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Show 143TEACHERSQUIT ft MICE IN A P. , YEAR Secretary Lnno did pot overstate when ho'reently wrote: "The public chooI,;ls the stiongest weapon we posaeBsiagalnst the enemies of lib- It lajstronger than prlsonB, stronger stron-ger than sedition laws, stronger than deportations; for It prevents nbuses of freedom. Prevention Is always helter and usuaally cheaper than trying try-ing to cure. Last year -In the United States 143,000' school teachers teslgned to t go' Into better paid work. They vero I starved out of the most useful work that men and women can do. $HS Th, FI,,Ilnclal Chronicle says that KiwH.,000 rural ommunltlcs In New York L ""State havo been fored to close their f -Bchools'becaugd of a lack of teachers, ?$ it places tho shortage ot 5,000 In this stato alone. In West Virginia moro than 400 schools have clooscd ' for tho same l ease-on. 1 No such dearth of good teachers ' as now -exists has been known since i our public wchool Bj-stcm -was found- Ipd. Hear In nilml what It means. Onco the homo was well equipped, to do the work ot the scool or to ': supplement It . That Ib no longer tiuc If today thf aveiJigo child It not well Instructed In the fcchool- the chances are against the home making good tho deficit. ft Our mode of living tends to cause lis to expect aand demand moro and more of the school, Hut tho school is tho teacher, not t tho building. Overload, underpay tho I leacher and tho school falls. Its short doming Is at tho cxponso of tho next i, generation. No Institution can be expected to glvo good service when In ono year 143,000 of Its expert woikers are crowded out by penury. Theso figures ought to make every loyal American think deeply. They nro Inflnetoly moore ominous than the activities of tho so-called "reds" ot which so much Is made. I Neglect the public schools and In 1 n few years wo shall havo a crop Qt k citizens who will bo easily suscept-5 suscept-5 able to revolutionary promptings. Without knowlcdgo successful de mocracy Is impossible. Tho teacher Js tho truo defender or tho republic. 1 Woork so supremely important J must be paid an adequate wage. Most I teachers' now get less pay than the I motorman of guards operating the trains that take them to schoo'l Tho railway mon are not overpaid; tho teachers are all underpaid. It Is, as someono wittily said, a Iguestlon whether it la not an important impor-tant train the mind as it is to mind tho train. i |