St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-07-27
A CITY'S CONTRACT,
A Taxpayer Handles the So
Called Council Eeono-
mists Without Gloves.
The City Cannot Hoporably
Break It's Contract With
School Teachers.
An Alleged Count Ordered
to Be Confined in Roch-
ester Asylum.
A Police Officer Nabs an
Army Deserter at the
Races.

To the Editor OF the Globe,
Whittier are we drifting? The air
seems to he full of unsettiedness. From
one extreme we run to the other, until
one would think idiocy is run loose and
controls our city.
One of Mayor Smiths last acts, ard
for which he received the warmest COM
incubation on every hand, was the ap-
polntment of the present board of
school inspectors. 1t was universally
conceded that St. Paul never had sOeX-
cellent board to supervise the educa-
tlonal interests of our city, as regards
experience, ability and integrity. What
has happened that we hear the run
blings of so many small caliber firearms
and the incesSant shots fired at the
school management and the board? The
but recent able and worthy members of
the board are stIgmatized as "ineXperi-
enced." impractical" Ignorant" and
even dishonesty is limited. Why, these
men stand head and shoulder above
the average men of the state in their
callings and professions. Three of
their number have been and two now
are connected With prominent institu
tions of learning. All of them are men
of wide practical experience in all mat
tiers that pertain to the wants and needs
of our day in practical and educational
life. Nearly all have large families of
their own and children attending the
public schools. and are as. fully inter
ested and able to judge of the needs of
children as the disgruntled parent sllav-
ing one child in school, who. perhaps.
partakes of the parents dullnes, and
doesn't advance sufficiently fast to
please the fond parent. These attacks
are disgrace to st. Paul, and undOubt-
eddy come from the same source which
has attacked our school system since it
was started, and which tries in every
undetermined way to iniure it, directly
and indirectly. under cover and falsely.
There isn't an individual in st. Paul
who dare step up and accuse any in
dividual member of the board, as an in
dividual, of dishonest act, or who has
been influenced in any act while on the
board from any motive except what his
Judgment told him was for the best ill.,
terest of the city.
st. Paul has corps of teachers un-
rivaied by any other city for faithful
inspectors are of any practical use it is
in the performance OF the duty in OBJ
tanning proper instructors and adjust
ing their salaries, which shall be just
both to teacher and taxpayer. This they
have attempted to do and have made
contracts with the teachers for the COM
ing year. We are told that these COLI
tracts are sort of One-sided affairs, OBJ
ligatory only OH the Teachers Ny opin..
| ion is that contract which will hold
| the teacher is also binding on the city :;
| but be this as it may, the contracts were
| entered into with the understanding, at
| least OH the part of the teachers, that they
would receive the pay agreed upon the
| coming year. Many of those teachers
| had offers elsewhere which were fully
as favorable as the one made by our
board, and which they never would
have rejected had they supposed that
their pay would be reduced. They had
precedent to go by, which is fully equal
to law in matters, especially where
honor is concerned. l ask the gen.
| tlemen representing our council:
Would you, il you had a daughter in
the school who was offered position
elsewhere of $1,000, with equal advan-
tages as the one offered her i'll ST. Paul
and at like salary, and she accepted
| the st. Paul school, and after accepting
it, and losing the other opportunity,
| her pay was reduced, would you
| consider such a procedure honorable
| or juSt?' You may answer that the
teachers understand that such a contin-
gency is liable to follow. l question
whether one out of a hundred under
stands anything of the kind, and as
such thing was never done before, they
base their action upon the fair infer
ence that it would not happen now.
| Would not the honorable and just
way be to fix the schedule of prices be-
| fore the appointments and contracts are
made,so that those who have offers else
where may guide themselves accord
ingiy. Any other course might enure
to much injury and hardship in many
cases.
| l bear my share of the burdens of
| taxation, and would gladly see them
reduced, but would far rather have my
taxes doubled than have our fair city
resort to such questionable ana unjust
procedure. A TAXPAYER