davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-28

IF YOU were a child. let us say any
where between six and fifteen years
Of age, and you were sent to pub
lie school where, instead Of having to
sit all day facing one teacher in one
room monotonously roting the three
RS" you marched from room to room
as the session wore on, and varied this
with play or shopwork, or, If you were
a girl, with making a hat or sewing
do you think would Strike" against
such a system, as new-fangled as 1t
might appear to you at first?
Assuming that most children, even
in the crowded city Of New YORK, are
normal, your answer doubtless IS mo.
Rnt Won are wrong. There are in
greater New York thirty-three such
schools, and during the week OF Octoss
Der 10 to % they were the scenes OF
widespread and recurring demonstra-
tions by pupils. Children, big and mt
tie. STRUCK" and there was attendant
violence. with picketing and stone
throwing and window smashing, just
such incidents as not unusually accom-
pany labor strike.
Directed at first against the new
tangled schools-called by their frlenos
"work-study- play" schools and by tnelr
snsmies Cary" schools-the strike
spread, strangely enough, to the non
Gary. or old-line, institutions ana was
cbecked after a week only by the COM
bined efforts of the Police Department,
the Board of Education and the Bureau
~ Attendance. Never before IN New
York. or anywhere in the United states,
for that matter, have school children
launched such q rebellion.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-28
Boys Begin by
Breaking Windows

Next morning, when the school prin,,
cipal, Myron Wilson, arrived and stooo
surveying the broken glass, he was
confronted by delegation OF exclted
mothers. During the night word OF the
attack on the school had spread;
Mothers, fathers, children were warned
that for pupils to attend school would
be dangerous. There were children
around the school now, but not IN the
classrooms. Hooting, kissing and up
roarious, they surged about the be-
wildered principal, refusing to go INTO
their classes. Here and there an oider
boy appeared TO be leader, but manly
it was a crowd of kids, Jabbering ana
throwing things and caring very niue
what it was all about. The first anti
Gary strike was on. j.
That was early in the morning OF
Tuesday, October 16. Principal VIII.
son promptly notified the Board OF
Education and the police. and the bu-
reau Of Attendance. By mid-forenoon'
what with cajolery and threats and ar
gument, about half Of the schoois reg
istration of 300 was got inside; the
other half noisily retired to nearby
open lot and held council OF war.
Later about thousand OF these
came in.
Questioned as to why they. struck,
not a few Of the boys said they had
done so because the boys Of the High
School Of Commerce had been striking
Others spoke vaguely and parrot-like
of the evils Of the Gary system. Moth
ers, questioned, insisted stoutly, with
few exceptions, that fear of personal
violence to their children had caused
them either to keep them home or to
accompany them to school, to see what
all the trouble was about.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-28
Strike Reaches Bronx
And the East Side

The strike spread. While the centre
of the original disturbance-Schoo
171-remained in a state Of semi-re-
bellion, disaffection took hold OF three
schools in The Bronx-Nos. 81, % and
"a. Striking pupils marched and yelled
and hooted, some bearing crudely
printed banners and cardboard slogans.
Down with Mitchell" some of these
proclaimed. Down with the Gerry
1sic) system!" Those who read were
admonished to vote for both Hylan
and Hillquit. Not on the same banner,
Of course. But the merits OF each
candidate were variously proclaimed.
From The Bronx the strike spread to
the lower East Side, to monetary
schools; from the East Side to tho
Williamsburg section Of Brooklyn and
to East New York. On Friday, October
10, it attained its high tide, when
nearly twenty schools and possibly
thirty thousand pupils were affected.
The Board of Education and the
Bureau of Attendance had become now
strike breaking headquarters. Fortu-
nately. there interviewed the Saturday
holiday, a period during which all
agencies trying to break the strike had
opportunity to perfect and coordinate
their machinery. By Monday, October
%, district superintendents were pa
trolling the affected districts in auto
mobiles, cooperating with the police
and attendance officers, and this circu-
lar had been sent by the Department
of Education to every public school
principal:
To the Principal Of Public School -
Borough OF -
Dear Sir Tor Madsu)-In case Of trouble
on Monday or thereafter next week. rela-
tive 10 disturbances in schools and on the
streets. you are directed TO follow these
instructions:
ATTENDANCE OFFICERS will be held
in reserve in the following places. In case
o, need telephone the centre at your school
Here followed list Of six centres
In Manhattan, The Bronx and Brook
Ign. Then:
POLICE will be furnished 10 any num-
be- needed Telephone nearest police StA-
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-28
Mothers Oppose So Much Shop Work
And Need for Getting Extra Meals

That due to the change Of teach
/ ers every fifty minutes, the indi-
vidual interest of teacher in her
pupils has disappeared. Furthermore,
changing from room to room SO fire.
quently precludes concentration, and
the children's progress is
retarded.
1-That there Is an unnecessary
Z waste Of time In occupations other
than class work. Children
O-That in the winter time II is
y dangerous for the children to wait
in the cold outside the school
until the ciassrooms are emptled.
<-That no distinction is made be-
r tween weak and strong children;
that many children with weak
hearts have been injured through hav-
ing to climb up and down stairs every
fifty minutes when the period is
changed.
THAT children must carry their
wraps and books with them from
~ classroom to classroom. This is
inconvenient at all times and menace
to health in wet weather.
THAT the meal hours are incon-
~ venient for the mothers in fami-
" lies where there is more than one
child.
THAT when children are tardy in
I arriving at school, for whatever
reason, they are kept until very
late in the afternoon.
O-That the school day is too long
- under the Gary system.
Mrs. Alexander Bruno, l41 st. Anne's
Avenue, has nine children.
my family keeps me working every
minute with that Gary SYSTEM" she
said. 81 don't want to make any I'M
necessary complaint, but it seems my
whole life is spent in getting meals
for the children, who all come home at
different times"
In the same house lives Mrs. Thomas
Madden, mother of eight.
"The Gary system is hard on par
ents, children and the teachers, too
she declared. "The children must be
out of the house by $40 o'clock every
morning, or else they complain they
are late, and are kept in until 4:30
o'clock. They come home to lunch at
11:10, and they have to be fed and
started back again before IL o'clock.
have two boys who work, and they come
home at IL o'clock, too. for lunch.
Before the Gary system was used
the children had the same teacher ell
day and learned something. Now they
change teachers every hour, and the
children don't learn so much"
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-28
ADVANCE WARNING GIVEN OF RIOTS
PARENTS SCHOOL BETTERMENT LEAGUE
o.
exxcunr I'M
o-~ uuOfyvr sesxKrssf
OUs ~
WANING.
October IL, 1917.

Parents Mothers Circles and other organ"
having protection and the OF
that thru resolution
adopted Meeting Board Of Hdusttons yesterday
afternoon October loth in tho appontuent Of
Publicity conitte tho Board Of Hducstion fntonde
meetings FOR tho
trying Mitchell from parents By giving
exposition Of the sWtchsl-haxs-
tho gufse Of the 'eay System
Intention net permit psrss or Parents Aseo
Citations either to their "pfan It 10
to fool the gallble and to
proper dsncato hearing d both sides OF the
oases
You sre insist rights Assrican
citizens to have Do spB presented that
nay not oscoss prsadicd accept partisan
false or .iIsains opposition this mitchell
undo saarys.
to the parents side
dsermned opposition This Is likely
trouble riot and disorder and It s
duty all disorder
With dignity calmness and deternn-
a that he schools and that
heard question that affects hen
Will supplied
you desire tou,h With
Win Aid in possible for Right
Justice, IAs and crder.J
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-28
Certain Findings Are
Unomcially Reported

These measures broke the strike. By
Tuesday last conditions were assuming
the normal. The signed statements Of
the striking children were not avail
able rs this was written, but the Blu
reau Of Attendance, after it's examina-
ton CT more than a thousand children
and parents, reported unofiicially these
findings:
THE strikers were almost without
exception Jews.
N-Both Socialist and Tammany anti
= Gary literature was found on the
strikers and parents.
= The original strike at School III,
y Manhattan. was stimulated. if not
directly caused, by propaganda.
Tammany led in this, but oddly
enough the school is embraced in the
Twentieth Congressional District,
where Hillquit was so narrowly de-
feated by Isaac Siegel last November.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-28
Attacks "Militarism'
In Public Schools

It will not be necessary to quote all
the circular. These paragraphs will
give an idea of its import:
"The Mitchell administration has black
school record. Members OF the Board OF
Education were appointed by the Mayor
only after pledging them to support milf
tary training in the schools and the Gary
plan. Two of his appointees were en-
ployes Of the Rockefeller Foundation. The
Board Of Education has been subordinated
20 the Board of Estimate and Apportisn-
ment. Mayor Mitchell has sacrificed the
welfare OF the children and of the teachers
Of the city to the interests and the profits
Of the classes whose puppet he is.
Even militaristic Germany has no mill
tary training in its schools those teachers
who favor universal military service find
no excuse for the futile and perverting
military training Of young children. The
National Education Association has year
after year protested against it.
The Gary plan, imported from the city
Of the Steel Trust and promoted by the
Rockefeller Foundation. has been adopted
by Mayor Mitcheis personal School Board
10 save the cost Of building school. and
paying teachers. There are those who have
the more sinister motives Of making re-
ligious instruction in the churches part Of
the school work and OF limiting the OPP
portunities Of the children Of the workers
Germany"
Nowhere does the foregoing say any.
thing about rioting, as did the pro-
nouncement Of the Parents School Bet.
terment League" but II did something
else. 1t very adroitly linked the still
smoulderlng high school rebellion over
that extra hour for military training
with the Gary issue, with which it has
nothing whatsoever to do. By the Gary
system, coincidentslly, the school day
for one of the divisions-that is to say
for the pupils Of one Of the duplicate
sehools-is one hour longer than in the
old-line schools.
Imagine now the talk and rumor and
counter rumor on the East Side and in
Harlem end The Bronx among families
who received these circulars, Children
began to talk and TO believe all sorts
Of preposterous nonsense. Pupils in
the Gary schools, so the gossip ran,
were put to making articles useful
for the Steel Trust High school boys
wereI going to be trained for soldiers
and then drafted. These and other
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-28
Cattell Conducts
Socialist Drive

Meanwhile, what were the Socialists
doing? Mr.. Hillquit was still devoting
part of his speeches to the school
issue, but was he suggesting any
strike? He was not. Nor were his
supporters and subordinate orators, at
least not in any set speeches by any
one who could be catalogued as Off
cially representing the Socialist party.
But Socialist headquarters, at East
Fifteenth Street, was not allowing the
school issue to be neglected. An able
scholar with a national reputation was
keeping it alive. He was and is DR..
j. McKeen Cattell, until recently OF the
Columbia faculty and psychologist OF
note. Columbia dropped him for what
may be charitably described as ultra.
pacifism. He has one son "over there,
but another son Owen, who has had his
name in the newspapers as draft re-
sister, makes his headquarters with his
father at East Fifteenth Street,
Possibly, because he is a psycholo-
gist and should know the minds Of men
and children, Professor Cattell was
eelected to conduct the Socialist school
drive In any event, his name is at
| tached TO this, as sent out from 90
cialist headquarters:
IN I am willing 70 become q member OF
The Hillquit Non-Partisan COMMITTEES OF one
! Thousand for the Children Of New York City
and their Schools.
! C2l I do not wish 10 become a member Of
the Committee, but I am interested In 1t:
objects.
| Erase Q) or ~
| Name 'ss.'.'...'.'.''s'''
| Aoorecs ..s..sss'' .'s'. l''..
The following might be interested 10 tn,
work Of the Committee:
Names may be continued on the reverse
side.
Please return to J. McKeen Catteil. z Eas'
Fifteenth Street.
Accompanying this feeler was four
page document, captioned thusi
HILLQUIT N0N-PARTlSAN COMMIT
TEE OF ONE THOUSAND
FOR THE CHILDREN OF NEW YORK
AND THEIR SCHOOLS
FOR HILLQUIT-F0R THE SCHOOLS
FOR THE CHILDREN
Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04
WE SHOULD PROTEST.
By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.

To sit in silence when we should pro-
test
Makes towards out of men. The hu-
man race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice
been raised
Against injustice, ignorance and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the
law,
And guillotines decide our least dis
putes.
The few who dare must speak and
speak again
To right the wrongs of many. Speech,
No vested power in this great day and
land
Can gag or throttle. Press and voice
may cry
Loud disapproval Of existing ills;
May criticize oppression and condemn
The lawlessness Of wealth-protecting
laws
That let the children and child-bearers
toll
To purchase ease for idle millionaires.
Therefore, | do protest against the
boast
OF independence in this mighty land.
Call no chain strong which holds one
Call no land free that holds one fet-
tered slave.
Until the manacled slim wrists of
babes
Are loosed to toss in childish sport and
glee;
Until the mother bears no burden.
save
The precious one beneath her heart;
until
Gods soil is rescued from the clutch
of greed.
And given back to labor, let no man
Call this the land of freedom.
Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04
THE PRICE THE SCAB MUST PAY
He hast a
By JANE WHITAKER,
Correspondent for the Chicago

A "scab" is a creature over whom
men and angels weep-a human being
without self-respect.
"Scab!" There is no word in the
English language SO fraught with
hatred as this one word, when it is
used by strikers against strikebreak-
ers. Girls cry it with tears of rage in
their eyes, and every primitive in
stinct aroused against the man or
woman who is jeopardizing their fight
for better working conditions. Men
cry it with all the unleashed passion
Of their natures urging them to wage
cave warfare.
II you ask them just what is
"scab," you always get an answer like
this: "A lowdown fink who is taking
our jobs" "a gutter bum that's scab-
bing on the job and sucking in with
the boss" or even some unprintable
definition, but always from the same
angle-what the "scab" does to the
worker.
The thing you never get and which
has always seemed to me to be Of SO
much more Importance is what the
"scab" is to herself or himself.
A few years ago l had occasion to
talk to the wife of a man who re-
mained working while the rest of his
shop went on a strike for better con-
ditions.
His two children, both of them old
enough to realize the word that was
being called their father, sat in the
Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04

room with the mother as she talked,
and while her eyes were bright with
defiance, the boy looked down at the
pattern of the carpet and the girl
looked out of the window.
81 told my man to work." the wom-
an said, defantly. 81 told him we
amt got no time for strikes. He'd
been out of work for months before
he got this job, and me and the chill
dren need the money. We got bills to
pay"
Her voice was hard. She talked fe-
verishly. She said too much. She
realized she was the wife of a man
who was traitor to his class, and tho
she had urged him on, tho she justified
him then. she was tasting the bitter
ness of loss of self-respect And the
children were tasting it with her. They
would never be proud of their father
again, for he wore the brand of a
traitor and they would not be able to
forget it.
The loss of the respect of others is
a terrible price to pay, but it is little
beside the loss of ones self-respect.
One may get away from the others;
one cannot get away from ones self.
Judas, who betrayed his Master, hung
himself to escape his conscience. There
is always the "still, small voice" to
taunt; there is always the sense of
shame that only the traitor knows.
II the fight is lost, his is the con-
sciousness that he helped to defeat
Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04

the workers who fought, and the in
dustriai slavery that binds itself still
more tightly about the mass was
If the fight is won, he has no part
make the fight success.
receiving the gratitude of the bosses
for whom he betrayed his class. The
briber has naught but contempt for
the worker who will sell out his class.
need of him has gone.
"Scabs" they start, and what do
they finish? You will get your answer
in front of some of the shops today
where men who bear on their faces
the brand of failure, and, more-the
look of a traitor-are earning few
dollars a day hired out to the bosses
to slug men and women clothing strik-
ers. These sluggers are the f1otsam
and jetsam today. They are the men
who began as traitors to their class
and today have no class to which to
return.
They haven't the respect of the
bosses; they haven't even the respect
of the coppers, and they have the
hatred of the class to which they once
belonged.
If / were asked for definition of a
"scab," / would not give the one the
majority of the workers give. l would
say 'scab is a creature over whom
men and angels must weep-a human
being without self-respect."
Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04

the man who has been arraigned be-
fore them.
In very recent years men with more
cleverness than scruple have used or
ganized scandal to accomplish business
and political ends.
There has been one recent public
instance of an attack on high public
officer who was doing his best for the
people, for the whole country-an at
tack made indirectly, but which was
nevertheless calculated to do him and
his policies injury.
1t happened that this particular at
tack failed, but it is quite possible for
others to be set on foot that will not
fail. The weed seeds of suspicion find
far more fertile soil in the human
mind than the grain seeds of good
report
Scandalmongers there will always
be, and their possibility for harm Will
always be great. There is but one way
Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04
MAN FROM THE CROWD.

Men seem as alike as the leaves on
the trees,
As alike as the bees in a swarming of
bees;
And we look at the millions that make
the state
All equally little-and equally great,
And the pride of our courage is
cowed.
Then Fate calls for n man who is larg-
er than men
There's a surge in the crowd-there's
movement-and then
There arises man who is larger than
men
And the man comes up from the
crowd.
The chasers of trifles run hither and
yon,
And the little, small days of small
things still go on,
And the world seems no better at sun
set than dawn,
And the race still increases its plenti-
full spawn.
And the voice of our wailing is loud.
Then the Great Deed calls out for the
Great Man to come
And the crowd. unbelieving, sits silent
and dumb
But the Great Deed is done, for the
Great Man is come
Aye-the man comes up from the
crowd.
Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04

to render them less dangerous, and
that is to pay no attention to them
Without publicity evil will flourish
Whenever there is cause for suspicion,
it is a public duty to clear it up. The
method of investigation employed
when public men happen to be suspect
ed is good as far as it goes. 1t is
seldom thoro enough.
But TO credit every evil story of
mans public or private derelictions,
without a shadow of foundation, is
merely to keep in the hands of the
most wretched of all human beings the
weapons with which they can destroy
their betters, and against which honest
men and women have no defense.
Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04
CRUSHING POWER OF SCANDAL

OF all the evil products of malice,
scandal is the greatest and most dam
gerous. 1t finds fertile soil in the hu-
man mind. Its innocent victims have
no weapons against it. AS long as
men more willingly believe evil than
good of their neighbors, it will con-
tinue to be a blasting force of harm
among human beings
II is easy to suspect. In our law
courts we proceed on the theory that a
man should be believed innocent until
he is proved guilty. As a matter of
fact, the majority of people believe
him guilty until he proves himself
innocent.
The voice of scandal never lacks for
an audience. Stand on the street cor
ner and praise man or woman, and
you will have no hearers. Stand on
the same corner and assail somebody,
make charges, insinuations, innuen-
does, and people will crowd to hear
you.
Caesars wife, we are told. was
above suspicion. But Caesars wife
had despot for husband, and it
was extremely dangerous for anybody
to suspect her publicly.
Today nobody is above suspicion.
.NooodH 10 peNo NAe lSaSii VI sSail-
dal.
House of Reputation.
We remember at one time of having
seen a cartoon showing man pain
fully and laboriously building a house
the house of reputation. The house
represented the work of his lifetime.
His thought and toll and hope had
entered into its construction.
The house was beside n mountain
and from it was thrust heavy boul-
der-the boulder was known as scan
dal. When this vast boulder of scan
dal was let loose the house was utterly
crushed, and its builder, standing be-
side it, was helpless to forestall its
ruin.
Nothing is easier than to put scan
dalous stories into circulation. Moth
ing is harder than to stop them, once
they have started on their devastating
course.
Something in the human mind, some
mysterious survival of the old days
when greed and evil were dominant
human traits, prompts men and women
to credit every scandal that comes to
their ears.
1t makes little difference who is the
subject of such story. The man
who has sought all his life to live cor
rectly and honestly has no armor
against scandal.
His right living is interpreted as
hypocrisy. His honesty is looked upon
as cover for secretly practised vii
lainies.
Easy to Say.
1t is easy to counsel young men and
women to avoid the appearance of
evil. 1t is easy to say that he who cul-
tivates character need have no fear
for his reputation.
But even preachers of these plati-
tudes know that they are not true. AS
long as scandalmongers exist repu-
tations can be shattered over night, no
matter how honestly and how toilfully
they have been acquired.
Many are the ways. Of starting evil
reports, and many are the sorts of
people who engage in this scoundrelly
business.
One of the penalties Of real achieve
ment is the breeding Of envy in the un-
successful. It is curious fact that
successful man, no matter how he
has accomplished his success, finds
himself hated by many people who