The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-05-06

1t was quite worth while to have a
plan presented to the public for saving
over $4,000 on school expenses, if only
to show how the prentice hand goes to
work to take a fall out of something
usually considered to require expert
knowledge. This may be called, per-
haps, the chamber of commerce meth
cd; and 1t is a good illustration of the
ideas of those who think that it is a
simpler matter to manage a public
school system than a police or fire de-
partment. st. Paul is perhaps the only
city in the country where people think
this. There are many others in which
political influences interfere unwar-
rantably with the work and character
of the schools. We doubt If there is
any other where every citizen is cock
sure that he could take hold of the
entire problem of public education and
settle it offhand with the best of them
1t would be qualification if every man
would but examine the scheme of re-
trenchment published in the Gle b e
on Wednesday morning and see what
a delightful mess the prentice hand
makes of it,
The method seems to have been not
unlike that of the Great Cryptogram.
A pencil, sheet of paper, certain re-
suits to be deduced from certain fig
ures, and, presto, the thing is done
Mr.. Langford, if he be the progenitor
OF the mighty scheme, simply consid-
ers how much expenditure must be cut
off, runs his pencil through enough
items to strike the balance, and there
you are. He closes the manual train
ing school and the teachers training
school, discharges all special teachers
and inspectors, assigns fifty pupils to
each teacher, cuts IS per cent on all
teachers salaries, and figures up the
total. Singular lucidity of mind that
reaches so difficult result by a pro-
cess so easy and direct. Unfortunately
there are certain contingencies which
have to be reckoned with, and which
we note elsewhere, contingencies that
Go not even touch the question of i'm
pairing our educational machinery, but
affect the mere mechanical and arith-
n5tical arrangement. Strange that so
good a mathematician should have
overlooked such elements of simplicity
In the problem solved so airily and
with such an appearance of finality.
1t appears, then, without CONSIDERING
the desirability or the contrary Of these
changes, that they will not work. The
scheme is like one which should pro-
pose to a manufacturer to reduce cost
of operation by cutting down his pur-
chases of fuel until he had not enough
coal to run his engines. It lacks the
essential element of the practicable.
Thus, it is proposed to close the man
ual training school, as if the pupils
would thereupon vanish into thin air.
No provision is made for them There
are 274 pupils there, for whom accom-
modations and teachers would have tc
be provided in the central high school
1t is assumed that to abolish the teach
ers' training school would dispose OF
salaries to the amount of nearly S., 900
The reformer does not say what would
then be done with the pupils of the
Maxfeld school, nor who would take
the places OF the pupils in the train.
ing school, who now serve as teachers
practically without pay.
Again, in ascertainirg the total nee
essary teaching force, the average
daily attendance is divided by fifty
the number Of pupils to be assigned tt
each teacher. That number Is incom.
patible with good work, and is, as is
shown elsewhere, not even reconcileable
with the size OF school rooms and the
number OF their sittings. But, ever
If it were, "averag e" attendance will
not answer for basis Of computation
There are some absentees every day
and sittiugs and teachers must be pro
yided not for average attendance, bu
Tor the total attendance. The actua
enrolment of the schools since the frs
Of the year has been about 21,oO0; an{