History

Whether because he wished to make sure that his friends among the contractors should continue to receive school-building contracts, or because he wished to provide the imbecile proportion of Chicago's population with a practical demonstration of his patriotic campaign cries, Mayor William Hale Thompson of Chicago last April arranged to have his school board oust William McAndrew, Superintendent of Schools, from office--after the Superintendent's term had expired. The charge was insubordination; the evidence in the form of certain history books in use at the public schools and alleged to contain "pro-British" propaganda. With William McAndrew out of office it became the business of the new Superintendent, William J. Bogan, to substitute other history books for the "pro-British" ones. This maneuvre was last week effected.

At a meeting of the School Board, J. Lewis Coath, its former president and the arch-enemy of William McAndrew, unexpectedly argued against the new textbooks. Soon voted down, he later confessed that his resistance had been due to a desire to "hang up a record." Out of Chicago schools were ruled: Modern History, by Hayes and Moon; Founders of Freedom in America, by Corson and Cornish; History of the American People, by Mc-Laughlin; Story of Our Country, by West & West; School History of the United States, by Hart; and An American History, by Muzzey. One other chronicle which had been criticized as an influence against childish patriotism was Gordy's History of the United States; from this was deleted a picture called "The Resplendent Red Coats"; to it was added a portrait of George Washington. New history books, not "pro-British" ones, were named and the loud Mayor's most noteworthy service to Chicago's education was complete.

John Jerome Gorman, onetime (1921-23 and 1925-27) Congressman, and chief investigator of history books, wrote a letter to Mayor Thompson about it. "It is a notable victory in the face of tremendous odds," he said. "To you belongs the credit. It. may be that in certain quarters you will not be accorded your credit for this victory . . . but when the permanent imperishable record is written for all time, history will proclaim, your achievements."