St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1915-10-27
PRESS COMMENT
Less Pay for Some Teachers.

to trained teachers in rural schools,
and having that effect generally, is
in what is believed to be a relative
/ ly few cases operating to the disad-
vantage of some teachers. The law
requires that towns shall pay all
their teachers at least eight dollars
a week. They may pay as much
more as the directors see fit, but
they must pay eight dollars. In ad-
dition, the state pays teachers of
i special training or long experience
two, three or four dollars per week
;. according to a scale that the law
Il fixes. This means that unframed
teachers or those with less than the
minimum of experience shall re-
Tceive at least eight dollars per week,
all of which is paid by the town,
while techers who qualify for extra
compensation receive at least ten,
eleven or twelve dollars per week,
according to training and expert
i ence. In a few instances it is report
ed that teachers who had been get
ting eleven or twelve dollars or
more find themselves reduced to nine
or ten. The town pays them but
eight, while the state can only add
what they deserve under the law
This is unfortunate, from the teach
is either to demand more from the
town than the minimum of eight
dollars, or to qualify for more pay
from the state. If a teacher is sue
cessful and known to be, the direc-
tors will not generally cut her wages
unless they find her willing to
stand for it. This law doubtless will
operate to the advantage of town
TREASURES somewhat, for the scale
of rural teachers wages has been
rather above eight dollars per week
of late, and the extra pay given by
the state will not be entirely added
to the teachers wage, unless the
teachers themselves insist The
towns are required to advance to
teachers the state pay and will be
this being the method contemplated
by the law as well as the only prac-
teal way.-Herald and News.
Thrift in New England.
What with autos and movies, the
movement for organized thrift must
be enjoying pretty hard shedding.
The fight is kept up, however. 1t is
announced that New England, the
ancient birthplace of thrift in Amer
lea, is to take a prominent part in
] progress to bring Americans back to
those sturdy habits of thrift and
frugality which characterized our
New England ancestors.
4 Announcement is made today of
the appointment of G. H. Dempsey of
the Hoverhill, Mass, public schools
as the ninth member of the Thrift
Board of the National Education As
ISOLATION. This board will supervise
the essay contest to be conducted by
the National Education association.
r A series of prizes ranging from $40
to $75 each are to be awarded
through the committee for the best
essays on the subject of Thrift. 4"
Some of these prizes are for school
children only, and others are for
adults only. S. w. Straus, president
of the American Society for Thrift,
and a member of the National Edu-
cation associations thrift committee
has agreed to finance the entire cost
of this work in the interest of thrift
in America.
Il 1t is added that Superintendent
/ Dempsey was placed on the National
Thrift Board because of his intimate
knowledge of the life of New Eng
land factory employees Burlington
Daily News.
Primary Critics Not All Crooks.
1 That article on the direct primary,
quite extensively quoted by the state
press, which, by inference, accuses
every newspaper not in sympathy
with the movement of being tcon-
trolled" by some mysterious and sin
lister group of interests, would have
been just as strong without that ex-
tremely discourteous a1lusion.
Neither did it gain strength by
accusing, again by inference, every
honest opponent of that system of
being one of the following:
1. An aspirant for Office by the
subway route;
delegates;
3. The agent of a foreign corpor-
alton;
4. An attorney of the Inter
ests";
5. A professional lobbyist;
6. A purchasable voter
The Herald, for example, favors
the principle of the direct primary,
but insists I'D that the state is not
suffering from the domination of any
selfish interest, (2) that the proposed
measure will prove costly and dis
appointing, and CD that it possesses
| IunQdM0uIdl Q0I0CL III u1SQOASAuS
with party responsibility.
1t will certainly object to being
classed as venal or disreputable
when it lays before it's readers estab-
lished facts about the direct primary,
and certainly when a sef-appointed
advocate, instead of defending the
measure, undertakes to impugn the
motives of all who differ with its
views, it argues very poorly for the
cause it purports to further.
All who oppose the direct prim-
airy are not crooks, rascals and rep
rebates, and some o1d-fashioned
folks in Vermont are quite likely to
resent the imputation that they are.
Rutland Herald.
An Interesting Libel Suit.
States Attorney M. P. Maurice of
Lamoille county has sued the Norris
vile News and Citizen because Of a
communication which that paper
published relative to the states at
49, -, LIMO nm