In order to prevent the parents from having an effective voice, they have amended the constitution to read that there shall be “no interference with the administrative functions of the board of education”; so now, if there is anything they want to hush up, they simply call it “an administrative function of the board of education”! In order to keep the teachers from having any voice, they frequently call the business meetings at hours when the teachers are busy in classroom. One teacher who has spent something like thirty years in the system, tells me that he has never yet been able to attend a business meeting of the association in his school. The representatives of the school at these meetings are the principals and their office staff. The teachers pay one-third of the dues, they furnish the bulk of the program work—but they have nothing to say about policy.
“Politics” is strictly barred; but, as everywhere else throughout the system, this rule works only one way. The associations are forbidden to endorse any candidates; but during the recent election the “Times” announced that they had endorsed the candidates of the Black Hand—and when the “Times” says a thing, that thing might as well be true, because ninety-nine per cent of the public believes it. On another occasion these political women rushed through an endorsement of some of their judges, and Mrs. E. J. Quale, the press chairman, handed in her resignation in protest. The executive board accepted her resignation, but kept the fact out of the records and out of the newspapers—thus concealing Mrs. Quale’s protest from the membership.
“No politics in the P. T. A.” It was not “politics” when Harry Atwood, author of “Back to the Republic,” came to talk about the Constitution, and devoted nine-tenths of his time to attacking the initiative and referendum. The “politics” began when some one ventured to ask for a speaker who was known to favor the initiative. There is an executive committee for the purpose of controlling speakers, and no one could be permitted to speak unless his name had been approved by this committee.
The biggest issue in the state just now is that of public or private control of water power; the whole future depends upon this, and to keep the public in darkness concerning it is the one big purpose of the Black Hand, to which all other purposes are subordinated. So in this water power fight the control of the Parent-Teachers’ Association has been most clearly revealed. In the last election campaign the proposal to issue bonds for public development of water power was beaten by the corporations; subsequent investigation by the state legislature revealed the fact that the Southern California Edison Company, a private water power corporation, had contributed $107,605 to carry this campaign. They had paid $26,000 salary to a campaign manager, who had formed the “Women’s Committee of the Los Angeles Taxpayers Association.” He had a professional publicity agent, a woman, and “three or four other ladies who went around making speeches.” There was one item of $4,019 for “special literature,” signed with the name of the “Women’s Tax and Bond Study Club”—and this, according to the admission of the campaign manager, was for circulation among the Parent-Teachers’ Associations. During the campaign, the speakers for public ownership were barred; but now, by order of the superintendent, the Edison Company is taking its propaganda directly into the schools!
CHAPTER XI
LIES FOR CHILDREN
Needless to say, those who run this school machine for the Black Hand are vigilant to keep modern ideas from the children. They excluded the “Nation” and the “New Republic” from the high school libraries shortly after the war; and they have recently refused to rescind this action. There was a debate on the subject before the Friday Morning Club, a ladies’ organization, and Mrs. Chester C. Ashley, ex-member of the board of education, waved before the eyes of the horrified ladies the current issue of the “Nation,” June 6, 1923: let them inspect the cover and see what poison was prepared for the minds of their children:
UPTON SINCLAIR DEFENDS THE LAW
His Letter to the Law-breaking Chief of Police of Los Angeles
The Better America Federation picked out as its text-book of patriotism for the schools a work called “Vanishing Landmarks” by Leslie Shaw, ex-secretary of the treasury, a comical old Tory who glorifies the Constitution as a bulwark of special privilege. “Only Socialists, near Socialists, and Bolsheviki clamor for democracy,” declares Mr. Shaw; and he says it is wise for representatives of capital to be permitted to organize, and the only danger begins when federations of unions are formed. Incidentally he denounces, as part of the revolutionary program, the woman’s suffrage amendment! The Better America Federation spent twenty thousand dollars to put a copy of this book into the hands of every school teacher; they wanted it adopted as a text-book in all elementary schools—and this in a state where the women have had the ballot for twelve years! As one teacher remarked to me, the slogan, “Votes for Women,” is to be changed to “Lies for Children”!
For the Pilgrim Tri-Centennial the Better America Federation prepared a beautiful text-book for the schools, full of reactionary propaganda; this they gave away, and they had a list of eloquent orators, also to be given away. Then they produced a text-book “Back to the Republic,” by Harry Atwood, denouncing the initiative and referendum as treason to our forefathers. The publishers announce this as “The Outstanding Book of the Age,” and it was distributed to every teacher. Let me quote you a few of its theses: “Promiscuity, or free-love, is to the domestic world what democracy is to government.... What gluttony is to the individual, democracy is to government.... What drunkenness is to the individual, democracy is to government.... What discord is to music, democracy is to government.... What insanity is to thought, democracy is to government,” etc., etc. And understand, this in a text-book! Teachers were expected to compel little children to learn this by heart, and to recite it!