I could take up a great deal more space with this kind of fun; but instead I will go on to mention that there are in America a few educators who have not been willing to play the part of Professor Facing Both-Ways. One of these men is Scott Nearing. He had three text-books on economics, all written in collaboration with some other person. These text-books enjoyed the greatest popularity; for example, the “Elements of Economics” had seventy-five per cent of the field; also “Community Civics” had a big sale. But after Nearing was kicked out of the University of Pennsylvania for his loyalty to the truth, the sale on these text-books stopped. When I talked with him in 1922 he told me that his publishers had not made a contract on them in two years, and they were about to bring out new editions without Scott Nearing’s name!
As it happens, I am able to tell Nearing exactly how he lost some of this business. I have mentioned Mr. W. H. Powell, editor of the “Courier” of Ottumwa, Iowa, who haled a college professor before the state legislature for the crime of referring to the “English Industrial Revolution,” and for listing the I. W. W. as a labor organization. Mr. Powell is naively proud of his achievements, and has written to a friend of mine, telling about them. So let us hear one of these Bolshevik hunters speaking for himself:
I discovered, along in 1918—late in the year—that our high school was using and had been using for about eight years, Burch and Nearing’s “Principles of Economics.” Nearing had made himself notorious during the war and I thought a book by him, on whatever subject, would not be a good thing to have in our schools. I suggested that much through a reporter, to the superintendent of schools, but he replied that the board was under contract to use the book, or had bought a certain number on a contract, and it could not be eliminated. I may say that we supply text-books here at public expense.
Inquiry developed that there were only perhaps a hundred of these books in use and as each was worth less than one dollar, the expense didn’t seem to me to be prohibitive. I got a copy of the book and found in it some matter decidedly socialistic and radical. Then I canvassed the school board members and found none of them had ever read the book. The superintendent admitted he never had read it and the teacher who had charge of the class in which it was being studied told me he hadn’t read the text ahead of the day to day lessons. The principal of the high school hadn’t read it, either. In fact, I seemed to be about the only one in town who knew what was in the book.
But the members of the board backed the superintendent, who didn’t want to stir up a quarrel with book publishers. Finally, however, he changed front and our first mention of the affair, publicly, was an announcement in the news columns that he had ordered the book out of the course of study. Thus we gave him credit for the move.
In the meantime, however, I had discovered that two other objectionable texts were being used at the high school—David Saville Muzzey’s American History, and “Outlines of European History—Part II,” by Robinson and Beard. Muzzey’s book is socialistic, or pro-socialistic, and it is rankly unfair in its treatment of several subjects, in my opinion. The Robinson and Beard book had been thrown out of the Seattle schools in the summer of 1918 because of its pro-German taint. It was re-written twice during that summer by Professor James Harvey Robinson, according to the information given me by a representative of the publishers—Ginn and Company. Robinson is a more or less radical professor and Beard had been the subject of considerable adverse comment during the war.
We took the position that regardless of its text, a book by those men was not a fit volume to have in the hands of boys and girls. We held that Muzzey’s book condemned itself, as did Nearing’s.
And then Mr. Powell goes on to tell how the superintendent of schools sold these Nearing books second-hand, for use in schools in Indiana, price ten cents per copy. Mr. Powell was not complaining about this sacrifice price—quite the contrary, he thought the books should have been burned, and he says that “this sale turned public sentiment against the superintendent.” He does not tell us, but we are permitted to guess, that the Ottumwa “Courier” may have had something to do with the turning of public sentiment in the matter!
Another educator who is entitled to honorable mention is Professor Willis N. West, historian. I have told in “The Goose-step” how Professor West was kicked out by the Black Hand of the University of Minnesota. His admirable text-book on American history has been kicked out of schools in various parts of the country, because it tells the truth about the buying of state and national governments by the corporations. Mr. Ray McKaig tells me how the gang went after this history in Boise, Idaho. The Nonpartisan League being so strong, they did not dare attack the book on political grounds; but they discovered that Professor West described General Grant as a simple-minded soldier, and General Lee as a noble figure. They brought this to the attention of the G. A. R., and the old veterans attended to the matter!
I have before me a letter from Gilson Gardner, Washington correspondent of the Scripps newspapers, and a well-known liberal. Mr. Gardner tells his own experience as a writer of text-books: