The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-03-13
Workers Education at the Turning Point

before the conference was over, there
was not the shadow of doubt but
that the majority of those present &C.
cept the view that workers education
must be controlled and financed by
the workers and must serve their
class interests, altho there was wide
difference Of opinion as to what these |
class interests really are.
But the question which dominated I
the conference and gave to the often |
futile discussions a vague background |
of historic bigness, was the question |
of how to defend workers education
from the enveloping movement which
had been begun by the powerful Car
negie Corporation.
Again and again vague references
we're made to the question OF taking |
money from the enemies of labor"
but always in such a way as to leave
the uninitiated in doubt as to whether
this was really a vital question that
had to be decided then and there, or
whether it was an abstract theoreti-
cal discussion ON the principle OF
financing workers education. But, as
the conference continued, the in
creased repetition of these references,
in always more and more definite
forms. gradually made it clear that
the speakers were bothered by liv-
ing reality, by a danger which threat
ened the very life of the labor move
INIT and it's educational activity.
| At last, on the final day Of the con
terence, the vague doubts took def
/ mite form and the names of Rookie
teller and Carnegie were brought into
the sessions and tied up with the
question of financing working class
education. Many of the delegates still
did not believe that this could really
be so. Paul w. Fuller, educational
director of Sub District 2, United
Mine Workers of America, declared:
'Tf any workers institution ever got
such funds and if it got to District 2,
you could preach the funeral OF that
Organization as far as the miners are
concerned" A delegate, active in
workers education in: Germany,
thought the whole thing was a joke
and said: Il do not know how it is in
America, but in Germany it is hope
less to try to get funds from en-
ployers for workers education. We
lido not have to worry about that"
A SHORT time before closing time
n Of the final scheduled session of
the conference a resolution was finally
introduced by the secretary of the
conference in the name of group of
delegates, reading as follows:
"Resoived, That the members
of the American Federation OF
Teachers, invited to attend the
conference on workers. education,
in session at Brookwood Feb. %,
1926, go on record as opposing the
acceptance, by agencies for work.
ers' education, of money or other
) assistance from institutions such
as the Carnegie Corporation, the
General Education Board or other
u organizations fundamentally OPP
: posed to the interests Of the work
I ing class"
: This resolution at last convinced
e every delegate that they were faced
t not with an abstract discussion oil
+ finance, but a concrete question of thu
1 fate of workers education. A desul
v tory discussion started, but it Jacket
e only few minutes for the final ad
o journment of the conference. On m
d motion, a special session was calle'
/ for the afternoon of the same day t
# consider exclusively this resolution.
), This special session was carried O.
( under a changed atmosphere. TIL
" air seemed charged with intensity a
o the delegates began their first dii
cussion of vital significance. A.
II Music and Arthur Calhoun, who ha
y attended the conference called by tn
y, Committee on Adult Education of tn
IT Carnegie Corporation, in an unoffici;
n capacity. reported their observation
~ IN that conference Calhoun describe