The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-12-15

inns paper rs DeniOcfHtfG IN pTtHcLPteS
and is Independent in ats uietcs on all local
questions. 3
without assuming TO question DR.. ula-
NOR Aliens motives in the Pratts Hall
transaction, we have no hesitation in
saying that the city officials should em-
phatically refuse to lease the building un-
less DR.. Allen first resigns from the
Board of Education. There is some
thing scandalous in the idea Of the city
leasing. for the purposes of one of its
Departments. property owned by the
head of that Department. There is a
law prohibiting such transactidAs. and
making persons who aid their benefit
Charles liable to indictment. The sego-
tiation in the present case has not reach
ed that point. but we do not doubt that
an Indictment would be found, if the
lease were executed, and we believe that
found.
OF course, this is not to say hat DIR.
Allen was conscious of breaking the
law or violating the prophecies of his
Official position. He is the. best judge
of his own motives, and he says they
were purely for the public good. We
merely take the law and the facts as we
find them.
The controversy which has arisen over
the merits of the bargain must, we
should think. have convinced even the
Doctor himself of the mistake of trying
to combine the role of public b~enefactor
with that of watchdog of the treasury.
People are so unkind, and SO unreason-
able sometimes. and whole-souled gener-
osity is so liable to mis-construction! DR..
Allen, himself, thinks he is showing re-
markable self-denial in leasing to the
city. for s720 a year, a structure which
has cost nearly 5000 to self and partner.
But the unkind outsider remarks, in his
hard-hearted way, that s72o is nearly
twenty-five per cent on $1,000, and then
he unfeelingly asserts that ten per cent.
is about enough to satisfy a majority of
property owners. And, again, DIR. Allen
points, with pride, to the patches on the
plastered walls. and to the paint and
whftewash which nave been laid on nice
s1.50o-and he asks, with natural sensi-
tiveness, whether anyone can say that
the building-iswnat eminently fitted to
house the four hundred children who are
now deprived of school accommodation.
But the unkind outsider gets talking
again, and all sorts of charges are
banded that the structure is a fre-trap,
that it is in danger of falling down, and
goodness knows what besides. 1t may
all be untrue, except the fact that the
building is a very old frame affair, but
you cannot get people to stop asserting
that if it were owned by anyone except
the President of the Board of Education,
It would never be thought of as a school
for 400 children.
Probably the last has been heard of
this m~atter-unless DR.. Allen thinks his
resignation from the Board would be a
graceful act just now. In view of the
publicity given it, there is little likeIi-
hood that any attempt will be made to
lease the building. But if the matter is
pushed along, no doubt the Grand Jury
can spare time enough from the water
contract to look into the facts of the
deal.
THE Fourth Regiment was, of course,
responsible in no way for the display of
hoodlumism at the stag on Saturday
evening. The attempt of the Evening
Journal to fasten the discredlt on the
regiment is merely another freak of
Journal malice. What trouble there
was seems to have been caused by a
small group of young toughs, hardly any
Of whom belonged to the regiment, and
the soldiers were indignant at their pro-
ceedIngs. The only fault that can be
found with the managers of the affair is
that they failed to nave the ringieaders
arrested at the opening of the disturb
snce.
THE Patterson s.t.a rdfanv so 1rorvt,r