Arizona republican., 1918-03-26
GROW
 SCARCE; GREAT
 ALARM |S FE[I l

 hundreds of young women have left the profession for better-paid lines of work. while the recruiting average of the teachers training schools is fast falling off In New York City the waiting list is only half the size it was this time last year.
 Obviously the teaching profession is losing it's attraction for women; and the cause it not hard to fathom. Teach CTS salaries are too low to compete with those now being paid in almost any other occupation.
 In letter sent to local boards of education in all parts of the country recently, Dr. P P. ClaXton, United States Commissioner of Education pre- dicted that this shortage will grow at a rapid rate, and suggested that where ever possible the salaries of teachers should be raised.
 The cost of living has increased nearly 50 per cent since 1913, and ap- proXimately third since 1916,'' says Dr. Claxton. Food has increased S5 per cent in price; clothing 106 per cent; fuel 53 per cent drugs 130 per cent, and home furnishing goods 75 per cent"
 During this period the wages of la Dor. both skilled and unskilled, have advanced. Every working man, from ] foreman to hodcarrier, has received some increase in his wages The sal aries of commercial employees are higher than they have ever been be- fore while even the professional man one of the most poorly paid individ- uals in America-has raised his fees. But in very few instances have the salaries of teachers been Increased.
 This discrimination was borne somewhat impatiently even before the | war, but now, with new opportunities 1 for women opening up on every side, | the school marms are resigning on a wholesale scale. Instead of rushing I forward to fill the vacancies left by male teachers taken in the draft, the women are creating a list of vacancies | themselves.
 As a result says Dr. Claxton
 standards of efficiency in the schools are being lowered at a time when II is more important than ever before that they should not be lowered but should, on the contrary, be raiseds as rapidly as possible. Conditions which will follow the war will demand a higher standard of general intelligence industrial efficiency and civic knowl- edge and virtue than we have yet at attained; and this can be had only through better education"
 The importance of maintaining edu- cational standards in this country dur ing the war is being emphasized on ev- cry hand One educator declares: "A new and fairer civilization will not takt the place of the one that has broker down under the stress of the conflic
 unless the holders of the soul-stuff O the -teachers-dedicate them
 selves to the mighty task O.
 rebuilding the national institutions"
 Another authority points out tha
 since we are compelled to saddle thu
 future generations with a large wa
 debt. we should give them every pos
 sible educational advantage to get rit
 of it.
 Since the war nearly every Euro
 pean belligerent has reformed it's edu
 cational system. In France and il
 Germany. the high school, for whicl
 tuition was formerly charged has beei
 put within the reach of the proletariat
 In Great Britain a new and eXtensiv
 educational program has been provid
 ed calling for continuation schools
 free medical treatment for children
 and for large fines in the case of per
 sons preventing children from attend 2 ing school Everywhere, the idea of in
 creasing the efficiency of the futur
 generation through greater educationa
 facilities, has taken root and is flour l shing.
 In this country the teachers hay } listened to the words of educationa authorities on the new responsibilitie : of teachers with mingled feeling, Some, who live partly on the incom i. of their parents, have felt proud an [ patriotic: others have maintained a enigmatic silence, and still others hay : raised a protest. After reading tha .. the schools were the laboratory !, citizenship, in which the teachers wer : the chemists, two teachers in an east , ern city turned in their resignation , remarking that theirs was too lars [ job for the money. Each was carr = ing the munificent salary of $500
 year. which she exchanged for a s12( a a year job in commercial esta ablisf ! ment.
 n The question of teachers salarit V has long been on the American pull s lie calendar. For some time it hs e been recognized that our education ,, institutions could be improved Mar = improvements have already been mad = and many more suggested but one r, the improvements suggested remail d continuously unpopular, and that is n improve the school teachers salary. " this respect evasions have been ma, = with skill and diplomacy.
 'I In the first place, teachers were r
 quested to consider the fact that tn, ., worked for only nine or ten months :. year, and that their hours of duty we = shorter than in most occupations TT I last according to teachers, is falla e ious, but popularly believed. In oth Il words, when you argued it that was
 salary of $500 a year actually pecan l. $S0 a month, because the term w et for only ten months-to say nothil n of abundant holidays sprinkled abo st the school year.
 l. In answer to this, the teachers poin '- ed out that. although the school ter n was for only ten months they had n live for twelve months. which ma n their monthly income only s65. It W s hard for the average teacher to s 'e cure employment for those two montl
 they said. and anyway she needed ; of that time and sometimes more - which to recuperate from the strain - the schoolroom. re Anothef argument advanced in 0 ,d posing the increase of teachers ss is aries was that such salaries were we 10 low in Germany where teachers we
 glad to teach at any price at all. TT le was always delivered with an air IS reproach for the American schot g. marm's lack of enthusiasm. T k teachers then explained that in Ge ,d many the haSis of cociefy made f