I think that to make the above story complete and perfect you will need to know something about the lady-president of the N. E. A. who put this job through for the gang. You already have her name—Charl O. Williams; she was school superintendent of Shelby County, Tennessee, and immediately after this convention she got her reward—a permanent N. E. A. job, carrying not merely a salary of $7,500 a year, but the privilege of uplifting the teachers with Southern eloquence at one hundred dollars per lift. This lady ex-superintendent ex-president field secretary also represents her State of Tennessee on the national committee of the Democratic party, where she sits in conference with the chiefs of Tammany Hall; so you see exactly where this rascality comes from. Keep the lady in mind, because a year later we shall find her selected by the N. E. A. to uplift the world conference of educators—and to soothe their cravings for peace with weazel words of war. CHAPTER L A PLOT AGAINST DEMOCRACY The National Education Association is a very old institution, predating the Civil War. It has always been controlled entirely by the supervising force; in other words, it has been an employers’ organization. During several decades of its history no classroom teacher was ever elected to any office. At the present time some well trained teacher is occasionally admitted to office for the sake of appearances. It required many years of struggle to get the National Education Association to give any consideration whatever to the living and working conditions of the classroom teacher, or to recognize salaries, pensions and tenure as legitimate subjects for discussion. It required a revolution in the organization to secure in the year 1903 the appointment of a committee on salaries, tenure and pensions; and this committee made a report which was full of misrepresentations. Not until 1911 was action taken even to gather the real figures on these questions. I will give you a glimpse of the organization in those early days, just to let you see how these things remain the same. At the 1901 convention in Detroit, the United States Commissioner of Education gave a paper outlining the progress of the schools. He was an aged dotard; as an eye-witness said to me, “In the educational system we don’t bury the dead. We let them walk around to save funeral expenses.” This speaker congratulated the country upon the growing number of school pupils, but said not a word about the need of more school money. An orator who rose to applaud him declared that the educational sky was without a cloud, and his only regret was that the American public schools had not been able to get a donation from Rockefeller.