THE TEACHERS' REVOLT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200590009-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 9
• Content Type: NSPR

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ney, may take tA0prb9ed 2l a t1 0~>~
self, for the long pull, much less disqualified himself for
the nomination, is an unwarranted conclusion.
The consequence of the whole uproar, and Romney'
subsequent refusal to back down, is that a Republican
contender stands before the people avowedly critical o
Johnson's war in Vietnam. It is' about time that the bi-
partisan cant about the war was ended. Truman, Eisen
ennedy all contributed to this bogus con
trofession.
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olicy
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Critics
years said that that house of -spooks is nutty; but fors
the most part such things were said in the spirit of hy-
perbole. Now it appears that perhaps they were right in
this: the CIA does. in fact appear to be run by kooks.
Assuming that an organizution's sanity can be tested
by the manner in which it hires aid tires its employees,
consider this evidence of mental aberration: The CIA
uses handwriting analysis (according to The Wall Street
Journal) to test the character and personality traits of
job applicants. This is scarcely a scientific or even a
common-sense test, of course, but that doesn't seem to
bother the men who run the CIA.
More recently Sen. Sam Ervin of North Carolina
came up with the fascinating information that at least
as late as 1963 the CIA was financing the development
of a "wiggle seat," a sly kind of lie detector. The job
applicant would be seated in a plain-looking chair during
his interview; but unbeknownst to him, the specially
equipped seat would be recording his pulse, adrenalin
flow, respiration and skin dampness. It is not known
whether the wiggle seat has ever been put into service.
What is known is that the CIA is using its battery of
ordinary lie-detector machines with a mindless fury. Sen-
ator Ervin has learned, through his own sources within
the spy agency (its top officials will no longer talk with
him) that more than 5,000 lie tests were administered
on both employees and would-be employees during the
last year, and only thirty for counterintelligence purposes.
Because of his psychotic affection for the machine,
CIA Director Richard Helms is frantically determined
that Congress shall hot include his agency under the
pending bill to outlaw lie-detector tests and to prohibit
any government agency from asking a job applicant such
things as whether -he ever had sexual relations with an
animal, whether he slept with his wife before marriage,
whether he urinates more than other people, or whether
he believes in the Second Coming. Helms has lobbied
furiously in the Senate to keep the privilege of asking
CIA workers questions of this sort, and he will undoubt-
edly now go to work on the House to defend his bu-
reaucratic voyeurism.
He is especially interested in having the right to use
the lie detector to hunt for homosexuals. But the reason
is not clear. Does he wish to get rid of them as security
risks? Or does he want to recruit them as agents? The
latter is rumored and the rumor has been published, even
in the highly responsible Christian Science Monitor.
Helms has not denied the published rumors. Senator
Ervin-certainly no defender of Helms-feels, however,
that not even the CIA is that dumb. But even assuming
the CIA wants to use the lie detector to weed out homo-
sexuals, this makes little sense.
7`Fr7E NATION/September 25, 1967
massive escalation, for making this an American war. If
the GOP has any sense left, it will pre-empt the peace
position now, unequivocally, and force Johnson to run
as the war candidate. Nothing like this can be expected
from a habitual practitioner of deviousness like Richard
-Nixon; but Romney managed, so to speak, to fall into
the position, and so has contributed a mite toward the,
political clarification that was so badly needed.
Tae Te c!nc: ' `rev ft
There is a larger issue in the current rash of teachers'
strikes than the bread-and-butter one. Teachers are stag
ing a revolt against the failure of the public to upgrade
the status of the profession. There is every reason to
believe them when they say they are concerned about the
school system as well as about winning better working
conditions. In New York City the fiscally beleaguered
Lindsay administration made a generous offer to the union.
But in New York as elsewhere teachers want a larder
voice in policy determination as well as better pay.
Teachers are in revolt as well as on strike. The attitude
of public: employees toward collective bargaining and the
right to :strike has undergone a marked change in the last
five years. Timothy Cooney, in ablation article (January
24, 1966), pointed out: "Until a few years ago, the aver-
age civil servant was prevented from striking by
his own convictions and not by laws and injunctions...
In recent years, however, there has been a marked
change in attitude." A "new breed" of public employee
has emerged, younger, better educated, with higher ex-
pectations. This "new breed" will not accept lower wage
rates and inferior working conditions in exchange for
security of employment. Nor will it settle merely for better
wages; it demands a new status. There has been, for ex-
ample, a significant change in the composition of the
teaching profession. The National Education Association
points out that men, mostly young men, now constitute
31 per cent of all teachers and More than half of those
in high schools. Public employees today have outgrown
the subservient attitudes of the past and demand exactly
the same rights as other workers. Legislation is not likely
to prevent or terminate their strikes.
Not only has a "new breed" emerged; the public's
attitude has begun to change. The public is much more
willing to concede the right to strike that'it was not so.
many years ago. Teachers are not unmindful of their
professional responsibilities, but the public has been
unmindful of the critically important role of the teacher
in-society. In the past, the Public has been fairly generous
in supporting school bands, athletic programs, buildings
Approved For Release 2000/05/05: CIA-RDP75-00149R000200590009-0