Coblege wy

Published by the New York
Union, Local 537, American

College Teachers
Fed. of Teachers

WSLETTER

Vol. IV—No. 13

NEW YORK, June 2, 1941

Mass

A ME

Joint Meeting of Locals 5 and 537 to disc’

Rally

iss the threats

to education from

1.
2.

; Speakers:
FREDERICK MYERS, Nati
LEWIS MERRILL, United
of America
MAX YERGAN, President,

THE RAPP-COUDERT COMMITTEE
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE AFT

ional Maritime Union
Office and Professional Workers

National Negro Congress

MARY FOLEY GROSSMAN, President of Local 192, AFT

JOSEPHINE TRUSLOW ADAMS, recently dismiss

Swarthmore College

ed from

DONALD OGDEN STEWART
e

MANHATTAN CENTER

WEDNESDAY EVE., JUNE 11

Come and Bring Your Friends -

This meeting will take the place of the regular June
membership meeting of Local 537.

} Protests Swell
BHE’s Arbitrary Action:

Political Rule Spreads Pall
Of Intimidation in Colleges

The attack on education launched
by the Rapp-Coudert committee is
rapidly moving into its second
stage. Following close upon the
heels of the suspension of City
College teachers have come at-
tempts to intimidate and silence
those who speak out, reprisals
against those against whom no
charges have been leveled, and the
substitution of the principle of
suspicion for the principle of merit
in judging qualifications for ap-
pointment. At one of the city col-
leges a teacher who had addressed
a student meeting was called into
the president’s office; he was con-
fronted by a set of notes taken by
an administrative officer at the
time of his speech and questioned

(Continued on Page Two)

Coudert Drops Demand
For Membership Lists

The Rapp-Coudert Committee has
withdrawn its demand for the mem-
bership lists and financial records
of Local 537. The demand was
withdrawn on May 19, when Dr.
Bella Dodd and President Speer
turned over the minutes of the lo-
cal. The withdrawal of its demand
for membership lists by the Coud-
ert Committee represents a signal
victory for the local and indicates
the growing support for the local
in its fight against the unconsti-
tutional methods of the Committee.

In an affidavit filed with the
Court, Dr. Dodd pointed out that
the subpoenas which formed the
basis of the Coudert Committee’s
attempt to punish Dr. Dodd and
President Speer for contempt, were
an “unwarranted intrusion into the
affairs of a trade union.”

“However,” Dr. Dodd continued,
“in view of the aspersions cast
upon our Union by the Rapp-
Coudert Committee, we welcome
this opportunity to open our min-

(Continued on Page Two)

An Ed

It is fitting, as the academic
year comes to a close, to take stock
of the present state of affairs.
Difficult as the situation is which
the Rapp-Coudert Committee has
created, and disruptive as has been
the activity of the National Coun-
cil of the American Federation of
Teachers, there is yet a bitter sol-
ace to be found in the very size
of the guns that were required to
disturb us.

From a long-range point of view
this year will be seen primarily as
a year of growing war hysteria
and of resistance to war hysteria.
Future historians will draw ready
parallels between the fate of edu-
cation in this war and the last—
the cuts in educational budgets, the
stamping out of academic freedom,
the dismissal of teachers and the
growth of widespread intimidation.
The chief change has been the ac-
celeration in the present war and
the development of methods of to-
tal attack—mass suspensions aim-
ing at mass dismissals.

But historians will also note a

Gor Guture Historians

torial

remarkable difference in the way
in which these attacks were re-
ceived, not only by the teacher
unions, but by large sections of
organized labor. Instead of individ-
ual martyrdom there is organized
resistance. The teachers unions pre-
dicted the character of the attacks
and prepared to meet them by an
energetic appeal to the community.
Their work stripped the attacks of
all obscuring issues and enabled
the community to see straight
through the smoke-screen of the
red scare. Increasingly larger seg-
ments of organized labor and the
public have voiced first their in-
terest and then their vigorous pro-
test as they have come to realize
that the battle is their very own.
Friends of education are contribut-
ing increased sums for the support
of the victimized teachers in order
that the struggle for free demo-
cratic education may go on.

The more acute historian will
recognize that the very existence
of such a vigorous and organized

(Continued on Page Two)

Against

1,000 Educators, Writers,
Clergymen, Protest to Board

Eight hundred and thirty-eigh
staff members of over sixty Amer
ican universities petitioned th
Board of Higher Education recent]
to recognize that punitive actio
against teachers “because of per
sonal beliefs or legal political ac
tivity is inconsistent with the ver:
principles of academic freedom.
Some of the signatories were: Pro
fessors Wesley C. Mitchell, Fran:
Boas, and A. .T. Poffenberger, o
Columbia University; Henry P
Fairchild, of N.Y.U.; Harold U
Faulkner, of Smith College; Preston
Slosson, of the University of Michi
gan; Robert S. Lynd, of Columbia
Browton Berry, of the Universit;
of Missouri, and Harold M. Groves
of the University of Wisconsin.

@ A petition affirming the right
of teachers as private citizens, anc
signed by 194 clergymen from al
parts of the country, was also re
ceived by the Board. @ Message:

(Continued on Page Two)

CTU Rejects Charter
Revocation 626 to 45

By an almost unanimous vote
the membership of the Collegs
Teachers Union voted against the
revocation of the charters of Local
537, 5 and 192 by the National
Executive Council. The vote, an-
nounced this week to the press,
was 626 to 45 against charter revo-
cation for Local 5387, and repre-
sents another indication of the
membership’s overwhelming repu-
diation of the Council’s red-baiting
charges and innuendoes.

Local 537 will send its delegates
to the coming National Convention
and demand that they be seated.
no matter what the outcome of the
referendum nationally. The Union
will attempt, along with the other
Eastern locals, to present to the
Convention a sound program for
teacher welfare and teacher pro-
tection in a time of national crisis.

To Prevent a Blackout of Education—Join the Union NOW