The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1913-05-08
Money Value of An Education

j All GuuC0llOu
to maintain himself and family as eff
ticient workers.
There are two causes for the great
scarcity of mental labprers or those
whose work is mental combined with
manual, which makes the wages OF
such laborers so much higher. The
first is natural mentality which makes
Il comparatively few persons mentally
superior to the rest. The second is
the cost of education, and it is this
cost of education with which we are
especially concerned. Without a doubt
the cost of education in most cases
determines when the student leaves
school, Some families can not afford
to maintain their boys in. school after
their fourteenth or fifteenth year,
therefore these boys leave school as
soon as they are able to get job or
about the time they finish the eighth
grade. Others think that they can
not maintain their boys in school after
finishing the high school. that is at
about the age of nineteen, while a
comparatively few are able to main
tain them to their twenty-second or
their twenty-third year, which gives
them time to finish their college
course. The question then, is largely
whether the parents can make the
investment in education, even at a
sacrifice, for the sake of the larger
returns to come later. 1t might be
we'll to note here that the expense
need not necessarily fall upon the
parents. If the family can get along
without the boys income, the boy
should be able to maintain himself and
get an education, as high an education
as he wishes, after his fifteenth or
sixteenth year. Thus the matter of an
education is largely a matter of the
students resolution and ambition.
The following statistics will show
iii concrete way the vaue Of the time
spent in school above the eighth
grade. These statistics are the result
of long and careful research and give
the average wage of large number of
workers. They are prepared by Mr..
James N. Dodge of Philadelphia. the
manager of large plant engaged in
manufacturing machinery for handling
coal and ores. The figures taken are
very conservative, and for the higher
classes of labor are probably less
than large number of men actually
earn. The average for the lower
class at first glance seems to be too
low but when We consider that very
few of these classes have steady
work the year round, we will realize
that the average II not too low. The
first class considered is the unckilled
laborers, made up of boys who leave
school after completing the eighth
grade The earning period Of this
class is fran fifteen to fifty-five years
of age, during which time they earn
an average of 5000 per week, $3.50
annually, or $16,216 in life time. The
next class is the apprentice class, or
the ones who learn trades by appren-
ticeship. The earning period Of this
class is the same with an average of
about $500 per week more than the
laborer, earning 1898 in a
year, and $29,513 in life time. The
next class is the trade school class,
made up of boys who hove continued
in school spending about four years
learning a trade in trade school.
Their earning period is three years
shorter but during this time they aver
age about $1,000 per week, 1902 an.
nually, or $4,000 in life time The
next class is the technical graduate.
The man who has continued through a