RAE WAHL ROHFELD
Newton D. Baker and the Adult
Education Movement
In 1921, Newton D. Baker returned from
his cabinet position to
practice law in Cleveland, Ohio, his
adopted hometown. He had
completed the mammoth job of organizing
the nation to fight a war
and, then, of dismantling the bulk of
the war machine when the
fighting was over. Before going to
Washington as Woodrow Wilson's
Secretary of War, Baker had been a
progressive Cleveland politician,
serving as city solicitor during Tom
Johnson's administration and
then as mayor himself. Coming back to
Cleveland, he savored his re-
turn to private life where he could
reenter his profession and work for
his favorite causes. Guided by his
experience in politics and govern-
ment, he decided to make adult
education his major civic commit-
ment. Through his knowledge, his
stature, and his influence, he was
able to advance the development of
adult education as few other in-
dividuals could.
The more Baker reflected on his
governmental roles, the more the
indispensability of education in a
democracy became a guiding be-
lief. From his Cleveland government
experience he reminisced about
Tom Johnson's tent meetings which took
place in every part of the
city, educating people about the issues
of the day on which they
would have to make decisions. From his
war experience Baker laud-
ed a variety of camp educational and
recreation programs, especially
the amazing American Expeditionary Force
University. The latter be-
came a symbol to him of the general
population's thirst for education.
During his years as a citizen-educator,
Baker frequently referred to
the AEF University as evidence of the
desire of adults for further ed-
ucation. In a sense, this university
provided him his first opportunity
to lend his power and influence to the
development of an adult ed-
Rae Rohfeld holds a Ph.D. in American
History from Case Western Reserve Univer-
sity and is currently Metropolitan
Campus Director for Continuing Education at Cuya-
hoga Community College in Cleveland,
Ohio. This article was made possible in part by
a grant from the Travel to Collections
Program of the National Endowment for the Hu-
manities. Gracious assistance from the
staffs of the Library of Congress Manuscript Di-
vision and of the Case Western Reserve
University Archives is acknowledged.
120 OHIO HISTORY
ucation institution. The Army
established the AEF University at
Beaune, France, in early 1919 to begin
the resumption of an interrupt-
ed education for some of the two million
soldiers who were in Europe
waiting for transport home. Its short
life lasted for three months-the
spring term of 1919. At its high point,
the AEF University had thir-
teen colleges and almost ten thousand
soldier-students. Instructors
came from the Army as well as from the
homefront; many had taught
in the nation's major universities and
colleges during peacetime.1 Aft-
er examining the University's physical
plan and courses of study,
Baker wrote the superintendent:
I find myself even further amazed than I
was when I visited the University.
The completeness of the work is, of
course, apparent.... The big idea,
however, is the university itself and I
find my mind dwelling with delighted
interest on what seems to me its
permanent influence and value.2
Indeed, part of that "permanent
influence" seemed evident to Baker
some ten years later when, after
describing the AEF University, he
said, "Since that time the demand
for education in the United States
has been so great that all the resources
of the nation can scarcely suf-
fice to meet it."3
Many of Baker's later efforts to expand
adult education succeeded
because of help he received through two
associates from his Wash-
ington years, Frederick P. Keppel and
Raymond B. Fosdick, who re-
mained friends and colleagues throughout
his life. Fosdick was a
New York attorney, active in Democratic
politics, who had repre-
sented the Secretary of War on the
Mexican border where he im-
proved moral and health conditions at
the camps established during
General Pershing's expedition there.
Baker then appointed Fosdick
Chairman of the Commission on Training
Camp Activities during
World War I. In that role Fosdick's
successful efforts to involve the
YMCA, the Red Cross, the American
Library Association, and oth-
er organizations in providing social,
recreational, and educational op-
portunities led Baker to reflect that,
"Your contribution to America's
part in it all (the war) deserves to be
ranked next after that of Wilson
and Pershing...."4
1. John Erskine, Memory of Certain
Persons (Philadelphia, 1947), Chapter 32,
"Beune," 311-37.
2. Baker to Col. Ira L. Reeves, 27 April
1919, American Expeditionary Force Univer-
sity Papers, Box 352, National Archives,
Washington, D.C.
3. Newton D. Baker, "As A Bystander
Sees It: Some Aspects of Adult Education,"
Journal of Adult Education, 1 (October, 1929), 366.
4. Baker to Raymond B. Fosdick, 20
December 1924, Newton D. Baker Papers, Con-
Newton D. Baker 121
Fosdick returned to New York to practice
law, and in 1921 became
a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation
and the General Education
Board. In that role he was able to
provide consultation concerning
funding and other elements relating to
Baker's civic concerns.
Also playing an influential role was
Frederick Keppel, who had
served as Baker's Assistant Secretary of
War. In 1923, Keppel became
Executive Director of the Carnegie
Corporation, and he placed adult
education prominently on the
Corporation's agenda. Cleveland Col-
lege and Cleveland's Adult Education
Association, through Baker's
efforts, were for years to benefit
significantly from Carnegie Corpora-
tion grants.
Baker's long-standing interest in adult
education developed into a
heavy personal involvement by 1924. That
year saw a change in his
priorities from fighting for United
States entry into the League of
Nations to building new educational
institutions. The Democratic
party's failure to adopt a strong,
pro-League platform plank and the
subsequent Republican victory finally
convinced him that the coun-
try was unwilling to commit itself to
the League. Through education,
Americans might develop an interest and
belief in participation in
such an international body.
In turning his energies to adult
education, Baker joined a move-
ment that was expanding during the
mid-twenties. Many of the ex-
isting institutions and programs of
adult education had been estab-
lished in earlier waves of interest.
Existing as foundations for the
future development of adult higher
education were the Chautauqua
Literary and Scientific Circle and the
Chautauqua summer schools
established during the 1870s and 1880s,
and university extension
programs, particularly those inaugurated
at the University of Wiscon-
sin in 1891 and at the University of
Chicago in 1892. The move of pop-
ulation to the cities, which resulted in
an urban majority in the Unit-
ed States by 1920, stimulated a spurt
in the growth of extension
programs and evening colleges during the
twenties.5 For example,
City College of New York opened evening
courses in 1909 with 201
students; by 1924 it had 8,000 evening
students. Buffalo opened eve-
ning classes in 1923 with 150 more
students than anticipated.6 During
the decade, local adult education
coordinating councils also began
tainer 99, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.
5. Malcolm S. Knowles, The Adult
Education Movement in the United States (New
York, 1962) 35-38, 46-50. 83-90.
6. George Zook, Chairman of Survey
Commission, Survey of Higher Education in
Cleveland (Cleveland, The Cleveland Foundation, 1925), 432-36.
122 OHIO HISTORY
to develop, and Cleveland's Adult
Education Association is often
thought to have been the first of
these. Further, when the Carnegie
Corporation added adult education to
its list of activities in 1923, it
sponsored a series of regional meetings
which led to the formation of
the American Association for Adult
Education in 1926. The Carnegie
Corporation channeled many grants
through this organization during
the next 15 years.7
As Baker joined this wave of expansion,
his activities on behalf of
adult education ranged from policy
formulation and fund-raising, typ-
ical of a board member, to direct
involvement in teaching. A review
of his activities reveals five roles he
played in advancing the cause of
adult education: organizational
development, promotion, finance,
program development, annd instruction.
The first three were certain-
ly responsibilities of the leadership
positions he held; the last two re-
sulted from his personal commitments,
concerns, and causes.
Baker's opportunity to build a major
new adult education institu-
tion came a few years after his return
to Cleveland. The Board of
Trustees of Western Reserve University
counted Baker a member
from 1916, but he was not able to
attend meetings regularly until he
returned to Cleveland in 1921. In 1924,
officials of Western Reserve
University and neighboring Case School
of Applied Science asked
the Cleveland Foundation to study the
area's needs for higher ed-
ucation, the extent to which the two
schools were meeting those
needs, the extent of necessary
supplements, and the nature of a per-
manent, cooperative organization which
could provide expanded
educational opportunities. The
Foundation had been conducting a
series of community-wide surveys to
prepare for spending income
from the "great accumulations of
funds" it was directed to adminis-
ter. It agreed to carry out the higher
education survey and obtained
from the U.S. Commissioner of Education
the services of George
Zook who served as the local Commission
Chairman. The results of
the survey indicated that Cleveland, a
major business and industrial
center, was behind comparable cities,
such as Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh, in the educational
opportunities available to its people.8
The report offered a number of
recommendations, including the es-
tablishment of a collegiate-level
evening program. Discussions and ne-
gotiations occurred among several
educational institutions, and Bak-
er, as President of the Western Reserve
University Trustees, played a
7. Knowles, 94-95, 177.
8. Zook, Introduction, 44.
Newton D. Baker 123 |
|
significant leadership role in the decision making. He guided the cre- ation of the evening college through complicated negotiations among three institutions-Western Reserve University, Case, and the YMCA, the last of which eventually remained unaffiliated. The out- come was the incorporation, on July 29, 1925, of Cleveland College, in affiliation with Western Reserve University and Case School of Ap- plied Science.9 Situated downtown, several miles away from its two parent institutions, Cleveland College offered late afternoon and eve- ning classes to working adults and morning classes to recent high school graduates who either could not afford to attend residential colleges or did not quite meet their admissions requirements. Baker served on this Board of Trustees until his death, was its president for many of those years, and made the College his major priority.10
9. Corporate Records and Proceedings of Cleveland College, 29 July 1925, 5, Case Western Reserve University Archives, Cleveland, Ohio. (Hereafter cited as Corporate Records.) 10. Cleveland College reached its zenith with the heavy enrollments of veterans af- ter World War II. In 1953, Western Reserve University officials decided to move the College to the main University campus, and in 1973 the College's existence ended when it was merged with two other undergraduate colleges into Western Reserve |
124 OHIO HISTORY
While Cleveland College was in the
process of birth, Cleve-
land's adult educators from schools,
voluntary agencies, libraries,
churches and other groups had been
meeting to share ideas and re-
sources. In 1925, they formed the
Cleveland Forum Council which,
the following year, became the
Education Extension Council; by
1927 the Adult Education Association
was formed as the Council's
successor. Baker served as president of
this association in 1928 and
1929 and took an active role in its
growth and activities. National or-
ganizers also looked to him, and when a
group seeking a national or-
ganization met in Cleveland in 1925,
Baker was an active participant.
The conference created a framework for
the American Association of
Adult Education, which was officially
founded the following year in
Chicago. 11
Baker's active role in Cleveland's
adult education institutions and
his national contacts led him to
national and international recognition
in the adult education movement. In the
spring of 1929, Keppel wrote
Baker, "There's great excitement
in these parts about the possibility
of getting you to go to the World
Conference on Adult Education in
Cambridge next August." Baker did
indeed attend the conference
and gave an address, published later in
the Journal of Adult Educa-
tion under the title, "As a Bystander Sees It: Some
Aspects of Adult
Education." He spoke about the importance
of adult education to
civilization and of the demand for
education coming from the people,
citing again the experience with
American soldiers in Europe, and
the creation of the American
Expeditionary Force University. Morse
Cartwright, Director of the American
Association for Adult Educa-
tion, wrote Baker after the conference:
I can't begin to tell you how much
pleasure you gave us all by your atten-
dance of the Cambridge conference. To
me, your address was the high point
of the conference and in itself
justified the presence of the American official
delegation.12
The following spring the members of the
AAAE elected Baker presi-
College of Case Western Reserve
University. See C. H. Cramer, Case Western Reserve:
A History of the University,
1926-1976 (Boston, 1976), 129-34.
11. Letters, minutes, and reports
pertaining to organizational efforts on behalf of
adult education are located in the Baker
Papers, Containers 17, 60, and 91. The
Cleveland Adult Education Associations'
"Six Year Report," written in 1931, reviews
the changes in the name of the
organization (Container 60). It refers to an "Open Forum
Speakers Bureau" which is
apparently the same group that is labeled the "Cleveland
Forum Council" in a report prepared
in 1926 (Container 91).
12. Keppel to Baker, 4 April 1929, Baker
Papers, Container 138. Baker, "A Bystander
Sees It," 366. Cartwright to Baker,
30 September 1929, Baker Papers, Container 20.
Newton D. Baker 125
dent for 1930-1931. Professional
educators saw Baker's name and
prestige alone as major assets.
Cartwright assured him:
The duties of the position will not be
onerous, but your sponsorship of the
adult education movement in accepting
this position, we believe, will be ef-
fective and worthwhile.
Baker apparently could have served
another term, but Cartwright re-
ported that he "refused a proffer
of re-election . . . because of his ac-
ceptance of the office of Trustee of the
Carnegie Corporation of New
York where, he said, he could be of even
greater service to adult ed-
ucation."13
Funding adult education was always a
major concern, and Baker
used his considerable influence in fund
raising for several adult edu-
cation efforts, but particularly for
Cleveland College. His initial task
was to help raise the money necessary to
open the College. Contacts
with other evening colleges had
convinced Cleveland leaders that
the College would be self-supporting in
three to six years (an incor-
rect forecast, as it turned out). Until
self-sufficiency occurred, the or-
ganizers needed guarantors to cover
costs which student fees would
not meet. They set a goal of obtaining
one hundred people to guaran-
tee up to $500 each for three years.
Many of the individuals ap-
proached were friends and colleagues of
Baker. Baker wrote a letter
requesting guarantees from them which
accompanied a statement
prepared by the acting dean concerning
the plans and purposes of
the College. The College obtained
seventy-two guarantors for the
first year, but in 1927 the trustees
decided to try to reach a total of
100 to 150. Baker chaired the Trustees'
Committee on Guarantors and
joined the other trustees in writing to
people on the list whom he
knew well.14
In the meantime, Baker also sought a
major gift from Ellen B.
Scripps, for whose family he provided
legal services. Miss Scripps'
main interest was Scripps College in
California, but she provided an
early donation of $25,000 in securities;
this was the amount required
by the State of Ohio to start a
degree-granting institution and made
the initial organization of the College
possible.15
If fund raising was demanding in the
twenties, it was even more
pressing after the financial crash in
1929. Enrollments fell more than
13. Cartwright to Baker, 19 May 1930,
Baker Papers, Container 20. "Newton Diehl
Baker" (obituary), Journal of
Adult Education, 10 (January, 1938), 108-09.
14. Corporate Records, 12 April
1927, 55; 13 April 1928, 63.
15. Corporate Records, 30 November 1925, 32.
126 OHIO HISTORY
50 percent between fall, 1929, and fall,
1930. Because Cleveland Col-
lege was a college of Western Reserve
University, the University had
helped to underwrite some of the
expenses; but the University was
also hard-hit by the depression, and
both institutions were seeking
funds. In 1932, Baker led a major effort
to save Cleveland College fi-
nancially because, as he wrote to one
associate, "Cleveland College is
my baby." To another he wrote,
"I am a trustee of Cleveland College
and, in a certain sense, the one person
responsible for its organization
and maintenance."16 Many
other activities were set aside to focus on
keeping Cleveland College afloat.
The Carnegie Corporation promised a
grant for $50,000 if the Col-
lege could raise the remainder of the
funds to cover its deficit of
$180,000. The Board hired a public
relations firm to help, and by
June 1932 it had raised almost
$146,000.17 The following winter more
turmoil occurred when the Guardian Trust
Bank failed with $32,000
of Cleveland College money in it.
Fortunately, Mrs. Blossom, one of
the benefactors, had not yet paid the
second half of her annual con-
tribution, and she was able to obtain
$5,000 which paid 40 percent of
the March salaries; a
"life-saver," Baker called it.18
Frequently, Baker would urge that the
College move ahead with
some plan for which funds were
uncertain, stating that he would
guarantee the amount. Often he found the
money among donors or
foundations, but a College summary shows
that his own giving over
ten years was $22,115, with the largest
amounts provided in 1931-1932
and 1933-1934. In one case, he raised
money to renovate the auditori-
um so that the foreign policy lecturer
could teach his students in a
proper environment. In another case, he
offered to pay $2,500 toward
the College's rent so that an
anticipated surplus in 1937 could go to-
ward improving faculty salaries.19
Baker might well have limited himself to
the organizational, pro-
motional, and financial issues of
Cleveland adult education agencies
and kept busy enough. However, he had a
strong interest in the pro-
16. Baker to Robert M. Lester, 4
December 1931, Baker Papers, Container 68. Baker
to Robert Scripps, 5 June 1933, Baker
Papers, Container 69.
17. Notes, 1932 and 1933, Baker Papers,
Container 66.
18. Baker to Ellis, 16 March 1933,
Cleveland College, Baker File, Case Western Re-
serve University Archives, Cleveland,
Ohio.
19. Baker to Sidney S. Wilson
(University Treasurer), 6 August 1931, Baker Papers,
Container 65. Baker to Wilson, 12
September 1933, Baker Papers, Container 66. Notes
on conversations with Baker by Western
Reserve University President Leutner, Octo-
ber through December, 1937, and
"Contributions of Newton D. Baker to Western Re-
serve University," Office files of
Pres. W. G. Leutner, 1DB8 #3, Case Western Reserve
University Archives.
Newton D. Baker 127
grams themselves. As a trustee of
Cleveland College, Baker had defi-
nite ideas about the curriculum. He took
the opportunity to reply to a
questionnaire which Director A. Caswell
Ellis sent to business lead-
ers in September 1926 regarding their
employees' needs for higher
education and the areas of priority for
instruction. Baker responded:
My own interest in Cleveland College
centers around courses in English. I re-
sent the fact that in England students
are taught to read, write and speak
better English than they are in the
United States and as I regard that gift or
faculty the very ultimate foundation of
all culture, I am particularly anxious to
have Cleveland College give increasingly
effective courses in it.20
The following year, the trustees of
Cleveland College voted Baker
chairman of a committee of three to
confer with officers of the local
American Institute of Banking about the
possibility of having the
College take over courses offered by the
Institute. Ellis viewed this
as a significant step toward
establishing a great School of Business
Administration.21 Baker and
Ellis also viewed the banking program
as an opportunity to work on a major
concern of adult educators-
defining the nature of special curricula
for adults.
Baker's special curriculum interests lay
in the area of public affairs,
and he suggested several programs to
Ellis. In one letter, he won-
dered whether the College could give a
course of instruction for
parole and probation officers. There was
no part of the field of crim-
inal law, he said, "in which it is
so important to have trained and
intelligent operatives." He saw the
job as "extremely delicate, requir-
ing knowledge of psychology and human
relations. ..." This train-
ing, plus a police school which he
discussed with Ellis several days
before, seemed important in order to
provide trained people "for the
tasks upon which our social welfare
specially depends." Baker also
passed on to Ellis a suggestion from a
colleague that a military training
unit be established at Cleveland
College. He recommended that,
"since we have no athletics in our
Cleveland College work, it seems to
me it might be wise to offer them this
opportunity if the schedule can
be worked out."22
Baker was especially knowledgeable about
foreign relations and
gave such programs personal attention.
The Foreign Affairs Council of
Cleveland was, for several years,
affiliated with the Adult Education
Association, of which Baker was
president. (The Adult Education
Association was, in turn, affiliated
with Cleveland College for a time.)
20. Baker to Ellis, 14 September 1926,
Baker Papers, Container 65.
21. Corporate Records, 9 March
1927, 49.
22. Baker to Ellis, 22 June 1929 and 20
July 1929, Baker Papers, Container 66.
128 OHIO HISTORY
Each year the Council sponsored an
Institute on Foreign Affairs to
which Baker gave direct assistance. He
commented on program
plans, participated on the program,
suggested other speakers, and
often contacted them. He frequently saw
these events as furthering
foreign policy goals in which he was
interested. In one letter to a
prospective speaker for an Institute on
Anglo-American relations, he
wrote:
The whole scheme of this Institute is
mine and I got up in order that we
might have a sympathetic discussion of
Anglo-American relations at a time
when the Naval Conference is about to
meet in London and when the World
Court project is about to be decided in
this country.23
Here was a clear example of the impact
he thought adult education
could have on public decision making.
The real test of any program is its
presentation, and Baker was a
lecturer in great demand. In response to
his frequent invitations to
speak, he established two rules by which
he guided himself. First,
he stated that he rarely gave advance
acceptances due to the de-
mands of his law practice. On occasions
when he did accept, he cau-
tioned the hosts about the possibility
of cancellation. Second, he
accepted no fees for speaking, but if
the host institution insisted
on paying, he contributed the money to a
favorite cause, usually to
Cleveland College. Despite his limited
time for speaking, he generally
did participate in meetings he thought
important. He almost always
had a spot on the program of the
Cleveland Institute of Foreign Rela-
tions, and he spoke at other adult
education events as well. In 1934,
he gave several lectures, including the
opening presentation, in a
Cleveland College course on
"Current International Problems." He
worked with the staff in the
development of the bibliographies for
the sessions and attracted 800 people to
the opening programs.24 The
course seemed rewarding for both
presenter and audience.
Baker's involvement in teaching went
beyond the lecture hall to
other media. He appreciated the value of
radio in education and
served as a member of the National
Advisory Council on Radio in
Education which emerged from the Adult
Education Association of
America. The Council developed certain
radio programs and pro-
moted education radio programs in
general. In 1933, Baker was listed
as a participant in a series on
"the Lawyer and the Public" which
23. Baker to Newton W. Rowell, 10
January 1930, Baker Papers, Container 60.
24. Cleveland Plain Dealer, 18
October 1934. Baker Correspondence with J. J. Rob-
bins, November-December 1934, Baker
Papers, Container 69.
Newton D. Baker 129
the National Advisory Council arranged
in cooperation with the
American Bar Association and broadcast
on CBS.25
Why did Baker devote such time and
energy to adult education,
even to the point of speaking about
dropping all other activities to
help Cleveland College survive its
financial crisis? For the answer we
must return to his role as a politician
and his recognition of the peo-
ple's power in a democracy.
As a young man, Newton D. Baker's views
of democratic govern-
ment seemed tied to the fate of his own
causes. Although he had
strong ties to the Democratic Party, he
opposed the free-silver ideas
of William Jennings Bryan and voted for
McKinley in 1896. Since Bak-
er was a strong free-trader and McKinley
a strong protectionist, Bak-
er's choice was clearly for the lesser
of two evils. However, he hoped
the moderate size of McKinley's victory
would tone down the strong
protectionism of the Republican leaders.
In praising the election out-
come, Baker averred that the McKinley
victory showed that early
critics of "our experiment in free
government" who predicted the
country would one day succumb to
demogoguery had been proven
wrong. But he seemed to betray his new
expression of "faith in the
permanence of our institutions,"
and his new resolve to "purify them
and save what is best in them for
posterity" with his reservation
that:
Had Mr. Bryan won I should have felt
that the time had come for the estab-
lishment of some less democratic form of
government among us. I have al-
ways had philosophic difficulties with
democracy as a theory, as you know,
and as a purely speculative principle, I
have never been able to see how a sys-
tem which profusedly [sic] counted heads
but avoided all inquiries as to
whether or not there was anything in
them could produce scientific re-
sults.26
His faith was tested again the following
year, more on grounds of in-
tegrity than of intelligence, when,
critical of ideas proposed for a sav-
ings bank scheme, he wrote, "I have
almost lost faith in the ability of
our form of government to find five
honest men out of Sixty Mil-
lion."27
But soon came the years in Tom Johnson's
administration, and
then, Baker's own terms as Mayor of
Cleveland and, finally, his serv-
25. Correspondence and announcements in
file on National Council on Radio in Ed-
ucation, Baker Papers, Container 163.
26. Baker to Kurtz, 10 November 1986,
Baker Papers, Container 266.
27. Baker to C. K. Dawson, 4 December
1897, Baker Papers, Container 266.
130 OHIO HISTORY
ice in Woodrow Wilson's cabinet. The
choices of the people con-
firmed Baker's own views and, hence,
encouraged his faith in public
decisions. A lesson he drew from the
Cleveland experience was the
effectiveness of education about public
affairs. Tom Johnson had a
circus tent which he took to vacant lots
throughout the City "when-
ever he wanted to educate the people of
Cleveland about a prob-
lem
.. ." Johnson would explain the problem and invite questions
which he answered frankly,
comprehensively, and dispassionately. As a re-
sult of this procedure, in Mr. Johnson's
day Cleveland was the best in-
formed city about its own affairs ...
anywhere in America, and nobody
with a theory of municipal reform could
come to Cleveland and surprise an
audience into a sudden or impulsive
attitude.28
After a career of twenty years in public
service, Baker was more dis-
posed to accept the people's will, even
when he thought it wrong.
His experience in dealing with leaders
holding many viewpoints and
his observation of "less democratic
forms of government" may have
made him more conscious of the
possibilities of democracy and the
limitations of its alternatives.
Certainly the League of Nations contro-
versy tested his democratic faith. Even
so, his commitment to the
people's decisions was clear, as he
explained to his friend Raymond
Fosdick why the Democratic Platform of 1924
should support U.S.
membership in the League of Nations:
If the American people want to stay out
and take the consequences, I want to
make common lot with them, much as I
shall bewail their folly. ... If we are
beaten on that issue, we have no right
to go into the League of Nations.29
If the people were to be
self-determining, they had to have oppor-
tunities for education. Thus Baker
turned his attention to the ad-
vancement of formal adult education,
convinced that it was essential
for progress and well-being in society.
Governing a democracy is diffi-
cult in any case, he argued, even
though it is the best form of govern-
ment. Part of the difficulty is,
"Every change in the public policy of a
democracy implies the re-education of the
entire body politic." In a
despotism, only the despot has to be
educated to the change, but in
a democracy, "every step forward is
that of educating an effective
majority of the entire electorate to
change their minds."30
28. Baker to Brooks Emeny, 9 January
1934, Baker Papers, Container 69.
29. Baker to Fosdick, 12 March 1924,
Baker Papers, Container 99.
30. Newton D. Baker, "The Answer is
Education," Journal of Adult Education, 3
(June, 1931), 264.
Newton D. Baker 131
In rhetoric common to Progressives of
his day, Baker focused on
the value of education for the purpose
of social change. He could
point to examples of the failure to
change as evidence of the need for
more education. For example, "the
medieval performance which
took place in Dayton, Tennessee,"
in opposition to the teaching of bi-
ological evolution, illustrated a
failure of education among the people
of Tennessee who supported legislation
against teaching this relative-
ly new knowledge.31
If education were to help people think
through issues, it had to be
education in depth-it needed to have
"a certain element of consecu-
tiveness and constancy." Informing
people was not the same as edu-
cating them. Baker feared an
intellectual environment "where we
have substituted informational
instrumentalities for real knowledge,"
and anyone who had read a magazine
article or heard a radio ad-
dress on a profound subject felt ready
to deal with the matter.32
Such education required a certain amount
of time. Baker was con-
cerned about the ways in which new
technologies-the radio and
the cable-had sped up decision making
and made it easier for emo-
tion to guide mass opinion. The
opportunities for meditation provid-
ed by slower communication were now
gone.33 Hence, he conclud-
ed, we need to train ourselves to think.
Baker stated that his own
conception of the kind of education
needed is not that which pro-
duces "a learned man or
woman," but rather that which through
some process turns out a person with the
capacity to withhold judg-
ment until he or she knows the facts.34
Baker was less certain about the content
of education, but felt that
educators had to work toward knowledge
common to all people.
Again, like many Progressives, he saw a
need to melt the cultural dif-
ferences of a nation of immigrants.
Adult education was, in a sense, a
way to build community. People who come
together to study share
an interest in the subject. "Common
knowledge, a community of in-
terests, and an identity of culture give
people a social power that is
quite unattainable by any other
means."35 He thought this common
heritage could be developed not only on
a national scale, but interna-
tionally as well. Thus he foresaw the
promotion of "international soli-
31. Baker, "A Bystander Sees
It," 365.
32. Newton D. Baker, "Our Leisure
Thinking," Recreation, 27 (December, 1933),
426. Baker to Bailey (draft) undated,
1937. Baker Papers, Ralph Hayes file.
33. Baker, "Our Leisure
Thinking," 24.
34. Baker, "Answer is
Education," 262.
35. Ibid, 266.
132 OHIO HISTORY
darity through the creation of a common
intellectual heritage among
many peoples."36
If, then, the goals of adult education
were to develop the capacity
to think and a community of interest,
where did the development of
special knowledge, of experts, fit in?
For Baker that was not the pur-
pose of adult education institutions;
more likely, it fell in the province
of research universities and institutes.
Of course, he respected schol-
arly research on international issues
and other matters, but his com-
pliments were heartier for works which
popularized and scholarly
knowlege because they brought the
information to the public. In dis-
cussing the potential role of an
international affairs expert at Cleve-
land College, he wrote the candidate:
The world's trouble at the moment is not
a lack of knowledge of the kind
which research provides, but rather a
lack of the dissemination and popu-
larization of that knowledge.37
Despite his acceptance of democratic
concepts, his efforts were im-
bued with a certain elitism. There were
those who discovered or de-
termined the enlightened route, and
there were the masses who
could learn from the leaders. There were
the people and the experts,
the citizens and the leaders. He lauded
America's eighteenth centu-
ry populace who brought about the
country's form of government,
saying the citizens were able to engage
in debate, write letters about
civic events, and understand references
to ancient philosophers.
However, they used their knowledge to
select the most learned men
to write the Constitution. This
relationship between public knowl-
edge and separate expertise was one he
thought effective for operat-
ing a democracy.
If there was an elitism incorporated in
Baker's philosophy, his en-
ergies and commitment nevertheless
contributed to an adult educa-
tion movement which opened new
opportunities for the populace and
had the potential for diminishing
elitism. Night schools and exten-
sion programs made further education
possible for workers and
those who could not afford residential
colleges. The issues that he
raised concerning educational content,
organization, and methodolo-
gy for adults opened discussions and
research that have stayed on
the adult education agenda for the
remainder of the twentieth centu-
ry.
36. Baker, "A Bystander Sees
It," 365.
37. Baker to Emeny, 9 January 1934,
Baker Papers, Container 69.
RAE WAHL ROHFELD
Newton D. Baker and the Adult
Education Movement
In 1921, Newton D. Baker returned from
his cabinet position to
practice law in Cleveland, Ohio, his
adopted hometown. He had
completed the mammoth job of organizing
the nation to fight a war
and, then, of dismantling the bulk of
the war machine when the
fighting was over. Before going to
Washington as Woodrow Wilson's
Secretary of War, Baker had been a
progressive Cleveland politician,
serving as city solicitor during Tom
Johnson's administration and
then as mayor himself. Coming back to
Cleveland, he savored his re-
turn to private life where he could
reenter his profession and work for
his favorite causes. Guided by his
experience in politics and govern-
ment, he decided to make adult
education his major civic commit-
ment. Through his knowledge, his
stature, and his influence, he was
able to advance the development of
adult education as few other in-
dividuals could.
The more Baker reflected on his
governmental roles, the more the
indispensability of education in a
democracy became a guiding be-
lief. From his Cleveland government
experience he reminisced about
Tom Johnson's tent meetings which took
place in every part of the
city, educating people about the issues
of the day on which they
would have to make decisions. From his
war experience Baker laud-
ed a variety of camp educational and
recreation programs, especially
the amazing American Expeditionary Force
University. The latter be-
came a symbol to him of the general
population's thirst for education.
During his years as a citizen-educator,
Baker frequently referred to
the AEF University as evidence of the
desire of adults for further ed-
ucation. In a sense, this university
provided him his first opportunity
to lend his power and influence to the
development of an adult ed-
Rae Rohfeld holds a Ph.D. in American
History from Case Western Reserve Univer-
sity and is currently Metropolitan
Campus Director for Continuing Education at Cuya-
hoga Community College in Cleveland,
Ohio. This article was made possible in part by
a grant from the Travel to Collections
Program of the National Endowment for the Hu-
manities. Gracious assistance from the
staffs of the Library of Congress Manuscript Di-
vision and of the Case Western Reserve
University Archives is acknowledged.