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D

URING THE MONTH of September

further steps were taken at the national level that relate to the organization of education for service during the present defense emergency and educational planning for the future.

Meeting in Washington September 9-11, representatives of 75 educational organizations gave their approval to the organization of a permanent National Conference for the Mobilization of Education, as a means of tying American education into the defense program of the Nation. The conferees voted to set up the Conference as a permanent clearing house for information on defense developments and manpower policies and to work with the Office of Education in an advisory capacity. A resolution adopted by the Conference commended the National Security Resources Board and the President in establishing the Office of Education as an advisory and consultative agency on those aspects of security planning that relate to education.

Representatives of many Federal Government departments and agencies addressed the Conference on problems of special industrial and military training programs which may be needed. Spokesmen for the various educational associations urged top level educational representation on contemplated training programs, representation by education in civilian defense and other local responsibilities, and a strong training of teaching staffs.

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Robert L. Clark, Director, Manpower Office, National Security Resources Board, again stressed that “. . . in the field of education, the National Security Resources Board and the President are looking to the Federal Security Agency and its Office of Education as the focal point within the Federal Government where we will attempt to bring together all the information we can. gather to provide assistance to the schools and colleges and universities of this country in making their contribution to the total national effort."

Mr. Clark said further: "To meet the challenge that this situation presents to us,

we will need all the courage and all the resources, all the initiative and all the skill that we and all the other freedom-loving nations of the world can muster.

"We cannot begin to anticipate the problems with which we will be faced. We are in a world different from any other kind of world that any other civilization has had to face. Perhaps a historian would say it is only a matter of degree, but I think it is different.

"Now, since we cannot anticipate all the problems ahead of us, the keynote of what I would like to leave with you, is that I feel the role of education is to create a resourceful people. I want to emphasize that word 'resourceful.' That means that we must have a well-disciplined, well-educated, alert, healthy group of young people who can meet any kind of situation which may arise.

"We could take steps to have all kinds of specialized training during this period. But how do we know what we want to train for? We had better put our main hope on good basic education. It may mean that we will have to cut out some of the frills. Perhaps you would rather we would cut out some of the reporting procedures. But if this group and other groups like it will carry the word back to the people that this is what we need, and not specialized attempts to meet every minor situation which can be anticipated, you will have made your greatest contribution, in my view, to the defense effort."

Charles A. Thomson, Director, UNESCO Relations Staff, Department of State, called attention to the words of a UNESCO resolution passed on July 28, as follows:

"In addition to devoting the professional educational resources of the Nation to the furtherance of military security, the schools and colleges have also a responsibility to national security arising from the longrange need for well-informed, educated, and high trained citizenship.

"... that the schools and colleges, the teachers and educators of the United States, have the responsibility for preparing our people, men and women, boys and girls, to

chart the course of this Nation in the present world situation and to chart a course which necessarily will have much to do in deciding whether the peoples of the world are headed for a safe harbor or for shipwreck."

Captain G. C. Towner, Training Division of the Bureau of Personnel, U. S. Navy, said, "Since the Navy is a firm believer in the value of a broad educational background as a prerequisite to military specialized training, I strongly recommend that you encourage your students to continue with their civilian studies without interruption. Special emphasis on mathematics, physics, electronics, and above all, citizenship, should be given."

Earl D. Johnson, Assistant Secretary, Department of the Army, stated, "The period our Nation is now in is not a total mobilization-only a twilight mobilization. Therefore, it is possible for us to do things in education that we could not do under total mobilization." He said that the Army wanted "to make maximum use of the educational facilities of today. The more we can parcel out to the civilian population the easier the job will be.”

Federal Security Administrator Oscar R. Ewing, in addressing the Conference, spoke of the need for schools to train new workers, new advisory personnel, and teachers for the several training programs. He mentioned also "up-grading training for personnel already emphasized," and "refresher and transfer training for persons who have previously acquired some needed ability."

Rall I. Grigsby, Deputy Commissioner of Education, discussed the "necessity of putting the Conference discussion in some sort of framework as to the character and possibly the probable duration of the emer" He said, gency. "I presume . that if we become strong enough to deter the aggressors in their aggression in other quarters, we will have to maintain a posture of strength for many years. I suppose also that that implies something in the nature of what some might be inclined to term a garrison state, in the sense, at least, that we will have a large standing military estab

lishment, that we will be devoting a very considerable proportion of our income to military expenditure.

"Another assumption seemingly implicit in the situation is that this is not exclu

sively indeed, perhaps not chiefly a quessively—indeed, tion at this point at least of a contest of arms. This is an ideological combat at the moment, and in that ideological conflict, one of the elements certainly that will have to receive very great emphasis is the things that freedom and democracy mean to people in terms of standards of living, in terms of the Four Freedoms, shall we say, in terms of satisfactory conditions of living.

"It is a contest not only of ideas, but of actual accomplishment under a free system of society as opposed to a totalitarian, authoritarian system.

"I think those assumptions, both as to the duration and as to the character of the critical situation in which we find ourselves, may be reflected somewhat in the consideration of education's place, or role, in this situation."

Continuing, Dr. Grigsby, said, “First, as respects the long-range nature, or the probable long duration of the situation in which we find ourselves, General Hershey pointed out yesterday that youngsters who are now in the age group 8 and 10 years of age may be in a military age group within that period of time. What they receive in the schools. by way of education and training has a rather direct bearing upon their effectiveness as members of the military establishment or as producers in our economy 10 years hence.

"In other words, as was emphasized in the first meeting of this conference, we have to keep an eye on the necessity of undergirding, shoring up, or strengthening, if you please, the going educational establishment. It cannot be permitted to deteriorate, and if we find ourselves in a situation in which teachers are leaving the classroom for higher-paid jobs in industry, in which the military are getting from our schools teachers in great numbers in the armed forces, we may find ourselves in a

situation in which we will have difficulty in continuing education as it should be continued during this period. . .

"I shall not undertake to point out more specifically some of the implications of the necessity of keeping the schools strong. I would refer to the fact that proposals for Federal aid to education continue to make sense in that situation, since we may expect that the difficulties of the schools will be, and will continue to be, basically of a physi cal character. If we are to establish salary scales that will attract and hold teachers in the schools in the situation ahead, we have to be prepared to pay more adequately for the services of qualified teachers.

"If we are to house the young people who are coming to the schools in ever increasing numbers, we have to be able to construct school facilities in spite of shortages. In spite of allocations of critical materials, school construction, it would seem, ought school construction, it would seem, ought to have at least a Number Two priority.

"If we are to provide, as General Hershey pointed out yesterday, at least for the time being, some method by which young people will be deferred, or their induction postponed, if they have superior qualifications for advanced study in colleges and universities, then certainly it would seem to follow that we ought to do something to make higher educational opportunity more freely available to young people regardless of the economic circumstances of the parents or of the homes from which they come. And that seems to imply something in the way of student aid.

"Now as you know, legislative proposals of this character have been before the Congress and no doubt will be before the 82d Congress. I simply point out that in terms of the long pull, we are under the necessity of strengthening, or shoring up, education in this emergency situation."

The Mobilization Conference named Willard E. Givens, Executive Secretary of the National Education Association, as chairman of its executive committee. Other officers named were Vice-Chairman: Edgar Fuller, executive secretary, National Coun

cil of Chief State School Officers; Secretary: J. Kenneth Little, director of student personnel services, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.; Coordinator: J. L. McCaskill, associate secretary, Department of Higher Education, National Education Association, Washington, D. C.

A Defense Information Bulletin of the Office of Education dated Sept. 11, 1950, titled "Amendment to Selective Service Act of 1948," reported the following information:

The President of the United States approved, Sept. 9, 1950, an Act of Congress relating to the induction of medical, dental, and allied specialists. This Act (Public Law 779, 81st Cong. 2d sess.) is an amendment to section 4 of the Selective Service Act of 1948.

That portion of the Act that will be of special interest to the colleges and universities is section (i) (3) which reads as follows:

"It is the sense of the Congress that the President shall provide for the annual deferment from training and service under this title of numbers of optometry students and premedical, preosteopathic, preveterinary, preoptometry and predental students at least equal to the numbers of male optometry, premedical, preosteopathic, preveterinary, preoptometry and predental students in attendance at colleges and universities in the United States at the present levels, as determined by the Director."

We shall inform you of any action taken by the Director of Selective Service in defining such terms as "premedical" and "predental students" and any other implementation of the preceding section that may be effected.

Another Defense Information Bulletin dated September 19 was titled, "President's Executive Order Issued Under Defense Production Act." Content was as follows:

The President on Sept. 9, 1950, issued an Executive order under the Defense Production Act of 1950. Part VI dealing with labor supply, stated: "The Secretary of Labor shall utilize the functions vested in

him so as to meet most effectively the labor needs of defense industry and essential civilian employment."

Section 601 (c) of the Executive Order assigned to the Secretary of Labor responsibility to "formulate plans, programs, and policies for meeting defense and essential civilian labor requirements."

The President on Sept. 9 also approved a memorandum from the Director of the Bureau of the Budget which included a reference to certain responsibilities of the Department of Labor and the Federal Security Agency in training defense workers. This reference further defines section 601 (c) of the Executive Order delegating functions under the Defense Production Act.

The memorandum indicated that the Department of Labor would identify training needs for defense activities, and that the Federal Security Agency, through the Office of Education, would "develop plans and programs for the education and training, in groups or classes under organized educational auspices, of personnel needed for work in occupations essential to the national defense."

Initiation of plans for specific training programs under the authorization of this order will depend upon certification by the Department of Labor that manpower shortages exist or are imminent in occupations essential to defense production needs. Plans are being made for the development of programs, to be conducted by schools, colleges, and universities under the sponsorship of the Office of Education, for meeting such shortages.

This bulletin also stated that as additional information concerning control of materials and supplies is released, it will be available from the Field Offices of the Department of Commerce.

As the month of September ended, the American Council on Education was completing plans for its October Conference on Higher Education in the Nation's Service which was expected to be attended by approximately 1,000 representatives of institutions of higher education and related grants. This meeting will be reported in a forthcoming issue of the Office of Education's semimonthly periodical, HIGHER EDUCATION.

A Defense Information Bulletin dated October 3 and titled, "Draft Regulations Affecting College Students," was issued to clarify questions which have arisen concerning the interpretation of the Selective

Service Act of 1948 and Selective Service Operations Bulletin No. 1 of August 8, 1950 as they apply to students.

adequate guidance for the present situation. According to all the signs we can see, we are now in for a long pull-perhaps for a

Under the Selective Service Act of 1948, Section 6 (i) 2, a student may have his induction postponed until the end of the academic year or until he ceases satisfactorily to pursue his course of instruction, whichever is the earlier. This means that a registrant who has been classified and is not deferred is entitled to have his induction postponed until the end of the academic year if he is ordered to report for induction while satisfactorily pursuing his full-time course of instruction. A postponement does not change the registrant's classification and, unless there should arise reason to have the case reopened, the order to report for induction is a continuing obligation on the registrant with which he is expected to comply at the termination of the postponement period.

Operations Bulletin No. 1 is intended to serve as a guide to local boards in determining which college students properly should be considered for deferment-in distinction from postponement-in an effort to carry out the desire of the Congress to provide the fullest possible utilization of the Nation's technological, scientific, and other critical manpower resources as expressed in the Selective Service Act, sections 1 (e) and 6 (i) 2. A student may be considered for deferment if he has completed at least one academic year of a fulltime course of instruction in an institution of higher education; if he was in the upper half of his class during the last academic year he was enrolled; and if he had arranged prior to August 1, 1950, to enroll in a fulltime course of instruction for the academic year ending in the spring of 1951. This means that a registrant may be classed in class II-A until the close of the academic year or for such other period as the board. might determine, not to exceed 1 year. At the end of this deferment, the registrant must again present to his local board a request for deferment if he desires it and submit such information as the local board requires in support of his request.

Commissioner of Education Earl James McGrath made the following statement regarding education's role in the present

emergency:

We cannot assume that the lessons learned in World War II will in themselves provide

Among these essentials is education. The military strength of the Nation, over the long pull, is directly dependent upon adequate health and educational services to youth.

Equally important, we must as a free democracy be strong militarily without becoming a garrison state. If this is to be done, it will be necessary to strengthen our educational system and other basic institutions.

The Nation, then, will be vitally concerned with the education of American boys and girls. We cannot postpone education for a generation, and then hope to "take up slack." The oncoming generation comes on; its education cannot wait. That education must be adequate.

Special Announcement

THIS ISSUE of SCHOOL LIFE presents considerable defense information which requires the omission of the regular features, Selected Theses in Education, and New Books and Pamphlets, as well as Aids to EducationBy Sight and Sound. It is hoped that these features will appear again in the December issue of SCHOOL Life.

See page 20 for a listing of Defense Mobilization Assignments in the Office of Education, and pages 24 to 26 for Defense Information Bulletins and emergency education developments.

See "Amendment to Selective Service Act of 1948" reported in the Defense Information Bulletin of September 11 (page 25) and "President's Executive Order Issued Under Defense Production Act" reported in the Defense Information Bulletin of September 19 (page 25).

See also "Draft Regulations Affecting College Students" presented in another Defense Information Bulletin dated October 3 (page 26).

W

HEN THE Communist aggressors invaded the free territory of the Republic of Korea on June 25, the whole confused wilderness of international relations and of conflicting ideologies came into focus. We know now where we stand. We know some, at least, of the implications of what we have done to resist totalitarian aggression. Weand the whole free world-have abruptly called a halt to the creeping inroads of those who would undermine, or subvert, or utterly destroy, the free way of life which means so much to us.

The events of the past few months, climaxing the long and tortured logic of history which has forced our country into leadership of the free world, place us squarely in the middle of the battle for men's minds. The most fundamental difference between ourselves and our opponents, in this battle, is simply this: That the totalitarians seek to capture men's minds. We, on the other hand, seek to free men's minds. It is the strategy of en

trapment, of terror, of the intellectual straitjacket, against the strategy of release, of inquiry, of skepticism, of intellectual and academic freedom, and of mature judgment.

THIS STATEMENT is from an address made by Mr. Ewing at the banquet session of the 33d annual convention of the American Federation of Teachers, Detroit, Mich., August 23, 1950.

They want people to stop thinking, and to start accepting. We want people to think for themselves, to think harder and better than ever before, and by that means to reach joint decisions. Their idea is conformity, by force if necessary; our idea is free choice, influenced only by argument and knowledge.

It would be foolish to say that we will win this battle simply because our way is better than the totalitarian way. You have to work hard to live the life of the democratic man. You have to face facts, see through

propaganda, make up your own mind; and this is a process infinitely more difficult than the mere acceptance of the triple-talk of the totalitarian party line. Furthermore, you must make up your mind-not oncebut again, and again, and again, as new problems and new dilemmas confront you. We use many tools in making up our minds. We use the press and radio and television and motion pictures and books. We use the common sense which God may have given us. We use the everyday experience of our everyday lives, and we check the larger problems against this practical yardstick. We use the talents and leadership of our great men and women, our politicians and philosophers and writers and distinguished citizens in every field.

But, of all influences, perhaps the most profound and lasting is the influence of the classroom teacher. The teacher, more than any other person, molds the thinking of young people when they are most impressionable and thereby fixes the patterns for tomorrow's thinking. You cannot shirk this responsibility. I do not think you want to do so. Your job is not entrapment, but release-you are not trying to force young people into a rigid pattern, but just the reverse, for you are trying to show them how to use the wisdom and experience of the past to create new patterns of life and behavior.

We have always needed to do this, and we have always tried to do this. But we have reached a time when the need is greater than ever before. We are confronted by a Communist ideology which appeals even to a few Americans, and which appeals to very many people in other countries. Now that the United States is clearly the leader of the free world, it is incumbent on us that we show to ourselves and the whole world just what we mean by the democratic philosophy.

Let us start with the educators themselves. We believe in freedom of thought and speech, and therefore we stand firmly for academic freedom in the schools and colleges of the Nation. There is no place in the ranks of teachers and administrators

for either brand of totalitarianism-whether of the left or of the right. We know from experience and the American Federation of Teachers knows particularly well-that the closed mind of the doctrinaire dogmatist has no place in the American school.

Making up America's mind does not mean closing it. It means opening it to truth, and subjecting all that comes before the bar of human judgment to the impartial, unbiased verdict of consistent logic and clear reason. It also means holding firmly to standards of value which alone make such judgment meaningful. It means the unremitting defense of freedom to think and to learn, and therefore to teach. It means the relentless pursuit of truth for truth's sake. And, above all in this time of crisis, it means knowing clearly why our freedom is better than tyranny, why the individual is more important than the state, why each child holds within him the future of the community, why the strength of democracy rests upon the basic human freedoms and human values.

The Nation looks to you, as teachers, for leadership in making these things clear to every one of our children. But you, in turn, have a right to look to the Nation for sup port. Part of the community's responsibil ity to you is to see that the men and women on whom we depend for the teaching of out children are paid enough to be able to speak of the fruits of American freedom in more than abstract terms.

The low salaries which teachers receive in too many parts of the country are nothing less than scandalous. Here is the very prof fession which is the foundation of all other professions, the profession which carries the banner of democracy and knowledge and understanding. Why should this profession, of all professions, be underprivileged, underrated, and underpaid?

We speak of the desperate shortage of working teachers in America today. What incentive are we offering to young men and women to go into the profession? Man does not live by the dollar bill, but neither does he live very well without it. You became working teachers, not because there were financial rewards offered to you, but because you saw in the classroom a great opportunity to render service to the people of America. Your reward, too often, is little more than your sense of personal satisfaction in a job well done. It seems to me that every one of us, as citizens, must do everything we can to add to this the additional satisfaction of adequate wages.

You need more than this. You need the tools with which to work. We turn out automobiles and war weapons-in handsome, scientifically designed, spacious factories. We spend much time, much thought, and much money, to improve the conditions under which the vast industrial production of America is generated.

Yet in our schoolhouses the fountainheads of ideas and knowledge in which we generate the citizenry of America--we have let the plant run down. At the very time when we expect education to do a bigger and better job than ever before, we ourselves are not doing as well by our schools as we have in the past. Twenty years ago the country invested three cents out of every dollar of national income in education. This year, our investment in education has fallen well below two cents on the dollar. We are short-changing our own children.

Over the next 10 years, we need to spend a billion dollars a year to improve our educational facilities. This money will not come, to any large degree, from the Federal Treasury. It will have to come from the States, the counties, and the municipalities of the country. It will only come when the parents of America are aroused to the point where they are willing to pay the extra pennies that will prevent their own children from being short-changed in education.

Biggest Educational Job

You as teachers are now facing up to the biggest educational job of all-the job of educating the American public to its own needs in the schools. I recall that, some time ago, teachers were accused of running a sinister lobby for education. If you as members of the American Federation of Teachers insist upon your right to a more adequate salary, if you insist on informing the community about the crying need for more and better schools, if you insist on expressing your views on the necessity to go forward in America-if you do those things, as you are doing, then you need not pay any attention to the shrill cries of the professional reactionaries. We need more lobbying like that in America.

We need Federal aid to education, so that children in every last corner of the United States can have at least the minimum of educational opportunity which all children deserve. We need a program of scholarships and insured student loans, so that these opportunities can be continued right through the college years, for those students who could not otherwise afford to pay

for higher education. We need to strengthen the leadership in the field of education that is already provided by the Office of Education, a part of the Federal Security Agency.

We need to do these things within the framework and philosophy of social progress. Last week Congress passed the amendments to the Social Security Act, greatly expanding the coverage of the social security program and bringing the benefits of social insurance more closely in line with today's costs of living. I have no doubt that this tremendous forward step in social legislation will be signed by the President within the next day or two. [EDITOR'S NOTE: President Truman signed the new social security law on August 28, 1950].

This too is part of the social program which the American people desire-more and better education, more and better family security, new and better ways of paying the high costs of medical care, new and better rules to govern the relations between labor and industry, new and better ways to eliminate discrimination and to promote civil rights. You know the roster of needs in America as well as I do, because these are your needs as well as mine. You as teachers and as a segment of organized labor have fought hard and well for these advances.

There are some who feel that we must stop working for this kind of progress because of the international situation. Certainly our primary effort must be on the strengthening of our country to meet whatever demands may be placed upon us. Nobody who understands the difference between Democracy and Communism, between freedom and the police state, will challenge this. What we must continue to remember, however, is that our country is strong only if our people are strong-and that our people are strong only if our education, our health, and our family security are maintained and strengthened. There is no conflict here. There is merely the interplay of needs for the making of a powerful America in a turbulent world.

In issuing its call for this year's annual convention, the American Federation of Labor, of which you are members, stressed its insistence on the need to go forward, constantly and unceasingly, in this hour of crisis. That is what we must do-go forward-and the teachers of the United States stand in the very forefront of the unconquerable American movement to build, to improve, to strengthen, and to conquer.