Back Pay

Some of the teachers wondered if they would ever get their back pay. The years had passed and one-third of them had grown old and died. But last week brought a payday. That was in Catamarca, Argentina. Not the amount of arrears ($90,000) but the time-lag made news. The Government ordered 15% of all revenue earmarked for them and the teachers of Catamarca began collecting their salaries for 1916, 1917, 1918 and 1923.

Salaries of 14,000 teachers and 3,000 school employes in Chicago began falling into arrears only four years ago. After one payment was made last year (TIME, May 22, 1933), the city manfully managed to stabilize its debt to teachers and em-ployes at something like $25,000,000. How to wipe this out was a problem which took Chicago officials, bankers and newspapers, the Illinois Legislature and courts and the U. S. Congress to solve.

Last week the Chicago teachers were in plain sight of their November-to-June wages. An Illinois Supreme Court decision removed the last obstacle between the School Board and a $22,500,000 RFC loan, secured by school bonds and by mortgages on $30,000,000 worth of revenue-producing property owned by the School Board. Five days later in Chicago RFC Chairman Jesse Jones approved the loan which would pay all teachers in full. The $3,000,000 balance, to be paid to school board civil service employes, will come from a special fund now made available for that purpose. Already signed were 252,000 pay checks totaling $25,447,240. Every teacher could look forward to a windfall of from $892.50 to $3,391.50.

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