The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1856-11-01

Superintendent OF Public Schools.

An extensive effort is making through the
state to defeat the democratic candidate for
superintendent Of public schools, and to elect
his opponent on the ab9,f,ion-rcpublican
ticket, the authors of which are guilty Of the
grossest unfairness towards Mr.. StMatthew,
and are scheming by paltry tricks to which
no honorable man would resort, to manufac
ture fictitious capital for William II. Powell
For instance, Mr.. st. Mathew is represented
as opposed to any change in the present
school law, when he has publicly and pri-
vately, on all occasions, expressed himself in
favor Of radical change Of it. He is de-
nounced as partisan, and accused Of neg
lecting the interests of education, and EN-
playing his time in political speech max NJ,
when, in fact, every address he has delivered
during the campaign has been of purely
educational character. The agents of east
ern publishing houses are working with I'M
tring energy against st. Matthew, and for
Powell Besides giving busy circulation to
the falsehoods Just named, they pretend that
/ Powell is the choice of the teachers This,
too, is VIGOROUSLY untrue Mr.. Batenan
was nominated 10y the teachers at their state
convention, for the office Of superintendent
and declined The vote stood for Bateman
"a; for Powell %. No other nomination
was made by th-m, or, If there had been
Powell would still have been in the minority
aud the majority would have fixed upon .
bct'er man.
/ There many reasons why William ii
Powell should'not be chosen to this office
I ile belongs 20 class Of men who dstrus,
/ the people. la .Iu last, at 4 meeting Of Il {
/ State Board Of Education held ia Booming
/ ton, he openly took the position that the
office should not be elective, and declared
! that the people were Not capable Of making
proper selection, but would be as likely to
fhGs . rgelleal ma any other man
to the basest pzrtisan purposes. Feiion cit
liens, IS such the sort Of man you want 10
guard the interests of your children. DO
! you want to be told that you have not ca
pacity to decide whether he is qualified for
the office he seeks, In other words. are
you willing blindly to surrender a great POI
lItical right without knowing who is TO exer-
else it fer You,
II John II. St. Matthew is elected superin-
tsndeRt of the public schools, he will 90 into
the office free and unerammelled. He will
neither be the tool Of political party nor of
any association Of book Publishers; bu, will
devote himself entirely o. the interests of ed
ucaiion, striving seduou,ly to advance evcrv
measure which has tina, object in view, and
to counteyact every Influence OF contrary
tendency.
In closing this article, we invite attention
to the following remarks in the Chicago
Tires Of Wednesday:
Among the important state officers to be
elected'is that of Superintendent of Public
Instruction. Our candidate is John H. St
Matthew, of Tazewell county a most accom-
plishsd gentleman, and one who will bring to
the office ripe experience, and a sound
practical Judgment. His opponent is Mr..
Powell. of Peoria.
This Powell, at a recent educational meet
ing at Bloomington, in aspeech, affirmed that
the office ought not to be an elective one, be-
cause the people had not the information or
the Intelligence to enable them to select
proper person! We hope the people Of Hi
nols will remember this speech al the polls.
This uen,leman, also, is the special pet of
Bronson Murrap, and ali those other individ-
uals, who wish to saddle the public school
fund with their monstrosity called the indus
trial league. One year of this league would
exhaust the whole school revenues Of the
state, and 1t is to promote this scheme that
they wish to elect Mr.. Powell. We hope the
voters will not overlook this matter when
they go to vote. A vote for Powell is, to
subject tina present common school fund to
the enormous burden Of the Industrial
League. One year Of such an experiment
will break up nine-tenths of the schools in
the state. Do not vote, thel efore, for any
man pledged to any such european Ideas
' ote for St Matthew.