The San Francisco call., 1896-10-22
Said to Be Formed Outside the
SchoolroOms by Friendly
Teachers.
MORE OF THAT ASSESSMENT.
Four Candidates Were Virtuous and
Refused to Pay the Ten Dollars
Demanded.

If the quiet and peaceable residents OF
Oakland, Berkeley, San Pablo and Ala
media should hear confused bubbling
sound like the noise of many waters pro-
ceeding from the hills of San Francisco
they should not feel alarmed, for the hub
bub is simply the vocal expression of the
interest taken by the lady teachers in the
coming election for School Directors.
They are talking for their favorites.
OF the 900 teachers employed in this
City only about 75 or 100 belong to the
male sex. Taking the outside figures,
there would appear to be only 100 votes in
the department, but that is a fallacy for
there are about $500 or 5000 votes. The men
teachers can poll 100 votes, while the 800
women, although not vested with the
right of suffrage, can control from three
to four votes each, SO they say.
This is why the majority of the candi-
dates for the school board put bouton-
nieres in their coat lapels and cell at the
schools by way of expressing their deep
in terest in the cause of education. The
San Francisco schoolteacher whose sex is
fem mime does not form a convention for
the purpose of putting a ticket in the
field and parading it under the banner of
the School Department, but she segre-
gates herself into social clubs. tea fights
and so forth, and ticket is made up by
each club, which ticket contains the
names of personal friends and the favor
ties of the mem bers.
There are six of those independent club
tickets already in the field, and the candi-
dates on some of them have been assessed
$40 each for the purpose of obtaining
fund with which to defray the expenses of
printing. -Four Directors, who had been
asked to contribute to this fund, told some
of their friends in the School Department
about it. and those friends in turn in
formed Elisha Brooks. principal of the
Girls High School, as to what was being
done. One of the candidates had received
circular stating that the teachers gen.
orally were making up ticket to be sup
ported by them, that the candidate receiv-
ing the circular had been selected as one
of the chosen twelve, and that collector
would be around within few days to
gather in the $40 assessment.
Mr.. Brooks was highly indignant that
the name of the school department should
have been used for such purpose without
the authority OF any one, and he expressed
his opinion freely at the teachers anti
charter meeting held in his school last
Tuesday afternoon. His resolution de-
nouncing all such attempts to mingle th e
department with political matters was
unanimously adopted, and among those
who voted were some ladies who that
very day had been engaged in putting up
one of those little states 10 which refer
ence has been made.
Mr.. Brooks told CALL reporter yester-
day that all that he knew about the mat
ter was what had been told him.
Have any of the teachers in the Girls
High School made up ticketf'' was
asked.
80, no." replied Mr. Brooks, "if there
was anything OF that kind going on they
would have told me-"
Mr.. Brooks showed the reporter one of
last campaigns tickets. 1t was printed
on piece OF pasteboard of the size of an
ordinary business card.
Across the face of the ticket was printed
in drawing ink with a pen the words,
Teachers Ticket" This was the offense
which smelled to Heaven.
A. L. Mann, principal of the Denman
Grammar School, did not know anything
about the matter except what he had read
in yesterday mornings CALL. None of
the teachers in his school had been en-
gagged in getting up ticket. If they had
he would have known of it, he said.
There was no organized effort among the
teachers looking toward that end. 1--WE
have not been invited to become mem bers
of any particular clique" he said. He had
no doubt that little coteries got together
and picked out their friends from among
the candidates, but there was no concerted
action and nothing in that way was being
done in the name OF the department.
Miss Laura T. Fowler, principal of the
Normal School, denied that she had got
ten up or assisted in getting up the ticket
published in yesterday mornings CALL as
having been the prod duction of the Teach
ers' Mutual Aid Society. Teachers got to-
gether in little bands, of course, as private
individuals, she said, and selected the best
and most moral candidates and urged
their friends to vote for them.
Miss Fowler was sure that none of the
teachers in the Normal School had been
engaged In printing tickets or assessing
candidates. She added:
1t is true that am interested in the election
OF good men to the Board of Education 1t is
my right and my duty TO be so, in common
ing the future citizens of this City and Nation.
and we should be posted in the principles OF
good government and on the alert with our
utmost power TO help secure 1t.
Government is what the people make It. and
If the better class of citizens eschew it and
decline to serve in 1t, they should forever hold
their peace II the corrupt elements control us.
In my Judgment, every moral power should
be exerted In this election to secure the best
men 10 govern US. AS body of working
people the teachers are not called in to select
these men; therefore, their discrim nation as
to their merits after the selection is made be-
comes right, and We can do that for our
selves.
So far as a teachers ticket is Concerned
know nothing of it. have attended no gath
ering for such. and l know nothing of anv
assessment made for any purpose whatever
and have never approached candidate for
the Office but have received many personal
calls from those selected. All such / received
with courtesy and attention to their claims
for recognition. and, so far as these gentle
men can show me good, clean Endorsements
from reputable citizens for fitness and inst
ness of character to work for the best interests
of our schools-both teachers and pupils. for
both have rights stand ready, without fear
or favor, to speak good words for them in the
coming election, regardless Of party restric-
tions.
What we need in the Board of Education ia
good true men, who will be independent
enough to vote for propositions according to
their personal convictions and not from ring
affiliations.
The ticket you so facetiously call mine 7
have scanned and think it contains good can
didates so far as 1t goes, but you might have
added at least fifteen others equally we'll in
dorsed on nv list II had no connection what
ever with any society or combined action OF
any one
Some of these candidates are young men
who have been my pupils. They have grown
into an honest American manhood, and TINS
step forward to help bear the burdens of gov
ernment as they should.