PENSIONS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS El AvjlC. Pensions for public school teachers [An address by Charles L Ames principal of the Brown school Hartford, before the Connecticut woman’s council of education at Hartford May 4 1912. ' (L, -c* 0 The Connecticut woman’s council of education is an affiliated organization of the Association of collegiate alumnae, Federation of women’s clubs, Congress of mothers, Women’s Christian temperance union, Woman’s relief corps, New Haven, Mt Holyoke association, Con¬ necticut state teachers league, Daughters of the Amer¬ ican revolution, and Hartford college club, representing in all about thirty thousand Connecticut women.] An old Hindoo proverb says: “ Every undertaking is involved in its faults as a fire in its smoke.” In this discussion I shall not say much about the smoke or faults in the maintenance of a pension system, but shall endeavor to disclose the fire, or spark of life that is there. In the business world the fire is already burning brightly, being clearly seen in the many pension systems maintained by large corporations for their employees; and, as business sets the pace today for efficiency, I shall speak first of the growth of the pension idea in the business world of this country, during the last fourteen years, and second of pensions for public school teachers. Until within a few years the only pensions paid in this country have been paid to soldiers and sailors, the survivors of the wars, holy and unholy, that this country has carried on. While we believe that the soldier should be pensioned on account of the peculiar dangers to which he has been exposed, let us recognize the fact that the “ man behind the gun,” ready to defend his country from martial foe, is not so vitally necessary to the perpetuity of our government as is the teacher before the child. One is an occasional necessity, the other is a constant necessity. 4 THE PENSION IDEA In 1898 the pension idea in its broader aspect was practi¬ cally foreign to this country, the B & O being the only railroad then maintaining a pension system for its employees. Since 1898, pension systems have been established by the leading rail¬ roads of the country, so that at the present time nearly fifty per cent of the railway employees in this country are working under a pension system, and in most cases the pension fund is maintained exclusively by the corporations. Let me name some of these railroad corporations: the Pennsylvania road, the Union Pacific, the B & O, the Southern Pacific, the New York cen¬ tral and Hudson river, the Grand trunk lines, the Boston and Maine, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, the New York, New Haven and Hartford, the Metropolitan street railway com¬ pany of New York city, and so on. Besides, many industrial con¬ cerns, commercial and banking houses, maintain pension systems for their employees. On January 1 1911 the United States steel corporation inaugurated its new automatic pension system for its 200,000 employees under the non-assessment plan. The firm of our own Cheney brothers of South Manchester has recently established a system of industrial insurance and pensions for its employees on the assessment plan. (Later I shall say a word about the two systems.) AN AUTOMATIC SYSTEM The automatic pension system maintained by the Pennsyl¬ vania railroad company is one of the best in the United States. It affects its 150,000 employees, from the baggage-clerk to the president of the road. Every employee who has served the company thirty years or longer, and who becomes incapacitated for further service, may be retired at 65 years of age. At 70 years of age, every employee goes automatically upon the retired list, whether incapacitated or not. Those that retire receive different pensions according to their position and salary. For every year of service rendered the company, a pensioner, what¬ ever his position may have been, receives one per cent of his average salary for the last ten years before retirement. For instance, if his average salary for the last ten years has been $2,000, and he has served the company thirty years, he will 5 receive a pension of $600, that is, one per cent for each year of service, or thirty per cent in all. If he has served the company forty years, he will receive forty per cent of his average salary for the last ten years, or $800; fifty years, fifty per cent, or $1,000. Those that are retired have the right to engage in any outside work at whatever compensation they can secure. A pen¬ sioner may, and may not, be incapacitated for further service. He may be in good condition, both physically and mentally, but retire he must when he reaches three score years and ten. I have given these facts about the Pennsylvania road for two reasons, first to illustrate an automatic pension system, and second to affirm from the testimony of experts that the Penn¬ sylvania road has one of the best railway systems in the United States, if not in the world. Its roadbed, equipment, and service are of the best. In passing, permit me to state that the Penn¬ sylvania road pays the entire cost of pensions. There are no assessments. WHY IT IS PRACTICAL So far I have touched upon the bare statement of facts re¬ garding the pension movement in the United States. It may be well for us to consider briefly the reasons for the maintenance of pension systems by these large corporations. Evidently the soldier’s pension is on account of service rendered. He has risked his life to uphold the honor and integrity of his country, and the nation regards him as a hero deserving something more than the regular compensation, a principle to which we all heartily assent. Concerning the employees of these large cor¬ porations, the case is different. The humanitarian principle is not involved in their pension system. On the contrary, the main¬ tenance of an automatic pension system is a matter of economics. In other words, these corporations regard their pension systems as a business proposition, a good investment. Regarding the effect of a retirement system for its employees, the officers of the Grand trunk lines say: “ It has been stated that the existence of a pension acts as a detriment to efficient service owing to the tendency on the part of an employee, approaching the retirement age, to become lax in the performance of duty, in consequence of the knowledge that he will soon be able to leave the service and draw a pension. The experience of this company has demonstrated that such reasoning 6 is entirely fallacious. Every company and corporation having a retirement system in operation regards it as a good business investment, without considering the humanitarian principle involved/’ ATTRACTS THE BEST The pension system attracts the most capable and ambitious men and secures from them their most efficient service. The corporation can always feel reasonably sure that its entire prop¬ erty is being managed by men at their period of greatest effi¬ ciency. Under the present competitive system, a company wants employees whose eyes are not always on the clock, lest they work a minute over time, but employees who will talk of “ our com¬ pany,” and who will have the spirit to lie awake nights devising new ways for increasing the business. We do not claim that pensions are the only attractive feature of a system like the above, for good salaries, reading-rooms, and everything to better the social conditions of the employees will accompany the pen¬ sion system. The laws of gravitation affect wage-earners as well as other objects in nature, and the best talent will inevitably gravitate towards the most satisfactory terms of employment. PERTINENT QUESTIONS In a few years all of the employees of the corporations of this country, railway, industrial and commercial, will, I predict, be under a pension system maintained entirely, or partly, by the corporations themselves. In view of the above I regard the fol¬ lowing as pertinent questions: (i) Are the employees of these corporations serving under a system of organized charity? Emphatically they are not. (2) Is the humanitarian principle involved in their pension sys¬ tems? I think not. (3) Why do these corporations maintain pen¬ sion systems for their employees ? Mainly as an economic measure. (4) Does the principle of pensions hold good in the pensioning of public school teachers? We believe that it does. If a cor¬ poration secures a better mechanic, engineer, or superintendent by a profit-sharing system, or by a pension system, or by both, as is now the case with the United States steel corporation, may we not conclude that the same principle will hold true in securing a teacher? The mechanic is engaged in some mechanical busi¬ ness, the teacher is engaged in the business of teaching, both susceptible to all the allurements of salary, pension and hours 7 of labor. The Pennsylvania road cannot afford to have its rail¬ way system managed by any employees except those most effi¬ cient and at their most efficient time of life. A decrepit or in¬ competent engineer might cost the company in one hour more than its pension system would cost in a year. The mechanic and engineer are employed by a corporation chartered by the state; the teacher is employed by the state, or by a town or city under statutory law. Let the state, which makes compulsory the maintenance of public schools, which makes compulsory the attendance of children between seven and sixteen years of age, and which expends annually millions of dollars for the support of these public schools, establish a pension system for its public school teachers. The business of a great corporation is usually managed by shrewd business men, who constantly re-adjust matters in order to secure greater efficiency. Many of these business men are ever on the outlook for newer and better methods, for more efficient employees, and for a better product. The schools are often held back on conservative lines, by their own Inertia, by precedent and school traditions, by obsolete methods, by politicians, or by communities sparing in the expenditure of money, so that a high efficiency is not always attained. If the schools are run more as a matter of business, on the best business methods, higher efficiency will be secured. PENSION SYSTEM ESTABLISHED Second, pension systems for public school teachers have al¬ ready been established by state, municipality, or voluntary associ¬ ation in twenty-two of our states. State pension Systems main¬ tained exclusively by the state are in force in Rhode Island and Maryland. New Jersey has a state pension system under the com¬ pulsory assessment plan, the state itself making an annual appro¬ priation of $3,000 for administrative purposes. Virginia makes an annual appropriation of $5,000 to its pension fund. Massa¬ chusetts allows all cities and towns, other than Boston, to pay pensions from public funds, providing any city or town votes to do so. New York state administers a pension system on the voluntary assessment plan. Pension systems are also maintained by the following munici¬ palities: Greater New York, Albany, Buffalo, Elmira, Rochester. Schenectady, Syracuse, Troy, Yonkers, Providence, Boston, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Charleston (S C), New Orleans, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus (O), Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Minneapolis, St Paul, Duluth, 8 Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, New Haven, and so on. IMPORTANT FACTS Permit me at this point to submit for your consideration several facts pertaining to the schools of Connecticut. (i) In Connecticut, for the year 1909-10, there were 5302 * public school teachers, 4950 women and 352 men; (2) the average salary per month for women was $54.51, for men, $123; (3) in 1909-10, the salaries of women teachers in 134 of the 168 towns in the state averaged less than $350 a year; (4) in the same year the salaries of women teachers in 44 of those towns averaged less than $300 a year; (5) in 1909-10, it was found on investigation that of the more than 5000 teachers then em¬ ployed in the state, only 250, or one in every 20, had taught 30 years or more, thus showing that very few teachers make teaching a life-work. If the teachers’ pension bill, introduced in 1909, had been enacted into law that year, only about 40 teachers would have retired with a pension. (6) Thousands of teachers enter the profession to teach only a few years, the young women expecting to retire to change their names, or to enter more remunerative business pursuits, the young men to change their vocations. (7) The number of graduates from our normal schools for the year 1909-10 was 264. The number of new teachers required each year is 450 or more. From what source shall we make up the deficiency? From Rhode Island? That state has a state pension system for teachers. Its first pensions were paid in 1908 to 21 teachers, 20 women and one man. Shall we make up the deficiency from Massachusetts ? The salaries in that state are larger than those in Connecticut. In 1909-10 the average salary per month for women, in Massa¬ chusetts, was $61.82, for men, $152.96; besides, Massachusetts has an optional pension system for every town and city except¬ ing Boston. Many towns and cities have already adopted it. Boston has a pension system of its own. Shall we make up the deficiency from New York and New Jersey? Ask the super¬ intendents in southwestern Connecticut whether or not that could be done. Ask the superintendent of South Norwalk who last year lost 28 per cent of his teachers. Connecticut has become the recruiting station for all of our adjoining states. At a public hearing at the Capitol Hartford in 1909, Superin¬ tendent William H Maxwell of New York city said: “New York city has many of your best teachers, and will continue to get more of them every year, unless you do better by your teachers and offer them some inducement to remain at home.” For several years, the New Jersey superintendents have come to 9 Connecticut to hire the best of the graduates of our normal schools, and others with larger experience. Connecticut has become a sort of training-school for teachers for the adjoining states. What then is the source of supply? Partly from normal schools, partly from high schools, whose graduates have had no normal training, and partly from the state at large, many of whose young women without academic or normal training “ keep ” school in the country districts. At that hearing Superintendent Maxwell claimed that the state had made a monopoly of school education, a statement which at¬ tracted the attention of “ Trumbull ”, who in his letter to the New York Herald said : “ Superintendent Maxwell’s view is particularly interesting, because it presents a new phase of the rights of the school teacher, as a result of the action of the state in undertaking to give education free. In other words, he contends that the state has made a monopoly of school education, and has, there¬ fore, taken from teachers the advantage of competition which prevails in other professions. It has brought salaries to a level, which is more or less arbitrary, and has, therefore, driven from the profession men and women whose tastes lie in that direction. If such a pension as is proposed is a means of alleviating the monopolistic situation, there should be little hesitation in adopting it. Then, too, there remains all of the time the impressive fact that the lowering of the standard of teaching is a serious thing for the state in which it occurs.” WAGES PAID WOMEN In 1909 a committee, of which one of your own members was chairman, made an investigation of the matter of wages paid women of average ability in other vocations than that of teach¬ ing, and submitted its report from which I quote: “ Summariz¬ ing, your committee finds, first, that with equal training, many women of average ability can earn in the business world, with less nerve strain, as much as a teacher, or more; second, that, with no academic or special training at all, many young women of ordinary ability can earn nearly as much as a teacher who has attended a high school four years and a normal school two years; third, that there is a scarcity of trained teachers, a condition of things that calls for serious consideration on the part of every community.” IO ‘‘The reasons for the scarcity of teachers are, first, the finan¬ cial attraction of the business world; second, a real liking of some women for business pursuits; and, third, the chief reason, the prevailing low rate of wages in the teaching profession.” Thousands of shop girls receive more money per year than hundreds of teachers in the state; trained nurses receive from $18 to $25 per week; manicurists from $12 per week upwards, and there are many teachers who do not receive $12 per week for the 52 weeks in the year. We must remember that the ex¬ penses of living continue throughout the year, even if a young woman does teach only 30 or 36 weeks. The problem of the state is to get and keep a sufficient number of trained teachers. We need some plan which will (a) attract able persons to the work of teaching; (b) make it for their advantage to excel in their work; ( c ) afford inducements for their remaining long in the service. Superintendent Smith of Maine says: “ If our teaching is to be held at the highest point of efficiency, the pro¬ fession must be able to recruit for itself the choicest natural ability and the most efficient training. These are not to be assumed unless that profession shall offer a greater security for future returns. A teachers’ pension system gives this security.” Let us face the facts. Teachers of experience today are advising their younger sisters and nieces not to enter the teach¬ ing profession. The brightest and strongest personalities are en¬ tering into business pursuits which pay better and require less nerve strain than teaching. The list of applicants for positions in the business world is large, while the list of applicants for teachers’ positions is small. Summarizing again, we find that the salaries of teachers in Connecticut are too small, that there is a scarcity of desirable teachers, that the normal schools do not graduate yearly a sufficient number of teachers for the positions that are vacant, that the allurements of salary and pension in adjoining states draw away many of our best teachers, and that the lucrative positions in the business world are too attractive for the ambitious young woman to resist. What shall be done to counteract all of this? This is up to you and every community in the state. I have given you the facts which do not admit of contradiction. Teachers are underpaid, teachers are attracted to other states, teachers are entering into business pursuits, and there is already a scarcity of teachers. In his last annual report, Dr P P Claxton, United States commissioner of education, says: “ Teachers in the United States are underpaid, and, for the salaries paid in several of the states, the services of men and women of good native ability, with sufficient scholarship, train¬ ing, and experience, to enable them to do satisfactory work, can¬ not be secured. The average wage for public school teachers all over the country, including teachers in the wealthy cities and in the high schools, is less than $500, about $3 a day for the actual number of days taught, or about $1.60 a day for the actual work¬ ing days of the year. Clearly there must be a large increase in the salaries of teachers before we may expect the efficient ser¬ vice which is desirable/’ Mr Alfred Moseley, the head of the British educational commission, in an address at Stanford University, said: “ America owes her position among the nations of the earth to her system of free education. American teachers, however, are grossly underpaid, and, unless salaries are raised, your system will fail. If America fails, the world will go back to autocracy and the sword.” Salaries have been raised in several cities and towns of 'Connecticut during the last year or two. In Meriden for in¬ stance the salaries of the teachers for the first seven grades range from $480 to $720 according to the teacher’s experience and efficiency; in New Haven, the salaries for the same grades range from $450 to $750; in Bridgeport, from $500 to $800; in Hart¬ ford, from $500 to $900. That is a good beginning, but we must not stop until teachers throughout the state shall receive an adequate compensation, and until every superannuated teacher can retire from the school-room, after thirty or forty years of service, with an annuity that shall support her in her declining- years. Why? To give her a reward? Not at all. To make her an object of charity? Far from it. To increase the efficiency of our schools ? Most emphatically, yes. In all of this discussion of salaries and pensions let us keep clearly in mind that the children of the state constitute the objec¬ tive point in the whole pension movement. For one reason or another a few teachers are indifferent to this matter of pensions. They may regard their eligibility to pensions so remote, or their matrimonial prospects so bright, that pensions do not appeal to them. They may think that they would become objects of charity. 12 but employees of corporations and professors in college, who are now on the pension list, do not think so. Their retirement with a pension was a matter of economics, no thought whatever being given to sentiment, benevolence or reward. The pensions under the Carnegie Foundation have already made the position of col¬ lege professorships more attractive, and the teaching staff more efficient. A state pension system will do the same for our public * schools. THE INITIATIVE Who shall take the initiative in this pension movement? Re- * member that this is a question of economics and not a granting of favors. The teacher is not a suppliant but a servant, and the better the servant the better the service. In view of what I have said, I am fully convinced that the people of the state, outside of the teaching profession, should take the initiative in this pen¬ sion movement. England, Mr Moseley’s own country, pen¬ sions its elementary teachers; Sweden, which has one of the best educational systems in Europe, pensions its teachers; Germany, France, Austria, Italy, and the Netherlands, do the same; Russia, Portugal, and Spain do not pension the teachers of their elemen¬ tary schools. But it remains for Connecticut, a state of great wealth and influence, one of the thirteen original states, the Con¬ stitution state, to hesitate to do what the Netherlands did in 1855, France in 1876, and Italy in 1878, namely, establish pen¬ sion systems for teachers. With the world coming to our doors, ignorant of our customs, laws, and language, our public school system will be put to its severest test, and therefore should receive most generous sup¬ port from every community. PENSION SYSTEMS j There are really but two plans for pensioning employees — and I include teachers — the assessment or participating plan, and the non-assessment plan. With the non-assessment plan in force, all of the teachers would be subject to its provisions, the pension fund being ^maintained entirely by the state, city, or corporation. Under the assessment plan, membership may be voluntary or compulsory. The voluntary plan is often a failure and the com¬ pulsory plan meets with opposition. The teachers of Minne¬ apolis, who were under a compulsory assessment plan, took their 13 case to the supreme court, which declared the law unconstitu¬ tional ; the teachers of Toledo, Ohio, under the same system, ap¬ pealed to the supreme court which declared the law unconstitu¬ tional. The teachers of New Jersey, under essentially the same plan, appealed to the supreme court which upheld the law, and the teachers had to, pay their assessments. In Chicago, the l coercive feature first adopted has since been eliminated. There are many objections to the assessment plan. Shall the young lady teacher wearing her engagement ring be subjected to an t annual assessment for a fund from which there is only one chance in twenty that she will ever draw one cent? Shall the young man studying his law books every evening be subjected to an annual assessment for a fund for the benefit of others? If the assessment is a charity contribution, then it should be volun¬ tary; if it is a business proposition, then the money must in part be refunded at the option of the contributor. It is for these reasons that I have heretofore advocated a state pension with no assessments. The pension bill presented to the legislature called for that kind of a pension. We knew that Maryland and Rhode Island maintained such state systems, and we saw no reason why Connecticut should not do the same. Recently, how¬ ever, the Supreme court of this state has handed down a decision which declares the soldier’s pension law unconstitutional. Prom¬ inent lawyers in the state believe that this decision can be applied to the whole matter of state pensions from public funds, for any one person, or for any class of persons. I am not a lawyer, but permit me, however, to quote from the decision and make one or two statements. The court says: “ The test of the act before us is, will it serve a recognized object of government, and will it directly promote the welfare of the people of the state in equal measure ? ” On this point let me say that a state pension system is proposed as an economic measure, therefore, directly promot¬ ing the welfare of the people of the state. The fact that the « brightest and strongest personalities are entering business pur¬ suits, thereby causing a scarcity of desirable teachers, is an element of danger to our public school system. Again, the soldiers’ pension act said that any resident of the state, who had served in the army or the navy of the United States during the Civil war, should be entitled to an annual pension of thirty dollars. Under this act, a soldier, whose service was to the credit of other 14 states, but who is now a resident of Connecticut, would receive “ state aid On the other hand, a soldier, who served to the credit of Connecticut, but who now is not a resident of the state, would be denied any “ state aid Again I quote from the court’s decision: “ Far from there being a course and usage sanctioning this attempt to tax the people of one state for the ser¬ vices rendered in the Civil war by the soldiers and sailors of I another state, w r e find no attempt of like character in Connecticut or in any other state of the union.” With reference to this matter of service, may I say that under a state pension system for * teachers, no teacher shall be entitled to a .pension whose ser¬ vice in teaching shall have been less than thirty or thirty-five years, the last twenty or twenty-five years of which shall have been in this state. In view of what has been presented in this paper regarding state pensions for teachers in other states and in view of the fact that the whole pension movement is an economic measure for a public purpose, I shall still advocate a state pension on the non¬ assessment plan. Municipal systems would pension the teachers of cities only leaving out in the cold many excellent teachers of long and successful experience in the small towns, from which have come many of our leading business men, scholars and statesmen. If state pensions under the non-assessment plan cannot be secured, then what? Time will not permit me to discuss in detail any other plan for pensioning teachers. I believe however that we could work for a system that will call (i) for voluntary assessments from all persons now engaged in teaching (2) for compulsory assessments from all teachers entering the profession after the law is enacted, with a provision for liberal refunds for those who retire early from teaching, and (3) for state aid of A from ten to twenty thousand dollars annually for a term of years until a large pension fund is secured. A somewhat similar sys¬ tem is now maintained in Virginia, which makes an annual appro- - priation of $5,000 to the state pension fund. DIVERSITY OF VIEWS No plan should be adopted until there has been a thorough study of the whole subject and that plan should receive the cor¬ dial support of the teachers of the state. Teachers hold such i5 varied views on this subject of pensions that I begin to think that we shall need an adjustable system. Some teachers do not believe in a state pension with no assessments for they think that that will make them objects of charity. They forget that ex-president Eliot of Harvard university now receives a pension of $4,000; they forget that hundreds of officers and thousands of employees of our large corporations are the beneficiaries from a pension fund towards which they may not have made any con¬ tributions; they forget that many professors in college and uni¬ versity have been retired with a pension from the Carnegie Foundation; and they forget the basic principle underlying pen¬ sions, viz, an economic measure. Other teachers do not believe in assessments for they are sure that they will not teach long, that the wedding-ring will surely be worn, or that a good business position will be ready for them. They may teach longer than they now think that they will; besides, liberal refunds can be paid to teachers who retire from the profession. Still other teachers believe that all teachers eligible to a pension should receive the same pension irrespective of the number of years in the service or the salary received while teaching. Pensions seldom exceed fifty per cent of the average salary for the last five or ten years before retirement. Under the plan suggested by these teachers, the pensions for the teachers in those 44 towns where the average salary is less than $300 a year, would be the same as for the teachers in more responsible positions with salaries of $600. to $1000. If we should establish a uniform pension, based on the salary of $300, the pension, $150, would be much too small for the higher-priced teachers. If we base the pension on the salary of the teacher receiving $800, then the pension, $400, would be larger than the average salary paid in 134 towns of the state. Such a system would be ridiculous in the extreme. We must remember that the contributions or assessments under a pension system depend upon the salary and service, and may be one, two, or three per cent according to the length of service. A teacher having taught 30 years with a salary of $300 pays much less into the fund than a teacher who has taught 40 years with a salary of $800. Why then should the pensions for these two teachers be the same? Their contributions were not the same. They might as well claim that every person in an accident should receive the same amount from the insurance company. All such bristling, striking views of the pension movement do not help the cause of pensions. Let us remember that we are not advocating pensions for teachers on account of a deferred salary increase, on account of sentiment or the humanitarian principle, but wholly as an economic measure. Let us remember thSt there are teachers in our schools, who, after a long successful experience, are now physically incapacitated for the duties of a school, and who would retire under a pension system. Superintendent Maxwell said that the retention of these teachers was really pensioning them at the expense of the children. Teachers have told me that they will be glad to retire under a pension system and give place to the young, vigorous teachers. In order to succeed we must get together on this matter. The constitution under which we live and the laws on our statute books are the result of compromise and concession. Nothing is gained by extremists in this pension movement. CONCLUSION Finally, I maintain that Connecticut is a state of great com¬ mercial and industrial activity and that its schools are of para¬ mount importance. Is it nothing to Connecticut that the teachers of the state are underpaid and that many retire from the teach¬ ing profession to enter business pursuits? Is it nothing to Connecticut that its best talent is attracted to adjoining states by larger salaries and that those states maintain pension systems for their teachers? Certainly such a method of procedure does not make for the efficiency of our public school system. Remember the words of Mr Moseley, the chairman of the English educa¬ tion commission, who said: “ If America fails, the world will go back to autocracy and the sword.” Give the public schools your generous support, attract to its service the best talent, and the swords shall be beaten into plowshares and the spears into pruning-hooks. Brown school Hartford May 4 1912