STATEMENT OF MR. CHARLES B. STILLMAN, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS.

Mr. STILLMAN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the American Federation of Teachers has advocated and worked for the creation of a department of education, headed by a Cabinet officer in the President's Cabinet, for the last three years, and has worked for a Federal appropriation of $100,000,000 to stimulate and assist the States in raising teachers' salaries for about half of that time. We come before you as representing the classroom teachers, and on behalf of the classroom teachers, who are on the educational firing line, in daily contact with the children, we indorse this bill.

It would seem unnecessary to put forth any further argument for a Federal department of education. I think there is general recognition that education is so essential to national existence, together with labor, agriculture, and commerce, that it should be represented directly in the President's Cabinet. The necessity for Federal appropriation has been presented to you. I think that the most important feature in this bill is the surety that it gives of trained teachers. The best of buildings and the best of equipment are so much junk without competent teachers. Startling figures were stated here yesterday as to the shortage of 100,000 teachers of any kind and the shortage of 300,000 trained teachers. Perhaps a specific illustration will drive that fact home to you: In a little Illinois town last year there were 117 pupils crowded into one room, presided over by an 18-year-old girl without a high-school education. At the last convention of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, or the Illinois Federation of Labor, a delegate asked what we meant by our boasted American opportunity.

Mr. DONOVAN. Why could not the immediate remedy be furnished by the State of Illinois? It is a progressive State, a wealthy State, and why has not that condition been remedied by the State?

Mr. STILLMAN. Well, I selected that State of Illinois because it is my own State.

Mr. DONOVAN. But why don't you take any State?

Mr. STILLMAN. I might have given, as a practical illustration, almost every State in the country. Illinois has during the last legislative session taken very definite steps to remedy that situation. The fact remains, however, and it has been brought out in the last few days, that the States alone are unable to meet the seriousness of that full situation. They really need Federal assistance. Even a wealthy State, such as Illinois, has not been able, under its present theory of taxation, to meet all the educational requirements of the past, and you realize at the present time the demands of the educational systems are expanding tremendously. Federal aid is necessary to maintain the present situation, without regard to the coming time.

Mr. DONOVAN. But the provisions of this bill will necessitate very materially increased appropriations by the States in order to get the results.

Mr. STILLMAN. The provisions of the bill will necessitate the increasing of the appropriations to the extent that the Federal aid is received. I am heartily in favor of that, or of a provision which would prevent their turning over any of their present appropriations in order to meet that Federal appropriation. And I think they

ought to be required to extend themselves further, but without this encouragement it is practically impossible to meet the situation.

Mr. TOWNER. A gentleman stated to me the other day that he believed there were 10,000 children in the city of Chicago that could not find accommodations in the schools.

Mr. STILLMAN. Frankly, I am a little skeptical of that statement. If you mean permanent schools-there are tens of thousands who are housed daily in portable buildings. There has been no definite survey. There was, however, in New York City during the last year, and there were 30,000 children in that one city without teachers of any kind. The question that that gentleman asked it seems to me is exceedingly pertinent. Also the question was most pertinent that the delegate asked the convention of the Illinois Federation of Labor. We hear very frequently that democracy means equality of opportunity, and if it does, it must mean that it is equality of educational opportunity. If the present is alarming, let us look at the future. The normal schools have been running with less than half of the customary enrollment. Wilson Normal in Washington last year started with an entering class of 9 as compared with the usual entering class of 90. The young men and women are not using the normal schools to prepare themselves for a calling which does not offer adequate pay.

The CHAIRMAN. What argument under the sun would induce anybody to go into school work now, as compared with the other occupations?

Mr. STILLMAN. The same argument that induced the banker's wife to go in and help out, the one that you spoke of, altruism. Incidentally I wonder if that banker's wife in going into that school was not performing a doubtful service for the scholars or for the schools of the country in helping to continue the present low standards that we are now suffering from. You can not blame these young men and women for refusing to enter these schools and preparing themselves for this calling, when the majority of the teachers are either dependent on the charity of their parents or others or are compelled to eke out an existence outside of school hours.

Then there is another argument, which is that education increases the earning power of the people, increases the incomes, even more than it enhances property value. The Federal Government is the principal beneficiary of the income tax, and it would seem logical that the Federal Government should pay part of the expense of public education which plays so large a part in making taxable incomes possible.

While emphasizing the necessity for the recognition of education by giving it a departmental rank in the Government, and the necessity for Federal aid, let me again stress the importance of safeguarding local autonomy in most States and communities.

Probably the new features of this legislation which the American Federation of Teachers has been most closely identified with, are the definite inclusion of the words "partial payment of teachers' salaries," and the safeguarding of local autonomy.

Since the American Federation of Teachers is the National Organization of Class Room Teachers, composed of locals in all sections of the country, who keep in close touch with the pulse of the

country through their delegates, the duties of the president of that organization give him an opportunity to learn of the prevailing sentiment, and the statement that he has received most often is that there must be no possibility of bureaucratic domination. The teachers in many communities are just commencing to make headway toward securing a democratic voice in the conduct of the schools where in many instances they have been suffering under local bureaucracy, and they have a natural fear against any possibility of their being placed under a more remote and inaccessible bureaucracy in the State and the National Capitol. But when we have pointed out the safeguards in section 14 of this measure, the skeptical has been converted into an enthusiastic supporter of the bill.

In conclusion, you will readily agree that the threatened breakdown of our educational system which this bill is designed to avert would be very disastrous to the Nation as a whole, more disastrous to the Nation as a whole than to any State or locality. This is the situation at the beginning of a long period of world and national reconstruction, a period in which unprecedented demands will be made upon our schools, to develop the most intelligent type of citizenship, equipped to cope with the social and economic problems which will try to the utmost not only the present generation, but also the future.

The CHAIRMAN. As a practical school man, you have noticed the general criticisms of the public schools, coming from both distinguished teachers, like former President Eliot of Harvard and professional men, and even men in Government recognition, like former Secretary McAdoo, when he laid at the door of the schoolroom a good deal of the failure to produce the right sort of spirit in America, and these would indicate that the school should occupy a very important place in the promulgation of proper ideas and the fitness of the pupils for the workaday world. I do not ask whether you think those criticisms are justified or not, but the truth of the matter is that at the door of the schoolroom will be laid many of the things that ought not to be there, but, assuming that the school is failing to do this work, as these people say, are you looking to this measure to assist in removing these disabilities?

Mr. STILLMAN. Emphatically, yes. I think that the teacher is the key to the whole situation, and I think you will agree that the public has been getting infinitely more than it has been paying for in all of these years.

The CHAIRMAN. I do not think that this should be laid to the schools, but it is a common thing for the public to say that the Schools are responsible for them.

Mr. STILLMAN. You can not expect a good type of American manhood and womanhood if you only pay those who come in daily contact with the children of the people less than a living pittance. I want to say that this $636 average which has been paid in 1916 to the teachers included the principals, and that the average of the classroom teachers was less than $500, even in 1916.

The CHAIRMAN. You do recognize that there are defects in the public-school system that can be and ought to be removed?

Mr. STILLMAN. Certainly, and the human element necessary to remove it can be secured by making the calling of teaching self-respecting.

Mr. TOWNER. I want to say this for the consideration of the committee. Of course the teachers would be interested in securing larger salaries. That would be primarily, or it might be considered primarily with them a selfish interest, but the securement of increased salaries is primarily in the interest of the people and of the children and not of the teachers. In the first place, there are tens of thousands of teachers teaching to-day, who are utterly unqualified for teaching at all under any circumstances. This bill is designed for the purpose of trying to secure people that are qualified, and the raising of the wages is for the purpose of not merely granting something to the teachers, but the removing of the very criticisms to which Dr. Fess calls attention, and when you say that the personnel can remove that, is there any other plan possible that could in so great a degree improve the character and remove the criticisms as the securing of a higher grade and better qualified grade of teachers?

Mr. STILLMAN. No, sir; I think not. One of the reasons for the present condition of the school system is the fact that the teachers have been too afraid to come before the public with their demands. They fear that they will be subjecting themselves to the charge of self-interest. The teachers are the only ones who have first-hand knowledge of the conditions, and if the teachers keep still the public will never be informed of the real nature of the situation. It is a public duty for the teachers to brave that charge of self-interest.

Senator WALSH. Do you not think that up to the time of the World War there was a constant and steady improvement in the personnel and establishment of the profession in the teaching profession throughout the country?

Mr. STILLMAN. Well, may be so.

Senator WALSH. And the falling off has become because of the tremendous increase of salaries in the industrial world.

Mr. STILLMAN. And even before the war, in the minds of the great mass

Senator WALSH (interrupting). I do not speak of the American war, but the World War, because wages went up immediately after the beginning of the war. I am speaking of 1914.

Mr. STILLMAN. Yes; and even before 1914 in the minds of the great mass of men and women who entered the teaching profession, they were using that teaching profession as a stop gap for two or three years

Senator WALSH (interrupting). Well, they are always accused of that, so far as the women are concerned.

Mr. STILLMAN. But even more so far as the men were concerned. Until you remove that feeling, you are not going to develop a real improvement.

Senator WALSH. The statistics show that in Massachusetts, every five years the teaching forces in the high schools change by reason of the stepping out of the teachers into other professions.

Mr. STILLMAN. I think that that is a good answer to the question in itself.

Mr. DONOVAN. I suppose that the women teachers are called to higher callings in the first place

Mr. STILLMAN. This is a little aside from that question. The grade teachers of Washington have sent out a questionnaire, and they have

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found through that questionnaire that over 50 per cent of the women teachers in Washington have dependents, so that I think you seeSenator SMITH. You do not mean that they are married women? Mr. STILLMAN. No; have parents and family responsibilities, in other words.

Senator WALSH. But that is true of everybody, is it not?
Mr. STILLMAN. Yes, sir.

STATEMENT OF MR. L. V. LAMPSON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS.

The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, we will now hear from Mr. L. V. Lampson, the first vice president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, on behalf of the American Federation of Teachers, I desire to present briefly the history of the bill now before the committee, and to discuss with you what I believe are the sentiments not only of the organized but of the unorganized teachers of the country in respect to the proposed measure. By reason of the fact that in the last few months I traveled from Bangor to Galveston, from Milwaukee to Atlanta, and in much of the intervening territory for the purpose of addressing teachers, I am in a position to interpret their views.

Mr. DONOVAN. Dr. Strayer said that he had been working for a year and a half on this matter throughout the country. Have your travels from Maine to the South, and around through the country been engaged largely on this matter?

Mr. LAMPSON. My travel has been for the purpose of organizing the teachers of the country and to present to them this bill. Mr. DONOVAN. Are you a paid official of your society? Mr. LAMPSON. Yes; I am devoting my full time to it.

Mr. DONOVAN. Do you know whether Dr. Strayer was a paid official of his organization?

Mr. MAGILL. He is paid by Columbia University. He is not on a salary with the National Educational Association.

The CHAIRMAN. Dr. Strayer is one of the leading teachers in the field, and he is constantly educating the public from the platform. He is from the Columbia University.

Mr. DONOVAN. I am informed

The CHAIRMAN. He is constantly in the field of extension education to the public from the platform.

Mr. DONOVAN. I am informed that he does extension work, and there is a fund for it, and that he is paid out of that fund.

Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Chairman, the teachers of the country were very much opposed to certain fundamental features of the first and second drafts, known as the Smith bill and the Towner bill, respectively. They are much in favor of the final draft, known as the Smith-Towner bill, revised, which they believe will encourage the States in the promotion and support of education, and will serve the causes of real democracy.

The facts relating to the inception and history of this bill should appear in the report of these proceedings for the information of the country. They are in substance as follows: At a convention held in St. Paul, in June, 1918, upon a resolution introduced by Delegate