One man, an athlete and debater at college said to me: “I think the plan is a failure.” “Will you say so when you are asked?” I inquired. “I think the administration will not look kindly on anyone who does,” he replied. “But do you, a man, mean to tell me that you will not say what you think?” His rejoinder was that he did not want to be thought a “knocker.” What can be expected when such things prevail? Before the war it was considered uneducation to make large classes: the big men now demand “economy,” and force election of administrators pledged to guarantee it. These administrators, instead of saying to the people: “We are doing a reactionary thing,” declare: “We are now, by new schemes of efficiency, getting one teacher to do the work of two; and the teachers like it—as witness So-and-so!”
CHAPTER XXXVIII
NEWBERRY PIE
Next we visit Detroit, headquarters of our automobile industry, where we find the usual struggle to hold down union labor, and the usual school board of business men and politicians, engaged in protecting the interests of their crowd. I sat chatting with a group of newspaper reporters, one of whom has been specializing in school affairs for many years. “I suppose you have the regular school board graft,” I remarked; and he hesitated: “No, I wouldn’t say there was much graft.” “Well,” said I, “you have a committee which selects sites for the schools; do you mean to say the members of this committee haven’t relatives and friends among the big real estate speculators, who want the schools in the neighborhood of their subdivisions?” The reporter looked at the rest of the company and grinned. “Oh, the dirty son-of-a-gun, he’s right on to the whole thing!”
He went on to explain—of course they had that, but nobody would call that graft in Detroit. It was in the power of the school board to make the city grow any way it desired; there were thousands of people forced to live in the suburbs, because rents everywhere else were too high, and in making up their minds which district to go to, the first thing they thought of was the nearness of a school. Then I went on to ask about text-books, and the first detail to come out was that the principal of the Northern High School of Detroit had written a text-book on English literature, and the superintendent had been unable to refuse it, because the principal was so “well connected.” “Is it a good book?” I asked, and an educator replied: “It is one of the rottenest in the world!”
Another friend tells me about some school board meetings which he attended. There was a long and intricate discussion of the kind of pipe which should be used for school buildings. One board member was keen for iron pipe, another board member was keen for steel pipe. That bankers and lawyers and dentists and club ladies should know so much about the technicalities of building materials was puzzling to my friend. Some kind of conclusion was arrived at, and then two weeks later he went back, and attended another board meeting, and lo and behold, they were threshing out the question all over again! Said my friend to a reporter: “Aren’t there any other questions connected with Detroit education but what kind of pipe they have in their buildings?” The answer was: “Simpleton! One of these board members has a friend who would like to sell iron pipe, and another of the members has a friend who would like to sell steel pipe.”
The connections of Big Business with the schools are so intimate in Detroit that they are almost humorous. We have seen the American Book Company operating in Minneapolis, and we now find that in Detroit its president, A. V. Barnes, is the brother-in-law of Truman H. Newberry, ex-secretary of the navy and ex-senator from Michigan.[[H]] We shall, before we finish, see the American Book Company engaged in corrupting school officials and making away with school money in every section of the United States. Now we discover that several hundred thousand dollars of the money thus made away with was used by Newberry and his gang to buy a seat in the United State Senate.
[H]. In “The Goose-step” Mr. A. V. Barnes was erroneously stated to be the father-in-law of Truman H. Newberry; and thereby hangs an amusing anecdote. The Detroit “Times” wished to reprint the chapter dealing with the University of Michigan, and in order to make sure of the facts they sent the book to Judge Murfin, regent of the university, and friend and attorney for the Barnes-Newberry family. Judge Murfin sent back his comments with the statement that “Mr. Barnes is not the father-in-law of Mr. Newberry.” Just that and nothing more; you see what a clever family lawyer the judge is! But someone on the “Times” was suspicious, and wrote again, saying that in order to be perfectly fair it would be necessary for Judge Murfin to state if there was any relationship at all between Barnes and Newberry, and if so, what the relationship was. By this means Judge Murfin was persuaded to admit that Barnes is Newberry’s brother-in-law!
As a rule, when these high-up grafters purchase a political title they wear it with honor and glory the rest of their days; but it happened in this case that Newberry’s opponent was Henry Ford, who has money enough to have some rights, even in America. When Mr. Ford visited my home two or three years ago, he told me that he had some two hundred men at work investigating these election frauds, and he did not mean to quit until he had got Newberry out of the Senate. He kept his word; but all through the struggle the defense of Newberry was the first task of the gang in Michigan—and this including the school machine. Mrs. Otto Marckwardt, an instructor of swimming in the Detroit schools, and wife of a professor at the University of Michigan, was so indiscreet as to answer the questions of a pupil about the Newberry affair, and for this she was turned out of her position. How this could happen you will understand when I explain that Mr. Frank Cody, superintendent of schools in Detroit, has a brother, Fred Cody, who was Newberry’s most active henchman, and was convicted of election frauds along with Newberry. The cycle becomes comically complete when we learn that Fred Cody is agent for the American Book Company, whose president is Newberry’s brother-in-law!