The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-05-12

Il
hands. We believe that this same 0orkingman
viii be the first to join with US in asking better
pay for those who teach his children
No wonder there are fifty thousand vacancies
in the teaching forces of the schools. No wonder
the ranks are being filled with weak men and ,
with immature women who merely use the pro-
fession as a stepping-stone to something better.
No wonder there are thirty thousand teachers In
the United States who have had no schooling be-
yond the eighth grammar grade Small Won
der, indeed, that seven million of our school
children are being trained by teachers, mere
boys and girls themselves, who have had no pro-
fessional education whatever
When we consider that the 100000 teachers
of America paid average salary of $500
year; when, moreover, we consider the fact that
living costs have actually advanced lob 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 fool
or martyr would choose teaching as profess
sion, or would long remain in it unless these
terrible conditions were swiftly remedied
What crime is this! What an Indictment
What an objectionable sin at the doors of an
enlightened people who find themselves at
the head and forefront of the democracies of the
world! How can we better prepare for the great
undertakings of reconstruction than by setting
ourselves Immediately to remedying this perilous
condition. In these crying and chaotic times
when the world is beset by unrest, by anarchy,
by revolution, by the DEVILS blood of appalling
evils that follow in the train of war, we must
make sure that the foundations of our republic
are set on rock that it may stand against the
flood.
The peace and security of the world of the fu-
ture will be in the safe keeping of the genera
ton now in schools. These boys and girls
must weave up the raveled sleeve of civiliza-
ton. Their hands must minister to the wounds
of the nations. Their minds must meet and
solve the difficult and crucial problems that will
be their inheritance. Their hearts must be so
imbued with the horrors of war and with the
poverty and anguish that inevitably follow in
its wake that they in their time will enter upon
it only last resort in national self-defense 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 American 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 thou
sands of men and women of ability who would
prefer to teach are reluctantly leaving their
| their very existence.
/ The teachers ask no largess at the hands of
fortune. They enter their profession for service,
not riches. But they invest years and money in
preparation for their lfe-work and the knowledge
| they gain is shared with others who themselves
use it to their own profit. Teachers, then by
every right and in all justice expect return that
i will permit them and their dependents to live
| decently and in comfort
In every community there are people of fore
| sight, of vision, broad-minded men and thought
i full women who will see-nay, perhaps have long
since seen-the critical and compelling import
| ance of this problem. We urge them to compare
the salaries of their teachers with the wages of
those who are doing work of equal value. There
will be challenge in the facts that will stir the
community to action.
/ Let each community invest in schools that If
may thereby invest in trained manhood and
womanhood that can play their part in the great
period of rebuilding and reconstruction that lies
before US. Let each community set for its goal.
! as far as is practicable, minimum wage of at
least $1,000 year for the teachers of America
/ This would cost the nation perhaps as much as
/ we spent so gloriously in one week on the great
war.
We are not pleading merely for the welfare of
| some single profession; we are not pleading for q