LC 5015 J^ .B7 ^^ 1921 __ Copy 1 Workers' Education AMERICAN AND FOREIGN EXPERIMENTS By ARTHUR GLEASON of the Bureau of Industrial Research 289 Fourth Avenue New York Fifty Cents a Copy Copyright, 1921, by The Bureau of Industrial Research 289 Fourth Avenue, Neiv York FEB 12 1921 Workers' Education AMERICAN AND FOREIGN EXPERIMENTS By ARTHUR GLEASON of the Bureau of Industrial Research 289 Fourth Avenue New York Fifty Cents a Copy UC5 oi5 .3-r 7.\ Acknowledgment for patient detailed help in preparing this pamphlet is due to Algernon Lee, J. M. Budish, Ida Glatt, Walter W. Pettit, Alexander Fichandler, George Soule, Rose Schneider- man, David J. Saposs, Abraham Epstein, Henry de Man, Frank Anderson, Harry Dana, Fannia Cohn, A. D. Warbasse, Charles Beard. This does not make them responsible for the shortcomings of the phamplet. [2] ©CU6083.36 Table of Contents Chapter I PAGE WORKERS' EDUCATION 5-1 5 Object. Group I ° Object. Group II " Object. Group III 9 Method. Groups I and II 9-iO Method. Group III lO-ii TEACHERS "-12 TEXT BOOKS 12-13 FUNDS 13-14 THE INSTITUTION i4-i5 AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS .16-38 Ladies' Garment Workers 16-18 Cleveland Garment Workers . . 18-19 United Labor Education Committee 19-22 Amalgamated • 22 The Rand School 23-24 Pennsylvania 24-26 Washington, D. C • • • ^^ Chicago Classes 26-27 The Boston Trade Union College 27-30 Amherst 3° The Cooperatives 30-32 Seattle ......' 32-34 Other Experiments 34 Porto Rico 34 PAGE Labor Education Bureau 35 Wisconsin 35"36 One Appeal 36-37 An Outline for Education: an "omnibus" syllabus .... 37 Pioneers 38 Chapter II BRITISH EXPERIMENTS 39-48 The Need 39 Rules 39-40 WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 40-44 Tutorial Classes 40 Cost 41 Books 42 Attendance 42 Effect on teachers and students 42 A class 43-44 RUSKIN COLLEGE 44-45 Attendance 45 Cost 45 Doubts 45 LABOR COLLEGE . 45-47 Control 46 Attendance 46-47 SUMMARY 47-48 Chapter III BELGIAN WORKERS' EDUCATION 49 GERMAN EXPERIMENTS 50 PUBLISHED INFORMATION 5i WHAT TO READ 52-55 SAMPLE COURSES 56-61 Chapter I WORKERS' EDUCATION THE way a group of grown persons best educate each other is in the method used by Socrates and his friends. It is the way of endless discussion centering on one subject. It is probably the hardest work in the world. The results are al- ways amazing. A grown man discovers he is beginning to grow again. Endless discussion about one subject can not maintain it- self on words. It dies away unless it feeds on knowledge and finally interpretation. It reaches out for facts and then for the meaning of them. In modern terms, this Socratic method means a class of from five to thirty, who read books, listen to talks, and ask ques- tions. They take to themselves a like-minded teacher, who is a good fellow, and together they work regularly and hard. This is the heart of workers' education — the class financed on trade union money, the teacher a comrade, the method discussion, the subject the social sciences, the aim an understanding of life and the re- moulding of the scheme of things. Where that dream of a better world is absent, adult workers' education will fade away in the loneliness and rigor of the effort. But there is no one road to freedom. There are roads to free- dom. So workers' education will include elementary classes in English, and entertainment for the crowd. But the road for the leaders of the people will be straight and hard. Only a few thou- sand out of the millions will take it. It is a different, a new way of life to which the worker is being called. In the United States there may be one kind of education for a particular racial group. There will be regional solutions, local experiments, experiments in a given industry. Our infinite variety of life and our wide spaces will demand a multitude of experiments. [5] The peasant and cooperative background of Denmark results in a workers' education of the folk highschools, which is possible perhaps for certain Middle Western groups in our country, but which is not universally possible. The healthy and balanced growth of the three-fold labor move- ment of Belgium — the trade unions, the labor party, the coopera- tives — and the compactness of the Kingdom enable the workers to make a neater classification of needs and to federate the solu- tions into a single central national administrative body, which would break down among our mountains or seep away upon the prairies. The salty individualism of the British, with their fundamental unity of consciousness, permits them to make untidy unrelated ex- periments In workers' education, all moving in the one direction, although unaware of its goal. A loose but deeply grounded schol- arship of the young university men finds ready alliance with the instinctive drive of the workers toward a fuller life. No such casual unprogrammed adventure Into the universe Is possible with our practical pragmatic American business unions. We shall demand clear statements of where we are going. There will be dozens of experiments, but each will keep a ledger of exact results. Already the American experiments have been of many kinds. They have been state-aided, university-aided, independent of state and university. There has been education for labor given by wealthy benevolent trustees, as in the Cooper Union. There has been the Rand School on a party basis. There have been schools organized on the basis of the consumers, as In the schools of the cooperatives. There have been schools for the groups of producers : a single union, like the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union; groups of unions as in the United Labor Education Committee; the Central Labor Body of a city, as In the Boston Trade Union College; the State Federation of Labor, as in Pennsylvania. [6] Much of the early work of American labor education will con- cern itself with elementary and secondary courses in such subjects as English writing and speaking. Because of the racial and immi- gration problems, there is no general level of adult attainment. Labor groups differ in ability to read and write, and to read, write and speak English. Until this deficiency is met, there can be but little useful work done in such courses as history and economics. As long as immigration brings a new group each year, classes in English, elementary mathematics and so on, will be necessary. These classes absorb a large proportion of the energy of American workers' education. Already many of these adult elementary classes are taught in public buildings by public school teachers. It is probable that this sort of education will be increasingly taken over by public authorities. This will leave the business of work- ers' education to the workers. The objects, methods and materials of what is meant by workers' education will be outlined in the next pages. Workers' education, as it spreads, is of course vitally concerned with facts in the social sciences. It is concerned with the collec- tion, classification and interpretation of these facts. This means that labor education requires labor research. One of the con- tinuous and all-powerful Influences in workers' education is the newspaper. Labor education requires the labor paper. So as fast as labor education grows, there will spring up, out of the same root, labor research and the labor newspaper. Research Is one of the sources of supply for education. The daily, weekly and monthly paper is one of the methods of imparting education to the workers. The labor movement will remain inside the squirrel- cage of wages and prices, until it employs all three — research, edu- cation, and the newspaper. Charles Beard once said: "The modern university does not have for its major interest and prime concern the free, open and unafraid consideration of modern issues." The labor group is beginning to demand a free, open and un- afraid consideration of modern Issues In institutions of Its own. [7] Object. Group I. What is the object of workers' education? One object is to train promising youths, who are already officials, or are potential leaders, or are the most ambitious of the rank and file. Workers' education will train them in the technique of their particular union and industry. It will train them in the relation of that union and industry to society and the state. This kind of workers' education gives the technique of leadership. It includes courses in labor law, the use of the injunction, workmen's compensation, industrial and health insurance, unemployment. Federal agencies of inspection, employers' use of a secret service, duties of the walking delegate. Perhaps eventually place can be found in the curriculum for a course or courses dealing with aspects of the problem of management and production. Although it is inevitable that present interest in these questions should be slight, it seems equally inevitable that the lead- ers among the workers must more and more equip themselves with knowledge of the technique of their industry on both its administra- tive and its operative side. And this can be directly encouraged if an expository and critical course on managerial procedure is offer- ed. The content of a course on modern personnel administration would, for example, come to have a wide appeal and a great prac- tical value. As the subject of "workers' control" demands a knowl- edge of the functions of foreman, superintendent and technician, and a knowledge of the whole administrative area, it will become increasingly necessary for the advanced labor leader to study the shifting "frontier of control." Once the institution is under way, there will be no difficulty in selecting students for this first group. Only those will be admitted who have gone through certain courses. At first, the leader will have to select by guess work. He will use his judgment, admitting those "who are sufficiently interested and willing to try." They will drop out quickly, under the more inten- sive and stiff regime, if their equipment is faulty, and their devo- tion languid. Object. Group II. A second object of workers' education is to give the more eager of the rank and file a social or civic education. These courses will [8] show the workers how they are governed. They will deal with the economic system under which they work, and the nature of the world in which they find themselves. They will include general cultural courses in history, economics and literature. The thing aimed at is a world view. The favorite courses remain history, economics, literature, because they are an interpretation of man in his world. Once the full circle is drawn, then, into a segment is packed the consideration of a single subject, such as the Greek Com- monwealth, or the Agrarian Problem of the Sixteenth Century. Education is "the effort of the soul to find a true expression or interpretation of experience, and to find it, not alone, but with the help of others, fellow-students." By showing to a man his place in the long process and the scheme of things, education helps him to live the good life. Workers' education simply registers the de- sire of a group to continue growing, even after the members are twenty-one years old. Where two or three are gathered together in freedom and equality, and continue to meet regularly, and dis- cuss one subject till the facts of it have been lifted into interpreta- tion — there is education. It is "the stimulus of a group of like- minded students." The rank and file will not be interested in this kind of labor education for many years. The most alert and energetic men and women will alone be attracted. Labor education is education of a tiny minority, the most promising of the youth. Object. Group III. A third object of workers' education is to reach the rank and file with education for the love of it, with semi-entertainment with a cultural slant. Its aim is mass education. Method. Groups I and II. Methods in workers' education depend on objects. If the ob- ject is to train leaders and to give the ambitious minority of the rank and file an intensive education, then the method will be that of the small class and hard work. Education for these groups is for those only who feel a desire, and have some sense of the direc- [9] tion they wish to travel. The experiment will begin with three or four in the class, and with meager funds. If correctly grounded, it will grow slowly. Only at the end of some years will the experi- ment show results large enough to attract outside attention and public ceremonies. No short cuts and no brass bands will lead to workers' education of this intensive kind. This education is self-education. It is not by chance and happy blunder that work- ers' education rediscovered the ancient and correct method of teach- ing — the Socratic quiz, the question-and-answers discussion. The workers recaptured this method through necessity. The miner and railwayman, adult and having knowledge of life, would not submit to the autocracy of orthodox teachers. A "grown man" or woman will not sit silently each week for several years while a lecturer or an orator holds the platform. Each one of the group insists on contributing. University extension courses, night schools, Cha- tauquas, civic and church forums, mass meetings with star speakers, concerts, theatricals, are not the method of labor education of this kind. Labor education is intensive work on one subject carried on by a small class (5 to 30). Opportunities for actual industrial responsibility are given by the duties of shop chairman, shop committee, and by the organiza- tion of cooperative productive establishments. This practice is of course an essential of education. Method. Group III. The method of reaching the rank and file, as yet unawakened, is by semi-entertainment. Various devices for stirring desire for education will be used. Bribes and lures will be applied. A beau- tiful actress will recite Shakespeare. A full orchestra will find "The Lost Chord." Moving pictures, lantern slides, charts, budgets, maps, and other graphic representations, will be used. Three- quarters of the time will be used in attracting people. The other quarter will contain some bit of information. Out of these mass efforts will come individuals, asking for help in the rudiments of mathematics, in the English language. Classes will be formed to meet the two-fold need of those who never had an elementary edu- [10] cation, and those who find that an elementary education has left them uneducated. Mass education by mass semi-entertainment will contribute to solidarity and enthusiasm, which may later lead to intensive edu- cation by the class-and-discussion method for a small minority. The question is asked: If young people received a full and good elementary and sec- ondary education, would there be need of workers' adult educa- tion? The answer is that the desire for adult education grows keener as the elementary education is more widely spread and more thorough. A well-instructed group of workers, twenty-five years old, will be eager for adult education. An illiterate group, or a group numbed by drink, will be hostile to class work. Also, a group of half-educated youths, fed on dogmas and preconceived notions and picturesque phrases dealing with catastrophic changes and millenial hopes, will be superior to education, to careful anal- ysis, to surveys of fact. TEACHERS In Britain the success of workers' education was due to men like R. H. Tawney, J. J. Mallon, Arthur Greenwood, Alfred Zimmern. The type is neither the smart brisk young tutor who patronizes nor the bearded professor who is dogmatic. The type is that of humble-minded scholarship set in charming democratic personality. American colleges do not as yet produce this type in numbers. The workers' teacher is a rare person. The only method as yet used for finding him is to bring normal school and university-trained teachers into contact with labor groups, and to winnow out the teacher who catches hold. The balanced qualities, which give clear exposition and suffer heckling gladly and call out group discussion, can only be revealed in practice. No technique of normal school training alone will produce the man who can interpret experience to a labor group, although something can be done throu\gh normal classes to show the prospective teacher how material may be simply [II] prepared, and presented in the method of group discussion. The suggestion has been made that a local association of teachers could call a conference of themselves and local trade union leaders on workers' education. If both elements cooperated, classes would be an immediate result. One American teachers' union numbering i,ooo was called on for teachers for workers' education. Two per- sons were available. But two are a beginning in a new work. One experiment in workers' education has found that teachers in secondary schools were more successful than university profes- sors. In this experiment, the language used was simpler, the un- derstanding of the group mind was more complete. The teacher will avoid mass meetings, advertising what he is going to do. The little class seems lonesome after a mass meeting. He will make his appeal by pamphlets, bulletins, syllabi of courses. He will speak to every sort of workers' meeting. He will speak to trade unions' locals, district conferences, state federation confer- ences. He will begin his experiment small in one place. If success- ful, it will do much of its own advertising and publicity work. Its students and graduates become the promoters of workers' educa- tion. A regular bulletin or leaflet or magazine organ will gradually become necessary. TEXT-BOOKS It is not by chance that workers' education altered the subject- matter, the content, of the teaching. Fresh from first-hand experi- mence of danger, monotony, and the workings of the industrial system, labor rejects the abstractions of academic political economy, and the purple chronicle of kings in history. They want to know the adventure of the common man down the ages. This means re-writing the text-books. The workers are forcing the experts to rewrite them. The secretary of the British Labor College writes (in November of 1920) : "Those experts. We've been battling with ithem for three months now, trying to bully or cajole them into Simplicity of Language, Aboli- tion of Technical Treatment, Definlteness in the Statement of Establish- ed Results of their Sciences, Conciseness. We want a book on their sub- jects of 150 to 200 pages. They want to supply a self-contained library, mainly technical, with ill-defined co-ordination of results, and precious little relation to a continuous unfolding of natural social phenomena." Text books are needed in all subjects — in technique of leader- ship, civic culture, in American industrial history, in trade union and labor history, in political history, in economic geography, and so on. Text-books for American workers' education have not been written. Sound scholarship, simple statement, clear English, cheap price, are the requirements. Until men like Charles Beard write them, they will not be written. Pamphlets are Immediately needed for workers' educational groups on such subjects as "The Open Shop Campaign," "Unem- ployment," "Labor Education and What It Could Mean," "What Is a Trade Union College?" "How to Start a Trade Union Col- lege." A few American books and pamphlets have been published which have grown out of an. understanding of the need. Such are Mary Beard's "A Short History of the American Labor Movement," Everett Dean Martin's "The Behavior of Crowds," "Trade Unionism In the United States," by the late Robert Franklin Hoxie. FUNDS The Ideal way would be for the trade union to vote the funds. In England this did not happen. Philanthropists gave the money for Ruskin College. The Workers' Educational Association has been supported by the universities, the public educational authori- ties, and the trade unions, and some of the workers have always been suspicious of the university influence. The Labor College was and is entirely financed by the Labor movement. In America the United Labor Education Committee derives its funds from afHlIated unions. The unions underwrite the educa- tional fund. Members of the unions receive the education free. Other experiments have charged a nominal fee to the student, such as $2.50 or $5.00 — In some instances, returnable at the end [13] of the course. In other cases, scholarships are established by unions for niembers unable to pay even a nominal fee. The Inter- national Ladies' Garment Workers' Union donates the funds, and members may attend courses free of charge. This union has 132,000 members. A small union will probably either have to share in somebody else's experiment, or institute classes with an admission fee. The lesson will be slowly learned that working class edu- cation costs in money and time; especially, that it must pay its way in point of adequate compensation for teachers. It is idle to hope that a permanent teaching staff of the right calibre can be built on the tag ends of busy people's time, for which a nominal fee is paid. This kind of educational work requires special ability, extended preparation and follow-up. On the other hand, success- ful experiments in labor education have been made by the equal and enthusiastic early sacrifices of both workers and teachers. Only gradually have the experiments been able to take over the full time or even a remunerative half-time of the teacher. All such effort in the beginning is dependent on a fund of patient idealism. As the need and the appeal become clearer, it is prob- able that a group of teachers will respond in this country as they have elsewhere. THE INSTITUTION The institution is needed — a home where the effort will be fo- cussed. A room in a trade union building, or set of offices, is the best place. The Seattle Workers' College meets in the Labor Temple. But "any old" meeting place will be used — a public school (not the best place), a back-room of a social club, a rented room in a business building. Labor education is as yet in part de- pendent on the department of public education. The Ladies' Gar- ment Workers in New York use elementary school buildings for their unity centers, one high school for central classes, and public school teachers (for English classes — not for the other classes). In Philadelphia their work is carried on in public schools. The Boston Trade Union College uses high school buildings. The Chicago classes use, in part, teachers and buildings of the public schools. In Los Angeles what began as a trade union movement [14] In education Is "now completely under the control of the Board of Education." This cooperation, except in such elementary sub- jects as English, with public school authorities may mean that a censorship and a control are exercised, or else that they may be Imminent as a threat with the same results on freedom of discus- sion as if they were exercised. The Executive Council of the A. F. of L. appointed a committee to investigate workers' education. Their report showed they had little conception of the nature and the need. After stating that In- struction and discussions must be unhampered, and that boards of education and teachers should be fellow-servants of the public, they say that labor and other liberal elements must secure effective rep- resentation on the boards of education. "Meanwhile classes under union auspices will serve the addition- al purpose of demonstrating the existence of a demand which the schools are failing to meet. But such classes should be considered a stop-gap. The sound solution is a progressive board of educa- tion, responsive to the public." This naive failure to distinguish between the existent institutions of the political state, and the experiments In industrial democracy made by the workers cuts the tap root of labor education. [15] AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS Ladies' Garment W^orkers. The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union as a union has been "the pioneer in education in the labor movement of America." But there had been many efforts before its experiment. There had been a Workers' School, the Workers' Educational League, the Thomas Davidson School, the Bread Winners' or Wage Earners' College, the Jewish Workers' League, the Work- men's Circle. And since 1906 the Rand School of Social Science had been preparing the ground in New York. The Rand lectures and classes had reached many persons in the clothing industry. The idea of the Ladies' Garment Workers was not to initiate the education which would make trade unionists "more efficient and better workers, but rather the kind of education that would make them more intelligent workers and citizens." The educational committee decided "to stress the necessity of labor education with- in the Trade Union movement," and thus to "enable workers to use their organized economic power intelligently and effectively." A start was made when the 19 14 Cleveland Convention of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union appropriated $1,- 500 for educational activities. The International cooperated with the Rand School of Social Science, where special classes were or- ganized for members. In 19 15, the Waist and Dress Makers' Union, Local 25 (a local of the International), of New York City, organized its own educational activities and concentrated them in a public school building under the name of Unity Center. The work was started in cooperation with the New York Board of Edu- cation. The understanding w^as that the Board of Education was to assign teachers of English for special classes organized for Garment Workers members only. In addition to that, lectures were arranged on different subjects. Lecturers were paid by the Union. At the Philadelphia Convention of 19 16 the question of labor education was more seriously taken up, and it was decided that the International appoint a committee of five, and that a fund of $5,000 be appropriated at the disposal of this committee, to be spent for educational activities. ^The committee accepted the plan [16] of the Waist Makers and opened a few Unity Centers, thus laying a foundation for the Workers' University, which was opened in the Washington Irving High School in New York. The work was directed by the committee with Miss Juliet Stuart Poyntz as edu- cational director. To the Boston Convention in 191 8, the Educa- tional Committee presented a report of its accompHshments, which was heartily endorsed by the delegates assembled. The Central Executive Board was instructed to spend $10,000 yearly to carry on the work of education. At present the International supports the Workers' University in the Washington Irving High School. The business agents, other officers, and members of the rank and file of the local unions attend classes. The International has appropriated about $15,000 a year for this University. An important branch of educational activities is the Unity Center. At present there are seven Unity Centers in Public School Buildings in the different parts of New York where mem- bers reside. In each Unity Center there are classes in English, of elementary, intermediate, advanced and high school grade. The teachers are assigned by the Evening School Department of the Board of Education. At each Unity Center there is an Educa- tional Supervisor also assigned by the Department of Community and Recreation Centers of the Board of Education. These local supervisors give weekly physical training. The International ar- ranges independently a series of lectures and lessons on the Labor Movement, Trade Unionism, and Economics. The rest of the curriculum deals with Health, or subjects of more cultural interest, such as Literature, Music, Art, Educational Films, and talks on vital subjects. Every instructor prepares an outline of the lessons which contains a statement of facts on the subject he is going to talk about, and the period ends in question form. Copies of these outlines are placed in the hands of the students, and they follow the lecturer according to these outlines. Afterwards these outlines are sent to Local Unions outside of New York, advising them to arrange lectures according to their contents. In New York the Unity Centers have about 1,200 pupils. These Centers are a method of getting large groups of workers to receive instruction in [17] subjects of importance. The Workers' University in New York has an attendance of about 300. There is no cost to the student. Practically all students who register complete the work. In Phila- delphia, 350 garment workers are enrolled as regular students in the classes. Fannia M. Cohn is secretary and Alexander Fichandler is educa- tional director of the Educational Department of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. The address is 31 Union Square, New York. Cleveland Garment Workers. For the Garment Workers in Cleveland the Cleveland Board of Education pays for four instructors. The Garment Workers exercise complete jurisdiction over the planning of courses and the selection of teachers. The center of the educational work is the Headquarters of the union. Courses were begun on November i, 1920. One room is used for English classes. A large auditorium serves for gymnasium practice, motion pictures, lectures and large meetings. Courses are planned to proceed from the elementary to the ad- vanced, on the basis of six weeks to a term, recognizing the defi- nite psychological value which the short term has in stimulating interest. Wherever possible, students are registered for courses which they are qualified to take because of previous study, reading or lectures. In no sense can this be confused with the limitations imposed by academic institutions, as the desire to know is sufficient reason for granting admission to a class. Students are guided in their choice, by recommending such preliminary courses as will give them the necessary background for a subject in which they may be interested. There is no stipulated budget for the Educational Department. The salaries, plus the cost of stationery, printing and postage, rep- resent the average monthly expenditure. In the first year in planning for the extension of the work, the education department is de- pending on volunteer effort. For instance, several new courses will [18] be added next term. The professors, Oberlin College men, have offered to conduct these without remuneration. Publicity is secured through newspapers, printed announcements, verbal announcements at meetings, dodgers, posters and personal communications. An Educational Committee representing two members from each shop, assists in shaping policies, advertising classes, and conducting the follow-up work in the shops among students who have dropped out. The Committee meets every two weeks, and one Sunday afternoon meeting during the month is arranged for students and other members of the Union. The address is Workers' University, 1024 Walnut Avenue, Cleveland. United Labor Education Committee. The initiators of the United Labor Education Committee in 19 1 8 were the United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers, at whose call all the conferences preliminary to the establishment of the Com- mittee were held. Among the organizations affiliated at the be- ginning were the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. They have recently separated from the Committee, in order to establish their own educational department. The organizations now affiliated to the United Labor Education Committee are : Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers, No. 137. Associated Teachers Union. Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union (3 locals). Beltmakers Union. Central Federated Union of the City of New York. Cleaners and Dyers Union. Fancy Leather Goods Workers Union. Fancy Leather Goods Workers Union, Jersey City. Hebrew Actors Union. Hebrew Butchers Union. Hebrew Teachers Union. International Fur Workers Union. Jewelry Case Makers Union. Jewelry Workers Union, No. i. Knitgoods Workers Union. - Library Employees Union. [19] Mineral Water Workers Union. Iron and Bronze Workers Union, No. 275. Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers, No. 261. Retail Grocery and Dairy Clerks Union. Suitcase and Bag Makers Union. Teachers Union. United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of N. A. (14 locals). United Hebrew Trades. ' United Neckwear Makers. Waiters Union, No. i. Women's Trade Union League. Workmen's Circle. Ladies Waist & Dressmakers Union, L, 25 L L. G. W. U. — Cooper- ating Member. Amalgamated Ladies' Garment Cutters, L. 10. 1. L. G. W. U. — Cooperating Member. The impulse for the Education Committee came from the needle trade unions, but carried to other unions until about twenty became affiliated. The United Labor Education Committee arranges for the affiliated organizations, 1. Lectures at the local union meetings. 2. Classes for the general membership, for shop chairmen, actiive mem- bers and officials. 3. Strike Service (making use of the leisure of strikers for education and recreation). 4. Slack service (for the unemployed during industrial depression). 5. Forums (4 weekly in New York). 6. Recreation Centers, Drama, Educational Moving Pactures. 7. The Committee helps the locals to arrange their benefit perform- ances at the lowest cost and so as to make them more educational. 8. The Committee keeps in close touch with the labor educational or- ganizations in this country and abroad. To join the LJnited Labor Education Committee an organization has to pay an affiliation fee of $15 and monthly dues as follows: Locals with a membership up to 300 pay $5 per month; over 300 and not over 1000, pay $10; over 1000 pay $10 for the first thousand and $5 for every additional thousand or fraction thereof; no local to pay more than $40 per month. Every local union has equal rights and obligations in the U. L. B.C. [20] Every local union elects one delegate to the Educational Council which takes supreme charge of all the work between national con- ventions of the union; and three delegates to the Annual Con- vention which elects the Executive Board, The Executive Board and officers elected by the annual conven- tion are responsible to the conventions and the Educational Council. In the first eighteen months, the expenditure on salaries was $6,511.85. By June of 1920, the total appropriations, made by the affiliated organizations, was $17,450. And even on this sum, a balance was still due of $5,850. Sixty forums have been conducted, with an attendance of 13,200. In forty-eight locals, 203 lectures and five concerts were given with an attendance of 27,500. The classes were arranged for that small portion of member- ship which is ready for intensive educational work. A class con- sisted of twelve consecutive weekly lectures, with the exception of the English classes which were given three times a week for about the same number of weeks. During the first season two classes in English and one in the History and Appreciation of Art were given; several other classes were started but they were wrecked by the attitude of the Board of Education. During the second season five classes in English, two in Economics, one in Industrial History of the United States, one in Correction of Accent, one in Socialism, one in the History and Appreciation of Art and one Class for Officials. These classes were repeated in the third season, with the addition of two classes for the public school teachers who had affi- liated with the Committee by this time, — the classes for the teachers were Contemporary Problems, and How to Teach Economics in Labor Colleges; the first had a regular attendance of fifty and the second of twenty-six. A small fee was charged to the students consisting of $2 and $5 respectively. Both classes were given with the cooperation of the New School for Social Research. The aver- age attendance of the other classes was about fifteen per class. Classes held directly in the headquarters of labor organizations were especially successful both in the sense of regularity and size of attendance. In the season of 19 19 — 20, the Rand School of Social Science [21] cooperated with the United Labor Education Committee, by re- ceiving into the Rand School classes at reduced fees'several hundred students assigned by the Committee. The classes were partly regular classes, and partly special classes organized for the pur- pose. The subjects covered were American history, general mo- dern history, civics, elementary economics, socialism, trade union- ism, elementary natural science, and various grades of English. The lectures at the local union meetings are given in a series of three and four, so that a subject is dealt with in a way to further substantial knowledge. The Committee have practically divorced their activities from the public school system, and have concentrated their work in the headquarters of the affiliated organizations. The classes, for in- stance, are held in union headquarters. The forums are conducted in the headquarters of the Workmen's Circle in four places. Classes reach a very small minority. The commercialized "show" and moving picture reach a vast majority. The recrea- tional activities of the Committee, connected as they are with lec- tures, are intended to combat the influences of commercialized amusement. These recreational activities of the Committee are intended, not as mass entertainments, but as new methods of mass education. The Committee believe they can be used to make audiences read, register for classes, and take the first step in serious educational work. J. M. Budish, Chairman of the Committee, writes: "If the educational movement is to become a mass move- ment so that it may have a real influence in shaping the thought of the working masses, the only way by which it can be accomplished is by using some new methods of mass education." The Committee accepts no financial contributions from individ- uals nor from any but labor organizations. J. M. Budish is chairman of the United Labor Education Com- mittee. The address is 41 Union Square, New York. Amalgamated. For several years the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of Amer- ica have been active in workers' education. They cooperated with the United Labor Education Committee and with the Rand School. [22] More recently they have created Independent educational work of their own in lectures and classes. Their program has been partly put into effect in New York, Rochester and Chicago. The 1920 Report of the General Executive Board of the Amal- gamated Clothing Workers of America included special reports on education. Of the Rochester work it was reported: "Instead of trying to put over a program which had worked well elsewhere, it was decided to spend some time getting at the mind of the Rochester members themselves. At local and shop meetings, and with many individuals, the subject was discussed and a preliminary program was drafted based exactly on what members appeared to be asking for." The director of the National Educational Department of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America is J. B. Salutsky, 31 Union Square, New York. The Rand School. The Rand School of Social Science in New York is "an autonom- ously organized educational auxiliary to the Socialist and labor movements of the United States. It is owned by the American Socialist Society. Its affairs are conducted under the control of an annually elected Board of Directors and by a teaching and ad- ministrative staff." In the years 19 18-19 and 1919-20, the annual number of its reg- istered students was over 5,000. There is a training course for making workers efficient for the Socialist Party, the trade unions and the Cooperatives. This course is taken by a group who give full time for six months. Many of these as graduates become labor secretaries, organizers and editors. There is also a training course designed especially for residents of New York, in which students attend four or five sessions a week, evenings and Saturday and Sunday afternoons, for twelve months. The Rand School was established in 1906 by a trust fund of the late Mrs. Carrie Rand, and a contribution from her daughter, the late Mrs. Carrie Rand Herron. The greater part of the capital has since then been withdrawn, and the income has thus been dim- inished. Tuition funds now meet from 40 to 50 per cent of the Rand School's expense of maintenance. Profits from the Rand [23] Book Store provide for another lo to 20 per cent. There are many thousand dollars a year to be raised by contributions. The tuition fee is $4 for each 12-session course and $7 for each course of 24 sessions. The social sciences (History, Politics, Economics) and English and public speaking, form the chief part of the curriculum. Arrangements are made with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of Amer- ica, the Workmen's Circle, United Automobile Workers, Amal- gamated Metal Workers, and International Jewelry Workers, for courses for their members. The workers of the clothing industry and the Rand School have always been in close contact. The educational movement of these advanced workers (with their large Jewish membership) has re- ceived considerable impulse and furtherance from the Rand School. The industrial structure of the clothing Industry, the high intelli- gence and character of its membership, the absence of labor polit- ical graft among its officers — all are illustrative of both the causes and the effects of adult education on the workers. But no swift "morals" and "lessons" can be drawn for the American labor move- ment in general. The Jewish mind, which dominates the clothing industry, is alert, eager for instruction, open to Ideas. Through suffering, the Jewish group has learned solidarity. So these ex- periments of the International Ladles' Garment Workers' Union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the United Labor Education Committee, and the Rand School of Social Science, must be considered as a special group, whose progress In labor education is more advanced than that of other groups in the country. Algernon Lee is educational director of the Rand School. The address Is 7 East 15th Street, New York. The Department of Education of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor. The Pennsylvania Labor Education Committee was organized at the Altoona convention of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor in May, 1920, An Executive Committee of fifty labor represent- atives throughout the State was elected at that time. J. R. Copen- [24] haver (machinist) and A. Epstein were elected Chairman and General Secretary, respectively. Shortly afterward the Committee was converted into the Department of Education of the Pennsyl- vania Federation of Labor, with President James H. Maurer, act- ing as Advisor. Although the convention passed several resolu- tions urging the inauguration of educational work in the State, no definite fund was appropriated for this work. Despite the lack of money, the 1920-21 season opened with reg- ular trade-union colleges in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and labor classes in Allentown, Bethlehem, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Pen Argyl and Reading. In Philadelphia and Pittsburgh the Labor Colleges are under the control of local executive boards, composed of rep- resentatives of the different unions. The instructors are recruited from the more liberal and sympathetic local university professors. The courses given in these cities include : economics, history of the labor movement, industrial history, literature, public speaking, and English. A number of additional courses are being established. The work is financed mainly by contributions from the local unions. In addition, the students are charged $2.50 per course in Phila- delphia and $2 per course in Pittsburgh. In the smaller towns the Federation's Educational Department organizes circuits composed of five or six nearby cities, and stations a full-time lecturer in that district. This instructor gives one lec- ture a week in each of the circuits. This course consists of twenty- six weekly lessons covering: the evolution of industry, the social and economic consequences of the industrial revolution, the pro- blems of city, state and national government as a result of the in- dustrial changes, the legal position of the corporation and trade unions, the reforms proposed through social legislation, the history and present status of the labor movement; and a few lectures are devoted to modern movements for Industrial progress, such as : the single tax, the co-operative movement, socialism, etc. Each course lasts for two hours and consists not only of lectures but also of readings, digests or reports on readings by students before the class, as well as quiz and discussion. The work in these towns is financed entirely by the Central Labor unions and local unions. No fee is charged the individual student. The res- [25] ponse of some local unions has been exceedingly encouraging. A number of locals have contributed as much as $ioo each. In the beginning most classes met in school rooms, but gradually one by one these rooms were refused by the different school boards, al- though not a single charge was ever brought against any of the students. Instructors, etc. A few classes, however, still meet In school rooms. Early In November, 1920, there were nearly 300 men and women in Pennsylvania who were attending the classes regularly. The average attendance In Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was about 15, while in the smaller towns the attendance Is usually about 20. More than 80 per cent of the students are members of trade unions. Other features such as additional lectures, meetings, etc., are plan- ned by the General Secretary. The field Secretary Is A. Epstein, box 662, Harrlsburg, Pa. W^ashington, D. C. The Trade Union College of Washington, D. C, Is under the trade unions of Washington and vicinity. The classes are one and two hours in length, part lecture and part discussion. Courses are offered in English, music, dancing, literature, mathematics, mechan- ical drawing, economics, history of the labor movement, elementary law, current labor questions, vocational education, Industrial hy- giene, cooperation, democratic control of industry. The registra- tion fee Is $1. For a course of ten lectures, a fee of $3 is charged. Active membership in the college is confined to local unions affi- liated with the A. F. of L. The Board of Directors consists of thirteen members — comprising the trade union officers of the col- lege, seven trade union members elected by the college, two mem- bers elected by the instructors of the college. The secretary and registrar of the Trade Union College is Mary C. Dent. The college is situated at 1423 New York Avenue, Washington, D. C. Chicago Classes. A joint committee of the Chicago Federation of Labor and the Women's Trade Union League of Chicago in cooperation with the Board of Education holds educational classes for men and women. [26] The enrolment fee is one dollar for each class, and this is refunded if the class is attended regularly. The Chicago classes have not been injured (in attendance or interest) by free lectures, given by other educational institutions, nor by extension courses of the uni- versities. At present three classes are being conducted successfully — the public speaking class, filled to capacity; the parliamentary law, and essentials in English. The element in attendance is com- posed in equal proportion of Americans and the foreign-born. The foreign-born are Russian Jews. The students number 75. Information on these Chicago classes is obtainable from the Women's Trade Union League of Chicago, Room 11 24, 64 West Randolph St., Chicago. Alice Henry is secretary of the Educational Department of the National Women's Trade Union League. The Boston Trade Union College. The Trade Union College under the auspices of the Boston Central Labor Union was organized shortly after the end of the world war to help prepare the workers of New England for the role of increasing importance which labor is to play in the new social order. It was the first college to be established by the entire central labor body of a city, and this plan inaugurated in Boston has since been followed in Washington, D. C, in Seattle, and in other cities. The Board of Control is made up chiefly of representatives of the Boston Central Labor Union, and thus is ultimately responsible to a body of delegates representing some 80,000 workers. There are also five representatives of the instructors, but as almost all the students are trade unionists and as most of the representatives of the teachers are members of the Teachers' Union and delegates to the Central Labor Union, that leaves the control well in the hands of the Central Labor Union itself. The expenses of the college have been borne entirely by the trade unionists themselves. The instructor usually receives $100 for each course of ten lectures. For this course each student pays a fee of $2.50. Unless, then, there are forty students in a class the class can not be self supporting; and since in many subjects it seems wise to keep the number of students small, the college must necessarily [27] depend on other contributions besides the fees. These contribu- tions have come from subscription lists handed around in the various local unions on which countless small sums, often of only 10 or 15 cents apiece, have been subscribed. The trade unionists have preferred not only to control their own college but to pay for it themselves. No financial help from the State Board of Educa- tion, from University Extension, or from rich benefactors has been accepted, though it has more than once been tentatively offered. The buildings in which the courses have been held include the High School of Practical Arts in Roxbury, the Abraham Lincoln School, the English High School, the Boys' Latin School, and the rooms of the Central Labor Union and other unions. As soon as a new Labor Lyceum is built in Boston, it is hoped to have accom- modation there for all the classes, so that the College will not need to be dependent on the generosity of outside bodies. The year's work is divided into three terms of ten weeks each : a Fall Term from October to December; after the Christmas vacation, a Winter Term from January to March; and after the Easter vacation, a Spring Term from April to June. Most of the courses run continuously through the three terms, so that there are really 30 consecutive meetings of each class throughout the year. Later on it is hoped to have a Summer Term from July to September. The courses that have usually been given include the following : English Composition, divided into elementary, intermediate, and advanced sections to meet the needs of the workers, from the for- eigner who is beginning to write English up to those who may be preparing for positions as secretaries of unions. Practice in Discussion, where the men and women of the labor movement receive training in public speaking and debating. Literature, studied internationally, taking up the contemporary writers of various nations and discussing particularly the social values in their writings. Economics, taking up various theories of the production, dis- tribution and consumption of wealth. Law, with especial reference to contracts and to labor legis- lation. [28] Science, Including a course In the principles of mechanics for machinists and a course In food chemistry for wives of wage earners. Recreation, Including gymnastics, danciiKg and other social activities, open free of charge to those already enrolled In some other class. The Classes meet one evening a week from 8 to lo o'clock, the lecture being restricted to the first hour and the second hour being devoted to a discussion In which the students take an equal part with the Instructor. In the English and discussion classes a still larger part of the time is given to recitation. In other courses out- side reading Is required and essays and written tests are handed In. Certificates of credit are given only when the student has fulfilled this work to the satisfaction of the instructor. In other words the desire Is not so much for large classes or for a reduplication of the Innumerable forums which already exist, but to maintain a certain quality of scholarship in the work of the students. The students numbered only about 170 during the first term, the Spring Term of 19 19, but since then the number of enrollments has mounted as high as 450. At first the college was meant prim- arily for trade unionists affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and members of their families, but the Boston Central Labor Union has now voted to open the college to all wage workers equally whether affiliated with the A. F. of L. or not, which will undoubted largely increase the total enrollment. The control of the college by organized labor "enlists the self- respect of trade unionism." The discussion method employs co- operative learning, "the instructors contributing their specialized knowledge and technique, and the students their experience, so that theory is kept In contact with attested practice." The early experience of the college showed that the purely theoretical or speculative courses were unpopular, and that the demand was primarily for courses which gave practical value. For example, English composition and practice in discussion drew large numbers. With Harvard, Tufts, Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Simmons and Wellesley, In the neighbor- [29] hood, with free education, given by part time, evening and extension courses, what was the need that called for a trade union college? There was "a need for adult training in academic subjects, with special reference to making good the deficiencies due to the cutting short of early schooling. The regular night schools, admirable as they are, are intended primarily for youngsters. The extension courses given by the State of Massachusetts, on the other hand, are intended primarily for men and women who have had at least a high school training. Beyond all it was a response to a call for a school for men and women who believed in and stood for the or- ganization of the labor classes." The Secretary of the Boston Trade Union College is Mabel Gillespie, 1260 Little Building, 80 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass. Amherst. Amherst College, under the joint auspices of the College and certain labor groups, conducts classes in Springfield, Holyoke and neighboring Massachusetts towns for the workers. The instruc- tion Is given by members of the faculty. The subjects include cur- rent economic problems, industrial history, English, social problems in modern literature, mathematics. The present is the first year of the plan. The Cooperatives. The Cooperative Movement conducts three New York schools. One is in Public School No. 63 (150 East 4th St.), one in the State Bank Building (5th Ave. and 115th St.), and one at 402 Stone Ave., Brownsville. Cooperative education is of two kinds. One is education on the subject of cooperation. The other is education by the method of consumers' cooperation. The most thorough school for the training of cooperators is that held annually at Superior, Wisconsin. A need is for the development of trained leaders among the working class for cooperation. One local answer to this need has been the eight-weeks-seminar conducted by Dr. J. P. Warbasse for three successive years. It was held in the Washington Irving High [30] School and in the Sage Foundation Building, of New York, under the joint auspices of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and the School for Social Work. In the year of 1920-21, a course of 15 lectures on the history and technique of cooperation are being given under the auspices of Columbia University. In New York there will be given a series of six lectures for training workers in the Zionist Movement for cooperative enterprises in Palestine. The trade union colleges in various parts of the country give courses in cooperation. The educational secretary of the Cooperative League of Amer- ica is A. D. Warbasse. The address is 2 West 13th Street, New York. "Cooperation," the organ of the Cooperative League of Amer- ica, says : "Cooperation means .that the consumers organize to control the pro- duction and distribution of the educatiion which they want. This can be done if the students are adults and capable of knowing what they want. Those pioneer student bodies which are working out this method are doing the most radical thing that has been done in education since the free public school was established." The three cooperative schools of Greater Nev/ York (down- town, Harlem and Brownsville), publish a monthly paper called "Cooperative Education." The object of these New York consumers' experiments in educa- tion and the subject-matter place them outside the area of workers' education, as we have defined it. The object is largely to fit young people to pass Regents' and college examinations. The subject- matter is therefore largely, though not exclusively, that of regular preparatory courses. The method of administration is a pure form of workers' educa- tion. The cooperative schools are under students' control. They charge a tuition fee (for instance, of $5 a month for five nights a week of three periods). They use public and high school instruct- ors. The students administer all the finances. One of the schools has 500 pupils, another 300. . X [31] Training Executives. The Cooperative Central Exchange at Superior, Wisconsin, car- ries on a wholesale business and conducts a school for the education of cooperative executives. The Exchange has a membership of 49 distributive societies. This is the second year of the training course, which was begun with 43 students. Most of the students come from Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. The ages range from 15 to 48. Of the students of 1919, 70 per cent are now employed in cooperative stores. Cooperative "Literature." American cooperation has a "literature" which makes the task of education easier than in the political and trade union fields. There are excellent books on the history, theory and practice of cooperation. There are "45" useful pamphlets. This material for cooperative education is to be obtained from the Cooperative League of America (2 West 13th Street, New York). There is, for instance, the ten-cent pamphlet on "Cooperative Education — The Duties of the Educational Committee Defined." This pam- phlet is so clear and precise that it might serve as model for pub- lications on labor information. Good pamphleteering is one of the immediate needs in workers' education. "Cooperative societies can not be developed any faster than people can be trained to run them," and to support them. This means training of managers and executives and training of the whole membership. Trade unions also can not be developed any faster than people can be trained to run them and to take over progressively the functions of administration of industry. Educa- tion has long been accepted as essential to success in cooperation. Education has not been so widely accepted by trade unionists as essential to success in industrial democracy. Seattle. The Workers' College of Seattle, founded in 19 19, is under the control of the central labor council. It is housed in the Labor Temple and pays a nominal rent. The central labor council ap- [32] points an educational committee of 7, representing the main in- dustrial groups. The work is financed in several ways. There are collections at certain lectures. In certain courses, the pupils pay $2.50 a course. In other courses there are voluntary contributions from the pupils. A card system has also been used, calling for periodical contributions. The Sunday Evening Forum has brought an average attendance of 400. One of the instruction methods used is that of resident lecturer. A visitor is invited to spend a month in Seattle for the purpose of giving courses and lectures. There are courses in the trade union movement, Marx, biology, English, parliamentary law, the American Constitution, the Soviet Constitution, the program of British Labor. The course In trade unionism has attracted 60 students. There is no registration of students. Educational conferences are periodically held with two delegates from each union and one or two delegates from each class. These conferences have acted as an advisory committee on education to the central labor council, which in turn appoints its educational committee of 7 as the executive. The Workers' College has a dramatic section, which is an amateur dramatic society. The Workers' College has had the usual labor situation to meet — that of many local unions, some 65. This means many local meetings, if unified action is to be obtained. Until larger industrial unions are formed, each experiment in workers' education will be weakened by jurisdictional disputes, local jealousies, the scattering of effort. Until workers are organized industrially, they are not fully aware of the need for workers' education. In fact, there is not the same need in control, administration and extension of re- sponsibility. In the first year of the Workers' College, much of the teaching and much of the Influence came from the State University of Wash- ington. In the case of one or two of the professors, this teaching and Influence were offensive to the workers. By the year 1920-21, the Workers' College had emancipated Itself from the State Uni- [33] versity, and was in a position to summon its own teachers, including one in biology from the State University. The Workers' College of Seattle has stated what labor education seeks : "Education in our universities and colleges is essentially capitalistic, in that it glorifies competition and seeks to produce an efficient individ- ual. Education that may properly be called labor education is essentially socialistic, in that it glorifies cooperation and seeks to produce an efficient social and industrial order." The address is The Workers' College, The Labor Temple, Se- attle. Other Experiments. Other experiments are the Baltimore Community School (free tuition, independent of trade union control) ; the Chicago Workers' Institute. The Chicago Palatine Cooperative Union has opened a school. There have been the Work People's College in Smithville, Minn., the People's College — Fort Scott, Kansas; in San Fran- cisco — The People's Institute; in Los Angeles — The Labor Tem- ple (the educational work controlled by the Board of Education). Porto Rico. Rafael Alonso, general secretary of the Free Federation of the Workingmen of Porto Rico (affiliated to the A. F. of L.), has re- ported to us, as follows : — "We have no labor college. Union halls are used as conference and educational places. Matters relative to the history of the world labor movement ; efficiency in trade unions and among the workers, individual- ly; English and Spanish classes, are the subjects dealt with." The address of Rafael Alonso is in care of the Free Federation of the Workingmen of Porto Rico, Box 270, San Juan, Porto Rico. [34] Labor Education Bureau An attempt has been made to organize a National Bureau on Labor Education. A temporary committee was organized during the Labor Party Convention at Chicago in July, 1920. J. M. Budish was chosen secretary of this temporary committee. His address is in care of the United Labor Education Committee, 41 Union Square, New York. There is need for such a bureau of labor education because experiments are being made in over a dozen industrial centers. These experiments are testing objects, methods and materials, each in its own way. Each success and each failure have a lesson for all the other attempts. There has been no pooling of this experience. To obtain information of some of these experiments has been impossible. Letters are not answered. Information, when sent, is vague. A bureau could sit on the job till there was a stock of facts on workers' education, checked up on the basis of the experience of each Institution of workers' educa- tion. This Information, dug up in a dozen centers, would then be classified and sent out to each of the labor educational organiza- tions. Wisconsin. The Report of the General Executive Board to the 1920 Con- vention of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor stated: "On certain controversial subjects, such as labor history, cooperative and governmental enterprises, it may be found necessary, even desirable, that unilonists should organize their own classes and employ teachers whom they can trust to give them facts. "Labor needs organizers; it needs men trained to carry on negotia- tions with employers; it needs men of vision and administrative ability to carry out its economic and political principles. Every union man should be an organizer; every union man should understand the princi- ples and methods of collective bargaining as well as ordinary business methods. Every trade unionist should give some of his time to the care- ful study of the history of labor organizations, their mistakes and their victories; their methods of organization; the types of organization in existence today; their aims and policies, their tactics, their success or [35] lack of success. Classes of union men should be organized for this pur- pose in every city. "As the scope of labor's activities extends, there is felt the need also for men upon whom labor can depend to make cooperative and publicly owned enterprises a success. We need to train men from our own ranks to take the pivotal positions in industry and government. We need to train all labor, however, to understand the part they have to play in making their own ventures a success, the temporary sacrifices they may have to make in order ito secure the ultimate triumph of their principles." After recommending a study of cooperation, the Report says: "The second recommendation is for the establishment of a short course for trade unionists, which shall meet the needs of industrial labor as the farmers' short course meets the needs of the farmers. This course should provide for the training of trade unionists for their duties as organizers, secretaries, officials, legislative and administrative representa- tives, teachers in the labor movement and managers of co-operative and other enterprises." One Appeal It is often asked, How can we awaken interest in workers' educa- tion? Here follov/s the successful appeal made by James Maurer, President of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, and Abraham Epstein, General Secretary of the Pennsylvania Labor Education Committee, in advocating education for the workers : 1. The benefits derived from such work by the British labor movement and how effective ithat movement a's compared with our own. 2. Education, at the present time, is only one-sided. The schools and colleges of to-day present definitions of such words as "justice," "truth," "loyalty," "duty," "patriotism," etc., in a way that suits the employers of labor, and not the organized workers. All forms of education in existence to-day, — schools, press, churches, the mov- ies, etc. — are presenting this one kind of education. Instances are cited of teachers of long experience dismissed as soon as they identify themselves with organized labor. The experiences of the Inter- church World Movement are recalled when it attempted to present the truth in favor of labor in the steel mills. 3. The emphasis of to-day is laid upon money values rather than human [36] values; the well known men in America are men of money and power and not the men of science, art, or social vision. 4. Many of ithe employers have had the benefit of a college education, and always hire the best brains of the country to help them, but most wage-earners were not privileged to secure even an elementary school education. Benefits have been derived by organized labor - from connections with such men as Glenn Plumb, Jett Lauck, etc. 5. Although the employers have had the benefit of education, they still feel the necessity of keeping in touch wfith new events by bring- ing men of prominence to itheir clubs and luncheons and having talks on important subjects. Thus, the employers realize the neces- sity for further study while labor has had neither fundamental education nor discussions on present day problems. 6. Just as one can be a good American only after he knows something of the ideals and history of America, so, one canno't be a good trade union man without knowing something of the history, struggles, and ideals of the labor movement. 7. There is a necessity of labor education especially at this time, when the struggle between capital and labor is becoming sharper; when an attempt is made to crush unionism altogether. Organized labor is spreading out into the fields of cooperation ; into banking, into controlling its own press, etc. An Outline for Education : An "Omnibus" Syllabus. A first need of many experiments in vi^orkers' education is that of an outline of present-day civilization. The student wishes to know about the world and his own place in it. He wishes to know nature and human nature, — about climate and the location of food, coal, iron ore, oil, rubber, copper; and how these physical features and natural resources react on man with his bundle of instincts. The student wishes to know what are the problems of to-day, and what intellectual tools exist for grappling with them. A brave attempt to make this outline of present-day civilization has been published by a group of Columbia instructors. It is called "Introduction to Contemporary Civilization — A Syllabus" (Col- umbia University). It Is faulty In such omissions as a proper con- sideration of workers' education. The suggested reading is not generally adapted to workers' groups (of course It does not pretend [37] to be). But the Syllabus affords a working answer to the need of many group leaders in labor education. Pioneers Only a handful of persons in the United States are putting their mind upon workers' education. Charles Beard, Harry Dana, J. M. Budish, Algernon Lee, Bertha Mailly, Fannia Cohn, Alexander Fichandler, J. B. Salutsky, David Saposs, Scott Nearing, Abraham Epstein, Dr. Strong, Everett Dean Martin, Juliet Stuart Poyntz, Frederic Howe, Thorstein Veblen, James Harvey Robinson, and perhaps twenty more have been doing the recent pioneering. They deserve reinforcement. [38J Chapter II BRITISH EXPERIMENTS Workers' Education in Britain The spirit of adult education has been stated by Philip Snowden: "I would rather have better education given to the masses of the working classes than the best for a few. 'O God, make no more giants; elevate the race.' " Adult education is one expression of social ferment and the de- sire for a better social order. Its purpose is to lift the rank and file and to train leaders. It is emphatically not the purpose to lift the workers into the middle class. The Need Under 5 per cent, of the children in the elementary schools in England go to a public secondary school. Less than i per cent, receive a university education. Not more than 50 per cent, remain at school till they are fourteen years old. An investigation into the industrial population of Sheffield show- ed that "of the male and female adult manual workers of Sheffield somewhere about one-quarter are well-equipped; approaching three-quarters are inadequately equipped; somewhere, about one- fifteenth are malequipped." The need of adult education is due to the failure of a national educational system; the failure of university extension, of evening school classes, of mass-lectures; and the failure of the newspapers. Rules The British experience has revealed certain principles in policy and rules in strategy. The desire for adult education must come from the workers. This desire can be stimulated by appeals and by successful examples. Controversial subjects (in economics, history and literature) must be included in the curriculum. "No class can afford to disre- gard either Marshall or Marx," says Albert Mansbridge. Classes, not lectures, are the method of instruction. The sec- [39] ond half of the period is devoted to rapid-fire questions by the stu- dents. Each student is a teacher, each teacher is a student. The classes are run by the students, who "approve" of the tutor, select subjects, and help to formulate the syllabus. There is equal- ity between teachers and taught, with no touch of upper-class phil- anthropy. At all points, the workers must share the control and manage- ment of adult education. The courses favor "a liberal as against a merely bread-and-butter education." The courses are non-vocational. The subjects selected by the students are economics, history, literature, natural science, modern languages, music, drama and art. WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION (Known as the W. E. A.) The W. E. A. was the resultant of many movements. These were Mechanics Institutes, University Extension, evening schools, adult schools, the People's College, the Cooperatives, Christian So- cialists, the settlements. It was an attempt to bring together schol- arship and labor. It v/as founded in 1903 by a group of trade union- ists, cooperators and university men. The membership of the W. E. A. in 1918 was 219 branches, 2,526 affiliated bodies (trade unions, coops, universities), and 17,136 individual members. The individual subscription Is one shilling a year. Tutorial Classes. The chief expression of the W. E. A. has been tutorial classes. These are organized by the W. E. A. and administered by Joint Committees, consisting of an equal number of university and working class representatives. The Joint Committee, aided by grants from the state, is the controlling authority of the tutorial class. The classes are financed partly by the universities, partly by grants from the Board of Education and local education author- ities. These sources have been supplemented by the Gilchrist Trustees and the W. E. A. The class chooses the subject of study and approves the tutor [40] sent by the Joint Committee. The student pledges himself to attend for two hours a week — one hour for the lecture, one hour for discussion — during tw-enty-four weeks a year for three years, and to write each fortnight an essay. The tutorial classes were started in 1907. In eleven years, 8,000 students had entered the classes. In 1918-19 there were 152 classes, with 3,799 students. Cost. The Board of Education gives £45 a class for each of three years. The Oxford Committee held that a tutor could undertake five classes, and pays £80 a class, or £400 a year for full work. Cambridge pays £72 a class. London pays £60. There are twenty- three universities and colleges interested. The fee paid by a mem- ber of a tutorial class averages 2 shillings 6 pence for twenty-four meetings. The universities were to be responsible for one half the tutor's salaries and travelling expenses. Oxford has met this. Else- where less than one half. The universities are putting up £5,000 a year. Local authorities give £2,000 a year. Of 303 students in the Oxford classes in 19 17-18 fifty-three were trade union officials, twenty-Uve "coop" officers, eleven on local government boards. A class must not contain more than "about thirty" students. An analysis of contribution to tutorial classes for 1908-13 shows : From universities £17,440 Board of Education £12,000 Local education authorities £ 6,100 Other sources (Gilchrist Trustees, Co- operative unions, Trades L'nion Con- gress, W. E. A.) £ 2,000 (at $4. 80 to £, this is $180,192) £37.540 The contribution from the Board of Education is now based on a block grant of £45 a class. This means nearly £7,000 a year. [41] Books. So far as their means will allow the students purchase their own books. "Generally It is found possible to arrange that one text- book of moderate price should be possessed by every student; for instance, in many classes all the students had Tov/nsend Warner's "Industrial History of England." In every class copies of the principal books necessary are provided. It is usual for the uni- versity to which the course is attached to send to the centre a box of books. In addition to this there are available at some centres those books which are in the public library. It is much to be re- gretted that free libraries do not seem, at any rate in many cases, adequately to meet the demand." The W. E. A. has a central library of fair size, equipped to supply some of the books required. Attendance. The proportion of attendances made to attendances possible is usually 75 % or over. The average composition of a class is twenty- five. Of 3,800 in attendance, about 2,100 are men and 1,700 women. There is no certificate, no examination (except the fort- nightly essay), no formality. Freedom of discussion is funda- mental. Effect on Teachers and Students. How adult workers can benefit a teacher and his teaching is revealed in R. H. Tawney's "Agrarian Problem of the Sixteenth Century," and Henry Clay's "Economics" — "both of them based on lectures given in tutorial classes." After an investigation, A. L. Smith of Balliol College wrote : "Twenty-five per cent of the essays examined by him after second year's work in two classes, and first year's work in six classes, were equal to the work done by students who gained first classes in the Final Schools of Modern History. He was astonished, not so much at the quality as at the quantity of the quality of the work done." [42] The group of persons around Arnold Freeman, who made the Study of Sheffield, state : "The W. E. A. reaches out directly to no workers except those who belong ito the well-equipped class, and only to the best of these." One of the founders of the W. E. A. (Mansbrldge) says: "Such efforts are not worth undertaking unless they can be main- tained for the first year on a pound or two. All movements ought to be small and poor at the commencement." He adds that large and successful meetings at the beginning are bad. A small, keen, critical group is best in organizing the work. One of the useful results of the W. E. A. has been in developing the social consciousness of Oxford, Cambridge, and the modern universities. As the result, there Is less bitterness In the feeling of che workers towards the universities, and less arrogance In the mind of scholars towards the labor movement. Also, by 1 9 13, it could be said, "In the coming discussion In the country on the future of national education, over 5,000 well trained working men and women will take their part." The tutorial classes of the W. E. A. were the first whole-hearted recognition of Adult Education. A Class. In the famous pamphlet "Education and the Working Class" It Is recalled that Erasmus came to England to meet his fellow- scholars. He visited the two great universities of Oxford and Cambridge. If he came again to-day, he would go to the Potteries, to the heart of the industrial district, and to the working class. "In one of the Five Towns there Is a block of school buildings oc- cupying a vacant plot by the side of a factory. Four great ovens, like giant champagne bottles, overlook the premises, and seem to leer wicked- ly into the playground. When Erasmus visits it at night, one of the rooms is still lighted. Some twenty-five men and women are gathered [43] there, of various ages and trades, but predominantly of the working class. They have come together, he is .told, for a university tutorial class in philosophy, which meets from 8 to lO. But they have come early; for it is not merely a class, but a club and a college; several of them are anxious, too, to have a private word with the tutor. The tutor, he learns, is an Oxford graduate with a good honours degree in his subject, but, if he talks to him, he will find that he has learnt most of hiis philosophy in discussions with working people. For of the two hours of a tutorial class, the first only is used for exposition; the second is sacred ito discussion. So that a class consists, as has been said, not of twenty-five students and a tutor, but of twenty-six students who learn together. There is also a library in the room of some fifty or sixty volumes bearing on the subject; at least, the box is there, but the books are almost all in use. But the class, which is a democratiic organism, has its own elected librarian and secretary, and from them he can learn all that he wishes to know. He will find that the books are not only diligently read, but form a basis for essays which are a regular part of the class work. He will discover how various and vexatious are the obstacles that industrial life sets in the way of this new type of university student — the ravages of overtime, .the anxieties of unemployment, the suspicions of foremen and managers, the difficulties of obtaining quiet for reading and writing. He will hear of one student, nearly blind, who came regularly to class and made pathetic attempts to do his paper- work in large letters on a sheet of wallpaper; of another who found it quietest to go early to bed and rise again after midnight for an hour or itwo of study; of another who, joining a class at sixty-nine, attended regularly for six years until the very week of his death. And in the discussion, if he stays for it, he will hear the old problems of philosophy first raised in Plato (who is still used as a text-book) thrashed out anew from the living experience of grown men and women." RUSKIN COLLEGE In 1899 Ruskin College was established by three Americans — Mr. and Mrs. Walter Vrooman and Charles Beard. The Gov- erning Body was constituted of university men and trade union leaders. The location of Ruskin College Is Oxford. Its purpose Is the provision of education for adult members of the working class In history, economics, political science, literature, and other branches of the social sciences. It seeks to offer "a training In sub- jects which are essential for working class leadership." [44] Attendance. Six hundred students have passed through the college in one and two year courses. There are accommodations for fifty a year. More than 10,000 have carried on the correspondence courses. Cost. The fees charged are £52 a year for a college year of forty- four weeks. The trade unions contribute £750 a year to Ruskin. Ruskin College requires an income of £4,000 a year. It has re- cently appealed to the public for an endowment of £76,000. The appeal is signed by such well-known members of the community as Arthur Balfour, Sir Auckland Geddes, David Lloyd George, Sir Robert Home, and Violet Markham. Doubts. In 1909 certain of the students, led by George Sims, and Frank Hodges, "revolted," and established the Central Labor College (now the Labor College). They believed that Ruskin was im- bibing university atmosphere, instead of steering a working class revolutionary movement. In 19 10, Ruskin was reorganized, and the administration was placed in the hands of working class representatives, with three consultative members. The location at Oxford, and the fact that individual subscrip- tions are necessary to its maintenance, have created a "feeling" against Ruskin in the mind of the "left" of labor. But thoroughly representative leaders of the "right" are on the governing council — such men as James Sexton, Ben Tillett and Robert Young. LABOR COLLEGE The sub-warden says : "The Labor College teaches the workman ^to look for the causes of social evils in the material foundation of society; that these causes are economic; that their elimination involves economic changes of such a character as to lead to the eradication of capitalist economy." [45] The instruction is based largely upon the teachings of Karl Marx. Control. The college is based upon the recognition of the antagonism of interests between capital and labor. The Labor College is owned and controlled by the Board of labor organizations, establishing scholarships. There are three persons on the Board from the South Wales Miners' Federation, and three from the National Union of Railwaymen. The college costs £3,200 a year, and the income comes from scholarship fees raised by the unions. The cost of a scholarship is £100 a year. The students are sent, in most cases, for a period of two years. Attendance. The Labor College (which is situated in London) had in 1920 twenty-nine residential students. One thousand students attend the local lecture courses, which are classes held in South Wales, Lancashire, Northumberland, Dur- ham, and industrial centres. There are correspondence courses and lectures by post. All told, the Labor College reaches six thousand students a year. In 1908, the Plebs League was formed of ex-students and sup- porters. In 1909, came the revolt from Ruskin. For two years the college remained in Oxford. In 191 1, it moved to London. The Plebs League continues "to further the interests of inde- pendent working-class education as a partisan effort to improve the position of labor at present, and ultimately to assist in the abolition of wage-slavery." One of the promoters of the Plebs League and of the Labor College is J. F. Horrabin, who prepared the maps for H. G. Wells's "The Outline of History." Two of the famous graduates of the Labor College are Frank Hodges, Secretary of the Miners Federation of Great Britain, and [46] Concemore Thomas Cramp, industrial prganizer of the National Union of Railwayman. Plans are under way to increase residential facilities so that 70 students can be accommodated. The miners and railwaymen have authorized an expenditure of $100,000 (£21,000). A compliment from a hostile source to the efficacy of the Labor College is that of the London Times of October 7, 1919: "The influential men (in strikes) are not even Bolshevists. They are middle-class intellectuals and workmen who have been through one or other of the labor colleges, where they have imbibed theories about the social and industrial order which seem to them perfectly true and wise because they do not know enough to detect the fallacies. These men who are young, arc most numerous among the railwaymen and miners, and this is the chief reason why these industries are the special, though not the only, hot beds of disorder." SUMMARY A Government Final Report on Adult Education was made under the Ministry of Reconstruction. The Committee included the Master of Balliol, Ernest Bevin, the docker, Cramp, head of the railwaymen, Frank Hodges, and R. H. Tawney. Let us trans- late that into American terms, and we shall have Prof. Charles Beard, Sidney Hillman, Prof. Edward Ross, John Fitzpatrick, James Duncan of Seattle, President Lowell. This Government Adult Education Committee states concerning such institutions as the Marxian Labor College : "The state should not, in our opinion, refuse financial support to in- stitutions, colleges and classes, merely on the ground that they have a particular 'atmosphere' or appeal specially to students of this type or that. All that it ought to ask is that they be concerned with serious study." "The basis of discrimination between education and propaganda is not the particular opinions held by the teachers or the students, but the intellectual competence and quality of the former and the seriousness and continuity of study of the latter," Technical vocational education is not the chief business of adult [47] education. The Committee says : — "Technical education is conceived as a means of improving economic efficiency in the interests of private gain. Technical education must al- ways be a necessary and important part of a national system of education ; but, unlike general or humane education, it is not a universal need. Until industry is clearly conceived as a vast organization of cooperative effort, one of the essentials of a sound system of technical education is lacking." An Interim Report of the British Adult Education Committee says : "We wish to emphasize our view that the development of education among children and adolescents, so far from superseding the need for educational opportunities for adults, will lend additional emphasis to it." [48] Chapter III BELGIAN WORKERS' EDUCATION The Belgian Central Board for Workers' Education was founded in 191 1. It is one third endowed, and two thirds supported by labor contributions. The Board is made up of representatives of the Labor Party, the labor unions and the cooperative societies. It exists to stimulate local effort. It induces labor organizations to use their own money for educational work. Its purpose is, ac- cording to its own constitution, to develop and coordinate all in- stitutions that aim at "providing the workers with such knowledge and qualities as will facilitate their emancipation as a class in every field." Among the many enterprises of the Board, it is successfully working out a labor school system. This applies to the three groups of workers (defined in the opening pages of this pamphlet) by elementary local schools with cycles of lecture-lessons, district schools, and higher national schools. The national schools are specialized into trade union, cooperative, socialist, political, a school for municipal councillors, and so on. This Belgian experiment is thus in its beginnings more system- atized than the older British experiment. It recognizes more frankly the differences in the capacity of the students. On the other hand it has not had the long test of the British practice. An ad- mirable account of the Belgian experiment was given by Dr. Henry de Man, the Belgian labor leader, director of the Belgian Board of Labor Education, in the Survey for September i, 1920. His summary is so well done and so important ^hat it would be an act of impertinence to rewrite or shorten it. The title of his article is "How Belgian Labor is Educating Itself." Elsewhere he has stated what labor education means in the following way: "When labor strikes, it says to its master: I shall no longer work at your command. When it votes for a party of its own it says: I shall no longer vote at your command. When it creates its own classes and colleges, it says: I shall no longer think at your command. Labor's challenge to education is the most fundamental of the three." [49] GERMAN EXPERIMENTS For many years Germany has carried on workers' education. Among those educational activities, there have been: — 1. The National Education Committee, of the Social Democratic Par- ty. This is now hopelessly split. 2. The Party Schools, run by the executive of the Social Democratic Party. This work is described in a series of Congress Reports from 1906 on. These reports are full of valuable material on workers' education. These Party Schools have been wrecked by the war. 3. The school for trade union officials. This still goes on. This Ber- lin school is supported and managed by trade unionists. The school provides a six weeks' course of instruction to about 60 selected trade unionists, who are fully supported during this period by their unions. [50] PUBLISHED INFORMATION Those Interested in the American and British experiments should consult the valuable bulletin entitled 'Adult Working Class Educa- tion in Great Britain and the United States," by Charles P. Sweeney. It is published by the U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. This bulletin is the best summary of the American work which has been published. The folk high schools of Scandinavian countries and of Den- mark, in particular, are of such importance to the student of work- ers' education that attention is drawn to a series of United States Government bulletins on the subject (1898, 1909, 1912, 1914, 19 1 9 — the years of publication). Special attention is drawn to Bulletin No. 45, of the year 19 15, Department of the Interior, Bu- reau of Education. This bulletin is entitled "The Danish People's High School," by Martin Hegland. A bibliography on workers' education is given at the end of the present pamphlet. [51] WHAT TO READ A Bibliography on Workers' Education. * LABOR COLLEGES Belgium Man, Henry de — How Belgian Labor is Educating Itself. (In Survey, N. Y., V. 44, p. 667-70, Sept. I, 1920.) Great Britain Central Labour College. (In Labour Year Book. 1919. p. 294-295.) History of movement, origin as a revolt against conservatism of Ruskin College. Supported by miners' and railway unions and backed by Plebs League. Cole, G. D. H. — Labour and Education. (In Labour and the Common- ivealth. 1920. p. 147-165.) — Proletarianism. (In Labour and the Commonwealth. 1920. p. 166- 178.) — Trade Unionism and Education. (In Workers' Educational Ass'n, JV. E. A. Education Year Book. 1918. p. 370-373.) Traces history of C. L. C, the quarrel with Ruskin College, the guardian- ship of the C. L. C. by South Wales Miners' Federation and National Union of Railwaymen. The C. L. C. is "aggressively Marxian." Outline of edu- cational policy for trade unions. Education and the Working Class. London, Workers' Educational Ass'n. 1914, 25 p. A statement of objective reprinted from the Round Table of March 1914. Educational Programmes. (In Labour Year Book. 1919. p. 288-298.) Summaries of organization and work of the several British labor colleges. Great Britain Adult Education Committee — Final Report. London, H. M. stationery office. 191 9. 409 p. (Cd. 321.) Contains inclusive account of trade union education in Great Britain and the United States, covering most of the colleges established. Horrabin, J. F. — Plebs League. (In Workers' Educaitional Ass'n, W. E. A. Year Book. 1918. p. 390-391.) Break of the C. L. C. with Ruskin College, and formation of Plebs League to back the work of C. L. C. Horwill, H. W. — Education of the Adult Worker. (In Nation, N. Y., V. 109, p. 738-739, May 10, 1919.) * From "Modern Social Movements," by Savel Zimand, to be published by H. W. Wilson Co. [52] Mansbridge, Albert — Universities and Labor; an Educational Adventure in England and Her Overseas Dominions. (In Atlantic Monthly, Boston. V. 124. p. 275-282. August 1919.) A review of the organization, the work, and the cooperation of university instructors with the workers' organizations. University Tutorial Classes ; A Study in the Development of Higher Educa- tion Among Working Men and Women. N. Y., Longmans, Green and Co. 1918. 197 p. The fullest summary on the subject. Smith, Samuel — Ruskin College, Oxford. (In Workers' Educational Ass'n, fV. E. A. Education Year Book. 191 8. p. 388-389.) Foundation, support, and government by trade union and cooperative union representatives. Courses, scholarship, publications, etc. Workers' Educational Association — Annual Report and Statement of Ac- counts; Fifteenth. July i, 1918. London, W. E. A., 1918. 32 p. Plans for educational reconstruction, classes, summer schools, libraries, liter- ature and directory of branches in Great Britain and the colonies, including a branch in Montreal at McGill University. Workers' Educational Assooiation — The W. E. A. Education Year Book, 1 91 8. London, Workers' Educational Association, N. Y., Ginn & Co., 1 91 8. 507 p. Complete account of workingmen's education in Great Britain. Introduction by G. B. Shaw, contributions by S. G. Hobson, G. D. H. Cole, H. G. Wells, John Galsworthy and others, covering the history and teaching methods of the W. E. A. World Association for Adult Education, London. University Tutorial Class Movement. London. 191 9. (Bui. 2.) 30 p. Great Britain — Directory Labour College (Until recently Central Labour College). Sec'y T. Lovvth, Unity House, Euston Road, N.W. i. London, England. Plebs League. (Graduates and students of Labour College.) Mrs. W. Horrabin, iia Penywern Road, Earl's Court, London, S.W. 5. Ruskin College, Oxford, Secretary Sam Smith, Ruskin College, Oxford, England. Workers' Educational Association. General Secretary Mr. J. M. Mactavish, 16 Harput St., London, W.C. i. United States American Federation of Labor. Committee on Schools Under Union Aus- [53] pices. Report. (In American Federation of Labor. Rept. of Proc, 39th. Washington, D. C, 1919. p. 135-144.) Boston Trade Union College. (In School and Society. Garrison, N. Y. V. 9, p. 443-444, Apr. 12, 1919.) Budish, J. M.— Education and Culture Within Reach of Our Workers. (In Fur Worker, N. Y. Sept. 1919.) Reprinted in N. Y. Call. Budish, J. M., and George Soule — United Labor Education Committee. (In their New Unionism in the Clothing Industry, N. Y. Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920. p. 205-228.) Adequate account of the educational work of the unions in the clothing in- dustry. Chicago Trade Union College. (In School and Society. Garrison, N. Y. V. 10, p. 516. Nov. I, 1919.) Education for Workers. (In Survey, N. Y. v. 43, p. 437. Jan. 17, 1920.) Brief review of work of Trade Union College of Boston, of Chicago, and International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Educational Committee. Fox, G. M.— When Labor Goes to School. N. Y., Nat'l Board Y. W. C. A., 1920. 30 p. Labor College at Nation's Capitol. (In Labor, Wash. v. i, no. 11, p. i. Oct. 18, 1919.) Note on founding of labor college for union members. Instructors drawn from executives and experts in government departments. Labor Education. (In American Labor Year Book. v. 3, 1919-20. p. 203-206.) Articles on the United Labor Education Committee, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, and the Boston Trade Union College. Labor in Quest of Beauty. (In Survey, N. Y. v. 42, p. 199. May 3, 191 9.) Sterling, H.— Labor's Attitude Toward Education. (In School and Society. Garrison, N. Y. v. 10, p. 128-32. Aug. 2, 1919.) Stoddard, W. L.— Boston Trade Union College. (In Nation, N. Y. v. 109, p. 298-300. Aug. 30, 1919.) Sweeney, Charles Patrick— Adult Working-Class Education in Great Britain and the United States. Wash., Gov't Print. Oil., 1920. (U. S. Labor Statistics Bureau, Bull. 271.) loi p. Sweeney, Charles Patrick— Labor Goes to College. (In Independent, N. Y. V. 98, p. 216. May 10, 1919.) Trade Union College. (In Am/;rican Review of Reviews, N. Y. v. 60, p. 441-442. Oct. 1919.) [54] Trade Union College. (In New Republic, N. Y. v. i8, p. 395. Apr. 26, 1919.) Trade Union College. (In Survey, N. Y. v. 42, p. 113-114- Apr. 19, 1919.) Workers' Education ; A Symposium. Reprinted from the Shipbuilders' News and Navy Yard Employees for Sept., 1919, by the Industrial Com- mittee of the Department of Research and Method of the National Board of the Y. W. C. A., 1920. 11 p. Contents: Dana, H. W. L. Boston Trade Union College. Beard, C. A. New School for Social Research. Budish, J. M. United Labor Education Committee. Poyntz, J. S. Workers' University. Tannenbaum, Frank. Labor and Education. Cady, M. L. Workers' Education and the Young Women's Christian Association. United States — Directory Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. National Educational Depart- ment. J. B. Salutsky, Educational Director, 31 Union Square, New York City. International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Educational Committee, 31 Union Square, New York City. Pennsylvania Labor Education Committee. Abraham Epstein, Secretary, P. O. Box 662. Harrisburg, Pa. Rand School of Social Science, 7 East 15th Street, New York City. Trade Union College of Boston, Miss Mabel Gillespie, Secretary, 80 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass. Trade Union College of Washington, D. C, care of the National Federation of Federal Employees. Continental Trust Building, Washington. United Garment Workers' Union, Los Angeles, Calif. Educational Com- mittee. Labor Temple, Los Angeles. Calif. United Labor Education Committee. J. M. Budish, chairman. 41 Union Square, New York City. Women's Trade Union League of Chicago, 111. Chicago Federation of . Labor. Educational Council. Chicago, 111. Workers' College, Seattle, Washington. Labor Temple, Seattle, Wash. Workers' University. International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Cleveland, Ohio. [55] Sample Courses The Trade Union College of Washington, D. C. Course of Lectures on Democratic Control of Industry (i) Employees' Representation in Management of Industry. (2) Shop Committees Under the National War Labor Board. (3) Types of Shop Committee Plans in American In- dustrial Establishments. (4) Industrial Reconstruction in the Army Arsenals. (5) The Plumb Plan for the Railroads. (6) Whitley Councils in British Industries. (7) Building Trades' Parliament in England. (8) Proposals for Nationalization and Joint Control of the Coal Mines in Great Britain. (9) Tripartite Control of Industry. (10) The National Guilds Movement in Great Britain. [56] SEATTLE WORKERS' COLLEGE Syllabus of a course of 5 lectures on PROBLEMS OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT, by Henry de Man I. The Working Class. The foundation of labor's understanding of society is its under- standing of its own movement. The history of the labor move- ment reflects the condition and evolution of the workers' class or proletariat under the capitalist system. Definition of the proletariat by Frederick Engels : "The class of wage-workers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live." Current misconceptions about class formation in general to be removed : 1. Not due to distinction between manual and intellectual labor, examples: brainworkers for a wage, small employers of labor doing manual labor, the independent farmer, the small in- dependent tradesman, etc. 2. Not due to distinction between producers and non-producers, examples: the independent farmer (not a proletarian) the capi- talist-manager, etc. 3. Not due to degree of Income, examples : the poor independ- ent farmer, the parasite pauper class ("Lumpenproletariat"), the poor small tradesman, not proletarians. Class formation determined not by degree of Income, but by Its nature. A class Is a group unified by a community of Interest In antagonism to other groups, arising from the social nature of their function In the production process. Main characteristic of proletariat — separation from the means of production. In this the proletarian Is different from: 1. the slave — owned as a means of production himself 2. the serf — tied to the soil, chief means of production 3. the artisan — owner of his own means of production. [57] The proletariat came Into existence by advancing capitalism (especially capital accumulated in commerce) expropriating serfs and artisans (separating them from means of production). The oldest form of capitalistic expropriation is the manufactur- ing shop, employing largely unskilled workers, mostly destitute (expropriated serfs, vagrant workers, disbanded soldiers, etc.) The expropriation of the artisan chiefly resulted from competi- tion by the large capitalistic shop using mechanical power. Hence modern European proletariat is drawn from two sources : I. the class of unskilled factory workers, 2. the class of expropri- ated artisans or craftsmen. This distinction is now practically levelled out by progress of machinery. In America it has maintained itself longer, owing chiefly to the constant immigration of foreign unskilled immigrants facilitating the maintenance of a privileged position by the native craftsmen. Textbooks : Karl Kautsky, The Class Struggle K. Marx, Capital, Part i K. Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto, Part i A. M. Simons, Class Struggles In America II. The European Trade Union Movement. General tendency. The unskilled factory workers of the early capitalistic period conduct chaotic movements, but do not succeed in forming permanent unions. The first nucleus of the union move- ment Is formed by the craftsmen's associations, favored by the traditions of the artisan guild system and the limited competition of labor in skilled trades. The oldest form of craft union is the closed union. Its aim to maintain favorable labor conditions by preventing the employers from hiring labor at non-union conditions. Its action Is directed: I. against the reluctant employer; 2. against the competition of an economically weaker labor element. [58] Characteristics of the closed union policy: \ 1. High entrance fees 2. Regulation of apprenticeship to monopolize skill by: a. Limitation of numbers b. Privileges to relatives c. Long duration d. High cost of initiation e. Obligation to learn the whole trade 3. Exclusion of women and youths 4. Exclusion of foreigners 5. Favoring of fair employers by boycott and label 6. Opposition to use or extension of machinery Chief policy of closed unions: 1. The union as an employment office 2. Job monopoly for limited number of organized 3. Fostering of craft solidarity by masonic practices Trade egoism illustrated by pitched battles among the early French "compagnonnages" (1830-1860): 1. Conquest of the right of coalition 2. Demonstration of power of organization 3. Formation of a nucleus for class movement (organization, finance leadership) 4. Prevention of total degradation of working class by low wages 5. Pioneer work in reducing hours of labor The entrance of the unskilled workers into the union movement marks its transformation into a class movement. This happened [59] earlier on the European continent than in England, in spite of less advanced industrialization, because of class consciousness fostered by political activity of socialist parties. Illustrations : 1. The new unionism in England, typical of unconscious slow evolution 2. The industrial unions of Germany, typical of conscious rapid evolution The breakdown of European craft unionism caused or favored by: I. the extension of mechanical production and semi-skilled labor; 2. the increased competition of unskilled unorganized work- ers; 3. the growing social power of capitalism in basic industries (coal, steel, oil, textiles, automobiles, chemical industries, etc.) employing unskilled or semi-skilled labor ; 4. the increasing neces- sity of defensive political action as a class to maintain liberties necessary for organization work; 5. the social emancipation of women; 6. the internationalization of labor supply resulting from improved means of communication; 7. concentration of employers' forces by financial capitalism; 8. the rank and file revolts against craft union officialdom; 9. the waste of jurisdictional disputes; 10. the increase of industrial productivity and the suspension of craft union limitations under the stress of war necessity. Textbooks : B. and S. Webb, The History of Trade Unionism Carleton Parker, The Casual Laborer -W. Z. Foster, The Great Steel Strike [60] NATIONAL WOMEN'S TRADE UNION LEAGUE OF AMERICA. (Outline and cost of three weeks' course in Chicago for women trade unionists.) 9 a. m. to lo a. m. — ^History of the Labor movement. (Alice Henry, Secretary of the Educational Department, and Emma Steghagen.) 10 a.m. to II a.m. — How an Organizer Works. (Agnes Nestor, Elizabeth Maloney, Elizabeth Christman, and other experienced Trade Union women.) 11 a.m. to 12 m. — Business English, including letter writing to organizations, drafting resolutions. (Miss Henry.) Two evenings a week — Parliamentary law and the conduct of meetings. The afternoons are reserved for study. For out-of-town trade unionists the estimate of expense: Room at $5.00 $15.00 Board at $10,50 31.50 Carfare at $1.25 3,75 Sundries, $1.25 3.75 $54.00 Books (estimate) $7.50 Parliamentary Law (estimate) . . . 7,50 Sundries 6.00 $75.00 For those living in Chicago, the cost is $15. [61] THE BUREAU OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH, 289 Fourth Ave., New York, is organized to promote sound human relationships in industry by consultation, fact studies and publicity. It maintains a library of current information covering the field of industrial relations from which it is prepared to supply documentary and statistical data at moderate cost to individuals, corporations, labor organizations and the press. Robert W. Bruere^ Director Heber Blankenhorn Leonard Outhwaite Mary D. Blankenhorn Ordway Tead Arthur Gleason Savel Zimand Herbert Croly, Treasurer [62] ^,y LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 029 942 018 8