The board, following the lead of President Barrows at the university, had made a ruling that the superintendent might dismiss teachers on recommendation from the principal, and without the right to see the board. But Mrs. Beals made it her business to see every teacher who was let out, and also to see those who were newly engaged. Iron fire-escapes were desperately needed, and with the help of the fire-chief Mrs. Beals got them. Also she got kindergartens in every primary school. Giving her entire time for the munificent salary of fifteen dollars a month, she had saved the city of Berkeley a hundred thousand dollars. But now came war and glory; the board members were called upon to sign a resolution to the effect that they would perform any service that Woodrow Wilson might request; and when Mrs. Beals very wisely hesitated at this, the Associated Press flashed her over the United States as disloyal. So the gang came in waving the stars and stripes, and everything is now back where it was. You will find this happening in city after city—America has been made safe for capitalism. Berkeley now has as superintendent an amiable but feeble lecturer-pedagogue, who told the California Teachers’ Association that “the teachers and the public should get together in prayer-meeting”; he went on to explain what he meant by the public, naming the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotarians, the Kiwanis—and not a single labor body! The overhead expenses of the schools have increased five times—but they have put out all the Montessori work, because they cannot afford it! In charge of the spending of the money is a board made up as follows: a coal and wood dealer; a dry goods merchant of the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce type; the wife of an attorney; a political woman affiliated with the oil interests and the Barrows machine; and a professor of the agricultural department of the university. How aggressively the Black Hand is at work you may judge from the fact that the children of Berkeley were required to answer a questionnaire, disguised as a “social survey.” Among fifty questions were such as these: “How does your father spend his spare time? What does he do Sundays? What books does your mother read?” The child was assured that all this would be “confidential”; but he was not permitted to take the questions home to his parents! CHAPTER XXVI THE WARD LEADER