The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-09-16
NC ANDREW ASKS
MILITARIzATI0N
OF The SCHOOLS
Plea Follows Victory of
School Teachers

A complete "militarization" of the
school system, with the superintendent
in supreme control, was the demand
which superintendent McAndrew
madein an address at the Art Institute
to the principals and district superin-
tendents of-Chicago's schools.
McAndrew's plea for greater author
ity followed the clear-cut victory
which the organized teachers. whom
he is fighting, gained by the refusal
of the committee on rules to accept
his report, recommending the amend
ment of the rules of the teachers
councils in such a way that he can
call them out of school hours, and
can reorganize them so as to include
officials of the school system.
He Won't Be Bossed.
"a former superintendent clothes
do not fit me-" said McAndrew. 81
do not propose to be bossed by the
teachers.
The former superintendent refereed
to is Peter A. Mortenson. who was
heartily applauded by hundreds of
school teachers when he appeared be-
fore the committee on rules to deny
McAndrew's assertion that he, too,
had been opposed to the calling teach
ers' councils on school time.
81 did say that the schools have too
la1a 10
sary Interruptions" said Mortenson.
81 did not say that teachers councils
should be dispensed with in school
time. The teachers councils have
been very valuable, and more than
justify the few hours which they con
sumo"
Power All by Himself.
With the open declaration of Nc
Andrew that he does not think the
10000 teachers of Chicago worthy of
giving him advice, the breach between
the militant teachers and the Chamber
of Commerce superintendent becomes
wider. On one side there are the
teachers, organized in the teachers
councils, a few members of the school
board, and the Chicago Teachers Fed
Grafton, which has now come out
squarely against McAndrew. On the
other side stands McAndrew, backed
up by the rest of the school board,
notably Charles M. Moderwell, presi-
dent of the board and director of scab
mines in West Virginia.
Moderwell, who is a member of the
committee on rules, voted consistently
against the teachers and for Mean
drew during the course of the hear.
ing on Saturday.
In spite of the stand of Moderwell
McAndrew received such a sound
at the hands of the commit
tee that he was forced to leave the
building before the meeting was over.
"An act quite in line with his usual
discourtesy and lack of tact" was the
comment of j. Lewis Coath, another
member.
The militant stand of Margaret Ha-
ley, business agent for the Teachers
Federation, in fighting McAndrew dur
ing the committee hearings, was unan-
approved by the Federation
at its meeting on Saturday. To prove
her contention that teachers who dare
to complain against the action of the
are severely penalized,
Miss Haley cited the case of Catherine
Baird, teacher who was thrown out
Of a job in the Junior high schools,
and frankly told that a speech which
she had made before the administra-
ton committee, complaining Of the lack
Of cooperation between superintend-
ents and teachers, was responsible.
A fight is expected in the near fu-
ture on McAndrew's proposition to the
committee on rules that an old law
be re-enacted forbidding the sending
of notices to teachers without the APP
prevail of the superintendent.
Teachers should in this respect be
subject to the same restrictions as the
is the way in which Mean
drew phrases it.
That the victory which the teachers
have now gained over McAndrew is
more than legal victory. and
that it must be followed up by militant
aggression so that the rules will be
is the substance OF a warn.
ing sounded by Margaret Haley to the
teachers organized in the councils,
II is understood that further aggres.
sion on the part of McAndrew will
follow.