Fighting Lady

Among U.S. public-school men there is a favorite story which, though apocryphal, keeps making the rounds. Some years ago, it seems, a certain school construction yard in the state of Washington was the victim of nightly raids by a mysterious band of lumber thieves. No one knew how to cope with the situation--until the matter came to the attention of the state's new school superintendent, a doughty housewife named Pearl Wanamaker. Pearl simply took out her shotgun, parked herself in the yard for two nights running. The raids ceased; the lumber was saved; Pearl once again emerged as public education's Fighting Lady No. 1.

With or without a shotgun, Pearl deserves the title. In her 15 years as superintendent, she has built a reputation as the most adroit political battler for education that Washington has ever known. So adroit has she become, in fact, that many a Democrat had hopes that she would run for governor next fall. It would have been a spectacular race, for even the Republican hopeful, Attorney General Don Eastvold, admitted: "She'd be a formidable opponent." This week, however, Pearl announced that she had only one office in mind. She intended to seek re-election to the post she has held so long.

One-Woman Lobby. Since she first took over her post, state support for education, once only 11% has zoomed to 50%. She has lobbied successfully for the redistricting of school districts, dual certification of teachers (so they can teach in either elementary or secondary schools), has set up as tough a teacher-training program as any in the country.

Pearl Wanamaker got her political schooling early. Her father was Nils ("Pegleg") Anderson, a Swedish immigrant who lost a leg and made his fortune in . the logging industry, then served in the state legislature. Pearl was through normal school and was teaching by the time she was 18. At 24 she became a county school superintendent, and then, after her marriage to Civil Engineer Lemuel A. Wanamaker, she followed her father into the legislature.

Politics v. Partisanship. In 1940 a caravan of 50 cars descended on her home to persuade her to run for the badly neglected post of state superintendent of public instruction. Since then, she has harassed and goaded governors, both Republican and Democratic. She is a Democrat herself, but when one official told her to "get rid of all those reactionary Republican school directors and you'll get all the money you want," she flatly refused. Says Pearl about her campaign methods: "I have been accused of playing politics. I have. But I absolutely will not play partisan politics."

Over the years, Pearl Wanamaker has added 875 buildings to her school system, boosted teachers' minimum salaries from $500 to $2,780. But her biggest achievement has not been a material one. Both in her own state and throughout the U.S., as a past (1946-47) president of the National Education Association, she has been the blunt but effective interpreter of both the problems and the achievements of the U.S. public school. "All my life," says she, "I've believed in fighting for causes. Public education is my cause, and I intend to keep right on fighting for it."

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