The Fifth Article h.i Dcaool Series
(Continued from Page Cue)
teachers.;. The respond has been in the negative
in every case. The “no-account” teacher couldn t
do worse, and the real teaener wo ddn t. I be
lieve 'the poorest work *1 ever did as'a teacher
was when I was receiving the highest pay I ever
. , ml _4-1.^ hilt flt.tflJld
received. The pay wasn’t tim cruse but attend
•«> • • * y-v .1 . j _ 1 nrvi an 1*0
ing circumstances. On the other hanu I am sure
that I never-did more cffechiul work than ohe
term in the nineties when i g- ‘TOO’ for the ses
sion. The size of the wage doc- ermine the
quality of the work of any real man or woman in
"any kind of job. Such a one does his best under
, tlw circumstances, regardless of wage.
But the Ox Deserves His Fodder.
Yet the laborer is worthy oi a hire commen
surate with his service; the-ox that trbadeth hut
the grain should be allowed a full ration
fodder. Yet comparisons must not be limited to
the' more fortunate-grbups. The big business man
or the lawyer who receives many and high fees,
who can “make” a month’s salary- oi his high
priced stenographer in the turn of the floor, can
offer and does pay competent secretaries more
than the state can pay teachers. The compan
: son, hr contrast, in Such cases is dnfair to tile
stale. You may be sure that all Such plums lack
no ‘pickers. It ;is the fashion to Weep now over
the inroads of the business office iipon teacherdom.
But be assured that there are not enough of these
wed-paid jobs to supply’the tens of thousands of
teachers in the state, and that all such jobs ave
never gone withdtit t'akers. It is unfortunate that
our economic system allows overlay in some
cases (the lawyer ror big businessman as well as
his secretaries). It is the fact that a few can
gather unto themselves more than their rightful
share, measured by their services to society, that
causes others to/get less than their rightful
■ shares. j
But teaches ire not the only groups who suffer
by comparison with the incomes of the more
fortunate or the bigger grabbers. No North
..Carolina teacher has suffered the loss of home
because of low salaries, or has had to go on the
relief roll. No teacher has been glad to get a
dollar a day for work with which to support a
. wife and children as have saw mill hands, farm
laborers, and thousands of others, nor like the
farmers for five years, with all hands wqrking,
“failed to make enough to keep the roof over his
.or her head.
, Incomes of Large Groups Low.
The teachers form a considerable group in
North Carolina. If there were only twenty of
them as there are of superior court judges, high
salaries could be paid without serious violence to
the deserts of the masses. Yet, as pointed out in
the fourth artiele, the schools of North Carolina
■ have within the last fifteen years absorbed more
money than all the schools in the state had form
erly absorbed in the history of the commonwealth,
as colony and state. We old-time teachers know
,.what really low salaries are, and realize that
'moderation must prevail, iieal teacners snouiu.
.'be-paid better, but there are hundreds of thou
sands of other people whose interests must be con
sulted. For don’t think that when a merchant
pays his half-dozen license taxes that the poor
devil barely eking out a living does not con
tribute his mite. When the railroads pay in their
.•great tributes to the state, be assured that the
funds have been gathered from rich and poor
from ohe end of the state to the other. The sales
tax is not the only tax that reaches the poor.
Freight charges, increased by heavy taxation of
the railroads, for instance, are involved in the
prices of the goods all of us purchase. Even
levies upon tobacco products raise the price of the
one chief luxury of the hard-ups.
In short, when it comes to compensating as
large a group as the teachers of North Carolina,
it is absolutely beyond reason that luxury salaries
can be paid. 'Let the aggrieved teacher consult
the Stewart’at the State Hosptial, who works at
the hazard of his life with his insane helpers in
the kitchen, Or the road hands who work in the
open in fell seasons, fend even some of the depart
ment workers at Raleigh, compare hours and
compehsations, and then be happy in that their
lot is so much more fortunate than that of many
others who are doing their "best in jobs essential
to the welfare of the stfete.
But here is commending the Governor for
recommending that teachers’ salaries be raised at
least fifteen -percent. Also, let us , endorse his
preference for a good teacher with a lferger
teacher load to poor teachers with any kind of
load, and I note his accord, wifh the Writer in the
opinion that high salaries do hot assure first-rate
schools. We had the period of high salaries and
1 never saw sorrier schools, as judged by tho
Of course the logical way to stop people from
driving cars while drunk is to keep them from
drinking intoxicatftg' Mqttor. W ^®*°P
'drinking is to stop the mamlf adttire and HiStritm
tion of alcoholic liquors. But there has been no
whole-hearted effort to do the latter thing,
howl was iraised that theenfarcement of -prohibi
tion was too costly. Yet as soon as the -18th
amendment is repealed we find the cost of, efforts
to prevent ‘illegal liquor manufacture and sales
jumps over a half-million Hollars.
It is not feasible to place enougn mguwa.y
trolmen on the roads to detect all. drunken drivers.
A hundred men booking out for illegal liquor, and
in North Carolina that means all intoxicants,
would stop more drunken driving than the. same
number of men scattered over 60,000 miles of
state and county roads on the lookout for viola
tions of the traffic laws.
Nevertheless, the courts can and should pun
ish drunken drivers effectually, and sure penal
ties imposed upon those guilty of the crime of
driving cars while drunk, along with a real en
forcement of the prohibition laws, would soon
reduce this menace to a shadow of its -present
self.
But as long as courts make a farce of punish
ing those offenders and as long as state authori
ties take it for granted that the prohibition law
cannot be enforced in an effective degree, the
sway of death may be expected to continue upon
the highways, however many highway patrolmen
there may be. The chances are that an accident
a day might happen for a year in the same spot
without a patrolman’s being in sight, even if
there were -a hundred of them.
“Drunken Drivers Thumb Noses at Court*”
A recent editorial in the Fayetteville Ob
server, under the above title, clearly indicates the
way not to stop drunken driving. If the Re
corder would sock such offenders as described
with sentences, to jail for contempt of court, his
mandates would be more respected., Here is
what the Observer says:
<<!Do the people of Cumberland county really
want the law against druxiken driving erifbreed?
“Are f;he courts of Cumberland county mak
ing an Efficient effort to enforce the 1'aW?
a greater negative answer were 'desired, &
more suitable “No” would hardly have been
found than in the example set Monday when a
gentleman was arrested for the fourth time in
six mdnths for the offense.
“Arrested in August he was prohibited from
driving for $0 days but was arrested driving in
September and again was prohibited from driv
product.
Doubtful If State Gets Money’s Worth.
I still believe that the State is failing to get its
money’s worth from its school system, including
the higher institutions, and that the suggested in
crease Of salaries will be unjustified from that
point of view. JN evertneless, tne tnousands ot
teachers who are rendering the requisite service
should riot have to bear all the consequence for
the faults df the system itself and of the serious
sprinkling df incompetents in the teacher group.
The system that permitted these incompetents
to get into the school rooms is to blame more
thari is the competent majority of teachers. The
prevalence of a senseless economic scheme and an
impractical tax system for government for the
benefit of government employees and wards is ac
couritable for the lack of the wealth necessary to
compensate teachers in the measure they deserve.
Under the circumstances, the real teachers must
play the goat and bear the consequences df eco
nomic sins arid the sins of the founders-of *the
school system. But all the rest df us should be
taxed to the extent of enabling the State to in
crease the pay to the extent the Governor sug
gests.
Instead of completing the discussion in this
issue, I here refer you to the article entitled:
“Old-Age Pensions to be Based Upon False Eco
nomic 'Principle.” Bead that and see if you do
not see how an abundance pf wealth may fee pro
vided to put the whole teacher tribe upon clover.
The ancient Hebrews supported, one whole tribe
as teachers and .priests. The article referred to
shows how North Carolina or the Nation as a
whole may provide abundance for its teachers
and other employees and ail its unfortunates
without causing others to have one mouthful of
food less or any other necessity, or luxury—there
will simply be an excess created for the govern
ment’s needs, yrith no over-taxing* of anybody,
physically or otherwise.
With mat reference to the other article, I find
an excuse to await the next issue to complete this
disbussion. •
ing for 90 days.
“Fact that no notice was taken in September
Of the contemptuous treatment of the court’s
August ruling indicates 'either that the court it
self bad no Tespect for its own judgments, or
that the business of the court was conducted in
such-a haphazard -manner that the court did not
know from month to month what its own judg
ements were.
“More evidence to this effect is piled up by
the same driver who is again arrested on Decem
ber 7 before the 90-day driving prohibition im
posed on him in September has expired—
charged with the same old offense.
“One might think that this would have been
the straw that broke the camel’s back—the end
of the -jig. a . . 1
“But no—instead of being slapped into dur
ance vile for double contempt of court the de
fendant is granted not one continuance, not two
continuances, not three continuances—but four
—and Heaven alone knows how many more con
tinuances would have been forthcoming had not
the defendant—not yet divorced from a steering
wheel—collided with a Government truck under
conditions which led to hisarrest number four,
just .45 days after his third arrest for which he
had never been trie^.
“The case is not helped any by the fact that
the court had before it all the time, the recent
example of'-another defendant engaging in a fatal
wreck while awaitipg trial on a drunken driving
charge many weeks previous.
“Perhaps the court can stomach the rank in
dignity offered it in this case, hut-the indignity
is not to the court alone but to the people who
pay their taxes 'to support the courts and to ob
tain fancied protection through the action of
the courts.,
“When the courts fail to supply the people
with protection—as they have very patently
failed to do in this case—it is the.right of the
people to complain that they are being short
changed.
‘<So much for being .perhaps too critical of
reajly conscientious officials* ■-o _
> “We’d lots rather applaud than er. ticize,
“Let than get busy now and show us that the
law tfgainst drunken driving can be enforced and
that the Recorder’s‘Court of Cumberland county
can enforce it—promptly.
“IPs one of the surest ways to end the slaugh
ter on the highways that is making North Caro
lina the Scandal of the Nation, and making Cum
berland county the scandal of North Carolina.”
About Middle-Marking
the Highways.
The one real way ‘to prevent 'automobile acci
dents 4s for drivers to keep on their side of the
roa'd. The State cannot put enough patrolmen
on the highways to assure that end. The prime
requisite seems to be to mark clearly the mid
dle of the highways so plainly that even a drunken
driver ihust know when he is on his side of the
road.
Yet the white markings on curves at present
present a menace in themselves, especially when
wet. Yet it is possible to eliminate that menace
by sanding the paiiit. We Were looking at the
American Markers’ equipment for this work the
other day. That equipment will undoubtedly do
the marking in an effective way. and at less cost
than the same work can be done by other means.
In the lrst place, a blast of air precedes the lay
ing of the paint, thoroughly removing the dust
film which would otherwise present adherence to
the cement. The paint is blown into every crevice
or opening in the cement, while grit by the same
blast method is driven into the paint. The result
is clear marking that reflects the light and be
comes less a m'irrcir to glaiiee it forward; while
the ingrained grit eliminates the present menace
of the slippery white paint In Ctirve markings.
It has been demonstrated by actual trial that
such' a 'marking from THUptay 'ejtrings to Raleigh
lasted tWh years, While The testimony of a formei
corotier .is tb "the ‘effect that the number of fatal
accidents on that 16-mile length of 'highway was
considerably dimiiirished.
We do hot Wish to seejn to be advertising the
American TfighWays Markers’ equipment, but n
Mr. B. B. Sapp hhs.'invented h machine which
will enable the State td Save the lives of maiy
citizehs, it seeths important eribugh tb ‘justify this
article Calling affehtieh to this means of lessening
the number Of fatalities upon the highways
which slaughter is becoming more and more eis
treSSful each year. _ —