and where it is well known that life is
shortened many years as a consequence. Men are secured to work long
hours in the presence of red-hot blast furnaces and in the lowest depths
of the holds of ships. Can it be possible that with a reasonable salary
the strongest kind of men would not be attracted to a calling that has
as many points of interest and as many attractions as teaching?

=Make It Fashionable.=--A great deal depends upon making any work or any
calling fashionable. All that is needed is for the tide to turn in that
direction. It is difficult to say how much salary will stop the outward
tide and cause it to set in the other direction; but one thing is
certain, we shall never completely solve the rural school problem until
the tide turns.

=The Retirement System.=--Strong personalities will, then, help to make
teaching attractive and fashionable, as well as effectual. There is a
movement now becoming quite extensive which will also add to the
attractiveness of the teacher's calling. A system or plan of insurance
and retirement is now being installed in many states for the benefit of
teachers who become incapacitated or who have taught a certain period of
time. This plan gives a feeling of contentment, and also a feeling of
security against the stress and needs of old age, which will do much to
hold strong people in the profession. The fear of being left penniless
in later life and dependent upon others or upon the state, induces,
without doubt, a great many persons to leave a calling so poorly paid,
in order that they may, in more generous vocations, lay something by for
"a rainy day." The truth of this is borne in upon us more strongly when
we remember that teaching is different from law, medicine, or other
professions. In these vocations a man's service usually becomes more and
more in demand as he advances in years, on account of the reputation and
experience he has gained; while in teaching, when a person arrives at
the middle line of life or after, school boards begin to say and to
think, that he is getting too old for the schoolroom, and so they seek
for younger talent. The consequence is that the good and faithful public
servant who has given the best years of his life to the education of the
young is left stranded in old age without an occupation and without
money. The insurance and retirement fund plan is a movement in the right
direction and will do something to help turn the tide of strong
person