Chapter I: Front Matter

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THE GOOSE-STEP

THE
GOOSE-STEP

A Study of American Education

BY
UPTON SINCLAIR

AUTHOR OF
“THE BRASS CHECK,” “THE PROFITS OF RELIGION,”
“THE JUNGLE,” ETC.

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA

WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS
_THE ECONOMY BOOK SHOP_
33 SOUTH CLARK ST., CHICAGO, ILL.

COPYRIGHT, 1922. 1923
BY
UPTON SINCLAIR

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_All rights reserved_.

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First edition, February, 1923, 10,000 copies, clothbound.
Second edition, February, 1923, 8,000 copies, paperbound.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTORY ix-x

I. The Little Gosling 1

II. The College Goose 4

III. The University Goose 9

IV. The Goose-steppers 15

V. Interlocking Directorates 18

VI. The University of the House of Morgan 23

VII. The Interlocking President 29

VIII. The Scholar in Politics 34

IX. Nicholas Miraculous 40

X. The Lightning-change Artist 44

XI. The Twilight Zone 49

XII. The Academic Department Store 54

XIII. The Empire of Dullness 58

XIV. The University of Lee-Higginson 62

XV. The Harvard Tradition 67

XVI. Free Speech But— 72

XVII. Interference 77

XVIII. The Laski Lampoon 82

XIX. Raking the Dust-heaps 88

XX. The University of U. G. I. 91

XXI. Stealing a Trust Fund 97

XXII. Professor Billy Sunday 102

XXIII. The Triumph of Death 107

XXIV. The Tiger’s Lair 111

XXV. Peacocks and Slums 115

XXVI. The Bull-dog’s Den 121

XXVII. The University of the Black Hand 126

XXVIII. The Fortress of Medievalism 132

XXIX. The Dean of Imperialism 137

XXX. The Mob of Little Haters 141

XXXI. The Drill Sergeant on the Campus 145

XXXII. The Story of Stanford 152

XXXIII. The Wind of Freedom 157

XXXIV. The Stanford Skeleton 162

XXXV. The University of the Lumber Trust 168

XXXVI. The University of the Chimes 174

XXXVII. The Universities of the Anaconda 179

XXXVIII. The University of the Latter-Day Saints 184

XXXIX. The Mining Camp University 188

XL. The Colleges of the Smelter Trust 192

XLI. A Land Grant College 197

XLII. An Agricultural Melodrama 203

XLIII. The University of Wheat 206

XLIV. The University of the Ore Trust 209

XLV. The Academic Wink 216

XLVI. Introducing a University President 222

XLVII. Introducing a Board of Regents 227

XLVIII. The Price of Liberty 230

XLIX. The People and Their University 235

L. Education F. O. B. Chicago 240

LI. The University of Standard Oil 243

LII. Little Halls for Radicals 249

LIII. The University of Judge Gary 254

LIV. The University of the Grand Duchess 258

LV. The University of Automobiles 263

LVI. The University of the Steel Trust 271

LVII. The University of Heaven 277

LVIII. The Harpooner of Whales 282

LIX. An Academic Tragedy 287

LX. The Geography Line 291

LXI. A Leap into the Limelight 295

LXII. The Process of Fordization 302

LXIII. Intellectual Dry-rot 306

LXIV. The University of Jabbergrab 313

LXV. The Growth of Jabbergrab 319

LXVI. Jabbergrab in Journalism 323

LXVII. The City Colleges 329

LXVIII. The Large Mushrooms 334

LXIX. The Little Toadstools 339

LXX. God and Mammon 345

LXXI. The Orange-outang Hunters 351

LXXII. The Academic Pogrom 356

LXXIII. The Semi-Simian Mob 363

LXXIV. The Rah-rah Boys 370

LXXV. The Social Traitors 377

LXXVI. Prexy 382

LXXVII. Damn the Faculty 390

LXXVIII. Small Souls 395

LXXIX. The World of “Hush” 399

LXXX. The Foundations of Fraud 407

LXXXI. The Bolshevik Hunters 412

LXXXII. The Helen Ghouls 418

LXXXIII. The Shepard’s Crook 424

LXXXIV. Cities of Refuge 428

LXXXV. The Academic Rabbits 436

LXXXVI. Workers’ Education 440

LXXXVII. The Spider and the Fly 445

LXXXVIII. The Workers’ Colleges 450

LXXXIX. The Professors’ Union 454

XC. The Professors’ Strike 459

XCI. Educating the Educators 464

XCII. The League of Youth 470

XCIII. The Open Forum 473

INTRODUCTORY

Six hundred thousand young people are attending colleges and universities in America. They are the pick of our coming generation; they are the future of our country. If they are wisely and soundly taught, America will be great and happy; if they are misguided and mistaught, no power can save us.

What is the so-called “higher education” of these United States? You have taken it, for the most part, on faith. It is something which has come to be; it is big and impressive, and you are impressed. Every year you pay a hundred million dollars of public funds to help maintain it, and half that amount in tuition fees for your sons and daughters. You take it for granted that this money is honestly and wisely used; that the students are getting the best, the “highest” education the money can buy.

Suppose I were to tell you that this educational machine has been stolen? That a bandit crew have got hold of it and have set it to work, not for your benefit, nor the benefit of your sons and daughters, but for ends very far from these? That our six hundred thousand young people are being taught, deliberately and of set purpose, not wisdom but folly, not justice but greed, not freedom but slavery, not love but hate?

For the past year I have been studying American Education. I have read on the subject—books, pamphlets, reports, speeches, letters, newspaper and magazine articles—not less than five or six million words. I have traveled over America from coast to coast and back again, for the sole purpose of talking with educators and those interested in education. I have stopped in twenty-five American cities, and have questioned not less than a thousand people—school teachers and principals, superintendents and board members, pupils and parents, college professors and students and alumni, presidents and chancellors and deans and regents and trustees and governors and curators and fellows and overseers and founders and donors and whatever else they call themselves. This mass of information I have turned over and over in my mind, sorting it, organizing it—until now, I really know something about American Education.

I do not intend in this book to expound my ideas on the subject; to argue with you as to what education might be, or ought to be; to persuade you to any dogma or point of view. I intend merely to put before you the facts; to say, this is what American Education now is. This is what is going on in the college and university world. This is what is being done to your sons and daughters; and what the sons and daughters think about it; and what the instructors think about it. Here is the situation: make up your own mind, whether it suits you, or whether you want it changed.

THE GOOSE-STEP

_A Study of American Education_