The same organization identified itself with a movement in California to investigate the content of history textbooks. In July, 1918, the State Board of Education directed that all textbooks in American and European history appearing upon the official list of high school textbooks be submitted to a committee of expert historians for review, to determine whether such textbooks were objectionable on the ground of being pro-German or containing matter which might be offensive to the American allies in the World War. On September 18, the committee reported, and the following books were stricken from the official list: Botsford, A Brief History of the World, Myers, Mediaeval and Modern History, and Myers, General History. Robinson’s Medieval and Modern Times, edition of 1916, was also eliminated from the official list, but the edition with the supplement of 1918 was substituted upon condition that the publishers make certain changes in the revised edition. Robinson and Beard, Outlines of European History, Part II, was banned until a specified revision should take place. Of the books examined, the committee found no important objections to Andrews, Short History of England, Ashley, Early European Civilization, Cheyney, Short History of England, Harding, New Mediaeval and Modern History (edition of 1918), Robinson and Breasted, Outlines of European History, Part I, Webster, Early European History, and West, Modern World. The committee rendered decisions against the Myers histories because they represented a viewpoint opposed to that of the time. Botsford’s textbook was found objectionable because it was “favorable to the acts of Germany and critical to an unjust degree of the acts of the ... allied nations,” and because it presented the causes of the American Revolution in a “bald form.”[759]
Other places, actuated by similar sentiments, interested themselves in the character of history instruction. Seattle, Washington, became the center of a controversy between the school superintendent and the teachers on the one hand, and two of the school directors on the other, regarding Robinson and Beard’s Outlines of European History.[760] As a result of the discussion, the book was thrown out of the Seattle schools until the expurgation and revision should occur.[761]
In Montana, the State Council of Defense ordered the withdrawal of West’s Ancient World from circulation in all public and school libraries, because they objected, among other things, to an introductory statement that “the settlement of the Teutonic tribes was not merely the introduction of a new set of ideas and institutions ... it was also the introduction of fresh blood and youthful minds—the muscle and brain which in the future were to do the larger share of the world’s work.”[762]
Due to the same point of view and under the same compulsion, the Commissioner of Education of Rhode Island in 1918 undertook an investigation of the textbooks in use in that state, and found objectionable “various text-books designed for sixth grade history according to the report of the committee of eight.” In a large number of books [were found] ... “various references to the Germans which, in the light of recent developments, are to be regarded as incorrect or exaggerated statements....” And it was considered “objectionable to place before the children of America statements which are, or which will appear to them to be, laudatory of the people with whom we are at war or adversely critical of our own people.”[763] The use of histories considered “offensive” was also discontinued in the states of Arizona, Iowa, Ohio, and Oklahoma, either through the action of the office of the state superintendent or some other official.[764] Doubtless in other states the action of local boards brought about the same result.
New textbooks, syllabi and other teaching aids appeared. Superintendent William L. Ettinger of the New York City schools, for example, in 1918 issued a syllabus on the War designed to aid teachers in “imparting a correct intellectual understanding of the causes, events and issues of the war,” as well as to help them in inspiring “the pupils with a love for the ideals and an appreciation of the sacrifices of our country.” For, he held that “the American Army of the future, both men and women, are in our schools today.” Dr. Ettinger’s letter to the Principals of High Schools declared that “History should be taught so that a deep emotional appeal” should be made in all topics; that “a lasting effect” could “be produced on the ideals, purposes and emotions of the child only by arousing deep feeling in connection with the presentation of the subject matter.” In the event of adding new material as the War progressed, it was required that “all such material ... be approved by the Principal of the School before ... used in the classroom.”[765]
As in all books which were meeting the popular demand of the time, the Syllabus made Germany “the only country in the world that was prepared and anxious for war” because of her autocratic government, the character of the Kaiser, militarism and navalism, Germany’s desire for world domination, and the insidious inculcation of loyalty in the German people through the Prussian system of education.
The insistence of the American people that histories in the schools should not be in any degree “laudatory” of the enemy peoples nor “unfavorable” to our allies in arms led to the revision of many textbooks after April, 1917. Since 1923 these revisions, in turn, have been criticized in the light of recently published documents relating to the origin of the War. Although the question of war guilt is still held by many historians as debatable, it is pointed out in The Freeman for June, 1923, that probably “children have already been indoctrinated with a theory that leaves no excuse for uncertainty, no opening for new evidence and no stimulus to free thought.”[766]
With this condition in mind, critics have assembled their arguments against certain textbooks in European history found in the public schools. Because it made Germany primarily responsible for the World War objection was raised to The Story of Human Progress by Willis Mason West, an author but a short time before criticized for pro-Germanism.[767] Roscoe Lewis Ashley is challenged for saying in his Modern European Civilization that “Germany wanted war and determined to rule or ruin ... and a war which in the true sense had been made ‘in Germany’ was a reality”; while Webster, in his Modern European History, is criticized for the statement that “There is no longer any need to fix the responsibility for the World War. That the German government planned it and precipitated it has been made evident by the avowal of the Germans themselves.”[768]
The interpretation placed upon the causes leading to the War by Charles Downer Hazen in his Modern Europe has likewise been condemned. For Hazen “summarizes the case as follows: ‘The world was stunned by the criminal levity with which Austria-Hungary and Germany had created this hideous situation. The sinister and brutal challenge was, however, accepted immediately and with iron resolution by those who had done their utmost during those twelve days to avert the catastrophe.’”[769] A criticism by Professor Harry E. Barnes directed for the same reason at the textbooks of this author provoked a spirited exchange of opinion in the spring of 1924. Professor Hazen upheld his interpretation as to Germany’s guilt, while Professor Barnes asserted that such a point of view was untenable in the light of official documents made known since the War.[770]
Other writers of European histories used in the schools have not escaped. According to The Freeman, Robinson and Beard, in their History of Europe Our Own Times, seem to have been “more or less taken” with the plan of leaving the “readers to draw their own conclusions” in their chapter on the origin of the War. Disapproval arose out of the statement that “the assertions of the German leaders that England desired war and was responsible for it are, of course, as the rest of the world knows, wholly without foundation in fact,” and because of the quotation from Prince Lichnowsky indicting Germany.[771]