This of course was small punishment in itself—we have seen what is the pay of a Washington teacher for one week. But what the board really sentenced her to was disgrace and outrageous publicity in the carrion-eating press. Therefore the teachers’ union took up the matter, and engaged an attorney, and a long correspondence with the school authorities followed, leading to no result. The matter was carried to the District Supreme Court, and it is pleasant to be able to state that this body reversed the action of the board, and Miss Wood got her week’s salary. But in the meantime the Black Hand of our national capital had accomplished its principal purpose—all the other teachers of the city learned their lesson, and the pupils in the schools continued to believe that all women in Russia were “nationalized”! Also they continued to believe that Washington is governed by great and patriotic statesmen. Some time previously, a teacher had stated to her pupils that “the calibre of congressmen of the present day is not as good it was in the time of Clay and Webster”; and this teacher was made the object of furious attack upon the floor of Congress! The congressional committee took it up, and summoned the principal of the school before them, and read the riot act to him; and so all the teachers of Washington learned that they are not citizens of a democracy, but serfs of a plutocratic empire. I am told now by a group of teachers that the new superintendent is doing well, and that there is hope for a better deal in the schools; new buildings are going up, and everyone wants to forget the old unhappy past. The teachers ask me to plead for the cause which lies nearest to their hearts, that of teacher participation in school control; and I answer that this is the thing for which my book is written—to urge that those who do the work of teaching, and really know about teaching, shall take the place of traction magnates and real estate speculators in charge of our children. It is not only in Washington that this is needed, but everywhere, as you have already had opportunity to see. CHAPTER XLVII THE LOCAL MACHINES