The liberal press of the United States is writing with greater frequency about the necessity of purging the American schools of harmful influences and evil elements which undermine the American school system.

It is true that in many places in the United States the schools do not seem to be fulfilling their primary aim of spreading knowledge and education, but instead seem to be serving as hotbeds for communism or have become acquiescent tools of big business interests within a given locality. We have heard a lot about the communist propaganda in American schools and colleges, but we seldom, if ever, hear or read in the press about the pressure put upon our schools by big business. This can be explained by the fact that most of the American newspapers are in the hands of capitalists and newspaper trusts that are unwilling to expose the faults and deficiencies of our capitalist-controlled school system.

Not long ago, the problems facing the American schools were broadly discussed in Harper's Magazine in an article written by Dr. H. Bill. The author, after devoting two years of study to this problem, states in his article that schools in many cities and towns of this country are actually being run by the local merchants, bankers, and manufacturers. Dr. Bill ascertained that, as a result of the pressure of the local business bigwigs upon the local authorities, the school boards of many localities were headed by politicians rather than by qualified pedagogues. In one instance, a corporation attorney headed the school board of a certain town. In another town, the wife of the cement-factory owner was a school board supervisor. In other localities, merchants, cigar manufacturers, tobacco buyers, lumber merchants, grain speculators, contractors, and rich old ladies were found on the school boards. In one town, the school-board was headed by an engineer connected with a local coal company. This company supplied coal to all the schools of the district.

"Pedagogues" like these, Dr. Bill writes, carefull see to it that no mention is made, in the schools under their supervision, of the questions and problems which 3the local businessmen consider undesirable. For instance, in a mining section of our country the schools may not be allowed to discuss conditions in the mines. In the iron and steel production center of our country, the schools may be forbidden to discuss or to say anything about the private police hired by factory owners to keep their workers in submission. In towns with textile mills, the teachers are usually forewarned by their school boards not to criticize the factory owners or discuss any labor questions with their pupils. In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, known for its tobacco industry, teachers in the schools do not dare to criticize or to express their opinion on the conditions prevailing in the tobacco industry in that section of the country. If they break the rule, they seon feel the heavy hand of their school board, which is sold out to the tobacco lords. Any teacher challenging or disregarding the will of the masters who pull the strings behind the school boards is promptly relieved of his duties.

It is extremely difficult, and in some instances quite impossible, to fight against this evil predominance over our schools. Many local schools are the 4private property of big industrial corporations, which often own every street and every house in a given town. This condition is especially true in the coal-mining regions of Colorado and West Virginia, in some sections of Kentucky and Tennessee, in the coal-mining and steel-production centers of west Pennsylvania, and in the industrial sections of North and South Carolina.

In the industrial regions of the South, the factory owners usually call meetings of the school teachers at which the teachers receive instructions on how they shall teach the children.

We have been speaking here of grammer schools and of high schools, but we must also mention that similar conditions prevail in many colleges and higher institutions of learning. These schools do not belong to the municipalities, to the states, or to the Federal government, but are privately owned. They usually receive large endowments either from private individuals or from large corporations, and they are frequently limited in their activities by these donors.

These are the reasons why the free American press has at last begun to speak of the necessity of a purge in the American schools.