The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-05-22

i trained by teachers, mere boys and
girls themselves, who have had no
professional education whatever.
When we consider that the 740,-
j 900 teachers of America are paid an
average salary of $3.50 a year; when.
moreover. we consider the fact that
living costs have actually advanced
! 1O3 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 martyr would choose
teaching as a profession, or would
long remain in it unless these terri
BILE conditions were swiftly remedied.
What a crime is this! What an
Indictment. What an objectionable
sin at the doors of an enlightened
people who now find themselves at
the head and forefront of the de-
mocracies of the world. How can we
better prepare for the great under
takings of reconstruction than by set
ting ouselves Immediately to remedy
ing this perilous condition. In these
trying and chaotic times when the
world is beset by unrest, by anarchy,
by revolution, by the devils brood Of
appalling that follow in the train
of war, we must make sure that the
foundations of our republic 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 now
in our schools. These boys and girls
must "weave up the raveled sleeve
of civilization. Their hands must
minister to the wounds of the ma
tions. Their minds must meet and
solve the difficult and crucial prob
lens that will be their inheritance.
Their hearts must be so imbued with
the horrors of war and with the pov-
erty and anguish that inevita bly, fol-
low in its wake that they in their
time will enter upon it only as a
last resort in national self-defense or
in support of some great principle of
humanity.
Never has there been a more ur-
gent 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 commit
ted into the hands of the teachers.
And yet thousands of men and wo-
men of ability who would prefer to
teach are reluctantly leaving their
chosen calling, forced by the hard
necessities of 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 life-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, ex-
pect return that will permit them
and their dependents to live decent1y
and in comfort.
In every community reached by
the. Literary Digest there are readers
of foresight, of vision, broad-minded
men and thoughtful women who will
see-nay, perhaps have long since
seen-the critical and compelling i'm
portance of this problem. We are
directing this appeal to them. 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 a challenge in
the facts that will stir the commu-
nifty to action.
Let each community invest in
schools so that it may thereby invest
in a trained manhood and woman
| hood that can play their part in the
great period of rebuilding and recon-
struction that lies before US. Let
each community set for it's goal, as
far as is practicable, a minimum
wage of at least 1000 year for the
teachers of America. This would cost
the nation perhaps as much as We
spent so gloriously in but one 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 rich
er future, for the fulflment of her
| rl .