The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1907-01-17
w. H. Harrison of This County
Starts State Wide Movement
to increase the Salaries
SHOWS UP SHANE OF STATE
Minimum Wage Paid to TEACHERS in
the State Found to be Twenty Dol
lars and Average Wage of All
Teachers is But S7ca Day

y
commission is preparing law to be
presented to the present session OF
the legislature which will have for its
purpose state regulation of salaries
paid to school teachers. The law it
is claimed will be one of the most i'm
portant pieces of legislation proposed
to the general session of 1907. The
bill will be ready within few days
and it will go before the legislature
with the signed endorsement Of
ninety per cent Of the school super-
lintendents and assessors of the sew
enty-one counties in the state.
/ The law, if enacted, will bring
about a revolution in the payment Of
| teachers salaries in the state. Mr..
Harrison is modelling his bill after
the Ohio law in regard to teachers
salaries and it provides that no
teacher shall be employed to teach
any school in the state at wage of
| less than forty dollars month. 1t
will also have plan to stimulate the
| teachers to better work by the pro-
vision for graded salaries to increase
in accordance with the class in which
the teacher is placed by the annual
teachers examinations. Mr.. Harri-
son is absolutely disinterested as he
is not connected with any school nor
has he any relatives employed as
teachers in the schools of the state.
During the last two months he has
given much of his time to this matter
and IN order to urge the law and get
the best possible statistics to back the
bill he has sent personal letters to
every school district in the state and
received replies from ninety per cent
of the men addressed. Prominent
members of the legislature have al
ready agreed to give the bill their
support.
In speaking of the bill on Tuesday,
Mr.. Harrison said, "a year ago while
talking with George Curtis, of Mer-
rill, one of the members of the state
tax commission, he suggested to me
that the matter of teachers salaries
should be laid before the state legis-
| lature and a bill drafted that would
| furnish better salaries for this class.
AT the time I agreed to take up the
work and it is being done without the
aid of any men or women connected
with the schools. The bill as it will
go to the Legislature will not repre-
sent any movement among the teach
ers, but rather a disinterested move
ment to get the best teachers and
keep them in the teaching work. AT
the present time the salaries paid to
| Wisconsin teachers are disgrace to
the state and it is impossible for the
men and women employed in the
schools to live on the salaries paid to
them. have gone into this matter at
great length and the report which
shall submit to the legislature in con-
nection with the bill will show the
shame of Wisconsin when compared
with other states in regard to the
amount paid for the teachers of
schools.
sit will show that men and women
have been driven out of the teachers
profession in Wisconsin on account
of the small wages paid. My statis-
tics cover the period from 1900 to
1905, and they show that the average
wage of the teachers IN the state of
! Wisconsin in that time was but 81
cents day, counting the year as 3l2
days, the same as is counted in other
lines of labor. In that time salaried
labor has increased it's wages AZ per
cent, and common labor 1873 per cent,
but the salaries of the teachers have
been increased but 5 per cent. tits a
remarkable fact that in Manitowoc
county teachers are working for as
little as $50 month. l have taken
Rock county, one of the largest
counties in the state, as an example;
and the reports show that the average
wage of teachers in that county is
but 1902 year, and this includes all
high school teachers and those of high
er institutions. When you figure that
the increase of living expenses in five
years has been 81 per cent, you can
see that it is almost impossible for a
teacher to live on the wages paid.
Yet some of them are living and sup
porting families. It is now almost
impossible to get teachers to work in
Wisconsin, and the young men and
women educated at our own institu-
tons are going to Indiana, Illinois
ard Ohio in order to get living wages.
We have been given every encourage
ment that the bill will be passed by
the legislature either in the form pre-
sented or in modified form which
will furnish some relief"
It is stated that many districts in
the state could not afford to pay the
teachers a minimum wage of $40 a
month, and this is taken care of by a
system of state aid for such schools.
i Mr.. Harrison stated that the bill
would probably be ready for the con-
4 sideration of the legislature early in
the session.