000834 Modern SchoolofStelton

"'5 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVER"SARY 19'tO . "

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FRANC IS CO FERRER 18 59 - 1 9 ° 9 EDUCATOR· REBEL· MARTYR

PUB LISHED BY MODERN SCHOOL OF STELTON. N. J. • MAY NINETEEN ·FORTY

nO~!DA ATL'A !e U IVER 1 LIBRARY SOCIALIST - LA BO . r.nll Fr.T10N MODERN SCHOOL OF STELTON 25th ANNIVERSARY COMMITTEE

Arthur S. Samuels Exe cutive Committee SPONSORS: Chairman Anna Block Henry Alsberg Morris Feinstone Marc Mratchny Joseph J . Cohen Sally Axelrod Elizabeth and Alexis Ferm Rose Pesotta Claire Comorau Co-Chairman Ro ger Bal dwin Henry Fruchter I. Radinowsky Baskin Emma Cohen Louis Raymond Simon Farber J. Harry Kell y Thomas Bell Abe Goldman M. Ricco Treasurer -Samuel Freedman Dr. S. Berlin Mary Hansen Henry Schni ttkind Abe Bluestein Hutchins Hapgood Anna Schwartz Masha Hochman Abe Grosner Max Bluestein Hippolyte Havel John Scott Nicholas Kirtzman S. Klonin Sheindel Bluestein Julius Hochman Paul and Polly Scott Secretaries Yossel Bluestein D. Isakowitz Bernard Shane Minna Lowensohn Bertha Chasick Joseph Ishill B. Share Harry and Sonia Clemens M. Jagendorf Nat Marer Samuel Shore Fannia M. Cohn Philip Kapp Anna Sosnofsky Editorial Commit tee Elsie Kelly Marer Anthony Crivello Stewart Kerr Sol Vinick Leonard D. Abbo tt Dora Pearl J im and Nellie Dick Lillian Kisluik Harry Weinberger Joseph J . Cohen Kate and John Edelman Louis Le vy Abe Winokur I. Pilat Abe Grosner Marc Epstein Eugene Lyons Carl Zigrosser H arry Kell y Sam Rothman Israel Feinberg Ray Porter Miller

CONCERT AND REUNION

Ball Room, Hotel Diplomat 108 West 43rd Street, N. Y. C.

FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1940, 8:30 P. M. * * * ARTHUR SAMUELS

GREETINGS: ALEXIS FERM, MANUEL KOMROFF, RUDOLF ROCKER AND OTHERS '

LEONARD D. ABBOTT, CHAIRMAN * * * RAY PORTER MILLER, SOPRANO

GDAL SALESKY, CELLIST

CLARA FREEDMAN AND EDITH FRIEDMAN AT THE PIANO

DANCING AFTER II:30 CGo months almost to the day after the conference in the Rand School. called to discuss and to organize a fitting celebration, we are here with this modest offer­ ing to the friends and sympathizers of the Modern School and of the monumental contribution which Ferrer made to progressive, libertarian education. Possibly our efforts, as embodied in this publication, are not altogether commen­ surate with the aim we had set for ourselves, nor adequate for such a memorable occasion; but friends will understand-others we will serenely disregard. Many of us to whom the Ferrer Modern School served as a harbinger of a new day were reluctant, in spite of this epoch of blackouts and carnage, to let the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the School in the Ferrer Colony go by unmarked. And although fully aware of the meager means at our disposal and the limited forces in our midst we determined to make an earnest endeavor. , Whatever this is then, in the final result, let it serve as one more token of the indelible impress which Ferrer's life, work and martyrdom made on countless adherents the world over, and which inspired us here to follow, even if but few -if any-ever succeeded in emulating that fountain of energy and idealism which was Ferrer. If this publication, conceived and born in haste, will serve to reawaken a dor~ant interest in libertarian education in some, to kindle a spark in others, we shall be gratified in the thought that this attempt was worth making. Editorial Committee ABE GROSNER, Secretary

, VERY SAD INDEED IS THE NEWS OF EMMA GOLDMAN'S DEATH, PARTICULARLY AT THIS TIME OF OUR PREPARATIONS FOR FESTIVITIES AND JUST AS WE ARE ABOUT TO GO TO PRESS . UNFORTUNATELY, FOR TECHNICAL REASONS, IT IS IM­ POSSIBLE TO DEVOTE PROPER SPACE TO AN ADEQUATE EVALUATION OF THE GREAT PERSONALITY WHO, IN ADDITION TO HER MANY OTHER ACTIVITIES, WAS ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE MODERN SCHOOL. MAY HER SPIRIT AND IN- FLUENCE LIVE LONG IN OUR MEMORIESl

WEARE GRATEFUV to all our sympathizers and friends who with their contributions have made this publication possible.

May we at the same time urge those who for some reason have not given their contribution, to do so now and thus help us republish this material in a more handy format, in the very near future? The names of such additional contributors, as well as those contained herein, will appear in the forthcoming edition. Address communications to Abe Grosner, Secretary, 45 West 17th Street, New York City, N. Y., and make checks payable to Harry Kelly, Treasurer.

~4'8 MARSTIN PRESS, INC., NEW YORK CITY FERRER'S HEAD

SIRE, THE CROWN PRINCE WILL SOON BECOME A DEVOTED SON OF THE CHURCH; WE MUST TRAIN HIM BEFOREHAND TO PLAY AROUND WITH THE BEST HEADS OF OUR COUNTRY. (Sim.plicissimus, November IgOg) The Slain Prophet By LEONARD D. ABBOTT

R AN CISCO FERRER was the morning star of an Mlle. Meunier was a Roman Catholic and unsympa­ F aborted, Spanish revolution. Everything that has thetic with radical ideas when she engaged Ferrer as a happened in Spain during the last three decades-the teacher. But she was a person of independent ideas; long travail toward a juster social order; the expulsion she had been strongly influenced by the Dreyfus case; of King Alphonso XIII; the establishment of the Span­ and on the day when she finished Emile Zola's novel, ish Republic; the counter-Revolution of Francisco "Truth," she espoused the cause of Dreyfus. Later, as Franco-can be related to the fateful October day in a result of her conversations with Ferrer and of her 1909 on which Ferrer was slain. reading of books, such as Volney's "Ruins of Empires," He was born on a farm at the village of AlelIa, near which Ferrer gave to her, she began to share his en­ Barcelona, in 1859. His parents were vine-dressers. Like thusiasms. Ferrer was ever a crusader in behalf of ideas their neighbors they were orthodox Roman Catholics that appealed to him. "I cannot conceive of life without and believed what their priest (who was probably the propaganda," he said. During this period he met Ana­ only man in Alella able to read) told them. One of the tole France, the greatest French writer of his time, and. things that he may have told them was that popu­ Elisee Reclus, geographer and encyclopedist, and cor­ lar education is an evil and that radicals are emissaries responded with Peter Kropotkin and Ernst HaeckeI. of Satan. The boy Francisco at the age of thirteen was The instrument by which he hoped to achieve the without education-a fact which made him sympathetic emancipation of Spain was now education, instead of with others similarly deprived. violent revolution. He had arrived at .the conclusion He developed into a youth of independent and vigor­ that the employment of violence is useless; that, despite ous character. The Roman Catholic training imposed its apparent swiftness, it is the slowest method in the upon him he rejected. The spirit of religious and end. He said: political revolt was in his blood. "Time respects only those institutions which time For a short period he held a position as railroad in­ itself has played its part in building up: That which spector, but his heart was not in his work. He regarded violence wins for us today, another act of violence his occupation simply as a method of providing sub­ may wrest from us tomorrow. Those stages of progress sistence while he prepared himself to labor for the real­ are alone durable which have rooted themselves in the ization of an ideal that was dominating his every wak- . mind and conscience of mankind before receiving the ing moment. This ideal was the emancipation of Spain final sanction of legislators. The only means of realiz­ from the Roman Catholic and monarchist blight. ing what is good is to teach it by education and propa­ In 1879 he proclaimed himself a republican. When gate it by example." Sixty-eight per cent of the Spanish Santa-Coloma de Farnes and General Villa Campa people were unable to read. Most of the Roman Catho­ made insurrectionary attempts to overthrow the Span­ lic schools were grossly inadequate both in equipment ish monarchy and to inaugurate a republic, he allied and in the quality of their teachers. What was needed, himself with them. After the failure of these attempts Ferrer contended, was a new system of education in­ he fled to Paris. There he became secretary to the Span­ spired by faith in the human future rather than in ish republican leader, Ruiz Zorilla. antique religious dogmas. Mlle. Meunier grew into At this time, under the stress of economic necessity, fuller and fuller symypathy with his ideals, and when he discovered his vocation: he decided to be a teacher. she died left him a large bequest. His kind heart made him an excellent mentor, a suc­ Ferrer went back to Barcelona and founded the cessful educator, an apostle of modern scientific in­ Escuela Modenna. In this pioneer educational work he struction. He soon was a familiar figure in centers of manifested real genius. The first of his schools was adult education in Paris. In the rooms of the Masonic opened in 1901. It soon absorbed a number of other order, the Grand Orient in the Rue Cadet, he taught schools established in Catalonia and elsewhere; by every night through 1897. He also gave private lessons 1904 forty schools had copied its textbooks. The num­ in Spanish. ber of schools finally reached 120. The curriculum of One of Ferrer's pupils was Mlle. Ernestine Meunier, these schools included the following program of sub­ a Frenchwoman who with her mother had inherited jects and illustrated studies: three million francs from her father. Mlle. Meunier · The Evolution of Worlds; The Story of the Earth; loved music and the modern languages. She traveled The Origin of Life; The Evolution of Living Things; with her mother in Italy and in Spain. The Factors of Organic Evolution; The Origin arid [ 3 ] Development of Man; Thought; The History of Civil­ Every influence was hostile to him. The presiding ization; Religions; Laws and Morals; Social Organiza­ officers who constituted his judge and jury were mili­ tions; Economic Systems; The Evolution of Technics tary men who had themselves taken a leading part in and Art; The Factors of Social Evolution; Man and suppressing the people's antimilitarist revolt in July. the World. No less than sixty witnesses had been persuaded or Some of the textbooks used in the Modern Schools bribed to testify against him. Not a single witness was were these: heard on Ferrer's side. "Man and the Earth," by Elisee Reclus; "Resume We now know positively that Ferrer was not the of Spanish History," by Nicholas Estevanez: "Com­ head or the chief of the Barcelona uprising. We know pendium of Universal History," by Clemencia Jac­ it from his own statements, from the statements of his quinet; "The Universal Substance," by A. Bloch and friends, and-most important of all-from the state­ Paraf Javal; "Superorganic Evolution," by Enrique ments of the men who actually planned and led the Lluria; "Physical Geography," by Odon de Buen; July revolt, so far as it had any plan or leading. "Mineralogy," by Odon de Buen; "First Stages of Hu­ The witnesses were not heard in court. Their depos­ manity," by Georges Engerrand; "Ethnical Psychol­ itions were read. This in itself was a grave injustice ogy," by Charles Letourneau; "A Free World," by Jean and, it should be added, a grave violation of Spanish Grave; "Misery, Its Cause and Cure," by Leon Martin; law. The Spanish government must have been con­ "The Banquet of Life," by Anselmo Lorenzo; "War," scious of irregularity, for it allowed false reports to be by Charles Malato. sent to the newspapers conveying the idea that the wit­ From the first the Roman Catholics were bitterly nesses had actually been heard. hostile to the Modern Schools. They looked for an op­ Ferrer was questioned concerning two violent :in­ portunity to suppress them and in 1906 their oppor­ cendiary circulars alleged to have been found during tunity came. Mateo Morral, who had been connected a search of his house. He disclaimed knowledge of with the schools, threw a bomb at the King and Queen these. The circulars were in fact "found" by the police of Spain on their wedding day. Ferrer was charged during a search when competent witnesses-witnesses with complicity in the act, and held in prison for a required by law-were not present. year. But nothing could be proved against him. Captain Galceran made a heroic effort to save Ferrer's The second opportunity of the clericals came in life. He showed that Ferrer's ruin was sought by the July 1909 when the Spanish government was preparing corrupt interests menaced by the Modern Schools. He a new raid on the Riff district in Morocco. Mobiliza­ had encountered, he said, in the preparation of his tion orders called out reservists consisting of working case so much fraud and "vile passion" in a single week men and poor peasants, many of whom refused to be that he was overwhelmed. shipped to Africa. Popular indignation culminated in Ferrer contented himself, in his final speech before anticlerical demonstrations and in a general strike in the court, with a quiet protestation of innocence. He Barcelona and in other cities. The industrial life of said: Catalonia suddenly came to a standstill. "With the consent of the presiding officer, let me The authorities after a few days succeeded in quell­ ask the court to judge me only upon the facts connected ing the uprising. Thousands of persons-men, women with the events of the last week of July or of the days and children-were arrested. Among the prisoners were immediately preceding, during which certain persons the most prominent labor leaders and many veterans incited or prepared the general strike of July 26. If this of the revolutionary movement, including Francisco is done, you must find me innocent, for I had no part Ferrer. whatever in the inciting of that event. It was the Archbishop of Barcelona who, in a state­ "Let me say also that it would be wholly unjust to ment signed by himself and other prelates of the church, condemn me today for my political opinions or utter­ first denounced Ferrer and demanded his life. Ferrer ances during the last twenty years of the nineteenth was charged with having been the head and chief of century, for none of which have I ever been reproached the Barcelona uprising. His trial attracted attention or called to account. Nor should my work during the throughout the world by reason of the obvious bias present century in connection with the Modern School displayed. be brought up against me; for the publications of that Imagine a man trapped in the midst of his enemies; school are either translations of classic authors, whose confronted with the testimony of a multitude of sol­ names are accepted and glorious, or else the work of diers, spies, and weak-kneed radicals who had turned modern authors of worldwide reputation, of acknowl­ "state's evidence"; undefended except by an army cap­ edged wisdom, of humane sentiments. Let me close by tain (Galceran) whom he had been compelled to affirming that those who criticize the works published choose. This was the plight of Ferrer. by the Modern School either have not read them or [4 ] else, as the result of the prejudice which they entertain, Maison du Roi was unveiled, bearing a suitable in­ are incapable of judging them." scription. A few hours later the sentence of death was decreed. In 1911 a symbolic statue in commemoration of So the hideous drama was enacted. So this brave man Ferrer, showing a nude male figure upholding a torch, went to his doom. Francisco Ferrer, the founder of the was erected in Brussels. This statue was removed by the Modern Schools, was condemned before he was tried. Germans at the time of their invasion of Belgium in ,. ,. ,. 1915, but was restored after the war and now stands Madame Soledad Villafranca, Ferrer's companion on its original pedestal in the Place de Saint Catherine. during his later years, was a beautiful and intelligent ,. ,. ,. woman. She appears with him in a group photograph Ferrer's property, at first confiscated by the Spanish showing the delegates to an International Freethought government, was later restored to his heirs. This act Congress held in Brussels. After his death she attended was an official acknowledgment of the government's an immense demonstration in Brussels at which. a failure to prove its charge that he had been "chief of a memorial slab let into the pavement of the historic military rebellion."

Precursors of Ferrer In Spain By RUDOLF ROCKER

HE execution of Francisco Ferrer by the Spanish Ignacio Ververa, who was much impressed by the T government in October 1909 not only released a theories of the celebrated French philosopher, and storm of public protest all the world over, but also led especially by his brilliant views on education. To to numerous experiments in free education in various Fourier education was not a system of training to countries in Europe and South and North America of achieve a certain uniformity of the human mind, but which the Stelton School is one of the oldest. Ferrer's a method to strengthen the natural inclinations of the ideas of a free and rational education of youth and individual and to facilitate the development of his in­ the success of his work in his native country are fairly born abilities. well known to the liberal world. Not so the fact that Cervera, who was a great admirer of Pestalozzi, com­ attempts in his direction had been made quite fre­ bined the teachings of the great Swiss pedagogue with quently in Spain and occupied the minds of many of the socialist conceptions of Fourier, and developed his the best brains in the social movement in that country. ideas about free education in his paper El Trabajador Right from the beginning, when socialist ideas pene­ and other publications of the time. With money col­ trated from France into the Iberian peninsula, the lected among his friends Cervera founded in 1847 the question of a free education became one of the main first free school in Madrid. He started with a class for problems for the Spanish socialists. There were several workers in the evening hours hoping that by this reasons for that; in a country where every attempt he would be able to procure the necessary means for to educate the people had been stifled for centuries by a children's school. But the beginning was not encour­ the Church and the reactionary powers, that problem aging. Weeks passed by, and the only pupil of Cervera's had a greater importance than in any other country in school was a middle-aged worker, a mason, who seemed Europe. to be interested in the work of the young teacher. But But there is still another reason: Among the great Cervera did not become discouraged, and noticing the pioneers of European socialism there were only two sincerity of his pupil and his eagerness to acquire some who had a great and lasting influence upon the social knowledge in the few hours left to him, he treated him movement in Spain-Charles Fourier and P. J. Proud­ with all the courtesy and patience he possessed. After hon. The first socialist paper in Spain, La Atraccion, a few months his pupil brought some of his comrades, published in 1846 in Madrid by the well-known social­ and by and by the school embraced about fifty pupils, ist writer and historian Fernando Garrido, propagated Under the influence of the revolutionary events in the ideas of the great French social philosopher Fourier, France in February 1848 a new wave of liberal ideas and it was precisely Fourier who had developed quite swept over Spain and strengthened the spirit of the a new way of education which is one of the corner­ progressive elements. Now Cervera's school became a stones of his whole social system. social institution in Madrid. It had more than 500 pu­ Among the followers of Garrido in Madrid there pils and was divided into classes for children and was a young and very intelligent enthusiast, Antonio adults. The reactionaries became alarmed by Cervera's

[ 5 ] success, and the clerical press denounced him as an schools were founded in seven other towns in Cata­ "enemy of the state" and his school as "a conspiracy lonia. The means to keep up these institutions came against the Church and the monarchy." mainly from labor organizations. The methods of teach­ By the end of 1849 the government arrested Cervera, ing were on the same line as those of Cervera's school confiscated his property and closed his school. When in Madrid. These first free schools in Catalonia ex­ a few liberal deputies in the Cortes protested against the isted for a number of years in spite of the continual illegal procedure of the government and praised Cer­ attacks of the reactionary press. But after the great gen­ vera's educational experiment as an attempt to en­ eral strike in 1855 for the right of coalition, and the lighten the Spanish people, the Prime Minister Bravo bloody suppression of the labor unions by General Murillo made the cynical reply: "Thinking is not the Zapata all these institutions were destroyed. business of the people. What we need in Spain is beasts But every time that the political conditions per­ of burden." mitted the workers to build up their organizations "While in Madrid the nucleus of the first socialist again, new attempts for a free education were made. movement consisted mainly of intellectuals, the pio­ At the time of the First International, which had more neers in Catalonia found a much larger field for their followers in Spain than in any other country, 50 to 60 activities in the labor unions which existed there since of these institutions were in existence. At the congress 1840. The members of these unions readily accepted of the Spanish Federation of the International in the new ideas of socialism and have remained ever since Zaragoza (1872) the scientist Trinidad Soriano devel­ the backbone of the libertarian movement in Spain. oped in a masterly speech the elements of a free educa­ Quite a number of the first socialists in Catalonia tion. His plan was unanimously adopted by the dele­ occupied themselves with the practical methods of a gates, and had very much in common with the methods new education. One of the outstanding militants of the which Ferrer employed in his Modern School many movement in Catalonia, Abdon de Terradas, organ­ years later. ized in 1847 the first free school in Barcelona. As in As we can see, Ferrer was by no means the initiator Madrid, the school in Barcelona had special classes for of these ideas, but only one of their most successful ex­ children and evening courses for the workers. After ponents on Spanish soil, and he had to pay with his life several months it counted over 600 pupils, and new for his aspirations, as so many others before him. The Great Heritage By HIPPOLYTE HAVEL

N joining the great line of martyrs for freedom Fran­ play and at work we notice only the true path toward I cisco Ferrer y Guardia left us a great heritage: the freedom: development of free individuals through self­ ideal of the Modern School. expression. The shots before the fortress of Montjuich in Bar­ The great forerunners and pathfinders in libertarian celona ended the life of an individual, but gave life education, a Rousseau, a Tolstoi, a Froebel, a Mon­ to education through self-development. Inspired by tessori, a Pestalozzi, great nonconformists like Whit­ the work of the Spanish martyr some comrades to man and Thoreau ... all would feel themselves at the idea in New York organized the Francisco Ferrer home in the Modern School. They would rejoice in Association: the result was the Modern School in Stel­ observing the children in activity at play and at work. ton, celebrating this month the twenty-fifth year of its And no less a person than the grandson of - two existence. presidents of the United States has left us a remarkable Twenty-five years of heartrending struggle to keep testament on education: "The Education of Henry the school alive .. . and so very few realize the impor­ Adams." tance of the institution. We hear nowadays many Declaring that education has never been stated and effusions about democracy .. . the only path toward cannot be stated in terms of dollars and cents, Adams democracy is the education of the child through self­ declares: development as practiced in the Modern School. Many "A teacher must either treat education as a cata­ of us are only too eager to criticize some phases in the logue, a record, a romance, or as an evolution; whether development of the School, but taking the general he affirms or denies evolution he falls into the burning situation in consideration we find how picayune our fagots of the pit. He makes of his scholars either priests .objections and criticisms prove to be. or atheists, plutocrats or socialists, judges or anarchists, Observing the children of the Modern School at almost in spite of himself. The chief wonder of edu- [ 6 ] cation is that it does not ruin everybody concerned in from individuals and organizations striving for a free it, teachers and taught." society. It is kept alive through sacrifice on the part The Modern School did not fall into such a pit. Free of the Principal and Teaching Staff and the comrades development through self-expression is the goal and of the Board of Management. In neglecting to support no free society is possible without free individuals. the school libertarians commit a great error and a The Modern School is in need of a greater support great crime against their own ideals. A Pioneer School By CARL ZIGROSSER OME thirty years ago a group of enlightened people, in their manifestations." The Modern School thus Sconvinced that perhaps the best way to make the was a pioneer in free experimental education in New world a better place to live in was to start with chil­ York along with the Walden School and the City and dren, banded together and founded the Ferrer Modern Country School. The Modern School eventually moved School. They took their cue from the ideals of the to Stelton, N. j., and in spite of many handicaps has Spanish martyr, Francisco Ferrer, who summarized his carried on under the able leadership of Alexis and principles as follows: "The whole value of education Elizabeth Byrne Ferm. Indeed without the unselfish consists in respect for the physical, intellectual, and devotion of these two teachers the school would never moral faculties of the child. As in science, the only be"where it is today. Thirty years agothere was need possible demonstration is demonstration by facts; ed­ of a Modern School; today the need is infinitely great­ ucation is not worthy of the name unless it be stripped er. If Modern Schools had sprung up in great quanti­ of all dogmatism, and unless it leaves to the child the ties in all countries, the world would not be the sorry direction of its powers and is content to support them place it is today. The Stelton School and Liberty ByHARRY WEINBERGER of th e N ew York Bar QUART ER of a century is a long time in the life an t crops of wheat and corn and fruits and vegetables, A of nations, institutions or individuals. yet millions who are unemployed go hungry because The Stelton Modern School has stood for the ideal th eir purchasing power is gone. We have the capacity of liberty during a quarter of a century, and faces the to build hundreds of thousands of homes, but the build­ next quarter of a century with courage undimmed ing of these houses would bring additional taxes, so and an abiding faith that in liberty there is strength they are not built. We allow land to remain idle; we and in freedom mankind can still be happy, contented allow the unearned increment of -land created by the and find the solution of its economic problems. community to be taken by individuals instead of the A people who are an-hungered cannot stay free. Oc­ community. Only students trained in freedom will casional brave souls may starve and struggle to the end change all that and will break down and pull down to maintain liberty and democracy. Large groups may national high tariff walls, so that other nations may do fight while starving and die in the struggle. For an lik ewise. Then trade and goods may flow through the entire nation, unemployment and starvation, however, world again and nations will cease to fear that they will lead that nation inevitably to accept dictatorship cannot get raw materials for their people to eat or man­ . in preference to hunger; whether that dictatorship is ufacture. Tariff walls cause nations to prepare for war. in the form of Fascism, of Nazism or Communism. Life This preparation for war entails a burden that is like even with all economic questions solved, if without th e Old Man of the Sea whom Sinbad carried almost liberty, would be like a rope of sand which perishes to the point of his destruction. in the twisting. Economic liberty or proper distribution of wealth There can be no overproduction; there can only be and the proper forms of taxation have nothing to do underconsumption. Today we have wonderful machin­ with the question of liberty. They have only to do with ery making too much clothing and the other necessities economics. But only a free people with liberty of speech of life so that millions are without jobs and therefore can change economic conditions in order to bring cannot buy. We have agriculture that produces abund- about the welfare of all the people. [ 7 ] The Stelton Modern School stands against regimen­ honor not to enter the arena and give battle. Democ­ tation of the people under any guise or pretext. Some racy with all its faults is the sole hope of a world seek­ men in a hurry to save the world before nightfall would ing a possible peaceful solution of economic problems. dispense with all liberty. If despotism ~onquers, it will mold the world for a long The School has always stood against the despotism time in unchangeable form; it will build on the masses of government or men. Its teachers have never been for the benefit of the few. afraid of paper bullets containing ideas; never afraid of verbal shot containing controversial ammunition. So I salute the Stelton Modern School which con­ It is no disgrace nor dishonor to fail in the conflict tinues to stand for freedom in education, freedom in for justice and liberty. It is only a disgrace and dis- life, as a fine beacon light in a dark world. A Remembrance ByB.LIBER ARLY in the morning of the day when the Ferrer ings formed later the seeds of my book, "The Child E School opened in New York I was at its door and the Home," which has been published in subse­ with my five-year-old boy. We were the only ones pres­ quent years and, after three or four American editions, ent. It was too early and we had to wait. After a short has been translated into several languages. It is now while another person, who was impatient to see the out of print. I had been a school teacher before I be­ school function, arrived. It was the youthful, enthu­ came a physician. But not being engaged as a regular siastic Leonard Abbott. He was all smiles. He joked instructor of the Ferrer School, I was asked to speak with the child until the teacher came. I still remember to its older pupils on anatomy, physiology, health, sex. his first words: "Great, isn't it?" Although this series of lectures was rather short because I had spoken before and after the opening of the of the removal of the School to Stelton, I enjoyed School, to the audiences of the Ferrer Association. I greatly this contact with the children. wrote for its little magazine when it was multigraphed, These remembrances, stirring up many details, many and later in its printed form. My articles and courses dreams that I still cherish, )ideals and principles to were all on the relationship between parents and chil­ which I have not ceased to be faithful, move me deeply, dren, between adults in general and children, and although I feel that practical activities must now be about Modern School education. The talks and writ- adjusted to present conditions. Libertarian Education By PRYNS HOPKINS, M.A., PH.D. TIBERT ARIAN education I define as a schooling for stamping in habits and memories show that we have L which respects the freedom of a child to do as he hitherto greatly overestimated the benefit of mere repe­ likes short of imperiling the equal freedom of others or tition when it is not accompanied by pleasant associa­ his own safety. If we love the child, we wish him to be tions. happy, and as the free are happier than the unfree, the Many of the opponents of libertarian education are burden of proof is on those who oppose libertarian biased, I think, by a point of view which is religious education. rather than scientific. There is belief in a "law of com­ The first line such opponents will take is to claim pensation" in the universe, by which all enjoyment that free children may be happy for the moment, but must be paid for by subsequent retribution, so that a their enjoyment is bought at the cost of acquiring those happy childhood results in flabby personality and a skills, painfully learnt, which they will need in after consequently unsuccessful life; conversely, to be much life to keep well, discover the truth, earn a living, suc­ under the parental rod in childhood developes "char­ cessfully marry and raise families of their own. And acter" and opens the road to industrial captaincy or insofar as failure does not make the chances of hap­ to the White House .As theology, I cannot praise this piness more remote, those are right who insist that view too highly; but it has little relation to any facts these acquirements receive some attention. Unfortun­ and as pedagogy it is vicious. ately for the argument, recent experiments on animals Another class of the opponents of free education and children as to what conditions are most favourable methods are, however, the opposite of religious. They [ 8 ] are the ultra "practical" people whose outlook is cyni­ education leaves out the important elements of sacrifice cal of all values except the obviously utilitarian. To and discipline, which, they point out, are demanded see children dabbling in a dozen arts and learning to by the adult world. The objection is largely a ration­ classify butterflies before they can do simple account­ alization of the objector's own indiscipline and unwil­ ing seems to them to evince a wrong perspective on life, lingness to sacrifice himself. Ask him whether he will a dangerous "Idealism." start to-day-to submit himself to, say, a course of physi­ These people argue as though the problem of en­ cal culture which you, not he, shall prescribe as good abling our children to either enjoy happiness or give for him; or whether he will sacrifice a part of his in­ it to others would be solved if we could enable them come for a cause he has never been interested in but to become rich! To anyone who has known intimately which you, being wiser than he, know to be more many rich persons and their frustrations, the idea is worthy than what he spends his money on now! When grotesquely amusing. Yet I find that many socialists and the young person conceives an ambition he can be communists have not thought their way through it. It quite Spartan in training towards it. When he admires is a reaction against the theological view that "wordly" or loves, he can sacrifice generously. Meantime, instead concerns do not matter; but an extreme cannot be bet­ of preaching to him that cigarettes are bad for him tered by swinging to such an opposite. let us stop smoking; instead of homilies on lying, let Given we are freed from worry about our human us be utterly frank with him; instead of worrying over relationships and our bare comforts, much the most his respect for our property, let us respect his, etc. important thing we then need is to become so inter­ The greatest positive advantage of libertarian educa­ ested in furthering an external purpose that the small tion remains yet to be mentioned. I will introduce the annoyances of life don't matter. If we can get our child subject in this way; researches which have been made keen on the game of making actual whatever potentiali­ into the careers of graduates show that while under­ ties for humanistic usefulness can be found in any sit­ graduate success is somewhat promising for ,a student's uation he finds himself in, we shall have provided him subsequent record, it is not the most important factor. with a source of enjoyment. We shall have blessed him More so, considerably, is his personality index. Stu­ also with a means of distraction from the troubles life dents with brilliant records or who were regarded by is sure to bring and with a purpose which can hardly classmates as having an all-around ability that would be frustrated by any sort of outside events (as, for ex­ ensure success, but who were badly integrated, tended ample, the desire to achieve a certain political end to break down under the complex strain of life after­ might be frustrated by the victory of the opposed ward or at best to do less well than less promising stu­ party) . dents who were nervously more stable. Now, the an­ But, you will ask, does not this view of the requisites alysis of great numbers of neurotic persons in recent for happiness close whatever case for libertarian educa­ years has shown that the trouble always started in in­ tion might have been made out, by prescribing an ideal fancy and was generally due to unhappy relationship that must be instilled? between the parents or to their excessive disturbance On the contrary; every attempt to impose ideals on of the natural development of the child. our children has defeated itself by imposing only a Against mistakes that go on in the home, a school formula and letting the ideal escape. If the view I have can with difficulty fight. But it can refrain from further expressed is a true one, it will be accepted by a child aggravating antagonisms which have been begotten when he has had the requisite amount of experience against persons or interests or their symbolic surrogates and has developed sufficiently in judgment. The great­ and may even help pupils to find suitable expression est enemy of these values is dogmatism. The greatest for pent up emotions. aid to them is fullness of life. We cannot pour experi­ Contrarily to the insinuations in loose talk about ence into children. Therefore the most-s-and the least children whose school life is delightful being ill pre­ -we can do is to provide a rich environment in which pared to take the hard knocks which the world will they can experiment and from among the aspects of give them afterward, they are found to be prepared bet­ which their crude energies will find opportunities for ter than others. Being on the average (when home con­ sublimation; this, and to interfere very little unless ditions are the same) less frustrated internally than the they might injure themselves or others. Thus spontane­ pupil from the antiquated type of institution, the one ously experimenting and acting in the midst of people from a modern school can bear external frustrations who are ready with help but do not too much proffer with less anxiety. Having exercised his mind more free­ it and who do not push forward their philosophy un­ ly, he also is nearer to a mature wisdom which will less their conduct has provoked an interest in it, a enable him to extract, even from unpleasant situations child ripens best. and via suffering, their potential values. He will there­ Some people complain that such a conception of fore be a more valuable citizen and a happier man.

[ 9 ] In and Around Stelton (ODD RECOLLECTIONS) By JOSEPH J. COHEN

OOMP-BOOMI Boomp-booml The old well-drill­ the tank with 5,000 gallons of water. The weight of B ing rig kept on pounding for the third consecutive it will twist the tower out of shape and the first strong day, burying the heavy drill deeper and deeper in the wind will topple it to the groundI ground all the time. There it is now, 25 years later, as erect and as solid I sit near by and watch the operation with interest as on the first day when it was put up. The pessimists and apprehension: here we are going to get our supply are still shaking their heads, but the water plant does of pure, wholesome water, so essential for our well­ not seem to be affected by it the least little bit. beingl but where will we get the money to pay for A visitor in one of those early spring days of 1915 ­ the work? Every stroke or two means another dollar came in a decent automobile-not nearly as common added to the bill, and the dollars in our treasury are then as now. The occupant, a gentleman of past mid­ so few that they will never pay for this job if the drill­ dle age, introduced himself as a neighbor, an agricul­ ing keeps up much longer. turist from Rutgers College. He wanted to know some­ And suddenly, what a relief! The pounding ceased, thing about our plans and intentions. Why did we the water gushed up to near the surface. We have a select this poor, neglected farm? How did we expect supply of 26 gallons per minute, all that we will need to raise anything on soil that has no humus in it? for a number of years, and the depth is only 84 feet. There he had me baffled. "Humus", what kind of The bill amounts to $1l8.00, which we may be able to a thing is that? In the shops where I worked, at the scrape together somehow. radical meetings which I attended, and in the various In the great excitement I offer the man one hundred literary creations that I have read, I never met this dollars, if he will call it square; and he, poor devil, particular term. What can be the meaning of it? accustomed to collect for his work in driblets over a I tried to cover my ignorance by changing the sub­ period of years, gets even more excited than I am. ject, but deep in my heart I felt that all is not well We close the deal right then and there, and go home with our new location. We selected a homesite without happy, delighted each one of us at the ignorance of knowing anything about the requirements of soil, the other-a bargain that pleased both makersI drainage, shade, bathing facilities and all the other The water, plenty of it, is there in the well. The things that make life in the country attractive and problem now is to get it to flow into the prospective pleasant. houses that are going to be built within a radius of Of a sudden my interlocutor asked: Tell me, how is half a mile around. it possible for society to get along without a govern­ After interviewing and consulting half a dozen sales­ ment? men and engineers of various construction companies The question was altogether unexpected. The best we decide to tackle the job ourselves. that I could answer on the spur of the moment was: We order the material, tower, tank, pump, and en­ When you will tell me how to put humus in this soil gine, from a reliable concern and wait for the approval and raise good crops, I will explain to you how society of their Credit department for the shipment of the can get along without governmentI goods on the mere promise of payment in time to come. He seemed to like the answer and the bargain was A letter reaches us at the New York address of the tacitly made. Neither of us has been very successful Ferrer School asking information about the Ferrer Col­ in the first 25 years: the soil at Stelton is still deficient ony, and on our favorable recommendation of our­ of humus, though I have learned a good deal about selves the credit is granted and the material delivered it in the interval, and the old Professor of Agriculture, without any further complications. if he is among the living, has still got his doubts about The tower and tank were erected by one young man the possibility of mankind getting along without a single-handed without ever calling for any assistance government. from anyone. . We are all of us slow to learn new tricks and still How he managed to do it single-handed puzzled all slower to change abstract concepts that we have im­ of us a long time, and the lightness of the tower frame bibed in our youth. called forth considerable criticism from the pessimists The surveyor who laid out the acre plots on our in the community. farm, Mr. Josiah T'ice, was a very interesting man. He Waitl they kept on warning us, until you will fill was far advanced in age when we came to ask for his

[ 10 ] services, and knew every span of ground in a radius with people and attending to their ailments. of 50 miles around New Brunswick. vVe used to spend hours together talking about all Tall, broad shouldered, with a long, well-kept beard kinds of things. He seldom complained about his bad and highly intelligent face, he was a real patriarch in debtors-took them for granted, and pointed out houses appearance and a gentleman in behavior. He did his . that changed hands several times since they were built, work in his own way and would not be rushed by any­ while the bill for the lumber remained unpaid. thing or anybody. In answer to my question as to what made him adopt "What do you care," he used to say to me, "how and this unlimited credit method he told me the following when I do my work? It won't cost you anything extra. interesting story: Whenever you need a definite plot come and tell me. His father, Pete Freeman, came over from Ireland I'll have the boys stake it out for youl" half a century ago. He settled in Metuchen, a very His advanced age kept him from doing any actual small village at that time, and earned his living as a field work. He used to stay behind and discuss all kinds laborer, helping the neighbors with the work they of things with me while his boys would do the meas­ couldn't or wouldn't do themselves. Then came hard uring and staking out of the plots. times when people couldn't afford to hire any help. I learned to respect and love the old man, whose The Freeman family was hard put to keep the wolf views on life and approach to practical questions were away from the door. so close to my own, although he would most likely One day Pete Freeman was sauntering idly in the have been horrified if anybody had told him that he street of the village, hoping that somebody would offer acted like an Anarchist. him employment. He found himself in front of an In all his long active life he never sued anyone, oyster saloon which attracted his attention and had never come in contact with government as such. aroused his desire for the delicacy. Without stopping "If a man can afford to cheat me," he used to say, "I to consider what he was doing, he walked in and or­ can afford to be cheated! Judges and sheriffs are not dered a plate of oysters, reminding himself too late the o~es to protect me. They are all bought and sold, that he had not a cent in his pocket to pay for the and I will be the last one to besmirch my hands in extravagant pleasure. dealing with them!" The owner of the place, also an Irishman not too He never had a shingle on his door, no announce­ long in this country, brought over the order and sat ment of any kind about his profession. His work and down to gossip a while. He wanted to know how Pete reputation spoke louder than all artificial displays. was getting along, to which Mr. Freeman replied, that A truly deserving man, honored and loved by all if he could only lay his hands on $200 he would be who knew himl all set in this world. Mr. Brynn, manager of the Freeman Lumber yard What would you do with the money, if you had it, at Metuchen, was another interesting person with the other man asked? And the answer was: I would whom we had dealings in those days. There was hard­ open a lumber yard. ly a house in and around Metuchen that did not owe The owner continued to talk for a while, then he the Freeman Lumber yard money for building mate­ went back of his counter and returned to the aston­ rial or coal. Many of the accounts were years overdue, ished Mr. Freeman with $200 cash in his hand. and poor Mr. Brynn, tall, gaunt and emaciated by Here, Pete, he said, is the money. Go and open your consumption, had a job to cross over the street to the lumber yardI other side every time he met one of his bad accounts Mr. Freeman paid for the oysters out of the money in order not to embarrass the fellow. His appeals to he borrowed from the owner of the place and did open the debtors in the local press, appearing regularly once a lumber yard which put him on his feet and enabled or twice every year, would bring some results, but the him to send his son to college. sailing became harder from year to year and drove the No needy person was ever since refused credit in kind-hearted managers, as well as the unusual owner, the Freeman Lumber Yard and not too many have mis­ to despair. But the universal extension of credit was used the generosity of the owners. not curtailed. The gates of the Freeman Lumber yard Not all of our neighbors, however, were considerate were wide open to any and all who needed material and humane. Mr. Johnson, the tycoon of New Bruns­ to build a house or fuel to keep it warm in the winter. wick, swooped down on our community accompanied The owner, Mr. Freeman, was a physician by train­ by a whole troop of mounted cut-throats armed to the ing, but he did not practice his profession when we teeth. The red flag on top of the water tank, 60 feet came to know him. He liked his drinks and hated the up in the air, displayed on the occasion of the flight gossip of his neighbors. In the dingy office of his lum­ of Kaiser Wilhelm from Germany, brought down on ber yard he felt more secure and free than by mingling us the ire of .the super-patriots who were filling their

[ 11 ] pockets with the unlimited profits of the war business. say, You'd better be careful what you say, I don't There was only one man home in the community at have to argue with you unless I want to get you in a the time, the rest being all at work in the city. When corner! that one man refused to take down the red flag, the I insisted that the red-busting activities of the U. S. great heroes surrounded the tower and sent up one Department of Justice, particularly the deportations, of their men to bring down the threatening emblem were, from the point of view of American law, illegal of revolution and universal brotherhood. Proudly and simply criminal actions committed by officers ap­ they carried off with them the symbol, leaving the spirit pointed to observe and enforce the law, a new kind of untouched, if not strengthened by their brutal display witch hunting which we thought we had done away of power. with a hundred years ago. Brutality was the order of the day by that time. I supported my contention by pointing out the in­ Mitchell Palmer, the prototype of Fascist dictatorial contestable fact that none of those destined to be de­ oppression, let loose an army of spies, provocateurs ' ported had committed a crime or any overt act against and secret agents, to break up meetings of radicals, to the laws of the country. Could any of them be proven arrest and deport every alien who did not display a to have committed a crime he would not be deported 100% American patriotism. They did not overlook but tried and sentenced to some punishment. "The Stelton, naturally. fact that you deport them without a trial," I said, The first investigating agent was an elderly gentle­ "shows that they had not done any wrong. You per­ man, who was quite decent in his questions, but his secute them on account of the opinions they hold, you report, it seemed, did not please his chiefs. Two young­ punish them for the things they believe in, although ish men were sent a couple of weeks later. They came they have not done any harm to anyone!" to the house and spent more than an hour with me Mr. Stone got hot under the collar. The only de­ discussing all phases of our activity in the school and fence he could put up was the sham contention that community. the deportees are not at all punished. They are merely They pretended to be pleased with my explanations being sent back to the countries they originally be­ and offered me the shady compliment of saying: "If longed to. "We don't want you, foreigners, to tell us all Anarchists were like you, we would not have how to run our government!" was his strongest argu­ any objection to them. But why do Anarchists throw ment. bombs?" But when I asked him, who are the "We" that don't That stirred me up and I said: "You, representatives want it, and who gave them the right to say that this of government, have the nerve to object to the very is their country and their government to the exclusion rare occasions when an individual anarchist throws a of those who landed here a few years, or even a few bomb while your government is using dynamite and generations for that matter, later, his only answer was, nitroglycerine by the trainload, killing and maiming "Now, Mr. Cohen, I am questioning you in my official people by the thousands every day!" capacity. Be careful what you say." No, they could not see the similarity, of course. To such an argument my answer was: "In your of­ What the government and its army are doing is legal, ficial capacity I realize you can do what you please. has been done at all times by all people, and so on You can take me to the Federal Building in New York and so forth. or to Ellis Island and break up my family as you did They were getting ready to go. Taking their leave with hundreds of others, but that will not make you one of them asked me, "What about free love?" right, neither will it make your actions legal and de­ "What about it?" I retorted. "Between ourselves, fensible." as man to man, do you secure a license every time you That would start him off again to try and argue the become intimate with a woman?" thing out, make me see his point of view and the They blushed, both of them, and left me in peace righteousness of his actions. without any further ado. The comrades in New York succeeded in getting a That did not settle the matter either. Mr. Stone, copy of his report on the visit to Stelton that he sent the U. S. District Attorney for the Eastern District, to the Department of Justice. In it he recommended who conducted all the raids on the radicals in New that all the inhabitants of the colony be taken to Ellis York and vicinity, did me the honor of questioning Island for examination and deportation. What saved me in my own house. He was accompanied by two us was the fact that we were all property owners, tied secret service men and spent four hours with me, get­ up with all kinds of obligations and entanglements. ting into heated discussion on every point, and remind­ Even Mitchell Palmer did not have the nerve to uproot ing me every time arguments failed him that he is a whole community of people against whom there was questioning me in his official capacity, as one would nothing but their belief that could be objected to.

[ 12 ] Some Personal Reminiscences B y P AUL SCOTT .

H E thought of working wi th ch ildren had never together and do the work wi thout expense to the school. T entered my mind previous to the Modern School It seemed that acting chairm an Cohen was just waiting Convention of 1920. for some such naive commitment, and, before I r ealized That was my first contact with the School in any what was happening I was appointed a committee of way, and my first immpression was not of the educa­ one to get the work under way. tional work of the School itself, but of the men and None of the other printers seemed inclined to h elp women who were making it possible for· the work to with the work, yet the undertaking could not be ig­ be done-a group of volu n tary workers seeking new nored-the convention having adjourned and the dele­ roads to a new freedom in education . gates having gone home with expectations of results; In my memory I can still see that first session of the so I went in search of printing material which I under­ Convention. The crowded auditorium was vibrant stood was somewhere in the Colony, finding it finally with life, and in all that throng perhaps I was the in Wally's chicken house-the most godawful assort­ only one who was impelled by no more than idle curi­ ment of 'm ixed fonts any printer was ever confronted osity to see what was going on, and anticipating only with. The type cases had been used as a breeding a boring day to satisfy a whim of Polly's. Yet the at­ place by mice, and wasps, spiders, mud-daubers had mosphere was so electric, the proceedings so earnest, contributed liberally of their industry, in addition to the spirit of unity so profound, that I was soon saying accumulated dust and dirt from the nearby road. to myself, "here are workers who know wh at they want However, this material was carted to the school build­ and are determined to ge t it through their own efforts. ing and dumped indiscriminately on the porch, type Surely this is not just another school. Only something of all sizes from six to 48 point. worth wh ile could evoke such en th usiasm ." And so I Much to my surprise, the children volunteered to remained and listened and learned and received in­ straighten the mess if I'd show them how printers spiration,-at this prelude to five years of activity which would do it. So we go t together some printers' sticks I shall always regard as the most important period of and afte r I had explained a few technical matters, my life; important because it meant so much to my some twenty children, boys and girls, were soon wading own grow th and because that growth progressed along enthusiastically through dirt and dust, each in quest with others, children and adults, engaged in the great of his chosen size and font of type, expressing amaze­ adventure of living. ment that a typ e case contained so many ch aracters I can still see the benign countenance of good Doctor other than the letters of the alphabet, such as punctua­ Andrews as he sat listening to Harry Kelly outline a tion marks, logotypes, reference marks, etc. This dis­ "New Deal" for the Modern School; how Harry had covery seemed to add sp ice to the adventure, for ques­ induced two edu cators to take over the Living House tions were many and commen ts were pithy as they and was sure that the hypnotic influence of Joseph inquired about the use of diphthongs, semi-colons, Cohen would soon induce them further to take com­ etc., many of the youngsters having never been exposed plete charge of the School. "The Ferms" were just to formal academics. names to me then, and meant no more than any other Comrade Sch neider arrived from Detroit about this names of people unknown to me. Then the discussion time and volu n teered to build some stands low enough by others, some with su ch strange sounding names as to be rea ched by the childre n, and so after an indus­ Pogrebitsky, Popugilo, Stechbart, Winokur, and by trious week the mess was straightened out, the type Mary Krimont, Bernard Shane, L eonard Abbott, Min­ washe d and disinfected, and the you ngsters were grat­ na L owensohn, S. Farber, Bella Vinick, Lillian Gold­ ified for having resurrected an orderly printshop ­ blatt, and many others-all enthusiastic for the " New minus a press. This had invol ved a prodigious amou n t Deal" and determined to put it over. of work, for not only had each size and kind of type Nothing ever inspired me more than to behold work­ been separated from all the rest, but all the a' s, b' s, c's, in g men and women ende avoring to do something for etc., had to be assembled separately and placed in their themselves without benefit of clergy, politicians, or proper compartments in the case. any other leaning post; so, when a question arose per­ H aving told the children of my difficulty in inducing taining to the printing of the school magazine, I sug­ ot hers to print the magazine, they suggested doing it gested, in my innocence, that there were three or four themselves if I'd show them how; and with many mis­ printers in the community and perhaps we could ge t givings on my part the job was under way. [ 13 ] Most of the children were unable to read script, was born the Voice of the Children, perhaps the only and some knew nothing of even printed words. Equip­ magazine ever attempted by children most of whom ped with neither the printer's technic, nor the knowl­ could not themselves read or write. With the birth of edge of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, sentence the Voice of the Children, Paul Scott was himself re­ structure-we were certainly starting "from scratch". born. Everybody was confident except myself. I found so much joy in working with these spontan­ The youngsters persevered valiantly for three or four eous, creative youngsters that I could not break away days, after which they began to show signs of boredom. and return to my printing job, and so began an ad­ I realized something was lacking, but I did not know venture that lasted five short years, which I shall ever what to do about it. Children could not be expected regard as the most satisfactory period of my life. to sustain interest in setting up words and sentences These years can not be recalled to memory without they could not understand, in fact they expressed a feeling of nostalgia and a recognition of what lowe the conviction that such long words had no meaning to all those many friends, children and adults, with and made no sense. One of the boys finally suggested whom it was a privilege to engage in creative work, that we scrap the idea of a magazine written by adults especially with such understanding and sympathetic and proceed to get out a magazine that made sense­ comrades as Elizabeth and Alexis Ferm. Compared stories made up and printed by themselves. This sug­ with these five years, all my subsequent activity seems gestion met with unanimous and vociferous acclaim; so pale and without substance.

Fragmentary Notes By JOSEPH J. ISHILL

AS a pioneer and co-worker of the Modern School At the colony I built myself a 'one-room bungalow I am glad to avail myself of this opportunity to though I had never before had the slightest experience jot down a few reminiscences of those happy and care­ in any form of carpentry. The tap of my hammer echo­ free days of my life. ing through the wide-open spaces gave me an unfor­ Colonization at that time was a new experience for gettable thrill. It was named "Little Nirvana" and in me. I had never participated in a colony or similar that tiny sanction many of my own dreams and those organization. However, the program to be carried out of my friend, Rose Florence Freeman, were realized. in the founding of such a colony called for more than There was serenity there and also fantastic illusions mere enthusiasm and I confess that when I decided to and youth were with us. leave New York for Stelton I had no idea of what use After accomplishing my "bit" in building, my I could make myself, especially since I am by nature thoughts began to spin around the old farmstead then somewhat of a recluse. It may well be that the name converted into a school and also into living quarters. of Francisco Ferrer attracted me to this colony because As I was snooping around examining every available his libertarian teachings attracted me from the moment foot of space I spotted a vacant little room, too small I took part in a protest meeting in one of the Balkan perhaps for any regular work of the school, but never­ states on the eve of the execution of this great martyr theless a quiet corner with a sunny exposure. And here and revolutionary educator. The meeting was broken is the reason for hovering over this particular spot: up by the local police together with a band of so-called As the atmosphere was permeated with many cre­ university students whose role was rather that of or­ ative ideas, my own also concentrated towards a cozy dinary hoodlums. This unforgettable experience pre­ little printshop where, from a defunct little Bulletin ceded my departure for America by but a short time, of the school published in New York, I visualized a and from then on I became an adherent of Ferrer's permanent monthly magazine. principles. Thus, without any advance fanfare, The Modern It was in the Spring of 1915 that I first arrived at School magazine soon made its regular monthly ap­ the colony. Everything seemed so fantastically strange pearance, and likewise a number of other publications. and yet so pleasantly colorful-the bursting of the buds, This is now all history. My allotted space does not new life, new hope-Today also I inhale the fragrance permit me to go into further detail. But I wish to of the countryside, above the Watchung Mountains conclude these fragmentary notes with a few pleasant where I so often dreamed of being and which are so memories still vivid after the lapse of a quarter century. visible from the plain of the Ferrer Colony. I will always remember the little printshop I intro- duced at the Ferrer School and all it meant to me and room all in one. How we managed this now seems a some of my co-workers, the children. We were like a miracle. But I distinctly recall that a number of con­ happy family with the work equitably divided among tributors dispensed with the regular "copy" and set us according to capability. None asked how I planted up their story or poem either from memory or ex tem­ myself in their midst! From morning to evening we pore. worked, myself on the magazine or other publications Now the only thing left is an endearing memory of and the children on their own little periodical called a moment in the past caught up and held separate from The Path of Joy, Here in this little bee-hive was the all the other drab moments in life-imperishable and editorial office combined with the composing and press- serene yet somehow most vital of all.

A Greeting from Vienna By HARRY KELLY

N the winter of 1921-22 I spent about four months Russia; the thirty children will receive bread and milk I in Europe and two weeks of that time was in Vienna every school morning for six weeks and at the end of visiting with Dr. Max Nettlau, an old friend, who was the school term they will have a party at which Dr. born in that city and has spent most of his life there­ Nettlau will represent the Stelton School. There are now of course in exile. He took me to many places, two many tragic things to tell of Vienna, but the most of which were schools. The following is a description of tragic of all is that it is the only large city in the world one of them taken from an article entitled "Observa­ where there are more school buildings than children tions of a Traveller" which appeared in the Modern to occupy them. Some schools are closed for lack of School Magazine, Summer Number, 1922: children... . The small number of children is ex­ "The other school visited was an ordinary public plained by the fact that fewer children were born and school where we saw a class of thirty girls between the a larger percentage have died since 1914." ages of seven and nine years. Most of them were under­ The following are the letters written from Vienna: sized as a result of undernourishment, a child of eight "Dear Friends: It was a glad day today for us, and being smaller than a normal child of five. The teacher we want to thank you for it. You have so kindly thought was an exceedingly intelligent young woman, far more of us, although we do not know each other. Twelve so than the usual run of public school teachers we have girls of our class receive for six weeks milk and bread met in this country. She asked the children a number for their dinner through your help, and when school of questions and we were struck by the fact that they closes we all shall have a dinner. all seemed to think in terms of food. A little one of Ten thousand Kroner we will send to Russia where eight, when asked what she would like best in the world, the great famine is. We are sending our best wishes to answered with a smile that spread over her entire face, you and thank you and your friends with all our heart. "a pancake." It was all so pitiful and so tragic that upon Many regards from Class a ." our return to the hotel we wrote a letter to our chil­ dren at Stelton reciting to them the details of our visit "Dear good friends: I wish I could describe to you and asking them to arrange a little play or entertain­ the joy my little ones had when the letter from Stelton, so full of good will and kindness, arrived! It was a lov­ ment with a small admission fee to raise the price of a "pancake" for the little ones in Vienna. Upon our re­ ing thought indeed to provide the little girl with the turn home we were surprised and overjoyed to learn pancake she so longed for. Warm appreciation to you that the children had dramatized the story in every for your gift to my class, especially our thanks to Mr. Kelly, who told the children of his visit here, and thus detail and the affair was one of the most artistic of the brought about the gift. Our thanks also to the teachers many wonderful things the children here have done. of your school and the children who gave their art to They raised between seventeen and eighteen dollars, which was sent to our good friend Dr. N ettlau, who so fine a cause. We will never forget you, dear friends. had accompanied us, and he in turn gave it over to the school. Pathos and joy are ever mingled in life and so With best wishes and kind regards to all, I remain, it was with the letters received from the teacher and Sincerely yours, principal of the school in Vienna. One-ninth of the money, or 10,000 Kroner (the Kroner was then 6,000 Adele Schrammel, Teacher, to the Dollar), was sent to the starving children of Vienna, VI Mariahilfstr" The Function of a Modern School By HENRY T. SCHNITTKIND

FIRST came to Stelton about a quarter of a century more civilized system of education. I am an incorrig­ I ago-a long time in the span of a single life, a mere ible optimist. I do believe in progress. I do believe pin-point of time in the span of human history. Dur­ in civilization. I do believe in the ability of this stub­ ing this quarter of a century, much water has flowed born human race of ours to learn. And it is up to such under the bridge. But the bridge is the same. The schools as the Modern School to show the way. self-same, rickety, rotting, swaying bridge of interracial '*' '*' '*' hatred and international strife. It is amazing how little Show the way? To what? And how? Show the way the face of the world has changed in all these years. to peace, through a better understanding of huma~ In 1915, nations were plunged in war. In 1940, the relationships, political, social, and economic. If the nations are again plunged in war. The same vocabu­ children of today could be taught to understand ine lary, the same dishonesty, the same selfish hunger for political chicanery, the social maladjustments and the glory, the same barbaric disregard of human life and economic disintegration that lie at the root of our of human dignity, the same unnecessary slaughter for modern society, the men and the women of tomorrow the same unimportant ends. would find themselves building a better world. Thus In view of all this, how sadly needed are such guid­ to prepare the children of today into the more intelli­ ing lanterns as the Modern School in this dark and gent builders of tomorrow is, it seems to me, the most seemingly endless night through which we are passing! important function of the Modern School. The world When I came to teach at the Modern School in 1916, is sick, but not hopelessly sick. There are definite flushed with the dreams and the enthusiasms of a young causes for this sickness, and definite remedies. Let us man as yet unacquainted with life, I saw in this school study the causes, in order that we may be able to apply a real hope for a better, saner, more civilized system the remedies. And one of the places where such a of education. And now, after all these years of dis­ study and such an application can begin, is the Modern illusionment, I have a confession to make. I still see School at Stelton. This school can, and should, become in this school the self-same hope for such a better, saner, a testing laboratory for a new world.

Open Letter ByTHEODORE SCHROEDER

CAN scarcely believe that thirty years have passed ing staff. Under hard conditions there was also the in­ I since the founding of the Ferrer Modern School, evitable but unnecessary bickering within the group. and yet I doubt that I can add anything to the record And in spite of these many difficulties these devoted of its achievements. In the early days I often lectured souls continued with untiring effort. at its open forums conducted in New York City. I liked With me it was a matter of great regret that the the intelligent curiosity and criticism which I found school's meagre resources prevented its managers from there. Besides, I was probably incurable in my inter­ putting this experiment on a more scientific basis. Un­ est in educational reform. I saw the shortcomings of happily, those who have money with which to endow the old systems, which sought to standardize the in­ such enterprises seldom encourage experiments which tellects of children, but I was uncertain about the prove the existing institutions to be wrong. I suggested answer. Now I see the answer in building an educa­ that every entrant to the school should submit to all tional system and pedagogic theory around a concept the conventional mental tests. These might be a great of evolutionary psychology. About that, I think we help in connection with a later study of the raw ma­ were all ignorant at that time. terial and of the results of the school's effort, in com­ I still retain a pleasant impression of the devotion parison with those of the more conventional methods of the friends of the School to their dream of a radical of education. education. They seemed so willing to give their all, Of course we all know of some very useful persons and yet that was always so inadequate. Always they who received their first instruction in this school. How­ were hampered by lack of money with which to buy ever, there are many questions which a scientist might much-needed equipment, and by lack of a larger teach- like to ask. For example: Are superior ones what they [ 16 ] are because of or in spite of the efforts of this Modern any money to such an enterprise. Perhaps society has School? vVas the raw material of this school inferior or lost something by reason of this lack of a scientific superior to that of the conventional schools? Is the record and comparative study of the results of the Mod­ percentage of desirable results higher or lower in this ern School's experiment. Modern School? etc. etc. Yes, there should also have ...... been much of specific statement of method and aims, Nowhere, in our society, is there so great a need for in contrast with methods and aims of more conven­ better theories, methods and goals as there is in our tional schools. Also these contrasts should have gone educational system. I congratulate the Ferrer Modern deeper than a mere statement of obvious differences School for having done something in this direction, in pedagogical indoctrination. Unfortunately in our although I must regret the larger social organism will society, those who have enough money to endow such reap so relatively little benefit from this experiment. an experimental school cannot find sufficient applause I console myself with the thought that all beginnings or sufficient interest in social experimentation to give are so hampered.

'2 0 - '2 1 at. Stelton By SHERWOOD TRASK

o the quarter-century invoice of the Modern (1) The guide should not teach, but learn along T School I gladly contribute. Constructive factors with others-fellow students. abound for description. As I recall life on our Stelton (2) This basic conception is bound to lead to ex­ shale-plain, the natural is outstanding-nature herself, perimentation, which is freedom. the animated children, and the free-living people. Born (3) But freedom is not license,-quite the contrary. in the similarly flat and youthful midwest, and still Freedom comes only with inner discipline, so that anticipating a further welter of raw, real life until where there is not freedom, maladjustment is discover­ much universal maladjustment shall be rectified, it is able. not for me to carp against Stelton, sprawled out in its (4) Maladjustment, in its turn, requires an anti­ rather crude attemptings. dote. To find the antidote is the task of the experi­ Quite the contrary, I treasure much of what I had mental school. time to live through at Stelton. For there, as "teacher," (5) Even in a brave incipient stage at Stelton, one I learned first things must come first. I already knew came to focus on the finest thing in nature, man him­ that benightedness is the enemy. But through the Mod­ self. ern School, that manifold laboratory, it came home to (6) And the study of man (through man-in-the­ me that the enemy of benightedness must be enlighten­ making, who is the child) brings one to the paramount ing education. A large order-for to work all this out concernment: relationships in heterogeneity. What a requires EXPERIMENTAL EDUCATION. Amid the place was Stelton with that early-period rollcall: Jews, daylong chicken-cackle (one of the most widespread Irish, Byelo-Russians, Biro-Bidjianians, maritime Chi­ though least influential characteristics) and the joy of nese, inland Chinese (our 1920 summer swallow stu­ such all-round life as then seemed possible, in that cross­ dents) , working artists, liberated women, spade-culture sectioned Stelton of '20-'21, I came to realize that be­ English gardeners (wartime conscientious objectors). nightedness can thrive only in a retrogressive philoso­ There were also Latins, and on the adjoining Fellow­ phy, which we now call fascism, that is, in a narrow ship Farm efficient Germans, and the not-to-be-forgot­ homogeneity. Working, romping, living, group-fashion, ten Scandinavians, or "Americans" who here and there upon that reddish, intractable shaly soil, I experienced, appeared. contrariwise, that it cannot thrive in a progressive Under these same six headings above let me recapit­ philosophy-in that multiplicity of forces, the very op­ ulate constructive factors, to round out this picture of posite of homogeneity, which we call heterogeneity. the Modern School and its import. This last fact I hold of paramount importance on our (1) One must learn along with others. The basic American stage. substance was mud in which, sometimes, with nature At Stelton, high with life, where in '20-'21 almost so fundamentally omnipresent, it seemed that we were every progressive came, or sojourned, or dug in, I but making lowly turtle trails, and slowly. The situa­ learned several first things first. Though not given to tion, however, was rawly, really, fundamental, and I a too categorical exactness, I think of six: learned my first lesson quite naturally: nature doesn't [ 17 ] didactically teach. In my earliest report in the Modern saying only that the wideopen Stelton experience fur­ School Magazine, April, 1920, I find this bit:" ... the nished many a prompting as to which way fuller edu­ happiest hours have been those 'spent in lifting the cation could expand, and that, four years ago, when smallest ones over the marshy spots on the way to the many at Stelton found accord with the idea of a pro­ woods.... " gressive front of broadest unity, I did address the an­ (2) On this route experimentation led to a consid­ nual convention on much of this material under the erable degree of freedom, naturally. For our wood­ subject, "Children of Radicals." world Modern School stretched' from the sea to the (5) And so, by natural degrees, I the "teacher," or night-notched hills of Watchung. There I wrote my guide, or fellow student, came to focus on the finest poem, "Camping wiu, Tomorrow's Men." That en­ thing in nature, the human being himself. How to win larged schoolroom elicited much, and was and is com­ him, how to draw him out, was the big question. I plementary to the true meaning of the Latin word edu­ learned that where I wished to learn something, the cation: to draw from within, out. When in a searching child would emulate and learn; that through "trans­ furtherance of such education Marion and I passed on ference" (as psychologists term it) the adolescent, or to a few years in obsolescent Europe, we found our­ adult-like youth, would progress in his 'field. It was selves preceeded by "The Children's Magazine" from as easy as falling off a log, or getting down a log, in Stelton. Leading educators of that mores-bound Eu­ the wood-world schoolroom. The formula seemed to rope looked even then to this unfolding prospect in be: I do, they do, we all do together, and learn in the land to the west. Yes, experimentation is freedom; the doing. I well recognize the folly of judging only by the Modern School then looked exceedingly free. Much the particular, yet it is not just accidental that from too free, argued the critics. I do notsay so. tiny, lowly Stelton several students have gone further, (3) I pass by the fact that freedom does not mean into American inland life, than any metropolitan chil­ license-leaving that to a more ramified discussion in dren I have known. Another, Stelton-born and -started, the realm of paradoxical psychology-to center on the wields outstanding student influence (were the U. S. corollary that where there is not freedom, there is mal­ China, this factor would be of even more telling im­ adjustment. The inadequacies at Stelton were glaring; port) . In spite of all those inadequacies a number have but to charge that they were due to lack of inner dis­ transferred themselves out of the frying pan of mad­ cipline, to an overstressing of factionalism, or to the adjustment into active, run-of-the-mill life, or on into rural isolation, is beside the point. The ice cold fact creativity, with a scholarship in design, a place in some is, of course, that capitalism is too much for any lone -experimental theatre, etc. At the Modern School I Stelton. Though actually the colony, its ideologies, and learned profoundly this first thing first-the value of all else pertaining thereto, were but adjuncts to its man himself-not only in the realm of reality, as shown wellspring, that is to say, the Modern School. And per­ above, but in the realm of potentiality, or of man over sonally I have felt that the inadequacies were due not and above himself. On into the subjunctive which is only to the fact of its lonely beginning stage when the the mood contrary to mundane fact: the mood of the general day of progress was not nearly advanced wish, the lift,.concession as well as of potentiality. On enough, but also because we had to skimp so. Such an into something over and above primary yes and no, impoverished laboratory, in all save daring. up into the realm of the elasticity of nuances, of ex­ (4) In any case I saw the maladjustment there, and pansion. With lone individuals such knowledge runs went in search of the antidote. The loss of grace and into pedantry, priestcraftsmanship, egocentricity. But creative power between youth and maturity brought in the stream of life when it does flow as in a Stelton, me to concentration on adolescence. Since then, and abob with activity and bits-of-this-and-that project, because of this fact, I have followed the .problems yf with the give-and-take, the touch-and-go-and-shove of the adolescent in the Organic School at Fairhope, chips on the on-flowing water-there, in modern on­ Alabama, where Marietta Johnson had a high school, going education, with one-for-all and all-for-one, you thence to Europe where, amongst others, I encountered can get somewhere. the Scotchman, A. S. Neill, at Hellerau in his inter­ (6) The great thing about Stelton was that children national school, and finally to Walden in New York were allowed to pass in and out of adults' life as they City. For most of these past two decades I have been pleased. They carried on projects with workers in their cooperatively developing with others, in schools and crafts, or even with their.own parents who sometimes out, an educational triangle of activity that takes cog­ might dwell elsewhere in the community. And so I nizance of (a) the psychological import of each act, learned this paramount first thing: the vast importance (b) compensatory creativity and (c) the underlying of man in heterogeneity. The every-dayness of educa­ basis on which all this can be sustained, namely the tion and of life, and the inch-by-inch increase of many broadest latitude in economic interest. Space permits men's and many children's progress lays deepest hold [ 18 ] on me. Stelton in its innocuous mud, off the fast rail­ and real. It always has its fundamental mud to delve in­ road at a waystation, up a politicians' turnpike to cin­ to and to lift out of-from which to perennially restart. der sideroads into unpretentious homesteads sprawled Stelton has been a conglomerate of almost everything, all over the lot-Stelton in its nondescript flatness a heterogeneity in miniature. There the Modern where its very mud seems to give immunity-Stelton School, like any other true center of creativity, retrying, gave forth ingredients of real poetry. And like such can make a very real contribution to life. At Stelton it poetry, as said Walt Whitman, has been fated to lie often seemed we were but making turtle trails in our with little notice, until those giving attention shall mud. But one remembers that turtles lay eggs in that have lived into and loved into the subject as much as mud which hatch into creatures of greatest longevity it, the poet, making its poetry. For Stelton is life, raw , and which win, what's more, in the long walk forward.

Drama In the Ferrer School By M .J AG E ND ORF

IST O R Y is to ld in big events and is made up of the Ferrer School were blue as well. H m inute ones easi ly forgotten, often even by those With the simplest faci lities plays were given week who took part in them. So the small "Free Theatre" after week, building up a record of which any Little at the Ferrer School, antedating "The Washington Theatre would be proud. Square Players," has been completely lost in the larger There were French, German, and English plays. and longer lived dramatic achievement of . the latter. Audiences packed the long narrow room and the ven­ Yet the simple little stage built by all who could ture was profitable not only culturally but even finan­ hammer the end of a nail properly rather than that cially. of a finger made definite history in the drama in New The work was not easy, and following the theory York City, which means in the country. It brought in that a mental rest is as essential as physical I often plays and men who have made strong marks in the asked others who were interested in modern plays to big trek of the development of the theatre. bring in their productions and their actors. Thus When I proposed the idea of a theatre at the Ferrer Andre Tridon gave a play by Browning and one of Center to Berkman, Abbott and Kelly, all three said the actors was David Ross, whose voice is now known with enthusiastic unanimity: Go ahead. Do anything to all the country. Floyd Dell brought up his plays you wish so long as you do it wel l. and actors from the Liberal, Club. So I turned to writing a play when I was not busy T he "Free T heatre" became better known, and plays with those who were struggling with the stage, curtains, for production began to be sent in. I then heard of ligh ts, costumes, and all those other details which make Lord Dunsany, and when I wrote to him he sent his u p a performance. plays in manuscript. Many of them had their premiere T he- first production given in the back yard was at the Ferrer School. Samuel Janney, who wrote the "Cut From T he D ark," a one-act play dealing with first Broadway "hoofer" play, acted in "The Glittering those who spend their nights on wooden park benches Gate". instead of a warm bed. The theme somehow came to Now came requests for performances outside of the me because of Rubio, a Spanish comrade at the School. school. Groups like the "Women's Professional League" Rubio took the leading role and he struggled with asked for performances at their own theater. the English words more valiantly than D on Quixote One Saturday afternoon Phillip Moeller, Edward with the mills. The performance came off with cheers Goodman, Robert Jones, Lawrence Langner, Helen from the audience and cat calls and occasional tin Wesley, the Bonis, and a few others who were talking missiles from the congenial neighbors. of forming another "Little Theatre" came to a dress Thereupon it was decided to give plays indoors. rehearsal. Two days later I was asked to assume, to­ The work of building the stage was herculean. As for gether with Edward Goodman, the directorship of the those who helped dye the muslin for the back drop "Washington Square Players." I did, only to resign and curtain, they had an unforgettable experience. soon and continue my work at the Ferrer School. We could only afford the cheapest muslin which had Performances were given on a larger scale now as to be dyed. T here were hundreds of yards of m uslin part of the big gatherings of sympathizers with the that had to be dip ped in one small tin washtub in the school. At the hall on Lenox Avenue and 116th Street back room downstairs. When the work was done, not the audiences ran to hundreds. only the material was blue, but half the members of Many white pages could be covered with tales of ad- ventures, humorous and pleasant, which followed in was Komroff's famous play which no one understood the wake of the work. There was Roth, big and burly, except in its maze of falling newspaper streamers. who became so frightened and nervous when he had Even more could be said of the unstinted help on the a part that he forgot all his lines. I stood right behind part of the members of the School. Marc Epstein him, prompting, and though I shouted so loud that printed beautiful programs and forgot the cost; Tri­ I could be heard at the end of the hall, he did not don helped continuously, and many others. hear a single word. Again at one performance even There were pleasure, happy hard work, and humor I forgot my lines when Zari Schwartz with solemn blue -which is the way life should be. And for that reason saucer eyes pointed at me and called my name. There it was work worthy of the ideals of a Ferrer.

From a "Tough" School to the Modern School By JO ANN WHEELER

OMETHING like fifteen years ago I first heard of It was probably the longest and most boring day of S The Modern School, while I was teaching in a any I had ever spent. Freedom to do as we wished, and rural school district in New York State, a district no­ there wasn't anything we wanted to do ... unless it torious for its "toughness." During the Christmas holi­ was to play "hooky," a consequence of "perfect free­ day, which was spent with my parents in Reading, Pa., dom" I hadn't quite counted on and wasn't quite ready I met a former resident of Stelton, one who had been to face. So by the next day we were glad to relax after much interested in The Modern School, and as a result the apparent failure of our experiment. went back to school with a copy of "The Spirit of But it started me thinking.... Apparently there Freedom in Education" tucked away in my baggage. was no such thing as allowing a little freedom; Grad­ To make this a real story, I suppose, I ought to say ually I worked into the concept of Freedom as a condi­ that what I learned from that booklet helped me to tion, not a commodity, something to be achieved ... subdue the tough school, but it didn't. That school grown into ... not given, the highest of obligations, never was subdued because it never needed subduing. not a mere birthright. Not all at once of course. ... Mostly by dumb luck I hit upon the notion of throwing Ideas crystalize slowly out of experience. But the idea, much of the responsibility for their behavior back on stimulated by the mere "hearsay evidence" of such an the children's own shoulders; that with the relaxation experience as The Modern School led me away from of irking and' unnecessary restrictions, and the dim the compromise of the public school system under perception on the part of both the children and my­ which I then taught, and finally landed me here in self that school could be fun, worked remarkably well. Stelton five years ago ... for five rich, stimulating, It wasn't a paradise by any manner of means, but one disillusioning but also vital and happy years of growth could feel that the school was alive with something along with our children. And when tempted to become more than mere irritation and rebellion. discouraged I remember that old experience of mine. So when I read Auntie Ferm's booklet it was some­ If my own life could be so enriched and affected by a thing of a revelation. Freedom ... that was what we mere chance mention, how can we gauge the effect we were evidently feeling toward. Carried away by en­ may have upon the lives of the children now with us? thusiasm, I determined to try it out immediately. We And if there are but two or three so affected, shall we tried it for one day; an experiment I shall never forget. still say it was not worth while? Reflections of a Worker By MINNA LOWENSOHN

AVING had the good fortune of being affiliated my own personal impressions and my own point of H with the Modern School Association from its in­ view. ception, years before Stelton, I should have much to I did not, and do not now, belong to that group of write, not only of occurrences, pleasures, and struggles, educators who did so much to bring honor to our but also of its many advantages. memorial of Francisco Ferrer, nor did I come into close This, however, is to be an essay of about 500 words, contact with the children of the school, from whom I and I shall be glad if I can express but one phase of might have learned. However, life is a good school, and life was at its School Association, it astonishes me, to be mild, for best among the members of the Modern School Asso­ surely every hour I have given has been compensated ciation. One would have had to be very stupid not to many times over by the pleasure and benefit I derived have derived benefit from the contact and associa­ from it. tion with the men and women who came to the School Even today, after thirty years of troubles and tribu­ and gave freely of the best that was in them. lations, after wars and disasters, when many of our To go to a school or college is the privilege and good friends and comrades have gone into the great beyond, fortune of millions of people, but to meet a group of and many others have followed what they undoubtedly educators who are big enough to raise plain and simple thought was the call of our long fought for and ex­ average men and women to their own level in perfect pected revolution-even today, with the new rampage freedom and equality is a rare treat indeed. of killings and persecutions, those few who remain are I started by saying that I would speak about myself, still upholding the banner of freedom and idealism and but undoubtedly there are many like me. are still working and hoping for a better world. lt takes little imagination to realize the impressions In spite of poor roads, level flat land, unattractive made by the leaders of the Modern School upon a houses, Stelton's inhabitants are people unlike any working woman five years in America, who up to the group to be found elsewhere, a group of people who time of the Ferrer Association thought that writers, were willing to forego the ease and comfort of life, painters, and lecturers belonged on a separate planet, preferring commuting in winter and in summer in all and who suddenly felt herself one of a group of not kinds of weather, and who were willing to forego bet­ only creative artists, but of great humanitarians and ter earnings and all sorts of advantages 'for the sake of intellectuals who were so free and great as to make supporting and being near the Modern School, and those less blessed with knowledge than themselves share struggling to maintain the School, which is the pattern their ideals and also their woes and pleasures. of their ideal. Sometimes when I meet a comrade who tries to re­ Those comrades I salute! mind me of all the work we have done for the Modern Long live the Modern School!!!

Attempt at Appraisal By KATE and JOHN W. EDELMAN NGLISH fiction familiarized the world with the insulated from all of the influences toward regimenta­ E idea that the graduate of the "right" schools be­ tion in thought and conduct. But Stelton did leave come the chief strength and glory of the nation, that some valuable impress on the make-up of several scores the graduates inevitably meet in later life when they of young people. There is no way of proving it by have in their separate ways climbed to positions of the newer and probably over-fancy forms of person­ leadership and renown. . ality measurement and analysis, but those whom we Even the fondest recollections of Stelton in its hey­ have met during recent years seem to us more interest­ day can't translate our Modern School into the Eton ing than the average run of their contemporaries. They or Harrow of progressive education. Still, it's darn have kept a certain freshness of outlook, a measure of interesting, after 17 years, to run across, in this small self-confidence, a degree of versatility which are rare world, a number of young people who were once enough qualities in these days (although by no means "Stelton kids" and to find that although they are not restricted to the product of the Stelton school) . famous, important, or wealthy; at least they are useful, • The fact must not be overlooked that "progressive well-adjusted adults, interested and active, many of .education" in the past twenty-five years swiftly and them in contemporary progressive movements in vari­ amazingly ran the whole gamut of intellectual fashion ous fields. -from being almost a revolutionary idea to the point It would be faint praise to say that the young people where it is in danger of being completely appropriated who weathered a fairly drastic experiment in non­ by the official school system of the country. The change conformist schooling have proven themselves able to which "free education" went through during these survive in a world where human beings are subjected years is comparable only to the phenomenon of the to terrific pressure to conform to "type." Neither Stel­ daughters of historical revolutionists becoming the ton nor progressive education wherever practised has principal prophets of present-day reaction. yet produced (or pretended to) the individual so cre­ The ideas which the Ferms and others taught at ative, so rich in the inner resources, that he is entirely Stelton have (in diluted form, of course) obtained an

[ 21 ] incredibly farflung currency. What was an explosive There is now sufficient evidence not only from Stelton idea when the Modern School was founded is pretty but from many other schools, that these fears were tame stuff now when offered in hundreds of go-ahead groundless. The "three Rs" are still in the educational schools, both public and private. Some of us whose picture, but they long ago lost their prestige, and, work took us away from Stelton during our own chil­ theoretically, at any rate, are acquired incidentally, drens' school years have noted with some amazement as aids to the major educational activities. and a slightly amazed chagrin the extent of this infil­ Some element of sour grapes almost inevitably affects tration of progressive methods on education. the attitude of pioneers when they no longer have to ;I< ;I< * fight for what was once daring and new. But after ~ Looking back at the Stelton conventions of twenty qualifying one's judgment by acknowledgment of years ago, it seems ludicrous and a little pathetic that changes in the time generally, and giving credit to we nearly wrecked ourselves on the issue of whether Modern Youth as such, the conviction remains that the "three Rs" should be made mandatory. At that the Stelton experiment justified itself by the results time, as we see it now, we were afraid that our children as expressed in the individuals who were experimented would be lost in the complex modern world unless upon, as well as by the current popular acceptance of they learned to read and write while pretty young. its educational ideology. In the Days Before Stelton By EMMA HENI first came to the school, the teacher was agreed to let ourselves be carried down to go on if it W Cora Bennett Stephenson-well combed and well were clearly understood that we were furious with corseted-with a book of Stanley Hall's under her arm. Jagey and were doing it all for Sophie's sake. We'd Somehow I have the impression that it was a volume have done more than that for her. We 'all adored her on adolescence and that she watched us closely for and tried to imitate her hair-do; something that started symptoms and that we were rather a disappointment with a part in the middle and a circlet of braided raf­ to her. The only instruction I remember receiving from fia. Jagey was our first intimate experience with the her was concerning adverbs-about which I am hazy to artistic temperament, but we were to meet it often in this day. I know I went soberly through a very stuffy and around the school. textbook on grammar because she seemed to set such There were brief exposures to various teachers and store by it. Left to our own devices, as we mostly were, subjects-all enthusiasm and no staying power. There we spent our time reading the "Book of Knowledge" were lessons on hygiene by Dr. L. who gave one long and poring over the microscope looking at everything and passionate lecture-with a personal demonstration we could find. -on teeth washing. As I remember it, you had to start We played "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" all by mixing your own powder and then go on into the over the school, and "Pocahontas" on the rocks of Cen­ elaborate ritual. We looked at the man with undis­ tral Park with unflagging enthusiasm and joy. We also guised amazement. For anyone his age to be so ab­ did some less spontaneous "playacting" under adult sorbed in a proceeding so elementary seemed to us re­ direction. At that time that meant mostly J agey [Jagen­ markable. There was a later lesson on the care of the dorf] blasting us in the white fire of his creative drive. hair with another demonstration. He hung over a chair If it had not been for his wife, Sophie, who fluttered with his head down to get a flow of blood to it and his about trying to calm him and soothe us, we would face turned a lovely purple, then he put both hands have come to grief far more often than we did. As it into his thick, long mop of hair and pulled hard with was, I remember one performance night, when we were appropriate facial expressions. But we were getting all swathed in tight green or brown draperies so that hardened by this time and were not much impressed. we could not walk (we were being trees or flowers" There were drawing lessons by Zorach. Of these I or something equally poetic), when we staged the orig­ retain nothing, but then I was completely barren inal American sit-down strike. There was much run­ ground for such seed. One afternoon visit to his studio, ning back and forth of messengers (we couldn't move), though, opened our eyes to sculpture as something alarums and excursions, ana wild outo:y. We finally meaningful and significant, far different from the gold­ fish on the clay slab and similarly recumbent daffodil "'Ve were flowers again for Temma Committa and her operetta, but that must have been the next year. She was gentle and the we had been taught to model by a lady art teacher. music sweet, so we didn't mind much. There were lessons in Esperanto. The teacher, as

[ 22 ] excitable and enthusiastic as the rest, had, however, we heard his preaching and I, for one, was rather di s­ unusual persistence. He came and came. We learned turbed by it. Then once in Manuel Komroff''s studio to read Esperanto, to write it and sing it. We corre­ I saw a little drawing of our preaching friend-nude, sponded with children in other countries and got taken turning his back on a little wilted flower in a pot on to Esperanto conventions. a fire escape. As I looked at it the whole empty and And always there was Helen Lund in the kindergar­ pretentious nature of his pose became clear, and I felt ten room in the midst of all her Montessori apparatus - "Well I don't have to bother about that any morel" calm and poised and adult. We would run in often, The last year that the school was in New York we spend ten or fifteen quiet minutes by her side, then had new teachers: Bobby and Deedee Hutchinson. return, strengthened and refreshed, to the hurly burly Bobby was very tall and very thin, all angles and crink­ of our own life. ly, but with a gentle smile. Deedee was more solid, The Mother Earth office was on 116th Street and brisk and positive. They brought with them stories of every once in a while two or three of us would walk far off places they had visited and strange ways of life. over there. We were sure of a warm booming welcome To us Deedee's stories of life as a society bud in Bos­ from Alexander Berkman - "Tia Sasha," as he liked us ton -teas and dowagers, dances and Harvard football to call him. He always had time for a bit of boisterous games-were as strange as Bobby's stories of Egypt. fun. He was very proud of his physical prowess and In the School this was a time of learning through loved to indulge in all kinds of contests with the doing, I think. At any rate there were stores where younger men. Often ~e found ourselves caught up and we had to buy all our supplies, and toy money and tossed about in those impromptu aerobatics and we accounts. I found that very dull. To make up for that loved it. Then Emma (Goldman) would come out­ Bobby read astronomy with me all year and that was and somehow it grew colder. She never said anything, terribly exciting. We haunted the Museum of Natural but we knew that she did not care for children and History, visited the Museum of Fine Arts and newspaper we soon went away. plants and factories. The high spot of those visits was Back in our own yard we had a frequent visitor in the Sunshine Biscuit factory, where they were very Puck Durant, who no longer attended the school but hospitable so that most of us returned sick. What a who still liked to play on the seesaw. Either Puck was clucking among the mothers when Bobby brought us very discreet or we were very unsophisticated, because back that day! the only impression we got from her constant chatter, We were always building or planning something, every'other sentence of which started with "Will says," and our school life was very zestful. That was the win­ was of Will as a tiresomely ever-present, over-solicitous ter Heloise and I very secretly planned a Christmas father. We were grateful that our own parents had celebration with a tree and Santa Claus (Heloise her­ grown-up interests of their own to keep them amused self) and presents for the little children and the usual and leave us free to think and grow as we would. "dances and performance" that marked all our efforts Chief among the grown up friends of the school to of that period. We invited grown up visitors and cre­ whom we looked for applause for our performances, ated a minor scandal. Our observance of a "religious" for encouragement for our magazines, for general cheer holiday caused a controversy that went on and on and and sympathy, was Leonard Abbott. No project of ours spilled over into print. It was only on someone's de­ was quite complete till he beamed his approval. Our monstration that Christmas was originally a pagan frequent visits to his house were gala events. The rugs, (for some reason that was acceptable), not a Chris­ pictures, books, music, made a home richer in texture tian, holiday, that the excitement died down. and color than most of us knew. I remember it as full This was also the winter when we saw Isadora Dun­ of light and warmth, but it was lit, I think, by the can dance so often (eight times in all, I think) with radiance of his personality. Leonard's "Quite so" of tickets provided by Robert Henri. We sat all over the approval made things seem really quite so and the Metropolitan, once even in the orchestra where the world quite right. strong conflicting smells of the fine ladies distracted Another and quite different personality was that of us so that we could hardly pay attention to the per­ a man whose name I never knew-he was just called formance. She opened up a new world of music and "Back to Nature." He wore his wavy hair long to his light and rhythm to us. We went back to the school shoulders, had a beard, wore only linen and canvas and danced and danced. and went about preaching a return to the natural life When we were not dancing we played-no, we were and vegetarianism. The only truly attractive thing -Robin Hood and his Merry Men. The quips of Friar about him was his whistling; most liquid and beautiful Tuck (whatever became of Benny?) were the height whistling. Unlike most of the people who came to the of wit and humor to us that year. The triumph of the Center, he was completely oblivious to children. Yet young over the old, the poor over the rich, the spir it of the wild free life of the woods over the forces of law There was one day when someone decided we were and order all satisfied and enriched us. ready for sex instruction, and Deedee took the girls Deedee brought a real baby-sized celluloid doll to off by themselves for a talk. I can't for the life of me school to teach us how to bathe and care for a baby. remember what she told us, but I do remember very We were a little too old to enjoy doll play and much clearly how we went right down into the back yard and too young to care anything about babies, but Deedee told the boys all about it while we put the roof on the seemed to like it and we liked Deedee, so we went shack we were building. No one ever segregated us for through the motions. any purpose after that. Another of her ideas met with a more enthusiastic Toward the end of the winter the adults were all reception. We used to play hospital, and Deedee (a talking colony. Bobby let us divide the big lecture room trained nurse) would coach the patients in their symp­ into plots with chalk lines. We laid out roads and toms, the doctor in his diagnosis and prescription, and community holdings and built orange crate houses. the nurses in the care of the sick. We all became very We built our community and played "colony" till the glib in describing and diagnosing ailments and learned spring, when we moved out to Stelton to begin to live much about first aid, and it was unusually good fun. the game we had played.

My Happiness in Dancing By ETHEL BUTLER

AFTER long pondering and much deliberation, pro wonder should be whisked away before my startled I'l..and con, with myself-since I write so badly and eyes! It was some little time before my naturally un­ am anxious to write something as regards my feeling believing soul realized that it was all true, solid, actual about "Stelton in relation to my present activities"­ reality; mine to be used, mine to create, mine to take I have decided that the only way I can express myself part in! What a wondrous moment that consciousness is by writing a letter to you. ***My contention has al­ was! It instilled new faith in me, and infinitely more ways been that dancers should dance, move-not speak. courage. Perhaps that is my subconscious excuse for evading a The moments of the days that I longed for with difficult problem. Which means, stated simply, that I breathlessness were always those of "theatre"-assem­ find it much more difficult to express myself in words blies (singing and dancing), the plays that Lovey wrote than thru my own medium of expression, which is and produced with us, the hours we spent in our "fairy­ movement. And now to get to the point of the letter. land," the days on end that I was Princess Irene of Firstly, I wish you to understand fully that I speak "Irene and the Goblins" (a form of realistic theatre) , only from personal reaction and experience. All people the days that I was "Edin" of the Mohammedan sect are essentially individuals, and individuals are con­ and the pine tree at the Living House was our ship fronted with different problems and different reactions _ (more realistic theatre), the joyous day when Lovey to environment and life in general. found the map of "the buried treasure" and we sought Since all of my life before the time when I went to and found the treasure. I believed in the reality of that Stelton is a void in my mind, and since I feel that the (Woolworth) box of jewels until long after I left Stel­ period of my life in the Modern School has had the ton; it was one of the great disappointing shocks of most influence on my later years, I will confine this my life when I was informed of the actual value of bit solely to that reaction. those jewels. Naturally, the first few weeks were difficult, as, no It was in Stelton that I first recognized my love for doubt, all new adjustments are, particularly for sensi­ the theatre, and it was thru the school and principally tive beings, as children usually are. At first the school the Ferms and Lovey that I found the courage to admit and its innumerable advantages were analogous to my great desire, and, as a consequence, to pursue that each individual's day-dream of a land of the most desire to the point of actuality. wondrous beauty and joy, with the fear that when one Being still in a very animalistic stage of development, extended that dream into realism, it would all dis­ it was natural that that part of the theatre which was appear into thin air. I was such a little dreamer, at closest to movement, as a means of expression, was first, in Stelton, and not being the type of person, even most exciting or attractive to me. I believe that the as a child, who takes things for granted, I feared to decisive moment of my life was that in which I over­ reach forth with my hand lest all of the school and its came my shyness and joined the other children in dane- ing at assembly. When dancing the first day, I was in a ment and joy of the work far surpass the difficulties high state of ecstatic joy and more sure of myself as involved. an integral part of humanity than ever before. Then I am today associated with the greatest amongst afterwards when Alexis, Lovey, Auntie and Bill com­ our contemporary dancers, Martha Graham, and I am plimented me on my work, my life was complete, my also her assistant in teaching and demonstrating. I have mind was made up; I would be a dancer regardless of done my own creative work and have performed my all obstacles that might ariseI own dances many times very successfully. As a member Due to encouragement received at the school and of Martha Graham's group I have traveled and danced complete freedom in the development of desires, I have all over the country. I have experienced the excitement become a dancer. And I am a supremely happy person of innumerable audiences of great variety. in my work. I have experienced many hardships; have I believe sincerely that much of my success and hap­ known mental and emotional anguish and insecurity piness of today is due to the Modern School of Stelton -as yet a creative dancer's life is a difficult one­ and I shall be ever thankful that I had the opportunity particularly from a financial standpoint; but the excite- to be there during the formative period of my life.

LOOKING BACK WITH JOY THE MODERN SCHOOL IS EVER HANDY By Anna Koch-Riedel By Marucci Rappaport

Twenty years ago ... it seems a long time in retro­ I have been asked, as an old pupil, to write what I spect; they have become the past now for all of us who think about the School. I won't do that, but I will give were called by the Ferms to help to work out a free an example of what the School did to me, or for me. educational idea at the Modern School in Stelton. In You take your choice. the serious concern with a human problem such as I am going to move in a week. I have known about that we faced together, the realization came to us that it for two months. I have the universal problem of we, adults, in turn gained; in trying to help the chil­ curtains, bedspreads, rugs, arrangements, etc. All home­ dren to a more rounded development, our own growth makers have the same problem, but I don't go out to was effected by our work. buy what I need ... no indeed. This ordinary prob­ For personal reasons my years in Stelton were not lem becomes a challenge to the creativeness that was happy years, and yet I am unwilling to dislodge them instilled in me by the School. I cannot go to. buy what from my memory; for was not that period one of the I need. The things couldn't be bought. They're my most significant building stones in the development of ideas. And even if I had the money to go to a decorator my own personality? It was at the Modern School where with my first nebulous feeling of how the house should I began to understand the basic value of WORK for all look, I would never be satisfied. Because only in the human beings. I soon became convinced that life with­ working out of the problem, has my "feeling" taken out the creative expression through hand and mind is shape and become a solid and definite pattern to work doomed to frustration. by. With no false modesty I think that it's a good pat- Twenty years ago this old Froebel message, carried .tern. Beautiful. And clear as crystal ... to me. No one and so ably interpreted by the Ferms, was even less else can see it, it's not tangible yet. When I'm finished understood by society in general than it is today, from I'm sure everyone will like it. kindergarten through college. The "cramming" of sub­ There's the rub ... that word finished. The job ject matter as practiced yesterday and today is surely will be done ... but I won't be finished. I won't be not education inasmuch as it cramps the mind and able to leave it and go on to something else: There will often entirely prevents further spiritual development. always be that creative dissatisfaction riding me. It Having learned such a truth with its tremendous in­ would be much easier to go out and buy the curtains fluence in my life, should I not be grateful to the Mod­ ... but I'm more satisfied and dissatisfied this way, ern School? I am, with all my heart. Those four or five and it's all right with me. years at the School were certainly worth my while; I am happy to look back to them. I believe that many NOT JUST A SCHOOL of us, if not all of us, feel in accord with this expres­ By Zachary Schwartz sion of my appreciation. If we have shown to most of the children of the The Modern School has meant a great deal to me. School a glimpse of a good way to live, we have suc­ It has been an important part of my life; to be exact, ceeded. since early 1914, when I entered the School at 107th Street. That makes it a good long time. I was just seven learned the joy ofliving a creative life. These are the then. kind of lessons that one never forgets. The happiest and most important period of my After some four decades of pioneering in education childhood was spent at the School, and later on when such as the Ferms have done, they must look back and I had the good fortune to return to the School to teach wonder if they have really succeeded. One can't meas­ for six years, I was indeed a lucky man. ure this particular kind of success in quantitative terms, The School made no robot of me. I had my own but if one measures it by the lives they have influenced problems, troubles, interests, talents, and no one else and changed, they have succeeded over and over again. had them quite the same way. I was a unit unto my­ I personally will be indebted to Auntie and Uncle self, and so were the other children, and we were given Ferm, for their ideas and their influence on me for the the opportunity to work things out in a way best suited rest of my life. Good luck to the Modern School for the to each of us. We learned that each one had a respon­ next twenty-five years! sibility to the others in the School, children and teach­ ers alike. We got to know the meaning of discipline, although it came from within rather than from with­ THE FERRER MODERN SCHOOL out, and we learned that cause and effect went hand (What It Means to a Mother) in hand and one could not be separated from the By Lilly Sarnoff other. The three bugaboo "R's" came along in their own good time, and no one fretted or fussed about An oasis in the field of education. A place where them. the doors are wide open for the children to come Ours was no ordinary School. The doors were open and go as they please. all year round and there were no holidays or vacations. What is it to the child if the world is plunged in The cry "no more teachers, no more books" was never the throes of anguish, of rebirth or death (who knows?) . heard at our School, and with good reason. It wasn't What is it to him if the adults are on one side of the just a school for book-learning or for the wholesale fence or another? Their bitter struggles, their hatreds, manufacture by a whole class of a teacher-designed wars, conquests, do not, should not, enter into child combination inkwell and bookend. It was, and still is, life. the living center of its children. It is life itself. Children hunger for hours of play and freedom to do the things they wish to do: to dream; to play house; store; clown or pony express or what you will; to create; AN APPRECIATION draw; or weave or fashion things out of wood or metal By Pauline Bridge Henderson or clay. To play outdoors when the woods or fields call to them: or play indoors when they so desire. Can I remember the day I arrived at Stelton. It was anything be more ideal for the little child? Here his cloudy, cold and I had never seen so "much mud any­ senses can be awakened, here he will find himself, where. I was thin and sickly and had an awful cough. among his playmates, learn life 's laws in their simplest The children stared at me and thought me a fascinat­ forms, and the little dreamers of today will be the ing example of all a child should not be. I wore fancy creators of the morrow; the little busy workers of to-day pointed-toed shoes and for the first weeks my only name become the builders of the future. was "Pointy-Toes." Stelton was going to cure me or Childhood! Period of fantasy, poetry, simplicity, kill me. It cured me by turning a puny, affected child eagerness, joy, light-heartedness, impulsiveness, spon­ into a fairly presentable human being. taneity, faith, courage, daring. Freedom to play and When I say Stelton, I mean two people who were develop, unhampered by rules, regulations, regimen­ the moving spirits of the Modern School, Auntie and tation, musts, don'ts, marks-that should be the pre­ Uncle Ferm. Their ideas and the way they lived in­ cious heritage of childhood. Fortunate indeed he who fluenced me, as a child, in every way. Auntie hated any possessed it. vVhat more precious treasure to store in form of human weakness. To this day I see Auntie's one's memory's chest than a childhood fully lived? That face rise before me when I want to take a hot water is what our children receive in this school, that is what bottle to bed. Uncle always had a twinkle in his eye all children everywhere should receive. Small wonder which was very welcome when things became desperate that we mothers strive to keep the school in existence. with Auntie. They were a perfect balance for each other and we loved them both. "Childhood's years are quick to pass" From the Modern School I learned to rely on my­ Give him love, understanding, shelter, food, self and to develop the capacities I had in me. I learned Build his body, strong and good, simplicity of living, self discipline, and most of all I But give him most of all the freedom to grow. A MODERN " GRADUAT E" SPEAKS School at Stelton in those nays was not someth ing By Victor Sacharoff that started at 9 A.M. and ende d at 3. It began when we got up in the morning and finished when we wen t Dear Uncle, T ry and try as I would to enclose a li terary piece of " profound" to bed . Now that I think back, it must have been a ter­ thought wit hout feeling embarrassed, (due to the fact th at I rific strain on our teachers, but I can only re member would be talking about m yself) I just don't seem able to write an ything at all . Consequently I have penned the enclosed short that they always seemed eage r and en thusiastic to spend item which does in some respects reflect how I feel toward s the time with us. Perhaps that is how any child enjoying School. Sincerely , her teachers would feel. Victor Sacharoff When I first came to Stelton, Bob and Deli a Hut­ What are my impressions of the Modern School and chinson were in charge of the school. They staye d a what did it mean to me? very short time and I recall only Deedee's pregnancy Of the vario us theories on which the Modern School wh ich was a mos t p u blic affair among the ch ildren and is supposedly based, I haven't as yet decided with wh ich involved my first intensive study of human physiology. one I agree, or wh ich one I understand ... nor do I I believe it was during the Hutchinson regime that believe that I'll be making any such decisions for a we all took to living in trees for several weeks in orde r long time... . to sense the full flavor of life as lived by our very To som e the success of the Modern School would be ancient ancestors. Many a hurry call for the first-aid shown by the number of mi sfits you have given to this kit resulted from this experiment as the children in­ de cadent society; to others the School's success would sisted on doing the thing right-namely, minus clothes. be gauge d by the number of ar tists or supe r-in tellects After the Hutchinsons came H enry, who introduced it has produced. Some will gauge the"success of the me to writing and literature, his chi ef enth usiasms. School by the number of true revolutionists it h as given The Fall had set in by then, and with li ttle facility to the movement, while others have yet different con­ for heating school rooms, we preferred to "walk through ceptions of what the School stands for. school." A five-mile hike was just time enough in wh ich A m ixture of modesty and pride prevents me from to di scuss Egypt, the p yramids and slave labor; or to actually revealing to you whether I consider myself a sing French folk-songs by way of learning the language. social mi sfit or not; or whether I'm an artist or super­ Henry was the first teacher I ever had who impressed intellect or not; or whether I'm a true revolutionist or me as having a gen uine talent for teaching. I still feel not ... or whether I mi ght be regarded as a success­ that it is a profession to which many are called but for ful "graduate" of the Modern School by still some other which very few should be chosen. As was usual those concept. first years in Stelton, the spiri t was will ing but the flesh H owever, I will say that I did have an enjoyable finally succumbed to lack of plumbing, and H enry and childhood, what with not having been obliged to sit his bride departed for mote civilized surroundings. silen t and motionless behind a school desk each day. Uncle Will arri ved then and we began to feel that (And I beli eve that whoever it was who invented chil­ our school was taking on some dignity and importance dren meant to enclose written instructions that they with this genial and beloved ex-min ister at th e head. be permitted to live a life of joy.) Uncle Will wasn't quite so revolutionary about his edu­ Now if I finally confide that I don't consider myself cational theories as previous teachers had been, and I worse off than the other mortals who inhabit this earth, re call using paper and pencil much more frequently I believe you may rightfully read the decision that the under his tutelage. I only wish every child could be­ score stands in favor of the Modern School. come acquain ted wit h Mark T wain and Dickens as we did. On cold win ter nights after su ppe r, we would troop MY TEACHERS AT STELTON down to Uncle Will's cottage and make fu dge and pop­ corn wh ile he read alo ud. When he tired, we wo uld By R ay Porter Miller all tak e turns reading. I think I go t a greater kick ou t I always marvel at people who can write intimate of wa tching Uncle 'Will 's enjoymen t of a book than and detailed accounts of what happened to them in from the book itself. He would lau gh until he cried at their childhood. It seems to me that without a diary Mark Twain's antics. At times life took on the aspect one can have only a jumbled mass of fragmentary and of a traveling stock company during those days. When disconnect ed recollections. And diaries were something funds were low, we trooped the neighboring towns we had no ti me for at Stelton-we were too busy living. while Uncle Wil] harangued the public and we ch il­ Although I spent several years in the company of Henry dren tri ed to charm them with our singing and danc­ Sch nittkind, 'Will iam Brown, Fred Dunn, James Dick ing, into parting with a few coins to keep our school and others; I can give no coherent account of any alive. purely acade mic relationship I had with any of them. I did not have so much direct con tact wit h J immy Di ck and Fred Dunn as teachers. They were mostl y MY LIFE BEGAN IN STELTON busy with younger children, but I was just as closely By Elizabet h ("Billie" ) Vasilio tied to them and they all seemed part of my immediat e family. I talked with them, danced with them, sang On the day that I arrived at Stelton, Auntie Fenn with them, embroidered Mexican designs with them in a funny white cap, was painting the entrance of the and gen erally lived with them in closest harmony. I Living House. With the natural conservativeness of a should say that any child who has missed that experi­ child I considered that as rather strange. The whole ence has never been truly happy. new way of living was strange. There was a period for me of feeling out the situation, of going along with I LIKE TO REMEMBER STELTON things with judgement reserved. By Gerda Koch Riedel I ate the cooked carrots at supper the first night with The walk to school in the morning and the feeling hardly a murmur. Learned the Living House routine of being intensly alive with the trees, the brook and quickly under the wing of Rose. the yellow cow lillies that floated on it in the spring. Watching the assemblies, I knew my "dancing school" There was something inevitable about working and dancing wouldn't do at all. I didn't step out into the learning in Stelton, as when the location and environ­ circle until I was ready to dance, not just do "steps" ment of a tree are ideal it is inevitable that it should as I had learned before. grow. I remember clearly our assemblies, our dances I was appalled at first by the long words used by the and songs. Somehow they rang true and came from adults and children. Responsibility, solidarity, consid­ somewhere else besides our throats. To this day when eration. When two children came to complain to a I hear "Daffodils, daffodils, say do you hear? Summer member of the staff abou t the "confiscation" of a bath­ is coming and Spring-time is herel"-be it J anuary, it robe, I wondered what in the world that meant, and would feel like springl There was something about our felt that I would never learn. But eventually I learned songs wh ich made them real. And there was that also the meanings of those words. More than just their defi­ about our work and play. Living and learning in Stel­ nitions. One can live words. ton included not only the scho ol and the hours we spent there but the colony and the people in it. T each­ T hings had h appened to me before I went to the ers and pupils were consistently busy on all fron ts. School, but my life really began then. I was nine years No high and mighty authority cut our time up into old at the time and was only there about four or five forty-five minute periods and told us what to do and years, and yet it seems as though most of my childhood when to do it. We were released and encouraged to be was spen t at the Scho ol. It was a happy childhood lived ourselves. We worked under our power. to the limit. And not all play by any means, responsi­ It is precisely this which other progressive scho ols bili ty and work were an important part of it. I was very are trying to accomplish. But they have no "Auntie" proud the day I learned the meaning of the word and "U ncle" and la ck power and conviction. There "conscientious" as applied to the way I had performed was a time when educators tried to make children over a duty. completely to fit their standards. But we have pro­ I believe that my failings ·and virtues were all in me gressed. We now merely try to gr aft onto the child what when I came to the School. And I know that all the we think is best for him to be. quali ties in me that were encouraged and given a Perhaps, some day, we will learn to help the indi­ chance to develop wh ile I was there are the very quali­ vidual be what he is. ties that I value most. Thanks to Spanish Reaction By ARTHUR S. SAMUELS

ARADOX ICAL as it may sound, the volley of shots The Ferrer School in New York became the center Pfired into the body of Francisco Ferrer on October for liberal discussion on the drama; every new work 13, 1909, at Montjuich prison in Barcelona did more of literary value-and also old ones for that matter­ to stir up interest in modern education than all the was discussed at the center. Music, painting, sculpture­ strivings of the founder of Escuela Moderna and his indeed, every phase of art was accorded critical but followers. Those shots resounded in nearly every capi­ at the same time liberal treatment. tal of the civilized world where monster meetings were The labor movement in all its phases occupied a held in protest against murder perpetrated by the most prominent place at the center. Not a labor prob­ Spanish government. lem in which we were not intensely interested, not a As nearly as I can ascertain, no one took the experi­ labor struggle but we were actively aiding the strikers mentations and death of the Spanish educator more to win it . A new departure in the labor movement, a seriously than the liberals in New York. new school of thought, though not always fully accept­ Shortly after the Church-and-State conspiracy of able to the overwhelming majority of the association, Spain drew the curtain upon the last act of their tragi­ found a platform for the free and generous discussion comedy, an organization was formed 3000 miles away of their validity. in New York City, under the name of Francisco Ferrer One feature in particular distinguished the, Ferrer Association. That organization set for itself the task Association from any other organization: Despite the of continuing the experiments and the teachings of many valid philosophies and shades of thought repre­ Ferrer; of building sthools to bring up children along sented, there were no cliques, no politics. One ap­ lines and principles for which the Spanish martyr paid plauded generously and supported the things one with his life. agreed with and assailed vehemently those that did not From a modest beginning with inadequate equip­ appeal. No speaker or lecturer, however prominent, ment, the Ferrer School in New York managed to bring was spared if his topic of discussion or any part of it rays of hope for progressive, libertarian education to did not appeal to his audience; the discussions were all parts of the United States. Soon after the association frequently more illuminating than the lecture itself. opened its doors at No.6 St. Marks Place, New York Very rarely did anyone at the Ferrer Center indulge City, liberals of every shade of thought began to fre­ in personal attacks; we discussed the topic, the lecture, quent the "center." Lectures, debates and discussions but not the speaker. were held in those small quarters almost nightly. The As already noted, the Ferrer Center attracted people place became a rendezvous for intellectuals in New of various opinions, of various philosophies. There York. Out-of-towners did not consider their visits in were Socialists, Anarchists, Single-Taxers, Trade­ New York complete unless they visited the Ferrer Unionists, LW.W.'s, Syndicalists. There were Theolo­ School and the center. gians and Atheists. There were Non-resistants and Thousands of people, who before that time had never Direct Actionists. All found a free platform and all given a thought to the problem of modern education blended harmoniously at the center. There was a com­ and methods of teaching employed in our public plete absence of groupings and plottings by one group schools and colleges, became deeply interested in that against another. subject. Parents who had previously accepted the edu­ * * * cational system of the country as the last word now Not all who came to the Ferrer School were by any began to scrutinize that system critically and craved means Idealists. One of the shortcomings, one of the and clamored for improvements and liberalization of weak spots of the liberal movement, (or of a free so­ the methods of teaching and of teachers in our schools. .ciety.) is that it also attracts irresponsibles; those who In short, where the question of the mental development come to take advantage of everything you have to offer of the child had seemed a matter of minor concern, it but will not and cannot contribute anything in return. now became a topic of prime importance. We had a few disturbers, a few who sought to destroy, The influence of the Ferrer School in New York did a few who sought personal gain, but these undesirable, not end with the education of the child. It spread to unsocial elements soon discovered that our movement adults, to parents who began gradually to discard old did not relish them arid our atmosphere was most un­ concepts, prejudices and dogmas as antiquated and ob­ conducive to their presence and they withdrew. solete. The Ferrer Association was instrumental in develop- ing young me n and women whose desire was to give been possible if a small idealistic group, led and in­ to th e community and to the world in which they live, spired by such able and devoted souls as Emma Gold­ not merely to take. Thus we find that a number of man,Alexander Berkman, Harry Kelly, Leonard Ab­ them- th anks to th e spirit of idealism they have ga ined bott and a few others, had not laid the groundwork and in th e Ferrer School-are now among the most prom­ paved the way . It certainly cannot be argued that the inent writers, artists, teachers, labor leaders. It may be inestimable contributions in awakening the interest in said without fear of contradi ction that though all of liberal thought and education in the masses in Amer­ these might have pursued the same occupations even ica would have been possible if the Spanish government if th ey had never seen the inside of the Ferrer School, had not conceived the diabolic plan of extinguishing their mingling for a time in the atmosphere of the the life of one of its dreamers, Francisco Ferrer y scho ol has greatly augmented their perspective and Guardia. their usefulness in their professions and in the com­ The Spanish governmen t, in its stupidity, quite un­ munity as a whole. wittingly, rendered a great serv ice to libertarian edu­ The tr ansfer of the School to Stelton would not have cation and to the liberal movement in America.

No Accomplishment Without Sacrifice B y A LEXIS C. FERM

HEN El izab eth Ferm and I gave up our work in into a bare room contammg two cots, no mattresses. W New York because of my health, to go to farming Luckily, we had some blankets with us. As for the horse, in Connecticut, we said to ourselves that we would poor Fred, he was glad to get something to eat and a never again go into educational work unless we could place to rest, even though the half of him had to stand have complete charge of the children for twenty-four outside of the barn, which was intended for one cow; hours of the day. but Harry did not know that. Anyhow, his head was Af ter seven years of farming we were induced to inside, so probably the horse felt that he was all there. consider the taking over of the Boarding House in In the morning we heard children's voices. Looking Stelton, New Jersey, because we would be given entire out we saw a redhead and some others looking over the charge of the children and would not be interfered contrap tion in wh ich we had come to the colony. with by the Board and could select our children from After having worked for five and one half years to parents who would h ave confidence in us. establish the idea of the creative spirit, initiative, self­ After a trip to the School by Elizabeth Ferm she activity, and th e idea, as Ferrer put it, "that the faculties reported to the writer that there were children there of the ch ildre n shall develop fr eely without subjection who needed some care, but it was difficult to get any to any dogmatic patron," we resigned to leave the work other information about the conditions of the place. to be further developed by those who could do it better. For instance, was there room for a horse? Yes, H arry The school had its ups and downs while we were saw­ Kell y said there was a barn and they could use a horse, ing wood and chopping out in the country far away; for the children would like to have one. So we drove and then after ten years we were induced to return, not down in a two-seated buggy wi th some of our luggage because we were the most competent to carryon the in pl ace of the back seat. It took a week to drive down. work but because there was no one else to do the job. \ Ve suffered for the horse as did th e horse, because it It requires too much sacrifice. On our part we felt that was difficult to find livery stables on the way down, as we were more or less responsible for implanting the they having been turned into garages. On the last day, creative idea it was up to us to see that it should not die April 20, 1920, we must have driven over forty miles, in spite of much opposition from fault-finders. from Baychester, New York, to the colony, because we Work of this kind cannot be carried on without some could find no hotel for the horse. sacrifice on the part of those doing the work and of the After some difficulty in finding the Ferrer Colony parents whose children attend the school, because there we arrived after dark and found the place dark as well. are not many parents who want their children to rely T here seemed to be no one to receive us, but before u pon their own initiative or creative ability. Mostl y long a figure appeared which proved to be Gray Wu, th ey would like to have them beg for a job, compe te a stude nt who was acting as cook. The children were for titles, follow a leader, or have the governme n t take asleep, but some were away in the city with John Edel­ care of them. man, where they had given a play. We were ushered To be successful the staff and Board of Management must work with the utmost co-operation and each feel any discord that may be in the air. member must not be subjected to fault-finding and ad­ We hope our children will understand that human verse criticism but needs to be helped by kindly sug­ parasites are not only those who live on the interest of gestions and understanding, in order that the children unearned inheritances. There are many others. And may get the spirit of co-operation and freedom without they are not all in the money class. too much preaching. Children are psychic and soon * * *

Some Memories and Passing Thoughts By JIM DICK

UR experience with the Ferrer Modern School has our first thought was to see this school, about which O been long and varied. It was in Ig01 that Francisco we had read so much. Ferrer inaugurated the Escuela Moderna in Barcelona, We arrived in Stelton in March Ig17. With Fred Spain. Dunn, who was then teaching at the school, we tramped In IgogFerrer, after being in gaol for twelve months up from the station in a terrific blizzard. We trudged on a trumped-up charge, visited England and France. for one and a half miles and eventually arrived at the During this time he organized the International League living house. The dormitory and house looked as if for the Rational Education of Childhood. The English they had been thru the wars. The children, about four section (in which we were actively engaged) had for of them, were using the kitchen as a skating rink. They its president W. Heaford. Ernst Haeckel, celebrated were having a swell time, but the school itself had an scientist, was the president of the German section. This aspect of neglect. It was just a period when activity league had on its roll such men as Peter Kropotkin, was at a low ebb. However, here was a job to face, and M. Materlinck, Maxim Gorky, Edward Carpenter, there was nothing to do but get things into shape. Havelock Ellis, Elisee Reclus, Jack London, Joseph We were rewarded for our efforts, for the house be­ McCabe, R. Rocker, Lorenzo Portet, who subsequently came actually livable. The teachers cooperated in the became Ferrer's successor, and many other prominent work of the house. The dormitory took on color and Europeans. was filled with children. Harry Kelly's shack was used In England efforts were made to establish clubs for as a school room in cold weather; the green lawn or children and adults, with varying success. the trees-when the sun began to shine. The old red During Ig0g there was a great agitation in Barcelona barn was used as a play house for children and adults. against the war in Morocco. Ferrer returned there from The spirit that began to assert itself is something to be England only to be arrested on the charge of "instigat­ remembered. ing a riot." He was tried and shot before anything Subsequently Nellie and I resigned and returned to could be done about it. This summary murder had England; but the call of the activities in Stelton was repercussions all over the civilized world. Educators, always in our minds. So we returned to Stelton only to literateurs, scientists and forward-looking people from find the ambitious and courageous school committee all over the world sent indignant protests. Clubs were embarked on a new scheme-building a real school organized, monuments raised, schools formed. The house! What nerveI What enterprise! There is some­ event which arrested our attention in the English sec­ thing to be said for these colonists. We found the build­ tion was the formation of the Ferrer Association of ing in the making. Everybody helping-parents, teach­ New York in IglO. Well written publications came ers, children, colonists. It was an object lesson in co­ from that source. Here, we thought, was actionl It was operation. indeed an inspiration to us in England, but we had not In the spring of Ig20 Alexis and Elizabeth Ferm the audacity to start a real day school as had been done came to take full charge. The Ferms shouldered the in New York. Subsequently news came from New York dual responsibility of the school and the living house. that a Ferrer Colony and boarding school had been Both places made great strides. There were increased formed in Stelton, New Jersey. We began to look for­ activities by both young and old. Many groups were ward to literature coming from that direction. The formed which stimulated arts and crafts. Adults and magazine, The Modern School} among other publica­ children became more interested in music, drama, edu­ tions, was an achievement. The war broke up many cation, and even sports. The Ferrer Colony became of our activities in England, disturbed the lives of alive once more, but as time rolled on, politics became many of us. Nellie and I decided to go to America and a disrupting influence. The school could not be free from the entangling arguments. When Alexis and a basis for an intelligent all-round human being. But Elizabeth resigned after a stay of about four or five uppermost in all discussion of the Stelton Modern years, the school and living house suffered once again. School is the matter of indoctrination of opinions. Both school and living house were practically closed Probably the controversy over this question has been in 1928. The living house was being used as a school more damaging to the welfare of the School than any for two or three pupils. After our own absence for four other single factor. years we were commissioned to come back and reor­ Today we can look at the present situation in Eu­ ga nize the School. Once more there was pioneering to rope and see how propaganda in "education" works. be done; once more we had the School on the upgrade. Everything that one holds sacred in education is Activities revived. The living house became populated, doomed to extinction. We find now that smart uni­ and the school house buzzed with work. In 1933 we forms, military music, orders, and distinctions are the resigned to carryon other work, and an urgent call up­ basis of life. Teachers vie with one another in exhort­ on Alexis and Elizabeth Ferm to renew their work at ing children to follow the glorious traditions of their the School was accepted by them, and it is still in their own particular nationalism, breeding hate, religious capable hands in May 1940. intolerance, and social animosity, destroying all that I know that the vast majority of children who have a true educator reveres, such as dignity, tolerance, in­ passed through the portals of the School have en­ telligence, cooperation. joyed the experience, and many of them, now grown I believe that the School has always tried to furnish up, are happy in their school memories, despite the ups an environment in which the child will not look for and downs. gods or heroes to save him, but will be self-reliant and From its inception there have been teachers with all have the capacity for appreciation of the finer things sor ts of ideas about morality, ethics-puritanical and of life. If we members and teachers of the Modern otherwise- diets, politics. The School has been a happy School have in some measure accomplished this, then hunting ground for teachers with pet isms to indoc­ we may feel that our twenty-five years of effort have not trinate, with slogans. It has usually been difficult for been in vain. We may assume that we have contributed the pioneers to keep the School free from ideas which something toward shaping a better social order and to were diametrically opposed to the original principles. the culture of the future. In the Modern School the children can learn to live Let us hope that the wonderful pioneer spirit of the cooperatively, free from racial and religious prejudices. Modern School founders, that prevailed over a quarter They are free to express their ideas and solve their of a century, will manifest itself in the youngsters who problems in their own particular way. They find that should be ready to take over the reins as it were and learning is a quest-not subject matter di vided into make the school the Mecca of all lovers of freedom in wa ter-tight compartments. Surely this is enough to form education.

* A DEDICATION By Goldie Markovitz

rem ember-I was th ere, Shouts of freedom in the air;

Chi ldrens' laugh ter in th e hall Answering the sile n t call

Of a man wh o yesteryear. Swore-that freedom would reign he re l * INTERNATIONAL LADIES' GARMENT WORKERS' UNION EDUCATIONAL AND RECREATIONAL UNDERGARMENT AND NEGLIGEE ACTIVITIES OF THE I.L.G.W.U. The I.L.G.W.U. has maintained an active Educational WORKERS' UNION Department since 1917. Workers' education is now being applied to the immediate needs of our union by in-service training for would-be officers, new members, executive Local 62 - I.L.G.W.U. board members and for business agents. Our Convention in 1937 ruled that any candidate for paid office (who had 000 not previously served) must undertake officers' qualifica­ tion courses in the history of the union, economics of the SAMUEL SHORE, Manager garment industry, trade union techniques, structure and functioning of the union and parliamentary law. In these Officers' Qualification Courses run directly by the Educa­ tional Department in New York City in the last two years, 271 students from 20 locals have successfully completed all the courses; 65 have partially done the work and 107 are registered for the 1940-41 session. But this is only one phase of our work.In the I.L.G.\V.U. mass ed ucation has been developed to meet every phase of a member's life-the demand for play and fun, for music, for recreation, dancing, games, and other health Laundry Workers Joint Board of Greater N. Y. cultural and recreational facilities. In the year 1938-39, some 20,000 students each put in 12 to 26 hours in a total Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America of 673 classes. Of these, 268 were study classes, ranging from Citizenship to Advanced Economics. There were 117 music groups (choral and instrumental) . Seventy four dramatics gro ups presented plays, skits and musical revues in many • of which the 59 dancing groups participated. Tennis, LOUIS SIMON, Secretary-Treasurer swimming, calisthenics and bowling groups numbered 100 and union locals maintained 55 basketball and softball teams; 208 I.L.G.W .U. members attended one ten-day and three five-day institutes and 12 received scholarships at labor schools: But much of the work done in the social and educational centers run in New York City and main­ tained by the various locals throughout the country cannot be set down in statistics. Radio talks, demonstrations, social gatheri ngs, outings on land and water, movies, theatre parties, forums, libraries, publications, lectures, reach prac­ tically the total membership. Thus the sou l and mind of the I.L.G.W.U. are provided for so that high pioneering and progressive traditions of MY HEARTIEST GOOD WISHES - the union will be maintained. DAVID DUBINSKY, President to your org anization. Despite an uphill fight, MARK STARR. Educational Director your school has done much toward enriching our educational objectives and I hope will con- tinue to do so in the future. • JACOB S. POTOFSKY, Assistant General President NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America WORKMEN'S CmCLE

000

R. GUSKIN, President BONNAZ & HAND EMBROIDERERS. TUCKERS. STITCHERS AND PLEATERS UNION J. BASKIN, General Secretary Local 66-I.L.G.W.U. Zachary L. Friedman, President

Eastern Out-of-Town Department I. L. G. W. U. HARRY WANDER, Manager FRIENDS OF THE M ODERN SCHOOL:- Joint Board Please accept our hear tfelt greetings and wishes for your of the T wenty -Fif th Anniversary. May your most usefu l act ivi­ ties in th e field of ed ucation of ch ildren of the hard-wo rk­ CLOAK, SUIT, SKIRT AND REEFER MAKERS' ing masses con tinue in the same spirit of libertarianism UNIONS OF GREATER NEW YORK and idealism on which the school was founded. Let the spirit of brotherhood, harmon y an d freedom in a society of I. L. G. W. U. free men, free of exploitation prevail for ma ny years to come. Fraternally • Executive Boa rd ISRAEL FEINBERG, Gen eral Manager THE UNITED CLOAK, SUIT, INFANTS'. AND M. J. ASHBES, Trea surer CHILDREN'S COAT OPERATORS' AND SAMPLE MAKERS' UNION LOUIS E. LANGER, Secre tary Local No. 117, I.L.G.W.U. • R. ZUCKERMAN, Ch airman BENJAMIN KAPLAN, Manager Secretary

NEW YORK JOINT BOARD-AMALGAMATED CLOTHING WORKERS OF AMERICA • Joint Board of the DRESS AND WAISTMAKERS' UNION OF GREATER NEW YORK LOUIS HOLLANDER, Mana ger 1. CATALANOTTf' Manager Ben Evry , President Julius Hochman, Ge neral Manager ABRAHAM MILLER, Secretary-Trea su rer Philip Kapp, Secretary -Treasurer

J. E. S.

BELT MAKERS' UNION

Local No. 40 Joint Board I. L. G. W. U. Shirt Makers Union HENRY SCHWARTZ, Mana ger A. C. W. A.

ALEX COHEN, Ma na ger ,/

Dress and Waist Pressers' Local 60 New York Clothing Cutters' Union I.L.G.W.U. Local4-A. C. W. A.

MAX COHEN, Manager MURRAY WEINSTEIN, Manager 1. WASSILIEVSKY, Chairman

Greater New York Coat Makers Union Local 25 Children's Dress, Infants' Wear, Housedress and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Bathrobe Makers' Union A. GRAFF, Chai rman Local 91-I.L.G.W.U. M. EDELSON, Treasurer 1. DORFMAN, Secretary Harry Green berg, Manager Secretary N. HERSHKOWITZ, Recording Secretary

Plastic, Button and Novelty Workers Union Joint Council Knitgoods' Workers Union Local 132-I.L.G.W.U. Local 15S-I.L.G.W.U.

Martin Feldman,Mana ger Louis Nelson, Manager

CORSET AND BRASSIERE WORKERS' UNION RADICAL LIBRARY Local 32-I.L.G.W.U. Dear Comrades: Abraham Snyder, Manager We , the comrades of Philadelphia, send our greetings to The Modern School of Stelton on its 25th anniversary of WATERPROOF GARMENT WORKERS' UNION libertarian education . On this eventful occasion it is our Local 20-I.L.G.W.U. hope that Ferrer's thoughts and ideals will be disseminated at The Modern School until the day will come when hu- David Massin, Mana ger . manity will be inspired by desire to liberate itself from barbarism and oppression. The Radical Library Samuel Polinow, Secretary FREE SOCIETY GROUP KROPOTKIN SOCIETY BRANCH 413 OF CHICAGO LOS ANGELES, CALIF. LOCAL 144 - I. L. G. W. U. NEWARK, N. J. - WE, THE WORKERS OF Antonio Crivello, Manage r SAMUEL CHAPMAN'S SHOP ADELAIDE SCHULKIND 307 West 36th Street New York. N. Y. Executive Secretary Send Fraternal Greetings to your 25th Anniversary LEAGUE FOR MUTUAL AID. NEW YORK CITY Morris . Klein, Shop Chairman FREE WORKERS ' GROUP AMSHOL GROUP NEW YORK, N. Y. BRONX, NEW YORK

LADIES' TAILORS. CUSTOM DRESSMAKERS. THEATER J. & G. DENENBERG COSTUMES & AMALGAlVtATED WORKERS UNION WASHINGTON, D. C. Local 38-I.L.G.W.U. LILLIAN KISLUIK & OTHER FRIENDS NEW SOCIETY GROUP W. C. BRANCH 364 NEW YORK, N. Y. - FROM WASHINGTON, D. C. M. Horow itz, Secretary FERRER CENTER GROUP. W. C. BRANCH 203 BRANCH 325 W. C.-BROOKLYN. N. Y. NEW YORK, N. Y. f}reetings from

AN NA AND HERSHEL WEINSTEIN NEW YORK A FRIEND STELTON, N. J.

HARRY WEINBERGER NEW YORK JACK AND ROSE FALK ' NEW YORK . JIM AND NELLIE DICK LAKEWOOD, N. J. BERTHA CHASICK CROMPOND. N. Y. WAT AND SOPHIE BANNISTER CROMPOND. N. Y. SONIA AND SIMON FARBER NEW YORK DORA AND LOUIS KEYSER LOS ANGELES

"JUST A FRIEND" PHILADELPHIA. P A. SOL VINICK : : STELTON, N. J .

MINNIE AND SAM ROTHMAN NEW YORK HERRAULT AND HORN Mohegan Colony Mechanics

Greetings from Greetings from Greetings from Greater New York Stelton, New Jersey Washington, D. C.

Sam Abramsky Minnie Markowitz Anna & Abe Harry & Sonia Clemens Murray Arm 'Bella & A. Miller Sally & Adolph John & Kate Edelman Joseph Aronstam Ray .P or ter Miller Sophie & Joseph Stella Ballantine Rose Mirsky Wally Krimont John & Alvin Lillie ' Baron Stephen Naft Rachell Sinclair Mr. & Mrs. A. Bell S. & I. Ostroff Wanda & Wasia Lina & Violet Clara Bernstein Dora Pearl O ' 0 0 Anna Block Pauline & J. Portnoy Esther & 'Yossel Fanny Breslaw Anna & I. Radinowsky Fannie & Israel Mrs. Syd Cohen J. Rosenbaum Liza & Zigmond Miscellaneous Greetings A. Crivello J. Samusin John & Sara Aronoff Israel Feinberg Evelyn Scott Mrs. Bernstein Bernard & Emma Shane Morris Feinstone F. Sheinkman Canada J. Jenny & Sam Blum Samuel Freedman Samuel Shore Helen Rudome Sam & Tillie Sherman Dinah Cohen Clara Freedman Jack Savitsky. Anna Shore Sarah Cohen Henry Fruchter Mount Vernon. N. Y. Julia Funt Leo A. Spiegel, M.D. : Rose & Hyman Cohen Sam Glassman Mr. & Mrs. S. Strahl A Friend Minnie Schwartz . Weehawken, N. J. Rose Goldblatt Leonard Tong Sam Goldman Abe Goldman Ida & Valerio Jack Pearl Dr. A. L. Goldwater Anna Strunsky Walling Sara & Sam Klonin Los Angeles. Calif. Solomon & Anuta Golub Max Wolff S. & B. Moore B. Yelensky Max Grishkan Dr. Mary Wolfson Sadie Lifshitz Chicago, Ill. B. & M. Greenshner Carl Zigrosser L. & L. Raymond Rose Pesotta M. Hoshman Julius & Mary Blackman M. Ricco D. & E. Isakowitz Louis Block Ben L. Reitman William Judin . S. and M. Bluestein Anna Koch Riedel Chicago, Ill. Beckie Kaplan Tillie & Harry Comoraw Mrs. Rohitz . Lillian G. Buck Philip Kapp Anna Fisher Zena Sacharoff Peekskill. N. Y. . Aaron & Sima Kitzes Claire & Abe Grosner Dr. & Mrs. Schneer Clara Stevens B. & S. Klatchko Moritz Jagendorf Dr. Kotick Manya & Nicholas Kirtzman Helen Schneider Pryns Hopkins Leon Kramer Romany Marie John Scott London ' M orris Levin A. Nagoshiner Paul Scott Drs. S. & H . Siegel. Dentists S. & P. Linder Samuel Pepper Becky Loomer Arthur Leonard Ross B. & F. Share New Brunswick, N. J. Mirina Lowensohn Sonia & Arthur Samuels Anna & Sam Shulman E. K. Stretch Elsie & Nat Marer Fannie & I. Wishnack Rose Weiss Union City, N. J.

In Loving Memory of ROSE YUSTER ABBOTT

- a devoted friend of, and untiring worker for, the

FERRER SCHOOL IN MEMORY OF SARAH KRAMER Leonard D . Abbott Esther Rout ("Mother") William Morris Romany Marie Ellen Arthnr S.-Samuels

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