Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-04-15
TIE 81. PAuL scHooLs.
Condition to which the Gold stand
ard Has Reduced Then


Condition TO which the Gold stand
ard Has Reduced Them
ST. Paul seems to have reached
crisis in her financial affairs which rem
ders il necessary to either close her pub
lie schools or very materially reduce the
salaries paid to her teachers. This Is
doubtless extremely humiliating to ST
Paul, but let not any other city cast
stones at her, for it is only question OF
time until they viii all be reduced to 3
like necessity, if we continue under our
glorious system of 'shonest money"
While it is to be deplored that St. Paul
or any other city should be compelled
by financial stringency to cripple the
efficiency of its public school system,
yet there is some consolation in the re-
membrance that the uses OF adversely
are sweet. Those teachers who viii be
compelled to measure their wants by
a greatly reduced salary viii find MAJ
terial for broader philosophy of life
and be able to Undue their pupils with
deeper sympathy for humanity, which
will be of immense value to the republic
The object lesson which they are now
learning win fit them for the RESPONSE
bility of their position better than all
the theories of didactics, for the first
and most essential qualification for
proper teaching is the elimination OF
sclfishness from the teacher.
In the great battle for better condi-
tions now being waged the most stub
born resistance has come from that
large class of our citizens who enjoy
las they thought) fixed salaries. And
OF this class probably none were more
opposed to reform than the school,
teachers. From the head of our state
university down to the freckled ''dees-
trict schoolmarm" they were arrayed
In almost solid phalanx under the ban
ners of the gold standard against the
''cranks and repudiationists" who were
seeking to pay their salaries in ''fifty-
cent dollars" Ask one of them why he
was opposed to the reconciliation of
silver and he was almost sure to reply:
''Do you expect me to vote to cut the
purchasing power of my salary in two?''
It was useless to argue that the security
of his salary depended upon the ability
of the people to pay. and that under a
constantly contracting money supply
and the consequent vast shriakage in
oil values, the people would soon reach
q point where their inability to pay
would either reduce his salary or cut it
off entirely. His conscience had not yet
been touched by the finger of adversely.
But it is said that all things come to
him who waits, and the silver crank did
not have to wait long to see the begin
ming of the fulfillment of his prophesies.
The harvest of the gold standard has
just begun; it's fruits are being gathered
by those who labored 80 hard to protect
1t. Those fruits are reduced salaries,
loss of employment, broken banks, fore
closed mortgages, ruined homes, a dark
ened future, insanity and suicide. The
anxiety Of the laborer and salaried man
Is not whether he shall get his pay in
50-cent silver dollars, but whether he
shall get any pay at all.
Enterprise is at q standstill and the
splendid abilities of the American peo-
pie are rusting with disuse. And yet,
while suffering and despair are univer-
sal, few are becoming enormously
rich. Vast fortunes are being accumu-
lated and in the money centers great
sums are lying idle. Under the gold
standard we are building q feudalism
more terrible and less responsible than
the system of old that during the dark
ages ruled the world from the crags OF
Europe; for, while under the old sys-
tenn the feudal lord was bound to rem
der certain sustenance and protection
to the vassal who served him, under the
modern system the serfs of plutocracy
die of hunger at the gates of plenty ac-
cumulated by their toll, and nobody Is
responsible. Such system cannot last;
human nature endures to certain point
and then rebels. And yet those who are
responsible for this condition in Ameri-
ca to-day seem to be as blind to the sig
nificance of events as were the bour-
bons of France when from all directions
along the highways leading from the
provinces to the capital they beheld
squads of dark, hungry, silent peasants
with their sheepskin garments bound
with girdles of straw seeking Paris to
beg for bread and prepare for the scenes
of the revolution. A hundred years has
added to the stock of human intelli-
gence, but it has not changed the law
of hunerer-Minneapoli Press