The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1919-05-15

teachers in the United States who
have no schooling beyond the eighth
grammar grade. Small wonder, in
deed, that seven million of our SCHOOL,
children r being trained by teach
ers, mere boys and. girls themselves,
who have had no professional ieduca-
tiOn whatever.
When we consider that the 100000 |
teachers of America are paid an aver
age salary of $3.50 a year; when,
moreover, we consider the fact that
living costs have advanced 1903 per
cent since the beginning of the war, !
thereby cutting the buying power of
these insignificant salaries in, half, |
we can easily determine that only a
fool or a martyr would choose teach.
ing as a profession, or would long re-
main in it unless these terrible con-
dition were swiftly remedied.
What a crime it is! What an in
dictment! What an objectionable
sin at the door of an enlightened. peo-
pie who now find themselves at the
head and forefront of the democra-
cies of the world! How can we
better prepare for the great UNDER
takings of reconstruction than; by set
ting ourselves Immediately to rem
edying this perilous condition? In
these trying and chaotic times when
the world is beset by unrest, by an
archy, by revolution, by the, DEVILS
brood of appalling evils that follow
in the train of war, we must make
sure that the foundations of our re-
public are set on a rock that it may
stand against the flood.
The peace and security of the
world of the future will be in the
safe keeping of the generation n
our schools. These boys and girls
must ''weave up the raveled sleeve
of civilization. Their hands must
must minister to the wounds Of the
nations. Their minds must meet
and solve the difficult and crutial
problems that will be their inheri-
lance. Their hearts must be so i'm
bubed with the horrors of war and
with the poverty and anguish that in
evitably follow in it's wake that they
in their time will enter upon it only
as a last resort in national self-de-
Tense or in support of some great
principle of humanity.
Never has there been more urgent
need for high-minded, great-hearted,
splendidly trained, 100 per cent A
merican instructors to drive home the
vital lessons that these times hold.
Never has the future of the nation
been so clearly committed into the
hands of the teachers. And yet
thousands of men and women of
ability who would prefer to teach
are reluctantly leaving their chosen
calling, forced by the hard necessi-
ties of their very existence.
The teachers ask no largeness at
the hands of fortune. They enter
their profession for service, not rich
es. But they invest years and mon
ey in preparation for their life-work
and the knowledge they gain is
shared with others who themselves
use it to their W profit. Teachers
then by every right and in all justice
expect a return that will permit them
and their dependents to live decently
and in comfort.
In, every community reached by
the Literary Digest" there are read
ers of foresight, of vision, broad
minded men and thoughtful women
who will see-nay, perhaps have long
since seen-the critical and compel
ling Importance of this problem. We
are directing this appeal to them.
We urge them to compare the sal
aries of their teachers with those who
are doing work of equal value. There
will be a challenge in the facts that
will stir the community to action.
Let each community invest in
schools so that it may thereby invest
in trained manhood and womanhood
that can play their part in the great
period Of rebuilding and r%econstruc-
ton that lies before us. Let each
community set for its goal, as far as
Is practicable, a minimum wage. of at
least $1,000 a year for the teachers
Of America. This would cost the
nation perhaps as much as we so
gloriously spent in. but n week of
the great war.
We are not pleading merely for
the welfare of some single profession
we are not pleading for a special
class; we are pleading for America:
for her larger, her brighter, her
richer future, for the fulfllment of
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