This article and the statement quoted above were of interest to us. A letter was therefore written to the NEA asking for information about the report on the 522 school systems. The letter in reply to our request is quoted herewith, together with our letter which preceded it. MARCH 19, 1954. Mr. FRANK W. HUBBARD, Director of Research, National Education Association, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. HUBBARD: In an article in Look magazine of March 9, 1954, Mr. Robert M. Hutchins refers to a survey made by your association. He reports that this survey came to the conclusion that teachers of economics, history and political sciences in 522 school systems, covering every section of the United States, are reluctant to consider controversial issues in their teaching. This statement suggests the possibility of a serious handicap to education. We want to evaluate your report so that we may learn the nature of the fears to which Mr. Hutchins refers in this article. Your report will offer us a welcome contribution to our understanding of the nature of the services rendered by your tax exempt organization to education. With thanks for your attention, Very truly yours, I will now quote the reply: Mr. NORMAN DODD, NORMAN Dodd, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Research Director, Special Committee to Investigate Tax Exempt Foundations, House of Representatives, Washington 25, D. C. DEAR MR. DODD: In reply to your letter of March 19, I am sending you a copy of the report prepared by the NEA research division in June 1953 for the NEA committee on tenure and academic freedom. This report has never been printed or issued in any form other than the enclosed typewritten form. So far as I know Mr. Hutchins did not have a copy of this typed memorandum, altho he may have borrowed one from someone who received a copy. A few typewritten copies have been sent to members of the committee on tenure and academic freedom and to a few other individuals who have written asking for copies. It is possible that Mr. Hutchins drew his information from the newspaper stories which were issued from Miami Beach during the summer of 1953 as a result of a press conference on this report. At any rate, I am not sure that Mr. Hutchins' conclusions would be exactly those of the NEA research division or of the NEA committee on tenure and academic freedom. Cordially yours, FRANK W. HUBBARD, Director, Research Division. Inference from this letter seems reasonably clear. Careful reading by the staff failed to disclose any basis for the conclusion reached by Mr. Hutchins. Regardless of the letter quoted, the NEA had many reprints of this article. The mere existence of these reprints suggests that they must have been intended for distribution to interested parties. Whether or not they have been or are being distributed, we do not know. We also wonder how many educators would support the concluding line of Dr. Hutchins' article: No country ever needed education more than ours does today. Did I understand you to say at The CHAIRMAN. It is now noon. the beginning, Mr. Koch, there is another part to follow that is to be presented this afternoon? Mr. KOCH. Will that other part be ready? Mr. MCNIECE. It is supposed to be ready this afternoon. Mr. HAYS. I would like to say, I think that we ought to examine this one before we hear another 50-page report. Mr. KOCH. It can be treated in that fashion. The CHAIRMAN. I think that would be the best way. Mr. MCNIECE. There is no essential continuity to the two papers. Mr. HAYS. I have a short statement here, of one page, from Senator Douglas, which he has asked that we incorporate into the record immediately following the testimony of Mr. Sargent's reference to him, and I wonder if you would have any objection. If you like I would read it and it will only take a minute. The CHAIRMAN. You can read it, by all means. Mr. HAYS. This statement of Senator Douglas, sent to me, says: Forty years ago when I was a graduate student at Columbia University I was a member and attended some meetings of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, organized to study social problems, but it was in no sense a political action group. It had no connection with the Socialist Party, of which I have never been a member. The only party to which I have ever belonged is the Democratic Party. The society was purely a study group devoted to the study of socialism and other current problems. I left this organization and was not thereafter active in it. The League for Industrial Democracy was an outgrowth of the Intercollegiate Society and included many other non-Socialists like myself. I spoke and was somewhat active at the League for Industrial Democracy study sessions for a period. From the early 1920's on, and after a brief period in the 1930's I had only slight connection with the league's study sessions. I became wholly inactive when I was engaged in helping draft State and Federal legislation to meet the pressing problems of the depression. Both of these were bona-fide research and discussion groups in the best American tradition. Both organizations included some of the finest persons in the educational field at that time. Both organizations were constructive in their purposes. This dusting off of old and discredited charges is but another example of Congress' need to pass a code of procedure for guidance of its investigations. Signed "Paul H. Douglas." The CHAIRMAN. I see no disadvantage in that going in the record as far as I am concerned. We are glad to have it go in. Mr. HAYS. I would like to have it in the proper place so it would have some meaning in the context. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Sargent, though, and some other interested parties, sent or gathered, from my information, and I presume the committee's, rather extensive quotations from Senator Douglas' book The Coming of the New Party I believe it was entitled; and I don't know whether those should be included at that same place or not. Mr. HAYS. Well, I wouldn't want to say that they should be without seeing them, and without having Senator Douglas check them to see whether they are authentic or not. The CHAIRMAN. That can be decided. They seem to be rather pertinent in view of the discussion that came up. The committee will stand adjourned until 2:30 this afternoon. (Thereupon, the committee recessed at 12:15 p. m.; to reconvene at 2:30 p. m., the same day.) AFTER RECESS (The hearing was resumed at 2:40 p. m.) The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. TESTIMONY OF THOMAS M. McNIECE-Resumed The CHAIRMAN. Mr. McNiece, the committee I am sure is appreciative of the research, comprehensive research and the splendid manner in which you have stated the results of your research, and the impartial, temperate and nice way in which the characterizations have been made. My personal feeling is that it is a contribution to the subject which we are investigating, and as is the case with all of these presentations by members of the staff or other witnesses, it remains for the committee, in its final deliberations, after all of the hearings have been completed, to evaluate and relate the testimony or information that has been given. But we are very greatly appreciative. And I want to commend you on your efforts. Now, we will proceed with the questioning. Do you have any questions? Mr. GOODWIN. I have no questions, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Mrs. Pfost, if you have some questions, Mr. Hays is quite willing to yield to you for your questioning. Mr. MCNIECE. If I may interject a remark. Mr. Hays asked a question as to whether the magazine Progressive Education is still in publication. The Congressional Library assures us that it is. And they have in their possession the issue for March of 1954. Mr. KOCH. What is the present title of the magazine? Mr. MCNIECE. Progressive Education. There has been a shift in the name of the publishers, back and forth, a little bit. The original volume from which we made our quotation says: The Progressive Education Association, United States Section of the New Education Fellowship, Washington, D. C. I understand that the magazine is now published by the American Education Fellowship, New York, N. Y., and there has been a shift of names, back and forth; but I am told that the sponsorship has not changed. Mrs. PrOST. First of all, Mr. McNiece, I would like to ask you: We were first given this report marked "Confidential" some week or so ago and then a more recent one. Are you the author of this report? Mr. MCNIECE. Yes. That is the one I read this morning you are referring to. Mrs. ProST. You are the author of the one that you read this morning? Mr. McNIECE. Yes, that is right. Mrs. Prost. In other words, the earlier one you were not the author of. I notice they are quite identical. Mr. MCNIECE. Oh, no, there is absolutely not a word changed. The only reason for the second issue was that by mistake certain extracts appeared twice. Mrs. ProST. There was repetition? 49720-54-pt. 1—32 Mr. MCNIECE. And in the new issue there is not a word changed except the elimination of the repeated excerpts. That was a mere mistake in arranging the material for typing. Mrs. ProST. You did compile the original report yourself, every word of it? Mr. MCNIECE. Every word, yes. Mrs. Prost. It is your own composition? Mr. MCNIECE. That is right. The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean that literally-every word? Mr. MCNIECE. Unless it was a typographical error. Mr. HAYS. Would you yield to me right there? Did any other members of the staff, either present members or people who may have been members previously, help you at all with this, Mr. McNiece? Mr. McNIECE. None, no one. The CHAIRMAN. I had understood myself that this was Mr. McNiece's project, but I didn't know that he had written every word of it. Mr. MCNIECE. Of course, I didn't write the excerpts, you understand. The CHAIRMAN. Do you have any other questions? Mrs. Prost. I have 2 or 3 little things here that I would like to ask about. On the old report, owing to the fact that I have had the old report for a greater length of time, I have my marginal notes on the old report. And on page 15 of the old report, which would be somewhere near page 12 or thereabouts of the new report, support for this latter statement, it is under the heading of the report of the Commission on the Social Studies, conclusions and recommendations of the commission, you say: Support for this latter statement, will be introduced later. Now, does that have to do with the new report that we have just been handed? Mr. MCNIECE. I am still trying to find that. Mr. KOCH. It is on page 11. Mr. MCNIECE. I might state the reason for the page differential is that the first report was turned out in pica type and the second one was turned out in elite type, and so it changed the page numbers. Mrs. Prost. I noticed that. You say: It is with this final volume of conclusions and recommendations that the staff committee is concerned. It covers a tremendous field of recommendation and application actively in process as of this day. Support for this latter statement will be introduced later. Mr. MCNIECE. Yes. Mrs. PFOST. When did you mean? Mr. MCNIECE. A part of that is in now, and I repeated that this morning, in the subsequent quotations from the various magazines, and from the quotations from some of the National Education Association publications, particularly Forces Affecting American Education, and then some of the support will also appear in a later section which, as I pointed out this morning, concerns the relationship as shown on that chart between foundations and government. Mrs. Prost. Now, I wanted to ask you, on these letters that you have given here, Mr. McNiece, the Hubbard and the Dodd letters, just what was your reason and what do you feel that those prove-those letters? Mr. McNIECE. Well, the letters only prove that we were interested in Mr. Hutchins' statement as it appeared in the article in Look Magazine, and we were concerned, as Mr. Dodd expressed himself in the letter, with the possible effect of a condition of that kind on education. So we asked to see the report itself, and they have kindly sent it to us and we have that. We have what Mr. Hubbard himself has assured us is a typewritten copy of the report in the only form in which it was ever issued. Mrs. Prost. I see, thank you. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Hays has some questions. Mr. HAYS. Before we go into your statement, Mr. McNiece, would you tell us what you have done before you came with the committee to get some idea of your background? Mr. McNIECE. Well, it is rather a long story. Mr. HAYS. Just generally, the last 10 years or so. Mr. MCNIECE. Well, I might say that I received a BS degree in electrical engineering from Case Institute of Technology, that is a long ways back, and later an EE degree. Mr. HAYS. Where is that? In Cleveland? Mr. MCNIECE. In Cleveland, Ohio. I made a few notes, perhaps it would be quickest, Mr. Hays Mr. MCNIECE. This runs over quite a period of years. And I had administrative charge over electrical testing and research laboratory, production, all phases including: production planning and schedules; plant accounting over approximately 25 factories, including timekeeping, payrolls, storekeeping, monthly balance sheets and operating reports; inventory control, monthly and annual budgets, and so forth; sales accounting, market, advertising and sales analysis and budgetary control; security and investment analysis; extended research in economics, especially in field of business fluctuations; world-wide economic analyses involving operating results, economic and market characteristics in various principal countries. Approximately 5 years in volunteer "on call" work with the Department of Justice during and after World War I. Civil Service commissioner in midwestern city. Chairman of local school district committee including board of education created to study and report on school situation with respect to curriculum, construction and operating cost estimates and effect of possible merger with adjoining school district. Seminar speaker at Columbia, Cornell, New York and Princeton Universities, and Stevens Institute of Technology. Participant on programs of National Association of Cost Accountants, International Cost Accounting Conference, American Management Association, United States Chamber of Commerce, Boston Retail Distribution Conference, American Statistical Association, National Industrial Conference Board, American Mining Congress, and others. I have been a consultant on management problems. Articles have been published in various magazines and journals including among others: |