CORPORATION HAND ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS
SHOWN AT GOGGIN MEMORIAL MEETING
Margaret A. Haley, business repre
sentative of the Chicago Teachers'
Federation, and Prof. Scott Nearing
of the University of Toledo were
speakers last night at a meeting in
the Auditorium hotel, the first of a
series aimed at presenting the facts
of the public school controversy.
Prof. Nearing quoted from a re
cent survey that "of 967 members
of the boards of education in many
cities 7 per cent were women, about
5 pe'r cent represented the employed
classes and nearly 90 per cent were
representatives of business. Six
sevenths of the population of Chicago
are wage earners and they practical
ly are unrepresented on the board: of
education."
The dropping of 68 teachers last
June was done under orders from
Jake Loeb, president of the school
board, "without notice to one of
them, without giving them a chance
to be heard or without explanation,"
according to Miss Haley, who said he
did it "to intimidate the 7,800 teach
ers, to notify them the board of ed
ucation did not want collective ac
tivity or any organized effort on the
part of the teaching body."
She quoted Speaker Dave Shan
ahan of the state legislature as tell
ing the teachers' federation at
Springfield a few years ago: "When
you teachers stayed in the sc.hool
room we took care of you, but when
you come out and attack the great
corporations you must expect them
to hit back."
Edwin G. Cooley, former sup't of
schools, was quoted as telling a
delegation of teachers who were at
tacking tax-dodging corporations:
"You teachers should not attack the
corporations for the corporations in
turn will Injure the teachers and
damage the schools."
Sjhe quoted figures on the" millions
-of dollars in taxes forced from t$
corporatlon b$ suits of the Teach
ers' Federation and explained that
salary raises were impossible until
the teachers had thus replenished the
public treasury.
"Dr. Emil G. Hirsch told me only
recently," obntinued Miss Haley,
"that he once asked Dr. William
Rainey Harper how he could expect;
to hold professors at the meager sal-,
ary of $1,200 a year, and that Dr.
Harper replied that for ev$ry pro
fessor who left because of the sal
ary he could get six others who were
willing to take the place for $600.
"Soon after the late Charles
Ffrench was appointed to the board
he was invited by Dudley Taylor, at
torney for the Employers ass'n, to
meet Jacob Loeb at a certain res
taurant Mr. Ffrench went, but in
stead of finding Mr Loeb there he
found Mr. Taylor and a former mem
ber of the board (William Roth
mann), who has been one of the
leaders in the fight on the federation.
There they tried to poison the mind
of Mr. Ffrench by telling him the
salaries of the teachers were too
high.
"Big business is not going to per
mit the existence of a school system
h which endangers the ground on
which it stands. The blow has been
struck here because Chicago has
been the leader in the fight by the
teachers for the freedom of the chil
4ren.
"Big busirss demands that the
schools prepare the children for the
industries, and the Chicago teachers
replied fearlessly: 'If we must pre
pare the children for the industries,
then we demand that you prepare the
industries for the children.' '
Expenses of these meetings are to
be paid for out of the Catherine Gog
gin Memorial Fund under the theory
that Miss Goggin would rather have
the people of Chicago fully informed
on what the Chicago Teachers,' Fed
eration stands for than to have
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