COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. Frederick W. Dallinger (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. To proceed with the hearing on H. R. 3923, I believe Miss Williams said to-day she had some representatives from organizations, whom she wanted to have heard in behalf of the bill. Miss WILLIAMS. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, we have had four sessions of this committee at which we had speakers to appear to discuss the constitutional questions involved and to present all statistical and technical information which the committee might desire for its further consideration of this piece of legislation and, at your request and permission, all of this information has been filed as a part of the permanent record. To-day, we are going to show who is for this bill, what the organizations are; to tell something of their membership; how they arrived at their indorsement of this measure, and, since this is a bill advocated particularly and sponsored by the National Education Association, I shall begin with that organization and ask Mr. Joy E. Morgan, the editor of their Journal, who has had a good deal to do with the promotion of this bill, to speak for the National Education Association; that is, the parent body. STATEMENT OF MR. JOY E. MORGAN, ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Mr. MORGAN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the entire testimony which has been given here, I think, is overwhelming evidence of the powerful stand which the National Education Association has taken for this measure. You have been told how, growing out of the war, there was a realization of pressing educational needs that had to be met and how these needs were studied by the committee of the National Education Association, representing every section of the country and every branch of education, and how, after a careful study, a bill was drafted to meet those needs; how that bill was submitted to the profession, revised, and improved, and how year after year the organization has carried on an extended campaign for the passage of this measure. Now, what is the National Education Association? In the first place, it is an organization composed of some one hundred and thirty or forty thousand members who have paid in $2 for their annual membership, or $5 for a 5-year membership. The members are primarily teachers from every section of the United States and its Territories, many of them poorly paid teachers who could ill afford to take the $2 from their meager salary, and many of them undoubtedly are teachers who have joined because of the association's stand in behalf of this measure. The association is composed of some 50 State and Territorial associations. Every State association in the United States is affiliated with it. There are some thousand local groups of teachers, city associations, county associations, and district associations that are affiliated with it. The State, district, and local associations each year elect delegates which come together in a great representative assembly, that speaks for the 730,000 teachers of this Nation. That is the organization that, for five successive times, has indorsed this bill, in most cases unanimously. That is the organization, whose great Department of Superintendence, representing the men and women who administer education throughout the United States, has indorsed this program for six successive times. This group, gentlemen, is peculiarly entitled to speak on the question of public education and on the great questions involved in this bill. I doubt if there would be any difference of opinion about this bill, if the Members of the great House which you gentlemen represent could go out into the byways, where the children are, and where the men and women are, and could have first-hand contact with such people as came before the last hearing and told the heroic story of how they had learned to read and write. It is because the teachers, who are banded together in this great professional organization, do have first-hand contact with the youth; it is because they do see the needs and feel the eagerness of the foreign born to get some touch of our national ideals; it is because they do see the pathetic picture of thousands of children whose lives are being cut short for the lack of a health program; it is because they do see hundreds of thousands of children who are denied education because they happen to live in areas too poor to maintain adequate schools, and they feel something of what childhood is missing because we do not have in America adequately trained teachers; it is because they see these things and feel the urgency of them in terms of the lives of the people concerned, that they stand for this measure. And, laying aside minor differences of detail or administration, I am confident they will stand for this program until it is enacted into law. Miss WILLIAMS. The National Education Association has some 23 departments, constituting various phases of the school curriculum and school administration, and, besides that, it has a number of standing committees, the membership of which is devoted to working out certain educational requirements. The department that meets in February all to itself, because of its huge size, is the department of superintendence. Mr. Shankland is here representing that department, and will speak for that group. STATEMENT OF MR. SHERWOOD D. SHANKLAND, REPRE- OF SUPERINTENDENCE, Mr. SHANKLAND. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. as stated, the department of superintendence meets in February. It includes in its membership the superintendents of schools, including city, county, and rural schools. It has allied with it 14 other ofganizations, including high-school principals, elementary-school principals, deans of colleges, kindergarten supervisors, primary supervisors, and others who are engaged in administrative capacities in the schools. The department of superintendence considered, as it has in previous years, very carefully, the present condition of education in the country, particularly with reference to the bill which you have under consideration, and after careful consideration, as has been stated, for the sixth successive year, the department went on record as favoring the passage of this bill. I may say, Mr. Chairman, that the department of superintendence endeavors in its resolutions only to consider those matters which have a direct bearing on the schools and upon which they feel that they should go on record in the interests of the children. I think, Mr. Chairman, further, I might say that the members of this department, personally, are not actuated by any desire on their own part to change their condition, due to the passage of the bill, for this reason that its benefits, should it pass, would be largely for those in the unfortunate and rural communities; and, these communities, being poor, are ordinarily not present at our convention. Those who considered and who recommended this bill were those in the more favored communities, who were able to be present and to speak in behalf of those who were not present themselves. The resolution as adopted at Chicago was in words very largely as a resolution passed one year ago; in fact, the principal portion of the resolution is a precise reiteration of the resolution in 1922, passed at Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. TUCKER. May I ask: Had your organization ever indorsed the bill before 1922? Mr. SHANKLAND. Yes, sir. This is the sixth year-1923, 1922, 1921, 1920, 1919, and 1918. Mr. TUCKER. You indorsed it every year? Mr. SHANKLAND. Yes, sir. In the year 1922, in Chicago, in order that the department might fully understand the bearing of the bill and in order that both sides might be represented, we held an open meeting on Monday evening of the opening of the convention, at which nine speakers presented nine varying views regarding the bill. The speakers were the best that could be obtained to present their views. Doctor Inglis, of Harvard University; Doctor Capen, of the University of Buffalo; Doctor Strayer, of the Columbia University; Doctor Weavers, of New York University; and four superintendents of schools (and I presume a number of these gentlemen have appeared before your committees) representing all of the views of those who are very strong for the bill as, for instance, Doctor Strayer, and those who are quite definitely of the other view, as, for instance, Doctor Inglis. That was the best public presentation that has been made in any educational meeting which I attended. At the conclusion of that debate, and after very careful consideration, the department went on record in favor of the bill again, either unanimously or practically unanimously. I sat on the stage and was unable to note any who voted against it, although I was informed there were three or four who so voted. The CHAIRMAN. You do not think, Doctor, the fact that this bill contains an appropriation, which can be used to pay local teachers' salaries, has any effect at all on the membership of the association? Mr. SHANKLAND. I think, as far as the superintendents themselves, Mr. Chairman, are concerned, it would not affect them, for the reason stated, that they represent the wealthier communities, and probably would pay more, if you pro rate the payments (their communities would pay in more, would be assessed a greater sum through Federal taxation that would raise the money), than they would receive, in turn, in the distribution. The CHAIRMAN. I thought you said you took in all the county superintendents and rural superintendents, as well as State? Mr. SHANKLAND. Yes, sir; they are entitled to membership, but they are so seldom able to go to the convention itself. The convention is conducted by the superintendents of the larger cities. They pay their dues and wait for us to send them the final report of what happened. The CHAIRMAN. How large a proportion of the membership was represented at this convention, would you say? Mr. SHANKLAND. There were, of the department of superintendence itself, 2,200 superintendents of schools. In the other departments, I am not in a position to state precisely, except this, that we issued 11,000 railroad identification certificates and no doubt a very considerable part of those certificates was used for attendance. The CHAIRMAN. Are there any other questions? Mr. SHANKLAND. I will be glad to file, Mr. Chairman, a printed copy of the resolutions of the committee. The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection, that may be incorporated in the record. Mr. SHANKLAND. I have marked the part that refers to the bill. Mr. TUCKER. What is the membership of the National Education Association? Mr. SHANKLAND. The membership, as of January 1, in a printed report, was about 133,000. I can not give it to you precisely. That is correct within a thousand or so, in the printed report. Mr. TUCKER. And they are practically all school teachers? Mr. SHANKLAND. Yes, sir; or superintendents or principals. We count ourselves all as teachers, though. Mr. TUCKER. Yes. Is it not true that every member of that association would be benefited by this bill? Mr. SHANKLAND. No; I think not. I think, as far as the direct benefit goes, that it would benefit a very few of them, because the greater part of the membership comes from the larger cities; for instance, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, where the Benefit would be very slight. Mr. TUCKER. Would be very slight? Mr. SHANKLAND. Yes, if any at all. Mr. LOWREY. You mean the financial benefit? Mr. SHANKLAND. Yes; the financial benefit. Miss WILLIAMS. Mr. Chairman, may I file the resolutions of the National Education Association and of this department of superintendence, which include the resolution which Mr. Shankland has set forth? Also, I should like to file, if I may, the statements of 15 superintendents of city school systems, indorsing this bill. Also the statements of six of the officers of the National Education Association; 15 college and normal school people of prominence; 3 county superintendents, and of 26 State superintendents. I call particular attention to the indorsement of these 26 State superintendents, and I should like to read the indorsement of Commissioner Payson Smith, of Massachusetts: MY DEAR MISS WILLIAMS: It is my opinion that it is desirable to have created a strong department of education at Washington for the following reasons: 1. That there may be a proper and adequate coordination of present Federal activities in education. 2. That there may be an agency responsible to the Nation as a whole for adequate investigation and research in the field of education. At the present time chief reliance in these matters has to be placed upon foundations supported by private funds. A condition of this sort should not permanently continue in an activity which is almost solely supported from public taxation and conducted by public officers. 3. To secure adequate educational results in any of those fields in which the Nation as a whole has an interest. It is my opinion that all the good results which will naturally come from an adequately supported and properly coordinated department of education can be secured without undue or improper Federal interference with or control of education within the States. Very truly yours, PAYSON SMITH, Commissioner of Education. (The resolutions and statements filed by Miss Williams, as above noted, are as follows:) EXCERPT FROM THE RESOLUTIONS OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION PRESENTED AT PITTSBURGH, PA., 1918 The association favors the establishment of a national university and the creation of a national department of education under the direction of a secretary of education. RESOLUTION OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, MILWAUKEE, WIS., 1919 This association has urged for years that education should be given just recognition by the Federal Government, and that a department of education should be established. The war has so emphasized the importance of education from a national standpoint that the necessity of the immediate consideration of this question is universally recognized. Moreover, a commission on the emergency in education, appointed by this association one year ago, acting under the instruction of the association, prepared a bill creating a department of education with a secretary in the President's Cabinet, and authorizing the appropriation of $100,000,000 to encourage the States in the promotion of education, particularly in the removal of illiteracy, the Americanization of immigrants, physical and health education, teacher preparation, and the equalizing of educational opportunities. The association, through its commission and with the cooperation of other great national organizations, secured the introduction of this bill in the Sixtyfifth Congress, and more recently its introduction in the Sixty-sixth Congress in a carefully revised and perfected form, known as the Smith-Towner bill (H. R. 7 and S. 1017); therefore, this association gives its hearty and unqualified indorsement to the Smith-Towner bill (H. R. 7 and S. 1017) now before the Sixty-sixth Congress, and instructs the official staff of this association to use all honorable means to secure its passage. RESOLUTION OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, 1920 We are convinced that adequate preparation of teachers and the elevation of standards of selection can be achieved only through an acceptance of the principle that the wealth of the Nation as a whole can legitimately and may justifiably be drawn upon to equalize opportunities for the education of all the Nation's children. We reaffirm our faith in this principle, and urge the immediate passage of the Smith-Towner bill by which Federal participation in the support of public education is provided and which at the same time preserves the autonomy of the State in the management of its schools. We condemn the efforts of the enemies |