SALARIES OF TEACHERS IN THE PEOPLE'S SCHOOLS OF AUSTRIA.

The Yearbook of Political Economy and Statistics, edited in Jena, Germany, by four eminent university professors of Halle, Breslau, and Göttingen, contains in the second number of the volume for 1896 an article on the income of persons engaged in elementary and burgher schools. The author refers in this to the forty-second volume of "Austrian Statistics, Official Organ of the Government", which gives minute information concerning the expenditures for public education in Austria. This publication is especially welcome, since information on this subject has been very difficult to obtain. The position of Austrian teachers is a new factor in the social life of the Empire. This is plainly seen from the rapid increase both in the number of teachers and the amount of salaries paid.

During the last twenty-five years about 20,000 teachers have been added to the number engaged in 1865, and the great change in their social position is seen from the fact that their entire income to-day is five times greater than it was twenty-five years ago. But if we consider that the number has doubled, we may take it that the same social stratum of 1865, placed on an equal footing with 1890, may be said to have an income two and one-half times as great as twenty-five years ago. Many of the 40,000 teachers (the annual statistics published by the Government shows the number of teachers to be in the neighborhood of 70,000 instead of 40,000, but this includes all teachers of religion and special branches, such as music, drawing, gymnastics, etc., which special teachers are not included in the number of regular class teachers; the 40,133 includes only class teachers, such as head teachers and principals, teachers and assistants) are engaged in city schools; hence the profession of teaching begins to exercise a political influence in munici pal public life. That the teachers in Austria are considered a new factor with which it is well to reckon is seen from the action taken by the legislative bodies of the Empire as well as of the Crown land. As is well known, the citizens of Austria and Germany are divided int› electoral classes, and the teachers are included in the class of officers of the State. These classes vote separately on election day, and the intelligence of the teachers in political affairs is not without infl as is plainly seen in large cities, such as Vienna.

The constantly increasing number of women teachers also is tant social factor. At present the number o less than one-fifth of the total number.

en teachers

cal relations

female sex in the various grades of the profession may be seen from the following table:

This table shows that the position of women among the head teachers is a subordinate one, since in the highest grade, in that of principals and head teachers, the women are represented only by one-twentieth of the number; in the next lower grade, in that of teachers, they are represented by only one-fifth of the number; but in the next lower grade, in that of assistants, they are represented by one-fourth of the number. The cause is, partly, that the women in Austria have only recently turned to the profession of teaching; hence those engaged in it are not experienced-that is to say, not old enough to have been promoted to the highest grades of the profession. But the cause may also lie in the fact that the governmental authorities do not consider women adapted for executive duties.

A better insight into the social position of the teachers in Austria, and partly into the difference existing between the social position of the two sexes, is gained by a study of the following table, based upon official data of 1890:

Salaries of teachers in elementary and burgher schools in Austria, 1890.

If the foregoing data are grouped we obtain the following representation:

This shows that nearly one-half of the men and two-thirds of the women teachers receive the "minimum of existence," which statisticians have estimated at 650 florins ($303.66); 424 per cent of the men and 32.6 per cent of the women receive salaries ranging from 600 to 1,000 florins. This again shows a very disadvantageous position of the female sex, which is particularly noticeable in the highest group, where only 44 per cent of the women are ranged, while 8.7 per cent of the men are found there.

The foregoing tables plainly exhibit the fact that the income of teachers, be they men or women, is low, about 650 florins at an average. Although the sum total paid to the teachers amounts to nearly 26,000,000 florins, and although this social class has become an important political factor, it must still be admitted that the pecuniary condition of many teachers in Austria is very modest indeed. This is the more striking as the school laws passed in 1868 lifted the profession of teaching to a new social footing. The appropriations and taxes voted for and paid by communities, districts, and Crown lands for school purposes, and which have during the last thirty years added new burdens to the taxpayers, are constantly increasing. Modern life lays claims upon the exchequer of the modern State which were unknown in former times. The new school buildings, furniture, and equipment require enormous sums; so that interest-bearing debts increase the annual appropriations for school purposes and even frustrate the best intentions of raising the salaries of the teachers. Austria has just cause to be proud of its enormous expenditures for school purposes in recent years, and particularly for its magnificent school buildings. The teachers of Austria stand foremost in the profession and command the respect of the world for their heroic efforts in behalf of public education.

REFORM SCHOOLS IN THE GRAND DUCHY OF BADEN, GERMANY.

The system of reform schools' in the Grand Duchy of Baden in Germany is regulated by law of May, 1886, which began to operate January, 1887. The secretaries of the departments of justice and the interior

These data are translated from a German magazine of recognized authority in statistics, Jahrbücher für National Oekonomie und Statistik, Volume XIII, Heft 3, page 446.

prepared the rules and regulations necessitated by the new law. The law is similar to paragraph 55 of the Imperial Criminal Code, adopted February 26, 1876. According to this code, persons who commit a crime before they are 12 years of age can not be tried for crime, but may be kept in custody for the purpose of reforming them, according to the special law of the separate State. Such children may be placed under reform training, if both the criminal and the orphan court have so decreed.

The Baden law goes two steps farther than the general imperial code: (1) It fixes the maximum time limit at 16 years of age; that is to say, juvenile criminals are not prosecuted or tried for crime in Baden if less than 16 years of age, but are retained in reform schools. (2) The law does not confine its operations to criminal acts, but requires that youths up to 16 years of age be assigned to reform schools for moral misdemeanors, provided (a) that parents or guardians endanger the moral life of the children by misuse of their authority or by neglect; or (b) that the conduct of the children proves that neither the good efforts of parents and guardians nor the means of discipline in school are adequate to prevent their moral depravity.

The Baden law (section 12) further decrees that if a person accused of crime between 12 and 18 years of age' is acquitted owing to his tender age and want of good judgment, the court shall state whether he is to be returned to his family, or placed in custody of another family, or be detained in a reform school.

The execution of the law is left in the hands of the county courts (criminal and probate "Bezirks-Aemter"). The courts are charged with the careful investigation of the conditions of the child's home environments, in order to decide whether the home gives proper assurance of wholesome influence in the future. In aggravated cases of moral depravity, which require constant supervision and strict discipline, the culprit is to be sent to a reform school without further delay. Concerning the age of reform school pupils, only the maximum (16 or 18 years, respectively) is clearly defined, while with regard to the minimum the law is silent; but the ministerial regulations state that children under 6 years should be sent to reform schools only in specially urgent cases. The law specifically states that poorhouses, hospitals, and asylums for persons of defective senses are not to be regarded or used as reform schools in the sense of the law; but it admits to legal recognition as reform schools all institutions established by corporat tions and private persons or through endowment which have the purpose of saving morally depraved children and training them to be useful citizens and members of society. This recognition is granted by the secretary of the interior; courts are not permitted to designate any institution as a reform school so long as the secretary of the interior withholds his recognition.

1In exception

the time limit is extended to 19 years.