Li '■ f ivt i^ ■' 1 o 
 
 H Retirement Inna for teachers 
 
 1 ( /./, 
 
 BY FREDERIC ALLISON TUPPER, 
 Headmaster of the Brighton High School, 
 
 Boston. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 NEW ENGLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 1006. 
 
Copyright, 1906. 
 
 By Frederic Allison Tupper. 
 
\ Retirement Fund for Teachers. 
 
 •' • n n y oi 
 
 The most direct way of treating this' extremely 
 important question is, it seems to me, first, to show 
 what plan is now actually in operation; second, to! 
 describe as minutely as possible the actual work¬ 
 ings of the plan, so far as experience has shown 
 them; third, to draw up a bill adapted to conditions 
 in the state of Massachusetts, by publication sub¬ 
 mit this provisional bill to the criticism of all who 
 are interested; and, fourth, to have the bill, after 
 all proper preliminaries, and, of course, under the 
 appropriate auspices, presented for the considera¬ 
 tion of the legislators. As our principal “light and 
 leading,” so far as the establishment of retirement 
 funds is concerned, come from New York, it is to 
 that great city that we turn for the best retirement 
 fund plan thus far devised anywhere in the world. 
 
 The amended retirement law appears in chap¬ 
 ter 661 of the Laws of 1905, and is as follows:— 
 
 AN ACT 
 
 To amend section ten hundred and ninety-two 
 of the Greater New York charter, in relation to the 
 public school teachers’ retirement fund. Accepted 
 by the city. Became a law May 31, 1905, with the 
 approval of the governor. Passed, three-fifths 
 being present. 
 
 The People of the State of New York, repre¬ 
 sented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as fol¬ 
 lows :— 
 
 Section I. Section ten hundred and ninety-two 
 of the Greater New York charter, as amended by . 
 chapter five hundred and thirty of the laws of 
 nineteen hundred and two, and as amended by 
 chapter one hundred and seventy-seven of the laws 
 of nineteen hundred and three, is hereby amended 
 to read as follows:— 
 
4 
 
 Sec. 1092. The general care and management of 
 the public school teachers' retirement fund, created 
 for the former city of New York by chapter two 
 hundred and ninety-six of the laws of eighteen hun¬ 
 dred and ninety-four, and of the public school 
 teachers’ retirement fund created for the former city 
 of Brooklyn, by chapter six hundred and fifty-six 
 of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-five, is 
 hereby given to the board of education, and the 
 said funds are hereby made parts of the retirement 
 fund of the board of education of the city of New 
 York created by this act. The board of education 
 shall, from time to time, establish such rules and 
 regulations for the administration of said fund as 
 it may deem best, which rules and regulations 
 shall preserve all rights inhering in the teachers of 
 the city of New York and the city of Brooklyn as 
 constituted prior to the passage of this act; and 
 said board shall make payments from said fund of 
 annuities granted in pursuance of this act. The 
 comptroller of the city of New York shall hold and 
 invest all money belonging to said fund, and by 
 direction of -said board of education shall pay out 
 the same; and he shall report in detail to the board 
 of education of the city of New York, annually, in 
 the month of January, the condition of said fund, 
 and the items of the receipts and disbursements on 
 account of the same. 
 
 The said retirement fund shall consist of the fol¬ 
 lowing, with the interest and income thereof:— 
 
 (I) All money, pay, compensation, or salary, or 
 any income thereof forfeited, deducted, reserved, or 
 withheld for any cause from any member or mem¬ 
 bers of the teaching or supervising staff of the pub¬ 
 lic day schools of the city of New York or of the’ 
 normal college and training department of the 
 normal college of the city of New York, or of 
 schools or classes maintained in institutions con¬ 
 trolled by the department of public charities, or by 
 
5 
 
 the department of correction, in pursuance of rules 
 established or to be established by the board of 
 education, or by the board of trustees of the normal 
 college of the city of New York, or by the com¬ 
 missioner of public charities, or by the commis¬ 
 sioner of correction for schools or classes main¬ 
 tained by such commissioners respectively. The 
 auditor of the board of education, the auditor of 
 the board of trustees of the normal college, the 
 commissioner of public charities, and the commis¬ 
 sioner of correction shall certify monthly to the 
 comptroller the amounts so forfeited, deducted, re¬ 
 served, or withheld during the preceding month. 
 Said amounts shall be turned into the said retire¬ 
 ment fund. 
 
 (2) All moneys received from donations, legacies, 
 gifts, bequests, or otherwise for or on account of 
 said fund. 
 
 (3) Five per centum annually of all excise 
 moneys or license fees belonging to the city of 
 New York, and derived or received by any com¬ 
 missioner of excise or public officer from the 
 granting of licenses or permission to sell strong or 
 spirituous liquors* ale, wine, or beer in the city of 
 New York, under the provisions of any law of this 
 state authorizing the granting of such license or 
 permission. 
 
 (4) One per centum of the salaries of all mem¬ 
 bers of the teaching and supervising staff of the 
 public day schools of the city of New York, and of 
 the normal college and training department of the 
 normal college of the city of New York, and of 
 schools or classes maintained in institutions con¬ 
 trolled by the department of public charities or by 
 the department of correction of the city of New 
 York, except that the amount deducted from the 
 salary of any teacher or principal of the public day 
 schools of the city of New York, or of schools or 
 classes maintained in institutions controlled by the 
 
6 
 
 department of public charities or by the department 
 of correction of the city of New York, in this man¬ 
 ner, shall not exceed thirty dollars in any one year, 
 and the amount deducted from the salary of any 
 supervising official, in this manner, shall not ex¬ 
 ceed forty dollars in any one year. And the board 
 of education, the board of trustees of the normal 
 college, the commissioner of public charities, and 
 the commissioner of correction shall, after the pas¬ 
 sage of this act, deduct on each and every pay-roll 
 of the said teaching and supervising staff said one 
 per centum from each and every amount earnable 
 in the period covered by the said pay-roll, notwith¬ 
 standing the minimum salaries provided for by sec¬ 
 tion ten hundred and ninety-one of the charter shall 
 be thereby reduced, and shall certify monthly to the 
 comptroller the amounts so deducted; and said 
 amounts shall be turned into the said retirement 
 fund. All deductions made under the provisions of 
 this clause from the salary of any person who may 
 be dismissed from the service for cause, before said 
 person shall have become eligible for retirement 
 under the provisions of this act, shall be refunded 
 to said person upon such dismissal. 
 
 (5) All such other methods of increment as may 
 be duly and legally devised for the increase of said 
 fund. The moneys standing to the credit of the 
 * retirement fund on the thirty-first of December, 
 nineteen hundred and four, after subtracting there¬ 
 from any amounts forfeited, deducted, reserved, or 
 withheld from salads for absences prior to that 
 date, which may, on excuse of absence, be re¬ 
 funded after that date, all excise moneys of nine¬ 
 teen hundred and four which may have been 
 credited to said fund on or before that date, and all 
 interest for nineteen hundred and four on said fund, 
 which may have been credited to said fund on or 
 before said date, shall be set apart by the comp¬ 
 troller as a permanent fund. The unexpended bal- 
 
 X 
 
7 
 
 ances of the income of the teachers" retirement fund 
 for the year 1905 and for all subsequent years shall 
 be added to the said permanent fund. The comp¬ 
 troller shall invest the said permanent fund, and the 
 income thereof may be used for the payment of 
 annuities, but if necessary, in order to carry out 
 the provisions of this act, the board of education 
 may use any portion of the permanent fund in ex¬ 
 cess of eight hundred thousand dollars in the same 
 manner as the income thereof. 
 
 The president of the board of education, the 
 chairman of the committee on elementary schools 
 of said board, the chairman of the committee on 
 high schools of said board, the city superintendent 
 of schools, and three members to be selected from 
 the principals, assistants to principals, and teachers 
 of the public day schools shall constitute a board 
 of retirement. The three last-named members 
 shall be chosen as follows: On the second Thurs¬ 
 day of May in each year the principals, assistants to 
 principals, and teachers in each district shall meet 
 at the call of the district superintendent, which call 
 he shall issue at least one week before said meeting, 
 and at a place within the district designated by him, 
 to select by ballot one of their number as district 
 representative to serve for one year. At the close 
 of said meeting, the presiding officer shall transmit 
 to the secretary of the board of education the name 
 and address of the district representative so chosen. 
 The district representatives shall meet at four 
 o’clock in the afternoon on 4Jie third Thursday of 
 May at the hall of the board of education, and 
 choose by ballot one of their number to serve on 
 the board of retirement for three years from' the 
 first day of the following June. At the first meet¬ 
 ing of the district representatives after this law 
 takes effect, they shall choose by ballot three of 
 their number to serve on the board of retirement, 
 and the three so chosen shall by lot fix and deter- 
 
8 
 
 mine their terms of office as one, two, and three 
 years respectively. Should a vacancy occur among 
 the members of the board of retirement so chosen, 
 the district representatives shall meet and choose 
 by ballot one of their number to serve on the board 
 of retirement for the unexpired term. On the 
 recommendation of the board of retirement, said 
 board of education shall have power, by a two-thirds 
 vote of all its members, to retire any member of the 
 teaching or supervising staff of the public day 
 schools of the city of New York, or of schools or 
 classes maintained in institutions controlled by the 
 department of public charities or by the department 
 of correction, who is mentally or physically in¬ 
 capacitated for the performance of duty, and who 
 has been engaged in the work of teaching or of 
 school or college supervision, or of examination of 
 teachers for licenses, or any two or more of the 
 several kinds of work, for a period aggregating 
 twenty years, fifteen of which shall have been in the 
 public day schools in the city of New York, or in 
 schools or classes maintained in institutions con¬ 
 trolled by the department of public charities, or by 
 the department of correction. And the board of 
 education may retire from active service any mem¬ 
 ber of the said teaching or supervising staff who 
 shall have attained the age of sixty-five years, and 
 shall have been engaged in the work of teaching or 
 school supervision for a period aggregating thirty 
 years. On. the recommendation of the board of 
 retirement, the board of education shall have 
 power, by a two-thirds vote of all its members, to 
 retire upon his or her own application any mem¬ 
 ber of the teaching or supervising staff of the pub¬ 
 lic day schools of the city of New York, or of 
 schools or classes maintained in institutions con¬ 
 trolled bv the department of public charities or by 
 the department of correction who> has been en¬ 
 gaged in the work of teaching or of school or col- 
 
0 
 
 lege supervision, or of examination of teachers for 
 licenses, or any two or more of these several kinds 
 of work, for a period aggregating thirty years, fif¬ 
 teen of which shall have been in any of the said 
 institutions. The said board of education shall also 
 have power, by a two-thirds vote of all its mem¬ 
 bers, and after recommendation to that effect shall 
 have been made bv the board of trustees of the 
 normal college stating that the member of the 
 supervising or teaching force is mentally or physi¬ 
 cally incapacitated for the performance of duty, to 
 retire any member of the teaching or supervising 
 force of the normal college or of the training de¬ 
 partment of the normal college who shall have been 
 engaged in said normal college . or training de¬ 
 partment for ten years and shall have been en¬ 
 gaged in some university, college, academy, or 
 school or in the public schools in this state or else¬ 
 where during a period aggregating thirty years. 
 The said board of education, upon the recom¬ 
 mendation of the trustees of the normal college, 
 may also, in its discretion, retire any such member 
 of the teaching or supervising force upon his or 
 her own application after the like period of service.” 
 
 “Upon such retirement, whether voluntary or 
 otherwise, the person retired shall be entitled to re¬ 
 ceive an annuity out of the teachers’ retirement 
 fund of not less than one-half of the annual salary 
 paid to such person at the period of retirement, and 
 in case of the president or of a professor to such an 
 additional sum per annum as will increase such 
 one-half of the salary previously paid if not an 
 even multiple of one thousand dollars to an event 
 multiple of one thousand dollars.- Any person re¬ 
 tired under the provisions of this act after thirty 
 years of service, except as hereinbefore in this sec¬ 
 tion provided in the case of the president or of a 
 professor of the normal college, shall receive as an 
 annuity one-half of the annual salary paid to said 
 
10 
 
 person at the date of said retirement, not to exceed, 
 however, in the case of a teacher or principal, the 
 sum of fifteen hundred dollars per annum, and in 
 the case of a supervising official, two 1 thousand dol¬ 
 lars per annum. And in no case shall the annuity 
 of any person already retired or hereafter to be re¬ 
 tired after thirty years of service be less than six 
 hundred dollars. Any person retired after twenty 
 years of service, but less than thirty years of ser¬ 
 vice, shall receive an annuity which bears the same 
 ratio to the annuity provided for on retirement after 
 thirty years of service as the total number of years 
 of service of said person bears to thirty years. 
 The annuities provided for by this act shall be pay¬ 
 able in monthly instalments. All retirements made 
 under the provisions of this act shall take effect 
 either on the first day of February or on the first 
 day of September. The number of persons retired 
 in any one year, shall be so limited, that the entire 
 amount of the annuities to be paid for that year 
 shall not be in excess of the estimated amount of 
 the retirement fund applicable to the payment of 
 annuities for that year. The words Teaching and 
 supervising staff of the public day schools of the 
 city of New York/ as used in this section, shall in¬ 
 clude the city superintendent of schools, the asso¬ 
 ciate city superintendents, the district superintend¬ 
 ents, the members of the board of examiners, direc¬ 
 tors, and assistant directors of special branches, the 
 supervisor and assistant supervisor of lectures, all 
 principals, vice-principals, assistants to principals, 
 heads of departments, and all regular and special 
 teachers of the public day schools of the city of 
 New York. Nothing in this act shall be construed 
 as prohibiting the reappointment to active service, 
 on his or her own application, of any person who 
 has been retired under the provisions of this act. 
 Upon the reappointment of any such person the 
 payment of the annuity of said person shall be dis- 
 
11 
 
 continued. Teachers hereafter appointed in schools 
 or classes maintained in the institutions controlled 
 by the department of public charities or by the de¬ 
 partment of correction shall be appointed by the 
 commissioner of the appropriate.department upon 
 the nomination of the city superintendent of 
 schools, and shall be licensed by the board of ex¬ 
 aminers of the department of education. The 
 department of education through such representa¬ 
 tives as it may designate shall maintain an effec¬ 
 tive visitation and inspection of all such schools and 
 classes.” 
 
 “Section 2 . This act shall take effect Mav first, 
 nineteen hundred and five.” 
 
 The plan described in the preceding articles pro¬ 
 vides for the creation and maintenance of a fund 
 and the management of it. It provides also for a 
 just distribution of the annuities at an age not too 
 early to overburden the system, and not so late as 
 to be beyond reasonable hope. This admirable 
 Retirement Law of New York is a sufficient reply 
 to all who say that such legislation is impossible. 
 Impossible? Gentlemen, it exists. Read it for 
 yourselves. It is no dream, nd figment of an over¬ 
 heated imagination. It is on the statute-books of 
 New York, not as a dead letter, but in “letters of 
 living light.” And now the question very naturally 
 arises: “Does the plan work well in practice?” 
 
 Thomas S. O'Brien, associate city superintend¬ 
 ent of the city of New York, in his report to Dr. 
 William H. Maxwell, city superintendent of 
 schools of New York, July 30, 1904, says:— 
 
 In compliance with your request, I beg leave 
 to submit hereunder a few memoranda and sug¬ 
 gestions concerning the teachers’ retirement fund, 
 and the efforts of the board of superintendents to 
 keep within reasonable bounds the practice of ex¬ 
 cusing teachers’ absences without pay,—efforts 
 which while resisting the impairment of said fund. 
 
12 
 
 reduced to a minimum the hardships which deduc¬ 
 tions for absence bring to needy and deserving 
 teachers. 
 
 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE RETIREMENT FUND 
 
 During many successive years, thi teachers and 
 the educational authorities of the former city of 
 New York endeavored to obtain the passage of a 
 law authouzing the retirement of principals and 
 teachers. They were met with repeated refusals 
 because of the added financial burden which the 
 pioposcd measure would entail upon the tax¬ 
 payers. In 1394, however, it was suggested that a 
 retirement fund might be formed if all moneys for¬ 
 feited by teachers for absences were set aside, and 
 made the nucleus of such a fund. As most of the 
 absences of teachers are caused by personal illness, 
 it will seem strange that the suggestion was 
 originated bv the teachers themselves, and was 
 adopted by the state legislature, to establish the 
 basis of the fund with moneys taken from the sick, 
 rather than with small voluntary pro rata contribu¬ 
 tions from teachers in sound health. Nevertheless, 
 the suggestion took legal shape, and Chapter 296 
 of the Laws of 1894 was the result. In the follow¬ 
 ing year, the Brooklyn teachers adopted a wiser 
 and more humane plan of a uniform pro rata con¬ 
 tribution from all teachers who wished to partici¬ 
 pate eventually in the benefit of a retirement fund. 
 The Brooklyn teachers, with few exceptions, sup¬ 
 ported the suggestion, and the legislature enacted 
 into law Chapter 656, Laws of 1895. 
 
 In 1902 the retirement fund of the former city of 
 New York was merged with the Brooklyn fund, 
 the pro rata contributions of the Brooklyn teachers 
 (which amounted to one per centum of the salaries) 
 were discontinued, and the more objectionable 
 method was adopted of covering into the retire¬ 
 ment fund much of the money deducted mainly 
 
13 
 
 from sick absentee teachers. It is important to 
 note, however, that large sums are continually re¬ 
 funded to sick absentee teachers, owing to the en¬ 
 richment of the retirement fund with statutory 
 contributions from the city excise income. For the 
 past few rears, more than $250,000 a year has been 
 thus obtained. But for this excise contribution, the 
 fund would have become exhausted owing to the 
 rapid increase of the number of annuitants. 
 
 It will be of interest to observe the growth of 
 the outgo of the fund since its establishment, and 
 to note the rate at which the number of annuitants 
 has been increasing. On these points information 
 has been sought of the auditor, who presents the 
 following exhibit:— 
 
 PAYMENTS TO ANNUITANTS. 
 
 Year 
 
 Manhattan and 
 
 Brooklyn. 
 
 Queens. 
 
 Richmond. 
 
 Total 
 
 
 the Bronx. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1SH9 
 
 §102,686 IS 
 
 $20,838 0) 
 
 
 
 §123,524 18 
 
 1900 
 
 173,233 94 
 
 36,408 92 
 
 
 
 209,702 86 
 
 1901 
 
 208,594 81 
 
 64,416 93 
 
 §1,100 00 
 
 
 274,386 74 
 
 1902 
 
 255,708 39 
 
 83,886 18 
 
 207 17 
 
 §3,320 39 
 
 313,117 13 
 
 1903 
 
 307,057 51 
 
 108,272 94 
 
 660 00 
 
 4,036 54 
 
 420,026 99 
 
 NUMBER OF ANNUITANTS, JANUARY 31 . 
 
 Year. Manhattan and Brooklyn. Queens. Richmond. Total, 
 
 the Bronx 
 
 1992 
 
 316 
 
 102 
 
 
 3 
 
 421 
 
 1903 
 
 390 
 
 126 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 522 
 
 1904 
 
 434 
 
 167 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 609 
 
 The auditor says: 'This is all the information 
 that is readily obtainable, for the reason that this 
 office was first established in the year 1898, and, 
 consequently, the first complete record we have is 
 for the year 1899. From 1899 to 1902, statements 
 of amounts paid to Brooklyn annuitants are not 
 obtainable in detail from the records of this bureau, 
 for the reason that the Brooklyn school board, 
 through its secretary, was the custodian of the said 
 funds for that borough. I, therefore, have been 
 unable to provide you with the total number of 
 teachers on the pay-roll prior to the year 1902.” 
 
14 
 
 RAPID GROWTH OF THE NUMBER OF ANNUI¬ 
 TANTS. 
 
 It is highly probable that the. recent remarkably 
 rapid increase in the number of annuitants is con¬ 
 siderably in excess of the normal rate, owing 
 largely to the fact that during the formative period 
 of the retirement project, a vast number of super¬ 
 annuated teachers had been accumulated in the sys¬ 
 tem, who were financially unable to give up their 
 positions, and whom the board of education felt 
 disinclined to force out of the schools. 
 
 DEATH RATE OF ANNUITANTS. 
 
 The following table shows the mortality among 
 
 the annuitants for the past nine years:— 
 
 1895 ’90 ’97 ’98 ’99 1900 ’01 ’02 ’03 
 
 2 2 1 8 8 9 7 12 13 
 
 PRECAUTIONS AGAINST DIMINUTION OF THE 
 
 FUND. 
 
 The increment to the retirement fund from ex¬ 
 cise moneys is a precarious item. It is liable to 
 diminish. Care should be taken to put the retire¬ 
 ment fund on a basis that will involve no uncer¬ 
 tainty in the provision for the permanent care of 
 the superannuated teachers. In the annual re¬ 
 port of the city superintendent for the school year 
 1901-02 it was urged that a slight pro rata levy 
 should be made on teachers’ salaries for the benefit 
 of the fund; and with practical unanimity the 
 teachers’ organizations throughout the city gave 
 generous support, last winter, to> a bill designed 
 among other things toi amend the charter in that 
 particular, by authorizing an annual levy of one 
 per centum of salaries, which would yield a yearly 
 increment of about $135,000. Greater refunds for 
 teachers’ absences would have become feasible,if 
 the bill had been enacted into law. Unfortunately, 
 the bill failed of passage—a circumstance worthy of 
 note when we bear in mind that it proposed to add 
 
nothing to the tax levy, and to make the teachers 
 take a larger part than ever in augmenting and 
 maintaining a fund for their own eventual benefit. 
 
 The following is an exhibit of the annual aug¬ 
 mentations of the fund since 1899:— 
 
 RECEIPTS 
 
 TO RETIREMENT 
 BOROUGHS. 
 
 FUND—ALL 
 
 Excise Deductions Unclaimed 
 
 Year Moneys, less Refunds. Interest. Donation. Annuities. Total. 
 
 1899 $269,094 83 $106,374 23 $5,744 53 $381,213 59 
 
 1900 266,859 37 131,073 86 397,933 23 
 
 1901 265,853 18 200,883 04 25,975 11 492,711 32 
 
 1902 262,066 04 146,703 70 13,583 81 422,353 55 
 
 1903 265,917 78 160,635 67 41,306 77 $300 00 $9,122 09 477,282 31 
 
 The following table gives the yearly differences 
 between the income and the outgo of the fund, for 
 the years indicated:— 
 
 Year. 
 
 1899 
 
 1900 
 
 1901 
 
 1902 
 
 1903 
 
 Surplus Balance. 
 $257,689 41 
 188.230 37 
 218,324 58 
 79,236 42 
 57,255 32 
 
 It is manifest from the foregoing exhibit that the 
 yearly differences between the income and the 
 outgo of the fund are fast dwindling, a circum¬ 
 stance which, as already intimated, is due tO' the 
 rapid increase in the number of annuitants, and to 
 the persistent pressure that is exerted on behalf of 
 absentees to drain the retirement fund. 
 
 It is to be hoped that the balance for each com¬ 
 ing year will continue to be a surplus and not a 
 deficit. This hope should be kept in view, what¬ 
 ever plan of refunds may be devised. 
 
 AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE PREREQUISITE TO 
 
 RETIREMENT. 
 
 The minimum service which is one of the pre¬ 
 requisites to retirement has been fixed by the 
 charter at thirty years, at least twenty of which 
 must have been in the public schools of the city of 
 New York. It sometimes happens that teachers of 
 less than thirty years’ experience become wholly 
 incapacitated for further school service. The prob¬ 
 lem of withdrawing such teachers from the class- 
 
16 
 
 room without removing - them for inefficiency pre¬ 
 sents grave difficulties. Obviously the city cannot 
 afford to retire such teachers on the same terms as 
 teachers of thirty years' experience, nor is it pos¬ 
 sible to give pensions, however small, to teachers 
 whose experience has covered only a few years. 
 To fix, in the case of such teachers, a minimum ex¬ 
 perience as an indispensable prerequisite to retire¬ 
 ment on a fractional stipend, is the problem which 
 must be solved. One of the suggestions laid be¬ 
 fore the last legislature was designed to meet this 
 difficulty by providing for such teachers after, say, 
 eighteen years of experience, annuities propor¬ 
 tioned to their years of service. 
 
 RATIO OF ANNUITY TO SALARY. 
 
 Owing to the piecemeal development of the laws 
 authorizing the establishment and maintenance of 
 the retirement fund, there has been a dispropor¬ 
 tion among the various annuities paid to teachers 
 whose antecedent services had been equal in length 
 and character. In the police and fire departments 
 of the city, the annuity is fixed by law at half the 
 salary received immediately prior to retirement. 
 Moreover, any member of either of said depart¬ 
 ments who has attained the age of fifty-five and 
 has been in the service twenty-five years, can de¬ 
 mand retirement; and to all others, retirement is 
 possible, if they are incapacitated. Teachers must 
 serve some years longer than a policeman before 
 they can be retired, and if they have attained to a 
 principal’s position cannot, in the case of men, ob¬ 
 tain an annuity on more than a forty per cent, 
 basis. Furthermore, no principal or teacher, how¬ 
 ever advanced in years, can, after services however 
 lengthy, compel his retirement, whereas policemen 
 and firemen can after a certain amount of service 
 make such demand as of right. 
 
 It needs no deep insight to note that the profes¬ 
 sional training of a man principal and the tax on 
 
17 
 
 his mental and physical powers bring him at the 
 time of retirement to a status quite as worthy of 
 public recognition as is the condition of a police 
 inspector on the eve of retirement. The latter is 
 retired on an annuity of $3,000. The former, at 
 $1,500. 
 
 The ratio of annuity to salary should, in my 
 judgment, be not less than fifty per cent. In the 
 normal and the city colleges, where no contribu¬ 
 tions of absence money or other money are made 
 by the teaching staff to the retirement fund, the 
 ratio of annuity exceeds fifty, and, in some cases, 
 may be as high as eighty per cent. In said institu¬ 
 tions, the hours of work are fewer, and the strain 
 involved in the discipline of large classes materially 
 lighter, than in the elementary schools. In the 
 national government service, I am informed, dis¬ 
 criminations as to annuity status are not made 
 among the retiring officers, all of whom are treated 
 alike. The Argentine confederation pays to its 
 principal teachers, after twenty years of service, 
 annuities on a hundred per cent, basis, the teacher 
 retiring at the full salary received immediately 
 prior to retirement. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that when all 
 teachers alike shall make proportionate contribu- 
 lions to the fund, the legislature will, in the inter¬ 
 ests of efficiency as well as of financial economy, 
 see the advisability of placing all teachers, princi¬ 
 pals, and members of the supervising staff on an 
 equal footing as to the ratio of salary to annuity. 
 
 ECONOMY IN THE EXPENSE OF RETIREMENTS. 
 
 It is susceptible of demonstration that a sum 
 equal to almost all the money expended on an¬ 
 nuitants is saved by employing new' teachers to fill 
 the vacancies so created at approximately half the • 
 salaries of the outgoing annuitants. A woman 
 teacher receiving a $1,240 salary is retired at $020, 
 and the vacancy thereby created is filled by a new 
 
18 
 
 teacher at a $600 salary, the first, and a $640 salary, 
 the second year. During the two years following 
 said retirement, there is no increased expenditure 
 involved in the retirement. 
 
 It may be objected that with the lapse of years 
 the new woman employee’s salary, increasing an¬ 
 nually by $40, will heighten the expense. A par¬ 
 tial answer will be found in the fact that of all the 
 annuitants who died during the ten years ending 
 December 31, 1903, the average annuitant life was 
 only a trifle over three years. 
 
 Computations of the cost of retiring men princi¬ 
 pals in receipt of the maximum salary show that in 
 their case, as well as in most others, there will for 
 several succeeding years be relatively small added 
 cost involved in their retirement. The slight effect 
 on the whole salary budget may be estimated by 
 noting that the entire number of annuitants is less 
 than six per cent, of the total number of teachers. 
 
 DISSATISFACTION WITH THE LAW CURTAILING 
 
 REFUNDS. 
 
 Scarcely had the board of education begun to 
 put into operation the provisions of the law requir¬ 
 ing forfeitures of money for absence, when criticism 
 of the law arose. Hardly a teacher who lost any 
 part, of his pay for absence could be found to sym¬ 
 pathize with the law, the passage of which the 
 teachers had done so much to promote. The 
 teachers who lose money for absence are in close 
 touch with the local boards whose members have 
 in some instances lost sight of the spirit of the law, 
 and—possibly through a mistaken sympathy—have 
 given wholesale approval to applications for ex¬ 
 cuse of absence with pay. A circumstance which 
 unfortunately left room for the unbridled exercise 
 of this power to excuse absences with pay was the 
 fact that the restrictions which the board of edu¬ 
 cation had in its by-laws imposed on grants of re¬ 
 funds were so slight that probably ninety per cent. 
 
19 
 
 of all the moneys representing teachers’ absences 
 could tinder said by-laws be refunded, and only ten 
 per cent, of those moneys would be saved to< the 
 retirement fund, if refunds were made up to the 
 limits fixed by the by-laws. Upon the board of 
 superintendents devolved the ungracious task of 
 laying further restrictions on refunds so as to 
 divert annually to the retirement fund a sum which, 
 with the excise increment, would raise the fund to 
 not less than its outgo for the year. These addi¬ 
 tional restrictions were* not all imposed at once, but 
 were developed as they became necessary. They 
 were mainly as follows:— 
 
 (1) Only teachers who suffered from a long 
 and serious illness could be excused. This rule 
 had long been in force in the former city of New 
 York. The local boards in several instances de¬ 
 manded as a courtesy that the time limits of a 
 “long” illness be fixed by the board of superintend¬ 
 ents. The latter board thereupon fixed such limits 
 at five consecutive school days. Much hostile 
 criticism of this rule followed. It was charged that 
 it put a premium on dishonesty by inducing a 
 teacher ill four days (whose excuse was barred by 
 the rule) to absent himself a fifth dav in order to 
 gain the refund. Not once while this same rule 
 was in force in the former city of New York did any 
 local board or school officer—so far as is known—■ 
 make this criticism. The dignity of the teaching 
 profession would seem to require that this' criticism 
 be not emphasized. 
 
 (2) Teachers of less than three years’ experi¬ 
 
 ence were excluded from the benefits of refunds. 
 For the adoption of this rule, two reasons were 
 urged, viz.: (a) Three years is the probation term 
 required for a permanent license; (b) Many 
 
 teachers who enter the profession do not remain in 
 the public school service after three years. 
 
 (3) As a general thing, a teacher was not granted 
 
20 
 
 a refund who, during the three years immediately 
 preceding his application, had been absent more 
 than thirty days. 
 
 (4) Refunds when the absent teacher was in 
 court were confined to cases in which the schools 
 were involved, and the teacher was defendant. 
 
 (5) In certain cases, refunds for absence caused 
 by quarantine were in part withheld. 
 
 (6) During portions of the past two years, re¬ 
 funds were given only in part to teachers who, long 
 since, accomplished the age and experience pre¬ 
 requisite to retirement. 
 
 Owing to the extreme difficulty involved in con¬ 
 sidering individual cases on their respective special 
 merits, the tendency on the part of the board of 
 suoerintendents has been to establish rules cover- 
 ing as many classes of fairly distinguishable cases 
 as possible, to the ends that little or no room might 
 be left for discrimination or for the exercise of dis¬ 
 cretionary power, and that all applications might be 
 disposed of in accordance with pre-established 
 rules. The board of superintendents is now con¬ 
 sidering a further series of rules for its guidance in 
 taking action upon applications for refunds. 
 
 RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 “With a view to the maintenance of the fund, I 
 would suggest:— 
 
 “(1) That for the grant of absence with pay no 
 regulation should be adopted which would render 
 necessary a raid on the relatively small surplus of 
 previous years that is now in the fund. 
 
 “(2) That rules governing refunds should be so 
 constructed as to result in annually turning into the 
 fund a percentage more than sufficient to meet ob¬ 
 ligations for the current year. It is possible that 
 a day will come when the excise increment plus 
 the whole amount forfeited for absences will,be 
 barely sufficient to meet the current obligations of 
 the pension pay-roll, and, in that event, refunds will 
 
21 
 
 not be possible. Care should be taken, therefore, 
 so to limit excuses with pay for absence as to hold 
 the fund at or above par for each year. 
 
 “(3) At the next session of the legislature, 
 Section 1092 of the Charter should be amended by 
 the incorporation of the following outlined provi¬ 
 sions :— 
 
 “(a) A clause providing for the monthly deduc¬ 
 tions of one per centum from the salaries of all 
 teachers, professors, and others who under the ex¬ 
 isting provisions of said section will, in due season, 
 be eligible for retirement. Although the tenure of 
 the superintendent and certain other members of 
 the supervising staff is not as secure as that of the 
 rank and file of the teaching profession, and al¬ 
 though said officials are not liable to forfeiture of 
 salary for temporary absence from duty, neverthe¬ 
 less, they would, almost to a man, be glad of such 
 an opportunity to pay in common with all teachers 
 a proportionate share of their salaries into the re- 
 lirement fund. 
 
 “(b) A measure similar to that outlined on page 
 110 of the annual report (New York) for the school 
 year 1901-02, providing for fractional annuities to 
 incapacitated teachers of at least fifteen years’ ex¬ 
 perience. 
 
 “(c) A clause placing upon annuities the same 
 safeguards that are thrown around the pensions of 
 retired policemen and firemen.” 
 
 In pursuance of the plan of stating precisely 
 what the terms of the best retirement fund law for 
 teachers are, and how this law works, it has been 
 deemed wise to study in some detail the evolution 
 of the law. Most, if not all, of the recommenda¬ 
 tions made as ?bove in Associate Superintendent 
 O’Brien’s article have now been embodied in the 
 New York law. From a careful consideration of 
 the conditions in New York it may be very fairly 
 inferred that no other large city in the United 
 
22 
 
 States has difficulties in the way of similar legisla¬ 
 tion any more formidable than were those over¬ 
 come by the teachers of New York. The great 
 secret of the New York teachers’ magnificent tri¬ 
 umph consists not only in the high character, 
 extraordinary ability, diplomatic skill, and self- 
 sacrificing devotion of all the promoters of the 
 plan, but in that enlightened harmony of action 
 which is so conducive to the best results. 
 
 Although abundant illustrations of pension legis¬ 
 lation may be drawn from the educational history of 
 Great Britain, France, Germany, and other Euro¬ 
 pean countries, as well as from several South 
 American countries, it has seemed wise, for the 
 present, at least, to confine the discussion to illus¬ 
 trations taken from our own country, on the 
 ground that the conditions prevalent in other 
 states of the United States are more likely to re¬ 
 semble those existing in any American community 
 than are the conditions in foreign countries. It is 
 with great pleasure, then, that credit is given the 
 National Educational Association “Report of the 
 Committee on Salaries, Tenure, and Pensions of 
 Public School Teachers in the United States” 
 (July, 1905) for the following facts more or less 
 summarized, and with additional notes and com¬ 
 ments :— 
 
 (1) Massachusetts has made a beginning by 
 allowing the teachers of the city of Boston to form 
 a retirement fund, which thus far makes possible 
 the payment of $180 per annum to annuitants. 
 Under section IX. of the Massachusetts law it is 
 provided that “no annuity shall be paid to any 
 teacher until such teacher shall contribute, or has 
 contributed, to the general fund a sum equal to all 
 the assessments for thirty years, to wit, five hundred 
 and forty dollars.” Section VI. provides that 
 teachers shall not receive an annuity, unless they 
 
have taught thirty years, ten of which years must 
 have been spent in the day schools of Boston. 
 
 Section VII. provides for incapacitated teachers. 
 
 Section VIII. provides for uniform annuities. 
 
 Section X. provides for a partial refunding of 
 contributions to teachers “who shall retire from the 
 service of the city of Boston not being in receipt of 
 an annuity ;” The fund of the Boston Teachers’ 
 Retirement Fund Association has been managed 
 with great skill by the trustees, and now amounts 
 to $155,834.08. The number of annuitants, accord¬ 
 ing to the last report, is seventy-three. 
 
 Athough the sum of $180 per annum, when com¬ 
 pared with the liberal annuities paid the teachers of 
 greater New York, seems small, still as a beginning 
 of an annuity system, and as a hint of better times 
 to come, it is highly encouraging. Experience has 
 shown beyond cavil or doubt that unusual care 
 must be exercised in doing full justice not only to 
 the annuitants of the present, but to those of the 
 future. Therefore, conservatism on the part of the 
 chosen guardians of sacred trust funds cannot be 
 too highly commended. 
 
 New Jersey in Article XXVII. of its school law 
 provides for a retirement fund from which annuities 
 ranging from a minimum of $250 to a maximum of 
 $000 are paid. A peculiar and, to my mind, an ob¬ 
 jectionable feature of the method of providing for 
 the fund is the practice of compelling even the 
 annuitants to contribute one per centum of their 
 modest annuities. 
 
 The Ohio law of 1904 makes the following pro¬ 
 visions for a retirement fund:— 
 
 “Any board which has created or shall hereafter 
 create a teachers’ pension fund shall pay into such 
 fund all deductions, fines, penalties, and assess¬ 
 ments made against teachers or other employees of 
 the board. Such board may also pay to such pen- 
 
24 
 
 sion fund not to exceed 2 per cent, of the amount 
 raised by the board from taxation.’’ 
 
 An extremely interesting detail, of this pension 
 legislation is the phrase “or other employees of the 
 board/’’ Jt may well be the fact that certain “other 
 employees of the board” are in some instances so 
 closely connected with the work of the schools 
 that they might well come under the provisions of 
 any law intended to secure an adequate fund for 
 teachers’ retirement. Ohio in 1906 made appropri¬ 
 ations for teachers’ pensions compulsory instead 
 of permissive. 
 
 The Illinois law of 1895 is as follows, including 
 the amendment of 1901:— 
 
 “That the board of education in cities having a 
 population exceeding 100,000 inhabitants shall 
 have power, and it shall be the duty of said board, 
 to create a public school teachers’ and public 
 school employees’ pension and retirement fund, and 
 for that purpose shall set apart the following 
 money, to wit: (1) An amount not exceeding one 
 per cent, per annum of the respective salaries paid 
 to teachers and school employees elected by such 
 board of education, which amount shall be deducted 
 in equal instalments from the said salaries at the 
 regular time for the payment of such salaries; (2) 
 all moneys received from donations, legacies, gifts, 
 bequests, or otherwise, on account of said fund; 
 (3) all moneys which mav be derived from any 
 and all sources: Provided, however, that no tax 
 shall ever be levied for said fund; (4) any public 
 school teacher or public school employee, a part of 
 whose salary is now or may hereafter be set apart 
 to provide for the fund herein created by this act, 
 may be released from the necessities of making 
 further payments to said fund by filing a written 
 notice of his or her desire to withdraw from com¬ 
 plying with the provisions of this act with said 
 board of trustees, which said resignation shall oper- 
 
25 
 
 ate and go into effect immediately upon its receipt 
 by said board of trustees.” 
 
 As no chain is stronger than its weakest link, the 
 Illinois legislation in view of section (4) cannot be 
 regarded as particularly strong when compared 
 with the virile legislation of New York. There is 
 excellent ground for supposing that any clause in 
 pension legislation which will release members of 
 the association at will must result in failure. Such 
 teachers as are unwilling to make prolonged sacri¬ 
 fice for the general good of a Retirement Fund 
 Association, and for the uplift and dignity of the 
 profession, are not fit candidates for membership 
 either in the association or in the profession. 
 
 Another objectionable feature of the Illi¬ 
 nois legislation is the provision “that no tax 
 shall ever be levied for said fund.” It would 
 be just as reasonable to argue that no tax 
 should ever be levied to meet any other of 
 the obligations of states, counties, cities, and 
 towns. It cannot be repeated too' often that 
 teachers are asking not for charity, not foe a 
 gratuity, but for legislation to secure for them 
 now and forever a small portion of their righteous 
 dues, and, furthermore, to secure those dues in 
 such a manner as will improve the public service 
 in the department of education, and will result in 
 the return of a thousand fold of all money ex¬ 
 pended for such a purpose, in consequence of the 
 elevation of the teachers’ profession, and the conse¬ 
 quent benefits to the pupils and the state. 
 
 California provides for “a permanent and an an¬ 
 nuity fund*” by the law of 1895, amended in. 1897 
 and 1901. Baltimore, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleve¬ 
 land, Detroit, Chicago, Buffalo, .San Francisco, 
 and St. Paul have “voluntary mutual benefit asso¬ 
 ciations for temporary aid only.” One interstate 
 association is also in existence. Massachusetts has 
 an Annuitv Guild. Boston has, besides the Retire- 
 
26 
 
 ment Fund Association, the Teachers’ Mutual 
 Benefit Association. - Baltimore has an annuity 
 association. Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, 
 and the District of Columbia have “associations 
 both for temporary aid and annuity.” 
 
 Miss Catherine Gpggin, in her able report to the 
 N. E. A. Committee on Salaries, Tenure, and Pen¬ 
 sions, shows that onlv three cities in the United 
 States have anything that can justly be called a 
 pension system. These three cities are New York, 
 whose system has been fully described, Detroit, and 
 San Francisco. The plans in operation in Chicago, 
 Charleston, S. C., Jersey City, Philadelphia, Bos¬ 
 ton, Norwich, Conn., and elsewhere, although inter¬ 
 esting attempts in the direction of providing for 
 superannuated teachers, and although highly valu¬ 
 able as furnishing experience and results to be 
 used in the framing of future legislation, cannot be 
 regarded as anything like genuine pension systems. 
 
 “Detroit has a permanent fund consisting of 
 gifts, legacies, etc.; moneys appropriated by the 
 board of education or raised by approval of the 
 common council and board of estimates; tuition 
 fees of non-resident pupils; interest on daily bal¬ 
 ances of moneys appropriated for teachers’ salaries ; 
 monevs which trustees of the retirement fund may 
 transfer from the great fund. Interest on this fund 
 must be turned over to the general fund, and used 
 in payment of annuities. No other portion of the 
 permanent fund may be so used. The general fund 
 consists of deductions from salaries of teachers, not 
 less than one per cent, nor more than three per 
 cent.; no deduction made on a basis of more than 
 $1,00*0; income from interest of said general fund; 
 all moneys deducted from teachUs’ salaries for ab¬ 
 sence or for any cause; all moneys intended for the 
 retirement fund, and not left specifically to the 
 permanent fund. The board of trustees consists 
 of the president of the board of education, the presi- 
 
dent pro tern, of the board of education, the chair¬ 
 man of the committee on teachers and schools, of 
 the board of education; the superintendent of city 
 schools, and three teachers in the city schools 
 elected from contributors to the retirement fund by 
 ballot, as the board of trustees shall prescribe, for a 
 term of three years, one teacher being elected each 
 year. 
 
 “The funds are in the hands of the treasurer of 
 the board of education. The amount to be deducted 
 from salaries is determined by the board of educa- 
 • tion on the recommendation of the board of trus¬ 
 tees. The permanent fund is administered and in¬ 
 vested by the board of education in the name of the 
 board of trustees. The board of trustees may pro¬ 
 vide for donors to the permanent fund an honorary 
 membership on the board without power to vote. 
 In case of the discontinuance of the retirement fund 
 all moneys appropriated therefor from funds of 
 the board of education (tuition of non-resident 
 pupils, deductions for absence, and interest on sal¬ 
 ary fund) revert to the teachers’ salary fund. When 
 the permanent fund has reached $100,000, no funds 
 may be added to it from deductions for absence or 
 interest on the salary fund, except by a two-thirds 
 vote of the board of education. 
 
 “The term of service entitling to> pension is thirty 
 years, of which twenty years must be in Detroit, or 
 twenty-five years in schools of Detroit render a 
 teacher eligible on application. Teachers in¬ 
 capacitated for duty, having taught twenty years, 
 ten in Detroit, my be retired by a two-thirds vote 
 of the board of trustees. Teachers who< resign or 
 are removed for cause may apply after three 
 months for such a portion of money contributed by 
 them as the trustees shall direct to be paid, not to 
 exceed one-half of their contributions. Annuities 
 are not to exceed $250. Current expenses of the 
 
28 
 
 board of trustees are paid from a maintenance fund 
 of the board of education. 
 
 “In Jersey City the state retirement fund is sup¬ 
 ported entirely by percentage contributions from 
 the salaries of teachers who are members. The an¬ 
 nuity is half the average salary earned during the 
 last five years of service, but cannot exceed $600. 
 Any teacher who has taught forty years, or more, 
 in any one school district of the state of New 
 Jersey, must be retired by that district, should he 
 or she apply for retirement. The annuity in this 
 case is one-half of the last annual salary paid. 
 
 “In San Francisco, the fund consists of assess¬ 
 ments of $12 per year deducted from the salaries 
 of day teachers, and $6 per year from the salaries 
 of evening school teachers receiving less than $50 
 per month ; gifts, and legacies, and not less than 
 half of the sums forfeited by absence. The perma¬ 
 nent fund is composed of 25 per cent, of all moneys 
 from these sources to the amount of $50,000 and of 
 all gifts specifically bequeathed. The fund is ad¬ 
 ministered by a commission consisting of the 
 mayor, the superintendent of schools, and the 
 county treasurer, who report biennially to the 
 supervisors. The retirement committee consists of 
 five teachers, one at least from primary, and one 
 from grammar schools, elected for three years. 
 The term of service is thirty years, with thirty 
 years’ assessments. The amount of annuity is $50 
 per month. A proportionate annuity is paid to in¬ 
 capacitated teachers who have been contributors for 
 at least five years. The annuity is suspended on 
 return to public-school teaching, or when incapac¬ 
 ity ceases, and if the annuitant has received a sum 
 which has reimbursed for his or her contributions. 
 There is a provision for pro rating. Necessary ex¬ 
 penses are paid from the fund. All annuities cease 
 if the annuitant returns to the profession of teach¬ 
 ing/’ 
 
29 
 
 Connecticut furnishes another example of activ¬ 
 ity in this direction:— 
 
 PROPOSED TENURE OF OFFICE LEGISLATION FOR 
 
 TEACHERS. 
 
 ‘‘A sub-committee of the board of education at 
 Waterbury, Conn., has formulated a bill which is to 
 be submitted to the next session of the legisla¬ 
 ture in that state, and which is designed to estab¬ 
 lish a tenure of office for teachers. The measure 
 provides that superintendents, principals, and 
 teachers within the jurisdiction of the board of 
 education, who have been in the service for a mini¬ 
 mum of three years, shall not be dismissed except 
 for cause. Dismissal can then be effected only by 
 a two-thirds vote of the board. The three years 
 are designed to be a probationary period. Under 
 the proposed act the board fixes the salaries, which 
 may be increased from time to time, but not re¬ 
 duced. 
 
 “A prominent feature of the measure is the pro¬ 
 vision for the establishment of a public school 
 teachers’ retirement fund. The board has authority 
 to establish the fund, which shall be under the 
 charge of a board of trustees, of which the city 
 treasurer shall be ex-officio treasurer. The fund 
 shall be composed of any legacies that may be re¬ 
 ceived ; of moneys deducted from teachers’ salaries 
 as the result of lost time; and of an assessment of 
 one per cent, on the salaries of teachers. The gov¬ 
 erning board shall have full power to invest the 
 fund. Detailed provision is made for the retire¬ 
 ment, by the board of education, of teachers who 
 have been in the service a specified number of 
 years, and for the payment of annuities to them. 
 Considerable interest has developed over the pro¬ 
 posed act in Waterbury.” 
 
 From these illustrations it appears that New 
 York city has the most rational, the most liberal, 
 and the most lasting of all the plans now in force. 
 
30 
 
 Any city which intends to be on a par with New 
 York in the treatment of its teachers will be under 
 the necessity of making such a contribution to the 
 teachers’ retirement fund as will enable those com¬ 
 ing under the provisions of the act to retire on 
 half pay. 
 
 The authorities of several of our American 
 universities and colleges are fully aware of the 
 necessity of this great plan of establishing retire¬ 
 ment funds. As an ingenious writer in a popular 
 magazine says rather bluntly:— 
 
 ‘‘The moderate income of most professorships 
 has contributed not a little to make the material- 
 minded Anglo-Saxon despise learning and science; 
 and absence of proper provision for old age added 
 to this contempt. The professor was not only 
 earning a mere pittance in comparison with his 
 supposed abilities; he was hanging on to his post 
 long after he had ceased to be able to perform his 
 duties properly.” 
 
 It is therefore most encouraging to learn that 
 Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Amherst, and 
 perhaps other institutions already have retirement 
 funds, while other universities like Chicago and 
 Brown are taking steps to establish such funds. 
 Let us take the plan used at Harvard as a type of 
 a liberal scheme. President Eliot reports that this 
 plan is entirely satisfactory. 
 
 SYSTEM OF RETIRING ALLOWANCES AT HARVARD 
 
 UNIVERSITY. 
 
 The following rules concerning retiring allow¬ 
 ances were put in force on September 1, 1899:— 
 
 1. Anv person in the service of the university 
 and sixty years of age, who has held an office of 
 the grade of an assistant professorship, or of a 
 higher grade, for twenty years, shall be entitled to a 
 retiring allowance of twenty-sixtieths of his last 
 annual salary in activity, and to an additional 
 allowance of one-sixtieth of his last annual salary 
 
31 
 
 for each year of service in addition to twenty; but 
 no retiring allowance shall exceed forty-sixtieths 
 of the last annual salary in full activity. In count¬ 
 ing years of additional service, years of continuous 
 service as member of a faculty with the title of 
 tutor, instructor, or lecturer, or as assistant in a 
 scientific establishment on an appointment not an¬ 
 nual, may be added, at the discretion of the presi¬ 
 dent and fellows, to the years of service as assist¬ 
 ant professor or in a higher grade. 
 
 2. No person under sixty years of age shad be 
 entitled to a retiring allowance; but the president 
 and fellows may at their discretion pay to any per¬ 
 son who, while in the service of the university, has 
 become incapable of discharging his duties by 
 reason of permanent infirmity of mind or body, or 
 has resigned, before the age of sixty, an allowance 
 not exceeding that which he would be entitled to 
 receive under Rule 1, if he had reached the age of 
 sixty. 
 
 3. No person who has been in the service of the 
 university less than twenty years as assistant pro¬ 
 fessor or at a higher grade shall be entitled to a re¬ 
 tiring allowance; but in computing the retiring 
 allowance of a person who entered the service of 
 the university, as a professor or at an equal grade, 
 at an unusually advanced age, the president and 
 fellows may at their discretion add a number of 
 years, not exceeding ten, to his actual years of ser¬ 
 vice ; and such a person may be granted a retiring 
 allowance as soon as his total service, including the 
 constructive addition, reaches twenty years. 
 
 4. Any professor or officer of like grade en¬ 
 titled to a retiring allowance, who with the consent 
 of the president and fellows shall give up a pa"t 
 of his work and a corresponding part of his salary, 
 shall have a right, upon his partial retirement, to a 
 retiring allowance computed under Rule 1 upon 
 that part of his full salary which he relinquishes; 
 
32 
 
 and upon his complete retirement his allowance 
 shall be computed on his last full annual salary, and 
 his years of partial retirement shall count as years 
 of service. 
 
 5. The president and fellows may, in the ex¬ 
 ercise of their discretion, retire wholly or in part 
 any professor or officer of like grade, who has 
 reached the age of sixty-six, upon the retiring 
 allowance to which he is entitled. 
 
 6. In the preceding sections, years of leave of 
 absence are to be counted as years of active ser¬ 
 vice ; librarians, assistant librarians, curators, assist¬ 
 ants in the scientific establishments, and adminis¬ 
 trative officers of long tenure whose salaries may 
 be classed with those of professors or assistant pro¬ 
 fessors are covered by the phrases “at an equal 
 grade" or “of like grade”; and the “last annual sal¬ 
 ary in full activity" means the hist regular salary as 
 professor, excluding annual grants and extra pay¬ 
 ments. 
 
 7. The president and fellows retain power to 
 alter these rules, without, however, abridging the 
 rights which individuals in the service of the uni¬ 
 versity shall have acquired under them. 
 
 8. The obligation of the .president and fellows 
 to pay retiring allowances will be neither greater 
 nor less than their obligation to pay salaries; so 
 that if misfortune shall compel a percentage reduc¬ 
 tion of salaries, retiring allowances will be reduced 
 in the same proportion. 
 
 That there are any valid objections whatsoever 
 to establishing retirement funds for teachers, I do 
 not believe. And yet, in presenting a compara¬ 
 tively new subject, it is well to consider such 
 specious objections as may be offered. 
 
 I deem it wise to follow this course, because it is 
 evident that the propositon to pay teachers pen¬ 
 sions is absolutely certain to meet with consider¬ 
 able opposition, sometimes from quarters where 
 
such opposition would be least expected. It is a 
 part of wisdom, then, to look at the facts and con¬ 
 ditions as they are, rather than as the visionary or 
 the imaginative may picture them. Tn correspond¬ 
 ence with me on the subject of teachers’ pensions, 
 Charles Francis Adams writes: “I am distinctly and 
 emphatically opposed to pensions for anyone, ex¬ 
 cept for soldiers and sailors absolutely incapacitated 
 from earning their own living bv injuries received 
 in actual warfare. The whole pension system, 
 when it once gets a footing, under any democratic 
 form of government, is sure to extend into an in¬ 
 tolerable abuse. It has been so in our case, to an 
 extent which is difficult to exaggerate. 
 
 “My conviction is that persons in public employ 
 should be paid adequate compensation. Out of 
 this they should make their own provision for re¬ 
 tirement or incapacity. They should do exactly as 
 they do in private life. If the rate of compensation 
 is below that paid in ordinary life, it should be in¬ 
 creased to that level. The community then knows 
 what it is paying; the employee knows what he is 
 entitled to receive. 
 
 “The pension system Is, in my judgment, wrong 
 in principle and in practice. Moreover, it is a fraud. 
 I have had a good deal to do with it myself in prac¬ 
 tical working life, and I never yet found a single 
 man or woman who did not say they preferred to 
 receive an agreed compensation and provide for 
 themselves, rather than receive less, and be pro¬ 
 vided for by pension. Neither, will I add, have f 
 ever met a man or woman who did not, when com¬ 
 pensation was agreed upon on the above basis, 
 afterwards turn around and desire, in addition 
 thereto, to receive a pension." 
 
 Now. whatever we may think of Mr. Adams's 
 view on this subject, we must at least give him 
 credit for clearness in the expression of his ideas. 
 His arguments, whether weak or strong, are the 
 
34 
 
 arguments which those of us who believe in pen¬ 
 sions or retirement funds for teachers must hear 
 and meet. Let us, then, examine these arguments 
 in a spirit of entire fairness, and let us try to find 
 out whether the teachers’ claims are valid or not. 
 
 In the first place even Mr. Adams admits the 
 justice of pensions for “soldiers and sailors abso¬ 
 lutely incapacitated from earning their own living 
 by injuries received in actual warfare.” Many 
 authorities as able as Mr. Adams and not less 
 public-spirited and patriotic favor a vast extension 
 of the limits indicated by him. But suppose that 
 for purposes of argument we admit, for the time, 
 that pensions should be paid only to the persons in¬ 
 cluded in Mr. Adams’s limited category,to what an 
 absurdity are we quickly reduced! We omit the 
 heroes of the fire department, the police depart¬ 
 ment, the life-saving service, heroes, I may sav, 
 who strictly in the line of their duty are quite as 
 likely to meet with peril to life and limb as are “sol¬ 
 diers and sailors in actual warfare.” And, to re¬ 
 strict the application of the rule even further than 
 this highly proper extension, what are we to sav 
 of the dependent widows and orphans of soldiers 
 and sailors, what of soldiers and sailors themselves 
 absolutely incapacitated not in actual warfare, but 
 m the sendee of their country none the less, men 
 who suffer many of the deprivations and hardships 
 of war without the stimulus of its excitement? 1 
 tell you, gentlemen, the heart of the American 
 people may flutter with the fluctuations of the 
 stock market, but its systole and diastole are firm 
 and steady and incessant with gratitude for the 
 deeds and lives of our heroes, whether soldier, 
 sailor, life-saver, fireman, policeman, or other pub¬ 
 lic servant. And what is a pension? Ts it a form of 
 charity doled out to> parasites on the body politic ? 
 Is it a bribe to influence votes? Ts it a sop to the 
 Cerberus of a public hungry and thirsty for the 
 
good things of the public crib? I know not what 
 abuses may arise from the machinations of un¬ 
 scrupulous politicians in the administration of great 
 public beneficence, but I believe that our entire 
 pension system had its origin in a sense of grati¬ 
 tude for services nobly rendered, and that it is 
 based on a well-grounded and permanent belief that 
 the compensation of those who come under all our 
 pension acts has been, is, and is likely to be alto¬ 
 gether inadequate, and that, in view of this inade¬ 
 quacy, it ought to be supplemented by pensions as 
 liberal as the means of the government will allow. 
 But where does the teacher come in? At a recent 
 meeting of the Boston Association of School Prin¬ 
 cipals many heard with pleasure the eloquent 
 words of President Dill, in which he justly magni¬ 
 fied the office of the teacher, and after long search¬ 
 ing could find in it no inferiority either to pulpit, 
 bench, bar, press, army, navv, or medical profes¬ 
 sion. Personally, I was delighted to hear such ad- 
 , mirable sentiments so eloquently expressed, and 
 thev suggest that beautiful tribute of Holland’s:— 
 
 “I hold the teacher’s position second to none. 
 The Christian teacher of a band of children com¬ 
 bines the office of the preacher and the parent, and 
 has more to do in shaping the mind and the morals 
 of the community than preacher and parent united. 
 The teacher who spends six hours a day with my 
 child spends three times as many hours as T do, 
 and twenty-fold more time than my pastor does. I 
 have no words to express my sense of the impor¬ 
 tance of your office. 
 
 “Still less have I words to express my sense of 
 the importance of having that office filled by men 
 and women of the purest motives, the noblest en¬ 
 thusiasm, the finest culture, the broadest charity, 
 and the most devoted Christian purpose. Why. sir, 
 a teacher should be the strongest and most angelic 
 man that breathes. No man living is intrusted 
 
36 
 
 with such precious material. No man living can do 
 so much to set human life to such a noble tune. 
 No man living needs higher qualifications for his 
 work.” 
 
 Of the unsurpassed importance of the teacher’s 
 work, and of the remarkable combination of quali¬ 
 ties necessary for the successful performance of his 
 duties, no intelligent person can have the slightest 
 doubt. The law says of the teacher that he is in 
 loco parentis, but experience, that hard, but suc¬ 
 cessful, master says: “The teacher is not only in 
 loco parentis, but in loco mcdici, in loco advocati, 
 in loco judicis, in loco clerici, and in loco about 
 everything else, so numerous and so delicate are the 
 countless and varied activities of the teacher’s pro¬ 
 fession.'’ The mere fact that the teacher is not 
 actually engaged in what is ordinarily called war¬ 
 fare does not alter the fact that his profession is 
 dangerous to health, vitality, and even life itself. 
 Did you ever read the statistics of death from 
 tuberculosis, and did you ever ponder on the sur¬ 
 prising mortality from this disease among teachers 
 of the Boston public schools? Did it ever occur 
 to you that teachers are frequently, perhaps daily, 
 exposed to dangerous and contagious diseases? 
 That thev are generally subjected, perhaps neces¬ 
 sarily, to conditions inimical to health, and that they 
 are practically certain to experience, as Ithe years 
 go by, that ebbing of the vital forces which is the 
 surest sign of the constant working of the deadly, 
 though insidious forces of bad air and similai 
 menaces to health? Did you ever consider the 
 nervous strain to which we masters are subjected? 
 We have to please a good many people, including 
 the superintendent, the supervisors, the school 
 committee, the parents, the teachers, the pupils, the 
 janitors, the community at large, and, something 
 which may be even a more difficult proposition, our 
 humble selves. 
 
37 
 
 But Mr. Adams says that “persons in the public 
 employ should be paid adequate compensation/’ 
 and that “out of this they should make their own 
 provision for retirement or incapacity.” But educa¬ 
 tional history shows that many teachers in Boston 
 were paid more twenty-five years ago than they are 
 paid now, and economic history shows that the cost 
 of living has enormously increased during that 
 time, and practical political history shows that 
 every attempt to raise a salary in the educational 
 department of Boston has recently met with a veto-. 
 There would seem, then, no absolutely immediate 
 prospect of adequate compensation of teachers bv 
 an increase of salaries, although no other class of 
 public servants is so fully entitled to. such an in¬ 
 crease. Without adequate compensation, how are 
 the teachers going to make provision for retire¬ 
 ment or incapacity? “They should do exactly as 
 they do in private life,” says Mr. Adams, but the 
 nature of their profession and the exacting charac¬ 
 ter of their duties shut them off from the usual ave¬ 
 nues to fortune and to fame. Some years ago, 
 when President Eliot addressed the Massachusetts 
 Schoolmasters’ Club, he said that he presumed that 
 the average accumulation of property of the 
 masters present during their professional lives 
 would not exceed twenty thousand dollars. I well 
 remember the burst of Homeric laughter that rip¬ 
 pled up and down the banquet board. What were 
 the schoolmasters laughing at? Wasn’t it a suffi¬ 
 ciently serious subject? Of course it was, but con¬ 
 fidentially, if the sum of twenty thousand dollars 
 marks the completion of a Boston master’s term of 
 service, I can only say that several terms of service 
 are not vet completed. But let us grant the correct¬ 
 ness of the estimate, what is a teacher, cut off for 
 the best years of his life from the delusive paths of 
 business, going to do with his somewhat suppositi¬ 
 tious twenty thousand dollars? Can he invest it 
 
38 
 
 safely at four per cent, and draw eight hundred 
 dollars a year for the rest of his life? I do not 
 know, but even if he could do so, how far will that 
 go towards the support of a family? And what will 
 he the condition of those teachers whose generosity 
 and self-sacrifice have caused them to follow the 
 Scripture injunction almost literally, to sell all they 
 have and give to the poor, and to take no thought 
 for the morrow? 1 tell you, gentlemen, many of our 
 teachers are poor, indeed, in this world’s goods, be¬ 
 cause they have laid up so- much treasure in heaven. 
 But, even so, it does not seem to me to be in ac¬ 
 cordance with the dignity, the sense of justice, or 
 the generosity of the city of Boston that these 
 teachers should have an old age of penury and a 
 death of want. “Moreover,” continues Mr. Adams, 
 “the pension system is a fraud.” But on this point, 
 as on the others, I must enter a disclaimer. Even 
 though some dishonesty may have been detected in 
 connection with certain pension systems, has not 
 the good resulting from them been incalculably 
 greater than the harm? And in connection with a 
 class so honorable, so self-restrained, and so worthy 
 as the profession of teachers, would not the dangers 
 ol fraud under a carefully guarded and rigidly 
 scrutinized system of pensions be reduced to a mini¬ 
 mum so infinitesimallv small that it might be dis- 
 regarded with perfect safety? 
 
 In connection with this subject it is only fair to 
 state that Mr. Adams's position is by no means the 
 only one on this important topic. A formidable 
 array of highly honored names may be cited as au¬ 
 thority for views diametrically opposed to his. Let 
 me mention some of those men of eminent ability 
 who favor pensions for teachers: Grover Cleveland, 
 Charles W. Eliot, Edward Everett Hale, Charles 
 Eliot Norton, William H. Maxwell, James Mac- 
 Alister,—six men of national reputation for high 
 character, great ability, and clear thinking. The 
 
39 
 
 list might be greatly extended, but the mere fact 
 that such men advocate the plan is enough to show 
 even its opponents that it must have much to com-, 
 mend it. S'tiil, further, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, 
 Cornell, and other institutions have actually estab¬ 
 lished a system of pensions—a fact of great signi¬ 
 ficance in an argument with those who say that, 
 first, pensions ought not to be granted, and, second, 
 that even if pensions ought to be granted, they 
 never can be. In reply to these two common objec¬ 
 tions it may be said:— 
 
 1. Pensions are merely a part of adequate com¬ 
 pensation. 
 
 2. They relieve the teachers' minds from the 
 fear of an old age of poverty or dependence. 
 
 3. They tend to elevate the profession of teach¬ 
 ing by attracting able men and women, and bv re¬ 
 taining them during the period of efficiency. 
 
 4. They make possible the retirement of the 
 aged and the disabled without hardship, and so 
 promote the dignity and general efficiency of the 
 corps. 
 
 5. They tend to enable teachers to live in a man¬ 
 ner to some extent becoming their extremely im¬ 
 portant and useful profession. 
 
 G. They allow teachers to spend more money 
 for travel, for books, for additional professional 
 training, and for all those means of improvement so 
 conducive to the welfare not only of the teachers 
 personally, but of their pupils. The importance of 
 the great law of imitation, whether conscious or 
 unconscious, in the relation of pupil and teacher, 
 cannot' be overestimated. 
 
 7. Pensions afford a slight compensation to men 
 and women of first-rate ability for sacrificing all the 
 emoluments of other more financially profitable but 
 less useful professions. 
 
 8. By the substitution of teachers on minimum 
 salaries for those retiring on maximum salaries, the 
 
40 
 
 cost of a pension system is greatly reduced, while 
 the general efficiency of the teaching force is pro¬ 
 moted. 
 
 9. As the welfare of the children is the supreme 
 law of the school, and as the pension system pro¬ 
 motes the efficiency of the teaching force, it is evi¬ 
 dent that the welfare of the children, largely de¬ 
 pendent as it is on the efficiency of the teaching 
 force, demands this system. 
 
 10. No country, no cities in the world are better 
 able to adopt the pension system than the United 
 States and its great cities. But many foreign coun¬ 
 tries have already adopted a pension system, and are 
 thus showing our country the wav, when she ought 
 to be in the lead. 
 
 ANDREW 
 
 CARNEGIE’S GREAT GIFT. 
 
 Whether others favor teachers’ retirement funds 
 or not, there can be no doubt of Andrew Carnegie’s 
 opinion on the subject, as shown by the following 
 extract from the Boston Transcript:— 
 
 A gift of $10,000,000 by Andrew Carnegie, to 
 provide annuities for college professors who are not 
 able to continue in active service, was announced 
 to-day by Frank A. Vanderlip, vice-president of 
 the National city bank of New York. Professors 
 in the United States, Canada, and Newfoundland 
 will share in the distribution of the income of the 
 fund United States steel corporation five per 
 cent, first mortgage bonds for $10,000,000* have 
 been transferred to a board of trustees, and steps 
 will be taken at once to organize a corporation to 
 receive the donation. Dr. Pritchett, president of 
 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and 
 Mr. Vanderlip have been selected by Mr. Carnegie 
 to obtain data on the subject, to be presented at the 
 first meeting of the board of trustees, which will 
 
 * Since increased to $15,000,000. 
 
41 
 
 take place on November 15. Mr. Vanderlip to-day 
 sent the following letter to the press:— 
 
 Andrew Carnegie has transferred to a hoard of 
 trustees consisting in the main of presidents of the 
 most important colleges in the United States and 
 Canada $10,000,000 first mortgage five per cent, 
 steel corporation bonds. The purpose of the trust 
 fund thus created is to provide annuities for college 
 professors in the United States, Canada, and New¬ 
 foundland who from old age or other physical dis¬ 
 ability are no longer in a position to render the 
 most efficient service. It is Mr. Carnegie’s belief 
 that this fund will not only provide a dignified pen¬ 
 sion system for a body of most worthy, self-sacrific¬ 
 ing, and poorly paid men, but that it will be of dis¬ 
 tinct value to the cause of education in offering an 
 opportunity to the trustees of a college to retire 
 members of the faculty who have faithfully served 
 the institution for many years, and to replace such 
 men with young, vigorous, and efficient professors. 
 I am taking the liberty of enclosing herewith Mr. 
 Carnegie’s letter outlining the nature of his becpiest. 
 This letter was written to the members of the board 
 of trustees. The list of trustees is also enclosed. 
 All have accepted. 
 
 Steps 'will at once be taken to organize a cor¬ 
 poration formally to receive the bequest. The first 
 meeting of the board of trustees has been called for 
 November 15. In the meantime it is Mr. Car¬ 
 negie’s desire that Dr. Pritchett, president of the 
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and myself 
 proceed to obtain data from all the institutions con¬ 
 cerned, for use at the meeting of the trustees. The 
 bonds which Mr. Carnegie has so generously 
 donated have a market value of $11,000,000, and 
 will produce an annual income of $500,000. 
 
 The corporation which is being formed will be 
 styled “The Carnegie Foundation.” 
 
 (Signed) F. A. Vanderlip. 
 
Mr. Carnegie’s letter to the trustees is dated 
 April 18, and is as follows:— 
 
 1 have reached the conclusion that the least re¬ 
 ward of all the professionals is that of the teacher 
 in our higher educational institutions. New York 
 city generously, and very wisely, provides retir¬ 
 ing pensions for teachers in her public schools, and 
 also for her policemen. Very few indeed of our col¬ 
 leges are able to do so. The consequences are 
 grievous. Able men hesitate to adopt teaching as a 
 career, and many old professors whose places 
 should be occupied by younger men cannot be re¬ 
 tired. 
 
 1 have, therefore, transferred to you and your 
 successors as trustees $10,000,000 five per cent, 
 first mortgage bonds of the United States steel 
 corporation, the revenue from which is to provide 
 retiring pensions for the teachers .of universities, 
 colleges, and technical schools in our own country, 
 Canada, and Newfoundland, under such conditions 
 as you may adopt from time to time. Expert cal¬ 
 culation shows that the revenue will be ample for 
 the purpose. 
 
 The fund applies to the 'three classes of institu¬ 
 tions named, without regard to race, sex, creed, or 
 color. We have, however, to 'recognize that state 
 and colonial governments which have established, 
 or mainly support universities, colleges, or schools 
 may prefer that their relations shall remain exclu¬ 
 sively with the state. I cannot, therefore, presume 
 to- include them. 
 
 There is another class which states do not aid, 
 their constitutions in some cases even forbidding it; 
 viz., sectarian institutions. Many of these estab¬ 
 lished long ago were truly sectarian, but to-dav are 
 free to all men of all creeds or of none—such are 
 not tO‘ be considered sectarian now. Only such as 
 are under control of a sect or require trustees (or a 
 majority thereof), officers, faculty, or students to 
 
43 
 
 belong to any specified sect, or which impose any 
 theological test, are to be excluded. 
 
 Trustees shall hold office for five years and be 
 eligible for re-election. The first trustees shall 
 draw lots for one, two, three, four or five year 
 terms, so that one-fifth shall retire each year. Each 
 institution participating in the fund shall cast one 
 vote for trustees. 
 
 The trustees are hereby given full powers to 
 manage the trust in every respect; tO' fill vacancies 
 of non-ex-officio members; appoint executive com¬ 
 mittees, employ agents; change securities, and, 
 generally speaking, to do all things necessary in 
 their judgment to ensure the most beneficial admin¬ 
 istration of the funds. 
 
 By a two-thirds vote they may from time to time, 
 apply the revenues in a different manner, and for a 
 different though similar purpose to that specified, 
 should coming days bring such changes as render 
 this necessary in their judgment, to produce the 
 best results possible for the teachers and for educa¬ 
 tion. 
 
 No trustee shall incur any legal liability following 
 from his trusteeship. All traveling and hotel ex¬ 
 penses incurred by trustees in the performance of 
 their duties shall be paid from the fund, the ex¬ 
 penses of wife or daughter accompanying the trus¬ 
 tees to the annual meeting included. 
 
 I hope this fund may do much for the cause of 
 higher education and to remove a source of deep 
 and constant anxiety to the poorest paid, and yet 
 one of the highest of all professions. 
 
 Gratefully yours, 
 
 (Signed) Andrew Carnegie. 
 
 Among the trustees are: President A. T. • 
 Hadley, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.: 
 President Charles William Eliot, Harvard Univer¬ 
 sity, Cambridge, Mass.; President William R. 
 
 / 
 
44 
 
 Harper,* University of Chicago, Chicago, Ih.; 
 President Nicholas Murray Butler, Columbia Uni- 
 versity, New York; President Jacob G. Schurman, 
 Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.; President Wood- 
 row Wilson, Princeton University, Princeton, N. J.; 
 President I.. Clark Seelye, Smith College, North¬ 
 ampton, Mass.; Provost Charles C. Harrison, Uni¬ 
 versity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.: Presi¬ 
 dent Alex C. Humphreys, Stevens Institute, Hobo¬ 
 ken, N. J.; Chancellor S. B. McCormick, Western 
 University of Pennsylvania, Allegheny, Pa.; Presi¬ 
 dent Edwin F. Craighead, Tulane University, 
 New Orleans, La.; President H. C. King, Oberlin 
 College, Oberlin, O.; President C. F. Thwing, 
 Western Reserve University, Cleveland, O.; Presi¬ 
 dent Thomas McClelland, Knox College, Gales¬ 
 burg, Ill.; President Edwin H. Hughes, De Pauw 
 University, Greencastle, Ind.; President H. Mc¬ 
 Clelland Bell, Drake University, Des Moines, Ta. 
 
 Noav all of these gentlemen are presumably ad¬ 
 vocates of the principles involved in a retirement 
 fund for college teachers. 
 
 But every argument which leads so logically to 
 retirement annuities for college teachers leads even 
 more logically to retirement annuities for all public 
 school teachers. What says Jacob A. Riis, so 
 widely known for his public spirit? 
 
 “Each generation sees the rush away from the 
 land grow, sees the cities swell, sees character and 
 individuality struggling with heavier odds. When I 
 watch the seas rising and the clouds threatening \ 
 think of the school ma’am at the helm and am glad. 
 Laugh if you will; 1 am content. While she is 
 there, we are safe. 
 
 “In a very real way the teacher is, must be, both 
 mother and home to too many of her children. 
 Could any pay reward the weary lives I have seen 
 
 * Deceased. 
 
45 
 
 ✓ 
 
 literally worn out in the service of stricken human¬ 
 ity in the slums of my own city—worn to the raw, 
 day by day, with never a word betraying’ the toil 
 and suffering; with the brave, patient smile ever 
 there to cheer and help? I am thinking now of one 
 Christmas festival in a ragged school, and of the 
 sweet-faced teacher at the piano, with the children 
 clustering around her singing their glad songs. 
 None of them knew that she had come from the 
 death-bed of her only sister, who was breathing her 
 life out while she played and sang with breaking 
 heart, hiding her pain with a smile lest she sadden 
 the children’s jov. Pay? I would have every 
 teacher who is worthy the name of teacher—and 
 there should never be any other—paid enough to 
 put her ever and for good beyond need of care; and 
 when her years of service were over, I would have 
 her rank as pensioner upon the community!—nay, 
 not bounty, but undying gratitude—ranking at 
 least with those who guard it against peril from 
 fire and from violence.” 
 
 It lias been said, wisely or unwisely, that 4 cor¬ 
 porations have no souls,” but even though this 
 statement may lie true in some cases, it certainly is 
 not true in all. The following article taken from 
 the Boston Journal shows what some of the great 
 railroads are willing to do for their employees:— 
 
 l 
 
4G 
 
 PLAN NEW PENSION SCHEME FOR B. 
 
 & M. ROAD. 
 
 Co-Operative Idea Favored with 2 Per Cent, of 
 Salary Received 10 Years Before Retirement 
 Multiplied by Years of Service. 
 
 B. & M. PENSION PLAN IN NUTSHELL. 
 
 Some of tlie phases of tlie new co-operative pen¬ 
 sion plan under consideration by officials and 
 employees of the Boston & Maine. 
 
 Number of employees of Boston & 
 
 Maine . 24,000 
 
 Total annual salaries paid by rail¬ 
 road .$15,000,000 
 
 Employees to pay 1 per cent, of sal¬ 
 ary .. 150,000 
 
 Railroad to gne like amount. 150,000 
 
 Total pension fund provided. 300,000 
 
 Retirement ape to be after 35 years of service, 
 or after employee is 65 years of age. 
 
 The annual pension for each employee to equal 
 2 per cent, of the yearly salary he received 
 ten years before retirement, multiplied by 
 the number of years of liis service. 
 
 On severing his connection with the company 
 tlie employee will be refunded the sum he had 
 paid into the pension fund. 
 
 That a new co-operative system of pensioning 
 the aged employees of the Boston & Maine will be 
 instituted is regarded as practically assured by old 
 railroad men, for the reason that President Lucius 
 Tuttle has instructed fourth vice-President William 
 j. Hobbs to formulate a report for the new proposi¬ 
 tion, and has given him the power to employ an ex¬ 
 pert to help get the matter in the best possible 
 shape for presentation to the board of directors. 
 The railroad is also tabulating the ages of the 
 24,000 employees. 
 
 The pension matter has been under considera¬ 
 tion by the conductors of the road for several 
 months. It is thought that a co-operative scheme, 
 
47 
 
 in which the men will contribute half of the fund, 
 would be the most desirable. The Boston & Maine 
 pays out in salaries annually about $15,000,000. 
 Those back of the pension plan say that the em¬ 
 ployees will not object to paying into the fund one 
 per cent, of their income, which in all would amount 
 to $150,000. In the plan the company will set aside 
 a like amount, so that the fund of $300,000 would 
 be secured as a starter. This is the amount that 
 the Pennsylvania system has given over to its pen¬ 
 sion system, though the number of that road’s em¬ 
 ployees is very much greater than that of the Bos¬ 
 ton & Maine. 
 
 SEEK SENTIMENT OF MEN. 
 
 President Tuttle, when approached by a few far- 
 sighted conductors regarding the matter, told them 
 to' find out the sentiment of the men and then re¬ 
 port again. He thought that if 75 per cent, of the 
 employees would go into the scheme voluntarily, 
 the system would easily be carried out without 
 legislative action. Under the conditions the em¬ 
 ployees would agree to have the 1 per cent, de¬ 
 ducted from their salary every month. 
 
 The outline of the plan under consideration 
 states that when an employee severs his connection 
 with the road his contribution to the pension fund 
 will be given back. In case he dies the money will 
 go to his heirs. For those men who are now old 
 enough to begin to receive pensions it is proposed 
 to deduct from the sum they will receive an amount 
 proportionate to that which they would pay if they 
 were still active employees for a period of ten 
 years. 
 
 DEPENDS UPON LENGTH OF SERVICE. 
 
 How much a given pension would amount to 
 will depend upon the length of service of the recipi¬ 
 ent. The idea most in favor is to give the pen¬ 
 sioner 2 per cent, of the salary he received ten years 
 
48 
 
 before his retirement, multiplied by the number of 
 years he has worked for the company. Thus, if a 
 man retired at the age of sixty-five years, and was 
 making $1,200 a year ten years before, at which 
 time he would be regarded as being in his prime, 
 and had worked for the company twenty-five years, 
 he would receive a pension of $600 annually. 
 
 At a meeting held a few days ago, attended by 
 150 delegates from the various labor organizations 
 in the service of the road, resolutions w r ere unani¬ 
 mously adopted to urge the completion of the new 
 scheme. 
 
 John If. Parent of Somerville was elected chair¬ 
 man. Mr. Parent was one of the first to propose 
 the pension system to President Tuttle. To a 
 Journal reporter Mr. Parent declared last night: 
 “The pension system cannot come too soon to 
 please the men. The meeting we held showed that 
 there will be little opposition from the men. I be¬ 
 lieve all of the railroad! men will be in favor of it 
 when it is explained to them. We are willing to rely 
 on the good judgment of President Tuttle, and will 
 await patiently until the matter can be fully dis¬ 
 cussed/' 
 
 “AGE PENSIONS A SUCCESS.” 
 
 Washington, March 24.—The subject of super¬ 
 annuation of employees in the civil service of the 
 government is now receiving a large amount of at¬ 
 tention. 
 
 All the great nations except the United States 
 have provided for retirement of employees under 
 various conditions, with pay, as shown by sub¬ 
 joined tables. The officers of the Grand Trunk 
 railway of Canada say in part as to the effects of a 
 retirement scheme put in operation by that com¬ 
 pany thirty-two years ago:— 
 
 “It has been stated that the existence of a pen¬ 
 sion acts as a detriment to efficient service owing 
 to the tendency on the part of an employee ap- 
 
49 
 
 preaching - the retirement age to become lax in the 
 performance of duty, in consequence of the knowl¬ 
 edge that he will soon be able to leave the service 
 and draw a pension. The experience of this com¬ 
 pany has demonstrated that such reasoning is en¬ 
 tirely fallacious. Every company and corporation 
 having a retirement pension system in operation 
 regards it as a good business investment without 
 considering the humanitarian principle involved. 
 Many say that the plan results in creating among 
 the employees a feeling of permanency in their em¬ 
 ployment, enlarges their interest in their employers’ 
 affairs, and induces them to remain in and devote 
 their best efforts and attention to their employers’ 
 service. France has had a system in operation for 
 over fifty years, and has granted pensions far be¬ 
 yond anything of the kind ever proposed in this 
 country, contributing large sums annually out of 
 the public funds to sustain the system, which in¬ 
 cludes the consular and. diplomatic service.” 
 
 The following table gives a synopsis of systems 
 established and in operation:— 
 
 O—Means three-fourths of average salary. 
 
 P—One-third of deceased husband’s pension and 
 one month’s salary. 
 
 Q—On married employees for benefit of widows 
 and minor children. 
 
 R—Fifteen-sixtieths of last active salary and one- 
 sixtieth for each year’s service. 
 
 S—Service. 
 
 D—Disability. 
 
 A—9,500,000 in 1900. (a) one-sixtieth of aver¬ 
 age salary in sedentary branches; (b) one-half of 
 average salary, plus one-fiftieth, for each year’s ser¬ 
 vice over twenty-five; (d) determined by rank of 
 husband—from $1,200 to $1G0; (e) if able to work 
 after thirty-five years’ service, gets both salary and 
 pension; (g) full pay after thirty years’ service; (k) 
 
50 
 
 Orphans’ and Minors’ 
 Pensions . 
 
 Amount of Widows’ Pen¬ 
 sions . 
 
 Widow’s Pension if Mar¬ 
 riage Antedates Re¬ 
 tirement . 
 
 Minimum of Pension of 
 Average Salary. 
 
 Basis of Pension 
 
 Amount of Pension 
 
 Appropriated by Govern¬ 
 ment . 
 
 Per Cent, of Assessment. 
 
 Caused by Act of 
 Valor. 
 
 So 4 
 
 Result of Accident 
 While on Duty.... 
 
 Physical or Mental 
 Disability. 
 
 Service in Years Requir’d 
 
 Compulsory or Non-com- 
 pulsory. 
 
 Age 
 
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52 
 
 1 per cent, for each year of service on average 
 monthly pay; (1) for each year’s service. 
 
 Among the corporations paying the entire cost 
 of pensions are the following:— 
 
 Canadian Pacific railroad. 
 
 Pennsylvania railroad. 
 
 Pennsylvania railroad lines west of Pittsburg. 
 
 *New York Central & Hudson River railroad. 
 
 ^Boston & Albany railroad. 
 
 Baltimore & Ohio railroad. 
 
 Illinois Central railroad. 
 
 Boston & Maine railroad. 
 
 Southern Pacific railroad. 
 
 Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad. 
 
 Philadelphia & Reading railroad. 
 
 Midvale Steel Company. 
 
 ^Cumberland Valley railroad. 
 
 San Antonio & Aransas Pass railroad. 
 
 *Champlain Transportation Company. 
 
 Metropolitan Street railroad. 
 
 Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company. 
 
 Boston Elevated railroad. 
 
 Fourth Street National Bank, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 *Southwark National bank, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 *First National Bank, Pittsburg, Pa. 
 
 *Bank of New York National Banking Associa¬ 
 tion. 
 
 ^Merchants National Bank, Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Old Dominion Steamship Company. 
 
 In corporations preceded by mark retire¬ 
 ments in each case are treated upon merits. As a 
 general rule, retirements are compulsory at the age 
 of seventy, while voluntary retirements are per¬ 
 mitted from ages fifty-five to seventy. 
 
 The Brownlow bill, lately introduced in Con¬ 
 gress, provides for retirement of employees in the 
 classified service at various ages under certain con¬ 
 ditions, with a pension after retirement equal to 
 50 per cent, of the average salary paid them while 
 
V 
 
 in active service. The bill provides a method for 
 creating a sufficient fund for the payment of pen¬ 
 sions by assessments on salaries, promotions, and 
 original appointments. 
 
 And now what legislation is needed to bring 
 about the long-desired condition of affairs? It is 
 perfectly evident that there must be legislation of 
 two kinds; namely, general and special. First, 
 then, general legislation is needed to empower 
 every city and town in the state to establish retire¬ 
 ment funds, if they desire so to do. Furthermore, 
 such legislation might well determine what part, 
 if any, the state itself will take in this matter. 
 Second, special legislation is needed in the case of 
 any city which has already made a beginning of 
 the retirement fund work, in order to make out of 
 past legislation and desired legislation one consist¬ 
 ent, harmonious whole. A tentative bill, then, 
 would be something like the following:— 
 
 PROPOSED BILL. 
 
 The school committee in every city and in every 
 
 town in the state of - shall have the power 
 
 to create and maintain a public school teachers’ 
 retirement fund, and for that purpose it may set 
 apart the following money, to wit 
 
 (J) An amount not exceeding one per cent, per 
 annum of the respective salaries paid to teachers, 
 which amount shall be deducted in equal instal¬ 
 ments from the said salaries at the regular time for 
 the payment of such salaries. 
 
 ( 2 ) All moneys received from donations, lega¬ 
 cies, gifts, bequests, or from any other source, on 
 account of said fund. 
 
 (3) All money, pay, compensation, or salary, or 
 
 any income thereof forfeited, deducted, reserved, 
 or withheld for any cause from any member or 
 members of the teaching or supervising staff of the 
 public day schools of any city or any town in the 
 state of-. 
 
54 
 
 (4) Such additional sums of money as shall be 
 sufficient, together with the money from all other 
 sources hereinbefore mentioned, and from all such 
 other methods of increment as may be duly and 
 legally devised for the increase of said fund, to pay 
 annuitants one-half of their regular salaries at the 
 time of retirement, provided that no supervising 
 officer shall receive more than $2,000 per annum 
 when retired, and no teacher shall receive more 
 than $1,500 per annum when retired. Provided, 
 further, that supervising officers or teachers com¬ 
 pelled by disability to retire before they have 
 reached the period of service required for obtain¬ 
 ing the regular annuity shall be paid annuities pro 
 rata to their term of service. 
 
 The bill should also include provisions as fol¬ 
 lows :— 
 
 (a) For the general care and management of 
 the fund. 
 
 (b) For the rules of retirement. 
 
 (c) For refunds to those who leave the service 
 without becoming annuitants. 
 
 (d) For the safeguarding of previous legisla¬ 
 tion already in force. 
 
 (e) For the state’s contribution to the fund. 
 
 To the Writer and compiler of these articles, it 
 
 seems that the New York legislation on a, b, and 
 c might well be taken as the frame-work of desired 
 legislation. It is earnestly desired that all those 
 interested in this question of retirement funds 
 will give assistance to the cause in every way. 
 Searching criticism of the seventeen articles of this 
 series is particularly desired, to the end that every 
 desirable feature of previous legislation on this sub¬ 
 ject may be embodied in a new bill, and that new 
 features of importance and value, the result of wise 
 counsel, careful thought, and long experience, may 
 also be found in the newest and best legislation. 
 

 I 
 
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