Newspaper Page Text
THE MAUI NEWS, SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1915.
THE MAUI NEWS
Kutered at the Tost Office at 'H'ailuku, Maui, Hawaii, as second-class matter.
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A Republican Paper Published in the Interest of the People
Issued Every Saturday.
MAUI PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED,
Proprietor! and Publishers
Subscription Rates, $2.50 per Year in Advance.
WILL J. COOPER,
SATURDAY,
EDITOR AND MANAGER
MARCH 20, 1915.
TEACHERS AXD P EX SI OX S.
The idea of pensions for school teachers is right. To require the
teachers who would partake of the benefit of this fund to help maintain
it, is probably wrong. Any teacher who has spent twenty-five years
of her life in the service of the Territory, deserves something more
than a letter of thanks, and she shouldn't be required to provide the
testimonial herself, either. The Cooke bill, introduced in the senate last
week, provides that a teacher may be retired after a quarter of a century
of service, or may resign after thirty years in the harness, and receive
a pension. This pension, the bill says, shall not exceed 40 pcrcentum
of the salary received at time of retirement, nor in any instance more
than $-100 per annum. Two and a half percent of the school tax is to
go into this fund, and teachers who wish to be beneficiaries of the act
must contribute 1 percent of their salaries per annum to the fund also.
Generally speaking, any person who has spent his life in useful ser
vice of whatever kind, should not have to worry about food or shelter
when old age or infirmities crowd him out of the ranks of toilers. This
principle is becoming recognized in late years and in large industrial con
cerns, as well as in government service, pension systems are becoming
common. Hut nowhere is there a greater need for such pensions than
among teachers. Nor is it fair to make the pension scheme a sort of
savings bank plan for those who care to avail themselves of it. Not
yet is the teaching profession on a plane where more than a small per
cent of those who take it up do so with the deliberate intention of mak
ing teaching their life work. Young men usually use it as a stepping
stone to more remunerative or congenial employment, and young women
hope to grace a school room only until matrimony overtakes them. This
is not for the best interests of the pupils, it is needless to say. Some
day, perhaps, matrimony will be considered as a teacher's asset, rather
than the reverse, as now. It may even be that a woman will cease to
marry with the idea of being supported, or becoming merely a household
ornament or drudge, as the case may be. Also the time may come when
leaching as a profession will appeal to men of real caliber as a life work.
And in the meantime a properly worked out pension system should
be an important factor in making the profession more attractive to the
kind of men and women able to raise it towards the high plane it de
serves. Hut the public ought to expect to take care of its servants
when their working days are over. Nor should it be on a niggardly basis
of $400 per year as the maximum. How would it be to estimate the
.average earning capacity during life, and then apportion this amount in
annual instalments, not simply during the teaching period, but as long
as the teacher lived?
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REPRESEXTATION AXD THE PROMOTION COMMITTEE.
The Honolulu Chamber of Commerce is about to enlarge its Pro
motion Committee to include a member of the Honolulu board of super
visors. The possessive pronoun is used advisedly, for notwithstanding
the fact that the Territorial and county governments pay tribute to the
committee to as great an extent as they can be-induced to stand for, the
l'romition Committee is, as it always has been, solely a creature of the
Honolulu commercial bodies. But now the combination seems to have
been broken, though perhaps it really hasn't, for the new member is
still a representative of Honolulu. However, the entering wedge is
in. and perhaps Maui and Hawaii and Kauai may also get a voice in
the publicity body if they go after it.
The suggestion has been made before, and met with the objection
that it would not be feasible for the islands' representatives to meet with
the frequency that is deemed necessary. If .Maui is given a chance to
i ame a representative, however, there are half a dozen men living in
Honolulu who might satisfactorily fill the place. Or the committee
might hold monthly meetings, at which a member from Maui might
reasonably be able to attend. In any event the Promotion Committee,
if it is to be really representative of the Territory, and not of Honolulu
merely, will very soon have to adopt some such plan, llilo seems de
termined to put a paid representative in Honolulu, and the Maui
chamber of commerce has talked of the same scheme; while even Kauai
is sitting up and taking notice. The time isn't far off when all parts
of the Territory will insist on some kind of real representation in the
Caprtal in promotion work.
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CONSIDER OXLY THE CHILD.
The fact that the pineapple canncrs are taking a hand in the shaping
of the child labor law now before the legislature, is pretty good evidence
that the matter has come up none too soon. In all likelihood Hawaii
will, in a comparatively short time, become of considerable importance
in the manufacturing world, and the temptation to draw upon the
children because their labor is cheap, will become increasingly great.
The unfortunate part of it is that even high minded men are too often
blinded where their own interests are concerned. The pineapple men
argue that their work is light and sanitary. But no work is proper for
a child that takes its undivided attention for nine and a half hours at a
time, as the pending bill provides. Many states now compel shorter
working hours than this for adults.
But the bill will bear much careful thought. For the best educators
now recognize that practical work may be the best form of education,
provided it is constructive and stimulating, and judicially mixed with
regular "book learning." But let us be mighty sure that it is the wel
fare of the child, and not that of the employer that has consideration
in any bill that may be passed.
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KIEL THE MILITARY DILL.
It is to be hoped that our legislature will not be stampeded by the
arguments and pressure of the professional militarists into passing the
Holstein compulsory training bill, and we do not believe that it will.
Preparation for war is the best possible method of bringing about war,
as has been most dreadfully demonstrated in the present situation in
Europe. A nation that is prepared for a light is just about as sure of
one as is the individual who converts himself into a walking arsenal.
Experience has shown with individuals that the man who is frankly
unarmed, and who tends strictly to his own business, keeps out of
trouble even among desperadoes, where the man that is armed must
fight. The Holstein bill is dangerous because of its insidious character.
It is bad enough to work up the formidable national guard, for which we
have no use, as we are doing, without talk of turning all our male citi
zens into soldiers. The comforting thought in the matter is however,
that our people will never stand for it.
George R. Carter is telling the eastern newspapers that the Fili
pinos are to be the salvation of Hawaii. With a record of about a
murder a week to the credit of the colony of little brown brothers al
ready here, it is quite likely that a good many persons here in the Islands
would just as lie i not be saved.
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It isn t only baseball players that do grandstand stunts. Witness
the two unselfish legislators, E. J. Crawford and Ed Waiaholo, who
voted against paying back to themselves their nomination fee collected
in error last year. But they cast their votes after every other member
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Iad voted yes.
