Catoctin clarion., 1919-05-22

teachers in the United States who nave
mad no schooling beyond the eigth grade.
Small wonder, indeed, that seven million
Of our school children are being trained
by teachers mere boys and girls them
selves, who have had no professional
education whatever.
When we consider that the 100000
teachers of America are paid an average
salary of $500 a year; when, moreover, we
consider the fact that living costs have
actually advanced 103 per cent. since the
beginning of the war, thereby cutting the
buying power of these insignificant salar-
les in half, we can easily determine that
only fool or martyr would choose
teaching as profession, or would long
remain in it unless these terrible condl-
tions were swiftly remedied.
What a crime is this! What an indict-
mentl What an objectionable sin at the
doors of an enlightened people who now
find themselves at the head and forefront
of the democracies of the world! How
can we better prepare for the great un-
dertakings of reconstruction than by set
ting ourselves Immediately to remedying
this perilous condition. In these trying
and chaotic times when the world is be-
set by unrest, by anarchy, 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
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 raw
eled sleeve" of civilization. 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 hor-
rors of war and with poverty and anguish
that inevitably follow in it's wake that
they in their time will enter upon it only
as a last resort in national selt-defense
or in support of some great principle OF
humanity.
Never has there been a more urgent
need for high-minded, great-henrted,
splendidly trained. 100 per cent. Amer
lean instructors to drive home the vita
lessons that these times hold. Never has
the future of the nation been so clearly
committed into the eands of the teachers
And yet thousands of men and womer
of ability who would prefer to teach are
reluctantly leaving their chosen calling
forced by the hard necessity of their very
existence.
The teachers ask no largess at thu
hands of fortune. They enter their pro
fesaion 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 them
selves use it to their own profit. Teach
ers, then, by every right and in all JUS
tice expect a return that will permi
them and their dependents to live decent
ly and in comfort.
In every community reached by THE
LITERARY DIGEST are readers of fore
sight. of vision, broad-minded men ant
thoughtful women who will see-nay
perhaps have long since seen the criti
cal and compelling Importance of thi
problem. We are directing this appea
to them. We urge them to compare the
salaries of their teachers with the wage
>of those who are doing work of equa
value. There will be challenge in th'
facts that will stir the community to ac
ton.
Let each community invest in schools
so that it may thereby invest in trainec
manhood and womanhood that can play
their part in the great period of rebuild
ing and reconstruction that lies before
US. Let each community set for its goa
as far as is practicable, minimum wag'
of $1,000 a year for the teachers oI
America. This would cost the natior
perhaps as much as we spent so glorious
ly in but one week of the Great War.
We are not pleading merely for tn
welfare of some single profession; w
are not pleading for special class; w
are pleading for America: for her larger
her brighter, her richer future, for tn
fulfilmeLt of her glorious promise. W.
are pleading for coming race of mel
and women who shall be qualified t.
make complete the work of our fore
fathers who founded this nation and ded
icated it to liberty, and who will bring t.
full fruition the new victories that W.
have won in freedoms cause. We ar
pleading for wider teaching of tn
priniples, the purposes and the ideals o
this nation that all men shall know he
meaning and shall have equal access t
to her opportunities; that the light o
Americanism will so shine that it wi
flood every home, every heart, in ou
great land.
Victrola Tea.