The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-10-13
HENDERSON PRAISES HIGHLY
 LOCAL SCHOOLS PLEASED AT
 WORK NOW BEING DONE HERE

The high cost of living is now an issue in every walk of life. Per capita schools cost will now be larger than in the past. The matter of teachers salaries in the schools of nearly every community needs adjustment upward. tAa..;:s;i,;: has 5cc:: able tc secure highly trained and experienced teachers largely because she has been paying more adequate saularies than the average state. Teachers salaries thru out the United States have advanced materially during the past year. There is, in addition, a scarcity of teachers turnout the nation, the shortage last year being estimated at fifty thousand. If we are to secure thoroughly con- potent teachers in the future, we must spend more money on the item of teachers salaries.
 A period of material, moral and spiritual reconstruction now faces the nation. It is frankly admitted by all that the schools are essential to the proper carrying out of a recon struction program. Without the ac- tive cooperation of teachers and pupils the nation would fail in its endeavor. The Great War has done one thing for the public schools. It has brought them directly to the at tention of the government and of each individual in this country in a way that has never before been pos sible. Heretofore, the schools were an accepted institution as were babies, day, night and the movies. Then came the war, and the Nation for the first time realized the tremendous power which the army of 22.000,000 school children and 600,O0O school teachers represented.
 The government said to this army: If the war is to be won you must help. Starvation threatens to defeat struggling England, France Belgium and Italy. You must pratice food-sav- ing and teach the Nation thrift. There is intense suffering turnout the world. The agency which we have chosen for the alleviation of this condition is the American Red Cross. If the Red Cross is to be success, you must get behind it."
 These are but few of the many calls which were made upon our pub lie schools. To each call there was a response which was mighty in it's ef- feet. For the first time this Nation began to realize the power which lies in the public school. The lesson learn ed will not soon be forgotten.
 It is not possible to account for Chateau-Thierry, for Belleau Wood, for Cantigny, for St. Mihiel, for the Argonne, for Sedan by enumerating the number of men engaged, by count ing the cannon, the machine guns, and the munitions and instruments of destruction. These victories can not be explained on basis of mere physical force. The men engaged were the embodiment of the spirit of a free and independent people and went forth in support of an ideal taught in the public schools. Some one has well said that the final victory was won because it had been preceded by a battle of books, by the silent tri- umphs of an army of teachers in the schoolrooms and on the playgrounds That the war in the final analysis was war between two systems of education. Between that of Germany the one hand, with its disciplines and doctrines, it's suppression of ini- tiative and individuality, and that of America on the other, with it's pro- vision for equal participation by all in a common culture, common ideals and common opportunities, and for the development of individuality and initiative bounded by proper regard for the good of the whole group.
 Not only has the public obtained a new view of the American school and its power and value as an invest ment, but the school has in turn ob- tained a new view of it's own func- tions and needs. It has realized its weaknesses and shortcomings, but never so concretely as now. It has in the past made attempts to remedy these weakness, but never with such determination or conviction clear cut as now: never with such confidence. that the public will co- operate and provide both moral and financial support as now.
 The reconstruction program of the public schools provides for definite work in Americanization, not only as the term applies to the proper assimi- lation of our foreign population, but also as it applies to the medication of real American ideals in those of na- tive birth who have failed to become really American in thot and feeling; for the teaching of thrift in the broad -n l-I~ IL