Miss Kennan was one of the prize teachers of the Denver school system, a Greek and Latin scholar and a prominent lecturer at women’s clubs; she had been in the system for seventeen years. Her friend, Gertrude Nafe, had been in for seven years, and during the strike had the difficult experience of teaching the son of General Chase, the combination dentist and militia officer who was setting aside the Constitution in the coal country and supervising the Ludlow massacre. Miss Nafe also answered her pupils’ questions truthfully, and so the general and his employers made up their minds to get these two ladies out of the schools. It took them four years to do it, and they had to increase the number of school board members, packing it with their henchmen. Even so, it was only the war that gave them their chance. They drew up an oath for the teachers to take, pledging loyalty to the Constitution and the government, and “to promote by precept and example obedience to laws and constituted authorities.” Miss Kennan and Miss Nafe cheerfully signed the first part of this pledge, but they found themselves in difficulties when it came to the second part. How can one pledge obedience to laws and constituted authorities, when constituted authorities are defying the laws? Consider the 1914 strike, in which the miners had tried to compel the constituted authorities to enforce the laws—and had failed! The teachers had explained this to their pupils, and now could not stultify themselves. Their friends begged them to sign, the pledge being ”nothing but a joke”—the teachers all so regarded it; but these two ladies took the matter seriously, and struck out the word “obedience.” So they were slated to be driven from the system. They demanded a hearing before the board, and were permitted to make a brief statement explaining their reverence for their revolutionary ancestors, who had defied the constituted authorities when these authorities defied human rights. The principal of the school asked to be heard, and said: “I have never wavered in my faith in their value to the schools, in my faith in their services to the coming citizens of this republic.” But the board turned them out, and for the past five years the children of Denver have been taught by some teachers who take their oath to be a joke.