FABULOUS SALARIES IN AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3171, 23 August 1917, Page 8

FABULOUS SALARIES IN AMERICA

PASSING PHASE OP LXDIjTiTiUL i ' ■ • LIFE. Million-dollar salaries for corporation heads are but a passing phase, and American teachers' salaries, tinuing to be moderate, will attraot by reason of the security .which the worLotrers._ This is the double prophecy in t eleventh annual report of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement ot Teaching. The conditions of pay and of tenure of place in. institutions in which these teachers work vary- enormously, but as the various States and provinces become older and more prosperous, they tend constantly toward a certain ideal. Another generation will see, not a uniformity of educational in■stilutions—this is not desirable—but a general approximation to uniformity of economic and educational recognition of t~o teacher's service. What tho leacher may expect, what are his rewards, what are the certainties, and what are the possibilities of his profession will bo •more evident as these three countries approximate the stage of population of Europe. How far will security weigh in tho minds of able men'against tho money prizes? That is hard lo say. Time will bo needed before it will count appreciably, but 'Security is the only balance of a material sort whjqji the teaching profession can sot. off against, tho money prizes Men art* paid as much as 32200,000 a. year in a few * cases in America. Salaries of J220.000 a year are not uncommon. A great organisation thinks nothing of paying .CSOOO lo its vice-presidents or assistant managers. Ts it possible to fix tho eyes of able men upon the teacher's opportunity amid tho dazzle of such prizes? Two things nisv be said. The present scale of industrial salaries represent a passing phaso <>f corporation development. A million dollars a year paid to a. man is not a salary. No legitimate business could support overhead charges of such a. scale. The next tweniy years will see Mich 1 charges reduced to some scale l.ropor-tjon'-ji fo tho value of. t.l>'<> service tendered. But ihe time will never como

when teaching will hold out such prizes. Tn a malarial competition it oilers a moderate salary with security, and to do tiris it must be nrg-anised! In lite next generation business organisation, will miaereo a continual transformation in_ wiTTch the tendency will be lo .-libfitTtnie security for a part at least, of the I'rize thai iias hitherto taken (lie form or an cxa°voi'.<ed 'salary. As iimu goes on -ccurity jvill weigh innr» ,aml more with the able men in. decilin'.' a vocation. nr.rn.tbcY one may say that the money prizn will not be «o powerful in drawing able menawav from a. voeulio;i into which their■• intellectual and social powers would naturally carry tlieni.