The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 28, 1924, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER THE DAILY WORKER. Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1640 N. Halsted St., Chicago, Ill. (Phone: Lincoln 7680.) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $6.00 per year $3.50. .6 months $2.00..3 months By mail (in Chicago only): $4.50..6 months $2.50. .8 months $8.00 per year Chicago, Illinois teh et Editors -Business Manager Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1640 N. Halsted Street J. LOUIS ENGDAHL \ WILLIAM F. DUNNE § * MORITZ J. LOEB Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. im 304 Advertising rates on application. Educators and Education {The National Education association is hold- ing‘its sixty-second annual meeting in Chicago. Its open sessions are held in the Auditorium, but the real business is done in the dozens of more or less secret conferences in hotel parlors —at breakfast dinners and luncheons. The National Education association, in line with the best traditions of American business, is engaged in selling education. it has its own definition of education, however, and in the speeches of the more prominent delegates it is obvious that only doctrines approved by the overlords of finance and industry are listed in the catalogues. In the present gathering are found almost exclusively those instructors who are holding executive positions—principals and superin- tendents—and for slavish servility to Ameri- can capitalist institutions it would be hard to find anoher collection of individuals to com- pare with it. The public schools in the United States are today the centers of anti-labor propaganda; in every community the principals and super- intendents are merely agents of the chamber of commerce and employers’ associations. Because of their supposed intellectual at- tainments they exercise a* good deal of in- fluence on the masses; they furnish the “im- partial” camouflage for the dominant group and in all the rallies and drives for the dozens of bourgeois enterprises they take a leading part. Those of the educators gathered here who have so far expressed themselves on the pla- toon system are in favor of it. The platoon system is an extension of the regimenting proc- ess that is making automatons of the children of the American workers and approval of this plan by the executives who are members of the national educational association stamps them part of the machinery of capitalist gov- ernment. Se Semen See ate Jaa eee cCommerciai eQucation anu manua Wwalning are the keynotes of the present conference. The children of the workers in the grade schools are to be turned into efficient cogs in capitalist industry; those who get as far as high school are to be made into clerks, stenog- raphers, salesmen and advertising men. Dr. Edwin Broome, superintendent of Philadelphia schools, has already declared that much of the material used for mental cipline in the public schools should “weeded out.” Children should not be taught to think, to pursue independent investigations, to culti- vate a skeptical frame of mind that makes for discarding of old and useless things, but to obey and worship the dogmas of capitalist society. To this level has sunk the public school tem of the United States, the system that the workers of America many years ago brought into being against the wishes of the ruling class of that day. From the kindergarten to the universities the youth of the land are taught to hate despise all activities of the labor movement; either they become, if machine industry does not claim them, the babbitts of the business world or mental eunuchs who take up the task of prostituting knowledge. The Beards, Nearings, Veblens, Deweys imprimatur. The Rewards of Treason A cloud full of potentialities for suffering and trouble hovers over the German workers today. We have never for a moment had of the American banker-generals. Now announcement about the experts’ plan for the German railways should knock the bottom hopeful Ebert “socialist” followers. Dawes’ commission is planning to turn workers employed. its immensely valuable modern equipment more than 32,000 miles of roadbed, is reorganized on a profit-makin, than as a military and industrial agent.” _ Little comment is necessary on what in will bring to th “go surface of events a bit 4 Laskis, and the host of less well-known edu- cators, driven from the public institutions of learning by the rulers, in ever increasing num- bers bear witness to the fact that education in:America consists of merely of impressing on the minds of pupils certain doctrines upon which American capitalism has placed its doubts about the malign consequence in store for Germany’s working class in the activities of the lingering illusions for even the most General German railways over to the private capital- ists, raise the fares, and reduce the number of The British member of the expert enslavers of Germany’s proletarian masses has decreed that an international capi- talist lien must be placed on the German state railway system; that this system which, with haps the most efficient in the world, ‘‘must be basis rather German workingmen. this time, however, it is most appropriate benegth the find. out the why and wherefore of this help- lessness of the once mighty German working class. E Calm, dispassionate probing leads the investigator to one outstanding factor respon- flower of the European proletariat. The Ger- man masses are today reaping the rewards of the treason perpetrated against the working class of the world by the social democratic leaders. Since the Ebert-Noske despoilers of international socialism assumed control of the rudder of state for the industrialists and fin- anciers, even after events have belied every one of their pretenses. These Judases of the world revolution fought the proletarian dic- tatorship because they would have the world believe that they were dedicated to-the cause of pure democracy. Now Chancellor Marx warns the Reichstag that unless it immediately stops concerning itself with the government he will dissolve it. The Social Democrats fought the establishment of a Soviet Republic | because, they said, it would bring about the enslavement of Germany by foreign capital- ists. Now, these same unholy pretenders are the very ones to invite the foreign capitalists, to facilitate the turning of Germany into a coolie colony of international capitalist imper- ialism. Yes, these are the dismal rewards of trea- son. The lessons of these blackest betrayals of history are of incalculable import to the work- ing class movement the world over. But this quintessential gall which the German working class is today comyelled to drink will yet prove the hemlock to their misleaders. The terrible | orice now being paid by the world proletariat shall then not have been in vain. The Taxation Muddle The House of Representatives has, thru a union of the insurgents and democrats, passed the Garner tax proposal. In essence this mea- sure provides for a 44 per cent tax on all in- comes of $100,000 or over. There is every likelihood that President Coolidge, despite his blatant outbursts in behalf of the original Mel- lon scheme, will sign this bill. Many may hail the defeat of the Mellon plan as a tremendous victory for the people. Nothing ofthe kind is true. The democratic plan, when finally adopted, will satisfy the big business interests because their taxes are re- duced by it. It is true that the Mellon plan would benefit them a little more, but our cap- tains of industry are experienced bargainers and under the circumstances, when the gov- ernment is under so much suspicion, they will feel mighty well satisfied with the reduction of the surtax from 50 to 44 per cent. What Congress should have done in ending the taxation burden is to remove all taxes from the poor and shift them completely over to the rich. The insurgent republicans should have fought much harder than they did to prevent the enactment by. the House of this compromise wu ae WScn ae a the|a year. considerably less. dis- be of the people of this country. - sys- the average workers and farmers. Unmasking Tyranny and and . zen of the country. the gigantic Sinclair oil out of the constitution by refusin; Service Commission.” any the out Coolidge administration. the fraudulent oil concessions. yield to suspicion, but we wonder. - these days of political oil prospecting. and per-|sion, as fool-proof a dictatorshi attained. Pp this sible for the hopelessness of the erstwhile! | | | | Pen Linnnat aanitalints I tions: mMe€asure OL VEMEML LU LUT MAyREDY Capstauor. How little the great mass of workers and dis- possessed farmers will benefit from the Gar- ner measure is evident from the fact that even in New York State, the wealthiest state in the union, more than three out of every four fami- lies have a family income of less than $2,500 The individual income, of course, is If these are the conditions in New York, then the situation is much worse in the other, the poorer states, of the country. Consequently, the democratic Garner tax bill brings no relief to the overwhelming majority The only tax plan that can be of any service to the working masses and relieve them of the present staggering burdens of taxation is that plan which will levy a 100 per cent inheritance tax, a 100 per cent egcess tax and a 100 per cent surtax on all incomes above the income of Colonel Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the navy, one of the heroes of the Teapot Dome Oil Tragedy, who is now occupying his office by the grace of Coolidge and the tolerance of the masses, is engaged in denying the navy employes the most elementary constitutional rights supposed to be accorded to’ every citi- The constitution guarantees the inviolability of the right of petition to every citizen. Let, Mr. Roosevelt, who was caught red-handed in al, is arrogating to himself the power to make a scrap of paper the naval employes the right to petition publicly “that personnel classification and efficiency ratings and all other government personnel matters be placed under the supervisor of the Civil Apparently. Mr. Roosevelt feels that oil alone hasn’t helped him. He is opposed to the much counted American civil. service method for advancing and rating government em- ployes. Perhaps Mr. Roosevelt feels that he must also do his bit in the roping of the civil| ts service system which has been going on un- noticed and unpunished under the Harding- Very likely Assist- ant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt finds it necessary to traffic in naval jobs as well as We do not want to This incident may appear unimportant in truth it is very significant. It shows that our employing class does not leave a stone un- turned to keep this government as airtight as possible against rank and file ve yt expres- as can be This high-handed conduct of the oily Roose- velt unmasks the essential tyranny with which or whole government system seeks and la: threadbare all the false democratic clai made for our government by its defenders and Thursday, February 28, 1924 SSLSNSSKKKK KLANG HEN ME IIEN IIIT IN HIE IN IIIT TION HONE NNER INN SO Great Work for Education Is Being Carried on by the Communist Party in Soviet Russia By Henry Noel Brailsford, in “The Russian Workers’ Republic,” Harper & Bros.; Publishers. ESNNANA NANAK N MIT IN MeN MIM MN TTI NO TINIE ION NM BE TEIN II HE Russian Communist Party j is ripening the whole Russian people for responsibility and pow- er, by its great work for educa- tion... . o To my mind the most inspiring thing in Russia is that the Social Revolution,! instantly, and instine- tively, began to realize the idea of universal. education, which thé in- terests and prejudices of class have thwarted in the ‘rest of Eu- rope. Every fair-minded observer has given the: Bolsheviks credit for their prompt efforts to send an illiterate people to school. Workers Kids to Have Best. Their ambition is “much bolder. They intend that none of the com- forts, none of the pleasures, none of the stimuli, which awaken the powers of a child born in Europe in a cultured middle-class home, shall be lacking to the children of the humblest Russian — workers. Their belief is that by’a great and self-sacrificing effort the entire generation which is coming to ma- turity in Russia can be raised to a high level of culture. They will-not at once attain their full ambition, ‘They are hampered by poverty, ‘They suffer from a dearth of teachers who share their outlook. Many a long year will pass before the primitive, isolated Russian village can absorb more than the bare rudiments of civili- zation. But this they have achiev- ed. They have broken the barriers which class and poverty had raised against education. I saw near Petrograd a big boarding school formerly reserved for the children of the nobility. Today about three in four of its inmates are the children of manual workers. They were, in their bear- ing and manners, as refined as the children whose parents belonged to the intelligenzia, as eager to. study and as keen to enjoy the pleasures of art and knowledge to which an admirable staff of teachers intro- duced them: They were learning handicrafts as well as sciences and languages, and whether they ex- ercise a trade or a profession, when they leave school, they will be cultivated men and women, ca- pable of disciplined thought and aesthetic pleasure, Improvised Laboratory. The long Russian summer holi- day was over before I left, and I saw three big schools at work in and near Petrograd. All were suf- fering from the lack of materials, especially paper, steel pens, pen- cils, and school books., But the — skill and enthusiasm of the teach- ers went far to supply the lack. In one of the three the head mas- ter, whose chief interest was nat- ural science, had got together a most creditable . physical labora- tory, and nearly all the apparatus had been recently made by the elder pupils themselves. Veteran carpenters’ benches and lathes had somehow been commandeered, and even the girls were learning to use them. Bootmaking was also taught. The libraries, chiefly of Russian classics, were in great re- quest, and in the evenings the older pupils conducted a sort of literary salon, One of these three schools had a rather ambitious theater, and occasionally the children per- formed plays of their own composi- tion, usually dealing with some historical subject. Another had a thriving ‘band, which played for me, really very well, with a lad of fourteen as conductor. Teachers Without Books. iy I. heard, some German lessons given, and the teachers had man- aged, almost without books, to ‘make "wonderful progress, with the aid chiefly of blackboard and draw- ings prepared by the children themselves. ‘Hardly ‘a word of Russian was used in the foreign- Janguage lessons, and in one of these schools some of the elder children, obviously rather proud of their proficiency, started convers- ing with me in German’ as I walk- ed about the corridors. Latin and Greek are virtually abolished. For the elder pupils there were lessons in political economy and psychol- ogy as well as history, literature, _and_science.*. The strain on the teachers must have been terrific, and only the best of them could succeed, ' % Radical Educational Methods. Much of the discontent of the more conservative and less efficient teachers was obviously due to their inability to grasp and apply the radical new methods of educa- tion prescribed by Lunacharsky and Pokrovsky. The* old routine which pumped knowledge. out of textbooks into passive children was so mtich easier than the new meth- ods of activity, self-initiative, and realism. Thus I found the elder pupils in some schools learning atithmetic by working over the actual statistics, percentage, and costings of a particular factory. That wants a better and keener teacher than the old book ex- amples. Employers Dictate to (Continued from page 1) teachers’ positions. The Journal of the National Education ‘Association for September, 1922, triumphantly quotes the superintendent of schools at Onaway, Michigan, as stating that “teachers’ contracts in ~ Onaway, Michigan, will in future require teachers to become members of state and national educational ~ associa- tions.” And in the case of St. Jos- eph, Missouri, the blanks’ to be filled out by applicants for teaching posi- tions contaiti the following two ques- “Are you a member of the ber this year?” s the; understanding improved, this rank and file. ers. ous Superintendence. After ery was made the by-laws of being a millionaire in a headed by. their president, headed by Margaret ' groups are fighting for proletariat, room Teachers’ . Depa: like the Department of The Department of Su everyone who was not a su) ent; now let the De In one who was not @ teacher! same time as the mi of the Department of ence. The gang was that in Milwaukee the | cation refused leave Miss Ethel Gardner, who dent of the Sone N. E. A.? If not, will you/#e a mem- Now the classroom teachers are the real educators in Americai They do the actual work of teaching your children; they are the ones who know your children, they spend- some 25 hours with them every ;week, and are not seduced from the job of children by promi- nence and applause, nor by high sal- aries, nor by any other lure. The classroom teachers are the ones we must depénd on if education is to be The classroont teachers represent democracy in the school world, and the test of democracy in the N. E, A. is what happens to So I begin my study of this great organization with its Department of Classroom Teach- Until a year or two ago the De- partment of Classroom Teachers of the N. E. A. was nothing but a name. The way it leaped ae Gy i we is an amusing story. e school sup- erintendents of the N. E. A. decided that they would have an exclusive organization, and hold meetings un- contaminated by the presence. of the school proletariat. At their mid- winter convention of 1920 ‘they re- organized themselves into an auton- body, called the Department they had done this, the embarrassing discov- that they had violated the N. Ev 1A; but, of course, at the next convention of the N. E. A. special amendments were passed, so as to legalize what the superintendents had done. Being a superintendent in the N. BE. A. is like Now to each of the N. Ey A. con- ventions come the “Bolsheviks” ot the Milwaukee Teachers" Association, Gardner; also the “ ; the Chicago thant eegean ale 100] and they watch with the tricks and ‘con- el i gang moved heaven and earth to oust her from her job as a teacher; but it so happened that she had an hon- est principal, and when they asked him to report her as incompetent he renee: “T will not tell a damned ie.” The convention was held without Miss Gardner, and the teachers ap- pointed a committee of Milwaukee and Chicago “Bolsheviks,” which spent all the spring drawing up a constitution and having it made air- tight by a competent attorney. At the 1922 convention of the N. E. A., held in Boston, they, appeared with a TA. awe PYINveG Gar OF Ue Scheme, decreed that she of the tend to let that happen. president classroom teachers! of Prominence,” and what I mean. here you sociation. classroom teacher in tl States.” President Willia1 that title—sh vention! Please of “greatness.” contractors. Recall Miss Arlett, “who, while su teaching the schoql chil! shortly before the 1920 co in the interest of Mr. Hun of vities, Miss Arlett was to, be principal of @ ‘kland,” . You ete acpertcnech he ampeets ‘ ent x ; ie ence; why not reorganize mo ag yg N. E. A., and have it autonomous, Superintend. ence? A beautiful ise, you see! had excluded from its membershi) tof Cla Teachers exclude every- ssroom Teachers Here was treason and rank rebel- lion; and actually, these teachers had the insolence to call a convention in Chicago, in A at the FESRE ancy were going to re-elect Miss Ethel Gardner, the Milwaukee “Bolshevik,” as their president; and it goes with- out saying that the gang did not ‘in- The gang picked out a “tame” teacher, Miss Effie MacGregor, of Minneapolis, and was to become Department of Classroom Teachers—in spite of the This chapter is called “Dispensers The classroom teach- ers had never heard of Miss Effie MacGregor; she had never attended a meeting of the Department. of Classroom Teachers, nor was sh member of a classroom teachers’ a: She had fought hard against the increase of their salaries; but now she was to be their presi- dent, and have the spending of their ten thousand dollars for a year! President Charl O. Williams, of the N. E, A., proceeded to place the lady on the main program of the N. E. A., introducing her as “the. foremost United went on to explain the lady’s credentials to e had arranged @ movie benefit at a theater, and raised funds to send eight delegates to the con- understand, that is not a joke; that is the N. E. A. idea Come back with me to Oakland, California, and recall the picture of Fred M. Hunter, superintendent. and educational ward leader, with his school henchmen and his grafting Elizabeth | the oe hi c i ees “this 1922 conven- |} Teachers wanted to finish this ‘work in a hurry, for they knew exactly whom they wanted, and‘ it wouldn’t have taken five. minutes, But the gang would not let that happen; a member of the board of trustees of the N. E. A.-began a violent and noisy fili- buster, and so prevented the election. The assembly twice rejected a motion to hold an adjourned meeting; they wanted to do their electing right there, but the gang held on and de- layed matters, until finally. the jani- tor threatenéd to turn out the lights, sod a forced the veachers from the . ; COTES AL Recnatinent Ae 90 nere was Classroom A. convention, at which very see | she “ordered” sembly by-l er” of the gang in that city. say, a number of spectators s' whether they really~ were’ cla: teachers or not, The climi surdity was reached when two hundred people came to certain who they land, was touring the United States, ‘onvention, r Wie Mopareacuy vs Teachers left without offi- cers for a year! They) did not know what to do; but the gang knew, you may be sure: They:sprung the prop- osition at an assembly of the N. E. of the classroom teachers were pres- ent, but at which four out of five of those present were superintend- ents or members of the supervising force. To this gathering, the presi- dent of the N. E. A. announced that meeting of the Class- room Teachers’ Department, to be held as soon as this N. E.. A. as- had adjourned. Under the . the president of the N. E. A. | lutely without authority to order any. such meeting; but she or- dered it, and the incoming president of the N, E. A. took charge—Mr. William B. Owen, president of the Chicago Normal School, “ward lead- The meeting was held} that is to over, and Mr. Owen called them to order as classroom teachers, but without making any effort to’ find out ssroom of hen this meet- ing—it was held in a theater—was forced to vacate, and adjourned to the Boys’ Trade School. Fewer than place, and no effort was made to AS WE SEE IT By T, J, O'FLAHERTY. Dr, Norman Thomas found the labor leaders at the St. Louis C. P. P. A. Conference bubbling over with Teapot Dome sradicalation, But whenever a . resolution to de- clare definitely for a Third Party or a Farmer Labor Party came up, the leaders grabbed it, looked it over, sniffed suspiciously at it, like a dog approaching a tempting piece of meat left in front of a kennel, and glanced at the gallery where Ru- thenberg sat with a Machiavelian smile on his features, and then sternly voted down the resolution, no matter how good it was. This ig disconcerting to the Doctor, No doubt the Workers Party should eliminate itself in the interest of harmony and allow the toothless Socialist warriors to mumble their dogmas at the reactionary labor fakers before joining them in a love feast. s¢ @ @ Dr. Thomas says we should sto; f suspecting each other, forget th © past, stop criticizing the fakers ani < let the Teapot Dome do its damned- est. We should let the May 30 con- ference slide and wait and see what the labor fakers may do under the inspiration of July 4th. Nothing doing, Doctor. st 8 Striking Chicago dress makers may have the need for working class political action literally beaten into their brains before the strike that started yesterday will be over. The police instead of functioning to pre- serve the peace act openly as as- sistants of the bosses. Behind the policeman with his club is the judge with his injunction and behind him is the mayor. The latter was placed in his position by the votes of the workers whose heads refused to think in their own interests. The sooner they can learn to elect a worker on a working class ticket the better for them and for their class. -* 2 @ When the ministers are not break- ing up some happy home or giving the readers of yellow journalism their money’s worth in the form of reading matter heavy with sex, they are throwing monkey wrenches into the business of exploiting female nudity which flourishes in the city of Chicago. The Rev. John W. Fun- ston is morally excited over a bur- lesque show which rears its shame- less head on Randolph street. He must have seen the show judging by the vivid account he gave of it. A Freudian might draw certain con- clusions from the holy gentleman’s detailed description of the leading lady’s lack of clothing,-that would not be complimentary to the rev- erend pastor. As it is we believe that some profession with a cleaner assume the | ment like this. se ee few radicals. exceptional tary _ leadership.” Ghandi, the harmless Hind alist, he threw the pacifis' seven new wi of 14. rebel doos. “es * @ Talking of Ghandi. government made no mistgke in leasing him. nationalist ab-| robbing it ‘of its militar: British government called by clapping him in jail and lenging his “non-resistan to do its worst, this And it is no coincidence that occurs spects so much, i moral record than the clerical should leadership of a move- Ramsay MacDonald is a remark- ag beans ee omc ss Lee ing nearly all groups in the House Commons. . First he pleased the pac- ifists, next he pleased the militar- ists. He pleased the liberals and he pleased the Tories. So far, how- ever, he has failed to please the His action in laying the keels of seven new warships prompt- ed the Daily Herald labor paper to state that MacDonald was given the opportunity “to bring into play his genius for parliamen- By releasing nation- a bone. This more than makes up for his ips and his murder m That soft headed po- litical infant wrecked a promising movement in India by is bluff i vey hand? stayed in iail until the British thought it well for them to turn him loo; hi at a moment when of|there is an awakening of the na- tionalist, spirit in India and a re- version to the policy of physical force, the only policy England re- penance in sackcloth and ashes for their “crimes” against the Brit- ish government, The deaths of the rebel Hindoos, declares this faker, were not due to the cruelty of the The British -| British government but to the sin- fulness of the Hindoos in using vio- lence. Does MacDonald deserve grat- itude for releasing, Ghandi? Yes, from the British imr§rialists whose |get and never learn, cause he is better able to serve than the pompous Tories who never for- ? ¥ :