Selig Perlman Analyzes the Crisis Facing the Trade-Union Movement
PERLMAN, SELIG
Selig Perlman Analyzes the Crisis Facing the Trade-Union Movement What's Wrong in American Labor? By SELIG PERLMAN rry is the War Labor Board, one of the shiest boards in our history, literally...
...The latter sees the union imnaattotely as -an instrument whereby' Die capitalist system may be made to work better by boosting purchasing power through higher wages and more fundamentally as adding to his battalions on the political battiefied for a planned economy...
...Hitler...
...Labor SELIG PERL-MAN considers here the impasse in Labor • Industry-Government relations...
...DROBABLY the professors of history and the promoters of text-books would immediately raise two objections to this contention...
...It is now ta iu second million, aad history may record it as the most amazing pre-election campaign maa-ifeate ever written...
...Such schools, and such SOaSsao, attract students whose interests and teeuMfcig bars Ibsen ttttte concerned with the social studies, history, or the humanities...
...Having epitomized collective democracy through the crystalization of industrial government, unionism could not help but become conscious asVlts own "homegrown" contribution to ABwricar life—rather than seeing itself merely as the auxiliary of social reform from the tot-tor's mild expression in protective labor legislator to a full blown socialization or nationalisation of industry...
...America mast choose oae ef three eoaraes after this wsr: asrrew nationalism, which inevitably means the ultimate loss ef eer ewa Hberty...
...Listing Lincoln...
...Perl-man poses here...
...Louis, said 2691 of the testees, is on the Mississippi—and the testers agreed, though even they must have known that the historical significance of St...
...out for ui a missionary roie...
...Willkie to have*been won over to aB tha aims af BagfcsJism having to do with an ultimate condition ef affair, without having found It necessary to accept any of the difficult intermediate stone demanded by Socialism And Mr...
...the country he teamed a thing or two ead a thing or two more aa his furiously paced trip eeoaad the world...
...or is it grand pappy home-steading a farm, grandma's kid brother dying is a bayonet charge, and the first national bank crowd potting one over on the Board of Aldermen ? The one set of facts is public, remote, and Sterile: the other is private, personal, and vital...
...As to Stalin, Mr...
...Only 6 per cent knew about the "Nullification Act of South Carolina"—and they were wrong, for there never was a "Nullification Act" Best scoring was made on a question identifying the inventions of Fulton, Howe, Whitney, Morse, Westinghoase, Bell and Goodyear, which indicates, again, that these students were largely drawn from those enrolled in technical courses...
...Willkie owes his readers a detailed program that will show precisely now to achieve the highly laudable ends he holds up to view...
...If they are balked ia their atrtvingx fox (. better lot for thoaaaarvoa, if the Great Powers selfishly continue to exploit thane, then we ma* expect an endless cycle ef troubles watch wfu be borne in upon us hers at home in the form of wars aad economic ilistiiihanssa...
...It has ta a msnth's time become oae ef the listing beat-setters la paMaahtag history, ranking with the Bftoa, the Dictionary, flhakmmjsnis...
...He may never have heard of "Old Pap" Thomas, but he knows that grandma's kid brother was killed in a battle down in Tennessee and that the family never did stop grieving...
...Thai trip was very much like an election swing arenad the country, and the report of it is very asech what one would expect a politician to say of pawn* to) expected to vote far turn...
...The man-in-thestreet knows much about the past, and he knows it in a way that he can use it He thinks historically, understanding the workings of cause and effect, and predicating his own actions upon his information and understanding in a way that woald put the average college professor to shame...
...Wendell Willkie's beat aaBar "One World...
...His admiration for the effectiveness of American production methods would more than satisfy tap National Association of Manufacturers...
...For not only has it through measures such as the Wagner Act rescued the labor movement from the dead-end street into which it had been driven by anti-union big industry, but it has also brought the labor movement to raise its »ights to take in the legislative and "political hinterland of the job when it forced the United States Supreme Court to sanction th* tnnking-°T» °f our government from "ah impotent weapon to aid labor into something as potent m the government of Britain...
...The New Deal, at first hesitatingly Tmf^ later with zealous drive, determined that jlfenbuntry must catch up and overtake Briteim^pC in Britain industrial government was by genuine agreement, the result of a spontaneous development...
...The man-in-the-street knows the answer, and he .has rejected the formalised and superficial, variety of history while he dings to aad uses the other...
...Prime Minister Nehas Pasha af Egypt, General Charles ee Gaulle, General Catroux, Premier Nuri as-Said pasha of Iraq, foreign Minister Noumen Bey of Turkey, Stalin and Molotov...
...an ahetoaaly ambitious man, has evISently concluded that the sort of visions ta which he iadideno'%^MOne World" are the sort that will appeal to or electorate The Socialists have, one may conclude on reading Mr...
...On every head Mr...
...He wondered, far instance, why the democracies dk> not basest open using certain bases for war purposes that woeU be ef great value to them, particularly if the nations thit owned them were uacp-operative and not able to defend them...
...rvEPRIVED of the centipede-like support of the industrial governments on the ground our labor policy was further crippled by the inadequacy of our economic control...
...Why has Britain succeeded so well and we, by contrast, have failed so singularly in avoiding a mere bureaucratic handling of our war-am* Labor issues T Is Lewis a mars would-be labor Caesar, or is fas also the nemesis of oar Labor policy daring the past decade...
...For people feel that their condition is ia the maun dae to so-called responsible authority—the mysterious "they" who saaapndly mere the levers of events...
...He was kit by tomatoes ill Detroit He lost his voice to Utah...
...Gompers' job-conscious union-Ism, far from being the mere lapse into opportunism scan in it by leftist intellectuals, Was in reality Americans' first formulation of "a collective democracy...
...international imperialism, which miter the sacrifice of some ether nation's liberty...
...so will the unionist say: "No agreement, no work...
...e WHILE we are waiting for Mr...
...Fraser, who has never taught, and the profound pandits ef the New York Timet have no comprehension ef the infinite capacity ef a college freshman for erode hamor, aad they solemnly accepted the "kibitsing" answers ss evidence of widespread SgSsA-aaeO...
...And there must be agreement about specific atom as wefl .as procedures...
...Hence also the paradoxical spectacle of this nation, most devoted to decentralization and self-help, now channeling all its labor issues before a centralised and authoritative government board...
...Mark Henna, or Thomas Hart Benton...
...They did sot raspaad to each academic concepts as Traastonuiut aMsss or Nullification...
...When' this "spot" Juatvity af conference, quiet or vociferous, with foreman...
...Science and modern techniques did not make Japan a cooperative partner, nor has the sharing of opportunities caused the advanced* nations to march together hand in hand...
...His keek "Oae World" to s strange document...
...Wish this preamble, Mr...
...For, in reality, in his own mind as wall as in fact the unionist lives under two governments, lis nation's and the union's...
...By SELIG PERLMAN rry is the War Labor Board, one of the shiest boards in our history, literally at tha end of its rope...
...No sloganeering of the "hold the line" variety can take the place of such a systematic and comprehensive procedure...
...Nevins did not teat these "average" citizens for the amount of vital history they knew: He tested them for the sterile facts about.public events and "great" men which they happened to recall...
...The citizen will feel it is his duty to refuse taxes to an illegitimate, usurping government...
...He would, as I read him, expand the "New Deal" to cover the world...
...Willkie...
...He wants us to liberate the downtrodden backward peoples from poverty and ignorance, apparently turning our backs on our own none too perfect position at home...
...He may pass the bronze replica of some staffed shirt in a public park without a Sjijsaansavef -eweosmition or a flicker of interest, but it's tea to one he's heard about the shenanigans which sold that useless piece of ground to the city park commission...
...Messiah* and clairvoyant "leaders...
...Which puts him at toast two or three things ap em moot hmerieaa politicians...
...Willkie's enthusiastic acceptance of Russia, an act which, coming from a Republican Presidential room date, would alone be sufficient to provoke attention...
...Something mere is evidently needed...
...A section of the Left has become especia y Willkio-minded because of Mr...
...The implications are clear enough...
...Willkie calls us all to a great crusade...
...Willkie writes: "He told me again end agate that his propaganda was deliberately designed to make his people hate the Nazis, but it was obvious that he himself had a certain bitter admiration for the efficiency by which Hitler had transplanted to Germany as much as ninety-four per cent of the working population from some of the conquered Russian territory, and he respected the completely professional training of the German Army, particularly its officers...
...But the criticism extended beyond this specific test The test'* sponsors are doubtless incorrect in assuming that their 7,000 victims were a fair cross-section of the college population, or a reasonable average of the high school graduate But the test was, probably, a good sample of the Man-in-the-streefs retention of irrevalant detail...
...These thoughts Occur after reading Mr...
...Name the thirteen original states," said Question One—and six par cent of the students compiled a correct list...
...We need to learn to work with her against our aenatoai enemy...
...Thee* students aid net recognize Alexander H. Stephens, Henry Ward Bcceker, Roger Taney, Nicholas Bid-die, Jay Cooke...
...What has happened,, as he sees it, is the breakdown ef Collective Bargaining under the impact War...
...Willkie indicates, dedicated to s eftUeetive effort that will bring as all up oat of thy mire...
...But if we aB collaborate, if we aB share equally then peace, harmony and prosperity will preva...
...One World" shows Mr...
...He knows the experiences of his own life, and he has observed the changes which have taken place in his own environment, in his wsys of life, and even in his own habits ef , thought daring his lifetime...
...Hence, the desire to follow...
...Aad peoples all over are on the march, Mr...
...No one, however, has expressed his amazement at the large amount of irrevelant factual material which cluttered up the brain cells of these seven thousand students...
...There are far-reaching implications to this shift of Labor's role, possibilities and dangers in far-reaching changes in the functions of the unions in relation to government...
...Up to a point, reassurance is justified, because without it lethargy would overcome us all...
...It worn...
...I am convinced the Asserfcaa people will cheeas, by everwhetoaiag majerity...
...TTHE Nevins-Fttnes-Fraser test was almost J entirely concerned with trivia, and the "correct" answers, acceptable to the examiners, were largely arbitrary...
...Wherein Mr...
...Lewis, the New Deal's partner during tha throbbing thirties, is now its veritable nemesis —as he is the nemesis of a complacent managerial group and of the nation that cannot pull itself together even when fighting Hitlerhtm...
...Nevins, who write* endless biographies of the onetime "great" men, and the New York Timet and the Hearst papers who have taken ap th* cudgels against this alleged ignorance of the past, and Mr...
...Here, fronf 15% to 29 7< guessed the answers the examiners had in mind...
...He did not think we should count upon an early internal collapse in Germany...
...He wants the peoples of the world to unite in collective effort to bring about better conditions, peace and prosperity, with equality of opportunity for all...
...For unless we cooperate, unless we help, we shall not be safe...
...Bet aew, having accepted the standard liberal diagnosis of...
...plant superintendent or manager was stopped and everything was transferred to the War Labor Board, the union is threatened with.*he condition of a tree with its bark ringed close to th7ground...
...He has acquired still farther know), edge ef the past from reading his newspaper and his favorite magazine, from going te church, and by ffeeajmgto the radio...
...The New Deal labor laws, with their emphasis on union recognition, gave labor a legal "statoa" and smoothed the process...
...The legal compulsion to bargain collectively often proved no better than a "shotgun wedding" and the sharply posited issue of the closed or union shop, itself the product of the American situation, only added fuel to the flames of dissension...
...And whkh of these sets of facts is history...
...World War I saw a temporary lifting of the ban, but with normalcy and the "new era" it became even more absolute...
...White Britain's employers have slowly but surely grown accustomed to unionism and to "due process" under agreement systems, oUr big employers from self-interest but also in a measure from an ideological conviction of a "class-less" America have early in the century sworn allegiance to the "open shop" pattern...
...Bore to a* mpttoatot elthael a srigimn...aahsngsr af tha esiM allheal a totality • • • • lavtor with a viaton bat no aaar p weapons...
...DUT if the President /has apparently lost in this tug of loyalties it is not because the New Deal has lacked effect on unionism...
...Or the creation of s world to which there shall be aa equality af opportanity for every race and every nation (for material development aad exploitation—F...
...The professors and pundits who have been wringing horrified hands ever the results of this test are ignoring one significant fact...
...Because of this, Its a fair assumption that these 7,000 students were a fair cress Section of the academician's Man-in-the-street...
...Tha reason of Soviet resistance to Hitter has been proof enough of this to most of us...
...ween it from "industrial gov-Ornnent" activity as its prime and "natural" •ftivity and from which it derives the most ¦?wor and health...
...Bather is he caught in them...
...There were ether strange bita ef information cluttering up the minds ef these students—7,000 . * men and women who were selected because they didn't know any history...
...The New Deal's labor policy has initially operated with a Labor movement from the Gempersian mold...
...Chiang Kai-Shek, and everybody etas hn pressed him eery much aad very favorably...
...and Gone With the Wind...
...Three of the schools were technical schools...
...Presumably, the overwhelming majority of toe** students were interested in science, home SS*llomhs...
...Willkie errs, basically, is in his Optimistic belief that equal sharing of material benefits is possible without prior agreement on the procedure of...
...These are the problems that Prof...
...Y*t the abandonment of the Unionist's version of *i*iez.faire has failed to shift Unionism's focus ™°m the job on...
...The answer, of course, is wrong: thV correct answer is "None," for only the imaginative examiners could classify the Willamette as a "principal body of water...
...It has survival value...
...Optimist WENDELL LEWIS WILL KIR has sees* s long way...
...Hence, our wartime policy was unable to follow Britain's where wage control was largely entrusted to the industries' own, intra-mural instrumentalities, their boards of conciliation...
...It envisaged each trade or industry (for example, the miners) under an industrial government in which the union and the employers' association would jointly administer the jobs, with the union as the recognized guardian of the job interest of the membership as a whole as well as of the individual's.cumulative rights to a particular job...
...tha trouble, Mr...
...And, ever the long term, etetyttluf dbae come out "aB right...
...Many of the...
...Bat Dr...
...He said that the way to defeat Germany was to destroy its army- And he believed that one of the maat effective methods ef destroy ing faith in Hitler's invincibility throughout Europe was in continuous air-raid bombing of German cities and of German-held docks aad fas lottos ia the conquered areas...
...AB the officials he met—General Montgomery...
...ing Republican lantonfias tar the Presidency...
...One is that the msn-in-the-street's information is not formalized, net put together in the conventional synthesis...
...the tost ef those aanraae, Te make this rhok-* effective, we maat wto not only the war...
...It *as this struggle within his heart, not the puB 6f bigger pay against his patriotism, that (aused, as reported, the Pennsylvania miner listening to the President's speech on Sunday *»ening, May 2, sitting close to the crib of his marine son's infant, to break down and cry but affirm that much as he wished to back up his ton he "could not go back to work without the other fellows...
...Considering Mr...
...The examining gentleman . should have aaderstood the answers as a form of critcism...
...The Wan however, has seen a breakdown in this two-way process with the compulsory intervention of the Wsr Labor Board as final arbiter and the legitimate functions of the union threaten to break down...
...Willkie found, headed toward better things...
...Bat somewhere ea those furiously paced campaign tripe groan...
...Who was President of the United States during th* Mexican War...
...such as the 19th century, aed?H*toamfe if caught to a downswing like the Jath century...
...In reflecting along these lines one cannot help remembering that very little of the official and unofficial optimism on tap since 1914 has been justified by events...
...Louis ts not that it is -on the Mississippi, but that it's on the Missouri and the Mississippi: And, most marvelous of all, lBr/r of the victims of this hoax Correctly* located Portland, Oregon, on the Willamette...
...Vermont was a more loyal supporter of the Revolution than Georgia, and it's only a technicality which includes the Georgians and excludes the Green Mountain Boys...
...The condition of the peoples has groom steadily worse, contrary to the rosy predictions of tha optimists...
...Hugh R. Fraser of th«'"bbmntKbee on American History...
...Louis, Cincinnati, Portland, Oregon, Memphis and Milwaukee located...
...Indeed, it is merely preliminary to a statement of the central difficulty: hew are the peoples of the world going to get together...
...The historical pattern of American trade unionism, he shows, is one of "industrial government," with Labor and Industry negotiating to gain advantages and settle grievances...
...They deaWaf to ese themselves as, te large part, the unsure sculptors of their awn destiny, for the sense of ultimate responsibility far self would be intolerable to most...
...WiUkie, succeeded very west to their propaganda about general objectives sa much so that a leading conservative must profess them as his own...
...Bat a sahstoattal body of them knew Abraham Lincoln, the here ef the common man...
...And if one were to predict now, with proper respect for the experience of the past thirty years, one would be forced to say: It will become even worse...
...He asserts that if we do cooperate, liberate, and throw our creative powers into the balance, we shall surely be safe...
...Wrriy-aiUy, he has ahaMsB^afge amounts of political, ecoiwatie, saefeJt^Mid ecclesiastical lore...
...errors which so horrified .the examiners consisted of patting Vermont in the original list...
...Under the impact of the ^ooseveltian political "volution, which win rank in history with the "ffersbnian and the Jacksonian upheavals, the Gompertian static job-consciousness was re-forged into the dynamic job-consciousness of the C.I.0 and the rejuvenated A.F.L...
...In the campaign of 1844, the Whig taunted their opponents with "Who is Jamee K. Polk...
...On what principal bodies of wafer are . Cleveland, St...
...Messra...
...Willkie's thesis obviously brings into view more difficulties than it solves...
...What the test demonstrated clearly wan that th* average American citi-sen is not interested to the staffed shirts of by-gone day...
...And need one point out to the readers of The New Leader the anarchial effects of the split in the labor movement offering a standing temptation to irresponsible to ashow up" rivals by exploiting discontent?j And are some of the officials of the New Deal with a messianic complex (but with a complete ignorance of the "orgaaieism" of the labor movement) free of moral responsibility for preventing that breach from healing when it still could be healed...
...For Resets is a dynamic country, a vital new society, a force that cannot be bypassed in any nature world...
...Given at this time of the year, end under hit-or-miss circumstances, the test had to be given to students who were' sot carolled in history, or even in social science, courses...
...Willkie to present us with his program for achieving the great ends he envisions, era may turn to details that impressed him on his trip...
...They knew, reasonably enough for all practical purposes, the guar -antees of the bill of rights...
...However, if they 3o he wiB not automatically respond to the Ration's call but will roughly, estimate the comparative injury to each in case of his refusal...
...Bat ke dees know a great deal about the past...
...asked Question Two...
...Is this conception the real center of gravity is in tha union's day-to-day adjustment of grievances, the redressing of the inequalities afflicting particular groups within the shop end "singie individuals—not just in the more sped-aandar duels between the employers and the hpian which com* with the renewal of the agree¦The Wax Labor Board's function of removing fgmss inequalities" and "inequities,'' regardless M the terminology used, has had its "organic" precedent in the daily activities of innumerable ¦tons under innumerable industrial governIfc*'** .y'i»j|V j$sW...
...The other is that such popular knowledge of the past is largely concerned with private rather than with public events...
...r ^ America's industrial government was fated to land in the lap of the War Labor Board because, it had become a case of arrested growth...
...Jast s few years age he was a quiet com mater from hat law opto to ear-to nangen toTana when a BapahBeaa to his lap...
...Hs believes in democracy, not because he was indoctrinated with political shibboleths and catch phrases ia a classroom, but because he remembers that his own ancestors fled here to escape European tyranny...
...It should sell even more, aad shonld continue selling as long as people prefer te grasp st half-truth rather than harsh reality...
...Willkie's infections optimism and good cheer, it is no wonder the keek has sold more than 1.0O0.0O0 copies...
...AND right here realism forces us to consider ^* Japan...
...Russia is an effective society...
...The individual, however, does not order his Ufa in terms of historical cycles...
...Perhaps, its true, he does not know large doses of the formalized knowledge as "history...
...Moreover, he knows the story of his community, how it has expanded, grown, and become more complicated...
...Fraser's apparently merobertess "Committee on American History" who arc demanding legislative investigation* and enactments, might all take warning from this test If the Man-in-the-street is to be given a richer and teller knowledge of the American heritage, th* history that is taught him must be the history ef the common man...
...The amazing fact is not that they knew so little, but that they know so much...
...Thirteen per cent knew that, which was probably as high* as the contemporary record...
...The feet did not prove that formal, pedantic, sad sterne history is net taught m the schools...
...A perspicacious political leadership will try to avoid exposing him to such a moral ordeal...
...There is much more in the same vein...
...The western world made Japan, accessible to modern techniques and resources, and the western world accepted Japan on a basis of equality...
...but I must admit ta all frankness that I was not prepared to ketteve before I went te Russia what I now knew about its strength as a going organization of man and women...
...He knows much, too, of his parents' experiences, and, through sharing their memories, he can project himself into the past far fifty to a hundred years...
...or agriculture...
...Just when, a critic might well ask, was beine president a "contribution...
...Liberal and likeable ft is a kind af mil stint in the Eflatatisji af Weadefl Willkie.• - [*.-: Ferdsnaad landharg hes*-reviews "Oae Worst" with a critical eye...
...His knowledge of public events in a remote period may be sketchy, and he may not knew that George H. Thomas, who commanded the Army of the Cumberland in the Civil War, was a major-general...
...The average man—the "msn-ia-the-street," as smug academicians, to glittering originality, love to call him—knows an enor- ' moos amount of history...
...With afl of this there hi ttctie seem for reasoned disagreement...
...He discounted, just as Winston Churchill did to me two years before in England, the notion that Hitler was but a tool in the hands of abler men...
...We need to learn to work, wish her in the weaid after tha war...
...When the writers of hifctories and the publishers ef text-books start telling America's story, at terms of the American people, the pedantic and sterile recitstion of pubHe events will give way te a vital aad ssrsaaal - account of the development ef the Americs b experiment Reaching for the Stars The Willkie Way By FERDINAND LUNDBERG TPHE peoples of the earth are yearning for * reassurance that their tribulations will lead to a happy ending, despite all, and it is the role af politicians and journalists to reinforce their hopes...
...Is it the bronze civic father, the battle of Mur-freesborough, Major-General Thomas, and the list of the Presidents...
...But he does not understand the indirections and sate ef the restraints of the democratic method of waging war...
...and the Democrats who were running him never thought of a good answer...
...Twenty per cent of them knew that John C. Calhoun's home was in South Carolina, 71 per cent identified John D. ' Rockefeller with oil, 73 per cent knew what Eli Whitney invented, and—believe it or not—64 per cent could identify Henry L. Stimson...
...It is not amazing that the average person knows an much vital history, bat it is almost depressing that he also knows so much of the formal, sterile variety...
...The Times test dsaaea strstes the capacity ef the human mind to absorb useless information...
...Jackson, snd Roosevelt I, the examiners asked whet "contributions" they made to the political, social, or economic development of the United States...
...Jefferson...
...His mind on his own plans, the New Dealer misses the view of unionism as a phenomenon psychologically akin to nationalism and almost equally potent—with the individual obeying the orders of the collectivity regardless of personal convenience or preference, with a species of territory, a " Job-territory and with the "inalienable rights of man and citizen" reappearing as seniority rights and the like...
...From the answers Jhey received, its evident that a healthy and hopeful percentage of the testees perceived the absurd and trivial nature of the questions and resorted to wholesale "kidding...
...For cooperation alone won't do the job, with the best will in the world...
...Wpki^jka^^ mb 11 li It dhows th«tthinking^riat1eeat 'tim*ta^g—oTatoa...
...Bat it would hardly do for a politician to inform bis constituents that they are fortunate to he alive daring an upswing to mjjatnrtcal sycle...
...As I read him, we of the United States have cut...
...Willkie's conclusions are set forth as having been arrived at on a rapid trip by plane around the warring world...
...The smoont of history which the average citizen knows is truly amazing...
...sharing...
...Acceptable as a correct answer for each was "President of the United States...
...He wishes to be If...
...to both and hopes that their demands upon au allegiance will not clash...
...The) evidence is quite dear that the 7,000 students who took the test were selected from among those who do not normally take history in college and who avoid it, as far as pOsSShie, in high school...
...Most of the other acceptable answers Were no more than mere tag* of recognition...
...It is sheer Utopia te expect the wage earners, watching management, farmers and retaflflv amove up to choicer economic localities, to content to stand rooted There are othepsigsnnas just as real and they, too, should be reaWs?-*to wit, the danger of bootless group iilllkfjjliis in the midst of war into which we might fall in our very straining to "hold the line...
...He uses his history, and if he thinks America is a great country, it's as much because he and bis father and his grandfather helped build it as because he was subjected to the boresome school task ef memorizing the presidents...
...It was a natural mistake—in fact, it was hardly a mistake at all...
...ilE sponsors of this test have placed * aa erroatoae interpretation oa the results...
...toe*-to eap 4a ee* chief inter** about Mr...
...They are ail capable fellows and' thaw are all...
...A New Viewpoint Toward the Past History for the Common Man By WILLIAM B HESSELTINE Professor *f History, University of Wisconsin P"OH some months, a toe-pot furore' has been raging over the results of an American History test given by the NaeuYurk Times, and compiled by Columbia University's Allan Kevins and Mr...
...Thfe rest of the questions were equally trivial, and the answers often absurd...
...Willkie found new foal for his optimism...
...The controversy has aroused considerable interest, though probably no one has been amazed at the avidity which text-book publishers have seized upon the issue to advertise their wares, or at the desperate defense which certain purveyors and publishers ef "social-science" books have made of their merchandise...
...Nevrns and Fraser, the editors of the Timer and writers for the Hearst papers have expressed a deep amazement over the widespread ignorance of American History shown by 7,000 freshmen in 36 colleges and universities...
...British statesmanship has early realized that control of a wartime economy calls for the exercise of the skill of the cooper who before he is ready to encircle the staves'.with hoops takes care to place them all in position...
...LIE RE the unionist's conception clashes with ** the humanitarian's, at present specifically athe New Dealers...
...hat ahw the peace, and we mast start winning it new...
...here it was by governmental fiat and over the big-employers' protest, although under the circumstances a sab-vocal protest...
...Both objections are beside the point...
...Nevins, who apparently hasn't taught freshmen for atsny years, and Mr...
...WBBdc proceeds to become the tepid admirer turned into ardent booster, concluding the subject with these lines: "No, we do not need to tear Russia...
Vol. 26 • June 1943 • No. 23
