xt70rx937t9n_522 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4.dao.xml unknown 13.63 Cubic Feet 34 boxes, 2 folders, 3 items In safe - drawer 3 archival material 46m4 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Laura Clay papers Temperance. Women -- Political activity -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- United States -- History. Women -- Suffrage -- Kentucky. Women -- Suffrage -- United States. Civil service reform pamphlets and leaflets text Civil service reform pamphlets and leaflets 2020 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4/Box_34/Folder_2/Multipage24779.pdf 1908-1911 1911 1908-1911 section false xt70rx937t9n_522 xt70rx937t9n DOCUMENT NO 8

PAT RONAGE

IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

BY
LUCY MAYNARDSALMON

Pnonsson or HISTORY
VASSAR CoLLzGL

BOSTON
PUBLISHED FOR
THE WOMEN’S AUXILIARY OF THE
MASSACHUSETTS CIVIL SERVICE REFORM ASSOCIATION
1908

 

 P A T R O N A G E
IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

It is a well-known truth that the most conservative
of institutions are those through which the processes
of education are accomplished. Education clings to
the old and reverences the past; it is guided by
tradition and governed by precedent. It is on its
guard against the adoption of new ideas and the
acceptance of novel theories, and it has ever been
a follower rather than a leader. This condition
would be surprising were not an explanation for it
readily found in the long domination of the educational
system by that even more conservative influence, the
Church. The medieval university and school existed
mainly for the purpose of training young men for the
Church; hence it was inevitable that the Church was
the governing body, that professors and teachers were
clergymen, that courses of study were planned with
reference to the needs of theology as a profession.
This relationship was not changed when the Reforma—
tion emancipated individual thought. Under Angli-
can and under Puritan, the controlling influence in
education was ecclesiastical not less than it had been
under the domination of the Mediaeval Church, and
not less than it is to—day where the Church of Rome
is the insistent force. For centuries the Church led
and education followed, whether the Church was
Romanist or Protestant. The result of this long
control of education by the Church was the fostering
in the educational system of a spirit of inertia, of
passive acceptance of whatever was prescribed by
the supervising authority, of the attitude of non-resis-

3

 

  

tance and even fatalism. Lack of exercise brought,
as was inevitable, the decay of the power of self—
activity, which had, indeed, never existed as a distinct
force, but only as a germ that under more favoring
conditions might have been developed into inde-
pendence of action. The educational system was there—
fore conservative—its function was to hand down
a body of truths generally accepted by the Church,
and not to be questioned by those transmitting them;
it was not its function to be either an investigator
or a leader.

Notwithstanding the partial substitution of civil for
ecclesiastical control, this conservatism has not been
changed; it is now the State instead of the Church
that leads, While education still follows. As educa—
tion formerly accepted what was prescribed by the
Church, so now it for the most part accepts what is
prescribed by the State. Its general attitude is well
described by a characterization of the political system
made by Mr. E. J. Lowell, when he says, “It is
characteristic of the European family of nations, as
distinguished from the other great divisions of man—
kind, that among them different ideals of government
and of life arise from time to time, and that before
the whole of a community has entirely adopted one
set of principles the more advanced thinkers are
already passing on to another.” 1

If this principle is applied to the relative position of
the State and education, it is evident that the starting-
point of the statesman is found to be the goal of the
educator. Hence the educational system constantly
suffers from the employment of antiquated political
methods that have never represented the highest ideals,
and from attempts to employ principles not in harmony
with the generally accepted ideas of the best form of
political government. Illustrations of this slower pace,
in which education follows in the footsteps of the
State, are seen in the survival of denominational
schools long after the separation of Church and State;
in the adoption and retention of the monarchical

‘ Eve of the French Revolution, p. I.
4.

 principle in educational organization long after its
abandonment in the political world; in the educational
disfranchisement of all officers of instruction so far
as regards the choice of their superior oflicers, while
universal suffrage has for a century been the generally
accepted theory behind our political institutions; in
the application of the principle of lese—majesty to
every educational institution in America, though free—
dom of speech and of the press are guaranteed by the
political constitution of the State; in the accomplish—
ment of its ends through a highly centralized form
of administration with a resulting bureaucracy, though
this form of government when found in the field of
politics is but the survival of worn-out conditions.

It follows that while education has thus clung ten—
aciously to principles of government that have been
abandoned by the State, and has been slow to accept
and to adopt those that have proved satisfactory in
the political field, it has, on the other hand, also been
slow to introduce those contrary principles that have
found an entrance into politics, but have never been
approved by statesmen. The educational system, for
example, has not as yet been charged with the whole—
sale bribery and corruption that have brought dis—
grace upon the states of Delaware and Rhode Island,
nor has it ever worked through intimidation as has
often been the case in Southern politics.

It is, therefore, not surprising that it was long after
the evil of the spoils theory was introduced into the
body politic before its corrupting effects were notice-
able in the educational system. It is perhaps equally
not to be wondered at that, once introduced, the evil
has spread with great rapidity, until its extent is
perhaps not realized by those whose activities have
been given to checking its growth in the political field.

But it must be noted that while the spoils system is
essentially the same both in politics and in education,
there are a few deviations from the parallel. The in—
troduction of the spoils system into the State was the
result of the sudden supremacy in our political life of
certain new, untried, self—assertive, over—confident
forces that came to the front with the rapid develop-

5

 

 

  

ment of new material conditions. In the educational
system its introduction was purely a matter of imita—
tion—it has served well the ends of certain poli—
ticians in the State, it could be made to serve equally
well the ends of other politicians in education. Its
introduction into the national government attracted
immediate attention through the importance of the
offices affected,—— justices of the United States courts,
cabinet officers, ministers of foreign courts, im-
portant collectorships and postmasterships were all
involved. In education, the positions affected were
all local in character and of minor importance. To—
day a thousand teachers could at once be removed or
appointed for political reasons in different parts of
the country, and far less attention would be attached
to the situation than has been concentrated on the
district-attorneyship of Delaware or the collectorship
of Charleston. Its introduction into the State rOused
at once the active protests of the greatest minds of the
country,—— Webster, Clay, and Calhoun all joined
forces in earnest protest against the prostitution of
the national offices in the interests of scheming poli-
ticians. Education has had no leader, and the evil
has met with little opposition as it has spread itself in—
sidiously into every part of the country. The best ele-
ment in the citizenship of the State has everywhere
protested against its introduction into civic life, while
education has been non-resistant.

The spoils evil has therefore developed in the
educational system with great rapidity because it has
been an imitation, and imitation reproduces itself to
infinity, because the positions affected have been as a
rule obscure and of minor importance, and because
education has not developed champions of the calibre
of Webster and Calhoun, Jenckes and Curtis, who have
protected it from the assaults of its enemies. But
most of all the development has been rapid because
the organization of educational work has lent itself
readily to the propagation of the evil. In the absence
of a national system of education, the States have
governed their educational affairs in their own way.
It has thus been possible for the evil to take root in

6

 forty—five different systems, and to multiply itself
indefinitely through country and local organizations.

The head of the political system of the State is
the State legislature and thus this body is in a position
to be a prey to the spoilsmen. It is therefore to this
body that politicians go for authority to introduce
into the schools the compulsory study of American his—
tory in the interests of so—called ”patriotism”; it is
the State legislature that prescribes that the benefits
of protective tariff or the virtues of bi—metalism must
be taught, it is the State legislature that authorizes
the teaching of physiology with special reference to
the injurious effects of alcoholic drinks ;— it is poli—
ticians rather than educators who prescribe what the
schools are to teach, and this is done less from
vital interest in the subjects themselves than from a
desire to retain or to gain votes from the constituencies
interested. If offices can not be distributed to large
numbers of voters, their support can be retained
through arranging a required curriculum in the in—
terests of special groups of politicians and well—mean—
ing philanthropists. It is the State legislature that
carries out the behests of politicians and inaugurates
a system of uniform text—books published at State
expense, with the result that “the people have paid for
the books twice, once by taxation and once by pur-
chase.”1

Not only is it possible for the State legislature thus
to interfere in larger questions, as those of the curri—
culum and text-books, and in minor ways, as in the
appointment of school holidays, but in many of the
States it elects the State Superintendent of public
instruction. This introduces at once and directly the
political element into the educational system, since the
tenure of office is for but a limited period and rotation
in office prevails. A fluctuating policy results, since
every turn of the political wheel involves a correspond-

‘ In 1900 the State of California had invested more than
a million and a half dollars in a printing plant and in the
manufacture of text—books and had nothing to show for it.
See the account given of the California experiment by R. D.
Faulkner in Educational Review, XX., p. 60.

7

 

 

  

ing change in the office of State Superintendent. Even
in the first instance the office is too often filled in the
interests of party managers. It is but a few years
ago that a state superintendent of public instruction
was elected by a State Legislature, and some of the
daily papers of the State congratulated the public on
the ideal choice made, since the person elected had
always served faithfully the cause of the Republican
party.

But the stronghold of the politician is in the local
administration of the public schools in towns and cities.
In these places the management and control of public
educational affairs is in the hands of a board of edu-
cation whose functions are most important.

They may be classed under three heads: The most
obvious are the business duties, or those that concern
the educational plant. These include the purchase of
school sites, the construction and repair of buildings,
the decision in regard to methods of heating, lighting,
ventilation, and sanitary equipment; all of these duties
carry with them the letting of large numbers of im—
portant contracts.

A second class concerns the material equipment of
the schools. This comprises the purchase of school
furniture, necessary apparatus, libraries, decorative
material, stationery and similar supplies, and the selec—
tion and payment of janitors, watchmen, and other
caretakers.

A third class is connected with the specific field of
education. This includes the selection and appointment
of superintendents, principals, and teachers; the de-
cision in regard to the establishment of technical
schools, commercial schools, evening schools, training
schools for teachers, general industrial and mechanical
training, courses of public lectures, university exten—
sion, and similar educational activities; the choice of
text—books, and finally the general questions connected
with the curriculum.

In view of these manifold activities it is important
to inquire how the members of the board of education
receive their office. Three general types of school
boards are found: The first is a large body whose

8

 members are appointed by the Mayor equally from both
political parties, and it is inevitable that pressure should
be brought to bear on him to give positions on the
board to office seekers who have been disappointed in
securing larger or more important political offices.
Positions on the school board thus become the consola-
tion prizes of disappointed office seekers. The second
type of school board is also a large body, elected by
the voters on a general ticket. Here the tendency is
for positions to be sought not so much by disappointed
office seekers, as by political aspirants who seek the
office as the first step to political preferrnent.1 The
school board thus becomes to them the first round
in the political ladder that stretches from the street
to the presidency. The third type of a school board
may be either large or small, but the members are
elected by the residents of the ward, they reside in
the ward, and they are elected to represent the ward.
In such boards it follows that a premium is put on
mediocrity, and that places on the board become the
sugar—plums given the small ward politician as a
reward for faithful service to the political boss. In
all three types of school board, it must be evident
that political influence is the whip hand Where de—
cisions are to be made that affect the schools.
Appointed or elected as politicians, by politicians, for
politicians, it is but natural that members of such
school boards should magnify their office, and regard
themselves as representing political rather than edu—
cational interests. Their own attitude towards their
duties is perhaps illustrated by a recent session of
a school board, where a member said with pride that
he was not an educator in any way, shape, manner or
form whatever, and that if the people elected him on
that supposition, they made a great mistake? Another

‘ The case is on record of a young man who sought and
obtained election to the school board because it would help
gratify his ambition to become a night policeman. “Con—
fessions of Public School Teachers”——Atlamic Monthly,
LXXVIII, p. 97.

1 Report of the National Educational Association, 1900,
p. 618.

9

 

  

member of another school board has put himself on
record in regard to this position when he says: “I
believe that a business man, a business man of in—
telligence, is better qualified than a professional edu-
cator to run our school system, as he is guided more
by what the people actually want!”1

School boards, then, to generalize from these and
many other particulars that lack of time prevents
enumerating, who have been elected for political
reasons, interpret their election as a vindication of
business, that is, of political methods, and govern them—
selves accordingly.

It is of interest to note the result of such “business"
methods on the different classes of functions,— those
that concern the educational plant, the material equip—
ment, and the specific field of teaching (in providing
for the initial outlay). It must be evident that the
temptations are manifold for members of school boards
elected for political reasons to purchase for school sites
property that may be ill adapted for school purposes,
but property that a brother politician desires to sell ;2 to
appoint for the construction of school buildings a local
architect who builds dwelling—houses, churches, court—
houses, banks, opera—houses, and school buildings with
equal lack of appreciation of the different uses each
building is to serve; to let contracts for heating, light-
ing, and ventilating school buildings to those whose
political support is sought.3

Similar temptations are found in providing material
equipment for schools. That these temptations are not
resisted is evident from the words of a citizens’ com-

1 Educational Review, February, 1899.

2 In one city the high school is located on the top of a
high hill diflicult to be reached on foot, while street—car lines
pass on two sides of it and the resulting noise is almost
intolerable.

“ New heating apparatus was needed in a large high school,
and, at great expense, gas engines were introduced at the
instigation of one of the commissioners, who was a member
of the firm manufacturing the engines. They were in-
adequate for the purpose, the building could not be heated
and it soon became imperative to take them out and sub—
stitute a method of heating not controlled by political in-
fluence.

Io

 mittee that has for many years been attempting, as
yet ineffectually, to free one of our great cities from the
grip of the spoilsmen. It reports: “The natural tend-
ency is for the holders of places on the board to be
governed by considerations of ward politics rather than
by the interests of the schools at large. This is not
theory; at present janitorships are traded 0E, and
even principalships of schools in certain wards are re-
garded as the perquisites of representatives of such
wards. Buildings are secured for wards by members
having the greatest ‘pull,’ and other districts are de-
prived of schools regardless of the needs of such dis—
tricts. The whole school management becomes a system
of trading of ward interests. The school district should
be a unit if economical and systematic arrangement
is to be possible.”

That this condition is as true of other cities as it
is of Detroit is evident from school boards that pur—
chase stereopticons without lantern slides, and that
contract for chromos by the score to be used as wall
decorations,1 that purchase school desks from the firms
allowing the largest rebate irrespective of the adapt—
ability of the desks to the children who are to use them ;
that increase the wages of janitors before increasing
the salaries of teachers; and that appoint as caretakers
those who can control the most votes in the ward.

But, the application of the spoils system to the school
plant and to its material equipment, corrupting as it is
in itself, might be tolerated were it not extended to
the field of education itself. But it is in this very

‘ A few years since, I visited the public schools of a
large city that numbered among its civic associations one
for the encouragement [of art. This association had a
large and invaluable collection of prints illustrating literary
and historical subjects. Each one was tastefully framed
in passe—partout and bore in print a full explanatory
description of the scene, locality, event, building, or person
represented. These pictures were loaned to the different pub-
lic schools, and were changed every three months. The
week I visited the schools, these, by authority of the school
board, were being replaced by hundreds of cheap, meaning~
less pictures gaudily framed, that had apparently been pur-
chased by the Wholesale.

II

 

 

  

field that its most baneful influences are seen, and it
is therefore necessary to examine these conditions
somewhat more in detail.

The nominal head of the school system of any city
is the superintendent, presumably an educational ex—
pert, who is qualified for his position by reason of
long years of scholastic and professional training, and
through years passed in educational work. But in
the opinion of the political school board the super-
intendent is an employee who “loses his job” when he
disobeys orders. Said the president of the board of
education in Chicago scarcely more than two years
ago: “It is an absurdity —— in fact, it is an impossibility
— for the board to delegate supreme power to its in—
ferior. The inferior can have the appearance of being
sole ruler only so long as he anticipates the spirit and
wishes of his superiors.”1 Even Rousseau in the ex~
travagances of his “Social Contract” scarcely laid
down so contradictory and impracticable a relationship
for the members of the body politic.

Another member of the same educational body pro-
tested against the right of the superintendent of schools
to express his opinion on an educational matter, saying:
“It is not necessary to repeat here the opinions he has
expressed already about this case. I do not believe it is
right to allow an employee of this board to express his
antagonism to his employers” ;2 and again the same
member complains: “I am tired of hearing the super—
intendent tell the members of the board what they
must do on every matter that comes up. He has no
right to dictate to us. He is a servant of the board,
and it is his place to obey orders.”3 If the same canons
were prescribed in other professions, as in that of
medicine, for example, it would mean that the anti—
vaccinationists and the anti—vivisectionists would pre-
vail in the contest between science and ignorance; since

1 President Harris, in an address before the Illinois
Teachers’ Association, December, 1899. Cited in Educational
Review, XIX, p. 192.

” Cited in Educational Review, XIX, p. 3II.

” Cited by A. H. Nelson in Educational Review, XIX, p. 189.

12

 “the people know what they want” and the “employee
must obey orders.” It would follow that the bubonic
plague could not be checked in India since “the people
know what they want” and do not wish to take sanitary
precautions against it. The forces of education are
everywhere at war with ignorance, and if ignorance
is to direct education, education may as well abandon
the field.

If this is the conception of the political school board
as to the relation that exists between themselves and
the superintendents of schools, it will not be surprising
to find that it is extended to all members of the teaching
force. A gentleman, as widely as he is favorably
known in the educational world, sums up the situation
truthfully, if vigorously, in saying: “A school teacher
is not able to hold any opinion on any subject worth
thinking about. She must sing in the church choir,
teach a class in the Sunday school, and she can fail
of reappointment at the close of the year if the grocer’s
wife does not like the cut of her bonnet. The average
length of a teacher’s tenure in the United States is less
than three years.”

It must be evident from what has been said, that
it is school boards elected for political purposes who
have ruled that only residents of a city may occupy
positions in the schools; that only one member of a
family may be appointed, and that married women
may not be appointed, because, if married, presumably
they do not need the salary. It is school boards so
chosen that refuse to raise the salaries of teachers
on the ground that members of the same family have
already had their salaries increased; that in some 10-
calities give positions in the schools to the lowest bid—
der, and in others to those who contribute most
generously to the campaign funds of the dominant
political party; that promote teachers on the principle
of priority of appointment, irrespective of their quali—
fications for the advanced position, and, conversely,
cut off the last teacher to be appointed, no matter how
successful he may have been, if a reduction in the
teaching force is necessary; that appoint young women
to important positions with the object of retaining the

I3

 

 

 

  

political support of the families they represent ;‘ that
give places to young men for the sole reason that they

n

have a political “pull” ;~ that install as principals of
schools men who murder the King’s English, that re—
move teachers who are unwilling to serve the personal
ends of its members ;3 and that raise or lower salaries
for their own purely personal reasons.4

The whole situation in regard to the appointment of
teachers has recently been admirably presented by
Superintendent Maxwell of New York when he says:
“Getting good teachers and increasing their efficiency
is the main problem of school systems everywhere.”
“Has there ever been any opposition to such policy ?”
asked the guileless interviewer. “Has there ever been
any considerable opposition to anything else?” ques—
tioned in reply the experienced Superintendent. “Al—
most all the contests I have seen in New York schools,
and that is more than twenty years, have sprung

‘ A few years ago one of the district Tammany leaders
had secured positions in the public schools of New York
City for four sisters of one of his political subordinates.
When the subordinate at one time refused to follow his
leader, charges of the basest ingratitude were preferred
against him by all the members of the Tammany camp.

2 In one of our large city high schools, a department of
biology was recently established. Among the candidates
for the position of head of the department was a young man
of small education, who had made a failure as a lawyer,
and a young woman, a college graduate, who had made a
special study of biology. The broken—down lawyer was
“in” with the powers in control, and received the appoint-
ment. Public opinion and the attitude of the students
soon compelled his resignation, and the young woman with
some knowledge of the subject ultimately received the
appointment.

One teacher has recently been compelled to resign
because she refused to use her influence to secure a railway
pass for the president of the board from her uncle, the
president of one of the great trunk lines.

‘ In one city the salaries of all the principals in the
city were reduced $100 each, because one of their number
had bargained for an article of furniture at the store of
a member of the board and subsequently purchased it else-
where. The offended member of the board was able to “get
even” with him by carrying through the reduction of salaries.
“Confessions of Public School Teachers” in Atlantic Monthly.

I4

 directly or indirectly out of the effort to make teaching
better.” The methods of appointment, continues in
effect Superintendent Maxwell, are not such as to
give the schools the best teachers, but to give certain
men or groups of men the patronage if a place is
vacant. The teacher who desires promotion goes,
not to her immediate superior or to her principal, who
knows what her work is, but to “a leading man of the
party,” or to a ward politician, or even to politicians
up state, while “committeemen who ignore every
thought of the good of the service strut about with
the consciousness of having a following of a hundred
women and their several male relatives.”1

That this statement is not confined to Brooklyn is
evident from the report made by Superintendent
Swett of San Francisco in regard to the conditions
prevailing there until a very recent period. “As
places become vacant during the year,” reports the
Superintendent, “each director, in regular order, makes
an appointment, and, by mutual understanding, this
appointment is absolute, the only condition required
being that the nominee must be the holder of a legal
certificate—the most talented and accomplished
teachers, coming here from other cities, stand no
chance of an appointment on merit. School directors
are subjected to the political or personal ‘pull’ of
United States Senators, of Governors and ex-Govern—
ors, city officials, supervisors, members of the county
committee, political clubs, and active politicians gen-
erally.”2

It is the school board on the scent for patronage
that seeks to protect home industries by the establish-
ment of training schools for city teachers, not so much
from a desire to have better trained teachers as from
a wish to keep at home young men and women who
may be centres of political influence ;3 that forbids

‘ Interview in the Brooklyn Eagle, January 30, 1902.

2 Educational Review, V., pp. 310—311.

' It is of interest to note that Springfield, Massachusetts,
had a training school for teachers until a few years ago,
when it was abandoned because detrimental to the best
interests of the schools.

IS

 

  

by law the employment of any teacher who is not a
graduate of the city schools; that always refuses to
appoint a first—class applicant from a distance if there
is a fairly good applicant whose family is well-known
in the place; that asks a candidate, as was recently the
case in a Pennsylvania city, “How many votes can
you control?” and when the unhappy applicant con—
fesses “None” replies, “Then there’s no use in your
trying to teach; you’d better get some other occupa—
tion.”

It is school boards chosen for political reason
that furnish the schools with geographies twenty—five
years old, and with text—books on science written
twenty years ago; that select the text—books published
by firms holding out the greatest inducements, either
political or financial; that appoint and discharge teach—
ers at the instigation of publishing houses ;1 and that in
many places make it practically impossible to secure
even proper text—books through the control over the
board exercised by publishing firms.2

But a still more insidious evil threatens the school
system at the hands of politicians. When the spoils
system was introduced into the political system offices
were distributed with ostentatious generosity, but after
a time politicians began to demand the quid pro quo,
—— the eye for the eye, the tooth for the tooth. Office
holders were given to understand that their tenure de-
pended on the money consideration they made to the

1 “The majority of superintendents in small cities owe
their positions to ‘pulls’ organized by publishing houses to
whose books they are friendly.”———“Confessions of Public
School Teachers,” in Atlantic Monthly, LXXVIII, p. 97.

A few years ago the principal of a large city high school
failed of re-election at the instigation of a large book com~
pany, one of whose text-books the principal, acting as
chairman of a committee of high school principals, had
recommended to be dropped, as ten professors of mathe—
matics in universities for which the high schools of the
city prepared students had advised his committee that the
bool; was not sufliciently advanced for college preparatory
wor .

’ In one city where a member of the school board is the
secretary of a great publishing house, no text—book has ever
been used not published by.this firm.

16

 campaign fund of the political party through which
they obtained office; they were no longer voters to
be conciliated, but slaves to be driven under the lash
of the party overseer. But it was long after political
assessments were levied on office holders before the
political boss invaded the school armed with this wea-
pon. As yet but few instances can be cited where as-
sessments have been levied on teachers, but that it has
been done even once is cause for alarm. The most
flagrant instance of it that has come to public notice
is probably the recent one in Philadelphia. Two
months ago1 the Republican Campaign Committee in
that city issued a circular containing these significant
words: “Mass Meetings must be held and circulars
relating to party issues printed and mailed to the vot—
ers, and the expense of necessary clerk hire, postage,
etc., must be paid, hence we are compelled to ask from
Republicans the necessary funds to sustain our efforts
in polling the full Republican vote of the city and
defray the proper and legitimate expenses of the cam—
paign. We therefore solicit from you such contribu-
tion to o