training problem. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there will be required 2,078,000 additional workers during the current year. With only a few thousand trained workers available at this time on the unemployed list, it is obvious that training within industry and training in vocational schools must be stepped up a great deal if we are not to have a definite delay in production of munitions and implements of war.

In communities adjacent to these new military or manufacturing plants we have a definite training problem. As for example, the ordnance plant at Kingsbury, Ind., a community of some 200, covers 20 square miles of land, and will employ 12,000 workmen. A new plant of this sort usually secures a few supervisory personnel and executive personnel from the parent plant, or if there is no parent plant they secure them from one of the ordnance arsenals. The remainder of the 12,000 personnel required are recruited from the unemployed and, to a limited extent, from nondefense industries.

It is quite evident that in a case such as the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant there must be a considerable program of training within the plant if they are to meet their requirements for skilled personnel. The vocational schools of the country are indispensable to a training program within a plant as they give the supplementary or related instruction to the employed workman who is to be upgraded from the semiskilled job to a skilled job. As the men are promoted within a plant, vacancies are created at the bottom. It has been found that a short, intensive course in a vocational school will qualify an inexperienced man to go on a production line where he can immediately produce things without too many rejects which would slow up production. Now, the two types of programs I have in mind that are needed are supplementary courses in related subjects, instruction and preemployment courses for beginners. It seems quite evident to us that in the consideration of this bill the possibility of establishing vocation schools adjacent to these manufacturing plants is highly desirable.

The CHAIRMAN. Any questions?

Senator BALL. I was interested in that Kingsbury. Is not there a large city somewhere near?

Colonel MCSHERRY. Yes; La Porte, 23 miles away from the new plant. Kingsbury is the largest town adjacent to the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant.

Senator BALL. But there is no large city within 20 miles of there? Colonel MCSHERRY. No.

Senator BALL. What is that? A powder plant?

Colonel MCSHERRY. A shell-loading plant.

Senator ELLENDER. Where does the labor come from?

Colonel MCSHERRY. In a case like Kingsbury Ordnance Plant the personnel manager will visit large cities, such as Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Detroit, and attempt to secure machinists, tool makers, maintenance men, and other skilled men that he needs in the plant. He will secure some from this source. The rest of the workers are recruited in the community adjacent to the plants and given training in the plants. It is highly desirable to select men who live in the community rather than bring in others from outside.

Senator ELLENDER. Well, what percentage of the workmen come from the neighborhood who are not disturbed, who do not have to move away, in other words?

Colonel MCSHERRY. That would vary.

Senator ELLENDER. I mean for this particular plant, do you know?
Colonel MCSHERRY. I do not know for that particular plant.
Senator ELLENDER. All right.

The CHAIRMAN. This plant and the Charlestown plant, the two of them together were two of the first selected, were they not? Colonel MCSHERRY. They were.

The CHAIRMAN. They are beginning to discover from those experiences that they did not take into consideration all of the factors in regard to the building of a plant, the upsetting of social surroundings, the need of employment, the relief of unemployment in close areas, and the rest of it. Are not they discovering that by now?

Colonel MCSHERRY. That is out of my field. If you want my personal opinion on it, I think you are correct.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you think there is anyone who does not see those great social mistakes? If there is one I would like to know his name. Colonel MCSHERRY. I do not know of anyone.

Senator ELLENDER. Do they build residences for the employees on these reservations that you know of, at Kingsbury?

Colonel MCSHERRY. Not on a reservation like the one at Kingsbury. On certain military reservations I imagine they do.

Senator ELLENDER. I am talking about Kingsbury only.

Colonel MCSHERRY. No; they are built outside the reservation.
The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Colonel.

Has Dr. Alexander come in? If not, we will hear General Fries, please.

STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. AMOS A. FRIES, REGIONAL DIRECTOR,

FRIENDS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF AMERICA

The CHAIRMAN. General Fries, for the record, will you please state your name, your address, and the organization you represent, and whatever other material you want to appear in the record in connection with your name and your work?

General FRIES. Yes, Senator. My name is Amos A. Fries, director of the southern-western region of the Friends of the Public Schools of America, and I am officially representing that organization.

The Friends of the Public Schools of America was founded by Mrs. Greta S. Deffenbaugh, of Chicago, Ill. I have here a 4-page circular from which I will read only the first sentence.

The Friends of the Public Schools of America is an organization with headquarters in Chicago, Ill., operating on a national program for improving, protecting, and preserving the tax-supported free public schools.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you want the whole document to go into the record?

General FRIES. No, sir. I have a short brief entitled "Objects and Program of Action," which I would like to put in the record.

The CHAIRMAN. The recorder will see that it is placed in the proper position.

(The brief, Objects and Program of Action, referred to is as follows:)

OBJECTS AND PROGRAM OF ACTION

(1) The Public School system of the United States (that is, free public schools. open to all children without distinction as to race, color, or religion or whether citizen or alien) is a purely American institution founded by the ancestors of the

men who fought the War of the Revolution, in the belief that a democracy where all have a voice in the government, can only endure if the citizens are educated sufficiently to study and understand the Constitution and laws by which they live and practice the rights of citizenship.

(2) The Friends of the Public Schools of America is an organization operating on a national program for improving, protecting, and preserving the tax-supported free public schools.

(3) It is an organization of citizens who are interested in public education, who are willing to give enough time to the study of the problems of public education to thoroughly understand them, and then to take such action, in the various school districts, counties, and State governments, and finally the United States, as will best promote and defend the public schools from every danger that may threaten.

(4) They believe that the United States public school policy should be shaped by citizens who believe in and who understand the public schools-citizens who are patriotic and who are actively supporting the Constitution of the United States, while at the same time they are actively opposing any alien or subversive propaganda in the schools.

(5) They oppose the use of public funds for private schools of any kind, whether based on religion, business, politics, race, or creed.

(6) The Friends of the Public Schools of America are not opposed to private or religious schools which are truly American in character and maintain a proper standard of instruction and which also teach patriotism and loyalty to our Government. Such schools must not, however, be supported in whole or in any part from public funds.

General FRIES. I just want to make one further statement in the beginning. We are not opposing Federal aid for schools-that is, emergency aid for schools, whether it is due to national-defense projects or migratory children, or for lack of taxable property in certain localities to meet school needs.

The greatest danger to the public schools under this bill, S. 1313, is (1) eventual complete Federal control resulting finally in the operation of all schools by the United States Government, and (2) the diversion of public-school money to the support of private and sectarian religious schools. Both of these conditions will come to pass if this bill or any similar general education bill becomes law.

In fact, centralized education is now being organized through the Progressive Education Association and the N. E. A., the latter under the leadership of the two main subdivisions thereof (the National Association of School Administrators and the National Association of Secondary School Principals), both of which suborganizations of the N. E. A. have their own executive secretaries and meet twice a year generally while the National Education Association meets but once. Working along the same line with the N. E. A. and the Progressive Education Association are other teacher and educator associations, particularly the Teachers' Union.

S. 1313 IS A PERMANENT BILL, NOT AN EMERGENCY MEASURE

The preamble to this bill (S. 1313) states in part:

* * *

To strengthen the national defense and
tories in meeting financial emergencies in education.

assist the States and Terri* * *

Likewise section 1 under "Finding of fact" (2) reads in part:

that because of shifting of populations due to the exigencies of national defense * *

and so forth.

These two words "emergencies" and "exigencies" would indicate that the bill is temporary in character and to meet more or less

temporary conditions that will in a reasonable time be done away with. But the bill itself is written in perpetual form, for in section 3, under the title "Appropriation authorized" and following the statement of purposes the bill reads:

there is hereby authorized to be appropriated the sum of $300,000,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1942, and for each fiscal year thereafter.

The bill is thus a perpetual bill, changeable only in, the amount of money that may be appropriated each year. That has been the form of all the recent so-called Federal aid to education bills.

This bill, while entitled the "Educational Finance Act of 1941" is the same in effect as S. 419 and S. 1305 though radically shortened and polished up. The main difference is that bill S. 1313, would carry for the 6 years covered in S. 1305, $1,800,000,000 or more than twice what S. 1305 would have carried in the same 6 years.

The reasons given in S. 1313 why large funds are needed is stated in section 1, paragraph (2), to be because of the "exigencies of national defense" and the "shifting of population" in accordance therewith, and also under paragraph (3) because

millions of children, especially those who reside in rural areas of diminished natural resources, children residing on Federal reservations and properties with inadequate or no public-school facilities, and the children of migratory workers most of whom are engaged in agricultural pursuits and for the children of whom no provisions of public-school advantages are made. are in areas and school districts in which the public-school facilities are wholly inadequate.

That sounds bad. But the fact stands out, that neither in this bill (nor the preceding bills) are any specific areas pointed out where these conditions exist. Indeed, we have never been able to pin down a single advocate of these bills to naming any specific localities in serious need of aid. The advocates always refer to the "deep south," and to "rural areas," to "meet the condition of migratory workers," and now to the "exigencies of national defense" as the needy places.

Those statements are extremely general. The advocates set up no standards of buildings, numbers of teachers, or other things of that sort in the bill-all such decisions are left to the Commissioner of Education or to boards either in the Federal Government or in the States, but all subject to a large degree of control by the Commissioner of Education through the funds he has to parcel out, to meet whatever he considers the needs to be, to the reports he makes; and above all in his power to have allotments held up, or stopped.

The bill is so written that every State will, by approving a plan, receive a portion of these funds if for no other purpose than to support the Commissioner of Education's ideas of a proper "State educational authority" in each State, and, further, to enable the State educational authority to carry on researches for development of schools and to discover if there are any further needs which would require money.

And that will lead directly and inevitably to Federal control of all education in the United States. Along this line the Commissioner of Education at the Congress on Education for Democracy held at Columbia University, August 1939, said:

An education for democracy cannot, in my opinion, confine itself to children and youth in formally organized schools. It must be geared to reach a significant body of the adults who will determine public policy during the next decade.

That can mean only one thing. Using the schools for political propaganda.

CONFLICTING PROVISOS IN THE BILL

Under the heading "Appropriation authorized", section 3, we find this statement following the proposed appropriation of $300,000,000 yearly.

The sums herein authorized shall be used for making payments to States which through their legislature have accepted the provisions of this act and which have complied therewith.

This is an absolutely definite and plain statement that every State whose legislature accepts the provisions of this act and complies therewith will receive an appropriation. But this is in conflict with the proviso that a board of five members shall determine the need of funds, as stated under paragraph (c), section 4, which reads:

On the basis of its findings, the Board shall allot to the respective States * * * from such amount for that year as may have been appropriated by Congress under this act.

* * *

Under this proviso there would undoubtedly be brought great pressure upon the Board to see that any State that adopted the plan. was apportioned some money.

Here follows further conflicting provisos that show why States will lose control.

In section 2 the statement is made:

The provisions of this act shall be so construed as to maintain local and State initiative and responsibility * * * the control and determination of curricula of the schools, the methods of instruction

and so forth.

* *

But under the head of "Reporting", section 12 some 230 words are used to prescribe the exceedingly comprehensive and detailed reports the Commissioner must make of every State.

These include:

length of minimum school term, the proportion of children of school age in average daily attendance, provision for reading and other instructional materials, provision for pupil transportation, and average expenditure per pupil * * and so forth.

TENURE

*

Section 7 entitled "Availability of Appropriations" provides that— The funds paid to the States under section 5 shall be available for disbursement by each State for any or all of the following purposes: (c) for expenses of the State department of education necessary for the efficient administration of the funds received under this act, if the appointment and tenure of the personnel of such department (other than members of boards within the State, elected officials therein, and the chief State school officer) is upon the basis of merit and efficiency and without regard to political considerations.

There is a far deeper possibility for control in this last proviso than appears on the surface. Apparently, part of the $6,000,000 yearly for State departments of education can be used to pay all officials in such State departments of education, or it may be limited to what can be termed the permanent force-that is; say an executive secretary or other secretaries, stenographers, and investigators of various types. These will form a permanent administrative group secure in their positions (which is what is meant by the word "tenure"), and as they must look to the National Government for their pay, will inevitably come to lean toward Federal control.