Education: For Adults

At Katonah, N. Y., Labor went to college. “About 50” was the enrolment, this year, of Brookwood, “the only resident trade union college” in the U. S. Many applicants had to be turned away for lack of facilities. One third of those admitted were women. A dozen industries and international unions were represented; anthracite and bituminous coal miners from Illinois and Pennsylvania had increased in number since last year; foreign workers were present from England, Denmark, Belgium, Japan; were expected from Mexico after the fall meeting of the Mexican Federation of Labor.

What little endowment Brookwood enjoys is Labor money. The college was opened in 1920, as an experiment in adult education, under the supervision of two committees—one composed of the heads of state labor groups (chiefly in the garmentworkers’ unions), which raised the money necessary and determined upon a curriculum appropriate to the labor movement; the other, chiefly advisory, composed of college professors from Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania and Amherst, which planned the actual instruction methods.

The course covers two eight-month terms. The curriculum includes History of Civilization, Economics, Statistics, English Literature, Grammar (for the needy), Debating, Labor Problems, Journalism.