, 1870-05-08


The Common Council viii have to elect,
at some meeting during the month OF May,
five members Of the Board Of Education
We have pointed out the fact that four
out Of the five members who are seeking
reelection, have been the active agents of
the policy Of squandering the public money
upon mammoth buildings, in remote locali-
ties to the neglect of the pressing want Of
small school houses in convenient districts
where they were needed We have shown
TINT, with the $500, 600 borrowed in 1867,
there might bave been erected twenty sub
stantia1 school buildings, each capable of
seating 7e0 children, or II, 400 children
that, instead OF this, the board built five
fonr-story buildings capable Of seating
945 children eaeh, spending nearly,
if not quite, 100000 on heating
apparatus alone. One, at least, Of these
new buildings is in such wretched condi-
ton that if, not unsafe, it requires exten-
sive reftting aad repairs, and va have the
general statement that it has been neces~
sary to overhaul, repair, and strengthen the
roofs Of several others. The Board of Ed
uE%AA4VA LV4C AVhA C44C 1AAA-F0t AtAta~
BILE of seating 500 children. and expended
o,ooo in building another, capable Of seat
ing 945. The Legislature has authorized
another loan of $500, 900. We have insist
ed that before Common Council, elected
by the people to reform existing abuses,
1e-e1ects men who have thus squan-
.dered the public money, there should
be IN investigation, and an official
exhibit OF what was done with the $500, 600,
and what there is to show for it. We do
not know that there is any special license
to waste the public funds in the building Of
school houses, or that the Board Of Educa-
ton enjoy any immunity from inrestiga-
ton, or that, if they hnEe been guilty Of
misconduct, their proceedings should not
be inquired into. These men have spent
half million dollars, and, there being half
a million more to spend, they naturally de.
sire to be reelected.
The responsibility is now with the Com
mon Council # they re-elect these mem
bers, without any Investigation Of their
official conduct, then the Common Council
assumes responsibility for their acta This
is the first opportunity the Council has Ind
to carry into execution its promises and
pledges of reform, and, if it re-electa these
men, it 1nay as well abandon all pretence of
reform, and acknowledge itself fraud |
upon the people who elected it. If it re-
elects these men, then it will advertise I
itself to the public to be as worthless as its !
predecessors, and equally unable to resis.
the dennnds of any ring having the expen-
ditnre Of any considerable amount Of the
public money. If that be the character Of |
the Common Council, and the public have
again been swind1ed, the fact may as we'll |
be disclosed now as at any other time. The
poor, reviled Board OF Supervisors, which |
came into Office with every mark of public |
oppzobzaum upon it, has redeemed itself in
an honorable and unexpected manner, and
stands before the community to-day in a
far better light than the Common Council.
It remains to be seen whether this contrast
is to be continued and intensified in the
future, or whether the Council viii yet
fulfil the just ezpectations Of the people |
who elected it.