Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-01-14
School Teaehers, saIarIes.

We do not propose to occupy great deal
of our space, in answering the rigmarole of
the Transcript in justification of the course
pursued by the school committee of last year,
in voting an increase of salaries to the male
teachers of the public schools for the ensuing
year, at their very last meeting. The Tran.
script says it is "grossly false, that tie sala-
ries were raised by the late board without so.
icitation or request of the male teachers.
In answer to this characteristic charge. we
will simply appeal to the records of the COM
aaittee, and defy any one. to point out line,
sentence, or word, which can be construed in.
to petition or even request from the teach
ers for an increase of salaries. What some
individual teacher might have said to some
individual member of the board, upon the
subject of advancing his salary, has nothing
to do with the question ct issue. The record
shows that the sal aries were raised without
solicitation on the part Of the teachers. But
the raising of salaries in this way is not the
worst feature in the case; it is in regard to
the time and manner of doing it, that the
present board and the community are dissat-
isisd. When their salaries were increased,
the school board had not more than three or
four hours of its term of Office left. 1t had
every reason to believe that the public were
not satisfied in every particular with its man
agement of school affairs, and when this ques-
ton of increasing salaries came up, it would
seem that common courtesy and propriety
board.
The Transcript undertakes to disprove our
statement as to the average salaries of the
clergymen of this city, and, iii order to do
this, it leaves out Of its calculation those cler-
gymen who receive the smallest salaries, adds
from two hundred to five hundred dollars 10
thet of each (Which we doubt not will great
lysurprise many of the ministers) in the way
of perqnisites, and then claims that our aver
age is not correct.
The Transcript attempts the same game of
deception and Justification all through its ar
ticle, but its most fragrant attempt at imposi-
ton is in classifying, or mystifying, the official
school returns of the State, for the purpose of
making its readers believe that the aggregate
ordinary expenditures for each child in the
public schools of the State is more than ten
doiisra, and more than is paid in the city of
Worcester. We quote the exact words of the
Transcript, which it processes to have taken
from official returns, as follows:
The aggregate ordinary expenditure for the
Education OF our YOUTH erciusIre Of collie
giate instruction. and Of interest on the
cost OF tchool houses, by the actual returns.
or ten dofars and eieuen cents for each chd in the
Stots oeiween five and hfoeea years Of age.
And the Transcript then adds:
" When it is observed in addition to this,
that the number of persons between the ages
specified was returned at 2I3, 1884, while the
actual attendance at school averaged less than
100000, 1t will be seen that our first state
ment, which is so fatty denied, is not only
true, but that we did not state the average
cost per scholar high enough"
The question at issue has reference solely to
the amount Of money raised and expended
upon the pa6lic schools of the State, but with
the same disregard of truth and fairness that
it manilests in regard to the salaries of minis
tiers, it adds more than one million dollars to
the actual amount Of money expended for public
schools derived from all sources, leaves out of
its calculation the $1,000 scholars in the pub
lie schools under FIVE and over fifteen wears of
age, and then with an audacity that should
shame anybody bu' the editor of the Trans
Crypt, it unblushingly asserts, that the average
expenditure for the teaching of each child in
the public schools of the State. is ten dollars
and eieUsn cents or less than that raised by
taxation for the education of the children in
the public schools of Worcester.
We have before us, as we write, the eigh.
teenth annual report of the Secretary of the
Board of Education, signed by Barnas Sears,
the late distinguished and able Secretary of
the board, now President of Brown UNIVERSE
ty, from which we propose to make quota
ton Of few brief lines, and then TO leave tile
editor of the Transcript to the contempt of
the community, which he has so vainly and
impudently attempted to humbug and deceive:
The Whole amount Of money raised by taxes
for the support Of public schools includ.
ing only the wages Of teachers ard
nd iuel. Ols472 %
fuel, and money, to maintain OF prolong
tong public schools. 3s ool 81
Amount received by the towns and cities as
tier shares Of the income Of the State
School Fund. 40 COS 10
Total from all sOcrces. OBS AL 60
Amount raised By torres (inclufing in
crease of surplus in eo1le) for the ed
tcdfi0R of zach Oh Id bettpee n fue and
fGeen years, per child ............ ........S4e6
These are the figures of Rev. Barnes Sears,
the late Secretary of the Board of Education,
dated Dec. -, 1854; and the figures of the
editor of the Transcript are correctly quoted
above. The public viii have no difficulty in
perceiving and spppreciating the fact that, in
order to maintain and defend the action OF the
school board of last year, the editor of that
paper has most grossly perverted the truth
and even falsi6ed the printed documents of
the State for the purpose Of deceiving the pub
lie upon the question at issue Isitnot fortu-
nate for the school board and for the CITY. that
the attempts Of the editor of the Transcript to
take q seat upon the board by the "back
stairs entrance" did not succeed;
FoRGERIEs IN BERLIN. = Mr. Grassie, Of
the firm of Grassie & Hartshorn, shoe manu-.
facturers, of Berlin, has just been detected in
forgeries of a considerable amount, and has
fed. The discovery was first made by cti-
zen of Lowell, who received notice from one
NJ IL. hauLs that a ,,ot. l,o..s,,s. IL. :. -.