The Arizona daily orb., 1899-09-18
AIICiQ| PQpeT d C0ClISe Go,
BENSON SCHOOL CONTROVERSY
BENSON, Sept. 14th, 1899.

To THE BIsREE ORB: ..
 Please permit us to correct a mis' statement relative to our school which appeared in your paper of-rccent date.
 You say, "It appears from an editorial in the Breeze that the school trustees in our ighboring town have employed a gentleman to teach the school Tn that place who is afflicted with tuberculosis, at least one physician has, so certified, etc. All of which is not true. and does great injustice to our school, which we claim is equal to any in the coun.y. Professor Kirsch was principal of our school last year and gave general satisfaction. No one denied but he taught the best school we have had for years. Last year the trustees did not require the teachers to file certificate of health with their applications and there was no scarecrow "tuberculosis" made his appearance, notwithstanding we had the same teacher last year as this. This year the trustees did make an order that all applicants must file with them certificate of health from a practising physician before their appli- cations would be considered. Professor skirsch underwent a thorough examina- tion by Dr. I. II Watkins, practising physician of this place and who is em- ployed by the Southern Pacific Railway company as their physician and surgeon. Dr. Watkins gave a certificate that Professor Kirsch was in no way physi- caIly incapicitted to perform the duties oi d school teacher, which ~2s flied with bis applicaa;orand we employed him as principal of our school. There has been no physician certified to the coRtrary Professor Kirsch has not been examined by any other physician, which fact the editor of the Breeze is we'll awareSof, | ard If he wished to do justice by the school, as well as Professor Kirsch, he would have corrected your article in | place of reprinting it in the Breeze. Every one m Benson knows there is no truth in the item, consequently it does no harm in our town; but we are sorry to say the papers from our neighboring towns copy from the Breeze, which has the support of a very small portion of our town, and in towns whsre they do not know the facts, is where our school 1 gets the black eye. Through the intlu- encs Cf the Breeze there was petition circulated in town asking that Professor Kirsch submit to another examination lay what they termed a reputable physi- elan. The town was thoroughly can Tassed and they succeeded in getting four families who have school children to sign their petition, and one of the jour has moved here from Kansas with in the last three weeks.
 We ask you to publish the above in fairness to all, not that we have, any fight to make on the Breeze, but simply to correct misstatement which ap- peared in your columns as coming from the Breeze. We,as trustees, claim to have done our whole duty in selecting teach. CTS for our school, and we are encouraged to see that we have the support of the whole town, except perhaps the Breeze aud one or two whom he influences. We wish to say in conclusion that our school opened oa Monday, September II, and all the pupils in Benson are attending except one boy, l.. w. Cooley's son, who is taking private lessons from the editor of the Breeze.
 II. W. ETz. Trus,oes
 w. IT SKINNER liustISs'