The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1920-01-03
DANGER IN LOW
WAGE PAID TEACHERS
Willard |. Hamilton Calls on
Prominent Citizens to Aid in
Educational Campaign.

pany, ana CHAIRMAN OF Lne oldle En-
ecutive Committee of the Four Min
ute Men, in an open letter to the pub
lie indorsing the campaign for ade-
quate salaries being conducted by the
$4,000 teachers of New Jersey, urged
representative men and women
throughout the state to come forward
promptly In support of the teachers
movement. Mr.. Hamilton's letter fol-
lows:
when the Governor of New Jersey
finds II necessary to give warning that
the scarcity of teachers for our public
schools imperils the very future Of the
| state and the nation, as Governor Run
yon has done, it is time for he people
not only to consider the problem which
that warning discloses, but to solve it.
Just the bare statement of the Ma
tional Education Association that 49,
900 teachers dropped out of the teach
ing profession in the United States in
the past year is startling enough, but
the reasons for their exodus to other
professions give occasion for real
alarm.
ANY exodus is hard co stop. This
one from the teaching profession has
gained great Roadway and has behind
1t fundamental causes. 1t will not stop
of itself. Reports from school authori-
ties the country over show that COM
petent teachers in even larger number
are ready to turn to other fields in the
new year. Men have already disap-
| peared from our public schools, except
in high schools. in superintendent and
principals positions, in manual train
ing and physical training work. Now
the women, too, are saying goOdby to
the profession. The business world is
bidding for them, and bidding high.
Especially since the beginning of
the world war the country's market for
highly trained, competent workers has
grown enormously. The commercial
world has found that our teachers are
so highly trained and competent that
it is welcoming them eagerly at sala-
ries two or three times as high as those
they are now receiving for the far
more difficult work of training the
young generation into real efficiency
and good citizenship.
1--WE dare not dismiss this subject
with the thought that the teacher
movement for educational betterment
In New Jersey is merely a move for
higher salaries for the teachers. It Is
Infinitely more than that. Where there
was one business position, or one kind
OF business position. open to women a
few years ago, there are now scores.
There is hardly a teacher in a public
school in the state who is not compe-
tent to fill almost any of the positions
now filled by girls graduated from her
school last year.
And because the teachers are the
lowest paid workers In America, be-
cause their increases in salary are slow
in coming and small when they do
come, the business position would Of
fer far better opportunities for adj
vancement, in addition to higher pay at
the start.
1--WE cannot expect to keep our
teachers so long as we offer them less
than a living wage nor so long as an
a~blebodied immigrant without even a
knowledge of the English language
can go to work on the day he passes
through Ellis Island and earn more
money in his first year in his country
than the average annual salary paid
to teachers in New Jersey.
1.-THE problem which the people of
the state, and of the whole country as
well, now face goes beyond the ques-
ton of increasing salaries in fairness
to the teachers. The rapidity with
which the teachers are leaving the
profession show that we have ONE
thing more serious thar their personal
welfare to deal with, though that, too.
should be held a matter of real con-
Germ.
"As Governor Runyon has pointed
out, the problem in New Jersey is one
affecting the welfare of COG, 900 chill
dren in our public school, and that is
something every patriotic resident of
the state has reason to be disturbed
about. If we are to have schools with
out teachers, those children, them
selves cheated out of a fair start In
life, will send on into other generations
the harmful effects of u failure to
rise to this grave emergency.
1--WE who are alive to the seriousness
of the crisis ought to come forward
promptly while there is still time in
support of the New Jersey teachers
movement, the purpose Of which is to
Inform all the people regarding our
school situation in order that salaries
may be raised sufficiently to prevent
disaster to our educational system.
THAT movement should have the
active aid Of a strong organization of
representative men and women
throughout the state, of men and wo-
men who are not teachers, but who,
because the future of their children Is
involved, have more at stake h
ha We the teachers themselves