York School of Social Work; Spencer Miller, Jr., secretary, Workers' Education Bureau; M. J., Murphy, of the Federation Bank of New York; Cedric Long, secretary Co-operative League of America; Charles F. Nesbit, insurance director of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Felix Morley, of the Baltimore Sun; A. J. Muste, chairman of faculty, Brookwood Labor Institute; Lewis S. Gannet, associate editor, The Nation; Maud Swartz, compensation adviser, New York Women's Trade Union League; Harriet Silverman, Workers' Health Bureau; Theresa Wolfson, former educational supervisor, Cloakmakers' Joint Board of Sanitary Control; F. A. Silcox, economist and statistician for the New York Printing Employers Association. Education Week: The 1924 Convention in adopting the report of its Education Committee, instructed the National office to designate a certain time for an education campaign, and the week of September 29 to October 4 was chosen as "Education Week," during which period the recruiting committees for local League classes were urged to make an intensive drive upon those unions having women members in an endeavor to recruit for a larger enrollment of students. In addition to a news release on Education Week, the October issue of LIFE AND LABOR BULLETIN was devoted to workers' education. The 1924-1925 School Term: The 1924-1925 school term opened the first of October, 1924, with six students, to each of whom had been awarded by the National School Committee a $750 scholarship by the National League for a six months' course. One of these students, however, because of personal reasons, found it necessary to drop out after the first month. The five students who completed the course were: Rose V. Carr, Leather Worker, Wilmington, Delaware Beatrice V. Coucher, Telephone Operator, Missoula, Montana As in former years, the first three months were devoted to academic work. The girls were registered as unclassified students at the University of Chicago for the fall semester in Political Economy (Labor Problems), under Professor Royal E. Montgomery. The general program of study was under the direction of Miss Helen D. Hill, and under her guidance, together with the very earnest study of the students themselves, all five of them passed their final examinations at the University. One received a mark of "A-"; two of them "B" and two of them "C." Considering the fact that these girls (one of whom had left school at 12; two at 14, finishing eighth grade; and two after first year high school) had taken their places along with university students who had had no gaps in their grade, high school and college training, their respective good grades were considered very encouraging. Field work occupied the months of January, February and March. The principal feature of the field work, as in previous terms, was the study of the trade union agreement, with instructions as to how to proceed in the negotiation of wage scales, shop agreements and in arbitration. What to do in the midst of a strike and how to give strike assistance came in for important consideration, and the class had the advantage of listening in at actual conferences and trade disputes, carried on by trained representatives of both sides. A knowledge of various kinds of office practice is essential, and therefore their studies included typing, business letter writing, keeping accounts, filing, mimeographing, and so on. Miss Hill's report, commenting on the six months' term and consisting mainly of her recommendations, is submitted to you here. Report of Miss Hill for 1924-1925 School Term: My dear Miss Christman: In finishing up the program for this year's training school and in looking back over what we have already covered, I find a few recommendations which I should like to leave with you before I go abroad, so that you could think of them in connection with the work beginning next September. First of all, I should recommend a reversal of the present order of the work, so that the field work would come during the first three months of the term instead of the last three. Under this arrangement the students would have a period of becoming accustomed to the academic requirements in the lectures and tutoring which are supplied for them alone during the field work period, and they would probably be much more capable of keeping up to the speed of a university class both on account of an actual increase in ability to read large assignments for content, etc., and on account of having already become familiar with the intricacies of libraries and reference work in general. The outline for the second term of Mr. Montgomery's course is appended to this; Course No. 4, the one the students took this fall, is repeated every quarter. I submit that it would not be less useful than the first term as far as subject matter is concerned, and probably more usable because of previous preparation. I should also recommend that this second three months be spent entirely at the University. I know that it is possible, either through the Housing Bureau or by private inquiry, to rent an apartment for $100.00 a month, the amount now paid for the five girls, which would be near the University, would have a bath and a kitchenette (a little cooking on their own hook might at one and the same time relieve the strain of cafeteria life and make it more acceptable), and would be exclusively their own, so that the periods of quiet essential to concentration would be of their own making. This would make it possible to use the library up to the closing hour of 10 P. M.; the difficulty of getting books reserved is a real one, and can hardly be coped with successfully if only a few hours a day are available. It would eliminate the two-hour a day elevated train ride which the girls found trying, and which, whether trying or not, is an obviously less efficient way of spending that time than in the quiet of a library or an apartment. I think that an English course could be found for the girls at the University, so that all their work would be there. If not, they might have English with Miss Lillian Herstein during the first three months at Crane Junior College. It does not seem impossible to me that a tutor in the form of some one doing graduate work at the University could be found through Mr. Montgomery or Professor Merriam. I cannot overemphasize the advantage I feel would result from having this block of time wholeheartedly devoted to University work at the University. With regard to the program for the first three months, I recommend that either of the two following courses should be definitely decided upon (or the time split between them). Either 1. The work should be a study carried on at the League of a series of chosen basic industries (railroads, coal, textiles, steel, etc.) with a view toward a general survey of present American industrial conditions, supplemented by trips to such agencies as the Railroad Labor Board as illustrative material. Weekly or fortnightly essays on these subjects could combine practice in collecting subject matter with experience in presenting it. Training in the use of libraries, the Reader's Guide, etc., should accompany regular assignments of essential material, for if a student becomes dependent on a tutor's assigned readings she is helpless when the tutor is not available. But the emphasis should be on the subject studied, not on the hearings or exhibits of one sort or another which the students may go to see. The latter should be recognized as illustrations rather than pleasant but unrelated experiences. In this connection I question the value of the students' time spent as part of an audience in the various conferences which occur; I realize that I am prejudiced against such gatherings (on the grounds that the conference habit will make of America an even more abject audience than the radio has already achieved) but the hazy generalities which the students have brought home with them this year make me feel that there is something to my prejudice. Or 2. The work should be an active campaign of organization. The present "cooperation" with whatever movements are in progress strikes me as a farce. It is quite comprehensible that no union is going to accept a group of unknowns into its innermost councils at a time of stress; yet unless that is achieved our girls will do a series. of mechanical assignments such as distributing leaflets and nothing more. I see no reason, of course, why our students should not give help of this sort through it they can become familiar with the atmosphere of a picket line if they do not already know it-but I think we should be quite clear that that is as far as it goes. It does seem to me that a piece of independent organizing work might be done in unorganized trades by the girls, under the direction of the National League. If this is attempted, I think that it should displace all academic work for the time that it is in progress. If the students made a preliminary survey, got the names and visited the workers of the shops in question, looked out for the legal side of the matter, made the leaflets and altogether managed an organization campaign. I can see how it would be real training with resultant achievement. It seems to me that only in case this is done have we any right to say that we are training organizers. Office and academic work we can do and have to some extent done; in so far as whatever we have taught is transferable we have increased the potentiality of whoever from our students may become organizers, but we are not training organizers. (As an afterthought it occurs to me that we might be able to place the students singly in campaigns wherever they happen to be taking place on the road between their homes and us for part of the school time if work in Chicago is impracticable.) My full appreciation of the difficulties of recruiting makes me hesitant with regard to recommendations. The addition of a section to the application blank asking for a 300-500 word statement by the student of some such event as her first job or her most vivid industrial experience will I hope give a general indication of how interested she is in the industrial movement as a whole as compared with further personal education. I feel, as you know, that certain members of this year's class have an academic rather than an industrial interest; the contrast between the University grades and the first drafts of the trade agreements was an example of this tendency. It does not seem to be the League's function to supply education for such girls if any line whatever is to be drawn between workers' and adult education. If contact with classes arranged for the former in various cities were made sufficiently early in the year for you to see possible recruits when you make trips of one sort or another, a check on letters and impressions of the traveling secretary might be provided. Stimulation of the local Leagues is of course the other way. As a minor suggestion I would raise the question of the need for the downstairs study room. Particularly if half of the work were done at the University. I should think the rent might be applied to other League activities, or even to the accumulation of a library to better advantage than the present. In closing may I express my appreciation of your tolerance of my mistakes this year, and suggest that my lack of experience may be the background of many of these recommendations. Yours sincerely, HELEN D. HILL. Recruiting: That division of our educational work which has to do with the recruiting of students might easily be considered as recruiting and publicity, because of the fact that our recruiting letters and literature reach the trade union groups and workers' classes in the forty-eight States. During the summer and autumn of 1925 student recruiting letters were sent to the National and International Unions, State Federations of Labor, City Centrals, the local trade unions affiliated with local Leagues, miscellaneous local trade unions with women members, workers' education classes (some two hundred of these), and to the more isolated Federal Local Labor Unions. A special effort was made to reach the trade unionists in smaller communities. The two special pieces of literature used in the campaign were the new School Prospectus, the "School for Grown-Ups," reprinted from May, 1925, LIFE AND LABOR BULLETIN. The Advisory School Committee: Realizing that the new school term would open, and probably continue, without a full-time director, we suggested an Advisory School Committee, made up of people close at hand who are keeping step with the workers' education movement, this committee to work jointly with the National School Committee. Those accepting the invitation to serve were: Dr. Hazel Kyrk, University of Chicago; Ernestine L. Friedmann, Rockford College; Lillian Herstein, Crane Junior College and instructor at Bryn Mawr Summer School; Mrs. William F. Dummer, who is vitally interested in education; and Miss Helen D. Hill, director of the 1924-1925 term. This Advisory Committee met with the National School Committee in December, 1925, discussed the general problems of the school and advised upon the curriculum for the term about to open. The 1926 School Term: The recommendation embodied in Miss Hill's report regarding the reversal of the curriculum, giving field work first and academic training second, was adopted by the Board. This reversal of the work, tried out for the first time this year, has proved successful. Previously the students have gone to the University immediately upon coming to Chicago, and attended classes through October, November and December. Since most of the girls who have come to us left school at an early age, and therefore have been away from their studies for a considerable period, more or less difficulty was experienced with the rather stiff reading assignments made weekly in connection with the course on the Worker in Modern Economic Society. They had to learn how to use the library, take lecture notes, complete reading assignments and make outlines of what they read at the speed adapted to college students who come in straight from high school or from other university courses. Because of this change and other facts having to do with the National League's program as a whole, the school term opened the first week in January, 1926, instead of October first, 1925. The National School Committee, with whom rests the awarding of scholarships, met early in November, 1925, and awarded four scholarships, with the fifth award agreed upon. This fifth student chosen, however, decided at the last moment that she would prefer to equip herself better for entrance into our school by attending the local classes during the year and expressed the hope that a scholarship would be granted her for the 1926-1927 term. The National Executive Board by special referendum reconsidered its action taken at the September, 1925, Board meeting that the school should not open with less than five students. In accordance with this action the school term opened therefore with only four students, as follows: Florence E. Barnes, Boot and Shoe Worker, Chicago, Illinois. Corabel Stillman, Journeyman Tailor, Highland Springs, Vir- |