4i 8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of the dominance of the dollar in American life, the incontestable 

 fact exists that the public that pays out three fourths of its taxes for 

 protection of life and property willingly, pays out one fourth for pub- 

 lic education grudgingly. Why? Largely because the people are not 

 seriously impressed with the implied claim that the kind of education 

 they are getting is worth that much. It is altogether likely that con- 

 tinual agitation will result in teachers obtaining sufficient salaries, 

 perhaps even before the ideals of educational practise are modified in 

 accordance with the needs of human life, and before the people insist 

 that the inefficient workers shall not feed at the public crib. In that 

 case the people will be paying for something they do not get. Their 

 protection finally must lie in knowing what they want in education, 

 as they know what they want in food, but paying for it on the basis of 

 the best it can mean to them, instead of on the basis of the supply. 



The wide-spread agitation for an increase of the salaries of teachers 

 has emphasized the fact that teachers display more enthusiasm over a 

 possible rise in salary than they do over any other movement looking 

 toward their professional advancement. Of course it is true that nothing 

 is more important than the wherewithal to feed and clothe the body, and 

 keep it in health. But after that is attended to appropriately, the mem- 

 bers of a profession supposed to be contributing to human progress might 

 reasonably be expected to have other enthusiasms, such as intellectual, 

 moral and esthetic. One who has witnessed at close hand the fury of 

 a campaign for equal salaries for men and women teachers in the larg- 

 est educational system in the country ought to have illuminating ex- 

 perience bearing on this point. When both sides to the controversy 

 spend days of time, and much energy and money, employ dishonest or 

 questionable methods to obtain the help of influential citizens or offi- 

 cials, accuse one another of rascality in public meetings — when men and 

 women teachers do these things in the heat of their anxiety for higher 

 salaries, the idealist who strives for the development of intellect, 

 morality and beauty, must stand aside abashed and all but confounded. 



Continuous and earnest as the struggle is for higher salaries, great 

 numbers enter the profession every year, if only for a short time. It 

 is probably true that to a large extent men and women alike take up 

 teaching, because its returns in money are more immediate and better, 

 at least at first, than an equal amount of struggling for an economic 

 vantage point would bring in other fields of human activity. Among 

 teachers there is a constant increase in the freedom from such eco- 

 nomic competition as is necessary to hold a position once obtained. 

 Even to obtain the position in the first place, the competition consists 

 in a protected endeavor to increase the quality of formal scholastic 

 preparation, rather than in a sharp rivalry of manly or womanly qual- 

 ities. Competition between persons of good ability in the profession 



