The Washington herald., 1910-12-13
URGES PENSION FUND
Washington Man Pleads for
Teachers Retirement.
BILL NOW BEFORE CONGRESS
Legislation by Which Men and
Women Who Have Given Their
Lives 10 school work May BE
Cared for In Old Age Is Held linz
perative-NO Provisions Made.

gentleman deeply interested in the
school system of Washington, speaking
of the present conditions. had this to say
yesterday to a representative Of The
Washington Herald:
No bill to be brought before Congress
could be more decidedly for the good OF
the service than is the teachers retire
ment bill which viii shortly be presented
for legislation. It's benehcent effects
would be felt throughout the District
school system 70 a wonderful extent.
AT present there are many women
and a few men in the schools who have
served long and faithfully in the school
room. but whose bodies and minds have
paid the penalty Physicians agree that
there is no work more wearing than that
of the teacher The worn bodies and
minds of the teachers OF long service
should be replaced by young, fresh,
strong ones. There is some truth in DR..
c. r. Chancellor's statement that the
management of the school buildings OF
Washington is in the hands of superan-
nuated principals
1T is true that many of cur building
principals and higher-grade teachers
have served over thirty years, and find
themselves weakened by the strain OF
such d service. Phillips Brooks says that
he who helps child helps humanity
with an immediateness which no other
help given 10 human creatures at any
other stage of their human life can pos
sibly give again, and which of you who
has been educated in the schools Of
Washington cannot think back upon
some help given 10 you when a child by
some teacher who is either sim to be
found in the ranks or gone to join the
choir invisible2 There is no other course
(save marriage for the women, and few
teachers marry after eight years of
serviee).
No Provisions Made.
There has been no financial provision
made by the teacher for an old age with
out work and its consequent salary. Nor
is that often TO the teachers discredt
There is a big and ine reason for this
very fact. It is this: The great majority
OF the women teachers have carried
through the years the financial burden
OF scme old mother, disabled father. in
valid sister. weak-minded brother, or
phaned nephew. penniless maiden aunt,
or what not. This statement may sound
exaggerated. but it viii be found upon
Investigation 10 stand
The money which your practical bust
ness man will say should have been
invested In some safe way against the
coming old age has gone into a veritable
sinking fund. Every penny over and
above the living expenses has gone 10
provide some necessity or some luxury
FOR the dependent one. The teacher may
or may not have seen what this expendi-
ture was leading 20. If she saw, she
threw of as ignoble the idea that she
must provide for her own future old age
al the expense of the present needs of
some one else. The responsibility came
upon the teacher because she was a
woman and too soft-hearted, perhaps
but II was not her nature to disregard
It's claim.
NO good woman could ever really
indorse the theory Of the survival OF the
httest, She did not know she was doing
noble thing-she was doing the only
thing. Meanwhile, though. old age has
come upon her and-must she work on
until her death? If she does it is at the
expense of the good OF the service
Legislation Is Necessary.
Washington must have a retirement
pAoAA@lo4A 10 ptoleCA the kEaEhFT AGAINST
herself. Provision for old age must be
made compulsory. The younger teachers
must not wait for the older ones to marry
or die. These two events are too slow of
elimination. The more capable young
women must not 80 of into other fields
because they cannot afford 10 wait for
promotion. The service must not fan
into disfav0r II can all be remeded by
the passage OF this very teachers re-
tirement bill. now ready TO come before
Congress.
This bill provides for a pension fund
in so practical and businesslfke a way.
too, that it must appeal TO every one con-
cerned in its passage II makes but com
paratively small demand on the public
funds and is derived from a small levy
on the salaries Of the teachers themselves.
from tuition fees paid by pupils outside
the District, and from forfeited salaries
which now revert 10 the Treasury. be-
cause there is no logical use to which to
put them. Surely the District school sys-
tenn should have this legislation when il
means so little extra OUTPUT OF public