The Goose-step: A Study of American EducationSinclair, Upton
History
The Goose-step: A Study of American Education
Sinclair, Upton
Education -- United States; Universities and colleges -- United States
No, we shall have to examine Mr. Cooke’s lectures, for some other reason
why his career as a Harvard lecturer was so suddenly cut short. Mr.
Cooke has printed the lectures in pamphlet form under the title
“Snapping Cords.” On page 9 I find a statement of the over-valuation of
public utilities in Philadelphia, and note that the Philadelphia
Electric Company has securities to the amount of over fifty million
dollars upon an actual valuation of less than twenty-five million. And
this is an Edison concern, allied with Boston Edison and Lee Higginson!
I turn to page 12, and learn how the National Electric Light
Association, the society of electrical engineers, is being used as a
dummy by the electric light interests. I turn to page 14, and find the
American Electric Railway Association shown up as planning to corrupt
American education, creating a financed Bureau of Public Relations for
the self-stated purpose of “influencing the sources of public education
particularly by (a) lectures on the Chautauqua circuit and (b) formation
of a committee of prominent technical educators to promote the formation
and teaching of correct principles on public service questions in
technical and economic departments at American colleges, through courses
of lectures and otherwise.”
The tactless Mr. Cooke goes on to examine the activities of “prominent
technical educators” who have lent themselves to this program. Among the
names I find—can such a thing be possible?—George F. Swain, professor of
civil engineering in the Graduate School of Applied Science of Harvard
University! Professor Swain, it appears, has done “valuation work” for
Mr. Morgan’s New Haven Railroad—our interlocking directorate, you
perceive! You may not know what “valuation work” consists of; it is the
job of determining how much money you shall pay for your water, light,
gas and transportation, and needless to say, the utility corporations
want the valuation put as high as possible. Mr. Cooke, since the
incidents here narrated, put through a rate case whereby the
Philadelphia Electric Company collects from the city and the people of
that city one million dollars _less_ per year. So you see just what an
ornery cuss Mr. Cooke is!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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