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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1909)
rMtjySffi r vv ""gW aWJWyWMPmftHf '.'gmilBMIlF'iWilWi ISMM ISKSfetfUMMMitfftteMMttMLlw iifw.-Tmii iim itinniyjinipiij!, , ,. 4 The Commoner,. VOLUME 9, -tf'UMBER 4 V EDUCATIONAL SERIES THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION Tho Carnegie teachers pension fund, other so known us "Tho Carnegie Foundation," is wiBO iuiuwii ua niu uiujiugie x'uuuuuiiuii, iu woll described by a writer in the Lincoln (Nob.) "Tho Carnegie Foundation for the Advance ment of Teaching dates from April, 1905, when Andrew Carnegie set apart a fund of $10,000, 000, administered by a board of twenty-five trustees, tho Interest to bo used In paying re tiring allowances to tho professors in universi ties, collogos and technical schools In tho United States, Canada and Newfoundland. Tho original fund was limited to non-sectarian institutions. Tho trustees wero croctod into a corporation by act of congress on March 10, 190G, and the first retiring allowances went into effect in tho following July. "On March 31, 1908, Mr. Carnegie added $6, 000, 000 to tho fund for tho benefit of the professors of tho stato universities who, as ho said, had shown a desire to be included by unanimously passing a resolution to that effect in their national association. The only condition imposed was that tho governing board, tho state legislature and tho governor must unite in a request before any stato university can be placed on tho accepted list. "Tho fund is available only to teachers in higher institutions of learning, not In high schools or oven in preparatory schools connected with a collogo or univorsity. Tho term college Js doInod to bo a school with not less than six full professors and a course of four years in liberal arts and sclonco and requiring a four year high school course for admission. 'Retiring allowances are granted to profes sors, tills term including presidents, deans, pro- l!,or8ia880ciat? Profe8BorB and assistant profes sors, riioy are based on ago or length of service Any professor slxty-flvo years of age who has had not less than fifteen years of service is entitled to a pension computed as follows: (a) For an active pay of $1,200 or less, an allowance of $1,000, provided no allowance shall exceed ninety per cent of tho active pay. (b) For an fa iinSSy F21 ,tlmn ?1'200' thQ allowance is $1,000 plus $50 for each $100 of active nav in oxcoss of $1,200. vo pay nf '!tL!!CIve m''essor who has had a service comnn? rynn VS may, rotire on an allowance of SI 2nn 11 1ollows: 00 For an active pay ot $1,200 or less, a pension of $800. no allow- aXo,av0 n?;Vlmn elBMy Por cent ol l0th; SI 200P nmfffi Fm;,an actlve Pay of more than iw' ? rGtirIn5 allowance of $800, increased of $l200r t ?1? f activ Pay in excels twontvflv; rtSPoaeh year of Borvice above twenty-five tho allowanco is increased hv nn per cent of the active pay. No retlVin ni w unco in either class can exceed $4 0 So Anv" person who has been for ten years the wife of fnw6 lplrefIrod Profsor may reX dur ing, her widowhood one-hnif of fi,fl Vn to which her husband0 was "entiUed!16 allWanCG tlmn nnnS, nilos leavGS of absence, not more service IMR STn' aro countod warTS service it is not necessary that all of the van .of service be given to one lnrtitution t?S average pay for the last five years in thA SSrinY'Sn110 r?tirlng pay Is SS?uSdSS tiring allowance roll had reached $185770 Woft in the Omaha BY CARNEGIE, OR THE TAXPAYERS? county's gmLSatort0! fMorri the benefits of tton Pn5 . acceptance of of the Universiof Stoin' 0n behalf ment in which very manv JSfil ' i lces a sonti Although the cases ar?no Sfr? wU1 sha. deed, in some SZltS whIle' " oven similar, most of those wS ttoy are not acceptance of the Wnw??,e 2 PP.9sed the uo acceptance of Carnegie's money. Oif'S money or steel trust money, they will argue, it is all one. And they will add, what some very well informed persons believe, that Andrew Car nogle's sins of character and commission are as detestablo as Rockefeller's, and the one is as little entitled to honor as the other at the hands of people who cherish high ideals. It is a case of a question of dollars and cents going up against a principle. The dollars and cents side of the case is that the acceptance of this pension money, on be half of any university, is in substance and effect, an increase in salaries; that it is such a large increase that it means universities accepting this benefit will be enabled, thereby, to offer finan cial inducements to instructors perhaps fifty per cent greater than Nebraska can offer unless the people of this stato tax themselves to the extent of an additional $100,000 a' year to make good the difference. The principle, as tho World-Herald sees it, is tho essential wrong involved in allowing public salaries to be paid, in whole or in part, out of private funds. More especially is it a mistake if the funds spring from an objection able source. The state, if it is to maintain a university, should pay such salaries as are neces sary. Included in the necessary salary is such portion as will enable the instructor, by an economy which, while thrifty, is not niggardly, rrovi(ie against tho incapacity of old age wf accPtance of the Carnegie fund can be I , i?f? Snl? Sn 0ne of two grounds. It may be said that the professors need and deserve 2 hii ? 8 n WhiG.h the fund Provides, or that, Jnnlf d0 no actually deserve it, the accep tance of the fund by other universities will nat nlf? stably rob our university of the able and desirable members of the faculty un less we meet their competition. The World-Herald believes, as It has said re Stflfc JhaVhe "' our state untve?: uidernald Lf ?wSn Ur publIc schools are underpaid, and that to underpay them is ip most costly "economy" the state could practice Our university salaries average several hundred dollars beneath what are paid in othe? state St nSHS ?f ,eaUal rank- If Ifc S that the aid is deserved, the people of Nebraska ought to furnish it by taxation Only two ex cuses could be given for not doing so-firSt nat ?? ar? not able' and second, that they are "nnLnf n0t Willlng' at Nebraska Js able to m?n?ialV,great Btate university, and pay ade- Zlltiol ? rThV,e beMeV? no one wi SoSsly question. That the people are unwilling to n-iv the necessary taxes; that they would nraSrP?n summon in the steel trust or the o i t Mr fer to nrnvMo T e taxpayers pre- fund i&mseWeS rattT7 Sary r penlon rned ov? to Mr.'carnegle? h matter MR. BRYAN'S ARGU1VIENT you are right, both in advocating gn 1)elieve n the salaries of tUeuXlvBhyJnCTeaBQ in objecUng to any legiSve aStSfff. and the univorsity to become a pensioner oft Carnegie or the steel trust Tho 22? iof Mr problem is the pronei dftrih,,Mgreatest world nual -proceeds ofPthe UrlS to f" Af the au' of the labor of those whn Sl ' As a result ductive einployment a MrfS? eDgag,ed Pl each year and we shall IZ ?um realized dition until each StoSJ?1 id(?al CQn draw from thia total ?unf nfdf Ciety is able to to that individual's coSjfbStSf? ?rportIonato welfare. contribution to the country's the indivlduars share empIoyed ln deteminlng First, by competition. Where competition b free ea'h on 2 receives a rewar.d which measures society s estimate of his work. Second, by monopoly. Those who secure a monopoly are able to suspend the law of com petition and fix arbitrarily the amount which they can demand in return for their services and it naturally follows that a certain part of the community suffers by monopoly in propor tion as another part profits by monopoly. Third, by governmental action. The govern ment determines directly, through legislative act, or indirectly through authority conferred upon others, the salary to be paid those in gov ernment employ. Tho Underpaid Teacher The largest single item in local appropriations is the school, and Nebraska stands in the fore front In literacy and in the efficiency which char acterizes our educational system. .We have the kindergarten, the graded school, the high school and the university with its various departments schools and colleges. The compensation of those who teach is fixed dlredtly or indirectly by the taxpayers, and without attempting to dis cuss the relative amounts to be paid to the teachers in the several grades of the service I have no hesitation in saying that I believe that, as a rule, all of our teachers are underpaid. The teacher requires a preparation that is not necessary in most occupations a prepara tion that occupies, time and costs money, not' to speak of the continuing expense that is in curred in keeping up with the times and with ' the demands of the position. In the second place the teacher deals with those who are most precious to us our children. The child comes under the care of the teacher at a susceptible age and the teacher co-operates with the parent in the development of character as well as in the training of the mind. No other work except the work of the church compares with the work of the school room in its effect upon the child's future and upon the parents' welfare. Surely one whose work is so valuable and whose in fluence upon the child is so potent ought' to have an adequate compensation. This is not Imanded by, gratitude, but by selfish con siderations as well, for a teacher does better work when satisfied with the compensation than when convinced that the salary paid .far insult cient remuneration for the -work done. T 4.x. University Instructor " it nn .fSfe the university professor there " is an additional argument. Teaching is his life work and he foregoes whatever advantages whLbei deSire? from those employments from which larger incomes can be secured, it 5 sometimes argued that the salary of the teachers in the Nebraska university ought to be TS because higher salaries are paid elsewW Insofar as this argument is used to sfa low that salaries hero are insufficient, it is a legUImate ' argument but such an argument is unnlcessarv if it can be shown, as I think it caS oe that no matter what other states may be doinc m?r state is not giving to the college professor his just share of Nebraska's yearly income Starting, then, with the proposition that our university professors ought to be better SaW Zl ' are prepared to consider the secnmi J? , We Should the state by liwatlaS aKS; SniP688 t0,have Pssors of our 'universitv thorizan increase of aUtf&a&' J& Bors what they ought to hi IE?7 lts profea able, is unwilling to , do so PaId' or' thou to explain the present sltuaoSi M8 possil3le that the taxpayers TIS ?? Ule ground ered the subject or that i ti",ffliClentIy consI accurately reflected tto wfsheo? ?hH haVe not but to accept the Carnegie fund woS payers, lent to a declaration Sat ; th S?d be eQuiva" tho Inadequacy oftte AinSS, H Tecsn provision. IS it likely thi ZJ necesaary humiliate itself or that thnL 2i 8tato wlU taxpayers will, without tnS0wl10 present the them, confess Si voyJff oTth ttm enjoy, jtho benefits of &&? who willing to flo so? - them are na- But in the case of the Carnegie fund ther. 'X -A. V 1 U2nKi.UULUB9 - -tU,tB&MJL Ji