This chapter is called “Dispensers of Prominence,” and here you see what I mean. The classroom teachers had never heard of Miss Effie MacGregor; she had never attended a meeting of the Department of Classroom Teachers, nor was she a member of a classroom teachers’ association. She had fought hard against the increase of their salaries; but now she was to be their president, and have the spending of their ten thousand dollars for a year! President Charl O. Williams of the N. E. A. proceeded to place the lady on the main program of the N. E. A., introducing her as “the foremost classroom teacher in the United States.” President Williams went on to explain the lady’s credentials to that title—she had arranged a movie benefit at a theatre, and raised funds to send eight delegates to the convention! Please understand, that is not a joke; that is the N. E. A. idea of “greatness.” Come back with me to Oakland, California, and recall the picture of Fred M. Hunter, superintendent and educational ward leader, with his school henchmen and his grafting contractors. Recall Miss Elizabeth Arlett, “who, while supposed to be teaching the school children of Oakland, was touring the United States, shortly before the 1920 convention, in the interest of Mr. Hunter’s candidacy for president of the N. E. A. For that service and her subsequent activities, Miss Arlett was promoted to be principal of a high school in Oakland,” etc. You will expect to find Miss Arlett at this 1922 convention, ready to carry out Mr. Hunter’s orders for the smashing of the classroom teachers. You will be prepared to hear that the gang went into caucus in Miss Effie MacGregor’s room, and that Miss Arlett took the initiative and made the principal speech, endorsing her and outlining the program. The gang had engaged Symphony Hall for the business meeting of the Department of Classroom Teachers—an afternoon meeting, and there was to be a concert in the hall in the evening. The promise had been made that the hall would be vacated at five o’clock; but not a word was said to the teachers about this, and the gang proceeded to drag the meeting out with technical discussions over the details of the constitution. At six o’clock a slip of paper was sent up to the presiding officer, stating that the meeting had already kept the hall for an hour beyond the time agreed upon, and must vacate immediately!