Page:Newspaper writing and editing.djvu/175



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.
 * cumulated wealth, of enabling men to make fortunes and to preserve

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