Margaret Haley: of Chicago

              MARGARET HALEY
OF CHICAGO

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ASSOCIATE MEMBER AMERICAN LYCEUM UNION 
S. B. Hershey Pres't & Gen'l Mgr. ROCHESTER. N.Y.



EXCLUSIVE DIRECTION 


Central Lyceum Bureau 


SPILLMAN RIGGS, Manager

50 Columbia Building Columbus, Ohio




MARGARET HALEY



A
MONG the many brilliant women which the closing century brought into prominence, none has achieved so remarkable a record as Margaret Haley.  A crisis in public affairs always brings a great leader to the front. Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips and Anna Dickinson, the three greatest orators the last half of the nineteenth century knew, were directly the product of existing wrongs, and in an equally important crisis in public affairs, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine, this modern Joan of Arc, Margaret Haley, a grade teacher in the public schools of Chicago, arose to lead a crusade against a condition of monopoly, dishonesty and greed almost beyond belief.  The story of the teachers' fight, and of their final victory, is a thrilling one, and aside from the obvious moral it holds for every citizen and tax-payer in the land, it is interesting from the story point of view. The wildest romances of Conan Doyle or Garborieau never unfolded a more picturesque or exciting plot, or one that could hold an audience closer, than the plain unvarnished tale which is told by this brave little woman.  Miss Haley's work for the Teachers' Federation is not yet completed, so only a limited lecture tour can be booked. Applications therefore must be very promptly made.





PRESS NOTICES



Interview with Miss Haley in Sioux City Journal



—Misses Catherine Goggin and Margaret Haley are interesting types of a class of women who have accomplished something worth while.  Their careers in the past few years have also demonstrated that the school room does not necessarily disqualify women for successful efforts in such practical lines as heading a big tax reform movement in a great city of more than a million inhabitants.  They are forceful, energetic, determined looking women, but they still bear the charm of womanly modesty.  Three years of contact with public officials and courts and a long, hard fight with corporations have robbed them of none of it.


When interviewed by a representative for the Journal, Miss Haley did most of the talking.  Miss Haley knows how to talk.  She enters into conversation about tax reforms with a spirit of enthusiasm that never tells her when to stop.  She seems to know everything about Illinois' tax and revenue history from A to Z, and she tells the story of the work done with an amazing facility.  Abstruse questions of taxation come from her tongue with an astonishing ease, and she talks in figures as readily as a child lisps its numbers.




In brief, these two women headed a fight of the Chicago teachers' federation to remedy abuses and illegalities in the assessment of corporation values, which has resulted in a succession of victories for them, whereby Cook county corporations are now assessed for much more than $200,000,000, where once their assessments aggregated less than one-tenth of that sum.




How did we get interested in this work?
  repeated Miss Haley in reply to a question upon this subject.




Selfishly.  Our salaries as teachers were reduced in 1898.  The school board told us that its revenues had been so reduced through the operations of a new tax law that it must reduce salaries or close school.  The teachers' federation interested itself in finding out about it, and acting for this organization we began investigations which resulted in the bringing of suits that we hope will ultimately result in the taxation of property interests which for years escaped their just share of the burden of government.  The victory seems to be ours, but it is not yet thoroughly clinched.  It will not be until the additional revenues are paid into the public treasuries.




The trouble was due chiefly to the fact that one of the best rules of taxation ever devised had become a dead letter in Illinois.  At the time of the granger movement in 1873, the very crest of the wave of reform struck that state, and among other things the state board of equalization adopted a rule under the new taxation laws that the franchises of such corporations as railways might be assessed and taxed.  The rule for determining the value of these franchises was to find first the market value of

PRESS NOTICES
 stocks and mortgage bonds of a corporation, and deduct from this the value of all tangible property of the corporation.  The result was the value of that intangible property, the franchise, which is the most valuable thing a railroad company or street railway line can own.  This rule was enforced for a short time, but it soon became a dead letter when the granger movement died out, and in 1898 it is doubtful if more than a dozen lawyers outside of Chicago's corporation lawyers and corporation tax commissioners and a few officials knew anything about this rule, which had been upheld by all the state and federal courts as the best ever devised.


In 1899, after the enactment of a new revenue law which it was supposed would increase the assessed valuations, it was lower instead.  In anticipation of this expected increase in assessed valuations the levies had been cut in two, and the city was therefore confronted with a greatly decreased revenue.  When the announcement was made Chicago was startled.  The school board considered closing the schools and did reduce salaries; the library board threatened to close the libraries, 500 city employes were discharged, and all public work was brought to a standstill.



Everybody was satisfied that something was wrong, but nobody knew just what.  Finally the Chicago Journal printed a series of articles calling attention to the fact that the trouble might be remedied by forcing the state board to tax franchises as it had done in 1873 and for a few succeeding years.  The teachers' federation took the matter up.  Miss Goggin and I began laborious investigations, which disclosed the fact that no steps of any kind were taken in compliance with this old rule to determine franchise values.  We consulted lawyers and they told us that we might begin suit to compel the state board to consider franchise values, and we did.  We wanted to win, but we felt that if we didn't we would be able to stir up public sentiment so that results would follow ultimately.  Well, we have succeeded in winning our suits.  Our first victory was balked for a time by the action of the state board in setting aside the old rule of 1873, but November 22 we won another victory in the courts, which held that this action was fraudulent.  Whether we shall have further fights or not I can't say.  Until the money is paid into the treasuries of the county and state the final victory will not be won.



Milwaukee Free Press, December 28, 1901



—With an earnestness that was illustrative of the spirit with which the teachers of the Chicago federation went at the work of reforming the great tax evils of their state, Miss Margaret Haley spoke before the Wisconsin State Teachers' association at the Davidson theater yesterday morning, telling the story of the successful struggle of the teachers against the great corporations of Chicago and Illinois.  It was a story big with interest for the Wisconsin teacher, said Miss Haley, and she pointed the path they should pursue in a like mission, for, she said, the conditions in Wisconsin are the same that existed in Illinois, and the duty of the teachers and their opportunity the same as those of the teachers of the Chicago federation.


Go thou,
 said Miss Haley, in substance, 
and do likewise.  Do as we were bid to do in the name of the children of Chicago; the children in whose faces the school doors were shut because there were no funds to keep them open; the children whose precious right to an education was curtailed that the dividends of the big corporations might be swelled.  Do as we were bid to do by the president of our board of education, himself the son-in-law of the president of one of the corporations that had escaped for nearly thirty years a just tax on $70,000,000 on which dividends of over 25 per cent. were being paid yearly.




New England Journal of Education, Boston, July 25, 1901


—There has never been a better address judged by mastery of facts, keenness of logic, fascination of fervency, or brilliancy of delivery, than the volunteer speech of Margaret Haley on Friday.



Milwaukee Sentinel


—Miss Haley's story was simply told and although her argument at times was illuminated with many flashes of wit that brought smiles to the faces of her auditors, her talk in the main was earnest and forceful and so interesting that the full hour she occupied slipped away as if but fifteen minutes had passed.



Boston Journal


—Notwithstanding the dry theme of taxation, Miss Haley made her talk most interesting, and laughter and applause punctuated it every few minutes.  She was voted a most delightful talker by all who heard her and her address received an ovation.



Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin



—When Miss Haley stepped forward she was a revelation of determined sweetness.  She is petite, dresses plainly, but not severely, has a wealth of chestnut hair arranged in the prevailing fluffy style, and crowned with a hat to match her dress.


Miss Haley had no notes from which to speak, but talked of the things the Chicago teachers' federation had done during the past two years in the way of forcing the state board of equalization of Illinois to tax the corporation franchises and other intangible property interests.  She spoke rapidly and to the point and worked her audience to a pitch of wild enthusiasm.






WHAT THE TEACHERS THINK OF MISS HALEY'S ADDRESS

EXTRACTS FROM THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1901


Supt. W. H. Schultz, Merrill, Member of Executive Committee.
—

I think it was immense—one of the best things I ever heard.  It was the great hit of our meeting this year.  It cannot help but set people to thinking about matters of that kind.



Miss Etta Michaels, Berlin.
—

It was an eye-opener.  I think her talk was very fine and it seems to me she was indeed brave and able to meet an opportunity.  Others could have done it, but she seized the chance.  Everyone I have heard speak of her address was charmed.  It is hard to say what effect her suggestions may have in Wisconsin as none of us have thought that such conditions might exist here.



Prof. G. H. Landgraf, Berlin.
—

It was excellent; it was vigorous.  It showed the spirit of the girl and the spirit of the Chicago Teachers' association.  Her work in Illinois will no doubt operate to stir up like work in Wisconsin.  We in the country won't feel it so much as in the city.  Her talk was the best so far I have ever heard at a state meeting.



Miss Ruth Marshall, Appleton.
—

I was indeed very much entertained with the address.  It was so new to me that I cannot say what the effect may be in this state.  But it was an eye-opener.  I was profoundly stirred by it.



President Cheever, Milwaukee Normal School.
—

Everybody was delighted with it.  It was a good, conservative talk, to which no one could take exception.




Miss Elizabeth B. Noyes, Oshkosh.
—

I think it was famous.  I am ignorant of conditions in this state, as probably others are, but in a degree they may be just as bad as in Chicago.  The whole convention seemed enthusiastically in favor of Miss Haley's talk, and lots of people said they had been informed and entertained.



Prof. J. S. Roeseler, Sheboygan.
—

I thought it the best thing I had ever heard at a State Teachers convention.  I liked it very much.  She showed her whole spirit in it, and her delivery was so excellent and natural, that I wished she could have had an evening's time in which to speak instead of the short time that could be given during a regular session.  I think there was a good deal we can profit by in what she said, and it will lead to a study of local conditions—a more systematic study into conditions by teachers, and by others, too.



J. N. Foster, Lake Geneva.
—

One of the finest things I ever heard.  It was the best exposition of the tax question I've ever listened to.  It will set people in this state thinking.  What action will be taken I do not know; but something, no doubt.



J. J. Aylward, Wausaukee.
—

It was fine—very good indeed, and everybody I saw thought the same.  The same conditions do not exist here so far as we know, so I cannot say what may come of it.




W. P. Roseman, Reedsburg.
—

I took it as all the rest did.  It was certainly a scholarly address, and if all true, which we have no reason to doubt, they've certainly done a good work in Illinois.  I believe it will set Wisconsin people to thinking and investigating.



Supt. H. A. Whipple, Baraboo
—

Miss Haley's address was one of the best that has been given before the Wisconsin Teachers' association in a good many years.  While the greater number of those present were somewhat familiar with the efforts that she has been making in Chicago in behalf not only of the teachers but of the citizens generally, very few were at all conversant with the details of the struggle.  The victory of Miss Haley and her associates may be regarded as the first step in the solution of the greatest problem that confronts the people at the present time.



Principal A. N. Fairchild, Milwaukee
—

The effect of Miss Haley's investigation for Chicago will have an influence elsewhere.  It will be felt in all the large cities of the country, where it will arouse the people.



Principal W. J. Pollock, Milwaukee
—

The talk will have its effect in connection with the new grade teachers' organization here, as I believe they are planning to look into local conditions.  She is to address them soon.




State Secretary C. H. Maxson, Tomah
—

The talk showed what a woman can do and what others may be moved to do.



President Charles M'Kenny, Milwaukee Normal School
—

It seemed to me that Miss Haley presented facts that were very convincing as to the practice of corporations in dodging taxes, and the fact that she got $230,000,000 of property on the tax roll is a pretty fair indication that law and justice were on her side.  The fact that these corporations were paying from 5 to 33 per cent dividends is proof that they will not be impoverished by paying a fair proportion of the taxes.  What the conditions may be in other places I have no means of knowing, but as far as Chicago was concerned she was certainly right.




Superintendent David Thorne, Rock County
—

The talk ought to and it will have a good effect in Wisconsin.



HOLLISTER BROTHERS PRINTERS ENGRAVERS CHICAGO