way we finally gathered together enough money to redecorate the walls of the schoolroom and to buy shades for the windows. The boys got together and from orange crates donated by a local storekeeper, they constructed bookcases and painted them with paint brought from one of the homes. The desks showed a long history of disinterested occupants by their deeply carved initials and carefully outlined hearts. Each pupil became responsible for his or her desk top. After 6 weeks of sandpapering and scraping with glass during our recesses we had surfaces ready to fill in with plastic wood and cover with shellac and varnish. These supplies we bought from our card sales.

Any paints or hand-work materials the pupils buy from their own earnings. One boy wisely said, "We work hard selling cards so we'll have something to do extra work with."

I wish that I might have a pleasant picture to paint for you. That, however, is not the case. Lest my remarks lead you to think that we have no good schools in Maine, I wish to first of all point out that Maine and New England do have many good schools, good equipment, and fine teachers. It is the inequality and inability of the towns to support education which prompts the statements I shall make. In my State we have a total enrollment of about 165,000 pupils. These pupils attend schools under greatly diversified conditions.

The most important single aspect in any educational program is the teacher herself. Of Maine's 6,000 teachers, more than 3,000 have had less than 2 years of professional preparation. This condition arises not out of lack of interest on the part of our personnel in improving themselves, but, rather, out of the economics of the situation. Until 1943 many Maine teachers worked for annual salaries of $520 or less. In 1943 the State enacted a minimum-salary law requiring towns to pay at least $720 per year. This law was further revised in 1945 providing for a $1,000 minimum. The present Maine Legislature is considering an increase in this minimum to $1,500.

The point I am attempting to make is that our teachers have not had sufficient salaries to enable them to live for a full year and include costs of summer training. In many instances they have been forced to seek employment during the summer to balance their personal budgets. The local communities have made tremendous efforts to increase the salaries of their teachers. However, during the past 7 years, Maine, in common with other States, has found its professional ranks depleted as good teachers have left their classrooms to seek employment that offered better security. Almost without exception they will tell you that they prefer teaching but they could not live on the salaries offered.

The State has attempted to deal with this condition by increasing subsidies to towns. However, there seems to be a definite ceiling on what the legislature finds it possible to assemble in revenues. The ninety-third legislature is grappling with the problem in an effort to spread its tax base and provide new revenues.

The foregoing seems to indicate that our problem is basically one. of finance. Ideally, perhaps, the State and local units of government should assume full responsibility for the education of children. We have had a century of experience with this type of organization and we still find the glaring inadequacies which I have mentioned. There

seems to be but one answer and that is the acceptance on the part of Federal Government of responsibility for providing the children of the country with at least a minimum of educational opportunity. Senator AIKEN. Thank you, Mrs. Harriman.

I got 50 cents for being a janitor in the summer and $1.50 a winter, and Senator Ellender suggests that that is all I was worth. He is nearer right than he thinks he is.

The next witness is Nannie Rucker, teacher in the elementary schools of Rutherford County, Tenn.

STATEMENT OF MRS. NANNIE RUCKER, TEACHER, RUTHERFORD COUNTY, TENN.

Mrs. RUCKER. My name is Nannie Rucker. I teach at Emery Elementary School, a one-teacher school located in Rutherford County, Tenn. I believe I am typical of the teachers who teach in many rural one-teacher Negro schools in Tennessee.

Rutherford County is a rural county located in middle Tennessee, approximately 28 percent of the county's population being Negroes. Emery community is a typical rural Negro community, in which practically all of the citizens make their living by farming. Only two families in the Emery community own their farms. The remainder "share crop." Most families in the community have from 4 to 12

children.

My school has enrolled this year 41 students, and my average daily attendance is usually around 30 students.

SCHOOL DUTIES

Since there is no other teacher in my school, I teach all eight grades of the elementary school. Following are the subjects I teach in each grade:

First grade: Reading, writing, spelling, number work, drawing, physical education.

Second grade: Reading, writing, spelling, number work, science, drawing, physical education.

Third grade: Reading, writing, spelling, number work, geography, science, language, drawing, physical education.

Fourth grade: Reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, science, language, drawing, physical education.

Fifth grade: Reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, science, language, drawing, physical education.

Sixth grade: Reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, conservation, history, drawing, physical education.

Seventh grade: Reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, science, geography, language, history, conservation, drawing, physical education.

Eighth grade: Reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, science, geography, language, history, conservation, drawing, civics, physical education.

In addition to teaching my regular subjects, I endeavor to give our children worth-while experiences which otherwise would be denied to them. Many of them have never been to town, have never seen a show, have never seen a post office, have never been in a bank,

have never seen a train, et cetera. Each year I try to provide such experiences for all of them.

As in many rural Negro communities, our health problem is extremely acute. There is constantly the danger of communicable diseases. To combat these, I take all of my children into Murfreesboro to obtain innoculations and necessary treatment from the county health department. It becomes necessary to administer first aid to some child almost every day. Since few of our families have the facilities or the inclination to keep their children clean, I devote a portion of every day to having many of the children wash their hands and faces and brush their teeth. As few of them have tooth brushes at home we have each student keep and use his own tooth brush at school.

The sex education of Negro children in our community is completely neglected in their homes. Hence, I help all of the children approaching adolescence with the solution of the problems they are soon to face.

Although we do not have regular school lunches at our school, I warm the food that the children bring for themselves. Frequently they bring raw eggs and potatoes, which I boil for them for their lunches.

As comparatively few of my students have adequate clothing, particularly for the winter months, I secure necessary clothing for them from the county welfare office, Red Cross, and other organizations and individuals.

We have one school bus which transports the children from one section of the community, but I transport a number of the other children to school from other sections of the community in my car. During rainy weather, I must help the smaller students across a nearby creck on foot stones, since there is no bridge across it.

Although some free textbooks are furnished through the sixth grade, it is my responsibility to see that textbooks are obtained for the students in the seventh and eighth grades, and to arrange for the purchase of supplementary materials which are used in all the other grades. In most cases it is necessary for me to arrange programs at the school through which I may raise money for the purchase of such materials. Since we have no janitor service, the children and I must build and maintain our fires, clean our room and make minor repairs on the building. During the past year our repair work has included installing and painting three window sashes, repairing our porch, propping up our coal house, which finally blew away, wiring the stove pipe to the ceiling of the room, and installing a number of window panes.

Since the county health department has declared our water supply to be unsafe, we carry our water from neighboring houses.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Our school is the center of community activities, and I am primarily responsible for the initiation and the supervision of most of these activities, such as plays, games, singing festivals and lectures of interest to the adults in the community.

I try to visit in the homes of all my students some time during the year, and I visit some of them many times, as problems arise which necessitate my working with the parents. Seldom a day passes during which I am not asked to render some service to the families

in the community, such as hauling feed, buying articles in the store, taking a sick child to the doctor, mailing packages, et cetera.

I am called upon to sponsor all drives which are conducted in the community, such as Red Cross, Community Chest, March of Dimes, and Christmas seals. In addition, I organize and participate in the P. T. A. activities of the school.

I also work in the church and the Sunday schools, visit the sick and render necessary services.

QUALIFICATIONS AND SALARY

I am 34 years of age, have taught 14 years and have completed 3/21⁄2 years of college work. All of my college work has been obtained by attending summer school over a period of 14 years. Due to my inability to pay my way through school, I have been forced to stay away from school some summers during this period, and during other summers I have been able to attend only by borrowing money.

My present total salary is $133 per month for only 8 months in the year. However, after taxes and retirement payments are deducted, my net monthly salary is $110.95, or $886 per year. This is the same salary which is drawn by white and colored teachers with my same training and experience throughout Tennessee. I understand that next year our salaries are to be increased $300 a year by the State.

Since 1940 my salary has been increased a total of $200, or approximately 25 percent. During that same period the price of the butter I buy has increased from 35 cents to 60 cents; canned beans from 12 cents to 28 cents; boiling meat from 17 cents to 40 cents; shoes from $3.98 to $6.95.

My husband works for a bakery, where he gets approximately $25 per week, after social security, unemployment insurance, and income tax deductions are made.

Although we have no children, I help to support an 80-year old grandmother and a niece who is in college, while my husband helps to support his afflicted mother. From my salary, I must also pay for the operation of my car, which seems essential in the performance of my duties.

With the cost of living as high as it is at present, I must scheme constantly to be able to purchase the necessities of life for us from the funds we have available. We have no money available for recreation purposes outside of our church and community activities. As important as I know travel to be in the education of teachers, I have been out of my State only twice before I made this trip to Washingtononce to Čincinnati and once to Indianapolis.

I do not believe my husband and I would have been able to pay our bills during recent years if it had not been for the fact that in 1940 we purchased our own home for $900 and have now paid for it.

Many of my fellow teachers in the Negro schools of Rutherford County have left their positions in recent years to accept better-paying jobs elsewhere. I have been sorely tempted. Only recently I was offered a position as a maid for an elderly lady, which would have paid me considerably more than I am now making teaching school. Almost any position I might get as waitress, cook, factory worker, or beauty parlor assistant in Murfreesboro or Nashville would pay me, on an annual basis, more money than I am now making teaching school.

I have remained in the teaching profession because I believe it is my calling. I enjoy working with children and feel that I am making a worth-while contribution to my community. Otherwise, I would have left the teaching profession long ago.

Senator, I brought along with me some pictures of some of our schools in the county. I hope you will have a chance to look at them.. May I show them to you?

Senator AIKEN. Yes; we shall be glad to look at them. You have made a good witness and I am sure that you get a great deal of satisfaction out of the knowledge of what you are doing to help in your community rather than accepting a more remunerative position which has been offered to you.

Are there any questions?

Senator HILL. Were you born and reared in Tennessee? ·

Mrs. RUCKER. Yes.

Senator HILL. Where did you go to college?

Mrs. RUCKER. A and I State College, Nashville. That is one of the schools. It so happens that my school is not there but those are some of the best buildings in the county that we do have.

Senator AIKEN. Thank you, Miss Rucker, we will hand those back. I would like to have the record show that Senator Cooper of Kentucky has been sitting with this subcommittee this morning evidencing his interest in the need for Federal aid to education.

Now, Miss Gumm, according to the statement I have here, you are a teacher in a Summersville school, Green County, Kentucky. Please proceed with your statement.

STATEMENT OF AUTHELIA GUMM, TEACHER, SUMMERSVILLE, KY., SCHOOL

I am Authelia Gumm. I live at Summersville, Green County, Ky.,. 6 miles from Greensburg, the county seat, also the geographic center of Kentucky. I am speaking in behalf of S. 472. Summersville is a small friendly village just 23 miles from Lincoln's birthplace, 65 miles. from Mammoth Cave and 75 miles southeast of Louisville. I have lived in and near this community all of my life.

The Summersville school is one of the 65 schools for white children in Green County. There are nine schools in the county for colored children. Summersville is the largest school in the county system. It has three teachers. There are four two-teacher schools and the others are one-teacher schools. There are 71 white teachers in the county system, 38 of whom are emergency teachers. Attached to this statement is a table showing that the number of emergency teachers in Kentucky has increased from 164 in 1940-41 to 5,229 in 1946-47. The highest salary paid teachers in the county system is $1,163.20. Two teachers who have a B. S. degree receive this amount but they are helping teachers. I receive the third highest salary. My salary is $1,110.40 for an 8-month term or $138.80 per month, which is the highest salary for a classroom teacher. The other 68 white teachers receive less than this amount since their training is less. The average salary in county-school systems in the State as a whole is $1,133.

For the past 5 years I have supplemented my salary by making income-tax reports. I have gone to college between terms and have worked toward completing my degree. I had planned to complete