It can scarcely be otherwise but that the student who is compelled to work his way must feel at times, in more or less degree, the chafing of these social lines, and to the spirit of American youth such things are galling; but if this circumstance be a handicap in the matter of obtaining higher education by way of working a way in the university, it is one of the least. Far more serious is the inability to secure work to do, or the matter of inability to work for support and at the same time endure the mental strain of study necessary to keep even fair pace with the course. It is believed that all the foregoing establishes quite clearly two propositions, namely: (1) That under the public educational system of this State, a common school education may be acquired with comparatively little expense, and that the same is quite easily within the reach of the child of the wage-earning mechanic under ordinary circumstances. It should here be borne in mind, however, that very many unskilled wage-earners do not earn or receive the wage per diem which made the basis of the approximates herein. Very many such wage-earners receive as little as $1.50 to $1.75 per day; and to them, especially with numerous family, the question of cost of books (small, comparatively, though it be) for even the common school course is a serious item; and in view thereof, and of the cost of books and materials in the higher educational course, it is suggested that legislation should, in the near future, be enacted requiring the State to provide, free of cost to the pupils and students, the books, the materials, etc., necessary for use in its public educational institutions. (2) That it is impossible for a great majority of the children of wageearners to receive that higher education herein spoken of and so generally believed in this age to be necessary to full success in life. On the question of such necessity, issue is not made. Whether, as to the average child, it were better and more conducive to his after-success in life that he be placed, at the end of his common school course, at employment wherein he may at the age of twenty-one have learned a useful trade or business, is not here made the question. For the purpose here the oft-proclaimed and usually accepted belief, as herein named, that higher education is the necessary and only path to higher success, is taken to be true; and if it be true, it is manifest that that higher success must come more and more to lie within the reach only of those possessed of wealth in fair degree, and that thus arises. danger that there will be fostered an aristocracy of higher knowledge and of higher place, within whose environment the child of the wageearner can scarce hope ever to enter, and such a condition should ever be foreign to our flag. A fact patent in connection with the figures and comparisons here presented is, that although the value of their properties is vast and the amount of their annual incomes enormous, yet the only saving made to the student and the pupil from that value and those incomes, by attendance at the higher public educational institutions of our State, as compared with attendance at private institutions of like kind and degree, is the sum of $75 to $100 per annum in the way of tuition fees. This seems to be, in fact, the only saving made; and while, of course, this saving assists in some degree, still it is so small a proportion of the total cost of the university course, that it can but seldom make the difference that divides between ability and inability to take the course, and may perhaps often be but an advantage to those well able in any event to bear the additional expense which its payment would make, without materially increasing the attendance of children of wageearners at the university. It is submitted that the attention of educators and legislators should be directed to the matter of ways and means whereby the higher education here in question may be brought more generally within the reach and means of the children of the wage-earning portion of our citizenship, as well as the children of others of limited means. An important step in this direction would be favorable action on the suggestion herein before made, that the State provide, free of cost to pupil and student, all books and materials used in our public schools and universities. This idea carried into execution would mean increase in the cost of maintenance of such institutions; but that there is here shown wide room for beneficial expansion in the dissemination of higher education will scarcely be disputed, and such cost will be well incurred. HOURS AND WAGES-1900-1902. COMPARISON BETWEEN HOURS WORKED PER DIEM BY, AND WAGES PAID PER DIEM TO, WAGE-WORKERS IN THIS STATE IN THE YEAR 1902, AND SUCH HOURS AND WAGES IN THE YEAR 1900. In an article appearing in the Ninth Biennial Report of this Bureau (page 57), under the caption, "Present Condition of Wage-Earners in California," a table is given in which comparison is made between the rates of wages paid to workers in given vocations in this State, in the year 1900, and those paid to such workers in the years 1896 and 1884, respectively. Supplementing that comparison, and bringing the same down to date, is given below a table making comparison between the hours worked by, and wages paid per diem to, such workers in this year, 1902, and similar hours and wages in the aforesaid year, 1900. COMPARISON BETWEEN PREVAILING AVERAGE WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR IN NOTE. Regarding prevailing wages and hours of labor per diem in various vocations in California in the year 1900, as compared with similar wages and hours in other States, see Ninth Biennial Report of this Bureau, page 57. |