Chapter I: Front Matter

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Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.

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THE GOSLINGS

BOOKS BY UPTON SINCLAIR
(Now in Print and Obtainable)

THE GOSLINGS: 1924
HELL: 1923
THE GOOSE-STEP: 1923
THEY CALL ME CARPENTER: 1922
THE BOOK OF LIFE: 1922
100%: 1920
THE BRASS CHECK: 1920
JIMMIE HIGGINS: 1919
THE PROFITS OF RELIGION: 1919
KING COAL: 1917
THE CRY FOR JUSTICE: 1915
DAMAGED GOODS: 1913
SYLVIA’S MARRIAGE: 1913
THE FASTING CURE: 1911
SAMUEL THE SEEKER: 1909
THE METROPOLIS: 1907
THE JUNGLE: 1906
MANASSAS: 1904
THE JOURNAL OF ARTHUR STIRLING: 1903
PRINCE HAGEN: 1902

The Goslings
A Study of the American Schools

BY
UPTON SINCLAIR

AUTHOR OF
“THE GOOSE-STEP,” “THE BRASS CHECK,” “THE PROFITS OF RELIGION,” ETC.

UPTON SINCLAIR
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA

COPYRIGHT, 1924
BY
UPTON SINCLAIR

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_All rights reserved._

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First edition, January, 1924, 5,000 copies, clothbound, 5,000 copies,
paperbound.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

INTRODUCTORY ix-x

I. Land of Orange-Groves and Jails 1
II. The Adventure of the University Club 8
III. In Which I Get Arrested 13
IV. The Empire of the Black Hand 19
V. The Schools of the “Times” 22
VI. The Teachers’ Soviets 26
VII. A Prayer for Freedom 32
VIII. The Price of Independence 36
IX. The Regime of Reciprocity 40
X. The Spy System 44
XI. Lies for Children 50
XII. The Schools of Mammon 54
XIII. The Tammany Tiger 59
XIV. God and Mammon 62
XV. Honest Graft 66
XVI. A Letter to Woodrow Wilson 72
XVII. An Arrangement of Little Bits 77
XVIII. The Luskers 81
XIX. To Henrietta Rodman 87
XX. Melodrama in Chicago 94
XXI. Continuous Performance 98
XXII. The Incorporate Tax-Dodging Creatures 102
XXIII. The Superintendent of Trombones 109
XXIV. The City of French Restaurants 113
XXV. The University Gang 119
XXVI. The Ward Leader 125
XXVII. The Romeo and Juliet Stunt 130
XXVIII. The Inventor of Five Sciences 135
XXIX. The Land of Lumber 140
XXX. The Anaconda’s Lair 146
XXXI. The Little Anacondas 151
XXXII. Colorado Culture 154
XXXIII. The Domain of King Coal 159
XXXIV. The Homestead of the Free 164
XXXV. Is a Teacher a Citizen? 167
XXXVI. Introducing Comrade Thompson 173
XXXVII. Millers and Militarism 179
XXXVIII. Newberry Pie 184
XXXIX. Beets and Celery 186
XL. Boston in Bondage 191
XLI. The Open Shop for Culture 195
XLII. Corrupt and Contented 203
XLIII. The Scenes of My Childhood 209
XLIV. The Brewer’s Daughter-in-Law 212
XLV. An Autocracy of Politicians 216
XLVI. The Calibre of Congressmen 221
XLVII. The Local Machines 224
XLVIII. The Steam Roller 228
XLIX. The Dispensers of Prominence 234
L. A Plot Against Democracy 240
LI. The Plot Fails 244
LII. Mormon Magic 249
LIII. The Funeral of Democracy 253
LIV. The Fruits of the Sowing 258
LV. Teachers to the Rear 263
LVI. Bread and Circuses 269
LVII. Schools for Strike-Breakers 275
LVIII. The National Spies’ Association 279
LIX. Babbitts and Bolsheviks 284
LX. The Schools of Socony 290
LXI. The Riot Department 296
LXII. The Blindfold School of Patriotism 301
LXIII. Professor Facing Both-Ways 307
LXIV. Poison Pictures 312
LXV. The Book Business 315
LXVI. Ten Per Cent Commissions 320
LXVII. The Superintendent-Makers 324
LXVIII. The Church Conspiracy 330
LXIX. Catholicism and the Schools 334
LXX. The Practical Church Administrator 341
LXXI. Faith and Modern Thought 344
LXXII. The Schools of Steel 349
LXXIII. The Schools of Oil 353
LXXIV. The Country Geese 357
LXXV. The Schools of Snobbery 362
LXXVI. A School Survey 369
LXXVII. The Educational Mills 377
LXXVIII. Descensus Averno 381
LXXIX. The Teacher’s Job 385
LXXX. Teachers’ Terror 389
LXXXI. The School Serfs 395
LXXXII. The Teachers’ Union 402
LXXXIII. The Teachers’ Magna Charta 406
LXXXIV. Workers’ Education 410
LXXXV. The Goose-step March 417
LXXXVI. The Goose-step Advance 423
LXXXVII. The Goose-step Double-quick 428
LXXXVIII. The Goose-step Review 432
LXXXIX. The Call to Action 440

INTRODUCTORY

Life has given you one of its precious treasures, a child; a body to nurture, a character to train, a mind with endless possibilities of growth, a soul with hidden stores of tenderness and beauty—all these are Nature’s gifts. Modern science has shown that within the child’s soul lies magically locked up all the past of our race; also, it is evident that within it lies all the future of our race. What our children are now being made is what America will be.

You send these little ones to school. Twenty-three millions of them troop off every week-day morning, with their shining faces newly washed, their clothing cleaned and mended. You bear them, you rear them, with infinite pains and devotion you prepare them, and feed them into the gigantic educational machine.

You do not know much about this machine. You have turned it over to others to run. Every year you pay to maintain it a billion dollars of wealth which you have produced by real and earnest toil. You take it for granted that this billion dollars is competently used; that those who run the machine are giving your twenty-three million children the best education that forty-three dollars and forty-seven cents per child will buy.

The purpose of this book is to show you how the “invisible government” of Big Business which controls the rest of America has taken over the charge of your children. In the course of a public debate with the writer, in the Civic Club in New York City, May, 1922, Dr. Tildsley, district superintendent of the public school system of that city, made the statement: “I do not know any school system in the United States which is run for the benefit of the children. They are all run for the benefit of the gang.” This statement, made upon high authority, is the thesis of “The Goslings.” Come with me and let me show you what is this “gang” which runs the school system of the United States; how they got their power, what use they make of it, and what this means to the bodies and minds of your twenty-three million little ones.

To assist the reader in finding his way through a big book, I give traveling directions:

Pages 1 to 22 take you behind the scenes of that “invisible government” which is now ruling America, including its schools. Pages 22 to 59 show in detail what this “invisible government” is doing to the schools of one large American city—Los Angeles. Pages 59 to 93 study the schools of New York, and 94 to 109 those of Chicago. Pages 109 to 224 deal with school conditions in a score of other large cities. I realize that this is a large number; but then, many people are interested in these cities. You will find both melodrama and humor in the stories; and if there is too much, you can skip!

Beginning at page 224 is a study of the state and national machines of the school world; and whatever else you miss, do not miss the National Education Association, and how it was stolen from the teachers of America—there is no drama on Broadway to equal that for thrills. From 275 to 329 you will find a score of powerful Big Business organizations which have assumed to take control of our schools. From 330 to 349 comes the Catholic Church in relation to the schools—this in addition to details given in a number of cities. From 349 to 417 you will find a general survey of the school situation from the point of view of both pupils and teachers. The concluding chapters discuss “The Goose-step” and its critics, and developments in the college world since its publication.

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THE GOSLINGS

_A Study of the American Schools_

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