Brookwood Labor College

Brookwood Labor College was the first residential labor college in the United States. Founded in 1921 in Katonah, New York, it closed in 1937.

Formation, governance and mission

Between 1918 and 1921, a number of unions, thinkers and educators within the American labor movement founded a wide variety of adult education and training organizations. Adult education was considered the key to promoting class consciousness, and teaching the skills needed to challenge the power of employers. Among the many different types of organizations created were labor colleges—experimental institutions of higher education designed to meet the needs of the labor movement as well as the educational needs of its often uneducated adult members.

Brookwood was founded by a number of socialist and pacifist labor activists. William Mann Fincke, a liberal clergyman and son of a coal mine owner, donated his family's 53 acre estate (which included a large colonial farmhouse), to help found Brookwood. Evelyn Preston, a wealthy philanthropist and president of the League of Women Shoppers, gave the college $50,000 to build a women's dormitory.

Josephine and Martin Toscan Bennett of Hartford, Connecticut also donated their Katonah, New York property for the school. Josephine, an active suffragist who founded the Hartford Equal Franchise League, had also proven herself to be a labor activist, supporting strikes and union organizing efforts in her hometown. For a period she was Brookwood's administrator and treasurer. Her daughters Tam and Kate also attended the school. "We teach the truth," Josephine said of Brookwood, "and we aim to train workers in their own movements." Brookwood was governed by a Board of Directors, a majority of whom were officials of American Federation of Labor (AFL) unions. Faculty, student and alumni representatives comprised the rest of the board. Unions providing scholarships for students were eligible for seats on the board.

Initially, Brookwood sought financing from national, state and local labor unions. However, labor unions proved to be an inadequate sources of funds, so Brookwood turned to 'angels' (wealthy, progressive individuals committed to supporting labor education) and progressive foundations. Among Brookwood's many donors at this time included Dorothy Elmhirst and the American Fund for Public Service (better known as the Garland Fund).

By 1927, 13 international unions of the AFL had provided Brookwood with financial support and another four had commended the school publicly for its efforts. The AFL, however, declined to support Brookwood on the grounds that other schools would also ask for the AFL's official imprimatur. AFL president William Green told the Brookwood leadership that the umbrella group preferred to work through the Workers' Education Bureau.

Brookwood's founding chairman and the head of the faculty association was the Christian pacifist A.J. Muste. Other influential leaders included James Maurer, president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor; John Brophy, president of United Mine Workers of America District 2; Rose Schneiderman, president of the Amalgamated Textile Workers; and J.B.S. Hardman, education director of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers.

Brookwood's curriculum emphasized the theory and practice of labor militancy. The founding convention of the labor collegte explicitly called for the 'emancipation of the working class' and the replacement of capitalism with socialism. But the Brookwood leadership and faculty rarely emphasized such radical principals and made a determined effort to avoid being co-opted by any particular political party (even though a majority of its members belonged to the Farmer-Labor Party).

1928 crisis

In 1928, the AFL leadership—led by AFL president Green, AFL vice president Matthew Woll and Metal Trades Department president John P. Frey—attacked Brookwood. The president of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America had complained to Green about the 'radical' dogmas being espoused at Brookwood. When several Brookwood students wrote to Green asking for his support for a May Day celebration, Green decided that Brookwood had to be reigned in.

Green appointed Woll, then chairman of the executive committee of the Workers' Education Bureau, to investigate the school. Woll's report, presented a month later to the AFL executive council, was made in secret. Green then publicly denounced Brookwood as 'communistic, atheistic and anti-A. F. of L.' (Phelan)

Brookwood's primary offense had not been that it espoused radical or even Communist doctrines nor that its faculty belonged to subversive groups. Rather, Brookwood's militant teachings were providing support to a growing nucleus of activists within the AFL who opposed the labor federation's increasingly conservative tendencies. Worse, from Green's point of view, Brookwood openly advocated employer opposition at a time when the AFL was engaged in a major campaign to market labor unions to employers as cooperative.

Brookwood faculty and leaders equivocated in the face of the attack. More radical members of the faculty advocated an open break with the conservative AFL. Conservative educators at the school felt that Brookwood should present itself as neutral teachers leaving students to draw their own conclusions. A compromise response emerged which demanded that the AFL respect the academic freedom of the faculty and pluralism and diversity of opinion within the labor movement.

But to Green, the issue was not about academic freedom or diversity of opinion. It was the right of the AFL to stop supporting an institution which was fomenting revolution in its ranks. As Green later told the 'New York Times' in 1929: The AFL would not give money to 'any institution that ridicules our policy and undermines the work of our leaders.' (Phelan)

In August 1928, the AFL executive council voted to request that its members disaffiliate from Brookwood, and most did so.

Final years and demise

Brookwood survived the 1928 crisis largely due to the generosity of its individual benefactors and through downsizing.

However, Brookwood's chairman, Muste, became disenchanted with the labor movement and socialism as the Great Depression took its toll on the American worker. He adopted Marxism and advocated as a philosophy, which caused a major split among the faculty. A majority of the faculty voted to reject revolutionary Marxism as a doctrine, and Muste departed in 1933.

The Great Depression took its toll on Brookwood's finances. Dwindling financial support and lower enrollment forced the college to close in 1937.

Brookwood Labor College, however, left a significant legacy in the American labor movement. It had survived longer than most labor colleges and working class adult education training organizations. More importantly, Brookwood served as the primary training ground for the key organizers and intellectuals who later formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The history of the American labor movement would have been radically different had Brookwood never existed.

References

*Bloom, Jonathan D. 'Brookwood Labor College.' In "Contributions in Economics and Economic History, #31: The Re-Education of the American Working Class." Steven H. London, editor. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990. ISBN 0-313-26785-5
*"Encyclopedia of American Social Movements." Immanuel Ness, editor. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2004. ISBN 0-7656-8045-9
*Howlett, Charles F. "Brookwood Labor College and the Struggle for Peace and Social Justice in America." Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1993. ISBN 0-7734-9163-5
*Phelan, Craig. "William Green: Biography of a Labor Leader." Albany: State University Press of New York, 1989. ISBN 0-88706-871-5
*Hartford Courant, June 15, 1922 and August 14, 1922