Evening star., 1923-09-19

schools and a college. university or,
,echnlcal school. the measure of pub-
nc cost between an illiterate and =
eeoiLege graduate is $3.50. That covers
MI HShirteen zen years in school and college
NOT 1850 year, but $500 for thTr-
teen years, expended to maintain the
INSTITUTIONS OF learning, whether by
taxation or endowment
= y x *
The average pupil never sees hirb
school, much less college. The ay-
erage goes only as far as Tho 6s.b
grade In the District Of Columbia
the value of educating children is
evidently not exaggerated. for II costs
only about s47.2O a year per child,
Gut in the wild and woolly west" #
costs in Washington. S4s.s1: lin
Nebraska, s52.71, and in Montana
S5ss1. NO.
Still the District is quite liberal as
compared with Mississippi, the Caro-
lfnas and Alabama, all of which l.aer>
schooling down to less than S12 a
child per year.
X X X
The parents of the District of
Columbia cannot be blamed for the
extravaganza" OF spending over s47
year on teaching their children the
three Rs, for they have nothing to
say about it. They do say things
but that does not count Congress
makes the appropriations and Con-
gress does not study the profits and
economics of their school invest
ments in the District
Ihe statesmen might compare
Massachusetts with Texas. The two
states have nearly the same popula-
tion, and yet Massachusetts spends
three times as much on her educa j
tlonal institutions, and her people
have accumulated 81, 900, 600, 900 in wealth
and Texas less than S3,0O0,0O 600
California, with about the same
population as Texas, but with a far
more liberal school appropriation, has
saved more than $4,110, 900, 900. Cali
fornia is newer state than Texas.
Popular education was not con-
sidered important until after the civil
war; Prior to that time, in some
parts of the country, public schools
ranked with county poor houses
they were merely charity institutions 3
Illiteracy was the rule, rather than
the exception. In the entire period
from 1892 to 1860 the people of
America got ahead of hand-to-mouth
living by the accumulation of only
$514 per capita.
Since popular education has been
in vogue-since 1S6o-the people have
accumulated wealth averaging S1,31S
Contrast saving $514 in 36S years
of labor and thrift, with saving $1,31S
in sixty-four years, and that phase OF
the value Of schooling win be realized.
x
The following data were complied
before the era of high wages. but
they still point the difference in earn
ing power of the educated and un-
educated man, because the spread
between the two classes continues
about the same.
Insurance tables show that the life
expectancy of a boy when he is of
the age to graduate from high school
Is forty years. An uneducated
were taken, about $500 a year. In
forty years, then, he would earn
| $2a, 1000.
A high school graduate. at that
time, would earn about $1,000 a year:
| in forty years, $4,000. The differences
| between the earnings of an unedu-
Gated and an educated man amounted
to $4,000. The education required
2,1eO days in school to gain that
extra $50, 900. Each day in school
therefore netted. that pupil $500. Tell
to leave school after he has achieved
the fifth grade In order that he may
earn $40 to SIS a week. His school
| lis hiring him at Se.02 day, or about
| sS5 week. on life job.
Copyright. 1928. By r. Y. coiiins,l