The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1905-03-22

these teachers are still looking hope
fully forward to the day when they
will have laid by enough to build q
home.
AS an instance of the small con-
sideration in which teachers are held
there is no more striking example nor
one more calculated to evoke SYM
pathy and indignation than that of
the back pay of the New Orleans
school teachers, who for twenty years
have awaited the settlement of their
claim for three years of service.
What a blight is this on the fair name
of New Orleans! What q reproach it
is on the slowness of justice! What q
burlesque it is on the impotence of
constitutional enactment! How noble
over against it all stands the actions
of those true patriotic women who
toiled on without pay during the
years of 1882, 1883 and 1884 in order
that the citizenship of their city might
not grow up in ignorance. The boys
that those women taught are men now,
and IN no doubt leading useful and
productive lives. They have been
benefited, the State of Louisiana is
the richer, while those heroines of q
trying time die one by one without q
settlement.
One can hardly pick up q newspaper
without noting some instance of the
deplOrable inadequacies of the
teachers salaries. The cost of living
increases while salaries remain I'M
changed. In one town where the cost
of board and lodging is between
twenty-five and thirty dollars a month
the teachers are paid between forty
and fifty dollars per month. This
leaves a balance of only ten or fifteen
dollars per month for clothing and
other expenses. In this same town
the most unskilled negro laborer gets
n dollar and seventy-five cents a
day, or about forty-ive dollars per
month, and his living expenses will
not exceed fifteen dollars per month.
Within but q few days past the New
Orleans Teachers Association pre-
sented a petition asking for q raise in
salary. Heretofore the salary for
assistants has been thirty-five dollars
for a minimum and sixty dollars for a
maximum. When it is realized that
person cannot live and dress as
becomes q teacher in the city of New
Orleans on thirty-ive dollars a month,
it is to be hoped that the petition will
meet with favorable consideration.
Anew educational era is dawning
in Louisiana and the teachers of the
State have no small share in bringing
it about. The teacher is proving that
be is worth more by earning more than
he is paid. If there is . need for a
new school the movement to secure it
is led by q teacher. II there is a need
to raise money for . longer school
it is the teacher who is making
the need felt. In movements for every
kind of public utility the teacher is
himself shoulder to shoulder
the lawyer, the doctor and the
business man. The teacher is making
his influence felt and it is ever exerted
Tor the good of the community.
Never before have the teachers of
he State been SD together in thought
and spirit and aim and endeavor.
Teachers are feeling towards each
other more and more q close feeling of
fellowship. The work of
is growing daily to be a
business to be prosecuted with aggres-
and determination. No
onger is there doubt and uncertainty,
put with q of aim and a
,teadfastness of purpose the teacher
goes on his way rejoicing in his
strength.
As to the future of the teaching
and it's possibilities no
nan dare place upon II . Limitation.
The Oood Old Way.
A severe cold or attack of la grippe
s like q fire, the sooner you combat
{ the better your chances are to over