Show WHY TEACHERS SALARIES SHOULD NOT OE BE CUT 4 the following letter was written january 19 1932 by mr alf 11 E greenwood president of the utah educational association and bent to ajr mr orval W adams r prominent salt lake banker in ili answer to a speech made some time ago by mr adams before a meeting of the utah manufacturers rs association in which mr adora demanded that teachers salaries throughout the state or of utah atao be bc reduced as a help toward bettering economic conditions the article contains some very convincing arguments me ants in favor ot of the teachers mr orval W adams vice president and manager utah state national bank bazk salt lake city utah dear mr adams I 1 know you only through the news and you do not know me nt at all you are a man ot of prominence and I 1 but an obscure country school teacher for the moment I 1 am the elected head ol of five thousand 0 of finest citizens elti zens the teachers la in the schools I 1 have no assurance that all of them would sanction what I 1 holl say here but it Is my firm belief that most moat of 0 them would it Is because of that assurance that with their voice and in their name I 1 dare call into question both the judgment and the patriotism ot of a man who makee a speech such as you are reported to have made before the utah I 1 M association in salt lake city on tho the night of january leadership in business often men a breadth ot of view with respect to education will which h you seem be em still to lack lach it la Is rare indeed for successful men to attack the schools and those who administer them on a 0 financial side bids and almost unheard lin hoard of tor for a big banker to attack school teachers I 1 have had assurances ances from a number of the leaders of industry in this tsuto to the effect that not only were they athey opposed to teacher salary reduction but that they rejoiced that the teacher through the increased purchasing power of hla his money to is beginning to got get a salary somewhat commensurate with tho the high service he Is expected to perform I 1 havo have data before me which show the exact per capita amount of purely operating expense for ono one big school my own bor tor the past eleven years the principal item tor for this expense Is salary Bs lary though it also includes include s books supplies heat light insurance transportation por tation and every operating cost coat the 1030 31 per capita amount was as compared with tor for 1921 22 this Is an increase of but ih 48 cents per capita in ton ten years this year merw we have only for each child or a decrease of 1361 as compared with 1921 22 the per capita cost coat for education in the united states vs a whole tor for tuo the past year vaa was you are quoted as saying eliat school people cannot say bay they canut cannot take a cut because they never wore were paid sufficiently tor for their servi alcoa cco why cannot or should nut sc school hool people say just that I 1 gather that you think because a man has always been underpaid lie he always must be you know perhaps that accod acco aing to the last national survey tor which figures figurea are ara available that 0 of 1328 1928 it was waa brought out that the teacher in america received only 67 percent ot of the national income you fully occupied person anil and during that slime year the total expenditure for education including everything from the kindergarten to the graduate school ot of the university was only 2 67 percent of the income yau belong to a profession slon that waa making real money in those days now a city banker my friend certainly looks sweet throwing rocks at t the poor school teacher you aro are particularly unfortunate in picking utah as a si state where teachers salaries salar loi should be reduced you mention salt lake city as a place whore where they should be cut sz salt lt luko city would have to increase her high school schedule 30 percent to make it equal to the median salary of the nation tor for cities in her claes and 64 percent to equal that ot of illinois which Is certainly as hard hit by the depression as utah iier her median salary sala ry tor for elementary teacher s would have to bo be advanced more than 26 percent to make it equal to th the percent to reach that of the nation and 70 percent to equa I that of new york tork state and salt lake city pays tho the best sal salaries arles in utah As it Is you havo have to go to the negro states of th the south to find lower teachers sa barles than axe are paid in utah add to tills this the fact tact that few states have uglier higher educational requirements for tho the certification of their teachers and you see the economic difficulties facing teachers today A survey would show that nearly all of them 1 I would make a wager that 95 percent of the heads of families among them are paying debts they contracted tor for baro bare living expenses many bankers were rolling in eathy money their Inte interest iest rates have haive not een reduced reduce di neither have bavo thel their r tabei axes the tuition for their university Y ind extension classes nor their books aar a hundred other commodities and services which they require reau lre but after all it la not for the teich rs that I 1 take issue with you now nov it in s tor for the young americans americana in this ante who will have to take their places Ia cesin in national competition against alo citizens ot of california now new jersey arizona and illinois it tho the young I 1 citizens of those these states have the best eachers as they sur surely ely alu biti have oar after year they are a r e going to aavo a tremendous advantage over ijuro the education of our young ater Is not an expenditure but an all that wo we put iut into the chool comes back many told fold the schools mr adams are tho the natto nations ns greatest creators crea tois ot of wealth without bel them theal law jaw and order could not be maintained fora tor a month without them banking would fall and business would stagnate teo do not forget that it it were not for the schools of america we would have a dolog polyglot ot population speaking a hundred bundled languages and dialects and unable 0 tol to ead or write any wt of them I 1 I 1 feel corto in as to how you would I 1 answer all of 0 this you of course do not want to destroy the schools you in tact fact are a friend of education it Is only la in this depression that you tro re asking them to retrench trench lo it you had been in a profession that had done nothing but retrench all a 11 its life if you had walked with economic teai fear jud ind had bad been stalked by debt until you could think of nothing else it you had denied your family thi ord Piary cow con bolits that even the working man at af fords to pay tor for an edu education catlon that pay you back and thea arrived at a period tho the first one that most ot of the teachers teacher 3 have ever seen when they could jiqui logn or tha th faraz time to see their way through and then heard beard men like you talk learnedly about your financial duty I 1 fancy you you would feel as aa they do the schools Is of thi state can baui stu arlo alo back into th the e meal out of which the tha teachers lave havo gilted lilted led them during the last dozen years they can muddle through a they can he be a constant training camp for amateur teachers but when in gods goda name do you yoa intend to begin to have really excellent schools in the sovereign state of utah whacking salaries now means an outward flow of most of the red blood and most of the best brains of the teaching profession into other fields at the birst approach a ot of proa pros does it moan mean anything ing to you that there is now nationally a complete turnover of t teachers e every tour four years does it mean anything to you aa an economist and a business man that part ot of the product of our schools now is not net what it should be because men like you wont let us devote our lives and hearts to our jobs abs that yu you wont let the school business be a mans job at at aal that you presume to dictate lla its policies and Us support when apparently you know nothing at all about these things well you ask what in this emergency do you suggest the money must como come from some somewhere where where is it to come from in the darkest days ot of the world war when england was straining every every nerve and every fibre fabre of 0 the national being to maintain her existence she aha proceeded to re her educational system and to vote it increased financial support dr finley editor of the ne new york times says that act was prophetic ot of victory it typified sublime national balth in the future of britain and in the ultimate outcome of the war it if wo we were in a wax war men like you would be on committees which would ralso raisa ten times the amount of money from this state kimt it would take to finance flaonce the ithe schools for a decade well we are in a war a war of 0 ignorance crifie and misgovernment brought about by lack of latell intelligent igent education it talles moro more than tine fine buildings to mako make a school it takes teachers ot of bra las and courage trained to the minute tor for their jobs it takes people like the ones you would not permit to remain in die schools I 1 want you to know how thousands of oe us feel about tills this thing we are astonished at your lack ot of understanding ad we grieve at your unfairness to the school people but we burn with indignation when wo we think oft he inevitable effect ot of your activity upon the welfare ot of the youth ot of the cornin comin monteath mon sAth |