The Portland daily press., 1888-02-04
PRICE THREE CENTS

Jne JdnlLOT OF SOIlt OuC CloC w e..foA sAso
snow away from them" deny that y Is
the janitor's business TO shovel away tne
snow, or that | have the right
to give him orders to do anything
Janitors are not hired by the scnooi
committee, nor are they under the control OF
its members. In the rules and regulations
issued by the committee on public buildings
and posted In every school building for the
government of school house janitors, IL
Is not so much as implied that supervisor
has authority to give a janitor single order
regarding any duty whatever. IL the air
ducts had been extended up six or eight feet,
as they ought TO have been, they would not
have got buried out Of sight and usefulness.
8. 1t is charged that Though supervisor
Of the High School he has never called the
attention OF that committee committee on
public buildings) to the failuie Of the heat
ing apparatus" had not done so because
l was aware said committee knew all about
1t. Complaints had been rife for many days,
even for weeks, that the heating apparatus,
as then constructed, would not warm the
buildings. Moreover, IL was not until last
Monday that / visited the High School In
place Of Col G. b. Merrill now absent, who
Is the chairman of the High School commit
tee.
| believe that have now answered all the
charges In your editorial that lare Of any i'm
portance. | have aimed to answer them
plainly and truthfully. III my original state
ment In the Argus, together with this state
ment calls sufficient attention to the wretch
ed and unhealthy condition Of the High
School building to result in changing 1t from
well-called death trap into neaitny
and comfortable building, then this agitation
will bring good out of abundant evil.
CHARLES r. CRANDALL.
IThe motives that animate a man are locked
up in his own breast. The only way ordi-
narily Of ascertaining what they are Is by
scanning his words and acts. OF course
- Ia fallfhIQ WORU
therefore DIR. Crandall asserts as he does
above that we misinterpreted his motives, or
attributed to him motives that did not exist
we are bound to accept his denial But In ac-
cepting his denia, we by no means admit that
the judgment that the PRESS formed and ex-
pressed of his letter on the High school
building was other than natural and correct
according to the light we had. III 1t was un-
just it was simply because DIR. Crandan oy
the use Of what the Rev. Mr.. Blanchard calls
"infelicitous" words and phrases allowed
himself to misrepresent his own motives.
Had DIR. Crandall been an ignorant man,
or a man not accustomed to the use Of the
pen, we should have felt bound TO make al
lowances for these defects, and when we ran
across words and phrases that seemed to i'm
pute dishonorable motives and criminal and
inhuman actions TO men concerned In this
school house matter we should have explain
ed them on the assumption that he did not
fully realize the meaning Of the words he
used and through awkwardness Of compost
tIon sometimes said what he did not mean or
failed to say precisely what he did mean.
But In this case there seemed to be no occa-
sion to guard against misinterpretation BY
reason Of anything Of this sort. DR.. Gran
dali is an educated man. member Of the
school committee, frequent lecturer on
various topics and an occasional contributor
to newspapers. 1t was reasonable 10 sup
pose that he said what he meant and meant
precisely what he said.
When, therefore, verylnear the beginning
Of his communication, which purported to
have been written for the purpose Of calling
the attention of the authorities and the putt
lie to the bad condition Of the heating appa
-atus in the high school building, we found
this sentence,
When IL came to the matter Of letting the co.'s
tract Instead OF inviting proposals or olds from
the different responsible hrms In Portland who do
such work, word was sent TO the agent OF a hrm
In Boston. which agent has lnnuenta trlends ~
Portland TO come on and make plans and submit
an estimate, when ne dld.
suspicion was aroused that the whole pur-
pose of the article was not to protect the
pupils, but that therswas a design also to
attribute improper motives to the commit
tee on public buildings or the school commit
tee or both in awarding the contract When
further on he said that the apparatus in the
high school building was the biggest fall
"A II 1onN cuffQriun
and coniding public we thought that we
detected another insinuation that the school
committee, or the committee on public build
ings or the contractor or all these combined
had been swindling tn city. When still
further on he calculated that 1T was enough
to make a saint swear to think Of the misera-
BILE jobbery, ignorance. nonsense and
waste that have characterized this
called $4,000 improvement from first
to last" we thought we detected
another of the same sort. And when, finally,
apparently in despair, the Doctor
proclaimed that "when officials are busy
making up states and setting up fences
it Is quite useless to expect that anything so
trivial as the physical welfare and comfort
Of hundreds Of beloved boys and girls Will
receive much attention" we Thought that we
detected an insinuation that the officials
were too BUSY with politics to look after a LIS
tie matter like the welfare Of human beings.
In short, we thought that in addition to point
ing out the defects of the High School build
ing DR.. Crandall was seeking to convey the
impression that those defects and the failure
to remedy them were the result Of fayorit-
ism, and fraud, and criminal negligence.
And as the only person Of all the men i'm
plcated personally characterized in the
communication was the Mayor Of the city,
it seemed to us that DIR. Crandal had sim
gled him out for special condemnation. But
If the Doctor disclaims any intel.tion OF I'M
putting improper motives, as apparently he
does, the disclaimer ought to be accepted. We
are bound to say, however. that his selection
Of words and phrases was very infelcitous.l