go about doing it now but the direction in which we go. We must recognize the simple principle that every child born in America has a right to an educational opportunity. Equally important, the fulfillment of that right is a matter which affects the well-being of all of us. So, even though the first step is a small and halting one, let us move toward that goal, so that America, as we go into these peace conferences, will be able to say, "We guarantee all American children at least some kind of educational opportunity." That is the thing we need to do above all else. The details of method and procedure take care of themselves as we resolutely move toward giving every American child a decent educational opportunity. Senator WALSH. We appreciate your very able contribution. Senator FULBRIGHT. Just one more question. Dr. NORTON. Yes. Senator FULBRIGHT. Is there any relation between old-age assistance and the relief problem that we have, and that we have accepted as a national matter, and between education, in your mind? Do you think if we spend some money in educating the youth that perhaps that might have a beneficial effect on the amount that it is necessary to pay out in old age? Dr. NORTON. I think there is the relationship you have just mentioned. It is far cheaper to prevent physical deficiency, to prevent educational deficiency, than it is to correct them in adulthood. So we would be saving money and saving a lot of social grief if we gave every child at the outset the best opportunity to develop whatever is in him rather than trying to correct defects later. Senator FULBRIGHT. My point is a purely financial matter. Is it not true that people who have a reasonable education contribute more as taxpayers, and will actually contribute more than those who are illiterate? Dr. NORTON. That is right. Senator FULBRIGHT. In other words, this is not a charity, it is an investment. Dr. NORTON. Exactly. You will find, for example, in these charts that it is the States that spend the most for education that also have the largest income. Now, if you will go into an analysis of that situation-because one has to be careful in dealing with such matters, one may get cause and effect mixed up, but analyses have been made of this matter. Take the very significant sociological studies of Professor Odum, of North Carolina University; studies of regions in the South. He has gone into a detailed analysis and has asked such questions as this: "Why are so many Southern-born men and women relatively poor producers in terms of per capita income?" He gives a number of causes. One of the factors involved is lack of educational opportunity. So we create a vicious circle. Income is low because educational facilities are poor, and educational facilities are poor because income is low. Now, the question is, how can we break that vicious circle, not only for the well-being of the people of the South-and we ought to have some consideration for them because they are American citizens—but more broadly from the point of view of the well-being of the people of the whole Nation? After all, can New York City sell anything to poor people? Not very much. It would be fine if Mississippi and Arkansas, and all the other States with low per capita incomes, came into the national market not with a per capita income of $300 or $400 a year, but with a per capita income of $800, $900, and $1,000 a year. It would be to everybody's advantage. New York, California, Massachusetts and similar States could sell more to them and they could buy more. The whole economy is a unit-is interdependent-in many respects. The saying that a chain is no stronger than its weakest link applies in this situation. Senator WALSH. Thank you, Doctor. It is getting near the time of convening the Senate. I presume the witnesses who will want to be heard will take considerable time, and therefore I think the best thing to do is to adjourn until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. (Whereupon, at 11:50 a. m., the committee adjourned to 10 a. m. of the following day, Tuesday, January 30, 1945.) FEDERAL AID FOR EDUCATION TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1945 UNITED STATES SENATE, Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10 a. m., in room 357, Senate Office Building, Senator James E. Murray (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Murray, Thomas, Ellender, Chavez, Johnston, Aiken, Fulbright, Smith, Donnell, and Morse. The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, the hearing will come to order. STATEMENT OF KERMIT EBY, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND Mr. EBY. Senator Murray and members of the committee, I am Kermit Eby, director of research and education of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. It gives me great pleasure to appear before your committee, to express the interest of the CIO in the advancement of American educational standards and to indicate its support for S. 181 and its companion bill, H. R. 1296. Our support of these Federal-aid-to-education bills is consistent with labor's historic support of free public education. As early as 1825, when the first political party of workers was set up in Philadelphia, the establishment of free public schools was a prominent plank in the party's platform. And all historians in the field of education agree that it was the workers' organizations which gave continued aid to Horace Mann and other pioneers of public education. Before the formation of the CIO, our brother labor organization, the American Federation of Labor, consistently tried to secure better schools, properly trained and paid teachers, and Federal support to equalize educational opportunity, especially in the interest of the poorer States. The labor movement led the way to establishing vocational education, and each convention of both the CIO and the AFL has expressed continued concern through resolutions supporting education. Specifically, at its seventh constitutional convention, held at Chicago in November 1944, the CIO adopted the following resolution unanimously [reading]: Whereas our democracy must be based on a people who have the widest opportunities for education. There are many areas in this country where educational facilities are absent or meager and large numbers of American people are denied this important right; and Whereas many adults, although desiring to learn to read and write as well as to take vocational training and cultural courses, cannot do so because of the absence of adequate facilities: Now, therefore be it Resolved, (1) We call upon Congress to enact legislation which has been pending for a long time to provide Federal aid to States for expanding and developing full educational facilities so all Americans shall be able to enjoy the full benefits of education; (2) We endorse a national adult educational program and urge the Congress of the United States to appropriate Federal funds to promote a national adult educational program in cooperation with the several States and administrative agencies thereof. We in the CIO are particularly interested in Federal aid which will equalize the educational opportunity of the boys and girls of America. Our reasons grow out of the nature of our organization. Today some 6,000,000 workers are members of the CIO, and some 8,000,000 workers are members of the other labor groups-the American Federation of Labor, the railroad brotherhoods, and the United Mine Workers. These 14,000,000 organized workers are also spokesmen for the unorganized. Any advancement in the economic and educational standards of the organized worker has a tendency to lift or to better conditions for the unorganized as well. So we feel that our contributions to bringing about Federal aid are in the interest of all the workers of America and their children. The population of America is not fixed in space. We are a transient people. The CIO has within its membership hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, men and women who move from one community to another, from one State to another, to better their economic conditions in the industrial centers of America, to help with the production of the implements of war. For example, according to the United States Senate Committee to Investigate Migration of Workers, from 1930 to 1940, 4.000.000 workers moved from one locality to another; and from April 1940 to November 1943, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 312 million people moved from one State to another. Senator JOHNSTON. Do you mean to say education keeps them from moving? Mr. EBY. No; no, I would not say that. As I go along and develop this I will show that education gives to the people who move the background which will make it possible for them to adjust themselves in the complicated environment of our cities and our industrial organizations. Senator JOHNSTON. The reason I asked that is that I have noticed as they become educated they leave their home States. Mr. EBY. As I go along, I will develop that. Those last figures show only additions and subtractions from State populations at given dates, exclusive of births and deaths, and do not reflect nearly all of the comings and goings and the multiple moves of war workers, both inter and intrastate. California, for instance, has received 1.7 million in-migrants; Michigan, Washington, Maryland, and Ohio more than a quarter of a million each. States which have lost populations are predominantly rural-Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, and New Mexico. Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Oklahoma lost about a quarter of a million apiece, in 1940 to 1943. Now, what does this mean to the CIO? It means workers are leaving the States whose economic circumstances make it impossible for them to give their people the quality of education which every American citizen deserves. It means that when these workers move to Detroit, or Flint, or Van Port, they are moving from a rather simple rural economy and life to a complicated, industrial economy and life. I remember very well the development of the Black Legion in Michigan. While teaching in Ann Arbor, a friend of mine did his thesis on its origin and the attitude of its members. I used to go with him to gather data, and came away with the impression that the members of the Black Legion, to a large extent, were former citizens of the South who had moved North and brought their social attitudes and prejudices with them-attitudes and prejudices which were responsible for the development of indigenous Fascist groups, in their way just as intolerant as the Nazis of Germany. The first person murdered by Black Legionnaires was a Catholic youth of Pontiac who was seen in the presence of a Protestant girl. Fortunately, the Black Legion did not develop to the same extent as the Ku Klux Klan, perhaps because economic conditions in Michigan got better and the pressures which developed between Negroes and whites, native Detroiters and imported workers, competing for jobs, abated. However, all of us who are acquainted with the race riots in Detroit know that they were a byproduct of the social situation which is precipitated when people with an inadequate understanding of American ideals live in an inflammatory environment such as is ascribed to modern Detroit. Now, since we prepared this testimony we were interested in trying to run down some of the figures as they related to Detroit and the people that were involved in the riots. A fraction less than 35 percent of those detained in the rioting were 21 years of age or under. Arthur Raper, in his book The Tragedy of Lynching, says, and I think this is particularly significant [reading]: Few of the lynchers were even high school graduates. Most of the lynchers read but little, and were identified with but few or no organizations. Such generalizations should also be made concerning the black and white hoodlums of Detroit's Bloody Monday. All of us who watch these social phenomena know that one of the things we need to do to prevent recurring riots is to broaden the social understanding and educational base of the people involved. We in the CIO are doing all we can to relieve racial tension. The Julius Rosenwald Fund, in its recent report, said: The Congress of Industrial Organizations is the strongest force against discrimination [in employment] that has arisen in these torrid years. United States Attorney Biddle wrote to President Roosevelt on July 15, 1943: It is extremely interesting that there was no disorder within Detroit plants where colored and white men worked side by side on account of efficient union discipline. We in the union are carrying on an educational program. But we recognize that the job will not be adequately done until the educational opportunity of the migrants to our industrial centers is improved at its source, until better teachers are secured, until a real program of education and tolerance and understanding is developed. |