The Dickinson press., 1903-09-19
Our Public Schools and
School Teachers.

School Teachers.
Rev. H v. Rominger spoke on Sun.
day evening atthe Congregationalchu ch
ON Our Public Schools and School
Teachers" He said in part:
Our public schools are of far more
fundamental importance to North Da.
kota than irrigation, the prices of wool
or cattle, or any other surface question
important as it may be. This American
nation started in the church and school
house and these ought to be symbols of
the republic as much as the stars and
stripes. and certainly more 80 than the
spread eagle. Better strike the spread
in its place the church and the school
public. The founders OF the nation did
not organize armies and navies as the
safety Of the country. but they built
churches and school houses as the bed
works OF this new order of civilization.
This is the order on the prairies to-day !
as it has been the order all across the
continent from Plymouth Rock to the
Golden Gate and this must ever be the
order Of American civilization which now
pushes out over the Pacific and dashes
with foam and thunder on the Philippines
and the shores of Asia.
1t was the American public schools
which won the battles of Manila and
Santiago. The school teacher and the re-
ligious teacher must continue to be the
chief figures in American history and not
plutocrats, and certainly not the man
with the shoulder straps. Industralism
and mercantilism have been and are
great forces in the world, but they did
not build this nation or carry it through
a single crisis and they never will. From
the time our Pilgrim Fathers landed to
the present hour, from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, there has been a steady
tendency of the church and the school
house, Of intellectual, moral and spirit.
ual forces to dominate our civilization
Our churches and school houses which
keep alive these forces are the very salt
OF this nation, and there is no other
interest that should be so dear to the
hearts of the people.
The future belongs to the most
thoroughly educated race; for education
is the key to the wisest use of the. ma
terials and processes of nature and life.
The superior position which the Anglo
| Saxon race occupies in the world today
is due to the education of our free
schools and free political life. Of course
something is due to race characteristics,
but the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon
is mostly due to intelligence, energy and
effort which have come from education
under free institutions.
Our educational interests are our SUI
preme interests, more fundamental than
questions of currency, tariff, the digging
of the Panama Canal, or internal de-
velopment and retaining of waste
lands. Here in the school room is quietly
going on the work which affects the very
foundation of human society and free
government. Here the citizens are be-
ing made who are to determine for veal
or woe our future duty and destiny. This
is a work which transcends every ma
terial interest. But in the newspaper
press the land over u educational in
terests do not receive as much attention
as material interests and surface ques.
tons. Our great daily, and even weekly
newspapers, the year round probably
give more attention to cattle, sheep and
hogs, to sports. horse races, ball games,
prize fights and the doings of criminals
than they give to our schools.
IICdI DIS lids UCSA Jul CuuNdkAOAol
progress it has not kept pace with our
material progress. We are now spend
ing owe s2o,ooo,ooo a year in building
war ships, commerce d~estroyers. while
millions of ignorant, illiterate white and
negro voters arc in our South land and
in our great cities, and are a far greater
enemy possibly could be. 1t is far more
important that we should spend mil.
lions of dollars in educating these ig.
norant voters than that we should spend
so many millions in building warships
II a fraction of the money now spent on
war ships and organized means of kill
ing people could. be spent in educating
civilizing and outstanding the people
we could dispense with a greater part ol
our ~arsenals, forts and war ships. II
Dickinson, probably six times as much
money is spent on whisky and tobacco
to degrade, brutal;ze and criminalize
people as is spent on education and
religion, and yet We claim to be a highl!
civilized and progressive people!
We pay immense salaries to corpora
ton managers, railroad presidents, banl
presidents, merchant princes, and goot
salaries to engineers and army officers
while the teaching profession, which i.
worth more to the country than an!
other, is the poorest paid of all. Ever!
teacher in our public schools is a true
servant of the nation and is doing a NOR
fundamental and enduring work for thi
republic than any other class of public
servants. The corporation manager, tn!
general in the army and fighting Bol
Evans in the navy, our legislators ant
politicians. are all doing good and usefu
work but the school teacher is doing
grander and more useful work than an!
one of them, and the pay of the schoo
teacher is a pittance compared with tn
pay of the others. An animal trainer il
any circus receives higher pay than tn.
average pay Of the trainers of the child
rem of the republic. The cooks of ricl
~loafers and parasites, their dog-trainers
the engineers of their private yachts AM
drivers of their automobiles receiv'
larger salaries than many of the hes
educated of our land. A millionair,
member of a school board the other da'
said; 1--WE want the best teachers bu
we don't propose to pay two dollar
! where one will do" Robert Grant says
we have been careful as the nation waxe'
: in material prosperity to keep the pa,
! of teachers down so that in this wealthies
nation on the globe the yearly SALARY Q
+ male teachers averages about s32S.8e
j. and of women teachers S274.6o. Shame
8 The teacher is more important than tn
: school building or the school apparatus
= The real school is the teacher. Tn
generosity, the ample provision for lif
made right there in the condition of tn
teacher would seem to promise the sures
and quickest return; but this is a subjec
n which trustees dislike to discuss an
donors regard as ar impertinenc'
Money invested in brains and %personalit
is regarded as wasted, while that sper
y on buildings and material equipment, o
which somebody can write his name, ar
:. looked upon as a permanent investmen
The teacher ought to be held in the higf
r. | oct hopor and reoorded nc IF moro voIr