gestions will be made as to what bills are good or bad and whether the bills should be passed, defeated or amended, and if amended, then in what manner. Each month this information will come to you in the Bulletin, as well as other information that may affect the public schools or be of interest to the parents and all other taxpayers who support the public schools.

TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION IS TYRANNY

If you do not want to be taxed without representation, that is, without a voice as to what your taxes shall be used for so far as schools are concerned; and also if you want information on other matters affecting the public schools referred to above, join the Friends of the Public Schools of America by signing and sending to your State chairman the enclosed application blank for membership.

Senator AIKEN. Thank you, General.

The next witness is Mr. William F. Saunders. Mr. Saunders.

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM F. V. SAUNDERS, HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK CITY, INC.

Senator AIKEN. Will you state your name and whom you represent for the record?

Mr. SAUNDERS. The High School Teachers Association of New York City, an organization of 5,000, favors the principle of Federal aid for education. We believe that the Eightieth Congress should enact legislation appropriating sufficient funds to meet the needs of all the States to bring the several systems of education up to a level commensurate with the economic, political and scientific development of the Nation. This is an era of the upsurge of the great body of our citizens to greater heights of ambition, attainment, and living. Why should there always be a cultural lag? Certainly you accept the principle that education pays not only economically but also in terms of human happiness, a constitutional right of the American people. We believe that you are fully justified in giving aid to the States in the light of existing statutes and we believe that it is an obligation binding upon you to assume responsibility at this time, now, for seeing to it that America takes its place as a leader in education as well as in politics, economics and science. The school child of today is the captain of industry of tomorrow. The product of a broken down school system of today can only lead to distress and disintegration of the American way of life in the years to come. Welleducated America will lead the world in politics, in economics, and in science. Are you aware that one of our largest universities had only eight science majors in 2 years who chose teaching as a career? Overwhelming evidence points to an even worse situation for education in the years to come than which exists today.

Vocational-guidance teachers are torn between love and duty when they hesitate to suggest that students take up teaching. Certainly unless the profession is made more attractive America is going to face a bankrupt system of education in a period that promises the greatest political and economic development a nation ever experienced. Certainly you want to discover and train those who are best able to lead us in the future. You want also to find and develop the best brains we have for guidance in a scientific age that may exceed even the greatest of our imaginations of today. The teachers of America know that this Nation possesses the greatest potential human wealth a nation ever enjoyed but it must be discovered and developed to its

utmost by the best possible teachers if we are to cope with these highly complex problems in the future. To neglect at this time to recruit the best possible teachers is to commit future national suicide.

We recommend that sufficient Federal funds be appropriated to enable all States to pay sufficiently high minimum and maximum salaries in order to attract the highest type of young men and women to teaching. We further recommend that the appropriation be continuous so that the various school systems will be enabled to keep the best personnel.

Our loss during the past 6 years was 350,000 teachers above the normal expectancy. Only by the highest skill and competency of the teaching staffs can a system develop the best of its students to their fullest and only by a sound permanent system of finance can this be assured. Federal aid will tend to add permanency to systems adequately established. State aid too often depends upon economic conditions. Often school aid comes from local nuisance taxes thus antagonizing the public and causing loss of public support and consequent cuts in educational budgets.

We urge you to end forever the making of political footballs, kicked between governors and mayors of what should be a community's most valuable possession: an adequate educational budget.

We recognize that inequalities of standards of instruction exist between the States, often to the point where only the barest of essentials are taught and these without forced attendance. The per capita income varies with the several States. The income per school child, likewise, varies from an estimated $9,000 down to $2,000. This is a constant problem which should be considered by the Federal Government as a national problem for solution by Congress as well as the States and not by the States themselves. We recommend that as a policy the Federal Government equalize educational opportunities by outright grants to the States based upon their ability to pay the costs of a minimum, sound-educational program. Certainly it cannot be considered a financial burden too heavy to face when we are spending only 1.5 percent of our national income on education. We believe that it would be sound policy for the Federal Government to lead in spending up to 5 percent of our estimated postwar income for educational purposes. This would amount to, roughly, $6,000,000,000 a year over all. The stimulus for increasing educational expenditures nationally can readily be given by the enactment of an appropriation measure providing for $250,000,000 a year to the neediest States and an additional appropriation, based on the number of children 5 to 17 years of age in each State, so as to enable all States to participate. Inequalities of opportunity are found within States as well as amongst States and an appropriation of a given amount per child would provide for all the children wherever they may live. An appropriation of only $3 per census-child would amount to only $50,000,000 but should provide a clear-cut picture of the responsibility each State owes to each of its children: The right to a wholesome youth spent in the happy surroundings of a completely staffed school run by satisfied teachers and providing adequate facilities and equipment to enable the individual child, to live in situations that are physically wholesome, mentally stimulating and satisfying, socially sound, and which enable him to make good for the best that is in him without any artificial limitations placed

upon him, such as the State or the county in which he happens to live.

The Eightieth Congress has a golden opportunity to realize this aim of American education by your considerations which have so far lived up to our expectations. We trust that you will not only study the problem of Federal aid to education but that you will also take measures to solve the problem.

We believe that you will recognize the obligation which you have so far boldly faced, take cognizance of the testimony this committee has been offered and enact suitable legislation in time to benefit the present generation of American school children. You have the power to end forever the denial of children's birthrights to a complete education, fitting them to take their place as citizens in the most complex and greatest of all nations in the not too far distant future.

This opportunity to have been heard by you is both an honor and a pleasure. We thank you.

Senator AIKEN. Thank you, Mr. Saunders.

Are there any questions on the part of the committee?

Senator DONNELL. Mr. Saunders, what is the High School Teachers Association? You say it is an organization of 5,000. Is it affiliated with one of the national unions?

Mr. SAUNDERS. We are affiliated with the National Education Association. We are not affiliated with any union as such.

Senator DONNELL. How many high-school teachers are there in New York City?

Mr. SAUNDERS. Approximately 6,000.

Senator DONNELL. So your organization contains about five-sixths of the high-school teachers in New York City?

Mr. SAUNDERS. We have practically every teacher in, but I cannot say all are members at the present time because some have not renewed membership for this year as they ordinarily might be expected to do in the course of the year. But, generally speaking, we speak for every teacher, and over a period of years all of them will have joined our organization. It is a professional organization.

Senator AIKEN. The committee thanks you again.

We will call the next witness, Dr. J. M. Ďawson, executive secretary for the Joint Conference Committee on Public Relations, Baptists of the United States.

STATEMENT OF DR. J. M. DAWSON, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY FOR THE JOINT CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC RELATIONS, BAPTISTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Dr. DAWSON. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee: My name is J. M. Dawson, executive secretary for the Joint Conference Committee on Public Relations for the Baptists of the United States who, according to the Yearbook of American Churches, interdenominational, 1945 edition, have a combined membership of more than 14,000,000 members. These Baptists are already waging a real campaign in the interest of the public schools, and may be counted upon to support Federal aid to them. Of the two pending bills, we think S. 472 preferable. But I may say we are profoundly in sympathy with Federal aid to the schools because we believe that the public schools constitute the most powerful source of national unity. We

are convinced that the public schools are essential to our whole democratic conception of civilization and way of life. We further believe that these schools are the exponents of the true American culture. We recognize, therefore, the imperative need for strengthening such essential institutions, and would lend all possible influence to the proposal for equalizing opportunity to every section of the population throughout the country through the agency of the public schools. There is much else I should like to say with ardor concerning the importance of rendering this much-needed Government aid, but in the interest of time and space, I forbear.

In opposing the application of that part of S. 472 which stipulates provision for use of a proportionate amount of Federal funds to support nonpublic schools in States which have provisions for use of public tax money for some form of nonpublic school support, I wish to make it plain that we are not intolerant; in no sense to be put down as bigots. But it is not in the interest of public welfare to be forced into silence under the guise of fraternity. I have spoken extensively throughout the Nation on public programs conducted by the Brotherhood Movement under auspices of Catholics, Jews, and Protestants. The historic Baptist position in favor cf full religious liberty for all is sufficiently clear to enforce the contention we make for religions of whatever form and creed, under the American Constitution, to enjoy absolutely equal rights. For example, we wish to deny the Catholic no right which we ourselves shall claim, and would emphasize the fact that we seek no right which we would deny to the Catholic. Neither would we discriminate against the Catholics nor wish to give them special advantage under Government patronage.

In making the above statements, I am fully aware of the recent 5-to-4 decision of the Supreme Court in the New Jersey case which might be construed as upholding the provisions of some 19 States for various kinds of aid by means of public tax money for parochial or church schools. I think I can state, however, that whatever the reasons actuating the Justices, the public response to the Court's decision has been so pronouncedly adverse that the convictions of the people in the other 29 States of the Union concerning absolute separation of church and state make it extremely desirable not to apply Federal tax money to any phase of nonpublic or tax-free, private church schools.

Senator DONNELL. Dr. Dawson, you refer to provisions of some 19 States for various kinds of aid by means of public tax money for parochial or church schools. I am very much interested in your figure there because there has been some indication in earlier evidence that there was a very much smaller number of States that permit in their constitutional provisions such aid. Do you have with you a list of those 19 States or could you tell us which they are?

Dr. DAWSON. I am sorry; I did not bring the list with me. I have it in my office. The National Education Association has indicated in a table these States which have these various forms of aid.

Senator DONNELL. May I ask the chairman if it would meet with his approval if Dr. Dawson would furnish to us the list, to be inserted in the record. I refer to the list of 19 States. I think it would be very interesting to know how that comes about and whether it is connected with the application of the school-lunch program whereby the Federal Government deals directly with the schools, in those

States whose constitutions or laws prohibit the State board of education from handling the money for school-lunch programs in the nonprofit private schools.

Senator AIKEN. There are 19 States, as I understand it, where the school boards handle the money for school lunches in private schools and 29 States where they do not.

Dr. DAWSON. I will be glad to furnish the list and to show that that is distributed among several items: Free textbooks, free bus rides, free lunches.

Senator AIKEN. It probably applies to transportation in more States than any other single item.

The Chair would like to ask a question at this point. Suppose that the use of public money was restricted to health services, medical inspections, and school nursing, and so forth. Would you still be opposed to it? In some schools, I believe that the health services are handled through one agency, and then perhaps the board of health; and then another through the State board of education-sometimes one or the other. But you would not have any objec ion to medical inspection in the private schools, would you?

Dr. DAWSON. I would have to say, in candor, that I would have to look into it carefully before expressing an opinion. But I will be happy to comply with your request to give a list of each State with the particular phase of aid extended.

(Subsequently Mr. Dawson submitted the list referred to as follows:)

Practice and usage in aid to sectarian schools and sectarianism in public schools as reported by State superintendents