The Dunne School Board : Reform in Chicago, 1905-1908

Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1993 The Dunne school board : reform in Chicago, 1905-1908 Mary Schiltz Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Schiltz, Mary, "The Dunne school board : reform in Chicago, 1905-1908" (1993). Dissertations. 3026. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/3026 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1993 Mary Schiltz LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO THE DUNNE SCHOOL BOARD: REFORM IN CHICAGO, 1905-1908 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND POLICY STUDIES BY MARY PIERONI SCHILTZ CHICAGO, ILLINOIS JANUARY 1993 Copyright by Mary Pieroni Schiltz, 1993 All rights reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dr. Gerald Gutek, Chair of my committee, and ors. Harold Platt and Joan Smith, have given generously of their time and insights in reviewing the text of this dissertation. Dr. Gutek and Fr. Michael Perko, S.J., have, from the beginning of my doctoral studies, been encouraging, supportive and intellectually challenging. Together with Dr. Paul Johnson, of Roosevelt University, they taught me what the craft of history is about. I owe them all a debt of gratitude. The staff of the Chicago Historical Society, the Newberry Library and the Loyola University Chicago Library were consistently helpful. Michael Schiltz provided invaluable help, talking through issues with me, sharing his knowledge of Chicago history, and prodding and encouraging me through the inevitable low points of the dissertation process. Lisa Andrle transcribed almost illegible manuscripts for my use, and shared her editorial insights with me, and Gene Schiltz provided background information on legal issues. Finally, I owe a special thanks to my husband and children. Without their patience and willingness to put up with my long hours at the library or the computer this iii dissertation would never have been completed. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii Preface: Educational Issues of the Period 1 Chapter 1. Setting the Stage: Chicago in 1905 • 26 2. First Dunne Appointees to the Board of Education . • . • • • . 48 3. Early Controversies 81 4. The Dunne Majority: Second Dunne Appointments • • . • • • • • . • • • • 118 5. More Reform Efforts and Growing Controversies . • • . • . • • • • • 145 6. The Mayoral Election of 1907: Dunne's Def eat and the "Ouster" of the Dunne Board • . • • • • • • • . • • • . • • . 190 7. The Legacy of the Dunne School Board •••• 222 BIBLIOGRAPHY . • • • 232 v PREFACE EDUCATIONAL ISSUES OF THE PERIOD Historians call the first decades of the twentieth century the Progressive Era. This was a period dominated by a variety of movements and intellectual debates; as Eric Goldman argues, it was a time when the American people had a "rendezvous with destiny." Many of the reforms introduced during this period have become institutionalized in American life: child labor legislation, pure food and drug laws, the regulation of trusts, the direct election of senators, the Australian ballot, just to name a few. Politically, the progressive movement reached its high water mark in 1912 when the two leading candidates in a four-party contest for U. S. President were Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. "For the first time the two major candidates for the Presidency were progressives and for the first time a major split in reform doctrine was being argued before a national audience. 111 To Arthur Link, this election "marked the culmination of more than 20 years of popular revolt against a state of affairs that seemed to guarantee perpetual political and economic Eric F. Goldman, Rendezvous with Destiny (New York: Vintage Books, 1955) 168. 1 2 control to the privileged few in city, state and nation."2 Progressivism made its mark on the political structures of local as well as national government as big cities elected "reform" mayors: Tom Johnson in Cleveland, Hazen Pingree in Detroit, Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones in Toledo. While the national temper shifted from the internationalist, "big stick" perspective of Theodore Roosevelt to the isolationist, anti interventionist sentiments that sought to keep America removed from European quarrels in 1914, cities struggled to cope with an unprecedented number of new immigrants, most from southern and eastern Europe, who brought with them new languages, new customs, new religions, and who somehow had to be assimilated into urban society. While the nation struggled with the massive problems triggered by the shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy, cities were wracked by labor unrest, strikes and a pervasive fear of socialists or anarchists (for many the two groups were interchangeable}, a fear intensified by Chicago's Haymarket riot in 1886. While national leaders tried to develop legislation to control the problems posed by the giant business monopolies in steel, oil and railroads, municipal leaders struggled with parallel problems of regulating mass transit and public utilities. On every front, cities reflected in microcosm the issues faced by the nation as a whole as it entered the twentieth century. 2 Arthur s. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era (New York: Harper and Row, 1954) 1. 3 For some historians, the core of progressivism lay in middle class America. To Richard Hofstadter it was • that broader impulse toward criticism and change that was everywhere so conspicuous after 1900, when the already forceful stream of agrarian discontent was enlarged and redirected by the growing enthusiasm of middle-class people for social and economic reform. • . Progressivism . • • affected in a striking way all the major and minor parties and the whole tone of American life. 3 This trend was also apparent in the cities as reformers strove to wrest political control from the urban "bosses" who had become for the middle classes a symbol of all that was corrupt and inefficient in municipal government. The settlement house movement, the efforts to pass initiative, referendum and recall legislation, the drive for woman's suffrage and the rise of civil service reform were all manifestations of this stream of progressive activity on the part of the middle classes. Another characteristic of the progressive movement, and one which has particular relevance for this paper, was the inter-related nature of the progressive community--what Steven Diner calls an "interlocking directorate"4 and what might today be termed the "old boy network." Diner argues that Chicago provided more than its share of notable leaders to the progressive cause: a litany of well-known names including Jane 3 Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform (New York: Vintage Books, 1955} 5. 4 Steven J. Diner, A City and Its Universities: Public Policy in Chicago, 1892-1919 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980} 56. 4 Addams, Julia Lathrop, Harold Ickes, Clarence Darrow and the Abbott sisters. He goes on to point out the two characteristics of this leadership group which provided its "interlocking" nature: the fact that many ref armers served together in a variety of different settings and organizations and the fact that many of them were related by blood or by marriage. The most prominent members of the reform community commonly held leadership positions in a dozen or more different reform organizations. A variety of informal ties supplemented formal organizational connections through the interlocking directorates. Not the least of these were ties through blood or marriage. The McCormick family provides a case in point. Anita Blaine was the benefactor of numerous reform projects • • • Her first cousins [Robert and Joseph] . • • were both active in the movement for • • • more efficient city government • • • • social worker Raymond Robins and his wife, Margaret Dreier Robins • held important positions in local reform associations as did numerous others related by blood or marriage. 5 Finally, Diner points out that the composition of the reform movement which began in the 1890s was characterized by several groups of individuals who differed from those involved in earlier reform crusades. It included "the first generation of professional women in the United States, the first social workers, and the first academic professionals. 116 The members of the Chicago Board of Education appointed by Mayor Edward Dunne illustrated these trends; they included in their number professional women and social workers, many of them were s Ibid., 56-57. 6 Ibid., 64. 5 leaders in reform organizations and in several instances outside of Board activities their reform interests overlapped and interlocked with one another. Frequently Progressivism was equated with liberal Protestantism and the practice of the Social Gospel. Robert crunden specifically includes a Protestant heritage as one of his criteria for defining the notable leadership of the early twentieth century Progressives whom he describes as "ministers of reform. 117 This mode of thought frequently led to deep suspicion of Roman Catholics; the regular campaigns to "Americanize" the

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