THE SCHOOLS OF THE “TIMES”
Naturally, we have to begin with the “Times”; and at the very outset, to
show you what the “Times” wants from our schools, I narrate the
experience of Mr. M. C. Bettinger, until recently a member of the board
of education, and for thirty-eight years connected with the educational
system of Los Angeles. In the year 1906 Mr. Bettinger happened to be in
the office of Superintendent Foshay, when that gentleman was packing up
his belongings and preparing to retire from his job. He took out of his
desk a bale of papers two inches thick, fastened with a rubber-band.
“Thank God,” he said, “at least I don’t have to pay any more tribute to
the ‘Times.’ These are receipts for money which I’ve had to pay to that
paper upon one pretext or another for the past eleven years!”
Or consider the experience of Dr. E. C. Moore, who succeeded Mr. Foshay
as superintendent. In the year 1907 the National Education Association
held its convention in Los Angeles, and in the guide-book prepared for
it was an article by General Otis, publisher of the “Times,” denouncing
union labor. Dr. Moore had the courage to cut out these passages, and
for this General Otis set out to “get” him, and in due course did so.
Dr. Moore’s blunder was that at Christmas time he sent out an order to
the principals of schools to be guarded in their proceedings so as not
to give offense to any class of people. This was a routine notice, its
significance being that Jewish children should not be compelled to take
part in religious ceremonials obnoxious to their faith. But Otis saw in
it his opportunity; Superintendent Moore was attacking the Christian
religion and undermining the basis of all morality! Should such a man
remain superintendent of the educational system of a Christian
community? The “Times” printed literally pages of attacks upon this
basis, interviews with clergymen and parents, and reports of sermons
denouncing Dr. Moore, who was thus forced to move on to Yale University.
Next came John H. Francis, and he had a wonderful idea. He was going to
have junior high schools all over the city, and the youngsters were to
have stenography and typewriting and bookkeeping and manual
training—perfect little clerks and shop foremen turned out in two or
three years! Francis was a man with a passion for education, a wonderful
platform orator; he got his junior high schools, and the fame of them
spread all over the United States. But they cost a pile of money, and
they didn’t perform the wonders which the business men had hoped for;
instead, they got the youngsters interested in music and art and
dramatics and debating—and got them organized, so that you couldn’t take
these things away from them without a riot! So the Black Hand lost all
their enthusiasm for Superintendent Francis, and they tried on him their
favorite device of the detective agency and the woman scandal. Recall my
statement that the big private detective agencies form an important part
of the educational system of the United States!
The president of the board, who was elected to oust Superintendent
Francis, was Judge Walter Bordwell, before whom Clarence Darrow was
tried. Bordwell was a flabby and repulsive looking man, with the manners
of an Irish section-boss; he was a relative of Chandler, and a pet of
the “Times.” In 1918, shortly after ousting Francis, Bordwell became the
“Times’” candidate for governor; and, as part of his campaign, an
assistant superintendent of schools sent a letter to teachers asking
them to vote for the Judge. The name of this assistant is Mrs. Susan
Dorsey, and I ask you to remember her, because a little later we shall
find her rewarded for her fidelity by being made superintendent of
schools; we shall find the teachers of Los Angeles presuming to go into
politics in the interest of the schools—and Mrs. Dorsey insisting that
politics must be rigidly excluded from the system!
Along with Judge Bordwell was elected Mr. Washburn, ex-banker, whose one
idea of school administration was to keep down the taxes; Mrs. Waters,
the widow of a bank president; and Colonel Andrew Copp, an officer in
the state militia. Mr. Bettinger, at that time assistant superintendent,
tells me anecdotes which show the attitude of these people toward
education. “We don’t want you to come here with opinions,” said Mrs.
Waters; “we want you to obey orders.” And in almost the same words
Colonel Copp addressed a delegation of teachers who came to him to
complain of inability to get supplies. “Don’t come here with your views
of things,” stormed the Colonel; “what we want you to do is to do what
you’re told.”
In the course of discussion before a board Committee, Mr. Bettinger made
so bold as to give his definition of education: “to aid in the
unfoldment of a human mind.” Colonel Copp was so furious that he was
hardly able to keep still until Mr. Bettinger finished. “Education?” he
cried. “I’ll tell you what education is! Education is getting a lot of
young people into a room, teaching them a lesson out of a book, hearing
them recite it, putting down a mark in figures, and at the end of the
year that’s their record. That’s what education is, and we are going to
have that and nothing else in Los Angeles.”
Judge Bordwell had gone to New York to put the problem of the Los
Angeles schools before the great mogul of plutocratic education,
President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia. He came back with Albert
Shiels, a product of Butler’s educational enameling machine, who was to
make a survey. Shiels was an accountant, not an educator; also, under
the charter of the city, he was ineligible for superintendent, not
having lived a year in the state. But a little thing like a charter
provision would not be allowed to block the will of Judge Bordwell. Dr.
Shiels was made superintendent and started publishing anti-Bolshevik
propaganda in the teachers’ paper, and circularizing the teachers with
such literature. He published in President Butler’s “Educational Review”
an article assailing the Soviet government, which article contained no
less than one hundred and twenty-four misstatements of fact. Challenged
to debate this issue, Dr. Shiels wrote to me: “I believe it is contrary
to good public policy to place Bolshevism and its practices on a par
with debatable questions.”
But Dr. Shiels soon became disgusted with the crudity of his political
masters, and went back to New York to take up a pleasanter job for
Nicholas Miraculous. The new president of the school board, a banker and
perfect plutocrat by the name of Lynn Helm, selected an assistant
superintendent, formerly a teacher of Latin and Greek, as the new boss
of the schools. He stated as his reason that he knew she was “safe”; and
time has proven that he was a good judge of employes. Mrs. Susan M.
Dorsey rules the system as I write, and you will have a chance to watch
her in action. For the moment it may suffice to record that for thirty
years she has been a member of the Baptist Temple, Reverend J. Whitcomb
Brougher, pastor. When “Billy” Sunday came to Los Angeles, some people
found fault with him, and Rev. Brougher rushed to his defense,
describing Sunday’s critics in the following highly educational
language:
The dirty, low-down, contemptible, weazen-brained, impure-hearted,
shrivelled-souled, gossiping devils do not deserve to be noticed....
Scandal-mongers, gossip-lovers, reputation-destroyers, hypocritical,
black-hearted, green-eyed slanderers.... Corrupt, devil-possessed,
vile debauchés.... Immoral, sin-loving, vice-practicing, underhanded
sneaks.... Carrion-loving buzzards and foul-smelling skunks.
If anyone wishes to take charge of one hundred and seventy-six thousand
school children under the Black Hand, he may learn from this how to
train himself; for better remembering, I have put the directions into a
poem:
Five days in the week
Teach Latin and Greek;
On Sundays, an hour,
Go listen to Brougher;
And seven days weekly
Obey Mammon meekly.