: CRUSADER FOR CHILDREN

Joy Denman

Emma Goldman was, unquestionably, one of the others, had little else to offer her new homeland most dedicated and daring rebels of her time. An except the ability to sew in the factories. Unlike idealist who cherished liberty as the most the others who sat quietly by and accepted precious of possessions, Emma is best-known as a outrageous working conditions, Emma Goldman spirited anarchist. Her interests, however, were spoke up. The courage of this young woman as many and varied and included the theatre, the she shouts to the factory foreman that he is "a liar status of women, the welfare of children, and and a brute" is breathtaking.~ It is particularly education. moving when one realizes that her outburst was Writing for the Washington Post, Colman prompted by her concern for a co-worker who had McCarthy devoted a column to Emma Goldman in fainted and was accused of shamming. its February 23, 1973 edition. The editorial began, Deeply touched by the unjust handling of the "Among the many benefits of the current revival of Haymarket Anarchists in 1887, Emma dedicated women's consciousness are the flashbacks to herself to .3 Believing the state to be an Emma Goldman. Few scenes in today's worthy oppressor that sucked the breath from its citizens, push for women's social equality cannot be cut she braved the wrath of its agents by speaking out back to an idea or event in Emma Goldman's against injustice. By 1891, Emma had come to the committed life, from her birth in Russia in 1869 to attention of the press which reported that "a her burial in Chicago in 1940." mysterious young woman on a truck . .. had Emma Goldman was seventy-one when she died waved a red flag and urged revolution, her in 1940. After her death, she was finally able to high-pitched voice putting the horse to flight."4 return to America, to be buried in Chicago's In 1892, the Carnegie Steel Strike at Homestead Waldheim Cemetery, near the graves of those men seemed to require more than words. It was time who had so greatly inspired her years before: the for an Attentat, a political act which would Haymarket Martyrs. awaken the people to the real cause of the She had arrived in America in 1885, a poor struggle.5 Emma Goldman and her friend, Russian-Jewish immigrant. The bitterness of , planned to kill the villain of Emma's childhood was, to a large extent, the the hour, Henry Clay Frick. Lack of funds inspiration for her later courage and prevented Emma from accompanying Berkman in determination. She learned, for instance, from her his unsuccessful attack on Frick's life; father, that girls were second-class citizens. When nonetheless, her role as a conspirator branded she was fifteen, her father had planned a marriage Emma Goldman as an enemy-of-the-state. for her. When she protested that she be allowed to Emma was first imprisoned for a speech she continue her schooling, her father threw her made in August, 1893 when she declared to a French grammar into the fire and shouted: "Girls large audience of unemployed workers: "If they do do not have to learn much! All a Jewish daughter not give you work, demand bread. If they deny you needs to know is how to prepare gefullte fish, cut both, take bread. It is your sacred right."6 For this noodles fine, and give the man plenty of assault on the system, Emma served a year at children."1 Primarily to escape her father's plans, Blackwell's Island. Emma left his household for America. The years before World War I were years of The promise of America, the promise it seemed political and economic upheaval. The IWW, to hold for the spirited and idealistic immigrant, Communists, and Anarchists, all seemed part and was not kept. Emma Goldman, like countless parcel of a savage attack on tradition, virtue,

27 capital, and authority. Emma Goldman was an deed of the assasin, horrible figures and faces easy target for the privileged to fear. She braved from which it will not do to tum away. If we are to the dens of reaction, such as San Diego in 1912, escape further attack upon our peace and security where a veritable civil war was in progress. Her we must boldly and resolutely grapple with the comrade there was branded, tarred and monster of anarchy."10 And one of those "horrible sage-brushed, and variously tortured.7 Despite the figures and faces" was especially unsettling since sinister threats of the vigilantes, Emma finally Emma Goldman's figure and face were decidedly spoke in San Diego in 1915.8 those of a woman. The aftermath of World War I ended Emma Mere mention of the name "Emma Goldman" Goldman's tenure as one of America's greatest was enough to intimidate a recalcitrant child. S.N. orators as well as one of its most despised Behrman, the playwright, recalls that as a child anarchist agitators. Deported by the agents of the his "parents cited her to us constantly, using her state, especially the young and ambitious J. Edgar name ... to frighten and admonish."11 Hoover, she sailed, in the winter of 1919, with the But Emma Goldman cared deeply for children. other deported enemies of the state to Russia, via During a routine physical examination, the doctor Finland. advised her that an operation would be necessary She remained in the Soviet Union for two years, if she were ever to bear a child herself.12 She finally leaving in disgust over the destruction of thought: "A child I I had loved children madly, the Revolution by the Communists. She eventually ever since I could remember.... " 13 For a few settled in St. Tropez, France, which was a base for moments, Emma allowed herself to imagine her unfailing energies. Her seventieth birthday blissful motherhood.14 But memories of her own was spent in Toronto, raising money on behalf of cruel childhood and tormented adolescence broke the Spanish Liberation Movement. the reverie. Emma's thoughts turned from her own Her courage as a woman, as an individual, and . miseries to the painful knowledge that her "tragic as an anarchist was exceptional. Her deeds and childhood had been no exception, that there were exploits are material for an exciting movie, but the thousands of children born unwanted, marred and more thoughtful side of Emma Goldman deserves maimed by poverty and still more by ignorant misunderstanding. No child of mine ... should to be recognized. The questions and issues that 15 plagued her remain largely unanswered to this ever be added to those unfortunate victims." day. She attempted to deal, for example, with the Determined to serve these children through the questions posed by the family, children, and their cause of anarchism, Emma chose to accept her education. She viewed the family and education own chronic pain and incapacities; "to fulfill that not as isolates, but as reflections of the bold mission I must remain unhampered and untied.... I would find an outlet for my designs of the state. How to avoid the corruption 16 of children in a society whose basic fabric is mother-need in the love of all children." Thus, corrupt remains a question that teases and worries the operation never took place. yet. Emma Goldman's cause was anarchism. "The gist of the anarchist idea is this," wrote Max Because of her brave challenge to the system, Baginski, a fellow editor and one of Emma's Emma Goldman's name was frequently an oath. lovers, "that there are qualities present in man, She aroused enough suspicion so that the foulest which permit possibilities of social life, of deeds could be traced, no matter how organization, and cooperative work without the ludicrously, to her instigation. During September, application of force. Such qualities are solidarity, 1901, the newspapers had a field-day unjustly common action, and love of justice."17 This attacking Emma Goldman for supposedly utopian description of a credo which, to many, inspiring Leon Czolgosz, the young assasin who stood for a complete and fearful social revolution had killed President McKinley. The New York appeared in the first issue of Mother Earth which World described her as "a wrinkled, ugly Russian Emma published from 1906 until the postal woman," and the New York Times portrayed her authorities put an end to the monthly shortly after as the chief of a tribe of "frousy-haired the declaration of war in 1917.18 specimens."9 Through the newspapers' vitriolic The scope and purpose of Mother Earth were and superficial attacks on her person, fear was explained in its first issue: aroused about her anarchist philosophy. Former President Grover Cleveland declared: Mother Earth will endeavor to attract and appeal "We can hardly fail to see . . . behind the bloody to all those who oppose encroachment on public

28 and individual life. It will appeal to those who values are radical, which seeks, nonetheless, to strive for something higher, weary of the inculcate their child with these same values. The commonplace; to those who feel that stagnation contradiction inherent in this sort of family was is a deadweight on the firm and elastic step of obvious to Emma: though emancipated from their progress; to those who breathe freely only in belief in ownership and property, "they cling limitless space; to those who long for the tender tenaciously to the notion that they own the child, shade of a new dawn for a humanity free from and that they have the right to exercise their the dread of want, the dread of starvation in the authority over it."25 Whether it is the parent or the face of mountains of riches. The Earth free for teacher who points with pride to the child who the free individual. can recite revolutionary poetry, the result is little different from the Catholic child's being prepared In Mother Earth, Volume 1, Number 2 (April for his first Communion: the child's dignity and 1906), Emma ponders the question of the child individuality have been sacrificed to some greater and its prospect of becoming a free individual. authority. Titled, ''The Child and Its Enemies," this essay takes to task "every institution of our day, the And what then? "The child, being fed on family, the State, our moral codes, (which) sees in one-sided, set and fixed ideas, soon grows weary every strong, beautiful uncompromising of rehashing the beliefs of its parents, and it sets personality a deadly enemy.''19 Every effort is being out in quest of new sensations, no matter how made to cramp human emotion and originality of inferior and shallow the new experiences may thought in the individual into a straight [sic} be.... So it happens that the boy or girl over-fed jacket from its earliest infancy; or to shape every on Thomas Paine will land in the arms of the human being according to one pattern; not into Church, or they will vote for imperialism only to well-rounded individuality, but into a patient work escape the drag of economic determinism and slave, professional automaton, true-paying citizen, scientific socialism ... or they cling to the right of or righteous moralist."20 accumulating property, only to find relief from the 26 The schools, serving the masters of the state, old-fashioned communism of their father." reflect the determination of the system to shape Should one, then, regard these children with and direct each child and to make ''the child a despair - these children molded to grow in being foreign to itself."21 "The ideal of the average certain pre-determined directions and who, pedagogist is not a complete, well-rounded nonetheless, yearn to embrace other ideas? On the original being; rather does he seek that the result contrary. Emma regards these willful children as of his pedagogy shall be automatons of flesh and ''the greatest guarantee that the independent mind, blood, to best fit into the treadmill of society, and at least, will always resist every external and the emptiness and dullness of our lives. Every foreign force exercised over the human heart and home, school, college and university stands for head.''27 Then, if education is to mean anything at dry, cold utilitarianism, overflooding the brain of all, "it must insist upon the free growth and the pupil with a tremendous amount of ideas, development of the innate forces and tendencies of handed down from generations past.''22 The the child. In this way alone can we hope for the purpose of this inculcation of facts and data is "to free individual and eventually also a free maintain every form of authority, to create awe for community, which shall make interference and the importance of possessions."23 coercion of human growth impossible."21 Emma continues, "In whatever direction one At this point, one must recognize some basic turns, eagerly searching for human beings who do conflicts. For one, does the child who refutes the not measure ideas and emotions with the dictates of his radical family do so simply as an yardstick of expediency, one is confronted with the independent spirit, as Emma suggests above? Or, products, the herd-like drilling instead of the is the child engulfed by the institutions and result of spontaneous and innate characteristics systems of the world-at-large which seek always to working themselves out in freedom."24 recapture their potential deviants, as Emma In "The Child and Its Enemies," Emma raises suggests in the earlier pages of this essay? Or, is the question, still essentially unanswered, of how the child, rather than acting from individual one is to educate for freedom. How does one free conviction, eager to adopt the ways of his the child from the system and yet not inculcate neighbors and chums because of his discomfiture him with yet another authority? Emma writes of with the peculiarities of his mother and father? the family whose politics are radical, whose Too, how can education for freedom insist on

29 Emma Goldman, at age twenty·three, In 1892. From Living My Life, Emma Goldman at San Tropez, 1929. In From Nowhere at Dover Publications. Home, Schocken Books.

30 anything? The pages of Mother Earth were filled The Commissariat of Education was so thoroughly with admonitions to remember always the dignity dominated by that machine that it was hopeless to and beauty of each individual child. The goals of expect anything but routine work. .. . I became the International League for the Rational convinced that Lunacharsky himself was a Education of Children concluded with: "Above all, helpless cog in the machine, his best efforts let us not forget that, in matters of education there constantly curtailed and checked."36 is but one right superior to all others and before By April 1, 1920, Emma's initial optimism with which all others should yield: the right of the the new government education had begun to child."29 tarnish. She was particularly disturbed by the Mother Earth gave recognition to many famed elitist class being developed within the schools. 37 educators of the day. Sebastian Faure and Desiring work of a non-partisan character, work Francisco Ferrer were among the notables whose that would enable her to study conditions in anarchist views and their educational Russia and provide an opportunity to meet implementation were recognized and applauded. ordinary citizens, Emma joined the "Museum of But, history was catching up with Mother Earth the Revolution" which was a project organized to and the anarchists. collect materials from the Revolutionary period in Just as the war hysteria ended the publication of the Ukraine and Caucasus.38 Mother Earth, the subsequent "Red Scare" The city of Poltava was one of the Expedition's terminated Emma's American citizenship.30 first destinations. There, Emma heard the story of Leaving New York aboard the "Soviet Ark," the the Save-the-Children Society which was subject S.S. Buford, Emma Goldman and her long-time to discrimination and persecution by the new friend and comrade, Alexander Berkman looked regime.39 In Kiev, the Expedition saw the same sort forward to their arrival in the Soviet Union, whose of "show schools" they had seen in other cities.40 recent revolution held such promise to these No one besides Emma seemed disturbed by the returning natives.31 discriminatory effect of these schools.41 In In My Disillusionment In Russia, Emma relates Archangel, Emma paid a surprise visit to a school not only her bitter and painful recognition of the and was delighted to find happy children who price of Soviet monolithicism, but her experiences obviously adored their teacher. "They were the with the state's educational programs.32 These fust happy children I had seen in Russia. It Soviet experiments were thoroughly distasteful to strengthened my conviction of the significance of Emma.33 personality and the imponance of mutual 42 In 1920, Emma had the opportunity to meet with confidence and love between teacher and pupil." Lunacharsky, the Commissar of Education. During While willing to give some credit to the State for their first meeting, he inquired whether she its efforts to increase educational opportunities, intended to "remain a free bird" or would she join Emma was critical of the price of the him in his work. Emma was taken aback by the experiments. 43 Whatever successes the system may implication that one had to relinquish freedom, enjoy, ''they have no bearing whatever on the "especially in educational work," where it seemed Revolution; they do not prove that the Bolshevik that initiative and freedom were essential.34 educational experiment is superior to similar Lunacharsky was filled with the spirit of reform efforts in other countries where they have been and eagerly sought Emma's reports on educational achieved without a revolution and the terrible progress in America. Together, he and Emma price it involves." 44 would visit schools and other institutions in his She continues: "State monopoly of thought is charge. Emma was delighted to accept this everywhere interpreting education to suit its own invitation so that she might thus render a service purpose.. . . But while the monopoly of thought in to the Russian people. But Emma was to discover other countries has not succeeded in entirely that Lunacharsky's good intentions were checking the spirit of free inquiry and critical submerged by the increasing efficiency of the state analysis, the 'proletarian dictatorship' had bureaucracy. "Evidently Lunacharsky was caught completely paralysed every attempt at independent in the same machine that apparently held investigation." 45 everything in its iron grip."35 The tragedy of the Russian Revolution was Several months later, Emma was sure that she deeply troubling. In America, where free public could not accept any work which would place her education remained rooted in the prejudices and "under the control of the Communist machine. styles of the past, the capitalist state stood in the

31 way of substantial change. There had been such ••Emma Goldman. ''The Child and Its Enemies," Mother high hopes that Russia, throwing off the shackles Earth, Vol. 1, No. 2, April 1906, p. 7. 20 of tradition and tyranny, would truly find a way to Ibid., p. 7. "Ibid., p. 8. liberate each child through education. For the "Ibid., p. 8. child-centered anarchist, there was only bitter ..Ibid., p. 8. disappointment. ..Ibid., p. 8 . In December, 1921, Emma Goldman and ..Ibid., p. 12. '"Ibid., p. 13. Alexander Berkman left the Soviet Union for "Ibid., p. 13. , with hearts "heavy with the tragedy of ..Ibid., pp. 13-14. Russia."46 ""The International League for the Rational Education of Finally, the correspondence of her last decade Chlldren states with unusual clarity the conception of a reveals Emma's unfailing interest in education. By liberating education; see Mother Earth, Vol. 5, No. 5, July 1910, p. 156. the Thirties, Emma's influence had waned, her ""Emma Goldman. "Statement at Deponatlon Hearings," hopes and aspirations had dimmed, her optimism Makers of America, Wayne Moquin, editor, Vol. 8, had tarnished. But her letters reveal an enduring Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation, Chicago, spirit and faith that is not simply of historical 1971, pp. 27-30. "Berkman was bom In Lithuania in 1870; the territory was, interest. at the time, Russian. Goldman was likewise born In Russian In a letter to Mary Leavitt, written from St. Lithuania, In the town of Kovne. Tropez and dated November 2, 1932, Emma writes, ,.Emma Goldman. My Disillusionment in Russia, Thomas Y. "... so glad to hear about the little fellow. As to Crowell, New York, 1970. This book has sometimes been what he will be when he grows up no amount of erroneously published In two volumes entitled: My Disillusionment in Russia and My Further Disillusionment in training and concern can decide that in advance. I Russia. was always of the opinion that all one can do for ""Clarence Karier, Jr. American Educational History: A a child is to implant certainty of love and Perspective, paper presented at the Southeastern Regional understanding, the feeling that whatever happens Meeting of the History of Education Society, November 1971. "'Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia, op. cit., p. 27. in his or her life they can find the strongest "'Ibid., p. 28. support and deepest understanding from their "'Ibid., p. 71. parents . . .." 47 07Ibid., pp. 42-43; 71-72. All this fr.om a woman whose name was used to ,.Ibid., pp. 74-75. HJbid, pp. 122-126. frighten little children I 1 60Jbid., p, 135. "Ibid., p. 135. 42Ibid., p. 182. 43Ibid., p. 221. ..Ibid., p. 222. 411Ibid., pp. 222-223 . ..Ibid., p. 241. "Richard and Anna Marla Drinnon, eds. Nowhere at Home: Footnotes Letters from wle of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, Schocken Books, New York, 1975, p. 175. 'Emma Goldman. Living My Life, Vols. 1 8r: 2, Dover Publications, New York, 1970, p. 12. 'Ibid., p. 16. 'Ibid., p. 7. •Ibid., p. BO. joy Denman, a Graduate in Political Science from UCLA, "Ibid., p. 87. teaches at a public high school in Honolulu. She is active in "Ibid., pp. 122-123. the HawaU Federation of Teachers, local dog clubs, and ls 'Ibid., pp. 500-501. busy as a parent of two intermediate school-age youngsters. •Ibid., pp. 558-559. This article is part of a thesis submitted to the Graduate 9Richard Drinnon. Rebel In Paradise: A Biography of Emma Division of the University of Hawaii in partial fulfillment of the Goldman, Bantam Books, New York, 1973, p. 106. requirements for the M.Ed. in Educational Foundations. lDibjd,, P• 109, "Ibid., p. 108. "Goldman, op. cit., p. 58. "Ibid., p. 58. 14Ibid., pp. 58-59. '"Ibid., p. 61. '"Ibid., p. 61. "Max Baginski. "Without Government," Mother Earth, Vol. 1, No. 1, March 1906, p. 20. "Drinnon, op. cit., pp. 2~245.

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