The record-union., 1892-12-07
A FEARFUL CHARGE.

Referring to the statement officially
made by Superintendent of Schools
SWEET of San Francisco that he has no
voice in the selection of teachers, that
political and personal favoritism govern
in such selection, and that the pulp is
the chief factor in filling places in the
Educational Department, a San Fran
cisco weekly paper makes grave charges
against the Board of Education and the
department. 1t alleges that a very con-
siderable number of the female teachers
in San Francisco are the mistresses of
certain influential men; that they are
kept in place in the schools because of
their Illicit relation to the men with a
pull" 1t goes on to charge that still
another large mum Der of the teachers are
known incompetents and are retained in
place because they have certain influen-
tial friends who have power with the
Board of Education that it cannot resist,
and that not few of them lead immoral
lives.
To prefer charge is one thing, to sub
stantiate it is another. The presumption
of innocence until guilt is established
must prevail. The mere preferment of a
charge, we are aware, has come to be
taken as sufficient to put person into
defensive activity before anything is
proven against the defendant. 1t is
lamentable that it is so; it is deplorable
that the public mind has been so in
grained with suspicion that character is
dependent very largely upon the non
preferment of charges against it. Hun
dreds of good and true men and women
are to-day injured and their usefulness
clouded simply because the press or an
unscrupulous individual has seen fit to
''charge" them with offenses in vague
and indefinite way and then demand that
they ''prove" their innocence.
It would seem, indeed, so low is the
moral tone of the time, and so blunted is
the sense of common justice. that to
charge person with evil-doing is well
nigh equivalent to conviction. We recall
instances innumerable when the most
that could be urged against man or a
woman, who had by lifelong uprightness
earned the right to the presumption Of
innocence, was that they had some time
been "charged' with evil, it seeming to
be ignored by such calumniators that
proof of guilt is essential. It is a very
bad sign of the state of the public mind
when character stands in such peril of
public judgment
But in the case referred to-the charge
of a public journal against a school de-
partment-there would seem to be neces-
sity for compelling, if it can be done, the
person laying the complaint to come for
ward and substantiate his allegations
with equal publicity or stand confessed
ibeler. A large body OF men and women
in public employment, related closely to
the children of tens of thousands of
homes of the chief city of the State. has
been maligned, or else the truth has been
told. If the former, the clearance of the
innocent ought to be made affirmativeIv.
if the latter, then the black sheep should
be separated and the stigma of dis
honor removed from all others. 1t
would seem, therefore, that it is
incumbent upon some authority to
bring the charges to the bar Of investiga-
tion. It must not be said in the face of
such public averments of scandalous be-
havior on the part of public servants
that the authorities fear to probe the mat
ter. 1t is true, and we admit its force,
that if official bodies were to give atten-
ton to all innuendoes and suspicious