Miss CHARL O. WILLIAMS,

DENVER, COLO., January 19, 1924.

National Education Association, Washington, D. C.:

The

I strongly favor the enactment of the education bill. Bill gives education national recognition in keeping with its vital national importance. Pueblo schools need the national leadership that will be supplied by department of education with secretary in Cabinet from standpoint of national welfare. opportunities and burdens of public education should be more nearly equalized by Federal assistance under local control as provided by the bill. Teachers of the country overwhelmingly favor education bill including department of education and Federal aid for eradicating illiteracy, for teacher training, and for other important national needs.

JESSE H. NEWLON, Superintendent of Schools, Denver, Colo.

POCATELLO, IDAHO, January 19, 1924.

Miss CHARL O. WILLIAMS, Washington, D. C.:

Believe that national wealth should meet national educational problems and lend assistance to those parts of the country not able to afford adequate educational opportunities. Believe education is entitled to place in Government equal with war, agriculture, commerce, and other departments all of this to have guaranted local autonomy.

WALTER R. SIDERS, Superintendent of Schools, Pocatello, Idaho.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

LOS ANGELES, CALIF., January 19, 1924.

National

SUSAN M. DORSEY,

National Education Association, Washington, D. C.: Earnestly hope that education bill may become a law this winter. council on education greatly needed. Correction of certain educational weaknesses possible only through uniform action and directed effort.

Superintendent of Schools, Los Angeles, Calif.

OAKLAND, CALIF., January 19, 1924.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

National Education Association, Washington, D. C.:

Because the American people are at heart a democracy they are committed irrevocably to the cause of nation-wide and universal education. The question of how to put this fundamental belief of our people into operation by national legislation, action which will stimulate the States of the Union to create and develop adequate school system and at the same time protect the States in their local responsibility and authority, is the most significant and far-reaching issue of this generation. A vast majority of Californians believe it should be done by the passage of the education bill now before Congress. This measure has been indorsed time and time again by the civic clubs of California such as Rotary, Kiwanis, High Twelve and the like by the women's clubs of the State such as the federation of women's clubs, parent-teachers associations, and the league of women voters; by the chamber of commerce of the State by 10 to 1 vote in the recent National Chamber of Commerce referendum on this bill; by all educational and school organizations; by many fraternal organizations. The people of California two years ago by a majority of 235,000, voted for the kind of school system represented by the education bill when they carried an amendment to the State constitution virtually doubling the per pupil State support of local school systems. We urge immediate favorable action in view of the pressing crisis in education, namely, three quarters of a million of children on half day sessions and a nation-wide reactionary attack on the schools.

FRED M. HUNTER, Superintendent of Schools, Oakland, Calif.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

BERKELEY, CALIF., January 19, 1924.

National Education Association, Washington, D. C.:

My teaching staff and this community including chamber of commerce supports strongly the bill pending before Congress looking to establishment of department of education and welfare on referendum vote by chambers of commerce. Berkeley Chamber of Commerce voted unanimously favoring department of education. Kindly keep us advised as to progress on this matter, and supply me copies of bill. H. B. WILSON,

Superintendent of Schools, Berkeley, Calif.

JANUARY 19, 1924.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

National Education Association, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR MISS WILLIAMS: I am writing to say that I thoroughly and unconditionally approve of the bill which has been introduced to create a department of education with a Cabinet officer. In making this statement, I am voicing not only my own personal views, but those of all the educational organizations in Cincinnati which have repeatedly gone on record in favor of this measure. The Schoolmasters' Club, various teachers' associations of this city, the Southwestern Ohio Teachers' Association, and the State Teachers' Association of Ohio have alike indorsed this movement. The cause of education deserves such recognition and will, in my judgment, be greatly benefited by the passage of the bill. Sincerely yours, RANDALL J. CONDON,

Superintendent of Schools, Cincinnati, Ohio.

MEMPHIS, TENN., January 21, 1924.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

National Education Association, Washington, D. C.: Every school organization in Tennessee indorses the education bill now pending. Please urge the Tennessee delegation especially to support it.

R. L. JONES,

Superintendent of Schools, Memphis, Tenn.

Miss CHARL O. WILLIAMS,

Washington, D. C.:

TUCSON, ARIZ., January 22, 1924.

Heartily indorse the Sterling-Reed bill now before Congress. Public education is too important to go longer unrepresented in President's Cabinet. The burden of supporting the schools should be equalized. The friends of education are almost unanimously in favor of this measure.

C. E. ROSE, Superintendent of Schools, Tucson, Ariz.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

Washington, D. C.:

PHOENIX, ARIZ., January 23, 1924.

Entire teaching force of Phoenix indorsed Sterling-Reed educational bill.

JOHN D. LOPER,

Superintendent of Schools, Phoenix, Ariz.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

Washington, D. C.:

BISBEE, ARIZ., January 24, 1924.

Heartily indorse and support Towner-Sterling education bill.

MORENCI, ARIZ., January 24, 1924.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS:

I very heartily favor the Sterling-Reed bill.

W. E. LUTZ,

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

Superintendent of Schools, Morenci, Ariz.

SAND SPRINGS, OKLA., January 26, 1924.

Field Secretary National Education Association, Washington, D. C.: Urge strongly upon the Education Committee of both House and Senate a favorable report on the education bill sponsored by the National Education Association and many other organizations. If education is the hope of democracy, let us have a concentrated effort, with a secretary in the President's Cabinet. F. R. PAULY,

Superintendent of Schools, Sand Springs, Okla.

The means whereby man may be fed and clothed, how he may be carried from place to place, and the work of his hands are dignified by a department and a Cabinet officer. Who shall say that of less worth and honor is the duty of preparing the next rank of citizens to carry on the Republic? Senator Sterling, whose bill proposes a department of education, argues that national dignity and prominence must be given to the education of citizens. "It can not be confined to State boundaries. Our continuing illiteracy is startling. At the present rate of its reduction illiteracy will not be wiped out in three-quarters of a century. Rural education is alarmingly inadequate. Equality of opportunity for our coming citizens is, under present conditions, impossible. State and local school boards are often working in the dark. They need assistance from the entire Nation. One district with 300 children has one-tenth the available tax funds of another district with 100 children. A similar discrepancy exists between the States." No quarantine on ignorance can be set up. The illiterate won't stay put. One city may faithfully school all her children, only to find herself degraded and endangered by an influx of unschooled from some struggling American Commonwealth.

WILLIAM C. MCANDREW, Superintendent of Schools, Chicago, Ill.

OFFICERS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

RICHMOND, VA., January 19, 1924.

National Education Association, Washington, D. C.:

I am heartily in favor of the education bill with its provisions for a department of education and Federal aid for the removal of illiteracy, of Americanization of the foreign born, equalization of educational opportunities, promotion of physical education, and teachers' training. It will be of great help to Virginia. It has been indorsed repeatedly by State Teachers Association.

CORNELIA S. ADAIR, Treasurer National Education Association.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

Washington, D. C.:

LOS ANGELES, CALIF., January 19, 1924.

Classroom teachers believe the public school is an American institution for Americans' good. As such its privileges must be free and equal to secure these inalienable rights. There must be national aid, support, and recognition, therefore classroom teachers are committed to a Federal department of education with a secretary in the President's Cabinet. Public education is of primary importance and can not be combined with or submerged into so-called welfare

activities. Education is big enough to stand alone and alongside other governmental departments at Washington. I unreservedly say for the public-school teachers of our land that we are emphatically behind the education bill which has been introduced and urgently solicit Congressmen and Senators to give open-minded, whole-hearted consideration to this question of fundamentally national importance.

IDA CHRISTINE IVERSEN,

President Department of Classroom Teachers, National Education Association.

Miss CHARL O. WILLIAMS,

Washington, D. C.

KANSAS CITY, Mo., January 19, 1924.

MY DEAR MISS WILLIAMS: I am very much in favor of the educational bill as presented to the Sixty-eighth Congress and believe it to be a thing the public schools of this Nation need to put them on the footing that they should have to do the most efficient work possible. Education should be represented in the President's Cabinet by a secretary, and the National Government can well afford to promote education for the purpose of removing illiteracy, assisting in physical education and health service, for the training of teachers, for the equalization of educational opportunity, and for the Americanization of foreign immigrants. The department of elementary school principals of the National Education Association favors this bill, and we hope to see this Congress honor itself by promptly passing said measure. W. T. LONGSHORE,

President Department of Elementary School Principals.

ACTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION OF THE EDUCATION BILL AT CHICAGO, 1924-UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY 600 PRESENT

The elementary school principals of America have had borne in upon them the great and unjust inequalities in educational opportunity afforded in America to the children of the country as compared with the children of the city, to the children of our poorer sections as compared with the children of the richer sections of our land.

The democratic and just spirit of America has always demanded a square deal for every citizen and especially for our future citizens, the children.

Many sections of our land are burdened with great and unusual tasks of citizen training, occasioned either by centuries of negro slavery on this continent or by the great and continuous immigration of foreigners to our shores. The responsibility for training the enfranchised negro and the unassimilated foreigner and their children for American citizenship is a national more than a State or sectional responsibility.

Moreover, the free and continuous intercommunications of the people of the various States makes the problems of one the problems of all and turns the weakness or misfortune of any State or section into a national weakness or menace.

The handicaps of ignorance, of traditions of slavery, and of unassimilated foreign populations, and the resultant poverty which accompanies all these conditions, seriously hinder, if they do not incapacitate, the State or section suffering from these evils from effecting their cure.

A well conceived measure for the removal of these conditions has been before our National Congress for four years. Every year of delay in coming to the assistance of the children means many thousands more of poorly trained American men and women who will be entitled to the suffrage.

This department of elementary school principals of the National Education Association, does, therefore, vigorously indorse the provisions of the national. education bill, the Sterling-Reed bill now before Congress.

We express our conviction that the expansion of education is of such vital importance to the Nation as to demand the undivided attention of the proposed secretary of education in the President's Cabinet.

We heartily approve the wisdom and fairness of the proposed voluntary and equal cooperation of State and Nation in providing increased revenues for teacher training, for the training of illiterates, for the Americanization of foreigners,

for health education, and for the equalization of educational opportunity of children.

We approve of the carefully drawn provisions of this bill insuring to the educational authorities of the States full control of the administration of their schools.

We approve also the contemplated formation, under the provisions of this bill, of a national council on education under the chairmanship of the proposed secretary of education, to consist of the superintendents of public instruction of the various States and of 50 other educators and laymen of prominence, which council would serve as a national clearing house for educational ideas. We vigorously oppose any compromise to this measure by loading down the proposed department of education with other responsibilities which would tend to slow up the momentum which must be given to educational expansion.

We are deeply sensible of the strength of the support of our President, Calvin Coolidge, to the formation of this department of education.

We pledge ourselves as a department of the National Education Association and as individual principals and citizens to urge upon our representatives in the National Senate and in the House of Representatives, the prompt and whole-hearted consideration of this bill, and its passage at this session of Congress.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

Washington, D. C.:

AMBROSE CORT,

Chairman, Brooklyn, N. Y.

JESSIE M. FINK,

Grand Rapids, Mich.

ELLA M. PPOBST,

Minneapolis, Minn.

VIRGINIA, MINN., January 20, 1924.

The situation demands that the nation recognize education to be as important as agriculture or commerce by establishing a department of education whose secretary is a Cabinet member. Educational research and publication await action of such an official. Certainly it is not less important than similar service performed by Secretary of Agriculture for that department. Unequal distribution of wealth in the several States in proportion to the number of children to be educated renders financial cooperation of Nation with States necessary to equalize educational opportunity for all the Nation's children, who are of first importance. With practically one voice, those who serve in the Nation's public schools join millions of parents, men and women voters in urging the Congress in the strongest terms to act promptly and favorably upon the SterlingReed bill.

CARROLL G. PEARSE,

Member Board of Trustees National Education Association.

Miss CHARL WILLIAMS,

Washington, D. C.:

ST. PAUL, MINN., January 21, 1924.

Please report

Classroom teachers are overwhelmingly for the education bill. favorably.

AGNES E. Doherty, Secretary Board of Trustees National Education Association.

The two greatest documents the American people have ever produced-the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution-set forth the aims of our American democracy to be equality of opportunity and of expression, whether in religion, education, or vocation, and liberty to be a self-governing people under laws which express the thought and will of the majority of the people. The way in which these aims can be brought to a realization in government is unforgettably expressed in Abraham Lincoln's grouping of three phrases: "Of the people, for the people, by the people.