Evening star., 1935-12-14
QUOTATIONS GIVEN
AS PROOF WRITERS
BACK COMMUNISM
Citizens Association Group
Cites Works of Becker
| and Rugg.
| MATERIAL IS OFFERED
TO EDUCATION BOARD
Excerpts Are Compiled as Retort
to Critics of Federations
Charges on Instruction.

| communism
This material was sent by George E.
| Sullivan, chairman of the federation's
committee, to Robert A. Maurer. who
is chairman of a special committee
named by the Board of Education TO
investigate charges that communism
is taught in the District schools.
Books by these authors used in the
high schools here have been under
fire in connection with enforcement
Of the rider to the last District ap-
preparation BILL which forbids the useD
of any appropriated funds to pay
salaries of teachers advocating or
teaching communism.
Letters Flood Committee.
Sullivan said his committee was
advised school officials had been
flooded" with letters and kilograms
from prominent educators seeking to
reflect upon the position taken by
this committee and to assert that
Prof. Becker is too well known for
any one to justifiably assert that he
has any ro-communistic views"
SulliVan's statement also condemned
the weekly magazine Scholastic, used
in the high schools here, and having
pro-communistic leanings.
After quoting excerpts from the
| magazine and works by Becker and
| Riggs, his report concludes:
1T will be apparent to the Board
of Education, from the excerpts, that
We are not dealing in anywise with
the private life or personal standing
of either Prof. Becker or Prof. Rugg,
nor with their legal right, within the
guarantees of freedom accorded them
in our great Republic, to believe and
advocate what they are advocating,
provided the public school system be
not invaded in so doing. Whatever
may or may not be their actual be-
liefs in communism. they are shown
beyond dispute to be well-knoWn
writer's whose writings favor commu-
niSm; and every minded, right.
thinking person must admit that such
communistic propaganda has no
proper place in the public school sys-
TEN, however much those devising
such propaganda may wish to impose
their ideas upon the immature and
unenlightened.
Books Custer Urged.
I'VE see no occasion or warrant for
any one to minimize the gravity Of
what has been disclosed, either by In
difference thereto or by the use of the
word microscopic as applied thereto.
Surely your board cannot countenance
the further use of any one of these
objectionable text books. Your board
should also, we submit, lose no time
in banning the further use Of the
aforementioned magazine Scholastic
for study purposes or otherwise in the
high schools or any other part Of the
, public school system"
Taking up first some of the works
Of Prof. Becker, the statement quoted
in part from them as follows:
In The United States, An Expert
ment in Democracy" published in
, 1920, Prof. Becker said:
Since 1880 about 40 per cent of the
total number of immigrants have gone
: back to Europe and of this 40 per cent
; about two-thirds have remained there.
These returning immigrants do not
commonly tell their friends that
America is the promised land, the land
of freedom and Of equal opportunity.
They describe America as they have
found it-a country dominated by
) capitalists, sordid bourgeois society
without ideals, a land of dollar
,I,o
. government and exploits the people.
(p. 234)
For many years it has been obvious
that the eighteenth century philosophy
has been a complete failure on the
T economic side, and hitherto We have
? more or less confidently sought new
: solution of industrial democracy with
. in the frame work of the old revolu-
tionary mechanism. Today this con-
S fidence is much diminished; and 1t
seems questionable indeed whether
l democracy in any form, industrial OF
I political, does not involve q radical
4 modification Of the modern state
S rather than an extension of its already
over-grown powers" opp. 32S-4)
Riggs Work ASSaiIed.
In the attack on Riggs work, the
!. statement asserted:
|. In THE Great Technology" pub
: lished in 1888. Prof. Rugg asserts
4 Nothing about this story of de-
E gradation is clearer than that in any
of those decades a fairly decent
standard of living could have been
had by the people of the expanding
. West. That it was not and is not
J today can be traced primarily TO the
theory and practice Of Government
set up by our fathers. {p. $50
School administrators and teach
ers should lead actively in the forma'
ton of public opinion" (p. 234.)
Far from freeing youth from the
mercenary standards set by the cons
r munity climates of opinion, this phil.
{ osophy of competition and success
e merely tends to strengthen the bond
: around growing children" (p. 259)
e "It is this which compels th'
t formal unthinking salute to the flag
+ and the mumbling of an oath OF al.
| lckIdIlCG NIllCA ulCdAlo dboOAuOSJ
r nothing to the young people makinf
it. 1t is this which, in hundreds oi
= communities. compels teachers Il
: sign oaths of allegience, to swear thai
= they will protect the written Consti'
|. tuition of the United States" Opp
: 259-260)
The letter to Maurer pointed ouf
h the federation committee was no
;e notified of the public hearing helt
a yesterday by the boards committee
and requested that such notice b
|" given in the future. Sullivan alsG
Ie asked for a copy Of a statement, Il
n be prepared by Superintendent o
a Schools Frank w. Ballou, on tn
Ie teaching of Americanism and pa
Y. triotism in the public schools and
le list Of textbooks touching on tn
L.