The Goslings: A Study of the American SchoolsSinclair, Upton
History
The Goslings: A Study of the American Schools
Sinclair, Upton
Education -- United States
Those in favor of the minimum wage for men say that men should receive
a wage sufficient to marry and rear a family without the dangers that
come from insufficient employment and wages.
Or consider a criminal Bolshevik utterance like the following:
The prohibition of night work, the eight-hour day, and the minimum
wage for women are necessary to protect the health of the mothers of
the next generation.
Or an incendiary statement such as this:
Social insurance helps to maintain normal family standards.
Again, think of telling a tender young child about a workingman who
contracted tuberculosis, so that his oldest boy had to leave school, and
the mother had to go out to day sewing, with the result that “the young
children ran wild.” Then follows the subtle propaganda:
The misfortune of this family could have been prevented if a law
providing for social insurance against sickness, or health insurance,
had been in effect.
There was a whole list of Bolshevik utterances such as this, which you
may find quoted and discussed in a pamphlet published by the National
Industrial Conference at Boston. The title of the pamphlet is: “A Case
of Federal Propaganda in our Public Schools.” The pamphlet doesn’t state
what was done about this matter, so I mention that the circulation of
the wicked propaganda by the United States government was immediately
stopped.
Next, the National Association for Constitutional Government, which is
sending out lecturers to talk to school children on the Constitution. A
teacher in St. Paul tells me about a woman from this organization, who
was allowed half an hour in a high school of St. Paul, and devoted two
minutes to the Constitution, and twenty-eight minutes to the
Bolsheviks—meaning, of course, everybody who believes in municipal milk
inspection and government control of railroads. This lady has just
turned up in Southern California, having got herself transferred to the
Better America Federation. She lectures in the drawing-rooms of our rich
ladies, and feeds them all the old garbage—free love, nationalization of
women, the communization of children, the tearing down of churches. She
lends spice to her discourse by telling how she herself in her youth was
seduced by these cults of Satan. It is noted that no one is ever given
an opportunity to question her, and she never appears before those
organizations whose rules provide that both sides of every question
shall be heard. She has a new and curious formula for getting at the
truth: “If you want to know about Socialism, don’t go to the
Socialists!” To a friend of mine she said, with lifted eyebrows: “Do you
really think Upton Sinclair is sincere?”
Next, the National Security League. From a syndicated newspaper article,
occupying two columns, I cut the following head-lines:
/* LESSONS IN PATRIOTISM ARE FREE FOR TEACHERS
REVISION IN STUDY OF CIVICS ALL OVER COUNTRY HELPED BY NOBLE WORK OF
LEAGUE SECRETARY */
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account