January 30, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



161 



a year. This would allow four billion dol- 

 lars a year for scientific research and the 

 conservation of health and $200 for each 

 child beyond what is now spent on it. And 

 why should not the money be so used? It 

 would be the investment yielding the largest 

 dividends. Those who spend $4,000 a year 

 already consume four times the average 

 amount. Some may contribute more than 

 four times the average amount to society, 

 but they do so owing to the opportunity 

 and advantage which society has given 

 them. Thanks to the social order, those 

 spending $4,000 a year consume at least ten 

 times as much as was possible for the aver- 

 age man a hundred years ago, and this 

 possibility is due chiefly to the services of 

 men now dead, most of all to those who ad- 

 vanced science and its useful applications. 

 We can best reward them and honor their 

 memory by using the wealth which they 

 have created for further progress in the 

 direction in which they led. 



How long will it take to learn that the 

 privileges of property are subordinate to 

 the welfare of children? The average sal- 

 ary paid to teachers in the public schools 

 of North Carolina is $199, of Pennsylva- 

 nia $440, of California $817. The state of 

 Pennsylvania spends on its entire educa- 

 tional system less than one tenth of the 

 value of the coal it mines. When a state 

 consumes its natural resources it should 

 reinvest their entire value in education, 

 scientific research and the public welfare. 

 In 1880 forty per cent, of the teachers 

 in our public schools were men; now the 

 percentage is under twenty; in New Eng- 

 land and in New York it is under ten. 

 In Germany four fifths of the teachers are 

 men. Why should ignorant and character- 

 less girls be permitted to practise education 

 on our children because they are cheap ? If 

 the salaries of teachers were doubled, some 

 competent men would adopt the profession 



for a life work, and the best women could 

 be selected, preferably those who had first 

 cared for children of their own. The appli- 

 cations of science in the conservation of life 

 and the production of wealth have entirely 

 altered the position of women and of the 

 family. In elementary schools the best 

 teacher is the family — husband, wife and 

 children together. 



It is for the honor and ultimate welfare 

 of Georgia that 25 per cent, of its popula- 

 tion are children of school age, whereas 

 only 17 per cent, of the population of New 

 York and New England — probably less 

 than 12 per cent, of their native population 

 — are of this age. Since 1880 Georgia has 

 increased its per-capita payment for public- 

 school education sixfold; New York and 

 New England have only doubled theirs. 

 In the past twenty years New York and 

 New England have not increased their ex- 

 penditure enough to make up for the depre- 

 ciation in the value of money. Georgia 

 spends each year 6.3 mills on the assessed 

 valuation of its real and personal property 

 on public-school education, New York state 

 4.7 mills." The south is bent under the in- 

 herited burden of slavery and civil war. 

 But if it maintains its birth rate and cares 

 properly for its children and its health, the 

 center of wealth and civilization will return 

 southward. 



Over a billion dollars a year are spent in 

 the United States on the drinking of alco- 

 hol and its consequences, a comparable 

 amount on prostitution and its ensuing dis- 

 eases. We devote twice as much money to 

 each -of these destructive agencies as to our 

 entire educational work. Pleasure auto- 



2 Beal estate is underassessed in Georgia. In 

 New York personal property is scandalously 

 understated, owing to the tax. Personal property 

 in Massachusetts is valued at more than two 

 thirds of the real estate, in New York at less than 

 one twentieth. 



