The herald., 1897-12-18
SATURDAY, DECEMBER IS, 1897.
A REVIEW OF THE SCANDAL

Webb was at last suspended from the
board Of education by the city council
yesterday, after he had exhausted ev-
cry possible means of averting that
action. The board will now be able to
proceed in it's investigation without the
hindering and disgraceful official pres
ence of the chief cause Of the scandal
which has overtaken the school system
of this city.
Every session of the board in the
pending inquiry develops some new
steal, some hitherto untold instance OF
shameless extortion, some fresh dis
closure of the dubious ties that bind the
conspirators together. From one day to
another no person, not in the guilty Sc
cret can predict what the developments
may be; what thing as yet untouched
will be next furnished by the breath Of
the scandal.
What Is already known Is appalling.
The single charge OF extortion has given
place to half dozen. and comparatively
few sources of information have thus
far been reached. The ramiications of
the conspiracy are widely extended ;
they stretch beyond the board of educa-
ton, away from the teachers and JAM
tors, into church and business territories
and possibly beyond them. The scan
DIAL is an octopus with a multiplicity of
arms; upas tree with thousand roots
TO reflect upon the conditions that
have given rise to the existing situation
and produced the revealed develop
ments, is still more appalling What
must be the character of the ties that
hold the conspirators together! What
must be an influence so strong as to
make professedly repentant men go be-
fore the grand jury and perjure them
selves, thus throwing open for them
selves the doors of the penitentiary?
Such terrible condition is not the work
of a day. How long has the wrong
doing been going on? How far and
where does it reach? Who are impli-
Gated?
The very fact that such mighty
scandal could arise in our educational
system, despite the reform influences
that were supposed to be present in the
last school board election, should give
the people an abiding sense of their per-
sonal responsibility. Months ago The
Herald asserted that public confidence
in the present board was so shaken that
1t would be useless to undertake any i'm
provement in the public school system
of the city which would involve the
expenditure of any considerable sum of
money. The reason, and the only rea-
son for this was that the people were
AFRAID to trust the majority Of the board
The people Of this city are proud of their
educational system, by itself considered.
and would stop at no reasonable degree
of trouble and expense in its improve
ment; they only desired some assurance
that their trust would not be BETRAYED
nor their money misappropriated. Ru4
nobody dreamed that the board of edu-
cation, or rather its majority, was 90
completely honeycombed with corrun-
ton and moral rottenness.
The corrupt hypocrisy of the board In
its policy of pretended economy should
be searchingly investigated. The Her
aid told few days ago how the salaries
OF the teachers in the grammar grades
had been reduced with stingy economy
by petty amounts, year after year. until
they were almost below the point of
subsistence while janitors and drivers
~ supply wagons were paid more than
tho faithful educated teachers.
Tie investigation has disclosed thar
s3me salaries were raised in the dis