The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-07-11
POLITICS In SCHOOLS.

The HERALD has asserted, an repeats 1t,
that if at the election next Monday the
Liberals shall gain control of the city
schools the teachers viii be selected on &C
count of their Liberal partisan politics. No
man will be given a place as teacher who is
not pronounced Liberal, and the more &C
tive the applicant was in the campaign the
better viii be his chances for securing an
engagement
1t has been denied that the Liberals will
bring politics into the public schools, or
make Liberalism a qualification for teacher
In refutation of this denial stands the fact
that in every instance where the Liberals
have obtained control of a school district
the old teachers have been discharged and
Liberals employed, though the old instruct
ors may have been wellliked and highly
successful, and also though it was never
charged against them that they ever
introduced the slightest suggestion
of politics or religion into the school
room. The mere fact that they
were members Of the Mormon church was
sufficient in the minds of the non Mormon
trustees to disqualifying them for teaching.
In some instances the mania for getting
rid Of Mormon teachers and employing
Gentiles has been so keen that contracts
with Mormons have been cancelled and
Liberal teachers employed when the ma
iority in the board of trustees was suddenly
and unexpectedly changed to Liberal. We
have in mind such an instance of not re-
mote occurrence, where the result was the
reduction of the school from one of the
best, most prosperous and best attended in
the city to an insignificant school, so small
in point of numbers that the teachers could
find little to do. Parents and pupils were
pleased with the former teacher, not be-
cause he was Mormon, but because he
was successful in his profession, and when
he was unceremoniously discharged after
being hired for another year, the children
were withdrawn from the school.
To prove what would be done in the
schools, we have only to note what has been
done in the municipal government since
last February, when the Liberals Were in
stalled. Every place in the public service
from dog-pelter up has been given to a
Liberal, and the applicants qualifications
for the position were taken into account
less than his services in the political cam
paign. In San Francisco and other cities
the fire departments remain unchanged in
their personnel, no matter how often the
municipal administration may change; here
the fire ladies, from chief down, were I'M
tremendously bounced, to make places for
men who had beaten Liberal drums or
carried banners in Liberal parades
Elsewhere the heads of the police
force may be changed with the incom.
ing of another political party, but
the patrolmen are retained as long as they
are faithful, politics not affecting them
here the Liberal Inauguration was charac-
terized by the retirement Of every member
Of the old force as soon as active Liberals
could be commissioned. In all the various
departments of the municipal government
men who were recommended by their
political bosses on account of their services
and activity in the campaign have taken
the places of capable men who never
thought of bringing politics into their
offices. Even the poor fellows who dug in
the sewer trenches and those who shoveled
gravel on the streets had to go to make
room for men who had shouted for the
Liberal cause.
THE HERALD repeats that a Liberal
victory on Monday will be followed by the
installation of Liberal politicians and the
injection of Liberal politics in the public
schools The consequence will be deter
ioration in the schools; the withdrawal OF
the children who viii be more generally
sent to private schools, and the payment OF
heavy school taxes from which the children
of the taxpayers will derive little benefit
The Liberals have even made every other
consideration subservient or secondary to
party politics, and they will do this same
thing in the public schools.