The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-04
STIRRED Up WRATH
INSPECTOR YOERG READS A COM
MITIGATION TO THE SCHOOL
BOARD.
CRITICIZES TIE CITY COUNCIL
FOR THE POLICY PURSUED IN
REFERENCE TO THE PUBLIC
SCHOOLS.
RITICIzEs THE CITY COUNCIL
NEW SCHEME FOR TEXT BOOKS
Su,+ Curtis Submits His First An
nuaI RepOrt-WOrk in the
Schools.

Tnsnector Yoerg introduced a little
breeze as we'll as an important pro
nosal for O. change Of text BOOK
schemes in the city schools, into the
Erearv routine Of yesterdays meeting
of the board of school inspectors II
was the last thing, almost, before ao-
1ournment that the West side MEMBER
of the board began to read a long coln-
,ornica+ion which cast at first shad-
ON, Of gloom over the board, by reason
Of its length alone. Subsequently IL
stirred I'D the wrath Of some OF the
other members of the board who saw
in it an attack on the city admlnlstrd-
+ion but the suggestion made as 10
+axt books secured a respectful near
ine IT being referred to the text book
committee. which consists Of Messrs
McNair. May and Wilkes.
+- The communication was as follows:
The attention of the board of school m
snectors of this city has been called 10 Ile
afvisability of supplying our public schooIs
with free text books on seVeral tll LEI en- 80
casions In the past few years; first, by reSo-
luton introduced by Inspector McNanee' a.
the regular meeting of this boaru' III cue cue
month of March, 1896. sufficient sum 10, LOT
the partial introduction or TINS system "as
asked for but for reasons best known to our
city officials, having in charge the finances OF
the city, the request did not receive any Gull
sideraton. ,..,... % 1,s,oo+or
NcNamee, for the reason that 1t called fof
an appropriation of money from balance IN
the teachers fund.- the existence OF whlch
was doubtful; and for the further reason that
I believed that the expense at that time would
have been from $4,000 to $4,000 l was also
somewhat opposed to free text BOOKS because Rt oG
investigation I find that this danger IS lar
greater in our public library, because there
the books change hands almost every Two
weeks while school books supplied to an IN
diyidual would remain in the same hands Tor
q semester, and possibly, for an entire year
The proposition for the introduction OF free
text books was not very enthusiastically re-
ceived principally because of the
lack of funds" And while this matter of
funds" has seemed to be so prominent, |
include a running account of the way lack
OF funds" originated. When the 'revaluatlon
reduced the city property from $lZS,OUO,OUo 10
$685. 600, other departments OF the city gov
eminent were fully provided for by charter
provisions. 1t was very different, however,
with the school fund, for this was regulated
by charter provision of a fixed rate, not to
exceed 2l2 mills on the dollar. While the re-
valuation did not affect the other city de-
partments, it reduced the income for school
purposes % per cent. But when the school
board tried to care for the schools by having
the rate Of taxation slightly increased to
make up for the loss caused by revaluation,
the administration, directly and indirectly, ap-
peared before public bodies and legislators,
and did everything in their power to keep
our legislature from passing the bill asked
for by the board of education, for an increase
Of the tax levy for educational purposes.
How successful they were the entire public
knows.
The damage done our city is simply in
calculable. I have heard many derogatory re-
marks in regard to this peculiar action OF
some of the leading men Of this city, in my
business travels in the South and West. 1t
will be many years before we can recover
from the effects Of this ultra fficiousness.
Some of the remarks which reached my ears
while in other cities are as follows: What is
the matter with your town." What kind of
people have you in your town." Others have
refused to locate here, saying that they want
ed to live in place where there were good
school facilities, and where the schools were
not hampered for the want of funds.
Had the administration tried as hard to
have the necessary laws passed to economize
in other departments as it did to hamper the
schools finances, I believe it would have
been successful in saving quite a sum of