New Britain herald., 1919-03-25
We Get What We Pay For.

ent of schools in Chicago is $1s,00o.
 He gets 50 per cent. more than his
 predecessor, A schoolmaster with a
 weekly pay envelope of $345.
 What ails Chicago, asks the coun-
 try, as it did a few years ago when
 the same city elected a woman to
 mead its school system. What has
 l blown the Windy City into this field
 of wild money-spcndins Has the
 city found a superintendent far
 1 superior to all other educators?
 No. /. . Chicago simply thinks
 ! the job is worth the money. feels that
 1 the man who directs the education of
 l It's 3OO,O00 future citizens holds a
 1 Supremely responsible position Chi
 l cago is investing, paying a huge pre-
 mium for good citizenship insurance. ! Eighteen thousand a year is ChCa- { go's answer to the cry for Am erica n- 1 ization."
 Chicago believes in preparedness
 Tor peace. Children who are well 1 educated, soundy trained taught by ] Well-paid instructors, will make citi- 1 zens who will keep Chicago safe for | democracy that is the middle l western theory. And Chicago is | ready to pay for it; she does not ey- g. l She pays her teachers, as we'll as her 1 superintendent, salaries worthy of 1 responsible positions
 In this particular Chicago and l other middle western cities and ! towns have discarded the "educa l tlonal standards" of the supposedly more advanced east
 For the educational standards of the east. especially of New England, are ultra -conserva tive in the matter 1 of salaries. If prices of necessities go up, among the last to have their wages increased should be teachers that has been (and is) the New Eng ! land theory. Teachers are not or i ganized; their demands may be put 1 off; they have easy jobs; they can wait
 On earlier occasions they have 1 waited. The occupational fields then open to women were fewer But l tea achers are not waiting now New l ton lost 20 per cent. of it's tea ching ] force last year: they found better 1 places outside the "high''-but low l paid-profession.
 1 Normal schools are supported by l the state to train teachers Since l 1e17 Normal school attendance in Massa chusetts has fallen off 27 per cent, After training two or three years, young women find that they have trained for positions which do not pay as much as other positions which they might have trained for in three months. This explains why girls who actually graduated from Normal schools last year did not go into teaching.
 They could get better pay as filing clerks
 Thn Of I@I, $2O0 annual bonus for teachers
 through the war and for one year afterward. Such munificence gave Holyoke fame throughout the east if contrasted so sharply with what other communities were not doing. :N Since 1913 food prices have zone
 up s5 per cent, clothing 106 per cent and fuel B per cent, according to federal statistics. Teachers salaries have gone up 12 per cent, It is parativeIy easy to get cities to vote money for new school buildings. tReal estate owners, building contractors and architects are sometimes interested.) But when the suggestion to give teachers more paN Is made no one Is interest ed-except the treasury watchdogs. 1 Cities teke pride in fine school build ings. Who ever heard a city boasting that 1t paid teachers sa alaries worthy 1 of their responsibility? (Br1cks vs 1 brains) Cities pay for fire depa rtments as i, insurance aga inst conf1a grafton. When a fire sweeps the city the depa rtm ent !
 is not blamed. The city blames itself for not having better equipment and l more firemen. Public schools are insurance 1 {. against another sort of conflagra ton l but not schools manned by teach | CTS who are discouraged, dishea rten- 1 ed resentful because they are trying to live on pre-War sala ries The public school teacher is the l only person who can show American II l children from different homes and ! different neighbour how to get 1 along together. American teache :, 1 hold in their keeping the destinies 1 of the United States for the next 70 years. But what public leader ever made better pay for teachers his issue When has a leader in the legislature been put on the committee on educa- tiono In New England, with all It's educational traditions, there is at
 present scarcely anything that could ]
 be called educational public senti- n1ent.
 Now, however. the country is crying for Am erica niza tion"-and is ready
 to pay for it, The schools are the Americanizine plants.