Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-04-10
superintendent OF Public schools.

| 'NHNA - aoAiOI hhu1 p'o AAS>t, ) '
Taxpayer and "Citizenn have been
brought to my notice.
The design of the writers or writer
is apparently an attempt to create
and avail himself of public senti
ment in favor OF a county primary
to the dictation Of which the State
Board of Education must submit in
making an appointment for county
superintendent of schools. Without
waiting for any public reflection as
to the merit OF this proposed innova-
ton, or any expression of represen
tative opinion, an attempt followed
in the recent mass-meeting at Drum
mondtown to take snap-judgment
on the people OF the county by fore
ing this measure upon them in the
shape OF resolution. 1t will be re-
membered that the call for this
meeting appeared in the ENTERPRISE
of Saturday fixing the date for said
meeting for the following Monday:
only one day intervening Sunday
between the calling Of the meeting
and the date for it's converting No
intimation was given in the an
nouncement that this meeting was
expected to consider any unusual or
extraordinary line of procedure; the
public was not notified Of the peculiar
duties expected of it, and it is proper
to say Just here, in justice to an eX-
pressed sense of fairness on the part
of the county chairman and ma
iority of the democratic rank and lille
present, that the resolution and its
implied snap-judgment failed ofadop.
tion..
1t is now perhaps pertinent and
permissible to ask why this novel and
extraordinary measure is being so
vigorously pressed, apparently by a
few friends of Mr.. Joynes?
am not aware of any public in
timation given by any candidate why
the merits of his claim should be
passed upon by popular vote OF the
party, or of any fair and logical argu-
ment advanced why the exigencies of
the present public welware demand
it-that such movement is an in
novation upon established custom
and precedent, not only in Accomac,
but throughout the State, is q fact
not to be denied; and it is equally
true that it involves an attempt to
contravene the spirit of our funda-
mental law with respect to our public
school system.
Upon what grounds then is this
movement made? The Office of county
superintendent of schools is in no
sense an elective Office. While the
position is filled with due regard to
an indirect expression of the popular
will, the theory of our State Con-
stitution provides that the whole
system of public school government
shall be under the direct manage
ment of, and directly amenable to
State Board of high officials charged
with the responsibility of creating
and removing subordinates as the
public welfare may demand. To
make this board responsible by law
and then rob it of It's constitutional
rights and prerogatives by partizan
or popular whims is necessarily to
violate the spirit, and defeat the
whole purpose of the law. 1t will
then be seen that whether such an
office should, or should not, be filled
by popular vote, may admit OF
question of opinion, but certainly
not of fact; and it is manlfestly true
that to make it an elective office is at
once to destroy the whole theory Of
our public school machinery. While
it is fair that public attention should
be called to this view OF the case and
representative men of the county
should be invited to consider it, l
take this occasion to distinctly and
emphatically disavow for myself any
desire to hold this or any other Office
in opposition to representative OBJ
lection on the part of the people.
The theory of our State law and the
law of custom does not involve any
such public danger. 1t has been the
usual procedure, as is well known,
for candidates for the position to
submit their claims and endorse
ments to the appointing State Board,
and throw upon that board the re-
sponsibility, not only of serving the
public welfare, but of conforming to
the public will. These being self
evident and important facts, why-if
may inquire-should there exist a
necessity in the present instance for
dragging the office of county superin-
tendent of schools out of its legiti
mate plane into the arena of politics;
and why has not this cessity al
ways prevailed in other Counties and
cities of the State Why is it that
when DR.. J. E. Brodwater, Messrs. j.
H. Hebard. G.. G. Joynes and l were
candidates for this position q few
years ago, this expedient did not
even suggest itself to the gentlemen
now inspired with the necessity for
this movements Is this such an e1-
traordinary crisis in the public school
affairs of Accomac or in the ambition
of candidates as to Justify the viola