by Corey Lynn, Corey’s Digs:
This is the transcript of the 1920 newspaper clipping. The actual clip is at the end.
August 28, 1920
“Dream” of Montclair Man
Frederick T. Gate’s Vision Cited in Report Advocating Elimination of Rockefeller Boards
The repeal of the State laws granting charters to the Rockefeller Foundation and the General Education Board is included in the program of educational reform outlined by the Committee on Education of the New York State Federation of Labor. This report was read Tuesday at the Federation convention in Binghamton. The committee, of which Peter J. Brady is chairman, says:
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“We urge trade unionists and working people in general to be on the alert and extremely careful of the Rockefellers and other selfish money interests which seek to secure control of the education system and prevent their interference in the preparation of courses of study or the selection of members of educational bodies.
Frederick T. Gates, when president of the Rockefeller General Education Board, in their publication, known as ‘Occasional Papers, No. 1,’ on page 6 says:
‘In our dreams we have limitless resources and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our moulding hand. The present education conventions made from our minds and unhampered by tradition we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural folk.
We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, editors, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians, nor shall we cherish even the humbler ambition to raise up from among them lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we now have ample supply.
The task which we set before ourselves is a very simple as well as a very beautiful one, to train these people as we find them to a perfectly ideal life just where they are.‘”
“On page 10:
‘So we will organize our children into a little community and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way, in the homes, in the shop and on the farm.’”
Among the other recommendations of the committee are that free dental, medical, optical, and surgical treatment be provided for all school children; that the minimum salary for school teachers be $2,000 a year; that not more than twenty-five children be allotted to any one class and that school lunches be supplied at nominal cost.
The committee also recommends that representatives of labor be appointed to the State Board of Regents; that the federation encourage teachers to organize and affiliate with it; that teachers be paid for time spent every three years in pursuing professional improvement work and that all business and trade schools be compelled to take out licenses from the State Board of Regents.
Elaborate graduation exercises and lavish overdressing of school children in classrooms are condemned by the report.
Frederick Taylor Gates was John D. Rockefeller Sr.’s main business and philanthropic advisor from 1891 to 1923. Rockefeller regarded him as the greatest businessman he ever encountered.
It goes without saying, this lifelong goal of the Rockefellers and many others documented in Corey’s Digs reports, has held steadfast for well over 100 years. Perhaps this old newspaper clipping from 1920, along with the reports below, will bring a fuller awareness to those who continue their “perfect docility to” their “moulding hand.”
