New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-03-22
Why We Stagger
A Comparison of Office Bows.
Loundresses and Teachers

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: We shall hear much during tbe
next few weeks about the STAGGERING
costs of readjusting our educational sys.
tenn so that our children may again b.
fully provided with teachers. Surely
the cost will be staggering. but no more
so than a careful consideration would
lead us to expect
The facts are not beyond the compye
hension Of the man who sends his child
to the public schools, however much our
responsible officials may seek to becloua
the issue. The accumulated obligations
Of six years may well cause us all to
stagger. Let me pat the situation in It's
simplest terms.
In 1914 good Office boys were plentiful
at Sc per week: in 1920 they are scarce
at Sl2. In 1914 laundrcsscs could be
obtained at $3.50 per day; to-day one is
lucky to get them at $3.50, and yet no
che seriously accuses them OF combining
to profitecr The office boy bought good
shoes at "a in 1914 and he buys an in
ferior grade at s. to-day. The laun-
dress fares little better. True, these
necessary toilcrs handle more money,
but they live on about the same hand-to-
mouth level; their dollar to- day is buy.
ing about so cents worth. as compared
with 1914. We can hardly say that the
pay of these people has been raised.
Now let US suppose that by some
autocratic or mesmeric power these
classes of workers had been retained at
the old 1914 wage figures for all these
years, and that suddenly overnight an
alarming shortage appeared and their
ray had to be placed on the 1920 stand
lrd- The office boy would have to be
PAID $500 more q year and the laundress
5000 more. Imagine there are $4,000 OF
these workers, as there are $4,000 teach
ers in the New York City public schools
What staggering" figures! Our busl-
ness men would suddenly have TO pay
the Staggering additional sum OF
S7,200,o00 a year to their Office boys,
and the even more staggering amount
OF S14 400 900 to their laundresses.
But our business men are going
through no such "staggcrs." As the
open market price went up they pad
the added cost year after year. and Their
wives did exactly the same. Not so our
city house-father and his housewife.
impelled by a worthy enough zeal 10
keep taxes down, and an economy plat
form, they have had to permit the
municipal household to run down un'A
the cost of renovation has assumed STAG
gering proportions. Had the teachers
received the same consideration through
the past six years that has been gwen
quite freely to the Office boy ard ue
laundress there would now be no hearF
burn; the added yearly incremeh's
would hardly have been noticed; JusI''s
would have been done to large na"0-.
Of teachers who have been too proao "
strike; and, above all, our ch'idfeA
would not now be receiving their ecu
cation on the streets.
The costs will be Staggering" but
our worthy Comptroller will take pens
in hand he viii find that what the pu"''
now demands is only reasonable ~
will in a manful way admit that ne "s'
wrong, but couldn't help it, and then ~
will go to Albany and ask G,sein''
Smith to sign the Lockwood-poho"S'
teachers bill. JACOB TXE0BALp'
New York, March Is. 1920.