St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-22

did educators of the state that such ar
opinion is OF the most profound type of
EDUCATIONAL nonsense. You Go but ad-
vertise your own stupidity and utter in
competency, as an educator, i'll enunci-
ating such principle You conceive
the absence of such 'marks" to be
anssiuIe tecis;,ni::cality upon. which you
NAV exact of me m r"" go In
so doing you betray Il lack or TIM. mar
illness which should characterize man
III your position. You further say that
! have refused to be examined. In this.
you know you say what is absolutely
false. ] never declared to you, nor in
timated 10 you personally. that would
not be examined. On the contrary l
am perfectly willing TO be examined. If
it were admissible l stand ready to
appear before the state high school
board and present any evidence of my
competency to teach in the common
schools Of Henuepin county. But
am not willing to appear be-
fore all incompetent examiner. You
know that you are not competent
10 examine applicants in those subjects
which constitute first grade certificate.
You see that have very profund re-
spect for the profession | represent.
When the school laws of Minnesota
shall be SO amended that the quallflca-
lions of county superintendent OF
schools shall not be his political affilia-
tionS, OF how much political influence
he may command. but what is the men
tai and moral fitness of the man. then.
perhaps, there will be no occasion for a
common school teacher like myself to
speak thus boldly to the county super
intendent. Again, you saw that l am
Flaw breaker" 1t must be apparent to
all that in my case there is no RESPONSE
bility. The beard has assumed that.
Now. l not only charge you with
making false, malicious and unwar-
ranted statements, but | charge you
with official conduct quite beneath the
dignity of one who should be teacher
of teachers, a leader of teachers. and
model of excellence for teachers.
AS | have before mentioned. you have
discussed in other parts of the county
matters of an official nature pertaining
to the school of Long Lake, to the
school board and 10 myself. Up to the
present you have ignored the letter sent
you by the board. You have not had
the courtesy nor the moral courage to
reply to it either in person or by letter.
Now, you either have, or have not JuriS-
dictiOn i'm these matters that pertain to
US. If you have, then you have been
willfully negligent OF your duties. Ii
you have not. then you have done that
for which you can offer no apology. In
either case you are guilty Of official mis-
conduct. 1t is very opponent to all that
were not candidate for county SUI
perintendeht of schools. you would not
discuss in every district and school you
visit your official relations with the
school board of Long Lake and myself.
entered
upon this contest-and it is still my pur-
pose-to deal justly and fairly with you,
it mattered not what might be your con-
duct. In the estimation of all fair
minded people, your conduct has thus
been characterized with the Intrigue
and craftiness of the politician, and not
with the fairmindedness of the county
superintendent of school. With all que
respect, JAMES A. LEWIS,
Democratic Candidate for County Su-
perlntendent of Schools.