Brookwood Labor College (1921 to 1937) was a labor college located at 109 Cedar Road in Katonah, New York, United States."Historic Property Files." Survey of Historic Buildings. Bedford, Westchester County, New York. 2012, p. 5 , accessed 2103-09-28; Howlett, Charles F. "Workers' Education and World Peace: The Case of Brookwood Labor College." Journal for Peace and Justice Studies. 4:1 (1991), p. 33. Founded as Brookwood School in 1919 and established as a college in 1921, it was the first residential labor college in the country. Its founding and longest-serving president was A. J. Muste. The school was supported by affiliate unions of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) until 1928.
The Brookwood faculty's emphasis on trade union militancy and on advocacy of socialism was opposed by the AFL's Executive Council, which pressured the AFL's unions to withdraw support for the school. Brookwood was later riven by internal dissent over whether it should support militant unionism or remain strictly an educational organization.
Suffering from financial difficulties, Brookwood closed in 1937. It is considered one of the most influential labor colleges in American history and was known as "labor's Harvard."Eisenmann, p. 234. Its best known alumnus was Walter Reuther.
Formation, governance and mission The Brookwood School Between 1914 and 1921, a number of adult education and training organizations were founded to serve the American labor movement.Ryan, "Education, Labor", p. 395; Kett, p. 352-355; Kates, p. 75. Adult education was considered by these organizations and individuals to be the key to promoting class consciousness and teaching the skills needed to challenge the power of employers.Ryan, "Education, Labor", p. 394. 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 labor's often-uneducated adult members.
The Brookwood School was the predecessor to Brookwood Labor College. On March 19, 1914, William Mann Fincke, a liberal clergyman and son of a coal mine owner, purchased the Brookwood Estate in Katonah, New York, for $3,700. Deeply upset by the crushing of the steel strike of 1919, Fincke and his wife, Helen Hamlin Fincke, decided to found a school to teach working-class teenagers nonviolent ways to achieve social justice and political change. The curriculum was organized by Fincke to reflect the business life of the local community. The curriculum also emphasized social service and the study of economics, English literature, mathematics, social problems, and history.Howlett, "Fincke, William M.", p. 174-175. Students were urged to participate in the daily management of the school.Howlett, "Fincke, William M.", p. 174. With financial assistance and organizational support from Robert W. Dunn, John Nevin Sayre, and Norman Thomas, Brookwood School opened in the fall of 1919. The student body was initially 16- to 19-year-old males who were accepted on the basis of merit, and there was no tuition.Howlett, p. "Fincke, William M.", 175.
Formation of Brookwood Labor College
By 1921, the Brookwood School was facing major obstacles. The cost of running the school was mounting, and the Finckes realized that Brookwood needed to expand significantly in order to meet the needs of the working class. M. Tuscan Bennett and his wife, Josephine, joined the school in February 1921,M. Tuscan Bennett was a noted attorney in Hartford, Connecticut, an activist in the American Labor Party in Connecticut, and a Farmer–Labor Party nominee for the United States Senate. His wife, Josephine, was a nationally known feminist and supporter of a woman's right to vote. The Bennetts enrolled their two daughters, Katherine and Frances, in the Brookwood School. In February 1921, the Bennetts sold their homes in Hartford and in Farmington and moved to Katonah to help run and expand the Brookwood School. See: "Give Up Society to Live in Cabin." New York Times. February 4, 1921. and were close friends of the Finckes. After extensive discussion with the Bennetts,"Brookwood Labor College", p. 596. the Finckes decided to turn Brookwood School over to a group of trade union activists. The negotiations for the transfer of the estate occurred during a March 31-to-April 1, 1921, conference at Brookwood. Among those present at the conference were Fannia Cohn, education director of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union; William Z. Foster, leader of the 1919 steel strike; Abraham Lefkowitz, president of the American Federation of Teachers; James H. Maurer, president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor; Rose Schneiderman, president of the Women's Trade Union League; and A. J. Muste, pacifist minister and secretary of the Amalgamated Textile Workers of America.Lynd, p. 189.Altenbaugh, p. 399. Brookwood Labor College was founded once the transfer was complete. Fundraising to open the new college then proceeded. Tuscan Bennett oversaw the effort,Allen, p. 113. and the donors included Jane Addams, Stuart Chase, John R. Commons, Herbert Croly, John Dewey, and Freda Kirchwey.
Brookwood was governed by a 10-member Board of Directors,"Brookwood Labor College", p. 597. a majority of whom were officials of American Federation of Labor (AFL) unions.International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, p. 155. Faculty, student, and alumni representatives comprised the rest of the board.Muste, A.J. "Brookwood Labor College." The Railway Conductor. April 1927, p. 155. Unions providing scholarships for students were also eligible for seats on the board."Eighteen Industries Are Represented at Brookwood College." The Journal of Electrical Workers and Operators. January 1927, p. 51. Early board members included John Brophy, president of United Mine Workers of America District 2;Craig, p. 208.Weinberg, p. 182. John Fitzpatrick, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor; Clinton S. Golden, a former textile union organizer;Brooks, p. 79. Rose Schneiderman, president of the Amalgamated Textile Workers of America;Foner, Women and the American Labor Movement, p. 270. and J.B.S. Hardman, education director of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. James Maurer was elected president of the board.
The board was a constantly changing entity. Later board members included Fannia Cohn;Special Committee on Un-American Activities, p. 702. Accessed 2013-10-09."Brookwood Denies A.F. of L.'s Charges." New York Times. August 9, 1928. Cara Cook, Brookwood faculty member and librarian; Robert Fechner, a vice president of the International Association of Machinists;"Brookwood, at Katonah, Plans to Accommodate 100 Students." New York Times. May 2, 1926. Gustav Geiges, president of the American Federation of Full Fashioned Hosiery Workers; Fred Hewitt, editor of the Machinists' Monthly Journal; Abraham Lefkowitz; A.J. Kennedy, president of the Amalgamated Lithographers of America; Tom Tippett, Brookwood extension director; and Phil Ziegler, editor of the official journal of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks."Labor College Side Not Heard, He Says." New York Times. November 1, 1928.Morris, p. 326.
Tuscan Bennett served as the school's executive secretary for the first three years of its operation,London, Tarr, and Wilson, p. 82. and Golden served for many years as its business manager.Brooks, p. 78-79; Carew, p. 49-50. An advisory board was also established.Samson, p. 106-107.
Values and goals Brookwood's founders believed that worker education would play a key role in helping bring about social change in a nonviolent way.Robinson, "The Expulsion of Brookwood Labor College from the Workers' Education Bureau", p. 64-65. The founders believed in four tenets: "First, that a new social order is needed and is coming—in fact, that it is already on the way. Second, that education will not only hasten its coming, but will reduce to a minimum and perhaps do away entirely with a resort to violent methods. Third, that the workers are the ones who will usher in this new order. Fourth, that there is immediate need for a workers' college with a broad curriculum, located amid healthy country surroundings, where the students can completely apply themselves to the task at hand.""Plan Workers' College." New York Times. April 1, 1921. Nearly all of Brookwood's founders were pacifists, and all of them sought an end to violence and war. They also believed in a strong and powerful labor movement. The existing labor movement, as epitomized by the dominant American Federation of Labor, was too unwilling, they felt, to challenge employers, too wedded to the existing political and economic system, and too focused on organizing only the most highly skilled workers into craft unions. Instead, Brookwood's leaders emphasized the mass unionization of workers into industrial unions (workers organized not by job type, but by industry), the unionization of semi-skilled workers and unskilled workers, and the merger of craft unions merge into industrial unions. They believed in a new social order based on the equality of workers and an elimination of discrimination based on race, gender, or nationality.Foner, The T.U.E.L. to the End of the Gompers Era, p. 118-119.
Brookwood's leaders and faculty were almost all left-wing in their politics. But what this meant is unclear. Labor historian Philip S. Foner argued that Brookwood's political leanings were radically left-wing, but historian Francis Ryan contends the leadership and faculty ran the gamut from center-left to Marxist. William Green biographer Craig Phelan describes the faculty as mostly progressives and labor reformers, few of whom supported the craft union and conservative trade union policies of the AFL. Any generalization is difficult since, as Ryan points out, no single political orthodoxy governed the college's faculty or students. There did, however, seem to be a fairly broad consensus among the faculty and leadership that Brookwood should cultivate a proletarian consciousness in its students.Hamilton, p. 193. Many of the college's leaders and faculty also assumed that Brookwood graduates would seek employment in the labor movement after graduation, and work to change the conservative policies of AFL president Samuel Gompers.Foner, The T.U.E.L. to the End of the Gompers Era, p. 119.
Funding Initially, Brookwood sought financing from national, state and local labor unions.Hendrickson, p. 129. Endorsement of the school by labor unions, the New York Times said, was "practically universal". By 1925, 13 international unions had given money to Brookwood.Phelan, p. 38. Four others declined to provide funds, but warmly endorsed the college. There was also significant funding from the AFL in the early years, although Green declined to endorse the college on the grounds that such endorsements properly were the made by the Workers' Education Bureau (WEB). This funding continued for several years. For example, several international unions gave a total of $12,000 in early 1928.