The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-08-03
The "Americsn Aristoc racy."

A very interesting and instructive
paper read before the recent convention
Of the National Education Association
at Asbury Park by DR.. WILLIAM ToRREY
HARRIS, the United States Commits
sioner Of Education, Is printed In the In
dependent. 1t is on 4The Future OF
Teachers Salaries" but incidentally Dr.
HARRIS touches the general question Of
salaries and incomes in this country.
The convention at Asbury Park was
attended by many thousands OF teachers
from all parts of the Union. and the
annual meetings Of the association are
now always among the most numerously
attended gatherings held in this country
The interest in them is almost passionate
DR.. HARRIS suggests an explanation OF
this in his presentation of the great in
crease in the number OF men and women
engaged in teaching
In our public schools are more than
four hundred and fifty thousand teach
ers and in private schools about one
hundred and twenty thousand more.
Nearly one thousand new places for
teachers and professors are opened
yearly in colleges and universities. In
1890 the number OF professors and in
structors was less than eight thousand /;
in 1908 it was 2Oss7. In the high schools
and academies the number Of teachers
increased from 1920 in 1890 to 33,795
in 1908, an average yearly increase OF
1910. Another standard Of compare
son is that in 1870 the census enumerated
1914 professors and teachers in each
million of population, but in 1900 the
quota had increased to 1850. an in
crease greater than the ratio Of growth
in the population.
Now, as to the matter OF salaries.
Data as to more than fifty thousand
of these in nearly five hundred cities.
gathered by Col WRIGHT, show that
one-half are Of $500 and upward and the
rest from below $500 to 5000. In the rural
schools for three or four months a year
the scale of pay of teachers is less, but
teaching in them is usually only make
shift, for which they make no special
preparation in training schools.
Use for teachers in the great increase OF
accumulated wealth in the United States.
The wealth per capita rose from $30S
in 1850 to 81, O3e in 1890, to 1925 In 1900.
As the average amount earned per in
dividual by those in gainful occupations
increases with the increase Of realized
wealth, he argues that the ability OF
the people to support schools and pay
teachers is growing steadily.
This pay, on the average, is now small
az compared with the earnings Of skilled
workmen in mechanical employments,
though in great cities, like New York,
for example, it has been put up to more
reasonable amount. The salaries OF q
great part of the college professors and
instructors, however, are pitifully small;
yet men of learning and superior abilities
and accomplishments are ready to take
places where their pay is less than many
a mechanics wages. We hear a great
deal about the mania for money getting
in this country, about 1oommercialism.
az if it was the sole stimulus to exertion;
but more than twenty thousand college
professors and instructors are spending
their energies in an employment which
gives them hardly more than bare sub
sistenoe. The simple life" is theirs.
With them it is plain living and high
thinking. They are impelled by other
ani higher ambitions than mere money
making. Besides these there are nearly
six hundred thousand school teachers with
an average salary Of less than $500.
The smart set, the American aris-
tocracy"p There it is.