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Show 1 TEACHERS HOLD MASS MEETING f AND LISTEN TD PROMINENT ! MEN ADVOCATE THEIR CAUSE 111 At a mass meeting of rliizens held in the Tabernacle last night to discuss the matter of granting the salary increase in-crease of $50 a year to teachers, a number of prominent citizens addressed address-ed the assemblage in behalf of the teachers. Including State Senator Joseph Jo-seph Chez, City Attorney Y. H. Reader, Read-er, Jr., Rev. Ray Palmer and Re,-. ('. R Garver. At the conclusion of the meeting the assemblage voted unani mously to urge the school board to grant the teachers' petition. Toward the close of the meeting a motion was put by Rev. Garver. who acted as chairman, for a vote of those who favored the extension of ten days i in the time of returning the contracts to the school board. The contracts,! as amended by the board, were given i to the teachers Mondav with the timc limit for returning them set for to-1 MS;; Ja The response to the proposal was I immediate and unanimous. Rev. Gar-1 ver also included in the proposal that the assemblage ask the school board' to hear the committee of teachers in a further presentation of their petition peti-tion and that, the petition be granted. It was the consensus of opinion, among all those present that the present pres-ent salary program with the minimum at $S00 a year, is not a just schedule I The affiliation of the teachers' organization or-ganization with the American Federation Federa-tion of Labor was also upheld, it was hown that the betterment of living' conditions among workers generallv, j 'in the United States, has been chiefly due to the efforts of organized labor' during the past few years The action of the school board in' ailing only eight men to enable them' to learn the community sentiment on; ihfl M 1 a n.' nnaeflnn l - tMMww hi lui con siderable comment. The stand was taki-n by a number of the speakers that the men referred to were not representative rep-resentative citizens in the strict sense of the word; that they were simply identified with heavy taxpaying Interests Inter-ests and. therefore, not free to express ex-press m opinion that could be generally gener-ally accepted. The Integrity and good intent ion of these men, howevei waa not questioned and thev were 'men tioned as gentlemen of high order bv all the speakers. There were many concrete facts brought out to show that the salarv program now mapped out by the fcchool board, and which will go Into Tfect tonight unless the school board gTants the petition for the ten-day extension, ex-tension, or allows the $50 a vear in-i in-i roasp on cich teacher's contract, will not met the actual living expanse of many of the teacher.-'. Joseph Chez Speaks. The inherent right of thn teachers to organize into a representative bodv and to be given a hearing on anv questions ques-tions alfecting their interests "before the constituted authorities was upheld h all the speakers. Stale Seuator Joseph Chez told the audience that he came before them as an American citizen with a cherished cher-ished right of expression. He said- I hold no brief for the teachers I hold do brief for the people- neither do I hold a brief for theboart Of ed cation uor the alleged representative taxpayers. The Le&cnera are th corner cor-ner stone of democracy; they are the mainstay against a great d.mge--tho jj rrowth of anarchy and EolsWism The teacher in the school la the stave upon which the government depends to ward off these menaces that con-front con-front us. To them wc must look to-the to-the future of our country th?y have the making of out future citizens in .their bands hands that are underpaid 'for the great responsibility placed up on thm The senator cited figures compiled by the department of labor to how that !iing expenses have gone up L12 per cent in the last two years. He said that in Illinois, illiterate foreigners foreign-ers are making ?200 a month and thai a great state is paing her teachers $55 B month He criticised what was supposed to be a meeting of representative taxpayers taxpay-ers with the board of education, in which these men upheld the schedule I offered by the board to the teacher? as fair "They were not representative taxpayers," tax-payers," he said ' They did not rep resent me. Why. I have more children chil-dren in my own home going to school than all of those 'representative taxpayers' tax-payers' put together " Reeder Speaks. City Attorney W. H. Reeder. Jr. favored the increased salaries because "the teachers have earned an in creased salarv" He said. "Even-thing has gone up a Uttle more Everybody is getting a little more, but the school teachers. When you want to build a house, Mr Leve- tlahl will charge you a little bit more. If any of you young ladies here want a second chance, Wade Johnson will charge you a little bit more for a divorce. di-vorce. If you happen to want your appendix ap-pendix removed. Dr. Rich will charge you a little bit more And so it goes; everybody gets a llttlo bit more, but the teachers They are entitled to a 1 living wage, a wage that will allow them a decent covering to their back and enough to let them change that cover once in a while Thpv are ph. 'titled to a little bit more just as these inien I have cited are getting a Mttle I bit more." Attorney Reeder's remarks were vigorously applauded. Rev. Garver Heard Rev. Garver told the people that l they could not afford to quarrel over 'a slight raise in their tax levy to give jthe teachers a wage commensurate jwith tteir ability and the time they spent in preparing themselves for their chosen work. He said the minimum mini-mum should be no less than $1,000 He favored organization saying that "ic is the organization if you win in life." He scored the reiusal of the board to give the teachers a hearing. "We cannot toierate autocratic rule." he said. "We ought to have no czars r.or kaisers. Although we would be mighty glad to have one kaiser here i for a few minutes And I wain vou to know that I mean William Hohen-tiollern, Hohen-tiollern, known over here as Kaiser I Bill, so that there will be no misun-I misun-I derstandings." G. J. Reeves, president of the Ogden I Teachers' association outlined the requests re-quests of the teachers and told the I people of the goal toward which the i were striving for He was followed by D N. Wheeler, jwho said that a- an American citizen he wanted to see justice and riuht for the teachers. Better wages will bring contentment, he said, and one must have contentment in any organization before there can be efficiency. Othor speakers were George Hcnd rlckson and Rev, Ray Talmer. Boto these speakers stood for betterment in tho :,alary situation in the Opden I City schools. Rev. Palmer said al-jtbough al-jtbough the board of education has I made some concessions it could make I more in the matter of the sah.:. It was reported at the meeting that the delegation from the Ogden Trades , and Labor Assembly was unabie to obtain a conference with the bocrd of education. Further efforts will be made along this line as favored by the motion voted on bv the mass meeting The Teachers' Federation will hold a meeting in the Central Junior school j at 4 o'clock this afternoon to decide whethei to return their contrac's this j ievcnin mQi signatures attached It lis believed, however, that spme com promise arrangements will be tnadi h the school board before th.n time, |
