Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-07
EDUCATORS Of j. S.
CLOSE CONVENTION
Resolution Presented Defines
Attitude on Compulsory
Military Training.
DR.. R. J. Alley OF MAINE
NAMED FOR PRESIDENT
Assembly Stirred by Gen. Woods
Fighting Speech-Secretary
McAdoo Makes Address.

mCdQOO Makes duuTCSS.
NEW YORK, July Election of Of
ficers and taking of a vote defining
the attitude of the National Educa ton
Association on compulsory military
training in public and private schools
were the features of today's final ses-
sion of the annual convention of that
association.
DIR. Robert J. Alley, president of the
University of Maine, has been named
by the nominating committee for the
presidency.
The resolution on military training
presented today to the convention for
consideration recognizes that the COM
munity state may introduce such
elements of military training into the
school as may seem wise and prudent,
yet it tthe association believes that
such training should be strictly edu-
cational in its aim and organization,
and that military ends should not be
permitted to pervert the educational
purposes and practices of the school"
Woman Suffrage Is Approved.
A resolution was also reported fav-
oring woman suffrage.
Advocates of military training re-
ceived encourag ements on the eve of
the vote from an address delivered last
night BY Maj. Gen. Leonard wood. Criti-
cising the assertion that million men
would spring to arms between sun
rise and sunset, Gen. Wood said:
I'VE have been sitting up nights for
n
and it is a very heavy spring
Denying that the army or navy want
ed war, he declared. We want training
commenced in the minds of children so
that they will realize they owe every
thing to their country. We do not
want to make them braggards or
swashbucklers. but we want them
ready to discharge the military side
of their obligation"
Attacks Teachers Unions.
Teachers unions were attacked by
Jacob Loeb. president of the board of
education of Chicago, in address
here at a meeting of the department of
i schools administration. held in connec-
ton with the convention of the Ma
tional Education Association. Mrs
Ella Flagg Young. formerly superin-
tendent of sch 1ols of Chicago, answered
Mr.. Loeb in spirited defense of the
principle. She was down on the pro-
gram for speech on different sub
ject. but said she felt called upon to
reply to Mr. Loeb. after he had charac-
terized organizations of teachers as
making for divided allegiance.
breeding suspicion and discomfort. en-
courag inG class prejudice and engender-
ing class hatred.
Officials of school bos rds, Mrs. Young
said in a sharp rejoinder. would know
more about Sc hool affairs if they sent
their own children to the public schools
Instead of TO private schools. Teachers.
she added. have become workers in
mill and Co what they are told to do.
They join unions. she asserted, only
when they realize that the men in their
station are unwilling TO de anything
for them
Mr.. Loeb. whose board is said to have
dismissed fortythree teachers from
service in the Chicago schools a week
ago, said in part:
II have no quarrel with trades unions
properly conducted and in their proper
place, but a trades union in the public
school is intolerable. Teaching is not
a trade. 1t is Il profession. and one of
the noblest professions. In principle
and in practice trades unionism is in
consistent with and unnecessary to
professional career. In the schools 1t
makes for a divided allegiance, it
breeds suspicion and discomfort, 1t de-
stroys harmony and creates strife, it
interferes with discipline and halts eff
feiency."
Mrs. Young Takes Up the Gauntlet.
Mrs. Young. in replying. said
Almost all members on the board of
education have some powerful individ-
uai or club organization behind them.
They owe their position to these people.
and must maintain the policy of the or
ganization of the individual who put
them there. The public school teachers
throughout the country have not the
freedom to express their thoughts.
Il used to attend the meetings OF the
Chicago school board, and when the
teachers came before it. the members
sat there calmly. with immobile faces,
and when finally all had spoken. the
chairman asked If there were more to
speak. Then the smile that went round
that table-the teachers spoke, and the
result was nothing. Again they came
they met the same courteous reception
and the same dismissal. and the result
again was the same-nothing.
After awhile the teachers said: This
Is silly We are a great deal like the
suffragettes. We are sitting back
quietly. and take what is given us, and
of all things, must not show any
spirit, or any desire to push ourselves
waiting the women have said: We
have got to be more than weak walters
at the gate.
Schools as Pan-American Aids.
What the country's public schools
might do toward promoting pan-Amer-
icanisrn by teaching a proper concep-
tion of the political. economic and So
cIal development of Latin America was
outlined by william C. McAdoo. Secre-
tary of the Treasury in an address last
night He declared that upon the teach
ers lay the ultimate responsibility OF
making effective President Wilson S
policy Of securing amity and co-opera-
ton among the republics of the hemi-
sphere.
Il do not mean to criticize but simply
to record a fact" said Mr.. McAdoo
when / say that the public schools OF
the United States have not contributed
their full share toward intoxicating in
the youth of the country proper I'M
derst1nding of the political economic
and social development of our sister
republics. 1t is this lack of under
standing that has prevented the growth
of sufficiently enlightened public
opinion in the United States with ref
erence to Latin American affairs. II
is This absence of sympathetic cOmpre