Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-04-20
The Majority Report Against the Equal.
izatiOn or SeheoI-Teaehers' Salaries
The Reasons Given Therefor.
The Course Of Visitors Maury and Cool
Reviewed and Completely Annihl.
lated by Woman,
DOes One Wrong Justify Another Are
the Women Teachers Of Memphis
to be Cheated Of their Dues
Because others are!


of ranging himself on the side of JUS
tice. In presenting his minority report
in favor of paying women as much as
men when they do the same amount
and quality If work, visitor Pierce sus-
tained his position by few fOrcible and
convincing remarks. DR.. Maury, as
speaker for the majority committee
which rejected the resolutions, gracious
| ly gave to the board and the public the
! ''reasons" that caused that rejection.
/ Those reasons were two in number, and
rather remarkable in their way. We
must suppose the committee considered
] them cOgent, conclusive and covering
/ the whole case-it had month in
/ which to get them up. wish the peO-
pie of Memphis to look at those
| two reasons and to probe
them to their marrow bones,
or rather through their puffy and
| fiimsy tissue, for there is neither bone nor
sineW or substantial stuff in those
reasons; only words and wind, which
subside at the prick of pin. wish
the people to analyze and judge for
/ themselves of the weight and worth of
| those two ''reasOns." For myself, look
ing on them as moral curiOsities, 1 shall
spear those reasons on the point of my
pen and hold them up to view, SO that
every reader of the APPEAL may be-
hold and admire; may marvel at their
excellent wisdom, their plain logic, the
laborious research they indicate; the
white truth, the beauty, the even and
unbiased justice that pervades the spirit
of those two wonderful reasons"
REASON NUMBER ONE
as given by DR.. Maury, the orator for
the majority committee. He (Maury)
" had carefully examined the re-
ports of the boards of educa-
] ton of fifteen other cities in the
| United States, and had found from
that examination that the female teach
| ers of Memphis are receiving as much
as the female teachers of other cities,
| therefore the committee reiect,n etc. As
| if the information gathered by that
| "careful examination" had any bearing
whatever on the question at issue!
That question was not whether women
should be paid much or little, but
| whether there should be sex discrimin-
alton whether men should be paid more
| solely because they are men and women
| paid less because they are women. Wis
itOr Maury seems totally to have misap-
| pretended the plain purport of the reso-
| luton. The reason he gives for reject
| ing that resolution is widely irrelevant
| to the subject under considerations To
put Visitor Maury's "reasOnn in LIain
English-to make it more pOintedly ex-
! press the effects wrought on the COM
| mittee by that "careful examination,
II would read thus: He (Mauryl had
Carefully examinedsthe reports Of the
| boards of education of fifteen other
/ nj ov,H had fr,frr1I GIL fhnua rtffac
| the same discrimination made in favor
of men-teachers. In all those fifteen
cities, women are kept at discount and
men at premium prices; therefore the
board of Memphis shall continue to pay
women teachers One-third less than
| men, even though they do the same OF
better work" The only item worth at
tention in DR.. AIaury's "careful exami-
nation" is, that he proposes to regulate
the wOmen's pay by the pay other cities,
make. Does he settle the salaries of
men-teachers by the same example? 1
also have looked little into other cities
I schOOl-reports, and find the men-teaeh-
| ers here are better paid than in many
other places. This may be right
it may cost more to live in
Memphis-but will it cost more
| for the men than the women teachers?
| If DR.. Maury has such reverence for the
! precedent given by other boards, why
only follow that precedent when it re-
! lates to women? Looking at the matter
in plain, cOmmOn-sense way, is it not
pitiable thing to see educated gentle
men ignoring their own God-given
right of thought; too undecided and
time-serving to bring their own judg-
| ments to bear on the absolute right or
wrong OF any question; instead, thereof,
| searching through other cities's records
| of wr0ngdOing for examples wherewith
! to bolster up their own injustice? Wis
| itoT Cooks position was the more re-
| spectacle of the two, because more bold
and decided. By some strange and
! lamentabie misfortune (for which he has
our sineerest PITY visitor Cook had come
| to look on the wOman-half of the world
with both eyes so badly crossed he could
not possibly see the sex as it is, and a
morbid imagination can make a man
/ believe all sorts ofcurious things. From
this standpoint visitor Cook confident
| ly laid down his postulate,
GALL WOMEN ARE WORTHLESS"
Granting this bold postulate (for N.Y.
| self l adore bOldnessj, visitor Cook S Sc
quences are bound to be accepted. To
I put hlcAAOI NOOh III u SEllf =
/ CYSTIC shape, it would read thus:
All women are worthless;
] Fenlale teachers are women
| Therefore, female teachers are worthless.
This at least is plausible logic. Visitor
Cook, as an honest believer in his own
logic, standing drm on his own postu-
late, is not only bound to oppose the
resolution proposing to pay men and
women teachers equal salaries, but is
| also bound 70 use every effort to turn
! those worthless creatures from the city
schools. To keep women in the city
| schools, in visitor Cooks estimation,
must be to swindle the children out of
| the education which is their due, as well
as to swindle the taxpayers out of the
! proper use Of their money, which should
only go to pay competent
! teachers. Thus it will be seen Visitor
| Cooks position has at least the merit of
! consistency; one part harmOnizes with
another; it is all of one coloring, one
| character, which cannot be said of DIR.
! Maury's and some other members of the
board. DR.. Maury and those other
members, not suffering as severely from
strd6iSn1otS as the member from Eng
land, plainly see the equal ability Of the
female teachers, yet not quite able to
see the justice of equal remuneration,
waste their time in poking through the
reports of fifteen other school boards for
precedents whereon to hang their own
wrong doing. Is this well done, gem
tlemen of the committee? Fifteen
| other school boards make the sex-dis-
criminacy complained of, therefore
we shall make it," Is this the sort of
/ STUFF
you fling to the people of Memphis as
| justification of your injustice2 Will
\ fifteen, or fifty, or five hundred wrongs
make one right? ''The esehool-ooards Of
fifteen other cities hold the female teach
eTs under the heel Of oppression
(any injustice from those in power to
the powerless IS oppression), therefore
we shall hold the female teachers under
the heel of oppression" If precedent
be ali that is wanted to establish a
wrong, any and every wrong under this
sun can be established. IT, to make any
| given wrong right, it be only necessary
to prove that there are fifteen other cit
les in which that wrong is of frequent
occurrence, then sill progress is at an
end, and the world must forever stand
still, with all its sins and its follies on
its back. SAYS that sage committee:
awe viii continue to pay men one
third more than we pay women, though
thetwomen's work be the same or greater,
because fifteen other cities set US that
j example, Oh! profound logic. OH
. divine justieel In fifteen cities of the
so-ealled civilized world, by the officers
. Of the law, for petty offenses, women
are knouted on the bare back until they
faint or die; therefore, t1 Maury, LEI
: the women offenders Of Memphis suffer