If you have read “The Goose-step” you will recollect the question raised by Professor H. L. Bolley of North Dakota: “Is a college professor a citizen?” You will remember that we cited a number of cases proving that he is not a citizen. We shall in this book consider the question: “Is a school teacher a citizen?” In St. Louis she very certainly is not, as the case of Miss Rosa Hesse proves. I had the pleasure of talking with this lady, and if it would do her any good I would cheerfully bear testimony that she is an American gentlewoman of the old school, absolutely uncontaminated by any touch of “Red”—that is, unless perchance the reading of “The Goose-step” has since affected her! At the time I talked with her, she had no idea whatever of the social significance of what had happened to her; she was simply bewildered by her discovery that a school teacher is not permitted to demand a living wage and to exercise her rights as a voter. To begin with, Miss Hesse discovered that the meetings of the school board were supposed to be public; so she got a group of teachers to agree to attend them and see what was going on. But when it came to a showdown not one of the teachers dared; Miss Hesse went in all by herself, and gave me a comical account of the expression on the superintendent’s face when he saw her in that holy of holies. As a result of this presumption, her name was left off the list for reappointment in the year 1921. The superintendent lied to her outright about it, but one of the board members gave him away, and the protests of the teachers forced a reconsideration at this time. But shortly afterwards an election for the school board came up, and Miss Hesse’s organization, the Grade Teachers’ Association, ventured to approve certain candidates. I am told by a gentleman of St. Louis who knows the situation intimately that in this political struggle the teachers’ organization was being misled by the “gang”; and this, alas, may be—I have seen labor unions thus used on many occasions. Anyhow, a lady by the name of Mrs. Gellhorn, president of the Missouri League of Women Voters, issued a call for a meeting of women. At this meeting the choice of the Grade Teachers’ Association was condemned; and among those endorsed was Mr. Christopher W. Johnson, millionaire basket manufacturer, and a member of the board for twenty-four years.