The teachers got busy and circulated petitions, and defeated this law by referendum. Then the Taxpayers’ Protective Association tried to throw out the referendum, and the teachers had to pay an attorney a thousand dollars of their own money to argue the case before the Supreme Court. You will not be surprised to hear that the principal backer of this Taxpayers’ Protective Association is Mr. E. P. Clark, principal backer of the Better America Federation; in other words, the association is simply one of the aliases of the Black Hand! And now this Black Hand has elected its own governor of the state, on a program of “economy,” which means the starving of every form of public welfare activity. The school appropriations have been cut to such an extent that the teachers’ colleges are crippled and the whole system is in despair. You see, what money California has to spare just now must go into a new state penitentiary here in the South; the Black Hand is planning more campaigns against “suspicion of criminal syndicalism.” A couple of months ago, while I sat in my cell at the Wilmington police-station, my fellow prisoner, Hugh Hardyman, quoted a remark: “I would rather be in jail laying the foundations of liberty than at liberty laying the foundations of jails.” In California you take your choice between these two. CHAPTER X THE SPY SYSTEM It goes without saying that in such a school system promotion goes by favoritism. The system of examining and grading teachers at the present time is a farce. These examinations are partly written, partly oral, and partly references; the references are submitted as confidential, and one of the assistant superintendents marks them, without any assistance. So far as the oral examinations are concerned, it is purely a question of getting before an examiner who is your friend. Mrs. Dorsey, the superintendent, will say: “Send So-and-so to my committee”; and it will be done. Mr. Bettinger, while assistant superintendent, discovered that the deputy superintendent was giving the clerk a list of names of those who were to be passed as favored by people of influence. He tells me how later on Jerry Muma, at that time “boss” of the board, came to him with a friend whose daughter desired to take the examination for high school teacher. Mr. Bettinger explained the routine; the examination must be taken in such and such a way, etc. But Mr. Muma was not satisfied. He said that he had heard these matters could be arranged more expeditiously. Finding that Mr. Bettinger did not take the hint, he said: “Wait a minute,” and went out. He was gone five minutes, and came back, saying: “It will be all right; Mr. Shafer (an assistant) will have this young woman come before him.” Mr. Muma, you remember, is the dealer in life insurance who “believes in reciprocity.”