Page:George Soule - The Intellectual and the Labor Movement.djvu/26

 Intellectuals function in a labor political movement as speakers, secretaries, organizers, writers, research workers, "lobbyists," legislators, administrators, etc.

The principal labor political groups in the United States include:

Conference for Progressive Political Action, Machinist Building, Washington, D. C.

Farmer-Labor Party, 166 W. Washington Street, Chicago, Ill.

National Non-Partisan League, St. Paul, Minn.

Non-Partisan Political Campaign Committee, A. F. of L., A. F. of L. Building, Washington, D. C.

Socialist Party, 2418 W. Madison St., Chicago, Ill.

Workers’ Party, 799 Broadway, New York City.

Teaching is a job worth while socially, and most persons like to teach somewhere and under certain conditions. There are unions of teachers, and they are in the thick of the union movement. They are the real thing. Teachers' unions everywhere in this country are well received by trade union men and women, and give substantial aid in the struggle for the common good. In one sense, organized teachers as a group should be natural leaders in the union movement. They join a teachers' union because they realize the force of the argument that each social group must organize in a fundamental social movement to improve its own working conditions. Moreover, teaching itself is social work. Good teaching helps everybody.

Many teachers' union members work as teachers in workers' education movements. In the cities of New York, Boston, Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Paul, Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, the workers are being taught in part by members of teachers' unions. The workers prefer to have union teachers.

There may be just one reason why potentially good teachers would hold off from going into teaching as a business. And that reason is connected with the existence of bad conditions. Private schools are often controlled by ultra-conservative financial, social or ecclesiastical interests. Public schools—in which the demand for teachers is greatest—are run largely by politicians. They are conducted without social idealism of a high type, too often by a lot of persons in the administration and among the teachers who regard teaching as a tough job rather than as a social opportunity. Nevertheless, there is the opening for intelligent persons of social vision. The break must come some time. We want big, live and enlightened men and women in the school systems to help in educational reconstruction which is sure to come. When such persons begin to come in, society and the teachers themselves will take a big jump ahead.