BOOK REVIEW
By MARGARET SCHMID

Vivid account of ties between education and politics

Margaret A. Haley. Battleground: The
Autobiography of Margaret A. Haley.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982.
Edited by Robert L. Reid. 330 pp. $22.95.

POWERFUL and timely, Battleground is important reading for anyone interested in labor history in general and in the history of teachers' unions in particular. Battleground is the autobiography of Margaret A. Haley, 1861-1939, a grade school teacher who left her classroom to work as founder and leader of the Chicago Teachers' Federation. In that capacity she was a major figure in such key controversies as those dealing with tax reform, teachers' benefits, political reform and the connections of teachers' organizations with organized labor.

A more vivid statement of the inextricable ties between education and politics could scarcely be found. A more convincing documentation of the difference which persistence, courage and organization can make could scarcely be written.

Battleground contains a wealth of information on Chicago and Springfield politics, on taxes (and who does and doesn't pay them), and on the role of the media in shaping events.

It details, in Haley's own concise narrative, such consequential events as how the Chicago Teachers' Federation joined organized labor:

All the tendencies of the time, as well as our own experience, had been swinging us toward active participation in the great and growing labor movement of the world. It was not easy, however, to convince all of our own members that this was our next step. One of the few compensations of teaching in that time seemed to be a teacher's consciousness of a certain social superiority over her non-teaching neighbors. Some of the teachers thought they would lose this if they should join any organization like the Federation of Labor. . . . we finally came into a general meeting of our own Federation for consideration of the subject. Jane Addams came to that meeting. . . and electrified our members by telling them that they were already a union. . . .

and how Haley discovered the nature and extent of corporate influence in the political process:

. . . and so I was authorized by the Federation to work against the passage of these pension bills. David Shanahan was. . . the authorized leader of the Republicans in the house of representatives. I had a number of letters from teachers in his district, asking him to use his influence against the passage of the bills. Shanahan read the letters in deep disturbance, then he said, "When you teachers stayed in your schoolrooms, we men took care of you; but when you go out of your schoolrooms, as you have done, and attack these great, powerful corporations, you must expect that they will hit back."

"Then am I to understand, Mr. Shanahan, that this bill in the Legislature to destroy the teachers' pension fund is the corporation comeback at the teachers for making them pay their legal taxes?"

Shanahan said, "Yes," turned on his heel, walked back to his seal in the house, and sat down.

Battleground contains an excellent editor's introduction, which supplements Haley's own words in several respects. Reid provides a welcome perspective on Haley as a person in the eyes of her contemporaries, a dimension omitted from her story. He offers organizational information which provides a context for Haley's Chicago Teachers' Federation. He points out important additional aspects of her work — such as her key role in the campaign for woman's suffrage — which she chose to omit from Battleground.

Beyond the substantial historical interest which Battleground holds for students of politics, of Progressive era reform, of public education, of labor history and of the role of women in American history, however, Haley's account has direct contemporary relevance.

Now, as at the turn of the century, we are engaged in a social debate as to whether we wish to levy sufficient taxes to fund the provision of quality education at public expense. We are debating just what taxes should be levied and who should pay them. We are debating the role of corporate privilege and influence in government. We are debating the proper role of government itself in the provision of public services and the regulation of public life.

Now, as then, it is the resources of organizational entities which set the terms of the debate and which will determine the outcome. Margaret Haley recognized this fact and acted to shape reality through organizational work. Her story illuminates the past and is a chronicle of what can be achieved. It is a challenge to those who care about the future.□

Margaret Schmid is president of the University Professionals of Illinois, the American Federation of Teachers local representing faculty at eight Illinois public universities. Schmid, who holds a Ph.D. in sociology, is on leave from her position as associate professor of sociology at Northeastern Illinois University.

January 1983 | Illinois Issues | 32