has a way of rising on occasion to splendid heights of sacrifice and service.

Only as these fundamental forces are appealed to and directed toward the ends that the program seeks to attain can the promise of a new day in education be fulfilled.

VI

A profession can never be developed from without; wholesome growth and permanent gains come only through the operation of forces that work from within. The professions that today represent the highest standards of service very largely control the conditions governing that service. Their practices are governed by public laws, but these laws. have usually been framed by the professions themselves and passed by the representatives of the people because the professions have taken the initiative and made the demand. Not only have the professions safeguarded the public interest by securing public legislation; they have safeguarded the public interest by voluntarily imposing upon themselves. restrictions that may even impress the lay mind as needlessly oppressive.

It means much to the dignity and worth of a calling that its standards and ideals are self-determined. It implies a measure of public confidence that gives to the professional group a powerful prestige in its efforts to improve its service. To raise their profession to this plane of public confidence should be the aim of all teachers who have at heart the welfare and progress of education. Only united action can bring this about, and united action means, first of all, effective organization.

For the first time in the history of American education, the framework of such an organization has been set up. The National Education Association is now a federation of State and local teachers' organizations. Its deliberations and proceedings hereafter will be organized and conducted on the delegate basis. Its pronouncements will voice the opinions and record the judgments of the teaching public with a measure of fidelity that has hitherto been out of the question.

By

At the present time more than sixty thousand teachers speak through the National Education Association. the close of the year, the number will be more than one hundred thousand. The voice of one hundred thousand teachers will be listened to by the public. Within a year this first condition needed to elevate teaching to the status of a real profession will be met. From

that time forth the all-important question will be this-"How may this great organization which now has the ear of the public use the opportunity to promote public trust in its proposals?"

We speak frequently in these days about 'selling ideas.' The first step in selling an idea is to obtain a hearing. That point the Association will soon reach. The next step is to convince the prospective purchaser that the goods offered meet a real need, and that the price is consistent with the value. But in But in building up a permanent business the first sale is at best no more than a fair beginning. Only as the goods continue to satisfy will the market continue, and in proportion as the goods do satisfy, the confidence of the market in the merchant grows apace. It is that confidence that must be the goal toward which our efforts are directed. The items in the Association's program are the goods that are offered; the public is the market; the Association is the merchant. The public's confidence-its 'good will' once it is assured, will be the Association's most important asset.

VII

The essential strength of the Association under its new organization lies in the vigor of its component units. The influence of each of these units adds to the power and prestige of the central body; and through the central body each unit partakes of the strength of all the others. To contribute to the

W

HEN the bill has been

written into law, a beginning will have been made toward the solution of the great problema competent teacher for every public-school position in the United States. But this will be only a beginning. The program of the Association is larger than the bill -larger than any form of legislation could possibly be. Its full realization will depend upon something more fundamental than law; it will depend upon the deep-lying motives that sway the hearts and minds of our people—their innate sense of justice and fair play, their appreciation of real values once these have been clearly demonstrated, their substantial idealism that has a way of rising on occasion to splendid heights of sacrifice and service.

development of each and every affiliated organization is to increase the effective power of the Association as a whole.

are.

The Association, then, has an important service to discharge in promoting, in every way consistent with its Charter, the progress of teachers' organizations throughout the country. This service cannot be limited to an encouragement of new movements, important as these It must involve as well the safeguarding of the gains already made and especially the defense and protection of professional interests, standards, and ideals. The Association has properly placed its first emphasis upon the responsibilities of the profession to the public; but it recognizes that there must always be a fundamental balance between responsibilities and rights. Vigorously to combat in every legitimate way the injustices to which teachers may be subjected because of their occupation must be part and parcel of its efforts to advance the interests of the profession and to promote the cause of education. It is true that there should be no empty threats or idle boastings here; it is equally true that there should be no mincing of words. The National Education Association is in a position to serve a plain warning to those who would defame the teaching profession, belittle the public-school service, or embarrass teachers in the performance of their duties. A clear implication of the commission given to the Association in its Charter is the duty of protecting the profession and its members from unwarranted and unjust attacks. The Association will not seek trouble-but neither will it seek at the price of selfrespect to avoid trouble. It has the most pacific of aims; but in the defense of the profession and in the professional protection of its members it has both the power and the determination to be as aggressively militant as the occasion may demand.

VIII

There are two principles which, in the judgment of the Association, should be firmly established as public policies because they are fundamentally essential to the realization of the ideals that have been set forth in the preceding paragraphs.

The first of these is the principle of equal salaries for equal service to all teachers of equivalent training, experience, and success. This means, negatively, that the financial rewards of (Continued on page 13)

T

HE COMMISSION on the Emergency in Education was appointed by Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, then President of the National Education Association, and by Dr. Thomas E. Finegan, then President of the Department of Superintendence, in February, 1918. In addition to those thus appointed it was agreed that the Commission should include the members of the Executive Committee and of the Board of Trustees of the National Education Association. This group met in Washington at National Education Association headquarters immediately following the meeting of the Department of Superintendence in 1918 and at intervals during the two years just passed. The following is a summary of the work which the Commission has done.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES

The heavy responsibilities for the national service placed upon the already depleted and overworked teaching personnel, together with the educational inadequacies and shortcomings revealed by the draft, led the Commission to undertake at once to devise ways and means of meeting the emergency. The confusion and congestion caused by war work in the schools received first attention. The Commission had no official status, but the Government agencies welcomed its coöperation as representing the public-school workers of the Nation. Through its efforts a 'Clearing House' was established at Washington; the activities of a score of departments, bureaus, and committees, all attempting to work through the schools, were coördinated, overlappings were eliminated, rival claims reconciled, and the entire range of 'war activities' so reorganized that they not only served their immediate purpose much better than before, but also fulfilled an educational function. Once this was accomplished, the

1 From the final report of the Commission on The Emergency in Education as presented by its Chairman to the National Education Association at Salt Lake City, July 6, 1920.

It recommended to the Executive Committee the appointment of a Field Secretary, and thus made available to the teachers of the country this most important service which service which has been rendered them by this department.

It organized a committee on the enlistment of the profession, and devised plans which have proved most effective in helping to secure the large increase in the enrolment of active members in the Association.

It prepared a definite statement advocating the participation of teachers in the formulation of administrative policies and proposed a definite plan for coöperation of classroom teachers looking to the more complete democratization of the teaching profession.

Through a campaign of publicity carried on from the platform and in the

magazines of the country, the Com

mission and the officers of the Association developed the earnest and effective coöperation of the public in support of measures for the proper recog nition and the more adequate support of education.

It has secured the coöperation of civic organizations and forward-looking citizens throughout the Nation in support of the Smith-Towner bill, which is conceded to be the most important and far-reaching educational measure ever brought to the consideration of the Congress.

In a general statement which was prepared and circulated throughout the United States and in its special publications the Commission has tried to bring home to the profession and to the American people the crying need for a great national program which would give every boy and girl an opportunity for education in terms of adequately educated and professionally qualified teachers, courses of study which would provide for variations in ability and vocational outlook, longer school terms and more adequate school equipment. We have advocated the development of a program which will remove illiteracy. which will provide an opportunity for adult foreigners to come to understand our institutions and to participate in our national life, a program which will make provision in terms of health service for the national physical growth and development of every boy and which will make possible opportunities for education for boys and girls in rural America equal to those now enjoyed by children in our most enlightened urban communities.

SMITH-TOWNER BILL PREPARED

Members of the Commission recog. nized very early in their work that this great national program would require for its accomplishment the sanction and support of the Nation. The Commission therefore devoted its energies to the preparation of a bill embodying this program. This measure was first pre

sented to Congress in the fall of 1918. The bill was distributed throughout the Nation and was revised in terms of the criticisms received from State, city, and county superintendents of schools, normal schools, university and college presidents, and others interested in the cause of public education. After such revision the bill was re-submitted to Congress and was known in the past session as the Smith-Towner education bill.

This measure has the unqualified endorsement of the sessions of the National Education Association at Pittsburgh and at Milwaukee and the meetings of the Department of Superintendence held in Chicago and Cleveland. Throughout the length and breadth of the land, educators and others interested in education have given their most earnest support to the measure. Among the organized groups that have endorsed the bill are the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the National League of Women Voters, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the National Woman's Trade Union League, Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations, the National Council of Jewish Women, American Federation of Teachers, the American Library Association, and the Association of Collegiate Alumnae. In addition to these national bodies there have been hundreds of Chambers of Commerce, Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, Women's Clubs, and others that have taken action in favor of the measure after the bill has been presented for their consideration and after the objections which might be expected to follow have been satisfied.

Department of Education Approved

Certain objections to the measure have been proposed from within as well as from outside our professional group. None of these objections have, in the minds of those responsible for the administration of public education in the United States, been considered valid after they have been presented by those who have proposed them. The bill provides for the establishment of a Department of Education with a Secretary in the President's Cabinet. The suggestion that it would be better to have a national board of education whose executive officer should be appointed by them was repudiated by the Department of Superintendence after a debate on this subject held at its last meeting.

It seems clear that, if national leadership and a national sanction for the deship and a national sanction for the development of education are to be provided, the method already employed in the establishment of the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor should be followed.

There has been the sugestion that the establishment of such a department will lead to the centralization of authority over education and the necessary limiting of the States in their own efforts which is, in effect, guaranteed to them in the Constitution. The answer to this objection is found in the bill itself which provides that its provisions shall not be construed to require uniformity in the organization of the educational facilities in the States or of the plans or methods in the States or of the plans or methods which are to be used in the development which are to be used in the development of education as encouraged by the bill. It is further provided in the SmithTowner bill that the schools which are aided by provisions of the act shall be organized, supervised and administered solely by the legally constituted State and local educational authorities.

There are those who question the wisdom of the measure from an exactly opposite angle and who suggest that a National Department of Education should establish standards or that such standards should be written into the bill and form the basis for participation by the States in the appropriations that are made available. In reply to this argument it is proposed that, first of all, the bill itself provides minimum standards in the requirements that schools shall be open at least twenty-four weeks in the year, that compulsory education for children between seven and fourteen years of age shall be required and that no State may participate that does not require that the language of instruction. in all schools, both public and private, during the elementary school period, be English. To require standards higher than those which can be met by States which has the least educational development would be to deny aid to those who need it most. The purpose of a national program as embodied in this bill is to equalize educational opportunities throughout the Nation.

It has been suggested by some of the critics of the measure that the bill should have specified the bureaus, divisions, or administrative units to be transferred to the Department of Education. It has seemed wiser to those who have studied the problem carefully to propose that the Bureau of Education be made

the nucleus of the new department and that the transfer of other administrative units be determined after careful study and investigation have been made by the Secretary of Education in coöperation with the other members of the President's Cabinet with whom he is associated. It would seem legitimate that the Secretary of Education have, as his most important duty during his first year in office after conference with his colleagues and with the President of the United States, to propose to the President and to the Cabinet the constitution of the department that would best serve the needs of the Nation. The Smoot bill, which proposes a reorganization of the several departments of the Government to the end that the waste of duplication and overlapping be eliminated, is in direct accord with our program. It seems doubtful whether any one who serves in the Cabinet can propose a plan which would satisfactorily determine which of the bureaus, divisions, or administrative units should be included in the new department.

Federal Aid Necessary

There are those who have objected to the appropriation of money by the National Government for removal of illiteracy, for Americanization of foreign born, for training teachers, for development of a program of health service and physical education and for equalization of educational opportunities. It is well to call to mind the fact that we have done much in the United States to provide for education in engineering and agriculture and in those studies which have been encouraged by the National Government in its appropriations to colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts. In like manner we have felt the need for encouraging education in industrial and household arts in secondary schools and have made much progress, due primarily to the encouragement offered through national appropriations for the purpose. There have been and I assume there always will be those who would. deny the wisdom of appropriating money from the National Treasury for the purpose of strengthening our systems of public education. The reply to such an objection seems obvious. The person who is illiterate is not a good citizen.. He may, in the hand of the demagog, become an enemy to our institutions. The man of foreign birth who has not had an opportunity to understand American life or to participate with us.

in the development of our institutions is, as we all know, undemocratic even to the point of seeking to destroy the society with which he is not in sympathy. The man who is physically unfit has neither the opportunity to enjoy life. nor to contribute his part to the common good.

It is the crying shame that boys and girls of America today must go to school to teachers who are, as a group, less educated and less well trained professionally than are the teachers of any other civilized country in the whole world. It is hard to understand how anyone can remonstrate against national support for education and at the same time propose that there be equality of educational opportunities in our American democracy.

In recent years the National Government has gone into the States and into the localities within the States and taken from them their most remunerative sources of revenue while leaving to the State and to the locality the most expensive function of government. The Nation should contribute to the support of its schools and seek through such contribution an equalization of the opportunities provided.

HIGHER SALARIES SOUGHT The Commission on the Emergency in Education has dealt with the problems of teachers' salaries. There was prepared for the Commission a report on salaries and salary schedules which brought together data which have proved valuable in salary campaigns throughout the United States. We recognize the necessity for larger salaries in order that the abler of our young men and women may find in teaching a life career. It is important that those who wish well for the public school system think of the salary question, not merely in terms of requests of teachers for more money, but more particularly from the standpoint of the kind of service which the schools may be able to secure. We need to bring to the attention of the people an analysis of the salary problem which will enable them to understand the need for increase, even to the extent of doubling the salaries paid in 1914. The significance of the salary paid is to be found in the opportunity which is provided to those entering the teaching profession for growth in efficiency in their chosen profession.

The community may pay a teacher barely enough for her existence. This means that the teacher, even though she

A National Obligation

Herbert Hoover

HE NATION as a whole,

THE
The the obligation of such

has the

measures toward its children, as a whole, as will yield to them an equal opportunity at their start in life. This responsibility and duty is not based alone upon human aspirations, but it is also based on the necessity to secure physical, mental and moral health, economic and social progress by the Nation. Every child delinquent in body, education, or character is a charge upon the community as a whole and a menace to the community itself. The children of strong physique, of sound education and character, are the army with which we must march to progress.

*From an address at the Annual Meeting of the American Child Hygiene Association, St. Louis, October 11, 1920.

is able to make no plans for the future, may have enough to buy food, clothing, and shelter, and to pay for the absolutely necessary dental and medical, services. This subsistence salary in most of our city communities I would place, at the present time, at $1,500. The supposition is that there is to be good food, comfortable quarters, reasonably decent clothing, and satisfactory medical and dental care when the need arises.

If teachers are to be free from the anxiety of illness and old age, they must have a larger salary in order to make provision against these disabilities. This cannot be done on the lower salary level. An average of from ten to twenty per cent above the subsistence salary must be provided for what may be termed a salary providing economic independence.

the like. The mere economic independence which they may enjoy on a $1,800 salary will not provide for their personal growth and development and for their cultural life which is so essential to the best teaching. Another twenty per cent must be added to the $1,800 salary if this desired result is to be secured.

If teaching is to be made attractive to the ablest of our young men and women, there must be a higher minimum salary available for those who do work of a very high order in their profession. This salary, which might be called a professional salary, should be available for all who have spent their time and money in preparing to teach and show unusual professional ability, whether they teach in the first grade or in the high school. We have made a very great mistake in drafting the best of our classroom teachers for the supervisory and administrative posts, for which often they are not peculiarly fitted. We need capable teachers in the classroom not only for the work which they will do for the boys and girls with whom they are associated, but for the sake of lifting the profession in the estimation of the community, and for the sake of making it attractive to capable young men and women. Salaries for unusually capable teachers should be equal to the salaries of successful workers in other callings.

TASK OF THE MOMENT

The task of the moment is to secure the passage of the Smith-Towner bill by Congress. The measure of our professional zeal and our efficiency as a group will be found in the degree to which we are able to work together and to enlist public support for the Smith-Towner bill.

We believe that the friends of public education are more numerous than the enemies of our public schools. We are confident that we are approaching the day when education shall have its place in the councils of the Nation; when the Secretary shall sit at the Cabinet table to propose for the consideration of the President and his associates such measures as will make for the realization of a more efficient system of public schools throughout the Nation. We believe that America-free, just, and efficient-will make good the promise of democracy and that on the foundation laid in a greater American school system will arise the Greater American Republic.