Oral History Program Morris Barrett Interviewed by Mack S. Taft circa 1960s Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Morris Barrett Interviewed by Mack S. Taft circa 1960s Copyright © 2016 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The Great Depression in Weber County, Utah, is an Oral History Project by Mack S. Taft for completion of his Master’s Thesis at Utah State University during the summer of 1969. The forty-five interviews address the Great Depression through the eyes of individuals in several different occupations including: Bankers, Laborers, Railroad Workers, Attorneys, Farmers, Educators, Businessmen, Community and Church Leaders, Housewives, Children and Physicians. All of these individuals lived in Weber County from 1929 to 1941. The interviews were based on what they remembered about the depression, how they felt about those events and how it affected their life then and now. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Barrett, Morris, an oral history by Mack S. Taft, circa 1960s, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. 1 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Morris Barrett. Mr. Barrett recalls gaining an education at the Weber Normal School, teaching and serving as principal in Eden during the Depression, teaching at Weber High School, and serving as principal and teacher at Hooper Junior High School. The interviewer is Mack Taft. MT: What do you remember about the Great Depression? What were you doing then? Where did you live? MB: I happened to have graduated from high school in the spring of 1929, and by the time I was in my first year of college at Weber Normal College, we were becoming aware of the fact that there was a Depression underway. It became more marked and more extreme in its dimension as I continued at Weber College, where I graduated in 1932. MT: When did you start your teaching career? MB: My first full year began in the fall of 1935. MT: And where did you teach at that time? MB: In Eden. I was principal and teacher at Eden. There were eight grades, three teachers. I was principal and had the seventh and eighth grades as my responsibility. MT: What do you remember about teaching at that time? What did you get paid? What were the problems, if there were problems? MB: I may preface that by saying that the first year that I came out of college before the first full year that I spoke of, there were, as I recall, two teaching positions that were open in Weber County as the late summer came. I recall so well being 2 one of many, many, many who were interviewed by Superintendent Wahlquist and some other members of the staff on a particular evening set for interviews. Neither of the positions were in my subject major. As I recall, one position went to a young lady and the other position to a young man who had applied. There were, as I say, many, many who applied. It happened that during the course of that year, although I had not been given a full-time position, I was called in by the board and assigned to relieve one of the members of the high school staff who had run for, and been elected to, the state legislature. So my first year of teaching was at Weber High School - or my first extended experience was at Weber High School - where I taught for about 16 weeks while the legislature was in progress. By the time that year had ended, I had been identified as one to take a full-time job, and that was as principal teacher in Eden. Now, I recall so well my salary that I made during my first full year of teaching. But if I may leave that fact for a moment, as a substitute teacher at Weber - I taught at Weber High School - I taught for a flat salary of $3.50 per day. My first contract for principal and teacher was for $900 for the year. We were paid $50 each two weeks over the nine months period of time. My second year of teaching was $990, a $90 increase. My salary was still below $1,200 at the time I was married during my third year of teaching. I recall so well after having taught at the point of getting my Master's degree, I was teaching in Plain City at the time - this was five years after my Bachelor's - and without any 3 warning I was reassigned. This was the Friday before getting out for the Christmas holidays. I was assigned to go over to the Hooper School, and be the principal of the Hooper Junior High School. I recall so well hearing about this particular assignment directly from a member of the school board. I walked toward the school board office, and as I approached the building, I remember that Fred Barker, who was a member of the school board at that time, came walking down the steps. He said, "Congratulations on being the new principal of the Hooper School." I said, "You must have the wrong person in mind, Brother Barker." He said, "Don't you believe me?" I said, "What you're saying I can hardly believe," because I wasn't even aware that there was a position and I hadn't applied for it. He said, "Well, at the board meeting last night, you were voted to be the new principal of the Hooper School. And," he said, "you probably will be interested. Your salary is going to be $1,440." Now that was an increase, as I recall, of about $250 per year over what I was making over in Plain City - just barely over $1,200. I had been married part of this time, and as a matter of fact, I had taken part of a year off, two quarters off, to finish my Master's degree. Here I was with a Master's degree going to be principal of a 10-grade school. As I recall, there were 13 teachers, and I taught four periods of the day and was administrator. There was no secretary, no assistants, and my salary was $1,440. MT: What do you remember about students at that time, their clothing, and so forth? 4 MB: I don't have any vivid memories of clothing extremes. I do recall that the students were very well-dressed considering the situation. We were not plagued with the kinds of extreme styles that seem to characterize today, and though there were some extreme cases of hardship due to lack of sufficient earning in the family, students were remarkably well cared for, as I recall. I have no remembrance of any unfortunate circumstances related to the inability of families of youngsters to come reasonably well-dressed to school. MT: In some of the other interviews, I have heard that women were somewhat discriminated against during the Depression years. What is your recollection of that? MB: I recall that women were not permitted to teach when they were married. My wife, for instance, was teaching at Weber High School at the time that we were engaged. We married during the summer and because our plans were set for marriage during that summer, she was not offered a contract for the following year. I saw that without it having been an issue. She didn't plan to teach, the board didn't recognize it as a general custom that there should be two teaching salaries in one family, it was not a practice for a husband and wife to be both employed. MT: Do you think of anything else that might be of interest? MB: I recall that there has been a marked change in the quantity and type of equipment available in the schools for educational purposes. Obviously, though we had libraries, they were of a very limited nature. We had very few audiovisual materials or the hardware equipment. I recall my second year, it may have been 5 my first year of teaching in Eden, Dr. William P. Miller, present president of Weber College, was an employee of Weber County School District as a young man in his second or third year of employment, I believe. He was the audiovisual director at that time. I remember one of the roles he played was to bring a film around to the schools periodically. Now, we had no projectors of any kind in our school at Eden. There were no tape recorders, maps and charts in limited number, but no electronic equipment of any kind. Oh, what a great experience it was for the students, as well as the teachers, when Bill Miller came into the school on his schedule to show an educational film. He would spend sometimes half an hour, sometimes 45 minutes. On occasion the film may have been an hour, but most often it was less than that. He may have a feature of 35 minutes and maybe a short one of 10 minutes. I recall that on rare occasions, once in a while just for kicks, he would entertain the students by running a part of that film backwards. But what a contrast in the area of audiovisual equipment and use today as compared to then. I suppose that projector he brought was the only projector that was in the district at that time. It was not sound. That is, some of the films shown were not sound films.