HISTORICAL TRENDS

 

list reveals estimated total donations to workers’ education from 1921 to

1938: *
Contributors Estimated Contribution™
Thade Uni0as aici e's no's ba ores ee ee ae $1,500,000
Federal government: s)0s5)s'ais's sivas atoiceau eee anc 1,000,000
Laheral sympathizers; 5.9 cla's's oncdti ene ous te rate 750,000
Fond thas | 6 :5'4)4.6)< die a telnias, « iete aoe cule stature pies ele 500,000
State SOVErMMeNts | 5/eio ois e-u\s v wcaleineiolesa vise nieeies 200,000

TOUR Sais sv,s.n/y eens en caylee iictere malnainis $3,950,000

Figures for the federal government are especially significant since this sum has
been contributed only since September, 1933. The $1,500,000 expenditures
of the trade unions are divided into two parts: $750,000 spent on their own
programs and $750,000 given to outside projects. The International Ladies
Garment Workers’ Union alone spent $350,000 of the $750,000 direct con-
tributions. Many people hope that donations from the trade unions will
increase. The feeling persists among some individuals that workers ought to
support their own program and that if educational activities cannot be placed
upon a paying basis after 17 years, something is fundamentally wrong. There-
fore, the movement is gratified that trade unions have spent larger percentages
year by year and that in 1937 they made a larger net and gross contribution
than in any other year.

Yet many who plan educational programs for workers still believe that
some help must be accepted from other sources than trade unions. They con-
tinue to seek government support and to back bills calling for increased fed-
eral grants, in line with recommendations made by the President's Advisory
Committee on Education. They reason that so long as the principles of
curriculum, scope, method, and related matters are fulfilled with integrity,
it is not important whether organized labor has complete control. In fact
unilateral direction is considered to be both impossible and undesirable when
the labor movement is not unified. However, most people active in the field
believe that federal and state contributions should be supplementary and not
in lieu of support by organized labor. Also labor representatives should be

™® Report by Spencer Miller, Jr. at Annual Conference of Teachers in Workers Educa-
tion, New York, February 1938.

*! Figures are only estimations based upon analysis of budgets, but are the fullest avail-
able in the field.

2 Op. cit.

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