The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-10

iuminant for lighting them. The ne- cessity for effective teaching is so predominant, the alternative of either | ineff1ciently conducted schools or clos ed schools is so bewildering, and final ly the demoralzation incident to a cheese-paring policy of hire is so wide spread that sums of money seem and the possible resultant public calamity created by the failure to consider any one of those phases of the question. It lis not necessarily a matter of conse- quence that the compromise offer of the committee on schools may increase the cost of the school administration $50 GOO. It is matter of tremendous Iconsequence that the public schools should not be permitted to lower their standard
 The general problem of the small pay given teachers in schools and in- structors in colleges and universities is not involved, though it is common knowledge that of all employment teaching is least appreciated in the wage market. The New Haven ques- ton is far more serious than that. It is question of giving less than living wage to public servants doing the most inn portant public service. There is no disposition on the part of the teachers in the public schools to grab at the public purse, as some of the political off1ceholders are willing to do. They ask merely for chance to live decently in accordance with well established prin- ciples of society, and in accordance with the inexorable demands of the market where their necessities are stored. This is clearly shown in their. own analysis of their needs and rights. which they submitted to the committee on schools, and which so far as we know has not been submitted to the board as a whole Tn that analysis they ask for no more than living wage, seek to remove absurd discrimihations, to which the committee on schools is committed, and to establish "a square deal" policy for the future. It would be the height of injustice for the full board to ignore that report and ana lysis at its meeting Wednesday even ing, in connection with the manifestly mathematical report made by it's com mittee.
 These considerations, which proceed from civic pride in the square deal- ing of a community which is every where known as an educational center, lead toS but one conclusion and that is that the task of doing justice to the teachers of New Haven is possibly up to the public itself. The committee on schools has done it's best and has fall en short of an understanding of the work to be done. Incidentally it sug- gests strongly that the enlivenment of the board of education, by the intro- fuction of new blood and rearrange- ment of committees, has become neces- sary. To apply principle which infiu- ences tho committee on schools: Length of service, while a factor
 should not be determining infuence'
 What is food for the school goose
 ought to be nourishing for the educa.
 ticnal gander, And finally the board oi
 finance should undertake to do for thu
 school system and the employees ot
 the school district what the board oi
 education up to now has failed to do and what the committee on schools
 smugly suggests may possibly be dont
 at an indefinite. time in an indefinite
 manner. But both the full board O.
 education and the board of finance ma! together bring this lamentable contro
 versy to head by adopting the repor
 of the teachers, who are the bette judges, under the existing particular
 circumstances, of fair settlement O the problem.
 - It can well be said of certain Bos