The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-12-21
Claim Made BY the School
Teachers
INQUIRY INTO tn CONDITION
Report That Will Be Submitted to
the Minnesota Stale E iucati0n-
al Association.
From Mondays Daily.


OF the many features that will serve
to make the annual meeting of the Min
nesota Educat iOnal association interest
ing to those engaged in school work,
none will be listened to with more at
tention than the report to be submitted
by the wage committee. At the last
session of the association a committee
made up of G. f. Maxwell, chairman;
c. G. Schulz, X. w. Buell., III. l.. Mer-
rill c. NJ. Jordan, George f. James and
III. G. Hess was appointed to inquire into
the wage scale of Ledagogues, and to
start a movement for increased salaries.
The committee finds that the wages
paid teachers are on an average less
than those paid to unskilled laborers.
After making an exhaustive investi9a-
ton, the committee recommends as fol-
lows:
"That after the year 1910, one of the
! requirements for license to teach be at
least one year of professional training.
"That the minimum age at which any
person may be licensed as a public
school teacher shall be eighteen years.
"That, as the next step in MinnesOtas
movement toward the best things in
public school education, a minimum sal
airy law, be enacted to awaken unthink-
ing parsimonious districts which compel
the future fathers and mothers. of the
state to grow up under the make be-
lieve tuition of an underpaid, unframed
youth"
After the elimination of all portions
of the report not dealing directly with
conditions in Minnesota, all of the nu-
merous statistical tables and much of
the interesting, but not vital, comment,
the report is as follows:
"That the wages of the public school
teacher in America are lower than the
wages of the ordinarily industrious un-
skilled laborer can be shown beyond the
possibility of contradiction.
at must be pointed out that since
teachers are on expense throughout the
wear, it seems entirely fair that their
annual rather than their monthly in
come be used in any comparison with
other incomes. A very small per cent
of teachers are able to add to their in
come by securing profitable work during
the vacation periods; on the contrary,
it is often expected by the public that
teachers shall engage in some form of
vacation study or travel.
minnesota salaries are somewhat
better than for the whole country. But
the nearest computation possible for
Minnesota makes the average annual sal
ary for all teachers SAIL. which is $50
less than the annual income of section
men on railroads, who receive from $l.25
to Sl.75 day, but is $50 more than the
income of domestic servants who aver
age 81 week. in addition to board and
home comforts.
However, if we think only of the
| l.90S women who taught in Minnesota
last year, whose average annual salary
was 1886, we see that even the average
domestic servant earning 1864 was bet
ter paid than the average female teach
er
Fifty per cent of our high school
towns pay their janitor more than their
best grade teacher. There were only
twelve cities in the state last year which
paid a grade teacher 5000, and only one
which paid 800, while there were thir
ty-one cities paying their school JAM
tors 500 or more.
Other Public Servants.
SIN 1905 the postmasters in l54 presi
Dental postoffices in Minnesota, which
are also high school towns, received an
average salary of LII, while the SUI
perntendents of the schools in the same
towns received an average annual sal
airy of 81 900.
at is found by careful inquiry that
thirteen dentists in the city of Winona
do $4,000 worth of service in dentistry
annually, of which $4,000 is net in
come. This gives an average for each
dentist of a little over $1,000 per year.
GA young man of good ability would
have thirteen times more chances for a
living salary in Winona in dentistry
than in education. 1t can be said with
certainty that there are six dentists in
Winona receiving $4,000 or over net in
come, while Inspector Atoms last re-
port shows that there are in the public
schools of the state of Minnesota but
six positions paying $4,000 or over. The
committee is informed by a prominent
dentist that there are in this state 100
men of his profession who receive a net
annual income of $4,000 or over, so
that in Minnesota there are sixteen
times as many positions to attract the