- cumulated wealth, of enabling men to make fortunes and to preserve
their fortunes, and there is no possible argument founded in law or in morals why these protected interests should not bear their proportionate burden of government.
No man in his right mind would make an assault upon wealth as such, or upon property as such, or upon the honest acquisition of property—we simply call upon those who have the good fortune to have accumulated wealth to respond to the expenses of the great government under which they live and thrive.
2. Write a news story of 250 words on the following excerpts
from a report made by the Division of Education of the
Russell Sage Foundation on "A Comparative Study of
Public School Systems in the Forty-eight States," playing
up the feature that you think will be of general interest
to the readers of a daily paper in the metropolis of
your state:
The average annual salary paid to public school teachers in the
United States as a whole is $485. In one state, North Carolina,
the average is only $200 per year. In another, Mississippi, it is
$210, and in South Carolina $212. The wages received by school
teachers constitute a measure of two things: first, the quality of
ability of the teacher; second, the value the community puts upon
the teacher's services. The fact that the teacher's wages are lower
than those paid for almost any other sort of service means that as
a nation we are neither asking for nor getting a high grade of
service, and as a nation we place a low valuation on the teacher's
work.
While it is difficult to get accurate data on wages, the best available figures indicate that the average annual wages received by workers in five great occupations are about as follows:—
Carpenters $802
Coal miners 600
Factory workers 550
Common laborers 513
Teachers 485
Throughout the southern states thousands of rural teachers earn less than $150 per year. In one New England state hundreds of teachers earn less than $6.00 per week. In one county in a central Atlantic state the average for all teachers is $129 per year. In one southern state convicts from the penitentiaries are let to contractors at the rate of about $400 per year, while the state pays its teachers about $300 per year.
The average annual salary of teachers in the public schools in
