fications for writing a code of ethics for teachers. A code that will command the confidence of the public and at the same time protect the rights and define the responsibility of the teacher, will be the work of many persons. Constitutions that last are works of genius, but most of them grow from very humble beginnings.

An ethical code for teachers. This, then, is my contribution:

1. Every teacher in the organization must be one hundred per cent American.

Training for citizenship is more than giving instruction in school subjects. Patriotism, loyalty, and courage are as contagious as measles. Right example is the surest way to inculcate appreciations and attitudes and to demonstrate the value of fair play, teamwork, and selfcontrol.

2. The work of the teacher must be professional in character and honestly performed.

Malpractice in teaching is more serious than malpractice in medicine; the fact that proof of incompetence in the teacher is buried in the retarded lives of children is no release from moral responsibility. The organization must concern itself with the qualifications of teachers — their training, certification, and classroom ability. A corollary is that good service should be rewarded and the honest teacher protected.

3. The teacher, as a faithful servant, is worthy of his hire.

No true teacher ever has worked, or ever will work, solely for money. The necessity of standardizing salaries in a great school system will always militate against the

recognition of individual merit, but this is no excuse for rating all at the value of the poorest. A living wage is one that counts the cost of preparation and the value of the output, as well as the expenditure of time and energy in the day's work. There should be no discrimination against sex, grade, or school — equal pay for equal work by those giving equal service. The same devotion to the kindergarten or the rural school or the high school given by teachers of equal attainments, whether men or women, theoretically merits the same professional standing and the same remuneration. Practically, however, classification is imperative in a school system as a basis for the assignment of duties and adjustment of salaries, but it should not operate to check personal ambition or restrict professional advancement. One object of organization is to protect the weak from exploitation and to help them to a higher professional and economic status. Another object of no less importance, is to minimize the practical difficulties incident to the operation among teachers of the law of supply and demand, and to the varying standards of fitness as set for different grades. No democratic nation can endure that does not have good teachers. And no teacher can give his best who does not enjoy a living wage.

4. The organization must be honest and straightforward in its dealings with the public.

Collective bargaining is a two-edged sword. It must be used by the organization in securing proper buildings and equipment, higher professional standards for teachers, better teaching in the schools, and adequate salaries for those who do the work. It means appeals to public opinion,

bargaining with school boards, and arguments to legislators, but it should not mean threats, intimidation, and strikes. A contract is inviolable. The teacher who is not forced to accept appointment and who cannot be locked out of his schoolroom has no excuse to strike. When every expedient is exhausted and a school or system is still unwilling to put its work on a professional basis, the last resort that is honorable is for teachers to refuse appointment and to brand that school or system as unpatriotic. It follows that no teacher with any professional pride will fill a place left vacant under such circumstances.

5. The organization should coöperate with every other group of citizens for the promotion of the public good, but should avoid entangling alliances with anyone.

Entangling alliances. The teacher occupies a peculiar position in the body politic. He instructs children in the rights and duties of citizens. His wards of to-day are the voters of to-morrow. Some of them will be found in every group, party, sect, and organization that exists in the community. He should teach them the fundamental principles of American life and help them to make wise choices in their affiliations, but he may not proselytize or conduct propaganda for any cause on which citizens are divided. A decent respect for the opinions of others must characterize all that he does. The organization, therefore, which acts as the super-teacher cannot favor either Jew or Gentile, republican or democrat, capitalist or laborer. It honors them all for the good they strive to do, and will join with them in all good works, but it cannot be subservient to anyone. I realize that the American Federation of Labor is potentially one of the

most beneficent organizations in the United States, and I have the highest regard both for its leaders and for their objects, but it would be a mistake both for the Federation of Labor and for the prospective organization of teachers, to form an offensive and defensive alliance. It might be the easiest way to secure an increase of teachers' salaries, but more pay is not the only object of a teachers' organization, and not the one that will insure its greatest usefulness either to the profession or to the public.

It would be just as fatal to become entangled with the Manufacturers' Association, the Bar Association, the Christian Association, or the Democratic Party. If this latter suggestion is ludicrous, so also is the example set by some groups of teachers who have already identified themselves with the labor organizations. "Friends with all, but allies of none," must be the slogan of a teachers' organization.

The attainment of professional aims. These five points seem to me worthy of consideration by those who would write a code of ethics for teachers and a constitution for a teachers' organization. My chief concern is to free teachers from local oppression, to change their status from employees of a school board to servants of the State, to demand of them professional fitness, and to expect of them professional service, and to evaluate their worth by their contribution to American citizenship. Once these ends are attained, I am certain the public will gladly pay the price. Center the united strength of half a million of teachers on these points, and the teachers' millennium will soon be ushered in.

CHAPTER XIV

THE UNIVERSITY AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 1

HE problem of professional training is to-day the most important problem in the administration

of American universities. Reckoned in terms of cost, or of equipment necessary, or of students and teachers engaged, there is no other feature of university work so prominent. Indeed, if student population continues to increase at anything like the ratio of increase experienced in the last decade, the time is surely coming when some of our universities—particularly state universities will be exclusively devoted to professional training and to the prosecution of research itself a highly specialized form of professional training. The academic instruction now given in the freshman and sophomore years will be relegated to junior colleges, as is now being done in California, where the State University is overcrowded. Even a short look ahead justifies special consideration of the nature and extent of professional training in the future development of the university.

Shortening the period of apprenticeship. What is professional training? Let me say at the outset that I do not regard it as anything esoteric. It is merely a device to shorten the period of apprenticeship undertaken by every learner who would acquire the knowledge and skill possessed by the leaders in his field. It is a means of

1 An address delivered at the inauguration of Lotus D. Coffman as president of the University of Minnesota 1921.