HISTORICAL TRENDS

 

only a few intellectuals, and they visualized workers themselves becoming
teachers. Training was to be obtained in advanced schools for workers, in
special classes, committees, and conferences, and while in service as teachers.
Current forces have changed the situation. At this time more than at any
other in American history, teachers in academic institutions and college trained
men and women are aware of the trade union and labor movement. As they
become oriented in the field, they offer their services to workers. On the other
hand, few instructors can be obtained from among the masses of new, young
members in the various labor organizations throughout the country.

FINANCE AND CONTROL

Three main factors have been recognized in securing financial support.
One has been the difficulty of awakening and retaining the interest of organ-
ized labor in educational activities. The second has centered about the effect
upon control when financial aid has been given by a specific organization.
The third has been the actual trend in contributions.

Many leaders have believed that an organization naturally becomes inter-
ested in any venture which it supports financially. This idea was expressed
at a conference in 1925 as follows:

We have found that to defray all expenses and assume all responsibilities
is not a logical idea; it is better if possible to have the local body assume both
a moral and a financial responsibility because they will then be more anxious
for the success of the affair. Things today given to the worker absolutely free
of work or charge are looked upon either with suspicion or as too cheap to be
of any value.”
Today many leaders still feel that if workers do not want workers’ education
enough to pay for it themselves, they had better not have it. Still others have
maintained that interest and ability to pay are not always coordinate. They
have urged that support be accepted from persons who are not workers and
from agencies that are outside their control. Yet foresight has emphasized
the need for at least partial labor support. As expressed by one teacher, it is
dangerous to accept money from certain sources if financial aid within the
labor movement thereby is neglected. Then workers’ education must rely

Paul Fuller, “Labor Chautauquas,” Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference of
Teachers in Workers’ Education, Mass Education for Workers, at Brookwood, February
20-22, 1925, pp. 23-24.

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