Milford chronicle., 1920-03-05
WHO ARE THE ~QUITTERS?"
(From Harper's Weekly

(From Harper's Weekly
School teachers in Kansas and else
where have refused to organize into
unions. with American Federation of
Labor affiliations, on the ground that
their duties 10 parents, to pupils, and
to the public are inconsistent with
coercive action by strikes. They re-
fuse TO surrender their individual
freedom OF action in possible in
stances where obedience to a strike
command would conflict with their
conscientious conviction concerning
their duties as citizens.
All of which is highly cOmmendable
as a principle. 1t should have its re-
ward in full public appreciation. That
appreciation should take a more sub
stantial form than mere verbal eu-
logies 1t should take the form of
payment for services rendered in gem
erous proportion to the value Of those
services. And what service is more
valuable to the country, more vital TO
the enduring welfare OF the American
people. than the proper education OF
our American children? Surely the
men and women on whom falls this
grave responsibility and who, in the
instances cited, have shown so patrio-
tic an appreciation of those response
bilities. are entitled to such pay
ment for their services as will enable
them to live as well as those in the
country's industrial mechanism.
Surely, if there is any group of
workers whose pay should permit
them to live with some approach 10
comfort and personal dignity in these
days Of severe stress, the teachers on
whom rests the responsibility for the
right mental guidance and direction
Of the OncOming generations are fore
most.
But this standard of payment is
precisely what the teachers are not
getting In many cases their pay is
so low that they simply cannot live
on it, For such as these, the matter
resolves into the plain question OF
giving up teaching or dragging out
an existence of half-starved squalor.
So. it is not surprising to learn that
many hundreds of teachers are an
swering this question by throwing up
their work. In the last three years.
according to a recent survey of Chi
cago trade conditions, 40 per cent of
the teachers have abandoned the pro-
fession solely on account of the inn
possibility of living decently on the
salaries paid.
These teachers salaries are such as
washerwomen, janitOrs and teamsters
would scorn. A bricklayer, whose
cfaft demands an obviously low order
of skill and intelligence, may earn
nearly as much in a week as teacher
is paid in a month. The average
school teacher, says the Chicago trade
survey report, is under a twenty-five
year handicap on the basis of life
time earnings. The average teacher
will have to live to be 20 before her
total earnings are as much as
plumber can make by the time he is
4O Blacksmiths, shoe-store clerks,
soda-fountain clerks, under present
wage scales, will have earned as much
at 40 years Of age as school teacher
would at 52
The teachers will not form unions.
I'hSS;y- ISy ;=-iii VII ;;iSs strike. They regard
such action as incompatible with their
ideas of self-respect, personal inde-
pendence, and the duties they owe
to the American public. But living
lives of half-starved pauperism is al
so at variance with their ideas of
self-respect. So they resign and take
10 occupations Dy WHICH lASg Cdu
make enough to live on in the way
they should live They recognize their
duties to the public, but they do not
recognize starving to death as among
those duties.
The case of Chicago is by not means
singular. Teachers in many other To-
calities are being constrained to
abandon their tasks. Chicago hap
pens to have furnished us with the
latest statistics on the subject; that
is all. Possibly the glaring evidence
OF vacant schOol-rooms and of thous-
ands of teaeherless school children
may some day arouse us to the fact
that if the teachers recognize their
duties to the public, it may be time
for the public to recognize its duties
to the teachers.
The school teachers are quitting. !
That is undeniable. But, in present
conditions, is it they who are the
contemplate quitters," or is it the
public which will not pay them
enough to provide a decent living?