The other point has to do with the present situation. We are facing a period of imminent war, at least war preparation. We ought to do something about it. I had the privilege several months ago of sitting in a conference in New York with a banker, an oil tycoon, and several other important businessmen. I was delighted when the banker said something like this: In the end, Russia, with its form of society, may beat us in production, but Russia can never beat us in regard to the Bill of Rights. Somehow we must reach into the springs of action of men and attach them to our system by letting loose these great democratic impulses. Everywhere in the world we see the polarization of the classes. We want to avoid that in this country. We do not want labor on one side and ownership and management on the other. We want this great middle group. The only way we can get that is through education. We cannot get it through propoganda or through slogans; we cannot get it through suppression. We can only get it by letting people know about our great democratic traditions. We know enough about our technological tradition. Through our advertisements, on the radio, and in the press every day we know enough about this advance, such as atomic energy, and so on, but we overlook our great democratic traditions. It seems to me those two points make it essential that something be done about this request of labor; that we have the same opportunities for labor to know as we do for other groups in the population. If we do this, the labor-management question will in time take care of itself, not by direction, but by getting hold of the springs of action of the worker and letting him see what he really has in this America. I would like to file this statement, Mr. Chairman. Mr. McCowEN. Without objection, the statement will be filed. (The statement is as follows:) STATEMENT OF MARION H. HEDGES, SECRETARY-TREASURER OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE EXTENSION OF LABOR EDUCATION Mr. Chairman, I am Marion H. Hedges, secretary-treasurer of the National Committee for the Extension of Labor Education, and for 23 years was director of research of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL. I have been identified with this national committee since its establishment and I have been identified with workers' education over the past 25 years. Incidentally, it might be stated, too, that I have been a member of a college faculty and am now a trustee of the American University, Washington, D. C. May I be pardoned if I undertake to view this question exclusively, at least for the moment, from the national point of view. One of your number who is a Member of this Congress but who is not now a member of your committee recently quoted a statement in the House which is worthy of our attention. "A man cannot live long enough to learn all he has to know just to live. Some things he must inherit from the race." This process of inheritance is not automatic. It must be a conscious, dynamic thing, and this is what education really is. It is a process of transmitting to the coming generation the things that it needs to know to carry on the achievements of the race. William James said that education was the art of catching up with the human race. The tremendous lack today in education in the United States is due to two things-the lag of education during the war and the tremendously swift changes and innovations that have taken place throughout the world. In one sense, all of us are in need of education and reeducation. Now, surely, you would grant if there was a great segment of our population that was without the facilities for this educational process and this process of reeducation that the Nation would greatly suffer. This is exactly the situation. The managerial group in this country is, on the whole, well taken care of by existing institutions. The short institutes held in schools of business administration take care of the needs of this important group. Farmers have their Extension Service under the Department of Agriculture. GI's are being given the needed training. The workers alone have not the facilities to secure the reeducation that they wish and which is necessary. This bill now before you is an effort to repair this difficulty and we believe that it is touched with national significance. Those thoughtless people who would stamp it with the stigma of class legislation are not familiar with or have not thought through the problem. It is not good for this Nation for 60,000,000 wage earners not to have access to the needed information that they crave and ask for. The unions and the existing institutions are not financially able to meet the needs now evident. Only the educational program contained in this bill, the TollefsonMadden bill, can meet the problem on a national basis. Let us look back for a moment upon the range of this problem through past legislation. This Labor Extension Service bill derives from the Morrill Act of 1862. Justine Morrill, a Senator from Vermont, was a blacksmith-farmer. He knew the needs of the worker and he knew the needs of the farmer. He introduced this bill in the Congress in 1857, which met with considerable opposition and did not pass until 1862, when it was signed by Abraham Lincoln. It is to the eternal credit of this Republic that in the midst of the severe Civil War the Congress had sagacity to provide for the healing influence of education for all the people. The Morrill Act set up two aims-training in agricultural science and the mechanic arts. A system of land-grant colleges was established by the Morrill Act, but it was not until 1914 that legislation passed which provided for the Extension Service derived from the Morrill Act in the Department of Agriculture. Now, 86 years later, the workers of this country are petitioning this Congress to implement their Labor Extension Service program. Gentlemen, there is no real opposition to this bill. The need is so apparent and the potentialities of achievement so great. Moreover, it is in the real tradition of American life so clearly that no open opposition has manifested itself. This bill comes to the Congress with the united support of all labor with bipartisan sponsorship. This Congress has already had statistics on education. One of your number has pointed out to you that America's recreation bill for liquor, racing, night clubs, and such forms of activity is about $36,000,000,000 a year. The outlay for education compared with this is trifling-only $11,000,000,000. Our committee expects an appropriation to start this needed program. Whatever is appropriated will be but a small fraction of the cost of one battleship. Speaking of battleships, gentlemen, we are faced with the situation in the United States that may be described as one of imminent war. We are about to embark upon a new period of preparedness. You and I know that one of the great assets in any war program is morale. This cannot be built overnight or in a day. It must be interwoven in the fabric of our system. It must be furnished as part of the daily fare to the underlying population. Not long ago I was present at a meeting of important businessmen. One might be described as an oil tycoon; one was a merchant interested in democratic government. The question of morale arose. The banker said, "Russia may in time outdistance us in production, but Russia can never outdistance us in the province of freedom and democracy. It looks like wisdom to move in that direction. We must learn how to reach into the springs of action of men and we must attach our citizens to us by wise educational measures that will make them really see the advantages of our kind of life over that of Russia." This is no small program, but I think it is a program that is founded on fundamentals and sound analysis. Such morale cannot be built on slogans or by propaganda. It must be engendered by education over a period of years, and I am convinced that the program we are now proposing in this labor-extension bill will go a long way in attaching the workers of the United States to our kind of system. Of course, gentlemen, what we are beholding in Europe are the consequences of polarization of the classes in hard and fast dogmatic groups which cannot get along with each other. This congealment of economic groups around fixed ideas has reached the proportions of an epidemic, a disease as fatal to democratic society as cancer is to the individual. Democracy seeks to avoid all this. It can best be avoided by distributing educational advantages with equity to all groups, to keep society fluid, and to avoid polarization of ideas and attitudes. It is precisely the intent of this bill through the use of facts and reason, to provide labor with a many-sided understanding of not only its problems but the problems of all other groups. This bill is a frontal attack on disunity and class hatred. In the first place, this bill will bring into the framework of the community great numbers of disadvantaged workers. It will make them feel a part of our educational system and when they feel a part of our educational system they feel a part of our democratic life. In the second place, it will give them an understanding of the problems of management and enable them to see how they can play a greater part in the problems of industry such as production and distribution. The sponsors for this labor extension bill have no ulterior purpose save that expressed in the foregoing analysis. We believe that it is one of the strongest points in favor of this bill and we ask you earnestly to consider it as a part of our great program of preparedness in the coming years. The need for supplying this extension service is very great. It is great because more than most people understand, the problems of industry are intellectual problems. The common expression "those who know must run the show" applies to industry. If labor-management relations continue to improve, they must improve by labor understanding the technical problems of management better and by management understanding the welfare measures of labor more correctly. This bill should give the opportunity for labor to understand such technical matters as productivity, time and motion study, supply and demand, the economics of consumption, office administration, and all those scientific advances by which industry is capable of doing a great job of production and distribution. One thing I must point out to you which I think is a strong point in the favor of this bill. There cannot possibly be any dictation in the conduct of courses by the Federal Government or by State governments. When a group of labor people come together and decide they want to study a certain phase of any given subject they themselves will request the subject they wish to study. When the plans are allocated to a given institution within the State the instructors determine the content of that course. The bill intermeshes with the established democratic framework of this country. In this sense it is a strongly conservative measure. As I have pointed out before, it derives from the Morrill Act. No one can doubt that the results of the Agricultural Extension Service are strong arguments for giving working people the same opportunities as farmers. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I wish to file three exhibits as part of my record: First, the personnel of the national committee; second, the finance statement of the National Committee for the Extension of Labor Education as broken down by union groups; and third, the personnel of the original drafting committee of the bill. This committee worked in close cooperation with the sponsors of the bill. PERSONNEL OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE EXTENSION OF LABOR EDUCATION, WASHINGTON 7, D. C. Members of this committee are serving as individuals and not as official representatives of their organizations. Through these members, official action has been taken by their organizations: Glenn Atkinson, education director, Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, AFL Emery Bacon, national staff representative, United Steelworkers of America, CIO Hartman Barber, general representative, Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, AFL Dr. Phillips Bradley, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois George Brooks, director of research and education, Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers, AFL Marie Calera, International Ladies' Garment Workers, AFL Arthur Carstens, Industrial Relations Center, University of Chicago Edith Christenson, National Committee for the Extension of Labor Education. Nelson Cruikshank, director, social insurance activities, AFL Kermit Eby, director, education and research, CIO John Edelman, Washington representative, Textile Workers' Union of America, CIO Arthur Elder, director, Workers' Education Service Extension Division, UniverIsity of Michigan Frank Fenton, director of organization, AFL Frank L. Fernbach, vice chairman, National Committee for the Extension of Labor Education, liaison representative of the CIO Ernest C. Frazier, National Alliance of Postal Employees (independent) Sara Fredgant, Philadelphia Joint Board, Amalgamated Clothing Workers, CIO Ernestine Friedmann, National Committee for the Extension of Labor Education Harold J. Garno, secretary treasurer, New York Industrial Union Council, CIO Clinton Golden, United Steelworkers of America, CIO; National Committee for the Extension of Labor Education George L. Googe, southern regional director, American Federation of Labor James D. Graham, president, Montana State Federation of Labor, AFL C. J. Haggerty, secretary treasurer, California State Federation of Labor, AFL John E. Hargrove, Joint Council of Dining Car Employees, AFL A. J. Hayes, general vice president, International Association of Machinists (independent) M. H. Hedges, Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL; National Committee for the Extension of Labor Education Julius Hochman, International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, AFL W. D. Johnson, vice president, Order of Railway Conductors of America (independent) Brownie Lee Jones, director, Southern School for Workers Kenneth Kelley, secretary-treasurer, Massachusetts Federation of Labor, AFL Irvin R. Kuenzli, secretary-treasurer, American Federation of Teachers, AFL William Lavelle, secretary-treasurer, Ohio CIO Council Mrs. Herman H. Lowe, president, American Federation of Women's Auxiliaries of Labor, AFL Frank McCallister, director, Georgia Workers' Education Service Frank W. McCulloch, director, Labor Education Division, Roosevelt College, Chicago, Ill. James L. McDevitt, president, Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, AFL Carl H. Mullen, president, Indiana State Federation of Labor, AFL J. Lawrence O'Toole, assistant secretary, Connecticut Federation of Labor, AFL James G. Patton, National Farmers' Union Esther Peterson, legislative representative, Amalgamated Clothing Workers' Hugh G. Pyle, Central Extension Office, Pennsylvania State College John Reid, secretary-treasurer, Michigan Federation of Labor, AFL Effey Riley, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University Laurence Rogin, education director, Textile Workers' Union of America, CIO Paul Sifton, legislative representative, United Automobile Workers, CIO Hilda W. Smith, chairman, National Committee for the Extension of Labor Education Margaret Smith, Special Services Committee Mark Starr, education director, International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, AFL Faye Stephenson, president, Congress of Women's Auxiliaries of the CIO. Alan D. Strachan, United Automobile Workers (temporarily in Greece) J. C. Turner, business representative, International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL Caroline Ware, economist and writer Philip Weightman, vice president, United Packinghouse Workers of America, CIO Edward Weyler, secretary-treasurer, Kentucky State Federation of Labor, AFL Ruth Wiencek, public relations officer, Congress of Industrial Organizations. Margaret Wood, director, Hudson Shore Labor School, West Park, N. Y. Arnold Zander, president, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL Jack Zeller, United Auto Workers, CIO STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM THE AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT BY THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE EXTENSION OF LABOR EDUCATION IN BEHALF OF SENATE BILL 1390, H. R. 4018, AND H. R. 4232 So that a Labor Extension Service may be established for all wage and salary workers, members of labor unions have contributed to this committee a total of $15,668.50. Individual members of the following unions, representing many industries and crafts, have made contributions through their international or local union or both: Automobile, Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, International Union of United Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, and Helpers of America, International Brotherhood of Boot and Shoe Workers' Union. Brewery, Flour, Cereal, Soft Drink, and Distillery Workers of America, International Union of United Carpenters and Joiners of America, United Brotherhood of Clothing Workers of America, Amalgamated Communications Association, American Communications Workers of America (formerly National Federation of Telephone Workers) Dining Car Employees, Joint Council of Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, United Farm Equipment and Metal Workers of America, United Furniture Workers of America, United Garment Workers' Union, International Ladies' Gas, Coke, and Chemical Workers of American, United Glass, Ceramic, and Silica Sand Workers of America, Federation of Grain Processors' Council, American Federation of Hatters, Cap, and Millinery Workers' International Union, United Hosiery Workers, American Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Employees' International Alliance and Bartenders' International League of America Laundry Workers' International Union Lithographers of America, Amalgamated Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, International Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, Amalgamated Maritime Union of America, National Masters, Mates, and Pilots of America, National Organization of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, International Union of Molders and Foundry Workers Union of North America, International Office and Professional Workers of America, United Oil Workers International Union Engineers, International Union of Operating Packinghouse Workers of America, United Painters, Decorators, and Paperhangers of America, Brotherhood of Paper Makers, International Brotherhood of Paperworkers of America, United Playthings, Jewelry, and Novelty Workers International Union Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union of North America, International Public Workers of America, United Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill Workers of the United States and Canada, International Brotherhood of Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Employees' Union Rubber, Cork, Linoleum, and Plastic Workers of America, United Seafarers' International Union of North America State, County, and Municipal Employees, American Federation of Steelworkers of America, United Stone and Allied Products Workers of America, United Street, Electric Railway, and Motor Coach Employees of America, Amalgamated Association of Teachers, American Federation of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen, and Helpers of America, International Brotherhood of Textile Workers' Union of America Transport Service Employees of America, United |