Evening star., 1934-08-12

United states. 400, 900. or as per cent,
receive less than $3.50 a year--the
rock bottom wage set under the N. r.
A. for factory workers-and $4,000
actually receive less than $3.50 q year.
or an average of 1856 week for So
weeks. Even that miserable wage is
held up. If only 8-out Of 29 States
in February. 1894. we're teachers sal
aries paid in cash, when they were
due. At the close Of the 1888 school
year. unpaid teachers salaries in cities
alone amounted to nearly $50, 900.
1t was estimated at one time that we
owed teachers in the United States
some $4,000, 900, Of which $50,000,-
600 was not even backed by notes
or paper that could be exchanged for
food.
Three C's Cost More Than RS.
I send my child to school to be
taught how to live in this great Amer
lean republic and pay the teacher
less than would pay a self-respecting
Office boy. And on top of that plead
poverty, tell the teacher to wait for the
But meanwhile I continue to ride in
an automobile. build good roads,
smoke cigarettes. say 1; mean we,
the American people. We spend more
money for the Three C's-cigarettes,
candy, cosmetics-than for the Three
RS. For education, at present, ST.
750, 100000 a year. For cigarettes,
candy, cosmetics, some $2.050. .000, 900
a year. Without criticism of the
sums spent for these little indul-
gences, 1t may be said that our sense
Of values Is completely askew.
The total cost of public and private
education in the United States for
the year 1880 amounted to an assess
ment of $44.34 against each adult. A
man who smoked package of ciga-
rettes a day, at 121a cents, would
spend $45.62 for cigarettes in the
course of year. Many man-riany
a poor man--does exactly this with
out considering himself at all extrav-
agant. Many a woman spends as
much for cosmetics and beauty treat
ments. BY what right, then. do we
kick about the cost of education? BY
what right do we force teachers to
work for nothing and go penniless
over long periods? Is there not a
weakness in the spine Of people who
let these things happen?
Nor does this tell the whole story.
At the peak Of expenditures we spend
$2,250, 900, 900 year for public edu-
cation. In 1884 this was cut to ST.
$50, 900 900. In 1888 $5,000,000 less
was spent for textbooks alone than
in Iceland in many schools the
supply of textbooks has never been
what it ought to be, anyway. Dur
ing the depression years we have
dropped, dismissed, fired so, 900 teach
ers because of curtailed school budgets.
This throws an added burden on the
remaining teachers and makes classes
more overcrowded than ever, with a
consequent decrease in educational
efficiency. The school term was
shortened in a fourth of our schools
to save money. Plant and equipment
was not kept up as it should be; it
is estimated that rs per cent OF our
school buildings are now in urgent
need of modernization.
25O,0O0 School Buildings in u. s.
ParadoMcally, the need is not for
less but for more teachers, equipment,
buildings. There are nearly $500
public school buildings in the United
States today; but of this imposing
total nearly 100000 or more than
half, are the little one-room schools
of our fathers and grandfathers.
Meanwhile, the number Of pupils goes
on mounting. Every year sees zoe, 900
more youngsters in high school than
were there the year before. A million
children have been forced to stay in
school by new child labor laws.
There are new problems to be met.
Young people deprived Of the chance
to work, yet not fitted for further aca-
demic education, must be given
something to do in school that will
keep them interested, keep them de-
veloping and be of value to them
later on. The alternative is to turn
them loose to join the gang or drift.
All this demands experimenting; 1t
demands able teaching personnel; 1t
demands eQuipment-especially equip
ment for the manual and mechanical
tasks peculiar to the modern world.
Not long ago heard speaker give
q talk on some of the things that
might be done in our schools. After
wards a wealthy woman in the audi
ence got up to remark sarcastically
that school taxes are high enough
now, in all conscience. without add
ing more frills. She did not seem
to realize that the frills of today, So
called, are like bath tubs and suao-
mobiles-the necessities of tomorrow.
And not only is the world getting
more, rather than less, complex; in
America, the need for education and
the hunger for education are still on
the increase. AS long as that is true
we must take it for granted that we
shall need not decreased, not q
static, but rising school budget.
When a man takes to slapping his
mother. we may suspect there was
something shaky In his upbringing.
If we now slap the teachers, perhaps
the teachers are to blame for not
having impressed us in early life with
their own significance and impor-
tance. If they had. slapping them
would be unthinkable. In other
words. the very fact that we do not,
In these times. instinctively hurry 10
strengthen rather than weaken the
schools Ia prnof Of shortcomings IN
education. Many people believe that
We do not get our moneys worth out