in- 
dependent thought. . . . If this kind of 
teaching makes people ineligible for col- 













Fea 





lege positions, I wonder what is to be- 
come of the colleges. Certainly Dr. 
Edel’s experience since she left Colum- 
bia University has been so varied that 
she has been under the direct influence 
of a great many investigators of the most 
diverse points of view.” 

Local officials also announced the es- 
tablishment of a new unit at Adelphi 
College under the chairmanship of Fran- 
cis K. Ballaine. At its first meeting in 
October the unit took steps to conduct 
an organization drive at the college. 
The charter membership totals eight 
teachers out of a faculty of approxi- 
mately thirty-five members. 

* * * 

EVANSTON, ILL.—A survey 

of all political candidates on 
their stand on various important issues 
of the day was conducted by the legis- 
lative committee of Local 460, the 
North Shore Teachers Union. Results 
of the study were published in the 
November publication. 





Candidates were queried on their at- 
titude and actions on the following 
issues: pensions, tax rates, income tax, 
city manager bills, women jurors and 
corrupt practices act. 

x* * * 

63 CAMDEN, NEW YORK—St. 

Lawrence University Local re- 
cently adopted a program for the aca- 
demic year following a report by Pres- 
ident John W. Bicknell who represented 
the Local at the national AFT con- 
vention. 

The program included indorsement 
of the tenure plan now before the trus- 
tees of St. Lawrence University and 
support of the Faculty Conference Com- 
mittee. The program also called for 
the establishment of improved salary 
scales, democratic functioning of uni- 
versity departments, and voting rights 
at faculty meetings for faculty members 
with two years’ service. 

The Local also called for a review of 
the university’s educational aims and 
the preparation of a statement of edu- 
cational objectives to be worked out 
jointly by the faculty, the administration 
and the board of trustees “in view of 
rapidly changing world conditions and 
of the ever-increasing responsibility of 
the colleges to train leaders in a democ- 
racy.” 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


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New Booklet on Free School Luncheons 


OPERATION OF SCHOOL LUNCH PROJECTS: Cir- 
cular Outlining the Techniques for Conducting the School 
Lunch Program, prepared under the direction of FLor- 
eNcE Kerr, Assistant WPA Commissioner, in charge 
of Professional and Service Projects. Foreword by 
Howarp Hunter, Acting Commissioner, Work Projects 
Administration. Technical Series, Welfare Circular 
No. 1. Washington: Federal Works Agency. Mimeo- 
graphed, 94 pages—unpaged. 

Objective, purpose, development, and operation of the 
WPA school lunch program are all thoroughly discussed 
in this Government publication, which was prepared by 
home economics experts employed as WPA consultants 
on school lunch and other welfare projects. Sponsor- 
obligations and community-relationships are also compre- 
hensively covered. In fact, any intelligent question that 
might be asked about technical aspects of the program is 
answered somewhere in one of the eleven parts of this 


circular which is being distributed free. 

School officials and teachers, as well as project sponsors, 
will be especially interested in Part IV, which gives the 
physical set-up and major requirements of the several 
types of school lunch units. Providing food for the 
project, which—like the provision of operating space, equip- 
ment, and all other supplies—is the sponsor’s obligation, 
is discussed in Part VI, under the general head, “Plan- 
ning Food for School Lunch Projects,” and the sub- 
heads: “Provisions for Securing Food Supplies,” and “Buy- 
ing Food for the School Lunch.” Since this obligation, 
in its final working out, must usually be met by local 
communities, led and directed by the school boards, school 
officials and teachers will find studying Part VI, after they 
have finished with Part IV, both interesting and profitable. 

The underlying philosophy of the WPA school lunch 
project is that hungry children must be fed if they are 
expected to do good school work. 











19 PHILADELPHIA, PA. — Octo- 

ber edition of the Philadelphia 
Teacher contains several timely articles, 
with a leading story by Martin Rugg, 
who writes on “Education and National 
Defense,” and discusses the effect of 
war on education and teachers. 

“Today, we cannot, even in the face 
of greater pressure upon teachers and 
administrators, afford to be other than 
critical and fearless in detecting and 
exposing attacks upon education in the 
name of national defense,” he writes. 
The article includes a bibliography of 
the material available on the national 
emergency. 

President Mary Foley Grossman in 
the same issue says that an important 
task in the world today is to teach a real 
understanding of American democracy. 
Other contributors are: Margaret N. 
Curry, Benjamin D. Anton, Margaret T. 
Smith, Sidney Fox and Samuel Drasin. 

Y.—Color films 


* * * 
377 BUFFALO, N. 
of the West, photographed by 
her, were presented by Miss Viola De- 
boben before a meeting of the Local. 
The Union adopted a program for the 
year, and expressed the hope that the 
social and labor gains made under the 
present administration be maintained. 
* * * 
6] SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.—The 
Union recently went on record 
supporting the efforts of the Municipal 
Park Employees’ Union and the San 
Francisco Public Library Staff Associa- 
tion to have these workers placed un- 
der the protection of civil service. This 
action is in line with the Union’s fight to 
establish the merit system in all gov- 
ernment departments. 

Plans were discussed for a campaign 
to keep in touch with the many legis- 
lative proposals which affect the educa- 
tional system of the nation. 


NOVEMBER, 1940 


66 CALUMET CITY, ILL.—This 
Local, which was recently or- 
ganized, has been aided by Local 4, Gary, 
Ind., in getting started. 
* * * 
51 EAST CHICAGO, IND. — Con- 
tinuing the Union’s program of 
opposing forced membership and at- 
tendance of teachers to any organiza- 
tion, a committee headed by President 
Homer Rohm met with the Board of 
Education and asked that the Board 
agree to pay the salaries of teachers on 
October 24 and 25 if the teachers com- 
ply with any of the following: belong 
to NITA and ISTA; report to regular 
assignments; visit schools elsewhere. 
The Board has granted two of the con- 
ditions. Irvin R. Kuenzli, secretary- 
treasurer of the AFT, addressed a re- 
cent meeting of the Lake County Local. 
IND.—The 


* * * 
65 CALUMET CITY, 

Local held its first dinner meet- 
ing Wednesday, October 16. 

Prominent guests from Calumet City 
including members of the Board of Edu- 
cation as well as delegates from East 
Chicago, Hammond, Gary, Blue Island, 
Cicero, and Chicago were present. 

Miss M. Wheeler, president of the 
Illinois State Federation of Teachers, 
guest speaker, invited the Union to 
utilize teacher benefits in Chicago. 

She stated that one of them was the 
Chicago Teachers Union Medical Cen- 
ter Plan in which services were avail- 
able to all at “unbelievably low rates.” 

Miss Flora Philley of Gary, another 
guest speaker, traced the development 
of the Gary Teachers Union, and in 
ending emphasized that “True demo- 
cratic unionism is that which occurred 
only a few days ago when representa- 
tives of Gary’s Board of Education, the 
superintendent, and members of the 
Union went in joint purpose to meet 





with the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction in Indianapolis to seek in- 
formation to safeguard in every way 
possible the positions of their men to 
be drawn for military service in the 
future.” 

John Souter added comments to the 
meeting on community and teacher wel- 
fare and tax situations. 





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INDUSTRIAL CONFLICT: A PSYCHOLOGICAL IN- 
TERPRETATION ; edited by Grorce W. HARTMANN and 
THeEopore Newcoms. First Yearbook of the Society for 
the Psychological Study of Social Issues. New York: Gor- 
don Press. 584 pages. $4.00. 

We are awfully self-conscious about “industrial conflict” 
in this country, as though it were some kind of horrible 
growth we would like to conceal not only from others but 
also from ourselves. It is a topic we like to ignore in our 
classrooms. Yet it is clear to all of us that industrial conflict 
is a major symptom of our contemporary society. 

This new group of psychologists, interested in social issues, 
deserves high credit for the success of its direct attempt to 
analyze and understand this phase of modern society. 

Part I is concerned first with justifying the interest of 
psychologists in social issues and explaining to our academic 
critics that research can be scientific even if it does have an 
appreciable bearing upon society. Then three exciting chap- 
ters: Leo Huberman presents the historical and economic 
backgrounds of the current conflict; Dwight Chapman offers 
an example of the development of an industrial community, 
Detroit, in terms of the automobile industry and the problems 
of labor organization in that industry, and Keith Sward 
gives an itemized, documented account of the Johnstown Steel 
Strike of 1937, revealing the social forces at work and the 
exposing devices employed in conducting- and breaking the 
strike. If one follows the analysis of social institutions and 
community organization as revealed by these chapters, one is 
already better equipped to analyze and understand the indus- 
trial conflicts even in his own neighborhood, despite the inten- 
tional confusion often raised by one or both of the contestants. 

Part II comprises six chapters concerned with the prob- 
lems of individual satisfaction. Obviously conflicts arise from 
the thwarting of basic human needs, from the tensions that 
build up between individuals who are working at cross pur- 
poses. How much industrial unrest arises from the emotional 
idiosyncracies of particular persons and the failure to employ 
their special capacities? How much dissatisfaction arises 
from the fact that industry often considers an employee as an 
adjunct to the machine and not a whole personality who 
should achieve a considerable enjoyment out of his work, 
out of the social relations the work may permit, and out of the 
sense of accomplishment which comes with recognition of 
high competence? 

Part III includes six chapters on the “class” structure of 
society and the factors leading a person to identify himself 
with one or another group in the struggle. Arthur Kingsbury 
makes it quite clear that the cleavages in society follow many 
planes other than simple matters of income. He proceeds 
to analyze human motives and to evaluate the opportunities 
for satisfaction in the various classes of society in respect 
to four areas of action. Otto Klineberg shows how racial 
antagonisms have confused the issues and blurred under- 
standing. Unions have excluded Negroes; Negroes have 
been used as strike breakers. The hostility between white 
and Negro working classes has at times been encouraged by 
the employers under the policy of divide and rule, but times 
are changing. Theodore Newcomb presents an elaborate study 
in which a large number of union men express their opinions 
on a questionnaire about the functions and policies of trade 
unions. 

Part IV considers the various forces which are employed 
to eliminate conflict in industry. Three chapters deal with 
technique in industry itself. Industrial relations programs, 


30 


says H. M. Somers, while including the selection and place- 
ment of employees, wages, health, leisure, personal needs and 
the like, are ultimately futile since they do not reach the 
source of the conflict. Capital and labor have common in- 
terests in the field of production, but they are opposed in the 
field of distribution. Samuel Hayes, Jr., considers concilia- 
tion and arbitration, which are essentially co-operative efforts. 
These, however, are dependent upon the good will of the 
two parties involved and will break down with a resort to 
direct action when the compromise is considercd not to 
reveal the relative strength of the contenders. T. Swann 
Harding points out that a strike is a nonscientific, wasteful 
method of settling a conflict and that an intelligent, socially 
alert society would not tolerate such a method. 

The remainder of this part deals with the relations of pub- 
lic opinion to the settlement of industrial conflicts. Selden C. 
Menefee discusses the propaganda techniques employed by the 
competitors for public support and evaluates the relative extent 
of the publicity which employers and unions can command. 
John Slade examines the legal aspects of industrial conflict, 
pointing out that the courts have never attempted to build up 
a common law in this field but have attempted to solve the 
problems in terms of other issues, such as matters of status 
(slave and master) or freedom of contract, rather than in 
terms of the personal relations involved or in terms of public 
interest. Ellis Freeman concludes this section with an im- 
portant chapter pointing out that it is about time teachers 
face realistically the task of teaching the psychology of in- 
dustrial conflict. Students must learn that the presentation 
of the facts of industrial organization and the consequent 
conflict our society produces does not constitute advocacy 
of any particular doctrine. 

The volume will be especially helpful to teachers in the 
secondary schools who feel that it is their duty to their stu- 
dents to make a clear lucid picture of the society into which 
the student is soon to find himself. Ratpx H. GunpLAcH 


* * * 


PUBLIC EMPLOYEE CREDIT UNIONS, by A. R. RatH- 
ERT. Minneapolis: Minnesota State Federation of Teach- 
ers, 5245—42nd Ave., S. 18 pages. 10 cents. 

This is a valuable guide on the function, growth and service 
of credit unions to public employees with special reference to 
teachers. It is a digest of leading credit union reports and 
each page is footnoted with references for the interested 
reader. Examples of the benefits of credit unions (means of 
safe savings for members, available credit at reasonable rates, 
consumer control of savings at work, and education in wise 
use of credit) are cited from many parts of the country. Just 
enough history of credit unions is included to give the reader a 
background. Teacher credit unions have grown in number 
from forty-five in 1934 to over four hundred at the close of 
1939. The first in Minnesota was organized by the St. Paul 
Federation in 1926. 

The authors point out that many industries have sponsored 
credit unions for their employees and that John P. Mitchell, 
then mayor of New York, helped municipal employees organ- 
ize a credit union because so many of them had fallen into 
the hands of loan sharks. It now has 25,000 members and 
assets of over $4,000,000. Teachers have been slow to appre- 
ciate the credit union movement but as a group have as much 
need for it as any. Credit unions for teacher groups will 
have to be organized by the teachers themselves. 

Maurice C. CRew 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


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Counts — 


(Continued from page 5) 

labor movement for help in the struggle to maintain and 
advance the interests of the public schools, such improve- 
ment in relations is of supreme importance. We should 
resolve firmly to conserve this advance. Every local and 
state body in the union should do all in its power to 
gain and keep the confidence of the American Federation 
of Labor. 

One final word. This assistance from the American 
Federation of Labor does not mean that we should 
leave the task of organization to a special staff of organ- 
izers. It means rather that we should achieve the largest 
possible co-ordination of effort on the part of the entire 
membership. It should cause every member to do his part. 

Grorce S. Counts 


Kuenzli— 
(Continued from page 6) 

length with the Executive Board of the Central Labor 
Union regarding possible support for the teachers of 
Duluth. These men evidenced a keen interest in the bud- 
get cut and promised to enlist the support of the 10,000 
men of labor to secure an adequate school program. They 
did feel somewhat hurt, however, that teachers constantly 
seek their support but refuse to affiliate with them. 

Evidently you have a vigorous battle ahead to protect 
the schools from serious curtailment during the present 
emergency. Your teachers’ association in Duluth is one 
of the strongest organizations of this type I have yet 
seen. I believe your association is the only one in America 
which employs a full-time business agent who is a member 
of the Office Workers Union (AFL) and a delegate to the 
central labor council. Why not secure for your splendid 
organization of over 500 members the backing and func- 
tional support of more than 10,000 organized workers 
in the city? In a single stroke you may change from an 
organization of 500 to one of 10,500 members with tre- 
mendous power and influence in the city. At the same 
time you will be associating yourselves with a movement 
which was largely responsible for establishing the free 
public-schoo] system in America and which, over the 
years, has played a major part in establishing those basic 
principles of American democracy which are directly re- 
lated to education—better housing, elimination of child 
labor, social security, adequate financial support of schools, 
better health conditions in industry, care of the orphans, 
crippled, widows, and aged, and more abundant living in 
general. 

It has been amply demonstrated in many cities of 
America that teachers can ill afford to stand alone in the 
present crisis. In fact, the situation in Duluth is so typical 
of what is happening all over America that we are printing 
this letter in the AMERICAN TEACHER Magazine. 

Irvin R. KUENZLI 


NOVEMBER, 1940 





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SPECIAL ARTICLES, RESEARCH PAPERS, 

speeches, treatises, on educational, literary, sociological, economic, 

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CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE 


GOODWIN WATSON is on the staff of Teachers 
College at Columbia University and is a member of 
Local 537. . .. RALPH H. GUNDLACH is a mem- 
ber of the faculty of the University of Washington 
and President of Local 401... . JAMES M. ROSS is 
Director of Public Information of the Save the 
Children Federation in New York City. . .. HENRY 
L. JOHNSON is the pseudonym of a teacher in the 
Cleveland schools, a member of Local 279... . SELMA 
BORCHARDT is the National Legislative Representa- 
tive of the AFT and a member of Local 8... . 
MAURICE CREW is Chairman of the AFT Com- 
mittee on Insurance and Credit Unions and a mem- 
ber of Local 1. . . . Note on October’s Contributors: 
HAZEL MURRAY is still the editor of Local 279’s 
magazine. . . . HUGH WING is secretary of Local 
646 in Pittsburgh rather than Local 400. 














The AMERICAN TEACHER 


Official Organ of The American Federation of Teachers 
506 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 


Organized April 15, 1916 
GEORGE T. GUERNSEY, Editor 
KERMIT EBY, Consulting Editor 


Members of the Executive Council 


GEORGE 8S. COUNTS, Pres. IRVIN R. KUENZLI, Sec’y-Treas. 
420 Riverside Drive 506 S. Wabash Avenue 
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